*FEEDBACK: Will this be the game I hoped it would be? *

The most expensive MMO ever created was SWTOR estimated to be between 150-200 million. A huge chunk of that budget went to voice acting. That was in 2012. WOW cost $40 million to originally make in 2004. @Link_of_Hyrule The linked article regarding Tera Online is completely disconnected from reality because the article writer made a mistake in their conversion - apparently a couple other posted articles made the same mistake. In 2010 50B Korean WON = 44.25M USD not 440M USD. I wouldn't argue with a company spending 1/2 billion to try to take WOW's over 1 billion/year profit but it would be amazing to find backers willing to invest that kind of money on a possibility.

Without voice acting an MMO runs much less than $100 million. There have been some crowd sourced MMOs that have made more than 15 million, but I have not heard of any that actually consumed all that cash. Star Citizen as an example.

Corrected for inflation the games come out to the following cost in 2016 dollars:
SWTOR: 210M
WOW: 50M
Tera Online: 48.55M
SotA: 8.9M so far and I doubt they've spent every dime brought in at this point.


I too am awaiting anxiously to see the game that I invested in. I want fun exploring with depth in story and a minimal amount of punitive aspects except for challenging content.

 

There are SO many things SotA is still lacking in order to feel like a polished RPG and a successor to Ultima.

Unique NPCs with backgrounds and schedules - yes this will come someday... But where are the interesting backgrounds like the Mayor meeting a woman at midnight?
Partymembers that are more than talking pets
Cities with unique looks that give them some "personality"- right now they are nothing more than housing zones and social hubs. Where is Paws, Trinsic, Yew etc.? Those cities were unique, full of interesting NPCs who had a purpose, interesting things to do and to say. This made visiting the cities interesting and fun.
Interesting quests with twists. Quests that we get while adventuring without having to talk to NPCs. Quests that are more than bring item A to person B. When looking for a key is considered too complicated then something is wrong...
A world that feels logical and alive - right now it seems that all areas are just there for grinding purposes.
A great presentation of the story or at least of the dialogues.

SotA feels like it would like to have those things but it can't. SotA has become a MMORPG and - sorry to say that - a fairly standard one. Tab-Targeting, hotbar combat, fedex quests, everybody does the same quests, cities as hubs, crafting in windows, a standard MMO-UI... It feels as if I have played it a thousand times before. There is nothing unique or special about it. And it totally lacks the Ultima atmosphere.

During the Kickstarter campaign the game looked totally different. It looked like it could actually have all of the things I mentioned. WHAT HAPPENED????

 

This, i believe is still in its infant stages but there are some places with hidden goodies. There are lootable sacks and hidden treasure chests to find scattered all around, but the loot hasnt been toyed with yet. Most of the loot in game is placeholder until it can be balanced.

Also, there arent neccessarily Maps, but there are hints and clues youc an fidn that will point you in the direction of hidden goodies. The best example i can think of thus far is in northern grunvald, where some notes left scattered around by bold explorers may lead to something profitable

theres severals cenes with things liek this in them, but they are in the spirit of exploration and theres nothing pointing you to them. They are pretty much things you will end up stumblign upon if your curious enough. and theres alot mreo to come, its one of my favorite poart sof this game.

the second bulelt poitn here is likely due to attempting to combat the first bullet point.

If your into storyline, theres abandoned huts that offer information that give you a view of the story behind the scene your in. (reading the paper you find layigna round is the msot common way)

There are hidden doros and rooms in alooooot of scenes i wont mention any but, you can find anythign from breakable walls and locked doors with hidden keys, to illusions and puzzle locks in some areas.

and even entire hidden scenes with mosnters and resources (and perhaps treasure in the future )



Alot of this stuff hasnt recieved polish or balance passes yet, but the evidence for a good tiemt o come is deffinately there

 

some aspects of single player offline will not function the same as Online. Things like how you will make gold, quests, and in general, pretty much anything put in place to ensure balance in multiplayer was ptu in place to adapt the game to multiplayer. Single Player offline will have more fuctions peopel have asked for but could not work in the multiplayer game due to server/balance issues.

