Richard, Starr, and Chris will be chatting about Release 10, recounting their favorite moments, and looking ahead to Release 11. Watch the Release 10 Postmortem right here!
28 Comments
Baron Drocis Fondorlatos
What future elements of the combat system will support roleplaying? Can we expect Damage Per Second and Cool Downs to have less impact on combat success in the future? Is that the goal and if so how will we get there?
Baron Drocis Fondorlatos
Example of the importance of Min/Maxing Damage and Cool Downs
There’s currently only ONE Tactic in the combat and magic system, Attack and Heal as much as possible.
There’s currently only ONE Strategy in the combat and magic system, Do more Damage Per Second than your opponent.
This forces “best builds” that require a mixture of Combat and Magic resulting in Hybrid Tank Mages. This forces roleplayers to compromise their backstory for performance and the ability to compete in PVP or PVE.
What are your plans to change this?
AvatarGG
Now that the combat system is mostly balanced, are plans for removing overhead healthbars/hitpoints for R11 or has this feature been postponed indefinitely?
Lord Lonn
Harvesting was a real problem, as an example: when I would log in one instance then go to the next I could see all the harvesting trees “FALL” and they would be zero to harvest. Same for Harvesting Ore
Lord Lonn
If I may about Crafting, I crafted 2 Halberds both from raw materials both were labeled w/my name, stats were
No SSD for strength 0/100
No DMG 0/23
No CRIT 0/3
DURABILITY 0/100
Value 115 Gold
I was pleased it had my name on it and showed it off
Miracle Dragon
I really enjoyed this release, one of the most *fun* yet! so much to do, i was never running around like ‘okay i’ve done everything’ -infact, i didn’t have time to do everything! So much content, and i think keeping the player town number down helped to ensure the towns there are are properly populated.
Scolari79
With more crafting topics showing up can you tell us what is planned for item quality/stats that would make someone stand out as a crafter? What would make someone want to buy my swords over the next crafter. I don’t think we’ll be getting stats on resources to affect the end product like a post I suggested in the crafting forum…
Is there a chance for trainable non combat skills and spells? (telekinesis, hiding, sneaking, pick lock, rune reading, etc.). At the moment my main problem with the game is, that skills are too combat focused…
Is it possible to insert a mouse click and walk system for the overland map and instances? (you click on somewhere on the screen and your Avatar runs there; pathfinding doesn’t have to be perfect; would be a nice addition…)
Carlin the Druid Archer
Yes, I agree with this. Would be nice to see some magic that isn’t related to combat.
That would make it more of a Lord British game in line with the early Ultimas.
Some non-combat magic please
Pk u
Though I like the overland map layout , the wsd is cool but it felt awkward the mouse would be a very welcome alternative.
Also i would request that thr adventuring hexes were 25% bigger they feel a little small.
Bayridge
In relation to the Overland Map, I don’t mind the awsd controls, but I do think if we could use our mouse and get behind our avatar it would be easier to navigate. For example like we do in instances playing (hold down mouse button and turn camera). Release 10 was great, thanks.
SmokerKGB
I’m wondering how far you will be going with the Rottweiler animations plus the Black Cat animations?
I would like to see dogs sitting, heeling, laying down things like that, Cats can do some of the same plus jump up onto high places maybe open doors (the top of the door of course). Dogs pant/bark, Cats Meow/pure.
jiirc
Playing a mage in the last few releases has been trying. Comparing mêlée and mages play styles there are big differences in focus costs and damage. Of the two the damage differences are most glaring. In Ravenswood, it took me an hour to solo it as a mêlée with plate armor and a liche axe. There was almost no downtime. It took me nearly 2 hours to solo it with cloth and magic. Some of it was not being able to stand there and cast, but most of it was due to the lack of damage the mage was able to do. When is the mage going to get some loving and do damage on par with mêlée fighters.
Duke Gréagóir
Please consider adding back in the mouse click to move in the overland map. Plus add in the ability to click in the distance in the normal view so advance. I have a 27″ Table PC with a 1080p touchscreen, these suggestions would help me play with just the touchscreen if I chose to.
