People need to look at what these devs did to the some people in Eastern Europe. They are forcing them to go thru a Russian company to access the game, which they can't do because their countries banks have Russia blocked and don't use their currencies. Think forcing someone from Ukraine to use Russian company. Tons of people complaining because they don't speak russian and have no access to english or things they had bought before the forced move. These devs made a bone headed move just to get some extra funds. Go over to their forums and take a look.
I tried the game early on and never could understand why some people feel they have to be so venomous in criticizing it. There were a couple things I asked for help with, but the basic gameplay tasks and actions seemed natural enough. Maybe some people are just spoiled and/or mentally lazy. Anyway, seems like adding shortcuts wouldn't be asking too much of an upgrade/update.
Many people spew venom at games for the simple reason that the game is different, or may somewhat deviate from the game systems that they have been recently accustomed. I suppose it doesn't occur to said people that with extended play time, this game system and way of doing things, will also become quite natural. Riding a bike or roller skating, without training wheels, was also awkward when we first tried them, but with time we became just as familiar with performing those activities as well. We all complain about WoW clones when they are released, but when a game dares to be different, all hell brakes lose. Its a lose, lose situation for game developers. Which is why the MMORPG genre is as stagnant as it is today. That multi-million dollar investment toward innovation, or to try something different, is simply just not worth the risk. The gaming population, and their varied personal preferences, are a terribly difficult demographic to satisfy.
I've put in about 60 hours so far in the game, very recently, and I'm liking a lot of what I'm seeing. I was a huge UO fan back in the day, and I've probably played every other MMO that's released since then. Here are some of my thoughts, if interested.
Positive:
1. It's the universe of the avatar, and we all play an avatar. I've missed that world so much for so long now.
2. The player base is pretty awesome so far. I've made a number of good friends, and I'm finding myself able to contribute and join in on what's going on.
3. There are quests, which is one of the things that was bothersome about UO, mainly because it existed before quests became a part of the gaming dynamic.
4. Graphics aren't bad. In some cases, they are pretty nice.
5. The devs are being very responsive to any problems that seem to be cropping up.
6. Once you get the hang of it, combat is actually pretty decent, and I'd add: A lot of fun.
7. Crafting is pretty involved, which is one of those things I really enjoy.
8. There are tons of skills, so you're always going to be able to find something, or some combination that makes you enjoy the game even more.
Negatives (or concerns):
1. Housing. While I love that there's housing, the cost to participate is absurdly expensive. I am currently in a guild that I believe will offer space to put down a house, but even on that front, I'm not sure how that's going to work.
2. The game tends to reward the long-term backers, but kind of ignores the new player base, which is a horrible thing if the game wants to attract more players. It's like UO back in the day, in that housing was already taken, so you ended up having to buy a house from someone on ebay in order to have a tiny 4x4 shack. Most of the towns and player cities are already completely inhabited and controlled by those who joined a long time ago. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't for that fact that the game hasn't even released yet, which means that the only way you're really going to get housing is if you blind trusted the devs before the game even became serious. What could have made this a little more palatable was for them to plan to open up adequate housing for the new players coming along after the game goes live. To not do so means they're probably going to suffer from a lot of bad publicity that will keep people from wanting to ever play the game. The Internet is toxic with that kind of attitude, and it can sink a game long before anyone gives it a chance.
3. Even though I mentioned combat was a lot of fun, it can be seriously improved as well. I still have no idea what's about to attack me until I'm practically hugging it because there's no long distance ability to see what something might be. It could be a friendly npc, or it might be an enemy bandit; you won't know until the guy is practically running at you to kill you. This is one place where they could have just gone with a simple bar over the head that shows a red enemy, meaning that it's someone that's going to attack you.
4. The moongates (or whatever they're calling them) are really slow to change any new location, meaning that you sit there for a very, very long time waiting for another location to show up so you can port to it quickly.
5. Bandits on the map are WAY too aggressive and too numerous. There's also very little way to figure out what level they are. I was fighting low greens and doing fine, and then was attacked by a low green that turned out to be a Tier 5 enemy spawn (with absolutely no warning). Makes the game a lot less fun if you're the kind of person who likes to engage the wandering mobs.
6. The map is really, really difficult to traverse. Tonight, I was trying to travel across the map to reach a location where I wanted to play, and no matter what I did, I could not reach it. There are huge Tier 5 (the highest zone, meaning you need to be really strong and powerful) areas you have to pass through in order to reach the other side of the map. Trying to go around quite often leads to a dead end.
