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.
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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.
Comments
What did you like and what didn't you like about how stats were displayed on equipment?
It was pretty basic which is nice. It'd be cool if it showed the total stat amount you get or lose as well as the amount it is adding from that individual item. Maybe add a bit of color variances between attribute bonuses and damage/defense. When you add special properties like effects on hit, etc. I think those should have a particular color to indicate a special property
What did you like and what didn't you like about the tooltips when comparing items?
I don't think I saw any item comparison tooltips. But I don't think you should spell out absolutely everything with tooltips. Just basic stat differences like attributes, defenses, and damage ranges. No need to be like (this item increases dps by .76%). Let the players do the math if they want to min/max.
Regarding equipment and looting UI, while ours is a work-in-progress, what do you think other games do well?
WoW did pretty well. I was somewhat of a fan when it came to personal loot,even in raids, as to avoid the headache and drama of distributed loot in a raid, but I do see an appeal to the process of deciding who receives loot.
I suggest more customization when it comes to establishing loot for a party, and a tooltip to show the groups loot plan when invited and even viewable after joining so you can immediately decide if the party is right for you. As far as customization goes, I think you should be able to decide what classes get priority on certain items when doing need before greed. In other words, a ranger would have priority on bows before other classes even if they also choose need, or a caster class would have priority on wands over a melee/physical class. You could even have a raid loot table for the raid where you can set it for each raid member to sign up for an item or set amount of items so when it drops it can be rolled between those players, and even have round Robin options to make it so no single person can loot too many items.
It would be beneficial to have several loot system management options in regards to guilds/raids, allowing for players to set up in-game merit systems, EPGP, DKP, loot councils, loot histories of members, etc. Allowing raid leaders to more effectively distribute loot without having to resort to spreadsheeting their lives away. It's definitely asking for a lot, but it would make guild management soooooo much nicer. Having this info in game would also make ninja looting much easier to spot for other players, deterring players from trying to pick up every item even if it's obviously better for another party member.
Some links for loot systems. Honestly several in-game system options for these would be amazing.
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/EPGP
https://guildrelationswow.fandom.com/wiki/Guild_Loot_Distribution_Systems
Currently, all 4 archetypes shown: fighter, ranger, cleric and tank spend the SAME resource when using their abilities: a mere mana bar. That way the gameplay may becomes somehow lazy. For example: a new player, who just started playing and a very expert cleric players, will have the same difficultys when managing the best way to use their resources: NONE!!! This means players who dedicate themselves to play only one class will not be rewarded for doing so.
Furthermore , having different and unique resources for each of the 8 archetypes would make the gameplay of each of them UNIQUE and SPECIAL. The game would become 100x more interesting if each class had its own resource, instead of all of them using the “mana”. In this discussion I would like to exemplify different types of features (some well known and some new) that will surely be better elaborated and discussed by the experienced members of Intrepid Studios.
Fighter: The fighter archetype could have a resource called “RAGE”. This rage bar is reset when out of combat. Each time the fighter lands an attack with his equipped weapon, he generates a certain amount of fury (up to a maximum to be defined). Each skill consumes part of this resource. If a skill requires more rage points than the amount currently available, it cannot be used. The amount of points allocated to a skill and the different augments available can decrease how much "rage" a skill spends to or even cause a skill to generate rage instead of consuming it.
Ranger: Unlike the Fighter archetype, the ranger's resource (an "ENERGY" bar) fills up when this class leaves combat and recovers slowly every second. All ranger skills consume energy when used. Again, unlike Fighter, attacks with an equipped weapon neither consume nor generate energy. If the ranger's energy is less than the amount needed to use a skill, that skill can still be used, but with reduced damage.
This was a brief example that serves to show how the gameplay of each archetype can become UNIQUE when the resource used is different. If you want to continue reading, here are some more ideas:
Cleric: Instead of using mana, like in other games, Cleric could use a resource called "Faith Points", which would be displayed as small golden circles under the health bar. Let's say a cleric has 12 faith points. Healing/buffing skills that benefit a single target would spend less points than skills that benefit all party members. Also, damage skills DO NOT spend faith points. This is because faith points are recovered when the Cleric DEALS or even TAKES damage. This is cool because, if a player decides not to have any damage skills, he will still recover his faith points when attacking with his equipped weapon or taking some damage.
