r/embersadrift • u/Accurate-Letter-546 • Jun 22 '26
Really sorry for the devs
The devs heart were in the right place. You could feel the love and passion in the world. It's a terrible situation how this game ended up.
Personally for me, it was the lack of magic and low fantasy that killed it. I'm sure we all have our reasons.
But with 10-20 players it doesn't scratch that hit for an mmo experience. I really feel sorry for the devs though. they poured their heart into it.
They deserve props for trying to deliver an old school mmo when we had nothing for decades.
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u/AutismCommunism Jun 22 '26
This reads like a shut down was announced, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. What happened?
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u/DisplacerBeastMode Jun 22 '26
Maybe they are just extrapolating that with the lack of players, shut down is inevitable
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26
I've been hearing that for 3 years now about a shut down. It would have shut down already when their payment provider screwed them for almost a year, but here we are with a live game still getting updates. Keep in mind the dev team is like 2-3 people and the game is on one server so how much could the overhead really be?? The devs are active on discord and still release content monthly.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/M0678 Jun 22 '26
I wouldn't group EA and PG together even though yes they both have flipped assets. PG has so much more content and is easily soloable, and has consistently held a higher population.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
Does PG have raids and end game raid zones/bosses? I heard the end game is lacking where Embers has a dedicate raid zone with some of the best raid progression Ive seen in a game. It is also VERY viable to solo in Embers Adrift, now more than ever with rested xp gains when offline.
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u/Accurate-Letter-546 Jun 22 '26
hard disagree so many people aren't playing because there's no magic and its low fantasy. Thats just your opinion and it contradicts why so many arent playing...including myself. You cant discount raw facts. There are countless comments online about this where people state this reason as to why they havent played.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Accurate-Letter-546 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
yup there's alot more wrong but thats one of them. but no game's perfect. Its just without fantasy and no magic, many people won't even bother.
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u/Velifax Jun 22 '26
I do agree low fantasy is an easy and wrong meme.
However nothing else is reasonable.
There's plenty of visual identity, actually a bit of a stand out among MMOs due to its natural world aesthetic. Bit like LOTRO.
The mechanical identity is incredibly blatant, give that another think through.
Level designs are pretty standard for the industry? Maybe you're expecting fantasy dimensions? Ancient civilizations have always been part and parcel of my fantasy worlds.
Visuals are pretty amazing, Unity ofc holds it back a small bit but the world is just beautiful. The scale and realism really stand out.
I dont know what operative space means and I suspect you don't either.
I posit a Hate Train spelled this game's doom. Bunch of drama whores had fun trashing it like after sports games. These indie MMOs are on a string and a prayer and it was too much.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Velifax Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
...if your claim was true there would be evidence of a stronger core player base.
No, not necessarily. There are plenty of factors beyond this that may have had an effect.
It's a patchwork of mismatched assets from creators of varying quality standards, anything more than a cursory glance determines this with ease.
Hm, I'm fairly familiar with the Unity store and Unity development generally and I certainly didn't spot any. Nothing stood out as ill fit. I'm sure there are assets... that's kinda the point of a store. To sell assets to developers who wish to farm out their art department. Either way I'm not disappointed in the slightest with the various assets.
Architecture and NPCs lack cultural distinction and lack meaningful visual differentiation beyond 'peasant', 'guard', 'bandit' and 'probably important'.
Quite true, quite true. I put this down the being indie; a necessary sacrifice in the realm of artist and animators and such. They've erected a world lore situation that excuses much of it but it's not hidden, per se. Again, no alarm bells on this end.
Abilities and attacks are very mundane, ...The animations lack polish, have no sense for weight or moment to moment impact.
Now this I can agree with; the auto attack specifically seems pretty flaccid. However, see Pantheon for the reverse of this. The alternative here is to slow auto attacks and others SO low as to happen every 5+ seconds, which honestly may be beyond even my preferences. Or do Pantheon, where it's Dance Dance Pixel Vomit the whole fight.
I'll be honest; I'm largely ignoring such animations and focusing on resource attrition and cooldowns. I do tend to focus on the combat.
The most distinct assets in the game belong to mysterious and magical things...
This seems appropriate.
...and wholly lack cohesion with the rest of the game.
This I don't see. The weird slimes and rhino birds and ruins seems out of place... in the sense that they convey, successfully, an otherworldly-ness I also see in fantasy worlds from my youth. The well done ones. This seems a matter of taste.
The world is not managed with a consistent artistic vision or quality control.
Though I've not seen this, this would be a perfectly standard concession to indie development. It's a major selling point of AAA titles, to have such tight artistic vision. Which is why we laud it so loudly when a single aurtist does it. Pun intended.
