How to make SotA great (please read carefully before posting)

I can agree with some of the requests for tweaks in this thread, but in reality I don't think there's anything wrong with the game besides still needing faster loading/performance. My biggest problem with SotA is the load times.

The bigger issue here is that SotA is just another title in a sea of other similar games. What makes it special and better than some other games in the genre is the freedom from level caps and requirements of following quest lines, but really that alone isn't enough to build hype.

What SotA needs is some angle that builds hype and motivates people to try it out without being told to by a friend. Something that you really don't want to miss out on even if you haven't heard of Richard Garriott or played any of his other games. As it stands, the people who still play are all fans of his and don't want to miss out on the chance to experience another title that he has his hands in.

When I first heard about SotA, the hype for me was mostly due to the idea that items you find in the game would have a use, and so I kind of expected to be using cannons and catapults etc and more stuff like that. Naval combat that required me to pour gunpowder into cannons and use ropes to secure the cannons, the loading of cannonballs etc. That's more what I was expecting.

Anyways, where it stands now, we have kobolds, norgaards... some great and tactical combat challenges in PvE, and just a lot more freedom than most other games in the genre can provide. It just isn't enough to build hype for the game so that our friends are already coming here before we even ask them to.

What I would like to see is for Episode 2, instead of working on what they already plan to work on, drop all that, even mounts, and just start working on naval/airship combat immediately. That in my opinion is what will build the right amount of hype and truly separate SotA from other games in the genre. Mounts could even fit in to episode 2 after that, but is mounts really going to make SotA stand out from other games? Not really IMO. We need something bigger.

 

Entire Post +1

 

Naval and air combat sounds like a great idea. But... with the dev team cut in half, I'm not sure that's possible. It sounds like a huge undertaking and it appears that revenue is dwindling fast.

 

Have a quest chain to reignite the virtues in capital cities, inspire faith in the populaces and have them issue a call to arms to fight under the banners of virtue.
Allow players to align with virtue or anti virtue.
Have non capital cities be contestable between the two factions, allow players to assist in the taking / defending of the opposing factions towns. Require a community effort to initiate the attacks. Woodworkers need to build x catapults for the city, cooks need to prepare x meals for supplies, blacksmiths need to produce swords and shields for the soldiers, bandages made for medics, lumber gathered for fires etc. All the while the other faction builds walls, drawbridges etc. When the attacking force had its preparations complete players can begin an assault that needs to be successful with a day or two.

Make opposite faction hamlets hostile, give them access to important mines or forests when controlled by your faction.

Have the cities commission fleets to take us to the new continent for ep2, requiring us to pool our efforts for the Britannian shipwrights.

In short, give us a reason to do the things we do, have a need for even the players with low skill levels.

Also, redo the combat system. You could keep the spirit of deck combat by doing away with the hot bar except for core skills (shoot, attack, heal, utility skills) by having options pop up over you or the enemy while you fight - you land a crit, the options float over your head, press 1,2,3 to sunder armor, stun or leap back etc. Make you watch the combat, not your deck.

 

- Why are you, as a (former?) Ultima / Garriott fan and backer not interested in SotA anymore?

Because grinding is essentially the most interesting (and polished) thing the game has to offer and, as it comes to that, I’d rather play something else.

- Why are you, even though you are playing, not happy with the game?

The Questing Experience:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...r-mr-garriott-the-questing-experience.122515/

The Fundamental Flaws:
https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudofth...he_fundamental_flaws/?st=JIPF9YC9&sh=4224ea57

The Understated Issue With Skill Progression:
https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudofth...kill_progression_and/?st=JIPF6EUE&sh=86745718

The questing experience is horrible from the tools available to track them, how each quest is structured, right down to the dialogue.

The skill trees are haphazardly put together with hierarchies that don’t make sense... like having to learn to trip opponents before you can learn to poison your blade(s).

Skills are leveled up “on use” but require constant management in order to train all your necessary skills (unlike UO’s set-and-forget) which makes the system worse than a point system.

