Name: Anonymous 2007-12-02 7:05
Ripped from the beta forums:
I got my invite on 11/27. Here are my impressions in a general (but not quite) chronological order.
Day 1
* Holy crap, 7 gigs to download? This better be good!
Day 2
* 24 hours later - holy crap, 12 gigs installed? This better be good!
* Start a character, I'm on a really ugly looking beach. I tune things a little bit via the in-game gui but stay out of the debug tab. Now it's running at 1280x res and things are a little less fugly, but I wouldn't call it pretty. Nearly any first or third person game in the last 5 years looks better than this - maybe more than that, I think UT99 looked better.
* Run into a lot of walls on my way to Tortage. Between boundary walls, an overwhelming darkness, and pirates that seem to pop out of nowhere (probably because of the darkness), this is 30 minutes of no-fun. But, I get to the end, slay the slaver, and enter the town.
* Loading times are horrible. This took over 5 minutes to load Tortage. Then, there was a lot of stuttering as I got attacked by pirates. I managed to somehow evade them while stuttering and thankfully a higher level player drew them off of me. No idea where I'm going, again, not very fun. I finally stumble on Tortage itself and enter the inn.
* Loadings times are horrible. I experience three in a row - Inn, Nighttime, Tortage. This has to go. Not only does it take forever to load, but there's a lot of stuttering afterward.
* Night time looks just like daytime. I think it might actually be brighter as I can see where I'm going now. WTF? Where's the night?
* I stumble around and eventually log off. I don't remember where I was but it was still in nighttime.
Day 3
* Um. I'm floating in the ocean. I don't show up on the map. I'm so far out that I can't see any land. This sucks.
* 20 minutes later I find land. I'm waaaaaaaaaaay SW of Tortage. I managed to find the beach you crash land on at the start, but at night it is surrounded by invisible walls. I can't even make it out of the beach and back into the ocean, apparently you can come in but can't leave.
* After another 20 minutes of trying to figure out how to change the chat channel (Why does it show [Vicinity] in the chat title but show responses in Global in that window? Very confusing), someone mentions to another player how to get combos on their hotbar. I can't find the combos, but I found Heart of Acheron. After another 2 or 3 minutes of loading, I can finally move again!
* After spending an hour just trying to get somewhere where I show up on the map, I'm almost too damn tired to actually play. I make it through a few quests to listen to arias and quesado or something. Quesado's quest is lame. The marker for "Get on the roof" is NOT where you can get on the roof. It's where you need to be afterward. This is really stupid as you CAN get onto the roof from the second level of that building by jumping on the crate then over to the roof. However, you have to go up the ladder or the quest won't move on. Put the marker at the ladder if that's where you need to go.
* I make it up to the volcano to begin a quest there. This is after dying in the swamp by Arias a few times. Since the minimap doesn't have a lot of details, even when you zoom in, and the entrance is actually behind the marsh, I ran into the marsh looking for it. You take environmental damage there. No idea why, never did figure it out, but it's a lot and you don't last long. After the 2nd or 3rd death, I finally found the other path that goes to the side of the marsh and wraps around. That took way too long.
* By following the Destiny Quest progression, I am now level 7 at the Volcano. These guys are between level 10 and 15. After dying a few times, I log out. This is NOT fun. At least the resurrect loading screens are quick!
Day 4
* Loading times and FPS seem to be working much smoother today. Loading screens are as short as 30 seconds (although most are still near 60s) and my FPS is mostly higher, 24-30. Stuttering is gone...until I give up on the volcano quest (someone in chat says I should be at least level 11) and go back to daytime Tortage.
* Daytime Tortage blows. Lots of stuttering. 5-10 seconds with no screen updates - no disk thrashing, my computer isn't on fire, just nothing happens. Getting around is a pain. Finding stuff is a pain. I complete a few quests and log off.
=============================================
Thoughts:
* Combat is tedious. There is no skill in pressing buttons in the proper order. There is only tedium. I'd rather have one-button-press combos than this system. I'm willing to do the multiple button presses if there's actual skill involved, like parrying an enemy's attack or actual aiming, but not in the current state.
