I like the decay system

I like the decay system, but I don't understand why it's not impacting crafting experience. Is this just a temporary thing? I hope.


I like how the decay system helps to level out risk vs. reward.

 

Please not crafting. Already expensive enough cost wise to get into crafting in this game, an added death decay would make those who've already capped even richer.

 

There HAS to be either a cap or decay on crafting. If i can craft everything for myself with no penalty, then theres 0 market or reason to buy / sell things.
We cant have everyone being a GM Alchemy, GM Smith, GM Carpenter, while GMing every gather skill as well.. where would that leave any need to buy things from other players?
I hope they go more of a hard cap route.

Im all for diminishing returns, and or a hard cap. Any kind of decay while your online or offline
seems silly. And even deaths killen crafting exp wouldnt make sense. Hard cap and end this sillyness!
700 points a character! or 800 or w.e! lol

 

Crafters should have to stay practiced in their craft as well. If we have a system where you get to the top of the mountain and just sit there, that doesn't help anyone but the crafter's at the top of the mountain.

 

But you already don't. You make 10 bows and get 2-4 worth enchanting +1. You try to double masterwork and double enchant to get the mix you want and you might end up with 0 bows for your effort. Seems like its working to me so far.

 

If they ever went hard caps, 700 or 800 in this game would be insanely low. You'd need at least 2000, maybe 3000 if you were going to create a cap in SOTA. I have over 1000 points in Life Magic alone, and I don't even have any of the Life skills over 100 yet. Add in all the stats, stances, defenses and ease of play skills and you'd reach 2000+ in no time, even without many GM skills.

I'd prefer that there was no decay for the first 2000 skill points, and then you'd hit a soft cap, where every skill point after 2000 caused increasing decay. You could choose to have 4000 total skill points instead of 2000, but you'd be hit with crippling decay for instance.

 

Well maybe a mix then BDF. Lets say a total hard cap of 2000-3000, indivividual hardcaps of 100 and softcaps of 120 (they diminish to 100 over time if there is no practice).

 

I'm hoping that crafting skills do indeed decay if not used for a period of time. It will ensure I will pick and choose skills more carefully and it will also keep me more interested and being an active crafter in the game, rather than just sitting on skills that I have GM'd and have never used since.

 

It's nice that you like it.
At least somebody dose.
I still think the system is not up to the task it was created for. Not even remotely.

 

The really innovative thing about the decay system is it even seems to work on the SOTA population. ok, ill stop. Just very disappointed in the state of the game I was so excited for SOTA!

 

We have a low population for many reasons. If everytime someone doesn't like something they point to the low population as if that were the cause, that's not going to get us anywhere. Are you suggesting that if there were no decay system we'd suddenly have a million people playing this game?

This game is really complex and there are a lot of missing features still (including a robust storyline) that will keep the population low for a long time to come. If the game were just a decay system, I wouldn't want to play it either. But the game is much more than that, and the decay system is there for a reason. People getting upset about RNG, RMT, and Decay need to get a grip. These are just small pieces of the puzzle that are part of the design for important reasons. They're not worth getting this upset about. The finished product will integrate all of these things into a playable and fun game, but we need to understand that until all the systems are finished there's going to be some pain points.

 

Agreed, and personally I don't mind the decay system anyway. The game isn't low population because its really complex, the game is low population because frankly its NO FUN. Atleast not long term. 99% of people who play might enjoy themselves for a month or so then it gets old. I would even venture out to hypothesize that there are two people who currently enjoy this game: 1) New players who are excited and still believe everything being promised 2) Players heavily invested that will never admit the game is a failure, until they don't have a choice. When that point is whom knows, it might be 2020 and still in alpha.

This game is promised to be very complex and rewarding but truth of the matter is its not. Not even a little bit, and the focus is on driving revenue hence the buy now before it expires. Now I get that a company has to drive revenue somehow but here is the kicker.... they asked for so much in the kickstarter for EP1, they got WAY WAY WAY more then requested for an EP1 and have not produced an EP1 or even a game that is kind of fun. SOTA is the most soulless experience in a game I have ever ever experienced. hands down no competition. YET there are constantly items being added to the store to drive more revenue for what? Im not trying to deter people from giving the game a try, but I would encourage any new player to start with a basic pledge before putting any real $$ into the game I would suggest playing 30-90 days to see if enjoyable.

