PlaneShift
Support => Complaint Department => Topic started by: Roahn on May 11, 2007, 07:28:46 am
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My recent review of Planeshift is below, and lists many of the reasons I have left the game. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but hopefully some of it will be used constructively, and maybe lead to future improvements. Also note that this was written for an online game review site, so the target audience is for someone who has not played Planeshift before.
Pros:
Free, cross-platform
Cons:
Not improving, lame controls, combat, magic, models
Full user opinion
The idea of Planeshift is a good one, and it has potential... unfortunately the game lacks in so many areas that have not been addressed for well over a year.
Controls: 1 out of 10.
The controls are very clunky. Mouse control is unstable, so most people use use arrow keys to move around, ala Tomb Raider from too many years ago.
Models: 2 out of 10
There are over a dozen races... but only a few models, so the females in 7 races all use the same model! Imagine, the elf-type, lizard-type, human-type and others all use the same model as the demon type race!
Skins: 1 out of 10
There are no custom skins. Look around town... all dwarves look the same. All humans look the same. All human males even are stuck with the same beard. Rock-people look the same. The only difference is hair color. You could put on armor, which shows up on some races, but then you look exactly like all others wearing armor.
World: 3 out of 10
There is only one world, and it is tiny compared to other MMORPG games, but since there are usually only 70 to 250 players online at a time, it is big enough to not be crowded.
There are three main areas in the world: the main city of Hydlaa, the town of Ojaveda, and a big area called Bronze Door for some stupid reason that has couple of lakes, a mine inside a mountain, and a keep by a waterfall. However, almost no thought has gone into placement of monsters. Most areas in the hills and valleys are barren of life. In the huge section of Bronze Door, there is a total of only TWO monsters, two identical rogues standing next to each other. So one third of the world is practically devoid of monsters. However go into the main city into a building called the Arena, and you will find hundreds of monsters packed practically shoulder to shoulder. Where is the motivation to explore?
Monsters: 2 out of 10
There are only a few different monster models. Two monsters can be the same exact race, size and skin, but one will be as easy to kill as a rat, while the other will be almost impossible to kill. Monster animations are very primitive, and their AI is nonexistent. They just walk toward you slowly.
Animations: 1 out of 10
Animations are one of the worst things in this game. In fact, there are almost no animations. Even in combat, most characters just change stance, and don't even make a swinging motion with their weapons.
Sounds: 1 out of 10
There are almost no sounds in Planeshift other than some repetitive music. Monsters make no sounds. Weapons make no sounds. Combat is silent. No footsteps. Only a few magic spells make a "charging-up" sound as they are cast.
Weapons: 1 out of 10
There are only a handful of weapon classes. They are not balanced, so nearly everyone uses short swords or daggers. Only "noobies" ever use claymores, broadswords or most other blades. ALL shortswords look identical. ALL daggers look identical. There are dozens of different types of weapons that can be looted, like "Darkweave Dagger" or "Short Sword of Enlightenment." A few of these might boost a stat by 4 or 5 or 10 points... but no thought at all was put into these. First, the few that do boost only boost a tiny percentage (like a person with 200 strength might get boosted to 205... deal). Second, most cannot be equipped by weaker characters... the ones who would benefit most from a +5 to strength. Thirdly, all of these "special" weapons do far less damage than a "crafted" weapons. The result: everybody runs around with the same weapons: either crafted short swords, or crafted daggers. All the "special" weapons are useless.
Magic: 2 out of 10
Magic exists in Planeshift, but there are only 16 or so spells that can be learned. Of these, only 3 or 4 are even somewhat useful, and they are terribly underpowered and slow. Nobody uses magic in "real" combat. Also, magic often does not improve as you go up in level. Example: Spend months and ungodly amounts of money on training to use the healing spell to level 80... but you will only heal about 10% better than someone who is only level 1.
Potions: 1 out of 10
There are a few potions that can temporarily boost your stats, but these only boost one stat, and only 5 to 8 points at most, and they do not stack. So someone with a 200 strength can only boost to 205 at most, and the boost only lasts 2 or 3 minutes. Utterly useless.
Magic items: 1 out of 10
There are almost no magic items in Planeshift. There is a ring that can give you a "familiar," a small puppy-like animal, but it is useless and buggy. It will not fight, cannot be attacked, is not animated. The only thing it can do is follow you, and even that is buggy and only works half the time. Also it can only be summoned for about 5 minutes per day (real world 24 hours).
Quests: 2 out of 10
Quests are done by "talking" to NPCs. A handful of quests are slightly challenging or interesting, but the majority of them are just acts of frustration trying to guess the right phrases and spelling to get an NPC to answer you. 95% of NPC responses are "I don't understand you" or "Try speaking English." Sometimes saying something like "Please tell me about the holy scroll" will not work, but "about scroll" will work. I've even seen quests where you must misspell a word to get it to work!
