This Feedback is for the devs to improve their game-making skills so that the next game might become something that isn’t with mixed reviews or in decline one week after launch.
Social Gaming
I will start with explaining how a game to play for a group is usually selected. Socialized gaming works a bit like this: Everyone plays their favorite game when nobody is around and branches out to test upcoming products that tickle their interest. If others are around they play a game together. With a bit of group dynamics knowledge you will swiftly see that your game doesn’t even have to appeal to the individual to make him play it. The majority will often overrule and you will play whatever the group play unless it is something that goes completely against what you normally play. This is normal. It is awkward to e.g. sit in teamspeak and talk while playing something completely different.
Lesson: You appease 2-3 individuals, but what you capture and plays your game is a group bigger than that.
Lets just briefly glimpsed over how you catered towards groups with Tree of Savior:
Most quests are completed faster in a group, because you share e.g. the herbs you pick up or at the very least you finish literally all of them at the same time. This is good.
If a high level kills a mob with a low level in it the XP is not touched. That makes it possible to powerlevel lower friends to a degree. This is good.
XP distribution is at least different to solo play. It is a bit confusing but never-the-less you get less xp per mob but still enough. That is acceptable but not good. A system that goes solo 100%, 2 players 110%, 3 players 120% etc per person is simply better from a social standpoint because it makes it always good to group regardless of density.
Running through a map as a group feels very bad. Everyone just does a little bit and mobs die left and right. I think it took several days of playing before I had to heal for the first time since everything died on the spot as the train passed through. It changes starting in downtown, but that is too late. This is bad
No catch-up possible. One friends goes away for 1-3 days - he comes back and is isolated. Dungeon lockouts are global so you can’t help him there. Your playtime you are likely not eager to spend in a fashion where nobody but one person is rewarded XP. Although the group could technically play with him on their level there are several mechanics to slap the group if they want to try: He cannot accept the quests, if the mobs are 20+ levels higher he will be a oneshot and not be rewarded xp anyway. At this point the only thing the group could do would be hunting lower worldbosses together or artificially slow down. This is the worst you can do since helping your mate that fell behind is either not-rewarded or outright punished.
The healer/ccer of the group literally got 0 items. I played the whole day in group not a single drop, because your round robin was broken. It still is broken, but at least now people split items. See you fixed that in the laziest fashion possible. Great that round robin does what it should have done from the start however the dievs wood doesn’t need to be distributed to the party. Additionally it showed everyone that these 3 options for distribution within the group were outright lies. They didn’t change a single thing and there is no way you didn’t know that. Pair this with the inability for many friends to trade each other it was the worst I have ever seen in a MMO gaming experience that steadily moves towards 15 years.
How about silver/item farming as a group? Silver drop is not increased in group play so with 2/3/4/5 ppl in a group you get 50/33%/25%/20%. Same thing for items. You can’t just go out and say… well let’s farm the venier recipe to sell, because you literally would have to farm one for the whole group (that is if the RNGjesus awards everyone exactly one, which will not happen anyway) since the earning of that venier can’t really be split. This is bad. It actively encourages to leave your group and go on alone unless you want xp.
So this is what describes your group within the game - how about seeing other groups? What does that mean for you and your group?
It means not enough mobs anymore, frustration, running simulator, KS orgies not enough channels or in short - Density. Literally everytime you see others you are immediately annoyed. Think that is good game design? Seeing someone else should be neutral or even a relief and not make your stomach hurt, because you need more time to quest, more time for everything. There is literally nothing positive you can do with another group, no group linking, no creating a raid. They are competition and that is it.
So when it comes to social gaming I reward you 0 points. You gave it no real thought, you didn’t care and from all the friends I started with only one is left, because you kept harassing us as a group making it difficult to play together
The next time you design mechanics make sure that playing together is rewarded above all else. This is what roots your playerbase. If you’re alone it is easy to quit a game, if you have to quit a game and friends or new friends you made it isn’t.
