SotA - Shroud of the Avatar

www.shroudoftheavatar.com

Estimated release: October 2014

An excerpt out of the forums:

RELEASE 1: December 12 - December 14, 2013
Done

RELEASE 2: January 24 - January 26 2014
Crafting: We will be opening up crafting for testing with more than 100 recipes. Chests full of crafting resources will be provided. Crafting will initially focus on refining and production for smithing, tailoring, and carpentry.
Shopping: Shopkeepers will be open for business for selling and buying.
Town 2: An additional municipality (likely village sized) will be open for business! Exiting one municipality will take you immediately to the other municipality.
List Inventory: For those who prefer spreadsheets to immersion. The inventory battle royale continues!
Character Customization++: Characters will be wiped, but you will now have even more options when creating your character to make it look unique including: facial features, scaling, and more content (hairstyles, head shapes, skin tones, hair colors, etc.)

RELEASE 3: February 20 - 22, 2014
Open Multiplayer Online: FINALLY we will let you see what the other players look like BUT we’ll be taking away your house for the month as we prepare housing to have persistence in the multiplayer space for Release 4.
Chat: You know, so you can talk to your friends!
Emotes: More than 30 emotes online so you can look like a clown with your friends.
Town 3: A third municipality opens up (perhaps the lovely oceanside village of Kingsport).

RELEASE 4: March 20 - ?, 2014
Hidden Vale: A hidden island north north east of the mainland with numerous biomes to explore via the overworld map system
10 Hidden Vale Scenes: With the opening of the overworld, we need something to do between the cities so we will be turning on the first 10 scenes including wilderness, caves, and dungeons.
Combat / Magic: Those first 10 scenes might have stuff in them, so we’ve decided we should give you a way to fight back! A wide array of combat and magic skills, along with the ability to assemble these skills into decks, will now become available.
Advancement and Skill Trees: Players will start earning experience points for fighting, crafting, and questing. This will lead to level increases and skill points which can be spent to learn new skills or improve existing skills.
Quests: Players will be able to participate in quests that will send them around the world and even change game state in the scenes based on quest flags. Testing this early is important because our quest system operates differently than the current standards (e.g. no exclamation points or convo trees).
Loot: Creatures and quests will generate loot including gold and resources.
Crafting: Resource Gathering will be added to crafting including resource nodes placed in the world. Item wear begins happening and in turn, Repair will now be available. Item enhancement will now also be possible, allowing upgrading of items to more powerful versions. On top of all that, more recipes will become available
Player Housing: The housing system will be relaunched with persistence in the online space. Housing choices will now be based on backer level, add on purchase, or what can be bought in the game. Waterfront housing will also come online.
Wearable Dyeing: Clothing and Armor will now be dyeable
Social Systems: The first social systems will come online including Friends and Parties. Safety in numbers!

 

Anyone tried out Release 1?

I did and really enjoyed the feel of it. It's amazing how much the players are a part of the early development of a game.

Really looking forward to Release 2

 

I was there also but didn't have much time to test it...less than 2 hours.

For an alpha, the systems look pretty complete. Issues with collisions and such are a given at that early stage.

The testers seemed very receptive and really understood how to properly test a game. Some others didn't (and will never) understand what testing is about...and merely complained about the bugs.

I'm looking forward to SotA in the coming months. Whist I don't expect it to become a replacement for Ultima Online (which was a different beast all-together), I do hope the project does perfect some of the missing aspects of online gaming...and make it fun for everyone.

TQQdles™

 

Anyone going to be in the test this weekend?

RELEASE 3: February 20 - 22, 2014

 

I'm actually pretty disappointed with what I've seen to date with this game.

The textures are terrible, the housing is pretty poor and the animations look like something from 10 years ago.

You compare this to other games that are coming out at the moment and it's chalk and cheese.

One of my few kickstarter regrets (along with Legends of Dawn)

 

I was hoping for more from this game. A fantasy version of Star Citizen was my vision. Unfortunately, I am also disappointed.

The graphics are not my main concern, sure I love eye candy, but I want more from the game than "pretty".

The control system in place is cumbersome. Something I really do not think will get better with the custom controls they have promised.

My remaining hope is the story will be great and engaging for solo and multi-player.

Of course this is also to be more of a role playing game than most. There are thousands of loyal Lord British fans out there. That should help with the atmosphere of the game...I hope...

 

It's no Star Citizen, but it's being made with a fraction of SC's budget so I never expected that kind of quality. I'm not too fussed about the graphics. I just hope it can capture that old school Ultima living world feeling.

 

My hopes for this game keep going up and down, I am still thinking of giving it a go, especially with the different versions of single player and multiplayer.
I actually thought the combat would be a bit better as well, but my thoughts were around more of an fps style (darkfall, Ultima IX) type.

Still interesting to see how it all goes and I would be keen to play with some people once it is finally sorted.

 

Anyone going to play the multi player combat test this weekend?

 

I just backed this game to get the crossbow in Star Citizen, I am now a founder but am still waiting for my internet to be connected so I can download the game. I'm not expecting too much at this early stage of development.

 

Well it is good you are not expecting much as there is not a lot of game yet.

The game is going to have great storytelling in it from both Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman.

 

If there is anyone out there that wants to buy into the game as a founder for the rewards, you have until April 7, I can help you do that.

It is similar to Star Citizen founders gifting to guildies before Portalarium closed that window of opportunity in November.

Mad Hermit talks about the gifting of Founder level.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMadHermitGaming?feature=watch

 

I can gift someone the Adventurer Pledge Tier if they want. I sent it as a gift and they had already joined so someone might as well use it.

Like Koreeth said, if it's before the 7th it will bring you in as a Founder, which gives a couple extra perks.

Just need your email.

 

Release 5 is here. I haven't been online in months.. should be interesting to see how much they've progressed since Release 2.

 

Well now they are selling holdfasts, villages, towns and cities to players.

Sounds great for a guild to setup a nice area for guildies.

Anyone interested in this game? I would love for ToG to have a presence in SotA like this.

 

I'll be more than happy to join a TOG guild. I lack rl time to start it myself

 

I to am hoping that TOG gets going in SotA

 

Here's the latest update for Shroud:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=45527

We're currently busy with Release 11 which is online persistantly for now. It has been Greenlit by STEAM, which is great

Come have a look, and if you have any questions, there's a bunch of people ready to answer any and/or all questions on the forums: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php

 

I grew up a HUGE ultima fan but I'm finding it really hard to get into SotA. How are you guys finding it?

 

It was a bit of an adjustment going from expecting a second UO, to liking what they currently have. A short version of my thoughts on the matter:

• If you're looking for a comprehensive debate and in depth discussion, head over to the forums. The SotA community is nothing short of amazing and they will gladly engage in a dialogue about anyone's concerns and disillusions.
• Everyone loves to remind everyone else that this is pre-Alpha (plenty of discussions on this alone!) and while this tune got old really quick, it is very true.
• They refer to SotA as being a spiritual successor to Ultima. Some have interpreted this as meaning UO II. A lot of fiery debates around this point. Personally I think it means they want to focus on story-telling, a strong interactive community and a gaming experience doesn't spoon-feed you.
• Portalarium gives a surprising amount of weight to the backers' opinion.
• The gaming community has already evolved into something amazing. People are writing the most amazing stories. They composing music for the game. There's a radio station! Avatars Radio. And the game hasn't even been released yet.

I could probably list many more reasons why anyone should check it out, but the truth is that you need to explore deeper if you want to be involved as a backer. There's no point in convincing someone that doesn't really want to be there.

The important question is really: why did you like Ultima and what are you looking for in SotA?