Soft Wipe for Episode #2 ? ?

True story. The issue here is: they can't. What needs fixing has to be fixed by Unity and they don't give a flying f*ck.

 

That's half not true and half your opinion *shrugs*
Unity has enough known issues that wait fixing for quite a while now.

 

Unity has nothing to do with the scaling of scenes based on character skills or whatever? Thats the scaling we (atleast I am) are talking here.

 

Exactly.

 

Ah. Sorry, for me "the engine" will always be the game engine. And this one has issues Port can't fix by itself.
But gotcha now. Sure, about that kind of engine i agree with you ^^

 

So if gear does not transfer, but house deco does transfer, what happens to the weapons and gear I am currently using for deco? All the really cool gear museums, will they be stuck in E1. Will we be unable to make large collections of both E1 and E2 gear sets for display in one location. There are way too many issues trying to make gear episode locked. I hope this was a really unprofessional joke played on the loyal customers of this game, and not a serious idea that is being tossed about by the developers.

 

This is part of the problem with this thread. Literally none of this is corect. This is not the reason. No progress is taken away. It is just about being able to play EP2 quest content without everything being impossible and already end level, which will not be fun, and will make EP2 inaccessible to new players, fragmenting the user base. Eventually given enough episodes new players will be years of content behind everyone else, which isn't good.

They even are going to allow fast learning back based on current XP. And don't forget during this time you'll be playing interesting new EP2 storylines that are appropriately scaled for you, which should make it interesting.

Even if you don't like that, fine. But don't make things up "zero everyone's progress out"... No.

Recently I started a new character and in 3 weeks casual play only I got them to level 52. While my main character is level 101 after a year. The truth is that the level system is on a very long sliding scale and much of the time later on is very small progression compared to early on. Double XP has changed how that works from what you might remember and you'd be earning effective 4X Xp with this soft reset up to your current XP. Which makes what you're currently doing important. And you'd be playing new content during this which is level appropriate.

So I don't anticipate this will have a huge impact on the actual capabilities of players beyond a short reset period where everyone is on the same playing field again, just doing the new Ep2 content.And it might actually be really good for the games health. And going back to EP1 everyone is at the same XP level they always were, so it literally does not affect anything except EP2 content.

There are definately some other questions about how certain things will work, like items, but I expect that will come later. I don't see this as the armageddon spell some see it as.

 

If I play eps2 with a fresh character, will I still be able to play with my episode 1 or 3 friends for that matter? I am not sure I want to keep starting over every expansion and might just stick to eps 1 not being able to play with friends and family would be a bummer. A I understand this all my crafting skills and expiernece will go away as well?

 

To me, this sounds like avoiding writing harder high end user content. Is this a "Let's wipe them instead and then it will simply seem harder.?" :/ My points on this are:

If new players aren't coming now, how is a new episode magically going to get them here?

Why on EARTH would you not make episode 2 a continuation of the current story - at a harder level, that is still accessible (but significantly more difficult) to complete for new users?

The game already limits us to playing 25 mins out of the hour with attenuation - which leaves your audience to find something else to do for the other 35 mins out of the hour. That is very dangerous as you are constantly in danger of losing said audience. You want to capture your customers attention for the entire time they are playing. Once you find something else to do - say - play another game on your attenuation break - it's easy to lose track of time and not return because the other game does not limit your play time in such ways.

I'm currently against the cap unless more information that makes sense comes to light.

 

Call me crazy but I am in full support of a soft wipe

 

Cray-cray! Just kidding.

 

You are crazy.

Now that we got that out of the way: maybe you want to tell us why ^^ (not crazy, but why support of course hehe)

 

I don't think this has anything to do with being ahead. For me its about Crafting and what was spent to get there and that If I am to have to start over in ep2 there is no time for me in ep1 making everything, trade etc in ep1 worthless if I can't maintain it. Id have to move all my markets over in order to try and keep it going. 4 years of investment in time pretty much gone, It was fun but if every episode in the future is like that I dont think that would appeal to me at all. Id rather play something that I could keep progressing in all the way. I am a 1 character type of guy

 

Agree with that xee, I can fully dive into something knowing that I’m advancing something or improving. I logged in both last night and again today and instantly logged out I don’t have the heart to play knowing a wipe might be coming, and I don’t know if I can find the juice to play in eps 2 with a esp 3 wipe on the next horizon.

 

Spot on.. You said exactly how I feel about this issue. Was thinking of coming back to play the game more then I have been this year, but decided to check the forums first to see what's new, but not sure now... Why bother lvl'ing up if they are only going to wipe my char. What is the goal then , if my char gets wiped every episode ? Why the heck bother playing then if I can never GROW my char … It took me a very long time to get to where I am, at lvl 100 because I don't power lvl, what's the fun in that, I like getting there on my own, more rewarding. I will sit this one out till I know for sure what the decision is, in the mean time I am looking for another game to take up my time.....

 

My thoughts as I've been digesting this thread...

