Points of Issue and Practical Suggestions

Below are listed, in no particular order some issues I have come across. And also in no particular order, some points of praise. This is after about ~50 hours of gameplay. So, if there is anything in here that is something I am clearly missing in the settings or such that can be charged, please let me know.

Background
Played Ultima Online from 97 to ??? (04-07).
WoW from 2005 (maybe) until 2011
Then ESO, BDO, Archeage Unchained and some others not worth mentioning.
Chartered Accountant for the last 5 years and in my mid-thirties now.
Posted actively as an annoying 17-year-old back on the old UO forums under the same name, with bunches of ideas. I've just simply honed those skills in my professional career so that people pay me to tell them what they do wrong (with their Financial Statements mostly).

Post Structure
There are always 3 parts to each problem. The Problem. The Impact. A Potential Solution.
All these problems have the same potential impact of the new player becoming frustrated and leaving, but I will try to detail at least why it would frustrate them. This is indicated simply by the Achievement Rate on Steam being very low for certain simple achievements like Join a Guild (7.5% achievement rate). By adding a "First Login" Achievement, you could easily assess how many people are logging in, playing for a few hours and never logging in again, by looking at that achievement rate. Obviously this will not help with those who download and create accounts directly, but easy KPIs are always best.

Points of Issue

Default Controls (Character)
#1 They are tricky to get used to and are basic at best. The main issue being no Strife which is just running diagonally Left/Right while looking forward while avoiding attacks.
Most games have these defaulted to Q and E, it makes it easier to run and move in fights. This allows the character movements to feel more fluid and not as "blocky". Reducing the new players joining and just seeing "blocky controls" in the first hour or 5, getting frustrated and quitting.
An easy workaround is "Hold Left and Forward", the issue with this workaround is now you have to use 2 fingers instead of 1 making it more difficult to cast and use abilities as you run. So the better workaround, work simply be to program 2 "assign Strife L/R" keybindings that would be simply F+L/R.

#2 Once you have done the advanced techniques to "Charge Attacks", it prevents you from being able to run using the mouse. Unless you sheath your weapons....which is dumb in battle.
This simply is frustrating to new players who are trying to get used to the...."unique" controls of the game. And if you want to use your mouse to move around while using abilities, you need to use Auto Attack, which forces someone to do something they might not want to do.
Like Issue 1, simply program another keybinding, where you can switch the "Charge" attack from the Left Mouse Button to another key.

Default Controls (Camera)
#1 The camera zoom out is way too slow.
After exiting a building, due to a bug, I have to zoom out, as I prefer to play closer to UO style, and I notice it and it is infuriatingly slow at the "far zoom". If the bug didn't exist, it would be less of an issue.
Fix the bug or allow the V key to saving view positions, rather than being first or not, pretty useless that way.

#2 Not very RP this issue, but not being able to look back while running without having to turn my whole character around.
This creates an issue while running as sometimes you want to see who or what just ran by you or look back while running ahead and if you have to turn around each time eventually you just stop caring.
A potential fix would be unlinking your right mouse button from "This Character Direction" to what it is like in non-movement mode (just moves the camera around. This would let you use W to run forward and the Mouse to Look around.

Character Creation
Limited everything. Hairstyles, Colours, Races, etc etc
Just logging in new players may be put off on a game where you can't get a red colour(not bloody pink) with a long hairstyle. It makes it feel like it was created by inexperienced developers or minimal effort was put into it to rush into production. The best way to describe the feel of it is "Alpha".
Add in some new hairstyles, colours, possibly races at some point. Feel free to never add in neon for hair colours. Drip them in over various patches, this will allow bugs to be corrected in subsequent patches if any appear (usually clipping).

Early Quests
#1 A lack of direction in the quests and world. While I understand this is a sandbox MMORPG and it should not be significantly directed, the insane lack of direction is a problem.
This causes players to wander around aimlessly and feel "bored" because they do not know the depth in the game or what they can/should be doing. Bored = Off to play something else. I even found the game personally kind of boring at first, then I started seeing more and more interesting things. I had to go back to the starting zone to complete the quests, I missed because I didn't understand I needed to type "Help" instead of just relying on the predesigned inputs. I missed whole sections of my starting zone because of this.
A slightly more directed starting period in the Outskirts zones, where you are "locked" in until you learn the basics or complete 100% of the quests, which significantly more effort put into the direction on the quests. Unless maybe you just type to the guard "Let me out" for those who are running alts.

