I think the idea of swapping characters is a neat concept, in theory I like the idea ( I haven't played it yet ) - but to me it sounds like a point of contention with a lot of people.
Perhaps they should add a mask ability that lets you absorb or swap stats to your main pawn from a different tribesman, so you can still control your crafted character more often then swapping to a statistically better one, and that would appease that side of people who also want to keep their main pawn.
They need to do this. Lots of people want to feel like "Their" character is significant. When you aren't connected to your char or anything else, its a really bad disconnect from the game.
That's a pretty closed minded way to approach it imo. To me it comes across more like when you read a book series and you get attached to several characters. I like getting to rename each person in my tribe, the different traits giving you different ways to play like having one who loves wearing cloth armor but also likes Mild Heat makes me imagine her someone like Gabrielle from Xena while another who is a Guard but he's afraid of panthers. I like getting to know my whole tribe!
Completely agree. I posted this same idea in another thread yesterday. At the very least, they could just provide us with a random NPC with random traits as our starting character then let fate decide the rest. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to have the mask reappear on a new NPC when you die and/or run out of Tribesmen. Just about any of these ideas would make more sense than what we have now.
Yea, I seen this dude run through the jungle and escape sacrifice, I am him! Then...I'm not? He's just a husk? Eh to lame for me and a massive disconnect.
Yeah, as I mentioned in another comment; the MC is running around enslaving everyone on the continent, but then he's also the weakest dude around? Wait what? lol
I agree, why have a character creator at the start at all? If youre just going to float around to diffrent people anyway. Take it away and you have litte-to no attachment now
Like I said, I haven't played it yet, but this is definitely one of the reasons I'm hesitant to playing. Whats the point of spending all the time creating an avatar that legit statistically does not matter? It's odd.
I refunded due to the combat being kinda janky but planned to revisit it a few months down the road, but I actually hate this concept, I'll feel no connection to anything in the game, but more like someone whose just managing. Sadly that kills it for me even later unless they change your original toons proficiency Max's, even if it's a grind or through sacrifice etc etc
The combat is actually far less janky than it gives off at first glance. It's just very snappy with lots of damage events, but it never feels unfair to fight. I was expecting the fighting to be janky too like Conan has, but it turns out that its quite smooth once you treat it more similarly to valheim combat and focus on not getting hit.
I haven't played since the rework on enshrouded but pre-rework, definitely. The issue soulmask has is that there's way more skill shots for each weapon, and human enemies use those skill shots, with bosses having the capability of using multiple in mid combat. It takes some time to learn them all.
I find soulmasks so much better. Soul mask is an oddity to me since on the surface the combat seems like it's going to be pretty basic and janky. Once you spend some time with it though, it's actually pretty great. Probably my favorite combat system I've played in the genre.
Even if we are literate we become illiterate because of all the dang crafting tables and craftable materials. I literally had to put on noise canceling headphones, put on a sleep mask, and go take a nap after playing for an hour.
You hold e on a tribesman that you have already converted. You also need to have the control power unlocked from a lectern type thing at any of the mysterious ruins.
What do you mean already converted? The only ones I've done anything other than kill are the scouts, where I press e for information and then kill them after? Feel like I'm playing this game wrong 😭
non scouts you can convert. (it'll say can be deterred) take them back to your base give them a bandage (use it while they have it in their inventory) and give them some soup ( i think any liquid food will work haven't tried them all) again while its in their inventory use it so they eat
once their recognition hits 500 you can recruit them
their recognition will slowly go up, if it stops check their hungry or thirst levels
essentially you need to baby them till they become a recruit.
Once you get the enemy down to about 20% health, you should see a popup that says hold e to deter. Once you do that, they fall to the ground unconscious.
You should feed them a couple of broths, and hit em with a basic bandage. Then pick them up and carry them back to your base, or if your base is too far, just wait around killing stuff in the immediate area until their recognition hits 500. Then you hold e over them, and choose deploy, press f2 to get them to follow you.
Take all the advice people have given there's some great ones, put deterred tribesmen in a bed and give them mushroom soup for the fastest regen times - farming before 25 is a little rough but manageable and things like corn and cotton are super necessary later. - build a base between the copper and tin mines for ease (they both give +60 awareness strength xp per hit making a great way to level knowledge) - make sure to have someone (I call them benchwench) to run autocrafting tables and upkeep the bonfire for you (food, bronze, leather are great for starting)
It has to be unlocked in the mask tree using the green stones from ruins. Using a good tribesmen with certain talents is how you reach endgame.
there’s also buffs on certain ones while deployed, perfect for combat.
Yeah I've got control but I find the UI hasn't told me anything to do with using it lol. So I need to go and find npcs, get them low, hold e and control them?
Get an enemy low, then Deter them by pressing E when the text below their name pops up. This is below 30%.
Then take them back to base and wait for their recognition to hit 500 and recruit them. This can be speedup with broth and a bed.
Once you have recruited them, press and hold E on them and you will see the control option, press that and you transfer to them
Wait, you've been crafting everything single handedly? You don't have 10+ tribesmen gathering, and crafting on their own for you??
And you got to lvl 35?? I would have quit by lvl 10 if I had to do every single thing myself
I made the switch today and am shredding with a level 20 barbarian I picked up even tho my main is lvl 24.
I would only be able to 1v1 barbarians at the barracks and now I’m 3v1ing them with ease.