Tank: The resource used by Tank, “VITALITY”, could work almost the same way as mana. All skills consume vitality and each attack he defends also consumes a certain amount of vitality. The difference is that when the Vitality bar reaches 0, it starts to recover faster than normal until it fills to the maximum. During this recovery time the tank CANNOT use any skills and NEITHER defend. That vitality bar recovery time can maybe last between 5-10 seconds (which is a long time), making this resource something REALLY important and that should be taken into account.
Bard: (on this one I mighty have gonne a bit too far). There are 7 musical notes. The idea that came to my mind would be to have these 7 musical notes as the resource used by the bards. When the Bard uses a skill, it spends a certain amount of resource, but also recovers a certain amount. Example: At lv 15 a bard could have 6 points for each musical note: DO - RE - MI - FA - SOL - A - SI. When using a skill, he spends like 2 points of DO, 1 point of MI note and, at the same time, recovers 2 points of SOL note. It would be a “give and take” gameplay, where each skill spends and also generates resources. (I know it would be VERY difficult to do because of balancing. But, there must be a way to make bard gameplay unique and fun).
Mage: To be honest, for mages to use mana is quite ok!!! I believe this is the best resource for this archetype. If all, or almost all other archetypes use different resources, having a mana bar would be what makes the mage a unique archetype.
Summoner: To Summoners i thought of something similar to Pokémon games, those where each Pokémon's ability could be used a limited number of times until it was recovered at a pokemon center. What's the idea here: Summoner skills can only be used a certain amount of times per day (in-game day). Besides having to think before using an ability, because of the daily cap, this would also make players have to be aware of the in-game time to decide whether they can "go all-out" or "keep calm and belive in your party members".
Rogue: “BLOOD” feature. I didn't think much about this archetype, but it would be nice if Rogue had a mechanic of spending its resources to inflict certain conditions, like bleeding, blinding or some sort of stun.
If you've read this far, congratulations!!! I can't even believe I wrote so much. Summing up all the text written above: EACH ONE OF THE 8 PRIMARY ARCHETYPES CAN BE DIFFERENT, UNIQUE AND SPECIAL IF THE RESOURCE SPENT BY IT IS ALSO DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE. THANKS !!!
Cant upvote this enough!
You probably want to swap this to its own thread since it has nothing to do with this discussion.
mana management is not easy unless you play a game like wow where you never run out of mana.
nothing against the proposal to have a different resource for each class, but I would say that there is a problem if you have skills from other sources than the class, such as Weapon skills / Religation skills / and others, and there will definitely be a difference between newbies and "veterans" who won't get rid of mana right away and will probably use the most effective skills in the given situation.
While I understand where you're coming from and agree that crafted gear should always be the best for any level, let's not kid ourselves pretending some of the enemy's we'll face won't occasionally be wearing better gear than us that we should theoretically be able to fit into. This is obviously taking into consideration that bosses are sometimes made physically larger artificially for the sake of making them stand out. That being said, I don't want to kill a dragon or a cyclops and have it drop a god-tier helmet that somehow fits a player-sized character. If the boss is going to drop gear, make it make sense somehow. Otherwise, give us resources for craftsfolk.
Hopfully you will add a compare option between loot alsoo.
1. Comparison indicators (if I mouse over a leggings, either show my leggins next to it so I can compare stats, or display stat differences, or both)
2. A window of time to change my greed/need/pass choice (if I click by accident).
3. Press shift to preview the item on me. If the item has similar stats to what I already have, I may choose to loot it because it looks better on me. Fashion/RP are important!
4. Show actual, large-ish 3D model of the leggings instead of a tiny icon.
More minor thing:
- ui loot-related icons seem too small, makes loot feel less significant. Same for preview box.
- Titanbark Leggings tooltip is incomplete, it shows 2 Constitution and 4 [empty space].
