Why doesn't Throne and Liberty use a blind auction house?

 RMT (real money trading) is rearing its ugly head in Throne and Liberty, but the developers are pushing back by penalizing players caught engaging in these transactions. When players are caught buying Lucent (the premium currency) from RMT sellers, they’re hit with negative balances in game, which the community seems to find amusingly effective. But it raises a question: Why is the game in this situation when there are better ways to design the systems to minimize RMT?

A screenshot from Throne and Liberty showing a negative Lucent balance due to a player being punished for buying Lucent off third party sellers.

 Taking a step back first: it's surprising that RMT is this prevalent, especially since there’s no direct player-to-player trading in the game. Player A can't buy items directly from Player B. Instead, all exchanges happen through the auction house, which is restricted to premium currency and a limited selection of items. Even calling it an "auction" system is a stretch, as there’s no bidding—everything is listed at fixed "buy it now" prices, and listings are anonymous, so players can’t see who’s selling what.

 This setup makes RMT transactions fairly obvious. For example, if someone buys an item for 10,000 Lucent that typically sells for 10, it's likely RMT-related. While it’s possible players are simply transferring Lucent this way without any real money trading hands it doesn't seem in the "spirit" of the game for players to move Lucent around like this.

 Given the lack of player-to-player trading and the limitations on which items can be traded, it seems like Throne and Liberty could benefit from a blind bidding system. In this setup, sellers wouldn’t see listing prices but only the most recent bid or purchase prices. When a player bids on an item, they’d either get a match or be informed their bid is too low. This would eliminate the obvious RMT loophole as players can no longer pick which seller they are buying from.

 Blind bidding has worked really well in other games such as Final Fantasy 11 and seems like the obvious design choice in Throne.  This blurb from the wiki I linked sums it up best:

In the auction houses of FINAL FANTASY XI, sellers designate an asking price when they put items up for bid. The first bidder to offer a price higher than the asking price gets to purchase the item.

 I can't even think of a legitimate reason that any player ever needs to buy something in Throne's auction house at a higher price than the current lowest price which means it is perfect for blind bidding.

 While Throne and Liberty’s current auction system limits direct player trading, it inadvertently leaves space for RMT to thrive, impacting the game's economy and balance. The blind bidding system would minimize opportunities for suspicious transactions that are likely RMT. As the developers continue to combat these issues with the negative account balances, it’ll be interesting to see if they consider more structural changes to the marketplace.

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

Monday Screenshots: Daily and Weekly Checklist for Throne and Liberty

 I’ve described Throne and Liberty as a “chore” to play, but I keep logging in because my friends are there, and I do find some moments of enjoyment. Since I’m sticking with it, I decided to get organized and establish a daily and weekly routine. Part of that involves visiting specific vendors to buy time-gated items they offer. I came across a helpful image on Reddit that breaks this down, and I thought it’d be useful to share. 

Note: The only item I don’t fully agree with is the Rare Parchment. You can earn 33 of these by completing a single contract, so I don’t see much value in spending contract coins on them. Contract coins are hard to come by, so I’d rather save them for other items. However, if there’s nothing else you need from the contract coin vendor, the Rare Parchments could be worth picking up.

Your Throne and Liberty daily and weekly shopping list; see notes above about Rare Parchment!

Things I do like about Throne and Liberty

 In my last post, I laid out all the reasons Throne and Liberty drives me nuts—yet here I am, still playing. Why? Because there are moments in this game that are so incredible they make me forget the frustrations, even if just for a while. Throne and Liberty pulls off some things I haven’t seen any other MMO do, and for that, it’s hard to walk away.

 First off—and I’ve said this so often that other people are starting to repeat it—the game’s performance is incredible. One standout feature is the seamless transition time. If you press B to recall back to town, you’re teleported almost instantly. Ready for a dungeon with your party? You’re transported there near instantly.

I'm not the only one impressed by the tech!

 On top of this, the game handles large groups of players remarkably well. I’ve joined open-world boss fights with hundreds, possibly over a thousand players. Sure, it’s a chaotic blur of lights, but the fight remains perfectly playable, allowing players to execute the boss’s mechanics reliably. Seeing a massive zerg of players fighting a giant monster is the essence of what an MMO should be!

 After 30+ years (holy crap!) of playing online games, I’ve learned to appreciate technological improvements. Whatever magic Throne and Liberty uses to enable near-instant loading and the ability to support thousands of players in one area deserves praise—it should be the standard!

