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

[LESS T_T]

So... it's out:

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

If this were really like UO I would be all over it. It seems I me to be all about player housing and that side of things...

MP trailers show empty rows of a player housing like we're supposed to be Oooh, Aaah.

 

[Zep Zepo]

$10 in Vietnamese play money. Still to much.

Zep--

 

[Jenkem]

will this momentous release get a news item?

 

[Grauken]

I hope not, if there was a game that needed to be buried and killed outright, this is it

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues/shroud-of-the-avatar-review

Shroud of the Avatar constantly references Ultima but cannot match its stature

“Don’t say tush,” Edmund Blackadder once chastised Lord Percy in the eponymous BBC sitcom’s Tudor outing. “It’s only a short step from ‘tush’ to ‘hey nonny nonny,’ and then, I’m afraid, I shall have to call the police.”

If that law still stands, Richard Garriott and his team will be facing serious time for their work on Shroud of the Avatar. The crowdfunded RPG’s dialogue is littered with thous and hithers. Verily, it is doing mine head in.

Garriott’s long, long-awaited return to the RPG genre he helped shape is one that straddles the ‘90s and the contemporary. Shroud of the Avatar is an Ultima game in everything but licence: the ‘Avatar’ in the game’s title is your protagonist, just as it was back then; moral concepts like truth and courage are a matter of frequent, explicit reference; and yes, the writing has a tendency to creep into Fakespeare.

This approach is not without its charms. There is a lovely Narnian quality to the intro, which has you literally fall down a wiki-hole of otherworldly runes, emerging in another world where elves stalk the land and stars shoot constantly across the sky. The fact that developers Portalarium do not see any issue with canonising the player at the keyboard as a bespectacled man, however, suggests they might have fallen behind the curve of progress somewhat.

As do some of their design decisions. A jump key that triggers not when you press it, but when you let go. Combat so hands-off it can comfortably be conducted with a single hand. A conversation system that grants the option of typing in keywords. It all leads to predictably hit-and-miss results.

“I cannot comment on this,” a dying knight tells me as I attempt to agree to his last wish.

Shortly afterwards, I watch the demise of a fearsome Obsidian Elf standing a little too close to a burning cart. He fails to react when he catches on fire, reminding me of the eerily still protesters who have committed to the horror of self-immolation.

"The rest of our people will know what happened here," he hisses as he succumbs to the flames. Honestly, it might be less embarrassing if we keep this one to ourselves.

Garriott seems undecided about which legacy he is following up - the simulation and single-player storytelling of Ultima VII, or the persistent online world of Ultima Online. The influence of the latter provides one of Shroud of the Avatar’s few genuine highlights, however - the player-run hamlets scattered across its overworld.

This is where the game drops any pretence of gravity and becomes its colourful best. In the town of Soryn Fields, a hot air balloon is anchored next to a 60-foot statue, while snowmen decorate the sunlit high street. The outlandish architecture resembles something Garriott himself might have built at the height of his fortune. Prefab player abodes, meanwhile, are particularly lovely - housing sword collections, steampunk safes, and sedentary guard dogs.

Outside in the world, by contrast, my most active involvement with another human being so far has been waiting for them to get out of a lift so I can reach my floor. That, at least, feels like true simulation.

Shroud of the Avatar’s MMO trappings often seem to conflict with its grand storytelling ambitions, in a compromise games like Star Wars: The Old Republic have handled far better. The minimal voice acting, for instance, might be understandable in a non triple-A game of this scale. But contemporary standards for 3D RPGs make its absence jarring.

There is no reason why a Garriott game should feel this outdated. The RPG genre’s current darling, the chart-topping Divinity: Original Sin II, is heavily influenced by the deep interactivity of Ultima VII. But Shroud of the Avatar seems more prepossessed with poking at fond memories of Ultima than updating its triumphs for 2018. Hey nonny no.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

The fact that developers Portalarium do not see any issue with canonising the player at the keyboard as a bespectacled man, however, suggests they might have fallen behind the curve of progress somewhat.