Thanks for asking us for feedback!
- It definitely has an older MMO look and feel to the appearance of an item Tooltip. I think goes well with the games aesthetic.
- Feedback I have would be in relation to how to differentiate Core Stats and Additional stats with the current tool tip Strength and Physical Pen seem to be on the same level. Are they? If not maybe finding a way to separate those two stats on the tooltip would help.
What did you like and what didn't you like about the tooltips when comparing items?
- From what we get to see, it is very basic and works. I think having a detailed breakdown of which stats are gained and lost will help. (Most likely still Work in Progress)
- I would like to see it Pop just a little more, however that could be done with the opacity and the darkness of the frame, maybe adding a thin border around the item of gold kinda like on the Backpack.
- Overall have no issues with it since I know its still in early stages I will look to provide more detailed feedback in the future.
Regarding equipment and looting UI, while ours is a work-in-progress, what do you think other games do well?
- Overall looks good little minor gripes I have would be with size of text and the boxes, But I understand that will be customizable.
- What I believe other games do well is make the loot on the ground appear very shiny and obvious that you have loot on the ground. With the current build in AOC it is very difficult to make out where loot is and most times Steven would run by without looting.
Thank you for all the hard work you put in everyday Intrepid I doesn't go unnoticed by your dedicated fans. Have a great day!
-Backpack was good, except the icons felt a bit small (might be the resolution) but it felt as if i can't see at a glance what I have, i need to really focus on the item or even hover over it. Also, one of the things I liked from New World was the way the backpack looked (not how it worked). It looked clean, it would separate the items based on category, icons were big. It did block like 30% of the screen, but Its the bonuses made up for it.
-The Quest journal was good, clean, liked it, one thing here is the text size, but that could again be the resolution
-The Map had a nice style, but the function seemed lacking? I love the style, but i would say make it more easy to see roads, ruins etc. Keep the style though
-The Minimap needs some colour on it. Its just grey on grey and because its kinda see-through, i can't say i was able to use to figure out paths and stuff like that. Maybe use the style on the big map on the mini map as well?
Regarding the looting system:
-Need/Greed/Pass is good. However, why can't you trade those items? Use Need/Greed as a system, but make items tradable. This honestly feels suuuuper bad and immersion breaking "I have this item, but i can't give it to you because the gods say its my item?" The whole system with bound items is really weird in my opinion, i can't see what it adds to the such a social game.
-Regarding the drop itself, the pouch, its good, however, i would recommend adding a visual que when it drops, maybe half a second, and then go to how it is. I think Steven walked past quite a few drops and even when looking for them i missed some (saw them on second watch). Losing loot because it droped in high grass or on a surface that is very similar in colour with the pouch is not good.
For non-party world exploration, have auto-loot option.
Similarly, I like the backpack. The Green/Blue/etc icon outlines are nice although I feel like the item icons themselves could use a bit more "oomph", they are a bit flat currently. The info menu that spawns when you hover over an item is good. I just hope the information is clear, concise, well-highlighted and specific to times, abilities, cooldowns, dmg etc.
The loot mechanics were good but I would like to see the UI match the Journal and Backpack, with a nicely coloured title bar and maybe a glowing stack of gold (or a chest) as an icon in the top left of the window. The Journal UI is great, keep that consistently through everything, add a bit of polish and it'll be great.
What did you like and what didn't you like about the tooltips when comparing items?
PRAISE:
I liked the simplistic approach, the stats popping up when you hover over the specific item, the rarity indication via color also helped (I'm a bit color blind) and listing the rarity in words also was good.
Very good thing that the "currently equipped" item is marked.
And having a compare feature also is absolutely crucial - so good job to already have that in.
IMPROVABLE:
This might have been due to the screen used or so, but I thought the item windows were a bit small, maybe we can get something in the options menu to adjust the size to fit our needs?
When comparing items differences in value could be indicated as well stats that would be newly added or would no longer be on the item.
