New Player Feedback before I forget :)

Discussion in 'New Player Experience Feedback' started by bloodydragon, Jun 30, 2017.

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  1. bloodydragon

    bloodydragon Avatar

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    Hi! I've played about 8 hours of Shroud and thought I would start one of these. I may add to it as I play this weekend.


    It feels like an "Ultima." The intro movie was really skippy for me, but it reminded me of UU and U7. The Oracle feels like an Ultima beginning. I did appreciate that you can change paths if you want.

    Character creation was a little disappointing. I'd like more mouth choices and I'd like to be uglier and fatter, just like in real life ;)

    The sounds NPCs make are a little jarring. The conversations are a bit stilted with lots of repeating and NPCs not understanding things they maybe should. I forget my specific example from Solace Bridge Outskirts, but it ended with some swearing from this Avatar.

    I like that the game isn't overly hand holdy, much like UO in the day, but some things could be clearer, like how to use the overhead map. I struggled with moving around it at first, don't know why. Not having an automap or other map to check where you are is also a bit stressful to me.


    On Solace Bridge, I didn't see the boat and so I went exploring along the rocks along the river. I fell between them and the fire and could not get back. I had to die a few times before I realized I couldn't as a ghost pass through the fire and that ressing just kept me stuck. I logged out dead and respawned back on the bridge. I was scared for a second there, though. It made me wonder for a "stuck" feature like in UO, and I think ESO?


    In the SB Outskirts it took me a few hours of play to find an iron ore node. That was frustrating.


    I chose ranged (took the advice of the prompt about it being polished) and I like that you can automatically attack in combat. I am surprised at how much arrows weigh, but I suppose it balances against melee not having range and I assume magery requiring regs. I am not far in enough to know about that yet. Looking forward to deck building as I just arrived in Soltown last night then my whole computer froze. So I'll give finding the trainer a go again this weekend.

    I am one of those nerds who likes to play mostly solo in MMOs so we will see how that goes for me. I have seen but not interacted with other players yet.

    Over all I have some reservations, and I did want to wait until Shroud was more finished before playing, but there is promise here.

    I played a couple days early this week during r42 and then some time yesterday after r43 and 43 is a lot smoother frame rate for me, so good job on that.

    If I think of anything else specifically first impressony I will come back and update this.
     
  2. The Hendoman

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    that's great looking out - i'll be interested in reading your further impressions :)

    THE HENDOMAN
     
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  3. Arya Stoneheart

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    The /stuck command should work if that happens again.

    Use M key to open up the SOTAmap, although some places may not be as up to date as others.
     
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  4. bloodydragon

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    Thanks, hopefully I won't get stuck but if I do now I know what to do!
     
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  5. Mohawk50

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    i get to 50% and then get an error msg to send error OK then closes 3 times it happened on Windows 7, 1 time i seen the screen the video was all messed up though
     
  6. skeggy Media

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    welcome to the game bloodydragon remember to post any questions here in the forums and I have created a youtube page dedicated to the game where your answers might be found.



    great feedback look forward to meeting you in the game
     
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  7. Vladamir Begemot

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    Welcome! Thanks for the feedback!
     
  8. bloodydragon

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    I'm back. Thought I would wait but I kept thinking about the game. I got through Soltown catacombs into Solania catacombs. Ran back into the Soltown catacombs pretty fast. Haha. I found the Inn and the Bank and have sold a lot of Rusty Axes.

    Thoughts - I wish I could customize my character more for cheaper. I miss the UO dye tub and dyes for cheap. I need to figure out how to look better.

    I talked about setting the game aside for a while and waiting for a performance boost and how I only have 6gb ram in my intro thread. Well, messing with settings, I have gotten pretty good performance with a little skipping and hanging here and there, but I am definitely able to play through it. I am on fastest and in a 1360x768 window which seems to perform better for me than full screen and some other window sizes I have tried.

    I wish there were indicators on the compass where mobs are coming from.

    I can't find cotton in Soltown to save my life. Someone in zone told me the map will have nodes. Do I just have to wait until they respawn?

    E: I found a ton of cotton back in Solace Bridge and also a bunch of regs and iron, just needed some to respawn

    Anyway, I am having fun. I've been playing for a few hours tonight and I like it. I am hoarding all kinds of crafting material in hopes to learn some crafting skills soon. I'm going to keep visiting the catacombs until I can buy some sweet new armor, or until my laptop starts on fire, and I'll give my impressions here once in a while 'cause why not.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2017
  9. Wintermute of CoF

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    Many dyes are craftable, however stuff that is dyeable is mostly only cloth armour currently (there are a few dyeable leather items but not many, no changing colour of plate/chain that I'm aware of though the colour will come from the material used).

    I'm not sure that there is cotton in Soltown, but there's definitely cotton in all the nearby scenes. Solace Bridge Outskirts as a load of it - there's even a quest for collecting it if you go to the farm.

    Please feel free to friend me in game (Wintermute Ofcof) and I'll come and teach you some recipes, I'm sure there'll be other players around happy to help out if you don't catch me this evening.

