Release

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by moxiepilot, Mar 19, 2018.

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  1. moxiepilot

    moxiepilot Avatar

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    Let me be honest here: I’m a casual player.

    Between work and life, I’m lucky to play an hour on the weekdays and maybe 3-5 on the weekends. So, not too much compared to some.

    Every time I play I find at least one if not more, reportable bugs. Not small bugs or insignificant “I don’t like the texture of how the toon’s feet move” type bugs - blocker bugs.

    Let me repeat. I find blocker bugs every time I play. Cannot open gates to towns or east reach gap, cannot interact with environment and nodes, cannot loot, cannot whatever.

    I know the train has left the station, but this program is no where near polished for release and I think Port is shooting themselves in the foot by moving forward. I think they are relying on backers to maintain the long term viability of interest, because I know if I bought a released game this buggy
    I would review it as garbage, not play it and not spend money on upgrades.

    Please don’t misinterpret, I do like playing the game and tolerate the bugs because of the enjoyment of playing, but major things still need to be addressed.

    Since things are already in motion, I have to recommend more frequent patches with launch @DarkStarr @Berek
     
  2. Feeyo

    Feeyo Avatar

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    I will have to agree here..
     
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  3. Kain Darkmoor

    Kain Darkmoor Avatar

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    I am really hoping that they hammer away with bug fixes for this release. At this point there is so much low hanging fruit we could open up a grocery store and I am concerned some of these bugs are going to turn people away. For example: the gathering animation bug. If a newbie logs into a newly launched game and finds that the gathering animation is broken, that's not going to leave a good impression.
     
  4. majoria70

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    Yes I think few will disagree with you that this game is release ready. The thing is Portalarium made the decision to release now for what ever reason they feel they need to do it. It is their choice. It is nothing new to those of us who have already played this game for years to keep playing it and testing it for them at the same time.

    Perhaps you have not played games you loved who released bug ridden. One example of a great game that was released in bad shape was Vanguard saga of heroes. That game has a most interesting history. Sony took it over and fired the staff/devs and the new team didn't know the code fix things although they did really try to do what they could. It was a sad story and What a story. This game still played online for quite a few years until fairly recently being taken down. RIP. It was an amazing game in so many ways.

    So my point is I understand worries about the state of the game. I feel the best we can all do to help this game to succeed is to stand firm with this dev team and be strong. Get those bug reports submitted and cheer the team on and give negative constructive feedback if warranted too. It all matters.

    As always imo this game has a chance to be something very special. The devs are working their tails off and we have many chances to make a difference if we are willing. Are you? I will be here. I'm going no where. Well except to see my mom soon but I'll be here on the forums with you and back as soon as possible. So that is how it is for me.

    edited
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
  5. moxiepilot

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    Thats kind of what I'm saying. More patches so there is less time between having broken things live until they're fixed.
     
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  6. Knight Commander Tyncale

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    The "release" of this game will come and go, unnoticed. They will show us a few adds in a couple of magazines that nobody ever reads anymore. Maybe a banner add on a popular website/forum here and there. Everyone who ever showed interest/pledged for this will get an uppety email that reads "Release is finally here!": 90% will not care, already having lost interest, 10% will check it out and maybe a couple of hundred of those will stick around for a bit longer. The real marketing has been taking place for the last 5 years already in places that matter like Reddit. And those results are already in.

    It's a pity. I can see that a huge amount of work has been done in the past 5 years but I think wrong design choices when it comes to gameplay, and too much focus on the Store have caused this to be dead in the water. Housing is par to none, there is an amazing amount of props, including beautiful sceneries, but the game play mechanics just seem to actively want to suck the drive out of me to explore, progress and craft my way to Riches.

    It is also daunting and frustrating to see how the world already seems to be populated by wealthy house- and landowners that have thousands of accumulated goods/ingredients already on their numerous vendors, their gardens stacked with riches. I realize I am kinda part of the problem here(though I have zero accumulated goods due to never playing). How must this feel for a new player that has been lured to this "release"? That might just suck the will to progress out of them before they even start their punishing journey (combat, xp-pools, decay, grinds, overworld travel). Is a healthy Economy even possible anymore? If this is a Release, it will be the Release for the Have Nots.

    If nothing changes, then my only hope for this game is that it could turn into some sort of fancy Second Life for roleplayers: less rancid, better graphics and in a Fantasy setting.

    As an example of how removed some design choices are from having a fun game: WHAT is up with the excruciating "slows down your pace" whenever you come near another PC, NPC or even the tiniest chicken? Is this supposed to be roleplay-y? And all the clicking...ooooh the clicking, Why do I have to still click away the dialog box with an NPC/vendor when I am obviously done with the purchasing window? Walking away should simply cancel any action that I am doing with an NPC. Like in any other MMO. And so forth.


