With all of MO2s awesome graphics and features, Im sure some people see this game like Neo in the Matrix and spreadsheets are the only logical expression of output, but how do you see the game?
The VETs were pushing that its an all out PvP game, which I think most have seen the lite on that. The PvE is just too fun to call this a PvP game any longer.
With the VOIP system working well for many, it seems our own humanity will govern many directions that this fantasy world will take. I didnt factor this. As a solo RPer it seems a net plus. A part of me doesnt want real world voice interaction, but the greater part of my being is enjoying it.
Player interaction has allways been the fuel of the game, from non-consensual pvp to cooperativism, i do believe MO2 still has these elements that to a certain degree are more important than some of the frame/rules mechanics of the world.
I do think theres some nasty mistakes regarding the "law" of the world and what cities represent. I consider theres too much punishment for the criminal/murderer gameplay. Flagging, criminal status, murdercounts and standing loss during group fights defeats the whole idea of PVP by punishing players for playing.
This is absolutly broken and people still demands theres even more punishment, just to replicate non functional mechanics from MO1 or other games.
Having such uncertainties with these mechanics not knowing how SV will fix them (or not) not gonna lie makes me lose faith on the game a little bit. Watching so much lack of design in something so basic.
From what i've seen some people want easy literal straightforward mechanics that punish criminal actions, i prefer to let players decide how to deal with that, because player organization is way more rewarding and complex than a few poorly designed mechanics that will limit gameplays instead of contributing towards the "sandbox" element of the game.
PVP is not bad, except EU players have 20-100ms ping and NA, RUS, AUS, SA and other regions have over 200ms ping. I'ts important to understand that 230ms is the average human reaction time. This being said with a 200ms difference between regions it really doesn't feel fair. There have been threads about this in the forum, most of the suggestions are bad not gonna lie but it shouldn't really take much brainstorming to figure out a way to make it more fair for the entire playerbase.
Then theres fighting classes that are gimped and some other classes that overpowered, we could discuss this but i'ts hardly balanced right now.
That being said now i can talk about PVE and crafting.
By the current state of the crafting and PVE i don't really see the need to make spreadsheets for gathering information. I don't consider either the fauna and flora of Nave are complex enough for documenting this shit. I can understand that some of the things might seem overwhelming to new players but i come from MO1 and it had a lot more of stuff (materials and mechanics).
I can say crafting is simplified, materials are more balanced offering certain degree of tradeoff between stats/weight efficiency (i wouldn't say entirely balanced cuz it ain't)
Then theres cooking which is completly placeholder right now. They still haven't figured out the shields crafting either. And im really hoping crafting gets more complex not to just be annoying but to be challenging, to give players the space for experimentation and innovation and not just do meta items.
I see a lot of placeholder stuff in crafting i really hope they invest more into this shit.
I consider creature spawns are definitely too small, im guessing for making people stay at those spawns and generate conflict of interests but it doesn't work that good either (in my opinion), i rather see moving" spawns but i won't dream about it.
Then theres limitations for what materials u can use and whatnot for whatever type of crafting class, i think those limitations shouldn't exist i liked more that about MO1 were you could just experiment and get to your own conclussions instead of an ingame message saying "you can't do this".
I understand you gotta dumb down content for certain public but i don't see anything wrong by making people think what they are doing instead of perpetually repeating the same shit over and over.
This discovery of the world is what made it appealling aswell, cuz players could negociate with information. If everything is literal and straightforward the need to bargain that kind of information is killed and by killing that you are taking a part of the player interaction off the board.
To summarize, i think MO2 is the promising kind of game that might go in the right direction or it might fuck it up. 50-50 i'd say.