Cock of the North - I would just like to share my experience as a new player to this game.
I compromised a lot of what I previously believe to be important to enjoy the things that I can tell are actually really fun about this game.
One of the main attractions was player housing.
To cut a long story short, I have recently realised that, no I cannot buy a nice little house in this 90% empty ghost town because firstly, they aren't even for sale anymore (even though the entire town looks like its from a dead game) and secondly, all in house lots seem to cost at least $200.
I am scratching my head here wondering how a game, which I believe is very close to public release, can basically appear so incredibly dead over approximately 75% or more of the map (npc towns and empty player towns) and have such an incredibly game breaking real money transaction market for what appears to be very very very basic in game content (NPC town row lots in completely unused NPC towns).
I could maybe understand the above being the situation if it was 5 years into the game and it was heavily populated and the places I wanted to live were actually really obviously overpopulated busy bustling places where you could benefit from owning a house with a high level of traffic for your vendor to sell, or for role-playing purposes had a very nice appearance or meaningful location.
I just want to buy a damn taxed row lot in a dead NPC ghost town where most surrounding areas label themselves "under construction" when you enter and I simply cannot.
To me this seems utterly game breaking and yeah ok, you obviously have a lot of people prepared to sling thousands of $$$ around the place like its candy but I cannot honestly understand how you expect new players like me to actually enjoy this huge aspect of the game when it has been made so ridiculously inaccessible.
I am not going to pay someone I do not know hundreds of dollars in order to own a house for fun.
I respect that its probably far too late to change this but it is honestly completely out of control and genuinely makes me want to log out and play some other game since I won't be able to experience such a large part of the fun on this one.
I might add that if anything, my owning a house in a NPC town would only improve the quality of the game for others like me who come to the town and see people actually living in it, selling things they might want. Rather than the current vast fields of empty lots and empty houses place marked by tax free deeds that actually look like they ARE for sale (but are not).
/endrant
It appears more like I am walking through the ruins of a dead culture in a lot of towns, rather than somewhere for new beginnings which it would seem a game that's about to be released should feel like. (endquote)
Developer's that favor the real life rich player's will fail attracting many player's to their game. How developer's could make such a mistake is beyond me but releasing a just about dead game before it even started should be a warning to any other developer's to continue down a road of segregation where the not so real life rich player's is discriminated.
Comments
I have a question...WHY ???? IS THIS THE LAST GAME ON EARTH FFS ? Its not the dev fault. Its the community. If there were not gamers interested in this dumb game it would have been dead after 1 month since kickstarter.
With future which will bring CU/Crowfall/AOC/COE and games out for years with a big team like GW2, Shitty BDO P2W game, WOW and other decent mmos...ppl pay dumb games.
Developer's decision to sell house's for alot of real life money against the majority of their community was their choice.
As to player towns you can pick up a Row deed in game for 90-150k which for a new person seems like a lot. It normally should take a new person 1-2h to get 1k so you could get it in under a week with some dedication. Alternate would be to spend money to buy one from the Port store which are way to pricey. You would be best to wait until a Telethon and pick up a Taxfree row for 200 then the NPC town ones. Or spend even less and get COTO's either through the port store or buy with in game gold COTO's from vendors and pick up a deed for a fraction of the costs from the COTO merchants.
Myself I have owned property in NPC towns, yes they do look nice and have trainers which is a benefit. However living in a near Player town gives you a more costly approach and you still can walk over to the NPC town to train. Some player Towns are very well designed well others look terrible like some kid just trough out houses in any which direction lol (my opinion)
alternate would be to rent from a player, and or Join one of the many large guilds that offer free houses.
Part of the issues with the NPC towns is players not only want money for the deed they also want to charge you for "prime lot" as they call it. Whats prime about it? NPC towns get about the same traffic as POT's that advertise to there really is no Prime lot other then prime cost to be there. Just my two cents.
I said it many times and I will say it again , whenever I get the chance : Its players fault for which we have games like this one. Stop donating money to whoever shows up with a "nice story" , and nothing else, but just words.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
my bad math skills. So in 3 weeks you can own a place. that is not bad.
Kain DarkmoorAvatar
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If they did, they would have long since lost interest and moved on by now, hmmm?
There is no fault in someone supporting a game in development that he ultimately wishes to play, even if the game never comes to fruition or is ultimately a bit different than expected. Such is a risk people are entitled to take at their own discretion on whatever pleases them.
A prudent person will keep that risk in mind, and not invest any more than can be tossed in the trash without putting quality of life at risk. Then if things don't turn out as desired, it isn't all that much of a loss anyway.
The online mode offers several options: single player, friends only, or open which would essentially be the default mode for MMOPGs.
They say anything offered for sale for cash in their game store for use in online play will also be available for in game gold for offline solo play, essentially eliminating the game store if one purchased the game strictly for that mode.
Where it gets wonky is property in the online mode, due to it being non-instanced, with all the supply and demand problems a finite supply of such often causes in games. So, for people wanting to have a place of their own online, it can be a bit meh.
In a traditional model servers would be wiped and everyone would "start" working on their progression.
Does anything actually "start" on release day?
