Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III 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 testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III 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.
Comments
While I understand and do think pushing for a higher reliance on crafters is the way to go there are some issues that as a solo player or a new player right now will have some issues with.
1. Crafting gear at your relevant level will be almost impossible as you can level much faster than progress your crafting and by the design that crafting needs multiple professions which is a good thing overall but a challenge in the beginning.
2. A lot of running. In my first playthrough and even now I have spent a large amount of time on the slow horse running around to progress professions, find the right npc, find the right station, find the right grind spot, get to a group to grind only for them to disband and the next group is back on the other side of the map. While I think its good to not have the ability to cross the entire map in 60 seconds I think that maybe there should be some additional easy gear for the mounts to up the move speed or something that like running on roads provide up to 20% increased move speed. This way if you know a shortcut you can get off the road, you want to follow the road get a move speed increase. Additionally, I would ask that all towns have a jack of all trades crafter that at least gives your the basics for all professions. Just because spending 20-30+ mins running from town to town looking for the right guy is a pain that doesn't add much emersion or value but sure does suck when you would rather be doing something other than riding around.
Laggyness is killer
Character selection screen always defaults to last char created, not last played.
Is there anything about your first-time experience that you wish were different?
Introducing players to game mechanics is very poor.
Tell us about the worst and best things you experienced as a new tester!
I liked creating a new char but there is no explaination about how each class works.
What confused you most during your first few hours of play?
Player controls fall out of action mode in random places.
Which quests or sections did you enjoy the most and least as a fresh tester?
I enjoyed all the ones I did but the XP is way too low.
How do you feel about the NPC dialog and their responsiveness in the starting area?
Dialogs are a little crappy and if the quest has been completed the dialog place holder is crappy.
What did you think of how crafting is introduced? Is there anything you wish were different regarding how crafting is introduced?
Meh, it is uninspired but OK.
How did you feel about your rate of progression throughout the Riverlands intro area?
Levelling is way too slow for levels 5-20. I dont want to grind and quests\commissions dont give much XP. Either does crafting.
How did you feel about the rewards you received in the Riverlands intro area?
I liked the new bag. I never used the tokens for the token gear as it was a while before I found those quest.s
Assuming you’ve tested past the Riverlands intro area, is there anything you feel was missing from your time there as a new player?
Please clean up questing. I dont want to see a marker if I have already done the quest. Clean up after the quests. My quest bag still has a lot of junk in it.
I did not enjoy the amount of people in the area causing server lag and how many mobs were contested around the starter area. Recommend adding more starter areas and options for veteran players to start at nodes to reduce log in time and server issues at launch
I enjoyed starting on a fresh playing field where the only thing stopping me from becoming the best was time and my own skill... Until the exploiters flooded the market with gold where I felt like the market was unusable when people are selling uncommon gryphon hood for 50 gold.
Is there anything about your first-time experience that you wish were different?
I would like a linear questline that gets you to around level 10 without having to contest mobs (expecting the level cap to be 50). I think that first time players want to get a few skills unlocked so they can experience their class before having to enter a brawl contesting something weak like goblins. Leveling should take a while but new players want to feel some progression and have some skills unlocked without needing to min/max. I recommend making the first 7-10 levels easier to grind and 10-50 much harder to level so new players can get some skills and decide if they like the class or want to try a different class.
I later found through external sources a way to get level 7 and get some decent gear just by questing, but I don't think beginners should need to YouTube a guide to have a good experience, the game should lead you on to the next objective until you have a few skills unlocked. Open world sandbox is good but new players need some direction in a game as complex as this.
Tell us about the worst and best things you experienced as a new tester!
I love the updates to materials with the feeling that any tree I chop can be legendary instead of static respawns.
I love the need for community and how people need to work together if they want to climb the ranks faster.
One thing I dislike but am not sure how to fix, the PvP system. I keep getting solo max level griefers putting my cleric to sleep when I am just farming at Seph or Carph. I would like to PvP on fair terms but I don't want to fight back and risk going corrupt to lose my artisan gear. I think that Artisan gear could be excluded from the corruption gear loss if anything and increase the stat dampening from exp debt as well as the exp debt. If someone unequips their good gear to go corrupt, it would make it a fair fight since gear gives a lot of stats, and they would be forced to grind off the debt instead of continuing to PvP
What confused you most during your first few hours of play?
It was hard to level with all the mobs contested and took too long for artisan stations to come up that it was better to just kill mobs for gear.
Which quests or sections did you enjoy the most and least as a fresh tester?
Once I found out about the quests, I would go to Lionhold, complete the emberspring quest, the artisan quest and then go to the dig for treasure quest to get the second bag for inventory space. I would then start the parcel quest and go to second sword outpost to get 6 gear token and then complete parcels and second sword quest for level 6 and have good gear. This should be how beginners can experience the game but take a lot of information to be gained from outside sources. Contesting mobs in the starter area is a fast way to lose interest in the game.
How do you feel about the NPC dialog and their responsiveness in the starting area?
I thought the dialogue was nice but I often just spam F to skip it since it is alpha and I am not expecting much lore. Sometimes spamming F bugged the quest.
I regret not reading more dialogue now that I see quests have been expanded on.
What did you think of how crafting is introduced? Is there anything you wish were different regarding how crafting is introduced?
I think that combat level should scale with crafting, I don't think having level 20's before the first apprentice crafting station goes up is healthy. I would rather mobs just drop recipes so people don't just skip the entire crafting part of the game and grind mobs instead.
Maybe add crafting a full set of trash gear at varying rarity using different rarities of eroded granite or something so new players get their foot into the rarity system for artisanship better
How did you feel about your rate of progression throughout the Riverlands intro area?
Grinding as a new player was bad, hard to level and get gear. Veteran players would skip the mob grinding and do quests until level 6 and then run off to the desert or tropics with their party to get 10x the exp. The biggest issue is that people going straight for levels were able to bypass the artisans by the gear drops from farming.
I recommend having gear drops scale with node level so you need a level 4 node to get level 20 gear drops since level 3 node can craft level 20 gear.
How did you feel about the rewards you received in the Riverlands intro area?
I would rather get less glint and more gold to spend on processing and repairs. I think getting trash gear would be nice from rewards, I was level 15 cleric and still missing shoulders and belt. It would be nice to get some trash gear in each slot at least to make beginners feel less empty. Since crafting takes a while to come online, people should at least have something in each slot even if it's just trash for placebo effect.
Assuming you’ve tested past the Riverlands intro area, is there anything you feel was missing from your time there as a new player?
I would recommend adding mob levels to each POI on the map UI so new players know what level they need to be to start looking for groups in the area. It can be a wide range of levels, but a new player might see Citadel of Steel Bloom or Tower of Carphin and go there around level 12 and get into massive exp debt.
I also recommend adding new competitive POIs in other biomes such as Desert and Tropics so that people have more options instead of everyone only grinding HH, RoS, Steel Bloom, Carph and then Forge in that order as they level.
I love this game and appreciate all the hard work put into it.
I will gladly continue to test systems that are terrible so that we have a good game at launch
1.) When on mount, it would be nice to have an "Follow the Road/Trail" feature since it is a large map. Similar to Assassins creed. Or perhaps, having way-points, that are selectable on the map for the AUTO-RIDE. Between Nodes, but able to dis-mount whenever.
2.) The night sky is wonderful, but seems like the scaling is off and difficult to see most of the time unless you look directly up. IT would be nice to see the sky more clearly and widely.
3.) The controls are decent, but would be nice to be able to move the mouse and it moves the screen without having to click and hold to move the screen.