Say biased whatever you want this game sucks period, really thought this review was generous at best but everyone has what they like, I would rather play LOTR hell even Wildstar, WoW and multiple other ten year old or older mmo's more than Shroud of Dookie, poor UI, map is freaking horrible, no direction and sure mmo's are a grind for the most part but at least you enjoy it to the point you come back. These dudes may have been the shiz back 15 years ago but its 15 years later folks no one gives a rats crap about dated run down combat system runescape graphics, and if you need content FFXIV is where you need to be along with getting rewarded with something for your grind. This game sucks!
OK guys, listen, I think most of us can agree that SotA has turned into a worm-ridden, steaming pile of orc crap. But there's still hope! Episode 2 crowdfunding should be beginning shortly! This time, it's going to be different!
I think that SoTA is boring. With the selection of games, and activity in the world, why you would spend your time playing it is beyond me. But, it is a free market, and everyone's different. In regards to LotRO. I enjoyed it when it came out, but it's been dated for a decade graphically, and with all of the realms content that has came out on the big-screen, it's an absolute disgrace that is hasn't been updated to something far more substantial.
Garriott wanted to try some more innovative things with SotA, but the fans and money men just wanted retread Ultima. Voila.....
Well, we got some innovations. The many ways they've woven RMT in the game are in some ways innovative. And drunken begathons are pretty innovative. And selling your blood and hair to fund a game is pretty innovative.
As if someone wouldn't want to play LotRO more than many other games. It's one of the best tab-target MMOs of that era.
Actually, I'd probably rather play SotA.
LOTRO was the very first game I quit because I felt like I was playing WOW all over again, a pattern which would repeat itself for many more games to come.
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
While I may have to dodge some thrown rotten fruit from this audience, I have to speak up for Shroud a bit. Sure, its not the shiny shiny graphics of some of the newer stuff, and there's grind issues, and whatever....but honestly, even in its current state, there is far more content and potential time investment than any other MMO I've played in the last decade. In most games, you max out and move on in a few months. I'm over 6000 hours /played in Shroud and still find things to do and reasons to log in every day without it feeling boring or repetitive or same-y. Its the type of game that's a marathon, not a sprint, something you can play for years rather than consuming all the content in a few weeks and then having "pvp" as the tacked-on endgame.
All you folks who wanted a PvE sandbox? This is very nearly it. While there's PvP, its not mandatory and (almost) completely avoidable save a few scenes you don't really need to go to. You can go anywhere you want. Level any skills you want. No limits no caps, just diminishing returns the higher you go. I can't think of any other game that offers that that isn't ffa pvp garbage or at least 10 yrs old
Gaming? That's not gaming! That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
While I may have to dodge some thrown rotten fruit from this audience, I have to speak up for Shroud a bit. Sure, its not the shiny shiny graphics of some of the newer stuff, and there's grind issues, and whatever....but honestly, even in its current state, there is far more content and potential time investment than any other MMO I've played in the last decade. In most games, you max out and move on in a few months. I'm over 6000 hours /played in Shroud and still find things to do and reasons to log in every day without it feeling boring or repetitive or same-y. Its the type of game that's a marathon, not a sprint, something you can play for years rather than consuming all the content in a few weeks and then having "pvp" as the tacked-on endgame.
All you folks who wanted a PvE sandbox? This is very nearly it. While there's PvP, its not mandatory and (almost) completely avoidable save a few scenes you don't really need to go to. You can go anywhere you want. Level any skills you want. No limits no caps, just diminishing returns the higher you go. I can't think of any other game that offers that that isn't ffa pvp garbage or at least 10 yrs old
Can you really avoid the PvP ? In what circumstances can you not and how disruptive is the PvP to a pure PvE player ?
Garriott wanted to try some more innovative things with SotA, but the fans and money men just wanted retread Ultima. Voila.....
Well, we got some innovations. The many ways they've woven RMT in the game are in some ways innovative. And drunken begathons are pretty innovative. And selling your blood and hair to fund a game is pretty innovative.
Come embrace our RMT, we have game mechanics that send new players to the RMT marketplace for rentals and property, and monthly telethons so speculators can stock up. We know you love RMT and we love money!
No, we won't change the EULA. Our terms forbid RMT anywhere in game, as well as gold sales, power leveling services, etc... but don't worry about it, you can do whatever you want and we'll only enforce the EULA on a case by case basis. You're on your own if you get scammed. We have to be a no liability company because we never got a banking license.
