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Shroud 2020 Vision

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Chris, Jan 6, 2020.

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  1. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    • Item history and advancement: While this system is still in design, there are a number of ideas we like all centered around improving items or opening up additional enchantments for them, based on what they have been used for.
     
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  2. Feeyo

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    Vendors are server side right? What about expose vendors with an API and let us communicate with the vendors. Giving the players the option to show/see/edit (prices) our vendors from outside of the game.
    Also another nice addition would be to have the option to login a guild bot into the game.
     
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  3. Barugon

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    Same.
     
  4. Vladamir Begemot

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    I know this is extreme, but what about making the Vendor UI good enough that it isn't soul crushingly annoying to stock more than one or two vendors?

    There was a time when people LIKED stocking their vendors and LIKED shopping. But after years of crappy UI fatigue it has dwindled, people shut stores or completely sell out and leave because they don't need carpel tunnel syndrome. Literally, no joke, it's that bad.

    I'm barely hanging on, mostly doing events with friends and guild hunts at this point, instead playing games with good UI's and more interactivity in what would be the housing section of this game. If the devs decide that a global search and or auction house is better than just fixing the system they promised to fix 3 years ago, whatever, I don't even care.

    If it's an auction house, the War on Trade can be complete and I can go my way.

    If it's a search, well I am still going to be thinking of 100 things I'd rather be doing than restocking a vendor through that old UI, but at least as the vendors continue to dry up people will be able to find stuff.

    And if it's another half baked "we don't play it so we're just shooting from the hip" thing, when you've got a design from someone (link above) that's put thousands of hours into it and has been endorsed by two dozen top sellers, well then again, good luck slowly drilling holes in the ship.
     
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  5. Vladamir Begemot

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    How would that work for the one thing you have problems with, the mail system?

    I suggest you go run a vendor for a few months, then maybe you'd have some idea what we have been saying for three years now. Then you could try to convince your programmers it's a player problem, not just a Chris problem. Then a year later it can go on a plan.
     
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  6. HannahAlpenglow

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    Yup. You know that old chestnut that most players of an online game never visit, let along participate in, forums? The same applies to unofficial add ons like what is being talked about here. Most players, especially new ones, will not know to seek out, or more likely, will not want to seek out, a third party lua add on, or find the website it is supported by, in order to make vendor shopping bearable.

    So opening up vendor data so a few select players can extract it and use it does not make shopping easier for most of your player base - it will allow a select few to much more easily arbitrage the economy, at the expense of your everyday players - because this solution is not baked into the game and thus lost for most players. I guess the intent is to keep the status quo and help existing players even more. Totally fine, of course, but not a line of thinking that is out to make this topic less painful for a large portion of your player base. Unless the plan is to so severely limit the exposed data to not include critical information to allow arbitrage (like location, price, quantity).
     
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  7. Vladamir Begemot

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    The reason shopping sucks is vendors are tired of the UI, here's some cherry picked quotes from top merchants after I showed them the UI, names removed and just highlights so it doesn't take the whole page:

    The devs have seen all of these, this is no secret to them.

    That person is no longer an in quotes retiree, they've fully retired. Let that sink in, top vendors are quitting vending because it's a giant PITA! How much good is a global search going to do when we currently DON'T WANT TO HAVE SALES because it sucks to restock?

    In reply to me saying "You can imagine that it is a bad thing when we log in and are unhappy to see a lot of sales in our mail."
    + more just general "Yeah do this Devs!" comments in the thread.

    That was months ago, how many have continued to stop completely, bank vendors, or just let their vendors go fallow?

    And then the plan:

    Whoopdie doo. More steps. Your shopping experience sucks because we hate listing on your UI. Make this the first UI you finally finish and do it right this time. You've already got a design.
     
  8. Boris Mondragon

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    Wow, this vendor issue became a **** storm. I don't know about you guys but I list the stuff on my vendor on discord SOTA trade channel and if I need something in particular I ask who has it there and where they are located. Not too complicated and saves time. This might allow @Chris a bit more time to put items/features in game that may attract and keep more new players who in turn may just buy your goods instead of having them sit on your vendor. My two cents on this rather lengthy matter.
    R/Boris
     
  9. Mal Hari

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    Well that's a list.

