3 Main issues of TOS in YOUR OPINION

[Nekorin]

My top 2 issues of ToS:
Can’t really think of the 3rd one…

1) Balance
Really huge topic to talk about, mainly is balance on almost everything, pve content, time investment, player experience, interplayer experiences, class balancing, equipment balances etc. With the current R8 balancing, it is worrying how the game will progress as it will just continue to spiral out of control if it carries on using the same mold as R8 for R9 and beyond.

Split them up into chapters for easier reading and am halfway through them.

First thought on balance

Thoughts on iToS:R8

Disclaimer: This will be a rather long post, so do bear with me. Firstly this isn't an iQuit, iRant or iShowoff kind of post. What this post seeks is to offer my observations on the current Tree of Savior Rank8 (iToS:R8) patch, some things which I found out over the course of gaming in MMOs and other game genres, how the concepts come about and what kind of solutions can be proposed to tackle the challenges found in iToS:R8. As I'm no expert in this field (just a regular gamer with a 9-5, unre…

And 3 of the 5 parts

Musings on iToS Balance - Part I of V - A hollow game of numbers

I've been wanting to complete this for a long time but keep putting it off. This post is a collection of my observations and thoughts over on iToS. A few months back I posted a review on R8 content with regards to how dealing 1 damage impacts the experience of players. It touches briefly on how players perceive difficulty and progression and also how the game can help to improve on the experience of players. This series of posts is an extension of the 1st, each touching a different aspect on ToS…

Musings on iToS Balance - Part II of V - Fun & Time Investment

This is part II of the V part series, a collection of my observations and thoughts over on iToS. Balance in general PVE - A hollow game of numbers https://forum.treeofsavior.com/t/musings-on-itos-balance-part-i-of-v/348660 Balance in player experience - Fun and Time Investment Balance within player's own family - the All for One Syndrome https://forum.treeofsavior.com/t/musings-on-itos-balance-part-iii-of-v-the-all-for-one-syndrome/350139 Balance in interplayer content - Are we islands? ht…

Musings on iToS Balance - Part III of V (The All for One Syndrome)

This is part III of the V part series, a collection of my observations and thoughts over on iToS. Took a bit longer than usual for this chapter, due to RL work and the release of HZD. Writing and completing this chapter actually make me think hard on my time spent in this game, hopefully I don't get too affected after I complete this series. Balance in general PVE - A hollow game of numbers https://forum.treeofsavior.com/t/musings-on-itos-balance-part-i-of-v-a-hollow-game-of-numbers/348660 B…

2) Communications

Really hope that there will be more communications between the staff/devs and the players more. Granted it is a very tedious and hard thing to do to maintain a good public relations with the community but I do think that it is a good investment for IMC to think about. Since IMC is in for the long haul, fostering a good community will really help out in the long run.

Players are generally more receptive towards changes and delays if the devs communicate more frequently with the players. Involving them with design concept brainstorming is also a good way to build rapport too.

[MagicOne]

Yuri must now translate the wall of text for the devs or pretend it doesn’t exist

[STAFF_Yuri]

I know, this going to be a long work isn’t it? hehe

[Nekorin]

I’m just too longwinded… but some concepts is really hard to summarise. >.>

[STAFF_Yuri]

I understand somethings needs a lot of explains. And sometimes even I spend two pages, looks just… not enough lolz

[wangpr88]

@STAFF_Yuri,

Please suggest this feature for Saalus.

Each boss drop the cube … So, one round might get 3-4 bless shard…

Example: Dungeon that had >1 boss… kill boss in less than 60sec all get extra bonus bless shard or bonus silver reward such as 1m …

Then this will attract people upgrade their weapon and armor and continue journey without problem…

[Seiran]

@STAFF_Yuri I forgot of one of my top-list things I don’t like in TOS: How the targeting works.

Sometimes it is too hard to target what you want in PvP and PvE. For example, on Solmiki 25f you simply cannot lock-target again on the boss after the minions spawns because it will target everything else first. It is the same for TBL, it will target the companions and statues first and rarely targets the enemy character you want.

Is there any plan of allowing to target using mouse even on Keyboard/Controller mode or some of ideas in this topic? Allow Mouse target-lock in Controller and Keyboard modes

[Moge-ko]

1. Bosses spamming knockdown all around every 2-3 seconds
2. ADHD bosses that can’t stay in one place for more than 2-3 seconds.
3. Tree of bugs, tree of balance, tree of full-time dailies, PvFPS, bots spamming my worldchat without a care in the world… Eh, nevermind the minor stuff - it’s still a jolly fun game to play. At times.

But the first two “features”, through which you have to trudge every day - thank you, the tree of dailies! - appear meticulously (certainly with much more care than the rest of ToS) designed to extinguish any resemblance of enjoyment from playing the game.

[darkisredisdark]

Recent events are gross (especially the new one).

[STAFF_Yuri]

Okay, About the multi-crafting feature, It has updated to the KTOS, we will also going to add this on upcoming update as well.

[Saint00]

Anything like this just to give a little change up to the daily monotonous grind of Saalus. It doesn’t have to be easy but fair, like a tier based rewards, 75% boss hp left after 60 seconds, give some silver, 50% something something, 25% another something and when the party kills the boss they get a blessed shard.

