Assorted Feedback.

[PaleMinerva]

With the promise of addressing long-standing balance issues in Update 9, the coming revamp of the alert system, the increased Alloy Plate drop rate, and the new mission reward tables, DE's done a decent job of earning back my trust. For this, I give my thanks and continued support. Nevertheless, there are some caveats I have with the game.

 

1. Barrier to entry remains a concern, in my opinion. This point is of particular importance as of the past weekend event, in which DE clearly catered more closely to long-term, experienced, well-geared players. If that intent of balancing around endgame is to continue, new players must have a straightforward, relatively easy path to endgame. As things stand, I suspect the current market prices remain faintly intimidating to beginners.

 

2. Clan dueling is fine. Add a spectator mode if you must, but there's no need to touch it up for balance.

 

3. Blocking and dodge-rolling are pointless maneuvers as they stand. Given that blocking is a continuous drain on stamina, the least it could offer is a significant increase in damage reduction. Anything less than 75% damage reduction on block is unlikely to be noticeable. Rolling, cartwheeling, and backflipping, should offer, if not a small number of invincibility frames around their start-up, then damage reduction and hyper armor (no stagger/knockdown). Damage reduction is debatable, hyper armor is a must-have. There's no reason to dodge at this point given that sliding is just as easy, has a faster animation, and can cover more ground.

 

4. While the delay on jumps makes sense from an aesthetic point of view, practically it makes platforming an exercise in frustration. This is compounded by terrain glitches that tend to break jumping or classify the character model as in-air, locking out usage of certain skills. Remove it.

 

5. Active reloading (interrupting reloads 3/4ths of the way through by blocking/meleeing/perfoming X action to shorten reload time) is a wonderful concept. I would like to see this turned into a full game mechanic.

 

6. The community, and founders especially, have a responsibility to give good feedback. Those in the design council, especially, I expected to criticize DE most harshly, since they have somewhat of a say in the future progression of this game and are the first ones to preview coming content. I see very little in the way of critical comments from this portion of the community; at the very least, what critical comments do exist are largely drowned out by the standard cries of overwhelming support even when support is undeserved. I applaud that faith in DE. I ask that you temper it with careful scrutiny.

Edited June 25, 2013 by PaleMinerva

[Kyrkitao]

6. The community, and founders especially, have a responsibility to give good feedback. Those in the design council, especially, I expected to criticize DE most harshly, since they have somewhat of a say in the future progression of this game and are the first ones to preview coming content. I see very little in the way of critical comments from this portion of the community; at the very least, what critical comments do exist are largely drowned out by the standard cries of overwhelming support even when support is undeserved. I applaud that faith in DE. I ask that you temper it with careful scrutiny.

That's how human nature works.

Platinum prices are routinely pointed out as silly, I don't have experience to comment on 2 because they still haven't made dojos available to small clans, I agree wholly on 3, I've never had much of a problem with 4, but I can see the frustration it could cause, and I think 5 is more of a nod to getting knocked down in the middle of a reload and not something they actually intended to see wide use.

[PaleMinerva]

Platinum prices do look to require a rework, but I'm speaking more with regards to credit prices and foundry build times.

[Ced23Ric]

Moving to Gameplay Feedback.

[PaleMinerva]

Say, Cedric, didn't you reset recently? What's your impression of the market prices, credit-wise?

[PaleMinerva]

Bump.

[PaleMinerva]

It seems that only my controversial posts get attention. Squeaky wheel, and such.