1.0.3 Initial thoughts

[tommygunyeah]

So I spent a good 12+ hours probably on there so far experienced most things, lots of confusion but it's to be expected right now. Overall, I really love Epoch it's nice to have a new difficult game mode to play again with thw DayZ style survival it's interesting to say the least. I played hundreds of hours on DayZ Epoch and I'm actually disappointed some of the things from that aren't in this but I will come to that later. First I'll list some Pros and Cons :)

 

Pros

• Little/No lag what so ever, I know others have complained about it but I haven't had any lag honestly.
• Lots of diverse items, with all the foods and drinks as well as the female character model it really adds to the game.
• Building system is awesome, haven't actually tried it myself as it seems near impossible to find the loot required but from videos I've seen it look good.
• Overall mechanics are good, with the AI and all the other variables that effect your life I really like. Rather then just food and hunger you have to think about so much more.
• AI are awesome, when getting in fire fights with the UAV AI and then the first time I saw one of those armless naked things holy shit I was terrified, exactly what I want from this game. Make me fear for my life when one of these sneaks up on me.
• Debug monitor is nice, I know this isn't going to be kept in fully as I really really hope there will be a much better HUD implemented but the stats I get are awesome.

Cons

• Loot distribution is probably my biggest peeve, I play solo most of the time and honestly I can walk through an entire town spending a good hour doing it and find a backpack full of crappy gear. I have only ever found like 3 vehicle repair kits, no hatchet, no useful tools. It makes it really hard to stay in the game when all I find is clothing and ammo for guns I don't need. I've racked up thousands of Krypto from hoarding but I want to move on and build a base but I can't because there's just such rare loot.
• Honestly, I know it kind of breaks the immersion of the game but please add in a side/global chat so noobs can ask questions. It took me so long to find out how to do things in game, it will save me so much hassle if I could just ask a question then crawling through hundreds of forum posts and an empty wiki just to find out what I'm doing.
• West Side of the map, there is just nothing really there and I don't know why. Is it supposed to be like the North of Chernarus where everyone goes to build their bases? It just seems like why have all that space with no traders?
• Documentation, I know this was just released to the public but for what you guys have in the game right now I think it's important to have some sort of documentation and noob guide for people to get started. As I said before I found it really difficult to find what I was doing in my first few hours. Get a few trusted community members and get them working on the wiki, personally I think this is one of the most important things when it comes to sandbox games.

What I would change

• Mostly, loot distribution. Make it more common and possibly make the rarer items like hatchets and what not appear more often. I just really am getting bored of running through endless towns finding nothing but clothes and ammo.
• Trader cities, this was one of the biggest things in the original Epoch. A coupld of safezoned trader cities where you could buy the stuff you needed if you wanted to, this would make life a lot easier because you would still need to do the hunting and gathering to make enough krypto so you can't just get into a game and buy everything you want and it allows people who have got a bunch of krypto to buy the tools and materials they need.
• Nerf Gun prices, Buff car prices. Guns are craaazy cheap right now, I think they are just too cheap when I can buy like the best sniper in the game for something like 20krypto and a hatchback costs like 800 I just think that's crazy. Just my opinion though

I think that's about it, at least what I can think of, really am loving the game so far just really getting bored of the looting.

Keep up the good work looking forward to the next update.

[SkyDogs]

I believe the devs want this type of feedback, and when it's well written and easy to understand like yours, all the better.

I'd prefer loot to be found in places relative to its type. So for example, tools, magic repair guns, vehicle repair heads, etc only found in/around garages and industrial units.

Medical supplies found in hospitals and hotels.

So on and so on.

This would open up many areas of the map that are currently rarely visited.

[tommygunyeah]

I believe the devs want this type of feedback, and when it's well written and easy to understand like yours, all the better.

I'd prefer loot to be found in places relative to its type. So for example, tools, magic repair guns, vehicle repair heads, etc only found in/around garages and industrial units.

Medical supplies found in hospitals and hotels.

So on and so on.

This would open up many areas of the map that are currently rarely visited.

Thanks, I've tried to put it in simple terms so that everyone can understated and discuss.

 

With the loot, this is how it used to be in DayZ, if you wanted like tools for building or repairing cars then you'd go hunt around factories and what not. I'm not sure how possible this would be to code in but I'm sure if it's possible in the ARMA2 engine then it will be in ARMA3. It just makes sense from a games design point of view, if you want to find meds,go to a hospital.

[SkyDogs]

You're right it does make sense, and like I pointed out, it opens up areas of the map because players will be forced to go there for certain supplies.

