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[POLL] What is your *overall* rating for this Pre-Alpha Release 10? (UNOFFICIAL)

Discussion in 'Release 10 Feedback' started by smack, Sep 25, 2014.

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What is your *overall* rating for this Pre-Alpha Release 10? (1=bad, 5=great)

Poll closed Oct 11, 2014.
  1. 1

    5.6%
  2. 2

    9.2%
  3. 3

    27.5%
  4. 4

    40.1%
  5. 5

    17.6%
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  1. Kaffien

    Kaffien Avatar

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    I actually had fun with the tour quest, the cavalier hat.
    I had fun smashing some monsters and experiencing 20,000 damage for accidentally falling off a coffee table.
    I do hope that release 11 brings halberd handles again. Walking around with a floating blade was kinda odd.
     
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  2. StrangerDiamond

    StrangerDiamond Avatar

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    hehe that and the fact some people's heads were dissapearing randomly was funny... why just the head ? lol

    no pun intended haha

    I must concur with Myrcello's entire post, great observations... I've seen some cities structures because I seem to often log back under the map when I log back in after a crash... lots of naked and empty walls indeed. We understand some of it is place holder however :)
     
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  3. Sindariya

    Sindariya Avatar

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    This release was not the best.

    • Stability (Load Time Improvements) Didn't see any difference. Loading was sometimes faster in playertowns but they were mostly empty. So I'm not sure what caused the faster loading time.
    • PvP (Spectator Mode, New Virtue Symbol, Duels) It is nice and helps a bit. But you can't target anyone in the arena (at least not me) to see his healthbar during a combat.
    • Combat Skills (Starting Deck Revamp, Auto Deck, Universal Cool Down Abolished, Focus Costs, Combo List, Combat Skill Costs, Combo Highlighting, Power Up Combos, Deck Swapping, Follow Through Tactics) Couldn't test it much, would like to know which level match this number of skill points. It is nice to see the focus costs.
    • Scenes (Ardoris Castle of the Winds and Castle of the Mountains, Oracle Confirmatory, Vertas Pass, Challenge Dungeon, Plains & Road & Hills Scene Polish, Music, Lunar Rift Change Speed, Explorers Guild Quest, Scene Concentration, Dungeon Scene Connectors) Liked the new scenes.
    • Creatures (Wolves & Rottweilers, Lich Mage & Lich Archer, New Slime Behaviors, AI Aggro System) The new wolves look good and nice that I could kill the slime with magic without him splitting up.
    • Overworld as a Real Scene (Animating Avatar & Movement, Enter Scene button) You shouldn't be able to die in the overworld map. Sometimes it is not clear why you can't get up some hills or get in the middle of the river but not over it.
    • Visual Effects Polish (Combat Effects, Environmental Effects, Death and near Death Screen Effects) Saw only the new knockdown animation, was funny but not perfect.
    • Character Customization (Cheek & Jaw Options, Hair, Bigger Beards) When will we women get more hairstyles?
    • User Interface Polish (Context Sensitive Cursors, Shopping Cart, Removed Bag Slots, Tab Targeting Neutrals, Recipe Book Illuminations) Looked nice and I'm really happy that the old merchant UI is back.
    • Player House Decorations (Lot Border Indicators, Crafting Station Lights, Wireless Device) Loved the border indicator, does really help when there is no fence. The radio was nice.
    • Sitting Improvements Haven't seen anything.
    • Summoned Pets (Health Decay, Commands) The decay is great and I love that Violations pet went against him^^
    • Weapons & Wearables Polish Didn't see anything. But love the new marine outfit.
    • Emotes Polish Good that you can lie down and play death longer.
    • Chat Profanity Filter Didn't use it.
    • Remote Triggers What?
    • Pre-Alpha Confirmation Dialogue Good.
    • Mac Installer Who cares, Windows rulez *g*
    Hadn't much time this release :(
     
  4. Logain

    Logain Avatar

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    I'm sorry, but before I comment and vote, I have a 'rating' question!
    Given that the 'general subject' of the release was 'polish', I'd have to rate the release a '2', simply because of the massive stability issues. A 'polish' release must not cause as many crashes as this one did for plenty of people (including me), compared to R8.
    However, if I'd have to rate everything 'equally', such as the challange dungeon, the Vertas Pass and not apply specific weight on polish alone, I'd likely give it a 3 or even 4.
    How would you have people vote/rate? Weighted?

    Thank you in advance and sorry for the bother!
     
  5. Debcool

    Debcool Avatar

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    Salut,
    I can't say that I enjoyed this release.

    Some issues already reported a long time ago haven't been addressed (all the sound's cursors are doing the same thing; Body still fragmented; Sometimes the body could get transparent...).
    I just could do the Gand Tour Quest and... that's all. After that, I wasn't be able to get out of Braemer. At least, I won a hat ;-)

    A lot of flickering at the back sceen. I tried many resolutions and options on/off (guessing it was the matter), that didn't change anything.

