Hi all, I've only been playing this game for a few days and... I don't think I can put into words how blown away I am by the potential of this game. I've got buddies where we are just sick of all the cookie-cutter-WoW-clones and such and we sit around and reminisce about the glory days of EQ and have hundreds of "what if they made a game with this feature..."
Well, I'm going to throw out some random ideas that I think would be cool to have and would fit in the game. Feel free to disagree/discuss/whatever!
Suggestions:
1. Group UI - Show health bars of group members (shield and life only, don't show power levels). I remember when playing EQ, in the beginning you couldn't see the mana bars of your groupmates. You had to communicate and work together. It adds a little extra thrill when all of a sudden your healer says "OOM!" (out of mana). Anyway, I digress...
2. Inventory Management - I like how you can buy extra bank slots. I'm a HOARDER in the extreme, a lot of times I'll keep items for sentimental/funny/memories/whatever reasons if space allows. I'd like to see a separate inventory for crafting components (but only if you know it is a crafting component / have use for it in a known recipe). So for example you're walking around with some seeds but unless you actually have gardening unlocked, they stay in your regular inventory. Once you unlock Gardening, you can then store them in your crafting components bag/pouch/belt/backpack/whatever freeing up precious precious inventory space.
3. Speaking of items... lets be able to link them in chat so that either clicking on them or hovering over shows the stats. This is conducive to less spam in the chat in a player economy by not having to type the stats out.
4. For the love of all that is good and holy, let me resize my UI elements individually. I want to be able to stretch the chat box out a bit more so small sentences don't have to wrap around 10 times and fill the window up.
5. Vulnerable System: This is a neat idea, but definitely could be expanded on, your blog talks about people not watching for it, or ignoring it - give them a bigger incentive to watch for it! When an enemy goes "Vulnerable", it could be susceptible to certain skills, giving them extra effects (other than just more damage). For example, Finishing Blow could put a bleed effect on them, or a stun as they struggle to stuff their guts back in - the description on Finishing Blow is a "slow horrific cut across the midsection." Or warmthball could put a 10 sec "burned" debuff on the NPC, causing them to take an extra 2,4,6% from fire spells - stacking up to 3 times for a total of +6% dmg from fire spells/effects. So as a (boss) fight progressed, if you made sure to get a fireball off each time the enemy went vulnerable, you'd gain a stacking debuff increasing your damage.
6. Word of Power: Very awesome idea. Could expand it to include a "Phrase of Power" - maybe once you've learned three different words of power, saying them in a phrase/sentence could unlock a more powerful ability. I could also see this being expanded into a whole new skill set where you can learn spells by hearing weird languages spoken (Undead, Dragons, Orcs, etc) and you "equip" the spells on your hot-keys, but to actually CAST them, you have to type them out... this system could be abused by 3rd party macro programs though... just brain storming here and getting off on a tangent, sorry!
7. Weather: A weather system is always something that gets added late in a game, or even in expansions it seems. While they can look amazing, I'd like to see it expanded on to actually serve a purpose. For example, if it is raining, you get +50% to lightning spells, but to you also have a 5% chance for the spell to shock YOU instead. Additionally while raining, fire spells are at -50% dmg, and can't trigger the "burned" debuff mentioned above in the Vulnerable System suggestion. Water/Ice spells cost 10% less power to cast. Things like that. You could have "droughts" with opposing effects, blizzards, thunderstorms, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. Not just affect spells, but the environment in general. Earthquakes could cause players and NPCs to randomly be stunned for 1 second (not too often, that could get annoying FAST). Tornadoes could VERY rarely pick you up and deposit you in a different part of the zone, again, not too often so you don't overly-annoy people.
8. Permanent character bonuses based on how you level: Say you have a choice of 3 different zones to "level up in". If you choose to go to a desert zone, and you fight there for a LONG time (but not a set specific time, make it partially random to obfuscate) you gain a permanent +1% damage to fire spells/effects. Or permanent +1% defense to fire spells. Nothing too overpowering, but makes it rewording to stay in a particular place for a while. Possibilities are endless here for places to have hidden bonus buffs.
9. Advanced Overrides in Graphics Config: Needs to be more intuitive and user friendly. I was able to adjust a lot of settings here and the game really started looking AMAZING but a lot of the sliders were hard to understand which direction did what until you experimented with them. Maybe that's more my problem with a failure to understand!!
