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Quality of Life "Improvements"

Discussion in 'Release 57 QA Feedback' started by Rufus D`Asperdi, Aug 24, 2018.

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  1. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

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    So, the genericization of Shroud of the Avatar is fully underway.
    You've completely abandoned the concept of Regional Economies, eh?
    I suppose it's now only a matter of time until we have Runebooks and Bangs over the heads of quest givers.

    This may be the most disappointed I've been in 5 years.
    It seems the most effective way to prompt change in the title isn't (as put forth by the Doomsayers) being a Whale, but rather incessant whining.
    Noted for future reference.
     
  2. Steevodeevo

    Steevodeevo Avatar

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    Looks that way Rufus.

    I'm very uncomfortable about the new global banks as this more than anything else really emphasises that they have given up on the Regional Economy. LB seems less and less involved also. I'd be really disappointed if that were the case. It would be even harder to swallow especially if it were just due to the incessant and repeated to infinitude complaints by folks who can't be arsed to walk for 2 minutes from one end of the map to the other or find a 20 second diversion being pulled into an OW instance beyond tolerable. Watch out for the '?' over the NPC quest givers' heads when they revisit the quest system?

    I didn't play UO so I don't really have a view on runebooks, except that I see its hugely divisive even amongst veteran UO players. Those against it say it destroyed travel and exploration. If that's the case then it isn't good news, other than for the vocal group that want the game to contain few consequence and little effort vs maximum benefit.

    My main concern is that in conceding to these generic features makes SOTA less unique and distinct. If it becomes too generic a title it will be compared with and fail to compete with big budget cookie cutter MMOs and even P2W MMOs and web games which are designed like digital crack to give maximum instant gratification.

    Take away SOTA's quirky uniqueness and you put it at great risk, as comparisons will not favour it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2018
  3. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

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    I find myself agreeing with Rufus (somewhat at least).
     
  4. GrayFog

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    Well my 2Cents;

    1) the sieges are super annoying since the very first day they got implemented and they really only served as wood farming, cabalist farming and extra useless loading screens

    2) Control Points since day 1 they got implemented served only has heavinly XP farming and had no other purpose other than extra annoying loading screens, regional economy was abandoned already a long time ago anyways

    3) finally NPC slowdowns are gone, how often i almost destroyed my keyboard because the damn guards just ran directly in front of me and sometimes even followed me only to slow me down for no other good reason than to basically piss me off :D

    4) global banks, yeah ok i understand you guys there. I am ok with either since you can just teleport to anywhere with your Runebook, err sorry, meant to say Friendlist anyway

    5) which brings me to 5, adding Runes and a Runbebook would be no different than what we already have, the Friendlist :p

    6) ?????? Questmarks, yeah not really needed
     
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  5. Rufus D`Asperdi

    Rufus D`Asperdi Avatar

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    Now that it will literally be not only possible, but easy to run from Spite to Xenos in 5 minutes with nothing to impede you, perhaps it's time to kill Teleport Scrolls completely. The Overland Map IS fast travel in Shroud of the Avatar, that's how it was always intended, now that that is for nearly all intents and purposes the Only real purpose it serves, let's return it to its purpose.

    Recall Scrolls should stay. One should always be able to get Home.
     
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  6. jschoice

    jschoice Avatar

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    As much as some of us might miss some of these features the truth of the matter is we need to keep players and grow thup community. Gamers today enjoy a more casual gaming experience this is why games like WoW and GW2 are popular. It is funny when people say that want an old school non hand holding game when they get one they are like eh nope. I am looking forward to how classic WoW will go on release.
     
  7. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    Currently there are three threads about teleportation/friend list:
    One here, another here, the last one here.
    I don't see a problem with skipping of control points and sieges.
    But there should something happen with teleporting / Friend list (@Chris?)

    My thoughts about:
    1. I would prefer a MAGIC SKILL to LEARN how to teleport. Would be great for the AIR Skill tree.
    So may be it could be possible (for a MASTER) to teleport around without scrolls!

