Feedback Fun?

[Illtron Viscardo]

What is missing? How would you make the game "more" fun? I realize the lack of action-based combat is not ideal for some people, but it is a big draw for others. What else is missing?

 

[Bluarcher]

I need to make an edit to my previous post. I didn't notice all the changes to the starter area when I wrote it and now I am a lot happier with the addition of the NPCs and the quests that give the first glimpses into what I hope is a deep history and Lore. Thanks for those updates. Every week it's something new and a little bit better. I think I want to see more quest content, something to do besides grind. I know you don't want to reveal too much and I've played games where all the quests were available in beta so when the game went live it was a repeat and that made the start a grind and took away from the game. What you have for us now is a nice taste of what is to come. Thanks!

 

[Battlestorm]

I'm not trying to troll, i'm not trying to be mean.

I Think RazorBrains pretty much summed up my gameplay experiance in this game, tho i'd rate harvesting a 2.


SANDBOX ENVIRONMENT, what does it mean in this game? if it's a sandbox, where is my bucket and shovel, i want to make a sand castle. What part of the game can i change/interact with?
GROUP-BASED GAMEPLAY, wow grouping up in an mmo, what a novel idea, strange that someone would play an mmo to play in a group, right?
IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE, sure, it's immersive that i attack 1 bears and it squeals for the entire zone, having 15 bears hunt me for 500 meters?

Thats the 3 headlines of selling points of the game, and the only one of them which i consider true is Group-Based Gameplay.

Thats why i'm saying if the only feature in this game is "play with your friends" as something that is fun, why in the world would i do that in this game, insted of any other game that is fun on top of having my friends in it?

Take a new game like "Tower of fantasy" a pay to win asian failed game that just had a world wide release recently. The game has absolutely fun movement mechanics and combat mechanics, while the rest of the game is somewhat basic and forgetable, but the fun of all the momement and crazy stuff you can pull off and laugh about in the mechanics alone is enough to lift some of the mediocer and ignore some of the horrific.

Take a slightly older game which also aims to please the older mmo crowed like "Project Gorgon" One of the first things that happens is you meet a skelleton that says "Oh no, not <you> again" <you> = char name, as you murder him, he drops a potion of pig and as a noob you drink it, you get polymorfed in to a pig and make pig sounds in your speech with pig attacks. The humor in that game is so spot on, i went on and became a psychology/pig spec using an attack called "Tell me about your mother" Just how amazing is that?! The humor and comunity in that game are just amazing.

I can't find the selling feature of this game, what in this game is suppose to lift up all the not interesting parts of this game and keep people interested beond the "Honeymoon phase"?

So, Battlestorm asked me for my experiance:
I did group play, we wiped a lot, my brother was afk and did some soloing, later we met up he had loot because he was chain pulling 1 star mobs, while my group was pulling 1-4 mobs that were 1-2 stars, but we died a few times and had som learning experiances. In the end i was didn't get much gear, and not as many xp as someone who was afk for 1/3 of the time? My brother geared me up when i met up with him, why progress with group play if it's more efficiant to do it solo both loot and exp wise?

I went in to a dungeon with my group, the camera was bouncing off the ceilings and walls, even tho i had the camera pulled in to my char, making me motion sick because of the of the unexpected and intense jitter of the camera, i had to quit my group, leave my loot bag behind and leave before it got worse.

Like i mentioned i also went to play in a duo group with my brother, and we blasted through all the single pulls 1-2 star mobs, and it was a lot better than being in a full group, even tho the full group had veterain players and we were all on discord talking and cordinating.

Reaching level 6 and getting to choose your sub class, was the most underwhelming experiance i've had in the game, i thought it was a suppose to be a mile stone, but insted it was a disapointment, nothing happened, nothing changed i got 1 more ability, but it wasn't worth while, my next 2 abilities would be taunts, but not impressive ones. Well damn, i decided to go make some armor, because now i could carry more, so i made as much plate as i could and put it on, and then i slowly waddled around.... not being full speed and not being able to attack at full speed, because as a tank class, you shouldn't ware to much plate, obviously? Bummer, but i changed back my pants to some leather and went on my way to go try out my new armor. I find a mob and attack and it did the same damage to me, the armor had no effect? Everything hurt just as much as before? I decide to go around the map and look around, looking for stuff i've missed, didn't find anything new really, other than 15 bears that all decided to chase me.

