Game reviews are well challanged to be nice

I can't believe they actually highlighted Dance parties as a game feature. What were they thinking ????

 

Problem is, it WAS marketed as the spiritual successor of the Ultima games (and yes, UO as well). I agree, the dance parties are fine and all, but that's not exactly compelling gameplay that's going to get people excited and want to put the grind into playing. Right now, it still feels a lot like an attempt at Second Life, and less like an actual MMORPG in the market.

I've also said before, I still think there needs to be mini-events or similar impetus to help drive roleplaying and story along.

 

I think this is a really important point, yea. The housing stuff is the primary endgame of SOTA, but it suffers two giant problems, 1. It takes a lot of work to even get started on it. and 2. It takes constant upkeep so once you do let it slip your primary incentive for coming back again later is gone.

Not sure what can be done about it without adding instanced homes of some kind. Maybe they could do a small airship home, only the size of a single story of a row house, that you can summon on the world map. Then make the bigger airships usable as replacements for those, and also add more other airships you can acquire. You wouldn't be able to place vendors in these, and maybe no crafting stations, so getting a real house would still have a point, but at least as far as a trophy room and storage space is concerned they would work.

 

The only review I cared to read was the first and only one I read. The one at https://www.mmorpg.com/shroud-of-th...harm-make-for-an-mmo-worth-playing-1000000500. It was an honest review from someone who played the game. Many of the points were spot on. It was honest and critical, with an understanding that the game continues to get patched and the hope that many of the glaring issues would be worked on.

It's important to note that for the scope of the game, for the type of game it is, there have been consistent monthly updates and it launched. There are a lot of crowd-funded MMO's out there still in beta. To me, this open style of development is a case study in a small development team actually realizing their goal. We may not all agree with what was done, but nevertheless here we are.

I hope to be around for a long time. One of my only gripes with the game is giving me things to do with other people. There is plenty to do alone, but I can bear only so much of hitting up the Rise or other locations over and over without any real goal other than getting XP. A mix of tools to make it more of a sandbox where players create content, along with lore/developer made content can go a long way (not the traditional quests, but somewhat advancing a story with lore that we discover over time).

 

I agree. Regardless of how it is portrayed in a trailer, most people are aware that what they are watching is a group of people passively playing as an emote loops. It is almost as though when they use dance parties as marketing they are appear to be marketing to people back in 1996 who the concept of socializing in an MMO was a new phenomenon.

I would think that most MMO fans already understand that a multiplayer game is a social one. I think marketing what tools are provided to players to enhance social experiences would be more productive when marketing social tools. Those features that players can use in their own way.

 

Have you tried exploring? Have you gone to any of the new areas they add each month? It's not their fault if you can't think of anything to do other than grind, maybe that's the fault of WoW-clone game mentality that distills everything down to the least common denominator.

One of my big things to do is to play the economy, which may not be for everybody, but it's something to do. But what would you think of a reviewer of EVE that said there seemed to be nothing to do but shoot some spaceships, and he thought the offline skill leveling was too slow?

 

Launched is arbitrary. There is no clear demarcation. Scenes are still cloned, systems still in a basic form. The other MMOs you are referring to could call themselves launched tomorrow if they followed the same standard. That standard being, 'It's launched when we say so and in continuous development.'

The oft repeated response by the devs to questions of 'when will it launch' was 'when its ready' and the community lauded the fact that the dev team was unwilling to release an unfinished product early. Launch would be significant, a statement from the devs that the game was officially 'ready'. There was no clearly stated milestone for when that would be other than when the devs decided to say it was the case. Even in retrospect, its hard to see why launch was done when it was. That significance of launch changed though, and launch became a marketing term they didn't care about. Which is all fine and their prerogative. Having no defined public launch goal and devaluing the concept of launch, even if they are within their right to do so, makes it difficult to celebrate it as an achievement.

 

Wasnt the video with the dance party made by players and not an official video made by Port?

IF it was made by players, and I believe it was... Good Job to them...

Honest Opinion... Need more of them showing off the game.

Dance party or No dance party.. The video in my opinion was pretty damn good if made by players in the community.

 

Tools and player made content is the key if you want create an unique game in a market full of themepark clones. This is what this game needs, and you explained well in a few words.

Quests and story is possibly the second thing this game could differ from others.