    As many others have also said and let me add. I hope we can not only get through most of it. But i hope each item on the list if done, is done all the way.

    Not partly built, Then on to something else, Then few years before going back to bring it close to finished.


    You mention towns: Any chance we can finally get the town owners the ability to lock there stuff down. So sad to stiiiiiillllllllllll say town owner and stewards are the same level for locking items down on POT. There needs to be a owner level above steward to lock items to the owner only on POT. And even more-so, There should simply be a set private option for owners and stewards so they can each lock there items down.

    Love the List. Please commit fully to each item as you do them.

    Long Live the Shroud \0/


    and this search thing is a economy and town breaker. How many towns are set as rows of row houses. So many people will stop trying to sell thing and closing shop,these towns will start being dead too.
     
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  10. Vladamir Begemot

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    With all due respect Boris, moving your trade to Discord is exactly the same problem. In game dries vendors have dried up except for the last hard core holdouts, or the single vendor people. As mega sellers give up and quit entirely or just bank their vendors and move to Discord, it just gets worse.

    I am playing Transport Fever 2 now, and the biggest lesson I've learned is that one slowdown in the supply chain can bankrupt the whole system.

    You moving to Discord increases that problem in the supply chain. Merchants neglecting vendors because it just sucks to restock anything more than a single or two vendors brings the whole thing to a halt, and if it were a company (perhaps it is, if Catnips profits rely on a good in game economy) then it goes bankrupt.

    Then the buyers can't find anything, and they complain and want a global search. But a global search doesn't fix the pain point, you can search dead vendors all year long and find nothing.

    Again, you can have a 10 stage long supply chain working great, and if it slows down at one point in the middle, the whole thing crashes.

    Well, it's slowed on the restocking, and that includes people just moving to Discord. If it isn't addressed then the whole supply chain grinds to a halt, as has already happened it seems.

    Edit: In case ANYONE missed it, here's a vendor UI mockup I made. I'd even be happy to build it if I get the IN GAME hooks, not Lua. I've got Unity and the GUI system the Devs use.
     
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  11. Ancev

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    It would be cool if we could have guild discounts too. A section where I can give a discount to another guild, as well as my own.
     
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  12. Brass Knuckles

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    it’s cool enough but does not at all help the newer / casual players dilemma. I’ve givin this some thought and I’ve no good solution, to the power advantage of location location location. Good luck but I don’t think lua in this case will move the bar much for anything but the harder core traders finding the best deals and reselling on thier vendors.
     
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  13. Boris Mondragon

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    Brother; I wish I had a magic wand to fix it. Look at my scenario in particular. One Vendor in Britt Mart, I can announce daily updated vendor item stock and everyone knows where I am and what I have as of "X" day. I try to list my stuff on SOTA trade forum and limited to once a week. I need something in particular, lets say a piece of armor or a weapon and I just ask it in the discord channel with a pm request for whomever has it. I do this out of simplicity and it works as selling what I farm without buying to resell I make a modest average of 700k a week and sell stuff daily. Wish I had better answers for the entire readership here but can only tell you what works for me. R/Boris
     
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  14. Elrond

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    [​IMG]

    Disclaimer - The image above holds no connection/relation with Cici .
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2020
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  15. majoria70

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    I don't think price should be mentioned in the search and yes perhaps more vendor locations won't be as important if a search for item is available but that is sometimes the downsize of progress. This game has always had to evolve with changes, well we have had to evolve that is. What good is it to have multiple vendors anyway if no one searches for your products. I agree with the thought that item name, location, and quantity should be on the search criteria but not price. We will have to check that part out by visiting the vendor imo.
     
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  16. Elrond

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    And once people visit your vendor once or twice and see same price ( higher then others) they prolly wont visit again even though you dropped price and youre maybe cheapest on market .... people have a tendency to fall into patterns.
     
