Maintenance for the week of December 2:
• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 2, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 2, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
Thoughts from a long time MMO player, along with suggested solutions for issues I have
These forums are a bit odd, so there doesn't seem to be a proper place to put this. I'm also going to ignore most technical difficulties, as this game is a month old.
Things I Really Like
The World: I was playing yesterday and I just wandered off as I would in a console elder scrolls game. It was the most enjoyable day of playing in this game I've had, as it was also productive. I've played about a dozen or so MMO's now and it was the best in that regard.
World PVP: I enjoy mass pvp in this game when on a populated campaign. My preference in that regard however is random meetings between 2 (especially 3) sides in an open field with no npcs. Ambushes are an interested feature as well, just as they were in AoC.
Customer Service: I've sent in one ticket, the response time was unbelievably fast considering how populated and new this game is. I hope that continues as the game population inevitably thins.
Crafting: I was a major crafter in SWG, anyone who has taken part in that will no doubt get what I enjoy about what crafting can be. However I realize implementing a system that complex is a mistake if you want a mainstream, popular game. This game has done a great job finding balance between the two.
Skill Points and Skyshards: DC Online has a skill point system, I loved that as well. I love the idea of incorporating badge or achievement hunting into the leveling system.
Removing Kill Stealing: DC Online also did this, a wonderful feature, not sure how any game going forward could have anything else.
Blocking: Always a good thing when done fairly well, you guys did a solid job.
Healing: I always play a healer, based on the setup for the rest of your combat system I feel you've done a solid job.
Things I Like that Need Obvious Tweaking
Vampire and Werewolves: Love the idea, I don't like that one is quickly becoming a borderline requirement if you want to essentially be a min/maxer.
Sorceror: I always play whatever variant of this that is available as an alt, it's the least fun version of this that I've ever played and after reading the future abilities I'm not sure how that would change much. That statement isn't about balance or any such thing, it's about it feeling flat and uninteresting for me.
I don't care about the stories at all: SWTOR is the best story game I've played, while it had it's flaws I was interested in the main storyline most of the time. I don't care at all about the main story. While a few side quests have been amusing, the vast majority have been rather weak to me. Then again even in the console games I was more into the world than the storylines.
The Forum Design: I'm cool with cost cutting on something that isn't a huge deal in my eyes, but sifting through the various languages gets old fast.
The Economy: I get why there isn't an auction house, but you guys should really consider adding something in between a megaserver wide auction house and guild stores. Perhaps assigning accounts to specific auction houses, where you would split the faction population as many times as needed. Guild stores would then become a perk for supplying your people, vs brand new players having to figure out what trade guilds might help them.
Things I View as a Problem
The amount of abilities that are available: I understand you are making this game for consoles and will be developing it going forward for all platforms, so you need to take into account what a controller can do. With that said you missed a huge opportunity with not borrowing DC Onlines system for weapon attacks. You either need to implement that and/or add several more panes that you can swap between. Doing 50 levels then lord knows how many veteran levels to use 5 abilities is inept.
The Rest of PVP: As I said above I think mass pvp is good, the rest of it however is lacking and I think that's a popular opinion considering the thinning populations in most campaigns. PVP largely revolving around npc items I can't stand. There is an enormous amount of time spent traveling, I'm fine with that for mass pvp, but I don't always want to commit a substantial amount of time to do something productive as far as pvp goes. I hope 8 on 8 and so on ques are implemented in the future, especially for off peak times. Lastly, the load times in pvp can be absolutely ridiculous. I'm not an up in arms kind of guy, but at times I have to close the browser and relog multiple times to load in. I have excellent internet and have tried this on two computers, oddly this is more of a problem on the better computer. I hope you guys make additions in this regard, it's the weakest element of the game for me. In addition to that I think there needs to be a health increase atleast in bolster. I have no problems dieing or fighting max level players on a low level alt, getting two hit on a regular basis however with stealth playing such a huge role in this game is not that enjoyable and I can only imagine what that is like for people that have respawned tens of thousands of times in video game world.
Inventory Space for People that Craft: I have never spent more time going to the bank. If you are a provisioner you pretty much have to set up a character just for their 60 slots to put the lower level food products on. For blacksmith you have to save your relevant loot for research or leveling. Guys I craft on are always just about full with inventory.
Things I Really Like
The World: I was playing yesterday and I just wandered off as I would in a console elder scrolls game. It was the most enjoyable day of playing in this game I've had, as it was also productive. I've played about a dozen or so MMO's now and it was the best in that regard.
World PVP: I enjoy mass pvp in this game when on a populated campaign. My preference in that regard however is random meetings between 2 (especially 3) sides in an open field with no npcs. Ambushes are an interested feature as well, just as they were in AoC.
Customer Service: I've sent in one ticket, the response time was unbelievably fast considering how populated and new this game is. I hope that continues as the game population inevitably thins.
Crafting: I was a major crafter in SWG, anyone who has taken part in that will no doubt get what I enjoy about what crafting can be. However I realize implementing a system that complex is a mistake if you want a mainstream, popular game. This game has done a great job finding balance between the two.
Skill Points and Skyshards: DC Online has a skill point system, I loved that as well. I love the idea of incorporating badge or achievement hunting into the leveling system.