Multiplayer is far more difficult to impliment and work around because of the concept of Fairness, and the limits of technology built to accomodate a massive ammount of connections at once. So that is the majority of what we have been testing, but to state it is the entirety of what the game will be at release is false.

 

That's my point.

 

• Run- Run - Run....fame in, frame out,
• If you go to talk to someone, you get a screen full of pop ups, how annoying is that. Atleast in Uo you you knew someone was beginning to talk to when the invisd. Maybe get some type of indicator that shows someone is typing like a empty bubble waiting to be filled. I dont know, but often it takes a good 10 seconds or more, to go from running or swinging to being able to type correctly. It would be nice when I hit enter, my cursor would light up in the chat box so I dont have to put it in there. I am not open to other players views on this subject, but global chat is a must and Port must moderate it. like it or not. Having to go outside the game as Part of the function to prop it up is not cool. Going outside the game should always BE an addition to and not part of.. this should a be a foundational rule set on any aspect of the game. . [ leave your spin at the door, If they do not create a carnival like atmosphere, this game is dead on arrival. and your cutting your nose off to spite your face, if one thinks other wise.
• I rarely use my House, that is bad news, I hate not having the incentive to go places. Like many trips, getting there is fine, its just the long ride back that bites most of the time.
• They need to share bank boxes every where. I have yet to justify that one. this will dive an OCD person out of there minds.
• The Over world needs to be immersed into an every day scene, fully functional. it shouldnt be some ridge running exercise. to say? this our chat scene, is appalling.
• I want my resources to have bigger images in the inventory.
• everyone is worried about cotos, but what they really need to do is, turn down the npc's buying prices and turn up the selling prices.
• after they get the towns set up and the villages, POTS, sota needs to be open range just as before. and the only way to do that is to open up the Over world to an everyday scene.
• this one is a bit more disturbing, it appears they are hedging their position on player pledges. presumingly, to keep people in place and distinction in check. .

 

edited my post to include more detail

 

So is this, for I did not say that. I said that the momentum of the game is a powerful force and I don't expect offline to be able to wrest attention away from MMO development. I know what you're trying to say, but you kind of make my point. The MMO issues are pressing, and when will they not be? What I am saying is I don't think the offline mode will ever get significant attention to be attractive. I hope I get proven wrong, but I don't expect it.

 

I totally agree with you...

 

I don't really post much, but I felt the need to respond as this thread really struck a chord with me. Thank you, OP, for putting a lot of my thoughts into words! I've put the statements that resound with my own thoughts in red above, and will add my own comments below.

Let me start off by saying that I have NOT played any of the Ultima games before, so I had no preconceived thoughts as to what this game "should" be a spiritual successor to; I'm perfectly fine being in a minority on this one, but understand that I probably AM a minority, but that puts a bit of a different spin on my feedback.

I was originally drawn into financially supporting this game because of the concepts of having access to an RPG world that had several modes, mostly the idea of playing with friends and not in a huge MMO. I really dislike most MMOs because instead of creating an immersive experience with a rich world in which meaningful events occur, you get stuck with a world with some quest lines to follow but because everyone starts at different times, it's difficult to have any kind of meaningful progression or change in the world. Then you're stuck catering to the masses instead of your vision, and also stuck trying to appeal to the most amount of people who will give you the most money to keep the profits flowing.

Unfortunately, this is what the game is starting to feel like. I let go of the story lines for a long time because I realized it was still in development, but it doesn't feel like it's come far enough in the time given. The UI is awful, clicking on words to reveal more text, often going in useless conversation loops or having the NPC restart a conversation I'd previously had that was finished like nothing ever happened until I try to further the conversation. But I digress... Onto other issues.

