Post Episode 1 Content Plans (aka the 2 year plan)

Let's have a quick reality check here:

Do people actually read stuff or just cherry pick items to gripe about? This is an early draft. Oops, sorry...*VERY* early. Not sure why anyone has a problem with it. Can't we just dream together?

 

Nothing about regional economies or regional crafting. Could we add that?

 

Then, since it isn't any use to you, click the Unwatch link and carry on.

 

About a year ago we were told that the goal was for everything on the horizon to be finished before EP2. They did a good job completing many of those items on their list. But there are some some things (like the custom Duke heads) that have still not been finished. Would you agree that the custom duke heads should be finished (along with what remains from that list a year ago) before EP2 begins?

I think that's a reasonable request/expectation.

 

Dreams first, plan later.

 

I want to thank you for your update about planned features in the next couple of years - I was expecting, from the way Chris had talked about it (while you were sick) and subsequent conversations that this would be something along the lines of a further-reaching quarterly post.

Ps> I would still like to see a POT town text-based chat, operating like a guild chat except it is for all residents (tenants?) of a town as another way of connecting players together, but not easily spammable by new players aka gold bots. This is important for coordinating town events and staying connected to one's neighbours if your town had numerous guilds in it.

Not to be confused with integrated discord voice channels.

 

@Lord Andernut

Would be useful as far as I see to build some better support for guild/POT mailing lists using the mailbox, because most guild members and POT residents aren't going to always be online anyway.

 

+1

 

It sounds like discord chat is going to be all that and more.

 

Very happy to see a lot of ideas brought forth by people in the list. Some I'd like to see become reality sooner because IMO they seem doable in an earlier time frame. Among these are:

Weapon type vs armor type: Impact/Cutting/Piercing vs Cloth/Leather/Chain/Plate breakdown
Tamed Pet Levelling
New mobs (YES to BOARS, DOOR MIMICS, DRAKES & PANTHERS!!!)
Tamable drakes (love my clockwork dragon)
Crafting Improvements
Flexible Lot placement
Integrate Discord into Game

One thing that I didn't see in the list are better and more thoughtfully crafted food and drink recipes -- recipes that make more sense in terms of ingredients & buffs.

 

For those not familiar with agile software development, please read about it. We know Portalarium's development practices under this idea, and to be honest, most software companies probably use it these days.

These items will be loosely prioritized. The highest priority ones on the list will start to be designed more in depth and broken down. Dependencies are determined. The pieces will be prioritized and potentially broken down. Once they are down to a manageable size, they are assigned out to the programmers and artists, etc., to be completed in small timeframes often called sprints. I'm guessing Starr does most of this planning, with input from Chris and Richard.

Items lower on the priority list don't need to be designed until it is their time. This means that no time is wasted on them, should the direction of development change. As we have seen, new features have been added and inserted into the feature prioritization. Some of those are due to unforeseen issues, some are because of interesting discussions or discoveries. Quite a bit of them are due to input from the players.

So while @DarkStarr has given us this "Two+ Year Plan" it should be read with the above ideas in mind. Let him know what you want, and he can use that data to better prioritize.

 

I appreciate this also, though I'd rather see a message of the day for town vs mailing list as was postulated for guilds.

However I really am interested in live conversation with online town members without forcing them all to be in the same guild. This entire year I've never not seen several members of my town online when I login. While all towns don't necessarily have this activity level, I'm sure a number of others do - and that we will see more players join post-launch causing more towns to benefit from this.

I do not feel that adding a chat channel would be overly onerous code-wise, though perhaps it should simply show up as an extra "guild" that falls under the governor and stewards and runs parallel to the guild system. And perhaps only allowing one to belong to only one town as it does with guilds.

 

@Lord Andernut

Honestly, I'd like to see multiple guild membership to the point that you could belong to a POT oriented guild as well as another one That way it wouldn't need a separate feature. But yes I agree, it makes sense for POT communities to have everything guilds have !

(Personally I see the benefits of guild chat as overrated compared to other potential forms of in game communication but that's a different matter I guess)

 

Absolutely! Absolutely! Absolutely this!

 

.... kinda makes you think getting a timeline of whats for sure going to make it in episode 1, and what they arnt sure about yet would be easy then?

They are very busy trying to punch out as much as they can for release, but have no real roadmap of whats still in that scope and whats not?
Please.

The whole reason we asked for a 2 year road map was because a lot of backers and people on these forums were promising and telling new people what was coming in for episode 1, with no real evidence. And a ton of players are waiting for specific things, and wanted to know if its worth putting a long, or if its 2-3 YEARS from now.
Thats why we wanted some clarification on whats still in scope for episode 1, and early parts of episode 2.

All this does is list the random features ( a lot is still repeats from kick starter, and telethons ) they still hope someday to have.
Was this requested because i was worried they forgot what would be good in the game? No. It was requested to CLARIFY SOME OF THE SPECULATION OF WHATS actually going to be in not only release,but a reasonable timeframe.

This list does none of that. And only raises more of the same speculations and carrot on a stick attitude.
And yes i will stop following it because for the * weeks of thought and planning *, that this list took... its a slap in the face to people sick of being promised and allowed to be mislead about features that arnt even realistically in scope right now or in the next YEAR.

If i wanted a damn wish list i would go back and see why i kick started the project in the first place.

Absolutly redicoulous.

Don't worry everyone. Any feature you can dream of is coming ""soon""!
Least it convinced me to start selling some deeds.

 

Well, I guess we have different viewpoints and won't be dreaming together. *sadness*

 

@Berek @DarkStarr

Pirate and murchant ship hunting with quests for hunting priates. this was my favorite part of the UO high seas.

 

This sounds great - in addition I'd like to see random pirate ship encounters OR merchant ship encounters depending on which side of the Virtues you're on.

 

Of course I agree with you. There is nothing in this road map to indicate they won't be done prior to official launch . Did I miss something? I know there is no specific date/time given, but LoTM/Duke heads were covered on this thread:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...kstarter-stretch-goals-and-other-items.97389/

 

It was mentioned in the op that the timeline can't be given. As we have seen during development since 2013, those who have been through it all, until designed and implementation time we don't know all issues that may or may not come up.

For me the huge thing in the op is the point that we have been heard on some important basics needed in this game. Not all imo.

I understand wanting a time line and I understand sometimes it can't be given. Certain things I think should be in before launch. I feel that way about what I mentioned.

First impressions of the game are so important. Being 'lost and confused' without an in game achievement system for example before launching is not a good choice imo. We need reason to play, reason to explore, and reasons to keep logging in. Lots of them.