Persistant world in early access fair to people who buy at release?

While I am very interested in the single player storyline I also want to play the MMO part. Since I have been waiting for the SP to be complete before I start I realized that me waiting is quite the disadvantage in the MMO part. While I personally won't get too upset about it I wonder how much the MMO players who buy at release in 2018 will like that others have a 1,5-2 year progress advantage.

Something to consider I think.

 

And what should be considered?
Are you suggesting something?

 

Easy. IF they should ever design good sandbox elements that provide actual gameplay between players... e.g: Guild Wars, Faction Wars or a Justice System, they should consider that new players need a role in that. Else it doesn't matter if you have persistence 2 years or 2 months... Some will always fall behind, but they need to still keep it interesting for them.

While everything is consensual in SotA, that's less of a problem. Economy wise it seems not to be a problem, because player base is so small But latest changes or announced changes go into the right direction, while not solving all the issues completely IMHO.

If I would counsel Portalarium, I'd advice them to come up and present their designed systems and show players that even though the game is live for a long time - they can catch up in the sandbox elements of the game and play a vital role in the community. Since we didn't have anything that there is a true competition on, nothing is set in stone yet.

We only got the POTs and housing so far... so no other system you are missing out on competition wise.

I am really curious on what systems we get in the future... so far everything announced was only mini games as it seems and nothing that matters really. Basically if you just buy the game, find a guild and get mentored to GM in a couple of days time. Most guilds give high level crafted stuff to players for free...

TL;DR There is really no issue there as SotA has no competition, no conflict and consequential no players currently.

 

define "released". In my opinion, this is released. Development never ends until the product is dead.

 

I am suggesting that the (hopefully) thousands of players who will come at release will be annoyed by the fact that there are hundreds of players who have a 2 year progress advantage on them. While I am not too crazy about the MMO part in SotA I AM an MMO player and if I imagine an MMO I want to play at release having hundreds of players who have a 2 year advantage I get furious. And most of the people who will come will be MMO players. I think it will HURT SotA keeping the persistent world and not wiping at release. THAT should be considered. Do we want to keep the hundreds who were here perfectly happy OR do we want to disgruntle thousands from the start.

 

It is released when Port says it is released. Now it is labeled preAlpha or early access still. It is a fact that many players are waiting till the game is done before they invest their time. So while you might consider it released it is in fact not. People who are waiting are waiting for the OFFICIAL release. Port themselves also stress that the game isn't finished yet and don't want reviews to be done yet.

 

How does it hurt SotA? In what way? Like I said there is no competition in SotA yet?
I am sure we will see something like bonus XP buffs soon, even though it is already very very easy to mentor ppl up to be viable in PVE and PVP to some degree.
Ofc there are always people that only play MMOs that start "fresh", but that's not happening here.

If the game offers well designed and good sandbox content it is not a problem to get the players.. We don't know of such systems in SotA yet, so that's something I would wait on, before I make a buying decision or come back into the game.

 

There is PVP and there is housing. That is enough to upset people about a progress advantage. Trust me. It hurts SotA by losing potential customers. So in the most fundamental way.

 

Don't agree to that. If the game is good it doesn't matter at all...

It is especially important to attain new players when the game is running, granted they haven't been good at that

There is plenty of housing space available and best housing is in POTs now, so a reset wouldn't change much there I guess. The land rush was a joke in this game
Yes it is a problem that people cannot get a POT by game mechanics... THAT is something people find awkward and probably unfair "p2w".

I get it where you coming from... but let me assure you IF the game cannot make it interesting for new players to join in, it's fundamentally flawed anyhow and a restart wouldn't change anything.

 

First: Persistant world in early access fair to people who buy at release?
My answer: Everyone can buy or play the game at anytime they wish... if they want to wait until the game is officially 'launched' that is their right. Other people choosing to play it PRIOR to this is fine too. So I would say it is fair - since everyone has equal power to make a choice for themselves to play or wait.

SotA will NEVER please everyone. And neither of PVP nor housing are required to play/enjoy the game... so I would argue that 'advantage' is an arguable term that people will not agree on. So I'm going to continue to enjoy the process of this game developing into something different then other games out there - like the ones that I do not want play.

 

Well I could not agree less. Progress in MMOs is one of the most important aspects.

 

Unfortunately, by this logic you could argue that it's 'unfair' to people who start a year after commercial release that players who started at release have a 1 year head start on them. It must then equally 'unfair' that one player plays more hours a week than another.

It fairness is to be gauged by the advantage of game time played.. or even just who started before whom, then the only way to solve the 'problem' is to either 1: Don't allow anyone to have anything. 2: Give effectively give everyone the exact same character in terms of stats, gold, items etc whether they earned it or not.. or 3: Make the entire player base start playing on the same day and don't allow any new players to join after that.

 

The only thing that may be unfair is that the early-access people had access to certain advantages, such as the easy availability of recipes. I don't know whether there's much that can be done about that, so it's a moot point.

A player wipe at this point would effectively be suicide for the game. I wouldn't take kindly to them going back on their promise and deleting the 1400+ hours of progress I've put into the game. I probably wouldn't be alone.

 

That is something completely different and you know it. Not having a level playing field at release is not giving people who wait for release (which is a very understandable thing to do) not even a chance. People who start a year after release KNOW they what they are getting into, know that they had the chance and can understand it. Having people with a 2 year advantage at release is not understandable.

And before you say now: "well they had a chance in Summer 2016", no they didn't It is unreasonable to ask players to start playing an unfinished game if they want to have the same progress as others while at the same time STRESSING that the game is not finished, that people would wait till it's finished and people should not review the game.

 

Personally I think they should not have make game persistent at all before official commercial launch. RMT makes it impossible to wipe now.

 

Not at this point, but at release.

Is it suicide to disgruntle a few hundred who have been playing already or repel a few thousand who want to have the same chance as others and waited till release? That's what Port will have to think about.

 

I agree with you completely, just not the 'impossible' part

 

They already did think about it. They've made their decision - no.

 

It's the same end result for me. Whether they destroy my progress, or the game dies, I will be gone.

 

We tried telling them this, two years ago!! In MANY threads. Too late now, and I know development went a lot longer than they planned when they announced persistence (and even some of us told them that was likely to happen seeing their pushed back schedule every month). Oh well... can't change it now. It would destroy the population to do a wipe, and not really improve the future.. I'd think if they do a wipe, and we all leave like we threaten, the new players would be uncertain to trust their characters or time is safe with Port. Anyway, yes, it is unfair to new players, but we ALL know this, especially Port. Don't worry about others, just yourself at this point.