Trial of Air is absolute garbage

[Taehl]

Please either remove or completely remake the Trials. All of them are awful, but the Trial of Air in particular is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrible beyond any reason or sanity. This game has neither the controls nor the physics for a precision platformer. And it's like there are hundreds of invisible walls in the air or something, because two seconds after you get forward launched AT A RANDOM SPEED, you just stop dead in the air or bounce off of nothing.

How did this dumpster fire of a level possibly get approved to be put in the game? The rest of the game is SO GOOD, then you get this?!?

[Meowish]

Hint 1: You can still use "Glide Mode" (click the flight mode button) even when you're wingless.

Hint 2: You don't have to go all the way to the end of the trail to finish it, there are short cuts available half way through, and you may find a few youtube videos about them.

[Taehl]

Thanks, but hints to get through that awful slog don't make the game better. Getting rid of these god-awful gimmick levels would, however, be a big improvement.

[Meowish]

Taehl lähetti viestin:

Thanks, but hints to get through that awful slog don't make the game better. Getting rid of these god-awful gimmick levels would, however, be a big improvement.

I understand your frustration, i myself hate the fire trail a lot here, and like you, think the coding at wind trail is bad due to different platform resulted in different patterns (it's a lot easier and more stable on the phone, but on the PC different fps results in different calculation on the wind, very very bad design for a platformer). But as challenges goes, they are meant to be hard (so most players have to swallow their complaints due to the debates always ended in player skill discussion...), and some players are good or bad at certain genres (making it hard to tell which one is worse than the other in the discussions...), the fact is, having several trails of different genres will sooner or later get a player stuck on stuffs they aren't good at. 3 out of 4 trails required precise "Timing" as a key and not all players are good at that, especially when all 4 trails goes against the whole game's original design and put the players on wingless situation makes it worse if a player isn't mentally prepared to be grounded that way. The devs probably got the whole "idea" from players who tried to play the whole game in wingless mode as a "challenge" (you can find those among the vloggers, as they made a sort of boom back where they teach players how to be wingless using the glitch in the game...).

So in the end, the trails are often one of the spot most players avoid (some don't even want to recover the winged lights there after Eden), but we also can't deny that there are players who goes in those trails for candle run, which i probably have to salute them for their love of challenge... And as long as there are players who love it, i doubt the devs will do anything about it. But I do agree that the fps bug needs to be fixed for wind trail to at least acts normal on the PC version, can't blame it on players skill when the code itself is unstable. They need to force FPS on those stages that requires precise timing to avoid different results imo...

[Witch]

I am currently struggling my way through. I only passed the Water Trial thanks to another kid being there helping someone else and offering me a hand.
Earth Trial gave me some hope as I actually had a lot of fun with it........and then I started the Air Trial and I haven't been this tilted since I played Overwatch back in the day.

Like, I get what they were going for and it could have been so fun but there is no consistency in how far the candle arrow platforms send you and I've been having to just throw myself at them again and again in hopes that eventually it will send me where I actually need to go. '

If I ever get through this one I dread what the Fire Trial is going to be like :/

[Taehl]

May the gods have mercy on you, because the devs clearly have none.

[Witch]

Taehl lähetti viestin:

May the gods have mercy on you, because the devs clearly have none.

I managed to struggle my way through the Air Trial and figured out how to use the "glide" mode at the right time to send me flying further but it still took a long damn time.

Got lucky with a guide for the Fire Trial. They were already carrying someone on their shoulders who had a candle out and offered me a hand to hold before guiding me though the whole thing.

[puck]

@Taehl: LMAO

[EnbyBus]

its the same with the trial of earth. they insisted on forcing platforming into a game that was not and is still not built for it so it makes for the most infuriating 20 minutes

[slug eater]

ive never gone from enjoying a game so much to wishing i never downloaded it before until the trials. miserable experience, i want to like the game so bad but this has sucked all the fun out of it.

[Witch]

bammy lähetti viestin:

ive never gone from enjoying a game so much to wishing i never downloaded it before until the trials. miserable experience, i want to like the game so bad but this has sucked all the fun out of it.

I know your pain. Thankfully there are a lot of players on the official discord who are able and willing to run you through it.

[Leenius]

The trials are difficult, especially for your first time, they will show you where your gaming skills are weakest. The fire trial broke me my first time through. Entertainingly air has always been my easiest trial to complete. Honestly I skip trials most of the time, but I have friends that are great at cr the trials and do it fairly regularly so I think it would be a disservice to those players if TGC got rid of it just because some of us find it hard.

[The_Outsider]

I find the air trial easier than the fire.

Still have not completed that one.

[Witch]

Leenius lähetti viestin:

Honestly I skip trials most of the time, but I have friends that are great at cr the trials and do it fairly regularly so I think it would be a disservice to those players if TGC got rid of it just because some of us find it hard.

Agreed. I was absolutely livid while trying to get through them on my own but in the end it is a cool part of the game that some players enjoy, others don't. I had help with all of the trials except for Earth and I made some in game friends from it so I no longer hate it with a passion even if I absolutely understand why people hate them so much.

[ChaseFace]

Most people don't like the trials and only do them for a full winged light run. That's why I just avoid them completely lol. You're not wrong.

[Raider]

The trails have been around since October 2020 from season of Prophecy.

Players have for many years complained about the challenge these trials have presented.

I am not dissing people struggling in the air trail by saying it is a "skill issue".
Because at least a quarter of the trial is literally a case of "trial and error," because of the unreliable feature that undermines a core mechanic for skykids.

Skykids are helpless against the winds that throw them about like chickens in a wind tunnel.
It is not a "skill issue" when a launch spot is more consistent with overshooting or underpowering.
Even competent players that can make these jumps would end up fumbling because of the randomness.

As for the other trials. They at least are comparably more stable.
But granted, water trail is at times unfair when players lose for just stepping into the water (server desync issue), the earth trail at times let skykids slip off blocks (partially skill issue, but also a wonky mechanic), and fire trial is more gruelling for solo skykids (most likely a skill issue, because it is easier with other players/friends).

I agree that the trails need a few tweaks.
But them being challenging is intended.
The point of these trails are that they are not meant to be easy. But with the same token are not meant to be frustrating either.

Please do give your feedback in the Discord.
It may not guarantee that TGC would make changes, but hopefully would have them reconsider if they truly care about the quality of life in the game.