113222-what-wildstar-does-well

== Content ==
			I wanted to start a discussion about the things wildstar does well or better than any other game. Rather than focusing on where it fails or needs to improve. We all know there are issues currently plaguing the game, but honestly as far as smooth launches go and quality and amount of content goes, i feel Wildstar is ahead of the game, even with its reduced development drop cycle, i still think we get more content that most other mmo's excluding GW2.If Anything, i think wildstar has the amount of issues it does, becuase it is indeed such a large game, right out of launch.I can see the forest through the trees, and i see a PVP system with massive potential, an unparalleled Raiding and dungeon system (even if it part of a grindy attunment), and i see a lot of really bright and enjoyable art and lore, not to mention the obviously innovative and revolutionary combat system.And challenges, i love challenges! And housing! One of the best housing systems in any mmo ever.So what do you think wildstar does well, that we are too quick to look over in favour of doomsday rhetoric?
			
				
	Edited September 11, 2014 by damo2113
	
		Title changed	
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I enjoy crafting. It's a nice compromise between the boring "Collect a thousand raws, then hit a button to make 50 new things and level." of WOW crafting, to the mini-game grindy boringness that is EQ2 crafting. The tech tree is great, and the talents are interesting (even if really really hard to understand at first lol).
 
There are many really fun quests. And this is coming from someone who, in general, hates questing. There's enough interesting quests to make the traditional task quests more bearable.
 
The dye system is great, I love the multiple channels to truly customize a piece. There are issues I have with it, but this isn't the thread for it.	
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			Granok.	
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			My favorite thing is housing, personally. Especially for how great it is right out the gate. Yeah, it has some bugs, but it's still so much better than I've seen in the few other games I've played that had housing.	
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			Combat, combat, combat.  Nothing is better than Wildstar's combat.  Yes, there are a lot of great things in this game, housing, difficult content, the LAS, customizable everything, idiosyncratic leveling, but where Wildstar stands head and shoulders above all its competition is when you start a fight, there's no other combat system so tight, fast, and entertaining.	
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			I have to agree with VicVanMeter. The combat system is leagues better than anything else currently available.	
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			Combat, they just need to add or improve the other stuff.	
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			Combat, PvP modes, & Draken	
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They do raids and dungeons well that's for sure.
 
But the number 1 thing they do really, really well is the combat. I didn't realise how absolutely important combat was to me until I started playing Wildstar. Having played WoW for 7 years, I am beyond tired of the keytabbing based combat. 
It feels like it's a decade too old (I wonder why  :rolleyes: ) and that's necessarily not a bad thing, but I don't think I can go back to enjoy keytabbing. 	
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The most important thing about an MMO is not the story, or the graphics. It's the gameplay, because that's what you do for hours and hours on end.
 
And that's what Wildstar does well, the combat and difficulty.
 
But that's about all it does well, and that's all it needs to make me want to play.	
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I challenge you to go raid in another game and tell me that Wildstar hasn't ruined raiding for you.
 
Everything else seems so bland, simple, and boring.	
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Chua thinks WildStar did following things awesome:
 
Server launch
Developer Feedback
Hype building
Combat system
Difficulty
Chua thinks however that WildStar did following things good, but can improve:
Update on bugs and content
Patch releases
Content, Story
Class balancing
Some things Chua think are really not good with WildStar and require attention:
Community Management
Quality of bugfixing and releases
Keeping bugs from re-occuring
Overal Chua really happy with WildStar and is hoping game last many many years.	
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I challenge you to go raid in another game and tell me that Wildstar hasn't ruined raiding for you.
 
Everything else seems so bland, simple, and boring.
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			I love the 5 mans in WS, especially right after launch, when the gear-gap was severe, you really felt like a badass when you could play to that level. Raids have been a big disappointment so far, though, so I really wish they would take some of the dungeon design, learn what works well (here's looking at you Mordecai Redmoon of awesomeness) and replicating this to raids.	
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			To be fair blighthaven is about the only real content update we got and once you get past the really cool first few hours the dailies for it are just painful x.xThe second drop all we got is a BG that even pvp'rs avoid like the plague and a graphic for awesome looking boots that don't actually exist ingameBut really the big thing this game has going for it is it is actually very fun to play.If they can get the carrot on a stick to switch from waiting on fixes and updates to actual character development the game will do great. 	
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			Combat, housing and the 5-men dungeon design (as far as I experienced a couple of them, anyway). I don't think it does any of the previous except for the dungeons better than other games, though. I liked TERA's combat better and Rift's housing system is basically the same but better (though I never played enough to get hooked to it. So I guess Wildstar has an advantage there.)	
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			Among other things, the combat is great and the raiding experience has been amazing so far (5/6 GA at the moment).	
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My guild and I are here for the combat.
 