Interaction: 2 out of 10
You cannot interact with the world. There are no doors that open or close. No carts or mounts or magic carpets. There are numerous flaws in the world where your toe can lodge, and you'll be stuck. There is an "unstick" command, but that often will not get you unstuck, nor will relogging. Sometimes your only option is to kill yourself.
Gamemasters: 2 out of 10
Gamemasters are, for the most part, the "police" of Planeshift. They rarely participate in any RPs, and on the rare occasions that they do, it is usually very boring, and people usually just participate with it to get a reward at the end (sometimes nothing, sometimes a few experience points, or once in a while a rare item).
I get the impression that most Gamemasters are young, as most lack any skills at conflict resolution, or stopping serious harassment. They are often quite rude and unhelpful. Example: A friend was trying to get to a major in-game event (a wedding). They traveled across the whole map, only to get their toe stuck between two small rocks (a bug) when she was almost there. She tried "unsticking" and relogging, but couldn't get out. When a GM was politely asked "Can you please move me from between these rocks?" The GM replied, "We don't do that anymore. You will have to kill yourself." She finally had to do this, and ended up missing the wedding.
Server: 2 out of 10
The game server is quite unstable at times. Often when the game server is up, the "npc server" will be down for hours or even days at a time. When this happens, all monsters become like statues.
Planeshift is a "pre-alpha playable demo," and this is a fitting description. Problems like I mentioned would be expected in a game in this stage, however almost all of these problems are in exactly the same stage as they were 18 months ago when I started playing. Back then it was pre-alpha, today it is a pre-alpha, and my guess is that next year it will still be a pre-alpha.
-Roahn
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What can I say, except "You know, we know, and thank you for your time."
If you can help us, do it. The team application is a link in my signature.
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I have read the entire post and have to agree, (with the exception of the GM comments, of which I have no experience), that there are valid problems in all mentioned areas. I wouldn't rate each as harshly as you have, but I understand your sentiments. I also believe that the devs are trying to address many of these issues---and it will take time. Yet I can only admire the world which has been created, and continues to improve. There's also more to this world than simply its gameplay...that is the citizens one gets to know. It appears to me that someone is always "stepping up" at the need to help others, or tell a tale, or set up a picnic, or even help you with the dreaded "NPC exact wording". And I've been fortunate enough to make some valued friends in my travels. So, although I recognize many shortcomings, I also see that this is a fine work and I am grateful to all involved in the project. And it's free, aka a gift, so accept it or leave it alone.
It's a shame that your review might prevent some from the experience many of us enjoy.
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you guys do realize that this is a :beta: and is still in construction. This is also being made by people who are not being paid to my knowledge, and are working on it in their free time. i understand what you are saying but you are comparing this to fully developed games that have huge teams of people who are being paid top dollar to make games. I'm sorry but this is not one of those games (personally, i'm glad it is the way it is. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have gathered such a great community).
Just remember good games take time to make, and even the best designed game can turn into crap with a bad community.
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you guys do realize that this is a :beta: and is still in construction. This is also being made by people who are not being paid to my knowledge, and are working on it in their free time. i understand what you are saying but you are comparing this to fully developed games that have huge teams of people who are being paid top dollar to make games. I'm sorry but this is not one of those games (personally, i'm glad it is the way it is. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have gathered such a great community).
Just remember good games take time to make, and even the best designed game can turn into crap with a bad community.
/me bows to the great wisdom of Reikar
Hit it bang on... and this is the main reason I like Free Software be it games or any other apps...
Everything starts with the community and ends with it as well. It's the community that either supports it or doesn't.
Personaly I wish I could help out with planeshift development but my skills as a C/C++ coder are more or less non-existant beyond small
patches here and there...
I must say I have to disagree with some of the review...
The controls are very clunky. Mouse control is unstable, so most people use use arrow keys to move around, ala Tomb Raider from too many years ago.
I acctually like using the keyboard a lot. I only use some things like long walks(mouse run) or when initiating interaction with other players
i.e. trade, talk to an npc, use etc... with the mouse. The shortcut system is great and makes doing things easily.
There are no custom skins. Look around town... all dwarves look the same. All humans look the same. All human males even are stuck with the same beard. Rock-people look the same. The only difference is hair color. You could put on armor, which shows up on some races, but then you look exactly like all others wearing armor.
Hmmm I don't get that impression. Yes many look the same but so do in other games until they work more on it... There are some that
look the same though most noticably the Kran but from my perspective I've seen many different and unique characters.
There is only one world, and it is tiny compared to other MMORPG games, but since there are usually only 70 to 250 players online at a time, it is big enough to not be crowded.
It's slowly growing as the developers have time to make new areas. I haven't even explored it all and I've been playing for 4 days so far.
There are a few potions that can temporarily boost your stats, but these only boost one stat, and only 5 to 8 points at most, and they do not stack. So someone with a 200 strength can only boost to 205 at most, and the boost only lasts 2 or 3 minutes. Utterly useless.