#2 Make a leather hat crafting tutorial. This feels like it was made in the first week of Alpha and never changed.
The crafting in this game is so in-depth that to get people to understand how deep it actually is there needs an expanded crafting tutorial.
Things that should probably be added to a crafting tutorial;

• Individual Quest chains for each tree of crafting
• Choices of what types of armour you want to craft within that quest chain
  
• How to use carcasses (literally learned to just put them into the screen at 53 hours in, was looking for recipes)
• Explain the +1, +2,... on weapons and armour
• A list of all basic raw materials (ores, woods) in a book that can be gathered

#3 "Go see other Outskirts for more Fun" as a loading screen tip. I didn't get this until 3-4 days in or only noticed it then.
I did not realize there are 3 different starting zones. And struggled in finding Tier 2 zones for several days, until I went to the other zones and leveled a bit.
Either start everyone in the same zone and direct them to the other 2 zones via quest and make it a chain or simply direct them via quest once they are completed their area.

Stuff You Probably Hear All the Time
#1 Loading Times, holy crap these are some serious load times for each zone.
Some of the zones feel like they were meant to be seamless (ie changing zones in a dungeon) but needed to perform the loading screen in the end, this can be a bit irritating when you don't know the gate/door your are opening is taking you to a new zone, just to have to click it again as soon as you load it.

#2 Lag, Massive Lag Spikes
When I am in certain areas I get huge lag spikes, I noticed one neon eyesore of a house that seems to do it all the time. With the load times being so high I expected these to render faster.


#3 High Specs for the game
I don't have a new computer, but mine is in between recommended and minimum, I can run Witcher 3 on Ultra without issue, and any new game that comes out I have minimal to no issue running it. So when I saw the specs for the game, I was thinking, do I even want to try? But so far had minimal crashes (about 5), this could be contributing to the lag. But for the level of graphics, the game probably shouldn't be so heavy.

Praiseworthy Stuff

• It is clear, to me, a lot of effort has gone into the game. Not only in the creature designs but also just the general aspects of the game. Quests and other items are more in-depth than most other games on the market.
• Thank you for the effort put into player towns and the backend systems for this, I was complaining about them not getting enough love in UO 20 years ago and enjoy seeing so many of them.
• Crafting is more fun than any other game I've recently played (still not as fun as UO)
• Free to play, probably not want was wanted or intended, but I've known about SotA since the Kickstarter, but due to the "Early Access" model, I didn't want to go down into that nightmare again.
• Deer Hats, I missed these so much. Now I can go back to running around like an idiot with my deer hat on.
• The world map design is really fun when you get used to it. But I can understand why some people might be off-put by it due to the industry norms.

Alright, I have written enough of a novel. I may add things onto the list as I come across them. But likely going to keep my suggestions that are not noob based in the regular feedback section.

But I do want to see more people joining and playing for the right reasons, mainly more money to the devs means happier devs and in theory more content

Praise Squirrel Jesus,

Redsun of the Abyss

 

Actually, this doesn't work without third party software. You can map the attack button to a key, but turning off auto-attack will still disable moving with the left mouse button. I had to use third party software to map the "w" key to the LMB, so that pressing the LMB results in moving forward, and then in Shroud I changed the attack to a keyboard key. This sort of works, but it means you can no longer click stuff on screen. You can use 'E' to activate stuff in the world, but you still need to map something else (I used the middle mouse button) in your third party software to provide a left click to use the menus.

I agree this is really dumb. Turning off auto attack should not change how mouse movement works.

 

Good comments.

I agree that the challenge in tracking quest lines can lead to wandering. Hopefully the new Episode 2 quest system improves upon that.

Its hard to help with the game performance comments without knowing your system specs. Are you using an SSD? If not, that will improve load times. Honestly I dont see much lag these days.

 

I run a ryzen 3 with SSD boot drive and a SSHD for storage/game files. Running RX580 vid card on a 2560x1080 75hz freesync monitor. I can run graphics all high if I'm not trying to stream it. I know 2 people who have better CPU's and video cards and slightly older SSD's that can't run the game because they only have 8 gb ram. I have 16 gb ram not close to the fastest the mobo can use. I think Shroud needs more than the recommended 8.