Hello, I'm Olphena c:
I Play as a level 90 Evie. (Not sure if my forum avatar reflects that.)
In recent months I noticed a trend starting, one I have seen before in other games and one that can lead to some dangerous results. I'm talking about the large number of events in rapid secession. In addition, I want to address some other keynotes that stand out to me and could also be brought into light.
Sure its great to get free things or have a chance to +8 your items or maybe even get a free title, ect... However the ramifications of this could be game ending and ultimately speaks of a degrading game looking to freshen up its formula. IMO.. (because I have to specify and opinion from fact via the internet) A few minor tweaks could really bring life back into the game.
Allow me to start with two examples (I'll try keeping them in the MMO genre.)
1st example would be Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
Warhammer was a game I had grown extremely fond of for its unique approach to world PvP. However it suffered from bugs, not a lot of sales and general disinterest among consumers. Also World of Warcraft had just released their Wrath of the Lich King exp. around the same time. Interestingly enough Warhammer did not die out of the gate like most expected it to. It actually got somewhere before players noticed a lack of improvement since launch day. Slowly but surely, as things never improved they removed the $15/Mo. subscription and made free to play with a store. It was abysmal to put it lightly. Soon thereafter, one of the most unique PvP oriented MMOs was lost forever.
My second example is of course World of Warcraft.
Let me start off by saying this, "No... WoW is not the best thing since sliced bread. I quit in Cata to play this game. So get off my ****."
*inhales deeply*
Okay! So I played WoW for a number of years, more than Vindictus and Warhammer combined times three. However in the words of Selina Gomez "Nobody's perfect."
Wow suffered a major downfall in it's expansion Cataclysm and to this day, is still recovering from it. It's kinda sad when I mention Wow to people younger than me and their response is "You mean that one movie that came out recently?". One of the main reasons it took a historic decline in players was due to the idea that the game had become too easy and was spoon feeding you content, or lack there of. Thankfully enough it seems with their latest exp. Legion, some of their players voices had been heard on that issue. As time moves forward things may shape up for WoW and it wont meet the same fate as Warhammer.
So why the hefty explanation? What does WoW or Warhammer have to do with anything Vindictus related.
(Besides the fact their all boss fight MMOs.....)
Well I've noticed a decline of players in this game much like the two mentioned above. Whereas Warhammer never got their **** together and WoW managed to do so, I feel like this a good starting point on how this game should handle its future or face a slow unavoidable death.
So as the title of this post implies, this is merely food for thought. However it would be a breath of fresh air if someone on the staff took some consideration away from this post. Without the players there are no developers. Arguing that "More are here and there will always be players so we don't need to." will lead to you following in Blizzards famous "You think you do but you don't." Ideals.
Those ideals, I shall remind you, lost WoW 10 MILLION players. This game can't afford to lose 10 thousand.
All of that aside, I want to list improvements for this game. Because at the end of the day I do enjoy playing Vindictus, Everyone on this forum does but we can't enjoy it if it's gone.
1: RNG needs, needs, needs to be treated like CS:GO or Overwatch. Please limit that lazy mans way of chance to loot boxes. Hell make a loot box 2000Nx but with a larger pool of items that are more alluring. REMOVE RNG from enhancements and enchantment as having the required materials is good enough. Don't make players go through all that effort only to still have to pray their item don't get blown up or FORCING (yeah it is.) them to get enchant/enhance runes to MAYBE protect their items. It almost feels as if the planets need to be aligned for me to be able to +11 my weapon and yet there's still 4 more to go. The idea of a "valuable weapon" is in obtaining the item itself. Make that hard because that's the point of a "RARE" item. Having the necessary materials to craft is and should no way be considered a "Rare" chance to be successful. If you had all the cash to renovate your home would you use RNG to decide if it can't be done? No. That is why homes are $200,00 give or take. Because the difficulty is in the obtaining of the damn object in the first place.
That said, Item Composite isn't effected. Why? I mean really, Why? If you gonna screw people with RNG in every other avenue why not Item Composite as well? I don't think a single person says "I'm perfectly okay with the RNG because it's a great way to stay in shape." Hell, in your recent Facebook post there's even a meme about the RNG in this game. Do something about it.
2: The game could stand an optimization update. Last I checked it was still running on DX9. Nothing more to add to that. Maybe bring it to 2013 technical levels as opposed to 2010. Oh! and hosting needs to be more of a server side thing and not so dependent on the host. People are really wasting their time with that.
3: Stop holding so many events and giving away so much free ****. Doing this contradicts the challenge of the game. If getting to 90 is a goal and endgame is a dry as it can be, don't speed up the process. It took me a few months to get my Evie from 1-80 back at 80 cap and took an annoying amount of time to go from 80-90. However my Delia was lvl 90 with 20k attack nearly 1 month after her release. People need to feel rewarded for their effort and not soaking 2 times XP events or giveaways. It wouldn't be a problem maybe twice a year, maybe three times... but nearly once a month? Holiday events are neat but the most I see that covering is Valentines day, X-mas, Halloween, 4th of July and maybe St. Patty's day? It just seems as if your giving me neat things to hid all the not-so-neat things in your game.
