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.
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.
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.
Alpha 2 reviews and critics summary
Running Wild
Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Alpha 1 package. I5 12gen, 3070TI.
Max character level: cleric 17 EU Lotharia server
I do not want to write a novel about the tests of the last 2 months, as this is a very basic version and test. However, I would like to describe the problems I would like to point out.
- Character progression. The vast majority of players don't even reach level 10 in a matter of weeks and crumble there. During the alpha 2 test, some form of acceleration would be worthwhile. Surely there are statistics on how many players have reached level 25. It would be worth thinking about this.
- Equipment: why are there only armors, weapons per 10 levels? This is a very bad solution. It's terrible for character development. You could make armour and weapons for each level and loot them. If there are fixed level stuff, then let it be tied to area, quest, whatever.
- Loot drop: It's a very bad solution to make every death from lvl 1 level deserves such a big penalty, especially in an Alpha test. It's very hard to farm materials and because of server lag or whatever 25% failure and xp and clothes and drop. Why? It's not hardcore, it's pointless, especially in the current state of the game.
- Risk vs Reward: currently there is only Risk, no Reward. There is 100 hours of grind, for minimal and bad loot, and 100 hours of resource farming and travel for nothing. But at least every PVE death is well punished.
- It's frivolous that named Bosses don't have a fixed loot. The Bosses we could beat, about 20% of them dropped something and their loot was meaningless. They should drop dull on fixed, that would be the minimum, and at least 1 something. Fixed or good loot is needed on star enemies too. This part of the game is incomprehensible at the moment. Risk vs Reward, right? What is this dull mania anyway? What is the point? Why so many pay tools? Let's have one currency and everything can be done with that. I don't need to use 4 currencies in real life. It's a complete nightmare to have dull, and gold, and node currencies. This solution is a tragedy.
- The whole collecting, processing and manufacturing part of the game is boring and pointless. Especially in light of the fact that it's still better to have a nearly non-existent drop than a production. I suppose there are stats on who survived this part of the game and how many people wore manufactured gear.
- Missions: a notch better than two months ago, but still a terrible experience, especially with the lack of rewards, completely pointless. Much more XP, fixed rewards needed. 90% of the players don't want to and won't grind, but quit the game. An mmo is only viable in the long run if it can keep newbie players and rotate them into team content. This is not the case right now because they run out of server after the first 10 missions.
- Node missions: commission board. This is completely wrong. Few rewards, rarely. Needs a complete rethink.
- Story missions and other missions: most players don't know anything about the world or the game. They get into the game, go out to grind mobs, because the quests give little reward and the more meaningful ones are completely overcomplicated and incomprehensible. We need interesting introductory missions at the beginning with good rewards to introduce players to the world and story. From my current experience, most new players don't even know what Node is, what the world is and why they are playing. This really needs to be rethought, because it's very little, especially if there's a story to tell. I would like to point out that we are not in the 90s, but in 2024. You have to meet other needs if you don't want to produce a game for 1 month.
I know transitions cost a lot, but some drawing solution might be cheaper and add a lot to the experience. You can make a sync with AI, it might work to make a cheaper drawing transitions.
- Transport: simply not good. Very slow. The basic horse is very slow and the others are no better. Need to speed up the back riders, higher tier animals and other colors should be faster if there is no travel between Nodes. Example: someone is looking for a team and I sign up, many times it took me 25 minutes to ride to the location. Someone has that much time in total to play, they don't want to spend it riding. I understand the current concept, but the current situation is just very bad.
- Dynamic missions, named locations: why no mission, story, task for these. Why are we there, why do we have to kill everything, what does the location represent? Why no exploration missions, with varied area visits? It's totally pointless at the moment, people are only there because of the mob farm, otherwise there is no information about the place and their functions.
- The caravan system: I don't see the point. Long, boring, but at least it gives you money. Probably the only one that really rewards you. Other than that? You could put some meaning into it, function, whatever. I know PVP is a flag... but it's zero so far.
- PVP: I wouldn't comment on this at the moment because I didn't see the point. A duel would be important because in a PVP based game I PVPed once in 2 months when my partner was cut down because he was in the way, I couldn't heal then either, none of my skills worked. It was probably a server issue, but I would rather suggest that there is currently no point in PVP, none whatsoever.
- Overall: My experience is that in its current state, the game is not able to keep most of its testers, most of them burn out after the basic missions, but at the latest until lvl 10. The game can be improved, but currently every part of it is boring, or bad, or both at the same time.
My only positive experience is the combat, community experience, communication and teamwork and sometimes the graphics. The community experience could be enhanced with features. Team based is 90% of the game, but that's the least of the features. Why is that? I expected the least from this, but it is currently the most fun part of the current phase of Alpha. The combat is very entertaining, the graphics and effects are quite good, but many parts of the game are very poorly developed. This is also true for some parts of the starting area. Make it small but exciting rather than big and unpolished and boring.
(I know there is still a long way to go in terms of graphics polish and balance, but some people can only play on 4000 series machines with low graphics, because they don't even have 30 fps, and I run fine.)