Empty promises do nothing to enhance game play alpha or not. There hasn't been anything that's happened in the last 6 months new release wise that has made me feel oh here we go now were getting on track! In fact its been the opposite. Really opened my eyes when they announced final wipe before core systems were polished. That clearly states they know consumer confidence is down and they had to do something to keep the project going I get it, but its at a high cost. Anyway for those of you enjoying the game im excited for you, I just hope its not denial because of the amount of time/$$ you have invested in the game at some point it makes sense to cut your losses. To heavily invest in SOT Anymore is a very high risk gamble for anyone atleast until an EP1 is out to givc better idea if this game is ever going to amount to anything other then forum banter and house decorating/parties.

 

Really? I feel like every release it gets amazingly better.

Ya know, I'm not sure what other games people are playing that they think they may be playing 10 years from now but I'd love to hear what those games are. I personally think that I'll be playing SOTA for the next 20 years, and for me that's a ton of monthly improvements.

There's a long laundry list of things I wish were in the game right now. There are large systemic gaps in the game right now (there's no meaningful pvp, the quests are largely broken, and the there's a huge imbalance between single player modes and multiplayer modes). But these things are slowly being addressed. In the mean time, I'm playing this game as much as I possibly can because my previous game experiences tell me that it will pay off long term. I grind, I build my character up from an RP standpoint, and I play the game we have now, not the game I wish we had.

I don't expect other people to do that. But it would be nice if people didn't just assume that the sky was falling. As for the risk, to invest in SOTA now is LESS risky than it was during the kickstarter. Now you can actually see what's going on month to month and decide if you think that's worth the investment.

 

Well im glad you feel that way Baron, and hope your investment both financially and time wise pay off for you in the future. I have to disagree about it being less risky now than kickstarted but that neither here nor there. Im not saying the sky is falling im just saying deliver an EP1 already. Its been over funded, and taken way too long. Im amazed you think this game will be played 20 years from now unless that's when EP1 is expected to be released? If that's the case it more than likely be the people who refused to let go of their investment. Some people have been lucky enough to sell of accounts and recoup a majority of their cost, but that wont always be the case unless the game really takes off that's the gamble. But if the sky does fall, and it might, then the opposite will occur.

 

That's a typical fan response. I understand the logic, you waited years and you're tried of waiting. You paid X and you want the product you paid for.

The problem with that response is that it doesn't magic up the results you want, in fact it actually helps prevent those results to some degree. Think about it for a moment, how does that response help anything? The game is what it is. Do you think the devs are going to say "oh wow, thanks for that feedback! Now that we think about it, we should just release episode 1, why didn't we think of that?!"

That's debatable. If you believed that 2 million dollars and a little over a year was the only amount they would need to finish a game of this magnitude, then yes I suppose you're correct. I haven't in my lifetime seen a game of this size and scope finish in that amount of time for that amount of money, but maybe I just haven't played enough games. Maybe it's common place for that amount of time and money to result in a finished game that everyone loves and wants to play.

There's still quite a bit of risk in funding this game. I totally agree.

It's really easy to say that this game is "dead on the vine" and eventually it will result in crushed dreams and a lot of "I told you so's". But that was true during the Kickstarter too. It's been true everyday for years. It's going to be true as long as the game is being developed. That's kind of the nature of crowd funding, and it's certainly the nature of independent development.

One of the problems that I think typical fans have is that they can't remove their expectations for every game to compete with every other game. If it's not commercially successful then it's not worth playing. If it's not what all your friends play then it's not cool. I personally could give a rats ass if my friends play this game or if it makes a lot of money. I just want it to support the people that paid for it (assuming they want to play) and I hope we can attract enough like minded people that understand and appreciate what's being built here. I played MUDs that only had a few hundred active players (and those MUDs still exist today). Best roleplaying I've ever had was in those games.

I don't really understand what people are looking for sometimes. If you wanted a game that 8 million people were playing you could've gotten WoW for much cheaper. If you wanted the flavor of the month game, you could've played Archeage or ESO. If you wanted to forever live in a world where your game was "coming soon" you could've put money into another kickstarter.

If you're not having fun, why not come back 3 months from now? Why not 6 months from now? Why not a year from now?

 

I agree.

I wasn't convinced when they first announced decay. However, I decided to give it a chance and now I'm fairly certain that I'll be able to build and maintain the character I had envisioned without too much problem.

To many people are complaining simply about the idea of it without actually giving it a chance first. If it ultimately turns out to be too onerous then I'm sure the devs will modify it accordingly.

 

The unspoken truth of crowd-funded projects is the more money they get the longer it takes. More money = more features = more time.

 

No progress? the game is becoming +awesomeness release by release. I can't put it down at the moment yet still can't kill the damn cistern boss!

 

to onerous for who? The power gamer or someone that plays for fun not a career?

 

Has it been real hard on you? Has it been difficult to maintain your character?