I guess you haven't played many pen and paper roleplaying games... 2-3 minutes is ussualy enough to complete many combat rounds
in most of them and that's where potions are supposed to be used... To gain a quick, small and short advantage over your oponent...
I won't comment on the other points as that would be duplicating my existing post in this section...
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Hmm .. well after reading the first post in this thread, i guess it is a fair roundup of the state of the game to other experienced people who play other MMORPG i suppose. However this being my first MMORPG :-[ , i cannot opine on the comparisons and benchmarking made thereof :sleeping: . I am thinking maybe the poster has done this, and also posted it here so others can view it, mostly the dev and settings team. The post seems to me as 'constructive criticism' ...and i do mean both those words together..so please dont quote me as saying criticism ::| .....'constructive criticism' in a hope to politely alert the community as a whole (devs, settings team and players) to maybe some short comings in the game. Well... we all know in huge projects, sometimes while prioritizing work some aspects may get overlooked, or maybe forgotten/delayed for too long. I think this particular post is very positive, as a 'tester' (player) has made the community to pause and think, re prioritize maybe, and continue with the building of the game.
On the matter that it was a review, benchmarking and comparing it to fully developed games (i am assuming here) ..well.. to each his own i guess. The bottom line is... a tester has given his feedback in a constructive manner :thumbup: [hmm externally too :( ] . I think it would be a good idea for the dev and settings team, who are more in charge of prioritizing and developing the game to use it as a check list. Maybe they will find that this is exactly what they had intended 2 years ago for the the state of the game today to be :whistling: ..if not..then it can help them re prioritize :sorcerer:.
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We know exactly what our shortcomings are, and several things are missing because we lack the manpower to do them. It's as simple as that.
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You're negative on 99,9% of Planeshift. You're also not well informed.
Some examples:
-You can notice GMs are very young people: Nope, you have to be at least 21 to join the GM team.
-The Bronze Doors area is called that way "for some stupid reason": The fortress there is actually guarding the Bronze Doors, an entrance to the Stone Labyrinths. You're just not paying attention.
-There are only 16 spells: There are more than 16 glyphs currently available, all with spells.
-Planeshift is not improving: Wow, you must miss all the releases or something. New quests, better quests, better stability, new areas, more NPCs, the PvP area, changed combat and skills; you missed it all apparently!
Despite that, there's something to be said for all your comments. But that's because Planeshift is a "pre-alpha" game. You don't go make reviews about those ;)
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Also note that this was written for an online game review site
I'd like to see that. Someone actually accepting this poor excuse for a whining fest as a review for their website :P
If I were to give some points for the above review, I think it would be 4 out of 10.
It all comes down to this:
The minimal point (1) - 1
Structure (0-2) - 1 <it isn't random, but it isn't a review structure either>
Coherence, grammar, etc. (0-2) - 1 <all is okay, but nothing special>
Content (0-5) - 1 <somewhat misleading, lack of proper game introduction>
There is absolutely no introduction for the review or Planeshift for that matter. A person not familiar with the game wouldn't even realise what you're talking about. No information about the background, no information on the setting. Is it futuristic? Modern? Medieval. No nothing. There is also no information about your initial experience with the game. I can easily conclude here that the point of the text isn't to provide a decent review for the reader, but rather to let out your frustration. It would also be a smart move to introduce the history of the game as well as point out its current stage of development. You bring up the latter in the concluding part, but anyone who has any idea about writing essays and paragraphs will tell you that it should appear both in introduction and conclusion.
On to the main body. This doesn't look like a review. It's a list, and as the topic of this thread implies, it's a list of complains. Why should a random reader care about your complains for a game they have never heard about? Especially when you don't make any introduction. Your text doesn't draw any attention, ergo it won't make anyone want to read on.
The text is coherent and grammatically correct, however there are places where it lacks cohesion. You keep repeating phrase "there are", while some sentences are overly basic and lack any cohesive devices. That's why I give you only one point for this part. The structure of sentences is far from being impressive.
As I already insinuated, the content is very poor. You don't provide any deeper information about the game and the reader has to read between lines to figure out what the setting for the game may be. You should pay more attention to that considering there's lots to write about. The setting is somewhat unique, especially the location is. If you mentioned it in the introduction, you could actually draw some interest. You should also mention what player-base the project aims at. Reader needs to know whether it's meant for role-players or fans of hack&slash games. From the content of your "review" I assume you're the latter. What points me to this conclusion is yourself mentioning how the open areas are largely void of beasts, whereas arena is filled with them.
...That would be just about right, no? It's pretty obvious the arena would have more fighting going on in it. It's "arena" for gods' sake! My conclusion is also supported by the fact you see no motivation for exploring other than fighting the monsters. Here I find another problem, in fact. It seems you write your review for the players of hack&slash games, whilst the dev team aims Planeshift for the role-players. In my opinion you should write it with thought of as many types of mmo players as possible. However, that of course can be hard to do if you're going to remain highly subjective.
