As the title says, what is the state of the game exactly? steam reviews say its "full of bots and chinese players with bad internet" and i wanted to give it an honest chance.
Though I personally knew all of this, I have to say, this is really well explained lol.
Bots till solar? Every game after 2000 is with people. But they have 2000+ matches and 4000+ rating. I’ll better play either bots than being killed by one combo every game. P.S. I was ~3500 more than year ago, now returned. But year ago no one uses grapple combo on that rating
Eh I haven’t been low elo for 2 seasons so maybe it’s more populated down there now than it used to be. Yeah the matchmaking sucks so we’re agreeing that it’s better for new players to fight bots than top 100 players or my Empyrean self.
what about if i played casual, rather than ranked?
Just take what you read on reddit with a grain of salt. Nearly everyone who gives advice here are high elo and generally don't play the casual modes. With that said, yes bots and laggy players do exist to fill lobbies (bc each non-CN continent only has 1 server each for some reason-- rip Africa). No, they don't fill out the majority of a lobby and you'll most likely just get your ass kicked by some vet. Spirit Well and Showdown (PvE) mode are also fun, where the former has no bots last time I played, although it was time-of-day-restricted.
In EU at least, quick match will mostly be bots (and a couple of real players depending on time of the day). I also don't think it considers skill level at all, and matches you against anyone queueing at the time.
I would recommend just going into ranked instead if you're thinking about quick match.
at this point the game just sounds deader than my nan tbh
Matchmaking is undeniably bad due to low population in the west. Though your experience might be completely different if you play in SEA/CN.
Game might still be worth trying if you really, really like the combat though. It is fast paced and quite unique.
Still going to have lots of bots until you get your elo up. But also run the risk of just hitting a top 100 player.
I love how a distinction needs to be made between "soft cheats" like auto-parry/auto-combo/auto-dodge-ult/auto-track/wallhack/loot spotter and "real cheat cheats" so blatant you can actually see them when spectating. Because literally everyone is "soft cheating", therefore it's no longer actually cheating. If you don't run the standard plug-in kit, you're a self-handicapping idiot and a dead weight.
Come to think of it, this is kind of how Chinese players feel about using cheats - it's merely an "assist" and not really cheating until you fly around or clip through textures. This really explains everything about the people who insist that cheating in Naraka is either rare or non-existent.
You got any proof, or are you just using this logic as a way to soften the blow of losing? Or maybe to justify doing it yourself? Most people don’t cheat.
No shit. When most people cheat, you grab a VPN and go to a Western server, where they don't. What's the point paying for some third party plug-in to gain advantage when everyone has it? This is completely understandable and has been explained by Chinese players themselves multiple times:
How about you explain why it's the situation in every other competitive game - except Naraka, a client based Unity fighting game known for its shittastic netcode and no anti-cheat engine. Are you perhaps doing it yourself?
So you’re going to use a Reddit post about why some Chinese players cheat to then blanket say ALL Naraka players are cheating? You’re making an insane extrapolation.
How about that which can be asserted without evidence, you saying that everyone is cheating, can be dismissed without evidence, no they’re not.
Not everyone is cheating in every game all the time, including Apex, CS:GO, and Naraka.
Who said anything about ALL?
As often as people cheat in Apex, PUBG, The Finals et al - definitely. ALL? Tf is the point in cheating or even playing the game if everyone does it? A game where everyone cheats is a dead game.
Because literally everyone is soft cheating
You did. In your own message that started this.
Idk how people can say the game is dead when it’s regularly top 50 on steam when it’s not peak hours for China (it’s literally top 5 then)
Conan Exiles is dead
The game starts with mostly bots everywhere until you rank up to Platinum and above, which can take a while, and even longer with the F2P ranked level restriction. On one hand it's good because the game has a LOT to learn, but bad if you want to start improving in PvP right away.
The bots, while teaching some basic mechanics, will lull you into feeling like a god gamer, and teach you some bad habits. When you start getting more real players, you'll get destroyed.
This is also where you run into the first netcode issue, which is bots having different/delayed hit timing and players causing you more rollback, and different parry timing. Many of the timings and strategies you learned from the bots don't work (like certain reaction parry situations). So you'll naturally conclude that the real players are laggers and that you lost to lag. You'll also start seeing a lot of chinese names because the game is popular with chinese speakers (most of which on EU server are actually in EU). Different PvP netcode+chinese names = chinese VPN conspiracy. Apparently NA has multiple nodes which causes inconsistent ping, in EU it's fine. The netcode has issues but it's serviceable and reliable, I wish it was better though.