SUGGESTION:
I would appreciate a feature to have a stat window of an item opened up without having to hold my cursor over it the whole time, so that I can basically look at all the item windows of my currently equipped gear at the same time. E.g. when trying to figure out which item I might want to switch for something with more Constitution, jumping back and forth has always been a bit annoying. This would be a nice addition to have - but it's not a must have.
Regarding equipment and looting UI, while ours is a work-in-progress, what do you think other games do well?
PRAISE:
It worked! That's always a good place to start of, it was consistently working and that's part of the process forward.
I liked that the items seemed to automatically sort themselves when opening up the loot windows.
Need-Greed-Pass feature and the vote system when trying to change the loot mechanic are both great, especially the voting - this was the moment I knew actual gamers are working on this, good job guys.
IMPROVABLE:
It might have been to the bright grass, the mob type, the "lootable" SFX and my color blindness in combination but in some cases I found it a bit hard to see that there was something to loot.
QUESTION: Lastly, it seemed like the roll on items only began after someone tried to pick the item out of a corpse, not when the loot window was first opened up - is this intentional and if so: Are there already plans regarding a corpse not being looted "in time"? What I mean is, I open up a loot window, get ganked out of my life and because I couldn't pick up the rare item, it is now still in there and it will take me 5 minutes to return. Will loot that I have tried to take become "public" after a certain time, despite the usual contribution=looting right mechanic?
Also the weapon and armor stats in the tool tip feel very empty but again I'm guessing that which types of stats each type of equipment is going to have is still being decided/implemented.
-The | need | greed | pass | system looks good.
-The prompt when someone tries to change the setting appearing to all players in the group in very evident fashion is also good.
My only worry about it is that if it's done during combat some players might close it involuntarily because they're fighting and thus might miss it.
-I definitely like the separation of | inventory | materials | quest items |.
I always hated finding quest items (i forgot about) left in the inventory in other games and wondering what the heck are they for and maybe been unable to remove them or being afraid to remove them because I could break some questline.
Also the materials tab it's good to be able to visualize easily what I still need to gather and what I'm going to lose if I'm killed with materials in my bag.
-As many have already mentioned a "loot all" button or key during the loot window would be useful.
-About materials dropped by mobs: are they gonna be distributed equally and automatically in a group as they go along killing mobs? (without the need of them clicking in a prompt window each time?)
-If it’s not already implemented, any good inventory system needs good sorting options and the ability to lock items so they can’t be moved/dropped/destroyed by mistake.
Apologies for my rusty english.
It would be cool if the borders look different for every arch type or Race specific UI board. Dwarfs have runes etc...
Archers - have a wood/nature border around UI.
Tanks - Have a stone/metal border around UI.
Mage- Have elemental/fire border around UI.
Healers- Have holy/light border around UI.
or
Dunir - UI border have runs and stone
Pyrai - has nature and wood UI
Vek- have some tribal UI
If that to much work make the UI more Ashes of creation theme with phoenix etc..
Just an idea.
for those who just can see very bad or can't read you could give every stat a uniqe and easily distinguishable icon that would be easier for them.
What did you like and what didn't you like about the tooltips when comparing items?
First of all i see that stats didn't be compared to stuff thats already equipped like hihger DMG-> green
and lower -> red
Regarding equipment and looting UI, while ours is a work-in-progress, what do you think other games do well?
i like the need/greed/pass system but i hope you only can press need if your character can use it (Bow to an archer not an meele like warrior)
and if there are multiple pices can you preselect your opinion so you didn't get disrupted from N/G/P system?
also i have seen in Blade and soul that everyone bid on the loot so if thats a ring that everyone needs not only one player is happy but everyone gets a fair share of the money that this player was paying. Sure thats prefer richer player or maybe even pay to win but that way even if you didn't get the ring you get the money and after some runs you have the same amount of money to bid yourself as every other have spend before. And even if you want to help smaler player farming there stuff you get something.
Also i would like to see a way to roll an dice, so if stuff drops and you are with your friends together in an party you could roll. but this also works with an /roll(max number)in chat and everyone sees a message "playerxyz has rolled : 73 " in chat.
also what happend if everyone ignore or pass the loot? including the person that was expectet to get it? can than everyone pick the loot even when not in this party?
when you are invited in an party/raid and looting rules are already changed - did you get a notice the same way as they are changed after you joined? or did you just get a massage in your chat that probably didn't get any notice? and are Mounts/Pets/Skins excluded from set rules?
