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

*CLAPS*

 

I must admit : I'm not a huge supporter of repairing with premium currency myself. In roleplay, I do not see how the fact of putting a small coin on the crafting station will help to restore what can not be restored otherwise.

That said, it still seems that it is possible to acquire this premium currency in the game, without having to pay.

But this system may deter players who have neither much gaming time nor money. I think the premium currency that can buy, like in TESO , boosts or cosmetic items is a good thing. The premium currency that can be exchanged with gold coins in game is a good thing if it is limited to avoid unbalancing the game economy and deflation.But I'm more reserved with regard to the premium currency if it is used to bypass an "annoying" (but useful) aspect of the game.

Anyway, we should wait and see how this will be balanced.

 

I'd like to see crafters with a high level salvage skill have the chance to recover some decent crafting materials from broken items. This would create a contentious secondary market for broken equipment. A player who is not interested in crafting could sell the broken equipment to crafters, or trade it to a skilled crafter who will be making new equipment.

Players have a few options:

- Use a coin to repair the gear. (perhaps move this process to the alchemy station, eg: you're magically reconstituting the item)
- Buy new gear
- Sell the broken gear for salvage value (crafters who want to recover resources from the item)
- Sell the broken gear for crown repair value. (players willing to spend a crown to repair it)
- Use your high level salvage skill to recover crafting materials and make a new item.

Maybe there could be a public npc junk vendor, or a salvage tab on the existing public vendors.

Also, perhaps salvage skill could determine how much scraps/materials you get back after failing enchantments.

 

I was just reading one of those click-bait articles about things in games that we're tired of.. and #5 was Protection and Escort Missions.

It's not a bad little article.. and it has a point. Escort missions in other games have been so frustrating, it might be fun to see this style quest turned on its head in Shroud. What if during the tutorials, we went on a sort of 'protection quest' where we were the ones being protected/escorted, while we learn the ropes of the game? The guard would hand us a weapon and yell at us to keep close as she shows us the way out of danger. We'd be just another refugee to them perhaps, that they're helping escape the carnage. She would do most of the fighting, but perhaps need our assistance at some point, and maybe she would get wounded, and die as we reach safety.

Now that would be a memorable/humbling experience, and could introduce us to how difficult bad guys will be, so we know we can't just charge into any zone and expect to face the world right from the start. ;-D

 

I'm clinging to the hope that in time it will develop into a game that players will cherished to live in. No doubt this game will not be for everyone,but this maybe it's pulling point to be unlike other games.For players to feel at home in a mature environment

 

The problem is generally in the implementation.

Btw, if they wanted to turn it on its head, they could do a 'protection quest' where it's a definite thing that the person you were asked to protect is going to die, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Also, they could make it so the person you're supposed to protect betrays you in some way, or turns on you. Or robs you. (Like Saduj the traitor in Ultima V)

 

The answer is probably no. but in time I may become what many of us hoped for. I choose to hope, even if I sound like i am not being hopeful....

 

@Miracle Dragon,

Or they could design it so the person you're trying to protect is actually trying to bring harm to you by bringing you into dangerous areas and leading you into traps, or intentionally sabotaging you by being "clumsy" and alerting enemies.

 

Even the quests in Ultima V from 1988 were deeper and more complex? I bet people back then would have found the key to the Highvale gates on the corpse of the guard captain...

 

I'm feeling better about the COTOs after watching the R30 postmortem video - as another community member commented, it comes down to trust.

I trust that they're not going to make it impossible for me to play through the story/game with friends without being continually frustrated and forced to buy crowns to complete the game. They made that quite clear and I'm hoping this is well communicated during the official launch so that people don't look at it and say "Oh, I pay $45 and then it's Pay to Play as I have to buy crowns?".

They will need to be sure they are very clear to consumers but many people just won't look beyond the surface and don't have the long standing relationship with the game and developers.

I'm also feeling slightly better about the quest/story prospects too now that they're going to focus on polishing the Love storyline... I'll give them a few releases to do a polish and then try it out again!

One thing I'm worried about is that no one has addressed my question about when real NPC models will be in? (@Lum? @DarkStarr?) Kind of need these in for at least the main NPCs before it's really possible to get a proper feel of the quests.

 

I've been pushing on that here too as well. Don't have a definitive answer for you but now that we have the female player avatar in, it's on the roadmap - our art team is going to create individual NPC models based on the player avatar system so that we can have unique NPCs.

 

I trust that Lord British will do what he said he would do. I expect that if I poked my head in to his office and started playing Ultima IV when it was at this same stage of development, I would be underwhelmed with the story, quests, etc too.

If you want to play Skyrim, go do that. I played SotA for hours every day until Fallout 4 came out. I played that non-stop until May, and have now gone back to Elder Scrolls because SotA isn't ready yet. I still check in and run around a bit every day, but the game is not done.