 The game makes full use of these technical feats in its open-world dungeons. These aren’t small caves in the hillside; they’re massive, multi-tiered labyrinths requiring proper groups or careful solo planning to navigate.

 Just last night, my group spent an hour descending to the 6th floor of Syleus Abyss, where it felt like we were drilling down to the center of the earth. At the lowest level, we encountered massive lava pools and enjoyed knocking enemies off bridges into them. All the way down, we were flanked by hundreds of other players carving out their own spots in the dungeon. It’s a vibrant and dynamic environment.

 

The sixth floor of Syleus's Abyss.  Open world dungeons FTW!

 One of my favorite, albeit most frustrating, dungeons is the Sanctum of Desire. It only opens when it rains—which is annoying but also what I love about it! In so many games, content is always accessible with a click. Knowing Sanctum opens only with rain adds excitement whenever someone calls out, “Hey, it’s raining! Go, go, go!” It’s reminiscent of Dark Age of Camelot’s Darkness Falls dungeon, where everyone rushed in when conditions were right.

 This leads me to another feature I love: the server’s top players can activate world-changing abilities. One example is the power to make it rain. Sanctum of Desire has a world boss that spawns on a schedule, but if it’s not raining, players can’t get in. The other night, I watched our entire server plead with a top player to trigger rain so we could all rush in to fight the boss.

 Another thrilling aspect is that these open-world dungeons turn into PvP zones at night. Nothing beats the tension as two groups of players stand off in the depths of a dungeon, waiting for the clock to hit nighttime. The victor keeps their farming spot; the loser is kicked out. In Sanctum of Desire, if it’s not raining, the losing team can’t even get back in.

 Add in the “Eclipse” ability, where players can trigger nighttime across the server, and the stakes go even higher. Just recently, an Eclipse was triggered while hundreds of players waited for a world boss. The guild that triggered it was ready and ambushed everyone. I was frustrated after getting killed, but looking back, all I can think is, “That was freaking cool!”.  Players can literally change the world.

Eclipse! PvP is ON in the open world dungeons!

 I spend a lot of my game time in these dungeons, even though rewards stop once you run out of Abyssal Contract tokens. I really enjoy pushing deeper into more challenging areas and claiming my little farming spot. It’s a truly multiplayer experience that thrives on open-world interaction—and Throne and Liberty delivers here.

 Scheduled world events are another highlight. Whether it’s a “kill the most wolves” event or one where you can jump onto the back of a giant flying whale, there’s always something happening. The game even provides a schedule so you can plan for upcoming events.

 The game also excels at providing in-game information. Every item has an info icon you can click to see how to obtain it, listing vendors, quests, or other sources. You can click on a map location to see enemy types, then click on an enemy to view their loot drops. Once you learn the system, there’s hardly any need to visit an external wiki. 

Map > Area > Monster Info > Loot Table > Details about the drop without ever having to alt tab from the game!

 In the end, these moments I love—epic dungeons, massive player battles, and real-time world changes—are exactly what make Throne and Liberty’s shortcomings so frustrating. This game has the potential to be truly groundbreaking, with technology and ideas that could set a new standard for MMOs. If only the combat and PvP were tighter, if gearing weren’t such a grind, and if the progression caps weren’t so limiting, Throne and Liberty could be exceptional. For now, though, I’m sticking with it, because there’s still nothing quite like the experience it offers.

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

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.

Thoughts after making level 50 in Throne and Liberty

 Even with my poor backup internet I was able to hit level 50 in Throne and Liberty last night.  I have some thoughts to share on the experience.

Yay! Level 50!

 First, I’m not sure if reaching level 50 in Throne feels like much of an achievement. This isn't your early 2000s MMORPG where you'd grind for weeks to max out. Instead, leveling in Throne is extremely fast and requires minimal effort—basically just completing the main story quests. Aside from a small grind from levels 44 to 45, the quests propelled me right to 50, and I hit that milestone upon finishing the final story quest.

 This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as leveling in MMORPGs has largely become a way to deliver the story and introduce game mechanics. However, I can’t help but feel that something is lost with this express-train approach. The fast pace means I didn’t stay in any single area long enough to truly appreciate it. 

 The fast-paced quest design also left me feeling disconnected from the world. Most quests followed a simple formula: go here, click, walk a few steps, click again, and fight a couple of enemies. After that, you’d enter an instanced story mode, complete an activity, teleport back to town, and move on to the next area. As a result, I never felt encouraged to explore the visually stunning world.