* Character progression - When you enter the city you're told to go see Tina. Then she tells you do some stuff that sets you on a quest progression. If you follow this progression, you're woefully under-levelled by the time you get to the Volcano. The game punishes you for doing what you're told and following a logical path. It's also very aggravating when you're repeating with new characters - you don't want to fetch four fish for the beggar when all you want to do is get OUT of Tortage! Make the destiny quest progression smoother, auto-levelling with the player, or force the character back to daytime quests before allowing them to continue past what their level allows.
* Moving around is tedious. The minimap has very little detail to it and there appears to be no way to adjust it to be larger or show more, just zoom levels. I have a few quests where I have no idea how to get to the actual endpoints, I can only get close, where close means there's a cliff or wall or something in my way and I don't see any way around it. Between this and the constant stuttering, it's horrible.
* Talking to NPCs. I can highlight an NPC and there is a talk icon that shows in the bottom right. If I click on it, nothing happens - I don't talk and I don't move toward the NPC. I strongly feel that there should be *some* command or key-sequence that moves you toward the NPCs you've highlighted. Same thing with enemies, you can click on one and see their status but you can't move toward them to attack. If you could click on the ground near them to move, that would be fine. Using WASD the entire time to move is horrible.
* Keybindings. Regular keybindings I use are WASD and 1-3 (left side), then pipe (right side), then X (left side). There is a auto-run but that's num-lock (far right, better to take my right hand off the mouse to hit it). U (right side) is the use/climb button. Ctrl is a meta character to make things like Tab for targeting work, but when you hit it, your character movement stops. Not only should we be able to rebind keys, but the defaults require too much movement across the keyboard.
* Graphics - as many have said, the placeholder graphics are shared between a lot of entities. Also, when you talk to people, they do not turn to look at you if you stand behind them, and they often do weird animations, like the female dance, while telling you something important. Very disconcerting. Obviously there are tons of improvements yet to be made, but are these things even on the roadmap? Hard to tell.
* UI - A lot of pieces of the UI are missing keyboard shortcuts (Quest screen, I'm looking at you). Others have mentioned the inconsistent use of Escape. A lot of other details are not there yet (I have no Feats points, but I don't see where it says "0 Feats Points"). The UI as a whole is huge and obtrusive, instead of being overlays that can be moved around and resized, it's panels that narrow your view. Make the views into overlays, so I can look at my quests and still have access to the minimap or my inventory.
* Beta situation and direction. I could be missing out on some of this info, so please correct me if I'm wrong. This is a General Beta. It plays like a Technical Beta. Low FPS, stuttering, can't click on dialog options, minimap disappears, warped around after relogging in, tons of item database entries are missing and take forever to load, loading screens take forever. These aren't insurmountable problems, but I also have not seen any sort of roadmap, i.e. "These things are completed, these things are targeted soon, and these things are on the future development tree." Right now, when you stumble on a bug, you don't know if that feature has even been implemented, whether it's on the roadmap, if it's a new bug, or if that's how it's supposed to work and the supporting text just needs updated. The developers say to fill out a bug report for all the bugs. Without some direction, almost the entire game looks like one big bug - graphics, gamma, database entries, combat issues, loading screens, where do you stop? This Beta needs some serious direction posted someplace prominent and hopefully viewable from within the game as well.
* Overall performance issues. On Wednesday, I was excited to get into the Beta. Now, on Saturday morning, I'm not even willing to log in again for a few days. I've got a house to clean, a yard to rake, Christmas shopping to do, I have to spend some time with my wife, there's football on the TV, I've got some home projects to work on, and the last thing I can afford to do is spend 10 minutes trying to log in and load a new zone just to spend another 10 minutes trying to figure out where I'm going and not die during the stuttering. The technical performance issues are hampering my ability to contribute, both from a time stance and an "I don't care to deal with it" stance. Focus on making the game playable, then I'll be willing to spend some time helping to find bugs.
