Opinion on 1.3.18

[Conrad Faloff]

Disclaimer: this is an opinion, you're titled to your own opinion (even if it's different), blah blah blah please don't hate me.


Hi. I've been playing this game for around 4 years (back when the logo was a red & gold dragon and it was called "Mage and Minions", when there wasn't a bounty hunter, and when the Mage and Warrior moved around much more when idle), and I've always liked it.

I recently came back to this game after a couple of months, and a new update came out, and with it a new... hub world?

Don't get me wrong, I like the new hub world, and I like it. However, I still prefer the old menu where everything was in one place.

First off, it takes around 10 seconds to load Eternium after pressing the "Play" button, rather than around 3-ish before the hub world.

Now, you have to walk around to do almost anything. Have to sell armour you pick up during a level? Instead of selling it in your inventory during the level, you have to:
-create a portal (while not in combat)
-wait while the hub world loads in (around 5 seconds)
-walk over to the hoarder
-sell your item(s)
-go through the portal again (another 5-ish seconds)

All of that takes around one minute, rather than the 15 or so seconds it originally took to sell the same amount of items before 1.3.18.

BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!

You have to also walk around if you want to:
-Create/Fuse jewelry
-Access your Stash
-See your Friend list (side note, if you try to open your friend list offline, you still softlock your game, and it's been this way for a very long time.)
-Buy armor/weapons from the Shop, or potions/multipliers from another shop
-Change your Companions
-Forge/Craft an item
-Go to the Level Selection
-Return to a level via Portal

However, as said before, this isn't a bad change, I just prefer the old menu more than this hub world.

"But couldn't you just upgrade your speed to be super fast and go around the hub faster???" -A theoretical commenter

Yes, you could, but then you fall into a new preference of equipment/stats:

Speed over Strength.

Yes. I'll arguing that this new hub world is convincing players to equip faster equipment (or the passive ability Fleet Footed) so they can access things faster, rather than equiping more diverse armor/armor sets.

(Again, this is an opinion based on what I've seen/done in-game, you can have your opinion, blah blah blah please don't hate me)

Tl;dr, All I'm asking for is the option to choose between the hub world and the old menu.

[lama75]

These are all observations that have been made, including during the beta process. It will be interesting to see if these added opinions result in adjustments.

I'm fairly confident you won't get an option to use the old interface, though. The Hometown is how the game will be moving forward. Devs have been consistent about that.

[SoulGaming2]

These are all observations that have been made, including during the beta process. It will be interesting to see if these added opinions result in adjustments.

I'm fairly confident you won't get an option to use the old interface, though. The Hometown is how the game will be moving forward. Devs have been consistent about that.

This.

But. No one said that they cannot make it as optimal as possible for the best player experience.

How to balance it the best you can?
- Use the 150% Screen Distance view option to be able to see all vendors in one screen, not having to run around (was possible in old smaller town, should be now as well).
- Increase inventory size.
- Don't go on battlefield with pointless items around on your inventory.
- You should be able to just sell loot after completing a level, rather than going home using portal mid-fight.

Hometown is new and that means, as a new feature, it has to come through a lot of changes (as most things in this game).

Also, sad to say, I hardly believe that they ever intended to keep the original interface. It was something players have adapted onto over the years. But it just felt like the features were there so they could be somewhere in beta (etc.) game stage.

[Nhat]

- Use the 150% Screen Distance view option to be able to see all vendors in one screen, not having to run around (was possible in old smaller town, should be now as well).

At 150% view, you can't quite get to everything. While the unlabelled Inn door works, you can't access Jewelry, Consumable purchases and Item Crafting.

[xfool]

How bout a compromise , reduce the NPCs to 4:

from left to right- Blacksmith >>> Alarion(same location) >>> Jeweler >>> Equipment trader

remove- Hoader(who the hell buy gold with gems anyway?) , Companions(Alice) and Comsumable trader (Ruby) , their functions will be as the same as the old UI or added somewhere to the new UI with the abiility to sell loot from inventory as before.

[Conrad Faloff]

How bout a compromise , reduce the NPCs to 4:

from left to right- Blacksmith >>> Alarion(same location) >>> Jeweler >>> Equipment trader

remove- Hoader(who the hell buy gold with gems anyway?) , Companions(Alice) and Comsumable trader (Ruby) , their functions will be as the same as the old UI or added somewhere to the new UI with the abiility to sell loot from inventory as before.

