Wizard101 Empyrea Part 2 Test Realm Bugs & Feedback

As I'm sure you're aware, Empyrea Part 2 has been released on the Test Realm! From the looks of things, everyone - myself included - has really enjoyed the latest world and conclusion to the third arc. Sometimes we have have so much fun that we forget what the Test Realm is for - testing! Here are some bugs with Empyrea Part 2, as well as some of my feedback and suggestions. Warning: spoilers ahead!

I don't know that KingsIsle has ever taken any feedback about appearances, graphics, pacing, or story, but I'll be offering the feedback anyway. They definitely take input on a lot of quantitative elements like spell damage and effects. Let's get right into it.

Empyrea Part 2 World & Story

• The Council of Light showing up in the Arcanum (plus Merle's animations) look great!
• The Springs Eternal could exist without being the source of all water in the Spiral and yet another surprise way to destroy it. I'm not quite sure how water from within one sphere would somehow supply all of the others.
• Mandalla is missing a map.
• An updated world map for Empyrea is missing.
• Samsura Village is beautiful! I wish we could retain the original design and feel even after completing the story.
• The portals and the Reverie in general are really creative and a lot of fun. I wish we didn't rush so much through Samsura and the Reverie. Both could use a few more quests - even filler quests. I also wish we got to enter the Temple of Light with the Life and Death Paradox Chain.
• The Dream Hive can be entered before speaking to The Curator or getting the appropriate quest.

• Raven having poisoned Bartleby was quite the plot twist. Nicely done!
• I adore The Headmaster fight not just because it's an iconic character, but also because it's a challenging battle that you can blindly walk into and figure out. You don't need a ton of guides or preparation, but it still isn't easy.
• The Dream Jabberwock seems to be sizing up and down and can appear different in different game windows (i.e. one might be normal-sized and in another game window he appears larger).
• The world order puzzle was great!
• During the confrontation with Dream Belloq, his dialogue is named only "Belloq" where the rest of it has the full "Dream Belloq" name.
• "I'm not hungry right now" had me rolling! Very funny!
• The naming of locations in Empyrea Part 2 is really confusing. We've got the Reverie but it's called the Nexus, Mandalla but it's Samsura Village, Neumia but it's Nimbus, etc.
• Sparck calls the ship in Zanadu an airship. The far less technically-inclined Captain Thuria calls it a seemingly more tech-savvy name, an Aeroship, which it is consistently referred to as from that point forward. This discrepancy doesn't make sense. Sparck should say "Aeroship."
• The Tumbler seems to be a bit of an enigma to defeat. I'm not sure why the resistance is still so high in offense mode.
• The map for "Nimbus Hanger" should be spelled "Nimbus Hangar," as should any quest goals or other UI with the name on it.
• Josiah calls them the "Aero Plains" but the maps label them as "Aeroplains." I'm not sure if it's one word or two, but pick one or the other. It looks like you use "Aero Plains" in the crowns purchasing pop-up and the quest goals, so I'd say change the maps.
• The Aero Plains are really beautiful!
• I wish that assistants in battle gave more relevant bonuses to make it feel like we were actually getting some help. Mellori's healing boost is probably the best, but could be better. Others should be bumped up to more substantial numbers. Pork giving 3% accuracy, for example, when he's "aiding us in battle" just doesn't do it for me.
• Goal Complete: Follow the Ox Alarm to Dark Cloud Base appears to complete twice. Is this intentional?
• The Aero Plains are where the story starts to feel really well-paced. Up until that, things are a little quick. A few additional quests could help early on.

• Vanitus being evil and Helena being Sparck's mother were cool twists, if not a little predictable upon meeting the characters.
• I like the little cutscene with the Admiral, but it seems like a little bit of a missed opportunity for some more destruction showcasing. It's a major story event and it doesn't live up to the Temple of Light encounter in Empyrea Part 1 at all.
• Dynt as the Admiral was unexpected! I'm glad it wasn't a random new character.
• Mellori's updated appearance is used for her icon early on, such as in the Nexus. I would think you'd want to use her old icon until her character transformation.
• The Bat battle was fun. Are we intended to use Shadow spells as he says? Currently, any spell counts.
• After The Bat fight, The Bat has a line of dialogue ("...") that has no portrait.
• Grandmother Raven's astral projection needs to be consistent in size. The two times she shows up in the Chaos Jungle, she's a completely different size and the end of her body is in the ground. 
• The Reverie Map doesn't look like the others - is it sketched or just a shot of the models?
• When Dynt casts what I believe is Backdraft, it says "+%" with no value.
• You really nailed the environments on this one. I wish the Chaos Jungle were a little more unique, but the overall diversity and beauty of what you've created is really wonderful.
• Despite the Streamportal being present in the Chaos Jungle, it does not show up on as an option to portal to from other locations.

