So Many Broken Elements

[Melchiah]

Everything I've mentioned above is still broken in the new update. Bosses still cheat, controls still sketch out, targeting is still garbage, etc.

I started playing a Bounty Hunter. I'm not getting ready notes for Rapid Fire or Heatseekers. I've only mainly used those two skills along with Snipe, but I assume that the ready notes for other skills will be broken as well (since it doesn't appear to be the kind of the thing that the developers cared to do right). He also appears to have some real difficulty finding set items and items that don't drastically decrease damage, relative to my Mage.

Speaking of my Mage: I made it to Paywall-- er, I mean Trial 75. Started having some difficulty, so I switched things around a bit and managed to add 30K to my DPS. The Paywall-- er, the Trial completely soaked it. So I'm now certain that Trials are scaling to the player-character's power instead of remaining static as they're supposed to. Pretty sad.

Given the fact that the devs are prioritizing things like flowers and IAPs over fixing some very broken mechanics and severely cut corners, and that most of the changes in recent updates were focused on player NERFing, I can only assume that their current business model centers around gradually turning this game into just another over-monetized pay-to-win turd. It's sad, really, because they had a good product on their hands.

Oh well. I'm just glad I realized this before I spent any more money. I also saw a comment on here recently where one of the developers sarcastically said something along the lines of, "Sorry we have to eat." But this game has 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, so I'm willing to bet that the devs are doing pretty well between ad revenue and IAPs from casual players to whales. It's bad enough that they're trying to squeeze and NERF and frustrate their players into spending money, but it's even worse that they feel the need to insult our intelligence by trying to poormouth us in between useless updates that fix nothing of substance. I can't really in good conscience support anyone who thinks that their customers are stupid or worth such little effort.

Like I said, it's sad. Eternium could have been a great game, but evidently the developers are content with mediocrity.

[Humus]

Melchiah pay·wall
ˈpāwôl/
noun
noun: paywall; plural noun: paywalls; noun: pay-wall; plural noun: pay-walls

1. (on a website) an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to the site.

[Rytrik]

Everything I've mentioned above is still broken in the new update. Bosses still cheat, controls still sketch out, targeting is still garbage, etc.

You still haven't shown us a video of the bosses cheating.

Speaking of my Mage: I made it to Paywall-- er, I mean Trial 75. Started having some difficulty, so I switched things around a bit and managed to add 30K to my DPS. The Paywall-- er, the Trial completely soaked it. So I'm now certain that Trials are scaling to the player-character's power instead of remaining static as they're supposed to. Pretty sad.

Trials do not change their power according to the player's power.

Also... paywall..

Given the fact that the devs are prioritizing things like flowers and IAPs over fixing some very broken mechanics and severely cut corners, and that most of the changes in recent updates were focused on player NERFing, I can only assume that their current business model centers around gradually turning this game into just another over-monetized pay-to-win turd. It's sad, really, because they had a good product on their hands.

Where were the players nerfed? Please provide the evidence of said nerfing.

[GrauGeist]

Until others confirm your complaints, I think that this is kinda of an issue where you need to "git gud", rather than complain about the game.

[Purple Potato]

Everything I've mentioned above is still broken in the new update. Bosses still cheat, controls still sketch out, targeting is still garbage, etc.

I started playing a Bounty Hunter. I'm not getting ready notes for Rapid Fire or Heatseekers. I've only mainly used those two skills along with Snipe, but I assume that the ready notes for other skills will be broken as well (since it doesn't appear to be the kind of the thing that the developers cared to do right). He also appears to have some real difficulty finding set items and items that don't drastically decrease damage, relative to my Mage.

Speaking of my Mage: I made it to Paywall-- er, I mean Trial 75. Started having some difficulty, so I switched things around a bit and managed to add 30K to my DPS. The Paywall-- er, the Trial completely soaked it. So I'm now certain that Trials are scaling to the player-character's power instead of remaining static as they're supposed to. Pretty sad.

