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Game News Not-Ultima Online 2: Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter is Live

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Portalarium; Richard Garriott; Shrouds of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues

As promised, Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues Kickstarter launched today. It's...well, it's Ultima Online 2, basically. The funding goal is $1,000,000 and the delivery date is October 2014. The cheapest tier that will get you the game is an early bird tier priced at $25, followed by an unlimited $40 tier, which I would say is a tad on the expensive side. Here's the summary of the game's goals and features:

Richard Garriott guided the Ultima Series from its inception in 1980, through the "trilogy-of-trilogies" of solo player games and later, the highly successful Ultima Online. Under his leadership, RPG's evolved from simple dungeon crawls to immersive worlds where you could easily suspend your disbelief. You cared about the world and its people, and you cared about the actions and deeds you accomplished within that world.

Since then, most every other RPG has focused more on level grinding then “role playing”, which has been reduced to a few initial character choices. While advancements in graphics and sound have been phenomenal, in many ways the virtual worlds we play in have become less real. Less open. Less immersive.

With Shroud of the Avatar, Richard and his team will again reinvent the classic fantasy role-playing experience. Using state-of-the-art tools and technology, the game will focus on what made his seminal Ultima Series great. Once players are introduced to the game, they will discover their own story woven into the immersive world and lore surrounding them. Players may choose to follow the life of the adventurer or, if they prefer, focus on exploration and discovery. Players may even choose the life of a homesteader; either nestled within the safety of the settled lands, or on the dangerous but potentially lucrative frontier. The world is full of opportunities and challenges!

The familiar psychological profiling used to create your character, organically derived game-play responses to player behavior and fundamental virtues and consequence of actions will all play a huge role in Shroud of the Avatar. Players will be free to choose their path, but must then live with the consequences of their actions.

Shroud of the Avatar general features:

From Lord British's Treatise on "What is an Ultimate RPG?":
  • Fully interactive virtual world - If it looks usable, it should do something
  • Deep original fiction - Ethical parables, cultural histories, fully developed alternate language text
  • Physical game components will be available: Cloth map, fictional manuals, trinkets
  • Multiplayer Online Game - which can also be played solo player / offline
The pitch subsequently describes the game's various features - a classless character system (like UO), extensive player housing arrangements (like UO), a complex crafting system (like UO), and "meaningful PVP that also minimizes griefing" (well, almost like UO). The game's most interesting (and non UO-like) feature is its use of a dual-scaled world, with a high-level overland map and low-level "adventure scene" instances. The look reminds me a lot of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir.

If you'd like more information, I recommend you check out Kenneth Kully's coverage of the game's launch over at the Ultima Codex. I've received word that he will be posting various gameplay videos and other content that was supplied to him by Portalarium, Richard Garriot's company. The game also has its own dedicated website.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Richard Garriott's SXSW talk:


Kenneth has actually already uploaded a bunch of gameplay videos to his Youtube channel, including this half-hour interview with Garriott:
 

SerratedBiz

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Lord British's Treatise

I wonder if he'll someday look back, as he approaches the twilight of his life and the haze of early alzheimer is pulled from his eyes, and just shoot himself with embarrassment.
 

Bulba

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why people hate him so much? his kickstarter sounds interesting...
 

Trojan_generic

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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
To help Richard build his new masterpiece, a team of proven industry veterans has been assembled. The average team member has more than 10 years experience and a half-dozen shipped games to their credit. More than 50 titles have been shipped between the team, including almost a dozen games that reached number one on the sales charts.

...among the 50 are: Dragon Age 1, The Sims, NBA Jam and the Riding Club!

Seriously, this game has to get a pretty high praise from Codex before I part with my gold.
 

Gurkog

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Project: Eternity
While watching the video he almost convinced me to pledge, but then he started talking about multiplayer and that was the death knell for my charity. I seriously don't want another game that splits focus between single and multiplayer. The game will end up with mediocre single player, I bet, since he favors social interaction while gaming and I don't want generic shit, even if it is random/procedurally generated single player shit.

The "deep" npc interaction displayed in the video all had binary options and crap writing, so I don't know why he used that to display a sample of his vision. The over emphasis on Ultima IX in the background shows that he is completely out of touch with what the players want. Fuck, I wasn't looking forward to this and his video almost had me, but he went and shat all over the gleam of hope that the video sparked at the start.

This is going to be 'Ultima: Microtransaction Whore Edition'.
 

PorkaMorka

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I'm not pledging unless he promises griefing and pre-casting.

Just kidding, I'm not pledging period. UO2 will not be the same with that terrible over the shoulder 3D third person perspective.
 

ghostdog

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So, it's a F2P MMO --where you have pay for various shit-- with a slight... Ultima feel ?


Not for me.
 

Stabwound

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Nah, he specifically said it's not a F2P game. You have to pay for it, and then you can play it with either offline or online capability, something like Baldur's Gate, I guess. I haven't heard anything about microtransactions, and I've been following all the coverage today. Maybe I missed something, though.
 

Gurkog

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Sorry, the microtransactions comment was my prediction about the future of the IP. He has to prove that taint of EA has been cleansed from his new works. Until then....
:keepmymoney:
 

Mortmal

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At 500$ a house, the village house, up to 3000$ to get the city one, anyone doubts this will include microtransactions ?
 

Diablo169

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The saddest part is this will likely make millions.
 

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