What is this game going to be like?

Serious question I am really thinking about purchase a package but I would like details about how this game is going to be.

1.) Are there Limits on what a character can do Crafting Wise or can a character just max or do every single thing?

2.) Housing, I am looking at the Store, and I see that players have to buy Land Deeds, and Possibly even House to go on the land or something with founders packs is this going to be a game like Entropia Based around spending Real Life money, or are players going to be able to freely obtain these in the game without having to spend Real Life money?

Also will players own their house or is it going to be something like someone pays $1500 USD for a house in the game or City then another player Rents for in game currency or something where they still actually own the house but can kick you out at any time similar to Entropia, and Ever Quest Next.

3.) Is there going to be Character Customization without having to spend money in a Cash Shop like in Aion to buy lame plastic surgery tickets, or will this be able to freely be done in game or after buying an Unlock pack from in the store like in Rift? I don't mind buying content in a game I just hate when I have to pay every single time I want to change something on my character after I have already paid a bunch of money.

4.) I hear players are going to have to pay Tax to keep land in the game it would be nice if there was an option where players did not have to pay Land Tax for example a Premium subscriber fee which takes care of the Tax as long as the player is subscribed to the game some players have Real Lives and like in Dark Fall Unholy Wars players have to login every single week at least to pay Tax or lose their house which is kinda annoying should something come up in Real Life or they just take a long break.

5.) Is the game going to be Free 2 Play?

When I hear that Richard Garriott was behind the development of this game I actually clicked the ad on MMORPG and checked this out hopefully this will be a future MMO worth playing, would be nice to have some info on the game to know if I should put money into this game or not I mean by the looks of development so far it looks great, but I would really love to know the path the Developers are taking before I buy into the game and regret it as I have 3 other MMO titles lately.

Oh yeah Ex. Tabula Rasa player was a very sad kitty when it went down );.

 

1) that hasn't been totally decided yet...but I think the big limit will be playing time.

2) You can buy in the store now or buy in game with game money...some of the deals with levels of funding give you a rent free lot.

3) As far as I know there will be character customization...not much in yet.

4) There has been no news of a subscriber fee...however you can get tax free lots depending on what level you back.

5) You buy the game and you play...so yes.

BTW Welcome...read the forums, there is lots of good info out there

 

As best I know:

1) There are no "limits" or skill caps. You do not have to worry about allocating your 700 points (as in UO); you could theoretically max out in everything. The developers have however told us that the game will be designed so that to become "adequate" should be fairly easy; to max out in every skill would be a practical impossibility. Maybe if you played 24/7 for a year or so...

2) The housing/deeds sold now are helping to fund the game's development. Once the game starts, there will be lots and houses available for in-game currency (amount and cost not specified yet), but the short answer is yes. Either way, you own your house. No-one can evict you.

3) Character customization is a work in progress. As the game develops expect to see more options available. As far as I am aware all options will be free.

4) The advantage of buying a lot and house NOW, with real money, (ie pledge) is that your land deed is tax free, for life. No tax, ever. If you buy a lot with in-game money (or from the addon store) there will be a tax, in game gold. Amounts not specified yet. It has been suggested that tax levels on ONE property will not be too great; if you own multiple properties the tax will kill you. It has been intimated that you could "lose" your house if you don't log in for like 6 months. Exact terms unknown, but it doesn't sound onerous.

5) Yes. Buy once, play, no subscription.

Look forward to seeing you there!

 

If there is no skill cap in place and your character can learn every skill, what is the point of having multiple characters (ie as offered by some of the pledge levels)?

 

There are indeed limits to how many skills, both adventuring/combat and crafting, can be obtained. No single avatar will be able to max out every combat and crafting skill across all disciplines simultaneously.

The next question is: Is it possible to easily reallocate points? For example, if I max out blacksmithing, can I then immediately reallocate all those points to tailoring? Can I do this repeatedly without penalty? If so, then there's no need for multiple avatars. If not, then there's the impetus...

