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Okay I have decided to play the game as a full time animal over a year ago (Lycan/Bat), but it is looking like I am being forced out of that choice because I am getting low on wood. I truly think that there should be a way for animals to chop wood. Please think about this, I know this is not the first time I have asked, and it will probably not be the last. I beg you don't make me go human again!
PG don't have any beaver so no chopping wood :P
Animal forms are CURSES not bless so learn to play witch it u 'human traitor' :P
You could buy wood from other players, or try farming wood off of mobs. Getting maple wood from enemies is pretty easy at least.
I do like that there are these aspects of the game that prevent you from easily accessing certain things in certain forms. As Yaffy said maple is easy enough to farm from drops and oak can be gathered from loose lumber in the hills.
That being said I do hope that in the future we see an alternative way for animals to obtain higher grades of wood. Cedar drops sometimes, but it's rare and I haven't seen it in the 10 stacks that maple comes in. I don't think it would make sense with the development path to open up something to create convenience, but we also don't see reliably stocked player stalls for cedar and spruce.
I think a nice compromise would be to add more spruce drops to humanoid creatures like the orcs in Gaz who build with wood. This would still give humanoids an upper hand in farming (and the ability to use flower arrangement buffs) while giving animal forms an (intentionally less convenient) option for times when players aren't selling it. They'd probably never see perfect wood for gifting, but they wouldn't be prevented from crafting.
With much of this game's progress being solo-able and the jack of all trades build style these lock outs force players to interact more which keeps the MMO culture and economy alive IMO.
What aboutSpoiler:
People keep doubling down on the whole "curse" thing but beyond level 18 (when you can effectively decurse yourself without any hassle), it's more an annoyance than anything else.
My overall experience has been marred throughout the years largely because I like to play animal forms, but the game constantly forces you out of them if you want to be competitive and/or practical. Given how easy it is to decurse/recurse, there's literally no reason not to do so unless you're looking for a specific badge (which, as it happens, are largely irrelevant).
All it does it force you to constantly think about that 3 hour animal town timer and when you can effectively idle for 3 hours to gain access to training or something that will notably take 2-3 minutes when you're finally allowed to do it.
Overall, it feels like the indecision animal forms have suffered from have ultimately watered down the experience - if it's going to be a curse, make it a curse! I'm a-okay with not being able to gather lumber as an animal, but given how easy it is to switch between forms, it's definitely an annoyance more than a restriction.
Lumber is an isolated example, though - the major roadblock is storage & vendor access. Animals still need to earn the same amount of currency to unlock skills, and with restricted means to sell items, you're only delaying progress by not decursing to sell to specific vendors.
All that aside, if you were genuinely stuck as an animal (either permanently or by restrictions that made it much harder to shift forms), you'll actually need to adapt to those restrictions in a meaningful way.
Ideally, I'd like to see animals essentially create their own supply/demand for unique materials (like milk, mushrooms, spider-silk and the like), which they can trade with human players for services they couldn't otherwise perform.
Unfortunately, animal players are niche and it's a huge development tangent to get this sort of thing set up in a non-intrusive and meaningful way.
Most frustratingly, the Endurance trainer both wants wood for favour, and won't speak to animals. Endurance is more or less essential for all PCs, and this just feels like a slap on the face (though please correct me if there's an alternative now - it's been awhile).
I'm of the opinion the restrictions should either go away all together, or should actually be enforced in a way that can't easily be avoided by suffering through purposefully frustrating mechanics (I.e. going to the cow cave, waiting X hours, or spending some currency on "juices" - coupled with the animal town timer).
I don't know about anyone else, but it's enough to cause burnout for me every couple weeks. It's certainly not enjoyable as-is.
Honestly, I don't do animal forms. Thinking about it logically though, I think they should go in either 2 directions:
1) Make them simply easy to switch in and out of, simpler then now, and have all their bars toggled like wolf is. Then you can switch in and out, and no impact. They need to be balanced around other skillsets with this in mind though, so they can't be better then non animal skills.
2) Make them obviously better then non-animal skills, but severe limitations like they do now in animal form, but more permanent. That way you pay for the ultimate power by being limited in other aspects of the game.
I play an animal full time Hayashi. I keep a second character humanoid full time to act as my 'hands,' if needed.
However! There are several ways you can get wood as an animal without going crazy.
Remember, being a critter doesn't mean you cannot do something. it just means you have to be creative and sneaky about doing something.
Rawrs!!
It does seem weird that one of the big reasons i bought the game was to play as an animal character, but after finding out how bad it is to play in the "not fun" mechanics with restriction after restriction like the devs needed to add the restrictions because they are sadistic against fun, anyway i havn't had the chance to play one because i wanted to experience the game without being made to jump through useless hoops.
It does seem weird how a necklace can help cut wood.. and how there are animal shoes.. but no actual tools?
I can imagine a spider with 6 legs wielding wood chopping axes obliterating a Forrest.. but nope.
I can imagine a cow pushing over trees, but nope.
I can imagine a wolf huffing and puffing and blowing a tree down, but nope.
I can imagine a rabbit taking forever to gnaw a tree down but because of it's size it gets alot more wood out of it, but nope.
I can imagine a pig bucking like a horse kicking over a tree, but nope.
Maybe a lack of imagination.
I didn't like that the animals were essentially humans to other players, they are an animal with a human intellect but to an NPC it's a bunch of buzzing cog noises because there is lack of game mechanics they are restricted to some horrible conditions, like you need to be a masochist in real life to enjoy it yo play it only and have alt characters that did your gathering for you, which removes all immersive properties from the game and is in the back of your mind everytime you see a resource that you need to completely logout to login to pick another character to even pick it up.
Some aspects of this game make me wonder if entertainment was removed on purpose and restrictions the wooden spoon to the bottom of players who chose to go against the rules of humanoid and get punished by just wanting the option to be different, that the lack of animal npc's even in the starting city of serbule and the surrounding wilderness creating a blackhole of amusement where fun transforms into frustration as the reward for the money expected to be spend on the store/cash shop.
3 hours in animal form to talk to an npc critter... what.. why? did you forget how to animal? another weird mechanic to me.
I don't wanna alt-hop to enjoy playing a game.