How to make SotA great (please read carefully before posting)

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Corv, Jun 21, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Corv

    Corv Avatar

    Messages:
    303
    Likes Received:
    1,139
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    NC
    This might be super naive of me, but I'll try anyway:

    I think it would be great if people who see this will list what they think needs to be done to make them interested in the game. The most interesting answers would be the ones from people who are NOT actively playing the game right now. People who pledged back in the original Kickstarter for example. What was your vision for this game? What did you hope for?

    I don't think sugar coating everything helps SotA in the least tiny bit. I think there is a chance to steer this ship in the right, or at least, in a better direction with the help of the Ultima fans who made it possible in the first place but are gone now because SotA is not what they hoped for.

    We need the big picture problems. I think people stop playing because of essential problems, not because of, for example, PVP balancing.

    So this is NOT a place to list detail issues (balancing, tax rates,...) but to list things you wanted in this game and did not get. Suggestions to make it better.

    This should be a place where people can be open and honest about their issues wit the game!
    This does not mean flaming and trolling of course, but also not blind defense of the game just because someone wants something different than you.

    Let this thread be an honest open and civilized discussion! Mazbe the devs can get some honest interesting feedback out of it. Feel free to post a link to it on other SotA Forums to get more people here.

    To summarize (not every question applicable to everyone reading this, chose):
    - why are you, as a (former?) Ultima / Garriott fan and backer not interested in SotA anymore?
    - Why are you, even though you are playing, not happy with the game?
    - What can be done to make this game more appealing to your friends?
    - What went wrong and how can we fix it?

    NOT: detailed issues like balancing, how much a flower pot costs, what materials you need for crafting etc...


    Be civilized, be kind, be honest. Please no trolling!

    Thanks.

    (I am writing this as passionate Ultima fan, not in my function as Moderator)
     
    GrayFog, Xandra7, Royou and 19 others like this.
  2. Stundorn

    Stundorn Avatar

    Messages:
    3,790
    Likes Received:
    5,677
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Estgard/ Cologne
    As i said many times before release

    hard Skillcap!!!
    and a lot more i forgot, but this is the most wanted by almost everybody i know who played and wished for a more UO Sandbox feeling like Legends of Aria for example are trying to create.

    Balance the game and make it viable to be a specific character who plays a specific role or roleplays.

    Make groupplay rewarding, make groupplay a need and get rid of the horrendous grind!

    Quit with release after 1700 hours and
    ~ €2000 of support, because I'd like to RPvX what is not possible in this game, because it only caters to hardcore grind people.

    Sea of Thieves did all right, no vertical progression.
    I have more roleplay in SoT than in all other games , because they just did it right to create a sandbox to play with and to play in with everybody and you need other people and you have no worldchat!

    People there roleplay without beeing roleplayers like in UO or SWG!

    SotA wanted to much and is neither flesh nor fish.
    It does everything, but nothing right or that good.
    SP Campaign - mediocre
    MP Groupplay - bad
    PvP - bad
    Sandbox - mediocre

    I come back today after many Month and i see a thread one complaining to feel to have to be a mage of all schools.

    Cant say, but do Devs hear or read?
    No, they stick to their concictions , although almost everyrhing went wrong.
    And now you are cancelling some of the devs and your player numbers hadn't increased since ?

    Devs stay in the Bubble with a handfull of yes sayers unable to correct what they made wrong to create a worthwhile RPG Sandbox with rich roleplaying.

    Instead you have one of the most involved roleplayers @Helvig Ingvildsdottir to answer somebody asking for it, that there are no pure RP Guilds around, not a single one.
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2018
    Rat2, Market, Sophi and 10 others like this.
  3. Pounce

    Pounce Avatar

    Messages:
    732
    Likes Received:
    714
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Europe
    Nothing to do beside grinding
    I am lvl 90 so meh
    Did the shroud
    Not interested in PvP
    Dragons are farm stuff (because you need neckbones(rare)) I mean farming dragons..really...
    There is not real point in crafting much for the rng based systhem making skill not important beside "able to make it"

    I guess it is because it is an mmo so lore/story is neglected anyways, but the social part is not there either so no point in playing. (yes there is dance partys running animations...meh)
     
    Vaiden Luro, GrayFog, Sophi and 12 others like this.
  4. Gravidy

    Gravidy Avatar

    Messages:
    257
    Likes Received:
    613
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    Came here to say essentially the same thing. I'd love to see a hard skillcap, as well as a single constraint across both crafting and adventuring. Character development choices should have meaning, *A LOT OF MEANING.* Right now, every characters is capable of everything. We're playing the game with cheat-mode enabled.

    One of the early promises from Garriott was that you could play the game as a crafter, without having to be a combatant. I'd love to see that promise fulfilled at some point. A hard skill cap across adventuring/crafting would be one step in the right direction. More importantly, though, is to move resource gather back to being a crafting activity, and not a combat activity.
     