    Too many freeze even after the last upgrade. Actually, it was worst on Saterday than on Thursday. The worst part is the need to erase and recreate a character all the time.

    If the garaphics looked like polished I didn't feel that the game was.

    A least, I liked the new overworld map. Quite nice to see the character running in a smooth way. (When I was abble to get on it...)

    I guess it's a joke but if your right, many people here have been screwed. As far as can I recall, the devs haven't put us on the backside and I still hope it's (will) not be the case. May be they need help from old Unix game devs. They exist. Ask Valve, they are also working with self-employed guys whom could surely help.

    I am still asking myself why introducing new fancy stuff before addressing known issues. As I am not a dev myself, I am may be wrong on that.

    So no, I didn't enjoyed this release as I enjoyed previous. So I gave it a 1.

    I hope the next release will get the good feelings back.

    A+
    Debcool
     
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  6. Vyrin

    Vyrin Avatar

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    I gave it a 3 this time which is a big improvement over my last rating. :)

    Mostly, I like the work being done and liked the additions regarding the release objectives.

    However, too many character/questing/scene issue cropped up for me. I know this was not the focus of the release, but this aspect was not a "polish" job. It raised more questions for me than it answered.
     
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  7. blaquerogue

    blaquerogue Avatar

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    I dint like having to go around and get quick money when i already own houses! :p i couldve had alot more time to run in the dungeon or fight PVP. but i did enjoy the one day i had free!!! Sun to sun release would be excellent, so i could actually play more! My weekends dont fall on fri and sat!
     
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  8. smack

    smack Avatar

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    Giving an overall rating can be a difficult thing given so much that goes into each release. As this is an expression of overall sentiment, the rating doesn't need to be calculated but you're certainly free to rate using whatever formula you want. The critical thing is what is important to you and how you felt about it. And ideally to post a short blurb (or link to another post) as to what that was and why, as others have done here :)

    Many thanks everyone for your ratings so far and excellent feedback. Remember, there is no right or wrong feedback. It's all good stuff for the devs. And good luck on the random drawing for the $25 store coupon! This poll will close on Oct 11 so get your votes in!
     
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  9. Jack Knyfe

    Jack Knyfe Avatar

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    I voted 3 for the following reasons:

    • I had to delete and remake my character twice due to being stuck in crash loops in Owl's Head. Folks suggested to swap between 32 and 64-bit builds, but that was after I had reincarnated myself twice. Something I'll try next time.
    • The falling damage bug. Jump from orbit = take 10pts or less of damage. Walk across a small gap between two tables = take 9,999,999 damage. It was fixed later in the release, but what broke it in the first place?
    • Some of the player events are going long, which causes them to run over other events. Now, this won't be so much of a problem once the servers stay up, but for now, folks who want to attend as many events as possible are being dragged through one or two long events. While not physically taxing, it is mentally taxing. I am not blaming any specific event or chain of events. I'm just saying that things need to be planned a little better for the next few weekender releases.
    • I was expecting improved decoration ability, which I got in some cases (THANK YOU for fixing the camera issue!), but not in others (still can't place decorations on the interior facing of external walls of several structures).
    • R10 was listed as a "polish" release, however things seemed to be more broken than in the previous two releases. I enjoyed the new features, but I was expecting a code cleanup and bug-busting stable release instead of crashes, glitches, and other bugs.

    Aside from that, the developer appearances at player events were a welcome occurrence. Yay for community!

    My faith in the game and the devs remains unshaken. I know that in pre-alpha we can't expect the moon, even if it's on the list of things to expect. I am only human, so I wanted to share my reasons for not 5'ing this release.
     
  10. Violation Clauth

    Violation Clauth Avatar

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    I voted 5 because the hat quest... it was the first time my wife was self motivated to play and we got to play together for an hour doing that quest. Totally cool and I'm glad they're doing them for "that type" of gamer (she's a casual collector and casual gamer... enjoys the extrinsic rewards).
     
  11. Samlee

    Samlee Avatar

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    I gave it a three. I spent two days trying to download the game, then suffered a number of crashes Saturday when exiting or entering a town. I experienced my first black screen, several occasions where the draw bridge loading screen stayed up while my character chat box, and non-combat tool set bar was on screen when entering towns, each problem requiring exit and a restart of my computer before I could get into the game again.

    Lag was much worse than ever in towns, and made movement a real test of patience and endurance. I did notice that the lag was much more manageable early on Sunday morning, more like the rapid screenshots in R8-9. That is when I did most of my alternate tab play-testing. I also managed to complete the Grand Tour late on Saturday evening, and earn the neat hat, in spite of the horrible lag in the towns.

    I did like the alternate button to swap between my melee and ranged combat set-ups. That worked very well, thank you!

