Shroud of the Avatar - Progress Report Video

Couchpotato

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IGN has a new video of Richard Garriott showing what his team has accomplished after six months of development.



Lord British himself, Richard Garriott, shows off new features like housing, crafting, creatures, maps, combat, magic, and more in this progress report of the upcoming RPG, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.
More information.
 
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The architectural considerations will probably be considered boring by most but for me, the interesting part is the one regarding the conversation system that I find both innovative and intriguing. I wonder how that will handle my syntactic and orthographic mistakes :) Unlike most here, this is a game I'm really impatient to play with. This and Divinity O.S. are both games I long for.
 
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Fast forwarding half the video in order to skip all the housing, I was surprised to see that mr. British and his team had found some time to actually implement a free form conversation system and crafting. Less housing, more Ultima, please... :(
 
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Well, it definitely is shaping up like I hoped it would.
 
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Looks very good. In particular, the world looks very live and world interaction is excellent. Magic combat looks good but melee requires refinement.
 
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Yeah, I'm looking forward to this game too. Not a day one purchase but it does look good.
 
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I started out thinking that housing would be some half-assed microtransaction affair à la UO but the amount of customization is going to be nice in selective multiplayer IMO. Even in offline play I might throw in some furniture for kicks. I'm starting to think of it as a TES style game, only better. That way there's no disappointment.
 
Looks like they have made quite a bit of progress for 6 months.

I don't understand why so much time is spent on housing though, do people really get into that stuff? Seems kind of boring to me.

Anyway, too bad its mostly going to be an MMO because the dialog system looks interesting and hopefully the environment will be interactive and interesting to explore.

Didn't back this so will wait for reviews once its released on whether to get it or not. If its more like a 3D first person Ultima Online then I will pass. I have a hard time believing the single player mode's will be getting any attention.
 
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This is turning into Housing of the Avatar. Or maybe Realty of the Avatar.

Love the convo system, but for the love of pete move on from the housing!!
 
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My wife spent months with the Morrowind editor building and tweaking a custom house for herself. I think she had more fun with that than she did with what I'd consider the 'actual game'. So yes, some people really get into that stuff.
 
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It seems to be very big in TES style games, Obsidian apparently implemented something similar in FNV due to the popularity of such mods. Seems like shoehorning Sims gameplay to me.
 
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I have wrote it once before but I will do it again: the amount of the housing mods for any modable game is HUGE and I wouldn't be surprised if SotA housing frenzy was caused more by the backers' demands rather than Garriott's obsession.
 
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Well, to me having the ability to have movable items and general housing can transfer over to just about every other aspect in the game as well. Just because it is useable in the housing portion doesn't mean you can't use that same freedom in dungeons.

This was done to a large extent in U7, which many of you seem to forget. Many dungeons and places had extremely moveable objects, which allows for a large amount of immersion in the world.

To me, having the ability to move everything is pretty awesome. It was a loved feature in the older ultima games. Why anyone would think a static background is better is beyond me, perhaps because the majority of the RPG's we play nowaday's do that do to t he fact it is a lot easier to implement.

I guess all I'm saying is some of you keep sticking to your guns that it's all about microtransactions and player housing. When you are provided with more information that dispells that, you ignore it. I'm all for large towns with lots going on and movable objects etc etc etc....
 
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The game looks extremely generic and bland, imo. I can see myself interested in housing etc, but graphics would really have to be a lot better. The game also looks really empty and lacking of detail (nowhere near TES or Ultima7, i also doubt the interactivity is near that level, but i could be wrong). Obviously the final result can be a lot different, I'm just judging its current form, though graphics will probably not improve much.
 
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It's going to be a large world if they intend to allow every player to get their own persistent house. Just don't see how this adds to gameplay unless you are into playing a medieval sims.
 
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It's going to be a large world if they intend to allow every player to get their own persistent house. Just don't see how this adds to gameplay unless you are into playing a medieval sims.

"House for everybody who wants it" only applies to the MMO variant of the game. In SP and SP online you can get as many houses as you want. Or none at all. And I, personally, don't intend to play it as medieval sims but, if somebody will want to play it this way, who am I to argue?
 
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Doesn't look that bad the only thing that's a negative to me is you have to type everything you want to ask and say. I Just don't have the time or patience to do this sorry Lord British.

Anyway I'll wait for release to see what everyone here thinks, but it's not on my must back or buy list right now.:)
 
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It's funny to read on here about graphics and the needing to type as a negative....I think you even have to read some things as well.

I don't think the graphics looks as bad as say drakensang, so they will be fine for me.
 
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It's funny to read on here about graphics and the needing to type as a negative….I think you even have to read some things as well.

I don't think the graphics looks as bad as say drakensang, so they will be fine for me.
I agree. ;)

It reminds me of NWN 2 the graphics look the same. Sadly many gamers only care about graphics that it's a shame nowadays. I just picked up Avadon 1&2 and we all know the graphics are not the point of those games. Regardless I'm enjoying both.
 
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