Voiceovers & Dialogue

• Merle's line, "You Arcanum 'Scholars' have no right to make unilateral decisions that effect the outcome of the entire Spiral" should use "affect" instead of "effect."
• So many of Pork and Beans' lines are great. They're fantastic characters.
• In one of the Reverie dungeons, Grandfather Spider is still listed as "Old Cob" on the dialogue. Given that Raven in her minor and full forms is named Grandmother Raven in the dialogue, shouldn't Grandfather Spider be the same, since his identity is already revealed?
• Mellori's line in the Nexus is "In the beginning, Raven loved Spider. Even after the First World broke, ..." We've been seeing it typed "FirstWorld" in the past few worlds, but it was "First World" before that. Which is it? Consistency? Vanitus also says "First World" later on, as does Grandfather Spider. You might go back in previous worlds and fix how that's written.

• The Tumbler's line, "You are not welcome here! Lord Bat has specifically decreed no Alphoi, no Nimbari, no brain things, no spiders and NO WIZARDS!" needs an Oxford comma!
• Ariadne's line, "... trying sabotage our weapons ..." is probably intended to say "... trying to sabotage our weapons ..."
• Helena's line that begins with "Vanitus is the subversive. ..." does not have a period at the end after the word "technology."
• Ug the troll is the only NPC to use a lowercase "dwarves" and not a capitalized "Dwarves" like all other dialogue.
• Sheriff Etta has two consecutive lines of dialogue that contradict each other. First, "This person fights too smart for a Myth Monster" noting that our fighting style is apparently the one thing that distinguishes us from such monsters. Then directly after, she says, "Well, you may not be a monster, but you sure fight like one."

WhirlyBurly

• I think a lot of people's biggest problem here was that at the end, you NEED a "Finish" button or something to indicate that the game is done that is available before all of the ending camera moves. I and others assumed you just hit "Exit" and then we lost progress. That can be really frustrating.
• The bunks and team gear sold by the Coach seem to have an extra line under their names.
• I assume there are supposed to be some badges as indicated by the coach selling badge-restricted items, but no progress toward badges is made and the badges required are not listed on the items.
• Taking screenshots during the game can ruin your ability to keep up with and see what you're doing. It's like it lags the camera motions and all of the sudden you're trying to choose directions from off-screen.

• Whenever a Scrapper moves, his hat doesn't quite seem to keep up and creates a weird-looking glitch.
• For some reason in one of my games after updates were made to WhirlyBurly, when Red walked over spaces, they would not change color, just remain as the green grass underneath.
• The UI for watching/spectating a game looks like it could use a little work.
• It would be nice if you could team up with just two players and the third would be a random player or just the computer. Not everyone has exactly three people around all the time.
• The game as a whole is a little long. I get that you want to give enough time to fill the board and take over spaces, but the time limits are about right so the only way I can see to cut down on time is to decrease the number of rounds. Have you tried it with only 6 rounds?

Level 125 Spells

• Thanks for listening to feedback and making some updates! Death's update is pretty good (still not good for much PvE). Ice is perfect now. Life's update is pretty solid at the back end, though the base heal isn't very good and I'm still not sure they couldn't use an attack. Only 1200 healing is nothing compared to 860 from Satyr for just four pips. It ought to be triple that without a condition to really be in line with past spells. Even the doubling of healing hardly lives up to that.
• Storm's condition is the only one that is non-interactive with an opponent - they can't work to counter the condition itself. Whereas Fire and Balance have to commit pips and turns to spells to use their Scion, Storm needs to simply do nothing. This isn't a fair or balanced trigger, and has been acknowledged by some Storm wizards.
• For more extensive feedback, check out my post here.

The Husk / Ending

• N/A - Will be updated following the release of the ending. (It'd be great if we get it more than just 3 days before live release so that we can actually offer feedback.)

Other

• The level 130 crafted gear, particularly the hats and boots, look pretty good. Thanks for some crafted gear that could really be worthwhile!
• Why does the reagent vendor in one of the greatest cities in Empyrea offer fewer reagents than a robot in Celestia? Shouldn't he offer something unique, or at least more options?
• Why have the Nimbarian Gifts shop to sell just one item with terrible stats?
• All of Empyrea's badges seem to be currently uncategorized.
• You have at least two items with the same name: Choice Kalamar Deck (a Balance and a general deck at the moment).
• The level 130 title is great!
• All of the level 130+ Zanadu dropped wands have some kind of odd box in the title like they're missing a character.
• The level 130+ Zanadu mastery amulet drops for Balance and the universal version seem to have their cards swapped - Balancespear is on the universal one, and Dragonspear is on the Balance one.
• Narrowly missing selecting a target with your spell will result in your target options staying highlighted for the duration of the round.
• All of the Husk-related music scrolls seem to have an extra space after "Husk."

What do you think of Empyrea Part 2?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!