My first Week on Herocraft - Feedback

[Morgenss]

Hello mates,
i noticed all the talk about getting new players to stick and retaining a healthy player base, so i figured id give my untainted feedback from a newbees perspective.
First off I dont claim to be in the right with anything i state, this is just what and how i saw things here on the server with my unschooled eyes.

A list of stuff that i had trouble with:

• The Wiki - As this server is pretty complex the wiki is the most important resources i found myself looking at all the time. The problem is i couldn't find 50% of the stuff I was looking for and a good chunk of what is there seems to be outdated. I know keeping everything nice and clean in the wiki is a really boring and time consuming job - but it should be done to give new players the chance to inform themselves without having to ask 100 different things in the chat.
• Chat - The Chat experience was varying greatly depending on the time i logged in. If i had to need to ask a question, it generally got answered pretty quickly early in the morning (your time) when around 30 players (mostly from Eu id imagine, like myself) were online. I actually had a few really nice conversations with older members of the community when nearly no-one was online. On primetime when 80+ people are playing questions rarely get a serious answer and most chat is about "op this, get recked here, omfg lag". Dont know what there is to improve, its just something that i noticed on more than one day.
• Weird Resource irregularities - I found myself struggling to get food the first few days and especially as a beginner, when you take damage from unnecessary sources, being able to regen health is important. Also Leather for armor is extremely hard to get for a beginner without money. I dont understand why diamonds and iron are so plenty that they are completely worthless and Leather and Food on the other hand are so rare, that a beginner struggles to get his hands on them.
• Markets at Spawn - For experienced players it might seem easy to navigate through all the empty houses and know where they can buy what, but i had a surprisingly hard time to find the things i wanted to buy. Took me nearly 30 minutes of just running past the same houses over and over again until i found food and leather to buy (as i didnt manage to farm it myself). That was one of the only frustrating experiences i had on this server and needed to quit for the day after wasting so much time on that. As for fixing the problem? Id suggest removing the empty houses as long as there is no one buying them, that should make it way easier to spot potential shops and deals. You could leave those blue outliners as they are outside the city-walls as markings with a pricetag so one knows there is a plot to buy.
• Dungeons - I dont want to step on anyone's toes here, but i think they are plain-out poorly made. They are way to big and it just looks silly to me having a huge place with only 1 or 2 mobs in sight. No room-progression or intersting mechanics. Every mob does the same, elites get leap and bosses teleport - thats all i encountered. Just no twist or anything you have to care for - Teleport is unavoidable (which is also bad design, unavoidable damage is just bad) and Leap is just the mob jumping 2 Blocks. I would hope that alteast the bosses can have some unique twist and turns in the future. To call it "Dungeons" i would also dream of some jump-and-run challenges to reach special mobs/loot or Redstone triggers. I know this requires a lot of effort and work - but as a newbee on the server i was highly disappointed with the "Dungeons" Herocraft has to offer.
• Emptyness - As I ran across the world just to have an adventure I found that most of the world is empty. No players, no buildings no towns. Where are all the peoples? I mostly see people in the popular leveling areas or around the hero gates - never encountered anyone strolling through the wild. Maybe put some objectives/stuff to do into the Wilderness? No precise ideas myself though.

Neutral/Opinion-based stuff:

• Ganking - The main point of frustration that is mentioned here in the forums is that new players are getting camped and ganked while leveling. While its true that i was killed a dozen times by grouped up higher level players, i didnt find it difficult to avoid them once i knew they were in the area. Aside from avoiding ganksquads, I was able to talk to most of them after they killed me and they were actually surprisingly nice and helpful. There are a few bad apples though that just dont answer to anything and kill you over and over. Either you have to try to fight them, switch locations or simply do something else for 10 minutes, but thats how PvP in an open world game works - I see no need to change anything here.
  