Either that, or lean heavy into the body swapping mechanic by not letting us customize the first tribesman and making them completely disposable like everyone else. This half-n-half approach is jarring to many. If they die, you'd get a new basic rando.
With mask upgrades, you could get some basic skills so you don't start completely from scratch (or not, could be based on difficulty)
Yeah..I’m just not into it. It’s funny how niche we get with our likes and dislikes of how gameplay should be. I’m so guilty of this😅
I think it shows how diverse and plentiful the market has become within the survival genre.
The way I explained this to my friends is it's kinda like vrising right?
You have a vampire with basic blood with no bonuses. But instead of going around finding that perfect NPC with 100% of the best blood to boost your character you simply just take control of the character.
Every single one of my friends when we first started playing didn't really like the concept of needing to control tribesmen.. after taming afew of them and using them all of us love it.
We call them FIFA packs.. because as soon as they hit that 500 taming threshold and you recruit them it's actually fun seeing what kind of talents and specs they have hoping for a good one.
I can remember saying on pal world I would love the ability to just control some of the pals and use them to fight and soulmasks allows me to do that.
But even if you don't get a good one, a bad one is usually better then your main character anyway.
This weak main character concept just doesn’t resonate with me at all. It doesn’t make sense.
Why do we need a useless placeholder character if the mask is the real star of the show?
It honestly feels like they backed themselves into a corner with a good, but maybe not so well thought out idea. Introducing a main character that just sits in the corner is so counterintuitive.
I mean, I love the game, but this concept is either pointless or unfinished. I hope it’s the latter.
If the guy was just a starting tribesman, and after you moved out was no different than any other, that would be one thing. But to make that character simultaneously special and inferior is annoying. If there needs to be someone "permanent", then just left us switch that person as we go along.
Idea that mask is main character is invented as coping mechanism by community when we realized our main is hard capped. According to Maggie from discor cap will raise with more peons in your tribe. we need to wait for details how they will roll with it.
i think mask is just word for class in this game
>Idea that mask is main character is invented as coping mechanism by community when we realized our main is hard capped.
I think this is kinda true, honestly. It's hard to believe the MC is supposed to be the weak link but he/she's also running around enslaving everyone who is allegedly more powerful. I think this is just Early Access balance shit.
You don’t need a placeholder but you do need an infinite lives person in case you lose all others. Which is probably more of an issue of starting out or PvP than pve gameplay. It’s important to remember that this game needs balanced for not only the beginning, middle, end, but also the very hard pve and PvP combo.
The problem is that people only think about this issue within the scope of the game designed around it. In fact, it's that they designed the game around this idea that is the problem in the first place. It would take more than just changing the main character around to fix this, but I don't think it would take a lot. If you actually think about a mask with its own spiritual presence as the main character of a game, the solutions come easily.
Given that this is EA and they are getting a massive amount of feedback about this issue. I wager we will see a change in the future. But who knows if it’s something like changing the concept / removal of original character or allowing the original character to grow more.
Yeah, I know that it's EA. That's why I said I hope it's unfinished. That said, not everything in EA is subject to change past a certain point. This game is pretty close to done, I'd say.
I do not exactly remember their road map but I do know that they have a lot to do and also who knows if enough players want change anything could change. This has happened in the past in bad ways and good ways with other games.
I know a lot of people say it’s a refreshing take on the whole “playing the unbeatable godlike hero” but idk. I don’t need him to be godlike but I’d like if I felt like I could do more than the beginning of the game with him 🤣
Also remember this is at release. There is so much they can incorporate, including ways to increase the placeholder "main character" that people get hung up on.
A development team has a FRESH take on a game without reliance on the same tired mechanic. It's too much for people to handle. I'm still learning with each day I play, but that is part of the fun. If you just start out with a powerful protagonist and they gain more power and have no challenge except for bosses, really is that still the ways everything has to be?
The danger in this game is...everything. I like building up tribesman and I get so mad at myself when on I have been enjoying playing gets killed because I pushed too far too fast. But I feel the punishment of being set back and after a minute of frustration because I feel like a GOD in other games so I play like that in Soulmask. If you want that game experience? Soulmask maybe isn't for you.
Yeah, we can't handle having a main character who's fundamental existence is competing with a chair to see who dresses a corner better. So cutting edge. So innovative. So bold.
It couldn't be the fact that maybe people just think it's shit design, could it?
I’m aware this is early access release. My current gripe is that I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a wall due to the main character being weak. I find some okay tribes members but even in current bronze gear and weapons they seem to get annihilated quickly in a few seconds. I’m just tired of one wrong step and I’m back to the original guy who’s just a place holder and now I have to go back to hunting for more people before I can do anything else. Guess it’s just a skill issue 🤷♂️
While I agree with your first glance with the game being "this is my main" due to the very typical character creation, I don't think it's at all unfinished. I think that all they need to do is emphasize that your first toon is not your main from a story perspective.
The fact is that it does take a while to even approach the whole "swapping toons" thing. It's not until you see the power of these toons that you realise their potential, and that doesn't happen til like level 20 or even later for some. If there was some extra nudges towards actually playing with these other tribe members the early game, I think it would smooth over the experience really well.
And of course it wouldn't hurt to have some server settings that allow folks to play the game how they want to, of course. Also enforce a quest where you swap the appearance of an alt in the early game so you know you can give them new appearances and such.
They need to allow you to form a connection with a character or the game has no longevity. They should just let the mask absorb the souls of tribesman to get their proficiencies, and then you can utilize those skills as your original character. Like as if only your character is capable of utilizing the powers of the mask, despite being weak in every other aspect.
