Multi-Player online

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Korim Rackham, Aug 19, 2016.

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  1. Korim Rackham

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    So i have been playing SOTA quite a bit post final wipe and have been enjoying myself for the most part considering the games current state and being alpha etc. One thing i have found is the game gets significantly funner when a group, ive also found pick-up groups are hard to get for whatever reason... anyway with about 3-4 hours per night on SOTA Pacific time, it seems i see the same people over and over which is to be expected, however there is like less than 10 i see regularly. Any ideas on why the population seems so small? My guess is most people are playing Friends only, but whom knows. It just really makes the game feel empty, in fact i can visit just about any of the POTS and its almost 100% guarantee i will not run into another single person.
     
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  2. sdbaynham

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    I like crafting so I spend a lot of time in friends/solo to maximize spawns.
     
  3. PrimeRib

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    You just need multiplayer activities.

    WoW and Neverwinter eased people into 5 man instances.
    GW2 and Warhammer would spawn events as many people hunted in an area.

    This game is very focused on single player story, rather than multi player events at this time.
     
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  4. danjacobsmith

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    This is a very serious issue that needs attention quickly in my opinion Korim. It's been proposed that cities and world map force people into multi-player so the world feels alive, but there's a part of the community that are very against this because they believe they were promised the ability to hide in single player mode.

    Due to the fact that you need to log out and back in to change modes, people adventuring in friends and single player mode, never bother logging in and out every time they enter cities, and it causes the world to feel extremely empty.

    The game also lacks 2 functions that are very necessary for finding groups. You can either have a functioning LFG system or you can have global channels so you can advertise your intentions to group. Unfortunately this game has neither of these features.

    If they simply forced multi-player in cities and over map, put in a LFG system and increased the difficulty of mobs to promote grouping, this game could very easily become a hit.

    We're still in alpha, and I'm hoping the game developers put a lot of focus on these very glaring issues.
     
  5. VZ_

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    Virtually everyone plays this game in single player or friends only mode to maximize profits and xp, it's a sad state indeed.

    @PrimeRib oh yeah? Where is this story focus you speak of?

    Seems like the focus now is testing in a persistent world and raise more money.

    @danjacobsmith I agree... Mostly. I don't want to see tougher mobs because the game should still be single player friendly but barring transfer of funds and resources from those modes into multiplayer, or just significantly increasing rewards in multiplayer (or decreasing yields in single/friends modes to reflect the number of people playing) should bring people in.

    Single player online is a catastrophe on the online portion of the game. Not only is the game deserted everywhere you go, but the economy is trashed due to easy gains without competition. (And other reasons, like influx of real money being the conversion rate for everything in the game)

    Something definitely has to give. The game is built and feels like an mmo but functions as a single player rpg so essentially both game styles feel broken. I hope this being alphas this will change and evolve.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2016
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  6. Leostorm

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    im optimistic about the future though :)
     
  7. RoStudios

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    Would definitely like to see more "World Event" like GW2 does.
     
  8. High Baron O`Sullivan

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    is everything.
    Welcome to tumbleweed online.
     
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  9. Lord_Darkmoon

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    So what would your solution to it be? Remove SPO and FPO? Change SotA from a Selective Multiplayer game to a MMORPG?
     
  10. Vallo Frostbane

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    Pop is only good around 22-6 utc. from my perspective.
     
  11. Lord Baldrith

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    The game punishes going into multiplayer. If you want to harvest or fight, then you have lots of competition.

    A possible solution could be to have nodes that could be harvested by many people, or getting a bonus from group harvesting like Vanguard did it.

    Large spawn events in the way UO used to have city infestations of mobs was a way to get people involved...perhaps give out special loot on some of the mobs for people to have a reason to go there...

    Just need more reason to want to play in multiplayer.
     
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  12. danjacobsmith

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    I agree with you. I would like to see mobs scale in difficulty quicker to the point where they go from easy to solo all the way to requiring a small group to kill. This would allow everyone to play any way they like, while still promoting grouping.

    I'd like to see current 3 skull areas be about as difficult as 5 skull areas, and I'd like to see 4 and 5 skull areas become difficult enough that most people would venture into them in groups. Best of both worlds, lots of solo content, and content to promote grouping.

    I certainly wouldn't want to kill the solo ability in this game, sometimes we just don't have the time to find a group, and we just want to play solo for a few minutes or an hour.

    This thread is about the lack of people in multi-player and the difficulty finding groups, so I don't want to derail that message though.
     
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  13. Leostorm

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    Even in mulitplayer there are multiple instances of a scene. I think typically in town areas, thats sorta the goal they are shooting for around 20 people.
    1. for performance
    2. to make the world seem a bit more realistic in that every town isnt jam packed with people

    But even in MPO the game kinda pushes you into instances with people youve met before.
    My suggestion is get that friend list spreading :)
     
  14. VZ_

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    Out of the three suggestions I gave in my post, that was not one of them.

    This game is already an mmo rpg regardless of what it said on KS or forums etc. it's just a terrible one since it's empty and playing single player you still deal with the design and feel of mmo.
     
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  15. danjacobsmith

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    I believe cities don't start making additional instances until 64 players or so. Don't kid yourself, when you see 6 people in an entire popular city, that's all there is. The mechanics of the game are forcing people to not interact, and that's the result.

    When you have a dozen large NPC cities and what seems like hundreds of small towns, and you have a server with a low population compared to most games, and the ability to avoid seeing other players completely, that's the effect.
     
  16. Leostorm

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    Whether intentional or not, ive seen things counter to this. But yea cities do have a higher cap.
     
  17. Insinious FizzleThorpe

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    @Lord_Darkmoon has been on this for years.. He has invested his money into a SP vision that yet to come true. Don't be to hard on him as he has valid complaints that seem to get washed aside because, no stating from a poll here, but more people want the MMO side than the SP side I would wager to say.
     
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  18. Sixclicks

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    I think what danjacobsmith said is what needs to happen. Forced multiplayer in towns and the world map while maintaining your choice to play Friends Only or Single Player or Multiplayer when entering other type of scene. This would greatly help in making the game look more populated, and could even assist people in finding groups if people actually used the chat in this game... I'm not in support of a matchmaking style LFG system, but a bulletin board in town where players could post that they are looking for other players to group with would be nice. Global chat sounds good, but it will definitely lead to a bunch of spammers copy and pasting in the global channel unless they made sure to constantly watch the chat and enforce bans on spammers.

    Best way currently to play the game and not feel alone and have other players that can help you would be to join a guild imo. I've never felt alone in this game because my guild is composed of players that have all been playing MMOs together as a guild for years. I've been with them for about 7 years now.
     
  19. Korim Rackham

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    With player interaction so limited in multiplayer whats the point of spending money on a POT? Is it just to have creative control to an extent of a city in game no one would see? I LOVE the idea that players be forced into multip player when visiting POTs/Cities that would make a huge difference IMO. Its crazy i can go into virtually any town and even the most popular ones rarely have more than 10 people in them at one time. TUMBLEWEED Online is no joke
     
  20. Jace3

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    Korim if maybe you get on the Discord chat and ask if anyone wants to join in for a hunt you might get more responses?
     
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