Despite the graphics. ;)
 
 
It has the right level of challenge, required skill and thank-you-gawd, problem-solving/thinking. 
 
I could spend time posting, but I'd rather be playing.
 
I do want to add one comment to the great set of posts on this thread so far:
 
What Carbine does right is to try and keep their players informed. They seem to understand the importance of communicating, and the passion their customers have about gaming, issues and their experiences with both.
 
That one commitment to (transparent) communication, bookended with gameplay is all my guild has ever wanted  from a developer in the last decade and a half of online play. The rest are details that can be ironed out. :)	
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Housing and challenging combat without being inaccessible.
 
"Stay out of the red" can be so simple yet so engaging at the same time.
 
Also, racial designs.
 
More dragonfolk/robotfolk/tailed folk in my MMOs pls.	
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Someone of you watched some WoW WoD Raid Content Vids, or any Raid Content Vids from WoW lately? It was like watching it in slow motion :D.
When u compare WoW and W* combat its like u would compare a snail with a car. I dont think that i ever can go back to WoW or a game like that.
What i really like about Wildstar is that fast combat system that needs kind of skill and training to be good in. To dodge the telegraph that usually do a ton of dmg, to interrupt in the right moment, to know when you have to interrupt and so on.
 
Also i really like the skillpoint and VIP system. Beeing able to change your skills that easy, to make them fit to the boss is great.
The way u can choose nearly free which vips you want to use is really cool.
 
Crafting is much more interessting then in other games, cause you need actually to know what you do.
Even i missed the techno experimental tech tree, i know that was for a greater aim, to dont let people equip to easy and i understand that there was/is no way to implement that without other significant changes in loot systems and stats!
 
Even if the RNG in W* is kind of hard (runes * dropp chances = 0,1%), i know that there will be some changes to make it better.
Also i dont have the need to equip epic preraid, cause rare with good runeslots are in most causes competable with epics or even better (right now)
 
I know that many people see nerfs as a bad thing, but actually this is part of every game.
They start off at a point where only people that invest a lot of time can progress.
Then they start to nerf some things, so that even people with less time or less skill slowy getting into it.
 
SO all changes that had been anounced shouldnt even care the "hardcore" players, because new content will be at a hard level that fit for them not the casuals!
 
I love the dungeons (not adventures) with their really good feeling. The timeruns for silver and gold makes you want to push throught and makes u try to play good!
 
All in all this is such an awesome game and its a shame that so many people are complaining about it!
 
Dead servers? Yeah sure, i was on one and the main reason why that happend was, because people werent patient enough! People left the server to early and demotivated others, some stopped other also gone and the people that leveld up to max never had a playerbase cause most people left.
 
However im really happy with this game so far and i cant wait for the changes they wont to bring out the next few weeks!	
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something else Chua think WildStar do well:
 
Creating drama over classes.	
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Costumes ( love this feature ).
 
Mobs are not character or faction locked so anyone gets credit and no "kill stealing".  This encourages people helping each other even if they don't group.
 
Even with broken quests and some quests that are woefully under con (mobs 2-6 levels above the con ) ... the solo experience to cap is pretty enjoyable.	
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I read this and thought "hey sure, why not?"  Then I started on my list and most of the positives I've come up with come with a "yeah but...".  Wow that's depressing.  Apologies if these come out as left-handed.
 
The Graphics Engine
 
Very clean and wow, somebody actually got shadows right (TOR's shadows make me cry).  No "yeah but..." on this one.
 
The Music
 
Top notch.
 
Housing
 
I think this is pretty close to right.
 
Art
 
The art is clean and consistent with some interesting variety.  Still not sure about the stylized character art though.
 
Costume and Dye System
 
I appreciate the generous number of costume slots.  The editor is on the right track but has a bunch of nits.  I still say they need to bring back the impression based one that doesn't rely on a fixed NPC.  The additional NPC's was a weak stopgap.
 
On the whole I like the dyes but like somebody else observed some common colors/shades are too bloody expensive to apply.  Oh and all dye channels need to be exposed.
 
The Lore
 
The story is neat.  Shame that it's gated by lackluster quests doled out in twitterfied crumbs or delivered in the midst of high concentration combat.
 
It's sci-fi... sorta
 
This should be #1 but it's really hard listing this as a positive.  I'm a die-hard sci-fi fan and would love a real hard sci-fi setting.  (TOR and STO are sci-fantasy).  I can bare even call this sci-fantasy, it's a weak coat of paint over WoW.
 
I guess I'll grudgingly give them points for at least giving non-fantasy a nod (or perhaps a smirk and a 'ha-ha!').
 
What's not on my list
 
Combat.
 
