/HELP?! Who uses that really?!!? What is this madness you speak of?!
Point taken.
/HELP?! Who uses that really?!!? What is this madness you speak of?!
Point taken.
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master." - Comissioner Previn Lal, Alpha Centauri
Please check out my stream, the "Project Gorgon Noob Experience" airing most nights!
Ha, I see where the confusion is. You can wear the item once you reach level 30 in the Spider skill. You don't need to actually be in spider form!
Wrong response, this particular item requires spider form. But! You can wear it as spider and, say, priest. Quite useless, but possible.
Last edited by Niph; 07-29-2018 at 09:17 AM. Reason: Wrong answer to a real problem
Very insightful read and I'm appreciative you left a concise post about your thoughts. I can understand that you needed to assume the game was "near done" in mechanics for the conversation because it would be easy to just say "Hey, wait a few months and some of these might change; it's alpha", but it is indeed alpha and I can guarantee there are plans in the works to address some of the points you have made. Personally, I want the tutorial to be expanded because so many new concepts have been added to the game that aren't covered by current tutorial.
Two things I would like to comment on are your points about the Serbule sexpot dialogue and the lack of taunt generated by healers:
1. The Serbule dialogue is like that because the town is full of elf refugees that have immigrated, to my knowledge. The other zones don't have as high of a density of elves compared to Serbule. It's still possible that might change, but to my knowledge, that is the reason the dialogue is more sexually charged than the rest of the game.
2. Current aggro values are unreliable, to put it lightly. There are times where I have to fight tooth-and-nail to try to get aggro from a DPS member when I'm playing staff/shield tank, and there are times that I can just start to play Song of Resurgence as my bard/priest healer and enemies will sprint by the other 5 party members to attack me. I think mesmerizing, fearing, and stuns might also affect aggro in strange ways, but I'm not sure of that.
Keep bringing a critical eye to the game. I'm sure the dev team is watching and listening.
Good post, though something that long is difficult to fully address... might want to break it up into bite sized threads for easier consumption/discussion
One main point I think I'd make that may be helpful as perspective is that, while having a million active players would surely make Citan et al VERY happy, I doubt that's the goal here
I think every game trying to be the WoW killer has come dangerously close to destroying the MMO genre, and if we hope to see any new games that are not broken themeparks like nearly every other game in this field, they will be niche games (like this one) that offer unique experiences that are not necessarily intended for everyone that considers themselves a "gamer"
Right out of the gate, P:G is just not going to be enjoyed/playable by PvPers, children with responsible parents, F2Pers, non-thinky folks, Action Combat gamers, meta-warriors, strict role traditionalists and anyone that thinks WoW is the pinnacle of online gaming, and it has a really good chance of being unappealing to gold-farmers and market controllers
Honestly, I'm surprised only a few of your group quit in frustration, though that's not to say the game is frustrating... its just not the game many modern gamers are looking for
The rest of us generally love it, and while I understand the desire to get everyone else in on the fun, please keep in mind player friendly is a very slippery slope, and there are a lot of big-name MMOs at the bottom of that ravine that can scratch the itch of anybody that prefers that sort of game
One thing P:G has done exceedingly well is define learning patterns, so doing the work required to learn one skill completely will not only prepare you for what to expect from learning other skills, it will teach you what to expect to exist in terms of other skills (for example: main combat skills have companion skills generally, so when you learn sword is complimented by calligraphy, you will know to look for phrenology to pair with psych/ment
You could say the information is not readily available, but if you develop the habit of talking to every single NPC you meet, everything you need to know is actually presented to you as you need to know it... extending the above example: you might not know there is a companion skill for psych, but once you make your way into Kur Tower you will find a goblin that teaches it and BOOM you learned a whole new side of the game
As a teacher, surely you are familiar with the expression "Drinking from the Fire Hose?" This is a very complicated game, and I think the way it guides new players through its many nooks and crannies is very well done, honestly
At this stage of beta, I would compare P:G to an IKEA where there is no guarantee that any kit you buy is complete
Much of it is, but you may have to go buy a hex wrench or do some googling to complete your Kullen or your Hurdal, but one you've got it put together you'll be excited and ready to start on a Poang
This is a nice way to try and get around your self-imposed rule about not talking about the game from a higher level perspective, btw
You and your friends will keep going until 70 because this game is apparently built for you... those that quit before then were going to quit anyway, and I think you will probably use the "But when you get to 70" methodology to try to talk them back in
As you progress, you will be introduced to all kinds of new ideas and concepts, and the scope of whats on offer here will continually expand (Which is awesome when compared to lvl0-Cap tutorial offered by most MMOs these days)
Oh, and NPC storage screens actually do tell you what will fit in there at the top of the screen
Last edited by preechr; 07-29-2018 at 01:20 PM.
I really dislike the equipment that only works for one shape.
One of the things that attracts me to this game is the problem solving. I was also frustrated with the travel times at first. But then I actually started to enjoy figuring out how to solve this issue. First thing I did was bind a teleportation pad that was in the middle of everything. This way I knew my commute was also the same distance wherever I needed to go. That worked for while until I was multi tasking in several areas. So then I discovered that speed potions are concocted at very low levels and are made with extremely common ingredients: pink powder stuff, water, clown fish fillets. I gotta admit, solving this issue was more rewarding than defeating a boss. I also discovered that Druids and Battle Chems love to help out. I seriously just walk into a town and say "Can someone hit me with some extra toes?" All of a sudden I will have like 3 speed buffs.... druids are good people. All of this was accomplished right around level 15.
