What Are Your Top Most Wanted Improvements?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Wilfred, Apr 2, 2020.

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  1. CatherineRose

    CatherineRose Avatar

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    Well my luck I would drown learning in my bed :)

    I could practice what the coach taught...mental practice is very ggod :)
     
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  2. CatherineRose

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    Well my luck I would drown learning in my bed :)

    I could practice what the coach taught...mental practice is very ggod :)
     
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  3. Khal Drogo

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    My ''Favourite '' list

    1. Nerfs
    2. Client stability
    3. Unity Upgrades
    4.Combat skill ''fixes''
    5.QA Builds
    6. Lag issues and hitches
    8. When year passes we go again with unity upgrades , nerfs , more performance work... and on and on...

    Doesnt matter what our top wishlist is , only Chris list matters , and unless its something that can be done in 2 clicks ,our feedback is irrelevant.
     
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  4. Julcar

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    Get the adventure maps fixed.
     
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  5. Powersurge45

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    We need more players...I always hear complaints about client instability and crashes and the quests not working for new players. As an old player, these things dont matter to me as i never really did any of the quests anyway. BUT to new players they are the first taste of our game that will either hook them or push them out the door. They have to get the highest priority. Crafting doesnt matter beside it. All end game content doesnt matter beside it. EP2 doesnt matter beside it.

    Also, as i have said 100x. If you ask 100 people what items to fix in our game you are going to get 100 different answers. The only thing consistent is the variation in EVERYONE's answers. i'm an old player, I have sunk roughly $2000 into this game. They are not going to get anymore money from me. They have to get their money from new players. They have to fix new player issues and the rest of us have to either be patient or move on. I'm sick of hearing the whining.
     
  6. Anpu

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    The quests work fine. I haven’t found any that had any issue completing them.
     
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  7. Vladamir Begemot

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    Even if there is not a single remaining bug, the quests don't work fine.

    First, the GUI is a major detriment. When Viola saw that games can have readable text, she exclaimed quite loudly "Oh my it's so easy to read!" This was when we first started No Man's Sky. Shroud had been pretty much her only experience up until then, so she assumed that was as good as a UI gets.

    So that's not fine, it's bad, and the readability leads to a lot of confusion, which can be easily mistaken as bugs.

    Then there's the journal, which is a mess in implementation and usability, perhaps even a detriment to the game. One would be better off using Elwyn's Terse walkthough than the journal. So that's not fine.

    I commend Sannio for his work in cleaning up the buggy mess, but there is more to the experience than simply being functional. Readability, usability, helpfulness of the journal, these are important for a finished game. Unfortunately the quest system is still running on its 2015 protype.

    (No, the 2017 change of centering the dialog box instead of using the chat box does not bring it out of prototype stage, nor does the great font size increase of 2019 (THAT was a hard one to get accepted. Huzzah for us!).)
     
  8. Rowell

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    The Questing System. It is, by far, the worst questing system I've encountered in an MMO. Hard to find, hard to track, persnickety beyond belief, and with regular XP completely not worth doing at all (ie, why am I wasting all this time trying to find X for NPC Y, when I can get more XP by just killing things, or going to ERP / UT / some other XP-Fire-Hose?) A lot of quests are frustrating. The UI implementation of quests, from start to finish, are horrible.

    My suggestion is to take lessons from other MMO's with successful/loved questing systems, and try to implement something similar.
     
  9. Powersurge45

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    My personal leanings are toward the same things Majoria70 wants. She has some incredible insight into some great "bang for the buck" enhancements that wouldn't be too difficult to implement. I like a lot of her posts. Remember playing our game is a journey and adventure. It's not a race to see who can get to the top of the mountain. I'm really enjoying helping new players right now. I have 2 guys i'm spending about 2-3 hours per day doing the following things:

    1. Helping them with quests to open abilities in their skill trees, (fire elemental quest, lich quest etc)
    2. Telling them they can make anything work with enough xp and offering character planning incite
    3. Showing them the ins and outs of deck building and gear specific decks for quickswapping
    4. Assisting them with the short term and long term gear they will need for the current paths they are on.
    5. Helping them to understand player vendors, (buy and sell orders) as well as when its time to manage their own vendor
    6. Helping them understand attunement as it specifically relates to magic and non-magic trees.
    7. Glyph stacking (pros and cons)
    8. Showing them what skills in other spell trees can really help their main spell tree or help fill the gaps where their main tree may be lacking.
    9. Helping them understand the basics of harvesting and crafting. Also giving them some spots where they can farm specific resources in specific areas, by porting them around and increase their teleport "book"
    10. Housing, basement and dungeon planning along with deco options.
    11. Farming and all the growth times and everything associated with it.

