Top 10 Priorities for Launch (September 2017 Edition)

Rightfully so, people should be good to their word.

 

I don't recall them ever making any promises about when it would be released.

 

Awesome list. Thank you for showing us!

As for the loot and the crafter's market, there is absolutely, positively no reason whatsoever that loot found/dropped cannot be just as good as crafted. There are many levels of crafters and so should the loot. There should be ancient masterpieces as well that out-rival crafters as well. However, I think crafters should still have a part to play in it all. It could be plying their trade to enhance the loot, breakdown loot, offer unique variances, runes, hell... paint/enamel/embroidered heraldry even. Crafters would still have valued services to offer and there would still be decent gear from drops. That being said, crafters would still be able to make gear to purchasers design/needs. Sounds like in the notes there will be more materials to work with down the line so even more power to the crafters, but lets not have just weenie loot to make all craft goods look superior.

It's 2017, there are lots of ways implemented in other games that pointers can be taken from to balance loot and crafting.

 

Do you craft?

 

Do overland map (Novia scene) updates fit in these priorities somewhere?

 

Game scheduled for this year are not officially listed plans?

 

So can I just take this as a tacit admission that crafting is not in scope for episode 1?

 

??
work on agriculture has been on the last two standup-corners. it's not like nothing is being done.

 

That's one skill tree out of fifteen, where all of them are bare-bones placeholder systems that most certainly are not ready for launch.

 

As a solo healer, an LFG system would be good.

 

I agree on releasing the game too soon being a huge problem, but I don't think I agree that waiting spells doom. If it takes until Summer 2018 (hypothetically) to accomplish most of what is needed to support a respectable commercial release, and Portalarium can survive that long financially, then I still believe that is the best thing for the game. I don't think there is necessarily any deadline for when the game MUST release by to be successful. Releasing too soon will simply give the reviewers/streamers a chance to validate all the existing criticisms and ensure that commercial success will never be possible. We are well beyond the original release date, but I am still willing to wait.

 

In most every game i've played, yes. Why?

 

As I was responding to your post regarding *this* game I was just curious given your comments on crafting if you were a crafter in this game. From the first I heard about SotA they (dev team) had been consistently been saying we were going to be a game with a player driven economy. I recall one hangout (or some other broadcast where they were getting into questions and talking design) where they specifically said they didn't want players to be bypassing the player crafted mkt by using dropped items. With that being the case what you said seemed to me as though you felt otherwise.

In pertinent point it was this line that prompted my question. When I consider the incredible amount of time/effort/$ it takes to become even a mediocre craftsperson I had to wonder how much effort you had expended in that pursuit.

 

Ahh yeah, it certainly does But still, no reason why the economy could not still be player driven and still have crafters have in-demand services even with good loot drops. No reason whatsoever. This has been done plenty of times before. No reason to keep it lackluster just so the only things worth picking up are crafted goods. Could be a whole lot of diversity in dropped loot as well... that a crafter or skilled professional may need to enhance, work on, etc to unlock either its full potential or just tweak it to the owner's desire. People used to pay Slicers in Star Wars Galaxies good money to *slice* (enchance) their weapons. That is just one example though.

 

@Brugas

I see. Well, I'm certainly all for better loot as well as better options from the crafting world. Lord knows I've kvetched about loot almost as much as I have weapon balance

 

I believe, Senpai!

 

That is a good top priority list for systems that need to be improved before launch. Thanks for showing us.

 

Quite true. However, the piece that is missing is that crafted items that are taken out of circulation (sold to vendors, etc) have *still* not been added to the loot system. Eventually, there will be actually *crafted* items to find in loot. So this should be self-correcting, if they ever get this done.

No. They have consistently said the best items will be crafted. Artifacts were added to give some variety, but each have a downside as well as a heightened power.

If they want to add variation to loot, add more artifacts especially at the lower levels (currently, only the Ancient Gold Ring), add crafted items to the loot tables, and add items with patterns that can be applied to other items (like deco ones). Variety will go a lot further in this game than just another tier of ever-slightly-more-powerful items.

 

I'm even more annoyed with the fact that everyone also has them standing outside in the same spot. You look down a street full of row houses, and it looks like a recursive image with the vendors getting smaller and smaller as they fade off into the distance.