4: Care about this game? I mean it seems like you really don't. Whoever develops this game hear me out. I know it isn't Nexon or Dev cat but rather a smaller team within those companies. You guys did something pretty ******* sweet if you ask me. I have played this for a few years now, not all six but probably the last 3-4 and have taken a lot away in terms of entertainment value. DON'T RUIN IT.
I'm not eluding to this game becoming the WoW killer, not one single game can do that now for WoW joins the likes of LOTR and Star Wars in terms of scale. Though I want it to have more than roughly 50 people online at 1am or 2am. I want to feel like it has a population, a living breathing community and not the same few dedicated but weary players. Also why does it ask me if I would recommend this game to a friend after some of my sessions? Seems unsettling if you ask me.
I'm making a poll as a sort of tally to see how many people in the community agree and hope maybe... Just maybe... someone could alleviate these issues before it goes by the wayside.
Hopefully someone can take something away from it. If not, know that I didn't waste my time. It needed to be put down on paper and here it is. (Obviously not paper but you catch my drift.)
Someone had to post it and I did.
The end.
Comments
currently, i want to say that the remaining population of vindictus are the people that have played since/close to the beginning. any new players have probably dropped the game because this game is awful with its poor design in achieving progress albeit they have been trying to make it more bearable within the last few years with updates to drops/seal shop.
to be continued maybe
It has too much potential in the same way monster hunter does. (I say that in a niche way.)
If it only just ever so slightly tweaked its formula it could be a cult sort of game.
However the difference between a cult classic and a b-list piece of garbage is how its handled.
They make the game feel "alive" because there's always something new happening every week.
Obviously, the game population is too small for Nexon to be able to bring out new content regularly & charge for it. So, the events are a nice, low-cost alternative way to give players something new to look forward to, every Thursday.
I never said it wasn't a good ol' fun time. But that feeling is as temporary as the event.
I don't want an event simulator I want a cohesive game.
1: was a joke
2: was to be taken as if you were saying that to me.
Even if I had a better card, it still wouldn't do much anyway because I heard some hosts having top tier titan cards yet still have the same frame rate issues.
If only this game had better optimizational solutions, then I can see it blooming like a flower again.
Far as RNG goes, That has to be reworked I agree with that. There are some scrolls like fast where some players have failed it 20 times if not 30 or more times in a row before sticking it on one or more of their accessories. Essentially the punishments for failing trying to get stronger is what mainly drives players away. Then again, giving them away for free is also a double-edged sword when the event ends and there is no content to work on.
Back when season 2 was end game, I quitted a total of 4 times, for numerous reasons I will not disclose.
If the devs would stop breaking promises as well, that could also be a thing. Remember when they said we would have more content every month or 2 months... yeah that flew out the window.
I do like where you mentioned a double-edged sword. Truly it is but the max time I feel it's necessary to really perfect that main should be around 6mo. to a year. That's for one of the characters. Maybe 2-3 mo till max level and a hefty shift in how items are obtained and I feel like that issue is solved. A hardcore player could level 2-3 maybe even 4 level 90's and still be left with loads of content "In a sense." regarding different classes. There is more content to be released so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I mean we got 4 level cap raises in 6 years. That says something.
There's just so much working against the experience for us now. Whose idea was it to break up a patch like Smash 1 and then leave us hanging for 2-3 months? It worked on Season 2 Episode 4 because that update was literally just 4 raids released 2 at a time within a month of each other with the release of a new character supporting it. The Ein Lacher update could've kept the playerbase content for a longer time if they added the entirety of the composite system changes from Smash 1. Instead we were left with a solo challenge that a lot of people don't care for, 16 man raids that take too long because of the split update (I love them personally but hardly anyone comes out to run them), and this stupid UI lag that I'm getting saltier about by the day.
I don't know what side is in charge of the events/seal shop additions, but these recent changes and events, while nice, are only nice because the game compacts the majority of the playerbase into endgame for the sake of profit. Who knows, maybe they'll shut me up with a backwards version of the Ignition update next year, but I'm not impressed right now. The only reason I keep playing this is because the basics of the game are exactly what I want out of an action rpg.
I agree 100%
If their worried about getting their bottom line through gimmicks and whatnot.
Why not work just a wee bit more at the ARPG elements they already do well and make 3X the profit.
Quality > Quantity IMO
Also the other threads was removed due to being a duplicate.
Feedback to me is the addressing of a certain issue.
Were talking about the state of the game and therefore the idea becomes a "General discussion". In all literal forms.
The nature of it would be feedback, however a review is not a complaint. It simply is what it is.
While a topic can fall in either Feedback or General Discussion, what makes it one or the other is the target audience. Since this thread is worded in a way so that it is directed at staff and not the players it belongs in Feedback.
Its directed at both, IMO makes it still more general discussion with the staff and the players.