[Megathread] Wildstar - Now F2P

[Viscoe]

I'm pretty happy with this W*W.

That ability pane looks pretty interesting. Not really something I feel like is needed, but a little hand holderish for new-to-MMO-players, so I guess it's okay.

[Kelimbror]

I'm pretty happy with this W*W.

That ability pane looks pretty interesting. Not really something I feel like is needed, but a little hand holderish for new-to-MMO-players, so I guess it's okay.

Telling you what is available to you isn't holding your hand. It's clearly communicating what the game has to offer. Holding your hand would be to then pop up arrows telling you exactly what to click in order to queue for a new dungeon or set up an ability. It's just an info panel, much like WoW currently has, letting you know that leveling isn't pointless.

It's a great idea, completely 'stolen' from their former employers. If this is how they will continue to develop the game, they will likely find great success. I really like seeing that sort of proactive borrowing. It's better for the genre as a whole.

[Viscoe]

No, I mean, like, organizing it in a way that says "this is a DPS ability!" and "This is for tanks and healers."

That's... pretty hand holder-y. And like I said, it's not a bad thing. Just feels kind of unnecessary. If an ability causes me to do more threat, of COURSE it's for tanks.

[zito]

no its not.. the devs themselves said combat damage / survivability needed tweaking so no idea what youre talking about.

Thats not revamping combat, that's adjusting numbers

[RoninaThorstone]

Thats not revamping combat, that's adjusting numbers

^

You would have to change the way NPCs white damage is delivered in order for it to be a "revamp".

[Deleted]

Thats not revamping combat, that's adjusting numbers

i never said a revamp.. but its beta and devs have said it needs tweaking. white damage is here to stay and i dont see that as a bad thing.

[zito]

i never said a revamp.. but its beta and devs have said it needs tweaking. white damage is here to stay and i dont see that as a bad thing.

Ok... then you need to follow the conversation because I was quoting doozer on this:

aren't they revamping the combat? I thought I read that. Maybe I'm hallucinating about that though.

and this was my answer

I don't remember them saying that.

I remember them saying they want to get rid of the spam 1 thing like GW2 does, but thats it. White damage that hits harder then telegraph attacks is here to stay!

and this is your answer from nowhere:

no its not.. the devs themselves said combat damage / survivability needed tweaking so no idea what youre talking about.

You referring to white damage not staying which would be a combat revamp which is what you implied what you actually meant was adjusting numbers which if you have been following the conversation isn't enough to justify beta being shut down for a few months.

[Deleted]

my answer was for white damage hitting harder than telegraphs.

[Pejo]

From what I know, the beta was taken down for the following reasons: revamp of quest system, revamp of mob combat system (adding additional versions of mobs to increase variety of play and decrease telegraph fatigue e.g. instead of Whitevale Bee, they have Angry Whitevale Bee who impales,Guardian Whitevale Bee who spawns swarms upon you, Caster Whitevale Bee who is squishy but tries to blow you up, etc), and then just tuning some numbers for better flow so they can test overall flow. I could be wrong...that's pretty normal.

Edit: Wasn't worth testing if quest flow/dynamics were changing along with new AI, would be mostly feedback on systems that were changing.

Oh, as for the hand-holding, I don't agree BUT I bet that was actually PacketDancer's work. She gave multiple suggestions on UI addons she was working on, and I could definitely see the old UI being changed to this.

[1NF4M0UZ]

snip

I actually like WoW quite a bit still. Not as much as I used to like during TBC or WotLK, but still I think the game is rather ok.

Why I quited WoW was not about the game really but more about community.

Back in TBC and WotLK I used to have 15-25 friends online at any given time, friends not guildies. One by one my friends started quiting the game for various reasons, and this is completelly normal thing to happen. I lost many friends during TBC and WotLK too, but for some reason I got new friends all the time to replace those. Maybe it was the lack of Dungeon Finder, maybe it was the lack of LFR and anonymity of grouping? Maybe I just became tired, fatiqued and worn out player who no longer wanted to create social networks around me? Hell I truly do not know.

What I do know is that since the end of WotLK I have not met any new friends in WoW and on total I have added three new players on my friends list, and those I added cause they were my Arena healers. For me WoW is all about friendships, grouping, doing things together and having awesome time doing it. Working towards a common goal, goofing around, being serious and competitive and at the end having the feeling of community.

For some reason I have not had that since WotLK, why I do not know.

Tldr: I haven't been able to create new social networks in WoW since WotLK and this is my main reason to quit the game. I am all the time lonely in the game and end up playing solo. And to be fair, I rather play other games solo than WoW, as it really is not that good of a solo game.

[waddlez]

I'm pretty happy with this W*W.

That ability pane looks pretty interesting. Not really something I feel like is needed, but a little hand holderish for new-to-MMO-players, so I guess it's okay.

People are just going to go onto Icy-Veins and do as they are told for their role anyway.

[jearle]

People are just going to go onto Icy-Veins and do as they are told for their role anyway.

Except for the fact that on release there most likely won't be near enough complete information / data for an icy veins type analysis to exist. Casual players don't always care to optimize their play or even know site like this exists.

It will probably take a couple months for something like this to happen, most of the early class analysis will come player theorycrafting and the first herd of folks to hit end game. Usually if you know MMOs a solid dose of common sense is all you need to perform well.

I would say the beta is being held up mainly for the mob tagging tweaks and final 2 classes. If tagging is done incorrectly it can be really really bad.

Still excited to see more of the small group content the game has to offer. After playing FF14 I really like it when they rehash leveling dungeons with a max level version. I don't care if its not "new" dungeons but I really like revisiting old dungeons at max level with harder tactics.

