Final Wipe and Lot Selection

July is the launch of hidden time ...

 

See, it's not that PoT's exist that upset me, it's the way they came into existence and the lack of rules that should have come with them.

Regardless when I talk about towns I was meaning the NPC towns, they just aren't ready. They don't feel any different then a PoT with more NPC's and I'm not alone in that assessment. You can see a poll I made in the forums and get a general feel with how people feel the NPC towns stack up. They just don't.

 

The customer thing sounds like a joke...

A customer walks into a game shop, and tells the assistant "are you open already?" then the assistant replies "No but i'm sure you'll be interested in Shroud of the Avatar!" "Why?" replies the puzzled customer "Coming in while closed i thought you may be into early access"
*Rimshot*

Whatever the way we word our concerns, they're just concerns. Voicing it as examples it's not quite productive since for every example you can put a counter example, and both are possible. What matters here are the odds, and the ones with the metrics are the devs... i have my concerns too but i trust them. I think it's better to stop thinking about what could happen and focus on preventing it for happening. Also quoting other releases... World of Warcraft had its share of bugs when released, but it kept growing... Age of Conan was "released" and you could swim waterfalls up! The state of this was a hard hit because it came later so the hit on popularity was harder...

Ok, Portalarium is calling the Final wipe "Early Access" and saying that they'll have a launch after that. We can argue and say "final wipe will be regarded as launch!" but telling us that's not a launch they're acknowledging the game is not completed, not like the two examples above. I hope they focus on making the core mechanics solid and fun, so we can compensate the incomplete.

 

I agree with this statement. A "final" wipe should be just that, clearing the board to be able to start the game fresh for launch. I'm okay with the idea of having later patches and updates (every game has this), but I want the "launch" to be a game that can stand up to the critiques and reviews that WILL be coming, and to be something worthy of the Ultima succession. It needs to have as much care and devotion towards the story aspect as everything else.

 

Your just mad to be mad then.

PoTs ARE an important part of this game.
PoTs are/were x100 times harder to code than quests
PoTs are in the game and have been a long time, move on.
They are not relevant to this thread.

The devs made a choice, you can choose to support them or not, we know you are the later.
You seem to just be angry they are working on the part of the game you want most towards the end.
And now that they have said when they are starting working on it, still unhappy.
Not fast enough? not in accordance to your time frame on what YOU want in the game?

Please give us your laid out plan moving forward that Port should follow.
I want pros and cons to your business plan.

I still feel they are doing to right thing and getting all the needed backend systems up and working, bug free, and balanced/unexploitible.

If you want a broken/empty world with quests that sounds like a lot of fun too. /rolleyes

 

Just to give my 2 cents on all of this...

I pledged as a Knight during the original Kickstarter phase and have been only casually following the game's progress since then. I have no interest in beta (or alpha or pre-alpha or "early access" or whatever you'd like to call it) testing an unfinished game. I've been waiting patiently for "launch", the day when the game would be "complete" before I spend any significant time in game. Among other things, the story matters a great deal to me, so I'd rather just wait for all branches of it to be fully polished before I start playing it. Now I understand that the game will be in a perpetual state of development, and that's a good thing as it means the team will be constantly improving it, but still, there's a clear line that gets crossed at "launch", the point at which the entire episode 1 story line is polished and complete and all of the promised features are in the game. Clearly Portalarium understands this, which is why they're being very careful to not call July 28 the launch date.

With all that said, I find it a very odd and disappointing decision that apparently in order to claim my house lot, the primary reward of the level I pledged at, in the rightful order to which I'm entitled, I will now be forced against my will to begin playing the game before launch, perhaps many many months before. Now maybe you'd say I can simply log in for a few minutes to place my house and then resume my wait for launch, but that's rather unsatisfying from an RP and story perspective, that my first introduction to this new game world will be to actively avoid any participation in the story and rush off to Guardian-only-knows-where to compete with an unknown populace for prime real estate in a world I know nothing about. Compare this to a more standard launch, in which I would have nearly 2 weeks to organically start my adventure, begin questing, meet fellow players, explore the world at a more reasonable pace, and make a more informed decision about my home's location, all before my lot placement day arrives. I have to say, respectfully, this decision to muddy the waters on when the game is actually complete and launched, particularly when it comes to lot selection, is going to make my initial experience in this game much less enjoyable than it should be, which is very disappointing to me.

 

Part of me is glad to finally be able to place houses for good with no more wipes, but the other part of me wonders if core features will be fleshed out by July to make me want to play more, or will I wait and play when it's more finished, only logging in to refresh houses from time to time. Having wipes has never been what keeps me from playing a lot like I'd like to. What keeps me from playing more is tedious combat, paltry loot, slow gathering times, and lack of other game content to keep me busy. I'm hoping in July it will be more enjoyable to play, but I'll have to wait and see.So far it's getting better.

As for POT's, I'm not down on POT's, I don't dislike them nor am I against them or anyone that has them or chooses to own or live in them. I do wonder what more could have been in game and more completed if they and add on store items weren't so much of the focus last year though. To say POT's weren't a huge focus last year doesn't seem correct. The subject of PoT's and questions regarding them took up a lot of the time in Dev hangouts from what I remember last year, and so much time has been spent on creating them, answering questions about them, discussing them, tweaking them, adding things to them, adding things for them, etc. while things like combat and content to make the game more enjoyable seemed to take a backseat. I just hope this year we can get back on track to making the game itself more enjoyable and attract a lot of new players to help with the longevity of the game. I want and hope the game to be really successful in the end so that we can have a good game to play for years to come.

 

PoT's, which were never part of the kickstarter are now considered a very important part of the game?

You have no issues that there are no rules associated with them? Why is that mad to be mad?

If they 100X harder to program, I guess that means they spent a lot of time on them.

