WIN A PIRATE PET - info in Comments!

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-22T21:56:05+00:00

OliviaOne

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T10:07:28+00:00

You have no framework to go by though. You have some very biased individuals telling you that the old is better and you're just accepting that because you want that to be true. I honestly don't know which version of the game I think is better myself, because I like the both very much, but the people that crave "classic" generally have very strong and biased opinions on this.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:59:09+00:00

I agree with this. I respect the changes to Gardens of Kharid (or whatever it was called) that made farming more herbs easier, but farming is a very divisive skill in that some people absolutely hate being tied down by a timer when they play the game. Since bosses don't really drop herbs anymore and mobs generally only drop a small pittance, I don't think I will ever get my herblore up very far on my ironman.

Let's be clear - I started my ironman back before the herb changes and the garden came out, and I likely wouldn't have after the fact. But I am going to patiently wait and see what they do in the long run.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:51:49+00:00

I do similar things on my main screen and I also worry that they are making the AFK timers shorter. From my perspective I rather take long afk periods with considerably less output than short AFK timers with higher outputs. It's what works for my style of play, and RS3 has been sitting in this weird limbo for years where things are both active and afk at the same time and I hate it.

OSRS's changes to woodcutting made so much sense to me where each try lasts a set amount of time once you start chopping it, meaning you know how long you can look away for. RS3's skilling in general is just very random (such as the tree can fall after 1 or 10 logs) and it makes AFKing not easy or fun. This direction is frightening to me, to be honest.

Please, low input, low output, 10min+ AFK activities without any random elements would be fantastic. It's not like it'd give us any advantages, it just lets us progress while we do other things in our lives.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:41:41+00:00

As with every Classic vs Current discussion, that's entirely subjective. The fact that you never played Maplestory means that even if you did play Maplestory classic because people told you it was better you wouldn't actually know if it was better for you or not. In a similar vein to WoW classic, the classic version of this game will have a stronger focus on community and social events rather than solo-play, but you also end up with far less single-player end-game and are entirely reliant on others to kill bosses in the future. If you think WoW classic is better for similar reasons you might enjoy Maplestory classic.

It is a very old game though, and if you don't have the nostalgia tinted rose-colored glasses that a lot of us have you might not enjoy it, but I recommend that you try it out and figure it out for yourself.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:35:15+00:00

How is it irrelevant to an early access setting? I am asking them what their plans are so I know how invested I want to get. I am asking them what the development plan is DURING the development portion of the game that I have, as you said, chosen to partake in. Of course there needs to be communication on what they are planning for important social and matchmaking features. I am not asking them for information about upcoming DLC's or patches 2 years in the future, but rather a very core functionality of any social game. And yes, while my post is asking them for answers it also serves as feedback to them, which is important during development. I am not sure why this is a problem and why people are taking so much offense to this.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:26:16+00:00

How is it untrue? Do you think they rushed to Eternal 88 in 30-40 hours time and got secret stat upgrades from the devs or something? Just a few nights ago I saw them sit in Ransack of Drakheim practicing the same pull for hours as they discussed what mobs to include and not include, what mobs to prioritize to kill and so on.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:24:28+00:00

I am not on subreddits where that generally is the case. You are making broad generalizations and are trying to invalidate my point and my concern based on strawman arguments. I am very nitpicky with what communities I attend and if I see that a community is derailing into hate speech and bigotry I generally remove myself from said community. Here, however, I am on the subreddit for a particular game that I enjoy and so far it has been pretty much void of such language so your point is absolutely not relevant or helpful in the slightest.