I got my invite on 11/27. Here are my impressions in a general (but not quite) chronological order.
Day 1
* Holy crap, 7 gigs to download? This better be good!
Day 2
* 24 hours later - holy crap, 12 gigs installed? This better be good!
* Start a character, I'm on a really ugly looking beach. I tune things a little bit via the in-game gui but stay out of the debug tab. Now it's running at 1280x res and things are a little less fugly, but I wouldn't call it pretty. Nearly any first or third person game in the last 5 years looks better than this - maybe more than that, I think UT99 looked better.
* Run into a lot of walls on my way to Tortage. Between boundary walls, an overwhelming darkness, and pirates that seem to pop out of nowhere (probably because of the darkness), this is 30 minutes of no-fun. But, I get to the end, slay the slaver, and enter the town.
* Loading times are horrible. This took over 5 minutes to load Tortage. Then, there was a lot of stuttering as I got attacked by pirates. I managed to somehow evade them while stuttering and thankfully a higher level player drew them off of me. No idea where I'm going, again, not very fun. I finally stumble on Tortage itself and enter the inn.
* Loadings times are horrible. I experience three in a row - Inn, Nighttime, Tortage. This has to go. Not only does it take forever to load, but there's a lot of stuttering afterward.
* Night time looks just like daytime. I think it might actually be brighter as I can see where I'm going now. WTF? Where's the night?
* I stumble around and eventually log off. I don't remember where I was but it was still in nighttime.
Day 3
* Um. I'm floating in the ocean. I don't show up on the map. I'm so far out that I can't see any land. This sucks.
* 20 minutes later I find land. I'm waaaaaaaaaaay SW of Tortage. I managed to find the beach you crash land on at the start, but at night it is surrounded by invisible walls. I can't even make it out of the beach and back into the ocean, apparently you can come in but can't leave.
* After another 20 minutes of trying to figure out how to change the chat channel (Why does it show [Vicinity] in the chat title but show responses in Global in that window? Very confusing), someone mentions to another player how to get combos on their hotbar. I can't find the combos, but I found Heart of Acheron. After another 2 or 3 minutes of loading, I can finally move again!
* After spending an hour just trying to get somewhere where I show up on the map, I'm almost too damn tired to actually play. I make it through a few quests to listen to arias and quesado or something. Quesado's quest is lame. The marker for "Get on the roof" is NOT where you can get on the roof. It's where you need to be afterward. This is really stupid as you CAN get onto the roof from the second level of that building by jumping on the crate then over to the roof. However, you have to go up the ladder or the quest won't move on. Put the marker at the ladder if that's where you need to go.
* I make it up to the volcano to begin a quest there. This is after dying in the swamp by Arias a few times. Since the minimap doesn't have a lot of details, even when you zoom in, and the entrance is actually behind the marsh, I ran into the marsh looking for it. You take environmental damage there. No idea why, never did figure it out, but it's a lot and you don't last long. After the 2nd or 3rd death, I finally found the other path that goes to the side of the marsh and wraps around. That took way too long.
* By following the Destiny Quest progression, I am now level 7 at the Volcano. These guys are between level 10 and 15. After dying a few times, I log out. This is NOT fun. At least the resurrect loading screens are quick!
Day 4
* Loading times and FPS seem to be working much smoother today. Loading screens are as short as 30 seconds (although most are still near 60s) and my FPS is mostly higher, 24-30. Stuttering is gone...until I give up on the volcano quest (someone in chat says I should be at least level 11) and go back to daytime Tortage.
* Daytime Tortage blows. Lots of stuttering. 5-10 seconds with no screen updates - no disk thrashing, my computer isn't on fire, just nothing happens. Getting around is a pain. Finding stuff is a pain. I complete a few quests and log off.
=============================================
Thoughts:
* Combat is tedious. There is no skill in pressing buttons in the proper order. There is only tedium. I'd rather have one-button-press combos than this system. I'm willing to do the multiple button presses if there's actual skill involved, like parrying an enemy's attack or actual aiming, but not in the current state.
