Repost of my grim Outlook - sorry for the negativity, and I can handle some flames :-)

At some point, we all would, and could, certainly. Given the time. If I started crafting 6 months after someone else did I'd expect it would take time to reach their level. I don't look at it as if someone else had an unfair advantage that they started before I did or had a more favorable game mechanic.

Pragmatically, feeling someone else has an advantage in Crafting at this time is pointless for the near future. There is no in game economy for crafted items, unless you're willing to take a loss. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any in game economy at all unless it's RMT and then it's either for Commodities, Pledge rewards or Housing. And even that market has cooled drastically over the past two weeks. The speculators have burned out. I'd be much more concerned about the grind factor of the game as a whole than I would about a few dozen diehards that make SotA their Matrix and have a dozen GMs after 4 months. You have those types in any game.

I'd venture to say that the vast majority of Backers bought their pledges, dropped their homes, and then disappeared waiting for Release. My Guild has a lot of people in it and only a small majority have ever played for any significant amount of time. Everyone's waiting for more content.

The rest of us get freaky because things change in ways we don't like (or they change at all) because we've gotten really emotionally invested in the game (and probably because we're heavily financially invested, too.)

 

I am sorry I have not looked at this but it is only been less than 24 hours and I have 8 pages to go thru - do no fret I will do my damnest to reply to those who wanted or need it.

Wow

Just Wow I am sure I am a crispy critter but

 

That's the essential point. Early access folks have less grind for the same results as 'at release' folks. That's the imbalance.

 

And if you were to log in today, where would you say the early access folks are enjoying the game more than you are?

 

sorry to work backwards but the new player will have and love the game any new player needs to come back in 2 weeks and tell me they are still as excited as they where when the bought into the game?? I would bet 50% or more are stalemated

 

Didn't even drop my home, I feel the whole gold rush concept is savage and not conductive to equity in the community, I would even have preferred random choice between tiers then let the players trade between them afterwards. Makes no roleplaying sense... nothing actually does.

people tried to reassure me, no Ahu its not going to be a medieval sims...

I learned alot about human nature in the events that led to this (++), loved the art and vision (+) ; but honestly my feelings were ripped apart (-), my hopes were crushed (--) and I ended up very sick because I felt like a number and noone cared about anything I said (---).

 

I don't know that that has changed any in the last 4 months. The only reason I continue to play is because I can chat with my guildies in Ventrilo while I grind.

 

I will log in today, I am an early access player and I will have advantages over release players that extend beyond just a headstart. I'm enjoying the game well enough; I can't speak for how others are or will enjoy it, except to say that for myself, had I not been in early access, I would be fairly recalcitrant to pick it up at release. I get that this is not a concern for everyone, and if the story experience is great/single player RPG content is great, it will further minimize the impact (I hope that's the case). But why would you create these imbalance issues when they could easily be planned around? My concern is not for my own experience, it's for the health of the game at release.

 

Seeing as I have been around for over 4 years I am not speculating but TY

Sorry but yo actually have everything in the game that is comoing minuse some things like "Sieges" which are going to be just a twist on Roving Encouters"

AT this time what you see is pretty much what you are gona get.

One of the major probkems.

 

Even still, something that drastic affects not just the player-to-player purchasers, but secondarily those who facilitated the add-on store-to-player transfer. Who would buy anything from the store after that? It would destroy trust and following that, hamper the economy. I believe they would ethically owe everyone an explanation.

I have a feeling, however, that if there were another wipe it wouldn't be completely, 100% back to scratch. Just as they would preserve rewards and pledge items for accounts, they could preserve ownership of any items that originated in the add-on store, regardless of who owned it. Of course, if they do that then anyone who had made illicit gains would just convert everything over to add-on store so their fortune would persist in some form over to the 'fresh' start. So then it wouldn't actually work to wipe out gains, and we're back to an actual full wipe and an explanation. And probably why they won't ever bother wiping anything other than story progression/virtues.

 

While I agree it was one of the biggest problems - look at what you do before you sign in and this is the largest bullet to bite.

But if it needs to be done it needs to be done. BTW the sooner the better the longer it fester the more it hurts and the more bad spots have to go.

As one player said remove the Gang Green before it spreads :-(

 

And if it does happen or your skills gt whipped or rest to 10 ???

Houses are something I would never worry about since they actually have no game balance issues but everything else is way out of balance and needs a fix, if resetting is needed so be it .

As for the comment about "if you do not like it leave" that door swings both ways.

 

Just out of curiosity, what would make you hesitant to pick it up at release? (and I'm not trying to pick a fight with you here, I'm curious).

 

This to the Nth Degree

 

Thats the right question to ask, but I don't think we will find a conventional answer here because we can rule out bad intent on part of the devs entirely.

We must eliminate possibilities, having this demystified would go a long way in making the new players feel a warm vibe of passion instead of a cold wrinkled stress.

Whatever remains...

 

Nailed it , right on the head,

And we have reached "end Game" already in a few areas.

 

I suspect the same. Although, I think the only people who would stop buying from the store would be people looking to resell those items as buyers would actually beware. The people who would really get screwed in the player to player market are people who paid for farmed resources, in game gold, skill leveling, and anything that assists in skill leveling. Those people are wholly unprotected against a partial wipe or rollback, which from what they have said, is technically still an option.

I would agree that wipe talk is mostly hypothetical. Hopefully, though, they will at least acknowledge these issues that cause some players to wish for a wipe to attenuate them as more 'balance' changes come.

 

The fact that by my own measure of the value of my time, I would receive a lower return on that time compared to other players in the game.

 

Yes. Anything that is more communication I can get behind 100%.

The best solution is/was to not let these things get out of hand for a weekend, a week, a release.... If there is a problem, nip it in the bud as soon as possible so the gains are little, the system upheaval is minimized and the mitigation is confined. So far I've been unimpressed with the speed at which these things are handled.

 

This would have prevented much forum 'discussion'