First timer feedback on first impressions of Albion Online final beta

Hello there,

 

I've been a on/off follower of Albion Online development for past 3 years and a Albion Online founder for past 3 days. My MMO roots are back in UO, where I made name and a living as a grandmaster lumberjack, walking countless hours among the trees, whacking wood and selling the produce at Bank of Britannia. Enjoying the game as such, making friends and daring the risk of getting ganked when ever I set my foot outside of city borders.

 

I set the stage, not because I expect AO to fulfill that fantasy, but to give some background on my feedback.

 

Apologies for my English.

 

Technical:

A minor issue really, but first thing I noticed was the lack of option for borderless window. Would love to have one at release!'

 

UI:

Destiny board and world map both open up zoomed way in and I have to start by zooming out to find what I'm looking for. It gets frustrating when I for example close destiny board to check something and then open it back up, having to scroll out again to find where I was at.

On topic of world map, an option to filter items would be a blessing. Same goes for zone map and especially in towns, where it is tiresome to first spot the building type you are looking for and then click them trough to find one that is public with fair price.

"Clicking trough" seems to happen a lot in this game and so I can't help but think why buildings on town map don't have mouse over tool tip for faster info? I feel like quite a few clicks could be reduced with a simple mouse over tool tips, including items (for quality) in inventory.

Zone maps seem like there is an option to click arrows to see the next zone in that direction, but I guess it doesn't. Would be nice if it worked.

I understand that PC UI is being reworked, so hopefully these issues are on that list already.

Gameplay/World:

To stay on topic of zones, I really feel like they lack any recognizable character. I am not familiar with the previous map, but current version seems too samey within any given biome so far. This issue is enforced by the way zones are blocked together and linked by roads in the middle. Maybe Outlands has been given more detail and I just haven't seen it yet? This is where I can't help but think about UO and it's dungeons, cities and sights to see. Even the names of the zones seem meaningless when only identifiable detail on any zone is the tier of its content. The excitement was real the first time I got access to a portal at the end of them bandit caves, but when I got in second time in a completely different zone and ran trough identical portal zone, the excitement started fading away. I don't expect every corner of the world to be unique, but to have spots with identity as landmarks. Or have I just not traveled enough?

One thing I recall reading about, but that seems to be ditched(?), is "housing" in zones outside of player towns. I'm not expecting UO like free building placement, but why not let some zones have small and medium plots on Royal Islands similar to what seems to be going on at Outlands black zones(for what I can tell from world map)? Ownership of the plot would work similar to town plots. I think this would also make the zones seem more alive.

 

I've only seen one player town so far, but after finally finding the building I was looking for from the zone map, navigating the "streets" was a mess. This was most likely due buildings being low tier and not filling their plots but even if the UI (zone map) gets updated with better readability and/or filters, the town could also use some indicator for streets like worn out paths on ground.

 

The lack of random loot drops from npcs is understandable, but it seems the reasoning is made on WoW terms (no cool weapon drops). Why couldn't bandits drop carrots every now and then for example? Maybe at some point treasure hunting is introduced as a craft and npcs could drop treasure maps that lead to a chest (somewhere in the world) containing albion online silver, artifact pieces and vanity items like paintings for buildings. Albion Online Silver is nice, but chance of something extra (like those bandit miners already drop rocks) keeps (pve) adventuring interesting.

 

Considering the feedback on issue that seem to be hot topic on this forum, I just wanna say that I really like the distance and time required to travel as well as lack of fast travel. I did expect travelling on roads to be faster as it would give purpose to use them, but I don't mind the way it is now either. Toggle button for walk would be fine addition, but I think I'll survive holding the mouse button for now.

 

I think that covers the issues I've experienced so far. Despite them, I've really enjoyed what I've played! Those portal dungeons are really fun even if there really is only one type of them for bandits? I think I could see myself enjoying playing this game as a lumberjack and trader, fulfilling that old UO fantasy