Sentimental wall of text about how the devs are gods and retards at the same time:
My biggest gripe with Native was that they created the best melee combat system I ever laid eyes on, and then proceeded by making it impossible to use to its full extent because of extremely strong ranged. That is where cRPG came in. Due to having to stick to one class there is a better spread and 2h and polearm without a shield are actually a possibility. The leveling and grinding are things I do not like, the personal character though, with its own build and gear is something very nice. There is tons of different possibilities and I love seeing some people that specialized in a unique playstyle and made it effective.
Apart from that there is the tons of huge improvements on the combat system and game in general, a lot of which are taken for granted in my opinion. Really a thumbs up for the devs for really creating a lot of cool content over the years. We tend to quickly forget the good things and get pissed at the bad.
- The score system, fantastic change, really missed it when I was playing Native the other day.
- Banners showing up in scoreboard.
- Strategus battles are honestly pretty polished these days, even if I don't really appreciate the respawning meatgrinder.
- The market system works very well.
- The cool clan system with bank, armoury and unique banners.
- Removal of polestagger, took a while, but yay
- Fucking rageball, like wtf, that is a game in itself.
- DtV, not my kinda thing, but still very well made and also a game in itself.
- Tons of fixes of bugs that Native still has and tons of balance changes that I have already forgotten.
- WSE, aww shit.
They do occasionally make bad calls though, ofcourse this is all very subject to opinion.
- The earlier active attacks against agents and objects. I partially like it and it makes sense, but this really made teamplay more difficult as hitting teammates is very easily done. Also, 2h seem to be a lot less prone to getting stuck on objects even when it should happen.
- The turn rate nerf, it made combat in general more boring, but I believe that the devs are not entirely satisfied with it either. With overhead and stab being the only weapons that had any chance of not hitting teammates due to the above change, making them hard to aim was a horrible decision. The effectiveness of circling around in a group of enemies while doing sideswings, especially with a 2h, is just too damn high. So much spamming noobs who abuse this.
- Balance done by nerfing almost exclusively, this has made the game generally slow and non lethal. Constant nerfing combined with looms and increasing playerskill has increased the amount of hits and time it takes to kill someone in melee by about 700%
My main point:
Another thing I loved about the game is the sillyness that used to be present. The mod did not take itself that seriously, cRPG was known for trolling and laughter was abundant. Nostalgia glasses probably attribute to this, but surely the mod has taken a more serious approach as well. Silly items, like the Lance of Compensation, the Swords of Cookies and Tears, Looney Toons Axe, and things like crossdressing were all removed. The mod has taken somewhat of a more historical 'realistic' approach. Which is a bad thing in my opinion.
Another change that I think attributed to this mod mentality shift, was the multiplier system. Losing or winning means too much, people get mad if you troll and reduce your teams chances of winning. It is not has lighthearted as the previous system.
Blablabla, more sillyness. I want it. Although probably the mentality of the players has been numbed anyway by playing the game too much and we are probably mostly here because there isn't anything that can fill the void of cRPG.