 Another issue was that the story itself felt incoherent and disjointed. I struggled to follow it from chapter to chapter, and the actions my character took—making potions, arming magic traps, breaking into buildings—didn’t connect with the actual game mechanics. It was frustrating to set up elaborate magic traps in a quest, only to realize I couldn't do anything like that in the open world.

 The lackluster story only emphasized how generic the world felt. Despite the visual variety, the environments didn't offer much meaningful interaction. Harvesting nodes were the same from level 1 to 50, and they often felt out of place. In New World, you can chop down any tree or break almost any rock, but in Throne, you’re limited to just a few types of gathering nodes.

 Enemy placement in the game was another immersion-breaking element. It often felt like I was walking into "dumb piles of mobs"—"mob" short for "mobile" from text MUDs.  These were just enemies that stood around waiting to be killed. In many areas, they respawned so quickly that it disrupted any sense of immersion. And then, in the next area, there’d be nothing at all—no enemies, no gathering nodes, just empty space.

 Unfortunately, this left me feeling unmotivated to explore. The world has beautiful environments, and the game’s morphing abilities allow you to fly, swim, and jump to all sorts of places. But there’s no real reward for doing so. Your best bet is to use the map, which tells you exactly where everything is, making exploration feel unnecessary. The entire exploration side of my brain was left unsatisfied.

 Despite my gripes, I did enjoy the journey to level 50. While I didn’t explore as much as I’d have liked, the visuals were stunning, and jumping on the back of a giant flying whale to watch the world pass below is a core gaming memory for me now. Now that I’m level 50, I can finally dive into the game’s many progression systems. There’s a lot to explore—tokens, contracts, various UI screens, and mountains of unopened reward boxes. But with so much complexity, there’s a chance I’ll just get irritated and return to New World instead. For now, though, I can recommend Throne and Liberty as a decent free-to-play experience.

TLDR; Throne and Liberty: OK experience up to level 50. 

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

Monday Screenshots: Throne and Liberty Post Helene

 A quick catch up if you haven't followed my Hurricane Helene posts.  I played a few hours of the early access launch for Throne and Liberty; right up until the hurricane took out my internet.  Fourteen (yes, FOURTEEN!) days later we got internet back via TMobile 5G home internet. Unfortunately it's not ideal for gaming due to poor signal at our house, but I did give it a go with Throne and Liberty.

 There were lots, and I mean lots, of deaths.  Disconnecting in the middle of a fight or more fun; lagging as you approach a cliff and learning that there is fall damage in Throne and Liberty.  But I at least got to grab some screenshots to share!

Heartlessgamerr (with two Rs)

Completing a public event

Flying over areas never gets old in this game

Amitoi house where you send your little minions on missions to get you free stuff

Waiting for the giant flying whale

Love the size and scope of this castle

Puzzle quest

Another shot of the large castle

Upgrading green gear to 6 to then transferring it to blue gear

Fishing!

More upgrading gear!  Oooh... Ahhhh... pretty!

My first PvP event... I died a lot since I am well behind on level

Helene Update Day 14: I PLAYED THRONE AND LIBERTY

 My TMobile 5G home internet arrived late yesterday which gave me a chance to jump in and play some Throne and Liberty.  This is the first online game I've played since Helene hit two weeks ago! 

 For anyone that hasn't followed along on this journey I bought into the Early Access for Throne and Liberty which started on 9/26.  I played right up to the point where my internet service went out as Helene started making its way inland.  Little did I know it would be 14 days later before I'd be able to return!

 During my hiatus from being offline my friend group, who had NOT planned to play Throne and Liberty, decided it would be a good idea to start playing and then constantly ask me "where you at bro?".  Since they started post Early Access they were on servers that I could not transfer my Early Access character to.  Thus Heartlessgamerr (with two Rs) has been born!

 

Heartlessgamerr

 I had only made it to level 27 on Heartlessgamer proper on the Amos early access server before Helene knocked me offline which was just a few hours of work.  So starting over to play with my friends was not that big of a hit to take and as I'd find out re-leveling was the least of my worries.

 I work in telecom so I hate to throw shade on telecoms and technology that is helping in otherwise tough times, but 5G Home Internet is just not great.  We actually had a better signal than I expected at the house for TMobile but even with that signal the technology is just unreliable.  There is consistent packet loss and latency spikes; not to mention regular periods of it dropping out altogether.

 The result is an unreliable service to play games on, but that did not deter me and it actually highlights one area that Throne and Liberty absolutely shines in!  As I explored there was a bit of rubber banding and frustration waiting for interact actions before eventually hitting some disconnects.  

