Feedback Sands of Malice - test server

Dear heroes of Dracania,

This is the thread where you can express yourself!

Let us know what you like most and less from this new content expansion called Sands of Malice!

Positive or negative, constructive criticism and ideas for improvements are, as always, welcomed. Please keep discussions on topic.


Best regards,
Your Drakensang Online Team

​

 

I have not been on the TS since the aborted crafting 2.0a test. I had to see for myself though and here is my feedback:


Seriously... I saw nothing in the changes that did anything but make me chuckle. I am fine with it all. I did not actually have time to go to the new map (btw, thank the devs for the lvl 50 bump on 3 of my toons there, although some new gear so I could actually fight lvl 50 mobs would have been nice )

Ofc, game design by folks who do not actually play the game will yield some weirdness, perhaps even total chaos for a while.

The new Gnob runes do not make much sense with the choice of items they can be used in. Although I do have a toon that has been basically retired for a couple years that has a level 4 legacy amulet with 4 dmg lines (and almost 6k draken ) although I would have to take the GoP out of his legacy CHR one then over level the other CHR legacy items... hmmm... yeah... it could work.

Speaking of legacy items; I am all for making Sapphires legacy too. 'Bout time I got some real advantage over the newbies after all these years

The new slot set-up is at least one thing that will be definitely useful... at least for those of us that don't have lives a have a bunch of specialty gems from events

I survived R039, R055 ad the list goes on and on so I'm pretty sure I will get past this.

"It never got weird enough for me," Hunter S. Thompson

Anyway, I have a 3 day freemium there so I will try to find time in this weekend to do some actual playing (gonna need the free respawns ) and will post more later.

Luck be with ye,
Mikey,
Tegan

 

Could you please explain what is going on with the sapphires? I keep hearing that they will be removed and also i hear the term "legacy sapphires". what do these terms mean? also something about runes of celerity? Could you give more info on this matter, if you know, because its important i think

 

The ideas behind the development of this expansion were awesome, it will bring new life to a whole lot of new builds and setups. They revivied Q's items to make them useful once again. The new stats are awesome. The one thing that I clearly don't agree, it's keeping the old stones and introduce a whole new set of stones, and make people grind hell out of gem refiners to transform a single stone into the new set. If the requirements for it would be reasonable, I would accept that, but 100+ for polished (amethyst) and 600+ for sacreds (ruby) it's an insane cost, when you receive from dailies 15 a day if you do it all.

Besides it makes gems handling a total mess, where you double the storage occupied and you are forced to farm outside pw and new expansion maps to get stones from the old sets. Why don't just convert our gems to the new ones. It's already a pain for us to grind all over again our items, and making worse the stone management and messing our heads with two differente set of stones, it just blows up the roof.

Everything else seems enough cool to keep interest in the game and make us enjoy the grindind for the perfect gear.

 

EDIT: The double handed bows, will have the same stats as the double handed weapons from the other classes?
The long bows will still exist?I see there are for sale long bows.
The new area will have only double handed bows or you can still find the long bows too?
I hope you didn't take them off, and now only double handed items will exist from 50 level+ with same bad stats as the long bows, compare to other classes.

Now to continue the feedback. Why it needs to be so messy the stats of the items? It was nice then that you could see the full stats from each item,an especially for the weapon with the dmg per sec etc...
The speed gems will be only from Zumbe or you can find them somewhere else as well?

The rest has to be seen, as 50 lvl char there (thnx dev), with no gear though, isn't that great for testing...I agree with @MikeyMetro. Some gear would have been nice.

 

Guys pls give me some guidance. I just won 1Million anders on jesters and was going to buy saphires to give a boost on my ranger. Than , after i knew about expansion and talking with some players , i decided to keep those anders to see what to do. Now, that we will not have saphires after the update, should i still boost the ones i have by buying and finishing them to the highest lvl or should i invest in the new ones after update?
It seems to me players that already have saphires, will have some advantage after the update. But i didnt get all the idea behind that new gems and stuffs , got kinda confused.
Tnx in advance

 

If you are looking for something official I cannot simply because it is the Test Server. Everything I saw today could change tomorrow. I can only give feedback on what I saw today which was:

• Gem merchant no longer has Sapphires
• My existing Sapphires still work as they always have

Only one clover daily today so I hopped back on the TS for a bit.

PvP merchant has no gear. I am hoping this is simply because the devs have not loaded the new stuff yet.

