Why does the game suck so much since U6?

[WooShell]

I don't know if it's just me, but since U6 forced me to start a fresh save, the game seems to *really* suck now in the early game.
You are born with basically zero gear, you can't craft anything yet (no crafting bench in your starter home anymore, and you can't use the one at e.g. the Druid), the levels barely drop enough gold for 2-3 healing potions.. HOW are you supposed to get anywhere now, let alone buy better equipment?! The laboratory as first upgrade (which I *really* hope contains a crafting bench) costs 2000 gold, which at the current gold drop rate means grinding about 20-25 lvl5 dungeons, and pray that dying is cheaper than buying healing potions.
Please tell me that I've been overlooking something crucial, and that the game hasn't really been turned into such a mess with U6..

[Markus]

Originally posted by WooShell:

I don't know if it's just me, but since U6 forced me to start a fresh save, the game seems to *really* suck now in the early game.
You are born with basically zero gear, you can't craft anything yet (no crafting bench in your starter home anymore, and you can't use the one at e.g. the Druid), the levels barely drop enough gold for 2-3 healing potions.. HOW are you supposed to get anywhere now, let alone buy better equipment?! The laboratory as first upgrade (which I *really* hope contains a crafting bench) costs 2000 gold, which at the current gold drop rate means grinding about 20-25 lvl5 dungeons, and pray that dying is cheaper than buying healing potions.
Please tell me that I've been overlooking something crucial, and that the game hasn't really been turned into such a mess with U6..

It is true that things are a little slower at the beginning, but that doesn't mean you need to do 20 dungeons for 2000 gold. I would say early dungeons give you ~500 gold if you loot everything and sell it. Besides quests give more gold than before, so doing those will be a great help in building wealth early on. You also want to explore and loot the city for an early gold boost.

I am sure things aren't perfectly balanced yet, because the changes made where massive and only time can help smooth things out, but its really not that bad.

PS: You might want to try the high loot setting if you are having trouble getting gold.

[WooShell]

yea, the high loot setting makes things a bit easier.. but the outpost expansions also eat a ton of gold. And since I just found out the lab does not have crafting facilities either.. how long will I have to grind to get roughly to the point that the game used to start in before U6? Not having any crafting available anymore for the first hours of game time was an.. interesting.. decision. Maybe that needs revisiting.. at least basic supplies like health potions should be craftable.

[Shev]

I've just started the game with Update 6; set it to high loot settings.

So far I've probably made 40-50k in gold, if not more. I'm lvl 16 or 17, sword/board with a bow to reach out and touch enemies. Haven't died yet, came close afew times. I've not crafted ANYTHING yet; I immediately made rooms for trade post and builder fellow, then tavern and crew quarters and bedroom(probably a mistake, since there's a limit on the rooms we can build. . .); and I'm absolutely swimming in health potions(over 100), lockpicks(over 80) and all kinds of other elixirs and so on; including learning books and the various passive skill bonus books(I end up selling them in a pinch for a good gold infusion when I need to).

I've never bought a potion yet; the game has been quit fair in me basically running the dungeons and acquiring everything I need in excess. The only thing I find holding me back is building materials; but I just tend to order those from the builder if I'm afew short(5x one resource for 500g).

And for the life of me, I've only found an NPC for the trade post ONCE; and I didn't have the money to hire him, so I travelled back to my outpost to acquire all my learning books/etc to sell them to have the extra 2k I needed; except when I went back to town he wasn't there, replaced by a priest and someone else.(People I don't have rooms built for yet).

So now for me, the REAL slog is:
Run dungeon
Sell loot
Stay above 8k gold.
Look for NPC I need for specific room(Trade Post)
NPC not in town
~Repeat ad-nauseum~

[Markus]

Originally posted by WooShell:

yea, the high loot setting makes things a bit easier.. but the outpost expansions also eat a ton of gold. And since I just found out the lab does not have crafting facilities either.. how long will I have to grind to get roughly to the point that the game used to start in before U6? Not having any crafting available anymore for the first hours of game time was an.. interesting.. decision. Maybe that needs revisiting.. at least basic supplies like health potions should be craftable.

I plan to reduce cost for early facilities a litte. I didn't nessecarily want to block out crafting early on, but give the facilities meaningful features they unlock.

[Mr Confused]

So far my experience with U6 is that is is rapidly turning into an unlikable slog.

I do not think this is the best way to extend playtime to the content.

[Markus]

Originally posted by Mr Confused:

So far my experience with U6 is that is is rapidly turning into an unlikable slog.

I do not think this is the best way to extend playtime to the content.

Some things are a little unbalanced right now, but I am working on it. It also should be noted that the outpost is mostly designed to be your endgame money sink, that especially true for crew. So it is intended to be slow or not very accessible at the beginning of the game.

[Mr Confused]

If it is an endgame money sink then why is potion and quest based crafting tied to it so ?

[Shev]

Originally posted by Mr Confused:

If it is an endgame money sink then why is potion and quest based crafting tied to it so ?

He means to fully unlock everything; it's a long-term money sink as you play the game.

Don't be like me; I unlocked Trade Post, Builder, Bedroom, Tavern and Crew Quarters; haven't added any of the crafting stuff yet. =X

[WooShell]

Originally posted by Markus:

Some things are a little unbalanced right now, but I am working on it. It also should be noted that the outpost is mostly designed to be your endgame money sink, that especially true for crew. So it is intended to be slow or not very accessible at the beginning of the game.

A few issues I just encountered regarding the outpost:
- price indicator seems wrong, maybe not calculating game difficulty settings? asked me "do you want to spend 3000 to expand the outpost" and then takes 4000 from my inventory (according to the notification). This is reproducible. Next expansion asked for 4k and took 5k.
- building material cost isn't deducted right sometimes.. i just ordered the guild thing for the tunnels, and it cleaned out *all* metal, wood and stone I had in storage. unfortunately can't reproduce due to lack of older savegames.