It’s nearly impossible to see the environment properly during night time unless you use a torch or the light spell... solutions that breaks stealth.

Enemies have a nasty habit of overwhelming the player. There is no such thing as a fun and engaging encounter as everything is either ridiculously too easy or impossibly difficult... with no middle ground.

It’s nearly impossible to find proper upgrades unless the player takes it upon himself/herself to craft it on their own. Alternative involves traveling to each house in each town to find a decent vendor with the equipment you want.

- What can be done to make this game more appealing to your friends?

Polish would make the game more appealing. Whenever or not they stay is another story altogether.

- What went wrong and how can we fix it?

What went wrong is that the developers believed that they could design a game by merely mashing features together and hope they would jell into a coherent, fun game... when, in reality, features are supposed to enhance the game; not define it.

SotA’s prototype was to showcase what could be done but it was never tested to see if it was fun.

To fix it, I believe they need to stop working on features and focus on making the game fun to play. For every action the player takes, the designers need to ask themselves “does this feel good?”, “is this fun?”

Actions like:
Walking, fighting and jumping?
Talking to NPCs?
Finding what you need?
Collecting resources?
Organizing your inventory?
Crafting and trading?
Decorating your house?

... and make the necessary adjustments to make them fun.

If there’s a single thing the dev team should try to achieve is a competent questing experience... which would require an entire dialogue rewrite. At the very least.

Look at SotA sale pitch... that should give people an idea on what most players expect.

 

This. If everyone would re-watch the kickstarter sales pitch - that's what would make this game great. That's why it was backed. That's why there was a fairly large group of customers who were happy and hopeful to spend money that they didn't have to make this game happen. It was supposed to be a single player, story-driven game with a multiplayer option.. and we were all happy to support it. What do we have now? Not what we were promised. It could have been a niche game with 10's of thousands (or much more) of loyal backers that could have kept this game going for years and years to come. I don't know when or why things changed exactly... but what we have now is not what we backed or were promised.

 

This one little thing stood out for me and you'd think it would be such an easy fix. It's like the people making these mechanics have only ever lived in metropolitan cities where night and the night sky is saturated with light pollution so it seems incredibly dark when it really wouldn't be. If you've ever lived out in the country, gone camping, been away from cities, been deployed in the military, done FTX excercises, etc etc, you'd know that at night, especially away from cities and all the lights, that you can actually see pretty well depending on moon/stars & cloud cover. Sometimes when the moon is full (or near) it can be very bright... enough to read and see fairly clearly. You would think it would be even better in a world that lacks all the modern day illumination of cities, streetlights, cars, etc and factor in there are many more celestial bodies to reflect sunlight as well. It should never really be the kind of darkness represented everywhere almost like your in a mineshaft.

When they did night vision at first... thought it was pretty horrible... like first generation military night vision. But I said, this could work... low level skill would look like this... then as you master it, the vision gets better to like Gen. 2 Starlight vision or better. But nah, it went to a type of NV a few releases ago and it was better than the original, but still that "green" old school night vision effect. Then they added the horrible wavy/misty side portions... meh.

Then take light or the light spell. Not sure if anyone has used various light sources but this would make it even harder to see clearly and it's not supposed to. It's better than complete darkness I will give you that... but several things like, you shouldn't be looking around like you're holding a candle. The illumination shouldn't be eye/head level blocking you from seeing (would position it hidden behind characters view so it doesn't obstruct). Illumination should get better with higher skill. Not the same dull orange glow of a dying light bulb from 1 to 100+. The higher your skill should have greater clarity and closer to the clear-bluish/true-blue effect or better on today's lights for effect. Would also give a better reason to raise those skills.

And it's stuff like this... small little things that add quality of life to a game. May not seem like a lot, but when you're adventuring in a night/day cycle game as well as dungeon spelunking, it makes a difference. The other side of this is the developer's seemingly need to punish you for anything beneficial. I don't understand it at all, and could be why so many problems arise when they add these detriments to things. They see people use it and immediately think, "we have to make this worse somehow".
That doesn't help. They could've easily just made it where it's not as useful at low levels as it is at higher levels instead of getting basically the same effects at 1 skill level as you do at 100 skill level. Quality of Life enhancements... they help.