Part of this is on me.  I never got around to setting up Aura Mastery and played a proc dependent class.  The combat here is too concentration dependent.  Apparently watching procs and my own health bar is a luxury so rapidly spamming my attack abilities was the order of combat.  Not surprising I was well on my way to a case of severe tendonitis.
 
Coordinate Crafting
 
Let's all sing the RNG song!  Did as much as I had to to unlock the tech trees and never touched them again.	
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{| class="blockquote"
something else Chua think WildStar do well:
 
Creating drama over classes.
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Things I think what Wildstar did really well is
1) Character design and art style. A refreshing change from the dozens of high fantasy, realistic style mmo's out there.
2) It also infuses a lot of irreverent and cheeky humor into the game.
3) Housing is quite amazing.. Players have taken the basic building blocks Carbine provided us with and created houses that simply boggle the imagination. 
4) Music - Jeff knocked it out of the park
5) Combat 
 
Things it could improve on:
1) Character customization. Beyond costumes and mount customization, I believe players should be able to swap out hairstyles, hair color, jewelry, skin color.. And if they are willing to pay for it, a complete character overhaul. 
2) Community communication - although it seems to have gotten better as of late
3) Casual content. 	
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			Thing Wildstar did well: Bring me to the game. You know... ME	
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I think it's better to list what they did right and where they went wrong or could've done better. So I'm going to do it that way.
 
What they did right:
1: Combat. I was skeptical at first, but it somehow worked out and it feels engaging. The telegraph system lets them do stuff other MMO's can't, put in a true difficulty instead of an arbitrary one. I still feel Tera's combat is more fun, but this one comes close.
 
2: Housing. Yes, it takes a lot to get used to and it can still be improved, but once you get the hang of it you can do a LOT with it. Probably my favourite feature.
 
3: Dungeons. They're challenging but fair. I loved the dungeons in this game since the first moment I entered one. A lot of MMO's can learn from this. Sadly, there are only so few of them.
 
4: The World. I love the whole scifi-western feel and going over the top. They really made an interesting world, original world.
 
 
What's decent but could've done better:
1: Costumes. Yes, you can do a lot with the costumes, but the system itself is a bit wonky and there have been other games that did it far better (TSW, DCO, to name a few). That plus there aren't enough costumes really, a lot of the gear is rehashed with a different colour pallet. Plus the light armour headpieces are just aweful. Ow, and there are no cowboy hats yet. GIVE US COWBOY HATS!
 
2: Story. They went too fast with the whole 'Strain' thing, and while it's an interesting story, I'm kinda sick of it already. From level one the exploring of Nexus and the war between the Dominion and Exiles was the most important part, but from the moment you meet the strain, all you do is fight the strain really, and the PvE content drops still focussed on that aspect. Ow, and they made the player a 'one of a kind' hero, something you shouldn't do in MMO's. Never go for a single player kind story, unless it's a side story, your personal story. Being a champion doesn't make you feel awesome if there are 1000 other champions running around. 
 
Where they went wrong in my opinion:
1: Adventures. The idea sounded great, but the implementation was just plain bad. All they really are, are dungeons without a liniar path filled with trashmobs and mini-bosses. Ofcourse people will always pick the easiest route, and I know they want to do something about that, but that isn't the problem. The problem is that they just don't feel difficult and more like a chore.
 
2: Gear progression. The gear progression is bad, like, real bad. The runesystem RNG made it so that you have to be lucky and many of the runes themselves don't feel fun.  Next to that, there's so much gear that is pointless and no one would want to use it. Lastly, the gear you get from the difficult vet dungeons just don't seem to be worth the effort. I hope the gear changes they've got planned will resolve part of this problem, but the rune system will always be a bad system, even when you can reroll them once. 
 
3: The attunement. I'm not against attunements, but this one is just a grindfest more than anything else. I liked the Pyralos part and the little story tidbits, but the requirement of redoing all your adventures (which are just not fun) and grinding World Bosses is just bad. Same goes for grinding patterns for the 40-man. Them turning silver requirement into bronze for dungeons is a step in the right direction, but the adventure requirement (and I know, it's easy, but tedious aswell) and grinding mundane stuff like world bosses and patterns doesn't make you better at raiding. I find stuff like Gatekeepers to be far better for that (TSW did this properly by having a Gatekeeper mob that is either a test for your dps, your tanking or your healing) 
 
4: Dailies. Just needs a complete overhaul to something that doesn't feel like a grind and actually fun. Dailies are just not fun to do, don't require any effort but time and are just soooooooooooo boring. Just stop putting them in and think for a second 'how can we make them interesting and fun', you know, that which keeps the player playing. 
 
