Unfortunately I won’t be able to actively participate for the remainder of CBT2, so I’d like to offer my feedback while the experience is still fresh in my mind.
Ground covered
On my main character (Lucilla Lucardi, Lv 157 Paladin) I managed to get to Vilna Forest (Lv 163) before I started to run dry of quests. Burned quite a few reset scrolls until I settled on a build that I liked.
I must say it was quite the enjoyable journey. Let’s summarize:
The Good
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Graphics + BGM. By far the most impressive aspect. I can see how ToS heavily borrowed from Ragnarok Online’s character presentation - the eight-direction poses, the minimalist facial expressions. Exploring the environments was very satisfying (cathedrals, ruins, forests) and the mood was awesome. It really revived the sense of wonder I experienced with RO so many years ago.
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Class composition. It’s a different twist, departing from WoW-like class evolution (and we already have too many options that follows the same old beaten path IMHO). Most class rank choices made sense, and I know that class balance is a work in progress.
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The side quests. I know translation is a work in progress - and I tip my hat to the volunteer translators! - but the glimpses that I caught from the proposed main story line did a good job to weave the map-hopping together. But the aspect I enjoyed the most was to explore and discover all those side quests. I want more of it.
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The fight system. It was most satisfying to gather mobs around and Smite the EXP out of them. It also keep you on your toes, and you need to keep constantly moving.
The Bad
I realize the game is still on Closed Beta and we’re testing some aspects of the game (I imagine service stability, load balancing and failure recovery to be the focus since we have so many CBT users this round) and we’re certainly not seeing all the features the game will offer when it finally goes Gold (nor the service quality expected for a live product), so please ignore if I mention anything that’s already in the execution pipeline.
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Lack of community features. The game can be as pretty as possible, the skills as awesome as possible, and the experience as rewarding as possible - but if it doesn’t incentive a healthy community to grow it’ll certainly whither.
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The chat window supports very little content; I can’t, interact with a player (inspect, invite to party or Guild, etc.) by right-clicking on his/her name.
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The top-screen ticker is nice to see sometimes,
but an option to hide it when global chat goes toxic is mandatory.It was very peaceful during the time the chat/trade service was bugged and unavailable. I confess I went through the whole game without discovering the Chat Settings to disable it. So, make it more prominent maybe? -
We need tools to report misbehavior, be it trash talk on global or blobs of bots slicing through the air.
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Mob AI. I know it is costly from a processing POV, but my best experiences in PVE was fighting bosses with a plethora of moves and skills. I liked the tiny hints of decision making (like mobs running when frightened), but sometimes mobs just sat there, soaking the damage until they popped. I like to earn my EXP.
Small-effort, high-impact suggestions
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Some people like to grind; some, to follow through the quest lines. The game would benefit from a better balance between EXP cards and PVE EXP; expand the number of side quests, reduce the number of main quests that gate content and map advancement (so grinders can keep missioning to a minimum).
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The skill advancement seems… awkward. Pay silver and in 30 mins you learn something? How about pay silver to have lessons with a given NPC (that opens up a ‘skill learning’ bar), and then your skill levels as you use it and gather experience? It gives purpose to grinding, and feels like a more natural approach.
(This post is a work in progress. I’ll come back later and add more topics. Thanks all for reading!)
