Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Low level gear should look scrappy and poor and progression should be slow.
Ironhope
Member
One of the things which I really loved in World of Warcraft was the way gear progression mattered because you started off with very, very poor gear (peasant clothes and a wooden hammer for example) and you worked your way up very slowly.
Because of this, every time you found less poor gear (for example, uploading from the wooden hammer to a spiked club) it felt absolutely great.
And when you finally got some shoulders or a head piece it felt like your birthday.
Because when you have very little in a tough enviroment (like this classic-spirited mmo-rpg promises to be and should be) you're always on the look for the slightest improvement and very happy with every slight improvement.
This feeling (clearly shared by many) was very well captured by the youtuber Captain Grim in this video
( Quest Rewards! Classic VS Retail - WoW Machinima
Captain Grim)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDoNp_hTB1M
And I absolutely think this ''classic'' path is absolutely the way to go and what Intrepid should be doing.
But honestly, it doesn't really feel like this is what they are doing.
The lvl 15 gear we saw looked pretty advanced, if not epic (the dungeon set for example).
The right way to do it is how World of Warcraft Classic did it.
Put us in a tough enviroment, with slow progression, with us initially looking like peasants who took up arms, make us feel like utter underdogs.
Then, after 10 more levels, have us look like low end men at war (mercenaries), with maybe a mail chest piece, a basic wooden shield, a warclub and a heavy cloth head piece.
Then 10 more levels have us start looking like a more reliable mercenary, with maybe a couple of plate pieces, a mail coif and maybe a basic sword.
It is scarcity, deficit, which gives value to items we find in the world, not overabundance.
Overabundance leads only to a ''meh'' attitude in regards to everything and anything we find.
Have scarcity in regards to gear be felt for longer while leveling.
Because of this, every time you found less poor gear (for example, uploading from the wooden hammer to a spiked club) it felt absolutely great.
And when you finally got some shoulders or a head piece it felt like your birthday.
Because when you have very little in a tough enviroment (like this classic-spirited mmo-rpg promises to be and should be) you're always on the look for the slightest improvement and very happy with every slight improvement.
This feeling (clearly shared by many) was very well captured by the youtuber Captain Grim in this video
( Quest Rewards! Classic VS Retail - WoW Machinima
Captain Grim)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDoNp_hTB1MAnd I absolutely think this ''classic'' path is absolutely the way to go and what Intrepid should be doing.
But honestly, it doesn't really feel like this is what they are doing.
The lvl 15 gear we saw looked pretty advanced, if not epic (the dungeon set for example).
The right way to do it is how World of Warcraft Classic did it.
Put us in a tough enviroment, with slow progression, with us initially looking like peasants who took up arms, make us feel like utter underdogs.
Then, after 10 more levels, have us look like low end men at war (mercenaries), with maybe a mail chest piece, a basic wooden shield, a warclub and a heavy cloth head piece.
Then 10 more levels have us start looking like a more reliable mercenary, with maybe a couple of plate pieces, a mail coif and maybe a basic sword.
It is scarcity, deficit, which gives value to items we find in the world, not overabundance.
Overabundance leads only to a ''meh'' attitude in regards to everything and anything we find.
Have scarcity in regards to gear be felt for longer while leveling.
4
Comments
I fail to see the reasoning behind your conclusion.
Just have all lower lvl gear be scrappy and basic.
Everyone who is low level should conform to being low level, I have no idea what you mean.
You want low lvls with gear looking like top tier raid end sets?
I'm fairly sure cleric and fighter are wearing a cosmetic set that won't be achievable in-game, so you can disregard them. Tank and ranger look right about what I'd imagine lvl~15s to look like. The "set" that Steven equips later is also a cosmetic set from a bundle.
Never forget that most of the gear they're showing off is just cosmetics from the bundles. I personally dislike this practice, but Steven gonna Steven and promote the game with false gear.
I agree with you, the practice isn't a positive one.
Looks like Stephen was wearing traditional steel plate, which makes sense considering he is level 15, now the armor he put on after the boss looked REALLY good, so im hoping that is a much later gear progression and they just wanted to show it off, which is 100% what I think they were doing based on Stephens personality.
It was just a random visual example, not an imperative.
The imperative would be low level gear just looking poor, scarppy, ''desperate'' and should very slighly improve every few levels, starting to look decent (as if you're an actual noteworthy caster or knight or assassin) at higher levels.
lvl 15 gear shouldn't look like that
you shouldn't look like a knight at lvl 15
you should look like a militia man
and honestly, even that coif looks a bit too much for a lvl 15, but let's just say for the sake of discussion it came from a dungeon boss or a hard group questline and most people wouldn't get it
Here's Steven's personality
People will wear costumes from lvl1, so you'll see epic stuff right from the start of the game. It's inevitable with a cosmetic shop.
