My limited impressions with R5 - Also, I'm kind of sleepy..

Disclaimer - I have not spent an inordinate amount of time with R5.

First off, keep going guys! We are going to get to an amazing game eventually.

However..

I just didn't find any reason to keep play testing it, which is why my time with it is a little low. Here are some reasons why:

1) Did something break or happen with the chat/social aspect!? I was on forever saying Hello to people, asking things and NEVER had a single person respond to me. It was like I was in a weird dream.

2) I am not sure I understand the keyword underline system? I ask NPC's things that are underlined and they do not respond at all. So I stopped trying to make actual sentences and then just started typing in single words to evoke a response, which I feel like we were trying to avoid?

3) THE SOUNNDDDDD OF SILENCE..... So I turned the music down, sorry it was getting very repetitive, and the game gets eerie quiet. No UI sounds when I click buttons etc. World sounds very spaced out and odd. I was running around town in almost complete silence except for my feet shuffling sound. Adding things like a simple CLICK sound when going through menus, gumps, signs, etc. would go a long way towards feeling the interaction.

4) FOR SALE signs. I feel like if a hows is claimed the for sale should go away, minor but something I noticed. Its not for sale anymore is it? And would have make me have a lot less silent clicking on plots to see if it was claimed or a default house..

5) XP INCREASE!? For the love of all things, make the dang Experience bar go up when we kill something. It's an RPG thats rule #1! It doesn't have to DO anything.. GET anywhere, just add up. This should be extremely simple to add in. It's simple, its pointless - but its that tick that makes people want to keep going and exploring looking for bugs etc. Progression.. even pointless is something.

6) GRAPHICS, I realize we are still early so take everything with grain of salt. I don't want to complain about it too much because we are so early in the life cycle. But you must realize if you keep expanding content and trying to grow this, then we are going to start judging more critically as it starts to feel more like a game and not a feature play test (even though technically it still is). The frame rate is still a big issue for me. I leave another game with Ultra settings on and maxed frame rate, then I try R5 and it feels very sluggish. Like I am playing in jello or something..As I look around I feel like things are just "placed" and don't really feel like part of the environment. If you look at the base of trees and particularly the statues in the Mine/mountain area they just 'sit' on the ground and don't seem to come from the ground or truly rest in the environment. This takes away from the immersion a lot. Some dark shadowing, grass, or other methods of melding the progression from one model to the other would go a long way. I digress.

7) COMBAT. Hmmm.. Honestly I probably shouldn't say much as its so basic. But I am surprised that we could just put a skill in slot 1 and slam 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 repeatedly crazy fast and instant kill things. That should have been caught? I no longer cared about combat as I just spam killed things and move on. I did enjoy how when the carcasses sunk into the ground the name went with it and you would slowly see it sink away as well. Different, small - but liked.

Ok, just some tired rambling.. maybe I'll grammar check this later.. I'm off!

Best wishes,
Brenton

 

1.) I noticed this as well. The thing is the chat window vanishes and most peeps don't know how to bring it back. And it doesn't pop back up when people talk around you in local. So unless someone has figured out how to pin it (pin facing down) on the little stickpin, then it will just go poof and they'll not even see what you are typing to them. Also other people are trying to figure out crafting, etc, not sitting there waiting for someone to say something. Heck, they're probably said something and got no response and were wondering why no one is talking to them.

2.) I've found that you usually need to have the npc selected, which will put a highlighted circle under them, to get them to respond to what you say to them in local. Then you can either click on the keywords or type them in the context of a sentence. I've also noticed that the default chat window size is way, way too small for most of the NPCs responses, and you have to manually increase the size, or it zips right by with all the other spam. Especially in multiplayer where other people are talking to other NPCs in local, or other NPCs are just yapping away, clogging up your chat box. Wading through a conversation at the moment can be very annoying and frustrating.

3.) There are a limited number of sound files at the moment being pre-Alpha. This is to be expected.

4) FOR SALE signs. I agree. They should blank when sold.

5) XP INCREASE!? I agree here as well. Even if we don't 'level' up, the number should have went up with each quest completed or monster kill, whatever. The problem I think is that people got very bored very quickly and logged out. This also translated into a housing shortage as 90% of the people logged in, claimed a house, did nothing with it, logged out, (and didn't unclaim the houses) and that was that.

6) GRAPHICS. It'd say the gameplay needs to be solid first and the eye candy worked on later.

7) COMBAT. It's the first time skills are in the revision. Some things are expected to be under/overpowered. All shall be adjusted as time rolls on.

 

Like I said, take my comments with a grain due to the current revision..but in response

1) I agree. I like how ESO is currently doing it when you tab away from the box the box fades but the text still appears when someone types unless you minimize it.
2) I know how the selection works, lol. This was with NPC's selected.
3) It's a click sound. If someone can't find time to put a click sound in..well.. find it!
4) We are in agreement!
5) Again!
6) I understand but I explained my reasoning with them trying to expand upon content before even completing the game loop. If they go that route, then they get to be criticized on it!
7) My comment wasn't on mechanics, but on the simple fact they didn't put in a catch to not allow you to mash a number repeatedly.

All is well, just some observations on why my interest wasn't really enough for me to continue to play test this time around. Maybe next release!

Cheers.