I expected more

I am a Kickstarter backer, but I didn't really play the Early Access builds. I tried a couple of times, but the directions were pretty complicated, and I didn't feel like parsing through them, or I got the game installed and running and the game was unfinished and confusing, and I decided I didn't want to mess with an unfinished game. Then I logged in a few weeks ago and ran into the issues I'm describing here, and decided to wait for launch.

Obviously an unfinished game being unfinished and confusing is expected. That's fine. But even though I've only been playing the release version (R52) for a few minutes, I find myself somewhat disappointed.

First, the technical issues. The game is too slow. I'm running on a 2013 i7 Mac. True, the GPU isn't the greatest, but it shouldn't feel sluggish on Fastest. Also, it's clearly not designed with trackpads in mind. Figuring out how to move has been more difficult than necessary, and the sliders are difficult to use with a trackpad.

More important, though, are the polish issues. The opening text is poorly punctuated. The new player handbook is called "New Player Handbook," for King Britain's sake. I really expected more from Ultima, which was all about presenting the appearance of the documentation seeming "in-world." Now there's a *literal* in-world book that has an out-of-world title. The text of that book isn't much better. There's none of the "lore-feel" that made me love Ultima IV so much. Plus, the "bugs" icon isn't mentioned in the list of buttons.

There are various little things as well, which are hard to put my finger on, just a general sense of not-high-quality about most aspects of the game, whether it's the fonts, or the button design, or the interface elements.

Here's hoping it gets a lot better!

User Specs:
OS: Mac OS X 10.13.3
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4650U CPU @ 1.70GHz (4) System RAM: 8192
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5000 GPU RAM: 1536
SotA.EarlyAccess.LIVE.OSX.64.751.Date.03.28.18

 

Okay, the fact that your avatar sits down when you've been away for awhile is pretty awesome. I mean, I've seen that in WoW, but it's cooler here somehow. Seems more real.

 

Something else: There is nothing that indicates that I have to double-click to interact with objects. That's not standard in video games. Nor do I see why double-clicking is necessary. Normally, the first click is to select, the second to act. But there does not seem to be any selection going on.

 

Love the new experience feedback Calion, I'll keep watching your thread as you figure things out, and please ask if you have questions

Older hardware doesn't handle well sometimes, but an old laptop with integrated videocard is going to play like junk (sorry).

You raise a good point about the handbook. Personally I hate links that lead out of game, and out of character game references beyond the occasional tongue in cheek. It could be the New Britannian Handbook, or New Novian Handbook, etc.

It's can be a steep learning curve for controls (for me they were non-intuitive), I think any feedback you provide will be helpful here - and welcome to SotA, I hope your experiences improve given time!

PS> About performance... my videocard is from 2014, I ran a comparitive benchmark vs your card and it appears mine would be 1121% faster than your laptop card!

 

Fair enough on the performance issue, but this computer runs Skyrim pretty well. Obviously it's much older, but the graphics were fine. And really, it's only a little slow (though that may change as the game progresses).

 

Oh ugh. I hate how the Oracle asks her questions. The gypsy scene in Ultima IV was much better. Mind you, I don't mind the Oracle herself (much…except I'm not sure what's going on here, lore-wise). It's that the wonderful screens from the Ultima IV quiz are absent, and I'm just reading a text box. I see the floating scroll, of course, and that's kind of cool, but it's not as good.

Frankly the whole intro from Ultima IV was much better than what I've seen so far.

Hm. Maybe part of the problem is that her text is grey and hard to read.

 

Hm! Only three classes instead of 7? I hope this isn't dumbed down. On the other hand, maybe only three classes could be interesting…

 

I'm getting the "everyman" vibe from these. Keep it up. I'm hoping one day they decide that they need to stop adding things for a while and just polish, non stop, for a good half a year. Heck, make releases every 3 or 4 months but put in the same amount of new stuff that went into one month, and spend the other 2 or 3 tightening up gameplay.

 

I don't get this one. I really have no clue what you are talking about. Could you explain?

@ your GPu. You ran SKYRIM on that?! Urgs.
But beside that you are of course right. More optimization needed.

 

Nothing in the game mentioned double-clicking to interact with object until the Oracle—and by then I had to double-click the mirror, the book (well, I just dragged the book), and the door to the Oracle. It took me several tries to activate the mirror. I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I tried double-clicking.

Double-clicking originated (more or less) on the Mac. A single click selects an icon. A double-click activates (opens) it. There's no need to require double-clicking unless there's something else you can do with a selected object than activate it. Is that the case here? Why double-click instead of single-click?

 

Thanks for the interesting perspective from another old school Ultima fan (Warriors of Destiny was always my favorite).

I've put in about 3-4 hours now and I'm still on the fence. I've slowly gotten better at movement but there are times when my camera suddenly whirls around and I lose my bearings, especially while running. Or I'll suddenly find myself on my desktop because my mouse hit a hot corner. I'm honestly surprised that the game doesn't keep the focus of your cursor. I know that Diablo 3 never accidentally triggered a hot corner of flung my mouse from edge to edge.

I'm also starting to feel quest overload already. That's probably my OCD more than anything though. Still, I'm slowly finding myself drawn in. I've always been an explorer when playing Ultima games so I'm looking forward to randomly wandering the world to see what I encounter.

