Best and worst thing about Brighter Shores

[Jakob Fel]

Brighter Shores is somewhat of a polarizing game; some don't like it, but even the ones who do like it seem to have a few things they don't care for. As such, I'm curious what other people think:

What is your favorite thing, and your least favorite thing about Brighter Shores?

For me, my favorite thing is the sense of adventure/mystery that you just don't get with most modern MMOs. From the moment I created my character mere minutes after early access went live, I've felt that sense of newness, mystery and adventure that I felt early on in my RuneScape adventures, especially the days after Jagex re-opened Classic the first time, as I began RS in 2004 after Classic was originally closed. I've also played early days in a couple MMOs, most notably The Elder Scrolls Online (I was in the beta), but none of them feel quite as "new" and mysterious as Brighter Shores has.

My least favorite thing is the fact that it lacks any sort of sandbox roleplaying aspect (including lack of side content outside of the core loop). While I know it's not meant to be a sandbox MMO in the way RS is, the fact that I have little to no reason to chill and chat with other players, roam the world, get in-character with roleplaying and play side content a la minigames is a bit of a letdown. Fortunately, this can be improved with time.

What about the rest of you? Just give one favorite and one least favorite thing about Brighter Shores!

[Jakob Fel]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Fogmoz:

My favorite thing? Playing the game. Mapping out an Episode for the first time, discovering all the nodes, making mental notes for potential quest objectives, feeling zen doing a chill loop or semi-afk skilling while watching videos, having random convos in a crafting hall, celebrating someone’s 500, or putting spreadsheets together. All good stuff.

Least favorite? This ‘discussion’ board. People actually giving feedback and suggestions is fine, but too often it’s people whining or making a new post about the same ♥♥♥♥ that’s already been hashed out ad nauseam. If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s the neet children with nothing better to do than attempt to troll with the same braindead replies when, if they had any self-awareness, they’d realize how pathetic it makes them look.

If you genuinely want to be part of the game’s community, join the Discord or Subreddit and watch as the little trolls desperate for attention try to tell you you’re coping as you leave them behind. 😂

Your favorite is one of my favorites as well! Some of my favorite moments in the game were when I first entered Hopeforest and started exploring, not exactly knowing what was out there. It created a sense of mystery and exploration you don't often get with MMOs today!

And I'd also have to agree on your least favorite. I love forums, which is why I use Steam's discussion boards plenty. I am in the fan-made Brighter Shores Discord server but by and large, I don't enjoy long-term discussions in a chat service. Plus, I also don't care for how busy most larger Discord servers are; it's why I only log into Discord once or twice a month.

That being said, I agree that the community on this forum is atrocious. A lot of the replies here are evidence to that. They can't even be civil enough to list legitimate pros and cons because they don't care about the game, they're just here to complain and be miserable. It's pathetic behavior, to say the least.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ponder:

My favorite things are downvoting FenSamuel whenever he posts on the subreddit and hating on the game.

My least favorite thing is the game design. It's hard for me to understand how someone with no limit on time and money can create such a thoughtless, uninteresting, unfun design. Is this really their dream game? Do they even play it? But I will say that I enjoy the game's art and music, which has a unique charm.

I disagree but I appreciate that you actually understood the "assignment" unlike the many troll replies to this thread. I do think certain aspects of the game are definitely un-fun, but I also think the core of something special is there.

I also will say that I think Andrew would have done better to gather the fanbase earlier in development to get our ideas on how to create the sort of game most of us truly hoped for. Then again, I get his reasons for not doing so: he didn't want to just outright remake RuneScape. Problem is, RS did so many things right in its core design and leaving out certain aspects of that core design removes some of the fun factor.

For me, I was really hoping for a proper open world and very in-depth quests at the least, but the quests feel more like a means to an end here. Meanwhile, in RS, the quests feel equally as important as the skills, which is what makes that formula so appealing.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Tower Dove:

The last major patch was imho horrible. I though that it would be ok because they took their time. They managed to disjoint den monsters for no reason and then you are bound arbitrarily to 2 to 3 monsters that gives ok xp. In 35 years of gaming, I think it is the worse update I've seen in a game tbh :'). It's put on top of unadultered crap(the combat system which is an abheration) and it is arguably worse than combat itself.

Those people can't make games apparently.

Personally, I really liked the patch but I understand that it does devalue some of the work that some people put into the episodes' combat skills. Also, I don't think the combat system is bad; I'd actually take it over the OSRS combat system, no joke. Then again, despite being a 20-year vet of RS, I actually was one of the few who genuinely preferred EoC over the classic combat system, but still.

I'd say that, much like other aspects of the game, the combat feels more in line with RSC in a lot of ways. RSC even required three turns to pass before you could retreat (which is roughly the amount of turns that pass before your Immunity spell finishes casting).

But similar to the reply I quoted above, I appreciate that you didn't just leave some stupid troll comment. I might not really agree in full but I respect that you actually cared enough to leave some proper feedback.

[Greb]

I don't know, honestly. At least, it's far easier for me to find things I dislike about things I actually like, than it is to talk about why I like the thing in the first place.

I guess what I like is the fact it's you in a world where you can do anything you want, focus your time into whatever skill or activity you want, to focus and unlock functions and become "stronger" over time - an example being completing the Brannof Inheritance quest to access a bigger quartermaster inventory, or unlocking the Riftstone Bank Portals - and eventually be extremely adept at navigating or otherwise playing the game because of the options presented to you. Episode 5 was hinted at having Construction have functions to improve travel in Episode 3, which means through levelling up another skill you'll eventually improve your potential in other skills, becoming "better" over time. I just like that aspect that it does / can / will / might offer going forward.

