What I wish I knew as a new player.

Greetings Avatars

Over the recent holidays I completed the Shroud quests. Which was something I didn't fully understand until around 6 months after starting to play regularly. I knew there was some kind of main quest for the Shroud, like in the name of the game.
With the state of the Journal and issues/bugs with some quests themselves I found I needed to go to external sources like this forum and the wiki. And then found the best source. Streamers and people in game watching them.
I think this is the best part of the game. People have helped me learn so many things. Managing skills, understanding combat and gear, help with finishing quests. And most of all just having fun.
I do wish I would have gotten more social early on instead of waiting till I had more questions than answers.
Now it seems every time I'm playing I am also watching one of a dozen Shroud streamers. Doesn't matter if they are grinding xp or fishing or crafting high level gear or even just decorating a house.
The people in game make it a better game. From the high end expert crafters, who by the way I feel should always have an advantage over any random loot drop. To the newb players just starting in the Outskirts, who I think should be assisted towards getting the row deed thus getting into an in game town sooner.
Once you drop those roots the game gets to a new level.

Thanks for being here hope to see you in Bard's Rest sometime.
vulcanjedi

 

Thanks for posting your experience!! Much appreciated!

 

The quests, sadly, are basically abandonware. Ive played since 2013 and will likely never have a shroud. I have a hard time even going through the outskirts scenes just to get the free deed for my alts. I just cant tolerate the experience, mostly cuz of my starry eyed dreams of playing another online garriot game are still waiting to be reality.

Plus the shroud is ugly AF. My Avatar looks way to cool to wear that thing.

Luckily SOTA is pretty darn cool in just about every other way Ill just go play the occasional offline RPG now and then when I want an immersive story, and Ill come back to my beloved Medieval Sims when Ive had enough fiction

My advice to new players: dont grind (except maybe for silver...), its not really worth it. Slowly collecting deco over time is where its at

 

Agree with @Black Tortoise , don't rush to level. Or you'll end up as one of those high level but disgruntled avatars impatiently waiting for more high end content

belated welcome to SOTA!

 

I started the first free week that was offered, I had been following ALL the game updates and all of the crowd funding drama. I remember the tutorial on the Isle of Storms then getting dropped into Solace Bridge. I think it was a year later during the next free period when I finally got to Solace Outskirts and was pretty confused. I ended up on the overland map and lost and dying in many places.
Then I saw the offer for a limited signed box set and when I got that loaded up the game and continued.
Made my way back to Soltown and eventually back to the outskirts and was working quests for all three at the same time.
In the beginning I was grinding and selling to get gold for the starter gear. And for a while upgrading when any loot seemed to have better stats than my current gear. I ended up with so many quests available I was just doing in random order.
Then I started watching the friday dev stream and heard about the quests being fixed and I was able to concentrate on one which happened to be Highvale Outskirts. It only took a day or 2 working around the quest bugs, which were mostly having to leave and renter the zone to finish and get the banner.
Went back to Solace Outskirts and was able to finish that real quick but then had problems collecting rewards. Don't remember exactly how but re typing a lot of dialog I finally got the deed. Which also happened back at Highvale

Anyway even with all that grinding for 4 or 5 months I wasn't at a high level. Every skill I had unlocked was set to increase. Learned to fix that by watching streamers. Also learned how to match skills with gear. Got my defense up and learned to run fast and only fight what I had to.

Seriously though I am pretty happy with the experience so far. I am still having fun. I do keep up with the forums here and understand the issues people are going through. I wouldn't be playing any game that became a chore. I think I just hit level 86. I am almost always watching someone stream while playing so when I am grinding away gathering or refining I have other conversations going on.

I see a lot more dev interaction now with Atos and some of the high level players and all the constructive criticism and get the feeling of what is actively being worked on. I have been in Computer Engineering for 30 years as support and QA/DEV for all kinds of IT. Front and back end optimization and analytics and user experience. I spend all day installing and fixing network problems. No way I would come home and sit in front of a computer trying to play something that was broke

These are just my opinions at the moment. They have a lot to do with the people I currently interact with in game on a regular basis. They make it better and easier to really like this game.

Stop in Bard's Rest sometime

 

Thanks for sticking it out @vulcanjedi !

Been around almost from the very beginning and I'm still learning things about the game

 

so max every skill/craft, make/join guild, RP in spindle-somethingorother, make phoenix fail videos, re-enact leroy jenkins greatest feat(fail), pvp in rusty loots, login and let cats play?