Has the game really improved?

[Banok]

I played at release and have been loosely following development since. It seems to me most the development has been focused on combat. However every video I see combat looks the same or worse than at release.

example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFZU8SzAG0o

Really not sure what is supposed to bring us back to this game after ~9 months.

I mean stuff that was supposed to be out at start of prelude still isn't in the game, like archery! how is that acceptable? I'm pretty sure archery was a feature I payed for 9 months ago.

I also remember before release they said they had a lots of animals ready and would put them in soon (I don't remember the number, was it 30?). but AFAIK its still only a handful of critters.

I'm basing this off videos and reading patch notes so I might be wrong. So let me know, I hope I am.

[Hodo]

I have given up on Xsyon, and most sandbox games now. It seems there is two types of players, carebears and pvpers. I am just to old school for any of that. I watched Xsyon after Roma Victor died. And it turned from ok, to bad, to OMGWTF-R-U-THINKING!?! So now I wait patiently for Planet Side 2.

[Asharad]

It seems there is two types of players, carebears and pvpers.

There are 2 types: The newbies who don't have much skill (and can't get it because there is nothing to fight), and the veterans who are so unbalanced they can win a 6v1 battle.

Other than that, I'm enjoying the game. I can't wait for zombies, because I'm tired of stabbing my own guild members.

[banden]

(bare with me, I am hungover, Barcraft last night!)

There are more variety in animals now than I find useful but ya know, everyone has an opinion. Only problem with hunting atm is that there arent a skill for actually finding the critters. Need tracking.

Personally I find that some of the Devs prioritization could have been better but they have been delivering content and answers for questions since launch so I cant complain. Yes, I dont agree with some of the designs they have put in either, but I wouldnt be happy in any case unless I was designing it myself.

Something occured to me the other day while I was looking at a vid from one of the arena events. While its true that combat doesnt look like something that belongs in a game, its doesnt look polished and it looks like drunken hobos having a go at each other, this is exactly what you would expect considering the setting. Look at it this way: the combat in other mmo is kinda like those action adventure films, its exagerrated, combat in Xsyon is more like "Lord of the flies"... a fist is just a fist and a knife or axe in the hand is just that, theres no gimmick and i really like that. Have you ever seen 2 normal people in a fist fight? They look effing stupid, chuck norris might look like hes bending the fabric of space and time when he karatechops the baddies but it doesnt look like that in real life!

Archery is still not in, true. This is where those annoying "priorities" come in. After combat they chose to improve the areas of the game that had the most potential, and I dont think thats so bad.

But I agree with you actually, there needs happen something pretty amazing to this game in the next 1-2 months before its ready to be advertised. Everytime we, the existing player, have to explain to new players "oh this is not in yet" "oh this feature is still broken" "they are working on it, this will be out soon"... the game looses credibility and if this is going to be a re-launch all these features that arent in, not working or just a placeholder will be devastating to the game in the long run. If there are still problems like more than half of item stats not working, then its simply not ready yet and needs more polish.