Population Concerns

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Allistaire, Oct 6, 2016.

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  1. Sir_Hemlock

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    Yes.
     
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  2. UnseenDragon

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    You may not have respect for them, but they are customers, or at least potential customers.
     
  3. Canterbury

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    Agreed. People buying virtual real estate for silly sums of money, which they might enjoy and think other people are impressed by... but are they?

    People who already have real estate aren't impressed because they already have it. People who don't have it, likely thought it was a waste to begin with.

    So, "Look at my rare hat..." and "Look at my house..." and "Look at my limited edition whatever it is cloak..." and all that stuff... yeah, it is a beauty pageant.

    But is anyone really caring?
     
  4. Armar

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    Empty houses with people showing off tons of deco stuff in the front yard, while usually no one is around add to the desolate in-game athmosphere. Less deco stuff and housing options but better overall gameplay, quests, story-line and NPC AI would had been the better choice. And yes, i know that this happend because the housing feature did got major funds in so those got priority.
     
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  5. lollie

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    Eh? Lots of us enjoy the housing thing :3

    It's not about impressing people, it's about the pleasure you get from being around something nice :)
     
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  6. Canterbury

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    Yup, it's a two-edged sword. It was the easiest way to get large chunks of coin out of people's pockets, but in doing so, has created tons and tons and tons of towns that, if you visit, all feel pretty lifeless.

    A hardcore SotA person would absolutely hate something like Guild Wars 2, however, you can't deny that when you run around a Guild Wars 2 city, the movement and colour feels a lot better than a drab, lifeless SotA town.

    Cue someone telling me to go back to GW2 or something... but I don't play it. I'm just making the point about large, player-based areas, where people are left to be master of their own house, etc, they all feel lifeless after awhile.
     
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  7. Armar

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    Yes, i know. Its just housing. for me is kinda the "icing on the cake" instead of an means to an end. If its a good game and has a good housing system, great. But first there should be a good game. And for me housing requires way too much resources. Either in game (boring grinding time) or out-of game (money).

    I never owned a house in UO because my regular PvE gold harvesting plus other supply and training runs to sustain my character for PvP did cost already enough time. So i never felt like spending extra in-game time for grinding gold for housing. Moonglow bank had been my home until i got a key for the house of our guild-master.

    Due to the fund raising process there had been way too much stress on the housing system, hindering core game development. Unless one sees housing as core-game.

    // Armar
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
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  8. lollie

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    As you said it's due to the fundraising process...not really any way around that, they can't sell core game mechanics in the addon store. And if they go to sell something they have to also develop it properly, so what we get are nicely produced houses and house items (the things that make them money to code the rest of the game).
     
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  9. Armar

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    No, they cant. The "core-game" development should be covered by the initial kickstarter campaign. Then you can create additional goals if certain funding levels will be reached. Like: "At 3.6 million USD funding we will introduce a siege system" :) or "At 6 Million we will introduce magical elevators for your houses as well as pink hats and underwear" :)

    I would prefer a siege system, you would prefer additional housing "stuff"....

    Exactly. With all other games, except "The Sims" style games, those gimmicks come after the core-mechanics are implemented and the game is basicly working. Unless, the games strong point is housing, decorating and "everything else" is "the gimmick".

    EDIT: I just checked the kickstarter description and housing is No. 6 on a list of 7 items.

    But lets see how this particular funding strategy finally will work out, population wise..... Its kinda interesting from a game-historian viewpoint.

    // Armar
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
  10. Canterbury

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    I think we can already see where it's working out... of course, the final wrap up can't be written until the proverbial fat lady sings, however, I think it's clear to anyone with eyes where it's all going.

    It will be interesting to parallel it with a title like SWG which let players have homes for basically nothing, place them pretty much wherever they liked, outside of existing cities, and decorate them, too.

    So few people remember that game, however, they think being allowed to place a house, at huge expense, in an exact slot they had to fight over, is somehow, (a) revolutionary and (b) a great deal. It's neither.
     
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  11. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Beside the fact that I find myself agreeing with a couple of points you made in your posts I come to the point where I have to ask you: why are you still here?
    Don't get me wrong though, this isn't a covered go-play-another-game-and-stop-bothering question.
    Real interest.
     