Next problem: The points awarded are obviously a result of a serious bias and you should realise there's something wrong with your review when early-development game that grew from 10-30 to 70-250 players online at any one moment over the last 4 years gets review that is 2/10 on the average. Especially when the developers don't actually get any money from the project. Read: they do it in their free time, as a hobby. Considering all the above, the progress of Planeshift has been very impressive over the last few years.
Now. Some of your complains are simply amusing. It's pretty obvious once you put on full armour, you will look like all the other people that do the same. I really don't get it what you complain about in this part. Furthermore, most regular players have descriptions of their characters that anyone can look at. Planeshift is a game aimed at people with imagination and more visual variety doesn't really stand as a priority at the current stage of development.
Your complains have strong basis (hence one point), but they lack objectivity and very often appear to be forced (not to mention they can be considered arguable). Moreover, you forget about many good parts of Planeshift. Community is a certain high score, considering it's much better than in most mmo games.
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I've written an entire post explaining about how wrong you were. but dammit you don't even desreve it if you're as shortsighted as you demonstrate in your post Rhoan.
You stare yourself blind at things that need improving and refuse to see what has been improving.
It would not have been a problem if all your useless comments were personal oppinions, but your thread is pure pointing and screaming.
Go play World of Warcraft.
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Roahn, I agree with your summation... but it sounds totally negative. You played for 18 months, there must have been something that kept you coming back other than, "I hope it's changed today." You didn't list that reason or "rate" it. Whatever it was, it is a positive that you failed to mention.
PlaneShift has changed drastically since I've been playing. I have seen significant improvements and I know they are working on it. I do not expect them to ever be anymore than pre-alpha though, so I'm never disappointed. ;D
We all know the handful of people working on PS are doing their very best. I for one applaud their efforts. Karyuu has even started a section for public contributions. This alone is a MAJOR change and I hope it helps fill in the details while maintaining Talad's demand for the highest quality content.
@Thom, no disrespect, but "at least 21" IS very young. And the additional spells you speak of cannot be attained or cast yet without potion boosting your character. Roahn knows spells better than most. And when you do cast them, these super high level spells, they're worthless. This is not to say, "PS sucks", I'm just stating a well known flaw in the magic system. Right Xordan? ;D
Roahn, I will miss you, but I think you'll be back.
Araye
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I have to agree with ThomPhoenix 100% here. Although the list covers many areas, it is very clear Roahn didnt pay to much attention to the settings at all. If it took 18 months to compile a list that any noob could do in less than 1 week, it speaks volumes as to the creater of such a list.
I think it would only be fair of Roahn to tell us what site this article will be on, so there would be an oppertunity for either criteque(sp) or a review from someone who understands the entire position and workings of PS development.
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We know exactly what our shortcomings are, and several things are missing because we lack the manpower to do them. It's as simple as that.
I'd also like to mention that alot of free MMO's that are out there tend to use generic tools specially designed for making mmo's or they hack P2P games and make free emulations of those games, which is also partially responsible for the massive amounts of mmo's clone out there. While there are games out there that are original and technically free, they tend to get a larger budget from "perk donations'(basically where you get special rewards for giving them money) and are able to do more, but these games suffer from alot as well from this. They tend to have more lag, more power levelers and leets, as well as more hacking, cracking, duping, as well as some other undesirable elements.
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Oh oh oh! Don't forget we don't have to pay for it! That is a major lack, Every BIG online game (whether PRG, FPD or RTS ).
Also we miss T-shirts! RL prizes with tournaments!
And don't forget we don't have Fascist Gm's :-\ I feel sad, many games have them.
But the thing I dislike the most would be That the 'makers' of this game are pretty original ::| I mean, what game is these days? Original is for Old 8-bit comp n00bs!
[/me sniffs the air and faints at the smelling of lots of sarcasm]
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@Thom, no disrespect, but "at least 21" IS very young.
If you make it seem the GMs are all a bunch of 12 year olds harassing everyone they can, you could say that 21 years is quite old :)
You played for 18 months, there must have been something that kept you coming back other than, "I hope it's changed today." You didn't list that reason or "rate" it. Whatever it was, it is a positive that you failed to mention.
I agree with this.
The problem of this thread is being reflected by it's title: Is this a review or just another "list of complaints"?
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Emotional maturity doesn't have much to do with knowledge or ability ;)
Anyway, I wasn't saying all 12 year olds are emotionally immature. I was fighting that statement, although I could've used a better example.
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Emotional maturity doesn't have much to do with knowledge or ability ;)
Anyway, I wasn't saying all 12 year olds are emotionally immature. I was fighting that statement, although I could've used a better example.
I didn't mean only emotional maturity, but emotional maturity is key to being a good GM imo. If you freak out if someone challenges your authority, if you lack the humility to hear with an open mind someone telling you you've made a mistake, and if you're so insecure that you can't admit when you're wrong, then that's a problem. Emotionally mature individuals are also less likely to act on personal bias or prejudice. And face it, GMs are community leaders. To be an effective leader, you need to be a people person.
