Let's be honest: SOTO flops because of the drops.

[Anyandrell.6238]

I like SOTO a lot. I love the architecture, the story, the look, the feel (yes, including Inner Nayos).

Why I don't play it much is - the loot is extremely crappy.

No matter what we're talking about, which of the maps, even the Convergences, wasting time just to get your storage overflowing with essences and not much else is not going to keep many playing there.

Boring? Not at all. After all, the Octovine, Drizzlewood, etc etc etc, where you find always, always always tons of players participating and playing those events over and over is because of the loot. For goodness' sakes, I get more useful drops in Orr in half an hour than in two hours in SOTO!

If the drop rate/quality won't change, it will keep flopping and people will keep complaining that the new expansions look half finished.

[SeTect.5918]

While i dont think this is the reason it "flops" tho i dont even think it flops, but i agree soto has kinda bad loot. At least the meta chests dont seem very rewarding imo.

Rifts give fine loot since they are mainly for the legendary armor anyway.

Edited November 20, 2023 by SeTect.5918

[Killthehealersffs.8940]

Most likely 4-5 months before the next expansion , they will replace Essense with Gold .

Or pick and choose which Meta/place will survive from each previous expansion , while the 4th  explansion might offer OW legendary Weapons and the 5th OW Lge Armor   Variance 3 

What about Rings with effects that stacks for some customizable  combat  transform tonics for some secs ? Different Amulets can  offer the Jotun/Tiger/Ogre race , One Ring offer the fire/frost/shadow Foot effect on the ground  for example .

Or you can customize the apperace of the world bosses with extra horns or frost eefct  ? Or you can unlock the "weakness mechanic" >> special conditions to get more loot >> optional way to play  >> stand in the boss green arrow that is moving and hit his weakness , ot try to evade the "darker colored" aoes that if succful you get bonus damage or loot ?

Edited November 19, 2023 by Killthehealersffs.8940

[Doctor Hide.6345]

I don't personally think it flops, but my interests are primarily in the weapon master and the new core weapons coming. Those are the main reason I bought the expansion. I suppose ow legendary armor too, but eh, I have not been as motived yet for that. But weapon wise I think they gave and are giving me in the next couple months exactly what I wanted from it. I honestly couldn't care less for the maps and the story they gave. Not to say they are bad, but it was not my main reason for getting the expansion. So, in my opinion, it did not flop at all.

[Omega.6801]

Not sure if "flop" is the right word. But yeah, the rewards feel 120% focused on the new legendary armor, which is understandable, but also boring if you're not going for that particular shiny.

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Well I want the armor at least. 

[Skyztamer.4950]

I've gone back to chase achievement items and fashion from past expansions, as well as finally working on a few legendaries. I finished getting the Prismatic Champion's Regalia a few days ago. Also slowly but surely ranking up in WvW for Warbringer. Still 245 ranks to go.... but it's still progress (most of the other materials I'm not worried about right now).

For the SoTO essences, I wish there was something else to spend them on or at least some kind of converter so it doesn't go completely to waste.

I don't remember if it's (still?) true that we'd need 10s of thousands of essences to craft the legendary armor, but I'd rather do other things in this game over farming rifts and convergences (the latter was fun, but again I can't do anything else with essences right now). I'd probably start raiding in this game to acquire legendary armor instead of rifts and convergences. I think raids are supposed to give lots of other useful/profitable rewards along the way.

[Vayne.8563]

People who play for gold think everyone plays for gold. It's not the case in my experience. I don't.

[bossdonut.1938]

i like soto it is fun

[notebene.3190]

I’m having a good time; I don’t have a good rhyme.

[Vayne.8563]

10 minutes ago, notebene.3190 said:

I’m having a good time; I don’t have a good rhyme.

It's not a crime.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Me who does basically only the SotO Metas, Dragonstorm and strikes these days. 

Gold going to the moon 👀

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

It has been my experience that whenever something doesn't do well in a long running franchise, it was because the previous installment was a disappointment.  Kind of like how Rise of Skywalker and Solo: A Star Wars Story didn't do well because of how badly Last Jedi was received, and like how The Marvels isn't doing well because of how poorly the stream shows did.  If SotO isn't doing well, chances are it is in response to issues in EoD.  

[Grimmsblood.5231]

Always a difference between getting liquid gold, and something you need to use to craft to liquidate into gold.

If you connect the dots to what you get to what you can use them for, Soto Metas are super profitable.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Very much like how EoD was designed specifically to make legendary weapons in the long run, SotO is designed to farm legendary armor. That will be its only purpose when the next expansion releases.

[Vayne.8563]

4 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

It has been my experience that whenever something doesn't do well in a long running franchise, it was because the previous installment was a disappointment.  Kind of like how Rise of Skywalker and Solo: A Star Wars Story didn't do well because of how badly Last Jedi was received, and like how The Marvels isn't doing well because of how poorly the stream shows did.  If SotO isn't doing well, chances are it is in response to issues in EoD.  

