~Biggest Wants & Wishes as an avid MMO player~

Kazezoku

Hey all!

First, let me just say how happy and excited I am for this bad boy to finally come out! I did purchase their, at the time, highest offered package for early support towards the game. Ever since watching the lazy peon's video, and listening to Steven's interview with azmongold and summit... I was instantly and deeply interested. I've played a plethora of MMO games, over these many years including; WoW, RS (OS&3), BDO, Lineage, GW2, Tera, ESO, FF, AA, Rift, Neverwinter, and even the newer upcoming New World. Of these, I like certain features from each and of course on the flip side, dislike certain features that I find pointless, difficult to keep up with/manage, uninteresting, or something to that effect.

I made a list below (in no particular order) of features, or mechanics that I wish would be incorporated, removed, or edited. Let me also say that these are just my top "wants" and am already very content with how things are that I've heard thus far! I also apologize if something on this list was already talked about or mentioned and is already gonna be a thing... there's a lot to take it so far! I'm trying to be the sponge, and absorb as much as I can before Alpha 2 is ready.

My biggest hopes and wishes to see in AoC someday!

• -Healing diversity. I see that much of the healing so far will stem from just the cleric (maybe some other class that I missed, perhaps bard makes a little sense), which is fine! But I hope that there's gonna be a wide range of different skills and abilities to really give the healer role a nice diverse set of options for players to really get creative with in PvE and PvP group compositions.
• -UI appearance/handling customization. Oh how I wish this one day happens. WoW has the overall best leading system (that I've ever seen anyway) of "addon" utilization that improves or visually customizes the user interface of the game. More importantly, these addons are able to be produced and developed by creators outside of the official dev team. I have seen very few over the years, that caused some sort of edge over the activity that it supports. From different numerical value indicators (like dmg and healing bars) to simplification, or revelation of hidden information in the UI, to interactive/moveable UI. An example of this would be a healer having a customizable frame, that lets them do what they can already do in the base game, just in a different location, or ability to see different values of informative queues. Say a Heal over time effect; they could see how long it will last on the target.
• -Extra Farmable content. Things like farming rare NPCs, or working on hidden quest lines, or working towards achievements that if lucky enough, or completed yields a rare loot. In many of these mmo games out there, these include things like pets, mounts, fun items, cosmetic items. Sure there's the cash shop that is only for cosmetics (lets hope), but It would be super cool to have say a sword, or staff that looks amazing, and is only attainable from a rare drop chance from a certain NPC, or maybe from a difficult achievement or feat completed by the player that makes it all that more rewarding. I also love the idea of collecting in a game, or a kind of completionism for doing and getting "all the things". It adds a "there's always something to do" feel to the game, which I see as a huge positive. Diversity and Plentifulness is a big ask, and takes time, but I'd be a miss to confess that I'd be a little sad to see there only being like 3-5 mounts that you get from the open world... when it would feel so much better to have something more like 30-50. It all gives a player a sense of prestige or another layer of fun on top of all the other things to do in the game like group dungeoning, or sieging, ect.
• -Art and Animation refinery. I'm at least 95% sure that the art and animations in game are not done, or no where near final. This sparks so much joy, because on top of amazing gameplay, its so nice to have eye candy everywhere you look. As of right now, especially the player movement, the animations are a bit clunky and stick-figurey. I know this probably isn't a upper end priority, but I'm getting all excited to imagine what skill/ability, emote, and other animations are gonna look like in the finished product!
• -Learn as you go Tutorials. There's a lot of stuff to take in when starting a new MMO! namely the mechanics of the game in terms of gameplay and mastery over mechanics of the UI and system utilization. Path of Exile was probably one of the most advanced games that I've ever played in terms of mechanics and learning what does what and how to do something. Were it not for their little pop up widows that point or highlight the area of the UI that's relevant... I'd be stuck on youtube scouring the many channels and videos to find a guide from someone else that figured it out (which I still had to do for most things anyway lol). I just really hope that its simple to read and take in, but at the same time thorough and in depth.
• -Tooltip Clarity & Definitive info text. I absolutely love tooltips that explain what something is, or does, but also takes it a step further and gives you a direct value as to whatever the mechanic is that's in question. For example: I would prefer to see, "You call down a series of 6 astral stars that heal your target for 250 health per star over a 4 second channeled cast. Each star has a 15% chance to heal the target twice." Instead of, "You call down a series of stars that heal your target and have a chance to heal twice. Ability is channeled." Color coding goes a long way and really helps the player understand what's going on when they use that ability, as well as specifying the odds of something happening if that's a mechanic of the ability. I really dislike it when a game hits the player with "has a chance to (insert the thing you have a chance to do)." and for all the player knows could be a 2% chance or a 50%, and therefore can only really determine a rough estimate of what the real chance is though comparison with others or thought using that skill a large number of times to get a vague idea.
• -Player Performance Numerical Tracking (meters). I am in favor of this for several reasons. And if there truly is a progression system in place, then this is an excellent tool for healers, dpsers, tanks that can contribute dps, and several other functions. Additional things like damage taken, or how many casts were used during the encounter. Its a way to compare and contrast against others as well, to help improve your own performance. I really hope this happens, and that it isn't viewed in a negative light. Its purely informative information that helps improve a single person, or group of people and there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. I can see how judgment of others may influence how high of content that player will be "allowed" to participate in, however its gonna be found out either way, with or without a meter to show it. It is also not fair to hide or obfuscate the low performance of an individual or group of individuals from everyone else. This is made apparent when you can see that one or two people in an 8 man group are solely carrying the damage dealt, while the others are using an ability here and there. Only to the players that are performing correctly and highly does it all seem okay, since they have no way of knowing that they are doing the work if 1-3 other players. And lastly, the players that aren't performing very well, won't have a real way of knowing that; because as far as they know the person(s) that are carrying them are getting their content completed either way.

I'll Probably add much more to this, right now I'm on information overload, and kind of tuckered out from all the typing. Again these are just fun little desires to see if there are any plans in the works for them, or anything like them. I love how everything is coming together so far and I remain super excited to log in and see the awesome bad assery myself one of these days hopefully not too far away. Please feel free to leave your own opinions and comments and Thanks for the long read

-Kaze