I am also loving this. The new quests are fun, though the monster spawning is a bit buggy, and my new claim is amazing, one of three massive spires jutting out in the center of Shattered Cliffs. The view is great, I can see the whole island from here. It's so nice that I don't even mine much the plummeting to my death if I accidentally drift off the borders of my claim while building.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
So I've completed all 5 levels of the adventure achievements, and have explored all 5 layers of the underground. I've also completed the first achievements of the Slurg and Abomination killing achievements, both mushroom killing achievements, the bow achievement, and a few others. And every time you complete a combat related achivement, it gives you an increase to your stats, which is nice. So now any expidition to the underground will be purely for resorces, currently these resources are tin and sapphire which I seem to have run out of quicker than anticipated.
I've also found some neat underground ruins, the results of earlier building contests. They're really neat! So far I've found a giant stone hand, a ruined belltower, some sort of temple (with FOUR chests in it, score) and a... laboritory I think? Maybe some sort of space colony? Anyway that was was wrecked and full of abiminations, so I didn't go in, though considering the next ruin I found had those four chests, I'll probably go back to that one and see if there's any loot in it.
I also have two full chests full of outfits, found in chests, dropped from mobs, and rewarded for achievements. So if we can trade (can we trade?) and anyone wants some space armor (heavy and light varieties in assorted colors), ranchers outfits, gunslingers outfit, or colonists robes, feel free to send a mail to Arsani on Serenity because I have way too many of these things.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
I picked this up on Friday.. spent far too long playing over the weekend.
My very first drop in the game, off a monster on the surface, was a [Colonist's Skirmish Suit (Bronze)] which, cool, space armor! (I now have 4 copies)
I notice the Floor 2 or 3 achievement gives a White&Teal version, so I do that..
I manage, somehow to get the floor 1-3 achievements, then noticed the reward for 5 was armor and not a robe.. a few hours of hunting for ANY monsters willing to spawn I finally found a room with like 5 structures that had a ton of monsters, enough to get my last 78 kills.. the monster that put me at 99% done drops a [Colonist's Combat Armor (Blue)] next kill gets me the achievement, Reward: [Colonist's Combat Armor (Black)].
Thanks RNG.. :hydra:
Wisps are annoying, and very buggy, they float out of range.. and then just sort of.. become invincible when they return to the ground.
Character name is Sutibun
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StragintDo Not GiftAlways DeclinesRegistered Userregular
The game runs a little better but I still have to have all my settings to the lowest and I still have a bit of lag.
So I can upgrade my Founder's Pickaxe to a Trailblazer's Pickaxe. Is it a really good Pickaxe or should I ignore it for now?
I'm having a lot of trouble wanting to start up anything in this game. I keep thinking of how I need to build all the machines and stuff again. This is going to take a while.
PSN: Reaper_Stragint, Steam: DoublePitstoChesty
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
The founders pickaxe upgrades aren't bad, but are so much more expensive for the convenience of not having to switch to an axe when you want to cut down a tree.
@Stragint, you don't have to rebuild all the machines. You get the forge and the workbench for free (just drop one of the free starter homes and take the machines, then delete the starter home), and those two machines can make every item you used to need all the other machines for, you no longer need to upgrade anything. You can still craft a smelter and a sifter to get free stuff from dirt or get more items per smelt, but they aren't required.
Upgrading non-founder tools takes way less resources than before, and there are fewer types of ore/gem veins in the wild so you are more likely to find what you need. Then you smelt/cut them to get all the different varieties.
All in all getting back up to full crafting ability takes way waaaay less time and resources than it did before. Before I never even managed to upgrade all my machines, but now after three days I'm already done.
Decomposey on
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
Hmm I am now somewhat interested in this, but I need to find some extra money to get in.
I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but I only skimmed pages 2-4.
Landmark has a Cache folder.. that balloons up in size extremely quickly, mine is at 15gb after only 5 days.
I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but I only skimmed pages 2-4.
Landmark has a Cache folder.. that balloons up in size extremely quickly, mine is at 15gb after only 5 days.
Yeah you'll want to delete that periodically until they fix it. It doesn't hurt to just wipe out the whole folder, I do it all the time.
Emitters are way too much fun.. very disappointed the draw distance on them is so short though.
Is there a way to select everything in an area and move it all together? or is that the point of saving things as templates, and deleting the original?
