Octopus Overlords

Yeah screw this game, I'm out.

I don't know what happened, but I'm using the same video card I used when the game launched. I used to play it just fine, now it runs like complete ass even at Medium settings. Frame rate drops, slow to load, it looks terrible.

I don't have the patience or the desire to tweak and figure it out, and so far I'm with Skiny - I'm not seeing enough new here to make me want to jump back in.

YellowKing wrote: Fri Sep 30, 2022 7:23 pm I don't know what happened, but I'm using the same video card I used when the game launched. I used to play it just fine, now it runs like complete ass even at Medium settings. Frame rate drops, slow to load, it looks terrible.

I'm wondering what they did to the graphics. I remember it being very taxing on my GPU at launch, but that it looked amazing. Today, it still made my GPU melt but didn't look nearly as crisp and it ran like total crap with stuttering, low frame rates, constant pop-in, and lots of very noticeable lo-res textures.

Really odd.

Beyond launch there seemed to be serious graphics scaling issues in towns and other populated areas. Or maybe I just didn't notice it early on? But I'm pretty sure it just started happening (for everyone), I presume after an update.

Fresh start servers are going up on Wednesday (11/02/22). Anyone going to give it a go? I had no interest until I watched a video outlining some of the improvements that have been made over the past several months. But I imagine there will be little difference to those of you who were playing only recently.

An associate of The Wanderers is going to be playing on Amarah (US-East) as Maurauders and has extended an open invitation, but I don't think any core Wanderers have committed (and if anyone does go back, I can't imagine it will be more than two or three folks). I'm also asking allied mega-guild Gaiscioch if anyone has specific plans, but I know they won't be opening an official chapter so as not to fracture the existing community on legacy server Orofena. Personally, I can't even be certain I'll log on or how long I'll last, but I wanted to coordinate server/handles if anyone else is interested.

I’m planning to check out the changes, but I suspect there’s going to be a clusterf- during the initial start so I hesitate to commit to a server or anything like that.

rittchard wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 1:14 pm I’m planning to check out the changes, but I suspect there’s going to be a clusterf- during the initial start so I hesitate to commit to a server or anything like that.

They said to expect queues, there's just no way around it at first. Though they said they had some mitigation tools... I'm sure they learned something from initial launch last year.

So far I be haven't heard of anyone I know going anywhere but Amarah, so that's probably what I'll be doing. One GSCH member has declared for Death, but I think that's part of some streamer contest thing and I don't think it's even open to the public initially.

Unless something happens, I'll be hitting server Amarah at 15:00 ET today. Let us know if you'll also be playing!

Anyone going to be playing New World: Aeternum?

Just a quick recap if you've been out of the New World loop. Aeternum is a console version of the game that will be coming to Xbox and PS on Oct. 15th, and will also replace the PC version. It's essentially a New World 2.0 complete overhaul, with a renewed focus on solo play, new storyline, smoother level progression, more polish, etc.

I've been messing around a bit with the open beta this weekend and really liking what I'm seeing so far. If you're not a fan of New World I don't know that it's going to change your mind, but I like the revamped intro, and the console controls are well done (I'm playing PC but using an Xbox controller to see how it feels).

The Aeternum upgrade will be free for those who own New World and the expansion on Steam. Old characters will still be playable on the old New World servers, but everyone will get a fresh start on the Aeternum servers.

Despite all the ups and downs I had with New World, I think it has the best harvesting and crafting system we've seen in an MMO in ages. And that's what has kept drawing me back off and on over the years. I'll definitely be giving this another whirl when it drops next month.

YellowKing wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 1:56 pm with a renewed focus on solo play, new storyline, smoother level progression, more polish, etc.

I had no interest until I read those words... I mean I'm still pretty unlikely to return, but now I will be paying a little attention.

I played through the beta just to hit level 25. They're offering cosmetic rewards in Aeternum every 5 levels up to 25. Pre-orders on console get a wolf mount, but PC players just have to log into New World between now and launch to get the mount.

