I'm all for tedium, when it makes sense...(LOL)

Ok, I'm not nitpicking. Everything in Shroud is geared toward tedious monotony to replicate the time it would take to do these fantastic things in the real world. I get it, I really do. Until it really just doesn't make sense.

Alchemy: Why the heck does it take 3 bottles to make 1 potion? Where do the other 2 bottles go? I thought maybe the process of mixing you would need 3 bottles, ok I can dig that... but, what the hell is the station for then? The other 2 bottles cant be washed out? Glass isn't cheap.

Speaking of potions... is it really necessary to break EVERY potion bottle after you drink from it? I mean, you paid good gold for those potions, took care not to shatter them in your bag, then you drink the potion and you turn into a barbaric litter bug that just loves to throw that 4 gold worth of glass in the trash. From an RP standpoint, can you imagine what the ground of every adventuring instance must look like? Broken glass EVERYWHERE.

Forestry/Mining Nodes: umm why are tree and ore nodes so few and far between. For trees is there some kind of royal decree that we may not deforest the land, and only take designated trees? Other than to slow progression, it just doesn't make sense. Went in to a few mines, and they have fewer mining nodes than some of the mountain instances, and more fighting to get to the nodes that were there. Only thing I can figure is to slow progression.

Agriculture vs Fishing: Agriculture... zooms up in level incredibly fast. I went from 10 Water Plants, planted 80 plants, watered, harvested, 10 minutes tops of actual game play... I'm at 64 Water Plants/51 Harvest/1 Sow, By the third run, 71 WP/77 Sow/67 Harvest... whereas...

Fishing, been through about 1000 worms (30 seconds tops per cast) Lots of moving from spot to spot, town to town, I wanna say 10 hours + spread out over a few days... But actual gameplay 70 Fishing/57 Bait Recovery and STILL catch a fish (or junk)maybe 1 in 5 casts... same as it was when I had 10 skill, so no actual return...

Now I get that Fishing is more a leisure thing, not looking for a fast grind and then uber payoff. But it's so minimal, and just not at all 'fun' to do.

Now I'm only at Adventure Level 45 so I know I have a long way to go... but where I'm at, it's just soooo monotonous. I'm up for any suggestions to make the game fun. I want to like it, I really do. I was nearly a 20 year vet of UO and LOVED every minute of it and SOTA is... awesome... It's just that over the top tedious... just looking for reasons to fall in love.

 

What specifically would you propose?

 

Hi there and yes so much you say points to the incomplete, bare bones, take the cheapest, easiest way out to get to HERE progression of this game. Ok so we are HERE now what? So lots of systems put in to get them in as requested by us. Fishing updates got pushed for years. Agriculture promised to get more enhanced over time including the addition of fertilizers and also As did cooking. Crafting (which has gotten some work) still is ongoing. Questing will be redone in episode 2. Fishing updates will finally happen in Release 58. Releases happen the last Thursday of the month. And I hope you hang in there. I've been here since 2013 rallying for devs to provide complete systems with attention to detail to be the focus. It has been stated that this is what they are doing.

For me what makes the game fun wguwh waiting for polish is to keep a variety of things to do and sometimes I nag here quite a bit. We do have a variety of things to do even though polish definitely needs done to many things.

I love syncing songs with a group. I have about 2000 songs in my sheet music game folder. It's hard to even imagine how fun it is. When I'm home from helping with my mom the end of August I would love to share all my knowledge, songs, and instruments with anyone. It is amazing. Check out my concert hall in Wizards Rest behind owlshead in hidden vale some time.

Point at signs to read them which gives instructions how to get there and there are books in town with instructions too. And point at all my little bags to see some of my songs. Instructions and how To's are all over the town and on the bulletin board by the entrance.

Also all residents in town have access to use a comission free vendor and planting beds. I try to make some lower tier armor for others sold reasonably.

Some days I plant things depending on what I need. I also have friends who I do things with like boss killing days, upper tears etc and I help heal the group. Sharing recipes and emotes is also something I do for free.

Other days are full of helping new players in some ways plus some project and more like crafting more sheet music to make more song sets to sync with.

Really There are unlimited amount of things to do. It is up to your imagination and what you enjoy.

We also have gustball in this game. It is unique to this game. Players invented it and the devs built the assets for it.

Elysium mine is one that has very little to fight and lots of ore. It is located in the twin foothills. A lot of rallying to get this mine how we wanted it.

I am sorry if it is tedious for you. I want to say be patient and we'll get it ironed out one day but I don't know how that will look or be. I do already love lots of things about the game and have found lots of work around for others that could be more tedious.

