Its funny a few months ago people were listing these up and coming games saying what a great time it is going to be in this industry....Slowly, one by one, these games are falling apart and dont appear to be any better than what was already out there.....This is why many of us dont fall for the hype and dont scream "here take my hundred dollars" before these games are even released.
Yep. If there is one ting SotA has done, it's ensure I NEVER give money to an early access game again.
If if you want to get paid, release the damn thing!
SotA is an MMO being made on a shoestring budget. There will be compromises. If those don't fit what you prefer, go elsewhere.
They're trying to make a computer game with stone knives and bearskins......
Ah, you're from Austin, TX. I should have known.
You guys really know how to circle the wagons when you're feeling threatened, yes?
I have a theory that the higher the pledge/investment, the closer to Portalarium the person lives.
I'm going to have to get back in the forums and start mapping that out.
Is there any argument about what I said? The budget of SotA is less than one month's profit for Blizzard. Probably less than one month's income for WoW alone.
It's not going to compete against the AAA type games. It's pretty niche, and some of the game abstractions aren't going to appeal everyone. That's par for the course though.
Oh, and for your survey, I'm not monetarily invested in the game at this point.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Performance is unplayably bad in big cities its almost unbelievable considering how basic and bland these towns look. Its sad when you look at a game like Assassins Creed or Dying Light that can pull off almost endless city scapes with impossible amounts of high rez detail and complex shading shadows and lighting at 80 Plus frames per second.
I simply dont understand why they chose the Unity engine, its quite possibly the worst possible choice for a game with any kind of expanse, unless you have REALLY good coders who can rewrite most of their rendering engine.
Im kind of terrified for Pantheon for choosing this engine we will just have to wait and see with them.
Once again, my congratulations to Markus Rohringer
Looking forward to your coverage of other titles. In as far as the site is concerned? I sincerely hope this continues and expands. As previously stated, had given up entirely on reading mmorpg.com reviews.. be they biased, directed at a low IQ/young age audience or both, they were ludicrous or superficial at best.
Very very happy to see this one writer stand out. Hopefully more (yes, i mean new ones, have had enough of Bill and his ilk, SWTOR is awesome, AoC is awesome, every new MMO also has something awesome, now every new single player RPG too is awesome or has something awesome) new blood will come to write here.
Yeah. Shoestring budget? Really? Yet another smokescreen from Portalarium duping the weak-minded into thinking that.
You are right that games like WoW have bigger budgets. However, WoW doesn't hold monthly telethons with whales sinking thousands of dollars into them. WoW doesn't have a store with items in the hundreds and thousands of dollars. WoW doesn't have their community creating music for the game and assets for the world. They raked in 10 million so far and a significant portion of their game assets weren't even created by them. And then there's Unity. More assets created by someone else. Just look in the Unity Asset Store. Portlarium didn't even try and hide the fact that many of the models used in the game were taken from there without hardly a modification. Look at the trees in the SotA store and then look at the trees in the Unity Store. Some are identical. If I was to guess, I'd say 20% of the game was created by them with the rest coming from somewhere else. I don't know what they did with the 10+ million, but they certainly didn't put it back into this game.
Vacations? Richard's next trip into space? He should stay there next time.
And then there's Unity. More assets created by someone else. Just look in the Unity Asset Store. Portlarium didn't even try and hide the fact that many of the models used in the game were taken from there without hardly a modification. Look at the trees in the SotA store and then look at the trees in the Unity Store. Some are identical.
Knowing a tree is part of an asset pack isn't going to ruin a game for me; what will is poorly thought out game mechanics and a pay to win store.
Isn't the whole point of the Unity Asset Store to get access to a large number of pre-rendered assets so you don't have to reinvent the wheel? Why pay artists to spend months rendering common background objects which most people give no more than a passing glance?
And then there's Unity. More assets created by someone else. Just look in the Unity Asset Store. Portlarium didn't even try and hide the fact that many of the models used in the game were taken from there without hardly a modification. Look at the trees in the SotA store and then look at the trees in the Unity Store. Some are identical.