Why would I be upset things that I assumed would be done are now in the future items, with no set timetable?

There is so much wrong with your post that I don't know where to start to be honest.

Please try and post on the items, don't try to paint me as the bad guy.

 

You don't need to feel that pressure. There will still be lots for you somewhere.
If you really enjoy the story don't fall into the hype of needing to claim your lot asap.
Most are freaking out over trying to get a good vendor spot, which will prolly change later down the road anyway.

 

You still failed to answer my question for the 10th time
What would your plan forward be then? pros and cons please

 

Kinda overboard there, imo. Since we're talking about PoTs, let's take this in comparison to offline play, where there will only be NPC towns. Having them be innovative, scheduled, and otherwise immersive will be equally important for those folks who will not be partaking in the player-run online aspect.

I personally don't mind the PoTs overall, but I also understand and do see the perception that has popped up over the length of the development. Like it or not, there has been a lot of time and effort spent towards adding and supporting the various systems needed to be able to include this feature that was not in the original concept. It's not a bad thing, since a strong player community was one of the things that made UO great (I always wished that WoW had done more towards player/guild housing for this very reason), but it cannot also be the sole endgame for players either.

The "plan" will of course be Portalarium's to execute. But it will also be what is judged and reviewed when the game launches. I'm trusting that they are aware and addressing those same concerns.

 

Yea I know its a bit harsh, but the last thread was over 40 pages and he still couldn't get it, or rehashes the same thing over and over without anything constructive.
Im just trying to turn this into something constructive, instead of just complaining about the past.

Can debate till our eyes turn blue "when" they should of added PoTs
Regardless Port felt they were best done when they did them, ether for financial or coding reasons, or myb a buncha reasons.

 

Like take a game like DayZ for example they were suppose to have housing, but waited too long and now cant add them without breaking their whole game lol.

 

With all due respect, I pledged at the level I did (and even a little more than the bare minimum for the level) in part to get an earlier pick of available lots. My interest in the story is not to the exclusion of other interests. Suggesting I simply forfeit my early selection time and settle for whatever lots are leftover is even less appealing to me than simply logging in before launch.

 

Ugh. While personally, I'm more into the multiplayer aspect of SotA as well, every time I read that I can understand @rune_74 and @Lord_Darkmoon a little better. SotA has been advertised as MORE than a 'mere MMO'. It is going to include atypical MMO features (most notably selective 'multiplayer') and it comes with a boxed collectors edition. It presents the customer with distinct milestones (Episode 1 through 5), something more often present in single player games.

For several month, we've been getting '3 month release plans' (Q1-4) and plenty of times Portalarium has told us that they have altered and changed them based on customer feedback. Now we are getting a massive 6 month plan and suddenly it is not possible to change any of that based on customer feedback?

While I can only speak for myself, I doubt that any of the 'negative persons' in this thread have the intention to simply be negative for the sake of it. We are doing exactly what you say, we are trying to prevent what we see as fatal outcome.

The 'problem' here is, you're basically betting your PoT on that. You said you have several hundred free slots and would like to see them filled. However if the outcome some of us predict happens, you're not going to see enough players to make that dream come true. I fully understand that Portalarium doesn't intend PR to start before they are ready for it, my concern is that they lack the funds for a real, full blown PR campaign and are going to heavily rely on word of mouth. This word of mouth however is going to happen at a different point in time.

 

And you're taking a combative stance on this, and dismissing valid concerns. They have only embedded rudimentary versions of some of the SPoffline systems that were promised (living breathing world on a schedule, for instance), and almost nothing at all of this rich storyline that is deeply integrated into the gameplay.

These are just a few of the things Rune, and other like myself are concerned about, and rightfully so, since it is supposed to be a major part of the game as a whole, and seems to have received the least love over the YEARS.

 

I agree with you. POTs were not one of the original goals (thought they are certainly in the spirit of "players take over the world"). There has also been considerable time and support put into the creation of POTs.

But the narrative that some people are working here is that POTs single-handedly delayed the game and destroyed any and all kickstarter promises by pushing single player features to the back of the bus. That's unequivocally false. The developers that worked on POTs will probably NEVER work on the story or the NPC's or many of the systems that are single player only (companions for example). Even the scene creation would be done by other people, as Portalarium was EXTRA sure to explain to us that a NEW resource was hired specifically to create POT templates.

So the idea that POTs have somehow been the death of a successful game or a launch following a final wipe is just a bunch of nonsense, and it's frustrating that people are hiding behind that wall of WRONG. I don't know if they're sincere in their beliefs or not, but it's a very ignorant argument to make based on the facts. If they don't like POTs, that's fine. That's another conversation and feedback that is totally within the scope of these forums. But for this conversation, POTs and the plan to have a Final Wipe have nothing to do with one another.

 

That's another reason why land rush before launch is problematic. Lot looks good in July, but hey new towns and scenes that I can't see the plans for change the value of my lot. Even if all towns and scenes are there by launch (big IF) - story line movement, resource node tweaking, etc., it can all change the world organically. Hopefully it won't be an issue, but it's another risk.

 

You kind of took that 100% out of context. While the game's marketing model has aspects of it that are applicable to the single player game camp (one I am firmly rooted in...), the comment was pointing out that the attempt to be coy with the term launch wasn't going to pay out in the way Portalarium is apparently hoping, and had nothing to do with whether this is just another MMO.

 

If the game is good it will sell. Do you agree?

Have you ever in the history of gaming heard of a great game that no one plays because the final wipe was months before the official launch? I've never heard of anything like that. I have people telling me to try EVE on a daily basis, how long has that game been out? Was EVE a perfect game when it first came out? No. None of these MMO's are. So why is it important to follow a model (wipe at launch) that doesn't mean anything?