PQ3 Currently Has No Purpose Beyond Storyline Completion

[Tacet]

So, today is the 2 week mark since the official early access for PQ3 has gone live, and my experience with it was very mixed. I have done absolutely everything there is that can be done in the game so far such as storyline completion, max difficulty skirmishes, max difficulty dungeons, making 1st in PvP, and having one of the highest crest guilds in the game that started 2 weeks ago (may be highest, but no leaderboard yet to know).

My biggest issue with the game is that it is a live service that is supposed to have infinite replay value, yet currently has no replay value beyond completing out the storyline. This is pretty bad given that even a more balanced storyline would still likely take under a month to complete rather than under a week. If the game launches with the same amount of content features the game has now, it will take less than a month for most people to lose interest.

Once the storyline is completed, the only thing really left to do in the game is to grind dungeons. This makes it so all equipment is geared towards being more proficient at grinding dungeons resulting in a gameplay loop that is literally just grinding dungeons to become better at grinding dungeons.

The dungeon grind is very boring, tedious, and the player has to scrap most of the loot anyways due to the lack of storage in the game for everything.

There is no drive after the storyline to grind the game. Since the only thing that grinding does is make grinding more proficient, there isn’t any target of the grinding that would require it.

1st place on leaderboard is just a multi way tie competition, completing out storyline with other classes is even easier between better gear and citadel, and… that is it, there is nothing else.

The only other thing to do would be coop. I have around 30 hours in coop so far, almost entirely in skirmishes. It is definitely a lot of fun, but once again has no real target purpose for the grind after storyline. It is also more efficient to grind dungeons solo than with a group due to how the death mechanic works in groups.

I want to like this game, and still grind in hopes that the countless issues will be fixed, but there are A LOT of issues if the game is planning on fully launching this year, let alone in the next few months.

[tunaboat]

Have not gone through all the difficulty levels just yet myself, I am finding myself in the same situation. Though I have not played PQ2 myself, PQ1 had a lot of things outside of completing the main story line to do. Just hijacking ideas from PQ1, such as crafting spells and gear could already help out with progression and provide us with more things to do in the game. Not to sound offensive here but perhaps the notion that this game was suppose to be a continuation of PQ is causing the creativity bubble to not be as big. Overall, I don’t see purposes in grinding the higher end dungeons other than to get better gears that don’t help you out at all.

@Tacet

I want to like this game, and still grind in hopes that the countless issues will be fixed, but there are A LOT of issues if the game is planning on fully launching this year, let alone in the next few months.

In the exact same boat here.

[EliteMasterEric]

exploits game mechanics to complete the storyline far faster than the developers initially intended

where’s the content?

In all seriousness, games like this do need a set of mechanics to allow for long term progression. These should have been planned out and designed before the game launched, and not added in as an afterthought.

[Lyrian]

@EliteMasterEric

exploits game mechanics to complete the storyline far faster than the developers initially intended

^
^
This. I’m darn sure at this point that the grind to reach Chapter 15 is supposed to take multiple months of grinding gear upgrades (longer for casual players).

@EliteMasterEric

In all seriousness, games like this do need a set of mechanics to allow for long term progression. These should have been planned out and designed before the game launched, and not added in as an afterthought.

They are there already. The gear/spell upgrade system, the follower system, the bazaar system, and so on. My personal opinion, but I would think that the first upcoming balancing update ought to reorient current gameplay to require players to engage in these systems and to disable methods currently available to circumvent these systems.

IMO, I believe that the game is designed to be a constant gear check, with the gear score of the encounter being the measuring stick. More than 10% under the required score is likely going to wrecked most players. The player has to engage in these systems to keep increasing their gear score to advance in the story. Also, there’s a lot of time sinks involved with most of these systems to slow things down.

[Tacet]

@EliteMasterEric

exploits game mechanics to complete the storyline far faster than the developers initially intended

That is literally every mechanic in the game though.

Barrier makes you invincible, stun lock makes you invincible, damage burst into chip kill makes you invincible, gem spawn spamming makes you invincible. There is almost no strategy that doesn’t auto win, aside from damage burst when not having enough damage to follow it up into a mana chip kill.

[tunaboat]

@Lyrian

This. I’m darn sure at this point that the grind to reach Chapter 15 is supposed to take multiple months of grinding gear upgrades (longer for casual players).

Back to what Tacet mentioned in his original post. Do they want to make an extremely hard story mode and then just end the game there? Or was there suppose to be more after story mode? Being a f2p game, generally after story mode, there are tons to do but at its current state, there’s nothing.

