Features That Could Wait Until UPDATE 1

We want AO to come out ASAP.
We hate waiting.
Here are my thoughts on ‘unnecessary’ features that could wait until after the release to be added.
In my opinion the release should contain only the core elements of the game, albeit still being fun to play.

1. The Dark Sea
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The elephant in the room would be the Dark Seas section of the game. Not only does it sound like it could be saved as an Update 1 Expansion, but since its a whole new area outside of the War Seas, not having it in the game upon release wouldn’t affect things at all. Not only this, but The Dark Seas is labled an “[XL]” feature (‘Extra Large’), which means it will probably take a long time to develop, thus saving the most time.

2. Mobile Compatibility
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Mobile compatibility isn’t something that would affect gameplay, but rather an affect on the player audience. This feature could very well be added at another time. There’s good reasoning for it too: The people who play on mobile (mainly) are going to be all those 9 year olds who don’t have a proper PC/desktop to game on. Due to mobile users being from a generally lower age group, they probably wouldn’t be attracted to a grand scale MMORPG like AO. While this feature would open up AO to a wider audience, thus increasing its player count, I doubt the difference will be significant. There are tons of other PC-only games that are extremely popular without a mobile audience.

3. Fighting Styles (partially)
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For Fighting Styles, I do believe they should come with release, however I think alot of time could be saved if not all fighting styles were added. Having 1 or 2 in the game is enough content for release in my opinion, especially since there will be other branches of PvP such as Magic, Lost Magic, Ranged Weapons and Weapons.

That about sums up my thoughts on this topic! Keep in mind, I’m not supporting Vetex to ‘rush’ development, I just think that these features could be added at a later date, thus giving him more time to refining core elements/getting the game out quicker.
What do you guys think?

3 Likes

Just Mobile Compatibility IMO, most people here mainly see it as a fishing and chest grinding thing only so

with the Dark Sea, people can do something for some weeks or so and won’t bitch about lack of content (despite the many things planned for AO release)

Fighting Styles is required to be completed due to 1st Awakening planned to be released for AO

but eh, things are subjected to change

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I agree but probably not mobile comp.
Since when mobile comp once, their will be a shit ton of underaged joining the vetex discord server, than a few hours later, the forums.

But Mobile comp is also good for the players who finally get to play someone that isn’t some simulator were you grind for 24 hours just to get a pet

Dark seas are going to be absolutely crucial to the replayability of AO. Sure it doesn’t need to be fully developed, but have a good base set for players to come back for at least a while.

Mobile compatibility should be tried and added if it’s possible. If it isn’t get rid of it. Letting mobile players experience the game later than others feels a bit cheap imo.

Fighting styles needs to be at least have the bare minimum. Each route is equally as important and pushing fstyles back may hurt it and make players only play a specific way for a while.

mfer also when the heck did people start calling things stuff such as update 1, 2, 3, etc. gpo moment ig?

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You’re saying that as if they aren’t all single digits in age

Based of the description of DS on Trello, its just War Seas but harder in terms of PvE.
The only ‘replayability’ factor that I see is the fact that players are “rewarded heavily” for coming back alive.
That sounds like any old quest to me, apart from the fact that they probably wouldn’t reward EXP.
These types of quests can be added in War Seas too imo.

To me, replayability in an RPG like AO is achieved through trading and PvP, and not PvE.

Fighting Styles is basically a needed update
Or else Strength stat is redundant

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There’s gonna be a ton of randomization and unique occurrences in the dark seas that will make you come back and back. There’s gonna be a ton of loot for you to get as well. Typical quests just have you do a certain task again and again with minimal reward. There maybe even unique quests specific to dark seas that actually do more than just exp or some galleons.

If you’ve played any roguelike, they have a TON of replayability. I’ve been playing Noita a lot more recently and there’s a ton of different spells, enemies, area layouts, etc. that all give nice PvE replayability (its also 40% off rn so uh yea). Tons more of different examples and you get the point.

You can have PvP and Trading as other replay factors, but the main focus Vetex wants to do is PvE.

2 Likes

Fighting styles are being added based off the Trello, however having around 2 fighting styles would be sufficient enough.
Even though I’m not a developer, I can imagine how much work would be needed to balance everything + animate all the moves.

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this feels like a topic vetex would reply to and destroy the entire post ngl
good luck with that

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waiting for
unknown

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The Dark Sea is part of the core game who are you to decide if it isnt as important as something else, mobile compatibility is something that needs to be done or else the game will not reach a wider audience on release, Fighting Styles are just as important as magic in Vet’s eyes.

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yeah its going to happen

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Yeah I completely understand your point.
I guess it comes down to the technical side of things, such as how exactly the DS will work. For example, what I would imagine is that there are ton’s of hidden treasure chests, islands with insanely high level enemies, harsh weather, and insanely hard quests that give you (off the top of my head) stuff like Lost Scrolls, Sea Curse, legendary armor, etc.

But from a game design perspective, I don’t see how these things can’t be added in the War Seas.

Then again, I’m totally in support of the DS area, and I would love to see it in the game.

I for one don’t want another half(if even)-baked release that will keep affecting the game in a negative way even after release.

The features you listed are all core to the experience for most players. Mobile Compatibility will give the game more traction, also bringing more PC players to the game not just mobile, which could affect the game’s long-term popularity.

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i wonder how they would work… oh wait.

My points for the above post:

  • Strong enemies can be added in War Seas too…?
  • Random-generated islands can be added in War Seas too…?
  • ‘Unpredictableness’ is just a worldbuilding aspect and not a concrete feature.

Context: Inferno suggested DS is for replayability

The thing you aren’t understanding is that the War Seas is the place where the story takes place and has POINTS OF INTEREST would be dumb to have random generated islands also how would it be any faster adding it to the war seas it would just take the same amount of time

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Strong enemies are obviously gonna get added, why wouldnt they? The point of dark seas is to be a risk and reward type area where you have to play careful and get the treasure back to a safe area. Randomly generated islands and unpredictable are another part of the dark seas to have a safe area with more generally safe stuff with storyline aspects, and a challenging area with loot and risk.