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My Review after playing a year+ now
DracSchnider
Member UncommonPosts: 223
First of all I'm going to set a few things straight seeing that I have read a lot of the forums here.
Play to win does not exist in SOTA. Those that have been touting this are wrong. There is nothing in the online store that allows you to win its all fluff (looks, pets, emotes, décor etc.) Not to mention that these store items can be bought with Coto's ingame now and cotos can be bought from other players cheaper then the online store. also to put this further to rest everything in the game can be acquired or made yourself. I am a GM crafter and I make all my own gear with out the need of anyone.
Another quick note I will point out is people comparing SOTA to other games currently on the market as well people trolling on SOTA being greedy. I can tell you this. Black Desert had a budget of over 200 Million and a huge development publisher team. SOTA with all costs up to date 15Mil with a very small team. Its the Kickstarter people and the continued support for those that want to buy into the fluff that is paying this games development. That said SOTA looks fantastic for its Budget.
Now to the Grit.
Playing this for over a year now after playing BDO, RIFT and others prior. Overall this is a pretty open sandbox like game. The evolution over the last year has been pretty amazing. The zones as some call it over that of an open world are not what they where a year ago. Most the zones where clones and over the last year they have been releasing with every monthly update the non clone unique areas. some are smaller then others but there are some pretty huge ones as well. Early versions where very small even the bigger of the early. Now we have some that are big enough that you can get lost in.
The combat has changed 3 times since I have been playing. They use to only really have 1 way to play, now they have put in a few different ways which pros/cons for each. There is a Deck system like that of MTG or other where cards are drawn at random which each allows you to use as an attack and or combine for a combo in some cases. There is also a traditional 1 skill per key slot which can be locked however in doing so the repeat use of the key before cool down will result in additional focus (like that of mana or Stamina) will deplete faster depending on how many times you hit it up to a max of your level or card numbers you have over all. That's a rough way to explain it. You can also mix the two system which is what I do.
The Characters them selves have gear slots like all games, the Skill system is abit different. Best way to describe it is like that of Skyrim. you can level pretty much everything or anything and mix and match all schools of magic, weapons ,armors etc allowing you to become what you like with limits of coarse on the number of cards you can have up at once which prevents you from being over powered. The other thing they have done is created an skill XP pool for adventure and crafting. These pools feed your skill leveling. the higher the level the more XP from the pool it needs to keep progressing. This system was designed along with a skill management system that allows you to control what xp is put into for level was designed to thwart bot leveling. There is basically no bots in the game as its almost impossible to do it. Even the top players can fall to a single low level creature as its both skill and reactive abilities as well the positional directions that determine where and what you are hitting. There is no AFK macroing as it simply does not work with this game. you have to aim your cursor at a mob to attack it. Sure you can tab target but it does not face the enemy nor does it mean you can hit it automatically or protect you when things come up behind you.
Crafting system is crazy. being that I have several GM crafting abilities I have spend a lot of time in a few of the crafting schools. making pretty much everything in game is possible with the exception of some of the artifact (boss or world random drops) these loots however are no where near as good as player made items. Once can however take a artifact and have it mastercrafted or Enchanted to level it up just as with player made items however this game is very unforgiving and a failed upgrade costs you everything. Believe me being a crafter is expensive and very time consuming. Another thing with crafting like that of adventure it has an XP pool which requires you to go out into the world to gather to gain it back. There is so many times that can be crafted that I d say 1000's and more. Every patch introduces more and more.
Gathering, mining , milling, harvesting, and all the other associated skill schools allow you to get a lot of different materials required depending on your level. From a simple part off a scorpion to the many types of tree's or the huge number or ore's up to the Hand of a named creature. you need people to get you these things or be out there all the time to support the crafting or other crafters.
The quests as of a year ago were very limited and too few, however over the last 3 months as they near release this march, I have not been able to keep up with how many quests they have now added along with the polish to the new zones, the old zones, the main story... They just keep adding more and more and the size of the updates and all the new great things is increasing in volume every month that new players will be in for a much better ride then those of us that started early.
