General opinion - -

I know I am notorious here and many just out right HATE what I have to say, sorry.

Anyhow last night went out and helped at one of the "fixed" control points. I was a straight up healer something I have not done in a long time, I usually am Combat Healing. I handled it very well though. After setting it all up and getting it working and the party just rolling along, I noticed I was doing nothing but looking at the top left corner watching health bars.

1. In all the buffs / de-buffs there was NO way to differentiate who was taking what type of damage to tell if someone was poisoned was impossible to even see. How hard would it be to tint the health bar. This was a complex VERY FAST evolving fight and no chance to look at much else. Plus when I tried to see a corpse adding names to the screen it was 100% worse.

2. After some time I caught on between healing was there a little time to loot here and there. I tried but was only able to succeed in looting about 5 - 6 of the Humanoid Corpses. I tried to loot a few of the spiders but even with descent harvesting every single corpse timed out before I could finish WTH? I attempted at least 6 times and one was even when we backed out so I knew exactly when I died I started harvesting and still Poof at 96%. Do not tell me to gain Harvest Speed, or use a diff tool, we where in the middle of a fight and needed each and every item I had on me to do what I was supposed to do.

3. Sorry in the end I could no longer just sit there and just cast one of 6 spells on the same 4 people to get nothing from it - I did raise ONE skill from 80 - 85 Healing Rain and gained about 300K exp extra, but sorry that is useless expect for those who want to min / max a game.

Is this the game you really wanted to create?

So now all this work was being done with 8 players who are not low level some very strong. Only about 3 of us even tried to train a skill or two the rest where there for one simple reason - GRIND EXP.

Development team - sorry but this is not a fix for anything.

It does a few things (none of which actually help the game)
1. It gives the higher skilled players a way to grind their exp to garner even more of a gap between lower level players.
2. completely fails to make control point what they where made to be - what happened to the loot chest, or the special end state boss after level 6? these could be so much more

BUT - since they where abused to the point of having to literally shut them off why would you do such a poor job of fixing them.

Time to stop trying to appease players who have end gamed your story.

Ok now more rambling - I have backed for a long time and sorry but there is just not much out there that is not just a grind.

If I want to decorate my house I have to do one of 3 things;
Spend Money at store? Sorry done doing that
Grind away for H-O-U-R-S to gather resources to make things to use or sell resources which =
Grind away for H-O-U-R-S to gain gold to buy what I need / want.

If I want to craft something it is the exact same from above for #2,3 and even worse off most item crafted are just plain garbage, unless I add in something obtained from one of the "end game bosses" which the elite have already, "been there done that"

So I am forced to GRIND to just keep pace.

Where is the fun in that - you are going to lose you backers and new players are going to figure it out after about a month or two.

PvP is NOT going to save any of it, so please do not try and present that as an argument - PvP could be fun but it needs a good core game first.

Sorry but looking ahead in the next few months before "Release" you have so much to work on other than just finishing the story line.

And again 99% delivery is still 100% failure.

Also time to start biting another bullet - you have already told backers less than 100% is ok - so bite one more and Wipe something, you know exactly what I am taking about.

 

Core content of this game is only grinding and min maxing.
Those who want that, have fun, i'm not against it in general.

The bad thing about this is it destroys any pvp and economy or limits this to only hardcore powergamers.
Funny a limitless system limiting itself by it's lack of rules/ restrictions / limits.

Wont change and soon the hardcore powergamers will defend their playstyle and say something like: every one can do it.

Like in the US they say everybody can get rich. LoL

 

I see nothing about ultima here... its like some devs are laughing at the ultima thinking its an outdated game... but I can tell you straight away that this old obsolete game as you call it has more magnetism on a hundred of my friends and I than this attempt at "evolving" the genre.

I see no evolution, I see exactly what made me leave so many games within as @Weins201 said a few months.

Still see the potential, still love the devs... *sigh*

 

There is VERY easy VERY good for game health step. It will solve problems of powergaming forever. - If you hit 105 level(on this level you can do everything in game, stay competitive and not have to grind at all, all above is powergaming for now) - you have only PVP flag and dont have friends mode at all. I understand guys that want to be OP but they dont wear flag(because everybody will check their "OP"), but really this step is on the best possible steps ingame for game health now.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of the current form of Control Point. It's merely a wave battle that increases in difficulty, ad nausium.
It's like a grind where the mobs come to you (instead of you running around the area looking for them).

From a design perspective, I would like to see a control point area split into 3 different lanes, like so:

Entrance
. . . . | . . .
. / . .|. . \
.1 . . 2 . . 3
. \ . .| . ./
. . . . | . . .
. . .Exit .

