(Best read while listening to “Tainted Love”)
Dear Devs, We have been engaged since May of 2020… Our engagement was relatively long (over 2000 hours) and then it became official on 9/28/2021. For me, it was love at first sight. I was seduced by your beauty and mesmerized by your voice (the sounds of the pickaxe hitting iron in the distance, the bubbling heartbeat of a blight node, etc.). Back then, you were told by many that you were superficial and you vowed to change your ways. We managed through multiple announced release dates only to be postponed) In some respects, the bugs we see today were never part of beta and pre-release experiences. I believed you when you worked on your self esteem issues, and developed a stronger sense of self, and for the most part, you made efforts to change. You added 2 new zones and some end game dungeons. Unfortunately, you also developed some boderline personality traits. “I hate you don’t leave me” has been a recurrent destructive dynamic in our relationship as of late, which I did not see coming during our long engagement. If it were less blatant (enough to make pretty much every other MMO blush), I’d probably still be saying; “it’s not you, it’s me.” But seriously, come on. I do not remember Watermarks (I hate you) in the betas to limit people’s progress which is now required to raise loot values (it takes time, so we won’t leave you), and the destructiveness of Wars and Invasions on the townships (I hate you) that directly impact the few remaining survivors who log in to find their Tier Crafting Stations reduced to rubble. (A way to slow people’s progression in crafting and forces us not to leave you if we want to succeed) For me, It is now a desturctive relationship to the point that it is impossible for me to ignore any longer. I have been making excuses and have obviously been in denial since launch despite family, friends, our player base attempting to show me the light. Denial: It’s a good thing I have to wait 5 hours to log on, it means the game is popular!." Anger: What do you mean people are exploiting the entire economy!" Bargaining: “I’ll fish today since most everything else is not working as intended, but they will fix it soon”. I’d say I’m currently Depressed with the anticipation that I will soon Accept that this relationship is over and move on. We need Therapy!
If you were to offer me any hope that there may be a future together, I have a couple proposals:
- Remove or Significantly limit the amount of Azoth required to go from point A to point B. We all know that transportation has been an issue with this game since the very beginning. Writing lore to discount mounts; “the animals here don’t obey us, etc.” was slick, but not slick enough.
Whomever thought it was a good idea to use 500 plus Azoth to transport (when a cap for us is 1000) as a currency for movement, AND an ingredient in crafting needs a spanking. Please limit Azoth (if not remove entirely from transportation) to like 200 capped…This would show those of us who still love you, some hope. PS: 10% increase to run speed on roads fixes this problem! (Said no-one playing this game currently!!! <3 ) - Please stop invasions from destroying our cities. From what I can tell (our server pop is low and even on our strongest day, have never won an invasion). The invasions (and for that matter, WARS), occur at the fort. It is reasonable to continue to allow fort repairs following losses). I live on the Sitara server, and it is kind’ve sad that our factions need to consider the implications of breaking crafting stations when declaring war on each other in specific towns. I must say, the use of smaller servers was great in that we have developed a more intimate core group of players who pretty much have grown to play against each other, but like each other in the end and will join up for Elite Runs, etc.
Finally, I know many have raised these issues with you…As far back as early 2020… and yet nothing has changed. I have not been active on the forums until today, because since launch, I was playing your game (920.9 hours to be exact). It is worrisome that I’m here instead of in game. I’m on the verge of accepting our relationship is over…and I will most likely never return to New World or any AGS future projects. (as this is literally strike 3 for this company).
Thank you for your time!
Grandpa Dragon
Sitara Realm
East Coast, USA