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[Column] Shroud of the Avatar: Release 14: Strong Start to a New Year
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The folks at Portalarium are getting ready to roll out their 14th release for Shroud of the Avatar, and of course they timed it just as PAX South was kicking off. I’m sure it was a diabolical plot to force me into cramming this article in before I get sucked into the pending media storm that follows any PAX. That’s why I drove up to Austin this week. I wanted to look Starr Long and Richard Garriott in the eye when I told them just how rapid a turn around this article was going to have to be in order for me to slip it out before all the PAX coverage.
Read more of Red Thomas's Shroud of the Avatar: Release 14: Strong Start to a New Year.
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Wild elementals can now be recognized, as opposed to the bound and summoned variants.
Comments
mmorpg junkie since 1999
Poininivy's name is appropriate. Something you fail to recognize with your poison comment is that all games go through these growing stages but most perhaps all the other developers out there would die before they let anyone not bound by a NDA see there games in this stage. Its a double edged sword for Portalarium. On one hand they have there backers helping to guide them to a great game that everyone can be proud of and happy with, and on the other they have people like poisin that see fault as they compare it to finished and released games. Games I might add that in most cases leave much to be desired because they not only didn't listen to the people that were involved during development but out and out ignored them. I've been part of the early beta of several games and seen how the devs were told over and over you really need to fix this or that, do it another way something. Been ignored only to see them scramble to try and change things after launch when its much harder to change things.
Combat system - yes its a bit clunky right now to use your term but its unfinished. And different than anything I've seen before so takes a bit to get used to. And once you do get used to it, with the exception of the slugs, Its very versatile. The slugs are being addressed. Alpha changes happen.
Oh and Tekaelon is right. If we saw a game with graphics even close to as good as the Shroud is now back in the 80's everyone would have been screaming about how amazingly real it looked.
No global auction house. No global banks. No global chat channel (heck, no zone-wide chat either). No quest markers. No quest log. No radar mini-map. No multiple choice dialogue menus.
The generation that grew up being handheld through games is in for a nasty surprise.
And yeah, NPC vendors that only buy/sell a limited number of things and prices may vary from region to region.
Thanks JT for the reply. That's cool about the AH, well from my pov anyway. For the npc vendors, I was talking about the ones in UO that players could put stuff on to sell to other players and set the price. What you were saying, doesn't sound like I will be able to make 'my own little store front' kinda thing. Hope that makes sense.
The system is clunky but the atmosphere is great. The graphics are just fine.
Ooh! Forgot about that. I'm at Edelmann. Maybe it's time to start building my alpha knowledge in preps for the last wipe. Thanks for the reply.
*scampers off to check pledge again*
I watched a video from Eurogamer.
The textures look sometimes very good ,example i saw stone roads that actually looked like stones.
The builds are i guess open,i am not really a fan of that however it sort of uses a FFXI idea that if you build a heavy armored character you are likely to fizz more often with spells.
As to the combat,...OUCH..seeing that strafing alone is the perfect reason i ONLY want tab targeting.Simply put i would not play that continuous strafing ,it would drive me nuts.
I don't like name plates on everything,example over the SHEEP is a name plate stating that it is indeed a SHEEP !!! DOH.Now i do like there are no markers however that positive is removed with all those name plates.
Back to the combat,you see him fighting several mobs and it just looks silly.Not only that why would players bother to group if you can fight several mobs solo,i never liked that idea.
I would say they are quite correct in that it has the Ultima Online look and feel just updated to a more modern look.
On paper the idea of SELECTIVE multiplayer sounds good but it is not.The reason is you have that SOLO design already built in,so it cannot get any better if wanting to go into the grouping mode only easier.Scaling does not work either,you can't say solo mobs have 25% of their stats and grouping they have 100% of their stats.
Point is i doubt they will have different designs for each mode,they are just simply modes.
Gameplay
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
You can turn off those nameplates
And yeah combat is kind of, erm, "clunky" atm but hopefully that gets sorted out. AI pathing is one of the things they've been working on lately.
Sorry...but even by todays MMO standards...SoTA graphics are superb. I'l give you that animations and combat are still clunky..but I would expect that to be smoothed out over time. Like it's been said...it's alpha early access. Not finished.
The only complaint I have is how segmented it seems. Small to medium sized zones connected by a travel map like "old school" rpgs. I hope it will grow into something larger and seemingly seamless.
I hold my reservations in games that sell land to players too raise funds, 5k for towns and more is just well, crazy... in the end the people left playing are those that are in it now and I don't doubt some will actually join in later (after release), but I just don't see any games like this making much of an impact in the MMO spectrum when balance is the key factor in fun for most if not all players.
Meh I could be wrong, but after my buddy told me he spent that much on this game, I said " good luck " and noted I wouldn't even want to touch it even thou he offered free locations in his town. If you guys that bought into this game like it , great, but nothing I have read to this date makes me think this is going to an MMO I would like to play.
That of course is my personal opinion but allot of these articles or column's on this game never really speak of the game but the players and the developers. Important sure, but nothing that makes me think "well ok that guy owns a city no one will ever own again unless he sells, so where is the advancement structure again?"
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
Ah, those are player vendors. Yeah, that's in the game too. Currently only available as a pledge reward though. It's unknown how they will be available for purchase/rent with in-game gold later. There's been talk about local bazaars for players to do this but that's all very vague / uncommitted stuff. But if you want to be guaranteed a player vendor, pledge at the levels that have that reward.
I am actually surprised how well they are doing on a shoestring budget. Especially since the guys at the top were the early mismangers of Tabula Rasa (as opposed to the NCSoft later mismangers). Perhaps having to really tighten their belt has brought the best out of them.
Keeping my eye on SotA as it continues to develop.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
I backed SoR but I'm waiting to play it. Now and then I take a look a it. I think it's "old" appearance is part of the charm. I like the idea and I don't think it's a pretencious project. They're not trying to change the world of gaming.
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Gaming since 1985; Online gaming since 1995; No End in Sight! My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8POVoJ8fdOseuJ4U1ZX-oA
It has his name on it, yeh.
I'm zipping my lip about what I think of the art, because truly, art styles are a preference based on opinion. If you think, though, "because this is alpha", that it's suddenly going to look different, like eso or even gw2 in a year or two, I'm pretty sure you're mistaken.
But of course, it's all about the gameplay, amirite?