The beta only went to level 30 so nobody really knows how the end game is going to work in this new version. From what I saw, however, the quest leveling progression is very smooth. I went from 1-25 purely on mostly mainlining the story quests.

Really the only thing I dislike about the game is the immature player base (which is even worse now that console players are playing). The amount of racism, misogyny, etc. in the chat was a big turn off. But if you can manage to ignore that and focus on your experience, I still think it's a really underappreciated MMO. I think even aside from the PvE, I could spend many happy hours just grinding out the gathering, fishing, crafting, housing, and musical instrument progression.

coopasonic wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 11:30 pm

YellowKing wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 1:56 pm with a renewed focus on solo play, new storyline, smoother level progression, more polish, etc.

I had no interest until I read those words... I mean I'm still pretty unlikely to return, but now I will be paying a little attention.

Same. Won’t be high on the priority list, but I may give it a look at some point.

Just for grins I logged into my old account to see if I could tell a big difference between the old and the beta, and yeah, there were more differences than I realized. For starters, I realized that ammo is no longer a thing. My archer apparently had unlimited arrows in Aeternum. I'm a little torn on this one - in some ways it's a bit of a dumb down (I enjoyed crafting different arrow types, or getting caught out in the wilderness short on ammo and having to switch to another weapon). On the other hand, from a quality-of-life perspective I can see why they did it.

The UI is also quite different. I'd be hard pressed to list every change without a side-by-side, but stuff like consumables were in a much friendlier location in Aeternum vs original. Console controller support was MUCH improved in Aeternum. I played a bit with a controller in original New World (which was patched on last year), and it felt MUCH slower and clunkier.

Chat-wise I thought it was interesting to read player comments as *everyone* was talking about the beta, and I'd say 90+% of the comments were very positive towards Aeternum. I'm really hoping this breathes new life into the game and sets AGS up to be able to deliver new content and expansions.

Been watching several videos about what's new with Aeternum, and I think I'm going to grab the PS5 version and give it a shot. All indications are that they've done a great job overhauling the early game to be more engaging, the story is significantly better, and there are a ton of QOL improvements. Everything I've seen looks really interesting, and I'm eager to give it another look.

I'm Chandryn on Cathaysia if anyone is playing Aeternum. I'd be down to get a company (guild) going if we have enough OO interest.

YellowKing wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2024 2:52 pm I'm Chandryn on Cathaysia if anyone is playing Aeternum. I'd be down to get a company (guild) going if we have enough OO interest.

Is there a new game to buy, or is it a DLC? I played the chit outta that game when it first came out.

Hyena wrote:Is there a new game to buy, or is it a DLC? I played the chit outta that game when it first came out.

If you already own it on PC, it's just an update. You will need to purchase the previously released DLC (Rise of the Angry Earth) if you want mounts and the new zone though.

For console players, it's a new purchase which includes the DLC content.

The launch today was really smooth. I jumped in for a bit around an hour after go-live and then again at lunch and it's been running smooth as silk.

YellowKing wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2024 4:37 pm The launch today was really smooth. I jumped in for a bit around an hour after go-live and then again at lunch and it's been running smooth as silk.

Same. I was expecting launch day delays but it was super smooth on PS5 (on a cross play server).

I was a little surprised that for all the talk about the “revamped story”, it was basically the exact same thing as before just with voiced dialog. The first 20 mins are new but it’s the same general story and zone flow after that.

Feels like it plays lots better on console though. Bow/spear combat feels way better on a big screen with a controller.

After about 10 hours, I’m finding it to be merely ok and definitely not great.

The combat feels clunky with very underwhelming abilities, especially as I face more difficult enemies. While the environment looks decent, the character models all look like absolute ass. Like, straight out of a PS3 with lo-res textures and stiff animations. The story is mediocre (at best) and the music is completely forgettable. Seeing lots of frame rate dips, especially in crowded areas. The game feels weirdly empty too. Like, I spent 10 minutes running to a quest marker and didn’t encounter a single mob the entire time and only a few other random players.

