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

[FireKing]

This piece of shit vaporware has simply become a safe space for sjw snowflakes and soy boys. They need to get Cleve in there to set shit straight!

 

[Angthoron]

You know it's 2019 when it's not enough to say the game is shit and vapourware.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I was downloading some music when I noticed this pic on his site:

Sure looks sort of familiar... I wonder if he's the DM?

 

[Jaesun]

Some interesting changes and info:

THREE of those $6,999 Lord of the Isle packages have sold. Yes, three... They also reworked (based off some really good player feedback) the rewards contained with them. Still, that's pretty damn expensive....

The Store page will now ONLY be carrying COTO's (and other various packages, service vouchers for name changes etc...). All of the items will now be bought inside the game with COTO's that you have on hand. They revamped this interface and it loads and works VERY fast.

COTO's you purchase with cash on the store are (Basically) 1$ = 1 coto. This is changing to 1$ = 100 COTO's. This allows them to sell other small packages for only a few COTO's etc... All of your current COTO's you have will then be converted into x100. For example in the entire time of playing, I have found a grand total of THREE COTO's.... (Granted I am only NOW able to fight much higher level creatures now....). When this change happens those 3 COTO's will now be 300 of them.

The store changes I think were a very good move and fit in the same way all other MMO's handle their own In-Game (cash) Currency Item™.

Also, every single ACCOUNT that just finishes one of the 3 starter areas is then given one free Taxed, Player Owned Town Row Lot Deed. Row lots come with a default house so you don't need to buy one (you can buy several houses with gold and change it however you want). You can find an empty land spot and place your lot deed down, and start to deco away....

Every ACCOUNT that finishes the main quest (getting the Shroud) get's ONE Taxed, Player Owned Town Village Lot Deed (these are much bigger than row lots).

They also lowered all the tax rates on lots. ALSO you will be able to upgrade deeds (like the 2 you get for free now) to tax free, place anywhere etc... with COTO's.

And lastly, items you wear on your back, can now have enchantments on them, instead of not having anything. So like wearing a backpack could increase your Strength and Carrying capacity..... wings with more movement speed etc..... :D

 

[grimace]

Giving players access to a row sized home will allow them to craft a chest and store their junk.

 

[Jaesun]

Giving players access to a row sized home will allow them to craft a chest and store their junk.

Yep. You don't need to use the Bank to store stuff. Though you never ever needed to use the Bank anyways, as TONS of players offered free rooms in Inn's that you could place chests and store your stuff there too. That's how I started.

But now, spend just a few hours, get free lot. Place chests in new home, store tons of crap. And this also gets people into experiencing the housing system, which is (for the most part) very well done.

 

[grimace]

the housing system

The housing system has been polished more than any other system. Here's hoping for the quest and journal system to see more polish.

 

[Infinitron]

http://ultimacodex.com/2019/01/dude-wo-ist-mein-sotakasten/

Dude, Wo Ist Mein SotAkasten?
BY WTF DRAGON · JANUARY 24, 2019

I recorded some initial thoughts on this in a podcast episode; listen to Episode 113 (Rant of the Avatar) of Spam Spam Spam Humbugif you want all the details. Here’s what I put in the show notes for the episode:

A brief timeline of events:

• I backed Shroud of the Avatar on Kickstarter, and later topped up his pledge to the Explorer level. This was a physical reward tier; it didn’t come with the full game box, but it came with the cloth map.
• Other Kickstarter backers, upon migrating their pledge information to the Shroud of the Avatar website, found that they had a $15 USD line item on their account labeled as “International Shipping”; shipping was baked in to the Kickstarter pledge price.
• I was later bonused a certain amount by Portalarium for various reasons, and subsequently topped his pledge up out of his own pocket as well; his final pledge tier was Knight (about $800 USD).
• Not thinking anything was amiss, I was surprised when, after September 21st of this year, his game box had still not arrived. He dutifully contacted Portalarium support, and was subsequently informed that he didn’t have any international shipping on his account, and would thus have to pay for it in the form of a $30 USD add-on.
• The need to pay shipping was subsequently confirmed to me by Richard Garriott.
• I did eventually pay the specified amount, and hopes to receive his game box soon.

