Bro, do you even Role Play???

If we were talking all realism there wouldn't be magic #1, Elves wouldn't run around killing people and armor and weapons wouldn't be magical (the lich scythe or hammer ), shards wouldn't fall from the sky, we wouldn't be able to heal ourselves magically, moon gates/portals wouldn't work, we wouldn't be magically teleported from our real lives into a fantasy world, as far as i can tell Hickman still writes fantasy books etc... so "i rest my case your honor, on the facts in the game already based on realism or not!" with that said anything is possible!

 

For everyone that insists on REALISM - but ONLY when they want it according to their sense of realism on their terms - how long do you expect this to hold up against BALANCE? Realism comes when it doesn't get in the way of VISION or BALANCE, is able to be coded with the resources available to Devs, and when it isn't a nuisance to the players.

 

If you only are fighting against others who have the same options selected as you, everyone is subject to the same options equally.

I don't know how to get more balanced than that.

 

No idewa what you talking about. Ultima was the best mmo ever and it had enough realism.
You could play as a fisher/cook/crafter and never ever battle anyone or go out of the city! In Sota all players will be leveling and grinding killing machines with no skillcap nor any reason to roleplay.

 

Speak for yourself, Templar. I've been role playing the same character for over a decade now, and will continue to role play the same character in SotA, within the constraints imposed by this particular game.

 

Here's a question for you as an experienced PvPer on arguably the most dangerous PvP shards of all time.

When you played this character in Siege Perilous, were you always grinding and grinding for more levels and more gear, or was there a time where you were basically satisfied with having about the same power level and gear for an extended period of time?

If so what was it that made it interesting during times of little to no skill gain, and little to no increasing tiers of gear?

 

If the Devs feel it will work... I am in support of a Full Loot option. I am unsure how you offer multitudes of options and not end up with a fragmented community. I am not inherently against it IF it is optional. If it is mandatory for PvP then I feel it does more harm then good for the community.

 

I like full loot, but I'm more in support of a unified PvP system so that there is one style of PvP and not multiple PvP flags that further segregate the PvP community. Although I do think we need a more serious looting system than the current ransom system though.

 

Ideally, you'd have as much balance as possible. But there have been a couple suggestions on the forums on how to make the looting feel less artificial. For a lot of people, the big problem with the ransom system is it feels artificial and game-y. But we don't even know how its going to work in the release game, so I'll give the devs that. They haven't said, as far as I know, how the ransom process is going to take place. Will there just be a popup window after you lose a battle, or what? Owain is just suggesting an option, too, which people can turn off.

Me, personally, in this thread, I've just be standing up for the concept of realism. If a fully realistic system has to be compromised for balance, playability, and to not be too punishing, so be it. But its a good target, and whatever is done in its place should not feel too game-y, imo. I hope the devs are considering all of the counter-suggestions, anyway.

 

Not too game-y. Realism => Lord of the Rings vs Street Fighter II

The genuine article ...


VS the wanabe

 

If the looter had a choice there wouldn't be a point in ransom in the first place. This has been one my of points against ransom. What if the looter doesn't want the ransom and wants the item instead? Well.. that's too bad. Take the ransom or take nothing. That's your choice if the defeated decides to pay instead of having things taken.

Good for you but that has absolutely nothing to do with the quote you're replying to.

 

Origin was constantly jacking with skills. 'Balancing', they called it. On Siege Perilous, I went from Tank Mage, to Shield/Katana Tank, to Heavy Crossbow Sniper, to Warhammer Armor smasher, and back to Tank Mage. I think I ended up as a Shield/Mace Tank before Origin finally 'improved' the game so much that the KGB finally said "screw it", and we all moved to ShadowBane.

Each change didn't take all that long, however. During the transitions, there were awkward periods when I wasn't quite a Tank Mage, nor was I quite a Archer/Sniper yet, but was some sub optimal mix of both. I was still combat effective, however. Just not as effective as I would like to have been

The periods in which Origin wasn't jacking with my skills, which was more annoyance than entertainment, the KGB was involved in a series of wars with other Guilds, plus we would run regular patrols of the areas where we claimed sovereignty, and we would send strike teams into various PK hot spots, like the Britain cross roads, the mines by Minoc, the area near the Shame entrance and so forth. The people we were fighting weren't static, however. They'd change their areas of operations, probe our defenses, lay traps for us, ambush us.

We'd also come to the aid of allied guilds, and every so often, the whole shard would get together for a huge slug fest, resulting in lag storms that were unbelievable.

VERY little time was spent worrying about skills, gear, grinding, or farming. We were too busy fighting for any of that, for years on end.

It was glorious.

 

It depends upon how many people buy SotA. If we have 100,000 players, that's a lot of players, particularly since we are not sure how many will fit in a single instance. Fifty? Thirty? I don't know.

If only thirty people will fit in an instance anyway, if I am in an instance filled with other Open PvP Full Loot players, friends and enemies, I'm probably going to be to0 busy fighting for my life to ponder whether the community is fragmented or not.

UO used separate shards for load control. There was no movement between shards. SotA will use Selective Multiplayer. I will be able to move between SPO, FPO, OPO PvE, OPO PvE, and change my loot options (assuming we will have loot options) at will. This would be like moving from Pacific to Napa Valley easily and simply if UO Pacific happened to be dead one evening.

