Reconsideration

I really don't want this to turn into a hate session and I wish there was a way to limit responses. I am an original backer but never really got into SOTA until the last few months. My theory was the game would just keep getting better and growing and that at some point when it was really good, I would jump in.

I love the game as it is now, but I am trying to piece together why it isn't a huge hit. I have just been listening to a lot of people. I certainly know how difficult people can be when they don't get their way. They can get very nasty which automatically puts us all the defensive. It is so hard to have open, honest, productive conversations when someone is attacking. I don't want that to be this.

What I get from pretty much everyone is that there wasn't one single event. It seems to be a pattern of small things either being ignored, not fixed, or not implemented. There seems to be a widespread perception that only the largest backers were listened to and that the masses were never heard. I know things are never quite that simple. I know that often there are very valid reasons for things.

I couldn't imagine anyone with Portalarium or Catnip setout to make a less than stellar game. There is no doubt in my mind that Catnip would love to have the player base that SOTA once had. I would love to know from Catnip's perspective why they don't try to reverse some of the player loses by going back and correcting things the old player base had asked for. Why not try to win that player base back? You won't get all of them, but some would return. You would also negate it as a reason for losing future customers. I know it is a lot of little things, with some medium and large things. I am not advocating any particular suggestion or fix. I am sure there might be some I don't necessarily agree with. But if that is what players want and that is what it will take to get them back, then why not?

I know this thread will get flooded with the haters, which ensures Catnip locks it down and never responds. I am genuinely trying to understand. I do believe there are solid, reasonable answers. I am not sure if the public will ever be reasonable and calm enough to hear them.

 

Well I can appreciate your passion to understand. I don't see why that would cause haters. Many who were not around and do not know the history and backer player desires for this game will likely have a different perspective and outlook on the whole thing. Many Promises that were made and were not kept did have attempts to make alternate rewards for those. For myself I let a lot of things go to move forward. The money I spent is gone and the exact game I thought I was backing is not the game that evolved. So to look at it in a different light for myself I have had to look at what to do with what we've got and what can actually be done with it given the way it was built. So to get to the meat of things we would have to know exactly what is missing the presence of which would make the difference and what can possibly be done given the system, finances, and desires we find from players in this actual game we have today. Sorry if that is confusing but that is what came to mind. I still have many desires for the game also but for some I don't know what is possible under the circumstances we have. Also My point being what are you actually trying to accomplish by fixing the past and what is it that you are trying to do that is possible in this game? Ok not trying to go off topic but this is where my mind went. Welcome to the game

 

Most of the problems have already been addressed. What I can pretty much guarantee they won't do is rewrite the game (or significantly re-engineer it) in order to make it into what some people want. At this point, it is what it is. What we will get in the future are small additions, bug fixes and, hopefully, episode 2.

 

Everyone that left, left for different reasons. You have to talk to each person individually to get their story. That won't help the game though, and I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is.

If you want to help the game, do something productive instead of trying to stir up old issues from the past and bring out the haters.

Develop a contest, event, quest etc. Sota is an incredible sandbox and we have some pretty neat tools. Imagination and creation are the keys to bringing in both new and old players. My advice is, try not to spend too much time trying to think of what needs to change or be added to the game... instead try and think of what you could do today with the game we have.

 

The game is what it is (like it or not). Nothing is going to change that. Nothing. We can however move forward and continue to watch it grow more over time.

 

Greetings all
I can sum it up in1 sentence.

Those that don't think the game is as good as it should be or claim that the DEVs don't listen is because they think this is a AAA game in a AAA studio with 100s of DEVs.

Our total number of DEVs has fluctuated over the years but I don't think we have ever had 100 employed (DEVs, Support, Management) at any one time. Much less the income of a AAA game studio. I enjoy the game for what it is and what it becomes. There is so much to do in SotA that I can always find something fun to do or try. Think about all the games we have all played over the year. Were they identical? Did they have the same mechanics? Was crafting and combat the same? It would be so boring if each game we played was just like all the others.

I personally create new characters when the combat system is "tweaked" and when I want to try a new play style. And the crafting is always evolving, especially with the new Imbued items. And always remember you are here to play the game not design it. Our suggestions are only that. The owners decide the path it takes.

 

There are a lot of small things such as exclusive, one-time only items in the crown shop, or tweaking skills/adding new skills. I heard some stories about casting time for bards being too long. It is lots of little things, but getting PvP working in an enjoyable manner wouldn't hurt. Instead of working on Episode 2, why not work on some of the things the community brought up in the past.

