Early Access Feedback & Balance Needs

[Robert Tyburne 17]

If some of the forum topics and global chat in game, as well as my own experience over the past 10-15 hours, there are a number of features that are in need of balancing or need more thought put towards them. These are my thoughts on a few topics.

 

Food & Vitamin Systems:

Both of these are probably the biggest obstacles for players to overcome. Both starting out and attempting to survive out beyond the starting Freeports.

Hunger - The amount of food that the avatar needs to consume in order to not starve is tuned to high, and the Freeports would easily see all flora & fauna easily wiped out if it weren't for the high spawn rates. High spawn rate can stay since these are supposed to be where players start and are going to see high rates of harvesting. A player should not need to consume entire fields of berries or consume entire pigs just to survive for a day. Food should fill faster, with hunger not falling nearly as fast as it does. Cold weather further exacerbates this (burning more calories to stay warm), further punishing the player for not carrying around several stacks of food.

Vitamins - This particular system has seemingly been nothing but frustration for players, based again on what the various communication channels have to say. It started with a great idea, to push the player towards eating a balanced diet. Vitamin deficiency issues however, like hunger, are far too harsh. The reverse of vitamin overdose is also true. I mentioned this in a previous thread, but the vitamin system minigame would serve better as a way of providing bonuses to the player instead of being yet another way to kill the player.

 

 

Combat:

Trying to hunt or fight off creatures is a pretty painful experience given how jerky the movements are for wildlife. I don't know if this is due to bad animations or poor server resource management (more on that later), but this needs to be addressed since the gameplay loop for many players is going to involve fighting something. I don't know what combat is like against players since I've been playing on the NA PvE server, but I can't imagine it to be any cleaner than fighting the NPC's. Was absolutely a chore to fight a "Giant Bee" on another island in a Lawless Region since it was so small and had a poor animation/movement path, leaving little other recourse other than legging it. Larger creatures aren't much better with their goofy pathing when they're coming after you. Was absolutely messed up by a level 2 tiger because it was continually phasing in and out of existence and lunging silly distances because of how the terrain was sloped in small ways.

 

 

World Ambience & Gameplay:

This could very well sink the servers since it was a seeming challenge to get them where they are now. Freeports have the sounds already, so let's see some of it happening. Also would like to see NPC ships running around trading, conducting piracy, and patrols. Even EVE Online, which this game is being compared to, has four giant NPC empires that provide a network for players to push off from. Currently we're not really playing a Pirate game so much as post-cataclysmic survival game If I understood the lore correctly. Players being the content I totally get and appreciate. But the playerbase is in this position of being quashed before it can really get going due to a variety of bugs and balance issues with no support network to help, forcing players to start nearly at square one.

As it is now, the official servers are harsh, unforgiving places where the game world must rely on the patience of players in order to be realized. A big ask in an Early Access title that's had a rocky start.

 

 

Server/Region Travel:

I've moved from one region to another and experienced going from dead of night to clear sky in the middle of the day. Syncing up the time might feel like it's low on the list of priorities, but when a survival game has warmth affect the player's hunger, and then vitamins by extension, it becomes really problematic when a journey that started at dawn is suddenly now at dusk because of the region server time differences.

 

 

Server Management:

I don't personally know a lot about server farms or game server management. Little bit with a paper slot server on Arma 3, but that's a whole different beast.

It's a really cool idea to have 40,000 players able to inhabit the same map by connecting servers together. Claim territory, build settlements, sail the seas in search of treasure and adventure. Very romantic. It'll take awhile for hubs to become a thing in the game, as not even Jita 4-4 was built in a day. And therein lies the problem, we're not going to see huge towns or cities that are bustling with trade or activity due to the server capacities being capped where they are. Nor do I see huge fleet engagements being a thing without some serious optimization done to ensure both server and client machines are operating smoothly. As it stands, the playerbase should be expecting small settlements scattered around the world and not huge populations if the server capacity remains as it is.

 

 

 

Those are my thoughts thus far. I'll likely add to this post as time goes on, or as issues get addressed.

[Kanwulf 43]

6 minutes ago, Robert Tyburne said:

If some of the forum topics and global chat in game, as well as my own experience over the past 10-15 hours, there are a number of features that are in need of balancing or need more thought put towards them. These are my thoughts on a few topics.