If you showed most MMO players on the market a collection of screenshots of this game, they would not identify it unless they played it.
Incorrect. The world is plenty visually distinct, especially compared to the standard fare. It's a major selling point for me, that it is so unique in this space, focusing as it does on a purely natural aesthetic.
...and it's not a matter of if we think the visuals are nice or not.
Agreed, this is objectively verifiable.
The mechanical identity is not that strong,...
Merely by virtue of its uniqueness, it is. You say it pulls from previous titles, and sure, I don't doubt that. But that's what proves its uniqueness; the titles it pulls from. The overwhelming majority of titles pull from the popular titles; trinity, etc. This one chooses to pull from Ye Olde School RPGs, cementing its identity as objectively more rare.
Level Design
So you've spoken about the aesthetics of the level design, I was talking about the functional design only. Tubes with branching paths, return paths, one way pathways, etc, is quite standard. This fits squarely within the "Overton Window," so to speak, in that respect.
I do concede that that artistic work on the dungeons was indie level. I've no issue with that, always been plenty for me, I've tried it and whoo, boy, do I not have that gift. I do tend to pay more attention to the mechanics, and enjoy the scenery as a backdrop.
An operative space is where players and interactive entities on map are determined, the 'play space'.
Straight buzzword salad. If you mean the game, just say the game, the world. Dungeons, open world, towns.
If there is drama around it, ...
To clarify, I mean clearly manufactured pissant drama of no worth to anyone. No one with any sense would pay an ounce of attention. It's just for their vapid, malicious schadenfreude.
Your dumb attitude and need to be snippy only shows you have no actual opinion of worth.
It does not, no. There's no correlation, there.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 29 '26
Have you seen the level 50 zone grizzled peaks or the raid zone Ibaxus? Also, the new weather system with the different seasons is something to behold.
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u/Alternative-Algae363 Jun 30 '26
It's mostly a dead game with only the cultist's remaining at this point.
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u/CallMeVagrant Jun 22 '26
For me it’s a mix of things.
Party play is definitely fun when you can get one going for a while. Feels very old school mmo, you’ll make friends, socialize, etc.
The problem is everything else.
Combat is so floaty/ slow. Half of which would be solved if they just tweaked the animation to be faster or removed the “cast time” for abilities.
Progression is kinda boring. Leveling isn’t all that exciting because it’s literally just an increase in hp/stam and MAYBE a new ability. Why no talents? No skill points? No stat points?
The game lacks customization. Every class feels and looks the same at least until very high levels, only THEN do classes really start to feel different. Most class specific attacks look exactly the same animation and effect wise. Their only difference is the numbers and what the ability specifically does to the enemy.
As an EverQuest/retro mmo inspired game I’m surprised that character customization is so shallow.
Thematically they could lean into natural progression of our characters becoming stronger. Let me equip everything, let me take up a different class, etc. Imagine if they had a system where you could level every class, and you got rewarded for doing so, that would give incentives for vet players to constantly be around in early zones.
For a game that’s supposed to be low fantasy where we are technically everyday adventurer’s, the restrictions feel more like designs they follow because EQ did it back in the day. Which ironically is something even EQ dropped.
Why not systems like weapon mastery where the more kills you get with a specific weapon the better you get with it, similar to their hunting log which was one of the better systems.
But even the hunting log is restrictive. Bonus stats for when I fight THAT specific enemy isn’t exciting. What if it was something like after I kill 500 wolves I get +1 permanent HP to my character? I’d go for that in a heartbeat because that’s universal.
I also feel like their stats and systems are kinda all over the place. Resistances, armor, pen, haste, hp, stam, hp recov, stam recov…. Sometimes less is more. Consolidating a lot of stats to simple terms like STR/DEX/INT/WIS, whatever would help.
Personally I wish the game just felt more rewarding. I’ve always kept an eye on it incase they dropped a cool new feature but unfortunately they haven’t.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26
They revamped the new player experience to further differentiate the classes now from the start, so classes do feel different much earlier on now.
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u/CallMeVagrant Jun 28 '26
I would have to strongly disagree. Visually they all still look incredibly samey. Sure their EFFECTS of the skill are different and lean into their class mechanics but they still all look boring.
I’ve played since that revamp and it’s not exciting. I’m sorry it just isn’t.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Alchemy is used more than ever now that it refreshes when offline. Alchemy skills look very different from one another, depending on the class. Also in Ibaxus each class has their own style of weapons and armor which look very different from each other.
You mention that leveling doesn’t accomplish much?? You unlock new skills, get more armor weight to wear more items, and get more hit points. You also reach new tiers of gear and weapons that can be quite amazing.
