After 4 days of playing this is what I know

1. I shall be sticking around and making this game my primary game, replacing Eve ( Before that it's been City Skylines, Ark....etc)

2. The most frustrating things are, in this order:

• Lags and crashes (willing to burden whilst in this phase of dev and perfectly reasonable with a game such as this)
• Questing. Erm, half the time I have no idea what is going on and find it clunky. This I expect to be honed and polished as the game develops
• The adventure exp points system. An interesting way to approach this issue, but I don't think it's quite there yet. I can never kill enough, do enough or find enough quests to make it go up. But, I'm a noob and there is an obvious and tasty learning curve. My thoughts are that for more casual players this needs refinement and less cognitive burden on how it actually works. The way I interpret it, is I need to buy better gear so I can kill more faster.
  Questing is an option, but the map is so big, the locations so many it's confusing to know the path which to take. I realise the "WOW Question mark, this is a quest over here", system seems not to be highly regarded, but it got the job done. Perhaps a hybrid model, quest NPC's have a different hair cute or a certain brooch, just something that eases the cognitive burden on the user.
  Because as this is such a complex game as of now, (which I love) any easing of the cognitive burden in certain parts helps improve the "flow".
  Books that come to mind regarding this issue are "Don't make me think", by Krug and "Flow", by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Which can easily be applied to the gaming experience.

3. The things I love

• The Novia map and getting around the World
• The community of positive and experienced, helpful gamers
• The crafting system, which I am looking forward to seeing develop with more items for us to craft and more richness in the quality of player crafted items which can be traded with other players.
• The ability of the game devs to take feedback and deploy from the community
• The RMT aspect of the game where those who invest time, creativity and sometimes cash get to be rewarded and made to feel they contribute.
• Vikings

I look forward to how this game will develop, I would have started earlier but had time issues. Now I've all in.
Obviously these are my thoughts and based on my feelings, I don't see things being right or wrong and others may have opposite views and that's cool. Adds to the richness.

A bit about me.
I like to craft, make things, trade. Not so much into PvP, in Eve I am an industrialist.
I am an older player, but with a young mind (even infantile Like connecting with other players and helping out where I can.
I am looking for a guild, but first getting to grips with the game.

Look forward to meeting you all in game.
Have a good one.

 

Hello And Welcome!!!

 

Welcome @Lyndoman !!!

 

Welcome!

But RMT sucks...

 

Well normally this is because of two possibilities:

A – you use to many skills that suck your pool dry
or
B – you are adventuring in a (for your avatar) weak region

If it is (just) B search an region with more “skulls” with enemies that have at least yellow names.
If it is A (but also a possibility for B) deactivate some skills by turning the green triangle (leveling up) you can see in your skill tree into an orange one (keep the current lvl).

Oh...and welcome Lyndoman.

 

Welcome Lyndorman!

Cypher Black

 

Welcome Lyndoman!

It is good to see that you are approaching this game with constructive criticism. Yesterday there was a telethon with the developers and they acknowledged the performance problems. The good news is, they will be working on this aspect of the game and we can expect improvements (I hope major ones!)

From what I know about the philosophy behind the game, I don't think there will be more aids introduced to help players identify quest givers/complete quests. Having said that, players who need guidance or want tips will find the community very helpful.

I agree that questing is still very clunky. Since the game wipes ceased in August, I have been avoiding following up on any of the three main quest lines until the quests have been polished and the game is officially released. I'm doing only insignificant (for the story) side quests to gain a bit of experience and gold to start out.

Regarding gaining adventure experience to raise skills, I recommend the following thread posted by a newcomer who mentioned this challenge. There is some good advice in the thread: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/doing-it-wrong.70176

There are many great guilds in the game, including my own, the Moongate Travelers. Many have introduced themselves in the Guild and Town Hall area of the forums.

Feel free to add me to your friends list - I'd very much enjoy meeting you in-game.

 

Welcome! Great post!!

 

Welcome Lyndoman! Questing will be improved soon as they change the NPC conversation interface to something more Bethesda-like (think Morrowind, for example).
Performance will also be improved. Scene loads are particularly bad at the moment due to a bug that needs fixing, and some optimisation that has not yet gone in.

 

Welcome @Lyndoman ! Glad to see your going to stick around as we go into the last push to get this game released! Well at least Episode 1!
Let me know if or or PaxLair can be of any help.

Sean

 

that was my first impression too when I started but once you travelled across it a few times... it won't feel as big... ^_^ and welcome to SotA

 

Welcome Lyndoman!

 

Welcome fellow Brit-anian Let me know if you need a place to live while you get settled

 

Welcome! I also play Eve Online, but i'm not an industrialist.

Nice feedback

 

Welcome to the game and the forums! Great feedback!

 

Thanks Lars

I had breezed pass something similar to this info. I shall investigate further and implement. The best part of a game is when you first learn and discover how it works.

Thanks, Kara.

Yes it seems the devs are quite fleet of foot and responsive, which gives me confidence that it's worth putting up with these niggles. And it's fun being part of something before it hits mainstream.

Thanks Womby, look forward to it.

Thanks, Sean will check out Paxlair. Quite a lot of guilds to check out

Kabalyero I am now going to have to go to Aldwater and check out your chest.

Thanks Kastagir

 

For getting started I cannot recommend the good sotamap.com highly enough. EXTREMELY useful in figuring out where and how to go....

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome Lyndoman!

I look forward to any and all NPC dialogue updates, I hope they really hit the ball out of the park in regard to NPC triggers and what they can respond to and know about. If there is anything this game should ace its the AI interactions.

 

Welcome Lyndoman to Shrouds. I'm Majoria in game. Ask me questions here or PM and whisper anytime in game.

There is a lot to know and finding things to do other than grind should imo be added in. Like crafting quests, work orders (not on vendors please), PvP quest lines, PvE side quests, lots of them too. Some people really need achievements, rewards, and goals to keep interested in a game. Town sieges will be coming in in R37.

What great feedback you gave. Thanks for letting us know your first thoughts. It really helps to see it from a person's first look.
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