Knowing a tree is part of an asset pack isn't going to ruin a game for me; what will is poorly thought out game mechanics and a pay to win store.
Isn't the whole point of the Unity Asset Store to get access to a large number of pre-rendered assets so you don't have to reinvent the wheel? Why pay artists to spend months rendering common background objects which most people give no more than a passing glance?
That's not the point.
Other developers create their own assets. Some create their own game engines. Portalarium did none of that. Much of that 10 million was freed up by using Unity, buying assets, and allowing their community to create assets for them.
I think it would be really interesting to see how much $$$ PER EMPLOYEE, the game costs in comparison to other games. I think it would be an eye opener. In fact, I think it would be interesting to see for any game calling themselves "indie". I have a sneaking suspicion that indie developers are making a shit ton of money while delivering a shit ton of nothing. Best kept secret for wealth building in the gaming industry?
Where is the 10 million + telethon spoils + POT purchases ($900+) + store purchases going? Certainly not into building a quality game, that's for sure.
IMO, a LOT of people bought a bottle of snake oil...they just haven't figured it out yet.
Backer here. I agree this should not have gone persistent with no more wipes. Crafting makes no sense (60 logs for one longbow - 20 animal skins leather chest armor, not to mention the specialty materials). There isn't a story yet. Towns are just carbon copies of others with warnings stating such ("this town is under construction and is based of default model"). And now they drastically decreased the loot tables and the prices that vendors except the "vendor trash" items. I wouldn't mind any of this since this is pre release, but I don't consider it a pre release if you are calling it persistent.
I think that what this game really shows is that Garriott is not the visionary that he was twenty years ago. He had one great idea and capitalized on it and since then he's been rehashing themes on that idea.
It's like the one hit wonder pop star who has all of this other music, but it's all pretty bland and tasteless compared to that one magical song that everyone still plays 20 years later.
Seeing what has transpired here, it seems like he's trapped in time.
Performance is unplayably bad in big cities its almost unbelievable considering how basic and bland these towns look. Its sad when you look at a game like Assassins Creed or Dying Light that can pull off almost endless city scapes with impossible amounts of high rez detail and complex shading shadows and lighting at 80 Plus frames per second.
I simply dont understand why they chose the Unity engine, its quite possibly the worst possible choice for a game with any kind of expanse, unless you have REALLY good coders who can rewrite most of their rendering engine.
Im kind of terrified for Pantheon for choosing this engine we will just have to wait and see with them.
Unity is fine for single player games, even ok for multiplayer games.
But mmorpg - ugh just no, the scalability is just not there, unity was not designed for massively multiplayer at all.
Performance is unplayably bad in big cities its almost unbelievable considering how basic and bland these towns look. Its sad when you look at a game like Assassins Creed or Dying Light that can pull off almost endless city scapes with impossible amounts of high rez detail and complex shading shadows and lighting at 80 Plus frames per second.
I simply dont understand why they chose the Unity engine, its quite possibly the worst possible choice for a game with any kind of expanse, unless you have REALLY good coders who can rewrite most of their rendering engine.
Im kind of terrified for Pantheon for choosing this engine we will just have to wait and see with them.
Unity is fine for single player games, even ok for multiplayer games.
But mmorpg - ugh just no, the scalability is just not there, unity was not designed for massively multiplayer at all.
I was one that invested heavily when SOTA was first introduced, thankfully it became clear very early on that it was not going to be anything like it should be. The only thing they have done right is allow those that bought into it to resell that which they bought. So I got most of my money back and now sit only with a $45 account and am satisfied.
To those above asking about refunds I recommend you head over to the forums and find someone who wants what you got and sell it.
Performance is unplayably bad in big cities its almost unbelievable considering how basic and bland these towns look. Its sad when you look at a game like Assassins Creed or Dying Light that can pull off almost endless city scapes with impossible amounts of high rez detail and complex shading shadows and lighting at 80 Plus frames per second.
I simply dont understand why they chose the Unity engine, its quite possibly the worst possible choice for a game with any kind of expanse, unless you have REALLY good coders who can rewrite most of their rendering engine.
