So, I’ll upfront first plunderstorm is not a game made for me. Is it fun yes there are some fun moments I had and enjoyed playing at times. From my 1-40 experience there were some highs and some lows. I won a handful of times, was the final three many times so I had some real proper fights between players of my skill level sometimes and it was fun but getting there was not always the most enjoyable experience.
The Good:
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KISS: Keep it simple Stupid. Moves while not always self-explanatory were simple enough to figure out.
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Pacing: Overall it’s very quick in terms of match length, most games didn’t drag on and be forced into a long drag out stale mate.
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Presentation: The atmosphere and aesthetics are good.
The Bad:
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Not newbie friendly, it took me roughly ten games to really start figuring this game out. The starter quests did not prep me for running into ppl with 30-40k plunder when i started out.
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Always random drop zones and my complete lack of ability to control where I spawned. Having no real control going where I wanted and being stuck in a 4 player level 1 melee with 0 abilities was hell many times.
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Rewards: Bland, there needed to be more for the actual in game. Go all out, make my death explode like a giant Barrell or a huge pirate ship fall on my head make your barrel roll have a Firey goblin/dark iron cosmetic in game reward (don’t cash shop this but i know I already gave you the idea i’m sure.)
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Catch up mechanics, there needs to be a method as a lvl 4 to catch up to the game quality when there are already lvl 7s or 8s streaming down from other areas and nothing for you to kill.
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The storm itself: when it closed around you, you don’t really feel it other than just stay in this zone and it was hard to keep a balance of when it was close and how to dance around it.
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Bad luck, RNG, when you don’t get any of the moves your good with and they just refuse to drop is just hard to deal with. Maybe some players can make them all work but getting star bomb and earthshaker so many times when I’m done with the initial level farming just makes me know I’m out of the late game. Lurking around waiting for player deaths isn’t fun to find something I can combo with it. (Give some kind of starter abilities before swapping out for the 4 spells and 1 pick up)
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The UI: at least a dozen times I’ve struggled picking up moves I want despite tabbing over to the correct one and selecting it only to pick the wrong one, try again and again, and again especially in a battle where you need it.
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Match making: Please lvl 1-10 together, 10-30, 20-40, simple or something to that effect. starting out and being absolutely trounced my first few games by ppl at rank 40 was so demoralizing as I could do nothing to them except be cattle.
Improvement
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Training/ Prep Time: Starting area to test out the abilities that 30 second pre match warm up did not help me learn moves. Show players how to practice with them for those crazy combos that one needs to learn to win.
To carry on from this point, give all abilities some kind of viewing arc of their strike/focus. Searing strike/poisoned mackerel just so I know its range visually and if I spawn traps I can possibly hover over the ability and see its radius until I can learn them. -
Spawn protection: If you drop in give some level of protection for a starting experience I have had so many starts ruined where I’m already on the backfoot where I drop in and get dive bombed by another player to lose my starting ability, the elite I killed and its move. Whilst they have 2-3 abilities and are going to kill me and I have no incentive to start from a massive disadvantage.
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Rewards: See above for bad, the game just needs that bit more whether in WoW retail/classic or in game flare. Give abilities a bigger flash, a golden hue, or shadowflame.
Have me drop in on a pirate dragon, or have parrots on your shoulder giving hints as to what a player should be doing. There just needs to be more I feel. -
More dynamic events like the pieces of hate that spawn around or can be summoned by players.
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Less focus on Sniping low health characters/ players fighting in combat still rewarded for mostly killing a player. If the gold/xp reward was shared partially between parties, I’d feel that would be better than the hug LoS/range killing players in the mid game. Late game when its 30 square feet and no maneuver room that’s understandable then. It just might be me but that lvl 6-7 range just running around avoiding getting stuck into an untenable position with 2-3 other players that are lvl 8-10 just made some experiences a drag.
Overall, the idea and foundations are good it just needs more polish or focus in a certain direction. I had fun, but it’s not for me if you love it, great please play it I just need more of a reason to stick around. If there was a PvE mode i’ll try it the same and give it a fair shake and critique.