The Hard Questions & Ideas

I have to disagree with you on your take of the "Trammel/Felucca" situation in UO.
If they hadn't of introduced Trammel, UO would NEVER have survived for 20 Years!

PVP with full loot may "float your boat" & is an opinion you are entirely entitled to, but without introducing Trammel, UO would have never been a commercially viable success (That has limped along for 20 years)

You seem completely disenchanted with this game (which I fully understand, because I am feeling that the Devs time & resources are being spread too far & too thin these days)

It seems to me, that SoTA will never be what you want it to be...

SoTA, was never promoted as a full PVP game & you often mention that LoA has what you are looking for in a game.
Your time could be better spent actively playing the rule-set that you are seeking/have been detailing here, to infinity & beyond.
Just come back to check out the direction SoTA took when your current game, possibly also disillusions you.

Hopefully the lights will still be on here!

PVP & Full Loot for Me?... Smell ya laters.... = not a game that I want to play.

 

Trickle or bang, there is no PR arm or agency spreading the news, so unfortunately no one will know about it outside the small circle that already does, or reads MassivelyOP.

 

And I did not say anyone is wrong. I merely stated to come back to the point of the thread and that people feel what they feel. I'm aware truly since I've been here since 2013 every step of the way and I do play the game every day. I am not looking for debates and discussions as much on this thread. I wanted ideas to be sifted through easily without the debates, that is my point too when I remind. So thank you so much for yours. All is good.

 

Your intention was in the right place. I think though most threads that start off listing ideas will transition into a thread that debates said ideas and that's not a bad idea either. coming up with the ideas is the first step and the second step is discussing the merits of the ideas. This post is actually staying pretty civil with the discussion which I think is great Its the art of thoughtful disagreement and I think its a skill more of our society needs to obtain

 

Of course I agree. And being I too believe ideas ultimately will improve the game I of course want to make sure those ideas get heard and noticed I know we need debates but so many great ideas get lost in the debate threads to never be heard of again. So this is always my goal that players ideas can be in one place and debates can be in debate threads to work out ideas. Who will sift through those threads to drag those ideas out?

edited

 

An interesting idea, but I for one don't want NPCs coming to break my legs because I didn't fulfill their order, plus I don't like the idea of just one, in just one looting...

I think it would be better to fix what we have, and get crafter to sell to NPCs... The main reason is: it's not worth it to sell to them because they give you a pittance of what materials have gone into crafting it... In fact they don't give you anymore than what a rusted item sells for, so why would we be willing to do that? I have gotten crafted items as loot, so the system is working, just that no one is selling to NPCs... It's actually worth more to a crafter to scrap the item, as this lowers the required resouce to make ingots for example (1/2 ore is needed with scraps)...

So I suggest:
-lowering the needed raw resource to create materisls needed for crafting...
-raising the amount of Gold to reflect what materials go into making it in the first place...

NPCs also need to offer to players raw resources, in limited quantities, so that a price can be placed on these resources to make the calculations for material costs... The game needs to compete with player pricing or the player price gets out of hand...

These can be done now with little effort, just change the numbers, without adding other systems, which take coding time, testing time, evaluation time, balancing time, etc... I also don't see any effort to add resources to their inventory, ready to sell to players...

Now that te price for Meteoric Iron is known, prices can be offered when items are made from this material... +5 Longsword seems reasonable, but if players aren't selling these items to NPCs they'll never get into the loot table...

Just fix what we have, so that it works...

 

Even if every system currently in place worked as expected and on par with systems in other MMOs, it wouldn't draw in new players, only stem the tide be of leaving players. SotA is already f2p, everyone can try it for free, and those that did have largely left already. The time when "making things work" would have have saved the game expired somewhere between persistence and release.

The only real way I think a "it now works" could save the game would be if it was combined with a soft wipe of some kind and a new full launch, kind of how Square Enix handled their Final Fantasy MMO relaunch.

 

Why are you so Negative? Are you trying to bring the mood down and the game will fall in the process? They wouldn't be working on eps 2 if there were no players, playing... Our Niche community is faithful and very supportive, I hope you join us, in our quest...

I don't see that a game wipe would be fruitful... There will always be "overachievers" playing, which is a conundrum to the new players entering... The overachievers do quit, when they get to the top or end of the game, they move on to the next game, then the next, then the next... No game will satisfy them as there is always a Top... If you chose to finish the game play in a day, there is nothing that will stop you from doing that, if it's not satisfying, then don't play so fast... Savor the moment, take in the scenery, don't look at the game as something to conquer...