• PvP - I think there is a lack of CC in small scale open world fights, which i encountered while leveling. Fights usually drag out over a thousand blocks and only end after a 10 Minute chase. Stuns are annoying and shouldn't be overdone, but slows should be more abundant with all the jumps and teleports available for escape. As i can recall i only ever was chased down by Dragoons, no other class was able to kill me in a 1 on 1 where i just decided to run (Im a Ninja). Other way around i also found it difficult to catch up to people that just decided to run away from me. Especially fighting Necros and Casters is a torment, they use their instant spells, turn around and run until they are off cooldown and repeat. Fights against Casters always never end in kills, usually we both end up low and decide to just back off ^^ All that could be just me being bad/new to the gamemechanics, but i really think more slows/catch mechanics are needed.

Positive Stuff: I want to end on a good note here, enough complaining

• Complexity - I really like that there is a lot to discover for a newbee on this server, i love figuring out new things. If we can have "lategame" goals like Conquest-Objective and War, this server would be even better (looking forward to the next few month).
• Community - Even if there are some bad apples, i enjoyed most interactions with the players i interacted with. Thumbs up for you guys, the forums make it look way worse than it actually is.
• WorkWorkWork! - I also would like to thank every Staff member that puts hard work in their free time into this server without compensation or even appreciation. You guys rock!

Thats it for now, Im done ranting. I hope this can contribute somewhat and helps you understand concerns/problems newer players might encounter here. (Atleast what i encountered)
I will stick around and play on this server, as Im having a good time overall.

(Oh and as a sideline, any German players here that need another german fellow on their team? Just chat me up, would like to play with someone that speaks my native language^^)
Kind Regards,
Morgenss

 

[FaZeAlpine]

Hello mates,
i noticed all the talk about getting new players to stick and retaining a healthy player base, so i figured id give my untainted feedback from a newbees perspective.
First off I dont claim to be in the right with anything i state, this is just what and how i saw things here on the server with my unschooled eyes.

A list of stuff that i had trouble with:

• The Wiki - As this server is pretty complex the wiki is the most important resources i found myself looking at all the time. The problem is i couldn't find 50% of the stuff I was looking for and a good chunk of what is there seems to be outdated. I know keeping everything nice and clean in the wiki is a really boring and time consuming job - but it should be done to give new players the chance to inform themselves without having to ask 100 different things in the chat.
• Chat - The Chat experience was varying greatly depending on the time i logged in. If i had to need to ask a question, it generally got answered pretty quickly early in the morning (your time) when around 30 players (mostly from Eu id imagine, like myself) were online. I actually had a few really nice conversations with older members of the community when nearly no-one was online. On primetime when 80+ people are playing questions rarely get a serious answer and most chat is about "op this, get recked here, omfg lag". Dont know what there is to improve, its just something that i noticed on more than one day.
• Weird Resource irregularities - I found myself struggling to get food the first few days and especially as a beginner, when you take damage from unnecessary sources, being able to regen health is important. Also Leather for armor is extremely hard to get for a beginner without money. I dont understand why diamonds and iron are so plenty that they are completely worthless and Leather and Food on the other hand are so rare, that a beginner struggles to get his hands on them.
• Markets at Spawn - For experienced players it might seem easy to navigate through all the empty houses and know where they can buy what, but i had a surprisingly hard time to find the things i wanted to buy. Took me nearly 30 minutes of just running past the same houses over and over again until i found food and leather to buy (as i didnt manage to farm it myself). That was one of the only frustrating experiences i had on this server and needed to quit for the day after wasting so much time on that. As for fixing the problem? Id suggest removing the empty houses as long as there is no one buying them, that should make it way easier to spot potential shops and deals. You could leave those blue outliners as they are outside the city-walls as markings with a pricetag so one knows there is a plot to buy.
• Dungeons - I dont want to step on anyone's toes here, but i think they are plain-out poorly made. They are way to big and it just looks silly to me having a huge place with only 1 or 2 mobs in sight. No room-progression or intersting mechanics. Every mob does the same, elites get leap and bosses teleport - thats all i encountered. Just no twist or anything you have to care for - Teleport is unavoidable (which is also bad design, unavoidable damage is just bad) and Leap is just the mob jumping 2 Blocks. I would hope that alteast the bosses can have some unique twist and turns in the future. To call it "Dungeons" i would also dream of some jump-and-run challenges to reach special mobs/loot or Redstone triggers. I know this requires a lot of effort and work - but as a newbee on the server i was highly disappointed with the "Dungeons" Herocraft has to offer.
• Emptyness - As I ran across the world just to have an adventure I found that most of the world is empty. No players, no buildings no towns. Where are all the peoples? I mostly see people in the popular leveling areas or around the hero gates - never encountered anyone strolling through the wild. Maybe put some objectives/stuff to do into the Wilderness? No precise ideas myself though.

