Q4 2018 Schedule Update

I was sure they were working on it. Based on that post but also:

Could we have sacrificed other systems to overhaul / start over with the quest system before launch? Yes and that was probably a bad priority call in hindsight and for that we are sorry.

From https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s-criticism-healthy-debate-the-future.135916/ (Jul 25)

I don't even care about the journal anymore, I'd settle for it remembering where I drag it to and a new dialogue box. Just... Anything but the dialogue box we have now. Kinda bummed now.

 

Well, there was an information, telling it would be done earlier.

An excerpt from Q2 2018 Update (https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/q2-2018-schedule-update.115914/)
User Interface Polish: Various elements of the UI will get polished for usability as well as improvements to information displayed with a focus on the quest journal.

As we know, there was no focus on Journal until now...
And the Journal itself isn't that bad, it only needs some features
Well, it's autumn now and scheduling for Episode 2 will go on.

I think all of us are still waiting for just simple changes, like:
- Chapters for each path (May be main quests have a sign to show the MUST do quests). Please no kind of "sort list" - nice symbols (they're existing!) for each path and one sort button to show MAIN QUESTS | UNDONE QUESTS ...
- better presentation for the dialogues (ideas enough given therefor)
- get rid of the input line (this gives one more line for text, so over 90 % of clicking 'more' has gone.
- get rid of the underlined keywords by default, becaue they are destracting while reading (means: dive into and follow the story)
- former asked keywords should fade to grey, until they provide new information
- another font more related to the quest journal and the story
- providing a story/quest target on map, when it is told by someone, for example: Bring Note to Guard Captain Cugel in Ardoris. Asking the town Crier about Guard's place it should be marked on map

This seems not so much of work. And I hope it will be done in the first quarter of 2019 for the story's sake

 

Wake me up when they talk about ship movement/battles, factions, guild wars and an endgame that includes those 3. R/Boris/El Pirata.

 

Lookin good!

 

Development of online games is an ongoing process, and in the case of smaller developers often a fluid one.

 

One would have thought so, but the nature of your complaints indicates you do not.

 

Yes of course that's the case - even more reason for Port to have sorted out their priorities better than they have to date.

 

Bag mode was never implemented properly. I much prefer it, but when a merchant window opened, it was in list mode, there was jarring to my gameplay experience because there was no bag mode equivalent. So I had to switch to list mode for consistency. I wish they would focus on more immersive UI's because those harken back to the principles that the Ultimas were based on. Having options is good, but try to keep us thinking in-game and thinking about logic to solve problems within the game world.. please!

I'm tired of them scrapping good ideas because people aren't utilizing them in their broken state ... rather than sticking to their guns and iterating on them until they work right and are fun. These faulty decisions based on stats rather than polling for reasons behind the numbers are a huge mistake, imho. To decide whether a feature should be scrapped vs. iterated should be based on whether it follows the core principals behind Richard's 'Ultimate RPG' philosophy.. not based on some usage stats from the feature's current (possibly poorly implemented) iteration. This is the only way to ensure the game is keeping true to its promise as a spiritual successor, rather than transforming into another MMORPG-like clone nobody asked for.

 

I feel you! You hit the proverbial "nail on the head" with that one. Seem like a lot of the nice features are falling to this.