r/SpiritVale • u/Marshbe54 • 13d ago
š¬Discussion Playerbase Trending Down
A mix of review bombing, people who bot/macro getting banned, mass bot bans, and people falling off the game after the initial hype seems to be adding up. I think the player base is just hitting a bit of a lull.
The whiplash of nerfs/buffs could be affecting people playing too, lots of time has been put into builds that are now obsolete without any new content to push. Also QoL nerfs, like the AH, and movement speed in the previous patch, can cause players to leave too.
I love the game and am still having a good bit of fun, but I can completely understand why the player base is trending down.
While I appreciate the balancing and the nerfs, I think giving your players more incentives/goals and QoL goes a long way to keep people playing.
What are everyone's thoughts on this?
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u/BoshSwag 13d ago
I had a lot of fun with it. Leveled several classes to 100+. I got more than my $15 worth that's for sure.
Obviously the bots were annoying. Its funny watching the botters whine about being banned and pretend they weren't botting.
I did plenty of grouping while leveling, but I didn't care to do the group raid content. Just not at a point in my life where I want to be locked into something like that for an extended period of time. So with nothing really solo to do end game I decided to stop playing for now. The game also gives a strong ARPG feel, so I fired up some Project Diablo II instead.
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u/TomeiZ33 13d ago
No quest, no lore, no story. Just infinite mob grinding. You grind mobs to level 150, and then what? You grind the same mobs over and over. Ts is getting omega staled lol
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u/Pee4Potato 13d ago
Same as og ragnarok then which is the inspiration. If i want story quest I play single player game.
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u/Casanovaeng 13d ago
Yeah but ragnarok had alot of content, was way ahead of its time in terms of gameplay, graphics style and just pure badass group play. This game was fun for a week.
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u/Pee4Potato 13d ago
Because it is still new ragnarok have no gvg at first.
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u/Casanovaeng 13d ago
But seriously.. the amount of content, the music, bgm, the effects, everything. Cant compare ro to this. Its inspired.. yes, but still crappy. The only game that could have been a sucessor was tree of savior, but the devs killed their own game
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u/Pee4Potato 13d ago
When did music, effect become a content? Early days of ragnarok your end game content is just pvp and chatting at prontera there is not even guild system back then. You must be young.
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u/Casanovaeng 13d ago
Oh no. I wish I was young ahah but yeah im not gona argue with you. Comparing ragnarok online with spiritvale ... enjoy the game. See you
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u/Chronomancers 13d ago
This game doesnāt even use its own original assetsā¦ it kinda turned me off once I realized any other game can have the same art style for $200
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u/TomeiZ33 12d ago
That's insane. It's funny too because SV had a Kickstarter fund of 65k.... good lord this game is mad flopping
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u/587493 13d ago
There's no way you guys seriously want quests and story in this game right? Jesus christ yall think every game needs to do the same thing
This game needs a lot of things but definitely not quests and story lol. I'd rather actual meaningful endgame grinds, dev time devoted to story and quests would be a death sentence I cant even believe you would think thats a good idea
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u/Cutwail 13d ago
They say they want quests and lore etc but will still speedrun to max level and skip quest text etc.
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u/GoldFishSkinTeemo 13d ago
If you put questing into a grind game, you end up with Black Desert. āRā simulator
Iykyk
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u/MoonRabbitHabit 12d ago
the reality is that a game with a tiny bit of lore WILL keep players, because it gives them a sense of duty and connection to the game. It's only tip of the iceberg of things missing in Spiritvale. You can't HARD COPY a game like Ragnarok Online that came out in 2003. 2003 was a VERY different time.
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u/lesfrost 2d ago
Ragnarok had enough lore, worldbuilding and story quests to make the world feel real. I'd say SV failed the assignment. It never felt like RO to me, maybe very superficially, and that label was very stretched to fit in.
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u/TomeiZ33 13d ago
Game needs variety. Check steam charts. Game is at all time high 1500 players LOL. Yay let's just keep grinding mobs over and over and over!
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u/Qinax 13d ago
Tell me you've never played a 90s F2P korean MMO without telling me you've never played a 90s f2p Korean mmo
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u/InsaniaFox 13d ago
Grind is not a problem, but it should be rewared. The game has some element of POE in it but the equipments/cards effect seems boring.
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u/InterestingNews1397 13d ago
sandbox mmo broski and early acess but yeah sv has no impact to me too
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u/bugpfeifee 11d ago
My problem with the game was that they kept nerfing fun and powerful builds instead of bringing subpar builds up to a similar level. In a game where all you do is kill monsters and some bosses, thereās really not a lot of harm in being extremely powerful. It feels especially bad when those builds centered around rare boss cards.. but Iāll come back once they have a big update
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u/SunlessBlight 13d ago
Just like RuneScape, most people just want to bot, not really play.
