Fun

You got your wish

 

That statement and my wishes in this case are not in agreement. The fact is (was) that launch was happening regardless and the fact that quests were not complete squeezed all the fun out of the game for many as launch approached. So here we are. Post launch and we have a growing thread about the fun occurring in Upper Tears. There is indeed hope.

 

to quote Altered Beast.... "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!"
In all seriousness though, who is this game for?
Lots of people are saying they want this game to be a success, that it needs to bring in new players, but what new players would you want to show this game to in its current state?

How would you replace X in the following?
"If you really like X, you'll love Shroud of the Avatar!"
"Tired of X?, give Shroud of the Avatar a try!"
"Shroud of the Avatar has better X than any other game on the market today!"

 

while I am not fully into the current farming system I am having more fun setting up a brewing chain than I have been having in my last few time coming back to shroud of the avatar just grinding for xp and adventurer progression.

at first I was not impressed with brewing because I was chasing the idea that it had to effect adventuring but now that I have had some time with it and seen the numbers from making the cask to final product I am really enjoying buying and gathering all the materials to get it going. I will happily continue to buy my barely, grapes and such from players until farming gets some work or they start to ask to much imo.

seeing what they have done with brewing I am actually really looking forward to what fishing will entail so the next few months should be lots of fun if the nerfs are not to strong when they come.

 

Brewing nerf is inbound now so watch out

 

I definitely can see that point but tend to see it as a gamer preference thing moreso than about the game design itself. I've played a lot of games now, and any of them like this could be micro-analyzed in a min/max way, with anguishing over every choice. At this point in my gamer career, I guess I just dont care about that as much. These days I just find it more interesting to pick a build and roll with it, knowing there are some upsides to drive, and some downsides to mitigate. I might change gear. But not obsessively. I dont worry about it.

Honestly I find SOTA way less daunting than some other games, looking back at them in hindsight. As an example, AC1's spell taper system was horribly complicated compared to SOTA's reagents. EQs corps runs could be impossibly difficult compared to SOTAs death system. And picking a picking a paladin vs. a warrior in DOAC or WOW wasn't easy either. By comparison, in SOTA I have complete freedom to just change style on the fly, with little worry. I see SOTA's 'complexity' as actually being 'flexibility'.

 

I could probably write for a while on things big and small that could be done better in SotA, and in some cases I have and in a few of those over the years the feedback has been taken and acted upon. There are scenes and systems that still need to be fleshed out, others that need to be tweaked to make more logical sense (weather, the moon, and nighttime lighting!), the quest system as we all know needs help.

But despite all of that, despite all of the issues and FUD on the boards, I have been having a lot of fun in SotA. I have finished the main storyline and achieved my Shroud, I have all of the Virtue Armor pieces (not yet the companion sets, but I'll get to those), most of the banners, and have at least attempted to do most of the scene-based puzzles. As of right now, for the most part, my playtime is spent gathering resources, fighting through encounters, or finding a Scene to explore, then usually every week or so depending on the playtime I get throughout the week (amidst a full time job and other RL activities), I will sell off a good portion of the resources I have gathered, then spend a good portion of that either for house deco items or for equipment upgrades (which in my case is getting ever more difficult due to the give and take of the mods available). I trade resources and certain finished goods directly with a special friend who also plays.

I by and large play solo, but enjoy having the online experience at hand for events and to trade with other players. I don;t PvP, but I'm not sure I can either call myself Casual or Hardcore... I wonder if there is an in between label...