    Note that you can sell Aortic Thrombus, Black Cutworm, Emerald Ash Borers and Hemlock Borers to NPC merchants for good money - they have no use in game at present. You can of course hoard them in the hope that they do become useful, but IMO the money right now is more valuable, especially for lower level avatars after upgrading their armour. Also note that people may be willing to craft you armour in exchange for the raw materials (for the crafting skill gains) which will likely be cheaper for you than buying 'retail'. Note that for the 'good' armour (masterworked and/or enchanted) there is a risk that it will be destroyed during crafting - so if that's what you want then you'll need enough mats for multiple pieces to offset that risk.

    Keep having fun :)
     
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  10. Vladamir Begemot

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    Check out Outlander Help Center, on the hill right above Soltown. I've got armor that you could use for ages there for sale at 1/2 the crafting cost, because it doesn't have the Exceptional +1.

    The thinking is that new players probably don't need +12 armor, so why not get the second rate stuff for 1/2 what it would cost you to make it?

    It's not garbage though, along with normal cotton and such, we've got carpacian, fustian, hardened leather, all the way up to white iron (expensive(!))
     
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  11. bloodydragon

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    Hey, thanks Vladamir I will check that out this afternoon!

    Also thanks, Wintermute for answering some of my other questions!
     
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  12. bloodydragon

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    So another update and some questions and thoughts.

    Full disclosure: I was really a huge Ultima fan, of all the games except Ascension. I wrote piles of fanfic, made my own Underworld runes, made a chainmail glove with an inlaid gold ankh, I was just really into it. I have a great physical collection of the games, maps and trinkets. So I do want to like SOTA. Note I say I DO, not did, because I am willing to come back and try again after Launch, or any time if the story gets better, or crafting is more accessable, or taming is fixed. Hopefully all the above.

    Also what made me post this is I posted a thread on Reddit and they told me to post here. I know this forum doesn't like Reddit, but I posted there first because I didn't want to look too negative here. I think I deserve feedback though.

    Here is my Reddit post:

    I backed this and have played it and am less than impressed, as a pretty serious Ultima fan. I am someone who loved the single player Ultimas, Underworlds and UO, so to see that Shroud doesn't live up to the term "spiritual successor" to any of them is kind of sad for me.

    Anyway, I haven't followed development closely as I was waiting for the game to be released. I then saw articles about the SeedInvest and decided I better try it while I could. I did and it is meh. My laptop can barely run it, so I only got about 30 hours in. I might go back but I am wondering some things.

    Was steampunk stuff always in the game from the beginning? I find it very jarring, especially the blimps and cheesy wing costumes.

    In the main story lines, are there many mentions, easter eggs, etc about the old Ultima companions at all? I mean I know there are places called like Jaanaford, but does anything feel like the Ultimas with dynamic characters anywhere that keep showing up in the story? In the little interaction I had with NPCs, they felt a little flat but that might get better. I know they say they are working on it.

    I'm not asking this to be a jerk or anything, but what is Darkstarr supposed to be? Is he a villain or? Are he and LB in the game as NPCs or just as PCs? I see them dressed up at telethons and wonder what characters they are playing and if they are in the game.

    Thanks for any answers.


    So if anyone wants to chime in on the above, I'd appreciate it.

    I guess what all those questions are getting at is how is this a spiritual successor to any Ultima? Because once you have answered the Oracle's questions, it doesn't feel much like an Ultima.

    It being the 20 year anniversary of UO AND my 20th high school reunion made me super nostalgic. So I started to think about SOTA and I got sad. Because it isn't a single player game really at all, and it isn't like Ultima Online. At all. I would take either at this point.
     
  13. Bubonic

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    You are not alone. I don't have answers to any of your questions, but I agree with you and share almost all of them.

    Signed,

    a fellow single player ultima fan.
     
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  14. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Personally, I think if the MMO is not your thing, it's probably too early to start playing this game. I sort of wish I'd waited a bit longer- I saw the story was complete, and decided to start. But by "complete" they mean "playable to the end" not "fully fleshed out." So after starting down the path of Truth a bit, I've decided to hold off on doing any more of the main quests until launch. Unfortunately, as someone who is also mainly interested in the solo experience, there isn't much else to do. There are some side quests here and there, and some exploration to be done. But I'm beginning to lose interest, as all that's really left is grinding gold and materials.

