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

What do you mean? It goes from "July 28th" to "Yesterday" on page 15. That's a gap nearly a month's worth.

I'm not here to point fingers but I'm pretty sure it was you who locked it with a "Thank you for your feedback". It's a month old so you might've forgotten it.

 

I remember it being locked as well. It was a fine thread with many fine ideas and sentiments. Then, BAM!

 

I know how it happened. The same way I ended up at the entrance to Ulfheim last night. One minute I was at the house fighting some archers, the next I was walking through the gate (about the time I was lifting my chin from my chest). Proud, though that I survived the scene even in my sleep.

 

I believe you have issues with your logs then... Also, if our feedback is so critical, how did this go unnoticed?

 

Can we just get back on topic? I love the journal ideas from that thread. Having a book imo with tabs of game features and quest and quest types that tracks our progress or lack of would help this game so much. Players wouldn't have to say oh I didn't know we had anything else to do in this game but grind

 

wow, what an amazing thread full of incredible feedback!!! Why was this not used? *mindblown*

 

Look at how many towns are unfinished. They do not seem to care about this either. Portalarium, right now, lacks the manpower to put anything into practice.

 

Which ones are you talking about specifically?

 

Probably any of the ones where the NPCs are missing names and any sort of dialog options. Personally, I understand that things like that are likely near the bottom of the list of items to handle at this time.

 

I thought long and hard about responding to this thread because it feels like so many others that just are not helping the game.... but here I go. The problem with this game is ultima online. here's what mean. Ultima Online is the shining city on the hill that all these old people remember with nostalgia. They remember the "good ole days" of Ultima online and they want it back so when a game like shroud comes along and promises that (yes, I know, they only called it the 'spiritual successor' but in the minds of players, that's the same) than they are all on board. The problem is you can't get back the 'good ole days'. ultima had its time and its time is past. shoot, ultima online is still a game that people can play so if its such a great thing still, why not just play that??? because its time is past and modern day players are after something a little different. I would put forward the idea that if Ultima Online were release today, it would NOT have been such a big hit. I am also going to make a prediction for the future of Legends of aria which is trying to achieve the same thing.... It will only be a niche game for many different reasons which I won't get into here. It will not go big. Now I could be wrong but I seriously doubt it. Hell, shroud is currently a niche game. there are those like myself who love the game but if it wants to rise above niche level it needs to appeal to modern day players NOT the ole guard from the ultima days. So my advice, STOP trying to be Ultima Online. develop your own unique game that appeals to the majority of modern day gamers NOT the ole guard of the ultima days. If you want to fail, keep trying to appeal to them, if you want success, know your success lies elsewhere.

Now things I would like to see in this game. Raid content and not just one or two or three. Lots. Currently my favorite is star wars the ole republic. there are so many raids one can do there that I never get bored with them.

Do away with the having to read stuff all the time. voice over is the future. Nothing turns me off of a game more than having to read text. I am immersed in the experience when I can here the voice and hear the tones and emotions in the voice and see the facial expressions. If I want to read, I will read a book. I would love to do the quests in game but I just can't bring myself to do them cause the reading...

More zones for us higher level players as well. I do find I am running out of stuff to do as an end game players so ya. more endgame.

that's it for me though. I am pretty pleased with the rest of the game. I don't find it grindy.... I spend about half hour a day to earning my 1 million exp and since I only need around 2 million exp to gm most skills, I can gain a gm every 2 days or so. that is so not grindy. the rest of my time I spend on what ever I like. So ya. great job guys on a great game. I will continue to play the game and stream the game and supporting you guys.

 

That’s pretty funny because right now me and 6 other SotA peeps are playing UO Outlands. The game is 3 weeks old and is currently running with about 1700 concurrent players. As I type this, I’m mounted on a horse, riding on a ship, fishing. <—- It may be the shining city on the hill but it’s full of things that Port should look at doing.

 

The problem was not with UO but with players expectations. When UO first started there were 20 people standing around a cave waiting for a rat to pop its head out of hole so they could wack it. It took 20+ years of trial and error to get UO where it is now. Not all the changes were good and not all the years were good. Peoples expectations were for 20+ years of content in an amazing new game. They are releasing content changes and fixes every month. Some I like, some I don’t but like UO was back then, it’s a way to get together with a groups of friends decide what your going to do and do it. It’s not where people want it to be yet, but it’s moving along.

 

The problem isn't that SOTA isn't UO, it's that so many things that should be in the game are not and so many things that are broken are never fixed, while all the time the Devs plough on with new shiny stuff while ignoring the rickety foundations...

 

and it is interesting that this thread is open again....

 

It's the bizarro open, closed, open thread from way back in a simpler time. You and I know what comes next...

 

Well, basically Outlands is not a game, is a mod based on a 20 years old solid game

Being said that, yes, there are so many good ideas and features we would love to see in modern games, not only in this UO server but in lot of old MMOs. Jobe and Bekido told me about Outlands, looks great. Hope you guys having lot of fun!

