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Played Alpha 2.3 yesterday a good amount. Here are some issues and/or questionable decisions I have with the game design direction presented:

a) Why is the game being pushed to a hyper grindy survival craft co-op? Pax Dei was a complete joke and that's the direction this game is being pushed towards. Why? Why make the game for a tiny niche player type block? The game design choices are alienating the bulk of mmo players.

b) Why is the vision of the game shifting so drastically in what's presented to testers? Is the current grindy survival Pax Dei crafting vibe game implemented just for testing to give us something to log hours doing or is this your new intended direction for the live game?

c) Why remove adventuring / combat loot when the bulk of the players play mmo's for group oriented combat activities? You're killing your own player base and game health. This is not viable for a mmo.

d) "Crafters make the best shit" has morphed into crafters make the only gear available in the mmo to do combat with. How did this garbage get past the drawing board? Honestly, how do you expect to grow an mmo without loot worth doing combat activities for that excite players to log in and do? How is this a viable live game launch model in your eyes as a dev team? Oh boy, I'm excited to log in and get schematics as loot that are BOUND, and I'm not a crafter. Sweet loot, 100% jacked to get a piece of paper the only thing I can do with is vendor for a pittance.

e) Why are Processing costs completely absurd? This devalues gathering mat values as processing is a major cost sink. Processing requires a metric ton of mats and high coin cost and high time cost. Ie. very few will pursue Processing because it is such a major cost, ie. markets will be flooded with gathered materials selling for very little. Lower tier/grade gathered materials will be unused except for bulk crafters power levelling because the processing costs are too exorbitant.

f) The game's direction seems to be a game designed for no one to play. The game design choices are alienating, where they should be made accessible and fun for all. If you want everyone to do the survival crafting loop don't make it insanely cost prohibitive to do.

g) This is the second phase in a row where combat player loot has been crippled and now removed nearly entirely. Unless you want to play this game with the only seven other players on the server fix combat loot. This is a dead game design without loot worth player time to pursue. If you think building a survival crafting game is going to sell well, why wouldn't players actually just go play true survival games. Hell, New World's is light years ahead. What is the vision for this game now? Its going off the rails in what is presented to testers.

Feedback suggestions that are simple:

1) Restore gear drop rates to Alpha 2 phase. Feeding crafters and starving combat enjoyers makes for a DOA game. Find a way to balance this without fucking over one side or the other as harshly as has been done the past two phases. These phases are not worth even testing for game design. This would be a non-starter for me for a live launch, I would not play these systems for gear, loot, econ as is.

2) Get rid of the first node phase where there is no storage. Advance straight to the tier where there are NPC's and storage and town board combat/artisan missions. This is the most frustrating pain point I encountered this phase. We have to keep running back to the starter towns of Sam Hope and Lionhold, etc. to bank our materials. 100% every node needs a storage and town board and repair NPC vendor at the very start. This is horrible design currently, making everyone keep returning over and over and over and over to the damn starter towns ruining the new player experience for everyone because the servers are stressed with us all in consolidated towns.

Spread the player base out by putting storage, Repair NPC, and town board missions at every node so players can immediately spread out on the server and level up nodes. Forcing everyone to do town board missions only in the starter towns pre-determines which nodes will be levelling and congests server performance issues with lag, rubber-banding, desync, etc.

3) Crafters can make the best items. There still needs to be fun and frequent drops to motivate players to play the game and do combat. Please stop listening to the selfish idiot crafters who ask for there to be no drops for combat in the game so that they can get wealthy. THE GAME WILL DIE IF YOU LISTEN TO THESE IDIOTS THAT DON'T CARE ABOUT GAME HEALTH, THEY JUST WANT TO MAKE A QUICK BUCK AND DON'T CARE IF THE GAME IS A DUMPSTER FIRE AS LONG AS THEY ARE WEALTHY IN IT.

If you only make a game for crafters, that's the only player type you will have playing your game. You don't need a massive world environment for a gathering, processing, crafting sim. Why make this massive world with no loot worth chasing for? What was your team smoking when you decided let's make a vast empty world with no drops and have everyone buy our game to play Pax Dei artisanship grind as the core game play there is?

4) Stop developing place holder garbage systems and especially economies. Work towards the actual products with sound game design loops and economy for all player types. Make artisans excited to play their loops without fucking over combat oriented mmo players that like good loot to chase and gear progression via combat activities.

If you ask someone how should I build crafting in our mmo we're developing and they respond 'fuck over the combat players and remove all of their loot'. Obviously you shouldn't listen to players that only care about their own self-interest in making money in the game at the expense of others. That this needs to even be said makes me lose respect for your dev team and faith in the direction of the game. Fix your shit. Mob grinding for glint is not a sustainable mmo model.