Can we just have more ship colors that would be so cool
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I agree with some aspects of what you laid out. The combat system could certainly be enhanced and it may not cater to everyoneās preferences. While most island designs are solid, there are occasional aspects that could be improved, although these are often minor nitpicks rather than significant design flaws. I do agree that many magic abilities feel quite similar, and the issue lies in prioritizing quantity over quality. As for the in-game music, it is generally good, but my only complaint is the lack of variation and dynamic usage. Personally, I often play the game with the in-game music turned off and listen to my own playlist instead, as it provides a similar experience to the tracks within the game.
To be honest, it would be helpful if you could provide more specific details about what aspects of island designs you find lacking or unsatisfactory. By elaborating on what you believe āsucksā about them, I can better understand your perspective and incorporate your feedback into future builds. Your insights will enable me to create more informed and improved designs moving forward.
In my personal opinion, I believe that AOās map could benefit from a more expansive layout, incorporating smaller islands between the important larger ones. This approach would provide additional areas to explore and gather resources, while also giving the islands a more organic and purposeful placement. Currently, there seems to be a significant amount of empty space in the game, which, although it doesnāt hinder gameplay, gives the map a somewhat linear feel despite being an open-world game. By dispersing the islands and filling the gaps with smaller islands, the overall map would feel more impressive, and exploration would become less confined and predictable. Although each island currently serves its purpose in-game, I believe it would be nice to have islands that exist purely for the sake of their presence, adding a sense of wonder and discovery to the world.
2 Likes
My least favorite part of the story is by far Neviro.
His introduction is so poor I didnāt even realize it WAS an introduction.
When he showed up after Cirrus island I genuinely thought I had missed a cutscene or somehow skipped part of the story because I had no idea who this character, that the dialogue seems to think I know and have encountered before, is.
We talk to a lot of random people with 0 story relevance throughout the game so having one of those people suddenly become a major character with 0 buildup is jarring.
7 Likes
Definitely just the Deckhand system, practically locking it behind PVP isnāt good, i would be alright with all the PVP changes in the Brewing Update if the Deckhand system wasnāt based off your Renown.
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Also, NPCs who use guns.
Extreme example.
This guy was using a SINGLE WEAPON (Dual flintlocks) AND NEARLY KILLED ME. NPCs USE AIMBOT.
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i hate ellius, I hate the navy, and i hate fighting styles. Solution: remove them all
Neviro was done so dirty and he also has a big plot hole, the entire time heās there itās shoved in your face that heās weak and useless
But then you pick up his journal, and suddenly heās capable of defeating iris in a fight using a rusty spear and leather armor.
wtf.
8 Likes
Iām frustrated with the lack of options for obtaining renown. Taking down ships and doing bounties is fine, but it still takes a long time. More ways to get renown would also make obtaining renown much more fun and feel less like a grind. Maybe Iāll come up with something and make a suggestion about it.
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can we like remove npc m1s
they stun and if you have 2 high level npcs spamming m1s on you in a pirate ship your just fucked
m1 them back
they stun so you cant
yea. they are annoying but I donāt believe its a stun lock that stops you from attacking back. I killed a lvl 160 who was m1 spamming me by punching it back. I was at 60 hp after the battle finished.
Of course there is also blocking.
alright, sorry if i came off as rude btw, didnt mean it.
If I had to quickly explain my issue with AOās island design, I would say that they lack āintentā, although itās a bit more complicated than that. By ālack intentā, I mean that islands feel like theyāre designed just as places to hold NPCS, instead of actual islands youāre meant to explore. I personally would prefer more linear islands, similar to the Stepstones.
Right now, islands lack any interesting geometry, which causes a lot of islands to feel flat and rather uninteresting. When you first arrive at a new island, you can immediately see everything that the island had to offer. Thereās no mystery to whether or not the island is inhabitated or whatever, since towns are almost always on the coast. For me, it feels like thereās no reason to explore the rest of the island, unless im trying to complete the exploration tasks (which honestly makes exploring feel like a chore sometimes).
If i had to provide some advice, dont be afraid to put ānegative spaceā in islands (areas which you arent actually supposed to go to/you cant reach), with the goal of guiding the player through the path you want them to take. Try building from the docks towards your goal, such as a town, or boss arena, and dont forget to add forking paths, secrets and shortcuts so islands dont feel too linear and so they dont get too boring whenever you revisit them.
