New player experience: 10 days in

Discussion in 'New Player Experience Feedback' started by Ffred, Apr 12, 2018.

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  1. Ffred

    Ffred Avatar

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    -SHORT VERSION

    *I’m enjoying the game! Thank you SotA community for all it took to here!

    *top suggestions for improvement:
    *fix quest bugs
    * improve loot drops
    *better equipment progression (I.e. better equipment for sale at locations players will easily find when doing the main-line quests)
    *more challenging quests, that require more thinking and less click through.

    -LONGER VERSION

    I was a 2012 kickstarter backer of SotA and just started playing 10 days ago.

    A little context: I played Ultima 2-7 extensively when first released, and in the modern era have played games like Skyrim and World of Warcraft so I can’t help but make comparisons to them.

    I enjoy a variety of activities in an RPG. I like to explore, talk to NPCs to learn about the story, do some crafting here and there and definitely I like to engage in combat and level up my skills and equipment.

    Overall, I’m enjoying the game. That’s probably the most important piece of feedback!

    I think questing and storyline in SotA is is far superior to WoW, a breath of fresh air for sure. Did WoW even have a storyline?? Everyone I played with clicked past the “flavor text”. I enjoy reading the NPC dialog in SotA.

    I think SotA combat is more fun than WoW. The controls seem easier to use and the unlocked deck system is really brilliant and very effective once last the learning curve. However, the loot system and equipment progression in SotA is an opportunity for improvement. I think WoW has the upper hand there currently, by far. I realize that SotA probably isn’t trying to compete with WoW on the loot system front, but a little improvement would go along way for players like me who enjoy a blend of activities.

    As a single player game, I think SotA has the potential to match or exceed Skyrim, but it’s got a ways to go. The gap IMO is quest bugs / design holes and balancing issues (such as the loot system and equipment progression)


    From what I’ve read, the loot issue is on the radar and is scheduled for improvement in the next release. For equipment progression I’m not aware of a solution in the works. As I’m playing out the main line quests I’d like to be able to buy better weapons and armor along the way.

    I understand the goal is for SotA to have a player driven economy. As it stands, it seems to work at the high end, and NPC vendors cover the low end, but there is a big gap in the middle. Mid-level gear exists but it’s hard for new players to find. Finding things in player owned towns is a bit of a needle in a haystack in most places from what I’ve seen. I was on the truth quest and found no cloth armor upgrades in the POTs near Aerie, for example.

    I asked where to find better cloth armor in the forum and got some great responses and a player even took me in-game to Britt Mart and Novia Market. That was wonderfully supportive (thanks community!!) and IMO also not a substitute for a more immersive in-game solution.


    In my summary I mentioned more challenging quests. To elaborate; as much as I’m enjoying reading the in game text, it seems to be optional and most quests could be completed by clicking though: get the quest follow the blue sparkly on the compass, return to quest giver.

    It would be great to run into things on quests that required you to find and interpret clues found elsewhere.

    For example, in Ultima 3, I walked in Lord British’s Castle and saw treasure chests behind a force field. Quite a bit later in the game I found the “mark of force” and thought hmmm, maybe I’ll try walking into that force field again. I was hoping that SotA could recapture some of that dynamic where the player is challenged to make the connection more between clues and puzzles.

    Realistically, SotA is a huge world and burrying disconnected clues in NPC conversation, books in the game, etc seems just too high a signal-to-noise ratio. I’d suggest having such clues be highlighted in red or something in NPC chat and make the book/scroll object glow red if embedded there. And then have a clue log. This would be different than the quest log which tells you the next step on a defined quest line. The clue log would be repository of seemingly random or disconnected clues found throughout the game which the player could consult when faced with some kind of puzzle. Perhaps a bit late for this kind of thing but I hate to mention a problem without suggesting a solution.
     
  2. Vladamir Begemot

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    Welcome aboard!

    I have good news! There are quite a few quests/puzzles that will break your brain, or have you looking to the internet.

