Finished everything in the current EA

[Scottish]

17.4 hours. (including farming resources and exploring)

I was WAY overgeared / overprepared for the big bad.

Velgar was pretty pathetic as far as boss dragons go. One potion is all it took to negate 99% of the threat. Once he dies, he falls, no death animation, no corpse. just dissapears and you suddenly have his head. Reward was cool though.

- Overall, good bones for a survival game. Is going to need a HELL of a lot more content if this game is going to have any kind of longevity.

- Suffers from many the same thing many survival games do, linear story driven gameplay. You just bounce from one objective to the next, often times finding new materials right after upgrading. Some materials are extremely difficult to find, Infused bark being one, i didn't find it until i had killed the final boss.

- Biomes could do with being significantly larger, with more points of interest and hidden nooks and crannies to find.

- Quests should have some kind of practical reward, XP really isn't a viable or meaningful reward.

- Skills need to be far more meaningful to make them feel like they belong. a chef's hat isn't gonna help me fight dragons. Not that wearing one would have made a difference.

- Being a mage is fun, but spell casting is in a weird spot, being melee is just a better choice, or an archer. Spells don't do enough damage to way the downsides of being stationary and squishy. (more control over AOE magic instead of it being part of the combo would be a good start)

- Would love to see a snow biome (those are my favorite), but yeah, much bigger biomes are needed. More reasons to build a new base elsewhere other than the starting zone.

More elemental spell types would obviously be great too.

- Vaults are...eh...underwhelming. Bosses in these should have a unique drop per vault, a weapon or armour blueprint, even if it's utter nonsense. Just some kind of meaningful reward.

[Primrysuspct]

- Skills need to be far more meaningful to make them feel like they belong. a chef's hat isn't gonna help me fight dragons. Not that wearing one would have made a difference.

This literally has nothing to do with killing a boss anyways. its for cooking. what do you want a magic salmon hand cannon. Jesus. what a weird take. lol

[Primrysuspct]

- Quests should have some kind of practical reward, XP really isn't a viable or meaningful reward.

Im starting to feel like you just rushed to the boss. Ive found multiple tier 4 weapons from quests and tons of hidden nooks with chests.

[Scottish]

Originally posted by Primrysuspct:

- Skills need to be far more meaningful to make them feel like they belong. a chef's hat isn't gonna help me fight dragons. Not that wearing one would have made a difference.

This literally has nothing to do with killing a boss anyways. its for cooking. what do you want a magic salmon hand cannon. Jesus. what a weird take. lol

afaik, the hat does nothing, it's purely aesthetic. As far as wearing it in a boss fight, the boss was so easy that wearing a chefs hat instead of armour wouldn't have changed the outcome.

[Scottish]

Originally posted by Primrysuspct:

- Quests should have some kind of practical reward, XP really isn't a viable or meaningful reward.

Im starting to feel like you just rushed to the boss. Ive found multiple tier 4 weapons from quests and tons of hidden nooks with chests.

I honestly ran out of things to do and went to the boss as a last resort. Yeah i probably missed stuff, but i didn't feel any reason to explore further.

[Androme]

So I played the pre-alpha test, and was under NDA until the early access just released. I decided to not purchase the early access because I don't believe the price tag is justified, reasons include some that you've mentioned, but let me put it in my own words and my interpretation of what's gone wrong here:

Dragonwilds has learned the wrong lessons from the games it's inspired by. Valheim has been cited as one of its primary inspirations, but besides the basebuilding, there really isn't anything else. There's no procedural generation, so there's no replayability.

Most people say Enshrouded as well, I haven't played that so I can't really speak on that, but I personally would say Outward as being another inspiration (perhaps incidentally). A story-driven survival game, which is what Dragonwilds is trying to be. Except the quests are linear, without choice, and thus also offer no replayability.

So what's left? Survival elements. The survival elements consist of non-punishing deaths, a barebones hunger/thirst system, and... Nothing else. So there's no survival challenge either.