10. Map: I like the minimalist map. I'd like to see something like once you get surveying and calligraphy to level 50 each, you can now make notes on your map by placing pins with tool-tips (to mark locations). This is a very helpful feature, but by some it is considered to "carebearish". I think taking the middle road by putting the ability to EARN this feature should please both sides.
11. Another Maps Idea: I also like having areas that show up as unexplored until you a) explore them manually or b) use a surveyor-crafted map to open it up. This would be a good player economy thing for surveyors to make maps and sale to players. To make the maps valuable they could show the correct path through a maze-zone, or automatically mark the location of special areas/NPCs/etc. Again, a lot of possibilities here. You could even have levels of maps, for example:
12. Zone Favor/Reputation: Raising your average favor level with with all the NPC's in a zone or a town or a dungeon could unlock special rewards/quests/missions/loots/abilities/etc. This would work by for examply say there are 10 NPCs in a town. You get 5 of them to Soulmate and 5 are at Neutral then you average favor would be Friends or Close Friends. Maybe this would unlock a special buff like +5% to selling and -5% to buying prices. (That's uninspired I know, but it's a decent low-level reward that lets the players know there's a reason to raise Zone Favor.) Maybe if you managed to get Zone Favor to Soulmate, then you gain a special ability. For example, in Serbule you would gain the "Call for Backup" ability and when used summons a special (appropriately balanced/leveld) version of Sir Coth to fight by your side for 30 minutes on a 24 hour cool down (good for farming / clearing a zone) or maybe a more powerful version of him for 30 seconds on a 24 hour cool down (good for bosses). So many possibilities here.
Bugs:
Again, the game has such a potential, I think there's a LOT of gamers out there that are pining for the glory days. I can't wait to pledge to the kickstarter when you... kick start it again (excuse the pun).
Cheers,
Abednego
Well, I'm going to throw out some random ideas that I think would be cool to have and would fit in the game. Feel free to disagree/discuss/whatever!
Suggestions:
1. Group UI - Show health bars of group members (shield and life only, don't show power levels). I remember when playing EQ, in the beginning you couldn't see the mana bars of your groupmates. You had to communicate and work together. It adds a little extra thrill when all of a sudden your healer says "OOM!" (out of mana). Anyway, I digress...
2. Inventory Management - I like how you can buy extra bank slots. I'm a HOARDER in the extreme, a lot of times I'll keep items for sentimental/funny/memories/whatever reasons if space allows. I'd like to see a separate inventory for crafting components (but only if you know it is a crafting component / have use for it in a known recipe). So for example you're walking around with some seeds but unless you actually have gardening unlocked, they stay in your regular inventory. Once you unlock Gardening, you can then store them in your crafting components bag/pouch/belt/backpack/whatever freeing up precious precious inventory space.
3. Speaking of items... lets be able to link them in chat so that either clicking on them or hovering over shows the stats. This is conducive to less spam in the chat in a player economy by not having to type the stats out.
4. For the love of all that is good and holy, let me resize my UI elements individually. I want to be able to stretch the chat box out a bit more so small sentences don't have to wrap around 10 times and fill the window up.
5. Vulnerable System: This is a neat idea, but definitely could be expanded on, your blog talks about people not watching for it, or ignoring it - give them a bigger incentive to watch for it! When an enemy goes "Vulnerable", it could be susceptible to certain skills, giving them extra effects (other than just more damage). For example, Finishing Blow could put a bleed effect on them, or a stun as they struggle to stuff their guts back in - the description on Finishing Blow is a "slow horrific cut across the midsection." Or warmthball could put a 10 sec "burned" debuff on the NPC, causing them to take an extra 2,4,6% from fire spells - stacking up to 3 times for a total of +6% dmg from fire spells/effects. So as a (boss) fight progressed, if you made sure to get a fireball off each time the enemy went vulnerable, you'd gain a stacking debuff increasing your damage.
6. Word of Power: Very awesome idea. Could expand it to include a "Phrase of Power" - maybe once you've learned three different words of power, saying them in a phrase/sentence could unlock a more powerful ability. I could also see this being expanded into a whole new skill set where you can learn spells by hearing weird languages spoken (Undead, Dragons, Orcs, etc) and you "equip" the spells on your hot-keys, but to actually CAST them, you have to type them out... this system could be abused by 3rd party macro programs though... just brain storming here and getting off on a tangent, sorry!
