Angry? Let it be! Let it be KNOWN!

So glad to hear I'm not the only spider hater here. If they get nerfed I can totally see myself griefing them for revenge. This the only 'angry' part of my post.

I've just now started to play enough to feel like I have a basis for some opinions and there are some frustrating things about the pre-alpha game. One of the things I was hoping for in this game was a deep/complex crafting system. But to me this means a diversity of ingredients and recipes, and some opportunity for experimentation, not just more clicks to make something. This sort of applies to the UI in general. Moving items about is unnecessarily painful, and as has been said, the mechanism to move things from one place to another might not be the same mechanism to move them back.

It's also not clear what the progression intent is. I've basically gotten to Adventure level 19 in two areas because I'm outmatched pretty much every other place. Going on the grand tour shows me that I don't belong in most of those areas until much higher levels. This might work when all the content is put in, but right now it feels super grindy right now. My increased levels don't seem to make me that much more powerful; at least, not enough to go 'adventuring'.

The overland map remains a bit confusing. Hopefully it will be come more integrated with the instances and have more purpose than simply to be walked. As it is now, I'd rather just fast travel everywhere; it doesn't add to much to my experience. A lot of the things we feel nostalgic about from older games were mechanics that had to be used to overcome technical limitations; that doesn't necessarily mean they were better. While I think we've lost some of the great complexity games used to have in an attempt reach a broader audience with games, some of the advancements in mechanics really are advancements.

Instances themselves seem claustrophobic. Maybe I just haven't reached the areas where things really open up.

Deck combat is sort of 'meh'. It's slightly novel, but not terribly innovative relative to a standard hotbar system. I was hoping they would jettison the hotbar altogether and show us something new.

And here's a gripe I'm sure will make me a lot of friends: No voice acting. Even if it were going to be in the game, I wouldn't expect it at this stage of development, but playing through this pre-alpha reminds me of how spoiled I am by modern gaming and how much voice acting adds to my experience.

This game is actually much further along in the 'pre-alpha' stage than some games I've beta tested. However, my experience with most betas is that despite everyone going around saying 'it's only beta, things will change' not much really changes. I'd be really surprised if the Dev team scrapped any major systems at this point and started from scratch to make something better. But if any team could do it, its this one (lots of talent there). I backed kickstarter just to see what they would do. Ultima III basically got me hooked on RPGs to begin with.

Most importantly: make spiders weak to fire so I can watch them burn!

 

It's interesting to note that they just did that.

Upto R20 we had a skill point system. Now it's use-based.

One of the fundamental, most critical aspects of the game has just been refactored from the ground up.

Just sayin'.

 

This is to be fixed this next patch. Fingers crossed.

 

Fair enough. To be honest, it felt more like a restructuring of a current system to me as they are sort of assigning points through activity rather than player allocation, but it was definitely a subsantial overhaul. I'd love to be surprised and see them throw out the hot bar with something new.

 

Welcome mass. I really enjoyed your write up. Oh yes the woahs of no voice acting. Well it is a quiet game and truly """sounds""" are mostly placeholders. The creatures, environment and so much is missing the details to bring it alive. We have some terrific voices in the community which has been offered and mentioned, but alas no so far for that. I am majoria in the game if you ever need help. The map will start to get easier to navigate over time. Don't forget the boats you see on the map for going to other places and if you have a house don't forget to click the 'u' key outside of the chat window to zone to your lot. You have to highlight the lot first though. Also I am majoria in the game and the add friend option is 'f' and the emotes are 'o', skills are 'k', with journal as 'j' and character 'c' and inventory 'i'. You can use list mode or bag mode. You probably discovered most of that but just in case.

 

This is supposed to be fixed in today's update, yet I still CAN'T craft repair kits.

 

I'm Angry also... I just don't know about exactly what... Maybe its that all these houses are locked and I can't steal anything yet.

 

I have come here to wine. Or ale. Whichever works fastest.

I was pretty happy before the last release. Since then, though, I've been nothing but frustrated. Struggling along, tonight I realized that I am definitely NOT having fun with the game. Instead of getting better, it's getting worse --- for me. <big sigh> I'm confused now about what's happening behind the scenes. Just want to go bang my head on the wall.

