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.
Phase 2 general feedback - Player density, Befallen forge, gear and professions and node stuff
Imnotkio
Member, Alpha Two
Overall, I've been enjoying Phase 2. There were some issues, like server performance and some annoying bugs that persist, but to me, it's an overall positive over the start of phase 1. Some specific feedback:
We first tried talking to the group, if they remained we flagged on them. If they didn't flag back, we would resort to tactics like marionetting their healers, damaging the players, stunning the tank, and letting the mobs finish them. If that didn't work and they were still trying to take our spot we would pull mobs onto them and repeat the process with cc and damage on them til the mobs finished the job.
By doing this, we usually were able to maintain our spot, even tho we had to fight off a group every 10~15 minutes or so.
To me, this is the idea behind the scarcity and contestation of resources design of the game. We should be fighting for things.
Now, that's not to say the player density was perfect. I think there should be enough things to do in the game that no one is like "Well everything I try to do I can't cause I don't have a group to contest or my group is not good enough or we started late and are too weak atm". To me, conflict should slowly escalate. You shouldn't have to pvp for mobs on level 1 with one ability and a basic attack (right now you don't have to, you can quest quickly to level 4 but you get my point). On higher levels, I also believe there should be always something for someone to progress, even if they suck at the game and can't contest spots. Of course, there should be better spots that are harder but give better xp/loot.
TLDR: I enjoyed the player density of P2, and I think the scarcity and contestation of resources are a good thing, but I still think there should be enough content so that everyone has something to do, even if that something has a much lower progression rate. I think this could be achieved with more progression paths like events/quests/professions with better xp rewards (lower than grinding), and also more spots in general.
Befallen Forge is a step up relative to other POIs in the game. The place is way more visually attractive and makes more sense aesthetically (other places look good from the outside but inside it just looks like an empty place with mobs, feels like a paintball place if you know what I mean).
Mob-wise, it's also an upgrade. The presence of big bosses and named mobs is good. The mob's mechanics feel like they are less focused on the tank and more of a threat to the whole party. I still feel like the frequency of mechanics/damage of mechanics is out of balance. It should be more mechanics and less damage/mechanic, or add more mechanics that happen more frequently and leave one big hit kill mechanic. Players should constantly need to dodge or interrupt mechanics or be healed. I feel like this could be done by tying aggro from mob clusters and needing to pull 2~3 mobs at a time too instead of being able to pull only one.
Environment hazards and puzzles are a nice addition, but I feel like they are underdone at the moment. The puzzle is super easy and can be easily bypassed through terrain skips. Environmental hazards are super static and are only present in a few rooms where it doesn't really matter. I would like to see more dynamic environmental hazards and stuff that makes you react and not just passively avoid them.
on the topic of PVE encounters
I feel like named mobs are easier than regular mobs. You can solo a lot of them and they don't present the same danger as most 3* mobs. They are guaranteed loot and the main way to quickly gear yourself, so why are they so easy? Why don't they feel like a special encounter?
I feel like currently, most POIs are very narrow on the intended level range. Carphin feels the most diverse with the level range of mobs going from around 18~28. Steelbloom has a very small range even with the mobs from the field behind it and others like Highwayman Hills are even shorter. I would like to see more level ranges and hopefully, that comes with the expansion of these POIs with time. Highwayman Hills expand into secret hideaway tunnels that lead to their underground base, steelbloom opens the core of the keep and leads to a dungeon, or stuff like that.
At the moment, gear is coming primarily from mob drops. Named mobs are guaranteed drops and regular mobs are also easy to farm green/blue gear. There are a few issues with this.
Issues
Reasoning
Right now, you have 0 need to engage with any other system until you are max level (25). You go kill mobs, these mobs drop glint and gear, gear strong enough that you can keep up with the higher-level mobs. It's a never-ending cycle of you getting exp glint and gold enough to keep being most effective at killing mobs without doing any other thing.
