thecrimsondawn
04-13-2017, 02:56 PM
Greetings, my name is Crimson, and I am a QA tester and founder of the clan "The Crimson Dawn". After reading about this gem of a game on a blog I ended up upon, I decided to see just what was up, and I must say I am quite pleased with what I am currently seeing. This is exactly the type of game the MMO community needs these days. I come with praise, but also a couple warnings that I have seen happen time and time again that can make great games fall flat on their face. I make it my responsibility to inform those with good intentions of any information I feel is relevant to their projects, so I will be posting a lengthy one here covering several key topics. Since this post is majoritively ideas, suggestions, and feedback, I have decided to post it under 'Support & Suggestions'
First Impressions
The very first thing a player experiences after making an account and downloading the client, is the launcher. The current launcher is very suitable for the alpha stage, offering several important options during the testing phase. There was no issue with any anti virus or firewall, and the patching went very smoothly. It goes without saying that before entering the launch, a new skin for the launcher and an improvement on the bars for patching will go a long way as far as eye candy and first impressions. I give very high marks for this at the current stage :)
The second thing a player experiences is character creation. 3d modals are definitely not cheap and time consuming to make, however the ones the players play as matter most of all, as they will be force to look at said avatar for most of their gaming life. That being said, the currently released modals and options are in the 'playable' range at beast, perfectly acceptable for alpha, but will need a great deal of improvement before the game goes into even beta. Looking at past examples, games that offered very few customization options suffer a sharp fall off of interest early on in their games life. There is a couple reasons for this, and I will point the ones that come to mind out. First off, players like aesthetics a lot. It does not matter who you are, if your plan is to make a bad ass 2 handed warrior with a scar, but the players only options is a petite frame with a clean face, it will kill the mood before it even starts. The second is not just related to options at creation, but how the 3d modal looks to begin with. If it looks hastily made, or without much depth, you loose more interest. The last example is uniqueness. Time and time again I see games come out where everyone and their mother looks exactly the same. They may have the same hair because most of the hair options are lack luster, or their armor is all the same because there is no variety, or one type of gear stands far above the rest. This is where I will share my first personal idea - [Add in far more cosmetic items. Please reference the MMO 'Ragnarok Online' for their success at using cosmetic items] Dye is a very good start, but that should only be the beginning. In a wonderful world like this, far more options need to be made. Dresses, suits, appearance changing items, hats, and so forth. Having some slight variation on weapons and musical instruments would also be a huge plus, but most of this can all be done much closer to launch, as this is all fluff.
After creating my avatar, the simple, yet elusive 'plot' hits you. A coy removal of your memories and a reason why you have no skills. This gets good marks from me as the idea is solid. After starting however, and after nearly a full week playing, I have not seen anything related to the plot what so ever. While this gives me a great freedom to do whatever I want in the world, it also gives me no direction at all. There is no real feeling that someone is using me either. A couple quests added to draw players to the objective of finding out what happened to them, and how to get revenge (or perhaps join, or whatever) would be a good addition, but again, this is only a look at the first week of game play.
Tutorial Island - I have quite a bit to share about this. To start with, it teaches you to use sword and unarmed and how to wear gear. This is good, but there is a flaw to look at. When the game goes live, you will have huge numbers of players loading into the starting area every few moments. The loot that will need to be collected will be on a waiting list (unless it does not despawn upon acquire for other players) objects needed to complete the quests will become much harder to find, and if spawns are boosted by the number of players in a zone, then it will be overwhelming for some players. My advice is [during beta, have a series of starting islands on virtual servers with a channel system in place so players can still play with their friends should they be separated.] It will also help a little with the issue I will post out next.
Item dropping - This could pose a problem, but it can be fixed very easily if it has not been already. Each object on the ground takes a small amount of data, data that is referenced any time someone comes into visual range. Right now, we would be lucky to see 40 or 50 objects on the whole of the island on the ground, but when you have several hundred players playing, and many of them are dumping stuff on the ground, its going to cause a major strain on the server, leading up to even crashes. Simply adjusting items dropped to have a despawn timer, as well as a max objects dropped at once script in place where the oldest items vanish should help a lot with this.