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I agree there are many aspects of the game that make it fustrating and sometimes nearly impossable to play. The one wonderful thing is the people who play. though latly many have moved on, being motivated by the need to relax and not be fustrated by malfunctioning game machinics. That is a shame. The Player RP is usually above par. The players really take Rp seriously and invest large amounts of time developing their characters. This is the one part of the game I miss, the interaction with the other players and the imersion in rp. I have not had much time to play as of late, RL stuff. anyway, in my opinion, it is the Players that make PS a wonderful place online. Still, one can only take so much fustration. Many just pop in from time to time to see if tech. issues have been resolved enough to make playing functional. Perhapps when the Game is a more fine tuned project the old timers will return RPing in full force.
but for now;
Players Recognise all the hard work, devotion, and time the PS team puts into the game.
PS team recognise that the player RP is the treasure of PS
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Hello.
I'm quite sad about what the topic is talking about :s sad because this game is cool, why cant people find a way to have their time use correctly in the game without thinking at problems that it has? :(
Planeshift is a "pre-alpha playable demo," and this is a fitting description. Problems like I mentioned would be expected in a game in this stage, however almost all of these problems are in exactly the same stage as they were 18 months ago when I started playing. Back then it was pre-alpha, today it is a pre-alpha, and my guess is that next year it will still be a pre-alpha.
-Roahn
Personaly im playing since June 2006 (really began to play like a mad in July), it took me a while to understand where i was and where to go (thats why i help so much newcomers when i have time to). it took me a while to get good skills but now lets get into your say :
pre-alpha playable demo => do you need a game lot of graphic stuff to spend lot of time on it? when Proglin said to you
Go play World of Warcraft.
=> i played WoW but was disgusted, i had almost failed some examinations because i was playing it so much to "rentabilize" my money.
To resume this idea, all depends on what the player is looking for 1) : if it's for a community ( which is for the most part nice and if not that's because they are always roleplaying their character which is a great idea, (though im not sure i can rp as them, even if i would have a better english to do it.) players ingame, on IRC, on this forum! OR 2) if it's to have a game like WoW with of course splendid graphics but lame mentality i'm not sure you will choose WoW, well the choice is reserved to you.
some points are true in what you said =>1) Planeshift needs improvement, it's a fact. 2) some GMs needs to do the difference between a localization bug as stuck in a hill and a "cheat" by trying to get teleported into a place without telling our TRUE localization in the world. (well in most cases, the GMs check your localization)
Third point => 3) the world is small according to you? well you must not have run that lot to affirm this. i dont remember how many times i ran to Bronze Doors to finish some quests or simply get some training!
and now to concluse with my own opinion : PS is a great game, i would even tell a great-free-openminded-game. The game is enjoyable and even if it has some lack in some domains, my question is = how can we leave it? :o or at least why telling all the bad points and not being objectives in your say?
finally, as Karyuu said and many others Devs, moderators, whatever..
We know exactly what our shortcomings are, and several things are missing because we lack the manpower to do them. It's as simple as that.
So now stop be harrassing to their work and participate into it to get the game growing more and more to finally get a game which will be playable with all his skills, skins, and you guess the rest :)
Follow this idea => :D
Players Recognise all the hard work, devotion, and time the PS team puts into the game.
Durwyn, alias Dudu. Good luck!
PS : i guess that the priority of the game-development won't change , right? just to be sure that you will not do an error ^^ a player complaint, even if the complaint is long and well built by thinking or so, must not interact with your plans for the future :) at least it's my opinion.
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I agree with Gwinn.. the best thing here in PS is the people RPing
I left PS because i think this project is working too slow (i know, i know, i read a lot of :They are working hard, and blabla..", but i just think its all coming slowly.. and i got frustrated with all this bugs and stucks that never gets fixed.. like being stucked in every place, corner, that i walk.. or spending more than 2 months trying to get the winch access (can't get yet -.- )... and sometimes i see new glyphs coming, but the "old" spells are not working fine yet.. or, items coming that gives +1 in some stats.. what's the difference getting +1 in a spell that u spend months to get +80 or so.. i just want to say that is better to think on the things that are implemented in game before add more things.. it makes the project going better..
I think its not so hard to make little updates, like bug fixes, every week.. i say this because i'm in other game now, and there updates are every week, and players feels motivate to keep there because every week one little little problem is fixed.
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edit:
other thing that is frustrating is because everything, any kind of help, is a spoiler.. then no one helps no one o.O
i said this more detailed, another day ago, in some topic.. but no one gave attention.. but remuming, thats it
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About the comment of Roahn, i think its not a destructive comment.. he is only telling the problems he see in game..
And i see the most replies here is "rejecting" his comment.. and i believe this is a wall to a progression on the game.. you all have to accept this errors and missed things that Roahn told and get motivated to fix it..
making a wall for it, these problems will be masked.. sorry, but i said it because i saw it happening many times here. ppl deffending devs and masking problems, making the progression more slower.
