old school is the future?

i spend my time in the starter zone, in the instances around ardoris.

the game ignores most modern combat mechanics. fighting would be a little bit challenging, if there would be more or better:

- positioning (concerning aoe + dodging)
- targeting (concerning aiming + switching)
- some kind of agro mechanic (if pet/ ele got agro, i can do whatever i want right beside enemy - lol)

... not to mention: elementals don't follow orders, maybe if i click several times to attack one enemy ...

- do fights in higher levels have phases, which are different concerning spells, targets, enemies, necessary buffs/ debuffs, focus dmg or grp dmg, burst dmg or dot, safe zones or dmg zones?
- do devs plan to downgrade stats for high level chars in low level areas?

fighting in sota feels like golf: you can make a cup of tea after each strike. excuse me, if i should be very strikt, but i play in progression guilds in other, real mmo's. sota is in its current state no competitor at all for real mmo's! its not even worthb for a gap closer!

in general: sota gives me the impression of a sim-city-clone with a medival setting and a few, very slow fights (neither challenging nor rewarding fights). bored gamers might go fighting a bit, when they are tired from decorating their house. ... fighting might have improved in relation to ultima, but it's way beyond modern mmo fighting systems.

-> does old school fighting with no real combat mechanic or physics (for movement, spells, environement) have a future?

 

Thank you for the feedback. Moving this to the appropriate forum so discussion can flourish.

 

I like the direction of the combat. I do like the deck system, but its already borderline too active for me. Anything more active and I feel like Im in a clickfest and dont want RMS from playing a game.

I also am more than happy that SoTA does not compare to "other" MMOs. If it did, I wouldnt be playing it. There are many reasons I gave up on MMOs a long time ago, mainly because they cater to a teenage-and-younger lifestyle. I love this content based, RP-encouraging, completely unique experience so far. Pls keep it up, and for heaven's sake, please do not:

passive (combat) play for the win! there are a million super active "action" oriented MMOs out there.

this might be your problem . Those zones are really, well, "vanilla." A zone not much higher in level, like Highvale, requires a bit of movement while fighting, to make sure you can take an archer and a fighter simultaneously, else one will pick you off while the other melees you. It gets harder and harder as you go up in "level". The zones you are in are more or less designed to be overwhelmingly easy (except for those insane spiders, thank the Guardian they dont exist out here in the midlands).

Try using the city of Resolute as your home base, once you gain a bit higher level. The zones between Jaanaford and Aerie are more challenging but not too difficult. Plus theyre a lot more beautiful.

 

I am torn on the combat. I come from an RPG and FPS background which are 2 very different systems, so I do not know where i want this combat to fall.
The FPS side wants me to scroll into first person and use real movement mechanics like strafing and lunge/backstep distance maneuvering, but the current combat makes this relatively useless. (No, I cannot describe it in detail yet... it is just the feeling I get). The other side of me wants to control multiple characters with a time stop so that I can use a real strategy to exploit weaknesses. That obviously will not happen, but it would be nice to work on it with members of a party, but only if the monsters could learn from the mistakes. And I do not mean real learning, of course, just a programming path that says "you are a 6 person mob, 3 of you just killed while giving 1% damage to the enemy.... execute plan b, c, or d... now!". A cleverly designed trap will still work for the subsequent AI paths, but at least the lemming approach will be changed when they are getting slaughtered.

Action oriented MMO? I guess I do not know what that is, but it already hurts my wrists and hands thinking about it. FPS is action oriented, but the weapons are very limited and the actions are few, so it is about movement and accuracy/speed. RPG is about positioning and well executed plans. Where would this action oriented MMO fall for those that know?

And I guess I want something in between. There are way too many spells and skills though to make this a twitch speed fight. Without time stop there is no time to think... it has be rehearsed first with lots of practice.

Was I going somewhere with this? I guess I like the discussion but I am not sure of where to go or where I stand.

Edit: Maybe a name change for the title would make this a more viewed thread, because I do think it is worth discussing.

 

I hate most combat mechanics in MMORPGs. I am fed up with this WoW hotbar combat and I am glad that SotA is trying something different.
I like the active approach as this is much more exciting than just watching my hero attack by himself.