What are we left with? In my opinion; A misguided vision that resulted in the Dragonwilds we see today.

Was it fun for the 15-20 hours it took for me to finish all the content in the pre-alpha? Yes it was, but not very fun. And I can't see the game continuing to remain fun when the next zones release.

It's a semi story-driven action adventure game with some survival elements, and it would be worth the price tag if it was closer to 15-20 as opposed to the current price.

What can Jagex do to improve?

They can't change the direction of the game at this point. They can't from where they're standing right now switch to procedural generation, and they can't add branching storylines through choices during quests either.

But what they can do is increased emphasis on the unique mechanics of the game, as well as the survival elements. If they expect a significant portion of their playerbase to be against harder survival mechanics, then they can make it a toggle when you create a world, like a "hard mode."

Some suggestions off the top of my head, these are not very polished ideas but one could at least work with them:
- Way more skills, with way more unlocks as you achieve higher levels (I assume this is coming).

- Harsher death penalties. Perhaps mimick classic RuneScape with a death timer for your non-quest items? If you don't recover them in time, then either the items disappear or you need to fight your way through a dungeon to reach a chest containing them.

- You can't master every combat style in a single playthrough. I'm not sure how one would go about this, exponentially reducing xp gain in other combat styles as you level one combat style could be a way to do it, but that would go against the spirit of RuneScape. So I'm not sure that's an elegant solution. But either forcing people to focus on one combat style, or dipping their toes in all three, or dipping them further into just two - I think - would positively impact choice in terms of not story; but mechanically.

- Harsher survival mechanics. Rain and storms could debuff the player, like in Valheim, reducing stamina regeneration - requiring shelter if you can't fight with those debuffs. Rested bonus towards health and stamina regeneration, and the higher your "comfort" level in your base as you rest/afk for a short while, the longer the rested bonus lasts. Possibly the rested bonus becomes stronger.

- Mechanically challenging optional boss fights. Like the post-main story bosses of Outward. These could offer a challenge to work towards which could require skillful use of the unique skills system in the game.

Can't think of more right now, and those ideas are of course not fleshed out and easy for me to just mass produce and post in a comment online, but I don't believe the game will end up in a satisfying place if it continues in the direction it seems to be stuck at, at the moment.

I write these things because I want to like Dragonwilds. I want to feel like the price Jagex is asking for the game matches the quality. But personally, for me, I don't believe it does right now. A story-driven survival game set in the RuneScape universe is an amazing concept, but unfortunately the current state of the game is not for me.

[Scottish]

Originally posted by Androme:

So I played the pre-alpha test, and was under NDA until the early access just released. I decided to not purchase the early access because I don't believe the price tag is justified, reasons include some that you've mentioned, but let me put it in my own words and my interpretation of what's gone wrong here:

Dragonwilds has learned the wrong lessons from the games it's inspired by. Valheim has been cited as one of its primary inspirations, but besides the basebuilding, there really isn't anything else. There's no procedural generation, so there's no replayability.

Most people say Enshrouded as well, I haven't played that so I can't really speak on that, but I personally would say Outward as being another inspiration (perhaps incidentally). A story-driven survival game, which is what Dragonwilds is trying to be. Except the quests are linear, without choice, and thus also offer no replayability.

So what's left? Survival elements. The survival elements consist of non-punishing deaths, a barebones hunger/thirst system, and... Nothing else. So there's no survival challenge either.

What are we left with? In my opinion; A misguided vision that resulted in the Dragonwilds we see today.

Was it fun for the 15-20 hours it took for me to finish all the content in the pre-alpha? Yes it was, but not very fun. And I can't see the game continuing to remain fun when the next zones release.

It's a semi story-driven action adventure game with some survival elements, and it would be worth the price tag if it was closer to 15-20 as opposed to the current price.

What can Jagex do to improve?