But good luck, i hope this project go ahead, because its the only 3d RP game where i saw RPlayers
Lebre
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i just want to say that is better to think on the things that are implemented in game before add more things.. it makes the project going better..
Since some points here are things that I have seen repeated dozens of times, I will reply with the replies us developers have posted dozens of times as well. Please read carefully:
We have different people working on different things, and so new features still pop up when previous features (coded by someone else) need to be smoothed out. I've noticed that this is a fairly common comment, that new things are being created while the old need to be taken care of. The reason for this is a diverse team with many different talents - someone may be intimately familiar with NPCs, but have little information on how the quest system is coded.
Ultimately, fixing select bugs falls on those devs who know how to do it instead of our programmers as a whole. So it may be slow going, and I apologize for the delays you are experiencing.
other thing that is frustrating is because everything, any kind of help, is a spoiler.. then no one helps no one o.O
Many players would challenge this. Our community is one of the most helpful that I have encountered, and all information is free to flow in the game :)
And i see the most replies here is "rejecting" his comment.. and i believe this is a wall to a progression on the game.. you all have to accept this errors and missed things that Roahn told and get motivated to fix it..
We're very motivated, Lebre. But again I'm going to have to repeat myself:
Our team is small. Very small. It is tiny. We cannot create as much content as fast as we would like. If you can help out, then please fill out an application and become a prospect. If you cannot, then I am sorry that we aren't working fast enough for you, but we have zero choice. We dedicate all the time we have, and sometimes we have no more. We cannot change this. But you can, if you have the skills to aid us.
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Anyways, I'd have to agree with Roahn for the most part. I mean some of the ratings are extremely underated where some are overated(even though the usual rating was a 1 or a 2). Also, the fact that your review was in reality simply a comparison instead of a review of much larger MMORPG's, which brought it down by quite a bit of notches on my ladder of...greatness(I have one of those?)
And Lebre is right in a way, but i've brought up this point before, I believe, or at least have come across it multiple times. The answer is that they wish that the game be finished before fixing the problems, why this is, I have NO clue. Do I think this is a good idea, no, but is this my project that i've worked however many years on?Also a big FAT no! So I have come to the conclusion that not caring anymore is the best answer and instead i've decided to just smell the roses.
So in the end I do not complain, instead I wait...ridiculously patiently, and the updates come... a little bit slowly, but taking into consideration the amount of spare time devoted makes up for it.
Actually i'm not quite sure if I should've even read this post, these subjects have been brought up SO many times and even the exact same things said that it's kind of ridiculous really. Take it or leave it, complain if you wish, but to your mothers. And in no way do I defend anybody, but merely point out the facts.
Actually i'm really impressed by Zanzibar, I really like all of his analogys and refrences I feel like i'm reading a modern day Socrates...well maybe not Socrates, but I could see you being a modern day philosopher of some sort. Heh...TOGA TOGA TOGA!
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Wow...what is the use of this thread?
I was thinking of going on a long rant but...I've done that quite a few times.
I'll just state the main points:
The Devs are doing an amazing job, they've done more than anybody else has without being payed at all.
I don't see why you people see the need to point out the bad parts...it's as if somebody gave you a cake and you whine about there not being enough frosting.
I stopped playing with Nurahk because I was tired of being associated with this idiotic group of people who make up such a large part of the Player Base.
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In my oppinion This is the Best game out there and the price is right
And for :beta: It is an awsome bata Not even in alpha stages yet but ferther along than most alphas
Open your eyes See the Gift Talad and Devs And All of the PS staff has bestowed appon us
Alot of hours / days /weeks / months / even years go into this
Are they being paid? no
they are working on this to Give to all
Its not deserved or owed to us
With posts ranting about their blood sweat tears .......... their brain child
I am amaised they had not locked the doors on us
If you can make a difference Get involved Contact Developers Or the People who can get you in the right place
Its not about the Squeeky wheel getting the Grease here
Its about so much one team can do at a time
So many hands so many commands so much to do in little time to make it an easy transition to us to get back in game
I have seen Much Development in the last year (LETS HEAR IT FOR THE DEVS AND ALL THE OTHER PRODUCTION CREW OF PS)
this past year they have been working there Tails off and From what i can see they do not complain.
I hope this is not taken the wrong way guys
But We all are PS And those who Complain about growth or progression
Do you know what actually goes into designing a program
Honestly i am not well vursed in the mapping of the ps server
now the last what 3 or 4 updates have been magor
crafting.....less load on client and cleaner Gui.......exc...exc...exc
The Wench ............ a new place to explore
They are trying to keep the momentum going
Give these people a hand .......words of incuragment not I want this and i want it now or your program is not progressing the way i want it too
It it were to go as you would want it to then there would be no ingame
what is the fun in that
And the Small changes these are great
We get to see the Evolution of PS
Think back about The Very first Plane Shift
now look at what we have
Amaising if you think about it
We are evolving and Talad did not build this wonderful place in one day/me snickers "Atleast i dont think he did ..............Talad If you did oops sorry my bad"
ok ok i will end this but comon dont knock the blessing we do have and lets let the Gods / Devs
know how much we Do appriceate there work and time and everything they put in to this
Thank you for listening to me
hopfully this is not out of context for this thread
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I get sick of the people who complain that this isn't a free version of WOW.
