I just lost interest in R9

~Time is Still Ticking on R9~
I began re-installing for the 4th time at 10PM Thailand Time... Now it's 3:46AM Thailand Time... I have 1 centimeter of loading on step 3...
"I think I'll need to shave my face again before it's finished" (maybe 4-5, maybe 6-7 hours more, who knows how long) Then depending on if I get in, (the program at times will not allow entry into the past character to proceed past entry), I'll then have to begin hunting up all the stuff I need to gather in game (2 hours more) and I'll be ready to go hmm... maybe 11AM Thailand Time which is "only 7 hours from now!" Yippy
I do have faith that Portalarium is hard at work on finding and solving all the crash problems
~Time Lord~

 

Gee, I hope R10 isn't this buggy...

 

this again is the reason for alpha's, finding these bugs. It is not a playable game yet, it is a test.

 

Sure, we're here to find bugs in alpha testing, but presumably each release should be a bit more stable than the previous one, not less

 

well each zone will have new bugs, and with new zones and items, bugs are bound to appear everywhere, its the nature of the beast

 

You start (or at least I did) with enough iron and leather to craft most of a chain suit if you want heavy armor. All you need is about 20 coal at 20 gp cost.

Alternatively, you can pump your Dam Resist and Avoid in the Earth Magic tree and boost your survivability. You can always unclick the points later when better outfitted.

Once you can go toe-to-toe with monsters, getting gold isn't terribly difficult. Or you can mine iron, which produces at least 50 gp in gems per node, normally more like 200 gp, and occasionally 1000 gp.

 

Except it wasn't just the new areas which were buggy. (I expected that in Ardoris.) Heck, my game even crashed while I was trying to enter The Clink in Owls Head the other day...

 

I'm hoping they keep it open until all bugs are fixed, or reopen after fix;
or maybe I'll be all loaded up by R10 (Thailand Internet is very good until it's at times, very bad) 7:23 AM Thailand Time... half way through step 3 re-install
Yep, I actually think there are zone bugs... but I don't know anything about programing. My bugs began when I found bugs in Ardoris, or had game crash while in places a player would not normally log out in.
~Time Lord~

 

Remember, Time Lord, they will reopen it again next weekend during DragonCon Too bad I don't have room for my laptop in my luggage

 

I've had a lot of complaints this release, there is a new poll out why don't we hear from the one's that are voting 3-4-5 only the ones that are 1-2.
All complaints no Positive feedback.
I had to delete my character from after a good start on Wed into Thurs, so I did. However for some reason they did not delete my property like usual.
As for the PvP and the Deck system I was no good at it in R8 and didn't expect to be any better in R9, didn't mean I wasn't going to try. No change I/it stinks
The Arena areas were when announced overcrowded, too many pro PvP Dev lvls, and I posted in a different post need more than one arena pro and no pro.
Crafting doesn't work for anything, can't separate products in inventory to place them on table to recreate your recipe.
The graphics unless you are up close to someone complexion looks like it leathery and sunburnt. But I have to say up close the female structures have improved immensely bumps on that . Haha I haven't looked at dudes so... that's just me.
One big complaint have had since my start was there are the post mortems and all but nothing pre-this is how...

 

Kinda on topic, kinda side topic. When i was selling to a vendor this weekend i was thinking "these guys need a buyback option.. But its probably on the to do list".

If they start everyone with enough to pvp, chances are a lot of other stuff needing testing wont get enough ... If they can keep flushing out bugs, thats good!

 

12:30 PM Thailand Time... all loaded back up and ready for launch again !

So far we are only 9 releases into testing which can be counted by only 2 hands so no worries Portalarium
Everything new takes a few crashes to make it off the ground and rise
~Time Lord~

 

If you only have an hour or two that you can devote to a Release, spending half that time getting equipment is a pretty big deal. I have very limited time and I would like to make the most of it. So for some of us it is a big deal.

 

Agree, it's way too 'grindy' for a PVP test...

Where the *fizzle* do you get epic cloth chest armor anyways, besides starting with it, been to every town and dungeon can't find it...

 

Honestly, I would have been happy with normal cloth. No game effect, but at least you're not running around naked. It's either naked or fizzling. Not a great choice.

 

DocDoom, after finally getting the time to play this release, I can feel your pains. I am not very happy with the current state of combat balancing one bit. Players are put in the position where you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't. If you wear even the lightest of armor, you get 3498057 slugs and seemingly half of your spells fizzle. If you don't wear armor, you get beat up by skeletons and kobolds. It is pretty sad that you can't even manage spell casting without going barefoot with a toga (yes, sarcasm). I had a difficult time winning PvE bouts without having the help of an elemental, and that's pretty ridiculous. Meanwhile, reagents are far overpriced at 10gp on average and you're completely nerfed as a caster as a result of that and the burden the lightest of armors puts on you. I mean I couldn't even wear augmented leather boots without getting frequent slugs and fizzled spells!! Needless to say, it was very frustrating.

I was very displeased with the state of combat in this release and felt it took a huge step backward instead of forward. It's more complex, less balanced and full of penalty without reward. I remain hopeful for the future but wow, I was not a happy camper while playing last night.

 

You made a good point about elementals too. I noticed that I wasn't as effective against casters that used elementals in this release. In R8 I could kill a mage who had an elemental just fine. IT was nothing more than a damage over time spell, but now it seems an elemental is really needed to be a more powerful mage. I guess mages need to use elementals.

I'm fine with that though. If summoning is the most powerful spell in the tree, then I guess we might need to use the elemental to truly be the best mages. I just need to retrain my thinking. I'm not upset about that, it just seems like the way magic works in SotA.

If the summoning spell is the most powerful spell in that school of magic, then I really hope the summoned creature is worth the reagents. I don't want to go adventuring with a milktoast elemental that gets killed by a kobold. What good would it be against a dragon, if it gets killed by a couple of kobolds?

 

I think we will see the pendulum swing the other way next release. I mentioned this in another thread but I look at the combat system testing as a motor control system, every swing back and forth in order to find that perfect balance. (you mechanicaly inclined will understand this). What I expect to see is a swing back towards the other release but with some lessons learned. I think combat will keep getting balanced for a long time.

Now, regeants, that's a good point...now lets see a reduction in cost to make them make sense...clearly a balance issue.

 

Yeah, I guess if that's the way SotA is going to handle spell casters, elementals will be a must. It's just not how I envision a caster; being forced to have one in order to find any success. Elementals are great and I love what they're doing with them individually, but in my experience/preference they are a supplemental thing that can aid you. I don't feel they should be a necessary thing because you're so penalized as a caster that it's the only way out. I hope rune_74 is right and we see some lessons learned and positive balance shifts. Who knows, SotA might end up a game where I don't want to be a caster! As of right now, being a battle mage seems a losing scenario.

 

Yeah I like variation in various types of casters. Some call upon magic one way and some another. Those who conjure, should be summoning, but those who harnes the power of magic for offensive purposes can do so as well.

However sota should have a right to create their own magic system. I'm not going to argue against that. I agree with you but I like this elemental thing too.