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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.
Feedback on gathering
Shoelid
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Hi! I've been testing for a while now and have seen the gathering iterate a little bit, so I've decided to write down my feedback.
First, on a base level, it works and it feels good. I love the risk of losing things on death! It makes me much more attached to the stockpiles of herbs I've been growing.
With the recent tests, resource nodes have been spread out, making gathering feel much better. Before, certain nodes had nothing to gather so the feedback was almost entirely focused on that. This time around, I mostly see people confused about harvesting lumber. I believe this comes from the fact that you need a LOT more lumber than ore to craft anything. You need 30 wood and 4 silver ore to make 1 silver ingot. Despite this, trees feel like they're the rarest resource, and they're the least 'obvious'. There are several solutions to this, but I feel like buffing the supply or reducing the demand would help this aspect of gathering a lot.
On the resource node models; Some are really good, and some are OK. The base tree node model is great! It fits in with the environment, but is unique enough that if you keep your eye out, you can see 'em from a distance. The model of the tree rewards attentive players. This is awesome! However, the higher tier lumber has the same model. My assumption is that it will receive its own model in the future. I also like how different areas have different harvestable trees, like the palm trees. These should also receive their own models
My only feedback with the ores is the Mithril and Stone nodes: they just don't look very different from each other. This may also change in the future, but might as well say it.
On the 'glitter sparkle' effect: I have mixed feelings on it. I think, ideally, all models are crafted like the base tree model and can be easily discerned whether or not they're gatherable, and thus would not require any sparkles. But I enjoy difficulty more than most, so there's a middle ground to be found. If anything, I would just say that the current intensity of the sparkles is too much; It's a little immersion breaking sometimes.
As far as the alpha goes: I think that there should be a small tutorial to initiate new players. This could be something like a couple stone nodes and a couple tree nodes right outside the Blacksmith, and she tells you to go gather some and bring it back to her to check. This way, players could see how it functions, and what the nodes look like, rather than assuming that there just isn't any nodes available. I watched many streamers so far complain about there being no tree nodes while running past 5. A simple "this is what the trees look like" will do tons for the new user experience, and really help people get into crafting.
Thanks for the hard work! I'm excited to see the future iterations of gathering and crafting
First, on a base level, it works and it feels good. I love the risk of losing things on death! It makes me much more attached to the stockpiles of herbs I've been growing.
With the recent tests, resource nodes have been spread out, making gathering feel much better. Before, certain nodes had nothing to gather so the feedback was almost entirely focused on that. This time around, I mostly see people confused about harvesting lumber. I believe this comes from the fact that you need a LOT more lumber than ore to craft anything. You need 30 wood and 4 silver ore to make 1 silver ingot. Despite this, trees feel like they're the rarest resource, and they're the least 'obvious'. There are several solutions to this, but I feel like buffing the supply or reducing the demand would help this aspect of gathering a lot.
On the resource node models; Some are really good, and some are OK. The base tree node model is great! It fits in with the environment, but is unique enough that if you keep your eye out, you can see 'em from a distance. The model of the tree rewards attentive players. This is awesome! However, the higher tier lumber has the same model. My assumption is that it will receive its own model in the future. I also like how different areas have different harvestable trees, like the palm trees. These should also receive their own models
My only feedback with the ores is the Mithril and Stone nodes: they just don't look very different from each other. This may also change in the future, but might as well say it.On the 'glitter sparkle' effect: I have mixed feelings on it. I think, ideally, all models are crafted like the base tree model and can be easily discerned whether or not they're gatherable, and thus would not require any sparkles. But I enjoy difficulty more than most, so there's a middle ground to be found. If anything, I would just say that the current intensity of the sparkles is too much; It's a little immersion breaking sometimes.
As far as the alpha goes: I think that there should be a small tutorial to initiate new players. This could be something like a couple stone nodes and a couple tree nodes right outside the Blacksmith, and she tells you to go gather some and bring it back to her to check. This way, players could see how it functions, and what the nodes look like, rather than assuming that there just isn't any nodes available. I watched many streamers so far complain about there being no tree nodes while running past 5. A simple "this is what the trees look like" will do tons for the new user experience, and really help people get into crafting.
Thanks for the hard work! I'm excited to see the future iterations of gathering and crafting
1
Comments
Can we either get more of these nodes to spawn or maybe someway to track them? Is that something in the works? I know I've been hunting these logs for like 40 mins and found 3?
