Who will take the ARPG crown? Some suggestions that includes dealing with hacking concerns

I should preface these suggestions by expressing my thorough enjoyment of the initial stages of this early access. The game's potential is evident, and it can truly shine with some adjustments.

The refreshing tactical feel of combat, coupled with the difficult bosses that don't go through frustrating animations, exponentially scaling in difficulty creates a challenging yet rewarding experience. When a death occurs during a boss engagement, there was never a rageful moment where the boss has its HP pool emptied, yet manages to kill you with an environmental animation as you oddly wait for the animation sequence to finish before the fight can continue.

There was always the feeling that no matter how difficult a boss fight, you could retreat to grind out incremental improvements via farming XP and levelling, attaining new equipment, or switching out skills, only to return to that "impossible" challenge and achieve a memorable victory. The feeling of progression despite the challenge is a key aspect of this game, which is unfortunately lost within the end-game content.

The end-game content needs an overhaul to recapture the feeling of always moving forward. This sense of progress, no matter how minor or slow, is crucial to player engagement. It's a key aspect that needs to be present to keep players invested in the game.

As I write this, after playing every day since release, after a few silly back-to-back deaths, I lost a significant amount of XP, translating to a loss of 4-5 hours of real-time gameplay, Essentially 4-5 hours wasted. I'm sure others will point out more extreme versions of events, but the whole experience is simply negative and pointless. The enthusiasm to pick up and start playing again has taken a kick, and I'm not the only one. If the developers hope to retain the recent influx of new players, constant incremental progress must be present. Going backwards with the loss of XP and other progress is simply an antiquated concept that needs to be kicked to the curb before it causes players to move on.

As aforementioned, I feel one of the key strengths comes from a strategic feel to combat: I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the dodge mechanic and the early attacks available made ducking, diving and weaving in-and-out of terrain feel more strategic than the simple stand>cast>move. For example, I swapped a projectile-type wand for a "strike from above" hitting wand to strike from behind terrain, offering some early-game survivability. Dodging and rolling behind terrain was a refreshing feel to gameplay.

The feeling of strategic combat and the utility of different abilities must be built on to avoid the redundancy of some skills as you unlock more powerful ones later.

To summarise, here are some suggestions I feel will drastically build on an already impressive base:

General

The "Elephant in the Room" - Equipment movement/trade freezing lockable stash

This needs to be dealt with - there is a real problem with hacking and theft, and it's only a matter of time before regional authorities see the game as a hotbed for criminal activity. Extra security is a must, but the only way to kill it overnight is an in-game lockable chest that prevents any movement of currency and items unless an in-game password is provided. This can be a player set in-game code, that only devs can reset once player identity can be confirmed. Essentially another password that is not stored on browsers and hackable servers. This would kill all hacking and theft in one hit and overnight! It's an extra layer of security as, let's be honest, data leaks and breaches will occur if hackers believe your account holds items of value. The worst a hacker could achieve is farm xp for you..

Strategic Combat & More Utility Skills
For example, a means for casters to change the "hit" format of some of their spells, enabling strikes from behind shield bearing companions or obstacles. A scout feature that prewarns the player of certain unique monsters in the room ahead and their traits to enable planning. A shield wall feature for players to combine with other shield bearers. These are just a few suggestions but I'm sure lots could be done.

Traps/Terrain
Traps and terrain need to damage everything. It's odd for monsters to walk straight through traps, etc. This would offer a strategic element to trap or gauntlet selection within trials. All of a sudden, you may find yourself picking traps as a strategic choice.

Mark and Recall system
Perhaps an introduction to the end-game waypoints, a set of stones that offer the ability to mark and recall within instances. essentially teleporting back across large explored spaces to minimise time traversing empty areas. These could offer pinpoint movement not available with the checkpoints. This too could come with it's skill tree (we love skill trees).

Hard Hitting Enemies
I'd like to see the larger, hard-hitting, one-shot potential types of enemy also cause damage to smaller mobs. I don't know how difficult this would be to implement. Still, it would lend a more impressive feel to the more enormous monsters while offering a strategic gamble to keep the beast at a distance or try to manipulate the monster into affecting some surrounding smaller mobs.

End-Game

XP and Progress Loss
The current setup needs to change. XP and progression loss are buzz kills and detrimental to keeping players engaged. XP loss needs to go. If XP loss must remain, perhaps offer the player some chaos-themed soul sacrifice to lose XP, resurrect, maintain progress, and continue item farming with the waypoint affixes, or lose the Map node progress but keep their XP. One or the other, not both - it kills the game and any enthusiasm to keep going.

Map Nodes
I like the idea of the map system. For some examples, I would like to implement trade routes or settlements that offer vendors who may have more waypoints to purchase from archaeological expeditions or strongholds that offer boons within a sphere of influence. These strongholds can be attacked, and the player will need to unlock more skills to improve them or put defences in place, which could also set a form of PvP stronghold attack/defence.

Currency
Building on the previous trade post idea, some strongholds could yield currency over time. This would combat the massive inflation of trading and devalue any need for real-world criminal activity such as hacking and theft. This would offer another form of incremental progression and incentivise further stronghold development.

Content Refreshment
For a low-cost and maintenance, constant feel of long-term content refreshment, I'd like to see a chaos-themed separate skill tree that is randomised for a period of in-game time. Perhaps based on the Mayan calendar, a linear path of unlockable nodes within layers of concentric circles that rotate, offering unique possibilities within each window of time. One period, you may get increased XP, another increased rarity find, and perhaps another, increased unique monsters or even a map node impact. All of which could be balanced out with some negative nodes. This could offer a layer of complexity that will set the player down a different play style path for a time frame.



Overall, I have enjoyed the game, and there is enormous potential. The Devs need to capitalise on the current momentum and the success of the early access launch, making some changes required to the end-game before players start to leave as quickly as they came. I, for one, will look forward to the future.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

UPDATE

Death 1 - Swarmed by speedy mobs and killed instantly walking through a doorway.. XP loss

Sigh.. Lets try and recover the XP. I was 50% away from reaching the next level

Death 2 - Charged by unique with mana siphon, speed, and god knows what else... XP loss

Situation - I have less XP than what I started with and no more waypoints of the appropriate level to start again.

No game should be this punishing. The challenging early gameplay gave a momentous feeling of triumph when challenges were overcome with determination and hard work to slowly improve. The current losses make you feel sick once you realise that the precious spare time you put into the game was for nothing.


Prediction - If this isn't addressed, the player base will drop off as soon as the hype train begins to slow down. Most will play through the acts when they are released, but lose enthusiasm to stick around for the long-term end-game.