› ›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Quick Links

SotA : My Journey

OG_SolareusOG_Solareus Member RarePosts: 1,041
edited February 2023 in Shroud of the Avatar
For the past few week I've been playing Shroud of the Avatar. Here are a few thoughts and reaction of my journey so far.


Graphics :

Graphics is a hit more miss subjective analysis. The graphics in Shroud of the Avatar in my opinion are pretty good. The art went for mor of a realistic look and for me it works.


There's good sense of mood in the zone. It wasn't until the above quest where I entered the shrine did I find myself in how moody the game can get.I will not spoil that rabbit hole here. Graphic, special effects are decent and the game performs decently. Decently is not perfect. A player will need some computer power to push the game to a playable state.




The "light" skill is friend to all. The game can become very dark in places like underground areas (as seen below.)



It wasn't until my current pc and the upgrade to an RX6700 could I get what I considered fast enough frame rate to "enjoy" my travels. Towns can be messy, simply because of how player housing is open ended in terms of placing housing items. For the most part, if a player has a good pc, the game should look great and run at a playable state.

Content :

Content is up to the player for the most part. A player can quest, grind, craft or create their own event. There seems to be a PVP fishing event that happens weekly, not sure what it's all about but the high end players seem to enjoy it. I notice some housing areas have player created dungeons but I'm not sure how that works.

My content consisted of learning the basics of the game first. Learning how to travel in the overworld and understanding how dungeons and overland encounters work.

Dungeons see very interesting in terms of scale. From what I'm told the underground network connects a large part of the map. A player can go in and then come out pretty faraway from where you started. This has happened to me already were I was almost a few zones away from where I entered. Dungeons can also get very claustrophobic. I felt myself getting a bit squeamish in a few spots.



Overland is pretty neat. I didn't really like the idea at first but it fixes fast travel to be a bit more dynamic. Instead of zipping past with an animation, the player gets to travel the map and do over map encounters which are basically resource maps to farm gold. The encounters have different mobs from sheep to the undeed. Difficulty varies. This also allows players to stop by other towns to shop or maybe check out a zone that was along the way. Really is a hit or miss for players, I don't mind it but it could be a deal breaker for others. There's also galleons at the major cities that can transport players to other major cities in a blink.


Here is what a gate out of the zone looks like.


Adventuring is pretty straight forward. Kill , loot, mine and or skin. Each zone has a tier of difficulty. The highest I saw was 10+. Most zones are tier 1 thru 5. New players will stick to tier 1-3. Tier 4 is a players tippy toe check of the water to see if it is safe to swim, and tier 5 is mostly group or very well geared player. This could be different experience from others depending on gear. As of right now I've spent little time "gearing".

Crafting :

This in my opinion is the bread and butter of Shroud of the Avatar. 3 main parts to crafting which are gathering, refining and creating. Everything good is crafted. Armor, weapons, accessories ect. Crafting will also be how you upgrade your items with the pluses. It's definitely possible to simply grind gold and buy from another players vendor npc. For me, crafting has hit a great middle ground when it comes to the tediousness of actual component creation. I don't need to plant 500 + trees to get on thunderstruck branch to craft something. Though I've not even come close to end game crafting I would find it hard to see the initial formula changing.

Players can craft a lot of items. Potions, armor, weapons, jewelry, houses, and pets to name a few. I'm pretty new so my crafting books only been filled with items that are helping me progress, though I have made some lanterns and wall candles for my row home :) .

Farming in my pinion is crafting, and Shroud of the Avatar has again hit that middle ground of tediousness and accomplishing feeling. So I began looking for a place for my 4 story row house with greenhouse on top. I found a decent location and set out to create my small farm, in the attic !

With my farm set up using 2 large planters and 3 medui planters I planted my first crop. If you notice in the screenshot below and what I though was a really nice detail to farming, you can see your plants are watered. Archage doesn't have this and you need to do rough shot to check if your Archeage plants are watered.


These are cotton plants, outside no greenhouse, 2 days grow. Inside of a greenhouse 1 day. That lighting is also natural lighting because I didn't have my light on.

F2P or DIE !
SovrathKyleranChildoftheShadows

Comments

  • OG_SolareusOG_Solareus Member RarePosts: 1,041
    edited February 2023
    Let me side track for minute and talk about housing. Housing isn my opinion is how house should be done in all mmos. Housing is first come first dserve lots. There's 3 different lot types which are row, village and city. The row lot is what I have. It's a row home that is besid eother players row home. You will get a row home deed pretty early in the game for free. Village lots are lots that are like a 1 acre yard. You have room for a home and maybe a greenhouse, or you could just put 2 or 3 greenhouses on it. The City lot is the biggest in town lot you can get. These lots are big enough for massive player structures. A good place to wander around and see the different styles in Brittany. It is by far the largest no player city with all kinds of player buildings, shops and vendors. Players will earn a village lot for free, but it is later in the game's quest line.

    Housing item placement is pretty lenient. If you walk the cities and player run towns you will see aht I'm talking about. Pretty much place items anywhere.

    My cotton bushes have grown..



    So you can see the neighbor has a fancy greenhouse but has elected to show case it with a flaming statue !

    As you can see the plants are gown nad in few hours I had amassive cotten haul. More then I expected. That is a lot better in terms of getting resources from farming over Archeage. The attic greenhouse produced almost quadruple the haul over a 16x16 in Archeage. That is what I mean about middle ground in tediousness. That middle ground can found throughout the game in all types of ways.


    There's a few more things to chat about but this post is long already.. :)

    SovrathKyleran
    F2P or DIE !
  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 44,057
    Good write ups on the game play , can you share any insight on the social aspects of the game world?

    Have you seen a fair amount of players in your travels? If so, mostly higher levels or have you seen or met any other newer players giving the game a go like you are?

    Attend any player run or developer created events? How's the PVP scene? Did you observe any activity where players seemed to congregate together?

    I understand if you haven't run into much yet, or haven't sought it to any great degree but if you continue playing longer term be sure to share back here any interesting social interactions you experience...for better or worse.

    ;)




    "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 

    "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

    Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

    Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™

    "This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon






  • OG_SolareusOG_Solareus Member RarePosts: 1,041
    edited February 2023
    Kyleran said:
    Good write ups on the game play , can you share any insight on the social aspects of the game world?

    Have you seen a fair amount of players in your travels? If so, mostly higher levels or have you seen or met any other newer players giving the game a go like you are?

    Attend any player run or developer created events? How's the PVP scene? Did you observe any activity where players seemed to congregate together?

    I understand if you haven't run into much yet, or haven't sought it to any great degree but if you continue playing longer term be sure to share back here any interesting social interactions you experience...for better or worse.

    ;)





    Everyone once in while I pass a new traveler.


    Impromptu event with a piano concert. Apparently you can create music and sell it in your vendor.


    PVP is a long way off. For the most part, most people who are playing Shroud of the Avatar want to play it. All of the veteran players are pretty laid back and respectfully helpful.

    There's still a lot to learn.
    Kyleran
    F2P or DIE !
Sign In or Register to comment.