Overall beta experience

[Cercei]

I posted my thoughts on beta now that its done over on the official forums but wanted to start a thread here for everyone to share their experiences and impressions!!



The Wildstar Client and Carbine Server Stability

Overall I will say that the Wildstar game client seems much more stable than it has been in previous weeks. I'm not sure what back-end work was done however this most recent beta weekend I was consistently getting over 60fps and had zero game crashes. I also like the update that was done to the launcher, it feels more polished and is easy to navigate. All that being said I was VERY disappointed to see that players (myself included) are still running into issues such as the random log-out bug, or the pretty terrible lag issues that have been hitting the servers such as this past weekends massive delay in hostile NPCs registering being damaged. To me these are concerning issues this close to launch and I hope the reason that they came up were because Carbine is stress testing their servers and going to make corrections from there. As a player there isn't anything more frustrating than wanting to play but not being able to because of lag which is a HUGE problem in a game that functions around telegraph combat.





The UI and Map

Having played in closed beta I can say that UI 1.0 was unpleasant at best and feel that 2.0 really resolved a lot of issues that I had with the previous version. Things seem more streamline and easier to find, I like the fact that I can move character and target portraits without any special steps needed. One thing that did come up that I didn't like was the quest tracker switching the order of my quests depending how close I was to an objective. I found it confusing at points when I would look over and then have to scroll down or up to find it again (mainly because I would be clicking the objective to get my directional arrow). It didn't help that the Datacron (spelling it probably off on that) kept popping up a couple of weeks ago in beta, although this most recent weekend I don't think I recall having that issue. The mini-map and regular map need work in the sense that it should be MUCH easier to tell where my group/raid members are on the map. I really hope this is a planned tweak for launch.





Social Aspects

Let me start by saying that the fact that Carbine was smart enough to allow for account-based friends is a huge deal to me. I'm happy to know I can talk to all of my friends regardless of their server or faction. Grouping was very easy, the chat interface itself I found to be user friendly although I wish I could setup different tabs for specific whispers from individuals (maybe you can and I just didn't see it). Overall my experience with the community was positive throughout beta and found that players were more than willing to help one another typically. I honestly don't have much more to say on this topic actually!





Quests and Challenges

I have played MMOs for well over a decade now so I definitely know what I like and don't like. While there is nothing really ground breaking about the questing in Wildstar it feels extremely comfortable to me. There isn't much guesswork, you show up and get your objective then head out to kill or gather. Personally that's what I like because it gets me back to the action quicker. One thing that I really like are the Challenges. I felt Challenges were a great addition because usually it involves quest mobs but also if you manage to earn even a bronze medal you have a chance at getting yourself a piece of gear, with silver and gold usually offering the chance for a piece of gear that is of rare quality. Very nice perk in my opinion although some of the Challenges feel like they need reworking as far as what is required to get a gold medal (it could even be as simple as either allowing more time or reducing the amount needed because in some cases it seemed borderline impossible). The zone and regional questlines were interesting to see added, even if the story that goes with them is somewhat flimsy / comical (the Lopp Wedding comes to mind) they give players a sense of something that needs to be getting done. I also liked seeing quests that take us out to the different dungeons so we know where they are.





Dungeons and Adventures

Let me begin by saying I never made it to level 50. During my beta experience I made it to level 25 (I had some real life things that prevented me from playing a couple of the weekends) so I was able to experience the first couple of Dungeons as well as the first two Adventures. Adventures are a great idea with the way they are being done in Wildstar (in my opinion at least) because Carbine can easily add more without needing much storyline (if any) to do so. Riot and War were both very enjoyable, and War felt like something totally new since it involved fighting NPCs for control of a zone (and getting our faces wrecked in the process). Where Wildstar really shines is Dungeons and I was so happy with both Stormtalon's Lair and Ruins of Kel Vorath. Each was tuned very well, they were both difficult and required your group to be on-point and actually felt rewarding to finish. My advice to Carbine is no matter what you do, don't ever nerf content like this (Dungeons or Adventures). Its fantastic and exactly what we as players want more of!



PvP and Combat

Typically I hate PvP but part of the job as a beta tester is to help test everything so I qued up with no idea what to really expect. One of my biggest griped in other MMOs is that the combat feels boring as hell and although I had been having a lot of fun with Wildstar's telegraph combat in PvE I wasn't sure how it was going to translate into PvP. I actually used two measures for this one, the first being how much do I personally like PvP with telegraph combat, and second was how did my wife like PvP with telegraph combat (she is extremely picky with games and to this point had been into WoW PvP mainly). To my utter shock she absolutely loved the PvP and how fast paced it was. Surprisingly so did I, which is saying something because I hate PvP normally. I found combat to be extremely fast paced and fun, requiring you to really think and not just stand there and mindlessly cast. Utterly great in my opinion, and I can't wait to see how Warplots play out.





