I want to say straight up that I admire Funcom having the courage to not simply create a new map with the same gameplay as the original map. Taking the game down a quite different path was admirable but in its current form it’s quite rough – which is to be expected being early access.
Some general thoughts:
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The map is quite stunningly beautiful in parts. Much of the terrain appears normal and the new biomes are very well created. There’s many areas which feel under-used however, such as the shipwrecked strewn beaches and the coasts in general. There’s also too much by way of very high mountain ridges which extend for a long distance – some more pass-throughs to make these less like barriers and more appealing for bases would be good.
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The distribution of resources is highly annoying and feels randomized. It reminds me of the earlier days of the original map before balancing passes were made. Things like black ice, brimstone, and in particular iron are all over the map but of the three, only brimstone feels semi-reasonable. Black ice seems stuck in there just to ensure its present, and while iron is all over the place, there’s no really large clumps of it so you feel like you’re constantly roaming for it.
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Likewise – the distribution of animal life feels extremely random. The biome areas feel quite distinct but as you travel around the map, things like creatures feel plonked down at random. There’s no feeling of any particular area of biome being really unique. There has been SOME attention to this, such as rhinos and elephants only being present in the middle grassland type regions, but most others feel random.
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The current acquisition of thralls is just not satisfying and really punishes smaller clans and solos. I appreciate that the game cant be balanced around solos and small clans, but in its current state the ability to grab thralls above tier 1 is somewhat ridiculous. There’s practically no tier 2 or 3 crafter thralls from these wild surges. On the flip side, the controlled surges require gigantic grinds prior and on pvp servers are very easily controlled by larger clans. This isn’t so much the issue but it denies smaller clans or solos from having a chance at named thralls.
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The vaults are pretty cool, but it’s like the unnamed city fragment collection/receipe unlock on steroids. Once you’ve done a handful of vaults, they just become a chore to run through and feel like copy and paste content.
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The damage done to buildings in the maelstrom is ridiculously over the top and basically nullifies what could be an interesting game mechanic. The trailer shows bases under attack in this area yet the reality is – a base in that area gets melted like its made of butter. Building in the centre SHOULD be challenging but should also be possible. You should have to defend your base but not have it melted in moments each time there’s a maelstrom. The storm itself should do damage, enough that it requires continual repair by way of upkeep, but not so much that if you dare log off your base is ruined. Likewise, creatures who assault the bases in the maelstrom should be dangerous but can be countered with good defensive base design and a range of defensive pets/thralls/players defending.
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Right now there’s certain areas with guaranteed spawns such as sabertooth kittens which can be walled off and controlled and the controlling clans can have a huge number of these pets around their base as a result, giving them a quite large advantage ingame. This is the kind of spawn issue which needs a balance pass across the map – but because sabertooths are plonked down in this one area (the island NE), it’s very easy to control it.
All in all, it’s a nicely created map but needs a good 1-2 sizeable content/balance passes before it has a decent gameplay loop. The numbers of players across the servers has dropped sharply and i think some of these reasons are behind that.
ps. I’d kill to see the water surrounding this map given actual waves
pps. I’d kill to see some form of boats added so we can sail about the map being an island.