Interactive "Mode" for Mouse Movement Should be the Default Setting

I posted this on the discord but will also throw it here for archive purposes.


I first found SOTA on steam about 2 weeks ago. As many people do, they search "F2P MMORPGs" on the Steam category in an effort to find a game that they enjoy while they either wait for the next mmo to release, or to keep as their mainstay for awhile. Steam is a really helpful tool for this, and we see more and more dev/publishers parter with Steam to release their game on the Steam platform to reach the large userbase that it has.

As many of you know, the F2P MMO category on Steam has a plethora of options, seemingly endless. While there are definitely "MMOs" that don't belong on that list (looking at your Legends of Aria), there are a significant amount of f2p mmos that are worth playing on this list. Shroud of the Avatar is another one of these hidden gems that continuous to grow its playerbase.

The new player experience when first jumping into one of these f2p mmos that many find on Steam (of which they have many options) is critical to growing the playerbase. If a player does not immediately enjoy the first, lets say, 1 to 3 hours of gameplay, then they can very easily move to the next game. SOTA has alot to learn, which is not a problem at all as there is a certain enjoyment to being thrown into a new game world and figuring out all sorts of things, from combat, to exploration, to the crafting system.

However, what players should not have to learn on their own is the basic functionality of the game. When I first joined, the camera movement was more akin to UO or other older, first generation MMOs. Hold the right mouse button to move the camera angle around your character. Don't get me wrong, this is great for some as it pays homage back to their original mmo gaming experiences, and should definitely be an option, but it should not be the default option. Here's why:

Harping back to my post's setup, new players need to quickly enjoy the gaming experience, otherwise they will hop to the next f2p mmo option that is available to them. A huge part of enjoying a game is enjoying the way it controls (fluidity of movement, if the game is clunky/smooth, etc). Learning new things in an mmo can be ardious sometimes, and the settings don't make it particularly clear on how to change the default camera movement to lock to your mouse's position, which the settings refer to as "Interactive Mode".

So, to the point of my feedback: If SOTA wishes to more rapidly expand its playerbase, the first thing it must focus on is improving the new player experience as much as possible. I believe that the primary way it can accomplish this, given what the typical mmo player expects out of a WASD movement game, is to make the Interactive Mouse Movement "Mode" the Default Setting in game, instead of having the player figure out that they first need to click a box in the control settings (in screenshot below), bind a key for this control, and then hold said key to lock their camera movement to their mouse movement. There are too many steps to changing the camera movement to what is the new MMO "standard" of control, and I believe many players will stop playing the game instead of pushing through and trying to figure it out on their own.




AND, at they very least if it does not want to be turned to the default setting, a detailed panel that explains how this setting is changed / turned-on should be added to the game, being able to be pulled up at any time, and also shown to the player during the tutorial.

/Altamo

 

I think this idea sounds great for newer players but from my understanding, this game was essentially designed for the older school gamers who are used to the old systems. New modern QOL features are definitely always recommended but I think we have to ask ourselves who the target audience actually is. If the majority of the players here end up switching back to the old system all you've done is inconvenienced the core player base for the sake of making it slightly easier for a few new players.

I really hate to go on a "This new thing, it is bad!" type of rant, but I truly feel like this is more of a preference type of issue and not QOL and I'd guess the majority of this player base is more used to a typical tab targeting system.

Also, just to add a note here, I'm one of the guys who clicks all the buttons on his bar, I don't use keyboard shortcuts so the interactive mode is completely useless for me other than for looking around.

 

While I understand that the current playerbase may be used to their style of play, the fact that you click your abilities instead of using hotkeys kind of proves my point that a modern mmo needs to control more fluidly. If you're using the mouse button to click abilities, you're likely in the minority of players in terms of how they pilot an mmo game. Still love ya tho

 

Nice attempt to shame people but using the right mouse button for mouselook provides a counter to confusion.