My thoughts on the new system as a level 115 in a new player account

[raw wren]

Some of you know about my 2nd newbie acct aka "Mini Cat" part curiosity, part content for newer players on my channel. Here's a progress update and my thoughts.

Mini Cat is lvl 47 as of today. (Approx 2 weeks of casual gameplay)

Skills tree: 2 skills in headhunter and wrangler. 3 skills in craftsman.

Benches: all except well and dismantling are built to lvl 2. Fire and carpenter are lvl 3. Why does dismantling need t3 rss to be able to dismantle t2 stuff? Its annoying and leads to full storages. I digress.

Storages: all except ingredients built. All lvl 1, armor lvl 2. 8 lvl 1 chests built.

Stable: everything in it but stirrups. Doing only shootouts.

Pet: despite being well past lvl 30, the naturalist quest (and the free puppy) are blocked behind a 3rd wrangler skill.

Tracks: wrangler is the most frustrating. Too much ghosts. Too much waiting for CT to reset, not enough rings to participate initially. Very high cost for new players and little game progression value particularly with SC.

Craftsman is easiest since it generally wants stuff you are doing anyway.

Headhunter is a challenge because it often wants specific things like a pop up, or a bandit boss.

Overall you get less than full 2 weeks of first track depending on where you were when you hit lvl 15. Tasks can be t1 or t2, which is hard when you don't even have all benches built let alone upgraded.

2nd track is tier 2, but does still offer some t1 or t2 tasks. Still faced with all the problems of waiting for timers to reset or the right quest or pop up to meet criteria for some tasks.

I know from others that my tracks will shift to t3 after lvl 50. Even though im a whole section behind.

In my opinion lvl progression outstrips player ability, bench progress, and ability to earn skills before being pushed to next tier. Player stats are downright terrible compared to the old system, i have only 15 spirit and no other useful stats. T1 gets easier but t2 feels like it stagnates. There are few lower tree useful skills, instead there's stuff like 5% dura loss protection or safe. At lvl 35 even though safe needs t3 rss.

Also the t1 bag really stinks. T2 common bag is stupid expensive for tier considering you need double the materials if you want to roll it into the dead end t2 uncommon bag.

Anyway if this was my first time around im not sure i would continue when tracks move to t3 and lvl 50 section. I would probably look at the totally empty lvl 35 section and determine that I was a failure at the game since i was so far behind and give up.

[wheat raptor]

Yes , new players have the worst experience

[raw wren]

Im not new. Im old. New old?

[wheat raptor]

Low levels are basically " new players " since accounts are separate

[raw wren]

@silver zealot you had said you would be interested in my thoughts on my new account experience so here it is.

[storm flicker]

I was t4 and about to open south when the update dropped, I thought the update was restrictive and actually had to spend money, or I'd just be stuck (because my spirit was basically split in half)

Which was not fun at all

[raw wren]

Yes im kidding around. But I will point out i had advantages new players wouldn't have, in knowledge of what was most important. Tricks in getting around or best weapons to upgrade etc. But they seriously crippled every advantage from stat points to trade ups to locking away the pet, even the fairly useless dog. Low lvl skills do not compensate in any way for the 2/3 loss of spirit they would have had in the old system.

The only advantage I found in having terrible spirit for t2 is that I can go ahead and tame every pig and coyote on the t2 maps to use as distractions since everything else will kill you. Otherwise you couldn't do that and have enough spirit for bigger animals.

[raw wren]

Yes the spirit seems like a deliberate crippling to me, given my experience in t2 areas with only 15 spirit from skills. Like they want everything to be challenging. But it goes a little too far if you can't expect to have the spirit you need for your current tier until the end of the next tier you have open.

If I could unlock pet I might just forget spirit and go for bear or puma. Its clear to me you can only choose spirit path or bear or puma.

I just wonder where they had envisioned progression to be at the level transitions.

[obtuse falcon]

For beginners, book rewards should be doubled/tripled and reduced by 10/20 with each path reset. This should continue until the book rewards reflect the current level.
Alternatively, the book costs for levels 15 and 35 in the skill tree could be halved.

Instead of only granting 15 Spirit Points to the four skills at the end, every first skill in the top row should grant 15 Spirit Points starting at level 35.

These are my ideas for improving the beginner experience.

[raw wren]

I think it would align better with lvl if the tasks were so darn annoyingly fixed to 24 hour periods especially when so many need tasks that take 20 - 48 hours to reset. If I could have worked at tasks I could do and know what ways i could earn points, if tasks like CT were limited to a single occurrence or a # of waves for instance, in all likelihood I would be much further along.

