New Player-Failed at Everything So Far :(

I just started playing this game tonight. I did the starting area and got sent to the first town by boat. I got several quests to do.

I was supposed to go to a nearby swamp and kill skeletons for iron. I died about 50 times before giving up. I did practically 0 damage to anyone there.

I have to deliver mail to Desolis. I can't find this location anywhere on the map.

I have to go back to the starting bridge to find out about a little girl. The zombies there kill me continually while I again do almost 0 damage.

I have to deliver reports to the guard in a nearby town. I can't locate him anywhere.

I went to a meadow and thought I'd harvest some cotton, but a sheep dog attacked me and ran me off!

I decided to go back to town and hunt some young stags. Not only couldn't I do any damage at all, I actually got gored by a couple.

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong in this game, but it's not a good introduction AT ALL. Any advice is appreciated. I feel like I've wasted my evening, at this point.

 

Are you using swords? if not you may have to go to a trainer and skill some stuff, anything that blue when starting you should buy, personally i turned off all swords and spec'd in a different weapon and armor

 

Yes, I'm using the sword I originally got from the starting area, along with the triangular shield (which doesn't seem to block much of anything). Since I'm trying to do the first quests in the game, I assumed the starting weapons would be adequate, and that I'M at fault for my many, many deaths.

 

Well i can share my experience as a High Pledge Level, 2 years testing the game doing the same quests for the "first time" this release.

At R21 i was still standing in Soltown - i think i stopped last Release before with being lvl 12. But now we had the Use Based System so i think we got resettet.


I did not have to take the boat, i was already in Soltown.
I took all the starting quests and had the same quests to solve like the OP.
Please be aware that i normaly avoided any kind of Quests the last 2 years ( sorry Lum) because i did feel like i do not wan´t to ruin my release story experience.

But this time i decided to go for the starting quests.

First difference to the OP - I had my Pledge Reward waiting for me - me Pledge Reward Royal Armor and Weapons.

I also did like the OP the starting quests at Soltown from the Refugees with the Tents.

The Quest to get the Key - The Zombie killed me like 3 times and i told myself - ok. i am to weak for it.
Then also a Bandid killed me in the same zone - i quickly was aware - ouch i am to weak for these quests.

I did go back and tried to go for the Soltown Solace Bridge Quests - The Zombies welcoming had been to hard to even get to the other side with my mission.

So i startet to ask myself what would be the first suitable enemy i could raise my first skills up - It was the bear in Soltown Bridge.
Thats how i startet - Killing bears to get more skilled.

Later one i tried also to be lucky to get single wolfs on Soltown Bridge.

I find out that besides the pre set Blade Skills one attack was the one that actually was only truly usefull for me in these early levels -

The Free Attack


It did most damage, i even hit more enemies with it - and i could use a little strategy - moving away after hitting, reloading the free attack and attacking again.

Eventually i was able to solve those beginning quests but i am sure i got at least killed 10 times or more doing so.



I myself have no problem with "punising games" or "hard games".

But i have a problem if i find out that you have no chance to "resolve these early quests" not getting killed.
And that is what is wrong.
If you feel like it does not matter - the only strategy you have optainable to resolve these early quests is skilling up - it takes away the "gaming" the combat.

I wan´t to look back and see - wait a minute - i could have truly done these early quests successfull if i did play more wise and careful and with more strategy.

And no - i think a new player with a motivation "not to get killed" will not find any strategy for those first mission to not at least get killed many times.


That i think is something that needs to be balanced in the future - playing unmindful and stupid should be punished - but also playing strategely good should be rewarded with:
Staying alive!


Also i moved with my Avatar back to the Hidden Vale - i know some zones in the forest that are far more easy to start.

There are some Zones in the forest in the Hidden Vale that truly have options to do your first fights with "surviving".

And i would love to be proud knowing i made it to lvl 10 playing awesome not getting killed - always something special your "first live in a game"

Kind regards Myrcello

 

I am still wondering how the game will be balanced so that people who ware playing alone will be able to play without dying all the time and people who are playing in a group will still get a challenge...

If I am forced to group in order to complete quests then the whole purpose of having two single player modes would be pointless...

 

Don't feel alone, I have actually found this release one of the hardest in terms of starting difficulty.
You need to get at least level 20-25 from previous levels to start becoming something that doesn't die instantly.

It's just so many changes are happening in game right now, I would try to not get hung up on it, like me, I am going to mostly wait this out a bit further till combat becomes more stable..

The hardest for me this release was the added cost to train, when broke already it's not feasible to earn money by fighting. So try to just earn money by crafting or harvesting, that is what I think others are doing, then try hitting a training dummy?

 

In R21, everyone started off way too weak because they had just changed the skills system with an almost complete skills wipe (you were apparently allowed to keep the skill points you had from before) and it very much has not been tuned yet. I started in R20 and it was much easier to kill stuff, possibly too easy. I've seen a rumor that R23 will start with a complete skills wipe, so I hope they get things better balanced in R22 or it'll be a wild ride.

In R20 with adventurer level in the 20s, I could clear Tower of the Shuttered Eye completely (minus not knowing where that damn key was yet), including the lich mage, if I fought him one-on-one after killing the skeletons. Now at 32 I still can barely damage the lich mage, which is probably right because of how much exp he gave back when we could see it (2100xp, when most things I could kill gave 800xp or less).

As for me, I'm enjoying it because I wanted the challenge of "a new game very month", ha ha. I'm still glad I started in R20 so I could learn where stuff was while it was easier, before having to fight my way back up from the bottom again and again.

