I was fortunate to be able to complete the story and unlock my Kingdom shortly before the update. My Assassin hit L50 around Chapter 12, so any of the XP gained after that point was effectively wasted, since it doesn’t contribute to the Kingdom until it is unlocked.
My gear score (0.35) was only around 700 with a mix of L15-25 Rare. The final chapter was brutal where I could survive the first hit and only win if I achieved stun lock, or got lucky with Barrier triggering off gear for a second hit. Some revives came in to help out.
0.36 awarded me with a bunch of L35 Epics which raised my overall score to around 1300, but replaying L50 battles with this gear is still a big challenge and likely to kill me.
Maybe my old gear was weak for the level of dungeon, but now with multiple Epic pieces, at their max level, I’m still struggling against L50 battles. In my first playthrough with my Assassin I didn’t find a single Epic piece and I hit level cap several chapters before the end of the story. My Paladin is Ch11 without finding one. Good strategy or not I’ve been opening pretty much every chest I’ve found, so not a case of salvaging missing it.
While a lot of focus is on how hard dungeons are for those set back several dungeon levels, I wonder how many new players totally new to 0.36 and without bonus free levelled Epic gear, are able to complete the story and unlock their Kingdom in the first place?
Grinding dungeons and skirmishes for gear is fine for end game, but if there is the wall of needing to beat the story to get the Kingdom, but you can’t beat it without gear you won’t find in the story, that traps new players in a really bad spot - all the XP they earn in excess of L50 trying to beat the story will be wasted instead of going towards the Kingdom.
Not sure if you have been checking in. Feels mysteriously silent around here except for a bunch of people shouting into a black hole of this and other threads. The effect in the game is palpable. Up to 25% of most guilds that I know of have quit playing. At this point I would be cool with hearing “This is the difficulty we want; if half the people quit so be it”. At least I would understand a bit better how to process things. Sheer absence in the face of this amount of feedback though is disheartening.
What would be nice is a scheduled weekly post which could summarize:
Any news - including updates, upcoming streams, events impacting workflows (e.g. pandemic/lockdowns), etc.
State of the game - How the developers are seeing the current version/balance of the game and identify areas of specific interest in gathering feedback.
Community feedback - Updated weekly list of heard feedback and any commentary to that feedback
Everything else - A placeholder for things that don’t neatly fit into the above categories
I think the community feedback one is key - we would really apricate knowing we have been heard.
It would also help with communication in making sure that when an issue is raised, it has been fully understood
An example of this would be the “unequipt button” - the issue it was looking to solve was tourney restrictions - it was a GREAT step in the right direction however tourney issues still exist - I am guessing I am not the only one still chasing a spear this week…
Clearer communication might help - e.g. working on solutions Vs. you are not supposed to be easily able to enter all tourneys
That would help set expectations for players
Personally don’t think this is an issue. Running the weekly dungeon that has the weapon drop opening the iron+ keys there until any common/uncommon weapon drops is much easier than having to find the specific color like before. People used to hunt for the specific color within a day. Getting the specific weapon type in common/uncommon is around 1-2 hours.
The point I was making was communication need to be improved
One example of why is the Unequipt button did not actually directly address the underlying issue that had been raised
On the stream it also appeared that the suggestion of an unequipt button was something new - where in fact it had been raised several times over months
Hence - we need to know what issue is being heard so we can clarify if the Dev understanding of our description is correct or needs clarification
I think a weekly scheduled post could really help communication
It would improve feedback and player understanding/expectations which results in more productive use of development time and better feedback from players
While we aren’t posting a response in every thread that pops up, please know that we are actively checking the forums and passing on what is being discussed.
As I have leveled up, the battles are taking longer and longer. At this point, just to do my daily chores (and that’s precisely what they feel like) i need 2-3 hours.
I dont have 2-3 hours a day to sit and play this game. Work, family, social commitments, etc. take priority in life which leaves very little time.
Until the dev team figures out how to make this game a game instead of a chore, I’m going to have to let it go. That’s a shame because the game has potential as a fun game but it’s current state is not fun at all.
If you’re going to have a publicly visible bug queue/tracker, you need to update bugs regularly. Otherwise it’s actually worse than screaming into a void; it feels much more viscerally like you’re being ignored, because you can see the bug sitting there untouched.
From,
A person who manages bug queues as part of their job
