Question for long time backers

I was an original Kickstarter backer. I didn't play a lot really early on, but I have logged over 437 hours in total according to Steam. Personally, I am actually more excited to play post final wipe now as it's finally "for real". I also haven't explored the vast majority of the game world though and never GMed any skills. So there's a whole lot of game for me to see still!

 

This is the moment I've been waiting for. I don't like pre-release/early access or testing games. I want to play a proper release. So for me, I'll finally get to play SOTA!

 

You realize that after final wipe the game will still be an unfinished construction zone and we'll still be in early access, right?

 

Yes.

It is a process I will never again undertake for the rest of my years. Now I only buy complete games.

 

Yes I do, but it'll be in a "released" state and the world will actually progress. The devs will be happy with the foundation of the product and can continue refining it from there. And I have no issue with that. But I have issues when the canvas needs to be wiped clean for the sake of testing and development.

That post-wipe early access state is no different to many MMO such as EVE Online which have started with very little and continuously evolved.

 

some folks have brought up, here, that it wasn't exactly as the kickstarter portrayed it to be.

look at some other projects like that (that wasn't as the kickstarter tried to make it sound like)
some failed. hard. and disappeared.
think i heard of one that failed and returned the money, or at least some of it, to the funders.
some imploded.
hell, one, said "closed for maintenance" for a month, came back and said they were coded in a brand new engine, and changed the name too, then didn't really even announce that the direction had entirely went from mmo to survival ARK clone...

every single one of those, was a disappointment.

sota, on the other hand, while they did not stay exacting on target with their kickstarter, i do not see any huge changes that changed the entire direction of the game itself. i call it a success on many different levels.

lastly, to answer the OP directly:
my enthusiasm has waned a bit.
i lost all interest in the land rush to the point that i refuse to partake in it.
i'm a bit pissed at them for some security decisions made, and some that were not put in place. - however, from what i can tell, there is a "YET" in there, i just hope it is sooner than later.

but...past all that, i'm still enthusiastic enough about the game to be able to justify how much i've pledged towards it. and that means, a whole lot in my book.

 

Yeah. I haven't mined for ore since 20 releases ago, due to I don't want to even spoil and get burnt out and notice the changes of and be annoyed by any changes of the final version. Do submit bug reports when I find something but I don't play the most basic parts of the game as a precaution that the most basic elements of the game mechanics might be the only thing that is surprising at launch. Have never leveled very high on purpose to prevent burnout. The quests are chat box interface like U3, 4, 5, 6. But, I'm a bigger fan of U7, U7.2, U8. And it seems, I might be upset about how the quests are but, at least I'll be surprised with the most basic mechanics such as crafting. I've never crafted a single item since r5 or something back when we were given unlimited materials to make armor and weapons, and back then there were so few recipes so I'll be surprised by the many new ones. But, being a big pledger to both this game and star citizen, I planned a good year ago to find alternatives, few exist, but I've found a few good ones. Best case scenario the player ran economy booms, worst case scenario, I only login to refresh my plot.

 

I am looking forward to the final wipe.
At the moment i am pretty busy with scouting Locations and testing Layouts on my deeds and with my PoT.
But real life keeps me from investing time at the moment ^^

 

Backed during Kickstarter and enjoyed following the game for the most part, however I was disappointed when Portalarium decided to introduce over 230 POT's to the game. Further to this I feel mislead by the Kickstarter campaign as it was my understanding that land would be limited with claims like "Only a few dozen City homes will be available to players in-game ". Currently there are 121 Baron city lots and if you combine this with the Duke and LOTM lots that where originally city size lots we have a total of 345 lots which seems like a great deal more than the few dozen. Perhaps I was mistaken but I thought land was meant to be finite in this game and that when it ran out you had to wait for a lot to become available or for more land to be released at a later point such as when a new episode comes online. As it stands now this does not seem to be the case as any backer can simply purchase a POT from the store and link it to another NPC or POT greatly expanding the amount of lots Novia has to offer.

As for the game development I would have liked to have seen a lot more NPC towns created that where unique instead of using randomly generating PRT's that are based on POT templates. As someone that held onto a Duke pledge for some time I found it frustrating to play each release and have no where to place the keep lot, I haven't really done much since selling my account but I do wonder if things have improved since then and weather they finished implementing the keep lots in time for the land rush later this month.

I welcome the fact that the developers decided to introduce a item shop to allow players to purchase items, however I feel there is a lack of quality and unique items for players to obtain in game as many of these items are simply poor counterparts to the ones offered in the store. I also feel that the pricing is on the steep side for the add on store and the introduction of the Crowns of the Obsidian's was another ugly turn I didn't see coming.

The forums in my opinion have also suffered from years of toxic moderation with many good people being driven away, but that said I do think Berek is doing a much better job.

