Aside from a good old fashioned dungeon run, I enjoyed the spell effects and what looked like some tough old school style MMO fights that required some team work, coordination, and resource management. The fact Jim seemed to genuinly enjoy it was telling. Now get us to alpha. =p
Bazgrim said:The only acceptable answer is the time Aradune locked himself in a room with Gnashura lol
I second that motion.
What I liked: Seeing two teams work together to get content done. Spell effects are looking spot on, they look good without taking over the screens view. The last boss left am impression right down to the way the wall dropped. Made me jump lol.
What I think needs work: Better visual tells. That damage shield that reflected damage is an epic gonna kill you moment. More then straining your eyes for a buff to know to stop meleeing is not enough. Mob should shout something or a better graphical effect to know something just happened. I think classes need more low level versions of the high level tools. If we are dungeon crawling by 14, I should be able to play my full roll. If not, people will pick classes that are most usefull for the level, not just fill a slot with a need. Playing a Bard in EQ1 sucked till you got mez and mana song. When you got them, people wanted you in the team. What made it worse soloing was mind numbing as a Bard, not fun like playing a Necro. So IMO teams need to balance faster then they currently are.
Cohh Stream:
I liked the sophisticated game play with attention to the hot bar and the rich trove of mechanics that were presented, from mezzing, to backstabbing, off-tanking, healing. Also the knowledge from the UI and inventory sectionjs like where to find skills and atmoshgere attuning, checking for upgrades, mousing over gear. Also the establishing of ad hoc loot rules, like- we need to get the copper-studded armor for the warrior. But I must admit my favorite part was seeing Cohh ninja-loot that nice earring only to realize he couldn't use it! I got engaged when I kept wondering who was breaking mezz. This remainded me of an established group trying out a dungeon for the first time- the group was tight and worked well together probably from leveling up as newbs and having met as friends outside well before going in. Seeing the well executed Spider fight at the end was a confidence booster as that was something I felt I could do. with the right people of course
Jim Lee stream:
Normal! this was normal game play with real people! I could hardly believe it was the same devs. I got so engrossed that I was getting irritated at crispy, I wanted to blurt out- "Can we focus please? instead of you jumping, dancing, standing on keys!" as soon as I thought that I started laughing and stopped taking it so seriously like the cohh stream and had fun. Also People! there were people in the dungeon, behind them ahead of them, passing by- keeping spawns down, to a point. The bad pulls, the mess of adds- the group overcoming eventually, it was thrilling. And when they turned a corner and had to wait for the spawns to move- real game play. Of course Aradune running into the Gnashing's room slightly ahead and the wall sealing him off! haha! that is such a great moment, I was like, what do we do now! I was already thinking ahead and wondering if gnashing would aggro through the wall or if they would have to just let aradune die. Plus it was nice seeing the people that did not know about pantheon in the chat and reading their comments. I kept quiet in chat because it was one of those organic things.
Right afterwards I had a thought- for those who have been following along with the development in the forums- Kilsin would be the only good player character with a "bad" reputation that is actually liked by the community. Like saying " oh Kilsin? he's a known trainer. Invite him quick."
Loved how the graphics and scenery are coming together. Liked seeing the various classes having to work together and strategize like the old days.
I would like to challenge you to do that cave again on stream with out an enchanter. I'd like to see groups be able to function in an area like that and be able to sub in different classes. That was one thing that really killed EQ in the population drop. Certain areas just became undoable with out class X. I'd like to see how versitle multiple classes in a group can be and not have to rely on a specific class completely for a simple dungeon romp.
What can I say I liked everything, if I have to say just one. It is that you all are and prude happy of what you are doing that you can’t wait to show off.( And you should be) Just look at all that you have gotten done so far.
Is it perfect no but you are still in per alpha you have all the time you need to get it that way
My one problem is I can get into that game right now J (and I really really want to :)
For me it's a hard to tell thing. What did I enjoy the most in two streams I fully enjoyed ?
For cohh stream, I noticed a few more bugs/behavior leading to the use of dm commands (the big wraith pull with rays, mob stuck on the wall), but nonetheless this remain pre alpha. I enjoyed beeing able to take a peak into rogue skills, to see that endurance was a limitation to skill usage, and with a medium / slow regen rate, would be more about "efficient cooldown management" than "not overcapping ressource".
For jim lee stream, my big question was "What will they show in Halnir's cave that we didn't see in cohh's stream ?", firstly : Warrior skills, pretty effective tanking setup, I hope for more variety for this specific class.
Then : The ambiant. I already wrote that in some other posts, but the few piano notes were really awesome. of course I enjoyed the "aradune trap", but I would have prefered to see him wiping. Not because of some sadistic intents, but because it would have made the encounter more threatening if the stand alone aradune, trapped inside, was dismembered before the wall opened again.
I'm not 100% sure about the choice of "scripted encounters", because I know by experience it can lead to frustrating moments, FFXIV beeing the most evident game in this design with boss "jumps" every other phase, resulting in invulnerability / untargetable while your major cooldowns are depleting. Thoses phases also tend to bug or skip when you outgear the encounter, killing it too fast for it to trigger. I still trust you to make it worthwile, it just remains as an inner feeling.
naelyan said:Loved how the graphics and scenery are coming together. Liked seeing the various classes having to work together and strategize like the old days.
I would like to challenge you to do that cave again on stream with out an enchanter. I'd like to see groups be able to function in an area like that and be able to sub in different classes. That was one thing that really killed EQ in the population drop. Certain areas just became undoable with out class X. I'd like to see how versitle multiple classes in a group can be and not have to rely on a specific class completely for a simple dungeon romp.
I totally agree with this... The graphics updates were great. The game play was intersting to see group dynamics and how and what to expect to some degree. The Mez situation was very interesting. Good improvements all around so that is a good thing. I am not sure why but the Jimmy vid felt off for some reason.
Keep them coming!!!
Ox
Challenge! - Wandering mobs - Getting adds - Respawns
Deep dark labyrinthine dungeons. (The lighting in that dungeon looked great.)
Labyrinthine, because we need twisty dungoens with lots of interconnecting passages. No boring linear dungeons with one path in and out and no chance to get lost or go find some secluded corner room to camp.
Would have to say when the dungeon wall thing closed down and squashed someone and trapped Aradune in there. That made me LOL.
Anyways, I would like to see the dungeon done without an enchanter...like mentioned above, or that there are going to be different cc classes other than enchanter. I really hope we don't make one cc class and have a variation.
Watemper said:Anyways, I would like to see the dungeon done without an enchanter...like mentioned above, or that there are going to be different cc classes other than enchanter. I really hope we don't make one cc class and have a variation.
Bring a Monk, then you only fight one mob at a time. Pantheon: Rise of the Monks.
Bazgrim said:The only acceptable answer is the time Aradune locked himself in a room with Gnashura lol
THAT was hilarious, pretty sure the audience was falling over laughing. :D For my part each stream just gets better and better, was nice to see Jim Lee having fun with the VR team. So much change from the early days, impressive indeed. :)