Issues, a few

Yes I agree about the fact that it is almost necessary to get other players help. We all know that some absolutely do not want to interact or get someone else's help and especially at first. They want to see what they can see and adventure without being bothered. I have felt this before in a game I started out newly with. I don't want to talk to anyone at first always and I want to just check the game out. Later I may connect with others. We cannot change that this game became some of what it became. All the expectations that lived in our minds doesn't change the fact that this game while it may not have turned out like many of our pictures of it. It still did turn out pretty amazing in so many ways. We are perhaps more critical from that fact than some new players coming in that did not start at the beginning of development watching and hoping for our dream of what we thought this game should be.

We can take what we have and make it better and more endearing, more interesting, challenging and more fun for players. That will be the best we can do with the product we have. And truly it is a pretty massive and awesome product in so many ways. I would so much rather hear what we can do with what we have ideas truly. There is so much possibility here. I just love that part. Now for future updates and releases there will not be a game that can hold a candle to what you can do in this game. We are just at the beginning of that part. ooooh now I am hearing David Lee Roth singing in my head *sighs*. That just happens when I least expect it . Cheers everyone


Lyrics
That's life, that's life
That's what all the people say.
You're riding high on Monday,
Shot down in May.
But I, I ain't never gonna change my tune
When I'm back on top in the month of June.
I said, that's life. That's life
Ain't as funny as it may seem,
Some people get their kicks
Stompin' on a dream.
But I, I don't never let it get me down
'Cause that big ol' world keeps spinnin' 'round.

Been a puppet, pirate, a poet, a pauper, a pawn and a king.
Been up and down and over and out and I know one thing:
Each time that I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life, that's life
And I can't deny it,
Many times I thought of quitting, babe,
But my heart wouldn't buy it.
If I didn't think it was worth one try
I'd jump right on a big bucket and fly.
Been a puppet, poet, pirate, pauper; now I'm a king.
Been up, down, I know one thing:
Each time that I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race.
That's life, that's life
And I can't deny it,
Many times I thought of quitting, babe,
But my heart wouldn't buy it.
If I didn't think it was worth one try
I'd just roll myself up in a big ball and fly.

 

I think the heat/combo system is another major thing new players struggle with cos while it may bring up coloured glyphs etc its not explained.. When I started this was the only thing that was a bit voodoo like for me, the rest seemed intuitive - but again - I am ODD..

 

For me one of the things that attracted me to SoTA is the fact that it doesn't hold your hand. I've been playing for a little over a month and a half now, already have a row and a village lot deed, The only real money I have spent was for a bank upgrade, and a 5 story basement during telethons. Gear was simple for me, wore my starter gear until I could afford to upgrade to NPC gear which is a huge upgrade to your starter gear, and did the quests for love/courage/truth for better gear, until you can afford player made gear.

Gold can be a pain in the butt to obtain, but it's doable, find an area with a few mobs you can kill, then loot/skin, sell everything to the NPC vendors in towns. Save what you want to keep in your bank.

As for getting over loaded, go to the Tactics tree and get the Healthy skill to 20+, unlock Train Strength and train it to 40+, then unlock Heavy Lifter, it helps tremendously. Another skill you will want to get unlocked and begin working is safe fall it's worth every point spent up to around 55.

As for travel, you may have noticed a lot of people adding you to their friends list, then never even saying hello. This is so they can teleport to the zone you are in, if you have teleport scrolls you can also teleport to there zone as long as they are not in friends only mode, or in a solo dungeon.

Join a guild, or look on the marketplace, there are literally dozens of towns looking for people to occupy rooms in their inns, some are even rent free. Most places will allow you to place 2 chests in the room. This will give you 600 storage slots that only you can access. You can bind to the town at the town crier and recall back to the town to process your ores/hides/lumber at the public crafting stations when you are finished exploring. You will also be able to sell your extra stuff to the NPC vendors if the town has them. If you still need help you can always send me a whisper IGN is Oxblood Oxheart.

 

One of the big differences between SOTA, and many other MMO games players are used to playing, is that either by drop, or quest reward, the player is outfitted at lower levels. I do not think SOTA does a good enough job explaining to the player that they are on their own in the world of New Britannia when comes to outfitting themselves.

I *did* hear of something recently added to explain the need of outfitting yourself somewhere before or during the Outskirts, and I think this is a great start. I know it is an uphill climb because there are many players who just do not bother to read. It needs to be said, and re-said many times so people can understand how important crafting, resource-collecting (if even for sale), and "rusty vendor trash" is to their continued character growth!

There is a a lot of re-learning, or going-back-to-basics that happens in SOTA and when the expectation of the new player is "same old MMO style", there is an immediate perception of incompleteness in SOTA. The tools are there, the understanding and breaking down of the core concepts in SOTA is what needs to be better presented (and I think they are certainly focusing on this).

