I've previously mentioned that I would like to see some kind of preview of each class during character creation, but I've recently tried out Lost Ark and the class preview in that game is quite brilliant. In a game where class selection is such an important decision, I would hope that PRotF has something like this.
In LA, during initial class selection, it shows a GIF of the class in combat, and then after character customization, you can further test the class with max level equipment and skills against a basic enemy to give the player a feel of how that class performs in combat.
Most of us have seen the room in PRotF where you get to equipment for your class and hit some straw dummies - I think it would be great if there were a room like that to test a high level character (with all available skills). Perhaps have it be like some kind of dream or premonition your character has before coming to Terminus.
My worst experience in any game I've ever played came from after playing for 3 years, I THEN discovered that my "Shadow Knight's" role was in fact not to deal damage, but it was to be the "back up" puller or to "off tank" "trash". You would think something called "Shadow Knight" would be something more than a back up to two other classes... some people like that role - I did not, but it was either keep playing something I didn't like, start over, or play a different game entirely... so I left.
Are there any other things people would like to see to help them decide which race/class is best for them?
Along the lines of your example, it would be nice to see a few scenes of some typical animations for combat with 1 & 2 handed weapons for a melee, or a selection of spell effects for the magic users. I'm not fond of pets (the only Classes I don't plan to play are the pet classes). But I would think those who DO would like to see some samples of their pet(s) in action.
Of course all of this becomes less necessary if VR gives us some Streams that show off all of these things for all the Classes. I sort of expect them to do so, but your idea here isn't a bad idea, given that many potential players may well not have watched a bunch of youtubes about Pantheon before joining.
The pets would definintely be great to test out. I've watched many videos of other people playing characters, but I find that I never really know what it is like until you are the one behind the keyboard. The other thing that is very helpful (to me) is being able to see how a class performs directly compared to another I may want to play.
i.e. watching someone else play a monk may "look" cool, but if when I play and have expectations of "feeling" cool, and when I click a button expecting the monk to do a kick, but discover it is still doing some punch combo from the previous skill used, that is not something that I would be able to experience through watching someone else play, and may turn me off from the monk or steer me toward another class that I may not have previously been interested in becaues it is more responsive but was less "flashy" when I watched someone else play it.
The pet idea is a perfect example of that. I too typically do not play pet classes... But once I did (after returning to EQ), I found that I actually greatly enjoyed it. If being able to test out a high end pet, after testing some other classes, I could see some people being persuaded into playing a pet class for the first time. They can actually be quite fun if done well. The same can be said for healing or tanking even... a lot of people who have only ever played DPS could be persuaded to step outside of their tyical class roles if given a taste of something different without having a 3 year commitment in "hopes" of liking it.
I think this is a great idea. VR wants this to be a great game for noobs as well as those who have followed for a long time. I think giving more details about the future of the class only makes for a better game. I also think each attribute point should have a little info on what that point will do for the character. can This character use a shield, dual wield, etc. Pets are a great example. When do I get my pet, what can it do. A noob should have enough info to make an informed decision; before the complete character creation and their starting city.
@Questaar - Great point. Attribute explanation would be great, and essential IMO, if point allocation is required during character creation! There were "hidden" bonuses and penalties (as well as hard and soft caps) in EQ that weren't explained... the most memorable of those was the "penalty" to AC if your Agility score was lower than 75, and I believe Ogres started with like 70... and you were given like 20 points to distribute how you saw fit (and originally nobody put points into AGI). Another rough one was the encumberance to STR ratio and how some race/class combos would be encumbered just from wearing their essential equipment (armor and weapons). If you created a Dark Elf warrior with aspirations of being this Dextrous/agile melee combatant... NOPE, you just chose the worst race that could possibly be a warrior to start is all you did lol! Attributes were everything.
