1. Here you will find official announcements and updates. These announcements are also linked in the Official SotA Discord server.
    We encourage comments from the community! To keep the announcements official, we ask that comment threads be created in the General forums for player input.

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Company Status

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Jun 19, 2018.

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  1. Blake Blackstone

    Blake Blackstone Avatar

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    I keep telling myself it's gonna be ok. I just cant stop listening to this hoping for the best for all the devs let go.

     
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  2. Amber Raine

    Amber Raine Community Ambassador (FR)

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    ~hugs Blake~ We both had the same idea in our songs today. There is always a spark of positive and hope.. and even an ember can start a forest fire... so just hold tight to the positives.. it will get better..
     
  3. Jezebel Caerndow

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    I dont know much about how games are made, but it seems like building a bridge or pipeline, 1600 jobs for the original construction of it, and 16 to maintain it. I wish those who are leaving a good life, and thank them for the time they gave to this game.
     
  4. Bubonic

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  5. Albus

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    Sorry to see Lum (and others) go, would have thought Lum important for Ep. 2 even if story is considered finished for Ep. 1? Hope the revenue picks up more once more scenes & systems (fishing, treasure hunting, character customizations -hairstyles, different faces!, etc.) are cleaned up and finished. But I've enjoyed what we have so far by and large, and am sorry to see those who are a part of producing good fun for us lost from SoTA going forward. Thanks for your work, good luck going forward, and if SoTA can have you back here to enhance our game more in future I look forward to that day.

    Your stuff has been appreciated here, bring more good things where you go (but not so good as to out-compete SoTA without luring us away first :p ).
     
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  6. Boris Mondragon

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    If you need someone to steer the ship, trust a pirate to keep it from hitting the rocks *Grins*. Actually we are more than pirates, we are avid supporters of the Oceanic Acquisition and redistribution process helping overloaded cargo ships from sinking due the excess cargo. R/Boris/El Pirata
     
  7. Mal Hari

    Mal Hari Avatar

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    Just got wind of this today. :(

    For the game we love Change can be a good thing allowing new growth.

    To all the Dev's leaving sorry to hear of this.
    Many of you I've spoke to directly at time some not, but to all of you Thanks so much for the Time and Dedication you've put into SOTA.
    Wishing you all the best on your next journey.

    But I do hope for the chance to run into you in game. :D
     
  8. Gregg247

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    I'm really sorry to see all of these talented, hardworking, and dedicated people leaving the company. They turned out some impressive work. I wish them all well. Its not their fault the game is struggling.

    It seems to me that the problem is this: in the last 3 months, the market has spoken, and the simple fact is that very few new players have tried out our now-released game, and even fewer have bothered to hang around longer than a few hours. Some of the topics Starr mentioned in his announcement (story quest revamp, UI improvements, new user experience, better direction) are the things that new players are complaining about, and the same things that WE have been complaining about for quite some time. I hope this means that the awkward, unintuitive, and clunky controls will get a rework. (Say what you want about "Neverwinter", but when I hit a guy on the head with a giant mace in that game, I really feel like I hit a guy on the head with a giant mace. It feels good. In SotA, when I hit a guy on the head with a giant mace, I feel like I successfully hit the "1" button on my keyboard. )

    I like that SotA is unique and different, but to many players, it may be too different. Being the "spiritual successor to Ultima" may be a draw for some older players, but in 2018, that doesn't really pull in a large, new crowd of paying customers. 1996 was primetime for Ultima Online, I guess. It was a great year for me, too. I bought my first house, the Olympics came to my town, I got a big job promotion; it was great! But that was a long time ago -- I'm closer to retirement age than another promotion at this point, and for online gaming, 22 years is exponentially long.

    I was afraid that an old-school game like SotA may have difficulty finding its footing in today's competitive market, and it looks like that may be the case. We're not privy to actual numbers of new players, of course, but I've been completely shocked by how few new players I've seen running through the game on a daily basis. I actually thought I'd have trouble logging in at all during the first few weeks after release. I thought I'd have to switch to Private whenever I went out grinding for crafting materials. I thought most POTs would be overflowing with new residents. I thought my vendors would be selling out of items faster than I could make them. None of that has happened. (Yes, I know the "marketing campaign" hasn't started yet, but this game is officially released. That's got to count for something.)