    Ok, just one more: I like how you have to open doors, Everquest had that too, I find it immersive, as opposed to for instance WoW that has no doors at all(or it used not to). Unfortunately in Sota you have to doubleclick the door, whereas in Everquest just one click sufficed. Sota sures love to click. And please let my Suspension of Disbelief do the rest, when it comes to getting through that door once I (double) clicked it: i.e. in Sota you can get stuck behind it if you did not face it right while in Everquest the door becomes a pass-through object after clicking it. The times that a Sota door wedged me behind it are just too numerous! It is not fun, it is not roleplay-y, it is not even realistic: I have never wedged myself behind a door when I tried to open it! (truth be told, I *have* smacked it against my head on a few occasions...).

    I find that the devs have had no eye for these small nuisances. They may not have had enough feedback on this, the current playerbase being a roleplayers, fanboi, whale-type of demographic. But the above 3 nuisances are just a small part of the "clunkiness" that I have referred to in past posts.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
  7. Jaanelle DeJure

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    Not disagreeing with your observations about the bugs, although I dunno that I would characterize a broken node as a "blocker."

    However regarding the patches... They used to do them a lot more frequently and people complained about that too.

    Perhaps it is difficult for the dev team to determine what to focus on as a priority since people have become to accustomed to complaining about everything quite indiscriminantely.
     
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  8. Mykll

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    Sounds more like a bad project manager than bad "people".
     
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  9. MrBlight

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    As much as i agree with the addition ot specialties.. i also think doing so 2 months before release was silly.

    They have a massive amount of polish to make certain things up to snuff.. it shouldnt surprise anyone that bugs will be kicking up till and after release.

    Too much to do... and i dont know if i agree with the priorities they set.

    I ll refrain from blaming anyone specirically in Port, as thats not fair. But i do believe as *Industry Vets * .. they could and should have had different focuse points at different time. And i think any comments about release being too soon..are un founded.
    Its been a LONG time of planning and the release marker is nothint new.

    Numerrous releases felt like the wrong priorities were focused on, and way tocmany mechsnics had to be revamped or re done last minute.

    Oh well.
    They have and alwaye will, set their own goals.

    Id expect a lot of bug reports and probly some focuse after release..
    Followed by ( i hope ) an explenation of how Episode 2 and previous episodes promises will be met / developed.
    ( not another weak 10 points.. vague wish list) thay was their 2 year plan.
     
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  10. kaeshiva

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    I wont deny that there is a lot of broken stuff, and a lot of 'nuisances' and things that really should be addressed before you call something "finished."
    Little things, like inventory filters being a bit wonky regarding what goes in "crafting" and what doesn't, crafting tables highlighting items that you can't actually craft anything with, quality of life features that are still missing, and so on...yeah, we need more work in these areas, absolutely.

    However when we throw words around like 'launch' and 'release' - I mean, the game we have right now, is really not in bad shape.

    I think part of the struggle is to add new monthly content each month instead of just doubling down and fixing stuff for the last 6 months on the road to release. I think changing core systems that didn't need to be changed along the way is often unnecessary and likely took significant development time to implement.

    Some of these 'content and mechanics' updates made the game better, sure - magic movers, tenancy system, etc.
    Others are somewhat baffling -

    • There have been at least 6 changes to the recipe and/or sale price and/or durability and/or acquisition method of the recipe for crafted animal hats (and a change in their name) since persistence. The reality is, they were completely fine to begin with and were a reasonable way to make money that still involved killing and farming things. Now they're not even cost neutral. Did we really need 6 iterations of changes to this? Surely there were more important things to be doing?
    • Recipe discovery was a cool, unique, immersive way to learn about crafting, you could either fiddle around, ask another player, or find the information on the forums/website, but you still had to physically farm the materials for and create an item to get it into your recipe book. It was fantastic. This was replaced with a quirky 'teachable' system, which would have been fine if it weren't so inconsistent and selective (ie, just make everything reteachable, simple). Then this was worsened by removing previously discoverable recipes and putting them on vendors only adding an unnecessary cash sink to the crafting sphere. Then further worsened by requiring players to find a particular slip of paper in a particular bandit's pocket which they destroy after reading. Huh? The result is even learning recipes at this point is a discombobulated mess of confusion. The fact that they've been moved and redistributed multiple times makes even answering a simple ..."Where do I get xx?" question a dubious task.
    • The addition of a pattern system that strongly encourages add-on store purchase as in-game patterns are not reliably obtainable due to bad drop rates and bad salvage rates. Adding a system in which a player can farm mobs for 100 hours to "maybe" get a katana pattern to apply to a weapon that's going to degrade in a few week's use just...doesn't seem high priority to me. Meanwhile, no functionality to dye basic leather/chain/plate items exists yet. Seems a bit of putting the cart before the horse here.
    The list could go on....

    But I think my overarching point here is, the game is not in bad shape. There's a lot to do, explore, fight, decorate, gather, craft, etc - and most of it is fully functional.
    I have had maybe two crashes to desktop in the last six months, and both of them were situations in which I'd had the game running for well over 10 hours and I think it just reached critical mass.
    For an unreleased product, this is OUTSTANDING.

