Time away from Sota

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by moxiepilot, May 23, 2019.

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  1. moxiepilot

    moxiepilot Avatar

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    I inadvertently took about 8 months off from Sota - holidays, training to fly a new airplane and other assorted junk. Once I get through operational training I should have time to get back in the groove - July or so.

    So my question is: is it time to start over with the one character reset? Essentially, have the bugs been worked out or is the game still glitchy?
     
  2. Innascual Inch

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    It depends on what you plan to do.

    If you want to mainly go on quests, you should wait until they launch the new quest UI/engine, which isn’t happening anytime soon.

    If you want to grind on mobs/check out adventure scenes, nows a great time to jump back in!
     
  3. Cora Cuz'avich

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    It sounds like the old quests aren't going to be updated to the new system. I may be wrong, as I heard that second hand. But it seems as thought the current quests are about as good as they're going to be.
     
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  4. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    Short answer friend, no. The game, as it relates to the story, still has a number of bugs but is able to be completed. I've completed the mainline story four times, twice with my main, once with my wife and lastly offline and I can tell you it's still a mess.

    Yet @Innascual Inch has the right of it, the story overhaul/quest experience is a long time coming (if ever) but if you want to grind grind mobs you've come to the right place. In that instance, these ARE the droids you're looking for.
     
  5. jiirc

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    Meanwhile, while many people are saying the quests are buggy, people at doing them fine. Personally, jump in and do what you want. The quests are continually being either fixed or eliminated, depending on how hard it is to fix bugs.
     
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  6. MightyUnclean

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    I've been thinking of trying SotA again. What is it about the main story that makes it a mess? Lack of clear direction? Serious bugs? Incomplete content?
     
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  7. Shift

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    all of the above
     
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  8. MightyUnclean

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    So at this point, are they just abandoning getting Ep. 1 perfected and moving on to Ep. 2?
     
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  9. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I would say all of the above, but to some varying degree. My comments of a complete mess might have been a bit harsh, albeit accurate.

    While the overall story is able to finished, it isn't polished and a major component of that are bugs. Are they serious bugs, no, not that I have encountered. There is usually a "workaround" that allows you, the player, to move forward and complete the story. However, it isn't very intuitive and the poor UI doesn't help things by any means. I had to twice, skip various portions of the the Love quest line to trigger "flags" in order to continue the quest. The only way I figured this out, was by reading the forums. Perhaps these bugs have been fixed, but I cannot say for certain. I completed it online with my wife back in 2018 for the last time.

    As for a lack of clear direction, at this juncture, knowing what I now know...I would say there is NO direction. Perhaps there was some back in 2016, but any that directly relates to a compelling story and narrative has left long ago (or was let go) or has been re-purposed to more pixel crack. Which is fine, if that is what you are looking for. I am not. I want a game that tells an Ultima "like" story in this new world of New Britannia. Yet I digress, allow me to finish answering your questions.

    To your final question, re: incomplete content, I can only attest to one quest. One that I wasted countless hours on and it is absolutely unfortunate, because it has the premise of being awesome. There is a quest, where a village seems to not be what they are purporting. Without spoiling anything, you need to find a key which DOES NOT EXIST. I read the forums, searched the area where the key was "supposed" to be...NOTHING. I scoured the entire scene, asked friends for help; who told me, "It should be here." Only it wasn't and whether or not it's a bug or simply incomplete still boils down to one incontrovertible fact...it sucks! Very much like the overall story.

    Look, I'm not trying to dissuade you from playing the game because it is able to be completed. In fact you should do it, just for the heck of it, so you can build your own opinion. There are plenty of players who completely disagree with me and that's cool. What's one man's goose is another man's gander. However, to me, the story is completely lackluster garbage that needs a complete overhaul (including the UI) in order for it to even be remotely salvageable.

    I apologize if this seems overly harsh this is solely my opinion of where things stand as it relates to the story aspect of the game.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2019
  10. MightyUnclean

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    No, I appreciate the honesty. I've been pretty harsh on the game myself. The bad news for me is, I'd mainly be playing the game for the story if I returned. I don't want to sink my time into something that is ultimately just going to frustrate and discourage me. I'm kind of shocked that the game is still in this state after so much time.
     
