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Sergeant_KFC

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A member registered Apr 29, 2020

Recent community posts

OMG you replied after all this time! Thank you!

I just want to rephrase what I said about the masks in puzzles: the mask powers are an incredible vehicle for emergent gameplay and player expression. Just because someone thought of a different way to solve the puzzle than what was intended does not mean it is an invalid solution, nor should you discourage it. Being able to experiment with what is possible with each mask and elemental power is part of the fun.

So overall very fun start to a new Bionicle project. It is really cool to see all of the masks in working order, and being able to combine them in interesting ways. I really hope going forward we get to see more complex puzzles/problems that combine masks in interesting ways, and solvable in 2-4 different ways depending on available elements and masks, as I think it will be important to prevent people from punching  brick walls they don't have the correct sledgehammer for. The underwater trial in the final room is a good start to combining mask powers for a juggling act of mask powers, but also solvable with just one mask if you are patient with the air meter.

Now I have quite a few design questions, not sure they would fit in a bug report, more about certain elements of the game that bugged me.

1. Valor mentions at the lava pool that the environment can affect Tahu's elemental regen. I tried this out, but Tahu's energy doesn't seem to regen slower or faster in or out of the lava pool (though he does take damage), or really anywhere. I imagine this is a feature yet to be implemented?

2. One of the buttons in the Pakari room is easily reachable without moving any of the boxes, and the final set of three pressure plates in the Mahiki trial is pressable with only 2 Tahu's. These seem like design flaws rather than bugs, though I am not sure how you want the trials to be. Only completeable using the full power of the mask or some leeway to just mess around with it.

3. When you run out of mask power, your mask turns off, but as soon as even the slightest sliver of energy is back you can reactivate it. Not for long, but you can. It feels like there is not much of a penalty for not managing your resources carefully. I understand this is a first public build, and as such you are still working out the details. But this gave me an interesting idea. What if you had a mask activation threshold. A stat that dictates the percentage of energy you need to reactivate your mask. This could be affected by focus, which could lower the threshold as it increases, decreasing downtime between activations, but would of course me smaller spurts of power if you spam it. But also make masks like the Hau a more viable "oh crap" button when a boss or large enemy is about to use a big attack. Just a thought.

4. Crouch/Dodge/Sheath are all listed as one button, Left Control, in the key option menu. The problem is that L ctrl only really does 2 of these. Crouch when out of combat mode, and dodge when in combat mode. R, which toggles combat mode, is the only way I could sheath my weapon. I managed to figure it out, but it is disappointing to see this kind of error in the keybindings menu.

5. So the last point brings me to the issue with controls not clearly communicated in tutorials. During the Matatu trial, the game never mentions you can use the mouse to levitate the block up and down. 

     The pakari test doesn't really tell you what to do, but it is pretty obvious that the blocks move around. but the only way to grab onto blocks is to run into them until Tahu grabs it (at least this is the only way I could figure out). The hit detection can be pretty bad on these boxes as well. It really feels like there should be a grab button you use to attach/let go of objects when in range. 

     Another issue is the Kakama. The game never tells you turning it on causes you to automatically start running, which seems like an unusual way to control the mask. It is not very fun having a mask of speed that you have to position with and then go fast, instead of just go fast but also be able to stop without turning it off. 

6. I am no Dark Souls combat expert, so take this suggestion with a grain of salt. As someone else has noted, the enemies track you way too accurately, making it difficult to avoid hits by any method other than back pedaling away. It really feels like once they start an attack with their tails, they should quit slide turning until the animation is completed, allowing the player a small opportunity to leap to the side.

7. The ice pillars in the final room. These things need an HP bar or something so I know that something is happening, or a melting/cracking animation. Again, I understand this is a first public build, but I still feel there should have been some kind of feedback with these - even if it is literally just an out of place HP bar until an animation is added.

8. Ok this is the last one, and just the stupidest nitpick ever. But saving the matoran gives a green x mark on them. AN X. Not a check mark. Not gonna lie, I saved Peace first and saw the x and was like "OH SHIT HE DIED? WAIT ITS GREEN? so good die?" Then I realized that meant I saved him. Really stupid thing that probably only I noticed, but still, a check mark may be in order.

I didn't mean to get too negative with this post, but I want ToGS/BMoP to be the best games they can be, and the only way I can really help in that department is to scrutinize every little detail so as to open your eyes to things that might seem normal to you, question little things that may have seemed fine on the surface. So I held your feet to the fire a bit here. 

Still, thank you for all the hard work put into this. It is a good start to a new game. Really brings back the memories in a good way.

So I entered the final room, talk to Valor, who immediately walks away when we finish. I start doing the tasks, and notice the matoran line up next to the exit door when task is complete. I notice valor walked into the wall and didn't turn around.  I talk to him and he has the dialogue I imagine he is supposed to, "complete the other trials" or something.

So I continue doing the trials. I rescue everyone except Kindness, and notice valor isn't there anymore. He fell through the floor and is chilling with the Nui Jaga who have respawned. I talk to him and he has the same dialogue.

 Also of note is that you can, in fact, take damage during dialogue lol.

I end up completing all the trials and walk through the exit without issue.

An issue  with the Kakama trial room is that to reach one of the buttons you have to super speed jump over a gap. When I did this, Tahu jumped so high/fast that he actually grabbed the ceiling/ledge above the button I was supposed to press. I could get down by pressing s, I could not grab the ledge again by jumping up, but could 50/50 reach it by super speed jumping the gap.

(1 edit)

So I started the mask rooms with the Hau, then did the Kaukau, and next the Miru. The first 2 trials went fine, but the Miru trial I forgot to turn on Miru when jumping down through the last set of vertical hoops. I activated them all, got a "Trial Complete" but immediately died upon landing. 

So I respawned, no big deal. But when I pull up the mask wheel, the Kaukau and Miru are greyed out, when the kaukau was colored and usable after its trial. I continue doing the Great Mask trials and the other masks show up colored and usable on the wheel. I also check the doors of the trials. I can reenter all of them except the Miru and Kaukau doors which are still greyed out on the wheel. 

So now I have completed all the great mask doors so I move on to the noble doors. I enter the Huna door first and check the wheel again. Kaukau and Miru are now colored and usable again. I check the Miru and Kaukau doors again, still unusable.

Note the Hau is not greyed out during any of this, I imagine this is because it is Tahu's default mask. Unfortunately I didn't get any screenshots of this bug.

Edit: So now that I think about it, this is 2 issues:  

Miru Trial complete even though Tahu died upon landing - Not sure if this is a bug or an exploit that hasn't yet been accounted for

Masks disappearing after respawning

Had a similar problem with the mask pickup. For me, the great masks I had no issue with. All of the noble masks I had to jump around a bit to pickup.

I am using a qwerty keyboard. 

It is a ThermalTake X1 RGB.

In the tutorial for swimming, I noticed when surfacing with space it also makes tahu start swimming forward,  even if he was completely still and treading water, and there doesn't seem to be any way to stop. 

Also, using Ctrl to dive doesn't seem to work at all  in this first pond, even when at the surface.