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Is there any hope left for this game?
Even with server merges and new updates, the population is reaching an all-time low.
The following is a screen-shot of the Vindictus Population from April 2016 to April 2018 on Steam Charts:
http://steamcharts.com/app/212160
Comments
TL:DR: Population is declining because the game is not fun due to 1. No challenge or fun in Season 1 & 2 after the RISE Update 2. Lack of engaging events/content 3. Unforgivable gear progression.
More Detailed Explanation:
I. Certain aspects of the RISE Update: Let me go ahead and list some of the items that impacted Vindi's fun factor after the RISE Update:
1. Removal of 8-man raids: This was a big one. Raids don't feel like "raids" anymore. Thankfully, Redeemer's still keeps the spirit of what made Vindictus fun (Battling insanely-difficult bosses with LOTS of people at once). Other than that, I really miss having 8 people battling together. That's what got me interested in playing Vindictus in the first place - fight bosses with lots and lots of other players.
2. Season 2 Map Changes: In my opinion, the change to Season 2's map layouts to reflect Season 1's linear route literally killed my motivation to run those maps again. I remember speed-running all of Twilight Desert and enjoyed having to think about where to go next to get all of the Macha Trials as fast as possible. I have never touched Season 2's maps since the RISE Update except for helping out new players.
3. Difficulty Nerf for Season 1 & 2 (Enemies & Puzzles): I would post my reaction to the change to Colru, but unfortunately, I cannot link Twitch URLs on these forums because they will get deleted. Regardless, Season 1 & 2's difficulty is pathetically easy. How is it fun to kill what used to be a raid boss in less than 10 seconds? I remember Hero Macha Thor being insanely fun to fight. Beating a super-fast, healthy, tanky dinosaur was oh so satisfying! Now, he dies in a few hits, and you cannot battle him on Hero Mode anymore. Not only have enemies been nerfed, but the puzzles were basically eliminated. I remember getting stuck on the Sewers puzzle and the elevator on Ben Chenner Summit because our party actually had to think in order to move forward. My goodness, that's what games do; they challenge you to think and react in a playful manner. No thinking = no engagement = boredom, which is no fun.
II. Pace of New Content/Events:: There's a pattern when it comes to Vindictus's population. The number of players goes up for a few days after new content or a new event is released. Then, it goes down drastically during the time in between. I would like to see events where we can get new exclusive items by playing on higher difficulties or battling more often. Just look at "Defend the Goodies" in 2013. Everybody wanted either the Enhancement/Enchant Runes and/or the Snow White Wings. So the players participated in the snowball event like crazy to get tickets to buy those items. Then, if you wanted to get tickets faster or you were not going to get enough tickets in time, you could buy them with NX. In my opinion, this was the best event Vindictus has offered. There needs to be a way to earn new items that people want without resorting to buying NX and then offer the buying of NX as convenience.
III. Unforgiving Gear Progression: So here's how Level 90+ gear progression usually goes: You either buy someone else's gear for millions of gold (if you can afford it), or you do this: Pray to RNGesus to get 3 OJ shards/essences per armor/weapon (15 OJs total excluding accessories) -> Craft items -> Pray to RNGesus that your gear enhances to +10 or higher or else you have to start all over again for that piece of gear -> Pray to RNGesus that you get a R6 or R7 scroll (or else buy it from the MP for millions of gold) -> Beg Brynn to not overfill the Brynn Meter so you don't waste more time or gold crafting magic elixirs -> Pray to RNGesus that the scroll sticks and doesn't boom your gear (or else you start over again) -> Repeat for new set of gear. That's a lot of praying to RNGesus just to get good gear.
Like vgfan100 said:
I.1. Removal of 8-man raids for 4-main "raids" is a real bummer. Bosses that are supposed to be giant/almighty/strong are now... just giant plushies? They don't hit so hard, not challenging (only rough when you learn its attacks, then it's almost easy), and can be done in little minutes. Especially since that (I'm saying unreal numbers) 90% of active players are "whales" (high stat players), and this just... Ruins the whole "raid", making it done in little minutes, because of Rise giving giant add dmg increase, and all the att lim removal they have farmed (or just bought), which is why I pretty much solo 50% of the raids I do, that is if whales come on my boats. I have tried Redeemers once after Rise, recently even, and of course, one whale to make it impossible to lose. And I don't feel any challenge in this game, especially with whales never/barely running hero mode, and sticking to normal mode.
Not saying that the whales shouldn't exist, but I'd find it nice to be able to ask myself "Are we gonna win?" instead of only "Am I gonna have good drops?". I'm only trying to get raids that will last longer nowadays.