But it also fits the lore of the game, so I care about that even less than usual.
Will they?
Don't you need a coresponding set (something you wouldn't have access to, at least not easily at lvl 1) to apply the ''transmog'' on?
Lore shouldn't have priority over gameplay and it should support, augment immersion, not ruin it.
I don't think so? Unless I am mistaken cosmetics can only be worn over other armor matching its tier. So if we want to apply that cosmetic don't we need to have that tier of armor unlocked? Or is it just any armor can have any cosmetic over it?
Either way your right about the lore, which is great for immersion tbh. Smart on them.
Costumes (and pets) don't have a level restriction. Other cosmetics require an in-game item to be obtained first.[7][8]
It's an alpha. And it's Steven. During the first video he literally GMed himself the pants. Nothing is real here. These are literally the items from that cosmetic costume, just in parts.
Will lvl 1 gear be suitable as ''in-game items obtained''?
So in this case that armor he equipped after the boss, that feels like it ought to be higher tier, if not though its not a big deal, still gonna love and play the game.
I wonder this as well, perhaps Vaknar will pop in and shed some light.
"Costumes are one piece outfits that cover an entire (gear) set"
"The costume cosmetic does not come in pieces. It will cover your entire set"
Seems to me like you will need an entire set of complimentary gear no?
But even if it requires a set of gear, I'd imagine there's gonna be either some ultra basic set that you get as your starting gear or just the very first one you can buy/get from the first vendors and quest givers.
those people wearing cosmetic at level one are like the nobles wearing fancy gear and never swung a sword in there life :P
On the other hand, as Voxtrium said, you would send your best adventurers/crafters through the gates so looking like peasants doesn't really make sense either.
Example of low level leaning gear
Example of more mid level gear
Looking at the difference between the shield and the mace, I think there is a progression visible. And it is not said for sure that the first image is the lowest level of gear. Seeing how we will emerge from Gateways in often times ruined places of civilization, I also expect that the first few level we will be stuck with tattered armor, unrefined DIY clothes and make-shift weapons we might have made ourselves or taken from lesser humanoid creatures we have slain.
From what I've seen so far, there is a visually distinguishable "low level" gear that we haven't seen much of yet which probably will be the main theme of our characters till maybe around lv 10.
Then there will be gear of the quality shown in the screenshots (first mainly till lv 20 and the second till level 30) after that there will be the elaborate gear which will start to mix a bit more due to more dungeons, crafting etc.
I think it is worth to keep in mind that the gear in the showcases for once is of specific rarity (a helmet of "blue rarity" from a boss mob might be already very hard to come by; I suspect drop chances were dialed up to 100% for the stream) and secondly is partly cosmetic gear of which we (and possibly Intrepid as well) have yet to see the accessibility. While there won't be level requirements, the NPC to apply cosmetics might not become available until there is a stage 4 Node. Also, certain pieces of gear might not appear until higher levels. So it might not matter much that someone bought a skin for burning shoulder pieces, because there might be no shoulder pieces until level 20.
Conclusion: I agree there should be significant gear progression and I also think that Intrepid has shown some good evidence that they are aware of it and already implementing that philosophy.
This should be a level 1-5 or 1-10 or 1-15 thing.
The game has 50 levels and the sooner your gear starts looking and feeling great, the sooner people lose that ''birthday every improvement (very often)'' feeling which is so great to to which I don't do enough justice in writing.
1. Lore should be here to improve the player experience, not as a justification to lower it. The classic long progression style is objectively the best and its what Intrepid should stick to instead of looking for excuses to do something less good.
2. Skill be it in regards to crafting or fighting =/= material wealth. One can be a 10/10 warrior but lack gear or anything for that matter. This situation has not been rare at all throughout history.
Its a matter of fact the gear the players will use will be found/made in the world once they exit the gates, so I cannot accept your point as it neither leads to a good result nor does it make sense lorewise based on what we've seen so far.
They have already shown low level and the progession of gear. They want you to look good early on, but you can still see gear looking better as you level. A quick look on the wiki and i found this
Words are words, what is delivered is what is delivered, so far they haven't delivered on what they promised (in regards to their presentations so far) a lot of the low lvl gear showed looking like mid-end game leveling gear.
I don't want low levels looking like beggars or as if they had equipped themselves by going grave robbing. Brand new items should look like it. Which doesn't mean they are polished to high shine, embossed, etched and gilded or that they are encrusted with gemstones. Simple forms. Plain (or painted) material.
For items dropped instead of crafted, I'm not against some wear and tear, so long as it's not to the point the object shouldn't be functional anymore. Some nicks or scratches. Patches and stitches for textile and leather ones. Signs some care or maintenance was involved.
All these could be ignored if the thematic of the item demands it of course. We don't want the Frayed Cloak of the Unearthed Zombie Ward to look pristine and just out the tailor's shop.