 

He/she is not being negative. they are bringing much needed constructive criticism. This game has the potential to be far far more than just a niche game and to want to only claim that title is very short sited and that is what these talks are all about. as far as ep2 goes. many game dev have prematurely did something when they shouldn't. maybe that is happening here.

this is not true. I can think of several titles off the top of my head where the dev team does such a great job of creating end game content that the hardcore gamers DON'T get bored and move on.

 

I can't believe you don't know... Trammel was created as an emergency effort to keep players from leaving in disgust at the dev team for allowing it to go on for as long as it did... Ralph Costner (what's his name?) didn't get his contract renewed because he would refuse to do anything about the PKers in UO (PK switch), all the press stories I read was about the "Gangland" style of game play UO had become, one reporter described it as a "drive by shooting" fest in an article he wrote...

Once the "Criminals knew" the "Government" wasn't going to do anything about it, they took over the game... Why do you think RG sold it to E A Games? Because they wouldn't budge on their stance, I hope he got 100 million for it...

 

I lack a positive outlook because I am one of the very few people that a) has been here since the beginning and b) invested less than $100 in the original kickstarter campaign. Generally, you get one bite of the apple with MMOs and video games in general, once someone quits, they generally don't give the game a second chance unless something drastic happens.

Niche support is nice, it keeps the lights on and the fancy hats flowing, but it doesn't fund new episodic content.

I say a soft wipe is needed because any relaunch will fall flat if new users logon to find established players with a 3 year headstart happily cornering all the markets, holding all the best housing spots, and possessing the fruits of all the imbalanced gameplay features that a relaunch would blunt.

 

When this game launched and for the most part since, the reviews of this game are pretty bad.

Anyone who read a review probably did not try this game, F2P or not.


If this game was improved significantly and they asked a bunch of the main places to review it again,

There would likely be a significant increase in players.

 

Virtually all review sites that are trusted are likewise one bite of the apple, you don't get to keep getting your game reviewed until you get one you like. If you relaunch, maybe, but Port has already pushed their luck with a Persistent release, then a full release. I doubt "our game is finally like what it should have been 2 years ago" is likely to win new players even then.

To get back to recommendations, I'd say selling potions that let you bottle XP instead of earning it yourself. At this point virtually everything is for sale, why not embrace the reputation and earn money from players selling power to one another?

 

Improve Loot and Crafting System

1. Replace components from salvage and add them as drops . Make them items that enhance current crafted gear instead of replacing current crafted gear. You spent time and money to design bow strings for example ( fustian, cotton so on ) and you replace them with speed strings . Dont make your own content obsolete ...build on it . If you keep going at this rate and create components for every weapon armor in the game you will eventually end up with an economy filled with crafted items that none wants because crafted gear with dropped components is much better.

2. Theres 0 usefull stuff in the loot for new players( not counting artifacts) . If you take a 2 weeks player journeying into the world all he will get is rusty/worn weapons or armor and plants . People like to loot stuff that enhances their abilities to overcome challenges ...plants/gems and pottery assortments dont do that . A first step to improving loot and adress this issue is by adding all sorts of modifiers , enhancers for equipped gear .

The potential here is endless

-Bow scope + 3% crit chance
- Heart of a warrior + 3 health regen when applied on armor

so on ..

3. Add a crafting system that allows crafters to add sockets on weapons /armor for these modules from 1-5 sockets with harder chance for success for last sockets ..failure results in material loss.

4. Add materials that drop from monsters need it to create sockets .

5. Add elemental arrows as loot from archers. Yes i know there are combos for that ... delete them ..not many use them anyway.

6. Crafting

Potions and Cooking

High level food should need a lower tier food to craft among other stuff ... adding low lvl food with no other purpose then filling up the recipe book is a big waste of time and money. Allow cooks to make better food based on their level . Increased buff duration and buff strength based on that . Same goes for potions ... at level 100 alchemy potions like health regen should last 1h . Increase competition between crafters ... make crafting level matter ..

7. Hire someone with a rich imagination to design a complex loot system. I think the team is in dire need of fresh ideas .The last time Darkstarr announced major loot improvements Chris made sure every cabalist dropped at least 1 gem .

8. Hire an economist . The last time Chris announced big economic changes like increased priced for gear and better crafted gear in the loot system crafters ended up with even more gear on vendors and in storage.

 

I was running around... I think it was Far Hinterlands yesterday. It had some homesteads in it, a lumbermill I think. There were some dead bodies lying around, the locals maybe? The mobs in the zone were some bandits and spiders with a spider cave. Using my imagination I filled in the gaps and thought maybe the homesteads were attacked by the bandits, the spiders maybe. I didn't see anything tying this story together though. If I missed something it will really make the next paragraph seem foolish but...

