Worries about the end Product.

Oh I think I came accross wrong, By forced PVP I meant that both players have to agree before it occurs, I'd much rather run half the map find a player and slaughter them but that is just my opinion.

 

There wil be actual PvP, not just duels or arena fights. Hunt away!

 

Again, I'm meaning you can only kill a player on this quest/in this zone as they've stated, that sadly is very different to running up to an unsuspecting player and killing them.

 

I've been thinking some time about common mistakes new MMO-esque games make. Guess I'll post them here:

Logon:
Sometimes games lock you out the login server because you
a) got stuck in-game, then
2) got kicked from the server, and now
c) Cannot log in because the game thinks you're already logged in. UNTIL A SERVER RESET.
Solution: Make subsequent attempts to login (with proper credentials) boot the instance of the logged-in player.

Logon Server queues
This sucks, especially if you're trying to play 'Single Player Online' like Diablo 3. I cannot tell you the rage I felt having spent $60, downloaded the game, and then not being able to play because Blizzard's servers were full. Eff that, yo. I stopped playing that game after about 2 weeks.

Skills/UI:
Ability lag.
I've seen it in every MMO I've ever beta-tested. The abilities lag. You hit them, and they do nothing for about 1.5 seconds. It always gets fixed, like, in a few weeks, but it should never have been there. Don't be that game.

 

We have no idea how PvP works. That's why there are hundreds of threads asking about it and giving ideas.
All we know is the the desingers concidered the PK mechanics in UO to be toxic and want to give people some way to opt out of it. Everything beyond that is speculation.

 

Just wanted to say that this doesn't worry my at all. In fact, in any "traditional" MMO today you will always see just a limited amount of players.
UO has today how many shards? 10? So you will see about 1/10th of the population on your shard.
Other MMOs (LOTRO, DDO, Neverwinter...) not only spread the population over a number of servers, but they also have "instances" within the same server, so for example in DDO I could be on 1 out of 10 servers in 1 out of 15 instances of the marketplace, thus seeing about the 0.7% of the total amount of players.

 

Im missing the fantasy part of it!

 

You're welcome. *wink* @blaquerogue

 

The devs are doing a fine job of looking at what people want. In fact, this is one of the only games where players actually can have real input into how the game turns out. Compare how Everquest Next is being made to this game. No offence, but asking for things like "more playable races" shows that you don't really know much about this game and that you are trapped in a generic MMO mindset. The devs have made amazing progress for a game that is only a few months old. Have faith, all will be revealed in good time

 

This would suck. Sure, the backers get the drm-free offline game, but any attempt to go online will absolutely suck if they aren't prepared on the technical side of things. Load testing, load testing, load testing. If the performance of these forums are any indication, this would not bode well for launch. But we'll see. Let's see how prepared they are for even the first early release

 

Comparing the performance of the forums to the expected performance of the finished game is not a good comparison. I have had no issues with these forums at all and you have to remember that the dev team are doing amazingly well with the tiny budget they have.

 

Someone has obviously not tried loading the forums when the scene jams are on.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong. I think they've done amazingly well with the budget they have, but that doesn't mean I don't have issues with the main website / forum performance. They've definitely improved this since the beginning, so it's good that they're looking at it to some degree and making some gains in this area. But personally, I don't think it's an area of focus for them yet so I'm hoping they do make time for even more improvements in the future.

I grant that I may be more sensitive to this issue than others due to my line of work, which deals directly with performance and scale of customer facing services. Having said that, the performance of website and forums wouldn't pass the quality bar where I work. And their game/server infrastructure is likely much more complex than their website.

But we're not there yet. They still have some ways to go to test this, there will be hiccups and they'll need as many of us to help load test the thing as possible. Hoping to do my part to make sure we have a smooth official launch!

 

For me, one of the biggest appeals of SotA is the promise of “selective multiplayer”.