Progress would be what, anything but a man? Who wrote this idicoy? On the other hand, did this virtue signaler just assume someone's gender expression?

 

[RatTower]

I thought exactly the same.
SotA clearly has its fair share of problems but saying "No no, you can only write a story THIS way nowadays" is pretty stupid and crippling the creative process.
It reminds me of a section in "Brave New World" where one of the main characters asks the Resident World Controller why old things necessarily have to go and forcibly be replaced by new things. The answer was pretty much "I don't know. That's just how it is". There is no point to that. Just like there is no point in criticizing that particular concept of SotAs writing. At least in that way. I wouldn't say anything if the idea was badly executed. But I'm pretty comfortable with the idea itself being in there.

Just like I'm comfortable with slight variations in control schemes. There are better and worse approaches towards certain game controls, but there is no canonical truth how a game should be controlled, just like there is no canonical truth how a pawn has to be moved over the playboard of a tabletop game. It depends on the game. The only questions there are: "Does it work?" and "Is it as comfortable as it can be, considering what I'm doing on the screen?"
Same goes for the dialogue system really (even though that may be kind of a gray zone).

From what I've experienced a couple of months ago SotAs main problems lie somewhere else. Bugs were an issue, crashes were an issue, performance was a big issue and I'm not a fan of the shop either. Those were my biggest gripes with this game.
As long as those things are in the way, who cares about voice acting? I certainly don't.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

A buggy unoptomized clusterfuck and total mess of a game.

Bugs nd performance aside it was just- generic.

This game makes me sad. I didnt even look at the cash shop... I bet that shit was was optomized and working fine though.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

That stuff was working first and foremost.

I wonder how long Shroud "assets holders" hold before the sell-off.

Will this game 10000 copies (post launch)?

 

[:Flash:]

The fact that developers Portalarium do not see any issue with canonising the player at the keyboard as a bespectacled man, however, suggests they might have fallen behind the curve of progress somewhat.

Progress would be what, anything but a man? Who wrote this idicoy? On the other hand, did this virtue signaler just assume someone's gender expression?

I think in this case the criticism is warranted, even if he gives the wrong reason (curve of progress).

Ultima had (starting with IV) always been about the player playing himself. "Art thou (m)ale or (f)emale?" was a part of that. When they had reached a graphical fidelity that made it distinguishable, they included male and female, black and white portraits in VII. The male/female dilemma with better graphics and animations while still fitting on floppies was the reason for the bucket helmet in VIII. Only in the total decline of IX did they throw in the towel and say "fuck it, the Avatar is a white male". It had nothing to do with progress, it was just decline, and even back then it was seen by fans as emblematic that they simply didn't care what Ultima was about any more.

That they then repeat this mistake - when the premise/promise was that they were going to rectify things - is just as emblematic in showing that they still don't give a damn.

Therefore in this very special case it is good to note something like that in a review. Even if I suspect that the reviewer doesn't understand that and just wants to check the progressivism checkbox.

 

[Infinitron]

The fact that developers Portalarium do not see any issue with canonising the player at the keyboard as a bespectacled man, however, suggests they might have fallen behind the curve of progress somewhat.

Progress would be what, anything but a man? Who wrote this idicoy? On the other hand, did this virtue signaler just assume someone's gender expression?

I think in this case the criticism is warranted, even if he gives the wrong reason (curve of progress).

Ultima had (starting with IV) always been about the player playing himself. "Art thou (m)ale or (f)emale?" was a part of that. When they had reached a graphical fidelity that made it distinguishable, they included male and female, black and white portraits in VII. The male/female dilemma with better graphics and animations while stilling fitting on floppies was the reason for the bucket helmet in VIII. Only in the total decline of IX did they throw in the towel and say "fuck it, the Avatar is a white male". It had nothing to do with progress, it was just decline, and even back then it was seen by fans as emblematic that they simply didn't care what Ultima was about any more.

