u/deliciousdogmeat

My character seems thirstier than before. There was an unannounced player stamina nerf with update 1.4. It definitely seems like my character needs to drink water more frequently now, which indicates that a player hydration nerf also took place. The stamina nerf makes the game less fun. The increase in water consumption actually seems like a good idea, because it has become a trivial mechanic that I have been ignoring for many months. Has anyone else noticed this?

Overland Stations are not playable with more than 2 players. It's easiest solo. This is bad game design. Fix this. Just adjust the numbers, it would take 20 minutes. Or just completely remove the more players you have the more you are penalized scaling.

My friends and I used to run labs as a group, usually as 4. We run level 19 labs, and used to beat all of them in a group without too much difficulty. We tried again tonight on the Radiation Lab at level 19. We did a duo, then a trio, then I did it solo. It was easiest solo. Then easier as a duo. It was hardest with 3 people. This game design that punishes group play led to us not playing for the last few weeks. We tried it again tonight after the 1.3.20 update, and a trio was not completable (if it were 3 me's, we would have won, but they are not as sweaty as I am with the combat, strategy, and Landsraad combat level 100). After my friends both died, it was not possible for me to do enough damage to take the boss down before the radiation killed me, even though I could stay alive forever just zooming around with the Elohim Belt, culling the herd of ads with the Ancient Way G5. So that means I can't play with my friends in that dungeon.

Glitches we experienced in the last 2 hours of play:

1. Ancient Way missiles would just disappear as bright lights on the ground without exploding and not do damage upon making contact with the enemy. This happened around 25%-33% of Ancient Way shots. That was a new glitch for me as of tonight.

2. Some skills do not target some enemies at random. It's usually heavies and melee npcs.

3. Attractor field shoots out to the side, not where we were aiming.

4. Server disconnected just as I reached the boss chamber on the solo run.

5. Not a glitch, but one person did not get any BPs after struggling through the lab. No reward, so why bother?

The Radiation Lab is in the worst state that it has been in since the overland labs launched. Funcom, your nerf did not do enough. The labs are not fun to grind solo over and over, and they are largely not viable as a group. The endgame is in a worse spot than it was 2 weeks ago and 2 months ago. I hope that we can fix this, because nobody in our group of eight 1,000+ hours offworlders wants to play this game anymore because it's not fun playing in groups in it's current state. Group play should be rewarded, not punished.

I thought that the livestream today was going to be announcing the new snow biome of the southern poles and introduce us to Chapter 4, Water Wars. Instead it seemed like they need more time for that and it will release in the summer or later. To hold us content-thirsty off-worlders over until then, the livestream today focused on Update 1.4, which is one new overland testing station and one new Landsraad overland location. I am totally fine with that content, I am happy to get it, and it looks great. They did a great job showcasing the two new locations today, and the cosmetic water shipper build set, orni, and gear all have beautiful art. I just thought it was odd that they weren't more clear ahead of time that this would just be an update and not a new Chapter. I felt a little like the rug was pulled out from under me. Either way, it seems like they are cooking up some big stuff for the future... hopefully.

What is your take on this being an Update versus a full Chapter?

What major content updates do you hope to see in the future?

Are you patient enough to wait until late summer to get a new biome?

What are some ways that Funcom could make combat and exploration in the new Hagga Basin-sized biome challenging for people with maxed specialization levels and Grade 5 gear? A difficulty slider?