Beta review - my thoughts in a nutshell (enter at your own risk)

Dayde

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Jul 31, 2020
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First, I have spent a lot of time in MO1 for the past several years (not as veteran as many of you for sure, though), and loved the game.. with it's quirks and changes over the years. I still log in and play.. but it feels like a single player game these days with almost no one on (sad times).

I have been playing MO2 now for about a week.. exploring, trying some crafting and the new combat system. Overall, I love the new visuals and expanded world. I was worried it would just feel like another Sarducca.. spread out without any density, but I think the new map feels much more realistic. One big criticism I have so far is I feel like MO2 is reducing the overall learning curve from the game (easy parries, simplified armor pieces, resource gathering, etc), and I think that is a big mistake. One caveat; some of the items I call out might be in a state of flux as MO2 is developed...

Combat:
The new combat system is growing on me.. it does feel more organic and realistic slowed down. However, I still feel it is slowed down a bit too much. Increasing run speed a bit may help, or even better Grasthard's parry mechanic suggestion. MO1's combat system was fast (I started playing when Awakening was released, so I don't have a good base prior to that), but it made sense to be fast.. dealing with vastly different species with very different bonuses. I do like the new system (minus easy parry mode), but would like it sped up just a bit.

Ranged Combat:
While the melee combat system is feeling more realistic for the most part, the ranged combat just doesn't feel right. A lot of my time on MO1 was as an MA, and the way a bow pulled, and the path an arrow took made sense to me (except for the lack of taking speed into account, i.e. lack of needing to lead your target). The MO2 bows just don't feel right. They pull pretty linearly, and the arrows seem to shoot straight every time. Also.. the bows all seem to respond like a short bow, no matter if it is an asymmetric recurve, longbow, or shotbow. The work bench isn't opened up yet, so maybe when I start crafting some bows things will feel better.

Armor:
I am really hating the new armor slots. I liked having the ability to customize with 10 slots. The MO1 armor slots were not difficult to figure out when I was a new player (and I never heard that complaint), but did provide the ability to really tailor your armor for your play style as you learned how armor worked in the game, even without crafting your own armor. It allowed customization (visually and through game mechanics) without demanding the steep learning curve that is present in much of the game. The learning curve was there if you wanted to learn how to best customize your pieces for heat, mounteds, etc, but it was not a requirement outside of that.

Map:
I really like the expanded map.. especially if MO2 ends up supporting an online community larger than MO1 at it's peak. It feels more natural to look down at a town and see it nestled nicely in a valley without filling it. Though.. travelling around the world without a mount is killing me :p

Resource Gathering:
I am really hating the tooltips telling me what every resource is. I really enjoyed needing to pay attention to what different trees looked like in MO1, or what different rocks looked like. The tooltips are a minor complaint of mine, but they do detract from the immersion. I can see new players not even paying attention to the visual detail put into different types of resources and relying purely on the tooltips.

New Player Experience:
I feel like much of the changes put in are purely to reduce the learning curve of the game. I think that is a mistake. The deep realism MO1 had that demanded a steep learning curve also added to the game. There is a big difference between teaching new players about the different game mechanics with good tutorials, and dumbing the game down. I feel like many of the players that gave MO1 a try and then left because of the new player experience would agree that they want a complex game. Many specifically were giving MO1 a try instead of other games like WoW, because they wanted that complexity. The new player experience in MO1 sucked, and unless you made some knowledgeable friends in the game (or lived on the forums), you were totally lost. Haven was a step in the right direction, but was still missing what new players needed. If you take Haven, add quests that teach you the basics to the game with some PVE content, then I think new players would be ready to deal with the complexity (and would love it). Haven seemed to be a start for this, but really just didn't do enough for a new player. I imagine a new player experience where a combat tutor will explain the basics of parrying and show you through combat with some pointers. I really feel that had Haven been implemented a year earlier, the player base would have lasted longer with new players sticking around. Tindrem was the go-to starting point for most new players, and was just a caustic environment that made new players feel like that was the entirety of the game. If much of the goal around MO2 is to increase the player base and attract new players, you need to address what really drove people away, and I do not feel the complexity was it.
 

Ministro

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Dec 3, 2020
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Great post, bonus points for mentioning Grasthard's chip damage parry suggestion, and tooltips definitely gotta go.
 