    Vaiden Luro, GrayFog, Sophi and 11 others like this.
  5. hammadowna

    hammadowna Avatar

    Messages:
    634
    Likes Received:
    678
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Male
    Nothing "went wrong" with the game. It's what was sold on the kickstarter and the devs have successfully delivered. I think most people are generally satisfied with what's been delivered and are hungry for more!
     
  6. Bubonic

    Bubonic Avatar

    Messages:
    2,455
    Likes Received:
    7,975
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    As a huge fan of Ultima 3-7, I pledged to the kickstarter for a promise of a spiritual successor to the Ultima series:

    A strong single player RPG, with complicated storylines, well detailed NPC characters, and a party of companions that react to each other and their surroundings. Cool armor and weapons to find at the bottoms of dungeons, a great system for thieves (not pvp), and cool combat (not mmo combat).

    Unfortunately, I feel like what we got was a relatively generic MMO that you can also play offline. The storyline and dialogue is negatively affected by RG's refusal to add "flavor text" to any dialogue, instead choosing to rely on character models which don't support strong facial animation and generic emotes.

    I no longer believe that there is a possibility we will get the game that I hoped for, and they layoff of writers and artists seems to confirm this - there will be no more additions or major changes, only polishing and tweaking.
     
  7. Stundorn

    Stundorn Avatar

    Messages:
    3,790
    Likes Received:
    5,677
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Estgard/ Cologne
    They will say now it's possible.
    Without to PvE
    Maybe true , you can do it, I'd suggestion it takes around 500 years of pure playing time to gather enough of Material to just Master one tree :p

    I dont want to discuss, but if they ask the day i check the forum... well.
     
    Ben_Hroth, Dantuin and Corv like this.
  8. Stundorn

    Stundorn Avatar

    Messages:
    3,790
    Likes Received:
    5,677
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Estgard/ Cologne
    How many are most people?
    300?
    and why did they 2 Telethons in a row and why they are cancelling devs and why for god's sake has anyone to pay for Ep2 and need another KS pledge?

    serious? How long ate you around?
     
  9. Azzamean

    Azzamean Avatar

    Messages:
    105
    Likes Received:
    197
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Kentuckiana
    He is just blindly cheer leading.
     
  10. DeadnGone

    DeadnGone Avatar

    Messages:
    601
    Likes Received:
    794
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Im just gonna copy/paste some stuff I already posted in spoiler format. I already had it all typed out. (My sincere apologies ahead of time) :D
    Basically it's 3 main things:
    1.) Fun Stuff to Do!
    2.) Loot!
    3.) Skills!


    BK004 - Add More Excitement & Stuff To Do
    I believe we need some of the things seen in other games that offer instant action or enhanced interaction & fun to the game.

    Examples are:

    1. Group "Lakes", regions/spots within current and future zones that allow for group/mass participation. A lot of the ones in other games do not even make you group, if you're in an area and say a special encounter spawns or a special object starts, like fend off the invaders, put out fires, save villagers, etc... while you're in that sphere of influence. A mechanism keeps track of everyone in the sphere of influence during the time of the event, even if they leave, and records the contribution. Points are awarded for a variety of factors and you could do the same so it's not just a "most damge dealt" situation depending on the scenario. Heals, kills, saves, turn-ins, rebuilding, etc etc all things that can go towards an event reward situation (like rebuilding a town, or saving a town from a dragon attack and putting out fires, finding lost children, saving goods, etc). Then have a list of rewards give out to those in the top as well as some randomly given out to participators. You could even reward a special pool of contribution points awarded that could be used to buy special goods like a lot of games have. I would recommend this only be available in Multiplayer mode in these zones.

    2. PvP hubs, battlefields, scenarios. Would be nice to jump into instant action matches where you have at least 2 sides (perhaps more or even NPC factions/mobs joining in to cause a 3 to 6-way battle). You could use the traditional, skirmish, capture the flag/hill/, destroy base, gather resources, defeat "x" npc, etc for the "TYPES" of pvp battles. As far as where, for now, you could use the existing Shardfall hubs, but they would be instanced only to those participating in "that" battle. Meaning, if I didnt sign up for the match, i couldnt go into any of the modes (multiplayer, party, single player) and see or interfere with the matches. They would all be instanced to the participants of the match that way you could have multiple matches going on in the same areas. ALSO, depending on type of match, there would be different structures and things added to the map for that type of match, like 2 sets of fortified bases for the base destruction match as an example. ALSO, the matches would randomly choose a shardfall location (or future designed maps). Like the above idea, you could have rewards handed out to top players as well as random participants, as well as a special pool of points for purchasing special prizes.