If you have questions I certainly can comment. I agree with a few people this is for sure a sleeper that will be big. I am a backer but I am also realistic in what I see. My only gripe is that I wish they would one day have the budget to put in full speech, but that is more wish. I have seen the direction they are going and know whats in store for the next chapter this year which includes ocean travel on ships, boats, navel combat, sea monsters and a whole new land mass to explore along with islands. People that have ship houses will be able to travel and use those... that reminds another cool thing about this game is the number of things you can interact with. Knowing that there are Air ships I suspect in the future we will have air travel and floating cities and more.
There really is too much to talk about and I am not just saying that as a Fanboy. Id say give it a try now or on release and not listen to those that are poison to something they have not even played, or have but not recently. myself if you are new a head start is always great but Id personally way until march so that you can get the maximum out of the starting quests and story as they are just finishing off the polish.
FYI another thing to note. the frame rate as of the last two polish patches has increased dramatically as well the load times. We are talking 15-20fps more and if you have a new system with an SSD the loads are around 15-30 seconds.
On this last note I will share a screens from the town I live to show off some of the graphics and types of houses. Ps yes these are all different player owned / rented houses that real people live in. This is a Player town run by gov. Xee with about 25 active people living in it. One thing I like most about this game is the lighting and shaders and shadow system they have. I have not seen many games with so much details in these things.
Play to win does not exist in SOTA. Those that have been touting this are wrong. There is nothing in the online store that allows you to win its all fluff (looks, pets, emotes, décor etc.) Not to mention that these store items can be bought with Coto's ingame now and cotos can be bought from other players cheaper then the online store. also to put this further to rest everything in the game can be acquired or made yourself. I am a GM crafter and I make all my own gear with out the need of anyone.
Another quick note I will point out is people comparing SOTA to other games currently on the market as well people trolling on SOTA being greedy. I can tell you this. Black Desert had a budget of over 200 Million and a huge development publisher team. SOTA with all costs up to date 15Mil with a very small team. Its the Kickstarter people and the continued support for those that want to buy into the fluff that is paying this games development. That said SOTA looks fantastic for its Budget.
Now to the Grit.
Playing this for over a year now after playing BDO, RIFT and others prior. Overall this is a pretty open sandbox like game. The evolution over the last year has been pretty amazing. The zones as some call it over that of an open world are not what they where a year ago. Most the zones where clones and over the last year they have been releasing with every monthly update the non clone unique areas. some are smaller then others but there are some pretty huge ones as well. Early versions where very small even the bigger of the early. Now we have some that are big enough that you can get lost in.
The combat has changed 3 times since I have been playing. They use to only really have 1 way to play, now they have put in a few different ways which pros/cons for each. There is a Deck system like that of MTG or other where cards are drawn at random which each allows you to use as an attack and or combine for a combo in some cases. There is also a traditional 1 skill per key slot which can be locked however in doing so the repeat use of the key before cool down will result in additional focus (like that of mana or Stamina) will deplete faster depending on how many times you hit it up to a max of your level or card numbers you have over all. That's a rough way to explain it. You can also mix the two system which is what I do.
The Characters them selves have gear slots like all games, the Skill system is abit different. Best way to describe it is like that of Skyrim. you can level pretty much everything or anything and mix and match all schools of magic, weapons ,armors etc allowing you to become what you like with limits of coarse on the number of cards you can have up at once which prevents you from being over powered. The other thing they have done is created an skill XP pool for adventure and crafting. These pools feed your skill leveling. the higher the level the more XP from the pool it needs to keep progressing. This system was designed along with a skill management system that allows you to control what xp is put into for level was designed to thwart bot leveling. There is basically no bots in the game as its almost impossible to do it. Even the top players can fall to a single low level creature as its both skill and reactive abilities as well the positional directions that determine where and what you are hitting. There is no AFK macroing as it simply does not work with this game. you have to aim your cursor at a mob to attack it. Sure you can tab target but it does not face the enemy nor does it mean you can hit it automatically or protect you when things come up behind you.