 

Welcome Roanku. ***majoria curtsies***
re:

#3- character customization- at the last developers hangout found on the home page, Richard Garriott mentioned he wants a barber shop in-game and that you won't have to, if you don't want to, spend a lot of time customizing your character before you jump in the game.

5- the game will be buy to play, when you pledge you are buying depending on which pledge level you chose, 1 game release or all 5. There will be releases approximately 1 a year after release with new land, features, and content.

re: why the need for another character? Some reasons may be, You may want to specialize a character, like having skills set to a warrior verses a mage, a male verses a female, crafter verses non crafter, elf or human, or any other reasons you can think of. ***Also please make note, your reputation stays the same across all your characters, you are accountable for what you do, no matter which character of yours you play, for example if you are of bad karma for bad deeds, all characters are that way. So in that way it doesn't take away from Richards dream of accountability.*** Originally one character was planned, but some wanted more, and then elves were also added due to a big request for them. So your feedback does count by being here. Ideas are not always implemented but many times they are. Feedback is very important, that is why we are here.

re: Tabula Rasa- I did not play it and also didn't know much about it except what I've heard here, but Richard has mentioned there are a couple of things he wants implemented similar from that game, maybe someone else can elaborate or remember what he said on that topic.

We are testing new things that have been added about once a month now for usually 3 days. Later in the year it is stated that we will tester for longer periods.
So at this point a lot of things are not in the game yet, such as; the pet system, much optimization, a lot of the interactivity, most of the land mass, and much more is not there, but it is coming along nicely. Best wishes to you on whatever you decide. ***cheers***

 

Ok.. Whats right now? Cap or no cap?

I hope there is a cap.. Because the other system is for asians only "The more you play, the better you are" just leads to extreme seperation of "progamers" and "normal gamers"... WOW shows us that the "no life" part of a playerbase reaches every goal even the goals designed to be unreachable... Further than that, i hate it when everyone is able to do everything.. "We need a warrior? wait, i switch my skillbar and wear my plate armor. Ah damn, need to visit the bank, just got my cleric/mage/archer/blacksmith stuff on me!"

 

I think an effective cap will take place because each subsequent skill point will require ever increasing amounts of XP. Sooner or later, it may take weeks or months to get an additional skill point.

 

Great minds think alike. Something like EvE probably.

 

I had a thought for how changing skill points could work as well. Once you have earned enough XP to buy another Skill Point, you could use that XP to either buy a new skill point, or remove a skill point. If you had 25 skill points invested, you would then have 24 skill points invested, and you would then earn XP for whatever buying your 25th skill point would cost.

I like the UO system better of just allowing unwanted points to evaporate from a skill, but with the quantum system SotA uses, this would be the next best thing.

Choose wisely when allocating skill points.

 

So are you guys saying that the ability to freely switch around skills that we saw in R8 is strictly for purposes of testing, and it either won't be allowed or there will be some sort of cost to switching skills in the final product?

 

I think the answer is in item 1 of Asclepius' post above. The advantage to a second character could be that it is quicker to get to an 'adequate' level of skill in something new you are interested in than to achieve the same number of additional skill points in your higher level character, due to diminishing returns or harder leveling curves. It remains to be seen though.

 

Yes, pretty sure that's exactly how it will be.

 

Yes I would hope so. <];D

 

In this game multiple characters will be sorta useless, unless they skill cap.

 

As much of a breeze as it would make it, I don't know why they wouldn't.

 

I will have 3 Character, ONe The Port Master,one a mage, one a gatherer/crafter.

 

In Port Phoenix

 

There may not be any skill cap, but Chris the tech lead has said that it doesn't seem very likely we will ever be able to learn every skill in the game because we just don't have enough time in the universe... Not an exact quote.

The idea is we will see some kind of diminishing returns upon reaching higher levels. So a person who is level 20 would be able to be comparable with a person who is level 50. and so on. Although levels 1 through 20 would see a significant change.

Levels are just a way to keep track of skill points, and keep the game from requiring a person to grind a particular skill over and over again. We level up crafting and combat by doing either completing a crafting or a combat related skill. Crafting skills, and Combat skills will have two separate leveling systems so experience in one is different than experience in another.