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Skydancer

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May 28, 2020
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Seconded for the parry suggestion. Momentum and force are real. Would solidify shields as a counter to heavy weapons.

Combat:
I'm oceanic so MO1 melee was unbearable for me and I don't abuse prediction so it's lose city. MO2 is infinitely more responsive and immersive in the sense that what you see is a lot closer to what you get which is a good starting point. I really think in addition to adding more risk to blocking/parrying some more mobility options would be good. I miss the old double tap dodges and think they could implement them here more smoothly. Given a hop fixes your movement direction surely prediction could handle it, giving a new hard counter strategy - evasion. More options and strategies is ultimate where I think complexity should come from with each strategy designed to counter or bypass another. Hopefully that can make things more dynamic and increase that ceiling everyone loves to talk about

Armor/Weapon crafting:
Little bit of agreement on the armor but the upside is that each piece works together far better that the MO1 sets. Also keen to see a bigger variety of lighter armors Weapons have some similar issues particularly pole weapons which for some reason are all locked to their weapon group. If you dislike the handle aesthetic options of hammers for example it's just not possible to use a handle from the axe tree even though one would think these handles have identical functionality. It also limits your handle length choices too. I'm sure I will forget about it in the long run but its a glaring limitation on the player. Better to have fewer handle options that are able to be used across the whole range of weapon heads where it makes sense.

Resource Gathering:
I hate the tooltips too - where's the sense of adventure, unknown etc? Reward player discovery rather than machine-gun cursor scanning

New Player Experience:
In-game lore and documentation sums it up for me. I HATED the idea of arbitrarily reading books which ironically made your character more knowledgeable but imparted NO knowledge on you, the player. If each book had a couple of pages of lore-style information about the skill in question, and was not consumed on use it would help establish a base level understanding of the game and also allow the devs to drop little hints in how to get started in various professions and add some flavor - nothing game-breaking, just hints on what resources look like, what types of things reach with other types of things in stuff like alchemy and extraction and stuff like that. Introduction into possibility!
 

Dayde

New member
Jul 31, 2020
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Combat:
I left the double tap strafing jump/dodge out, but I totally agree it should be in MO2. I will say that mechanic did allow you to reach places you otherwise could not get to in MO1, so it may have been left out for that reason alone. I would rather it be in place (and fixed if SV thought it was game breaking to use it to scale a mountain/etc).

Crafting:
I think you are spot on with the weapon crafting, but I have really been waiting for the bowyer/furniture/housing since that was where I spent most of my time crafting.

New Player Experience:
I really like that idea; being able to read a book and have it have useful information for the player would be very useful and more immersive. That can also be used to open up the kind of hints/lore the eavesdropper gave. I can imagine you read the Elementalism book, have the ability to flip through some tutorial type pages about how to use it, and even a hint to where you can find a key or a distant mage that knows how to breath underwater or whatever. Then you can refer to that book later through a library button if you wanted to remind yourself something about it. I really liked how MO1 didn't just give you all the information and had hints planted into the game, but I really hated how there was little lore in the game and required you to check SV posts or the forums for it.

Skills:
I have not seen much about where the skill point mechanic is going, other than what is in MO2 now with the Professional skills split out (though, of course we aren't going to have 20000 points for combat). Is there a post I am missing, or does anyone know how many combat skill points we will end up, etc? I can see that being good or bad depending on how well balanced that is, so I am very curious.
 
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Ministro

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Dec 3, 2020
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Skills:
I have not seen much about where the skill point mechanic is going, other than what is in MO2 now with the Professional skills split out (though, of course we aren't going to have 20000 points for combat). Is there a post I am missing, or does anyone know how many combat skill points we will end up, etc? I can see that being good or bad depending on how well balanced that is, so I am very curious.

Seen nothing at all, and I'm really wondering how this Clade Gifts thing is gonna relate to combat skills/points.
 

Dayde

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Jul 31, 2020
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Seen nothing at all, and I'm really wondering how this Clade Gifts thing is gonna relate to combat skills/points.
I am wondering also.. also I noticed the Thursar clade gifts had some temperature bonuses for both hot and cold, so I am hoping they are expanding on the Sarducca heat system to include cold weather. I am also wondering what the veteran points thing is going to be. Lots of guessing atm :p