As of right now, I see multiple things that realm should handle:
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Numbers
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Content
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Depth
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Pets
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Unlockable content
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Purchasable content
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Numbers, pretty vague I guess
Let’s start with the leveling process. A player starts out at level 1 and maxes out at level 20. Unfortunately, the game offers very little content during this time frame and by contrast, offers a mountain of content upon reaching level 20. In my view, having levels lacks great meaning whatsoever. Rather, the leveling system was implemented to further enhance the fact was the game is permadeath and serve as a time-out chair for a person who lost a character.
On the flip side, getting to level 20 is not of major difficulty as one can simply collect xp from other players farming the godlands.
The leveling system lacks content and purpose, as it serves as a time-out chair to make the experience of permadeath even more difficult.
Next of all, there are the lv 20 stats to consider. Every time a player levels up, the character gains a random stat increase range for all stats. Players may be fortunate and have a good roll, or be burdened with a poor one. Got negatives in all stats? Well, go kill your character and start over!
Given how the game places little emphasis on leveling, this feature is obsolete and serves as a burden to a player, who died, got another level 20 - only to discover how bad the rng is.
While some may say that leveling provides a new players an experience, I would argue that it is more of a feature that can make rebuilding even more annoying and painful. Eventually the game turns into a monotonous wheel of: get to level 20, grind dungeons for max stats, die, and repeat. I am very sure that most would rather get rid of the level 20 part, as there is little content to be offered in that phase and seriously, no one cares about the lowerland monsters and what they drop (asides from the Candy Gnome). All they want to do is go to the god lands so they can earn short-term and much more useful rewards.
Both of these features inhibit player experience and must be reevaluated.
Let us now bring up the concept of fame. Fame is one of the things that persists between character deaths and serves very little function within the game. Players can acquire fame by collecting xp by killing monsters and reaching the fame gain cap, gain character fame at a 1 fame : 2000 xp ratio. To make matters worse, it is only officially acquired through dying.
Now sure, it is a permadeath game, but when considering the behavior and design of bosses and monsters, it becomes clear that the game is hell-bent on killing characters in various sorts of ways:
- Shotguns (Good luck playing a melee class and not feeling annoyed when you get instakilled)
When considering the fact that this game is bullet hell, the benefits of sacrificing range for more damage and a bit more durability shows how poorly the game was thought out. A great deal of monsters simply spray a bunch of bullets and while they may not be lethal from afar, will be for short ranged classes. (Which is why pets are of a hot commodity) Playing a class that lacks range and has a tiny bit more health is nothing short of demanding to lose the character (Not if you have a maxed pet). - Hidden status markers - If you were a new player and decided to stun a dangerous monster that has hidden status immunities, you would surely yell out “That’s not fair. How was I supposed to know that it’s immune?!” And then the community steps in and tells the player to stfu and deal with it. A character death should not be the result of a lazy programming attempt and key information hidden from the player.
- Quiet - This was clearly the result of lazy programming. From what I know, quiet was mainly designed to nerf the Rogue class (shouldn’t they have reworked all of the classes instead?) and knocks the player’s MP and Wisdom to 0 for a period of time. That is by far, much too extreme considering how common this status is. If the devs wanted to program a status effect that did not allow the casting of abilities, they should have programmed in the silence status effect.
While they did nerf rogue, they actually nerfed all of the classes at the same time. Given how simplistic the game is, an ability is what defines each and every class for each other. In fact, it can be argued that every class lives on its ability.
Oh and by the way, it would not be rare for a new rogue player to die because of the quiet will uncloak stealth and this effect is nowhere indicated in-game and is another case of a hidden status effect.
When comparing game design and genres, permadeath is a rather niche genre and can be rather known for providing a negative experience. Others and much more successful games go by a system of progression - any time spent into the game will be saved into it, which is why it is more worthwhile to play such a game. You play it, you earn something.
Unfortunately, when considering realm, you can play it, but will you earn something from it? All that time spent in a character can vanish in a matter of seconds. And what do you get in return for playing? Fame and a possible rank increase. That is all. Fame serves little purpose within the game and can not be quickly amassed in large amounts. When considering how little stays behind in such a game, a player would rather much play a game that rewards he/she with its experience and virtual rewards. On the other hand, the only thing that realm really offers its just the experience (not the best experience). That is all.
Realm needs to lessen the punishments of the permadeath and recognize how outdated its game philosophy is.
Not only so, shouldn’t it be recognized that a notable amount of assets, monsters, and items are dedicated in the leveling process that has a lack of meaning? No one cares about the lowerland monsters and the low tier items. A player can easily pick up semi-viable t6 weapons and t7-9 items in the godlands.
It’s laughable how large the realm is when people are only interested in the godlands.
While some may say that the lowerlands provide an experience for the new players, shouldn’t it be recognized that this is merely due to the fact on how inadequate the tutorial is? If a player were to be informed that stat pots make up the bulk of trading aspect of the game and that it is not hard to level up in the godlands, they would do what everyone else does - Go to the godlands. No one would care about the lowerlands if that were the case.
Next up is the issue of rank, which is also earned by amassing a certain amount of fame for each individual class. While its main design was to create a status hierarchy among players, it does not in anyway achieve that objective. One can simply fame train or collect xp in known-areas and someday gain a white star - All without ever doing endgame content or dungeons. Not only so, how would one differentiate the difference between a white star that fame trained and a white star that has earned the star in the way it was intended to be? Thus, rank is just another issue that shows how poorly thought out this game was.
While I may be proposing a makeshift solution, I am suggesting that the rank system should be removed and replaced with an Account Leveling system, in which players collect xp to increase their account level, which follows an exponential curve. While one can still xp farm and get a high account level, it should be recognized that a white star that has played the game for many years will have a higher account level and status above the “white star” that fame trained. Not only so, the replacement current of the ranking system would very much discourage players from fame training as the Account Leveling system will not have an end, whereas the ranking system had an end - the white star, which is why players were motivated to get it.
Asides from Account leveling, I would also like to propose the concept of Account Achievements, trophies that can be used to further distinguish players by experience. Such a feature would include things such as dungeon completions (not based by going through the fucking portal) that are specific to each dungeon and incremented only when the player is present, within a certain range of the boss when it is defeated, and participated in achieving its demise (in other words, deal damage to it).
I would also include the displaying of scores from Ranked Dungeons (A concept that I have yet to mention) as well.
As for now, the Fame system is in need of a decisive rework as it lacks almost any importance whatsoever. I would very much suggest that fame gained by a character is directly transferred into account fame while the fame bonuses upon death are added in later, when the character actually dies. (I mean, you don’t have to be dead to be famous right? If you achieved something, you’d be famous for it now and honoured for it when you die).
(The other points will be covered a bit later. I’ve got some personal work of my own to handle as well.)