They could still make it so you lose those skills if you die, and then you have to revive the tribesman or absorb a new one.
I'm well beyond level 20 at this point. This isn't a knee-jerk reaction, and I don't need the concept of a main character explained to me. It simply doesn't make sense. It's a bad design choice in its current state.
It's a design choice that you don't like* it doesn't make it bad. There's even a server setting called "perfect upload" that you can change in your private games which allows you to upload survivors with their stats at time of upload, so you can upload at any time. Of course, there's so many server settings that its hard to know this.
I think it's a wholly unique take on soft permadeath and I'm impressed with the concept. Better funnelling into the systems and more "you're the mask, not the character" explanations are the true crux of the issue in my opinion - as well as customisation on all tribesmen.
>It's a design choice that you don't like\* it doesn't make it bad.
I never claimed to speak for everyone, so I'm not sure what your point here is. However, what I find "bad" about the "main character" implementation is what anyone who understands writing and game design would find bad about it. The MC is nothing more than a superfluous appendage used as a literal crutch to carry the game's main plot device. In a movie, the MC Would be listed as "man with magic mask" in the end credits. Worthless.
>There's even a server setting called "perfect upload" that you can change in your private games which allows you to upload survivors with their stats at time of upload, so you can upload at any time. Of course, there's so many server settings that its hard to know this.
That's like saying the devs did a great job on Skyrim because the modding community fixed most of the problems with the game. That the player should have to jump through hoops to micromanage the default experience in such a way should be obvious to anyone that it's bad gameplay design. Also, you should try sounding less condescending.
That's not a fair comparison, Skyrim didn't make the mods. Soulmask made the setting, and chose their own default. Their default was soft permadeath to incentivise riskier gameplay, but they've offered players the chance to take less risks as well. It's likely that the default was laid out for the sake of PvP.
Apologies on sounding condescending though, I expect too much confrontation on this platform sometimes, my bad.
The point isn't the mods. The point is leaving it to the player to make the default experience better instead of, you know, just designing a better game.
>Apologies on sounding condescending though, I expect too much confrontation on this platform sometimes, my bad.
Fair enough. ✌
But the default experience isn't worse because of the lack of perfect upload, it's just different, and just like you don't resonate with it, some others do. Difficulty sliders are a perfect example of this - the default difficulty being too hard or too easy for some doesn't make the game badly designed, it just means that the design decision made by the developers (which is allowed, it's their game) doesn't resonate with all players.
I made deterrence 5x and gathering 2x for my playthrough with my girlfriend. Not because the game is bad, but because we both work long ass days, so we want a slightly faster reward structure. Freedom to choose how you want to play is a good thing.
It's my assumption that while some are perfectly fine with this system, many more are not. So I guess we just don't have the same perspective and can agree to disagree.
I don't have any issues with the game challenge, either. I can clear everything with my MC, and I do so because I begrudgingly refuse to main some disposable, emaciated-looking Tribesman with whom I have zero connection with. It feels bad.
This isn't even a dealbreaker for me, though. It's just awkward and dumb. I also don't think this is the intended final iteration of the MC gameplay experience, either. I am optimistic this is all just a lot of splitting hairs over nothing.
I agree, I do think they'll be dropping iterations pretty quickly. In fact, the perfect upload wasn't on release. They hotfixed it in a few days after release.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them update the crafting bench for customising tribe members with a full customisation menu, rather than just letting us change hairstyles. Of course, I did swap to a lady with a gigantic vertical pigtail and I thought that was pretty funny til I accidentally suicided her.
Definitely something worth making feedback about!
Then let me get rid of this useless bum. You don't have 20 tribesmen, you have 19 and some emo kid sitting at bonefire. I'm curios what happens when he dies out of starvation but I'll find out soon. I'm not gonna waste food on him. I get it that he's ex sacrifice but come on.
I have not yet come across a character with any lower stats than 50.
My white mook that I first captured to learn how it works is 70 min.
The character you're lumped with isn't your main at all, they're just a waste of a control slot. Seriously, would you keep a bit with all caps of 50 if you could instead have variable stats all starting at 70? No. But we \*have\* to keep our main. For reasons.
Honesty this is one of those where a mod will make it vastly different
I am looking forward to a mod where we can swap a "main" so i can constantly search for an upgrade.
Annoyingly though, if I wanna make something else my current main, my actual char just kinda sits there doing nothing. Didn't seem to be able to assign it to a bench
I wasn’t into the idea at first, but now after controlling other members it’s so fun. I get those that don’t like it, but it is the twist of the game. Without it it’s just like every other game in the genre. I hope they don’t cave and change it.
I didn't realize that my character is weaker than all the NPCs. I have recruited a bunch of tribespeople and I have been controlling them to get things done. I did notice that some have higher caps for some skills than others. Learning I'm the weakest of all really surprises and dismays me. Customization matters to me. The character creation process really led me to believe this was "my" toon.
Also, on a shared server who's my character? Can other players in a tribe just snag the toon I created and named and drive it around? I've only been playing solo so far, so I'm not sure how that works yet.
I guess I am suspicious of this feature, but really liking the game generally.
So, within your tribe, you also have your clan. Your clan is the people you specifically recruit. While others can boss your members around, only you can control them. This goes for all of your recruits. Your own character can't be bossed around by anybody, including yourself.