Now, it’s impossible to say exactly what happened here. Other Kickstarter backers have shared screenshots of their Shroud of the Avatar account pages, showing the $15 USD shipping line item thereupon. Why it disappeared from my account (assuming it was ever added thereto) is a mystery. About all I can say for sure is that this sequence of events, and its resolution, has left me feeling profoundly unenthusiastic about Shroud, or about the game box and the feelies therein. Maybe this will all change once the box arrives — assuming that the recent Canada Post strike does not delay it still yet further — but what if it doesn’t?

That was back in October of 2018. Now, four months later (almost to the day), where do things stand?

Well, actually, nothing has changed since October. Ostensibly, according to the last Update of the Avatar from 2018, some people on the list of Phase 2 recipients have begun to receive their boxes. Mid-January was specified as when the major portion of Phase 2 shipments would be sent out. Mid-January was specified those of us who are still awaiting our physical backer rewards are bidden to watch our email accounts for a message from Stamps.com confirming that something is being shipped to us.

To date, I’ve not received any such shipping notification, and obviously I haven’t received a boxed copy of Shroud of the Avatar. Part of me wonders whether I should just order one via Amazon; would it arrive before the copy I should have already received for backing Shroud of the Avatar on Kickstarter back in 2013?

What’s perhaps the most unfortunate development, in all of this, is that I had actually forgotten about all of this some time in the last month or so. It was only a comment this morning from Demorde, on the UDIC Discord server, regarding how he was emailing Portalarium to inquire about his still-missing game box, that jogged my memory and prompted me to write this post. If he hadn’t said anything, I probably would have forgotten about the physical rewards entirely, and wouldn’t have noticed if — in six months’ time — they still hadn’t shown up.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah the shipments were basically a disaster, but they actually got a lot of them shipped out.

Though I suspect he never verified his address, or something else. I also noticed he also never contacted support. He should if he hasn’t gotten his package yet...

 

[grimace]

My address was verified and then unverified due to some back end problems. I re-verified and emailed support to confirm my address was verified. I received my box in the second wave of shipping.

The email address on file will receive an email from stamps.com stating Richard Garriott has sent you a package.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

the housing system

The housing system has been polished more than any other system. Here's hoping for the quest and journal system to see more polish.

The quest system will get more polish once they start selling quests or they offer them as rewards for the monthly begathon.

 

[Fishy]

May I just thank all the contributors in this thread? It's highly entertaining to read about this... "thing". And far more appealing than actually bothering with installing it and feeling tainted. For my sins, I backed this, so go ahead and blame me, I'm (thankfully a tiny) part of why this exists at all. Back then, I was still dreaming of a new proper entry in the Ultima world, thinking that RG himself had to have realised by then that U7 BG/SI were his masterpieces and that's what he should be learning from. The Kickstarter then appeared, and in those crazy early days of crowdfunding, a moment of madness took me and I signed up. Now, the promised game wasn't exactly what I had in mind (only a spiritual successor, weird mmo layer), but it seemed close enough, and the cheap tier included something that tipped the balance: official forgiveness by RG for all the Ultima titles you pirated in the past. The latter is actually why I never bothered with refunding. Even if he's a fraud, the dude deserves something for the amount of piracy I've been up to while growing up, so...

And then the updates kept coming in, and I was informed I could purchase a cottage. Then a viking house. Then a farm. Like, wtf?! How is that relevant? And the more and more focus on making it UO2, which, despite how incredible I found UO at the time, I had zero interest in. UO, as far as I'm concerned, is where the dream of RPG in a MMO context died. UO gave us the sandbox, and we ruined it. And rather than find a complex way to fix it, it went down the road of taking away the sand, a template that most MMOs would then follow. Aaaanyhow. Virtual housing. Even better, race to housing because space would be in limited supply. Forum toxicity and censorship. By then, I just called it a day and stopped even reading about it. I have an account somewhere, and probably a Steam key to redeem, but can't muster the willpower.

