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

[LeStryfe79]

Lock him up.

 

[grimace]

Shroud of the Avatar cloth map when?


https://youtu be/fblg7BA4W4k


The REAL Episode One release date should be announced by December 31st 2017 and then the physical rewards should be shipped out close to the release date.

 

[grimace]

Q1 2018 Schedule Update




[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Greetings Avatars,

We are excited to announce a candidate launch date for Shroud of the Avatar! On Tuesday March 27, 2018 (Release 52), we are planning to launch out of Early Access!

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=80776

Launch: Yes, you read that correctly, we are launching out of Early Access with a candidate build at the beginning of 2018! So what does that mean exactly for a game that has been both persistent for over a year and been doing monthly releases for over 4 years? Well, for us it means that we are delivering the list of features, including physical goods, promised during the Kickstarter albeit with a few exceptions and/or replacements. It also means that we are going to grow our community through marketing campaigns.

As we present the overview of launch content it is worth reviewing what our vision is for Shroud of the Avatar. Shroud is a role playing game that is the spiritual successor of the Ultima* games that Richard “Lord British” Garriott started making 40 years ago that blazed the trail for what is often described as immersive sandbox role playing games. NPCs with schedules, choices that matter, the virtues, the word Avatar, games in a box, cloth maps: all those things came first with Ultimas*.

It is also the spiritual successor of Ultima Online*, the game that is credited with pushing MMOs into the mainstream & coining the term MMO. That game was built with Starr Long, aka Blackthorn, aka Darkstarr who is once again working with Richard on Shroud. Like the Ultimas*, and Ultima Online*, Shroud is a role playing game where you immerse yourself in a massive sandbox where you are challenged to make choices based on Virtues. It is a game where you can accept that challenge solo, with friends, or against other players through deep and interdependent roles supported by a complex crafting and economic system.

Much like all of Lord British’s previous works Richard pushes the team to make the world be interactive and immersive. This manifests itself with a working celestial system and day/night system that affects the game mechanics, fully dynamic lighting where every light can turn on and off, all the doors can open and close, traps and locks abound, NPCs have schedules, and much much more.

On top of that deep sandbox is a rich story that Richard co-wrote with Tracy Hickman that follows three converging paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. All of this is woven together by a unique system we call Selective Multiplayer that allows you to play Offline or three different Online modes including Single Player Online, Friends Online, and Open Online.

Now that we have reviewed the vision here is the broad overview of the launch content:

• Multiple Play Modes:
  • Offline Mode with special features and content
    • Save Games
    • All Store, Pledge, Bundle Items available for gold in-game
    • Combat Balance
    • Companions
  • 3 Online Modes on One Worldwide Server (no Shards!)
    • Single-Player Online
    • Friends Online
    • Multiplayer Online
• Multiple Platforms, Versions, & Languages:
  • PC, Mac, Linux
  • Steam & Direct Download
  • English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian (Game & Website)
• Combat:Use-Based Advancement
  • Classless System with fully customizable builds from all schools
  • 7 Combat Schools with 75+ Combat Skills
    • Blade
    • Bludgeon
    • Heavy Armor
    • Light Armor
    • Polearm
    • Ranged
    • Shield
  • 9 Magic Schools with 95+ Magic Spells
    