 

Food & Vitamin Systems:

Both of these are probably the biggest obstacles for players to overcome. Both starting out and attempting to survive out beyond the starting Freeports.

Hunger - The amount of food that the avatar needs to consume in order to not starve is tuned to high, and the Freeports would easily see all flora & fauna easily wiped out if it weren't for the high spawn rates. High spawn rate can stay since these are supposed to be where players start and are going to see high rates of harvesting. A player should not need to consume entire fields of berries or consume entire pigs just to survive for a day. Food should fill faster, with hunger not falling nearly as fast as it does. Cold weather further exacerbates this (burning more calories to stay warm), further punishing the player for not carrying around several stacks of food.

Vitamins - This particular system has seemingly been nothing but frustration for players, based again on what the various communication channels have to say. It started with a great idea, to push the player towards eating a balanced diet. Vitamin deficiency issues however, like hunger, are far too harsh. The reverse of vitamin overdose is also true. I mentioned this in a previous thread, but the vitamin system minigame would serve better as a way of providing bonuses to the player instead of being yet another way to kill the player.

 

 

Combat:

Trying to hunt or fight off creatures is a pretty painful experience given how jerky the movements are for wildlife. I don't know if this is due to bad animations or poor server resource management (more on that later), but this needs to be addressed since the gameplay loop for many players is going to involve fighting something. I don't know what combat is like against players since I've been playing on the NA PvE server, but I can't imagine it to be any cleaner than fighting the NPC's. Was absolutely a chore to fight a "Giant Bee" on another island in a Lawless Region since it was so small and had a poor animation/movement path, leaving little other recourse other than legging it. Larger creatures aren't much better with their goofy pathing when they're coming after you. Was absolutely messed up by a level 2 tiger because it was continually phasing in and out of existence and lunging silly distances because of how the terrain was sloped in small ways.

 

 

World Ambience & Gameplay:

This could very well sink the servers since it was a seeming challenge to get them where they are now. Freeports have the sounds already, so let's see some of it happening. Also would like to see NPC ships running around trading, conducting piracy, and patrols. Even EVE Online, which this game is being compared to, has four giant NPC empires that provide a network for players to push off from. Currently we're not really playing a Pirate game so much as post-cataclysmic survival game If I understood the lore correctly. Players being the content I totally get and appreciate. But the playerbase is in this position of being quashed before it can really get going due to a variety of bugs and balance issues with no support network to help, forcing players to start nearly at square one.

As it is now, the official servers are harsh, unforgiving places where the game world must rely on the patience of players in order to be realized. A big ask in an Early Access title that's had a rocky start.

 

 

Server/Region Travel:

I've moved from one region to another and experienced going from dead of night to clear sky in the middle of the day. Syncing up the time might feel like it's low on the list of priorities, but when a survival game has warmth affect the player's hunger, and then vitamins by extension, it becomes really problematic when a journey that started at dawn is suddenly now at dusk because of the region server time differences.

 

 

Server Management:

I don't personally know a lot about server farms or game server management. Little bit with a paper slot server on Arma 3, but that's a whole different beast.

It's a really cool idea to have 40,000 players able to inhabit the same map by connecting servers together. Claim territory, build settlements, sail the seas in search of treasure and adventure. Very romantic. It'll take awhile for hubs to become a thing in the game, as not even Jita 4-4 was built in a day. And therein lies the problem, we're not going to see huge towns or cities that are bustling with trade or activity due to the server capacities being capped where they are. Nor do I see huge fleet engagements being a thing without some serious optimization done to ensure both server and client machines are operating smoothly. As it stands, the playerbase should be expecting small settlements scattered around the world and not huge populations if the server capacity remains as it is.

 

 

 

Those are my thoughts thus far. I'll likely add to this post as time goes on, or as issues get addressed.

I hope people will notice that it is indeed possible to make constructive posts, I doubt it but I do hope.

I agree with you on the vitamin issue,  I think you hit it with more detail in your previous post on the subject , Maybe you can link it for the people who don't just open a thread and respond with TLDR.

