My concern about the difference between the premade and solo experience.
I’d like to share some of the issues that stood out to me during the playtest and some ideas on how they could potentially be addressed.
During this playtest, I played with two of my friends on Friday, and the matches in Ascension were really enjoyable. Playing with friends is always fun and enjoyable, whether you win or lose.
On Saturday, I decided to try playing solo since my friends weren’t online, and honestly, it was like night and day. You can’t really communicate with your team, everyone ends up following their own path, and you eventually become completely split up. This results in a much worse experience, and after two games I ended up closing the game.
My question is: since you don’t seem interested in adding a proper solo queue mode, such as 1v1 x45, what could you do to make the game more viable and enjoyable for solo queue players?
Realistically, I probably won’t be able to play with my friends on a daily basis around 80% of the time once the game releases, assuming we all end up buying it, simply because everyone will have their own jobs and responsibilities.
How can you encourage solo players to play Arkheron when the game itself seems to be designed around being more enjoyable with friends/premades? Have you considered adding features specifically designed to provide a better solo experience, especially since, as I mentioned, you don’t seem interested in offering a proper solo queue mode?
Core Mechanic System
Another thing I want to bring up is that the game currently feels like it’s missing some core mechanics, such as a parry/counter system.
A system like this could make the combat feel much more engaging, where you could deflect an enemy’s basic attack or ability, and perhaps, if the parry was successful, gain a 1-second i-frame to reposition. This would give players more opportunities to outplay and outsmart their opponents.
Right now, there isn’t really any system that allows you to do something like this, which honestly feels like a huge missed opportunity to me. I know there are abilities like Resilience Crown and Vaton’s Payback Crown that do something somewhat similar, but it will never feel the same as having it as an actual core mechanic.
The game simply needs an additional mechanic like this to make the combat more competitive and skill-based. No matter how many Eternals you add with different defensive abilities, you won’t create the same level of mechanical without a core system that allows players to actively outplay each other and adds more depth to the fights.
Support Eternal Abilities
Another thing I noticed while playing with my friends is that one of them usually plays Support in most games. At the moment, Arkheron doesn’t really have gear that is 100% focused on supporting the team, such as heals, shields, or perhaps different buffs.
I feel like this is something that affects both Spires and Ascension, because support-oriented options could make the fights much more effective and enjoyable. Having some dedicated support tools could add a completely different dynamic to team fights and give support players more meaningful ways to contribute to their team.
More Consumables
I’d also really like to see consumables that could help with utility, such as flash, movement speed, teleporting to a teammate, etc., or that could be used as traps, such as slows, roots, explosions, etc.
Maybe there could be a separate slot where you can carry 2–3 of these consumables at a time.
Shrine - Fraggment Request
One small quality-of-life feature I’d also like to suggest is adding a button in the shop that allows a teammate to request Fragments when they don’t have enough money to purchase an item.
For example, they could right-click on the item they want to buy, and it would send a request/ping to the team showing how many Fragments they are missing for that item.
That’s all I wanted to share. Keep up the great work!