My thoughts on getting players to return

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Dominor666, Dec 10, 2018.

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  1. Dominor666

    Dominor666 Avatar

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    Since i left the game about 3 months ago, i was thinking what would it take for me to come back.
    I have decided that "IF" i could get a 100% refund on my character so i could pick a new Archtype i would return, anyone else had the same feelings especially if they are not playing currently.

    What could the devs do to get you back .....
     
  2. FrostII

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  3. Pounce

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    I fear for me to return there would have to be content beside pvp, a functioning economy and less grind in crafting (skill games instead dumb luck crafting maybe, there have to be other ways than that to limit super item crafting aside RAN, maybe as more time you invest as higher the chances, whatever)

    I mean i reached sufficient high level in fighting for my taste, I am not terrible interested in arena style fights, I am in it for RP (there is none, and no playing an psyked random killer is not RP)

    The problem with Sota is that it is set up in ways that make it very hard to identify with your character, you are not "there" in the world. (Other 3rd person view games manage though)

    The overworld map travel ripps one out of the world and gives no sense of distance (wallking from freeport to Qeynos in Everquest was EPIC folks)

    Fights are spamming damage, there is no real tactics (and pvp is paper scissors stone) Character specialisation is not really an thing, someway between mage/.war/healer but that is it.

    So no real definition of an character, everyone becomes someway the same in endgame with a little bit of vanilla or chocolate flavor making the difference.

    I really have no idea what would make me play more because I am not for grinding more and more masters and pvp is not what I do much, housedecoration ... whatfor really , i can do that offline given that noone else sees it really.

    For me Sota has no soul (for me that would be meangingfull interaction with others (and no not pvp (only))
     
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  4. Jezebel Caerndow

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    There was talk about making a resistance skill, instead of needing to level up magic skills for attunement to get resistance. I would imagine that would come with a 100% return on magic skills. There is also the scroll of unlearning that gives 100% back.

    There is content besided pvp, its called pve. The economy does function, you get stuff and list it and it sells, or you can buy stuff with the coin you gain. They doubled the producer exp so its not as bad as it once was. Also, they said crafting spec is going to let you choose what you want from the list, so that will take the rng away.

    There are people doing rp events, right now catherine rose and boris mondragon are doing a pirate rp. Titania just did a fishing contest, there are people doing a christmas deco contest, and dance partied are all the time.

    Some places are farther then others on the world map, dont know how you dont have any sense of distance.

    There is totally tactics in fighting, jumping tail swipes and stomps, using your parry/dodge, glancing blow/ fortify def/ douse/ purify at the right times.

    there is character definition, sara is a pure swordsman, hyperlight is a bowman, I am a mage, snuggs was a tamer but is now an air mage.

    Sota has unique things in it I have not seen in any other game, the deck system for one, being able to be many variations of builds choosing what one you want to play, access to devs like I have never had before in any other game.
     
  5. majoria70

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    This is a great topic and I don't necessarily agree with the OP for all players to return would be the same. Since there isn't really a cap there is no need unless you want to make a female, a male, and other personality. Well I guess unless you just wanted the points back to use else where without grinding for them again. I truly have given it some thought throughout these years of what's missing that would bring into the game some of what I've felt is missing. Like more heart and soul ;). Many things are being addressed right now as we mention them but while I do like that many barriers have been taken down still some soul keeps getting missed imo.

    As mentioned we have a huge world but we get ripped out of it with loading screens, and a feeling of disconnect from the world not being tied together and connected in some meaningful transparent way that may not keep us mentally in it during the process. We have our separate amounts of time in our individual in game scenes and homes throughout the land doing what we do, but overall the world is not tied together in a lasting satisfactory way once we leave those little areas imo. I have tried to imagine things that would help that in this broken up world and these are some things I've thought of but each of us feels different in what attracts us to a game and keeps us playing but here are some thoughts:

    -Having an in game achievement system that tracks our progress and rewards us and holds us accountable for some choices. Such as climbing up a difficult mountain and finding a treasure or a secret pathway to a new area and the game remembers.

    -Also another example: killing during pvp acquires kill points and bounties and wanted posters, titles oh my and etc.

