R4 has shaken my faith in SotA

My faith in the game has been nearly completely destroyed by R4 and how things are handled here on the forums.
The game seems to turn into something that is no longer what was shown and teased during the Kickstarter campaign. The focus clearly lies on the MMO mechanics. This not only shows the Alpha where everything SP related seems to be nothing more than an afterthought, shoved into the game because they promised it during Kickstarter and therefore have to include it. The forum here shows that focus, too.
Come on, seven hangouts and every single one of them revolves around MMO aspects? No infos about NPC companions, NPC schedules, decisions and consequences during quests, item interaction (baking bread)? And how Dev+ is handled lets us non Dev+-members feel like persons of another class, they tolerate us but I get the impression that they don't want to deal with us. Every proposal for the seven hangouts came from Dev+? Would it have killed you to get at least one or two proposals from us non Dev+-rabble?
Then they introduced this utterly bad new overland map and completely destroyed the dual scale aspect. Dual scale means that the SCALE changes not the style and gameplay! You now have an ugly board game and a third person game side by side. This is not dual scale! There is no longer a sense of exploring a living world, you just shove "shield" around on a map...
Sorry, but I am so disappointed of what has become of this promising RPG that was teased during the Kickstarter campaign. Right now I do not want to play this game anymore and I whish there was I way I could get the money back I pledged...

 

Although I a not at the level of being horribly dissapointed, I would love to hear more on the single player aspects. The farther we go along with nothing said the more nervous Ibecome that they will never have enough time to implement it. You are right in the fact we haven't heard anything on companions since the actual kickstarter. At this point in time we know more about pvp then on how we will play the game solo. I too am disapointed with the new map system instead of what we were told.

Now as for the Dev+ making the topics for the dev hangouts, that is a bit disconcerting. At this point I think it is pretty safe to say the majority of the really high backers are the UO background crowd, who see this as a return to UO, or as an unofficial UO2. To that I say, that is not what I backed and definately not what I want.

I know since we don't see a lot what is going on it makes a lot of us frustrated. Perhaps we need a state of the union put out here.

 

The email I got about this revision clearly stated this map was just a placeholder.

 

I took the map as a early working example, a placeholder as was mentioned. I actually didn't like initially when i first saw. But i can see lots of promise with the map if designed well. So long as all the hex's have their own content, no cut and pasted scenes then i can see massive scope with this system.
I enjoyed the scenes created and shown, especially forest scene and instead of losing optimism mine actually grew.
Remember we are only on the little island at moment, the much larger main island is yet to be seen and we may be grateful of a dual scale map to get around.
The map could do with some advancement but as a basic barely working, just a placeholder to allow us early movement it is fine and workable.

 

It's no longer considered a "place-holder" as the email suggested. It is the early version of an entirely new direction. While it is lacking many of the features they want to add, Darkstarr clearly says this is the style they are choosing to use. And that is unfortunate indeed.

 

My faith is not shaken, but I think they need to push out the release date quite a bit, and they should do it sooner rather than later.

I was bother not so much by the over land map as by where it lead. If you enter a forest hex, you should be in the forest zone. It seems like 90% of the tome you are on a burning plain with some elves. Personally I think those links should have been made for the demo.

I liked the individual hexes, the forest one with ruins or the bear cave, etc. I did NOT expect working quests, so we are right on track there!

Lots of other stuff, but I firmly believe that more time is gonna be needed to get this to 'Ultimate' state.


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Thanks for the information. I will,take this seriously into consideration.

 

I think people need to step back and realize we are only seeing bits and peices of what is done...this isn't the whole pie that you are sampling, just the stuff they want to test.

 

I have the best hopes and wishes for this game and wish the devs the very best, hence a pledge that emptied my little wallet.


But I think Portalarium should adopt some more of Chris Roberts thinking on Star Citizen (as it is in my interpretation) in being very thoughtful about what and when they release bits publicly.
Don't stress the public releases.
I mean, sure, most people realise it's relatively early days (still - 1 year in), but I think the general public (myself included) needs the stuff they play(test) to be fun and a bit polished.

I had no greater fun in my tour of release 4 multiplayer.
It was interesting of course to see the current state, which can be enough for me, but it didn't feel any fun to me running around in it.

Perhaps I am too slow in picking up the relevant bits for it to become fun - or perhaps Portalarium might not present things as well as they could.
Just a thought.

 

This is indeed the time when all faith seems lost and all bonds of fellowship are broken... Is this the time to crawl back to World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV?

 

No, it is the time to crawl back to Ultima 7!

 

After I saw the onerland map I reinstalled GuildWars2 after a year of being out, yea after I started anything Sota. I found the land in GW2 full of fairies, many players had translucent wings on their backs, there was no immersion there it was disgusting. Although the gameplay animation was smooth, Sota is more beautiful & interesting to discover. The way the tall grasses flow, the way the trees sway. I like Sota more, despite the serious disappointment of the overland map, the actual hexes are great.

 

For a pre-alpha... and not even that, but a single slice from a pre-alpha... I think what we're seeing is bang on target.

It's got a long, long, long way to go and tons of stuff is either frustrating or not there at all... but, vitally, it's doing what it says on the box for this moment in time.

What I'm sensing from in-game chat is people thinking that R4 would be closer to an open beta kind of thing (likely one of their largest touchstones when playing unreleased videogames before today), and generally expecting there to be a lot more content and a lot more polish. Throw on top people who have never been in a game where there aren't glowing exclamation points over quest giver's heads, and some of the comments I saw were understandable.

(Unfortunate, but understandable...)

 

And do you think that this graphics and npc´s (they looks as wooden toys, IMHO) are differents in essence to the final version? I am very dissapointed about this.... I can understand that all the npc´s are looking to the wall and are the same figure when I enter to a tavern but i think that the graphics are very very very very poor.....

 

goodbye SOTA and my pledges.... I hope you survive for a long time...

 

I don't think you can reclaim a pledge; if that's what I understand you mean by that?

 

I'm sure he meant that he won't be making any future pledges.

 

Look, I can understand skepticism. The pre UO ultima franchise ended on a disappointing note and The UO players who never actually played the original games have a much different understanding of the roots and experience of Ultima (UO wasnt for me). So by track record alone, blind faith in the product isn't an option or helpful nor is blatant unconstructive criticism and disdain. We've all pledged with our own hopes and visions as to what SotA will or could be and i doubt everyones wishes will be met. At the end of the day what will happen is as follows: Portalarium will continue to work on things, we the supporters can continue to give input and support, the game will be released and at that time, individual decisions will be made whether it is or isn't for you. I stepped away from Ultima (UO) when i felt it wasnt for me and will do so again despite a decent amount of pledging If its not for me (Cause in the end it is just a game). I hope thats not the case and will continue to give full support to the Portalarium team, who seem to have been receptive so far.

 

R4 has increased my faith in Sota. I've been in since day 1 of the KS campaign and in my mind, everything is proceeding as I'd hoped a year ago. I understand the rationale of the overhead map and am encouraged by the direction Darkstar has said it is taking. I am very happy with the overall 'feel' of the graphics...the grasslands, the red sash cave, the Kingsport mist at sunset, being able to see outside through windows, and many more. It's a world I already lose track of time in...and it's only just begun!

 

And yup another thread arguing about how a pre-alpha game should look like.........
conveniently followed with predictions based on simplistic visions....

I've seen things in this R4 that really impressed me greatly....