SotA is unrewarding in its current state...

Crafting is not good.

I want to play the game with gear I have crafted for myself. The way materials have to be acquired does not allow me to do this. The sheer volume, the combat required to undertake for the very most basic wood or ore. It's impossible as a new player to get the 5k wood it takes to make a bow, or the 100k iron it takes to make a sword.

If there isn't some kind of interim level of crafting that just caters to players wanting to employ a self sufficient play style I will be sorely disappointed.

I get that for economic balance, the higher end items need to be more difficult to craft. No complaints there. Just let me craft a damn iron sword to bust on beginner mobs.

 

A sword takes 5 iron ingots, which is 20 iron ore, where are you getting 100k from?

I was able to craft my own sword and a set of Epic Leather armour over the weekend, it doesn't take that long.

 

It's hard tho!!

 

If we are talking about a two handed sword it would be 5 ingots for the blade and 2 for the hilt. I also try to supplement scraps in when I can so that decreases ore costs by half. 7 ingots = 24 ore OR 7 ingots = 14 ore & 84 scrap. I think that's right.. Scrap is very easy to get, just competes with direct cash flow initially.

~Woden

 

Well, I would avoid those zones and all areas that allowed this, and also the dungeons. Like I said I don't like it at all. Especially having to run back to your corpse or tombstone in time to get back your gear. In light armor you can carry only so much, and the weight of my arrows are extra weight, they all add up, so carrying extra gear wont cut it. I say leave the high risk in the PVP zones.
Now on the THIEF's part, hmmm, maybe they could be allowed to steal low end stuff (crafted cloaks,maybe a few nodes etc) they are thief's after all, but not my crafted stuff that takes ages to gather and craft, or any thing that I bought on the add on store with real money.

 

I believe that's already implemented and excluded from any potential looting.

The main point I'm trying to highlight is that we should be open minded and give feedback instead of jumping to the conclusions that we all know how a dev will implement such mechanics. I think mechanics such as this could be interesting and give people more intense and adrenaline fueled experiences; but it needs to be implemented correctly.

The only way a dev can know how to implement it correctly is through thoughtful feedback from us; If we say NO IT'S NOT FUN AT ALL and the dev's really want to do it then they are just going to throw it in where ever they see fit, which isn't always the best most elegant of ways.

Just my opinion.

~Woden

 

yea this was in the kickstarter I believe, its prolly gonna happen, maybe only with humanoid enemies. I like the idea really, sorta dark souly. I hate meaningless deaths in an mmo. There needs to be risks or we can just throw our bodies at things till they are dead.
Also the higher the risk, the more feeling of victory/accomplishment you get from doing something.

 

While I personally plan to never enter a PVP zone, I don't think it needs to be all or nothing - different areas with different risks and different rewards. Some players will be happy to take on all risks, some won't, as long as we all have a choice that's fine.

I agree on the add-on items one, but to repeat myself I would be happy to see areas where it was possible for thieves to steal higher level stuff as well as ones where they only steal stuff below a set value, so long as it's clear to everyone what's at risk entering the scene. What would make it more interesting, and add the elements of risk vs reward that @Wodin Folkvardr suggests, is if the thieves hold on to the stuff they steal so there's a chance for you (and others) to steal it back.

 

I believe that's the last iteration I had heard RG talking about. The idea of going and killing an enemy and he would drop perhaps a sword or something that was stolen from a player who had previous fallen. It would be interesting to see how this would end up playing out and the design choices made on the subject as there are a lot of pit falls and discomfort to a shoddy implementation.

~Woden

 

that's fine, but I don't want my risks to be LOOSING hard earned stuff. This to me is punishment enough as posted some where.... When a player dies, they incur an experience debt debuff. Until they work off their debt, they can still gain experience, but at a reduced rate. We haven’t gone into details about advancement yet, but the debt incurred is against either PVP and PVE experience, depending on how you died.

 

Everything you have said is pretty fair. Slated for this month's release are changes to the game's economy, including vendor prices/availability, loot drops from creatures, adjustments to crafting nodes and harvest amounts... basically, all of the things you touched on about rewards. We don't have a wealth of information about what will be changed and what won't be changed, but Chris has posted threads in the past discussing the ideas of where gold is generated from, how gold is removed from the economy, and ways to assure a balanced system of generating/removing gold from the economy, and from the content of that post (which I cannot for the life of me find) he seems to have a good idea of what needs to be done. Basically, it's on the radar, crosshairs sighted in, and it's something that will be seeing improvement (or at least adjustment) in the near future.

As to the item drop system people have mentioned, @Chris has been very clear on a few things. Please do not spread knee-jerk panic by spreading false or out-dated information.
In PvP, not ALL of your items drop. One single item from your equipment or inventory has a chance to be ransomed off when killed by another player, if they loot your tombstone. They have discussed some scenes that feature full loot, but there will be few of them, and they will warn you before loading into the scene what sort of loot drop the scene features.
In PvE, not ALL of your items will drop, only items that you have acquired since loading into the scene. So, for example, if you've been in a scene beating up on archers for 10 minutes, but find yourself swarmed, all of the gold/bows/arrows you have acquired from those archers will be at your tombstone, for you to pick up and try to scarper with. Outside of a specific few PvP scenes, you will not be risking ALL of your equipment if you die.

 

~Well Said @Rasmenar ~

It pays to listen closely to our developers because changes within our development need to stay current with what we're doing here.
I try and listen to replays of their talks while hunting so what is coming, or what is there can be tested in every way that we can all think of trying...
@DarkEvilHatred
~Time Lord~

 

A lot of my questions about this were answered during the telethon yesterday. It was a lot of fun and very helpful.