After you learn the true timings (which are visually not intuitive) and if you are hardcore enough, the game itself is awesome, interesting, fun, skill-based and super rewarding. However, if you aren't a top dog the game tends to be a mix of bots and matchups higher rank than you, because there's not enough players for strict matchmaking, and it could get frustrating. However, the game also has many side activities, PvE mode and social systems.
Ranked queue times are okay and lobbies still have bot fills but it's okay and not dead or dying, it's been like this for the 3+ years. Special game modes tend to die fast. High rank queues don't pop in the early morning/day.
99% of the „Chinese“ Players are just players from whatever server your playing on with a name like “例子“ but unless there stands „ 例子 [SEA]“ it’s not a player from an Asian Server.
People tend to cry about someone with such a name even more if they lose to them cause they blame them to be Chinese Pro Player.
Bots are there but you can „turn them off“ by this they will reduce the number of bots in the lobby as much as possible.
"pro" lmfao
Yeah I know it’s most stupid thing ever but there are still to many people who think that anyone with Chinese writing as name is either an actual Pro or a Hacker
Hacker yes, a pro? lmfao no
At high levels of ranked the bots are actually very challenging at times. I wouldn’t say it’s that much of a negative to the experience. You still learn from fighting them.
Matchmaking is the game’s biggest downside, and that’s really only due to the limited amount of players outside of China. You WILL end up in lobbies with people you have no hope of winning against. It’s inevitable. But you just have to roll on to the next match. Unless they died right after you then they probably won’t be there. I have actually run into a couple of funny incidents where the player count was low enough at that particular time that I would get into the top two, win/lose, and then end up in a lobby with the same person I just faced off with. Kind of fun to do a little rematch thing so long as you’ve similar skill!
Other pros are: -The combat is incredibly fluid for a melee battle royale in a way I haven’t seen another game achieve. It’s truly a unique experience. -The game in general but also the outfits/weapon skins are BEAUTIFUL. Truly on another level design and detail wise. -Some may consider this a con but to me it’s a pro: the gacha aspect of outfits. I personally LOVE a game that allows me to have something that others can’t get. Yes, it’s luck based but it’s so fun to show off a particular outfit or weapon skin that others are jealous of! Sure, you can buy plenty of cosmetics too but I prefer to use the gacha ones for this reason.
All in all, as another user pointed out, it’s a free game! Give it a go, and if you don’t end up liking it, no harm no foul. My advice would be to stick with it at the beginning even if you get frustrated. Just focus on learning something from every match. The learning curve is steep and the skill ceiling is extremely high. However I think it’s worth it once you get a bit more used to the combat. When you get killed, pay attention to what your opponent did, maybe even spectate the rest of their match to observe how they play.
Character wise, I feel that Shayol, Feria, and Tessa are potentially the most beginner friendly units. Through their skills and ults they all provide a sort of “get out of jail free” card if you get in a bad spot. I personally use Shayol over anyone else!
They're not Chinese, they're just foreign exchange students or white people speaking perfect Chinese for fun. Cheats also don't exist in Naraka, it's the only game you literally cannot write a plugin for. You're just racist/git gud/skill issue.
? how tf am i racist?
im quoting the fucking steam reviews. i never said i held this opinion?
I'm literally joking. What I posted is what all the $1 per day plugin paypigs will typically reply with if you allege that cheating even exists in this game. The Steam reviews are correct.
oh. i see.
sorry. autistic so i couldnt really tell
I don’t see anyone mentioning smurfing. Yes, there’s plenty of it I’ve experienced first hand with my chamber.
Also, I get that it’s a top 50 game on steam but you also have to remember: -There’s several servers —Then, there’s PvP vs PvE and idle (lobby area/training).
PvP has at least 3 game modes available at any given point. 1. Ranked 2. Quick Match 4. Bot Mode 5. Capture the Spirit Well 6. Bloodbath
PvE has 1. Yama (50 different levels) 2. Campaign (3 difficulties x 11 stages) 3. Doom (5 stages) 4. Enigma
So while the game can be a top 50, if you’re looking to queue up with a random team, at level 13 Yama for example, can be near impossible.
Most ppl just want to get a high ranking and if you’re not at their level, team building goes out the window (that’s why I dislike that showdown is now ranked). Prior, yes the levels were grindy, but you could more easily find players to complete stages. With Yama, levels are repetitive and if you don’t have a team, your best bet is to just solo it but there’s nothing interesting about grinding the exact same thing hundreds of times by yourself, IMO.
Literally top 10 everyday and you worry about state of the game? This game rivals in players base of Apex Legends .
Just what seems to be empty on US/EU servers because cultural difference between Asian and Western gamer.
Asian Gamers likes hard games that Needs skills and brains . Western gamer like to pull a trigger and call it a day.
