"Games must kill their kings!" Raph Koster (UO lead Designer, SWG Art Director)

Jep.. i think the soft cap was a nice try, but it failed because auf 2 problems.

1. If it is to soft, we have 200 gm chars.

2. If it is to hard players get frustrated.

In my opinion, hard cap would enrich the game. But i think its completely meaningless to further discuss this topic.. The devs will not change the actual system, 1 year after the game went persistent.

Someone wrote on reddit: "If you hate the game now, you will never love it in the future"
I would not say i hate it, but there are some design decisions, that make sota unplayable for me. (Crafting/Gathering to expensive/grindy, no working solution for dragon soloing or skill softcap, Way to much stuff in the itemshop, to many playertowns)

I dont want to compare sota to UO, but in UO i had tons of stuff to do from the beginning. I was able to participate in PvP after some weeks, i had a decent crafter, i could socialise because the world wasnt seperated in more zones and citys than players playing.... So maybe sota is not the game for players like me... So its just reading the forum, and praying for a miracle

 

sadly this right here the whole open constantly being flagged pvp is the very reason I NEVER played UO, I played SWG as a jedi, which took 100's of hours to achieve, was forced to pvp which I hated every minute of. 2nd, I look at Mac and the others as Jedi, they put in the time they achieved such a high level they are the jedi. Teach me Obi-Wan. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands some insane amount of xp it takes just for them to get to that next level, or to level up any of the skills, is just insane. Sadly right now the game severely lacks in content for players say lvl 90-120. I'm at the point where its starting to feel like a job just to advance at all. Money ingame is at the points its just getting stupid hard to get, the mines are becoming nerfed to the point that even that isn't fun anymore. Something needs to change and change fast or more and more players will just quit and not come back.

 

+10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Nobody want you to change your style to play, we want to play with you, we want to compete with you and we want to still have a challenge when we kill a dragon with you.
therefore please dont feel accused or that we complain about your playstyle, i only say that players are driven apart and that this is not healthy for any MP Game. The gap between players, the distribution of power is no good.
you can see what happens in rl politrics if the redistribution of wealth and power is wrong.
Its not against you never was.
As Jens_T said neither he or me who are casuals neither you are the point where devs should orientate at.
Mediacracy would allways be better than that what we have.
I can easily imagine how you feel and how the game is for you, i just need to go to a T3 Scene.
But can you imagine how the game feels for people who play 1-3 hours a day and not everyday, maybe only 10 hours a week?
Do you agree that those people cannot partake in all aspects of a game, because they cannot put the effort in you can do?
Maybe Games should have not only spec recomendations but also time to play recommendations like: If you want to partake in all aspects of the game, you need to play at least 50+ hours/ week and "work" serious towards your goals.

This said, i already accepted that i never be able to partake in any aspects of the game due to this.
This doesn't stop me playing, but because a group of players want it to be limitless and all that and don't want to accept that this drives people apart instead to lead to interaction between them - PvE and PvP - i have to refuse features of the game.
And to be clear, thats not your fault, thats the fault of the Devs who aren't able to balance this game in a mediocre way.
IIRC @2112Starman once said that he with Level 90+ has no chance in PvP against the top players, not because of playerskill, but because of spent time raising skills. Correct me if i am wrong, that is just from a vague memory.

Dont you want to have a challenge while competing with as much as possible opponents and dont you agree that spent time shouldn't be the main factor to win? not only for PvP, also for economy, crafting... ???
And another question:
Didnt you dislike the ask for outbidding people

Time is Money

Isn't that the same for players with more time - shouldn't be there a regulation/ limitation???
No???

And again, i respect you, i dont want you to have no fun anymore, i like what you did and you helped me too, i know you are a nice and kind person, really, we just had a short meeting ingame, but alone the fact where are you living makes you super sympathic to me
It's not against you - i swear - its about that in think things need to be adjusted and i don't doubt they will do it.

 

1. After a quite short time, Trammel was implemented to UO. Which was a mirrorworld without PvP, where all players started. I just mentioned PvP as one of many things to do in UO, even as a casual Player. In SotA at this point is PvP for casuals extremely frustrating.. The playerbase is so small, that only extremely strong players really participate in PvP. The Problem arnt the 10 players with 200gms, the problem is that every casual becomes stronger and stronger over time.. If a new player joins sota in 2 years, its nearly impossible for him to catch up.

