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.
Thoughts from Me: Things the game needs for future phases
rolycolyoly
Member, Alpha Two
Hello, I just started Alpha 2 Phase 2.5 On May 3rd. From there I messed around with some classes and got a fighter by the name of Morikhan to 11. I have some thoughts on the new player experience lvling to 10 and some thoughts for the developers afterwards that I think are noteworthy. Thanks
Part A: New Player Experience
1. Starting out, the new player quests seemed very bare of important information (quests are bare in general which is ok because in alpha state this gives combat a lot of testing for grinding). I understood the profession system (gathering) from the quest and was sent off to deliver supplies to a place where I was vastly under leveled. What information was specifically missing that should be shown is that every node has a settlement (that is vastly unlike the one you deliver the wilted snow drop bundle to) and the starting nodes (lionshold) do not have profession benches available to use for other than the tutorial quest (or maybe mine were bugged.). I believe this information should be more direct for the new player. I also believe the quests in a starter node should hint at people staying in the node until lvl 5 for every node I have seen next to the starting node have been lvl 6+ in terms of mobs. Also a note on the consequences of dying, I thought that I retrieved all my stuff every time I died that everything would be okay, I was wrong and lost a whole lot of glint. Glint should also be conveyed as a way to get money. A quest should exist in the settlements that show how interconnected crafting is between the various gathering professions.
NOTE: The lack of above information was not entirely detrimental to my experience but would've been much appreciated and would have vastly improved my journey. Since info on the game is locked behind word of mouth at the moment, quests are the only option for people dipping their toes in and finding info can be daunting to a player trying to experience the basics first.
2. Gear was virtually non-existent in the form of drops and rewards (not a problem generally lvls 1-10 but this lack of gear didn't steer me to crafting or settlements as it should've). I did find the surplus coin quests but I found that they were very few and very specific in where to find. I believe the surplus coins should be more liberally distributed around the zones and in fact have more than what someone would realistically need, and probably reduce the number you get from the few quests that give them. This ideally could also lead players to settlements through the mention of a quest and also to the crafting system as well so it can be explained how players are to get gear throughout the game.
3. Quests not having a reason to do them. With no gear rewards, quests are just background to the grind. Sure you could get glint from them, but as a new player I had no idea what to DO with glint! Though this problem is probably due to alpha state as I found a lot of quests very buggy.
Part A Conclusion: Alpha needs a new player experience to further reign in people for the future. At least an alpha version of the new player experience that works and can be iterated upon and further refined (for I believe the current new player experience is non-existent)
Part B: Combat Systems
1. Tank and Rogue skill trees are the best, I'm sure you can see why.
2. Weapon skill tree is functional and useful. Though if I'm gonna have a weapon skill tree, i would like some of minor stat stick options to work outside of the weapon attack combo (so it gives a little more meaning to weapon choice)
3. Stamina skill tree is alright for sprinting and dodging though with as little as there is there, should it really be a thing?
4. Active blocking should not be a thing for every class. Since the action bar allows for a whole lot, dedicating another button to active blocking for every class is annoying and virtually useless without associated stats. I believe those classes that could use it should have it as a hot bar ability. Rogues can have a parry. Tanks can have a block. Fighters can have a deflect. Stuff like that. I believe having active blocking available all the time makes the Tank's job boring. Let block be an ability with a cooldown and associated perks in the class skill tree so blocking becomes an interesting decision in combat.
5. Animations and sound design are great and I'm very impressed how functional it all is in Alpha state.
Part C: Recommendations for QoL
1. Needs a feature where pressing an ability without having a target, auto targets the closest target.
2. Fast travel can and should be a thing using features already existing: Example I could pay gold to a caravan post at a town and then I logout, people running caravans can optionally choose me as cargo and receive gold based on how close they got me to my destination (which would be another settlement). This could be a good option for people to do caravans as a ferry kind of system.
3. New player experience implemented
4. Monster lvls on nameplates (not so minor of an issue seeing as how the difference between a lvl 14 red 3 star mob and lvl 16 red 3 star mob is pretty astronomical in terms of how a group can handle it.)
5. Chat channels. Node chat and trade chat should be their own thing.
6. Polish (keep doing what you're doing!)
Part
Personal Fears for the future of the game
1. Unlocking Secondary Archetypes not doing anything for your class until future levels
Please make it so the moment a character gets their secondary archetype, the character is at least proficient enough for the role it is transitioning to or has the option to re balance skill points to another skill tree to become proficient in that role. Example: Fighter hits lvl 25, chooses tank secondary, becomes Dreadnought, can't tank effectively until lvl 35 or something because of skill tree restrictions (Sad Dreadnought)
2. Human demographic domination.
Basically make it so some zones are inherently themed towards one or another race and allowed some variation, because otherwise most cities on most servers will be Human or Elven.
Part E: Things I'd like to see
1. More lore. I don't care if its an infomercial or a documentary, we need the lore. Or at least I do so I can roleplay an arbitrary faction in game.
