Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
General Feedback - Vibe, Immersion, Sounds & Classes
Grandbobby
Member, Alpha Two
Hello my sweaty friends and calm deodorant enjoyers.
I've leveled a ranger to lvl 14 (phase 1) and cleric to 13 (phase 2),
and these are the general thoughts and feedback that I have garnered so far - and
which I have not seen repeated too many times. I know what an Alpha is, and I'm sure
many of my points are not in high priority at the moment, but still deserve some
attention sooner or later.
The Vibe: For an Alpha the vibe of the world is in a great place already, but small details could help a lot. The main thing I've found that kills my interest in the game as of now is the huge gaps in gear level requirements - it feels like level 10 and 20 have too much impact, making the levels up to them feel uninteresting and making me want to speed my way through (leading to loss of interest). It's made worse by the phenomenon of "pinnacle levels" - this is experienced as something negative and reinforces the feeling that the game really starts further ahead, and that you need to hurry there for your character to shine.
Right now, I'm losing interest in the 10 to 20 leveling experience, mostly due to feeling locked into grinding the same old spots, while also feeling that there are too few ways to improve my character in the slow run between these levels. Introducing small caves with medium to high difficulty, and decent enough loot rewards for 7-9 and 11-19 characters would dilute the players out into the world and not force people into Highwaymen Hills for too many hours.
On another note. As a player, right now, the advancement of nodes feels too janky. I've only seen a rank 1 or rank 3 town, but never seen anything that makes me feel that the city is slowly growing.
The Equipment and Monsters: Just a friendly reminder - if you make low level gear and monsters too impressive and cool, you'll have to continually increase this. Maybe dial it back slightly, make us look like shabby adventurers facing of medium level threats until 25+. Take que from Vanilla WoW. Likewise, try to not make gear way too cool (or your game will look like cash-shop RPG like PoE or Diablo, with people running around looking like demi-gods at any level.
The Player Names(+plates): To keep it brief but comprehensive - I think the best idea here is to basically copy WoW names and nameplate design. Their transparent but very visible names in blue/green/red depending on neutral/friendly/hostile status is perfect, it's clear enough even at a distance and not an eyesore (like it is in AoC at the moment, looking at all horses and players in a city)
The Sounds: I'm a musician myself, and music is an extremely important piece of an RPG. As of now, music is okay, even good at times. I think there might be a bug currently that hits of the music with sounds a kin to Peer Gynts "In the Hall of the Mountain King" for a few seconds to then jump over into the regular repeating background music.
My main thoughts for improvement - hire (or take inspiration from) the musicians of Valheim, Vanilla WoW zones, Russell Shaw (Fable), and the legendary Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls).
The World: is pretty great, I'm having a good time exploring the Riverlands, but I also see where the polish is lacking. A random thought I've had is that a circular design for Freeholds and Nodes might melt them into the world more visually, making it feel less of a game, and more like something natural occurring in the world.
Another thing (in regards to polish), is that things in the world should/could have something that covers the transition from existence into the non-existent ether (i.e. when felling a tree, it could evaporate into smoke, covering some kind of logic that the tree disappears from the game world)
The Classes: Cleric is a lot of fun, but as I've not had many PvP encounters I cannot speak to balance or anything like that. What it does make me feel is that I'm almost indestructible in comparison to a ranger, and the animations are great (except that they're too flashy/intense). I think the Chain ability needs better visual feedback when used (it's applied on cursor location without visual feedback right now). Would also love to see some more flavor skills for each class (like levitation in WoW).
Ranger needs some more love, it feels like my rotation of skills quickly solidified and that there were too few tricks up my sleeve to hinder incoming damage except kiting. Perhaps some evasion ability, having camouflage being usable during combat for a very short amount of time, or something a kin to this. I'm not completely sure, but something feels off.
I've leveled a ranger to lvl 14 (phase 1) and cleric to 13 (phase 2),
and these are the general thoughts and feedback that I have garnered so far - and
which I have not seen repeated too many times. I know what an Alpha is, and I'm sure
many of my points are not in high priority at the moment, but still deserve some
attention sooner or later.
The Vibe: For an Alpha the vibe of the world is in a great place already, but small details could help a lot. The main thing I've found that kills my interest in the game as of now is the huge gaps in gear level requirements - it feels like level 10 and 20 have too much impact, making the levels up to them feel uninteresting and making me want to speed my way through (leading to loss of interest). It's made worse by the phenomenon of "pinnacle levels" - this is experienced as something negative and reinforces the feeling that the game really starts further ahead, and that you need to hurry there for your character to shine.
Right now, I'm losing interest in the 10 to 20 leveling experience, mostly due to feeling locked into grinding the same old spots, while also feeling that there are too few ways to improve my character in the slow run between these levels. Introducing small caves with medium to high difficulty, and decent enough loot rewards for 7-9 and 11-19 characters would dilute the players out into the world and not force people into Highwaymen Hills for too many hours.
On another note. As a player, right now, the advancement of nodes feels too janky. I've only seen a rank 1 or rank 3 town, but never seen anything that makes me feel that the city is slowly growing.
The Equipment and Monsters: Just a friendly reminder - if you make low level gear and monsters too impressive and cool, you'll have to continually increase this. Maybe dial it back slightly, make us look like shabby adventurers facing of medium level threats until 25+. Take que from Vanilla WoW. Likewise, try to not make gear way too cool (or your game will look like cash-shop RPG like PoE or Diablo, with people running around looking like demi-gods at any level.
The Player Names(+plates): To keep it brief but comprehensive - I think the best idea here is to basically copy WoW names and nameplate design. Their transparent but very visible names in blue/green/red depending on neutral/friendly/hostile status is perfect, it's clear enough even at a distance and not an eyesore (like it is in AoC at the moment, looking at all horses and players in a city)
The Sounds: I'm a musician myself, and music is an extremely important piece of an RPG. As of now, music is okay, even good at times. I think there might be a bug currently that hits of the music with sounds a kin to Peer Gynts "In the Hall of the Mountain King" for a few seconds to then jump over into the regular repeating background music.
My main thoughts for improvement - hire (or take inspiration from) the musicians of Valheim, Vanilla WoW zones, Russell Shaw (Fable), and the legendary Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls).
The World: is pretty great, I'm having a good time exploring the Riverlands, but I also see where the polish is lacking. A random thought I've had is that a circular design for Freeholds and Nodes might melt them into the world more visually, making it feel less of a game, and more like something natural occurring in the world.
Another thing (in regards to polish), is that things in the world should/could have something that covers the transition from existence into the non-existent ether (i.e. when felling a tree, it could evaporate into smoke, covering some kind of logic that the tree disappears from the game world)
The Classes: Cleric is a lot of fun, but as I've not had many PvP encounters I cannot speak to balance or anything like that. What it does make me feel is that I'm almost indestructible in comparison to a ranger, and the animations are great (except that they're too flashy/intense). I think the Chain ability needs better visual feedback when used (it's applied on cursor location without visual feedback right now). Would also love to see some more flavor skills for each class (like levitation in WoW).
Ranger needs some more love, it feels like my rotation of skills quickly solidified and that there were too few tricks up my sleeve to hinder incoming damage except kiting. Perhaps some evasion ability, having camouflage being usable during combat for a very short amount of time, or something a kin to this. I'm not completely sure, but something feels off.
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