That they then repeat this mistake - when the premise/promise was that they were going to rectify things - is just as emblematic in showing that they still don't give a damn.

Therefore in this very special case it is good to note something like that in a review. Even if I suspect that the reviewer doesn't understand that and just wants to check the progressivism checkbox.

You're forgetting the Ultima VI intro though

 

[:Flash:]

You're forgetting the Ultima VI intro though

I did think about it, but thought it was intentionally left vague regarding sex, if not regarding race. Looking at those screenshots, I'd have to correct myself in that the protagonist's arm is probably too muscular to be a woman's.

 

[Junmarko]

O ye Codex of little faith! Have thou not read the 220 page novel Blade of the Avatar?! You might as well be playing the game blindfolded! lol...

Can't believe I backed this thing without waiting at least a year, we basically Kickstarted a Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott novel. (Garriott smashed it out early and used it as his excuse to bench-warm for the game's entire development )

Never again Lord British.

 

[taxalot]

 

[Junmarko]

I'm surprised he got off his ass to attend in person and not through his RC-Video Robot thing

(guess that was for boring occasions only, like being at the office)

 

[Bumvelcrow]

You're forgetting the Ultima VI intro though

From memory, it was easy to disentangle the intros from the actual game. The intro was the trailer, then you went into character creation and created YOUR avatar. I kind of agree with :Flash: (ah-ahhh) in that part of what made the Ultimas special is that you weren't playing a character, you were playing *yourself* transported into this magical world and could either play yourself or LARP away vicariously.

Part of the problem with the late Ultimas is that you were very clearly not playing yourself. The blond-haired muscular retard from Ultima 9 bares as much resemblance to me as a black woman and when I was obviously being forced to play a character, and not a very interesting character at that, the world lost its magic. That has been happening for a while - Even back in U6 and U7 you picked a portrait, but at least your in-game appearance was enough of an abstraction that it was still possible to pretend. Oddly, I found U8 regained a bit of that sense of immersion (sorry) because the game was so rushed that the character had to appear anonymous. Of course, it lost a lot as well because of the lack of interactivity was a massive step down from U7.

 

[Magellan]

So is anybody playing Shroud of the Avatar? Is there any redeeming value?

 

[DarKPenguiN]

So is anybody playing Shroud of the Avatar? Is there any redeeming value?

Not really-

I was given a key for free and still feel ripped off- If you pay for this? Ouch.

 

[taxalot]

Still, it's a game that needs a Codex review.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Still, it's a game that needs a Codex review.

Then do it men.

 

[taxalot]

I guess I could do it. For the greater good.

 

[Junmarko]

Too bad Online Mode feels like the game halves GPU speed in favour of mining BitCoin.

PCGAMER
Shroud of the Avatar's player-made towns are already thriving, and full of weirdness
By Tom Senior 20 hours ago

Lord British shows me around one of the game's biggest communities.

It's an odd feeling to walk into a house in a game and not know who put it there. There I am above vamping on a painstakingly dressed occult piano that leaks magic purple gas. On a table nearby there is a radio. When I click on it I have a choice of two player-created radio stations that I can stream straight into my game. There are also books I can pick up and read. I have no idea whether the devs or a player wrote it.

Game director Richard Garriott probably doesn't know either. When you give players the tools to build their own cities, write their own novels and even build entire quest lines, things can spiral quickly. PaxLair is one such example. It's one of the largest player-built cities in the game at the moment. Garriott enthusiastically shows me around the place.

"This happens to be one of the best roleplaying groups in the game," he says. "PaxLair was the first player run town ever in Ultima Online and that same group of people has migrated to Shroud of the Avatar, rebuilt PaxLair in what they and we consider to be the spiritual successor to where they lived previously."

A billboard at the town entrance lists contact details and a Discord address for the community. There is a public chest just nearby that anyone can fill. Garriott drops in a bottle of elven wine as a gift for the next adventurer to wander through.

Okay, a player probably did this.

