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

Getting a Fast Start in Once Human

 Recently I had a friend start playing Once Human but they were unable to join my established server so I opted to jump to their server.  My main character was closing in on level 50 with a stacked base so I was used to having easier methods of doing things like smelting without needing charcoal.  Having to start over I wanted to get back to easy mode as soon as possible.  I found this guide on YouTube that gets players up and going with electric smelting within an hour and sets a great foundation to continue.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for guidance to get a quick start.

 

Monday Screenshots: Throne and Liberty Global Beta

 I spent just over 12 hours in the Throne and Liberty global beta over the last few days and I have some screenshots to share.  More screenshots in my initial impressions post.

The giant flying whale is an amazing sight to behold.  Even more amazing is the fact you can jump on and ride the whale around the world!

The view distance is astounding in the game.  Being able to see far off landmarks gives a sense of scale to the world that many games fail to pull off.

The second main town (forget it's name)

Did I mention I really, really liked the giant flying whale?

Upgrade success!

Interiors are well decorated and full of detail.

Initial Impressions: Throne and Liberty Global Beta

 I jumped into the Throne and Liberty global beta yesterday.  What I was welcomed into was part single player RPG, part MMO, and all beautiful.  Here are some more initial impressions.

 One thing that jumped out at me was the performance.  There are tons of players everywhere in the starting areas and the game looks amazing everywhere you go.  At no point have I had any hint of performance issue.  No lag, no freezing, no odd FPS dips, nothing that I could even call a hiccup in performance.  The game runs like a dream even with tons of players zipping around.

 As mentioned the game looks amazing.  The world itself is breathtaking and the game regularly treats players to fly by overviews of areas offering amazing views of the landscape.  The details are awesome as well.  Rocks look like rocks.  When you go into a house in town it is full of furniture, nick-knacks, and other details; a real sense that "someone lives here".

An in-engine bird's eye view of the first major city Kastleton

 Amazingly this is all on the backdrop of a massive open world where players, at the click of a button, can zip from one spot to a next via the game's teleport function.  Zip being the key word: there is no loading screens.  I was teleporting from areas with dozens of players into areas with hundreds of players and as fast as the teleport animation could animate I was teleported.  Then at one point I hopped on a boat that started moving and again no loading screens; the boat just took me from island to island to island and then back to port.  Whatever magic sauce they have to make this world this seamless needs to be shared with other developers!

A screencap I sent a friend asking if "are there lots of people playing?".  This is one of the starter area event hubs.  Note: I have turned on player names in settings (it is off by default).

 The game also gives multiple ways to traverse the world.  Along with the normal walk/run there is also the ability to shapeshift into a creature that makes you run faster which is the game's version of mounts it seems.  Also there is shapeshifting to glide, which seems to be a standard feature in most games now.  Jump off a cliff and shift into a bird and glide across the open world.  Then there is grappling where you can grapple up to places.

 The only downside of the traversal is that there is no vaulting in the game (i.e. being able to grab a ledge and pull yourself up and over).  A short stone wall may as well be a giant castle wall for your ability to get around it.  This also goes for various rocks that look like you could jump up on them but  the game just doesn't let you.  It's also not consistent: sometimes a jump gets you over and other times its like there are invisible walls blocking you.  This is odd considering if you can figure out a high point nearby you can just glide over the obstacle.

Riding in a boat.

 The game is also full of things to do.  Quests of all shapes and size dot the landscape.  There is a lot of variety to the quests as well.  One quest had me transformed into a rat trying to avoid a cat only to find out the cat is a shapeshifted bad guy that I ended up fighting.  The story quests also have single-player RPG feel to them as the camera zooms in and you get an up close an personal dialogue sequence.  The game also quasi-teleports you into your own private copy of areas like houses where key story elements happen (again without a loading screen!). The story quests are also full of movie-like sequences.  I am skipping most of them now saving that content for launch.

The cat and mouse quest!

 Before I end the initial impressions here I want to talk about the combat.  At its heart it is a tab target combat system.  There is an action mode that can make the combat feel more "action" but it seems the general consensus from experienced players in the Korean version of the game is that you should use the "classic" combat mode that is traditional tab target.  I am torn here as I like the action mode but I can see where in larger fights you will need to be in classic.  The muscle memory between the two is going to be entirely different as well so I don't see it being viable to switch between them in high end content.

