Jump to content
News Ticker
  • Welcome to 2021, let's hope it is better than 2020.
  • The Path Ahead


    Recommended Posts

    I know losing Findupre was a surprise to everyone and believe you when I tell you it’s been a tough transition for me. Findupre was a big part of my gaming experience within SotA and it’s been an adjustment to say the least. I’m very happy some of us have landed in Stormsong Vale. I believe in the community Church is trying to put together and I believe we could be a big part of it. I do find myself questioning however, what role if any CotP is going to play in SotA. It hasn’t seemed to hold the attention of most who are playing and we have shown essentially zero growth since I and my guild members folded into CotP. CotP has been my guild for over 5 years now. That’s the longest run I’ve personally had since I ran my guild in SWG from Beta and continued on after a hiatus as a member. I guess what I’m trying to say is I find myself once again asking myself Who are we going to be in Shroud and when are we going to get started. We are very near launch and we have little momentum. I understand that some of that lands squarely on my shoulders. That being said, are we going to step up and create our experience in Shroud? 

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    • Administrators

    Are you folks trying to recruit new members in-game and on SotA forum?  Having veteran cotp members join a chapter is great, but I don't count on it.  The long term stability of a chapter relies on recruiting new members in that game.  If you haven't done it already, create a guild recruitment thread on SotA's forum and try to keep it current.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I've attempted to start this conversation a couple times. Moreso about direction than recruiting. But a big part of that is that I feel like if we do not have a direction to advertise, any recruiting we attempt would be lost in the noise. Especially since newcomers to the game are exceedingly few and far between. Competition for them is rather fierce. Having a cool direction for the group leads to useful recruiting material. I am also admittedly terrible at recruiting. Just the other day I spent an hour helping out a new player and forgot to pitch joining the guild.

    The challenge I find myself struggling with is a uniting cause. In a way, it often feels like everyone is playing a different game in the same room. Some run around grinding XP in high end zones. Others are trying to gather the materials they need to craft. The majority of the "Cool Things To Get" are cash shop things. I know they needed the cash shop for funding the game, but I really feel that the game could have been so much more if you most of those things were stuff to work for as opposed to stuff to purchase with real money. Events are also challenging. I am not really interested in dance parties. I've not even been tempted to go to a PvP event. PvE grinding is more of a daily activity for most folks than a special event, and the difference in skill/difficulty to make something enjoyable for both veteran players as well as a novice potential recruit is also difficult.

    Figuring how to improve Findupre and draw people there was actually a highlight for me in the game. It felt like something meaningful to do as a group in a gaming environment that seems to lack for group goals. I was hoping maybe we could poke at Bendarek and get some permissions to lay out lots in the CotP Island POT, but I think he may still be in an area with limited internet. I've been wondering if there was a way we could add meaningfully to Stormsong Vale outside of just having our vendors and homes there.

    I've also been working towards getting moderation control of our forum here so I can clean up old posts and start putting sticky posts with info and in general making it look more managed to provide a good impression to folks when we start pointing them here for recruiting.

     

    All of that being said: Did you have ideas for what kind of direction and/or identity we could establish for ourselves in the game? And, to everyone else, if a suggestion was posed would you be willing to provide input for whether you would be willing to get behind it or not?

    I've considered an advertised mercenary service before. Basically, advertising our guild as people who can be contacted to help with content. Could be roleplayed out or meta'd. The downside is playing it out can often put us to playing for other people's causes rather than personal advancement. Hard to earn producer XP if needing to do a lot of pve or pvp 'jobs'.

    Storycraft is something that could be done as well, though I feel only a small portion of people would want to work on producing content and trying to arrange it all. Not to mention the fairly tight limits we have to work with inside of the game.

