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I was hoping to have an opportunity to provide more feedback in CB, but didn’t get the opportunity. I was part of the group that was granted access, had it rescinded, granted, rescinded, eventually got access to the first big stress test (which I was never able to successfully login to), etc.. So, the first chance I’ve really had to playtest has been in the last few days for the early start open beta. Please note, this is not a review. I’ve only played my max character up to level 11 and have just reached Anglorum. Regardless, I do have some thoughts based on what I’ve seen so far – if I’m wrong about something, please let me know. I welcome the dialog.
General impressions:
So far, I like it. Nothing has been particularly difficult, thus far. In fact, I haven’t even bothered upgrading or adding any abilities – haven’t needed to. I think the overall art direction is fine and appropriate for the theme, audience and delivery mechanism for the game. It’s a little bland and generic, but not bad. That being said, I’m surprised the game doesn’t play better on older systems, because it doesn’t “seem” like the requirements should be very high based on the overall appearance of the world, the textures used, etc… Regarding the theme, I like it. I’m not a furry, but I do have a good imagination and am a fan of fiction like the Redwall series and Watership Down.
While I haven’t see much of the game, so far, based on what I’ve seen I think it shows promise. It’s cute, fun and seems well suited (so far) for casual/solo play. The fact that it can be played in a browser window will probably ensure it’s success, at least amongst the younger players.
Constructive criticism – These are things I’ve noted during my playtime that either bug me or that I think would enhance the overall experience of the game. Please note, I know some of these have been suggested/discussed in other threads – I’m simply putting a comprehensive list down based on my experiences:
* UI Scaling – I generally like to play games at 1920 X 1200. In the case of EE, I play the game in the client and maximize the screen.. I like that I can change chat opacity and size, but dislike that I can’t scale the UI text to be larger. I’d love for this to be an option like it is for the chat window.
* The dreaded “must be facing the target” message – so irritating. If your character has a mob targeted and attacks, why can’t the character just be rotated to face the target? It would make combat simpler, especially when surrounded by multiple mobs. It would also prevent those situations where you run up to attack a mob, which then proceeds to run through and behind you.
* Mailboxes – there aren’t any early in the game, are there any later in the game? Is there a shared bank? It stinks finding an item one of your other characters could use, but not be able to give it to he or she. Update 01/19/2010: Vaults (player banks) were added recently and included in the player vaults are a ‘Delivery Box”. Per Matt Mihaley, the delivery box is to allow Sparkplay to send gifts to players and, eventually, for players to send gifts to other players. Whether or not this can be used like a true mailbox system is unknown.
* Item linking – there’s a trade channel, but is there item linking? No
* Inability to access previous zones – obviously, I’ve only just now got to Anglorum, but I can’t go back to Corsica or Earthrise – even though I’ve out-leveled those zones, I’d like the option to go back and chat/help lowbies if I want to. Update 12/04/2009: it’s only the two tutorial zones that you’re not allowed to revisit. All other zones are open to you once you progress past them.
Performance – I’m currently playing on an Inspiron E1705 with NVidia GO 7900GS 256MB, 7200 RPM HD, Core 2 Duo at 2.16 GHz and 2 GB RAM – at max resolution, the game looks and runs pretty good with all the bells and whistles, except for AA – as soon as I turn it on, the game turns into a slideshow. Yes, it’s older hardware, but the game doesn’t “look” like it would require anything more substantial to run at max settings. I play “prettier” games on it at the same resolution with better performance, even for features like AA – City of Heroes is a good example. I also play Dungeon Runners and have played WAR, LotRO, Runes of Magic and Darkfall on it with what I consider to be a good mix of looks and performance. A game like Wizard101 plays flawless at max settings, even on our oldest, lamest machines. Update 12/04/2009: Matt Mihaly (CEO and Lead Designer) has acknowledge performance issues and that fixing them is a top priority.
