I've been 'playing' SOTA for quite a few years , on and off. I still just don't get it. What's it all about, other than Lord Britain making loads of money. I'm a solo online player. The only benchmark I have is many years playing WoW. I know they are different, but it does feel like I'm the only one ever playing SOTA. I rarely see another player, sometimes a fleeting glimpse as they ride past in the overview map. I see player built towns and grand buildings with massive dungeons and palatial gardens , ... but never players, never the owners. I go to the big towns expecting the hubbub of players milling about, doing their chores and having discussions .. all I ever meet are NPCs who have little to say. I'm finding quests difficult to find and follow. There seems to be no structured character progression. I just end up going about looting kills and occasionally crafting consumables. It just seems such a dead world. Where are all the players that are building these towns and cities? What is the objective/s? Nearly every week I see updates and patches, as if something is happening, or about to. But whatever is , its totally escaping me? This is not a moan or rant. I quite like SOTA, but it does feel devoid of life. A lonely existence. The Twilight-Zone.
I have to confirm that you are right: You don´t get it. First of all Lord British is no longer the owner of SotA as SotA is now run by Catnip. And "loads of money" from Kickstarter or income is not the same as payout - everything to make the game did cost money and runninng the servers and eliminating bug continues to cost money. Be sure to set your multiplayer settings in the options to OPEN to be able to see the other players. The other settings are more restrictive and allow private instances where each player plays alone or only with his party in a zone. There are quite some players. Less than at the starting of the game but still enough to see them. However you have to take into account that those players are from the whole world and all have their own timezone they play in (e.g. I´m from Germany but most of the players are from the US). And ingame they are scattered around not only the overland map but hundred of player owned towns or NPC-towns. Start to add people you speak with to your friends list so that you see when they are online, e.g. I am Herbert Taraxacum ingame. Actually quests are quite easy to find. You already start the game with an open quest and get the next right after. If you follow the main storyline and talk to the NPC's you are sent to fetch a package here, bring a report there and on the way learn the overworld map and get to explore the towns you are sent to. If your intent is to get all sidequests then you have to talk to every NPC in every zone about all they have to say and always offer them HELP. That is because you are free to progress your skills however you see fit. How to train skills and how to raise skills is explained both ingame by the Basic Adventure Trainers you meet in the starting area and the players guide that you can read when you click the ? in the upper right of the screen.
Why does anyone play a game? To have fun. So if you are having fun, you are getting it. Other than the overworld map, the game is very zoned (instanced). NPC towns, POT towns, and combat areas are all zoned. Not only that, some players prefer the zones they are in be set to private/party. So, other than Castle Atos, you're probably not going to encounter a lot of players in zones. The real community and the life of the game is in universal chat. So if you need help or conversation, use the chat.
Welcome back to the game. As mentioned adding other players to your friends list is the only way to see if anyone is online except if you happen to run into them. Castle Atos was I heard suppose to be a central hub -meeting place for players and sometimes you can see a few players there in case you haven't checked it out. Also it's fun to do a roll call on Universal chat. Most will jump in and say hello or hey if you do. When I'm online I do try to respond. Getting into a guild is also another way to know other players are out there. As mentioned there are not as many players as there used to be but there are still some loyal fans of the game who pop in quite often. I'm majoria in game. Please feel free to add me to your friends list. It really does help to add friends to your list. It doesn't mean anything except to know you are not alone. Universal chat was a very greatly needed added feature to this game as was the mail system. If you don't see someone online (like me for example) and have questions please feel free to send a mail message if you don't see me online. I check in regularly. I'm most passionate about the music system in the game even though I haven't done much playing in groups lately perhaps later I will. I also am steware/manager of Wizards Rest located behind Owlshead in Hidden Vale. Enjoy your journeys and don't hesitate to ask if you get confused or lost about anything. Cheers.