3 years is a really long preview XD How did you spend that much time on only playing a single character, and never played any alts (which was free to create like 7 more); or interact with any groups, and see another SK tanking or respond to LFGs as tank and not DPS. I'm just flabergasted nobody mentioned it or talked about it in global chat. I thought the word "Knight" would be a dead give away. Sorrybro
With Youtube and Wiki's about every game out there now, there's plenty of ways to find out about a game early or get in depth guides to everything. I think a lot of people are going to be famillair with the class names and roles by now with how many fantasy mmos are out. Although I don't think it would be to hard to add a small video clip of that class in combat. It's just not going to give you a great impression of that class in general because this not going to be a very action-y game where you can see the difference in the spells and abilitys. Also, playing the class at max level with general gear for a 5 minute solo area; won't really tell people much about how that class is played in a group, and this is going to be a very group orriented game.
They did however cover most of the basics about the classes and races on the website, and it will most likely reitterated at creation. When in doupt, try it out!
SilkyWhip said:3 years is a really long preview XD How did you spend that much time on only playing a single character, and never played any alts (which was free to create like 7 more); or interact with any groups, and see another SK tanking or respond to LFGs as tank and not DPS. I'm just flabergasted nobody mentioned it or talked about it in global chat. I thought the word "Knight" would be a dead give away. Sorrybro
With Youtube and Wiki's about every game out there now, there's plenty of ways to find out about a game early or get in depth guides to everything. I think a lot of people are going to be famillair with the class names and roles by now with how many fantasy mmos are out. Although I don't think it would be to hard to add a small video clip of that class in combat. It's just not going to give you a great impression of that class in general because this not going to be a very action-y game where you can see the difference in the spells and abilitys. Also, playing the class at max level with general gear for a 5 minute solo area; won't really tell people much about how that class is played in a group, and this is going to be a very group orriented game.
They did however cover most of the basics about the classes and races on the website, and it will most likely reitterated at creation. When in doupt, try it out!
The word "knight" and class role "Tank" says nothing about being 2nd rate to warrior and only higher in damage than 2 of the other 10 classes in the game at that time... nor does it identify that a primary technique to split pulls was to Feign Death (which the "knight" got at like lvl 30). Also, there was no YouTube or Wikipedia or Reddit or anything remotely resembling that 23 years ago. Also... it was not "free" to create 7 more characters... if you were level 30+, you weren't just "making another character" because it took hundreds of hours to level a character to 50 back in 1999. No maps (not even online), no click stick rez, no online tutorials to tell you where to group or how to even complete a quest, no list of NPCs by level showing what loot drops where. And there certainly wasn't any tooltip stating that "only warriors get defensive discipline at lvl 55 which reduces incoming damage by 50% for 3 mins"... although it may have been great to know that very important mechanic during character creation. That much time was not free.
Contrary to your belief, the class names and roles are different than what people are expecting from "every other mmo many people have played". Assuming we are referring to combat as "action" this will be a very action-y game and heavily reliant on others participating in that action with a modest amount of understanding of how their class synergizes with other classes and other classes' capabilities (or lack thereof). This isn't a game where any healer is going to be able to heal every tank the same way and every DPS will be equal to the other in the same situations. Each class is going to have their own resource with different ways to generate that resource and completely different abilities.
Playing the character solo for 5 minutes will show you how the class mechanic works, how the class performs its role (hold threat by spamming a button, or automatically with a buff - Heal with mana heavy spells but have the ability to generate a lot of mana versus being very mana efficient, having to spam buttons to perform DPS verus auto attacking and relying on position... the list can go on and on). Play LostArk (free on steam) for 5 mins. and then tell me if the character test isn't helpful.
