Whenever someone refers to the final 10-20% of software development unironically I start to really wonder if they know what they’re talking about.
All the game systems and complex parts are already there. It’s mostly just content and polish now.
Originally they said you could play this in single-player, co-op, or traditional MMO mode. Do the single-player and co-op modes still exist? I saw no mention of them on the free-trial page.
Where did this game ultimately come out on its combat? Did it retain its unusual “combat card” sequences, which I didn’t really understand in the video or two I saw, or did the game transition to a more traditional style of combat.
I believe it is still the same combat system, but I haven’t played in probably 6-9 months or so. I will see if I can dig up the latest article on how it works.
I seem to recall there were three ways you could set it up. One was with a static ability bar like many MMOs with varying cool downs and a limited number of total skills you could have active at a time, similar to Guild Wars.
Another way was a random shuffle where you had total control over how many skill “cards” you put in the deck, and you could include multiple copies of the same card if you had that ability at a high enough skill level, and the game would pull random cards into your ability bar as you played. You could then drag one card onto another (if there was a duplicate) to build stacks of that ability that would increase the power of it depending on how many stacks it had. There were also various combos where you could stack one card on another to make a different combined effect skill/card. You could also just fire them off immediately as they appeared if you chose to. In addition to being able to stack for more powerful skills, I believe these also had a reduction in mana cost and you would completely bypass cool down timers if you used the random deck, which could have big potential to be more effective.
The third way was a combination of the two where you could have a certain number of static skills and the rest be part of the random shuffle of skills that you put into the random deck.
I was just starting to get used to the random way of doing things and it could be more interactive than some MMORPGs. I am not sure how it has changed or how the slugs fit in as there are some limitations to how many total skills you can add and how may of each type, but I will try to dig up some details.
EDIT: There may be better ones, but this is the one I used the past time I played to understand the deck system and to use as a guide.
It is an old post, but there are some recent updates where people seem to be still using this method. I don’t believe it has changed in concept in game since then.
Was it real life that pulled you away…tired of Early Access issues…or did you lose interest?
Yes, that was his point. Polish takes a hella-long time to get right.
Good question. I would say the biggest reason is I like to bounce around between games more now to experience more of them. Plus, some people in the guild I was in were sort of taking a break for a little while.
I played pretty heavy for a few months and really had a good time with it. There were a few balance issues I didn’t agree with and probably was the final decision to let it cook for a bit more before playing again. The next push I will probably jump right back in whether it is leaving Early Access or some other milestone in game features or a bunch of people here starting up :).
I still find the UI horrible. The controls as well. Hell, if you start out NOW, the first thing you do at the oracle after selecting your type of character is to be told, that you should probably take “Bow”, because thats the best working experience right now…really? After 15 years in Early Access, you STILL don’t have the other options working yet?
That, and the impossible controls kills it for me every single time.
There’s an offline single-player mode, but I can’t answer for the co-op.
I forgot about this question. I remember the co-op mode being online Friends Only, or something like that, but I am pretty sure it was online using their servers to run everything. That was the way I played the most as we had everyone in the guild friended with each other. I thought the single player was still “online” as far as interacting with their servers, but you just wouldn’t see any other people and the completely offline mode was future. I have been out of touch for a while, though, and may not be remembering it properly.
I think that’s correct, Kelan. It’s similar to how Elite: Dangerous works.
Yep, only $600k in cash and a $230k/month burn rate. That’s scary.
And remember, even after they release the game, a large portion of their core audience already bought it and they already spent that money! So to keep themselves in business, they need to release the game and have it attract people that don’t know who Lord British is.
From what I’ve seen of Shroud, it’s not going to succeed at that. Hell, I’m a huge Ultima fan myself-- I count Ultima 7 as the best game of ALL TIME. And I didn’t enjoy Shroud the last time I played it, maybe a year or two ago, and from the YouTube videos I’ve seen it hasn’t changed much since.
The game itself is STILL a horrible mess - Things still dont work, controls are wonky, UI is absolutely horrible and the difference between offline and online is…not good!
I seriously doubt there is a very large team working on this by now, due to how little progress I see and its been quite a few years by now.
According to LinkedIn, they have 34 fulltime employees. They probably contract out work too.
IMO, their fatal mistake was in ambition. Their kickstarter promised far too much, and they’ve been desperately trying to fulfill that enormous vision. Instead they should have created a minimal viable product and razor-focused on core gameplay loops; exploration and most importantly combat. That shit needs to be rewarding and fun, on a second-to-second level.
Zero friction, everything needs to work as you’d expect it to. No crazy incomprehensible mechanics. Everything fully explained and tutorialized. Get that core gameplay right, then start building a giant world with expensive features like fully customizable player housing.
Would there be a market for a third-person RPG made with Unity Store assets, even if the combat was finely tuned? I always assumed that SotA’s only niche laid with Ultima Online fanboys, hence the player housing.
They’re not wholly using store assets, but-- sure. I would love to play essentially Ultima X in 2017.
I guess a better way of putting it is “looks like a Unity game”. I figure they went for the Ultima Online audience because it’s easier to carve out a niche for yourself when you’re resurrecting a dead genre (Western sandbox MMO’s) as opposed to competing with AAA publishers in the theme park RPG space. It seems to have worked for them in terms of funding, having raised an impressive $11 million in crowdfunding.
But as you note, that ambition was seemingly too much for them to deliver even with the $11 million.
I wish they went with isometric view instead of 3D. There is already a glut of these first person views games and many of them have bigger budget. If they went with an enhanced look of Ultima 7, I would have jumped on the bandwagon. And wouldn’t isometric be less costly vs 3D? Ultima IX, which went with fps, wasn’t received well.