Caravan? why would I do that now, since the glint I receive is enough right now to repair or any other small gold fees I need? Crafting, why? Benches and crafters are not even making T1 yet and I already rushed to 25. Why would I stop and craft low-level gear if the gear I get from killing mobs is enough to keep me efficient at grinding XP? Quests? Commissions? Waste of my time. Once I get 25 I'll worry about the rest of the game.
This is encouraged by some of the other designs that restrict stuff like freehold and castles to high-level players (castles have high-level mobs at first so you need to be high-level to fight for them, freehold you need to be max level to buy it).
Even if gear gets severely limited in drops, as long as the best way to grind XP is self-sustainable and has infinite availability, we will have a max-level rush meta and endgame mentality. And it doesn't matter if you make quests super fun or the rest of the game amazing, players do what is the most efficient. In New World, everyone died of boredom while they did town board and main quests non-stop to max level cause that was the fastest way to level. It's in the MMO player's blood. The design needs to account for that.
Suggestion
I would make it so 1. early crafting is more quickly available and accessible; 2. Remove mob gear drops completely or leave only the extremes (white gear or super rare heroic+ gear, it needs to be something that can't be reliable and make grinding self-sustainable) 3. Make sure that mobs are way harder to do if you have trash gear.
By doing that, you make sure that people need to engage with the professions systems, and make money to buy gear, so they engage with caravans. Make it so players have a reason to look into quests and do some of them. Remove level restrictions from certain systems so ppl don't feel obliged to rush levels, so, for instance, we can be level 25 and start fighting for castles instead of at level 50. The game should start at level 1, and we should not be incentivized to rush to max level to do one type of content or to beat the masses to a reward like a freehold.
The game has all these systems super inter-connected, but if we make adventuring leveling a self-sustainable isolated activity (be it grinding, quests, or town boards), it will trivialize the rest of the game until max level.
Now on the subject of nodes:
I think right now nodes are at a bit of a weird place. I think they are great at surface level but once the novelty wears off, players will start noticing that being a citizen of one node or another changes nothing. At best, you want to stay in the node that is less likely to be sieged. You get to use all the benches, you get small storage on other nodes, and you even get their node buffs (even if citizens get better buffs). Also, node currency is universal so doesn't really matter where you get it and where you spend it.
I didn't feel the need to level my node or upgrade it once it was at village level. Benches are used by everyone so if anything I'll just use the other nodes' benches. The node currency rewards were irrelevant as the things you buy with it are bad, and the resources you donate to make the nodes' buildings are more valuable. Also, commissions for node buffs are there but If I work for the buff and non-citizen players grind more in my node ZOI than me, they'll benefit more from the buff than me. I don't think this will change as more node levels/vassalage is introduced. I don't see a reason to care about my node that much unless I'm at a select node that got a relic (which is going to be rare), since almost everything you do for a node is shared for non-citizens.
I also think there isn't currently and with the intended design there won't be any ways for mayors to incentivize players to shift nodes. If you don't care about your node in the first place, why would you move if your node is undeveloped or abandoned? You literally lose nothing by your node not having buildings. At best, it makes you more prone to be sieged but then you'll just move to another random node for no particular reason. The only reason I see that ppl will pick a node is to stay closer to their guild and friends.
Some other node feedback:
Miscellaneous feedback:
- Player density:
We first tried talking to the group, if they remained we flagged on them. If they didn't flag back, we would resort to tactics like marionetting their healers, damaging the players, stunning the tank, and letting the mobs finish them. If that didn't work and they were still trying to take our spot we would pull mobs onto them and repeat the process with cc and damage on them til the mobs finished the job.
By doing this, we usually were able to maintain our spot, even tho we had to fight off a group every 10~15 minutes or so.
To me, this is the idea behind the scarcity and contestation of resources design of the game. We should be fighting for things.