 

Welcome Gregg247!

 

TBF we'll have companions and henchmen to join us in single-player offline. That's grouping in single-player games!

 

There are a BUNCH of quests that you are missing, go to Owls Head do the Healer Quest from the Guards, there Is another one somewhere in owls head also, Breamer has another, Kignsport another these are all "Easy" quests that give good exp so yu can have some point to train skills.

The sorry but yes you might have to beat down some chickens and sheep just to get some training done.

Yes starting is / will be very difficult,.

I guess I will have to fire up other account and really see how bad the grind will really be, I love the idea of starting like UO, where a dog was able to mangle me for WEEKS until I figured it out, got stronger killed him skinned him sold skin - - - - -

If that is not the game you want then SoTA is prob not for you.

If you just want a boost with itmes so you can enter the game in style with descent armor look me up in Game "Grumpie Weinie"

 

For combat:

Are you double-clicking to select the mob or tab-targeting?

If you double-click to select you will start auto-attacking. If you tab target to select, you will NOT start auto-attcking. Press 'T' to start attacking. Watch your character. If he's not swinging his weapon, he's not attacking.

Make sure you are not too close or too far away. if either is true, you will do no damage. Spiders are notorious for backing up just out of range and spitting poison at you.

 

OP I would suggest east perennial trail for starting off as it features a good collection of iron ore nodes, cotton and some bears. The skeletons in this map also don't tend to bunch up in more than 2's and go down fairly easy. Avoid zombies like the plague (literally) and don't fight the bandits either. In this release we have the "salvage" system so collecting the rusty swords from the zombies, turning them into scrap and using that scrap with ore to make ingots for gear is a really good way to go. I know it's frustrating to die and the combat in this game really isn't doing the best job of explaining itself to new players but if you just stick with it I know you will figure it out.

 

FTFY.

 

I've tried many different locations across the map now, and I've only experienced continual "run away or die" results. My sword strikes miss a LOT, and when I do hit, I do very little damage. Then I run out of stamina (blue bar) and have to run around until I can attack again. Enemies take a LONG time to kill, even if they're focused on another player and NOT trying to kill me.

I haven't tried auto-attack. I've been clicking on my individual sword attacks. A couple don't seem to ever do any damage.

I've spent a lot of time in East Perennial Trail (I have a contact who sent me there). So far, I haven't been able to kill anyone there. (My ghost seems to like it there, though; it's floats there often!)

I haven't heard of Owl's Head, as no NPCs have mentioned it. Where is it in relation to the first town (Soltown)? Are those enemies easier?

I have a lot of rusted swords in my inventory. How do I turn these in to something worthwhile? Or should I just delete them? I think this game assumes I know a lot more than I do (about everything). There are a lot of systems in-game that aren't as intuitive as I thought they'd be (swinging a sword in an enemy's general direction, for example).

Thanks for all the above advice.

 

The combat is way too hard/unbalanced this release, sir. You aren't the only one to have issues. Fear not.

 

I don't know the exact details, being an R20 baby, but Owl's Head is on the other landmass, Hidden Vale. HV was the original place during early testing, while Novia is basically the classic Ultima continent map. The simplest way to get there is via that shiny blue thingy at Solace Bridge, and the ferry next to Ardoris can get you half-way there.

 

Well yes, but if they're in-range, you can take them down quickly before you die of poison. You have leveled Healing Touch to 10 and taken Purify, right?

 

If you died 50 times killing skeletons in East Perennial Trail, maybe your sword has 0/xx durability.

It means it won't do any damage.

Check your equipment, and see if any item needs either repairs or replacement. First and foremost, your weaponry.

 

Welcome Gregg247. So sorry about your rocky start off. Well one thing to consider is our combat system has just become a use base system. So you have to build up your skill before having much luck. First I would get those quests in Soltown, don't forget to say 'name' and 'help' to the npcs to speed along the quests and hit the 'j' key for your journal. Once you've asked the npc their name it will show up over their head. It is normal for us to die quite a bit at first so it is just part of the process for everyone until we get our skill up. It sounds like you need some help to get started. It is easy to get lost. I will try to go into the game tomorrow and if you have the same name, I will friend you. I am majoria in the game and would be happy to help if you want. Also you can whisper me by clicking the 'f' key to friends menu and typing a name to add and then hitting enter, then you can right click the added name for options to whisper and etc other things.

The quests make you think a bit, but some give cash to get started which is very helpful. Sometimes the npc will ask you a question that you need to type the answer 'yes' to. Like the beggar will say "do you have a coin to spare?" and you can type yes, then 1 coin is removed from your money. Also buying a drink for the guy in a bar. he asks for a beer, so I bought one from the bar tender and then when he asks I can say yes or whatever choice is given and give him a beer so he will tell me more. Anyway quests will get more depth and some more interactive, these are first iterations of them, so expect much more coolness coming with multiple ways to complete many quests and also quests where some npcs will follow or interact in who knows what ways. I think it will be terrific.

As to back to combat, I use a bludgeon, so I equiped an axe and turned down swords and swung with my axe which raised my bludgeon, kill rabits, or just swing with your desired weapon and turn down any others. You can see what you have with the 'y' key and the 'k' key and talk to the trainer in Soltown, Ardoris, Owlshead, and a couple of other places I am not remembering right now. It just takes time to 'use' your skills to be more effective with them, so patience is needed. So just swing away with tthat weapon and watch it raise. Make sure you turn down the skills you do not want. Good luck and enjoy.