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.
War & Grief: Feedback for Phase II, the Beginning
Jesana
Member, Alpha Two
Collection of feedback related to this first chunk (12/20 - 1/6) of Phase II.
The Damage of Exploits
The biggest pain-point, by far, in this period has been exploiters and the lack of action taken against them. The population has split into haves/have nots: those people and guilds who have exploited/and those who are trying to play legitimately. This creates an environment that, in a game where there are winners and losers, makes exploiters the winners. This affects everything from which guilds were able to purchase freeholds to which pvp'ers dominate in fights.
How NOT to do a Rollout: Lessons
Very much related to the exploits issues is the way Phase II rollout was handled. The way the phase was turned on and then left to run with minimal oversight created a perfect storm of a large number of exploitable bugs, a player base anticipating a year+ run with the test, and the opportunity for those looking to get an extremely valuable advantage on the rest of the population.
My hope is that lessons have been learned from this. During a rollout especially, intensive effort needs to be brought to bear so exploits can be stopped quickly, harassment stamped out, and game breaking bugs addressed. The longer these things are allowed to continue, the more damage there is.
Toxicity in the Community
From griefers to extremely vile chat vomit, the lack of consequences to toxicity is quickly creating a larger community where trolls reign. In my experience, trolls/killers/griefers are inevitable in MMOs, but there is a vast difference between communities that are dominated by those who want to cause as much grief as possible and those where toxicity is an unfortunate and swiftly dealt with element.
Mismatch in Leveling Between Artisans, Nodes, and Players
If crafted gear is intended to be the best, there needs to be some tuning changes to the rates of leveling between artisans, nodes, and players. At the moment, players are vastly out leveling artisans who are out leveling nodes. And because node development gates artisan levels, this is creating a situation where dropped gear is better than crafted gear.
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Minor Observations
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Lack of a Reply
Seriously, we need a /r /reply.
Guild Banks
Please, save our guild leadership's minds and give them a guild bank.
Artisan UI
A comprehensive list of the gatherables at each level would be really helpful in the Artisan UI. The drop recipes for each profession and their level would be really helpful to include as well. There will be external websites that provide this information, but having this available in game would be great.
New Player Unfriendliness
One of the themes I'm seeing over and over again is an unfriendliness in the design to players who will be starting mid-stream, after the initial launch of the game. The systems are largely designed so those who start first get significant advantages. The citizenship dues in nodes is a prime example of this. The way later citizens are penalized with higher citizenship dues creates a significant penalty for new players starting months or years after launch. I'm certain there are solutions to be had, but a small suggestion - perhaps a player's first node of citizenship should come with a discount in taxes no matter when they start. However these are addressed, I will ask that the experience of the players who are starting after the initial wave be considered.
The Damage of Exploits
The biggest pain-point, by far, in this period has been exploiters and the lack of action taken against them. The population has split into haves/have nots: those people and guilds who have exploited/and those who are trying to play legitimately. This creates an environment that, in a game where there are winners and losers, makes exploiters the winners. This affects everything from which guilds were able to purchase freeholds to which pvp'ers dominate in fights.
How NOT to do a Rollout: Lessons
Very much related to the exploits issues is the way Phase II rollout was handled. The way the phase was turned on and then left to run with minimal oversight created a perfect storm of a large number of exploitable bugs, a player base anticipating a year+ run with the test, and the opportunity for those looking to get an extremely valuable advantage on the rest of the population.
My hope is that lessons have been learned from this. During a rollout especially, intensive effort needs to be brought to bear so exploits can be stopped quickly, harassment stamped out, and game breaking bugs addressed. The longer these things are allowed to continue, the more damage there is.
Toxicity in the Community
From griefers to extremely vile chat vomit, the lack of consequences to toxicity is quickly creating a larger community where trolls reign. In my experience, trolls/killers/griefers are inevitable in MMOs, but there is a vast difference between communities that are dominated by those who want to cause as much grief as possible and those where toxicity is an unfortunate and swiftly dealt with element.
Mismatch in Leveling Between Artisans, Nodes, and Players
If crafted gear is intended to be the best, there needs to be some tuning changes to the rates of leveling between artisans, nodes, and players. At the moment, players are vastly out leveling artisans who are out leveling nodes. And because node development gates artisan levels, this is creating a situation where dropped gear is better than crafted gear.
---
Minor Observations
---
Lack of a Reply
Seriously, we need a /r /reply.
Guild Banks
Please, save our guild leadership's minds and give them a guild bank.
Artisan UI
A comprehensive list of the gatherables at each level would be really helpful in the Artisan UI. The drop recipes for each profession and their level would be really helpful to include as well. There will be external websites that provide this information, but having this available in game would be great.
New Player Unfriendliness
One of the themes I'm seeing over and over again is an unfriendliness in the design to players who will be starting mid-stream, after the initial launch of the game. The systems are largely designed so those who start first get significant advantages. The citizenship dues in nodes is a prime example of this. The way later citizens are penalized with higher citizenship dues creates a significant penalty for new players starting months or years after launch. I'm certain there are solutions to be had, but a small suggestion - perhaps a player's first node of citizenship should come with a discount in taxes no matter when they start. However these are addressed, I will ask that the experience of the players who are starting after the initial wave be considered.
1
Comments
Wishlist for the Market
1. Filtering
2. History Tracker for Your Sales
more materials storage or expansion at a less extortionate rate
deconning
some way to reasonable transfer goods between alts and/or people on and offline
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Additional note on the unfriendliness of the design for new players who start after the first wave. I traveled through the Lionhold area this evening. In the area outside it filled with skeletons and ravens, there were very few new players grinding. The mobs had multiplied until they formed hordes that could easily take down a higher level player. The mob spawns in this area need to be adjusted based on how many people are in the area so low level players in this area when there is low population are not ground to death over and over again.