Neutral/Opinion-based stuff:

• Ganking - The main point of frustration that is mentioned here in the forums is that new players are getting camped and ganked while leveling. While its true that i was killed a dozen times by grouped up higher level players, i didnt find it difficult to avoid them once i knew they were in the area. Aside from avoiding ganksquads, I was able to talk to most of them after they killed me and they were actually surprisingly nice and helpful. There are a few bad apples though that just dont answer to anything and kill you over and over. Either you have to try to fight them, switch locations or simply do something else for 10 minutes, but thats how PvP in an open world game works - I see no need to change anything here.
  
• PvP - I think there is a lack of CC in small scale open world fights, which i encountered while leveling. Fights usually drag out over a thousand blocks and only end after a 10 Minute chase. Stuns are annoying and shouldn't be overdone, but slows should be more abundant with all the jumps and teleports available for escape. As i can recall i only ever was chased down by Dragoons, no other class was able to kill me in a 1 on 1 where i just decided to run (Im a Ninja). Other way around i also found it difficult to catch up to people that just decided to run away from me. Especially fighting Necros and Casters is a torment, they use their instant spells, turn around and run until they are off cooldown and repeat. Fights against Casters always never end in kills, usually we both end up low and decide to just back off ^^ All that could be just me being bad/new to the gamemechanics, but i really think more slows/catch mechanics are needed.

Positive Stuff: I want to end on a good note here, enough complaining

• Complexity - I really like that there is a lot to discover for a newbee on this server, i love figuring out new things. If we can have "lategame" goals like Conquest-Objective and War, this server would be even better (looking forward to the next few month).
• Community - Even if there are some bad apples, i enjoyed most interactions with the players i interacted with. Thumbs up for you guys, the forums make it look way worse than it actually is.
• WorkWorkWork! - I also would like to thank every Staff member that puts hard work in their free time into this server without compensation or even appreciation. You guys rock!

Thats it for now, Im done ranting. I hope this can contribute somewhat and helps you understand concerns/problems newer players might encounter here. (Atleast what i encountered)
I will stick around and play on this server, as Im having a good time overall.

(Oh and as a sideline, any German players here that need another german fellow on their team? Just chat me up, would like to play with someone that speaks my native language^^)
Kind Regards,
Morgenss

This kind of feedback is exactly what we need, thank you! I pretty much agree with everything you've outlined as well.

 

[Pugglez_]

I agree with you on the topic of having difficulty finding food as a beginner or starting out to get resources in general. As a veteran and an experienced player(5 years of playing and former staff member), I personally think that in Herocraft you have to have a group to play with or have to join a town at least. That's really the main source of resources and food you can get from. There are so many things to set up, that even a solo veteran player would have trouble and would be better off to have at least 1 other player to cooperate with. It's not impossible to solo, but it would save a lot more time to have someone to play with.

As for the market issue of you trying to find the specific shop you want, don't worry, everyone is the same as you. All of us have to go through each and every house just to check out what kind of items they are selling. Eventually, you just visit them frequently that you just end up memorizing their locations. There are also people advertising their shop's location in trade chat. You can also buy and sell items in trade chat (/ch trade). Make sure you confirm your transactions in trade chat with the other players, otherwise they can scam you.

 

[joshtsai]

We're trying with the wiki! While I feel that most of the most important information is up to date, hc.to/guide and hc.to/places, and other really important info pages, some things like class pages and others get put behind because of the massive amounts of work it requires to update properly along with the constant changes to classes. All of it doesn't make it an easy task. Most of us are pretty new to it, but we're trying to update it! If there's anything you see wrong, feel free to message me and I'll try to fix it as fast as possible.

