@Chris - Dispare is always empty - Is there something you can do?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Odyssey2002, May 7, 2020.

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  1. marthos

    marthos Avatar

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    Yes...we've been complaining about the lack of loot for years. All we've got are promises that it will be improved at some point in the future.

    The MMORPG playerbase is asking the same questions as you, where is the fun and excitement? If they could find it, they would be here in the game with us diehards.

    You explore a zone and find a chest hidden away. You get excited! You open it...and there is 7 gold coins and a carrot in it.
    You kill a boss mob and get a loot bag. You get excited! You open it...and there's a potato. Not even a dozen potatoes, just one single potato.

    This pattern repeats itself over and over and over again. The game, as currently designed, CRUSHES your excitement at almost every opportunity.

    The players leave the game in droves. They then spread their dislike for the game in all the normal MMORPG circles, causing less and less people to even try it. Those that we convince to try it, run into the same carrot and potato boss level loot and leave. The dwindling player base shrinks the company's revenue, and 30+ developers has turned into a half dozen (maybe?).

    The first month of release, I was seeing new players all over the place. I recruited about 30 people into my guild. After two months, all those players were gone. We had an opportunity then, with a larger development team and money, but it didn't work. Lord British isn't throwing millions of dollars our way anytime soon to fix these issues, it seems he has all but abandoned us.

    This game, I believe, has already reached its potential. And it's not bad, compared to the other Kickstarters out there that didn't even release a game before shutting down (I'm looking at you Chronicles of Elyrium). SotA provides a nice income for a couple of people who maintain it, and it's a fun housing simulator for role-players (with very deep pockets). It caters to a very niche fanbase, and there's nothing wrong with that.

    Unless someone with big money writes Chris a check, what we have is what it will ever be.
     
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  2. marthos

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    Nailed it.

    I remember back during development the plan was to apply XP loss on death AND each time you leveled up a skill. This would scale off your total XP until you go to a point where each time you leveled up a skill, you'd lose a skill's worth of XP. That would be your "level cap" so to speak, where it became theoretically impossible to progress any further. There were other ideas floating around, like the UO style of a hardcap of X number of skill points. I don't remember when or why the decision was made to let players become infinitely powerful.

    The content is trivial for those mega-grinders or those who exploited. Those who play the game a reasonable number of hours fairly are punished. PvP becomes stupidly unbalanced. PvE content becomes silly when you can perform the tanking, dps, and healing roles yourself to kill end-game bosses.

    The decision to allow endless progression is probably the main reason why so much of this game is broken and unfixable.

    If there was a brand new server that had a skill cap (adv and crafting) and better boss loot, I'd move my character over there in a heart beat. If they also needed very fast item decay with no COTA repairs (creating an economy for crafters), tied control points into regional economies and wandering encounters, I bet they'd get a ton of new players interested in checking it out.
     
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  3. Sulaene Moon

    Sulaene Moon Avatar

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    You pretty much nailed it @Ragnarr Lodbrok. It's sad to see most of the people on my friends list not log on much at all anymore. It has pretty much come down to a deco game for me and only the deco and you can find or make in-game. I won't spend another dollar for items as I don't feel my money is well spent these days. I pretty much make the items I was to deco my houses. I really feel sorry for those who spent money on towns as they are becoming less occupied.

    I'm sure that's the way the game will continue..unfortunately.
     
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  4. Ragnarr Lodbrok

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    @Chris
     
  5. Ragnarr Lodbrok

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  6. Ragnarr Lodbrok

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    It seems like to me, they are very limited to game schematics to use. It seems as if they introduce anything new into the game it causes complete chaos and opens up a tremendous amount of bugs and issues. We have been fighting the same kind of mobs now for years! Other than a few Boss type mobs, which all look very similar. I think any creature with the turbo menace is ridiculous. Players cannot move at this rate. My pet cannot move at this speed. It's time we get some new lands and mobs to go with them. You can kill so many, bears, wolves, berserkers, zombies, elves, kobolds, liches, thugs, satyrs, skeletons, humanoids, and trolls. Killing a dragon is a group effort for most.
     