Darch said:The word "knight" and class role "Tank" says nothing about being 2nd rate to warrior and only higher in damage than 2 of the other 10 classes in the game at that time... nor does it identify that a primary technique to split pulls was to Feign Death (which the "knight" got at like lvl 30). Also, there was no YouTube or Wikipedia or Reddit or anything remotely resembling that 23 years ago. Also... it was not "free" to create 7 more characters... if you were level 30+, you weren't just "making another character" because it took hundreds of hours to level a character to 50 back in 1999. No maps (not even online), no click stick rez, no online tutorials to tell you where to group or how to even complete a quest, no list of NPCs by level showing what loot drops where. And there certainly wasn't any tooltip stating that "only warriors get defensive discipline at lvl 55 which reduces incoming damage by 50% for 3 mins"... although it may have been great to know that very important mechanic during character creation. That much time was not free
The SK wasn't second rate to the warrior, and did more damage than the 3 tanks and 3 healers and probably the bard and ENC. Depending on the gear or expansion anyone could out dps each other in public groups. You just were't the "premier" go-to main raid tank for current content, because it was a little easier to heal 4 Warriors rotating their shield block ability. That's what I meant; Back then there wasn't online guides sans a forum or two that became the Alakhazam website and EQ was the very first 3d mmorpg so I can understrand the frustration when it initially released (i was like 12 and got to play alittle of original), but now there is and will most deffintly be be started by players when Alpha comes out and people can explore. Content creaters thirst for the views of having the quickest "meta" builds posted asap. Pantheon want's to try and get away from metas as best it can.
Darch said:Contrary to your belief, the class names and roles are different than what people are expecting from "every other mmo many people have played". Assuming we are referring to combat as "action" this will be a very action-y game and heavily reliant on others participating in that action with a modest amount of understanding of how their class synergizes with other classes and other classes' capabilities (or lack thereof). This isn't a game where any healer is going to be able to heal every tank the same way and every DPS will be equal to the other in the same situations. Each class is going to have their own resource with different ways to generate that resource and completely different abilities.
Your right, Pantheon wants to give people fresh ways to play the roles, but they are still the same roles. Healers gonna heal, crafters gonna craft etc... Personally i don't veiw the 2 character models standing 2m in front of each other swinging thier arms and flinching for 2 minutes, to be considered "action", obviously some attention will be required but you'd probably be able to binge watch a netflix show at the same time. hehehe. I think the devs want to keep those nuances of class synergy behind closed doors for as long as posible for now. What you're talking about is class variety but they should be evenly balanced for 95% of the content or there's a problem. VR already said the want to implement a system that on-boards new players like a tutorial, they haven't decided how yet(last i heard) but i doupt it will be pre-character generation. Creating a character and playing for a few hours - IS free and may just give you your core abilities up front to fiddle with. Also, I think you're missing the point of VR creating a game that doesn't hold your hand and teach you every system and mechanic like newer(railroad to the begEND game) mmos, It's not going to as extreme as Dark Souls but the players are going to have to work with each other to figure things out. It's half the fun sometimes.
Darch said:Playing the character solo for 5 minutes will show you how the class mechanic works, how the class performs its role (hold threat by spamming a button, or automatically with a buff - Heal with mana heavy spells but have the ability to generate a lot of mana versus being very mana efficient, having to spam buttons to perform DPS verus auto attacking and relying on position... the list can go on and on). Play LostArk (free on steam) for 5 mins. and then tell me if the character test isn't helpful.
Fine, I WILL!
Ok, I downloaded it and tried it out. Made 3 characters over an hour and a half and found the system to be wholly unessasary for this koreon action RPG because all of the classes play bassically the same way. Spam press q,w,e,r,a,s,d,f,z and do aoes to kill mobs en masse, it's even shown that way in the videos. The classes are just different colors and flavors of aoes, it felt like this was supposed to be a mobile game. It makes since to use the class tester for this type of top down scrolling dungeon crawl hack and slash akin to torchlight, diablo or path of exile. but those games had better class identites.
I just don't believe it would translate very well for pantheon which is going to be slower paced and tactical. You've played EQ, imagine watching short videos in the character creation of a chacter standing there and casting Spells or attacking, which don't look any different between classes except for the text that appears at the the bottom. I don't believe it will make a very good first impression in the class testerto see your character auto attacking, and clicking one or 2 abilities, because the rest are situational.
However! I'm not opposed to it completley beacuse it's not 1999 anymore. If say; in race/class creation there's a 5 minute video of the developer voice explaining the core race and class role/abilities and throwing a little lore at you like in the race/class reveal streams, they can show you the situations real quick while still alowing you to figure out the rest.
I had a better response but the power cut off X(
SilkyWhip said:The SK wasn't second rate to the warrior, and did more damage than the 3 tanks and 3 healers and probably the bard and ENC.
