Please join us Wednesday, August 12th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 GMT) for our next Hangout of the Avatar! Richard, Starr, and Chris will be chatting about Release 20 and looking ahead to Release 21. And, of course, FireLotus will be taking your questions and feedback live in the chat-room and also in advance right here in the comments section.*
We will be giving out some really awesome prizes during the 90 minute extended Hangout, and all you have to do to qualify for one is to come hang out with us in the IRC chatroom during the broadcast. As always, the link to the hangout will be posted here directly before the hangout begins.
What will be the macro reason to pvp? (Conquest?)
Second Question:
When will reagents have a meaningful impact on the game?
Why are stealth skills pointless and meaningless? Shouldn’t they be removed from the combat tree and placed instead in the crafting tree if you can’t use them in combat mode? (Seriously, this is a fair question if you really think about it objectively)
Love the taming overall. I was disappointed to see that pets were not 100% persistent after you summon them, that includes the world map. I’m hopefull that you incorporate the use based skills to tame higher level pets to your side.
Question: will there be rare skinned stuff to tame, I’d like chance to tame a wolf that’s is slightly less common than the norm also the hunt for that elusive skin would be a blast.
I’d like to add I really want a kill command button, sending in my pet on my target of choice is beneficial, also pets are a huge pimp factor really comsider permanent pets once you summon. I’d also like some way to see what pets I’m able to summon.
Question: will pets be able to hold agro, I notice when my pet manages to go in on another bear as soon as I go in it changes target.
I’d like to rename my pets and see its damage in the combat log or in the floating combat text.
Yea I’m sorry….
Will I be able to vendor sell my summoning whistles with pets attached I’d like to go out in to novia tame something nasty and sell it to other folks.
Considering there’s a lot of random deaths, scattered skeletons and no remains of a giant troll, will there any hope in the near future to see more than just a demonic skeleton skull as a decoration piece? Oh and dissecting! Organs as decorations would be quite … *takes a sip of his drink* exquisite.
Another question is, will there be opportunities for avatars to have more injuries like fractured leg, broken hand? and the only way to heal some of these injuries is by using splints, bandages and not be totally reliant on healing spells?
Thank you kindly and good health to you all.
What is the current thinking and plans for death and item loss?
I ask this because at present:
– I can sit on an ankh and wear down groups of enemies without consequence
and;
– I don’t see how there can be a big crafting market if nobody ever loses items. Am I guessing correctly that once crafting skills are online, focus will turn on this more?
Thanks in advance.
Excellent point it’s something I’ve been thinking about. When repairing items max durably should be reduced as in wear and tear eventually it will be so low not worth using.
I am also interested in this question, will SOTA rely on new players buying gear? items aren’t destroyed, so wouldn’t it mean that eventually the market would stagnate once every player bought all the gear he needed ?
QUESTION: Looking ahead, do you have an idea which items are available in the Add-On Store currently which may NOT be available there when we reach release? Inquiring Avatars wish to plan ahead!
(PS – PLEASE ask this, FireLotus, as I promised Ravicus in the Forums that I would ask, and he may chew on my arm if you don’t!!!)
Thank you Barnabas! PS. I wont chew your arm off if you get me some other fodder!
Any Chance of a limited re-release of those Add-On items that are already expired for those that have joined the community later? Like a week where all the expired items were available again but at a markup (50%) and only a limited number of each are made available (like 50).
Question: Do you have plans for a easier search through many player vendors, such as a regional or global search feature, narrowing our search to a specific vendor location, Instead of aimlessly searching each vendor inventory?
Amen…
I’m all for this idea! Perhaps the town crier could gather this info for us and bring up sort of a public vendor window… except instead of letting us buy directly from the town crier, he/she could give us a marker on the compass to find said vendor (like the lot deed system currently works).
That will still require us to visit the vendor directly, but also save us hours of searching through every private vendor to find something specific.
This!
1. When is your plan to move out of Pre-Alpha and into Alpha to actually flesh out a complete game for a Beta test? (AKA: what do you guys feel is still missing before we can say “enough” with adding framework)
2. When is your plan to create an add-on subscription program and reward players who use it? What do you think would be a fair reward?
3. Is the current design goal for player owned towns who are dynamic to have in-game options for upgrading/hiring new NPCs and buildings in Episode 1? If so, will that be at release of Episode 1?
4. Two part question:
-First, Is the current design still to force control points for the major crossings on Novia AND to have those be scenes that are either PVP enabled (hopefully you don’t get robbed) or riddled with monsters (bring a group or die?!)?
-Second, IF NO: how do you feel your efforts at localized economy will be worth while and not just an irritation to create needless travel time?