I am happy to help. I'm Majoria in the game but away for a few more weeks. Send me a pm anytime if I can assist here or help direct you. Best wishes always. I hope you find your favorite adventure.

 

Agree 100% to @elciavadores

Too grindy for almost everything to craft .

@majoria70 off topic, maybe you are the best to advertise the game.

And about your Tip to go Elysium - it's a something what drives people away as long as i play and try to get people in the game is this :

A level 45 ask something or say it's to grindy and you direct him to grind in a scene / spot where to survive he need to further grind to become strong enough .
So grind to go grinding elsewhere to grind further ???

Sure i take it the negative way around, you can approach everything in life positive also.

You can also say it's plenty to do in this game, I've (grind ) content forever.
But unfortunately very few people like that and the OP gives feedback about this in it's post .

 

More logic recipes?!
Reduce the amount of everything needing more then 10 of x to 50%.
Cut requirements to the half for a lot of things to craft and just make the game more casual friendly and less grindy.

 

Ahhh and it is a matter of choice for pessimistic or optimistic right. I never say all is the best it can be never. I say we have a lot to work with. Go check out the things I do in my virtual world. It is not my choice this game was made on a low budget with limited funds. I can't do anything about that or imo the lack of focus to get all the systems in this game. I want every system to be amazingly detailed and full featured. What I can do is not give up on it. So with all my breaths I will continue to interact and beg for this game to get systems deserving of it. I don't ask them to change what they can't change for their own reasons or restrictions or if they just can't afford. I ask for focus and completion on what we have. I will be here to fight for that. I want no bare bones systems in this game. I want to not move on to episode 2 until this happens and I want to trust that from now on we create full featured complete systems. This has not changed since 2013. Everyone else has their own journey. I have no control over that. This is just mine. I choose to believe.

In the meantime I enjoy what I enjoy.

Edited.

 

what puzzles me everytime again, is that while refining we seem to produce matter out of nothing. when you smelt, your inventory gets heavier?... hows that working?

or that nodes have a fixed spot they can be harvested from. dont know how many times i had to circle a bush almost entirely to be able to pick the cotton off. one would think i could pick them from everyside o.0...

 

It takes 3 Flasks, not 3 Bottles............ And it makes 3 Potions.

 

Because people demanded that the Flask not just disappear after drinking, so they brought in the breaking which you don't like.

 

Fishing improvements are something that many have desired for years...
They have recognized that and have said improvements are coming soon..........

 

I'm AdvLvl 117 and am still being patient.

Take a deep breath................... Everything's gonna be fine, in time.
They're working on that as we speak.......


I rest my case, your honor.

 

Games are meant to be fun to play. If what you are experiencing when you play is in fact tedium, and (like most people) you don't enjoy tedium, that would appear to be a design flaw. If the game economy requires that something should take a long time to do, that's fine. The challenge for the developers then is to make that long time a fun time. Possible options are mini-games, surprises (e.g. finding buried treasure when mining) and humor (e.g. finding an alien blaster with five rounds left when mining).

Pure grind is lazy and demonstrates a lack of imagination.

 

What is a "pure" grind though? And doesn't the word grind ultimately just mean 'not fun'?

I don't find this game any more grindy than any other similar online game. If anything MMOs are moving back towards a space where it takes longer to do things. Look at WoW for example, they recently made it a lot harder to level up again, because it had gotten far too easy.

 

Is that true? If it is, it's a problem with priorities and managing community feedback. Even if it didn't come from the community, and even if it only took 5 minutes to do the animation, what a distraction from focusing on priority items. Death by a thousand cuts.

"DEFINITION of 'Death By A Thousand Cuts' : Death by a thousand cuts is a figure of speech that refers to a failure that occurs as a result of many small problems. ... This term could also apply to a product or idea that is destroyed by too many minor changes."

 

thats hillarious.

"lets put that broken quest-system-thing aside for now, and find a solution so people feel more immersed when using potions. i mean we gotta have priorities, right?"

 

I don't think it was "demanded." My recollection was that the subject of the flasks disappearing came up. Somebody jokingly suggested adding an animation of them being smashed after consuming, and the devs liked the idea, and put it in.

 

The weight thing I understand.. a few games have done similar, where "weight" isn't just weight, but also bulkiness and difficulty to carry.

Second part.. guessing it's some animation sync thing.. but yeah it's weird

 

I really agree about the breaking potion bottles thing. Makes zero sense to not get the empties back when you drink them. I understand there's an economic consideration, but a flask costs 10 gold. How many potions do you drink a day? How many poisons do you use? Even if the answer is "hundreds" letting you get the flasks back isn't going to destabilize the economy.

 

Spot on Vyrin! I love the game, but I think this is one reason why the game never got far in orbit.