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Looking forward to SOTA
Razimus
Member UncommonPosts: 128
I'm looking forward to SOTA, here are a few reasons why;
1. Lore, they have 2 amazing storytellers on board Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott.
I don't know much about the lore yet, but this bit of possible lore has got me interested, Steampunk society Vs. Magic society. That alone sounds like a very cool idea. Just think, a society that bases their religion, their use of fire, their use of hunting, protection all on magic which unlike real life actually works and is real. Then the clash against an anti-magic society that have invented Tesla type technology with Tesla like towers, perhaps primitive robotic like instruments, electricity. It just makes for an interesting setting. No overkill on the steampunk, still very Medieval setting.
2. Non-Instanced Player Housing.
This only exists in a few games, let me name a few that I can think of off the top of my head. Ultima Online and.... and... I can't think of a single other game that has this, this is an Awesome feature that other MMOs have seriously dropped the ball on, for those that don't know what non-instanced means, it means everyone can see your house, and potentially can walk into it if you leave the door open, you can decorate and everyone can see your decorations, a little thing that gives great power to a game.
3. Innovation, Garriott is the one who perfected such things as NPC schedules, In-Game Weather that affects the players resulting in a wardrobe change, Intelligent NPC monsters who don't just stand there waiting to be killed but acively do things, such as raid cities in stages moving across the land, unique languages, etc, now I don't know how many of these things will be in SOTA I know some of these things already will be in SOTA and perhaps new things we have yet to see.
--- Razimus
Comments
Sadly? The premise was not light-steampunk, it was the king 'Blackthorn' being a friggin android with the guard looking characters looking like tank versions of iron-man, when the medieval setting is destroyed it's no longer a fantasy game, might as well be a sci-fi game at that point, it was a frankenstein looking piece of garbage from the get-go, it was likely designed by people that never played a single player Ultima in their life, thus, the rat-man race among other weird unrelated things, if it launched as planned, it would've been the most un-ultima any game bearing the name had ever been, looked like a poor copy of Everquest or WoW.
SOTA isn't a sci-fi game, it's remains true to medieval fantasy but with a bit of steampunk, no tank-iron-man looking monsters, no king that looks like a borg. What little about it I know it looks like it's the beginning of discovery of electricity and gadgets, and hopefully not in a uo2 cartoony wild-wild-west way.
--- Razimus
Asheron's Call has instanced apartment housing, and some non-instanced housing, I never played it past the beta test, looks like a very antique type of housing with hooks to place minimal inside decorations and only useful to store items.
All SOTA housing will be non-instanced, the decorative options won't be crude indoor hooks, the decorative options will be outside and inside the house within the plot, perhaps not as complex as UO's customizable housing but it's better than Asheron's Call housing, plus SOTA housing can include optional NPC sales vendors to sell stuff for you while your sleeping, just like UO.
I don't know if I'll even get SOTA housing, based on the maintenance fee but I am interested in seeing how fast every plot is taken, as there will be a very limited number of plots available, this type of land rush made UO fun in it's early days. I remember playing in month 2 of UO and easily seeing plots large enough for a large tower, when the plots filled up they became very valuable until trammel, when trammel hit the coveted thousand+ dollar towers and castles became a virtual ghost town, you could almost see a tumbleweed cross the screen as you entered felucca, this won't be an issue with SOTA as it will have a multi-verse type feature like Star Citizen, where you can toggle your play for this or that, but towns will remain persistent, just not persistent when it comes to the players on the screen.
--- Razimus
They continue to add some very nice rewards to each tier of the Kickstarter and the stretch goals in the latest update cover most of the things the players have been asking for. If you haven't checked out the information in a while, consider revisiting before the campaign ends:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0
The player houses will be very limited by the way.
a few thousand basic houses
a few hundred town homes
a few dozen city homes
So it wont take long for them all to go..
Also how you cant think of any other games with non instanced housing is beyond me.. there are infact quite a few games that had and still ahve non instanced housing..
SWG, Darkfall, Mortal Online to name a few..
With SOTA will be totally different as its not an MMORPG.. its a multiplayer game with a eprsistant world that other people interact with..
Still im looking forward to it as I have enjoyed his other games..
