Hi all,
Wanted to share my opinion of the game. I’ve bought the game from the beginning and been playing the game from fresh start almost after every major patch.
I won’t get into much details into positives, as, probably, everyone who have played the game know that game has big potential, it’s unique and beautiful. I personally enjoy the game and really hope that devs will succeed.
Overall, I enjoyed the game after returning to it since last patch, but I did some thinking about things that bugs me and just feel off to me.
· My biggest concern is loot. I don’t think that current RNG system with facets and enchantments works for this game. Such system is fine in Diablo likes, but in this game, in my opinion, armor and weapons with mostly predetermined qualities would work better. Game has a lot of beautiful and unique looking armor sets, but within armor type they’re all the same and RNG determines which one is better. As approx. example currently, stats of items are ~20% predetermined (amount of armor/damage based on item lvl, poise, rune attack for weapons) and rest is RNG (Facets, enchantments). This maybe is personal preference, but I would argue that ~80% predetermined and ~20% RNG with other possible improvement mechanics would work better for this game.
Wouldn’t it be cooler if every armor set would have they’re own stat/gimmick/enchantment and depending how many pieces of armor you wear amount of enchantments/bonuses change - example one piece of armor gives 1 enchantment, 2 pieces – 2… full set gives 4 enchantments. If you wanted to you could mix different sets and get partial bonuses from each set. Currently most loot that I get, I just sell it. If armor would be much rarer loot and it would have mostly predetermined stats it would make it much more valuable and unique. Armour characteristics would match the looks. It also would be cool to have some in house display option or special chest where we could collect armor sets, which we could use with different character or when trying different build.
Probably one of arguments against such systems would be “But what about endgame?”. To this I could say:
1. I don’t think that POE like grinding endgame fits this game. One of core features of this game is deliberate combat, which you will break with “perfect” or OP gear and you will “suck all the fun out of the game”. With mostly predetermined gear and partly predetermined placement of the gear devs can balance game more easily and can keep game fun ‘till the end.
2. Roguelike system can be improved massively and they can add some Meta progression.
3. Other gameplay types can be introduced. Devs have mention some.
4. Maybe this is my personal preference or because game is in EA, but I had much more fun starting over with new character then playing current Endgame pestilence zones. Quite likely even after 1.0 for many players it will be fun to start over in harder difficulty + maybe there could be option to start over keeping town upgrades and houses with loot.
· Current leveling system is lacking. I know there is planned massive overhaul of this, so let’s hope devs will nail it. It’s always nice to pick some perk or talent after level up.
· Please make so wood and ore goes straight to inventory after resource have been depleted. Don’t see the point of extra clicking gathering it from the ground. Also, maybe it’s possible to make different amount of requirements for town upgrades based if realm is single player or opened for coop. If I play only single player, then reduced amount of required resources for upgrades would feel better. Currently it feels too high.