 But the beauty of Throne and Liberty is its performance and whatever voodoo they use I was able to play effectively and when a disconnect did happen I could get right back into the game.  I am still amazed how they pull off not having long load screens even when dropping me into areas with hundreds of players all while I am on spotty internet!  This performance is entirely worth the price of early access admission and sets a new bar for competitors to match.

 For comparison if I was disconnected from New World it would easily be 4-5 minutes before I was back in game.  In Throne and Liberty I was back within a minute; basically as fast as my PC could boot the game back up.

 It's good that I confirmed to myself that gaming on 5G home internet is NOT reliable but in a pinch it is serviceable.  I still wait patiently for Spectrum to return more reliable service via cables in the ground.

Helene Update Day 5: The Estimate and Throne and Liberty launch day!

 It is day 5 of no power at our home and we got the first glimmer of hope to an end with an estimate from our power company that they will have power restored by Oct 4th.  We were fortunate enough to have a talkative worker that was working at the problem location where the lines were taken down.  He was optimistic but you could tell he was not convinced Oct 4th was real but thats what they had.  They have to replace multiple poles and transformers.  

 That will get power back into the spot where the utilities go underground to feed our house.  The risk after that is the state of the underground lines; some of which were ripped up as trees uprooted.  If the underground lines are damaged then there is unfortunately a wait for a crew that can do buried cables.  

 I don't even want to think about internet.  Down the street you can see Spectrum's buried line sitting six feet up in the air attached to a upturned rootball of a 100 year old oak tree that toppled over.

 With that said the family and I are still relocated to a coworkers house where they have power and internet.   Its a bit of a drive but still checking on the house and family members each day.  Gas is surprisingly available with minimal wait times.

 Also Throne and Liberty's global launch is today.  I played early access for a few hours the day before Helene hit so I have some thoughts but it will be a bit before I get to that and a bit before I get to jump back in Throne and Liberty.  

A pic showing what some streets still look like.

Getting ready for Throne and Liberty global launch

Here we go... again...

 With Throne and Liberty early access just two days away (9/26), I’m gearing up to hit the ground running. For those of you who’ve been following along, you already know I’m no stranger to MMORPGs, and the prep before launch can make or break your experience with a game. I’m not about to be that player running around clueless while everyone else is racing ahead. So, here’s the rundown of what I’m doing to make sure I’m ready to dominate from day one in Throne and Liberty.

 First up, I’m looking for a guild since my regular group isn’t fully committing to Throne (a few of them are jumping in, but not enough for a real guild push). Since the game is so guild-focused, it’s going to be important to join a solid group if I want to get my hands on the best gear and participate in guild objectives. Being part of a competent guild is going to be important when it comes to progressing gear and making the most of what the game has to offer.

 Next up is setting my sights on a build for my character. Throne uses a classless system, so your entire build comes from the items you equip and the upgrades you make to those items. From all accounts and my limited beta experience, the decisions you make in upgrading gear are very important to get right. Items can be changed later, but it gets progressively harder the further you go (or more expensive if you’re swiping your card to buy your gear for builds).

 My likely choice for a build will be Sword and Shield/Wand. This is a paladin-style build, and I’ve always been a long-standing fan of the paladin class. It’s also a tank build, and tanks are always in demand for group PvE content, plus they play a key role in the large-scale group PvP content. As for the details of the build—well, that’s still TBD. I need to do some homework, since a lot has changed since the last beta we played.

 Another important decision is whether I’m going to play early access or not. I’d love to dive into early access, but I’ve got a weekend trip that will keep me away for most of that time so I'd only benefit from a day or two of early access. There are other benefits to the early access package, so it’s not just about playing earlier (though that’s the main draw). If I wait for the regular launch, I can jump in for free instead of dropping $40+ on an early access package, which is a pretty compelling reason to hold off.

 I’m not sure if Throne will be a long-term MMORPG for me, but I definitely want to give it a try. New World Aeternum launches on October 15th, and I know that’s going to pull me back in, which will put some pressure on my time to play Throne. But hey, that’s a good problem to have with so many great games on the horizon!

 How are you getting ready for Throne and Liberty?

Throne and Liberty Early Access vs Full Launch Servers

 Throne and Liberty dropped some updated information for the early access and full launch servers here. Some thoughts below but first the important text blurb copied for posterity (and to save you a click):

Text version:

Early Access & Full Launch Servers

We saw some questions from the community regarding how Early Access Servers and Full Launch Servers are planned to work and interact with each other. Our goal is to design a system that provides non-early access users the same fresh server opportunity as early access players. Please refer to the early access section in the TL Business Model - What to Expect article for more information.