    I have every confidence that things will get better as wrinkles are ironed out. I like the premise of SotA (buy the book!), enjoy the atmosphere and scenery to date, and eagerly await R11 to see what the Dev Team comes up with next! Fix Game load up and the lag, and I'll haunt this wonderful new world in the years to come!

    -Sam
     
  12. Greymarch

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    Overall I gave this release a 3/5 which is the same as I did last release. TBH I didn't really notice too much of a difference between releases.

    Stability (Load Time Improvements) - Actually, this seemed pretty much the same as before. Ardoris took a while to load and I had a few crashes from loading screens (usually from Kingsport to Ardoris). My window would often show as "Not Responding. 3/5

    PvP (Spectator Mode, New Virtue Symbol, Duels) - Went in to Spectator Mode (for the tour quest) but there was only one poor sod running around by himself down there. Still, I could see him pretty nicely. I never had a chance to actually do any PVP though so I can't really comment on it. N/A

    Combat Skills (Starting Deck Revamp, Auto Deck, Universal Cool Down Abolished, Focus Costs, Combo List, Combat Skill Costs, Combo Highlighting, Power Up Combos, Deck Swapping, Follow Through Tactics) - I went kind of combo mad with this release. I didn't really bother with the starter decks but the combo highlighting and comboing like glyphs was nice. One problem I had was with Ice Touch often giving me a long cooldown after casting it. Not after a fizzle or anything either. But even a longer cooldown than my locked glyph... either way things works pretty good, discarding glyphs was thankfully good. 4/5

    Scenes (Ardoris Castle of the Winds and Castle of the Mountains, Oracle Confirmatory, Vertas Pass, Challenge Dungeon, Plains & Road & Hills Scene Polish, Music, Lunar Rift Change Speed, Explorers Guild Quest, Scene Concentration, Dungeon Scene Connectors) - I think I need to break this up:
    • Ardoris Castles - As mentioned in an entire thread I found these extremely lacking. 2/5
    • Oracle Confirmatory - Was pretty cool to see the mosaic face move and added some nice individual flavour to the setting. Dunno how it will be with other people around though. 3/5
    • Vertas Pass - It looks decent. I liked the snowfall effect. The whole thing seemed kinda random with the burned out buildings and all and the growling elves. 3/5
    • Plains Etc Polish - I actually didn't enter any regular scenes, whoops! N/A
    • Music - Good as ever but I'm starting to wish for more variety. 4/5
    • Lunar Rift Change Speed - I'm really not a fan of this in this kind of "real time" environment. I would much rather see dedicated portals or perhaps and item to use with it to key our destinations. 2/5
    • Explorers Guild Quest - Worked fine, did it's job. 5/5
    • Scene Concentration - Not actually sure what this is so... N/A
    • Dungeon Scene Connectors - Still not a fan of these overall. The ones in the Challenge Dungeon were fine. 2/5
    Creatures (Wolves & Rottweilers, Lich Mage & Lich Archer, New Slime Behaviors, AI Aggro System) - New wolves and dogs looked good. Even though I fought the Lich Mage it was dark so I didn't get a good look at him. Was by myself so not sure about the aggro system. 4/5

    Overworld as a Real Scene (Animating Avatar & Movement, Enter Scene button) - The two items mentioned in the parenthesis were fine. Not having mouse movement however was painful, I really don't want to have to hold down WASD the whole time. I'll average that out to 3/5

    Visual Effects Polish (Combat Effects, Environmental Effects, Death and near Death Screen Effects) - I didn't really notice anything special when dead. I'd much rather see a countdown or something appear mid-screen instead of just in the chat log. The mist effect in the challenge dungeon looked decent but it was kind of clunky the way it suddenly vanished and lo and behold new enemies appeared a fraction of a second after. 3/5

    Character Customization (Cheek & Jaw Options, Hair, Bigger Beards) - Nice options to have, but the character models still look extremely poor imo. 2/5

    User Interface Polish (Context Sensitive Cursors, Shopping Cart, Removed Bag Slots, Tab Targeting Neutrals, Recipe Book Illuminations) - These were all good changes imo. I didn't think I missed the shopping cart as much as I did 4/5

    Player House Decorations (Lot Border Indicators, Crafting Station Lights, Wireless Device) - Never got around to buying my lot (foolishly bought a deed at Owl's Head only to find it didn't apply in Ardoris!) N/A

    Pre-Alpha Confirmation Dialogue - This was a wise decision 5/5

    The other things I just deleted instead of adding a ton more N/As. Sadly I didn't have as much time this weekend to test things as usual.
     
  13. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    I normally spend the more stable 'polish' releases focusing on quests and NPC Dialogue, but given that this turned out to have a lot of new content and therefore was buggy and less stable, I wound up spending my time in community events.