    • Air
    • Chaos
    • Death
    • Earth
    • Fire
    • Life
    • Moon
    • Sun
    • Water
  • 4 Strategy Schools with 40+ Skills
    • Focus
    • Subterfuge
    • Tactics
    • Taming
  • Free Attack and Auto Attack options
  • Fixed Hotbar and Dynamically Dealt Deck options
  • Combo system where spells and skills combo into different abilities
  • 20+ Weapon Types: Swords, Daggers, Polearms, Axes, Hammers, Bows, Staves, Wands, etc.
  • 12+ Armor Types: Cloth, Leather, Augmented Leather, Chain, Plate, Epic Plate, etc.
  • Cover that affects combat
  • PVP: Open Flag, Duels, Guild vs. Guild, Open PVP Zones, Open PVP Player Towns, Open PVP Basements
• Movement: Walk, Run, Sprint, Jump, Swim, Tumble
• World & Story: 230+ scenes
  • Episode 1 Storyline Complete
    • Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage that can be completed in any order
    • Path of the Oracle (finale)
  • 220+ Scenes:
    • 100+ Outdoor Adventure Scenes
    • 30+ Dungeons & Sewers: A vast Underworld with a multitude of interconnections.
    • 60+ Towns
    • 6 Control Points that block access to different parts of the map until taken (or snuck through)
    • 13+ Open PVP Areas: Obsidian Ruins, Shardfalls, etc.
    • 2 Overworld Scenes
    • 10+ Roving Encounters
  • 100s of unique NPCs with names, conversations, and schedules
  • 10+ Merchant Types
  • 100s of quests
  • In-game Map system (also accessible via the website)
  • Journal
  • Town Sieges linked to working Celestial Mechanics
  • Dread Artifacts and the Shroud of the Avatar in-game item
  • Traps, Puzzles, Keys, Locks, Secret Doors, and Breakable Walls
• Creatures: 55+
  • Bosses: Dragons, Trolls, Phoenixes, Daemons, Reapers, Liches
  • Magical: Elementals, Golems, Chest Mimics, Barrel Mimics, Imps, Wisps, Slimes, Maneaters, Flesh Flayers, Mushroom Men, Killer Plants
  • Undead: Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts
  • Clockwork: Clockwork Dragon, Clockwork Assassin, Clockwork Dog/Cat/Raven, Clockwork Monkeys
  • Humanoids: Elves, Kobolds, Bandits, Satyrs, Fauns, Reshapers, Barbarians
  • Creatures/Animals: Bears, Wolves, Corpions, Spiders, Deer (Stags and Does), Rabbits, Cats, Dogs, Horses, Llamas, Chickens, Donkeys, Turkeys, Ravens, Eagles, Crocodiles, Pigs, Sheep, Wild Boars, Ravens
• Character Customization:
  • Facial Feature Morphing, Hairstyles, Skin Tone, Eye Color, Hair Color
  • 135+ Emotes including emotes that can be taught/traded between players
  • 10 Slots for Gear: Head, Chest, Arms, Legs, Feet, Finger, Neck, Back, Musical Instrument, Belt
  • 100s of Wearables including dresses, masks, hats, cloaks, and armor
  • 40+ Pets including Eagles, Rabbits, Cats, Dogs, Lynx, etc.
  • Multiple Characters on Single Account
• Crafting100s of recipes for gear, decorations, potions, food, etc.
  • 100s of modifiers on crafted gear based on materials, critical success, location, masterworks and enchantments.
  • Gem Socketing, Enchanting, Masterworking, dyes, and patterns for a variety of post crafting, post process effects on items.
  • Recipes that can be found, purchased, or discovered.
  • Salvage system that can be used to gain raw materials, components, and patterns from gear.
  • Patterns that can be salvaged or purchased that can be applied to gear to change appearance.
  • 50+ materials to be gathered.
  • Classless crafting system that can be freely mixed with combat skills.
  • Public and Player Vendors to sell goods.
  • Purchase Order system to buy goods through vendors.
  • Specialized Trainers to teach skills.
  • Regional Economies with relative abundance/scarcity of goods.
  • Player created books and book printing.
  • Player created bulletins and bulletin boards.
  • 6 Schools of Gathering with 20+ Skills.
    • Agriculture
      
    • Field Dressing
    • Fishing
    • Foraging
    • Forestry
    • Mining
  • 5 Schools of Refining with 15+ Skills.
    • Butchery
    • Milling
    • Smelting
    • Tanning
    • Textiles
  • 5 Schools of Production with 25+ Skills.
    • Alchemy
    • Blacksmithing
    • Carpentry
    • Cooking
    • Tailoring
• Housing
  • 6 Lot Sizes: Row, Village, Town, City, Keep, Castle.
  • Lot Deeds offered on website or through monthly in-game raffle.
  • 100+ different houses.
  • 50+ different basements.
  • 1000s of decorations including furniture, walls, fences, paintings, rugs, food, trophies, statues, trees, etc.
  • Detailed decoration system to make your place truly unique.
  • Magic Movers system that allows you to save and move your decorated home & basement.
  • Land Tax System.
  • Housing Permissions so multiple players can share the same land including renting.
  • 320+ Dynamic Player-Owned Towns where owners can customize lot placement, start locations, decorations, town blessings, tree coverage, music, merchants, and more.
  • Servants and house pets.
  • Public Cache Chests.
  • Player-Owned Town Blessings that offer various bonuses.
• Social/Miscellaneous
  • Friends
  • Guilds
  • Text Chat with multiple channels (guild, party, private, scene)
  • Discord integration
  • Mail System
  • Radio linked to customizable webstreams.
  • Banking System
  • 13 Musical Instruments (Lute, Drum, Piano, Harp, Flute, etc) with songs played via ABC/MML files including ability to play as a synched group.
  • “DnD 1” playable on a teletype machine.
  
  
  

• 
  

Where is my favorite feature?: While we were able to get almost all Kickstarter features, pledge rewards and every other randomly mentioned or thought of feature over the last four years complete by launch there are a few that are not going to make it in time. Please rest assured that we are going to put forth every effort to get all of these complete by the end of 2018 in one of our regular monthly updates (yes we are going to continue to do those each and every month just like we have for the last four years!).

 

[Taluntain]

Remember when you were still young when this project started?

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Remember when you were still young when this project started?

I was also young(er) when Star Citizen started. It's not age, it's rapidly reaching critical mass level of cynicism. At some point I will snap and then you'll just have to point me at somebody you don't like.

 

[Grotesque]

In the future, a way to evaluate someone's IQ is by reading his/hers list of kickstarter backed projects.

 

[Blaine]

When the sandbox MMO community hears about this, I bet they'll be lining up to farm currency and resources, so that they can pay to rent real estate from the virtual landed nobility who gave Garriott tens of thousands of dollars for the plot deeds.

It's almost exactly like medieval Europe, with a trading screen standing in for the tax collector! I can taste the immersion already.

 

[grimace]

When the sandbox MMO community hears about this, I bet they'll be lining up to farm currency and resources, so that they can pay to rent real estate from the virtual landed nobility who gave Garriott tens of thousands of dollars for the plot deeds.

It's almost exactly like medieval Europe, with a trading screen standing in for the tax collector! I can taste the immersion already.

The single server has been live for 500+ continuous days. The farming, gathering, hoarding and such continues.

SotA's most recent update added NPC vendors who sell deeds for in game property (the Gold Crown of the Obsidians or COTOs merchants).

One way to view the kickstarter and other RMT purchases (that are no longer available to new accounts) is a form of inheritance. This "explanation" is built into the lore.

The question and the spectacle relates to where this leads (if anywhere at all . . .).

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

So the acquiring of 'assets' is even built into the lore. British is now totally shameless. A thin, unapologetically slimy film covers this 'game' in a way that only fools those who have already taken the blue pill. This is 95% manipulation for lemmings with spare cash to 'invest' and 5% defiling of what was once a great Ultima tradition. Pathetic on so many levels.

 

[taxalot]

I will play the game single player offline and will judge it by his merits this way alone.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

I will play the game single player offline

Is there even such a thing? I thought the concept of SotA as a 'game' had longsince been abandoned.

 

[taxalot]

I will play the game single player offline

Is there even such a thing? I thought the concept of SotA as a 'game' had longsince been abandoned.

In the latest kickstarter update about the final release, they say it's still in.

 

[grimace]

So the acquiring of 'assets' is even built into the lore. British is now totally shameless. A thin, unapologetically slimy film covers this 'game' in a way that only fools those who have already taken the blue pill. This is 95% manipulation for lemmings with spare cash to 'invest' and 5% defiling of what was once a great Ultima tradition. Pathetic on so many levels.

In regards to the lore, the meta aspects of the game are explained in game.

Backers are the Outlanders. Backers are the avatars from this world who have entered New Britannia. Each backer has the option to display their title/rank.

sotawiki.net/sota/Backer

Backer refers to players who help support the development of Shroud of the Avatar by making a pledge. There are currently two types of Backers:

• Founders who are eligible for Founder Pledge Rewards (Initial pledge prior to May 20th, 2013 and could be Gifted[1][2])
  • Royal Founders receive the additional Royal Founder Pledge Rewards.
• Benefactors who are eligible for Benefactor Pledge Rewards (Initial pledge post May 20th, 2013[2])

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Domesday_Certificate

Domesday Certificate

Domesday Certificate

Decoration
Weight: 1
Value: 0

Available in Patron pledge reward.
In addition to being listed in the Domesday Book, backers at the Patron pledge tier will receive a framed certificate of their inclusion in the Domesday Book, as an in-game decoration for their house.

This information has been available all along. The spreadsheets that document all of the possible digital and physical rewards was among the most viewed pieces of information in 2014.


I ask you one question:
In what other way could a game like this be funded in the year 2013?

 

[Blaine]

He could have invested his own fortune.

The game is doomed. It doesn't matter one iota what justifications and explanations are offered; a chef can defend his shit sandwich all day long on the grounds that he only had bread and shit to work with, but that doesn't mean that people are going to eat it. Have a look at any MMO-related discussion community and see what they're saying about SotA. Hey, maybe you can shill for the game while you're there, clear a few things up?

While it's true they've never tried to hide what they're doing, the result is that everyone knows (or believes, which amounts to the same thing in this case) that there are well-off 30- and 40-somethings with purchased titles of nobility and persistent land plots lined up waiting to literally lord it over them.

 

[Taluntain]

Never before has a game simulated reality so well, then!

 

[Saduj]

Never before has a game simulated reality so well, then!

Exactly. Real life being pay to win is one reason why people want to escape into digital worlds. You'd think Lord Shitribs would be able to figure that out.

 

[grimace]

Never before has a game simulated reality so well, then!

We all have a "role" to "play".

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

All the invested nobility will preen and prep to show a good leg when the post release droves surely come. How envious they will be of my exclusive Plumed Corset of Virtue, festooned in gilded glyphs of onyx.

Only no one will come and the truth will be revealed; sitting in chairs will be middle aged men realizing that they paid hard cash for virtual trinkets and exclusive pixels. They will look at their Tracy Hickman novelette and feel sick at the 5 years of anticipation and their hundreds or thousands blown on the climax that never came.

 

[grimace]

All the invested nobility will preen and prep to show a good leg when the post release droves surely come. How envious they will be of my exclusive Plumed Corset of Virtue, festooned in gilded glyphs of onyx.

Only no one will come and the truth will be revealed; sitting in chairs will be middle aged men realizing that they paid hard cash for virtual trinkets and exclusive pixels. They will look at their Tracy Hickman novelette and feel sick at the 5 years of anticipation and their hundreds or thousands blown on the climax that never came.

Another perspective:

Backers of Shroud of the Avatar anticipate each monthly release and are ecstatic with all of the new decoration items, wearables, and emotes.

With each telethon backers continue to purchase items from the add on store to fund the development.

And yet another perspective:

When Starr Long joined the Portalarium team the business model shifted to favour player owned towns and decorating scenes. These players continually spend money on new items for their homes and towns.

My personal perspective

I do not own a town. I have a small rent free row lot (part of my pledge). I pledge $5 each telethon (was quarterly, now monthly... whatever) and receive assorted digital decorations and wearables. I'm enjoying my time and will complete the quest to earn my Shroud and finish episode 1. I am unsure of episode 2, 3, 4, and 5 but have already pre-purchased them in my backer rewards category.

I log in most days to receive the 500 gold from the Oracle. This is enough to cover the rent on a row lot.

The RPG Codex perspective:

???

The day of reckoning approaches when Episode 1 launches and professional reviewers publish their thoughts.

 

[Tigranes]

So... dumbfucks who buy pointless shit marketed exclusively to make money rather than the fulfilment of a creative vision or any entertaining experience.

I mean, sure, it's well proven that there's always enough idiots who will spend money on whatever pointless crap that you sprinkle the barest hint of significance around. Maybe the 'nobility' will be happy even if nobody comes to worship them in their castles. After all, they might already be satisfied that all the telethons, the little emails they get, the random screenshots, make them feel like this is something cool. For their little pygmy brains, that's already enough reward.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Okay, what of the offline experience?

 

[LESS T_T]

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/PP80868

It's Here! Shroud of the Avatar and What's Coming Next

MAR 15, 2018 | 3:30PM – 4:30PM

AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER
GAMING EXPO - DISCOVERY STAGE - EXHIBIT HALL 2

SPEAKERS
RICHARD GARRIOTT (USA PRT), SARAH DWORKEN (Portalarium Inc)

After several years of successful development as the second highest crowdfunded game ever, Shroud of the Avatar is finally launching! Join Richard "Lord British" Garriott himself as the gaming legend and astronaut discusses the journey of Shroud of the Avatar as a pioneer of crowdfunded game development, what new surprises fans and players can expect with the much-anticipated launch, and where the journey goes from here for the spiritual successor to the renowned Ultima series.

"USA PRT"? What is that?

http://www.usaprt.com

Personal Rapid Transit

In the past, personal rapid transit (or PRT) was a pipe dream; a far-fetched idea whose time was somewhere in the distant future. But today we are making this dream a reality. Soon you will be able to call an automated private vehicle to your transit stop, hop in, and be whisked away non-stop to your destination. PRT systems are energy efficient, pollution free, and studies show they are less costly to build and operate than other transit systems.

Richard Garriott de Cayeux
Co-Founder, USA PRT

Okay... Fargo's blockchain based Steam competitor and Garriott's automated private monorail. What's more shady, and why?

 

[Grauken]

Wow, I would have thought PRT is an abbreviation for Portalarium, instead its one for insanity

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Richard Garriott de Cayeux

 

[Siveon]

Okay, what of the offline experience?

It's just the MMO but with no people. There's little to no difference or variation as far as can tell. Not even a UI change.