Hello Community,
I play sandbox since 2002 and had the biggest hype for oldschool Ultima Online, which is the main reason I was (and still am) so exited for FO. To put first things first: I really like the game so far and I fully understand that we are still in a beta, in which a lot of things are not implemented or may not be in their final stage; still, I'd like to give some feedback as beta tester and long time sandbox player as well as someone who is working in consulting and thus is (at least in real life) paid to improve things. So, my feedback, which I will keep as short as possible:
- Map size & exploring
The map is huge, and I really like this. I like huge maps, as they normally offer a lot to explore and a lot of unique content - unfortunately, at the current state the map is just huge (which is, as said before, a plus) but really lacks content; after likes 15 hours in game I really did encounter nothing noteworthy while travelling the map, even when (and I do this a log) going beside the ways. Okay, there are some random mobs roaming around (expected), some random generated camps with loot, some resources - which none of seems rare - and some animals. Also some towns and empty towns. What I would look for:
- Rare resources that spawn randomly and can be harvested, like special ore, or plants, or anything like this..
- All kinds of rides to tame. Rare ones, funny ones. Whatever. Especially Llamas - you guys need definitely Llamas to be mounts, everything else would just be sad
- Places to explore, that are not just more mobs of the same type in a more dense populated area; things to find, etc.
- Travelling on land
Linked to "Map size & exploring" - Travelling takes ages, even if taken in the roads, and is just boring. I stare on the screen, see my character ride, ride through mobs, empty places, and nothing happens. Perhaps I need to build a campfire so I dont die of exhaustion, but thats it. My suggestions are:
- If players are forced to travel for ages, make travelling more interesting (see map size)
- If travelling stays boring, make it faster, for example by having mounts with different speed, or by introducing some kind of cheap fast travel, or bring some kind of Kal Ort Por (town portal - for reference how to implement in a good way see Ultima Online)
- Get rid of the exhaustion as it is now. It is just annoying and really adds nothing to the game, besides convulsive rock gathering; a good solution would be to have exhaustion just slow down the speed, and not to inflict damage
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Travelling by boat
Travelling by boat is ridiculously expensive. I understand that this is because of inter-city and inter-continental trading, but then again make travelling by boat a lot cheaper and add fees based on the median value of the ressources in the inventory, as soon as this median values are known; also, give the ability to take carts on the boat, tax them likewise; it makes no sense not to be able to ship the wagons. -
Lockpicking
I understand that chests and safes and so on need to be lockpicked; but then again, it makes no sense that even low level chests require advances lockpicks, even when dex 15+; more so, because advanced lockpicks drop not really often and are destroyed after a failed attempt. It is really frustrating when clearing a spawn, just to notify, that the chest can not be opened. I understand that this is an incentive to party, but it makes no sense at low level stuff - of course, opening the dragons lairs safe needs to be challenging... but a goblin chest? C'mon! -
Resources
It would be really helpful if all resources had tooltips; I have gathered a lot of stuff I dont even remotely know what to do with -
Showing Off
This is a big one and perhaps some people will disagree; but I'm a busy man, I work a lot, and when I invest time and, later on perhaps money, in a game, I want to show off what I have achieved; so I would suggest the following changes:
- In Ultima Online I was able do doubleclick a character and see, what he wears. I want something similar in FO; I want to see (and envy ;)) what other players have achieved and I want the same to be true for my character
- It is really important (!) to have clothes to customize your character; like, what is a MMO without straw hats and robes? Also I want to change the color of that clothes. And have rare colors.
- It is equally important that armour of the same type looks different IG if crafted from different materials; it is very lame that my cool warg hide armour looks the same as some other lame leather armour; I really dont want this, and it makes me sad.
- If I kill a player, I want to be able to cut of an ear of something like that (hair, a finger, whatever seems compliant) and showcase that item in my player house, or on the walls, or so. This was a great feature on some UO servers and kept me (and some other PKs) motivated for YEARS.
- Introduce rare, one of a kind items... like, really unique items. Or, if not unique, really rare items with no sense at all other then being rare and strange; I also spent YEARS in Ultima Online building a really large collection of such items and showcasing them in my house
- It is really important that items acquired can be showcased in your player house. Like, okay it may be difficult to implement "dropped on the floor / table / etc." graphics to the game... but it is cool and necessary. If you dont want to do this, give at least the opportunity to place chests in which I can lock Items and which each visiting player can look into (look, dont touch)
- PVP / PK
I think that the current player loot system is not really competetive and discouraged PKing a lot, which is, even if not everyone likes it, a big part of the thrill e.g. the original UO had.. so my suggestions are:
- If not playing on Trammel (like, I mean the Animal Island or Beast Guy Island or however it is called), PK should be possible and if someone does not want to fight players, he can trammel.
- It is discouraging that PKs (red, bad guys, whatever) drop equip on death, while others just drop inventory. I understand that being evil has consequences, but at the current state we will see a PK meta with minimal equipped characters, ganking upon some prey, which is funny (I dont mind it) in my eyes, but will be a huge turn off to other Players; so instead of full loot / no loot just do the following:
--> Blue player (good guys) can chose like 4 items they wear and flag them as non lootable
--> Grey ones (neutral) can do the same with like 3 items
--> Red ones (the baddies) can do the same, but only with 2 items..
Okay, thats it for now. If you (devs) like some of my suggestions and want additional ideas how to monetarize them, contact me via PM - I'm german speaking.
Thanks
