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Q3 Schedule Update

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Jun 28, 2018.

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  1. Vladamir Begemot

    Vladamir Begemot Avatar

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    Just the dialog box would be a huge improvement.

    I was watching a video last night about Ultima IV NES on this (very good) Kotaku read, and guess what? It's the exact same dialog box! Size of screenspace is the same. Text flows off the top regularly.

    Well, not exactly the same, at least the keywords in Ultima IV were bigger. Terribly placed, but bigger.

    I've said it many times and I'll say it again. The Dialog UI is the window to the story. Right now we're looking through a very tiny window that can't even display the longer NPC responses without scrolling back up.
     
  2. Kaffien

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    FISHING~!@$!$ I'll make sure i donate heavily on that livestream / telethon.
     
  3. gtesser

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    I really hope that for fishing, the chance to find treasure (or at the minimum in episode 1 : supply drops please! @DarkStarr) increases the higher the player's skill is. I would definitely go above 100 if it meant better chances at finding rare fish or an orange supply drop. For example, at fishing 100, there is a small chance of finding a blue bag, and starting at 120 or 125, there is a small chance of finding an orange bag. To those who are into fishing who participate in livestreams, could you ask about getting supply drops? It's too bad that they only drop from enemies. I want to make a living as a fisherman in this game!
     
  4. Floors

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    This.
     
  5. majoria70

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    I hope for this for you too then but I also want to see a message in a bottle which we can fish up and is said to be coming in episode 2 and could give map pieces for our treasure hunting system coming then too.

    I want to fish up interesting things not just the same old loot but some ideas would be like a severed hand wearing a ring perhaps it is cursed and a quest item, or perhaps we fish up old salty who swallowed a tax-free deed on a fishing event day. We would get a tip that says you notice something strange about that fish. I really want our long awaited fishing system update on R58 to include interesting things like bait types for certain fish and higher tier fishing recipes, and fishing quests and events to catch the biggest fish. Perhaps space bar reels in the fish.
     
  6. thesometimeslurker

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    Maybe sometimes you might yank in a hostile mob unexpectedly too!
     
  7. majoria70

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    Yes I agree and we could get sharks, crabs, piranhas, and water life, water plants, frogs, and later with boating sea monsters, and deep sea fishing and sea battles for PvP only. If needed I hope coding can be added to prepare for the future awesomeness to come.
     
  8. Floors

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    I like fishing in yew with the girl elf that fishes there :)

    Not just loot (supply drops rarely would make fishing worthwhile) but it would be cool to get varied fish. Obsidian Bass if I fish at Desolis, etc. And instead of cloth drops, perhaps we could get pearls or something occasionally.
     
  9. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Obsidian bass. Heh. If you're low level, you get yanked into the water...
     
  10. Anpu

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    Oh man! If they add crab and a crab cakes recipe that would be super sweet!!! :D
     
  11. Svahn

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    @DarkStarr
    @Lord British

    Thanks for keeping us updated.
    I really like that the game is getting better every month - cudos to the team!
    I also hope the economics of Portalarium improve.

    Here is a bit of feedback from an old time follower.
    Sorry for the long text but then I don't write very often ;).

    I wish you (the devs) would recognise that the questing system and npc dialogue system / interface are parts of the game that need most improvement and remaking - like very soon, not another 6 to 24 months down the road.
    Please don't delay the quest / npc dialogue rework.


    Generally speaking, what do most (new) players do in a rpg?
    I think they do quests and follow the story.
    Is it fun to do quests and follow the story in Sota?
    NO. Atleast not for me.
    It's frustrating and the npc dialogue presentation is rather bad (plus buggy).
    I first said this a few years ago.

    It should feel good to read (or hear) npc dialogue, not frustrating.
    (Even using only one male and one female voice for voice acting in the entire game would be an immense improvement over reading dialogue in the chat window like it is now, think about that for episode 3)
    It would be nice if it were easy to find quests and know where you are in a given quest and what the next step of the quest involves.

    I know you like that we can type sentences to the npcs, but it works very bad so why not skip that for now and just use clickable keywords for driving the dialogue.
    That might simplify matters when doing changes and you the devs control what we as users experience in front of npcs.
    When that works super nice, maybe then you add limited typing for a specific quest chain and let us test that there.

    Regarding the new user experience.
    The nue is not only about polishing the outskirts areas, which you have done an excellent job of.
    I feel that ending up in one of three starting areas is a mistake in design.
    Perhaps it would be better for the game if everyone goes to the same starting area (solace) and when finished there you are directed to the next (blood river) maybe via teleport, then to the last.
    That way the devs could easier guide the players in leveling up their avatars as well.
    Also, the questing and npc dialogue systems are integral to a good nue too.

    How was and is my story experience so far?
    I think it was around february / march of 2018 that I finished the three paths.
    I wanted to delay it as long as possible for the paths to be finished.
    Sadly they didn't feel finished then.
    One example: I might have misinterpreted or misclicked something in the very beginning - but I ended up going to the very top of the tower in the swamp a bit from Ardoris, died many times going up, didn't find the story npc, had to run back to Ardoris and click like mad to unlock whatever was missing and go to the tower again.
    During this I had to run through contant sieges of Ardoris, which was a pain. Please rethink the sieges..
    Even though I have kept my avatar since forever it felt too weak to finish some parts of the three paths.
    So at some places in the story along the three paths I died numerous times, more than was fun.
    That was frustrating.
    The teleporter / corridor maze thing in Artifice was particularly frustrating for me as well (thanks to the fellow that put up a video on Youtube that got me through it).

    When I had finished the three paths I was adventurer level 50 (I am Mister Casual Player :)) thanks to double xp.
    I heard on the grapevine that adventurer level 70 was recommended to take on the last path, so that one I haven't done yet (I'm still not at adventurer level 70).

    I found myself feeling that the story itself of the three paths was really nice, but painfully told / delivered.

    Cheers.
     
  12. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    Hello @Svahn,

    that's really good feedback to improve the story telling :)
     
  13. Ondar

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    I also think (after my 4 weeks in game), that there is enough content, but you really need to address questing (probably the only thing that keep most of new players in) and loading times. Rest was quite good :)
     
    K1000 and Witcheypoo like this.
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