Did you know we have three separate cash shops in three different countries all using different currencies and all independent of each other? Moving money around with game gold has never been easier! Of course farming and IGG sales are allowed, we even made you a special mode just for farming gold so you never have to compete for resources.
Yes, innovative for mainstream gaming maybe, criminals have been laundering money in similar ways for years.
Over time, this will be one of the best out. I am still playing strong and just finished the main story quest last night to obtain the Shroud of the Avatar. I am hoping that they will add more group content down the road, that seems a little lacking at the moment.
The combat definitely does not suck. I have yet to find another MMO with combat decks, combos, and charging of abilities. The game is grindy, but not everyone is anti grind. Not many games offer any meaningful character progression, and you definitely get rewarded for the grind which makes it worth it. For the old schoolers, it will definitely grow on you, but please don't read these reviews and write it off without giving it a fair shake.
Wizard101
Wizard 101 combat and deck mechainics is No Way ,Shape or form remotely similar at all to SOTA combat ..
Just sayin
The deck systems have a lot in common. The combat execution doesn't.
If by alot in common you mean , They are cards with numbers/letters on them you would be right , But the common stops there , Im sorry but anyone who has played both extensivley would know that .. Its akin to saying that a Magic the Gathering deck has a Lot in common with a Pinnacle deck ..
I agree with some of the UI stuff, as well I do think that more needs to be done for combat polish.
Over all I love the game, backed it in 2014, played on and off until persistence. I have to admit for a while I was concerned with the content but this last year a lot of that was put in and the remake of the smaller instances is still being changed to larger ones which is nice. I do think that they should have had more ready for release for those of us that have been testing for a long time now have to go back and do beginning stuff to enjoy the quests.
I do think the updated UI the next 2 months will fix some of the issues, and sounds like they may do more animation sweeps in the near future.
The Map was one things that I was unsure of with the travel but I see the benefits of not having a seamless world allows them to build forever and do events like that of console FFXI type games where things just pop up.
I do think long term this game will be very expansive with a lot in the next year. The monthly changes and additions are huge! I have not seen a game where monthly updates added so much.
Cash shop never bothered me, 99% of its all fluff and the housing which is the pricey part can be gotten off mobs now in game (deeds and houses) so its not really an issue anymore and will probably drive the player markets down.
Quest system I love compared to the WOW Quest ! systems that many adopted. There are a lot of hidden quests and content all over and it expands ever patch which is nice. I do ask that they get a fix to kill quests in the log that break, that is one down side as mentioned which I agree there has to be away to fix or close these out.
Graphics, I don't think are dated at all. the details on the armor and objects in game are pretty sweet on maxed out settings. I do think some things need to be changed but most are pretty nice. People forget that graphics is Art and a look is how the director wanted it to look. It does have its own style that is for sure. We will see though as Unity keeps updating the engine and has the ability to do CGI like for sure. They just need to learn more about the engine and optimize it then look into the models and textures further. That's my thoughts.
Over time, this will be one of the best out. I am still playing strong and just finished the main story quest last night to obtain the Shroud of the Avatar. I am hoping that they will add more group content down the road, that seems a little lacking at the moment.
The combat definitely does not suck. I have yet to find another MMO with combat decks, combos, and charging of abilities. The game is grindy, but not everyone is anti grind. Not many games offer any meaningful character progression, and you definitely get rewarded for the grind which makes it worth it. For the old schoolers, it will definitely grow on you, but please don't read these reviews and write it off without giving it a fair shake.
Wizard101
Wizard 101 combat and deck mechainics is No Way ,Shape or form remotely similar at all to SOTA combat ..
Just sayin
The deck systems have a lot in common. The combat execution doesn't.
If by alot in common you mean , They are cards with numbers/letters on them you would be right , But the common stops there , Im sorry but anyone who has played both extensivley would know that .. Its akin to saying that a Magic the Gathering deck has a Lot in common with a Pinnacle deck ..
What I meant was pretty clear in what I bolded and responded to and how I did it. I was specific. Azmodeus implied another MMO had yet to implement a combat deck with combos and charging. I only pointed out that just because he hadn't looked for it didn't mean it hadn't been done. I wasn't implying that Wizard101 wasn't the only case either.
Deck combat with random card selection, combos, and charging isn't new with Shroud. They don't have to be the same for it to be true. There are other examples of card deck skill systems just google it.