* Character progression - When you enter the city you're told to go see Tina. Then she tells you do some stuff that sets you on a quest progression. If you follow this progression, you're woefully under-levelled by the time you get to the Volcano. The game punishes you for doing what you're told and following a logical path. It's also very aggravating when you're repeating with new characters - you don't want to fetch four fish for the beggar when all you want to do is get OUT of Tortage! Make the destiny quest progression smoother, auto-levelling with the player, or force the character back to daytime quests before allowing them to continue past what their level allows.
* Moving around is tedious. The minimap has very little detail to it and there appears to be no way to adjust it to be larger or show more, just zoom levels. I have a few quests where I have no idea how to get to the actual endpoints, I can only get close, where close means there's a cliff or wall or something in my way and I don't see any way around it. Between this and the constant stuttering, it's horrible.
* Talking to NPCs. I can highlight an NPC and there is a talk icon that shows in the bottom right. If I click on it, nothing happens - I don't talk and I don't move toward the NPC. I strongly feel that there should be *some* command or key-sequence that moves you toward the NPCs you've highlighted. Same thing with enemies, you can click on one and see their status but you can't move toward them to attack. If you could click on the ground near them to move, that would be fine. Using WASD the entire time to move is horrible.
* Keybindings. Regular keybindings I use are WASD and 1-3 (left side), then pipe (right side), then X (left side). There is a auto-run but that's num-lock (far right, better to take my right hand off the mouse to hit it). U (right side) is the use/climb button. Ctrl is a meta character to make things like Tab for targeting work, but when you hit it, your character movement stops. Not only should we be able to rebind keys, but the defaults require too much movement across the keyboard.
* Graphics - as many have said, the placeholder graphics are shared between a lot of entities. Also, when you talk to people, they do not turn to look at you if you stand behind them, and they often do weird animations, like the female dance, while telling you something important. Very disconcerting. Obviously there are tons of improvements yet to be made, but are these things even on the roadmap? Hard to tell.
* UI - A lot of pieces of the UI are missing keyboard shortcuts (Quest screen, I'm looking at you). Others have mentioned the inconsistent use of Escape. A lot of other details are not there yet (I have no Feats points, but I don't see where it says "0 Feats Points"). The UI as a whole is huge and obtrusive, instead of being overlays that can be moved around and resized, it's panels that narrow your view. Make the views into overlays, so I can look at my quests and still have access to the minimap or my inventory.
* Beta situation and direction. I could be missing out on some of this info, so please correct me if I'm wrong. This is a General Beta. It plays like a Technical Beta. Low FPS, stuttering, can't click on dialog options, minimap disappears, warped around after relogging in, tons of item database entries are missing and take forever to load, loading screens take forever. These aren't insurmountable problems, but I also have not seen any sort of roadmap, i.e. "These things are completed, these things are targeted soon, and these things are on the future development tree." Right now, when you stumble on a bug, you don't know if that feature has even been implemented, whether it's on the roadmap, if it's a new bug, or if that's how it's supposed to work and the supporting text just needs updated. The developers say to fill out a bug report for all the bugs. Without some direction, almost the entire game looks like one big bug - graphics, gamma, database entries, combat issues, loading screens, where do you stop? This Beta needs some serious direction posted someplace prominent and hopefully viewable from within the game as well.
* Overall performance issues. On Wednesday, I was excited to get into the Beta. Now, on Saturday morning, I'm not even willing to log in again for a few days. I've got a house to clean, a yard to rake, Christmas shopping to do, I have to spend some time with my wife, there's football on the TV, I've got some home projects to work on, and the last thing I can afford to do is spend 10 minutes trying to log in and load a new zone just to spend another 10 minutes trying to figure out where I'm going and not die during the stuttering. The technical performance issues are hampering my ability to contribute, both from a time stance and an "I don't care to deal with it" stance. Focus on making the game playable, then I'll be willing to spend some time helping to find bugs.