An Open Request to Portalarium

That's what I thought the plan was. Perhaps I'm not understanding or misinterpreting the Q1 Schedule post. I really hope they can give us an answer on this. Now I'm a bit worried, lol. I'd hate to see it released if it's not ready.

So not a lot of content for the first 3 months.......gotcha.

So that leaves the next quarter, 3 months.....that gets us to Beta? Is Alpha to be that short? That seems almost skipped. With so much undone, and combat/gathering like it is now, not to mention all the content that is still needed...and 3 months to do it in? Do they have 6 months worth of work sitting on the internal test server we're not aware of or something? Don't take that the wrong way, it's a serious question that I don't know, lol.

From what it says at steam under development roadmap.

"We estimate reaching a Beta version with all features and content sometime in the first half of 2016. All features and plans listed here are subject to change. We may modify, add or remove features as we see fit during the development process."

and under Early Access Game

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“We hope to reach Beta by mid 2016 and launch shortly after that but we will not be launching until the product is ready.”

 

I'm curious when he posted that on Steam... I'll have to check it out. I know he said that the wiping just makes designing faster and easier on the devs but it isn't strictly necessary. And no, I don't think they have that much backed up in internal testing areas... or they'd probably be pushing it out to us to break. Like he said in his post to us, alpha/feature complete may get pushed aside for getting to last wipe... which means beta dates may also get bumped back... or we just sit a really long time in beta... but I hope its not that.

 

Like everyone i have my issues with the current state of the game, and i voice them from time to time. I'm also arrogant enough to write any idea i come up that i think may improve the game towards my desired direction. But i'm humble enough to see that i'm just one player more, and that the quality of my comments can only be judged by Portalarium itself, no matter what i think of it.

Of course i'll never shut up, i'll keep saying what i like and what i'd like to change... but the way i see it, in the end it's all matter of trust. And that trust is there because even when there are still things that i don't like and remains unchanged, some other things changed and improved over time. Attending specifically to the request in the OP, i don't want a release date... i'd settle with a list of the core mechanics that Portalarium don't consider final atm and the kind of development we can expect for those (lawyering free of course).

Bottom line is, I pledged for what SotA could be, not for what it is.

 

I've gone through and cleaned up some posts on here and am now reopening the thread.

Please keep something in mind here: this is a topic that gets very heated very fast. We all have different opinions. Please be respectful of everyone's opinion regardless of what those opinions are or if you disagree with them. Everyone is certainly welcome to voice their opinion be it positive, neutral or negative but do so in a meaningful and courteous way.

​

 

@RichardGarriott @DarkStarr @dallas @Chris @Lum

Thank you for all the information that was provided during the Winter Telethon of the Avatar, and especially for reiteration of the focus and effort towards releasing Episode 1. Looking forward especially to the single player storyline, and all of the new things to explore and enjoy within New Britannia.

 

For those of us who didn't tune in and don't have time for lengthy videos, any useful details beyond reassuring everyone they're working hard?

Edit: Mainly looking for info on single player storyline, personally, but anyone should feel free elaborate.

 

I asked what PvP feature isn't in the game, that they'd like to see, and Chris said he really wants new functional PvP scenes, especially tailored for multiplayer tactics.. Starr said he'd really like a functional bounty system that works similar to the work-order system.. and Richard said 'Cannibalism!'.

 

Well, they were carving up pieces of @RichardGarriott last night for auction

 

Not specifics, for obvious reasons not wanting to spoil things. There is a schedule in place for Q1 to start introducing single player elements into the builds, and @Lum mentioned they have a TON of NPC dialogue and work that's getting caught up towards as they flesh out the story. More than anything, they have started actually setting some definite milestones about what will be in the initial release, versus what will be continued to be worked on for future stuff.

It was nice to see the actual official response, as opposed to the rumor mill working overtime in the dark with all the mushrooms

 

This is weird. If you stare at this chart, a faint grey line appears from reluctance on the left to reluctance on the right. Neat illusion for the records.

 

That's nothing new. At this rate their story is nothing but spoiler. I hope it'll all fit on one t-shirt.

