I bought the early access the other day, and have now spent 2 days trying out the game so far. Some of this is QoL and polishing issues that will probably be addressed in beta, but these are things that jumped out at me:
Most UI actions seem fairly well though out and intuitive if you've played a video game before. I'm not too sure I like hiding the other/advanced materials behind the base though. Just put it all on one line and show the quantities available under each, and a bright boarder to indicate the chosen material.
I would like to see a color other than gray used for active and usable buttons, gray almost always means not available. I like the muted colors, but it's been taken a bit too far. Just a little bit more contrast, but let's not go full cartoonist, like the gold against the brown background to indicate a change from description to choices need to be made is not great.
For the gathering out side of looting, there needs to be a better indication of what is interact-able and what is not. It's hard to distinguish between some interact-able items and background terrain and flora. Maybe the colors need to 'pop' just a little bit more, or have just a slightly heaver shadow, nothing to dramatic, just enough to lend a visual clue, especially with little stones and some plants.
Something that gives a clue what weapon is equipped, other than what's in my characters hand. Just a small icon by the tool bar?
Of course inventory will probably be addressed later, but shift click or something to transfer stacks, and sort and find management is needed. A warning before your character is over weight would be nice too.
Now onto some bigger issues:
There seems to be some weird lag issue, but it's too steady to be lag. As I'm running my character takes a few strides and the screen freezes, not even for a second, just a blip, a few more strides, and again. I've also seen it in a few YT videos and adjusting the settings makes no difference in it's occurrence.
I also noticed that some of the creatures were targeting my character before they were fully on my screen. It wasn't consistent, but it happened a few times on different character in different areas with different mobs. There needs to be some check that the mob is with in the view range and on the screen before it targets the player.
The next thing that makes me worry is the lack of accuracy on matching bounding boxes to the graphics. Granted this is one of my pet peeves, and I know that some devs do it on purpose. To me it just screams laziness. Lets take the trees, you've blotched out this HUGE area on my screen for interacting with trees that makes it difficult to move and interact with anything around them. In real life a person would typically start an interaction with a tree at or near the tree trunk. So forget all the branches, just a nice small rectangular bounding box at the base of the tree trunk please.
There needs to be some level of priority to bounding boxes too. A live target that is attacking my character should take priority over a loot bounding box of a dead creature. Just because this attacking creature is standing on top of a dead body shouldn't mean that I can't attack it because the loot option for the corpse keeps coming up. I also noticed that if I end up with a pile of dead creatures it's very hard to loot all the bodies as the bounding boxes almost completely cover each other making it hard to loot the lower corpses.
Possibly think of fading out tree tops and branches (not just trees but anything that blocks the view of the character) or auto-zooming in the camera, something so that the view is not obstructed. This means that not only does it fade out of view, but it also doesn't block the interactions. There are several instances in town that interacting with a trunk/chest is very difficult because the wall has become invisible, but it still is blocking the click on the trunk.
(BTW why did you put beds in the game, and then not allow us to sleep in them? and make us sleep on the floor in front of the fire? ... weird)
You describe this game as "Fractured is the first open-world sandbox" but you have build stone/rock walls around everything. If you are going to build walls around each area and limit the entrances and exits, it's not open world, you might as well add some load screens in and just slice that area off to a separate server. I know that open world is thrown around a lot and I'm in the ranks of a purist about it. Can I run from one side of the map to the other passing though different areas without a loading screen or some dev created device blocking my progress? in your case the answer is no, so no you don't have an "open world". When you define a path that a player has to follow to move across the map, you've killed the open wold idea. Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't be areas that are harder to access, or mountain ranges that block part of a map, but you all have put a stone wall around everything. So are you going for open world or guided play? make up your mind cause you are saying one thing and doing another.
The last point: You seem to be trying to make a game that is inclusive to all styles of play. There seems to be a plan so that all ranges of PvP to PvE play are included. It's seems to be a well though out plan, if it can be pulled off. No one gets alienated and everyone gets to play in their comfort zone and maybe swim in some different waters on occasions. Then you turn around and go with point and click movement only.
Path of Exile is a game I really like. There is very little about it that I don't like, yet for years now I never get that far in it. I quickly find myself looking for something else to play. It was not until I purchased this game that I questioned why. PoE is the only game I keep going back to and keep walking away from and it's the only game I play that is point to click movement only. It's just not comfortable or fun to me. It's a horrid chore when the combat gets good.
So, after playing this game for 2 days, and now with the knowledge that point to click movement 'just ain't my thing'. I'm left with buyers remorse. I wish I wouldn't of bought this game, but on the good side of it, I guess I learned that if it's anything other than wasd it's not for me.
I know this is a hot button topic and is decisive. I will stand by this: that point to click is NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD, all points have been made on both sided of the argument and that really doesn't need to be hashed out again. I know for me (now) it's not my style, something I just learned. But why would you create such an inclusive game, and then force players to use a play style they aren't comfortable with? The logic just doesn't seem to sit well with me.
I like how you seemed to have pay attention to optimization and keeping it clean from the get go, I think that will shine in the end. I like that you all seem to be taking the time to get it right the first time and building a solid base. I know to some of the players it makes the development feel slow and drawn out at this stage, but it makes all the difference in the end. The shiny slick smoothness will come in due time! Keep up the good work.