I can't say I'm hyped about the final wipe, but I am interested to see how things progress once people can settle down in the world and start to play the game. While I'm not ultimately pleased with where the game ended up, I do appreciate how committed the developers are in trying to fix issues and the effort they put in. That said I can't
help but wonder if the game is suffering from some of the decisions that feel like they have been financially motivated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0/description
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=59788#STATS
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=41907

 

there are some of us pot owners, that do not intend to get anywhere near the maximum number of lot markers available to our towns. i'm not even certain if mine will have double digits, by design of course. and that is ok by me.

granted, i don't think there are too many folks out of the 230+ owners who have the same though process as i do, but i do know several.

it has been my experience that most people who make a broad statement like yours, are always thinking there will be the maximum number of lot markers in use by choice by every pot owner, and that is just plain wrong. the situation isn't nearly as black and white as "if it is available, we must choose to use it that way."

i certainly agree with both the former and latter statements here. Berek is doing fantastic not only compared to previous moderation techniques, but also with the hand he was given BY the previous moderation methods. @DarkStarr, whatever you are paying this guy, isn't enough - he's turned things around for the better in many minor and meaningful ways. kudos to you @Berek for a job well done. it isn't over yet, not by a long shot..just keep on truckin!

@DarkStarr,
any word on some sort of time frame for the archipelago pot template?
hows about how long it'll be till i can select it in the pot form, so i can also lock the form for you folks?

if you need ideas, i have a few on my form. - figure at this point it is on the post-final-wipe-long-list, if even that.

 

I have given the last 5-6months a miss to avoid burn out and hopped in to play yesterday and loved a lot of the things I saw. I'm only messing about but loved the changes bar the cross hair bit right in my char name. I took a wander through various cities and player housing areas and they're very much under stocked now with property which is great news for people as there's so much choice available even with the land rush that will occur. Roll on release

 

I am personally excited, but I gave it a long break since like 3-4 releases back, and until then I didn't really play much at all, so I can't say that I am burnt out, more like refreshed and ready to go .

 

I've only been around since R18 (when I discovered this game) and really wish I had found out about SOTA during Kickstarter. I guess I'm one of those strange people who enjoy the "Beta" phase of a game I plan to play for years and years... and don't mind the wipes as much as many others do. I think it's been an honor and privilege to help mold this game into a playable state that will be fun for many many people.

It is sometimes hard to login during the few weeks prior to a wipe, knowing that last bit of progress won't make any difference at all. But I honestly looked forward to the wipes because they were an opportunity to start fresh and get a feel for the changes made to the game systems along the way. Post-wipes were always the most exciting times for me as a tester/player because there was always something new to learn and discover about the game. I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the "Beta" for this game and was happy to contribute to finding and reporting bugs when I could.

But soon everything will be persistent and your progress won't be taken away from you! That's exciting as well and I'm really looking forward to it because it eliminates that feeling of "why make progress if we have to start over again?". Things will still get added and changed, but from that point on what you earn in-game is yours to keep forever!

What I'm most excited about with the upcoming final wipe is that this DEV team has basically been a skeleton crew with a very limited budget (compared to just about any other major MMO) and although there have been some ups and downs and some late game system changes that shocked many of us at this stage... they've been able to get this game to a playable state where they feel comfortable enough to not need any more wipes. I'm very impressed with what they've been able to accomplish!

Quarterly schedules and monthly releases have been kept... and downtimes for the releases have been under 2 hours. They've been completely transparent about what went wrong, why things got delayed, and why things got changed from the original plan. Besides having an enormous amount of experience in the game making industry, you can really tell that this team really will do whatever it takes to make this game successful. (Any other game companies selling their own blood to raise funding? )

 

I've been here for every wipe since R14. If the movement/targeting/combat system was rolled back to what is was for 95% of the time I spent in SOTA I would be on pins and needles looking forward to the final wipe. As of now, I'm very nervous about my ability to play the game with such large changes to the basic way I move and attack. Right now I'm sad, nevrvous and yes, annoyed.

 

There's currently not much in the game that would keep me playing, so it's hard to be burnt out by something you're only playing around here and there a couples of hours every week or so.

My joy for the final wipe is merely because I'll finally (eventually) be able to explore something other than the starting areas. Once there's actual (interesting) content, I might have something to get excited about.

Oh man, I'm in total agreement with that statement.

 

I have done like 2 quests and only crafted a little bit of furniture. The only thing I have focused on is my build for release so I am not spending points on garbage. I have also purposely stayed out of the dungeons to keep them fresh.

I beta tested SWTOR and when the game release my entire guild quit because they had done the content repeatedly in Beta. Will this happen to the folks that have been here since 2014. Depends on who you ask!

 

I'm in roughly the same situation ans you, Your Grace. I've purposely avoided most of the content, focusing on my POT and making sure that will come together as close to my vision as possible given the constraints.

 

I backed from the start and I can honestly say:

- If I had waited I wouldn't be so burned out and uninterested
- If I had waited I could have probably bought the same pledges off other players at 75% of the actual price
- If I had waited I wouldn't have wasted weeks of my life on the game, forums and other stuff
- If I had waited I wouldn't have been asking myself the same question every single day for the last year of why the hell I don't quit this thing.

I have however got to know a handful of really cool people which in itself is a great outcome regardless on the success/failure of the game.

 

I think the most diehard fans of the game contributed most to its flaws that are currently preventing a lot of people from enjoying a UO U7 successor...

 

Back 463 here. I waited for something like Ultima Online and I am obviously disappointed. Will give a chance at Last Wipe. I feel like SotA is a Store Game more than a mmorpg.