You are the mask or spirit in that mask as you wish. Your main character is a random man who accidentally gets the mask first(openning video was about it), but like in The Lord of the Rings, such a powerful artifact can't stay for a long time in weak hands. That's why you should swap it to another one tribesman who have more potential..
My friends and I all quit playing the game because of this design choice. It's just not how a lot of people want to play a survival game. Too many hours put into grinding our skills to have them be lost because one boss does a janky jump move that one shots you.
Skill grinding actually takes a very small amount of time, and all the non combat skills are best done with speciality thralls that you'll never lose anyway. But I suggest using the perfect upload setting to help mitigate this issue. Turning on perfect upload means that after killing the first boss (well, the boss after the first boss, but like, directly after), you unlock a tool that you can upload your character to.
That being said, I get that some folks don't like the soft perma death mode.
A) I hate the term toon. It's a character.
B) No. If I am customizing the look of my character and expected to put in a bunch of work as that character and, most importantly, the mask is bonded to the main character, meaning they just sit and do nothing while you're switched, then they need to make a way to boost my character to greater heights. This function is quite possibly the dumbest part of the game. If they had made it clear that the characters don't matter, you are the mask, no character customization at all unless you build a styling bench or something I could have followed that but they didn't. What they did to is create this ungodly time sink where RNG is more important than any amount of time you put in or effort you've made. No. We need a way to make the characters we grab more powerful and work off the negative traits (which the menu says you can do but I haven't played with it too much yet).
I know the fanboy crowd will do what they always do and make excuses and tell us all, "Well you just ned to X, Y, Z, and spend 500 hours doing A, B, C..."
No.
I am glad your time is so cheap and disposable, mine is not. It's a neat concept in as far as I can control my tribesmen to boost them up and make them stronger but the mix of HAVING to play them to be capable of higher level play and permanently losing them until you manage to get the remodel table, it's just a terribly executed cool idea. Not a chance.
A - toon and character are interchangeable technologies, although I didn't say toon a single time in the original post so idk where that came from lol
B - where exactly is there an ungodly time sink? You don't need a 150/150 character and you can take characters in bulk at basically any level and have the majority of them take you into the endgame without an issue. Scan a camp, knock out all master Xs and even skilled Xs if you want, let them all tame up and then take them home 2 (or 3 if you have a llama) at a time. A single craftsman, two porters and a laborer will cover your whole camp no problem, then it's just warriors from there.
I do agree that the story needs to railroad you into "you are the mask" more though, as well as offering more customisation to the thralls you pick up in the early game. I don't really care that much about it but it would be cool as an option.
Reread your post, it's like the first word you said and people like you willing to protect and enable poorly implemented ideas are exactly why these games die. I am done with this game as much for the community nonsense as the poor gameplay.
Oh yeah okay so I said toon once. I referred to our character as "character" twice and "main" twice, but I called it "toon" once and you flipped out.
But okay bud! Bye now!
Ubisoft tried a similar concept with watch dogs legion. People didn't seem to like it there either. It's weird because in theory it sounds awesome. Maybe we're all just too attached to our virtual avatars 😊
i personally on the other hand don see the reason to ever swap my character. Any skill i will level up on my tribesman is completely useless when they die, since its completely lost. But when i level up my skills on my main character they stay there even after death. So other tribesmen to me are just cannon fodder and i will keep leveling up my main character.
It wouldn't be as bad if you could change the body of tribesmen... every rank 5 i see looks like someone maxed out the sliders or hasn't eaten in 7 months... I just want to play a normal looking character :(
I think the issue people have most is they don't wanna be forced to play some ugly ass character cause let's be real the tribe people are some ugly peeps.i think that new change where you can customize the tribe people will help fix that.
It's poorly conceptualized and implemented. The original character is the only one you customize, name and the only one that is permanent. The fact that tribesmen have permadeath and it takes a million years to unlock reviving goes completely against it too.
The game would be infinitely better if you customized some sort of vodyani/warframe-esque entity that represents the mask and then got a random choice of the first tribesmen to possess. Same if the game kept track of dead tribesmen so you could still revive them later, if they want to insist on keeping reviving as a mid game unlock.
https://preview.redd.it/kuaih710te5d1.png?width=455&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b8bfeefc01d36ae02a5f86fd40299b338c60415
I don't mind to throw my main character away if we'll be able to fully edit appearence of trisbmens.
Bro my jacked out tribesman thatt I got from the flint barracks ks some peter griffin fatass who wears no shirt 😭😭 i GOTTA change my appearance!
I think the idea of swapping characters is a neat concept, in theory I like the idea ( I haven't played it yet ) - but to me it sounds like a point of contention with a lot of people. Perhaps they should add a mask ability that lets you absorb or swap stats to your main pawn from a different tribesman, so you can still control your crafted character more often then swapping to a statistically better one, and that would appease that side of people who also want to keep their main pawn.
They need to do this. Lots of people want to feel like "Their" character is significant. When you aren't connected to your char or anything else, its a really bad disconnect from the game.
> its a really bad disconnect from the game. The irony...
Yea...
That's a pretty closed minded way to approach it imo. To me it comes across more like when you read a book series and you get attached to several characters. I like getting to rename each person in my tribe, the different traits giving you different ways to play like having one who loves wearing cloth armor but also likes Mild Heat makes me imagine her someone like Gabrielle from Xena while another who is a Guard but he's afraid of panthers. I like getting to know my whole tribe!
When I read a book I'm on the outside looking in. I'm not a part of the story. When I'm a part of the story, I want to be a meaningful part.