Thanks for playing and good luck out there!

 

[LordZelkova]

Well, we still have the ever lovely /kit Starter, gives the basics at iron level.

 

[WitchOnaRampage]

• The Wiki - As this server is pretty complex the wiki is the most important resources i found myself looking at all the time. The problem is i couldn't find 50% of the stuff I was looking for and a good chunk of what is there seems to be outdated. I know keeping everything nice and clean in the wiki is a really boring and time consuming job - but it should be done to give new players the chance to inform themselves without having to ask 100 different things in the chat.

Kind Regards,
Morgenss

Your thorough consideration is appreciated!

Morgenss, please list which areas of the wiki you consulted and we'll hit those first.

 

[Paul_Bakken]

Guten Morgenss!

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutch, aber mein Gewortschaft is klein und mein Grammatik schlecht. Wir im Deutch sprechen können, aber velleicht es ist besser für wir im English sprechen, Ich glaub'.

 

[Jrr_]

I can agree on how the dungeons are set up in how the mobs are randomly spread across BUT one thing that can help you is the mobs that spawn on the redblocks are like 'normal' and emerald and gold blocks are 'elites and bosses' I think

 

[Morgenss]

Your thorough consideration is appreciated!

Morgenss, please list which areas of the wiki you consulted and we'll hit those first.

Sure, thats what i can remember on top of my head:

• Class-Pages: The damage numbers are outdated as far as i noticed. The damage on left-click doesnt scale with level anymore, does it? Also skill damage seems to be completely wrong and out of date. I like to compare numbers to chose what i want to play and that threw me off a little.
• https://herocraftonline.com/wiki/Armor_Values_&_Weights which is on the frontpage under Heroes RPG Plugin, read through it, tried to understand it and then noticed that its from 2015 and completly outdated information
  
• Crafting restrictions - some of the crafting restrictions dont seem to be up to date. For example i asked for someone to make me an iron armor because the wiki stated i could only craft leather armor as a crafter - i could have just tried to craft one myself, but didnt cause the wiki stated otherwise
• Info about Mastering Classes and TierII - The Wiki seems to lack info about TierII. Everything i know about it, is what i caught through random conversations ingame. I just mastered Ninja and hoped to get some info ingame, but i dont know where to go from here? Is it worth going for tierII and how do i even do that? Could i go back to my lvl 60 Ninja if i chose to advance to TIer2?
• Legendary Classes - "These paths are high risk and high reward and will offer a drastically different style of game play from the normal classes of Herocraft." - How exactly? Thats just a minor thing, as a new player will not reach that in a while, but could be helpful if you interact with someone who is playing a legendary class.
• BoostJar - I know its there, i know it has something to do with boosts, but i cant find any info on what exactly it does
• Enchants - As all the values are adjusted on this server, id imagine the enchant-effects are also adjusted, wasnt able to find numbers though for sharpness, protection etc.

Thats what i could remember for now, if i come across anything else i will let you know

 

[radicater11]

• BoostJar - I know its there, i know it has something to do with boosts, but i cant find any info on what exactly it does

Thats what i could remember for now, if i come across anything else i will let you know

The boost jar is realtively new. It essentially allows the players to put money into a pot to incentivize others to buy boosts. When you buy a boost, you get a certain amount of the jar, for example, 100% boosts will get half of the jar, and 200% boosts get all of the jar.

