Disappointed so far

So far this game is totally living up to my expectations. I thoroughly researched everything I could find on it before plunking down my money. I read kickstarter info, watched dev videos, (even the 12 hours of the anniversary vids, lol), I read dev interviews everywhere I could find them. The pvp megathread is what finally sold me. So yes, I think my expectations are realistic, based on available information. And I'm expecting what's actually there, not what I wanted to see, so it is absolutely living up to my expectations so far.

No offense intended to anyone, and this is not aimed at you OP, but there do seem to be a large number of people who come here saying they've invested money and are angry that it's not UO2. Why would you invest in something you've not researched? That makes no sense to me at all. Nowhere was it ever said that it will be UO2. Just because it's RG and SL people assume they're going to do this, that, or the other, based on what they've decided in their own minds that these guys will do, rather than looking into it any further. They latch onto the phrase "spiritual successor to the Ultima franchise" and they read "pre-trammel UO." Saying "oh, they made UO, therefore this game will be UO," is irrational in my opinion.

A good example is a crowd funded game called the Repopulation. It's supposed to be like SWG. So I looked into it. After reading their main page I was actually very interested since I loved SWG and it specifically said no non-consensual pvp. So my mind envisioned the SWG style flagging, etc. It all sounded good and had I just plunked down money then & there, I'd have made a very huge mistake. Upon researching it, I found that their non-consensual means being restricted to a very tiny area of your faction base.

My point with that story is that if I had just plunked down my money without doing my homework first, I would have had no one but myself to blame. And going on their forums and complaining about the way the game is being made, blaming them for my lack of research, or demanding that they change the pvp dynamics to suit me would have been foolish and unhealthy. I'm sure their game will be wonderful, it's a great concept, just not for me.

Most of the people I've seen, here on the forums and in game this last weekend, seem very well pleased with how the game is shaping up and the direction it's going. I am too.

 

Well after what I saw this weekend I was really encouraged. The game looks great and it doesn't bog down my antique internet connection. I don't do quests as I want to experience them for the first time live. As long as they follow through with character customization improvements I'll be happy.

My only disappointment so far is the Duke fiasco.

 

What Duke fiasco ?

 

I played UO back in the day and loved it on Sonoma and Siege. Played WOW for a few years and gave it up a few months ago! Got bored. I have been watching the forums and this past weekend decided to play and loved it! I think this game is what I have been looking for and cant wait for R7 so I can play again.

 

Death-Knell was pretty invested in getting a larger plot-size for the Duke tier, that could be it.

 

That was part of it. But the biggest part was the Dukes island castle. They may have released something called that but they have not produced a dukes island castle yet. Sure the structure meets the basic castle defintion but there is NO island. With the release of the LOTMs island castle they themselves have defined an island castle.
The other part I was referring to is the dukes pledge is no longer worth the money we paid for it. There is no longer anything in the dukes pledge level that justifies the extra 2 garnd I spent.

 

Well, the Duke water plot is the biggest and best by far, I think other levels have more to complain about water lots. But I think that water lots need a revision.

I cannot consider that to get more land "for free" as a fiasco. And also cannot understand that the level now " is no longer worth the money we paid for it", when now Duke is the first and top level to choose a city lot, and the best ones. Complaints, complaints...

 

Yeah, the wording was really problematic. I can see you imagining having acres of island land to explore with a remote outpost at the top of a hill.

It's kind of similar to the lighthouse attached to your property, operative word, via a bridge. Instantly all Knights were imagining a castle, a bridge and a lighthouse lol

 

For the lighthouse problem also helps the photos and the conceptual art! Actually the water lots are like land lots but without yard space. But they said that they are thinking about any kind of extra or bunus.

 

I think people just need to get the old UO off their minds. That game is well over 15 years old at this point. In countless interviews with Garriot, he's explained his view on the future of games, especially online games. The micro-transactions, the game shops, social media...it's just the direction he's going in with this.

