I played a couple hundred hours last year on the United Allies patch, and started playing again a bit recently. I completed Zero to Hero, the main questline, and I'm progressing through it after rework currently. I play pretty much solely for the PvP. I really like the concept of ship fighting being part of that, but the mechanics just don't reward it, and even with their minor changes they've made, there's not much point in doing anything but attempt to breach other ships rather than actually fighting ship v. ship. The devs do seem like they at least pay attention to feedback, but with ship combat for example, they've made one step forward and two steps back - almost all ships are just too large for even a 4-stack to feel comfortable defending, and they've now expanded the default ship even further worsening that. It's one of the few actually unique parts of the game and it just feels extremely underworked, reflected in how most players just stick with the default rustbucket and go directly to dock or breach. As far as the FPS combat goes, I do think it's not as bad as you make it out to be. Yes, it is Tarkov-like, but the movement imo hits a good middle ground between tarkov's clunky realism and fluid, faster paced movement. The loot system too, in terms of scarcity, does avoid the issue Tarkov has where you're intimidated to jump on after a while since the last wipe because of the gear disparity. How common loot is and how small your inventory is means you're never at such a massive disadvantage vs a fully geared player if you can hit your shots; I do agree though that it doesn't provide a good motivation, with loot not being as valued as Tarkov and PvP not being as valued as say, Hunt, either. And yeah, there are many other issues. Progression and looting has been improved somewhat, but you still do run into the issue of having to get X amount of some uncommon non-valuable junk item that you've had no incentive to pick up unless you knew this quest was coming. The world and aesthetic are muddled and generic, going for both WW1, WW2 and dieselpunk all at once without committing to any of them. Guilds and new raid locations are nice, but they don't give me a reason to come back and play. What I want is something to look forward to getting through play, whether that's skins, or background lore, or ships and guns that are actually good. Give me a reason to prestige and give up all my money and items, and give me a progression system that doesn't feel uncompelling at best or just tiresome at worst. Have my time in-game let me find out more about the world, the factions, the characters. Why are the miner NPCs french? Why are the United Allies colonising, who is intending to use the Planet Killer, how did the SAS become a band of raiders? If at least I know raiding a certain location or getting kills with certain weapons or against certain enemies will let me know more or customise my loadouts, I'd be far more compelled to come back every patch rather than just every year or so.
I played a couple hundred hours last year on the United Allies patch, and started playing again a bit recently. I completed Zero to Hero, the main questline, and I'm progressing through it after rework currently.
I play pretty much solely for the PvP. I really like the concept of ship fighting being part of that, but the mechanics just don't reward it, and even with their minor changes they've made, there's not much point in doing anything but attempt to breach other ships rather than actually fighting ship v. ship.
The devs do seem like they at least pay attention to feedback, but with ship combat for example, they've made one step forward and two steps back - almost all ships are just too large for even a 4-stack to feel comfortable defending, and they've now expanded the default ship even further worsening that. It's one of the few actually unique parts of the game and it just feels extremely underworked, reflected in how most players just stick with the default rustbucket and go directly to dock or breach.
As far as the FPS combat goes, I do think it's not as bad as you make it out to be. Yes, it is Tarkov-like, but the movement imo hits a good middle ground between tarkov's clunky realism and fluid, faster paced movement. The loot system too, in terms of scarcity, does avoid the issue Tarkov has where you're intimidated to jump on after a while since the last wipe because of the gear disparity. How common loot is and how small your inventory is means you're never at such a massive disadvantage vs a fully geared player if you can hit your shots; I do agree though that it doesn't provide a good motivation, with loot not being as valued as Tarkov and PvP not being as valued as say, Hunt, either.
And yeah, there are many other issues. Progression and looting has been improved somewhat, but you still do run into the issue of having to get X amount of some uncommon non-valuable junk item that you've had no incentive to pick up unless you knew this quest was coming. The world and aesthetic are muddled and generic, going for both WW1, WW2 and dieselpunk all at once without committing to any of them. Guilds and new raid locations are nice, but they don't give me a reason to come back and play.
What I want is something to look forward to getting through play, whether that's skins, or background lore, or ships and guns that are actually good. Give me a reason to prestige and give up all my money and items, and give me a progression system that doesn't feel uncompelling at best or just tiresome at worst. Have my time in-game let me find out more about the world, the factions, the characters. Why are the miner NPCs french? Why are the United Allies colonising, who is intending to use the Planet Killer, how did the SAS become a band of raiders? If at least I know raiding a certain location or getting kills with certain weapons or against certain enemies will let me know more or customise my loadouts, I'd be far more compelled to come back every patch rather than just every year or so.