What changes would get you to play Shroud again.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by City Slicker, Nov 4, 2019.

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  1. Bankchick

    Bankchick Avatar

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    Dance parties are a way for people who decorate houses and make outfits to showcase their work. Also, people who wanna be radio DJ's get to do their thang too. Its borderline obnoxious, I know but its kind of our way to keep MOST chicks interested in the game... NOTE I said MOST, if you are chomping at the bit to quote and send me a scathing rebuttal, then take a breath and know I don't mean you. There are plenty of guys who would rather doll house and play dress up in the game rather than adventure also, so whatever I guess. The point being with the diminishing population of this once proud experiment, I think finding new and exciting ways to alienate existing players might be counter productive. If it were up to me, I would open the flood gates, un nerf all the weapon skills and spells. lower mob resistance and let people start having real honest to god FUN. Who cares if 300 people are having fun playing an unbalanced game. If the population DOES go up and people start playing en masse, then knock yourselves out with your nerf gun and get it all back under control. So dance and doll house or solo bosses til your heart is content , anything to keep the game from going down. @Chris STOP chasing players away with your overreaching need to control; . You can NEVER balance PVE and PVP in this system and trying just pisses both groups off. Let the last few of us left have fun and maybe it will be contagious. Just A thought.
     
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  2. Sentinel2

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    Here's a crazy thought.

    Diverse bonuses. Looking through ESO. Every day they have something different for that day of just logging in.

    Some days I get a no trade, specialty poison for my weapons. Last night I picked up a bonus of 2 scrolls providing double XP for two hours each. A total of 4 hours XP boost.

    Stuff like that would help IMO :D
     
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  3. Bedawyn

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    It's not having the dance parties (or fishing contests) that's the problem. It's that those are the official events and the only official events, which tells potential players that SotA is trying to be a knockoff of Second Life, with all the same immersion-breaking OOC social focus and profits coming from large landowners, but with less than a quarter of the customization possible.
     
  4. Bankchick

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    I guess I can agree with that. The only problem is that the Dev's aren't gamers and there is no jingle in the jar to pay for a professional DM to moderate these RP sessions that my man wants to see. Turning something like that over to the player base with the actual ability to provide meaningful rewards would be like kicking a wasps nest onto a city bus. People would loose their minds with the complaining and whinging and cry's to the heavens for redress. No sir that wouldn't work well. The other option would be to implement a watered down player created dungeon system where you can get all the effort and no rewards at all. wait, what?... oh yeah, forgot.

    My point being that Dance parties ARE our only source of RP in this game. Maybe one of these brave adventurous type of party hosts will do a PVP flagged dance party, then the 11 PVPers who still play this game can show up, murder everyone and dunk their junk in the punch bowl.
     
  5. Sulaene Moon

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    That reminds me of when I first tried out the game. It was a weekend when there was a parade in a PoT and somehow I got killed in some pvp melee that I wasn't expecting. Granted I didn't have anything on me worth anything as a new person, but man that was a fiasco. I ended up deleting the game for a few months.
     
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  6. Xiones

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    Make Bows Great Again!!
     
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  7. marthos

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    THIS! When I (and others) have said that the game lacks soul, this is a huge part of it.

    There are towns without any purpose - no quests, no lore, no crucial NPCs. Most of the adventure scenes have no purpose other than "stuff to kill" - no quests, no lore, no point in exploring. You can see what went wrong in the development process, they created a massive amount of towns/zones via cloning but had no idea what to actually do with them. The world appears to be empty and soulless. Players get out of the Outskirts (which are good scenes) and then stumble into what looks like an alpha-test era game. Instead of finishing what was started, we're jumping into Episode 2 - why? New players aren't going to figure out that all the content between the Outskirts and Episode 2 are meant to be skipped over, they're going to continue to feel bewildered.

