Why you have an amazing community, and opportunity, right here in SotA

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Canterbury, Mar 27, 2014.

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  1. 3devious

    3devious Avatar

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    I do wish it were symmetrical sometimes. There are times when there are folks with nothing better to do than reply to all of your recent threads and argue with you and call you a troll. I can also tell you that ignore doesn't seem to work over the free version of Tapatalk for Android. If you post something asinine and I flame you for it during the day, you know that the steps I normally take to overlook your nonsense have failed. Not "you" specifically, Rufus. I mean the "you" collectively. If I flame you after 6pm est. I still care about what you think and believe that something constructive can still be gained by interacting with you, you just happen to be wrong on the internet right now.

    sent from the future using my Coleco Adam
     
  2. Retro

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    As of today I've pledged an ungodly amount to both games so I promote them both as much as I can, I feel the same way as you towards these two games. SC is a roller coaster ride, it's at the point where you just have to climb on and hang on for dear life.

    In SC we have reached it's ultimate stretch goal (as far as I'm concerned) the 41M goal, procedural generation, everything now is just icing on the cake.

    SotA seems like it's going to be the snowball that turns (hopefully) one day into and avalanche of success.
    SC is that child that you know is going to grow up to be captain of the football team who dates that captain of the cheerleading team and becomes the youngest fortune 500 CEO ever. SotA will be your child that needs a little extra attention, but the they grow up to be the next Bill Gates.

    “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” - Albert Einstein
    Again thanks for joining...your Freelancer purchase helped achieve my favourite stretch goal yet.

    I think I've found my next target for conversion:)
    Ember your exactly the type of people we need over at SC, please consider joining!
    As a SotA fan you almost have to join SC just to hear all the references to SotA!, did that work?;)

    Full court press time...

    My Thesis:
    SC is the most ambitious video game project ever conceived, out of all platforms, all genres, ever, no proposed feature set comes close.

    Some proof...
    $40 is all it takes and dog fighter alpha starts in a week or so! Join Up! Missing the most exciting thing to happen in gaming would be such a shame.... How was that?;)
     
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  3. 3devious

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    It's hilarious that you even almost got me with Oculus support but I just don't play space games. I wish them well though!

    sent from the future using my Coleco Adam
     
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  4. Bodhbh Dearg

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    Nor does it work for the paid version of Tapatalk for iOS...

    I suspect it is purely a CSS trick on the browser side...


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
     
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  5. Canterbury

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    That's exactly what I was getting at. Well said :)
     
  6. rild

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    @jdrasin i shall totes look forward to your paper on these subjects, and i know others here will too. virtual economy is of particular interest to me - collectible markets such as Magic the Gathering exist (or so it appears to me) at a midpoint between a game economy and the 'natural' or 'real' economy. while a true free market exists as the result of supply and demand forces, it is interesting to see how long it takes before that invisible hand creeps up on artificial pricing/supply/demand. i wonder how RG and the team feel about this, given the trials and errors of virtual ecology in UO. in particular, the idea of a fixed amount of gold and other resources within the world.

    and this all tickles my metaphysical fancy to the Nth degree. to maintain a clear view of a Culture while existing inside of it as it lives and develops ... this is no easy task, and is in fact one of the highest pursuits of spiritual philosophy. [Another contemporary example of 'conscious culture generation' and the role of 'Culture Keepers' can be found in the lessons of Afrikaa Bambaataa & KRS-ONE, through the formation of the Black Spades, the Universal Zulu Nation and more recently the Temple of Hiphop.]

    anyway. another great thing about our community is contributions like THIS! people are contributing, documenting and studying this whole mess!
    it's so meta i could just squeee! maybe you can teach a course on SotA in a few years..
     
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  7. Holt

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    The term Culture Keepers tickles my metaphysical fancy, too. I see a great role for Bards in the production and collection of in-game culture, whether it be music, lore, fan-fction or art. :) Perhaps a few valiant archivists shall yet rise!
     
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  8. Silent Strider

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    This is more an answer to the original post, but...

    I've too felt that the SC community was more... aggressive, even back during their KS drive.

    But, in my case, there is a huge caveat: my participation in both forums was mostly to learn about each game's PvP systems and to argue for a way to completely opt out of PvP to exist. Which means that, while in SotA I was arguing for something that had already been promised in some shape, in SC I was asking for something that not only was not promised, but that Chris Roberts had given strong indications it would not exist in the official server. So I can't really tell if the SC forums were really more aggressive, or if I was just hitting a nerve there.