 

Sota is on the right track for its self making the game simple yet deep enough to keep interest, my fear for sota is the newer lines of mmos like guild wars 2, WOW, BnS and the like. Where the postioning or this fight goes like this. . . ."start scripted fight" use ability "A" now stand over there now avoid the poison gas . . .now.

I personally feel the old version of UO spells still has a soft place in my heart over the deck system (it was messy but as a mage you had a spell for everything lol)

Hell speaking of something that is kinda killing me some of the REALLY NEW games like BnS they completely deleted having a dedicated support/healer and no defined roles EVERYBODY GETS TO DPS

The biggest challenge Sota has to overcome is changing back to old ways of thinking where group comp makes a difference and surviving requires a close group of skilled players that like a challenge with a harsh curve for learning and a difficult start where your hand isnt held with "?" "!" Quest marking and free gear.

I love all of you for trying to bring this vision to life and allowing a golden age of gaming to come back in a new era.

 

Perhaps it's a reflection of my age, but I find it quite challenging and greatly rewarded when I win...particularly against those nasty spiders.

Me too Lord Darkmoon, I've played most of 'em over the decades and silliness like WoW and Rift make me yawn, *yawn*

Well said!

 

what they said

so to answer your question yes oldsk00lz haz a fu7ur3

 

Cover and concealment should bring some entertainment to combat.

 

@Alexandra Cornfellow

Thank you for the support!

 

I feel it will with hopeful clean up of stealth and the optimization/balance of combat. I mean it wont be like action mmo But, it should ultimately feel more immersive and make the environment feel more interactive

 

How about this - combat where I have to learn physical reflexes to be competative (i.e., Counter Strike, Starcraft, stuff that relies on learned swiftness with mouse and keyboard) is not a direction I favor. I want to be able to stop playing this game for a few months, and come back, and not have to retrain my L337 sniping skills for hours a day until I can aim fast enough before I get smoked. Having to dance around a mob or other player to fight them sounds annoying and cumbersome (and is very "video gamey" and does not at all reflect real life combat anyway - keep in mind all combat in hollywood is fake kids!).

Combat where I have to learn intellectual swiftness (each monster has diff AI persona, certain spells work better in certain zones, certain weapons work better for certain defenses, certain combos of spells / styles / positions have varying effects, varying tactics, etc) is a direction I favor. This still allows for casual gameplay based on remembered knowledge, instead of hand-eye-coordination reflexes. I can stop playing for a few weeks and still remember that lifetap doesnt work on a necro's zombie pet.

btw I live a very athletic lifestyle IRL so this has nothing to do with physical laziness. I simply dont want to get RMS/tendinitis/carpel tunnel from playing a game, or have to invest in muscle memory to be competitive.

 

Welcome Stadinuk!

 

This won't be ready when this goes live....will that be a fundamental change later?

 

Define: live

We are live now in some perspectives. Once we get that final wipe we are still live. Once they start pushing commercial sales that's live too. The regular updates bring changes. It's going to happen for the life of the project.

If you are asking me about a change from the Kickstarter. It was on the list and is still on the list as far as I know. No change. Time lines are a different subject.

 

I can relate to the fear of getting RMS/tendinitis/carpel tunnel after playing so much warframe I'm afraid I did infact hurt my left pinky to forearm which scares me (sarcastic or not ) I would love a game where everything is reactive and resistant unless proper conditions are met (i.e. combo, elemental resistance)

I don't think the game will ever get to the point where you would have to have muscle memory to be competitive in pvp but, I do agree that we need to get it where we aren't just running in circles around each other and calling it pvp.

 

Nothing about kickstarter...this is about july when the game goes live.

 

Is that what you are using to define live?

All July has is a promise of no more wipes. That is not live. They could have gone with a no more wipe policy a year ago and the game still would not be live.

 

Oh come on, the servers are live and persistant...I know it's not what they are calling "launch" but geez, it's live at least.

Semantics at best.

 

No wipes does not mean they won't drop the servers for an extended period of time. They could just as easily turn things off for a week to over haul the database due to the no wipe policy.

Bet they wouldn't do that if the game was live.