Miss being a Dread Lord and having the server hunting me all the time. Sonoma!!!
Shroud Of The Avatar - Shit Went Persistent
- Thread starter Sir Funk
- Start date
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
I pop in every once in a while. Haven't for quite a bit, though. How is it right now?
Muligan
Trakanon Raider
- 3,236
- 913
It isn't really a MMO though correct but can be played as one? I remember reading up about it before I backed it forever ago but wasn't sure where they ended up with their multiplayer option to this game. If people say its decent I may read back up on it again. Last I played it was still pretty rough but that was a long time ago.
This has come a long way. I'd guess the main barriers to entry atm are that it's a sand box and some parts are more fleshed out than others, so if you just log in without knowing what you're doing it's quite sucky. Some useful links :
What is going on?? A SotA Leveling Guide | Shroud of the Avatar Forum
Use the above link to get your feet wet, kill some easy mobs, do some mining and make yourself a weapon and armour if needed.
Shroud of the Avatar Interactive Map - SotaMap.com Map
Recipes | The Order of Drunken Elders
Quick Reference Guide | Shroud of the Avatar Forum
Couple of helpful hint. It's being talked about as skill based progression without leveling, but it's good to know that you have an 'adventurer level' which affects how tough mobs are in relation to you. Press V to see your skills and its the top listed.
You have two types of XP - Producer XP and Adventurer XP. You have a pool of both. KIlling creatures and gathering resources puts XP into your pools. Using skills and crafting uses some of this pooled XP to raise skills when they are used.
1. You can play it offline in a world that won't touch the MMO. In this mode what you do, what you farm, what you make etc has no bearing on the persistent MMO world.
2. The main mode is the MMO, BUT you can choose to intermittently play in this persisten world in normal MMO Multiplayer mode or when you log in you can choose for a session to go into single player online or friends mode online. It's effectively giving you your own instances that other folk can't enter. It's a great way of keeping the persistent MMO a single world.
I used to think it was a lame idea, but I've gotten used to it and now think it's a great. You get to your favorite mining or hunting spot and if it's taken you can log in solo or with your friends and get your own area.
What is going on?? A SotA Leveling Guide | Shroud of the Avatar Forum
Use the above link to get your feet wet, kill some easy mobs, do some mining and make yourself a weapon and armour if needed.
Shroud of the Avatar Interactive Map - SotaMap.com Map
Recipes | The Order of Drunken Elders
Quick Reference Guide | Shroud of the Avatar Forum
Couple of helpful hint. It's being talked about as skill based progression without leveling, but it's good to know that you have an 'adventurer level' which affects how tough mobs are in relation to you. Press V to see your skills and its the top listed.
You have two types of XP - Producer XP and Adventurer XP. You have a pool of both. KIlling creatures and gathering resources puts XP into your pools. Using skills and crafting uses some of this pooled XP to raise skills when they are used.
It absolutely is an MMO and most people will play it as such, but it has a couple of innovations.
1. You can play it offline in a world that won't touch the MMO. In this mode what you do, what you farm, what you make etc has no bearing on the persistent MMO world.
2. The main mode is the MMO, BUT you can choose to intermittently play in this persisten world in normal MMO Multiplayer mode or when you log in you can choose for a session to go into single player online or friends mode online. It's effectively giving you your own instances that other folk can't enter. It's a great way of keeping the persistent MMO a single world.
I used to think it was a lame idea, but I've gotten used to it and now think it's a great. You get to your favorite mining or hunting spot and if it's taken you can log in solo or with your friends and get your own area.
Answer to that is going to vary from person to person. If you like sandbox games and like figuring stuff out like me or Pyros then yes. The combat is satisfying, I like the gathering and crafting. I hated the overland map but I'm pretty much over that. There's at least a couple of months of gameplay for me here right now just learning the systems. They are working on major questlines and apparently there are a lot of quests in already, but I haven't done many.
End of the day it's $45 and then it's f2p forever. If you like Ultima Online you'll like this.
Final wipe is in July so I finally got around to playing having pledged 2 years ago. Took me a couple of days to get into it but I'm glad I did.
Couple more links :
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Final Wipe and Lot Selection | Shroud of the Avatar
Make or Upgrade a Pledge | Shroud of the Avatar
Shroud of the Avatar Forum
And I just took a couple of screenies to give you an idea about the skill system :
I just don't see how it can be a genuine sandbox MMO when it's possible to do everything in completely isolated solo instances. This just removes all the integrity of a sandbox MMO for me - it becomes more like a non-linear Diablo than a modern UO.
