Lords of Xulima - Preview @ Cliqist

[Couchpotato]

Marcus Estrada of Cliqist has a new preview of the beta version of Lords of Xulima.

Lords of Xulima should really appeal to players who love a good, difficult RPG. There are definitely some aspects that could see furthered tweaking, such as adding more to the day/night cycle, but as is there’s already a fully featured game waiting for players. The development team is also constantly turning to players for feedback, which is just what you’d hope to find from an Early Access title. If you jump into Lords of Xulima now you can expect a massive game, regular updates, and a developer who is more than happy to read feedback. If you’re a big Early Access gamer then you know these traits are rarer than they should be!

More information.

 

[Kordanor]

Good preview though quite short. I completely agree though and would also recommend it if you like old school, combat focused RPGs. Just would say that the day/night cycle is the least of it's issues.

My biggest issues with it for now are some "bad gameplay mechanics" which I hope are being still adjusted:
-Herbalism: Picking plants right from the start will gimp your characters in the long run
-Food: Money is a limited ressource. You can either buy food or gather it. Gathering it is free. But it's lots of not very fun busywork. But as you are pushed towards it, the whole mechanic isn't working too well
-Divine Prayer: There is one cast which incentivates that you stay in combat as long as possible as while in combat you can "regenerate". This promotes bad gameplay.

And of course there is some class/skill balance to be done. But the system itself already works extremely well. You hardly have a game where points in all the attributes make some sense for all classes for example. Within a limited scope you have lots of options for character development, which is quite cool. But this also means that you might want to dig a little deeper into the system when creating your group.

 

[mercy]

If you find yourselves turned off from Xulima, try Telepath RPG from Sinister Design, a masterpiece!

 

[HiddenX]

If you find yourselves turned off from Xulima, try Telepath RPG from Sinister Design, a masterpiece!

Play both!

 

[CelticFrost]

I really want to like this game. I have been waiting for it for a long time. Though now I don't if wait or dive into it.

 

[Kordanor]

I really want to like this game. I have been waiting for it for a long time. Though now I don't if wait or dive into it.

I'd definitely advice to wait a couple of weeks/months till release before playing it unless you want to give feedback. Not because of an unfinished state (it's quite finished) but because of impact of balancing changes to come.

 

[crpgnut]

I've been doing nothing but play this since I got it a few days ago. What a refreshing game! Its an homage to Wizardry and Might and Magic. What a joy to play this. It is hard too, even on the normal (crpg veteran) level. I can't imagine what the game is like on the hardest mode, even the devs say that would be brutal.

 

[Carnifex]

Comparing it to the likes of Might and Magic, not to mention Wizardry, is high praise. Hope it lives up to that when I get around to playing it!

 

[CelticFrost]

I'd definitely advice to wait a couple of weeks/months till release before playing it unless you want to give feedback. Not because of an unfinished state (it's quite finished) but because of impact of balancing changes to come.

Well I normally take a week of holidays in the fall once the children are back in school and things are a bit normal back at work. It would be nice to have something really fun and hard to play so maybe I will plan on taking them sooner than later. I really have the gaming bug for the first time in years after playing D,OS for 100 plus hours in the summer.

 

[crpgnut]

Comparing it to the likes of Might and Magic, not to mention Wizardry, is high praise. Hope it lives up to that when I get around to playing it!

It's more of a feel than anything else. The world map of Xulima looks exactly like a map from Might and Magic 3-5. Bright and colorful with the dungeons depicted on it and pictures of that locale's creatures looking at you.

The towns are static and you don't enter any buildings. Instead folks stand outside said establishments and offer rumors or quests. You can buy skill points for ever increasing gold amounts and gold is hard to come by. There is an arena, just like in the MM games and you'll fight one on one vs the various creatures.

Battles are fought with each side having two rows, one for melee and one for magic/ranged. You can't have a person in the back row without having a cover/melee person in front. The rows are 4 wide for your party and 5 wide for the enemy. Supposedly there is going to be a summoner class in the full game, unless that got removed. As the rows stand now you could summon two creatures/battle.