 

I'm no expert, but here are some things that might help improve the game and expand our playerbase.

1. REPLACE THE F&*$ING DRAWN GLYPH / HEAT SYSTEM

When I first purchased this game I wasn't really sure what it was so I looked it up on Websters


DRAWN GLYPH DECK SYSTEM
[draw-n glif deh-k sis-tem]

Noun
1. Erratic, frustrating or absurd apparatus in the spot where a normal combat bar usually appears

Synonyms
1. Makeshift, not up to snuff, tawdry, second banana, anomalous, slapdash, abominable, bizarre

Antonyms
1. Locked glyph cooldown system
2. Good combat system


Once #1 has been accomplished I would return the janitor to his regular duties, release any unfortunate deliverymen / visitors and have the rest of Port work on things like

2. Replace our unique combat and quest systems with the generic ones you see in other MMO's
While the quest system actually has great potential, the chances of it being realized seem nil.

3. Finish the the unique content in this game that greatly surpasses other MMO's.
Housing, Player Towns, Player Created Quests, Economy, Crafting & Gathering, Customization and Depth, Etc...

4. Expand Pick-up groups / Battlegrounds / Daily Quests / Anything that you can log in, queue up and have some fun for decent rewards without getting bored.

5. Once all the basic systems are nice and polished begin implementing some of the great ideas put forth by community and devs.

 

How games, like this work, for the most part, is like this:

They have built as much as they could, the basic foundation of this game (this is the extremely expensive and time consuming part), with the funds from the Kickstarter. These funds are now gone, and they can only focus on a small team based on the current Livestream funding.

They now go for a Kickstarter for Episode 2, and gain funds for that, build a team, and do what they can, based on the budget they receive. Granted now they have a base model to build from, and improve it from there.

And the cycle continues. Till Chapter 5.

 

Nobody wants to do walk through tutorials. They should be banished. I've never seen a single player enjoy them, even ones that don't know the game.

 

I always thought that they'd use revenue from the new players that would buy episode 1 to fund further chapters. Apparently, not many new players joined. Does anyone think another Kickstarter will be successful? I, for one, do not. Don't get me wrong - I desperately want to see this game flourish and there to be an episode 2 and beyond... but I'm not very optimistic at this point.

 

Basically to make SOTA better it has to:

1: Polish the graphic of the game: Personally I am fine with what the graphic we have now but to be honest it is kind of out of date for a 2018 title.

2: Polish /Improve New User Experience: SOTA's learning curve is relatively high compared to other games. Without a clear instruction on how to get a hang of the basics, new players will not bother to play the game after an hour or two. Telling folks to read an instruction manual just isn't good enough. A well planned short tutorial along with informative tips are essential to improve NUE (for instance in non-combat mode makes you regen faster and etc). New players need more guidance when the game mechanic is complex.

If Classless system is a big feature in SOTA then let new players know well ahead that ALL the skills are available for you to learn and you can make use any of them to suit your adventure needs! This is a very unique aspects of SOTA so might as well explain it well to the new comers.


3: Bug Fix: All games have bugs but SOTA as a launched game seem to have a lot more than the other launched titles. I am not saying all the bugs have to be fixed but at least some of the major, VERY noticeable ones should get worked on ASAP! This makes the game looks good overall.

4: Better advertisement campaign: The power of a good and well executed promotion/advertisement campaign is pretty much required any products to be sold successfully. Currently SOTA lacks of it. Real money need to be spent on promoting your own product. A few gimmick Face Book ads here and there just won't cut it.

5: Promoting the game more with the legendary developers!: It is also related to promoting SOTA in public domains. @Lord British and @DarkStarr should show their faces and voices more in the gaming media/community to promote the game! Ever since "launch" I have not heard any major appearance of the core developer promoting SOTA.



