What changes would get you to play Shroud again.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by City Slicker, Nov 4, 2019.

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  1. Mishikal

    Mishikal Avatar

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    There was a fix to archery relating to the way in which resistances *further* nerfed archers, but what Gageman is discussing remains the case today.
     
  2. Barugon

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    After the changes to Rapid Fire and Multi Shot, I'm back to doing pretty ok.
     
  3. Lazlo

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    It's been quite a while since I last played offline, but bosses used to have half the hit points of the the online versions.
     
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  4. nonaware

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    Bugs questing balance performance before all else(performance does seem much better and more stable since I last played).

    after that things like reworking agriculture to remove or change its strict watering cycle that keeps me from using it.

    softening the punshiment on masterwork and enchanting fails and/or a way to guide the rng along preferred paths.

    expanding brewing to replace or complement potions and/or foods.

    i would like to see and believe these things need to be worked on although i am back to playing again after a time away.
     
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  5. Barugon

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    Have you tried these since they put in the mastery skills?
     
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  6. Boris Mondragon

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    I think @majoria70 covered most of it but I will clarify a couple of things and I still play though somewhat bored.

    1) Game has been going on for years and still no changes to avatar appearance (They could change shape and hairstyles and sell it for Cotos).

    2) A true endgame with larger parties allowed (24 or higher). Let us continue our large battles without friendly fire to allied parties due to party size maximum. Why grind to the umpteenth level without areas to conquest and control , do it with PVE mobs controlled by Catnip or contested areas with double or higher resources controlled by PVP groups and give this game the adrenaline shot in the arm.

    That is all besides the moving/battling ships but that was covered already. R/Boris/El Pirata/Black Sails Forever.
     
  7. Hornpipe

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    @Mishikal and @oplek pretty much nailed it for me already.

    Thank you guys.

    Now I fear it's too late for this but who knows ?
     
  8. Greyfox

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    Fix the economy. Much higher population. Reduce the tediousness of crafting (too many components and too long of a grind). Provide rewarding drops (rares) worth our time. Cap the levels to create an end game and allow for balance. Make property ownership worthwhile. Give us the tools to create our own meaningful and equally rewarding content. Streamline combat, remove repetitive skills, make all skill trees viable. Improved the animations. Improve (double) the benefits of specializations.

    Ok, how about 2 of 10?
     
  9. nonaware

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    nope so I will put a solid maybe on 2 out of 7 issues I raised.

    just been lurking in vertas pass gathering while I read the forums and try and see what I have missed last handful of updates in game and on the forum.

    last time I came back I made the mistake of visiting... that other place... to see what was going on... and didn't last long in game lol.
     
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  10. marthos

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    OP - great question. My playtime is significantly reduced, but I used to play daily for about a year.

    Ultimately, the game needs to figure out what it is. SotA has an identity crisis, and the only think that I think keeps people playing right now isn't the game itself, but the friends and community.

    Combat: Deck system, locked glyphs, charging glyphs...confusing. What's the purpose of these different systems? I know the history from watching the game in development, but it's time to pick one system and go with it. Pick an identity.

    Skills: I can use all the skill trees in the same build, but we need to add more combat skills to moon magic? Why? I pick and choose the best skills from all over the board. The game should either build content around one person being able to do everything, or the game should go all in on a pseudo class system where you can only be a tank, dps, healer, etc at any given time. Pick an identity.

    PvE: We have dungeons with final bosses, but we don't have boss quality loot. Either run with tough dungeons requiring lots of coordination like WoW with boss loot, or go with more of a UO approach where you find good spawning locations for the critters you want to kill for gold/xps. Pick an identity.

    Economy/Crafting: Gear decays, but so slowly and is so easy to repair that nothing leaves the economy. But then there is a massive housing/vendor system in place to encourage people to trade gear that nobody needs or wants. If you want permanent gear, cool, go all in with that. Or if you want a vibrant economy than you need to remove gear quickly (like EVE). Pick an identity.

    Story/Quest: If you're going to have them, do it well, or decide that you're not a quest driven game.

    Etc.

    The game tries to do everything at the same time, and ends up doing a "meh" job across the board.

    There are a few things that the game does well though - I love that I can bring in a new player and he can join my group day one without having to grind levels. He'll be GM'ed in a few skills in a few days, so there's a low barrier to entry if you have friends. The housing system is good, decoration system solid as well. But ultimately the game just lacks soul.

    My feelings can be summed up when I turn the corner and see a Jedi Knight, Iron Man, and a Jester fighting a Troll. Pick a theme and run with it, you don't need to be the game that answers the question: what if the Jedi Council teamed up with the Avengers to travel back in time to help King Arthur save the Harlem Globetrotters from a dragon?
     
  11. Gageman

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    What are you playing? I am about to start the PC version or red dead redemption online...fingers crossed.
     
  12. Drilikath

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    What needs to change, simple, fix the bugs and improve the game. But because 5+ years the bugs and issue can not be fixed, why would anyone trust/believe that this will ever change?
     