    3. Similar to the PvP match idea, make this a party/co-op scenario. You join matches and you get random zones (already existing zones), where you have to solve a delimna. As stated in the first idea, it could be a dragon attack you help fight off with the town's militia or it could be saving a town in danger of being razed to the ground, or fighting off waves of cabalists, or an undead invasion. Same as the others, offer incentive rewards and a special pool of points to buy prizes from.

    4. Old MMO's like Horizon's had areas with the community had to help solve/fix a problem. In Horizons, they would have stretches of land across the map that was "infected"/ plague lands where usually the former inhabitants were killed, pushed out, and their buildings, towns, bridges were destroyed and it took the community to help donate materials, gold, etc to fix a problem and/or push back the plagued area. I believe this could be implemented as well as maybe monthly events and it could affect the world for a while. If players fail, something negative happens and the region is affected and vice versa if they succeed. Participation rewards and incentives should be added as well.
    With all these ideas, if implemented, I would keep the prize pools/rewards seperate as to give incentives to do them all. This goes for both handed out rewards as well as the list of prizes/stuff you can choose from for your amassed points for that type of event. This would breathe A LOT of life and excitement into the game.

    BK007 - Rare Mobs & Spawns
    In older MMORPGs, like EverQuest for example, there would be special or rare mobs, sometimes named, in each zone. I think this could add some spice to the various zones around the world and some excitement to the game in general.

    Each zone could have 3-5 rare mobs with different rarities... super rare could be once per day or every 2 days. These rare mobs would have not only a great chance to drop loot (good loot that is), but would have their own very special, unique designed/visuals, loot with tiered rarity of their drops from common to rare in their loot table. For example, they could drop 3 special items each... one would be common, another uncommon, and the main chase item would be rare... if it rolled that it would drop it's own gear instead of "good loot" from the regular loot tables.

    This would definitely create chase items for the game and have reasons for visiting various zones and exploring, repeatedly. The incentive drops should match the rarity of the spawn and the rarity of the item, like if a rare mob's special "rare loot" roll is made.

    Of course these items should have visuals for decrorations as well for bragging rights and collections. If the journal is ever expanded there could be accomplishments or titles for hunting these rares as well. They could also be tameable, if an animal.


    BK001 - More Useful Low Level Crafting & Items
    There seems to be some problems with a lot of the crafted stuff, especially low level items. One is the overproduction of some to skill up to making better gear or getting the skills necessary to enhance items better. Another is some stuff that is simply not wanted or needed at higher levels or in comparison to other similar crafted stuff but of higher tier.

    Examples:

    A crafter makes 100 wolf headresses to skill up, use up supply, or simply make some cash with their goods. If they are fairly new or low level in skill, usually their product will be skipped over in lieu of better goods from a higher skilled crafter. With a good bit of "decently" skilled crafters out there who sell their products cheaply, especially due to so much being on the market, these people's goods won't have much demand or need.

    Another example is food. All these lower tier or lower skill to make food items. They are severely overlooked due to better tier food items. Prices are decent for even the best food and the rest is just taking up space at the moment.

    My suggestions are to make these things wanted and in demand as well. Here is how.

    1. For lower tier/skill to make food/drinks, give them special & unique buffs or bonuses (or both). Maybe even give them some special comical effects. Right now the kinds of buffs & bonuses are sort of stuck in this lil box mentality around the same stat buffs regarding attributes and skills in the skill trees. We could transcend this and do a little more. Effects could add various glows, light illumination bonuses, darkness, float/levitate, boosts to adv xp, boosts to craft xp, boosts to # of harvested items, effects that are not found in normal skill trees and/or some that are, like having a food give a fear buff that gives mobs a negative to attack near you, etc. Plenty of ideas that can be added, like reduced weight on an a piece of gear. Players can be polled for additional ideas for effects & bonuses. Also, foods should also be decoration items.

    2. Lower tier/skill craft items and enhancements... you could have very special and unique buffs/enhancements that only certain skill ranges can add or produce. Have it broken down into tiers, like skill lvl 1-20 or 1-25 skill, when producing and/or enhancing, has a chance to give various effects that are strictly limited to those in that skill bracket. Now as you advance, the effects are generally better as far as pro-combat/skill/defense goes... but the lower ones would still have some desirability. For instance, a blacksmith of 40 skill makes a sword... maybe one of the side effects of the skill range gives it an odd color... say a shade of pink or salmon. Or perhaps when enchanting with their 45 skill in enchanting it gives a slight dweomer that gives a particle effect like sparks or slight shadow. It wouldnt be game breaking, it would still let higher skilled players craft more powerful gear and yet there would still be a demand for the lower skill stuff, even if just for collectibility, social gear, or museum pieces.
    This would help lower skilled crafters and clear up the market of the same old low level stuff. Well perhaps create a sink to turn-in old goods, but that is another idea for another thread.

