Thoughts - Plus Nitpicking
I'd like to start by saying I really enjoy this game! I have put almost 700 hours into it and almost every one of them was enjoyable, even the stupid forgetful scenarios where we boat halfway across the map and someone forgets the portal mats, running naked to a death totem in a challenging biome with white knuckles etc. These are things that to me put the "hardcore" before survival. If you screw up, you are aware of it. The differences in biome aesthetic are great, the enemies are diverse and overall I just love the look (especially the lighting). Given the time I have spent in game, I am aware of the aspects that immerse me, and the other things that break me out of the game and wish for change. Sometimes, its a bit of both. I should mention that aside from using creative mode sometimes, I do not mod the game to my liking. I enjoy playing with friends, and don't want to saddle them with requirements so we can play together. Anyways:
To start, I really love building. Sometimes I wish there were more pieces that are easily made, such as:
-Inside/outside corner stairs (ever just wanna make a shrine, or sweet recessed fireplace?)
-Iron gates that don't have frames and can be doubled up like wooden ones
-Flat roof tiles, half sloped roof tiles, 1x1 corner roof pieces (to get the perfect peak)
I'm sure there are a few more that have crossed my mind, but the idea is that these pieces are easily recycled from existing ones and open up build possibilities without modding. Do I really want to download mods and make my friends get them so they can play with me?
I also really love fighting stuff. How else do we prove ourselves worthy, and why else do we choose to move on from the drake helmet? One thing that has frustrated me is the inability to attack up or down on a hill. I am certainly not a programmer, but my intuition tells me it would not be overhaul-worthy to make the torso pivot in a similar way the head does when looking around (or, say, uphill when trying to fight a wolf with a spear?). So, as a result of this, I find myself avoiding certain weapon types altogether and have gravitated to the mace, bow or knife when playing, regardless of the enemy type.
Though certainly not a source of frustration, one thing I wish they would add to the game is above-sea-level water. Just like the tar pits, but larger ponds/lakes that can be dug out and swam in. That would be sick.
That's about all that's on my mind at time of writing. The point of this post/discussion is to suggest to the team things that I/we experienced players think are feasible and would greatly improve the quality of immersion in the game and provide quality feedback that can hopefully be useful. Kudos to Iron Gate btw. You guys are doing a great job. You can't please everyone, but you are certainly pleasing me and my friends with the development of what I see as a true passion project as opposed to... well. I won't name any other studios.
To start, I really love building. Sometimes I wish there were more pieces that are easily made, such as:
-Inside/outside corner stairs (ever just wanna make a shrine, or sweet recessed fireplace?)
-Iron gates that don't have frames and can be doubled up like wooden ones
-Flat roof tiles, half sloped roof tiles, 1x1 corner roof pieces (to get the perfect peak)
I'm sure there are a few more that have crossed my mind, but the idea is that these pieces are easily recycled from existing ones and open up build possibilities without modding. Do I really want to download mods and make my friends get them so they can play with me?
I also really love fighting stuff. How else do we prove ourselves worthy, and why else do we choose to move on from the drake helmet? One thing that has frustrated me is the inability to attack up or down on a hill. I am certainly not a programmer, but my intuition tells me it would not be overhaul-worthy to make the torso pivot in a similar way the head does when looking around (or, say, uphill when trying to fight a wolf with a spear?). So, as a result of this, I find myself avoiding certain weapon types altogether and have gravitated to the mace, bow or knife when playing, regardless of the enemy type.
Though certainly not a source of frustration, one thing I wish they would add to the game is above-sea-level water. Just like the tar pits, but larger ponds/lakes that can be dug out and swam in. That would be sick.
That's about all that's on my mind at time of writing. The point of this post/discussion is to suggest to the team things that I/we experienced players think are feasible and would greatly improve the quality of immersion in the game and provide quality feedback that can hopefully be useful. Kudos to Iron Gate btw. You guys are doing a great job. You can't please everyone, but you are certainly pleasing me and my friends with the development of what I see as a true passion project as opposed to... well. I won't name any other studios.
3:13 am, January 18, 2023
RequiemsRose replied to Thoughts - Plus Nitpicking January 17, 2023 @ 6:33:00 pm PST
I got a few i have noticed as well, besides what you already mention (extra +1 on the terrain issue).
Better enemy AI would help a lot, even just small improvements. I am not talking about giving every enemy new moves or something intensive like that, but some pathfinding improvements are still needed. Though I have totally already noticed some improvements there across development, they still have issues like refusing to drop off a foot high ledge so they will happily just let you wail on them while they whiff over your head instead (which would also be related to the terrain combat improvements if enemies could do it to). Or a sort of common sense mechanic where the annoying little fodder enemies realize they do 0-0.2 damage and maybe decide that's just suicide if they don't wait for a few buddies. Don't make them entirely passive if you are too far ahead of them, but let them get a sort of mob mentality if you let them group up still. That way they are still annoying little pests, but aren't actively interrupting literally every action you take in the wilderness (looking at you specifically greydwarf/greyling, you are the worst offenders). Mind you that one likely would be based on a threshold of the maximum damage they could individually deal the player, so enemies that actually still are a challenge to the player or can deal a lot of damage under the right circumstances would still be exempt from this (and i imagine a few mobs might be excluded for lore reasons, like the literally brainless undead probably arent fearful or great at planning).
