Our journey system is more or less a guided way for newer or returning players to figure out some of the mechanics of the game in a manner that gets them up to speed. I remember one of my complaints was having a friend not knowing exactly how and when to craft Alchemical Base and some other materials since the game doesn’t exactly tell you. Most of us veterans (as well as veterans of survival games) know to keep crafting things until you run out of things to craft just to see where they go. Or in the case of those of us who have played 5,000+ hours over 7 years know pretty much everything already. Well not everyone does.
But at the same time they didn’t want the Journey system to just be a tutorial only useful for those who are starting out for the first time. So they added the little rewards as well. Nothing we couldn’t get done in maybe 1 or 2 sessions and still feel like we got something.
However… I think the journey system has some potential yet.
Its an achievement based progression that I think could be expanded on. I think it could even replace our leveling system also. When we level, we get an attribute point, and some knowledge points. We also get access to new recipes at different milestones.
What if instead, we didn’t have levels and instead did journey steps that would grant an attribute point for completing them, and some that gave us recipes directly. Some of these would be prerequisites into others. So instead of grinding out skeletons or apes or whatever you went around the map and crafted specific sets of things, killed certain mobs, visited locations, and did other achievements to unlock everything.
Those of us who have been tinkering with exp rates have long found that a slower progression is actually better over all. A new player or one returning after a long hiatus isn’t served by fast leveling. They get access to recipes they may not have the materials for and may not even know how to get those materials yet. Journey now kinda helps with that. For example you learn how to use iron which leads to learning to do steel. Those are great goals to guide someone along.
But at 1.0x rates, you end up well into your 30s and maybe 40s before you have a sufficient stockpile of Steel to make something. Veteran players know to kill for it. But not everyone is a veteran player. At 0.5x rates it slows things down enough that players can reach a sufficient amount of steel before they are level 30 so when they begin to unlock recipes, they can use it.
Same thing with hardened steel at level 50. At 1.0x rates you could easily level quickly enough to actually skip hardened steel (just making enough for the T3 stations you want) and go straight to star metal or its contemporaries. But when its slowed down you could have a decent stockpile to not only be worth using but will be inclined to use for those 10 levels.
But adjusting rates has its own issues. You’re still kind of implying that people are going for the most exp efficient routes. Exp rates also affects thrall progression which isn’t good. Even if current issues with them were addressed, getting decent thralls or pets to 20 would be significant amounts of work at 0.5x rates.
Tying it to the journey system solves that issue, and still allows for veteran and active players to quickly progress at their own pace. But since it is goal oriented, and since it would put a greater emphasis on crafting and exploring as well as personal achievements, it would help guide the players even more to the various different nuances. Without them having to consult the wiki or youtube as much.