If it wasn't for that decision, I'd be all over this (although I do also really hate the overworld travel map nonsense).
If it wasn't for that decision, I'd be all over this (although I do also really hate the overworld travel map nonsense).
Maric
N00b
- 98
- 15
Personally, I love this game. I would love it more without the 'instanced zone' game design dynamic. Housing is the best I've seen in an MMO. The community kicks ass. Varieties of armor, cloaks is excellent.
My biggest beefs other than the zoning are avatars and combat. Combat, however, was vastly improved in the update three weeks ago. I don't think it will ever be great but I think by the time the devs are finished with combat will be acceptable. Combat was never a focal point of Ultima anyway.
Avatars and animations are going through an overhaul right now. Lack of avatar customization as exists in the game now is unacceptable. Again, I think within the year this will be addressed. I think SotA is one of the better games out there for role players. For action focused MMO players this will probably never be a game they enjoy.
My biggest beefs other than the zoning are avatars and combat. Combat, however, was vastly improved in the update three weeks ago. I don't think it will ever be great but I think by the time the devs are finished with combat will be acceptable. Combat was never a focal point of Ultima anyway.
Avatars and animations are going through an overhaul right now. Lack of avatar customization as exists in the game now is unacceptable. Again, I think within the year this will be addressed. I think SotA is one of the better games out there for role players. For action focused MMO players this will probably never be a game they enjoy.
Will there be benefits exclusive to playing it online rather than offline? I kind of wanted it more as an MMO experience.
Woolygimp
Bronze Knight of the Realm
- 1,614
- 322
Are there rare items that spawn randomly once every so often?
That is one of the most overlooked features of Ultima Online, and I'm not sure if the 'rares' weren't just developers accidentally forgetting to lock things down to the game world. Accident or not, it's something no other MMO has ever re-implemented. WoW has "mounts" but almost are obtainable by everyone or soulbound, with the best being sold in the store. The rare market was one aspect that made the UO economy so damn fluid and fun.
That is one of the most overlooked features of Ultima Online, and I'm not sure if the 'rares' weren't just developers accidentally forgetting to lock things down to the game world. Accident or not, it's something no other MMO has ever re-implemented. WoW has "mounts" but almost are obtainable by everyone or soulbound, with the best being sold in the store. The rare market was one aspect that made the UO economy so damn fluid and fun.
Think of solo play as trammel... Ick
Big problem I see with this is going to be an empty world where everyone is doing shit solo. Short sighted idea, everyone knows if you don't force people to interact, they won't.
If people want to play with others, they might not find anyone to play with.
There hasnt been an mmo made that survives long term solely on gameplay, it's people they play with.
I'm sure countless people on this board can attest to that, how many shit dungeons and raids did you do solely because of your guild or friends.
Uo itself survived just long enough til trammel came out and it was dead as dead can be.
Big problem I see with this is going to be an empty world where everyone is doing shit solo. Short sighted idea, everyone knows if you don't force people to interact, they won't.
If people want to play with others, they might not find anyone to play with.
There hasnt been an mmo made that survives long term solely on gameplay, it's people they play with.
I'm sure countless people on this board can attest to that, how many shit dungeons and raids did you do solely because of your guild or friends.
Uo itself survived just long enough til trammel came out and it was dead as dead can be.
Woolygimp
Bronze Knight of the Realm
- 1,614
- 322
DAOC had pretty good PvE even though it lacked depth. It forced people to group up to get the best experience, and there was a mini-game just when it came to forming a group. There were a lot of unique classes, and you got bonuses for killing mobs that hadn't been killed a while and for pulling large groups. This forced people to kind of think up great group combinations to suit the camps/spawn/dungeon they were going to do. The mobs were also relatively difficult. If you came in with noobs, or your makeup was really dumb (3 rangers), you were going to wipe. Then the best PvE was in contested zones.
And weren't groups eight people? They were almost like mini-raids.
And weren't groups eight people? They were almost like mini-raids.
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Maric
N00b
- 98
- 15
I play 100% online. I don't know of any benefits other than you have people around to help with content and it's just more fun having people all over the cities. I imagine the only time I'll pop on over to single player is to gather reagents or whatever. Who knows. May not be an issue.
I don't think so and honestly I'm not sure they can pull something like that off in Unity 5. Unity is a pretty awesome engine but it's really still in it's infancy and there just seem to be so many limitations regarding world building. I could be totally wrong but I haven't heard of any 'rare' spawns that exist to that degree. That might be entirely doable and they either aren't revealing it or have it slated for later on in development. With all of the instancing I have a feeling it won't be a feature.