Crafting system is crazy. being that I have several GM crafting abilities I have spend a lot of time in a few of the crafting schools. making pretty much everything in game is possible with the exception of some of the artifact (boss or world random drops) these loots however are no where near as good as player made items. Once can however take a artifact and have it mastercrafted or Enchanted to level it up just as with player made items however this game is very unforgiving and a failed upgrade costs you everything. Believe me being a crafter is expensive and very time consuming. Another thing with crafting like that of adventure it has an XP pool which requires you to go out into the world to gather to gain it back. There is so many times that can be crafted that I d say 1000's and more. Every patch introduces more and more.
Gathering, mining , milling, harvesting, and all the other associated skill schools allow you to get a lot of different materials required depending on your level. From a simple part off a scorpion to the many types of tree's or the huge number or ore's up to the Hand of a named creature. you need people to get you these things or be out there all the time to support the crafting or other crafters.
The quests as of a year ago were very limited and too few, however over the last 3 months as they near release this march, I have not been able to keep up with how many quests they have now added along with the polish to the new zones, the old zones, the main story... They just keep adding more and more and the size of the updates and all the new great things is increasing in volume every month that new players will be in for a much better ride then those of us that started early.
If you have questions I certainly can comment. I agree with a few people this is for sure a sleeper that will be big. I am a backer but I am also realistic in what I see. My only gripe is that I wish they would one day have the budget to put in full speech, but that is more wish. I have seen the direction they are going and know whats in store for the next chapter this year which includes ocean travel on ships, boats, navel combat, sea monsters and a whole new land mass to explore along with islands. People that have ship houses will be able to travel and use those... that reminds another cool thing about this game is the number of things you can interact with. Knowing that there are Air ships I suspect in the future we will have air travel and floating cities and more.
There really is too much to talk about and I am not just saying that as a Fanboy. Id say give it a try now or on release and not listen to those that are poison to something they have not even played, or have but not recently. myself if you are new a head start is always great but Id personally way until march so that you can get the maximum out of the starting quests and story as they are just finishing off the polish.
FYI another thing to note. the frame rate as of the last two polish patches has increased dramatically as well the load times. We are talking 15-20fps more and if you have a new system with an SSD the loads are around 15-30 seconds.
On this last note I will share a screens from the town I live to show off some of the graphics and types of houses. Ps yes these are all different player owned / rented houses that real people live in. This is a Player town run by gov. Xee with about 25 active people living in it. One thing I like most about this game is the lighting and shaders and shadow system they have. I have not seen many games with so much details in these things.
Comments
But that's not the original pay to win, that's just to get around all the time sinks. The gold sinks have real pay to win in the cash shops. Buy a tax free deed, now you don't have to pay taxes. That's pay to win. You can also buy a commission free vendor so you never have to pay fee for selling anything and that's another huge pay to win benefit. But wait, that's not all. You know that $100 sword you bought in RMT? You can go to the cash shop and buy premium currency called COTO and use that to fully repair your sword to max durability, so that's another way for pay to win to happen.
Really glad to hear you like the game and think it's a sleeper hit. Enjoy it while it's around but don't spread misinformation. The game has so much pay to win it leaves people feeling dirty.
Read this thread about housing and how the whales do anything to protect their investment -
https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/449653/house-pledgers-dislike-the-instanced-house-proposition/p1
The game is a PVE story with some PVP elements. its not about the RTM decorations. If you feel that owning decorations is a win then you are not about the game play. I am not spreading misinformation, and I don't feel dirty at all playing it.
What I will say is you sir have an issue, if anyone is spearing misinformation its you. I just looked at the forums and you have posts nothing but negative information on things that are non issues. For someone that is not even going to play the game, or playing you sure troll around this forums trying to slap all who like the game. If your perception is that this is not the game for you because you think its p2w then go play another game. let people decide for them selves if they like the game and if they think its as you say.
