The major problems with the combat system.

I don't think that every tree should have a counter to every other tree, but I agree that skills that cause loss of character control aren't good if you can ever get caught in a loop. I also think that being able to be everything isn't good for the game, because skills like trip can become must have and someone who has themed their build won't have necessarily have access to it as say a pure Mage. Maybe it's fine to have no hard caps, but I think there should be a cap of how many trees you can take. Or you can take many trees and be limited in how far you can progress down them or fewer trees and progress further and faster. It is a bit silly to see plate wielding blacksmith warrior archer Mage lumberjacks who have a hobby of crafting artisan furniture. A fire Mage should perhaps be forced to think twice when seeing a water Mage and uber adventurers should perhaps need to visit an artisan for the best in the armoury.

 

If you want to to have a chance in pvp all magic trees and skills there need to be Minimum 80 is actually a must have.
Because if not, you would lack resistance.

Is messed up and has no Chance.
That was already stated by pvpers.
Also, in my case you even arent able to kill a Troll, because he is not vulnerable with Air, Moon or Water magic and my Sunbeam at 80 is also not enough to harm him. So a "Themed" mage what is not Fire cannot kill Trolls!

Absolutely, but then they cry over because it's all not a problem if you live to play SotA.
This very small community has a lot of people who insist to have no limitations.
If you think of Group Content and Economy and PvP in a MMO it's the worst thing i can imagine.

The Game exactly want you to be this.
Either you arent playing serious enough and are just lazy and do not work hard enough to get the rewards, then they call people just jealous or envy and insist on effort = reward.
Like some rich people in the world say that everybody can become rich. They just need to work harder.
It's more about privileges, having money or time or both.

What i allways say, specialisations and create dependencies within Avatar's.
To make a economy possible.
10 trees from all available, including harvesting, refining, Producing.
10 trees to choose from to build your character and things would be more balanced.
Sure then people do twinks, but they do this anyway.
And it's better to have the power distributed and wide spread than to be it possible to Master all 200 Skills.
These Highlevel chars destroy the world and economy in the long term.
See the Raph Koster post

https://www.raphkoster.com/2017/09/22/31098/#more-31098

Discussed here
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ter-uo-lead-designer-swg-art-director.101079/

If they dont change it, the MMO part at least the PvP part will die.
(if it ever was alive)

The people at the top dont see it or dont want to see it.
They are fine, but - and that is important - at cost of others.

I made it to be able to fight t5, i feel ready to explore PvP/E scenes if we talk about the Mobs, but i cannot stand any highlevel player, because they have double HP and Focus and kill me all with one shot.
I even cannot build a defensive deck to flee efficiently, if i have a encounter i die, period.
The only way to overcome that is to
Not play a themed character and renounce Roleplaying, but to build a Jack of all Trades at least regarding magic.
Everybody need to be a Magician and Magician means skill all 9 schools or you are messed up.
About crafting, those who can harvest, refine and craft everything will rule the market. There is absolutely no need for Economy if everyone can make it their own. Sure people trade and such, but only because they dont want to skill everything and because to them it's too much in total, but others that are willing and able - and Porta does not limit anything - they can just take over.

There are Characters with 70 Million Pool XP crying over decay when loosing 500k xp. Ridiculous, sorry.

There are people with Million of gold...
Etc...

My Point is not jealousy or envy.
My Point is, if we want to play together we need to meet in the middle.

I need 1 year to reach level 75 having some skills at 80 and rather less crafting abilities, i can make some furniture and +1 Gear.
To become competetive in trading or in PvP it would need not only effort, i am willing to make, but time, because my effort to do so is limited by time and i want to play and i dont want to work.

So as a casual you are locked out, but this is of course also we dont have the Population. There are more or less no low ir midlevels, the Population is almost highlevel, except some few newcomers, but these tend to go with the large guild or are just calm and when they recognize what it is about they give up or burn out trying to catch up.