    -While grinding for trophies and having that ability is an awesome addition to the game in so many ways, what happens when you have them all and that is not a new thing any longer? How about implementing more reasons for doing something causes something else to happen like more than the grind? Perhaps it is planned;)

    -We need to feel connected to the world as well as have full featured systems that are enticing and interesting. Lore scattered around to see details and read like pointing at an old runic vase and see some bit of lore like 'you notice a very fragile looking old vase perhaps it was stolen bounty off a sunken treasure'.

    - The game needs to know what we've done and what we need to do to some degree. Also it needs to Think beyond the grind which cannot always be helped. Think of non combat crafting jobs given by NPC's, lots of dailies like 'catch of the day' etc which gives some rare bait or fishing gear. Think of the tamers having fun and interesting things happen for taming.

    I'm not saying we don't have lots of great things. I'd just love to see them tied together better instead of such separate entities so much. So anyway some late night thoughts which may or may not make any difference. *cheers*
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2018
  6. macnlos

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    UO Outlands, one of the things I really like, are Prestige points. You can gain them as an individual or if you are part of a guild it gets shared. Each week there are a couple of things that happen.

    First there are quests you can complete like gain so much gold in such a location or kill so many of so many mob types and so on.

    Second they rotate locations that give you bonuses. Craft in a certain town (public) and get a higher chance for Exceptional items. Kill in a certain dungeon for bonuses on Gold. Train or use skills in another dungeon and you get higher returns.

    Third there are global achievements. Place such and such type houses for Land Owner achievement. Tame so many pets for Taming achievement. And so on.

    Things like Fishing have records. Catch a certain fish of a certain size/weight and you can get a game record award. And so on.

    All of these systems drive players to play together in certain areas and compete with each other. Prestige points can be spent for guild or individual bonuses. It also allows rank/title the guilds. The point is that these system do drive competition.

    SotA just doesn't do this. Regardless of how few/many people there are playing. it is an MMO but drives the feeling of a Single Player Game... and you get bored. Whatever @DarkStarr directs the team to do should always be driven by, at least in part, by how will this drive the players together. Think about Fortnite or PUBG. Every so often the timer goes off and storm/blue zone where people can fight in gets smaller. As the crowd gets smaller, it drives them together and forces them to fight with each other.

    UO... hanging out at the Smithy shop in town to get repairs done. Hanging out at the bank to sell/buy things... Think about the systems that were in place to bring people together. Now think about SotA… what brings people together? Dance parties?

    SotA is full of potential... Public Vendors... what a waste. That system flopped on its backside with its weird taxed and if you don't watch you can lose your items for a ridiculous price. This Thursday marks the 3rd release where I simply won't play because it just isn't fun.

    The game is "fully" released but yet they still deliver incomplete systems and call it "Phases". Don't do this. All it does is add to the feeling of incompleteness. Love the idea of fishing and player dungeons... But take the time to fully develop them and roll them out in completed form. I think the problem is that they need to drive income / revenue in the short term so they are always under the gun to put "something" out, in whatever shape to drive the funding on the game. Pay once is not viable option for the game and that right there is what forces their hand on what/how they can do things. That's an opinion but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not far off.
     
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  7. oplek

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    Anything that'd give the game some depth. Regional economies. Courier contracts. Territorial conquests. Meaningful non-1v1 PVP.

    Enough decorations. I don't need a 17th set of pavers, or a 13th reskinned dragon model statue that needs an entire village lot to place. I don't need more stuff. I have containers bursting at the seams with stuff. I need something to *do*. The decoration stretch goals just don't lure me into contributing anymore. Maybe if they had 1-2 community selected features as stretch goals, I'd consider. I don't bother to level my character (I've been to UT once), because why level up?

    I'm not sure where player-made dungeons came from... just seemed to come out of nowhere. While interesting, I'd trade that in for the ability for player vendors to allow arbitrary-quantity purchases from a stack. Or a guild MOTD to help asynchronously (and proactively) organize the guild. Or the ability for the "looking for group" feature to allow for ahead-of-time scheduling. Or achievements (and even go so far as the Fallout New Vegas unlocked bonuses... so killing 1000 skeletons give you %5 damage bonus to skeletons). Or overhaul the quest rewards and presentation (Not in episode 2 - Now)

    I do see this as a single player game, mostly. As such, there's a finite amount that keeps my attention. I'm looking at the standup notes with increasing pessimism... shaking my head thinking "you're spending time on THAT?"
     
