Summary: The new update has some decent features, but nothing worth belly aching over. The GUI is usable, has some nice gems, but is a little frustrating. The new monsters are mostly ready for deployment, but still need some work, and I still hate Rocket Puppies.
Warning: "Instance select" for Havens is borked. It completely locks up the preview.
First off, the GUI seems to be a nice change, but there are "minor" things that bother me. Here's my review of it all:
- The portrait - Nice, I don't need to see it all the time (I don't want to see it in the clockworks, but Haven is fine), and it's too big, but otherwise a very welcome addition.
- The health bars - Nice overall, still very large on the screen (I use a 1920*1080, and the fact that the GUI feels cramped doesn't bode well for my friends with smaller screens)
- Shield bar - I feel this is rather unnecessary, but I think it will help with understanding how shields work; I don't think I should see it when I'm in Haven.
- The map - seeing mobs is nice, I feel that it's the right size, but I think smaller monitors may have difficulties using it.
- The zoom in - I bet 99% of players won't notice this gem, I love it. I wish we could change POV more.
- Borders on all of the buttons - their presence makes the screen feel really cramped.
- The weapon scroll next to my character during a weapon change - I like this a lot, but it sometimes makes things a bit too crowded on screen, especially if I use the "slot 1" hotkey instead of change weapon.
- New pills/vials - the coloring doesn't fit the current aesthetic; the shape doesn't fit the aesthetic; it's hard to differentiate between stun and fire vials at quick glance. Please change.
- Aliasing - I feel that the new GUI has much more aliasing, the older one felt smooth, like polished stone. This new one is visually like sandpaper. (The borders on everything don't help.)
So, I mean, overall, the GUI is tolerable.
Overall, I like the new monsters. I feel that the hit detection on in-flight scarabs is terrible, if I'm using any of the brandish line, or a non-1st swing from flourish, I almost always miss; they hit when I feel that they shouldn't, and it's extremely frustrating. As a veteran player, when the only reason that I can't deal with a mob is because I don't have Auto-target on, I feel more inclined to run. Fortunately, the current levels allow for a lot of that. Along the same lines, I feel that the slime blobs have a very large attack box, but have a small hit box, and coincidentally, I prefer running rather than having to fight a horde of them.
One thing I still don't like is the persistence of rocket puppies. I really think the fuse needs to be reduced, because unless you are extremely quick on your feet, which is quick tricky with all the spam mobs, then they will be the death of you.
Honestly, with this update, I was expecting a lot more given the time since the last major content update, good job otherwise.
edit: For clarity and some grammar things
As I arrived in the new world of the testing server, I was immediately struck by wonder (my jaw dropped open and remained in that position for quite some time). The new UI has a crisper feel to it. The new monsters are awesome! I had no problem executing the blue spiky gel drops. I like the idea that they look all cute and harmless and then flatten out with spikes. The dust bunnies are cute, chomping at me and then bounces into the air. At first the bugs or scarabs were hard to see (being small and skittering around). Their presence was definitely made known when they opened up their wings in hovering flight.
I am not sure if the color of the environments were also a part of the test, but the orange and light blue in tier 1 monster battles...was a bit hard to see the monsters.
The health bars on the monsters was not as bad as I envisioned it. I like the idea that this option can be turned off or on. I like the rank of the knight shown on the screen (many new players do not know where to find their rank). Maybe somehow the tier of the knight could be shown as well to let them know which one they are for both PvP and PvE (like the rank is shown). The health bar for the shield is something I am not interested in.
I love the look of the new vials, they look more like vials now. The new look for the knight's health bar is excellent. I also like that things can remain on screen or hidden if the knight chooses.
This is excellent work. I love being able to choose any armor and weapon and heat it up in a heat station (that was awesome).
Aside from what is already being tested, I have some suggestions for other things that have been concerning me. All knights on one account share ce, why can't they share other things as well. For instance; learned recipes (so we do not have to repeatedly buy the same recipes over and over again for all of our knights on our account), crowns, and any other tidbits which are traded to ourselves by mail (costing 100cr each trade). I maintain 3 active knights on my account and it becomes quite expensive to display each ones own personality.
Will tokens become tradable at some point?
Keep up the excellent work...this is the best game I have ever found!!!!!!