In the heat of the moment, when people are being too vitriolic in their dissent, it is easy to let pride take over and become defensive. I understand completely and that fault would lay with those who are too confrontational and aggressive in their complaints. Time has passed. I am certain there were some reasonable ideas put forward and clearly people felt strongly enough about them. I am just wondering if Catnip has considered implementing some of them. The dust has settled, people have moved on. This won't be admitting defeat.

 

end of the day Im just happy to have something close to what uo2 was to be. things can always get better overtime, but many dont have the patience to wait that long to get there. that is understandable though. haha like waiting for StarCitizen ... will I be dead when it releases?

 

A lot of people held back and stayed away to wait for others to show up first. Funny how that worked out.

It is also not a AAA game with 10+ years of continuous expansion content releases, yet that's the standard that seems to be expected from an indie game.

 

I wish I could change the title of the post to "Reconsideration?" because that more closely fits. Don't get me wrong, I love the game as much as anyone. I am just wondering if it is worth reconsidering some design choices, in order to address some players who decided to leave. From a strictly business standpoint, I am sure Catnip would love to have the 2016-2018 player base. I would love the game to have that player base once again. And while I am sure there are some absolutely ridiculous reasons and expectations that players left over, I am confident there are also some minor changes that could be quickly addressed and would go a long way toward reversing the trend. Especially if they were really good suggestions that were presented in a poor way.

 

It is widely known that the first step to solve a problem is acknoledging its existance.
I think we're still stuck in this step.

 

You can change the title. See the dropdown labeled Thread Tools on the upper right.

 

SoTA is the only MMO that I have been playing for years. Other games only lasted weeks or a few months. From my perspective, SoTA is a big winner to keep me in game. I don’t use player count to influence my interest in this type of game. The instancing design reduces age-old lag problems we all hated, but the byproduct of having better performance is we perceive an empty world. If you want to connect with humans, there are more than enough to party with.

 

"Do It All Over Again?"

Yes, I would!

Lord British has been a hero of mine for a long time. Been playing his games since the late 1970's. I met and talked with him multiple times over the years. Been knighted by him during HOBLOTH II. Adventured with him in SOTA. I like his games and stories. Lots of enjoyment through lots of games of his.

 

SOTA has great strengths: World, lore, story, skills-based system, progression, itemization, player-owned towns, player-owned lots, etc.

Its two weaknesses in my mind have been it being an older-school scene-based (vs. seemless) world (which I've grown more used to again with time), and having an older-school overland map and overland NPC engagement style (which portrays it as an older single-player game).

Further, and this is hard to describe, but other than 'Ultima loyalty' I'd say that the multi-player social fabric here is weaker than in some other MMOs. Perhaps this is due to SOTA being advertised as a mix between an MMO and single player adventure early on. Perhaps it is due to not having a factional system where players can confront one another on 'sides'. All I know is that given the game's positioning between MMO and single player story, I initially did not go out of my way to join a guild or town like as other MMOs. The result was interesting: By being passive although still clearly 'present' here in the community, I saw that nobody ever invited me (outside of a forum advertisement) to join their town, to join their guild, or even to join their adventure party. Ironically this game has stronger-than-most systems for socialization (e.g., POTs and crafting), yet somehow it lacks the driver requiring *player -direct* socialization compared to some other games. Its been really surprising to see. I've had solo fun regardless.

But to the question, would I do it again?: Absolutely! I've had a ton of fun running through the Episode 1 story and building a detailed, great-looking player-owned town, Caladruin.

 

Expanding on @Beaumaris 's post, I've heard from a friend one of the reasons he almost quit playing SotA early on: the emptiness and loneliness of what looks like an abandoned world.
The "single player" experience on an MMO setting just doesn't work as intended.
The world is not busy enough to feel alive on its own for a single player experience and not populated enough to feel like a proper MMO environment.
By the way, the world was probably designed for like 50k players, so it's going to be empty 99% of the time.

Maybe one day they'll recognize this as a pressing issue and do something about it.

 

They already did something about it. They made the overworld, towns and outskirt areas multiplayer only.

 

The devs set the bar early in the process, the initial version of the game didn't have the current grind-based skill gain, instead it had nebulous levels where you gained points you could use to boost your skills. The system was switched to the current system after the devs had a conversation with the higher-level backers with the results presented to the rest of the community as a fait accompli. I've never spent another dollar on the project since then, and I think not a few of the earliest backers bailed at that point.

 

It wasn't "higher-level backers". It was the majority of players that were actively playing at the time that wanted a use based system. I was very skeptical at the time but what they have now is far better than what they had at the beginning.