my reactions to pre beta

[marzuku]

first time i logged on i got swarmed by all kinds of mobs, spawnrate is a great thing but only when in areas where you wanna be doing heavy grinding examples of these are, masters, isle, adepts etc (xen) if the spawnrate is so big in normal territory you wont be able to move at all.

Suggesting only thief-like and bugs in non special areas and not to often either.

The feel of the game is nice and i like the idea of having to fight for crystals to gain extra powers, though this idea will end up with two huge guilds or one dominating, i rather liked castles on xen.

Weapons look ok, though i kinda miss shiny huge weapons and bulky armors.
might i suggest shoulderpads when the armors can be seen? shoulderpads like skulls, metal, spikes?

Spells/attacks, i think we are gaining to many powers and to fast, theres no use for ubermany different spells when you will end up using 3-4 out of a 100.
Warriors twirl could probably be more speedy and without additional delay.

Dantalion is a cool class, so is the chicken class(cant remember name) but they are to cool to be playable to be honest.
Geonan was a shock tbh a watery element dude not what i pictured myself.

also the game doesnt rly require any skill atm and the whole clicking to hit was getting annoying

Well thats some, anyway i thought alpha was heading in the right direction and now we've got an entierly new game with alot of races/classes i dont know and whom might become very powerfull and fun 2 play with though i miss the humanoid races and the feel of alpha.

Guess i cant say more than GL with balancing and finnishing the game.

[Vapore]

I would suggest slowing gaining spells over levels... Getting bombarded with them within the first ten levels is a bit disorientating.

Like...
1 - Attack Run
2 - Slash
3 - Speed Buff
4 - Defense Buff

And so on.

The game is in a good place though! But one thing was bugging me. When you scroll over a item, sometimes it takes a few seconds to show up or doesn't at all. Could you make this instant?

Also, does slash even do anything? Seems like a few spells are not implemented at the moment.

[Joe M.]

These are all on our list to address, once we get the game more stable and on its new, shiny server.

first time i logged on i got swarmed by all kinds of mobs, spawnrate is a great thing but only when in areas where you wanna be doing heavy grinding examples of these are, masters, isle, adepts etc (xen) if the spawnrate is so big in normal territory you wont be able to move at all.

Yep.

Suggesting only thief-like and bugs in non special areas and not to often either.

The feel of the game is nice and i like the idea of having to fight for crystals to gain extra powers, though this idea will end up with two huge guilds or one dominating, i rather liked castles on xen.

There is a cap to the number of geosids which a guild can own. I believe it is (number of guild members)/2 at the moment.

Weapons look ok, though i kinda miss shiny huge weapons and bulky armors.

Keep in mind that you're only seeing the first 10 levels of weapons right now. We have modeled about up to 40 levels' worth. I haven't spent too much time in this version of the game yet, but I suspect you're right to focus on shiny/huge/bulky--things that *stand out*. We'll be sure to keep an eye on this.

Spells/attacks, i think we are gaining to many powers and to fast, theres no use for ubermany different spells when you will end up using 3-4 out of a 100.

Absolutely true. We designed the game based on guesses and were surprised with just how bad this one is. We're redesigning the spell system right now to have far fewer, more distinctive spells.

also the game doesnt rly require any skill atm and the whole clicking to hit was getting annoying

Correct. This is not something we can fix all at once, of course, but will slowly come into focus as we refine each individual element of the design.

Well thats some, anyway i thought alpha was heading in the right direction and now we've got an entierly new game with alot of races/classes i dont know and whom might become very powerfull and fun 2 play with though i miss the humanoid races and the feel of alpha.

Same as above.

[Erich]

I only was last able to get on the server on launch day; however, I might be able to answer a few questions as I do the models..

Weapons look ok, though i kinda miss shiny huge weapons and bulky armors.
might i suggest shoulderpads when the armors can be seen? shoulderpads like skulls, metal, spikes?

As far as I know, the *real* armor models aren't implemented yet, and those "armors" you see are just textures on the same skin of the player model. The real armors have shoulderpads =) I want skulls and spikes and much as the next person, but shoulders are the hardest part of any animated mesh so I'm trying to figure out how to create them. As for now, shoulderpads are cloth/leather/plates.

Spells/attacks, i think we are gaining to many powers and to fast, theres no use for ubermany different spells when you will end up using 3-4 out of a 100.
Warriors twirl could probably be more speedy and without additional delay.

This is true, as Joe said, that our first release was based on guesses. Although we are cutting down on the amount of spells, I hope to maintain a variety of useful spells that won't result in a two- or three-button game. As for twirl, keep in mind this is the *first* spin they receive. Many more powerful versions are to come.

Dantalion is a cool class, so is the chicken class(cant remember name) but they are to cool to be playable to be honest.
Geonan was a shock tbh a watery element dude not what i pictured myself.

Thank you =) (And they're races, not classes btw)

also the game doesnt rly require any skill atm and the whole clicking to hit was getting annoying

Hopefully fixing this is the future. IMHO, player skill, rather than class, should be a significant factor in this game.

Well thats some, anyway i thought alpha was heading in the right direction and now we've got an entierly new game with alot of races/classes i dont know and whom might become very powerfull and fun 2 play with though i miss the humanoid races and the feel of alpha.

Beta has been a significant improvement for many aspects, including animations/meshes, game design, and behind-the-scenes programming. Pre-pre-beta does not *feel* like alpha because we are focusing on solving the underlying imbalances in mechanics to provide a great game in the future, rather than putting forth a somewhat-shiny pre-pre-beta that doesn't help us very much in the long run (like alpha).


Hope that helps,
Erich