5: Leveling. Now, I don't mean that the quests are bad, 'cause they're not, they're actually pretty good. The problem is that it's very liniar. After the first two zones, you will always go through the same zones, making leveling alts not fun. SWTOR and TSW were also big culprits with this. Give us more areas to explore, more routes to go through. Sadly it's a bit late to change this, but it's still worth mentioning.	
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Housing:  It's why I started playing, and what keeps me playing (and often later at night than I should be up on a work night).  Pretty much everything revolves around making money and finding or building the next cool housing decor item or FABkit.
 
Combat: I'm ruined for any of the previous MMO's now that I've experienced active combat. I thought I would suck at it, and I did at first, but now I think I'd never be able to have fun playing a tab-target game again.
 
Subscription model over F2P	
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{| class="blockquote"
The most important thing about an MMO is not the story, or the graphics. It's the gameplay, because that's what you do for hours and hours on end.
 
what Wildstar does well... is housing.
 
But that's about all it does well *snip*
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1.  I LOVE the artwork - this is one of the most fresh and exciting IPs I've played in ages.  Apparently a lot of people hate the cartoonish-ness of it all but I absolutely adore it, and it's instantly iconic and recognizable.  If you show me a screen shot of GW2, LOTRO, RIFT, TSW, Aion, or a host of other MMOs, I wouldn't be able to tell you which was which.  WildStar, like a few others, is instantly recognizable - so I consider that a very good thing.  
 
2.  Telegraph system - I'm no badass, but I really like having to pay attention.  Fewer keys but more action!  Granted, I spend a lot of time doing what I will call "looking for a lost contact on the ground", ahem, but I still really enjoy the combat and the telegraph system.
 
3.  Crafting - needs work, ESPECIALLY COOKING, but the idea is a lot of fun.
 
4.  The hidden areas, exploration, lore, paths, etc.  My main recommendation here would be to make it more engaging and rewarding - so hey, accomplish some obscure exploration achievement or series?  What about a cool mount, pet, title, tabard, something for doing so?  (Note also, this addresses the "casual players need stuff" and the "nothing to do at 50 except raid" problem if so desired.)
 
5.  The devs are great when you work directly with them.
 
6.  Aurin.
 
7.  Chua.
 
8. Mordesh.
 
9.  Mechari.
 
10.  Granok.
 
11.  Mordesh  (Yes, twice, they're that awesome.)  Someone get me a crazy Victorian-steampunk-gothic racial house and I will never leave it!
 
12.  Housing x 1000
 
Opportunities to improve:
- CSR for tickets.  I just - I don't even bother trying anymore, it's a complete waste of time and energy and I already have multiple copies of the form letter I'll get if I open a ticket, no matter what the problem is.  Sigh.
- Guild management.  This deserves its own thread, so I may make one.	
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Combat.  I long ago swore off themepark-type mmos.  I followed Wildstar lightly, checking the vids, going "ok, thats kinda cool. Too bad it's a WoW clone."  Then I got a free trial and experienced the combat.  Nuff said.
 
Needs improved? Small group content.  Something like adventures, but with optional hard mode objectives that only super-leet-badasses can take on.  A little something for us "casual hardcore" folks that just don't like big raids.	
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i was literally coming to the forums to post something of this nature and i saw this at the top of the page.... 'twas meant to be haha.
 
anyhow, i love the combat, the art style, the concepts that the devs are striving for, and just the overall idea. ive wanted a game worth investing time into and its here but it just needs some fine tuning!	
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{| class="blockquote"
i was literally coming to the forums to post something of this nature and i saw this at the top of the page.... 'twas meant to be haha.
 
anyhow, i love the combat, the art style, the concepts that the devs are striving for, and just the overall idea. ive wanted a game worth investing time into and its here but it just needs some fine tuning!
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Chua thinks WildStar did following things awesome:
 
Server launch
Developer Feedback
Hype building
Combat system
Difficulty
Chua thinks however that WildStar did following things good, but can improve:
Update on bugs and content
Patch releases
Content, Story
Class balancing
Some things Chua think are really not good with WildStar and require attention:
Community Management
Quality of bugfixing and releases
Keeping bugs from re-occuring
Overal Chua really happy with WildStar and is hoping game last many many years.
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			Personally i see Wildstar as a slow burn MMO, like EVE. It has its niche, and what it does, it does well. Keeps players that like it loyal, and slowly it will morph and adapt to better suit other players. Namley the more casual and time poor players. I see good things if carbine keeps fixing and modifying the game based on feedback as effectivley as they are :)	
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{| class="blockquote"
Personally i see Wildstar as a slow burn MMO, like EVE. It has its niche, and what it does, it does well. Keeps players that like it loyal, and slowly it will morph and adapt to better suit other players. Namley the more casual and time poor players. I see good things if carbine keeps fixing and modifying the game based on feedback as effectivley as they are :)
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