I'm hoping many of the other issues will be corrected with more stability, the combat atm is pretty sketchy vs wildlife and much worse vs players that have previously perfected the art of bunny hopping in other games, again I think a lot of this is due to the current condition of a 4 day old Alpha test but I'm also hoping that later in game it is more action based melee than say Arks click click I hope something dies style but perhaps that is already in here with some of the sword fighting skills and the like.

My understanding is there will be the type of NPCs you mentioned and they just aren't here yet, have bigger fish to fry with just making the servers stop crashing before they bring in too much of the other assets, I guess we shall find out what they came up with along those lines and tell them what they did wrong when the time is right. LOL

9/10 thread  would read again!

[Ankhwearer 19]

2 hours ago, Robert Tyburne said:

If some of the forum topics and global chat in game, as well as my own experience over the past 10-15 hours, there are a number of features that are in need of balancing or need more thought put towards them. These are my thoughts on a few topics.

 

Food & Vitamin Systems:

Both of these are probably the biggest obstacles for players to overcome. Both starting out and attempting to survive out beyond the starting Freeports.

Hunger - The amount of food that the avatar needs to consume in order to not starve is tuned to high, and the Freeports would easily see all flora & fauna easily wiped out if it weren't for the high spawn rates. High spawn rate can stay since these are supposed to be where players start and are going to see high rates of harvesting. A player should not need to consume entire fields of berries or consume entire pigs just to survive for a day. Food should fill faster, with hunger not falling nearly as fast as it does. Cold weather further exacerbates this (burning more calories to stay warm), further punishing the player for not carrying around several stacks of food.

Vitamins - This particular system has seemingly been nothing but frustration for players, based again on what the various communication channels have to say. It started with a great idea, to push the player towards eating a balanced diet. Vitamin deficiency issues however, like hunger, are far too harsh. The reverse of vitamin overdose is also true. I mentioned this in a previous thread, but the vitamin system minigame would serve better as a way of providing bonuses to the player instead of being yet another way to kill the player.

One thing you have missed about the hunger and the vitamin system is that this drives the use of the Cooking skill to create rounded meals that are very filling.

And Farming is needed to get all of the items needed for a good recipe created in one place.

And Farmers will need to trade for seeds from distant lands with visiting explorers.

And such trade really can't safely occur with out Company bases, which we are barely starting to make right now.

---------

You are missing the greater economy that is hoped for in the mid game to drive Company interaction, because its very need is driven by a food system that is hard to survive at the early stages of the game, in my opinion.

Your suggestion is trying to erase interdependancy between characters, specialists in specific skill trees.

[Robert Tyburne 17]

1 minute ago, Ankhwearer said:

One thing you have missed about the hunger and the vitamin system is that this drives the use of the Cooking skill to create rounded meals that are very filling.

And Farming is needed to get all of the items needed for a good recipe created in one place.

And Farmers will need to trade for seeds from distant lands with visiting explorers.

And such trade really can't safely occur with out Company bases, which we are barely starting to make right now.

Either as a bonus system or setup so it's not nearly as harsh as it is if you don't have that rounded diet. I didn't miss it at all, and like I said I appreciate what the design goal is. It's out of kilter in it's current incarnation.

 

3 minutes ago, Ankhwearer said:

You are missing the greater economy that is hoped for in the mid game to drive Company interaction, because its very need is driven by a food system that is hard to survive at the early stages of the game, in my opinion.

Your suggestion is trying to erase interdependancy between characters, specialists in specific skill trees.

The gameplay ideals of a large, player-run economic game is not lost on me. It's why I'm as excited for this game as I am, it's a fantastic idea. I don't want to destroy anything, but a balance pass across these systems is needed.

[ReaperUK 0]

I agree 100% with the original post. What surprises me is that if this game is a spin off from ARK, why reinvent the wheel? ARK's systems have been fine tuned over time and when I played it for a few months earlier this year, the survival mechanics worked fairly well with the  need to spend time on food and water etc well balanced with being able to spend time on other, more enjoyable things.

I think the vitamin system is completely unfun and not needed. Food and water should last longer, decay should be slower. The worst thing of all is the decay on things when people are offline I don't think there should be any decay on major assets such as boats, especially the starter rafts when people are offline. At least for a few days. Not everyone can spend hours every day playing a game. If having unused assets sitting around when their owners are offline is a problem for server loads then a system where they are packed away into escrow like many other games use may be the answer.