Feedback/Why I've stopped playing
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This is not meant to be a complaint about the state of the game, rather to explain where I am, what is/isn't motivating me. I fully intend to return, just not yet.
1. Open world pvp: Risk vs Reward
If you're a PvEer, or geared for it, it's all risk and no reward. I haven't been murdered out in the world often. But I want to talk about the design here a bit.
Fractured is very gear heavy, you take equipment to use abilities that are useful in the area you're planning on going to. Your gear's resistances reflect the stuff you intend to be fighting. Your vulnerabilities are the things not used in the area. PvPers know this. All they have to do is use the vulnerabilities in the gear they know people in the area will have. If you outnumber them too much, they just won't show up.
The PvEer is taking all the risks. Their resources, their time. The PvPer is taking none, but gets all the resources.
If I need to bring a bunch of pvp geared people to defend the PvEers just in case, that's a lot of standing around just in case. and will likely be the reason no pvp happens. So bringing pvpers to a pve "risk vs reward" encounter discourages pvp. From what I've seen of pvp metas here and in other games, it tends to come down to "what is currently the most overtuned, near impossible to avoid damage strategy" - not risk vs reward. All reward, no risk.Where's the fun supposed to be? In fighting encounters that someone else has already worked out that they're the likely winner before even engaging?
PvP makes sense in town vs town, guild vs guild, alliance vs alliance factions things around territory and resource control. It doesn't make sense just knocking people off out in the world for their loot.
Am I going to stop playing just because there's a risk of pvp? No. Dying in pvp is an inconvenience and costly time wise. Alone it won't stop me playing, but it also might make the risk of doing something that day higher than not logging in at all if I haven't got a lot of time. The game is very time consuming, anything that sets you back can be an absolutely huge impediment when you're time poor.
In general I don't think PvP and RPGs mix very well except in very controlled conditions. With skill/ability/stat/gear differences, team number differences, no clear goals or objectives it ends up just being bored pvpers on meta builds with nothing much to do farming players who are doing other things, which ends up satisfying no one. RPG games are time sinks with progression emphasising increasing character power/stats, generally pvp games are fast paced action with low downtime that are generally aimed at minimising differences in characters to emphasise player skill. Even in Fractured, the game is all about your stats- resistances, damage types and procs.
2. Exploration and Character advancement
I love the exploration in the game, I like discovering new places and new creatures and getting new abilities from them. It's a fun system. Currently the world is too small, but that's fine, it's still in development. Last time I logged in I went "what do I want to do today?" And came up blank. There wasn't anything motivating me to keep playing. Nowhere to go, a few abilities I still want to unlock but Grinding tough mobs isn't exactly a riveting experience a lot of the time, particularly if they're rare. I'm not a grinder, I will usually choose variety over fastest, most repetitive route. It does make me worry a bit about the longevity of gameplay apart from towns, the world is actually very static. I'm not sure if when it's out there's much on offer to keep me playing longer than the months it would take me to explore Syndesia and Arboria (chances of working my way all the way to the demon world just for exploration in a ffa pvp environment aren't very high). I'm not really sure what there will be to do once I've been everywhere and killed everything? What's the motivation for Arboria players supposed to be later in the game?
I'm also Australian, it's a weird time zone for the majority of the population so grouping can be difficult. This again also links to being time poor. If you have 1-2 hours, there's very little you can do because by the time you've met up, got to the location and started hitting stuff, you have to go somewhere safe to log out. This can be exacerbated by needing to rest frequently because stones are so heavy, so groups spend a lot of time just running around looking for stones when a fire is needed. I LIKE the campfire and rest system. I like that there are opportunities encouraged to take breaks, talk strategy etc, but can be very time consuming in places that don't have a lot of rocks.
I can't talk a lot about gear as I've only had 2 sets and resources are still being implemented.