Colour me cautiously optimistic. Hopefully they give some solid details out in the email updates so SPers can finally have something to look forward to, particularly those who aren't on these forums.

Thanks for the run-down, HD

 

The biggest issue for me is that this game did not remind me of an ultima game. For a spiritual successor the game should be rooted in the things we came to love in the ultima series and for me especially ultima online. Card combat really? Terrible idea. Instanced everything really? Dumping the use based system? The failed reagent implimentation? I remember stealing this in the early ultimas by the stack and hunting wildly for them in uo, this early version of the game no one even cares about reagents.

When this game rolled it was about as far from Ultima as you can get. They have bandaided a few of those issues listed above and made improvements however there making it a softcore pvp game something uo never was. You cant compete in the softcore market to many games do it way better way longer.

If your only objective is to target the roll player mabey your on point. I have no intention to join community events or sit arround saying thee and thus.

For me give me open world pvp with risk and reward that's uo. Not this buy back crap...

There's an amazing game already out that this game claims to be the successor to, mabey have a couple developers open up accounts and experience the game again.

I think offering more modes might be a solution to many people want diffrent games. Hardcore online mode comes to mind, roll play online mode for some might be for them.

Credit where credit is due.

The dev team has been reactive to community suggestions I get where you have 5 people u might get 7 opinions.

There are some really smart people on the dev team.

Edit: I love the dev team and not just brown nosing here, I just think we're off path a bit. My .02 not even sure it's worth a full .02..

 

I thought that was just an imaginary line, drawn to help measure the sign wave. Then again the whole wave might actually display the psychology of self-reluctance???

 

The most important thing is the devs are working hard, there are frequent patches and a clear roadmap. Yes, the number of issues is increasing, but the number of features as well. I want more features and I don't care about the time, the deadlines or the final wipe day. If they can do it, I would leave the devs to their hard work and "make the magic" for us. Since we all want this game to work and to be the definitive "Ultima like" modern game (and even more) we all wanted since 20 years or so.

 

Many players do not post often or at all.

I never played UO so I have no issues with how both games compare.

I absolutely love what the devs have done with this game. All I expect this year is that the game has a solid foundation to build upon for the next 10 years because that is how long I plan to play it. Shroud has progressed very well imho and having polished systems in place is more important to me than anything else.

With age comes patience. With patience comes perfection.

Cheers friends!

 

Like Draconin never having played UO, I have no Ultima background whatsoever. If this game when E1 launches pleases most of the people who do have that, it will please me because I like this community very much and I want them all to stay around. I do not do PvP, but if the PvP folks are going to get events that please them and keep them active, it will make me happy, too. It is my hope that we will be given the tools and show the imagination that creates such events and Ultima reminiscent flavour.

@HoustonDragon has a point to his "rant" that it is taking a long time to get to launch and his wanting more information. We did get quite a lot of info during the recent webathon, but we did not get a launch date.

So I, too, plead for more information, even if DLMB is pasted after each sentence. But I am not dismayed at the time it takes before E1 is launched, since I am busy for some hours each day training myself in combat, map-reading, and crafting, as well as chatting to new and established avatars. I am having a great time!

 

I know this whole cooperation and work between the dev team and the player (backer) community is kind of new and we're all sort of feeling our way here. Pk u is feeling like you guys are off just a bit, and I agree with him -- but i think it's because you guys may be listening a bit too much to the community.

Your current player community is largely composed of mature, confident, opinionated people. They read the articles, watched the videos, perhaps even played an early version of the game, and saw something that spoke to them so forcefully that they were willing to pay large sums of money to see that game created. But here is where divisiveness appears, because the game each person saw was the game they wanted to see, based on what they heard of what you were telling them.

Yes we (the community) have a lot of good, wonderful input. And we are happy to share it, lol. But YOU are the dev team. YOU know what game you planned to make, you know exactly what still needs to be done to finish it. Sometimes you do need to stop listening so closely to all our various rants, complaints (and lol, even compliments). Sometimes you need to touch ground and re-orient/re-allign yourself with your goals in order to make good forward progress again.

just a thought
hope it helps

Sophi

 

Good smart post.. thanks

 

and this is why we love you sophi.

*plays dead*

 

awww!!
*blows kiss*