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My release 50 feedback :-)

Discussion in 'Release 50 Feedback Forum' started by AndiZ275, Feb 9, 2018.

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  1. AndiZ275

    AndiZ275 Avatar

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    Okay, it’s been some time since my last Release-Evaluation, but since I started playing SotA again, I wanted to give you my impressions of Release 50:

    Where am I coming from? Well, I was always more the single player type of Ultima player and I never even touched Ultima Online, since it seemed to be too stressful for me. I prefer to compete together to achieve a goal and usually avoid the Player vs Player playstyle, since I get enough stress with other humans at work . I’m not a power gamer or always try to become the best in everything. Interface, UI and some convenience are quite important to me. A game starts to become stress for me, when it’s getting unnecessarily difficult to handle (why do I need to click every time here? why can’t there be more filters in the inventory, etc.).

    I was one of the initial day one backers and still don’t regret it. I’m not always sure why, but something draws me back to SotA from time to time and most of the time I’m having fun.

    But now to my impressions (highly subjective ):



    1. Quests and Regions

    the good:

    - I love some of the new adventure areas. the Highvale Outskirts are an amazing region with very good quests, diverse enemies and a lovely story; the amount of discovery in that area was amazing, so thank you for the great time here :-D

    - thanks for being able to enter areas from different directions (don’t know when I wrote my last impressions post, but this was quite on top of the suggestions)

    - Thanks for the better Quest-log; I know many wanted to go back to the “roots of Ultima”, but honestly, for example in Serpent Isle, there were never that many quests and side quests at the same time; usually I knew where I had to go; the main questline was surprisingly linear, but masterfully narrated



    my problems:

    - with areas as good as the Outskirts the flaws and boredom of other areas without story and enemies get quite apparent; some of the woods and plain regions seem like filler

    - I like the design of the mines (especially the one in the Serpentine Pass)

    - I hate the passes! it was fun the first time, but it gets tedious, when you want to reach other regions of the map…

    - I like the idea of encounters on the map, but they are tedious and boring

    - I completed one of the main story arcs; the quest line was interesting but why was I sent to so many boring PvP ruin areas, that aren’t interesting at all for cooperative players (without quests, no story line and full of overpowered enemies)?

    - I like the conversations, but sometimes it’s just too much text! I just stop reading after a while (the small fonts aren’t helping here either :p); I prefer shorter and more poignant conversations (like in Divinity 2), but that’s surely subjective


    ideas:

    - instead of new scenes, I’d like some of the older ones redone, until they are on the same level as the more interesting ones.

    - when I visited the Outskirts, I was quite overpowered for the enemies there; more an idea for the future: maybe a hard-mode-instance for all adventure areas? or downscale heroes in Adventure Areas (so enemies are at least light yellow)?

    - When you ask someone for “rumors”, he could point you in the direction of possible quest givers (on the compass), this would be convenient without taking you out of the immersion

    - how about: let us pay on the overland map (500 Gold?) to bypass a Pass region?

    - or I’d prefer: put a large quest line in every pass and the reward for finishing it would be to bypass

    - to make encounters and enemies more interesting and meaningful: how about some kind of nemesis system, where enemies, you know from the story or otherwise, follow and attack you from time to time?



    2. Combat, Skills and Loot



    the good:

    - I like testing different decks of cards for different enemy types; sometimes it’s quite fun



    my problems:

    - I always have problems with the difficulty; either I’m over- or underpowered; finding a perfect challenge is quite difficult for me; in some of the regions most of the enemies are a piece of cake, till you encounter the one strong enemy, that looks the same as the rest, but nearly onehits you (siege enemies, for example)

    - Fights are very “spongy”; enemies and my character usually don’t react when hit; I don’t want the game to become Dark Souls, but at least for the stronger blows it would be nice to see some results

    - While I enjoy building decks, I still don’t like “stacking of cards”; it always takes me out of the combat and I stare more on my skill bar than keeping an eye out for my enemy; it’s stressful and distracting, but I still do it, because it’s very effective and for me the only way to defeat some of the bigger enemies

    - loot from monsters is quite boring most of the time; most of the weapons I find are far worse than everything I could craft (its good that crafted gear is better than loot, but does loot really have to be that worthless?)

    - Way too many skills look like filler and don’t differ from the standard attack: why do I need 5 sword skills, that all look the same? why does the combo skill still looks the same and does even less damage? why is there more than one “sprint” skill? etc.

    - Torches and the Light spell aren’t effective enough (compared to night vision)

    - I still don’t use any stance-skills? I always get the feeling that the drawbacks are far greater than the advantages (but I’m not a competitive gamer…)





    ideas:

    - how about: take “card stacking” out of the game or let cards stack automatically: and let players arrange skill combos in the deck library?

    - some kind of warning system, where bigger enemies are aiming at (like in 9 Parchments); I quite often have no idea, where I’m safe or where the enemy is hitting

    - take the filler skills out of the game and replace them with slower, but more interesting skills

    - an off-combat / non-crafting skill tree: something like “Adventureing” with “cartography”-skills, etc.; why does everything need to be about combat and crafting?

    - a batching skill for “salvage”; why only 15 items at a time?