    Us old players like to complain about "slow content implementation" and grinding CPs for XP gains. We need to step back and help our player community. I applaud all the twitch streamers that help new players on a daily basis, like Sheldon Cooper, Fzol, Taikee Vetrae, Alphaine, Mac with his YouTube videos on those awesome Truth, Courage and Love quests and many others. All of these folks are doing their part to help build our community. We need to mentor these new players and help them.

    So many players starving for a real return to great games don't realize its right in front of us. We just have to show them. Imagine all the great things that can come from a massive influx of new players. I will list some of them below.

    1. Economic boom as new weapons and gear demand skyrockets from the influx of new players.
    2. Massive need for more harvested resources. Beetle farmers would be a profession on its on.
    3. Massive amounts of player housing would put carpenters and deco makers working overtime.
    4. The emergence of Deco companies that can be hired to deco all housing, basements and player dungeons.
    5. Social activities like "easter egg quests" made by players could be run virtually every day with prizes given for those that solve it. I'm talking active players monitoring areas or using the new implemented NPCs to run their quests
    6. Taverns for players to hang out and socialize would be a quest hub for player made quests as well as temporary housing for new players before they get their row and village deeds. The Tenant system is already in place.
    7. Theatre companies would be booming as entertainment for all of these new players would prompt more plays, musicals, contests and shows.
    8. A huge need for paid mentors to show new players the ropes and guide them anything related to the game.
    9. Enchantment and artifact farmers would be in high demand to supplement the gear needed in point 1.
    10. Crafted goods would see a massive boom, from teleport scrolls to repair kits, to ancient essence needs.

    These are just a few points. If we can get the player base increased then Chris and company can implement more things faster. But we have to do our part. We can make it happen and it starts with helping new players get their start.
     
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  10. Dartan Obscuro

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    I started a new character to play through the story again. I agree with this 100%. The conversation UI just doesn't work well. The writing is good (or good enough). The plot is good. But the conversations don't feel like conversations they feel like hypertext. I start reading what they're saying but eventually I end up just clicking all the links to try and make sure I got what I need. The window scrolling to the bottom on long responses is annoying as you have to scroll up and find your place. I'm just past the outskirts but I've already had multiple NPCs walk away while talking to them closing the window and making it impossible to read the last thing they said. Fixing this UI would significantly improve the game.
     
  11. Vladamir Begemot

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    FYI you can turn off the In Conversation underlines, it does help readability a lot. It should be off by default, as underlines in text are very distracting.

    It's too ugly for us to reset and redo quests, which is too bad. We play in attractive UI's like Divinity now. Maybe some day they'll hire a UI artist for two months to bring the look out of the 90's.
     
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  12. Astirian

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    Been poking my head back into the forum a wee bit lately. Also logged into the game to check mail etc...

    I _love_ it for so many reasons but I just can't play the quest yet (still!). (My main reason for backing)

    @Vladamir Begemot I had no idea there was an option to disable the dialogue hyperlinks, that's helpful and should absolutely be the default!

    I'm really grateful they eventually capitulated and made it a bit bigger but unfortunately it still looks like an Alpha release transparent box. No margins, no breathing room, no frills, it just totally kills the immersion. The latest Divinity games have a wonderful UI! No small wonder they won the Baldur's Gate 3 gig!
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2020
  13. Astirian

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    In fact, I was just thinking about this other game I play that I really quite enjoy now. BUT! I came so very close to abandoning it and never looking back after about 5 minutes on account of its atrocious UI.

    Here's a few examples of that game (let's call it Game A) versus a very successful competitor (Game B):

    Your fighting units overview in Game B:

    [​IMG]

    The equivalent in Game A, oof... he's also gone and tiled the background /facepalm:

    [​IMG]

    The post-battle screen in Game B, followed by the stats tab:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The equivalent in Game A, oh my God my eyes:

    [​IMG]

    Battle UI in Game B:

    [​IMG]

    The UI in Game A, none of those icons on the left-hand side belong to distinct group or possess good visual cues:

    [​IMG]

    Setting up a skirmish battle in Game B:

    [​IMG]

    The same in A, you get the idea:

    [​IMG]

    It's mad because the game's 3D graphics themselves aren't bad at all...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Same with SotA:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    ...
    Oh Christ, here comes the dialogue box!

    [​IMG]

    I actually don't mind the UI style in general at all, truth be told. It's just the janky parts (dialogue, journal, recipe book) that totally throw it off.