The second biggest frustration I hear about is the infamous inventory...... I literally sell everything that I don't need at the moment. I load up on my immediate use stuff, and favor items for whomever I am trying to gain favor with. Everything else goes. If I need something I once sold, I just hit the open market. In my real life I work in construction materials so I've learned that time is money. The time you spend fussing with inventory sorting is money/experience lost. If I am trying to level up a certain skill like Shamanic infusion (for low level augmentation) I will bank items needed to level that skill at the universal bank. But I only level 1, maybe, 2 trade skills at a time. I think players feel like they need to level every single thing at once which just creates problems. Keep it simple and supplement what you need with the player market. Keep in mind, the more you spend on the player market, the stronger the economy will be.
That was a lot of good feedback! Picking on a couple things that I don't think have been responded to yet:
Skills have a one or two sentence description in the Skills info tab once you learn them. Whether you'd find that description useful is another question, of course.
I think it's extremely difficult to characterize a skill in a couple sentences. There are a lot of variables involved: What's the other combat skill you are using? Which abilities are you using? Which mods do you have? And assuming you have a skill summed up as "It does a lot of piercing damage", then I think the next obvious question a new player would have is "what's piercing damage and why do I care that it isn't crushing damage?" and that's a more involved answer and doesn't even go into "what other things beyond piercing damage might I be able to do that I might care about?"
I'm possibly overcomplicating things a bit, but I think once you have questions that go beyond the mini-description that's currently in game, you are better off asking other players or just trying out the skill yourself. Of course, leveling a skill and then discovering you don't like it feels like a lot of wasted time, but sometimes it's just the only way. Some things sound great on paper but then just don't feel quite right in practice. And sometimes, by ignoring what a skill "should" be doing and doing things your own way, you can come up with playing a skill in a way that neither the dev nor other players have thought of yet, and that feels neat as well. (Well, in my case I'm more questioning myself if I'm really playing "right", but hey, I'm having fun. )
Animals are not permanent though, they can be removed. That's a pretty crucial difference, especially since the animal forms are fairly easy to remove. Not for a new player, but experienced players are always willing to help out someone stuck in animal form. Should you have to ask other players for help if you incautiously chugged down a pig potion and didn't really want to be a pig? That may spoil the experience for some new players but so can boss curses (and some animal forms are boss curses).Class Permanence - The game does a good job of letting you know Druid, Lycan, and Priest have permanent consequences. Two of those three in particular are advanced enough that players should have heard the news about what happens when you go that road. Animal classes, on the other hand, are under-informed. "Think before you drink" is a good first warning that hey - this is real. You should ask in chat. So I did, and people said, "NPCs will react differently and some might not like you." Okay, fair enough - but remember what I said about "Players aren't reliable information for basic concepts?" This was a big case of that. No one spelled out for me that I'd lose access to my bank vault (where, even more frustratingly, I had ancient bronze coins) when I "went bacon" for the first time - and no one told me that I'd lose access to a LOT of game content when I did so. That got really frustrating in a hurry. Now I had an Unpig potion when I chugged the first quite deliberately, but not everyone is going to be that prudent - and players will really, really not like being blocked from what their friends are doing. This is turning into an "Animal" point, though, which I'll talk more in-depth on later. I guess the bottom line is this: it's not enough to simply say, "this is permanent, dude" without giving either an indication or a link to what that permanence means - especially since the severity of the permanence is so varied. Permanent priest? Meh. (For now.) Permanent spider? Brother, buckle up for harder times.
On the other hand, if you become a druid and then discover you hate being one, the only way to remove that is to start a completely new character.
That would be nice. Even as someone who's been playing for a while, I'd find it helpful if the item info had an additional tab similar to Gifting that would show which NPCs would be willing to buy an item in my inventory (and, ideally, for how much).a) NPCs need to explicitly state what they do and don't buy in some fashion. Players trying to remember and guess when they're noobs and struggling with another dozen concepts is not good. It might also help to tell players WHY the NPC is refusing to give you full price in the tooltip. "Warning! Velkort is not giving you the full value of 9,000 because (reason)!"
Ooooooh. Alpha Centauri. Wow, I haven't played that game in far too long, but I still remember the project quotes vividly. I really liked Colonel Santiago's voice, so I kept building all these military projects that did nothing to help my peaceful playstyle."Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master." - Comissioner Previn Lal, Alpha Centauri
I have read most of the thing and I think you just give up from the beginning.I started playing from steam release, I have reached the end game and I totally disagree with most of what you mentioned there. You still don't know a lot of things and you get triggered too easy, you should try more casual easy games. There are many "I wish, I knew before" tips you still didn't even manage to discover them yet.
I only have one point. On the inventory thing. It's totally your own fault for wanting to hoarde everything.
You don't need to and you don't have to. The limited inventory space is there to make you focus on doing A rather than B. Not so you can do A, B, C and the rest of the alphabet .
It's even mentioned on the loading screen to not try and do everything but barter/trading with other players should be your way forward in many cases.
Great point. I do understand that sometimes you need to do B to achieve A but your overall idea is correct. I also want to stress, as I said earlier, that contributing to the player market is beneficial for the overall PG economy. The more money we spend will only diversify what vendors will offer and then you won't have to spend all the time in managing your inventory.