    BK002 - Variations of Mundane Loot
    Recently we've seen more mundane loot added to the tables, like the rusty, dirty, etc variants and I think we can take that a bit further. We need to add a bit of excitement here. No one gets excited over rusty forks. I beleive we can use old tried & true methods to create some chase items and give a bit of desirability to these things as well.

    So for the most part, we would still use the same models. The fancier ideas would take some modifications. Just add various colors and possibly effects (glinting on a special set of tableware for example). You could have those decoration mugs drop and be of all sorts of colors that people could seek out to make a set, collect one of each, enhance their displays/showrooms/museums, etc

    There could even be some fancier pieces that are very rare (not everything good should be just store bought stuff), like expensive tableware with birthstones set in the handles or somewhere on the item.

    So my suggestions are:

    1. Various colors, just like the old UO days when stuff dropped in random colors. This is an excellent way to keep something simple exciting. I would suggest not using the premium bought colors as to keep their value and desirability. But... if these items are NOT to be dyeable, then you could have the extremely rare ones have the special colors.

    2. Have nice & elegant variations as part of the mundane loot tables.

    3. Add in birthstone type goods. I believe we need more gemstone stuff anyway besides are current list of types.

    4. Add special effects for rares. This could also be part of #1 with the special rare colors that have effects included (sparkle, glow, scintillation, etc) and could even add in some different or unique effects (like glinting for example).

    5. Have some with glows or lighting. We saw a bunch of the paintings off the Home Decroation Merchant being dropped... would be nice to see one drop that had random properties of say, a gilded red frame with an orange glow from the painting as an example.
    You could probably think of more, but with just these ideas you already make the loot more robust and give some desirability, whether farming for the loot or vendor shopping for the right colors & effects to compliment one of your rooms you are decorating or holding an event for.



    I remember things like the multi-colored sandals that dropped off mages or all the cool holiday stuff like the leprechauns and all their green stuff & mugs. You could even wear them. Having mundane items and even gear drop with this properties will help add some spice/excitement to the game.

    BK005 - Additons to Mundane Loot
    These are just additional ideas of mundane loot to add to the existing mundane loot tables. The other idea of enhancing mundane loot in my "BK002 - Variations of Mundane Loot" thread can be used on these as well.

    1. More gems. I believe the loot should incorporate far more gems and types/shapes of cut stones. Miners should be able to mine different stones as well. Desirablity could be in the use of decoration (would have to be able to display them), use in heraldry, filigree, donation rewards (if used for a turn-in event), etc.

    2. Ancient coins and/or diverse currency. There is plenty of lore behind the game. Surely we could incoporate more types of coins/currency from ancient/lost civilizations or special currency used in regional markets. These could have decorative value, collective value (even say, turn in 12 of a type for a special mounted display), or resale value (to npc merchants), or trade value to turn in for special goods.

    3. More paintings. While it was nice to have paintings drop now, I was expecting new art instead of stuff off the Housing Decoration Merchant, which really just deflates the value and desirability of those paintings from the merchant. I think there should be entire new are put on the Housing Decoration Merchant and the old stuff removed (should have special goods instead of same dropped loot), and then put even more art in for dropped loot. Have additonal shapes/frames for same art as well (could be oval for example or a set that looks seperate but puts up on the wall in a staggered formation of 3 rectangles... just an example).

    4. Clothing – From common clothing to regal and exotic varieties of clothing would be a nice addition. Keep them unique to loot drop only and perhaps add other chase factors like differing colors and patterns on them for better desirability. Coats, cloaks, hats, scarves too.

    5. Ornamental Armor & Weapons. These could range in quality from old & worn to a well-kept shiny polished state. They could be worn for social functions or used as decorations, but would have absolute minimum to no-value at all for combat... maybe even negatives if used for combat.

    6. Books – There are a lot of books out there but most are fairly common. Perhaps some uncommon to very rare books to chase after with different effects. Like, a blue leather bound version (as opposed to the brown leather common) of 'The Dragon that Purred', 1st edition, or whatnot. Maybe it has a special effect, like it gives off a dark aura or a slight trail of smoke eminates from the top of it while standing.

    7. Bottles & Glassware – Need more variants and resizing. Plenty of "old" art that is way too large, RUM bottles for example, need to be converted as well as lootable. Also need more variations from simple to elegant. You could do vaseline glass variants in amber, green, pink, cobalt blue, etc.

    8. Jewelery – Totally missing the jewelery aspect of loot. Should be a bunch of various jewelery from simply to elegant, from necklaces, to brooches, to rings, to earrings, to pendants, tiaras, and other medieval fantasy setting adornments. All should be displayable as decorations and wearble with visuals as well. The loot can be randomized to "style" of simple to elegant, and "type of material" from silver, coper to ivory, and randomize the setting, from a gemstone to signet, or both. I understand level of detail for small stuff probably won't be great but something is better than nothing.