7. You gain 100 gold for each town crier you speak to (for each city), but there's no running tab (that I know of) that tells you which ones you've already one, which means with so many towns, you're going to keep going back to towns and realize that a long time ago, you were already there, but just don't remember it. I haven't been playing that long, and I have a hard time keeping track.
8. The map inside cities and towns seriously needs work. There are a lot of times where the centering for the map will be completely off, and you have no idea where you are inside that map. Which means you might have a difficult time figuring out how to get out of the location because nothing matches up with what you're seeing. Other times, there's no map at all. It just comes in black. I was doing an adventure zone today, and the map was off by about 50 yards or so, which meant I had no idea how to get through the area, other than follow a road that wasn't represented on the map. I finally just stopped paying attention to the map.
9. Healing skills are a little confusing and way underpowered. When a group of enemies attacks, and it happens a lot, it's pretty much a wipe cause healing does so little to help. In other games, healing tends to coincide with one's skill, but not in this game, which makes it really difficult to heal oneself. I have yet to figure out how to heal someone else , although I'm sure the skill shows up somewhere in the skill choices.
10. Up to now, you're only allowed one character per account. I'm hoping that's going to be changed before they actually release the game cause a lot of people like to play different ways and don't always want to have to keep using the same character.
I tried the game early on and never could understand why some people feel they have to be so venomous in criticizing it. There were a couple things I asked for help with, but the basic gameplay tasks and actions seemed natural enough. Maybe some people are just spoiled and/or mentally lazy. Anyway, seems like adding shortcuts wouldn't be asking too much of an upgrade/update.
Many people spew venom at games for the simple reason that the game is different, or may somewhat deviate from the game systems that they have been recently accustomed. I suppose it doesn't occur to said people that with extended play time, this game system and way of doing things, will also become quite natural. Riding a bike or roller skating, without training wheels, was also awkward when we first tried them, but with time we became just as familiar with performing those activities as well. We all complain about WoW clones when they are released, but when a game dares to be different, all hell brakes lose. Its a lose, lose situation for game developers. Which is why the MMORPG genre is as stagnant as it is today. That multi-million dollar investment toward innovation, or to try something different, is simply just not worth the risk. The gaming population, and their varied personal preferences, are a terribly difficult demographic to satisfy.
If that is why you believe the game is getting hate, you definitely haven't been paying attention or are purposely trying to downplay the bigger picture. I'm not going to go into a spiel about Portalarium and their practices. The above guy talking about locking people out of content is just one thing out of many that they have done.
Very disappointed that the editor of this site would insinuate that the people that defend this game only do so because they invested lots of money. It's one thing to offer an opinion on a game in an article bit quite another to dismiss everyone that defends the game as whales who don't really like the game but defend it because they have spent money on it. I expect this from the trolls on this site but not the editor.
hmmm I'd like to offer that having to drag items to the paper doll is not an "issue".
Yeah, that's what I expect for a lot of folks who like the "old ways".
My spirit animal is a grumpy old man ...
Mine is the reason he is grumpy
Constantine, The Console Poster
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
Coming from someone who has played (and still plays) Ultima Online since 97, don't waste your money. Shroud is a massive pile of garbage. Go with Legends of Ultima.
I tried the game early on and never could understand why some people feel they have to be so venomous in criticizing it. There were a couple things I asked for help with, but the basic gameplay tasks and actions seemed natural enough. Maybe some people are just spoiled and/or mentally lazy. Anyway, seems like adding shortcuts wouldn't be asking too much of an upgrade/update.
Many people spew venom at games for the simple reason that the game is different, or may somewhat deviate from the game systems that they have been recently accustomed. I suppose it doesn't occur to said people that with extended play time, this game system and way of doing things, will also become quite natural. Riding a bike or roller skating, without training wheels, was also awkward when we first tried them, but with time we became just as familiar with performing those activities as well. We all complain about WoW clones when they are released, but when a game dares to be different, all hell brakes lose. Its a lose, lose situation for game developers. Which is why the MMORPG genre is as stagnant as it is today. That multi-million dollar investment toward innovation, or to try something different, is simply just not worth the risk. The gaming population, and their varied personal preferences, are a terribly difficult demographic to satisfy.
If that is why you believe the game is getting hate, you definitely haven't been paying attention or are purposely trying to downplay the bigger picture. I'm not going to go into a spiel about Portalarium and their practices. The above guy talking about locking people out of content is just one thing out of many that they have done.