Early Access Servers are the set of servers that open on September 26 at 10AM PST (5PM UTC) before launch on October 1 at 10AM PST (5PM UTC). After the full launch on October 1, all new servers opening will be part of the Full Launch Server group.

We want to provide some additional clarity on how these servers will work. Here’s a quick summary, with more specifics below the following items.

1. Once both groups of servers are live, players can create new characters on Early Access or Full Launch Servers at any time, subject to population caps. If you begin playing at full launch and want to join your friends on an Early Access Server, you may create a character there on October 1 regardless of whether or not you purchased an Early Access Pack.

2. Players can transfer from Full Launch Servers to open Early Access Servers at any time.

3. We will offer limited-time free transfers to all players from September 26 through October 17.

4. Early Access Servers will eventually have their transfer restriction lifted.

My comments:

 This alleviates fears that the Early Access servers were going to be walled off from players joining later or from any player that didn't buy an early access package.  This is great news for those of us looking to jump in at regular launch but have friends on early access.  Not only can you start characters there but you can also transfer to the early servers.  To go with it they are offering free transfers for the first few weeks of the game!  At some point in the future players will be able to transfer off of early access to regular (which makes sense, letting players transfer off of early access to regular servers just launching would give them a huge advantage).

Monday Screenshots: The Many Faces of Heartlessgamer

 It is time for Monday Screenshots but with a Blaugust slant!  As we are in the "Introduce Yourself" week what better screenshots to feature than the many faces of the characters I've played recently across games.

 

New World

Throne and Liberty Global Beta

Once Human

Pax Dei Alpha Test

Enshrouded

Battlefield 2042 playing as Irish with my favorite skin

Call of the Wild: the Angler

New World open beta

Oldie but goodie - my Guild Wars 2 launch character... ummm yeah

Shout out to Massively OP's Global Chat

 Just a quick shout out to Massively OP for featuring me in their Global Chat feature post.  As much of as an honor when they mentioned my comments on their podcast about how I listen to podcasts at 2x speed in the shower.  If you want MMO news and insights then Massively OP is the site for you.

July 2024 In Review

 Blaugust 2024 is here which means July 2024 is over! Let's take a look at what happened on the blog in July.

The Blog

 Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off a full month): 29,200 visits

 This is up about 7,000 from June and there was a spike around 7/5 while I was out of town.  I did not dig into the spike.

 

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 18 (week days minus days I was on my trip)
  
• Posted: 22
• Difference: +4 Woohoo! Lots of good topics to talk about and playing a new game, Once Human, kept the ideas flowing.
  
•  Search Trends
• "throne and liberty beta review", "throne and liberty impressions", and "throne and liberty open beta review" flew to the top this month with lots of Google searchers finding my initial impressions post and then after beta review post.  Look at that mountain in the chart!
• 
  

  

  Look at that mountain in the chart all driven by Throne and Liberty searches.
  

  
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" continue to be towards the top still thanks to this post: Best Battlefield!?
• Then another new search trend is cropping up around the game Once Human (see What I Played).  Lots of folks (me included) are searching for information about how seasons and season resets will work.  Here are the most common search terms:
  
  • once human 6 week reset
  • once human seasons
  • once human season reset
  • once human resets
  • once human seasonal wipe
• And for New World searches... well they dropped all the way to page 2 of the results!  It's all Once Human and T&L here baby!
  

What I Played

 For the first month in close to two years the answer for "what I played" is NOT New World.  I basically quit New World cold turkey after coming back from my trip.  I do drop in to reset some long duration trading post listings and to keep my "days since last login" fresh on the company board but that is it. I have not actually "played" the game since June.

 What I have played though is a lot of Once Human (all tagged posts).  I really like the game even though it has tons of issues and is death marching towards a seasonal model that is going to piss a lot of players off with how the server locking has gone.  We'll see if it has staying power after July.

 I also took the opportunity to try out the Throne and Liberty global beta and I shared my thoughts.  I wasn't hooked enough to say for sure I am playing at launch but having broken the New World grip on my gaming time it is entirely possible I give it a go in Sept.  It will be free 2 play so not much risk.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

 In July 2023 I was prepping for my first Blaugust!  

 Season 2 of New World was in full swing and I was posting my daily checklist which was a long standing driver of traffic to the blog as it was picked up on the New World subreddit.  Sort of makes me sad to look back and see how positive we were on New World and just a year later and its doom and gloom.

