Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues

I was just coming in to say that (appt with the Doc this morning so I’m behind on everything).

I dunno if that’s an Ultima III map or not, but it’s certainly very close.

Yep. I might get in on an early-bird $25 spot and follow the campaign a bit.
Would like some more info on the whole taxes on housing thing though…

/M.

I really need to know more about the solo player/offline mode. It doesn’t sound like a lot of the game will actually be playable offline, so I need more information on what the game is about.

I have no interest in pledging to help develop a “persistent online” game.

The more I see of the game it seems Richard Garriott wants this to be as MMOish as it can get without having to call it an MMO- PvP, “persistant area of the game that has player housing” and graphically not great like a lot of F2P MMO’s I’ve seen.

I’m in for $25. The last time Lord Brittish had total control over one of his games, he produced the U7 series, which at the time was probably the high point of RPG gaming and remained so until Baldur’s Gate II. I played U3 when it was released (EVOCARE!!!) and every other version since. U8 and U9 were really EA creations when Garriott was pulled off to do UO, which also was pretty brilliant. I know I’ll pay full price for another Lord Brittish single-player game, so I’ll toss in my $25 now and get it cheaper than I would on release.

From what I’ve read, this is primarily a single-player game that allows friends to come in and adventure with you. I hope it’s not too online…

It sounds more like a MMO lite with solo-able/offline dungeon instances (oh, right, it’s “scenes”) Shame, I would have jumped for a modern U7 type game. I’ll be surprised if it can even beat the DoubleFine kickstarter.

Yeah, there seems to be a lot of MMO tropes to not be some kind of MMO. Will have to see more before I decide what to do with this one.

i’ll back at $25, raise later if i like what i see.

i think the pitch vid could have been better tailored for his core audience, looked a little too ARPG/MMO for my tastes and the KS writeup is light on details.

hopefully he’s planning on detailing the setting and mechanics more over the course of the KS.

From the official PR:

Shroud of the Avatar will be a PC product available via digital download with episodic content available later for a charge. The game is being built to be enjoyed as a solo experience but it will also contain a persistent world where you can meet and share your experiences with friends both old and new. “This will not be a Facebook or casual game,” said Garriott. “We think it will appeal to a multitude of audiences, but we are planning on making a game that will harken back to the same design principles that you can find in my earlier games.

Yeah, that’s terrific PR. I need to see and hear more detail about that solo experience because right now, the Kickstarter just has a bunch of persistent world details like shared housing that needs to be paid for monthly.

Wendelius pointed out I was super lax in not linking to the Kickstarter. Sorry!

Good man! :)

Wendelius

This will be my first kickstarter pledge.

I wonder if perhaps the timing didn’t come out too well. With Wasteland 2, Torment and Avatar, all of them being isometric, I think I will be sick of one of them at that time. It’s very likely Avatar will be the one.

Edit: I finally reached home and was able to watch the Kickstarter video. Shroud of Avatar is not isometric. It’s 3rd person. My bad. But I also saw element a RTS like top down view. I’m confused. Are those in game
shots or are they from his Ultima Forever game?

I am ambivalent about this one. The Shadowrun gameplay video has me much more excited, so I think I am going to hold off for now.

They are in-game shots, kind of like NWN Storm of Zehir, when you are traveling around the map that is what you see and when you get to a main destination or landmark it zooms in to a 3rd person view.

This does not give me the same naches as project eternity, wasteland, shadowrun, torment and star citizen…however I think the pedigree here is such that its worth a $25 pledge.

In the comment page of the Kickstarter one of the designers said that its a 5 episodes game. What?

Edit: here’s the quote:

@Doji, the current plan is for 5 episodes and we have a story drawn up through all 5. This will be a full blown game with significant content and story lines and not a watered down 1/5th of a normal sized game. We haven’t set how we’ll be selling the upcoming chapters. Richard and I disagree on how that should work (shakes fist at Lord British!) currently and you can guess who usually wins those disagreements. :P I think Richard’s proposal was that we charge some nominal fee like $20. Very much cart before the horse talk though as I’m sure we’ll learn tons over the next 6 months as we start to get this one into people’s hands to see what they actually do with it. -Chris

Here is the full quote before everyone goes into a panic: