-Aet- Areks Goblin Squad Member |
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First off... thank you Goblinworks! Even in the Alpha state, the game is entertaining and I've played for about 15 hours now.
We've come a long way since the technology demo.
So, first off... right out of the gate, everything is a little clunky... its an Alpha, I get it. It was not too hard to get my bearings. Once I found out CTRL (Run) was a toggle, not a hold, I was good to go.
I've heard others say that that the "look" feature and "turn" feature were off a bit, but they were slightly slower than a FPS for me which is just right for an MMO that I am playing.
So now I go to train. What do I train? I want to be a fighter/rogue. I press F11 and bring up the "I forget what its called window". The window basically tells you the things you need to do to get achievements. So I look at Fighter 1.
I'm not sure why, but the details of Fighter 1 appear in a transparent window behind the F11 window, so they are kinda hard to make out... but you can move the F11 window. More on this in a sec.
So I go to the fighter trainer and want to train me some fighter feats. There's a big list of feats. So I hover over one. Nothing. I click on it. Still nothing. In game, before you purchase the feat, no information about said feat is displayed. I open up F11 and match two of them up and purchase.
I purchase all the stuff necessary from the fighter trainer and head over to the Dreadnaught trainer. I purchase everything I need from the Dreadnaught trainer. No achievement or anything pops up. I press F11 and go over the list again. I think I've bought everything... but there is really no way to tell.
Instead of having that transparent word bubble appear for the requirements for role achievements, I think a color coded bullet list would be more suitable. When I press F11 and click on Fighter 1, all the requirements should expand below it. If I have satisfied a requirement, it can be green. If I haven't but it is available to me for purchase, it can be yellow. If I can't purchase it yet, (for whatever reason) it can be red.
Now for the trainers... you can't move the trainer window. Its locked... or I didn't know where to grab it or how to unlock it.
Once in the trainer, hovering over the feat should give you some clue as to what it does via a text wrap version of the transparent word bubble we have for the F11 window. Clicking on it should give you the full low down on what buying that feat does. Clicking "False Edge 2" should tell me what the attack is and what the increase is compared to "False Edge 1". If "False Edge 2" increases my STR by .33 it should say that there. If False Edge 2 is a requirement for "Fighter 5" it should say that.
The Unavailable Feats tab does a decent job of this, but I'd still like more information.
At this point I tabbed out and started bringing up various guides. (Thanks to everyone that made those possible!) I figured out where I wanted to go with my character and tabbed back over... crashing the game for some reason.
Reloaded that game, went out, killed some stuff, harvested some stuff. Collision is turned on for the harvesting nodes which I thought odd... until I was pulling some mobs via ranged attack and backed right up against a log node and 4 melee mobs were on me. After a second or two, I jumped over it and thought, "Wow that was a pain in the butt." but I kind liked the idea of having to be aware of my surroundings.
There is some weird mouse recenter thing going on that is annoying during combat and lead to me looking at my character and having to move the camera to see the mobs and where I was going again. At first I thought this was due to lag or a simple glitch, but it happened quite frequently during my time playing... but only occurred during combat.
Aside from that, combat was smooth PvE wise. There is a little delay... not sure from what, but the mobs are slow to react, which could be attributed to a "surprise round" and after mobs are dead, if you have an attack queue, it still goes off. No issue at all from my perspective.
So I gathered and killed and gathered and killed. Time to try my hand at crafting. Or refining. Well, from the looks of it, they are identical, but they aren't. I had enough stuff to refine a stave and twine for a bow, but no varnish. I will say this, even in Alpha... the whole crafting/refining system is robust. The recipe drops are a little skimpy and you have to know where to go to harvest and what to kill to salvage, but over all, not too shabby and has LOTS of potential.
Why do some folks have a red triangle to the right of their health bar? No idea.
I accidentally clicked a question mark while trying to trade and ended up smacking the person trying to give me a bow. That was awkward. A bit of a slight panic on my part... I didn't know if I was gonna get attacked or what, but it took me a moment to whisper an apology. It'd be nice to be able to "lock-sheath weapons" in town and turn it off later once you know what you are doing.
So I'm a clicker... I like to click my hot bar buttons. The primary / secondary weapons swapper in between the 1-3 and 4-6 keys is VERY annoying.
Trade. Trade was bugged in town so we had to leave town to trade. After I accepted, there was like a post-accept offer thing that you had to click as well. I don't know what the function of that was besides having you reconfirm your trade.
All in all, I had fun... lots of fun. No PvP because I wanted to be able to visit town. I'll probably test it out next weekend.
I'm sure most of the stuff I mentioned above has already been mentioned by someone else and they'll get around to changing some things based on their priority and I'm totally fine with that. Most things, like trade in Callambea being bugged, are annoying at best and none of which significantly impaired the ability to play the game. The game is very playable in its current state. It won't knock your socks off, but the ground work for most things is there.
What I did notice is this... the primary content currently is PvE and Escalations. Now PvE is fun but in its current state gets very repetitive very quickly. Now I know once there are merchants and storage and loot drops from PCs, that PvP will increase, but if you want to be welcomed in town, you're kind of handcuffed.
PFO was marketed as a game where players would be each others content. I'm hoping War of the Towers will bring more PvP content to the table. Still, a large portion of the players that are invested in their Settlement will be primarily defensive wanting to ensure their settlements get every edge that they can for OE. I hope that PvP is encouraged in other ways as well to off-set the redundancy of PvE this early on.
While I am a bit concerned, the progress that Goblinworks has made thus far is very encouraging and I cannot wait for EE to kick off!
-Areks
Bringslite of Fidelis Goblin Squad Member |
Fafryd Goblin Squad Member |
I personally think the combat needs some work - both how smoothly it is implemented; and what system is being sought in the first place.
Combat is the core of a MMO gameplay experience. It is something that you do a lot of. It may be people that keep you playing, but combat is a core activity.
I play from Australia so there could be a ping issue that makes my experience different from others.
The actual combat experience is fairly clunky right now, as you would expect: close gap when you see micro "too far away message", strafing for good position has clumsy animations, mash buttons for abilities and see floating numbers. Animation polishing and better strafing visuals would, for me, improve the feeling of combat a lot. It will, of course, come in time andwill be much appreciated when it does.
However, perhaps a bigger issue is what is being sought.
I played ArcheAge beta this weekend also. It reminded me that hotkey ability combat is not something I enjoyed. It lacks soul. The contrast is more active movement and positioning. You get this in, say, DDO (an old game, which has a form of autoattack via mouse on a combat chain so it doesn't look like 'poke poke poke') or in Wildstar, which is quite engaging although technicolour with the telegraphs.
Do you want to positioning to matter, to charge, visually dodge, visually back out of combat etc?
Xeen Goblin Squad Member |
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The first thing I noticed, and I know we were told of this prior, was only 6 members to a party. When your expected to take large numbers to an escalation or on a settlement siege, then this needs to be thought about. 6 members is not right. (yeah yeah... "its the standard for MMO's"... Well guess what, the standard MMO's out there are a joke)
This game is going to have siege style warfare similar to Eve has. (Not Darkfall where 5 guys can take as many towns in a night) Its not to difficult really, if we are to work together, then let us work together.
Also...
I also really loved the adventure time with Bonny.
There were a lot of players that could not train after that. Bonny is driving everyone into low rep situations. I would suggest that anyone who values their reputations, and want to be a good member of the community, to avoid adventure time with Bonny. She is a bad girl.
LOL
Guurzak Goblin Squad Member |
Scaling up party size creates a lot more complicated balancing issues than you would realize, because larger parties means that the benefit of party-wide auras and buffs are magnified.
I'm ok with parties of six once formations are implemented, allowing multiple parties to form into a larger assembly. With that said, though, I have very fond memories of 8-man PVP in DAoC and would love to see parties get just a couple more slots.
Being Goblin Squad Member |
Also...
I also really loved the adventure time with Bonny.
There were a lot of players that could not train after that. Bonny is driving everyone into low rep situations. I would suggest that anyone who values their reputations, and want to be a good member of the community, to avoid adventure time with Bonny. She is a bad girl.
LOL
Not only is she bad, she is cruel. Handing out leet gear to characters that will be unable to enter town again for a year is just... well.. cruel.
Tyveil Goblin Squad Member |
The party mechanics should ideally support as many players as desired in a group (to a certain extent to what the UI can support, maybe 20-30 or so). The old 6 to a party thing is tailored to theme-parks. Content is balanced to a party of 6 and that is what you're expected to fill your group to. In a sandbox, party size should be highly variable. There should be nothing limiting you from doing a party of "however many friends happen to be online and ready to group", and parties from fluctuating in size when people join and drop. This is one of the biggest flaws with theme-parks and one I hope PFO doesn't repeat (which there is no reason they should since they're not tailoring content!)
Tyveil Goblin Squad Member |
Scaling up party size creates a lot more complicated balancing issues than you would realize, because larger parties means that the benefit of party-wide auras and buffs are magnified.
I'm ok with parties of six once formations are implemented, allowing multiple parties to form into a larger assembly. With that said, though, I have very fond memories of 8-man PVP in DAoC and would love to see parties get just a couple more slots.
Or better yet, just don't have a set party size. Auras and buffs could be distance based.
Being Goblin Squad Member |
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I think I would recommend a hierarchical system where the commander has a group of squad leaders who each has a group they are leading, and I'd make it expandable to at least one more level. Then expand the chat capabilities to put all chat is filterable and in selectable colors for the hierarchy desired. The result should be the squad leaders have a chat channel for their commander's group of squad leaders and also in a different color the chat includes those players in their squad. The squad members aren't privy to what is said in the commander channel and squad chat doesn't filter up to spam the commander channel.
Nihimon Goblin Squad Member |
Xeen Goblin Squad Member |
I think I would recommend a hierarchical system where the commander has a group of squad leaders who each has a group they are leading, and I'd make it expandable to at least one more level. Then expand the chat capabilities to put all chat is filterable and in selectable colors for the hierarchy desired. The result should be the squad leaders have a chat channel for their commander's group of squad leaders and also in a different color the chat includes those players in their squad. The squad members aren't privy to what is said in the commander channel and squad chat doesn't filter up to spam the commander channel.
exactly what Eve does
T7V Avari Goblin Squad Member |
Leithlen |
I completely agree on the hierarchical "raid" groups. It would be great to have multiple parties into one "raid" group (or "warband", to borrow a few terms from other games). That makes it easier for groups to organize, especially if there is a different indicator (icon or name color) for party members vs. "raid" members. However, I do really think all buffs should be distance based and affect everyone in the "raid" within that distance, or at least up to a certain maximum number, starting with the closest people.
Nihimon Goblin Squad Member |
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Why do some folks have a red triangle to the right of their health bar? No idea.
It indicates they're "High Rep". My guess is +2,500 or greater, but I'm not certain.
After I accepted, there was like a post-accept offer thing that you had to click as well. I don't know what the function of that was besides having you reconfirm your trade.
It's probably intended to frustrate trade-scamming. You finalize your offer. They finalize their offer. Only when both offers are finalized can the trade be accepted. If either party tries to change anything, you can't accept until they finalize again.
Guurzak Goblin Squad Member |
Guurzak wrote:the word you're looking for is "formation".Is that what PFO has decided to call "groups of groups"?
It's what PFO has decided to call "organized groups of players engaged in a shared operation at a scale larger than a single party." How the formation system will interact with the party system is not yet known.
Leithlen |
Leithlen wrote:It's what PFO has decided to call "organized groups of players engaged in a shared operation at a scale larger than a single party." How the formation system will interact with the party system is not yet known.Guurzak wrote:the word you're looking for is "formation".Is that what PFO has decided to call "groups of groups"?
Understood. I probably read that somewhere and forgot it in the mess of blogs that have been written over the past few years.
Valkenr Goblin Squad Member |
-Aet- Areks wrote:Why do some folks have a red triangle to the right of their health bar? No idea.It indicates they're "High Rep". My guess is +2,500 or greater, but I'm not certain.
I think that number is coincidental. I think the red triangle signifies that you are at your maximum bonus, because that's when my rep started skyrocketing. I think I finished my first night around 4k rep, and got the bonus an hour or so before logging off. A lack of icon seemed to indicate high rep, an icon was neutral rep, and a red icon was low rep.
Urman Goblin Squad Member |
Guurzak wrote:the word you're looking for is "formation".Is that what PFO has decided to call "groups of groups"?
