old school is the future?

Sure, ristra. I would be very concerned if they had to modify the database after things are permanent, that could be potentially very bad.

 

After about ~15 years of writing software, I can assure that just about any production web service you have ever used has had its database modified many, many times. Probably right while you were using it, even.

I would imagine SoTA will have its "database" "schema" (I dont know the underlying technologies so take those terms as you will) modified many, many, many, many... times in production. I also imagine the data itself will have to be modified more than a few times. Such is the way of software dev.

Anyway, back to the actual topic, I agree that just running circles around each other, casting searing ray out of our butts, is not really PVP any more than rolling dice at each other is (actually, thats even more controlled and strategizeable). Though, I do hear talk of castle sieges and whatnot in the mix, so that sounds like a grand opportunity for it to improve. I really miss the siege warfare in DAoC, and ESO also had a pretty great experience in that area. Given the custom, built-from-the-ground-up game engine made for SoTA, it might be difficult to produce such a rich experience quickly, let alone refine PVP in such a way that there is some meaningful strategy. I also havent PVP'd for like 8 releases, so it might have evolved a lot more than when I last tried (from what I have been reading, not much though ). I really love PVP (especially the open, non optional, extremely consequential sort - provides a way richer RP experience), but it just felt way too primitive with the pre-release era game engine. Having it based on rapid movement is silly and annoying (though I know that is not the dev's intention by any means, its just how people adapt to win).

 

Indeed! I'm doing so today.

Sometimes I think, perhaps as a result of too much WoW, that we focus on combat as the primary ingredient in our games. What I enjoy about UO (and SotA) is that its more of a social artistic phenomenon. It's an interactive combination of art, music, and literature. Yeah, I know, one could classify many games as such. But from my perspective, the folks at Portalarium are taking it a step further by broadening the spectrum of experiences and providing us the chance to participate in its creation. I'm not certain I would classify this as 'old school'. 'Visionary' is perhaps more apt.

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

I've actually been enjoying the Risk/Reward associated with locking in your hotbar vs. playing by the deck system and trying to cram additional powers in using it at the cost of a "guarantee of use". On to some other things... @Lum

I will rip this from a reddit post I made for Developer consumption of my first 18 hours ( I am now 47 hours in)-
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I've been in the process of making my Ranger build over the first 18 hours of m yplaythrough of Release 26. In that time i've learned to create taming collars, where to get cheap arrow supplies and how to mend my own gear. Exploring the zones that work for me to hunt Bandits and Thugs as well as undead and animals to hone my skills both for my bow and dual wielding deck layouts have been great fun. Earning the ability to stealth while in movement and watch the visual effect AND the stats of the ability scale up with use are rewarding for me. I feel a real progress to my character in this Pre-Alpha build of the game.

Further, having met some people in the community, like a healing mage that watched over me as I trudged through the West Swamps near Soltown - and having been invited into a Guild that actually runs a PoT or two due to the virtue of being polite and well mannered to passerby in the swamps was a great experience for me!

Some of the terrain is beautiful, the lighting has gone from gross to much improved. They are doing more sound, animation, and character model passes in the next few months, and my expectations were already locked at low. But more keeps coming. The skill trees and feature system keeps getting deeper. Its a world I can play in and live in. Even with an overworld map - the scale is there in the zones that are geographically blocking progress. You have no choice sometimes but to take the path less trod and fight (or die) your way through it.
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Combat Skills (For my Nature Ranger):

The idea that I could get out into the starter zones and just start "piecing" myself together and progressively come into contact with more of the community, find a guild, get stronger, explore new areas, and even stumble into some of the quests is a great start! I like the old school concepts -and really most of my complaints are superficial. Though I would suggest a couple of key skill adjustments:

Root - Far too powerful in it's current state. Its unbreakable (that i know of) and never risks falling off. It needs a counter.
Stuns - Not reliable enough to use as a build tactic. Resistance tends to be high against mobs, and the duration is painfully short.
Range - The power is there, but it depends on arrow costs staying low (gold wise) and efficient (being obtainable).
Silent Movement - Great concept, but far too weak in comparison to Camoflauge. I am fine with it being inferior, but it seems like this was an attempt to "overbalance" movement Stealth. The starting percentage is so low its almost penalizing to even attempt to grow.
Taming - The fact that silver is rare for the collars and this is something that would offset other weaknesses in the early going of a "Nature Ranger" build makes it far less appealing to involve yourself with. Some quality of life TLC in this area would go a long way.