-Second, IF YES: when do you plan on getting this in so we can experience it and help give feedback on which points should be PvE, PvP, or PvX and get them debugged/fine tuned so we don’t hate them as a regular part of our gaming travels
5. I’m extremely pleased with the Battle Banner and the steps you guys are taking to add framework for our player games to be easier (IE: the gustball!!!)… how do you guys feel like this is going?
5.b. After adding a couple items do you feel like it’s worth while to do financially?
5.c. Can we expect this type of item creation as you guys continue to see new players bring cool new ideas in the future past the launch of Episode 1?
6. I love bag inventory. It feels like you guys don’t. Why the hate? When can we expect to see bag inventory loved on? (item icons don’t line up with their boundaries, the bag boundaries are wrong, etc)
Question: Can you elaborate on your plans for Avatar names when the game is released?
Will names currently in use by active players be safe from being taken by other players?
Feel free to pick and choose:
Can you expand of the ways that Crafting will receive attention this time around? Will that include repair, reforge, or dismantle?
Will players be able to craft (or upgrade to) the alternative armor skins? Epic, augmented, etc.
Will we be able to upgrade or augment existing items, or add value to pledge reward equipment?
Do you plan to continue using gems for item enchantments? When will that be expanded upon? Have you considered Runic enchantments instead of or in addition to diabo style gem slots?
When can we expect to see enamels for metal “dying”? How about stains for leather? And when will we be able to start crafting them?
These are all questions i want answered. This especially, “Will we be able to upgrade or augment existing items, or add value to pledge reward equipment?”
Most of Duke Violations were of interest also.
I’m really excited about the crafting update this release. So a general expansion of what to expect to see with that in R21 would be great. This question from the list above in particular —>”Can you expand of the ways that Crafting will receive attention this time around? Will that include repair, reforge, or dismantle?”
Any Chance of Furniture Using the Base Material Coloring that weapons/armor now uses??? So a maple table would look different from a pine table or a Crimson Pine, etc.
Can you please clarify the statements regarding phasing out pledges and pledge merging, specifically: People who currently have a higher-level pledge retain their stacked items (dungeons, houses), even if they upgrade after Aug 31st, but will the items for new tiers still stack for them afterwards, or only up to the level they are at now? Or only what they have now, plus the items for their end-tier, but not the tiers inbetween?
Knights pledge is broken with the addition of obsidian towers the citizen pledge is a better and cheaper option with that house, save $190 and get a better home.
Any plans to upgrade knight homes?
I still prefer the knight home over the tower. the tower lacks good roof space where the knight home has plenty.
Also you are a knight !!!
People will be less likely to upgrade to knight, the biggest pull to jump was the house size in the citizen pledge level was the tiny house to the much bigger knight home. With the awesome add on store homes I believe less will make the $250 jump for the Knight home but opt for the large add on store versions
. Just my obersvations……
I for one Love the Use based skills,
Question: Will the skills increase 1 tick per use or multi ticks per use?
/like the question
2 questions:
1. Could we get one more option for a village water home in or near the Knight level? Something that isn’t round, perhaps?
2. Can you make the Battle Banner stay the color you choose, even while logged out? (I’ve noticed each time I log in, or travel out of town and back, it’s changed when I come back.)
Just a note on your question #2…
The color changing of the banner could be due to someone else wandering by and playing around with it. When I first saw them in-game, I walked up and was able to activate one (changing it’s color). I changed it back as I didn’t want to be a nuisance, but my point is that others could be doing this and it may not be an automatic switch upon logging out.
Not sure if there are any permissions that you can assign to them as I don’t own one. If there aren’t, then the best option might be to place them on a balcony or roof or something and then lock the door so nobody else can access it.
Ty for the info…I’ll move it and see if it makes a difference.
Vendor display options
I understand that the current vendors are a first pass … that said the inability to display packaged items is a significant limitation. As they presently exist, a vendor is simply a laundry list of individual items. If I want to sell a complete suit of armor or a furniture group or a grouping of any kind I can’t do it. I have to list the items individually and unless they are the only things on the vendor they probably won’t sort together.
What I suggest is that containers be developed to act as both containers and multi item packaging.
As an example, I would like to have a bag on my vendor titled plate armor. It would not be for sale, just a container to help segregate inventory of a particular type. Within that bag I would like to be able to have additional containers (also not for sale) for each of the armor piece type … helms, gauntlets, etc … and THOSE items would be for sale as individual pieces.
Taking this one step further, I would also want to have “packages” available – whether they were also bag icons or something something distinctive like a special box – where the container would have a price for a complete armor suit and while the container could be opened to see the various pieces, the package could only be purchased as a whole.