I share concern about the game but I am going to reserve judgement until it's released. I am sure that I will be extremely far behind as those that are backers are absolutely given a leg up with the money they've invested. Just the way of the world.

 

Well I'm glad you like the duke water plot. But it is in no way shape or form and island castle. It's a castle sitting on a rock foundation. NO Island and that's what I paid for. A better name for it would be the Baron's Waterfront keep. That fits properly as there is no "island" just a keep sitting in the water.

 

Actually a lot of people feel that they are getting the water lot that they wish when they paid, is not only about Duke.

 

But by definition the dukes are NOT getting what they paid for or what was promised them in KS.

 

Sorry, but I feel that you are speaking only about one level amd thinking in one level, but this in not a problem about the Duke level (and at least the Duke water house is not much much smaller that the Duke land house, like in all the other levels). The same "NOT getting what they/I paid" was already said for a lot of people in other levels. Really I cannot see the "Duke fiasco".

 

Hi and welcome...

This type of criticism is very hard to use constructively, Can you please list your concerns in list form with a slight description.
i.e.

1.) Needs an isometric view (why)
2.) I don't like the 'instances' (why)
3.) Combat is boring and I don't like the proposed card system (why)

I am genuinely and sincerely interested in your opinion, but it's really hard to tell what your concerns are with the current state of development. (pre-alpha, I might add)

What is it about WOW that you don't like? What elements of WOW do you see in SotA?

Tell the Dev's how to fix it, sometimes they listen, don't give up

 

Ok. I need to explain myself better in order to be fair. And for all the single Ultima players out there, please excuse me, I took you guys under no consideration at all. I can only talk of what I knew and liked and why I was drawn to this game.

What I liked about UO was the realness in it. I was not a big PVP, though as anyone who played it PVP was sooner or later inevitable, yet it was not my main thing. I liked for example the fact that you could be killed or robbed though, it added to the game, I liked the human interaction inside the UO universe as well, for a long time UO friends were one's friends since so much time was spent along with them. I am going to try and organize my thoughts regarding what I believe are the things that make me feel how I feel.

First of all the map system I find it very mediocre, plots and areas, for me it truly sucks. Its chewed and digested so you dont have to go through any trouble at all. Excuse me to cite UO, but there was a fast travel mechanism there, runes. But not everyone could use or make runes right? Exactly! There was the need to work your way to whatever you wanted.

Second. UO went big, real life money was exchanged thanks to it, accounts were sold, houses were bought with cash. But all that happened because it gained that value, people played it and liked it and decided it was worth spending money in it. Here we find the complete opposite, this game has been successful, yes, in merchandising itself without it being tried, so far they are selling a dream world, unproven and charging some serious money for housing? clothing? jeez! I dont know if you guys can recall but the only reason someone bought an account was because whomever sold it had spent hundreds of hour raising skills and such, houses started costing money when there was no more space to place a house and demand took over.

Third. The last release I tried, before this one, I decided to do some mining, something I did a lot in UO back in the day. Now to my surprise the only thing I could "mine" were this "rocks" of a different color (DUH!) along the other rocks. Come on man! Definitely they can and should come up with something better than that. This release I just walked around because I had a bunch of crafting items in my bag but already I am getting a feeling of being in a kindergarden style game, Garriot was saying that games today suck because all you have to do it follow the arrows BUT HEY THIS IS KIND OF FEELING THAT WAY TOO!

I hated WOW because I found it pointless, I watched a lot of friend play glittering WOW for hours, so I have and idea of what it was. Well thats how I feel about how this one is going too, a semi fashion show where you can only interact with your "friends". IDK. maybe some of the people here are right, I did get caught up with the "spiritual successor of UO" thing, yet I did watch a lot of interviews and read a lot about the game, I created a facebook account just to play Ultimate Collector, which I found extremely pointless but I said, "well you know they are trying internal mechanisms for the game"

Modern gaming for old school gamers sounds like a terrible combination to me, Garriot talked about how successful games like Farmville have been and how they are the future of gaming, well I have something for you Richard Garriot:

If you screw this game its going to be the end of your career as a game developer, tell that to your ego, even if you consider yourself such a magnificent game developer well guess what? its going to be GAME OVER.