Given the fact that the devs are prioritizing things like flowers and IAPs over fixing some very broken mechanics and severely cut corners, and that most of the changes in recent updates were focused on player NERFing, I can only assume that their current business model centers around gradually turning this game into just another over-monetized pay-to-win turd. It's sad, really, because they had a good product on their hands.

Oh well. I'm just glad I realized this before I spent any more money. I also saw a comment on here recently where one of the developers sarcastically said something along the lines of, "Sorry we have to eat." But this game has 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, so I'm willing to bet that the devs are doing pretty well between ad revenue and IAPs from casual players to whales. It's bad enough that they're trying to squeeze and NERF and frustrate their players into spending money, but it's even worse that they feel the need to insult our intelligence by trying to poormouth us in between useless updates that fix nothing of substance. I can't really in good conscience support anyone who thinks that their customers are stupid or worth such little effort.

Like I said, it's sad. Eternium could have been a great game, but evidently the developers are content with mediocrity.

I made it top 10 without spending any money in 2 months. Last night I bought a $4 deal just because I like this game. While the current event packs are somewhat pay-to-win I can live with them. If they sell these kind of event packs during an "A new beginning" event then it is 100% unacceptable.

[Nhat]

(Sorry in advance for the long post, putting a few things I've seen together here...)

Appreciate the feedback, and once again, fixes takes time. It was mentioned that taking advantage of the Spring promotion had minimal impact on the devs' schedule.

Issues noted, some are actually non-issue since they are "working as intended" (based on what I've read and seen), takes time to fix - I highly doubt even a company like Blizzard could fix multiple issues in one week.

I too don't believe there is a pay wall in this game, and also fail to see the criticism over IAP - I do admit that, based on other discussions, some items probably shouldn't be made available, due to the dramatic time savings they offer. Ultimately though, having them available to those who wants to purchase them have zero impact on my enjoyment of this game.

Seeing some of the complaints about IAP makes me wonder whether people actually played any games previously, or on console - those ones that you actually have to pay for upfront.

So far, I've spent about $60 into this game, couldn't resist those Unique weapons from the Carnaval event, which is still less than the price of one console game, I think. Last game I bought was Dragon Age Inquisition (and all related DLCs). Do I enjoy this on the same level as DAI/Diablo, relatively speaking, yes. Are there still bugs in DAI? yep - and that's from a multi-million company, in a game that you have to pay for...

[Purple Potato]

(Sorry in advance for the long post, putting a few things I've seen together here...)
Seeing some of the complaints about IAP makes me wonder whether people actually played any games previously, or on console - those ones that you actually have to pay for upfront.

I have played lot's of games that you buy to play. But this is a F2P game that has done F2P well and not gone close to P2W (imo only because the community/active player base is small enough). The Event packs being sold now are going on the border of P2W and while I'm ok with them, this may be the start to selling these items in a limited time event (ANB style) where you can't say "just play trial 100 50 times for better gear" is valid. Saving even 10 hours of grinding is a big advantage to someone who didn't spend to get that gear upgrade.

[Melchiah]

Until others confirm your complaints, I think that this is kinda of an issue where you need to "git gud", rather than complain about the game.

Yes, because consensus is necessary to reality. /sarc

When a boss uses Breaking Free *WHILE FROZEN,* that's cheesy BS. When a boss can initiate attacks *WHILE FROZEN,* that's cheesy BS. When a boss can initiate an attack 1/8th of the way through an Enraging animation (as Magroth *always* seems to do when he's seconds away from dying and I still have over 1:00 on the Trial timer), that's cheesy BS. And I know you and every other player have seen it because the game pulls that crap literally *all the time.*

Explain the lack of ready notes for abilities and spells. That reeks of either incompetence or laziness.

Explain the garbage targeting that makes the game damn-near unplayable at 120% view. Enemies have had hitboxes since the 1980s. Why don't they have them here?

Explain the broken companions running around in circles.