[Queue]

IMC is well aware of the existent problems, and with a continued effort in taking feedback can work with the player base to address the major concerns. The Talk Talk, Dev Blogs, and the GM’s have all talked about most of the issues to a point where nothing seems to be ruled out and major aspects of the game are going to be addressed. I have a lot of hope in the vision and corrective course IMC is now taking, and I’d wager the balance problems especially, but other individual problems will also be dealt with, especially if they keep pursuing feedback with the players. So my main concern, and it has been for a long time, is development quality. What I mean by that is both quality in the sense of a bug free, QA’d release, as well as it coming in a timely matter, development speed. That’s what has me so demoralised. Here on ITOS we’re months behind KTOS and JTOS in terms of content, (it’s important to note though that we received the optimisation update first). I don’t even think that KTOS is receiving content fast enough, and I don’t just mean new features, I mean addressing the things that IMC has been talking about fixing. As ITOS we’re even farther behind an already slow development process, and it’s pretty crushing. Unfortunately, it’s the most difficult thing to change, and no amount of player suggestions can help. A bit on the bright side, from what Mr Kim said in the untranslated Talk Talk, and from what GM_Orange said in game, it looks like IMC has more resources than they previously had and a main priority will be content release quality. I hope IMC continues to improve this game, and I hope they continue with their increased effort in communication, it’s a great move and we all appreciate it.

[Rabbit]

No, please do not take note of anything from Aeria Games. They are a horrible company!

[STAFF_Yuri]

Can you give me an example?
I would like to know if there is a risk.
Oh and about the Cash Shop, Can you tell me more specific about it?
What would it make this better?

[Rabbit]

Several major companies are well known for exclusively making their games revolve around cash shop spenders, especially those who have been nicknamed “whales.”

Aeria Games is especially notorious for treating the player as nothing more than $$$. Their entire game is built around squeezing money out of players rather than actually improving the game. Exclusive items that require thousands of dollars and are game-breaking as “rewards” for spending say $600.00 (or higher depending on the month and tier). Basic functions, such as upgrading your weapons and armor require cash-shop items. I could go on and on.

They have a very poor reputation among veteran gamers. They also ban users for not being active and “charging” their accounts. Seriously they are a very shady company that is well known for mishandling their games and treating players like garbage.

[STAFF_Yuri]

I thought something like, milage system, which could be found from Credit Card system, could be useful when this could give a small return to Players what they have spent. But you are right, if shop is concentrating Super good item or balance breaking stuffs on exclusively on market this could ruin it too.
We must balance that part then.

I still like the concept to return the benefits to the players. Not being exclusive, but returning beneficial as a small gratitude those who spend money for the game. this going to be hard one.

[_Val_]

What would it make this better?

Cosmetic weapon skins. Purely visual so no stats on them and you’re obviously able to use normal in game weapons at the same time, no enchantmens.

This is low priority tho so important things first, but if the art department has extra time why not, right?

[nightrain_scy]

1. Bad design director, don’t know who design those formula/feature and simply implement them without proper evaluation. They wasted so many development times on fixing those things, after fix and need test those things again and again, but testing server is a good thing and let player do the QA role.
   eg: Agny Necklace and Transcendent are good ideas, but implemented in a bad ways. Some contents as well, like mdef mobs. Same as many classes’ skill, they have good idea behind but implemented in lousy way which rendered them useless or OP like meltis+boss cards+ausrine.
   ^ And this is the root cause of current problem and TOS downfall, when bad designs implemented it take another x3 efforts/times to fix them which caused the game stagnated, delay of new content and loss of players. I suggest they take x3 efforts on the planning and evaluation stage instead to save the developers time, I don’t even mind they open in forum to collect concerns and feedback.

2. End Game or Sustainable Content is too boring or buggy,

• TBL and GvG with so many bugs.
• Earth Tower is too hectic and require too high commitment.
• Boss fight is too linear and every boss almost the same, it all just min max atk/def. Unlike RO, different boss has different characteristic, element/race and tricky part. Should implement few small size boss that have quick movement and attack like RO’s biolabs boss.
• Items grinding is too linear, 290Rush + Saalus everyday.
• Guild Event is mostly obsoleted.
• No activities for party > 5 or multi-party.
• Headgear is over rely on TP shops, would better let it on Guild Event or Boss Drop.
• Character Customization, enchant scroll is bad for customizing, should make enchanted stat transferable to preferred headgear.
• Boring Items/Gems, should have more items like Ignition/Cafrisun/Toyhammer which able change attack attribute and allow more build variation depend on items.

3. Optimization, less loading time and faster casting animation especially wizard class. Make the game fast pace a bit. This is a bit long term optimization in the engine, but we can endure and witness the improvement bit by bit, hopefully at least 3months update once.

[fatedhour]

Main thing you guys got to work on are optimizations to the engine. Like improving the frame rate and such. You’ve come a long a way in that regard already, keep it up!

[Rabbit]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with freebies, or a sort of sample pack when users buy something. It’s pretty common in South Korea, I kind of miss it now that I’m back in the USA.

• If a user charges TP, a small sample of useful items could be included like some potions, a few warp items, an enchant scroll, maybe one dungeon reset or something like that.

• Having an actual discount in the shop that isn’t just 2 hairstyles for girls and a couple for the guys. Or on TP itself.

• Giving out a free outfit for the anniversary and a fun event would probably boost player morale.

• A hide and seek event once in a while with one of the GM team, and some silly prize that doesn’t hurt anyone.

These are just a few ideas off of the top of my head. It’s like 1AM.

I’m not criticizing you for reaching out by the way! It’s really nice you’re talking with players.