Citadel: Forged With Fire Open Beta Preview - General Previews

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Citadel: Forged With Fire Open Beta Preview - General Previews

Citadel had its open beta this weekend just days before its early access coming up on the 26th of July. The best way to begin our impressions feature is with three words: wizards, wands, and dragons. This sandbox takes what is best in games like Ark and DayZ and brings it into a solid fantasy genre where you are a wizard. Instead of guns and dinosaurs, you’ll have spells, staves, and plenty of monsters to battle and tame.

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blbeta

Perhaps it was just my server but the NPC movement was horrible. They were warping and ice skating. It seemed to have potential but it was certainly too EA for me.

I will have to watch some videos after EA starts and see if it looks how it felt to me.

Sovrath

I'd be curious to hear the thoughts from other players regarding this game.

JayFiveAlive

I posted this on the DnL article, but I also played Citadel and thought there was a lot of potential there. Citadel definitely felt much more Early Access than DnL though. NPC movement was really awful for me as well. You can easily troll people and take their kingdoms/bases by destroying the one floor that the throne is on, which auto destroys the throne and then place your own and boom, it's yours! (brought me back to the days of Reign of Kings a bit). Melee is pointless currently. The wand is OK, but sucks in PvP. The staff is the only good choice for weapon path currently. Their building system is really bad, flying is pretty sweet and there is a lot of mana management. Overall, I liked it and felt it was different enough from DnL. I likely will get it after a few patches. 

Albatroes

The choice between Citadel and DnL really just comes down to the people behind them. I dont know anything about the devs involved in Citadel, so maybe someone can fill me in on their track record, but honestly Snail hasn't had a good track record at least in the NA/EU regions. Most projects they published were just cash grabs that eventually went into maintenance mode to milk as much as they could (see Black Gold Online, which originally tried the B2P tactic before going F2P within a couple of weeks I believe). I'm not really trying to be pessimistic but people being oblivious to a companies track record makes me feel bad for them tbh, especially when they are surprised at a predictable result.

Ir1shguy

The devs behind Citadel have put a lot of effort into customizing the game and not using the same bundled assets that Ark and DnL have used. So while there are some similar mechanics Citadel is ahead due to the effort the devs have put into it including a customized UI instead of the bundled one with UE4. DnL is ark with a bigger world and magic, it still uses all the same assets as Ark.

Citadel had to add almost 100 overflow servers for the open access period. Both Citadle and DnL suffered from pretty bad lag which is always expected of any game on release. DnL takes 5 to 10 minutes to get in game just from loading, similar to Ark, citadel gets you into game faster, a lot faster. I am a casual player and hardly do any pvp at all but here is what I streamed of Citadel on saturday (please be kind)

Mackaveli44

The gameplay was refreshing for what we've been used to in the genre and the animations.. those definitely need to be improved on. The server issues were... well, expected for a beta.

Ir1shguy

Mackaveli44 said:

The gameplay was refreshing for what we've been used to in the genre and the animations.. those definitely need to be improved on. The server issues were... well, expected for a beta.

Yup totally agree with you and I hope the effort they put into new assets suggests they will put the same effort into the rest of the game.

rhialto

I spent time in the game as well as have spent time in DnL. Each has their good points and bad. I am very much enjoying the complexity and depth of DnL. However I did find some enjoyment in Citadel. While it is very lacking in content, depth and all. What they have done, they have done well enough that it felt fun. The building was one of the easier methods and the only thing I hate is the method for picking the building pieces. Combat is very simple and straightforward. The one thing I really disliked was the flying on a broom. To me it felt well lackluster.

Now any who compare Citadel and DnL, well get off your horse because they are VASTLY different beasts. Both are good. Citadel has the makings of a very good simple focused game that once depth is added in, will be a solid game. Right now it just needs a lot more content and additions, besides tweaks with the problems they do have with it at this time.

rmk70

I had more fun with Citadel than DnL. DnL ran extremely poorly on my system even on low settings -- just felt so awkward to play. Meanwhile playing Citadel was pretty smooth. Felt more accessible.

Mackaveli44

rhialto said:

I spent time in the game as well as have spent time in DnL. Each has their good points and bad. I am very much enjoying the complexity and depth of DnL. However I did find some enjoyment in Citadel. While it is very lacking in content, depth and all. What they have done, they have done well enough that it felt fun. The building was one of the easier methods and the only thing I hate is the method for picking the building pieces. Combat is very simple and straightforward. The one thing I really disliked was the flying on a broom. To me it felt well lackluster.