 In terms of complexity the combat so far is standard fare.  Put abilities on your hotbar and press the buttons until the enemy dies.  There is not much need for movement aside from just wanting to move.  Most of the early game combat is just pressing your attack button once to start attacking and watching your character do the work.  The story boss fights were a little harder but not by much.  There is some timing required around the defense skill when an enemy flashes the right symbol.  

 

Players need to activate their defensive ability when this symbol appears.

 I haven't gotten too far into trying out different weapons but the game does let you switch them at any time.  You can equip two and switching between them is easy enough. Skills for a specific weapon can also be used at any time regardless if its the current active weapon or not so that was nice not having to switch to get access to the second weapons ability.  There are tons of skills for each weapon so it will take time to figure out what makes sense.  

 One thing I want to note that was disappointing with the massive beautiful open world is that when you get to the main areas they are filled with wandering piles of monsters.  That is fine as there is more than enough to go around for all the hordes of players but it makes the game feel very lifeless.  For as amazing as the world looks that all goes away when there is a field with 100 wolves just standing around waiting to be killed.

 Over all I've enjoyed the beta but I can't say it "hooked" me.  I do want to keep playing a bit more to firm up whether I want to play at launch but compared to games like New World and Once Human where I put 50+ hours into their open betas Throne and Liberty didn't have the same feeling.

Goodbye my little friend.  The game gives you a pet-like creature called an Amitoi.  The one you start with is helpfully named "Helpie" but *spoiler* you do have to say good bye to them.

 Looking into the SteamDB Charts for the beta I was surprised to see a much, much smaller volume of players.  In a year where we've seen random titles hitting millions of players it felt like an open beta for a much anticipated MMO would fly up the charts but it topped out at just over 61,000.  The game is on multiple platforms so Steam isn't the only data point but I'd of expected a lot more interest in this game.

Not as many players as expected on Steam

Throne and Liberty Beta: NA East 23

 heartlessgamer is born!  NA East 23 server.

Here We Go: Throne and Liberty Beta

Throne and Liberty Global Beta Starts Today!

Once Human Surprises

 One of the things I liked about the Once Human demo prior to it's launch was that it kept surprising me.  Every time I felt like the demo was about to get stale something else jumped up to pique my interest.  It may be a puzzle that took me a few minutes to figure out or maybe it was unlocking a new tree in crafting and the possibilities that come with it. Once Human is full of surprises and I wanted to share some that I've learned since launch.

 After I unlocked the garage and got the three main vehicles (motorcycle, car, jeep) in the game I thought that was it for vehicles and it was just about upgrading each of those.  To my surprise I learned about the truck and tractor trailer from the medium and large garages which allow you to create mobile bases.  I had no idea this sort of thing was possible in the game!

  This means players can effectively make a "battle bus" mobile base to roll through towns terrorizing the local deviant population.  When I say mobile base I mean mobile base where the player places and builds the base on the truck or trailer just as they would at their home.  This includes auto turrets, drones, workbenches, and that cute stuffed sheep everyone gets early in the game.

 Taking the mobile base to another level and combining it with the vending machines in the game and voila you have a mobile shop that can be rolled out to your neighborhood hotspot to serve the needs of your customers anywhere anytime (just be aware your mobile home can be destroyed).  

Coming to a neighborhood near you soon!

 It really is mind blowing that a massively multiplayer online game where you can build a base just about anywhere also then lets players build mobile bases that can go and park just about anywhere!  Not only that but then to have things like vending machines which can be advertised/viewed on the map!  Oh and bases (mobile or not) can have hundreds of items in them letting for really impressive visual (and functional) builds!

 Speaking of bases I am amazed how deep and complex they can get.  What we saw in the demo just scratched the surface.  As I near the max level of 50 and start maxing out my memetic skills I am getting into various areas like automated logging and mining platforms, water pumps, water purification, and all of the possibilities that come with combining them together.

 For example I learned today that certain areas (which I'm not quite sure how to identify yet) have contaminated water which you can pump via a water pump and then 1 out of 10 times in purifying it you will get acid (a key end game crafting material that you need TONS of).  Now I need to figure out if I can hook this all up on a mobile base and go out and do some mobile water pumping!

 Also to stress what you can do with these systems as an example: water flows via actual pressure so it needs a pump to go up.  However with some creative planning you can use gravity to your advantage to save on having to pump it.  And a lot of this "just works" without having to think about it.  Just connect A to B and it knows what to do.  Fortunately they are not strict on pipe placement so it's fine if it clips through walls and structures.

