Game News Lord British Kickstarter coming up - "Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues"

[Hamster]

Seriously?

 

[Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

Sorry, but who isn't getting it is you, first, Lord British can fulfill his lrping needs by becoming the King of his ideal country,

Where I have seen this before...

 

[Alex]

Actually, after thinking a bit about what the kickstarter says, I think this might not be so awful. I mean, the game is not, if I am getting it correctly, an MMO. I think the point is that players will be able to affect each other through their own single or non massive but multiplayer games. Like the house buying deal. If someone buys a specific house, then that house is bought in all instances of the game. And maybe, if the player sets up a shop there, in all instances of the game, that house will be a shop. Maybe the profits will even go to the owning player?

Still, it is a feature I would very much like to have the ability to turn off. Also stuff like this:

Scene based encounters:
In a nod to Garriott's early RPG works, Shroud of the Avatar is split up into a high-level overland map and adventure scenes. Scenes are generally re-playable and can be experienced solo or with others.

Makes me think the game will be lacking in a strong single player storyline (or storylines). Maybe I am wrong, but I think this implies that the players are expected to keep playing the game just for exploration's sake rather than offering any kind of interesting unique content. That is, instead of being like in Ultima 7, where there was always something going on and a storyline to follow, it will be more like Ultima 4, where there is a lot to explore, but much less of a sense of a story going somewhere. I mean, I spent a lot of time exploring Ultima games. That can be lots of fun too! But I really would like to see a game that does both aspects well.

 

[Excidium]

That sounds just like MMO instanced dungeons.

 

[Alex]

That sounds just like MMO instanced dungeons.

Wouldn't it be the opposite of that? I mean, the main game is instanced, unique to each player, but certain parts of it are shared across. At least, if I got it right.

 

[Excidium]

I mean the adventure scenes.

 

[Jaesun]

Why not just create a great single player cRPG, and make 6 million (he would have probably made more)?

Have Torment, Wasteland 2 and Eternity taught him anything? Apparently Gariott is not a learning animal.

 

[SophosTheWise]

I think a lot of you guys misunderstood the pitch - it's definitely not an MMO though one could easily misunderstand that. I didn't get it either from the pitch alone. But I think the stream was pretty revealing. It's basically a singleplayer game where you can drop in/out with other players (that you can find via Facebook...) Also there's bound to be some sort of sharing of things (information?). There are not loads of people in your world - only those you want. So basically you get a party. It's like playing an IE game in multiplayer mode with a persistent world.

 

[Jaesun]

I don't ever plan on ever having Facebook.

 

[Koschey]

 

[Alex]

Why not just create a great single player cRPG, and make 6 million (he would have probably made more)?

Have Torment, Wasteland 2 and Eternity taught him anything? Apparently Gariott is not a learning animal.

Well, probably because, sad as it may be, I don't think that is the kind of game he wants to make.

 

[jewboy]

So, basically another money grab. He must have run out of dough. Surely he could have gotten funding with the traditional publisher model. It's not like MMOs are unpopular or anything. This is so not what crowd funding is supposed to be about. On the plus side I doubt this will have even the slightest effect on the Torment KS.

 

[General Maxson]

It looks like shit. Everything I feared it would be. He doesn't have a clue about making great crpgs anymore. Fuck him and his MMO shit. I'm happy though, that now I don't have to die of starvation and give him my money (if he followed the path of old single player Ultimas). There's at least that.

TLDR:

 

[Kz3r0]

Still, it is a feature I would very much like to have the ability to turn off. Also stuff like this:

Scene based encounters:
In a nod to Garriott's early RPG works, Shroud of the Avatar is split up into a high-level overland map and adventure scenes. Scenes are generally re-playable and can be experienced solo or with others.

Makes me think the game will be lacking in a strong single player storyline (or storylines). Maybe I am wrong, but I think this implies that the players are expected to keep playing the game just for exploration's sake rather than offering any kind of interesting unique content. That is, instead of being like in Ultima 7, where there was always something going on and a storyline to follow, it will be more like Ultima 4, where there is a lot to explore, but much less of a sense of a story going somewhere. I mean, I spent a lot of time exploring Ultima games. That can be lots of fun too! But I really would like to see a game that does both aspects well.

Alex, sorry, but in WOW lingo thta would bee called instances, basically all what Garriott said is a tranlation of MMO term in Lord British speack.

 

[Stabwound]

Online/social/larping is his thing. If you listen to the UltimaCodex interview, he was asked about why he backpeddled on making Shroud of the Avatar a strictly "3rd era" (online/social) game like he was always ranting about. Basically, he felt that calling it a social game gave it a negative connotation from players, so he is at least somewhat aware of the fanbase.

Shroud of the Avatar feels like he's making a compromise between the two styles, trying to appease both and probably, in the end, disappointing both. It's not an MMORPG (Ultima Online) and the online aspects will serve to annoy fans of the earlier titles. Lose-lose, really.

And the overall story of what he's mentioned sounds pretty generic as well. "Mysterious creatures are wrecking havoc on the land and you must discover why" is pretty Ultima 6 ish.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Surely he could have gotten funding with the traditional publisher model.

But where do you get funding for a MMORPG with shitty graphics? Hey, I heard those suckers on Kickstarters like old-school games, I bet they won't mind our worst of 3D-era graphics, huh?

 

[evdk]

Sorry, but who isn't getting it is you, first, Lord British can fulfill his lrping needs by becoming the King of his ideal country,

Where I have seen this before...

If anybody backing this gets branded and sacrificed I would be happy.

 

[SophosTheWise]

I don't ever plan on ever having Facebook.

It still doesn't limit your experience, I guess. It's just one possibility to hook up with friends. I don't get what all the fuss is about. While I don't enjoy Facebook games (well, besides Tetris during lectures...) I don't mind the possibility as long as it's not integral to the gameplay and it doesn't really sound like that's going to be the case.

 

[Jaesun]

My Phone and e-mail have been working fine for years.

I DO have twitter, but that's the best way to keep up on cRPG news (and I use it to advertise my Youtube music channel).

 

[Alex]

Alex, sorry, but in WOW lingo thta would bee called instances, basically all what Garriott said is a tranlation of MMO term in Lord British speack.

Oh, that sucks very much, I think (I don't know much about MMOs). I was thinking that by scenes, he just meant map encounters like in Fallout or something like that.

 

[SophosTheWise]

My Phone and e-mail have been working fine for years.

I DO have twitter, but that's the best way to keep up on cRPG news (and I use it to advertise my Youtube music channel).

So you can get ALL your friends to play with you! Isn't that amaaaaaaaazing? No, seriously, I really don't care about that social stuff but it sounds interesting nevertheless and - as said before - as long as it doesn't influence gameplay to a great extent, I don't think you will notice it.

 

[Jaesun]

Well I'm never backing this so problem solved.

 

[Alex]

I dunno, I could see myself backing this if they show they are making the single player aspect of the game very Ultima like. I will at least wait for an update or two before discarding it outright.

 

[Maelflux]

Was saving a little money this week in case Garriott surprised. Might be upping my Torment pledge instead now.

Wish I could up my Shadowrun pledge.

Check the update from a few mins ago

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/423146?ref=activity

PS: Wish I won a random lawsuit against NCSoft. (As this seems like a good forum to make wishes come through)

 

[SophosTheWise]

I dunno, I could see myself backing this if they show they are making the single player aspect of the game very Ultima like. I will at least wait for an update or two before discarding it outright.

He actually puts a lot of emphasize on this in the Rooster Teeth stream.