Water Physics - Im sure this is already well known, but the water physics for the starting island are horrible compared to the water sources on the mainland. I can walk under the water without the game triggering that I am under the water, if using the mouse, you sink to the bottom before starting to move to the clicked destination, and the looks could use some sprucing up too. [Changing it so you float instead of sink when no action is taken in the water will help with the functionality a lot.]
Puzzles and Side Quests - I was discussing this game with a good programing friend of mine, and he pointed out something I would like to share. For me, discovering the world is fun. The last game I got to really explore before everyone knew stuff was World of Warcraft before the expansions. However, after that, it was no longer about exploration because everyone already knew about stuff, and every part of the world was just another part of a quest. This will happen here too in time, but it can be prolonged with some clever changes. Create a rotating database of riddles, numbers, puzzles, or whatever the many puzzle related aspects of the game have, and have them switch up daily. If the number of combinations are large enough, it will prevent players from always asking for the answer in chat instead of looking for it themselves. This doubles as a way for players to reuse the fire shrines, and this could give perhaps, lore exp or something each time.
Spoon Quest - As a solo player, it took me a long time to find 2 spoons. If it took me a long time to find 2 spoons, how hard will it be for several hundred players to each find 2 spoons without a number of them becoming frustrated? This is just some foresight into a potential series of negative reviews at launch. It does not have to be easy, but I found maybe 3 spawn locations in the whole island for them. Adding a couple more, or speeding up the respawn time should fix this. Could also opt for a set location seeing how its a starting area that the spoons are always at as well.
Fist, Sword, and Bow - Played around with these a bit. Currently, unarmed feels vastly more powerful then sword in nearly every way. I am a little concerned about this imbalance, but this is alpha, and there will be a great many balance changes before launch, so this is mostly just a balance review.
Weapon Skills - This is an entire suggestion [Change it so when you pick up a weapon you can start learning to fight with it without the need for a training. Make it so you need reputation to learn advanced or rare skills with said weapon instead.] There is no reason I should not be able to pick up a hammer, or a staff, or a dagger, and not be able to start learning to fight with these weapons from use. This will also help players jump right into the builds they want instead of needing to travel across the world to find a trainer for the weapon they want to wield.
Special Effects - Not sure how the server will handle it, but making special attacks exciting to use and flashy to look at seems to be a thing a great many players enjoy right now. Special effects are remarkably more easy to make then 3d modal animations, and these two could be updated at the same time.
Foraging - Currently, I feel the system needs a major change. I will break each one I have experienced into subgroups, and I will add in one I have not experienced based off of the current pattern being used.
>Lumber: There are trees everywhere, but lumber spawns are not. Players should be able to take an axe or a saw to a tree with a long loading bar (speeding up depending on skill level, tool quality, and type of wood being gathered) to gather wood. This matters more if you plan to add in player housing where houses need to be built by the players themselves. This would require a lot of hand placement and a whole lot of game object IDs being removed and/or replaced with ones that can be gathered, but I feel this would make the game more immersive. Further more, once a tree has been cut town, those with a high garden skill and those skilled at music could help speed the regrowth of the felled trees.
>Fruit Finding random apples on the ground under trees is nice, but they really should drop from apple trees, just as each type of fruit should come from their respective plant type. This may be asking too much as this is a major change, but an expansion on the whole garden system can make this work, and make it worthwhile.
>Mining I always loved UO where you could find a mine in the middle of nowhere and start to mine it, but players could kill you and take your mule. I feel that the answer to a good ore system lies somewhere between that, and exhaustible ore veins that surveyors need to hunt for a fresh vein for players to mine. Sadly, this would require a world much more vast in size then what we currently have. As this is one aspect of the game I have not experienced yet, this is only sharing my thoughts.
>Fishing Fishing with your hands may work for crabs, but we really need a fishing pole or net, or a boat that works, or something along those lines. I think WOW has the right idea for a fishing system, but a mini game can accompany it easy enough.
>Gardening Currently, I like the garden system, however that does not mean I dont feel it could evolve in many directions that better fit how the rest of the game changes. Several things I have talked about prior to this reflect on a change to the garden system, so I will not bring any ideas to the table here, as all other factors will need to be brought to a discussion before they can be refined into a working concept.