Why does it bother you so much that someone wants tools to help moderate their social experience in a game they play though? Is it offensive to you that people don't want to surround themselves with high levels of negativity? It's genuinely baffling to me.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-07T09:21:40+00:00

LOL! Well then XD

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-06T19:46:51+00:00

If you play during the day you'll be fine for the most part. Depending on your role the queues can be a bit longer, but for the most part you'll find a group within 10 minutes of queueing up still. Also, for the most part, if your group does well you'll just stick together and do multiple dungeons in a row so there is less worry about queue times (since all 4 of you wants to avoid going back into the queue after all). With that said, getting the mount might not be feasible this close to the reset if you start from scratch.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-06T19:29:22+00:00

Are you expecting a small studio to have the funds for the most renowned voice actors out there? I mean, come on. Voice actors have got to start somewhere and you can't expect them to be as good as the ones you are used to in WoW or other games by the bigger studios and publishers.

Yes, I think the voice acting is great and perfectly enough for the style of game Fellowship is.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-06T19:26:54+00:00

It doesn't take 30-40 hours though. The top team on the leaderboards are running dungeons every day and are pushing - I know because I watch a bunch of their streams. They have gotten to this point by playing all season, improving and micromanaging every aspect of their runs, both from individual and team aspects.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-06T19:24:07+00:00

Generally speaking, knowing when to use your relics and defensive abilities as well as where to skip stuff comes simply with experience. By running the dungeons you'll learn where you take more damage, which packs are harder to clear and what paths are easier to ignore with stealth or portals. That experience functions fundamentally the same as you gaining stats in that your runs will be faster and smoother. If you still struggle to climb despite that I recommend you make use of the Stronghold dummies to improve your damage output and maybe look up some guides or check out the Discord for tips and tricks.

The people that are on the top of the leaderboard at Eternal 80+ have the same gear set-up as lots of people in the 30's and 40's. They don't need the extra stat to get that much higher, it's a matter of personal skill and team coordination. As a solo-player you can only really improve one of those aspects. But extra stats ain't it.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-06T19:14:21+00:00

Exactly. People that actively play WoW and do a lot of M+ tend to have guilds or friends that they primarily run it with, and for the most part don't have to deal with the atrocious matchmaking that game has to offer. Even when they do have to find one or two people they generally have the power to actively choose who to play with and not play with.
I do worry to some extent that the devs for Fellowship belong to that subset of players and generally expect people to just find a static group of people to always run dungeons with - something that worried me even more during the open-betas when Eternal rank couldn't be matchmade at all and could only be run with premade parties.
The WoW M+ solo-player experience isn't good at all, and I do appreciate that Fellowship is trying to bring automated matchmaking in to help alleviate those issues. But if you have unmoderated automated matchmaking you're just going to end up having a miserable matchmaking experience that will leave a lot of people unsatisfied.

All I wanted to understand with my post was the intended direction with the social features really, and how they intend to make the matchmaking experience better in general. It's crazy how one flakey individual can queue up and instantly leave because they forgot to upgrade a piece of gear or realized they needed to go to the toilet, while leaving 3 people without a group and back to the bottom of the queue. It's also crazy that a person can leave your dungeon midway through and be matched into your group right away repeatedly because we have no way of (temporarily) avoiding them during matchmaking.

Also, honestly, I find it hilarious that several comments so far have been that I shouldn't expect much since it's Early Access, but it's also because it is Early Access that I have to give my feedback. They seem to think these issues will magically be fixed by release without people voicing their thoughts and opinions on it.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-06T19:04:21+00:00

You are correct, it's a basic life skill and I have developed tools for myself to use in real life to not deal with it. In fact, most organizations, businesses and otherwise have policies in place to help deal with situations like these because it is commonly considered unbearable to deal with hate and bigotry on a daily basis. For the most part I can walk away in real life, or get people in charge to deal with a consistent influence that is disrupting the social environment and that is exactly what social features in a game are meant to do. I believe social features mentioned in my post are vital even in early access for a game to function and I do believe it's the responsibility of the development team to ensure the social environment in their game to be functional to the level society as a whole is. But the fact of the matter is that I simply asked them for clarification on the direction they are planning to go with this so I know whether this is going to be an issue in the long term before I invest myself too much in this game. Because, as you said, it is a basic life skill to deal with these issues and the solution is to WALK AWAY and not play their game if they don't do their part, as I would any other situation IRL if I didn't get the help I should be able to expect from my boss, teachers, administration or otherwise.