    Stability (Load Time Improvements)
    I realize they only actually worked on the generic scenes like forest, plains and hills. Those were painless to enter and exit, thank you.. Meanwhile, leaving Kingsport was bugged so you had to /stuck to get back to the game EVERY time you left Kingsport. ;D

    PvP (Spectator Mode, New Virtue Symbol, Duels)
    I'm happy there is a Spectator Mode, but we should have a list of the combatants, or be able to click on them down on the battle field to see their stats (or better yet, get rid of all stat GUI in the game, use natural visual cues to represent it, like more blood&bruises when health gets lower and gradually decreasing movement speed as focus gets lower! (or for spectator box, have an announcer who says things like: 'Violation blasts Net with a Fireball! Ooh, that's gotta hurt.' 'Net returns the favor by somehow turning Violation's own Fire Elemental against him! I've never seen that before!'
    The new virtue symbol on the cavalier hat is okay. I'll feel better about it when I see statues in the game to represent it.. I guess that means the Life magic school has it's own statue now, so will we get statues for every magic school symbol? :D :D :D
    For duels, yes I like them, although right now the loser dies, where as i think there should be a choice upon agreeing whether it's to-the-death or not. Also, I was spammed duel requests a bit which exited me out of a vendor screen while i was trying to go shopping, so I think we need the option to toggle off duel requests somewhere.

    Combat Skills (Starting Deck Revamp, Auto Deck, Universal Cool Down Abolished, Focus Costs, Combo List, Combat Skill Costs, Combo Highlighting, Power Up Combos, Deck Swapping, Follow Through Tactics)
    Several people were saying that we are playing this with an expert number of skill points, but the experience (base stats) of a beginner avatar. I would like to have this verified true/false.
    Will are base stats go up over time? Or will we only acquire more skills and equipment over time? I felt the 'starting deck' was virtually unplayable out of the gate.
    I tried to kill spiders and died. I tried to kill an elf and died. i tried to kill a kobald and died. it wasn't fun at all.
    Once i customized my deck i was able to succeed in fights, though i felt, in order to be effective in combat required having the perfect armor set for that given build, and way too much in-depth skill tweaking to create a reasonably effective build.. Though i realize this will change a bit at launch because we'll acquire skills much more gradually, the effectiveness of their combinations in combat seem to stand for themselves.
    Winning fights should be about understanding how to use whatever skills you happen to have in combat, not the ability to pick the 'magical right combination of skills'.. that's how it felt to me anyways.
    I look forward to continued improvements.

    Scenes (Ardoris Castle of the Winds and Castle of the Mountains, Oracle Confirmatory, Vertas Pass, Challenge Dungeon, Plains & Road & Hills Scene Polish, Music, Lunar Rift Change Speed, Explorers Guild Quest, Scene Concentration, Dungeon Scene Connectors)
    I love Ardoris, though i'd love to see a few random village/town/city sized lots thrown in the middle of some of the row houses, gated as city mansions, and taking residence as aristocrats inside the castle walls next to the keeps. Oracle Confirmatory looked nice. i love the scene overall.
    Vertas Pass: the first thing I wanted to do when I entered the zone, what drew my eye, was those high walled bridges. I was very disappointed when I couldn't find a way into any of the wall towers, or up onto the tops of the walls. I'm glad we could open and lower the huge gates, but I'd like to see that controlled by a complex switch that takes time to raise or lower, and can only be done from one side of it. After what seemed like hours of searching, i have no idea what the '2 secrets' were in this zone. I was searching for bow&arrow based shootable triggers, but :( oh well.
    Challenge Dungeon: I did not experience. I heard it required a group, which confused me since this is also a single-player game.. It seems sad to me that the best rewards so far have been for multiplayer-centric game design. Though i have heard since that the dungeon is possibly just a testing tool to help developers learn how to properly scale up and down combat situations based on the number of people participating in the fight. I hope this is true.
    All the generic scenes: looked great. It doesn't seem fair that in the same release that lots of gold is required for things that were previously free, is the same release that resource gathering is brought to a crawl by limiting resources so that there's no way to gather enough gold in a short amount of time, except to fight things and loot. (which is a play style I don't prefer). In the end, I understand these economic systems need to be tweaked in order to prepare for persistence, which I know everyone is looking forward to. :D I'll just refrain from getting lots or houses until that time comes to eliminate my frustration, thanks.
    Lunar Rift Change Speed: is strange. I would think, one, the beam shooting out at a stone should change from stone to stone depending on the destination, so we can tell where it's going to take us from a distance by looking at the stone it's shooting at. Two, the reason behind the change should be connected to astronomic changes that we can also observe, by looking at the sky, and also by reading our Darkstarr Moondials. Until these methods are implemented, I don't really care to implement the rift rotation.. so lets just have regular portals to the destinations until the design is in a more observable, intuitive, interactive state.
    The Explorer's Guild Quest: was far too easy. A video walk-through for this quest from start to completion would showcase more time 'zoning' than 'questing' -unacceptable. I think each guide should have given us a sub-quest to accomplish in their given area before giving you credit for having completed his part. They should also recommend where to go next.. and hey, since they look identical lets make them brothers or cousins.. with a quirky story in their diaglog revealing how they feel about each other to keep you interested in them as people! And where's my female servants? why are they all men?
    Scene concentration: I assume this is referring to number and distribution of potential encounters and resources within a zone? I noticed that a lone wolf was purposefully guarding every harvestable tree. Why is a wolf interested in a tree? this makes no sense. The placement of enemies and the placement of resources should not be directly tied to each other in this way, in less there is a meaningful relationship between the two.. ex: satyyr miners collecting ore to make those bloody axes, an Elven hunting party tracking stags to collect hides for armor. a bear climbing a tree to reach a beehive.. that makes sense. a wolf and a tree? -no sense. plus, i'd like to see wolves roaming in packs. alone they just wouldn't be aggressive to humans, unless they were protecting their young, or a kill.
    Dungeon Scene Connectors: I like where you're going with this. I want the passages to be much longer though. I hope that between the two trapdoors that we're warping between, there's a whole other vast underground lair that's extremely dangerous. These are surely just the 'secret' exits and entrances within the individual dungeons, and not meant to be the actual connection points?
    Creatures (Wolves & Rottweilers, Lich Mage & Lich Archer, New Slime Behaviors, AI Aggro System)
    Wolves & Rottweilers: Rottweilers looked great. wolves were always snarling. I hope to see some more expressions in the wolves, and to see them roaming around in packs attacking animals for food, rather than guarding trees resources.
    Lich Mage & Archer: I'd like to see feminine variants of the Liches, and I hope all humanoid monsters will be as classless as players are.. i.e. randomized skills from various skill trees assigned every spawn. that unpredictability would greatly improve combat game-play and repetition.
    New Slime Behaviors: I love the slimes! I hope they can do extra damage to metal weapons and armor, (perhaps have some pick-pocketing skill as well, for metal items during combat!!)
    AI Aggro System: I love the new running behaviors. I hope to see more AI behaviors, and have the behaviors randomly assigned to all mobs, so we can't predict how they will react when we face them!!