Ahh...it seems I have run out of time posting this, so I will need to make another post later. Again, these are just early reviews and observations. Overall I am greatly pleased with how the game is turning out, and I wish to spend my time to help iron out some of the ripples that the game will come across so we have as smooth a development and launch as possible. :)
Keep up the good work!
~Crimson
First Impressions
The very first thing a player experiences after making an account and downloading the client, is the launcher. The current launcher is very suitable for the alpha stage, offering several important options during the testing phase. There was no issue with any anti virus or firewall, and the patching went very smoothly. It goes without saying that before entering the launch, a new skin for the launcher and an improvement on the bars for patching will go a long way as far as eye candy and first impressions. I give very high marks for this at the current stage :)
The second thing a player experiences is character creation. 3d modals are definitely not cheap and time consuming to make, however the ones the players play as matter most of all, as they will be force to look at said avatar for most of their gaming life. That being said, the currently released modals and options are in the 'playable' range at beast, perfectly acceptable for alpha, but will need a great deal of improvement before the game goes into even beta. Looking at past examples, games that offered very few customization options suffer a sharp fall off of interest early on in their games life. There is a couple reasons for this, and I will point the ones that come to mind out. First off, players like aesthetics a lot. It does not matter who you are, if your plan is to make a bad ass 2 handed warrior with a scar, but the players only options is a petite frame with a clean face, it will kill the mood before it even starts. The second is not just related to options at creation, but how the 3d modal looks to begin with. If it looks hastily made, or without much depth, you loose more interest. The last example is uniqueness. Time and time again I see games come out where everyone and their mother looks exactly the same. They may have the same hair because most of the hair options are lack luster, or their armor is all the same because there is no variety, or one type of gear stands far above the rest. This is where I will share my first personal idea - [Add in far more cosmetic items. Please reference the MMO 'Ragnarok Online' for their success at using cosmetic items] Dye is a very good start, but that should only be the beginning. In a wonderful world like this, far more options need to be made. Dresses, suits, appearance changing items, hats, and so forth. Having some slight variation on weapons and musical instruments would also be a huge plus, but most of this can all be done much closer to launch, as this is all fluff.
After creating my avatar, the simple, yet elusive 'plot' hits you. A coy removal of your memories and a reason why you have no skills. This gets good marks from me as the idea is solid. After starting however, and after nearly a full week playing, I have not seen anything related to the plot what so ever. While this gives me a great freedom to do whatever I want in the world, it also gives me no direction at all. There is no real feeling that someone is using me either. A couple quests added to draw players to the objective of finding out what happened to them, and how to get revenge (or perhaps join, or whatever) would be a good addition, but again, this is only a look at the first week of game play.
Tutorial Island - I have quite a bit to share about this. To start with, it teaches you to use sword and unarmed and how to wear gear. This is good, but there is a flaw to look at. When the game goes live, you will have huge numbers of players loading into the starting area every few moments. The loot that will need to be collected will be on a waiting list (unless it does not despawn upon acquire for other players) objects needed to complete the quests will become much harder to find, and if spawns are boosted by the number of players in a zone, then it will be overwhelming for some players. My advice is [during beta, have a series of starting islands on virtual servers with a channel system in place so players can still play with their friends should they be separated.] It will also help a little with the issue I will post out next.
Item dropping - This could pose a problem, but it can be fixed very easily if it has not been already. Each object on the ground takes a small amount of data, data that is referenced any time someone comes into visual range. Right now, we would be lucky to see 40 or 50 objects on the whole of the island on the ground, but when you have several hundred players playing, and many of them are dumping stuff on the ground, its going to cause a major strain on the server, leading up to even crashes. Simply adjusting items dropped to have a despawn timer, as well as a max objects dropped at once script in place where the oldest items vanish should help a lot with this.
Water Physics - Im sure this is already well known, but the water physics for the starting island are horrible compared to the water sources on the mainland. I can walk under the water without the game triggering that I am under the water, if using the mouse, you sink to the bottom before starting to move to the clicked destination, and the looks could use some sprucing up too. [Changing it so you float instead of sink when no action is taken in the water will help with the functionality a lot.]
