Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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 III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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.
Just a feedback
inkcaylan
Member, Alpha Two
Hello everyone, i'm here because on discord you are limited with the lenght of your message and I've writting a big feedback so I want to post it somewhere. Good reading 
After a little over a week's play on this P3, I'm going to give you my opinion as accurately as possible. I'm currently level 15, I've done quite a bit of crafting as a jeweler and also a lot of harvesting (mainly of ores). My opinion on the game isn't definitive, but I think that AOC has enormous potential, which is why I'm giving you my feelings here, whereas I'm usually one of those people we call the “silent majority”.
- Pace of leveling
On the first few levels, I found that progress was quicker than on P2, and more enjoyable. With some friends, we easily reached level 7-8 on the first day, without doing anything but group farming. Just a few quests giving a fair amount of xp, a bit of church and a bit of harvesting, the idea of receiving experience via crafting, gathering and process actions is a very good one, as it allows you to constantly progress your character while doing something other than beating up monsters in POI. However, the xp gain after level 10 becomes a little ridiculous, so for example, a day spent doing nothing but crafting, harvesting or gathering for 6 hours won't even earn you a character level. Still, the idea is interesting, and it allows you to vary your activities without putting your character's level progression at a standstill, while still evolving your professions.
Progression speed is “normal”, but at certain levels uneven. Let me explain: when you playing solo, when you're crafting, the progression speed is extremely slow, whereas when you're playing in a group, it's extremely fast, which is why we've already seen max levels appear after just a few days.
I think the problem has more to do with the fact that these players are easily allowed to manage POI content, for example, it's illogical to me that a group of 8 people with not-so-great equipment, sometimes novice equipment or just slightly stronger white pieces obtained by chance, can quietly farm in steelbloom without any problems, without any difficulties. For me, there's a balancing problem, with the crafting overhaul that was announced before launch, and so the equipment drops on monsters were lowered, I had the idea that this was some kind of
Limitation on player progression. The idea being that, as the game doesn't provide an abundance of stuff, players will find themselves under-equipped against certain monsters and will therefore be forced to upgrade their equipment before resuming farming in a higher-level zone. In my opinion, this is normal reasoning: your equipment, which is functional at level 10, is no longer so when you're at level 20, but currently, with novice equipment, you can go and beat level 20 monsters, and on top of that, you'll be picking up level 20 equipment, and as your farm sessions progress, you'll be fully equipped with new equipment, and the difficulty will be reduced to nothing. Do I need to increase the xp bar? Not necessarily, but clearly we need to find ways of complicating a player's leveling, and I think the first step in this direction is to increase the overall power of monsters, especially in POI.
- Character’s Power
Equipment stats, which have been modified following P2, are understandable and well distributed between the various pieces of equipment. They are coherent and easily attributable to a specific character type (DD, heal, tank, etc.). The character's sense of power develops very well as he acquires superior stuff and certain important spells to perform super combos. Perhaps the first few levels are a little difficult when fighting monsters, as we have very few spells and limited power, but this feeling disappears fairly quickly after level 8-9. A little disappointed that the classes themselves in terms of spells and gameplay have changed little or not at all since P2 (like the fighter for example), still waiting to see how the class system will work and looking forward to testing it out.
- Bottleneck/frustration
I'm going to group the two categories together, because in my opinion, the limitations of the current system lead directly to frustration. First of all, I'd like to inform you that I'm usually purely a farmer and very rarely in MMOs do I deal with crafting, which is something I don't like too much in general. The crafting system in P2 was far too complex, too tedious even for low-level equipment. For P3, having seen that the system had been slightly modified and simplified, I decided to try out the feature. Once you've understood the system, it's pretty straightforward, the basic recipes are easy to follow and you can get your first pieces of equipment quickly enough to build up a bit of power so as not to be completely useless in front of the monsters. I had to acquire a full set of equipment around levels 7-8, after which my progress in the game was smoother. I crafted equipment, resold some of it cheaply to players to recoup crafting costs and a bit of profit, and for my guild I supplied stuff to members at cost price. It was all very pleasant and went very well. Until the day Intrepid announced the increase in equipment loot rates, it was a very big point of frustration for me, because overnight players no longer needed crafted equipment. I was no longer able to sell stuff and even my guild members were collecting equipment from monsters and no longer needed my services. So here I am, having to evolve a profession by making items that I resell. The current system, with its taxes and components, is too expensive to afford to mass-craft and throw away equipment, and I think that's a shame!