Exploration is top down with items on the map to interact with. Some creatures are shown on the map as set encounters and you can also have random encounters. Once you clear a map, it stays cleared though. Your characters will say that all the tracks are old once an area has been cleaned. Treasure chests show on screen, but you have to mouse over tree stumps, corpses, etc to look for loot.

You get 4 skill points/level and the cost of raising a skill is predicated on how well your class is accustomed to the skill. Mages pay 3 points to learn a weapon skill, but only one point for meditation, etc.

I've restarted half a dozen times, trying to find the right mix of skills and classes. Mages are by far the most damaging class, but a barbarian will be the last man standing in most fights. Death is a temporary setback if you don't have a party wipe. However once a character wakes from death, they suffer combat penalties until they can rest for a full day. Since food is relatively scarce and quite expensive, resting is a tactical choice.
You can find enough food to never buy it, but you have to manage yor resoirces.

This is a deep, meaty game. The story is just a trapping though. It's there to keep you moving.

 

[Kordanor]

Very precise albeit short overview.
Just one more thing: The game has the difficulties. Among other things they determine how much HP and Mana you get on each level up.
On Normal it's 3 times the "normal" amount. On Veteran it's the normal amount and on Hardcore it's 70% of the normal/veteran amount.
While you can lower the difficulty at any time, you cannot rise it again later.

I also created an overview of all the skills in the game, which can be found over here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-fbibC4I08-FLVBMryrxHrrwacO6th5Kx18qZfRTpas

 

[crpgnut]

Ooh, I'll be looking this over, Kordanor. Thanks! I'm playing Veteran, so I guess I get normal everything. I wouldn't play this hardcore, veteran is fine for me. Even the devs say hardcore is for sadists only. HiddenX will claim to play the hardcore difficulty. He'll also claim it is too easy

 

[Kordanor]

I also use to play stuff on hardest difficulty possible.
Normally this works out just fine with some patience and if you put some time into analyzing skills and classes beforehand.

But what I wanted to display here is that there is a big "shift" in the game between Normal and Veteran. On Normal you hardly need skills or attributes which increase your HP/Mana while on other difficulties these are essential.

 

[crpgnut]

Yes, on veteran there is a hard decision on how many potions you need for survivability. I've been running my barbarian through the arena, with the best gear from the whole party, accumulating a little stash of gold for potion and scroll purposes. While I dislike the food mechanic, I understand why they did it. The game would be ruined if there was nothing to stop you resting after every fight.

 

[daveyd]

If you find yourselves turned off from Xulima, try Telepath RPG from Sinister Design, a masterpiece!

Hey Craig! I didn't know you were a member of RPGWatch

 

[crpgnut]

Hey Craig! I didn't know you were a member of RPGWatch

I might have clicked the link, had mercy provided one.

 

[Couchpotato]

I might have clicked the link, had mercy provided one.

Ask and you shall revive we covered both games on the website.

Link - http://sinisterdesign.net/products/telepath-rpg-servants-of-god/

And his new game in the series.

Link - http://sinisterdesign.net/products/telepath-tactics/

 

[crpgnut]

Thanks, I'm not sure why we would compare Xulima to this. It looks like Heroes, not a crpg. Not that it's a bad game, just weird to lump in with Xulima.

 

[daveyd]

Thanks, I'm not sure why we would compare Xulima to this. It looks like Heroes, not a crpg. Not that it's a bad game, just weird to lump in with Xulima.

Yeah, it just seemed like completely random plug, which is I why I implied that Mercy is actually Craig Stern From what I hear, Telepath is a decent SRPG, but not at all like LoX. Useless Trivia: Craig has tried out the Lords of Xulima Beta on IndieRPGs.com and liked it a lot (but found it rather difficult on all but normal setting).

 

[rune_74]

I have high hopes for this one...but since I have been away I just updated to the beta version....I think I'm going to wait to start playing it until it is more complete. I messed around a bit and attacked the first guards who thoroughly spanked me.