Final Wipe and Lot Selection

That's cool man I can understand that, then be prepared to drop immersion/put quests aside and rush to get your lot. to have both is asking a bit much imo.

+1, that's what I am saying. that's not true
I was just hoping for something constructive.

I think its a good thing. I don't think locations should have a permanent monopoly, economic shifts should occur due to many things

 

As long as there are players out there who don't log on to steam or contribute to kickstarters to get early access to games, but do go to brick and mortar stores to see the latest releases and their first eyes-on-box will be when it hits the shelves, it DOES mean something. It means that others, MANY of whom won't have paid any more than the person at the store at "launch", have been playing weeks before what should have been the starting line. Its that simple.

 

What about episode2 or 3?
how about 2 years after launch and a new guy joins?
Unless everyone starts at the exact same time and has the exact same playtime, there will be people ahead. Its that simple.

 

Apples and oranges, buddy. Apples and oranges. Pointing to a future start date for an EXPANSION, is not the same as the start date for a game that never existed.

 

Okay guys, everyone needs to take a breath. This thread is moving very quickly down hill and I'd rather not have to lock it. Please be respectful when you are discussing these topics as we all have some pretty strong opinions on them. Also, there is no need to continue making the same points over and over.

 

but it is, cuz new people will join and there will be old people still playing that have been playing for YEARS not just weeks or months

 

If you can't see the flaws in that, I can't explain it any better than I and others already have. I'll leave it alone.

 

Years and years ago, I used to work for at a supply chain company that specialized in video game distribution. So I know quite a bit about how the brick and mortar retail world works. The game publishers that were our largest clients used to make games on a schedule, and the whole "racket" was that they would publish games with ONE goal in mind. Make as much money as possible during the first two weeks after launch. Because gamers are inherently suckers for pretty packaging, fancy marketing, and the promise that Super Catman 67 is going to be amazingly better than Super Catman 66. Most of all the games revenue back then came from that first two weeks (probably 70%). That's probably very different now with Steam and online gaming, but you brought up retail.

So what the publishers would do (and still do btw) is they would pump up the marketing and the hype a few months before launch. They'd push 50k - 400k units of their game based on forecasting models out to retail shops like Gamestop or Electronic Boutique, Best Buy, etc...

Then two weeks later, because putting stuff on store shelves isn't free, they'd take returns on anything that didn't sell. The stores would send back A LOT of it, especially for the worst games, and that would be it. The publisher would go to work on Catman 69 for next year!

So what does that mean? It means that gamers don't make buying decisions on things like "this has already been wiped". They make buying decisions on things like "is this a good game?" and "is this something new that looked really cool on IGN?" That's it, that's the reality of all of this. I know because I used to laugh all the time at how many people would buy really stupid games allowing publishers to have a guaranteed annuity!

If we make a good game, that's all that matters. People will gladly buy it. And regardless of if it's a game that people have played or haven't played in. If it's good, they will buy it. Because the amount of horrible games out there are always going to be on schedule and available for purchase.

 

It's stated that "note that you will have to complete the first two starting scenes (Island of Storms and Highvale/Solace Bridge/Bloodriver) before you can proceed to lot selection in game".

Will I be able to play through the starting scenes prior to my lot selection date/time or do I have to wait and play them when my selection window starts?

 

It depends on when your starting selection time is. If you are in group 1...then no.

If you are in group 3 or beyond, then yes you could. What most people will do is casually play the game before their time to select. You will not have to FINISH any quests or scenes to go select your lot. You will only have to push through the starting scenes, which honestly can't take more than 30 minutes of time if you just started playing. But even if you're on the spot and only want to login and select your lot, all you have to do is run through the starting scenes, select your lot and then log off and delete your character. The lot you selected is tied to your account, thus allowing you to start completely over without loosing it.

 

From myself/other players/game mechaincs/scheduled releases, yes. That's called playing a game and being part of a rich, dynamic world.

From the devs because they choose not to finish all the promised functionality before wipe, no. That's called something else.

 

Where would you draw the line?

I think flowing robes should be in the game, but they're not a priority and we'll be lucky to see them in EP2. Should we hold up world persistence for that? It's a feature that I feel very strongly about.

 

Thanks for the reminder - I completely forgot Wasteland 2 was updated. I need to go patch up and play a little.

 

I know. I'm not trying to throw anybody to the flames... but it saddens me seeing posts of people telling them not to do something they're adamant on doing just exposing one of the possible scenarios, or by quoting previous fiascos. Those can be deemed as arguments for not going down that road as advices while going down that road. I sincerely doubt they took this course of action without looking carefully at actual numbers, so why not keep trusting them? I feel we're all going on a bus, and suddenly we take a turn and the drivers tells us that we're going down a road with holes and obstacles and sharp curves, and there's nothing we can do about it. Some of us knows about some other buses that went down that road and start asking to turn back... but the driver is telling us there's no turning back. So why stay focused on the doom? it's just a chance, and since we know about those holes and the curves, let's put our best efforts on avoid them so our bus reaches its destination in the best shape possible.

What i'm trying to say is that to me it's very strange that devs says something is "out of discussion" so i took it very seriously, and think that they'll have their reasons. I'm not asking anyone to hush their concerns, but to focus on them, not on how big the game is going to fail in their opinion. For example i think combat needs to improve a lot (haven't been online yet so i don't know how much it improved with this release, but i've been reading nice things) and i'll keep posting about what i'd like combat to be, because i think it's better to say "the game is going to fail in six months because combat is not ready now".

So to sum up, negative and constructive are not exclusive properties for feedback. In fact, negative feedback is needed now more than never since the final wipe is in the horizon. But at the same time we should avoid the prophecies of doom, exactly because we all want this game to succeed and dead horse is already dead.

OMG SUPER CATMAN 67 IS OUT?

A customer walks into a game shop...

 

LOL

 

The common sense answer is anything that could affect the value of lot selection at final wipe. Flowing robes are not going to affect that, so of course not.

 

I dunno, gotta look smooth when placing your swag

 

Do you see anything that could impact the value of lot selection at final wipe?

I read back through your posts in this thread but didn't really see you hitting on that.

 

Well, I'm not really sure what to say. I can't say I'm disappointed, because I haven't felt hopeful about Shroud in a very long time. I'm not particularily upset either, even though this long list of things which will be available at "soft launch" or whatever you want to call it makes me feel fairly deceived by the Kickstarter pitch.

I guess what I can say is that when I backed the Kickstarter, I was hoping for a good singleplayer roleplaying game, and I could never in my wildest dreams imagine that what would come out of that pitch would be Ultima Online meets Second Life but with pausing/saving and NPC companions. Having said that, I'm well aware that this entire thread is proof that I'm in the minority and that my definition of "Ultimate RPG" doesn't exactly match up with most everyone else here. Those of us who bought into SotA for a chance at the greatness of the old Ultima series are likely vastly outnumbered by those who wanted Ultima Online 2. Still, I never expected the singleplayer mode would quite literally be an MMO without the MMO part.

I think if there's one thing I'm a bit sad about, it's that through all of this, the only hint of understanding towards those of us who've been disappointed with the development has come from Lum. I understand that plans change, but I find myself wishing that the original backers had been treated better and with more respect after the game deviated away so much from its pitch, given how we made SotA possible in the first place. Where we are now - and especially after this post - all I'm left with is an overarching feeling of "Deal with it"™.