I dont have to google it , i have played most of them im certain .. And those 2 have very little in common in Gameplay , Deck Building ,Execution,Progression ,Synergy.. etc etc ...
And i understand what you were saying .. I was adding that the 2 are very differnet in Many ways .....
And yet for me the biggest problem is the text size ,checked this out on the steam forums where others have complained about this and a Dev has the answer turn your graphic settings down personally i think that sucks
While I may have to dodge some thrown rotten fruit from this audience, I have to speak up for Shroud a bit. Sure, its not the shiny shiny graphics of some of the newer stuff, and there's grind issues, and whatever....but honestly, even in its current state, there is far more content and potential time investment than any other MMO I've played in the last decade. In most games, you max out and move on in a few months. I'm over 6000 hours /played in Shroud and still find things to do and reasons to log in every day without it feeling boring or repetitive or same-y. Its the type of game that's a marathon, not a sprint, something you can play for years rather than consuming all the content in a few weeks and then having "pvp" as the tacked-on endgame.
All you folks who wanted a PvE sandbox? This is very nearly it. While there's PvP, its not mandatory and (almost) completely avoidable save a few scenes you don't really need to go to. You can go anywhere you want. Level any skills you want. No limits no caps, just diminishing returns the higher you go. I can't think of any other game that offers that that isn't ffa pvp garbage or at least 10 yrs old
Very well said. This game is definitely a marathon, and people who play it like a sprint will find it terrible. The game is NOT for game hoppers, but for people who plan on investing in it longterm. Call me crazy but I think it will turn into the fantasy version of Eve Online. Some of us are just sick of the WoW clones being pumped out daily with themepark gameplay.
OMG I am Ancient!
Darkstarr9Shroud of the AvatarMemberUncommonPosts: 32
Gareth, thank you very much for your very detailed and honest review. While we feel we have delivered far more than might be expected on such a modest budget, we know players can only judge if a game meets their desires as a player or not. We actually agree with many of your negative points and are working to address them. In the specific area of quests we are fixing bugs with the current quest task system each release but we realize that long term we need to replace the entire underlying architecture. However, as you might imagine that will be a longer term effort. We feel that much of the disconnect you describe in combat is related to the sound effects, especially with blades. We are focusing on polishing sound effects for those weapons in the next release. We continue to run double XP events each release to reduce the feel that players need to grind and are considering making this the new standard XP earn rate. We also agree that our current UI needs some love and we will be doing a major visual overhaul on the look in Release 55 (June). We believe that while we are feature rich and have many amazing systems, many aspects remain diamonds in the rough and we need to focus on smoothing out those rough edges. We release a patch every month and we hope you will give us a try later this summer when some of these issues have been improved! - Sincerely, Starr Long (Executive Producer)
Gareth, thank you very much for your very detailed and honest review. While we feel we have delivered far more than might be expected on such a modest budget, we know players can only judge if a game meets their desires as a player or not. We actually agree with many of your negative points and are working to address them. In the specific area of quests we are fixing bugs with the current quest task system each release but we realize that long term we need to replace the entire underlying architecture. However, as you might imagine that will be a longer term effort. We feel that much of the disconnect you describe in combat is related to the sound effects, especially with blades. We are focusing on polishing sound effects for those weapons in the next release. We continue to run double XP events each release to reduce the feel that players need to grind and are considering making this the new standard XP earn rate. We also agree that our current UI needs some love and we will be doing a major visual overhaul on the look in Release 55 (June). We believe that while we are feature rich and have many amazing systems, many aspects remain diamonds in the rough and we need to focus on smoothing out those rough edges. We release a patch every month and we hope you will give us a try later this summer when some of these issues have been improved! - Sincerely, Starr Long (Executive Producer)
Thank you for taking the time to leave a truthful reply to this thread. Some of us are enjoying the game even through these issues with hope of a better future.
While we feel we have delivered far more than might be expected on such a modest budget
Modest budget? ....
Have you looked at the costs of building an MMO in the present day? One of the big issues with mainstream MMO development is the cost to implement them. And the revenue stream that needs to be there to pay for it.
In a lower budget design every aspect becomes a trade off. At the lower end you get a spin on the old conundrum. 'Cheap, fast, good. Pick one.'
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
While we feel we have delivered far more than might be expected on such a modest budget
Modest budget? ....