Player Housing

Normally I laugh at stuff like player housing. I've always been a "why do I care if my character can have a house in a game" kind of player even though plenty around me have raged about how great it is once you get into it. Even when Rift added Dimensions I thought it was needlessly complicated and stupid so when I saw that I was able to buy a house from Protostar I mainly did the quest for the XP involved but once I go to my plot I figured I might as well play around with it. And do you know what? I sat today for 3 hours messing around decorating the inside of my house because Carbine made it THAT easy and fun to play around with everything for player housing. I honestly was shocked how much I enjoyed myself and really like that decor drops in dungeons (and I assume raids) that can be placed in your home or on your land. Two thumbs up Carbine!!





Closing Thoughts

Is Wildstar a perfect game? No, but what game is? There are some glaring issues that really need addressing before Early Access begins but honestly I think that this game does SO much right that it will pull players in and keep them here for the foreseeable future. Its refreshing to have a game again that requires some thought and dedication and that fact alone will bring in tons of disillusioned MMO players who are unhappy where they are or have quit the genre all together. At first I wasn't sure how I would enjoy a game aimed at the old hardcore days of MMOs but now that I've experienced it I can honestly say I have no desire to return to any of the "lesser" MMOs that are out.

[Novatek]

Good read! Thanks for sharing your beta experience.

[Robilar]

excellent write up

[daHob]

Really nice write up.

Also, I'm pretty sure there is a toggle in the UI do figs to turn of sorting your quests by the closest one.

[Magique]

The UI and Map

One thing that did come up that I didn't like was the quest tracker switching the order of my quests depending how close I was to an objective. I found it confusing at points when I would look over and then have to scroll down or up to find it again (mainly because I would be clicking the objective to get my directional arrow).

There is an option you can uncheck that prevents the quests from moving around based on location. My personal qualms with the quests were the division of quests into different subcategories. I'd do quests in one area and move on after I thought I'd gotten them all only to notice later on that I'd missed something down in tasks or the like. Also, unlike the rear-view mirror in Jurassic Park, objects on your mini map are further away than they appear.

Social Aspects

Let me start by saying that the fact that Carbine was smart enough to allow for account-based friends is a huge deal to me. I'm happy to know I can talk to all of my friends regardless of their server or faction.

Tow big thumbs up for this. I have friends that may be all over the place and this will be a nice added feature. There is a significant number of "channels" defaulted in. This weekend I even notice a channel specifically geared for advice.

Quests and Challenges

I felt Challenges were a great addition because usually it involves quest mobs but also if you manage to earn even a bronze medal you have a chance at getting yourself a piece of gear, with silver and gold usually offering the chance for a piece of gear that is of rare quality.

These things pop up like Starbucks and McDonalds. There were a number of times my friend and I groaned when that announcer guy said "challenge begun." Sometimes we just wanted to get through an area and other times we didn't have enough mobs to meet the challenge within the time constraints. We felt both obligated to do them and annoyed with ourselves if we didn't. I know its not really a big deal if you don't do them, but who wants to ignore that taunting voice?

Player Housing

I sat today for 3 hours messing around decorating the inside of my house because Carbine made it THAT easy and fun to play around with everything for player housing.

I only had a chance to experience this for the first time this weekend. While at first I thought they had given me plenty of information to get started, it took looking on the internet to figure out I had to click that little gear box in order to actually place anything. I think that part of the interface is awkward. As is the fact that until you place an item you have a giant box that takes up half your screen. It was easier to just toss something down, close that big crate box and then click on the item to edit it. A minor qualm but these are extra steps that could be avoided. Otherwise, I just wish I had more money to really play around in here. Spent my measly 2G pretty quickly. LOL

I've enjoyed most of my time in Wildstar (even the mocking death voice that I've heard way to often now) but have felt like the leveling has been very slow. My husband pointed out that the fact I was leveling 3 characters probably didn't help matters any based on the limited time I did get to play. I'm sure I'll find it goes much faster when the game releases and I'm only focusing on one. Looking forward to the official release though. Will try and stay away from open beta for the most part so I don't burn myself out on the early levels.

[Myrdoc]

Good read, and it mirrors many of my same thoughts. Two points:

1) As far as friends being easier to find....I wouldn't hold your breathe. People have been complaining about this forever, and Carbine has yet to take any real action on it. Fortunately, there are some addons that make this much easier, so even if Carbine continues to drop the ball in this aspect, it won't be a huge deal.

2) PvP: If you're on Dominion side, I look forward to fighting with you, and if you're on the Exile side, I wish you best of luck. It's great to see people enjoying PvP so much, even moreso in a game that doesn't necessarily have PvP as it's primary end-game focus. I especially love to see people go from, "I HATE pvp" to "I actually enjoyed it!"