The game feels incomplete.

*Kaboom!*

Man! That sentence just exploded this old man's head, hehe.

 

I don't think being negative is incompatible with being productive. If everyone was overly positive and optimistic then things that need fixing would go unfixed.

I agree that does get frustrating when you wander without direction, and I say this as someone who enjoys antique shopping (wandering around abandoned vendors looking for rare deals). I would personally not like a global market place, but I think a more centralized advertising space would help. Too that end we already have the means to provide such a system through things like bulletin boards. I think the limiting factor there has been getting the cats the players to self regulate and have such a listing. While you would still need to travel to the location and purchase the items it would at least make the trip purposeful.

I also have to acknowledge that a large part of this game (60% ?) revolves around owning and decorating one or multiple lots. This type of game play seems completely isolated from the rest of the game, except through crafting materials and occasionally rare recipes.

Maybe an easy solution (I say having no clue what easy is when it comes to programing this game) is creating an NPC demand for these items. Even if it didn't directly add more gold to the player's pocket the extra demand for the items would. It also gives people an incentive to craft other than outfitting themselves or flooding a vendor with items that will go unsold for years. I still think bringing back the permanent item damage would be best for the health of the economy, but people might be more accepting of this alternative.

 

More pvp does mean more econ. That is indeed the truth.

In a perfect world, crafted goods would not last an eternity.
PvE gear depletes at a lower rate, PvP gear gets shredded.
More PvE only players become dedicated crafters than PvP players.
PvP players stimulate the crafting economy.
They get favorite crafters. Favorite venders.
They place special orders.
They form a friendship.
The PvE only crafter's business gets stimulated by word of mouth from his PvP friend.
His business expands. He finds other players to cooperate.
He now employs gatherers to fuel his thriving business.
He's opening a franchise with other crafters who then hire their own gatherers.

In short... crafted goods that last an eternity, too many regs in the economy, not enough pvp.

1. Stimulate pvp.
2. Half the reg output for agriculture.
3. Do something about crafted goods lasting an eternity.
4. ????????????
5. Profit.

 

Have we not had this discussion endless times? Open PVP invites griefing, griefing nukes your player base, nuked player bases leave you without a game. The moment you have players as the apex predators of other players, you drive away 90% of your potential player base because MMORPGs are a crappy way to have player vs player experiences in 2022. This problem has been hashed over for most of a decade now as PVP proponents have been begging to management to force players into PVP so they'd have more sheep to fleece since the Kickstarter.

 

So, I will add my thoughts to this thread which has traversed sausages, lot decoration and incomplete zones, to name but a couple of sidetracks!

From my perspective this game has a very supportive and invested development team. I know they are not a large company but can personally say that they do care.

With respect to open PVP - if that were to be implemented here I would leave this game. I do not have the dexterity to cope with the frenetic nature of PVP so avoid it generally.
(This is not Fortnite.)

There are a number of types of zones, so clarity is needed to understand "incompleteness".

Player owned zones (POTs) are under the control of players and developers have little say in what goes where.
Other players can also set up shop and homes here.

The adventure zones do have logical paths through various threads. Following them through will deliver a complete story as intended by developers.
(OK, I know that bugs have been found and squashed and some may still be lurking about.)
Additionally, different adventure zones increase in difficulty and therefore allow a progression from the very beginner avatar through to the advanced avatar.

Main town zones exist to support some quests and allow players to place their lots and build up homes.
There are also many sub-zones included in these town zones that offer side-adventures.

The encounter zones deliver a pretty standard set of mobs with different and sometimes rare loot.

If a player regards this game as incomplete I believe that it is because not enough time has been invested to discover just how complex it reallly is.
(eg. Crafting, Taming, Decorating, Manufacturing, Farming, Dungeon Building and so on.)

(I probably missed something and apologize in advance.)

 

Having finished the main story and having done every quest once, I would say I am just waiting on Ep2 story to come out. Seems like we have everything almost in game for it except any new lands that are going to be used for the story content. The only portion I feel is currently incomplete it only Ep2.

 

Oh neat, it's about time this descended into a PVP vs PVE debate.

When I say I don't like PVP, it's a non-nuanced way of saying "What PVP most often devolves into". I like PVP if it's fair, level playing field, and well regulated and a focus on facilitating good sportsmanship. As in, not what people asking for full loot open-world PVP want.

That's fine. It may boost the numbers. So may turning the game into a anime waifu simulator. That doesn't mean we need to go from game to game, like locusts, making all games anime waifu simulators. It is possible to improve the game activity without it.

It becomes irksome to have someone explaining to me that I'm wrong - It does make the game more fun. You know what? Also, hunger and thirst mechanics make games more fun. You're factually incorrect by thinking you won't have fun with that. You see, it makes the game more fun because you keep having to find food otherwise you starve to death.

 

Beautiful thing to be able to choose whether or not to put on that flag though.

 

I just know personally, I completely avoid any game with forced pvp. And that is one of several reasons I’m here.

 

He didn't say forced PvP

 

I think the point on PvP has been sidetracked into a forced vs consent discussion. As it is the game has the scaffolding for a very health consensual PvP experience. What is is missing (How it is incomplete, one might say) is any compelling reason to participate.

There are some good arguments for a more robust PvP element that has high risks and rewards, and there are examples from other MMOs that have successfully implemented such systems. This would reasonably improve the game immediately for PvP players, but can (and should) also improve the game for PvE players.

I guess I don't understand why people think PvP is a failed part of MMOs in 2022 when the current largest MMOs all have PvP. It's all about offering a player experience for a more diverse player base than who is currently here, while not taking away from the experience of the current player base.

I completely agree and have found your comments related to the zones issue to be exactly that. I would even say waiting until EP 5 is release to see what the "completed" game looks like then, is also a solution.

 

My vision isn't what it was, but the term "Open PVP" was getting tossed about, which was why I made my post. Open PVP, by definition, means no, you don't get to choose.

 

All MMOs have PVP, none of the major MMORPGs have OpenPVP, and the major MMORPGs have a fraction of the PVP players that they did before the explosion of other options to have PVP experiences.

 

Ah, I see. Here's what I mean: When you're playing Shroud of the Avatar, you go to the menu, choose multiplayer, and pick from "Private," "Party," or, and this is the important one, "Open."

So when I say "Flagged for PvP in Open", I mean "Flagged for PvP while in Open Mode in Shroud of the Avatar".

 

Ah, well, that's what we have now and it is working about as well as can be expected given the total population.

 

Well... it's kinda *not* what we have now, and that's what I was discussing previously in this thread. But now that you're caught up, you can see what was meant, because it is indeed *not* working well and is indeed *bugged* and it has indeed been known by the devs for awhile.

 

You can flag PvP and you can set to open mode, good enough. I mean, you invest more time into PvP, but it's rare enough that both folks looking for it are online at the same time.

 

That brings us back to the original point about crafted goods lasting forever, and if that gets fixed, and combat gets balanced, the pvp players would stimulate the pve economy. But I digress, I'm literally just restating the point I've already made. Glad it's all clearer now though. Cheers.

 

There are pretty much infinite possibilities in the game, no way this can lead to a balanced environment where no build is objectively, on average, superior to others.

 

I love everything about what you just said. Especially the part about no build being superior. I like rock, paper, scissors. We currently have rock, paper, scissors, dynamite, grenade, thermonuclear warfare. And lots of people are playing thermonuclear warfare builds. If we make it more rock, paper, scissors... it'd be p good.