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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

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Feedback: Phase 2 Fun level is down

Phase 1 felt better. Fun level is way down for our entire group where people are not even interested in playing anymore. My guild spends half our time trying to find mobs to kill, and when we do we spend the entire time trying to defend those couple of spawns. Its becoming toxic and not fun at all.


Why do we need 2500 players and 4 spots to level.... and now we are nerfing the events so even more people are forced into those few leveling spots? Too many players on the map and it feels bad....

It is an Alpha and making the game feel fun should be part of the process.

Just leaving feedback....

Comments

  • RedLeader1RedLeader1 Member, Alpha Two
    edited December 2024
    I think they are struggling to marry the crafting/building part of the game with the Adventuring part of the game.

    I was hoping that they had some sort of design plan in mind but they seem to just be hoping a miracle occurs in the Agile development process.

    Right now I think the grinders are suffering from the fact that the people who developed the Artisan system are mathematically challenged and woefully underestimated the resources needed to build the nodes, craft gear, and therefore increase the levels of the POIs for the adventurers to grind. And the artisans are going to want to craft themselves gear before they do anything about building nodes.

    Those of us that tested the artisan system in phase1 saw this coming, but no one listened. The test is dead in the water until they fix gathering node spawning, which should have been done in phase 1. Right now none of the artisans want the node to level as the last thing they want is the mobs to get stronger.

    It will be interesting how they handle their first big game design screw up. However somehow they still have to deal with the elephant in the room, which is how to encourage the builders to invest weeks?/Months? building nodes, spawning adventuring content, when the Adventurers/PvPers can destroy it all in 1.5 hours.

    Nobody gives a crap about building nodes right now, and I'm not sure how they make that happen. It isn't immediately obvious why any individual should spend time building anything. So right now everyone is waiting for someone else to do it.

    This is the general problem with sandbox games. If destruction is so much easier than construction, no one wants to build. And if destruction isn't easy, and consequence free, the PvPers will go and play a game where construction is automated and buildings are rebuilt magically overnight. Keeping both groups happy at the same time seems impossible.

    Right now, I would entirely scrap the building contribution to nodes, so nodes and buildings grow only from node activity, there is no gathering or resource requirement. Then I would give complete immunity for all housing in a node. Even if the node bounces back to level 3, the level 6 personal housing will remain, even if it isn't functional to level 6. Then increase resource spawning.

    However, ironically for an allegedly Agile project, they have been very inflexible in their design, so I am a little worried about long term success.
  • AgripinensiaAgripinensia Member, Alpha Two
    I think they are struggling to marry the crafting/building part of the game with the Adventuring part of the game.

    Yeah - In my oppinion, crafting should begin with lvl10 items.
    By the time ppl can craft lvl10 items, half the population is lvl20.
    And having to craft a million lvl1 pieces to be able to craft lvl10 pieces seems a bit stupid.

    MIght change with deconstructing items (wasn't that supposed to be in P2?)
    However, ironically for an allegedly Agile project, they have been very inflexible in their design, so I am a little worried about long term success.
    Not really what Agile development means.
    I think they have been pretty agile - some stuff got patched with lightning speed.

    Scrapping the building process would also scrap player agency about what gets built in which node.
  • Taleof2CitiesTaleof2Cities Member, Alpha Two
    Why do we need 2500 players and 4 spots to level.... and now we are nerfing the events so even more people are forced into those few leveling spots? Too many players on the map and it feels bad....

    Alpha 2 is about testing systems and giving feedback … not grinding levels to get an artificial “advantage” over other players and guilds.

    There are no more A2 character wipes planned … so what’s the hurry?
  • ChicagoChicago Member, Alpha One, Adventurer, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Why do we need 2500 players and 4 spots to level.... and now we are nerfing the events so even more people are forced into those few leveling spots? Too many players on the map and it feels bad....

    Alpha 2 is about testing systems and giving feedback … not grinding levels to get an artificial “advantage” over other players and guilds.

    There are no more A2 character wipes planned … so what’s the hurry?

    I Mena the feedback has been literally all the same, this sucks... What more do they need
  • Taleof2CitiesTaleof2Cities Member, Alpha Two
    edited December 2024
    Chicago wrote: »
    Why do we need 2500 players and 4 spots to level.... and now we are nerfing the events so even more people are forced into those few leveling spots? Too many players on the map and it feels bad....

    Alpha 2 is about testing systems and giving feedback … not grinding levels to get an artificial “advantage” over other players and guilds.

    There are no more A2 character wipes planned … so what’s the hurry?

    I Mena the feedback has been literally all the same, this sucks... What more do they need

    Context is important though, Chicago.

    There’s nothing hidden or secret about the fact that there’s currently artificial scarcity of servers and XP spots … because Intrepid wants to stress test other systems that aren’t directly related to leveling.