And as an extra freebie, I actually like the room and grid system - not for its visuals or claustrophobic nature or how it squishes players together to artificially ensure there's no "dead content" - but because of it's potential for proc-gen dungeons and adventures and D&D type content at some point in the future. Potentially could have something like a whole Temple Trekking / Burgh deRott Ramble type minigame, really in depth that's never the same each time you play through it, or just Dungeoneering that doesn't require clicking 100 doors just to navigate with the only real playstyle being "rush to the boss!".

So I guess what I like is the raw potential.

And for what I dislike? Well, lol. There's a bit too much to talk about and most of them are minor gripes about things.

I guess the thing I dislike the most is how resource nodes work. I really dislike how once you've collected a T1 Rock, you've seen what it's like to collect a T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 rock. You never need to explore anywhere new, obtain new equipment, your skill level never changes, you don't collect faster or slower, and you don't unlock any new routes, nothing. It's just the same all the way up. Sure there's a couple of different resources making up each tier, but as of right now it just feels like they just copied and pasted skill trees 6 times.

I would prefer to see resources in slightly different locations, or spread out around the world better, and of course, see skills getting used in future episodes more predominantly. It's silly there's only fish in Hopeport, for example, and you can only cut down trees in Hopeforest. Silver should be the predominant shiny shiny in Mantuban, but perhaps Gold could be located in Hopeforest, and Purpladium is actually found underneath Bleakfall Crags. I dunno. It gives me concerns - we're going to meet DWARFS in Episode 5, are they going to not mine anything at all? Or do any Stonemason / Blacksmith work? Surely not, right?

I hope this changes going forward AND without any monkey paw shenanigans. I don't want them to add an identical skill just with a different name, like with Foraging / Gathering. No skill bloat. I just want a reason for levelling up skills going forward. They said they don't want dead content, a noble idea, but right now a skill may as well become dead to you once you hit 500 because there's very little reason to go back and use them at the moment.

So uh yeah I guess that's it lol.

[Jakob Fel]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Greb:

.

That's fair, at least you gave your response some real thought. One of the reasons I created this thread was to try to encourage players to think and give the devs somewhat of an overview of what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong.

And for the record, I'd have to agree with you on a lot of things you said (on the positives and the negatives). You're spot on with the way resources are laid out. If they were more spread out and not locked only to a few of the rooms, it'd probably be a little less tiresome. I agree with your summary: "I guess what I like is the raw potential."

That pretty much sums up my feelings as well. The game has loads of potential, it just has plenty of obstacles to overcome before it can become the sort of game it really does have the potential to become.

So yeah, thanks again for not being like many of the people here.

[alanchurch]

Best thing: games for me are something I can do for a couple of hours to relax and chill. RS used to do this until the EoC update and the recent pre-occupation that every release must contain a boss monster which is harder than the pevious one. BS has taken over this with its relaxed approach to everything, including combat.

Worst thing: The recent combat rework and lack of updates. IMO combat is a right mess. The level numbers are just so huge (lev 2000 lol!), but I suppose that fits in with people who like large, usually meaningless numbers. There was nothing wrong with episodic combat. The combat rework has had the effect that new content has not been released because the dev team have been pre-occupied with satisfying the demands of a few loud voices.

[Pyro3000]

I think the best part is that I can train using passives, but the leads me into the worst part, which is the lack of content. I don't feel any reason to play. I log in, refresh the 24 hours on my passive, and log off. There's nothing left to do except grind for the sake of grinding, and it's not even beneficial to do that because everything is being level scaled now.

[Variation]

my favorite thing is the game. my least favorite thing is all the whiny losers trying to change the game.

[8.6h du mat']

Stockholm syndrome

[Jakob Fel]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von alanchurch:

Best thing: games for me are something I can do for a couple of hours to relax and chill. RS used to do this until the EoC update and the recent pre-occupation that every release must contain a boss monster which is harder than the pevious one. BS has taken over this with its relaxed approach to everything, including combat.

Worst thing: The recent combat rework and lack of updates. IMO combat is a right mess. The level numbers are just so huge (lev 2000 lol!), but I suppose that fits in with people who like large, usually meaningless numbers. There was nothing wrong with episodic combat. The combat rework has had the effect that new content has not been released because the dev team have been pre-occupied with satisfying the demands of a few loud voices.

Very good observation on the relaxation factor. I actually loved EoC in RS because it made combat more engaging but I do agree that it lost some of that relaxation factor in the process, especially with the continual push toward bossing in RS3.

As for the combat rework and lack of updates... I like the combat rework in principle but I'm definitely not saying it's perfect. Lack of updates, though, I agree 100%.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Pyro3000:

I think the best part is that I can train using passives, but the leads me into the worst part, which is the lack of content. I don't feel any reason to play. I log in, refresh the 24 hours on my passive, and log off. There's nothing left to do except grind for the sake of grinding, and it's not even beneficial to do that because everything is being level scaled now.

That's sorta where I'm at right now, at least until the next monument pieces are unlocked. I love the passive skilling concept but we need better reasons to skill in the first place.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Variation:

my favorite thing is the game. my least favorite thing is all the whiny losers trying to change the game.

Yet, here you are. If our attempt to express feedback makes us losers, then what do your attempts to discourage us make YOU?

Ursprünglich geschrieben von 8.6h du mat':

Stockholm syndrome

No, an attempt to express constructive criticism in hopes of improvement. That's called "being a mature adult and smart customer".

[Variation]

"Yet, here you are. If our attempt to express feedback makes us losers, then what do your attempts to discourage us make YOU?"

someone who actually enjoys the game lmfao.

[Jakob Fel]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Variation:

"Yet, here you are. If our attempt to express feedback makes us losers, then what do your attempts to discourage us make YOU?"

someone who actually enjoys the game lmfao.

I enjoy the game as well, I'm just not going to pretend it doesn't have loads of room for improvement.