[POLL] What is your *overall* rating for this Pre-Alpha Release 9? (UNOFFICIAL)

PvP (Team PvP - Virtue vs Chaos)
Didn't practice team PvP this time around, waiting for future builds.

Combat Systems (Reagents, Combos)
Personally, would prefer not to see reagent-less casting. Bow-fire also needs to be highly interruptable at a point-blank distance; possibly the same for ranged magic. I think combos might work better through some method other than dragging. Say middle-click one glyph, middle-click the second one. (OR shift-click, ctrl-click, alt-click, two button click, etc; whatever works).

Combat Skills (50 new skills, new Tactics line)
Tactics makes much more sense than a "medium armor" skill, since its hard to think of the skills that were there as particularly specialized to medium armor; they're also useful to light armor and heavy armor.

Scenes (Ardoris, Blackblade Pass)
Adoris was nicely done. It should be said that one of the reasons it looks so nice is because row house lots are constrained to specific styles and you can't place wacky wizard towers, druid trees, and other things that would seem out of place. Not to stir up trouble about this: its just that someone had to say it. I think the scene needs a lot of improvements to make it seem less sterile, not just in terms of NPC activity, but also in terms of decoration. It makes sense to have lights on the docks, for instance, so the docks seem more a place of activity. Some places could use more trees, shrubs, or hedges.

New Creatures (new mimic, ice elemental)
I like the look of the barrel mimic much better than I do the chest mimic, even; I've very happy about it. Somewhat wish the chest mimic would look more like the barrel mimic... its currently fun, but too goofy-lookin'.

Intro Cinematic
Was nicely done, although a lot of valid objections have been raised about it on the forums.

Character Customization (nose, ear, hair)
Nice so far, still needs a lot of work.

Minimap System
Very good that they made maps inventory items that are purchasable and possibly craftable. I see a lot of possibilities about expanding the gameplay aspects of this, both on the crafting end -- writing notes on the map and slipping them into books -- and on the adventuring end -- showing the location of nearby sounds and presences that the player has detected. I still hope they make it possible for a player to get lost and lose his GPS until he re-orients himself.

Consumables (potions)
Potion system from the dev notes I'm assuming is still under work. Would like to see different sized containers that have different number of uses (charges), ie phials (1), bottles (4), decanters (10). I didn't playtest it, so I can't be sure how it works in game. Personally, I think the devs should be careful to make it not too easy to drink potions in the middle of hand-to-hand combat, and make potion drinking interruptable, so a player has to get some distance from the attacker. (Is this the case already?) In general, I think encouraging players to maneuver around during combat is a good thing, so combat becomes about more than just mashing (and discarding) the glyphs that pop up.

Books (premade e.g. instructions, Fire Lotus journals, etc)
Nice. The book interface still needs to be worked on though, to make it easier to navigate books. Flipping through books by thumbing through the thickness would be nice, as well as bookmarks. I elaborated on this in another thread. I'm kind of wondering if the names attributed in the Cave Fable books will stay as forum nicks or will be updated with player names or other names given by the players.

Default Decks
Didn't use them. I went straight to building my own deck.

Player Lot Item Limits
Didn't test that much decorating this time around.

 

I gave the release a 2, but this is not to reflect the state of the game, but in comparison to the previous release.
I'm torn on the Team PvP subject. I think I'd preffer being able to revive players on the battlefield as it adds strategy and right now it takes one spell out of the game. I kind of dislike the way combos are handled, since it massively screws the 'Dallas-players'. I preffer the new deck system, but up until now I could always tell people, you have the valid option to use the 'old' system if you preffer that. This is no longer the case now. And to be honest, I'm not a fan of having to drag and drop and then click a skill either.
For the combat skills, I'm likely to catch fire, but I simply can't help myself. I'm both a roleplayer and a fan of diversity. I can not ever imagine Tracy Hickman granting Caramon a thicker skin (more armour protection) because of profiency with a Battle Spear and five different ways in different 'trees' to increase the same stat doesn't really show a diverse system, just as an example. I'm well aware that this is 'destructive criticism', but I don't want to derail the thread though making suggestions here, so please bear with me. I'd be all up to provide meaningfull, roleplaying alternatives for the skills. Ardoris was a total drag performance wise for me and I had a lot more hiccups in general than I used to have in R8. At one point in time I spent 20 minutes trying to shop at a merchant., which is a point I dislike as well. I absolutely love the idea of shops running out of goods and offering items players sold there, but please do not make me browse through 100 iron longswords and instead put them as iron longsword (100), if you do not save quality anyway (like it seems to be the case). The interface went horribly unresponsive for me there. While I really like the graphics of the Ice Elemental, it's use is... limited. The Into Cienmatic is very well done, but it seemed to lag out my client massively upon starting.
The fact that I entered the sewers only to take one step and have another 3 minutes loading screen didn't help either. Nor that they are interconnected with miles and miles inbetween? And I had simply way too many a crash/hiccup, when in all previous releases the game worked stable for me.

 

I ran into the loading environment bug numerous times and each time the only way I could continue was delete my character and start over. This is the first release where I had so many bugs I just gave up.
Overall with the modest time I actually got to play I found myself somewhat confused by the decks and I felt like I was being pushed into PvP which is something I will sometimes play but it is not something I really like.
I know that if I were forces to PvP I would drop.
I think that the next release should be delayed until it is ready, really ready and until the increasing number of bugs are fixed.

