As many of you probably already know, the game is entering a point where it will be at its highest risk of failing. That point will of course be when the subscription starts, and the player base begins to fall and new players begin to slow down as the MMO community considers the game “dead.”
As a result, I thought I'd share my opinion on what I believe the core problems with the game are. Keep in mind these are only the problems, from my perspective, that will kill the game by impacting the average player's experience(s).
Problems:
Parcel Runs:
The biggest problem you could have in a game is that you have forced content that is not fun. This is the problem with parcel runs, if you could even consider them content.
Running back and forth between two locations with no reward, outside of the forced punishment of not being able to enter a city, is probably the worst system I've ever seen in a game.
Let me run you through a scenario: you and your friends decide to kill another group at a bandit camp. You kill them, but then a 3rd party attacks your group, so you have to defend yourself. You took 1 (one) too many murder counts with the khurite faction.
You now cannot bank your loot, you have to run for over an hour to just gain enough standing to enter town again, you also can be ganked while you make the ridiculously long run, which would restart the timer.
I would, honestly, find a new line of work if I designed this game mechanic, and I would imagine that 90% of anyone that encountered the situation I described above quits the game.
Housing:
Housing in general, as in just placing a house and opening and closing the door, is find. The problem is that is all housing is. I have to ask myself, what part of the housing system is engaging? Where do people find value in owning a house? And the answer is there isn't.
Housing is just a shell of content that (whoever designed them) put behind a massive gold sink.
Imagine being a normal player and saving up all your gold for months, then saving up the mats for the same amount of time. You place your house, build it for HOURS (xd) then you have an empty box that you can't do anything with.
You can't craft there, because you have to run your mats back to town to grind/refine them, where there is, of course, crafting stations. You can use it as a stationary pack animal, but did you really just spend all that time saving gold, mats and then spend hours of your own time to just have a storage box in the middle of the woods? Again, another piece of content designed so poorly it probably drives players to quit when they experience it.
Rerolling/Character Slots:
So rerolling is a pretty common experience in MMOs, so what is the problem with MO2 and rerolling? The biggest problem is there is absolutely no way for you to transfer your stuff between characters. If you want to reroll, which a lot of people do btw, you literally have to throw everything you've gained away.
You could ask a guild mate, if you're in a guild. The problem with that? Usually most people would want to reroll as they are starting the game, when they'd be least-likely to be in a guild. You also open up the door for people to rob other players if it ever got to the point of them being in a guild, again very unlikely, which would then put a strain on the support system, and would probably result in the player quitting anyways.
Solutions:
-Add more ways to gain rep with a faction. Doesn't have to be easy, just needs to be engaging.
Ideas:
Put npcs inside and outside of town guards that will accept items like Bandit Heads, Risar Ears, Bear Paws, and other dropables on a scaling basis. For example, 2 Bandit Heads would get you 1 rep, but you'd need 20 Zombie Heads for that same 1 rep. Just to add incentive to travel in the world.
You could also do regional rewards, so Scoundrel Heads could be far more valuable in Toxai, but as worthless as Zombie Heads in Tindrem.
And/Or put an npc outside of town, like a Corrupt Guard, who you can bribe for rep. Like 1 rep = 5g at the Corrupt Guard. Pretty basic interaction that makes sense, and is an easier way to take care of your rep than having to bring dropables back to town.
-Add more value to housing.
Ideas:
You should feel like you have an advantage over someone else because of your house. Its a huge gold sink, and it should have a rewards attached to it.
So its not crazy to think that if you put your house next to a great mining area, that you should be able to make steel there. That means being able to store, crush/grind the ore, refine it into Pig Iron, and refine that into Grain Steel and then Steel.
To me this seems so basic that I kind of feel stupid typing it.
I know crushers and grinders are coming this patch, but I do not believe refiners are coming, and it makes no sense to me at all.
-Give players ways to reroll.
Ideas:
You could just change banks to account banks instead of character banks, since you only have one character anyways. You could give players another character slot, and use the mail system as a gold sink, if you wanted one associated with rerolling.
Honestly, I don't know how such a basic, and staple mechanic of the MMO genre was over looked.
Conclusion:
These are, in my opinion, the core problems with the game, and the problems that could ultimately be the its downfall. Starting a subscription without addressing these issues could be very detrimental, because once a game is considered dead in the MMO community it is very difficult to come back, and most games do not survive that labeling. An example, would of course be MO1. Lets not repeat history.
