The feedback in this thread is wonderful - keep it coming! (Although in this thread specifically, focusing on Gazluk is more useful for us than focusing on Kur ... but I understand the connection.) I also wanted to respond to a couple of things briefly. (Edit: Or not so briefly.)



Quote Originally Posted by kell.shepherd View Post
One thing I noticed but didn't see in the notes is mob detection range has increased significantly. Not so critical for melee mobs but ranged mobs missiles will track and hit putting you into combat.
It wasn't in the patch notes because it wasn't exactly intended. On the other hand, it's also not exactly a bug. Let me explain.

There was a bug in the outdoor mob detection range that we didn't know about for a long time. It got fixed more or less as a side-effect of another fix, and without getting on my radar for patch notes. But because a lot of the content was tweaked for the previous (bugged) range, a lot of content was unintentionally affected by the range fix. Some of it is broken entirely. (Deer mobs, I am looking at you!) Some of it is much harder than intended. Some of it works out pretty well and will probably be left that way. But we're going to have to do a pass back through the bad areas and fix things up again.



Quote Originally Posted by jackybah View Post
(PLease also consider introducing a little more reliable way to get Wool. Maybe some higher level sheeps in either Eltibule or Sun Vale, that drop Wool when skinned ?)
Perhaps not exactly what you meant, but this is from the patch notes: "Mountain Sheep (but not low-level 'Valley Sheep') now always drop at least 1 wool, and can drop up to 3. In addition, their 'bonus skin' (when skinning their corpses) is also wool."



Quote Originally Posted by cr00cy View Post
I played a bit in new zone. It looks nice, but unfortunatly is also very unstble (at least for me) Basicly every time i try to enter or exit it my game just closes. Same when i enter/exit caves in Gazluk. i dotn have any crash reports, anything - game just turns off. It sometime happens when i just run around too(and yes i alredy reported it ingame).
<nod> Gazluk looks like it causes some memory use problems for the client. We have gotten a number of crash reports, and the in-game reports help us match up times and locations. We're investigating! In the meantime, just as a temporary work-around, you may have better luck if you set your graphics quality way down in Gazluk.



Quote Originally Posted by Khaylara View Post
If it's too much to read, the general idea is focus less on the quantity when it comes to updates and more on the "quality of life" and indepth developing. I used to be excited about updates like "let's see what crazy stuff he came up with this time" . Now my thoughts go towards "Crap, I have to grind some more so I can afford all this new stuff".
Note that I've snipped most of Khaylara's detailed suggestions and feedback and just grabbed the summary sentence, but I'm not intending to ignore any of the specifics, just going straight to the summary. (And I did read it all!)

I understand exactly what you mean, Khaylara - quantity vs. quality is a very familiar trade-off for live game teams (that is, teams the expand the game after release). Do you concentrate on a lot of expanded content, whether that is in the form of expansion packs or monthly updates? Or do you fix the long-standing bugs, add a more modern chat system, maybe finally give the pointless cave in the mid-level zone some sort of actual purpose? Where exactly the trade-off happens depends a lot on the game, the players, and the dev team - but it is always a balancing act.

But that's post-release. Where we are right now, in alpha, we still need to pin down a lot of the tech and the mechanics. We need to do the crazy stuff now. We are doing quite a bit for quality of life as we go - although admittedly at this point, a lot of it is less 'quality of life' and more 'why the hell isn't that basic feature there yet?', but still. Overall the current balance for us swings towards ... well, not quantity over quality, but bones over quality.

Take Gazluk, for example. Even though Gazluk is a big shiny new zone, it serves an additional purpose: Gazluk contains tests of something like five new tech mechanics. Some of these are low-level enough (in the code sense) that you won't ever see them. Some are smaller versions of something that's planned to be a larger deal later. (Pennoc filled that purpose, for example.)

Even something like skill prices has a testing purpose: We aren't punishing you or trying to slow you down, we're seeing how the math that looks good on paper actually falls out when it meets real players. (Insert quote about battle plans here.) Between your feedback and some basic metrics, we can improve the whole process for the next skill cap raise. Perhaps the best part of this stage of development is that, if something doesn't work, we can change it.

I think part of the problem we are running into is that we have drawn out the alpha so long that some of our long-term alpha players are expecting more from us. That is completely understandable - and, honestly, incredibly flattering. And thankfully something that will improve as we move into beta and beyond and get a little more slack in our balancing tightrope. (Err .. wait - is slack good or bad on a tightrope? Well, hopefully you know what I mean.)