    Overworld as a Real Scene (Animating Avatar & Movement, Enter Scene button)
    Love this very much. more zooming features with varying amounts of detail would be cool. If the 2d icons such as towns would rotate with the camera, we could turn the camera, which could be nice. mouse clicking would be good too. Why can we jump? That's just silly.
    We should be able to 'set camp' with /camp while in the Overworld map, to open a private zone where we are safe to rest and hang out with friends around a campfire, sing songs and possibly have random encounters.. (should be very small scene with campfire, logs to sit on, classic camp scene, but let all party members enter it together!)
    Enter scene button: Since the avatar is fixed to the center of the screen, move the button up closer to where the character is, so it appears to rest just beneath the hex the avatar is entering.

    Visual Effects Polish (Combat Effects, Environmental Effects, Death and near Death Screen Effects)
    Effects: Looking good, I would like the animations to be timed better with the cool-downs of the skills, these need to be fluid to peel our eyes off the GUI and get us engaged in the action on the screen.
    Death/near death: I really want to be able to tell that my character is near death by looking at him, not GUI. Death itself is pretty good! coming back from death doesn't have enough of a timer to get to safety, but I'm sure this is completely changing when death is 'fleshed out' -hehe.

    Character Customization (Cheek & Jaw Options, Hair, Bigger Beards)
    I'm really happy with the customizations! I finally feel like i'm creating a look that is different from everyone else! thank you! some jaggedness along the jawline, skin is a bit too shiny, and the beards aren't stuck to the chins..

    User Interface Polish (Context Sensitive Cursors, Shopping Cart, Removed Bag Slots, Tab Targeting Neutrals, Recipe Book Illuminations)
    Context Sensitive Cursors: I don't have enough control over what my cursor is doing. Ex: When the game decides I'm in chat, nothing i do with my mouse can get me out of it, i have to use a keyboard command.. :(
    Shopping Cart: Thank you so much for bringing this back! Money seems to show me a running total that changes during the signing phase of the purchase.. let's keep the numbers still so it's not confusing. Just show the numbers that matter, then close it.
    Removed bag slots: I didn't even use bags this release which makes me sad, because I love bag inventory, but so much more love has been given to list inventory that it's too convenient not to use! This is a HUGE PROBLEM!! More love to the bag inventory system please. ;-)
    Tab Targeting Neutrals: tab is going in the right direction. I found i preferred targeting with the mouse, which is probably because i wasn't sure how the tab was deciding what to target.
    Recipe Book Illuminations: I feel like crafting is coming along smoothly. I would like to be able to double click on greyed-out recipes that don't have 'all' their components, and still place the pieces i do have on the table.. this would be extremely beneficial during the discovery stage.