    That said, there have been some good bits, which are keeping me around, hopefully until launch, assuming that does happen at least early next year. I found a good player owned town (Veritas Sanctuary) in a good location. The governor (@Dereck Visaard) has created a bit of a backstory for the place, and has put a lot into building it into something. One of the sections of the town is built around some ruins; I claimed a lot there, but instead of building a proper a house, I placed set of ruins with a basement, to look as though someone had taken up residence in one the old abandoned structures. That's been a lot of fun. The handful of interactions I've had with other PCs have been positive. Just hanging around crafting, a guy approaches and offers me a party hat. I trade him a bottle of wine, put on the hat, and go kill some kobolds. Stuff like that has been amusing. I'm still using the (very nice) bow another player gave me for no good reason the first day I was in the game. (Both of those incidents took place in Veritas Sanctuary, too. The latter cemented my decision to claim a lot there in the first place, the former helped confirm it was a good one after the fact.)
    Agreed. The steampunk aspects are a little overdone, and feel grafted on because somebody thought it was cool, rather than feeling like an integrated part of the world. Ultima has always had that Ren Faire aesthetic of "sort-of-middle-ages but with whatever other crap we can even slightly justify because we like it and why not it's not real so shut up" but this game takes it to another level. On top of that, the mix-and-match qualities of the towns is equally odd feeling. "Oh, here's a German style half timber house next to a weird elf thing next to an obsidian fortress next to a Japanese pagoda all built inside a very Norman looking walled keep." I know it would have never flown, but it'd be nice if each town (at least, maybe the NPC towns) had an overall style, with each house type having a half dozen variations on that style, and players were limited to only choosing from that style set. Player owned towns can be free-for-alls, but the NPC ones should at least look sort of cohesive. But that ship has sailed. (That airship has flown?)

    And worse yet, gold buildings are coming. I haven't seen images of them, so I don't know if they're as awful as they sound. Things are gaudy and loud enough already in some places; does it also have to look like they started outsourcing design to Donald Trump?

    And, oh, the dorky wings. It makes me feel like it's the 90's and I just saw a bunch of raver kids. How long until pacifiers and candy necklaces become craftable in game? (Just kidding. We all know they'll only be available through the add-on store.)
    Yeah. There are moments, and it shows promise, but it doesn't yet feel like it's there. If the game had "launched" I might be more upset, but until that time, I'm willing to forgive a lot, remembering that I'm being allowed to see it as it develops. For good or ill.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2017
  15. Lars vonDrachental

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    Steampunk was from the beginning a part of SotA. I think the towns of Hidden Vale do not changed that much since their first implementation and e.g. the windmill power generators were there quite from the start.
    I too do not like the wing costumes but others seem to love them…so I do not have that a big problem with it.
    And I think in the old games had steampunk elements too…there were even spaceships. ;)

    Well companions are on the list but I think just new ones....I would guess the old ones are either death or are not usable because of law issues.
    Even if the old companions would be an option I’m not sure if they would fit into the lore as SotA is not a carrying on of your last steps in ultima…SotA has its own story even if there are some roots back to the old ultima.
    I do not think you will find more than some hint here or there simply because Portalarium do no own the rights of ultima and (sadly) might get problems if they overdo.

    I’m not sure either. I think they represent simply two sides of the same coin but neither the one nor the other is a villain or hero in general…I think it depends on your (ingame) point of view.
    They are no NPCs they are Avatars like us but integrated into Novia as it is normally just the case with NPCs.

    Just looking at UO this is a game that has been developed over decades and got multiple additional features since it was released and to compare it with SotA a game that is still in development regarding story, gameplay,...
    I think every Ultima was different compared to the one before and the one after...but what would make SotA feel more like an Ultima in your opinion? What do you miss?

    Just to give you an example below the picture of the Golden Row Greenhouse.
    [​IMG]
     
  16. Wintermute of CoF

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    It's not so much that I love them, more that they seem to be the best option right now. Cloaks have been various kinds of broken over the years - at one point the cloth physics was causing a hard crash, there's also that issue where they kept passing through the waist - and have never really looked natural IMO. If stuff is going to look weird anyway might as well wear the wings and be able to see my cute avatar butt.
     
  17. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I wore a backpack at first, because it seemed fitting for my character. The only armor I've found (so far) that I like the look of was the elite elven archer armor. When I saw it was dye-able (there is some weirdness with the dyeing, though, where some of the seams and the edges of the belts on the boots are green after applying dyes, regardless of color applied, even though there does not appear to be any green in the un-dyed version) and came with a quiver, I was sold, and picked it up through the add-on store so that I could get the patterns. I think I read that R46 will introduce craftable quivers to the game.
     
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  18. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Okay, well , that's not quite as awful as I'd imagined. Still a bit garish for my tastes, though.
     
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  19. Spoon

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    @bloodydragon

    Companions​
    Sadly it seems like companions like those of old are out of scope for Episode 1. The ones we will get are more henchlings with limited conversations and almost no arcs as such.

    Steampunk​
    The term they used for the Kickstarter was 'clockpunk '. Which is akin to the old since almost all the ultima series was Renaissance. As in American Renaissance fair type of mix up.

    DarkStarr​
    DarkStarr is not the villain in Episode 1. But rather a proponent of chaos with a minor backseat role in Novia. So you won't find any lore on him here. When episode 2 brings more continents along expect a more prominent DarkStarr.

    Spiritual Successor​
    EA still owns the rights to Ultima and Ultima Online. As such they can't be too close nor mention too much old lore, or they would get sued. Which a smallish project like this could hardly afford.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2017
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  20. Vladamir Begemot

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    Please /bug those with screenshots if still happening and not bugged already. My elite fighter armor is fixed already in Thursdays release, so it does happen but they have to know about it.

    And thanks for the wine! I'm glad you like the party hat. They are dyeable too.
     
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