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KickStarter Shroud of the Avatar - Lord British's Not-Ultima Online 2
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
Do you really, though? Can't you just post your credit card statement and the size of your castle in m^3. That should about cover it.
There is a small quest line that involves asking about a dagger. Chief of the village tells you that he doesn't know anything, but he gives you a list of 3 people in the town that might know something.
If you ask any of the 3, they will tell you "I don't know, but maybe the other guys do.".
Truly brilliant quest design.
If you ask any of the 3, they will tell you "I don't know, but maybe the other guys do.".
Truly brilliant quest design.
Jack Dandy
Arcane
And what's the solution to that, remind me?
Just do another quest instead.
Tehdagah
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2012
- Messages
- 9,349
Online seems better.Still undecided about playing it offline or online
Yeah, I'm playing it online.
So far it's... very peculiar. I cannot say I hate it, while I'm certainly aware of its faults and would not recommend the game to anyone. I do hear, however, it gets worse as you play and that you hit some kind of wall that turns the whole thing into a grind fest (unless, of course, you start giving in to microtransactions)
So far it's... very peculiar. I cannot say I hate it, while I'm certainly aware of its faults and would not recommend the game to anyone. I do hear, however, it gets worse as you play and that you hit some kind of wall that turns the whole thing into a grind fest (unless, of course, you start giving in to microtransactions)
I will be lucky if I ever manage to complete the storyline. Everything in this game is an absolute broken mess. Take a look at these two dialogs.
Those two I met only in the last 30 minutes, but there are plenty of instances where things seem broken or incredibly off and uncanny. Second screenshot's character actually gave me a warning that she was "currently in development".
And I think while I have barely started the main quest I am already stuck at a grinding point. So early in the game, and people are sending me to zones that are supposedly accessible only for much much stronger characters than the ones I have. The only thing I can do right now, except if I find more side quests, is to grind in boring low level zones to hope to survive the latest main quest update. That's not going to be a given.
And not only do you need to suffer the loading times when you start the game and change zones, but the game LOVES to put you in random encounters that make you enter the loading process twice for no reason whatsoever. I mean, what the hell, I'm supposed to be a "Tier 1 adventurer" and you drop me against 5 "Tier 5 skeletons" in a random encounter ? What do you expect I'll do ? Of course I'll free and have the loading screen a second fucking time. Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to drop me into that combat ? I know level scaling is bad, but seriously....
But I get why Ultima fans love it : it namedrops lore at every random moment. "Mariah's pass", "Jaanatown", Truth Love Courage, Oracle, Lord British, a character named Arabella (name of a ship in the Ultima series), etc. The entire storyline appears to be an unofficial Ultima 10, but good fucking grief it's told awfully.
There is a character called "The Oracle" that helps me with the Virtues thing and explains me to how become virtuous. You know what ? I'm pretty sure this Oracle thing is going to be a bad guy at some point. Because Richard Garriott did that twist in Ultima 5. He also did it in Ultima 7. Oh wait, he also did it in Ultima 8.
Oh, and you know also what ?
Loading tips.
What in the fucking fuck.
Those two I met only in the last 30 minutes, but there are plenty of instances where things seem broken or incredibly off and uncanny. Second screenshot's character actually gave me a warning that she was "currently in development".
And I think while I have barely started the main quest I am already stuck at a grinding point. So early in the game, and people are sending me to zones that are supposedly accessible only for much much stronger characters than the ones I have. The only thing I can do right now, except if I find more side quests, is to grind in boring low level zones to hope to survive the latest main quest update. That's not going to be a given.
And not only do you need to suffer the loading times when you start the game and change zones, but the game LOVES to put you in random encounters that make you enter the loading process twice for no reason whatsoever. I mean, what the hell, I'm supposed to be a "Tier 1 adventurer" and you drop me against 5 "Tier 5 skeletons" in a random encounter ? What do you expect I'll do ? Of course I'll free and have the loading screen a second fucking time. Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to drop me into that combat ? I know level scaling is bad, but seriously....
But I get why Ultima fans love it : it namedrops lore at every random moment. "Mariah's pass", "Jaanatown", Truth Love Courage, Oracle, Lord British, a character named Arabella (name of a ship in the Ultima series), etc. The entire storyline appears to be an unofficial Ultima 10, but good fucking grief it's told awfully.
There is a character called "The Oracle" that helps me with the Virtues thing and explains me to how become virtuous. You know what ? I'm pretty sure this Oracle thing is going to be a bad guy at some point. Because Richard Garriott did that twist in Ultima 5. He also did it in Ultima 7. Oh wait, he also did it in Ultima 8.
Oh, and you know also what ?
Loading tips.
What in the fucking fuck.
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More on the "Ultima throwbacks" thing, this character tries to ask you about the entire Ultima storyline with insane questions and broken answers.
Oh yeah. And you people who hate a game when gets political will love this :
Oh yeah. And you people who hate a game when gets political will love this :
Morkar Left
Guest
Which resolution do you play in? 800x600?
The last screenshot was taken on my gaming laptop which overheat when I play this. Even at this resolution and level of detail performance is abysmal in Linux. Believe it or not the three other shots are with everything maxed out.
I found out later it performed a bit better on Windows.
Speaking of which, if you are a Linux only guy the game is unplayable because the map is not working at all.
I found out later it performed a bit better on Windows.
Speaking of which, if you are a Linux only guy the game is unplayable because the map is not working at all.
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Yes.
Taxalot, suffering so we don't have to.
I thought I could happily pretend this never existed, but I'm getting Ultima flashbacks, which makes this much worse.
I thought I could happily pretend this never existed, but I'm getting Ultima flashbacks, which makes this much worse.
If I ever get to go far enough (and I intend to complete it, unless it becomes absolutely unsufferable), I will definitely write a review.
To be honest, there is a lot to like in this game. Far from everything is terrible and there are actually quite a few novel and decent ideas here and there. But ideas are nothing if execution is poor and the execution in this game is terrible.
The game has a dual scaled world map. It's both an MMO and a single player game. Story wise, it's basically Ultima X. It has some of the best features of UO when it comes to character development and "out of combat activity". The characters, when they work, are nice to talk to and the universe is pretty charming. The music is absolutely fantastic....
But all this amounts to nothing if they do not manage to make the game look more coherent visually, if they do not optimize performance, if they do not debug the entire storyline and a lot of things, if they do not find a way to make the city look more alive, if they hide all the nice things behind microtransactions, etc... For every thing that SotA does right, it does 3 other things awfully. While some of this can be patched, I highly doubt the entire game is salvageable. Some aspects also make you wonder if Garriott and the rest of his staff have actually played any game in the last 15 years.
Hoping to make this series of 5 episodes/games/expansions is pure madness.
To be honest, there is a lot to like in this game. Far from everything is terrible and there are actually quite a few novel and decent ideas here and there. But ideas are nothing if execution is poor and the execution in this game is terrible.
The game has a dual scaled world map. It's both an MMO and a single player game. Story wise, it's basically Ultima X. It has some of the best features of UO when it comes to character development and "out of combat activity". The characters, when they work, are nice to talk to and the universe is pretty charming. The music is absolutely fantastic....
But all this amounts to nothing if they do not manage to make the game look more coherent visually, if they do not optimize performance, if they do not debug the entire storyline and a lot of things, if they do not find a way to make the city look more alive, if they hide all the nice things behind microtransactions, etc... For every thing that SotA does right, it does 3 other things awfully. While some of this can be patched, I highly doubt the entire game is salvageable. Some aspects also make you wonder if Garriott and the rest of his staff have actually played any game in the last 15 years.
Hoping to make this series of 5 episodes/games/expansions is pure madness.
grimace
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,988
Garriott is at the North Pole (probably via drone)
Big Wrangle
Guest
Is he going on some self-exile because the game got buried or something?
E.T. got buried under hot sand, Not Ultima Online 2 under cold snow.
Finding what appears to be the Throne Room of Lord British, at this late hour, it appears to be empty, save for this... peculiar looking guy.
And......
I am at loss for words. I truly am. FFS.
And......
I am at loss for words. I truly am. FFS.
Big Wrangle
Guest
Oh yeah, Spoony was like a huge fan of Ultima and introduced some folks to the series when he was starting to pick up. I get the nod but couldn't they like, I dunno, use Noah (his actual name) or something? At least they seem to have gotten his angriness and ego right.
Siveon
Bot
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2013
- Messages
- 4,509
If my memory serves me right he actually did an interview with Lord British as Spoony. Probably why he's a character in the game.
Must be pretty amazing to be immortalized like that in your favorite game series (kinda sorta).
The interview was meant to be a roast, but Spoony caved lol. I probably would too tbh, Garriott's done some incredible things.
Man on a Mission: Doc of Richard's journey into space and a brief time on the ISS, worth a watch. Little moments you don't see anywhere else - onboard footage of the ascent and descent back to Earth is pretty mental.
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