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  13. smack

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    I've already completed the main story campaign for Ep1 (meh), so there's nothing else that would get me to jump back in and play regularly. I'll occasionally pop online to do some exploration, maybe attend a dance party, tend to my home, and do some crafting -- finally got my whisky that took a whole IRL year to brew...now what? :confused:

    If they redo the quest, journal, and map systems, perhaps I'll give the main campaign a try again. If they release Ep2 campaign using the existing systems, no thanks. I'd rather not waste my time when there are so many better options out there (Outer Wilds is great). The rest of the game's online mode has no real purpose or meaningful gameplay, especially how buggy the game still is, not to mention it's broken economy (RMT notwithstanding).

    But yeah, see you at the next holiday dance party? :)
     
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  14. Sulaene Moon

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    If developers would throw RP, adventuring, or pvp parties more than dance parties.
     
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  15. Proteus Tempest

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    I haven't left completely but taking a break.

    Honestly I think the game needs a rework altogether. Chris mentioned something in one of the livestreams that gave me hope. He basically stated that the Dev's thought that the game needed more style in the artwork. I agree. Chris also stated his dislike for the Unity tech support and that he had desired that he could switch the game over to the UNREAL engine and go with open lands. I like this also. The Dev's and I are on the same page to a degree anyway but this change would cost around 6 million dollars. I would love to think we could raise 6 million but.......

    Richard had a dream about bringing back some nostalgia from his games of the past. Neat idea but I think we have seen that nostalgia "not working as intended". It's time to rework the game to something that is more marketable.

    The Dev's did a great and awesome thing. They listened to the players! The Dev's also did a very bad thing. They listened to the players.... Too much. The Dev's tried to do all that we asked and they should have had a chat with us about what was not going to work based on the things that we asked form A few things we asked for as a group contradicted and made obsolete other things that we wanted. We should have had a talk about this from our Dev's but here we are and they have cut a few things that were a contradiction.

    Sota simply needs a rework. For as neat as the game is it's kind of overly complicated. Some say "cobbled together". It's rework time.

    I will list the things I think would have worked better.

    Unreal Engine for sure

    More artwork style like the Dev's want.

    Open lands for the MMO and use the overland map on the single player off line game for the Nostalgia.

    Get rid of the elitism and I mean the early pledges and when I say that I don't mean getting rid of whats there already. I mean the elitism. We raised a lot of cash but the early pledges were viewed by many as pay to play and gave advantage to the wealthy elite. We MUST have a game that all can afford. We pledged to make a game and many of us went for a power grab in the beginning. So on a rebuild, more focus on all players and no more elitism.

    More immersion in story line.

    The Dev's by now know what we want in a game and what is not working. Let them build the game. We held them up at least a couple of years asking for stuff but being great Dev's they are trying to give it all to us. Gotta lov'em.


    That's all for now. I will add more later maybe.



    Chow people!
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2019
  16. Bedawyn

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    If the offline game separated your characters again -- you can have up to 10 characters per game offline, but last spring they smushed their gold, banks, xp, etc. all together (the same as they did online except that online you can avoid it by using free accounts to keep your characters separate, not possible offline) -- and allowed offline players to use player vendors or other NPCs, then I'd go back offline and happily stay there. It wouldn't have all the advantages of online play, but it wouldn't have the disadvantages either, and I wouldn't have to worry about where the future of the game was heading.

    Instead, I'm still clinging to my online properties for now, but logging in only enough to keep the rent paid and constantly wondering whether to just let them go and give up. I think Chris has made it pretty clear that what he considers a fun game is the exact opposite of what I consider a fun game. The only thing I can see changing my mind at this point would be the return of selective multiplayer or a complete turnaround in Chris' language to indicate that he values solo players, the solo experience, immersion, and narrative/questing.

    I don't expect any of those things to happen.
     
  17. Katu

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    What changes would get me to play again?

    I can't exactly pinpoint what is keeping me away. I do login atleast monthly and I ran throught some places, malls etc to check the pricing changes ( Not trader, but more like checking for inflation ).
    But to actually get back on "horse" and start developing my character, meh. I don't see any point in that. First I would need to get all the buffs up, repair gear, restock potions and after that, finding something else than UT. That is hard, because if my only need is to get xp, then spending alone, getting few 100k xp /hour is nothing compared to 2m from UT. Fun eh?

    On the other hand, we have a culture of soloing everything and the grind it takes, is quite opposite of fun.
    And other side is those who say skills at 80 is more than enought, you just can't fight anything fun.

    There are players like Mac, who tells that everything is ok, how he can easily get x amounts of money and artifacts, soloing bosses, soloing everything and theres nothing wrong with loot and xp gain. That hurts the game, making it impossible to balance. ( Its not just him, but all near his level ).
    This game cannot ever be rewarding for non maxout players, because if somewhere drops decent loot, decent xp, those highlevels grind it until it has to be nerfed.

    There is no reward for me, for adventuring, its only grinding with no visible ends. Don't tell me to enjoy scenery and the story, its not pretty game, nor do I understand anything about the story.