After I recently lost my lots because I hadn't logged in for too long, I was able to reclaim my lots in my POT Rift's End. I used to have a great lot in Ardoris that I turned into a guild house, but it was actually never used by anyone, so when asked, I gave another guild privileges to use it. It is so long ago that I can't even remember who it was, but they acquired the whole neighborhood and decorated it beautifully. I would have gone back there to take a look, but walking from Rift's End was too risky since I forget how to fight if I get jumped. So I looked for a scroll in my inventory to transport myself to Ardoris, but I didn't have one. So I decided to try to craft one, but I forgot where I had stored my crafting materials. I can't even remember what crafting station I would need to use. So I gave up and Kara wanders the lonely streets of Rift's End. I try to log in once a month just to look around, but I often forget. And I never see anyone in my POT. I have a second account that had a row house in Aerie, but that lot is gone too. All the lots in Aerie are claimed, but I never see anyone there. My character Sarah Brae is a homeless person there now and she hangs out at the oracle. it is amazing to think that I used to know Novia like the back of my hand (though at the end I couldn't enter more and more places as they increased in difficulty). Now I feel like a stranger in a strange land. Maybe someday I will have the time and energy to visit a certain NPC in Spite who was named after my mother. And another NPC in Desolis who was named after my eldest grandson.
I was going to rant, but I just don't have it in me. A lot of things happened. A lot of things missed the mark. Initially trying to be all things to all players, and failing to execute. I try to log in once a month to keep my house deployed because that apparently helps fishing. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes I try to watch the monthly stream. Most of the time I forget. Sometimes I wander around looking for NPC Sir Frank. It's challenging because I don't remember how to fight. Doesn't matter. He's probably not out there.
You do not have to walk the whole way from Rift's End to Ardoris. Just walk south to Britanny and use the Galleon to sail you right to Ardoris. Or you can walk south, only half the way to Britanny, and use the ship to Lightbringer Isle. On that island you find a street sign teleporter to "Lightbringer Airways West" and there you find Baloon Nr. 5 to Ardoris after checking in. When you open your recipe book with B and find the recipe that you want to craft it will usually have the prerequisite shown. For a "Teleport to Zone Scroll" that is Alchemy 40 which means you use an Alchemy crafting table. If you need an escort to get somewhere I am certain that you will find more than a few willing and able mercenaries to ensure your protection on the roads of Novia. Just use ALT-F (or the party tab of your friends list) to create an open party and type "Escort needed RiftsEnd-Ardoris: Good pay" as an example...
I am ashamed to say that only now at the end of November 2025 did I re-visit the forum and discover your lovely reply. I had forgotten about the galleon from Britanny to Ardoris and I didn't know about the Balloon to Ardoris on Lightbringer Isle. It is a very strange feeling to be a newbie in SotA after having once been a regular player who used to help newbies. Thank you for being so helpful!
Last time we spoke Sir Frank's NPC ticket was still open. We just need to get the info from you to finish it up. Please reach out to support, and we'll get it wrapped up.
I play the game a lot. I still don’t get it sometimes either. I go play and still play other games but I always end up back at SotA. I like the Community, Devs, Open Skill Classless System, Crafting Systems. Yeah nowhere near the players it used to have, but it’s about 80% the way to start bringing players back. With Balance, New Dungeon Adventure Zones being added, and finishing of Episode 2, as well as the upgraded servers being swapped out. Going to be better than ever. I would also say, join a community or guild in the game as well. Then you know where people are at and people to join groups with. Befriend everyone you see, so you have people to port too. Also have people to ask questions of. Believe it or not many people that have many years in SotA ,still don’t know all the things that is SotA.
The downside for community that shroud has is the private instances. I don’t know of any other MMORPG out there that has that feature. The benefits of private instances is you can capture all the XP yourself without having to have people come running kill what you’re trying to kill and take the XP from you which has been a grieving tactic from a long time ago. Aka UO. SotA does a good job to prevent people from grieving other people, though, and I positively commend shroud developers in doing that it has increased the play ability of the game for me, when I am playing online. I do mostly play shroud off-line nowadays. Yes, the universal chat is definitely your friend with Connecting into other players while online.
As an anecdote, I used to play ESO but I hated seeing 50 other players doing the exact same quest that I was doing. If ESO had private instances or an offline mode then I would probably still be playing it. With it's regular content updates, I think ESO would have been a truly great single player game.