I really have no idea, but what do we think the effort involved would be to maybe add some diary notes on the dead NPC's or in buildings. Maybe something along the lines of "fearing for our lives, bandit or spider trouble". Maybe have a living NPC or two hiding out that you find to begin a quest to clear out the bad guys. You could have a boss spider or bandit finishing the quest off with a reward (but a proper reward!!). This could also be a daily quest type thing. Make the loot random and I would definitely visit the zone daily to go through the quest. You could go a bit bigger and help defend the homes from spiders or bandits. Some type of wave based attack. Whatever it is though give players a reason to return to it!

As someone who explores as many zones as I can I think a temporary bandage, one that may not require the larger resources of a complete overhaul, could just be the thing to give players a reason to visit these scenes. Just small changes to give us some purpose. If there were 6-12 scenes that I could visit daily to complete a quest for a random reward then that's a nice chunk of playtime right there and a reason to log in and play. Many scenes seem set up like the one I visited where just some small (again maybe they are not small and I am being naive but smaller than a scene revamp) changes could give the scene a point and reason to exist.

The key thing though is that the possible, random rewards make the quest worth doing, at least for the average player! I also think the repeatable daily quest is an easy way to fill out the content in a game as long as the rewards are worth it.

Also are there quest rewards in the form of basic deco for housing? I was thinking along with the free housing there could be some quests that give basic furniture so newer players can decorate their house with some basic furniture with the fancy stuff player made or from the store.

 

I like your thinking here, and I think a bigger revamp is needed, I always thought that "Town Sieges" and the "Cabalist" were a nice touch, but here again the Battle is crap, no loot to speak of, overpowered enemies (for single play at least) and all of the scenes were the same...

I think:
-if there like 4 different scene layouts...
-better loot (not more Gold), but items like obsidian chips, tin ore, nickel ore, woods, etc)...
-a system for enlisting "the Defenders" as allies to follow you into battle and help fight off the attack, not just run their tethered coarse, but fight next to you... Wherever you go they follow and battle with you...

Plus these scenes should spawn in different tiers, like other scenes do Tier 1, Tier 2, tier 3, etc so that they can be identified for easy play or advanced play...

The way it is now, all the spawn well, respawns making it impossible to win the battle... I think when the spawn is all dead, and the catapults destroyed, that the General (Boss) should stomp in to see what's going on, when he/she are defeated there is Victory with treasures that appear (not going overboard)... maybe just a bunch of chest appear with a large assortment of booty... Something relatable to the scene level... 1 chest for scene 1s, 5 chests for scene 5s, etc...

If these scenes were OPO and some of the healing rules modified, I'm sure other players would be glad to join in the fight as long as total strangers can cross heal. wo/being partied...

I still think we can work with what we got to make this game better...

 

I think @redfish had a big piece of the puzzle with artifacts breaking down into their component buffs, and able to be applied on weapons.

And the other piece is that players supply the loot. That's the holy grail, but as we both know, no one is ever going to get an awesome Crimson Pine Longbow +18 because the crafter has to sell it for 250g in order for that to happen.

Ok, it'll happen when someone does it on a whim or on accident. Certainly not enough to supply the loot tables.

Maybe that would help them finish the loot system.

 

Is it really unfinished, or is it just mediocre?

I say that because I remember the original economic vision posts and how the whole "crafting as a gold sink" issue was handled as any Port announcement. The economy today is pretty much in line with that original vision, complete as one might say. I also remember the original posts on the move to skill gain via use, and the comments from me and others that such a system would make a royal hash of the economic system as laid out previously, which pretty accurately describes the current situation. Port implemented a system that matched their original vision, and then stuffed a piece of rebar in the spokes, but aside from the endless tweaking MMO systems are subject to, it is complete.

Bonus recommendation, single lot disconnected POT deeds. Players can apply them to any existing NPC town and they have a personal pocket universe to decorate and show off. Lot deed not included.

 

Depending on your point of view, those could be the same thing.

It also could be that loot is at a local maxima, meaning it cannot get better without ripping out and redoing a large part of the system.

I don't think that's the case though, I think that they haven't pushed the button that says "reward crafters for their work". I guess if that button cannot be pressed, then it's mediocre due to it's own limitations.

 

I'm really confused about what people want in "better loot". I was playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker and the loot I was getting off dead enemies was weapons, armor, potions, ingredients... the same kind of stuff that I get off of dead enemies in SotA. The same with Pillars of Eternity. I collect the stuff and I sell what I don't want to NPCs. So, exactly what is "better loot"?