Now, that's not to say the player density was perfect. I think there should be enough things to do in the game that no one is like "Well everything I try to do I can't cause I don't have a group to contest or my group is not good enough or we started late and are too weak atm". To me, conflict should slowly escalate. You shouldn't have to pvp for mobs on level 1 with one ability and a basic attack (right now you don't have to, you can quest quickly to level 4 but you get my point). On higher levels, I also believe there should be always something for someone to progress, even if they suck at the game and can't contest spots. Of course, there should be better spots that are harder but give better xp/loot.
TLDR: I enjoyed the player density of P2, and I think the scarcity and contestation of resources are a good thing, but I still think there should be enough content so that everyone has something to do, even if that something has a much lower progression rate. I think this could be achieved with more progression paths like events/quests/professions with better xp rewards (lower than grinding), and also more spots in general.
- Befallen forge:
Befallen Forge is a step up relative to other POIs in the game. The place is way more visually attractive and makes more sense aesthetically (other places look good from the outside but inside it just looks like an empty place with mobs, feels like a paintball place if you know what I mean).
Mob-wise, it's also an upgrade. The presence of big bosses and named mobs is good. The mob's mechanics feel like they are less focused on the tank and more of a threat to the whole party. I still feel like the frequency of mechanics/damage of mechanics is out of balance. It should be more mechanics and less damage/mechanic, or add more mechanics that happen more frequently and leave one big hit kill mechanic. Players should constantly need to dodge or interrupt mechanics or be healed. I feel like this could be done by tying aggro from mob clusters and needing to pull 2~3 mobs at a time too instead of being able to pull only one.
Environment hazards and puzzles are a nice addition, but I feel like they are underdone at the moment. The puzzle is super easy and can be easily bypassed through terrain skips. Environmental hazards are super static and are only present in a few rooms where it doesn't really matter. I would like to see more dynamic environmental hazards and stuff that makes you react and not just passively avoid them.
on the topic of PVE encounters
- Named mobs:
I feel like named mobs are easier than regular mobs. You can solo a lot of them and they don't present the same danger as most 3* mobs. They are guaranteed loot and the main way to quickly gear yourself, so why are they so easy? Why don't they feel like a special encounter?
- Level diversity on POIs:
I feel like currently, most POIs are very narrow on the intended level range. Carphin feels the most diverse with the level range of mobs going from around 18~28. Steelbloom has a very small range even with the mobs from the field behind it and others like Highwayman Hills are even shorter. I would like to see more level ranges and hopefully, that comes with the expansion of these POIs with time. Highwayman Hills expand into secret hideaway tunnels that lead to their underground base, steelbloom opens the core of the keep and leads to a dungeon, or stuff like that.
gear drops from mobs, level rushing, and profession validity at early levels
At the moment, gear is coming primarily from mob drops. Named mobs are guaranteed drops and regular mobs are also easy to farm green/blue gear. There are a few issues with this.
Issues
- The meta way to level becomes killing mobs non-stop until you are at max level.
- Consequently, most systems get ignored on early-mid levels (caravans, crafting more specifically rn).
- With that, the game becomes another game in which the true game begins at the endgame.
Reasoning
Right now, you have 0 need to engage with any other system until you are max level (25). You go kill mobs, these mobs drop glint and gear, gear strong enough that you can keep up with the higher-level mobs. It's a never-ending cycle of you getting exp glint and gold enough to keep being most effective at killing mobs without doing any other thing.
Caravan? why would I do that now, since the glint I receive is enough right now to repair or any other small gold fees I need? Crafting, why? Benches and crafters are not even making T1 yet and I already rushed to 25. Why would I stop and craft low-level gear if the gear I get from killing mobs is enough to keep me efficient at grinding XP? Quests? Commissions? Waste of my time. Once I get 25 I'll worry about the rest of the game.
This is encouraged by some of the other designs that restrict stuff like freehold and castles to high-level players (castles have high-level mobs at first so you need to be high-level to fight for them, freehold you need to be max level to buy it).