    Player House Decorations (Lot Border Indicators, Crafting Station Lights, Wireless Device)
    Lot Border Indicators: Great! (thanks LinkofHyRule for suggesting this idea to the Devs!)
    So, decoration mode staying on all the time causes problems while running, fighting or crafting on site. I shouldn't be able to grab ANYTHING while a crafting bench window is open, while in combat, or while running (not walking), okay?
    Crafting Station Lights: do these count as light sources on our lots? (because we're extremely limited as it is) if not, then it's fine..
    Wireless Device: Please add a volume control! It's really really awesome!!

    Sitting Improvements
    no more stuck bugs while sitting! yay! I would love to be able to sit on pillows without clipping through them though. :D

    Summoned Pets (Health Decay, Commands)
    Looking good! (haven't tested it)

    Weapons & Wearables Polish
    I really really miss my long thigh-length Founders Tunic from the early releases.. please get this back in! Also would love to see thigh-high boots (i remember that being the initial plan) :-/

    Emotes Polish
    These are going really great. Still can't perform any while sitting, need 'upper torso-only' versions of all the emotes for this i think.
    Where's our: /hug, /hail, /camp(see my Overworld comment above), /thank, /blush, /gypsy dance?

    Chat Profanity
    Didn't notice, so maybe it's working?

    Remote Triggers
    Didn't find them. :(

    Pre-Alpha Confirmation Dialogue
    Very nice! I like the personalization.

    Mac Installer
    N/A for me..
     
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  14. rune_74

    rune_74 Avatar

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    Love the private camp scene...would be great for roleplaying...
     
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  15. Net

    Net Avatar

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    OK, time for more detailed feeback.

    Stability (Load Time Improvements) 3/5
    It was not really bad, but I had few crashes and soemtimes I was unable to zone to someone because of some data mismatch, even though all of us had the latest patch installed.

    PvP (Spectator Mode, New Virtue Symbol, Duels) 3/5
    There are few issues with spectator mode. It is impossible to target combatants, unless they are in your party and it is hard to track their health and focus (which might be a good thing, but only if noone can see health/focus bar of other people). Also there seems to be invisible roof in arena and I casted area spells on it instead on my opponent.
    Have not noticed new symbol...
    Duels were awesome! I wish to see expansion of that system for party duels. And duels within the party.
    Still the PvP is quite unbalanced and especially lags made it very hard.

    Combat Skills (Starting Deck Revamp, Auto Deck, Universal Cool Down Abolished, Focus Costs, Combo List, Combat Skill Costs, Combo Highlighting, Power Up Combos, Deck Swapping, Follow Through Tactics) 3/5
    I do not like highlightings, I like games more immersive and this is drawing player attention from the game to the UI...
    There was missing combo Fire Fist + Fire arrow = Fire ball, that one was quite useful.
    Pole arm reach is rather silly and it needs matching animation. It is silly to miss enemy and still deal damage.
    And another thing, potion needs to be limited to ~5 potions per match or something likt that, otherwise we shall see neverending duels until one side runs out of potions.

    Scenes (Ardoris Castle of the Winds and Castle of the Mountains, Oracle Confirmatory, Vertas Pass, Challenge Dungeon, Plains & Road & Hills Scene Polish, Music, Lunar Rift Change Speed, Explorers Guild Quest, Scene Concentration, Dungeon Scene Connectors) 5/5
    Scenes were great. There needs to be some work done, however I was quite happy with the design of most of them,

    Creatures (Wolves & Rottweilers, Lich Mage & Lich Archer, New Slime Behaviors, AI Aggro System) 4/5
    Creatures are great except for AI. Also how they teleport and regenerate is quite unbalanced.

    Overworld as a Real Scene (Animating Avatar & Movement, Enter Scene button) 4/5
    I liked the paper map more. I also want back the ability to rotate map with Q/E. The map worked for me without any major issues though.

    Visual Effects Polish (Combat Effects, Environmental Effects, Death and near Death Screen Effects) 4/5
    Combat effects... roots should grow where the person is trapped, but that is the lag issue.
    I have not notice near Death screen effect I am afraid, but the Death effect was quite nice, although many times the edge of the effect was in the middle of my window...

    Character Customization (Cheek & Jaw Options, Hair, Bigger Beards) 4/5
    It is improvement, but almost anything I did made my character look worse... I also hope that we will have more unique looking characters. Without overhead names I saw so many twins...

    User Interface Polish (Context Sensitive Cursors, Shopping Cart, Removed Bag Slots, Tab Targeting Neutrals, Recipe Book Illuminations) 4/5
    There is a lot of work to be done but definitely an improvement over past releases.

    Player House Decorations (Lot Border Indicators, Crafting Station Lights, Wireless Device) 5/5
    I love Lot border indicators. And Radio was great, though it did not work half the time...
    Still I would preferi f default orientation of items was alligned with lot borders and it was easily possible to align otems with either border ot make rotation jumps in 15 degrees steps or something, so we can easily align all items of the same kind (benches, walls, crafring stations...)

