Why so uncomfortable, clunky, complicated and "outdated"?

It seems to be like there is some conflation going on between the look, the feel, and the mechanics of the game.

Ultimately- it is the mechanics of the game that determine the complexity, and how easy or difficult it is to learn how to play the game, and to eventually master it.

Now I'm not a dev, but where mechanics are concerned I would assume that there is always a tradeoff. Making the mechanics more complex will turn off a lot of new players who do not have the willingness or patience to learn. The tradeoff is that those players who make an effort to get over the learning hump are likely to have greater longevity. On the flip side, simplifying the mechanics will appeal to a broader base of players- but the tradeoff is that these players are more likely to get easily bored and wander off to another game.

The deck system is complex. This is good because it makes combat interesting. It means that there is more than character and equipment stats being run through an equation and pretty much determining who is the winner despite the employment of the kind of tactics that the deck system enables.

However, there is nothing stopping a player from locking a skill into the bar and then mashing it like they might be used to on other games. So people aren't being thrust into the full complexity of the combat system right from the get-go. I actually think this is quite balanced and am impressed with the way they've brought some really old school RPG dynamics back, while keeping the combat system immediately accessible for inexperienced players.

The feel of the game refers to the intuitiveness and responsiveness of the controls. It is a layer built on top of the mechanics, but independent as well. A game can be very complex mechanically, yet intuitive to use. Personally, I didn't even know you could target a specific mob by holding SHIFT and clicking until I read it here. That's an example of a non-intuitive control.

Finally, there is the look of the game. Of course, this includes the graphics. But it also includes the UI windows/bars. Obviously- having any kind of window or bar is ultimately going to detract from the overall immersiveness. However- it is a necessary evil. I'm sure that much improvement could be made by prettying up the windows, changing colors and fonts, etc. But none of this would really be innovative. It's just a skin or stylesheet laid over the mechanics. It could be creative, and even beautiful. But not very innovative. And at this stage of development, I can totally understand why it isn't a big priority.

 

Yes,the sky is falling. Again.
So you prefer a STO kind of system where all interaction with the world around is handled with the F key?
You seem to be a big fan of something i think is a plague: streamlining. That's what killed WoW for me in the first place.

 

I would prefer a system like in Ultima 7. Just the mouse nothing else.

 

Never played it.
Got another example?
Something that isn't so 90s to use your own words ;-)?

 

Because Sea of Thieves is actually a lot simpler as a game than you might think.

Ultima 7's interface is horrendous; it may be one of the first of it's kind but that doesn't excuse it. You want point-n-click interface that is intuitive, that works and feels great? The Diablo series is where you should be looking at.

 

Ultima 7 was so ahead of its time, because the game was so innovative.
Isn't Diablo 3 playable with mouse only - and Torchlight 2?

I remember a game but I can't recall its name. Basically you had a mouse pointer and could use it to interact with everything in the world by clicking once, double clicking, clicking and dragging... By pressing and holding both mouse buttons the character moved into the direction he faced. Sorry, I can't rememer the name of this game. It was a third person action adventure I think...

 

You kind of want to use the 1-5 keys to activate some abilities, but playing with the mouse only is possible.

Also, Ultima 7's mouse controls are nothing like Diablo's.

Blizzard's strong point is "streamlining". Always has, always shall be.

What killed WoW was:

• they added stupid thing like having separate PvP gear and PvE gear.
• added tnstant-traveling that completely destroyed the open-world aspect.
• pushed every player into end-game and then complained that players went through content too fast.
• wrote abysmal quests that RELIED on quest markers to be able to do anything because they couldn't be bothered to write proper quest dialogue.
• homogenized every class.

 

Kotor 1 and 2 as well as Dragon Age 1 can be played with mouse only, too.

 

Yes but you could pause combat

 

Yet the streamlining helps Blizzard to create immensely successful games. WoW is still one of the most successful MMORPGs. Heroes of the Storm is an extremely successful MOBA. Hearthstone creates a revenue AAA games can only dream of. Overwatch sold millions of copies within mere days...

With Richard Garriott talking so much about how games have changed and obviously being enthused by how Facebook and Mobile Games opened the gaming market to many new players he seems to be a fan of streamlining, too.

 

That's true. Yet I've never played it.

I don't want to play it. I want a game made for roleplaying.

 

You should try it, and not for roleplaying, if you don't think classes are roles or whatever other reason.
Just to see what an MMO can be like, performance wise, and UI-wise. It's very refined in that regard. They have a completely free to play 2 week trial, I think.
Seriously, the performance is so good... it makes you die a little when you go back to other MMO's, and wonder "Ok, obviously Blizzard can do it, why can't they?" strictly when it comes to performance and UI, I've rarely seen better than World of Warcraft. (and I don't like the intellectual property, but objectively, they've got these other parts nailed)

 

I understand what Blizzard is. I started playing the original Warcraft RTS when it first came out. I watched it grow in popularity because it became so easy to pick up and play, but I also watched it (meaning all the games they made) turn into something I no longer wanted to play. As far as game play goes, I'll swear to my dying days that the original Warcraft was better than anything they made after that. As nice and shiny and user friendly as their games are, the game play stinks the moment you attempt to take your game off of auto pilot and think about what's actually going on.

Could SOTA turn their game into a mindless grind that was both easy and endless? I believe they could. But I wouldn't support it anymore than I'd "try WOW". This is out of principle, I don't expect most gamers to get it. They're too busy playing clones of WOW while simultaneously asking why everything is a clone of WOW.

 

performance? it's old outdated ofcourse it will run good on anything lol
"blizzard can obiously do it" do what? make **** tons of money on bland games with addiction qualties for kids? yeah should follow their lead....

 

Make a high performance MMO with a UI that is fully customizable.

 

customizable UI I get but performance wise is pretty much the same for as when I start with WoW at release (60 fps with glitches here and there)
running wow now ofc isn't any problem... but couldn't that be because it looks like garbage?

 

This game is still in Alpha and wont be released until December. I have seen the UI get massively better over the past 6 months, I expect it will get better in the next.

You all click on a warning that tells you this when you log in.

I dont expect this game to be as smooth as Wow.

I have beta'ed a lot of games in my life. i beta tested UO, you should have seen it... the UO was utterly terrible and it sometimes took 5 minutes to take a step. You name any other big game since, same thing.

20 years later... UO is still online.

 

Several million paying customers would seem to disagree, if voting with dollars counts for anything.
And 60fps? In a housing scene? I've never seen it in Shroud. Not up to build 444, at least.

 

I don't know that I'd imitate WoW, either. I never got into playing -- the whole style of the game turns me off -- so I don't know how the UI flows exactly. But I've seen screens and videos, and the whole thing appears to be a case of MMO-itis. Not very elegant. I would look to single-player games.

I wouldn't copy U7, either, because it doesn't fit SotA's gameplay, and we can be more modern than that. I'd disagree with Gix though that it was "horrendous." It works well enough. In fact, I just launched U7 the other day. The bigger problem with U7 was how the lack of interface affected the rest of the game. So, for example, combat in U7 sucked. You didn't do very much but double-click over and over again, and had little control over your companions. You couldn't see how much an enemy was injured, or how much a party member was injured. Also, this impacted many other systems in the game negatively. You never knew how hungry or tired your companions were. So there are consequences to making the UI invisible if you don't make up for that somehow.

While the idea of making the UI customizable and skinnable is not bad, the devs should focus on making a default UI that's good first. Its important that the vanilla game is great.

 

Paying for it doesn't mean not sharing my views on the game. Addiction, get that level get that gear, run the hamster wheel.
ofc fps greatly differs from location to location but yes 60ish is what I get