A random player's thoughts.

Hi everyone...

I created an account to create this post alone. A buddy from a different online game introduced me to this game sometime ago, and I really enjoyed it. From the character customization, to the homage to D&D greats, this was a winner for someone like me. I ran through the first island-part of the map, got all my characters to level 6-7 or so, then took a bit of a break from the game, fully intending to return to it at a later date once it had expanded a little.

That day was 3 days ago. Came back to the same fun that I had left, like nothing good had been taken away and all the initial fun was retained for me. Then eventually the Gary Gygax-wannabe told me I should try Multiplayer. Hmm, this wasn't in the previous incarnation of the game, why not, I'll give it a whirl. The initial setup and first two matches seemed neat enough, and so I figured I would come back to this part of the game later once I completed the campaign and got some better loot.

Click Campaign.... hey wait a minute, how come all this fake gear that the computer just gave me for my tutorial PvP match is still in my inventory? faux-Gary appears again to tell me "Hey! Your inventory between campaign and multiplayer is shared, so whenever you get stuck on one, go play the other!" or something to that effect.

... And there you have it. Instant turn-off from the game. Why even bother playing campaign at all when you can instantly get level 18-20-whatever-level-it-was gear right from your first PvP match and you can then use it to breeze through potentially much of the campaign levels. BORING.

So many things seemed to have been done right with this game. I just wish they hadn't done this to it, very very unfortunate.

Please don't respond with something like "oh just challenge yourself, pretend the new equipment isn't there..." because that isn't a "solution" to the issue. It's just a very unfortunate thing that turned me off of what could have otherwise been a very rare enjoyable experience in a genre that has become all-too-saturated.

Cheers everyone.
-B.

 

Sorry it turned you off. Two points to make, though.
1) You can't use the gear in the campaign until you gain enough levels for the power tokens.
2) It's pretty crappy gear. You can buy better stuff in the shops for 5 - 25 gp.

 

Yes, all characters in multiplayer mode are temporary level 18 with each x4 and x4 to equip the gears. All lvl 18 equips need at least one major token () which you'll only get after you leveled your dudes enough in the campain.
If your guys are level 7, they only have one minor token () and you can't do much with it.

Also the real challenge starts when you clear all the maps once.

And thinking about it, I think you are talking about the starter parties, not the loot (random items between lvl 1 and 18) you get each time you win a game in the MP. Buying a starter party is optionnal, I personnaly skipped that part and spent the free pizza on treasure hunts. So you earned a nice boost but won't get another one unless you buy or win more pizza. And no, it's not a pay to win game, Blue Manchu has a very nice policy concerning that.

 

You're not the first to make this comment, so it is a bit unfortunate the way you get all this gear that looks amazing but fear not: it's pretty crappy stuff, by the the time you can use it in the campain you'll be finding other stuff that's just as good or better.
As Squidy points out, the real challenge starts once you finished the campaign and are doing the quests, which you probably won't be using much of these free items for if any at all.

 

It's definitely a thing that's been biting people right from the start, though. Some way should be found of avoiding the issue. Even an explanation by Gary would help the 50% of people who read such things.