First, I really enjoyed the alpha test this past weekend. Although life obligations meant I didn't get to test as much as I wanted, I took three toons -- archer, caster, rogue type -- through the tutorial and into beginning gameplay.

What I liked:

1. The starting cities and tutorial quests. I felt like the tutorial quests gave me a good start on gameplay. For the most part, they were self-explanatory, although a few things were confusing and could have been spelled out a little better. For example, I saw many people asking the same questions about where to find the bandage recipe. A simple direction to look at the tabs on the side of the crafting window would have helped.
2. The green stars indicating where to go. This was really helpful.
3. Memorizing ability builds. I liked the option to have different ability builds, and also the inability to switch them on the fly. Having to go to a fire at an inn was a good balance.
4. Combat. Once I figured out what I was doing, combat was fun.
5. Gathering was fun, and the variety of materials was good. There could be more small stones. I liked a suggestion I saw in chat of allowing stone blocks to be further broken into small stones.
6. Crafting was fun, although it was confusing that some recipes were in one place and others were in another. I suppose this is something one learns over time.

What was difficult:

1. The inability to change camera angle. I could be standing with a town two feet in front of me and not be able to see it because I had to stare at the top of my head. Please allow changing the camera angle to be lower.
2. No follow camera. This builds on the previous comment. I would like to be able to keep my camera behind my toon. Having it move around me was somewhat nausea inducing. Allowing it to swivel and lock with a toggle such as mouse middle button would be great.
3. Autorun automatically bound to left control. This was a problem because some other things, such as selecting an icon for a skill or talent build, also used control. Until I figured out to rebind autorun to something more traditional (numlock in my case), I kept finding myself darting around the inn, bashing into walls.
4. Lack of health regen. If there is health regen, it was not noticeable. Having to stand and use 6 bandages after every combat got tedious. Either the bandages should heal for more, characters should regen health while out of combat, or both.
5. No indicator on the map for the starting cities. I'm a perma-lost individual. Having to remember where, approximately, the starting city was, and then find it again, was a challenge.
6. Not being able to walk up/down the slightest incline. I felt channeled, and having to walk great distances to climb a tiny rise was tedious.

What I observed:

1. The mage hits way harder than the archer. As they are both ranged dps builds, the disparity was strange to me.
2. My character always said I was a male human, even though all three of my toons were female.
3. One character creation screen stated that starting builds are just a start. Something in the tutorial that explains how to deviate from a starting build would be helpful. I imagine it's just switching weapons, learning new/different skills and incorporating them into a preset; but it would be helpful for new players to spell that out somewhere.
4. Adding talents into the tutorial would be helpful.
5. I was pretty clueless about building a house, and I saw LOTS of questions in chat about it. Some explanation of housing, citizenship, town claiming, etc. would be helpful.
6. I saw two horses before I had a net or the understanding that I needed to catch one with a net and tame it. Then I made nets and never saw another horse on any of my toons. More roaming horses would be nice.
7. The mage's starting heal does almost no healing.

All in all, I enjoyed the game and look forward to future tests. Thanks for including me in this one!

The crafting sound is kind of overwhelming. Before I figured out what it was, I thought it was lots of people chewing, as it reminded me of the sound from a termite-infested woodpile. I really hope it's changed.

First, I really enjoyed the alpha test this past weekend. Although life obligations meant I didn't get to test as much as I wanted, I took three toons -- archer, caster, rogue type -- through the tutorial and into beginning gameplay.

What I liked:

1. The starting cities and tutorial quests. I felt like the tutorial quests gave me a good start on gameplay. For the most part, they were self-explanatory, although a few things were confusing and could have been spelled out a little better. For example, I saw many people asking the same questions about where to find the bandage recipe. A simple direction to look at the tabs on the side of the crafting window would have helped.
2. The green stars indicating where to go. This was really helpful.
3. Memorizing ability builds. I liked the option to have different ability builds, and also the inability to switch them on the fly. Having to go to a fire at an inn was a good balance.
4. Combat. Once I figured out what I was doing, combat was fun.
5. Gathering was fun, and the variety of materials was good. There could be more small stones. I liked a suggestion I saw in chat of allowing stone blocks to be further broken into small stones.
6. Crafting was fun, although it was confusing that some recipes were in one place and others were in another. I suppose this is something one learns over time.

What was difficult:

1. The inability to change camera angle. I could be standing with a town two feet in front of me and not be able to see it because I had to stare at the top of my head. Please allow changing the camera angle to be lower.
2. No follow camera. This builds on the previous comment. I would like to be able to keep my camera behind my toon. Having it move around me was somewhat nausea inducing. Allowing it to swivel and lock with a toggle such as mouse middle button would be great.
3. Autorun automatically bound to left control. This was a problem because some other things, such as selecting an icon for a skill or talent build, also used control. Until I figured out to rebind autorun to something more traditional (numlock in my case), I kept finding myself darting around the inn, bashing into walls.
4. Lack of health regen. If there is health regen, it was not noticeable. Having to stand and use 6 bandages after every combat got tedious. Either the bandages should heal for more, characters should regen health while out of combat, or both.
5. No indicator on the map for the starting cities. I'm a perma-lost individual. Having to remember where, approximately, the starting city was, and then find it again, was a challenge.
6. Not being able to walk up/down the slightest incline. I felt channeled, and having to walk great distances to climb a tiny rise was tedious.

What I observed:

1. The mage hits way harder than the archer. As they are both ranged dps builds, the disparity was strange to me.
2. My character always said I was a male human, even though all three of my toons were female.
3. One character creation screen stated that starting builds are just a start. Something in the tutorial that explains how to deviate from a starting build would be helpful. I imagine it's just switching weapons, learning new/different skills and incorporating them into a preset; but it would be helpful for new players to spell that out somewhere.
4. Adding talents into the tutorial would be helpful.
5. I was pretty clueless about building a house, and I saw LOTS of questions in chat about it. Some explanation of housing, citizenship, town claiming, etc. would be helpful.
6. I saw two horses before I had a net or the understanding that I needed to catch one with a net and tame it. Then I made nets and never saw another horse on any of my toons. More roaming horses would be nice.
7. The mage's starting heal does almost no healing.

All in all, I enjoyed the game and look forward to future tests. Thanks for including me in this one!

Why is there a daily post? Had fun in the Alpha this past weekend.