Game reviews are well challanged to be nice

I think SotA can differentiate itself by having the biggest, coolest, best dj'd dance parties.

 

Well if we actually had dancing as a skill it would be a lot more interesting but to just put your self on auto dance with no challenge to it can get boring if you're not chatting on teamspeak or discord etc with others and joking around.

Auto dancing by itself is not fun but what if dancing was skill-full and challenging? then we would be up to par with other games who have things like this.

Making dancing mean something like a dancing gives a buff to those around you. Majoria would be doing her ballet pirouette right before battle to buff the group with a temporary stamina/well focus increase as the artifact instruments can buff too. Skill in dancing ability could make you have a better buff to offer others.

Also it bothers me npcs don't notice we are playing instruments, and in this case what if we are dancing around them? Could they perhaps notice and comment?

 

You pretty much just pointed out everything right with dancing in Project Gorgon vs SotA and why I partake in them now vs never in SotA.

- Dancing is a skill you have to learn from a NPC including a quest and level which depends on bards being in an area and playing music.
- There are 6 steps when you max the skill.
- In larger groups there is a sequence of commands given which gives temporary buffs and the more people that do them the stronger/longer lasting the buffs.
- The NPCs dance to the music if in earshot as well.
- Players also drop items that offer temporary buffs or help skills like kegs of alcohol

One game gives me an incentive to be there besides the impromptu raffle or whatever advertised in global that draws player to group together in a town in that it will actually help me out when I leave and go back to adventuring.
The other is just a social RP event which also seem to have a lot more planning and advertising to it.

 

Star Wars Galaxies did this - dancing and playing instruments gave buffs and reduced the combat fatigue of those watching it was a great system and made the role of "entertainer" integral to the game. That's what SOTA should be doing - another system that we don't have sadly along with all the others we are still waiting for while more and more pixel fluff gets pushed out into the game instead.

 

I would like to respond my thoughts on this

1. not everyone can afford a bundle, I do agree what that however all these things can be achieved through time. TF can be bought from players as well player vendors. Sure it may take you a few months or years to get but its available to all. I would not mind seeing upgrades to allow more to get into the higher end with spending a little less but I would not want to make it too easy that all could just have a city. I think a little balance could be done to make things more palatable.

2. This is not a casual game, it is a game where you have to earn everything with time. Its hard and takes a long.. long time to get "demigod" I'm still working on my character for just over a year and it has been worth the slow progress. Most of us backers were not wanting easy mode, or a WOW clone. UO was just as hard and took time to get all your skills etc. Gold rates are fine as is, takes time to accumulate wealth but you appreciate things more this way when you achieve something. Society today especially in younger generations seem to be wanting rewards handed out for everything with no work.

3. this is a matter of opinion. Some will think it looks fantastic others think its not. Every game has its own look. Just like Cell shaded games... some like some don't. taste in music, art, etc in life is all different depending on the person. I would never tell and artist that they painted it wrong. its how he envisions it that matters

4. There at some balance issues, but I disagree with this one. I play pure mage, have played pure tank, archer and two handed all to GM. All have pro/con and its all about knowing your skills. Some tanks hold agro with no issues well others just cant get the mobs off the DPS people. having the open concepts works awesome as you can play what you want to play. Why make it all cookie cutter?

5. I do think there are a lot of bugs that are being worked out. I have submitted my share every week and they do get fixed which is awesome. I do agree there are some that are annoying until they fix them like that of the broken quests. They really need away to just cancel out a quest at some point. Movement seems to work find for me, but I have been playing a long time and coming from games like BDO and other that were more realtime this was a little but of an adjustment to get use too.

6. Not sure what you are getting at on this one. This is an opinion on what you think people need to know. The game itself on steam etc does explain what to expect. those that played UO know what type of game this is? as to quests there are plenty if you look for them. they just don't jump out at you with a ? or take you hub to hub holding hands. More quests every patch and it will continue this way until they no longer develop. As to the bad reviews out there the majority of them were from early development and very few new ones. a lot of the negativity steamed from people expecting a complete game in 2014... nobody should be reviewing any early release until its complete.

 

Dance parties are awesome to attend. I was wary at first, honestly, but chilling out with folks on discord and enjoying some great tunes is AWESOME! Would recommend!

 

Just to exrapolate a bit on dance parties.
Its a thing. We've all been to them. They're fun. They could be so much more.
What if music & dance was its own skill line? What if you could learn new dances, costumes, titles, etc. What if this was a pre-req for opening up things like bard/performance skills? ( A SOCIAL xp pool. You could apply this to things like book authorship and decorating and everything else. I'm not sure how the technical bits of earning/spending would work, but so much of the game is NOT about fighting there's a lot of potential for more development here.)

 

I don't think it's right to say that we have all been to Dance Parties and find them fun. I suggest many have no interest in them what so ever (to put it mildly) and I suspect that many potential players would feel the same way. They are certainly not for me.

All power to those who do enjoy them but majoring them as a game feature to the wider world is unfortunate imho.

 

Sorry for the assumption of perceived fun-ness there. At one time or another though, I think most folks either attend or at least peripherally take note of these things happening. I merely suggest that additional social sklil development could potentially be a thing for those who do want some manner of advancement that isn't just butchering monsters and selling their loot, repeat.

 

Yes I totally agree that they need to add in social skills/buffs etc relating to dancing/playing instruments , then it will be a feature worthy of showing to the outside world

 

I have to agree with you, I would like to know if the devs team are going to fix these issues. However , so far, not a word .

 

Decorating XP ftw

 

This is the best suggestion I've seen on the forums. Perhaps the Path of the Oracle quest line should hand out that row lot to welcome the Avatar to Novia along with the Shroud. It would add incentive to complete the main quest line and give the player a reason to stick around and experience another part of the game after doing so. I could see the original concern about there being too many players to give everyone a lot. So perhaps this would be something only done for a limited time basis. But right now there are plenty of row lots are available, and more could always be created.

 

Does this mean Erich can start charging you rent?

 

I'm a huge pusher for the game, and do what I can to support it. My biggest challenge is helping people get started in the game without having to hold their hand through it. The game starts you off in a battle ridden area, it gives you some instruction from npcs, and you have a quest journal that is easily ignorable.
(Side note: The quests have vague titles that don't connect to the actual quest thread. You open the journal to try and find where you are at and have to rely on reading every description to figure out which quest you're looking for)

So now the new player finds their way onto the map and that is where they ALL say "now what?". I have guided MANY new players to the outskirts (I guess they are hard to find?) and that seems to give them something to do until they again say, "now what" to which I reply, check your journal and look for sotamap.com. (lifesaver of a tool) Then they ask, where do I hunt? Where do I get better armor? How do I make gold? It takes me a few days to get them acclimated and these are just people I meet who are standing on a road on novia, looking lost and not knowing who or how to ask for help.

Why on earth are other players having to guide these people? The game should automatically provide that guidance and NOT in player hand books because noone even seems to know they have one. Also, I know hospitallers are supposed to help, but first and foremost, the hospitallers in this game are not paid employees of portalarium and they happily take on an enormous task and new players still don't know how to find them. If they see the hospitaller tag over someones head, that doesn't mean they KNOW what a hospitaller is and will ask them for help.

Which brings me to the player handbooks, which direct me to outdated forum posts and lead me to ask, why do we have to spend most of our time in a web browser learning about this game, and not learning these things IN the game?

Also, when are the female avatars going to get beautiful long hair?! (Personal preference gripe) I have seen several npcs including new vendor skins, that have really cool long braided hair. I'm tired of looking like a twelve year old in pig tails. I've also mentioned this in several telethons. Although this is my personal gripe, I feel that most games have it right when it comes to appearance. Yes we look hot in this game, but why must I resort to a matronly bun, or curly ponytail that doesn't move, or some rats nest of a "curly long" hairstyle that isn't even long???? And that was implemented over long beautiful hair why? Because it's funny?

....a few hours later...

Okay rant over on my avatar hair gripe.

There are a lot of things that need work. The devs know this, but truthfully, fixing glitches and catering to new players and better advertising should be number one on the priority list. I think most players, even the old ones can agree on that.

 

I'm not liking this maybe you were being sarcastic but I do think there could be a quest for land deeds. Giving players a way to work for it and goals even though they can already do that having the actual quest would provide a system that is structured and the end result would be getting the deed.

In the meantime while on the quest they can get a room in an inn for example to not live out of the bank. Who knows maybe that could even be part of the quest . Perhaps the quest is very detailed and takes some time.

If future land ownership was certain in the game then that would make the fact that this game is a housing game a true fact obtainable by all players but just giving it has never been the way to go but sadly property deeds and player owned town purchases are the reason this game exists. For the future there could be a new reason like it is a fun game and all systems in the game get completed and fleshed out. @DarkStarr

edited

edited again.

 

I've been thinking about the Inn room idea and it's a great way for new players to find a place to set up early on but I've found that almost all inns are totally empty with the owners not even online. My solution is an automated Inn Room rental system. Hear me out...
The inn owner designs his inn to be attractive. Keeps the merchant stocked with arrows, reagants and food. The owner sets a price for the rooms, say 50g a day and the players pay the vendor npc or cash register. This system would allow players to rent the rooms without the owner player participating directly. The renting player picks a room through dialog with the vendor or register npc and is given door manager and tenant permissions in their rented room.

 

I'm generally in favor of quests where you don't just follow a magic arrow from one thing to the next, but in games like the old Ultima games or Morrowind etc. where it works that way a big part of why the game is good anyways is that every wrong place you look also has something interesting to discover. In SOTA that isn't the case, most regions have nothing of note in them at all, and the constant respawns also make exploration a hassle unless you can just steamroll the enemies in the area.

A big part of a satisfying exploration element in games is being able to slowly and carefully clear away enemies that you are barely able to kill to push into new territory, but with respawns that isn't a thing, unless the enemies simply pose no threat to you anymore you don't feel like you've opened up a new area if they just pop back ad infinitum. I actually really enjoy the random encounters where you kill some bandits or skeletons and then the region is yours for that exact reason.

 

I'd be in favor of private areas or areas in party only having no respawns. But the grinders would be lighting themselves on fire in protest.

 

I think it would be fine to have both. I mean I grind in private too sometimes, but maybe there could be instanced areas that you enter with a group or in private where enemies don't respawn, but the enemies are also significantly tougher so it's an actual challenge to clear them out.