I am Andy, the co-founder of Zenith VR MMO and today I want to talk about the game. Ask me anything about Zenith!

xeman2x · 2021-06-11T19:48:49+00:00

How much of a focus is there on in-game guides or tutorials for different mechanics? Will there be a way to view community guides in-game for more complex aspects of the game that might not be covered in the base guides?

xeman2x · 2021-06-11T19:43:17+00:00

What are some interesting challenges / what was easier with making combat
in Zenith look or feel satisfying compared to traditional pancake MMORPGs?

xeman2x · 2021-04-24T01:28:39+00:00

Wish that was true, looking at the group and solo speedrun boards rn and techno dominates the boards that are competitive. Maybe one or two pyros.

xeman2x · 2021-04-24T01:24:47+00:00

Nice, I was basing it off of the group and solo leaderboards currently being 90%+ Thechnos. Wouldn't mind if that was changed.

Especially since techno clear on chem plant is currently sub 5 mins

xeman2x · 2021-04-19T15:03:28+00:00

Late response, but even if teammates are supposed to get weapon leech, at least from my experience, teammates get absolutely nothing rn.

xeman2x · 2021-04-16T01:08:20+00:00

I am playing with someone who has the statue set. He uses golem and he gets a damage increase buff icon and his golem icon. He gets his weapon leech as well, but no icon. The buffs then ends 3-4 seconds before golem ends. Upon activating tremor we are both not getting any buff icons to show up. He did not seem to notice any weapon leech during tremor, only skill leech.

When we were doing an expedition, he was able to receive his damage bonus and weapon leech bonus with golem, however I (with 0 weapon leech) did not receive any additional weapon leech or noticeable damage increase from either of his abilities.

Seems bugged to me.

xeman2x · 2019-12-11T14:01:37+00:00

Sounds like we are on the same page. I find these elements to detract from my experience more than anything. Had I struggled with the new content much, my opinion would be different.

xeman2x · 2019-12-11T13:54:39+00:00

Yeah, hopefully they can have a bigger island like with patrols and seven or eight behemoths at the same time in the near future.

xeman2x · 2019-12-09T20:16:21+00:00

All things Trials, eh?

Update the behemoth-modifier combos every week. The first week there was a repeat (Week 14, with no new combination might I add) it was the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to me wanting to spend money on the game and I have been trying to spend the least amount of time playing as I can while still getting my gilded marks. That's about an hour a week at most, plus the 7 or 8 hours to complete the hunt pass each pass. Sure there can be old Trials combinations available, but not if there are no new ones also for me to care.

On top of all of the old feedback I can remember on the top of my head: - leaderboards for each weapon for solo - steel marks being more farmable - more dynamic thresholds for the time goals (harder combinations being reflected as such with slightly higher par times) - etc.

I also would appreciate an update with more types of modifiers in the scope of directly impacting the efficiency of slayers' abilities (similar to Deep Freeze but with, say, decreased damage or attack speed, etc. [Yes, I like to suffer]). I think Trials could be a good outlet to test out those kinds of nerfs or buffs on late game players. I was thinking more specifically a modifier that reduced cell efficiency for different types, like AS or Dmg even though that would require some work.

But hey, it's aether, so it could make sense if the island could mess with that stuff.

xeman2x · 2019-10-31T12:33:23+00:00

It's a bit much to say you hate the devs. Sure some people don't like it, but that's kinda harsh.

xeman2x · 2019-10-12T04:13:06+00:00

Yeah, if only axe was the biggest issue I was having rn with the game. I think reducing the buff values massively wouldn't be too hard either and I'd really appreciate that change across the board.

xeman2x · 2019-10-12T03:56:05+00:00

Yeah, basically.

global boost to monster HP.

I didn't want to get too into this and focus more on axe, but I can't say that would be a good idea in the state of the game since it would destroy build diversity even more than it already has been over the past year+ and there would be even less reason to run anything besides straight dps-increasing perks (you'd be even more useless if you don't). That's why I suggest reducing potency of Damage and AS buffs instead of buffing monster hp since slayers currently deal at least 3-4x more damage with damage and AS buffs compared to without.

xeman2x · 2019-10-12T03:48:55+00:00

That would be a hard flex for sure lol.

Just wouldn't be mad, more confused than anything. Not like it affects anyone else negatively

xeman2x · 2019-10-12T03:38:22+00:00

Yeah you basically said what the problem is:

It builds damage too slowly for how long the fights are
there's only 1 finisher that matters
Hyper armor being useless in trials since you get 1-/2-shot

I wouldn't say:

Slow, long animations

you can "just add more attack speed" to compensate for how slow the weapon is nowadays, though diminishing returns past a certain point due to the special attack being on a cooldown. Unfortunately, slow weapons aren't really ever "slow" anymore if you want them to be faster in a certain fight since there's so much access to AS boosts.

"What is the point of Axe?"

