A New Hope - Shroud of the Avatar Columns

SBFord

A New Hope - Shroud of the Avatar Columns

Six months after their final wipe, Red Thomas wraps up his hiatus and heads to Austin to find out what’s in store for Shroud of the Avatar, and to review what’s changed over the last few months.

Read the full story here

Dreamo84

Red!! Yes! Welcome back, now come join me in Bastion's Point for some ale and merriment! I just finished redecorating my three properties after the town owners decided to demolish everything and change to a new POT template. Lol place looks great though.

Aartemis-SoH

Exactly! Come to Bastion's Point!! Got a cold one brewin' at Mac's Black and Tannery for ya!
Welcome back to SOTA coverage, been missing your articles on it!

Grakulen

I want to believe.

Kyleran

Grakulen said:

I want to believe.

You know, somewhere out there is a fairy whose life needs saving.

ste2000

They should have spent more time on the actual game and less time creating houses.
As it stand today, this game is half baked.

On top of that I really don't like how the armor looks in this game, it seems like the characters are wearing plastic Halloween costumes.
Very disappointed as I supported this game.

Yoofaloof

Disappointed too. Doing anything just feels so heavy and sluggish. Swimming in molasses would be easier.

LeFantome

Did you get paid by LB do write this article?

As a backer , I can tell you, this is NOT the game that I got.
They spent so much time on their cash shop that everything else is.. trash.

I do regret my purchase , for sure.
And I do own a house.

Ridrith

I bought the base game on Steam and I've regretted that since day one. Too bad steam refunds weren't a thing back then. This game is ugly, horribly dated, and to be perfectly honest the entire world/game itself looks like a big junk heap of unity assets. Nothing in this game really stands out as being special, or as 'their own'. It just feels so... Cheap, art style is ugly, everything is really.

At this point I'm pretty sure this game is going to be a big ol' failure.

Lheiah

Awe, and the title made me think Garriot was finally selling out. Guess it got me to click on the article.

Red_Thomas

Dreamo84 said:

Red!! Yes! Welcome back, now come join me in Bastion's Point for some ale and merriment! I just finished redecorating my three properties after the town owners decided to demolish everything and change to a new POT template. Lol place looks great though.

lol  Thanks.  I'll definitely try to get by there.  I decided that San Antonio needs an open data program, and apparently a lot of folks agree.  Driving that train has derailed nearly everything else.  

BruceYee

Wow, this game is gettin' some heat in this thread.

Updates have been coming out for the game a lot recently and I think they "get it" when it comes to all the player complaints and concerns.

I got this game for $19.99 on the Steam sale and thought it was well worth it until I got to the point where I realized I couldn't own property without dishing out hundreds of dollars which I feel is the #1 thing that hurts this game. Seeing as housing and the stuff that comes along with it is a major part of the game the $19.99 I paid was kind of like for a demo version. People who bought up the deeds I'm sure expected to turn a profit because the hype around this game was pretty big but now are just landlords of a bunch of vacant plots with no players to sell them to. The abandoned properties and player towns also make the world feel like a dead zone and is kind of a thing Portalarium needs to work out cause people don't like being in dead worlds.

The parts I do enjoy about the game are the combat, skill leveling, crafting. I hope they can make everything work out in the end.

Elmoren

The game is already 100% dead. Everywhere that matters already lists it as a launched game. Its numbers have dwindled since its last wipe and launch this summer. The only people left, and there are basically none, are those that invested thousands into the game because it had, "Lord British" mentioned as a member of the team.

Baffling design choices, a poor engine, and their inability to not constantly beg for money coupled with their general incompetence has ensured this game's languish to irrelevance.

Stay away, absolutely nothing will save this game, and even if 10x the amount of players they have now came into the game and stayed, it'd still feel dead.

Launch will not help, the game's fundamentals suck and people have moved on seeing zero potential for things to be fixed on the horizon. Also, this game has already launched.

Hopefully this game and the epic backlash from the investors will accomplish something - because make no mistake, we're looking at a lot of money invested in the Ultima diehards that forked over THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to juggle fire, design a house nobody sees, and pretend to be important. This'll all start when the developers can't e-beg anymore - leading them to shut it down and in tandem hopefully help usher out the crowdfunded, forever-beta era of garbage endeavors like Shroud of the Avatar have brought us.

LeFantome

Elmoren said:

The game is already 100% dead. Everywhere that matters already lists it as a launch game. Its numbers have dwindles since its last wipe and launch this summer - the only people left, and there are basically none, are those that invested thousands into the game because it had, "Lord British" mentioned as a member of the team.



Baffling design choices, a poor engine, and their inability to not constantly beg for money coupled with their general incompetence has ensured this game's languish to irrelevance.



Stay away, absolutely nothing will save this game, and even if 10x the amount of players they have now came into the game and stayed, it'd still feel dead.



Launch will not help, the game's fundamentals suck and people have moved on seeing zero potential for things to be fixed on the horizon.



Hopefully this game and the epic backlash the investors will have when the developers can't e-beg anymore and shut it down will help usher out the crowdfunded, forever-beta era of garbage endeavors like Shroud of the Avatar have brought us.

AMEN
God bless you.

blythega

Logged In .. Created a mage... Could not get out of the starter area because it was broken. Came back 6 month later, created a mage and still can;t get out of the starter area because the weapon you are suppose to be able to get from the rack disappears. This game is totally broken and has gone into the bit bucket. If you can't get the core game mechanics to work and have a new user experience functioning then there is no hope for this game

BruceYee

blythega said:

Logged In .. Created a mage... Could not get out of the starter area because it was broken. Came back 6 month later, created a mage and still can;t get out of the starter area because the weapon you are suppose to be able to get from the rack disappears. This game is totally broken and has gone into the bit bucket. If you can't get the core game mechanics to work and have a new user experience functioning then there is no hope for this game

I had the same problem as you. What I did was log out and log back in and it fixed it but you may have to talk to the guy again.