Since my lvl 26 Ranger is now a level 50 I bought a blue long bow from the merchant in that new town in the new map (yeah, I forgot the names already ) So at least for now it appears that the 2h bow is an addition and not a replacement for 1h long bow.

I agree. Seems like every time the devs go messing with the stat displays on items they get worse.

Did a bit of gem crafting with the old gems. Seems all good here. Same as it ever was. What's new is that when you remove gems from an item they now stack. I definitely like this I keep little gems loose rather than in my gem holders since I am usually mashing them together as soon as I hit town. This will open up some storage for me.

I kinda disagree here. Sure, the whole gem thing will be a bit messy at first but as the old gems get crafted to their maximum and the leftovers converted then things will get back to normal.

Also "grind" is way to soon to tell how this will shake out. I would rather have to much grind at first and adjusted later than have the dev's cave to instant gratification. That has never worked out well in the past.

The new maps... well I cannot give the usual compliments t the graphics team since I cannot shake the felling of being back in that most horrid of events Although I spent most of my time respawning back in town (have not used my freemium yet) the monster scaling seems ok. After I remembered I had more skills and points to use and grabbed a bit of new gear I managed to kill a few each time out. I'm guessing my real toons on Tegan should have no problem questing in at least painful mode.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about being able to select modes on the new maps. On the one hand It's great to be able to get better challenges and rewards in regular pve maps. On the other I am a bit concerned about getting to lvl 55 to soon before I get to the areas that drop lvl 55 gear. There is always PW for that but I was hoping to get away from spending most of my time there at least for a little while.

TL;DR not a game breaker. Too soon to know if it's a game maker.

Luck be with ye,
Mikey,
Tegan

//edit// just changed one word for clarity/accuracy.

 

It would be nice if one of the game designer spent an hour to give us sneak peek of what is coming, at least some info on gems, sapphires, long bows vs 2handed etc. something official so we dont guess and prepare for the release. people are confused. you cannot keep taking money from people without telling what the game would be in two weeks.

 

Well for a release of this size I think the info has been very low, as some hint before its nice to know "to what" do I put my money here.
I did a tour to the 2 "new" maps and was not impressed as it was 90% old event maps. Not that I dislike those maps just that this is first time event maps become "new world". All new stats, gems and new stuff I have not started to study, so from base:
How come´s the lv +50 maps are disconnected from the +45 maps, I can go past the 45-49 maps.
In general some less grinding farm quest and some that takes some thinking would be great.

It would be much more efficient if QA ask us to test some smaller parts, spec mob or map. Now it is to much to "test" and grade.
Other things to do for a better game: Just how many are farming in the 45-49 maps after lv 50 and Balor dropped the Panther, not to many. Big question is why, what is missing there to make them more fun.
Reinvent the older maps/worlds - some new missions - some special uniqe/map - have a scaled lv version of any map (just for the fun of it). Make one that scales after your stats all skills and put on a leaderboard.

To many opinions at the moment, so I be back.

 

Hello! For us new players at the test server its kinda hard to test with a new player. I wonder, since its a TS why wouldn't the player at least have some lvls? Or at the creation page you could lvlup to the desired lvl... I know i am being selfish but its kinda weird.

 

Also 3 of my toons get lvl50 and there are not even close now to test new maps. Since this is TS no one have toon that have full gems or good items.... and now from lvl32 (or 36, or 41) to lvl50 you can imagine how weak that toon is.

Now, event Storm of bones gives almost 15k of bone dust and items are 10k each. That is help for weak players? And drop rate of bone dust is low... so its grinding fest for nothing and BP profit since many players you buffs to finish it.

Parallel world is another story. Q4 weapon is gone, Q5 set is gone, Q8 armor is weaken.... so what with players that already have that sets? Thay have advantage over other. There will be again talk about balansing and re-balansing game.

Seem to me that with little effort (maps and mobs from dune event) you make a big mess. There is 6 days to expansion and you have items that display values 0,0-0,0? Items that have no thumb picture? All of that says only one thing... little effort, little work and no good vision in developing this game.

Only one thing is to say: Im sad that this is way game is going.

 

Much of the significant content changes can be seen and tested in town or lower level areas. For the most part the only stuff a low level toon is missing out on is a sneak peak at the new maps and PW rewards (unless you have an old low level toon that can already access Cardhun.)