     

    I like this conversation. It is definitely needed. Especially as folks try to avoid burning out on the game. I know I've seen fewer people around in recent weeks across the board. Not just in our guild, but also in the large list of people who have added me as a friend for use as a teleport marker.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I like the idea of the mercenary service. I agree that it could potentially take away from personal advancement and guild goals should it be come a popular service. i see plenty of people who are running across the map encumbered who could use a mercenary escort to grab up those bothersome encounters with bandits and help safely guide them through passes. I've struggled myself come up with the initial conversation with a potential new player joining our ranks in this game more than any other recruitment type contact I've ever had in any other game. It's not like I can say, "Hey would you like to go visit X dungeon. It is right around your skill level and you need X from within it move forward with X quest" This point to the lack of content I'm concerned about. I haven't personally started the main story lines as I have always since the very beginning wanted to wait until official launch in hopes that it would be the most polished experience possible for myself to enjoy. I know you and I (LIfe) had a conversation at one point of a quality new person and just a number. I agree we want quality people first and fore most. I'm open to any and all ideas on how to start that conversation in this game. The only luck in Shroud I've had in the past was just asking someone who was in the area I'm in if they'd like to group up and getting to know them and see if we personally clicked. That is recruitment 101 though. It's been a while since I've personally struggled with recruitment. It's always come fairly easily.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I am at a Crossroads with SotA,, from a technical and artistic view I have liked a lot of the changes that have been made.  I also enjoyed hanging with the guild running zones as a fun social activity.  To me  what is missing and makes it harder for me to be super excited about personally promoting the guild has to do with the lack of community that I loved in UO.  That came from the PvP side of things in UO.  I mean UO was brutal if you did not belong to a guild.  The excitement of will I get ganked was always there.  The guild battles over spawn areas or resource areas were intense.  Not only was it important to be in a good active guild but alliances became important.  I have fond memories of the guilds in the alliance as well as the guilds we fought against.  I don't see any of that developing in this game.  I read forums and see all the complaints about PvP but good PvP is a lot like RP you forge your own game play and you fight and defend over resources.  The Devs decided to do the one stop shop to please everyone and I think they missed the mark.  I been playing more with the tory and quests but I am not being pulled into the story.  Fighting the boss mobs as a group is fun, but after a while the fun wears off because the loot is so none exciting or motivating.  I have also been bothered that this close to release the world seems empty which means most players are maybe playing single player online or in friends only.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I've moved to almost always playing in regular multiplayer. Though the active population seems to focus on a few high end zones, and outside of those areas it is rare to run into people. I've got differing opinions on the PvP. I would probably not be here if it were always-on pvp. Though I do believe they dropped the ball on the PvP zones. There just isn't a reason to go into them most of the time. They should really be more resource-rich to draw players and competition over those areas.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I do think we need an injection of new blood. There is a general apathy amongst the chapter. Frankly, if we continue down the path of in action and status quo this chapter probably isn’t going to make it. That statement isn’t an indictment of anyone. Just an opinion. I don’t have any answers either so that leaves me as part of the problem. 

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I think we should get together as a Chapter in game and in Discord and throw some ideas around for Events, Recruitment and our long term goals. We haven't really done this. I would suggest next Sunday since Sunday seems to be the day we have the most activity.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Sundays usually work for me.  The problem I am having with the long term status of the game is I am not confident that the population will increase that much at launch.  The  games structure with online solo, online with friends, etc. makes it more challenging to recruit as the world seems empty to me.  Unless it is a popular event, I seldom see more than 5 people in towns/cities.  I see a hand full of players on the overland map but it is very rare to run into anyone in an adventure scene (I play almost exclusively in open world).  I do like a lot of elements about the game but I just am concerned that it's not going to pull in the numbers to really give it the funds to make something special for future episodes. 

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I understand where you are coming from Inseril. We will see shortly what happens with the population. I mostly play in MO but since many of the scenes are extremely small I find myself and my party members moving over to FO frequently. It is a catch 22 though. I l’m not going to find any new members or build any new relationships doing that. I’m holding out hope that the progress they are starting to make isn’t to late.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Join the conversation

    You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Reply to this topic...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

     Share

    ×
    ×
    • Create New...