How will you act virtuously in SotA?

That's good to know, Sppon! I'll have to look for that one.

 

I would do both - give to the beggar and give the new player armor. And if the person I give the armor to does bad things, I would think that is their karma, not mine...

I agree that Moonshadow is correct about names having no bearing on 'virtue' or lack thereof! The quests will indeed help with that, although if Mr. Jerk does know the virtuous answers/actions, they could still slant the outcome.

 

I would seek out people with virtue and reward them. Thanks to a trick someone in BMC taught me.

I am not sharing my secrets you will have to find me roleplaying in game to find out!

 

Tsk tsk tsk! are they your secrets to share as they where shared with you? What you receive you will not give!!? Remember sir the oracle is watching.........Muhahahahhahahaha!

 

We absolutely plan to do this. We actually had a minor version of this in an early release, but players reported not being able to talk to NPCs as a bug.

A revamp of the Oracle feedback was scheduled for R17 but got pushed out to R18. HOWEVER... a good many things which are being tracked made it in to R17, so your actions are in fact already being watched... in R18 the Oracle will comment on them appropriately. Or inappropriately. Depending.

 

this is Awesome sauce!

 

I really want a generic emote with a simple chat component. That is, just like the cats looking at you, if you type "/emote looks at *" it would show (You look at <target>.) Then you could use "/emote pets *" to pet Midge, and we can do other emoting. This is both a great way to hide "special" responses, and enable better roleplaying.

 

As long as it makes sense. I don't want to take a hit to my virtue just because someone in my party randomly started punching babies because they were bored while waiting for a third party member to show up. Or be deemed uncompassionate because I didn't give a beggar money, when I actually had no money to give him, etc.

And you should also be able to rise or fall in virtue, if I accidentally pick up a spoon I shouldn't have picked up, I hopefully won't be forever blacklisted from the shiny virtuous parties, never able to redeem myself, etc.

 

Do you suppose if you return the weapon you 'borrowed' from the shop afterwards, it might not count against you? I mean, I did try to put it back on the rack after picking it up. It just wouldn't let me. I've got sticky fingers, sometimes.

Praying really hard for a wipe for R18....

 

actions are supposed to have consequences, a store owner may not know why you took the item. Only you know, so an outside person viewing can only judge from sight.

 

I have a sneaky suspicion that it might count against me. The shop keeper did mention selling me some axes as I was walking out the door with an axe stuffed in my backpack.

 

I still don't understand why anyone cares what the Oracle thinks about anything. I feel like this hasn't been at all established in the game.

Ok great, you're the Oracle. Why do I care? Oh that's right, this is a video game and you are part of the lore.

Be honest, if you went to New Britannia and walked into the Oracle confirmation chamber, what would you think? Would you follow along? I think most people would be like, "Yeah right, I care what this obtuse machine thinks of me." I'm not saying the Oracle isn't cool - it is. I'm not saying it can't make for a great story - it can. What I'm saying is that there's not really a convincing reason to give a rats butt what the Oracle says. I think there's still some work to do on that front.

Carrot or stick? I don't see it. I only see "The Oracle" not answering my questions and making some kind of decision about me. Who cares? I'll just ignore it like I do all things that don't matter. But that's the roleplaying me...if the only reason the Oracle matters is because you need it to advance in "the game" then sure, I'll play along because I know I'm in "a game." See the difference? Immerssion vs. Non-Immerssion

I think you can only create an immerssive environment using the Oracle if there's an alternative to the Oracle, and if both the Oracle and the Alternative provide a compelling reason to care.

 

I wish I could give the beggar 50k and he'd go buy a house and get off the street.

What's his deal? Drug problem? I'm being completely serious, NPC that forever takes gold from people and his/her problem is never fixed is just an NPC. There may as well be a trash can there that says "Put 500g in to increase your virtue score!"

Think about it. 10 years from now you're playing SOTA and you see the same beggar asking for the same amount of money (maybe not from you but someone new). How immerssive is that? I find it pointless. What's the lesson to learn here? Give an NPC money once and you never have to do it again?

 

I don't know Drocis, I disagree, I think I would follow along.