    I hope things can turn around and the items Starr is going to direct the team to work on will yield positive results and make our game even better. I hope the 50,000 players we need to breakeven show up and stay around awhile. I hope we can get our (now-former) development crew back together here soon. In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy my time in New Britannia and do what I can to meet & greet the new players who DO show up occasionally. We've got a game we enjoy, but we've GOT to make some serious changes, updates, and improvements if we want to keep it around for the long term.
     
  9. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I don't think so, but cannot say for certain. It would be nice if we were given a little more information on the restructuring.
     
  10. majoria70

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    Chris said they would tell us more at the livestream. 'crosses fingers';). I am so interested to hear the direction of the game and plans going forward. Also I really want to hear we will stop getting bare bones systems in the game that never get updates. Plus I hope they give information about quest reworking and ui updated and plans for more complete systems happening from now on.
     
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  11. Asclepius

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    Wow - and just wow. This is sad, and indeed heartbreaking in so many ways. The many faces and people we have come to know and love leaving us. Takes a bit to process this.

    But - and we do well to keep this in mind, as @Mac2 has already pointed out - projects are like this. West Australia is a huge mining state - we dig up the country and sell it overseas. A new mine being developed means billions in investment, thousands of "construction" jobs, but when the mine is up and running, it runs on hundreds of regular jobs. So all those construction workers get a "pink slip", or DCM (Don't come Monday...). I have to say that even Lum in his post was philosophical and even sounded content - it had been a great five years, and he sounded pretty OK with it. I'm sure that people of their skills and talent will be able to find other jobs (and I hope soon).

    So yes it sucks, but it is life.

    Just want to join the chorus of support and affection for the amazing "construction workers" who have worked so hard to bring this world to life. May your future journeys and adventures in life be wonderful and prosperous, and hope to see you in game. We will always remember you!
     
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  12. Corv

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    This is exactly my biggest fear now. How can the storyline/questing experience be improved without writers/quest designers? I answered that in Puuks goodbye thread: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...dbye-and-thank-you.130751/page-2#post-1066283
    He himself wrote that he would have liked to improve his questlines.
     
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  13. Anpu

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    As is mine. I don’t think they have adequate resources to finally polish/fix the current quests as well as bug reports.
     
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  14. Shift

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    I hate to play devil's advocate but how am I supposed to believe that they will be able to fix the new user experience, bugs, reworking the quest system, performance improvements, user interface polish and work on Episode 2 with half of the staff they had? Seems counterintuitive.
     
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  15. Kpopgurl

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    There have been news out there that cooperation with Travian intensifies. Not sure wether thats true or not... But there is a chance they take over at least parts of development. Maybe we see a reboot of SotA without all the heavy loads of KS backers etc. Start fresh and make a game for ALL players not people who pledged a lot.
     
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  16. Thwip

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    Wow. Good luck to everyone, thanks for all your hard work!
     
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  17. nonaware

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    this is just a guess mind you.

    at this point ep2 is just a outline and that outline will slowly be filled in over time.

    I doubt any code or artwork will be worked on in the next 6 months. mostly I think it will be the dev team shooting spit balls at the white board we see in live streams during meetings and such.

    while the day to day work of the team will be bug fixes and polish as compared to the amount of new content we have seen each release so far.

    don't know.
     
  18. StarLord

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    Thanks a lot to all the devs, whether leaving or not, for their hard work to create a game we love.
    Good luck to all leaving, hope you find new jobs soon. You will be remembered by the community.
    And I wish good luck to the remaining devs for stable revenues to continue the game to EP2 and forward.
     
  19. tphilipp

    tphilipp SotA Dev Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Wow... I am usually rather quiet in the forums, but cannot just read this thread without writing something. Thank you all so much for your kind words in this thread, I'm humbled by the support and solidarity, here, and people suggesting more things and ideas to improve the game, etc.. Your feedback is more than encouraging and welcome in this time of transition. Things haven't been always easy on this project, and it surely will stay challenging, but I hope to help out as much as possible to get this game to the polished state it should be at.

    You rock, community!
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2018
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  20. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    The evil ks backers are the only reason there is a game you can complain about at all.
    Just saying.
     
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