It’s decent enough to kill some time with for now I guess, but I’m hoping it gets more engaging as I go.

I'm still having a really good time with it. I can't speak for the console performance or graphics, but the game world looks really good on my PC. I agree the character models are kind of bland, but that's always been the case. As far as I know, they didn't do any kind of graphics overhaul with Aeternum. I haven't seen any frame rate dips at all.

That said, I've got over 200 hours in it from the first launch, and that's not counting the time I spent in alpha and beta. So I'm a bit biased.

I think I need to switch to a new weapon combo. Not enjoying Bow/Spear nearly as much as I initially did.

I'm wondering if there's something about the gear that I'm just not understanding in this game. The best chest armor and boots I've found so far is a "Kipper's Smock" and "Kippers Boots" (literally fishing gear) that I got as a quest reward from a fishing quest right outside the very first town. Nothing I've received as either drops or quest rewards in the past 7-8 hours even comes close to it's gear score level, and there's nothing on the Trading Post that is equivalent either. Seems really weird for the best armor available for a big chunk of the early game to be...a fishing outfit.

Also, is the trading post intended only for max level gear? I've checked it multiple times (using the "Can Equip" filter) and there is never anything on there that is any better than the gear I currently have. That seems really strange to me.

I also can't figure out how you actually buy stuff. For example, there was a bow that had a +4 Dex along with some other minor enchantment (2% extra damage or something). When I tried to purchase it, the only "Buy order" it let me place was for a basic bow without any stat plusses or enchantments. I tried every filter or option I could find, and couldn't see anywhere that allowed to buy the actual bow that was displayed right there in the list of available items...I could only place an order for a bow without any special additions. The entire interface feels remarkably unintuitive, but again, I'm probably just missing something here.

Yeah I think I can help.

First off, the reason you're not seeing a lot of gear on the trading post is because everyone is just starting out and the economy is in its infancy. The demand is way outstripping the supply at the moment. Once the crafters start leveling you'll see a big difference.

If you have the patience for crafting, you can make gear that doubles the item score of what you'll be getting from drops/quests. I went ahead and invested the time to make myself a bow and hatchet because they were much better than anything I could buy at the time on the TP.

The buying stuff thing threw me for a minute too, because it's kind of a stupid UI quirk. Don't click on the item picture itself, but instead on the "row" the item is in. This will bring up a purchase screen showing the total cost with the trading post fee.

I went bow and spear as well, but I recently switched my secondary to Hatchet, because it's much faster and more fun than the Spear IMO. You may want to give that a shot. I still like the Bow for pulling and long distance kills, but in close combat I've never found a weapon I like more than the Hatchet. It was my level 60's main weapon.

Gear score makes no sense in this game.

Bow 1
- 226 damage
- 7% crit chance
- 1.3 crit damage multiplier
- 38 Block Stan Damage
- 90 Thrust Damage
Gear score: 194

Bow 2
- 236 damage
- 7% crit chance
- 1.3 crit damage multiplier
- 38 Block Stan Damage
- 90 Thrust Damage
- +7 Dex
- +3% damage on light and heavy attacks
Gear score: 190

So, the bow that does less damage and doesn’t have any extras whatsoever has a HIGHER gear score than the bow with all those other things. How does that make any sense?

Game just also crashed back to the PS5 dashboard for the fifth time, usually when I try to teleport back to a main town. Feels like this console version needed a bit more time in the oven. (EDIT: The crash now happens every time you teleport back to the main town. Wouldn’t be a huge deal, except that you have to wait in a 10-15 minute queue to get back in every time.)

On the plus side, I unlocked factions and got access to faction gear, which immediately improved by damage and HO by nearly 50%. Survivability is much better now. I also unlocked the mount, which makes getting around much easier.

Yeah your example doesn't make much sense, unless Bow 1 maybe has a gem slot or something. However, the gear scores are so close it could just be an artifact of the inherit randomness of item drops. It may also depend on whether one was dropped, one was crafted, etc. When an item is crafted it has random chances to add perks, and I'm not sure if those are calculated into the base gear score like a dropped item would.

