A Shroud of the Avatar Epoch Observation

So... We started out in Medieval Times,
We progressed into steam punk,
then we get indoor plumbing in Greece, Roman, and a few other themes,
then we got on an islander kick,
then we got modern with hospitals and whatnot.
Pretty soon... You'll be able to roll up on a dragon's nest in a 1912 Model-T, step out, flip the sights up on your buffalo gun, and shoot that sum ***** in the head!

My question is... WHERE'S THE HORSES AND SAILING?!?!?!

 

I like adding cars.

Sailing is coming. Confirmed by Atos that R&D has begun to sort out performance issues.

Nobody is backing horses. See the stretch goal. Can't say I disagree.

 

I see...
However... I'm constrained to observe that sailing wasn't backed when it was a stretch goal in EP1 either...
Case in point... If we are to receive one, why not the other?

 

They should have done run off voting for stretch goals. That way we would at least get something.

 

It’s cool that Chris mentioned this (still not sure where - in discord? On one of his new streams?), but I would pump the brakes on saying it is coming for sure.

That would be a major, major feature and a huge selling point for episode 2. Until this is a bullet point on their episode 2 marketing, maybe better to say this is being looked at as a possibility. Port would not have ignored talking about that feature for so long if it was going to make it for certain. Again, good news, but one Chris blurb does not a feature make.

 

Game is becoming too Second Life like.

I backed horses back in 2014. Would rather have horses then cars.

I truly hope this game doesn’t just end up a mish mash of Medieval/Second Life/Grand Theft Auto/Cowboy/Disco/etc etc. Just gets too muddied and confusing as to what the game is trying to identify itself as. I’d rather have a steady background theme from one time period. Or if they want to try different periods of time, evolve them over the episodes instead of throwing them all together.

 

Yes really where are they? I don't think the lack of funding for the mount stretch goal means that it is not a popular or necessary feature for the game. I feel it is just a lack of budget to a feature that is a missing basics. It should not be a stretch goal but an added in as funding provides but of course my opinion as always. Will Majoria get her horse racing feature included in the process? If so come to Wizards Rest and Race with me. Already we do have a pool in the dungeon where me and Alioth did try a swimming race. So sad I did lose the race. *sighs*.

Even though some players will say due to the structure of this game since we don't have a contiguous world and it is broken up by loading screens means that we don't need mounts, imo that does not mean it is true. What will turn around the pessimism and bad press for this game is for it to get popular and missing features such as mounts, boating, treasure hunting, and a raid system?

Also imo missing of course is a detailed completion of existing systems we have, such as taming and an in game achievement/task system.

The upcoming quest and journal rework is already planned and sorely needed. Continued QOL features as they are identified to be be missing or needed by players and developers should also be ongoing.

While we all have our thoughts on details that should be implemented or not implemented, at this point this game does not have a particular route it is taking, but instead it is being created by the many whims of players and developers alike in so many ways. I still feel in the long run that will not be a bad thing because all bases will be covered as much as a low budget game can do that. No other game will have all that players wanted that could be possibly implemented in a Unity Engine but still have the soul.

For example the game Black Desert, while there is nothing wrong with that game and some do probably enjoy it, my experience and a few I've talked to is that the high budget Black Desert game has everything a player could want but imo it did not have soul and had an emptiness about it but that could have just been my bias I have for this game. I did love some things about Black Desert such as the character look and wonderful character generator.. Black Desert also does have pleasing to some graphics. To me it is just missing something. I tried it out and missed my Shroud of the Avatar home and ability play in a sandbox world that is still trying to be all it can be. We still have incomplete systems and lack of funding to quite pull all of it off . Still it is trying to be all of that for us. So as always here's hoping.

This game even in the incomplete low budget state does to me have more soul than so many games out there. Over time just imagine.

So still much yet to do in this young game but will we get the funding to to do all of this and where will it magically come from? Some of the players we so far do have are trying to find their patience waiting for many things that are basic to a well funded game. We need more funding and we absolutely need more developers to get this game to feel more completed with those basics and more.

Anyway what good does it do to say it over and over as I and many others have done for years and years? What magical conclusion will that bring? Will the ice mage be able to freeze its opponent again, will the game track our progress and give more reason to play with tasks that build upon each other and provide fun, sometimes challenging, and exciting? Will it provide interesting, and perhaps even unexpected outcomes for us? So much to do and so little funding. Ok off to get more coffee. I'm done with my wall of text for today. Happy weekend and Cheers everyone, see you in game.

Edited

 

Someone suggested Kobold motorcycles and I said that we would need heraldry leather vests.

 

^^ all I care about

 

Lol, actually the community raised almost $4 million for non-combat mounts.

Right after Kickstarter, the devs did some time-based stretch goals. It started with a Darkstarr vs. Lord British fencing duel at $3.2 million. They then upped it to three more stretch goals, starting with a rematch at $3.7 million. Then, "$3.8M – New Britannia World Faire" and "$4M – Non Combat Mounts in Episode 1". You can see the thread here.

It fell short only a little bit. I can't find an update that reports how we fells short, but I remember by the April 7th deadline it was some relatively speaking close. In any case, it was a lot of money raised; just short of the huge amount requested. $4M is a lot. This is what the people who say "nobody wants mounts" remind me of. How much the game community has changed, because a lot of the old people got disappointed by changes in direction and dropped off. The ones who haven't just don't like arguing on the forums about this kind of stuff anymore.

At any rate, sailable boats were also in the Stretch Goal store, and so was flexible placement. Plenty of people want these. But these barely got any movement in $$ either. Honestly, if I didn't know any better, I'd think the Stretch Goal store was designed to fail. First, they put up about four competing goals (and no, even pooling them all together didn't meet one stretch goal). Now, the add-on store has shifted to a COTO-driven model, you can't buy Stretch Goal items with COTOs, and the items you can buy are generally not appealing. There have been threads suggesting more & better items for the stretch goal that would incentivize people to buy, but I don't think the devs view it as a priority.

 

The stretch goal store progress is also subject to the same conditions as the monthly stretch goal rewards. If the stuff available makes everyone say meh, then no progress is made.

I am curious if that store will see some love soon. On the last livestream they mentioned a wave of decos coming soon for in game gold. I wonder if the stretch goal store will be in the round robin rotation.

Heh, maybe they need to add horse armor (heraldry and non), riding crops, spurs, and equestrian hurdles to shake things up a bit.

 

@Jefe Yea, a lot of people interested have already bought horses and hitching posts and some basic stuff. But they have to add more stuff and better stuff. There are thread posts on that with suggestions. And they have to allow us to pay with COTOs if they're forcing a COTO model with encouraged subscriptions.

 

IIRC, that $4M goal was regarding the total cumulative funds raised at the time, not $4M separate, new funds, just for non-combat mounts.

At the time Starr made the post on March 11, they were already at $3.42M in total funds. So it would be more accurate to say, mounts would be funded if they reached $4M in total funds, or $600k in incremental funds in 1 month. They did not achieve that and only reached $3.87M by April 7.

But to your point, yes, the community did push hard to try and achieve that goal. Just not $4M worth, but rather just over $400k.

 

Yes, I guess so. I was just going by a rough memory, but you're filling in the details and it sounds right. But I'd also add (not to mislead, but to comment on my original train of thought) that up until that point people had been spending a lot ($3.42M), and they'd been spent out by that point. So this was one of the issues raising the final stretch of $400K. That it was akin to getting $4M from backers. People weren't getting add-on items for the money they spent, just a promise for an early feature that the devs said was going to be in eventually anyway.

It looks like it fell short $130K but raised $450K.

 

That was me... oh yeah... I'll claim that one.

 

I would totally buy some of that. I already have 4 foals, 2 hitching posts and a large fancy stable.

 

Yeah, I posted some ideas in there I think. I am not much for horse masks.

 

Kobolds can't really be punk without mohawks, and they can't have mohawks because they can't grow hair. Add that to their list of other deficiencies, such as their shortness and inability to articulate English without grunts and skrkks.

I actually never minded the clockpunk stuff and have even suggested some electric (aetheric) lutes and referenced space travel in fantasy like Baron Munchaussen; neither have I minded some anachronism. Though arguably it comes to a point where that kind of content hurts rather than helps the game. I remember LB saying not to worry because despite the clockpunk stuff, there won't be gunpowder guns in the game, because it would change the atmosphere and gameplay too much. But I mean why not have gunpowder at this point? At some point, it feels like pretense to say we can't include it among the other modern stuff we have. And then you have stuff like Anglo-Saxon runic in an Asian inspired city like Ardoris, and other such stuff that doesn't quite jive, making that feel like pretense, too.

Chris mentioned recently complaints on the team about a lack of art style. I don't know; the medieval fantasy type stuff feels well together and I get a good jive and good feelings when I'm spelunking in a dungeon fighting in armor with friends. It feels like a D&D campaign brought to life. Why are people afraid to say 'immersion' instead of 'art style'? It's not a bad word. And you can still have clockpunk and anachronism, too.

 

To add good sailing to SOTA just seems so unrealistic to me. Maybe try a different game for your sailing fix?

 

Why?