What's the point of focusing your game on crafting, of simplifying it, to allow players to invest less effort in crafting than they would in P2, if all you're going to do is tell them from one day to the next to “forget about crafting and go farm superior equipment on mobs”? then yes, the stuff that can be looted isn't any more powerful than what players can craft, but level 20 journeyman stuff isn't going to appear in the game any time soon, and we'll end up like in P2, wearing looted equipment that we'll be carrying on our backs for at least a month! If everyone needed crafted equipment, trade levels would rise much faster, there would be more supply on the equipment market and towns would be quick to upgrade to higher benchmarks. I'm not against keeping loot on monsters, because it allows people who don't like crafting to get it, and it also allows you to get equipment on quests and even on named monsters. If players don't want to spend 10 minutes (or even 2-3 hours) to get a piece of equipment, that's fine - either they've been lucky enough to get it quickly, or they've earned it, and that's even better - but the equipment given away must be as green as possible, and must remain difficult to access. Crafting will only do well if the easiest and quickest way to get equipment is to either craft it yourself or via a friend, or buy it directly from another day. This will DYNAMIZE the economy and keep wealth circulating, and that's the most important point to keep.
Also, at the start of a server, it's very difficult to generate raw currency, which makes it very difficult to level professions, and in a world where loot from mobs wouldn't exist, the wallets of players who only farmed monsters wouldn't be enough to afford equipment. Perhaps increasing the number of glint would increase their purchasing power, inject more liquidity into the economy and players would be more inclined to spend? The one and only way to make money right now in the game is with glint, as caravans are not available due to undeveloped nodes and won't be for several days.
My feedback is quite long and I'd like to thank you for reading this far, if it has allowed you to add some thought to your ideas and perhaps even changed your vision of the game then it will already be a huge step forward. Dear developers, don't forget that those who shout their complaints on the discord are often only a small fraction of your community. Of all the people around me in the last few days, I haven't heard a single complaint about difficulty in obtaining equipment. If you have a guideline within your team, stick to it and face up to the outcry, because behind you is an even bigger community that supports you and, like you, is waiting for the chance to play an MMO that is unique.
Caylan
After a little over a week's play on this P3, I'm going to give you my opinion as accurately as possible. I'm currently level 15, I've done quite a bit of crafting as a jeweler and also a lot of harvesting (mainly of ores). My opinion on the game isn't definitive, but I think that AOC has enormous potential, which is why I'm giving you my feelings here, whereas I'm usually one of those people we call the “silent majority”.
- Pace of leveling
On the first few levels, I found that progress was quicker than on P2, and more enjoyable. With some friends, we easily reached level 7-8 on the first day, without doing anything but group farming. Just a few quests giving a fair amount of xp, a bit of church and a bit of harvesting, the idea of receiving experience via crafting, gathering and process actions is a very good one, as it allows you to constantly progress your character while doing something other than beating up monsters in POI. However, the xp gain after level 10 becomes a little ridiculous, so for example, a day spent doing nothing but crafting, harvesting or gathering for 6 hours won't even earn you a character level. Still, the idea is interesting, and it allows you to vary your activities without putting your character's level progression at a standstill, while still evolving your professions.
Progression speed is “normal”, but at certain levels uneven. Let me explain: when you playing solo, when you're crafting, the progression speed is extremely slow, whereas when you're playing in a group, it's extremely fast, which is why we've already seen max levels appear after just a few days.
I think the problem has more to do with the fact that these players are easily allowed to manage POI content, for example, it's illogical to me that a group of 8 people with not-so-great equipment, sometimes novice equipment or just slightly stronger white pieces obtained by chance, can quietly farm in steelbloom without any problems, without any difficulties. For me, there's a balancing problem, with the crafting overhaul that was announced before launch, and so the equipment drops on monsters were lowered, I had the idea that this was some kind of
Limitation on player progression. The idea being that, as the game doesn't provide an abundance of stuff, players will find themselves under-equipped against certain monsters and will therefore be forced to upgrade their equipment before resuming farming in a higher-level zone. In my opinion, this is normal reasoning: your equipment, which is functional at level 10, is no longer so when you're at level 20, but currently, with novice equipment, you can go and beat level 20 monsters, and on top of that, you'll be picking up level 20 equipment, and as your farm sessions progress, you'll be fully equipped with new equipment, and the difficulty will be reduced to nothing. Do I need to increase the xp bar? Not necessarily, but clearly we need to find ways of complicating a player's leveling, and I think the first step in this direction is to increase the overall power of monsters, especially in POI.