    I have no idea how the SC forums evolved since about a couple months after the KS ended, BTW. As soon as I was convinced non-consensual PvP would always exist on SC's official servers (and that modding would be as extensive as I hoped) I just stopped going there, since with non-consensual PvP I will never play SC online anyway. I also stopped recommending the game, not out of spite, but because I now recommend Elite: Dangerous instead, since it is the space sim I will be playing online.

    As for why I'm mostly mono-thematic in both those forums: I trust both Richard Garriott and Chris Roberts to make games that I will love to play in all aspects except PvP — or, rather, whether the players will be forced into PvP. Both devs have shown great enthusiasm when talking about PvP in the past, after all. And, in any game where death actually has teeth, non-consensual PvP is an absolute deal breaker for me; it could be the best game ever created, given to me for free with all bells and whistles, and still I would refuse to play the game if it contained both non-consensual PvP and actual death penalties.
     
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  9. UnseenDragon

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    I still need to get my research proposal approved (my last one went in another direction). One of the challenges really is that its so new there is very little data out there. Not to mention the number of people who don't even see it as a valid area of research. After this summer, I will try and work on a new proposal.
    I'm interested in so many areas. Certainly the economy in general, but also class structures, social structures, community bonding in community funded efforts, etc...
     
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  10. Ryoken

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    Recently it's been flaring up due to the excitement and angst over the upcoming DFM. People just want to get out and fly some ships, instead of sitting in the cockpits (for the ones complete enough for the hangar) and "pew pew pew" imaginary Vanduul.
     
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  11. Retro

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    This is something I didn't expect to see on a SotA forum..but welcome ;) respect.


    SC's community is very aggressive for the most part, I don't even go to 'general' any more, only 'subscriber' and 'hardware' seem to be tame and informative nowadays.

    I personally think the non-consensual PvP is going to be a non-issue in both SC and SotA, it doesn't worry me at all, and this is coming from, a near-friendless, non-guilded, historically non-PvP'er who is going to opt-in to full PvP in both games, why not? If I can't take it I can just opt out, take different routes, change the slider..whatever, to avoid it as much PvP as possible and if that doesn't work play a different mode

    If done right the this new "Selective Multi-player" that both games are offering, I think is going to become a revolutionary game feature, time will tell...

    As for Elite: Dangerous, the dog fighting videos that I have seen look great, just not $300 great, there's just nothing special about it, all of the ships look so triangular.

    Also there is not much value in that $300, for instance, if the game launches for $60, and 3 expansions come out that cost an absurd we'll say $60 each. 4 x $60 = $240. So it will take the game and 4 expansions to justify that outlay of $300, it will probably take them 5+ years to make 4 expansions (on top of the game itself, in alpha right now), bad entertainment investment. (and this assumes that an expansion will cost $60, highly unlikely)

    For me this money be better saved for new computer hardware for SC, i.e: Oculus Rift (commercial, when available), Video Cards, Joysticks\HOTAS, Track IR, Multiple Monitors etc...

    I only want to back\support the "special projects", so far only SC and SotA fit that criteria for me, I didn't even back Project Eternity, Wasteland2, Torment-Tides and of course ED, although I will buy all of these games when they are done and retail ready.
     
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  12. Retro

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    Dude if you have any interest at all in the Oculus Rift and VR in general, it's worth the $40 to sign-up, SC is a Oculus Rift "Killer App", no AAA game is putting this much resources in OR.

    Also buying SC now is actually cheaper and has added value, you get a ship and the entire game for $40. (Retail price is expected to be $60, no ship).

    Chris has reaffirmed his support for OR even with the Facebook buyout, (scroll down)
    This could be you...
    [​IMG]

    Also it's worth signing up just to watch the spectacle unfold, I don't think people have grasped how much change SC is going to promote in the overall PC gaming world and PC's in general, we are entering a new era of PC golden age ushered in by SC, and crowd funding. That consoles and publishers tried unsuccessfully to kill off :)

    Forty dollars to be part for history man!

    Did that work? ;)
     
  13. Silent Strider

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    Actually, SotA has the "selective multiplayer", ED has something similar in it's groups feature (including the option of having a player be automatically kicked from a group if he attacks another player), but SC doesn't. It has a "slider" influencing the amount of PvP the player is subject to that is engineered to only affect random encounters in deep space, never fully work even then, and to become less reliable as the player goes to places where the NPCs are harder and the rewards higher, to a point it completely ceases working when the player goes to the places where the NPCs are truly dangerous.