I think that "formation" and "group of groups" might be two different things.
A formation might be a group of groups, but with a specific set of advantages (like defense buffs) and disadvantages (such as, all characters must remain within some close proximity to the formation). A basic group of groups doesn't need to have those have those limitations (or advantages), but is a multi-party organization so might share one chat, hostility flagging, etc.
Ryan Dancey CEO, Goblinworks |
Being Goblin Squad Member |
Leithlen |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The one thing I saw whilst watching people's Twitch is how players seemed to be "sliding" around rather than walking, especially when strafing backwards. Not sure if this is an animation or latency issue. Obviously I know this is Alpha just pointing it out because it was very distracting.
I noticed that too. It seemed lightly armored people moved over the ground slightly faster than the animation showed, making them looking like they were skating, and heavily armored people moved over the ground slightly slower than the animation showed, making them look like the were "moonwalking".
KarlBob Goblin Squad Member |
-Aet- Areks wrote:After I accepted, there was like a post-accept offer thing that you had to click as well. I don't know what the function of that was besides having you reconfirm your trade.It's probably intended to frustrate trade-scamming. You finalize your offer. They finalize their offer. Only when both offers are finalized can the trade be accepted. If either party tries to change anything, you can't accept until they finalize again.
That seems like a smart move on GW's part. I've heard of people using macros and other tricks to run trade window scams. In EVE, that's why people often advise running all trades through the market system. (Of course then you've got to watch out for similarly-named item scams and plain old false advertising, but that's EVE: Scams within scams.)
-Aet- Areks Goblin Squad Member |
-Aet- Areks wrote:Why do some folks have a red triangle to the right of their health bar? No idea.It indicates they're "High Rep". My guess is +2,500 or greater, but I'm not certain.
-Aet- Areks wrote:After I accepted, there was like a post-accept offer thing that you had to click as well. I don't know what the function of that was besides having you reconfirm your trade.It's probably intended to frustrate trade-scamming. You finalize your offer. They finalize their offer. Only when both offers are finalized can the trade be accepted. If either party tries to change anything, you can't accept until they finalize again.
Thanks for the info about the triangle. I figured it was either a positive or negative rep indicator of some sort, but I found no information on it. I was leaning towards negative, tho. As in "Watch out for this player."
That would make sense, but you have to do it even if nothing changes. I don't mind the extra step if that is the case.
Honestly, I expected more glitches. At most, what glitches were there were just inconveniences and annoyances. I haven't encountered anything game halting, aside from adjusting my video settings. That and my TS freezes after about 10 mins in game... although that is more than likely on my hardware end, not the game.
With the size and scope of everything I will say caravan guards are going to have their work cut out for them and highway robbery might not be as lucrative as originally envisioned. It will be interesting to see how that is employed.
Scarlette Goblin Squad Member |
One major complaint, and Areks mentioned it. TOOLTIPS !!! Building my character took a lot of time.
A couple minor ones, no equipment to utilize the my character's potential. Crafting is complicated enough that getting it that way wasn't an option for me and no Bonnie to gift any.
What I would like to see next session is a central storage so any thing people don't need they can put in for others to use. It would help with testing systems better and help with the trade issues. Also, TOOLTIPS ! For the trainers at least.
Scarlette Goblin Squad Member |
TEO Cheatle Goblin Squad Member |
Lord Regent: Deacon Wulf Goblin Squad Member |
Valkenr Goblin Squad Member |
All I know is my +3 Apprentice's Charged Staff is cooking....
But I have to ask... Where did all the wizards get the nice looking robes....?!
Bonny was handing them out to Adventure Time participants, among other gear appropriate for the level of training. No way the escalation could have been done without them.
Nightdrifter Goblin Squad Member |
All I know is my +3 Apprentice's Charged Staff is cooking....
But I have to ask... Where did all the wizards get the nice looking robes....?!
We stood in line at the welfare office, ie. Bonny gave them away. She had to use dev commands to make them. It was part of her adventure time to test higher level content. Bear in mind that when it comes to keywords what matters is what your abilities and gear have in common. So if we all get tons of free xp but still only have starter gear then that xp won't do us much good for the test.