    9. Containers - These should be special, different from crafted or deco merchant bought containers. Could be from worn-down to new or elegant, from knapsacks to backpacks and jewelery boxes. These too should all have decorative value and some may have a wearbility factor with visual when worn.

    10. Personal Items like combs, hairbrushes, hand mirrors, other grooming paraphenalia, and religious symbols. Again, variants from poor quality to rich as well as color variants.

    11. Blankets, towels, rugs, bedrolls, camping gear/tents, and other adventurer's gear. Again, this should be unique and differnt from any existing models and have the variant enhancemtnts applied to them for chase factor.
    12. Plants & Seeds - Would be nice to see some new types of flowers, trees, plants in general. Could come as seeds or potted saplings. As before, ranging in various rarities, colors, and effects (if any).
    I'm sure there are other things, like stuff generally seen in specific rooms of a home... bathroom, kitchens for example, that could be added as well. Some may say the "mundane" items should not be elegant but I refer to mundane as non-powerful magic items, just simply standard stuff you'd expect to find as loot or hoarded in treasure besides typical cash and possible "artifacts" now. The items would be randomized, because even the poor have heirlooms handed down and treasure and they too could get lucky and find something of value to hold onto.

    BK006 - Additions to Special & Rare Loot
    It would be nice to have additional special loot in the game instead of the rares generally being the "artifacts". Recently there have been some nice additions, like the art bags from the Death Bunny as example.

    Additional possibilities, some just like old UO:
    1. Hair Dye – Various colors, brightness/vividness. The variety of colors would be an added excitement factor and chase factor to the game when looting.

    2. Hair Style Potions – Special hair styles of various levels of rarity.

    3. Beard Potions – Same as above.

    4. Paint – Used to decorate walls inside & outside buildings. Could limit 1 wall per paint to keep it in demand.

    5. Special gear dye that is differnt from crafted, different from store bought ones, that would have some level of desirability.

    6. Exp Booster Potions – Types for both craft and adv xp. Would be rare and give +% increase for "x" of minutes/hours based on the rarity type.

    7. Pets or Eggs (that you have to incubate) – Could add another factor of enthusiasm for loot going for rare pets and rare color variants. Pets would be social and decorative. Pets could range from common household pets to mythical creatures or chaotic abberations from a crazed wizard's lab or a magic gone awry. The eggs could be displayable if you chose not to hatch them and could have various colors, patterns, effects. Perhaps for super rare pets, some could be made into a combat pet if you have the proper taming/animal skills.

    8. Ancient scrolls/tomes that are consumable but offer some odd and different magic. As a lot of the old magic was lost from the cataclysm, these could be surviving remnants of forgotten magic. You would not be able to permanently learn the spells or make copies. One shot usage. Could be functional as well as decor for museums or turn-ins for research events. These could also be special enhancments for crafters of appropriate skill to use to apply say, a special particle effect to a weapon as an example.

    9. More ancient artifacts from before the cataclysm that has information, details, descriptors, insignias, etc etc from either lost realms, civiliztions, towns, etc (within legal ramifications of the current universe, not sure if allowed to have a shield with the heraldry of Trinsic on it for example). This could be from gear, to statues, to pottery, to books.

    10. Mini-game items, from cards to chess pieces, to full sets. Could be optional to chase down pieces to make a full set that is displayble, looks different, and is playable with others.

    11. Skill scrolls – Be it magical or not, could have scrolls, 1-shot use but stackable, that either boost a skill, peforms the skill (whether or not you have the skill trained), or does a variation of the skill (could be part of ancient scrolls that are lost magic, like an earthquake that does massive dmg, shakes screen longer, or causes rocks to shoot up and rain back down on everything for additional damage).

    12. Polymorph potions – Randomizing potions or a set potion for a variety of creatures.

    13. Teleport Anywhere scroll – This also could be party of the ancient scroll series in #8 if you wanted to write the lore that way. Would be very rare but would allow you to teleport anywhere via a table of locations that pops up when used.

    14. More seasonal & holiday loot abroad. This is a nice option for everyone to find mixed in loot tables during these times instead of just have one mob have something special that not everyone can do, even in groups, depending on builds and experience of players. Would like to see some spread all around the world for loot and maybe more of the special mobs during this time as well with different loot to drop. Love the Easter Egg baskets but finding a variety of decorated eggs would be nice as well, especially for decorations.

    15. CURSED ITEMS – Oh you can have so much fun with this if you wanted to add some comical twists. Perhaps you would never know until you tried to use them. Maybe have some way of telling, an npc that could divine it or such that you had to pay. Someone buying Gauntlets of Lead from a player's vendor, trying them on and having them dance in the opposite direction of where they are trying to go, so in order to get places they have to walk/run backwards all the while dancing as an example. Curse removal could be an option or a looted potion (rare).

