Not a big fan of the HEX system overhead map

Like many others have said, it's a mistake designing a game around a small budget. Star Citizen promised the world, and people are throwing money at them. Regardless of how that game turns out in reality is a different matter, but the point is they SOLD that game to their audience. It's the lack of any real scope or ambition besides create a "spiritual successor" to the Ultima franchise that's hurting this game in my opinion. An aspiration it is failing in.

Yes, it's a big risk to promise things you would never be able to achieve, but it's a recipe for mediocrity if you never even gave it a try.

For instance, say this game was marketed as:

"UO is back, bigger, better, and badder than ever!
Customize your house in any way you want!
Sail the Seven Seas on your personal ship!
Become a pirate, or hunt them down!
Create libraries and museums filled with rare artifacts!"
(Insert all the features that UO has but SOTA does not)

I know a ton of people that would throw money at that game, but have refrained from doing so with this one.

 

Supposition.. Even if they doubled support, that's only 8 million, that they might get, if they give in to everyones demands ahead of time, hoping people might like them more and possibly rush to play. They had to pick a realistic vision that they could build off of and realistically support until completion. They've done that. They cannot change course mid-stream and hope things will work out.

 

If you tailor the vision of the game around the assumption that it will be on a small budget, then you will be doomed to be on a small budget because the vision of the game will not appeal to a wide enough audience to garner a larger budget!

That's the problem here!

That's the main difference between why Chris Roberts was much more successful with Star Citizen than Richard Garriot has been with SotA, even though Richard Garriot had the benefit of analyzing Chris Roberts' campaign and as much advice as he needed from the man himself.

The core problem is the vision of this game (and the execution of that vision so far) is failing to resonate with people and garner support from those who are not already hardcore fans!

In my case, even though I have been a hardcore fan of Ultima games for 3 decades now, and I supported SotA because of this, I honestly don't want the game they are currently planning to build and all of my friends, some of whom are also longtime Ultima fans, have overlooked the game completely.

 

I just don't understand what people don't like about dual scale worlds. People argue about it in other games too, example: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=860

there is an article on this subject on this game: http://www.examiner.com/article/in-defense-of-dual-scale

There already was a petition created to change the map over a year ago:

https://www.change.org/petitions/po...n-the-rpg-sota-to-a-mono-scale-map-open-world

and it failed to gain even a fraction of the community support then too.

My favorite recent games that have dual scale maps:

Ni No Kuni 85 metacritic score 8.6 user score. sold 1.4 million copies

Bravely default 85 metacritic score 8.7 user score sold 200,000 in the US in the first 3 weeks (great numbers for a 3ds game, better than pokemon x&y).

other recent games, fire emblem: awakening, super mario 3d world, kings bounty: legends, heroes of might and magic 6... I could go on for quite awhile if I think about it long enough.

 

Ni No Kuni really was a brilliant use of dual-scale mapping. I really liked the way encounters were handled on the overland map, too, with mobs responding to your party's strength based on the wariness and abilities of the mob type.

 

This has no relevance. It's an obscure poll no one knew about and a lot of people have already passed on this game and aren't even paying attention because of many of the problems I pointed out so their opinions will never be reflected in any poll. Heck, even I didn't know about the poll when it was running even though I have been following this game since the beginning and I feel passionate about the subject.

 

And it's no small coincidence that those are completely different types of games that appeal to the Asian and/or console gamer markets. Some aren't even RPGs.

The vast majority of fans of Ultima have appreciated their evolution to a single-scale, more immersive world and would hate to see the "spiritual successor" take a step backwards.

I would venture to say the vast majority of fans of western CRPGs also prefer it as well, which is one reason why nearly all western CRPGs are single-scale.

 

You could even consider fable 3 dual scale, although you don't traverse the map, you just have set points you travel to on the map. I'd consider it like the current version of our map. So I think it was a pretty inferior example of one.



I find the vast majority of western crpg's very lacking. I rarely find one I enjoy. Most of the ones I like are MMORPGs. It has nothing to do with the dual scale vs mono scale.

 

^^ Wow that's *such* an inspired map, lol..

 

I love people who post in absolutes with the mythical list of friends.

I think it's fair to believe some people have their opinions of how it should be but should really stop in stating how everyone else sees it.

 

Agreed, Even our current map is superior to what fable 3 had. But fable 3 was probably the weakest in the series.

 

The more you post the more your name is synonymous with trolling. Haven't read anything from you adding value to a discussion.

 

Funny I thought you were the troll.

 

Please quantify your conjecture.

 

Probably because you don't agree with me and aren't willing to engage in civil debate about the points I'm making. Obviously you're one of those that can't stand it when someone has a differing opinion.

 

I don't agree with you, but more importantly your comments have devolved to throwing poo and name calling; hardly civil. You pose straw man arguments with a lot of unsubstantiated claims. Your opinion is fine by me, it's your delivery that makes you the troll.

 

The quantification is right there for everyone to see: barely 4 million raised after 1.5 years for a game that would realistically take 5-10x that budget to make.

 

Hah. I challenge you to point out even one post of mine like that.

 

Is it October 2014 already?

Well, like many of your posts, there is an extreme amount of exaggeration of the "facts".

 

No thanks. I don't have the time or desire to humor you.