Home › Game Forums › WildStar
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
The results of the F2P transition
FomaldehydeJim
Member UncommonPosts: 673
I truly do not know what has happened.
I disliked this game upon release for a variety of reasons, but they mainly came down to; a) the combat (not that it is action, but that it is a tedious realisation of action combat); b) the poor optimisation, and; c) the shouty graphics (not the art-style but the crap all over your screen).
I heard that it had certain teething problems including long queues or a complete lack of access for several days.
I must admit I have a morbid interest? Has the population significantly picked up. Is there any indication of retention? How did it all go?
I heard that it had certain teething problems including long queues or a complete lack of access for several days.
I must admit I have a morbid interest? Has the population significantly picked up. Is there any indication of retention? How did it all go?
Post edited by FomaldehydeJim on
Comments
As much as I loved the game on release, for some reason population dwindled down in just a few months. Perhaps it was partly due to marketing (seemed to me they were targeting both extremely hardcore players and extremely casual players at the same time).
I am guessing most of the reasons players didn't stick around the first time was due to what the game actually is (core design choices). I don't see how this changes with a F2P transition. If anything, I'd expect players to leave more quickly, as they are not invested through a subscription.
At launch I could not get past the starter zone, since the very first minute I was not enjoying myself.
When it went free2play I felt like giving it another shot and I am still playing it, it is quite fun, I have no idea what the game is like at higher level but the combat, camera, gameplay overal feels a lot better/smoother than at launch.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I just checked, there are two edit buttons you can use. If you are looking at the main page of the forum you are in, you'll see an edit button pop up next to your OP if you mouseover. If you are within the post, look way up in the far right hand corner of the screen (not the post) and you'll see an Options "gear" and edit appears under it.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
All in all the first 15 levels are much more enjoyable, can´t speak for the rest as i have not had time to level much farther.
Crafting seems a bit smoother to.
But it is still WS in the end... If you do not like the "WoW with action combat in space" or the art style... You will not like the game. But at least now it is free to try.
This have been a good conversation
I played since Beta days and took a break a few months later down the road post launch. I picked up the game 3 months prior to this writing. It has come a long way, that's for sure.
The reason a lot of players left the game was because it just wasn't friendly to new players. I personally didn't realize this until my return, and kept saying to myself "Oh wow, I didn't realize there wasn't a tutorial for this". Crafting/Runes didn't really have much of an explanation in game, Dungeons DEFINITELY didn't have any explanation nor preparations in game. In-fact that's the very reason we have the Protogames Academy tutorial dungeon now so players can understand the basics of what they're doing. Dungeons were also a bit less forgiving, but they're very doable now; though still offer a challenge instead of a faceroll, and that's what counts.
Every game has a gear grind for the good stuff, if you think about it. This one is hardly difficult, and furthermore PvP is not dead. Before F2P it was mostly just at 50's you'd see it, but now you're starting to find it at lower/mid levels due to the influx of players.
@FomaldehydeJim
A lot has changed honestly, and yeah the population is booming!
The Cosmetic system is actually one of the best I've seen across many MMOs. Before, they had it where you were restricted to your armor proficiency in what you could wear as a 'costume' (Costumes are an overlaying skin for purely cosmetic purposes, allowing you to keep your main gear equipped and benefit from its stats.) but now? You can literally use ANY armor proficiency's skin regardless of your class. Warrior in light armors? Done. Esper in heavy plates? Done.
They added this thing called Holo-Wardrobe, where you can unlock up to 350 items (increased if you pay a small fee of course) for their skins and use them *ACCOUNT WIDE*. So if you find a piece of raid gear and think "Hey, this looks awesome, I want my alt to wear this!" You can just, unlock its skin to your account, hop on your alt, and bam. Instant-badass. The Appearance Modificator NPCs were repurposed to allow players character recustomization. Pretty much everything but your name and gender can be changed in-world, and you don't even NEED any RL currency for this feature.
They also said screw waiting and just gave players all 6 costume slots off the bat (Possibly just for Box Purchasers) as well as the ability to have your 8th skill slot unlocked way earlier than it was initially, allowing you to get a build you enjoy a lot sooner. You also no longer have to pay to unlock abilities, they're just unlocked as you level. You still have to find the AMP abilities in order to unlock them, though.
You also now have three speeds to move at: Walk, Run (With Shift to Sprint like it used to be), and Perma-Sprint mode which many have debated over, however allows people to play like they do in most other MMOs where you're constantly at a full pace. Endurance with sprinting has been removed for outside of combat, however still exists within combat. This means if you're on your mount and want to get around without it running out of energy every 5 seconds? Now you can. It feels good to zoom across the land on the mounts now, and if you get the increased mount speeds, it's even better.
The community is lively, and there are a lot of helpful individuals (myself included), but like any community, you will find your goods and bads. Please don't let one bad apple spoil the bunch. I'm personally a part of the WSRP (Wildstar-Roleplay) community, and there are even people whom happily give away things like dyes, pets, mounts, and even make gear for new players. It's all spontaneous, but I've witnessed it several times before and after F2P transition.
Speaking of F2P transition, I'm finding a LOT of players saying in Zone chats and so forth how happy they are with the game, some even claim it to be their favorite MMO. If this game was just to be some 'temporary fix' until expansions for other games came out? We wouldn't be seeing that. I know Wildstar earned a lot of negative parakeeting in the past, but it truly feels like the MMO it should have been from the start, now.
They refined the starting zones, the overall gameplay flow, and they added TONS of new skins for gear across all levels, not to mention they added a BUNCH more cosmetic rewards/drops. Like Hazmat suits, Draken Hunter/Huntress gear, Colonist gear, and a bunch more that you can find as cosmetic items via discoveries in zones all over.
The Omnibits system is also something that allows us to get the Store items without spending a cent on them, and you get Omnibits just by killing mobs in world or through daily logins, oh and yeah, the Daily logins are pretty neato. They also reward players for spending money in their store as they accumulated Cosmic Points, which give free unlocks to a bunch of wicked stuff. (None of it is 'pay to win', mostly just boosters and cosmetics.)
Oh and don't even get me started on housing, they -doubled- the Skyhome plot sizes and we now have ways to build things like rope bridges, flowing rivers and water falls, and even have NPCs on our plot! It's mind blowing to think they're even considering a 'Neighborhood' system which will connect up to 5 (possible more?) player plots together to make a mega plot. Imagine that as an RP zone, or even a race track/hoverboard park, or a fun project you and your friends/guild could work on? Like, the possibilities are limitless. They added music and more features to the skyhomes, too. Like the ability to hide the background homes so you can be allll byyyy yoooouurrrseeeellllf~
*Ahem*.. Anyway, I could go on for ages talking about how well this game has shaped up, but I don't want to break in to a Disney song over this.
TL;DR - The game has changed in a lot of ways, big and small. It's worth a second chance and I personally feel it will keep its population. If the -megaservers- were overflowing? That's not a bad sign, that's a /good/ sign. It means there was a demand, which is what the game has needed for some time. The servers are actually a lot better now, they've added additional ones (though I play on the original Entity) and I've played many hours the past 3 days with not even a lag spike.
Wildstar is here to stay, that's for sure.