Most players i know say: I hate leveling and grinding, i want to hit endcontent when the game "begins". PvP for example.
The measures we have here are very, very high so most casual and normal gamers give up.
If the MMO part wants Population, things need to be adjusted dramataically or this part of the game will die over time.
Because cthe point were competition becomes interesting is to hard to reach and also want you to not to RP or make a "Themed" build, you would only mess yourself up.
The Gap between players is way too high.
3 Midlevels should always be able to get any highlevel in trouble. 5 should be able to beat him.
What we have is, a level 100 can wipe a whole group of 70ies in seconds.
The Distribution of Power is imbalanced and the gap between players way too high. Even for interesting group content and challenge it would be better to close the gap, limit things and scale the whole thing down.
Sure, the people who play for life and the whole day and everyday will maybe suffer from boredom after 1 Month of playing, because they accomplished everything, but imho it's a Roleplaying Game, it should be about playing a role in the world, interaction between players and such and not achieving as much skills as high as possible.
That is just working on RPG Elements and not playing a RPG.
Unfortunately this is the case since i play online so called Roleplay Games.
Imho they dont earn the title Roleplaygame, because it is allways and mostly about levels and numbers.
I am a roleplayer for over 25 years, I've never played an offline RPG aka pen and paper or Larp where it in the first place is about levels and numbers, it was allways about story, interaction and competition in a more or less challenging environment with an adjusted degree of difficulty. The average of all players.
In SotA it is actually not the case, the limitless system is pure meritocracy and imho prevents from playing together and instead divides people.

I hope this will change.
And this said: i grant the highlevel and top players to be the top player and they will stay the top players, because they have the practice and the knowledge, but to hold their Position it would need more than just time and will to grind, it were about Roleplaying, negotiations, politics maybe, friends and foes and an ongoing competition.
And important, the entry point to compete with were low or at least lower than it is. Like Bulveigh once said, after a couple if Month playing UO you could make a contribution and were part of the world able to make and do significant things. This needs also Population.
And Population comes from beeing popular and the offer to a wide audience.
This would also grant Portalarium more money.
It's not about making the game easy, make it harder, but not harder about time, but playerskill. Make everything reachable even for casuals and let them partake.
The more people partake and compete, the more interesting and diversified it will be. Else it only leads to stagnation, burn out and leaving New Brittania.

Edit:
Mac is a friendly and cool Dude, but there will others come having 200 GM and there were not that much people who will be able to dethrone them.
But that it is what keeps the game alive.
But with the entry point that high and with less competitors it will just stagnate.

 

Question: should role playing a character be based on all skills earned or the deck created with those skills?

 

That's a good question.
I for myself like it to include game mechanics into RP.
The Game and the Toon is my Tool to RP.
From emotes to fighting abilities.
We can sure say that the goal is to be the Avatar and at least choose a weapon an armor and then skill all magic to support this, because the Avatar is a magician.
For SP offline i would say yes, lets do it!
But for MP /MMO that would be less interesting. The purpose of MP to me is interaction and contrary to a RPG in offline SP when the game game more or less is only about the work on RPG Elements.
But MP/MMO is about to interact with the world and the other players, a RPG in MP/MMO need dependencies within Players that lead to interaction.
People tell so much about UO or SWG where crafters were special, were good healers were key, were you need a tank to do this and that. Were gatherers need protection, were Crafters need gatherers...
There comes the MMO feeling from.
Lone Wolfs is allways possible, but they are the ones that should be limited in a MMO RPG Environment, not the ones who decide and choose a themed role and specialize.
I already made some compromises to do better in the game, but i more and more loose my individuality and role.
I want to play a Roleplaygame, it is called a RPG, so i want RP and even if people say they dont RP, if Gamemechanics are set well, people RP without to know they RP, because they are part of a world were they depend on others.

 

So maybe a little beefing up of the deck is order? Something to make it more of a signature?

Something that shows the player's action reflected in the character. To earn a title such as Ranger or Paladin a player must live a life of the virtues that represent those titles. Carrying one of those titles could offer a bonus to your deck.

Just spit balling ideas here. But not all RP should be combat or economically viable. That's a heavy expectations.

Something like this would give a character building feel while driving the RP to the deck. It also brings in the moral system which I think really needs to have a lot more importance.

 

jap, cool idea -
Vallo and Hornpipe made also good ideas about a moral and justice system what is also more or less RP based and is really a high request for RPvP.

 

Either or?

 

A ultima successor with levels... never thought I'd see this, ever.

 

Ultima had levels. Usually 8 levels or so

 

Beat me to it lol

 

"3 Midlevels should always be able to get any highlevel in trouble."

When I did testing for the capture the flag event, it was 4 vs 4, the other team had a healer. I came around the corner and they were all there and before I even got 5 steps away, I was dead, so 3 midlevels CAN take down the highest level no problem. What is important to say here is everyone there was a decently skilled pvper, might have been hit with some stacked abilities, not sure on that though.