My post was speaking in generalities about the quoted post in my post regarding the venomous nature of players criticizing games, and not necessarily about issues plaguing SOTA in specific. And in that regard, I was specifically alluding to issues of game play in games and their feature designs, of which many in this thread expressed issue with as it pertains to SOTA, and not matters such as players being locked out of content, that while legitimately frustrating and concerning to some players, are nevertheless matters of management practice and philosophy not directly related to game play and a game's feature design list. That said, the one thing that I do wholeheartedly agree with in your post is that paying attention while reading a thread is very important. Keen advice, and while you yourself did not adhere to it, kudos go out to you nonetheless on that one specific point well made.
Very disappointed that the editor of this site would insinuate that the people that defend this game only do so because they invested lots of money. It's one thing to offer an opinion on a game in an article bit quite another to dismiss everyone that defends the game as whales who don't really like the game but defend it because they have spent money on it. I expect this from the trolls on this site but not the editor.
You sound like someone who dumped a bunch of money into a shitty game.
"There’s an intense battle between those who think Shroud is terrible from an old experience with the game..."
Er no? If it's still a janky mess with horrendous load times and a cash obsessed MMO focused development ... then it HASN'T changed from what those who think it's terrible believed. Their experience remains true TODAY.
This entire article is basically "Ok it launches in 2 weeks, but if I hope really, really hard, they'll magically fix all the issues they've not managed to solve despite being 4 years late and having raised over $20m".
And it STILL actually launched in July 2016 when they stopped wiping the server and allowed Real Money Trading to begin.
Do you know what's so especially sad about this whole sorry development? The media is so desperate to stay on the side of the industry, and in particular to avoid facing their personal nostalgia for Ultima is blinding them to what Lord British actually believes and built TODAY, that they're actively alienating their own readers by assuming prejudicical opinions about them in their coverage; What part of "You're all extremists, and I'm not, even though the game I'm talking about only exists in my head if someone somewhere makes a lot of Mods to it" is appealing to your READERS?
I loved the Ultima games too. But the Lord British in those was FICTIONAL. Meanwhile the actual Lord British is currently over at massivelyop.com talking about how critics are all "indoctrinated", and Chris Spears in comments literally takes complaints former backers had of being stalked and harassed, turns the complaints around and in order to defame the victims of their terrible community says they harassed him in the same way... whilst the forums he claims they did it on didn't even exist at the time he said it happened, so it's utterly impossible.
Still. Maybe if I can get past the clumsy UI, suddenly I won't have had to take out police reports, and then had the developers personally lie and try and claim I threatened their children just because they're furious I remind people the game is always going to be rubbish.
hmmm I'd like to offer that having to drag items to the paper doll is not an "issue".
Let's call it a terrible minigame, then.
If the game forces you to do extra steps that's either a gameplay to limit how fast and successfully you're able to perform and action or it's an issue. And SotA's decision to add this kind of gameplay to equipping items is a truly terrible minigame.
I'm going to somewhat agree with you here. I think SotA's decision for dragging items was a poor choice. It adds nothing to gameplay. If, on the other hand, inventory management (I'm thinking O.G. Darkfall here) was a thing, then forcing item dragging might make sense. Managing your inventory becomes part of the game itself. I think it's obvious by looking at the rest of the game, however, that this was done simply to be "old school."
The whole thing is just a mismatched mess of old and new. It doesn't harken back to yesteryear. It just adds annoyance to modern systems for no real reason. To me, it feels glued together. For example, I'm actually OK with the weird combat. The areas look pretty decent, and the beginning area really feels like Ultima. I'm good with that. I'm not OK with a basic b**ch list for my inventory when the rest of the game is so modern. It's 2018, not 1994. I get what Portalarium was trying to do here. I just think they missed the mark. To each his own, but I won't be playing this again unless someone comes along and mods the interface.
I quote: "Nothing short of a total overhaul of the UI/UX would make it feel more natural and less confusing. Hopefully mods are allowed and in time, these issues will be fixed."
This is totally wrong attitude, it's this rubbish that's giving studio's a green light to release buggy and/or crappy systems in games.
"Oh it's ok, just release it, the modders will fix all this so we're golden"..
Its not good enough ! Modders should struggle to think of something to add if a games done right.
I have to say right click to equip is not a game breaker. These and other small UI issues which could easily be changed down the line are of little consequence.
More concerning to me was this:
"You can play Shroud with mouse-look, but it doesn’t always work like it should"
I would find that sort of issue very irritating, if they are looking to better user experience start there.