I'm not sure what game you are referring to here, but it certainly wasn't vanilla EQ, where the ENC was the highest DPS in the game (and very well still may be); and the Warrior, Dru, and SHM absolutely did more damage than the SHD. Vanilla SHD out DPS BRD in certain situations but a good bard using charm or swarm kiting had 0 competition. The vanilla SHD could do more dmg than the PAL and CLR (unless vs undead) on a regular basis... and could never out tank a warrior.
SilkyWhip said:Personally i don't veiw the 2 character models standing 2m in front of each other swinging thier arms and flinching for 2 minutes, to be considered "action", obviously some attention will be required but you'd probably be able to binge watch a netflix show at the same time. hehehe. I think the devs want to keep those nuances of class synergy behind closed doors for as long as posible for now. What you're talking about is class variety but they should be evenly balanced for 95% of the content or there's a problem. VR already said the want to implement a system that on-boards new players like a tutorial, they haven't decided how yet(last i heard) but i doupt it will be pre-character generation.
They have literally already debuted the begining of the game where your character gets to test combat on a target dumby. An example of the "action difference in class mechanics" I'm referring to would be the EQ Shaman's ability to "canibalize" and turn their HP into mana (which VR have mentioned that they may introduce a similar mechanic to the PRotF SHM). To balance that mechanic in EQ, the SHM's spells cost WAY more mana to cast than the other healers... (this is also why the Necro spells were so expensive) and because of that, a primary mechanic to play the SHM required you to continually spam that ability while in combat, whereas the other 2 healers had to sit in between casting spells... the DRU had to maintain low duration regeneration buffs and damage shields and cast heals far more often than the CLR because of the amount of HP their heals recovered... because they also had regeneration to help. These are mechanics that define and dramatically diffentiate those classes, and although they all heal, the "actions" required to regenerate (or maintain) their resource were very different. A player that doesn't want to sit to meditate for 90% of their gameplay may have preferred the SHM "action" or vise versa. In PRotF, each class (even withint the same roles) will have different resources and/or different ways to generate that resource. I doubt you even noticed that very important aspect of lost ark (because it was very different depending on which class you chose) based on your following statement of:
SilkyWhip said:Ok, I downloaded it and tried it out. Made 3 characters over an hour and a half and found the system to be wholly unessasary for this koreon action RPG because all of the classes play bassically the same way. Spam press q,w,e,r,a,s,d,f,z and do aoes to kill mobs en masse
I stand corrected; play testing a character WOULD be useless to button masher players...
With the exception of maybe 3 of the 15 classes, they all played relatively different and almost all required different ways to generate resources and expend that resource (and some didn't even require resource generation).
My suggestion is for skilled players (not button mashers) to make educated decisions on how they want to tactically proceed with their gameplay experience.
Tactical players who make decisions before mashing a button consider things like:
Cool downs, ability synergey, ability ranges, resource consumption, resource generation, mitigation versus avoidance, reliance on ability uses versus passive skills that generate the same result, position dependancy, mobility, cast animation/times, CC types/durations/break chances, attack swings/hitboxes, and overall avatar reaction to player input.
None of these things can be experienced starting with a single ability (or even 3-4) on your bar that you may never use for the majority of your gameplay.
i.e. If you want to play a CC role, will the BRD or ENC be the choice for you? Do you waste 200 hours of your life leveling both up to max level just to shelve one? Or do get to see which suits your playstyle in the first 4-5 hours of playing?
Button mashers are just gonna button mash...
philo said:Hopefully a high end preview wouldn't be adequate to present the intricacies of any class. If people want to know more in depth info that will be out there to find.
I'm not referring to people's reading skills; I'm talking about "gameplay" versus reading a skill. A LOT is lost in translation of a written skill and how it is actually executed and interacts in an environment designed to have mechanics in place to specifically change how a player interacts with the environment. A simple example of text not transferring to gameplay:
i.e.
Ranger:
Skill: Weighted Bolt
Description: Fire a heavy, blunted bolt at an enemy with enough force to knock them back a short distance. Puts the enemy in an off-balance state.
