So I've been poking around the test server this last few days, messing around random levels and missions with my new Sprite. I made a list of the things I noticed and I'll be elaborating it a bit here.

Sorry in advance for not posting in the threads made by Eurydice, but I want to put all the stuff in one thread instead of figuring out what goes where in the other threads.

Anyway! I'll stahp rambling now and get to the actual point of the thread. Do note that I haven't tried everything after each "update", so some stuff I put here might already be fixed by now.

Battle Sprites
Note: I've only tested the Seraphynx at the level cap, I have no patience to get and level the other ones. Sorry.

I like the looks of all the different evolutions (Although we can't use the Ultimate Evo Catalyst to see what I suppose will be their last form?). One thing I noticed during the new missions was that their first attacks are somewhat weird to aim. Maybe it's just me, but I guess it's still not that good if there's players that will end up not using those attacks much because of the odd controls. I also noticed that the Seraphynx attack sometimes gets "stuck" on blocks when it seems like it wouldn't actually hit it, and that it stops damaging/pushing mobs away from us after some seconds.

I also noticed something odd about the Heart Attack skill. I haven't tested it on Fiends and Gremlins and I didn't notice this when fighting Beasts, but during a few runs I noticed that after using this skill, Undeads and Constructs have an icon popping over them and then they get an aura around them (that I assume shows that the mobs are "cursed") and I noticed that they drop a few more hearts. But Jellies don't seem to be affected by it. In fact, the Jelly Cubes get the icon above their head but get no aura, and the Lichens get no aura and the icon doesn't appear at all. I also didn't get any hearts from killing them after using Heart Attack, which only makes me believe that the skill doesn't work on jellies. I don't know if this is intended and, to be honest, it would be a bit weird if it was (I guess?).

I also think that the cooldown of the skills shouldn't be tied together (as in, we use 1 skill and the other 2 also go into cooldown). Mostly because it makes it annoying to use the skills that have a cooldown of 40 something seconds (When they have all 3 levels of Focus). The cooldown also seems a bit long for the second and third skills, given that the effects of those skills only last about ten seconds (I think). One way to keep those cooldowns and have the Sprites not become "useless" while they can't attack again would be giving them some kind of weak biting/scratching/whatever auto-attack to use on enemies. One last thing I noticed is that we can't use the Sprites' skills while holding a charged weapon. I understand if it's intentional but it might make some players think it's dumb.

About levelling the sprites, I guess it's nice that we can give them materials or craft those into food that level heat them faster. It's a nice material sink for those that have thousands of mats because they have no patience to sell them (like me). I just hope that we'll be able to craft the Evo Catalysts, or at least that they won't be too expensive in the Supply Depot (I'm willing to say that the prices that are currently set in the test server aren't the final prices).

I guess that's it for the Sprites, at least for now.

The New Missions

I liked them. They're simple enough and they introduce the sprites in a neat way. I'm not sure if the second level would be needed though, as players have many chances to mess around with the Sprites' attacks in the first level.

The last mission, The Collector, is also nice and fun to do. The last level is a nice change since it's brand new and even has a few new things (The spotlights that fire small rocket things at you when you stand in the light!). But this level's possible fun is hurt by the lag it has; it reminds me of why I don't enjoy playing Ironclaw Munitions Factory or Operation Crimson Hammer.

The boss looks a bit... ugly, when compared to other bosses, honestly. I know it was a machine made by Gremlins but come on, Gremlins also made the Roarmulous Twins and those look so much nicer. The battle itself might be a bit complicated for newcomers because we can only damage the boss by hitting its front (Since the back has that... shield, or Sprite cage it has). It also has an attack where it pretty much explodes, which might surprise new players. (I know I was surprised when I found myself in a Big Angry Bomb-style red screen of death and got thrown across the room!).

Thee boss dies quickly enough though, so that might make up for the scary attacks and invulnerability from attacks to the back.

A small bug I saw during the missions was that sometimes Rhendon's speech events/screens go away too fast. Some slow readers might not have time to read the whole thing. Another one is at the end of the Eternal Bond mission, the Mission Report window cuts off Rhendon's speech after we choose the sprite we'll be taking (Those things might be fixed by now though, I haven't done the missions again since the first day the test server went live).

And that's it for the missions. Till I remember/notice something else in future runs :p

Other changes to the game.

I didn't expect to see this many changes on things that weren't quite related to the actual Sprites. I like some and dislike others. So let's get on with it.

The new character window looks a bit... weird. It looks too wide and the character status list looks like it was stuffed there without much thought. I liked it better the way it was before, as do other players that I've seen in the server.

I noticed there's a red edge that flashes on the edges of the screens each time we get hit. And it stays there if we get our HP to 30% or less. My only question is: why? This game isn't some kind of modern shooter, and I realized that the edge is more of a nuisance than anything else, especially because I think it gives my old PC another reason to lag whenever it appears. And I'm not the only player hating that thing. If you guys insist on keeping it though, please give players an option to turn it off.

The bar that now appears when we're charging a weapon is nice for new players and maybe some veteran players. But it's a bit of a late add to the game and, to be honest, charges aren't that hard to master. An option to turn it off would probably please several players.

I've noticed that sometimes when we're damaged, we pick up hearts, get healed but the hearts don't disappear (And we can't pick them up again).

If we have all four toolbar slots holding pills or potions, we can move them to different slots. But we can't actually drop anything which is annoying as I often drop some kinds of potions so I can pick up others that I think are better for the level I'm in. This way we actually have to use the potions and take a few more seconds to replace them.

The Jelly Green Minis and the Royal Minis found in the Royal Jelly Palace don't drop loot in the normal server, but they do it on the test server. I don't know if that's intended but I guess that it'd be a nice way to make the game less of a grind fest to get to Tier 3.

The ability to change the difficulty of the mission we're going on is nice. It allows lower tiered players to progress through missions at the game's normal difficulty level while letting end game players to have a bit more of a challenge (even if it's just the enemies having more HP). It's also nice that the total money we get also scales according to the difficulty (Elite mode gives more Crowns than Normal mode. I haven't tried the Advanced option, but I'm guessing it gives more Crowns than Normal but less than Elite).

And speaking of Crowns: Crown and Heat pickup should be shared among the whole party like before. It's annoying to have a party going in different directions in a level to be able to finish it faster, only to find out that they miss half of the loot in the whole level because it despawned while they cleared the side of the level they were on. (I'm not sure if heat and crowns still despawn, but I guess it would be silly if you had removed it.)

That's all I wanted to say. If it's confusing or lacking now and then, it's because I'm not good with words and I'm too lazy to try to make this more understandable. :D

EDIT: Just remembered some things. I didn't say anything about the new revive mechanics because I haven't bothered to test it yet. And I also saw that the Lab has the Artifact thing. How in the name of Vog did it get there?! I thought Razwog had stolen it and, according to the wiki "given the Artifact to his superiors"!