People will find their own level in the game, depending on the options they choose, and how they choose to vary those options, as the mood strikes them

 

The problem with this is that no one can agree on what the one style should be. Even with a single player, depending on his mood that day, he may decide to change his style that day.

If you have a one size fits all, you make some people relatively satisfied, but other people will be very unsatisfied. If you allow players to choose the style they prefer, everyone has a better chance of being happy.

If Open PvP (ransom loot) proves to be very unpopular, if that is the only choice, people will be VERY unhappy, and if another one size fits all approach is attempted to fix it, you run the risk again of having a single point failure that no one likes. If you have several other options to select from, you can try the others to see what you prefer, No Loot, Full Loot, or maybe some other options, yet to be described.

 

Strangely, in my world blaquerogue magic is numba 1 and elves go around killing people : the mind is an armor and the eyes a magical weapon.

Shards fall from the sky, I have healed from heavy mercury intoxication and bone abcesses magically with doctor amazement and I did nothing special but use cayenne and garlic and clay, ingredients from UO basically

I haven't found any portal yet but I'm sure theres one somewhere that works.

Lord Hickman writes prophecies *sp \ not novels, his style has always been misunderstood.

You guys see me coming right...

plain, simple again.

My only real problem here is if I play with only players that choose full loot and open pvp ; there should be no market interference from players not flagged equally.

I want to live a dungeon experience again that leaves me panting because after the whole day noone could kill the lich because we were too busy trying to secure another part of the dungeon, or set a trap for the thieves who try to sneak in on our loot.

I want WILDERNESS and WIND in my Avatar's hair. (figuratively speaking of course)

Thats why I say my friends at the LARP, truth is I don't go to LARPs for a long time, it was just the image.

When you go you don't necessarly want to experience adversity, but since its a game and common... Mishri or whoever said the comment about me fighting people out of the event...

common man, who does that.

There is 18+ LARPs where there is full loot and open pvp for the sake of realism. And it's never fun to be backstabbed, especially if you are trying to get going, hey after all its a game we're not here to "work" to have enough ressources to have fun and be competitive. This simple fact is common sense now in all serious LARP events, its an amazing experience, those I go to have people with real talent and scene performances (fire spinning, belly dancing and real musicians)... you remember this experience 10 times more than playing wow for 10 moons...

And let me tell you sometimes playing the bad guy is hard in strange ways sometimes, especially if you're not the type of brutish bad guy who just kills everything in sight.

Sincerely,

I don't understand anymore why people accuse me of wanting to separate the playerbase because I want no economical interference from the godmode folks. I would probably ALSO play this multiplayer mode.

But I want one of my characters to be in the experience, and that from the lore and storytelling we get that we can get this HEARTH of a HOME going on finally. I say finally for a simple reason too, we've been through so much that some of us really deserve to "rest in peace", and we've invested so we have a say in this.

I don't care if the "wild world" is empty and everyone prefers the other one. In fact the wild world could have no maintenance and be a ghost in the shell, I would still build my home there.

I would go elsewhere, but my home would be there !

Cause I'm traumatized by my experience in UO too, everyone suffered but its not a good reason to resist the change it portrayed.

 

Awesome. SO it sounds like to me you, and possible quite a few other players were perfectly satisfied playing the game, and not being too concerned about gathering new gear, and finding new levels. The open world environment, and the PvP seemed to keep you guys happy without all that stuff.

That's very interesting, because it seems that many people think gear grinds, and level grinds are nessisary to keep people interested in a game. I have a feeling SotA has the potential to be just such a game, that does not have to rely on such garbage to keep people interested either. That is if they choose not to force such mechanics from the beginning.

 

This would be a great question to ask chris about. They might select a soft cap well below its maximum, but I think they might be able to get about a hundred people in an instance. I might be wrong, but I thought that the instancing thing was working rather well.

If I had to guess I don't think 50 players is an unrealistic maximum for this game, it might be higher. I really have no idea, but I can show you something that looks positive.

We had between 30 to 40 in just Firelotus' tavern in this picture, all dancing. Frame rates were slowing a bit. Some were getting around 7-20fps depending upon their system, although I don't recall much lag if any. my character was responsive, and moved around just fine.

***This number wasn't counting any other players in Owl's Head, nor NPCs, animals, decorations (and mazes), and any performance enhancements they will do before the release of the game.***

 

Roll play my friend Roll play!!!!!!.....

 

>Shadowbane

Dats my bro! It was actually a decent mmo before they killed it!

 

Myself regarding whether I'm going to play PvP or PvE. I'm either in the mood for PvP or for PvE; I don't mix them, and if the game attempts to make me mix both, I just leave the game and go play something else.

It's why I typically only play PvP in MMOs where the PvP is fully segregated from the PvE: GW, GW2, DCUO, Planetside 2 (due to not having PvE at all), etc.

At a fundamental level I don't have anything against full loot being offered as an option, but I do think that for it to be an enjoyable option some changes to how Portalarium plans to implement gear are needed.

I wouldn't be against it, though; move most, or all, the stat growth and perks normally associated with gear to the character, perhaps using something similar to GW2's challenges to unlock specific traits or skills in a similar way to how players would usually hunt for gear.

This way, what is important is the character, not the gear; gear becomes just a cheap, disposable enabler. Wouldn't get me to accept player looting anyway, of course, but would preserve most elements inherent in the gear hunt while making gear loss far more acceptable.