TLDR: Polish NUE, Fix major bugs, and most importantly have a better planned promotional campaign for this game.

 

That we don’t know (funding for Episode 2). I certainly will be backing it. The base systems they have already in place, are really good, and it can only get better. Certainly, it needs quite a bit of polish.

But these are building blocks in place that allows them to continue to build and craft and to expand the game further. Just like all the tech they need to do certain things. Like Guild wars or Castle Sieges. They need these basic functions first, and can then build upon them. Like the new PvP Trials for next release. This is tech that allows them to work toward Guild and Castle sieges.

The funding we get for Chapter 2 allows for more of these base functions, which can be implemented for more things.

 

There are a lot of games out there (something like 10,000 on Steam). What keeps people playing a specific game is other people that they like playing the same game. If you get to know and like the people that you are playing with, you will stay. The strong rise in popularity of co-op survival games is testament to that. I don't know the answer, but I do believe that anything that helps forge positive relationships between players will contribute to the longevity of the game. Perhaps more team activities like castle attack/defence might help (but without ransom on death - that just keeps people away).

 

I'm going to quote myself, so I can continue...

Back to gains: I don't want a simple "timer" but something that's activated by going into combat mode, so that my time isn't burnt up traveling to the scene, I really like the way combat mode drops really fast, and a heal is much more effective, those are two very good improvements, thanks... I'm already used to going in/out of combat, and I don't want my precious double gains timer being burnt up, so it should start/stop too... As I said earlier, play around with the numbers, 1hr, 2hr, 3hr of gains... Log for 24hr, 48hr, 96 hr to get max gains back, let the gains dwindle to normal over time... I don't have to tell you how, just figure out something you like... You could even let it "only help" my level and nothing else (I'm not sure how you calc my level, but I do have 1 GM and several close to, and my skills don't seem to affect my level at all)...

I really miss "talking to the guards" for directions and them putting a "Pin" on my map (yes, I use the map quite a bit), I think the quest system needs useful info too... I need this quest info "here", where can I find "so and so", putting a pin in my map, and telling their hours would be cool...

Voice to text addon: I know I can buy "Dragon" software to dictate a letter to MS Word, why not to the game NPCs or players text box? I asked many moons ago, and you flat out said NO, but heck I got a TV remote that has voice activate, would you reconsider? Having the NPC or player respond with a voice (even a computer voice) would be cool... Don't get rid of the text box... But having free hands would be nice...

Let me create some text macros, so I can throw them out in a battle, kind of like pre recorded slams...

The over world map needs more interesting "encounters", shipments to raid, merchants to sell/buy from, things like that, I don't think many remember Ultimas and "put in the dungeon disc", "put in the player disc", "put in the space disc" (5 1/4" floppies = load time), we ain't got nothing to complain about, try playing with 64k memory...

NPC buy prices are ridiculous for crafted items, unless this changes, I don't feel like selling to an NPC after buying resources from a player, unless you consider scaling the resources I gather... I find it funny that I goto a lvl 5 scene and still get 1 - 2 ore and rarely 1 - 2 tin, I can goto a lvl 3 scene and do that, even though I have a greater chance at MC, It still doesn't get me more tin (or beetle carapace)... Players want an arm/leg for these...

That's all I got for now...

 

I'd like to see towns become a little risky. In such a cataclysmic world, why are towns so safe?

 

- Forbid RMT
- remove Skill Decay on Death
- work on a deep Story and Quests
- rework the Skill System
- slow down leveling and set max skill point caps
- remove CotOs
- improve Char creation (specially the faces)

- remove automoderation

 

We would like Players to respond who are early backers and who do not play the Game anymore.


Who responds: Jamma, Hamma, Winfield and Co. Lol.
This thread is not about you guys proofing why the Game is in your opinion great. And counterarguing.

To the OP
If you truly want honest feedback. just read feedback not on this site. Easy.

