Rare hats data revealed in the R15 hangout

If it took me 30 minutes to get a hat, I'd be very happy. And you used to be able to do it in 30 minutes.

But it took me a long time to get the hat this time around. I got lost in Adoris for about an hour to find the new Shardfall (low framerate meant I had lots of lag). It then took me another 25 minutes (and one death!) to find the tour guide in the shardfall (because he's never where I think he's going to be). It took me like 50 minutes just to find the Spectral Mines. I ran around the Blackblade Mountains looking for the pass for a while. All three times, I had to look up the place in the forums. In Solaris, I found him by myself but it took some 15 minutes of searching for an NPC area among the player homes. I believe it also took some time to find the tour guide in the other two places but I actually did those in a different gaming session at the beginning of the release.

It might take you 30 minutes but it was quite a time commitment to get a frickin' mask that has bad stats. It wasn't difficult (other than the shardfall one) but it was time-consuming.

 

lol yes and that's the point. Most things in this game will take time to figure them out. Like the game not showing you the ways and as little of hand holding as possible, but hopefully that part will be well done . Some parts of that I don't mind but some convenience things I myself wouldn't mind also. The hats are for cosmetic use anyway. They could be used as in town dress to attend a wedding, and if of course someone doesn't care to role play a wedding or attend events and look different that is their choice. Getting in a group who has done the hat quest also helps. I will do it to save time, plus the fun of adventuring with possibly some new people in the game.

 

I'm aware what's the point or not. I'm not convinced the hats are worth the time sink though. And some of that time sink is due to the lack of optimization, not because of the game itself.

I don't mind taking time to figure things out for things that are worth it.

 

Yes and no worries I wasn't trying to criticize you, not everyone feels the same way about it. I like having something to do in the game but if this isn't it for you that's ok. I am hoping there will be much more to do in the next release or at least soon as was hinted in the last hangout.

 

def plan on buying these hats right when games released from players value will sky rocket like runescape party hats ;3

 

My argument is that it isn't like there's a whole lot to do. This game harped on and on about exploration, discovery, immersion and interaction, yet 90% of backers don't bother to get the rare hat that could be worth a lot of gold or simply just for a collector's item?

If exploration of new areas doesn't interest 90% of people, if collecting items and rares doesn't interest 90% of people (which, by the way, is what the Ultimate Collector app was basically testing to begin with - interest in rares collecting), if overcoming challenges in this brave new world with fellow players having a common goal doesn't interest 90% of players, then who exactly are these players and what are they expecting?

Like I said, it doesn't bode well. That's 90% guys. This isn't like, half-and-half. And all the speculation on the opposite side competes with itself: did they have the time previously because of holidays, because of a Yule hat (really, it was the yule hat people drooled over?), because it got "harder"? Then there's going to be a significant portion of the playerbase who will be thoroughly disappointed when it's released and they realize that there won't be arrows on the ground hand-holding them to the next objective.

 

I mean I got the hat. But the hat is worthless right now and the commitment is based on the promise that in the future it might be worth a lot.

But I think the problem with your post is that it ignores why I am here. I am here to experience a story. Not just the main story but my own avatar story as well. That includes exploration, discovery, immersion, and interactivity but with a point. I'm not interested in exploration for the sake of it.

There are therefore some points to consider:
1) the hat quest is a typical MMO quest with no connection to lore. The hat itself is primarily cosmetic. There is no real point to it beyond touring new scenes. Which is fine but for players like me it's more of an obligation. And the obligation might not be worth it to many.
2) if I explore all of the world right now, what will i explore at launch? Believe it or not, I have yet to enter many maps or fully explored others because I want to do it at launch when I'm playing with my real avatar, not my test avatar.

 

I think you'll find about 90% are simply not interested in Alpha/Beta and have probably never downloaded the game let alone logged in. Its a bit like forum activity, you will get something like a maximum of 150 viewers at any one time; out of that 150 there might be 20 who post on a regular basis.........Not all players are overly interested in forums.

 

I'm not seeing much exploration at all so far. You can pop into a zone and check the whole thing out in minutes, there's not much to explore in any zone so far. Places to go kill stuff are extremely small areas with not much to do in them but kill stuff and gather. Even the dungeons are small.

 

Precisely, so why aren't more people doing what little there is to do, ie, go find their rare hat?

I'm not sold that over 90% of the backers aren't doing bare-bones for the game because of time or because "it doesn't interest them." If this doesn't interest them, there ain't a whole lot left that this game's promising to do (moderately) well other than housing and adventuring.

 

I think a lot of players misunderstand the release hat reward. It was put in place to encourage players to explore the new areas for testing purposes. The more player that venture into the new scenes the more eyes that are able to find errors.

 

You can buy an account with all hats using SotA credits right now if you wish... Got no bids so far...
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...with-r10-11-12-13-hats-for-sota-credit.19255/

 

I've heard a lot of people say they don't want to do play or do quests right now because it isn't finished and they don't want to spoil the full experience at launch. Those people are definitely out there.

Whether you believe it or not.. sit back and take notes you can review in a few months. These just aren't the numbers we need to worry about. The devs have the stats that matter and they seem pretty happy. If you ask Chris to post the stats for overall playing activity.. logins, session time etc he just might post it. He's done it before.

 

I can't pretend to know the exact reasons, but I could guess many don't care about hats(really I'm not much interested in them either, but I just do the quest to have something to do), and many don't really care to grind away on mobs to level up, grind gathering, or crafting while it's not finished, since it will all be wiped often during alpha/beta. Those few things are all there are to do in game aside from decorating a house. It's very early alpha and not much exploration to do either, so that's out. Myself, I usually end up playing a few hours here and there, just logging in to talk to people.

There are probably many that will play the single player story driven part of the game, and that's it, so those people aren't playing right now because there's nothing for them to play. It doesn't help to see on other forums people thinking it's pay to win with housing in pledges either, and people thinking the devs are trying to scew negative reviews with backers reviews, but that's another story. Alphas can be pretty boring to most people, gathering/mob grinding, wipes, placeholders, and bare bones isn't for everyone. It will probably pick up in numbers when it's beta probably and closer to release hopefully, because maybe there will be more to do.

 

I struggled on R15 so pity me.

 

I can see it now. Themo Lock's Hat Shop - Purveyor of rare and unique hats.

 

I don't think it's that bad . Of the 10 people I know who have the game, 9 have at least logged in this month. Of that 7 have played for multiple hours. Despite all that, only 1 has the hat. Having done the hat quests with and without walkthroughs, I can tell you doing it without is a huge pain (especially this one). I just think the incentive isn't there. People are playing, but they are doing other things, they don't seem interested in the hats. I even tried to inspire them by saying there will be a secret society for silver mask owners. If people don't want to get them, it's their choice. But it doesn't reflect participation in game.

 

I'm a newer backer but I don't have the time to deal with lag and wander around looking for some npc. It makes me no less interested in this games development. It's just annoying and I just bought 5 other games on Steam today at 75% off to boot. And I won't be wearing a hat if I am wearing armor.

 

I have completed all the Hat quests so far. Everyone I did before R15 was JUST to get the hat. Running from place to place with starter equipment and skills and dying a lot.
R15 was the first time I went with the intent to explore every new location added. Mining, chopping trees, collecting along the way, fighting waves of hostile creatures and getting that special reward of saying "Hey look there is a Tour Guide", like finding an old friend.
The R15 hat quest has been my favorite so far.

 

That's what Cynics call themselves.