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New housing and decorations in r53

Discussion in 'Release 53 Feedback Forum' started by Quenton, Apr 26, 2018.

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  1. Quenton

    Quenton Avatar

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    Guys, you really need to give the new housing and the new decorations a rest.

    I don't really understand how you're still adding in new housing and decor considering the top 10 list and how the game is - as we all know - absolutely overwhelmed with housing and decorations. The shipwreck and the rugs and the banners and the bathtubs look cool, don't get me wrong, but those are resources that are really likely better spent elsewhere. A huge section of the monthly release notes always contains more on housing and more decorations. A lot of players may never get a house.

    To add insult to injury, half of it seems to only be available in the add-on store - it feels like an advertisement in the patch notes. I never really talk about this for a lot of reasons, but I'll say it once here and never again - I paid a lot of money for this game, more money than I have for any other game in my life, and that was for a low pledge for this particular game - $120, which is unheard of. This is basically the next Ultima, and I figured it was worth it - but I can't spend a single cent more in the add-on store. If you need more money, you can't keep advertising it in this manner. Think of something else - please.

    The mindset has to be what do you want your everyday player to do, not the endgame players. Expand on that instead.
     
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  2. kaeshiva

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    I admit I'm one of these players that has no self control and MUST HAVE all the shiny new things.

    The main reason is that I want to continually support the game and the development and I can afford to do so.
    I appreciate not all players can drop a couple hundred bucks on aesthetics every month for recreation.

    Lately though I have to agree with Quenton, it seems to be a bit over the top. Some of the pricing in particular. I was really excited for new planting beds, but I worked out it would cost over $250 just to aesthetically upgrade my existing garden, and that's a garden on a lot WITH a house, not a dedicated greenhouse plot. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't justify it - I could nearly buy another tax free row bundle for that! Or you know, pay my entire monthly grocery bill. I appreciate there's a cost involved in developing assets but...its digital goods. If I could have filled a village lot with planting beds for $20, you BET I would have done so. And so would a lot of other people. I mean wouldn't it be better for the game in general if everyone had prettier gardens anyway? Visual appeal and all that?

    The general formula with these things seems to be 1%/9%/90% - 1% of players will spend a LOT, 9% will spend a bit, and 90% will spend nothing at all beyond the buy-in price.
    I'm not sure how Sota's numbers compare to this and how monthly livestreams with 5$ buy-in prize pots skew it. But I'm concerned that relying on a small number of big spenders isn't going to pay the bills unless there's a dramatic increase in the playerbase. Given the frustrations people are already feeling with some of the game's hardcore punishment systems, nerfs, and continual catering to the top 1% hardcore at the expense of everyone else, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

    Yeah, you will have people like me who go and buy two bathtubs because OMG BATHTUB. These are my bathtubs, and I will have them forever, as long as the game remains online. Reading these forums though, and some of the changes made, well, I start to worry about how long that will be. Maybe I'll just buy one bathtub. And maybe I'll skip the fireworks this time.

    I'm not trying to be negative here, but a lot of changes were made to the store and how its perception was affecting reviews of the game with the sheer amount of, and prices of, items, but Quenton is right, all the fanciest stuff that comes out is for $$. And while we do see some crafted equivalents, the ratio is always heavily weighted toward $$. And I get it, game needs $ to keep servers up, keep developers paid. The simplest solution seems to me - is that you need more players buying bathtubs. And for that you need more players. Being a niche game is a lovely thing, but appealing to a larger market keeps the lights on.

    The original premise of this game promised freedom to play as you wanted - and that dream has been diminished more and more as 'balance' and limitations and specializations and restrictions and so on and so forth have funneled the game into what it is today. After the last double xp I burned out a bit and took a week off and played a couple other games with concurrent online numbers in the thousands or tens of thousands. And in my opinion, they are crap games compared to what Shroud offers. But they don't punish the players for playing, and they don't demand digital manual labor to pay taxes, and they don't bombard you with an endless array of cosmetic purchaseables priced beyond the means of the normal player's gaming budget. And if you have a larger population, then the 1% big spenders is a much larger number.

    I'm not just talking about combat changes. Look at virtue armor for example. Virtue was meant to be a representation of your characters relation to the world, based on your behaviors etc.
    And now, positive virtue adds stats. Guess what half the people I know did tonight ? Went and adjusted their virtues based on the STATS they wanted on the gear. My black shroud, playful kitten thief is no more, I'm a mage and I need the int. This made me strangely sad.

