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  1. #51
    Quote Originally Posted by China View Post
    Sorry, didn't realize you were being ironic.
    No worries. I know it doesn't translate well online. I just dislike using emotes.

  2. #52
    It is almost funny how the stereotype of games that are designed by programmers turn out to be true, and Xsyon is one of those games. A game that's convoluted with extreme complexity, but poor design features into thoroughly exploring, and having actual fun with that complexity.

    Lot's of great ideas in this game. And to see them exist in a game is amazing. Terraforming- a great feature, a fun feature.
    Building towns anywhere from scratch? Great idea.
    Having a totally open world sandbox experience, probably the best idea.
    But each one of these lacks purpose, aesthetic appeal, and at times just way too boring and time consuming to complete.

    And before someone goes complaining that this game is too hard for someone like me. It's not hard. There is a difference between tedious boredom and difficulty. It isn't that hard to run up to a tree chop it down and drag it to your town. It isn't that hard to push a few buttons and erect a wall or structure. It's just pointlessly time-consuming. This game is nothing but time-sink after time-sink, after time-sink.

    Basic UI design choices are poor, an example was that I had to manually select every single resource when crafting an object. Why not implement a system by which if I build it once, I can click on a button and as long as I have the required materials in my backpack, why not just make it? Why do I have to click on each and every one? It's not going to make the game harder, it's just a poor design choice that makes the player's job of crafting something even more tedious than it needs to be. And it isn't like this idea is all that revolutionary...virtually every modern MMO that I know of uses this system when it comes to crafting.

    Artwork: the game's artwork isn't all that old school as people think. In fact the modeling, texturing, and everything else is modern, it's just inconsistent and improperly lit that makes it look like it's something old school. The problem here is choices in art-direction. A lot of the trees have a hand-painted bark texture to it. Indeed a lot of assets do, however, some terrain textures are clearly photographic textures rather than hand painted. And if you are going to go with the art direction that has more hand painted textures, then you also have to give it a proper lighting, that is, increase the saturation of your light colors a bit. Give that yellow light a bit more yellow, the secondary red light a bit more hue, and at third light to be blue, or violet (with only a third of intensity of the other two) and you got yourself an entirely new and aesthetically pleasing visual game.

    Gameplay and visual enhancements: If you are going to go for the skill-based player progression system as you did, it would be prudent to take note of the very first MMOs to impliment such a system; Ultima Online. Namely, inserting a decimal into your skill number would help a lot. How you ask? It has to do with risk vs reward and player psychology; Let's assume it takes two players 3 hours each to get 1 skill point in any particular skill. Player 1 starts with let's say 20 skill points. They do everything in their power and effort and in 3 hours, it goes up to 21 skill points. In the meantime, the three hours gone into, the player is virtually unaware if his skill is improving or not, to see the reward they have to wait three hours of work. Player 2 starts with 20 points, and every 18 or so minutes he get's a message saying that his skill went up by 0.1. In the end of the 3 hours they will see that their skill went up to 21.0 points. In the three hours that they played they got 10 visual rewards (that is, a clear sign that a player is advancing) every 18 or so minutes... Proper risk vs reward design is what makes an mmo stand out. And I know it's going to spark the ire of dozens of players here, as it is forbidden to say such words in any other mmo forum, but it is the risk vs reward design that World of Warcraft implemented that contributed heavily into it's popularity, and success.

  3. #53
    @Chewy, because im not quoting that wall of text even though i read it,

    Where is the risk vs reward in that? I understand by what you mean regarding the need for progress updates in skilling up. I would say you don't even need a "message" or an update to tell you. Just being able to press 'k' and say "oh cool, blades is at 25.1 now, im getting somewhere", would be enough.

    That said, i don't see where risk vs reward is a part of this issue. This seems to me more of an issue of improving morale during grinding.

  4. #54
    Xsyon Citizen Creator's Avatar
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    world of warcraft is popular for its risk vs reward.. cause the game has no damn risk.. other than failing to beat a dungeon after failing at it for what 3 weeks just to go look at me guys... so epic!

  5. #55
    Replace "risk" with "work" to see his point more clearly. It is the same psychological concept as risk vs reward, I just think most players see risk as literally meaning "you can die and lose your stuff".

  6. #56
    Rather than having to wait 3 hours to see that awareness (a visual cue is the best in my opinion) you are given one every 18 minutes (in my example). Seeing a reward for your efforts gives meaning to your work and game-play, that is the risk vs reward I am referring to. I am risking 3 hours of my time, and how much reward do I want in that time. If I have to wait 3 hours to see a number go only up once, it isn't as rewarding as seeing a number go up ten times, even though the end result is the same in-game value.

    Furthermore, it seems more or less random in this game (when you get your skill to go up), so seeing it as a decimal happen a lot more frequently will give players that psychological boost.

    Think of it as an experience bar. Every time you fell a monster your bar moves up a little bit, it gives you a visual cue that hey, you just fell a monster, here is the reward: some exp. Experience bars are not as immersive or deep but they are a simple gauge by which players can determine their own advancement in the game. You can do the same with skill-based system.

    And improving morale during grinding is what's going to keep players playing. Which is the ultimate purpose of this game isn't it?

    I wouldn't know the state of World of Warcraft as of now, I stopped playing it in 2006. So I am speaking from memory of 5 years ago; but risk is a largely subjective thing. I came from playing EverQuest for 4 years prior to WoW, so a risk vs reward concept was already skewed for me, considering every time you died in EverQuest you lost 10% of your level's total exp. Saying that, World of Warcraft minimized that kind of risk, and attracted a large audience for it. Xsyon is a game, made by a game company, their interest is self-sustainability and growth, that requires more and more players.


    If you're afraid that this game is going to get too easy for you, I got to ask, what's so damn difficult about Xsyon?

  7. #57
    Xsyon Citizen Creator's Avatar
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    two great things this game could do... to boost reward...

    entropia universe... regardless of your feelings pro or con about it... had rare loots called globals.... where a player would get a unusually high amount of loot of a kill or find and their name across global chat. they also received trumpets and swirlies. the next lvl was hof (hall of fame ).. or that days top 100 loots/kills bigger swirlies... bigger reward even bolder text. then was ath ... all time highs. the top 100 finds or kills ever in game.

    people love to be on top, people love to be recognized and seen as active, it would also make the game feel more alive and active. I knew people who would dump thousands of USD$ a month into depositing to go out hunting just cause they were addicted to swirls, chance loots and the trumpets.

    they did the same for rare items, first to find or achieves... item discoveries or first time crafts also. A few other games have used this tactic as well...

    anyways you get the point add the same effect for lvls other than.. hiya hooowowow... and do so for skill points to more suddle but you get the idea. this will make people smile, and push them on to the next important skill gain or mark.

  8. #58
    I agree with you, Perefim

  9. #59
    No, not satisfied... Though i'm still keeping track of the game, the most I have done is checked the forum once every other week or so to look at updates, nothing yet to make me come back.... Great idea that just hasn't come together yet. I'll stick to my current sandbox mmo for now

    My main reasons?

    1. The environment is dull
    2. Too many "core" features not implemented ( Mining, agriculture, breeding, building customization among a hundred other features that can be found in another sandbox )
    3. Too easy to grind up skills

  10. #60
    All this ^^^^^ makes sense. The game still feels like its in development... problem is I spent many hours building our lil place and ima not ready to let it go to the next noob that happen to occupy our land.

    So I'll resub... for now.

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