Emitters are way too much fun.. very disappointed the draw distance on them is so short though.
Is there a way to select everything in an area and move it all together? or is that the point of saving things as templates, and deleting the original?
You can do it with templates but you should also just be able to copy and paste. A paste volume should behave identically regardless of whether it came from a template or the world, if I'm not mistaken. (Not sure if this is covered anywhere in-game, but the usual copy and paste hotkeys work in Landmark: Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, plus Ctrl-Z to undo.)
I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but I only skimmed pages 2-4.
Landmark has a Cache folder.. that balloons up in size extremely quickly, mine is at 15gb after only 5 days.
Yeah you'll want to delete that periodically until they fix it. It doesn't hurt to just wipe out the whole folder, I do it all the time.
Yup if you hop worlds a lot it blows up fast. Just blow it away from time to time when it gets to bulky.
Graveyards can no longer be claimed. If you claimed a graveyard, your claim may be removed, so please voluntarily go ahead and remove those claims before we do. (And let us know if you spot a problem graveyard that someone has claimed.)
Areas where claim buffers overlap can once again be used by either claim owner.
When you delete a link from a prop that has multiple linking & triggering links, only the link of the item deleted will be removed from the display (this was a visual only issue, but means you don't have to reopen the linking menu to see the other links again).
Takish gold and marble materials were incorrectly flagged as free. This has been corrected and they will now consume gold and marble when placed on your claim.
Stone forge can now be crafted
Boots of the Zephyr were not intended to be crafted, and have been removed from the crafting station. However, Boots of the Breeze now exist, these have the same glide ability but do not have any special effect particles. (If you had already crafted Boots of the Zephyr, you will retain them.)
Root claim and attached claim expansion flags now have different icons so they should not be confused with the actual claim flags that are used to place claims.
The Gallery list of islands filter has been cleaned up and no longer shows all the old islands also
Islands were originally created to have a limit of 500 claims per island, which people are now starting to reach since we’ve allowed more attachment claims. We’ll remove this limit when we restart the servers at 5am Thursday morning.
Kylindra on
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StragintDo Not GiftAlways DeclinesRegistered Userregular
I really need to get a new computer. I'm still having horrible FPS issues with Landmark and it is making it really hard to play the game. I was worried when I bought the Trailblazer that I would have issues and I was relieved when it was fine but now it is a quite a bummer.
At least it looks like it is getting a lot of good updates. Hopefully I'll be able to play it again at some point, I might try to find a good gaming laptop and then I'll go all out on this game again. Make my giant sphere filled with spooky stuff. Paineel stuffed into a sphere.
PSN: Reaper_Stragint, Steam: DoublePitstoChesty
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
I really wish there was a matte version of the small obsidian brick material, well, honestly, I wish it was just a black generic stone brick texture rather than an obsidian one, because I'm going to need a loooooot of obsidian.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
edited May 2015
Delphi and I played some of this thing Friday night. It's come a long way in a year. The dungeon exploring element is still rough but there is definately a gem there. Combat was okay and also has potential.
What I still want to know, though, is...
Why can't I take the chalice? It's so pretty and I wants it for my plot!
The use of the achievement system as the questing system and the integration with recipe tracking makes for a nice experience with a simple UI.
Awarding permanent stat bonuses for quest-like achievements rather than using an XP/leveling system is refreshing and feels more rewarding and less arbitrary. (Hey, no leveling--@Stupid, is this your sort of thing?)
Getting rewards wherever you are when you complete the achievement is nice. I was down in Level 3 the other day when I got the Bow Master achievement and was awarded with the Dragonbone Bow. Getting an upgrade out in the field where I could try it out right away was really cool.
The adventuring/combat achievement progression does a pretty good job of explaining where to go and what to do, for the most part.
Needs Improvement
The building achievements could do more to provide a tutorial on their use. Almost nothing is explained and if I didn't already know what I was doing I probably would have spent a lot of time placing size 1 voxels with the add tool to try to complete the place 100 voxels achievement, without ever realizing I could scale up my voxel size and just place them all at once. They need to improve the messaging/teaching aspect for new players.
The combat achievements were good overall, but I still spent awhile searching for Level 1 monsters on my home island before concluding that I needed to go elsewhere. Sometimes there just aren't any monsters near the spire and a quick teleport will vastly improve your experience, but the tutorial doesn't really suggest that. They should probably both do more messaging around island-hopping benefits and also improve the monster spawning, which seems sporadic (empty caves in one place and then OH GOD I'M SURROUNDED elsewhere).