(Besides the clock on when they can walk away from this game?)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Or did you play Ultima 5 as a lackey of Blackthorn because well, his Virtues now may be a bit harsh, but he was such a hero in the past! And he still means well today!
I don't mind someone selling e-properties in online games for real money but i expect the game to be good if not great to buy one, and at this moment it doesn't really look like that for SOTA at all.
The Real Money Trader Kain Darkmoor (I recognise the Avatar straight away) or Weins201?
Did you actually try to do your own research to find out which is more accurate? The highest rate I've EVER seen quoted for gold farming was 6k an hour... but you don't even have to take my word on it. Because Portalarium have an Official RMT in Markee Dragon, and we can cross check the claims on his own page.
Here is the COTO store page; read it quickly, the last patch notes openly declared that because the Store page was putting people off, they're moving them all into game instead. The correct price is indeed 100 COTO for $85.
However, here is what Markee Dragon is selling Gold COTO for. Remember, he's getting them at a discount direct from Portalarium under the Trusted Trader program. He also is on video on his own channel discussing with Chris Spears how to set the price of COTO to gold, so he has direct input into how the price of COTO is pegged.
And he's charging $44 for 50, or $88 for 100. Slightly more than Portalarium's price to ensure a profit.
But here's what he's charging for Gold (the in game currency): 250k for $48.75.
Have you spotted where the lie in the comment you just quoted is yet?
The Gold is nearly TWICE AS EXPENSIVE from the Trusted Trader Markee, as Kain claims in game.
And Markee, much as I loathe him for his personal involvement in turning this game into an Ayn Rand nightmare, at least knows how to play the market. There's no way he doesn't know what the true price of Gold is as well.
But the amateur RMTs in Shroud make these false claims all the damn time, because they're out to deliberately deceive people into joining the game, and then hoping by the time you actually find out what the true state of play is, you'll be hooked enough to pay the prices they're demanding for the locked off content.
You are NOT getting to a house with just in game play easily at all. If you could, they couldn't sell you the deeds for as much profit, could they? And if RMTs think they can't profit, they'll pull their funding and Shroud ends tomorrow.
And that is why so many of us are so determined to warn people about what the game REALLY is. We backed a successor to the Ultima series, not a playground for sociopaths and scammers. And anyone coming to the game now will have to pay at least $100 to even have a hope in hell of ever owning a home.
TELL THE TRUTH. ITS NOT HARD TO DO, EVEN IF IT'S ALSO NOT PROFITABLE.
Just pointed out the disparity I observed in the thread which clearly you dispute, point taken.
See how this works? Saved myself a bunch of effort in the process.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
haha I would not buy COTOS from Markee, You can get 1 coto for as low as 2600igg. Average prices no player markets are 3000-3500igg.
100k = 15usd based on player market. So that said its much cheaper then people think.
Also making gold early in the game is hard that is for sure, however once you get around adv level 50+ you can make 1-2k / hour and even more higher up in levels. So it will take the average person 3 weeks at mid level to get a deed and around another week or two a house to put on it with out having to spend a dime.
I think the biggest issues is that people don't shop around enough as there is no central house to see who is selling cheaper.
A perfect example. on Discords SOTA trade channel they have +14 swords for 150k+ , myself I have a friend that makes swords to +7 and I enchant them to +14 and up and sell for 30k.
I could not believe that the guy that sells his for 150k+ sells anything knowing that I have markets that have them for so much less, but apparently people do as he is always advertising in that range. That just tells me those players have no clue on prices.
Or even better Kain lives in Isle of Xee which has a gov that practically gives away +16-17 mage gear and offers free housing even to members of the guild.
What that tells me is that some people are just greedy and eventually and hopefully people who play get smart enough to understand that and those over priced guys well they will loose out in the end unless they change.
Cheers,
Dracschnider
The difference is like todays Patch R51, as well the last 3 before it. all the content is being added between these and the next patch. 145+ new skill specializations added with mastery system todays patch for example. They just changed how things work. now mastering will hurt opposite schools.
They also are uncloning the zones meaning putting in the real zones which some are massive with all the content for them including quests.
So on release the game of yesterday is not the same as today
All house's should be removed and a new landrush should take place. That will not happen in this game. The one's that donated more real life money will keep their house and making it impossible for a newcomer to get that spot. The one's that donated most real life money also started the old land rush before all that just donated 45$.
If this is release as developer's claim then all experience should be removed so all have the same chance when game start's.
But this is not release as described above. Release was a long time ago.
You are never as good as your last game and with so few playing this game and with so bad review's over at steam i would not hold my breath.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/326160/Shroud_of_the_Avatar_Forsaken_Virtues/#app_reviews_hash
To me Garriott is someone that was good many, may year's ago.
And how do you see on this so called "release"?
I quote myself -
"On release all player's should start evenly.
All house's should be removed and a new landrush should take place. That will not happen in this game. The one's that donated more real life money will keep their house and making it impossible for a newcomer to get that spot. The one's that donated most real life money also started the old land rush before all that just donated 45$.
If this is release as developer's claim then all experience should be removed so all have the same chance when game start's.
But this is not release as described above. Release was a long time ago."
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon