Revisiting after a couple years

Okay, so I gave it another week, and I'm going to have to call it. Around 100 hours of play and I couldn't even move the needle on my character. I think I gained 2 ALs, maybe 3, but my ability to do damage is less than it was when I logged back in two years ago. I made a ton of money and resources, but no one is selling anything decent for my build, at least not at below 150k per piece. I could swap to the dominant meta, I suspect the devs are too afraid to nerf it at this point as virtually everyone is using it, but I really have no interest in that playstyle so I'm left either grinding eternally in the hopes the devs won't just nerf me back to square one next time they get bored or play a style that doesn't interest me. So, I guess I'm out for now, I'll hang around here as always, but I'll see if the game has matured in a couple years, though with the level requirements Chapter 2 is rolling out, I'm guessing not.

 

You shouldn't have any problems with the episode 2 story content... whenever that happens.

Also, most people look for control point, airship, breach, etc groups in order to gain experience. You can gain 12+ milion experience in under an hour.

 

We'll see, if they are making islands full of areas that aren't part of the episode story, well...

If I a.) had at least an hour to play and b.) there was a spot open in a parry that was at least half full, I joined. Though even when adventuring alone, my XP gain was respectable.

 

That sounds familliar...

 

It sure does.

 

I mean, I said as much earlier in the thread unless I am missing something.

 

You're not missing anything. We're just agreeing.

 

To be fair, I'd also encourage you to describe what skills you are focused on increasing and what their current level is. If you have 100+ levelled skills already, and are trying to increase those, I believe the design is that such an increase should take some time ...

 

I like when everyone shares their opinion. I like to get into the minds of others see their perspective. Talking to a lot of people has given me a solid appreciation for what developers in general, go through. For everything you don't like, I can find someone who does. And vice-versa. It can be frustrating I bet, trying to satisfy everyone. But your opinions are valid and shouldn't be dismissed. It really is amazing that games are like WoW or ESO are able to satisfy as many people as they do.

 

It is rare to find a game where around 100 hours of play time results in no perceived increase in abilities while leaving you overall less capable than you were close to 100 hours of game play prior. I get that 100+ skills take a while to level, but GMing riposte isn't going to improve my Ranged combat or magic skills, outside of my 3 primary trees I mostly concentrated on passives and skills to build up attunements and resistances. Basically, if I ask the question, "What can I do in game now that I couldn't do 200 hours ago" and my answer is "not much and now some areas are inaccessible" and I haven't hit the end of the content, then I don't see why people should play, unless you have LB tattoo'd somewhere private.

Some people juggle geese. You'll always find some hardy souls that will get something out of even that most mediocre games. Personally, I'm a big fan of innovative failures from the mid-90s to the early 2000s because that was a time when big companies were regularly willing to fund projects that tried new ideas that weren't proven hits, but I've got no illusion that folks would run out to grab a copy of Privateer 2: The Darkening if EA started advertising it again. There's a reason SotA gets destroyed every time a reviewer touches it, general audiences are going to bounce off in minutes, MMO fans have better titles to play and general Ultima fans are going to grumble about the lack of depth compared to U4-U7. The only demographic that is predisposed to the game is Ultima Online fans, and sadly they aren't a numerous as folks would like these days. And as to your point "It really is amazing that games are like WoW or ESO are able to satisfy as many people as they do." it's because that's their objective, it's how they drive revenue. That hasn't been part of SotA's objectives for a long time.

 

It's very unfortunate and I can tell you that the rest of the Archers are not happy about being nerfed not once but twice. The game is still fun in a lot of ways and I'm still stubbornly playing an air archer. Since I'm now pretty much crap compared to other builds, perhaps they'll leave it alone.

 

If you see this, I would appreciate if you could find me in-game. I am not trying to change your mind. I was a Kickstarter as well and checked in on the game every few months for the last 10 years. It never captured my attention until the last few months. Now I am addicted. Since I missed everything that was before and all the issues that people left over, I am interested in speaking with former players to get their perspective. All I know is SOTA as it is. I don't know SOTA as it was, and I can't compare then versus now.

 

Well, it all started when they nerfed archery. Then, the fix (bandit gear), drove a knife into the artisans, who, believe it or not, were working at cranking out gear good enough to make archery viable again.
so
1. made the game less fun for people who prefer archer
2. drove away the arties.
These missteps feel more and more intentional. Is 50 to 100 the max this game can handle, and devs are intentionally driving folks away?

Oh, and did I mention that as everyone started buying shiny new RTX cards after 2019, we started getting performance bugs?