  7. marthos

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    You and I must have been best friends in a previous life.

    I'll add to this, that new mobs to me doesn't mean a new skin on an existing mob. Most of the mob factions we have work pretty much the same, there is a melee guy, a ranged guy, and a wizard guy. They might use slightly different spells, but the way to fight them is the same. I'd like to see new mobs with new mechanics that we have to overcome. Ideally, the new mobs would take advantage of our classless system and push us into unique specs to defeat them (Secret World had a "you can learn everything" system, but they really made it shine when you got to Transylvania and all your builds stopped working, pushing you to really explore what you're capable of doing).

    I don't know what happened. When the Troll came out, and there was a mechanic that you could "jump" over, and you could time it based on the Troll's body language - that was amazing! The creativity was there, it just needs to be tapped into again.

    The new lands are the perfect opportunity to introduce new mobs that can't be defeated easily using our old methods. There should be NPCs in the new lands that will train us in new skills that really help us against these monsters. The Bard Tree, along with new melee/spells, should all be tied together in the expansion to make it a cohesive update.
     
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  8. marthos

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    I kinda understand the devs position and reasoning though, it comes down to risk. Right now, the game is very small but provides enough income for Chris and the others to support themselves. Keeping things the same guarantees that same level of income coming in. If they make a change that causes a whale or two to leave, now suddenly the income drops significantly - maybe a mortgage payment gets missed. Those changes may or may not bring in enough new players, and new income, to offset the loss of a whale. So the status quo ensures that Chris has a job, whereas making big changes to attract players might mean Chris needs to find a new job.

    So we're stuck until the whales leave on their own, forcing the devs, in desperation, to make changes needed to attract new players and a vibrant community. But that can't happen overnight, there needs to be enough cash to cover the transition from a game on whale provided life support to a game that's funded by tens of thousands of players. So most likely, when the whales leave, the devs close up shop. The folks keeping the game alive are also the ones keeping the game stagnant.

    The only way out would be an influx of cash, but where is that going to come from? LB left us to work on a hover board.
     
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  9. Ragnarr Lodbrok

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    All of this is true! I feel like should this happen per say, then Chris will find "problems" with our new methods of figuring out how to excel in these new per say mobs. And he will listen to players qualms in Livestream's and "correct" them and then soon turn this new area of fun onto a dull boring area with no rewarding feeling of accomplishment. This is my Worry. Its been going on Since CATNIP took over... Micro management and spontaneous decisions from a Dev. What needs to happen is allow Dev's like @Elgarion to be involved with his player background coming from SoTA . His advice is golden for SoTA. The energy this man pours into the forums should be poured into the game.
     
  10. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Liar, it's usually a mimic.
    That does seem to sum up a lot of things. At least crafting doesn't blow up your failures anymore.
     
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  11. Xiones

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    Need more High tier level humanoid mobs, Need Less Undead. Death magic is useless in game.
     
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  12. Kara Brae

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    ahh.... okaayyy... if there is such a thing as turbozombies I guess I'm right to plant myself in an oracle building and not go outside until the apocalypse is over. I used to enjoy this game so much. :eek:
     
  13. marthos

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    Good thing I wasn't drinking my coffee when I read this, or else you'd owe me a new keyboard!
     
  14. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

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    Don't make it easier, but add unquie rewards for that dungeon. Its the closest thing to a raid dungeon in the game. needs equivocal drops for the effort for sure :)
     
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  15. GMDavros

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    You're onto something there Xee. Make better, unique rewards. Sure people will farm them, but you can't prevent that. Make an item that is interesting and perhaps themed to the location. Maybe even create a part of a several part item. I love the idea of socketed items. That way you can create easy things to drop into them and make them themed to a storyline or place.

    Fenris
     
  16. Ragnarr Lodbrok

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    Well it appears the rusty spatulas will be sticking around for a few more years. They will be used as a questing item as well as the paintings that drop. Start collecting NOW!

    *Golf Claps* Ohhh Yayyy.... *closes his eyes and shakes his head in disgust*
     
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