Let's say I arrive in New Britannia from Earth, i'm completely discombobulated, probably a little scared and most importantly trying to ascertain where I am. Ok, well let's talk to some folks and try and figure this out. Clearly, I would know i'm not on Earth anymore given the drastic discrepancies between our two worlds. People are calling me an "Outlander" with vague references to the "Avatars" and are telling me to seek out the Oracle. Firstly, i'm going to seek out this Oracle because well, let's be honest, it sounds cool! Secondly, it's an oracle, it's whole purpose is to provide counsel and give prophetic predictions. If anyone has any intel on where I am and possibly how I can get back to Earth, hopefully it's this entity.

Unfortunately, we really haven't been given much information regarding the Oracle and it's Watchers, which sadly makes it an "obtuse machine" (great word by the way, love it) at this juncture. Even in Blade of the Avatar the references are vague at best, with more information on the Titans, than the Oracle. The dialogue currently with the Oracle, although lacking, is probably the most expansive of an NPC in the game thus far. Just try asking it about DarkStarr and Lord British, very interesting responses.

 

I do wish that once you gave her the 500g that she would quit begging you for money. I realize that NPCs barks are generic, but a quest flag that prevents you from hearing them once you have completed their request isn't completely unheard of, and would go a long way toward making NPCs seem smarter.

 

One of the things I meant to do in R17 is walk through the game as a NEW player in an attempt to document the new player experience. I think the more feedback we give here the better. I haven't had an opportunity to do this because I've been busy with work and family, but I may still find some time before R17 is over.

My memory says that some people like the Oracle and some don't like the Oracle at all. So depending on who you're talking to, that might help influence what you think of an obtuse machine (tm) giving you directions or counsel. I guess I assume that if we performed a social experiment with this on Earth, most people would not react positively or with any great commitment to an automated moral judgement device. Although I do see how being transported to a new and especially magical world might change social convention quite a bit - no one likes being told they did something bad, especially if they don't know exactly what they did that was bad and there are no apparent consequences for those actions.

In short, human nature doesn't really fit in with this. It would make more sense to me if the Oracle was important to us in some way. Does it give us power? (it would be blind faith to say yes) Does it give us protection? (no, because this is not something that is given for good actions or taken away for bad actions...pvp protection is free). Does it give us knowledge? (no, it's obtuse as hell and really we tell it more than it tells us)

So why do we care? I know this can't happen, this won't happen, but I'd LOVE to see the Oracle refuse to protect people until they agreed to follow the correct path. NOW THAT WOULD MAKE SENSE.

 

I think thats a really interesting idea Drocis, plus it adds the immersive aspect that you were discussing earlier. Let's game this out:

I'm in Novia, an Outlander, making my way in this new world. If I choose to buy into the Oracle's aka The Obtuse Machine belief system I am "protected" from danger to some extent. However, what if I don't? What if, im a real ripe b*****d, a complete and total villain. An affront to the Virtues and all they stand for. If the Oracle stopped then protecting me because i'm not following "the path" clearly I am now more susceptible to danger. In game that would essentially translate to your character being flagged for full PVP. Now that's immersive, a true causality to my own actions in this world.

 

In R18 we're going to make this much more explicit - the path from Solace Bridge Tutorial to the Oracle and beyond will be encouraged/justified in-game

 

I'd be interested in this since as noted that's a push we're making in R18.

 

I did go through the R17 tutorial, mostly just so I could update the Tutorial article on the wiki.

I'll say that, at Level 5, a new player may be frustrated to find that death is very easy. I can't imagine what it will be like at Level 1. Fighting the skeletons can be difficult if you don't know how to play (my son required assistance since he is not used to autoattack or hotkeys; he is coming from console gaming). Ingenuity is not encouraged; for example, you can't jump off the bridge into the water because this is now instant-death.

Having tons of player corpses everywhere is disconcerting; this is a solo instance, so I don't see why these are shown at all.

The finale here leaves something to be desired as well. You leave Solace Bridge by boat to get to Soltown, and are suddenly in the center of town. Since there is no beach in Soltown, I had hoped to see you arrive on the shore and have to walk into town, possibly with the rowboat available to get back to (the normal version of) Solace Bridge nearby.

I would like to see a spider in the ruins, if the player decides to explore. This will give them an idea that this is not a safe place, should they choose to return, and help diversify the beginning experience.

That said, the new zone layout is gorgeous. Love the detail that has been put into the area.