(So you can master both crafting and combat IF YOU WANT).

 

"Renoaku, post: 228842, member: 119604"]Serious question I am really thinking about purchase a package but I would like details about how this game is going to be.

1.) Are there Limits on what a character can do Crafting Wise or can a character just max or do every single thing?
See my last post

2.) Housing, I am looking at the Store, and I see that players have to buy Land Deeds, and Possibly even House to go on the land or something with founders packs is this going to be a game like Entropia Based around spending Real Life money, or are players going to be able to freely obtain these in the game without having to spend Real Life money?
You can obtain it with in game gold, but property deeds will have a rent upkeep. I'm guessing it probably won't be too high unless you have a city plot. Almost everything purchasable in the store is obtainable in game. Holiday items might not, but if they do what they did in UO I'm sure they will give away FREE gifts around Christmas time just for fun. Pledge rewards no, there will be no way to obtain those in game. Pledge reward items cannot be purchased, and they will likely be rare.

Also will players own their house or is it going to be something like someone pays $1500 USD for a house in the game or City then another player Rents for in game currency or something where they still actually own the house but can kick you out at any time similar to Entropia, and Ever Quest Next.

Not that I'm aware of. There will be player owned towns, where a town owner or guild master will have the ability to kick you off your lot. However the items in your house will never go away. They will still be there when you find another place to place your lot deed, and put your house back on it.

3.) Is there going to be Character Customization without having to spend money in a Cash Shop like in Aion to buy lame plastic surgery tickets, or will this be able to freely be done in game or after buying an Unlock pack from in the store like in Rift? I don't mind buying content in a game I just hate when I have to pay every single time I want to change something on my character after I have already paid a bunch of money.
There have said they will have makover shops. I think the idea is to allow for real gold to do this. It is a gold sink. Keep in mind basically everything except some rare vanity items will be available in game for gold purchase.

4.) I hear players are going to have to pay Tax to keep land in the game it would be nice if there was an option where players did not have to pay Land Tax for example a Premium subscriber fee which takes care of the Tax as long as the player is subscribed to the game some players have Real Lives and like in Dark Fall Unholy Wars players have to login every single week at least to pay Tax or lose their house which is kinda annoying should something come up in Real Life or they just take a long break.
There is a way to avoid paying tax on a property deed. Pledge at citizen or higher, and you will receive a rent free property deed. They have not said that there will be any other means to obtain a rent free deed at this time.

5.) Is the game going to be Free 2 Play?
NO. You buy the game with a one time purchase. It's like $45, so it makes sense to buy it now if you really think you want to play, because you will get alpha and beta access as well as in game access. Higher pledge tiers come with pre purchase of future episodes.

When I hear that Richard Garriott was behind the development of this game I actually clicked the ad on MMORPG and checked this out hopefully this will be a future MMO worth playing, would be nice to have some info on the game to know if I should put money into this game or not I mean by the looks of development so far it looks great, but I would really love to know the path the Developers are taking before I buy into the game and regret it as I have 3 other MMO titles lately.

This will have the MMO experience and a story based game experience that can be played in single player mode if you wish. There will be no question marks and exclamation points over people's heads, and no quest log. You will have a journal that keeps track of converstations that you can refrence. All quests will be infered, but not mandatory. You will have to follow up on these yourself. It won't be quests like go kill the 1st level critters, then come back and go kill the 2nd level critters etc. This will be more story based. There will be long term themes as well so you can continue in the world after you finish the storyline. Also you can make a living as a crafter. Most games require you to be a combatant to level up in the world. In Shoud you can live primarily as a crafter and open up a shop, and have a happy living doing so. Such players will add spice to the game... oh ALL major items in this game will be player crafted. So even the loot on monsters will have been taken from player crafted items that were stolen or recycled in some way. Items will have a makers mark and weapons will have an item history.

Oh yeah Ex. Tabula Rasa player was a very sad kitty when it went down );.
Blame NCSoft for micromanagement and cultural differences that interfered with sound business practices.