Building System: Good Stuff
Being able to place basic materials for free is AWESOME. You can get started right away and build huge structures out of stone, glass, sandstone, etc. without needing to go gather a zillion of it first. Best change ever!
The prop palette (which was in before the wipe but I didn't use much before now) is also fantastic. It solves the inventory-crowding problem and also allows you to experiment with furnishings and then change your mind without committing resources. It's also a much better way to view your options than the old crafting system. Love everything about this.
The default templates are very cool to have. Basic arc discs, fonts, and other common shapes make it easy for non-voxelmancers to do cool stuff without having to reinvent the wheel (or in this case, the arch). They should probably add an achievement and some explanation for these, it's easy to miss them since they are something you have to craft (for free) using the forge.
Needs Improvement
I like the idea of the starter homes, but in some ways they're almost too nice--they are meant to show off what you can do, but they use advanced techniques that aren't taught anywhere in the game. In general, the building mechanics need more in-game explanation. These tools are sophisticated and most people aren't going to be able to figure out how to do microvoxels just by playing around with it.
I've mentioned this elsewhere but it bears repeating---they desperately need to add more building tutorial aspects to the building achievements. A new player is not going to learn what they need to know from the in-game messaging alone.
Crafting System: Good Stuff
The simplification of crafting and UI improvements are fantastic. Two basic machines (that you start with) and two advanced machines (that you don't need but that help with efficiency) is definitely a huge improvement over the old multi-machine system. The improved recipe tracker is useful and a very good start.
They disentangled combat and building, much to my relief. Ether shards, the resource that drops from enemies, are only needed to craft combat items like armor and weapons. You don't need any to craft props or harvesting tools. Much better!
Needs Improvement
The recipe tracker, while a good start, is still inadequate in a lot of ways. It adds up the materials you need, which are all refined materials--so it's hard to tell how many raw materials you need to collect out in the world. Of course implementing this would be complicated by things like the Mastercraft Bracers, which change the math--but I'd be satisfied with a tracker that showed me the requirements sans bracers, if only to get me in the ballpark. Backing up a step and showing a raw material list for harvesting purposes would really take the tracker to the next level, and I hope they go there.
While rerolling upgrades has become much simpler and cheaper, they need to explain this system a little better. It's not clear what the possible outcomes are and what your chances are of getting something different than what you have. I'd like to see a list of possible upgrades for each tool somewhere in the crafting interface.
Combat System: Good Stuff
The combat system either isn't as bad as I remembered--either that or I've gotten used to it. I'm able to kill as many things as I need to for achievements without dying, and the adventuring aspect is actually pretty fun. Exploring feels a lot more interesting when there is a danger element.
The combat progression system is actually pretty good. I do wish they would add more information about what stats available on items interact with which abilities, though--for some it's really obvious but for others I was left wondering if I was wearing the right accessories.
Needs Improvement
The controls for combat are different than the controls for the rest of the game. This can lead to confusion when you equip a weapon for the first time or even just for the first time in a few hours--your muscle memory is wrong all of the sudden. I've actually started running around with a weapon equipped all the time when I'm underground, because that way I don't have to adjust when I get into combat. The big change is the use of the mouse--out of combat, you have to hold down the right mouse button to turn the camera, while IN combat mouse look is always on (unless you toggle it off by accident, in which case ARG). And of course out of combat, you can run by holding down both mouse buttons, while in combat that will lead to frantic attacking and no movement at all. So it's still a problem. You CAN rebind the keys, but so far I've held off, because in some ways I like the controls for combat--just not when my brain forgets which mode I'm in and does the wrong thing. I hope they find a way to smooth this out.
There's still some issues with enemy behavior and terrain getting in the way during combat. It's not always clear what obstacles will block your projectiles (or their projectiles) and it's also a bit unclear what the range is on some things. Hopefully this improves to the point that spending all your energy shooting a rock will not be an issue.
The enemy progression as you go further underground is not interesting. It's just the same enemies with more stats. I assume this is because the game is still early in development and that later we'll see more variety, and that that variety will be a function of both cave depth and biome, which would be especially cool. I look forward to seeing where they go with this.
Other Systems: Good Stuff
The new biomes are cool. The volcanic biomes are already really neat and I'm guessing that when they finally add lava, they will get even better.