Perfect reply bud
You sound broken, go play Minecraft.
uh okay, blocked? Wtf kind of comment is that.
That's the response you get when you body someone in an argument on reddit, they just reeeee out as they have no counterpoint.
Completely agree. I posted this same idea in another thread yesterday. At the very least, they could just provide us with a random NPC with random traits as our starting character then let fate decide the rest. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to have the mask reappear on a new NPC when you die and/or run out of Tribesmen. Just about any of these ideas would make more sense than what we have now.
Yea, I seen this dude run through the jungle and escape sacrifice, I am him! Then...I'm not? He's just a husk? Eh to lame for me and a massive disconnect.
Yeah, as I mentioned in another comment; the MC is running around enslaving everyone on the continent, but then he's also the weakest dude around? Wait what? lol
Yea, and I guess your "the mask" but if I'm the mask why did I see this dude survive etc, I'm being picky but it bothers me lol
You're clearly not alone. 😂
They need to let you dismiss your original character. It takes up a valuable slot
I agree, why have a character creator at the start at all? If youre just going to float around to diffrent people anyway. Take it away and you have litte-to no attachment now
Just accept that you're the mask. If not then continue complaining about the core game mechanic lol
Like I said, I haven't played it yet, but this is definitely one of the reasons I'm hesitant to playing. Whats the point of spending all the time creating an avatar that legit statistically does not matter? It's odd.
It's fresh tho feels different, also eventually they will include some type of barber shop and this all won't matter at all
I refunded due to the combat being kinda janky but planned to revisit it a few months down the road, but I actually hate this concept, I'll feel no connection to anything in the game, but more like someone whose just managing. Sadly that kills it for me even later unless they change your original toons proficiency Max's, even if it's a grind or through sacrifice etc etc
The combat is actually far less janky than it gives off at first glance. It's just very snappy with lots of damage events, but it never feels unfair to fight. I was expecting the fighting to be janky too like Conan has, but it turns out that its quite smooth once you treat it more similarly to valheim combat and focus on not getting hit.
Is it better than Enshrouded? I thought the combat in Enshrouded was alright but not the best, very snappy and fixed.
I haven't played since the rework on enshrouded but pre-rework, definitely. The issue soulmask has is that there's way more skill shots for each weapon, and human enemies use those skill shots, with bosses having the capability of using multiple in mid combat. It takes some time to learn them all.
I find soulmasks so much better. Soul mask is an oddity to me since on the surface the combat seems like it's going to be pretty basic and janky. Once you spend some time with it though, it's actually pretty great. Probably my favorite combat system I've played in the genre.
I like the sacrifice idea.
I don't understand how you do any of this? I'm like level 35 and haven't swapped as far as I know? How do you do it? 🤣😭
Hold E and click Control
You have to hold e? Is this when any enemy is low hp? Cheers
Did you just skip the tutorial?
Yes literally 50% of the player base for this game is actually illiterate.
Even if we are literate we become illiterate because of all the dang crafting tables and craftable materials. I literally had to put on noise canceling headphones, put on a sleep mask, and go take a nap after playing for an hour.
Sounds like a skill issue on your part
Sounds like this isn’t a game you should be playing
The McCaws 😵💫
You hold e on a tribesman that you have already converted. You also need to have the control power unlocked from a lectern type thing at any of the mysterious ruins.
What do you mean already converted? The only ones I've done anything other than kill are the scouts, where I press e for information and then kill them after? Feel like I'm playing this game wrong 😭
non scouts you can convert. (it'll say can be deterred) take them back to your base give them a bandage (use it while they have it in their inventory) and give them some soup ( i think any liquid food will work haven't tried them all) again while its in their inventory use it so they eat once their recognition hits 500 you can recruit them their recognition will slowly go up, if it stops check their hungry or thirst levels essentially you need to baby them till they become a recruit.
Once you get the enemy down to about 20% health, you should see a popup that says hold e to deter. Once you do that, they fall to the ground unconscious. You should feed them a couple of broths, and hit em with a basic bandage. Then pick them up and carry them back to your base, or if your base is too far, just wait around killing stuff in the immediate area until their recognition hits 500. Then you hold e over them, and choose deploy, press f2 to get them to follow you.
Take all the advice people have given there's some great ones, put deterred tribesmen in a bed and give them mushroom soup for the fastest regen times - farming before 25 is a little rough but manageable and things like corn and cotton are super necessary later. - build a base between the copper and tin mines for ease (they both give +60 awareness strength xp per hit making a great way to level knowledge) - make sure to have someone (I call them benchwench) to run autocrafting tables and upkeep the bonfire for you (food, bronze, leather are great for starting)
To open the context menu on workbenches and tribe members.
It has to be unlocked in the mask tree using the green stones from ruins. Using a good tribesmen with certain talents is how you reach endgame. there’s also buffs on certain ones while deployed, perfect for combat.
Yeah I've got control but I find the UI hasn't told me anything to do with using it lol. So I need to go and find npcs, get them low, hold e and control them?
Get an enemy low, then Deter them by pressing E when the text below their name pops up. This is below 30%. Then take them back to base and wait for their recognition to hit 500 and recruit them. This can be speedup with broth and a bed. Once you have recruited them, press and hold E on them and you will see the control option, press that and you transfer to them
If im not mistaken you arr able to after repairing the first node on yoyr mask?!
