Ep.2 and development decisions opinions

it's becoming a hodgepodge of different styles... it's still not as bad as a Second Life residential region but it's getting close...

 

That's not cool at all.

This line of thinking has us where we're at now. The pixel crack is the monthly rewards.

Maybe we should rename the game "Lord British's Medieval Life Simulation" and get it over with.

 

I really wanted to get a POT early on, until I realized that A) you can't really deco it too much without dropping lots everywhere and then paying tons of taxes, and B) I'd never let anyone else live there, because I'd be constantly kicking people out for trashy housing choices.

 

On the other hand, an entire POT necropolis all for myself...

 

Hehe yes perhaps that's the answer, except maybe it's not even that with such a mish mash of deco and world design styles.

 

Most of you pretended to have played UO.
So the only thing that surprises me is that you are surprised but this...."turn"....of events.

 

Yes I played UO for many years. It was great. So no, not surprised though I would say SOTA has taken that to another level and whether that's good or bad I guess is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Hehe. No, imo it hasn't. Just google Ultima Online housing and be blinded by the....eeehhrrrrr....splendor....of the creations. It's possibly just seems more overwhelming in SotA because of the 3D enviorment.
I, for one, already got offended by quite a few of the creations in UO ;-)

 

Had to have a chuckle at the guy in the unicorn mask and faerie wings trolling Chris' stream the other day.

But yeah... This is why I'll be playing through the quest in Ultima VII mode.

 

What can I say? It's kind off part of the UO part of this game *shrugs* it's not that I am a big fan of all that dancing deco costume stuff myself, but it belongs together I am afraid ^^

 

To be fair it's been a few years since I played so they may have added more tat than when I last ventured in there !

 

Our game is a collage of all Lord British's games and not just the medieval ones.

They're all here in some form or another, even parts of Tabula Rasa.

But there are new things taken from all over the world. This is a traditionally historic home in Thailand.
I don't mind that within every step of our development that vast customization through options have been it's continuing theme.

Our game has been a place where development and completion are both represented in each release. I can't imagine our game having had such success any other way, yet because of this, it's continually judged as either a sloppy finished product, or an under-developed world. It's everything to everyone, yet never "the thing and complete thing" to anyone and that's just the way crowdfunded games should be developed, as they cannot be compared with corporate gaming company productions which are always presented as complete after having denied access to them by their players before they're finished.

We're all lucky to having had a say or suggestion in anything that became reality here.
But we're lucky, "because it's crowd funded" ~TL~

 

That's just a pasted-on excuse for the random mess we have, though. We're stuck with it, at this point, so I don't expect it to change. It's entirely possible to create a game world with a wide range of influences, and still create something that has a cohesive feel to it. What we have, though, is whatever somebody thought seemed fun at the time, and we ended up with a haphazard visual salad.

 

Exactly right!

 

And to counterpoint my own post: when there is a focused direction, it's done really well. The outskirts scenes are probably the best looking in the game. The scenes that were uncloned before everyone got let go are really nice. The individual parts are great, it's the fact that they're all jumbled together that looks awful.

 

I 100% agree with this and personally think Highvale Outskirts hits every metric a player could want: 1) massive scene with lots to explore 2) great story and lore tidbits 3) fun quests with good loot rewards and 4) solid entry point for new and old players alike.

Also, the uncloned scenes are amazing but poorly implemented as you mentioned. Puzzles are completely non-intuitive and without @Rinaldi wonderful guides almost impossible to complete. There needs to be more tie ins like scrolls or books that offer hints to the player within the scene. Some have them, but many do not.

Finally, every scene should have at least one quest, otherwise why even bother going in there? This is really basic stuff and am amazed I even have to say it. I get pixels bring in dollars but so do quests, I wish this area of the game would get the much needed love it deserves.

 

This should be just an in general thing, not necessarily quest related. I wold love to see @Sannio pick one or two scenes every release and spend an afternoon populating it with books, journals, and notes relevant to the game world, the story, or the people in the scene. How many times do you spy a scrap of paper on a desk only to discover it's another "Mysterious Note" with "indecipherable scribbles" before you stop looking at the notes altogether? The occasional clue to a puzzle in the scene or a blacksmith's daily journal would be nice, but I wouldn't even mind if it were just a grocery list or a letter to somebody's mom. There's clearly a lot of background to the world, why not litter bits of it around? The world has no sense of history.

#MakeExploringGreatAgain

 

Pretended? Right...

 

Personally I've played other MMO's. Never UO. Heard about it. Was busy playing games like Defiance (for example)


This is my first RG Online game. All other RG games were like Ultima 1-9. But not Online