Something else I'd like to suggest, and this is the important part - PLEASE, get this to the design team, do it like Mortal Online 2 does it, IF you loot stuff from a player, you Should be flagged for PvP (purple) for a few minutes, at least 5~10 minutes.... this is EXTREMELY important to avoid abuse where someone will kill you in a node or smt and someone green loots,
Mortal Online 2 is a HARDCORE FULL LOOT PVP game and even they know it is not a good idea to let unflagged players loot stuff from dead players without having to flag. The scenario where a green just ninja your pile of Ashes and you can't do anything because he won't flag and you don't want to go red is Extremely detrimental and leads to a world of abuse. Please think about this. We saw this in Alpha One as well, when people died during a world boss the greens would just stop the content to loot, this was terrible. If they knew they would get flagged they wouldn't do it so often, and when the loot owner came back he would know who took his stuff and have a chance to fight back.
This suggestion also goes in line with the game design of promoting Consensual PvP, if you are walking around and see a pile of ashes from a dead player, you know if you loot it there is the reward of taking the stuff but also the risk of turning purple and the owner coming back or someone else finding you during the minutes you are flagged, risk vs reward, more consensual PvP, this is a win-win and a no brainer.
The font might be a personal thing but seems way to thin for me.
Most MMOs have a slight thicker font which makes it easier to the eye.
Maybe make the numbers float away.
Some colors also seem nearly invisible in the game.
A casting bar? I could have missed that in the video but I can imagine that you want to keep your interrupts for certain casts. Unless the very big attacks which need interrupting are VERY telegraphed.
I haven't seen much of the bigger encounters. But even for these smaller bosses they usually show where they will do there BIG AOE attacks (red target area). Not doing the AOE circles would be fine if you want to go for full emersion.
For tanks I would also recommend some kind of aggro percentages to check if you are losing aggro. Or make it visible in some way who the monsters will be attacking.
Furthermore I would also recommend to turn down the bloom as this game can be very bright which might ruin the looks of armor. Especially when showcasing the last part of the video where the full armor set is shown. Partially this plays into "UI" as sometimes it was VERY hard to see if a monster dropped something. An AOE loot could also be usefull but might be a concern for PVP part of the game. Maybe solved with a UI of what is dropped within a certain area?
Other than that it's better every time I see a video.
The clarity of the UI is very well done! It's simple and you know what to press.
Wouldn't change anything about that part of the UI!
Good thinking about the ninja looting, love the voting system.
So great work to everyone working on the game!
Cannot wait to start playing!
Consider that the mmos that get rated highest to this day are still games like Runescape and WoW. When you look at those two especially, you see heavy art stylization that make them unique and easily recognizable throughout time. Both games also got more players on their re-released classic versions.
Please consider stylizing the game textures and the UI to be unique and more immersive for a fantasy experience. Also, I would really consider looking at all of the art you have right now collectively. There is a lot of inconsistency in the art styles on weapons, armor, mounts, etc. I would even rather play in a world with a very consistent art style than a stylized one. At least it feels whole. Whoever did the newest concept art for the races has a good vision.
As an oldschool player it felt very intuitive clean and functional, Looting wise i have no addenments. Because i have not played alpha 1, i cannot say if all the required stats on an item wereshown, however those stats that were shown were easily readable, and in a format that was comprehensive. Can you integrate an option so that like UI settings we can scale the tooltips of items as well for those with visual impairments?
I iliked that there was no item level or arbitrary number wich item is better displayed. These things tend to result in people making assumptions on gear based by numbers instead of build and skill. Without item level like numbers one can not inspect and gloss over their items by item number to get invited in Groups and raids, this incentivises reputation, and social gameplay.
There is however one thing that i missed in the tooltips of the abilities: a clear indication of wich rank the skill is at and if its augmented. This will be increasingly handy for players that play more casually, or respec often, to quickly see what build their playing and what can potentially still be improved
eg: Shield assault (Rank 3, Augmented) gives a lot more information at first glance then just Shield Assault.
