Badear's List of R3 Improvement Requests

This is a random list of stuff that is just jumping out at me in need of improvement. In many cases, I don't know what the best solution is, just that it's an annoying mechanic and something that needs love...

This is not meant to be criticism, just general feedback for the sake of giving feedback.

1) Walking speed should increase, it's too slow. Running speed should slow down, it's too fast. Walking seems like it has no useful purpose, and running seems way too fast to me. I believe that if the running speed is lowered, it will also make it reduce some of the delayed visual effects that are currently in game (i.e. ghosting).

Also, from a distance, running people often look like players riding on mounts to me. Again, I think this is due to the speed. Real people don't run that fast that long.

Could we think about having stamina impact running just as it will jumping? Please?

2) When people run, I can't read the names over their heads. When I run, I can't read the names over other people heads. When I'm running and other people are running, I REALLY can't read the names over other people's heads. I can make out some of it, but it requires extra focus that I don't want to devote to name reading.

3) NPC's are really stupid. I understand that there's a reason for this, but the general idiocy of the NPC's is insulting. Here are just some examples off the top of my head.

A. When entering Braemar I'm greeted by a guard who says something like "There are a lot of undead around. If you see any, report back to me about them!" Ok, I get that the quest system is not part of R3, but my observation has nothing to do with questing. What do you mean, "report back to me if you see undead?!" Is this in any way a reasonable response to a PROBLEM with undead in your town?

Hey, I'm out here randomly guarding this tree in the woods. There are probably undead in town killing people. So uh, welcome to Braemar! If you see any undead, strange person that I just met, please let me know because I'm really excited about helping out in those situations. What the?!

B. The same guard as mentioned above talks about "training". So I presume that if I'm interested in learning to use a sword in R4, I'll want to visit this guy and get some "training". Ok, that makes some sense I guess. But he keeps MOVING around! I can't even hold a conversation with the guy because every time I type something he's 100 feet somewhere else. How am I going to train with this guy in R4 if he doesn't stop and let me catch my breath?

C. There's a "witch" by rift portal from Owl's Head going to King's Port. If you talk to her about magic she says things like, "your path is different than mine, traveller". And well, yeah that's fairly obvious since all you do is stand statically in a wood not really having much of a purpose. I mean, the word "path" is used a little bit on the liberal side here, isn't it? It's difficult for me to take the NPC's seriously when they are so static.

3) The screen has too much clutter. Yes, I can press N and remove the names. I can press ESC and remove the chat box and the inventory screens. But then the game is not really playable at that point, is it?

All this stuff on my screen is immersion breaking. How do I already know everyone's name? How do they know my name? And since they already know my name and I know there names, why in the world are we asking each other about names all the time (NPC's)?

I don't know the solution, but I think this needs development love.

4) The chat is not intuitive. Tab 1 and Tab 2, what? (Also, whatever setting you put in your chat it currently resets when you go through a rift or re-enter the game)

It took me a little while to understand what was going on with the chat window. I would recommend making this easier for new people to understand as it will be one of my factors that keeps a player from saying "this stinks" and quitting during the first 10 minutes of play at release.

5) Chests and doors in multiplayer are problematic. My expectation as a player would be that if I open or close a door, other players will know that the door is opened or closed. The same goes with a chest. I realize that this functionality is probably turned off for R3 for a good reason. However, I hope there's a good solution to this issue as I think it both ruins immersion and roleplaying as it's currently implemented.

6) I can hear conversations that I shouldn't be able to hear. I.E. I can hear through walls, down the street, and all over. The chat conversation range is simply too wide. Tone it down and work on not letting chat conversations go through walls.

7) If there are places in the world that we "can't" explore. Please shade them a different color or something. Yes this impacts immersion from a distance, but there's nothing more annoying than running a long distance only to find that an area you thought you would explore is complete closed off. I.E. the woods, the mountains, water, whatever.

Likewise, if I'm going to goto a loading screen because I'm going to another town...warn me first. put a sign up or give me a clue that will happen if I continue down a certain path. I may not want to go to a new zone.

8) The floating names over people's heads are an eyesore. Yet I really want to know who people are and have some sense of community during multiplayer games.

When I turn off the names, the game is infinitely more immersive and enjoyable to look at. But then I'm missing out on key information needed to communication and eventually for PVP. I don't know what the solution is, but there must be something better that we can do to correct this. The names floating over people's heads is really a heavy handed slap in the face of roleplaying, imo.

9) I thought R2 was really amazing. But adding additional people into the world has made R3 a bit of a letdown for me. Not because the game plays that much differently. I found overall performance (from R2 to R3) to be "near" the same with just a little bit of a drop off by Saturday morning.

However, the other people were a big distraction, imo. Everyone just runs around ignoring everyone else (for the most part). I know this is just pre-alpha and there's not many ways to really interact yet. But this is consistent with every MMO I've ever played. People don't talk, people don't roleplay, and people don't SLOW THE FRIG DOWN.

This is another reason I think running is way too fast. This is another reason why having the names floating over people's heads is bad. You have to give people reasons to sit down and talk or to stand around and talk, or to at least interact with each other as they're moving from quest to quest. Please think more about how this can be accomplished - especially when people are moving through heavily populated areas like towns.

Perhaps giving people the option to "join a casual conversation" would be a good mechanic. You could click on a player that you see and a standard message would pop up to them, maybe something like "Badear would like to engage you in a casual conversation!" If you click no, it goes away. If you click yes there is an animation where you face each other while a talking animation repeats. Any other ideas?

