Feedback I want to give after realizing how much fun I have in the game

First let me start with classic: sorry for eventual spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.
I want to say Wolcen gives me a strong feel of nostalgia and fun i haven't got playing other new ARPGs. Because of a potential I see in Wolcen , I decided to add my 2 cents for overall voice of growing community. I will probably make many references to Diablo series because I played it the most.

The world of Wolcen

I bought Wolcen like 2-3 months before official beta became available, if I remember correctly I played about 14h in alpha in my total 50h of gameplay. Many people complained about dropping the concept of open world, honestly it doesn't bother me that much since we received more interesting and detailed gameplay, but I can agree game needs more locations and expansion to existing ones to fill the void. Locations that are optional and rewarding exploration. I don't know what plans the devs have ("secondary objectives" on trello), but i have in mind the "special spots" and boss runs in Diablo II, areas that we could come back to farm, but would require good equipment and some knowledge about the game. I'm a fan of challenging and rewarding gameplay, so to the next point.

Difficulty level

I have mixed feelings about that, on my 1st act I playthrough I thought to myself the difficulty is good but could use some tweaks. By tweaks i mean raise of difficulty level in some areas and especially bosses. Yeah, you heard me right and I assure you I'm not a masochist. Wrath of Sarisel patch notes were a bit of a let down for me as I read that bosses received nerfs. I had great experience playing act I for the first time, but what worries me is the game didn't make me question quality of my eq or build, didn't encourage or give purpose to find better gear - I just went through it without major problems, beat every boss on my 1st try except the last one (2nd try). I assure you I didn't had some god-tier drops or omnipotence. I don't know how many of you played the first Diablo, but can you remember when you first opened a door to a Butcher just to meet your imminent doom few seconds later? Most of our first encounters probably ended like that, you still could try to kill Butcher and succeed, but it required some tactics and cough exploits, but wasn't it fun? Diablo II Blood Raven - I still remember how my barbarian slashed through the zombies to deal few hits to her and run to heal. What I'm trying to say is the tactics you needed to adapt what made those encounters so unique. Back to Wolcen, I played the soldier of fortune and expeditions gave me some trouble at the beginning, but as soon as I picked up my 1st unique and legendary that fit my build (now we can say it was luck) I could steamroll for like 7 levels untill there wasn't portal to the next level, I got many useful items from the expedition and another legendary from the reward and could steamroll another 5 levels. Few stronger items should give such advantage only when they have perfect rolls for your build and they weren't in my case. It feels wrong for me that enemies with 10 levels above start to pose any level of threat for me.
What would I propose? * for normal groups of enemies - lower just a little bit their number but boost damage * elites (blue/yellow) - slightly increase damage or more modifiers at once * bosses - damage buff or more abilities or both * some kind of cursed areas on the map that would force players to act more careful or even avoid such place
or * veteran (not hardcore) mode option for more demanding players, just like Grim Dawn did
They sound simple but I think it would work. Make bosses feel like bosses, make me feel threatened by presence of stronger enemies (yellow and blue ones that is). Last update/hotfix buffed the Untainted, that's a step in good direction for me, keep it up.

Itemization

I'm in heaven. The current enchantment system, item quality, gems and uniques just simply bought me. Two-handed sword allowing to use electrical spells, shield allowing me to cast sacred spells, bow adding more projectiles, cap boosting critical chance on lightning damage and more - i'm sold. That's what i expect from uniques, it's the little things that make them so desired. Legendaries - in Wolcen the pinnacle of rng-based items, offering the highest amount of enchants that can occur on item and from what I've seen from this screen https://wolcengame.com/media_img/images/SariselReward2.width-800.png soon adding special enchantments to allow us to use certain skills. For a mention deserves overall approach to types of gear, weapons differ from each other by attack speed and damage, armor types offer different predetermined protection values. It's an oldschool approach I appreciate so much because when you have a good formula you don't change it, you simply upgrade it. I believe more enchants and uniques are on the way. Kudos to the devs, they nailed it. The only concern I have for now is the legendary and unique gear drop a little too frequently. Don't get me wrong I've seen many people complaining after "children of heimlock" patch that they finished an expedition and didn't get any high-end gear. Sorry but if you think that sacrificing 10 minutes for a single expedition should guarantee few items that are considered the ultimate reward you are wrong. Even now after clearing 3 levels of expedition I bring 2-3 uniqes/legendaries with me almost every time. In a game with no class limitations every item can be usefull as you can quickly respec your character. I would like to avoid powertrips caused by literal legendary rain that was Diablo III, even when 70% of the items weren't worth a note you could still have your perfect gear after 2 days since new season started, they didn't feel like a reward at all.

Skills and passive tree (wheel in that case)

Everything is on spot for me. Wolcen has another uniqe system, modifires for skills and nodes on the wheel allow much variety in builds. That's a job well done.

The appearance of Wolcen

The prettiest ARPG on the market, a game that truly shows the power of cryengine. Visuals, animations and attention to detail that just destroy the competition with addition of good voice acting, ambience and soundtrack recorded by professionals showed me a new level of immersion and authenticity of world created by Wolcen Studio I've never seen in any other ARPG. This is a quality I would expect from some large AAA studio, not indie devs. They deserve an applause and a prize.

Development of Wolcen

I've seen many complaints about the slow development, many revamps and "this is not a product I paid for". I haven't been in many early access games, but Wolcen is the first case when I see how much work the devs are putting in to bring us a final product. They aren't big, barely 30 people from what I heard. I can't comprehend what are the people who say such things think. I mean, how can you look on Wolcen and demand a finished product in such little time from a team of 30 indie devs? It's just ignorance I suppose. Official release date is scheduled for January - what I say? Don't rush it. I know you are under pressure, the massive complaints from impatient people and review bombing doesn't help, but you need to take your time devs. I heard there was planned 5 acts on release, now it's 3 + 2 coming as a live service content. I don't know under what circumstances this decision was made but it left me concerned. I believe in Wolcen Studio and I can wait even 2 years if it's a warrant of a quality. It truly feels like we have unpolished diamond on our hand.

Final comment

I don't regret a single penny I spend on Wolcen and I'm happy my constant conversations about progress of the game with my friend made him buy it as well. I've seen enough to know the game is in a good hands. The wall of text above is only my personal list of changes that I would want to see. I know the time is money, development of ambitious project can be hell (and probably is) and resources are limited, so I don't expect or demand any of these suggestions to occur. I'm open to opinions of others, feel free to disagree or propose your solutions, but remember - final decision belongs to the devs.

Replies: 3

Created: 4 years, 6 months ago

Category: Feedback & Suggestions

Thank you very much for your feedback and for your support WuHav, I've shared all this with the team to spread the love and warm their hearts. We're really happy that you enjoy the game so much, and we definitely hope that you will keep enjoying it :)

Created: 4 years, 6 months ago

Thank you indeed ! :)

Created: 4 years, 6 months ago

Oh, it's nothing. I'm happy my message reached you.

Created: 4 years, 6 months ago

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