Shroud of the Avatar / UO Fans look here.

[CaramonLS]

Link

Achieved almost double their goal of 1 million dollars. Backed by Richard Garriott.

Shroud of the Avatar is the “spiritual successor” to Richard’s previous work in the FRP genre. Our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII, create a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII, develop deep rich multi-player capabilities beyond combat akin to Ultima Online, and offer a bold new approach to integrate them with “Selective Multi-Player”.

• Shroud of the Avatar is infused with rich storylines, deeply integrated into game play, developed by Best Selling Author Tracy Hickman and RPG legend Richard Garriott.
• Players will adventure in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them.
• Shroud of the Avatar is a Selective Multiplayer game, allowing players to choose how they want to play! Whether in Single-Player Offline mode or any of three online modes, the main quest line will provide greater than 40 hours of focused, story driven content.
• Shroud of the Avatar can be played as an offline DRM free solo experience or online, where our servers will enable player to player transactions, group finding, patching, streaming of dynamic content, and exploit prevention.
• Built using the Unity Game Engine, Shroud of the Avatar will support Win/Mac/Linux for official launch.
• Players can specialize in a wide range of combat and non-combat skills, provided by a robust, classless skill system, and full-featured crafting and housing mechanics. Play the way you want to play, molding your character into the hero, anti-hero, or artisan you want to be!
• Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtue is the first of a 5 game series of full-length, stand-alone games (each using the same game system), referred to as Episodes 1 through 5. Estimated availability of Episode 1, Forsaken Virtues, is October 2014, with Episodes 2 through 5 estimated for subsequent yearly releases.
• Shroud of the Avatar is a “buy-to-play” game that, once purchased, does not require a subscription to play!

Sounds absolutely epic if it can live up to its billing.

Please please please please please.

[CaramonLS]

How is there not any discussion on this - I know we have old UO players (GreenLantern)!

[PsYcNeT]

Because it's not an MMO and I can't kill people and steal their house/donkey/everything.

[HPLovecraft]

I thought this was an MMO? There is player housing, and it's limited, so people will be living in your village, town, city, etc., and there is also going to be PvP. Do you mean that the adventuring sequences are all going to be instances?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Because it's not an MMO and I can't kill people and steal their house/donkey/everything.

THANKS! Was going to just hit thanks, but the fact that it's selective multiplayer is what makes this so unappealing to this old-school UO player. The joy of the early days of UO was precisely how dangerous and griefy life was outside the walls of the towns.

I had to chime in and register my complaints about pansy online games like this and their lack of corpse looting, stat loss, etc.

[TSXCman]

uo was awesome. Started playing when.i was 10. This sounds good
.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

THANKS! Was going to just hit thanks, but the fact that it's selective multiplayer is what makes this so unappealing to this old-school UO player. The joy of the early days of UO was precisely how dangerous and griefy life was outside the walls of the towns.

I had to chime in and register my complaints about pansy online games like this and their lack of corpse looting, stat loss, etc.

Heheh, church. Outside the walls (and sometimes even inside) was an adventure. Even early PvP on Warcraft had a bit of that feel.

It's all too family kid based now. I want a game with consequences!

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Heheh, church. Outside the walls (and sometimes even inside) was an adventure. Even early PvP on Warcraft had a bit of that feel.

It's all too family kid based now. I want a game with consequences!

Well, if you're willing to run 6 hours of spreadsheet simulation for 1 hour of fun, EVE can fill that ruthless hole in your heart.

But yeah, I would love for a full PvP screw you MMO to come back into fashion. Sadly, it's terribly unlikely to happen.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Because it's not an MMO and I can't kill people and steal their house/donkey/everything.

I agree to a point - I guess we will have to see how it all shakes out.

However, UO combat was one of the most skilled sequences that I have been a part of in gaming, I loved it for that as much as I loved it for the open free for all concept.

It had a blend of twitch combat, reaction and strategy. Engaging in 1on1 duels was something that took a great deal of skill to master.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Well, if you're willing to run 6 hours of spreadsheet simulation for 1 hour of fun, EVE can fill that ruthless hole in your heart.

But yeah, I would love for a full PvP screw you MMO to come back into fashion. Sadly, it's terribly unlikely to happen.

Heheh, played a bit of EVE for free, guess I never got to the real dirty areas. It was a good idea, but as you mentioned, a lot of nothing in between.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

But yeah, I would love for a full PvP screw you MMO to come back into fashion. Sadly, it's terribly unlikely to happen.

I think there is a niche for it, but a developer has to realize they may only cap @ 250-500k subs.

I actually think most of those MMOs like Darkfall, UO and Shadowbane were so riddled with bugs and problems that, no one stuck around. I was sad when Shadowbane closed down, because after 4 years, it had finally become a much more polished product (actually close to release grade) than what it started with. But you can't keep a sub base through essentially 4 years of beta testing.

[GreenLantern]

I will give anything that Garriot makes a chance, especially when it is a kick starter project. His best work came from studios where he was allowed ultimate control.

I know that this won't be free for all PvP from interviews he has done, but he wants to make the choice to be a PvPer one that many will make, not sure how he plans to do that but he says he has ways of doing it.. we will see. I am wondering if the offline play gives limited adventures/loot/housing/crafting compared to online play, but online play exposes you to the greater risk of dieing/losing obtained items? That would be one way of doing a Tram/Fel split without greatly reducing the player base in the 'Fel' setting, and how they should have done it from the start.

I find it hard for me to get excited about these online games anymore, I am playing the free UO shard UO Forever based on the UO:R era, the server is packed, lots of action, I got a good group of old friends playing but I can't find time in the week to log in even once during the prime time. If I can't do that for a free shard how can I justify buying a game/subscribing?