 

We damaged our car last night and then spent two hours searching for a repair gun or a toolbox, and as you probably can guess, we didn't find one. Now if logic was applied to the loot system, we would've gone to the industrial areas and would've only searched the garages in the towns instead of every building. Running in and out of every building is incredibly time consuming. 

[cring0]

Thanks, I've tried to put it in simple terms so that everyone can understated and discuss.

 

With the loot, this is how it used to be in DayZ, if you wanted like tools for building or repairing cars then you'd go hunt around factories and what not. I'm not sure how possible this would be to code in but I'm sure if it's possible in the ARMA2 engine then it will be in ARMA3. It just makes sense from a games design point of view, if you want to find meds,go to a hospital.

I'm sure that will come eventually, just not something they've really focused on yet.

 

I really haven't even thought about the prices yet, but I think I agree, vehicles are too high, weapons too low.  However, keep in mind that they're going to be changing items in the loot table, which will effect prices of everything else.

 

One reason I think they should drop the price of vehicles is so that people don't just go around the map in groups selling all the cars, essentially emptying the map before it can really be populated and getting mad rich in the process.  People should be more interested in using vehicles, not selling them.  Just my 2 cents.  Can't test impact of vehicles if there aren't any. =P

[tommygunyeah]

One reason I think they should drop the price of vehicles is so that people don't just go around the map in groups selling all the cars, essentially emptying the map before it can really be populated and getting mad rich in the process.  People should be more interested in using vehicles, not selling them.  Just my 2 cents.  Can't test impact of vehicles if there aren't any. =P

I say this because I spent a good 6 hours saving for a vehicle, hit a sign post and broke it, used the 3 repair kits I found and it was all for nothing. I've now got a 10 hour character with the best guns I can buy but without even having any vehicle, can't even afford an ATV. In the server I play there are literally no cars out in the open. All gone already.

 

I also just went through an entire town and found only 1 fridge, took me an hour. I'm going to have a mental breakdown lol.

[whiskeyfive]

What server do you play on?

[C00c00colors]

Cons

• Loot distribution is probably my biggest peeve, I play solo most of the time and honestly I can walk through an entire town spending a good hour doing it and find a backpack full of crappy gear. I have only ever found like 3 vehicle repair kits, no hatchet, no useful tools. It makes it really hard to stay in the game when all I find is clothing and ammo for guns I don't need. I've racked up thousands of Krypto from hoarding but I want to move on and build a base but I can't because there's just such rare loot.
• Honestly, I know it kind of breaks the immersion of the game but please add in a side/global chat so noobs can ask questions. It took me so long to find out how to do things in game, it will save me so much hassle if I could just ask a question then crawling through hundreds of forum posts and an empty wiki just to find out what I'm doing.
• West Side of the map, there is just nothing really there and I don't know why. Is it supposed to be like the North of Chernarus where everyone goes to build their bases? It just seems like why have all that space with no traders?
• Documentation, I know this was just released to the public but for what you guys have in the game right now I think it's important to have some sort of documentation and noob guide for people to get started. As I said before I found it really difficult to find what I was doing in my first few hours. Get a few trusted community members and get them working on the wiki, personally I think this is one of the most important things when it comes to sandbox games.

What I would change

• Mostly, loot distribution. Make it more common and possibly make the rarer items like hatchets and what not appear more often. I just really am getting bored of running through endless towns finding nothing but clothes and ammo.
• Trader cities, this was one of the biggest things in the original Epoch. A coupld of safezoned trader cities where you could buy the stuff you needed if you wanted to, this would make life a lot easier because you would still need to do the hunting and gathering to make enough krypto so you can't just get into a game and buy everything you want and it allows people who have got a bunch of krypto to buy the tools and materials they need.
• Nerf Gun prices, Buff car prices. Guns are craaazy cheap right now, I think they are just too cheap when I can buy like the best sniper in the game for something like 20krypto and a hatchback costs like 800 I just think that's crazy. Just my opinion though

I think that's about it, at least what I can think of, really am loving the game so far just really getting bored of the looting.

Keep up the good work looking forward to the next update.

 I think it should be somewhat difficult and time consuming to find certain items. This makes killing another player for his gear more desireable. Its a survivor game. I don't think gear should be common and spoon fed to us.

Also, you said there should be side chat. You need to find a radio and equip it. That is our global side chat.

[tommygunyeah]

 I think it should be somewhat difficult and time consuming to find certain items. This makes killing another player for his gear more desireable. Its a survivor game. I don't think gear should be common and spoon fed to us.

Also, you said there should be side chat. You need to find a radio and equip it. That is our global side chat.