Gear score really doesn't matter all that much until you hit endgame, anyway. In the case of the two bows, I'd obviously take the one with +7 Dex. The 4 point difference in gear score is completely meaningless in real game terms. I look at it the same way I do Diablo IV - the item level is a quick indicator of its strength, but it's not a guarantee that it's better for your particular character.

I'm really sorry to hear about the console performance issues. I almost bought this on PS5 for the comfort of playing on the big screen, but sounds like they have some kinks to work out.

FWIW, I did confirm that perks added to weapons while crafting don't seem to add to gear score. Case in point, I found a dropped bow that was the exact stats of my crafted one, slightly higher gear score but mine was better due to an additional effect added during the crafting process.

Quick tip on mounts - when you get your mount and open up the race quest to complete 5 races, go ahead and take the time to do them - they're really easy, boost your riding score to 90, and give you a bunch of mount item rewards that give small bonuses.

Last night I was hanging out in Oxford and a company with voice chat were standing in the town center playing songs and doing band stage banter as if they were an actual band. It was pretty hilarious.

Just hit 35 and I can't focus - I've been hopping from side quests to main quests to crafting to musicianship. I think I'm going to have to slow down and just start knocking out quests in level order.

I switched to a low pop server last night (which is fine since I play 99% solo) and most of the performance and crashing issues went away. So that’s good. I ended up sticking with bow and spear, which has been better now that I have access to some decent gear. Had fun running around doing random quests last night.

I just hit 29 and am focusing on the faction quests. Mostly because the faction gear seems to be about 30% better than anything I’m getting from quest rewards and it’s pretty easy to up your faction level.

Last night I was hanging out in Oxford and a company with voice chat were standing in the town center playing songs and doing band stage banter as if they were an actual band. It was pretty hilarious.

That’s funny. I ended up having to mute all the zone chat because it was 99% people just yelling MAGA shit over and over again. How do you play songs? I did the quest to get an instrument and the next quest step is to “practice a song”. But I can’t for the life me figure out what button I’m supposed to push to play it.

Also, is there somewhere I’m supposed to go to pick up items purchased from the trading post? I put in a buy order for 50 health potions and got a popup notification that it had been completed. But the potions are not in my inventory and I have no idea if/how/where I’m supposed to pick them up. If I open the trading post, my buy order is in the “completed orders” tab but there’s nothing I can click on. I’m generally finding that the trading post interface is way more clunky and unintuitive than it needs to be.

Is there any way to tell which non-MSQ quests unlock important things (features, mounts, abilities, etc) and which are simply random side quests? My map is littered with quest markers but I have no idea if any of them are actually important enough to pay attention to.

How do you get fibers for the loom? I’m easily finding the raw materials for everything else (stone, wood, etc) but have no idea what I’m looking for to make fiber. It’s been unavailable since I started the game, so whatever it needs isn’t something I’ve been picking up. I do wish I enjoyed crafting more, because that system looks it could be interesting. Unfortunately, I almost always find crafting pretty monotonous.

Skinypupy wrote:That’s funny. I ended up having to mute all the zone chat because it was 99% people just yelling MAGA shit over and over again. How do you play songs? I did the quest to get an instrument and the next quest step is to “practice a song”. But I can’t for the life me figure out what button I’m supposed to push to play it.

Yeah, I'm getting close to muting it all. The community is pretty toxic, but so was Throne and Liberty's. What can you expect when you have a bunch of console mouth-breathers flooding the servers now (present company excepted)

To bring up the music interface hit F5. You'll then be able to pick a song, and then an instrument for that song. Note that each sheet of music you collect specifies the song and the specific instrument. So if you pick up the flute sheet music for a particular song, you won't be able to play that song on guitar until you pick up the guitar sheet music for it.

Once you select the song and instrument, you can click play and it brings up a rhythm mini-game Guitar Hero style where you have to hit the right keys (or buttons, on console) as they pass the goal line. You get bonuses for streaks. It's not something I've ever invested a great deal of time into, but it's a fun little diversion and the higher skill levels do give you really good tangible benefits (like bonus XP to your other trade skills).

