Latest Patch: Is the Island too easy? Yes!

Okies; Well - here goes. You suggested we make a new toon (I didn't use guest; i made a throw away 2nd account so I could progress and test newer things as you added them)
The Island ... is a joke now. Torches leading to the Tower??? Ok at least the spiders are still camo and the poison still deadly - but it seems like the skeletons are weaker... but moving along:
Ok I didn't spend a lot of time on the actual island; I went in to test the dungeon. I were sad panda. Once I learned Archery; I removed UA and Sword from my bar and used ONLY archery. I 2-4 shotted my way pretty much down to the basement. I was just following the map, like any rookie would do - I even "pretended" to be lost and circled around and wandered.. I did NOT loot/use any gear; I kept basic gear to mock play a new player with really shitty luck or just one confused on gear.
I got to the Librarian keeper at the very bottom; I timed him at 6 min timer - unlike other mini bosses; his loot was always good. I farmed him 10 times.. ..yesh - you did that math right. 4 coin purses, 3 purples, 4 pinks, 2 blues and I don't recall the greens. (no yellows though)
Then I went into the caves; Here I loaded up Sword again; (still only lvl 3) to use with my Archery. I had no difficultiy - heading to the SH exit.

The Lever was clever. I saw all those barrels around; i looked for a good 10 min for a barrel to blow open the rock :p You got me on that! :) I like the lever...
but the path is clear cut; you won't get into deep spiders unless you stray off the Serbule Hills destination. Word on the street is biting vines there are too hard... ..I say - those should be the BASE - the golems i fought to get TO the librarian; should be as tough or TOUGHER than those vines...
and those vines should be 10% harder. They're a great mob to learn to watch your surroundings. (should have learned that lesson from spiders )
exiting to SH - no real problems; but I didn't go very far.

The dungeon is weak; you can walk through it without any leveling on the Island; just go straight into it; pick up archery and shoot your way through.

The Island seems to have guided paths now; I say 86 those.

Maybe Archery isn't the best skill for newbies? or we need to come together and really re-define what role Archery is going to play in the game ( are they a glass cannon dps like a mage; or a Utility role like a pig?) and redesign that spec; either way - the archery was OP down there.

You start off with a sword (and of course, unarmed.. ..(cause first thing any new fighter ish gonna do is learn his fisticuffs!) what about Knife... ..you find a dagger and then you have upfront melee sword vs the more stealthy abilities of a Knife Fighter --which would work great with the Rat Pet you learn from the puzzle... kind of a tie in; if you don't get that; of course yer gonna stick more with sword / UA ... but if you got a rat; and you have a knife.. .. you see what im going for.

Just my thoughts sir.

I love PG and everything about it :) ....ok that's a lie. I really hate how the flowers in sunvale look like clipart. ...but that's for a new day sir. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tigerwyld

I really hate how the flowers in sunvale look like clipart. ...but that's for a new day sir. :)

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Hey, I like Sun Vale. And the flowers, too. On the other hand, the new banana trees blend in with the scenery a bit too much...

Anyway, I think you may be right about the newbie island being maybe a bit too easy. I ran a couple alts through it in the last few months and thought I'd just finally gotten better at the game because I didn't die as much as I used to, but maybe the place is easier now... I think the island itself is actually fine because dying to spiders a lot got very annoying, but maybe add a few harder mobs to the dungeon? The dungeon actually seemed a much safer place than the island itself which seems a bit backwards.

as usual, i agree with tiger - should be harder, more sandboxey

On the other hand people kept complaining that it's not guided enough, that the NPCs are easy to miss and the obelisks and telepads are not obvious. I think we reached a happy medium but I might be wrong. We do know the ropes already and even on a new char we're more tutorial savvyy. For example I already know where things are, where to find bottles, spoons etc.
Agree with Tagamogi that mobs outside are more challenging than the dungeon ones.

I disagree with vines being harder. for melee fighter its quite hard alredy. 1v1 sure tahy cna be dealt rather easly, but if tehy spawn in way that you ahev to rush in, and it will turn out you usta ggro 2 spiders and another vine futher ahed, you are probably dead.

I agree that island itself is... too fast. Maybe nebies will spend more time here, workign on favor withLawra, or something, but i agrre that most mobs pose little to no challenge.

Then agn it newbie island. Im not usre we want it to be hard. maybe letting people get out of it fast could work well? Hard to say.

It might seem easier to a veteran who goes back and starts a new character because they know the 'tricks of the trade' so to speak whereas a brand new player is just learning everything for the first time. They don't know the best way to proceed and it's a completly new learning expereince. That said, the starting area requires a fine balance and we will continue to evaluate analytics and reports moving forward.