Now any who compare Citadel and DnL, well get off your horse because they are VASTLY different beasts. Both are good. Citadel has the makings of a very good simple focused game that once depth is added in, will be a solid game. Right now it just needs a lot more content and additions, besides tweaks with the problems they do have with it at this time.

Complexity of D&L? Where? It was damn near a carbon copy of Ark. Yes it has some differences here and there but the gear is basically the same, no unique drops off mobs, armor has just armor rating, weapons have just weapon dmg, nothing more, nothing unique. All they did was add a fantasy setting to it. The monsters are different, but the combat is still the atrocious ark style warp all over the place when fighting in melee. One thing I did notice a huge improvement on were the servers. Ark you lag/freeze for like 10 seconds every 5 min or so. I haven't experienced that in D&L once.

I have yet to venture far out into the world but can you comment on if mobs further out, drop gear? drop unique gear, that actually has useful stats on them? My first camp I came to in Citadel was an orc camp and got 3 drops from it. The mobs and the treasure chest. It has the RPG loot style thats more intriguing than the same ole ark style, no purpose for hunting other than mats.

Renoaku

So is it private servers or a actual MMORPG where u play and data is saved on an actual server?

MaxBacon

It's not MMO.

I like it more than Dark and Light, it has some stuff that is refreshing over the usual more of the same that is simply open world survival game over open world survival game.

ACommonMugger

I think recently I'm running into survival, open world fatigue. There are so many and almost all of them are behind an EA gate/ This is how I'll describe my experience with this game.

Renoaku

MaxBacon said:

It's not MMO.

I like it more than Dark and Light, it has some stuff that is refreshing over the usual more of the same that is simply open world survival game over open world survival game.

So basically its server based or how does that work like arc surivival where stuff is stored on servers or what?

I really hate private server hosted games.

Ir1shguy

halfmystic said:

I think recently I'm running into survival, open world fatigue. There are so many and almost all of them are behind an EA gate/ This is how I'll describe my experience with this game.

I agree and most of these have been mediocre but for me this game was different enough and the survival is mana/health based management rather than sitting by water drinking and eating all the time. Most others have been eating and drinking simulators.

MaxBacon

Renoaku said:

So basically its server based or how does that work like arc surivival where stuff is stored on servers or what?

I really hate private server hosted games.

Server-based, stuff is stored on servers I'd guess if you play on them like Ark and you join each server in your own.

The difference this game shows is the RPG and PvE element that we've been getting always PvP Survival games when it comes to open world MP.

Renoaku

O.o so when you join a game its your own server or how does that work with this game ?

Ir1shguy

Renoaku said:

O.o so when you join a game its your own server or how does that work with this game ?

There will be official servers but there will likely be the option to host LAN games and private hosted ones as well. I dont recall seeing an option for solo play.

Renoaku

Ah okay well id buy the game if it were public servers and data stored like a MMORPG, but I don't like where data is stored on individual servers and can't play with friends can be easily lost and all that );.

Asch126

Better looking Ark with magic and fantasy, all it is.

Hellsprodigy

I tried citadel in open beta and really enjoyed myself yes there was lag and that is to be expected i do think in a few updates the game will be alot better but for what it is right now i was having alot of fun and will be looking into getting it. I am playing dark and light at the moment and i do feel it has alot of things ark does but its also its own game to each there own i will be playing both.

zenomex

the word potential tastes barfed up

Kyleran

Ir1shguy said:

halfmystic said:

I think recently I'm running into survival, open world fatigue. There are so many and almost all of them are behind an EA gate/ This is how I'll describe my experience with this game.

I agree and most of these have been mediocre but for me this game was different enough and the survival is mana/health based management rather than sitting by water drinking and eating all the time. Most others have been eating and drinking simulators.

The more PVE and RPG centric design has me more interested in this game vs others in the genre  

Besides I hate having to stop and drink water all of the time.

Galadourn

Is it true that you only get to play a mage in Citadel?

Aeander

zenomex said:

the word potential tastes barfed up

As long as survival games rely on "thirsty boy" meters and procedural generation, they will never actually have potential.