New player PoV
New player retention is the key to any game. With that in mind I am going to start my feedback there. I am a new player, I got a key from Blahbar, and ended up buying two of my friends a copy.
1) The game starts offering a tutorial - then just puts you in a map with ZERO direction. Remove this pop up. It taints the players opinion right out of the gate as incompentence. (not saying you guys are incompent, just the impression this interaction gives new players) Either remove the pop up, or have it ask, “Have you read the how to play at the bottom before playing” The how to play is actually fairly well done and full of useful info. Direct players here, instead of asking if they want to do a tutorial and giving them nothing.
2) When looting, only being able to press ESC to get out of a looting window feels very bad and restrictive. Especially if you’re doing PvP. Other triggers for closing a loot container should be, if the loot all button is pressed as clearly you are done with that loot, Any form of movement should auto close it allows for reaction time in PvP.
3) Traits - Clearer information is crucial. I played most classes to 5 before picking one. Priest for example lets you take holy sparks saying “some skills create this” Which is vauge, and no skills actually have it in their tool tip. Which come to find out, you actually need a different trait to be able to create said condition (star burst) to actually create it.. So if one trait is dependant on another, i shouldnt be able to take the later.
4) Keybindings — The game doesnt like scroll wheel for a lot of different actions, Especially the “back” where ESC is bound naturally. See point 2 as to why I even tried this. lol
5) I believe limiting the amount of time people have to spend doing non-gameplay things (vendors, inventory, lodge etc) is benificial, and thus a “unload all” option from your inventory to your stash after a run would be well recieved.
6) Also think consolidating resources into one location (devs choice) would be helpful as well, for example this feedback section could be a channel in discord, that utilizes threads or other advanced discord features, then there are plenty of bots/apps that can port these posts into ticket like systems, like this site for example. As I didnt even know about this feedback area, until blarbar directed me, I couldnt find it via the discord.
This are my main 6 points for the first 10 hours of play.
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Comments5
zebukiel
Jan 26
7) Weekly quests reset every 24 hours? This normal? If so, perhaps calling them Daily? or even get away from the time attritubtion and call them “minor quests / major quests” since its about 8 hours right for the “quest board’?
or something more thematic. Seems Quest board are “vendor quests” So “quest board to vendor quests” and weeklys to Quest board?
To reduce UI cludder, I would even go as far and suggest, that the “quest board” stay and you have them catagorize in there at top “vendor quests” with the current timer and then “major quests or what ever” with current timer. but all on the same screen.
Chris Kaleiki
Jan 25
Hey @zebukiel thanks for your first impressions!
I think we could do a better job at the new player experience for sure. Our priority was to put the player in a mostly safe environment with the skills in the top left and have them learn on their own. And yes, as you said, there is a How to Play. We could probably do better with prompts and voice over, but you’d be surprised how ineffective those are.
Using WASD to cancel the loot container window is good idea, we’ll look into that!
Fair enough on Sparks/Starburst. We could always improve the descriptions. They’ve changed many times so they always aren’t as polished.
When you say it doesn’t like it, you mean its not very responsive?
An Unload All option would be appreciated for sure, its on the list.
Agreed, consolidating information in one source of truth is the goal. This site is intended to be that.
Thanks for the feedback!
zebukiel
Jan 25
Depending what I remap to scroll wheel it just doesnt register input. often times it stayed as ESC vs scroll wheel. I tried loot all on scroll wheel as well, and had same experience just didnt register it. (I tested my scroll wheel in another game and on websites to make sure its not hardware error on my end.)
So to recreate this particular “issue” — edit keybands. “back” to scroll wheel up. “loot all” to scroll wheel down —- Attempt to play. Chances are you wont even be able to scroll wheel up to bring up the leave game settings that ESC normally would.
I am betting (QA is my profession of choice, if hiring let me know =P ) that the keybind “back” isnt really working globally and that ESC is triggering functions other than just “back” so when changing ESC to scroll wheel, it just doesnt register properly gets confused and eventually resets / changes keybinds. This really is a minor issue and resolved with loot containers being closed on movement tbh.. most actions that people would put on scroll wheel worked fine. It seem rather specific to back and loot all.
zebukiel
Jan 26
On the tutorial thing. I can see that approach, and I like it, but better implamentations likely would help.
With that approach as the goal, I personally, would ask. Do you want to the tutorial? If button is clicked yes, then Bring up the “how to play” with a pop up saying, Here is the basics, once you are ready press (insert button somewhere obvious on this screen) and we will put you into a PvE map where you are safe and can try what you’ve learned.
If you watch a lot of the first map, people doing the tutorial and just pressing yes, are trying to attack other players unsure whats going on.. As when tutorial pops, and you say yes, it doesnt tell you where its putting you or that you are going into a friendly area. I am all for players learning on their own, but the current set up just kinda sets up the player for failure calling it a tutorial and then in tern “taints” first impressions. First impression and player retention is imo one of the biggest hurdles game dev has, as you can make the best game in the world, but if people dont make it past the first initial learning curve, no one ever knows how great the game is.
zebukiel
Jan 25
Had a thought about the tutorial point.. when someone says yes to the tutorial. Have that bring up the “how to play page” vs Qing them into a match.