Strech Goals, what we want vs. what we are getting...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Arturius Magnus, Mar 3, 2019.

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  1. Arturius Magnus

    Arturius Magnus Avatar

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    Now, I want to start this conversation as constructive criticism, I've been a fan of this game since the begenning and play several times a week. and of course I want Shroud to be as succesful as UO

    Im very happy about the last three telethons being very succesful, but this months strech goals IN MY OPINION are really really lame.

    What happened with the stuff we are all waiting on?

    Some of it if I remember correctlly are:

    1.-Mannequins for displaying crafted and/or adventuring armor
    2.- Character face system revamp, tattoos, scars, more/less facial hair?
    3.- Guild/group vendors (Part of the sale goes to the owner of the vendor to provide an up keep (Ask Markee Dragon about this idea).
    4.- Really??? Darkstarr throne with inverted colors?, cant we come up with something better to invest our money into?, you did the SkyNavy thing, why not celebrating the finale of GoT with something similar it's a fantasy series, and many things are akin to Shroud (Personally how bout a melted sword throne).
    5.- Are we really expecting mounts for Ep. 2, can't we figure out something better???, I dont like comparisons, but I HAVE TO MAKE ONE NOW, how did Star Citizen raise 200m?, not by selling "if's" (IF WE REACH A STREACH GOAL), they commit and make a gamble. They WILL deliver something, regardelss of money raised, take a look at the Karaken ship, thay raised 5 mill on a pre-sale, but they will deliver it, not a strech goal with an IF... we've had succesful telethons, and only 52k have been raised towards mounts. Do we really need them?, will we be able to use them inside the scenes, or just the overworld?

    Now, I know times have been hectic, moving servers, letting go of the office, etc., but I PERSONALLY THINK you could hear more from your loyal players.

    HOW BOUT A TELETHON OF ITEMS PLAYERS WANT, it's not difficult to make a poll you know.

    Thank you for your time Starr, Chris and Richard!

    I will be still playing this great game...

    Arturius
    (sorry for the miss spells)
     
  2. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    Livestream Stretch goals are, by design, cosmetic fluff that requires minimal developer time.

    While I agree that the items you list would be worthy additions to the game, long desired and anticipated, they are not appropriate as Livestream Stretch Goals.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
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  3. Vladamir Begemot

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    While I agree on the inverting of colors, all the other stuff you listed is a separate matter. Ideally it comes due to the company staying in business, regardless of stretch goals.

    I do wonder how the mount stretch goal is going to work now though.
     
  4. Black Tortoise

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    Id contribute to a stretch goal for this! Dont care about a horse pet or a barn :-/
     
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  5. Helverian

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    ...i like the darkstarr stuff. I have 2 homes in both one room dedicated for darkstarr. But i think the reason we are only at 13k is that there is not the old shop where you could buy something for 5 dollars. So for myself i got 10 accounts and i invested 5 or up to 10 times. Costs me 25-50 Dollars. Now i have 2 subs for 9 dollar each.
    And no i do not resell. Perhaps inside my guild...
     
  6. Phoenix007

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    Personally I have 16 accounts (not free to play, all are backer or benefactor account) and I purchase often on all account 5$ of stuff.
    Now I need to pay 10$ and think that is too much to purchase on all. Now I purchase only on 1 account .

    That is not related to the stuff. That is only the price.
     
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  7. Arcanoxer

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    That's why i stopped my $$$ support for SotA completely in 2019.
    It was cool in the beginning (Telethons) but got more and more to a lame monthly cash grab that is way to developer time intensive for soulless recyceld cosmetic fluff "rewards".
     
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  8. Vladamir Begemot

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    Personally I really liked last year's Darkstarr stuff, and the leather armor set at 125k is going to be fantastic. We need that.
     
  9. Cirsee

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    I would have to agree with you on the reskin of old stretch goals. The telethon items were supposed to be the things you wanted to contribute to because they looked great and they were never going to be offered again.. While I know that wasn't specifically stated it sure was lead in that direction over and over again. The second complaint I have is the fish pavers and throne. These telethon items turned out to be worse looking than the store version. To me that should be reversed; you spent the money during a specific time to get something nicer and more exclusive. I get it's all fluff, but why contribute to a rewards program for rewards that look worse than what I can get in the store that I can get at any point in time?

    If the issue here is cost to create the telethon items monthly, then stop that and put the resources into the game systems that need to be developed and fixed. You have to pay for the stuff purchased from the Unity store, save yourself some money if you can. Have bigger telethons less frequently so you can devote more quality to them (contributions can last the whole week to help); you will likely get more money if you poll and get some good ideas to help guide those items creation. Do the longer Livestream too, the current ones are half spent telling us what is coming or was just put in other than seeing any content showcases. Change the "rewards program" to something more in line with subscription plans as they are for other games. Give the COTOS, give titles, emotes, more bag space/weight reduction maybe for us, extra exp, etc. I would also add that original kickstarters were not supposed to have to pay a subscription; that promise can be upheld by giving them lifetime/timed subscription levels based on tier of pledge. This keeps your promise and frees you to charge new players.