7. Weather: A weather system is always something that gets added late in a game, or even in expansions it seems. While they can look amazing, I'd like to see it expanded on to actually serve a purpose. For example, if it is raining, you get +50% to lightning spells, but to you also have a 5% chance for the spell to shock YOU instead. Additionally while raining, fire spells are at -50% dmg, and can't trigger the "burned" debuff mentioned above in the Vulnerable System suggestion. Water/Ice spells cost 10% less power to cast. Things like that. You could have "droughts" with opposing effects, blizzards, thunderstorms, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. Not just affect spells, but the environment in general. Earthquakes could cause players and NPCs to randomly be stunned for 1 second (not too often, that could get annoying FAST). Tornadoes could VERY rarely pick you up and deposit you in a different part of the zone, again, not too often so you don't overly-annoy people.
8. Permanent character bonuses based on how you level: Say you have a choice of 3 different zones to "level up in". If you choose to go to a desert zone, and you fight there for a LONG time (but not a set specific time, make it partially random to obfuscate) you gain a permanent +1% damage to fire spells/effects. Or permanent +1% defense to fire spells. Nothing too overpowering, but makes it rewording to stay in a particular place for a while. Possibilities are endless here for places to have hidden bonus buffs.
9. Advanced Overrides in Graphics Config: Needs to be more intuitive and user friendly. I was able to adjust a lot of settings here and the game really started looking AMAZING but a lot of the sliders were hard to understand which direction did what until you experimented with them. Maybe that's more my problem with a failure to understand!!
10. Map: I like the minimalist map. I'd like to see something like once you get surveying and calligraphy to level 50 each, you can now make notes on your map by placing pins with tool-tips (to mark locations). This is a very helpful feature, but by some it is considered to "carebearish". I think taking the middle road by putting the ability to EARN this feature should please both sides.
11. Another Maps Idea: I also like having areas that show up as unexplored until you a) explore them manually or b) use a surveyor-crafted map to open it up. This would be a good player economy thing for surveyors to make maps and sale to players. To make the maps valuable they could show the correct path through a maze-zone, or automatically mark the location of special areas/NPCs/etc. Again, a lot of possibilities here. You could even have levels of maps, for example:
- Basic Map of Serbule - Shows the location of merchant/trainer/etc NPC's in the town.
- Intermediate Map of Serbule - Shows the locations of the entrance to Eltibule, the Crypt, Myconian Cave, etc.
- Master Map of Serbule - Shows the locations of special bosses, NPCs outside the town, treasure chests, altars, POSSIBLY some quest objectives.
12. Zone Favor/Reputation: Raising your average favor level with with all the NPC's in a zone or a town or a dungeon could unlock special rewards/quests/missions/loots/abilities/etc. This would work by for examply say there are 10 NPCs in a town. You get 5 of them to Soulmate and 5 are at Neutral then you average favor would be Friends or Close Friends. Maybe this would unlock a special buff like +5% to selling and -5% to buying prices. (That's uninspired I know, but it's a decent low-level reward that lets the players know there's a reason to raise Zone Favor.) Maybe if you managed to get Zone Favor to Soulmate, then you gain a special ability. For example, in Serbule you would gain the "Call for Backup" ability and when used summons a special (appropriately balanced/leveld) version of Sir Coth to fight by your side for 30 minutes on a 24 hour cool down (good for farming / clearing a zone) or maybe a more powerful version of him for 30 seconds on a 24 hour cool down (good for bosses). So many possibilities here.
Bugs:
- I.O.U. Quest reward disappeared when attempting to store in the bank with Hulon the Hoarder
- Can't turn my character while in the air during jumping. (Intentional anti-kiting mechanism?) Nothing major, I just like to pass the time while traveling by acting ********.
- Not sure if this is a bug per say, maybe it should go under suggestions. But for example, if I open my inventory window and my recipes window, I can mouse over item icons only in the last opened window and see the tooltip. Basically whichever window was opened last is the "active" window. To see the tooltips in another window, I have to click on it to make it "active". Again, this isn't a major complaint, just a "quality of life" issue. Mousing over any item in any window should trigger the tooltip.
Again, the game has such a potential, I think there's a LOT of gamers out there that are pining for the glory days. I can't wait to pledge to the kickstarter when you... kick start it again (excuse the pun).
Cheers,
Abednego
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