As to COTO you didn't even read what I posted. You don't have to spend a dime on COTO's you can get all that in the game cheaper then you could if you spent money. And remember COTO's only get you fluff that is not a win in a game unless that is what the game is to you owning everything sold on the Port store lol. I don't know about you but a new lamp or sofa never interfered with my quests or killing dragons, or hunting , gathering, killing players.
As to Taxes, you do know there are free places to stay in the game? you don't need a house unless perhaps that is your game too having a house to decorate. I understand now why you are upset. you want to play the Sims and have a house with decorations and not have to be out decorated by a neighbour.
Cotos for repairing swords, that is so minor. did you know if you get your blacksmith repair skill up you don't have to pay for a coto to repair your own goods 100%? you also as I said above can buy the coto ingame from other players / vendors so you don't have to spend real money. There is no win its all in your head mate. seek help you need it. just look at the forums you are obsessed
As to all the other people check out the game its Free to play and make your own opinion and then take a look back here at the forums and you will see where misinformation is lol,
You can also use COTO to pay taxes, that's another P2W. Anytime you can P2W in a game that has PVP, pay for leveling, pay for weapons and armor, pay for taxes, skip all gold sinks, and just pay, that is pay to win. Game is pay to win.
There is PVP but that is not affected by the RTM shop at all. As to player trading and or trade for cash, it can give a small advantage to another player in PvP, however PVP is flag only on and off as needed. and the PVP zones are just there for fun. So not required ever to PVP unless you want to and even so if you die you have chance to loose items to another player. But Skills is what the system is about and a level 1 can still beat an unskilled high level , and weapons stats only slight affect the outcomes compared to the skill levels. That said if you PVP you will want to be skilled and even with skill a rusty sword will beat any non skilled with a high end sword he may just loose. So as you put it the atmosphere is PVE focused and social so its not much of an issue unless you are a die hard PVPer who is trying to make a PVE game a game that its not
More misinformation. The entire world is open PVP, you have to flag for it - but it's not zones for fun. The entire world is PVP with loot ransoms, but not full loot. There is even guild flagging for open world PVP guild warfare.
PVP, GVG, player loot, ransoms, RMT, leveling, P2W for extremely valuable items that allow you to skip all in game gold sinks. Yes, this is pay to win.
its a PVE story driven game. So what if jon completes the story frist? or has a bigger sword then you in looks? how is that affecting your game play? If you are playing to just PVP sure perhaps this may have some affect on you, but this is not a PVP game it does have arena's you can fight in or you can flag yourself PVP and fight others that do the same. but its not a PVP game at its core so it only affects people that want to take a PVE story game and make it something its not.
I do agree it can save a person time or gold which is just time. But what is the point to it? so you can kill faster to finish a quest?
Perhaps my idea on what winning is and yours is different. I don't really care what others are doing and I will be Pvping, but I made all my own gear and because I focused my year on crafting I make the highest end mage gear currently in the game but I am not skilled enough yet to want to go into a PVP arena, or to sneak around and steal from other PVPers (that's right some people make a living doing just that)
Combat,said very little if anything.
Talked about making near anything as a crafter,yeah nice but is it good,are there systems that utilize gear or is it a very straight forward simple game design?
The scope of HQ game is far too big for me to yet again go over it all detail by detail,so i won't.
However in that rather lengthy post,i got almost no indication of weather the game is worth my time as i am a very demanding player.
I'll use two examples,EQ2 does a LOT,i doubt this or many others do any more.My fave game was and still is FFXI because the combat and class structure and the incredible amount of systems and things to do make it my fave.This is a gain far too big a topic to start explaining in detail why,i have touched on all of it from time to time over many posts.
