Expeditions: Viking - Patch 1.0.3

[Myrthos]

Patch version 1.0.3 has been released for Expeditions: Viking. It comes with a huge list of fixes, so instead of copy-pasting that here, check out the link.

Thanks Pladio and Acleacius.

More information.

 

[borcanu]

i love reading changelogs. its like reading a selfhelp book and seeing all the gains ^_^

it tells a lot of the quality of the product, especially with scripting.

also the love and attention the devs have for it.

i remember doing some consulting with the former title, although defensive at times, you could see their passion.

 

[Hastar]

I am close to buying this now. I will wait and see if this large patch messes up anything then will wait for maybe 1 more patch.

 

[joxer]

It's not just bugfixes:

You can now disable the game's time limit

At first this feels silly as it's there only to prevent grinding. A thing I hate but some adore. This developer obviously listens what all fans want, not just a part of fanbase.
How many AAA titles have an option to turn on/off grinding? None - I had to use norespawn mods where available.

Didn't play HZD, if D:OS2 and Elex don't change my mind, this game will have my top vote at the end of the year.

 

[Pladio]

It's not just bugfixes:


At first this feels silly as it's there only to prevent grinding. A thing I hate but some adore. This developer obviously listens what all fans want, not just a part of fanbase.
How many AAA titles have an option to turn on/off grinding? None - I had to use norespawn mods where available.

Didn't play HZD, if D:OS2 and Elex don't change my mind, this game will have my top vote at the end of the year.

I don't agree with joxer often, but even if you hate the game and the type of game, as well as it's original release state, you can probably agree that the devs are trying their best to fix things and make things better.

 

[joxer]

Yup. They're not leaving it as it is then spamming the community with irrelevant DLC. They're actually listening and adding things, instead of just preaching "we're interested in feedback, we care for fans" on social networks while doing absolutely nothing.

 

[wolfing]

It's not just bugfixes:


At first this feels silly as it's there only to prevent grinding. A thing I hate but some adore. This developer obviously listens what all fans want, not just a part of fanbase.
How many AAA titles have an option to turn on/off grinding? None - I had to use norespawn mods where available.

Didn't play HZD, if D:OS2 and Elex don't change my mind, this game will have my top vote at the end of the year.

I hate grinding, but I also hate time limits. Problem is that when I have a time limit, I always err for caution, so if I have 100 days to do something, I try to do it before day 70 just in case, so I end up missing non-mandatory content.
There are other ways to prevent grinding for exp, like inverse-exponential (is that a word?) exp gain after you outlevel enemies (assuming enemy levels don't scale), or focusing exp on quest completion and not enemy killing. Those I prefer over time limits.

 

[joxer]

You know already when I play games I just have to do peek everywhere and do all possible sidequests (well not exactly true… boring NFS races in GTA5 and SD I skipped). The time limit was designed so you can do all quests and still finish the game, no need to be careful, just go questing.

The limit exists just so you don't spend weeks and months on camping. By doing that you can grind out so many $ it turns the game into not easy but easier than ever planned, the thing I call elsewhere grind2win. Camping is supposed to serve other purposes but is exploitable if left unlimited. You can't just remove it from the game, you'll repair stuff, craft, heal, hunt, scout and experience random events during camping including romances.

It's not about grinding XP. You can't grind XP in Expeditions2, there is no xp/level but skillpoints to distribute you earn only by solving quests. It's grinding $. With $ you can get anything including more prestige (prosperity+2 for each $10K you bring home) even if you skip exploration and quests. There is this line in patch notes if it's still confusing:

Made it so you can trigger the Althing and end the game if you have 100 Prosperity even if you haven't completed any other questline

 

[screeg]

What it comes down to is design. If the game is well designed (Fallout), the time limit isn't an issue. *But* 90% of gamers will still complain, many or most of them falling in line when they just hear about the time limit, without ever having gotten anywhere near it. Regardless of the execution, it's an almost universally unpopular feature.

New topic: what difficulty is everyone playing on? I keep hearing combat is stupid easy, so should I start on Insane?

 

[Kordanor]

Yeah, you can start on Insane without having any issues. I'd say there are 2-3 Fights in the Beginning which will be somewhat hard. But after that you basically cannot lose anymore.

The reason behind this is that after 1/4 to 1/3 of the game, you already "maxed out" all relevant skills anyways. And 5 hours later your full group is equipped with the best weapons in the game.

Well, except of one fight probably which you aren't supposed to win I think. Well, spent 90 minutes on it to win it anyways.

 

[booboo]

Can you change the difficulty later in a game? I have not min-maxed or crafted the crap out of everything like my fellow munchkins, so I have less than optimal gear at this point (still haven't left the starting map and haven't explored that much), but the fights are all quite doable. Mostly a less healthy character will go down if they get critted by someone with a very damaging weapon…that's just bad lack though.