    Thus, in the zones I would want to play — the ones with the hardest PvE encounters — I would be forced to accept full PvP, with the slider not even working. Not going to happen, and the prospect of the game forcing me into increasing amounts of PvP as I progress is enough for me to not even give the multiplayer a try.

    The reason I'm going to play SC offline, and not even try the online to see if I might enjoy it, is because even if I end enjoying the game at the start — when players are somewhat "protected" against PvP — I would have no way to be sure if I would be able to enjoy the game further on, and no recourse apart from throwing away all my progression and starting again offline if I disliked it.

    SotA and ED are different in this. By allowing me to play solo online, and to in some way turn off PvP even when playing with others, at any progression level I'm guaranteed that, even if I had started playing with PvP enabled but got tired of it, I would be able to just get out of PvP while keeping all my progression. Thus, there is little, if any, reason for me to play offline instead of playing online.

    You likely didn't play the previous Elite games, otherwise I doubt you would be complaining about triangular ships :p

    BTW, $300 is for the Alpha. ED is going with a system where, the earlier you start playing, the more you pay. I paid £85 to have the game plus all future expansions, for example, but I'll only start playing at the second phase of the Beta.

    I actually paid $30 for my pledge. Early bird ;)

    Though, as far as VR goes, I will be waiting for some competitor to the Occulus now. Facebook is one of a select few companies that I flat out refuse to have any dealing with, or to send money to them in any way. I don't even have a facebook account, and won't make one in the foreseeable future.
     
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  14. Retro

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    I think being exposed to the possibility of more PVP is different from 'forcing' more PVP, but I understand your points and your reservations and they are valid, we will have to wait and see how then matchmaking and instancing servers work in greater detail.

    Actually I did play the previous games, and while everything looks a little shinier I still feel like the game should be called "Geometry Wars", When I look at ED ships I see ploygons, when I look at SC ships, I see space ships.

    However I'll be the first to say that graphics aren't everything, and ED's dogfighting looks great, and I love those beam weapons. :)

    I guess maybe the prices have changed? The current cheapest package that comes with all the expansions is currently 'premium beta' $150, and you can play now, Dam you Silent Strider I'm so close to picking this up right now...

    (I would re-buy the 3 prosperity packs I cashed in, but I vowed not to re-buy anything from the add-on store until they have a cart in place, because it so dam annoying)

    I have never had a Myspace(lol), Facebook, Twitter or even Linked-in account (which is crazy in my industry) and I probably never will, I value my privacy. That said I think people's kneejerk reaction to the Facebook \ OR buyout is not being objective...

    I really don't think Zuckerburg is dumb enough to require a Facebook account or login to use the Oculus Rift.
    Although I distrust Facebook with a passion, out of all the deep pocket companies I think Facebook will be the most likely to let them operate somewhat independently and stay the course they have plotted thus far, I personally would have been more worried if OR had been bought by: Sony, MS, Apple or even Google...

    In other words at least give FB a chance to 'F' it up...time to market and consumer price should be cheaper as a result of this buyout.

    I am wary also....but a lot of people are watching them, F'ing the Rift up would be a 2bn dollar mistake I don't think they can afford to make.

     
  15. Canterbury

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    Anyway, getting back to the theme of the thread... our community.
     
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  16. Bodhbh Dearg

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    Aye, and how great it is! Happy to be part of it!
     
  17. Numa

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    Happy to be part of the SOTA community too. It's the best of both worlds for me since I"m part of a 500+ strong guild over at SC but get to play the lone adventurer type here. The SOTA community does seem to be friendlier being smaller but at 92+ K backers it can't really be called small anymore :)
     
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  18. Canterbury

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    Actually, they're not all backers, just people with forum accounts. Similar to how the number of Star Citizens doesn't equal the number of actual backers, either.

    Here are the actual stats: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=35155 As you can see, we're creeping up on about 34,000 actual backers.
     
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  19. Silent Strider

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    Which is, I believe, a rather impressive number for an indie game that is still in pre-Alpha status ;)

    Not as much as SC, but then SC is a big exception, a game whose backing grew beyond anything players and devs ever expected. I believe Chris Roberts originally thought he would be lucky to get $2M in crowd funding to make his game, and was planning to use the crowd funding more as a way to show partners and investors that there was interest in the genre; back then, the game being fully funded by players wasn't even in his wildest, most positive scenarios :p
     
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  20. Canterbury

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    Indeed it is... I don't believe I was saying, or even inferring any different? My key point was for anyone (whether the bloke I'm replying to, or anyone reading), to realise the 90,000-plus figure aren't all backers here.
     
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