Tag Archives: PTR

PTR: New Support Training

One of the changes currently on the Drop 6 PTR, is the addition of a ‘Support Training Instance’.

When you get to Tremor Ridge (or the equivalent level 6 zone, depending on faction, and starting area).. you’ll find a robot wearing boxing gloves – but no boxing shorts, which is a missed opportunity Carbine!

M.A.C has got a few dialog options that explain what support roles are (including flat out telling you what your Class’ support role is).  Accepting his quest will allow you to use the teleporter behind him (left for healing, right for tanking).

Zoning in, you’ll get the ‘old style’ pop up tutorial that talks about building a LAS for your support role, and explains briefly what the support role you can perform does.  M.A.C will also start telling you to save his fellow M.A.Cs by healing them.

After healing a few M.A.Cs back to full health, the quest is complete and all that’s left is to leave the instance.  The whole thing takes less than 2 minutes, so make sure you knock it out if you’re new to WildStar.

Initial PTR Thoughts

So, I’ve had a chance to mess around on the PTR for a bit now, and thought I’d throw some initial feedback together.  This is basically going to be a list of both good, and bad things that I’ve found so far.  I do have a video play through of the new Character creation process, and the new tutorial that is embedded down at the bottom of this post.

  • BRING BACK MY SNARKY HOLO-CRYPT!
It's not just Daryl's death that can cause riots!

It’s not just Daryl’s death that can lead to riots!

  • Belle Walker was cut from the tutorials, this makes me sad.
  • The Character Creation screens/setup is pretty shiny.
  • The new tutorial is very streamlined and efficient (see video at end of post)
  • Not enough stuff went account bound – if we pay real money for it, it needs to be account bound.
  • The Daily login rewards are nice, nothing OP..and a ‘bigger’ gift every 10 days.
  • More Drusera is always good.
  • The Loyalty rewards seem okay.. current implementation is confusing (how did I earn what I have, what are the various rewards, how do I “buy” more?  For example, on this picture:

Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 22.37.02

Am I on Tier 4? is Tier 4 the next step, where I get the mount pictured by the 4?  Mousing over the individual lines on the bar, show some rewards at each bar..but no good explanation of them.

  • The prices in the store seem reasonable so far, additional bank slots are 390 NCoin for example (400 NCoin for $5.00 – like any real money currency for a game, the large quantity you buy, the more you get per dollar).
  • Nothing in the store seems OP… it’s mainly housing, costumes, dyes, convenience items, etc..  There is currently one weapon set in the store..and it includes weapons for each class – I haven’t bought it yet, so I don’t know how OP the weapons are..but it’s an interesting skin.

Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 22.45.31

  • Service Tokens are available through the store..and these may border on the P2W side.. because you can use them to pay to add runes slots (and reroll them) to your gear.
  • Lockboxes now drop in Veteran dungeons/adventures…and keys need to be purchased via the store.  The only way this is acceptable, is if enough omnibits drop during that same dungeon run, to ensure you can purchase a key to your lockbox – without spending real money – otherwise.. this crosses very far over the P2W line, since you can get non-cosmetic gear out of the boxes.
  • Some of the store tooltips need to have their wording clarified.  For example:

Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 22.50.08

Can I buy this unlock a maximum of 8 times?  Or can I only buy it twice, to add to my existing 6 costume slots?  Other similar ‘unlocks’ have the same issue (please find a way to let me have more than 12 characters on the same server!)

  • Dual gatherers rejoice! you can buy a harvesting multi-tool – no more needing to swap between tools to gather!
  • Expect your mailbox to have lots of stuff in it..there is a lot of item consolidation going on.. tradeskill mats, runes, crafting schematics, etc.. anything you get taken away, will get it’s replacement (or a token to buy that replacement) sent to your mail.
  • The combination of ‘old style’ pop up tutorial, and the new tutorials..clash.. the old ones need to be turned off.
  • Attunement is still there, but is shorter now.
  • Some gear has had it’s appearance changed.  Not sure if this is intentional, or a bug.  Here’s Cassidy on live (left), and the same gear when logging into the PTR on the right:
Something is different here....

Something is different here….

Since some of that is a pretty drastic difference..I’m leaning towards bug.. because if that kind of appearance change is intended… wow.. there are going to be a lot of people who’s costumes get ruined.

 

I realize there is a decent amount of ‘negative’ feedback in this post.. but, I don’t like some of the stuff done so far, and if I don’t provide that feedback… Carbine won’t know they’ve made mistakes and have a chance to correct it.

Don’t forget to make sure you’re signed up to participate in the F2P Beta when it goes live  (this isn’t really it..this is a stability test for the PTR hardware!).  If you’ve got concerns, hopes, etc.. for things to be changed in this Beta.. you need to be signed up to participate!

 

Here’s a video of a quick run-through of both the new character generation process, and the new tutorial area (Exile side..of course..because EXILES FOREVER!).  No talking in the video from me.. I tried.. but it’s WAY to loud in my house, and you don’t want to listen to my kids yelling in the background..