5 Years Ago

  July 2019 was in the 'no blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

 In July of 2014 I was also not blogging regularly so had no entries.

15 Years Ago

  July of 2009 had us talking about the infamous Darkfall review debacle and eventually we got the real Kieron Gillen Darkfall re-review to talk about.  To be honest the original review was fair.  Darkfall was a turd of a game.  Personally I liked my May 2009 take by taking Kieron's review of The Path and treating it like it was for Darkfall.

 I was also enamored with Battlefield Heroes through the month of July. It still holds a spot in my "best battlefield" list.  Sad that it closed so soon after launching.  It was Fortnite-like before Fortnite!

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.

 In July of 2005 it was a mix of Battlefield 2 posts and posts complaining about World of Warcraft.  Hmmm... that seems familiar.

What's Next for Throne and Liberty?

 Throne and Liberty's global beta is a few days past now and while I am not settled on whether I am playing at launch I am still following along with the updates on the Korean version as they will be changes that are present at the global launch.  There looks to be a few big changes coming: they are adding some life skills such as cooking/fishing and adding skill customization.  Let's take a look and talk about each.

Skill Customization

 First I found this video helpful to understand the changes coming to skills:

 One of my complaints (for lack of a better word) about Throne was that combat, especially the skills, felt overly complex and thus sort of mushed together with little identity.  The weapon skills, before this system change, were already doing three, four, or more things just by themselves.  I felt like this was too much and too complicated and forced the system into a stationary tab target combat experience where you spend more time looking at cooldowns on your hotbar than engaging in the combat.

 The skill customization in the video seems to address some of that.  The fireball example featured allowed the player to customize the skill so it could be cast while moving.  I wanted to pause and focus on that one because that feels like something that should just be part of the combat system.  I should be able to move in combat!  It should be the exception rather than the rule that you get rooted in place when activating a skill.

 So it's great to see them adding this ability to customize the skills but if there are too many of these "this should just be part of the normal skill / combat" then this is not the right direction.  Again the skills are already too complex and players get too many to use at once which is fostering the static feeling of combat.  Yes there is a lot of options in combat and now there will be even more variety in those options but that still doesn't address why combat feels off for so many players.

 There was also some feedback in the community about "why didn't we get this in the global beta version so that we could test it?".  I do agree it'd have been better to test with this system to make a better launch day decision since this will be in at launch.

Cooking and Fishing

 Next a look at cooking and fishing.

 Nothing major here.  Cooking is pretty straight forward.  I did like the way the visuals work with actually cooking.  I am not sure I liked that there was a random chance for a better result.  The better food will be the "best in slot" food of the game so I expect a glut of food that isn't that desired.  As the first true "crafting" profession in the game though it's at least a start!

 Fishing looked simple and straight forward which is good for me.  I like to fish in my games!

Final Thoughts: Throne and Liberty Global Beta

 At the surface Throne and Liberty is a very polished game.  The graphics are amazing.  Performance is top notch.  It is massive and nails multiplayer with masses of players running around everywhere.  Quality of life features abound.  However just below the makeup there is some things we need to talk about.  Here are my final thoughts after 15 hours with the Throne and Liberty global beta. 

Welcome to Throne and Liberty

 First I do want to reiterate how amazing this game looks and how well it runs.  I am still amazed how they are able to get the game to run without any loading screens.  That alone is worth recommending the game as it is so refreshing to boot up a game, select a character, and then a few seconds (not minutes) later you are in the world.  The same goes for teleporting.  Add in the performance both in how it runs on your machine and how it seemingly maintains a lag-free world with hundreds of players running around it is clear they have some magic sauce!

 The problem, for me, comes in that the game didn't hook me.  For comparison I hit 50+ hours played in both the New World open beta and more recently in Once Human's open beta which both ran shorter than Throne's beta where I hit 15 hours. I did keep coming back to play Throne but once I got past how amazing the world feels, the shock of teleporting around without loading screens, and how fun it is to chase after the giant flying whale at some point I had to interact with the story and engage in the combat.  That is where the game started to lose me (but not entirely).

 I'll admit in my older age I am not one for sitting around dialogue screens or cut-scenes in RPGs.  For a while now I've felt that if a game can't deliver the story content without having to stop and bring me to a separate screen that the story probably was click through material. 