6 Likes
alright, time to talk about one of the things i dislike the most.
Ravenna.
As you know, ravenna the final major story island of the bronze sea story. A huge, grassland island with a mountain and 3 cities.
This would have been really cool if it werenāt for it beingā¦ wellā¦
A laggy, empty, cutscene simulator with the 2 most annoying bosses in the game.
Hereās why i personally think ravenna is the worst story island in the game and arguably the worst island in the game.
I like the idea of a grassland island with a mountain. The issue is that the mountain takes up 60% of the entire island while not contributing much to the overall content of the island, which itself is also disappointing.
The story for this island is just sad. After the grand part of the story that is fort talos, you would expect the final part of the story to be good, in reality itās just a walking simulator, then a bad boss, then a cutscene simulator, then another bad boss, and then the escape which iāll give credit as itās actually good, unlike the rest of the ravenna story.
As for the bossesā¦ oh boy.
Now look, i like the bosses of ao for the most part. argos and elius are my 3rd and 2nd favorite bosses in the arcane series. However, Carina and Calvus are just purely annoying and not even that difficult and are hindered by another issue iāll talk more about in a bit.
Carina is just a berserker that parries half of your attacks and dodges the other half while barely being able to damage you, and in phase 2 she gains passive healing. All of this leads to a painfully easy but annoyingly long fight which I just donāt think is good boss design, overall sheās the worst of the two bosses here.
Calvus isā¦ well heās the final boss of the bronze sea alright, his attacks hit hard and he flies around the throne room doing whatever attacks he feels like, with all of them being a bit more painful in phase 2. The only annoying thing with calvus himself is the unpredictability of his attacks, sometimes he could do his easy to parry slow blasts, or he could spam his extremely annoying multi blasts completely at random as far as iām aware. Now this would be excusable, if not for arguably most stupid feature that wont be changedā¦
BREAKABLE FLOOR
Now this is a problem with every boss but its most noticeable on calvus due to how he attacks, you can get caught on floating bits of terrain and get heavily punished for it, or you can just get trapped when it decides to regenerate, also being heavily punished for something almost entirely out of your control. Now I think itās safe to say, being killed or nearly killed for something like this is unfair entirely, and turned an otherwise average boss to one of the worst in the game.
Now theres not much to say about the last point,
but itās the lag from simply being near ravenna.
This isnāt an issue for everyone but for those it does affect, myself included, it amplifies everything that iāve already said to make it even worse and at times, unbearable.
Thatās my thoughts on ravenna.
man i never wanna type out something like this on a phone ever againā¦
6 Likes
this
i hate this with a fiery passion
3 Likes
Breakable floor is so damn annoying to deal with, especially when you are an explosion mage
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I really like the idea of having a highly destructible game environment. It adds an element of uncertainty to combat encounters and gives them a sense of weight and power. However, in practice, this feature often makes boss fights or encounters with non-player characters (NPCs) and other players more frustrating and may contribute to lag in the game.
In World of Magic, destructible environments werenāt a huge problem because the game world was so large that there was usually enough space to simply avoid getting stuck. There was also no directional dodge, with the only way to avoid attacks being to simply T-jump or magic jump up. However, in the case of AO, player areas are usually confined or small, which poses a challenge. Since dodging has become an essential mechanic for avoiding attacks, it becomes even more frustrating when the ground is littered with holes that can trap you or hinder your movement, especially in boss arenas or smaler islands. While situational awareness can help in certain situations, when youāre fighting a boss in a confined space and relying on ground-based dodges, the destructible environment becomes less of a feature and more of a genuine hindrance.
Perhaps if the dodging mechanics were adjusted to be less horizontal or if players had more control over the direction of their dodges, it wouldnāt be as painful because players could dodge up and out of holes. But as it stands now, if you fall or dodge into a hole, or create one, thereās a high likelihood of getting stuck and facing negative consequences.
3 Likes
itās less of the holes itself and more of the shit that conveniently appears directly above you, limiting not just your movement but also your fucking visibility
the auto climbing you experience at the edge of holes also cancels your dash and high jump nicely
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Ah yes the floating floor of elius, and the floating carpet of calvus. Keeping us in the ground at the most inopportune time
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