Varyag's testimony on the current state of cRPG

[Wallace]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^this

strategus = content.

Also the WPF stacking wipe i think was in order.. like let's be real even though it would cost 100k gold to do it, gen 20 would yield 100% retained wpf and thereafter actually overcapping. So that got a little out of control.
People QQ about how they were peasants and you had lvl 40 knights running around, but let's face it that's what a pvp rpg is about. Working your way up and improving a character rather than capping out and saying "well I'm lvl 31, I can either get to lvl 32 or I can get to lvl 31 again" and of course retirement is what you are going to do

[Nasturtium]

As more casual players lose interest and move on, us grognards are left fighting the same folks over and over again on low pop servers.

  What i miss, and what has me a little down, is the epic battle feeling, now we have fewer players spread out farther on maps, taking pot shots at eachother.

  I think all of my gloom and misery at the state of things would be cured by just a simple honest dev log, even if it was just:

"was going to work on wall crumbling models fr strat today, but went out for drinks instead"

  That would at least make me feel like the devs even care what players think of their game.

[Gnjus]

That would at least make me feel like the devs even care what players think of their game.

Why would they care ? They gave us almost a year of great fun for free and we (the community) have abused it in every way possible, from minor glitching over bug abusing instead of reporting it all the way to direct cheating, and all they got back from us was like 5% of ass kissing and 95% of whining, crying, slacking, etc. If i was a developer i couldn't care less. 

You've had your fair share of fun, who else in your life gave you so much of it for free ? You don't like it anymore ? Fine, pack your things and hit the road, Jack. 

[EponiCo]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^this
Also the WPF stacking wipe i think was in order.. like let's be real even though it would cost 100k gold to do it, gen 20 would yield 100% retained wpf and thereafter actually overcapping. So that got a little out of control.
People QQ about how they were peasants and you had lvl 40 knights running around, but let's face it that's what a pvp rpg is about. Working your way up and improving a character rather than capping out and saying "well I'm lvl 31, I can either get to lvl 32 or I can get to lvl 31 again" and of course retirement is what you are going to do

Well, many folks were at the I have everything I need stage, and either just grinding out the next gen or the next level (which took just as long as now, was just way higher), so how has it changed for those?
Anyway, for those that are missing the leveling up, there would be a simply fix. Include a checkbox "hard mode" on charpage, where every level takes 10* as much xp and every item is 20* more expensive but upkeep stays the same, so you can really celebrate every new item you can afford.

[Nasturtium]

Why would they care ? They gave us almost a year of great fun for free and we (the community) have abused it in every way possible, from minor glitching over bug abusing instead of reporting it all the way to direct cheating, and all they got back from us was like 5% of ass kissing and 95% of whining, crying, slacking, etc. If i was a developer i couldn't care less. 

You've had your fair share of fun, who else in your life gave you so much of it for free ? You don't like it anymore ? Fine, pack your things and hit the road, Jack. 

 Speak for yourself buddy, I have volunteered countless hours of my own time to try and improve this game. If you want to lump all players into "ungrateful whiners" category, then you are only demonstrating your own ignorance. There is nothing wrong with voicing your concerns about the state of a game you love, furthermore I thought the OP had some great points and voiced them in a respectful and non condescending way. Thanks for the snarky conceited reply to a respectful and honest post.

[Gnjus]

Thanks for the snarky conceited reply to a respectful and honest post.

Anytime, matey. 

[Karmazyn]

Many bugs in items and in the grind system + idiotic moderator + nobody want share with crpg new items + no idea/concept behind this mod (what are you grind for?).
Still many players play this mod but the big russian player base can quick move to mercenaries mod if the developer there decide to change the character instant reset system and maybe make a strategic map for factions (like strategus).

[Corrado_Decimo]

char development is gone with the december patch... i made the "scary morningstar + PS12 + wpf stacking project" and i did finish it just in time to see it removed. now the game is the same grinding as before to have heirlooms. after a lot of childish retards flooded the forum with tears, chadz got rid of those UNBEATABLE "morningstar builds", the too strong archers, and introduced upkeep system.

i came playing some matches and to see what crpg became... well its like before... same grinding for heirlooms but with WAY lesser character customization.

i'll finish it later... my daughter calls me :-|

[Duerkos]

Most of your complains would be the same if CRPG was still in "very early beta state". You have levelled too much. For people who loves grinding and customization, you can't really do anything about it. If there is no level cap, the game would be unbalanced. In Crpg, we have this strange "Soft cap", so you can try to level up to 35 or even more if you want. But as I always say when people complain about this kind of thing, if you don't like to play the game without levelling, don't play it.

If this was another type of game, I would suggest to chose another fighting style and level up that, but you are like a man in a MMORPG with chars of all classes levelled up and with all the equipment. The only reason to continue playing is enjoying the killing and smashing.

[Corrado_Decimo]

Most of your complains would be the same if CRPG was still in "very early beta state". You have levelled too much. For people who loves grinding and customization, you can't really do anything about it. If there is no level cap, the game would be unbalanced. In Crpg, we have this strange "Soft cap", so you can try to level up to 35 or even more if you want. But as I always say when people complain about this kind of thing, if you don't like to play the game without levelling, don't play it.