 

@Raziel,

I'm sure there will be many who will come along and try to chase you away for expressing your opinion but know this: you're not the only one that feels that way. The best thing you could do as far as SotA is concerned is stick around and help push it in the direction you think it should go in by continuing to offer your opinion, advice and yes, criticism.

 

I"m quoting the parts which are relevant to me, sorry for snipping out the rest.

For the most part , I've been happy with the Rx releases since I've seen real progress with every patch. The question in my mind though, and I"m sure this is also in the minds of others ( I"m looking at you TimeLord ) is when do we start getting to see the unique stuff that will make SOTA stand out from the rest ?

The card deck combat system I get and am open to it, but I'd like to see something like :

1. You take on a quest & the quest giver gives you a magical deck of cards to assist you in completing it
2. The deck of cards give you augmented skills for the duration of the quest
3. At the end of a successful quest , you get a choice of 1-3 cards (& their associated skills) to keep from the deck as a reward

This gives the card system combat a nice twist by tying it to something physical (ok virtual) object in the game. Maybe I can even lend my friend, brother, sister, wife , dad/mom those unique cards to help them while they"re struggling to gear up their avatars.

In PvP maybe those cards can be damaged, destroyed or stolen which means I lose those special skills until they're replaced. Just thinking out aloud while I'm having my morning coffee

 

Luis you are playing a framework, there is no game yet! Keep providing feedback and help shape it

Ok, you are loosing me. I think you might be having a bad day...

 

Thank you Tamino, I do hate to sound critical and harsh but I'd really like this to work.

I was grounded once, and my punishment was that I could not play any more UO. So I was forced to quit, sometime later I believe it was for my birthday that I asked to get UO again. To my surprise it was 2 weeks before the new housing spaces in Trammel. I started a completely newbie account and managed to raise 80k in gold and got myself a Log Cabin. I was a true hardcore UO gamer, maybe not like other people who were very good PVPs or PKs but I gave UO virtually all the time I had available. So yes I do hope this will work.

My first characters were tailors, and a bard, a war axe wielding bard, I was clueless in a world full of people with an incredible amount of variety. I was my guild's best looter because the trick was to target the creatures feet as it was faaling to the floor before anyone else, this was before trammel, when only one world existed.

Now even though UO had pretty much the same for everyone (one of the things I completely hated about WoW, and could not comprehend) and since everyone had pretty much the same it gave birth to an amazing array of creativity in which people engaged for countless hours in order to express themselves and make themselves particular in a certain way. Im sure ex UO gamers perfectly understand what I am talking about. Houses, characters, lots and lots uniqueness that anyone could copy

Later I became a semi rare hunter, a tamer, a fisherman, a logger, a miner and many more things. One time I got scammed for 100k while buying regs, they were 10k each but between them one was 100k and since I was buying a lot of bags I realized only when it was too late. I remeber the frenzy that following a house that was about to decay once its time was due. All those things could happen only because of the depth in human interaction present in Ultima Online, there were roleplayers, scammers, thiefs, liars, honorable people, pimps, fashionable lords who only played their pumped uo chars inside Brit so in order to protect their titles. Raw human nature interacting in a virtual world. And it was all good, too good.

One day I just gave everything away among my guildmates and quitted in a teen-aged sex frenzy. Ever since I have been waiting for this.

So tell me, what would you do without UO? Will you fight? Criticize and get banned, or comply and play Sota, at least a while... And dying of boredom in your keyboards, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all that from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell the developers that they make take our dreams, but they will never take our UO!