Kotaku article with Richard Garriott interview infos

Using player's imaginations as a game feature noted to be in the game is severely flawed... Any game could be advertised with any type of feature if you just 'use your imagination' to implement something that should be a full blown system. Posting here (and I rarely do) because I don't think Portalarium would have us using our imaginations to create systems then touting them as functioning in game systems to SI.

@ the OP's topic - I was a new player who bought the game on Steam a few months ago with the hopes that I'd wait until release to put more time into it, when it was, ya know, complete with features I expected - not the shell that it is now. But, now that I'm hearing the story is due to be complete in July and then released later this year, with seemingly the same features it has now, I'm just leaving all together and wishing it the best of luck. It's nothing against Port or the community, I'm just not having fun with the game and all this SI stuff is off-putting.

Out before I get attacked.

 

Case and point: because of my thread Portalarium will catually make a 2 year plan which they didn't have before. Good for them and good for gaining players' trust. Players who will play with you in the game you love. You're welcome.

 

Save that their good intentions will be used as yet another weapon to hammer them over the head with and make further accusations of dishonesty.

 

That is why I said you have to "stretch the imagination" and not just "use the imagination". Please don't go. Stay. It will get better!

 

Do you feel that the current control points, or anything coming in, meets what the majority of people would call *Conquering a town*? And if so, how would you describe whats coming, whats currently inplay, in the mechanics in this regard?

Can you describe the definition of Trade Routes, and how it would be represented if advertised in a MMORPG, and do you feel SOTA HAS or is going to meet that definition?

( not being snarky, trying to ask a direct question that.. should only relate to ingame features and therefore be okay to ask you anywhere? )

And in these 2 descriptions, do you feel that its valid for sota to advertise the game with these descriptions with the current mechanics? Or are you still hoping to build enough off the current, to make these descriptions and whats in play, satisfactory for the average person whose going to read/play?

 

But why is it then in the few-days-old seed description? You can't get upset with us when you mess it up. Get upset at the seemingly "Portalarium-unrealted genie" who wrote it.

 

I'm thinking I might just revisit everything at release. A lot of things seem so negative right now. It's not healthy to get stuck in negativity.

 

It's not a good thing to get stuck in negativity is it? I'm sorry about all of this. This isn't usually like this!

 

Did you play the Ultimas?

NPCs died, whole cities were destroyed. Cities did have a distinct look and atmosphere. There were choices with lasting and visible consequences. Grinding was minimal. Respawn was minimal and made sense. There were lots of secrets to discover. Areas were not just there to grind. NPCs had a purpose and job in the world with schedules that made sense. There were next to no filler NPCs. We could drop items everywhere, move items around to find objects hidden underneath items. We could manage the skills and gear of our party members. We could actually achieve something in the world. Kill the bad guy once and for all without him respawning again and again.
Were are those things in SotA?

 

Yeah, I usually check in on things every few weeks to see what's been out in the new releases and things but came back to all this, this time. Here's to hoping Port will iron out the odd wordings and move on.

 

SOTA is not "the Ultimas".

It's a combination of "the Ultimas" and UO. Just like UO fans didn't get everything they wanted, neither did "the Ultima" fans. There has to be a compromise.

 

Uhhhh... Well, like I said, duh. STRETCH THE IMAGINATION!

 

Yet for my taste there are way too many compromises made at the expense of the single player experience which in the end feels tacked on and like an offline MMORPG.

 

but Ultimas is what was promised with SotA

 

Going to lock this thread to review the many different discussions and personal arguments, per request of half of the posters here. We need to keep these threads to a single point and free of personal arguments please. Will open it back up after I've reviewed.

 

Opening up thread. If anyone has any questions about their posts, please PM me! For further discussion, keep on topic and do not inject personal arguments or attacks, or the thread will be locked permanently next time. The best thing to do if you feel that someone is attacking another, or causing unrest, is to Report their post. We will see it!

 

Maybe because the gain of some people is the loss of other people. If one is in general satisfied with the game it is much easier to express the remaining concerns in a well-mannered way, than if you are feeling betrayed

 

To whatever extent what Sir Cabirus is saying is right -- that something fundamental promised at Kickstarter was abandoned -- and people can argue whether or not that's right, but some believe it is what happened -- then you could see how some they could think that they were used and later kicked to the curb.

 

The Offline Disappointing MMO Clone
(some things I still think we need to do and could still be done for our offline game)

I am surprised that the offline game is not very different than the online game I was expecting with the changes made "because of the MMO's concerns" that both sides would then have very different features

Offline SOTA Wishes?

• I don't want decay in the offline game.
• I don't want lot taxes in the offline game.
• I want each lot to have a building there before I ever own the lot and have NPC's who lived there.
• Player owned towns, I'd actually like to see disappear from the offline version unless I own "or become a steward of an online POT".
• More extensive NPC interactions, with no mention of any "other avatars" having arrived from Earth.
• The NPC's should address my character by name in the offline version once they know it, or call my character Avatar.
• Transition of bank property from an old deleting character to the next new character if I choose to.

These are just to name a few things which I feel would enhance that side of SOTA.

I'd like to hear more suggestions from others of how offline should now differ from online SOTA.
I'm a big fan of the MMO SOTA and I'd like to be a big fan of offline as well, but I'm not yet because they're the same.

Offline and Online should be very different at this point. I do feel that the offline version has suffered because unless players of it are online in our forums to discuss it's progress and development, then the MMO Online fan base "who are online for comment" seem the larger crowd that need pleasing. When I first backed our SOTA, I always thought that our offline game was to be the "Hallmark" of our game with the MMO side trailing. But it's now the other way around and has neglected the offline version from being unique with more depth.

Perhaps in the future this neglected situation could change with more funding from what comes of our launch through subsequent sales or outright invested funds?
I do realize that SOTA must stay afloat and be released for advertisement, but within the coming 5 episodes, I'd truly like to see our offline version be something uniquely special, because of it's lingering value past those 5 episodes if done well and unique.

Offline, in the spirit of Ultima VII or Ultima Prime in general.
~Time Lord~

 

At first I thought like this too and yes I do own property the easy way but expensive way of paying Real cash payments for a year and a half. I truly think the dynamics of housing may shift one day with renting coming in and I'm hoping people can also rent day to day, week to week int NPC town inns by talking to the innkeepers. Also discussed in the past was setting up camps and that is especially valuable if logging out in beds and bedrolls and all come into to play soon as mentioned in the telethon. It was very satisfying to earn your home in UO but too late for this and not good for the game since housing has mostly been how this game came to be. Without those funds there would be no game. I plan to keep rent prices to a cost that help players enjoy the game.

Most players don't seem to be comfortable with us just giving them property to use. Most want to pay their own way or do it their own way which would be not depending on others at all for anything, so Inns would be a good place for those types of players and the logging buff is important for the game imo to facilitate need for places to stay whichever way the player chooses to go, but those choices to not spend rl cash to sleep in a bed also need to be implemented into the game. Still so much needs to be in this game before release.