MightyUnclean

Even if there were a lot of people playing, it would be hard to tell.  The game is broken up into tons of mini-zones, there is no real capital where people have a reason to gather, and the people who do play are busy hanging out in their own towns.  There's no world chat (apparently the backers felt that would be immersion-breaking, even if it were an opt-in choice) and it's really difficult to connect with anyone outside of your guild.  It's like the game was designed to keep people apart.

MightyUnclean

Xodic said:

That's how much thought I think they put into the art design.

OMG that looks amazing, I must play it!  Mounted combat, right??

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Cuningas

Folk bashing this game clearly have no idea what the team is trying to do... It was clear from the START that this game is not for everyone. Heck, I believe that this will stay a really niche game only for the most dedicated fans. And it's fine.

I backed this too years ago, check it every once in a while but haven't committed to playing it yet. I'll wait when it's ready.

People wanting a game appealing to the biggest democraphics possible shouldn't buy this game.

Tiamat64

Filosofi said:

Folk bashing this game clearly have no idea what the team is trying to do... It was clear from the START that this game is not for everyone. Heck, I believe that this will stay a really niche game only for the most dedicated fans. And it's fine.

I backed this too years ago, check it every once in a while but haven't committed to playing it yet. I'll wait when it's ready.

People wanting a game appealing to the biggest democraphics possible shouldn't buy this game.

This game is not for everyone.  People wanting a game that's for them probably shouldn't buy this game either unless they fall into a very specific niche.

(I'm sure the marketting department for Shroud of Avatar would love to use this slogan, don't you agree?)

ste2000

Xodic said:

That's how much thought I think they put into the art design. Some d! head took their motorcycle to work and and put their helmet on the desk. That's where the designer one cubicle over got their inspiration.

Awesome.
That's what I meant when I said that Armor looks weird in this game.
But that's not the only example.


2006 Graphics




2016 Graphics

Shaigh

Filosofi said:

Folk bashing this game clearly have no idea what the team is trying to do... It was clear from the START that this game is not for everyone. Heck, I believe that this will stay a really niche game only for the most dedicated fans. And it's fine.

I backed this too years ago, check it every once in a while but haven't committed to playing it yet. I'll wait when it's ready.

People wanting a game appealing to the biggest democraphics possible shouldn't buy this game.

If only your most dedicated fans can enjoy your work its probably because you have far too many aspects of the game being underdeveloped and not because your game is niche.

For a list on things they promise in their kickstarter: VR, Mod-tools, castle and keep PvP, apprentice system, contested resources, shipping lanes, taming system, seasonal weather, combat pets and that's only the stretch goals. Its also a game that can be played both single- and multiplayer mode.

Those features have nothing to do with being a really niche game.

ste2000

kyzoonkomi said:

So, anyone who doesn't share the same opinion as you do is a puppet? That's some greaaaaat logic right there. GG

What blows my mind is how people can be so critical of an unfinished product. Early access is definitely not for everyone, especially when they don't understand how development works. Trolls gotta be trolls though, there is no reasoning with them.

Please dude....

This game has been in development since March 2003, 6 years!
Even by Indie standards that's a long time considering that the game is still in Alpha state.
Indie games that started development years after SotA are in better shape than this game.

Even though it has been in EA for 6 months, it showed no evident sign of improvement. all they do is keep adding Cash Shop items, mostly ridiculous cosmetic gear, and some more houses.
By now the game should have some kind of substance.
Instead Portalarium shows a lacks of vision, throwing to the arena a game which looks dated already, with half of its features missing, lots of bugs, and frankly giving the impression that they don't know what they are doing.

kyzoonkomi

ste2000 said:

kyzoonkomi said:

So, anyone who doesn't share the same opinion as you do is a puppet? That's some greaaaaat logic right there. GG



What blows my mind is how people can be so critical of an unfinished product. Early access is definitely not for everyone, especially when they don't understand how development works. Trolls gotta be trolls though, there is no reasoning with them.

a game which looks dated already, with half of its features missing, lots of bugs

So an unfinished game then? Proving my point that you can rarely find that the negative naysayers understand the fundamentals of game development.

Edit: Here's a good video for you explaining it.

postlarval

BruceYee said:

postlarval said:

BruceYee said:

Wow, this game is gettin' some heat in this thread.

It doesn't need heat. It needs to be set on fire and burned to the ground. As if there aren't enough embarrassments in the MMO genre already.

BruceYee said:

I hope they can make everything work out in the end.

A slow painful death would be most appropriate. When are these washed-up game developers preying on the groupie mentality and rose-colored glasses of their old fans going to GTFO of the industry and leave it to new people with new, fresh ideas.

Garriott needs to go back into space and stay there. He should take Chris Roberts and Smed along with him.

I can't disagree with you about the whole preying on groupie thing in Garriot's case but I'm curious what MMO's you think aren't an embarrassment to the genre? What are the top 3 games you view as being good enough to be labeled an MMO?

I would say GW2, FFXIV, and ESO are passable. That doesn't mean they are great MMOs, they just happen to be the least smelly part of the garbage heap. As for their futures, ESO is getting better and I can't comment further on GW2 or FFXIV, since I don't play them any more.

What I can comment on is SotA since I put up with their endless alpha bullshit with a Knight Founder pledge for three years until I realized what a scam it turned out to be and sold off everything but that damn $45 tied to Steam.

You have to wonder how bad it is when there are websites specifically dedicated to hating on the game, like Shroud Unlimited. I have never seen that in any game, even the MMO player's favorite punching bag: WoW.