Starting Area Revamp ideas

Discussion in 'Archived Topics' started by Karagra, Jun 30, 2019.

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  1. Karagra

    Karagra Avatar

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    Hello everyone, I am new to the community Karagra Murderburger and enjoying the game so far. I am not the best at writing up these sorry about the clutter.
    Anyways as a new player to Sota I have noticed that the starting area is a bit confusing and it makes me wonder how many players quit the game before even getting out of that area? The map layout itself is not the issue it just does not explain anything (in a direct way) to the player while they are going through it.
    Some Suggestions:
    • Make the NPC dialog have less selections when you talk to them. Maybe have one dialog option look like this? Quest:
    • Maybe put ! over a quest Npc's head for a new quest and ? for a quest that needs to be turned in.? Also add in minimap quest markers
      Even a dotted line on the ground to the next npcs location or quest objective location would help out new players. (
      This one should only be the tutorial quests.)
    • Top Coordinate Hub, maybe change quest markers from Blue heads to what was mentioned above either a ! if available and a ? if completed..
    • A dotted line on the ground to the next npcs location or quest objective location would help out new players.
    • When you start out there should be a NPC right at the start who has you do some basic commands and explains what they do for your starting gear. Also a chat option to explain housing and other features that are need to know. Here is a small list, this may seem obvious to you the reader but believe it or not a lot of people need to be told this. (Hit K to open skills, Here you can build your character how you want, etc etc) (Now hit C to open your character this is a screen to see some basic stats and equip gear.) (Hit M to open your minimap, minimap is useful to find out your location on the map) (Hit I to open your inventory, This is where everything you pick up is stored. Notice you have a weight limit) (Now equip your gear in your inventory onto your character.) Alright that is the basics of the game now head out.
    • Minimap's should have in town markers for Banks, Blacksmiths, Alchemists etc. Found this on google [​IMG]
     
  2. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    *gets popcorn *
     
  3. Karagra

    Karagra Avatar

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    Radyogh had some suggestions he sent directly to me to post here:
    Hello!
    I am also a new player. And what starting location you're talking about? You mean Soltown? Or you mean multiple locations in bottom right corner of the map, where player starts?

    Speaking of quests, I want to add few things:
    Neverwinter Online had a nice feature - glowing path showing where you need to go to do the quest stuff, it saves a lot of time if you don't want to read npc dialogs and quest descriptions. Would be nice to see similar feature in SotA.
    Quest rewards also look extremely useless. When you need hundreds of millions of exp to get your skills to at least 100 and hundreds of thousands of gold to buy decent equipment from player vendors - 100-200 gold and 2-10k exp reward for completing a quest looks like a joke. :(

    I also think that dialog system needs a lot of improvements. At least multi-line dialog options, so you don't have to scroll them if you're looking for something particular. Maybe an option "ask about everything" to save time those who doesn't want to read dialogs.

    And yeah, minimap really need some icons for various NPCs and other improvements. (Some of existing icons are misplaced and descriptions are wrong sometimes. Some locations do not have a minimap at all.)
     
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  4. Vladamir Begemot

    Vladamir Begemot Avatar

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    Welcome @Karagra, and you're right about a bunch of stuff.

    The devs know the quest system needs a revamp. Right now they are going through and editing the overly verbose parts and removing keywords, but unless they manage to pull off a miracle it's going to need a complete overhaul for episode 2.

    They also know the map needs help, I think they are planning on starting over on it at some point.

    I complain about the quest rewards as well. The XP you get for killing a boss level season creature the first time is 800. /facepalm.

    So just for some background, originally this game was supposed to be "so hard that no one but the most dedicated Ultima fans want to play it" from what I've gathered. There was no minimap, and that was on purpose. If you find the tiny paper maps that you can't read in game? Those were the original maps. Try to navigate Ardoris with one of those. Eventually the entire playerbase, except whoever pushed for "too hard to play", (and by hard I don't mean combat, I mean just annoying to do anything in), started using an outside website called SotAmap. Eventually the devs caved and brought it in game, which caused a whole pile of problems unfortunately.

    Same for hand waving, question marks, etc. None of that was supposed to be in (you can turn on/off sparkly hand waving in options btw), the game was supposed to be too immersive for that.

    Unfortunately the quest writing and system of the day didn't support it. It was a buggy mess, the writing didn't tell you where to go (for a while, almost everyone in Aerie lied to you... without any way of knowing it or finding that out because it's impossible to detect lies when you can't read body language. Yes, the game was literally not only not telling you where to go, it was telling you to go to the wrong locations, on purpose!)

    When the hand waving came in it was like a nuclear bomb here in the forums, even though it was optional.

    So that background is just so you know where people are coming from if you see a bunch of fireballs of rage pop up.

    I agree on the tutorials, but I would suggest stringing them along the entire Outskirts. You said "make sure we push K" That is in now, delivered via an Automoton in Battle of Solace Bridge.

    I think they should put in more automotons, with very focused tutorials. Have one at the camp that talks about switching decks, one at the farmhouse that tells you you can charge your glyphs. Each one should deliver one critical piece of information so as to not overload the player at any point.

    But the devs are aware of the need for this too, that's why they've recently been reworking the starter areas. So you're right on many points. But ? and ! will probably never happen, they aren't going to want to deal with that rage. Neither will shiny paths, that's my guess.

    But functioning quests, better more concise dialog, a better map, maybe a whole new questing system, that's all on the developers radar. The best thing you can do is give suggestions for individual quests (copy edit), and report issues with quests by right clicking on them in your task list, and filling out a report. And always report bugs with /bug in your chat window. Then just enjoy and watch the game change almost weekly at this point!

    Welcome and enjoy the ride!
     
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  5. Adam Crow

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    This is a pretty misinformed comment. There is absolutely no reason why a new player would need skills at 100 or expensive gear. Skills in the 60-80 range are more than enough for anyone who's starting out and learning the ropes.

    I have helped many new players get set up with gear for just above the material cost which is next to nothing. Even when first starting out, good gear can be easily affordable.

    Honestly, these comments sound like they are coming from a veteran player or the player was misinformed from a veteran player.

    Good input about the starter areas though, I agree with a lot of your points and ideas to help new players.
     
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  6. Vladamir Begemot

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    Yeah that's a good point. But still, what's up with Krampus being so little XP?
     
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  7. Adam Crow

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    I totally agree with you there. Seemed like they left off a 0 or two in some cases. Especially since it's not a starter quest.
     
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