I didn’t spend too much time playing around in Book 7. I don’t want to ruin too much of the experience when it launches to the live servers.
That said, I noticed some things I thought were exciting that I thought I could comment on.
- You can access the Lorebook from in-game now. There’s a new icon on your radar that opens it up in a small, floating pop-up. This will definitely be useful.
- Quest rings that float over the heads of NPC now have a silvery glow to them. This isn’t too big of a deal, but it definitely makes them more noticable. I thought it was a nice change.
- The Elf and Dwarf introductions are significantly better. The early portions of the Elf intro are completely different and finally give the Elves more of their own identity.
- Introductions ease you into the game far better than before. Not too important for those rolling alts, but for new people or those newer to MMORPGs I feel the whole thing has been smartly adjusted. It flows at a much better pace.
- Only important to other Rune-keepers out there, but our attacks have seen a significant boost. Ceaseless Argument is now earned very early on, which makes a huge difference. (OK, maybe this doesn’t really qualify as “small.)
- The Rune-keeper’s sound effects are noticeably turned down. Instead of constant sounds of thunder, most of the lightning-based attacks now feature more of a crack or boom sound that is far more subdued. It might not have bothered Rune-keepers much when they were playing, but trust me that it drove everyone else within hearing distance crazy. I’m glad they did this.
- The graphics options now contain a slider to change the brightness of ambient light. Not a big deal, but it’s helpful for people like me who can’t always strike a nice balance between the brightness, contrast and gamma selectors.
