[ Characters – Vaide (Sword/Archery, Verriel (Fire Mage/Unarmed), Verrai (Werewolf/Unarmed) ]
[ Also Viva (Staff/Battle Chemistry) when/if Hogan starts training Staff again.]
On 4 February 2014 I created a new character - Versa - after reading the Blog post on projectgorgon.com. Versa used sword/archery for nearly the whole time described below. I played what I thought was one of the likely quest sequences a new player would choose.
1) The new player cave was straightforward. I have played through it 4 times before and could easily defeat all the skeletons and wolves. There were no places where I had to fight more than one at once and respawns were not happening around me. I saw a few tombstones with 2 or 3 for each name which indicates that first time players are picking up the control useage OK. The pet I used died immediately when I was hit first and it attacked and drew aggro. With it set to follow after that it got to the end but wouldn't follow me through the portal.
Q1a. Will this be a tutorial if 20 players start at the same time?
Q1b. Will new players give up on pets?
2) Went to town and talked to all the NPC's and got all the quests they offer. I didn't explore the empty buildings so didn't meet the 2 mantids.
Q2a. If a new player explores and has to fight the 2 mantids will they have a chance?
Q2b. Why isn't there an indication of difficulty with the quests?
Q2c. Why are quests like “Kill Myconians” given out to new players?
3) Did Blanches favor – Pink crystal – first because of the comments of the last NPC in the tutorial cave. Killing the red deer was very easy because they don't have a fire attack now or a rage attack either. I killed 10 of them to get another favor and had Sword 6 at the end. Most spawned so close to me that I didn't use archery much.
Q3. Are these red deer intended to be very easy?
4) While fighting the red deer I had 4 sword skills and I thought that more than one skill was being used per sword swing giving a high initial burst of damage before the reuse timer took effect. I could see the same with archery later on.
Q4. Do weapons have a basic timer such as 2 seconds for a bow?
5) Set off for the crypt to get blue crystal. I diverted to the farm to talk to NPC's and while there tried to fight the bear with unarmed swapped in for archery so I could use kick. I couldn't beat it but got much closer than I expected. Someone was fighting at the alter SW of the farm with a couple of gravestones there and about 4 mantids in view that weren't fighting. It appears that there is some difficulty with this alter but success was achieved while I watched.
6) Where the trail runs between ridges there were skeletons on both sides and it is hard to spot them because a lot of their coloration is background seen between the bones. I got onto the south ridge as there were fewer there and fought several singly along its length but at the end I had to fight pairs. Outside the graveyard gate I fought 3 though one ran away during the fight. Inside I fought 2, 3 and then a single to get to the portal. I watched someone portal out and he was attacked before he moved away from the portal. Character runs on spot after clicking on portal.
7) Inside the crypt I usually had to fight 2 spiders at a time but usually the nearest spider was killed by 2 arrows before it reached me and the second often took only one sword hit to kill. At the entry I automatically killed the 2 spiders in the short passage because they often join in the first fight with the spiders in the long passage so if this usually happens a new player wouldn't know and might have to fight 4 of them.
Q7a. Are the first pairs of spiders in the two passages linked and if so should they be?
Q7b. If players pick new combat skills in town will they be able to succeed here?
8) After getting the blue crystal I attacked the 4 spiders in the passage leading deeper into the crypt and was surprised to beat them after running out of power before the end. Losing would have got me back to the entrance quicker. I attacked the next group but at least one of them was much stronger so I died there after being stunned for a lot of the fight. When I portaled out I was attacked by more than 3 skeletons and was hurt before I could move and died there. No bone meal was found in the graveyard or crypt.
Q8. Why isn't there a neutral zone at the portal because of the large variation in time to become active?
9) After resurrecting I went back to the graveyard for bone meal and once inside found myself under constant attack with skeletons moving around more than I have seen before and after running out of power I died. Still no bone meal. I tried again and this time found bone meal and one at a time skeletons so finished. I had Archery 8 and Sword 9 by this time.
My conclusion from the above is that there are places in the game now, at all levels, where players have to fight several enemies. If there are frequent deaths I think this can lead to testers concluding that they don't want to continue before they have seen much of the game. Also when people try out a game to see if they like it enough to hand over cash this first zone is where they will decide so I think that “playability” is more important in Serbule than the higher level areas.
