Don't forget the telethon & feedback after the Telethon

No I have steam and have played on steam. Steam was only added much later in development so many of the original backers have their own desktop icons. I'm not against steam as I said but am not playing this particular game through it. My concern is not about that. I have a newer computer and have very fast patch times with out steam.

 

Lol you don't know me. I am the queen of patience for this game. I've played since Nov 2013 never waivering. And I understand your concern for the devs. I have thought that they would make our dreams come true of course but my concern atm is for release and how the game shows off then. To imagine one or two promised systems could get finished and be fun at release was a big dream I had. Like someone saying come try the fishing in shrouds, it a lot of fun. Or wow what a great interactive adventure this game is. It draws you right in. That is not what we hear from new players. The community is speaking of their concerns for release. They are valid. We need a lot before we can show the world this game. It's not all about fishing, that just could have been a fun past time for the game if done right. It was one reason to explore the world.

Edited

 

WHAT? no fishing updates?

Been away a few days and missed the telethon and now I read this.

Will now stop fishing and start brewing, but wait that's not yet in game.

 

Well we can hope and I'm not saying I'm right about everything I say. I have a concern about pushing agriculture and fishing and not finishing them to be fun systems before release, but who knows. I have been wrong before about what would be fun.

 

SWG was indeed fantastic and yes none of these games are ever released with their full features in place. I think the concern is that Shroud will go public with very little in place to pull people in and more importantly keep them here. Oh that and the still considerable performance issues that still exist.

If the game is released to a chorus of very negative official reviews (not talking about the vitriol on Reddit and the like but "official" sites and publications) then what is promised in Ep2 onwards really wont matter as I doubt we will reach that point. This game cannot survive on a small loyal playerbase, telethons and pixel fluff forever.

Dont get me wrong in the few months I have played I have really enjoyed the experience (as far as it goes at present) and really hope the game is a great success. No games since UO and SWG have hooked me as SOTA has. I just worry that the focus of the devs is off target at this crucial stage.

 

Ahh sorry to give this news. I am away from town visiting my elderly mother but I have tried to keep in touch and was so very sad to hear there are very little plans to do good updates on these systems. It is all about world building which of course is fantastic too but the fibers and reasons to continue to explore these areas are being left out. Perhaps one of them could have contained a rare fish we needed for a special recipe.

Edited

 

I totally agree even though i love some fluff.

 

Thanks so much for the support and the compliments! I'm so glad you liked our scenes! Though I had to demo it in our editor (with default buildings), it's also fun seeing Etceter live with everyone's actual houses and decorations! Hopefully all the folks living and visiting there enjoy the new elements and changes that have cropped up around them...

Scottie ^_^

 

I am often wrong but isn't SWG dead? SW:TOR is still kicking SWG is dead, Jim! @majoria70 I was going to tell the devs: @majoria70 is even saying WTF? You better get your ^&+@ together.

 

Lol yeah you tell them.

 

Telling this to @majoria70 of all people is about the funniest thing I've seen on the forum in years. Of all people that has been her battle cry for EVERY time there has been a concern or complaint about the game or delays. If she's getting frustrated and losing faith that is disheartening. 8^(

*BIG HUG to Majoria*

We warned them REPEATEDLY about how early persistence was a bad idea and could hurt us as people would consider it launched. They did to placate a small group and that choice has been causing a negative backlash for a long time in reviews.

If we go official before we are ready to, I honestly do not see us recovering from the negative publicity. Currently, we are able to say we aren't live yet and insist that the devs are working on improving it before we are officially live (persistence and launch are NOT the same thing has been our byword in defending this game). The monthly telethons, the daily updates, the information they provide that show they are VERY active in working on the game and consistent improvements. If we lose that, then this is extremely discouraging. One of the best defenses we can use against negative complaints is that the game is still being worked on and the developers are very involved (not a quick cash grab or abandoned EA game, though many have claimed this on various forums).

I cannot agree with this more. We've already rushed too much to get to persistence. Get things in order and ready before going officially released/launched. PLEASE don't rush out the door before we are ready again.

 

SWG was still system complete and polished prior to it launching. I can not honestly say that we are. We still have skills that aren't in game with blank spots for the cards. We haven't done significant balance passes to streamline the game and make it viable for a wide audience. Yeah, we don't have mounts and neither did SWG when it launched, but SWG had a much smaller amount of MMOs to compete against, a much larger target audience, and was system complete.

And this sums up my concern.

Yes, yes it is. Gone where all great games go, our fond memories. Hopefully, SotA isn't trying to jump the gun to get there just yet.

 

This Telethon didn't make it on my radar – if you bury the Telethon alert somewhere in the Play Release 45 Now! Mail below North Shattered Hills, I just won't notice. Sorry, I guess some sales got lost there.

 

I thought this one went really well, minus the technical problems with the mic set up... I think it was knocked over at least once? And then being shifted back and forth, just about blew out my speakers at one point Content wise, I think it would be cool if the questions were categorized a little bit more? Seemed like this time the questions were completely mixed, which is fine for some of the more complicated questions, but would have been nice (and maybe helped the devs train of thought) if the questions were a little more organized maybe.

 

Usually they are better organized, but they mentioned at one point that with the visitors in the office they didn't pre-screen the questions like they usually do. Should be better next time.

 

Regarding SWG, I was a pre-NGE player with a class who had multiple skills that simply didn't work or do anything truly meaningful. So yes, games do launch incomplete.

But we also need to be cautious to not look backwards with rose-colored glasses about that. While many accepted an incomplete status, many pre-NGE friends also left the game because of its poor level of polish in its first year.

Time to get it right matters. Systems should not be launched noticeably incomplete.

 

They mean well but it'd be great if they spent more time pondering on the questions before doing the streams. They seem to mis-interpret a good amount of them even when they pre-screen questions like they normally do.

Focus more on the questions and less on the answers... maybe then the answers we do get will actually be less disappointing to hear.

Some of the "More options to have options in the options menu" jokes are warranted but, sometimes, urrrgh... How about we have more discussions on why a particular feature was asked and answer THAT instead of making fun of it. "Having an option to do X is a bit much, but the reason why X isn't the default way to play is because of Y"

 

Coherent answers with off the cuff questions and booze flowing? That's asking for something reasonable and professional. I'm not sure I can support that king of crazy logic.

 

I'm going to partially agree and partially disagree. I'm extremely concerned about the push to release, but not because of fishing, ag, or achievements. I'm worried because of the state of the mainline quests. I think if those are good it can carry the game, unfortunately I don't think those are in a good state. I'm not sure a few months is enough to get them there, either.

 

I think one reflects the other. If the quests are not sufficient to get you to explore the impressive world our artists have built, then there must be another reason (be it fishing, farming for resources, wanting to watch the broken moon set over flowing lava for a screenshot, etc.). When we don't have quests getting you to want to explore AND we don't have other draws to justify exploring... that is worrisome. So many resources poured into a wonderfully designed world, no reason to visit it.