Xavier Antoviaque wrote:The neutral position will be integrated in Episode 2; it won't be specific gameplay, but on a roleplay point of view neutrals will get specific instructions.
That is actually the sadest piece of news I' ve heard so far. The events and lore so far have somehow always left a backdoor open for a neutral stance. (note: Neutrality does not always mean being a Hominist which many seem to forget)
Some have been waiting a long time already for this to actually become implemented gameplay specific, Episode 2 looked promissing for that, yet again it has to be improvised and we have to paddle with the oars we were given long before. I honestly doubt 'specific instructions' will save the day here as the neutrality some envision is all about having and making choices when and where you want, not between A and B and atm as that is a forced choice only. Which is basically the same as taking away our right to choose not to choose a side. Imo only the most uninspired PnP gamemaster or the most bland type of crpg would ever use this type of forced 'making choices'. So seriously, this is a major let down to me; I had expected more from a game that encourages players to make a difference and promises to give them the possibility to affect the world around them.
Last point on this: I agree that some sort of 'railroading' is needed in anything concerning role-playing games but I had the idea that role-playing meant I COULD take on the role of someone I CHOSE to play within the limits of possibility. The background of my character is totally viable with the lore, old, new, even recent published material on the Atys Chronicles. Yet in this awe-aspiring story I can somehow not be what the story says I can be. Either remove it out of the lore or give us the chance to be it Nevrax. I sincerely hope you pick the later.
On to the rest:
Most things that have been said I can agree on:
I' m no big fan of PvP and try to avoid it if possible, so some might call me biased on this. However, it is not the PvP itself here that failed in my eyes, because I think it would somehow not feel right if it had totally lacked that, but it is the implementation.
The map is ..... well, sorry, but it reminds me to much of a Counter Strike map. 2 camps, flag or tag in the middle, boom boom, you' re dead, respawn. Oh ok, there' s mobs that kill you too somewhere. I would have played a FPS game if this is what I wanted. It lacks depth.
Various things here I feel are lacking or not balancing it out. It is for one way to easy to gather 'honour' points by activly hunting players of another faction compared to actually do the thing we were all supposed to do in the first place. An hour of 'hunting' can easily provide you with 2k to 3k points provided you actually inflict damages (go healers go, oh wait .... ), you die a bit, no problem you respawn as there is no DP and you head back in. An hour of foraging should imo normally give the same benefits, but it doesn' t. Unless you have this huge streak of luck that you can remain unnoticed or aren' t forced to pick up your amps to heal out when your party gets attacked repeatedly. If you die and respawn you still have downtime as you can' t heal focus yet. Crafting ..... well, you have to be lucky there' s materials to craft with in the first place, but not very likely as everyone is to busy killing eachother instead of grabbing mats. Now should you be so lucky as to have foraged a full bag of materials yourself to craft with and hand them in, you best be the only person around the temple or someone else will grab those precious materials for free!
What I would see as solutions:
A larger map; low ql zones of materials without FvF or PvP zone. Why? Lower-level players won' t have to fear being useless that way and can still contibute and actually gain something from it. The higher ql zones should be FvF as they hold the most rewards and thus should have consequent risks. Maybe add non FvF zones with high ql materials but make them deplete faster perhaps or just toss in more mobs (Loria style).
Do something about the easy gain of points by PvPing. AoD' s should have the right to take on anything within their powers but I don' t think it would be really honourfull if they crush ants, right? Why get a reward for something that is so easy and thus has no risks towards you? And why no points for defending your faction' s foragers from kitins or even healing up your teammates? All in all I have the feeling there' s more reward in 'ganking' and playing 'ping-pong' at the moment than there is for tactical battles and well-thought out strategies that could make PvP all the more enjoyable (maybe, in a way, at least to me).
Make it so maybe that if I bring in materials myself in the hope to craft with that I can chose to actually craft if I wanted instead of having the possibility that others may 'leech'. Maybe hand the player the refined materials and then have them chose to hold on to them to craft or make them available to others. Flawed idea, but it' s the best I can come up with at the moment.
Well, time to have another go at it.
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