Please Note: These are just ideas or thoughts that came to mind over my first hour or so of gameplay. These are just put here for consideration or to spark bigger ideas in the game developers minds. I like the game the way it is and know its in beta and has a long way to go! (Which I love btw, cant wait to grow with the community and the game) So please just read as if it was constructive critisism, and an opinion. Over my course of gameplay I will try my best to add or critique some of my ideas.

 

[Player Controls/Hotkeys]

Hotkeys where it doesn't have to be ALT+ or CTRL +, so people can assign WASD for movement, or Arrow keys. I find myself hitting 5 on the numpad alot making myself go into walk mode. Also the ability to be able to hold down 2 movement keys at once to make a diagonal direction instead of literally needing 8 assigned keys to move...4 is sufficient enough (Ex. Up&Left = Diagonal heading West "by the games grid lines") Also Hotkeys for 1-0 with a Skill bar and the ability to drag and drop selected items/skills/spells so we dont have to STOP/PAUSE/OPTIONS/ Hmmmm...which hot key do I wanna assign now with the hundred others I have to try to remember? This REALLY makes the gameplay experience rather....annoying. These are my hugest pet peves so far.

[Player GUI]

Make a Equipment Tab so it leaves more room on screen for useful things like a Hot bar, Party system box, etc. Inventory/Character Status and all Tabs to be made in the future imo should be resized ALOT smaller and all placed in one general location. (Ex. Top of screen along with options etc) Full screen mode imo should be full screen, not just a bigger black box around the already semi small game screen. Bag should deffinetely open with slots, instead of all items being able to be placed anywhere in a cluttered small space, would help for sorting purposes imo. Overall at first look, and trying to get the feel of the gui it is rather cluttered and I see ALOT of extra space that could be used for bigger and better purposes.

[Player Gameplay]

Could use some frameskip XD lol. The combat feels and is imo very very slow paced. Possible movement while attacking or casting certain spells would be kool, but not a big issue.

[Added Functions/Buttons]

The ability to auto loot all, not auto click corpse to bring up the bag. The ability to just double click items to send them to the bag or appropriate stack. The option to assign Attack/Spell to Left Click (If all the above control ideas I brought up came into effect instead of Tab then select target) Zoom in, Zoom out function on the minimap. Set key bindings like C for character sheet (status), I for inventory or B (Bag), L/K for Spell Tome, Etc. The ability to just hover over any item and get its Stats/Specs instead of Shift + Clicking. Basically Overall anything to make it easier to navigate, learn, and be more user friendly. (My friends laptop along with alot of other peoples i'm sure, doesn't have a numpad (omg right? and his F1-F12 keys are used for misc buttons like volume etc. so he has to press a different key to disable those to activate his Function keys. So thinking about him made me wonder if other people will find it a hastle on some laptops)  Possibly a X, Y, Z coordinates under mini-map for party/friend reasons?

[Graphic Ideas]

None, Did a splendid job with what you've got!

 

Overall I love the game, and for as far as its came...the developers imo are doing a dang good job at making an all time unique game/gaming experience in the genre its in. I hope to provide further ideas for you Chris, and the Team. I hope to hear feedback in what yalls upcoming ideas/patches and thoughts are on my ideas. Thanks a million!

IG Name: Satan

First of all thank you very much for all your comments I really appreciate the feedback, we do take it seriously. We are always working on improving the game. I found all your comments very constructive. Over the next few months we plan on finishing up beta, some of the things you have mentioned will be addressed before then.

[Player Controls/Hotkeys]

Many users requested the use of the number which is why we choose to use that as a movement option. I am sure you realize you can also use a mouse. WASD may not work without some toggle flag to use those keys since you may also like to type messages to other players. We will see what we can do with that.

In regards to hot keys, I want to make clear that you can set F1 - F12 without using CTRL/ALT. The reason for needing to hold CTRL / ALT for other keys is because of the 'easy key tageting system' that allows you to target characters with numbers/letters instead of having to click them to cast a spell on the target. In early testing we found it was too easy to mistarget with keys if your hot key overlapped with that.  

We will be implementing a "Hot Bar" in one of the upcoming patches that will enable players to set actions to icons on a bar. that you can move freely around the screen. Similar to watch you are suggesting.

[Player GUI]

While we do not plan changing the main layout very soon one of the things we may do is move player chat into a tabbed system with the main game window chat. We may also increase the play area window once more later in the summer. we do not plan to allow players to scale it up by playing fullscreen simply because its too big of an advantage in pvp to be able to see farther than an opponent can. We try to design for both older midrange pcs and newer pcs to allow more players to be able to play. If your resolution is extremely high the game window may appear smaller. My native resolutions on my flatscreens are fairly high and the play area sill takes up about 1/2 the screen.

[Player Gameplay]

Do you mean while you are moving with frameskip? Combat varies, it really depends on what you are fighting, some things run, some walk... It is possible to swing a weapon while moving, and run and target with a spell but for casting a spell and shooting a bow you must stop for a moment. (This keeps it balanced with the other combat skills). Throwing you can run and throw.