10) Maps. There are no maps, and there's no compass. I'm sure this will change soon. I don't I remember hearing about auto maps for towns. But what I wanted to suggest is the idea that maps be created by players. Over time, the maps would get worn and perhaps even "out of date" creating a need to buy more maps. I think this would really be a great addition for explorers, and I found myself really WANTING this as I played R3.

That is all for now. NOTE: It's my hope that many of these items will be addressed over time in future versions of the game. However I still felt the need to address them now versus potentially having the world continue to be developed without these things in mind.

 

I agree that walk is too slow. It looks like slow motion. BUT I hope they don't decrease running speed. I'm sure this game will include exactly one butt-load of running back and forth, here and there, and I want to be able to get that done quickly.

 

I heard or read somewhere that you can get from one side of the world to the other in 30 minutes (using the travel map). With that in mind, running can be turned down without a big hit on convenience.

 

I meant in towns and dungeons, etc. I just don't like anything that makes things slower or more tedious.

 

Right, I know what you meant, and I realize that this is a playstyle issue to some degree. BUT, it's a multiplayer game. If running super fast makes the game less like a multiplayer game (and I would argue strongly that it does) then I would think the devs would seriously consider turning it down to a slower pace, as well as having stamina impact running speed and even the ability to continue to run at all.

 

Stamina might be all right; especially if I can grow my stamina with experience or skill points.

Also, slowing the running speed a tad, but having an option to turn it back up in single player would suit me fine.

 

I think this compromise is very reasonable. I could certainly care less what happens in single-player mode as it doesn't impact other players or roleplaying in any way.

 

A comment on walk and run.

If one was to transcribe running and walking to the real world, they would find out that running is equivalent of driving a vehicle a moderate speed (> 50km/hr - 30MPH) and walking is about a moderate run speed.

It is really all about balance, balance in convenience - e.g getting the player somewhere in a reasonable time for game play and not make it a frustration. As such, run and walk speed are highly subjective to each player taste.

No-one want realistic speeds of walk and run as it frankly would be boring most of the time going to and fro. On the other hand, too fast and it defeats the purpose of having large maps and make the world appear too small.

In addition, with the forthcoming VR products (which _was_ a stretch goal at one point and which Unity supports and could eventually be incorporated in the game) the issue of apparent speed is greatly amplified.

Solution? probably pooling by the devs and taking the greatest average of votes on a scale.

 

Perhaps a solution could be to only show a name plate on mouseover, and furthermore only show the name (other than a generic) once you _know_ the person, npc, character after interacting with them and asking their names?

That would go a long way in improving immersion and neatly solve the licence plate issue.

 

Yes, I think that makes sense. But keeping with the theme of an "easy solution" for development. It might even be better if people didn't know your name unless you were on their friends list OR you had already been introduced. I really don't see that as a lot of extra coding (it doesn't seem like it would be anyway).

The logic would be something like...

If Player X = Known then Show_Name.
ELSE
Hide_Name.

If Player X = Introduced then set Player X = Known.

Or whatever...

The reason this system might get "complicated" is that you'd then run into a problem where you've interacted with people before but you still never got introduced (maybe because they didn't want you to know their name). So you would need a way to name the people yourself. For example if I don't know your name and you refuse to introduce yourself, then I might name you "Refusing Man" as a way to remember you the next time we meet.

I'd LOVE to see a system like that. But my fear is that it would become too complicated for episode I.

 

Doesn't the ability to walk on the travel map give players all the "fast travel" they need though. Don't want to walk and run at a moderate speed? Then just goto the travel map and boom, you're wherever you want to be quick.

I really don't see the need to RUN at full speed in the middle of a tavern, or inside of a town. These are community areas, and meant for roleplaying. How am I going to roleplay with people that are running faster than I can type? There are very good reasons why roleplaying doesn't usually occur in most MMO's...and running is at the top of the list.

 

Frankly, they can saunter away at a snail's pace. If they don't stop as soon as I start typing, they're gonna be gone before I'm done regardless. Does that mean I'm quite verbose or a poor typer? I'll never tell.

 

Both?

 

My secret's out!

Run Away! Run Away!

 

The more I played R3, the more I squinted to see the names before they ran away from me.

 

I'll add Ned's list here too! No need for a new thread!

1. Clicking a player name in the chat window to send them a tell/invite/whatever. Sometimes they are off screen by the time you get to type their name in. Might be due to run speed
2. Dual Wield coming? I know one of the main characters in the novel uses a main gauche, how about me too?
3. Q + E key needs to have a speed control for turning. I don't like using the mouse for turning, I prefer to use the keyboard.
4. Mini-map or just a plain old map tool. I'd definitely like it to be capable of player annotation so I can add my own points of interest.
5. Gold shown on paper doll should look like a stack of gold pieces. Cosmetic, but I think it would look better.
6. Emotes to selected target (i.e. - You toast Lord Butternubs; you blow a kiss to Lady Quietbottom; etc.) adding sounds for emotes too....
7. An achievement system to keep the game going after the plot is gone. All kinds of exploration, kill and goal oriented achievements.
8. Zoning is only via road or moongate right now; is this how it's going to be? If so, I see huge camping/ganking in the future of PvP for this game....
9. The interior of chests and the paperdoll are too dark, or just don't contrast against the equipment in them. I can't even see the items; they blend way too well....

Just my two cents! Had a great time this weekend! Cheers!