  Throne delivers some of it's story via interactive mechanisms but there is still a lot of time spent in dialogue screens or cut scenes.  By the end of the beta I was pressing F and ESC as fast as I could to get out of them.  The story is just not interesting and most story quests are monotonous. Seriously; one of the last quests I did in beta had me talk to someone, walk a few feet to pick up a burlap sack, then walk a few feet and put the sack in a fire, and then just turn to talk to the person again!  That was it.  Nothing more.  I don't need to be doing mundane quest steps in 2024!

F, F, F

 Dotted between the mundane story questing are instanced solo encounters which provide more meaty content usually focused around some sort of combat encounter. These are better than the burlap sack burning experience but aren't anything to write home about.  I just don't have the patience for story in MMORPGs anymore.  Get me to the world and interacting with other players!  With that said Throne is not much different from other games in the genre and at least it has some cut scenes worth watching.

 There are parts of Throne where the game does a better job of delivering information to the player. For example in the world events, as you are doing the event, a fully narrated set of updates for the event appear on your screen.  They don't require you to interact with them and go away all by themselves.  I found it a good way to keep me engaged in the event progress.

 Additionally I think the team behind Throne realized that many players are like me and click through content as fast as possible.  After most story moments or tutorial quests the game has a fully voice narrated "here is a summary of what just happened" that plays for you while you go about your business.  Personally I feel they could have just done this vs much of the mundane dialogue screens in the game.  In fact I really liked the after-the-fact narration (I know some testers did not).

 Also in the story quest there are points where you interact with items and have to go to another screen to manipulate the item.  This is it's own screen (again, taking you out of the world) and you have to flip the item around and then click on the right spot to unlock the next part of the puzzle.  The first experience with this was a "fake" book that really had a key hidden inside.  I did not find it interesting at all and felt like it was wasting my time.  

 It is rare enough to have to inspect an item that it's not a headache but it brings up a question of consistency.  Why not make all quest items work like this?  Why just here and there?  I am a big believer in games being consistent and this just seemed like a tacked on feature used some of the time.  The screen itself that you use is also not intuitive at all.  I had to look up help on how to do it because clicking was doing nothing (you have to hold your click down when the cursor changes icons which means you can really just fake your way through it vs it being some sort of puzzle).

The item inspection puzzles are few and far between and aren't needed

 

 The quests and events in the game do offer variety.  I did enjoy some early quests such as the one where I morphed into a mouse and had to literally play "cat and mouse" dodging a cat only to find out the cat was a morphed bad guy.  However, too much of the main story was just run here do this then run there.  I honestly think the game may have been better without the main story and instead just focused on the world events.

 I say this because there are so many freaking events happening in the world in this game.  It was refreshing to see a world that looked alive! Hitting the "schedule" button and seeing all the possible events occurring was cool.  I barely scratched the surface of events and had fun in every event I jumped into.  My only disappointment was missing an event and having to wait hours for the next time. I didn't even get to PvP yet and there are tons of PvP events!

A busy map.  Events.  Events everywhere!

 

 I did get to try the level 20 dungeon a few times as well and it was OK.  I'll talk more on combat later and the state of combat was part of why I say it was just OK.  The game does have a group finder which was nice as it made it easy to get into a group and get going on the content.  As a more solo-ish player I tend to prefer this way of getting into group content.  

 The dungeon was mostly trash enemies and a couple bosses.  The end boss was difficult to follow and I really didn't understand why some groups failed at that boss while others seemed to do just fine.  I was "one shot" multiple times at this boss and still don't know by what or how I was supposed to dodge it (probably because I was staring at the hotbar UI vs the boss).  At the end of the dungeons you have to spend a currency you gradually gain each day to get rewards and once that currency is gone I am not sure why you'd run a dungeon.  That was disappointing to learn as its basically a "daily" but I get it being a way to prevent farming.

The first dungeon's end boss summon

Group finder with match making for dungeons

 Next I want to touch on combat. I never got over the hump with it.  It just doesn't feel as good compared to the rest of the game around it.  The biggest issue I have is that it feels static with too much time watching the UI.  I've said in the past that New World changed how I perceive MMO combat.  In New World you rarely are looking at the UI and are almost always engaged with the combat encounter in front of you.  

 In Throne I kept missing things going on because I had to be either looking at a bar of 12 different possible skill cooldowns or trying to find whatever status message on screen I needed to find or having to swing my camera around to find the enemy.  This leads to a lot of time with your character just standing in place while you hit the buttons and honestly 12 skill buttons + 4 consumable + 4 function keys is just too much.