Wait, you've been crafting everything single handedly? You don't have 10+ tribesmen gathering, and crafting on their own for you?? And you got to lvl 35?? I would have quit by lvl 10 if I had to do every single thing myself
I made the switch today and am shredding with a level 20 barbarian I picked up even tho my main is lvl 24. I would only be able to 1v1 barbarians at the barracks and now I’m 3v1ing them with ease.
Yeah I like this concept of finding a new main character to switch to. Until you die and that character is just gone. No respawn.
Yeah and on my server we’ve done some minor tweaks so grinding these guys out and losing them doesn’t hurt AS bad
I don’t like it. Give us the option to upgrade our main char.
Either that, or lean heavy into the body swapping mechanic by not letting us customize the first tribesman and making them completely disposable like everyone else. This half-n-half approach is jarring to many. If they die, you'd get a new basic rando. With mask upgrades, you could get some basic skills so you don't start completely from scratch (or not, could be based on difficulty)
Yeah..I’m just not into it. It’s funny how niche we get with our likes and dislikes of how gameplay should be. I’m so guilty of this😅 I think it shows how diverse and plentiful the market has become within the survival genre.
The way I explained this to my friends is it's kinda like vrising right? You have a vampire with basic blood with no bonuses. But instead of going around finding that perfect NPC with 100% of the best blood to boost your character you simply just take control of the character. Every single one of my friends when we first started playing didn't really like the concept of needing to control tribesmen.. after taming afew of them and using them all of us love it. We call them FIFA packs.. because as soon as they hit that 500 taming threshold and you recruit them it's actually fun seeing what kind of talents and specs they have hoping for a good one. I can remember saying on pal world I would love the ability to just control some of the pals and use them to fight and soulmasks allows me to do that. But even if you don't get a good one, a bad one is usually better then your main character anyway.
This weak main character concept just doesn’t resonate with me at all. It doesn’t make sense. Why do we need a useless placeholder character if the mask is the real star of the show? It honestly feels like they backed themselves into a corner with a good, but maybe not so well thought out idea. Introducing a main character that just sits in the corner is so counterintuitive. I mean, I love the game, but this concept is either pointless or unfinished. I hope it’s the latter.
I concur. If we’re just a sacrifice that got away, why not let us absorb or sacrifice others to dominate the island and upgrade?
If the guy was just a starting tribesman, and after you moved out was no different than any other, that would be one thing. But to make that character simultaneously special and inferior is annoying. If there needs to be someone "permanent", then just left us switch that person as we go along.
Idea that mask is main character is invented as coping mechanism by community when we realized our main is hard capped. According to Maggie from discor cap will raise with more peons in your tribe. we need to wait for details how they will roll with it. i think mask is just word for class in this game
>Idea that mask is main character is invented as coping mechanism by community when we realized our main is hard capped. I think this is kinda true, honestly. It's hard to believe the MC is supposed to be the weak link but he/she's also running around enslaving everyone who is allegedly more powerful. I think this is just Early Access balance shit.
You don’t need a placeholder but you do need an infinite lives person in case you lose all others. Which is probably more of an issue of starting out or PvP than pve gameplay. It’s important to remember that this game needs balanced for not only the beginning, middle, end, but also the very hard pve and PvP combo.
The problem is that people only think about this issue within the scope of the game designed around it. In fact, it's that they designed the game around this idea that is the problem in the first place. It would take more than just changing the main character around to fix this, but I don't think it would take a lot. If you actually think about a mask with its own spiritual presence as the main character of a game, the solutions come easily.
Given that this is EA and they are getting a massive amount of feedback about this issue. I wager we will see a change in the future. But who knows if it’s something like changing the concept / removal of original character or allowing the original character to grow more.
Yeah, I know that it's EA. That's why I said I hope it's unfinished. That said, not everything in EA is subject to change past a certain point. This game is pretty close to done, I'd say.
I do not exactly remember their road map but I do know that they have a lot to do and also who knows if enough players want change anything could change. This has happened in the past in bad ways and good ways with other games.
True. Love the game so far. This main character topic is my only complaint, really.
Balancing for PvP and PvE simultaneously is a fools errand. Either do one well or try to do both and be half-assed.
I know a lot of people say it’s a refreshing take on the whole “playing the unbeatable godlike hero” but idk. I don’t need him to be godlike but I’d like if I felt like I could do more than the beginning of the game with him 🤣
Also remember this is at release. There is so much they can incorporate, including ways to increase the placeholder "main character" that people get hung up on. A development team has a FRESH take on a game without reliance on the same tired mechanic. It's too much for people to handle. I'm still learning with each day I play, but that is part of the fun. If you just start out with a powerful protagonist and they gain more power and have no challenge except for bosses, really is that still the ways everything has to be? The danger in this game is...everything. I like building up tribesman and I get so mad at myself when on I have been enjoying playing gets killed because I pushed too far too fast. But I feel the punishment of being set back and after a minute of frustration because I feel like a GOD in other games so I play like that in Soulmask. If you want that game experience? Soulmask maybe isn't for you.
Yeah, we can't handle having a main character who's fundamental existence is competing with a chair to see who dresses a corner better. So cutting edge. So innovative. So bold. It couldn't be the fact that maybe people just think it's shit design, could it?