Damage: 10
Range: 10-50
Cooldown: 120
Skill: Fractal Arrow
Description: Fire an arrow that shatters on impact, dealing physical damage and causing the enemy to bleed.
Damage: 100 + 10% of damage dealt as bleed over 6 seconds
Range: 10-20
Damage to off-balance: +50%
Cooldown: 20
This description sounds like a cool combo and sounds self explanatory. Fire off two arrows and deal some heavy damage. I bet playing the ranger will be cool, running around and sniping enemies... People can't wait to use this combo at lvl 30! 3 months later: Discover weighted bolt has a 2 second cast time... which is ok because here comes Fractal Arrow! Oops... a 4 second cast time, and OOPS... you're out of range because of the knockback and now can't move because you're casting fractal arrow... that's ok, just move and cancel the cast to recast it again - nope, moving cancels the cast but all of your skills are still on cool until the cast timer finishes... and now the target is no longer off balance. Try again in 2mins... Oops, Fractal Arrow can only be used at range 10-20 and the enemy is moving out of that range while casting it! Guess you have to use it with Hamstring Trap (which you were hoping to never have to use because it relies on the enemy pathing into it). On paper, it was simply firing off 2 arrows... but in reality there was a lot more to it that the description didn't show, like the 6 seconds of immobile cast times and 2 global cooldowns to account for while having to stand still potentially putting yourself in harm's way. NOOOW you understand why those rangers in the videos you were watching weren't moving as much as you thought they should have been. It's not that you were just a better MMO player, it was because of the mechanics of the class. Are you better off using a completely different skill that uses the same cooldown or manipulate global cooldowns in a way more condusive to the playstyle of "firing on the move" that you had in your head for the past 3 months... or do you play the Bard that can fire on the move albeit at lower damage - Some people will like standing still and firing, some wont... but none will know until they reach level 30+
Edit: I would add, that 20 years later, I'm playing EQ on a TLP and there are people that didn't know that BRDs can use items with cast times (like using gate potions) while moving... because even after 20 years, there is still no single source that identifies the different skills in that game to the point that simply reading or watching a video can do as much as actually playing the class for an hour or so can do.
Edit2: We've all heard after a stream "man that dev playing the game sucks - if I were playing I would've done xyz"... maybe it isn't so much of a lack of skill as much as a limitation or intentional aspect of a game or class mechanic? You won't know from watching someone else play.
Ya, that's my point...and that's only 1 ability in one situation. According to VR the classes will be complex enough, and have to interact with other players so often, that I don't see how a preview would be able to provide much? Hopefully there are enough variables and moments of opportunity in combat that a preview is inadequate for any class. Going by the wizard progression drawn out in todays newsletter, they are onboarding until lvl 10 . That's the time they have to provide players with an adequate depiction of the class.
I guess if the game was really simple that works to have a preview like that but we have all these different states and class synergies and hopefully it will be more involved than an hour preview.
I can tell you really care about crunching numbers and finding the most effective way. If playing the wrong class is a waste of your time, wether it's 3 years, 200 hours, or 5 minutes, it's not going to make you happy. Maybe you can email VR and get them to hand over the entire spreadsheet of algorithyms and stats; create a playable side by side comparison of every class at max level with BiS armor and all skills and a mock group and raid dungeon with bots in the other roles, so new players can make a real informed decision.
After two decades, I have access to 6 family EQ accounts filled with every level range 1-105 character in almost every class combination for boxing or playing with family members and never thought I wasted my time on any of them. I couldn't tell you half of the details about every one of them from vanilla to underfoot, only that they were all fun either way.
If playing to level 10 will be the expected onboarding period, the character creation preview could allow for a level 10 character to allow a player to experience the class. I'm not down for leveling a character to 10 just to see if I want to play it... only to have to delete it (because we're going to have limited free character slots according to the pledge perks that give an extra character slot). Some people will be ok with paying for multiple accounts, but some of us aren't. On the optimistic side of being able to experience everything a class has to offer pre-level 2, I'd be ok deleting a level 2 character if it turned out to play differently than I anticipated. I'm not just talking about skills, I'm talking about the classes' mechanics and gameplay that change several months into the game. The hypothetical example I used was referring to the Ranger being able to use abilities while moving, until they can no longer move if they want to use their skills... or perhaps the wizard being the exact opposite in having really long cast times at low level but more mobile at higher levels. Perhaps the cleric will need to melee at high level to regain mana and a player created a cleric with the expectation of not needing to melee.