 

Yeah, the NUE and an Improved Reward Cycle are in their Top 10 Priorities for Q1. But we only have one more Release to make more improvements. I do hope they revisit this again so that concerns like those in the OP are better addressed.

 

I do think a lot of the criticism is valid but I am going to continue to be optimistic about this game due to the developers and the great community. If I'm wrong, so be it. I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. Remember, however, they plan to continue the monthly updates past the actual "launch." I think even if the launch goes poorly, they are now launching in enough regions to gain enough new users and capital to easily continue operation for another year if not longer. If I remember correctly, @DarkStarr said they only needed 50,000 players worldwide to maintain operations. I think we all have to admit that the main player base wants the online mode and there are still plenty of improvements to be made there before working on offline mode. I myself am looking forward to both modes and want both modes to eventually be great. I also trust @DarkStarr, @Lord British, and the rest of the team to get this done. They know they have to deliver on the single player experience before the Episode 2 kickstarter or else no one will pledge due to past broken promises. It doesn't make much sense to fine tune a living, breathing online/offline world when we have whole areas in the game where the guards and people still don't even know/have their own name. Everything just takes time, and I think everyone can agree this is a very grand project for a very small team. I think their focus right now is just to get enough content in the game and polish it enough for people to become invested and keep playing. As new systems go into the game, more dynamic quests, etc can be implemented. A good example of this is when they first implemented moving platforms, environments. As I have stated long ago, in reality, I expect the episode 1 game to barely be ok. I expect episode 2, to be a good game. I also expect by episode 5 we'll have a fantastic game. Future episodes will require less engine coding, AI scripting, etc and can be focused entirely on actual content with a few revolutionary systems here and there. If I have one big worry (aside from the game not going long enough to reach greatness), it is that the game's instanced design will hinder it in the long run. For example, sailing and riding across the country will not seem very grand if it is simply on an overworld map or from one small instance to the next. Sadly, the answer is one no one wants to hear. We just have to wait and see.

 

it's a double edged sword, anyone signing into a MMO or RPG experience knows it comes with pain, lots of leveling up, it's definitely part of the DNA of players of these genre.

you don't like this, thats end of story, no matter what you do to a game, the end result is no player.

all the rest of the conversation should exist around the people/players that do gravitate to this style, for what reasons, benefits, and costs mainly in terms of time (money is nothing, IGG is nothing, a player's time is everything!)

what a player gives up in terms of their time is directly proportional to their enjoyment of this genre of game style.

a player WILL give up a couple 2-3 years of time for the right game, richness and depth of game both definitely a major part of that decision.

rich games come at a cost, if you don't want to pay a things, then i believe it should be struggle in-game, call me tough, but if the path exists in a game that i have to pay nothing to get to the top other than my time, then i simply measure the cost in time, compared to enjoyment in playing, and all the decision does is determine how much time i dedicate to playing, i will play just how much.

maybe the answer is a buy in starter pack, an avatar's quick start pack for $25 (?) that provides a weapon, armor, and some simple form of in game storage (bank with 25 slots?) that lets an early serious gamer have just enough to make the transition from nothing to tier 3 zone competent a matter of simply putting in the hours to get to that point, absent the need to struggle as well articulated in the O/P ?

just keep the servers running, these style of games take time, i played them and now my 28 year old son says this genre of game has a lot of potential appeal for the younger crowd, that want a "permanent" home in the digital space.

sony tried it with sony home, part of PSN it was nice but it was empty, too big a space early on and no commitment to long term success ... it was starting to build real momentum right as it was DC.

my comment to devs & backers is to remain committed to playing & building to the point the system remains fully self-greased, that we give it time to mature and grow, looking for instant success after 4 years of dev doesn't sound realistic, and everyone that has enjoyed the game to this point, simply continuing to enjoy the game at it's current level is all we can all do, so just do it !

it'll work out, or it won't, i agree with the O/P it's a very hard start, so make a simple early bundle available that costs around $35-39 that lets a new avatar start the game with teeth.

that solves the problem of the O/P syndrome which is very real, early bail because of too steep a learning curve ... it also leaves hard core players the option to say i don't need any help to rise to the top.

making a middle read solution serves no one, hard core players hate easy gaming, and casual gamers sometimes bail too early on really good games ... so keep it rough, and give the players that want a quick start to not lose interest an instant boost pack option.

after playing for 4 years, starting with release 1, falling through holes in docks, i think we've all come a long way ... making small adjustments to reflect the reality of the O/P is smart business, so i hope attention is given to options that works to resolve this issue, which is going to occur in ANY really rich game.

and with that i'm off to spectral mines, good night avatars, RatavA