33 with 1 a pop and they're hard to find feels really bad. It took me the entire playtime I had for today to find the 33 and the 12 stone. The grind was NOT fun IMO, granted the system itself is functional which is the real point of the alpha. A little clunky to start the animation, and whether to hold or tap the key is unclear even though both work.
Another suggestion: either lower the amount of time you're in combat after defeating a mob or allow players to gather while in combat. Considering the nodes are first come first served, it would feel really bad to have just defeated a monster and be waiting for the combat cooldown just to have another player come in and take the node you just fought for. I didn't experience this while playing but still a valid concern.
You are surrounded by trees, but can only chop down the "right" ones, and even if you find one it is 70/30 if you can actually chop it because it needs the 100$ iron axe, not the 10$ copper one you were told to buy. After gathering all of your wood as each tree only gives one resource, you have to focused on not dying cause then you loose half your materials and have to spend another hour looking for the "right" trees.
Right now gathering resources is a punishment and even when they get to the point of tuning the system it will be a headache to use. The entire trade skill design is antiquated and cumbersome, it will need a redesign.
i think this need to be changed . most trees you cant farm
The last 20 trees took me less time than the first four!
The number of available resources should be a great deal more readily available (I'd understand if it was rare resources that were harder to find)... but, it took me the better part of 4 hours to collect what I needed (especially with three deaths to level 2 monsters that somehow raged a horrifying amount of damage - those resource losses suuuuuuuuuuuuucked). Once nearly everyone logged off for the night, it was much faster (only took an hour to get the last 10 logs).
I do like that the trees are visibly different, and the stones. That's a step in the right direction. The floating resources though... *hops up and down trying to chop a floating tree*
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I hear a lot the phrase: Risk & Reward
aldo in gameplay it seems bugged cause killing a mob that has 10x the hp than the sourounding mobs but only give the same amount of xp and sometimes not even a loot, was sad whenever it happend. risking so much and doesnt get rewarded.
the death & loss penalty is kinda off in my guess sometime i lost over 60% of the gatheritems with 1 death and since the ressources are rare to find and all incl. mob drops items are worth like 1 coin each getting money is very hard. specialy at lower levels where the missing gear increases the chance to die and so resulting in loosing items.
good is that only grinded ressources getting lost on death and no gear or craftet items. with death & loss i would change it a bit to a loss in open world only (no siege or dungeons) that on the death spot will be a bag for some times which is accesseble by everyone that contains most of the lossed ressources of the death so the player can re pickup some if he hurrys and noone else did loot it.
on the crafting side with ressources dropped i would ajust it in ways that the recpies need more ress but on the grind u recive more. so chopping a tree may result in the tree falls but chopping further on the fallen stem results in getting additional wood. so the tree supports more ressources but takes longer or multiple harvest to get the wood out and once the tree has fallen it starts to decay so the faster and the more player actualy chopping on the stem the more ressources can be harvested from a single tree.
on stone / minerals the lesser value the ressource, the more u can harvest. might also be a timer from the frist hit on the mineral so that it depense on how fast someone is or if more peoples does grind it.
herbs i would leave as they are harvest 1 get 1 cause they might be cultivateble once the freeholds are out. to cultivate them in fields and get more
fish the same farm 1 get 1 cause maybe there will be some navel activity with boats that allows to farm with nets to gather faster and more.
for the overall ressource gain i would add the higher tier tool the less time needed to harvest.
so for example if 1 harvest emotion takes 3 secs with the tier 1 tool
it may takes only 2,5 sec with tier 2 and 2 secs with tier 3 tool
and so a tree gives 1 lumber on cutting it and then the steam remains on the ground for about 12-15 sec when it can be harvested more befor disapearing
if with no gabs harvested then a tier 1 tool might get 5 lumber while the tier 3 get 7 lumber out and of corse everyone else also getting lumber out if they harvest as well. might also be added a max. of lumber that can be harvested, not that u see spots where 10 peoples harvest togheter to maximize the gatherings
So jep that kinda it for my feedback and shareing some ideas of change
hope my writheing is understandeble
Edit:
Nice would also be if a equipment item for the backpack makes it into the game like a magic pouch which at tier 1 has 3 slots and can hold only tier 1 ressources (or essence shards) which doesnt get lost on death and then maybe crafteble higher pouches for hier tier items and with more slots alldo with the limitation that only 1 pouch can be used at any given time and that it only holds gathereble ressources that only doesnt get lost on death that was a result of pve. so for pvp it may not protect if its the pouch of a red player.