    Here's some ideas that would utilize the existing content:

    PvP - A group takes on a quest to escort a caravan through one of the "road" scenes. Another group takes on a quest to steal the cargo. When a group with that quest enters the scene, that scene becomes PvP enabled. They have to defend the caravan for 30 minutes. The attacking group has 30 minutes to get to that scene and steal the cargo. In the PvE version of the scene when you don't have the quest, you'll find a destroyed caravan. There is a dead guard with notes on him to direct you to the quest to defend the caravan, and there is a dead attacker with notes directing you to a bandit to give you the "attack" version of the quest. A newbie can stumble into the PvE scene, see that something bad happened here, and then immediately see that this scene is used for a "group vs group" PvP mini-event.

    Political system - Add political figures into the game that vie for power against each other. The more power that each faction has, the larger buffs they give to certain skill/schools. LB could focus on Healing/Sun/Earth/Water, Blackthorn could give buffs to Death/Chaos/Fire/Moon/Air and add a third faction that gives buffs for melee/archery. Add in five artifacts that give them political power if they own them (Bell, Book, Candle, Skull, Wheel - stealing from U4 here). These artifacts have a nasty habit of teleporting away from their owners to a random zone. The players are given three zones where the missing artifact could have gone to, so they have a 1 in 3 chance of being in the right spot. The artifact drops from a random creature in that zone. Whoever loots it first can turn it into their current faction to gain power - if they don't turn it in within 15 minutes, it teleports away again. Once a faction leader has it, it stays with him for 4-6 hours before teleporting away again. Newbies can stumble into these zones and find these artifacts, and experienced players can form groups to scour the zones quickly to ensure their faction is in power.

    Spreading Monsters - a random zone will become "invaded" similar to a town siege. There will be a boss monster there that needs to be defeated within 2 hours. Town criers will spread the news when this happens. If nobody defeats the boss in 2 hours, neighboring zones also become invaded. The mechanic continues until a region could potentially be completely under siege. You know how in the Love campaign you hear about the undead army that's wrecking havoc but is nowhere to be found on the map? This would be that invasion.

    Quests - look, the quest system is bad, and the storyline isn't all that great either. Rather than try to fix it, why not scrap it completely? Instead, add in a ton more dynamic events like the above, and program NPCs to give out quests based on what is actually happening in the world. How many times can Charlotte be saved from the same burning building? How about towns actually get destroyed if we don't act, and all those NPCs die. And then there's a quest to bring crafting supplies to that town to rebuild it, where new NPCs will rebuild. How cool would it be to have an actual living, breathing world with a unique history?
     
  8. marthos

    marthos Avatar

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    I honestly think that there needs to be a significant "relaunch" type event, where systems that aren't working are torn out completely, and SotA laser-focuses into a few areas where it can really outshine the competition. Adding a few more features here and there isn't going to get many to try the game again. Advertising the game in its current state isn't likely to be anymore successful at retaining players than the last launch (my guild recruited about 40-50 new players when the game launched, and in two months, all but one had quit). Getting players in the door has never been a problem (60k pre-orders alone!) it's been getting them to stay that is the biggest problem.

    When you look a year down the road, what is SotA going to have that blows away every other game out there? Will it be a better story than LOTR? Will be have better raiding than WoW? Will it have the best PvP? Will it have an economy that makes EVE jealous?

    I'd love to hear that answer, and then a detailed plan on how we get there. I think, with the small team we've got, that means that we have to sacrifice other systems to be really great at something else (SotA is the opposite of the characters, it can't be a grandmaster at everything). It's risky, because the systems that get neglected may run players off, but it's necessary if the game is ever going to grow. The alternative is that you play it safe, have a small playerbase supporting a handful of devs, and the game continues on as it does now. If that's the plan, cool - say so.

    I want to get excited about the game again, but there's too much vagueness right now to ever know what this game will be in a year.
     
  9. kaeshiva

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    This is an excellent point and something that I hadn't really considered so much, probably because I've been around since pre-persistence and these lack of things was considered "acceptable." These scenes were "filler" to be addressed later.