The teleportation changes are fantastic. You're always just a click away from home or the nearest spire. So good.
Performance is good, at least on my machine. I haven't had any issues with lag.
Flight on claims is easier to come by than before since you get the item for it from the early building achievements. Hopefully at some point they just build it in, though.
The smaller number of islands means there's people everywhere, making the world feel more populated and making tourism an even better pastime. I keep running into stuff that I can't resist looking around-- there are some truly talented people out there.
Needs Improvement
The down side to the smaller number of islands is that it's more crowded and finding a spot to claim can be tough if you missed the intial rush. They still don't do a good job of messaging how crowded each island is. They need to give a total number of claims stat in the spire interface.
The spire interface in general could use some work. It's not clear if the filtering works at all, and it would be nice if each island had a biome description. I do like the new names that give you a sense of the island's character, but a simple "Desert and Tundra" comment would go a long way.
The chat system is still pretty lackluster; I imagine they will do something about this eventually.
The template interface is still really slow and hard to organize.
With the addition of large humans, the likelihood of wanting to reroll your character has gone up (as many people roll one and then decide they don't like them in-game). This has lead to massive problems because deleting your character deletes all your purchased items as well. They say this is necessary because a lot of marketplace items are tradable and giving your purchases to your new character would create an exploitable system. However, they need to do something about this besides just put in a warning. There is no good system for transferring your stuff to your new character. I really hope they add some features that help with this--either letting you change your character's appearance without deleting them, or making your vault account-wide instead of per character, or some similar approach that would make this less of a disaster. Some people have gotten totally screwed by this and the answer so far has been "hey we warned you," which is just not good enough. I was pretty surprised by that since my own experience with Daybreak's customer service recently was quite good--they screwed up a code I redeemed and accidentally gave me a ton of extra SC, which I tried to get them to fix but the response was "nah we screwed up, keep it!", which I thought was pretty cool of them.
I need to dig up at least half a million 50,000 raw Obsidian for just the outer shell of my build.. Boy I'm glad I misread that.
But it's a pretty boring way to spend countless hours. So glad the replicator triples resources.
By the way, I reformed the guild (Arcadian Architects) post-wipe, so let me know if you want an invite. It doesn't get us much besides a chat channel yet, but at least we'd know if other people were online for cave parties or whatever.
Where do you go to download the game? I looked on the site but I'm not seeing anything. Do I have to buy a founders pack to download it?
It's still in closed beta, so you are sent the link when you get into the beta, one way or another. At this point I feel like it's getting awfully late in the beta to buy in unless you just can't stand to wait another 1-3 months, which is my personal prediction for when Open Beta might start.
On the bright side, anyone who DOES buy in gets keys to give out. Mine are long gone but there may be some floating out there somewhere.
On the bright side, anyone who DOES buy in at the $100 Level gets keys to give out.
Slight correction to that sentence.
Also.. I somehow managed to find a cave full of Obsidian pockets, half an hour got me ~30k Obsidian, I feel a lot more optimistic about getting my 4 claim large Obsidian Brick Castle built!
Don't judge me!
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
I remembered I had a buddy key and loaded it up through steam but I STILL cant get past the Launchpad error. I contacted their support but I'm not hopeful.
I am slowly building up my castle/keep/whatever it's gonna be..
I'm thinking the front Gate probably shouldn't be on the side with the 200+ Voxel drop.
I can not begin to express how annoyed I am at the draw distance on my emitters not being high enough to have all 4 towers lit up for the screenshot.
The gold stuff is just to mark where I'm going to be building up the walls.
I'm strategically placing Old Growth trees on the bottom of the stone slab To give the impression that it's supported, as there's a 40 voxel high area below my claim that's open air
Yes, I yanked the crenelations and round bit on the roof off the starter tower, because they were the right size for what I was doing, I made the rest of the tower with as little material as I could get away with. Each tower is still 56k Obsidian despite being hollow.
If I get really, really optimistic, and have forever to work on it, I'll hollow out a cave into the slab everything's sitting on, and try to put a chained up skeleton of some large beast in there.. or a spaceship, it might be a spaceship instead.
I can not begin to express how annoyed I am at the draw distance on my emitters not being high enough to have all 4 towers lit up for the screenshot.
