Soft Wipe for Episode #2 ? ?

It's odd but indicative of the development of the game that there doesn't seem to have been a plan on how to handle future content. It was mentioned a few times in the past that having no skill cap will make it increasingly difficult to produce content for the game going forward but typically it was deemed not an issue by the vocal minority.

When Kunark came out for EQ it was essentially a new game, giving you the ability to level from 1-60 (the level cap) on the new continent while also adding new content for players who were already level 50. Of course they never had an ongoing story to contend with and had a plan in the form of a level cap. Oh and a team to actually produce the content.

Would it be a good idea to aim future story content at certain level ranges? When Ep.2 comes out maybe rescale Ep.1 to be aimed at AL70, then Ep.2 at AL 80, then 85, 90, 95 etc? At least it gives you control over the level of the content. For people like me who have leveled past 95 already then, well, tough. Or maybe have the future story content scale to your level?

 

I’m not opposed to story content being capped, however leave the sandbox stuff unrestricted. Also as far as scaling imop esp 2 could be 1 tier higher than esp 1 and be just fine. No need for a large tier gap between the two episodes uo was pretty tight between the releases and it worked out well enough.

 

I may be misunderstanding this, but if it is the way I understand and my progress will be wiped, no matter I get bonus exp or not, then I don't like it at all. I haven't seen in any MMO game before, with the release of a DLC or expansion, and that is what Episode 2 is no matter how you spin it or what name you give it, that all the people's progress would get wiped. The Bonus of getting it bac doesn't justfy he loss of the time I've already spent to level up my char.

The only people who really would welcome it, would be PvPers, who feel that they are entitled to something, or maybe some other players, who are bothered too much by the fact that some players got hundreds of GM skills and they only have a few ( I don't have any GM skills ). Why would my progress get wiped, after spending all this time in the game and trying to make something out of my char?

This would especially affect people in a negative way, who try to play SOTA casually. Honestly, since I do PvE only, the fact that someone has more GMs than me, or who's Adventurer level is higher than mine - doesn't bother me AT ALL. They play at their pace, I play at mine. This "Soft" wipe sounds pretty harsh to me, and will only contribute to players leaving, not joining. I thought it was obvious that SOTA is a niche game and we shouldn't expect some major influx no matter what you try. If people like the content, they will play the game. Knowing that the whole player-base got their skills wiped, won't help to attract many new players and that could be the only reason to do this AT ALL.

IMHO, Episode 1 has enough content for T1-T6+. The Episode 2, considering uniqueness of SOTA, IMHO, supposed to be focused on T6-T10 (or T10+, if any future episodes are not planned any time in the future).

I hope this whole idea, will remain just that - an idea to create some new system for Episode 2. But wiping all our progress is like a slap on the face. You can't simply do things because you have a pitch of the way things worked in UO. There should be polls, multiple discussions and podcusts to get the opinion of majority of the playerbase, not only the people with deep pockets and certain narrow interests for the game and their personal progress.

 

Mugly, have you played any other MMO game in your life before? Your logic has no sense. Expansions and DLCs in majority of games released with that specific purpose - so that people who reached the level cap, would have something else to do and more challenge to go against, or try the new content with a new character, if they wanted to. It makes all sense in the world for new players to start with Episode 1 and then when they reach level 'cap' for episode 1, move on to more challenging content, while episode 1 becomes trivial. Episode 2 is not SoTA 2.

You only make people start from scratch when you release new version of the game (a different game) and the changes in the new version never affect the gameplay in previous version. If they consider Episode 2 to be a new version of the game, it shouldn't be connected to Episode 1 at all. If they plan to put it all together, then Episode 2 is NOT a new version of the game but is simply an expansion to the game in it's literal meaning. You don't wipe people progress so that they would play expansion content from scratch. Expansions supposed to bring new challenge and new content not the same low level content. You don't force players to start from scratch, you give them alternative to start a new character, in addition to the one they already have, if they want to.

It's completely different though, if the Episode 2 will have EVERYTHING new and different, which I highly doubt, considering the development time and pace of Port, then again, like I mentioned above, it would be then considered a new game basically SoTA 2 and it shouldn't be connected to the EP1 content, because of difference in equipment, skills, progression routes, etc.

 

Its Easy for me,if make wipe,i stop play and supporting this game,i spent many time here,and spent USD,and now they wipe it?

 

You're not exactly keeping up on current events, are you friend?

Perhaps a developer could Reply and Lock this thread to prevent other people from necromancering it and soiling their britches in anxiety?

 

So is there an official declared policy decision about this from Port or just some discord/twitch chatter that only helps to muddy the situation as usual ?

 

The latter. The most successful digital media companies use the "Grape Vine" approach to community management. That's why the playerbase here successfully avoids 25 page threads that drain enthusiasm like the gaping mawl of the abyss.

Yup.

Please, developers @Chris @DarkStarr @Lord British put a fork in this one. Toxic misinformation is bad.

Edited to add: Please pardon the sarcasm.