Skinypupy wrote:Also, is there somewhere I’m supposed to go to pick up items purchased from the trading post?

I've never done a buy order (I just buy stuff direct), but I'd assume it's under the Orders tab in the TP interface. That's where the Sell Orders are, anyway.

Skinypupy wrote:Is there any way to tell which non-MSQ quests unlock important things (features, mounts, abilities, etc) and which are simply random side quests? My map is littered with quest markers but I have no idea if any of them are actually important enough to pay attention to.

Yes - I don't know what the console command is to bring up the "main" menu (on PC it's ESC), but it's the menu that allows you to jump to Map, Journal, Settings, etc. If you go into Journal, it will list all your quests and let you pin/unpin them. It will also tell what kind of quests they are - Main Story, Mount, Side Quests, etc. That''s just for those you've accepted however. If you're asking if there's a way to tell from just the generic "there's a quest here" diamond, I don't think so.

Skinypupy wrote:How do you get fibers for the loom?

Fibers come from reeds, so find yourself a pond or river and go to town harvesting any of the reed-like plants that grow there. I think they're called bulrushes in the n00b areas.

I will say the last time I hit the trading post (in Oxford), there was a TON of stuff available. I wound up buying for less than 1000 gold a new Bow, a new Hatchet, and at least 4 pieces of armor that were all MUCH better than what I had on (all blue tier, to replace my green). You can find some really good deals on there to bump your gear up quick if you don't want to grind faction quests (or to just help you grind them).

While I think the game is perfectly soloable just living off quest reward gear, if you want to go straight to "easy mode" go pick up some cheap crafted blue or even purple gear on the TP and deck yourself out in style. I wouldn't spend too much, as you level so quickly, but I try to grab anything that's better if I can get it for a couple hundred gold or often much less.

YellowKing wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 5:32 pm To bring up the music interface hit F5.

Tricky on a playstation.

Google told me:

open up the radial menu by pressing Up on the D-Pad of your controller and selecting the musical note icon

I uninstalled out of boredom but now I am thinking of reinstalling out of... boredom. I only got to level 17 or so and like everyone else I was playing Bow. Why did we ALL choose bow? I've swapped out the melee weapon a few times and haven't really settled on anything but now I think I need to find a hatchet to see what it's about, but then I'll need to reinstall.

coopasonic wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 7:26 pm

YellowKing wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 5:32 pm To bring up the music interface hit F5.

Tricky on a playstation.

Google told me:

open up the radial menu by pressing Up on the D-Pad of your controller and selecting the musical note icon

Yep, I finally found it and did the Guitar Hero-ish rhythm game to get that quest out of my log. Doubt I’ll revisit the instruments.

I finally figured out my trading post issue. If your cursor is over the thumbnail PICTURE of the item in the trading post and you click X, it pulls up a comparison window to your current equipment. If your cursor is anywhere OTHER than the picture and you click X, it lets you simply purchase the item.

I was putting my cursor over the picture of the item to select it, so it wasn’t giving me the option to buy it. Hence why I was so confused.

YellowKing wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 5:32 pm

Skinypupy wrote:How do you get fibers for the loom?

Fibers come from reeds, so find yourself a pond or river and go to town harvesting any of the reed-like plants that grow there. I think they're called bulrushes in the n00b areas.

I have several hundred of those reeds in my storage, but don’t see anywhere you convert them into fibers. There’s no option at the “Loom” station, and i can’t salvage them.
Where do you turn them into fiber?

Also, looks like the server switch didn’t solve the crashing issue. I’d guess that the game crashes back to the PS5 dashboard about 1/4 of the time when I fast travel. Theres no queue on low pop servers though, so that’s good, I guess.

Oops, sorry, I told you wrong. I was thinking of something else. I never did much Tailoring when I played.