2. Taxes based on races, if we are gonna do the whole "make your own story" thing on servers, I wanna be able to have the option to run a node that inherently taxes humans (or other races) more than other races. I want to do this to persuade other races to represent the node and allow some nodes to represent arbitrary factions. "For the Horde!"
Part A: New Player Experience
1. Starting out, the new player quests seemed very bare of important information (quests are bare in general which is ok because in alpha state this gives combat a lot of testing for grinding). I understood the profession system (gathering) from the quest and was sent off to deliver supplies to a place where I was vastly under leveled. What information was specifically missing that should be shown is that every node has a settlement (that is vastly unlike the one you deliver the wilted snow drop bundle to) and the starting nodes (lionshold) do not have profession benches available to use for other than the tutorial quest (or maybe mine were bugged.). I believe this information should be more direct for the new player. I also believe the quests in a starter node should hint at people staying in the node until lvl 5 for every node I have seen next to the starting node have been lvl 6+ in terms of mobs. Also a note on the consequences of dying, I thought that I retrieved all my stuff every time I died that everything would be okay, I was wrong and lost a whole lot of glint. Glint should also be conveyed as a way to get money. A quest should exist in the settlements that show how interconnected crafting is between the various gathering professions.
NOTE: The lack of above information was not entirely detrimental to my experience but would've been much appreciated and would have vastly improved my journey. Since info on the game is locked behind word of mouth at the moment, quests are the only option for people dipping their toes in and finding info can be daunting to a player trying to experience the basics first.
2. Gear was virtually non-existent in the form of drops and rewards (not a problem generally lvls 1-10 but this lack of gear didn't steer me to crafting or settlements as it should've). I did find the surplus coin quests but I found that they were very few and very specific in where to find. I believe the surplus coins should be more liberally distributed around the zones and in fact have more than what someone would realistically need, and probably reduce the number you get from the few quests that give them. This ideally could also lead players to settlements through the mention of a quest and also to the crafting system as well so it can be explained how players are to get gear throughout the game.
3. Quests not having a reason to do them. With no gear rewards, quests are just background to the grind. Sure you could get glint from them, but as a new player I had no idea what to DO with glint! Though this problem is probably due to alpha state as I found a lot of quests very buggy.
Part A Conclusion: Alpha needs a new player experience to further reign in people for the future. At least an alpha version of the new player experience that works and can be iterated upon and further refined (for I believe the current new player experience is non-existent)
Part B: Combat Systems
1. Tank and Rogue skill trees are the best, I'm sure you can see why.
2. Weapon skill tree is functional and useful. Though if I'm gonna have a weapon skill tree, i would like some of minor stat stick options to work outside of the weapon attack combo (so it gives a little more meaning to weapon choice)
3. Stamina skill tree is alright for sprinting and dodging though with as little as there is there, should it really be a thing?
4. Active blocking should not be a thing for every class. Since the action bar allows for a whole lot, dedicating another button to active blocking for every class is annoying and virtually useless without associated stats. I believe those classes that could use it should have it as a hot bar ability. Rogues can have a parry. Tanks can have a block. Fighters can have a deflect. Stuff like that. I believe having active blocking available all the time makes the Tank's job boring. Let block be an ability with a cooldown and associated perks in the class skill tree so blocking becomes an interesting decision in combat.
5. Animations and sound design are great and I'm very impressed how functional it all is in Alpha state.
Part C: Recommendations for QoL
1. Needs a feature where pressing an ability without having a target, auto targets the closest target.
2. Fast travel can and should be a thing using features already existing: Example I could pay gold to a caravan post at a town and then I logout, people running caravans can optionally choose me as cargo and receive gold based on how close they got me to my destination (which would be another settlement). This could be a good option for people to do caravans as a ferry kind of system.
3. New player experience implemented
4. Monster lvls on nameplates (not so minor of an issue seeing as how the difference between a lvl 14 red 3 star mob and lvl 16 red 3 star mob is pretty astronomical in terms of how a group can handle it.)
5. Chat channels. Node chat and trade chat should be their own thing.
6. Polish (keep doing what you're doing!)
Part
Personal Fears for the future of the game1. Unlocking Secondary Archetypes not doing anything for your class until future levels
Please make it so the moment a character gets their secondary archetype, the character is at least proficient enough for the role it is transitioning to or has the option to re balance skill points to another skill tree to become proficient in that role. Example: Fighter hits lvl 25, chooses tank secondary, becomes Dreadnought, can't tank effectively until lvl 35 or something because of skill tree restrictions (Sad Dreadnought)
2. Human demographic domination.
Basically make it so some zones are inherently themed towards one or another race and allowed some variation, because otherwise most cities on most servers will be Human or Elven.
Part E: Things I'd like to see
1. More lore. I don't care if its an infomercial or a documentary, we need the lore. Or at least I do so I can roleplay an arbitrary faction in game.
2. Taxes based on races, if we are gonna do the whole "make your own story" thing on servers, I wanna be able to have the option to run a node that inherently taxes humans (or other races) more than other races. I want to do this to persuade other races to represent the node and allow some nodes to represent arbitrary factions. "For the Horde!"
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