  8. oplek

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    As a side note... the quest rewards I don't think anticipate changes to the player environment. The gold, for instance, was probably set before a lot of inflation happened... the XP before UT and the permanent doubling of XP across the board. If they gave out something like a COTO that'd automatically scale in value with the economy.
     
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  9. Pounce

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    Pve is not really about strategy either, at least not if you are used to other systhems... the whack a mole cards meh.. I can not use skills strategical if they pop up at random.
    I have too much stuff i do not need, so gold is something that gets more and more, no point there (and housing that would need gold... I have by now so many bank slots it is pointless to have an house for storage only.

    But the main reason is there is no travel (sorry but running over the overworld is no travel)

    If you want to cross the continent it is running through three zones max, loading screens taking up most of the time spend.

    I want to scale a mountain, travel through an pass and look down into the valley on the other side, not follow an path on overworld and dodge so called instances.

    Stoa aint no world, it is a lot of instances tied together by an "map" you walk around on.

    Player housing is not my thing, there are few who are decorated in an way that helps immersion, most are either a dump for loot or garish neon light palaces.

    I do not say Sota is bad or not created with care but I prefer an world that has more immersion, is more "in one piece" and so on.

    Spending lots of time to catch up with all what changed now and so on is kinda to much bother with the overworld still in place, one of the main reasons i am not hot to return
     
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  10. Kain Darkmoor

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    Give us the ability to cheaply 100% respec our skills and that would go a long way in getting me to return. Before I stopped playing regularly, I had spent like 30 scrolls of unlearning to try out a new build, which I didn't really end up caring for. Well unless I want to spend a bunch of real money it's just not feasible to respec my skills any further.
     
  11. Duke William of Serenite

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    You can respec all your skill with scrolls. No need to start over.
     
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  12. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

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    why not do liek the one time quest reset and offer a 1 time full skill reset?
     
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  13. Jezebel Caerndow

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    You know you can lock cards too right? Most of my decks have 9 locked cards and then on spot with 14+ cards. Usually you lock your buffs and heals cuz you need those when you need them, you do not want to have those going dynamically so you can use them strategically.

    There are many gold sinks in the game, regs, repairs, taxes, ect.

    With the introduction of the new teleport to location scrolls, you can skip the world map if you dont like it.

    No one is forcing you to do the deco housing thing, if you got enough bank spots, then dont have a house. Many people like it though.
     
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  14. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    BTW, having a way to wipe everything clean and move all experience back to your pool so you can rebuild from scratch is something we've had requested a few times. While I suspect those who are already deep into the game won't want this, I can see a player who dabbled, had regrets on their choices and quit in frustration, finding this very desirable.

    Working on a plan right now to give all players, old and new, a way to do this once during R61.

    I think you should come back and play anyways but I'm not against bribing you to do it too as I feel many players might choose to do it.

    What do you guys say? I'll get everyone a book of full respec, and you guys can give the game another shot over the holidays.
     
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  15. Brass Knuckles

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    Like you said the players deep into the game wouldn’t do this, the unlearn scrolls target single skills that would serve these players better. The full respec book is fine since they would have to spend time retraining the new skills anyway.

    It is kinda weird to me though the system. I could spend 2 years playing a ice mage one book and a bit later I’m a grandmaster swordsmen with very little time actually playing with swords.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2018
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  16. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Yah, this would basically be like a book of unlearning on steroids. Investigating having it give you the option to wipe a full skill tree OR all skills. That ways some existing players could get some use out of it. We'll probably do something like give out 1 no trade book to everyone who ever played. Then have it vanish at the start of R62.
     
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  17. Cirsee

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    I think it is a fine idea. Even playing a while myself, I have a little bit of everything and am basically a hot mess. A reset button might not be a bad idea even fir some older players like me.
     
  18. Jezebel Caerndow

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    Love it.
     
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  19. Vladamir Begemot

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    Sounds awesome! I will have to consider my future carefully now.

    You probably ought to put the book in the COTO store for a buttload of COTO's as well, some day.
     
  20. Lained

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    Since it's marked as no trade what's the downside of leaving it on the account for future use?
     
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