Baron Drocis Fondorlatos
The city of Ardoris is fantastic. I love seeing all of the row housing. I’m hoping that much of the larger cities have a large proportion of row housing. However, I also wonder where Town and City lots will fit into cities like this. Will Ardoris have Town and City lots to claim? If so, will they be like Owl’s Head where they’re grouped together, or perhaps more historical where a Lord’s home might be separated and gated from the other houses?
Scolari79
Can we get an option on the world map to select which hex entrance we want to use? N,S,E,W type of options depending on how many were available for the hex.
Baron Drocis Fondorlatos
That’s a great idea. I second that.
Koldar
R10 was great fun. It was the most I have played SotA so far. I left a fairly lengthy feedback post, so I won’t here. But something popped into my head reading your post.
I think another interesting addition to the overland map would be the ability to see how many players are in the hex you are standing on.
Mouse navigation/clicking to enter a hex would also be on my personal wish list, yet I’ll be ok with whatever is decided upon.
amaasing
Oh, My! I’m going through SotA Withdrawal! Wanted to say that I really do like Ardoris and the row housing. I don’t think there is a need for Town and/or City lots in that environment – would seem out of place with the character of the City. I ended up buying one of the row houses and love it. Gave up a Water Lot to get it and don’t have any regrets. Now for my question: Since the Row Housing in Ardoris is a little different than purchasing a lot and then getting the deed in order to place a house, I was wondering if we can purchase the Add On Row Basement for these Row Houses as well? That would make these even more attractive, I would think. At any rate, if the answer is YES, then I am off to purchase my basement today. Thanks for a fun weekend.
Wilfred
Could streets be updated to show more difference between main thoroughfares, side streets, and alleys? It would be nice if cities and towns had a network of main roads that clearly lead from the exits to the market and other points of interest. Sometimes the main roads leading into town seem to suddenly end or become side streets. So when I am heading towards the center of a town I get lost and end up in a back alley or corner. Also, will street signs be added?
Carlin the Druid Archer
Yes great idea!
My_T_Tas_T
Because of a lot of crashing problems I was not able to complete the quest for the special gift hat. Will it be given to those affected by crashes?
I enjoyed the Tour Guide experience very much in this release. Great job on the polishing as usual!
(Question)
Without giving too much away, storywise, would it be possible to add a sidequest of tour guides for other parts of the area that would benefit a new player in finding other locations that they normally would know nothing about. Such as the bandit cave, or dragons cave, etc. <- just a secondary thing to the current tour guide idea of course.
Carlin the Druid Archer
QUESTION #1:
What will be happening add to the ‘atmosphere’ in the game. At the moment the cities feel a bit lifeless and are missing such things as children running around, people going about their day.
* I think L.B. has said in the past that he doesn’t want to just add NPCs etc that don’t have a purpose, but atmosphere is a purpose in itself.
Carlin the Druid Archer
Question #1: Special Arrows (crafting arrows)
I’m very interested to hear how ‘special arrows’ will be treated – e.g. poison arrows, magic arrows etc.
Will they be a separate ‘stack’ you need to drop on to your character?
Will there be a way to quickly ‘change’ arrows if you want to use one of your magic/poison etc arrows?
p.s. When can we craft our own arrows! * Keeping stocked in arrows was a chore in R10 if you burn through them like me
GMDavros
I agree! As an archer, i found myself always in need of arrows. Crafting them would be a great help!
Pk u
Better be able to craft our own arrows also a big fan of a variety of different arrows and thier benifits
Spoon
So with 8 point star of magic with schools being friends to the one next to it , and with the combosystem etc. it really stands out that Moon magic is in such a bad state that it will drag down Air and Water with it.
Without any damage dealing at all moon magic will be shunned by most. I mean even Life magic have a damage dealer vs undead.
None of the proposed spells we can see in the dev notes and sotawiki are repeat (SPAM) spells. So when there is benefits to add multiple glyphs for all the other schools, there is no point in having more than one of each moon magic.
Why not have, shard arrow or somesuch, or heaven forbid [pun] meteor strike would be most fitting. Maybe a lesser summoning of wolves?
