Greetings and thoughts....

I have to say that I agree and disagree with some of these comparisons. Currently, yes, combat CAN be like WoW, in that you have the option of using a locked deck which gives the typical set-rotation point and click hot bar feel of WoW. But..in SoTA you can also use a random unlocked deck or a random set deck. You can build glyphs on top of eachother in the random set deck. SoTA also has combos, which yes it is a work in progress, but its there and happening and something WoW lacks. Instanced like WoW? No, not really. Dungeons have to be instanced otherwise everything launches into utter chaos but WoW is an open world for the most part whereas SoTA relies on an overland map. But scenes aren't instanced in SoTA, you just have a load-in. I see absolutely no resemblance between SoTA graphics and WoW graphics. The art is completely different and the game uses a more advanced engine. As majoria mentioned, WoW is very deliberately cartoony...it's their style. I can't speak for PvP in SoTA. All I know is it's in the works along with the death penalty but I agree, as it stand right now there is nothing unique about those aspects.

Edit: Combat is still in the works and as it's been stated, we are going to see some big changes with it soon. It's veering even further away from the WoW-mold.

Sidetrack slightly for a moment. One of the things about WoW that kept me going back in the past was the deep lore. You came to know the heroes, the villains and the characteristics of important figures like Thrall, Varian, Illidan, Arthas and Garrosh. I haven't played in a long time, but I remember the majority of the key figures by heart because they had a developed history and rich personalities. Unfortunately in SoTA I don't feel that connection with any of the NPCs or history yet. There is really nobody significant that I find myself caring about in the game. Probably the most interesting character so far is Jack The Lamplighter. The history is very convoluted and so far doesn't have much in-game transcription. That is, you have to rely on outside sources for it such as the Blade of the Avatar books or simply surf the sotawiki. I don't say any of this to criticize SoTA and praise WoW, but to say that it isn't necessarily a bad thing if SoTA took some notes from WoW (and other successful MMORPGs)...just...from the right aspects.

 

Off topic, but it isn't worth a new thread: Where can I buy the book? I don't see it in the Add On Store, isn't it supposed to be there? Is it just a pledge reward?

 

UO has been around for something like 17 years and in almost the entire history of the game they haven't forced non-consensual PvP. People who insist that the non-consent and full-loot as defining features are arguing with the UO designers themselves who said they weren't the defining features and were quickly abandoned for a reason.

A seamless world with no load screens would be nice, but isn't feasible for this game for a number of technical reasons. Instancing actually provides a whole ton of advantages though it has obvious trade-offs of load screens.

* WoW is designed to look like a stylized, exaggerated cartoon. SotA is not designed with WoW graphics.
* WoW has no deck/glyph/combo system. The combat is not the same.
* WoW has no death penalty, but SotA does. You're mistaken there.
* SotA will have the ability to set items on the floor. It just isn't implemented yet.
* SotA will not have fast travel. The ability to zone is a convenience feature in early access testing and will be removed at launch. They want encumbrance, local economies, etc. to matter.
* WoW is class based where everyone has the same exact build for their class that is min/maxxed
* WoW is level based.
* WoW has content that is level gated. You go from this level zone to another level zone
* WoW is completely linear because of the level gates
* WoW had bind on pickup gear, killing the player economy
* WoW is quite literally pay to win now that you can pay a fee to skip to max level
* WoW doesn't have a deep story.
* WoW doesn't have an offline mode
* WoW doesn't have everyone on one server
* WoW doesn't have friend's lists to select who you want in your instances
* WoW doesn't have player towns and non-instanced houses
* WoW doesn't allow you to loot anything when you kill someone
* WoW has immersion breaking PvP battleground that you poof to and from
* WoW is utterly faction based
* WoW has no crowd sourced assets
* WoW doesn't have player performance spaces to encourage roleplay
* WoW is a gear treadmill
* WoW has rote combat where you perform the exact same combat rotation
* WoW has more UI than visible screen space
* WoW only lets you craft gear to cater more to the gear treadmill
* WoW doesn't have ghosts or a neat death system
* WoW doesn't integrate PvP into lore and quest (like the Oracle questline)
* In SotA the best gear is player made
* WoW doesn't have a conversation system
* WoW doesn't have global persistent player housing
* WoW doesn't have UO-like sandbox elements to enable player community events, but SotA does

If you're saying this game is just like WoW, then you must not know much about SotA or WoW.

 

It was an Early Founder specific pledge reward. It should be in the store. It was available as an add-on and I highly recommend it. Lemme look for it.

Edit: It was $15 in the add-on store but it isn't there anymore. It may have been pulled because Tracy Hickman was going to expand the novel and add more content.

 

Thanks! I'll wait for it.

 

Yep, if you didn't hear the news, a publisher has decided they want to turn it into a trilogy and publish all three. But they asked that he add a few more chapters to the first one.

 

Welcome Twitch! You'll find things hopping and bopping around here...lol. Lots of good things coming in R20

 

Ender, I agree with most of the rest, but this:

Made me chuckle beyond human belief.

I hope you're kidding, and put this item in your list to see if we did actually read it all.

 

One thing WoW has always had going for it is the deep story. The history is pretty long and intricate..engrained in the MMO by the original Warcrafts and carried on. Gotta give them credit for that. The RP realm I was on was actually really nice. Lots of great writers. Didn't need sandbox elements or "player performance areas" to have awesome RP sessions and to WoW's credit, it had the free-emote function which gave RP a very nice, organized flow. That, along with some more significant and diversified NPCs would be something I wouldn't mind SoTA devs taking notes on. WoW also has the advantage of mods. So yeah...it is nothing like SoTA.

 

The Warcraft world itself has a deep story.

In playing WoW I never saw a story. I saw "fetch 10 lizard tongues and return".

 

Welcome to the community!

 

So you're insistent that this game is just like WoW and when you're told countless ways it is completely different your counter is that isn't enough like UO yet, and in places you're just complaining about stuff that is planned down the road but not yet fully implemented.

You're moving the goalposts. You called this game WoW. That was your criteria for the game being unlike UO, was that it was too much like WoW. When it is made clear that statement is absurd, you back-pedal.

 

Sir, first, I want to clarify that I didn't call SotA WoW. I never said that. I called it a WoW-like game. I criticize that it is LESS like UO and MORE like WoW. Did I say that it was a replica of WoW? No, I did not. If you were to include examples of how SotA is MORE like UO and LESS like WoW it would have been an appropiate answer. Instead you just spammed how SotA is not a replica of WoW and I was never arguing that.

 

You guys should make a new thread for this discussion because it has nothing to do with the OP.