On PTR we tested Colonies, but because we had alle buffs, rush on lvl 40, all blueprints and 6x everything it was possible to catch and upkeep a small 24 points island.
Since yesterdays fresh V1.5 start we tried it again. Raised to lvl 22, build a base and a sloop, so far so good. But we did not managed to got a treasure. Just many floatsomes and 2 wrecks. But with 150 gold it is senseless to upkeep a 24 point island with 3 ppl and we invested around 18h ingame within the last 2 days which is not possible for a normal working-week.
The environment is too hard. The SotD are manageable, even solo after some time. But if you are nearly done the Warrior, a croco, cobra or vulture will interrupt you that often. I tried it on J11 solo over 3 hours over and over again.
PVE needs further balancing for example:
- much less upkeep costs for smaller islands
- reduce aggro/pathfinding radios of corbas (if you try to escape, you will run in the next one)
- reduce vulture reaction time (they should eat the carcass short before despawn, otherways your hideout will be overrun by vultures so fast, you can't do anything)
- a way lesser hitpoints for the warrior (so that a solo could kill him after one finished his squad before)
For "normal"/casual players that might be much too masochistic, i guess. And isn't that the target-group of PVE?
Everything else seems quite fine. But where is the long-term motivation if you have clearly no chance to ever own/manage a small pirate-island? After you grinded some weekends, you will have your fortress, ship, guns ... and after that?
My conclusion after a total of 381h PVE testing is: actual PVE Colonies too hard for (really) small groups. Average and fine Treasures (>150 gold) are nearly not possible now (with PVE interrups of predators). So no long-term upkeep for 15-24 point islands is possible, not to mention the kraken or quests - no overall long-term motivation after 2 weeks.
Will be sad without further balancing.
On PTR we tested Colonies, but because we had alle buffs, rush on lvl 40, all blueprints and 6x everything it was possible to catch and upkeep a small 24 points island. Since yesterdays fresh V1.5 start we tried it again. Raised to lvl 22, build a base and a sloop, so far so good. But we did not managed to got a treasure. Just many floatsomes and 2 wrecks. But with 150 gold it is senseless to upkeep a 24 point island with 3 ppl and we invested around 18h ingame within the last 2 days which is not possible for a normal working-week. The environment is too hard. The SotD are manageable, even solo after some time. But if you are nearly done the Warrior, a croco, cobra or vulture will interrupt you that often. I tried it on J11 solo over 3 hours over and over again. PVE needs further balancing for example: - much less upkeep costs for smaller islands - reduce aggro/pathfinding radios of corbas (if you try to escape, you will run in the next one) - reduce vulture reaction time (they should eat the carcass short before despawn, otherways your hideout will be overrun by vultures so fast, you can't do anything) - a way lesser hitpoints for the warrior (so that a solo could kill him after one finished his squad before) For "normal"/casual players that might be much too masochistic, i guess. And isn't that the target-group of PVE? Everything else seems quite fine. But where is the long-term motivation if you have clearly no chance to ever own/manage a small pirate-island? After you grinded some weekends, you will have your fortress, ship, guns ... and after that? My conclusion after a total of 381h PVE testing is: actual PVE Colonies too hard for (really) small groups. Average and fine Treasures (>150 gold) are nearly not possible now (with PVE interrups of predators). So no long-term upkeep for 15-24 point islands is possible, not to mention the kraken or quests - no overall long-term motivation after 2 weeks. Will be sad without further balancing.