 Before you even get to all the cool automated systems that get unlocked with water pumps and electricity there is the deviant system where you can lock your little Pokemon-like creatures up and have them do various tasks.  Some go out and harvest, others product rare materials, and others have just "I didn't expect that" functions.

 One of the surprising ones generates "dark portal" pieces that let you make a portal.  Place one end in your base and one somewhere else and they are connected.  Go in one and come out the other.  Of course one of the first things done was to put one on the ground and encourage folks to jump in only to realize it is a jump to their death.  

 Then I more recently got the deviant Artisan's Hand which generates parts that lets players get around repairing armor/weapons that can't normally be repaired.  You can only repair gear you craft yourself.  Anything traded for or looted is used until it breaks.  With Artisan's Hand you can craft potions that repair the lowest durability item you have equipped.  Equip just the one piece of gear and bingo bango bongo you can repair it without having to be the owner.

 I swear there is a deviant for everything and I just have a handful!  Heck there is a gingerbread house that generates crumbs that can be used to make potions that do nothing other than let you transform into a random object like a tombstone.  It has no purpose as far as I can tell other then letting you hide.

 Oh and I found out the little beaver dudes can not only harvest trees but randomly can show up with a piece of furniture!  Who doesn't like more crap to put in their base.

Little beaver dude found something other than a tree to gnaw back to the base!

 With all these surprises and a never ending supply of what seem like new deviants being discovered I am amazed there is not a central "Once Human DB" that has sprung up.  Maybe I am missing it but I can't find anything like NWDB for New World.  This game really would benefit from something like it!

Why I always carry a torch in Once Human

 Did you know there are chests and secret areas blocked off via vines in Once Human?  

 You may have come across a chest locked up with vines but it is easy to overlook secret areas covered in vines that may hide hidden goodies.  To get rid of the vines you need fire and may not always have or be willing to use a molotov cocktail for the task.  This is where a torch comes in hand!  You can clear the vines with a single attack from a torch.

A vine covered chest.  Use a fire attack to remove the vines.  A torch is a perfect weapon for that task!

 Also the torch is a pretty good PvE melee weapon; especially with the Blaze Blessing mod as it returns 5% HP when killing an enemy that was affected by burn and the torch applies burn!  So for those unique events that send swarms of enemies at you there is no better weapon than the torch.  Just smack them all down and heal every time one of them dies.

Blaze Blessing mod makes the torch that much better!

 

 

 

Monday Screenshots: Once Human

 Last week flew by and Once Human has consumed my gaming time.  Consumed to the point I didn't even blog through my early launch adventures!  So at minimum let me drop a bunch of screenshots from my launch adventure.  Enjoy!

Note: I am on server NA PVP01-00003 (World 6 is my main layer I hang out in and have my base)

Hello World!

Off we go to a new world of adventure

A sheep to help me sleep.

The start of my base of operations

Varooom! Off on the motorcycle!

Completing the first dungeon

Fighting the Treant's Doppleganger - a good fight marred by terrible AI.

Rain collection!

Putting the Digby's to work.  Automate! Automate! Automate!

Spider bus!

Ah yes interacting with the child sitting in the creepy looking circle of teddy bears.

What I refer to as the "Pop the balloons" boss

Big Koi caught in Eternaland

My favorite activity: popping heads with the sniper rifle

Spider bus!  I love this thing.

Ummmm.... he's a little bigger than the other light heads.

Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't doing a good job little beaver buddy!

Chef-a-saurus Rex hard at work cooking my food!

Big bad

Big bad spider lady

Game over.  I win.  Yes the cat will sleep in your bed with you.

Timber!  Not as satisfying as New World logging but I get a chainsaw in Once Human so it evens out.

"Hello, we've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty"  Joking aside there are all of these neat little puzzles scattered across the world.

Stuff for sale at Heartlessgamer's house!

Koi in the fish tank (you can put any fish you catch in the tank)

Taking the car out for a spin.  Beautiful scenery.

My house is a mess of wires and pipes.

Seriously... send help.  Organization help!

New World Roadmap 2024

 I get a lot of visitors from Google searching for "new world roadmap 2024" which I find surprising as this has been provided by the developers.  It isn't much of a road map but it is what is coming in 2024, including the rebranding to New World: Aeternum, whether we like it or not.

 Note: this states this is all coming Oct 15th but it's not clear it becomes available immediately or whether it comes out through the end of the year.  Missing is stuff like the winter event and we've not heard confirmation whether we'll get the event this year or not.

New World roadmap 2024