Im kind of terrified for Pantheon for choosing this engine we will just have to wait and see with them.
Unity is fine for single player games, even ok for multiplayer games.
But mmorpg - ugh just no, the scalability is just not there, unity was not designed for massively multiplayer at all.
Sounds like Starr Long may have screwed up again then. Not enough money to overcome bad choice of engine. Although I suspect the original Ultima (not online) focus may have made that seem like a doable proposition.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Performance is unplayably bad in big cities its almost unbelievable considering how basic and bland these towns look. Its sad when you look at a game like Assassins Creed or Dying Light that can pull off almost endless city scapes with impossible amounts of high rez detail and complex shading shadows and lighting at 80 Plus frames per second.
I simply dont understand why they chose the Unity engine, its quite possibly the worst possible choice for a game with any kind of expanse, unless you have REALLY good coders who can rewrite most of their rendering engine.
Im kind of terrified for Pantheon for choosing this engine we will just have to wait and see with them.
Unity is fine for single player games, even ok for multiplayer games.
But mmorpg - ugh just no, the scalability is just not there, unity was not designed for massively multiplayer at all.
Thats because they didnt want to spend a lot of money on Unreal 4 or building their own engine.
One can afford to spend 20M to take a trip into space, but needs crowdfunding to mak a cheap ridiculously priced cash shop Indie game.
I don't know about you guys, but it tells me pretty much everything I need to know.
Spending half his fortune (and having the economy then crash) to go into space didn't make sense to me, but hey, that's not confined to Garriott's behavior.
Curt Schilling discovered that investing far more of his own money doesn't always make things work.
There are tons of 'indie' developers who are just now discovering that it's not easy to make a cheap MMO.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
One can afford to spend 20M to take a trip into space, but needs crowdfunding to mak a cheap ridiculously priced cash shop Indie game.
I don't know about you guys, but it tells me pretty much everything I need to know.
Spending half his fortune (and having the economy then crash) to go into space didn't make sense to me, but hey, that's not confined to Garriott's behavior.
Curt Schilling discovered that investing far more of his own money doesn't always make things work.
There are tons of 'indie' developers who are just now discovering that it's not easy to make a cheap MMO.
First the problem is Indie developers. They are Great at writing lines of code but totally garbage at debugging, error handling and tuning any code. For example I worked with a India development company for I will not name that had problems with Java Garbage collection and understanding how it works and how to implement this. Now I am not a Programmer, I am a Sr. Windows Engineer who has worked very closely with hundreds of developers. I took this Java Program to one of our US Developers and in 2 weeks he had the JAva Garbage Collection working without a problem.
Indie developers like I say are great at writing lines of code but not at making that code quality. I have had countless run ins with people like this.
The reason why we went to Indie developers? Well when you can pay for a team of 10 to 15 developers for $100k to $200k for the year where as the same developer group in the US cost $1 Million to $2 Million. So when there is a LACK OF FUNDS we go to with the cheap solution.
You can thank the US regulations for that and tax code. US Life Style too. But when you have to sometimes pay an employee payroll tax 5 or 6 times there is a problem. For example, You match as an employer the Employees Federal, State and Local taxes, Plus Soc Sec and Medicare the Dollars really add up fast. This is why we went Indie but Indie and Cheap are not going to make you quality MMO or games for that matter. Yep It might run ok and look like a 20 year old game while at it.
One can afford to spend 20M to take a trip into space, but needs crowdfunding to mak a cheap ridiculously priced cash shop Indie game.
I don't know about you guys, but it tells me pretty much everything I need to know.
Spending half his fortune (and having the economy then crash) to go into space didn't make sense to me, but hey, that's not confined to Garriott's behavior.
Curt Schilling discovered that investing far more of his own money doesn't always make things work.
There are tons of 'indie' developers who are just now discovering that it's not easy to make a cheap MMO.
First the problem is Indie developers. They are Great at writing lines of code but totally garbage at debugging, error handling and tuning any code. For example I worked with a India development company for I will not name that had problems with Java Garbage collection and understanding how it works and how to implement this. Now I am not a Programmer, I am a Sr. Windows Engineer who has worked very closely with hundreds of developers. I took this Java Program to one of our US Developers and in 2 weeks he had the JAva Garbage Collection working without a problem.