- Character’s Power
Equipment stats, which have been modified following P2, are understandable and well distributed between the various pieces of equipment. They are coherent and easily attributable to a specific character type (DD, heal, tank, etc.). The character's sense of power develops very well as he acquires superior stuff and certain important spells to perform super combos. Perhaps the first few levels are a little difficult when fighting monsters, as we have very few spells and limited power, but this feeling disappears fairly quickly after level 8-9. A little disappointed that the classes themselves in terms of spells and gameplay have changed little or not at all since P2 (like the fighter for example), still waiting to see how the class system will work and looking forward to testing it out.
- Bottleneck/frustration
I'm going to group the two categories together, because in my opinion, the limitations of the current system lead directly to frustration. First of all, I'd like to inform you that I'm usually purely a farmer and very rarely in MMOs do I deal with crafting, which is something I don't like too much in general. The crafting system in P2 was far too complex, too tedious even for low-level equipment. For P3, having seen that the system had been slightly modified and simplified, I decided to try out the feature. Once you've understood the system, it's pretty straightforward, the basic recipes are easy to follow and you can get your first pieces of equipment quickly enough to build up a bit of power so as not to be completely useless in front of the monsters. I had to acquire a full set of equipment around levels 7-8, after which my progress in the game was smoother. I crafted equipment, resold some of it cheaply to players to recoup crafting costs and a bit of profit, and for my guild I supplied stuff to members at cost price. It was all very pleasant and went very well. Until the day Intrepid announced the increase in equipment loot rates, it was a very big point of frustration for me, because overnight players no longer needed crafted equipment. I was no longer able to sell stuff and even my guild members were collecting equipment from monsters and no longer needed my services. So here I am, having to evolve a profession by making items that I resell. The current system, with its taxes and components, is too expensive to afford to mass-craft and throw away equipment, and I think that's a shame!
What's the point of focusing your game on crafting, of simplifying it, to allow players to invest less effort in crafting than they would in P2, if all you're going to do is tell them from one day to the next to “forget about crafting and go farm superior equipment on mobs”? then yes, the stuff that can be looted isn't any more powerful than what players can craft, but level 20 journeyman stuff isn't going to appear in the game any time soon, and we'll end up like in P2, wearing looted equipment that we'll be carrying on our backs for at least a month! If everyone needed crafted equipment, trade levels would rise much faster, there would be more supply on the equipment market and towns would be quick to upgrade to higher benchmarks. I'm not against keeping loot on monsters, because it allows people who don't like crafting to get it, and it also allows you to get equipment on quests and even on named monsters. If players don't want to spend 10 minutes (or even 2-3 hours) to get a piece of equipment, that's fine - either they've been lucky enough to get it quickly, or they've earned it, and that's even better - but the equipment given away must be as green as possible, and must remain difficult to access. Crafting will only do well if the easiest and quickest way to get equipment is to either craft it yourself or via a friend, or buy it directly from another day. This will DYNAMIZE the economy and keep wealth circulating, and that's the most important point to keep.
Also, at the start of a server, it's very difficult to generate raw currency, which makes it very difficult to level professions, and in a world where loot from mobs wouldn't exist, the wallets of players who only farmed monsters wouldn't be enough to afford equipment. Perhaps increasing the number of glint would increase their purchasing power, inject more liquidity into the economy and players would be more inclined to spend? The one and only way to make money right now in the game is with glint, as caravans are not available due to undeveloped nodes and won't be for several days.
My feedback is quite long and I'd like to thank you for reading this far, if it has allowed you to add some thought to your ideas and perhaps even changed your vision of the game then it will already be a huge step forward. Dear developers, don't forget that those who shout their complaints on the discord are often only a small fraction of your community. Of all the people around me in the last few days, I haven't heard a single complaint about difficulty in obtaining equipment. If you have a guideline within your team, stick to it and face up to the outcry, because behind you is an even bigger community that supports you and, like you, is waiting for the chance to play an MMO that is unique.
Caylan
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