 There a difference between making finding items challenging and making them frustrating though. It seems that with how randomly spread out they are some towns will literally have 50 buildings and no spawns and one building in the middle of no where will have 5-6 loot drops in them and it's just really frustrating. I know a lot of other people have experience this as well and as a designer you don't want to be making your audience frustrated you want it to still be fun. I don't find it fun spending 12 hours trying to find a hatchet, searching every town playing incredibly safe even killing people and looting them all for no hatchet what so ever, it's just not a fun system and it's sad.

 

I'm not saying make it hideously easy, it's all about balance and with the mod being in alpha it's not likely to change for a while as alpha is a heavy development stage. 

 

In the side chat thing, yeah it's all well having a radio and stuff but it lags like hell 90% of the time and sounds like a broken record. Plus some of us aren't as confident talking out loud, I'd prefer an easy text chat to just help. Personal preference though.

 

 

What server do you play on?

EpochMod.com (0.1.0.3|1.30) NRDE01 Nitrado.net

 

This one

[SkyDogs]

Tommy, you can type your message in the radio channel, that's  what I do. 

 

Regarding being spoon fed loot, I don't believe having the relevant loot for the relevant buildings is spoon feeding. Personally I reckon it's more challenging if you have to head to Kavala for medical supplies at the giant hospital there for example, and such scenarios would utilise the cooperative capabilities of the mod, such as the radios. The type of gameplay I'm trying to describe is exactly what we saw in the early days of DayZ when it was good, then later when Epoch was born there was currency to pay for favours such as lifts in helicopters etc. 

 

There's huge scope for this game to be massively successful, it just needs the right balance, and the devs got it right with A2Epoch, so I'm confident they'll get it right again.

[tommygunyeah]

Tommy, you can type your message in the radio channel, that's  what I do. 

 

Regarding being spoon fed loot, I don't believe having the relevant loot for the relevant buildings is spoon feeding. Personally I reckon it's more challenging if you have to head to Kavala for medical supplies at the giant hospital there for example, and such scenarios would utilise the cooperative capabilities of the mod, such as the radios. The type of gameplay I'm trying to describe is exactly what we saw in the early days of DayZ when it was good, then later when Epoch was born there was currency to pay for favours such as lifts in helicopters etc. 

 

There's huge scope for this game to be massively successful, it just needs the right balance, and the devs got it right with A2Epoch, so I'm confident they'll get it right again.

I did try typing but nothing came up when I did it, could it be the server I am on? Not sure will try again at some point to see if it works.

 

I defiantly agree with you on the loot though. It is a good system that just makes sense to be honest. Hopefully in the next coming updates we will start to see things move on and exceed our expectations.

[SkyDogs]

You need to press your >>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<< keys to scroll through the various channels until you find the radio one, I think it's a purplish colour.

[tommygunyeah]

You need to press your >>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<< keys to scroll through the various channels until you find the radio one, I think it's a purplish colour.

It's orange and called Channel #1 I think, but I did try text through it just nothing came up. Trying to get on a server to try it now :D

[SkyDogs]

Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to teach you how to suck eggs, but I assume you know that you have to press / before you can type your message, oh and then press ENTER to send the message, lol.

[tommygunyeah]

Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to teach you how to suck eggs, but I assume you know that you have to press / before you can type your message, oh and then press ENTER to send the message, lol.

Yeah I'm experienced fully in ARMA don't worry about that. But yeah on the server I'me playing on using the Channel #1 doesn't allow text it seems. Just tried.

[SkyDogs]

That really sucks, as the North Americans would say. They should take into account that some people can't talk for whatever reasons. 

[ZeusLT]

What about trader cities (with safe zones) where everything would be more expensive but they would have everything you need.

[tommygunyeah]

What about trader cities (with safe zones) where everything would be more expensive but they would have everything you need.

 

Yes exactly, that's one thing I loved about DayZ Epoch is that you could buy the building supplies and what not with the currency you had. You didn't need to spend 14 hours looking for a hatchet!

[cring0]

What about trader cities (with safe zones) where everything would be more expensive but they would have everything you need.

Hmm, I was kinda pondering this the other day.  I really like the way the traders are now, traders were so generic in dayz epoch and things were usually just way too easy to acquire.  Most servers gave you way too much gold for weapons and that's all people did was run around looting weapons and selling them, all day, every day, and a lot of them would cry and complain if someone shot them while they were just completely oblivious to everything outside of their loot-sell path.  I would wager that the majority of people playing Epoch didn't even use the frickin weapons outside of shooting zombies.  And then Overpoch was introduced and it got even worse lol.  Not that I'm bitter though, I still had a lot of fun all around.  It just annoyed me when players would focus on only one thing.

 

HOWEVER, I'm thinking it would be interesting to have traders at trader cities with a set supply, but charges a lot more for it and pays less when buying it from you.  I'd have to think more about that when I'm running on more than 2 hours of sleep.