Specific Things for Tuning:

Animation Tracking: As mobs move to my left or right the tracking is very laggy and doesn't keep up well with what is going on in the combat. It is a tad disorienting.
Sound Effects for Bow: Sound levels are way out of wack, some are soft, some are loud, some are non existant. I am sure this is a polish thing, but it would help with being in the moment for sure.
Impact of Arrows in Animation and Sound: Could use better visual cues, and a clear but soft impact noise versus the variations we experience in this current build.
Stealth Ranged Strikes: There is currently no allowance for a Ranger using their bow to employ Stealth in a group build. (It even comes off of you once combat with your group begins, even if you are not the target of the attack!)

Conclusion:

That being said, this is one of the meatiest releases i've seen in two years. Super excited to see how far this has come, even if its still really rough. Content is shaping up, and having places to go and test combat on various levels is incredible. (OH, and the community you have fostered is alright too I guess ;P)

 

I'm only a week and a half into the game but I've found it interesting to note that terrain does in fact play a role. I only have one ranged glyph on my bar, but I have noticed many times while I have a target acquired that I cannot always get a shot off due differences in elevation or the target pathing behind cover. Positioning also seems to have some import with at least regards to spiders as I've found that I'm unable to turn to face a target after getting webbed. There also instances where I have my offensive glyphs on CD and moving out of melee to reduce damage taken and charge an attack are the best strategy.

Combat is not fast & furious, but neither is it a snore fest. My one real issue with combat so far has been with dual wielding. That was my chosen playstyle at the start, but looking at it now, both in practice and on paper, there is no advantage to it over sword & board or a 2-hander.

 

Positioning is there at its core but it needs alot of polish work. Also, you're right. There are no disciplines that make two handing relevant, however in the STR Tree there are things that increase offhand damage. The problem is, Rangers are by design DEX based concepts. That means you're going down twice the innates to have both worlds. I get having trade-off's and that is completely fair. Though, the idea of losing your entire pooled XP seems pretty ambitious.

 

Sorry for derailing this thread, but here goes anyway.

Weapon swing testing: Attacks made during a 30 second timer while hitting a gustball
Two-handed sword: 25/25/25
One longsword: 25/25/25
One dagger: 25/26/26
Dual wield longswords: 27/27/26

So, while there is an increase in the amount of attacks while dual wielding, it's rather minuscule, especially when you consider what you're giving up in base weapon damage vs a two-handed sword and only being able to hit two targets vs three targets. A lot of things would need retuning in order for dual wielding damage to be competitive:
-Double the amount of attacks for dual wielding
-Adjust weapon attack speed based on size.
-Scale weapon glyph recharge time with weapon attack speed.

Analyzing the weapon data leaves me with some very interesting questions. With the lack of attack speed variances I'm beginning to wonder if that is due to a limitation in Unity or is that an overall design philosophy? Instead of attacking faster a dagger has 20% crit to the 5% of the two-hander, but that crit variance seems like it's already balanced against the Strength bonus. Is the crit value that is listed on a weapon crit chance, crit damage or both? If you were to dual wield daggers would that stack? How much crit chance & crit damage would it take to make it equivalent? I tested out a full supple augmented leather suit with copper blade/bronze hilt longswords last night, 40% crit for the suit and 20% for each sword if my stat guesses are correct. Completely unimpressed verses a partial suit of hardened leather with an iron two-hand sword. Kind of sad that a rogue/swashbuckler type build is not viable at this point.

The only real advantage I can see right now of the dual wield branch is the resistance from Offhand Defense and that Offhand Attack costs no focus. Shields do so much more for defense, and do you really have Focus issues as melee? It would seem far better to spend XP in Blades and not dilute your training. Any of the Blades glyphs should do better damage than Offhand Attack. If crit stats stack from dual wielding that would possibly be the only viable reason to do so, and maybe dip down into Offhand Defense if you felt you needed more resist.