3 Days in review

Quazal.A · March 2016

So, Will try to offer a balanced PoV on this game, I bought it on Tuesday and have played it pretty much 6-18 hours a day over the period (yesterday had DT so late starting)

Well to begin with i didn't think i would be buying this game, but gotta admit that post release i was reading these very forums and it gave me 'the bug' so thought bugger it £30 and even if it offers me 4-6 weeks of decent gameplay then i would deem it fair value.

So, will break this down in to good and bad points, and will try to offer my reasons, I dont expect you to agree with these reasons these are just what i have found. But first,
I am currently level 19 (all bar a few %) and have just arrived at Heidel City. Now, some of you might think why has it taken so long for you to get there, will simply, ive been enjoying doing a lot of nothing. But thats what my review is based on. So i cannot comment on later game play, well not yet anyway.

Ok so on with the points

Good

Visually, Both the characters and the landscape look stunning in my opinion, I have included a couple of screenshots that will show both my character and a decent high vantage point of the scenery.

http://postimg.org/image/7i99cowsr/ Just after the rain fall by the sea
http://postimg.org/image/aj6er05v9/ Misty Day up on the belltower
http://postimg.org/image/56qsxxdqb/ Close up of my Pet 'Kez'
http://postimg.org/image/ts2vz1fel/ My Beautiful face (well mommy says it is)

Variety, This is definitely not your point and click, follow the "!" or "?" , whilst they are in game following the hub>hub is not something that is high priority in this game, as part of the mechanics then it may well make perfect sense to follow the general quest line
Combat, Whilst the combat is good, its not quite the level of BnS it is fun, fast and lots of AoE fun with my Wizard, it can be a bit tricky to get used to, it works on both combo's and also the old fashioned UI hot bars, Personally, i find using a bit of both works well for me, for instance i have support skills on my hotbars and use combat skills on my mouse+keyboard combos
Industry / Crafting, I have stated many times on this forum that for me any game that doesn't do industry well is a game im not interested in, and so far this game has definitely sated my needs, yes it has a finite cap on what you can/cant do, that to begin with seems very restrictive, once you understand the energy points usage then it actually has taken what Archeage offered and made it so much better. Sometimes you do find yourself a little annoyed that you have ran out (see slightly bad points below), but, overall i find they are just about right for crafting/gathering
Complexity, I am fed up with being spoon fed, i like to find my own way around the world, but as i have found with this game im actually at times a little lost, but must be honest i love being lost, having to figure things out for myself keeps the old grey matter working well. Heck, when i started EvE my first 6 months in game i wasn't in a corp and taught myself everything, if in doubt 'google/YouTube' gives you pointers (all be it often in Korean)
Map Size, so far ive spent 3 days and haven't even left the main land of the starting mass, i love fact there isn't a quick travel, and even using the autopath has its pereals i found out the hardway and got robbed by some npcs whilst i was downstairs getting a brew, left me for about an hour without a horse as i didn't have the silver to cover the 'health repair of my horse'
Real time crafting / gathering, having your helpers gather for you seems to be a fad, i enjoy the way game does it. you can only hire as many helpers/workers as your residential status allows, want more helpers then you need to supply them with accommodation and beer
Questing, I will put this in both sides, the quests i have found i have read for first time in a long time, instead of just clicking accept and not caring about the reason, i have found myself actually listening to the voice acting or reading to keep on the story
Leveling speed, Im enjoying this casual attitude, knowing that i dont need or want or care about getting to a statutory level i can just go along at my own pace.
Finally, the day/night and weather cycles, for a long time i have wanted to find a game that seems to handle both time and weather in game and this game is getting there, at night mobs are harder offer more loot, but also certain quests can only be done / found at certain time of day, the weather has impact on your crafting, you cannot dry fish out when it rains (seems obvious but often forgotten)

see below for bad and conclusion

Quazal.A · March 2016

Bad

Lack of game support, as @Lord.Bachus said in his post http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/447671/hate-and-racisme-on-the-eu-servers/p1 I find the lack of GM action on such blatant racism disturbing, i live in hope that they will be kicked, not asked to change name but actually banned this type of player i dont want in my game, let alone dirtying up my chat channels. The lack of in game reporting, yes i can block them and 'request chat ban' but actually report their comments i cannot do in game. In this day and age such a simple thing has been left out.
Tutorials, Whilst i love the 'being lost' i personally found their tutorial more confusing than trying to figure out myself, but also , i would have liked one on the node system, even right at the start a very simple 'node creation quest' with no side distractions, but this is just me, the in-game help does need some work, for instance it took me about 2 hours to figure out what to do when you get "you cannot use this node as its got 2 connections' pop up
UI - Now this is a personal thing, but i dont really their ui, i would like more customization ability , if they ever decided to allow third party addons (wow esq) would be awesome
Map, i find the usability on the map annoying, the right click / left click to change view when i would just like to 'double click' to zoom ala google maps. i find myself going to look at map and instead of zooming out i click esc and get annoyed,
Lastly, this is the most annoying thing in this game, storage space, now im not just talking about the standard lack of bag space, but the way its handled in game, for instance you have certain items like "contracts for naive workers that you cannot even transfer to your bank storage space because its bound to character, currently i only have 33 slots in my bag and of them ive lost 5 to bound items that i cannot put in a warehouse... why... why.... But then the MOST ANNOYING thing ever, your at a trader you start the barter and bingo you win, so that means you can then sell your wares for a nice extra lump sell.. click sell all ,.. Sorry no bag space... WTF... why do i need bagspace to sell my goods, its not like im exchanging im trying to get rid of them, so then you have to come out of the trader ui clear/delete 1 item in your bag and when you go back to trader you have to barter again, so not just have you possibility lost the extra silver, but also wasted 5 valuable energy. This also occurs when crafting or even completing quests why do i need bag space when im handing in items, or cooking when im taking 5 ingredients out and already have 1 spare slot but it needs 2 for some reason??

