What in this game need to be improved and what can be done about it.

So many people are leaving, some of them have spent stupid amounts of money in hopes that RG, and DS and the rest can make a great game.

So heres how this is going to work, state a problem, and a solution for that problem.
Any attacking of ANYONE in this thread will be reported. Personally i will not even consider replying to those posts and i would urge others to do the same.

Im a huge fan of dont complain unless you have a fix for what your complaining about.

In my opinion this has become a social network, more than a game, there is not enough game in this, its all about social gatherings, and emotes. We have facebook and Second Life to handle all that. The game needs to have better loot for all the time we put into it. Not everyone is a crafter or socialite, some of us like to play a game with challenges and a decent reward. So to fix that add better loot to things and dont make us go dispatch something for nothing at all. Its such a let down when all you get from things is barely gold to repair your stuff, or reagent you will not use.

"The best armor and weapons is made by the player" should be toned down and there should be stuff that a player cannot make that is better, that gives us a reason to go kill something a "prize" if you will.

Gathering resources should be better than it is, it shouldt take a month to get stuff you need to make a piece of armor for example (not all of us have all the time in the world to play, we have other real responsibilities)

Which brings us to the next thing...................

Not everyone, is jobless, or living with parents, we do have a "REAL" life outside of this game that should if not always take precedence over a game! The time it takes to level up on adventure points is ridiculous, please shorten it some.

When you have skills when they get higher level they should do more damage, or be better at it (all magic, and other skills)

Crafting.....oh my god! so many items and numbers of items needed to make one single thing, and to fail every second of the way and lose valuable stuff that has to constantly be re bought. There are some ridiculous ingredients in items as well. Please take some of them out, people complain about realistic type stuff take a look at what it takes to make a bow, then look at what it takes in real life to make one! Huge difference!!

Its getting to the point, besides cool looking stuff, the game is not drawing me in to wanting to play. I get bored quickly. there are so many more games and newones coming out that this could be secondary to them, i really dont want it to come to that. I have had faith in all the devs for years, and i keep my fingers crossed all the time that they are up to par with that faith.

So there is it if you want to bring up whats wrong with it also bring up a fix for it.

 

I would say that I have not played much until recently because of real life work. I will be on more this winter. I do agree right now that its tough to catch up and I have no desire to pvp or even pve at the moment. When I find a bug its usually already reported. I dont have the time to gather and make all the things I need to be competitive in game. I am largely a lone wolf player with a couple of friends to hunt with occasionally. Hence why I want to play single/friends online mode. I am not into the table dancing or social events, although there is a place for that. I am not condemning any of them and we need the social atmosphere in the game. some people love it. For my part I need more actual role play, not role play events. I need people that will play a role all the time, not just stage acting then back to the real life persona. Its why I do not do team-speak or events, it makes me just want to log off. I do agree with you that this game right now reminds me of a social chat room more than a game, and I hope more people are going to play that actually want to play the game instead of morph it into something else entirely, and I'm not sure if that has not already been done. So to combat this problem I want to find like-minded people who want what I want. I have posted threads about it but I find they are often unanswered. These forums are also very intolerant of dissent. A few favorite people get offended and spam the report button. I am sure they contact each other and tell each other to do so just to get rid of the dissenters. To counter this I would suggest you and others to message portalarium about this. Maybe a CC email if you would be willing.

 

You have many strong points that ring true to me as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, too.

 

This is something I actually brought up a long time ago, I had concerns about the motivations for delving deep into dungeons. When you fight your way all the way to the bottom, and defeat the evil at the heart of the dungeon, and then open up the chest it had been guarding... what is inside of it? something that isn't as good as the weapon I bought in the town from a crafter 20 minutes ago?

So, yes. I agree with this concern. Especially when you consider single player offline play. Will that have an entirely separate loot system with special-made weapons that only exist in the offline mode? If not, what WILL be in the chest at the bottom of that dungeon?

so many questions...

 

I agree there, though I guess some of that is due to the lack of content, which is due to us still being in pre-alpha.

I strongly disagree. If you can 'loot' equipment that is equal or even better than what is crafted, what is the incentive for a crafter to work on her profession at all? Adventurers are your customer as crafter, but if you loose these due to them being able to supply themselves, you're instantly out of business.

Yes. And I hope that the planned 'event'-system for crafting is going to change a bit.

I disagree. I want the game to last quite a bit, instead of all of us rushing to 'end game' in a week. In one of your previous postings you mentioned that a crafter should have benefits and that not every adventurer should be able to craft everything. This is exactly the point, even though you meant it as argument for 'hard caps', this is a 'soft cap'. While you spend your time on the adventure and do NOT have the time to gather/craft, the crafter spends his time in a different aspect of the game.