2. As a Bounty Hunter you could kill Jedi's. And dont forget: Jedis could die permanently, and jedi masters could become blue glowies. And SWG had a giant playerbase.. The "PvP zones" wherent dominated by jedi groups, they where dominated by good organised groups. Thouse groups could take out a jedi in seconds. Jedi was more hardcore mode, than content for grinders. Yes, SWG was grindy.. Many players never capped a char.. But it had soooo much content... And even if swg had a hard cap, the character freedom was much better than in sota...

 

Some early players are too strong and might become tyrants! > Drag them down! Bring them down to lower state so everybody can play same equal state!

What is this? I don’t see some of above comments none other than underaged tantrum



High level players are also players, and they’re providing feedback and testing in the region where none other could reach.

and Top level players can remove the ladder so other players can’t challenge them? Yes, this can happen, and THAT’s where developer should come in.

Inequality between players is natural, but devs should always provide means to lower players to catch up top tier dudes, not leaving them at helpless state.

And voluntary program for top tiers’ to contribute on lowbies is also crucial.

 

You dont understand our concerns, and call us underaged...

Again, maybe you understand this. I think that the possibility to level so hight, destroys the econemy and PvP in this game. I have no problem when someone is better than me, i have problem when a game encourages a giant gap between new und old players. (or casual and powergamers). Why do you think that every working mmorpg in history, had some kind of regulation how strong a char could be?

I know, steam charts dont contain all the players.. But damn.. A game with an overall daily login Peak of 600 players... Could it be that this game has some major design issues? And could the skill system be one of the reasons for that?(not just from the "no cap" point of view)

But as i sayed. I accepted that this will never change. Maybe the hand full of players that really play sota, are happier than. I hope they are rich enough, to maintain the cashflow.

 

Don’t get me wrong, @Bulveigh . I’m also a part of the ‘late comers’, and I feel your concern wholeheartedly but only trying to convey my opinion that the game system is responsible for balance the unbalanced, not by pointing finger at someone who’ve put his/her considerate amount of time and passion into it.

That is just plain rude.

Yes there are only handful of players playing this game, and those who’ve put their interest in this have their own concerns.

But let’s give it time. It’s getting better and we can see it. Let’s not say we’re doomed just yet.

 

I never did that. I vote for a hard cap or working soft cap.
And i am sorry for all the people levelt further than intendet by portalarium, who suffer from death decay alot.. But thats whats happening, when you include a core feature 1 year after persistance.

 

Yea, man. Didn’t said it was you.

 

Here is the original english article from Raph Koster:

https://www.raphkoster.com/2017/09/22/31098/#more-31098

 

90+ is when everyone starts leveling out. Far worse for lvl 90 then 99 since there is a vast difference in XP between those two. Someone at lvl 99 can feasibly have all the GM's in every skill they need including passives and such *for one build*. At 100+ they start being able to have GM's across several different builds and are able to change their build to target someone lvl 90 who would only have GM levels in one main build. The best PvP'ers have always been the people lvl 100+ who were able to change their build to target what I was going in with.

 

thats the point!
thanks for sharing information

 

Personally I don't care if people have every GM available and are at level 200,as far as how it affects me,which is none. I am not competing against them, I am competing with a game and myself.

The only thing that might affect me is they all get burned out and stop playing,affecting the gaming community somehow. I remember a long time back there were groups that were grinding control points 12-15 hours per day,I never see most of those folks anymore,many said they were bored. Well, they did that to themselves. I heard some of the same things that were stated here. If anyone wants to frame their "I am this level and this many gm's to bug search and test things others can't" I find the reasoning weak.

I will say in all my years of gaming I have never met anyone who wanted to surpass everyone else for the "benefit" of the game,it's always about wanting to be ahead of everyone else. But I am not a mind reader and I cannot say what motivates people in their gaming experience. All I do know is the ones ahead of everyone else keep getting more and more and don't seem to have any intent on slowing down or stopping. It see that one of this games features that I hate, death decay,has no real affect on them as far as slowing them down grinding. This is why I refuse to drink the death decay kool-aid, it isn't really slowing down the top folks at all. They all admit it isn't.

