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

[Rumsfeld]

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

Macrotransactions instead of microtransactions.

 

[jewboy]

Yup. It's really more of a meta-game: gaming the gamers themselves.

 

[Mortmal]

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

Macrotransactions instead of microtransactions.

No macrotransaction will be a privilege , for early backers only , remember how priviledged you are when his highness accept your flithy commoner money, at 10K$ you can shake his hands..

 

[mindx2]

Ultima Online: Redux.... No thank you.... end of line....




The combat also looked like a lot of Button-Smashing and as mentioned, the dialogue was extremely simplistic. Way too many MMO features mentioned with almost no time explaining the so-called single-player component. I even tried to keep an open mind but once again like Thief, this really disappoints. Especially after T:ToN the last few days.

 

[Stabwound]

Interesting, this world apparently is more of a futuristic version of the "Lord British" world featuring things like rail guns and electric power in towns. Kind of steampunkish. That sounds kind if intriguing, actually.

 

[Azira]

I pledged $25 for now, will keep a close watch at the info that comes my way during the next month. If it turns out as terribad as I fear, I'll cancel the pledge before the time's up.

I did really love the single-player Ultima games, and I'm desperately hoping this will recapture some of that. I'm naïve that way..

 

[Jaesun]

Retard detected.

 

[Barghest]

I just feel nothing for this kickstarter. Meh.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's a MMO. You're supposed to feel nothing.

 

[Snerf]

Back in junior high, I loved Ultima Online. Never played a single player Ultima game, but loved the brutal item-looting non-consensual pvp (griefing) and wild west atmosphere (griefing).

But some kind of watered down psuedo-mmo with sissy pvp and a bland, lumpy single player component?

Yeah, I feel nothing.

 

[Micmu]

I feel murderous hate.

Fuck this piece of shit straight in the ass.
Why doesn't he go to space again and die there in the vacuum?
Earth's too good for his piece of shit rotting excrements.

 

[Ehon Asko]

Well I decided to pledge 10$. Now my gaming sins will be forgiven next year by Lord British so I can pirate as much as I like.

 

[Irenaeus]

This kickstart makes me want to pirate his early games.

 

[Indranys]

What? Pledging your half-ass single player + MMO game?
This is madness Richard.
I'll play Teudogar and wait for DARGHUL remake instead.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/portalarium

Richard Garriott ‏@RichardGarriott
Have some questions about Shroud of the Avatar? Join me for a LIVE video-broadcast from inside the Portalarium... http://fb.me/GTdNksyA

 

[Brotherman Bill]

The pace of the funding has slowed down already. If this one makes it, I think it'll be barely.

 

[Jaesun]

I don't think it will have a problem making it's goal. But maybe not much more than than that.

 

[made]

Just no.

 

[MicoSelva]

I still don't get why he is kickstarting this thing. Isn't he, like, rich? He went into space as a tourist, FFS. One million dollars should not be a problem and he could keep all the profits to himself.

You don't need this money, Lord British. Go away!

 

[Taluntain]

Most rich people like to hang on to their millions and rather spend other people's money.

 

[Minttunator]

I'm not sure what to make of this. I was expecting either an old-school single-player RPG or a spiritual sequel to Ultima Online - either of which I would've been excited about. I guess this is kind of trying to be a watered-down version of both at the same time? I'm not really feeling it at this point, to be honest.

If LB is hell-bent on continuing with the multiplayer/social thing, as he seems to be, I'd rather he go straight up UO with meaningful PVP (FFA and full looting), but that doesn't seem to be the case here. The NPC interaction shown in the video didn't seem all that impressive, either.

I did reserve one of those early-bird pledges just in case, but the onus is still on LB to impress me with the updates, lest I cancel. There's no doubt this will get funded easily, though.

 

[Stabwound]

So apparently the combat is more in-depth than it appears. It uses some sort of "card based system" where you pick skills you want available before you enter the combat from the pool you have available. They also say that this is one of the areas they're hoping for community feedback for. Suggest turn-based, plz.

He also said he dislikes Diablo style click-click-click combat as well as traditional MMORPG combat where you just stand there and spam abilities. So that's tiny incline, anyway. LB seems to have some kind of bro-ism left in his brain somewhere with those comments and the disparaging comments about quest markers/logs/bs.

I dunno. This could possibly end up being good for what it is, ultimately.

 

[Keldryn]

The Kickstarter page does a poor job of emphasizing that Shroud of the Avatar is intended to be a primarily story-driven, single-player game experience.

It's definitely not an MMO, nor is it Ultima Online 2. It is not subscription-based. There will be a free trial version which you can install and explore the world, but you need to buy the game in order to advance on the skill trees.

As it currently stands, the game will install to your PC and you can play it entirely offline as a "story-based, classic Ultima-style, virtual world, sandbox game." There is no centralized server that hosts a world that you log into, and the current intent is that you never actually have to even connect to the internet other than to apply patches and updated content.

There is a persistent world aspect in the towns and settlements of the game, which is impacted by all players. When another player sets up a shop in a town, it will appear in everyone's game world, and you can interact with his shopkeeper. When you go online, the persistent world will update.

You designate who your real-life friends are, and once designated as such, you can see them in the game world and interact with them.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this one. I hate MMOs with a passion, but the idea of being able to play parts of the game with a small number of real-life friends is somewhat appealing. I'm not sure how I feel about the persistent world being affected by the other players of the game, as players with more limited playing time (like me) can get locked out the opportunity.

Ultima VII was pretty much the last game that Garriott made without corporate meddling. I am very interested in seeing what he is able to accomplish without having to answer to executives. Ultima IV through VII Part 2 were influential enough for me to warrant a $25 pledge.

 

[A user named cat]

I've never in my life played an MMO, crazily enough, and never plan to either. Way more interesting games on the horizon.

 

[Crispy]

Yeah, I'll be way too busy struggling against Cleve's inner psyche in Grimoire to be playing this shit.
























I'll probably still buy it, though.