Hello all, this is my review of the current state of the game, and hopefully an open discussion to the community and IMC about what they can do to immediately recognize and solve the technical problems and restrictive design decisions of Tree of Savior.
Class Design
I personally enjoy the class system, akin to Final Fantasy Tactics albeit much more restricted.
The class system is unique, interesting, and already has a great variety. The dilemma with the Class system is that (for me) is once you make a choice, you’re locked in. It is not retroactive. And that would be fine, and some would argue that, that’s what they like about the class system, but it is unintuitive, unforgiving, and too time consuming this way.
A more reasonable system would include paid or free class reset scrolls, this would help your player base and your game grow, you would gain more knowledge much quicker about how the classes interact between each other. Players will do the foot work for you, creating new builds, testing, iterating, and you will be able to balance the classes in a much more comprehensive way.
There is no practical downside to being able to reset my class choices.
Game Design
The core gameplay is great, it is what I would expect from an MMO really, questing/grinding/loot, and the art of Tree of Savior is beautiful.
The game really is great to look at, albeit your moving at the brisk pace of a man with two broken legs, with no mounts and only two classes that can use them, it is quite miserable to have to run around constantly between long loading screens. Than there’s the Stamina system which will stop you in your tracks when you deplete it, as if we didn’t move slowly enough.
The level collisions can definitely be overhauled to allow jumping up and down more ramps/cliffs. Invisible walls that abruptly stop you while adventuring around can be really annoying.
Because of this I believe we need the ability to teleport to a party member, this needs to me implemented via paid/free scrolls, or a context menu option(right click player > Teleport) or simply increase out of combat movement speed. Regardless of the “Windrunner” boots, or any other method of becoming slightly faster.
As of right now you can use Dievdirby - “Carve Vakarine” to put a temporary Warp Stone down, or the Squire - “Base Camp” skill. The Templar can “Summon Guild Member” or “Warp to Guild Member” but the Templar is locked behind 220 levels, so these options are just insufficient.
Adding the option to teleport, and adding Mounts that can be obtained ( like the red panda ) or bought with TP will sufficiently increase user interest and satisfaction.
Monetization ( TP )
Since May 10th, FTP release date, there is no way to buy TP, that means every second FTP servers are up, IMC is leaking money.
Having glanced over the shop, its expensive and nothing in there is very intriguing, the game design in general is very stingy, they give you very little incentive to want to buy TP.
Instead of making more amazing art and selling that, which is easily the strongest point of interest in your game, you restrict gameplay and force players to unlock it with TP.
I suggest you offer players more incentive to spend money by giving us more beautiful art, we want to buy costumes and mounts and there are plenty of games that have a sustainable FTP model doing the same.
This is a list of some of the many options for you to successfully monetize your game.
- Mounts
- Costumes
- More Cosmetics, Skin Color,Eye Color, etc
- Class Reset Scroll
- Warp to Party Member Scroll
Performance Issues
It’s a dead horse by now, but we are all aware of the unacceptable performance of this game. Be it Coding/Engine problems, or just a reasonably expected “buggy game launch”, this game has a plethora of more than bugs.
The unexpected long loading times, horrible FPS, and the stuttering, to name a few. The staff at IMC should be looking to resolve these issues as soon as possible to ensure a smoother game play experience.
Unfortunately these issues cannot be solved immediately and could take some time, further decreasing the player base.
(TL,DR) The games design is restrictive and less rewarding the more time you invest into it. Fixing the performance issues and opening the TP shop with better content, should be a top priority.
Allowing the player to move more freely around collisions (“invisible walls” ), and around the world map by adding mounts/Warp to Player scrolls or increasing base movement speed.
These are some of the changes I would like to see. Thank you for your time.