It doesn’t detract from the stealth theme. Or if you want to build on the stealth theme, how about mines and ticking bombs. Sneak up – leave a present – sneak away – piff – muhahahahaha…
And it seems like Sun have counters to Moon, but moon has no counters vs sun.
Don’t you have anyone in the office who sometimes howls at the moon who could give it some love?
What future elements of the combat system will support roleplaying? Can we expect Damage Per Second and Cool Downs to have less impact on combat success in the future? Is that the goal and if so how will we get there?
Example of the importance of Min/Maxing Damage and Cool Downs
There’s currently only ONE Tactic in the combat and magic system, Attack and Heal as much as possible.
There’s currently only ONE Strategy in the combat and magic system, Do more Damage Per Second than your opponent.
This forces “best builds” that require a mixture of Combat and Magic resulting in Hybrid Tank Mages. This forces roleplayers to compromise their backstory for performance and the ability to compete in PVP or PVE.
What are your plans to change this?
Now that the combat system is mostly balanced, are plans for removing overhead healthbars/hitpoints for R11 or has this feature been postponed indefinitely?
Harvesting was a real problem, as an example: when I would log in one instance then go to the next I could see all the harvesting trees “FALL” and they would be zero to harvest. Same for Harvesting Ore
If I may about Crafting, I crafted 2 Halberds both from raw materials both were labeled w/my name, stats were
No SSD for strength 0/100
No DMG 0/23
No CRIT 0/3
DURABILITY 0/100
Value 115 Gold
I was pleased it had my name on it and showed it off
I really enjoyed this release, one of the most *fun* yet! so much to do, i was never running around like ‘okay i’ve done everything’ -infact, i didn’t have time to do everything! So much content, and i think keeping the player town number down helped to ensure the towns there are are properly populated.
With more crafting topics showing up can you tell us what is planned for item quality/stats that would make someone stand out as a crafter? What would make someone want to buy my swords over the next crafter. I don’t think we’ll be getting stats on resources to affect the end product like a post I suggested in the crafting forum…
Is there a chance for trainable non combat skills and spells? (telekinesis, hiding, sneaking, pick lock, rune reading, etc.). At the moment my main problem with the game is, that skills are too combat focused…
Is it possible to insert a mouse click and walk system for the overland map and instances? (you click on somewhere on the screen and your Avatar runs there; pathfinding doesn’t have to be perfect; would be a nice addition…)
Yes, I agree with this. Would be nice to see some magic that isn’t related to combat.
That would make it more of a Lord British game in line with the early Ultimas.
Some non-combat magic please
Though I like the overland map layout , the wsd is cool but it felt awkward the mouse would be a very welcome alternative.
Also i would request that thr adventuring hexes were 25% bigger they feel a little small.
In relation to the Overland Map, I don’t mind the awsd controls, but I do think if we could use our mouse and get behind our avatar it would be easier to navigate. For example like we do in instances playing (hold down mouse button and turn camera). Release 10 was great, thanks.
I’m wondering how far you will be going with the Rottweiler animations plus the Black Cat animations?
I would like to see dogs sitting, heeling, laying down things like that, Cats can do some of the same plus jump up onto high places maybe open doors (the top of the door of course). Dogs pant/bark, Cats Meow/pure.
Playing a mage in the last few releases has been trying. Comparing mêlée and mages play styles there are big differences in focus costs and damage. Of the two the damage differences are most glaring. In Ravenswood, it took me an hour to solo it as a mêlée with plate armor and a liche axe. There was almost no downtime. It took me nearly 2 hours to solo it with cloth and magic. Some of it was not being able to stand there and cast, but most of it was due to the lack of damage the mage was able to do. When is the mage going to get some loving and do damage on par with mêlée fighters.
Please consider adding back in the mouse click to move in the overland map. Plus add in the ability to click in the distance in the normal view so advance. I have a 27″ Table PC with a 1080p touchscreen, these suggestions would help me play with just the touchscreen if I chose to.