    Bottom line is - we have enough stuff to buy. We have sooo much stuff to buy. What we need is more people buying it.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2018
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  3. Quenton

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    I had a very similar reaction to the virtue armor that I will post separately about - this bit of feedback is specific to the housing and decorations.
     
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  4. Pounce

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    I have an house, I love the shinys but yes, you do go over the top there.

    I wish more focus was on the game itself, content outside of housing, stremlining meshes/making moar zones, expanding maybe on bows (there are no shiny patterns to buy for bows comes to mind..eerrr forget that, not more store shinys!

    Abyways.

    Cram on the quests, the new maps, the gameplay outside houses and shineys, if it must be store bought and such maybe something in the 5 bucks range that is aestheitcal small and not significant, but put more work into THE GAME as a whole.

    Figure out other ways to generate income (maybe a monthly subscription of 9 bucks to be tax free, i would totally go for that)

    But please less store more content (content as in less wolves and spiders and new mobs) (Content as in making it so i know what my skills really do and resists i can see without jumping through loops, and where i understand what they really do, and what my spells do beside guess work, i still get five different opinions what fireflies is good for and if it is good at all)

    Polish the rest of the game, my house is very important but only in the context of the rest of the game, and without lots of people playing there is no people who look at my house and get envious about how nice it is.... kinda like that you know....
     
  5. majoria70

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    Craftable versions available next release.
     
  6. Pounce

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    i like the craftables more anyways,, getting it from the shop and just plopping it dopwn, whatfor did i level all theese craft skills....
     
  7. Blightlord Knightmare

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    Sorry, just curious.. how do you know that you'll be able to craft any of this stuff in the game? Do all things that are released in the add-on eventually get patterns inserted into the world the following release, or is it something specific to this release?
     
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  8. majoria70

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    It says so in the release notes usually and also they tell us things during livestreams etc.
     
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  9. Oyjord Hansen

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    Can you imagine how much more content the game could have that would actually retain players (new quests, dungeons, scenes, skills, artifacts, etc.) if they just stopped with all the damn house decorations only a few people will ever buy and shifted their focus to the above?
     
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  10. Roycestein Kaelstrom

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    These house decorations are game assets that they are using in town, dungeons, and other scenes. They just add them to the add-on store/COTO merchants in case the players want to use them for their own home. What make you think that these items are exclusively for player house decorations?
     
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  11. Anpu

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    I was hoping to possibly sell some of those drops to the Decorations Merchant but for only 1 gp bleh. :(
     
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  12. Kara Brae

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    OMG this made me laugh so hard I choked on my soda!

    I agree totally with your thoughts.
     
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  13. Deadly Habit

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    Because a good chunk of them actually are purely player housing decorations and don't appear in any scenes besides player housing?
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2018
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  14. Roycestein Kaelstrom

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    How did you come up with that conclusion? Also, how many developers from the whole thing do you think are being assigned to work on add-on stores exclusively?

    It seems people perceive that the entire team are doing nothing but add-on store items, which is not true at all. By looking at stand up corner, they all have their own to complete each release. Just because the works don't show on the website doesn't mean there is no work to it. The guy who work on adjusting mesh on game assets are necessary that same with a person who work on building map, or implement game feature, you know?
     
  15. Deadly Habit

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    I realize they all have different tasks, but they seem to prioritize add-on store items, how many times now do the craftable versions lag behind a release or more?
     
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  16. Roycestein Kaelstrom

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    That part I do agree with you. The craftable versions should come in contingent with the ornate ones, so players can make educated choices on whether they would prefer to pay a bit to support the team by getting add-on versions or would they rather craft ones in game and save money for other things right upfront.

    What I didn't agree with the OP was the misconception that nothing else is being done because the dev focus too much development time on the add-on store. That is just simply not true. The guy who made bath tub assets isn't the same guy who is responsible for optimizing game loop, nerfing defensive attributes, fix Sota MAP, etc..
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2018
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  17. Deadly Habit

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    Oh yeah the artists can only do so much, the programmers can only do so much, and the writers etc.
     
  18. Lace

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    I like to buy stuff from the add on store. I understand the heraldry for non founders takes employee time for the approval process. I think the prices are fair for the armors, but 24 dollars for 2 banners are you f*ing kiding me. One of which can only go on a really big house that you are stuck with. Don't get me started on the planting pots lol.

    What kills me is that the prices are 24$ instead of the regular 48 dollars ... to quote a dev ... SUCK IT
     
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