That stuff has nothing to do with player skill, and it's easy to fix. It also deserves full prioritization. It's not like the devs don't have time to hawk flowers and IAPs, so why don't they have time to fix persistent issues that turn an enjoyable game into a tedious joyless slog? Has this game not been live long enough for one to reasonably expect such issues to have been addressed and resolved by this point in its development history?

Play semantics with my word choice if you like, but my point about paywalls is clear: When a player hasn't forked over enough cash for the amount of time they've been playing, difficulty will inexplicably scale up, and RNGs will rig against the player's favor. Case in point is the drop-off in drop quality since the beginning of the SOS event. My Mage and BH were both getting good "endgame" gear prior to that. Now I'm lucky if the gear I get doesn't drop my Damage and Toughness by more than 10%. Legendary/Epic split for drops was about 60/40 prior to SOS, but now it's about 30/70.

This stuff is pretty obvious to anyone with eyes, and I didn't exactly have to strain mine to notice it. It isn't a matter of skill deficiency because I evidently made Top 5% about a week ago without even noticing or spending any more than $2 for the Storm weapons, and I'm not complaining about things like underpowered player-characters or enemies that are overpowered *across the board.* The Trial bosses themselves are pushovers until they start breaking the game's mechanics. And how exactly is my skill ever supposed to be relevant in a game that doesn't follow its own rules?

And yes, I'm going to voice these complaints in a forum that the developers frequent because *these are things they need to hear if they actually care about improving their product.* They went the freemium route for the sake of profits, so of course I'm going to be a nice enough player to let them know about the things that are keeping my money out of their wallets.

And just for the record, I *never* pass up an ad box. My play time is generating ad revenue, so I'm not someone who has to whale out on IAPs before I feel that I've earned the room to voice gripes. Anyone who doesn't like it can just keep scrolling. I don't plan on breaking forum rules, so until the mods here tell me something, I don't plan on caring what other users here might have to say about my griping.

Nhat, you'd have to point out which issues I've mentioned that are "working as intended." I'd laugh if that were the case with things like no ready notes for certain abilities/spells and broken boss mechanics.

Also, yes, I've seen how bad freemium, p2p, p2w, and even paid games can get. I remember the beginning of EA's overmonetization starting with the original Dead Space. Eternium isn't nearly a serious offender (it's literally 1 of only 3 mobile games I've *ever* spent more than a week on), but there are parts of it that really make me wonder.

It's not that I don't support freemium developers as a rule, because I can actually name my price or suggest a product quite readily (example: $4.99 for 30 days of all ad boxes dropping 5 Gems without ads or $9.99 for a custom item/weapon generator would both get my money), but that changes if I think I'm dealing with a developer that's trying to coast on gradually overmonetizing their product instead of fixing issues that I can't imagine any player being happy with.

So far, the odds of that being the case with this game are about 50/50 based on my experience with it. That might sound cynical, but I'm just being honest. It's still a good game even with all I've pointed out, and I'd like it to stay good and improve without backsliding into one of the usual models that ruins those rare good mobile games out there.

[GrauGeist]

Dude, your claims of paywall and scaling are nonsense. If you don't like it, just leave.

[Melchiah]

Dude, your claims of paywall and scaling are nonsense. If you don't like it, just leave.

Dude, I know how to watch lifebars and timers and keep track of drop rates and notes. I wasn't born yesterday. If you don't like it, just keep filling the devs' wallets and keep scrolling past my thread. Sorry if my standards are perhaps a bit higher than yours. ;-)

[Purple Potato]

"When a boss uses Breaking Free *WHILE FROZEN,* that's cheesy BS. When a boss can initiate attacks *WHILE FROZEN,* that's cheesy BS. When a boss can initiate an attack 1/8th of the way through an Enraging animation (as Magroth *always* seems to do when he's seconds away from dying and I still have over 1:00 on the Trial timer), that's cheesy BS. And I know you and every other player have seen it because the game pulls that crap literally *all the time.*"
That's how the mechanics work. Get used to it.