    Mounts were already in the original Kickstarter, you didn't hit that mark then. However, now you shouldn't start that mark at the beginning since we already contributed to a good chuck of it in the Kickstarter and seeing it reset is just rather painful for original backers. Instead I would just add the original Kickstarter stretch goals as features of each new episodes; episode 2 has mounts, episode 3 has elves as playable race, etc. Add new stretch goals for the episodes. I would rather see elves and flexible placement be in this episode with the expanded world.. you really have enough resources devoted to world building without adding to complex systems like mounts. Make episode 3 about mounts and everything that could go along with that.. a feature episode over more content; where 2 is content based, etc.

    You might not have enough for this idea, but Funcom helped both advertise and make a little development money for SWL by making a cheap short single player game called the Park. It had an item that you got that you could use in Secret World to incentivize the smaller game purchase by existing players. It was a nice little game and it helped to highlight and advertise the quality of story and the feel of the game. This should be quite small, but well written tight story with maybe a backstory to Shroud to build the feel for the game you will start playing. I stress short here, but well done in content and atmospheric feel and direction. I know a lot of people want to see a good story single player from RG; maybe a small game could help you in appeasing some old backers and encouraging new players. Single player games are usually much cheaper to develop than MMOs. Heck kickstart it, make it a mini game to the MMO.. something like that would make a much cooler stretch goal and apply to a broader audience. This could make a really great springboard to episode 2. Just don't go mobile with it. It is the death knell for a PC studio. Just look at what Diablo Immortal did to Activision stock to see why you should not do that.

    On the last livestream I saw that Chris said they were waiting to advertise until after they put in the new in-game cash shop. I have to beg you to hold off and re-prioritize your efforts into fixing questing first before you do that. The community is screaming at you to see how important a feature it is and how broken it is. You can't draw or retain new players on the basis of an in-game cash shop. Core complaints of games are always based on gameplay, combat, crafting, questing and PvP. The combat in this game isn't horrible, crafting needs some help, but the other two are downright awful. Please please please listen to the community on this one.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
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  10. Woodchuck

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    i agree, the items for the telethons and in-game shop are lame to *yawn* at best. nothing really exciting or enticing at all. if they want to raise money you'd think they'd put more effort into coming up with better things to dangle in front of us. -_-
     
  11. Woodchuck

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    @Cirsee i agree with the sentiment of your post. it seems like they are just stuck on the hamster wheel right now. heads down programming, going through the motions. there doesn't seem to be any out-of-the-box type thinking. but then again, with a small team and dwindling resources, maybe that's a luxury they literally can't afford right now. all hands are in blind survival-mode.

    another playable race would be nice. however, the elves in this game look atrocious. fugliest abominations for elves i've ever seen in my life. just sayin' lol.

    the mobile idea is not automatically a bad idea. it all depends what they do with it. it's quite conceivable that they could create a simple mobile SoTA app that works as a positive companion to the full desktop SoTA -- one that adds to the experience. but then again, you're probably right given their decisions over the last year.
     
  12. Phoenix007

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    I always play elfe in MMO but the elves in this game are not beautiful (and if the elves will be playable later without cosmetic change I will not play elf).
     
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  13. Cirsee

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    I think, but am not sure, RG had said they weren't supposed to be the gorgeous elves we were used to. OH and have you seen Project Gorgon's elves.. they win hands down in the ugly category.

    I thought I saw in some review, I don't know if there is any truth to it, but they tried a mobile before SoTA and it did badly. So this is another reason I think Mobile is a bad idea for them.
     
  14. Khal Drogo

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    Same here ..used to buy on 20 + accounts monthly the 5 $ coto package ... Now with 10 $ minimum package is just too much ...until the 5 $ package returns ..no more funding from me . Also the quality of rewards given for us supporting them has dropped significantly . Same weapons reskinned with different colours again and again ... and on top of that they started adding the rewards for telethons to the store as well ... in much better version ..we get dragon helms ..and store gets ornate dragon helms ... we get fish pavers and store gets ornate fish pavers ... Basically we get the uglier version and store gets the good stuff. You cant compete with that .. and yes anyone spending few hundred dollars every month on telethons expects to get their money back and maybe some profit ... under these conditions is getting harder and harder to make even .

    Telethon rewards should be unique , one time deal ...always new stuff no reskinned and no adding better version of them to the store... There is no going around this if they want people to keep spending hundreds of dollars monthly on telethons these issues need to be adressed.
     
  15. evillego6

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    If another race is added, I suspect it'll be half elves and they'll look very much like traditional elves.
     
  16. Roycestein Kaelstrom

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    I'm on the same boat here. $5 is do able. $9 is pushing it for me with the current returns.
     
  17. Sketch_

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  18. Bushmaster

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    They will realize the flaw in removing the $5 items that people buy when the end of this month.

    They may have forgotten or just don't see it is easier for people of any status to shed $5 compared so letting go of $10.
     
  19. Anpu

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    If you weren’t aware, they had to drop the $5 due to the transaction fees for that dollar level. As someone who does work retail, that I did understand.
     
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