Puzzles and Side Quests - I was discussing this game with a good programing friend of mine, and he pointed out something I would like to share. For me, discovering the world is fun. The last game I got to really explore before everyone knew stuff was World of Warcraft before the expansions. However, after that, it was no longer about exploration because everyone already knew about stuff, and every part of the world was just another part of a quest. This will happen here too in time, but it can be prolonged with some clever changes. Create a rotating database of riddles, numbers, puzzles, or whatever the many puzzle related aspects of the game have, and have them switch up daily. If the number of combinations are large enough, it will prevent players from always asking for the answer in chat instead of looking for it themselves. This doubles as a way for players to reuse the fire shrines, and this could give perhaps, lore exp or something each time.
Spoon Quest - As a solo player, it took me a long time to find 2 spoons. If it took me a long time to find 2 spoons, how hard will it be for several hundred players to each find 2 spoons without a number of them becoming frustrated? This is just some foresight into a potential series of negative reviews at launch. It does not have to be easy, but I found maybe 3 spawn locations in the whole island for them. Adding a couple more, or speeding up the respawn time should fix this. Could also opt for a set location seeing how its a starting area that the spoons are always at as well.
Fist, Sword, and Bow - Played around with these a bit. Currently, unarmed feels vastly more powerful then sword in nearly every way. I am a little concerned about this imbalance, but this is alpha, and there will be a great many balance changes before launch, so this is mostly just a balance review.
Weapon Skills - This is an entire suggestion [Change it so when you pick up a weapon you can start learning to fight with it without the need for a training. Make it so you need reputation to learn advanced or rare skills with said weapon instead.] There is no reason I should not be able to pick up a hammer, or a staff, or a dagger, and not be able to start learning to fight with these weapons from use. This will also help players jump right into the builds they want instead of needing to travel across the world to find a trainer for the weapon they want to wield.
Special Effects - Not sure how the server will handle it, but making special attacks exciting to use and flashy to look at seems to be a thing a great many players enjoy right now. Special effects are remarkably more easy to make then 3d modal animations, and these two could be updated at the same time.
Foraging - Currently, I feel the system needs a major change. I will break each one I have experienced into subgroups, and I will add in one I have not experienced based off of the current pattern being used.
>Lumber: There are trees everywhere, but lumber spawns are not. Players should be able to take an axe or a saw to a tree with a long loading bar (speeding up depending on skill level, tool quality, and type of wood being gathered) to gather wood. This matters more if you plan to add in player housing where houses need to be built by the players themselves. This would require a lot of hand placement and a whole lot of game object IDs being removed and/or replaced with ones that can be gathered, but I feel this would make the game more immersive. Further more, once a tree has been cut town, those with a high garden skill and those skilled at music could help speed the regrowth of the felled trees.
>Fruit Finding random apples on the ground under trees is nice, but they really should drop from apple trees, just as each type of fruit should come from their respective plant type. This may be asking too much as this is a major change, but an expansion on the whole garden system can make this work, and make it worthwhile.
>Mining I always loved UO where you could find a mine in the middle of nowhere and start to mine it, but players could kill you and take your mule. I feel that the answer to a good ore system lies somewhere between that, and exhaustible ore veins that surveyors need to hunt for a fresh vein for players to mine. Sadly, this would require a world much more vast in size then what we currently have. As this is one aspect of the game I have not experienced yet, this is only sharing my thoughts.
>Fishing Fishing with your hands may work for crabs, but we really need a fishing pole or net, or a boat that works, or something along those lines. I think WOW has the right idea for a fishing system, but a mini game can accompany it easy enough.
>Gardening Currently, I like the garden system, however that does not mean I dont feel it could evolve in many directions that better fit how the rest of the game changes. Several things I have talked about prior to this reflect on a change to the garden system, so I will not bring any ideas to the table here, as all other factors will need to be brought to a discussion before they can be refined into a working concept.
Ahh...it seems I have run out of time posting this, so I will need to make another post later. Again, these are just early reviews and observations. Overall I am greatly pleased with how the game is turning out, and I wish to spend my time to help iron out some of the ripples that the game will come across so we have as smooth a development and launch as possible. :)
Keep up the good work!
~Crimson