After several days, my impressions of the New Player Experience

Discussion in 'New Player Experience Feedback' started by Grimsley, Apr 8, 2018.

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  1. Grimsley

    Grimsley Avatar

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    I will say the game this time around hooked me pretty good. I loved all the Ultima games when i was younger, played UO for a long time. I backed this game and during alpha I was very critical of it. I never thought I would come back post release, but since I had the game i figured what the heck. Im seeing a lot of "potential" in housing, crafting, especially exploring.

    Its improved tremendously. I didnt have any issues figuring out much of the games mechanics, but what I found most difficult is determining when I failed to do something in game if it was a bug.. or intended. I've experienced quest breaking bugs in several quests. I wouldnt have known these quests were broken unless I came to the forums and asked why certain things are not updating, or why I cant manipulate certain aspects of the game.

    I'm also to a point with the bone dagger quest where I need to enter a level 5 adventure area, but I can barely handle a level 2..much less a three. Ive been talking to many NPC's and I'm not finding any more quests in areas that I can actually handle. Im now grinding level 1 and 2 adventure areas. I think the game does a pretty poor job in explaining how to make your decks efficient, and how to effectively manage your experience pool to increase skills in order to progress through the game. Youtube is a blessing here. Im going to have to re-evaluate quite a bit and try to find out how I can progress where I'm at.

    overall, i think if the bugs were worked out of the game it would help a lot in retaining new players. Also, try to do something about the bone dagger progression and maybe feeding players more bug-free objectives to get their skills up before putting them on another continent in areas they cannot handle
     
  2. Anpu

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    If the current Virtue quest is now sending you to a very high level area, you probably haven’t started on the other 2 Virtue quests? Find Arabella and she will point you toward all 3 starting areas for the 3 Virtue quests.
     
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  3. Kara Brae

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    This is very good advice. How will new players know this if they don't visit the forum and complain? The Journal needs to visit a "New You" shop and get a complete make-over.
     
  4. Grimsley

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    Thanks. I'll do this later this evening and update.
     
  5. Vladamir Begemot

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    Yes, all 3 main storylines are meant to be played in tandem. And I keep having to say it because the game doesn't, and it SHOULD.

    Once you hit that spot, the same one that everyone hits and gets hung up on, the quest giver should send you to one of the other storylines if you haven't started it already.
     
  6. Numa

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    A simple query from Arabella : "Are you doing well with your <Virtue> quest ? (Yes/No)" could trigger that NPC to suggest to the player that he/she start on another quest depending on the response.
     
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  7. Grimsley

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    I got caught up doing a lot of things last night and didnt have a chance to revisit Arabella. I did some back tracking though to find her and Arabellas location has slipped my mind. Where is she located? I did some googling and couldn't find a specific point where to find her for some reason. Perhaps she travels?
    I'm watching Drizzts YouTube series trying to figure it out. The spot I'm stuck on is the black iron ore. The crag I'm told to visit is a level 5 exploration area, far beyond my means
     
  8. Nick

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    Resolute, Aerie, soltown and in her castle.
     
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  9. liz_the_wiz

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    @Grimsley on Saturday I took a took I made on stream through all 3 paths to completion. Love sends you through many high level zones in which you have to fight. For the truth (bone steel) you actually don’t need to fight anything but run around. Same with courage. Love I don’t think you can run past the bad guys.

    So I’m here to reassure you. You can do them. On your own. No matter what lvl you are. There just will be a little “run like fu........” moments.

    Yes it does help I knew where (ish) I was going but it is possible. Pretty much all deaths in that video weren’t related to the quests!
     
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  10. Grimsley

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    Ok, that explains it. I just saw the level and the deep red con bandits and thought the area wasn't meant for me yet and ran! Will try again tonight. Thanks!
    Also, what's your YouTube channel or twitch
     
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  11. Vladamir Begemot

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    Arabella is unnecessary (and out of the way) to get onto the other quest lines. You can hop the Lunar Rift to Highvale or Blood River, and find the NPC that starts the quest in that zone.
     
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  12. liz_the_wiz

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    Im https://www.twitch.tv/lizkimber you can see this particular epic job at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/247625252 (I set it to run again on the sunday) I do need to applogise as the first hour - I merrily was explaining everything I was going to do, things to look out for, and mutterying away .. and.... no one mentioned my mic wasnt working.. so..... yeah.. sucks when you change streaming software... Warning: I would say I have a voice for mime (and face for radio) .. However, because its a useful video, I am gonna put it up on youtube if it lets me.. soon (tm)
     
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  13. Ffred

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    Ok, now I get it. (The truth, love, courage quest where meant to me done in tandem)

    Sounds like the lack of in-game info on this is a known issue and I can share some info on where the holes are from ta Truth quest start perspective.

