Free Trial to Run from July 3-26th - Shroud of the Avatar - MMORPG.com

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Free Trial to Run from July 3-26th - Shroud of the Avatar - MMORPG.com

Shroud of the Avatar News - If you've been on the fence about trying out Shroud of the Avatar, you'll have an extended period in which to do so. From July 3rd through July 26th, anyone can try out the game for free, though with a series of limitations.

Read the full story here

Vrika

Shroud of the Avatar is currently seeking investors through seedinvest:
https://www.seedinvest.com/portalarium/series.b

The campaign looks like it's won't reach the minumum target of $500 000 and go through. Based on the financials disclosed, Portalarium is also financially in bad shape.

I wonder if this trial is something they planned, or something they have to release now because they can't afford to develop the game any further.

Voidfarer

A steep learning curve but great game with incredible depth and most of all fun to play

LeFantome

Voidfarer said:

A steep learning curve but great game with incredible depth and most of all fun to play

You're talking about FF 14, right? Yeah that game is really good!

itsover

how many time i got invite for trial for this game ? mabe 5+ time, steam sale with 50% off, hmm still havent buy it yet . you already know what i mean

DavodtheTutt

Looks like it's worth a try for free. A month should be plenty to decide if I want to keep it for the price. Don't want to do open PvP and the other limitations are reasonable. They do have open PvP zones that are also open in the free trial, for those who want to get into that. No maps, no fixed NPCs quest line, etc., all sound great for those who are mature, intelligent, and looking for some RPG and not grinding through levels for loot. Looks like travel is a bit disappointing but all together it looks like it's worth giving a shot.

MightyUnclean

DavodtheTutt said:

Looks like it's worth a try for free. A month should be plenty to decide if I want to keep it for the price. Don't want to do open PvP and the other limitations are reasonable. They do have open PvP zones that are also open in the free trial, for those who want to get into that. No maps, no fixed NPCs quest line, etc., all sound great for those who are mature, intelligent, and looking for some RPG and not grinding through levels for loot. Looks like travel is a bit disappointing but all together it looks like it's worth giving a shot.

You are doing yourself a great service by trying this for free before buying in.  You will find it to be a ghost town for the most part, other than the remaining whales.  Funny you should mention grinding, as it is the primary focus of the game.  But the free trial will give you plenty of time to come to your own conclusions.  Good luck!

postlarval

MightyUnclean said:

DavodtheTutt said:

Looks like it's worth a try for free. A month should be plenty to decide if I want to keep it for the price. Don't want to do open PvP and the other limitations are reasonable. They do have open PvP zones that are also open in the free trial, for those who want to get into that. No maps, no fixed NPCs quest line, etc., all sound great for those who are mature, intelligent, and looking for some RPG and not grinding through levels for loot. Looks like travel is a bit disappointing but all together it looks like it's worth giving a shot.

You are doing yourself a great service by trying this for free before buying in.  You will find it to be a ghost town for the most part, other than the remaining whales.  Funny you should mention grinding, as it is the primary focus of the game.  But the free trial will give you plenty of time to come to your own conclusions.  Good luck!

Yep. Just logged in tonight to check out the new release and see what's happening. I ran into one person in Owl's Head in the space of an hour.

Also, the patch notes said they doubled framerates, but instead it's lagging like crazy and objects are not popping into view until you're right in front of them.

I'll take another look at next release.

God, this pile of shit just keeps getting worse. It's almost comical at this point.

corvas

you guys do know the restrictions this game gives you while in this "Trial" version ?!?

Let me sum it up for you and see if you can still play the game freely

Free Trial access during the game’s current Early Access period allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play:

The term (Visitor) is appended to your Character Name.
Cannot give items to other players via Trade.
Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors.
No ownership of property nor use of lot signs.
Cannot interact with public chests.
Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions.
Cannot flag as Open PVP.
Cannot gain nor do they create any ransom items when they kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones).
Character data may be deleted after Free Trial period is over if character is not upgraded to a paid account
Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Period is over unless you purchase Game Access.
Cannot play in Offline Mode.
Can only start on the Path of Love.