 

People can have more than one lot, right? So the first thing would be to limit that to a single one per account, regardless of NPC or Player-Owned towns. Those who would cry foul at the idea already own multiple accounts but that would help clear out a ton of space.

Allow players to rent really, really small (instanced) rooms at the various NPC Inns (maybe have a limit of 20-100 rooms per Inn or something)... where you can barely fit 3 large beds side by side with a smaller deco limit. If you already own a lot, you can't rent a room (for simplicity's and consistency's sake). That would enable them to try out the decoration feature early on.

Then, giving the smallest, cheapest house and/or lot deed as quest reward(s). Like in the main quest, not some obscure side quest.

Then, add single village lot at a key (read: safe, off to the beaten path) location in adventuring areas... so that adventurers can stumble upon player housing... you could even go as far as having a few basements owned as housing in some dungeons/castle ruins/graveyard. It doesn't ruin the decor and players can role-play a hermit or an evil character.

Then, give the LFG tool a tab to list housing needs: "Looking for lot" and/or "Looking for tenant".

Then, you make chests give out actual rewards instead of being empty so that players can eventually get the money to pay up taxes/rent.

Then, you make the vendors convenient for people to find the items they're looking for. Public vendors should have a tab that allows anyone to search any type of item they want based on filters (organizes the list by distance or by price) and it tracks down the name of the seller and the name of the town the vendor is in. You search for a "rug" under "100g" and it tells you that Bob Smith in Ardoris sells one for 80g. It validates the crafters and the buyers get to see a wider variety much more easily.

Then, you make locked doors as the default state for all doors that leads in the house.

Not to mention that it creates a "judgement limbo".

Devs and fans get to brush criticism by saying that "it's not ready", the more critical folks can't say anything without sounding unfair to the product while the rest of the player-base wonder if whatever they have is all they're going to get.

Just like most of the criticisms on the execution of story and questing is said to be resolved in Episode 2... so when do I get to say that it sucks?

Should people hold on a little while longer or just move on? That essentially sums up most people's thoughts on the game.

 

Nothing said it was player made. It was a video of a player run event. They thanked the players for organizing the event. They said nothing about the video being created by players.

 

Well it was kinda funny that after Release 53 with all of the issues including the major ones of fleet flute broke, devotionals not working, inventory stacking issues, damage resistance nerf, housing walls missing, etc that there was a dance party with Starr and Lord British performing. Prior to that we were told there won't be any major patches until after the weekend. So I would say dance parties should be mentioned since that took priority over game fixes. Just my opinion.

 

There's a lot of things that this game does very well. There's a lot to see and do, and the social aspect is a very strong' glue'.
But as reviewers keep pointing out, there's a lot of things missing here or things that rely on the community to fill in the gaps.

In most modern MMOs that have a housing feature, fairly early on you get introduced to such and most of the time its either free or has a token in game gold cost. Sometimes there's no upkeep at all, or, sometimes its a nominal amount - basically pennies just to make sure you stay active. I was absolutely floored when they announced the tax rates for taxed deeds in Sota. Then perplexed even further when they made it so you couldn't actually buy a taxed deed through in-game means. I know you can buy them for COTOs now, but even an informed new player is looking at what, 66 hours for a taxed row based on Vladamir's blog post on this subject? And then the joy of paying rent forever thereafter. Huh? But I bought a deed, I OWN THE LAND, why is there rent at all?

I started out with a tax free house /vendor from my pledge and that made my early game experience significantly better, compared to friends I tried to entice to the game, who all said the same thing : Slow advancement, too many cash sinks, they go out fighting and lose money restocking consumables after selling all loot. Those who aspire to craft are completely screwed over by the new "recipe in a bandit's pocket" distribution system, and the haphazard teachabilities and crap being located all over the place. And the fact that crafting isn't profitable in any way shape or form quickly discourages the hundreds of hours of investment to even level it. And those that do stick with it long enough to get to a higher level then find out about xp-tax-on-death and that's usually the final nail in the coffin. Several people refused to even play the game because of this system, which does nothing except force a player to waste their time grinding even more to achieve what they've already achieved.

I know that we want nostalgia, and a niche game, and such - but if the game is all about logging in every day and working to pay your bills, and constantly being hit withpunishment, people will just play something else. There's no shortage of options. The MAIN appeal of Sota, at least in my circles, is that its sandboxy and classless without being ffa pvp garbage. Of course then they try to do the main story quest and get forced into PvP and then question that assumption as well.

I think Sota is an awesome game, and I've spent more time here than any other game in the last decade. I am frustrated with a lot of things that seem to be designed to be intentionally frustrating, but I've pushed through the worst of it. Trying to get new people in and to invest time in it is more difficult, though. I spend a lot of time settling in new people and answering questions, and I think maybe 1 in 10 stick around past the first few weeks. Either the goals are so far away they seem unattainable or the fun factor simply isn't enough to keep them logging in day after day. The community bridges this gap for me in a lot of ways but in the end I get the same feedback over and over when I message people on discord asking where they've been ..."too grindy" "too cash sinky" "too punishy." Then they go play one of the dozens of big titles that doesn't punch them in the face for logging in.

 

Well said my frienmeow +1

 

R53 sure did upset a lot of players. I’m not understand the dance party aspect, but it sure takes away the old Ultima theme.

 

See, this is my gripe about the dance parties, and something I've actually brought up to both Starr and LB. From a -PLAYER- standpoint, the fact that the characters of Starr and Richard are hanging out at a dance party is fine, and just understandably meant for silly fun. But from a marketing and story aspect, it's completely bonkers.

LORD BRITISH DOES NOT EXIST IN NOVIA! It's actually part of the story threads in the world, and hinted for potentially Episode 2 and new lands. The problem is if you're intending to have a roleplaying immersive storyline, it's more than somewhat 4th wall breaking to have Richard's personal avatar wandering around, when in the actual story, the actual persona sticks out like a sore thumb.

Personally, I'd love to see Darkstarr (the character!) more involved for story/lore aspects, similar to back in UO (as an example) when a major story event took place.

 

This is a great point. If they want to appear at these events, great! Respect the story and the world you've built though. Make the appearance of those characters in the world something special to the world. If episode 2 involves the return of LB, its impact is diminished by the fact that he has been appearing in game, in screenshots and videos for years.

Richard has always said that immersion and story were important to the game and they are important to many players of the game. Richard attends a dance party essentially as a celebrity. Doing so as Lord British, rather than himself, has no benefit beyond breaking immersion and story for those players that care about it.

If the experience of players in the world is what builds that player's story, LB returning at any point in the future makes that previous player's story conflict with the story of the game. It would be better if Richard appeared in game as himself.

This is what I would like to see, the devs actively roleplaying their characters in impromptu story events. Given that the devs are willing to be in game, there's huge potential for seemingly spontaneous events that don't require advanced marketing and scheduling. Its what I really hoped for anyway. Much less about facebook posts foretelling exact times of a future dragon attack and instead word passing throughout the game that something is happening over here, town criers shouting it out in game as opposed to tweeting it. A kid can dream, I suppose.

 

I dont think the housing space is exactly an issue, there are many empty lots in npc towns and most pot owners are looking for residents, also theres so many people
with rooms for rent that most Ive heard of are free , and basement inns are coming too soon so this isnt a barrier to housing entry, and if it does become one then we will have a damn decent population.
By that stage new lands will be coming, no doubt with new towns and pot locations so in short I dont think housing is the issue to focus on, except pointing out that there are many easy ways to get on the housing ladder and play the decoration / collection game without direct ownership.

 

But in the design of the leveling in this game, there is essentially a cap. How many adventurer levels do you think @Mac2 has gained in the last month? A couple? Maybe? See... I have to disagree with you on this, because there is no way that a level 110 player who started 9 or 10 months ago is going to be that disadvantaged when going against Mac at level 123 or 124 (whatever he is at now). There is just a really minuscule difference there, for which that player's actual game experience (about game mechanics, etc.) likely more than makes up. So many people talk about this HUUUGE gap that exists between the players that are at the top, and the players that started a few months back. It's just not true at all. It is a false perception of things. A false sense of doom.

The one thing I DO agree with you on here is that I don't feel like there is enough fun things to do at this point. I think we'll get there when ships and sea creatures arrive, fishing up treasure maps (or whatever mechanic they go with there) happens, and other huge land masses pop up out of the "New Great Sea." We know these things are coming at some point in the coming years. I really do think we'll get there. It is only just the beginning, after all.

 

+1 The soft cap is working.