Originally Posted by Milk Wolf
After posting in various threads on a variety of subjects, I felt that it was time to consolidate my thoughts and feelings in a single thread with the hopes that my constructive ideas and viewpoints will be considered and thought through by those individuals who are seeking to make AoC the best game it can be.
Please keep in mind the following things before I formally begin my comments. Firstly, I really enjoy playing AoC. It's a welcome change from the standard MMO, and while there are a lot of things I would like to see changed or altered, there are as many things that are right with the game. I wouldn't have taken my conqueror to level 30 if I thought this game was a no-go.
Secondly, when I seem critical or harsh in my comments, it should not be taken to mean that I'm so thoroughly disappointed with my expectations for this game, that I've simply come here to vent. Please do not mistake my honesty for anger.
Although I normally don't like to make people read long posts, I want to start off by putting into words a lot of the feelings that I have been seeing expressed on these forums. First and foremost, being a Beta tester is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you are given the opportunity to help refine a game and hopefully release it to a receptive public. However on the other hand, you are only playing part of the finished product which makes it hard to give meaningful feedback at times both because all your concerns might be alleviated with time and partly because there's always someone ready to hit you over the head with the comment "it's just Beta". The main problem is of course, that beta testers aren't supposed to be "playing" but "testing" and not making judgments before the entire game has been completed.
If we were a year, or even six months to the release of AoC, the "It's just a Beta" comment would carry a lot more weight. But as far as we know, we are just shy of three months until release, and the closer we get to that release date, the more the game we are currently testing will resemble the product people will buy on the shelves. I think that many beta testers sometimes labor under the delusion that there is a miracle build out there that will solve most problems and introduce the majority of the game's missing content, nearly stable and with few major bugs. Unfortunately, I've never seen this come to pass from any game.
So where does that leave us as beta testers at this point in time? Well I think it's fair to say that while we may not be qualified to criticize missing content that might in fact be on the horizon, there are certain major areas of the game that will most likely not change, but should probably be altered for the sake of the game's success. Now, I don't believe in criticizing something without providing a meaningful alternative, so following my criticism, I've tried to incorporate an alternative that I believe is feasible. So lets get to it.
Problem: Many testers feel cramped by the game world. The zones are relatively large in most areas, but you don't have to look very far to see that you are nestled between unscalable mountains, from which there is one way in and out of the zone.
Solution: Make all the zones connected with multiple ways in and out. Hyboria is a huge place. Make us feel like it's huge with plenty of places to go. It shouldn't be too difficult to add multiple ways in and out of the zones.
Problem: There are instances everywhere, more so than I think was initially expected given the current level of technology available.
Solution: If you must keep the instances, make them as few as possible. Over the long term, maybe even phase them out altogether. I've rarely encountered an MMO where instances are used together with zones in such frequency. If you are going to use one, please try not to use the other.
Problem: It's too easy to travel in AoC. With a few clicks, a player can instantly travel from Aquilonia to Stygia. More than anything else, this ruins the immersion factor. Most people can deal with zones, but to instantly traverse hundreds or thousands of miles is really far fetched and makes the world seem really small.
Solution: If you're set on using the people in the various harbors to transport people from one place to another, then what about something like the FFXI approach? Make people take 10-15 minutes to travel from one place to another by boat, and let them interact with other players on the boat. Maybe do some fishing, fend off pirate attacks, or what have you. Even something like WoW's air transports would be better than just the instant travel.
These are my main issues so far. They mainly revolve around the zoning, instances, and travel. I think these are issues that a lot of people will share, as well as the general public if things don't change. Being someone who really wants AoC to succeed, I really hope these issues are addressed soon. If nothing else, I really wish we could get an official developer statement about these issues, as they are currently topping the chart of top concerns amongst testers.
Combat:The combat is better then other mmo's, but it's not "Easy to learn, hard to master" as you said before, it's just clicking on an icon then the game shows you how to do the combo, easy to learn, easy to master, but it's still very refreshing and fun, but i would like it more quick paced, now i just press 2 buttons and i do my combo, but i hit the enemy like 3-4 times, why not make me press the buttons on these attacks aswell?, it would make it quick paced and probaly more skill based.
Mounted combat - it's very easy to kill alot of mobs at the same time, at same level as you with the mount, you just aggro every mob in the area and run around em and hit all the time, you get alot of AoE dmg(But probaly only soldiers that can do this, and the bandage bug)
The mounts turns very nice and realistic, but their acceleration needs some work, they should start running show, and just run faster and faster with time, and turning slows the speed down, same when you rushing with mount, make it feel more realstic, it need to take a few seconds to come up at that speed.
World:You need to add more zones, or it will be boring and repetive to make a new charecter, as i've played in all zones and done most quests. Even so the zones looks realy great(Favorite is Eiglo mountains)But i don't like the teleport between the zones, it would be realy cool when you taking the boat to Khemi(just an example) and pirates attacks you on the trip, and you gotta fight em(ofc not every time you take the boat, but a small change of happening.)
Quests:Not much to say here, mostly the same as other mmo's, but i would like to see more quests that you get when exploring, like the letter in khemi, or the orb in the cannibal cave in eiglo mountains - it's realy fun when you go and explore and get quests like that. But you gotta get rid of the "kill 15 wolfs" quests in field of the dead, it's like 4 of em? That's just plain boring.
Dark Templar:It feels like i'm missing some combos and spells, but overall the dmg is nice, and i can take some beating, life taps feels useless, the mana regen feats is also useless, as all my spells is just buffs i cast before battle and i don't need to recast for a hour - Dosn't realy feel like a dark templar, no spells in combat, wasn't the dark templar supposed to make pacts with everything that can give him power at that time? and the spell Blood pact feels useless, i don't even know what it does, it last for like 1 second with 30 min cooldown. Make it feel like you make pacts with evil gods and creatures, like you cast a spell, a pact with an evil god, when your almost dead, this pact make you survive the battle, but in the next few battles your weaker then normal. Also all the effects on my combos is pretty useless, they last around 5 seconds and give -2 unholy resist or similar things. But still a fun class to play, and will probaly get more fun when you fix some of the problems.
Might update this later, but i gotta go now, Nice job Funcom, great game so far(expect the bugs=D) keep it up.
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Ik vind het ook zeker niet slecht klinken. Integendeel zelfs. De game is groot, mooi en boeiend. Het vechten is leuk, etc... dat er dingen zijn die mensen anders willen zien is wel te verwachten. Hij noemt er trouwens wel een paar die ik ook zou willen zien veranderen. Vooral dat het zo gemakkelijk is om van de ene plaats naar de andere te reizen maar het is nog beta en als het nog niet is aangepast in de gold versie dan zullen ze dit later wel doen. 
. Face it, de controls alleen al bewijzen het genoeg dat men met dit spel van 2 walletjes tracht te eten, meestal loopt dat fataal af, ik hoop voor jou van niet. Maar niet getreurt, je kan het spel toch niet spelen 
met hoevelen waren ze niet aan het wachten op de Open Beta? Dat was hét gespreksonderwerp hier op de forums 