 

Fireball is STILL broken, it does little to no damage no matter the level and the DOT wont work at all.

Death Field? hahah! Surprise YOUR dead, it should at least cost less stamina at lower levels... This is where the gust ball comes in handy and I defend its use to gain skills.

Fire arrow.. pretty low damage Dot seemed better at first but now i dunno... Fiery decay is still somewhat effective But I dont see that skill that raises fire damage actually raising damage?

Alot of spells dont get better as you level them.
**we dont know if there going to change on way higher levels or not but we also dont know the skill pool either so...

There are not alot of "great" spells to use in PVP or DUELS really and some take too long to cast(ex.immolation) and yes (ex.stone fist)there not so good( also you need to use every spell and have them at almost 100 to be as useful as before ...i just hope skill decay plus total available skill pool wont ruin magery ...

Summoning creatures takes along time .. very very long time to raise in level AND they die before you can get them in a fight.. or in a few hits alot of times.. so "not much" help there.

Banish undead* Im afraid to say it because someone will want to make it suck.. but hey its pretty good right now... Combine that with the water spell ?calming rains was it? makes holy water(my words) and it wont work half the time and only during the first half of the rain*add in skele archers and mages who run from you all the time and = not much help... but it does heal and works ok in groups of skele swordsmen.. cant wait to try it out a control point with a large group of friends of course... Try it before its nerfed!!

*Some spells were at 95+ percent chance of success but they failed alot more than they should have...
BROKE*Earthquake: will sometimes do nothing on a successful cast.
BROKE?*Chain lightning.. does such little damage and wont even do damage vs. 2nd, 3rd creatures.
BROKE?*Stealth and Vanish: spells cannot be used in combat and going near even low level creatures reveals you...
BROKE*Mirror image: does not show your title on second image, will not go into combat stance, and if you go out of combat it still holds wand or weapon if you had one while casting .. not sure what its for even...looks cool people thought it was a glitch even.

*Ring of fire: Im about to raise it , it actually looks good! crossing fingers.

*Ignite weapon: I use a wand so I avoided it but I have to get it to get ring of fire.. ill see if it works with a wand.. and maybe it will help alot to use everything in combination(if it works with wands)... Mage deck is really full though ...Can we get a second skill bar tactic skill? I havnt put thought into that just would be nice for all the spells...

*Summon skeleton mage: Was really cool after wipe I could summon it on a rock and blast things or nail things that were up high on ledges or mountain passes. Now it says 0 damage... I had "fun" doing it now its useless because that thing dies sooo fast in combat. And hey if you can not hurt them?? why can they hurt you from a distance like that... NOT COOL. its not. (was upsetting to see people with their tamed bears after the skill wipe and get the mage nerfed so bad)

*Sun magic... I have yet to play with it. Searing ray seemed pretty bad before but I need to try it out.. Ill build it up with ring of fire and maybe post about it all later.. Also curious about *BLIND spell and actuall effectiveness.
*Ice and Earth arrows: i regret to not have tried playing with yet this round. Last time i was not impressed so i went for what worked for me... Ill build them now and try them again...

*Corpse explosion was a fun treat and you can use it on skeleton corpses now just dont loot your corpses right away haha.. Also since they lowered the amount of damage it does while low level i didnt want it in my deck anymore.. but it was sometimes handy in the right situations when it did 50 damage to all the creatures who were close to it.. sounds like alot of damage but against bears and such it was hardly a dent.

*death touch, death ray: no strong opinions yet, i just dont use them because to test them at all they need to be 100.. death ray is used to make fiery arrow however which as i said works nice only because it has a long DOT...
*Gust: seems to be good for tactical situations and i dont use it yet
*discharge: is low level of damage with a 50 percent chance to stun no matter the level of the spell. BUT It does not stun at all I think and with the low level of damage i just stopped using it for now.
*lightning: got useful around level 60 its only at 70 now and does 6-32 damage.. not so bad but slightly costly in stamina and 6 min is a little low?? yes it is.
*Blink: is fun to use but theres alot of objects you can click on that will stop you from using it successfully in needed situations and waste your stamina..
*Ice field: Was good last round I havnt used it this time around... But its description says +30 percent movement speed. that sounds kind of wrong...it slows multiple targets around caster it says as well.
*Root: Says slows target down but as of right now it actually holds someone in place .. with roots
GLITCH OR BROKEN?*Animal charm: Use it enough times and It made me invincible to the animal a few times. (fix fireball first or the skeletons at the ruined keep, omg alot of those things heal as you fight them and they have been like that forever. or fix the ghost and the red spiders)
*Healing grace: Can sometimes blind you if casted in or very near first person view.
Nightsight: Sometimes not so good with healing grace. Hope it will show hidden doors one day.


