Are We Testing The Game Or What?

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough, but really not that concerned about double-dipping the XP.

What my concern is more about- the devs missing out on valuable feedback before Launch due to:

1. Players not revisiting the quests due to wanting to save the reset for later.

2. Players not checking out all the new lower-level content due to scrambling for more high-end items and rares.

I'm just not sure we have a big enough player base to forego widespread testing and feedback this close to a proposed Launch Date.

And while I understand not everybody will be into questing, the story and underlying philosophy and ethical dilemmas are what sets this game apart from the pack. Any developer can throw in ubergear to their game...

A large part of the unique value proposition with Shroud is to encourage people to use their brains and think about the motives behind their actions, which is likely only an attractive feature to a relatively small percentage of gamers to begin with.

 

Well I think point 1 could be easily alleviated by allowing you to reset it multiple times, perhaps with a 3 month wait or something to assuage any concerns of repeat xp/gold rewards. Perhaps just make it so that you keep your existing quest items (no duplicates given out). The only problem I could see is when a trade-able deco reward is handed out these would lower in value for people who actually sell them, but the time investment requirement on many of the quests is typically far more than what you could do to make money by other means. And who wouldn't want a few more of those cool virtue statues for their additional properties?

For point 2, I dunno. I always go do the new quests that they add, cause I want the deco, I want to see the new zones they create, and I always go see if there's new deco that isn't nailed down too....:X I guess deco isn't really a motivator for everyone, though, but aside from that there's little benefit for a high lvl character to go do say, the outskirts quests. I expect that when they started adding deco items to quests, banners, etc. that the number of people partaking did increase -I know I certainly started doing quests when there was something unique at the end of it -even the silly white duck (his name is fish thief, and he guards my lighthouse!). I see a lot of other folks asking questions about this content so it seems they are doing it, whereas there was a 12 month period during which I almost never had to answer questions about quests (as much) until they started giving neat stuff at the end.

I have spent the last two days of this release killing things just to get the new cosmetic clothing items. Not for patterns, mind you, or to sell, but just for dress-up. But I think, this sort of thing is just not important to some people beside the appeal of high-end items and rares. I don't see how taking away the (future) reset option would make them go do it 'now', though - the appeal of being able to do something twice that they aren't really interested in doing in the first place doesn't seem like a significant carrot. I think we have a long way to go to make the npcs/quests engaging and memorable so that people will want to go do them because they are INTERESTING and not just for the payout.

I think one way to do this would be to extend a lot of the storylines.
You know that guy who wrote that poem for that barmaid in Soltown? Well, why not expand that story where he seeks your help to make himself a better man worthy of her so she'll notice him, that could go on for quite a while, sending the player further and further afield, playing a key role in one man's redemption story. You'd remember his name at the end of it.

 

I mean... yea I guess technically I wouldn't care about infinite resets if it were certain they couldn't be gamed for crazy xp and duped rares. Well no I will walk that back a bit, but only because of the virtue score issue, assuming anybody still cares what the Oracle thinks.

But I think you may be missing the main thrust of my point, which is about getting valuable feedback in before Launch Day. They're talking R52 for commercial release, and still when I pull up my friends list I see... Superstition Canyon, K'rul, Elysium, Crag Foothills, the Rise, the Fall, and Ulfheim. The only real differential I can tell is that people have finally seemed to have gotten bored with Deep Ravenswood, thank Boreas.

I dunno either... maybe I have a distorted perception due to some kind of bubble effect with my friends list. But tbh I just took a look at the R50 bug and feedback forums.. and here's what I mostly see:

Ulfheim, the Fall, shock monkeys, that god-forsaken health bar bug, and yes, quite a bit of Sunless Barrens. *shrug* I can only comment based on what I see from my own perspective, which is admittedly limited. If you are suggesting my concerns are overblown, I will certainly take that under consideration.

I want those Angled Gambeson gears... and yes I want the patterns to apply to Jaan's ubergear set!!! But with all the new content coming out, and Launch Day looming so close, I'm really trying to put that on the backburner for the time being. But anyway, yeah you have fair points that my suggestions- if implemented- may not have the intended effect.

The intended effect is to get more feedback to the devs before Launch.

Yes, and so would you agree this seems unlikely to get up to snuff within 2 releases? I feel worried that a lack of critical feedback may give the devs the false impression that the quests are ready for primetime, when they are not. Much better than before, but not. And don't even get me started on properly balancing out the combat changes before Launch.

Yes! For sure... and so I would encourage you to give that feedback to the devs sooner rather than later. We are talking less than 8 weeks until the proposed Launch...

And also it is driving me nuts to remember that guy's name.... poor sop should stop trying to woo that narcissist barmaid anyways...

 

I am a casual player - and have not invested so much money in the game. But over the years a good amount of hours!
As you can read my post above yours:
I am not interested to ask for a Wipe
Exception: Questing (we can do this by our own) and Map for reasons I told: to preserve fun of exploring the world. How exciting is it to see the wole world without doing anything for this?
Beside this I understand, why people are asking about, but honestly, I don't see any reason that 1000s more of players will enjoy the game for a full wipe or the economy would be more functional?
Sometimes I visit a POT and wonder about stuff traded by Vendors and their PRICES! Well, noone would ever buy - equal, if there would be 10.000 of that items or only 100 ...

I assume, players will enjoy the game for the feeling given to them by music, graphic, story and huge possibilities of exploring ...

 

IMHO zero chance of it. I don't see how it will help to involve new players at all, they will come in the world there prices for 2x2 garbage will be unbelievably high... And I sure that many guys will just stop playing. Also Portalarium will get VERY strong hit on the reputation in this case, because it is - hidden wipe.