In recent years I've tried a dozen or so online rpgs and there is one primary reason I stop after an hour or less of play: hectic crowds. People rushing around here and there and everywhere, or all crowded together around the same NPCs for quests or supplies or whatever. Even the so-called “wilderness” areas have an over-populated, worn-out feel about them. Maybe I need to play for longer in these games, get beyond the “beginner” areas? I don't know...

SotA's planned solo online and friends only online modes potentially solve those issues. I can participate in a persistent online world minus the “masses”. I can purchase other player's crafted items and harvested goods, or sell my own via “vendors”. I can see changes to the environment (eg housing) as effected by other players. I can go adventuring alone or with people I already know and trust from “elsewhere" and not feel excessively crowded when doing so. And, if the rare mood strikes me to encounter the "masses", I'll already have a good feel for the game's systems, rather than trying to learn them distracted by countless strangers rushing past.

At least, that's the theory. In practice it may not work very well. We shall see...

 

I worry about combat fluidness. For those that don't understand, refer to the secret world. Incredible game concept, awesome graphics, a unique idea, not to mention i love the walking dead. Crappy combat killed the game.

 

In Fallout, there is food/water etc, as well as bedrolls. You can play in easy mode and pretty much ignore it all; if you play Hardcore you HAVE to find and consume food and water, as well as resting periodically. Maybe something like that could be incorporated - you can choose how hard you want it to be..

 

Sometimes I't's just best to know the game's riged.

 

I'm not going to worry... yet. Of course there are always concerns and things we don;t know about, but for those who have already bought in via Kickstarter or website, we're getting the first "tech demo" or "milestone" or "test release" or "alpha" or whatever you want to call it in about a month from this posting:

RELEASE 1: December 12 – December 14, 2013

• Install / Patching system: Step one for you guys to play the game is for you to download the game and then patch the game. Since this is the first hands on impression of the product, it is critical.
• Login / Registration: Players should be able to log in using their existing accounts and if they have not yet registered, they should be intuitively led to the steps to register.
• Character Creation: Players should be able to create and customize their character. Creation / Customization options for Release 1 will include: name, gender, head shape, skin tone, hair style, hair color, and eye color.
• Single Player Online: All public releases prior to commercial launch will be online only. For Release 1 and 2, it will be constrained to single player online only.
• First Town: Our first town (perhaps Owl’s Head) will be open for business. This is important for testing purposes so we can better tune our performance metrics on real user machines. For Release 1, exiting the town will just funnel you back into the same town (anyone see Groundhog Day?)
• Conversation: Important that players converse with the townsfolk so we can start expanding the dialog system. As you talk to NPCs, we will be tracking your conversations and using them to add more content based on your input.
• Bag Inventory: This is a hot topic in the forums so we want to get it in your hands for feedback on preferences. Immersion vs. ease of use, let the battle begin!
• Equipment: Players will be provided with several chests full of “ph@t lootz” (armor, clothes, weapons, etc.) for trying on for size.
• House Claiming: Players will be able to select a house from the entire list of player houses (even Lord of the Manor!) for free so that we can test out the various size houses on the lots and allow players to test drive the various houses so they can have a better idea of which they ultimately want to own.
• House Decorating: Chests full of furniture and decorative items will be provided so you can stress test the decoration system and try out various styles of interiors. Help us figure out all the ways you can break things! (Look forward to screenshot contests on this!)
• Metrics: All the while you are playing, we will be stress testing our metrics system. This system is critical to maintaining a balanced economy, tracking exploits, and gathering data to improve the experience.

Seems like quite a lot to work with for a two-three day window (wonder if I should take off work). Obviously not a lot in terms of the game as a whole, but it;s a start and will give much better of an answer on if there should be worry or not.

 

Yeah, the scope of the initial release is huge vs the window of opportunity to test it all. And you wait a month for the next release if you miss it. It gets worse if it's a problematic release due to unforseen bugs, network issues, server load, etc, and only like 2 people actually end up getting in to test it. So uhm, yeah, I'm gonna ditch work too.

 

Well I'm guessing it's going to go smoother that, say, healthcare.gov. I am considering taking that Friday off work though!