I disagreed with someone who said a mage should be all powerful but if there going to be so hard to raise their skills then yes in the end they should be.. I was hoping balanced but im thinking archery and magery should be more rewarding now. And those who are fighters with heavy armor and use magery with reagents get the advantage because there rich and can buy reagents all the time.. well my eyes are dancing around as i try to keep them open here.. im off to bed thanks for reading and can't wait to come back and hear any comments, haha lol
This took about two hours and its 330 am :O

Thanks for having patience with my attempt to share opinions on magery.

 

Great feedback, Royce....

Some of the stuff you touched on, I have experienced as well.

Point by point:

Absolutely correct.... Below is a short video showing Fire Ring doing it's proper DoT, while Fireball (which is supposed to have DoT) has absolutely no DoT.

Death Field has been nerf'd completely. Big focus cost, near zero benefit....

Fiery Decay has it's Dot, but I have not really looked at the damage numbers yet - so can't comment on those...
Gut feeling (which comes from using it a LOT for many releases) is that it's been "toned down" a bit..
What I am seeing with Fiery Decay, is that the initial hit is not nearly as powerful as in past releases....
Stuff just keeps gettin' nerf'd.

It works, but the damage done is significantly reduced from prior releases.

Before I go further, here's where I'm currently at in the Earth and Fire trees:


With what I currently have in both Earth and Fire, I should be seeing appropriate damage numbers from both - and they're just not there.

Seems to work "as advertised" for me so far.... DoT is there and seems pretty normal.

Death Touch does significantly less than prior releases.
Death Ray does less than Death Touch ( at the same level in each )...
Death Field? A sad joke.........

The entire tree is almost worthless at this time, Death Touch near the top of the tree doing more than everything below it....
My Death tree:

 

I dislike the fact all numbers are hidden from us even down to such core things such as exp gains from monsters and progress towards our next level. (really? Thats just shady..)

I dislike the fact that all the other core information is purposely so vague, like what "attack skill" does, etc.

I dislike this new penalty that randomly makes us waste hours of our time grinding, giving us no skill gains or exp gains randomly, on top of the already massive grind of levelling in the first place, together with the fact there are still wipes and that the aforementioned exp gain numbers have been hidden from us as this new system has come in. I really dislike this fyi.

I dislike the fact that for the 2-3 years in development so far, that not one bone has been thrown for (consensual) pvp'rs, that the entire 100% of the game (besides just zones to do pvp in) is made for pve and that us pvp'rs cant even have one unique system for pvp because our pve overlords think that the entire game has to revolve around them, for some reason.

I dislike the fact that the skills and skill trees are still so imbalanced, years after release, from melee gods to mage gods back to melee gods...

I dislike the fact that the ranged skill tree is, still, the only weapon skill tree to not be done which also means it doesnt have its 1 aoe skill, having to rely on currently nerfed into the ground magery for aoe.

I dislike the fact that at the top of pvp, that when you are beaten, low health, no focus, you can just spam tap soul and healing grace all day and never die if you know half of what you are doing.

I dislike the fact that Portalarium just seems to want to make this game The Sims Multiplayer with monsters (because of the amazing potential this game has that is being ruined or wasted atm, imo)

I really dislike the general design decisions and direction of this game from what i have seen so far and for the reasons mentioned above and the companies priorities or lackthereof.

 

I dont like the fact that staves and wands have no skill tree. I dont like that dmg avoidance up scales with heavier armor rather than the lighter. Also the same as most I am wating for a buff to magic and would like to see an amount (ie dmg/healing etc) increase that scales the further down the tree you go.