Ok so the people in one of the videos said they love feedback. Look, I know there’s a lot of sarcasm community managers etc hide when they say stuff like this, and I don’t blame any of them. Really no gamedev or anyone working in games should ever have to deal with the end user, that said…well, I don’t have really nice things to say besides that I like the idea and that the premise looks/sounds fun.
But after playing a bunch of rounds, I can safely say I will not find enjoyment in this. Disclaimer: I have not read the announcements in full and only watched the game video beforehand. Skimmed the announcement, saw some fun rewards and read I don’t have to win to get them.
At first it looked like it could be fun, pirate-y stuff, pve, a bunch of people, BfA Arathi style, what can go wrong? Oooof. First time I got in, thrown in with tons of other people and the counter came, I didn’t know ship. Everything was everywhere and I had absolutely no clue what’s up. But at least everyone is on the same side I guess so here we go. Alright, birdy, eww, looks like battle royale…but at least it’s pve or similar. Landed, went up to the first mob, got ganked by a bunch of other players (yes there’s no group system going solo but they can still cooperate, luckily only saw this in one match). Yippee. I ranked #58, what an accomplishment…I didn’t know how many there are but my sarcasm went straight to “Yay, 58 out of 60 or what…”…and then I sat there keeping watching these other players who kept acting like "expletive deleted"s.
My second match I lived a bit longer, but only made it to like leve 3? It really looked like it’s going be that kind of fun forever. Not being able to finish quests was also the perfect culmination of joy to be had in this, super fun I tell you.
The next round were so so. One time I actually got a lot of plunder and finished the quest, but I didn’t get enough for Renown Rank 2. I’m still used to old renown systems, which worked with steep increases of renown requirements, I was NOT looking forward to that up to rank 40. Meanwhile I’ve seen someone say 10k renown so the 2.5k are the same for each level, in the other video the left one I think said 4-5 matches means 1 rank per day, the event nowhere says how long it runs but him saying it’s enough even for casual players I assume this thing runs for at least 2 months? I don’t like it, but a few matches is what I can endure per day I guess. I really hate any pvp games and modes because they don’t work like the rule book says they do, it’s not a test of skill. It’s a test of who can game the system the best. That’s also why pet battles suck, ESPECIALLY the pvp version. pvp is meaningless other than giving trolls too many tools to have their way with people who think they can play a normal game. pvp is always a bad idea.
As for the event itself, there are flaws in almost every bit of this. The first is that just jumping in you are completely lost with tons of information (or lack thereof). The skills are not intuitive. I now know I can rebind those, but skills should START with 1 and go forward. I’m guessing that R and T are attempts to get things started with controllers in mind (I would love to think this is pirate joke but that’s probably thinking too far), and for that I guess it works fine, but not knowing I can remap things made it worse. And just playing you don’t have the time to find out what skills do what, you just mash buttons and hope for the best while every jerk in the plains bunnyhops you to the death bc they have already read guides/tier lists/whatever and know what the best combos are. The idea of a fresh start for everyone is good in theory, but horrible in reality. That’s something that works well for pve modes, where different skills do force you to adapt your strategy, here the pve bits are too simple to avoid, just side step, walk past them, or circle them all the time, they’re hardly gonna hit you. The pve bits even make sense, but aside from that it’s just a bunch of pirate cosplayers brig-slapping each other silly.
The idea to showcase what non heroes do in the world is also good in theory, but here? Nobody cares about that, which is sad. I would love to get to see the world more in a “living and breathing” state. But as soon as the gamification sets in, it’s roflcopter all the way. I know you have to say how smart this or that group of people is but…well I don’t know how to finish that sentence.
Anyway, there needs to be much more clarity and an option to read and check out what things mean or do by yourself or in another safe zone that’s not just mere seconds before the match starts. No time limit. Time to know abilities is mandatory. And even if you’re keeping the battle royale bit, there needs to be some type of safeguarding at the beginning. Getting killed while gaining little to no points or anything is more than just frustrating and can throw off the interest of many. I’m just very stubborn, for better or worse. But I know when call it F’in quits. There’s always a point of “NO! RETURN!”. Learning that the renown stays 2.5k was a blessing. Knowing I DON’T have to sit through watching other people play as well. I also think the storm should accelerate relative to the number of players and NEVER stop, it may or may not slow down at some point, but not stop completely. That way early everyone has the same chances but matches don’t drag as they do.
So yeah, tl;dr, onboarding sucks big time, you don’t know ship and it is only fun for pvp enthusiasts and torture to everyone else, I feel like the entire system you came up with would work best for strategic pve modes. You know, like turn based battle system in regular rpgs, ie Suikoden 1/2 or strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics.