Things I don't like about Throne and Liberty

 I’m still playing Throne and Liberty because my gaming group is, but the game is starting to wear on me. To put it simply, playing feels like a chore, and there are several things I don’t like about it.

 My biggest issue with the game is that everything is based on random outcomes (RNG). Want to upgrade a skill? It might take one skill book or five. Want to upgrade gear? Same deal. Craft something? It’s a random result. Looking for a specific loot reward from an activity? Good luck, because that’s also random. Even when you complete your weekly tasks, the rewards are random.

 There are "pity mechanics" in the game, like tokens you get from completing a dungeon that can be used to craft rewards—but the number required is high. You're limited to three dungeon rewards per day. Even if you run 100 dungeons, you can only receive rewards three times. These three daily rewards do stack, so if you miss a day, you can earn more when you do play.

 This limited rewards system runs throughout the entire game, and I don’t like it. Whether it’s co-op dungeon rewards, open-world dungeon tokens, contract rights, or something else, there’s always a cap. Even basic crafting materials are limited per day!

 Another major issue is the lack of a proper in-game economy. While there’s a premium currency auction house, it only allows certain items to be sold. So if you need extra honey to cook a meal and you've hit your daily purchase limit, you're out of luck. Plus, there’s no player-to-player trading for most of the game’s materials.

 You’d think that restricting player-to-player trading would solve the "gold buying" problem. But no—gold sellers easily bypass this by using the auction house to sell items for the purchased gold amount. What’s worse is that this involves the premium currency. It’s absurd that gold farmers can sell the game's premium currency at a cheaper rate than the game itself!

 The design of the PvE dungeons is another area where the game falls short for me. Most dungeons are short, which I don’t mind, but the basic structure is repetitive. You do a practice fight, then proceed straight to the end boss, which is packed with wipe mechanics. There’s no leniency—either you execute perfectly, or you wipe. I find it frustrating, as the fights feel more like memorizing mechanics than real progression.

 Another frustration is the complete lack of resurrections during combat. There’s no in-combat res, and there’s none in the open world either. If your hit points hit zero, it’s back to the respawn point. If you’re in a dungeon and get knocked out due to a moment of lag, you’re out of the fight. Gone is the dynamic of balancing in-combat resurrections.

 Then there are the events—another aspect of the game’s design I dislike. I enjoy many of the events, but they’re all on a strict schedule. If you can’t play during the scheduled time, you miss out. There are events I’d love to do over and over, but they’re locked away by this scheduling.

 Add up the RNG progression and all the caps, and it’s practically impossible to have a second build for your character, which is a shame in a classless system. It’s more efficient to just play a second character because that gives you access to another set of daily, time-gated rewards. Plus, premium currency is account-wide, so you can farm it on both characters and get more than one character could on its own. This is just terrible design.

 To top all of this off, the game often leaves me with analysis paralysis. There are so many currencies with so many uses, and since many are capped, I end up stressing over every decision. The tutorial might show me how to use five tokens to unlock something, but I’ll hesitate, because I only have seven tokens and worry I’ll need them later. Next thing I know, I’m on YouTube, watching guides on how to "best use Y tokens"—and still confused because everyone has a different opinion.

 So with all these gripes, why am I still playing? Well, despite everything, there are some things I genuinely enjoy about *Throne and Liberty*. But that’s a story for another day. Stay tuned for my next post!

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI/ChatGPT. The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.