 

And what a magnificent city it was too. Was though. I logged in recently and had fun for a few hours, it was like meeting an old pal you haven't seen for years. But that was then and this is now, I agree. I keep meaning to play Tie Fighter again from start to finish for instance but I most probably never will (I'd play the everliving cr@p out of a modern incarnation though!). I logged into SotA after my little UO dalliance and honestly, it felt to me like a modern UO (*with work to do*). UO + the overworld of past Ultimas.

More zones, raids, end-content... That sounds like a lot of man hours, I'd rather they polished what they have now. Polish, polish, polish. (No not that Polish RPG! tut tut)
I think endgame content is something they could focus more on when they get more concurrent players in, it's like adding wood to the fire but I don't know if we have a fire yet, although it does feel like it's moving forward. I get a little disheartened when I see work on seasonal stuff but I guess that's what people want in MMOs these days. I do like that we got tech for boss mechanics out of it though.

I dunno man... That's pretty subjective... Morrowind, WoW, Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2, Tides of Numenera, Pathfinder, Wasteland 2, BATTLETECH, Shadowrun Returns, the older Fallouts, 90% of the Ultima series. Voice acting on an indie budget is a luxury. Potentially, they could do what a lot of games do to trick the player here by strategically mixing some in, e.g. you vocalize the first sentence of important quest paragraphs and just have randomized greetings for more generic NPCs. Works better with voiced cut-scenes mixed in too.

But they'd want a fairly polished quest experience first... Which would bring in new players (new user acquisition)... Which would allow them to work on (player retention) endgame stuff like raids... Which in theory gets you the budget for the next episode and so on and so forth.

I think that in the end where Port fumbled the ball was with the questing aspect. And I say that with all due respect and love for RG and the team. The limited/no journal style worked in the older Ultimas because there were like, 4 people worth talking to in any given town and they hung around a map with like, 8 houses. And it was great because it promoted the sense of discovery without the player being too overwhelmed. Mind you I still had to put hints into my saved game names! "GO TO SKARA"...

I love that SotA's not the themepark of WoW with the exclamation marks. In that game, I would clinically collect every hub quest, kill my 25 rabbits, do the next hub till the zone was done and then move onto the next zone, till I hit 60. Not exactly immersive (but I still enjoyed that game for different reasons).

I have faith that I'll be able to do the questline one day in offline mode and have a pretty solid experience with it. I just don't know when that day will come lol! Must... stay... strong! And my hope is that I have a much better dialogue interface when I do, the one we have now positively screams "Alpha!".

(Just one more little UI tweak please Port... Eet ees only Waffer-Thin!)

Me neither, I like logging in and just milling around (sometimes literally haha!). When treasure hunting comes along, it will be great because I'll have a reason to go somewhere I wouldn't necessarily usually go.

And that's the definition of adventure: Some sh|t happens to you on the way to somewhere.

 

I would love to see coverage for lower end machines.

As it is, I do not play in my free time because my laptop (which is pretty decent, graphically and processor and RAM), can't really handle the game.

For example, I could always play World of Warcraft whether I was on a high-end machine or a low-end machine. They had put thought into their demographic. I do not see the same here.

I want to enjoy this game. I haven't really, truly played since about R47 or R50.

Also, my loading screens still always turn red. I don't know why this is?

Thank you for reading.

 

Performance got a big bump this month. I don't know if it's enough, but might be worth checking out.

 

Switch a bit to focus on the dungeons and towns. Not enough players actually go to all the towns so there was too many put in the game. It would take me 5 days to hit them all up and explore, but why do that for a 100gp?

I would like to see this change to a more build your own RPG/MMO from the use of towns, guilds and our newly created dungeons. I want to be able to add everything I see in the game to my dungeon, build the quest, attach the dungeon to another player dungeon, have random encounters that scale to my level. Essentially, a deco system that lets you actually make sure of the term "sandbox game" is used appropriately. At this point this switch wouldn't be too hard as most of these items have or are being worked on. With this, although I know it takes "considerable skills" to create graphics/movement and AI for assets. It takes less money than I spent on the game to purchase them from the Unity asset stores. Which I have noticed a few other stores selling items created by SOTA, very odd that more content can't be created and revenue is where it is knowing this is going on.

I would like to see weather events, (tornado/earth quake) through the POTs. Some reason to visit POT's maybe a searchable vendors list per POT. Maybe certain loot is only found in random POTs located in different (but mentioned) coordinates on the map? Maybe some loot would be nice. It doesn't matter what numbers we put to XP 1, 100, 1000, 1,000,000 its just numbers and very boring to accumulate. Maybe add some random chance people skip a few levels or something like that so the don't have to grind the same scene for 6 hours, without moving. A lot of the mesh problems were fixed I do give the credit for that.

The major thing, items and such that I purchase that are supposed to be "unique" I expected them to stay unique. I didn't spend 2k on **** that everyone else has and now are selling for coto's or GP. WTF? I spent REAL money on the game to be unique yet I run around looking just like everyone else. YAY! OH! But I can dye me clothes, oh ya the same color as others so I will see duplicates of myself. Why can't I glow, fade in and out, I don't know something different than seeing leather or plate because I want my Night Elf Mohawk to stand out!