"Explain the lack of ready notes for abilities and spells. That reeks of either incompetence or laziness."
Huh? The dev team is 4 people and I don't want them using their time writing for a couple hours on the descriptions of abilities when it is pretty clear what it does.

"Explain the garbage targeting that makes the game damn-near unplayable at 120% view. Enemies have had hitboxes since the 1980s. Why don't they have them here?"
If you are playing under 150% then something is wrong. I have almost no issues with targetting on PC or mobile.

"Explain the broken companions running around in circles."
Minions are useless in terms of damage.

"That stuff has nothing to do with player skill, and it's easy to fix. It also deserves full prioritization. It's not like the devs don't have time to hawk flowers and IAPs, so why don't they have time to fix persistent issues that turn an enjoyable game into a tedious joyless slog? Has this game not been live long enough for one to reasonably expect such issues to have been addressed and resolved by this point in its development history?"
It does NOT deserve any prioritization. The devs made the flowers to meet the requirement of a Google Promo that gets a lot of new players into the game. "tedious joyless slog" -quit the game then.

"Play semantics with my word choice if you like, but my point about paywalls is clear: When a player hasn't forked over enough cash for the amount of time they've been playing, difficulty will inexplicably scale up, and RNGs will rig against the player's favor. Case in point is the drop-off in drop quality since the beginning of the SOS event. My Mage and BH were both getting good "endgame" gear prior to that. Now I'm lucky if the gear I get doesn't drop my Damage and Toughness by more than 10%. Legendary/Epic split for drops was about 60/40 prior to SOS, but now it's about 30/70."
That's pure RNG and not based on rigged gear drops. Paying does very little in this game. You can't say against this because I have reached number 4 on the mage leader board being F2P. (and in only 2 months also)

"This stuff is pretty obvious to anyone with eyes, and I didn't exactly have to strain mine to notice it. It isn't a matter of skill deficiency because I evidently made Top 5% about a week ago without even noticing or spending any more than $2 for the Storm weapons, and I'm not complaining about things like underpowered player-characters or enemies that are overpowered *across the board.* The Trial bosses themselves are pushovers until they start breaking the game's mechanics. And how exactly is my skill ever supposed to be relevant in a game that doesn't follow its own rules?"
What "rules" are you talking about?

"And yes, I'm going to voice these complaints in a forum that the developers frequent because *these are things they need to hear if they actually care about improving their product.* They went the freemium route for the sake of profits, so of course I'm going to be a nice enough player to let them know about the things that are keeping my money out of their wallets."

"And just for the record, I *never* pass up an ad box. My play time is generating ad revenue, so I'm not someone who has to whale out on IAPs before I feel that I've earned the room to voice gripes. Anyone who doesn't like it can just keep scrolling. I don't plan on breaking forum rules, so until the mods here tell me something, I don't plan on caring what other users here might have to say about my griping."
I can guarantee you that ads are a small portion of their profit from this game and IAP are a large majority.

"Nhat, you'd have to point out which issues I've mentioned that are "working as intended." I'd laugh if that were the case with things like no ready notes for certain abilities/spells and broken boss mechanics."
What abilities would you laugh at?

"Also, yes, I've seen how bad freemium, p2p, p2w, and even paid games can get. I remember the beginning of EA's overmonetization starting with the original Dead Space. Eternium isn't nearly a serious offender (it's literally 1 of only 3 mobile games I've *ever* spent more than a week on), but there are parts of it that really make me wonder."
Eternium is not p2w mainly because of such a small active competitive community. Other wise if there were 30 players (10 of each class) that were whales and had time then top 10 would be filled with them.

"It's not that I don't support freemium developers as a rule, because I can actually name my price or suggest a product quite readily (example: $4.99 for 30 days of all ad boxes dropping 5 Gems without ads or $9.99 for a custom item/weapon generator would both get my money), but that changes if I think I'm dealing with a developer that's trying to coast on gradually overmonetizing their product instead of fixing issues that I can't imagine any player being happy with."
Again, I don't know what issues you are talking about. The only issue that annoys me is the mouse bug where your character cannot move without pressing right click first.

