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Release 21 feedback (and some ideas)

Discussion in 'Release 21 Feedback' started by Hardin Steele, Sep 20, 2015.

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  1. Hardin Steele

    Hardin Steele Avatar

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    This feedback is in the R21 thread, but includes some general thoughts as well. I totally copied Kosomok's format from a previous thread in this forum, so, "Thanks for the format Kosomok!"

    Combat

    -Combat Skills—The skill “tiers” (for lack of a better term) are thin. Certainly there should be more skills for each tree and each tree should have more branches. The weapon classes and armor classes seem like they should be broken down a little more (under “Blades”, the next tier might be “slashing”, “thrusting”, and “cleaving”). Or, give each class of edged weapon its own skill tree or sub-tree (“Blades” might have the second tier be daggers, swords, axes, two-handed). We might be way too far down the rabbit hole for changes of this magnitude, but it sure seems like a missed opportunity to me!


    Possible tree by damage type
    -Blades (slashing, thrusting, cleaving)
    -Bludgeon (bashing, crushing,
    -Pole Arms (piercing, cleaving,
    -Ranged (throwing, shooting, slinging)
    -New-(Exotic) (entangling, stunning, piercing)

    Or, possible by weapon type

    -Blades (dagger, sword, axe, two-handed)
    -Bludgeon (hammer, flail, morning star, pick, two-handed)
    -Pole Arms (spear, halberd, pike)
    -Ranged (throwing knife, javelin, short bow, long bow, sling)
    -Exotic (new) (whip, quarterstaff, dart)

    Also wondering why the different armor types are lumped together. I have always liked the separation of cloth, leather, chain and plate. Some games even have any sort of splint armor in a category between chain and plate. Each should have its own combat skill tree, and its own crafting skill tree as well.

    -Magic Skills—I have not made it through all of the schools of magic, but I do think there are few protection type spells, or resistance spells (poison in particular). Clothie shields or bubbles, stoneskin type resistance spells, reflection, etc… I have seen very little of that type of magic in any school. Also no mind altering spell types (maybe in the Chaos tree?) for mind control, stun, confusion, etc…

    -Strategic Skills—Hard to expound too much on this tree. More is better, but not only for the sake of more. If there are more to add, no problem.
     
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  2. Hardin Steele

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    Crafting

    -General--If SotA is going to claim to be a sandbox, there should be more sand and a bigger box (more on the box in "Exploration" below). I am generally proposing Tiers for all crafting skills (gathering, refining, production). Below I note six (6) tiers, with the lowest tier (tier 1, of course) cheap to learn, pretty versatile, and learning it would allow pretty much everyone to gather, refine, and produce basic goods to earn a living. As players progress, the tiers become more expensive to learn, require more advance tools and stations, and a wider variety of materials (see below in "Skills").

    -Gathering—The only textile is cotton? I have only gotten to areas that allow a 30ish level character to survive, but all we get for textiles is cotton? What about hemp, jute, flax, wool, silk, camel hair and many others, including fictional ones? Are they not textile worthy? What about different types and varieties of animal hides, skins and products? All the creatures are yielding the same raw material. And minerals! I can think of 20 real mineral types and at least 20 more fictional ones that have been used for years in gaming? Why keep the crafting so terribly limited? The more difficult an area or creature the higher level crafting raw material should be available.

    -Refining—Mentioned elsewhere, but all the store bought stuff needed to refine materials should be player made as much as possible; not purchased from the NPC vendor (wax, coal, molds, chemicals, etc). While typing this I am standing in the market in Ardoris and there is nothing for sale from any merchant that should not be craftable by a skilled player craftsman. The vendors could remain in the marketplace and sell a very limited quantity of goods that have become short in supply, or even periodically restocked by NPC fisherman, farmers and gatherers if the economy would otherwise show signs of suffering due to a commodity shortage.

    -Production—Have more professions! I know the nifty crafting wheel logo has 5 skills for each ring, but so what? Many medieval professions are not included like glassblower, potter, dyer, leatherworker, brewer, farmer. Have enough professions to allow production of all the raw and refined materials needed for the complete crafting and economic cycle. (For example, once housing is in place, if the house is in a city with the right climate (tropical), perhaps a player could plant a stand of banana trees which might yield 10 bunches per tree once a week. Or a player might be able to create a bee farm yielding honey for cooking and wax for crafting.)

    -Skills—I envision all crafts having six (6) tiers, with the lowest restricting crafts to that tier unless the crafter scores a crit, then perhaps a level higher, and maybe 2% of the time 2 tiers higher (90% same tier, 8% 1 higher, 2% 2 higher?). The level on that craft’s crafting skill tree would equate to the tier and maximum normal craftable item. For example, you have been smithing for a while and have trained to tier 3 so you can make some nice stuff of reasonable difficulty (using tier 3 materials producing an item with commensurate properties). You must use tier 3 refined materials at a tier 3 crafting station to have a normal chance of crafting a tier 3 weapon or metal armor. There is a small chance the item could be better than a tier 3 item, but not much. Even average crafters make a really nice item once in a while!
     
  3. Hardin Steele

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    General (random thoughts in no order whatsoever)

    -Some of the towns are huge! Which makes me think if I can get my old guild here we might get one. That might be awesome. The Metropolis might be way too huge (and is very expensive), but any town would be nice. There is an obvious concern about no new player owned towns having direct map access. That could be problematic.

    -I have not followed the quest line so I can't be too critical, but the only obvious one I have run into is taking mail from Ardoris to Solania in the swamp.

    -Having a visible resurrection timer appear upon death would be nice

    -No one should be a grand master at everything, which leads me to believe a skill cap makes sense.

    -How long should it take to be a grand master? A long time! At least several months to a year to hit the max in any one skill, unless the developers don’t think SotA will be around more than 5 years or so.

    -NPC vendors should sell very little of anything; only things that are creating a serious problem for the in-game economy. Any item listed for sale by an NPC sets the maximum price on that item, unless the items are in very short supply. Perhaps items for sale by NPC vendors become more expensive locally if the supply runs out, simulating a supply and demand economy while leaving opportunities for players to make coin through arbitrage.

    -Lower tier skills should cost less (relatively), higher tier skills should cost more, a lot more. 100 gold is fine for tier 1, but each successive tier should be more expensive. (Tier 1 = 100 gold, Tier 2 = 250, tier 3 = 500, tier 4 = 1000, tier 5 = 2500, tier 6 = 5000, if there ever is a tier 6. This would also slow down advancement of higher level skills, but would make them considerably more rare and nice to have around in your party.)

    -The encounter areas for the most part seem really small, some very small. Others are larger like the Northern Grunvald Barrens. But overall the "zones" feel pretty small, and the encounter areas tiny and repetitive. (Yes, it is in pre-alpha. Got it.)

    -Some areas of the map are a real pain to navigate, particularly the Veiled Swamp near Ardoris. Ugh! I hate getting channeled all over the place! Is there a better way? (Maybe not, but I had to vent!)

    -I was able to take a tour of the land at about level 25 (ran through the various passes not engaging the creatures there, as I would have surely died). The “world” seems small. I know it is easy to say it is small when I am not the guy painting every square inch, but I find it hard to believe what we see now will be all there is in the future. This map will quickly be fully explored and will become quite dull in short order. More world please! (Arctic wastes, forbidding deserts, tropical jungles, vast savannahs to name a few possible terrain types.)
    (Edit: I stumbled into the Developer Forums and saw Lord British posted the "landmarks of Novia, the first continent", so that was a relief to see more continents will be added.)
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2015
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