Was offline and "single-player narrative" considered with Highvale Outskirts?

I just tried to play the Highvale Outskirts scene in offline mode. Tried, because it was one of the most frustrating experiences I had in a long time.

It is next to impossible to enjoy this in offline mode because the enemies are too strong and there are way too many of them. Just going to the farm right at the beginning to fetch the bedroll and the wheat sacks was so frustrating and demotivating that I really had to force myself to play on.

Is it really considered fun when we die all the time or have to run from enemies, hoping to fetch the bedroll before they kill us?

Also why does everything revolve around combat? I wanted to explore this small cottage at the lake in the wood. But I was attacked by so many enemies I had to flee. I had hoped to experience a small story there, something cool, atmospheric, something without combat, maybe something sacry or sad. But no - fight, fight, fight...

Where is the "single-player narrative" here? Just talking to NPCs, fighting and fetchting items as well as running from endless hordes of enemies doesn't seem very "single-player narrative" to me.

Is this reall the NUE SotA wants to convey?

Waiting for the flaming to start

 

Maybe a dev can answer this - are new scenes designed in a way that they have different spawners for Multiplayer and Singleplayer Offline?
I understand that SPO balancing and spawn adjustment has been pushed out the last releases, but are new scenes designed with SPO in mind as well?

 

I don't think it's an issue associated to single-player offline. If you're having problems in offline, you'd have the same issues online. Even with my experiences and expectations with MMOs, I find the mob density in SotA to be excessive in particular areas.

Considering the origins of the team and their past projects, I've been wondering the same thing.

 

What set Ultima (not talking UO here) apart from other RPGs at its time was that it was interesting to discover things, even just a little abandoned house. Everyhting had at least some little story attached to it, even if it was just a few hints at what happened there. Most surprising was that chances were high that in another part of the world you found things that were part of the little story you discovered. It all made sense, it was one big working world connected with storytelling and love for detail.

It is sad to see that SotA is going int he direction of the competition back then instead of sticking to the very very strong Ultima roots.

 

If you look at the tendancy with a cool head, you'll notice it went pretty much downhill from Ultima 7 and on... platforming, hack and slash type combat where you are basically invincible etc...

What happened to the virtues, choices with consequence, companions etc... its all very hazy, like some psychedelic badtrip if you ask me.

 

Agreed for Ultima up until 6... then something went very wrong.

 

A very sad development indeed

 

What I like about the Ultima series is a lot of it isn't too front-loaded; meaning it's not outright telling you to make a choice. As a matter of fact, a lot of times you're left wondering if the game is actually tracking any your choices or what you're doing is even related to what you're supposed to be doing.

If "combat" is the only solution to a problem you can think of, I think it's okay if the game isn't telling you about alternative solutions... but they need to exist.

So I think the biggest problem in this regard is that SotA doesn't really have any alternatives to speak of.

• You can't hire NPCs to escort you.
• You can't really sneak past enemies... certainly not in "New User Experience" areas; no one has access Silent Movement (even if they did, it'd be so low level that it wouldn't work). My Silent Movement skill is at level 70 (if not above) and even I find myself lucky to sneak past certain enemies in most areas because there's so many enemies at any given spot that one of them is bound to spot you.
• There's hardly any ways to outsmart the enemies by using the environment against them. In the case of the Highvale Outskirts area, you can't lure any of the frost dudes to fight the elves and that would be the only thing that area would allow you to do.
• You can't talk your way out of a fight. I haven't seen this happen anywhere.
• Most of the quests seem to have a very simple binary state; you either completed the objectives or you haven't. The only quest I know that has an alternative state is the woman in Owl's Head looking for her (I think) imprisoned brother.

I'm strictly talking about alternatives in objectives, not story alternatives like choosing a side in a conflict or whatever. In the case of the Highvale Outskirts area, is there any other way to gather the Bedrolls and/or Wheat sacks? Are they craftable? Could you steal some from the elves? Could you bargain with another NPC somewhere to get some? The question is do I always have to fight through a bunch of mobs? On that note, why ask to find three of each if they're all going to be easily accessible inside a single building?

If you're stuck because your arbitrary number (level) isn't as high as it should when you're trying to complete a quest, you're left wondering if there aren't any alternatives... and when you realize that after a few hours/days of search there aren't any, that's when the problem becomes alarming.

It's frustrating and pulls you right out of the experience.

You'd think that each quests would be about figuring out multiple ways to accomplish your tasks and it would be up to you to choose the "right" one for you. One could argue that it's "okay" to showcase simple quests in a tutorial-esque area but it's those first quests that really set the tone for the rest of the game...

 

That is true. And that is one of the biggest complaints I have about this game. It was supposed to be story-driven game and a "true Lord British experience". Yes, there is a story but everything revolves around fighting (or searching for NPCs and talking to them/delivering items).

The quests in SotA are such a huge step backwards compared to the older Ultimas and compared to modern RPGs. This can't be what was planned in the beginning, I simply cannot believe that. Something went wrong. For me it seems that there wasn't enough focus put on creating quests. On creating mechanics for quests to offer different solutions. Wasn't this a priority? If not then why is this game called a "story-driven" RPG with a "single-player narrative"?

SotA falls short of what people expect when they want to play a story-driven RPG and it simply cannot hold up to other RPGs out there. And this is really sad. Sad because obviously it either wasn't thought about from the beginning or the focus of the whole game has shifted.

I mean those people worked on games like the single-player Ultimas - the Underworlds offered so many solutions to quests... What happened???

 

Exxcellent suggestions. This will definately be noted for further consideration, I think the game can reach that state.

But ok guys lets make a very childish parallel here, since we haven't reached what we or the devs deem "beta" yet, so lets not talk about release anymore we know the devs will be focused anyways, there is no choice to rush something our the door now, even if its not functional.

OK PARALLEL : UO was never functional in so many aspects, forensic evaluation ? Tracking ? soooo many systems needed love to reach the state of ultima 5-6. Some were later worked on by EA, but many were modified to create an item centric game, which is more or less the direct opposite of a "living world" like Origin was famous for.

Not to digress too much thats what is happening now, Unity is yes easier for delivering a hello world but when you get down to it making a professional product is 3 times more work than any of the devs expected I'm sure, especially since we revealed stock shader behavior and many other advanced functions we can use to improve performance.

So the focus right now is simply to make this look and feel pro... sure the quests will be incomplete the technology to do everything needed to get there couldn't get the ressources needed, like in UO.

Because it was their honest hope !

You know the focus of the game has shifted... to be able to finance it. Do you deny it is impossible to gather 20 millions for a single player game that yes is amazing but that you play through in 60-100 hours and then you're left turning your thumbs until the sequel ?

Also... there is people in the dev team I know have been working hard (even listening to my endless rants) to try to bring that experience that you wish. They must feel the same sting you do, they must be even madder that there is someone as passionate as you that could appreciate what they can do, but can't.

Ah, life.. I thought I had a flat tire yesterday but turns out ok... now time to go buy some anti-slip paint and prepare the new staircase I built for a long 7 month of winter... see you guys around, don't lose hope