"So far, the odds of that being the case with this game are about 50/50 based on my experience with it. That might sound cynical, but I'm just being honest. It's still a good game even with all I've pointed out, and I'd like it to stay good and improve without backsliding into one of the usual models that ruins those rare good mobile games out there."
I couldn't agree more that it is one of those rare good mobile (and PC) games.

[Melchiah]

Trial 76 is laying it on thick. Enemies like Berserkers and Retributors aren't showing range conformance to offense and defense. 2nd trio will be 2x harder than 1st trio in same Trial, and so on. Noticing lesser enemies showing mobility immunities that they didn't have on prior attempts. Using Blink to increase DPS output, but not getting ready notes, and means more frequent retargeting so more risk of running up to enemies to hug them instead of actually targeting. Maybe if I adjust view from 120% to 40%...? :-\

Elban is a pushover, but still a huge cheese sandwich if there's time on the clock. Is his defense *supposed* to go up the more you kick his a**? Noticed during 3rd attempt increased range on his Life Drain, and towards the end I started getting MAJORLY drained despite having stayed clear of all Assassinations. Maybe it's tied to Blink, like it's somehow using their proximity to those attacks instead of mine? If so, laaaaame.

Companions started doing this cute little thing after I'd respawn where they'd get married to enemies on the far side of the map. As if it's not bad enough when they do it to enemies that are on the far side of the screen while those that are immediate threats overwhelm you. Enemy AI isn't that dumb, so why is ours? :-\

No bueno, DP/MF. No sale. :-(

[Humus]

Melchiah I'm glad you're enjoying the game, it's been nice meeting you.

[GrauGeist]

Dude, if I could mute you, I would. I'm outta here.

[Nhat]

Nhat, you'd have to point out which issues I've mentioned that are "working as intended." I'd laugh if that were the case with things like no ready notes for certain abilities/spells and broken boss mechanics.

I've never even realised abilities have "ready notes" until you pointed it out, which was why I didn't response to it on your first post - I just looked to the left of the screen to see when they're ready. Did some testing and yes, some do and some don't, tested switching the slots as well, but it seems to be the abilities themselves that have the note or not, and is not related to the slot that it is in. I would actually prefer them all to not have it, less things to render on the screen, and if you're in the mist of a large fight, with all the spells/effects going off, chances are you're not going to see it anyway. Much simpler to look at the left of the screen.

I would say that the boss mechanics are "as intended", although the occasional game lags can result in you not seeing things happening - I think I've seen reports of "invisible meteors" from Magroth, which would be a bug with the rendering, but not the mechanics itself. I haven't had any issues with the bosses, once I've gotten used to their attacks and effects, although I'm only up to Trial 60 - evidently you're doing much better than me after 3 weeks or so of playing a game that you have so many issues with...

I play the game at 150% view, and haven't noticed any issues with the targeting. This is on a 4.3" mobile though, so maybe size/platform have something to do with it, don't know. Lags/stutters/etc. yes - since it's an old phone (Samsung J1, SM-J100Y), hopefully it can be improved upon, or I'll be able to get a newer phone soon...

Just my experiences, or lack thereof, with the game over the last 5 months - you're, of course, always free to laugh any time, it'll help you feel better too...


The other issues mentioned are known, and are "on the list" - whether they are easy or not is up to the development team to figure out, and their priorities is controlled by the managing directors of the company (I think). As mentioned, I have zero experience with such game development; I do have 11 years of Software Engineering/Programming experience and can honestly say that: unless you're the person actually doing the work, or at least something very similar, you have no idea how simple/difficult something really is, or if it's even possible to do in the first place.

Games are meant to be enjoyed, and evidently you're no longer enjoying this one, so while your feedback are appreciated, may I suggest that you find another that is better suited to your standards - if you have not already done so. All the best.