I tried it before and it was a bit too much "Cannot" for me to taste the game, besides the horrible combat system.

just pointing it out, but feel free to try it yourself.

TweFoju

Voidfarer said:

A steep learning curve but great game with incredible depth and most of all fun to play

i cant believe what i am seeing.

DarthBumblebee

This game is so bad... Aside from it already looking dated although it hasn't even been released yet, the quests are badly designed. There is next to nothing to do except go from one NPC to the next.

The whole game revolves around grinding, there are no incentives to enter the areas except for grinding.
It is so boring, there is nothing happening in this game and it is not fun following the bland and uninspired quests which don't even have consequences on the world.

This game reminds me of Dungeon Lords. An empty, bland world full of boring quests... Such a shame that Lord British probably ruined his reputation with this garbage... I wouldn't even play it for free and I unfortunately backed it during the Kickstarter campaign...

Raquis

I crowdfunded this game biggest mistake of my gaming experience the combat sucks!

postlarval

TweFoju said:

Voidfarer said:

A steep learning curve but great game with incredible depth and most of all fun to play

i cant believe what i am seeing.

What you're seeing is a whale who feels obligated to defend the game so s/he can continue to lick RG's boots, but has so much derision for naysayers -- or as they like to say, the "unwashed masses" -- that s/he won't even put in the effort to provide proper reasons for liking the game.

That's the kind of community you deal with when you play this game.

Finvega

Is this the game with the teeny-tiny zones, weird combat and zero immersion? 

ste2000

corvas said:

you guys do know the restrictions this game gives you while in this "Trial" version ?!?

Let me sum it up for you and see if you can still play the game freely

Free Trial access during the game’s current Early Access period allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play:

The term (Visitor) is appended to your Character Name.
Cannot give items to other players via Trade.
Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors.
No ownership of property nor use of lot signs.
Cannot interact with public chests.
Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions.
Cannot flag as Open PVP.
Cannot gain nor do they create any ransom items when they kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones).
Character data may be deleted after Free Trial period is over if character is not upgraded to a paid account
Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Period is over unless you purchase Game Access.
Cannot play in Offline Mode.
Can only start on the Path of Love.

I tried it before and it was a bit too much "Cannot" for me to taste the game, besides the horrible combat system.

just pointing it out, but feel free to try it yourself.

Spoilsport.....

ste2000

Finvega said:

Is this the game with the teeny-tiny zones, weird combat and zero immersion? 

Yep that's the one.

Voidfarer said:

A steep learning curve but great game with incredible depth and most of all fun to play

DavodtheTutt

Well, I've had my first try at the game, and while it has its faults, I don't understand the high degree of toxicity I'm seeing here. I've seen people defend games with all sorts of major problems on the grounds that they were pre-release. I guess it's a matter of having put money into it with high hopes. I can see where that would rankle. 
 
For me, the "cannots" haven't been a problem, and who cares if your name has "visitor" appended to it? Just stuff I'd expect when I'm getting a chance to play something for free that other people have paid for. 
 
There was some very bad lag at first, but I reduced the graphics setting and the lag mostly went away. I've paid for games that had bad lag sometimes. Oh, my, the graphics are outdated? Guess things like that don't bother me, especially when some people enjoy playing games in ortho-view like Marvel Online (Oh, but those graphic are so slick and shiny new! Big whoop). 
 
I thought the gameplay was quite immersive, without all the "exciting" (cartoony) animations and razzle-dazzle of other games. I enjoyed the feeling of being free to do whatever I wanted. Grinding? for what? I guess if you play a game to see how fast you can level up, you would have to grind. But you don't have one NPC after another to contact, giving you mission after mission. Boring quests? More realistic, from what I experienced. The targets didn't have signs over their heads announcing their presence, along with color bars saying just how dangerous they were. 
 
I wandered around looking at things, scavenging stuff from sacks, found a book that had a clue about why the undead were up and causing problems. Looks like if I want to, I can forget about the quests and do some fishing and crafting, maybe wander on to the next town. Seems like I've got a simple ("boring") task ("quest") to fulfill there, and I don't have to finish a bunch of quests where I'm at before I move on. I haven't seen a lot of players, but that's no worse than the games I've played where I was surrounded by players, but nobody asked me to join them. 
 
Combat weird or bad? I thought my archery combat was pretty typical (and it seemed to have an auto-defense and auto-fire I found helpful, saving the mouse-button-mashing of other games), but I didn't get into that "card deck" thing I've heard about. So maybe I won't like that. 
 
Some of the criticisms I do agree with. For example, I did feel the loading screens were too frequent and took too long. I can live with that, though. Good to take a break once in awhile. But, yeah, it does break the immersion and can be a bit annoying. 
 
One thing I was disappointed with that hasn't been mentioned is the character creator. Very little control of body shape (and only human bodies, no Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, etc.) -- just size. Lots of sliders for the face, but most of them were subtle things you could hardly notice, and not many choices for hairstyle, no scars or other markings, etc. Odd. 
 
But still, as the game serves notice when you log in, it's a work in progress. As I said, if you paid into it with hopes for something more than what it is now, I can understand the frustration and disappointment, but why you send money for a game that's in development and what you expect from it, that is something I don't know about. 

MightyUnclean

DavodtheTutt said:

Well, I've had my first try at the game, and while it has its faults, I don't understand the high degree of toxicity I'm seeing here. I've seen people defend games with all sorts of major problems on the grounds that they were pre-release. I guess it's a matter of having put money into it with high hopes. I can see where that would rankle. 
 
For me, the "cannots" haven't been a problem, and who cares if your name has "visitor" appended to it? Just stuff I'd expect when I'm getting a chance to play something for free that other people have paid for. 
 
There was some very bad lag at first, but I reduced the graphics setting and the lag mostly went away. I've paid for games that had bad lag sometimes. Oh, my, the graphics are outdated? Guess things like that don't bother me, especially when some people enjoy playing games in ortho-view like Marvel Online (Oh, but those graphic are so slick and shiny new! Big whoop). 
 
I thought the gameplay was quite immersive, without all the "exciting" (cartoony) animations and razzle-dazzle of other games. I enjoyed the feeling of being free to do whatever I wanted. Grinding? for what? I guess if you play a game to see how fast you can level up, you would have to grind. But you don't have one NPC after another to contact, giving you mission after mission. Boring quests? More realistic, from what I experienced. The targets didn't have signs over their heads announcing their presence, along with color bars saying just how dangerous they were. 
 
I wandered around looking at things, scavenging stuff from sacks, found a book that had a clue about why the undead were up and causing problems. Looks like if I want to, I can forget about the quests and do some fishing and crafting, maybe wander on to the next town. Seems like I've got a simple ("boring") task ("quest") to fulfill there, and I don't have to finish a bunch of quests where I'm at before I move on. I haven't seen a lot of players, but that's no worse than the games I've played where I was surrounded by players, but nobody asked me to join them. 
 
Combat weird or bad? I thought my archery combat was pretty typical (and it seemed to have an auto-defense and auto-fire I found helpful, saving the mouse-button-mashing of other games), but I didn't get into that "card deck" thing I've heard about. So maybe I won't like that. 
 
Some of the criticisms I do agree with. For example, I did feel the loading screens were too frequent and took too long. I can live with that, though. Good to take a break once in awhile. But, yeah, it does break the immersion and can be a bit annoying. 
 
One thing I was disappointed with that hasn't been mentioned is the character creator. Very little control of body shape (and only human bodies, no Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, etc.) -- just size. Lots of sliders for the face, but most of them were subtle things you could hardly notice, and not many choices for hairstyle, no scars or other markings, etc. Odd. 
 
But still, as the game serves notice when you log in, it's a work in progress. As I said, if you paid into it with hopes for something more than what it is now, I can understand the frustration and disappointment, but why you send money for a game that's in development and what you expect from it, that is something I don't know about. 

How much time have you put into it, total?  Work in progress?  This mess is about to launch, if you don't consider it to have already launched when they stopped doing character wipes during "development."