If this was another type of game, I would suggest to chose another fighting style and level up that, but you are like a man in a MMORPG with chars of all classes levelled up and with all the equipment. The only reason to continue playing is enjoying the killing and smashing.

that's why in all the games there is a maxlevel. but here we have a maxlevel just at 3/4 of the ideal maxlevel. we have a slow gameplay and weak damage. before the big patch i was doing the antitank role fine. 45 pierce morningstar with 12PS and 200wpf, was quite a tank steamroller.

and yes. you build with patience a char and when you end your project you enjoy the:

- public servers fun (yes i have fun there)
- clanwars fun (indeed more funny than public)
- strat battles (again.. the best)
- funny events (funny events....)

what's wrong about it?

and the point is: i had a lot of time to build my chars. Corrado_Decimo the morningstar crusher, Sniper_IV the PD8 224 archery archer, Bodyguard with 8 shield 8WM 7PS and riding...

now i just log... my chars had something like 120million XP together (decimo 44mil, sniper 48mil... etc) and now i have the XP cut to near 1/15... on decimo i was 10gen.. now i have to choose 3 heirlooms lol.. i had a +2 morningstar, +3 gauntlets, +3 body armor, +1 cookies sword, +1 katana.

Concluding, the old players got a big kick in the ass... who continued to play and retire now have a full set of everything along with a 25-30 gen multiplier.

IF this is the way chadz intended to put an end to the long grind, well IMO he failed.

[Gatsby]

Old crpg was all about grinding wpf to spam as hell. Now we have a balance in that. Now ppl grind for heirlooms, but a weapon is not powerfull enough if u have no skill, 30 levels more than your opponent are.
In fact Lvl cap is good for casual players, coz a lv 50char is really too much for everyone.
Even in the old crpg u could be a milionare and buy everything, not a great difference now. Honestly the upkeep system should make u happy, coz should erode your money. Unfortunately is not well implemented, coz ppl just go around naked suffering no penalty and reciving xp/gold anyway.

I agree in the tk penality, really too much tks out there, but also lot of ppl love to steal a kill jumping into swing.

Also the xp/gold system puzzle me a lot: the moltiplicator is good, but why i do not gain extra with a good k/d and maybe suffer a loss with bad k/d. With the current system i have no incentive in wearing good armors or other stuff, coz k/d ratio is useless.

[Prpavi]

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is the current state of cRPG

[Corrado_Decimo]

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is the current state of cRPG

well i had some battles and sieges.. 40% of the players go throwing, 30% go 2h/polearm and backup xbow, 15% go xbow hybrid, 15% go 1h/shield

[Yugop]

That's irrelevant, Prpavi, it was always like that since people figured out crossbows didn't need wp to be effective. Given the opportunity, most players don't hesitate to take a ranged weapon.

About the changes, the upkeep hurts a bit the way I play ... I often choose to be a 1h/2h or polearm hybrid, and needless to say, I'm quickly bankrupt if I try to wear decent armor. It is an improvement nevertheless.
The current xp system is not perfect, but it's a lot less abusable than the previous one. Still I really miss the xp and gold for duels, not for the gain, which was small, but for the depopulated duel servers.

So yeah, I'm nostalgia'ing a bit, but in the end, the patch and all that were for the better.

[Corrado_Decimo]

Overall the patch was an improvement, in fact at this point any further work is an improvement, aprt of the problem is thats everal months have passed without any even tiny patch and so you see a lot of the imbalances become excacerbated like half of people on servers being hybrid or pure thrower, polearm stun spammers multiplying, or at least 30 gen 25+ I can name off the top of my head (probably a lot more that I don't know about).

Needless to say some tweaking support patches every few weeks that require minimal programming would have made this feel less of a grind for people waiting for strategus as it would be a continually new game, next patch with 2 weapons slots for gigantic weapons is a great idea, cudos to cmpx for taking the time to code it.  (To give you an idea the persistent world mod gets patches on average about 1 every 1-2 weeks with a smaller community using it).

-Remove polearm stun except for stabs with polearms (polarm lock abuse rampant now with whole builds dedicated to it)
-Make weapons take up 2 slots to rebalance hybrids (already being done)
-Remove retirement xp bonus but return to how it was immediately after first major patch where it was 1500 xp/x1 base with a kill radius like pre-patch worked in for bonus xp (that actually made fights feel so much more dynamic as it added a new challenge to strategy, right now every fight is starting to feel a little too familiar like deja vu).
-Just set maximum effective wpf at 180 or 200 (was 700 pre-patch) and allow a reasonable wpf cost.  (This cap might also allow levelling up to 35-38 without warping the system and increase build diversity).

These are just suggestions, but pretty much anything at this point would be great, just come out with a patch.

But i have to follow this up with a thank you as you could very well have abandoned the project all together, so thank you for working on it.  Just explaining why there might be some frustration.  Overall still a work in progress that just feels like the progress is stalled because we get so little news of any sort of progress on the big patch.

im with you the whole paragraph.