Owners of towns should be able to take up and use ALL THE PLOTS IN THE TOWN! WTF again, all towns look empty but could be fixed by this one little item. They own the damn town by ways of real money, people were not elected to run the town, see the difference? The owners paid anywhere from $900 bux to $10k for the towns as if this was real property or perhaps a digital asset that will gain value; only to find out they don't actually own it, they just decorate. If you want your own plots, you have to buy them. This is one major reason your backers left or are selling out. In UO we could sell our accounts to get some of this money back. This game, there is no point we lost all that money or maybe, just maybe we can regain half back. Make my property worth something, some how add value over time. Go back to the raffle of deeds, let the Governors collect that tax money, give us reasons to actually try to fill our towns. Oh, and I like the idea of random encounters/monsters just destroying my property (and weather), which makes me have to collect resources to fix them or pay a blacksmith to do so etc.

My biggest and most controversial item.... Subterfuge, you have seen me on universal chat talking about this issue. I can't steal, hide, stalk, or any of that when players don't PVP. I don't care if they are PVE if this is part of the damn system/game then let me steal from people. They don't have to attack me if I fail, the same consequences can happen, avatar gets stuck in place for 10-15secs while the "guards" show up to punish me regardless of where I am (meaning towns or adventuring areas), then if the guards do get me I am placed in prison for a period of time. Now, what can we do in prison, I don't know, maybe my guild could attempt to break me out before my sentence is up?Maybe don't give too long of periods in prison maybe the prison is a dungeon that I must either fight through to get out or wait for my sentence time to be up (oh and yes scaled to be 1 level higher than what I am)?

I get most people don't want to see the days of the old UO where I murdered plenty of you just because I could. But then again, when I walk outside my door irl, isn't that always a possibility? You guys solved that griefing episode by not allowing the entire body to be looted after death. Taking items out of the backpack (not what people wear unless PVP) for the ransom is fine however, a better method would be taking the items from the backpacks and putting them in the looting database. Even when monsters kill us this should occur. For those PVP'ers that get too powerful? Easy, the devs are gods attack them when they see someone griefing people (a specified amt). If these powerful people kill the devs then maybe a bounty system to encourage people to get full parties to go after. And if the avatar is on the bounty list and dies, they lose x skill points. Now they have to rebuild and are no longer the most powerful. Also, isn't the point of my grinding to become that level so I am a "god"? Isn't that our eventual goal as the Avatar?

Making me click 1000 times just to raise my skills because everyone is so worried about a term they don't actually understand MACROS. Most people don't even know what "botting" really is or how it works. There are reasons it gets boring to craft, no special effects while failing or succeeding, no TADA I made this uber fantastic sword, that I can't use sound, nothing. Just click on the screen a bunch of times so you do stuff, yay! Do you think people play slots at casinos for hours and sometimes days because they push buttons? Sounds make everything better.

Last but not least, if this is an MMO, then get rid of the damn instances. This is out of control. I see maybe a few people at the same place as me. I rarely have to wait for someone else to finish killing the dragon before my turn starts. Speaking of dragons, why doesn't the dragons pick me up before flight and drop me? Or, why doesn't the dragon kill me when it falls from the air? A troll does.

Really, does anyone here think the 11,000,000+ DOLLARS raised and apparently spent for this game was it actually spent on what we see? I certainly do not think so at all. We can look up actual production costs of AAA games, people realize that, right? The real question is backers should get an answer for what Port did with our money and what did they actually buy/spend this money on and for whom? Nothing speaks in Sota not even the players, there isn't endless things I can do in the world, I can't PVP when I want to, I have to wait for a tourny, I can't steal anything unless again, PVP. GTA5 although a different type of game looks a feels like a lot of money was spent on producing the game. And to give more ideas to the masses on some costs, go check the Unreal or Unity Asset stores. For 50 bux we can get a completely realistic character with movement and magic/attacking effects. $50 bux. For $250, we can get an entire system much like what SoTA is but we get build the MMO ourselves! Seems a little too familiar to me. Instead of spending money on the telethon, go to these stores, purchase the asset (verify the EULA that the asset can be used as wanted), then send it to Port for implementation. You know, most the assets come with pre-written scripts and workable code? So literally all Port has to do, import to Unity and place it on "scenes" (you may think instances as well).

Really, what does $11,000,000 buy me if I were to purchase some of these game assets I wonder. Or whatever happened to all us enthusiast that even wrote code or gave assets to Port, or the ability to do so. I personally would work for FREE given the chance. It would make me even happier to work for unique assets that I alone have, you know like some of those paintings? We don't need access to anything you have, just given guidance on what you want to see and let us create it and then implement it.

Honestly though, I love the idea of the game and it is almost, almost a clone of UO. Just missing more content more characters more Night Elf Mohawks with green/red glowing dye!