Analytics is nice, but I doubt it will be used properly.

[Urtz]

Lets be serious here, even the dumbest person alive could have given a look at the game and immedietaly recognized a lot of glaring balance / design issues without any analytics required.

It's obvious that Alvarins having two % speed clades AND % speed cooldowns ON TOP of already being the fastest race is OP.
It's obvious that most weapon heads, spells, character builds and pets are under utilized because they're trash.
It's obvious that gatekeeping large swathes of the game's content behind 2-3 dungeons that get camped by the biggest guilds will make most players uninstall.
It's obvious that allowing players to build houses, priests and EMPORIUMS literally right next to farming spots defeats the foudational concept of the game.
It's obvious that making it easier to build a house than destroying it, and then allowing the owner to EVAC all their shit before you can loot it makes no sense.
It's obvious that most potential new players want to play solo / small scale for most of their playtime, and yet all content in this game is designed to be (and is) zerged.
It's obvious that making players waste unfathomable amounts of time and ressources skilling up material lores (zerg again) will lead to boredom and players quitting.
It's obvious that releasing Sarducaa with a single heavy armor set that is gate kept behind a rare random drop is a bad idea.
It's obvious that I could keep on going with this but I'll stop here, feel free to add more to the list.

So what I'm saying here is it's nice that SV can finally rely on analytics to develop the game, but due to their track record of making bad decisions, I highly doubt that the data will be used correctly. Analytics is a tool, a tool still has to be used properly.

Most of the problems with this game aren't even born of a faillure to understand, but rather from a faillure to accept mistakes, and an innability to let go of bad design choices. We all know the meme, Henrik has a "vision" and he won't derrogate. Sad to say but, personally, I don't think whatever data he gets from analytics will make him change his mind on anything. At least, not anything that's actually important in the long run.

I do hope I'm wrong though.

 

[Emdash]

good post, brother.

Wardec is a big issue. If you dec someone, you are pvping them beyond RPK. No one should be protected from a dec. I think it's fair that you can't camp people in town, but beyond that, it should not be a resource sink to dec someone, especially the larger and more 'pvpish' groups.

Siege is a big issue, as you said, not just the cost but the siege window system as it is.

They should let characters migrate from Myr to Sard. It will bring more armor sets, but OH WELL. There should be banded in sard already. The funny thing about Sard plate is that it is THE HEAVIEST ARMOR IN THE GAME (afaik?) so they are doubling down on Iloros theory of just go as heavy as possible, no variety.

Further, just the barrier of entry. For instance, I have a friend who I have asked to play the game, and he says he doesn't really like the combat system. I can't really say... well, do a mage, or do an MA, foot archer w/e because you have to spend so much time skilling up before you can actually do those things.

The economy is so broken that all rare drop --> necessary items: spell scrolls, beast mastery books, wep books, armor books... are dysfunctional, so they might as well just make them all obtainable by a vendor, or the vast vast majority.

It shouldn't be hard to spec a viable character. MO isn't the kind of game that you look at someone else do a skill or a spell and be like wow what's that, and they are like yeah it's a rare skill I obtained due to ( story. ) They need to fix the fucking game on that level. That is the absolute first balance they need to do, is to see what a grabass it is to get all of the necessary skills, and then level them. I hope their analytics let them see how few people actually have all of the spells they need. Sure, the tryhards do, but we're talking about retaining players.

How far do people get into the grind before they quit? That alone is useful info.

 

[Jackdstripper]

When you say it's obvious.....what do you mean by that? What exactly is the meaning of the word "obvious"? How would you explain that word to a 5 year old?

Asking for a friend (Henrik).