    3. Interface and Controls

    the good:

    - the new maps are amazing; thank you for implementing it



    my problems:

    - the inventory and the crafting screen looks dated;

    - the crafting book is confusing and weirdly arranged for my taste

    - often I think: why do I need to click for everything over and over again?

    - trying to repair items with a full inventory is a frustrating experience

    - the controls are sometimes not responsive; especially jumping over obstacles can become frustrating




    ideas:

    - is there a way to get a well categorized list of the recipes in the left crafting window (as an alternative) without the images, that take way too much space?

    - the inventory and crafting windows could tolerate more clarity and filters, so I don’t have to scroll for minutes to find what I’m looking for

    - A repair option for Items on Right-Click

    - A Crafting filter for “only craftable recipes”, please!

    - Filters for “Take all loot” and “Salvage” (for example: take all loot worth more than 5gold; or: salvage all broken and ruined items)

    - a battlefield loot window (the hero could afterwards still walk from corpse to corpse)

    - allow players to open multiple inventory windows; for example for repairs or item comparisons



    4. Graphics and system

    the good:

    - I love the atmosphere and design of some areas (Highvale Outskirts again…)

    - loading times aren’t a reason to quit the game anymore (still sometimes long, but no comparison to older versions)



    my problems:

    - the fps in settlements with many player houses gets catastrophic pretty fast (playing on a good MSI gaming laptop)




    Okay, sorry for the mass of text

    Cheers everyone,

    looking forward to release 51!

    Andreas
     
  2. devourerofmemes

    devourerofmemes Avatar

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    Really well written feedback <3
     
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  3. Stevvcash

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    All good ideas.
     
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  4. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

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    Wow, great feedback! This thread targets many issues I might have with the game also! One thing that I disagree with and that I will mention simply because it could be the comment that helps you make it work : the deck system.

    As it is right now, I find the Deck system rather perfect and very challenging/customizable. The fun part from the system is that you can either go for rotating/random cards in a slot or a locked, chargeable skill. What this means is that you can set up your skills to be in very specific spots, so that without looking at your bar, you have a pretty clear Idea of what will happen if you press that key.

    Here's an example of my current deck, where I use Polearms and Water spells mainly.

    1. Locked Puncture (charging this is fast enough, and the damage increase is worth it for me)
    2. Push/leg sweep/spinning attack (these skills rotate so I know if something appears here, it's just some extra damage with a possible effect)
    3. Dodge/Party (they rotate so I can keep them up as much as possible and during fights where I need them, I can keep them ready for that big hit)
    4. Ice Fist (unlocked, so that I can combo this with push and puncture, because that is how I want it to be)
    5. Engage Combat (not 100% on skills name, I'm on my phone right now. I use this to start fights, or catch up to those who run away, like trolls)
    6. Blind/Fireflies (rotating for constant debuffing. This makes most encounters a bit more easy for me).
    7. Ice field (with upcoming update this will give a water resistance debuff, considering my RP style, this is very important to me)
    8. Soothing Rain/healing grace (I don't want to use life spells, Healing grace became the only one I decided to implement in my deck for its heal over time like soothing Rain)
    9. Fortify defence (locked, I want to be able to use this whenever possible to refresh it)
    10. Ice shield/Defensive stance/Douse (these are long duration defensive buffs. I rarely reach to cast them but will do it before engaging or from time to time to refresh their timers, when an opening presents itself).

    Setting up my deck this way, I have pretty much all the skills I need for most scenarios, and simply apply changes to it depending on if the enemy I will fight might need something else to beat, or if a skill will be completely useless (like AoE skills in a 1v1 fight). Also, I have e a pretty clear Idea of what will happen when I press a key, with the small exception of maybe I might push away an enemy, but that isn't something terrible for me.

    I'll admit the deck system is hard to comprehend, but once you do, you can play around with it and discover millions of possible setups that might fit your style.

    Like I said, it isn't to say you are wrong in saying it's not immersive, I'm just trying to show you a different perspective that you might not have considered and could possibly open up for you.
     
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  5. AndiZ275

    AndiZ275 Avatar

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    Oh, maybe I wasn't clear enough: I like the deck building a lot :) . I love the aspect of experimentation and discovery for different situations and enemy types.

    Only Stacking and Combos are too much for me. I tried it with the mouse, with the r-key or by pressing keys at the same time, but I never quite get it. It's always taking me away from the screen and puts my focus on the skill bar and that becomes stressful, especially when I need to maneuver at the same time, or with multiple enemies.
     
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  6. Astirian

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    Nice work man. :)

    Yup, this got me too. I love your idea of doing a quest chain to be able to bypass them forever! I'd love it to be tied to the airships lorewise.

    I actually find these great for gathering crafting resources, kind of the equivalent to going out to Trinsic forest or what have you, reminds me of the initial Ultimas too.

    I haven't started the main quest yet (waiting for polish to be completed) but that sounds really annoying, is this different in Offline I wonder?

    Not as subjective as you may think! :) There seems to be a fair amount of feedback relating to the dialogue box and how it's presented.

    Yeah that and the imminent Launch are what got me properly playing/testing now. :)
     
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