Darkstarr Mia ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Brass Knuckles, Feb 12, 2020.

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  1. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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  2. Sulaene Moon

    Sulaene Moon Avatar

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    I guess the people of Novia can relax now that DS is here. At least until another month or two goes by and we don't see him post anything then we'll be back to this same thread.

    The case of the MIA Starr is closed....for now
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2020
  3. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

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    For my part, I'll be honest, apart from the Monthly Release threads and a few announcement threads, I have no Idea what DS does (or did), so for my part, our friendly neighborhood creeper @Elgarion is doing a fine replacement job (actually very present, as he has always been for the game since he got into streaming it), so for this part, I wish DS enjoys his break from those responsibilities, and comes back with a bigger fire for the game.

    as for LB, isn't he on the edge of finishing "A Book" which could possibly be book 2, thus episode 2 content?
     
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  4. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    He cracked the whip to keep schedules on time as much as possible but there is a lot less devs for him to manage scheduling with. Sad but true. I also liked how he kept the livestreams focused on topics.

    This game has been quite a headache I'm sure. It's been all over the place with player demands and inconsistencies and lack of focus on one given thing to get it fleshed out.

    It's just some of us have backed off losing some hope watching mostly combat topics take over. Thanks Darkstarr for all you have done.
     
  5. Astirian

    Astirian Avatar

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    I always saw it like:

    Darkstarr: Head UO Guy
    Lord British: Head Ultima VII Guy
    Atos: Head Unity Maker Man (a.k.a El Balance Maestro)

    I always thought they could use a 4th musketeer:
    <Insert Name Here>: Head Polish Guy!

    That's polish, not Polish. But I'm sure they are also an equal opportunity employer.
     
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  6. Lars vonDrachental

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    As far as I know in the games of LB it is normal to have "inconsistencies in technology" (e.g. spaceships in ultima) and I guess that is to expect in a LB-game. Without outside interaction Novia would be most likely still a medieval world with magic but outsiders (avatars, titans,...) visited this world, implemented their technology/knowledge and changed this way the world. Some Novians hate the outlanders other love them for what they have done. This is generally still an interesting background for a game as the questions that are created by this "clash of cultures" we also had and have to solve in RL. Similar it is with virtues and other aspects of the game but of course this is not that present and hidden behind combat and decorations as SotA is in the first instance entertainment and not education. ;)
    Maybe a game created by Chris wouldn't have this parts and would be more "consistent" but even having a technically perfect product does not automatically mean to be successful as it might miss "the special something" that is making this game different and let people stay even if there are comparable games with bigger budgets and fancier graphic out there. I guess to find the right mixture of perfection and creativity is most difficult as they are often opposite forces.
     
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  7. Steevodeevo

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    The focus on tech, combat, Balance, stats, min-maxing etc is a bit of a turn off for me as a casul player and a fan of rich and immersive, escapist worlds. I'm happy to have some imbalance, some 'sub optimal' exp gain and rewards if I have a good story, lots of side activities, crafting, trade, gathers etc.

    I'm pretty turned off the game right now be honest with the constant monologue on optimal combat damage, attenuation (!?), the 'perfect build', tech... I had hoped for a LB founded game to be up to my pointy ears in high fantasy richness and diversity at this point.

    The game development severely lacks the magic dust of unique creativity and imagination. I'll hang in a bit longer for the new content and see what happens.
     
  8. evillego6

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    Raph Koster was lead designer on UO.
     
  9. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Funny side note: my employers IT department is located in Warsaw =D
    I lol'd ^^
     
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  10. marthos

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    I'm with you here in being turned off of the game right now. The game lacks an identity in my opinion. It tried to be too many things to too many people and ended up making hardly anyone happy. There were...60,000 folks who pre-ordered or backed this game (if my memory is right) and almost all of them are gone now. That's a lot of excited players who became disappointed in the product. Is this a single player game with a rich story? Is this a PvP focused MMORPG? Is this a PvE/crafting focused MMORPG? Is this a housing sim? It's all of that in theory, but doesn't do any of those things better than the competition that's out there.

    What's the theme of this game? Medieval magic with steampunk, robots, and energy weapons? You have players as knights, pilgrims, Jedi Knights, and Iron Man walking around a feudal Japan town littered with Blimps, European style castles, pirate ships, and tree-forts everywhere. What happened?

    I would love it if Chris could point the game back to the vision of the kickstarter and start taking us in that direction.
     
  11. Astirian

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    Yeah, I just finished reading his book on game design, it's a fun read.
     
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  12. Numa

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    Which book was this?
     
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  13. Astirian

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    A Theory of Fun. It's on my list of game design books to read. He's got a new one out called Postmortems I literally (haha) just found out about, might have to grab that one too, it's got a foreword by LB!
     
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  14. Aldornia

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    I really agree with this. I've played for over a year, spent money on the game, love so much of the game, but I'm losing interest and I've been looking at other games. I'm staying in for a while longer, but the "fun" is kind of gone. I don't have time or patience to sit through daily streams, read long weekly changes, etc. I just want to log in and play the game. Also, I'm not dumb, but I have no clue what attenuation is. Or LUA either.
     
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  15. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I suppose it's accurate enough but doesn't really begin to describe what he does. I believe his official title is Executive Producer.. and while the role can vary, my understanding of managing the schedule includes figuring out which tasks should take priority (with input from the team of course). That would involve keeping track of how much time everything is expected to take, building in buffers into the schedule, moving things around as needed. If you really think about it.. it's a lot of work. Then I'm sure there are other things we never really hear about.
     
  16. redfish

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    Agreed. I also don't care about party decorations & outfits or Twitch streams. That's all incredibly boring to me. I have friends in real life that I can meet up with. The stuff that was interesting and fun to me (and was presented at Kickstarter) is being neglected or yanked out. I would have left entirely, like a lot of other players I know, if I didn't still have some friends and plans I'd been working on.

    Even speaking of the combat stuff, the kind of things they're focusing are of boring. Combat could be a lot more interesting. Spell combos, stealth, traps, elemental magic interacting with the environment, all sort of tactical combat. But I don't care about balancing numbers on a spreadsheet.

    There's nothing wrong with balancing combat or dance parties, its just not anything that will pull me into a game, and I just think people are forgetting why they fell in love with Ultima or role-playing in general as a kid. The same thing that brought you into the game as a kid will bring kids in today. SotA is not going to be Fortnite and its a mistake to try to make it like that.
     
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  17. Alleine Dragonfyre

    Alleine Dragonfyre Avatar

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    He's building a new Mmo, btw. The company is called Playable Worlds and it will not be crowdsourced. Yay!

    But yeah all the game systems in UO and Star Wars Galaxies were built and designed by Raph.
     
  18. CarlNZ

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    Was his title at portalarium. Neither him nor LB have an official role in Catnip. They're still "involved", but not on the books as such.
     
  19. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I've yet to see an official definition of 'still involved' that redefines his role and no one has else has been mentioned as performing that role. So there is no reason for me to think his job has changed at all. 'On the books' or otherwise.
     
  20. Bowen Bloodgood

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    Do you have that in writing? Or did Chris or other team member specifically say that on a stream which I am unable to watch. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that we never know about. I find very little value in claiming one or another based purely on speculation which, and lets face it.. people are prone to do.
     
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