Release 28 Instructions

From the https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=57427 update:

 

Lot's of great updates I can't wait to check out!

Any changes to mention about the XP Pool?

 

Hm, over 7000 additional housing lots required before R32, and we have only R29, R30, R31 to go.

 

is this going to be a wipe? Seems like it might need to be in order to get all of the stuff working right.

 

No wipe this release. Wipe in R29

 

cool thanks!

 

After being activated by the owner, do the household automated phonographs play automatically to everyone in multiplayer within and upon entering the lot, or do they need to be turned on by each player individually, similar to radios?

 

They work by the same rules as the regular phonographs.

 

Just wanted to say I'm liking that you're including screenshots in these little updates now. Nice touch.

 

Add-on store pavers look nice, should they also be placeable deco in a PoT? Rather than just on lots?

 

and inside houses to give a wood floor look etc....

 

I was wondering, if the offline features get pushed back more and more, how much development time will they get compared to the MMO features? Episode 1 will be "released" by the end of the year. Now April is starting. So basically we have 8 months before the offline mode should be "ready". Is this enough time to create a full fledged, true single player experience that feels and plays like a single player RPG and is different from the MMO part?

 

@DarkStarr
Is that Kobold City home going to be available as a POT reward selection? If eligible of course.

 

Per R28 release notes:

• 
  Single Player Offline Enabled: Players can now enable Offline mode. Please note that progress made in this mode is not stored on the server and will be overwritten when patched until the "Save Games" feature is implemented.
  
  Offline Features Delayed: Allowing functions (AI, conversations, pathfinding, housing, etc.) to work robustly on the client without server verification took slightly longer than planned, so we had to push offline features (save games, companions, offline economy, etc) to later releases.

So it's not that they putting offline mode aside and go work on something else. The actual development work is in progress, but taking longer than they anticipated, so they cannot push all the offline-related changes into this release. You can kinda play the offline mode now, but the main offline functionality is still not in place on this release. It's gonna take as long as it takes at this point.

 

I'm just wondering how those players would feel who are in the game for housing or PvP if those features would not yet be in the game and we are approching release of Episode 1 with full Warp in very short time...

 

I'm not happy about it, but it is the reality of the schedule so far. I like that we finally have Offline mode to play around with, but I'm definitely hoping that we start seeing some more work towards making SPO stuff at least functional (I can understand the polish may come later) for the basic core systems.

 

Sure but isn't time running out? After three years of development and a "release" date in a few months we now start to see the basics of the offline mode. A bit late, isn't it?
Now some might say that the game will be developed further until Episode 5 and that there is plenty of time to refine the offline mode until then but then I have to ask why not not have the PvP mode be ready by Episode 5? Why did we have PvP a few months after the Kickstarter ended but no offline mode?
How would people react if now, eight months before "release" of Episode 1 only the basics of housing or PvP would be seen in the game? Would PvP and housing fans not get nervous and fear for watered down systems as time is running out to implement real deep and cool systems?
Are PvP and housing more important than a great offline experience? Is there enough time to create a really great full fledged offline experience until "release" of Episode 1?

 

I understand your frustration, but to feel upset that PvP and housing made more progress than offline mode is like being upset that banana tree yields fruits faster than mango tree. These developments are being done concurrently by different people. Making texture of the houses are done by graphic designer where offline game save mode is done by programmer and game saving is never a trivial task (remember back in the day where you enter code on the NES game to save the progress?).

The development will take as long as it takes. We can only hope for the best (or worst) and may be able to assist the process by providing feedback as they release more features that you are interested (e.g., some people already point out that they want more than 3 houses in single player offline mode).

 

To be blunt, probably so. The PvP stuff has always been a driving issue due to the former UO crowd, so I get that it was important towards getting and retaining players. The housing stuff boils down to money, bottom line. It's the main reason we had people backing huge levels of real life money, and while I personally don't LIKE that it has become such a central focus, it is what it is.

I'm continuing to still be hopeful that we will have a strong single player experience for Shroud. Is it their priority? No, I do not believe so, and right or wrong, that's the direction they've chosen to take. The game -has- some decent momentum towards the story aspects (finally!) that we're seeing with the new Release, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it all come together for our paths through New Britannia. But I'm no longer fully convinced we will really have the "single player game" so to speak; single player modes, sure, but not what they seem fully passionate about.

I still think the game overall will be fun, and hopefully successful towards the future releases. I really can't say if it will be "the game" as a RPG fan that I'll be quite as passionate about as I have been with the original Ultima series. So, we'll have to see.

 

That's what I fear but then they should just outright say it so that the expectations are not too high for the offline mode. As of right now I am expecting a single player RPG experience that matches the one of Skyrim or The Witcher 3 minus the higher production values, of course. By this I mean a true single player game that could stand on its own and deliver a true SP experience like every other SP RPG.
If this is not the case then we should know about it.