At the end of it all, i quit feeling empty and disapointed that the game i've been waiting to try turned out to be the bare bone basics of an mmo without any fun features.

Sorry for my rambeling, but i hope i get my point across. I wish this game and all it's players well, and I hope that the devs will sit down and think about this one thing "What makes our game fun? How do we improve on that?"

@Gutz - Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into Project Gorgon - though I really had high hopes. Turning into a pig or having to walk around with a big head was seriously annoying - I felt like it mocked their game more than it added. I think one of the biggest disconnects for me are the incomplete early areas (after years)…but then the addition of a crafting sphere based entirely around mushrooms. There doesn’t appear to be anyone guiding that game to a cohesive end product. It was a disheartening experience (the first and next 3 times I gave it a whirl).

That aside, thank you for the direct reply. It seems like group content is likely able to reveal more areas of the game and provide some loot, but perhaps seems too challenging for the rewards at early levels. I wonder if that makes sense since the journey is meant to take time; the challenge should be no different at level 6 than at level 20. Perhaps that strategy allows gear at-level to stay valid for longer periods of time? Maybe, when you’re in a group, everyone could instead attempt to focus more on what can achieved and not on how far each player can level. If that mindset was how you and your team approached the next dungeon, would that make it more meaningful?

The camera issues sound frustrating. You may be able to tweek your camera response - if not, that’s great feedback. It may be easier to use some sort of camera movement smoothing during collision with the environment rather than force it to respond too “snappy”. I struggle with camera issues and dizziness too.

I can understand that leveling to a milestone without fanfare can sometimes feel empty, but I wouldn’t let it discourage you at level 6. That said, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a tangible (even minor) advantage to your subclass decision; maybe it should change something about your character to be excited about - modify a skill, grant a new one, or notify players of an alteration to to their characters inherent attributes (higher armor weight progression, bigger crits, etc.).

Crafting armor and armor weight has been a sticking point for a few people, so perhaps it makes sense to provide some form of add’l feedback to the player (chat/combat messages, a red icon, and/or a red highlight behind the ability bar)? I’ve been thinking about it, but other than locking crafting classes to adventuring classes (or providing associated warning), I can’t think of much.

Armor effectiveness might be something that could be adjusted, but I think it might make more sense to lower natural resistances to counter the boost. It would mean that starter mobs would need to have their damage values adjusted for all the naked players in the area, but increasing the scale of armor effectiveness and enemy damage in later areas would work. With that, some vendors with basic starter armor would be a necessity as players progressed.

You did a solid job making your point, and I can see how the current experience may not have perfectly met your expectations/needs of an MMORPG. It’s a niche game, sure, but I don’t think you should count it out. Bugs, camera jank, some flare here-and-there, or unbalanced content are things that can be fixed without a complete revamp. This type of feedback from play testing is valuable.

 

[Undone]

The camera is jerkier than normal due to a Unity bug that I was recently sent a fix for. I have re-enabled damping for the next patch which should help smooth out camera issues in tight spaces.

 

[CypherWulf]

The camera is jerkier than normal due to a Unity bug that I was recently sent a fix for. I have re-enabled damping for the next patch which should help smooth out camera issues in tight spaces.

I can't wait to see the result. Being forced to have the camera really close to the character to not have it knocked around by the dungeon walls and ceilings so fast that I get dizzy makes situational awareness tough.

 

[Undone]

I can't wait to see the result. Being forced to have the camera really close to the character to not have it knocked around by the dungeon walls and ceilings so fast that I get dizzy makes situational awareness tough.

Collision damping was disabled because the camera would frequently clip through your avatar and actually face the opposite direction which caused even more disorientation. There's always a trade off between collision damping and clipping through the environment, the more damping you have the more clipping you get. So we try and keep the damping relatively low to reduce clipping but maintain a "steady" camera movement.