Hello I’d like to list a few of the things that I’ve noticed while testing this game during this beta. These are based on my own experiences so far.
First of all I would like to mention the good things I’ve noticed (Its important to hear what is being appreciated as much as where concerns lie)
- The possibility to teleport back to the quest giver. It makes questing less tedious and people less inclined to skip questing all together like in different games. You’ve taken out the walking back and forth which deserves a thumbs up.
- Leveling is a lot faster now compares to the earlier closed beta. I understand that this beta has an exp boost given but you might want to consider actually finding a middle ground since last time it took way too long.
- When you kill things they burst into stuff which makes killing things fun
- If you havent played with a controller I really suggest it because it makes the experience of killing a monster very satisfying because of the vibration
Now to get to the topic at hand. In most mmorpg’s you grind up to a certain level and then you make it to what people consider “end game content”. In this content there are things to grind and also challenging new dungeons to explore and to beat.
As far as boss mechanics go the most I’ve been doing right now is make sure I do not stand in front of the boss and make sure I do not stand in red spots on the floor. It has helped me successfully get through boss encounters (even the ones where the boss has a lot of HP, it just takes a while). So is this challenging? I would say not really. I cant see myself repeating it for very long and mind you I’m a person who enjoys grindy games.
First issue is the experience as a player. What am I doing exactly? At the moment I am playing a barbarian and I am literally holding 1 button 90% of the time. Moving and holding that 1 button. I have more skills sure, but the mana cost prevents me from using them a lot. I’d either have to stock up on mana potions or continue holding that one button. This reminds me of casino games where people get something to put pressure on 1 button and walk away to do something else while the game plays itself.
Of course the above example is mostly outside of boss fights while I am killing monsters. So allow me to get into the difference of play when I am doing a boss fight. I walk around in order to not stand in attacks. When I am behind the boss (sometimes next to it) I activate a skill. I keep doing this until my mana runs out and it runs out really fast. Afterwards if I have mana potions I keep using them or I go back to holding that 1 button. Repeat till boss is dead
So I would suggest to look for a way to introduce boss fights which depend on more player skill, and is not holding our hands too much but actually requires us to look at what’s happening. I understand that the patience of modern day players is not a a lot compared to before. You might want to look into how to make the content more challenging. (the game does not have to become more punishing in the progress). An example of the top of my head would be to add boss battles with different learning curves. (one idea off the top of my head is to add a mechanic where you need to use a skill at a certain time. To ensure people keep track of their skills and mana more efficiently instead of bashing them skills)
I’d suggest holding playtests where people can test only dungeon mechanics at some point. (Of course you do not want your boss patterns to be released to the public before the game is available because that would result in people clearing content way too quickly.) Of course if you’re already doing this then consider my post as not written