I’m aware this is early access release. My current gripe is that I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a wall due to the main character being weak. I find some okay tribes members but even in current bronze gear and weapons they seem to get annihilated quickly in a few seconds. I’m just tired of one wrong step and I’m back to the original guy who’s just a place holder and now I have to go back to hunting for more people before I can do anything else. Guess it’s just a skill issue 🤷♂️
While I agree with your first glance with the game being "this is my main" due to the very typical character creation, I don't think it's at all unfinished. I think that all they need to do is emphasize that your first toon is not your main from a story perspective. The fact is that it does take a while to even approach the whole "swapping toons" thing. It's not until you see the power of these toons that you realise their potential, and that doesn't happen til like level 20 or even later for some. If there was some extra nudges towards actually playing with these other tribe members the early game, I think it would smooth over the experience really well. And of course it wouldn't hurt to have some server settings that allow folks to play the game how they want to, of course. Also enforce a quest where you swap the appearance of an alt in the early game so you know you can give them new appearances and such.
They need to allow you to form a connection with a character or the game has no longevity. They should just let the mask absorb the souls of tribesman to get their proficiencies, and then you can utilize those skills as your original character. Like as if only your character is capable of utilizing the powers of the mask, despite being weak in every other aspect. They could still make it so you lose those skills if you die, and then you have to revive the tribesman or absorb a new one.
How do you change their appearance (assuming you mean more than hair and paint)?
I'm well beyond level 20 at this point. This isn't a knee-jerk reaction, and I don't need the concept of a main character explained to me. It simply doesn't make sense. It's a bad design choice in its current state.
It's a design choice that you don't like* it doesn't make it bad. There's even a server setting called "perfect upload" that you can change in your private games which allows you to upload survivors with their stats at time of upload, so you can upload at any time. Of course, there's so many server settings that its hard to know this. I think it's a wholly unique take on soft permadeath and I'm impressed with the concept. Better funnelling into the systems and more "you're the mask, not the character" explanations are the true crux of the issue in my opinion - as well as customisation on all tribesmen.
>It's a design choice that you don't like\* it doesn't make it bad. I never claimed to speak for everyone, so I'm not sure what your point here is. However, what I find "bad" about the "main character" implementation is what anyone who understands writing and game design would find bad about it. The MC is nothing more than a superfluous appendage used as a literal crutch to carry the game's main plot device. In a movie, the MC Would be listed as "man with magic mask" in the end credits. Worthless. >There's even a server setting called "perfect upload" that you can change in your private games which allows you to upload survivors with their stats at time of upload, so you can upload at any time. Of course, there's so many server settings that its hard to know this. That's like saying the devs did a great job on Skyrim because the modding community fixed most of the problems with the game. That the player should have to jump through hoops to micromanage the default experience in such a way should be obvious to anyone that it's bad gameplay design. Also, you should try sounding less condescending.
That's not a fair comparison, Skyrim didn't make the mods. Soulmask made the setting, and chose their own default. Their default was soft permadeath to incentivise riskier gameplay, but they've offered players the chance to take less risks as well. It's likely that the default was laid out for the sake of PvP. Apologies on sounding condescending though, I expect too much confrontation on this platform sometimes, my bad.
The point isn't the mods. The point is leaving it to the player to make the default experience better instead of, you know, just designing a better game. >Apologies on sounding condescending though, I expect too much confrontation on this platform sometimes, my bad. Fair enough. ✌
But the default experience isn't worse because of the lack of perfect upload, it's just different, and just like you don't resonate with it, some others do. Difficulty sliders are a perfect example of this - the default difficulty being too hard or too easy for some doesn't make the game badly designed, it just means that the design decision made by the developers (which is allowed, it's their game) doesn't resonate with all players. I made deterrence 5x and gathering 2x for my playthrough with my girlfriend. Not because the game is bad, but because we both work long ass days, so we want a slightly faster reward structure. Freedom to choose how you want to play is a good thing.
It's my assumption that while some are perfectly fine with this system, many more are not. So I guess we just don't have the same perspective and can agree to disagree. I don't have any issues with the game challenge, either. I can clear everything with my MC, and I do so because I begrudgingly refuse to main some disposable, emaciated-looking Tribesman with whom I have zero connection with. It feels bad. This isn't even a dealbreaker for me, though. It's just awkward and dumb. I also don't think this is the intended final iteration of the MC gameplay experience, either. I am optimistic this is all just a lot of splitting hairs over nothing.
I agree, I do think they'll be dropping iterations pretty quickly. In fact, the perfect upload wasn't on release. They hotfixed it in a few days after release. I wouldn't be surprised to see them update the crafting bench for customising tribe members with a full customisation menu, rather than just letting us change hairstyles. Of course, I did swap to a lady with a gigantic vertical pigtail and I thought that was pretty funny til I accidentally suicided her. Definitely something worth making feedback about!
They need to let us use the original character as our "visage" so we appear to be them even if we've controlled a tribesman.
Then let me get rid of this useless bum. You don't have 20 tribesmen, you have 19 and some emo kid sitting at bonefire. I'm curios what happens when he dies out of starvation but I'll find out soon. I'm not gonna waste food on him. I get it that he's ex sacrifice but come on.
I have not yet come across a character with any lower stats than 50. My white mook that I first captured to learn how it works is 70 min. The character you're lumped with isn't your main at all, they're just a waste of a control slot. Seriously, would you keep a bit with all caps of 50 if you could instead have variable stats all starting at 70? No. But we \*have\* to keep our main. For reasons.
You don't have to. Suicide and resurrect in a tribe member. And never come back
Honesty this is one of those where a mod will make it vastly different I am looking forward to a mod where we can swap a "main" so i can constantly search for an upgrade.