The test server is what it is. The vast majority of players there do little to contribute to the game's progress. Only a relative handful of players do serious testing and reporting. I am not one of them anymore. I only go there for the really big stuff; just twice in the last year. I am just lucky enough to have some old toons there that are on a list somewhere for occasional perks.

I recall the crafting 2.0 test last year when a lot of players were all given huge resources to test with. I saw the majority of those at the jesters gambling those resources away instead of doing crafting testing. The dev's saw this too and did a rollback afterwards to pre-existing status.

If you would like to be a recognized tester then just do it. It will take a very long time and a lot of dedication before this happens though. The trade off will be time not progressing your live server toon. That is something I am not willing to do anymore but I am very grateful for the few players that are.

When I make a statement like this it is tongue in cheek. I do not really expect nor deserve any more than I get there these days. My TS contributions are very minor and appropriately so are my freebies

Back to the topic hand:

A valid point. Not just for uniques but also regular gear. I saw a screenie from Traki of a gold att spd line that did not look very golden to me. Are there other nerfed stats out there? So is this going to be a have vs. have not issue? Is old gear with these stat lines going to be nerfed via script or will all the old gear become legacy items? (And thereby prohibit their use in T4 upgrade or the new transfer stat line to unique crafting.)

Luck be with ye,
Mikey,
Tegan

 

Yesterday i was "testing" the "new" area...
- I like the new types of gems (runes and Qiazah gems), the new slots only for "unique" gems and runes too, Stackable gems, really? i like it a lot!!!
- Base stats for the items, i like it, but i saw a lot of very very very low enchantments in the objects something like 1% increased dmg on some torsos, 2% attack speed in gloves (from PW and normal maps) got a OP crit dmg line too (17.74%) i thought the max is 17% i think the "minimun and maximum enchant value" rule doesn't work or it will change...
- Changes to the uniques, i'ts very good, but you will convert the existing ones to the updated ones?????? i have some T1 sigris set parts on the ts but those items have the old values...
- New type of gems, liked it, not much because you need a lot of those refiners to convert the old to the new ones... another thing, i can't find a shappire farming... i think it's a bug and you will change it or we'll need to buy sapphires ($$$) if we want increase our speed...
- I disagree with the "new maps" because they (dso team) recycled them from old events (yes the Dunes of Disaster) (i hate those maps)
- Uniques for the bone coins.............. it's a joke, right? 10k for 1 unique (bad uniques) if i even can call those items "unique items"................
- Changes to the boss ........ i saw some changes to the grimmag boss (lvl1), got 1-2 mins with "normal skills" and then he doesn't stop spaming guardians (that guardian of fire and skeletons) meteors and aniquilations................ lol it's impossible with my recently lvl 50 char even with tons of red ess...
Killed heredur (lvl1) solo and he doesn't use those "especial" skills and then with group and he can use those lvl 2 and 3 skills...

And i agree with the other players, we need objects and some resources to test it, if i can't kill the mobs even with ess how i can test it?

PD: about the "2-h bows" i got only 2 of them, the drop is like a unique drop xD

 

As Rangers got their own 2handed weapon and long bows still exist, I would love other classes to get their version of longow.

 

Who knows, things are still changing, and it seems balancing is still happening... concentration regeneration has been greatly improved too. DD And if it stays how it is right now we'll all be happy rangers. Crying still, but of happiness, whatever our weapon of choice.
Edit: nevermind... back to normal :\

 

The longbow is considered 1-h, no? there are different types of weapons for all the classes...
Then i want the axe version for ranger... lol

 

so ... rengers get 2h bow?
You know what that means. I hereby call for an incessant whining of spellweavers to get mid-dmg 1h weapon which lowers manacost. Guys, we can do it. This is our cue

 

Is there any information about the new class? On the art i have seen about it, the charactar's outfit was desert themed, so i suppose (hope) it's going to be released soon after the expansion

 

This plan of getting rid of sapphires may be a dealbreaker for me in terms of whether I will stick with the game. Not excited about creating another class of players with impossible to get items, in this case, royal and sacred sapphires.

 

EXACTLY what i'm thinking.... because, i don't have royals or even sacreds... i only have 4 flawless... and now people with royals will be better forever... affects pvp gameplay

also, I'm not sure what's happening with the chests, first of all the adventurers chest gives something at lvl 55 now but my main accs don't have it since they finished story before that chest came out. Also there is still no info about this new chest from event, has anyone opened it yet on ts?