R21 First Impressions

Ok first thing's first.. the new skill system.

I expected it to function better than the old system but I never prepared myself mentally for what a real change it is. With the old system I was always keeping track of skill points and waiting for that next level to get more.. checking to see how much the next skill level costs in both gold and points.. now that new system is in I feel like I was suffocating and just didn't notice! The new system feels so much nicer.. more natural and so much less restricting I'm nearly in shock.. in a good way.

Instead of feeling forced to level up to get skill points to maybe get the skill I wanted.. I just unlock it at the trainer the one time and train up at my leisure.

At first I was a little unsure about removing the XP bars.. but the more I'm playing the more I appreciate the fact they aren't there! Instead of calculating levels and skill increases.. you feel your advancement by how challenging things are. Suddenly, even "low level" mobs have a little more value in fighting. If you're training low level skill.. go fight something easy. You no longer see how little XP they are and so that frustration isn't there so much from that feeling you're not improving. Instead of the reward of seeing your overall XP go up.. the reward is seeing your fledgling skills go up.

Combat.. just in a couple hours of fiddling around.. feels much better than R20.. with fixes to weapon ranges mainly. Thank goodness R20 is over in that regard.

Other skill changes.. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to train any base weapon skill. Having some real life training in these things I can say that the very basics of basics aren't that different. If you can swing a sword.. you can swing a mace etc.. Just having all the base skills already there was nice to see.

Current Task Journal.. honestly I'm a little annoyed. I thought we specifically weren't going to have this. Where are the floating arrows and glowing trails? Just the journal itself isn't that big of a deal but I'm talking principle here. We were supposed to get away from all the hand holding.. and what is a task journal if not just that?

Well I've only played for a couple hours now so that's mostly it. I could go on and on about the new skill system.. not only does it feel so much more natural and less restricting but as such opens up all new possibilities for me as a player and RPer that makes it all that much more fun. Needless to say I'm quite happy with R21 right now.

 

ok some further comments..

Spiders are still too over powered. Or at least their poison is. I would like to see some kind of poison résistance innate or something.. the more you're poisoned and don't die the more resistance you build up to it.

Creatures are much faster than they used to be.. which in a way is cool cause you're still faster.. but this effects archery a bit.. disabling shot becomes more valuable an ability.

Agro range is a big much.. especially where archery is concerned.. this was an issue for me in R20 but looks like will be more so in R21. When you draw agro at max bow range or beyond is pretty annoying. You should at least be able to get the first shot off before you're noticed.

 

I've been dieing quite often, and then I seen I have only 50 hp and 40 focus, and I jumped for joy when I hit 3 in polearm... I knew it would be hard, but this is worse than complete wipe, not that I'm complaining, I've only played an hour or two and everything seems to be going up really fast... All, and All, it looks really good...

 

Oh and I couldn't help but notice the new Corpions.. someone on the team has a sense of humor.

 

Yep : https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...y-a-large-corpion-in-the-eastreach-gap.36178/

 

On the matter of spiders, I saw a large wolf spider spit poison at a rabbit and dropped it with that one shot. It looked like it was firing a laser or something.

 

We had a poison resist and other resistances we could increase. I don't see them anymore. Where did they go?

 

"Fire Proof", "Blue Blooded", "Well Grounded" still exist in their respective skill trees.


Don't recall ever seeing a "Poison Resistance" skill though... That would be pretty handy against spiders.

 

Check your character stats in game

 

Aye. But there is no *skill* that increases it.

I foresee a potion of some sort in the future, perhaps ?

 

Good opening post. I shared similar experiences.

The exception is with the journal. My feeling is that a journal with text recording what I learned is a far cry from glowing arrows and explanation points on screen. A quest journal is as reasonable a thing for a character to carry on them as a sword or inventory bag is. In fact, quest journals are quite iconic I think (I think of characters like Indiana Jones having that sort of book, which he did). That the game fills out that journal text for me, vs. requiring me to write it on my desk, is a positive I think. Because it is convenient and also a behavior that I would expect of my character. For those that want to do it themselves, remember you don't have to use the game's version. A player can always choose to never look at that journal and instead write all of their notes personally using another tool.