Leaving SoD, observations from a potential new player

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grizzlybear

grizzlybear

Dalayan Beginner
I have not been part of the community for long, so I don't really know anybody. But, maybe this will help someone at sometime, whether a new player or the people running it.

Speaking as a new player, there are a lot of negative aspects that need to be overlooked to play the game; especially if you don't like boxing, like me.

  • First, the wiki information is not always accurate. With such massive changes to an established game, it's hard to get around in the world without a solid wiki or information system
  • Getting around the game world is pure pain; as in 1999/2000 level pain - I don't even know if there are boats or other methods, but, getting from Halas to another level 1 area, such as Greenmist, was impossible; when I asked, nobody really responded except with "Portals" and "Learn the system to survive"; why remove the PoK and make it hard for people to connect?
  • I saw precisely one other level 1 character in the last week and they logged fairly quickly after me logging in, other than that, it was me, by myself and looked to be that way until I reached 65; that's not fun
  • Rules - there a lot of them, which wouldn't be concerning if they were fairly and equally applied
  • But damn, the drama I've read in the forums is concerning; looking for content to help me understand the server and seeing post after post about GMs/Staff arbitrarily enforcing rules and the way they interact on discord, etc. is concerning, to say the least; EQ is a time sink and learning a new version of EQ, such as SoD ,is even more time consuming; so why would I want to put in all my time to incur the wrath of a staff member and lose everything? At least, that's how it seems will happen from the posts
  • I met 3 people on the server, 2 of whom were 65 and who answered some of my questions; thank you for that! Outside of that, there was little to no interaction in the channels I have access to as a new player
The biggest thing that made me decide to go elsewhere, though, is the drama. Why on earth would I want to invest time and money (I don't mind supporting efforts like this, as an IT developer, myself, I know just how demanding a project like this can be) into something I see as drama already? Then throw in the difficulty of practically learning a new game and then travel between places... my GF was looking at making a character that would have landed her in Greenmist... the equation starts to tip towards "Avoid". Incidentally, my GF decided, after reading what I was finding in the forums, not to play at all.

Thank you to the one person who took that time to come and speak with me and really talk to me about some of the differences between what I'm familiar with and the SoD server. I really appreciate your time.

This server seems like such a nice concept, that I was excited to try it. But it sounds like some internal logistics need straightened out. I'm not deleting my characters, because I hope to check back on and off to see how it's going. Good luck in the future.
 
as a player since 2005 i agree with everything you have typed, salute and good travels sir.

P.S. this guy isnt my alt check the ips
 
Yep leveling from 1-65 is most likely going to be a solo adventure which ends with you hitting level 65 and realizing youre still a long way away from the rest of the playerbase.

Its unfortunate you started in halas, as i think it's quite possibly the literal worst starting zone while also being insanely isolated. I generally agree that the mansion of portals is a really weird and dated mechanic thats kept around with a bunch of other equally weird and archaic mechanics that only exist because some swedish guy who hasnt been involved in the games development since the bush administration really hated certain things about original everquest.

It doesnt help the early levels are a complete mess and just... not fun. You typically spend hours doing literally nothing but autoattacking mobs because your spells are insanely bad, you have no mana, and the mobs have high enough resists to make some low level spells do virtually 0 damage. Its a slog with virtually 0 danger even if you dont know what you're doing. You dont even get the thrill of being a noob in east commons and having a gryphon roll thru the orc camp. Level 1 - 10 pacing is just way off, has weird ability/spell progression, and the con system being broken in the "new" client makes it downright frustrating at times. Can kill 2 mobs that both con blue except on of them gives virtually no exp and the other gives a normal amount. Levels 10-20 go faster than 1-10.

Won't say much about the staff other than lots of established players having less fun after each and evey patch in the last year or two but being told thar it'll all make sense when the "vision" is complete. Where the "vision" is some vague idea where players don't know the end goal but only see changes where classes have large identity away from niches that have existed for over a decade because "the class was never meant to be like that"

All that being said i truly do love this game and most of the time spent playing it. Its a unique experience i wish more people got to enjoy but it just has a pretty significant barrier to entry, moreso than MMOs typically do. If you want to give the game another try in the future, Season 2 is your best bet to play with other people whenever it launches.
 
this game has some of the most fun raid and 1 group bosses Ive ever done, you just have to level 1 to 65, do a bunch of questing, and progress past the first 10~ tiers of raid content to get there
 
I encourage you to hang in there. The low level playerbase is non existent and the mansion of portals sucks since they added the Akhevans but it's a salvageable situation. You can /who all and find a wizard or druid to port you or politely ask in ooc and likely will find a taker. I, being the archetypical casual player with a roster of entry level 65 alts, would gladly help a newb with a port if I saw the request. Feel free to also dm me on discord if you have game/levelling questions. I am Cornel in there.

Understand that forums drama is largely overblown. There are a small handful of notorious dev skeptics and long time poopsockers who hate change, and particularly always hate changes implemented by Dev ____. It's been that way since the dawn of the server. I have also not once had a bad dev run in (quite the contrary, devs/GMs have come through for me quite a few times over the years) but I am also on record hating the recent Enchanter changes. We are allowed to have opinions and staff is allowed to ignore them, obviously.

This game is hugely satisfying to play. It has its challenges, some of them structural, some of them still around because "that's the way it's done around here" but I encourage you to hang in there especially if you can stand boxing.
 
cornelweezy said:
I encourage you to hang in there.
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I would play a wizard, but I don't think they can solo.