 Speaking of skills. I really don't get why the game starts players off with access to so many of the weapon skills.  I don't want to sound like a newbie and say it is overwhelming but it honestly is and removes an aspect of progression and learning a game that I didn't realize I'd miss until I played Throne and it wasn't there.  Aside from the first tutorial scenario that teaches you the defense timing mechanic there is nothing to walk a player through the hundreds of skills in the game.  Players are expected to open the skills screen and figure it out; including figuring out what order you should use them in (i.e. rotation).

 And it's needed because skills are complicated. There isn't simple "fireball goes boom" skills.  Every skill is "does X% damage + applies Y effect and then has % chance for Z".  Oh and then based on time of day it may do something entirely different.  All I want to do is scream.... "why!?".  

The skills screen can be daunting.  An example skill that increases block chance and then also counterattacks but the counterattack isn't affected by critical or heavy hit chance.  Then on being upgraded does even more.  And you will have 12 skills of this complexity level in front of you at any given time in combat!

 

 I really had to dig through skills to make sense of what goes together well and what order to fire them off in.  I can see learning your rotation being a huge part of success in this game.  That is fine but just not something that hooked me.  I'd much rather have been gradually introduced to skills and had the game give me more guidance on what works together. Don't even get me started on the fact you can have multiple hot bars of skills set up and swap mid fight.

 I also felt there was little identity with the weapons.  You can equip any two weapons and from their array of skills you can equip 12 (again feels like too many).  All of them sort of had the same feeling.  If it was a ranged attack it was a ranged attack.  If it was a melee attack it was a melee attack.  Wand, staff, sword, dagger... I didn't get a sense they were all that much different or maybe the game failed to explain to me how they were working differently.  I really wish the game would have limited active skills to, at most, five at one time.  That would have made it much more impactful to choose between the array of skills two weapons brings the player.

 Ultimately whether its the skills bonanza or the stationary state; the combat in Throne and Liberty is it's weakest part.  It didn't lose me but it didn't hook me.  I really dislike that you have to focus so much on the UI and thus lose focus on the amazing game world in front of you.  Less would be more in this game's combat.

You get a cat for your inn room

 

There are some other areas of the game to touch on.

 The guild system seems well fleshed out. I joined a random guild and was immediately helping complete guild contracts and getting rewards for the guild doing activities.  I also had multiple ways to contribute to the guild via game mechanisms vs having to manage contribution outside of the game.  I think this game will be a good home for guilds looking for MMOs that reward guild play.  It will also be good for the less hardcore guild members (i.e. solo players) to be able to contribute to the guild.

 Crafting is not really crafting so much as just a set of screens you use to combine things together.  There is upgrading gear via enchanting but again its just a set of screens you use to progress gear vs any sort of crafting as you would think from most MMOs (i.e. you don't craft a sword hilt and blade to make a sword).  Some crafting, like cooking, is coming in the launch apparently (and is available in the Korean version as of this week).

 One of the biggest "oh really?" moments was when I realized the game has no in game economy. Zero.  None.  The only auction house is the one for the premium currency (which I am fine with).  However, that auction house is limited in to just some specific named items.  You can't, for example, craft potions and sell them (or at least that I could see).  That was really disappointing as markets of online games is one of my biggest attractions.  This may change since they are adding more life skills to the game like cooking.

 Another point to make in Throne's favor is the quality of life bits.  There is a lot of polished features in this game.  I was amazed to find that I could save my preset skill build outs and I didn't have to buy any slots from a cash shop for the privilege.  The same goes for armor and weapons.  It is just there in the UI.  The map is amazing and full of info.  The schedule that details events really helps connect players to the active world.  While there is probably too many overall screens in the interface I can't deny that each screen is still clean and super functional.

The quintessential MMO experience: the crowded town alleyway

 The end question is whether I will play the game at launch and I'll give an honest "I don't know" answer.  Is it possible?  Sure.  I like to jump into MMO launches to get that launch day feeling but I'm not sure it would be much different than what I got out of the open beta here.  The game did grow on me a  little the further the beta went on and I used the extra day to play some more when they extended it.

 I can tell you that this beta was nothing like what I got out of New World's open beta or more recently Once Human's.  Both of those games hooked me and I ran out the clock on their betas and was happy to repeat at the launch of both.  With Throne something just didn't fit together as well.  The combat being mediocre and the lack of an actual game economy are not great selling points.  I will end with "maybe" on whether I'll play.  I really don't think the game is going to do much better in the west than it did in Korea.  I can see now where many folks are coming from after they tried to the Korean version and now had access to the global beta.

Goodbye beta