Fun Fast Functional for the future of SOTA

The writing and warning signs have been on the wall for years. Those remaining in this community are some of the most dedicated spending many hours, money, effort, and care into this game.

I hope the future is bright but the current pathway is leading to terminal illness for this game. I am not a game developer I am a game player. So take my input for what it's worth, not much, but it's free.

Every feature, revision, removal, or nerf should follow a simple flowchart with the majority of the current and future game population in mind.

Development:
Feature=(Fun+Fast+Functional) Yes=Implement;No=MOVE ON
Repeat Loop

Examples:
Adding the free row deeds for completion of quests, SUCCESS! THANKS!
Slowing run speed in battle does not meet any of those requirements, FAIL!!!!!!
PVP arena area copying other successful PVP games with a subset within this game=SUCCESS
Open world PVP where gankers flourish and quit the game when they run out of sheep or easy kills=FAIL
Creating new content but making it PVP/PVE to appease a small subset of "PVP" players in a non-pvp game=FAIL
Amazing floating island in space as the starting area=SUCCESS
Incredibly deep, functional, amazing, impactful sky/space in game=SUCCESS
Restricting fast movement, making players run the same routes over and over to reach content=FAIL
Extremely limited loot wanting player created loot with a low population and minimal economy=FAIL
Severe death penalties, although not too bad now, caused many people to leave previously=FAIL
Build specialization, they need improved to create more reason to specialize=SUCCESS!
Randomized skills creating a random skillset on hotbar in real time combat in all iterations=FAIL
Heat system on a static hotbar=SUCCESS
Amazing loot for completion of story, Shroud of the Avatar cloak=SUCCESS!!!
Nerfing the amazing loot because not everyone should wear it=FAIL!!!
Cool housings like Airship homes, frigates, windmills, mansions, so many more=SUCCESS
Cool loot for the housing like fireworks, flaming horses, so many items=SUCCESS
Killing end game boss getting 12 gold and a dirty rolling pin, even once=FAIL!!!
Going into PVP zone to complete a quest or kill an end game boss, getting ganked while PVEing=FAIL
Going into a specialized zone whose only purpose is PVP with PVP rewards, dying in combat=SUCCESS
Restricting teleportation to a "friends" list or one home=FAIL
Enable teleportation to any home you own or are added as a tenant=SUCCESS
Cool dances, emotes, unique outfits, dyes, character customization=SUCCESS
Fun and creative NPCs like the reaper=SUCCESS
Fun and creative zones like Blood Bay, most any zone redone since Blood Bay (upper tears, etc)=SUCCESS!
Enabling player created content with monster spawners, building blocks, etc=SUCCESS
Requiring hundreds of hours and resources to make high end gear that wears out=FAIL
Enabling high end permanent legacy gear that evolves based upon kill counters, quests, etc=SUCCESS

Want more examples? I'm available for free.

@DarkStarr

 

Well said brother.

Learn those lessons.

And I'm available for free as well.

 

Awesome post. Good job and you hit the nail on the head for so many things

 

I'm in contact with a few of the devs. I'll make sure to pass this along and make sure they see this post. I have to agree with you on quite a bit of it!

 

I agree with your basics, the Fun, Fast, Functional model is a good start - everything should hit at least one of those metrics, and the more the better. That said, you forget that Functional, especially in a open systems game such as this, must also include balance. Without balance, everyone is the same build with the same gear, because players are blatantly min-maxers. So a lot of what you have marked as failures, are actually Functional successes. Yes, slowing run speed and nerfing certain skills is not Fun, but it makes the Functionality of the long-term game better.

 

You are right but this is where skill specializations makes people choose. If specializations are further improved then not everyone can be the same build. Something has to be Fun and fast and functional to implement, sorry my fault wasn't clear.

 

Specialization is one method of this, but can't be the sole balance. If there is obvious disparity without specialization, then adding specialization isn't going to balance it.

Not feasible. Each of those has a "cost", it can be fun and functional, but its not fast to implement. It can be functionally necessary and fast to implement, but it affects fun. Both of those should be done, although possibly not immediately. You can't have it all, especially with a small team.

 

Hot take incoming...

Port needs to stop half assing two things and whole ass one thing instead. Right now we have a lot of things that are mediocre and few things that function really well. I really hope going forward they choose ONE thing at a time, and polish that ONE thing until it's triple A buttery smooth before moving on to the next.

That being said, overall, I really enjoy the game. I think it has soooo much potential if they can just sand off that rough upper layer.

 

The fundemental question they forget to keep asking is "Why will people play our game when we are competing with other MMORPGs that have 10 times our budget?" Ask that, and what ever the answer is, hone that aspect to a fine point and sink it into the hearts of said competitors.