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Discussion in 'Release 32 Feedback Forum' started by Xander Xavier, Jul 29, 2016.

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  1. Lord British

    Lord British Lord British SOTA Developer

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    Yes, you will keep everything. Virtue (or lack there of) is a lifestyle. There are endless ways to make it go up and down. Your "habits" in your life will determine its long term height or depths. While the story does have a limited number of these (often more value individually) than habitual stuff (like being kind to beggars), we none the less are not worried about character state (outside of quest completion status) at any moment. SotA's story paths must all be tolerant to wide level variations, as they are solvable in any order, so already players could arrive at any element at most any level. The exception to this is the 3 starting areas, which are all low level. A new character will find the 1st a challenge, due to their low level and their inexperience. But they will find the other two pretty easy. If you ever s=restart the story flags, you would find all 3 vs 2/3 of the starting areas easy. We on the dev team are reseting these flags all the time for testing ourselves, so we know what its like to have a character months into their evolution, and yet starting a plot thread.

    - Richard
     
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  2. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    I am as well...
    ~TL~:rolleyes:
     
  3. Leinad Laurelwreath

    Leinad Laurelwreath Avatar

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    Great!

    So i just can wander around and explore the world and ignore my main quest line beginning or any others that might appear. I was just wondering if you'd introduce some magical way to 'die' as an Avatar and return to Arabella and the Oracle but i see this will not be needed!

    Thanks for the clarification Richard!
     
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  4. High Baron O`Sullivan

    High Baron O`Sullivan Avatar

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    is everything.
    Glad to hear we will have the opportunity to stat all quests lines from scratch at completion. About 50% of mine are bugged or incomplete.
     
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  5. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

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    Small note on top of that. You can return to the isle of storms by using a Lunar Rift at its own cycle. Or simply go to a Lunar Rift, step through it - then as soon as you arrive step through the one on that end, it will of course be on its own cycle.
     
  6. Net

    Net Avatar

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    Well, since highvale is bugged, I could not lead healer to dying knight either... and bloodriver seems least finnished of them all, so I think I have failed secondary quests in all starting scenes:) I ma pretty sure Lum said they wil lallow us to pass information to Abigail about her dead daughter though, the game is not finished and going live with unfinished and bugged starting quests has some downsides.

    Oh and looking forward to story reset, that is great news as I do not have to worry about quests being broken much:)
     
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  7. Net

    Net Avatar

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    @RichardGarriott Concerning the story reset, will this include journal wipe? It would be very confusing to have journal cluttered with old and new story.
     
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  8. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

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    Cupid? :)
     
  9. Numa

    Numa Avatar

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    Boy, am I glad I stuck to the path of courage (sword) and didn't choose to go for my favorite weapon (bow). Building that skill up right now.
     
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  10. Raxhelm

    Raxhelm Avatar

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    I made Charlotte Gray dead (R32) I guess but not because I wanted to.

    I started at Solace Bridge and talked to Charlotte to rescue her. But then I saw a bookshelf behind a fire and since I had been used to a high adventure level character in R31 where fire would be nothing but a small flesh wound I ran through the fire to check the bookshelf. I died. I resurrected. Charlotte was still crying but nowhere to be found. I spent too much time trying to find her. I talked to whoever the dude is that is suppose to tell me about the boat to Soltown (I can't remember most of the names of the NPCs in the game because they all look the same, with the same movements, and are otherwise unremarkable) and he would saying nothing more than I had to find Charlotte. I could not even take the boat or leave the scene. So I remembered that I had an option to "Start on WorldMap". I quit the game, logged back in and Started on the WorldMap and walked to Soltown. And that seemed to get me past the bug. But I guess Charlotte was considered dead then.

    Speaking of that. When I did the quests in SOTA I felt like a dog doing a trick to get XP. The reward for a quest, particular one based on an ethical decision, should not necessarily be XP, or gold, or an item. It should be discovering later in the game the consequences of your decision.

    This was one thing I really loved in the Witcher2. For example you built up a relationship with a character, she is even your girlfriend. Then one day as you start to get close you are ambushed and you are led to believe that your girlfriend has betrayed you and is a member of the group that ambushed you but you are not certain. The game asks you if you trust her or don't. But the most awesome part is that as you ponder this decision the game will decide for you. Because in the heat of battle you don't get to debate this kind of question very long, you have to decide on the spot. The decision has a big effect on the rest of the game.

    Another great example in the Witcher2 is that you build up a relation with the king. You feel like he respects you and trusts you. You even get to play in his shoes for part of the game which helps you build a better relationship to him. But one day you find out that the king has wronged you girlfriend in a very bad way (incidentally your infidelities have their own consequences) . Later during a war you have a chance to get revenge on the king. If you kill the king you find out that it leads to a civil war. Everywhere you go you see the consequences of your revenge. Some of the other characters you build up relationships you find dead because of the civil war. This was an awesome story!

    Incidentally the Polish are so proud of the Witcher series and books that the Polish president game Obama the Witcher2 series as a gift
    http://kotaku.com/5806531/poland-gives-president-obama-the-witcher-2s-collectors-edition

    It's too bad that RG seemed oblivious to this game when he envisioned SOTA. The current quests in SOTA are totally uninspiring and nothing compared to those in the Witcher series. Personally, if I could change one (two) thing in SOTA it would be the quests and the character development. I think the devs should step back and completely rethink how they want to do the quests and NPCs.
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2016
  11. Roycestein Kaelstrom

    Roycestein Kaelstrom Avatar

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    On the side notes. Are you aware that Witcher 1 came out as isometric top view mouse clicking style at release. They almost failed until the team changed their design to 3rd person view. Hence their legendary "enhanced edition" was born several months after that.

    As long as the developers have the will and resources, the game can always be improved even more. Should the team give up during their first review from their consumers, they wouldn't rise into becoming such national gem.
     
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  12. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    ~SOTA and The Role Player, Seeker's Expansion~
    I will say this in reply defending Lord British's and our Lum's work, "in the style that they do"... which is like no other...

    We all have seen great games that took the seeker through a storyline and in our imagination, we came out the other side thinking we were role players playing our part. Many of us have written such storyline quests ourselves and imitated that art form. If a player is "clicking" their way down an inevitable path, then they are missing what can be. Our Lord British and Lum have set a stage, empowering the true role player to utilize the tools which any game can provide, yet when a player asks another, where the next point to seek can be found, it then falls to the community of the knowing, to lead by example, embracing our world as a reality, and role playing in-between the player's question and our answer. Then such an answer could lead to another player, who provides the next clue to that point of interest within our game's quest fore which they are seeking.

    Our Lord British and Lum are not just leading us through a storyline, they are teaching us "how to seek", and those of us who think we know how, need to become actual role players to help our players in ways of finding their own answers or help our players learn to how to seek well.

    "They set the stage" the Portalarium team. They're building an ever expanding quest line, but it only gets better in any game, by the player's themselves learning how to best utilize it's wonderful stage to enhance the seeker's intrigue.

    The Witcher series left little and few gaps in-between for such things yet was a compelling storyline as if a book.
    I like books allot, yet I like the stage to be more broad for us all to play upon.
    "Learning how to seek is one of the greatest lessons of life".
    But I did deeply enjoy your comments @Raxhelm !
    Truly from a knowledgeable quest seeker!
    and much of which very true...
    ~Time Lord~:rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2016
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