that way the loss on death effect is a bit reduced and added a iteam that can be gained in playing. maybe the tier 1 being a quest reward from the starting zone but the hier tiers needing dropped blueprints and ressources to craft and the higher they get the harder and more time consuming it gets to collect the materials to craft them also with item that has a tier that will be the tier of the pouch itself so while gathering the mats on death u loose some of them until u managed to get all mats neededn and have someone with the craftingskill to craft it.
depending on tier and ress it may then also be that a dungoen boss needed to be killed to get items to craft high tier pouches and so they getting a rare or legendary item due to the requirements and so not everyone may afford them.
I also ran all over gods creation looking for wood. Found 70 or so stone before the 33 wood, and lost sets to death. I am hoping for a much more robust system later, with the capacity to specialize and really invest in gathering.
I think this is something everyone needs to keep in mind. If gathering at a base level is easy and 'non-intrusive' enough for everyone to be doing it...you loose the ability to make a niche/specialized part of the game. This same concept goes for crafting as well. I feel like these specializations are the biggest part of the 'sandbox' half of this game. The average player shouldn't be able to do everything.
Now, I do agree that the lowest tier of raw materials should be abundant so people can learn the system. All of the systems should have an easy entry point so that players can learn, then pick what direction they want the take their character.
Frequency
The frequency of gatherable resources were quite low, much lower that anticipated. I gathered gold to buy new gear. albeit possibly lesser, well before I had sufficient mats to craft. If I had to choose between crafted lower level gear that was great and something bought that was lesser bought but if I could obtain now and keep playing, then I could would buy rather than craft. Concern that crafting might not be a first option to just buying from a shop if too time consuming to achieve.. Suggest increase the frequency.
Identification
I don`t mind the sparkles but would prefer something more subtle. Meaning, trees/rocks/plants that can be cut a visually identifiable color, texture.
With fishing, you could already see the fish in some instances, that should be sufficient.
Locations
New World especially, BDO and ESO to a degree located materials in relation to the flora and/or topography of an area. This was particularly useful to know where to start searching which I felt was not part of the current approach. Whilst it may have been planned, it appeared randomly scattered with no real discernable rationale or pattern, so finding matts was luck.
Variety
Small variety of different matt types, hoping for quite a variety, with varying degrees of difficulty to find and/or obtain.
Material Consumption
I liked the idea to retain relevance for lower level matts that they were used in recipes of all levels.
I also liked NW approach of a recipe having the option to add more than the required amount of materials which increased the rng chance of a higher level craft and as a resource sink.
So I wouldn't change the amount of resources per tree or respawn time or anything. But I can understand if someone gets frustrated because in the current area hasn't enough, but then I would look somewhere else
Though tools will be made by the crafters them selves rather than purchased when the crafting systems are implemented more fully.
did explor the map and in the starting area it had almost every ressource but the quantety was low. around illword node were a lot of trees but way less stone and around drythorne it had more minerals than trees.
at the coast it had a ton of fish but almost no herbs.
i guess it will be more like the nodes that region have higher content of some ressources than others but will have at lest a few of the other ressources. so that caravans will have a purpose. atm its not so high in diffrence but i guess for the final map it will have a higher impact.
This was the single most annoying thing during the alpha. Combat should drop immediately after the fight ends. I'm hoping this is simply a coding issue and not a design choice, especially as it applies to gathering. Having to kill a creature to get a node and having another player walk right up and take it because you are stuck in combat... that's not a mechanic that provides any value and only frustration.
Last time I checked, Redwood gave 3 charcoal per wood, and the next tier gave 6 charcoal. So it seems some of the concerns have been addressed.
I haven't had any issue collecting resources, but that might be related more to my time zone. Maybe higher respawn rates for peak times would help alleviate some of the frustration going around.
Yeah I noticed the $100 iron axe requirement. Its cool having trees be choppable but they are so rare you don't find them often and you get the ones that you can't farm and your like damn my axe isn't strong enough. There should defiantly be more of the farmable trees unless these resources are supposed to be so rare. You can travel through tons of area's with trees and not see 1 farmable tree. Also if we are going to have tree's locked behind level requirements then there needs to be better indicators which are farmable. I feel like the moment you get into the game you find a lot higher level stuff then your own level. And even though its a interesting concept it makes it more frustrating then fun.
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