Indie developers like I say are great at writing lines of code but not at making that code quality. I have had countless run ins with people like this.
The reason why we went to Indie developers? Well when you can pay for a team of 10 to 15 developers for $100k to $200k for the year where as the same developer group in the US cost $1 Million to $2 Million. So when there is a LACK OF FUNDS we go to with the cheap solution.
You can thank the US regulations for that and tax code. US Life Style too. But when you have to sometimes pay an employee payroll tax 5 or 6 times there is a problem. For example, You match as an employer the Employees Federal, State and Local taxes, Plus Soc Sec and Medicare the Dollars really add up fast. This is why we went Indie but Indie and Cheap are not going to make you quality MMO or games for that matter. Yep It might run ok and look like a 20 year old game while at it.
Overseas outsourcing isn't the same as indie. I think painting indie developers with such a broad stroke because you bought cheap labor and got burnt on it isn't fair. I get what you're saying but broad strokes are broad.
Blaming US tax code and regulations for companies not being able to get slave wages for work like progamming is a bit much as well.
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
As bad as things have become for this title, launching now before retail release and allowing the majority of land to be claimed will only bite them in the backside. Archeage lost many subscribers who could not find land and decided why pay a sub for a feature they can not use. I like the idea of having claimable land but the implementation of it in recent years is just terrible.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
Sounds like a been there, done that already type of game.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
There are probably more things I like than dislike about SotA but those dislikes, so far, have prevented it from having it's hooks in me. The biggest problem for me is the "blandness." The texture pallets are pretty dull, the combat feels like it could slow down but feel more impactful and the fact there isn't much racial diversity takes away some fantasy sensibilities (I know this is part of the storyline).
I absolutely love how players are able to tailor their avatar so specifically. I really like how gathering and crafting is not only important but takes time. Though I typically like open and seemless worlds I don't mind the overworld map. Has a unique feel and kind of reminds me of when I played FFII. I really like the card system as a editable middle ground between a large and small pool of abilities.
I'll play it through regardless if it stays the same or not when it's officially launched. As far as the story right now I know they are holding back content on purpose to not ruin the storyline at release.
Comments
If if you want to get paid, release the damn thing!
~~ postlarval ~~
Is there any argument about what I said? The budget of SotA is less than one month's profit for Blizzard. Probably less than one month's income for WoW alone.
It's not going to compete against the AAA type games. It's pretty niche, and some of the game abstractions aren't going to appeal everyone. That's par for the course though.
Oh, and for your survey, I'm not monetarily invested in the game at this point.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
I simply dont understand why they chose the Unity engine, its quite possibly the worst possible choice for a game with any kind of expanse, unless you have REALLY good coders who can rewrite most of their rendering engine.
Im kind of terrified for Pantheon for choosing this engine we will just have to wait and see with them.
Looking forward to your coverage of other titles. In as far as the site is concerned? I sincerely hope this continues and expands. As previously stated, had given up entirely on reading mmorpg.com reviews.. be they biased, directed at a low IQ/young age audience or both, they were ludicrous or superficial at best.
Very very happy to see this one writer stand out. Hopefully more (yes, i mean new ones, have had enough of Bill and his ilk, SWTOR is awesome, AoC is awesome, every new MMO also has something awesome, now every new single player RPG too is awesome or has something awesome) new blood will come to write here.
Pride, honour and purity
Yeah. Shoestring budget? Really? Yet another smokescreen from Portalarium duping the weak-minded into thinking that.
You are right that games like WoW have bigger budgets. However, WoW doesn't hold monthly telethons with whales sinking thousands of dollars into them. WoW doesn't have a store with items in the hundreds and thousands of dollars. WoW doesn't have their community creating music for the game and assets for the world. They raked in 10 million so far and a significant portion of their game assets weren't even created by them. And then there's Unity. More assets created by someone else. Just look in the Unity Asset Store. Portlarium didn't even try and hide the fact that many of the models used in the game were taken from there without hardly a modification. Look at the trees in the SotA store and then look at the trees in the Unity Store. Some are identical. If I was to guess, I'd say 20% of the game was created by them with the rest coming from somewhere else. I don't know what they did with the 10+ million, but they certainly didn't put it back into this game.