And again, I disagree, because I do not want to 'rush to endgame' in a week and then go to your favourite sport (PvP). [No offence intended, all the power to you for wanting PvP, just consider that others do not want to 'rush to end game to PvP' and they should be catered for as well!]

 

I agree with all points.

 

This perfectly illustrates one of my main concerns regarding the overall design of this game. These statements are mutually exclusive of each other, and yet in the framework of SotA they are both completely valid.

Favoring the economy makes storyline and single player suffer... favoring storyline and singleplayer makes the economy suffer. At least, that is how it seems.

 

Depends on how they do the storyline and what it does to you if you complete it. It could be done so that playing through the 40hr or so content will level you fairly well enough to be a viable contender to do whatever it is you want - pvp or otherwise.

Being as we are used based and if your exp pool (adv and crafting) can be filled that way, maybe it will be matched to the competitive level of the autobots that will grind their way around. 40hrs of game play should not be considered excessively long, hopefully, especially as this is also a game for the ultima series as well as the UO portion, yes?

Besides, although they say the best in-game things will be player crafted, there is nothing stopping them from crafting the player crafted items ahead of time, so to speak, and putting them into appropriate areas? Like that new place that went in this release? Tilt? Hilt? is suppose to be the only place you can make/craft the best items in game - well, Port putting these crafted/made items into some random special loot draw would not be going against the previous statements. Hopefully, it will be in an impossible hard dungeon of equal difficulty as going to the new scene to craft it though. So, it'll be something to work for either way. Yes?

 

Improvements are needed everywhere. The same is true for every game.

In my opinion, the #1 problem is the people are not participating in the game making it quite boring. I believe that the reason most are not participating is because of the wipes.

Solution: release early

Everything else can be fixed with patches. Building and keeping a community has to be priority one.

 

I don't know about this at all. Taking down a major undead creature at the bottom of an ancient tomb and discovering a sword crafted by DoctorGoodPants isn't really something I would look forward to.

 

Not even if it's a sword that going to let you 2 hit a Themo Lock? Cuz DoctorGoodPants was GM in blacksmithing in beta and had put out an ad that repairs on his crafted items would be made at 1/2 price?

 

So far, I cannot speak as to issues with the game because I have had not many opportunities to play the game due to real life: work, looking for new work, getting new work, and trying to keep a 1½ (almost 2 year-old now) year-old from bringing the house down around my ears (with the cat's help).

I haven't been on-board with SotA as long as many others here: I am a meager Benefactor. However, I trust that the end product will be wonderful, and that the needs of all varieties of players would be addressed more than adequately: mine is more of the solo-play or with-friends play, due to free time management issues (which is a great option when I can't get a tabletop D&D game going). I would hazard a barely-educated guess that the switch to Unity 5 played part of a role in the delay of some progress, only because some work completed before may not have been easily transferable from the older to the newer engine, and also the new engine may have opened up new possibilities for the game that the Devs felt that they could not be ignored. However, that is my assumption based on the few grains of info and insight I have rattling around this mostly empty skull of mine.

I would guess that certain elements, like loot drops, would be more in-line for a solo game where the dropped loot would be genuinely one-of-a-kind (because it's a solo game), rather than your token for your achievement of a task that essentially everyone does as a player in the game. Sort of like your character developing a romance with an NPC Companion character: more meaningful when it's just you (as the hero) and the NPC Companion in a single-player game, but not so much in an "everybody gets one" style of MMORPG. That would be more like, um, well... (WARNING: an attempt at humor follows)

• Player A arrives at Tutoring NPC's location.
  
• Tutoring NPC: "Welcome to <Insert MMO game name here>! It's a dangerous world out there: you'll need this <Basic Introductory Melee Weapon>! And to help you along, here's your friend <childhood friend/secret love interest/melee support NPC> Jan!"
• Player A: "Thanks!" <Goes off on quest with basic gear & starting NPC.>
• Tutoring NPC turns around, opens hidden door, pulls out a <Basic Introductory Melee Weapon> and a <childhood friend/secret love interest/melee support NPC> Jan from a huge hidden stockpile, places them, and resumes starting pose.
• Player B arrives at Tutoring NPC's location.
• Tutoring NPC: "Welcome to <Insert MMO game name here>! It's a dangerous world out there: you'll need this <Basic Introductory Melee Weapon>! And to help you along, here's your friend <childhood friend/secret love interest/melee support NPC> Jan!"
• Player B: "Thanks!" <Goes off on quest with basic gear & starting NPC.>
  etc...