[ Also Viva (Staff/Battle Chemistry) when/if Hogan starts training Staff again.]
On 4 February 2014 I created a new character - Versa - after reading the Blog post on projectgorgon.com. Versa used sword/archery for nearly the whole time described below. I played what I thought was one of the likely quest sequences a new player would choose.
1) The new player cave was straightforward. I have played through it 4 times before and could easily defeat all the skeletons and wolves. There were no places where I had to fight more than one at once and respawns were not happening around me. I saw a few tombstones with 2 or 3 for each name which indicates that first time players are picking up the control useage OK. The pet I used died immediately when I was hit first and it attacked and drew aggro. With it set to follow after that it got to the end but wouldn't follow me through the portal.
Q1a. Will this be a tutorial if 20 players start at the same time?
Q1b. Will new players give up on pets?
2) Went to town and talked to all the NPC's and got all the quests they offer. I didn't explore the empty buildings so didn't meet the 2 mantids.
Q2a. If a new player explores and has to fight the 2 mantids will they have a chance?
Q2b. Why isn't there an indication of difficulty with the quests?
Q2c. Why are quests like “Kill Myconians” given out to new players?
3) Did Blanches favor – Pink crystal – first because of the comments of the last NPC in the tutorial cave. Killing the red deer was very easy because they don't have a fire attack now or a rage attack either. I killed 10 of them to get another favor and had Sword 6 at the end. Most spawned so close to me that I didn't use archery much.
Q3. Are these red deer intended to be very easy?
4) While fighting the red deer I had 4 sword skills and I thought that more than one skill was being used per sword swing giving a high initial burst of damage before the reuse timer took effect. I could see the same with archery later on.
Q4. Do weapons have a basic timer such as 2 seconds for a bow?
5) Set off for the crypt to get blue crystal. I diverted to the farm to talk to NPC's and while there tried to fight the bear with unarmed swapped in for archery so I could use kick. I couldn't beat it but got much closer than I expected. Someone was fighting at the alter SW of the farm with a couple of gravestones there and about 4 mantids in view that weren't fighting. It appears that there is some difficulty with this alter but success was achieved while I watched.
6) Where the trail runs between ridges there were skeletons on both sides and it is hard to spot them because a lot of their coloration is background seen between the bones. I got onto the south ridge as there were fewer there and fought several singly along its length but at the end I had to fight pairs. Outside the graveyard gate I fought 3 though one ran away during the fight. Inside I fought 2, 3 and then a single to get to the portal. I watched someone portal out and he was attacked before he moved away from the portal. Character runs on spot after clicking on portal.
7) Inside the crypt I usually had to fight 2 spiders at a time but usually the nearest spider was killed by 2 arrows before it reached me and the second often took only one sword hit to kill. At the entry I automatically killed the 2 spiders in the short passage because they often join in the first fight with the spiders in the long passage so if this usually happens a new player wouldn't know and might have to fight 4 of them.
Q7a. Are the first pairs of spiders in the two passages linked and if so should they be?
Q7b. If players pick new combat skills in town will they be able to succeed here?
8) After getting the blue crystal I attacked the 4 spiders in the passage leading deeper into the crypt and was surprised to beat them after running out of power before the end. Losing would have got me back to the entrance quicker. I attacked the next group but at least one of them was much stronger so I died there after being stunned for a lot of the fight. When I portaled out I was attacked by more than 3 skeletons and was hurt before I could move and died there. No bone meal was found in the graveyard or crypt.
Q8. Why isn't there a neutral zone at the portal because of the large variation in time to become active?
9) After resurrecting I went back to the graveyard for bone meal and once inside found myself under constant attack with skeletons moving around more than I have seen before and after running out of power I died. Still no bone meal. I tried again and this time found bone meal and one at a time skeletons so finished. I had Archery 8 and Sword 9 by this time.
My conclusion from the above is that there are places in the game now, at all levels, where players have to fight several enemies. If there are frequent deaths I think this can lead to testers concluding that they don't want to continue before they have seen much of the game. Also when people try out a game to see if they like it enough to hand over cash this first zone is where they will decide so I think that “playability” is more important in Serbule than the higher level areas.
