SephGamesTV: Feedback, issues and suggestions

[sephgamestv]

Hello guys,

Once again I am working on a review of the game for this new test release, and man, theres a lot to test and not enough time to test it all, so I will be focusing on the main things that I've found would be important (player experience/combat mostly), some quality of life improvements as suggestions and some of the issues that I've found while playing and enjoying the game so far.

Combat and Loot System
#1 The main issue that I found on the combat system, that has not changed since I’ve first tested the game is that, once you attack an enemy, the auto-attack does not continue casting/swinging your basic attack. This is a big issue since forces the player to hold the left mouse button during combat, which is the same button used for traveling around. In other words, after playing the game for 2 hours straight, and more in a personal level opinion, my hand hurts and causes a stress on the hands that could be easily reduced by turning the basic attack on. Theres an option on the game settings to turn it on, but its not working.

#2 Some fot he spells still fail when pressing the keybind on the button bar. This is something that is being happening since my first test of the game and still remains to this day.

#3 When in combat, its possible to mouse over a mob which is on top of a corpse and it will open the loot instead of targeting the mob to attack it. Would be really interesting to make the loot of the corpse not being a priority when in combat, so I would not open the loot window on top of the mob and break the flow of the combat, having to press Escape or click on the X to close the loot and continue with the fight.

#4 Multiloot is amazing and works great, but would be nice to open the loot windows in a cascade or side by side matter, instead of all over the place, since its causing the game window to be filled with loot from corpses and making it hard to just move away from the big pile of mobs sometimes.

#5 For the corpses that still have loot on them would be nice to highlight them, just slightly to make it easier to identify if I am missing any loot or skipped some of the corpses.

#6 The ability of changing the build at any time is amazing, please keep it on game so we can all test as many spells as possible, this was an amazing change and very appreciated! Thanks!

#7 When using spells that would apply a debuff to the creature, its impossible to tell if the creature still hold that debuff (other than the floating numbers dripping from it) such as a small icon on top of the creatures health bar or a small icon on top of the mob’s head. Having these indications of the debuffs that are still on are important for the long fights, and even for the short ones, when trying to proc abilities that would take advantage of having multiple debuffs on the target as damage multiplier. (Rogue for instance have spells like that)

#8 Not enough buttons on the bar. This one is simple, theres just not enough buttons on the bar to make some of the complex builds, support builds and debuff/based builds at the moment. Even using only spells on the bar, I feel that at least 2 more buttons would be nice to have to have those extra 2 spells while having 15 points to spend on spells.

#9 Special buttons for consumables. This is a no brainer, I dont think I have to explain this one, but during combat I got used to use everything from the inventory, but the inventory itself cover a big part of the screen and sometimes even gets in the way while trying to navigate a large area filled with creatures. Having those extra buttons or making the inventory smaller, would be important. I found myself using 4 to 5 different teas, please bandages during this June 2023 test and I really think it would be a huge improvement having those extra slots of some sort of mechanic in order to have better access to that stuff.

#10 Rank (Knowledge Rating perhaps ?). This is a change that I didnt understand at all, I’ve tried to ask around an find some more information about how to “spend” the Knowledge points or make use them in a way to obtain the Orbs for the specializations, but the only information I could find was that I needed to farm creatures at the combat rating 5 or above, to have a chance to drop the specialization orbs, or, drop them for the legends. So… the Rank is theres more as a way to show the progress but not to be related to any combat rating I suppose. Also having 100k+ knowledge does not really translate into anything other than maybe having explored and farmed a bit. So question, whats the Rank for ?

#11 Combat Rating: The new combat rating is interesting and clearly shows the challenge that the player can expect by moving around on these areas, so good job there, and it clearly defines progression and makes the player to know they are progressing when they can move from a CR3-5 to a CR4-6 or CR6-9. The difference is really noticeable.

#12 Loot all button. Could you guys please add a button “loot all”, thanks!

Housing and Inventory
#1 Bug Placing blueprints down: For some reason the House Building 2x2 (no patio) does not allow to build a station on the NW side (see picture). It does mark as placeable (blue) at the door location, but when right clicking it does not place the blueprint down. The blue siluet of the crafting station is shown on places that you would not be supposed to place then but not allow then to place them down, and would show as red in places that you are supposed to place them down, also not allowing you to place them down.

#2 The inventory window is too big: when having multiple loot/inventory windows opened, they dont hold their position (once you close and open them again, or after logging out and logging back in), or show on top of other inventory windows.

#3 Transfer the Hammer and Axe to a “Tool” belt slots feature on the Character window: Having the Axe and Hammer (as tools) on your at all times is a good indication that you have your tools with you but would be nice (and a suggestion) to transfer them to the character window, which would have those items equipped and being able to be seens and replaced as any other piece of gear, not using the slots on your inventory for those items at all times.