The list of pro's can go on and on but I haven't heard an actual con yet.
Darch said:I'm not down for leveling a character to 10 just to see if I want to play it... only to have to delete it
philo said:Darch said:I'm not down for leveling a character to 10 just to see if I want to play it... only to have to delete it
This seems unreasonable. Lvl ten shouldn't take very long to reach. It's such a small portion of the overall experience. Trying out classes until around level 10 to see if it's right for you seems very reasonable. Even if it was level 20 that seems very minimal in the grand scheme of things.
I'm still not hearing any cons... just disapproval of me not being accepting of a mechanic that forces players to delete their characters or pay money for additional character slots. To me, THAT sounds unreasonable. I'm guessing by level 10 people should be grouping and making friends... some people are going to be in guilds that are already formed in the forums... players will be creating friend lists, setting up their UI... maybe even getting starting equipment. I would think it would be quite unreasonable to delete a character (or purchase an additional slot) by that point simply because you want to try a different class that you may (or may not) like to play (or at least check out).
@Philo @Silkywhip,
I couldn't help but notice the statement in this month's news letter that literally highlighted this very concern.
It looks as though it is being designed for a player to get a feel for a character in their teens (which is typical for MMOs). I'll just put it right here for you to read at your leisure (while keeping in mind that we get a restricted number of character slots)...
"At level 10, Wizards will receive the first in a suite of abilities intended to provide players with a little more agency over resource management and expenditure, which acts as something of a capstone to that early, foundational experience.
From there – and this holds true for all of our classes – it becomes a matter of ramping up in both group-oriented abilities (particularly in the 10-20 range when we expect players to really feel the incentivization shift from soloing to grouping) as well as more nuanced abilities that allow for more specific tactics that can help tailor the Limited Action Set to a situation."
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/_2022/february/the-early-wizard-experience/
philo said:Hopefully a high end preview wouldn't be adequate to present the intricacies of any class. If people want to know more in depth info that will be out there to find.
I completely agree with this. I do feel, however, a preview would help some players get a feel for whether or not they like aspects like class tempo, animations, resource management, etc. I'd be interested in trying a class tester for those purposes.
I also hope there's a good description of the class's general group role and what differentiates it from the other classes with the same role.
I don't think is is necessary at all, I think it speaks to a lot of modern player-entitlement and is not in keeping with the style of MMORPG Pantheon is trying to be.
The idea of high level gear, spell and combat previews feels a lot like mobile P2W games that are trying to hook you into the initial grind but tempt you with the gem store to buy your way up to those preview levels as soon as possible.
In an old school style MMORPG this should not be necessary at all. People don't make their Dungeons and Dragons characters for example based upon knowing exactly what abilities and spells they will have at max level and collecting best in slot gear during their playtime, the idea of this at character creation feels utterly wrong, as if the game is mostly meaningless and it's just 'a race to max level where the real game begins' - the horrible modern MMO trope you often read or hear from so many MMO reviews for the past 10 years.
Pantheon isn't trying to be like that, it wants to be different; and we want it to be different, to be cut from a different roll of material.
I also find it very strange and improbable how you could play EQ for 3 years from launch, through Kunark, Velious and Shadows of Luclin before apparently realising that Shadow Knight was a tank and not a hybrid DPS. Players in the world knew their roles in groups and helped others to understand; while various forums, Allakhazam and Casters Realm existed.
Class creation should include lore, an in-lore description of the primary and secondary roles the class can provide, showing how it fits into grouping with other adventurers. It should give you a written taste of the class, while making you excited to get out into the world and play the class to level and discover more for yourself.
