Post Episode 1 Content Plans (aka the 2 year plan)

Yes.. Another thread without any timeline or contextual information, and therefore another pointless list.

We have no idea if any of those items will be in before or after ep 1 launch, or how they fit into anything else being worked on.

 

I'll bet they get finished before launch since they are all part of the Ep 1 plan. And if I am wrong you can tar and feather me Flog me with a wet noodle and tell me how wrong I was.

 

@DarkStarr
I think you forgot our Airships.

 

The original discussion with Chris was that everybody understood no fixed dates could be given. But a list of features that might come in 1-5 years after launch (Dec 2017?) is - in this form - not more than a wishlist. There's many details and improved bells & whistles but major systems like "questing & dialogue & story", "crafting & economy" are not covered in a way that I see how the game will change from today's status.
So, again, nobody asks for a fixed date, but high level priorities, rough timelines (not in multi-year timeframe) and order of improving major game mechanics would be more in line with my expectation after the "Two Year Plan" discussion.

 

@DarkStarr
This is more of a wishlist I would say not a full GDD. In my game development the GDD was our bible. We listed features in order of priority. To avoid feature creep we also had a wishlist that we put in what I called a time capsule.
The time capsule was longer term lower priority features that would be examined after the GDD was almost (They are never really done) complete.
I would suggest that you make a thread that players can post features in the format:

Feature name:
Description:
Priority:
Benefit to the player base:
benefit to the company:

 

A GDD is a lot more complex than a 2 year road plan, atleast it should be.
I don't think you would want to make your GDD full public
I know i wouldn't.


But i still agree with you about everything else ofc.

 

Treasure maps and Treasure hunting like Ultima online had! Messages in bottles and Treasure chests!

 

Yes it should be private except this game is open development as it is a crowdfunded game. Now the procedures part of the GDD should be left out but the features planned and the priority should be listed. My point was to inform the players in witch features where going to be worked on in order of priority and tentative time. Things like balancing and existing major implemented game features should be listed at the time of updates since those are labor dependant but these should be listed as I layed out in my post.

 

Just a quick suggestion related to the 'More POT and House Decoration Tools:' a feature that would be nice for POT owners would be an item search. Maybe a way to find all placed objects on the lot and it highlights them and sets them as a temporary landmark.. (like trying to find a small paver somewhere in your POT)

 

I kinda like this list more... Way more, tbh. I think you could add falling animations to that list, your own thread: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/making-falling-better.89133/

In a post mortem they said they will add automatic rolling animations when falling, that's missing from the list (or it will be added to EP1). @DarkStarr

 

TBH the only concern I have for the game atm, is the insane load time on maps and the crazy FPS in towns especially...

If this is not fixed before launch, the bad reviews will hammer the game into its early grave.

While some are too thick headed to understand how awesome the combat system really is, and therefore give it bad reviews. Others are too focused on crazy Asian animations in combat and forget gameplay... everyone old or new, tall or short, can agree that load time and FPS has to work.

 

WOW. I'm totally stoked! @DarkStarr and team, you guys and gals rock!

 

Wow, 8 pages to read... well I didn't have time to read all the suggestions (sorry), so some of mine will certainly duplicate other suggestions.

Suggestions:

• Leaderboards (crafting, combat, town population, etc.)
• Alliance of Guilds (for identification of guild loyalty to a main group/guild/alliance, communication between allied guilds [like UO], force on force combat between alliances?)
• Theater/Stage for concerts/events
  • POT deco, a new house type, placed in a NPC/PRT, ...?
  • Schedule events (day / time)
  • Charge for admission
  • Can change camera view to see the stage better no matter where sitting in the theater.
  • Basically becomes another small scene where people sit and watch a play/concert.
• POT management
  • - Guilds connected to towns (similar to alliance, but indicates what the guild's base town is; allows cross guild communication)
  • - Mail to all houses/residents (so we can do messages/letters to our residents rather than out of game forum announcements)
  • - POT Owner designation of council members (so people know who's in charge, not just the POT owner who may not really be in charge)
  • - Think through more Town Management (like running a real life community/town) features to help us run towns better in game with residents and visitors
  • - Add features to help the POTs become social hubs like where the hangout pub is, how many people are there, where the vendors are located, message of the day to visitors entering or to residents, etc.
• Mail enhancements
  • - Delivery Receipts
  • - Return if not Delivered
• Rentable rooms list on Town Crier - show available rooms for rent and location
• Books and Libraries
  • - Bookshelves that externally visually fill up, but are containers for books to reduce scene/house item count
  • - Book "copyright" non-reprint capability
  • - Central Library in Britanny - people can submit books, and they automatically de-dupe if same books, but have all submitted books on display in containers, lists, etc.
• Fishing
  • - Of course more complex fishing (types of fish, bait, tackle, trophies, loot, skills, weather, seasons) - I believe some of this is coming out pre-Episode 1
  • - Fishing competition mechanics for player fishing events (locations, counters versus time, etc.)

Thanks!

 

Suggestion:
(1)
I wish that we can summon more than one Elementals or Pets.
The reason is that the power of the our Elementals and Pets are relatively weak at the moment and it has a high cost.
When we summon more than one Elementals or Pets, the cost will increase accordingly and so it will not ruin the game balance.

(2)
Also, I suggest that we have nightmare from UO in our game and allow us to tame it and mount it.

 

I would love to see a Bard Skill Tree.
Mainly with buffs and debuffs for the group play and something like Peace/Provoke for the Solo play.

Could be somekind of a natural "magic" that decrease the power of other trees for the user...

 

Well res they where randum you could just get a quest for some cool rewards if you hunted pirates. But also it did give you a karma(virtue) hit if you killed a murchant ship the ore ect was worth it.

 

Based on previous guidance, last year, Starr had said the following "Please note that our plan is to complete all of the below before starting work on Episode 2."

If you look at that list, many of those items have been completed, but a number of them have not. I've attempted to go through and highlight the remaining items that still need attention. Of the 45 items they had on this list, they completed roughly 15 during the last year?

The current list (the new one in the OP of this thread) has 42 items (and the list is growing). So if we can only complete about 15 of those items per year. When and which ones are the most likely? The Custom Duke Heads should be a high priority, but they only serve "the whales" and probably take quite a bit of time and effort to complete. Meanwhile, the team may have plans to start work on Episode 2 (and include things from the new list like mounts and elven races) which pull resources away from things like Custom Duke Heads. (not to mention things with even larger level of effort requirements like Custom POTs!)

So that's why I'm bringing this up. Because we have a small team, we can't do all this stuff. It's not possible even if you gave us 3 years. It's fun to dream, I'm a big dreamer. But we have to be realistic about what we can and can't do, and decisions need to be made about what we're going to put effort into. From my perspective I think that once we launch EP1 we're officially at a point where all the pledge rewards that haven't been fulfilled need to take priority over anything related to EP2 unless there's some really good rationale behind starting the EP2 type stuff (something like we don't need Lum to be sitting on his hands for next three months waiting for EP1 rewards to get finished, he can start work on dialogue for EP2). But other than that, I feel like the Duke Heads and the Custom POTs and all this other stuff listed on the rewards priority listing needs to get done.

Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

 

I showed this list to a friend of mine and he only said: "Wow, not one single mention of a single-player feature"... Somehow he is right...

 

I am not surprised.

 

That's one out of many other reasons as to why 90% of the OP list is disappointing for me.