Scaling:
I've seen a bunch of replies now calling for scene scaling. Question: Do you mean like the way ESO is scaling their content? "One Tamriel" did wonders to their population, but I'll tell you this: it pretty much dumbs down the game. I can take a level 1 character ANYWHERE in the world and fight (and kill) anything. I, at least, feel like there is zero progression of character. In a scaling world, there is no difference of having a skill of 10 in sword vs 150 in sword when it takes only 4 swings of a sword to kill anything because the mobs HP and stats are scaling to the PC fighting it.

SOTA would have to completely change its gears to accomplish this and the game would end up like ESO, having 'hard mode' dungeon type areas because all other areas would make people bored.
I hope scaling is not a chosen answer for this problem because it truly trivializes all content.

MMOs as games:
To those saying they don't like grinding: That is what MMO are about. They always have been. Whether you call it going out and mindlessly killing things for XP or simply killing things for fun, you are still killing in the name of gaining XP to become more powerful. If you don't like this activity, you are playing the wrong genre.

Low level vs high level:
You cannot have low level characters take on high level characters and expect any other outcome besides death for the low level ... that would be like me fighting Connor McGregor and winning... yes, there is a 0.00000001% chance I COULD win but pretty much wont. There must be meaningful progression/power or whats the point?

Game design:
You have to gate activities and areas to keep any sense of progression/growth for a game (again, what MMOs are about; growth). The question that has to be asked is "WHY must new players have complete access to all content in Ep2? In every other game I have played, expansions are "new discoveries" that are scary places for low level PCs ... they might contain 1 or 2 areas to start in as low level (i.e., contain a new race) but other then that, they have been geared for existing player base.

Final thought: ANY type of wipe will be the nail in this game's coffin. Lets get real... Also, the fact that this has gone on 11+ pages with no DEV response astounds me.

 

Still catching up on the replies (seems to have been 3 more pages since I last checked in!), but I just listened to Chris' interview about the soft level, and the logic seems off... he states that EP2 is the continued story of EP1 (obviously, right?) but that we should start it at level 1?? Seeing as you have to grind just to finish the EP1 story to around 60 MINIMUM, shouldn't we start at least at level 60+ to continue the story as told?

And for those that ONLY buy EP2 and have no reason to go to EP1... WTH?? Why can't they grind to level 60 and begin from there for EP2? Will the Shroud story even make sense to those who start at EP2 and skip EP1? What about EP3 and further?

As I mentioned earlier, this might be a necessary evil, but that doesn't mean I support it, yet. We need more info. And fix the damn quest system NOW, for ALL EPISODES. This is madness.

 

It would not surprise me if EP1 was left in the dirt. They have tried 3 times, unsuccessfully to build new player welcome areas in EP1 and while the approach was good, the questing system is an epic fail as currently designed. They probably want to nix it all and start people fresh in Ep2 with a new system that works much better then the Hodge podge of crap they are trying to fix in EP1.

From a story standpoint, EP1 could be completely forgotten. It was nothing more then a refresher on the three Principles and a evaluation of how you play as a person. There was no real depth into any of the prime virtues we've seen in U4 other then a brief judging of simple actions for a cloak.

If you really think about it, EP1 was probably them getting their tools built, assets built, all that other pre-work so that Shoud-Ultima4 could begin with EP2. Nothing you really did in 1 effects you horribly and if you completely got rid of it, it would not hinder you at all moving forward...Story-wise.

The thing is, EP2 as what they show today, "Serpent Archipelago" looks and sounds like nothing of what Ep2 was originally pitched. It was supposed to be a big land mass, one that included Britain, and the beginning of delving into the core virtues. However, this new EP2 looks more like a "stepping stone" serpent isles. I do get it, there is a TON of wasted space in Novia. We really don't need a TON more of wasted space.

I just really think if they can push it by us, they will make EP1 completely optional to do since the questing system is really beyond help and it didn't seem like they were keen on updating it. I think they want to keep the sub-systems that worked in EP1, ditch anything that didn't and move forward in a new play-space they can build upon as new blocks. Starting over at level one would allow them to bring in new players right into EP2 in a fancy NUE that does not turn people off when they can't even complete the first quest.

Thats my outsiders view looking in - could be totally wrong but that is what it feels and looks like.

 

You don't maintain a customer base if your business model is to take away all the progress and gains made over years of playing, so you can put everyone back to start and say "Now, do it all over again".
That business model is based in failure. Most people want to achieve and grow. Not continually look forward to having everything earned taken away so you can earn it all over again. And saying "sure you get reset, but you'll gain XP twice as fast" sound great to some people...but me, I'd rather keep what I've already earned rather than have to re-grind it all back.

If there is a soft wipe, SOTA will absolutely lose a big percent of its player base and signal to all potential players that the game is not worth playing because of soft wipes/resets.

 

Then they better coat it with a lot of sugar. At least so much sugar that i get diabetes type 2 by just looking at it. I am corruptible. Most of us are. So bribe the **** out of us to make us overlook the loss of all our progress.