Concerns about state of and Future of the game . . .becaue of Balance

i dont know why you need to feel to comment it this way.
People who have no clue about RP and RPvP shouldnt talk about it @Earl Atogrim von Draken
You are the PVP expert with the PvP PoT , or?
You selled it, are you flagged pvp either?

 

I was under the impression when I bought into SotA that it would be like UO. We had RPpvp in UO and we could do it because of the way the guild war system worked. I had hoped there would be more tools for RPpvp in SotA by now. I will tell my game group that it is not possible for SotA now, and we will move on.

 

I am somewhat surprised and disappointed that there is still no guild war system in game or even in the pipeline it would seem. Pretty fundamental mechanics that would be a huge boost to the game. One of the many design decisions/omissions I just dont understand with SOTA.

 

There is one in the two year plan. Dunno where exactly but it wasnt in a too far future if I remember right.

 

Well that's good news. Fingers crossed its still intended, updates from the Devs on this sort of thing would go a long way to allay peoples concerns (as long as its a positive update of course !)

 

Being we have waited years already, I do not expect it at all. A few more years and will be closer to retired and dead. So sad that this game is not what we perceived, and I mean just what me and my few friends thought, YMMV.

 

This has nothing to do with, if I would be interested or not.
As often as you can write it, you state, Portalarium is responisible, YOU can't take part in PvP!

Lately you told us about Martial Arts you made. Would you say, it is the normal way that you could defeat an Judo, Karate or Aikido Master after a few months of training, while they learned the art over years?
(Well, don't tell me please, there is no contest in Aikido - I know it).

Why should you be able to defeat someone who has trained very hard over years after a few months?
Beside this, again: you don't need to have 32 GM to defeat someone who has

That's your opinion, Stundorn - nothing else ...
My statement was not, I don't care about other players in general, but the play style of others don't concerns MY playstyle. It's just about possibilities players can use. If you don't like to use them, okay. But why are you laughing about others who like it?

That's also an assertion - another opinion. From another point of view people could say the same about you ...

I don't think so. If I have a look inside the bug reports over the last years, I found reportings mostly from the same persons.
You got tired to make bug reports, but not tired to spray your claims why all developers are responsible that you can't play the game you would like to play?
And you are still thinking you are completely right, aren't you?
Your opinion is the truth ... that's why you telling us, we are blind

SotA just starts. WOW also buildt the releases over a great time period! As you know, Episode 1 is the beginning, so, what do you expect as "endgame" - it was clear, that for launch Episode 1 will be playable. Not Episode 2-5 ...

Ultima Online started just with less more of that - and there was completely no story. Things were inserted later. Do you really expect all things, other games has buildt up over years in the first launch of this game? Nobody claimed it will be ... if I remember right

And what do you think, who rules the market? How would YOU like to participate in?
What are you asking for? If a player cuts 1000 trees and sells them or mines 1000 ore and sells them, what is the point you're thinking is wrong about?

Nobody has to sell stuff. And nobody can bring me to buy anything.
What's your point you're complaining about?

Because some players take a lot of time to earn money? They invest their time. And may be this is what they like! What is your problem with? You don't have to like it - and you don't must do the same.
It's one part of the game you can participate - or not.
And it's the same point with housing, decorating and dance parties.
Nobody says you have to like or follow it!
So, why do you pick out parts of the game and throwing all things in one context?

Because some players rule pvp, there is nothing else in SotA than progress grind?
What do you compare?

Who "rules" PvP in your opinion? How can someone rule something YOU can flag on or off?
Again your mind is spinning around OTHER people and how you think, they are playing, how mightful they are and telling us, you know exactly how this game world, how the economy and, of course, all the players are working ...

Well, that's a great prophecy ... okay, we're in a fantasy world, why not?

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As I just read, @Stundorn, our host uninvited us. No further input from me - sorry

 

Removed a few posts, take arguments to PM. Do not argue publicly personal issues.

 

I feel ya here and here only pretty much. I have about 900 in the taming tree and havent used a tamed pet in well over a year. Summoned pets are better cheaper and easier. Hopfully they did taming right but I still expect the focus drain is terrible.

Take this or leave this.... at level 81 with practice and guidance you can farm the money room, diing this for about a week ull break 100. The exp is insane and its very easy to farm, ive enjoyed the olympics this way except for the time I forgot to heal during shawn whites gold medal run.

Though I will say you do complain alot about the game, if u cant find any enjoyment in it mabey move on?