An example of gear and how a game should be designed."properties"does the gear have elemental properties or structural properties "ie piercing/slashing etc etc" that make it varied depending on what type of mob you are fighting or does gear act the same versus all mobs.Do the mobs offer varied types of damage and resistances,you see there is a LOT that can be done with combat and class/abilities but most games are simple town.
Yes i could just run the free trial but i got really bad vibes from this game and feel i would not spend the kind of time in game to make it worth my while.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a fantasy RPG that combines a single player narrative with a sandbox MMO created by a team that includes: Richard “Lord British” Garriott the creator of the Ultima series, Starr Long the Director of Ultima Online, and Tracy Hickman the author of Dragonlance
- Episodic Content: Five episodes of virtue based stories created by Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman; supported by prequel novels starting with Blade of the Avatar.
- Single Player Offline Mode: Players will adventure through over 40 hours of story in an interactive world where their choices during ethical paradoxes have consequences.
- Selective Multiplayer Modes: You can also play with everyone in a single world with three different online modes (Single Player, Friends Only, and Open).
- Classless Character System: Vast customization options with hundreds of skills and spells in over 20 different skill trees.
- Player Driven Economy: Deep crafting system where the best items are made by players and player items are the main source of loot found in the game.
- Skillful Combat: A new way to prepare and fight in an RPG by building custom decks of skills and dynamically activating them in combat.
- PVP: Consensual with Open PVP flags, zones, and Guild Warfare.
- Pay Once to Play: No subscription fees. Each episode (released approximately annually) is a one time fee and everything in the game can be purchased with in game gold that can be earned (except for some exclusive backer rewards).
- Player Housing: Non instanced, finite, and embedded in the world with multiple group living options.
- Social: Full Guild System, Highly Active Community and Player Owned Towns.
- Crowd Sourced & Funded: Support the project by contributing content (and receive compensation) or by pledging (and receive exclusive rewards).
- Open Development: Players help shape the game by giving feedback on monthly early access releases, videos, weekly updates, blog postings, forums, chat, etc.
Its PVP only if you flag it. the majority of the game is social and PVE. even so its not Pay to win. Tell you what if you are playing come to isle of Xee talk to the Gov there and tell him Dracschnider sent you. he will make you a set of top tier items for next to nothing. Either way I got it you don't want to play this game because of a person issue with it where you think people are better then youThat's right I have not, this is my only account sir. I just was coming here to see if marketing for the game has started with it releasing in March
The majority of the game is represented by about 350 people. If this game bounces at launch they mihgt have 1500 or so people playing the game... a MMO that's instanced across an openworld PVP sandbox and the most fleshed out system is the player economy where everything is priced with Paypal. Man, it's cool that you like the game but like it for what it is. It's a dressup dollhouse sim because all that other nonesense doesn't work or works very poorly. The game has been in persistence since 2016 and it's dead. Portalarium had to rewrite the EULA to make everything RMT so the whales would stay. Have fun at the launch dance party where 50 avatars lock up the screen because optimized you can't even get 30fps standing still in front of a wall.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
Second, the game is empty. Almost nobody is playing this sh--.
Third , The devs ( hey Chris )won't allow anything , anything constructive or negative on their forum. Managing the forum in a way that everything looks awesome with unicorns as background.
The game is boring as hell with almost nothing to do and a loading system who suck big time.
Crafting system.. come on, don't make me laugh.
The game is just NOT fun .
The game is also a scam for the backers, who've been told otherwise when they backed the game..
Question for you, why nobody is playing this game? Why players are quitting and selling their account? Why everyone outside their sanctuary ( forum ) is bashing the game? Have you read the kickstater forum? If not, pls be my guest. You'll see how the backers are pissed .
When a game is good. It's good.
When it's poorly made and atrocious managed, it is what it is.
When a game is pay to win. It's pay to win.
Now you can argue all you want, this wont change anything.
SOTA is a waste of backers money and nobody wants to play this supposedly game.
I cant wait for the release..
I forgot, if you need more informations about the reality.
https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudoftheavatar/
I enjoy it, and still will be playing for some time that I am sure.