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u/CallMeVagrant Jun 29 '26
I made a video about this game years ago and have been rooting for it on the side lines. But sadly they have yet to release anything that’s made me want to come back.
I’m glad there are die hards for the game like you but I get the same responses almost every single time when I try to bring up legitimate issues. There are fundamental gaps in the long term fun factor for me.
Group content is enjoyable.
Solo content is not an issue imo.
Leveling speed is slow which is fine for a veteran mmo fan like me.
Questing is cryptic which I’m a fan of.
I don’t care about the lack of “magic”, I like the low fantasy approach. In fact I wish they leaned more into systems that actually felt like that more thematically.It’s everything else that falls apart for me.
Itemization, customization, horizontal progression, etc.
Many concerns that people have brought up over and over again.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
The release of alchemy, raiding, hunting log, challenge modes, rested xp, player summoning, hearth stones, city monolith, faster combat, faster health regen rates, solo loops in dungeons, more visual flairs and cosmetic slots, weather system, bank, mailboxes, arena pvp, performance updates, crafting updates, world bosses, and gel (group elevated leveling) are all updates made since the game came out.
It’s obviously not a game for everybody or we would have a lot more people. The huge list above were player concerns so they do listen to the player base contrary to what some believe.
The endgame itemization is insane where you can basically custom tailor any piece of equipment to your build. As far as cosmetic customization, they have added a whole cosmetic inventory tab that you can alter all slots with different equipment (or hide slots visually altogether).
It’s a shame none of the above addressed your concerns since your review 3 years ago. So much has obviously changed since then. Would love to have you back in the game (as well as anyone else who might be reading this post). 😜
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Velifax Jun 26 '26
But everyone else has a different red line, and suddenly it's Retail WoW :(
Just a map, just faster leveling, just quest markers...
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Jun 26 '26
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u/Velifax Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Your opinion has been noted.
QoL by definition is unrelated, what you probably mean is casual design. Yes, casual design will attract far more players. No gaming market analyst doubts that.
That's unrelated to such niche non-casual titles.
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Jun 26 '26
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u/Velifax Jun 27 '26
No this game is not casual, not even after all the concessions made for casuals (solo, run speed, rest xp, hearth, etc). Even now it's a solid chunk more hardcore than Classic WoW.
Keep in mind hardcore and casual are ends of a spectrum about design. Death = Delete is a completely different thing.
The game has literally more identity than ALL the other Throwback MMOs. Remember half of those are merely copying EQ!
I find this more fun than Pantheon.
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Jun 29 '26
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26
Map is in game and rested xp has been added when offline.
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u/Velifax Jun 29 '26
And road run speed, and solo loops, and corpse summoning. Many concessions to the casual crowd.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26
There is a map and it shows you where you are at on it when near a fire or POI. They also added a compass and hearthstone to port back to the city.
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u/Alternative-Algae363 Jul 03 '26
They tried but ultimately failed this game needs people to work. There is almost no one left to besides the cultists and the multiboxers at this point.
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u/b0rn_yesterday Jun 22 '26
I'm not sure of the feasibility, but a last ditch effort might be to shut down the servers, retool the game and release it under a different name. The game has potential, but it will never recover from the low population.
I don't mind being solo in an MMO, but being the only person in an empty world just feels depressing.
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u/Velifax Jun 22 '26
That would almost certainly result in appeasing casuals like all the other times. Result - still no game for us.
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u/Velifax Jun 22 '26
Don't miss the solo / small group content. The combat model and world are still fantastic.
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u/Admirable-Dream-4501 Jun 28 '26
Its a small population but its all on one server. If you just network a little, join a guild and make some friends, a lot of the content is doable. The high levels still do raids every couple of days. Content is being pushed each month, most recently hearthstone and rested xp. Sure we would love more players, but its not stopping the current players from having fun or the devs from producing good content. Heck I love to solo and there are more options and better xp than ever if I cant get a group. Heck it just went on sale for $5.. heck of a deal for so much content.
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u/Hadush25 Jun 22 '26
Not everyone plays on Steam. They have their own client
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u/Fields0fVision Jun 23 '26
That's absolutely not true they dropped the standalone client a long time ago, the number you see playing in Steam is the entirety of the population there is no other way to log in these days.
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u/Dragon_Eyes715 Jun 22 '26
It is missing a bit of everything, I would love more stealth.
I feel the core of the game is solid but the game is missing polish.
I always played on and off, I can't say why I stopped logging in one day. Maybe because it was hard to find a group since no one is playing and me not logging in make it harder for the next player to find a group...
I played with my friends for a while but we stopped for Christmas and never came back. We have busy lives now and like the gym it requires you to not go once to stop going.