I like this idea. Being able to sell a full suit of armor or a whole “dining room set” package (presumably at a discount due to buying in bulk) would be a great option to have for crafters trying to make a name for themselves.
Excellent idea
Crafting and Material usage balancing
I know the focus has been elsewhere to this point, but now that crafting is starting to emerge from the shadows, we really need some reality testing about the existing recipes, not just the skill trees. Let’s assume for argument’s sake, that a “wood” is the log obtained from chopping down a tree.
It requires 4 “wood” to make a timber – so assuming only normal rather than meticulous results, you would need to cut down 4 trees to get 3 timber which could then yield 6 boards and some tree bark.
To make a table, I need 4 board and 2 poles. A pole requires 6 timbers. So to make one table I need to cut down 25 trees in order to make the poles and boards for one table.
Similarly, I need 10 timbers to make long bowstave … that’s 16 trees to make a bowstave.
These materials requirements are not unique to carpentry but these are 2 of the more (IMO) egregious examples.
I would suggest that if crafting is going to be a viable profession, that you consider making the material requirements less draconian and make the skill required a critical part of both material utilization and success. That way novices will (as in RL) have high failure and defect rates with a high waste rate for complex items while grand masters will have reasonable material requirements and high success rates with little or no waste.
It has been your long standing position that any the attributes of items obtained through pledging would be able to be equaled or exceeded by items created in the game. With the impending changes regarding pledges going into effect in the immediate future, the issue of the expert crafting tables has become an issue of immediate concern for me.
I would like confirmation that I will be able to create tables of equivalent or greater attributes within the game or else I would like a clear statement before the impending pledge changes that the only way to obtain tables with these attributes will be to receive them through a high level pledge.
I (and I’m sure others) need to know this before the pledge changes take place since we would lose considerable relative value upgrading to Lord Marshall after the changes took place.
1. By continuing to sell instanced POTs that are not shown on the mainland map, do you believe you have broken the promised game feature of non-instanced limited land for housing? If not, why?
2. Can you please give examples for how to sell SotA to fans of risk vs reward PvP?
Ok it’s “after R19” What’s the news on that asset bounty list?
Question:
Can you tell us if in the future we’ll have the option to “make” our own house, like in UO (to put walls, stairs, doors, etc… as we wish). Thank you !
I loved in ultima online how many different Types of ore (10 ish+) there was available to mine and all the colors and variations is there plans to have so many in sota?
As someone who enjoys flagging for PVP, I currently spend more time hunting through empty scenes and loading screens than running into other flagged players.
Question: Would it be possible to get some visual feedback on the overworld that tells us which scenes are currently occupied by other flagged players?
Besides that, any more info on the direction for PVP would be greatly appreciated. Super excited about the incoming cover system!
Also, if we’re in a scene, it’d be great to know if someone flagged has entered (similar to being invaded like Dark Souls). My favorite part about gaming is those heart-racing moments. This should help get SotA there.
Currently gold is the only form of currency in game. In Asheron’s Call we had items that dropped from mobs that were seen equally as valuable as gold. Items such as motes/slivers/shards/sturdy steel keys/singularity keys etc. and were all just as valuable as gold. Keys were very sought after because they could open special chests scattered all over the world for example.
Question: Do you forsee there being items dropped from mobs put in game in the near future, that could be be as valuable as gold and used as other forms of currency?
Question: Do you have some plans for single player economy, too? For example, will NPCs really work and can we disrupt their work and thus have an influence on the economy? For example kill a trader and thus cause a shortage for some goods in a city or kill a miner and cause a shortage in ore etc.?
Love all the tree decorations but they can be a little hard to place together. Any chances of easing up on the difficulty of placement so we can have dense gardens?
when are we going to see some balancing of the armor? currently leather has no real value since cloth is as good if not better than leather. add in the fact a mage can currently stand toe to toe with a melle in full plate and win.
also something i have looked forward to since day one is bone armor…
what is the chance that we can loot bones off of bodies (pvp) and it retain the victims name
ie bone boots of dark star (thats if you killed him enough times to make the armor with only his bones)
sub note would be cool if a special ability was any time that person was near the bone armor glowed kinda like the sword that glows when orcs are around in lord of the rings
For Player-Owned Towns, when will we be seeing more templates, apart from biome variants of the original PaxLair template and biome variants of the Dara Brae (island) template?
There has been some moderate unvoiced concern that the number of different templates per biome will not be sufficient based on POT location.
I would like to see a clarification on PoT NPC buildings.
Is the old plan still valid? Will i get a (in my case) a free to place Bank? Do i need a deed? Will i get the building with npcs and a deed so i can set them up?