Comments
Many people spew venom at games for the simple reason that the game is different, or may somewhat deviate from the game systems that they have been recently accustomed. I suppose it doesn't occur to said people that with extended play time, this game system and way of doing things, will also become quite natural. Riding a bike or roller skating, without training wheels, was also awkward when we first tried them, but with time we became just as familiar with performing those activities as well. We all complain about WoW clones when they are released, but when a game dares to be different, all hell brakes lose. Its a lose, lose situation for game developers. Which is why the MMORPG genre is as stagnant as it is today. That multi-million dollar investment toward innovation, or to try something different, is simply just not worth the risk. The gaming population, and their varied personal preferences, are a terribly difficult demographic to satisfy.
Positive:
1. It's the universe of the avatar, and we all play an avatar. I've missed that world so much for so long now.
2. The player base is pretty awesome so far. I've made a number of good friends, and I'm finding myself able to contribute and join in on what's going on.
3. There are quests, which is one of the things that was bothersome about UO, mainly because it existed before quests became a part of the gaming dynamic.
4. Graphics aren't bad. In some cases, they are pretty nice.
5. The devs are being very responsive to any problems that seem to be cropping up.
6. Once you get the hang of it, combat is actually pretty decent, and I'd add: A lot of fun.
7. Crafting is pretty involved, which is one of those things I really enjoy.
8. There are tons of skills, so you're always going to be able to find something, or some combination that makes you enjoy the game even more.
Negatives (or concerns):
1. Housing. While I love that there's housing, the cost to participate is absurdly expensive. I am currently in a guild that I believe will offer space to put down a house, but even on that front, I'm not sure how that's going to work.
2. The game tends to reward the long-term backers, but kind of ignores the new player base, which is a horrible thing if the game wants to attract more players. It's like UO back in the day, in that housing was already taken, so you ended up having to buy a house from someone on ebay in order to have a tiny 4x4 shack. Most of the towns and player cities are already completely inhabited and controlled by those who joined a long time ago. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't for that fact that the game hasn't even released yet, which means that the only way you're really going to get housing is if you blind trusted the devs before the game even became serious. What could have made this a little more palatable was for them to plan to open up adequate housing for the new players coming along after the game goes live. To not do so means they're probably going to suffer from a lot of bad publicity that will keep people from wanting to ever play the game. The Internet is toxic with that kind of attitude, and it can sink a game long before anyone gives it a chance.
3. Even though I mentioned combat was a lot of fun, it can be seriously improved as well. I still have no idea what's about to attack me until I'm practically hugging it because there's no long distance ability to see what something might be. It could be a friendly npc, or it might be an enemy bandit; you won't know until the guy is practically running at you to kill you. This is one place where they could have just gone with a simple bar over the head that shows a red enemy, meaning that it's someone that's going to attack you.
4. The moongates (or whatever they're calling them) are really slow to change any new location, meaning that you sit there for a very, very long time waiting for another location to show up so you can port to it quickly.
5. Bandits on the map are WAY too aggressive and too numerous. There's also very little way to figure out what level they are. I was fighting low greens and doing fine, and then was attacked by a low green that turned out to be a Tier 5 enemy spawn (with absolutely no warning). Makes the game a lot less fun if you're the kind of person who likes to engage the wandering mobs.
6. The map is really, really difficult to traverse. Tonight, I was trying to travel across the map to reach a location where I wanted to play, and no matter what I did, I could not reach it. There are huge Tier 5 (the highest zone, meaning you need to be really strong and powerful) areas you have to pass through in order to reach the other side of the map. Trying to go around quite often leads to a dead end.
7. You gain 100 gold for each town crier you speak to (for each city), but there's no running tab (that I know of) that tells you which ones you've already one, which means with so many towns, you're going to keep going back to towns and realize that a long time ago, you were already there, but just don't remember it. I haven't been playing that long, and I have a hard time keeping track.
8. The map inside cities and towns seriously needs work. There are a lot of times where the centering for the map will be completely off, and you have no idea where you are inside that map. Which means you might have a difficult time figuring out how to get out of the location because nothing matches up with what you're seeing. Other times, there's no map at all. It just comes in black. I was doing an adventure zone today, and the map was off by about 50 yards or so, which meant I had no idea how to get through the area, other than follow a road that wasn't represented on the map. I finally just stopped paying attention to the map.