They say modest budget everywhere and say they are a small team but they have been working on this project for many years before even the Kickstarter happened. There are interviews everywhere that says Ultimate Collector was a project to create mechanics for the Ultimate RPG (SOTA) and those investments make this project well over $20M which is very funny because BDO was developed with much less. BDO cost $12M to make because they developed their own engine. SOTA uses Unity.
Comments
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Well, we got some innovations. The many ways they've woven RMT in the game are in some ways innovative. And drunken begathons are pretty innovative. And selling your blood and hair to fund a game is pretty innovative.
LOTRO was the very first game I quit because I felt like I was playing WOW all over again, a pattern which would repeat itself for many more games to come.
"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
All you folks who wanted a PvE sandbox? This is very nearly it. While there's PvP, its not mandatory and (almost) completely avoidable save a few scenes you don't really need to go to. You can go anywhere you want. Level any skills you want. No limits no caps, just diminishing returns the higher you go. I can't think of any other game that offers that that isn't ffa pvp garbage or at least 10 yrs old
Gaming? That's not gaming!
That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
Can you really avoid the PvP ? In what circumstances can you not and how disruptive is the PvP to a pure PvE player ?
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Come embrace our RMT, we have game mechanics that send new players to the RMT marketplace for rentals and property, and monthly telethons so speculators can stock up. We know you love RMT and we love money!
No, we won't change the EULA. Our terms forbid RMT anywhere in game, as well as gold sales, power leveling services, etc... but don't worry about it, you can do whatever you want and we'll only enforce the EULA on a case by case basis. You're on your own if you get scammed. We have to be a no liability company because we never got a banking license.
Did you know we have three separate cash shops in three different countries all using different currencies and all independent of each other? Moving money around with game gold has never been easier! Of course farming and IGG sales are allowed, we even made you a special mode just for farming gold so you never have to compete for resources.
Yes, innovative for mainstream gaming maybe, criminals have been laundering money in similar ways for years.
Over all I love the game, backed it in 2014, played on and off until persistence. I have to admit for a while I was concerned with the content but this last year a lot of that was put in and the remake of the smaller instances is still being changed to larger ones which is nice. I do think that they should have had more ready for release for those of us that have been testing for a long time now have to go back and do beginning stuff to enjoy the quests.
I do think the updated UI the next 2 months will fix some of the issues, and sounds like they may do more animation sweeps in the near future.
The Map was one things that I was unsure of with the travel but I see the benefits of not having a seamless world allows them to build forever and do events like that of console FFXI type games where things just pop up.
I do think long term this game will be very expansive with a lot in the next year. The monthly changes and additions are huge! I have not seen a game where monthly updates added so much.
Cash shop never bothered me, 99% of its all fluff and the housing which is the pricey part can be gotten off mobs now in game (deeds and houses) so its not really an issue anymore and will probably drive the player markets down.
Quest system I love compared to the WOW Quest ! systems that many adopted. There are a lot of hidden quests and content all over and it expands ever patch which is nice. I do ask that they get a fix to kill quests in the log that break, that is one down side as mentioned which I agree there has to be away to fix or close these out.
Graphics, I don't think are dated at all. the details on the armor and objects in game are pretty sweet on maxed out settings. I do think some things need to be changed but most are pretty nice. People forget that graphics is Art and a look is how the director wanted it to look. It does have its own style that is for sure. We will see though as Unity keeps updating the engine and has the ability to do CGI like for sure. They just need to learn more about the engine and optimize it then look into the models and textures further. That's my thoughts.
well back to playing
And i understand what you were saying .. I was adding that the 2 are very differnet in Many ways .....
Are you talking about SotA? If so, it's launched. Twice!
Very well said. This game is definitely a marathon, and people who play it like a sprint will find it terrible. The game is NOT for game hoppers, but for people who plan on investing in it longterm. Call me crazy but I think it will turn into the fantasy version of Eve Online. Some of us are just sick of the WoW clones being pumped out daily with themepark gameplay.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a truthful reply to this thread. Some of us are enjoying the game even through these issues with hope of a better future.
....
In a lower budget design every aspect becomes a trade off. At the lower end you get a spin on the old conundrum. 'Cheap, fast, good. Pick one.'
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
They say modest budget everywhere and say they are a small team but they have been working on this project for many years before even the Kickstarter happened. There are interviews everywhere that says Ultimate Collector was a project to create mechanics for the Ultimate RPG (SOTA) and those investments make this project well over $20M which is very funny because BDO was developed with much less. BDO cost $12M to make because they developed their own engine. SOTA uses Unity.