They had Quality Critical Feedback ongoing during the hole development.

They created a Official Forum that disqualifices as a serious Feedback Tool do to the personal Community Managment and Public Relation Strategy they choose.


Best way to improve your Game:

Face Reality. And take the Feedback outside of this Bubble for real.

 

Ill state a few things I have harped on for years that still need to be fixed.

Crafting, even after 2x prod XP (and crafting literally I would guess 50,000 weight worth of items), Im prod lvl 83. This is 2 years sine persistence and me putting in a lot of time to do it considering Im a normal player (again defined as working 50 hours a week, family responsibilities and then gaming as much as I can). I can finally make some decent chain armor (thats about it) with enchanting and master crafting. They have made awesome improvements just last release but FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR to late, that being not wrecking my items. I crafted something on the order of 8000 bear/wolf/boar heads alone.

Community: I have been harsh on the front facing primary focus of community / marketing in this game which revolved around dance parties. This is an RPG/MMO/ETC... Most people truly just want to log in and kill some big arss dragons. I grew very tired of seeing the same 5 people brought in front of the video feed to represent us... the "community" when it was pretty clear these people we absolute favorites. These extremely small group of people clearly had the ears of the devs and I saw all kinda of things dragged into the game by them and that time could have been spent on far better core things. The favoritism was astounding at times, things in game named after people, deco and such built for them, etc.. the dev leaders simply didn't realize the visual optics of this to most of us. When I started this game I started in a guild full of the devs personal friends who appear on their videos whom would tell me "I can personally introduce you to Lord British". These people are still pressing for things like fishing... which honestly is not anywhere in my top 100 list of core things that need to be *fixed* first in the game. But lets also not forget to look at the flip side. I have never seen such a negative social engineering campaign waged against a game. We all know where these people are, they haven't played the game in years and yet have posted thousands of deeply researched conspiracy theories about the game in their insane vendetta on a video game. I never got that, to much to do in life.

But other then this, the game continues to make significant improvements and is today as good as ever and vastly playable in hundreds of different variable situations. I still have thousands of hours in the game and still enjoy playing and will continue to do so. Just because I refuse to craft doesn't mean I cant log in and choose to do one of a dozen different things at any given time (sandbox).

 

A couple of people have said this and while I can agree on most everything else, this is something I cannot. We're going to be like oil & water on this subject
I've been trying to think of a compromise and the only thing I can think of is this:

1.) Modify "Offline" (story) mode for this mechanic.
2.) Modify "Offline" (story) mode to also have the ability for "co-op". You may want to bring friends over and show off accomplishments, or play it with spouse, family, etc, but limit it to 4-6 players at most.

Then you could have RMT go on as is on the other modes of the game. In the offline/story mode, here would be the changes:
1.) You would still get pledge/backer items if you were an early backer, you would just have to "unlock" them, maybe through quests or achievements, instead of just "starting" with them in offline mode.
2.) Any friends that join you there, cannot bring anything over and can only have what's allowed in "offline" mode anyway and no bringing stuff over they unlocked. Or if they did, it would be flagged untradeable so they can't hand it off. Optional.
3.) Any RMT transactions you make for goods would only be for the other modes of game and will show up as normal but not for "offline". That way you can keep it pristine and everything you get you have to earn, which seems to be one of the main points for no RMT, which as far as i know, already works like this. Just making sure all things new and old are flagged to make sure there are no loopholes.
4.) Another extreme option would be similar to having a "classic - vanilla" server. It would be just a server you could log in and where your account doesn't allow any RMT stuff there and you cant bring anything over from elsewhere. Everything on that server has to be earned on that server... but, because it would still be multiplayer, you'd have to institute a bunch of "no-trade" rules to make it work. A lot of things would have to have the "flag" that cannot be traded there... which may do more harm than good.

That's about all I can think of. It's kind of hard making such a compromise or trying to enforce RMTs. I all for RMT but can understand some reasoning those that don't. Hope it can all get worked out regardless.