“Quote | goldstar78i posted on 12.03.09 | 19:10
my issue is not with content, but how badly the game runs! I’d be fine with running dungeons and grinding, if only I could get above 2fps and not rubberband!!!
Totally agree with you there. Clearly the game has performance problems. We have guys tasked to working on nothing but that. Performance issues are tricky and difficult though. There is no silver bullet fix. Improving it is the result of working many small improvements in many different systems, so you’re not going to wake up one day and suddenly you’re getting zero rubberbanding and 60 fps in Camelot.
Believe me though, this is a top priority.
POSTED :: 12.03.09 | 12:40
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I’m the CEO and Creative Director of Sparkplay Media, the company making Earth Eternal. I don’t bite….much.
Updated 01/19/2010 – Additionally, here’s an excerpt from his Happy New Year letter:
I want to acknowledge up-front that EE’s technical performance is not where we want it. Frames-per-second is too low on all but the more recent systems, loading times are too long, the system requirements should be lower than they are, and of course, there are lag problems. I bring those up specifically so that you don’t think that we’re in denial about the technical work that needs to be done. We are in beta, but everyone on the EE team knows this work has to be done, and we have multiple people on these issues full-time. We’re also bringing the creator of Ogre 3D, the rendering engine we use, on board half-time to help improve performance. We should see some significant improvements in the next few months, and of course bug fixing is something we’re always working on.
* Replayability – so far, each character starts in the same zone and does the exact same quests. There’s no variety. As far as that goes, the game–at least based upon what I’ve experienced so far–is very, very linear. Yes, you could grind mobs all day long if you want, but there’s no real reason to do so except to farm items/coin/exp.
* Mob aggro on attack on activation, not hit – this one just bugs the crap out of me, sorry. Part of the benefit of having a ranged attack is the ability to snipe. When the mob aggros on me and gets halfway to me before my attack animation finishes, that’s just silly. Aggro should occur when the mob is hit, not when I hit the key..
* Mob density – it’s out of control. There are way, way too many mobs for the number of players running around. That being said, their aggro radius seems pretty small, so it’s relatively easy to navigate through them – it’s just irritating.
* Custom key mapping – personally, I like using Q and E for turning, and A and D for strafing. I’d love to be able to customize the keyboard based on the way I like to play. Update 12/04/2009: Matt Mihaly has also stated he favors custom key mapping, too.
* Remembering the client window size – every time I login, I have to maximize the screen size – why can’t it remember the last UI size in a config file?
As I stated above, this is just feedback/constructive criticism based on what I’ve experienced so far. I’m not “picking” on the game, just giving my personal thoughts. Overall, I think the game is fun and shows promise, but there are definitely things I think would help it reach it’s potential faster. In other words, “polish”.
* Races – 22 races, absolutely nothing to distinguish one from another except for looks. No traits, skills, quests, starting areas. Nothing.
* Linearity – caveat – I haven’t played to higher levels yet, but you can’t leave the starter zones without doing quests to unlock the exits to the new zones. In other words, you’re forced to quest.
* Difficulty curve – imagine my surprise after having waded through all previous opponents in the various starter zones, making my way to level 10 or 11 in Anglorum, getting a quest to kill a named mob and getting pwned almost instantly. Ouch. To be fair, though, the quest description did recommend a party of 2 or greater, but it still seemed like a pretty steep curve and it basically forces grouping and/or purchasing potions.
* Combat – Pro – you can attack while moving. Con – it doesn’t do anything for you. There’s no “action rpg” style dodging, etc.. All attacks are still autohit/miss, whether you’re moving or not. It doesn’t really help with kiting, since mobs are tethered to a location and will regen and go back to their spot if you get past their tether range. That and the fact that mob density is so high, you’d have to clear enough space just to be able to kite, anyway.