 

Yeah Jaan, I see where you're coming from, how to get people to go do quests again this month / next month to get that feedback in, instead of just...doing what they normally do (whether thats the above zones you mention, or even spending all of their time at parties...neither is really helpful in this case...lol). I dunno, I like to think I'm a person who gives each zone a fair crack exploration wise, and I do go and do all of the quests, etc. that get addeed - but quite a lot of these activities are well, just not interesting/lucrative for the player.

I suppose if there is a lack of interest in doing the stuff as opposed to business as usual, that itself is feedback. I mean, I could go click quest reset now, put myself back in the shoes of a new player (just with significantly more firepower) and work my way through every quest, noting down each and every oddity, frustration, broken bit of dialogue, broken/missing quest item, which items get stuck in my quest log despite clearing them, etc. But there's no incentive for me to spend hours and hours doing this, other than a sense of altruism to help the game.

I've been going on QA for a few hours every release since persistence and testing things out, submitting bugs and feedback, etc. because I do want them to release a fun, functional, non-buggy/broken game. But I do this because I care. You can't make people care. I would suggest that if this additional testing/feedback is wanted before launch the best way to get it would probably be through incentives - tangible, earnable incentives, not this lottery thing like they have for QA now, which is just, imo, a tease. :X Even just seeing the bugs get fixed would be incentive. A lot of the time, you get no feedback on submitted bugs, or you still see the same bugs 6 months later, and your bug report is archived somewhere so that you can't even find it, so sometimes feels like its all kind of pointless. And I get that some things are priority and I work in development and know how how things can sit at the bottom of the low priority JIRA queue, but that doesn't make it less frustrating.

The bottom line I guess is, we're all a bunch of volunteers. Managing volunteers for anything is one of the most frustrating things in the world!

 

While I can understand that conversation crossing into "wipe" to territory, that's not at all what was proposed here. Nor do I think the devs would even consider that. So no need to get worried about it!

 

"Are We Testing The Game Or What?"

"I'm or what'ing"

I believe that what is set, is set in stone until our launch, but what does "launch" mean? I think it means our main advertisement campaign will commence, which "hopes" to bring in many more players. I also suspect that differing business deals in offers will begin coming in when those numbers become known.

I'm looking forward to breathing some New Britannian air by beginning a few new characters, while culling some old, yet retaining the main to hold all it's assets together. My main character still has Deliver Gawain's Amulet as a quest, yet he hasn't got it for whatever reason that is.

I've taken a long break so as to have forgotten what I have known in preparation for breathing that New Britannian air without all the spoiler alerts still lodged in my brain from all the years it's taken to get as far as we have here.


"Or What'ing" ~Time Lord~

 

Hehe wasn't that finally just fixed? Oh no, that was Aldorn's amulet.

Welcome back! And hopefully we'll see you around in Novia. In case you've forgotten

Spoiler

it's the large landmass south of Hidden Vale. You can take the boat from Kingsport.

 

Yeah I guess it's still lost on me why anybody would be here right now except for a sense of altruism and wanting to help the game.

***

Anyhow, I think this horse is fully beaten. I would just close with a reminder that whatever gear anybody has now- including the dread gear and shroud- will likely become obsolete by Episode 2, much less by Episode 5 if we ever get there.

If the game flops because it shipped prematurely, then all the time that everybody's spent acquiring whatever precious items they have will be for naught.

 

I don't know about you. But i am playing and not really testing at the moment.
As long as there is no QA up at least.

 

OMG!' "They Have a Boat Now?" !'

~TL~

 

In November 2016, I asked @Lord British this in person at the first Sota Con in Baltimore. I framed it just like that: how would a new player who knows nothing of the virtues, know which "path" they are on. He said that was an excellent point and they would find a way to address it.

I am one of those who has chosen to not do any quests before launch. I've done my fair share of testing other things because I do lots of stuff other people don't do. So I don't feel like I've let the community and SotA down. Therefore, I don't know if/how they have addressed this but I sure hope they do. Because without clear direction on what these paths are, new players won't know they are ON a path.

 

Well actually I do not think they did. The only time the devs really was talking a lot about wipes were the lot selection period more than a year ago and as far as I remember they said that your lots will never ever be wiped again but I do not think they generally excluded partial wipes in other areas…but of course maybe I missed/misinterpreted some info or other people were simply reading what they would like to read.
Anyway I was hoping too that there would be a largest possible wipe at launch simply because I would guess in a testing environment there was a lot of bug-using possible and somehow even intended that might made it possible to generate an inappropriate number of rewards and there isn’t even needed some evil mind as I would imply that at least some bugs where not even recognized as such on our side.

 

Well it's plausible there could a wipe BUT.. I would think if there were they would've told us. Can you imagine the uproar from folks in general if we had an 'oh by the way' moment at launch time? I sense a lot of people would walk. Of course, that all could be fairly moot when the people coming in far exceeds the people leaving (hopefully). Only reason I could think for them to not tell us is to keep us playing 'normally'. but the data gained from that in the last few months compared to the last few years would hardly justify it I should think.

 

hey guys I'm the only one who wants a wipe lol... relax... nobody listens to me lol.

 

Did somebody hear something?

 

Yes I will mention once more, there is no suggestion of a wipe here, nor could I imagine they are secretly planning one.

This is what happens to threads when people don't read the OP a/o it gets derailed by trolls.

What was proposed here was:

1. Expiry on the quest reset for those who choose to take it. (Not forced upon anyone.)

2. A phaseout of all pre-Launch gear, with possible recompense by the Oracle.

 

I see you, Ahu!