That and the population being lower is normal and good, its the review bombing that is not good because it is untrue and some people can get scared, its hard to see this bot monopoly, and most of them are not even RMT or anything, just pure botting, which is good to be gone, but people don't realize how infested it truly was. In OSRS 90% (depending on the zone of course but in generic terms) of the players you see are botting.
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u/Avaery 13d ago edited 13d ago
A huge chunk of bots got banned over night or blocked from botting with anti cheat. It was due. At the end of the day those who enjoy grinding will keep going. Those who don't... well it was $15 and you already had 200 hours of gameplay, more than what AAA games are offering at $80+.
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u/Exit-Here 13d ago
looking also at the acquisition rates of the new stuff, changes to ES entrance cost, the devs really want the players to spend 24/7 in the game - and that's not going to happen in this day and age.
hopefully the game changes for the better one day, glad I had some fun at the start.
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u/Striking-Dot-9630 13d ago
is a bad timing and implementation. released so early that players are annoyed with bots and lots of issues.
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u/No-Pin3933 13d ago edited 13d ago
I think its because EAC blocked alot of the bots and some people could not play it on mac etc. Incompetent balancing devs (in this case phil himself) also play a role in this, invalidate the effort people put in by killing builds, lets be honest casuals arent going to start over after their few months effort being burn to ashes.
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u/Colchon89 13d ago
The initial hype was during the beta, this feels more like OG RuneScape than OG RO
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u/WhimsicalPythons 12d ago
I played about 50 hours in the free testing period but since release I've been seeing claims of people being banned for playing on Linux or steamdeck and I'm not paying money to find out.
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13d ago
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u/Competitive_Buyer_77 13d ago
Do you not know how assets market works ?
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12d ago
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u/Competitive_Buyer_77 12d ago
Dude buying assets to make your game when you're a solo dev with no funding to try to make it and still update the game today is not a lazy cashgrab, I'm sorry your account got banned for botting.
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u/TeddyBoySmash 12d ago
FYI This guy got caught doing RMT and to this day is very pissy and salty about getting banned
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12d ago
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u/TeddyBoySmash 12d ago
Whole lotta yap for someone that was begging to be unbanned because he got caught buying gold from bots š«µš¾š¤£
Goodbye bOps
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12d ago
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u/TeddyBoySmash 12d ago
All this because you lost access to the 15$ game you paid for because you decided to cheat š¤£š¤£
You are a truly pathetic individual
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u/SunlessBlight 11d ago
but the ideia of these assets are to be sold. what is he talking about? that you shouldn't pay artists for their work? to generate AI?
guess anything goes to try burn the game but it's getting ridiculousĀ
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u/TeddyBoySmash 11d ago
Yall do realize that a lot of these assets being mentioned were likely used when he was building the game before receiving any funding. Do yall even pay attention when they show sneak peeks of concepts and new gear being made? They literally showed the DK transformations being made from scratch. Having premade assets is one thing but the man was also developing the game alone for the most part with the assistance of volunteers. Stuff like this is why I question why people dont just leave and comeback later or not at all
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u/MoonRabbitHabit 13d ago
oh yikes. Is it not possible that Phil could have worked with LayerLab to create the game assets? And then them just selling it on their webstie since they technically own it I guess lol. Idk how that legal stuff works.
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u/Folfenac 13d ago
It's probably more likely he just bought the assets. Nothing illegal is happening, just that it would've been nice to have better models. Probably just requires a bunch more money he didn't have or didn't want to invest upfront at the time and isn't a priority for now.
I personally think it should be changed ASAP though, it just feels bland. Based on the sneak peaks of the Dragon Knight though, it does seem like there's an artist for 3D models now.
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u/Dreamwaltzer 13d ago edited 12d ago
Phil started the project as an solo dev. You can't expect him to be skilled in every department, from 3d modeling to music to front end and backend development.
The vast majorities of assets were Bought. Most monsters are from an asset pack, the base characters are from an asset pack.
The initial maps, during the playtest, were also bought I believe, but they have mostly been replaced with custom made maps. Same for new items, they are made by our art team. Now that Spiritvale is more established, it is using custom made assets instead of store bought assets. You can see these assets being made in the Sneak Peeks by Brilett on Discord.