I'm really hoping that when they add the "publishing" mechanic for claims this will become less of a problem. Claims right now look like ass from too far away, but publishing is the solution (think of how far away you can stand from the Spire and still see it in all its glory, if you publish a claim it'll have the same deal because it'll simplify the number of calculations for rendering).
BTW your build is off to a great start! I still haven't done anything other than customize my starter home and adventure.
Gatehouse comes complete with murder holes, and bubbling cauldron of.. something green..
I need more Obsidian.
I have discovered, much to my dismay, that functional portcullis exist within the game, but only if you watched people broadcasting on twitch like a year ago?
I have discovered, much to my dismay, that functional portcullis exist within the game, but only if you watched people broadcasting on twitch like a year ago?
That fucking Iron Portcullis. Worst decision they ever made. Especially since they never came out with anything else similar like they promised. They were all "oh, these codes for the insiders program are just cosmetically different from stuff everyone can get and they're tradable so it's fine!" but everyone fucking HATED the portcullis thing because it was the ONLY thing like that and it was really cool and different. They were like "you don't NEED an iron portcullis tho" and we're like YES WE FUCKING DO YOU ASSHOLES.
.....
I may still be bitter about this one.
Kylindra on
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StragintDo Not GiftAlways DeclinesRegistered Userregular
I have discovered, much to my dismay, that functional portcullis exist within the game, but only if you watched people broadcasting on twitch like a year ago?
That fucking Iron Portcullis. Worst decision they ever made. Especially since they never came out with anything else similar like they promised. They were all "oh, these codes for the insiders program are just cosmetically different from stuff everyone can get and they're tradable so it's fine!" but everyone fucking HATED the portcullis thing because it was the ONLY thing like that and it was really cool and different. They were like "you don't NEED an iron portcullis tho" and we're like YES WE FUCKING DO YOU ASSHOLES.
.....
I may still be bitter about this one.
Didn't they just release one with the wipe? I got an email two or so weeks ago saying the wipe was coming and I had until May 20th to put in the code and get my gate. I finally did it today and I still got it.
PSN: Reaper_Stragint, Steam: DoublePitstoChesty
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
They were also sending out codes to people who hadn't played in a while to lure them back I think? unless it was just people at random, if it was to lure people back, I feel bad for the people who were still playing up to the wipe..
It basically sounds like "If you actually play the game, you get nothing" but "If you watch other people play, or just don't play yourself, you get swag!"
I've started work on the dragon bones, so far, so good.. but I imagine legs and claws and wings will be a lot more difficult than the ribcage and spinal column. I'm not even going to try to make a skull, just gonna drop a boulder where the head should be, and toss little pieces of ivory around.
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I've also found some neat underground ruins, the results of earlier building contests. They're really neat! So far I've found a giant stone hand, a ruined belltower, some sort of temple (with FOUR chests in it, score) and a... laboritory I think? Maybe some sort of space colony? Anyway that was was wrecked and full of abiminations, so I didn't go in, though considering the next ruin I found had those four chests, I'll probably go back to that one and see if there's any loot in it.
I also have two full chests full of outfits, found in chests, dropped from mobs, and rewarded for achievements. So if we can trade (can we trade?) and anyone wants some space armor (heavy and light varieties in assorted colors), ranchers outfits, gunslingers outfit, or colonists robes, feel free to send a mail to Arsani on Serenity because I have way too many of these things.
My very first drop in the game, off a monster on the surface, was a [Colonist's Skirmish Suit (Bronze)] which, cool, space armor! (I now have 4 copies)
I notice the Floor 2 or 3 achievement gives a White&Teal version, so I do that..
I manage, somehow to get the floor 1-3 achievements, then noticed the reward for 5 was armor and not a robe.. a few hours of hunting for ANY monsters willing to spawn I finally found a room with like 5 structures that had a ton of monsters, enough to get my last 78 kills.. the monster that put me at 99% done drops a [Colonist's Combat Armor (Blue)] next kill gets me the achievement, Reward: [Colonist's Combat Armor (Black)].
Thanks RNG.. :hydra:
Wisps are annoying, and very buggy, they float out of range.. and then just sort of.. become invincible when they return to the ground.
Character name is Sutibun
So I can upgrade my Founder's Pickaxe to a Trailblazer's Pickaxe. Is it a really good Pickaxe or should I ignore it for now?
I'm having a lot of trouble wanting to start up anything in this game. I keep thinking of how I need to build all the machines and stuff again. This is going to take a while.
