The development team behind Crowfall is looking for feedback; so figured I'd save a copy of my input on this thing I call a blog (oh and because no matter what I try I can't submit posts on the forum; it just times the web page out losing the post).
In a Galaxy far, far away (and many other games I worked on), I would post a weekly Top 5 for feedback and bugs from the Community. This would help me in providing feedback to the team (in addition to all of the other feedback posted on the forums) and also let us know where we are doing good. So I'd like to start doing this weekly with you, my murder of Crows. I've even included a place where you can provide me feedback about this thread, (you may want to see a different question listed or want to offer suggestions for a question of the week). This is separate from our feedback posts we have for Live and Test, as those are more for the patches at the time. Please do not hold discussions in this thread, this will help me in gathering feedback quickly. I'm on vacation until next week, and when I return I'll lock this thread and parse the information for the team. Thanks for playing Crowfall and for providing feedback.
Top 5 Crowfall likes (things you feel we're doing great on).
- New player experience; I enjoyed the extended version that stretches into the Gods Reach faction vs faction PvP zones. In the last beta I played the new player experience stopped midway to where it does now so felt incomplete, but now it finishes what it started. I'd like the see this model extended further in the game.
- Variety of classes and builds; many ways to play
- Group harvesting is a cool concept
- The art style and direction is refreshing. Characters and locations have distinctive feel to them.
- Eternal Kingdoms can be great; not sure if they are much of anything yet but they feel promising.
Top 5 Crowfall dislikes (what you feel we could be doing better on or a pesky game mechanic that you don't enjoy) and how can we make it better?
- Lack of personal progression tracking; everything is very "random" as far as progression once you are out of the level 1-30 (which is all of a couple hours of play). A good example is harvesting. You randomly can get an upgraded harvesting discipline by harvesting; could be an hour ... could be days. This is a terrible way to progress and you only know this is how to progress because other players figured it out not because the game tells you this is how to progress.
- For a hardcore game there is not much risk to those that just hunt down other players. The risk is entirely on those that are being hunted. I have to chuckle when people call this game "hardcore! Full loot! Not for carebears!". All bullshit statements. You do NOT lose your equipped items (armor, accessories, and weapons) on death. You only lose your inventory; thus if you are just out to kill other players are are literally taking almost no risk if you get killed as your inventory will be empty.
For comparison I'll use Albion Online. If you died in a PvP zone you lost everything; loot and equipped gear. There was a real risk if you decided to suit up and hunt other players. - The new player experience, while in my list of good things, is simply not representative of the game. It cannot prepare the player because there is nothing like it after you are done; you are left to a completely undefined and unwritten progression path. I personally liked the new player experience and would like to see that type of guided experience permeate through the game in the future; this will go a long way to making a consistent experience. When I roll up to a keep in a guild or faction campaign it should explode ? marks with things for me to do.
- Inventory and bank management; need filters and quick sort options. Specifically "sacrifice all sacrifice items" at fires.
- Character respec locked behind gold or behind paying up for VIP. This will create feel bad moments since it is hard to know the optimal way to spec your character for the way you want to play.
Top 5 bugs on LIVE (that we may have missed and wish would be fixed). Please be specific and constructive.
- Animations cancel when you open your inventory screen, but are still completing which is confusing. Specifically when mounting up I tend to open inventory and always get confused if I am still mounting up or not since the animation cancels.
- Website: I cannot save my forum posts no matter what I try (different browsers, etc).
If you could ask the Team member one question, what would you like to know? Be nice, seriously don't be a jerk.
- Is it intentional for the game to obfuscate how things work or how progression is made; leaving players in the complete dark on how to contribute towards progression?