And most important: will i be able to buy more NPC buildings for USD/EUR?
I’d love to see additional NPC buildings, and perhaps other town resources (street signs, road pavers, rocks and tree bundles, etc) in the store!
Good idea! As long as we get a basic set for free with the pot;-)
Archery received a welcome change in R20 to use free attack instead of autoattack. However, the change to remove arrow reagents from specialty spells did not have the desired affect to reduce how many arrows we carry; we still regularly have to carry 300+. Can we look at moving from arrows to quivers, which wear out like other equipment and need repair/replaced, and only carry specialty arrows in limited quantities?
Also, free attack works great for archery, but I’m constantly running into issues “charging”, when I need a quick shot. Can we bind this to another key, or have left click (without hold) always launch a quick attack? It seems hit or miss (and is even harder in melee, from my experience).
Thanks for all the work in R20. Looking forward to R21!
Could we get Starr Long to outline the upgrades after 31AUG?
Just to confirm the weekly update 133.
I think its pretty clear from the text in the update but I meet and talk to a lot of confused players so I think an extra going through in the hangout would be great so that there is no need for such confusion.
For instance will someone who has a Patron before 31AUG, then upgraded to Navigator after 31AUG still get the physical cloth map?
“All pledges at or above Patron level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive all of the expired rewards at or below their pledge level as they upgrade.”
And will someone who was Ancestor before 31AUG, then upgraded to LOTM after 31 AUG get all the houses/homes of each tier?
“All pledges at or above Ancestor level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive all the homes and basements included at or below their pledge level as they upgrade. ”
So then it seems that accounts of Ancestor before 31AUG, which upgrade later will get all physical rewards and all homes of all tiers (but not double deeds if they go lord+).
Running around all the different areas is fun, trying to remember where everything is in each one is NOT.
Question:
Can you give us some sort of time frame for when we can expect to see all the missing area maps?
Many of us choose to use the mouse to move around, which gets really annoying when going into a decorated home or yard (that we either own or have elevated privileges on) because we are constantly picking things up that we had no intent on moving.
Question:
At what point can we expect to be able to “Lock” things down to prevent accidently picking things up in our homes?
Not the best option, but have you tried using ToggleMouseLook to move around instead? I absolutely love it. I use it basically as a “ToggleInventoryMode” since targeting via the center of the screen works for doors, talking to NPCs, free attack, etc. Locking things down seems like something we should have. I haven’t had that deco problem since I changed my play-style though. Just a thought.
questions from blaquerogue
Pets – The Tamed pets are OP clearing out mobs in a blink of an eye ( just stand there and watch you pet kill stuff)………Are these pets going to be toned down a little bit? Relying on the player to help it survive in battle? Also it would be cool if trainers dont spend enough time taming, playing or feeding their pet that it would turn on them and attack the owner!!
Damage/PVP – when will a two handed hammer crush a cloth bearing mage?
Add ons – Is there anyway we could get just plain ole Log cabins in the add on store? Also id like to see more things in add on store that actually peak interests, armor set etc… Viking Deco etc….
Hi blaquerogue,
my Bear Patriarch is helpful, but clearly not overpowered. It got killed by 2 wolves.
Have upgraded only 4 times though.
What pet do you have – want it too
Question 1 :
Do you plan to include “games” inside the game, like it was in UO : Darts, chess game, etc…
I think it can be a very good thing to help people gather at taverns for example !
Question 2 :
Is it difficult or time consuming to do a “archery” game, like the darts, but with a bow and a kind of middle age target for archery ? I already imagine archery contests, with lots of people. It can be fun !
I’m an average player. Since R13, each time I have earned enough gold to purchase a deed and house, there are none available. When the game goes live, will there be adequate housing supply for us “slow to earn gold” types? Signed, never owned a house in SOTA. (But really, really want to).
Dear Sir Grant,
with POTs in R20 there should be enough lots available – also in all future releases.
You can PM me if you want a lot in Astrum (near Ardoris); I did not have much time to prepare the Village, though, its pretty empty right now….
Question 1:
Some of us do miss teasers such as this.
When can we expect to see concept drawings or layout of Brittany?
Question 2:
Is there any internal discussion about the future of stretch goals and can you share it?
(examples – will certain stretch goals make it in using borrowed tech from other advances, will pack animals/mounts be combined? Will boats & elves be retired due to magnitude of the task? Will stretch goal items be retired and new ones introduced – or see a price increase?)
Thought of another one…
Can we delete / move journal entries? If we have completed a “quest line” it would be nice to stick it in the back somewhere so we don’t need to search as much for current content.