    Sitting Improvements 4/5
    We need sitting animations. And cloak going through bench/chair looks silly.

    Summoned Pets (Health Decay, Commands) 4/5
    Commands were great. Health Decay was not so great, also pets were half hostile in Arena Basements and it was not possible to heal them.

    Weapons & Wearables Polish 4/5
    We need hair with hats...

    Emotes Polish N/A
    I have not notice anything new.

    Chat Profanity Filter N/A
    I wanted to test it. I have not notice any profanity in the chat, so it works? I did not ask anyone to say words that I suspected of not getting through, so I am not sure.

    Remote Triggers N/A
    I have not time to test those either.

    Pre-Alpha Confirmation Dialogue 4/5
    It is annoying to click it everytime, however better than reading through EULA or something similar.

    Mac Installer N/A
    Another thing I have not test.


    Wait, what?
     
  16. Sir_Hemlock

    Sir_Hemlock Avatar

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    • Stability 2/5 (1 point deduction for every crash experienced, no noticeable load time improvement. Exit time is good with 16GB ram on an I7 however. Not concerned about this as its part of testing)
    • PvP I often let myself be target practice for people wanting to test PvP
    • Combat Skills 0/5
    • Scenes 3/5 (Ardoris crashed, after another 2 crashed I gave up, but I saw it last release and it looked good, I assume its the same)
    • Creatures 3/5 (Look good)
    • Overworld as a Real Scene 3/5 (looks good)
    • Visual Effects Polish 3/5 (Looks good)
    • Character Customization 4/5/(This feature is rich and excellent)
    • User Interface Polish 0/5 (I wish the dev's would let me draw up and write about how to make the inventory and entire UI and controls lol)
    • Player House Decorations
    • Sitting Improvements
    • Summoned Pets 3/5 (Fluffies sniffing around with their little black wet overly-curious invasive noses and oozing snot all over the place, who wouldn't want fuzzbutts?)
    • Weapons & Wearables Polish 4/5 (This stuff is looking really good)
    • Emotes Polish 4/5 (Looks good for those into this sort of thing, personally, I find it rather unresponsive)
    • Chat Profanity Filter Ok, fair enough. I haven't tested it since I don't swear in RPG game chat
    • Remote Triggers What?
    • Pre-Alpha Confirmation Dialogue didn't read it. just clicked through eager to get to the good stuff
    • Mac Installer
    overall, (averages side)
    1/5
    Why?
    1. The CONTROLS (the first thing someone does when they log in, their very first impression, is to move the Avatar and interact with the world and the UI. I think this should be higher on the priority list)
    2. Random Deck Combat. No, I'll NEVER get over it lol. No, I don't want to talk about it for the same reason I don't want to discuss the reasons I don't like eating snails or smelling garbage ;)
    By the way this is half tongue-in-cheek
     
  17. Gaelis

    Gaelis Avatar

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    • Stability crashed much more than last release, had more lags too
    • PvP its sad as a spectator in arena not to see the healthbar from figthers
    • Combat Skills I don't like the green highlighted combo-cards.Its maybe funny, it made me look more on my combat-bar than last release. Love the animation of the new heal-rain but it should heal too
    • Scenes I like the snowy mountains, the new pass
    • Creatures love the new wolves, maybe they are a bit too cute, like puppys. Rottweiler is awsome . I don't like the elves running so fast while dying :D
    • Overworld as a Real Scene The small Avatar running on Overworld-map is really cool
    • Visual Effects Polish I like the death-screen much, don't like the plague ( maybe because I missed the reason or nessesity of it or even how to cure)
    • Character Customization I would like to see my hair under a crown or a hat (not everybody looks good like darkstarr with bald head :D )
    • User Interface Polish the old merchant UI is back, huzzah, I can sign to pay again, missed the places for bags at paperdoll
    • Player House Decorations really enjoyed the radio, its irritating that there are still lots of structures (on some walls, tables, cabinets.... ) where I can't place anything , sometimes it seems random to be able or not. We need more lights in houses or outside
    • Summoned Pets What Riya said: Funny to watch Violations pet went against him two times :D Love the fire-pet much, think the ice-pet could be a bit more transparent and shiny
     
  18. Sophi

    Sophi Avatar

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    Unfortunately I had limited time to play this release, so i will just touch on those items i had experience with:

    Stability was not so great for me, game still crashed an aweful lot (running a new imac) - however i did not uninstall/reinstall from last release, so i might have had an easier time of it if i had done that. Crashed mostly when zoning - Ardoris was a chore to load, crashed a couple times before i could get in.

    The scenery is really great in all the finished-looking areas, loving it! (One request? Could you put a few more stars in the night sky? That would be so great if you could!)