Ship lighting would be lovely, even if we just got to hang the new lantern on the bow of the ship or something. My game is already intensely dark (already filed a report for that a looong time ago) so I really would appreciate a bit of help seeing when i might crash into a slightly submerged rock at night. Even with the headlamp, for my game at least, i can't see past the deck. Water, of any depth, is just an inky void for me at night. Plus the light can help you find your boat if you were exploring and parked somewhere weird that maybe you forgot to mark because there happened to be a welcoming committee (totally not from personal experience/mistakes on that one, totally lol).
Though on a related note, brightness options in general would be lovely but im already a part of a few of those suggestion forums thanks to my brightness (or lack thereof) issue. [Also for any concerned, yeah i already went through troubleshooting on the forums specifically related to lighting issues in game. My best option is adjusting the brightness on my monitor or graphics card for specifically this one game, and it doesn't even work for me. I just get washed out grey instead of pitch black. At least the black doesn't hurt my eyes.]
Air Defenses. Mind you i don't mean i expect a viking to have a fighter drone or something, and we actually did get this in some capacity with the rather tempermental ballista. But the raid events and defenses are a pretty big part of the game and right now there isn't actually a lot to it. Earth walls/trenches keep out anything on ground, or you got an assortment of walls if you dont want to go that route. Roofs keep out fliers, mostly...but we don't have a lot of defenses against fliers. We get traps, spikes, moats, walls, and the ballista can cover whatever the heck it can look at (including you) but the ballista is also the only one that can really help you out with flier raids, and those darn bats can squeeze into tight spaces (like your chimney) and end up in places you never really thought you'd be fighting a mob in (like your kitchen, R.I.P. berry chest). Heck for some of these id be content if stuff like the iron bars actually let light/smoke pass through in the mechanical sense so you can actually use them to block off things like chimneys or cover your garden in case of flier raids. Especially as we get more fliers capable of raiding.
Better enemy AI would help a lot, even just small improvements. I am not talking about giving every enemy new moves or something intensive like that, but some pathfinding improvements are still needed. Though I have totally already noticed some improvements there across development, they still have issues like refusing to drop off a foot high ledge so they will happily just let you wail on them while they whiff over your head instead (which would also be related to the terrain combat improvements if enemies could do it to). Or a sort of common sense mechanic where the annoying little fodder enemies realize they do 0-0.2 damage and maybe decide that's just suicide if they don't wait for a few buddies. Don't make them entirely passive if you are too far ahead of them, but let them get a sort of mob mentality if you let them group up still. That way they are still annoying little pests, but aren't actively interrupting literally every action you take in the wilderness (looking at you specifically greydwarf/greyling, you are the worst offenders). Mind you that one likely would be based on a threshold of the maximum damage they could individually deal the player, so enemies that actually still are a challenge to the player or can deal a lot of damage under the right circumstances would still be exempt from this (and i imagine a few mobs might be excluded for lore reasons, like the literally brainless undead probably arent fearful or great at planning).
Ship lighting would be lovely, even if we just got to hang the new lantern on the bow of the ship or something. My game is already intensely dark (already filed a report for that a looong time ago) so I really would appreciate a bit of help seeing when i might crash into a slightly submerged rock at night. Even with the headlamp, for my game at least, i can't see past the deck. Water, of any depth, is just an inky void for me at night. Plus the light can help you find your boat if you were exploring and parked somewhere weird that maybe you forgot to mark because there happened to be a welcoming committee (totally not from personal experience/mistakes on that one, totally lol).
Though on a related note, brightness options in general would be lovely but im already a part of a few of those suggestion forums thanks to my brightness (or lack thereof) issue. [Also for any concerned, yeah i already went through troubleshooting on the forums specifically related to lighting issues in game. My best option is adjusting the brightness on my monitor or graphics card for specifically this one game, and it doesn't even work for me. I just get washed out grey instead of pitch black. At least the black doesn't hurt my eyes.]
Air Defenses. Mind you i don't mean i expect a viking to have a fighter drone or something, and we actually did get this in some capacity with the rather tempermental ballista. But the raid events and defenses are a pretty big part of the game and right now there isn't actually a lot to it. Earth walls/trenches keep out anything on ground, or you got an assortment of walls if you dont want to go that route. Roofs keep out fliers, mostly...but we don't have a lot of defenses against fliers. We get traps, spikes, moats, walls, and the ballista can cover whatever the heck it can look at (including you) but the ballista is also the only one that can really help you out with flier raids, and those darn bats can squeeze into tight spaces (like your chimney) and end up in places you never really thought you'd be fighting a mob in (like your kitchen, R.I.P. berry chest). Heck for some of these id be content if stuff like the iron bars actually let light/smoke pass through in the mechanical sense so you can actually use them to block off things like chimneys or cover your garden in case of flier raids. Especially as we get more fliers capable of raiding.
3:13 am, January 18, 2023
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