Some ideas to fix or buff the immersion in the game, sometimes with very few work to do. Sorry for the poor english.
Pict faction in jungle
- A Pict tribe in the southern part of the jungle would be a nice addition, with fight with the pirates (like in Howard’s novel) or roaming tribesmen in the Lemurian ruins of the Giant spiders area. You already have the creatures associated with Picts in the lore (giant snake, tigers …), and a large part of the jungle is almost empty.
Finish the jungle
- I found the Jungle part pretty empty, comparing to desert or even North. Few NPC camps, a large empty area in the south, a poor diversity of creatures in the ruined city or even the swamp … At least you should place some roaming world boss, some Picts or new Pirates camp or even a Jhebbal Sag sanctuary. Some cave with sulfur, some ruins with skeletons …
Crom with passive bonus
- In the lore, Crom doesn’t help anyone, but he gives at birth the will to endure life and violence. So choosing Crom as a god could give some passive bonus (regen ? resistance to corruption ? extra endurance ? resistance against PvE creatures ?). For the moment, Crom doesn’t have any utility.
Cave of Hanuman
- It’s a pretty cool and totaly unused area. Put some Darfaris cultists, a summoner with a demon or a quest item there, it would be the minimum !
Small dungeons with recipes reward
- You have a bunch of unused buildings and ruins in the desert, which could be filled with somes NPC and a simple reward like armor recipes (hyenas, ancient weapons …), construction recipes (trebuchet, explosives …). It would be a good way to make some low-cost content, with a more immersive way to learn recipes in the game than a magical learning in a giant grid.
The ghost of Telith
- No one see her, and I don"t think it was the objective. She seems to have a special theme, a special island and a role in the story, so why can’t we see or talk to her ?
NPC Basic behavior : alarm system
- Put some drums of horn in NPC camps, with the possibility for ennemies to draw the alarm and “activate” all statics NPCs with random patrols, or summon pets or boss. It would give some tactical difficulty in PvE. For the moment, we can kill all occupants of a Npc camp one by one, when the rest are dancing (in silence).
NPC factions are too statics
- NPC Factions should make patrols out of their base, and sometimes fight each other for the control of some places (for example Darfaris and Pirates), or adventuring into some ruins against skeletons. For the moment, they are just sitting in the middle of nowhere, doing nothing, or dancing without any music … Just place some hour-related patrols in the nearest locations, like Darfaris entering the Arena ruins.
Darfari hunt in the oasis
- Darfari cannibals should hunt the player sometimes during the night. The beginning of the game isn’t hard or creepy at all. We can too easily avoid any danger, any predators (croco, hyenas …). Staying in the oasis should be dangerous because of the darfari maneaters, with for example a simple line like “you’re hunted …” to give some chills to player, or a special purge with roaming darfaris that pop in the oasis and attack all exiles.
Skeleletons acts like normal NPC
- Skeletons should not proudly patrols in circle like any other NpC, in full light. Make them appear from the sands, or at least hiding in the shadows of building … Some new skelettons are already hidden in corpses.
The story is very difficult to understand and follow in the right order
- The story of the game is a great mess, because we have no path to follow with NPC or “quest” destinations. We can kill the serpentmen boss without knowing who he was, or what the hell we’re doing here in a volcano, and getting the artefact without knowing his role. It"s pretty ridiculous and break the immersion in the game story. At least, put some “forced” steps ( a boss fight, a NPC to meet and talk to) that give us a reason to go to the North or the Jungle.
Rescue thralls instead of always enslave
- Some places should give a way to capture a thrall. For examples, we should be able to release a thrall in a pirate or darfaris camp, and take him back to our base, instead of always enslaving everyone. You already have chains and cages, now give them some utility. And remembers that Slavery was always rejected and despised by Conan in all novels.Other way would be to have temporary event that appear (like the purge system) with for example a sacrifice in the Summoning place. Going there would give the possibilité to liberate / acquire a special thral before he’s killed.
Thralls need some voices and basic dialogues.
- At the moment, thralls are pretty boring, stupid and doesn’t have any role in the game. They’re just grunt standing where we place them, and sometimes doing their jobs. So they need some little emote (you already have them !), some basic lines when you speak to them, something that give the minimum illusion and immersion …
Make an injuried animation
- It’s still to easy to run out of combat in full sprint and avoid any dangers, especially in PvP. Character who get slow-down or heavily injured (25% left ?) should not be able to sprint, but only walk in pain. Combat in Pvp would be less ridiculous. And in PvE, it should force the player to be cautious.
Even modders on Skyrim have managed to create some animations, so we expect a professionnal studio like Funcom to be able to do the same.
Example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkZeezTH5-w
To prevent the die and retry logic (if impossible to run away), we could have Perks that reduce that, or move that can stuck a character too.
Important NPC
- Create real special looking human boss for every main factions (Darfaris, Black hand …), with somes lines, recipes … You could even make them kind of World boss.
Interface
- A second line of hotbars would be cool, because they are many objects we need to have in common game situation (weapons, tools, potions, shield …). An alternative would to be have 2 hotsbars, and be able to switch beetween them by pressing a button like shift.
- A visual sign of the degradation of food, like a color in the back.
- Create a workbench for construction/building recipes (wall, roof, door …). The main page of recipes is already a mess, with too much things craftable.
More immersive purges
- When a Purge begins, a small animated face of an ennemy NPC (Darfari, Exiles …) taunting us to annunce the attack. Would be more immersive or motivating, the game is too much silent and game mechanics are too visible and artificial, which break the immersion. At the end of the purge, automatic emote for all thralls to celebrate victory.
Story-related Purges
- Create some automatic purges linked to the progression in main quest. For examples, Silent Legion raid after we kill the Black castle boss, or Darfari purge after a special kill in the Summoning place.