    2. Teleportation should be restricted by
    2.1 RADIUS (a second skill to raise the radius. It shouldn't be possible to teleport between land masses / continents: because we have lunar rifts and boats to keep them meaningful!)
    2.2 FOCUS
    2.3 WEIGHT (I know it has influence, but not depending on distance!)

    ---> This would be good for the local economy
    ---> A good reason for the use of horses / donkeys.
     
  8. Lord Andernut

    Lord Andernut Avatar

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    Respectfully, I disagree, I resent scene loads since I'm just running through them as quickly as possible, if scene loads were much much faster I would not mind so much. As it is, if there's a control point in the way, then I go to my friendlist instead of walking.

    I feel that regional economies is something that has never been realized, and that economies will not be affected in the slightest by the removal of control points.

    I cannot define an instance of a regional economy except by popularity of towns or area on the map (like if I'm in Hidden Vale I'll pay more in OH rather than going to the Mainland, despite the fact there's no control points in the way). For me "regional" is basically splintered, and what (I feel) is needed is (less loading screens,) more ways to tie the world and the population together, rather than segment it.
     
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  9. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    About the "Bangs": They are still in, called "sparkling" ;)
    Well, I think, if it can be toggled off, it's okay for players with less time.

    The quest system / journal work should focus on:
    better way to know,
    - what to do
    - where to do
    - easy re-read after off for weeks/months from the game
    (Chapters for each path, for example)
     
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  10. Kain Darkmoor

    Kain Darkmoor Avatar

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    The fewer load scenes the better in my book. Aside from a handful of times I just run through sieges. They do nothing for me but add 2 extra load scenes when traveling to a city. Same goes for pass scenes. Traveling to areas like Resolute or Graff Mines was a always an annoyance that made me not want to go to those areas.

    As far as I can tell, there has never been anything close to a regional economy.

    Global banks will actually increase economy and visitation of any town that's not in the 20 foot radius of Brittany. This is a good thing IMO. Now I can step out of the mines and visit a local town to bank, and heck, while I am there I might as well buy some supplies. Hey they looks like a good spot to set up a vendor, I should contact the governor! Etc Etc.

    NPC slow downs have always been ridiculous, not sure how anyone could defend that. It's not even close to being 'realistic'. People don't just walk in front of you and block your path while staring at you in real life.


    TL,DR: All of these are great changes.
     
  11. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    The current Siege encounters are a complete waste of the players time, period. Evil Cultists are attacking towns, we get it. It’s up to Port to actually make them do something, and make them worthwhile to even go in there (unless you can kill those one Cultists).

    The Banks interconnected, that change was a bit odd. But I personally don’t see it as a big deal.

    The passes being opened is now a good thing and encourages people to freely explore more. I can now get rid of all those people on my friends list who I have no clue who they are, and now use it just for friends. 1 potion of Wolf Speed and you can zip off to anywhere in no time.
     
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  12. Elwyn

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    I had come to accept the control point and siege interruptions as Not Fun. But the bank change took me by surprise.

    At least they fixed the bank performance, I hated waiting for that thing to load, especially since you had to buy bank slots for that to be a problem.

    As for teleports, at this point I would be fine with it becoming party-only. Then if you're going to use "walking runes", at least they have to actively participate. The problem is if you wanted to go to a social event and your friend there was already in a party, he would have to leave the party or get the leader to invite you. FL rune books are out of control.

    Regional economies really never took off because the only regional resource was the less common recipes.
    The problem with radius is if you wanted to go to another continent, you would have to at least be able to teleport to a ferry point, or else people would still whine.
     
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  13. Roycestein Kaelstrom

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    After so many years, it looks like these features sound good in paper, but doesn't see to turn out well in the actual execution due to various external factors. I will be interesting to see how this change will help making the game loop more fun to play.
     