Its always the worst when you are in a group that is trying to power through things, and you get a new piece of gear, but the party is moving too fast for you to sort it out in your bags to equip it because your trying to also heal everyone.
I'm looking at you tanks!
As a comment on rarity coloring of items as mentioned earlier. Personally I find them a convenience as a collector and completionist in quickly understanding if I have something common or much more unusual on my hands without always taking time out to research on the side.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
Please disregard the design, it was done in a rush as I have some urgent things to take care of.
The concept I had for the dungeon or team loot table is to list the important drops such as in the picture attached. It might be less boring than the outdated square loot table.
I would also suggest a new bidding system:
Need vs greed + Vote Bid for Bind on Equip items.
Greed + Vote Bid on tradeable items.
What is vote bid?
When you waste let's say 4 hours for a raid, and something sellable drops, as in Bind on Equip (if there will be such items), you either don't feel lucky, or you want to get something out of the raid, and not waste 4 hours for nothing, you can suggest other parties interested to Open Bids with the Vote Bids or Vote for Bids option.
Players will then vote if they accept to bid gold instead of roll for the item.
In order to make it FAIR to everyone, ALL the people that can equip the item -need- to vote -positive-, to open the gold bidding system.
The player who bids the highest amount of gold will win the item, of course.
The rest of the team/raid OR only the people that can equip the item and participated in the vote, will get the gold split among themselves.
In case this option is used for a Bind on Pickup item instead, the players who can equip the item will get access to 80% of the gold split among themselves and 20% is split among the other participants who could not equip the item. Everyone gets "something" out of the raid, time doesn't feel wasted, frustration won't hit as hard.
Of course, there will be more to this system, such as guilds will decide whether they allow opening bids on the raid items before people participate in the raid, otherwise if done as a PUG, Open bids, or voting for bids will be enabled/disabled at the dungeon entrance. People who do not accept the conditions will have the option to leave.
Bid type should be listed in the LFG menu (if any).
Either way, this was an issue in many MMOs as people felt raiding for nothing, wasting their time, so this option should at least ease their "pain" in some way.
Loot UI would look the best such as represented in the image attached:
Item1 item2 item3 item4 (menu resizes if more than 4 items, once the items will be bid on, from left to right)
secondary interface for junk items or reagents:
junk1 junk2 junk3 junk 4, etc., same as above.
Back to the benefits of bidding with gold (only if all party members agree):
Geared people will get the incentive to apply for raids, even after fully geared, they will spend more time in game which is what any gaming company wants (active players).
It will diminish the reach of gold sellers and service boosters. People will boost in game, legally (which happens eventually anyway), without breaking TOS.
P.S. Again, excuse the design of the white area for the item description, it was made in a rush, and it looked miles better than having it pure white at 100% opacity.
-Work in progress. – Art team will clean up the fonts.
What did you like and what didn't you like about the tooltips when comparing items?
Tool tips looked for abilities look fine.
- Need to red or grey out ranged ability Icons so you can quickly see if you are even in range to use them.
Regarding equipment and looting UI, while ours is a work-in-progress, what do you think other games do well?
- Loved the ninja looting lock option. The group had to vote on changes.
- Love the traditional need, greed, pass options.
- I would like to have it where auto loot would just picks up everything.
- In GW2 when you were doing WvW and had whipped out a group of 20-30 going around pickup up loot bags while reinforcements were pouring in was frustrating and impacted game play. When I got the ability to auto loot in the game, I was a game changer that I did not have to waste time picking up every drop or see 50% of your WvW raid group pull off in combat to loot.
- Having to stop in the middle of combat to loot because your afraid of losing it to a death is not good game design.
- In WoW – I always turn on auto loot everything but still hate having to stop in raids to loot bodies on trash mobs. It is just a waste of time.
- As a tank having DPS or a healer stop for 10-20 seconds as you grind through a ton of trash mobs in a dungeon because of loot bags wastes time and kills the combat flow.