Your group enters the area and picks a lane to clear. Combat ensues. Wave after wave come. After every X number of waves, you get a reward and the difficulty increases for the next group of waves. Continue to the last wave where the "Boss" (could be a solo mob, or an "elite" group of mobs) comes out. Defeat the final wave and that Pathway is clear for the next X number of hours (or until another path is cleared. Then the path becomes active).

Each path could have a different layout, different mobs, different "puzzles"/challenges to deal with during the encounter. You could even scale each path so that different levels could tackle them (like Path 1 is Adv Level 20-40, Path 2 is 41-80, and Path 3 is 81+, for example).

So, for example, if Group A clears Path 1 (which will remain clear for, say 2 hours) and Group B comes along and starts clearing Path 2....the moment Group B clears Path 2, Path 1 becomes active again, and Path 2 is clear for the next 2 hours.

 

There is definitely a lot of grinding in Shroud. There is no doubt. The only time I can tolerate the grind is when I'm in a party/group, but even then after awhile it gets a little tedious. It's one of the reasons I have taken a step back from the game currently. I am waiting until release and then will reset my quests and enjoy the story from the beginning, hopefully!

 

I have adv 84 character dedicated healer with only points in the life tree.

Since you were in an open area it was extra easy, but if you are in a dungeon, it becomes much more about Line of Sight and watching aggro.

I have party target keybinds for every key around WASD, and the first thing I do when I start with a party is memorize who is assigned to which button. People probably think i'm crazy or hyper for overhealing random people for 2-3 minutes but that's me testing my memory.

Then I use the main camera to see who is about to be attacked, whether I have drawn aggro, and check health bars. I only look at the top left occasionally because, as you said, it is really aggravating to read. And also, people like to run around when they get hurt, and break LoS.

They made the buff icons smaller to address the overlap issue, but the overlap issue is still there for people who push their buffs to 3 rows, and the icons are uselessly small now. it's the worst of both worlds. The only buff icons that should show up on PARTY health bars are ones which can be dispelled or doused. Literally no one cares about anyone's obsidian carrying.

This is for real. Enemy health bars look exactly the same as party health bars, and if they are standing on top of eachother, which is normal, you can't tell who the health bar belongs to. This part is super frustrating.

Other than this feedback, the other i would give to port is to allow health bar movement and customization. As a WoW healer, i would use huge health bars and put them above my character, such that I could reliably read them with my peripheral vision.


On your larger point, about grinding being the central focus of this game, you are accurate. The best player for any challenge in this game is the one who has grinded more. Even pvp barely scratches at transcending this paradigm.

"Ah dang, this boss wiped us, maybe we should drop a melee and add a ranged DPS" -- no one ever
"Ah crap, that boss took 8 minutes... hold on <<level 100+>> is online" -- daily

 

I've had to step away from SotA for a while, as well.

I'm a self-avowed "casual gamer", and don't have the time nor inclination to keep up with the master-level crafters... a mid-level crafter like me can't sell anything and compete with the big kahunas.

The questing in SotA leaves a LOT to be desired... heck, just FINDING quests is a pain. And I know that a lot of players don't want floating "markers" and such over NPC's heads and love to read tons of in-game text all for the sake of "immersion", but that is not my thing.

I still pop in occasionally and keep up my property taxes, and slide through the forums to keep up with what's going on... but right now, I'm enjoying the hell out of Elder Scrolls Online.

 

@Weins201 while I see you sometimes don't have a lot of patience with people I never question your commitment and dedication to this game. We all handle the sometimes emotional drain of that in different ways. I panic myself with thinking time is running out to present this game in the best light before it releases and I don't agree to that happening after releasing at all but that is another topic that can go on my threads

I am often times a healer or support healer for groups. I agree with a lot of what you say. This game at this moment still doesn't do the best job of portraying what is happening in combat. Text lost in the chat Windows don't give us instant information to go by. I've never played a game where I don't know what's exactly going on with the players I'm supposed to heal. Sure I can see their health bar going down and focus bar going down and luckily with healing blast I can save players better.

Being a healer and needing healed in this game could be so much more informative and interesting. Like you said are they poisoned? Is there a help we could give to manage focus drain?Well these are cleric type things and in this game each player manages those things themselves.

I do think that the healer as well as all characters should get better visuals, and perhaps even things like they are vocalizing about being ill from poisoning, or bleeding, or some other condition gasping or bending over in pain. Things that make it apparent what's going on.

