Game is Frustrating

Its so hard to play.

I never know where I am, I never have a usable map, M gives me a compass, when I died I sit around doing nothing for 5mins to rez. I feel like this is some kid developers in a startup making a 1980's video game. Everything feels so dated still since early this year.
There is no combat indicators, I see icons on my screen with no hover testing or explaining anything.

The character doll is horrible, 1cmx1cm box with no hover text tell what is allowed in there.

I could rant on and on.

 

You could rant on and on.. the game isn't even to Alpha stage yet. OR.. you could offer constructive feedback. That's what we're here for.

I could agree that death could be more entertaining.. but it kind of sounds like you really didn't do anything but sit there and wait. Some scenes have anhks in the after life you can find to resurrect yourself. If you sat around just doing nothing but waiting.. that's kind of on you just a bit.

This game isn't going to hold your hand for you like a lot of other games out there.

Yes the paper doll needs tooltips.. but you could just say "the paper doll really needs tooltips and I think the slot boxes are too small" .. "the character doll is horrible" is not very constructive or descriptive. Not to mention misleading if the chief complaint is the lack of tool tips. Which it appears to be.

The devs love constructive rantings so by all means.. rant away. Just please make it meaningful and understand this is a small team on a small budget. Don't expect AAA visuals here. It's just not going to happen.

 

This is not going to be WoW (ezmode MMO). If you think it's hard now, it's only going to get worse...BUT I think I might have felt that way when I first started playing this last week...It WAS frustrating, because I agree that it's DIFFERENT, and most people aren't used to it anymore, but this is how it used to be back in the old days. But people got lazy, and wanted to be catered to and everything CASUAL and EZMODE, SotA, is just not that kind of game. It grew on me though, I took a few days break, then came back after watching some The Mad Hermit videos and it helped me a lot to understand the game more. Then there's the whole just learning everything the hard way approach too

If you need help with anything, find me in game, I am a noob like you and would love to share my experiences and how I overcame them.


TL;DR: Hit me up in game: Victor Burgos

 

Also keeping in mind that most of the tutorials just aren't in yet. I remember them talking about adding more tutorials eventually but that's the sort of thing that usually doesn't go in until later.

SotA is very old school in a lot of ways. It's not going to give you arrows on a map or a trail to follow. It's going to make you think and remember stuff for yourself. Too many games nowadays do too much for you. You don't even have to read the dialogue in a lot of them.. you just blaze through it and when you're done there's an arrow on a map telling you where to go next.. what chest or open and what bad guy to kill. All you have to do is follow the bread crumbs.

 

The game is like a block of swiss cheese, there are large holes in it. But it's still under construction and over time those holes will be filled in.

What I think you need to ask yourself is this...am I looking for a finished Shroud of the Avatar, or am I looking for a finished (insert typical MMO here)? Because if the answer is that you want a map that points you where to go, and npc's that just tell you exactly what you need to complete a quest, and a very easy and casual gaming experience that doesn't challenge you too much...that's not what this game is about and the finished product isn't going to "fix" that. The game that's being made here is far more sophisticated than "WoW" or "Guild Wars"...this game is going to be remembered for more than the number of people that paid for it.

 

To the OP, Bowen put it correctly "the game isn't even to Alpha stage yet.", however, your input is valuable and most agree with your points. Welcome to the forums!

 

This early rendition of the female avatar had to go, but that is development for you.




Here we are now so far brand new. Above that is lol, was an earlier version. So this is the current. I think they are doing a great job on her so far.

Welcome Ahroo. I understand when coming to a game in development it takes some adjustments if you want to help out. Oh you aint seen nothing lol, you should have seen day 1, lol, no combat and not much at all lol. The characters, believe me and so many other things have come a long way and will get much better. Here's an example for you of an early female avatar verses the one now. They just redid her and beautiful touch ups to her face are coming. I love how she blinks and her eyes move and she doesn't just sit there she turns her head and looks around. I am very happy with her so far.. Anyway I'm sure you have great ideas, we'd love to hear them and don't forget you are looking at a game that is being made right now, no story is in, fishing, etc (lots of good stuff, along with optimizations that take lots of testing and work to get it in) It is a game in development, most of us are very excited to be here to give our feedback and ideas, and at the same time get to see the game so early. The sounds aren't even in yet, well I think they are working on that here and there too. Take care and again let me know if I can help anytime.

 

heh we're up to R13.. R1 was just a room and a chair.. and maybe a chicken? ah but we could sit in the chair! That was a big deal.

 

This is what Lord British is telling these days the game magazines, but so far as I recall R1 had a little bit more to offer

 

hmm maybe a candle you could turn on and off? I remember a candle.. (I don't remember the chicken).

 

Actually thats the beauty of this game. Besides entertainment, it's teaching you a very important virtue: Patience.
Oh wait, that's not an Avatar virtue..
Rant on..

 

Your comment put a smile on my dial! Back in the old days makes me think about Pong or Space Invaders. Back in the old days you would have to wait 40 mins just for the game to load on your Commadore 64.

Patients is a virtue young grasshoppers! Hang in there because you could remember that old indie game crafted by old wise men that was unlike no other.

 

Haha, I was born around that time...but I have very little knowledge of the very early stuff other than what I learned in class last quarter! (I am a Video Game Development major, it was a Video Game History class) But yes, I did play Pong and Space Invaders on my Aunt's Atari! The VERY FIRST Game System that I could call my own was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), now that was a hard system for a kid! I remember trying to beat Jurassic Park on that, and it was really frustrating! Then I got a IBM 386 PC for my birthday...and I can't remember what games I played on that except for one special one: X-COM: UFO DEFENSE. Best Game Ever. Ever.

 

What type of combat indicators are you looking for?

I would support a larger character doll with hover information on the slots.

I assume the empty slots for which I can find no items include a neck slot (since we know there will be necklaces in game) and a tabbard slot. I'm not sure of the other.

I heard the reason the doll is so small is that players specifically requested it that way so they could keep it open all the time while playing and not block too much of the screen. I think that flies in the face of all the other design to work on immersion and have a minimal UI.

I say make the backpack and paper doll UI huge to make them easier to use. We should have to step aside from the game to swap inventory or rifle through our backpack. They shouldn't be open all the time while playing.

 

Ach nein! Ich kann nicht Deutche sprechen. Ich fuhle mich so traurig. Wo sind meine umlaute?

 

*laughs*

I don't speak/read German, and I actually followed that until "traurig"... then I started using context clues

 

No German required, just look for a picture showing a room with a chicken (there is none in fact ).

And thank you for visiting my homepage. My site offers an English part also, you'll find it here and here, but this isn't about SotA, sorry