And here we are, these days, with a game somehow out there with regular begathons (found out about this a couple of months ago on the non-official reddit...), yet, somehow, some poor souls still clinging to the dream. And in fairness, good on them. At least they got a toy that is a bit like what they were after, and theyll be able to reminisce about it after it's dead and remember it through rose-tinted glasses. As for me, I shrugged off the tiny investment and take solace in the fact that RG got found out, that BG/SI will still remain the masterpieces they are, and that, at the end of the day, I got a lot of entertainment from reading about the carcrash without having to let it touch my hard drive.

Also, it vaccinated me against Kickstarter. I've been very very careful about what I backed since...

 

[Jaesun]

And here we are, these days, with a game somehow out there with regular begathons (found out about this a couple of months ago on the non-official reddit...), yet, somehow, some poor souls still clinging to the dream.

The monthly Fundraiser IS the funding model for this game, to keep the development of the game. Whether for good or bad, that was the model they chose to do....

For you, yes, I can definitely see the disappointment as the game slowly changed from an Ultima Spiritual Successor game, to basically a New Ultima like game with Richard Garriot and somewhat resembling UO MMO. There IS the single player game, but you also would not enjoy that. It's not anywhere near what you (and many others) were expecting.

 

[taxalot]

I was later bonused a certain amount by Portalarium for various reasons

Yeah, you don't say ?

WTF Dragon was ecstatic and defending the game for a while on Ultima Codex and other places, and he was "bonused a certain amount for various reasons". Now, Portalarium fails to deliver his backer promises and suddenly, from the recent newsposts, SOTA is not so great anymore.

What a shocking development from an Ultima community standard.

 

[Infinitron]

Lately, Ultima Codex's SOTA updates have been a quality source of low-key drama: http://ultimacodex.com/2019/02/shroud-of-the-avatar-update-of-the-avatar-319-and-320/

 

[Eggs is eggs]

We know Richard doesn't involve himself with the game anymore but what about Starr Long? It seems like both of them have dumped everything on Chris so that he can be the fall guy when the house of cards finally comes crashing down. Though it's not like Chris is doing himself any favors by being the world's worst PR person.

 

[grimace]

The quest system will get more polish once they start selling quests or they offer them as rewards for the monthly begathon.

Future content will be crafted by players as player creator dungeon systems are iterated on in each future release.

The design of the game moves further and further towards online multiplayer sandbox features.

Lately, Ultima Codex's SOTA updates have been a quality source of low-key drama:

Any not-MMO MMO will attract drama and train wreck onlookers but a LARPers OASIS (readyplayerone was inspired by LB!) will surely get the most press coverage from the most prestigious gaming journalists, yes?

 

[Angthoron]

readyplayerone was inspired by LB!

Yikes, brutal takedown right there

 

[taxalot]

The Shroud of the Avatar team just lost their office (too expensive) and is now "working from home".

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ote-development-is-the-future-of-tech.152286/

SOTA forums think this is great.

 

[Fishy]

SOTA forums think this is great.

"This is good for Star CitizenSOTA"

 

[Eggs is eggs]

According to a recent interview with the tech director, Portalarium no longer has a physical address and everything that was in their office is currently in storage. And people are STILL complaining about not getting their physical copy they paid for years ago.

And they claim that the landlord raised the rent but they just moved into this place a few months ago. So it means they were on a short term or month to month lease....or they don't have the money or don't want to spend the money on rent and had to break their lease early.

 

[MRY]

The Guardian won.

 

[taxalot]

The Guardian won.

The series end in Ultima VII part Two, when the banes possess the party members, they actually possess you too. Everything that happens next is an hallucination.

Including Trump's election.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Including Trump's election.

Now you're just butthurt.

 

[grimace]

How will we celebrate 6 years since the Kickstarter began?