End of Year Recap

Having played the hell out of SOTA over the last few months, the only issue I see with the game is the lack of positive press. Any non-players who read up on the game first, are going to find maybe five articles. A couple back from when it first got funded and then maybe one from each the past few years talking about whether the game is dead or not. Most non-players are going to get the impression the game is all but abandoned. That is where they will decide to not give the game a chance. Who wants to play a dead or almost dead game?

I feel that more needs to be done to counter any negative or non-existent press. The monthly releases are an excellent opportunity to put out a press release highlighting the ongoing work and recent additions and changes. An end of the year recap would be a fantastic way to highlight all the achievements this year. People who haven't even thought of SOTA in a year are going to stop to read an article about all the achievements in 2022, just to see what it is all about. A long list of changes is going to entice a lot of people to try it out, perhaps even returning players. A dev stream would be a great way to show all the new addition and changes.

Word of mouth isn't going to get the game back in business. Not when for every word-of-mouth player you have 20 players who don't even give the game a chance because there isn't much news out there. When I go to research SOTA I should see at least one article a month about recent changes, new and exciting things on the horizon, or just players talking about their adventures. I have a bachelor's degree in business and am working on my master's. That is to say I know what I am talking about. It kills me that a top five MMORPG is neglecting the "perception" game.

 

I agree. However, in the game industry (and may others), only negative press is free.

I think we suffer from the most common indy game issue. If we could get more players, we'd have the money to get more players.

How do we solve that issue? Is there something more than word of mouth the community can do for marketing that doesn't take time/money/resources away from the dev team?

 

Streaming is what initially brought me here.

 

SOTA for most of its development had a powerful cache of positive word of mouth and hope. We had many player run events to get the word out and increase the player base. We brainstormed, funded, organized, planned, and worked through initiatives to grow the player base. We the players did not fail and we the players can't save SOTA. The gaming media was extremely positive and supportive towards SOTA for most of it's development.

The project leadership laid this goose egg its 100% on them to fix it and the current condition is 100% THEIR fault.

 

If it was me what I would do is focus on getting ep2 story and lands completed than work on a relaunch of the game with ep2. Id probably invest in a flashy opening video as the crowd puller as well offer a major xp boosting pot for returning players that have not played in 1+ years or something to that nature that would allow them for a week to get x times xp to help them catch up as well something unquie for returning. Many Sleeper hits of games in the past that had bad first rounds have down this with expands before which helped bring them back as that "sleeper hit" its possible to do, but would require some money and work.

I also think we should hold a contest for player voice overs. put up something in game of worth and have people submit voice clips to be voted on to quest npc's. this would allow for free development and pretty sure we have lots of great talent in the community that I think would make this worth the while. I would than focus these voice overs at least on the starting area and major quest line. I think that would help improve the starting experience a little more. could do contests over time to slowly add for everything even and save a buck and make the community better.

just my thoughts.

 

I just share SOTA pics on my FB, because it's what you can see in SOTA that leads the wonderer, to gain the skills, to get to all those amazing destinations.

~Time Lord~

 

SOTA isn't a bad game in fact many of the systems are very unique and deep. Housing, collectibles, and crafting in SOTA are incredible. Trying to shoehorn PVP, especially global PVP into a game that should be focused on PVE caused significant issues. The death of SOTA was when the rarity of items was removed. That killed the market and most funding.

If I was Lead Dev of SOTA, the following would be implemented immediately.

1) Cap XP at whomever is the highest. Give them a No Lifer title and balance PVE combat around that cap. Increase the cap with later episodes and lands.
2) Land and farms create passive resources wood, stone, gems, that are used directly in crafting. This happens while offline and the player has to log on to gather the resources. You can buy NPCs to work the land.
3) Cap XP in crafting, limit the impact randomness has on crafted items capabilities but allow for very rarest to rarely occur.
4) Remove all PVP except for duels and that arena no one ever used.
5) Must recreate the rare market, items go on sale one time and never again. No deviation. Give a monthly in game quest with a rare that is never repeated and can't be obtained any other way except through trade.

Of course NONE of this will be implemented, wasted effort of my part.

Happy 2023.