That last one is something that is actually getting on my nerves, but does it spoil the game, of course not, but i dread to think how much ive lost in lost energy or even items from having to delete items.

Overall, 4 days in i do think this is definitely something that is worth the purchase, of course i cannot comment on your own personal thing, but if you do have the choice then buying the 2nd package $49.99 is better value especially with the horse and a few other items, but even the basic package definitely worthwhile.
Lastly i will point to the cashshop, so far i haven't even considered it, now of course the fact there is even a cashshop for some players will stop them playing , well that i cannot do anything about, but for me so far i haven't needed nor have i looked at it. It doesn't seem intrusive to me so far, of course who knows further down the line when i want rare items etc... but so far so good.

So apologies about the wall of text and hope this offers a fair view that may or may not help you make your mind up on throwing some cash at this game.

flizzer · March 2016

Thanks for the well thought out review!

Volgore · March 2016

This is a great review and i love to read such well thought out and structured postings coming from fellow forum users.
They really put the shallow crap from some paid freelancer authors on the mainpage to shame.

Thumbs up!

delete5230 · March 2016

This big long thought out review ( nice read by the way )......But nothing about interacting with others !!

This is an mmo right ?

solsun4evah · March 2016

so what do you do?

"for instance it took me about 2 hours to figure out what to do when you get "you cannot use this node as its got 2 connections' pop up"

appreciate the write up, have fun!

giffy689 · March 2016

O.o did Volgore a strike nerve?

Quazal.A · March 2016

Ok couple of comments thanks for the feedback. So in the 36 hours since this.

Yes ive managed to hobble to level 20 lol

Im still in Heidel City, but think i am probably about 80% done in there, I am trying to do everything but specifically crafting wise, It has been a hard grasp at times, sometimes i feel the game tries to be a bit harder than it needs to be.

For instance, there is no easy way (that i have found) to find out what materials are required for the recipes you have discovered. When there are so many variants of everything this does make things a little more awkward, It would be nice if we had a 'recipe' book that we could open and would show us all the known ones, I dont mind not knowing anything about the ones i have not created at least once.

delete5230 said:

This big long thought out review ( nice read by the way )......But nothing about interacting with others !!
This is an mmo right ?

The MMO side of the game, so far i have not found a need to multi-play, but i think it will come, the few 'mini-bosses' ive come across ive managed to solo with a little bit of skill and lot of luck

.

Since writing the review there are a few extra points that i would like to add (good and bad)

Good.

I love the climbing ability, not just finding things like vines, but just simply jumping up/over items, the fact you can pull yourself up, instead of jump and land, but sometimes you need to pull yourself up, yes granted it automated (not quite on the RPG level) but does add some realism into the game for me.

This game just seems to get bigger and bigger, everytime i think that the chain im working on is over, bang another guy wants to ask / get me to do something for him. I have no idea where i am in the storyline, but i must say i dont think im any/much further ahead.

Starting now to get hang of nodes, and which ones to keep/discard as you go along, the usage of your contribution points is vitally important, you will find things that you need them for at the 'worst' possible time, for eg. one quest to get a fleece but to farm said fleece you had to spend 5 points in a node, this took some serious logistic moving.

The way that you can impact your quests by playing the mini game , although i dont really get the game, i have an understanding that i think is right, (well it seems to work 75% of time )

Bad / bugs

I still struggle with this baggage bug, but also had a few other 'little' bugs, things like erroneous error messages where my workers are refusing to work, but its not too bad i merely log out and they will then accept my commands.

Like above fishing, its annoying that each fish takes up 1 bag space, instead of the same kind stacking they all take +1 space which although they allowed AFK fishing it only valid for as long as your bagspace allows.

Another one with crafting is it will require you to get say 10 stone, but you will already have them in your storage and yet it will not allow you to use them , so your continually mining the same nodes, but then some 'fetch and bring' gathering quests may take the items from you, but others wont, I dont mind which way round it is, but at least be one way or the other, not just random as i can tell. - for instance i have just picked up a daily fishing quests to get a mackerel and in my bag i already have a mackerel so i have to carry on fishing for something i have already caught.

But i am still loving the game, it does seem like this one might be able to offer me fix that i have been hunting for some time. Lets see how i feel after being back and work, will this game allow me to just jump in and out, or does it require the time i have been able to dedicate this week.

As we speak i am currently in process of building my first boat, so will be interesting to see how the game opens up with a bit of adventure on the sea.

I will also add that goldselling doesn't seem to be a problem to much in this game, yes you get the odd spam in chat, but nothing much, maybe 1 an hour as an average

solsun4evah said:

so what do you do?

"for instance it took me about 2 hours to figure out what to do when you get "you cannot use this node as its got 2 connections' pop up"

appreciate the write up, have fun!

officially i worked it out by process of elimination, but in reality was really just luck was (i think) the fact that i did not have a 'farming node' attached to the main node manager point (if that makes sense)

Realizer · March 2016

Well I know the reason you need inventory space to sell items is because money has weight, so if you are encumbered you won't be able to get more silver. A common cause to this is carrying too many potions.

spikers14 · March 2016

There are a series of Node quests that take you through the process, steep by step, in Veila

Quazal.A · March 2016

Realizer said:

Well I know the reason you need inventory space to sell items is because money has weight, so if you are encumbered you won't be able to get more silver. A common cause to this is carrying too many potions.

aye the weight thing i know about and unless on purpose (ie trading) im always running about 50% weight, its the spare slot / bagspace its just annoying as toot