The city of Ardoris is fantastic. I love seeing all of the row housing. I’m hoping that much of the larger cities have a large proportion of row housing. However, I also wonder where Town and City lots will fit into cities like this. Will Ardoris have Town and City lots to claim? If so, will they be like Owl’s Head where they’re grouped together, or perhaps more historical where a Lord’s home might be separated and gated from the other houses?
Can we get an option on the world map to select which hex entrance we want to use? N,S,E,W type of options depending on how many were available for the hex.
That’s a great idea. I second that.
R10 was great fun. It was the most I have played SotA so far. I left a fairly lengthy feedback post, so I won’t here. But something popped into my head reading your post.
I think another interesting addition to the overland map would be the ability to see how many players are in the hex you are standing on.
Mouse navigation/clicking to enter a hex would also be on my personal wish list, yet I’ll be ok with whatever is decided upon.
Oh, My! I’m going through SotA Withdrawal! Wanted to say that I really do like Ardoris and the row housing. I don’t think there is a need for Town and/or City lots in that environment – would seem out of place with the character of the City. I ended up buying one of the row houses and love it. Gave up a Water Lot to get it and don’t have any regrets. Now for my question: Since the Row Housing in Ardoris is a little different than purchasing a lot and then getting the deed in order to place a house, I was wondering if we can purchase the Add On Row Basement for these Row Houses as well? That would make these even more attractive, I would think. At any rate, if the answer is YES, then I am off to purchase my basement today. Thanks for a fun weekend.
Could streets be updated to show more difference between main thoroughfares, side streets, and alleys? It would be nice if cities and towns had a network of main roads that clearly lead from the exits to the market and other points of interest. Sometimes the main roads leading into town seem to suddenly end or become side streets. So when I am heading towards the center of a town I get lost and end up in a back alley or corner. Also, will street signs be added?
Yes great idea!
Because of a lot of crashing problems I was not able to complete the quest for the special gift hat. Will it be given to those affected by crashes?
I enjoyed the Tour Guide experience very much in this release. Great job on the polishing as usual!
(Question)
Without giving too much away, storywise, would it be possible to add a sidequest of tour guides for other parts of the area that would benefit a new player in finding other locations that they normally would know nothing about. Such as the bandit cave, or dragons cave, etc. <- just a secondary thing to the current tour guide idea of course.
QUESTION #1:
What will be happening add to the ‘atmosphere’ in the game. At the moment the cities feel a bit lifeless and are missing such things as children running around, people going about their day.
* I think L.B. has said in the past that he doesn’t want to just add NPCs etc that don’t have a purpose, but atmosphere is a purpose in itself.
Question #1: Special Arrows (crafting arrows)
I’m very interested to hear how ‘special arrows’ will be treated – e.g. poison arrows, magic arrows etc.
Will they be a separate ‘stack’ you need to drop on to your character?
Will there be a way to quickly ‘change’ arrows if you want to use one of your magic/poison etc arrows?
p.s. When can we craft our own arrows! * Keeping stocked in arrows was a chore in R10 if you burn through them like me
I agree! As an archer, i found myself always in need of arrows. Crafting them would be a great help!
Better be able to craft our own arrows also a big fan of a variety of different arrows and thier benifits
So with 8 point star of magic with schools being friends to the one next to it , and with the combosystem etc. it really stands out that Moon magic is in such a bad state that it will drag down Air and Water with it.
Without any damage dealing at all moon magic will be shunned by most. I mean even Life magic have a damage dealer vs undead.
None of the proposed spells we can see in the dev notes and sotawiki are repeat (SPAM) spells. So when there is benefits to add multiple glyphs for all the other schools, there is no point in having more than one of each moon magic.
Why not have, shard arrow or somesuch, or heaven forbid [pun] meteor strike would be most fitting. Maybe a lesser summoning of wolves?
It doesn’t detract from the stealth theme. Or if you want to build on the stealth theme, how about mines and ticking bombs. Sneak up – leave a present – sneak away – piff – muhahahahaha…
And it seems like Sun have counters to Moon, but moon has no counters vs sun.
Don’t you have anyone in the office who sometimes howls at the moon who could give it some love?