SotA Steam Pre-Alpha Access Currently $33.74

MightyUnclean

Steam is currently offering access to Shroud of the Avatar's pre-alpha for $33.74.

 

This is the only in-development game I have ever backed and I'm glad I did.  It's remarkably stable for a pre-alpha game and has new content coming all the time.  The community is helpful and inviting, both in-game and on the forums.  Well worth the price of admission to witness and take part in the development of this game, especially for those who have fond memories of Lord British from the Ultima series.

 

For those who are interested, here's the kind of development you can expect if you join up:

 

RELEASE 17, April 30, 2015:

• Polish & Performance: We will continue the work we started with Release 16 to improve overall polish and performance in the game. We will focus not only on improving frame rate but also lowering load times. We may also spend some time on usability issues.
• Maps: Perennial Coast and Grunvald will continue to be expanded.
• Steam Achievements: Players will now be able to earn Steam Achievements.
• Player Owned Town Test: We hope to have our first example of a Player Owned Town in the game with the PaxLair Metropolis.
• Crafting: Crafting will now have events that occur during the crafting process that the player can interact with to influence the results.
• Creatures: Our bestiary will expand to include various Human Enemies (mages, archers, etc.), the Phoenix, and Zombies!
• Player Titles: Players will now be able to display their title in the game.
• Street Signs: We will begin placing street signs in major towns.
• Player Wipe: We will be wiping all game, property, and player data for this release because of some fundamental changes to item architecture.

RELEASE 18, May 28, 2015:

• Maps: Our goal is to get the Grunvald Region near completion and begin work on the Quel Region which includes scenes like the Etceter Mines.
• Spells & Skills: The combat schools of Shields and Light Armor will expand, and more combos will be added to the game.
• Housing: Fences and Walls will come online as new customization options for player property.
• Player Owned Towns: We plan to start the official submission process and begin implementing more towns.
• Crafting: Crafting skills will start to come online, and be used during crafting to modify results.
• Creatures: Our creature list will continue to expand with Chaos Demons and Wisps.
• Combat: The cover system will be introduced that modifies attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover.
• Overworld: Roving encounters (patrolling creatures) will now appear on the overworld map and can be engaged (pulling you into a scene) or avoided if you wish to sneak past.
• Emote “Teaching”: Emotes will now be teachable to other players. Some emotes (like the ones tied to pledges) will only be teachable by the original owner. Teaching will be done via secure trading a consumable item that adds the emote when used.
• Localization: We will begin crowdsourcing the translation of the game into various languages.
• Player Made Books: Players will be able to write in blank books in the game, and share them with other players.
• Customization: Clothing and Armor will now be dyeable.

RELEASE 19, June 25, 2015:

• Maps: We hope to get the Quel Region near final and start on the Midmaer Region.
• Spells & Skills: Chaos Magic and Ranged Combat will expand to include more spells, and more combos will come online.
• Housing: Property ownership will now incur regular fees (unless you are using a tax free deed from a pledge). If the fees are not paid, the player will lose their claim, and their possessions (including the house and decorations) will be moved to their bank. Note: We will provide more details about timing, payments, etc. near the end of R18.
• Crafting: Tailors and Alchemists will be able to begin crafting Taming Collars. We will also be adding more Cooking and Alchemy recipes.
• Pets & Taming: We will expand pet functionality to include the ability to tame creatures.
• Creatures: Dragons will begin appearing in Novia! Burninating will begin. All hail Trogdor, the Burninator!
• Combat: Guilds will now be able to declare war on each other.
• Customization: New armor and clothing items will appear in the game.
• Musical Instruments: Players can play music in the game with a variety of instruments.
• Player Owned Vendors: Players will now be able to place a Vendor on their property to sell goods.

darkness2468

The concept of the game is great but moving map to map is terrible i thought the game would be open world, feel like i wasted my money.

MightyUnclean

I agree that this is a weak spot of the game.  Still, I can overlook it for great atmosphere, a potentially friendly and mature community, 40+ hours of story content in the first episode alone, Lord and Lady British in-game, and the potential of the virtue system!  What can I say, I'm a Lord British fanboi.

 

 

Oh, and it's going to be B2P with no general chat channel, so the chances of getting trolled by pre-teens is minimal!  Garrrrr, get off my lawnnnn!

MightyUnclean

If you do pick up the game, please make sure to add me as a friend!  There's only one server.

 

Name:  Mighty Unclean!!

GungaDin

Barely worth $3.74...

MightyUnclean

Originally posted by GungaDin
Barely worth $3.74...

You make a convincing argument, my friend!

GungaDin

Its not how much you say, its what u say...

itsover

Not worth it, the game look terrible , the idea is very similar to alot of new MMO now.  nothing new, move along. pay full price for early access is never a good ideal.

Rawyn

I understand it's still just pre alpha, but the major problems it has will never go away. The combat is horrible, the deck system is just awful and something the devs know but still wont to scrap it, just want to try to improve on it. Everything is instanced, loading screen after loading screen gets old,  the cities, the housing areas, the areas you gather and fight in, they're all instanced,  every instanced area is pretty small too. It's nothing like UO, like I had expected. You don't get to roam in a seamless world. You don't have a chance of running into people in the dungeons like we did in UO, the dungeons in Sota are small and you will not see anyone there but your party. There's no sense of adventuring at all in the whole boring world they're building, sad.   if someone doesn't mind the probmes it has I guess it's worth $34 just for something to pick up and play since it's a buy to play game. Once it's done I could see playing it a bit here and there when I'm bored or in between mmo's, but it's not a good mmo 

MightyUnclean

Originally posted by GungaDin
Its not how much you say, its what u say...

Right on!  Keep those facts to a minimum.

itsover

Originally posted by GungaDin
Barely worth $3.74...

This