I think cost of books was 10, 15 and 20 currently for the 3rd skill.

[silver zealot]

Thanks a lot for running the experiment and sharing your experience — that’s really interesting and super helpful 😊
I’ll definitely pass this along to the team 🙂

[wheat raptor]

I'll see what i can put in my report from all these . Thanks cat , for the experiment

[raw wren]

What is 1-2? Is that a variation on 6-7?

[wheat raptor]

Just the marks that help me remember in which category i place information in my report :
1️⃣ - Main topic
2️⃣ - Suggestion
3️⃣ - Bug
4️⃣ - Positive feedback

I was having a really hard time clasifying information when i wrote last week's report so now i mark information

[raw wren]

Nice but it sounds like a job hahaha.

I wish I could say mini cat was positive feedback. On my main profile, i really like the skills. Especially the weapons bonuses. Completely despise the tracks.

Mini cat... its a huge downgrade. Skills/tracks are actually hindering progression imo. Its very challenging to earn to books in time to benefit tier. There are a lot of nice sounding skills that don't really offer good benefits. Or having to unlock a skill that isn't immediately useful like the safe at start of t2. It takes so long to unlock the skills its a real let down to have to unlock things that don't improve the gaming in a noticeable way.

For instance the dura loss protection on death. Its so slight its barely noticeable. And the 1% dodge. I feel like actual tangible stats early game would be much better even if those stats are more distributed and not all in one attribute like we did before the update.

[wheat raptor]

Being a moderator is indeed like some sort of a job , but since me and the others like the game , being moderators is more of an honor than a job . Anyways , yeah ... skill system truly made the game hard for low levels , but ... i am too busy to enjoy all the benefits i have from those skills as an end-game player

[raw wren]

I started exploring rookies and their challenges before the skills update. Trying to get some good rookies to actually stay in the game by helping them learn how to play in a way that makes the game enjoyable. Rookie system is generally terrible though. Anyway was trying to help rookies with the post blueprints update running new areas or the outposts etc. That's how my interest in the lower levels started.

So far we managed to retain one rookie in six months time. The rest all quit around upper t3.

[wheat raptor]

Yeah , this game is not easy and requires a lot of planning , economy , attention to details ... some people don't want to try more approaches

[iron onyx]

if that many people are quitting it's a problem tho and shouldn't just be written off as "some people don't wanna try"

[wheat raptor]

Yeah , i know , don't mind me

I also hope devs can improve the situation

I use for a reason

[raw wren]

I think its part where the grind really sets in. And you get flattened by iron mine. I think the current skills system is going to squash then flatter than a pancake. They won't even have spirit build. And if they have as much trouble as me unlocking skills they will have nothing active in lvl 35 section.

Even if they did really well with skills they will have at most 35 spirit from skills at lvl 50. And something like 10 dmg or 10 defense ir 10 speed. Depending on what skills they can get.

Oh and access to a t4 horse and can build a safe. If they manage to get thru the lvl 35 section.

[silver zealot]

I’ve noticed this has been a pretty popular topic lately, and I’ve passed it along to the team 😊

[raw wren]

I am lvl 49 haven't had much time the past week to play. But I did finally unlock the naturalist quest. But not the puppy.

However it seems you are meant to build the pet house instantly. I guess Nick's dog is no longer for rent.

[south sigil]

As a level 60 with only 3 skills in each tree, I'm at the point where I need to farm the winter maps above mountain pass and I find it to be very costly. I'm not sure if it's due to lack of useful skills, gear, or both. Enemies may be too much to handle as well especially when several are aggro'd. Heals are drained quickly as the TTK with the best weapon I can craft is long. The only thing it seems I can do is stay close to the edge of maps and exit out once my heals have been depleted. By then I've got to spend 50 some stamina or wait over an hour to get back to base to fill up on heals or spend more stamina/wait longer to get to a map to farm mats to cook up more heals. Way too much effort, time, and resources are put in to just gather wood. So this has been my experience and I'm wondering if anyone else shares the same.

[timid burrow]

Yep the main problem is they took everyone’s choice out of this game,
Choice to own a pet
Choice to buy gun parts for silver
Choice when and what to grind for

They say they want to keep it realistic and balanced, well real comes with choices.
Now you have to play a certain way and that doesn’t fit a lot of peoples time or entertainment.

It doesn’t get any better, as they say” The juice is no longer worth the squeeze.”

Anyways good luck I was lv. 111.
Now I barely play.

[wheat raptor]

Thanks for sharing your experiences . Good for my report .