Soft Wipe for Episode #2 ? ?

Just to add more info about it, he did first time talked about this on Discord (bloodbay server). For some of us the surprise came one day earlier.

 

Yea, if there were a test group it would ideally be a cross-section of people with different perspectives. I wouldn't necessarily split it up as discretely as that, though.

However, IMO part of the problem with a lot of the game development in the first place is that too often its being designed by committee like a product, rather than as a game, and has completely lost any sense of vision. Its like what happens when movie studios take up a project by a talented screenwriter, pass it through a committee, do focus groups, and completely change the script to try to make it appeal to different demographics, and in the process turn the script into a complete mess. This is my "game-critical" viewpoint.

 

Totally agree on the committee part! This is not a democracy. It is also why I side step the question of what about the $$ investors. It starts to drag you into that mess. You are soliciting feedback and an opinion, not an answer or choice.

 

True but they are a business and they strive to generate a profit also they do have share holders now (preferred b stock holders) if they were a not for profit company without share holders I’d say they have no obligation. Tbh I’m not sure what the best way to achieve what they have to achieve is. Catering to non revenues vrs people paying the bills And what / who’s input is preferred. 100 free to play players may have totally diffrent goals than 1 person who is contributing $ for salaries.

Sorry wein’s about this side topic.

 

Yea, someone here once voiced a concern about whether new players were being given more focus than Kickstarter backers, and I said its not the issue; since if Kickstarter backers were asking the devs to change the vision they presented it would be a problem, too. The issue isn't the money from pledgers, its that when you try to please people rather than stick to a vision & do what works best to make it work, you're both going to turn the game into a mess, and not really please people in the end, either.

Its a business, yes, but its like shareholders telling a director how to make a movie. Its a recipe for disaster.

 

The fact a wipe is even being considered is horrendous. The only positive, if we do suffer a wipe for E2, the gaming websites will have a huge and entertaining story at our expense.

Fix the game and new people will (we hope) come. Nothing else will bring them.

Fantasy: A new perspective player says "Golly! I'd really like to play SOTA even with ALL the problems except I won't because people are higher level than me. If only the Developers would wipe the entire progress from everyone playing over the past few years. I'd join and spend thousand of dollars!"

Reality: Wipe the progress of the few remaining players and face the consequences. Those gaming websites would sure enjoy the drama!

 

hello, Its been a while since I have played and the wipe would benefit me giving me a opportunity to catch up but I do believe this is a bad idea. Just thinking about this I wont want to log into episode 2 because I know that all the time will be wiped for episode 3. why should I log in and play if every time there is a new expansion all of my work will be erased?

 

I’m curious on why th developers haven’t responded to any of this. Like it’s been lingering for a day with countless attack from players to players who get too much into the arguments.
So game devs, can you please stop this social forum experiment of yours and just tell us what’s the plan so we don’t rip each other’s throat over your vagueness.

Thank you

 

So, episode 2 drops and I some how magically forget every recipe and how to craft, and must re-learn everything? Re-gather all those mats to turn XP into levels? Really?
Depressing. Would not be worth it at that point. Because Episode 3 would just be the same thing.

 

Why not have tier 50 in Episode 1 as well by the end? There are plenty of extra scenes?

And why would you put low tier scenes in ep 2 and beyond? There are already too many low tier scenes compared to leveling speed.

No one would ever naturally be tier 4 by the time they get there, and more than likely they would be more like 6+.

In my mind the ideal situation is ep 2 has Tier 6ish +. Lots of 10+s and some space for all the way up to 20 as thw final scenes go in.

Story should track the same. At this point they have finished Grannus that's the low end of the combat scenes.

If this is because the devs want to skip people to episode 2 instead of finishing 1, that's a terrible idea. You don't throw away all content this close to done. With the UI upgrade and quest overhaul yes overhaul, not abandonment, the ep 1 continent is a quality experience, and is the new player experience.

Edit: and remember, it's only adventure scenes that would trip up low level players anyway. They could still visit all the towns.

 

Ideally you'd want free travel instead of gating the world by level. So a low level character could just hop on a ferry to continent 2 without having to grind through 10 tiers first.

Plus, the bigger issue is already a problem in the game; the wide disparity you'll have between tier-1 and tier-50, not even necessarily which continents they're in; although the job of distributing these scenes in continent 1 will be hard. It makes the game more difficult to design and balance, separates different groups of players and forces them to play different scenes. One of the reasons people liked UT was that low level players could play with high level players. It also forces the devs to constantly create new scenes with new content.

The "grind rail" where you keep leveling up just in order to level up is just really a tedious system of gameplay that you want to avoid in a real sandbox game, open world game, or RPG, in the first place. Rather than the devs trying to either ignore the problem or find "solutions" to it, IMO they should really think about restructuring how level works.

 

@redfish It's not gated any more than the current map is. You can walk into any scene you want. You aren't guaranteed to be able to handle any scene, nor should you be able to.

If a new player insists on going to continent two before being able to do tier 2 scenes, that means he hasn't even finished the outskirts. That's their decision but you don't design the next five episodes so someone can skip the new player areas and still be viable in the new continents.

However if the devs want they can move a tier 3 scene (2 would be crazy) over without even making a new one. I doubt it will get much play because tier 3 is so easy to blow past, but they could.

I would say tier 4 would be the easiest tier in the second continent. It's the earliest point where a legit new player, not one of us beelining it, would get over there.

So maybe move upper tears over there.

And I strongly advocate for highest level scenes also appearing on Novia/Hidden Vale. That's the whole point of the map system, put in new scenes where needed.

 

FIX TAMING! Yeah it's back...

 

@Vladamir Begemot

IMO the current situation is already a problem, but you're multiplying the problem by moving up every new continent by an exponential amount. There are going to be five continents, right -- one with each episode -- and the final continent is going to have to have crazy difficult scenes to keep up with people's demand for higher tier content. So continent 2 is going to start with tier 4. Then what about continent 3, and continent 4, and continent 5?

The issue isn't that some areas are more difficult than others (which is expected although IMO whole continents shouldn't be sealed off) Its that level matters too much, and grinding matters too much.

 

And to be honest I'm a bit confused about why this is even a thing. I can't see any scenario where the weirdness of having two characters that are the same character outweighs some perceived weirdness in the current system.

Are people really that upset about someone else being so far ahead?

Informal poll: Show of hands, who's super upset about people being ahead of you.

And second question for those raising your hands, is it such a problem that you won't play episode 2 if everyone doesn't start even?

 

@Vladamir Begemot

Ahead in what way? Grinding content? The problem is the game is about grinding, not that some people are ahead of others. I remember during Kickstarter one of the goals was to make it so a low level character could defeat a high level character in PvP, that there would be no level gating, the world would be open, and the game would not be about grinding. The question is not about competition with other players, its what good gameplay is. (BTW, I'm already not playing episode 1 much anymore now)

 

So you are for a soft wipe because you don't like people to have to grind, and expect that to keep happening on each continent, am I understanding that correctly?

 

@Vladamir Begemot I'm not for either solution. Its a lesser of two evils, and perhaps I'd judge that the lesser of two evils.