 

Most of the features that might change your opinion are not even in the game yet ..being a high level player already has its advantages for newer players through the mentoring process but its obviously not enough .. i think when more features will be implemented in the game ..new people will be looking for high level players ....Im talking about raids , guild/zone wars so on... and they will no longer be seen as the '' scarecrow'' some seem to indicate they are.

 

It's kind of funny when people say they like war based games like Star WARS... like to play a jedi but would prefer all their siths to be sub-par AI that will give them an illusory challenge.

I bet all Jedis would have loved that in the star wars universe... was general grievous such a character ?

Of course you were forced to PvP... its the star wars universe... not a disney theme park...

I wonder if people realize how those thought forms tie the hands of the artists.

 

I do agree about having to level a whole tree for resistances sucks, even though this works to my advantage, I don't agree with that mechanic. That archer or melee person should not need to level 80 skills they will never use just so a mage does not cake walk them.

This is very true, it is not so much the power of your build in a fight, but knowing what your opponent is going to do and countering that is a HUGE part of the fight, especially when you start to get into warding gear. I am mainly a death mage, and when someone with 80 in 10 death skills and death ward gear fights me, I am seeing hits of 50 with hardly any crits with my death magic.

Now I am level 119( true measure of power, not gmes) and I have been killed by players in their 90's. This fact right here proves you do not need to be as extreme grinder as I am to compete with me. I think at level 104, depending on the skills you choose, is when you will really start to feel that soft cap working. And while a person at level 60 or so, might look at level 104 being a very hard goal, you must remember as you grow, so can the exp you earn. I THINK, not positive on this but, a casual player should be able to reach level 104 in 1.5 years. You should be able to do pretty much anything you want at that level. You will also start to feel the pain of tons of exp for minimal gains as well around that point. The one thing I really do feel for casual players is how decay is accumulated while offline, I wish it was only time played. Most of the players I know that left the game was from that fact right there, and I am sure most of us have seen the posts about decay so I wont really get into that here.

Now I did get pretty mad yesterday, and it is because I am sick of hearing how overpowered I am. To these people, I ask you this, who do you think really knows how powerful I am, other people, or me myself? I know its hard for people who are not extreme leveled like I am to understand this, but to run off assumption and not fact, and then when I try and share my findings, being told that I am just defending my power, well, it starts to feel like I am wasting my time talking to the walls you know.

 

sorry starman i have to dis-agree, the 2 best pvpers i have seen in this game Are @Jackdepirate and @parallelogram , they were Mid 90's players and they didnt Need all these gm's ( if any at all to be competitive ) i at one point had 20 levels on them both and they destroyed me, Its all about Skill and thinking of a counter build for your opponent,

 

I think i am able to define whats overpowered(for me) and what not, without being that strong by my self.. Because i dont do it by measuring my strength to yours, i do it by "time to get there for a casual" and by something a player should not be able to do.

So in this case:
~ 1-1,5 Years til you are ready to participate in PvP without being cannonfodder is in MY OPINION to long. For a player like me who loves PvP and socialising the most, this means 1.5 years of playing a part of the game, i am not interested in. I am not judging! I am just not the kind of person who preferes games where extremely long PvE grind defines how strong you are. Shure! I could stop caring and start looking for another game. But i care about sota, because of other reasons... But i think the lack of accessebility is a huge gamebreaker for many people. (Because of the skill system, the expensive grindy crafting, and so on...)

The second tool of "measurement" is "the dragons".. If you are able to solo dragons oder other boss mob kind of creatures, you are in my opinion to strong. You can solo creatures who are supposed to be group content.. I would like to encourage players to play together. And i dont know how players should compete with your prices, when they need a full group of people for a creature you could farm solo. And dont tell me, that soloing dragons is wanted and part of the game, i have a pm from chris inbox, where he clearly answers to me "Soloing dragons is really not intended BUT Bzus and I have been focused on other, non-end game elements as we work to get the story and offline play wrapped up."

EDIT:
One really important thing.. I do not say this is "you fault". Its because of a bad skill system and a not working soft cap which was implemented 1 years after the game went persistant.

And: I have no idea how powerful you are, and whats the exact number when it gets out of control

 

I get angry every time I see the phrase "group content." Not much, but a little.