I was a HUGE fan of player housing and upgraded my pledge so that I have a place to call home and to decorate, that's important to me. I really have NO problem with paying for housing as a backer and a way to fund the project, but this whole pay-to-play thing coming up AFTER pledges stop makes me feel like my pledge isn't special. I don't mean that in a whiny, "I need to feel like I'm a special snowflake", what I mean is that I mistakenly took the pledges as having the ability to provide support for the game and getting a rare and unique reward for helping out. Sure, some items are exclusive, but I don't know how useful or distinctive they will be once the game has been out for a while.

And talking about player housing, I initially thought it was awesome! Then come the obsidian towers for village spaces that obstruct the scenery, littered lawns where people's houses are set up solely as marketplaces with vendors having hideously long names to sell stuff (can we just use signs, please?), and horrible town layouts that meander around these areas before getting to the NPC or town centers, and the fact that there's no useful layout in the towns and cities is maddening. I totally think players should be able to decorate how they want for the most part, but when they put up ankh walls that extend vertically past the "fences", it's a real obstruction of the view of the world.

Then there's the idea of a completely player driven economy. This is just MY personal opinion, I'm not bashing those of you who want to implement more real-world aspects into this game, but personally I play a game to have fun. I'm not in competition with anyone, I just want to spend some time, craft some stuff, make what I can of the world and enjoy it. Player-driven economies mean that we will probably get exploiters tipping the markets, gold farming, exorbitant prices for great stuff (yes I want to have to work for things, but I don't want to have to work as hard as I do in the real world for some fun items), etc. I don't find it fun, especially once you introduce pay-for-gold transactions from the real world. Also, I don't want to be forced to have to grind away to support the crafter-only players because the durability of my items suck, and I don't want to have to support the gathering-only players if gathering becomes a real chore and I'm forced to buy from them to craft myself, stuff like that... Again, that's just me.

Anyway, I've already whined too much. These are just my thoughts. I do like a LOT of aspects of the game, but over the last few releases haven't felt like things are going in the right direction. I'm starting to wonder what the true goals of this game are and whether my investment will pay off in the long run.

 

I always think of how great SotA could be if it would play and feel like - let's say - Skyrim or Risen but with the ability to go online and play with friends or strangers. A great RPG with a world that feels unique, interesting and alive. Interesting NPCs with their own backgrounds, agendas, personality, needs and of course daily schedules. Interesting, complex, exciting quests full of twists and surprises. A great presentation of the story and dialogues. NPCs who really react to what we say and are not robots that say the same things over and over. An intuitive, minimalistc UI with a focus on a immersive world...
Right now everything feels not like a full game, a game with elements that really play together. It doesn't feel like a game but instead like parts of different games that somehow try to fit together but it doesn't work. The single player aspect fights against the MMO aspect and vice versa. A game that fights itself and struggles to keep the promises of the Kickstarter campaign.

 

Good Post!

Never said this before: but this game is heading in the wrong direction!

 

The offline mode is going to have more freedom than the online mode, and its gonna have the capability of immersing you as an individual more so than multiplayer. Theyve revealed the backstory and some of the mechanics, and while i cant say whether its gonna be satisfying or not (because i cant play it yet) it sounds like a different experience from what single player online is.

 

@DarkStarr @dallas Another post from the unknown persona I mentioned in the other post. You really should spend some time on these thoughts... they are your acquisition drivers. Note as well that she's conditioned to think in her lurking that her voice is "whining" and voicing such obviously different opinions may be "too much" for the forums.

I'd love to see you prove her wrong. #notaboutme

 

This game is still Pre-Alpha with 6+ months to go on epis 1

The simple fact is that story is the last thing to go in during development. We can see that they are really starting it in the last few releases to get it ready for December. I'm still not all that worried.