 

[WitchOnaRampage]

Sure, thats what i can remember on top of my head:

• Class-Pages: The damage numbers are outdated as far as i noticed. The damage on left-click doesnt scale with level anymore, does it? Also skill damage seems to be completely wrong and out of date. I like to compare numbers to chose what i want to play and that threw me off a little.
• https://herocraftonline.com/wiki/Armor_Values_&_Weights which is on the frontpage under Heroes RPG Plugin, read through it, tried to understand it and then noticed that its from 2015 and completly outdated information
  
• Crafting restrictions - some of the crafting restrictions dont seem to be up to date. For example i asked for someone to make me an iron armor because the wiki stated i could only craft leather armor as a crafter - i could have just tried to craft one myself, but didnt cause the wiki stated otherwise
• Info about Mastering Classes and TierII - The Wiki seems to lack info about TierII. Everything i know about it, is what i caught through random conversations ingame. I just mastered Ninja and hoped to get some info ingame, but i dont know where to go from here? Is it worth going for tierII and how do i even do that? Could i go back to my lvl 60 Ninja if i chose to advance to TIer2?
• Legendary Classes - "These paths are high risk and high reward and will offer a drastically different style of game play from the normal classes of Herocraft." - How exactly? Thats just a minor thing, as a new player will not reach that in a while, but could be helpful if you interact with someone who is playing a legendary class.
• BoostJar - I know its there, i know it has something to do with boosts, but i cant find any info on what exactly it does
• Enchants - As all the values are adjusted on this server, id imagine the enchant-effects are also adjusted, wasnt able to find numbers though for sharpness, protection etc.

Thats what i could remember for now, if i come across anything else i will let you know

I appreciate your thorough response.

• Class pages - A few people are working on these pages atm. Left-click damage on MOB does still increase a little with level - but not in the way that's currently indicated. This will be updated over the coming week. Thanks to @LordZelkova for explaining this to me today.
• Armor values and weights - I agree it's outdated, I have been advised to keep it but... @Wiki Team can this page go?
• Crafting restrictions - agreed, will update this probs tonight (my time).
• Mastering classes, tier II, legendary classes - yup, need more of a write-up @Wiki Team let's discuss this
• Boost / tip jar - new page added - see hc.to/boosts (thanks @radicator1 for the info)
• Enchants - yes values are adjusted, not always that easy to work out the impact of the adjustments. @0xNaomi I'd appreciate some more advice on this please.

 

[radicater11]

I appreciate your thorough response.

• Class pages - A few people are working on these pages atm. Left-click damage on MOB does still increase a little with level - but not in the way that's currently indicated. This will be updated over the coming week. Thanks to @LordZelkova for explaining this to me today.
• Armor values and weights - I agree it's outdated, I have been advised to keep it but... @Wiki Team can this page go?
• Crafting restrictions - agreed, will update this probs tonight (my time).
• Mastering classes, tier II, legendary classes - yup, need more of a write-up @Wiki Team let's discuss this
• Boost / tip jar - new page added - see hc.to/boosts (thanks @radicator1 for the info)
• Enchants - yes values are adjusted, not always that easy to work out the impact of the adjustments. @0xNaomi I'd appreciate some more advice on this please.

Other than butchering my name, yeah we need to just sweep all the old pages, and maybe even make a legacy section where curious players can read about how systems worked in the past.

 

[LordZelkova]

I appreciate your thorough response.

• Class pages - A few people are working on these pages atm. Left-click damage on MOB does still increase a little with level - but not in the way that's currently indicated. This will be updated over the coming week. Thanks to @LordZelkova for explaining this to me today.
• Armor values and weights - I agree it's outdated, I have been advised to keep it but... @Wiki Team can this page go?
• Crafting restrictions - agreed, will update this probs tonight (my time).
• Mastering classes, tier II, legendary classes - yup, need more of a write-up @Wiki Team let's discuss this
• Boost / tip jar - new page added - see hc.to/boosts (thanks @radicator1 for the info)
• Enchants - yes values are adjusted, not always that easy to work out the impact of the adjustments. @0xNaomi I'd appreciate some more advice on this please.

Sharpness and Power are 1 damage per level. Alll other Enchants work the way they do in vanilla afaik.

The Armor page can go, haven't done the weight system in a while.

For Mastering, we could place a blurb on the EXP page, or make a Classes page in the Gameplay mechanics section, listing the Tier 1, TIer 2, Legendary, and Profs, and how to use them.

 

[joshtsai]

I also say to just archive armor weight, it won't be a thing haphazardly put in any time soon. (Although I would love to see it for T2 classes)