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
@Stragint, you don't have to rebuild all the machines. You get the forge and the workbench for free (just drop one of the free starter homes and take the machines, then delete the starter home), and those two machines can make every item you used to need all the other machines for, you no longer need to upgrade anything. You can still craft a smelter and a sifter to get free stuff from dirt or get more items per smelt, but they aren't required.
Upgrading non-founder tools takes way less resources than before, and there are fewer types of ore/gem veins in the wild so you are more likely to find what you need. Then you smelt/cut them to get all the different varieties.
All in all getting back up to full crafting ability takes way waaaay less time and resources than it did before. Before I never even managed to upgrade all my machines, but now after three days I'm already done.
Landmark has a Cache folder.. that balloons up in size extremely quickly, mine is at 15gb after only 5 days.
Yeah you'll want to delete that periodically until they fix it. It doesn't hurt to just wipe out the whole folder, I do it all the time.
Is there a way to select everything in an area and move it all together? or is that the point of saving things as templates, and deleting the original?
You can do it with templates but you should also just be able to copy and paste. A paste volume should behave identically regardless of whether it came from a template or the world, if I'm not mistaken. (Not sure if this is covered anywhere in-game, but the usual copy and paste hotkeys work in Landmark: Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, plus Ctrl-Z to undo.)
Yup if you hop worlds a lot it blows up fast. Just blow it away from time to time when it gets to bulky.
https://forums.station.sony.com/landmark/index.php?threads/hotfix-notes-13-may-2015.54818/
Notable notes:
At least it looks like it is getting a lot of good updates. Hopefully I'll be able to play it again at some point, I might try to find a good gaming laptop and then I'll go all out on this game again. Make my giant sphere filled with spooky stuff. Paineel stuffed into a sphere.
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
What I still want to know, though, is...
Why can't I take the chalice? It's so pretty and I wants it for my plot!
@Delphinidaes
Seriously, just totally floored by this. Here's a link to the full album with more screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/MjGpE#0
I love Landmark tourism!
Fun with learning arches.
https://forums.station.sony.com/landmark/index.php?threads/hotfix-notes-22-may-2015.55052/
Plot is coming along. I am beginning to build into the structure and the side of the mountain.
Achievement System:
Good Stuff
- The use of the achievement system as the questing system and the integration with recipe tracking makes for a nice experience with a simple UI.
- Awarding permanent stat bonuses for quest-like achievements rather than using an XP/leveling system is refreshing and feels more rewarding and less arbitrary. (Hey, no leveling--@Stupid, is this your sort of thing?)
- Getting rewards wherever you are when you complete the achievement is nice. I was down in Level 3 the other day when I got the Bow Master achievement and was awarded with the Dragonbone Bow. Getting an upgrade out in the field where I could try it out right away was really cool.
- The adventuring/combat achievement progression does a pretty good job of explaining where to go and what to do, for the most part.
Needs ImprovementBuilding System:
Good Stuff
- Being able to place basic materials for free is AWESOME. You can get started right away and build huge structures out of stone, glass, sandstone, etc. without needing to go gather a zillion of it first. Best change ever!
- The prop palette (which was in before the wipe but I didn't use much before now) is also fantastic. It solves the inventory-crowding problem and also allows you to experiment with furnishings and then change your mind without committing resources. It's also a much better way to view your options than the old crafting system. Love everything about this.
- The default templates are very cool to have. Basic arc discs, fonts, and other common shapes make it easy for non-voxelmancers to do cool stuff without having to reinvent the wheel (or in this case, the arch). They should probably add an achievement and some explanation for these, it's easy to miss them since they are something you have to craft (for free) using the forge.
Needs ImprovementCrafting System:
Good Stuff
- The simplification of crafting and UI improvements are fantastic. Two basic machines (that you start with) and two advanced machines (that you don't need but that help with efficiency) is definitely a huge improvement over the old multi-machine system. The improved recipe tracker is useful and a very good start.
- They disentangled combat and building, much to my relief. Ether shards, the resource that drops from enemies, are only needed to craft combat items like armor and weapons. You don't need any to craft props or harvesting tools. Much better!
Needs ImprovementCombat System:
Good Stuff
- The combat system either isn't as bad as I remembered--either that or I've gotten used to it. I'm able to kill as many things as I need to for achievements without dying, and the adventuring aspect is actually pretty fun. Exploring feels a lot more interesting when there is a danger element.
