This will definitely be a bit of a rambling post and may require more than one page. Please do read to the bottom to make sure that I have put Post Concluded before you reply.
Quests
Totally like the quests.
But the quest journal is inadequate. I really just cannot keep track of 40 quests and their multiple objectives. Although I play several hours a day myself, not everyone does. Not everyone can even play on every consecutive, or even every second, day. Reminding players in detail of what they need to to complete a quest is essential if you want to keep players interested in Planeshift in the longer term.
Combat
So far I perceive it as being fairly seriously imbalanced. You cannot necessarily say that axe, sword, dagger or fist is better than the other.
Each has advantages and disadvantages. Some will be supreme against some adversaries or at similar level whilst being inferior against other opponents or at other levels of skill.
Magic
This seems to work in its basics but there are clearly areas which do are not as completely coded as others and there has also, clearly, been no great attempt to systematise magic in general.
An example of this is that, if I train Charisma, my healing spells become more powerful. If I train Will, it has no impact on the Red Way spell Electrotouch.
I do think that, for example, Life Infusion appropriately reflects higher Charisma. However, higher levels of magic skill (very hard to tell because I only have 7 in this) do not seem to be markedly reflected in comparison to stat level.
I do not think that increased skill seems to be properly reflected. I would expect higher rank in skill to be, normally, more important than its supporting stat.
I would expect something very crudely like:
Base spell effect * level * stat/100
In other words, a vastly charismatic Crystal or Dark Way mage, with 200 in the primary stat of Charisma, would always cast twice better than someone with 100 (base damage for the level) in that stat.
I feel that each level should add about 5% impact onto the previous level. This is an exponential gain in impact that should be paralled with exponential cost in raising that skill. For magic I would say at least +20% in tria and pp at each level. Magic is a special thing.
At present I have about rank 5 in each way. I feel that that has been too easy to achieve, though it is nice to be able to experiment at the lower levels while you are learning what is possible.
To make that make sense in the context of game mechanics, I would have an overall skill of 'Glyphic Affinity' (call it whatever) that would limit how many ranks you could put into magic skills in general.
Reward Balancing
This is honestly very random and chaotic seeming, which is very good in a way. After all different people have different values and pay accordingly.
But, that said, some quests clearly pay far too much or too little, in comparison to others, for the amount of effort required.
I would suggest closely examining the faction system, revising and systemetising it, and using faction reward points as a base for calculating maximum and minimum reasonable cash and pp rewards from a quest.
With careful examination and restructuring of the faction system you would be able to assign theoretical levels and absolute prerequisites for every quest and automatically enforce reasonable minimums and maximums accordingly.
Daily quests should be instituted as a minimal faction requirement, low faction reward means of correcting errors in quest choices that have lowered faction for a character.
I dont see any inherent point or long term usefulness in capping faction point rewards. This game is in its youth and trying to cap faction ratings at 100 is short sighted. It would be much better to increase faction caps by a set amount every time you add a substantial amount of game content.
Earning PP and Cash
This is currently annoyingly slow. As either dedicated or casual player , I honestly do not want to spend more than 2 hours of my evening grinding for pp or tria. This is boring and totally contrary to the whole point that - this is a game that is meant to be an enjoyable leisure passtime.
Diversity
So far I have been able to quest or mine or craft with equal sense of reward for the time I spend doing each.
This is very good and, while I appreciate the fact that it takes a long time to create new content, I do think that it is critically important that you continue to develop the game in a way that sustains that level of satisfaction.
That said, I have the presentiment that it will not be long before I run out of quests to explore and, at the same time, out of that source of both cash and pleasant passing of time.
So, to restate the above, I feel that it is imperative that you not force the player into a situation where they feel that they are spending their time grinding.
Conclusion
I recently read that you feel that the overall engine is now stable enough that it provides a good foundation for future development.
I tend to agree with that. Planeshift has progressed incredibly well since I last played.
However, I think your hope that you can use that to start developing new features is foolish and shortsighted.
In my opinion you should use the consolidation and reliability of the game engine to consolidate and review the game system.
As you said, you now have a stable game engine to use as a platform for future development, but you must also have a stable game system so that, once that is consolidated, you can focus on being creative for a while and not worrry about problems you would otherwise inherit from the past, ie from now.
