First of all, thank you Bioware and /u/BenIrvo for an amazing idea for a game. I am currently +120 hours in, playing a Storm (ilv496) and enjoying a lot some of the gameplay mechanics. However, there is a long way to go before Anthem reach its full potential.

This is going to be a long and detailed feedback. Stay with me.

As many loot based action RPGs games before it (Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Warframe, Destiny, Destiny 2, The Division etc), Anthem suffers from many issues and game breaking bugs after launch. Some will demand more time to fix, others must be solved urgently as they are already hurting the game deeply and bleeding the player base. So, let’s divide Anthem issues in three categories:

• Tier 1: Bugs, System Errors, Performance issues etc
  • This should be top priority, hence the category. I will not discuss these here, as BW is well aware by now of the many game breaking bugs haunting their game and all the feedback provided by the community here
• Tier 2: Urgent Adjustments and Fixes
• Tier 3: Quality of Life Improvements

Urgent Adjustments and Fixes

-Loot

1. Your current formula for loot is not going to work (scarce drops with horrendous stats range). You need to make up your mind and choose between:
   1. Scarce route: current drop chance, but MWs/LEGs with much better stats, like:
      1. green: 5-25% (please get rid of the "1% stats" thing)
      2. blue: 20-45%
      3. purple: 40-75%
      4. masterwork: 70-125%
      5. legendary: 120%-250%
   2. Generous route: current stats range, but increased loot drop by 5-10x more - could also benefit from a revamped Crafting sub-system;
2. GMs should definitely play a role in chances for better rolls, taking a MW damage stats range for example:
   1. GM1: 0.1-0.5% chance for a godly roll of ~120-125%
   2. GM2: 1-2.5% chance for a godly roll of ~120-125%
   3. GM3: 5-7.5% chance for a godly roll of ~120-125%
3. There must be a clear distinction between the absolute top tier items in a game, not only stat numbers. The current formula works up until MWs. I suggest you segregate affixes in two categories:
   1. Masterwork affixes: similar to the ones we already have in place, they are fun but nothing too crazy (majority);
      1. Example: Burning Orb (Ten Thousand Suns): more damage for a time;
   2. Legendary affixes: these are the top-tier super crazy affixes where you let all BW staff creativity flourish. Think big, crazy game-changing (balanced) affixes;
      1. Example: Burning Orb (‘legendary name here’): you can charge up ALL your charges, holding the button for much longer, and cast a massive meteor in an wide area, for example. This is crazy, changes the core skill, and feels legendary!

-GMs

1. There must be a crystal clear incentive for players to reach out GM1, then GM2 and, finally, GM3. Incentives in this type of game works in the form of better loot: better loot table chances AND better loot table stats. Let’s take, for example, a Stronghold (Anthem current endgame content) and let’s suppose you take the “scarce loot route" I mentioned:
   1. GM1: 3x guaranteed MWs (1x per chest) with a max 0.5% chance of each being a LEG;
      1. 0.1-0.5% chance for a godly roll of ~120-125% (MW) or ~240-250% (LEG);
   2. GM2: 3x guaranteed MWs (1x per chest) with a max 2.5% chance of each being a LEG;
      1. 1-2.5% chance for a godly roll of ~120-125% (MW) or ~240-250% (LEG);
   3. GM3: 3x guaranteed MWs (1x per chest) with a max 7.5% chance of each being a LEG;
      1. 5-7.5% chance for a godly roll of ~120-125% (MW) or ~240-250% (LEG);
2. I would suggest you to implement more GMs (at least 5) so you can tweak the above numbers in a much broader spectrum and, in parallel, enable the difficult to scale more organically to the players.

-Quickplay

1. Fix it! This needs urgent attention from BW as its really annoying and driving people out of the game already. At least for me, out of 10 Quickplay tries, +8 will sure fail somehow and will be impossible to complete. Please work your magic and try to implement a final fix to this asap;
2. Guarantee, at least, a chest reward after completing a mission in Quickplay, no matter what mission - jump in Quickplay to receive nothing renders the mode useless.

-Freeplay

I have four simple suggestions to implement in this mode to make it much more enjoyable:

1. Add a map indicator for World events (no matter how far away a player are), similar to the one Bungie implemented in Destiny 2;
2. Increase the number of events that pop in a region at once, Freeplay is not supposed to be a desert without events to complete;
3. You have several Dungeons in the open world, but they serve no purpose currently, make them always spam several enemies (tougher than the current enemies), and add a final dungeon boss (less tough than a Stronghold boss, but much harder than an epic/legendary enemy). Each dungeon can have its own thematic super boss and specific loot table/drops on it. This way you make people play more modes instead of the already stale endgame: do 3x Legendary contracts, then Strongholds (usually Tyrant Mine) until next day;
   1. Make all Dungeons be instanced and be part of the global Match Making system. Also, make it accessible from Quickplay;
4. Add a new activity: Cataclysmic Event. These are super rare events that randomly takes place in the Open World. They spawn gigantic creatures that all players in the session will immediately be alerted of by Faye (in a super cool way) and must band together to defeat it and receive awesome loot. World loot table also apply, but with a tiny chance of getting an exclusive event item (4 in total initially, 1 for each Javelin). I know creating a boss enemy/fight goes a long way to implement and develop, so you could start with these 4 variants:
   1. Uber Monitor
   2. Uber Swarm Tyrant
   3. Uber Scelos
   4. Uber Titan (this could be the '3 legendary titans combined into a massive one' that Prospero mentioned in his dialogues)

Quality of Life Improvements (immediate)

1. Add an option to automatically savage items filtered by tiers (uncommon, common, rare, epic etc);
2. Add an option to destroy unwanted items in Freeplay;
3. Add an option to mass salvage items;
4. Add an option to immediately enter another activity from the victory screen;
5. Add an option to re-roll an item stat (only one) using Embers;
6. Add minimum Gear requirement before enabling people to jump in directly on GMs that they clearly can not handle - MP modes only;
7. Allow Embers to be converted to a higher tier;
8. Always refresh and automatically load the Legendary Contracts every day;
9. Change the Freeplay “Shutdown Message” to display from every minute to, at least, every 15 minutes;
10. Create a robust Stats screen we can see in the Forge, displaying every single stats available in the game (%shield, luck, %resistance, gear dmg etc) so we have the big picture to better tweak our build;
11. Greatly increase the Run speed in Fort Tarsis;
12. Fix and properly display Shield/Armor bars;
13. Increase the number of daily Legendary Contracts from 3 to 6 (2x per faction), but keep the current hard limit of 12 max;

Quality of Life Improvements (mid/long term)

1. Implement a Chat system;
2. Implement a Mini-Map to the game where core information (enemies, allies, objectives etc) can be easily seen;
3. Implement a Ping system - similar to what you have in Apex - so we can mark important objectives;
4. Re-evaluate many of the Unique bonuses on weapons and gear, as several affixes are simple not exciting or fun at all;

-Strong Alone, Stronger Together!

Edit: Thank you all for the amazing discussions this post generated, I've added some of ideas discussed here. I have also posted this feedback on Twitter so its one more channel to get BW's attention!

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