I have little time as it is to spend in PS, I don't know how the devs find the time to work on it. If someone is impatient with the progress they should find a way to help if they have the talent, leave, or give constructive criticism not just complaints. Seem to be too many people who "just know" the best way things should be done by someone else.
I'll just leave it that I think the devs are doing a great job.
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I agree with JackDaw on this. I'm so tired of seeing the same complaints and remarks. If anything I think the Devs deserve our applause for their commitment. I don't know how they how they do it...but they do it well.
I think that if people want to point out some stuff that needs to be worked on, they should at least have some kind of background in what they are talking about. Also, if the ps bugs them that much and they do have the background, they could at least do the nice thing and send in a resume. ::|
That's all I have to say about that. :-X
Devs YOU guys rock!
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/me is filled with warm fuzzies.
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Roahn, I appreciate you taking the time to dengrate everything we do and point out the completely obvious. This utter waste if time reminds me of something . . .oh yeah! That's it! trying to please every PS player by spending more than 8 hrs a day working on a free game!
I am glad you could join us in producing something that many players vocally dislike.
Cheers and thanks for the encouragement folks, trolls will overtake the forums without players fighting them off with shortswords that all look the same!
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/me leaps in front of xillix with his dark daggers (which, gosh darn it, look just like, I don't know, a dagger!)
And I know that the original poster won't read this, but "rock people"? You've been around 18 months, and you don't Kran? I don't know why I'm bothering, but "Imagine, the elf-type, lizard-type, human-type and others all use the same model as the demon type race!" What the hell are you on about?
/me steps off his soapbox, and wanders off
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If you can help us, do it. The team application is a link in my signature.
In my opinion, people should not complain so publicly about the game if they cannot or don't want do the 'job' themselves.
I don't believe anyone has any right to complain in an unhelpful way unless they can actually do it better themselves, and are actually willing to do better themselves. If you don't like the game, leave quietly. Dont bother the devs with unhelpful criticisms that they've heard a hundred times before.
If you want to complain, do it in a constructive way. That post didn't help the devs in any way
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In my opinion, people should not complain so publicly about the game if they cannot or don't want do the 'job' themselves.
I don't believe anyone has any right to complain in an unhelpful way unless they can actually do it better themselves, and are actually willing to do better themselves. If you don't like the game, leave quietly. Dont bother the devs with unhelpful criticisms that they've heard a hundred times before.
I don't mind people complaining if they want to. What I don't like is people making assumptions about particular aspects ( ie, we don't do enough, this bug only takes a few lines to fix, this needs to be done like X ). We are not stupid, we know that there are many things that need to be improved. There is something like over a thousand bugs in the bug tracker.
It's a little bit unfair to say "unless they can actually do it better themselves" because if they could they would be off writing their own games. And at the same time it's unfair to expect us to do everything perfectly. The whole 'beta' thing for me is a non-starter. I like to think of it as a 'work in progress'.
Think of it as a hobby, is a person's coin collection in 'beta' or when does a person 'finish' with their 'ballroom' dancing.
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And I know that the original poster won't read this, but "rock people"? You've been around 18 months, and you don't Kran? I don't know why I'm bothering, but "Imagine, the elf-type, lizard-type, human-type and others all use the same model as the demon type race!" What the hell are you on about?
Pale,
The first paragraph of my review explained it: "Also note that this was written for an on-line game review site, so the target audience is for someone who has not played Planeshift before." Since the target audience of my review was for people who had not tried PS before, they would have no clue what a kran, klyros, dermorian, or lemur was.
Many have responded "Planeshift is a pre-alpha so quit asking for perfection." I know this, and noted that it is a pre-alpha in my review. However, on a site where people review games, they are reviews as the games are now... not how they might be someday.
Many responded along the lines of: "What sets Planeshift apart from other games is the community." How does one know that other games do not have similar "community?" I have found good community and bad community in Planeshift as well as many other games, forums, chat-rooms, user groups, etc.
Someone responded along the lines of "Well, something must have kept you here for 18 months." This is true. What kept me playing for so long was the hope that there would soon be improvements to magic, models, combat, monsters, weapon balance, skills. However in all that time, not a single model was added. Magic remained vastly underpowered, many spells do nothing. Potions have become less useful. Dueling has become less of a "sport." The weapon situation has gotten worse: When I joined, many used frosty, dark, fire, silverweave, iron. Now most anyone would use a crafted dagger or short sword because of the imbalance. Does anyone use a Darkweave, Spellweave, Enlightenment weapon, or "of the leader" or "of the hammer," etc? Nope. I hear complaints all the time about crafting. The arena is still packed shoulder to shoulder with monsters, yet most of the hills, forests, lakes, rivers and roads remain mostly barren of life. Dermorian, xacha, ylian, nolthrir, lemur, diaboli and ynnwn females still all use the same model. I stayed because I had hope of these things improving, but IMHO they did not.