I wish you good work!
Best regards:
RunningWild
Max character level: cleric 17 EU Lotharia server
I do not want to write a novel about the tests of the last 2 months, as this is a very basic version and test. However, I would like to describe the problems I would like to point out.
- Character progression. The vast majority of players don't even reach level 10 in a matter of weeks and crumble there. During the alpha 2 test, some form of acceleration would be worthwhile. Surely there are statistics on how many players have reached level 25. It would be worth thinking about this.
- Equipment: why are there only armors, weapons per 10 levels? This is a very bad solution. It's terrible for character development. You could make armour and weapons for each level and loot them. If there are fixed level stuff, then let it be tied to area, quest, whatever.
- Loot drop: It's a very bad solution to make every death from lvl 1 level deserves such a big penalty, especially in an Alpha test. It's very hard to farm materials and because of server lag or whatever 25% failure and xp and clothes and drop. Why? It's not hardcore, it's pointless, especially in the current state of the game.
- Risk vs Reward: currently there is only Risk, no Reward. There is 100 hours of grind, for minimal and bad loot, and 100 hours of resource farming and travel for nothing. But at least every PVE death is well punished.
- It's frivolous that named Bosses don't have a fixed loot. The Bosses we could beat, about 20% of them dropped something and their loot was meaningless. They should drop dull on fixed, that would be the minimum, and at least 1 something. Fixed or good loot is needed on star enemies too. This part of the game is incomprehensible at the moment. Risk vs Reward, right? What is this dull mania anyway? What is the point? Why so many pay tools? Let's have one currency and everything can be done with that. I don't need to use 4 currencies in real life. It's a complete nightmare to have dull, and gold, and node currencies. This solution is a tragedy.
- The whole collecting, processing and manufacturing part of the game is boring and pointless. Especially in light of the fact that it's still better to have a nearly non-existent drop than a production. I suppose there are stats on who survived this part of the game and how many people wore manufactured gear.
- Missions: a notch better than two months ago, but still a terrible experience, especially with the lack of rewards, completely pointless. Much more XP, fixed rewards needed. 90% of the players don't want to and won't grind, but quit the game. An mmo is only viable in the long run if it can keep newbie players and rotate them into team content. This is not the case right now because they run out of server after the first 10 missions.
- Node missions: commission board. This is completely wrong. Few rewards, rarely. Needs a complete rethink.
- Story missions and other missions: most players don't know anything about the world or the game. They get into the game, go out to grind mobs, because the quests give little reward and the more meaningful ones are completely overcomplicated and incomprehensible. We need interesting introductory missions at the beginning with good rewards to introduce players to the world and story. From my current experience, most new players don't even know what Node is, what the world is and why they are playing. This really needs to be rethought, because it's very little, especially if there's a story to tell. I would like to point out that we are not in the 90s, but in 2024. You have to meet other needs if you don't want to produce a game for 1 month.
I know transitions cost a lot, but some drawing solution might be cheaper and add a lot to the experience. You can make a sync with AI, it might work to make a cheaper drawing transitions.
- Transport: simply not good. Very slow. The basic horse is very slow and the others are no better. Need to speed up the back riders, higher tier animals and other colors should be faster if there is no travel between Nodes. Example: someone is looking for a team and I sign up, many times it took me 25 minutes to ride to the location. Someone has that much time in total to play, they don't want to spend it riding. I understand the current concept, but the current situation is just very bad.
- Dynamic missions, named locations: why no mission, story, task for these. Why are we there, why do we have to kill everything, what does the location represent? Why no exploration missions, with varied area visits? It's totally pointless at the moment, people are only there because of the mob farm, otherwise there is no information about the place and their functions.
- The caravan system: I don't see the point. Long, boring, but at least it gives you money. Probably the only one that really rewards you. Other than that? You could put some meaning into it, function, whatever. I know PVP is a flag... but it's zero so far.
- PVP: I wouldn't comment on this at the moment because I didn't see the point. A duel would be important because in a PVP based game I PVPed once in 2 months when my partner was cut down because he was in the way, I couldn't heal then either, none of my skills worked. It was probably a server issue, but I would rather suggest that there is currently no point in PVP, none whatsoever.
- Overall: My experience is that in its current state, the game is not able to keep most of its testers, most of them burn out after the basic missions, but at the latest until lvl 10. The game can be improved, but currently every part of it is boring, or bad, or both at the same time.
My only positive experience is the combat, community experience, communication and teamwork and sometimes the graphics. The community experience could be enhanced with features. Team based is 90% of the game, but that's the least of the features. Why is that? I expected the least from this, but it is currently the most fun part of the current phase of Alpha. The combat is very entertaining, the graphics and effects are quite good, but many parts of the game are very poorly developed. This is also true for some parts of the starting area. Make it small but exciting rather than big and unpolished and boring.
(I know there is still a long way to go in terms of graphics polish and balance, but some people can only play on 4000 series machines with low graphics, because they don't even have 30 fps, and I run fine.)
I wish you good work!
Best regards:
RunningWild
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