What is the state of the thief in SotA? 7/20/14

Discussion in 'Skills and Combat' started by Sold and gone, Jul 20, 2014.

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  1. Vendetta Beretta

    Vendetta Beretta Avatar

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    I'm fine as long as they have stealth, and stealth attacks. Stealing is fun, but it isn't a core game mechanic for any character. Stealth is going to be used by a lot of characters especially if somebody wants to develop a ranger type character. Regardless I think there will be rogue like skills that will prime a character to add the stealing skill later on with no problem.

    Who knows they might release stealing before episode two. They have always said if a new skill tree becomes available they will allow us to buy it on the store (to pay for the devs' work on it), and then we can use the new skill tree.
     
  2. Floors

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    They said they have discussions about it from time to time but I think it's more of a too much stuff to do thing.
     
  3. smack

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    Yeah that's a bummer that it won't be in Ep1 but understandable. If it's too complex in terms of stealing against other players, I wonder if it's less so if against NPCs -- especially when thinking about the single player offline game.

    I mean there's already line of sight checks in PvP so why not extend that to NPCs that can catch you in the act? Plus they do have some stealth skills such as being less detectable while not moving so there's no work there. They just need to allow taking of world objects in the real game, as you can already do that now.
     
  4. Johnny Black

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    Yeah, they know we have interest and there is going to be the ground work already laid out. Now we just get to wait and hone our idea of how the thief may work (perhaps we can save them some thinking time).
     
  5. Jambot

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    Don't despair too soon about treasure hunting, I remember Bzus pointed out very early they would be working on it :

    And even a little more for next episodes ;)

    Also, this could be an interesting question for Special Edition Dev Q&A Thread (what's the revised plan about treasure hunting or something)

    FINAL DISCLAIMER : I won't be held responsible for anyone necroing a year and a half old thread. Also I'm lawyering Bzus hard on this one, since a statement that old should NOT be taken as a promise treasure hunting will make it in episode 1.
     
  6. strife

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    I would love to have stealing. Definitely stealth and a surprise attack move that is balanced out enough. I remember playing Shadowbane and when you surprise a character sitting down resting it was almost instant death. I would be happy with any kind of stealth.

    Stealing isn't as important but not sure how that will even work, like only in pvp zones or in citys and towns like in UO. I like how UO (not sure if this was Origin or EA) but the "factions" really put more of a use to stealing. Maybe there can be rogue type quests in the single player setting.

    • combo moves
    • stealth
    • surprise attacks
    • stealing
    • quests for thieves/rogues in offline setting
    • having another use for stealing (exp:faction sigils/chaos order)
    • and treasure hunting

    That's about all I got, I always enjoyed playing rogues and thieves.

    I am psyched about the game so far but there's my 2 cents. I love thieves. We still haven't even seen dragons yet but here's to wishful thinking. ;)
     
  7. Isaiah

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    If you watched the R8 dev chat, you might have caught the talk where RG said he likes to use minimal attribute scores because something like Charisma might only be used to talk with a shop keeper in one place, he would rather have a skill like intelligence be used for that as in a type of negotiation skill or whatever.

    The problem I see with stealing right now is that there isn't much bang for the buck at this point. I see them adding it later, but skills like stealth, and surprise attacks might be used by more players for more situations than a stealing skill at the moment.

    So don't feel like this is an ignored skill, it just doesn't have a broad use in the major theme of the game, and they need to run a tight ship as it is to release the game with the core features working very well rather than create a stealing skill, and then have to create a bunch of stealing related quests which are side plot issues, and only thief characters will benifit from it.

    Stealing is more of a fun skill, but it needs to be scheduled after the main skills are already in the game. Eppisode 2 will have new zones, and content. They won't have to rebuild all of the core features like combat etc. So I see lots of cool, but non-essential skills being added during that time because the combat system will be already made, and all the core systems will just need tweaks rather than being developed from scratch (which they are now). So I would expect Eppisode 2 and so on to have more varieties of skills because all the core stuff was built in episode 1.
     
  8. Floors

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    Reading between the lines, it seems like they are heading towards a December release for episode 1.

    Richard at E3 said there would be 10 or 12 releases prior to EP1, They've already mentioned Release 11 in the videos.

    I hope people are prepared for that fact
     
  9. Isaiah

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    I don't think so. They said open beta would begin by the "end of the year". So we will have a persistent online world to have extended sessions to test the economy and stuff before the game is released.
     