But Star Trek V movie was an abyssmal failure and is widely regarded as the worst Star Trek movie. Shatner was never allowed to direct one again, yet Undisovered Country is the sixth movie and it did very very well.

[Dayra.7405]

2 hours ago, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

Very much like how EoD was designed specifically to make legendary weapons in the long run, SotO is designed to farm legendary armor. That will be its only purpose when the next expansion releases.

I agree and I am not against this focus, but in EoD legendary weapon crafting was an economy, where you could participate even if you aren't interested in getting a legendary, while in SotO legendary armor crafting seems to be a solo-grind, and there is no reason to play SotO, if you don't want this leggy armor.

I don't understand why they didn't build any economy, that eould interest anyone into participating in SotO.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Vayne.8563]

33 minutes ago, Dayra.7405 said:

I agree and I am not against this focus, but in EoD legendary weapon crafting was an economy, where you could participate even if you aren't interested in getting a legendary, while in SotO legendary armor crafting seems to be a solo-grind, and there is no reason to play SotO, if you don't want this leggy armor.

I don't understand why they didn't build any economy, that eould interest anyone into participating in SotO.

They did build an economy.  Motiviations sell really well and people make a lot of money selling them. The fact that you can't make a sell a full piece of legendary armor is fine because you can sell the parts you need to make the legendary armor.

[Zok.4956]

15 hours ago, Anyandrell.6238 said:

I like SOTO a lot. I love the architecture, the story, the look, the feel (yes, including Inner Nayos).

Why I don't play it much is - the loot is extremely crappy.

That's a legit opinion. However, there are some players that are playing not primarily for loot but they play the content they have fun with.

15 hours ago, Anyandrell.6238 said:

No matter what we're talking about, which of the maps, even the Convergences, wasting time just to get your storage overflowing with essences and not much else is not going to keep many playing there.

I guess, in SotO the long term motivation for playing Convergences will not be gold value but essences for the PvE-Open-World-Legy-Armor.

AND: If you don't want the new legy armor you can now sell the parts/items that other players want/require for the legy armor and you can make a lot of gold.  It's like the same that happended with the A.S.S. in EoD after release.

 

15 hours ago, Anyandrell.6238 said:

If the drop rate/quality won't change, it will keep flopping and people will keep complaining that the new expansions look half finished.

Well, the expansion *IS* half finished/released.  So it's no surprise that it looks half finished.😉 

I don't know if it will be a flop or not. But I don't think it will be a flop because of the loot. I think the loot (the new Legy armor) has had a huge positive impact on more players purchasing SotO and being in the game than would be the case without the new Legy armor. What I find more interesting is what will probably be the main selling point of the next expansion.

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Zok.4956

[starlinvf.1358]

7 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

It has been my experience that whenever something doesn't do well in a long running franchise, it was because the previous installment was a disappointment.  Kind of like how Rise of Skywalker and Solo: A Star Wars Story didn't do well because of how badly Last Jedi was received, and like how The Marvels isn't doing well because of how poorly the stream shows did.  If SotO isn't doing well, chances are it is in response to issues in EoD.  

Your giving Last jedi too much credit. Those other movies were perfectly capable of being terrible on their own.

And the streaming shows are failing because Disney+ is too expensive to do the binge sub anymore. Thats on top of them not being interesting enough to wait week to week for an episode drop.  

[azorean.1850]

it floped? who knew!!!

[Obfuscate.6430]

On one hand letting older maps have better loot incentivizes people to return to them.  They've replaced regular loot with unique currency drops for newer maps so you can build better rewards. 
On the other hand, by doing this, they give no incentive to stay on newer maps once you're finished building whatever carrot they've got you chasing. 

Did SotO flop though? I think it is successful for what it is. 
I think the story and some features are where it fails. The drops on the maps are honestly something I never considered although I have felt the rewards for rifts felt low, but again I think they wanted us to focus on Kryptis essences instead of regular loot.

I've returned to Drizzlewood for my farming needs lol!

Edited November 20, 2023 by Obfuscate.6430

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

When the main point in any expansion is how good the loot is it might be time for a break. Gyala is very profitable, yet we can agree it didn't work out. Skywatch is fairly profitable too, so, not Drizzlewood level, but still among the top options.

With that logic PoF was a flop too along with HoT's only redeeming factor being AB being soo profitable to farm.

[ericpeggy.8206]

Actually, just need an infusion drop to make maps popular.

But I know the feeling.

If you don't need legendary armors, SotO is kinda dull.

[CoffeePlease.3082]

5 hours ago, ericpeggy.8206 said:

Actually, just need an infusion drop to make maps popular.

But I know the feeling.

If you don't need legendary armors, SotO is kinda dull.

Yeah SotO was very obviously aimed at trying to bring in new players (which is smart businesswise), but it is SO weighted towards that and open world legendary armor that comes at the cost of losing many of the existing player base who want more of the type of content that they no longer seem to have the resources to create anymore.

Unfortunately that seems like a cut they are willing to make.