Darkstarr's Release 8 Impressions + R9 Update

Thanks Starr R8 was Great we all had a lot of fun, but yes R8 is Dead...
Sounds like a lot of More Fun in R9
Great Job you Guys do over with the rest of the DEV TEAM!!!
We can tell a lot of time went into the PVP and it was appreciated

 

R8 was a great experience. Like the Deck Building & Deck Combat system. Looking forward to R9. But please, don't forget the PvE players.

 

Need more scenes and more content. Everything else is fine but I've been seeing the same content for how many releases now.

 

R8 was great as is every new release I didn't get to put as much time into this release as I would have liked so I'm really hungry for R9 and all its delicious new features!

Ling live R9

 

I was looking forward to the new combat & pvp but didn't expect to enjoy it as much as i did. Combat is always the key to any game, and this system defines the game. Keep up the innovation in all areas of the game please. Change it all, tip it on its head, im sure what comes out will be great just like this new system.
Only 20 days tomorrow till R9. That's only 2.85 weeks.....2 weeks to go !!!

 

DarkStarr could you try and make sure we can place the MiniMap items in our hotbars for easy use?

 

Three things I look forward to most in R9:

1) Mini-maps!
2) New combat skills like water. I'm a Pisces, I like water.
3) New intro-cinematic! I look forward to seeing that.

 

First, A big "Awww Yeaaaaaaah" to minimaps (It sometimes took me 5 min to leave a town, I have huge orientation issues in games ).

And second, please allow for the re-arranging of the combat bar on a per cell basis. I use 1 2 3 4 Q E R T F G for a 10-glyph deck and it would help tremendously to simulate the keyboard layout on-screen (my brain would thank you a whole lot).

Also, great R8, great introduction of the combat system and all that

 

I'll start by saying that I loved Release 8 and I'm really looking forward to Release 9.

I had no idea that Pax Lair had plays going on, I may have liked to see that had I known. Which brings up a great opportunity for improvement. I would suggest creating a central bulletin board where all of these player events can go. No, I'm not talking about a giant forum that I have to scan through, but rather something that makes more sense and requires only casual maintenance on the part of the potentially interested. I think it's worth it to create something "special" on the website that will list the place and time and any other important details (like where you can get more details).

Now then, some questions:

1) What are PVP rules? (do they include defensive counters?)
2) Why should magic NOT require reagents? I really disagree with this on several levels. I think this is one of the things that separates the casual mage and the real mage. Allowing spell casting without reagents also encourages people to dabble in high level spells that they may otherwise completely ignore because of the cost and rarity of the reagent. I could really go on and on about this as I believe it impacts many different layers of the game negatively. One of t
3) I'm sure adding water magic, bludgeons, and light armor will be "more fun" but I don't think it helps you guys balance anything. You already have a level of unbalanced skills and spells, so why not balance that first before adding more stuff that will continue to unbalance what you already have? I know "the spice must flow" but there has to be a method to the madness otherwise you just get nothing BUT madness.
4) Maps are awesome.

 

http://avatarscircle.com/community-events/
You can find a lot of Events here. ( PvP Tournaments, PaxLairs Gatherings and plays, welcome-quest )

 

I'm acttually hoping they don't add a lot of the final areas so that they don't ruin the final game by us seeing all the areas before they are ready. They didn't in ultima online beta's.

 

I definitely want to see more areas but I agree It would be nice if some of the game was completely new to us when it releases.

 

I loved this release, the combat system was real fun to play with. I found myself swapping between a lot of set ups and was pleasantly surprised at how differently you had to think about each new play style. I don't normally play pvp but I really had a lot of fun with it. Finally I can get excited about a new mmo.

 

If the crafters start filling the forums with posts like the PvPers did can we get our system pushed to the top of the list too?

...or am I the only one sick of all the PvP.

 

There has only been one release with pvp. Or are you talking about forum pvp?

 

I must admit that I liked more the deck system that I supposed.

 

Official Release Scorecard:

Crafting & Housing 7
PVP 1

 

Hah, those of us interested in the single player parts have 0 so far....not sure what you two have to complain about. Single player is starting to look like a tack on.

 

It was a great release! Thank you Devs for your efforts.

To those complaining about priorities: Lets be patient ^_^.

 

I wouldn't say "0". We have tested the quest and virtue system to some degree. Maybe 0.1?

Honestly though, I will not playtest any part of these releases that involve the main storyline, which I truly hope they hold back completely from us. I think exposing scenes and NPCs that are involved are ok since a lot of people want to explore as much as possible before the game officially launches, but I personally won't be exploring story-based towns or talking to story-based NPCs. Random side quests or random areas, sure, if it helps test the mechanics. Like the Companions -- I'd love to test companions (lower case) to test the mechanics, but would not want to even see or talk to The Companions (upper case) until launch.