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

They are selling $7000 bundles to raise money for episode 2. Sigh

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=9085&open=2116

 

Only 8 bundles of 3 different variations for 24 fortunate avatars.


https://youtu.be/5Ay5GqJwHF8?t=31
"If you build it, he will come."

 

So, he’s a silversmith and jewelry maker in real life or will it just be from


Sorry, I’m not “bedazzled” by the supposed greats of the era be it Gary Gygax, Stan Lee, etc etc.

There comes a point where it looks like they’re greedy with KS, Patreon etc.

Btw, I can’t wait for spring to occur and no end to TBTT. Fargo is still timing the engine to make core i9s groan. I wonder if other game makers will follow that sort of agenda. I mean maybe they have stock in pentium.

It’s nice to see the old Sosaria map reinvisioned though I know there was at least one project by someone who wanted to mirror it (done with rpg maker I suspect).

 

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!

 

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

 

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?

 

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.....

 

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.

 

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

 

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...

 

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.

 

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

 

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...

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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?

 

Yikes, brutal takedown right there

 

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.

 

"This is good for Star CitizenSOTA"

 

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.

 

The Guardian won.