Personally, I believe most of my issues with AO are that it’s early access and its mechanics are not completely fleshed out, and that I’m not the correct target audience.
For me, I like AO because of customization, exploration, and in-game movement.
One of my concerns regarding the customization is that the really interesting customization for magic(shapes) are locked to pure mage. Shapes would let me make blasts have different purposes(Drill for damage when I know it’s guaranteed, Arrow for speed like a beam, ect). I love the idea between small and big blasts but that and the number of blasts fired being the only thing customizable is not that great.
The lack of space for spell customization makes it so I don’t every tool for any occasion(This is actually pretty good since I can pick and choose what I enjoy more and makes people different depending on what spells they pick) BUT with rare and lost spells being added it makes me worried because it just makes another problem with rng. I like the idea except right now the scrolls are useless to me(I don’t want Pulsar) so it doesn’t do anything for me. And if there are more than 8 scrolls or something you might end up replacing a rare spell with a lost one and so on, basically making the scroll you spent on yourself wasted. I love if pulsar for example, let me make 120% size blasts, even if it reduced damage. Even if it was like the fighting style mastery system where I had to use a ton of pulsars. At least it’d feel like I gained something from pulsar. (Unless of course having “consumed a scroll” means you can recreate the spell whenever.)
I’d much prefer the existing spells to be more flexible(Maybe set up spells on a timer for area denial or forcing the opponent to have a reason to deal with it in some way, multiple blasts fired simultaneously in a cone or line, arcing spells, whatever), but that literally means I can only play mage to interact with the interesting customization.
Which is a little problematic because I have no idea how beams and snares will get customization. I actually like the dynamic between single beam and dual beam(faster startup vs slower startup but more damage) but like, that’s one option(not to mention how it locks out a specific timing for firing spells which bothers me). Snare is something I’d be baffled as to how it’d even be customizable, so I’ll let it slide.
Then there is another problem: the tier system(or whatever it is that gives more size to my magic). I like the idea of a tiny magic that hits hard and fast, I feel cool. Except my spells increase in size only. I’d love if I could exchange that size for speed(even at the cost of damage or at an atrociously inefficient conversion) or at least get more option as to what the tier boosts. Maybe I wanna focus on status or something, I dunno. The only way I can is just armor which I guess is fine but like, sometimes I wanna be a cool earth mage with slow startup spells but good projectile speed and middling damage, lemmie do it so I don’t have to pick between aesthetic or gameplay style. Maybe as a light mage I want blind to last a bit longer and give a higher damage boost at the cost of my speed or damage so I’m rewarded for constant pressure kinda like thermo fist. Or maybe I just want blind to only increase my damage and not actually blind people(I think blind sounds unfun to play against personally, but that’s a story for another day). I just want something to make my magic fit me, not picking a magic that fits me. I think Earth is cool aesthetically, but gameplay wise it just isn’t my style(Also why are shapes unlocked so late, they are the most interesting customization feature except I have to live with Earth magic until I reach like lvl 110, I literally couldn’t do it).
I would very much like to invest in my magic stat except for the fact that the options I get are pretty limited (Personally I’d love a system where you could choose which spells you unlock at certain magic levels(tho do something like:“to learn beam you must have learnt 2 spells first”, “to learn aura you must have learnt and unlocked all options for 4 spells” so I can’t just rush a spell. Could also apply to pulsar in that you need to have unlocked aura and blast and gotten a decent amount of customization options for them.)) I would also love to invest into Vitality then, since the reward for magic is customization, except at that point the dynamic between stats would be disrupted so uh I’ll leave it alone since Vitality just isn’t finished.
Also: why can’t I just know how to cast spells with one hand from the start(casting style, where it seems to be only cosmetic?), why is that an unlock? Fighting styles(At least basic) don’t seem to have this restriction. And why can’t I make my second magic a variant of my first? I love aestetics, I’d love a blue fire(if only Inferno didn’t already exist) or a blue light or whatever.
I have lost my train of thought so uh oops. I had a conclusion, but I have forgot it. Something about how I want more customization probably.
Now, onto exploration(more like level gain): I’ll keep this “short”.
EXP is way too easy to get and I often max level before fort talos. This makes me concerned about the level scaling and exp gain during story missions but I genuinely don’t know if it’s because of how I play or the quests.
Other problem is how fishing can just stop giving exp for no reason. So can exploration tasks which makes sense but like, treasure charts exist, so it’s actually not that bad of a problem for exploration since I am encouraged to go to islands I’ve been before and I can just get a fetch quest regarding fruit on that island.
Basically at a certain point exp stops being gained from fishing and exploring unless you go and do a quest or treasure chart. This just tells me there isn’t much reason to go to old islands tho.
. I have no idea if something like that could be implemented, but it’d be pretty cool if it could.