Those are my main points. There's other stuff I'd like to see that would engage me but they're not things that should be priorities at this stage of development, mostly flavour stuff. Let me sit in chairs, more cosmetic options, even purely visual clothing pieces like cloaks, accessories etc. Stuff that supports RP, character engagement and immersion. But as I said, that's not stuff that should be a priority, so is only a minor point at this stage of development.
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@Jameow said in Feedback/Why I've stopped playing:
The PvEer is taking all the risks.
I disagree here, the PVPer can drop their actual gear. Thats a pretty hefty risk.
Getting pkd right now in game is almost nonexistent, because theres really only one or two people who actively run around red.
When it comes to things to do, i can understand this, once you max out a couple characters, it gets to be a repetitive cycle. I am sure in time this will change, keeping in mind that when it comes to games like this, the majority of "content" is player made.
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@Lifeburn For example: If the PvEer is farming ice elementals, the pvper just needs to go fire damage and resist and there's nothing the pveer can do to win that fight. The PvPer already knows what's going on because they can scout it first. It doesn't matter that they can drop gear if they get to pick the fights that are strongly stacked in their favor and avoid the others. They're not taking the risks, just like they don't in other games. Blue scouts, naked scouts, or just knowing who's in the area.
I know there's hardly any pvp now, I'm not worried about it at the moment, but if it becomes a bigger thing it will be a problem, like it does in every other rpg with open world pvp for exactly the same reasons.
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@Jameow I mean, thats why you limit risk by going as a group? I mean i take risk all the time when farming stuff, and if i get ganked with 20k gold and 10 dragon souls on me, i kinda set myself up for fail.
Most peoples gear isnt going to change much based on what they are fighting. Builds adhere in most cases to specific armor sets, and you can tab between 3 different weapons to change your damage up.
What you want, is that noone be allowed to gank you, thats just not going to happen, its not feasible. In a game where resources farmed = power and strength for guilds when taking cities and such, you can bet some guilds will be looking at locking down and controlling resources. Its not even a GVG thing, preventing acquisition or limiting the ability of some guilds to get things that only exist in a specific area also turns into opening a trade market for these things.
When the games much more populated, it wont be a single solitary person in a camp somewhere for hours on end where they see noone. Someone gets ganked they are going to make noise, people will know where they are and there is no instant travel to safety for them.
you dropping 10k worth of mats vs them potentially dropping a 250K set of enchanted gear is pretty nuts.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but for people who don't want any PVP or risk, they wont have to be concerned about this on the PvE planet?
So I assume this is fixed by simply awaiting the PvE planet.
Just like us wanting the PVP environment - We are awaiting that world.
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@Lifeburn Already addressed this too.
@Jameow said in Feedback/Why I've stopped playing:
If I need to bring a bunch of pvp geared people to defend the PvEers just in case, that's a lot of standing around just in case. and will likely be the reason no pvp happens. So bringing pvpers to a pve "risk vs reward" encounter discourages pvp. From what I've seen of pvp metas here and in other games, it tends to come down to "what is currently the most overtuned, near impossible to avoid damage strategy" - not risk vs reward. All reward, no risk.
Yeah sure, for guild vs guild or town vs town that works fine when properly delineated and structured.
It isn't. It's the same trap that dozens of sandbox mmos have fallen into. Everyone always says that's what they want and every time the population is too small to support them. Because it encourages toxic playerbases.@Kazzier said in Feedback/Why I've stopped playing:
Correct me if I am wrong, but for people who don't want any PVP or risk, they wont have to be concerned about this on the PvE planet?
So I assume this is fixed by simply awaiting the PvE planet.
Just like us wanting the PVP environment - We are awaiting that world.
Yes, the risk will be very low and the Arborians will have all the advantages. But that's not my point.
My point is that it's not a risk vs reward setup for pvp. It's largely in the favor of gankers and pks. The design is the same as every other shut down pvp mmo because it doesn't actually address the problems that hemorrhage players.And as I said about the PvE world already What is there to actually do after I've explored?
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The balance right now is mostly in favor of PvE players, that's why almost all PvP players have given up trying to gank people. The limitations imposed are VERY harsh.