If you enjoy challenging PVE its pretty good. Early on lower levels its more a survival game imo. later when you get skilled enough it gets a little easier until you start on the bosses and dungeons. Loot tables are very random. A boss will not always have an item so its just a small % chance to get artifacts. that is something I wish they would change personally, however they are dropping at least value (a few thousand gold worth of stuff) which is not much. EQ2 was amazing I played that for at least the first 2 addons. Id say this is a different style and sandbox like. IMO EQ2 is better in the quest / adventure at this time. but again that is a AAA title this is no where near that budget yet.
Gear there are a lot of variety. I have collected at least 11 different styles of swords, there are 1h , 2, axes the same, maces the same, war hammers, wands, staffs, bows, orbs, shields, crossbows, steam weapons, tesla weapons those at a few off the top of my head. The normal dropped weapons have only base stats, artifacts have some special stats, and some have curses. Properties for weapons are from crafters specifically mastercrafters of say blacksmithing, or tailor, carpenter etc. they can put piercing , slashing etc if you are looking at swords which depending on their level of crafting determines the power. Enchanters can take it further with stats like str, dex int as well socket / gem someitems to give you attunement to an element for other abilities. the downside to that is that these crafters do not get to pick exactly what you want. they when attempting a mastercraft or enchant based on skill are presented with 3 random stats where they can pick just 1 to apply. this is done to balance out the crafting so that one person can't just dominate the markets. A GM crafter like myself has had plenty of crappy items produced that are not even worth the time it took to get the materials. The other issue is every attempt is a chance based on crafters level. so 1st enchant as example at 100 GM is only 94% next is 83% then 43% . there are other skills that come into play. because just mastercraft or enchant there is a sub skill tree specific for certain weapons, armor etc that you level as well which determine the power of the effect on top of the other.
As to gear for a mob yes that is important. I run a pure air mage for my quick DPS, and a tank build when I fight bosses. my Tank build mixes with Necro tree to get a health shield that heals me a little based on my attunement and skill level. Fighting some dragons you would want fire resist gear, or when fighting undead you want death resist etc.
this game as one of the most advanced abilities out of any that I have played to play as you like. you level up the skills you want. the rest you untrained or simply don't need. mind you its not that simple as attunement to a school in magic affects the power of the spells so if you only put a little bit of points into a school it wont be nearly as powerful as a person that has focused on just the one school as he is more in attunement with that magic.
It takes a long long time to get your skills up to GM which is 100 skill level, the cap as we know it we think is 200 but none have reached that and probably wont for years to come.
every tire level in skill trees requires more of the XP pool then the previous.
to GM a basic skill it take around 1.2million xp. to get to just 100.
combat is reactive as of last patch. meaning that you can't just apply a buff anymore to dodge etc. you have to be active and watch for when to use to save from a hard blow.
Enemies have tactics to fight, they are not just always simple. A Troll as example you have to watch for certain moves to know to jump or you will be knocked down then hit really hard. if you miss that jump best have a healer as there is nothing you can do until you recover from it. there is however smelling salts etc that if you carry can get you up faster or if you tap your space bar fast it shortens the time. Swings of a sword you have an auto attack which is meh ok. or you can turn that off and use manual where a click swings and holding down charges up your attack.
skills are the same depending on how you rig your deck. as I mentioned above in the original post.
This is why I say P2W regardless is someone did buy a sword from another player doesn't really matter. If a person is skilled they will still defend and kick the snot out of someone fully geared should they choose to flag for open PVP. but for PVE there is not point to pay real cash for anything unless you are one of the new millennials who has I want now disorder lol. either way with out the skills and the time spent gather xp to level them a new big sword is not going to do anything but cost you to use. that is why new people and even people leveling skills use crap weapons or cheaper weapons as they know it will break.
Hope that gives more insightful info.
People have also spent lesser amounts of real money like 50 bucks to own a small apartment in player towns that get abandoned.