[RoninaThorstone]

Except for the fact that on release there most likely won't be near enough complete information / data for an icy veins type analysis to exist. Casual players don't always care to optimize their play or even know site like this exists.

It will probably take a couple months for something like this to happen, most of the early class analysis will come player theorycrafting and the first herd of folks to hit end game. Usually if you know MMOs a solid dose of common sense is all you need to perform well.

I would say the beta is being held up mainly for the mob tagging tweaks and final 2 classes. If tagging is done incorrectly it can be really really bad.

Still excited to see more of the small group content the game has to offer. After playing FF14 I really like it when they rehash leveling dungeons with a max level version. I don't care if its not "new" dungeons but I really like revisiting old dungeons at max level with harder tactics.

That's pretty optimistic. People have theorycrafting down pretty quick now and people who have/will get to beta test the raids will have blogs and strats ready to post on launch night.

[Kelimbror]

That's pretty optimistic. People have theorycrafting down pretty quick now and people who have/will get to beta test the raids will have blogs and strats ready to post on launch night.

Maybe. There hasn't been a game since WoW that has effectively utilized these things though. Honestly. I was so frustrated when I played SWTOR b/c they had a site that was 'supposed' to be like wowhead, except the lack of players contributing made it a dead site almost overnight.

LotRO has been around for ages, yet is onyl moderately successful and finding quest information in its rudimentary equivalent. FFXIV looks to be the only game to replicate this reliably. While there are some sites like askmrrobot and noxxic that provide some information on these games, it's often improper math or not very detailed information.

Wildstar may be different as it attracts similar people from WoW, but who knows? It's also the reason why addons never take off in other games: because the addon creators are all still playing WoW or moved out of the genre. The more I think about it, Wildstar's success actually hinges on drawing a large portion of their active players from WoW. I've tried to deny it little by litte, and I still don't think it's intentional, but their design leaves little choice.

[Razael]

We first need to see if it even matters. Take GW2 for instance. Going strong, but even in GW2 guru, finding builds that are you know, consensual isn't easy. You got what they call those "Meta" builds , but they change every 15 days thanks to A-nets "bug fixing and balance changes". Wildstar will have raiding yeah, but will it be hard enough to require people to check out these websites , or will it be a anything works mostly unless you want to min max ? Gotta see how it plays out first.

If dungeons and raids are hard to the point you feel useless for having X combination of abilities , then there is a demand, and the supply should follow soon.

[jearle]

We first need to see if it even matters. Wildstar will have raiding yeah, but will it be hard enough to require people to check out these websites , or will it be a anything works mostly unless you want to min max ? Gotta see how it plays out first.

Any game that has raiding will have a population of players who want to min/max and websites that pertain to that population will get hits. GW2 is a poor example was (I haven't played it in months) really no true raid content.

If the first dungeon they showed was any indication, the content will be challenging and hopefully well done. They have made it clear that end game is important to them so we will have to see how that translates.

- - - Updated - - -

That's pretty optimistic. People have theorycrafting down pretty quick now and people who have/will get to beta test the raids will have blogs and strats ready to post on launch night.

Theorycrafting is rampant mainly because there are alot of people who enjoy doing it, but with a combat system where you can mix and match skills it adds more variables to the equation. So for instance in WoW instead of min/maxing 1 spec that has 20 abilities all available you have a game where you can mix and match only a set number of abilities which adds for a lot more builds to test. Depending upon how many people they let test end game and how many changes they make before release this could be faster / slower.

I only hope they give a good toolkit to players to analyze their data and progress. From reading about add-ons it seems like they are taking them into consideration from the get go which is a good start. But having a robust combat log that can be parsed is also something that is important when considering end game and min/maxing.

I'll never forget when they took the combat log out of SWToR in beta and announced it wasn't going to be in game. Then designed raids and hard mode dungeons where 75% of the time the mechanics difference was a shorter enrage timer. You simply can't have raiding in a game and not provide players with tools to see what is happening.

[D4NNYB0Y]

I'd personally prefer if the min-maxing culture in Wildstar doesn't become as extreme as it is in WoW. Things have gotten a bit out of hand imo.

[Kelimbror]

I'd personally prefer if the min-maxing culture in Wildstar doesn't become as extreme as it is in WoW. Things have gotten a bit out of hand imo.

I'm afraid with their circuit board system it is actually going to be worse. It's like enchanting + reforging + gems with more complications woven in as one feature. WoW has been struggling to remove the feeling of getting gear as a chore instead of just excitement.

People can call it dumbing down, but it was much more fun back in the day when you waited for that awesome drop and finally got it. You slapped it on and felt like a king. Now you get an awesome drop and instantly consult a spreadsheet to determine how you need to reforge it, gem it, etc.

It's a compounding problem because each new piece of gear results in a complete reforge and regem of your gear, as does every single patch. And this is in a game that has tried to reduce the need to do it. It's pretty staggering. I can't imagine a game where the system is actually more complex will provide less hassle. It's definitely going to need a side by side spreadsheet analysis just to properly gear your character.

It's fun for some people, but takes a lot of the oomph out of getting gear...arguably one of the more potent reward stimuli in MMOs.

[Razael]

It's fun for some people, but takes a lot of the oomph out of getting gear...arguably one of the more potent reward stimuli in MMOs.

Yeah.. we all hate getting that one shiny item that looks better, should be better , but spreadsheets and forums tell you a previous tier item is better for your spec.

[Viscoe]

One of my greatest pleasures in WoW was leveling alts without heirlooms and getting upgrades immediately on my character when leveling or questing.

I agree that WoW's bullshit was way out of hand. Made me a lot of money, though, off of the minmaxing guilds that would come to my server to prey on world firsts and need quick gear upgrades or a little yak to sit outside their instance for an hourly fee to get instant reforging.