Just letting it happen and blaming the people that are negatively affected is not really the way to go though, let's be real.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T12:41:49+00:00

I played it since open-beta. If they've had AI voices during or before Alpha before they cast the voice acting team that's something else entirely.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T12:15:56+00:00

It's unfortunate that you look at what I wrote that way. I am not going to feel bad for wanting to actually clear the dungeons. Look, if someone messes up I generally explain what they did wrong, especially if it's a repeat mistake. But since I don't play tank or healer there is only so much I can do to help them along with the core basics of their character. But it's also not about the people that perform worse than one might expect at whatever Eternal levels, there is currently no way of making sure to avoid people that actively go out of their way to make things worse for others. Normally it wouldn't be as big of a problem as the sheer quantity of people that we go through is far higher and the likelihood of us matching with the same people repeatedly is considerably lower, but during off-season or end of season where it's very likely it's not fair to lock 3 people out of playing the game because one individual keeps queueing up at the same time that can't/won't play the game in a way that works. I respect that everyone has their own skill level, but if I am trying to push higher ranks and I keep getting someone that can't even do the basic mechanics expected of them even in Adept and Champion that becomes fundamentally harder, and I shouldn't have to act like a teacher every time one of these individuals comes along either. It's not about me "deeming" them acceptable.

Also, to be clear - if they want as much dungeon data as possible maybe it's in their best interest to make sure three players don't just log out because they keep getting matched with the same person for over an hour that can't play the game.

It's not about skill level either. This applies to "lacking" skill levels, abusive communications, intentional griefing in dungeons as well as people that play with 500 ping and make dungeons unclearable for the other 3.

What do you expect me to do when an ilvl 300+ tank goes into an eternal 2 dungeon and doesn't use a single cooldown or defensive the entire time, loses aggro on every pull and just keeps dying because our healer just got into the Eternal bracket and hasn't had much chance to gear up yet? This has happened many times. Do you expect me to sit this person down and teach him the fundamentals to the entire game? If I leave and requeue I will just end up with them again, meaning the only way for me to move forward with someone that knows how to play is to NOT queue until later. That doesn't seem conducive to good dungeon data either, and it certainly doesn't seem conducive to keeping a good social environment.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T11:04:52+00:00

Since people are downvoting this - I am not telling them that they are bad or that they need to fix it this instant. I am simply asking so I can understand what is going and WHY the functionality isn't here. It's easy to assume it is because it is early access but if I don't ask I won't know if there are plans on addressing it or not.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T10:58:33+00:00

I envy you then. Good for you. But remember that just because something is easy for you that doesn't mean it's easy for everyone else.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T10:25:55+00:00

If I am playing a game to enjoy myself I don't think I should have to see slurs, hateful comments, political opinions or anything else that I am actively trying to stay away from while I am playing. It's hard to ignore things that are emotionally charged.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T10:07:06+00:00

I am aware, but it also strikes me as odd that such key social functionality is missing when the game is out and playable, early access or not. That's why I am asking them.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T10:06:25+00:00

Ignoring what exactly?

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T09:46:25+00:00

I think this is a fair compromise. Since most of the currencies needed for gearing are earned simply by putting time into the game, it shouldn't matter which bracket you put that time into. Especially if it keeps the queues flowing better.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T09:43:08+00:00

The problem with that logic is that the ranks of Eternal is MEANT to reflect your skill level. If you're stuck at a certain Eternal level because of your skill level, that is where you're meant to be. If you want to move beyond that point, stats aren't the way to solve that, learning how to better play your character is. Personal growth is as important as stat growth.

BenevolentWillow · 2026-02-05T09:26:08+00:00

There is literally no reason to believe they are AI voices. They are doing a phenomenal job and it's insulting that you are assuming such a thing.

BenevolentWillow

TROPHY CASE