    I don't know if some of you have been around for some of the more spectacularly disastrous launches that I've been to, but we had basic, core systems completely non functional. Login servers completely nonfunctionals. Characters falling through the world, getting stuck, damage bugs, skill bugs, movement bugs....I've seen "launch day" products that were in worse shape than Sota was two years ago. While we can all sit around and nitpick this or that bug (like the HP bug...omg fix it!!) that annoys us, these are inconveniences or nuisances rather than blockers. Will it affect player perception? Yeah, it will. But I think crashing to desktop trying to log in, or having core systems non functional, would be far far worse. A line has been drawn in that its time to go live. I'm sure this decision was made with extreme care. I also have seen AAA titles launch with far less content and basic functionality that we enjoy here. It just remains now to see what happens.
     
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  11. Feeyo

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    Wow wow, where is the Unlike button!
    I do not agree on your points. So you would like it better to walk straight through any NPC's and or MOBS? I guess not.
    So you would like it better that you walk against the NPC and cant get out of a house because the NPC is blocking the door just before you wanto leave... I am pretty sure that you would really get annoyed and start trolling about that on the forums.

    The system currently is ok. Its not a reality emulation game. The slowdown is a good option in the middle.


    If you really want to stop talking to the NPC when you walk away. Or when you are not done talking/shopping that she just closes the dialog and walks away. You can enable that option in the settings panel.
    The talking dialog is unique in the mmorpg scene as far as I know. Its not perfect as most of them are stupid and do not know a lot about what you are trying to say.
    But I do like it. At least the clicking on some text items keeps you busy while reading. And gives you the feeling you are not ALWAYS reading the same crap.

    I will be here and staying, enjoying the game.
     
  12. SamRothstein

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    I think the game has come a long way in even in just the past few months. I think now is as good as time as any.

    MMORPG's are living, breathing worlds with tons of patches and future content.
     
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  13. Preachyr

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    Keyword dialogue system is the opposite of unique unless the only game you have ever played is SotA.

    I humbly suggest that personal attacks are not the best way to disagree with someone.
     
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  14. Feeyo

    Feeyo Avatar

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    Not that I have played indeed. Never have been playing a mmorpg with dialog option, where you can type in words anyhow.


    This is not at all a personal attack, just my opinion about your points.
    Why havent you give me fair comments about what I said anyhow?
     
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  15. High Baron O`Sullivan

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    is everything.
    Release is in a week and the very first questline is bugged. Can't poison the food supplies in Blood River Outskirts. I'm a little disappointed that after 4 years entry quests still aren't working properly.
     
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  16. CrandalltheFoole

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    You do sound very disappointed.
    Will be happy to negotiate a buy out of your account.
     
  17. CrandalltheFoole

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    Ouch. I would really think that doing this would hit at least one of your Virtues in the game.
     
  18. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    Well, it's the question whose food you're poisoning... ;)
     
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  19. Knight Commander Tyncale

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    Yes, I would much prefer to be able to walk through NPC's. My immersion can take that. Also, you can have collision boxes for players and/or NPC's without using the annoying slowdown: a million MMO's have tackled this issue just fine. In Everquest you can walk through PC characters, but not NPC's(or the other way around, I forget). Never bothered me. In Sota if I want to run to the other end of a town, I have to carefully plot a course in order to avoid NPC's else you get the annoying slowdown x12 for every chicken you encounter, even if you are not touching the NPC or mob yet. How can anybody be ok with such a system is beyond me.

    About the dialog window: I will check out that option where you can just walk away from an NPC that you are talking to. Did not know that, my bad.

    To Feeyo: unfortunately I was so stupid to link my account to Steam. I have been thinking about selling my account but I don't need the money and I want to hold out longer to see if anything will change after Portalarium realizes that the release did not bring in the masses. My hope is that they will make the whole game much more playerfriendly and smooth, which in the eyes of most people here would probably be called "extreme dumbifying". Can't wait. :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
  20. Lexie

    Lexie Bear Queen Emeritus

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    @moxiepilot
    I was actually looking at your interactable gate issue when someone who knew I was looking into it brought your post to my immediate attention. I actually just responded to that bug report. I know it is happening, I have seen it myself. And I've been digging into people's brains to find out all the patterns we can with it. And I was doing some live testing earlier today with players who volunteered to help, as this appears to be related to multiple people interacting with the gate at some point.

    I personally disagree that the train has already left the station. Truth be told, I see it as a train that will come back to the station over and over again. Launches never mean a game is finished as in 'we're done with it!'

    Msg me your most critical blockers. Stuff that stops you from playing the game isn't cool. Some we may know about but need more info on, some we may have fixes checked in for internally...it can be a few different scenarios. Or some I just need to write up. Getting to the nitty gritty details of that stuff is one thing I can do to help your experiences.
     
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