    Ardoris is very impressive... and there are different things to look at here and there (love the giant statue!) .... but much of it is awefully repetitive.... i still think some small parks - maybe some with fountains, or some flowerbeds, tucked here and there would be a nice addition. You could lose one house every so often to put a little neighborhood park in - or... if that's just not do-able, how 'bout window boxes with flowers? If you've ever been to the cities in Switzerland -- they might be piled up together -- but many of them have window boxes full of flowers that makes the place much less austere. (Of course you may be going for just straight austere with Ardoris - if so, you've definitely succeeded!!!)

    For the monsters... some seemed awfully glitchy still - spiders/bears stuck in rocks (Hills) - and the Lich Archer down in the Challenge dungeon was weirdly glitchy, got stuck in the floor, wasnt taking damage, then suddenly died - but the doors didn't open. We wandered all around in case we had missed a critter - but nothing, so we weren't able to go further.
    However, the critters/monsters are looking good! For example, I liked the look of the wolves much better, more realistic imo. The skellies were oooo - very scary! (but the elves are so very, VERY ugly :( yuck! - i know the elves are mostly bad guys in SotA.... but couldnt they be a little bit prettier and still be mean and vicious? lol)

    Combat:
    I really loved that i didnt have to target myself, or even hit the alt key to heal myself in a fight - thank you for that!! I just dont seem to be doing the damage shown on the wep though.. so the wep says 20 dmg, and i'm hitting for 4 or 5 - even with monsters (this is the way it seemed to me, but i didn't write down the exact numbers - i will try to next time). Felt like it was only the occasional crit that let me actually kill stuff.

    The overworld as a real scene was interesting! Never seen that way to get around before - liked it, was fast.. wish i could have used my mouse instead of keyboard to move though - my only problem came when i zoned in or out (many crashes - see above). I like it very much that we can still talk to peeps while in the overworld - also i liked it VERY much that after you zoned home, then zoned back out of your home area, you started back from where you zoned home in the first place - don't know if that was a glitch or what, but i liked it!!

    Visual effects for me have been just really great from when i started playing a couple releases ago and they are only getting better, i like the new gray when you die also. The combat effects are ok - they could be a bit flashier.

    Character customization:
    i definitely like being able to make all these alterations to the basic char face ( a serious flaw in uo to my mind). It adds interest and a more real life feel to the game to see all different looking faces, heights,etc. But don't stop here -- keep up the good work!! Want to be able to have different body builds also, and more hair-do's please!

    Housing:
    The band around the house thing was fine, didnt really bother me... helped a bit to place stuff. I still have 2 main concerns with housing:
    1) walking around the house using the mouse for movement caused me to randomly pick up items and move them, this is especially true with rugs and large furniture items.
    2) lighting, lighting, lighting!!! .. i dont have enough lighting allowed outside or inside... if you are wanting to keep the current lights allowed, then please make some of them brighter! I dont want to have to have a light spell on, or carry a torch in order to move around my house at night.
    On the wireless device.... OMG i loved, loved, loved it!! whoever had that idea is a genius! and thank you to the DJ who played some real upbeat, good music -- thanks guys that was a lovely, juicy little tidbit!

    Sitting: didnt get stuck sitting down even once!! hurray!

    The pre-alpha dialogue was a hoot - omg! LOL Good idea too, it seemed to have made peeps not so ready to complain that the game's not as polished as a completed game should be - arg, i hated that stuff, felt sorry for whoever had to go through all that garbage in the forums last release. So yeah, i liked it.

    Didnt use the mac installer, and oh bother -- i really, really should have! I will next release.

    Ok guys, that's what i've got for you, i might think of some other little thing, but that's the bulk of it - thank you very much for all your work, and i look forward to R11!!
    Have a great day all,
    Sophi

    p.s. Gathering! wow much, much easier than previous releases for sure - definitely headed in the right direction. :) But.... I had a bit of a problem - having to leave combat mode to gather wasn't very easy because there was some glitching happening when going out of combat - many times there would be a significant delay until my non-combat bar came up. So critters are creeping up on me, and i'm standing there waiting to click my gathering tool. Also at a few places (mainly cotton) my char would walk round 'n round the spot without being able to gather the stuff, so a bit glitchy there.

    p.p.s. another mention of Ardoris, one of the posters in this thread was talking about the bareness of the walls there (which i was also mentioning up above in this post) ... have you considered the possibility of graffitti happening? I mean it is a big city, there are teens and all sorts - it would probably have some kind of graffitti. Or maybe you could go with some murals.... just a thought.

    ok lol that's it - i'm hitting the hay!
     
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  19. Silverglade

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    Im going a 4 because a lot of nice additions were made. It felt crisp in more ways when the servers were up. The most annoying thing was the crashing and stuff but having said that I saw Immediate Dev response to the big issues. Id say overall job well done. I would have said a 5 if it was more polished on the crashing part. I like to see the forward progression that's being made keep up the good work. *thumbs up*
     
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  20. AndiZ275

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