Initial thoughts & feedback on new and changed Albion Online systems

Okay, so, after testing and examining the systems in Albion Online Gold place, and the changed systems… I have some initial feedback at first look.

Crafting
You literally spaghettied everything. Just sauce on the floor. This can be unspaghettied by redesigning the Destiny board UI so new players can see what is actually going on. I can elaborate with this example:

4.1 light is cloth, 4.2 light is plate, you wear 4.1 light cloth to unlock 4.2 light plate, and to craft 4.2 light plate you craft 4.1 heavy plate

You see how this makes little sense from a new players perspective? Sure, it achieves the goal of promoting trade and commerce, but it’s super confusing to new players, e.g. the people that make your company not go under.
Timegates
You were headed in the right direction by condensing the timegates down to t6/enchanted+ for the hard to get resources, and shifting more towards LP. Fame was super easy to get with the tier gap and initial fame values on the mobs.

But then you spaghettied it. I’m not talking a bowl of spaghetti, I’m talking brand new snow white suede couch covered in spaghetti spaghettied.

In a moment of infinite backwards-progress, someone had the bright idea to switch fame reward over to the completely ridiculous and universally hated silver regen system.
Resource Rarity
Resource rarity was always a PITA for players, and one we begrudingly take with a grain of salt. The horses carrying much more than previous Alpha enabled players to further branch out and collect needed resources without spending astronomical amounts of time riding an ox.

But then you spaghettied it.

“Oops,” said the team as they gave the Legendary Founders a huge day 0 Albion Online Power Leveling advantage over the rest of the game, “We’ll just reset horses tomorrow”. This caused a snowball fame reward effect as the fame system is now first-come-snowball designed as detailed above.
Towns
You did a good thing here. The town changes are fun and everyone seems pretty receptive that I’ve spoken with

Melee can now tank, and has a role in both PVP and PVE

Condensation of the Tier, Level and Enchantment System
It was a great move to just make the .X levels represent different weapons, that just have different abilities but have damage comparable to the .0 prerequisites.

Cost of PVP
Once unlocked, PVP is inexpensive and fun. Dying matters not too much, so more people will PVP

Guild Wars 2’s First Raid Wing “Spirit Vale” Now Open

To arms – Guild Wars 2’s first raid, as part of the Heart of Thorns expansion, went live last night.

Composed of three wings, Spirit Vale is the first wing of the raid. It sees you and nine other players investigating the disappearance of a Pact squad in northern Maguuma. Obviously, enemies and dark secrets await. ArenaNet has introduced some nifty new squad AI to help players organize their raid groups better (and which play a larger part in World vs. World PvP gameplay) in a new patch.

The raid itself will offer quite a bit by way of rewards, including ascended gear, miniatures, new weapon skins and components required for crafting Legendary armour. There aren’t any prerequisites as such for accessing the raid, though you’re advised to be in tip top form.

What are your thoughts on Spirit Vale and the debut of raids into Guild Wars 2? Let us know in the comments.
Read more at http://gamingbolt.com/guild-wars-2s-first-raid-wing-spirit-vale-now-open#ED0BFRQJJBIfcgYx.99