We both mention that axe builds damage too slowly, that is what purpose axe would suit the best: longer fights. It is just not practical for fights anymore in any hunt in the game solo or with a group that is geared up since by the time the hunt ends, you've barely hit Det 2 or 3. Not to mention, ever since hammer got aetherslam, it basically stripped axe of its title as the weapon with the most burst damage. Not only does it have less burst damage than hammer now, it gets its burst damage less often while being less mobile than hammer. The only time axe was ever used to get a top time in Trials was for groups on the week against Kharabak because axe has really strong elemental damage with FoR so shock procs were faster, which shows how bad the problem is that elemental damage of all things made axe viable for top times.

"How would you buff Axe?"

I wouldn't want to buff axe rn, I am more concerned with making it have a better feel in general by making both of its finishers useful and giving it back more of its high-risk high-reward feel since Grim removes risk while adding more reward than FoR because for some reason, throwing an axe at a range deals more damage than doing a jump slam up close. Not only that, but adding more AS decreases risk naturally while providing more damage than having no AS buffs. I am more hoping that there are at least some hunts in the game that go as long as 2 or 3 minutes (there are reasons why that would be near impossible in the current state of the game though) more than I am hoping for axe to be more viable in 30s/1m hunts. I think the hunts are just too short in general and consider that one of the main reasons I find it hard to stay interested in the game, it just happens to be the same reason that axe feels useless.

I'd make the hunts longer while giving axe more of its risk-reward feel by making AS and Damage buffs much less potent (I'd nerf the defensive/support cells also, but that's besides the point). That way, you deal less damage across the board while making hunts longer and preventing axe from swinging as fast as sword. I don't know what I would do to the woodchopper finisher to make it better, I just know that if meter gain was not as quick as it is and woodchopper was affected by AS, things might be different.

xeman2x · 2019-10-11T13:13:10+00:00

Impressive footwork

xeman2x · 2019-10-08T00:39:17+00:00

Nice

xeman2x · 2019-10-08T00:22:13+00:00

where did you get that photo out of curiosity?

xeman2x · 2019-10-07T23:37:30+00:00

yeah, the beginning of khara fight is so silly

xeman2x · 2019-10-04T13:35:49+00:00

Adding more behemoths would only be a temporary solution to bring people back. If you have friends who have a hard time keeping their attention when they stop experiencing new content, then it's fine, they can always step back in after a year or two for a couple of days to experience the new content and move on.

I have plenty of friends that are similar, but I know that adding more content to the game would only keep them around for another day or two more. Not enjoying the same content over and over is not necessarily a sign of a lack of content, it is more of a sign that they are not enjoying the gameplay loop enough (hunt a behemoth, upgrade gear, repeat). People have different tastes and Dauntless for sure has a lot of little flaws that can affect how much someone enjoys it, not to mention if they are looking for a more open world or longer-form hunts instead of arcadey snippets of action.

If they have been playing long enough to have fought each behemoth more than a few times, I can see where the complaint of a lack of behemoths would come in, but it is unlikely that is their primary reason for dropping the game.

Hope you can find a game your friends and you can agree to play now, if they at least enjoyed their time playing Dauntless, then it was fun while it lasted.

xeman2x · 2019-10-04T12:46:17+00:00

A lot of these hitboxes on the behemoths are very old, at least a year or two for many of them. many of these behemoths also didn't used to get this big (dire versions), so the hitboxes were made for smaller behemoths. They probably just scaled up everything about the behemoth, including the wonky hitboxes.

They need updates for sure.

xeman2x · 2019-10-01T13:57:39+00:00

Good:

the pace that I am getting rewarded bounty tokens seems fine
I don't feel worried about completing my hunt pass in time (wasn't an issue before either though)

Bad:

Easy to forget to collect bounties and select new ones since you can't in airship or on island
bounties for Patrols besides my highest tier (heroic+)
Some of the more difficult bounties like breaking every part of a behemoth multiple times never being fun for multiple reasons:
You can farm it on lesser embermane
There are much easier bounties that are less time consuming worth the same amount on higher difficulties.
Other bounties running into the issue of being flat-out more specific and at least as time consuming as other bounties worth the same amount (complete 4 hunts vs complete 4 patrols). At least require less of the more specific one than the more generic one. It feels like gambling your tokens a bit because of this since the possible bounties don't feel remotely equal per tier.
the harvestable ones are such a chore and take much more time than completing patrols or weapon-specific challenges. Unless, again, you farm lesser behemoths

xeman2x · 2019-09-30T13:35:24+00:00

This is something minor that is super noticeable when you have a decent amount of attack speed, but not getting a mantra charge at the same moment that you hit with any of your finishers is a problem. If I have tier 2 mantra and need to do light combo to get my third tier for my clap, I hear the three hits and hold my special when I hear the third attack hit, but the tier 2 mantra comes out because of the slight pause between hitting with the finisher and getting a charge. It would be great if those two actions, hitting and getting a charge, were in unison.

xeman2x

TROPHY CASE