    BK015 - Chest Loot - More & Variants
    This has got to be one of the most disappointing features of the game. I mean, I have never in any game had such a melancholy feeling towards the thought of looting a treasure chest as I do in this game. All games, especially tabletop pen & paper games, even arcade games, you knew you were generally getting something good from a "treasure" chest... generally. Mimics... o.o

    Looting treasure chests in this game is like Al Capone's vault... meh. It's like opening a 4,000 year-old Egyptian pharoh's tomb only to find crumbs, fragments, and a rusty spoon. You're never really going to get anything great, just some utility stuff.. a few repair scrolls, some gem fragments, maybe a teleport scroll/recall scroll and for some reason, crafting fuels...

    Might be great for some newbie level loot but after say, lvl 12 or so, it gets boring fast.

    Things I would like to see:
    1. Actual valuable loot in the treasure chests. The values given for items in game, especially loot are not really the value of the items. There is no where you can sell for nearly that much, so its always a fraction of what's listed. Would be nice to actually find sellable loot that is actually worth something to vendors.

    2. Uncommon and Rare loot, would be nice to find special and magical stuff in these chests.

    3. Different container chests. Would be nice to find differnt art chests as well as being able to LOOT that chest as well, meaning you can take the chest with you, or at least find another decorative/useable chest within the chest for home decor.

    4. Unique loot to the area/dungeon added within.

    5. MORE BONE THRONES! - Just kidding, no... please no. In fact, I think there should be more furniture options and more throne variants and seriously reduce the drop rate of bone thrones at the moment. There are just too many and it is too common/easy to get.

    6. Add tier 2 & 3 materials to the loot possibilities.

    7. Any of my suggestions from the Variations of Mundane loot and Additions to Mundane loot, and Special & Rare Loot threads would be good as well.

    BK014 - Turn-In Sinks to Get Rid of Goods
    For getting rid of gluts on the market or give additional value to lower end, mass producted/looted items, perhaps we should do events that take advantage of it by turning it in to a NPC who gives credit to each player for what they turn in and how much they contribute to an event.

    Excess weapons and armor can be turned in to help the militia of a town equip itself and prepare for a siege or fend off an invasion of mobs. The more common stuff would give less contribution and would take more to get the tier of soldiers up to the next level (or get the contribution goal to the next level).

    The awarded contribution points could be saved or spent during these events on special goods. Community events requiring players to rebuild something/somewhere could take both harvested mats AND crafted/looted goods. This may lead to opening up an area much like Lost Vale where these special areas stay locked until certain criteria from the community is met. Would give some more value to those goods and additional reason to crank them out or sell them or just keep them til an event to turn-in, instead of sitting on vendors waiting for the apocalypse.

    If looking for a less robust way to unload them, could simply give special randomized reward bags for every "x" of points earned by turning in the stuff (all given a certain contribution point level). The randomized bags would have some special chase items that would be sought after to make people keep unloading.

    Just some thoughts.

    BK009 - Revisions of Skill Trees
    It used to be that your attunement used to be the total level of your skills in magic tree added together and then divided by the number of skills. So I can see where there was some hesitancy to add more to the skill trees. However, that's trained and it's now you're top 10 skills added up and divided by 10 (plus whatever other bonuses from gear, buffs, etc).

    So while this is mainly pointing at the magic trees, this can be applied to the non-magic trees as well... generally.

    I believe all schools should have some attacks. Some direct damage, some ranged, some close combat, some AoE. I think there should be some defensive skills for each, some group/support skills in each. There should be some sort of recovery skills as well.

    Now this isn't simply asking for the exact same skill for every school/tree and just throwing another name on it with a different animation. Far from it. I like a lot of what has already been put together and I think we're on the right track, just need a lil more and some polish.

    Since everyone is still limited to having just ONE deck out and an alternate deck made and selected at a time... you are still very limited on the total skills you can choose. So by adding these additional skills/abilities, players will still need to pick and choose and play the strengths of their build, talents, and choose the right skills for the task ahead of them. But, this will also increase the flexibility of schools and more diversity of player builds.

    Death is pretty good for damage and self sustainability. It has a mediocre support heal that I never hear people use, but... it fits in with the design and it is a support option, as the less health a death mage has, the more damage they usually tend to do with the death spells. But some skill trees are not as good, especially for combat or even support. Moon pretty much has only one damage spell out of all those spells... most is support. Should have more direct dmg, close/ranged, etc. Its AoE is nice and is one of the tree's strong points. Life has hardly any damage whatsoever, just the undead blast. I hardly think positive/holy, or whatever enegery Life pulls from, wouldnt have any damage. It could use a DD/AoE, etc as well. All trees should have something like these which would then let players choose their role better. Someone may want to play a Fire Support Mage who can single target heal/cauterize bleeds with a healing flame, offer group support with fireshields, or group flame weapons, and possible 1 dmg spell in the deck, like a fireball, or flame circle, etc instead of a straight damge nuker. A sun mage should have the options to do more damge with nukes/aoe's or simply choose to use the sun tree for group support if they want.