I.3. Season 1 and Season 2 raids are now just garbage. Before Rise:
Season 1 had Light / Cloth specific enchants that people actually bought and applied;
Season 2 had all the enchants for 90 gear (And the lvl 80 weapon drops);
Season 3 had (and still has) the 90 gear drops
After Rise:
Season 3: has everything, and higher rank scrolls have been buffed;
Season 1 / 2: -
Game only focuses on the same only 8 raids we have (On which I always focus on only 4, being Rupacitus, Arcana, Aes and Dullahan). Pre-Rise was better in my opinion since it had a possible profit to achieve by spreading everything we looked for in every raid in the whole game, and keeping it with a bit of challenge!
III. Everything in this game at this point is RNG (even for what I think are bugs), whether you, example, get the good scroll after dozens of runs, but still have to hope to land it (or sell it to buy an even more expensive 100% success version). Other example: hope you can make it to +12 or +13 with your weapon, because beyond this (according to enhancement success rate numbers, whether they are true or not) feels like a pain in the butt to achieve, with more chances to lose it all, or to be stuck with a low enhanced permanently bound weapon. And it demotivates me to think I'll have to refarm the whole stuff each time new gear comes out, thinking about all the enchants and runes I'll use, feeling like we throw hard work away, or sell it.
Now, about the choices in the survey:
Toxic and Elitist Community:
Of course there will be a toxic side to every online game, but I'm keeping my distances from it, whether it's people:
Insulting/targeting others in megas;
Trying to undervalue your items for sale and trying to get them dirt cheap;
Who love to treat you like crap and just try to annoy you permanently;
Forgetting the concept of humanity online (Yeah, you don't know me as a person, but it's no reason to go all dumb);
It's like trying to pick the good flowers from the bad plants at this point. Although it doesn't help that Devcat applied a maximum of 50 players to be blocked in your block list .
Players as in characters, if one person has 5 characters, that would be 5 slots for one person. Can't we just remove block list limit, or just block an entire account instead of each characters for one person's account??
And also, one thing I kind of dislike is the fact that elitism has... gotten important in Vindictus??
I don't know what to say since that some who deals more damage than others deserves more? It feels less like a team game, and just a fight for the most dps in raids nowadays.
Mismanagement from Developers and Publishers:
Can't say much about this. All I would say is... Where are the admins?
Yes, they're still here, as in only noticing people of incoming updates / new content.
Other than that, that's pretty much it about their interventions. It's been a long time an admin has appeared in other forum threads, or even an admin logging in Vindictus (it's been a very long time I didn't see any [GM]!). Or maybe they're still hovering over the threads, some of them being closed / locked, I don't know.
Would be nice to have some more live events hosted by admins interacting with the players in game, those were amazing.
Poor Game-Play: Repetitive PVE / Imbalanced PVP / Broken RNG's / Unstable Servers:
Repetitive PVE: Most of what I'd say here would be the same as I said about vgfan100's, being that it's always the same raids I run for gold profit.
Imbalanced PVP: It's been a long time I haven't done any PVP, as in two players actually fighting (excluding seal farming cases), but main reason I don't do it: Spear Lanns and Karoks in a nutshell.
Broken RNG: As it says, RNG. Can be favorable to some, and vice-versa. But RNG does feel unfair sometimes, now that I think about my 60+ Rupacitus runs, and still didn't get any of those new scrolls, but plenty of Scattered Essence Boxes. Could be a compensation, but it's RNG, so I can't say much! The worst can happen as well as the best.
Unstable Servers: I can totally agree on that. Somedays, when I try to fish, it happened once or twice that the game would just non-stop kick me out of the server, giving me the "shaky" connection error, and even once "Connection denied.". But that's not all, it also happened that some raids I hosted would just freeze and disconnect me. I'll say that it can be better.
Too many Micro-Transactions in the Supply Depot - Game has become Pay to Win:
Eh, I can say that paying does help, but it isn't necessary in order to win. I could easily get decent gear without having to put money into the game, nor losing too much materials, like +12 Dullahan Twin swords. Paying for the game would be more about reaching big stats.
There are newer and better games in the market:
There surely are better games in the market, according to a global opinion. Although that preferences could be one motive for those who are still playing, or even nostalgy. Vindictus was a lot of fun when I was young, and I still like it for its very own gameplay style. But due to last year's changes (Rise is already close to a year old), it isn't the old Vindictus as we have grown with.
And that's pretty much everything I have thought of to say about the game, but to me:
Today's Vindictus does NOT feel anything like pre-rise Vindictus.
... I miss the days when raids were actually TOUGH, as in people dying everywhere and sometimes taking about 20, even 30 minutes to kill a boss, when the boss ALSO had chances of winning. Or anyone remember when the "Assist" function was a run saver? I do.
But today? Create a boat, wait a couple minutes, easily gets a whale or two, and boss dies in 2 minutes, top DPS gets more cores, repeat until you are bored, and there you go. That's Vindictus today