Darkstarr's Release 9 Impressions + Release 10 Plan

Druidry deals with earth, water, air, and fire in their ceremonies so many of the magic schools fit. So using earth as a start of Druidry would fit as plants and trees grow from the earth and animals live and feed from the earth. That is why the earth school to me makes sense to be called Druidry instead of Gaiaism.

I had a hard time placing the schools of magic in our order sine they all through one way or another could just be Druidry. I may revisit before this is set in stone at http://www.sotamuseum.com/CODB/Grades/

 

This is all episode one stuff as well. They said they might not have a level cap, but it would be nearly impossible to gain all the skills. (which means to me nobody should really have enough time to gain every skill in the game).

So I wonder what happens in later episodes after we've basically gained a lot of levels and a lot of combat skills. I can see them adding additional combat skill trees both magical and non-magical, still using the same skills so we could respec and take some new skills. Although they could do something else as well.

PRESTIGE PATHS (For later episodes)
However I'm wondering (without making characters exponentially more powerful), by around episode 3 they could open up a new set of levels apart from the combat tree that act as a type of prestige class (or path) that doesn't necessarily make you more powerful in combat but might change your strategy in combat or how you play your character. So this would be a separate set of levels that they could start in eppisode 3 that has a the prerequisite of having attained a certain number of combat levels before you can begin leveling the prestige focuses (for lack of a better term).

I'm thinking things like, Archmage for people who are pure casters, that want to expound upon magic beyond just being called a multischooled magicuser. Then there might be an Arcane-Archer who is both magicuser, and archer so it might work with your chosen skills to further allow you to enchant arrows, or perhaps it could use fire arrows or obsidian arrows as actual arrows for your bow which can then be enhanced as if shot from your bow not just cast as a spell.

Then there could be the paladin, ranger, druid, assassin, wand/rod mage... etc.

So maybe some of the names like Druid could be a level 40 or higher in combat skills that uses elemental magic. A paladin could be somebody who is like level 40 or higher in combat and uses heavy armor and martial weapons, but wants to live a life of honor etc.

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So in other words the game is a classless game, but after we have reached a critical mass of combat skills, they can always open up a new set of levels for veteran characters in later releases that will have special abilities that hopefully doesn't make the person super powered in combat, but are still worth advancing levels in.

LEVELING:
Maybe these skills don't have to be experience gained through killing monsters and finishing quests. Maybe it could gain experience by every time we use any of our combat skills, or something like that. So every time you cast a spell, or use a combat skill it gains experience in this Prestige skill tree for any character that is at least level 40 or higher. By episode 3 most of us vets that kept playing will likely be higher than level 40, I'm thinking it should be a reasonable level that newer players can also gain access to it or work towards it. Just a thought. (although I've had it in the back of my mind for a while).

 

I am hoping for a new and more detailed sky as well as better water (which reflects the sky and the environment) and depth of field for R10. I also think that the game needs more and maybe darker shadows. Also I'm hoping that some of the assets will be worked on as some bushes and grass don't seem to be impacted by the lighting and always seem to glow somehow.

 

Three cheers for stability updates! I found R9 to be the most unstable release in a long time. There were problems with crashing to the start screen when using alt/tab, log-in issues, as well as some glitches during combat. Hopefully R10 can clear up some (if not all) of these issues. I really like the idea of the thematic names for schools of magic though. Tempestry.... it will give the already powerful element of water another level of respect!

Over time it would be great to see the skills and deck system become a little more user friendly. The intro of the deck based combat in R8 was a lot of fun and pretty straight forward, while R9 sort of muddied it up, adding more, but not necessarily in a good way. IMO, someone should be able to play the game and not have to read pages and pages on how to use the combat system first. All it should take is a basic overview, and then playing the game, learning with a bit of trial and error in the process. I have confidence this will be streamlined a bit by release

 

I vote for reagents. However I think that all reagents should be found. There should be no NPC who sells them. This will stimulate the economy and provide work for gatherers. I also think that all cloth should be player created along with ingots, lumber, food, and other consumables. Every time you put a consumable into the economy through the NPC corps, you diminish player participation in the game.

 

That's a nice ambition, but it doesn't really work for this game in that sense. How would this work in the single player game?

I propose a different idea...have set prices for the NPC's that player crafters can undercut.

 

Can't agree there. I think we should be able to find them and buy them! I just don't think they should be price gouging us at 10GP a pop. Perhaps if we could find them in the wild, often and plentiful, then shops could continue charging a high price because it would be a luxury not having to go out and collect them. If shops end up the only way we can get them, then the current pricing scheme is far too high.