 

Perhaps you did not see this document which mentions lots of good things coming in the future.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...de-1-content-plans-aka-the-2-year-plan.97521/

 

What a comparison, omg.
Sorry cant take it serious.
But to answer a few month of playing a game should make you competetive and be able to partake in all aspects of the game.
I played 1700 hours, i finished the main story, i can go every t5 scene, what i cannot do is bosses like Dragons, K'rul or something like that.
What are your measures?
Do you want a sandbox RPG or do you want to defend that progress grind is content we all should be satisfied with?

You got me, now i'm disappearing and you loose another ambitioned player organizing Events, creating RP, trying to enlive the world.

Have Fun grinding.

I'm out @Weins201, sorry

 

But but guild wars is in the advertisements and seedinvest!
I gave up hope of a good guild war system in SoTa because when it was a issue and a lot of PvPers were still here pushing.. they didnt elaborate on any of their future plans or things in motion. Instead threads were locked, deleted and basically said, there IS guild wars right now.

Personallly.. hitting war and your whole guild jist gets flagged open PvP.. isnt exactly a * good * mechanic , nor even excusable to claim you have Guild Wars.. but ya.

They keep talking about this elaborate virtue , morale system.. but i no idea where its at.

Essentially any big guilds and groups arnt going to touch the game on release for * future promises * .. 5 years into a development with so many open complaints about direction changes.

Its a dig, but this issue is one i tackled numerous times over the last year, and ive given up.
But yes. Give me details about how awesome that decorative vase is for 35 minutes.

Guild wars is easily my largest gripe with SoTa between start and now.

Not only that. With massive specialization changes coming, that need to be tested long term, any kind of reward in GvG added right now is rough due to exploits and mis balances you have to assume need to be worked on just between the new skills.
*shrug* maybe by next year / next episode.

 

I agree with parts of your point. My biggest thing is that there is clear and define ways to fight each boss. Meaning that there is a specific build that will beat each one. I wish that it was a little more dynamic in players preferences and not everyone playing the same builds. For instance every archer is going to be using a long bow with aimed shot and rapid fire and firefly. Be nice if there was a purpose to all the other weapons available to an archer. However, if you want to “be good” there is a clear and define way you should be playing. Really takes away from the customization potential that the rest of this game provides. For the rest of the concerns, I feel like it is slowly getting better. PvP is always gonna be a struggle until there is more of a purpose behind it and something to keep average players from being destroyed by high end top tier players. Which I don’t believe happens often but there’s a chance so players are too afraid to venture into pvp, and why should they because there is no reward. Population growth while I do not have any numbers seems to be increasing all the time. Every day I login and see new characters. I’m also seeing a Lot of people returning and liking the changes made and continuing to be active players. To conclude my rant, I think while there is some validity to these concerns but they are not as bad as people make them out to be. There is a large community that has been mad at sota from the beginning that is very loud and active about their dislikes and lack of confidence in this game that falsely portrays the majority opinion of the future of this game. I myself am having fun and am wishing for the best.

 

Firstly, I usually don't agree with a lot of things that Grumpy posts and tend to ignore a lot of them. Not always because what he says is wrong or I don't agree with the point, sometimes it's just the way he says it. When I see ALL CAPS, tons of misspelled words, run-ons, etc.... it gives me the impression of a post made in haste without thinking before typing. I don't know if that's the case, that's just the impression I get sometimes. This OP however did not give me that impression. It "sounded" well thought out and not the typical doomsday message I usually get from his posts. *** I don't say this to put down Weins, just saying I much prefer this kind of discussion method (suggestion for future posts).

Now, one thing I know is that he's been around a long time and really tries to help shape this game into something great. Occasionally, he makes a valid point and I agree with him. This may be one of those times.

I too think that this "balance chasing" crack down is one that many casual players won't like. When people who don't play much struggle because those that already power-gamed their way through need to be curbed by "balance", I think that it causes a lot of frustration for the casual player. I also think that the need for this balance is 99% of the time a PVP thing. I agree that balance is needed for a healthy PVP system, but when we try to "fix" PVP and it hurts what a casual player can do in PVE... it's a big fat whammy for the casual player.

My biggest concern is that we are seeing so many drastic changes to the combat system all at once... and these are literally a month or two before the game is released/launched. There won't be enough time to test all of this new stuff before the new people come in and say it's broken and sucks. These kinds of changes should have been made at least 3 months ago so that all the kinks of these major changes can get worked out. Sure, we can test them all to see if they are working as intended. But the real issue is whether what was intended is what people will love and enjoy.