Even if gear gets severely limited in drops, as long as the best way to grind XP is self-sustainable and has infinite availability, we will have a max-level rush meta and endgame mentality. And it doesn't matter if you make quests super fun or the rest of the game amazing, players do what is the most efficient. In New World, everyone died of boredom while they did town board and main quests non-stop to max level cause that was the fastest way to level. It's in the MMO player's blood. The design needs to account for that.
Suggestion
I would make it so 1. early crafting is more quickly available and accessible; 2. Remove mob gear drops completely or leave only the extremes (white gear or super rare heroic+ gear, it needs to be something that can't be reliable and make grinding self-sustainable) 3. Make sure that mobs are way harder to do if you have trash gear.
By doing that, you make sure that people need to engage with the professions systems, and make money to buy gear, so they engage with caravans. Make it so players have a reason to look into quests and do some of them. Remove level restrictions from certain systems so ppl don't feel obliged to rush levels, so, for instance, we can be level 25 and start fighting for castles instead of at level 50. The game should start at level 1, and we should not be incentivized to rush to max level to do one type of content or to beat the masses to a reward like a freehold.
The game has all these systems super inter-connected, but if we make adventuring leveling a self-sustainable isolated activity (be it grinding, quests, or town boards), it will trivialize the rest of the game until max level.
Now on the subject of nodes:
I think right now nodes are at a bit of a weird place. I think they are great at surface level but once the novelty wears off, players will start noticing that being a citizen of one node or another changes nothing. At best, you want to stay in the node that is less likely to be sieged. You get to use all the benches, you get small storage on other nodes, and you even get their node buffs (even if citizens get better buffs). Also, node currency is universal so doesn't really matter where you get it and where you spend it.
I didn't feel the need to level my node or upgrade it once it was at village level. Benches are used by everyone so if anything I'll just use the other nodes' benches. The node currency rewards were irrelevant as the things you buy with it are bad, and the resources you donate to make the nodes' buildings are more valuable. Also, commissions for node buffs are there but If I work for the buff and non-citizen players grind more in my node ZOI than me, they'll benefit more from the buff than me. I don't think this will change as more node levels/vassalage is introduced. I don't see a reason to care about my node that much unless I'm at a select node that got a relic (which is going to be rare), since almost everything you do for a node is shared for non-citizens.
I also think there isn't currently and with the intended design there won't be any ways for mayors to incentivize players to shift nodes. If you don't care about your node in the first place, why would you move if your node is undeveloped or abandoned? You literally lose nothing by your node not having buildings. At best, it makes you more prone to be sieged but then you'll just move to another random node for no particular reason. The only reason I see that ppl will pick a node is to stay closer to their guild and friends.
Some other node feedback:
- I Feel like nodes should have other positions other than the mayor. Mayors should be able to delegate ministers and give them different management permissions. One person responsible for everything is too much IMO.
- Mayors should have more freedom to control some aspects of the nodes such as non-citizen tax rates separately from citizen tax rates, and accessibility of benches and buffs to non-citizens. (this could help with making you care more about your node.). It creates a more interesting node system with more player freedom, and it makes it feel like not all nodes are the same.
Miscellaneous feedback:
- Guild war rewards should be a zero-sum game. We win, we get X from you and you lose X. If you only have X-10 to lose, then you lose X-10, and the enemy gains X-10. If you have 0 to lose, your enemy gets 0. That way it's impossible to exploit war rewards and you still have a reward system and don't make guild wars just a scroll to pvp freely.
- Weapon procs are bugged I believe, with weapons in your inventory proccing. But to me, it goes beyond that. I think weapons shouldn't receive the benefits of the other equipped weapon's tree. Weapons should work as separate entities and if you want to proc the melee weapon buff, you need to change weapon to the melee weapon and proc that. And that includes all the other stat passive buffs from the weapon skill tree.
0