StormHunter Goblin Squad Member |
Had the opportunity to spend several hours in Alpha. Being a complete new-comer to MMOs, I have nothing to compare this with and I'm learning everything from scratch.
First off - Had fun. :)
Secondly - building characters is slow and somewhat frustrating and confusing without much of an idea of what relates to what in-game. Resulting in many inappropriate feat choices as I experimented with what feat might go with something. But most of that is part of the learning curve, once I'd more of less worked out some of the role/feat/ability relationships were the second char basic creation was much smoother.
I think it would be helpful to have mouse over information or a more comprehensive help reference in game to give some idea of what a feat choice is and relates to before training it. Scanning the unavailable feats and looking at achievement progress is fiddly and doesn't always give useful info. I think this is another request for TOOLTIPS :P
Like AET-Areks I spent a fair amount of time flipping back and forth through some excellent guides GW and the community have compiled.
I did get the chance to test out some combat against wolves and bandits and despite being unfamiliar with MMO steering and combat controls managed ok.
Did not get around to trying out gathering or crafting.
Had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to playing with Alpha more.
So a big thank you to GW and the folks who have been compiling guides.
Hunter
Nihimon Goblin Squad Member |
A couple minor ones, no equipment to utilize the my character's potential. Crafting is complicated enough that getting it that way wasn't an option for me and no Bonnie to gift any.
Bear in mind that when it comes to keywords what matters is what your abilities and gear have in common. So if we all get tons of free xp but still only have starter gear then that xp won't do us much good for the test.
Two things I wanted to add along these lines:
1. If you're Cantrips are only Level 2, then you're reaching your maximum potential with a +1 Staff or Wand. Having a +5 Staff does you no good whatsoever.
2. Except that if your Staff or Wand is Tier 2, you get the middle roll of your 3d100. (I may have this slightly wrong, you might have to actually be utilizing a Tier 2 Keyword on your Staff in order to get the middle roll.) Similarly, Tier 2 Armor is good because of the +50 to all Defense Bonuses, even if you're not utilizing the keywords on it (again, I think).
Nightdrifter Goblin Squad Member |
Scarlette wrote:A couple minor ones, no equipment to utilize the my character's potential. Crafting is complicated enough that getting it that way wasn't an option for me and no Bonnie to gift any.Nightdrifter wrote:Bear in mind that when it comes to keywords what matters is what your abilities and gear have in common. So if we all get tons of free xp but still only have starter gear then that xp won't do us much good for the test.Two things I wanted to add along these lines:
1. If you're Cantrips are only Level 2, then you're reaching your maximum potential with a +1 Staff or Wand. Having a +5 Staff does you no good whatsoever.
2. Except that if your Staff or Wand is Tier 2, you get the middle roll of your 3d200. (I may have this slightly wrong, you might have to actually be utilizing a Tier 2 Keyword on your Staff in order to get the middle roll.) Similarly, Tier 2 Armor is good because of the +50 to all Defense Bonuses, even if you're not utilizing the keywords on it (again, I think).
From my testing it seems that to get the extra defense you only need proficiency trained up and not access to the major keyword on the armor. Haven't done enough testing on weapons to confirm if this holds true for attacks as well. Presumably it's the proficiency that gives access to the better roll, but with some low end wand attacks I should be able to do a simple statistical analysis this weekend.
Caldeathe Baequiannia Goblin Squad Member |
Secondly - building characters is slow and somewhat frustrating and confusing without much of an idea of what relates to what in-game. Resulting in many inappropriate feat choices as I experimented with what feat might go with something. But most of that is part of the learning curve, once I'd more of less worked out some of the role/feat/ability relationships were the second char basic creation was much smoother.
(snipped the rest as I agree with it.)
One part of the issue is that we are packing several months of building into one go. The normal process of creating a character will involve 1% of the XP to spend, followed by a hundred days of careful spending. In my own case, it was somewhat simplified by the fact I hit the "base attack bonus" once too often in a hurry, without noticing that I was about to spend around 50,000 XP in one click.
Mbando Goblin Squad Member |
I got my feet wet last night, and my take=away was how steep the learning curve is for leveling. I can see the potential for incredible flexibility, but at least right now, the cost is very high complexity. I'm very grateful for the help from community members (great guide TEO Cheatle), but I don't think it's a feature that the leveling part of the game is so user-unfriendly that I need to have a second computer open, puzzling over a how-to guide.