We will have healers in this game in groups. This is a fact from one type of game some of the masses want to play. That is the boss runs and tougher areas that require groups. This game needs to address this as well. This makes it so much more interesting also to provide the needed feedback in a way that gets it across and to provide the healer tools to set up their healer status during healing. Well just some thoughts before coffee. I'll re-read after wards

 

Trying to see buffs :

 

Maybe true, problem is without to hardcore grind and instead playing my favorite playstyle we talk about many years until this will happen.
Roughly 1500 hours in this game since persistence, what is tons for me and nearly 10 times of what i normally play, yes there is some special love to atmosphere and also combat, but i'm "only" level 78.
Thing is i'm still trying to get skills to 80, innates take tons of xp.
The balancing is measured on players who spent an "unhealthy" amount of time playing and do mostly nothing else than powergrinding.
As i said i dont want to say someone what he should do or not, how he should play or not, but regarding a MP Sandbox and PvP + Economy this limits the participants extremly to only those who can and will spent that much time plus have a special approach to gaming aka min maxing.
I dont know if that's good, i wont judge, but my opinion is it's not good and i know some players who left exactly for that, because they want this UO sandbox and PVP experience and this hardly needs caps, at minimum a working softcap what is not the sort of softcap we have here, but is more restrictive and limiting.
You know imo within limits lies some freedom and without limits it's more limiting than some believe.
Rules and Restrictions, Limits and consequences, choices that need to make are something that evokes more creativity and a more diverse and even playfield than we have now.
Just my opinion.
I said it before and i do it again.
Lot of people think of UO as the "perfect" balanced MMO game / experience regarding a sandbox and PvP right?
And it hat hard caps that force you to make decisions and choices about your character and it was possible for casuals to reach these limits and caps where it then was only about playerskill and not spent time what decided battles.
The hardcore gamers still win, because of having more practice, but it's a huge difference if you loose because someone other had more practice in using the same stuff like you and has the same limits like you than to mainly loose because you cannot and will not grind 16hrs/ day for +5000 hrs Minimum.

This is not against powergamers and hardcore grinders / players, this is an argument against the decision of Portalarium to stick to this limitless skillsystem.

 

I usually have trouble with the delivery, but this time you are spot on and well articulated.

I do not have an answer, but I sure hope the devs do. In 2 months? No chance.

Yet I'm still drawn into the grind, so I know the core is good, just need a better vision. My main hope is for an Ok success and then total retooling for Ep2. We shall see.

Yes. I still play nearly everyday so please read my concerns with that in mind. Love it, but want to love it more.

 

This is very much my sentiment as well. Although I am super casual and play less than an hour a week, I still find aspects of the game enjoyable. For example, the new uncloned scenes are amazing and I love exploring every nook and cranny! I also echo your hopes for a more successful retool in Episode 2 and beyond.

@Weins201 hit the nail on the head for me re: crafting. Not only is it extremely costly, but it's even more of a grind than adventuring for xp. Which is why I don't craft anything and use my limited amount of gold to buy what I need. All of this I am hoping can be fixed as we move forward, but we'll see!

 

tinting the health bars is actually a great idea. Or perhaps some sort of green glow behind it indicating a poison is on this person. Nice.

 

I only have a bit to say, dont want to go to negative but I agree 100%. I posted something up like this 2 years ago about healing (I wanted to be a healer in a party and still to this day have 900 points into life) but I gave up long long ago and nothing much has changed from my complaints 2 years ago.

The *one* positive thing I have seen (another thing I complained about 2 years ago) is that they will be putting in party loot rules so someone playing a healer can get their fair share of loot. I believe its listed in R51 or 52.

I've only run into one good healer in this game and I haven't really seen her in a year but I think shes still around, Margret (spelling).

 

It is Margaritte and she is still a fantastic healer and healing burst really made a huge difference in one thing that was needed for healing.

 

I think he was being a bit sarcastic, cause literally every game out there has a color change... JIRA is very good to keep focused... but it isn't a design tool.

I'd say have one last design phase round table or whatever you must do, but DO IT.

 

Also the fact that every single buff is represented equally makes everything crowded and looking like an alpha (yeah I know)...

Buffs that last very long I don't need to see, buffs I can't do anything about I don't need to see etc... some buffs can have a very simplistic glow or hue, and some important buffs should appear as SIMPLE symbols on the health bar itself, so you can look quickly if they are still active by a color code, maybe make these important buff slots user defined etc...

a crowded UI is the RPG's worst enemy... makes me miss UO...

I was looking at Mac's CP videos earlier and I was just staring blankly at the screen, it looks like a fireworks dance party, not a immersive combat, AT ALL.

besides I was puzzled at how easy they owned the place... only a few ever lost a tiny bit of health... piece of cake.

Is this a superman game ? Superman : Shrouded in avatars ?

marvel fans probably love it...

Ultima fans... not so much. Actually they love the gameplay and ignore the eyesore, lets be honest...

 

I do very well at healing, we as a group did very well, but there are definite flaws in what I saw last night.

I know a step like UP would be great but I also feel it is too easy - i.e. one button healing / curing - but that can also be a simple macro as someone else already stated bound to on key for each 8, Very easy actually BUT identifying if someone is poisoned, rooted, stunned . . . . should really be able to be seen to the healer and or group.

Looting should also be possible.

those are the two basic issues I saw.