    I believe by having the added options for all trees, yet with their own unique flavor, you can have quite more diversity.

    If running out of ideas or trying to think outside the box, you could poll players, maybe have a monthly or bi-weekly contest, to help balance out or add/fill-in skill trees to make them more robust. I'm sure there are plenty of good ideas floating out there.

    BK010 - Additional Skill Trees
    In addition to my "BK009 - Revisions of Skill Trees", I believe we could also implement additional skill trees, perhaps, and my wording may be bad here... but like para-elemental trees or inbetween trees. Some could be open to choose as you progress... others could only be available if you have "specialization" in two of its parent trees.

    For example, if you specialize in Water and Fire (maybe put a minimum of 40-50 specialization or higher), then you would unlock the sphere of "Steam" skills. Water & Earth... Mud. And not just elements, like Death & Fire could be a "Hell" skill tree or whatever you'd like to create for it. Life & Heavy Armor could create a "Paladin" skill tree with special skills in those, and a Death & Heavy Armor could be a Deathknight/Shadowknight type skill tree. Archers could have various elemental types or specializations like Ranger, etc. You can see where this is going.

    This would give additional game features as well as diversify skill builds as they would still have to choose a limited number of skills for their decks or static/locked skill slots. It would also introduce new effects, spells, things to the game that could also be implemented into other areas such as enchantments, effects on items/goods, etc.
     
  11. Nog

    Nog Avatar

    Messages:
    156
    Likes Received:
    217
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    126 N State St., Mishawaka, IN 46544
    1. Visual Customization - clothes, face, hair.
    A bunch of mmo'ers need their characters to be highly customizable and interesting to look at for the 100s of hours they'll be looking at him/her. And they are willing to PAY REAL MONEY if they have lots of attractive appearance things to buy.

    2. Deck System Combat
    Players who hate combat/deck can't lock enough cards at a mere 10 slots to play more traditionally. Watching and manipulating a complex deck and keeping your eye on the action in real time is something I tolerate but have a good deal of dislike toward. I've seen comments from others that unappealing combat is #1 why they left the game, which is unfortunate for this game having so much promise.

    3. Classless Everythingness vs. Choice is Compelling
    You don't have to make choices but can just train everything for every situation. And many players feel compelled to take abilities that don't remotely fit their character concept because it's too advantageous not to have those abilities.
     
    Vaiden Luro, GrayFog, Rat2 and 11 others like this.
  12. Stundorn

    Stundorn Avatar

    Messages:
    3,790
    Likes Received:
    5,677
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Estgard/ Cologne
    I sometimes check forum and i didnt sell something.
    I am waiting the whole thing crashes and someone wakes up @Lord British turn around and do another game of the century. You know UO and Ultima's are 20th and now it's 21th century :)

    You still can tweak the game to something good and worthwhile, but they allways only heard the wrong people.
    These maybe still around, but look what happened or better look what not happened .


    Have Fun - Stun o7

    P.s. Hammadowna reminds me of the one with the Pixel Pony Avatar, forgot his Name, but was also allways cheerleading hooray although it was 5:0
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 21, 2018
    Sophi, Ben_Hroth, Dantuin and 2 others like this.
  13. Azzamean

    Azzamean Avatar

    Messages:
    105
    Likes Received:
    197
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Kentuckiana
    1. Hard Cap!
    2. Get rid of the ability for players to disperse from each other. The world is absolutely empty feeling because people are in their own zones. Weren't these supposed to be 16 man zones? I see maybe 1-3 players each destroying things. So empty. I personally hate the overland map. However, if it is to exist can it at least feel alive?
    3. Bulldoze the current quests and dialogue. They are awful. Rewrite it all.
    4. Do something about the feeling of pay to win. I'm not here to argue if the game is pay to win or not. I am here saying that a lot of people I sent to the game bolted when they saw ridiculous priced houses. I am actually in favor of a voluntarily subscription system. Right or wrong, a lot of people feel the game is P2W. I rightly think so as well.
    5. Better communication between players. Worst feeling ever is running around and no one even talks to you. Do you know how many negative reviews are out there from people saying they either only saw 1 person and that when they attempted to communicate, that they were ignored.

    That is a start off the top of my head. But there is a whole lot more.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 21, 2018
    Tilphor, GrayFog, Rat2 and 13 others like this.
  14. Stundorn

    Stundorn Avatar

    Messages:
    3,790
    Likes Received:
    5,677
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Estgard/ Cologne
  15. Preachyr

    Preachyr Avatar

    Messages:
    457
    Likes Received:
    1,362
    Trophy Points:
    43

    - why are you, as a (former?) Ultima / Garriott fan and backer not interested in SotA anymore?
    If you want total honesty...

