KickStarter Shroud of the Avatar - Lord British's Not-Ultima Online 2

[grimace]

Accepting the version nomenclature (this is pre-alpha, this is release candidate, episode 1 launch, release 54, etc) and playing the game with managed expectations (players are expected to aid in development by posting bug reports in the appropriate forum) ... are you immersed? Are you playing a role? Are you satisfied?

The game as a service has the initial price of purchase and can be played "free" "forever" (or until servers are closed i.e. Tabula Rasa, Star Wars Galaxies, etc) ... there is the month to month excitement of playing the game after the patch and seeing/experiencing what's new and what irksomeness remains.

Many Ultima fans are in a relationship with this game. Time and money invested plus the thought energy imagining what will come. So many folks have had embarrassing public divorces with the game and seek to taint her reputation at every opportunity. Perhaps the only other example of this is in Star Citizen. Maybe Legends of Aria will be next?

Will an improved GUI (released with Episode 2?) improve the immersion and "fun factor"?

These are my thoughts and questions at this point.

 

[Deathsquid]

Many Ultima fans are in a relationship with this game. Time and money invested plus the thought energy imagining what will come. So many folks have had embarrassing public divorces with the game and seek to taint her reputation at every opportunity. Perhaps the only other example of this is in Star Citizen. Maybe Legends of Aria will be next?

What does this even mean?

 

[taxalot]

are you immersed? Are you playing a role? Are you satisfied?

Immersion cannot work in this game, unless you are easily pleased. Random houses with NPCs standing around in front of snowmen with tesla coils and gothic tortures devices all in the name of "player housing" .... NPCs that tell you that they have no name at the moment but outright tell you they might have one in a few months... Dudes playing the Neon Genesis Evangelion theme on the piano on a tavern or someone switching on the radio and you start hearing "Girls want to have fun"... I'm not sure they are even trying.

Spoiler

Yes. Some of these shots are repost.


And I think you can tell with my previous how satisfied I am.

Will an improved GUI (released with Episode 2?) improve the immersion and "fun factor"?
.

To be honest, the GUI is pretty functional even though it looks horrible. The biggest issues right now are managing quests which stay on the HUD after completion and dealing with a journal that puts quests in a perfectly random order if you want to have them back on the HUD , and also the ridiculous dialog window. Oh, the map also definitely needs improving and a search function ; when someone says he's going to meet you in Randomtown, you have to look at the worldmap and at every city until you find it. This would not be a problem if there were not at the very least a hundred of town in that game. (possibly several hundreds).

One instance of this was yesterday, when this just happened. And when I finally went to the town, I was treated to a huge map with plenty of buildings but absolutely no indication where this NPC was. And since I couldn't actually to any NPC in that town (all were filler/window dressing NPC people), I guess my only option would have been to stay for one hour or two inspecting every building or NPC until I find that guy and trigger that sidequest. But what evidence do I have this guy would be even there considering how broken the sidequests are ?

I've read somewhere that a massive GUI overhaul is supposedly coming sooner than expected. Whatever. This is not the biggest issue the game faces.

 

[thesheeep]

So, basically... slightly medieval Second Life with fucked up quests.

Sounds like UO alright!

 

[grimace]

taxalot https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/map/ has a search function that may help you

Many Ultima fans are in a relationship with this game. Time and money invested plus the thought energy imagining what will come. So many folks have had embarrassing public divorces with the game and seek to taint her reputation at every opportunity. Perhaps the only other example of this is in Star Citizen. Maybe Legends of Aria will be next?

What does this even mean?

My poor attempt at comparing the Shroud of the Avatar account holder to a human in a romantic relationship with another human. Sometimes they love her, sometimes they hate her, and sometimes they tell their friends she's a horrible person and that no one should interact with her.

Reading the comments posted on other sites about SotA shows this unhealthy relationship some players have with the game.

Continuing the mangled metaphor, players stick with her because she's getting better and hope she'll be the girl of their dreams. Players had this vision of a perfect storybook romance and honeymoon and am I making an less sense?



thesheeep Shroud of the Avatar is a virtual world. The immersion breaking outlanders with their popular music from Earth and other kitsch yard decorations are part of the fun. Owning your own town and crowing yourself king of that town can be fun (or lonely).

SotA tends to be a "find your own fun" cooperative sandbox at it's best and a digital doll house dress up software chat client.

Folks who wanted dangerous PVP and mature, gritty, serious moral dilemmas are still waiting for those features to be integrated and polished.

 

[Deathsquid]

taxalot https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/map/ has a search function that may help you

Many Ultima fans are in a relationship with this game. Time and money invested plus the thought energy imagining what will come. So many folks have had embarrassing public divorces with the game and seek to taint her reputation at every opportunity. Perhaps the only other example of this is in Star Citizen. Maybe Legends of Aria will be next?

What does this even mean?

My poor attempt at comparing the Shroud of the Avatar account holder to a human in a romantic relationship with another human. Sometimes they love her, sometimes they hate her, and sometimes they tell their friends she's a horrible person and that no one should interact with her.

Reading the comments posted on other sites about SotA shows this unhealthy relationship some players have with the game.

Continuing the mangled metaphor, players stick with her because she's getting better and hope she'll be the girl of their dreams. Players had this vision of a perfect storybook romance and honeymoon and am I making an less sense?

Ah yeah, that makes sense. I dunno, I guess if we go by the same metaphors, it was like meeting a Twitch streamer girl that seems cool and fun and hot and holy shit what a rack, right, and then taking part in her Patreon for a while, and then somehow you meet her live and suddenly realize she wore a ton of make-up, a push-up bra and has a personality of a broken cup? Or at best she's a very regular average girl with flaws and totally not what your fevered dreams were.

...Or, in the case of SC, you just keep taking part in her Patreon campaign and she sends you her photoshopped pics but you never, ever meet and she's actually a dude.

@thesheeep Shroud of the Avatar is a virtual world. The immersion breaking outlanders with their popular music from Earth and other kitsch yard decorations are part of the fun. Owning your own town and crowing yourself king of that town can be fun (or lonely).

SotA tends to be a "find your own fun" cooperative sandbox at it's best and a digital doll house dress up software chat client.

Folks who wanted dangerous PVP and mature, gritty, serious moral dilemmas are still waiting for those features to be integrated and polished.

Have you tried stuff like Haven & Hearth? It was a big thing on Codex a few years ago, and it kinda was fitting the bill on most of those, except the serious moral dilemmas as it didn't have questing and NPCs. If you have, which do you think works better as a virtual world, SotA or H&H?

 

[taxalot]

I have decided to venture in the world of entertaining people.

 

[Deathsquid]

What's up with ghost skeletons? Or are they skeletons of ghosts?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What's up with ghost skeletons? Or are they skeletons of ghosts?

Ghosts of skeletons, likely.

 

[Big Wrangle]

Zombie ghost skeleton demi-lich revenant wraiths.

 

[taxalot]

What's up with ghost skeletons? Or are they skeletons of ghosts?

I'm pretty sure they are here to show that some players died here.

 

[Max Heap]

Apparently of boredom.

 

[thesheeep]

I have decided to venture in the world of entertaining people.

In Soviet SotA, you entertain the game.

 

[grimace]

Deathsquid I haven't played Haven & Hearth.

To clarify whatever point about the "community" and SotA players I'm trying to make --

The evangelical fervor of some of the most invested (time and money) account holders has doubled down now that marketing efforts have begun. Other players who questioned their faith in Lord Brittish and Portalarium and have silenced themselves. And yet another group of players who have been speaking their mind and have grown upset and impatient have joined the fight to make sure that SotA does not become successful.

This is most apparent in the community presence on Reddit, MMO blogs, Steam reviews, etc.

The RPG Codex generalized group opinion seems to be of a realistic and mocking attitude.

 

[taxalot]

I think it is safe to say that SOTA is merely a safe space for Ultima fans, with everything that could imply.

 

[Fedora Master]

There are hundreds of freeshards of the original UO that can serve as safe spaces for grognards though. What's this game's niche?

 

[grimace]

There are hundreds of freeshards of the original UO that can serve as safe spaces for grognards though. What's this game's niche?

Running a Player Owned Town and attracting citizens to live in the town and place their merchants there. Then you attract business to your town and the merchants in the town to take gold from other avatars to pay rents on your other properties.

It's a player run economy. And players pay fiat currency each month for decoration items to fund further development.

In the next few years this economy could become more complex (like EVE online) and "rewarding" with greater in game wealth to own all of the "scenes" in an entire region.

 

[taxalot]

But the final result is a world map that is 90% devoid of life, and instead filled with incoherent content and walking advertisements.

It harms the game much more than it does itself good.

 

[thesheeep]

But the final result is a world map that is 90% devoid of life, and instead filled with incoherent content and walking advertisements.

It harms the game much more than it does itself good.

That depends on what you want from the game, I suppose.

From everything I see and hear, it is as I said medieval Second Life 2 + RPG. Sounds horrible to me, but I guess it has its fans.

 

[taxalot]

https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudofth...reakdown_of_sec_docs/?st=jh55hle8&sh=809e6a08

I have no idea if what's in there is a sound analysis or not, but I believe I should worry about completing the game ASAP.

 

[taxalot]

In the meantime, while I was doing my irritating final Ultimate fech quest, (still ongoing as I type) I randomly bumped into some dudes playing Ultima tunes on the world map. I had no idea they could do that, this was pretty cool.

 

[taxalot]

This guy, Markee Dragon, esteemed member of the Ultima Dragons community loves SOTA a lot :


Start at 40:47. I like how he isn't able to say what's so great about the game. So let's investigate a bit more.

https://store.markeedragon.com/index.php?cat=134

Oh my.

Let's check out his other videos.

Seems like a reliable chap.

 

[Deathsquid]

Investing heavily into beardcoins and vintage atari headgarb I see

 

[Grauken]

https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudofth...reakdown_of_sec_docs/?st=jh55hle8&sh=809e6a08

I have no idea if what's in there is a sound analysis or not, but I believe I should worry about completing the game ASAP.

Also mustawd. uses his skill Accounting for good measure

 

[Junmarko]

I like how he isn't able to say what's so great about the game.

"Greatness" (says multiple times, to convince himself lol)

Man. Why has Garriott sunk so low? It's very obvious they made sure to sponsor this guy due to his history with UO. He would've been the loudest critic otherwise.

Wonder if they offered Spoony "some beers" and he declined...