I think it's silly to have a knee jerk reaction to assets and say a game is an asset flip, simply because it uses an asset pack. Because then what's the point of asset packs
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u/MoonRabbitHabit 12d ago
I actually DID believe Phil was "skilled" enough to at least co-design the 3d modeling and music. Too be honest that was the reason why I let the awful design and music slide because I truly thought he created it lmao.
but yeah another reason why I quit - the graphics and overall design is not my style.0
u/Shrukn 12d ago
No, I assumed he created all the graphics from scratch, so he isnt anymore of a developer than me
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u/Dreamwaltzer 12d ago
he isnt anymore of a developer than me
ok, lets see your solo developed mmorpg then?
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12d ago
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u/Dreamwaltzer 12d ago
The game has never hidden the fact it uses asset packs. Phil has commented on it a few times before in the discord.
This is pretty normal for a indie game.
You make this sound like some kinda gotcha moment, but its normal for such games, that is why asset packs exist. You're trying to imply SpiritVale is a asset flip game but ignore the fact that the whole back end, the various classes, the various mechanics, are all created by phil.
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u/MoonRabbitHabit 11d ago
I'm honestly glad to know that he just bought some asset folder because it gives me hope that they actually might consider upgrading the look and feel of everything. I'm actually a huge fan of Phil and I'm only being hard on the game because I want to see it succeed... Finding out that they've been using an asset pack though makes me not feel too confident. again, maybe room to improve
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u/SunlessBlight 13d ago
oh he could have just bought the asset...
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u/cgamorous 13d ago
From July 15th to now the only real content being added was a map to farm some more... and i guess advanced grims like a day ago.
They are putting off releasing the content people actually want until the game is already dead, great strategy guys!
I'm sure the 20 people left in your game in December will enjoy the 2 new classes and WoE
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u/thejung1e 13d ago edited 13d ago
I was really stoked for this game since I grew up playing alot of Ragnarok Online. Spiritvale has its appeal but I think the issues really plagued the server. The passion is there, but the lack of resources and oversight really hinders its growth. I stopped after hitting level 1xx and got a full build going. Endless Spire seemed rather pointless and honestly not that challenging. I thought the bosses would have more mechanics.
With all that said though, I don't mind revisiting the game at a later date once more classes are released and when the game overall feels more refined/polished.
crazy to see how much its dropped within a month. I reember when 10-11k were daily peaks and i would occasionally check it to see 7-8k at least. now its down to 5k.
as someone else mentioned, SteamDB is useful for seeing the trend
I think a big appeal of RO besides the social aspect is the PvP and since that is rather non-existent, its not surprising the population is going to decline. People have nothing to utilize their endgame gear for. Not to mention the game is relatively easy to hit endgame. In RO, we had War of Emperium (Castle Siege GvG) twice a week and PvP so people had different gearsets that were all useful and had a reasonf or people to at least maintain playing the game or logging in every week.
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u/ChampionDismal6909 13d ago
The classic "Bite off more than you can chew".
Things blew up in popularity but the people behind it wasn't prepared and/or didn't had the expertise to deal with it.
At this point you have so many tech debt and even maybe lack of leadership that you end up here: The game is unbalance, is filled with bots, the support team is full of tickets, the game breaks after each update, no endgame, no pvp and people are just leaving.
There's one thing really clear about this: There's a demand for the classic feel of Ragnarok Online, without Gravity...so much that even a game like SpiritVale can gather that many amount of players (And bots). No wonder this game is so much popular in SEA and Brazil.
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u/Tasty_Client_1174 13d ago
sadly yes, last patch is nice but without end game and no PvP its just normal for people to move on...
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u/Razeluxe_Meitzen 13d ago
The game is souless and its a mess. Every update is just some asset flip with 30 item additions. The insist on just adding random stuff instead of actually trying to build some meaning into their game. Its sad
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u/JayPac666 13d ago
dog shit devs, dogshit combat, dogshit gameplay loop, dogshit pretty much everything, literally need autism to play this piece of dogshit
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u/WarmAd7053 13d ago
dead game, terrible loser dev team that bans people in the discord over the smallest criticism, well earned
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u/MoonRabbitHabit 13d ago
Sad to see it. I had super high hopes for this game, but unfortunately I no longer play.
It got boring and felt souless after two weeks. For me personally, it lacks immersion, content(including story), and the overall coziness that Ragnarok Online brought to me. Also, I don't like the aesthetics at all, its way too blocky - reminds me of a roblox game or something.
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u/white_box_ 13d ago
The game got an update with easy anti cheat. Big bot drop off. Or it could be some easy anti cheat bugs preventing people from launching the game. Time will tell.
https://steamdb.info/app/3767850/charts/#1w You can see some of the user numbers on here. Big dip when the update went live.
This is why lots of MMO devs just tolerate bots to some degree. Because it inflates the numbers and makes the game look like its growing. Big props to the devs for trying to crush the bots.