    There are some beautiful scenes in the game, but beyond the outskirts, none of them really feel alive. We're more like archaeologists poring over some long-forgotten scenes, there's not a lot of interaction within the scenes themselves. Some of the newer scenes (like the revamped Ulfheim) are better, in which you are actually infiltrating a camp and there is a progression, but most scenes its 'wander in circles'. I'm not saying every scene needs it, some of the foothills and such feel designed to be go-harvest-things-in-the-forest types, and that's absolutely fine.

    In my recent hiatus to other games though, I never see this. The scenes are set up much more like the Sota outskirts, where there are quests and objectives throughout, several NPCs often in many camps, all telling the story of the scene as the player progresses through the area. Yes, that's a bit theme-parky, which is why I am by no means suggesting that every scene be like this, but the outskirts do set a certain expectation that just...stops after that. Most scenes you have - at best - a single npc or a few scattered pieces of paper giving background on the area. I think there are a lot more stories to tell.
     
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  10. Bankchick

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    Sounds a lot like RDR2 online a game which I have been playing lately.
     
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  11. Bankchick

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    @marthos These are great suggestions and I would love to play that game. I feel like those changes would be just that, an entirely different game that @Chris has not the resources or inclination to make. We all lay out some fantastic ideas about what would make shroud great, but we have to come to terms with the simple fact that THIS is the finished product. There will be no sweeping and dynamic changes to the game. We might get some polish or some tweeks cosmetically, but there will never be what we don't have now. It would be easier and far more cost effective to scrap this game and build the game you described from scratch then to try and fit in those changes to SOTA which will firstly not be done properly and end up just being some "Little Rascals" style cobb job. I think as a community we need to start making our suggestions fit within the framework of what is actually available in game right now TODAY. Instead of some fantastic and cataclysmic reworking of the core game dynamics, maybe @Chris just puts up a stretch goal of $100K on go fund me to pay 2 on staff dungeon master types who can actively start random world events that would satisfy the players desire to have more than kill zones devoid of content.
     
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  12. Gadfrey Zukes

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    I love this idea...but maybe add that it would only spread for so far if not addressed by players - and then the attack would end. There would be a consequence to not stopping it...like perhaps the region becomes infested with roaming monsters, but the npc vendors pay more for common stuff for a certain period of time or something. (so we have reason to brave the region). The reward of stopping the spread might be better rare drops in the region for a certain period afterwards..

    It would have to be something compelling enough that we would want to stop the spread, but not so harsh that the affected towns just become avoided until it is over (which was pretty much how I felt about sieges before the “bypass” option.) but the aftermath would be not too beneficial either - just inticing. I know these things are tough to balance and avoid exploitation from the player base though..
     
  13. SmokerKGB

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    -I think books need to be more important in the game for instruction: every craft needs a detailed instruction set to let new / old players know how things work, such as Fishing: what waters can be fished, what baits catch what kind of fish, etc... Some books could start mini quests, instead of just telling stories...

    -Currency needs to change to Iron/Copper/Silver/Gold, yes, just like in WoW, not really, but you know Iron/Copper are in lower levels, Silver/Gold are farther up... You get 100 iron=1 copper, 100 copper=1 silver, 100 silver=1 gold...I know when I played WoW 10,000 gold was worth something... I made 20,000 gold eventually as an Engineer crafting Scopes, this was a add-on to a gun or x-bow for added damage, yes, items were bound to your chr, so everything went to the trash eventually...

    -I'll say it again, we need a regional market board, yes like WoWs auction house (they had 3 you know)... WoWs auction house made for the Best economy I've ever played, you could see all the listing for sale, you could search for just 1 item (if you knew its name) and competition was fierce (this is why the economy was so good, IMO)...The problem with games is that all you need do is hunt/farm and you will get a million gold (or whatever commodity you like), it's inevitable... Pumping too much gold into an economy is detrimental, it causes inflation/greed and it's Bad for new players...

    -I think enhancements/enchantments need an option to place the modifier onto a scroll or something that can be sold... So, instead of making 100 items, then trying to enchant 100 more times to get what you want in modifiers, a player just hunts for the scroll they want and uses the scroll as they wish... The crafter still needs to practice, but anything can be practiced on, to work the skill, then place the modifier onto a scroll for sale... I think this would open a new market for modifier scrolls...