This game had potential to be a lot more popular than it is but they got greedy thinking they could sell real estate on the level of SC and didn't think about average joe gamer who just wants to play a fun game and not worry about having to pay hundreds to enjoy all the features this game has to offer.
The game is instanced for one, solo and party for the dungeons, only some zones are open. Two the size of the world and the number of instanced does make it look pretty empty at times I agree.
As to managing the forums they do moderate that is for sure. but usually only when posts are not constructive. example there was a post recently on some people that were caught selling power leveling they were complaining that the Devs came in and spawned things that killed them costing them a lot of death xp loss which is very costly. if you played everquest at end levels you could lose a level same goes for this game death is not fun at all especially the higher level you are the more you have to loose. anyway the guy was made and arguing about this he was point to the EULA which stated you can't sell that type of service for case outside the game. that is not to say he could not take in game currently or trades and do it but he specifically was running a cash operation which they do not allow. Other things that are not constructive get shut down like any moderated forums. there is negative stuff posted there but if things turn into arguments between players etc the modes usually respond with the information before closing the thread to put it to rest.
Define fun? your idea of fun may differ from someone else. I enjoy some times running around solo gathering stuff, or like the last weekend taking a group of friends from a guild to a tier 8 dungeon and trying our first dragon attempt. which we were successful with no wipe and only a few deaths which was exciting. the rest of the time I spend with others in our town getting it ready for release. Our guild contributed to buy a town which is instanced inside an npc town. We all help to make this place look nice. Quests some are great others are meh. So fun is really a personal choice, not ever game suits all that is for sure.
As to nobody playing, I disagree. our guild has online itself about 20 members most the time on weekdays and my friends likes is 3 pages long of online peoples. weekends are the busy times that is for sure. but remember this game is not out yet. the numbers form the last two patches has increased a lot since the free trial came out, new visitors as they are called all over.
I'm a backer and I don't think it was a waste. took them what 4 years 15 million to get to where it is now. look at WOW, it started with over 110 million beta as 7 years approx. I have to say I'm happy with what my money produced in this little time. I'm patient though and don't expect a finished game until its released. its beta after all which is one of the biggest complaints in the forums is people complaining that this isn't in or that when its not released yet. that's the mentality of people today. they all want and expect everything when they pay into development right that moment. I backed it in 2014 logged in once and quit until last year. If I based a review and my thoughts at that point it would be that this game is crap lol. Came back and it was much further along but still not ready, was not many quests story was broken. A few months ago when polish started the quests were completed on the main story, fixes put in, a lot of quests added, but the issue is I have been in here for a year in beta playing and well these quests are low level for me now. so from that perspective yeah it could be boring as it would be like starting at max level amost and going to a starter zone and going through each quest at this point. That is another issue is the people that been here for a while have is that the content is low , no raids yet etc and they have been playing from 2014 on lol.
That is why I recommended in my initial post if you are new wait until release so you can maximize the content rather then have this much head start and end up waiting for the game to catch up to your level.
other game either wipe day one, or have closed betas so that its limited so on release its all fresh and exciting. where this one they made the mistake of allow us all in too early which if you have a certain mindset this will eat on you. Patients has its rewards. look at all the good games that people played outleveled and had to wait too long for addon / expand that they moved on from only to later wish they had stayed but can't go back because they would be so far behind.
Cheers
ps house and lots are available in game the idea that you have to pay cash to support the game is optional. Some don't even want houses. all they want is a place to get extra storage rather than pay adventure gold for bank space.
you can buy deeds in the game via new vendors for cotos which can be purchased with in game gold a hell of a lot cheaper then backing the game. as to 50 bucks that could be correct from your account. Havoc guild which I am a member of offers free rooms, lots and some houses to live in for members. but I don't know that there are some that want money for everything lol.
You can only buy Player Owned Town deeds in game and only with COTO (P2W cash shop premium currency).
All place anywhere NPC deeds have been retired and are obtainable only through RMT.