Shroud of the Avatar doesn't look like much at first. The graphics are about a decade out of step with current RPGs. The taskbar combat is stilted and dull. However, I have logged back in a few times in the past week simply to explore SotA's towns. I am inspired by the dedication of the community that builds them, and also strangely a little unsettled by the experience of exploring them. I can't help but I keep second-guessing the spaces. A developer wouldn't put two pianos next to a greenhouse outside would they? Surely a player did that, but why?

Players will soon get tools that will let them put together complex quest lines, but they have already done some crazy stuff. There is a book registry system to sort everything published according to in-game date. We find a book published in the year 497, which is 97 in-game years after the start of Early Access. It's written in Runic. You don't unlock a skill to magically translate those symbols, you just have to learn the language. "I don't even know if this book is one the players put in or one of my employees put in," says Garriott.

Nearby there is a digital recreation of a Teletype machine. You can boot it up and play Richard Garriott's 1977 D&D game. A player put that in too.

There are rules to limit players. You can't just grab a patch of land and start building things. "You want to give [players] as close to powers as we have as creators, to make interesting events, as long as it can't affect the economy," says Garriott.

"We want people to be able to build a quest that is very sophisticated. You leave clues around, traps around, chests and discoverability around, but all the things that go into those rewards have to be things they've earned themselves, otherwise they can create value out of nothing."

Guild build
Attaching in-game gold costs to builders encourages guilds to pool resources and set up towns and, according to Garriott, guarantees a degree of quality and dedication from SotA's user-created content.

"A lot of games that have tried to go that way with player created content often become worlds filled with uninteresting junk. Half-finished, half-baked ideas. The only way to prevent that from happening is to make sure that, like in a normal city, the reason most restaurants aren't terrible restaurants is because it costs money to be able to rent that space and you're only going to be able to keep that restaurant there if it's actually interesting. We've done that through the player economy. There are player-owned towns that are owned and governed by people."

There are many dev-made towns in SotA of course, denoted by ribbons on their names. The game has a story you can play solo, pushed forward by major world events. A huge meteor strike announced the full launch last week. It destroyed an entire zone and revealed new underground dungeons. That's neat, but it's always the community side of SotA that proves more interesting. As the meteor loomed ever-larger in the sky during Early Access players embarked on a land rush, not knowing where the fireball would land.

Many games have customisable spaces, even MMOs. Shroud of the Avatar reminds me of stories of the player-created houses in the deceased Star Wars: Galaxies. SotA doesn't have anything as obviously flashy as the Star Wars licence to entice players, but the Ultima following is strong. The cult of Lord British has developed a collective authorial voice, rooted in serious D&D roleplay, but with strange cosmic twists. The shifting constellations that hang above you in Shroud of the Avatar reacts with shrines players build in their towns. When the planets align, sinister cabalists materialise and lay siege to villages.

I don't mean to disregard the influence of Ultima Online director Starr Long on the project, nor the narrative director and Dragonlance author Tracy Hickman, but let's not underestimate the rallying force of Richard 'Lord British' Garriott himself here. Nicknamed after his first D&D character when "some southern Americans mistakenly thought I had a British accent," the Lord British in-game persona has been at the heart of some of Ultima Online's greatest stories. Delighted players greet him in-character as we wander around the territory near PaxLair. As we explore he discusses the changing economics of cloth maps, uses our Skype video call to show me the Apple 2 he used to code Akalabeth, and rustles through some old D&D character sheets. "I am a super pack rat. I have kept the originals I wrote of everything!"

I wonder if Shroud of the Avatar's surface problems will ultimately play in its favour. If you're after a flashy fantasy MMO then Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft are still going strong. But if only the most dedicated and community-driven players end up sticking with SotA, the community ought to retain its integrity and keep the Ultima Online flame alive. I'm looking forward to going back again in a few months. The game only left Early Access last week, and you can already listen to Avatar radio while playing a text adventure from the '70s. Whatever next?

 

[taxalot]

Still undecided about playing it offline or online

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Why not both?