TEO Cheatle Goblin Squad Member |
I got my feet wet last night, and my take=away was how steep the learning curve is for leveling. I can see the potential for incredible flexibility, but at least right now, the cost is very high complexity. I'm very grateful for the help from community members (great guide TEO Cheatle), but I don't think it's a feature that the leveling part of the game is so user-unfriendly that I need to have a second computer open, puzzling over a how-to guide.
That is how most MMOs are actually, puzzling over how-to guides, trying to make the best build you can for the resources you have. To be honest, the current skill/feat system is extremely natural to me, and very intuitive, especially if you are coming from other games.
Nihimon Goblin Squad Member |
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That is how most MMOs are actually...
I think it's very reminiscent of the old MUDs, but not really true of something like WoW or SWTOR. In those games, it's very easy to just jump on and start playing because you don't really have any meaningful decisions to make along the way - at least not more meaningful than "what class?"
Scarlette Goblin Squad Member |
Mbando wrote:I got my feet wet last night, and my take=away was how steep the learning curve is for leveling. I can see the potential for incredible flexibility, but at least right now, the cost is very high complexity. I'm very grateful for the help from community members (great guide TEO Cheatle), but I don't think it's a feature that the leveling part of the game is so user-unfriendly that I need to have a second computer open, puzzling over a how-to guide.That is how most MMOs are actually, puzzling over how-to guides, trying to make the best build you can for the resources you have. To be honest, the current skill/feat system is extremely natural to me, and very intuitive, especially if you are coming from other games.
@Cheatle, I do agree with that. But after pouring over some one elses guide, I like to tweak it to my own play style. My big thing about the tool tip is, without it, you really don't know what slot the feats uses, what bonuses it applies. The attacks give tool tips once they are slotted, but on trainer they are like the feats, no clue. I don't know the programming side and that simple little tool maybe a pain to put in, but it makes building a character a lot easier. Its alpha and isn't going to stop me from playing. It was just one of those things that seem to press my button as I ran back and fourth several times to fill my characters available slots.
Nihimon Goblin Squad Member |
Wyspr Goblin Squad Member |
Giorgo Goblin Squad Member |
Seems like a good place to also add my experience. :)
Played less than 2:30 hours on Thursday 8/22/14; Alpha Build 6.
Selected a male fighter to start with.
Logged in to game with absolutely no problem (thank the heavens!), proceeded to run around Seoni statue and get bonus XP (as per Alpha Instruction doc). Spent 15-20 minutes learning how to move and understand GUI.
Did some training, OVERWHELMEND with choices and FUSTRATED at lack of information/tool tips (I had a Tablet open to TEO Cheatles Guide, and I still couldn't figure things out).
First combat with Goblins wasn't very ....heroic... killed them after lots of trial and error.
Learned to gather nodes, type in chat (thanks Nihimon!), read the map, and to stealth pass zombies ...err... enemies.
First Impression: the roads are INFESETED with enemies, and that wasn't even inside escalation hexes.
First Death: Got killed by a God-Mode-On immortal teleporting/phasing wolf that hit me 10 times for every 1 hit I got in, it had 1% HP left, I swear it was a messenger of death!
Bug: Changed the settings from Fastest to Fast, screen got all messed up, would not switch back to previous settings.
Overall: Did not actually have fun, felt more like work, was unable to slot feats that I purchased, I understand its Alpha, really looking forward to builds 7 and 8!
Being Goblin Squad Member |
Bringslite of Fidelis Goblin Squad Member |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think that the "stumbling" block (for me) was that there are different types of feats. You can't use them all at the same time. You need to slot them in certain places, some on the action bar and some on the paper doll. Some, actually, need not be slotted.
Now there is much running back and forth, training this so that you can train that. That is really only a problem for a newb (myself) with a large pool of exp that I have all at once. There will be much more thinking/research time when we are earning exp slowly.
P.S. I did have alot of fun. I learned alot. The people that you run with make it much better.
The game is coming along nicely. It ran pretty smoothly for me, until I upped to "Fantastic" and couldn't "Down" easily (in game). Restarting worked fine for that.