It's just unnerving to see a lot of posts about devs as I'm trying to search for answers on the forums. I was hoping to find a game that my GF and I could play, but she has pretty much lost interest since seeing the posts.
 
grizzlybear said:
I would play a wizard, but I don't think they can solo.

It's just unnerving to see a lot of posts about devs as I'm trying to search for answers on the forums. I was hoping to find a game that my GF and I could play, but she has pretty much lost interest since seeing the posts.
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Wizards most certainly can solo. I know the forums drama drowns out a lot of stuff in the Tome of Knowledge subforum but ngl the forums aren't the best source of intel right now. You want to parouse the wiki and ask other players. Please DM me if you want to hear my thoughts on Wizard solo, I soloed my wizard from 1 to mid 60s. You can find me in the server discord.
 
grizzlybear said:
  • But damn, the drama I've read in the forums is concerning; looking for content to help me understand the server and seeing post after post about GMs/Staff arbitrarily enforcing rules and the way they interact on discord, etc. is concerning, to say the least; EQ is a time sink and learning a new version of EQ, such as SoD ,is even more time consuming; so why would I want to put in all my time to incur the wrath of a staff member and lose everything? At least, that's how it seems will happen from the posts
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I love a good popcorn thread, and if you go back in my history you'll know I like to complain from the player's perspective also.

Those posts about incurring "the wrath of a staff member" are one-sided appeals from people who got caught and now want you to believe they didn't cheat on however many occasions.

Whether you decide to play or not, you should know there is no interest from the devs/staff to investigate and punish the playerbase unless they are exploiting or running 3rd party cheat utilities. 99% of players here, and probably more than that, have never even had a warning.
 
Like Cornel said, the drama is entirely overblown on the forums and in Discord. In game it's relatively drama-free. I didn't even look at the forums until like 4 years after I started, so you can really just ignore the drama and play the game. It's anecdotal evidence on my part but I've had nothing but positive interactions with GMs/Devs over the past 11 years of playing off and on. Granted, I'm not now and never have been an elite poopsocker in a top-tier raiding guild so others' mileages may vary.

I also hate boxing and encourage you to come back and give it another shot when season two starts up. There should be a lot more activity at the lower levels and noob zones, otherwise the server is pretty top heavy. Being able to get through the "tutorial" (1-65) and into the actual game (65+) with others is infinitely more enjoyable with others.

Your post is definitely making me want to write up some new player guides for the wiki though...
 
The drama-free mmo your looking for probably does not exist , competition , guilds , clans , pvp , loot , etc. will all bring drama no matter what form you deliver them in mmo's. come back to check out seasons for a better experience imo.
 
On the wiki it is player maintained and there were major changes the last several patches not all of which thoroughly detailed to said players which means the wiki maintainers(the players) have to investigate all the changes the devs did before updating assuming they can reach said content with their player characters so it can take some time. Think I remember there even being a rule forbidding staff from updating wiki with any information that they didn't "discover" with their non-staff accounts.

As for getting around I highly suggest a non-barbarian for your first toon(due to the crappy home town) other races have it much much easier. also consider getting a druid or wizard asap. druid is better for traveling than wizard due to run speed enhancing spells but both have ports. SOD is huge and anything to get to places faster helps a lot. On boats they used to exist but they bugged out and weren't repaired. at the places the boats were there are Naval Translocators which will port you to the places the boats used to take you(frankly they are much better than the boats ever were).

One way to get some low level grouping is to do Adepts. There is a list of public toons for them here https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Project_Draist that anyone can use to have strong on level toons to fight them(some of those toons can even solo their assigned adept). so even if there is only level 65s online they may be able to log in those toons to help(assuming you can find enough people willing). The project draist toons were made by me to help mitigate the problem of poor server population at the low end by enabling higher players to help.
 
Also I think it was Stever's idea that all new chars should just start and be bound in Athica since they are able to access their "home" city via the AA homegate thing. This would at least let new players see actual other players before they quit.
 
I thought Halas does have one but it's one of the clumsier ones in the back. Makes no sense for there not to be one. Grobb should have one too.

Can we just make players level 59 and below immune to the MoP hazards/Akhevans? Upside is obvious. Downsides are so convoluted that they barely count.
 
Or can we add a grindy quest to enable safe passage through MoP? Maybe the mansion stops abhoring your presence and starts solemnly acknowledging your presence instead?
 
Well, if you do manage to get to 65, you will encounter the next hurdle. Depending on your play time, dedication, and people who care enough to help you... it will take a very long time to be competitive. We are talking 6 months just to enter the realm of relevance. It is almost required to use a 'ringer' box in order to do a majority of the content.

Since you do not like boxing, and it seems like you want an active playerbase... you do have the option to start whenever Season 2 starts. Unsure how much activity will be there, but at least you will be able to find groups while leveling.
 
A lot of content in the leveling game can be solo'd by the right class with the right tactics, but if you're going naked you won't feel like much of a God while you're at it unless you play a bard.

The playerbase is active enough to support pug shenanigans but it's not reliable all day all the time. Several guilds are taking on all comers, Dumpster Fire and Prestige do stuff *daily* and will drop boxes for mains because the more geared mains the merrier. You probably should be 60+ and maybe you need to grate your face on the ikisith entry quest or die a couple times in MoP until you figure it out but the groups and raids are most certainly there right now for people who announce themselves and commit to getting a little bit better every time they log in.

My final advice is, given the massive mountain of exp it takes to develop a character to approach the big boy raid game, please log in and start pressing buttons and seeing the sights (even when it's frustrating and occasionally lonely) and don't hesitate to use global channels if you have questions, and don't be afraid to use /who [class] to randomly /tell people to ask things too.
 
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