[Added Functions/Buttons]

We will see if we can add some hot keys in the mean time for some of the actions you have mentioned. The minimap functionality is not complete yet, you will be able to enlarge the minimap.

You currently can hover over items and weapons to get stats about it, you have to hover for about 0.4 sec. You can shut off the delay in options if you like., as well as where you want the item panel to show.

While your friend may not want to do this for one game, I also have a laptop with the same functionality (F1-F12) keys. You can normally shut this off in the BIOS. I hate this personally, as a techy or game player I find myself needing to use those keys a lot.

[Graphic Ideas]

Thanks! They are only getting better as our artists get more ideas and experience. Cudos to them.

Thanks for the encouragement. We often cant do all the idea's everyone wants but we do try to incorporate suggestions that we fill fit the game, and I think you have definately made some good ones.

 

Thanks for playing!

 

Chris

Oh man thank you so much Chris (and ofc the developing team XD) for your awesome feedback, after reading what you have said I see your points and cant wait to see what u release in the future. Ofc as I stated above I had only played for about an hour so wasn't quite 100% familiar with the keys, and functions u have in game. But after day 2 of playing omg, straight for 8+hours I have now 3 characters and all are going smoothly thanks to some of the player submitted guides that I have chose to follow. I have also found many points that I had brought up yesterday that I was (as I write this) about to revamp due to me finding more shortcuts to keys, functions, GUI in a whole. So I just jumped on the site to re-correct/add to what I had said yesterday, and I have to say...theres quite a bit if not all I wouldn't mind erasing. The game deffinetely has a different learning curve, and an "Independent/Learn or not live" gameplay which I have to say after today (Day 2) I absolutely love how you have made the controls/gameplay. Ofc it deffinetely took some getting used to, but now that I have everything pretty much mastered/learned as far as Clicks/Keys/Combat I deffinetely feel it was much needed as it adds its own unique style to F.R.O. and ofc just takes some time getting used to. I found it difficult because most games ALL are based around the same ideas/functions, So with that being said I have to give yall a 100% of my gratitude and appreciation for making me break that system that is all well to known for most MMORPGS to date. I can not wait to see what else is to come, and I have to say. Ya'll have me hooked and here for the stay, weather it is just me in game or not most days. I'll just Beta test, and play as if it was single player hehe, and ofc invite my RL friends. I told them about the game today and one has work ofc mon-fri so he plans to try the game out this weekend with me, and he is expecting a baby in 1month so has limited time due to him trying to sort his babys room etc. But after he seen the website today, and the About/Preview tabs he is deffinetely siked to get into F.R.O with me. My other friend is also limited to gameplay due to having school studies. So he can only play on limited times but he did play on my account today and plans on also making an account this weekend when we all get together. I also wanted to add that we have all talked about it, and seeing how the community is rather lacking (which I understand due to it being in beta and most people not wanting to actually test/give feedback, we would love to) We also talked about possibly donating because a game this good deserves the right credit and appreciation it should have and we would love to help the progress of futute updates/website management/graphics/hosting services etc. whatever it is u need help with please do not hessitate to ask me, or them when they make there accounts this weekend. We are very serious gamers and love to help an indie type developer anyday of the week as I know you have a life, bills, school possibly, and other important criterias so I know it can be stressful to do this with all the other concerns of life hitting you all at the same time. So I wanted to thank you again Chris and the Developing team for your hard work and effort into making a unique MMORPG that I have ever played. Thanks again, Newbie Tyrael =P

Hey I'm Jake, the RL friend of Tyrael, I'd like to throw some input on what I think, first and foremost you REALLY should at least give a 1-2hr buff to new players to let them be able to fight without losing interest because honestly, I was very tempted to just log off when I saw how long it took to kill one ratman, so maybe a small new player buff to increase chance of attack or dmg, etc. would increase new player happiness. I will agree with your response to this problem, it does in fact speed up and makes the combat alot faster as you level up (I just hit level 2 hah) but I still believe a small boost to brand new players would keep a steadier flow of new people.

 

Also, I'll add suggestions as I play, like Tyrael said I'm a hardcore gamer and I want to design my own game so I love to throw my input into new games.

 

We will be addressing some of the issues related to the difficulty of building the first few levels a few different ways:

1. We will be increasing the number of starting skill points by about 15 - 25.

2. There will be some easy quests to complete to get you through your first level or two that gets you aquainted with the game and locations. Were actually working on these right now.

3. There is currently a "curved algorithm" for new players related to chance to hit, we likely need to tweak this as well to help increase a new players chance to hit a tiny bit more.

Right now the best way to help out is testing the game., posting bugs, and if you are looking for more to do, we would really like someone/some group to maybe put some tutorial videos of how to do things in the game or how to play, that we could link or post on YouTube that would help new and experienced players.

In regards to donating money to Fantasy Realm Online. we can certainly discuss this, please email at support@fantasyrealmonline.com. Additionally Once the game releases there will be various account mods worth purchasing and a cash shop for special items which will be another great way to support the game. We obviously have quite a bit invested in the game so having methods to sustain it long term is a good thing.

 

Thank you again for your interest.