Vacations? Richard's next trip into space? He should stay there next time.
~~ postlarval ~~
Knowing a tree is part of an asset pack isn't going to ruin a game for me; what will is poorly thought out game mechanics and a pay to win store.
Isn't the whole point of the Unity Asset Store to get access to a large number of pre-rendered assets so you don't have to reinvent the wheel? Why pay artists to spend months rendering common background objects which most people give no more than a passing glance?
No one has been willing to touch that with a 10 foot pole and it's an absolute deal breaker for everyone not already in game.
That's not the point.
Other developers create their own assets. Some create their own game engines. Portalarium did none of that. Much of that 10 million was freed up by using Unity, buying assets, and allowing their community to create assets for them.
I think it would be really interesting to see how much $$$ PER EMPLOYEE, the game costs in comparison to other games. I think it would be an eye opener. In fact, I think it would be interesting to see for any game calling themselves "indie". I have a sneaking suspicion that indie developers are making a shit ton of money while delivering a shit ton of nothing. Best kept secret for wealth building in the gaming industry?
Where is the 10 million + telethon spoils + POT purchases ($900+) + store purchases going? Certainly not into building a quality game, that's for sure.
IMO, a LOT of people bought a bottle of snake oil...they just haven't figured it out yet.
~~ postlarval ~~
It's like the one hit wonder pop star who has all of this other music, but it's all pretty bland and tasteless compared to that one magical song that everyone still plays 20 years later.
Seeing what has transpired here, it seems like he's trapped in time.
~~ postlarval ~~
I don't know about you guys, but it tells me pretty much everything I need to know.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Getting others to to fund it is a better investment.
~~ postlarval ~~
To those above asking about refunds I recommend you head over to the forums and find someone who wants what you got and sell it.
Sounds like Starr Long may have screwed up again then. Not enough money to overcome bad choice of engine. Although I suspect the original Ultima (not online) focus may have made that seem like a doable proposition.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Spending half his fortune (and having the economy then crash) to go into space didn't make sense to me, but hey, that's not confined to Garriott's behavior.
Curt Schilling discovered that investing far more of his own money doesn't always make things work.
There are tons of 'indie' developers who are just now discovering that it's not easy to make a cheap MMO.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Indie developers like I say are great at writing lines of code but not at making that code quality. I have had countless run ins with people like this.
The reason why we went to Indie developers? Well when you can pay for a team of 10 to 15 developers for $100k to $200k for the year where as the same developer group in the US cost $1 Million to $2 Million. So when there is a LACK OF FUNDS we go to with the cheap solution.
You can thank the US regulations for that and tax code. US Life Style too. But when you have to sometimes pay an employee payroll tax 5 or 6 times there is a problem. For example, You match as an employer the Employees Federal, State and Local taxes, Plus Soc Sec and Medicare the Dollars really add up fast. This is why we went Indie but Indie and Cheap are not going to make you quality MMO or games for that matter. Yep It might run ok and look like a 20 year old game while at it.
Blaming US tax code and regulations for companies not being able to get slave wages for work like progamming is a bit much as well.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
There are probably more things I like than dislike about SotA but those dislikes, so far, have prevented it from having it's hooks in me. The biggest problem for me is the "blandness." The texture pallets are pretty dull, the combat feels like it could slow down but feel more impactful and the fact there isn't much racial diversity takes away some fantasy sensibilities (I know this is part of the storyline).
I absolutely love how players are able to tailor their avatar so specifically. I really like how gathering and crafting is not only important but takes time. Though I typically like open and seemless worlds I don't mind the overworld map. Has a unique feel and kind of reminds me of when I played FFII. I really like the card system as a editable middle ground between a large and small pool of abilities.
I'll play it through regardless if it stays the same or not when it's officially launched. As far as the story right now I know they are holding back content on purpose to not ruin the storyline at release.