 

~Critics Are Always Tough, But Funding is Much Tougher~

~SOTA Quality~
I don't see the big deal, "or any big deal" that could be made about our SOTA. "It's well built ship with extreme quality challenge!" There's nothing but quality content in every department that's be produced here. Quality I might add that keeps polishing the quality there ever was here. "I've been impressed with every new release".

~Funding~
COTO are just another small part that could (and probably will be) an even be a better part of how our company forwards our game. There's many possibilities in those new COTO and this one just popped off my head so I wrote it down on another thread...
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ion-thinking-on-sota.52340/page-8#post-571719
That may never happen, but think of some more, because they're out there waiting to be all thought up...

I once lived in Austin Texas when I worked for the house of representatives there at the capital, "Austin's an expensive area to live in!"... but I guess nobody wanted to set up our SOTA's offices in Flint Michigan for obvious reasons...
It always crosses my mind when I see our funding numbers, that there's a great possibility that some of our staff must be living on a peanuts and beer budget... "but this is crunch time", the last year of awaiting being placed on the shelf of the open market, and from what I can tell, "our Portalarium has seen fit to close out many of our backer pledges", which means their doing fine and all the sails are set, ready to go!
So, forgive me for saying so, "but I'm extremely impressed by that fact!"

~Critics & FanBoys~
"I Love Critics!" but not all of them... These one liner insulting posts are truly getting boring to read through... So, if you're going to be a good critic, ditch the control freak attitude and post something that has some worthwhile content, or at least be funny or insulting enough to get a good laugh from "I do!"

I'm also a FanBoy , because of every time I post an incredibly insulting post about something that hasn't made it yet into our game, that challenge has always been met with an outcome that later becomes one of my favorite features within our game.
"There's nothing like the happy feeling of being proven wrong for me"... Oh what a feeling, I love the taste of eating crow!'

~This Release~
I didn't truly think that our graphics could have gotten any better, "they did"... I couldn't believe our reward outfits could look any better, "they do"... I couldn't believe our new targeting system could get any more distracting for me, "I hardly notice it now and actually find it extremely useful".

~Bugs~
Sure we got bugs, but our staff has been running them down the street like a river of rats leaving a ship setting to sea. "No automobile motor starts up perfect when it's first put together"...

~What We Don't Have~
There's still allot of things we don't have yet, but it's kind of difficult to complain about anything that's already planned for on our roadmap, because it's all coming.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/roadmap.52342/

But please people, if you're going to criticize the game, be, informed, informative, constructive, or please at least be funny to read !'
I want to learn from your posts, or at least get a laugh out of it...
I enjoyed reading all your posts here...
Please continue...
~Time Lord~

 

Yes indeed the game has to make money. However the key maybe is to make the player FEEL it is free to play and inspire him/her enough to WANT to spend real money. It is a very tricky thing to do, maybe psychology may play a part . Its like housing, players need to feel that one day they can afford to buy their own little home for in game coins. Yes....... you will always get some individuals who are not happy to just afford a village lot and dont understand why they cant be the king of a castle. I guess that is human nature.

 

I miss the times when games like Skyrim, The Witcher 3 or Fallout 4 sold millions of copies and the devs charged money just for optional DLCs/addons without having addonstores, donations during hangouts or ingame currency... Oh wait, this is happening right now!
Even more do I miss the times when games simply were sold - without any DLCs, ingame currency or other things...

 

You mean, back when you had to keep dropping quarters into the arcade to try and survive to the next round again and again? :-D Games started pay-to-win from the get go.

 

Please make my NPC in Aerie a silver blonde. That's my only real ask "for myself" - she's actually a character I played for a LONG time and SoTA is, essentially, her retirement home. (So there's that... which should speak to the amount of trust I have in the game and it's makers, regardless how sharp I may be in any one post).

As for the rest, I foresee a time when the dissonance around understanding the greater market and its interests will prove unfortunate. My sincere hope is that some adjustment will be made before the "official launch", whenever that may be. Don't let all that you think you know from your time in the industry keep you from realizing that things change for a reason... and offerings that aren't at least somewhat in alignment are working against the tides to succeed. I love underdogs, but let's face it, they go hungry far longer than the rest.

 

Hmm (thinks)

I saw a really good looking woman a while back with silver blonde hair. She really stood out; striking. She probably wondered what creepster Hemlock was gawking at.

What a woman! What a head of hair!

 

So all the NPCs are going to look buff just like the players

I hope you guys see this thread Face customization suggestions for additional customization ideas, and also send downstream to players any customization options you guys end up having to put in just to give NPCs the looks you want for the game.

 

Well it was not me. I'm hiding my bad hair day under a hat