Q1:
Will control points that have to be crossed to pass from one region to the other be PvP zones?
I ask this because I would like them to be PvP zones to create/reinforce regional economies controlled by guilds/alliances. Possibly even force SPO players to cross those zones in MPO.
Q2:
How was the beer and chocolates?
Camera clipping: When traversing the forest and fighting off the wolves, the camera behind your avatar being behind the leaves and foliage as you turn around is truly irritating. Are there any thoughts to having translucent/transparent clipping? Also, how about being able to modify the camera’s origin of rotation?
Thank you for the Pre-Alphas, seeing things develop with feedback is very heartening.
I have a few questions about the R21 Release:
1. Emote “Teaching” – I believe we currently have emotes available that we should not have (ie. those that come with higher pledge tiers or are purchasable in add-on store). Are you going to remove those not earned or purchased by us so that we can test the “teaching” aspect?
2. Hail Trogdar! – Just wondering if dragons are still being added in this release? Any hints on what to expect with them?
3. Weather – Will we have an option in graphics panel to turn on/off these effects? I’ve seen in other games where adding weather elements creates a huge performance issue for bottom end machines.
3b. Snow – Will snow actually “stick” and cover the ground when it happens? If so, will this affect “night time” by making it slightly brighter due to the lighter background of the snow? If not, is this in the plans for future updates?
PS. I’ve only been testing SOTA since about 3 days before R19 ended. I’ve never played UO, but I’ve played just about everything else out there MMO-wise and Beta tested quite a lot of them. I have to say that the Dev and Community crews here are far superior to any I have ever seen anywhere else! So props to all of you here and keep up the great work. I have no doubt that SOTA will be my home for many years to come!
Question:
The “Troll Boss” is quite a formidable foe. Do you have plans in the future to make bosses scale in difficulty based on the number of Avatars attacking it? For example, will the Troll Boss be equally difficult to defeat for an Avatar in SP Online compared to 10 Avatars in MPO?
Also, Will the Archers get Multi Shot activated in r21?
Simple, sota related, questions for the hangout:
1) At the moment when crafting from the recipe book, it replaces all items – even those that are already in the crafting window. Can you change that to speed up the crafting process.
2) Could you please explain, at least in brief, what the different statistics mean – like damage avoidance and damage resistance – or how hit rating works, so we know what materials to craft with for the character we craft for.
3) Please, can we get an ingame clock that tells the time? Seeing it is dark isn’t the same as knowing how long it’s been dark.
4) Will archery get more love ?
We have vendors, which is great. Can we add a lender option, with the item automatically returning after a specified period? Great for free trials (“try this crafted armour for an hour and see if you like it”).
Also useful for libraries, of course.
Love it! Such a good idea.
UncleDrax
well a better question, which goes into Coal, but would be more like ‘Is the intent to have 100% player-craftable/gatherable end-to-end crafting tree, or will there always be some vendor-required money-sink goods like wooden plates and coal”
On some days the network connection is pretty bad (PELICAN). E.g. today just now.
Anyone working on it?
Also download of patch #305 (non Steam version) is extremely slow (3KBs).
I get the Steam update with > 5MBs.
How many wipes are planned? One before alpha and one before release?
(Royal) founder armor is crap, you get a better one in < 1h play time. Can you improve it up to say 20 hours (like epic).
When do we get fishing?
Any info on how much will be lot taxes?
Whats a tax free lot worth (how many hours grinding gold…)?
Meaning should I get another tax free lot now?
Can we sort recipes? Or have them alphabetically. Currently in the order I get them – pretty messed up for me.
I have no answers, but I created a second account so I have two lot deeds.
Question: What special effects might the store items such as Lord British Cloak, or Oracle Head (which we may have bought but don’t know what it does yet!).
Question: Will the health bar UI be moveable? I ask because I have a three monitor setup, spanning 5760×1080 resolution across all three. At the moment I find it difficult to see my health and that of my party during pve and pvp combat.
QUESTION: Localization: We will begin crowdsourcing the translation of the game into various languages. What does it mean in particular?
Follow-Up Question on PvP: Are there any plans for incentives to be added to encourage PvP such as resource gathering boosts, XP boost, and/or a reward system for those who participate?
Tree Houses?
Hot Air Balloon as a source of travel?
whatabout slayer weapons
Question:
Why were so many of the questions skipped?
It was fun, but I would have liked more questions answered and less time drinking! Or at least the same amount of time drinking but a longer hangout to answer more questions!
That would have been nice, Lord A…
I did enjoy the pledge/drink challenge, and laughed a bit – but quite a few pre-asked questions in this thread were “overlooked” or ignored…
That left me a little frustrated.