Early creature diversity

[mog101]

Hi All.

First time posting here, and thought it might be helpful to post an initial reaction to the demo and some suggestions.
Asheron's call was my first MMO - one of my enduring initial memories was how alien/unique the creatures of the world felt - being chased by my first Reedsharks and Shreths, and then battered by a Drudge in the first dungeon I wandered into. That wasn't lost later either, with species like the Grievers, Tuskers, Olthoi and Virindi.

Overall, I am really impressed by the demo so far (about 4 hrs in, and just escaped the first island by both methods having explored it fairly thoroughly) however for me there were two fairly major negative initial reactions.

One of these was the graphics engine, which I won't cover here but I did find a real drawback to the immersion.
The other was the creature selection on the opening island - pretty much every fantasy MMO I have tried starts with giant rats, wolves, skeletons and spiders.

I'm sure this is not reflective of the game as a whole (I was amused to be chased by some form of flaming sheep I think shortly after stepping out of the cave) but having something so generic does detract significantly. (That said, I recognise that creating really innovative creatures is a huge and challenging amount of work).

I hope that as the game progresses you will be able to continue to enrich the range of races and species that are encountered as it can make it truly special to explore and discover.

I'll finish by just noting that what made me so impressed despite these two drawbacks is the truly exceptional skill system - the best I have encountered in any MMO.

I certainly plan to spend more time in the demo and reading the forums to better understand the game scope. Keep up the great work!

Cheers

[Gruffon]

This is a valid point, and you're also correct in pointing out that this is mainly an issue of time and resources being devoted to other aspects of the game as we often rely on placeholder graphics while more substantial areas are being developed. Playable races and some mobs are commissioned for models and animations, but store-bought Unity assets make up most of the game's mob population. (In fact, the Krasue from Eyes will be making a surprise guest appearance as a world boss later this month)

As long as you're limited to exploring the early-game outdoor areas, you'll mostly be encountering different flavors of bears, wolves, and skeletons. As far as pushing the bounds of creativity goes, I've always enjoyed seeing what the aberration class of mobs has to offer; discovering that a sentient cloud of poisonous gas was, in fact, having a grand old time was one of the high points of my newbie experience :P

[BetaNotus]

The other was the creature selection on the opening island - pretty much every fantasy MMO I have tried starts with giant rats, wolves, skeletons and spiders.

I'm sure this is not reflective of the game as a whole (I was amused to be chased by some form of flaming sheep I think shortly after stepping out of the cave) but having something so generic does detract significantly. (That said, I recognise that creating really innovative creatures is a huge and challenging amount of work).

I hope that as the game progresses you will be able to continue to enrich the range of races and species that are encountered as it can make it truly special to explore and discover.

Cheers
I'll try and answer some of this. There are greater varieties of creature types in higher level areas than the Serbule zones, and with those creatures come different tactics for dealing with them. Part of the reason this game (and likely others) throws rats/wolves/skeletons/spiders at new players, is that for the most part, these creatures do not exhibit any weird resistances or abilities that a player has to learn and plan for.
Some early monsters push players to experiment. A good low level example is the Psychic Mantis in Serbule. Players right off the island with Sword/Psychology are often surprised when their attacks are ineffective (Ineffective: Slashing, Very Ineffective: Psychic, Nature). Jumping into other zones, you'll likely encounter creatures that heal unless on fire, creatures invulnerable until stunned, and creatures that resist almost all damage types. Without spoiling anything, my estimate of different creatures in-game at this point is ~673, and speciea at ~94.