As for the time limit, I didn't know there was one, until at 75% of the time, when on the map, a little dialog popped up and said, "oh, remember that you have limited time…blah blah". wTf? If they mentioned it earlier, it wasn't really emphasized. At least in Tyranny it was very, very clear at the start that you had a time limit. I also have encountered a quest bug after patch 1.0.3 - someone who I met in the swamp and sent away…is magically back again, after I had already recruited him to my village. Seems meeting his spouse in the wrong order triggered something…hope it hasn't messed up the outcome.

EDIT: i see patch 1.0.3 introduced the time-line popup..wow, quite an oversight.

 

[Kordanor]

If you only got 25% left, that's also probably still enough if you dont need to do everything.

But I agree that the implementation is lacking. They should have had like time based events, to let the player feel some urgency.

And no worries about min maxing. At the end of the "first chapter" you will have enough points regardless.

 

[Pladio]

Yeah, you can start on Insane without having any issues. I'd say there are 2-3 Fights in the Beginning which will be somewhat hard. But after that you basically cannot lose anymore.

The reason behind this is that after 1/4 to 1/3 of the game, you already "maxed out" all relevant skills anyways. And 5 hours later your full group is equipped with the best weapons in the game.

Well, except of one fight probably which you aren't supposed to win I think. Well, spent 90 minutes on it to win it anyways.

Which fight can't you win ?

 

[Kordanor]

Hiding it in the spoiler tag:

Spoiler

When you come back to york, the guard will approach you and want to imprison you. Asleif mentions that he wants to fight, others say, that there are too many. And your answer implies that you'd rather die. If you win this fight, all your companions will have a dialogue option wondering how you made it through it as it should have been impossible.

My Video about it: https://youtu.be/0al89xs8wbc?t=1697
Combat starts at 28:17
Successful attetmpt at 1:44:00

 

[ikbenrichard]

Yeah, you can start on Insane without having any issues. I'd say there are 2-3 Fights in the Beginning which will be somewhat hard. But after that you basically cannot lose anymore.

The reason behind this is that after 1/4 to 1/3 of the game, you already "maxed out" all relevant skills anyways. And 5 hours later your full group is equipped with the best weapons in the game.

Well, except of one fight probably which you aren't supposed to win I think. Well, spent 90 minutes on it to win it anyways.

Hmm, this makes me wonder if this game is much fun if you are already great and powerful midway game.

 

[DarkELVES]

Yeah, you can start on Insane without having any issues. I'd say there are 2-3 Fights in the Beginning which will be somewhat hard. But after that you basically cannot lose anymore.

The reason behind this is that after 1/4 to 1/3 of the game, you already "maxed out" all relevant skills anyways. And 5 hours later your full group is equipped with the best weapons in the game.

Well, except of one fight probably which you aren't supposed to win I think. Well, spent 90 minutes on it to win it anyways.

Well then I'm holding off until they do something about this…

Balance is key

 

[JDR13]

What's the point if there's no challenge in the last 2/3 of the game? It sounds like there are some major balance issues here.

Is Expeditions: Conquistadors the same way?

 

[Kordanor]

Yeah, you are right imho. The lack of challenge at least for me is a big downer, especially because it's essentially due to broken mechanics (like far too much skill points, and far too easy to craft best items).

Expeditions Conquistador did not have this in the same amount.
If I remember correctly you did actually max out your characters and you were also able to max out the "equipment" at some point, but much later than Vikings. But it was also far more tied to the game, and even if it maybe wasn't perfect (I don't remember exactly anymore) it had the additional "advantage" of not having detailed equipment and so many skills. And due to that it never got as apparent as in Vikings that these mechanics are all essentially broken.

 

[Carnifex]

At the default difficulty I found the combat to be challenging. Now, I only played about six hours, so maybe it gets much easier later on but, at the start those fights were dern tough. Could be my fault as well, my main character I made an axe wielder and I swear they only do half the damage that an archer/spear/sword user will do. Maybe even less than half the damage.

I will be getting back to this one right after I finish Two Worlds Two, which I'm having quite the good time with. I love it when I get dropped into a dungeon and I have to fight my way out because I have no retreat!

 

[Kordanor]

At the default difficulty I found the combat to be challenging. Now, I only played about six hours, so maybe it gets much easier later on but, at the start those fights were dern tough. Could be my fault as well, my main character I made an axe wielder and I swear they only do half the damage that an archer/spear/sword user will do. Maybe even less than half the damage.

Yeah, that's normal for the first hours. Until you got enough points for your main Weapon Skill which massively increases damage and until you have one character with maxed crafting to build all the best weapons in the game. (and armor, but it's insignificant in comparison and much harder due to lack of hides - dead enemies wont be able to hit you anyways)