Thats why we have full of players in All Asian servers and the rest of western world is whining too hard.
Time to change your mindsets.
but shouldn't a game actually be...yknow, fun?
I doubt i'd be having fun if some chinese uber god one shots me if i so much as breathe in his direction.
need skill and brains, yes. but it should still remain fun, and not just loading in to bots and 3 sweatlords.
what a toxic, reductionistic mindset you have yourself! XD
This game is the most fun I had . Hard, challenging and rewarding to just got a kill. Need teamwork combos to win team fights.
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17d
I had never seen such activity in asian servers of naraka and there is only 2 hackers within 6 months of playing compare to Apex where there are hackers in any servers on daily basis.
Naraka have zero pay to win mechanic, not even like apex which have ads skins that making aim easier. You haven't even try this game and spewing BS.
And central Chinese servers are not in international clients. We don't speak Chinese mostly in SEA/AS servers.
Naraka's pay to win mechanic is called "buying third party plugins".
Ok show me proof.
I literally just started playing this game like 4-5 days ago on EU server. I only play quick match so far and the wait time is just about 2-3 minutes. Idk if those include bots or not
At start you will see bots
In my experience (EU server) yes there are a lot of bots at the beggining and during the times when most people dont play (like mornings). BUT matchmaking tends to be bad and you get matched with people way above your rank which sometimes discourages people from playing more. Overall, I'd recommend giving it a go and deciding for yourself if you like it or not :)
I’m fairly new to the game but I’m having a great time. Bots or not. So many different game modes plus showdown. I play a lot of the bot mode for general practice or working on cultivation. In ranked sometimes it seems like it’s a lot of bots but if you survive long enough they usually kill themsleves off in the shadow storm. Game is free but I’ve spent at least $70ish because I think the game is worth the cosmetics and stuff. Try it yourself and then make a decision.
Def a lot of bots. Like a lot a lot. But they can be tough and give you problems. I still encounter bots in my solar games. My main gripes are that some modes never have people (like shadow surge) so i never get to play those. And some matches seem like there are teamers (particularly in trios in my experience) - it's rare that I run into people as it is, so whenever I come across 2 teams at once... yeah seems odd to me.
The combat though makes it my favorite pvp game
The honest truth is Naraka is basically a pyramid scheme that keeps getting new players to try their luck. It sucks you in with the cool looking combat, movement, skins and overall gameplay but the fundamentals just suck.
If you’re gunna build a house you first need a foundation, you need STABLE and LEVEL ground to work with. The same thing applies to a good PvP game in my opinion. Naraka is a good house on the surface, until you walk inside and see your floors caved in, soaked with water and slowly rotting away because they didn’t first make the ground level before they started building. I’m not even gunna get into the specifics, everyone knows the endless amounts of issues it has yet they choose to defend it on here month after month.
I’ve played since day 1 release on PS5, I waited 2 years for the game to come to PlayStation. I’ve spent just under a thousand hours of my life maxing out on PvE and PvP, I have thoroughly played the game. It’s sad to say but the games honestly not even worth it, it’s never ending bullshit day in and day out. I’ve spent maybe 4 hours on there in the last 4 months.
What you say is true for literally every successful online multiplayer games. What do you expect?
Run TF away as fast as possible if you are going to ply on the NA servers. It is a dumpster fire. If you are going to play in the PVE or against bots to kill some time at least you can get updates on your quests that way but if you want to PVP this game is a joke. Lag abusers,cheaters that go along with the worst matchmaking I have ever seen.
I have said it once I will say it again if everything was on an even playing field fun game,very enjoyable. It isn’t and to make it worst I am on west coast and I play against the same names over and over again. Dead game over here and not worth spit
Come play at asian servers , they are always full.
Bots, yes. Until you hit about solar in ranked there’s lots of bots. People say it like it ruins the game but trust me you don’t want to be fighting the top players you’ll learn less than you do rolling bots. And some bots actually have some pretty nasty input reads so you do sometimes have to adapt in order to take them out.
Chinese players on bad ping, yes and no. Recent update made combos non-functional over 120 ping. This has caused some players to stop server hoping. Others are continuing to send out blue focus attacks which are virtually impossible to parry because of that ping difference. There are lots of players with foreign usernames but not all of them are server hopping or using a lag switch.
On that token I have only encountered 3 definitely actually cheating players in 900 hours. Soft cheats like auto parry or combo might be more frequent, but for cheating cheating just those 3.
I like the game. My main complaint is the parry netcode right now as it can be extremely frustrating. I have some tutorials on YouTube with the channel Bootleg_Gaming if you want to check them out. Give the game a whirl, it’s free so there’s nothing to lose but some time.