sandbox and SOTA

In what way? Everything I said in my reply to Dan, that you are saying to, "give you a break" about is 100% factual. No fluff, no exaggeration. So, please, what are you meaning when you say that...?

 

I can't speak for dozens of MMOs because I don't have firsthand knowledge of them. I'd imagine you don't have firsthand knowledge of dozens of them, either.

What I can point to is a desire in MMO circles, that developers are aware of, and cater to, that crafting in games has to have meaning, ie: by being able to create top tier gear.

As for selling crafted gear and having an economy based on that, again, that's part of any MMO I've ever played -- beyond the few I mentioned -- it's not a SotA-unique thing.

And since you said it, no, I don't have a vendetta against SotA, but I do regularly notice comments on this forum along the lines of how SotA is unique in certain areas, and it's just not.

The one that gets me every time is when people say, "The devs talk to us... that is so unique!" and it's not unique at all. I've followed many games, crowdfunded and otherwise, where it's also the case.

 

I find that the devs talk to "some of us" but they can broadly claim they talk to all of us in the process. Some of us are outright ignored and have become a product of becoming insane through isolation lol.

 

wow think I stirred up a hornets nest here lol. sorry haha.

for years all I have done on the pc, is.. play city building games and driving games, I have an XB1 that I bought solely for halo and forza, but I sort of grew out of them, because quite frankly how long can you sit there and shoot the hell out of something or drive the same roads day in and day out lol. I've spent years modding car games, none you would have heard of, as mentioned somewhere above, i'm in the 45-70 age range. as I get older, I want things that challenge me, that is why I came onto SOTA, i'm not really looking for another WU/WO I still thoroughly enjoy WU. i'm a creationist, what that means is, apart from the fact that I believe in a divine creator, but i'm also a person who loves to use my hands, I prefer to create things, I've spent the past 20 years or so off and on, doing cross-stitch, and i'm also an avid model builder, so if you are wondering if I have patience, then you need to take that into consideration...

 

You are so right. Some of the white knights here on the forums think SotA is sooo unique. Sometimes I think that they don't play other games.
The one feature that really made SotA unique, the Selective Multiplayer, is pushed into the back more and more in favor of a traditional MMO - and the market is full of such games.

 

I found a crafting station in soltown today so im feeling pretty good about that haha, still a huge learning curve compared to what im used to, it was a leather station, i didnt have all the ingredients will revisit that later

 

Huh.

 

It is indeed a case of, "Huh" when you chop my post into pieces, in some strange bid to make a point, but by removing 3/4 of what I actually said, it's no longer my point there at all. Nice try. No cigar.

 

Wrong. You're chopping out whole points I was making. Like in regard to the house, you can decorate it -- BUT IT'S PLACED ON A PRE-DEFINED SPOT, NOT JUST WHEREVER YOU WANT TO PLACE IT.

Cutting out whole sections of what I actually said is so incredibly desperate, I don't even know why I'm giving you the time of day by replying. People can go read what I actually said, not your weird hatchet job on it.

 

I think the only thing helpful to the OP is if someone who has played Wurm for years was willing to comment on the differences in SOTA and why they switched to SOTA because it was better.

The only 'benefit' I see is selected multiplayer allows solo play, which many Wurmians would like to do as they cannot pick their neighbors. However there will never be online solo play scaling, although that is promised for offline play that is not yet done. And you will always see those neighbors yard.

Personally I left Wurm Online after all my friends did, but fond memories of leaving our mark on a new server. The kicker for me was someone who built a 4 lane highway in my perimeter, which required deep embankments that could not be climbed as I was already living on a slope at the limits.

I moved onto Wurm Unlimited but found that god mode speedup was too hard too resist making it impossible to want to go back to Wurm Online, then I got distracted by map creation. Left that because too many systems required making a 24/7 server, as it is a living biome. Either I sped it up so it did 24 hours in 2 hours which was silly, or things took 12x as long.

I invested in SOTA hoping to achieve a return on investment, either in gameplay or selling my account so I am withholding judgement on that until 'ep2' starts and 'ep1' is declared done (and I do not think that is this summer)

If the OP wants the experience of creating a town like can be done in Wurm, that requires significant investment buying a Player Owned Town, there is no terraforming and free placement so you have to pick a template or work closely with the devs.

 

Im hearing that term more, I've heard it used at me. Im harder on the dev's then anyone. If you continue to use that label then I will start using the label "cry baby" to the people who Im responding to, largely because the people I respond to are the ones that just complain about everything because the game did not match... to the pixel... what they think it should be (and they dont do it in a constrictive way). The memememe people.

Hell, I just told the devs that Im done crafting because the design is so terrible that I blow up 10 out of 15 chain pieces with a 76% chance at it.

Now, I actually did this over on the redit forums and wow... its amazing how angry the people who label you a "white knight" get when you label them a "whiner".

Now the question is, the moderators are not ok with me saying this, but I have seen no action on people broadly stroking "white knight" at people so it must be ok?

 

If you have 10k disposable income floating around, buy yourself a POT and you can sandbox a "little". lol

 

Or get a friend who had 10k but spent it POT to make you a steward, then you get some sandboxing. After you spend a bit more to buy deeds and property to put in your POT. That being said, I had a tremendous amount of fun stewarding and helping to design/decorate a pot. That was because he had a ton of deeds and houses to play with.

Sadly, only a minute fraction of the player base will really get to enjoy this

 

After reading all this, I want Portalarium to make a 'sandbox' housing decoration for the summer "telethon".

 

I used to play Wurm Online. It's a great game, and definitely a definitive sandbox. I wouldn't use the term sandbox for SoTA at all. Almost all games have crafting and economies, most significantly more developed than where SoTA is right now, but I wouldn't consider them sandbox either. I believe there a chap with a Wurm Unlimited map that mirrors Britannia. That might be worth a look if you're looking to scratch a nostalgia itch. The housing in SoTA has a bit of depth too, so that might be something you'd enjoy having a tinker with. You can be as fastidious with the decorating as you can be with models.

 

To be fair, the devs are planning on free placement of houses inside a lot, "at some point". I don't think that's been removed from the over all roadmap. Think of all the fun we'll all have turning our houses around and around and around... just like in a sandbox, where I can take everything down and build it up again in another image.

 

Are you familiar with A Tale in the Desert? How would that compare?

 

I think we're missing an even bigger part of what I traditionally called "sandbox" style game. And that is the player run events part. Call it RP, or whatever you want, but SotA seems leagues above the rest in this respect and is only planning on getting better at it. I know there's already player made mazes with prizes in the middle, player made PvP arenas with tournaments, gust ball tournaments (which was a player invented game(?) that the devs supported and created assets for). And I know for a fact that more and more tools will be designed and given to the players as time goes on to allow for more of these sandbox events to happen. This is just the beginning...

Promised sandbox features to come: Player made/run theatres with tickets that can be sold and purchased, player run inns/taverns with rented rooms, monster spawners that players control and place on their property... maybe others can chime in, but those are the first ones that come to my mind.

My point is that sandbox is not just about creation and destruction of land mass and structures, but the what are the tools we have in game to create our own unique experiences and share them with the greater population if we want to!

 

Agreed.. hopfully more sandbox on the way..