Not hand-hold your imagination and intellect with a 10-minute preview of max level combat or show you what your level 50 master crafted or raid dropped uber gear will look like.
There's a reason all the class descriptions on the website don't show all the spells and abilities.
While the idea would make PRotF more accessible to players new to the genre, not knowing 100% how a class performs from beginning to end is as much part of the mystery as the undiscovered dungeons. Without the fog of war, maps reveal too much and undermine the tension that comes from exploring uncharted territory. If PRotF allowed players a preview of the highest/lowest points of interest in Terminus, wouldn't that take something away from climbing? For me, part of the exploration is hidden deep within each class and in order to discover the most enviable features, directly, I need to flesh them out, first making use of and mastering the "lesser" versions, perhaps even learning eventually that they're just as good, if not better in certain situations. But getting to that point involves the unknown, similar to pledging and following ongoing development of the world itself. Not knowing should encourage lower level players to /who all higher level players of the same class and ask questions, because not all of the class dos and don'ts will be immediately available on the internet; the more competitive players and guilds wanting every advantage aren't going to share what they've learned with just anyone. This withholding of knowledge should lead new players to form friendships and join guilds. Entering into a foreign land, not knowing what all it is or I am (or what both will one day be) capable of, will mean having to rely on others and vice versa. That is half the fun, not knowing what I'm getting myself into and maybe even having to back out and try again with a different approach or class.
"To me, a proper MMO is more than a game," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It's a world. I want to be immersed, I want to escape into a fantasy or sci-fi world. [MMO developers are] making the very, very early foundations of the Holodeck. Letting people recreate the 1930s or build new virtual worlds - that's what MMOs are, they're the genesis of that. Because they involve real people and that social aspect, because they're so immersive - and will be even more so in the future, with VR coming - I lose myself in them. I don't sit there thinking I'm playing a game; I'm really there. And that's what interests me. I still play other games. I played tower defence games on my iPad, but I know I'm playing a game. But if I'm playing a really good MMO, just like watching a really good movie, you're there. You forget that you're sitting there, because it brings you in. That's what MMOs do that a lot of games can't do, and that's personally all I want to do. I want to make worlds, not games." — Brad McQuaid, 2017
Darch said:Are there any other things people would like to see to help them decide which race/class is best for them?
A class play preview need not be at max level (and it's better if it isn't, since it helps preserve some mystery). They could create 9 named NPCs all around level 10 - 20 and have an optional preview that introduces the characters and uses them to help describe the classes. You could then 'try what it feels like'. While descrptions alone can help, most game descriptions are honestly not very helpful. Level 10 - 20 should be sufficeint to give you a feel for what the class feels like, how the animations look, how the ability effects look, etc.
@Counterfleche - That's a great idea. The NPC master/trainer(s) of the class could give a player an idea of what to expect to look like (equipment worn), or it could be a simple appearance toggle during character creation (similar to something like ESO or many many other games) that shows your character in starting equipment, medium grade equipment and high level equipment - but ultimately doesn't affect the gameplay because players start in "starting equipment".
My main concern is starting the game off in starting gear, having one ability on your LAS and by level 10 having a majority of your skills available (as the devs have explained) BUT still not knowing how the class will perform for the majority of a players time. The majority of a player's time will be invested post lvl 30... and if they aren't alt-aholics, even more time will be spent at 50+. A level 20 character plays NOTHING like a level 50 character in any MMO that I've ever played in my life. The exception to that may be phyical DPS classes (because the Wizard likely won't be the same at 50 as it is at 20)... but Tank, Healer and CC typically play different as well. A great example of this effecting a player's class choice would be if they wanted to play CC so they tried the Bard and Enchanter; They found that the loved the frenetic way the Enchanter had to continually juggle mez and charm timers while balancing resource regen for their party - in contrast to the Bard's single CC ability. But by level 50, those playstyles completely flip, and the Enchanter no longer has to closely manage their spells because their durations are so long and they now sit around doing nothing, but meanwhile the Bard is the one frenetically managing multiple timers while providing resource regen.... or vise versa... or perhaps the Necro playstyle better suits what they had in mind for CC.