    Players are ignoring that and giving their negative feedback anyway. Which is why this feedback is largely irrelevant to the purpose of Phase 2.

    Bottom Line: Stop grinding levels and start testing game systems. That’s what you signed up for when you made the decision to purchase an Alpha 2 key.
  • NatharielNathariel Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Chicago wrote: »
    Why do we need 2500 players and 4 spots to level.... and now we are nerfing the events so even more people are forced into those few leveling spots? Too many players on the map and it feels bad....

    Alpha 2 is about testing systems and giving feedback … not grinding levels to get an artificial “advantage” over other players and guilds.

    There are no more A2 character wipes planned … so what’s the hurry?

    I Mena the feedback has been literally all the same, this sucks... What more do they need

    Context is important though, Chicago.

    There’s nothing hidden or secret about the fact that there’s currently artificial scarcity of servers and XP spots … because Intrepid wants to stress test other systems that aren’t directly related to leveling.

    Players are ignoring that and giving their negative feedback anyway. Which is why this feedback is largely irrelevant to the purpose of Phase 2.

    Bottom Line: Stop grinding levels and start testing game systems. That’s what you signed up for when you made the decision to purchase an Alpha 2 key.

    and what do you want we test?!?!? the freehold is for the 0.5% of the population, the crafting system is the same of the end of the phase 1 and for now is death. The gathering is awfully for now because we are too much, you spend hours and gather very low resource. The map is not for 6k people and the new content is build more like a single game that a mmo. There were already low place for kill monster and they put the freehold in some of this place and remove the monster, so we are more people and less place to level.

    For now they take some decision very wrong from my point. Crafting death, gather is frustrating. After 1 week most of the poeple are 20+, soon they will lost most of the player that test the server. The 1 server test must be do in phase 1, and after split, in phase 2 put all in the same server with more poeple it's a big mistake.

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  • sciffer2014sciffer2014 Member, Alpha Two
    Context is important though, Chicago.

    There’s nothing hidden or secret about the fact that there’s currently artificial scarcity of servers and XP spots … because Intrepid wants to stress test other systems that aren’t directly related to leveling.

    Players are ignoring that and giving their negative feedback anyway. Which is why this feedback is largely irrelevant to the purpose of Phase 2.

    Bottom Line: Stop grinding levels and start testing game systems. That’s what you signed up for when you made the decision to purchase an Alpha 2 key.

    I completely agree with you. When giving feedback, we need to approach it as if we're lab rats testing a system, not the final consumers. Honestly, it took me a while to find the right balance between my personal feelings as a player and my role as an alpha tester.

    As a player, I dislike almost every aspect of the game in its current state. If this were a released game, I wouldn’t play it—I might check in occasionally to see if major updates have improved it, but otherwise, I’d avoid it for my own sanity.

    However, as I’ve found that middle ground between my player perspective and my role as someone testing a system still in development, I can appreciate most of the systems in place—assuming critical improvements are made before release.

    If this were a beta and we were testing content, I’d have much more to say about specific elements. But since it’s an alpha, I try to set aside my personal feelings and focus on evaluating the system itself. My aim is to identify adjustments that can ensure the game is still enjoyable a year after its release.
  • Taleof2CitiesTaleof2Cities Member, Alpha Two
    edited December 2024
    Nathariel wrote: »
    and what do you want we test?!?!?

    Players logging out after hitting the level cap is a blessing my guy … because they have little to no interest in testing and giving feedback.

    To help answer your question though, here’s a list from another forum-goer (in another recent thread) where the exact same question was asked:

    Laetitian wrote: »
    • Scalability (Be online alongside other players regularly for a few hours here and there. Pass through zones often enough to provide input to the server mashing process, so take long-ish journeys and farming trips regularly.)
    • Crash reports with any potentially relevant information in case it's tough to tell from the technical report.
    • Feedback on existing quests, XP rewards for quests and mobs relative to their difficulty, general class balance, look & feel of areas and game progression (all loot and crafting rewards)
    • Feedback on PvE encounters, what mechanics are missing. (not so much number of encounters as that's expected to increase)
    • Starting phase 2, more minute reviews of your efforts in the economy and how the balance feels there.
    • Also, initiate node conflict, comment on roadblocks in making things happen, and parts that could be more interesting there.
    • Come phase 3 you can really start to dig into parts of the progression that feel unsatisfying, boring, unpolished, or unrewarding. Not enough quests, not enough encounters, encounters not fit for group size, encounter distribution around the map not challenging enough to make map exploration challenging and exciting. (Specific areas that need rebalancing or changes in how the world gets populated.)
    • Guild v Guild balance, map reward distribution, node progression fairness and incentives for players in both small and large nodes.
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