Feedback after finally giving the game a chance after all these years

[allwynd01]

I first found out about this game in around 2010 or 2011 when I was fooling around with Ubuntu and was trying to migrate to Linux, but still being a kid, I needed games to play, so I stumbled upon PlaneShift, installed it, fired it up and probably 10 seconds later I uninstalled it, because it looked so bad.

I forgot about it for years.

Recently I was on the hunt for small, indie, obscure and underappreciated MMOs to give them a try. One of them was PlaneShift and I remembered I once tried it, but never really gave it a chance.

So today I installed it again, created my character and entered the world. I passed through the tutorial and went to the main city. I walked around, trying to find the exit so I can go outside of town and kill some monsters, but I was unable to. What I found though was some hole to the sewers where I found some "Diseased Rats". Tried to kill one, died and then kinda gave up on the game once again and uninstalled it.

What I found this time to deter me from staying with the game is as follows:

- the UI is awfully unfunctional and unhelpful. I'm not talking about how beautiful or ugly it is, but how hard it makes it to ease someone into the game. Lots of elements are obscure, ones that you need are missing and so on.

- the controls of the character are also pretty awful. Using A, or D, Q or E, rotating with middle click (I know right click has another purpose, but using middle click constantly can break your mouse pretty fast). Walking, jumping, jumping through fences and other objects is really janky and clunky.

What amazes me is that this game has been around since 2002 and the developers never had a chance to improve those aspects one bit... unless I'm wrong and they were actually dramatically worse than they are today.

Anyway, point is, the UI can be an ugly flat panel without even a texture, but to have the needed functionality and user-friendliness needed to help a player (especially a new one) to get into the game, because when the UI is actually working against you, rather than for you, then you have a bigger problem to worry about.

If only these two aspects were a lot better, I'd probably stay with the game, despite its low population, but I don't count on them being changed anytime soon. I see the developers are working on UE4 version of the game, so hopefully when that is complete, the controls and UI will more up to standards, otherwise I see it as as wasted effort.

[Talad]

Hi, in your review there is no information of what you find missing or need improvement, so its not very helpful. You mention the UI, but that's too generic. What controls/element you didnt find? Anyway we are working on the new version, and so any improvement will go in there and not in the old version

[gonger]

Methinks you gave up too quickly, again.
And you did not ask around for help. Otherwise someone would have told you that you can redefine all keys to your personal liking. Check out the Options icon next time (in 2028, I guess!  ).

All constructive criticism of the UI is welcome, of course, but as Talad quite correctly pointed out, you do not give precise examples.
Be assured that we do know about our weaknesses. And remember that we are what you were looking for, a "small, indie, obscure and underappreciated MMO" which is FULLY Free to Play (FFP). So our resources are limited, but we keep improving the game.

Greetings,

Gonger

[Volki]

Maybe the default keybinds should be set to something more contemporary and widespread. Most people are not tech literate and would rather give up. It's a small change, but it would keep people interested in playing the current engine's version and more likely to play the Unreal version once it's out.

[Eroten]

I know this is an old topic but I wanted to give my input since I'm still pretty new to the game and have been slowly learning the mechanics and other features. I'm loving the game so far and people have been really nice but I do want to point out some of the bigger issues that might chase newbies away.

- Tutorial could be expanded to show new players the best place to grind at early levels, which is usually the arena. Maybe have the tutorial quest lead the player toward Harnquist to gear up and then straight to the arena where you'll need to gather clacker meat or something.

- I actually don't mind the UI and think it's very flexible but maybe from an aesthetic standpoint it would turn off a lot of new players. Having a more uniform design would probably help with this but I wouldn't consider this that big of an issue. One thing that would help though is maybe showcase the customizable hotbar a little better for newbies during the tutorial. Showing the corresponding key on each hotbar slot helps too.

- There's a lot of performance issues with the game, especially in Hydlaa. I'm not using the best PC but it should be good enough to run a game this old with no problem. But whenever I'm in Hydlaa, my framerate often dips below 20fps. I haven't tried the UE version yet though so maybe that fixed this issue.

- The movement and camera is definitely a big issue that probably chases a lot of new users away. The current tank controls paired with the floaty and buggy camera makes moving around feel very tedious, especially if your framerate is dipping a lot. I think you attempted to fix this with the third person follow mode but it still feels very clunky since you need to hold down the middle mouse button and you're still wrestling with the awkward camera. One thing I can suggest is make A and D  strafe keys by default, make strafing a little faster, and to make the camera more responsive to your mouse movement instead of making it glide around. The camera also bugs out often if you don't click on the center of the screen so it would be great if that was fixed somehow.

- Some of the quest descriptions could use some work. Not asking to handhold through everything but there are some quests that just don't give you enough information to work with and no way to look for more information ingame. For example, quest givers will tell you to send something to a specific NPC but doesn't tell you where to find them or if they're even in the same city. Even the NPC chat function usually doesn't work so you either have to run around aimlessly for an hour or check the wiki.

- Navigation could also use some work. Don't need a minimap but there needs to be some way to know which direction you're going. I think after playing for a while you get an idea of where everything is located but for a new player, this could easily make them get lost and quit. Without any sort of compass, the current maps are also useless since you don't know which direction you're facing.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hope I don't sound too demanding or anything. I would just love to see this game grow and get better since it's pretty unique compared to both new and old MMOs out right now.

[gonger]

I know this is an old topic

It is an old topic, but it never gets old!

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hope I don't sound too demanding or anything.

I think this is a pretty good post. Certainly not too demanding, no whining, quite the opposite: You mention precise points of criticism, and try to point out how they might be improved upon.
I wish more people, and especially newbies, would take the time to give feedback like this.

Thanks,

Gonger

[Damola]

True, true, Gonger. I'd also point out that there is PSUnreal, Eroton. And it might be good for you to try it out. Beta access is for long-term players or people who donate. More testers for PSUnreal would be most welcome,

[Migg]

Having read the suggestions in the post, I think that having an in-game compass would be a nice addition to PSUnreal. I know they were none too common in the middle ages, but I'd guess a magic contraption that can point you either rim-ward or hub-ward (e.g. via some magic attraction force that makes the needle always point at the direction of the crystal) would not be out of place in Yliakum, and would quite serve the role of a compass in a ring-like world.

I do understand that such a thing would not be so IG useful most days in the Dome, where you can just turn to face the crystal, but the lower levels would greatly covet such an invention, and it would still be helpful during foggy days even in the Dome, or in the dark underground places that abound.

[Damola]

Kind of an automap like feature would be nice. I see several possibilities to integrate that into the game also RP wise.

1) First I would not let is show something that you did not explore yet, except maybe a few places that are important to visit as a new player.

2) Quests could add locations onto the map. Say Harnquist told you where to find Levrus, so you know.

3) Level of detail or accuracy could depend on some skill like intelligence of the char.

Just some ideas.