Build 21 Shroud is "Just too hard" For New players [With 30 sec Video!]

I hope SotA will be "hard" at the end - not "very hard"
It's great that it takes much time to skill out the character - so there are not thousands of players after one week whith all skills mastered!

 

Welcome Neksi!
Welcome himmelweiss!

 

I'm not even a new player and I can't figure out where I can go to level up as a solo player or get some gold....EVERYTHING is killing me, pretty frustrating release so far. (at least at low levels)

Ok I give up what\where can a low level solo player get some experience and gold???

Last few releases I generally made it to level 60 or so by myself, help???

 

It may be hard but when my mining gains 1% I feel like I have accomplished something. When skills go up I feel like a little whoop. I can't wait until I get something to 100 as the anticipation is whetting my appetite for more. That being said, for a test release it is too slow to evaluate new mechanisms effectively. Unless there are no more character wipes seems very unlikely.

 

I have no issue with a game being hard... that being said, it is currently definitely too hard for newbies at the moment. No doubt whatsoever that this is a balance issue that will be fixed.

One thing that I think would help greatly is a more obvious placement of low level creatures. I should be able to go out of the starting areas and find loads of places with low level, weak monsters. Currently they are difficult to find - when leaving Soltown, like the first 5 or 6 areas I entered had zero enemies I could tackle.

 

There has to be middle ground, somewhere between faceroll easy and frustratingly hard. Making normal content too hard is a sure way to alienate a good portion of the playerbase, especially in the low levels (entry barrier).

 

Ok, i'm cool with just "hard" as well

 

As a new player, I started the game on August 26th. I leveled a bit under the old system before that was wiped and started anew with R21. I was weak, I struggled, but I knew that I would improve and I did. I love the challenge and state of things as they are. I have only played as a blades/tank, as I saw that as the most forgiving template for a new player. Down the line I would like to try a mage and an archer.

I have read that in this release mages are really having it tough, but isn't this a testing period for the devs and us players? R22 may make my current build harder for testing purposes and mages will get a pick me up.

I would think that the release of a new skills system would throw balances up in the air for a bit. This is all an experiment. I just don't understand how anyone can agree to click on the "Construction Zone" box at log in and then assume it will have the balance of a finished product.

 

NO NOTHING CAN CHANGE. This is how it must stay!

 

I don't enjoy getting killed by a Grizzly Bear around the corner or a Patriarch Bear. I don't want the win handed to me either, like in most games, but I want is difficult to describe but basically:

I want a challenge but I don't want the challenge to become tedious. If every single creature in the game is hard, it might not be worth it because of how many creatures there are. Time, energy, and even will to play any game is limited for me. At the same time, if it's too easy then they become too much of a nuisance and that makes them annoying.

In a combat heavy game like SOTA (and this game is very combat heavy, enemies everywhere, and no way to avoid combat if you want to progress in the game) then this is a very tricky balance.

Instead of "very" hard or "very" easy I want a game that is able to keep me engaged. I think ideally my difficulty level is that I have to pay attention to normal mobs but I should be able to beat them without taking up too much effort. If I don't pay attention then they can kill me. Then there's the bosses and in those cases they should be as difficult as possible: it'll take skill and maybe I'll need to partner up with players or NPC companions to take them down.

It's also possible the game is this difficult (and yes it's pre-alpha and even more unbalanced than normal but SOTA has never been that easy of a game) is because it's being balanced for group play-whether that be NPC companions a player can hire in multiplayer or singleplayer modes or other players in multiplayer modes. Since we're generally playing the game solo...

 

I think that it is just fine. I don't want a game that I can just grind to the top, and have a social chat room. I want a hard game, I want it to take a while. I think there are many other easy hand holding games for people that want them.

 

I've been arguing basically that this should be how low-level mobs feel even when you're high level: that if you don't pay attention to them, they can kill you. I think in order to keep the game constantly engaging no matter how much you progress, they have to do something like that.

It should also depend on the combat situations, too, though, I would add. You're comparing normal mobs to bosses, but there's a difference between a single low-level enemy and a group of them. If I'm playing solo, fighting against a group should require some tactics. Even more so if its not just a group of them, but an army I'm going against. It should also depend on the terrain. For example, in some scenes, enemy archers might have an advantage against me. For example, I might be trying to siege a keep, with skeleton archers on the battlements. In others, like in dungeon corridors, I might not have enough space to hide and heal. There's a lot more complexity that could be put into combat situations besides normal mobs vs. bosses.

I'm hoping also that enemy skills come into play and even if normal mobs aren't too difficult, it requires some tactics and thought too. For example, defeating an enemy with a shield might be different gameplay than defeating one without a shield.

I also hoping as the game develops more, grinding becomes more incidental to gameplay, too, and its more about going on adventures and less about just farming mobs.

 

I think I agree with this post entirely.

Don't confuse a well-balanced game with an easy game. We're not asking for a grind to the top game with a social chat room or even hand holding. We're asking for a game that is fun to play, not a game that is difficult for the sake of being difficult.

 

I can respect that. I do think that they will be balancing things more. It makes me wonder why all the outrage now because it is pretty much the first implementation of the skill system in this release. I just do not want people thinking that they are playing a finished product. That being said, I do not want people to just grind like wow, get their daily exp and then log. I want them to be immersed, not care about leveling so much, and enjoy the game. The way it sounds is that people race to the end then get bored and leave because they did not understand the journey is important, not the ending.

 

I personally don't even think most balancing should occur until we're in Alpha or Beta!

 

Hard is ok. Just be sure there is cheap armor to buy. Newbies buying spells can't afford repair. The rewards are a bit light, but are balanced by some quests. I don't mind starting slow, but as a casual gamer, these short bursts of activity, all at low level are a bit hard to keep coming back for.

I do like the use based system, and hope it stays the way of the world.

A touch more rewards would make home decorating easier when it's hard just keeping functional weapons and armor equipped.

 

Also, if skeletons could not rise back for up to three times, that would be really great. I mean, for a solo player, battling two skeletons at once can already be a challenge, but both of them rising back at least once is kinda frustrating. For me it feels kinda unnecessary, really. If they would at least come back weaker/slower, that would make me feel like I did something. And the whole skeleton archers/mages running so far away that it leashes them back with a full health is also annoying. I know, most of the time you can direct them to run where you want them to, but sometimes they just don't. And then they pull other skeletons, and you have to retreat, and they all reset, even though you've killed some of them once or twice already... So yes, these are the two things I've noticed recently that can be quite hard and frustrating for a new solo player.

 

What on earth gave you the impression you can start off killing bears???

Seriously you need to be in the areas right outside owls head and stay away from the elves. Work on wolves there. Or go back to solace bridge and kill the undead there.

 

I agree with your comments. Games are way too easy now. I played UO for 8 years and it took me 3 years to get to 7 time GM without using any exploits or 8x8ing. I enjoyed every moment and I was even competitive in PvP. Today's gamers want to run to max level instead of enjoying the journey.

 

I can honestly say that I hope it stays difficult. There's definitely room to smooth some things out though.