Let me give you a glimpse from my perspective:

For a brief few months, I had progressed my character into the 80's (Adventure Level) and was just getting to the point where I could solo some of the smaller bosses and survive fairly well against groups of mid-level mobs with an elite one sprinkled in. I had gotten my skills up pretty high and most importantly I got most of the buffs up to 80 to be able to have 5 glyphs each.

At this time, stacking/charging buffs was still a thing and being able to get that extra % and duration on all the buffs I needed to survive was showing that my training had paid off. I didn't feel God-like, but I did feel like a seasoned warrior and I really enjoyed playing and progression at that time.

But then Chris came and wacked the ability to stack/charge all the important buffs that I had worked so hard to finally get to use like the higher level players could for quite a while. And, at the same time, he removed the ability to use multiple "shield" type spells from different trees, which severely limited my defenses. So, a month or two goes by and I try to rekindle my passion for the game. I start using better foods and some potions to help supplement the nerfing I just felt. I wasn't completely happy with the change, but tried to make it work. I had to make sure to get fewer mobs at a time or just took a lot longer for some of those min-bosses to keep progressing. I was still going, but now at a slower pace and all the while feeling less powerful than I previously had.

Now, the new plan is to further "balance" the game by limiting the Str/Dex/Int buffs to only choosing one buff at a time. I can see how this can make things interesting for the PVP system, but it severely hinders how we play in PVE. Losing a big chunk on 2 major stats is going to be a drastic change. I'll be honest, I'm not really even looking forward to testing it to see how bad it's going to be. Since I've heard of this plan, I don't think I've done more than logging in to get my daily 10k xp and 500/500 from the Oracle.

The new "Specializations / Masteries" could potentially make up for some of the nerfs... if I choose to focus on 1 or 2 skill/spell trees. These could make certain builds feel really powerful against certain mobs. But again, the beauty of the combat system has always been the freedom to mix and match anything into your specialized deck, and just pick a new deck for different situations. If you choose to specialize, it prohibits using other skills/spells you worked so hard to level up. I know I don't "HAVE" to take these. But if I don't, I'm going to feel inferior to how I used to be, based on all the other nerfs. And, the thing I hate the most about them is that you can't experiment with switching around from one to the other because picking one sets the others to "unlearn"... meaning they de-level them as the new one progresses. So, if you want to switch back because you didn't like the new one (of if you just fight something that requires a different damage type), you now have to re-level the first one again. Right now, the unlearn feature is 100% XP, so you don't lose the XP when switching. But you do lose the time you already invested in training it up the first time. If this ever changes to less than 100% unlearn, it's going to be even worse.

Anyway, I've invested a lot of money in this game so I will get back on the horse soon and try to enjoy it. But honestly, I'm not very excited to see the direction things are going lately.

 

ok so my original reply got deleted for some reason.... so ill just say in short i agree things are messed up in this game. Pretty bad too considering how close release release is.

 

So you're comparing a game that hasn't even been declared "released" yet, with UO, some number of years after release?

 

Yes lots of nice ideas an aspirations there which I think we would all happily embrace. They all seem to be pre pipeline though let alone being actively worked on.

I get that the game isnt yet officially released so would not expect everything to be in place by any means. Just think that basic things like a guild war system should be a top priority rather than alot of the stuff which seems for whatever reasons are the focus of the devs this close to launch.

 

Yes and most would agree about that but it is what it is and only 39 days until release so here we are. We release as is and hopefully the advertising will make it clear development is continuing and that there's lots more coming. I do truly believe this. We've all seen games get more and more as time goes by. I know we all want our favorite feature to be in before release or even the feature we think is a must have before we release but it can't all happen. There's not enough time.

If you ever read my threads from the past about what must be in before release you would know I had many must haves before release that aren't happening but some did happen too. I trust we'll get much more just not before release day. So we just the reminders coming so the game gets what it needs

 

Exactly so ! I really hope SOTA is a huge success and provides the sort of game ecperience that I have not had since the glory days of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. The potential is clearly there , think all anyone can do is hope the devs (who all seem fantastic) are able to focus on the core stuff that needs adding going forward and dont get bogged down with other stuff and other agendas that sometimes seem to raise their heads.

 

If you want to debate PvP there is a whole forum about it not this thread TY