    I am not interested in SotA anymore largely because of the behaviour of the dev team. Having favorites among the heavy backers, trolling people in other game forums and on reddit, being caught in blatant lies, and just general unprofessional attitudes to anyone critical of the game. I am not trying to just bash them here, not going to get into an argument about whether the people remaining here think this is true or not, I am just giving you MY main reason for losing interest.

    The problems with selective moderation are well documented and even in this thread you have hamma/jamma who has been trolling and harassing people here and elsewhere for years, been caught impersonating people on these forums, has been so toxic that he is banned sitewide from reddit of all places, and yet has been completely immune to moderation.

    Meanwhile I have personally been threatened by the mod team that if I didn't stop being 'negative' I would be banned. I have had confirmation from Berek that he deletes posts of mine that get reported without even reading them to see if they break rules, and have had discussions with 'favorite' backers where my side of the discussion gets deleted for stating and I quote (and yes this is the statement that got me deleted) "you're missing my point though", where the person I was replying to called me a child, a whiner, and a troll and none of those were removed.

    The game is mediocre but is playable and would even be somewhat enjoyable for me with my guild. However I backed the game to the tune of a few thousand dollars so that I could be part of the process, give feedback, help test, and all that stuff, not to just be constantly told to sit down and quit complaining every time I try and provide some constructive criticism.


    - What can be done to make this game more appealing to your friends?

    Some actual meaningful PvP as promised would go a long way to bringing a lot of the people back that I know who quit.
    Less grind, more reason to actually play the game beyond just grinding.


    What went wrong and how can we fix it?

    Again in all honesty I think what went wrong was the focus on the heavy store spenders at the exclusion of quality content in all other areas. Also the overwhelming inability for them to take criticism, and just as equally bad the irrational patience of so many people accepting broken systems in the game just because we were constantly promised that fixes and features were coming soon.
     
  16. Corv

    Corv Avatar

    Messages:
    303
    Likes Received:
    1,139
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    NC
    Yes I do, and I think the devs do too. Right @DarkStarr ? Honest feedback is the best feedback.
    Thanks for your thoughts!
     
  17. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Howdy @Corv!

    Original KS backer here, I'd wager one of the few folks left around here that can say they 1) pledged a 2-digit amount at the KS, 2) played the initial backer version, R8 I think, and 3) played both the persistence release and release release.

    I bought into the game looking for a selective multiplayer experience. When the format changed to an MMO, I wasn't thrilled, but I was willing to give it a shot. I played the early releases and saw that the game was coming along better than other KS titles I'd backed and upped my pledge a few levels.

    I became disillusioned with the game initially when it became clear that the inmates were running the asylum, when Dev+ decided that skill levelling was going to be use driven instead of level driven and Port implemented it accordingly. To this day, I am confident that that desicion hobbled the game to the point that it has yet to recover.

    I have a large Steam library, a largish collection of old school games on my "should play list", a wife and a daughter. If SotA wants me to play more than when I am finding it hard to find another title to grab my attention, it needs a feature (or a set of features) that is novel and fun.

    For example, given half a reason, I will play Space Station 13 for days. It has a miserable UI, lag like you read a lot, trolls galore, but damned if I can think of another game that provides the same experience.
     
  18. sbf2009

    sbf2009 Avatar

    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    49
    Trophy Points:
    3
    Gender:
    Male
    I have no interest in housing, online/multiplayer/cosmetics. I just wanted a single player RPG as a distant spiritual successor to Ultima VII. I've been trying to get into the single player offline experience, but the grind is excruciating. Most RPG's should be finish-able in 20-40 hours of gameplay. 80 if you really push it with the massive JRPGs with a million sidequests.

    In short, I'd like to be able to build up a character and finish the single player story in that 20-40 hour mark, without having to pause to grind between locations or sprint my way past every encounter. Right now, single player crafting may as well be impossible to anyone with full time work or that has any hobbies outside of SotA. Similarly, Adventurer skills feel like an endless grind in the same location before you can advance a tier. The difficulty curve in combat needs to be a lot less steep with a lot more steps.
     
  19. Corv

    Corv Avatar

    Messages:
    303
    Likes Received:
    1,139
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    NC
    Very interesting SP feedback for me personally since I am also very interested in that aspect of the game. Do you think in the current framework it is possible to have a SP experience that lives up to Ulitma VII?
     
    Ben_Hroth and Dantuin like this.
  20. Humbert_Humbert

    Humbert_Humbert Avatar

    Messages:
    367
    Likes Received:
    699
    Trophy Points:
    43
    I'd like to see it be less of a grind.

    Better combat. Faster and smoother.

    Skill cap is needed.
     
    Rat2, blaquerogue, Ben_Hroth and 10 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.