#4 Cart Inventory, Crafting Stations and House Building process: Having the cart inventory open at all times now is amazing and really helpful for building a new house, crafting station or filling up the smelters (which are also a really good and welcome change if compared to the previous iterations). The only issue I have with the cart/collect/drop system is that its really repetitive for crafters who need to use the smelters, as well as for building your house. It requires a lot of clicking (it was a big reduction from the previous versions, since the inventory remains opened now) but still requires you to fill the cart, then drop the pieces 1 by 1 onto your house walls/foundation, or tools to craft them. The same is noticeable when pulling carts filled with ore and having to deposit them one by one onto your smelter. A suggestion would be having a “transfer” button to transfer all the mats at once from the cart to the crafting station (for smelters, wood processing, house building, etc). The change applied to the Tanning Tubes are a good example of how it could work, considering that are two different types of materials but following the same line bug having the cart to be more useful than just a 30 slot filled/unloaded 1 slot by 1 slot at the time.

The solo play experience
#1 Play as a solo player does not feel really possible on this release of the game. Unfortunately the recipes have a really low drop rate from the CR4-5, which hinders the progression feeling of the early game, forcing the player to find a group to find the higher CR spots, and directing those rare recipes to one player that will be pretty much relegated to be the crafter of the bunch. Being a crafter required a lot of effort and its understandable, as it should be, but in order to progress having access to the better equipment which is expensive and feels really unobtainable for the more casual/solo player. In this way I feel that the game would be excluding a big part of the player base that just want to play the game more casually and be able progress more slowly and consistently, having some odd times during the day to actually play the game. I found that the solo player would be forced to be using the primitive gear and stuck at the CR4-5 for a long period of time specially for some builds. As always if you’re not playing a mage early on, you’re not able to progress as fast and also would not have access to the reagents required to craft the higher end pieces, which would drop from creatures on CR5 and above.

#2 Gear is replaceable, which means you need to keep grinding in order to replace the pieces of gear you have at any given moment, and also, when ganked by a group of players you would find yourself without any gear and replacing it all at once. Not having access to the midgrade/highend gear as easily will relegate the game to the large groups of players that will dominate the maps and camps and will hinder progression even more, demotivating a big playerbase that just want to spend a couple or hours a day to play and enjoy the game in a more accessible way. Or corse this player will not be the highest crafter on the game, but also right now this player will also not have access to basic stuff like, Rapier, Chainmail or other pieces of equipment that require special materials that will also drop from higher CR hotspots, just to craft the ingots that then will be used to craft the gear. The amount of time required to craft the base mats to then craft the gear pieces is tremendous right now, and really demotivates a lot of players in a long run. Thats when I feel that repairing the gear would be something viable, even if when doing so it would reduce the durability considerably, allowing solo players to grind for the gold, buy the gear then repairing it when necessary, knowing they will eventually have to buy it all over again.

#3 Mobs dont drop any piece of gear, which is understandable but considering the topic above (#2) having some pieces of being dropped would allow a more steady progression and allow the solo players to try and venture out to the higher CR5-7, allowing for a slower but possible progression on the harder zones and opening access to the reagents required to craft the better gear.

#4 “Teleport Crystals”: I’ve played for about 60 hours w/o finding a single crystal so far. Even having the tips from other players on how to find them, I havent found a single blue spot on the minimap that would indicate where the crystals are, forcing the player to having to buy them from the market place, and by all means, they are really expensive early on. If you’re not lucky to drop a good recipe early on, you would find yourself grinding for 2hrs to collect the 5k gold just to be able to afford a full trip to the other planet and back, and on these occasions it would not even worth it the amount of effort/gold spent just to be able to access the other planet.

Quality of life

#1 Allow the Town markets to consider your gold stored onto your global wallet, not forcing the player to withdraw the gold to the personal inventory in order to buy something. The sale of the items would send the gold straight to the global wallet, I would suggest the opposite should be possible as well, allowing money to be spent straight from the global wallet.

#2 Buy/Sell orders could be filled straight from the town’s market’s, regardless of which town/plaet it is. This way the player will not be forced to go to different planets just for a specific recipe or piece of equipment they need. Maybe having a mail system for this would solve the inconvenience.

[Roccandil]

Good stuff! I agree with nearly everything.

Buy/Sell orders could be filled straight from the town’s market’s, regardless of which town/plaet it is.

That would probably break the game's model, since the need to travel to get unique trade goods has a cascading effect across the worlds.

For example, some players may specialize in taking goods to faraway cities to sell them.