- The combat progression system is actually pretty good. I do wish they would add more information about what stats available on items interact with which abilities, though--for some it's really obvious but for others I was left wondering if I was wearing the right accessories.
Needs ImprovementOther Systems:
Good Stuff
- The new biomes are cool. The volcanic biomes are already really neat and I'm guessing that when they finally add lava, they will get even better.
- The teleportation changes are fantastic. You're always just a click away from home or the nearest spire. So good.
- Performance is good, at least on my machine. I haven't had any issues with lag.
- Flight on claims is easier to come by than before since you get the item for it from the early building achievements. Hopefully at some point they just build it in, though.
- The smaller number of islands means there's people everywhere, making the world feel more populated and making tourism an even better pastime. I keep running into stuff that I can't resist looking around-- there are some truly talented people out there.
Needs ImprovementBut it's a pretty boring way to spend countless hours. So glad the replicator triples resources.
I signed up, tapped my feet for 30 seconds and then threw money at them.
It's still in closed beta, so you are sent the link when you get into the beta, one way or another. At this point I feel like it's getting awfully late in the beta to buy in unless you just can't stand to wait another 1-3 months, which is my personal prediction for when Open Beta might start.
On the bright side, anyone who DOES buy in gets keys to give out. Mine are long gone but there may be some floating out there somewhere.
Slight correction to that sentence.
Also.. I somehow managed to find a cave full of Obsidian pockets, half an hour got me ~30k Obsidian, I feel a lot more optimistic about getting my 4 claim large Obsidian Brick Castle built!
Don't judge me!
Shoot, you're right. I got mine over a year ago, back before alpha, so I had totally forgotten.
I'm thinking the front Gate probably shouldn't be on the side with the 200+ Voxel drop.
I can not begin to express how annoyed I am at the draw distance on my emitters not being high enough to have all 4 towers lit up for the screenshot.
The gold stuff is just to mark where I'm going to be building up the walls.
I'm strategically placing Old Growth trees on the bottom of the stone slab To give the impression that it's supported, as there's a 40 voxel high area below my claim that's open air
Yes, I yanked the crenelations and round bit on the roof off the starter tower, because they were the right size for what I was doing, I made the rest of the tower with as little material as I could get away with. Each tower is still 56k Obsidian despite being hollow.
If I get really, really optimistic, and have forever to work on it, I'll hollow out a cave into the slab everything's sitting on, and try to put a chained up skeleton of some large beast in there.. or a spaceship, it might be a spaceship instead.
I'm really hoping that when they add the "publishing" mechanic for claims this will become less of a problem. Claims right now look like ass from too far away, but publishing is the solution (think of how far away you can stand from the Spire and still see it in all its glory, if you publish a claim it'll have the same deal because it'll simplify the number of calculations for rendering).
BTW your build is off to a great start! I still haven't done anything other than customize my starter home and adventure.
But...but....my buddy key doesn't work.
..............
edit: Ok, I just paid the $20 bucks. I'm in and claiming plots. Ill shoot a request to Arcadian Architects.
Gatehouse comes complete with murder holes, and bubbling cauldron of.. something green..
I need more Obsidian.
I have discovered, much to my dismay, that functional portcullis exist within the game, but only if you watched people broadcasting on twitch like a year ago?
That fucking Iron Portcullis. Worst decision they ever made. Especially since they never came out with anything else similar like they promised. They were all "oh, these codes for the insiders program are just cosmetically different from stuff everyone can get and they're tradable so it's fine!" but everyone fucking HATED the portcullis thing because it was the ONLY thing like that and it was really cool and different. They were like "you don't NEED an iron portcullis tho" and we're like YES WE FUCKING DO YOU ASSHOLES.
.....
I may still be bitter about this one.
Didn't they just release one with the wipe? I got an email two or so weeks ago saying the wipe was coming and I had until May 20th to put in the code and get my gate. I finally did it today and I still got it.
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
It basically sounds like "If you actually play the game, you get nothing" but "If you watch other people play, or just don't play yourself, you get swag!"
I've started work on the dragon bones, so far, so good.. but I imagine legs and claws and wings will be a lot more difficult than the ribcage and spinal column. I'm not even going to try to make a skull, just gonna drop a boulder where the head should be, and toss little pieces of ivory around.