    Yes, finding the goods seems to be one of our big issues at the moment. I've got a list of vendors who buy new player friendly stacks of materials in this Steam guide, and those tend to have lower end crafted gear (way better than NPC though), but it can be a real pain to find without someone pointing the way.

    Aerie, for instance, is a disaster right now. Many great spots are being wasted. The gear exists, but someone needs to stock it.

    I'm going to go post about it and wake up some of the Aerie vendors.
     
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  3. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    Thank you for your comments and ways the devs can look and see where to apply your suggestions. Great feedback!
     
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  4. Ffred

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    Thanks for you reply, the guide and for trying to wake up the Aerie vendors. I’m sure new player Truth questers will appreciate it.

    I’m glad to hear that there are some brain buster quests out there. My observation was just based on the Truth quest line (all I’ve done so far), which seemed fairly click-and-go.
     
  5. Ffred

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    Thanks for your reply, glad it was helpful!
     
  6. Carlin the Druid Archer

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    Great feedback.
     
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  7. Ffred

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    I read the Steam Guide and see that in addition to containing prices, it’s an overall summary on how to make gold. And, it seems to confirm my impression that to make a decent living in SotA, you need to do resource gathering and / or crafting. As the game evolves, I hope it becomes possible to make a decent living as a professional adventurer.

    This essentially ties back to my feedback on the loot system, but wanted to take the oppornity to express it in role playing terms.
     
  8. Vladamir Begemot

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    Long game, the artifacts are the big money. I should probably add that into the guide.

    Early game big ticket items, I have recently found out, are the Virtue Banners.

    Now, are there any adventurers that don't pick up any of the materials on the way? I'm not sure, I kind of thought that was part of the job, but if one were to not want to ever lift a pickaxe... I guess fight lots of humanoids in locations with chests. Let us know how it works, it might be totally doable.
     
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  9. Ffred

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    Thanks. I know what the virtue banners are, but I don’t think I’ve found any artifacts. Would the crown received at the end of the truth quest be considered an artifact?


    Sure, I’m happy to follow up with info on how the professional adventurer path works out.

    You mention chests. Is this referring to chests to store loot or chests with loot for the taking? I don’t recall having come across any chests with loot. In my experience so far, finding items in adventure scenes somewhere other than on a corpse is uncommon, and those items have a zero value (e.g. a rusty sword I find on the corpse of something I just killed has a value but a rusty sword on the floor of a cave has a value of zero)
     
  10. Vladamir Begemot

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    @Ffred

    The crown is a quest reward, and can't be transferred. I don't think it's an artifact, but even if it is it's not one you can make any gold off of.

    I think all artifacts have Artifact written in the first line or two of text when you mouse over them. Some go for a big chunk of gold, over 100k (I think, I don't keep up on their values, which are always changing), some for 10k or a little less.

    Ah, the cowbell from the Reapers (Uflheim). I bet that's going for way more than 100k right now.

    There are treasure chests in quite a few scenes, even lower level ones. Now they will kick out a stack of random stuff plus 50 - 100 gold, and I think they resupply in a ten minute or so period. So if you find places with lots of humans (to sell their weapons) and a chest, you can do big loops.

    That's assuming "adventurer" means fighting. If you've already got the Crown that also seems to mean questing, which opens up your opportunities a lot because they are constantly adding more zones with decent loot from quests.
     
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  11. Ffred

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    Thanks for the information! In my adventure role play that does mean questing and fighting. Sounds like if I keep,on that path I’ll run into some decent loot eventually.

    You mentioned the virtue banners are selling for a lot of gold (or maybe that was in the guide you posted). do you have any idea way players would pay so much for these items? I’m guessing it decoration of homes but if the banners have an non-cosmetic function that would be great to know before selling one. I think I have the banner of love.
     
  12. Nightsong

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    The banners are a house decoration item & each character can only get them once.
     
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