 

Well the focus of R9 was again combat focused, but there were plenty of other activities. Plus, R10 is scheduled to be a polish release, where they concentrate on bug fixing and polishing the game.

Thanks everyone for the votes so far and keep the excellent feedback coming!

 

Combat Systems: Combat in R9 seemed less fluid than in R8 for some reason...I think they added cooldowns on upcoming spells was the cause...
Combat Skills: Still sold on the Fire/Air tree for my playstyle, but hoping to see more depth and options in each of the trees. They are a little basic for my gameplaying style. I want to see trees that allow you to customize your spells and make your character's combat more interesting...
Scenes: Adoris was pretty nice...But looked fairly similar to Kingsport to me...Hoping to see some scenes that are completely unique from each other eventually...
New Creatures: Loved the Barrel Mimic...Hoping to see many many more creatures to fight. Right now the amount of different creatures is pretty small...
Character Customization: More nose options was an improvement...Still disappointed in characters completely (very ugly). Same Beards (Very plastic and short), Same Hair...Holding my breath for much better Characters...
Minimaps: Very nice...I liked them...Hoping to see more interactivity with them...like when my character opens a map you can see him getting out a scroll and the map coming up...
Potions: Disappointing that they count as a glyph rather than a hotbar item. Don't want to have to lock down things like this on a combat bar. Doesn't feel right to me...Wanted to be able to craft them too...Awaiting impatiently for crafting and harvesting to move forward ...
Overland Map: Still seems restrictive to me. I can't move my character fluidly on the map...feels like I'm stuck alot of the time. Hoping that eventually we can move where we point no matter what. Also, want scenes that match where I am on the map. I don't see ocean when I click on the ocean scene...Hoping these things are in the works...

 

I did not mean to vote a 2 in this poll, but for what it's worth, I will list my absolute pet HATES from the current build:

• When I want to walk, I don't want to type in the chat window!
• "wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" etc. ad naueseum
• I shouldn't have to close the chat window 3 times to be able to walk
• When I want to type, don't start opening random windows!
• I shouldn't have to click on the text line 3 times to use the text entry
• Being stuck in combat mode, the target is dead and my weapon is sheathed - what else do I have to do to access my toolbar?
• Casting the heal spell makes the female avatar's face look hideous
• In this release, the game crashed a few too many times for my liking, though a bit less when I changed back to 32 bits

I'd probably change my vote to a 3 or 4 if I could. I'm enjoying the deck system, I think it makes a big difference to your impression if you've been able to find a successful deck build that works for you.

PvP (Team PvP - Virtue vs Chaos) - I like the PvP but I didn't get to try the team element, the team arena was empty every time I went there
Combat Systems (Reagents, Combos) - I liked the combos when I eventually figured out how to use them, this instruction could have been included in the ingame book on combos. Can't really comment on reagents
Default Decks - This certainly cuts down the learning curve to get started in combat
Player Lot Item Limits - Makes a lot of sense, hopefully there will be a limit on the number of fountains and thrones of bone PER TOWN, perhaps 1 each?!

 

3

I did not play R7 and R8 - and barely played R9

- Combat - feels more natural (I like the deck system)

- Armor - seems intrusive / due to slugs (makes me want to avoid it) ... so in a sense its counter intuitive to gaming ... I've been condition to waat heavy armor above all else

so I think folks might be discouraged or feel penalised when they realise the slug penalties associated with heavy armor

 

Looks like the Release 9 Feedback Forum is now hidden, so new players that recently played during PAX and Dragoncon can't access the poll except through my signature link. In any case, the poll closes on Friday, so thanks again and good luck everyone!

 

PvP (Team PvP - Virtue vs Chaos)
I took part in serveral fights and was angry about LB camping at our chaos respawn spot and distract our players with his god mode. All together is it a nice idea but we need a seperate arena for it.


Combat Systems (Reagents, Combos)
Don't like amount of reagents you need for a cast. 1 cast cost me around 30 gold. How much has a weapon user to pay for a hit? Had no time to test the combos, have already trouble to keep an eye on my bars(health, focus) and combat bar.

Combat Skills (50 new skills, new Tactics line)
Still miss my chaos spells.

Scenes (Ardoris, Blackblade Pass)
Not finished yet, will have a second look on it in R10

New Creatures (new mimic, ice elemental)
the new mimic is scary, don't like it. Ice element is nice.

Intro Cinematic
Still sit between 2 chairs, it is kind of long and lose me in the first 30 sec but it is great after 1min.

Character Customization (nose, ear, hair)
Tried it out, it is nice but not sure if I will use it.

Minimap System
Don't like the arrow which shows my position. A map is nice but I want to read it on my own. It has to get bigger.

Consumables (potions)
it take much time to take them.

Books (premade e.g. instructions, Fire Lotus journals, etc)
looked nice.

Default Decks
great addition especially for starters.

Player Lot Item Limits
much to low^^ I know they are needed but to low.

 

The poll is now closed and I've randomly chosen a voter to win $25 store credit: congrats to tomelectric!

Thanks everyone and good luck in R10!