Soft Wipe for Episode #2 ? ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Weins201, Mar 4, 2019.

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  1. Andartianna

    Andartianna Avatar

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    The problem is there is attenuation so your buff for double exp then makes you play even less time. So you spend 10 mins per hour to get attenuated and now have nothing else to do in the game. Waiting for 50 mins between adventuring sounds really like an unfun game. Now if they just want to slow us down to start off the new content they could make it time bound. So we start with say 10% of our current skills then every day gain 2% automatically back. Then in 10 days you have 30% of you total skills back and so on until you are back to full power after a couple months. That way you still start at the lower level but you don't have to actually spend gold to get back your skills you just play and they come back over the time one would normally clear the content of ep2.
     
  2. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    I get what you're saying, Andar and I agree.
    And, in the end, what's the point of "everyone starts at square one" if after a couple months we might as well just bring our Ep1 chars to Ep2.
    Seems like a bit of a silly "leveling of the playing field" for only a couple months.
    Chris said that he's in the early stages of figuring this out, so hopefully he'll spend some time reading our comments here on the forums before he get's too far into the process.
     
  3. Jason_M

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    This isn't a panic post, but I'd like to vent about a massive preconception that I've had since I launch:

    I find the ideas of stand-alone episodes to be perplexing. I always took for granted that Episode 1 ends on a cliff hanger and Episode 2 will continue the story.

    The atavists. Artifice. Perri the Unchained. The Ebon Dawn and the Obsidians and the damned Prophecy of Dirae? The armies of the undead - was it really just wimpy Anapa?

    There's no conclusion, no closure, no satisfaction. Compared to losing the STORY, I couldn't care less about a soft or hard wipe. Building a new character is nothing, but losing the narrative is the real loss. There's no coming back from that. :(

    I always assumed that the new lands would require the main quest to continue. I imagined Arabella alerting the avatar that the Antagonists are up to no good on the Serpent Isles and he/she should investigate. A continuation - not a new game.

    I trust that the vision for the next episode will be revealed to us in the coming months - perhaps in the summer, so there's no need to get excited. I'm just a bit shocked that everything I assumed to be the case was wrong. :oops:o_O:confused:
     
  4. Caernarvon

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    I've found myself to be one of life's 'fencesitters' - not a deliberate conscious decision - just something I've just come to realise that I can be to some degree in my 47 years here. The upside to that is you do get a good view of both sides of the fence.

    I can appreciate the thinking behind this and the necessity to have new challenges etc. in some shape or form, that makes sense to me, and I personally wouldn't have too much of an issue with it in the way it has been described so far (i.e. only applies in the new lands) - though I think there are probably better solutions to this problem.

    I can also see how controversial it might be to many players, especially those that have pumped gazillions of hours into levelling all those skills up, for them to have to do it all over again for another episode, it's just not an appealing way to do it, and doesn't really have any logical sense within the world either for that matter (though I'm sure something can always be dreamt up there).

    As someone who played Everquest 2 from day one for 12 years with an expansion every year, I do understand the need for new challenges with each new expansion, and I know the developers of that game had huge technical issues down the years in terms of scalability of xp/levels/damage numbers (i.e. maths) especially from level 90 upwards after a few expansions, as EQ2 had only ever been designed to have 100 levels max, and even then would require a lot of design work over each expansion to make more levels viable. But I do know and understand for many reasons, things wouldn't just be able to continue without some sort of change in future SotA episodes, people will be burning through it too easily otherwise which will also bring about backlash of its own.

    However, I took a sharp intake of breath when I saw this thread title, I didn't know this concept was being tossed around, and seemingly possibly planned to some degree from the outset. I think it's a little too harsh and could potentially see quite a few players being too upset and throwing in the towel, which is of course, the last thing the game needs. That said, there will of course always be some who will be disappointed - whatever decisions are taken at Portalarium - no development team can make all of the people happy all of the time, kinda damned if they do, and damned if they don't.

    But I really think there has to be a better way of tackling it than this touted soft reset.

    I personally would be looking at new specialist skill trees (a la Everquests Alternate Advancement) and have those new skills be crucial/critical in overcoming new content. These new skills would take a long while to level up (much harder than EP1) and become proficient in, and perhaps force players to make some more very important decisions that are difficult to undo. They don't have to be massively in-depth or complicated skilltrees - perhaps give us the choice at the outset for us to go down 1 of 5 new paths (skill trees) - maybe limit the options based on our current specialisations in Ep1, and have each of these new paths have just 5 new skills, but like I say make these new skills critical and required to kill the new content - and make them much more slower to level up. At least if it's done in this manner, players will feel like they're moving forwards and not backwards.

