Hello IMC Games,
I want to give you my opinion about the game after the first few days of ICBT 2.
Primary I want to talk about the the maps and the monsters, as I think there are the biggest problems of the Game. The music and the graphics are simply astounding, nothing to rant about. Also I won´t talk about the server issues or bugs because well… it´s a beta and this has to be expected.
First, I´m a level 85 ish Wizard 1 / Cryomancer 3 now, and also played in the first ICBT as an Archer, so i have played quate a few hours now. So far I´m having a good time with the game, and I think it has immense potential.
I think as of now it has one big flaw that has to be adressed. The maps and the monsters that inhabit them. The First Part of the game until shortly after the Chapel is really good. There are many monsters there and they are different. They can be challenging, and if you engange too many monsters or monsters that are above your level they can kill you easily. But after that it feels like you are playing another game.
The first part of the problem is the mob density. After the really good early levels it falls rapidly. You have to search for monsters to kill, and AoE classes are often forced to kill single monsters or groups of 2 or three with a big aoe spell that has a long cooldown and cost quite a bit of sp.
The second part is the fact that the monsters do nothing! Most monsters don´t aggro you. Even if you attack them, it takes them ages to turn around and attack you and if they finally attack you they miss because you moved. Furthermore, even monsters that are way above you in level die too fast and do no damage. They are simply no threat at all, just punching bags that can´t even fight back.
The third and final part is the diversity of the monsters. In higher level areas all monsters feel the same. Like the same monster with different skins. Most monsters don´t have any abilitys of note, or special features, that make them unique.
The combination of few and weak monsters that all feel the same ist really boring and in a hack and slay game this issues are critical and have to be adressed!
About the maps: I don´t want to say much about them, as there are many threads adressing this. As many, i think surface maps should be a bit bigger and much more open ( Dungeon maps are fine but they could be a bit bigger as well). But i think compared to the Issue with the Monsters, maps are relatively fine.
I have some suggestions how to fix this are as follow:
About the First Point:
Simply increase the monster density on all maps beyond the chapel to the level of the earlier maps. A hack and slay game needs many monsters and if i have a big ass AoE spell with a long cooldown I wank to hit more monsters than just 2 or 3.
Second: Improve the ai of the Monsters. They don´t need to be overly challenging as this is a grinding game and you want to kill many “stupid” monsters. But as they are now, they are way to stupid. They should charge you if you come near them and smack you if you let them get even closer. Mobs that are way higher than you should be much more challenging and not a pushover like now.
Third: Diversify the monsters. Most of the time there are 3 different kinds of monsters in a map, so far so good. Now make them more unique and give them something to you make them special cound put a few stronger monsters in there as well (As an example: In a map full of Hogma Warriors and Hogma Archers put a few Hogma Captains in there, and make them more durable and let them hit harder) Or throw a “Miniboss” in there like the one in Miners village but make it stronger and let it spawn at a random location every 30 minutes. Maybe give him some adds if you feel like it or some special ability - there are so many possibilites.
The higher level maps seem as they are simply not finished. I hope you will look into that before the game gets released. If you adress this issues, i think this game will be very good, As the game is really fun to play and has such a huge potential.