They can't change the direction of the game at this point. They can't from where they're standing right now switch to procedural generation, and they can't add branching storylines through choices during quests either.

But what they can do is increased emphasis on the unique mechanics of the game, as well as the survival elements. If they expect a significant portion of their playerbase to be against harder survival mechanics, then they can make it a toggle when you create a world, like a "hard mode."

Some suggestions off the top of my head, these are not very polished ideas but one could at least work with them:
- Way more skills, with way more unlocks as you achieve higher levels (I assume this is coming).

- Harsher death penalties. Perhaps mimick classic RuneScape with a death timer for your non-quest items? If you don't recover them in time, then either the items disappear or you need to fight your way through a dungeon to reach a chest containing them.

- You can't master every combat style in a single playthrough. I'm not sure how one would go about this, exponentially reducing xp gain in other combat styles as you level one combat style could be a way to do it, but that would go against the spirit of RuneScape. So I'm not sure that's an elegant solution. But either forcing people to focus on one combat style, or dipping their toes in all three, or dipping them further into just two - I think - would positively impact choice in terms of not story; but mechanically.

- Harsher survival mechanics. Rain and storms could debuff the player, like in Valheim, reducing stamina regeneration - requiring shelter if you can't fight with those debuffs. Rested bonus towards health and stamina regeneration, and the higher your "comfort" level in your base as you rest/afk for a short while, the longer the rested bonus lasts. Possibly the rested bonus becomes stronger.

- Mechanically challenging optional boss fights. Like the post-main story bosses of Outward. These could offer a challenge to work towards which could require skillful use of the unique skills system in the game.

Can't think of more right now, and those ideas are of course not fleshed out and easy for me to just mass produce and post in a comment online, but I don't believe the game will end up in a satisfying place if it continues in the direction it seems to be stuck at, at the moment.

i have to agree with pretty much everything here. It lacks a lot of depth that other games, especially valheim has. Most companies fail to understand the absolute basics of what makes a survival game enjoyable and have long term playability. I think in a few years it might be fun to play through a couple of times, maybe with friends? but overall, i don't see much of a future for this title in it's current state.

[Red]

Originally posted by Primrysuspct:

- Skills need to be far more meaningful to make them feel like they belong. a chef's hat isn't gonna help me fight dragons. Not that wearing one would have made a difference.

This literally has nothing to do with killing a boss anyways. its for cooking. what do you want a magic salmon hand cannon. Jesus. what a weird take. lol

magic salmon hand cannon sounds bad ass!

[Androme]

Originally posted by Scottish:

i have to agree with pretty much everything here. It lacks a lot of depth that other games, especially valheim has. Most companies fail to understand the absolute basics of what makes a survival game enjoyable and have long term playability. I think in a few years it might be fun to play through a couple of times, maybe with friends? but overall, i don't see much of a future for this title in it's current state.

When I first received a survey many years ago now about a hypothetical "survival/crafting game set in the RuneScape universe", I knew then already that Jagex needed to either focus heavily on story + survival with quests (like Outward), or procedural generation + survival and some environmental storytelling (like Valheim).

Once again, the best way to describe Dragonwilds is a game that learned the wrong lessons from its predecessors. It's trying to be everything at once, but not accomplishing to be any one of its inspirations.

I did recommend mechanically challenging optional boss fights in my previous post. But the "vibe" of the game, as well as their messaging and marketing around it, is not indicative of a game whose developers are ready to push it in such a direction, so I don't exactly see that happening either.

Ultimately we end up with a game seemingly made for a small minority of absolutely hardcore RS3 lore enthusiasts who are salivating at the thought of new lore. I counted myself among that crowd many years ago. The first thing I did in the pre-alpha was to open up the journal entries and read through them. But even in this regard, I found it lacking.

I don't know what the future of this game holds. If people are enjoying it, good on them I suppose. But personally I think people should have higher expectations and be much more guarded about the contents of their wallets.