  17. majoria70

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    Well what if new players got to see the game in the journal right off. With the housing, crafting, music of shroud,main quests, daily quests tab, achievements/task tabs, pvp and quest tabs they would be able to form a plan instead of being thrown into a black hole. Some don't mind that but others definitely do. Here again are some examples and remember they are only examples of what a player could be seeing that could be interesting and exciting when they first join the game. This is just basics really and we do not have them and oh what a wonderful thing if we did have them.

    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
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  18. majoria70

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    Maybe they do but of course if they want their item they may not remember where they got it last time. I am not trying to be right but just voicing opinions as someone who co -manages a pot and runs around looking at items on our vendors to throw an ad on the trade channel once in a while. Most players who are not serious in the buying and selling aspect do not do this for themselves but still they are out there with wares to sell but they are still important since it is a feature of the game. Just getting where you can buy items is a big deal and yes it will be a change from some who control the market a bit more at this point. It would include everyone not just the more confident, more aggressive sellers. Oh well I have said my ideas which is important to me to speak it.
     
  19. Cirsee

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    This, yes a millions times, needs help. While a brand new player won't see this right away.. about 2 hours or so in they will start to see it. Please fix loot and not just by making selling back crafted items more lucrative. Crafted gear in drops has yet to be exciting other than wow I got a player crafted item. Then the invariably oh 20 durability hits you in the face on top of the enchants or MW that were done not helping you. The random chance you will actually get useable gear from this feature is very very low; add smaller population and this feature doesn't help the average player in any way. I have to admit that I really disagree with the artifact armor as well. I like the original premise of crafting being best. You can still have artifacts, but make these artifact slot only items.. you can work toward special weapon if you want as well. I like the artifact upgrade system, but realize casual players (and most new players) won't see these things drop for a while; so they won't see that as interesting loot in their first 60 adv levels. SWG was quite successful with good player crafted gear; there is no reason to think SoTA can't do this as well. Make loot drops things that can alter player crafted existing gear to make it more specialized or increase other stats (crafter made socketed gear with upgradable sockets). You can even used these upgrade items like you do with artifacts to make the upgrade stronger; they can be an uncommon drop, but not hugely rare. Using them would even degrade gear faster. If you have to have the junk deco or other type of loot, please make that stuff salvageable to a good useable crafting resource; maybe a small chance to get a rare crafting component. You can have drops for dungeons to build pieces to add the functionality of them (like traps and other interactive effect items). Coin and general casting/crafting reagents are nice low level items. You can have repair kits and pots, but make crafted ones do a significantly better job. The loot bags are utter garbage, please get rid of them. RNG has never been a popular thing.

    Now, after that long list, lets move to what those new players do see right away.. the journal and quest system. Why you keep pushing back this feature just boggles my mind. This is a CORE feature of any game and needs to be made a priority. The journal should be a guide to the content of the game as well as a good tool to track your goals. Your desire to not fix this for Episode 1 is wrong; players will come in and see episode 1 before 2. They are not going to see that you fixed this system and leave. If they do stay long enough to see the fix; they will be flabbergasted why you didn't do it sooner. Players should need to make player guides to address the poor quest system so you can figure out how to get through the main story quest. Guides should be more about a special fight technique or something new to discover; not basic directions that are disjointed. You have side quests in Soltown that used to happen in the original scene, but it isn't clear if they are still there or not when you talk to NPCs. Raymond's hammer comes to mind. Seasonal quests, once you have done them they are done.. there should be a way to do them once each year with some change to them or at least the reward outside of just killing X seasonal mob add nauseum. That and I don't think there is a single seasonal creature a new player could actually kill on their own; it kind of deflates the excitement of seeing the creatures. Perhaps an"investigation" quest for lower level or to repeat each year. Most games do not put seasonal content at a high adventure level or at least offer a low and high level option.

    It would also be nice to see the crafting system get those mini games that were mentioned back in that post episode 1 plan from 2017. I loved EQ2 crafting and reacting to random crafting effects; they have something similar in FF 14 as well. Please try and take the grindy feel of it out of there. I further agree with others on the need for food and brewing to get some serious love.

    I figure if you can keep a players attention for a week on what you have to offer, you can retain them. It isn't all in the very starter scenes.
     
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  20. Gageman

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    PLEASE... MORE RUSTY CRAP!!!!
     
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