First impressions

[rikkles]

Hello, first post here.
So I've started my first alpha run, and have been playing for about 10 hours, still in the caves with the outpost (haven't found the last one). Here are my first impressions:

• The game is exciting, keeps me coming back. Great job.
• Lots of potential ways to build a character, so replay value should be great
• Combat mechanism is clear and tactical, no surprises which is a good thing
• While there are many ways to build up a char, it seems that (at least in the early part of the game) there's a lot of imbalance, favoring strong melee-type characters because...
• Not enough money to have a sustainable non-standard character
• Items cost too much, impossible to be creative without significant reloading
  
• Psi points regenerate way too slowly. Players will simply go have dinner and come back to replenish
• Some confusion between hacking and electronics
• Please keep 3 quicksaves, not 2, since you don't have autosave
• Item degradation is going to be a huge drag. IMHO it should be scrapped. All it brings is painful micromanagement and more $$$ expenses
• It doesn't seem that there's enough stealth/hacking pathways yet, but I'm early in the game
• No crashes, no obvious bugs found.

Thanks for listening.

[rikkles]

Okay as I keep chugging along, some more comments:

As others have discussed extensively, the money problem stems from the cost of items being prohibitive. In essence, at the start you have some money but no gear. So you need to buy things, but they're very expensive. Later on as you scavenge items, you can now barter them and your money problems disappear, since you are able to sell them at a high price. I suggest either reducing the price of starting gear, ammo and basic area of effect items, or simply raising the cash amount one starts with.

Next, the issue of conversations. There seems to be really only 2 outcomes (at most) every time: either you manage a skill check of some sort and something happens, or you don't (or don't do it) and something else happens. You could have 3 or 4 conversation choices and pathways, but in the end it's pretty much binary.

Which brings me to the next issue: skill checks. If one is going to have to check skill X in a conversation, and that succeeds, don't follow through with another conversation where skill Y is required or the outcome is significantly worse than failing skill check X. Spoilers follow: you get down a trapdoor, find 2 raiders and an old guy. If you succeed a persuation skill check, you're taken to the boss with 5 others around. If you fail an intimidation skill check, you fight. So if you're good at P and not I, you're unfortunately much better off NOT taking the first P skill check and actually have a fighting chance.

Finally, it looks like for at least the first 4-5 quests of the game, you could be very unlucky in your skill allocations and have an exceedingly tough time getting through. I'm going to keep at it and see if it's actually doable, but right now it's hard as hell for my char inside the 3rd floor of the place that has the vault.

[UnLimiTeD]

Some Info for you:
There should be a toggleable autosave, activating on every map transition, though I'd certainly prefer it to be three saves.
Obviously raises your transition times significantly.

[bushwhacker2k]

The increased price of ammo compared to the demo is actually ludicrous...

I'm okay with some scarcity at the beginning, but IMO one of the biggest problems of RPGs is that money often ceases to become an issue a little bit into the game.

I think it's important that, if you want to not really have to pick-and-choose items as you play, that your character be focused on money-generating skills (lockpick/hacking/pickpocket, mercantile, tradeskills). In that way, characters that use the skills can seriously benefit from them while other characters have to get by with what they can get (as befits their skill layout).

Conversely, I think it's important that crafting be accessible early game.