    [​IMG]

    ^ I don't have a problem with this.
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2020
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  14. Vladamir Begemot

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    @Astirian Both attractiveness and usability of the UI are sinking the whole game.

    Good news! With today's release the Batch volume goes up to 50!

    The bad news: this was a five minute improvement that should have gone in years ago. That not happening, it should have happened when the community strong armed @Chris into holding his nose and using the crating window. Unfortunately, instead of working on the entire experience, he just added bigger batches for scrolls. Almost a year later he finally gave in (or remembered?) about the batch sizes.

    Even worse news: I didn't see a mention of a MAX button for batch size, something Chris called out himself! "Why is there no MAX button!?!?!?" I haven't been in game in a bit, so if it has appeared then that is great news and I am wrong.

    My opinion is best summed up by all your pictures. The game will go nowhere until a UI contractor is hired for a few months to straighten the UI out. This is not a new system, this is the replacement of a 5 year old prototype. Anyway, the game hasn't officially launched EP1 until that happens.

    And it needs to be done by a contractor with that skillset. The half measures I've seen have been useful, or at least staunched the bleeding, but make me 100% sure no one on the team is 2D graphics designer/UX expert (or allowed to touch the UI if they are). For example the bigger XP pool number (yay! huge win for less confusion for the noobs) that now sticks out like a sore thumb. Great for usability, bad for attractiveness, there are ways to make this look good, not just a Bondo job.

    Anyway, my current plan is to get back in game this release and set up some tutorials in my town using Inky, so new players that make it that far can learn about combat, the existence of the other two quest lines, etc., then fall back into the shadows as I wait for EP1 to launch.
     
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  15. Astirian

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    Agree 100%. I think I mentioned the MAX button before too in the suggestions forum, just struck me as basic UX stuff. I should be able to do things like right-click an item I have for sale on my vendor and select "Change Price", small things like these all add up.

    I will say though, the UI windows seem to stay where I put them now, which is awesome! That was absolutely infuriating. (Well, the recipe book still jams itself up in the corner of my screen every time I open it -.-)

    I saw the bigger XP pool number, it's jarringly huge now yeah. It does indeed appear there's a lack of a good 2D UI/UX resource on the team. Just no real spacial awareness of the 2D elements and how they present or relate to each other and affect the game's aesthetic. Maybe they're mainly systems programmers and just don't see it. I just saw the new hint that comes up if you don't have a tool equipped and it's the same sort of thing. Just this black box around the text with 0 margins on it. It's just choking the life out of the text, it looks uncomfortable.
     
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  16. Vladamir Begemot

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    @Astirian hahah, I am sure if I looked it would make ME uncomfortable.

    Programmer art for sure. It's a pity, why build something as grand as Shroud and totally ignore the UI?

    A community run Indigogo campaign to hire a legit UI/UX work from home contractor has been beating at the back of my mind for a while now. I won't be putting up any more cash to have it go into random stuff, but I would put some up if I knew it was going into a UI overhaul. Who wants to set it up?
     
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  17. Gustach

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    1) Make game easy to understand.
    2) Fix non working stuff.
    3) Deliver 2020 visions content in 2020 and working as expected.

    I think this 3 things will make a huge impact.
     
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  18. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Ugh, that was the worst. I didn't even realize it was happening the first time through the main quest, so I was super confused the whole time, because there were many paragraphs of dialogue I just never saw.

    Or at least, it's tied with "not using different colors and line breaks for different speakers." It didn't come up much, but there were a few 3 person conversations in the love story, and it was never easily clear who was speaking.
     
  19. Galaxa23

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    As a fairly new player myself, i would suggest the following.

    1. GPU Optimization (running a 2080 super and after awhile i have to relog due to fps being shot, which i only have the issues with this game.Maybe the unity, not really sure but optimizations have to happen! Know of others with 20 series having this issue.

    2. Why not do other Ranks after 100 like UO did with elder,legendary and such. allowing to go past grandmaster but no title?

    3. UI to me personally is just blahhh...Nothing special.

    4. As others have said, it shouldnt take cutting a whole forest down to craft an item... Maybe if youre going after a legendary item or so it would be okay.

    5. More character customization.

    6. Fix the dang maps! That is so irritating!

    7. Pvp feels pretty clunky imo.Makes it undesirable for me.

    Now some things that would be great to see implemented would be.

    1. Horses and mounting systems.

    2. Need more art styles on armor, not fun when everyone looks the same without buying custom looks with rl money.

    3. More customization in the housing aspect , Like uo used . Build our own houses.

    4. More dailies would be awesome.

    5. Wider variety in ores/trees/blo
     
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