SotA Free trial accounts till the end of May

There's a free trial going on until the end of May. It is meant to be a test of their free trial system, but I'm guessing that they feel that their new user experience is improved enough for another test.

I'm thinking I'll probably go in to see what the new game experience is going to be like for new players. Anyone else planning on doing this?

There are quite a few limitations to the trial accounts but according to the devs:

"You can still explore hundreds of scenes, talk with thousands of players, adventure through the opening quests, and gain experience and skills as you get used to the world of New Britannia! If you wish to continue playing after the free trial concludes, you can obtain an Early Access account here."

Heh, I saw the "talk with thousands of players" claim and was slightly amused by this.

 

I have over 2650 friends who have accepted my friend request here in SOTA
And easily over 1000 more who have yet to accept requests.

Just sayin'

Laz

 

Be sure to write it up!

 

I'll keep my eyes peeled. Haha.

 

Haha, I don't even count. Can't count pass 10 with that interface.

U can have 10 thousand in the friends list, but if only 10 players are online this game can't make it.

 

Agreed. Visible population makes a big difference in a trial, or an MMO wanting to show the 1st or 2nd M.

Ideally, the new players will walk by Brittany, Owls, a populated PoT, or any other popular area to give a sense that you're not alone, and instill confidence with that all-important first impression.

 

Good luck to all newbies!

 

Solace Bridge Outskirts had half a dozen [Visitor] tags the few times I was in there. I even had to look something up (say "utility hotbar" to the adventuring trainer so you can get the utility hotbar to do the fishing quest) and I even got 200g when I tested to make sure it worked.

 

I spent about 2 hour in the trial. The front portion was pretty much the same as before. Saving the little girl and meeting the bard.

Instead of dropping you straight into the game world after that you're actually dropped into a... Newbie zone of sorts, the outskirts of solace bridge.

Good stuff:

• A nice scenic area around the outskirts of solace bridge.
• I was constantly on a quest thoughout my time there. A nice improvement from before.
• Most of the bandits in that zone had very little health. So your avatar felt really strong.
• Money and xp wasn't really a problem on that area.
• There were resources around so I guess if you really wanted you could actually craft yourself some gear there, if you had the recipes.

It was still a little buggy and there were some odd design choices.

Not so nice stuff:

• The new player guide that was supposed to be in my inventory (according to my in game hint) never appeared
• The quests were a quite bland. Retrieve missions, kill x mob until a specific item drops etc.
• The main quest giver tells you that he wants to help to evacuate the citizens but then sends you on a series of pretty mundane tasks (read point above about bland quests). There wasn't any sense of urgency.
• Sota maps didn't work so pressing the map button just showed an error message.
• A lot of time was spent traveling to the quest locations. The layout of the map didn't help. There were a few missions that asked you to investigate places to the south and south east of where you are. Heading in that direction leads to a dead end/unscalable cliff. The only way to get to those quest locations was actually to head north east first to cross a little bridge. That was a little frustrating.
• There was a repeatable quest that didn't specify it was repeatable. I think you had to do it a couple of times before you can proceed to the next quest line but no hints was given. I ended doing that quest about 5 times.

I waved and attempted to talk to everyone I saw there (mostly visitors) out of the 7 or 8 guys I saw, I only managed to get 1 player to reply (only 999 more to go till a 1000!). He told me he felt like he was playing 3d ultima online. So I guess he did get a good initial impression.

 

@Lum the Mad

 

I ask this in all seriousness: Out of those people, how many do you think are still playing the game? Any way to know? How many of them do you speak with on a regular basis?

 

if you need help in the solace bridge outskirts please feel free to look at my videos.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw9-ukIjQVaQbm9Zz0d1xuKiqUdNRNFaZ