 

I like some of the above ideas for bringing back rares etc..

but... I am not in favor of the caps and here is why... right now my progression in skills is what keeps me going. if I had a cap that would mean I hit a dead end on progression. only thing I could do than for progression is selling which would become stale as the cap would ensure that people would all be same level at the ends based on current rates. you would than also see market prices soar because all top crafters now will see that their wares will become less and less faster.

PVP is something they are working on brining into the game more not less. You dont have to flag now so why do they have to remove it? or is this because pvp creates more balance issues? they are currently working on pvp level limiters for pvp zones as well fixing the arena nobody uses because its broken unless you talking about the trials? the reason nobody pvp's is there is no reason currently to do so. The plan is to expand it as well from what I see possible reward systems. with the incoming faction stuff they will have the ability to do a realm v realm or RVRV???? so down the road I think things will expand a lot more than we think from faction vendors and the likes.

I do think though that we need for sure to bring back rare items and the likes to make items of value but they can't be store items or there is that p2w, and they cant be sub items as thats p2w. like your idea of monthly quest etc.

end of the day if there is not content to level and nothing for me to keep progressing than its a dead end.

 

I can agree with you. I think being able to level my skills up is what keeps me around. Skill leveling is the main game hook for me. The moment I hit a cap, the fun is over for me. My dream game would have a dynamic system that would allow there to be no caps on anything. All levels should go into infinite. I would like to see the same apply to crafting and loot as well. A near infinite combination of buffs, enchantments, and stats. Of course you run into massive balancing issues. The game would have to adjust around the player so that they are never too powerful with gear and mobs leveling up the players level. Which would cause huge issues with parties. The mob's damage would probably need to be based on the players level.

You would have to pace it so that game doesn't fly by. I like SOTA's pace so far. What I hate is that the closer you get to 200, the slower you level. It is an artificial slow-down. I would like to keep the same leveling pace all the way to level 9999999999999.

 

back when ep2 was talked about it was a vote on if we should have each episode as a new start or if we should keep leveling. we all pretty much voted for moving forward. people love their characters and want to see them always grow. its their other 2nd life in a fantasy. They dont want it too end but to be endless as you say

Skills I do agree at some point would be neat to see more options. power creep is always a thing but long as the game keeps going up people will keep hunting forward if it means they can gain faster. may need more gold syncs though for higher level players to keep the wealth in line as it gets easier to get. new tiers of resources and vendors that only deal with X level or X faction would solve some things too perhaps.

 

Since there's no regular injection of story, that's pretty much all there is.

The good news is that you won't be hitting the ultimate cap (200) any time soon.

Your not going to max out your character within your lifetime. If you're able to max a single skill, that would be an amazing achievement.

Balance comes in the form of that you only have 10 slots on your combat bar and, having played offline with max skills, there aren't any crafting balance issues there either. The third enchant or masterwork maxes out at 50%.

 

There has been some elements of story added slowly over time with Episode 2…

 

Not anywhere near enough to keep players engaged.

 

I've enjoyed it so far, and the questions it is raising....

 

They had the money and they had the players. What they failed to deliver on was a reasonably complete and fun game. The game has changed for the better in a lot ways since then, but too little , too late. Had the game been good when it counted, this discussion would not be taking place.

 

It's a good thing I live in the present rather than the past, giving me more happiness than bitterness.

 

Hello there Grumpy. Up to your old mischief I see j/k. Nice to see you.

@Grumpy Krabnevir

 

Hi Majoria No matter what, you always make me smile. You are much much better than this world deserves.

 

Ahh Barugon, methinks perhaps you stray to your own to quickly. I'm not bitter, never been bitter, disappointed? sure, but what I always am, is a believer in the truth. Which is why my posting style is to bluntly state facts. Lets not act like they built a game and now they need to market it to find fans and customers to get revenue to recoup their investment, it belittles the magnitude of their failure.

 

It is true that there were misted targets and mistakes that were made but that was then and this is now. What we have now is a pretty fun game and I'm just here to enjoy it while I can. It's always appreciated when they improve things and I understand that they have a very limited dev capacity now, so I try not to beat them with the dead horses.