The thing that concerns me is that there's about 350 village houses sold. How many villages are there and will the houses be spread apart? Since the housing is rent free, how long until a house is reclaimable and will we end up with several 'dead' villages a few months in as a result?
I was really psyched in the beginning, but the more that's been released, the more it seems far more ambitious than actually doable.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
That's pretty much it regarding the only "few" for the past 13+ years (and those 2 came out fairly recent). I have to agree that I can't think of any game with persistent houses the way it was done in UO. I was big DF and MO proponent but those games were kind of a flop.
Unlike DF and MO, UO was NOT marketed as a "PvP game". I've come to realize it makes a big difference for ones gaming experience as well as the type of people "PvP" marketed games tend to attract.
When first viewing game footage, I have to say I was less than impressed by the graphics(and I'm not graphics obsessed by any means), but you have to remember this is a prototype. To those who say this game is being made by "has-beens", isn't offering anything innovative, or it will be played by people who want to "relive" their childhood: As gamer since UO: The Second Age - to present, this is what I'm looking forward to and what I'm skeptical about:
1. Non-Instanced customizable Housing: Asheron's call, Darkfall, Mortal Online, SWG (that's probably it) do not compare(mind you, 2 of those 4 came out only recently and how many MMORPGs have been created since 1999?).
I do like the 'rent' concept since housing space is limited. My skeptic side is worried about the 'rent free' deeds kickstarters will receive. How much housing space will these people occupy? What if they stop playing?
Also, two of my fondest memories from UO were the days of waiting for a house to "fall" of a player who hasn't logged in for a long time. The PvP and anxiety that ensued over all the loot that could be inside and how one would be able to transport it back safely was FUN. People would pull all nighters waiting HOURS for the house to fall not knowing exactly when. Another issue is who gets to place their house deed(in sometimes very prominent locations) on top of the fallen house first - to top it off house deeds were very expensive and lootable/stealable. Houses were also lootable if you happen to have the owner's key.
All of these elements above created unparalleled adrenaline pumping fun. The risk and reward was tremendous. The highs were euphoric and the lows were devastating. It doesn't sound like these aspects will be options in SotA so it makes me question that although housing is an option, not sure the UO experience will be the same.
2. Skill Based system: Level numbers floating above your head just aren't my thing. I prefer a sandbox game with skill-based progression where your skills only become stronger with use - and if you don't use them, they decrease gradually. The vast majority of MMORPGs are the same level based theme park treadmills - over it. Have been over it for 13+ years. It looks like they're getting it right in this department, and I do like the references of weapon crafting having it's own "skill tree" thus adding variable elements when fighting against people using the same weapons.
3. Persistent World: Again, very few games of the thousands created since 1999 have created anything similar. While Darkfall and Mortal Online attempted to recreate the experience, they flopped in too many other areas to make the game playable (the industry waited way too long to create re-create persistent worlds like these to begin with).
From Richard's explanantion of "mini shards" and having the whole population essentially on one server, this does sound like a very innovative, fresh take on MMORPGs and I appluad them for that. However, I did like seeing town "regulars" back in the day, even though we necessarily didn't interact enough to be considered "friends". For a niche game like this however, the technology sounds interesting.
All the talk about social media does sound a bit gimmicky to me. Yes I could see a feature like that helpful for mass marketed games like WoW, but none of my friends ever played UO back in the day and I just doubt they or the masses in general will be flocking to SotA, so how useful will this really be?
4. Open PvP: Open PvP is rarely if ever seen in games. One thing that sets UO apart is that it was NOT marketed as a "PvP game". This indeed makes a huge difference. Darkfall, Mortal Online, Shadowbane ect.. simply do not compare because they're all "PvP games" with a generally "dark" themes which tends to attract more griefers than in a game like UO.
While I generally don't care much about Lore, I'm looking forward to an open pvp game that isn't blatantly marketing itself as such (no blood, demons or war on box/website covers, no crosshairs in your face throughout your whole gaming experience ala Darkfall). Yes it's an option but not the entire focal point. I think they're getting it right here.
And the best form of open world housing in an MMO too I might add.
I thought SOTA wasnt an MMO so why is houing even an option?
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!