    I have played bout 250h after realease (and 250 before that) and I gave port something like 150€ money for that. I got my money worth of adventuring already, so I don't HAVE to come back. I would like to, but I feel the game only works decently, to levels 50-60.

    To comeback, there has to be some significant changes on capping total skill points, making some sense to loot etc.
    To get more money from me, the store has to offer something else than house decoration, something non p2w for adventuring.
     
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  18. kaeshiva

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    I'm in a pretty similar boat at the moment.
    I don't want to change my build to one of the handful that can solo bosses, because soloing bosses is boring, unrewarding, and tedious. Only slightly worse than soloing bosses is doing bosses in a group where the bad loot is spread even more thin.

    Experience is no longer relevant / no longer a motivator. Millions upon millions of experience is not going to improve my character's capability noticeably at this point. I know you call for a cap, but really, the diminishing returns and softcap are incredibly effective. Another 100, 200 million into my main tree is probably not even going to be noticeable.

    So what to do with myself?

    I've watched as nearly every activity I've enjoyed doing or that felt lucrative has been systematically neutered because a handful of people abuse it.
    With the (many) nerfs to siege drops/quest repeatability that kinda killed that as an activity
    With the nerf to mining respawn rates I can't even get my satisfaction doing that anymore

    Trying to go farm - anything - (dungeon rooms, artifacts, etc.) you meet the insultingly low drop-chance on absolutely everything and no measurable progress to be made in play session after play session.

    At some point, I just lacked the motivation to get back into that hamster wheel.

    Its discouraging to see that the new stuff that's being added is geared at a very small % of the population who needed something harder to do than soloing bosses. I feel like Despair and Tartarus are completely pointless. We went and cleared through them and guess what, got nothing for it but a bunch of hassle. We don't need bigger, harder dungeons full of nuisance mobs that nobody wants to deal with. I had high hopes for the new mining area, but death metal slimes? Seriously? NOBODY wants to fight those, they are a pain in the ass for all but a handful of builds and even then, they are still a pain in the ass, with bad loot, and who is going to want to deal with that crap while trying to mine? I walked in, got nearly two-shot by one of those right in the entrance from Savenroc, and walked right back out. I feel like high level content has become all about making players dance around stuff that can obliterate them in a couple of hits despite high end gear, level 120-140 skills, etc, and the rewards are no better than just grinding tier 5. But I think after 9k hours of grinding tier 5, I've had enough.

    For me to come back, I need to be able to make meaningful progress toward a goal during my play session.
    I either need to be able to unlock something, finish something, achieve something, or make some sort of incremental progress toward something.
    Logging on and "hoping I'll get lucky today" well....I can't get past the login screen. I want to, and I miss my friends, and I've been making an effort to show up for our weekly guild stuff, but there's just no motivation for me to go out and do stuff by myself.
     
  19. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    Read all here and agree with a lot of it. I deleted a few that were just not constructive or contained personal attacks. Many of the problems described will be fixed with more players. Most of the others are just things that can be fixed with a few more devs. If we get the players, we can get the devs so thanks to all of those who still support us and are working to bring new people into the game. Believing we can get from an unpolished gem to an amazing game is really a matter of getting people to understand it can happen. Very much a self fulfilling prophecy. Hopefully some of you standing on the sidelines will return with some of the upcoming bug changes and fixes.
     
  20. Beaumaris

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    Better loot, better crafting, better bosses …. other games already excel at these ... they are not the features by which SOTA will 'fix something' and 'win' substantially more market share.

    To capture more market share, SOTA needs to further differentiate itself from a market that already has loot, crafting, and bosses in spades.

    To find that differentiator, SOTA needs to go back to its roots and focus on core themes that will help it 'pop' in the market.

    I'd offer that these themes might reside in the legend of the Avatar and the Virtues.

    Granted, SOTA has initial game play built around a story of Truth, Love, and Courage. But then it ends. 40 hours, and its done. After, the Oracle is mostly just … a dud.

    How about game mechanics that make Truth, Love and Courage real metrics that the players can influence and min/max? With pros and cons for that? A real destiny from that?

    How about PVP mechanics that separate players based on virtue factions? Bringing more team play meaning to the PVP zones? And a reason to hold the in the name of virtue, or chaos?

    How about making Lord British and DarkStarr have real meaning in game around those factions?

    I bet this community could brainstorm a great many of things that would be fun game play around this. Yet there is no focus on it at all.

    Now that would be game play. Game play that would pop. Different than other competing MMOs in the market.

    That should be the vision. Not more 'techie' stuff like Lua. Lua will not attract market share. It will just appease a few 'techies' here.

    Development priorities are misplaced yet again. And this is the reason that SOTA loses players originally attracted to its core theme.

    The heart and soul of the game world lore is dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. It just hits a dead end. Bring that back, and maybe you have something.

    Give us a reason to live in New Britannia that makes it feel different from just a …. sand box …. now with Lua... and may be you will attract more players and start to claw back market share.

    Players didn't back this game for stuff like Lua. That's just a small bell and whistle. Focus on the core. That is where the heart and soul of the game is crying out for life. Come on.
     
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