Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Let us talk about what is wrong with the BR... And how it could be saved.
Hjerim
Member, Leader of Men, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
The reality of the things is that the BR is not going away anytime soon and many don't like it. So why not try to make it a better experience for everyone while it is here?
I for one have enjoyed playing the BR and seeing the progress of the game, but…
… I find it hard to legitimize continuing to play APOC BR. I am not having fun anymore because there are not enough people per match compared to how large the map is. I will usually find someone in the beginning and then I will not encounter anyone the next 10 minutes until the circle is small enough.
I feel players do not have a big enough reason to play because of the situation as it is right now, which will probably lead to even less people playing and the eventual lack of people that will make it hard for even one match to be created.
The reward of getting 1/10th of a level for one match does not currently feel particularly rewarding, and the quest for outliving “50” (which for some reason really is 75) people dailies is a buzz killer when there is only 15-25 people per match. An average player would have to do eleven matches to get this daily assuming there is fifteen people per match and seven of those people are outlived. This does not feel nice.
Some of the other BR’s have objectives that will spawn and give the potential of better loot which will drag people to it which creates some dynamic action where players are likely to encounter other players.
Fitting to Ashes of Creation could be a mob or multiple mobs that had to be defeated to give the chance of a drop with a unique rarity (4 stars instead of 3). This would give players a reason to encounter this monster and would also act as an attraction point for other players. This would solve some of the problems with the mid game being boring due to lack of players.
Triple XP weekends is also something I would imagine would drive the player count up.
If player count is not upped, try to give us better ways to find each other. For example implement shrines that can be prayed at for a temporary or permanent boost of health or stamina, and let the shrine send up a beacon of light after use which can be seen globally so that the location of the player is revealed, which makes it easier for other to hunt that player down.
I also see there are people that plan to become level 50 and never touch the BR again. These players can be given a reason to stay and play by having events that says “earn 10.000 XP within December the 1st to get this item” instead of “reach level 50 within December the 1st to get this item”. It is a lot fairer for people to make events like this, and then they don’t have to worry about being a high enough level so that they have a chance to get the next reward there might come and people which are level 50 still have to earn additional 10.000 experience if they want the item.
What are your guys thoughts?
I for one have enjoyed playing the BR and seeing the progress of the game, but…
… I find it hard to legitimize continuing to play APOC BR. I am not having fun anymore because there are not enough people per match compared to how large the map is. I will usually find someone in the beginning and then I will not encounter anyone the next 10 minutes until the circle is small enough.
I feel players do not have a big enough reason to play because of the situation as it is right now, which will probably lead to even less people playing and the eventual lack of people that will make it hard for even one match to be created.
The reward of getting 1/10th of a level for one match does not currently feel particularly rewarding, and the quest for outliving “50” (which for some reason really is 75) people dailies is a buzz killer when there is only 15-25 people per match. An average player would have to do eleven matches to get this daily assuming there is fifteen people per match and seven of those people are outlived. This does not feel nice.
Some of the other BR’s have objectives that will spawn and give the potential of better loot which will drag people to it which creates some dynamic action where players are likely to encounter other players.
Fitting to Ashes of Creation could be a mob or multiple mobs that had to be defeated to give the chance of a drop with a unique rarity (4 stars instead of 3). This would give players a reason to encounter this monster and would also act as an attraction point for other players. This would solve some of the problems with the mid game being boring due to lack of players.
Triple XP weekends is also something I would imagine would drive the player count up.
If player count is not upped, try to give us better ways to find each other. For example implement shrines that can be prayed at for a temporary or permanent boost of health or stamina, and let the shrine send up a beacon of light after use which can be seen globally so that the location of the player is revealed, which makes it easier for other to hunt that player down.
I also see there are people that plan to become level 50 and never touch the BR again. These players can be given a reason to stay and play by having events that says “earn 10.000 XP within December the 1st to get this item” instead of “reach level 50 within December the 1st to get this item”. It is a lot fairer for people to make events like this, and then they don’t have to worry about being a high enough level so that they have a chance to get the next reward there might come and people which are level 50 still have to earn additional 10.000 experience if they want the item.
What are your guys thoughts?
2
Comments
If people are seeing the BR in a miserable state, then people risk having the same impression about the MMO before it launches.
If all the MMO has, is bad press before it arrives, people will stay clear of it and it will risk dying, no matter how good it is.
And a separate resource bar for dodging, absolutely!
The whole point of the BR in this early test phase is there is no need for the devs to implement mobs.
Mobs might appear in the BR after Siege Mode.
I try to avoid other players as much as possible. I don't think I want better ways to find each other.
The Erinthia map already helps with that.
I wish some of the quests would reset.
Maybe give us a new map and reset the quests with each new chapter.
1. Battle Royale (BR) - Specifically to test combat, player interaction with each other and the environment, as well as focusing on many very basic things in the game. Without fluid, interesting, and impactful combat - nobody will want to play, no matter how good it looks.
2. Castle Seiges - Once the combat is more fleshed out and most of their basic systems work, this step is to test out one of the most important features of the MMORPG - Castle Seiges. To put it in MMORPG terms: Attacking/Defending a Node. Without the combat/systems figured out here, the core game element of Node building and destroying can't really happen. On top of that, if the Castle Seiges aren't fun and engaging, people won't participate, which basically ruins the whole system.
3. Horde Mode - A unique feature in the game where the players use a monster token to become one of the NPC creatures. What's smarter than in-game monster AI? Answer: People playing the monsters. Not only does this sound super fun, but I'm sure a whole host of data can be gathered here to make the NPC monster's AI much better and more interesting. Who knows, maybe this will be called PVEP (Player vs. Environment Player) or something. Anywho... since it's only a part of Castle Seiges and based on Node progression, the other phases should be hashed out first.
ALL that being said,
(tl;dr) - If the BR version is more fun (whichever strategy that means), and a progression system is less painful during this phase of development (since it 'is' in a testing phase), more people will have a better incentive to play more frequently. This hopefully transmits to better test-data, which will improve development time in the long-run, since more people are participating.
They did release a new map, which is a lot smaller. It forces more engagement with people right away, which is great. There's also a few progression bugs in it which need to be hashed out (if you die and leave the game to get in another one real quick, some of your metrics like outliving people during the game don't get tallied).
But, you're right - at the very least, having a little bit more of attainable goals for people would be great. But it's a fine balance. Make it too easy, and people will also stop playing after they reach the level cap.
There will either have to be a reset to Level 1 or an increase to Level 100.