Many told me to stop bashing the devs (something I did not do) because they're working really hard. But that fact that the devs are working hard on their own time does not change the quality of the game as it is today. The fact that it is free also does not change the quality of game, though I did mention that it was free at the beginning of my review. Telling people "If you don't like it, then join the team" assumes that everyone is a game programmer, which quite frankly is silly to assume.
The hostility some have shown in this thread is disappointing. Getting angry when someone points out weaknesses in a software project is the sort of reaction I would expect to see from a fundamentalist religious fanatic when someone questions something about their religion.
And hey... isn't this the "Complaints" thread?
-Roahn
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Have you ever tried roleplaying? You know, the focus of this game? It facilitates that and anything else is an added bonus.
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I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but hopefully some of it will be used constructively, and maybe lead to future improvements.
The hostility some have shown in this thread is disappointing.
I believe once put together, those two quotes show perfectly how honest you are in what you're writing. Unlike what you were sure to happen, you were hardly flamed and yet you feel disappointed? Somehow I don't buy it.
Quit playing a victim here. If spending your time in Planeshift troubles you so much, then simply don't. I don't think anyone in here wishes you to do something against your own will. Pointing out things the devs are perfectly aware of won't achieve much either. Face it, this thread was a waste of your time. No matter how innocent you'll try to make it look like, it won't change anything.
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What kept me playing for so long was the hope that there would soon be improvements to magic, models, combat, monsters, weapon balance, skills. However in all that time, not a single model was added.
Dozens of models have been added in that time.
Dueling has become less of a "sport."
It's always been a sport. The only thing that has changed is how much of an arcade game it is. It used to not exist, then it was introduced to the game, then people started running around like idiots so it turned into an arcade game, and now people still run around like idiots but it's more difficult to succeed with a hit-and-run "strategy" (let's face it, it's cheating), so now dueling is slightly less of an arcade game than it was before.
When I joined, many used frosty, dark, fire, silverweave, iron.
When I joined, there were only basic weapons and they were very expensive to get. Having longswords was a sign of high status.
But that fact that the devs are working hard on their own time does not change the quality of the game as it is today. The fact that it is free also does not change the quality of game, though I did mention that it was free at the beginning of my review. Telling people "If you don't like it, then join the team" assumes that everyone is a game programmer, which quite frankly is silly to assume.
I agree.
The hostility some have shown in this thread is disappointing. Getting angry when someone points out weaknesses in a software project is the sort of reaction I would expect to see from a fundamentalist religious fanatic when someone questions something about their religion.
Agreed as well. Some people here just like being negative, especially towards anyone who doesn't side with the majority.
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OK. I haven't played yet.. Because the uploader is being weird.. :thumbdown:
If you don't like the game and have negative things to say... Go play crowded games.. Or bad graphic games.. Even better go play RUNESCAPE! ;D
If you don't like it. Don't play it. X-/
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The guy who made this thread should just do what i do, play guildwars for all the stuff he listed (no monthly subscription) and then play PS when u actually wanna roleplay. It isnt rocket science.
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Not everyone's a game programmer... but everyone certainly is a critic. :-)
Seriously, I don't mind the criticism at all. Rate us 1-10 all you want. My own ratings are surely lower than yours. Aside from the constraints of volunteering, hobbies, free, etc. and the same old tired explanations thereof, the other big common thread in your criticisms is the art. Poor race models. Poor anims or no anims. Small world. Few monsters. Etc. It turns out that animated models and human-ish ones in particular are insanely hard to model well and to animate well. Very few people can do it and the ones who can have simply not volunteered for the project.
In the same way that you are not a game programmer, I am not a 3d biological modeler/animator.
So all I can do is work on inventory, sketches, quest scripting, dialog, GUI design, bug fixing, networking, whatever. Perhaps if we code the game good enough, the artists will be inspired and join. Perhaps if Settings makes enough content in quests, it won't matter if the artists come or not.
I don't know. All I know is that I like working on it and making it better little by little, even if the changes don't seem like much to some.
- Venge
p.s. I do agree that instead of people just leaping to our defense (or flaming the OP) in every critical thread posting about the game, people should instead just try to be objective and assess whether the criticisms are fair or not. Perhaps the critic missed something? Perhaps other features compensate for the bad parts? Perhaps the critic is just right...
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Perhaps if Settings makes enough content in quests, it won't matter if the artists come or not.
I like the way you think. :)
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Perhaps if Settings makes enough content in quests, it won't matter if the artists come or not.
I like the way you think. :)
Sign me up for your newsletter.... :devil:
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Psh, you'll get nowhere without the power of artsy shininess ;) The artists will come - they are already on their way.
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There is a good chance this thread has run its course. Thanks for playing.