Yes, and while I agree with all of you (though I'd still like to have the old menu), one of my points still remain: Lag (and movement speed if you don't set your view to 150% but again that factors into lag)

I play this game mainly on my Kindle Fire HD 6 (2014; it's also where I first played this game), and seeing that my main option now is my iPhone 5s, I'll stick to my Kindle.

(and before anyone says "oh just get a new iPad" or whatever, that's expensive and money blah blah blah can we skip that argument)

First off, it takes around 10 seconds to load Eternium after pressing the "Play" button, rather than around 3-ish before the hub world.

Now, you have to walk around to do almost anything. Have to sell armour you pick up during a level? Instead of selling it in your inventory during the level, you have to:
-create a portal (while not in combat)
-wait while the hub world loads in (around 5 seconds)
-walk over to the hoarder
-sell your item(s)
-go through the portal again (another 5-ish seconds)

All of that takes around one minute, rather than the 15 or so seconds it originally took to sell the same amount of items before 1.3.18.

Even if I were to set my view distance to 150, even if they made the hub smaller, even if I could access what I need easily, the game lag would still be there.

- Don't go on battlefield with pointless items around on your inventory.
- You should be able to just sell loot after completing a level, rather than going home using portal mid-fight.

I don't enter a game with extra armor in my inventory because I use the Stash (I literally have my first page dedicated to all variaties/sizes of gemstones)
And yeah, I like to pick up pointless gear just to sell it.

Also, QUICK BUG REPORT (tested on aformentioned Kindle Fire HD 6 4th Gen, 1.3.18), if I tap too fast on the Hoarder, I suddenly can't sell anything.

So, in the end, my main issue still stands, lag. It might be beccause my Kindle is old, but if the lag's not because of that, then could we have the old menu back? Please?
(I know it most likely won't but I'll still hope for its return)

[Nhat]

remove- Hoader(who the hell buy gold with gems anyway?)

huh? The "Hoarder" is there to sell your items too, yes I know that you can also do all that the other "Store" NPCs, so consolidating them may be better.

As noted elsewhere, the Hoarder is unlocked after completing Store level 2, while the Store NPCs are unlocked after completing Story level 5 - all are unlocked if you have a level 10+ hero in your account/profile, for ALL heroes, even newly created one. So if these "buying/selling" NPCs get combined, then they need to be available after completing Story map 2.


With respect to the lags, I'm only experiencing them for the Act IV maps, other Acts and Trials are running as before - and I'm on a low spec phone (Samsung Galaxy J1 - SM-J100Y, with only 512 MB RAM), yes I have every on low or off, view distance usually at 125%, just so I can see what my Mage and Bounty Hunter are attacking.

[xfool]

huh? The "Hoarder" is there to sell your items too, yes I know that you can also do all that the other "Store" NPCs, so consolidating them may be better.

As noted elsewhere, the Hoarder is unlocked after completing Store level 2, while the Store NPCs are unlocked after completing Story level 5 - all are unlocked if you have a level 10+ hero in your account/profile, for ALL heroes, even newly created one. So if these "buying/selling" NPCs get combined, then they need to be available after completing Story map 2.


With respect to the lags, I'm only experiencing them for the Act IV maps, other Acts and Trials are running as before - and I'm on a low spec phone (Samsung Galaxy J1 - SM-J100Y, with only 512 MB RAM), yes I have every on low or off, view distance usually at 125%, just so I can see what my Mage and Bounty Hunter are attacking.

The Hoarder sells nothing..... only trade gold for your gems, 100 gold for 4 gems, not worth at all.

[Nhat]

The Hoarder sells nothing..... only trade gold for your gems, 100 gold for 4 gems, not worth at all.

Yeah, sorry had the wrong "to" - you sell your items to the Hoarder, and yes, you can do that at the other vendors too.

The "buy Gold with Gems" have always been there and can be accessed at the other vendors and even in your Gear page - just press on the Gold amount. Pressing on the Gems amount on any of those screens open the "buy Gems with money" menu.

[Wizbit]

Very limited play because the new installation crashes on my device for some reason. My only big issue with the update is that the extra steps in the hometown interface slow down the already frustrating grinding aspects of the game.

Crafting Jewellery - selling discards is now more time consuming which overrides the improvements to inventory. Something bad is now worse.
Likewise Grinding Gold - selling collected items before replaying a level is now tedious. It does make narrative sense that you would need to return to trade from a hostile quest environment, but if you have a portal you don't need a flying Dragon/Temple-spacecraft so that narrative breaks down.

I don't worry about little bugs or rebalancing that has always been sorted out by the devs.