9. Healing skills are a little confusing and way underpowered. When a group of enemies attacks, and it happens a lot, it's pretty much a wipe cause healing does so little to help. In other games, healing tends to coincide with one's skill, but not in this game, which makes it really difficult to heal oneself. I have yet to figure out how to heal someone else , although I'm sure the skill shows up somewhere in the skill choices.
10. Up to now, you're only allowed one character per account. I'm hoping that's going to be changed before they actually release the game cause a lot of people like to play different ways and don't always want to have to keep using the same character.
My blog:
http://www.littlesarbonn.com
If that is why you believe the game is getting hate, you definitely haven't been paying attention or are purposely trying to downplay the bigger picture. I'm not going to go into a spiel about Portalarium and their practices. The above guy talking about locking people out of content is just one thing out of many that they have done.
My post was speaking in generalities about the quoted post in my post regarding the venomous nature of players criticizing games, and not necessarily about issues plaguing SOTA in specific. And in that regard, I was specifically alluding to issues of game play in games and their feature designs, of which many in this thread expressed issue with as it pertains to SOTA, and not matters such as players being locked out of content, that while legitimately frustrating and concerning to some players, are nevertheless matters of management practice and philosophy not directly related to game play and a game's feature design list. That said, the one thing that I do wholeheartedly agree with in your post is that paying attention while reading a thread is very important. Keen advice, and while you yourself did not adhere to it, kudos go out to you nonetheless on that one specific point well made.
You sound like someone who dumped a bunch of money into a shitty game.
Er no? If it's still a janky mess with horrendous load times and a cash obsessed MMO focused development ... then it HASN'T changed from what those who think it's terrible believed. Their experience remains true TODAY.
This entire article is basically "Ok it launches in 2 weeks, but if I hope really, really hard, they'll magically fix all the issues they've not managed to solve despite being 4 years late and having raised over $20m".
And it STILL actually launched in July 2016 when they stopped wiping the server and allowed Real Money Trading to begin.
Do you know what's so especially sad about this whole sorry development? The media is so desperate to stay on the side of the industry, and in particular to avoid facing their personal nostalgia for Ultima is blinding them to what Lord British actually believes and built TODAY, that they're actively alienating their own readers by assuming prejudicical opinions about them in their coverage; What part of "You're all extremists, and I'm not, even though the game I'm talking about only exists in my head if someone somewhere makes a lot of Mods to it" is appealing to your READERS?
I loved the Ultima games too. But the Lord British in those was FICTIONAL. Meanwhile the actual Lord British is currently over at massivelyop.com talking about how critics are all "indoctrinated", and Chris Spears in comments literally takes complaints former backers had of being stalked and harassed, turns the complaints around and in order to defame the victims of their terrible community says they harassed him in the same way... whilst the forums he claims they did it on didn't even exist at the time he said it happened, so it's utterly impossible.
Still. Maybe if I can get past the clumsy UI, suddenly I won't have had to take out police reports, and then had the developers personally lie and try and claim I threatened their children just because they're furious I remind people the game is always going to be rubbish.
I'm going to somewhat agree with you here. I think SotA's decision for dragging items was a poor choice. It adds nothing to gameplay. If, on the other hand, inventory management (I'm thinking O.G. Darkfall here) was a thing, then forcing item dragging might make sense. Managing your inventory becomes part of the game itself. I think it's obvious by looking at the rest of the game, however, that this was done simply to be "old school."
The whole thing is just a mismatched mess of old and new. It doesn't harken back to yesteryear. It just adds annoyance to modern systems for no real reason. To me, it feels glued together. For example, I'm actually OK with the weird combat. The areas look pretty decent, and the beginning area really feels like Ultima. I'm good with that. I'm not OK with a basic b**ch list for my inventory when the rest of the game is so modern. It's 2018, not 1994. I get what Portalarium was trying to do here. I just think they missed the mark. To each his own, but I won't be playing this again unless someone comes along and mods the interface.
I quote: "Nothing short of a total overhaul of the UI/UX would make it feel more natural and less confusing. Hopefully mods are allowed and in time, these issues will be fixed."
This is totally wrong attitude, it's this rubbish that's giving studio's a green light to release buggy and/or crappy systems in games.
"Oh it's ok, just release it, the modders will fix all this so we're golden"..
Its not good enough ! Modders should struggle to think of something to add if a games done right.
More concerning to me was this:
"You can play Shroud with mouse-look, but it doesn’t always work like it should"
I would find that sort of issue very irritating, if they are looking to better user experience start there.