Gaming Bolt: SotA Hands On Impressions

Ya, sometimes its tough during development when everything is not implemented yet. It is not what I consider a game yet, just a program being implemented and debugged at the moment.

 

The issue is, people are discussing plenty of things that are about to see intensive changes (for all the plans we know).
It's similar to test driving that great new car. And people (rightfully) complain that it is way too slow. Just that the motor hasn't been attached to the car yet. Which would (should ) really make all the difference upon driving. If the game was in beta and feature complete, then yes, all the complaints would have substance and the discussions would lead somewhere. It is not though and if not even Portalarium can be sure on what is to make it into the game, then I doubt any of us would be qualified to discuss that.
Best example, the 'overland map'. It is but a mere place-holder at it's current development compared to the functionality Portalarium has stated they consider. Which is why every discussion on that is basically futile.

 

We need to get some SOTA veterans hired at Gaming Bolt (and other media positions).

 

Here is your car analogy.

The engine is the motor. It is already attached.

The wheels are on, as we can log in and "drive". We even have seats (houses), pedals (levels), steering wheel (movement/overland map), etc... [we even have a radio!]

What you are missing are dashboard items, a windshield, spoilers, glovebox, better steering wheel, rims, fuzzy dice, rear view mirror, etc...

Notice one thing IS the car, all done, and drivable. The other is TWEAKS.

I am happy people seem to think this is still PRE-ALPHA, they must have special insight to the development team and years of their own experience.

After two years (21 months) they should be pretty done thinking about design, except maybe in the case for Episode 2, 3, 4, .... Which has been evident for things like STEALTH/ROGUES where they have said wait for Episode 2.

The overland map is far from placeholder anymore -- placeholder is something you replace. They are only going to ADD, and hardly, if ever, replace anything at this point (at least for Episode 1).

Otherwise the planning and design time is utterly ridiculous to how poor I already think it is.


And NO discussion is futile. Futile is when you waste your time giving any input because the outcome is fixed.

They have stated numerous times, not to mention the ENTIRE KICKSTARTER, the point was to give feedback.

Telling people otherwise, is actually FUTILE on the part of the person trying to sell that point.

 

i know how I define alpha and beta and I know there is no set standard for definition. But as a point of reference, I Googled this up.
http://www.3am.pair.com/beta.html

Anyway, to each their own opinion. All criticism is constructive short of insulting the people that don't agree.

 

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific there. I meant to express that some specific topics/features, such as overland map, crafting,... are by no means anywhere near complete enough for us to really judge them. Most certainly the engine would be the motor if you take the whole game into consideration, but if the overland map as singled out feature is the complete car, then the motor is not in place yet.

I have noted on various occasions that *I* do not consider this PRE alpha (although my opinion doesn't have the slightest bit of value by any means), however I doubt that you would claim this is beta yet either, simply because we are not yet feature complete. Which is what I wanted to point out. And I have no reason to believe that Portalarium is not done *thinking* about design, but I would say that it is evident that not all of those design decisions have made it into the game yet, simply by looking at the Q1 release plan. And people are not arguing the planned design, but the current state of implementation. If they would argue the planned design, I shouldn't have ever raised a word! But pretending that massive adjustments to a feature/functionality wouldn't change it's appearance and appeal simply doesn't sound right to me.

From a sheer programming/implementation point, yes, you are right. I should have been more specific again ~sighs~, sorry. I meant to express that there is enough functionality and content missing that the result would have little resemblance with what we are seeing now and thus the current state won't allow reflection of the finished feature. There is no fog of war, there are no (working) control points, there are no animated beasts and encounters roaming the map, the map is but a small part of the finished size and the list goes on and on. I'd dare to say that even large parts of the assets are still being reworked and replaced. Heck, even the change to load times that Chris discussed would massively influence the perception of the overland map.

Feedback on design decisions (e.g. the large official discussion threads), SURE! Feedback on functionality that is already implemented in a somewhat reasonable form (e.g. random deck), SURE! But what good is feedback on something that is so very different from the finished product?

 

the problem is how do we know its different from the finished product, based on past experience in the testing field if no one speaks up about something they dont like then that particular item WILL be in the finished product and then all of a sudden you have a ton of people going "oh wow I hate this feature, why is it in the final product?" its simple because you didnt speak up

 

Well I don't believe all features are in the game. The pet system is not in, fishing, crafting is not all in(no events yet for example), ability to drop items not in yet, thief options are not in, and I'm sure other things that I'm missing. We can stay with pre alpha and alpha status longer
to get our features in. I don't think we should rush it or we all would miss out. There may be thoughts on what is the appropriate time frame, but it doesn't stop it from taking as long as it takes. So my point is or I think it is on no coffee yet , the game is by no means done yet by any
means and isn't that wonderful. I would be very sad to miss out on what's missing

 

The developers haveing noted multiple times that it's work in progress and haveing elaborated on what they plan on changing could be a hint

 

oh I am positive the game isnt done yet but the whole overland map system is a fundamental system that is in and I was just voicing my opinion that I find the constant 15 second zoning in and out of pockets of fun to enter each tiny little encounter area immersive breaking, one of the beauties of Ultima Online was that it was a very beautiful open world and there was all kinds of cool nooks and crannies you could travel and explore to, it was a very immersive world. to this day I still have memroeis of arctic island, Vesper where I placed my first home and my castle in Skara Brae where we had numerous events over the years. but a lot of this was all about living in a world. and I just honestly feel that this pocket full of fun thing is something that in the year 2015 is just very outdated.

 

I can't find the video it was in, but the reasoning behind the overland map was that they wanted to do allot with the random encounters. At some point these encounters are going to be more of a "yay!" than a "dangit!".

 

Many things are still out of order ,not implemented wrong look and the list can go on ... Pre alpha is pre alpha until they make the push to alpha and so on my fellow Avatars.

We should take what the article says as gospel from a first impression person or someone on the low side of the fan scale I found him to be wrong on everything he talked about but that doesn't mean his impression wasn't wrong People interpret things the best then can even if they are not informed.

SoTA is a bit of a Jigsaw puzzle you can see parts of the world ,combat,crafting, server behavior and see a picture however the picture is still very fragmented. More people inmo are afraid that SoTA wont be what they hoped so they will also embellish on the negative side of the scale in hopes that the developers will take the comments as 100% truth and put the axe to the grind stone and try that much harder. Its an honest response to anxiety.


Anyone notice anything interesting with the sights advertising?

 

Do you refer to this high school hot rod web site, customized by crash, hiring more of the usual surrounding air bags and maybe another dip stick?

 

The review has been removed.

 

It appears the review has been re-written and is now back up, now with an "Early Access" moniker in the title.

http://gamingbolt.com/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-early-access-hands-on-impressions

 

MUCH better, in terms of readability, tone, writing style and expectations of the product being based on its current stage of development.

There seems to be some small, lingering misconceptions, specifically about the quests (as I haven't seen anything that is (intentionally) repetitive), but that is also partially the result of some things like storyline and the quests that would be dependent upon it not being in the game yet.

 

So who gave the offer he couldn't refuse?

 

Well there are a few repeatable jobs, not necessarily quests: red bandit sashes and corpse wax to Lord Enmar, wolf hides to Randall, and Bentham also wanted some item that escapes me atm.

 

Ah... well... those are simply ways to make gold, rather than truly being quests, but I see what you are saying.

 

Negative, they came back to take the cannoli.