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  14. amarious

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    This is how I am feeling as well. I like the idea of it all but I think it's not panning out, especially for new players. Pretty much..if it will help retain new people I'm ok with these things.
     
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  15. Dartan Obscuro

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    I'm all for trying things to find a broader player base and getting rid of scene loads, but I do think these changes make the game less interesting.

    Here are suggestions that I think accomplish the same goals but add more flavor to the game.

    Put the lunar rifts on the Novia map and allow them to be entered there (no scene load). Free travel but timing is inconvenient.

    Put the control point teleporter guys on the Novia map. Lower the cost to 200 gold. Players can go through the zone or pay to teleport around them. If a group of players takes and holds a zone give them the collected toll gold.

    Add ferries to Aerie, Ardoris, Eastmarch, Britany and Harvest accessed on the Novia map and in town which travel to the adjacent coastal towns. Charge 100 gold plus 1 gold per pound of cargo.

    By making those few changes, a player could get anywhere on Novia quickly (but at some cost) so I would remove teleport scrolls.

    Leave the bank as it was but add a bank service to transfer goods to another branch at a cost of 2 gold per pound.

    When caught by a bandit encounter on the Novia map give the player the option to pay them off / let them take an item for ransom or enter the scene to fight them.

    If the new travel gold sinks are draining gold from the economy, increase the loot tables accordingly.

    Enhance the regional aspect of the economy by making specific resources more abundant in different regions. Make growing certain crops yield twice as much in particular regions e.g. grapes on the Perennial coast and cotton in Grunvald.

    Make sieges much rarer (only one or two across all of Novia at a time) and have a bigger impact on the town. When under siege, all the vendors should be low / out of stock but the blacksmith should pay a bit more. There should be some repeatable siege specific quests in town that also contribute to removing the seige e.g. "we're low on swords please craft 20" or "please gather these supplies."
     
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  16. Barugon

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    Here's the way I see it: all of these "features" were perceived in a very negative way by many. In order for the game to survive, they ultimately had to do something.
     
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  17. Sir Leonard

    Sir Leonard Localization Team

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    Well I can agree with global banks. I’d rather stick with the actual system.

    As for encounters and sieges, having the option to skip (pays a fee for it)... sorry but for me...finally. One thing I’m sick in this game is of loading screens. Really can’t stand them - it’s a personal matter... although I understand a few are necessary.

    But the way the game was projected, I hated being dumped onto an encounter because of lag and with that skeleton apparently 200 yards away from you. Also sieges were nagging me since it was just extra loadings, the mobs there can’t hurt me, really just wasting time for a scene I would spend at most 20 extra seconds running through. And since all engineers changed for bowmen I simply don’t do them anymore.

    As for runebooks I’m not quite aware how they functioned in UO, but I would gladly replace the friends list by one... or a portal skill where you can save, say... up to 4 locations (like other mmos I know). Friends list today are just an unreliable teleport aggregator, where you don’t know or interact with 99% of yours.
     
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  18. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    Introduce the Virtue Stones, have them be a higher level quest. And require a rather expensive (but not ridiculous) component to bind each one to the Virtue Cities that also requires the Lunar Rift. :D
     
  19. Mishikal

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    Not clear to me why people think teleporting only applies to the world map. I teleport to people all the time, and never on the map. Usually it's for multiply nested scenes (like The Rise), so I don't have to go through 3 load screens to get there.
     
  20. golruul

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    These QoL improvements are fantastic; more QoL improvements please!

    As someone that's more interested in quests, killing mobs, gathering resources, crafting, and buying/selling stuff from vendors, the less time I need to waste looking at loading screens and traveling the Overworld the better the game is to me.

    I guess I'm part of the new breed of gamers that regard loading screens and Overworld travel as not actually playing the game.

    Since bypassing checkpoints and encounters are optional, everyone that still requires those extra loading screens to be part of their gaming experience can still get them.
     
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