* PvP – doesn’t exist yet, possibly slated for future
* Crafting – (updated 12/04/2009) Crafting is very, very simple, but fraught with a number of issues: The amount of ingredients seem ridiculously high for how rare they are. FYI – Also, the item you make is bind on pickup, meaning itthe market is remedial in that there’s only a channel, but no linking as mentioned in the post above.
o How it works: Be awarded or loot a recipe, take the recipe and ingredients to an NPC – make item. Simple, right?
1. Ingredient scarcity – The ingredients are mob drop only, not harvested from nodes, so you’re basically at the whim of the random loot Gods or other players. You can grind mobs for ingredients, but it’s tedious, since the number of ingredients for a single recipe is pretty high.
2. Inventory: What you see behind the chat bubbles in the picture above is my entire inventory. There’s no bank, shared or not. So, unless I spend in-game gold to increase my bag slots (I could afford up to 24 slots with the gold I’ve gathered with 4 characters, but it would wipe out my gold and would be 3 8-slot bags) or I could buy a lot more space by purchasing Dragonscale Backpacks from the credit shop (a 24 slot bag for ~$14.75 USD – I could buy a maximum of 4 for just under $60. Please note, this is for a single character) .The point of this is that unless I upgrade my inventory, I literally don’t have enough room to gather and store ingredients in the hope that I’ll one day have enough to actually craft an item. Update 12/04/2009: FYI – Banks are something either being worked on or planned, per Matt Mihaly. Update 01/19/2009: Banks (vaults) have not been implemented. Every player gets 8 free bank slots and can purchase additional rows (8 slots, each) for credits.
3. Bind on pickup – whatever you craft is bind on pickup, so you can’t trade it. As such, being a “crafter” isn’t really a viable option.
4. Economy – players do trade ingredients, which is good, but not the actual crafted items, as indicated above.
* Player Housing – doesn’t exist (possibly going in @ launch in the form of “Groves”) – hasn’t made it to open beta, though
* Secondary attacks – all four classes have both ranged and melee attacks, but characters don’t start off with a secondary weapon (throwing daggger for a rogue, as an example). Instead, the first starter island quest rewards the player with gloves. Unless you’re lucky enough to find a secondary weapon for your class, I highly recommend new players buy one as soon as they get to the second island. It makes a huge difference for extra dps and pulling/splitting for melee characters. I’d highly recommend Sparkplay swap a ranged weapon for the gloves in the first quest or provide a secondary weapon from the start, especially since a secondary weapon auto-attack is slotted from the very beginning, but isn’t usable.
* Credit shop – the game is in open beta, still needs a ton of polish/features, IMO, but the cash shop is open for business. That seems wrong to me.
* Target Audience – i mentioned this in another post and have mentioned it on the official boards. Who is this game for?
o It’s cute enough to appeal to kids, but the game isn’t a “kids game”.
o It’s got decent, albeit generic core mechanics for an adult game, but it doesn’t have enough polish yet to be ready for launch and it’s almost too cute.
o It appeals to the furry crowd, which the developers didn’t even know existed. On top of that, the furry demographic is both small and stigmatized, so being known as the “furry game” might not bode well for Sparkplay unless they can demonsrate they understand and can appease a larger market.
The credit shop being open for business really bothers me. Nobody’s required to use it, but frankly the status of the game feels more like a soft launch than an open beta. After all, they’re taking in money. Is it a cash grab, are they short on funds? Couldn’t they test the credit shop by giving beta testers credits (not without wiping open beta characters, else they’d get free gear)? Couldn’t they hold off testing the credit shop until other, more important MMO mechanics are put in place?
I do think EE is a fun game with lots of potential, as I’ve stated before, but it really lacks the kind of depth most experienced MMO players would appreciate and even expect. If the game launched today in it’s current state, it would probably be panned. Yes, it’s still in “beta”, but it’s “open beta”, which is generally pretty close to launch condition for many games. That concerns me. I’d love to see some sort of design roadmap from Sparkplay that might alleviate these concerns.