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  12. Canterbury

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    Probably two main reasons. One is that in communities like this, people who get hacked off usually just leave. Maybe at best they make a, "I'm leaving!" post, like anyone even knows them or cares that they do.

    The second is that after years of support (monetarily, starting a guild, supporting the game when i was slammed outside this forum), and, honestly, biting my tongue more and more, I've become that hacked off player.

    But I don't want to just leave or, worse, do the whole stupid, "I'm leaving!" post. I want to be somewhat different insofar as saying what I think, and letting people know there is an option to always saying everything's fine.

    Because if something's not fine, people need to say so. Indeed, there's part of me that thinks if myself, and others, had maybe called this game on x, y & z points a year or two back, we might be in better shape than we are.

    Who the heck knows. The SotA reality distortion field can be strong. But that's why I'm (still) here. I didn't take your question as go-play-another-game-and-stop-bothering question. I'm happy to be able to reply like this.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
  13. Knight Commander Tyncale

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    Starman, apart from saying that the Combat is clunky in my post, I also give a very specific example of a very unfun mechanic in combat that simply should not be there, i.e. the cooldown that you start with when you enter combat. Frankly, such a feature comes of as amateur. There is not a single MMO that thinks it is cool to put its player in a powerless state for several seconds, the moment he decides to do combat, or worse, the moment he draws aggro from a mob. I can only think this is a remnant of the first iteration of the clunky (yep, again) and unfun Glyph system, and that they haven't come round to fixing it yet.

    Cooldowns are ok, just not like this. Also, I am a day 1 Kickstarter, been here forever and upgraded to Royal Knight over the years(also by recruiting/selling royal pledges when this was still possible), so forgive me for being a bit angry when I notice that after all these months, combat is still not fun. :) Disappointment is a *****.
     
  14. Zapatos80

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    The game is not nearly complete in any way shape or form. Plus niche market. Plus HUUUUUGE map. I'm not too surprised that the population seems pretty thin.
     
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  15. Lord Baldrith

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    The thing I have noticed that is hugely missing from this game are quests. Sure there are a few quests, but there are not alot of quests. I've been playing another game, and it has a fairly vibrant NPC town-life. All of those NPCs allow you to do them favors (which are just quests)...It gives me something to do.

    This game pretty much all you do is go out and fight fight fight for no reason other than collecting metal for scrap or selling stuff. If we had quests we could do as well which rewarded us with gold/items/deco etc then we would have much more fun stuff to do. Why is there this lack of quests in the game? It would really add alot of things for us to do...That is one of the things that has really been bothering me about this game...the lack of things to do besides just going out to kill things just to kill things.

    I want quests LOTS of quests. NPCs can have many many things for us to do...and I would love to have some other reasons to explore the world. Plus, it would help with the lack of gold and offer us an opportunity to get other things in game.
     
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  16. Canterbury

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    Well, if the game had been planned better and we weren't in this, "Let's make the game persistent... even though we're still trying hit-and-miss strategies with all our systems..." they could be concentrating on content.
     
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  17. Raistlyn

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    835 messages and you don't like MMOs ? or don't like sota? interesting .....very telling
     
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  18. Canterbury

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    I think it's pretty clear I love MMOs. I've lived and breathed them for 19 years. But on top of that, yes, if you've followed my posts over time, I've become pretty hacked off with where SotA has ended up. It's terrible, IMHO.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
  19. Raistlyn

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    Fair enough, I just think you are too negative. I love aspects of this game and hope for improvement on others. I try to post constructive feedback for the devs.

    Perhaps you signature should be revised?
     
  20. Canterbury

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    Someone like myself will always be perceived as "too negative", if I'm saying things that people who enjoy the game don't like. I get it. People are probably all itchy, oh god, he's pointing out THAT problem again.

    But here's the thing. If the problems weren't there, I wouldn't be pointing them out. I'd be laughing, joking, playing the game and having a whale of a time. I don't enjoy pointing out all the ways SotA has dropped the ball.

    Why? What part of it is incorrect? I'm a member of the guild... it's got a lovely group of members... and the guild's still recruiting. My signature is perfectly fine, and reflects today as much as it reflects years ago, thanks very much.
     
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