What's the status of Episode 2?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by oplek, Dec 30, 2020.

Tags:
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. oplek

    oplek Avatar

    Messages:
    1,238
    Likes Received:
    3,017
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I'm really foggy on,
    • What episode 2 is supposed to be/contain, especially after things have been added/removed/transposed from it.
    • The status of those parts.
    • The scheduled release date.
    • Will there be some kind of release event, or anything to hype it up?
    It's hard to tell when it seems to be dripping out, pixel by pixel, buried in dozens of weekly newsletters and thousands of hours of streams.
     
  2. FBohler

    FBohler Avatar

    Messages:
    1,213
    Likes Received:
    1,264
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I'll put it simple for you:

    Paywall for the following:
    - crazy strong 3-day blessings;
    - bard skill tree;
    - scalable bland scenes with crazy XP rewards at the highest difficulty, but junk loot.

    Am I missing something?
     
  3. Vladamir Begemot

    Vladamir Begemot Avatar

    Messages:
    6,194
    Likes Received:
    12,076
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Bard in name only. Cough cough.
     
  4. oplek

    oplek Avatar

    Messages:
    1,238
    Likes Received:
    3,017
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Aside from the above, the silence is telling. Does anyone actually know? Or is "episode 2" a technicality and they're just working on whatever?
     
  5. macnlos

    macnlos Avatar

    Messages:
    442
    Likes Received:
    1,310
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Episode 1 was never finished, way too many incomplete systems that exists today. When this game was pitched I was under the impression that each Episode would not only introduce new mechanics/systems, it would introduce new story lines and quests. Here is the rub, there was so much tech-debt generated during the first episode that they are buried underneath it. Saying they are working on Episode 2 with so much debt on the books just doesn't work. So what is Episode 2? Who knows.
     
  6. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    3,333
    Likes Received:
    11,010
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    While I would also love to know the status and outlook of episode 2, I am beginning to realize that I probably won't be able to play it, if and when it gets completed.

    All new areas seem to be for folks with 100+ levels, uber gear and GMs in whatever the min/max skill d'jour is. Hopefully I am wrong about this...
     
  7. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

    Messages:
    4,648
    Likes Received:
    7,614
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Veritas Sanctuary
    I agree with you on the loot, wholeheartedly. But one of the mistakes they made for ep1 was rolling out the story content in small bits. They've learned on that one, and the current plan is to implement most of the scenes and have all (or most) of the locations in place before rolling out the story elements. So the scenes we have gotten don't seem to have much purpose, but they will eventually.

    Of course, the flip side of that is by the time there is story content, the scenes will have been so thoroughly explored the sense of wonder going into a new scene on a quest will have been lost.
     
    Elwyn, majoria70, Anpu and 1 other person like this.
  8. oplek

    oplek Avatar

    Messages:
    1,238
    Likes Received:
    3,017
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    That worries me too. I would think that if you completed the episode 1 main quest, you'd be able to pick up from there on episode 2. But what do I know?
     
    arcdevil likes this.
  9. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

    Messages:
    4,648
    Likes Received:
    7,614
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Veritas Sanctuary
    Yeah. Especially with the scaling difficulty, I don't know why the hell there isn't a t7-8 Spindelskog. I get it for the Breach and that Despair clone; those are supposed to be group scenes. The t7 Lamech's Bazaar is about perfect for me; I have to pay attention to stay alive, but one or two mistakes isn't going to result in finding in ankh.
     
    Anpu likes this.
  10. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

    Messages:
    4,648
    Likes Received:
    7,614
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Veritas Sanctuary
    Given that there are only like three people who build scenes and quests, trickle is the best we'll get. I think the general plan is to get most or all of the locations built and in game before rolling out any story content. They've also said there is going to be a focus on fewer scenes with quests that take you between them, instead of scenes which are just visited one time for one part of the story and then never visited again.

    As for a release date... my guess is when (if) the story is all in and has had a few months to be "polished" they'll declare it done and move on. Hopefully we'll get 2021 plan post soon.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
    oplek likes this.
  11. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

    Messages:
    4,648
    Likes Received:
    7,614
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Veritas Sanctuary
     
  12. Gadfrey Zukes

    Gadfrey Zukes Avatar

    Messages:
    211
    Likes Received:
    371
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    Ardoris
    iirc on one of the recent streams or newletters it was mentioned that Richard and Tracy were working on the episode two outline now - so I would think that when they are done, then the team would be organized to add the npc conversation and quests to flesh that out in game.

