I have played since this game since the beta, and it my first game where I thought it was a good enough game to pay a monthly fee
My take on the patch after playing for 10+ hours, I went from "I can only subcribe for a year at maximum?" to "thank gawd I have a free month to play in".
This looks too much what happend to "Savage: The battle for Newerth" by S2games, unknown company which makes/made a great and different game, which went down the drain fast. It is basically run by what is left of the community, to make bug fixes etc.
Won't cancel just yet, I still have 2 weeks of free trial. And I do hope that something is done before that time is up.
Now why am I unhappy about it, I hear you ask, here is a quick run through of the major objections. Remember that this is writen right after playing, and that I havent thought about it deeply (disclaimer if I change my mind
)
Solo play is now completely impossible, it was quit hard before. I planed on a crafter, with harvesting as secondary path. Fight and magic was intended to be used for most missions, hit points and to have something to bring to teams and general survival. And of course to do something for a change to craft/harvest when playing for 16 hours a day
As a fighter I have full HP and reg. of HP, with HP boosts on every piece of armour and weapon, and every jewelry at 25+ HP (did anyone say powermonger ? I didnt have to do this before
). I can now beat up ... wait for it ... a Roaming Mektoub, without haveing to use heal self, if it brings a buddy I dont even bother to fight if I dont have the now all powerfull runaway skill, I just remove armour to prevent wear
Magic is about the same story, offensive is now used to lure a (hopefully) single creature closer, otherwise mage is only for team play. And no, I didnt powerplay the blind 1, only knew about it a few days before the patch anyway (one of the good things about the patch, there are sane balancing of some skills, like blind).
Harvesting is somewhat different, looks like an overall improvement to the skill system. Now actually doing something with it is quite different, extraction spots vanish in a blink of an eye, and if I am lucky it doesnt explode or gas me first, care plans are there but now really helpful. I now find it more progressive to harvest a spot, and when it hits .7+ in quantity, to simply walk away from it and wait for it to finish. I have yet to extract 50+ more than a few times an hour (even at Q200/250 spots), even if doing it without walking away.
Which brings me along to my main trait, crafting. Doesn't look like much have changed. Quality 10,20?,30,40 is gone from the shops, so I either have to extract at those levels or use higher Q to craft. The upshot is that one can purchase Q100,150,200,250? at some shops. Now since I can hardly buy anything since I can hardly obtain any resources for crafting, I have more or less put crafting on a hold untill I have a lot of sappers and resources. (Let us not mention the fact that I forgot to get a 2H weapons plan for my primary crafting, DOH!)
So I am now playing the reverse of what I did before the patch, except for missions. Fighting and using magic as opposed to crafting and harvesting. As you might expect I am a bit more than miffed. I did create another character, but after a few hours I realised that I wasnt enjoying playing anymore, since I missed all that I have achived before and that I was just grinding through levels. The thought of breaking through to other parts of the world, with the now much more powerful monsters, just left me cold.
Of course it is possible to team play all the time, but given the low amount of players and the spread of levels it isnt very pratical. How many out there wants to play for days and gain no experience at all, to help someone up to a level where it is again possible for all to gain experience? I will venture that the number in question isn't even far into double digits.
So I put it to the game developers to make a announcement about what they plan to change next time, since they have all said that there are changes ahead. So that they can hold onto the people considering leaving, and bring back some of those who have left. Because I fear that no word before the next change is more harmful than helpful, since people don't know what to expect.