(In essence: "Here's your copy of this NPC clone! Feel free to customize them as you see fit!")

Whereas in the MMORPG, the crafted wares can take the role of the unique item because it is, to a degree, unique: perhaps an attempt at a new recipe, or whatnot. I would state it's better than your account's <Copy of Evil Overlord's Massively Overpowered Melee Weapon> or the NPC Jan clone.

But that's my view of things. Take it as you will.

 

well not really. For me, the story and lore is more important. How did that sword get into the ancient chest?

And also. What about single player offline? With no connections to the server, that sword will never even exist.

 

Why is a threat by OP and confirmation acceptable by a Moderator? Your response is a perfect example of why so many are angry with the forums. Not in any way an attack but indeed supporting evidence and a request.

Most of us are very educated and professional people, we should be treated with respect. Not with distrust and disdain. In comparison to most gaming forums these are very respectful and tame. Please don't take this personal, it is simply policing the police. OP starting off with a threat is extremely offensive and in direct violation of the forum etiquette based upon my perhaps flawed understanding.

I guarantee some have left due in part to respect. I considered the same, but don't give up so easily.

On topic, performance needs improved. Combat must be responsive and fluid. I also agree with every point the OP makes regarding the state of the game.

 

Yes, the lore ....hmm, no player created books either then in offline? But when you first get the game you'd have to connect so maybe content dump includes these things (reads mentions elsewhere about something like this).

And maybe, just maybe, Doc was a sly one and slid his ad in by throwing it into a bottle somewhere for you to fish up? (and left his sword in the chest when he went adventuring, forgetful fellow, him?)

No idea, but that's where they need the story - personally think it's probably not going to be a Doc sword for offline or online for that matter - more a Obsidian general or some other such (but still something a player could craft possibly later in the game) and if you end up with a dud, well, nothing says you have to be the first one to reach the chest - maybe some unfortunate soul reached it before you did and the chest was used as storage..by someone.

 

Well, that would require items to have already been crafted.... And at launch when I start playing, there won't be any master crafters yet. This is an interesting enough conundrum to ask about in the next hangout.

 

@Bubonic,

With the fishing system in the game now, we can fish up ancient rings. I hope the devs extend that concept further and allow us to find other ancient artifacts in dungeons, whether that's ancient crowns, ancient coins that we have to exchange for the regular currency in the game, or even weapons.

The devs said at one point that if there isn't a player crafted weapon to recycle into the game world that the game would spawn something new. I hope they apply the same logic to weapons of a certain mastery. Also, for lore purposes, they could always take a player crafted weapon, and reskin it and rebrand it an ancient weapon. I think the main point of what the devs were doing is not to make loot farming steal business from crafters anyway, wasn't it?

 

I have the real life problem. But I don't want them to shorten any of it. It might take me a year to finish the main story while someone else will finish it in a week. So what?

I don't bother to try to level up each release. I don't expect to finish the story line being maxed out. I figure that's how most people will do it too. Which means that very few crafters will be able to make something better than what's found as a high level reward for a quest. As long as the reward is better than you can obtain otherwise then it's rewarding, right? (And that's ignoring the exp. and story intrinsic rewards)

I'm also pretty sure it seems like second life because it's not really a game at the moment. It's still a bunch of partially completed virtual world sub-systems. There's very little plot in there. I like that it's big, complicated and full of unique items. The richness and depth of the world is what "the game" will be made from.

With the wipes collecting items & grinding are kinda pointless. Is that why people are burnt out? I still enjoy walking around a bit, trying new things out and grabbing my release hat.

 

6 more months means a great game.

18 more months means an epic game.

As for improvements, for adventuring I'd like to see random dungeons which are much larger and every scene having a reason to go to it and scales to level. I've seen way too much of Vertas Pass because it's the only place I'm not dreadfully bored walking around killing everything at high level. The new levels are beautiful but at such low difficulty giving such low XP why would I head there other than once to sight-see... make lower level and higher level players and scenes not range so much. A "3" scene should still be fun for a high level player but doable for a lower level player.

For crafting, make it so I can level crafting without harvesting XP. Do this by not giving diminishing returns on crafting and by instead just giving XP based on main ingredients used (one ingot stuff gives 1/8 the XP of 8 ingot stuff).

More variety in crafting by assigning crits based on level so you could get 0.1 to 3.0 dex crit bonus depending on smithing level. Also, more things to craft. More rare materials.

 

This was all inevitable.

Nothing further to add. I've moved on.