    There was also some mention of a few new monster types to come at some point.

    Personally I am waiting for Ettins or Headless’ (unless they already exist at high tiers)
     
    Elwyn likes this.
  13. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

    Messages:
    15,678
    Likes Received:
    24,293
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    I think the ability to play solo and not have anyone else spoil my experience is the best feature of SotA and something that really separates it from other MMOs. Unfortunately, almost no development time is allocated to solo play and all new scenes are crafted for groups. When I play other MMOs like ESO and 20 other people are doing exactly what I am at the same time as me, it makes me long for SotA. However, when I play SotA and see the lack of content then it make me long for something else.

    I firmly believe that most players do not play in a group all the time and probably spend the majority of their time playing solo. Of course I can't confirm that, and I can really only speak for myself, but I really feel that ignoring solo play is a huge mistake.
     
    Arya Stoneheart, Aldo, Engel and 4 others like this.
  14. FBohler

    FBohler Avatar

    Messages:
    1,213
    Likes Received:
    1,264
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I call the scenes bland because they're pretty much some old scene with more monster spawns. Not even a reskin!
    There are some new ones, but they feel too generic for my taste, no character whatsoever.
    Not to mention the absence of new enemies.
     
    arcdevil likes this.
  15. Traveller13

    Traveller13 Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    2,167
    Likes Received:
    2,715
    Trophy Points:
    153
    "In work."
     
    arcdevil likes this.
  16. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

    Messages:
    4,648
    Likes Received:
    7,614
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Veritas Sanctuary
    Whattaya mean? They have spiders, but they're even spooookier!

    Yeah. When is the last time we got a new mob that wasn't a retexture/rescale/slight alteration to an existing asset? Krampus?
     
    arcdevil likes this.
  17. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    3,333
    Likes Received:
    11,010
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    One would hope this was the case, but given the current scenes available in Mistrendur I am doubtful.

    Oh well. I have long since moved on from my previous gnashing of teeth over this kind of thing.
     
    arcdevil likes this.
  18. Kara Brae

    Kara Brae Avatar

    Messages:
    3,872
    Likes Received:
    12,189
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Bavaria
    I had to quit playing SotA because it was turning into a 100+ level game and I couldn't keep up. Spending all my time purchasing decorations for my house can't sustain my interest.

    If Episode 2 is as you fear, the player base will most likely become even smaller because it won't be interesting for new players and certainly not for lesser skilled combatants like me.

    Episode one never lived up to the hype about being a spiritual successor to the old Ultima games. The whole story/quest system was sub-par and still is. I have never experienced a game with such a poor quest system. They definitely put the wrong person in charge of developing that aspect of the game. The only thing left was the deco/housing system (which I think is very good) and combat (which I am bad at and therefore not interested in).

    The devs used to say that they were working on a whole new quest system for Episode 2, but I eventually stopped following the news, so I have no idea what the status is. But if you have to be a high level even to play Episode 2, forget it.
     
    Engel, Rada Torment, arcdevil and 3 others like this.
  19. oplek

    oplek Avatar

    Messages:
    1,238
    Likes Received:
    3,017
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Last I heard, that was pulled back to using Inky so they could more rapidly set up dialog trees on NPCs.
     
    arcdevil likes this.
  20. FBohler

    FBohler Avatar

    Messages:
    1,213
    Likes Received:
    1,264
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I consider Krampus a slight alteration of Satyrs, but it's different enough so we may recognize as a different enemy.
    I think they have the rigs for almost any kind of monster right now.
    One of the most asked is Ettins, and they'll be just a reskin of the trolls with some groaning sounds.
    I personally would like to see orcs, which are basically scaled dark green humanoids with cool gear.

    Now the problem is gear: everybody noticed that all new artifacts are an exact copy of an pre existing asset. Not even a reskin!
    Making armor is very challenging, and I'm afraid they don't have the right people to make new pieces of armor in the company anymore. The humans are very well rigged and animated, and the gear is very well stitched to the character armature. I suspect we won't see any kind of all new sets of armor, only reskins and reuse of existing ones, which is very lame.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.