 

I think reagents should be found and some you should be able to buy. Very rare reagents could either be extremly expensive or you have to set out and find them yourself.
I once read an interview with RG where he said that some reagents would be hard to come by, for example that nightshade would only be available at night in swamps. But swamps at night would be a very dangerous place...

 

Might be only a certain phase of the moon, at night, at swamps.

 

Please consider adding a brightness or gamma slider in game. For some reason, SotA is very dark on my machine. I do not have any strange or dimmed settings via my video card drivers and SotA is the only game that exhibits this on my PC. I mean night time is night time, but when its virtually black inside of a cave, even with a torch lit, we need a brightness adjustment to even things out a bit

I could barely play Ravensmoor because it was so dark, and that was with the light spell! If it's like that on mine, there has to be others who are experiencing the same.

 

Have you attempted the in game video controls to change the video settings? card or something else.

 

@DarkStarr Thanks Dark Starr for the update. I too was a little disappointed to not hear something in regards to going forward design.

People waited and waited for combat and I know that has been a huge undertaking and I know it will continue on and on of course until such a time it is considered a releasable combat system.

For me that is great of course, but my excitement in the game has been about much of the fun and interactivity. I know the world is not stable yet, but the dropping items, laying on beds, my gorgeous avatar (which she is not yet). I believe many people are wanting a little taste of some of what will make this game have longevity. Perhaps in town stealing that if caught the victim may challenge you to a duel, if you refuse then they may ask you to pay penance by doing something for them like fetching them 10 pieces of ore, or some such nonsense for fun. If you steal from a player maybe it is a small thing like a coin or two or a bag of dirt or grime or empty bottle that the game could generate randomly. Fun stuff. Cats or dogs we can pet or feed, who meow or bark when we get home.

Perhaps it will be taming, treasure maps, fishing contests, beauty contests, many want to see companions, I wanted to see NPC's who will interact with you and be able to be convinced or hired to do something, maybe they are a coward you have to keep alive, (part of the pet system perhaps, but advanced for a few of them to interact more),player lands that are truly interesting and feature full in some way.

Anyway I am not trying to be negative of course I am very happy about this game. I do just want to remind of all the little things that will set this game apart from other games. A game that you come into just to fight, fight, fight may be fine for some, not for me. I do like it, but I have many sides to my personality and I want a special game.

Let us help please, perhaps give us assets for our player owned towns for example to help fund more. I know many would love to help more to give us all that's possible in this game. ***cheers and thanks for all you and your team are doing***

 

I was thinking about suggesting something similar after a lot of players were complaining that a healer (mage specialized only in Life Magic) was weak. Like a "Survive Death" spell that has Resurrection as a prerequisite, and uses up some rare reagents. If killed, you would die and fall to the ground, and the enemy would be given time to loot you, but when the time ran out, you were resurrected in your own body. Probably would make sense to have some connection to Sun Magic, too, since it has a Summon Phoenix spell and phoenices resurrect themselves.

 

I had this issue, then I realized my monitor has a button for "theater mode" which was what it was set to, once I changed it to a brighter mode it solved my issue, and made all my other games look much better. The Theater mode I guess is meant for dark rooms watching movies, dark back light even with it turned all the way up. I didn't realize what a difference that would make in many other games I played too... Now I could see a lot of things that were previously hidden (I thought intentionally, but apparently not)

 

Thanks for this info. Of course my monitor does not have that mode. In any case your experience demonstrates how extremely difficult it is to convey a person's problems to the forum and to the devs themselves. I believe that people who complain that the darkness is way overdone will get scant attention unless by some miracle, one of the computer/monitor combos at SOTA headquarters has a similar problem. Really, if the darkness issue is a problem for some, why in the heck is it so important to RG and the developers that those people continue to suffer because the purity of the RP environment will not be sustained if those affected had a night sight spell available? I contend that the RP environment is in a world unlike our own in many respects. It is an alternate world populated by avatars. The real humans are sitting at home on earth behind their computer screens. If that world can have a shattered moon which breaks all rules of physics circling a planet divided into hex transition zones, then why would lighter dark nights be so impossible?

 

lol it was stated that they are doing dark on purpose so you can't always see what might jump out at you, and I had just mention to someone else that maybe we need an ability to build a bonfire to brighten things up a bit since our little torchies are a bit scary and shadowy which probably is planned too. lol

 

Maybe Gold is worthless in Novia, so you are only spending 10 pence/cents.

 

Really the best way to let the devs know is to fill out a bug report because you list your hardware on it too. That is better feedback at this point.

Sent from my Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk.

 

Yeah it is supposed to be dark but I think his experience sounded wrong. Even with a light source he couldn't see well.

Sent from my Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk.

 

May I suggest "Selenism" instead of Lunaism? Luna-ism is not really at all smooth to say...Selenism is much better. Just sayin'.