    I picked truth in the beginning and just completed the truth quest a few days ago. All along the way I kept wondering what is up with these tier 5 areas. I went around some of them (Vertas pass can be bypassed by taking a few boats and traveling overland from Etceter to Jaanaford which only requires going through a tier 3 area (night shade pass). The others I just managed to make a beeline through them or to the quest goal in the area (like the bandit hide out in the crag mines), taking tier 5 mob hits here and there. Took a few tries. It was actually kind of fun but it felt like it was not what was intended.

    After completing the truth quest, the NPC at the end directed me to either solace bridge for love or high vale for courage. I went to solace bridge. That eventually took me to Soltown. Here I met Arabella for the first time! She put me on a quest to High Vale and said use the lunar rift in Solace Bridge.

    ****This was the first moment I had any idea that the lunar rift could be accessed again, let alone used as a”moon gate” to teleport to other locations. Starting in Blood River for truth, I was given no quests that suggested using the rift and it never occured to me to go back and check to even see if it was still there.

    Once in Highvale I notice that I seemed to be picking up the courage quest line and found that very puzzling since Arabella was in Soltown which was on the love quest line.

    So, from my perspective, anybody starting with the truth quest doesn’t really have a chance to even be connected to the other quest lines via Arabella until it’s too late and truth is done.

    All makes sense now, thanks everyone for the information!
     
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  14. majoria70

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    And also one thing I thought is why are we doing the quests from beginning to end. I expected to have so many tasks to do first and I expected to know I could not finish the quest line right off. What game does this? This game so far does a bad job of quests and amount of so far. If anyone has played Project Gorgon this game did do it backwards from sota and quests are not easy by any means. They put in tons of quests and achievements and skills of all kinds like why you were killed etc. They put things in your way. You might get turned into a bat and have to figured out how to stop being a bat or learn to enjoy being a bat, or you might freeze to death because you don't have warm clothes on and don't know where to get warm clothes and food matters you will starve to death.

    I know players don't all want obstacles but we did drop the ball a little on some interest and depth to the quest system in Shrouds. It is all just run through the quest line or run through all quest lines to get to your level to complete and then you get a cloak or neat artifact and ta-da you are out of quests and crying for more. What the hell is interesting or satisfying about that? ok *sighs* just a little rant for me.
     
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  15. liz_the_wiz

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    @majoria70 i too have project Gorgon. Tbh I found their quests just as confusing. They of course don’t just have quests. They have quests, work orders and I guess tasks I don’t think in game they have a name. The suggested things to do in a zone have hints which are good but the actual quests are vague. I have one there now. See a person named x in a hut just outside town y. Er. Well I ran about died a lot still not found x. Heck only found a tent outside y no huts.

    However WHY we do the paths and the fact the path quests do not correlate with the paths the oracle asks you about is confusing. Also for example without the blue markers on your compass I swear some aspects are totally unworkable without them.
     
  16. Vyrin

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    I am going to say something here and start to (continue to) sound like a broken record... Episode 2 has to focus on story and quests and those mechanics that support it. (better UI, better quest mechanics)
     
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  17. CrandalltheFoole

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    Do all three starter areas - Highvale, Blood River and Solace Bridge and their associated Outskirts.
    Then find the three 2 skull mines in those areas.
    This will give you the starting points of all three major quests, lots of xp, gp, resources, training, and recipes.
     
  18. Astera

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    There were numerous problems. Here are the most recent examples: Couldn't give Emily Jaspeth's poem. It was in my char's inventory and I followed instructions.

    Same thing happened with giving undelivered mail to a Town Crier.

    My character couldn't claim an "unclaimed lot" even in a "Tier 1" city/town/village.

    Last of all (for now, at least): Couldn't deposit anything in any "Bank" in any "Tier".

    I paid for the game, so please try to resolve these issues.

    Thank you.
     
  19. majoria70

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    Thanks for you Feedback @Astera perhaps some players will give you some feedback on the quests you mentioned. I am not at this time doing the quests to help. Do you have a lot deed? In this game you must have a lot deed to claim a lot. I am Majoria in game and I would be happy to assist or answer any questions or find someone to answer for you. So please send me a whisper. There is probably some confusion in some of what you are doing. To whisper to someone in game select the friends then add friend then enter and it will send a friends request to that person. I accept all friends requests and I'm in game now.
     
  20. liz_the_wiz

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    @Astera im sorry you’ve had so many issues

    I would like to ask how you tried to give the poem. Also how you tried to put items in the bank.
     
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