 

It is more reliable to mouse-over an object/NPC you want to interact with and press the "E" key on the keyboard. With slow connections the double-click doesn't always "take". I highly recommend the online Player Instructions shroudoftheavatar.com/playerinstructions to the in-game version. You can access it by clicking on the large question mark at the upper right-hand side of the screen in-game. I love it because you can jump to the proper section using the table of contents or you can use your browser search to find a particular term on the web page. Also, changes in each release are always highlighted, so you can quickly skim through and see what's new.

The game is indeed hardware intensive. I even bought a new graphics card (GeForce 1060) just to play it. The new card has served me well for other applications, so I can't complain and even if I didn't play SotA, I would be glad to have it. I realize that not everyone has the same needs.

I agree with you that "New Player Handbook" is unimmersive. As is the on-screen message "This NPC is leaving soon" when you are in the middle of a chat conversation with an NPC.

The best place to bring such feedback to the Devs' attention is to post it in the "Release Feedback" forum for the current release. The Devs have been pretty good at listening to feedback and changing things, however some annoying things do seem to take too long to fix. I suspect they are merely victims of prioritization.

If you have questions while playing, feel free to give me a whisper and add Kara Brae to your friends list.

 

I have been following along with the instructions, but I hadn't yet gotten to the part you mention. However, all this stuff should be explained in-game. Thanks for your help.

I do have one question: How do you interact with interface elements (buttons, etc.) with Hold Cursor Toggle on?

 

There's another game that I backed on Kickstarter at about the same time, that seems to do everything I've been complaining about better: Torment: Tides of Numenera. It's single player, but it hits all the notes I want from SotA: Polish, excellent writing, complete immersiveness, even a very similar character creation philosophy, but done with lots of finesse. At no point in character creation did I feel pulled out of the world—even, oddly, when I was looking at character creation option screens. Although of course I wouldn't want anything pulled directly from Torment—they're very different games—the concept and spirit behind the game elements is just the sort of thing I'd like to see here.

 

Hello. Yes there is definitely a learning curve to start. I would never use the tab key or if you do use it toggle it off since it is not something I want to use. To see defaults click on the gear in the upper right hand part of your screen and set them as you like to use them. Our friends list is f key. O is for emotes, J for journal, b for recipe book, z to toggle combat on and off, to toggle auto attach and free attack it is the t key (T) since the small one looks like a J to me lol.

I is for inventory, c is for character portrait, y is to create a deck, modify a deck, add decks, set alternate deck and equipped deck, k is to see your skills and your adventuring and crafting/producer pool amount shown by selected tab of adv or prod and shown in the lower right corner of that window.

U is to see any placed lots and pay taxes if they are a taxed deed. This window has more in it to do as well. To get the chat window to show press enter and use the little pin to pin it opened. You can resize it and drag a chat window out to place side by side or wherever you like. Use the little blue flower in the tab window such as tab 1 tab 2 to customize windows so you don't miss a zone chat, whisper, or a party chat from someone.

You can type things like /bow /clap /wave to and if you select their character you will wave at them (their name will show)instead of you just waved. like 'majoria waved at Calion. To change modes click on the gears and select multiplayer and choose from the list. You can chat with anyone in different modes just not teleport to someone in a different mode. So that is perhaps not what you were talking about but I did want to share a few commands.

We also have a mail system. You can send items, type letters on paper, bulletin board flyers, books and mail them to others or send blank ones too. You can send gold to someone. Someone has a mail order business lol so you can do much with the mail system. Just click on 'send mail' at a bank and also you can craft a mail box. I have the recipe to share anytime and with any tradeable recipes in my recipe book. Emotes can be traded as well. Well some and others you do have to buy, find, or discover.

-We also have the most wonderful music system in the game well imo. I just love it. We can play for others, ourselves, play with others, and find artifacts that give music buffs like the Harp of Invigoration. We can make sheet music for others to play as well even if they don't have the files and they can still sync songs. You have to be in a group to sync songs and truly it is amazing experience to me. We have quite a few different instruments such as lute, flute, harp, accordion, piano, harpsichord, drums, bagpipe, street organ and large harp to sit at and large drum to stand at. I am creating a music emporium. It is up to you what you want to do and how you want to play this game. Many people love the game and others may not see the potential. Then just check later as devs add more and more.

-We have renting in the game too. No one and I mean absolutely no one has to be homeless and just rely on their bank. Many players and myself included offer free housing and amenities to anyone wanting a space of their own. You can place chests and the landlord cannot open or take your stuff and vice versa. Tenant permissions allow for this. You can decorate all you want and bind to have a recall point. Our friends lists are the quick teleport system atm. I am happy to be anyone's teleport point anytime. Here is the link to look at rentals and free room opportunities throughout the game.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?forums/rental-services-free-places-to-live.1067/


So I had not wrote this out for awhile so I hope it does help someone out there and make sense. I wish you all happy and safe travels where you are. Again I am Majoria in game if I can assist you. and this is not everything by any means but some things. We have control points, puzzles, hidden walls, traps and discoveries all over the world.

 

Wait, did I really just pick up a plow and put it in my pocket??

Area: Novia_R7_Forest01_Bloodriver/WithTutorial
Area Display Name: Blood River Massacre
Loc: (-117.0, 53.8, 54.3)