Fibers come from Hemp, which are specific bushes out in the wild. Wish I could offer more help but they are one of those nodes that I find a little hard to come by. Your best bet is to probably google a harvesting guide and find some node locations, or just buy them off the TP. They look like big marijuana bushes with purple flowers.

I finished the second riding quest (Level 35) and man, you get a nice speed boost when you get past 100 riding skill. Definitely worth it to do those as soon as you can. I never had the expansion before Aeternum so this has been my first experience with mounts.

YellowKing wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 10:58 pm Oops, sorry, I told you wrong. I was thinking of something else. I never did much Tailoring when I played.

Fibers come from Hemp, which are specific bushes out in the wild. Wish I could offer more help but they are one of those nodes that I find a little hard to come by. Your best bet is to probably google a harvesting guide and find some node locations, or just buy them off the TP. They look like big marijuana bushes with purple flowers.

It’s actually somewhat comforting that I wasn’t missing something else that was blatantly obvious.

I hit 35 last night, so I can start working on the next faction tier. Two of the three available faction quest options right now are to complete a specific group dungeon or raid. I’m not even sure where to go to start it though. Is there any sort of group finder in this game?

Skinypupy wrote:I’m not even sure where to go to start it though. Is there any sort of group finder in this game?

Yes, there is. If you go to the main menu and click Activities, you can pick Expeditions and then from there you can either join a general queue for the expedition you want, or you can browse the lobbies for the expedition you want and request to join one. I recommend the latter option - I've never had any luck joining a queue, but both times I went straight to a lobby I was able to get into a group. Once you ready up it will teleport you into the dungeon so you don't have to actually be at the entrance.

I made two runs through the Amrine Expedition last night to knock out some group quests, and it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. We were all higher level than the dungeon, so we just rolled through, wrecked shit, and moved on.

I need to go work on my faction stuff. I keep getting sidetracked with side quests. I went Syndicate purely because they offer a Bow reward. Marauders was all heavy gear and weapons I didn't use, and while Covenant offered a hatchet, I couldn't thematically see myself siding with a bunch of religious freaks.

YellowKing wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 1:18 pm

Skinypupy wrote:I’m not even sure where to go to start it though. Is there any sort of group finder in this game?

Yes, there is. If you go to the main menu and click Activities, you can pick Expeditions and then from there you can either join a general queue for the expedition you want, or you can browse the lobbies for the expedition you want and request to join one. I recommend the latter option - I've never had any luck joining a queue, but both times I went straight to a lobby I was able to get into a group. Once you ready up it will teleport you into the dungeon so you don't have to actually be at the entrance.

I made two runs through the Amrine Expedition last night to knock out some group quests, and it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. We were all higher level than the dungeon, so we just rolled through, wrecked shit, and moved on.

Thanks. Did my first one tonight and it was…fine. Everyone was way over leveled so we just sprinted through it. Got a ton of gear but it was all pretty much worthless outside of salvage materials. Was a little surprised how little gold and XP it gave, as those are typically much more plentiful in most MMO dungeons.

I need to go work on my faction stuff. I keep getting sidetracked with side quests. I went Syndicate purely because they offer a Bow reward. Marauders was all heavy gear and weapons I didn't use, and while Covenant offered a hatchet, I couldn't thematically see myself siding with a bunch of religious freaks.

I just dinged 40 and unlocked the third faction tier. So far, there’s no gear that I’ve received from quests or available at the trading post that comes even close the faction gear I can buy.

And regarding mounts, you can also get to 100 by simply feeding it vittles every day. The races tend to annoy me, so I found that option much easier.

Oh, thanks for the vittles tip. I've been starving my horse (who is actually a large dire wolf - he's the reward from the Aeternum beta). The races do give you some nice mount accessory rewards so you'll probably want to knock them out at some point.

I dinged 40 last night as well. I'm WAY overleveled for all my quests right now because I've just been running through all the n00b starting zone quests (I think there are several different MQ storylines for new players depending on what town they decide to base out of, and they all converge at some point). Which I'm OK with - since I already hit endgame with one character in old New World, I'm taking my time now and just doing whatever I feel like. Heck, last night I spent a good chunk of time doing fishing quests (which actually reward some excellent gear).

