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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Impressions and feedback after 10 hours
Marzzo
Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Overall, the progress is great. The work that has been done is amazing, and I really believe you guys can do great things. With that out of the way, let's try to improve things.
I have played MMO:s my whole life, and I have played them all. I played in many previous tests, and now ill share my experience as a "new" player.
Combat
I really, really dislike that you fly forward so much when you autoattack as a meele. Hitting Q with autoattacks should not move you forward by such a large amount. Hitting forward while doing autoattacks should move you forward longer, but when standing still, it should be minimal. This will give a superior sense of control to us players. I mean, I WANT to stand still and attack, why cant my character do it?
Also, why am I swinging my sword like its made of plastic? Its a weapon made of metal, make the hits have some weight to them, make them feel impactful and heavy. It feels really quick and spammy.
Look at the asmongold stream when 5+ meele players attacked a mob. Did you see the massive amount of orange flaming lines everywhere? The autoattack effects on meele attacks, especially with swords is too much. When you are alone, it is too much, when you fight alongside multiple meeles, it looks silly.
Early game confusion
Once I entered the world, I talked to a bunch of people, and I quickly got bombarded with high level quests. I have no problem with a lot of quests, but what is the point in giving people straight out of the portal multiple lvl 15 quests? It would be better, at the start, to gradually ease people into an expanding world, instead of bombarding a 2 minute old player with many, many high level quests. I had 6 quests that were level 10+ at the start.
Item rewards from low level quests are weird
I tried to do quests in order of level recommendation. But, I quickly noticed that all the quests i did from lvl 3-6 gave me items that required lvl 7-12. In the first two hours of playing, almost every single item I got from quests required multiple levels above my own. This is not really nice.
Crafting a sword quest, horrible design
Maybe I am missing something, but the 33 trees requirement for the quest is a bit... excessive? I mean, I played for 4 hours, and managed to get 7 logs. Did anyone even try this quest out? And it feels crazy walking pasts thousands of trees, and only 1 in a 100 are able to be chopped down? I mean, either you make every single tree choppable, or you reduce the requirment of this quest to 5 logs and 8 ore. I am making a single sword, why do I need to chopp down a forest?
Unclear crafting tool system/quest logic
I pick up the quest crafting a sword, I assume I need tools. I buy the cheapest tools (since i literally started the game 1 min ago) and im on my way looking for materials. I find rocks, and I notice that my bronze tools are so useless they cant even break a rock or chopp down a tree. I go back and start murdering hordes of mobs to farm money. I buy the iron tools for 100 each which now works, I ask myself, why the hell where the other tools even an option? Why would they ever be used?
Tell me, why did you even sell the bronze tools in the first place, if they are so uselss they cant even help you complete the starting area quests. There should not even be an option to buy higher grade tools than bronze at the starting area. And there should absolutly be no reason to have higher grade tools at the starting area.
Progression becomes grindy and unclear right at lvl 5, after just a short session
Since a ton of quests dont show up on the mini map, most players will miss them. It would be wise to have some sort of clue for all quests (maybe a bartender at a tavern can point you out?)
I knew better though and talked to every single NPC I found, but even then, I already feel detached from the progression at lvl 5. The quests simply, stopped coming fluently. They started feeling like detached breadcroumbs.
I know it was mostly criticism, but I feel like you already know what an amazing job you guys have done. Keep it up.
I have played MMO:s my whole life, and I have played them all. I played in many previous tests, and now ill share my experience as a "new" player.
Combat
I really, really dislike that you fly forward so much when you autoattack as a meele. Hitting Q with autoattacks should not move you forward by such a large amount. Hitting forward while doing autoattacks should move you forward longer, but when standing still, it should be minimal. This will give a superior sense of control to us players. I mean, I WANT to stand still and attack, why cant my character do it?
Also, why am I swinging my sword like its made of plastic? Its a weapon made of metal, make the hits have some weight to them, make them feel impactful and heavy. It feels really quick and spammy.
Look at the asmongold stream when 5+ meele players attacked a mob. Did you see the massive amount of orange flaming lines everywhere? The autoattack effects on meele attacks, especially with swords is too much. When you are alone, it is too much, when you fight alongside multiple meeles, it looks silly.
Early game confusion
Once I entered the world, I talked to a bunch of people, and I quickly got bombarded with high level quests. I have no problem with a lot of quests, but what is the point in giving people straight out of the portal multiple lvl 15 quests? It would be better, at the start, to gradually ease people into an expanding world, instead of bombarding a 2 minute old player with many, many high level quests. I had 6 quests that were level 10+ at the start.
Item rewards from low level quests are weird
I tried to do quests in order of level recommendation. But, I quickly noticed that all the quests i did from lvl 3-6 gave me items that required lvl 7-12. In the first two hours of playing, almost every single item I got from quests required multiple levels above my own. This is not really nice.
Crafting a sword quest, horrible design
Maybe I am missing something, but the 33 trees requirement for the quest is a bit... excessive? I mean, I played for 4 hours, and managed to get 7 logs. Did anyone even try this quest out? And it feels crazy walking pasts thousands of trees, and only 1 in a 100 are able to be chopped down? I mean, either you make every single tree choppable, or you reduce the requirment of this quest to 5 logs and 8 ore. I am making a single sword, why do I need to chopp down a forest?
Unclear crafting tool system/quest logic
I pick up the quest crafting a sword, I assume I need tools. I buy the cheapest tools (since i literally started the game 1 min ago) and im on my way looking for materials. I find rocks, and I notice that my bronze tools are so useless they cant even break a rock or chopp down a tree. I go back and start murdering hordes of mobs to farm money. I buy the iron tools for 100 each which now works, I ask myself, why the hell where the other tools even an option? Why would they ever be used?
Tell me, why did you even sell the bronze tools in the first place, if they are so uselss they cant even help you complete the starting area quests. There should not even be an option to buy higher grade tools than bronze at the starting area. And there should absolutly be no reason to have higher grade tools at the starting area.
Progression becomes grindy and unclear right at lvl 5, after just a short session
Since a ton of quests dont show up on the mini map, most players will miss them. It would be wise to have some sort of clue for all quests (maybe a bartender at a tavern can point you out?)
I knew better though and talked to every single NPC I found, but even then, I already feel detached from the progression at lvl 5. The quests simply, stopped coming fluently. They started feeling like detached breadcroumbs.
I know it was mostly criticism, but I feel like you already know what an amazing job you guys have done. Keep it up.
3
Comments
I would add one more. The death penalty is grossly overdone. Quest items should never disappear. If I were carrying, say, 36/24 then ding me beginning at the overage. If I am carrying 22/24, don't mess with my quest items.