 

This brings up a good point. While high level players have large number advantage in this case it's still just one guy. Given your group isn't getting one shot by 5 stcaked chan lighting or earth quakes. 3 to 5 GOOD lower leveled pvp focued players with good team work and planning can beat 100 plus gm players. All the time no but let's be real if you can't beat one dude A=call more people in or B=run. If black gate dojo is still going on ask for a group combat class. Could be fun to see 6 or so lower level folks jump a 100+ player.

 

Just to be clear specialization is definitely viable. Picking one thing and sticking to it is hard for some to do and spending 2-4m XP for 3-6% damage, 8-16m for 6-12%, 21m for 9-18%, 55m for 12-24% a lot of people see as a waste but I do not.

I see this as proof that the diminishing returns system is working but also know that all of these percents add up so I level the skills I constantly use very high and forgo the options for other decks or skills I rarely use. Others think "maybe I'll gm light and night sight instead with that xp".

 

And there you go, a person who specialized and does very well.

 

1. Stick to your skills you use, stop useing every tree.
2. That sounds hott
3.I used to trip my sister while she was walking. Tripping someone in motion is easier than a still target. I know this from personal rl experience.
4.So basically your endless EXP from those control points makes you unsure how to allocate said exp and you went the route of building all trees. We get it.
5.I dont know any game that gives you negative values for buffs. Seems like a random thought.

666.I am with Sara, specialize and have fun. I am pure blades just like him and I am having a blast

 

I've spent almost no time in any control points since persistence.

I'm not one of those people.

 

I'm in your pot

 

Counters for trip, and ground pound etc is very simple. Watch for the move and or words and jump. If you hit space for example when a person or elemental goes to do a pound and jump you do not get stunned at all. you have to watch for the animations. now that they have the words displayed you can counter easier than waiting for the animation.

Deck system I think is fine. Both offer benefits and negatives. That is a choice on how you play. I don't think they are not balanced They both operate differently I agree, but the delay to charge up a skill is not equivalent to a well planned deck.

Poisons can be countered with a potion or cure.

As to the balance of new player vs someone to plays a lot. it would make sense that the person that plays a lot would be more powerful that is the point of the skill based system and high end gear acquired based on crafting and or buying

Buffs do have counters depending on your class and what you are trying to achieve. Sure we all want to have 3 but if that is the case than we are all balanced no?

The bigger Issue I see is you are looking at this from a PVP perspective where this game is mainly PVE orientated with PVP on top as an option. Most games build for PVE with PVP added have the same flaws. The issue is how does one add balance when PVE does not care about most the these questions.

In some games they overcame this with PVP gear and or reduction to skills well in PVP to balance. I don't see how they could fix these issues with out major changes. So best imo to get use to what works for you. Or do as some of us do, have various decks to handle the issues. just my thoughts. doesn't mean I right or wrong

 

Here's hoping that is "working as intended". lol

Wanna bet its going to be fixed next release ?

Exsxccellent post... zct !

What @Baron Drocis Fondorlatos is saying is, and he's right : there is not enough flavor to those counters, they are not thought around the most common types or "classic builds". When you have 3 paths for virtue that seem to lead you towards some specializations those should be used as a template. This allows someone that wants to be a wizard to achieve his share of counters without having to turn into a potion gulping omnipotent Frankenstein always on the edge of a deck and changing full set of armors "in the heat of battle"...

...

We favor especially counters that can be used also to prevent specific group of attacks.

good going guys *thumbs up*

 

Almost forgot to say, you didn't feel those levels and didn't need them anyways, if you remember

The fact you felt compelled to "inform me" alone should give you a clue.

Remember I claimed to know ultima better than, with all due respect, many of our beloved devs because of a time curse that affects the whole continuum. It's just a claim... yet you can't "inform" me about ultimas, since I am the stranger, I lived them. Never claimed to know everything, never claimed not to make errors about many details, I'm speaking of the soul.

Times change, I don't find myself so strange anymore, shame has peeled off, I stopped wanting to feel important, heck I even stopped wanting. I see a bright road ahead, but we'll need to remember, REALLY remember and stop using what is sacred for politics... Ethical Hygienic Hedonism, now thats more like it.

The acronym for it will however be EHH? Cause its hard to explain...