    Just my 2 coppers worth, I'm sure there is more of a happy medium to be found with a bit of thinking.
     
  5. Gia2

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    I cannot stop laughing...Soft wipe... :D:D:D:D
    is there any worse idea on the hat? This is showtime :D:D:D:D:D
     
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  6. Feeyo

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    Then let the new players venture and level up as we did in EP1, when they are ready for EP2 they can continue. Simple.

    As far as I understand currently, is they want to implement this because EP2 will make use of the new quest system, EP1 will still use the current quest system and that will break new player experience.
     
  7. Senash Kasigal

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    I dont think that a pure softwipe is the solution for the mistakes they made in the past.
    There must be a more drastic change in the skillsystem and leveldesign or the problem will resurface with every episode.
    Without that, it will be very hard to attract new players.
    You cant attract new player by telling them, that they can never reach the same level as a vet player.
    Its not really true or needed to be competitive, but this is the perception new players have, if they look at the game.
    This softwipe will only upset many old players without solving the problem.
     
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  8. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Quoting for truth and history.
     
  9. kaeshiva

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    I still can't wrap my head around how it would even work.
    I walk onto that new island, and my gear and skills go into some sort of pocket dimension until I go back to Novia?
    So what about items I pick up then? If I crafted an item on an Ep2 island, is there a separate pocket dimension of stuff as I leave...?
    What about XP pools? Those are kept separate henceforth? So I have Ep1 pools and Ep2 pools?
    What about decks? I mean, Obviously my saved decks will have skills I don't know in "Ep2 area" so...do I get all new deck slots? Another set of bank slots too I imagine?

    We essentially doubling the amount of 'saved information' for my character to have a complete gear/skill/deck rollout on each landmass?
    This just seems like a whole lot of fuss and mess and potential for things to break, get lost, etc.
    We going to do this for EVERY new episode? So there'll be like 5 versions of me? Each with its own bank, gear, deck loadout, skill advancement....

    Like it or not, we're an MMO now. A persistent MMO.
    Adding a new skill-tree or new advancement line that can only be done on new landmass would be fine and gives you something new.
    You can't just pretend that the 10k hours ive spent developing my character to date didn't happen.
    Why would you want to?

    In light of the...considerable technical mess that would be involved to even DO this, I admit I'm in a bit of a bother atm. There's so much stuff that needs fixing in Ep1 this is like setting the boat on fire instead of patching the leak. Bit disappointed that this sort of thing was casually mentioned on a radio show and there's been not a word of anything wipe-related on any of the official streams which have been touting ep2 features for some time.
     
  10. Spinok

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    I think it will be VERY hard to implement. There are so many questions. Maybe we can polish as much of our systems as we can? instead of new CoE type mechanics, which simply does not fit into a game where igg=$.
     
  11. oplek

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    I don't agree that "it's been known". Not all of us were kickstarter backers. I had no knowledge of it.

    One of the chronic problems with the game has been the dispersal of even basic information. You seem to always have to go on an archaeological dig to discover any details if you weren't alive at the time to personally witness the events... if you're even aware that there's anything to go dig for.

    Even having bought Ep.2 access in the store, looking at the description, there's nothing that pops out to me as indicating that it'd be a standalone game, or have a soft wipe. My default concept is bound to be what these usually are - expansions to the core game.
     
  12. Caernarvon

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    Interesting if that truly is the case.

    I'd personally say they should rebuild the quest system and journal from scratch for the game as it is right now in EP 1 before the drive for Episode 2, then go at Ep 2 all guns blazing thereafter. If they got all hands on deck for a new questing system/journal right now (aside from any art staff who can perhaps start work on Ep 2 material/store content to give us something trivial for monthly releases in the meantime, and any necessary bug fixes that need dealing with) and focussed pretty much solely on getting it done and dusted over the next 3 or 4 months, they'd probably have a shiny new questing system and journal in place for Ep1 & Ep2, with tools to develop and deploy quests and NPC dialog more easily (which can then potentially be passed down to players for future User Generated Content - i.e. player quests and the like), and can then gradually start rebuilding the old quests under the new system until they're all done.

    Like others, for a long time I've said the questing system is sadly one of the games weak links, which is a real shame, as SotA has a lot of exceptionally positive points and USP's... combat decks / skills, XP pools, housing, PoT's, roleplay etc etc. - nothing comes close to SotA in those regards. But with the Ultima heritage, and this being the series true spiritual successor, questing could... and should be up there with some of the games strongest points for those that appreciate this aspect of the game, and hopefully it will happen this year. Clearly the devs have acknowledged it is problematic for some time and are thankfully doing something about it, which is of course good news.