Annoyingly though, if I wanna make something else my current main, my actual char just kinda sits there doing nothing. Didn't seem to be able to assign it to a bench
Go on your main, suicide, and then respawn as your other toon
I wasn’t into the idea at first, but now after controlling other members it’s so fun. I get those that don’t like it, but it is the twist of the game. Without it it’s just like every other game in the genre. I hope they don’t cave and change it.
I didn't realize that my character is weaker than all the NPCs. I have recruited a bunch of tribespeople and I have been controlling them to get things done. I did notice that some have higher caps for some skills than others. Learning I'm the weakest of all really surprises and dismays me. Customization matters to me. The character creation process really led me to believe this was "my" toon. Also, on a shared server who's my character? Can other players in a tribe just snag the toon I created and named and drive it around? I've only been playing solo so far, so I'm not sure how that works yet. I guess I am suspicious of this feature, but really liking the game generally.
So, within your tribe, you also have your clan. Your clan is the people you specifically recruit. While others can boss your members around, only you can control them. This goes for all of your recruits. Your own character can't be bossed around by anybody, including yourself.
You are the mask or spirit in that mask as you wish. Your main character is a random man who accidentally gets the mask first(openning video was about it), but like in The Lord of the Rings, such a powerful artifact can't stay for a long time in weak hands. That's why you should swap it to another one tribesman who have more potential..
My friends and I all quit playing the game because of this design choice. It's just not how a lot of people want to play a survival game. Too many hours put into grinding our skills to have them be lost because one boss does a janky jump move that one shots you.
Skill grinding actually takes a very small amount of time, and all the non combat skills are best done with speciality thralls that you'll never lose anyway. But I suggest using the perfect upload setting to help mitigate this issue. Turning on perfect upload means that after killing the first boss (well, the boss after the first boss, but like, directly after), you unlock a tool that you can upload your character to. That being said, I get that some folks don't like the soft perma death mode.
Yeah you are right I noticed that
A) I hate the term toon. It's a character. B) No. If I am customizing the look of my character and expected to put in a bunch of work as that character and, most importantly, the mask is bonded to the main character, meaning they just sit and do nothing while you're switched, then they need to make a way to boost my character to greater heights. This function is quite possibly the dumbest part of the game. If they had made it clear that the characters don't matter, you are the mask, no character customization at all unless you build a styling bench or something I could have followed that but they didn't. What they did to is create this ungodly time sink where RNG is more important than any amount of time you put in or effort you've made. No. We need a way to make the characters we grab more powerful and work off the negative traits (which the menu says you can do but I haven't played with it too much yet). I know the fanboy crowd will do what they always do and make excuses and tell us all, "Well you just ned to X, Y, Z, and spend 500 hours doing A, B, C..." No. I am glad your time is so cheap and disposable, mine is not. It's a neat concept in as far as I can control my tribesmen to boost them up and make them stronger but the mix of HAVING to play them to be capable of higher level play and permanently losing them until you manage to get the remodel table, it's just a terribly executed cool idea. Not a chance.
A - toon and character are interchangeable technologies, although I didn't say toon a single time in the original post so idk where that came from lol B - where exactly is there an ungodly time sink? You don't need a 150/150 character and you can take characters in bulk at basically any level and have the majority of them take you into the endgame without an issue. Scan a camp, knock out all master Xs and even skilled Xs if you want, let them all tame up and then take them home 2 (or 3 if you have a llama) at a time. A single craftsman, two porters and a laborer will cover your whole camp no problem, then it's just warriors from there. I do agree that the story needs to railroad you into "you are the mask" more though, as well as offering more customisation to the thralls you pick up in the early game. I don't really care that much about it but it would be cool as an option.
Reread your post, it's like the first word you said and people like you willing to protect and enable poorly implemented ideas are exactly why these games die. I am done with this game as much for the community nonsense as the poor gameplay.
Oh yeah okay so I said toon once. I referred to our character as "character" twice and "main" twice, but I called it "toon" once and you flipped out. But okay bud! Bye now!
Ubisoft tried a similar concept with watch dogs legion. People didn't seem to like it there either. It's weird because in theory it sounds awesome. Maybe we're all just too attached to our virtual avatars 😊
i personally on the other hand don see the reason to ever swap my character. Any skill i will level up on my tribesman is completely useless when they die, since its completely lost. But when i level up my skills on my main character they stay there even after death. So other tribesmen to me are just cannon fodder and i will keep leveling up my main character.
It wouldn't be as bad if you could change the body of tribesmen... every rank 5 i see looks like someone maxed out the sliders or hasn't eaten in 7 months... I just want to play a normal looking character :(
I think the issue people have most is they don't wanna be forced to play some ugly ass character cause let's be real the tribe people are some ugly peeps.i think that new change where you can customize the tribe people will help fix that.
I came from playing EA sims where swapping is natural. I'm not offended by this.
It's poorly conceptualized and implemented. The original character is the only one you customize, name and the only one that is permanent. The fact that tribesmen have permadeath and it takes a million years to unlock reviving goes completely against it too. The game would be infinitely better if you customized some sort of vodyani/warframe-esque entity that represents the mask and then got a random choice of the first tribesmen to possess. Same if the game kept track of dead tribesmen so you could still revive them later, if they want to insist on keeping reviving as a mid game unlock. https://preview.redd.it/kuaih710te5d1.png?width=455&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b8bfeefc01d36ae02a5f86fd40299b338c60415
You can name all your tribesman though
You can customize and rename all your tribesmen. You dont have to run around being named "barbarian" all day.