  11. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I think you should still play it. At least to form your own opinion. I am overly critical because as an Ultima uber nerd I expected a heck of a lot more from an @Lord British game. To this day, I think Ultima VII is still one of the most compelling and amazing RPG's ever. Shroud doesn't even hold a candle to it re: the story and U7 came out over 20 years ago. Yet, like I said this is simply my opinion as someone who cares about the lore and story.
     
  12. Astirian

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    My apologies for the following multi-quote @DarkStarr. (M-m-m-m-m-m-multi-quote!)

    There were stand-up notes a few months ago that talked about "extracting quest data" or some such. Maybe there's still hope? I mean, in this post (which is a lovely post by the way)...

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s-criticism-healthy-debate-the-future.135916/

    Starr talks about the quest system:
    "Could we have sacrificed other systems to overhaul / start over with the quest system before launch? Yes and that was probably a bad priority call in hindsight and for that we are sorry."

    So, like... They know.

    And the new system is definitely in the roadmap.

    I could have sworn it was said that the system would be retroactive but maybe that was just hearsay. I've no idea how they've wired it up as it currently stands, or how difficult a quest extract or export/import into the new system would be. But I mean ultimately if we get a new dialogue/journal interface, do we really care about what it looks like in the back-end? Does the quest data really need to be in the new system?

    They might just patch up and bug-fix all the existing Episode 1 content and quest logic (in fact, it seems @Sannio is in The Zone on this) and use the new system for Episode 2 onwards (and potentially a Lite version for player-made quests) but Episode 1 would, I'd think, still get the benefits of the new UI/Journal... That sort of makes sense to me.

    Yeah, the more I think about it... wrap up the Episode I quest data and hide it under the bed, implement better quest design tools for Ep2+, new UI might still have to talk to the Ep1 data though...

    So that might mean that we get:

    A.) First Prize: A brand new polished UI with a snazzy journal. Ep1 and Ep2 use a new streamlined quest design Editor tool in Unity or what-have-you. There is much rejoicing. (Devs are delighted with the quest data extraction tool they made for Ep1!)

    B.) Second Prize: A brand new polished UI with a snazzy journal. Ep1 talks to the old messy data in the backend (which we don't see) and Ep2 is on the new system. Many rejoicing (except maybe the devs, who have to do the Ep1 rewiring).

    C.) Third Prize: The UI doesn't change, because changing it means you have to rewire Ep1 content. Instead, Old UI talks to a new quest system in the backend for Ep2. Eh. (Would make dev life easier I guess but new players and veterans alike are stuck with the status quo)

    Really not a massive fan of option 3 to be honest but again, this is pure conjecture on my part. And if it was option 3, then nothing would really change from our POV except maybe faster bug fixes. So it doesn't really add up for me that that would be the strategy.

    There's surely other options I'm not considering but I don't think they can just cut Ep1 quest UX loose if we're getting a new Journal...
     
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  13. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I think that revamping quests was the original plan, and may still happen, but the emphasis in the new system will be new quests, with the old system sticking around for old quests. But I can't find where I saw that, so take it with a grain of salt.
     
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  14. MightyUnclean

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    Ultima IV was the magical one for me. When I was 12, I spent summer break on the phone with my two best friends playing it and solving it together.
     
  15. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    Well you might enjoy Shroud then. Instead of calling your chums, you'll be scouring the forums, wikis, youtube and discord chat to figure out a way around the bugs and how to solve a slew of non-intuitive quests. ;)
     
  16. MightyUnclean

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    Nope, I have no interest in doing any of that.
     
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  17. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I can't say I blame you, but if you should choose to draw your sword and sally forth, feel free to add me as a friend and I'd be honored to help you: Cordelayne Valkaris
     
  18. MightyUnclean

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    Thanks!
     
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  19. Nevyn Waldail

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    I've completed the main quests twice in the last two months and not had issues with bugs.
     
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  20. Violet Ronso

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    We have had multiple new players in our guild complete the quests in the past few months with close to no issues, the biggest issue they had was being French and mis-translating things. The one thing I would suggest you (which will save you ALL the seemingly hours of research Cordelayne is leading you to believe you will face) is to have Mac2's YouTube series close, as his guides are pretty much still up to date with everything, so if you feel like you are stuck, Mac2 will have the answer in video format.

    Like Cordelayne said, he hasn't done the quest since 2018, and since then, much has been worked on, enough to have some native French people manage to complete the quests without too many issues.
     
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