    -I think that the sell price to in game merchants needs to reflect higher pricing for crafted items... NOT the same price as in game regular items...
     
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  14. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    there are a few places that have bookshelves that have one of helpful guides, bound with yellow and black stripes like the famous note series. agriculture, fishing, deck building, free attack, the utility hotbar. can think of central brit, jaanaford, and resolute off the top of my head, sure that's not all. the individual ones are scattered around too; offhand, the fishing one can also be found in a lake hut in highvale outskirts and the agriculture one is at the produce stall in resolute.

    there could definitely be more.

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. SmokerKGB

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    Ah, Gold/black, thank you, will check these out, I'm in Jannaford now, been there at one point, didn't find anything useful, will try again...
     
  16. Jayfire

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    I would really enjoy some focus on casual players
    I played since day one persistence I worked so hard to get to a decent level then UT came out and a new player can surpass me in a couple of weeks. I don't want to have to be forced to play UT to be competitive. I have only played it a handful of times and my level progression is slow then they attenuated it so people couldn't level up as fast then they doubled the attenuation. When I invite new players the low to mid level areas are not exciting in any way there are no mini bosses and they hate the grind so the only thing to do is UT so you can maybe play some cool content. The focus seems super heavy on hardcore players casual players continue to get kicked in the balls. Nerfs happen sure they hurt hardcore players but they have a majore effect on casuals when my friend who i got to play finally was able to kill T5 elves by himself he was so happy. Then an update came in and he couldn't even do that he had to go back to the mindless useless T4 mobs that give no loot. Even at T5 the loot is so bad maybe a yellow bundle after killing 1,000 elves and then you open the bundle to get absolutely nothing. So i focused on crafting and it seems like crafting is just a afterthought for the devs. I continue to support have payed the subscription since it started. I read every release note but nothing effects my character anymore its only hardcore players that get new areas its only hardcore players that get new crafting or things to do. What about the little guy what about new players so much focus on end game content and no focus on mid game content or low level content. How are you suppose to get new players interested when the only way to do anything useful is to just grind UT. I will continue to sit on the sidelines and pray but release after release its just so discouraging. Especially when I worked so hard for what I have and they just make shortcuts to get to the endgame content that they put work into. I don't want to take shortcuts I dont want to mindlessly grind UT to beable to do anything fun.
    Please put some work into making the casual players experience worth while
     
  17. Mishikal

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    It was called air archer, but then they nerfed it. ;) It's still playable, but not as enjoyable as it was.
     
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  18. Jayfire

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    I and none of my friends have ever played an air archer
     
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  19. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I wish I never had; then I wouldn't know what I was missing.
     
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  20. SmokerKGB

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    I have to agree with all you say, I'm a "casual" player myself and just hit level 73 after persistence skill wipe, it's been a long road, I've been here playing since 2013 1 chicken room and I was happy with level 50 being able to do T5 scenes, then they changed it so it took level 60, then changed it again, I'm now able to play T5+ without too much problems, but those dang road encounters and the mini bosses need to be toned down a little... It seems to me they're catering to high end player who have 24/7 time to play, they master the techniques needed to advance quickly and I consider them the top 1% of players... The road encounters are actually too easy until the boss comes out, when that happens, I usually flee (so I don't lose my purchased pet)...

    I Love crafting, but feel this dev team is throwing too much UO randomness into the mix, I don't need/want to play a "Lottery" when crafting, it's hard enough to gather enough resource to start crafting, let alone build skill to enhance... Oh sure, I could purchase my resources, but here again this economy is straight from UO (too many players with too much gold), there's no easy way to shop all the vendors to find good deals (with the exception of going Out of Game to do so)...

    BTW, what is "UT"? I've seen this in other posts: does it make building skills easier? I'm satisfied with just gathering more resources as opposed to more/better Loot...
     
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