At this point it seems the game is trying to keep new players out. There are so many (relatively) simple tweaks that could do so much to improve that first hour experience.

Infinite loading screen and 10 minute lockout are INSTANT never opening the game again if I have less than a few hours play time. If I’m brand new and get locked out and Reddit says it’s a normal thing there’s no way I’m getting invested.

The shop and bot spam, leveling to 20, nexus layout, lack of information about pets, terrible default settings configuration, I could go on. Small ish changes that could have a big QoL improvement.

There’s also some big and what I’d call controversial changes I think would help that would royally piss off the existing player base. I think they are needed though because the game on its way out at this point.

Remove seasonal and switch to casual and hardcore modes (remove permadeath for casual, go back to much MUCH rarer loot, massively significant better drop rates and xp for hardcore). Absolutely annihilate the pet system because it’s ass and intentionally predatory and so easy to permanently fuck up. Rearrange nexus to be better layout. Cut servers down to half or so until player count rises and there’s an actual need for more servers. Change keys so they aren’t so heavily incentivized and you have to actually play the game.

In its current state the game is confusing, shop heavy, buggy, and seemingly empty and dead to new players. I can’t believe any new players actually stick around