Demo issues, questions, and thanks.

[Lymphocyte]

Greetings. I've been playing the demo for a few days now and I wanted to say that I'm really looking forward to the full game. Thank you. Most of the minor bugs (potions, etc) have already been brought up and it sounds like they've already been dealt with by the developers. There are two issues though that I haven't yet seen that I'd like to address - the first dealing with natural caves and the second with weapon sets.

I have a 2.4 GHz P4 with 1GB RAM, a 9700 Pro, and tons of disk space. Overall the game runs beautifully at 1280x1024 at medium settings all around, however once I come close to a natural cave my CPU usage jumps up to 100% and the game studders and lags. Unfortunately the problem becomes permanent so that even if I leave the natural cave and go to an area where I haven't had any problems, my CPU usage sticks at 100% and I still experience a phenomenal amount of studdering (typically the CPU usage is 50-75%). The problem is actually worse when I leave the cave then when I'm in the cave itself. If I exit to the main screen and relog my character, the problem persists. The only way to fix the problem and reset the game is to quit out and restart the program from the desktop. I've tried setting all of the options on Low and the resolution (non-full screen) to 800x600 and I still experience the problem when I come near a natural cave (though it is far more playable).

The second issue is far more mundane and more of a stylistic/gameplay issue. I find that I can't use the same weapon or shield in two different weapon sets. For example, if I have a nice sword I can't use it on both my sword/shield weapon set and my dual-wield weapon set. Alternatively, I can't use the same shield on both weapon sets one and two (say weapon set one is tailored for lightning damage while weapon set two is geared for fire damage).

Those are the major issue, though I have a few questions/comments/suggestions that I'd like to toss out there. The first being that it would be really nice if there was an option to show a clock (showing real time). It's too easy to start playing the game and not realize that it's getting so late. I've started playing at 1024x768 in windowed mode so that I could see the time. The second suggestion would be to allow us to skip past the splash screens more quickly (especially the main Titan Quest screen at the beginning). I understand that this is the demo and you need to make sure that your name is out there.

One question that I have is whether chances stack. For example, if I have both the Essence of the Golden Fleece and the Essence of Dionysus' Wineskin, where both grant a 10% chance to fumble, do the two stack for a 20% chance to fumble, are there two 10% chance rolls (for a 19% chance total?), or does the game only see one '10% chance to fumble' option?

Lastly there are two features that I really enjoy and wanted to praise. The first being the low hit point warning. I tend to overlook my health and that has saved my live many times (though it took me a while to figure out what that sound meant). The second feature is that you can put a relic on some armor and then continue to add the remaining relics over time, as opposed to having to wait to complete a relic and then placing the whole thing on the armor.

All in all, I love the game and am looking forward to June! Kudos all around.