I think tonight will be faction night, as I don't want to fall too far behind in faction tiers and have to grind forever.

At level 57, it feels like I'm getting pretty close to the end of the MSQ. The big bad that I fought in the first 20 minutes and who has never been since has now reappeared for what seems to be a climatic battle. Yawn. I expect that I'll be done with New World when that happens. Honestly, the only reason I'm sticking with it is because there's a week until Dragon Age comes out and there's nothing else I want to start right now.

It's not a bad game, it's just sort of...there. After 30-40 hours, I'm finding the combat to be pretty dull without much enemy variety, the world all starts to look the same (they have three building templates that just get copy/pasted all over the map), and the story that started off pretty interesting has become remarkably dull. I'm finding myself skipping dialogs entirely, and that's coming from a guy who typically reads all the flavor texts on fetch quests because I enjoy world building. I've run several dungeons, which all just end up as the "sprint to keep up with the people who already know what they're doing" variety. Crafting is a bit more interesting than most, but also seems like it would take an absurd amount of time to ever actually get the point you could do anything useful. No idea on PvP...never my interest.

Overall, I'd probably give it a 6/10. If you have an MMO itch and don't have anything else to play, it may be worth a look for 50-100 hours. But it's definitely not something something that I would ever consider sticking with long term.

I'll stick with it for the harvesting/crafting, which I enjoy quite a bit. It was what kept me around longer than most in its original incarnation. That said, I'm also not interested in PvP or a lot of the end-game, so it will probably go from my biggest time sink to just a casual side game.

Honestly I think they probably simplified the leveling progression *too* much. I'm Level 50 right now and have barely made it out of the starting zones. Granted I'm doing all the MSQ and side quests along with a decent amount of harvesting, but it still feels like leveling is way too fast. In the original I remember feeling like I had earned the higher levels - in Aeternum, it feels like they happened pretty much by accident.

The one thing I'm a little puzzled about is why - if they were really focusing on making the game more solo-friendly - they make faction quests so overwhelmingly group based. Typically I only have 1 or 2 options for faction experience, and they pay out much less faction XP than the numerous expedition, raid, and PvP quests. It has made faction grinding a bit of a slog, something I don't remember having such a hard time with originally.

YellowKing wrote: Fri Oct 25, 2024 11:31 am Honestly I think they probably simplified the leveling progression *too* much. I'm Level 50 right now and have barely made it out of the starting zones. Granted I'm doing all the MSQ and side quests along with a decent amount of harvesting, but it still feels like leveling is way too fast. In the original I remember feeling like I had earned the higher levels - in Aeternum, it feels like they happened pretty much by accident.

There has been a weird acceleration in levels as I get closer to the cap. Went from level 50 to 57 in about 90 minutes last night, doing nothing but MSQ quests. Seemed like I was jumping another full level for each two quests I completed. it was very strange and if this pace keeps up, I'll be at level cap 65 at less than 40 hours played. That seems awfully quick.

They also really need to work on the spawn rates, especially the higher level areas. You’re either getting mobbed by 6 enemies, or there’s a dozen people standing around waiting for one or two mobs to respawn so they can finish quest objectives.

I am going to beat the MSQ of this game, if for no other reason than pure spite.

The last third of this game has become an constant slog of uninteresting quests involving people who I don’t care about, through dull cramped environments where you fight the camera as much as the enemies, and are filled with hordes of unavoidable trash mobs that give you useless loot. It has felt like it was supposed to end several times now, only to introduce new big bads only so you can kill them an hour later.

It ceased being fun quite a while ago, but it’s going to bug me if I spend 45+ hours on an RPG and don’t actually finish it.

Theres also this fun new thing where Corrupted Spires (max level world events that randomly spawn) can drop in right over MSQ objectives. Which makes progression literally impossible until you can gather a group of 5 or more max level players to help you clear it out (which is damn near impossible). So that’s fun…