Removing Kill Stealing: DC Online also did this, a wonderful feature, not sure how any game going forward could have anything else.
Blocking: Always a good thing when done fairly well, you guys did a solid job.
Healing: I always play a healer, based on the setup for the rest of your combat system I feel you've done a solid job.
Things I Like that Need Obvious Tweaking
Vampire and Werewolves: Love the idea, I don't like that one is quickly becoming a borderline requirement if you want to essentially be a min/maxer.
Sorceror: I always play whatever variant of this that is available as an alt, it's the least fun version of this that I've ever played and after reading the future abilities I'm not sure how that would change much. That statement isn't about balance or any such thing, it's about it feeling flat and uninteresting for me.
I don't care about the stories at all: SWTOR is the best story game I've played, while it had it's flaws I was interested in the main storyline most of the time. I don't care at all about the main story. While a few side quests have been amusing, the vast majority have been rather weak to me. Then again even in the console games I was more into the world than the storylines.
The Forum Design: I'm cool with cost cutting on something that isn't a huge deal in my eyes, but sifting through the various languages gets old fast.
The Economy: I get why there isn't an auction house, but you guys should really consider adding something in between a megaserver wide auction house and guild stores. Perhaps assigning accounts to specific auction houses, where you would split the faction population as many times as needed. Guild stores would then become a perk for supplying your people, vs brand new players having to figure out what trade guilds might help them.
Things I View as a Problem
The amount of abilities that are available: I understand you are making this game for consoles and will be developing it going forward for all platforms, so you need to take into account what a controller can do. With that said you missed a huge opportunity with not borrowing DC Onlines system for weapon attacks. You either need to implement that and/or add several more panes that you can swap between. Doing 50 levels then lord knows how many veteran levels to use 5 abilities is inept.
The Rest of PVP: As I said above I think mass pvp is good, the rest of it however is lacking and I think that's a popular opinion considering the thinning populations in most campaigns. PVP largely revolving around npc items I can't stand. There is an enormous amount of time spent traveling, I'm fine with that for mass pvp, but I don't always want to commit a substantial amount of time to do something productive as far as pvp goes. I hope 8 on 8 and so on ques are implemented in the future, especially for off peak times. Lastly, the load times in pvp can be absolutely ridiculous. I'm not an up in arms kind of guy, but at times I have to close the browser and relog multiple times to load in. I have excellent internet and have tried this on two computers, oddly this is more of a problem on the better computer. I hope you guys make additions in this regard, it's the weakest element of the game for me. In addition to that I think there needs to be a health increase atleast in bolster. I have no problems dieing or fighting max level players on a low level alt, getting two hit on a regular basis however with stealth playing such a huge role in this game is not that enjoyable and I can only imagine what that is like for people that have respawned tens of thousands of times in video game world.
Inventory Space for People that Craft: I have never spent more time going to the bank. If you are a provisioner you pretty much have to set up a character just for their 60 slots to put the lower level food products on. For blacksmith you have to save your relevant loot for research or leveling. Guys I craft on are always just about full with inventory.
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Estwing✭✭✭The amount of abilities that are available: They want your choices to matter and not just be a screen full of 20 abilities. You do get 10 plus 2 ultimate with weapon swap.
The Rest of PVP: They really need to raise the AP charge for xfers between campaigns. Currently it cost 10% of what it is suppose to and a campaign can be full of life one day and dead the next or you could be winning one day and face rolled by 500 people the next. I think once this happens it will help the pvp experience but I hope they do not add smaller scale pvp due to how classes are built. PvP is not balanced for 1v1 and that should not be the focus.
Inventory Space for People that Craft: Also another area where they want you to choose and not pick every crafting skill just because it is available. Having a storage horse helps with bag space and the guild banks hold 500 items. If you do have every crafting skill available then that is why you seem overly full but yes I also wish there was more room.
The Forums; Not good at all, they need to have more topics and separate or at least let us filter the EU from US servers so its not a recent discussion page filled with double posts about the same topic in multiple languages. Also adding more sub groups would help to make navigating it easier.
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I played DC Online which has the same set up where they want you to make a choice (because that too was made for 360 and ps3), but you also had about 10 different weapon combos you could do. As it is now you have 5 abilities, one ultimate, a base attack or a heavy attack. I get what you are saying about them wanting you to make a choice with what skills you slot, but 7 options and one every once in awhile option per weapon is kind of thin. If they used the weapon combo system DC Online used combat would have a lot more debt and you would still have to be selective about abilities you can use.
The guy I have leveled fairly well I did blacksmithing and provisioning on, provisioning pretty much takes over your inventory. I'm sure it's fine later on when you can buy many additional bank and horse slots, but on the way up it's been much worse than usual to manage it for me.
Totally agree with you about the forums.0 -
Sharee✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Remember that a sorcerer does not = robe and staff. There are very potent ways to spec him as a medium armor, two-hander wielding in-your-face 'barbarian', or S/S tank, or whatever other combination you come up with.
Also, reading up on abilities can be very misleading. You need to try them yourself, discover synergies that suddenly make a seemingly weak ability become very potent.0 -
Right, the other play options seem to be better than the standard however. I should have mentioned the other options however.0