  10. Floors

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    Open Beta is the same to them as Release One, I think. I don't think there is a distinction.

    We should get it clarified.
     
  11. Isaiah

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    Well, I think there is a clear distinction. Beta is a testing stage. Characters will still be wiped, but probably much less frequently. They said that before. One thing is certain, software that is in beta is still in a testing phase.

    Sent from my Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk.
     
  12. Floors

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    Well I disagree. They haven't announced a Beta date, or what exactly would happen at "Beta" or anything.

    Post a source if you have one and I'm mistaken...

    There is no industry standard for alpha and beta... different shops do it differently. In some places there is no such thing as "pre-" Alpha... What you're saying is we're going directly from pre-Alpha to Beta. What happened to Alpha ? You see my point.

    Without them telling us if the release mentioned at E3 is indeed Release 1 or Beta and Release 1 comes later, it is unclear.

    They've said several things in videos that contradict each other over the last 9 months...
     
  13. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Actually, the lines I'm reading between point to February, as all payment plans that have either been newly created or revamped recently are scheduled to complete then, and it has been stated that they would need to be completed before release.
     
  14. Floors

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    Ah ! Now that is interesting !!!

    So maybe - Beta December, Release February :)
     
  15. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Possibly... but then consider that:

    • Polish for combat releases isn't until the end of September
    • Crafting isn't done by a long shot (at least what we've seen of it)
    • Housing isn't even going to near completion until the end of the year, thanks to the dozens or perhaps scores to hundreds of Player Owned Towns
    • Character customization is woefully inadequate
    • Ardoris should be ready to go for R9... and then there are the other 39-49 towns and villages in the mainland that need to be conceptualized, created, and optimized
    • There are maybe a handful of scenes we have been introduced to, and those are more placeholders than anything. Nowhere near the number and quality that would be needed to make the roughly 16000 hexes of land feel like it isn't rushed and incomplete...
    I know they've leapt forward in terms of accomplishment in just the past couple of releases, but just those few things (and the list is by no means all-inclusive) seem to me to be too large a bit to take in just a couple of months after R12.

    Edit: Added in things to consider about the scenes that need to be completed.
     
  16. crossbowsoda

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    Summer 2015 release imo.
     
  17. Floors

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    I don't think that what we play each month is supposed to represent everything that has been done in the game.

    You can see that stuff is being done in the Standups that we don't see in the releases, for example. Or the Pledge Reward screenshots.

    I'm sure some of the main world is being worked on "behind the scenes", so as not to ruin it for us. They also mentioned in the video yesterday leveling wasn't intentionally put in so the alphas can serve as a test bed for systems without making them "like the game".

    So, although I'm sure they're not super far along, I don't think you can take what you see in each monthly release as "the current state of the entire game world".
     
  18. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Oh, I'm sure... the Hidden Vale itself only comprises around 240 hexes of total overland map (sorry... I don't have a screenie that shows the stuff in more detail *grins*), and I'm not fool enough to believe they've shown us all their glyphs :p

    However, that list is about the same as what they've shown us: it's only the tip of the iceberg.

    Just take the player towns, as a "for-instance":
    I don't have a direct thread quote to link to right off, but I remember hearing something to the effect that they had almost a couple hundred of them waiting in the wings. Each of those requires the devs to "meet" with the owner to talk plots, layout, city name, history, npcs, etc... Yes, they are all supposed to be working off of templates, which eases the burden, but that is still scores of planning sessions that need to happen, and they are tentatively scheduled to be held at the end of the year.

    Crossbowsoda said release in summer of 2015, but for me, I'm betting that's beta... at the earliest.

    Edit: it would help if I could read things correctly before I pseudo-quote someone :p
     
  19. Floors

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    Yeah, I don't disagree with you, but then how does that jiive with what Richard said at E3 where he said there would be only 10 or 12 "alpha releases" before the release of Ep 1 ?

    I guess you just can't go by what's been said in the videos.
     
  20. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    That's the thing ;) we haven't had any alpha releases :)

    J/K... I read your bit elsewhere (perhaps in this thread) about the alpha/beta thing being more informal than an industry standard.

    And you can go by it... just make sure that you watch them all in order, and take notes on what changed and when, because he also said in a much more recent video to remember that this is a new development concept, and the source of the whole "Don't Lawyer Me, Bro (R)" ward is that things may change and that schedules and what can be delivered may have to adjust accordingly.
     
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