As a result, I thought I'd share my opinion on what I believe the core problems with the game are. Keep in mind these are only the problems, from my perspective, that will kill the game by impacting the average player's experience(s).
Problems:
Parcel Runs:
The biggest problem you could have in a game is that you have forced content that is not fun. This is the problem with parcel runs, if you could even consider them content.
Running back and forth between two locations with no reward, outside of the forced punishment of not being able to enter a city, is probably the worst system I've ever seen in a game.
Let me run you through a scenario: you and your friends decide to kill another group at a bandit camp. You kill them, but then a 3rd party attacks your group, so you have to defend yourself. You took 1 (one) too many murder counts with the khurite faction.
You now cannot bank your loot, you have to run for over an hour to just gain enough standing to enter town again, you also can be ganked while you make the ridiculously long run, which would restart the timer.
I would, honestly, find a new line of work if I designed this game mechanic, and I would imagine that 90% of anyone that encountered the situation I described above quits the game.
Housing:
Housing in general, as in just placing a house and opening and closing the door, is find. The problem is that is all housing is. I have to ask myself, what part of the housing system is engaging? Where do people find value in owning a house? And the answer is there isn't.
Housing is just a shell of content that (whoever designed them) put behind a massive gold sink.
Imagine being a normal player and saving up all your gold for months, then saving up the mats for the same amount of time. You place your house, build it for HOURS (xd) then you have an empty box that you can't do anything with.
You can't craft there, because you have to run your mats back to town to grind/refine them, where there is, of course, crafting stations. You can use it as a stationary pack animal, but did you really just spend all that time saving gold, mats and then spend hours of your own time to just have a storage box in the middle of the woods? Again, another piece of content designed so poorly it probably drives players to quit when they experience it.
Rerolling/Character Slots:
So rerolling is a pretty common experience in MMOs, so what is the problem with MO2 and rerolling? The biggest problem is there is absolutely no way for you to transfer your stuff between characters. If you want to reroll, which a lot of people do btw, you literally have to throw everything you've gained away.
You could ask a guild mate, if you're in a guild. The problem with that? Usually most people would want to reroll as they are starting the game, when they'd be least-likely to be in a guild. You also open up the door for people to rob other players if it ever got to the point of them being in a guild, again very unlikely, which would then put a strain on the support system, and would probably result in the player quitting anyways.
Solutions:
-Add more ways to gain rep with a faction. Doesn't have to be easy, just needs to be engaging.
Ideas:
Put npcs inside and outside of town guards that will accept items like Bandit Heads, Risar Ears, Bear Paws, and other dropables on a scaling basis. For example, 2 Bandit Heads would get you 1 rep, but you'd need 20 Zombie Heads for that same 1 rep. Just to add incentive to travel in the world.
You could also do regional rewards, so Scoundrel Heads could be far more valuable in Toxai, but as worthless as Zombie Heads in Tindrem.
And/Or put an npc outside of town, like a Corrupt Guard, who you can bribe for rep. Like 1 rep = 5g at the Corrupt Guard. Pretty basic interaction that makes sense, and is an easier way to take care of your rep than having to bring dropables back to town.
-Add more value to housing.
Ideas:
You should feel like you have an advantage over someone else because of your house. Its a huge gold sink, and it should have a rewards attached to it.
So its not crazy to think that if you put your house next to a great mining area, that you should be able to make steel there. That means being able to store, crush/grind the ore, refine it into Pig Iron, and refine that into Grain Steel and then Steel.
To me this seems so basic that I kind of feel stupid typing it.
I know crushers and grinders are coming this patch, but I do not believe refiners are coming, and it makes no sense to me at all.
-Give players ways to reroll.
Ideas:
You could just change banks to account banks instead of character banks, since you only have one character anyways. You could give players another character slot, and use the mail system as a gold sink, if you wanted one associated with rerolling.
Honestly, I don't know how such a basic, and staple mechanic of the MMO genre was over looked.
Conclusion:
These are, in my opinion, the core problems with the game, and the problems that could ultimately be the its downfall. Starting a subscription without addressing these issues could be very detrimental, because once a game is considered dead in the MMO community it is very difficult to come back, and most games do not survive that labeling. An example, would of course be MO1. Lets not repeat history.
