My Thoughts on Progression

[Forsaké]

So, I've just gotten back to playing PalWorld basically since release. It's been a lot of fun getting to experience the (relatively) new content and exploring the zones on a fresh save, and I've gotten further through it than I did back then. I finally got Jetragon, and I'm pretty happy about it, but I can't help noticing that there's some points of the game that are bogged down, which I think may have come as a result of players having been high-leveled and over-geared (and over-pal'd) by the time of new feature releases. I'm going to preface this saying I'm on an Easy world with a modified base Pal Limit of 40 and am at level 50, just to put out where my perspective is coming from.

I can vibe with needing to do research to get some buffs to production, I think that is a really nice change, however I feel that it was done rather poorly. Truth be told, I feel like this system should completely replace technology points if PalWorld ever makes it out of Alpha, but certainly not in its current form. The additional resource requirements placed on top of the researching makes it incredibly unfun. I understand that the addition of the Expeditions was supposed to help facilitate this, but they only become approachable and worthwhile when you're really far in. Researching tasks take forever, and require you to dedicate a pal specifically toward that task, preventing them from working on anything else at the base. This is very not ideal for players who are functioning on the default base pal limit. (Why is that still 15?) I think it would be better if it was manuscripts OR other resources, and either one in lower quantities, if this is the way things are to go.

Further, I feel like Ancient Civilization Cores (ACCs) really screwed the pooch. They're needed in way too high of quantities with rather restrictive ways of obtaining them; only obtainable via Raid bosses and/or the [i[high-level[/i] Oil Rig; with the latter being completely unapproachable until late-game. Even the low-end Raid boss, Bellanoir, isn't built with fresh-start players and single-player worlds in mind. In my own playthrough, I have to dedicate a whole base with level-appropriate pals on my modified settings, to taking the Raid on, and it still takes a lengthy bit of time. After all that, I'm left with... one ACC out of however many I need to craft one item/base object. The ACCs really should be accessible (even if in low quantities) on the level 30 oil rig, or from mid-high or high level dungeons as well, or even from the high-level tower bosses (that way they actually feel rewarding to fight).

Pal optimization is still very unintuitive and RNG-dependent. I know there's breeding-tree guides for obtaining pals through breeding, and those can help streamline the process, but the transference of desirable passives to the end-result pal may mean that you're spending dozens upon dozens of hours to make one "ideal" pal. I know PalWorld was designed with the whole "unethical" treatment of magical animal friends shtick, and I fw that, so I would kind of like to lean further into that. Why not have another kind of gene-splicing device of sorts that allows you to rip desirable passives from (and, as a result, kill) pals and implant them into pals you already have? Instead of praying to RNGsus that Pal A and Pal B produce an offspring with the traits and be an appropriate gender to be used to product the actual result you're looking for.

Finally... pal parts. I'm surprised there isn't a better way for obtaining some of the critical pal parts other than going on hunting sprees for long periods of time. The only renewable, frequently-required parts are flame organs, pal fluids and pal oil, thanks to Flambelle, Kelpsea and Dumud, respectively. Why isn't there anything for Electric and Ice organs? Venom glands are incredibly niche in use, but yet Caprity Noct drops them when assigned to a ranch... why? I can really only hope for something to fill that void down the road.

[ignis]

The problem with progression is XP curve. In early game you are being force fed with so much XP that half of the world map becomes obsolete before you leave the starter zone. Basically just going through the building tutorial leaves you with a level 15-20. Game gets to reasonable XP gains only around level 40. Until then you simply don't use a lot of the new stuff, because you get something better way before you got materials to make it.

On top of that, flight is too early available, making it way too easy to get to locatios where you should not be yet and loting them for high-level spheres, skill fruits etc. With a bit of dedication you can catch a legendary while being under level 10 (not at level 1 anymore because now you get XP simply for moving around).

[rwd_1980]

The easiest way to get Ancient Civilization Cores is to build Pal Expedition Stations, and send out Pals on expeditions that reward you with Ancient Civilizations Cores.
Expeditions can get you everything you need for crafting except Hexolite Quartz and Predator Cores.

[FSHerrante]

As a beginner player I can say that I don't find research annoying, maybe because when I have to do one I just leave a spare pal to do it while I go exploring. Besides, the improvements are quite noticeable and allow me to use fewer pals for the same tasks.

I can't comment on the tech cores as I haven't gotten one yet, but if it's as described I might just farm the same raid over and over again.

The pal parts that I can't get through farming I buy from the traveling merchant in the observation cage with the gold I produce in the coin machine.

I think breeding will be the last thing I'll do, since it seems you have to capture a lot of pals so that some have the traits you're looking for, and at the moment I don't have enough sphere production capacity for that, I've only used it to create some Anubis.

[Forsaké]

Originally posted by ignis:

The problem with progression is XP curve. In early game you are being force fed with so much XP that half of the world map becomes obsolete before you leave the starter zone. Basically just going through the building tutorial leaves you with a level 15-20. Game gets to reasonable XP gains only around level 40. Until then you simply don't use a lot of the new stuff, because you get something better way before you got materials to make it.

On top of that, flight is too early available, making it way too easy to get to locatios where you should not be yet and loting them for high-level spheres, skill fruits etc. With a bit of dedication you can catch a legendary while being under level 10 (not at level 1 anymore because now you get XP simply for moving around).

I feel like the limited flight being early is a rather good thing, but I do agree that flying into zones that're wholly out of your league does break things, as it certainly did with my progression. Trudged around Sakurajima around level 11-15, collected some legendary balls and caught a Quivern Botan through some cheesy strats which certainly helped my early-game. I kind of like that the Feybreak area having artillery that will blast you out of the sky to prevent you from doing just that. Tarantress, however, completely renders flying obsolete if you know what you're doing. I haven't found out how to get the artillery permanently disabled just yet, but I'm still flying across the region.

Originally posted by rwd_1980:

The easiest way to get Ancient Civilization Cores is to build Pal Expedition Stations, and send out Pals on expeditions that reward you with Ancient Civilizations Cores.
Expeditions can get you everything you need for crafting except Hexolite Quartz and Predator Cores.

That would definitely help. Boring as hell waiting for them to finish, but at least it's something. Also predator/rampaging pals really are not spawning very often. Hard to get my hands on those predator cores.

[Azusa]

As someone who recently started playing for the first time, I think progression needs a total rework from about level 20 onward. It's pretty easy to take down the first two towers by the time you're level 27-28, maybe earlier. The volcano tower is next up in difficulty, but it's a massive jump, and you basically need to be lvl 40 or higher to beat it.

What are you supposed to do for those 13 levels, aside from grind? But then once you hit 40, you're within striking distance of all the remaining original content. It needs some balance passes, that's for certain.

[Flügel]

Can't speak on most of this since I'm returning after putting a good amount of time around the Sakurajima update. When I did though, I got pretty far. In particular, bases focused on breeding with around 15 farms and crap tons of incubators.

I wouldn't want to remove that. At least not the incentive to set things up to that extent for very end game. Something to ease into it would be decent though, a good mid-ground that isn't "optimal" but gets you a decent boost. Noticed a new NPC that seems like it serves that purpose, think Dr. Brawn. And you can also somewhat get that mid-ground by ignoring stats when breeding (A Fenglope with solid mount passives is incredibly useful regardless of stats.)

Just getting back into the game, and been fun so far. Although on much easier settings. Too early to get a good feel for most changes though.