@Lyrian

They are there already. The gear/spell upgrade system, the follower system, the bazaar system, and so on. My personal opinion, but I would think that the first upcoming balancing update ought to reorient current gameplay to require players to engage in these systems and to disable methods currently available to circumvent these systems

Going by what the followers currently do, there is only one that is truly needed to help you finish the story and that’s the spell crafter. Most of them are pretty much garbage, especially post story mode. You’ll want to get most of your stuff off dungeon treasure chests considering how hard it is to even upgrade them.

@Lyrian

IMO, I believe that the game is designed to be a constant gear check, with the gear score of the encounter being the measuring stick. More than 10% under the required score is likely going to wrecked most players. The player has to engage in these systems to keep increasing their gear score to advance in the story. Also, there’s a lot of time sinks involved with most of these systems to slow things down.

We’ll soon find out more about this. Currently with how most of us “broke the game” this clearly is not the case. You can sort of see this in their previous titles.

@EliteMasterEric

In all seriousness, games like this do need a set of mechanics to allow for long term progression. These should have been planned out and designed before the game launched, and not added in as an afterthought.

Just wanted to add that again, similar to other titles, we abused the mechanics to progress far and quickly. Perhaps the problem lies is there isn’t enough variety to abuse yet?

[Lyrian]

@tunaboat

Back to what Tacet mentioned in his original post. Do they want to make an extremely hard story mode and then just end the game there? Or was there suppose to be more after story mode? Being a f2p game, generally after story mode, there are tons to do but at its current state, there’s nothing.

Salty has already commented on this.

@Salty

The game will launch with the full 15 chapter story, and consequent major updates will include a few more chapters each time to expand the world and continue the story. (We are just starting to discuss the next lot of narrative now…!)

Story mode has to be hard. PQ3 is a F2P game, which means that the game needs to sell players things. If the game is too easy, players will not feel the need to buy offers to get them through difficult patches of the story.

@tunaboat

Going by what the followers currently do, there is only one that is truly needed to help you finish the story and that’s the spell crafter. Most of them are pretty much garbage, especially post story mode.

Most of the followers are supposed to be sources of random things (to slow players down) when trying to find the appropriate rarity’s dupes to upgrade a thing to its next rarity tier…

@tunaboat

You’ll want to get most of your stuff off dungeon treasure chests

… and yeah, that’s a problem IMO. Not that the upgrading difficulty is hard (that’s surely intended), but rather that dungeon runs focus on a specific set of gear that make it easy to gather those required dupes. In turn, that trivializes the role of the weaponsmith, armorsmith, and the artisan. The mage dodges this issue, as dungeons seemingly only drop spells that are unique to them.

@tunaboat

Perhaps the problem lies is there isn’t enough variety to abuse yet?

From the FAQ:

Puzzle Quest 3 will be regularly updated with new features, game modes, and content. Players will be able to fight epic battles alongside their friends in a game that will evolve with ongoing goals, stories, and quests to be conquered!

I would presume that not all of the game’s “live-service” features are enabled yet. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if there isn’t weekly events to complete, similar to GoW.

@tunaboat

Currently with how most of us “broke the game” this clearly is not the case.

@tunaboat

Just wanted to add that again, similar to other titles, we abused the mechanics to progress far and quickly.

Personal opinion, but I think the devs have been sent back to the drawing board on what to do about these issues. That said, making lemonade out of lemons, for the longevity of the game finding these issues now before the game formally has a hard launch and then finding out about these issues is the vastly more favorable outcome.

[Salokin]

Just want to say thank you to Tacet, Lyrian, and tunaboat for spending the time succinctly presenting these story/progression issues, and for leading our fledgling community.

My wife and I have been progressing through the story pretty fast, and honestly I feel like we should slow way down. Perhaps in a few weeks/months, elements of progression can be improved for a more enjoyable experience (probably too optimistic).

There is some real magic and a ton of potential with this game. It’s in such a rough state however that it needs more time in the oven…

Some amount of communication from the dev team would go a LONG way here. Even if they can’t share HOW they will be fixing things, at least communicating that they HEAR our concerns and are evaluating solutions would be reassuring.

Thanks,

Sal

[Salty]

We are aware of all the points raised here. The main storyline is a big part of the game, yes, but not all of it. There will be a lot more to do after it upon global release.

Please remember the game is in early access. It will in no circumstances be released as it is now. The purpose of early access is to colelct feedback, hunt down bugs, and make changes to various elements AND systems prior to the official release.

Our team is currently working on gameplay mechanics and balancing, and will then move on to other QoL improvements.