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My first few hours

Discussion in 'Release 26 Feedback Forum' started by Whalefish, Feb 20, 2016.

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  1. Whalefish

    Whalefish Avatar

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    I'm a total noob to sota. I played a bit some old release and didn't like it, especially movement was crap. So now I checked it out again at R26.

    1st login:

    I create my character.
    Okay, there are soo few options for the head customization... well, I can change stuff, but only like 1 option looks natural. I believe more will be added later.

    I go to the rock in space. Everything looks amazing. The shadows when the sun moves a bit behind the floating rock.
    But why isn't the sun moving around, is the time frozen or what?
    I talk to the girl. Finally I find the right keyword to answer the questions. I like this. Feels like old ultimas. I hope in future there will be more choices than just 3... From what I've read, there will be 3 plot lines, but maybe give us more options to beging with?

    Ok, I end up in Battle of Solace Bridge and took my path as a ranger. Combat feels ok. I clear the starting area quickly and go to Soltown. I skip the refugees in the camp and head to town. Soon I realize I get the names of npc's to show as I ask their names.
    However, asking their names they lose their title. How I now know who is the merchant and who is the bard?
    Also, knowing which building is what was a bit confusing.
    Just to compare to UO (taking it out as example as it's familiar with many I believe), you could see a sign outside every building which tells what it is. I didn't see any of these, or there were no distinguishing icon on them. Or then just make them pop out more if there was.

    It all felt a bit confusing. I found out about the quests, but then later it was a bit difficult to remember where the npc was who gave me the quest.

    It was getting late, so I headed to the inn to log out. Found out about the piano and started playing it.
    This is where I fell in love with SotA. I played the piano a bit with my keyboard. Amazing how little things like this add to the game. I don't know if other players could hear me playing, I suppose they hear it...
    I read somewhere you could upload a file which has instructions for the game how to play songs. That's ok with me. But the piano stuff is amazing.

    2nd login:
    I decided to go for the quests in Solace Bridge. Now I found it much harder to fight, especially when 3 skeletons in group attacked me. I had to run away several times.
    In my inventory, I found new player guide and read a bit about it. I found out about the auto-attack button and normal attacking. I hadn't realized I could attack normally by clicking my mouse. I had only used skills this far. Fights got a lot easier now.

    Soo, is it possible to tell about the auto-attack in the tutorial? I'm sure I'm not the only one who has missed this.

    I almost ran out of arrows. I decided to craft some for me. It took me a while to harvest some trees. Not every tree was harvestable (like in UO was, outside the cities). This felt a bit stupid. Well, soon I learned what kind the harvestable trees look like and tried to spot them by eye before running next to them.
    During this exploring, I saw the Lunar Rift. I decided to jump into it and ended up in Highvale. But... now I couldn't get back to Solace Bridge. I decided to take a look at map and walk to Soltown.
    That wasn't so easy... I had to run through Nightshade Pass (died once there). And then I tried to go through Eastreach Gap. But couldn't. There was a huge wall and some mage asked me for 1500 gold, which I didn't have. Okay, Brightbone Pass. Same thing.
    Bummer.

    I googled and found out about how the Lunar Rifts work. I headed back to Highvale for the Lunar Rift. And had to wait 30 minutes for the Rift to open to go to Solace Bridge. I also had some trouble finding back to Highvale, but eventually found it.

    I didn't like this. Sure there could be areas which are hard to reach and so on, but why can't I travel back to my starting area?

    On the way, I checked some cities, but couldn't find a vendor to sell me arrows or the crafting stuff needed to create the arrows. Why is crafting so hard? In UO, all it took me to create arrows was axe and carpenter's tools. I liked how in UO you could just start a new char, go buy those items and start crafting. This is too complicated in SotA. I hope it works out all good later, or becomes easier as I gain more insight to SotA. Or then simplify it or make resources more available.

    Ok. I finally made it back to Soltown and bought some arrows there.

    3rd login:
    I deleted my char and tried the other 2 ones. Mage and Warrior. I didn't like Blood River. I spent like 30 minutes searching for the item. Even googled for it, but couldn't find real info where to find it.

    I like how the skill system is. That the skills increase as you use them. However, I don't know yet about the adventurer exp thing. I read somewhere that you gotta lock skills to focus raising only few at a time, or you run out of exp... I didn't have that problem yet, since I had so much exp and didn't play to higher levels.

    That's mostly all I did so far.

    What I'd love to see is more options to how to play your character. One thing I loved in UO was that you could play however you wanted: Cartographer, Fisher, Tamer, Bard, Treasure Hunter, Fighter, Mage, Spirit Speaker, Trapper, Tinkerer, Poisoner, Thief, Forensics... all those skills, in which many were not combat oriented, made the game awesome. This is something I'd love to see in SotA. One good thing I like about SotA over UO, is that you got different schools for spells. In UO magery could accomplish so many things, that it was almost mandatory on every character.

    Also, the option to have only one character... I think I like it, but only time will tell ;)

    Overall I liked the game and the feeling of it. I'm now waiting for the final wipe before start real playing. Looking then forward to join some active guild. Thanks ;)
     
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  2. Rasmenar

    Rasmenar Avatar

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    Perspective of this level of detail from an inexperienced player is so valuable to have. I give you major props for writing this up, and I look forward to seeing you post-wipe :D
     
  3. Black Orchid

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    Welcome to sota whalefish sounds like my first experiences in sota to. In can only go downhill from here. Only joking :) . I am enjoying the game a lot better now I understand more of the nuances of play and I'm sure you will given time. It has changed a lot in the short time I have played and I'm sure there is more to come. I like some of your ideas here. Just keep posting them it all helps to make the game better.hope to see you in game some time.:)
     
  4. Lazarus Long

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    Personally I believe that Auto Attack should be toggled ON for starters and free attack left for the New Player to find out about later.

    Been saying this for some time now.

    But to no avail. Just my thoughts.... anyone else?

    Loved the post!!

    Welcome to New Britannia @Whalefish !!

    If you need any assistance look me up. Also check out http://sotamap.com for yout travel woes :)

    Laz
     
  5. Luca Xante

    Luca Xante Avatar

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    Welcome whalefish!

    Take a look at this Player Help Center website created by Roper DocHoiday: http://www.sotawiki.net/sota/Phc
    You can also type in chat box ig. /sotawiki phc

    If you ever need any help just add me to your friend list (push F => add friend) and whisper any time when you see me online :)
     
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  6. Solstar

    Solstar Avatar

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    You need to approach the big wall and click it. You will attack the wall and it will break open after 3 hits.
     
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  7. ThurisazSheol

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    get close enough where your curser turns green.

    @Whalefish thanks for the input and the level of detail you put forth. VERY useful, many of us have been here long enough we tend to forget that particular viewpoint.
     
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  8. Whalefish

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    Thanks all for the warm welcome and replies!
    I'll be sure to check out the Player Help Center.

    But for now, I'll leave SotA waiting for the wipe. See you all then! ;)
    Just wanted to give my first thoughts about the game before going away. Of course my post is only about the first touch of the game. With more insight everything will be much smoother, once you learn how things work.
     
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  9. tekkamansoul

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    All of these points of feedback should be taken into consideration.
     
  10. dallas

    dallas Co-Founder Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    This is awesome information @Whalefish! Really appreciate you sharing such detailed notes of your starting experience! Passing your comments along to the rest of the dev team!

    dallas
     
  11. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Agreed, wish we had a 100 more people who made honest and constructive posts like this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
     
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