However, I do agree, the story is terrible so far. I've been playing since January and I haven't even had any interest in even talking to NPC's. I've listened to guild mates go through the stories now and Im not interested. I go the the Oracle all the time and talk to it and it tells me I've never consulted it before. But I will also say that I really haven't been interested in story line all that much in games that are multiplayer. The story is made in the community. I cant tell you one story line from UO, WOW, DAOC, NWN, EQ, EQ2 however I can tell you a million stories about my adventures.

I also expect that this is the case at this early dev point. This is what they are working on, Fire Lotus was just pulled over to focus on story alone.

By the way... I haven't even *needed* to talk to NPC's or do any stories yet and Im perfectly fine with it and still enjoy the rest of the game.

But, this is pre-alpha. If your gig is story, you should check back in near release (hopefully help them test the story stuff as it grows).

 

This is very disappointing to hear. Because Richard Garriott always said that he thinks people will prefer to play Singleplayer Online, than Single Player Offline.. The only major difference he saw there being between the two, was that online had access to the dynamic multiplayer economy and environment, which could make it feel more alive and immersive than the offline version..

Who's game are you describing here? Because it doesn't sound like the Lord British game I've been hearing about.

 

I'd also like more to do in SOTA.

I wonder if you could give us "bare-bones" quests that involve the following structure but no real story content to spoil:

1. Bring me stuff - I will increase your XP
2. Go get that stuff and give it to that guy (or these people) - I will give you gold when you return
3. Explore areas X, Y, and Z then return to me and converse with me about them - I will give you XP
4. Find person X or object Y, it's hidden in Z. When you do you can move to the next questline.
5. Find person X, but watch for ambushes along the way (increased combat!).
6. Craft me an X, in return I will provide you some free crafting supplies afterwards.
etc.

In this way - we have more stuff to do and the developers can test quest-related triggers and effects without having to write really involved story lines because the story lines are as simple as what I just described above.

 

Unless the story quests and such in single player offline are different than online mode i dont see this not being the case. In single player the focus is YOU, not you and a bunch of other folks. And the mechanics will probalby different like selling crafted stuff to NPCs for money and beign abel to drop thigns on the ground. Wasnt tryign to say that it would be a different game, jsut a different experience than Multiplayer (because of the mechanics and noone else being around)

 

Hey folks!
Jumping in here to be sure you know we are listening and taking this all in! BTW - I agree with much of what I have read in this thread. Especially in two key areas. 1) Improved plots including crisper dialog, integrated schedules with unexpected time based events & 2) Unique traps/puzzles/discoveries interactions.

On these two front's I beg your patience. I share these goals deeply and we will be working to provide this. Keep in mind, that schedules just started working a couple releases back, so we have not made exotic use of them yet. I do hope and believe we will deliver a strong, diverse plot, and its a heavy focus from July-December!

Likewise for unique tricks, traps etc. Harkening back to playing stones on the harpsichord in U5 revealing a secret door and the sandlewood box. Know that this type of puzzle classically goes in LATE in the development cycle, after we have all the SYSTEMS working and then we bridge them with plot devices.

So, we are not "off track" in my mind from the historical cycle of how and when these things come online.

That being said, we need you to keep "harping" on them, as you feel them. That way we keep the proper priority on what makes the game better for you! This is especially true after we have gummed up the works with so many deep changes in UI etc of late!

We are working on it!
- Richard (Lord British) Garriott

 

Thanks, Richard. As a fan, I have no way to know this without you guys telling me. I have the same concerns as the OP only I'm focused more on PVP elements that allow players to experience more meaningful fighting. So I really appreciate it when I hear this kind of logic, even though my passion may not be in the same place.

It's taken me some time to get used to the iterative process. And I realize it is a "process". But I wonder if it makes more sense for you guys to build out ONE of the scenes (as soon as the systems are build out and will allow you) as an example of what a finished quality dungeon might look like? This might relax a lot of folks that see the slow drip iteration of progress under a skeptical eye. It may also provide you with a scene that can be marketed to the public to build more interest in the game.