    I know not everyone wants or likes questing, especially some diehard UO players (of which I was one for a few years back in the day) - and that's fine - but many people, myself included, have expectations of something a little a bit more solid, reliable, functional and featured in any modern-day MMO they play than what we have in place now. It has undoubtedly turned people away within a matter of hours, because in so many respects, it really isn't what it should or could be - to put it nicely!

    But I guess Portalarium want, and more than likely *need* E2 done and out there in reasonably timely fashion for revenue purposes, and I understand that too. If that's the case, I would still urge the team to ensure that at some point sooner rather than later they bring Ep1 questing and content in line with any new system in place for Ep2.
     
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  13. Gorthyn

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    Sounds like another "What on earth were they thinking ?" moment potentially.

    Convoluted, messy, frustrating and pointless especially when there is so much existing content that still needs fixing/completing.
     
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  14. oplek

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    Also, they force MP on the overworld, and in towns, so that more people are seen... but they have plans to split the playerbase across 5 standalone games?
     
  15. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Ok, i gave this one a bit more thought.

    If we are talking about a completly new quest system from EP 2 that isn't going to be implimented for EP 1 because (enter complex technical reason here) AND if this is the ONLY reset ever to get the new system straight and the system wills tay in place untill the lights go out....maybe i would be willing to wrap my head around it. Just maybe.
     
  16. Jason_M

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    I know exactly how you feel. If it's not on a third party website, it's buried in a pod cast or live stream. If only it were set out in plain English in one place, like a wiki or a manifesto.... But then they would be locked down into it for forever more. So much effort seems spent on avoiding commitment.

    I have so many questions about this game and it's stories. So much doubt and confusion. But I enjoy it - being in the game world with the friends I made there - so I try not to think about it.

    I remember spending bours on UO Stratics (long before there were wikis) and reading literal essays and articles about lore and locations and player guides.... I can't seem to find anything for SotA. I even read Blade of the Avatar but I learned almost nothing from that. It's an opaque world with similarly opaque development (so many details divulged but dispersed and scattered into obscurity) but we do love it in spite of ourselves.
     
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  17. g04tn4d0

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    Player metrics and mandatory in-game voting might be a good idea to help resolve controversial issues.
     
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  18. Phoenix007

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    Finally Chris say. The Episode 2 is a mix of a new game and existing.

    If that is occurs I am really desapointed. and I will be not interesting to play on EP2, because I have spend a lot of time and money to leveling skills specially the craft (many million purchased to leveling craft) and also multiple reset of skill purchased in store.
    I hope I find all addition in Ep1 if I have access to ep2 to avoid soft reset.
     
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  19. Belladonna Rose

    Belladonna Rose Bug Hunter

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    Umm wow. Ok I am not a fan of the idea of starting over again. I worked hard since persistence to get where i am now ...which is by all means no where near what some folks are. I cannot solo a dragon and such but that is because i choose not to. As far as new players they NEED to start at the beginning of Ep1 to learn the game mechancis and such. There are tons of older players out there..myself included that help new players learn about Everything. I dont see why folks who have completed Ep1 should be put in a situation where we have to start over again. I paid for Ep2 content and dont feel that i should have to have all my stuff taken away to go into the new area. The premise of E2 was to "ADD" to the content. If new players want to go to the new lands then they need to work up the skills and such just like everyone else has over the years. I spent my first 4 months playing with wipe after wipe before the game went persistent....almost quit because of it....then they did no more wipes and i have been on a steady pace of living my life in Sota. The one thing i can handle is giving me a zero setting of xp. Start at zero xp when i enter the new lands.....then have to build it back up again. Dont even care if its double or not. But DO NOT take my gear or my skills away from me. If that is the track they intend to go on i will live out my life solely in E1 lands and forget about the E2 content. Too many of us have built up our towns, toons and such to have it taken away. We need a bit more clarification on this all. And i truly hope they take some kind of concensus on this as many are not gonna tolerate it. If they dont hear us out they might as well shut the doors and close up shop cause alot of folks will move on
     
  20. oplek

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    The most positive response I've seen so far on the topic is... "I think I could live with it". Edit: I do recall somewhere one person was essentially "sounds like a good plan".

    A phrase that's increasingly coming to my mind lately is "out of touch".
     
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