Hello, I have been enjoying Shroud for the last 2 days, but I'm finding things popping up in the game that aren't making sense and I can't seem to find answers for. Am I able to own my own house? I have a deed and a row house in my bank from the early days, but how on earth do I use them? As a new player, what should I be doing? I found one quest in another city, I can't complete some quests because the items aren't dropping. I'm baffled as to how to progress, without having any direction. Is there any point to gathering - I have an excess of materials sitting in my bank, taking up room that can't be used - can I sell them to players? Speaking of players, where is everyone? I'm in a guild that hasn't had members online for 4 years and have only seen 2 other players. I desperately want to keep playing, but I'm finding that the lack of direction is jarring. I'm hoping someone can help me out. TL;DR 1. House, how to buy 2. No direction? 3. Gathering useless 4. Other players NOTE: In no way is this post meant to be upsetting, I honestly just have no idea what I'm doing. Please halp.
If you have a deed first check exactly what it reads, e.g. Row Lot, POT, taxed = can only be used on the smallest patch of land (row), only in player-owned-towns (so NOT in NPC towns like Yew - you would need a PA (place anywhere) deed for that), taxed = costs taxes in ingamegold once you have claimed it. Go to a town (POT) you like and that has the facilities you need (e.g. devotionals, crafting stations, oracle) and there go to the Town Crier and speak to him. You get a small amount of gold ONCE the first time you speak with the town crier in a new town and he will show you a list of all lots in the town, occupied, reserved or available. You can claim only those available and you can have him mark the lot on your map to get there.
best way to learn these things is "in person"... we could type explanations all day describing POTs and everything... but in person someone (like myself or Conjurer Dragon) can walk you through a town and show you a lot faster hit "F" in game and Add Merrik Dragon at the bottom i will always except friend requests. I can walk you through our town and answer any questions you have Even better if you have Discord.. we could actually talk in voice
Welcome @Thieves . Also to anyone who is new here. Here's some tips for you. This game has many things to do. It is not a game to get to the end of. It is a game to choose the way you want to play any given day. First off Don't forget to get settled in a room or use your deed so you have storage and a place of your own to recall to. I do offer free rooms In Wizards Rest for those who need a moment to just get their bearings (to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next. ) just in case that doesn't make sense. Just visit Wizards Rest in Hidden Vale by the Volcano if you like. If I'm not available send me a message here or in game via mail or a bag I have by the school of rock requesting a room. So in this game you will find yourself choosing from many things to do. If you plan to do quests and work through the story just start at an outskirts area such as Solace Bridge, Highvale, or Blood River. Here is some info from the Wikki: https://sotawiki.net/sota/Outskirts https://sotawiki.net/sota/Quests We also have group finders which is alt f if you care to group Click on the first tab upper right of your screen to see some options even see vendor listings to see all that is for sale by players in a town. We have a very good decoration system if you enjoy that but if not just use your room or a deed you claimed to place containers of any kind such as bags, backpacks, trunks, chests etc and organize your stuff. It could be like a crafting resource bag for trees you have harvested, or cotton, or ore etc. YOu can craft furniture, weapons, armor, foods that give buffs and more. If you work better in a structured game then perhaps you want to join a guild that will work with you and help you in setting and finding goals for yourself. So we are not an all fighting game but building your character is important too. It depends on what you enjoy but most players here choose a variety of activities from having a vendor to see items, questing, dungeons and scenes to kill creatures to build your characters, to even playing music from sheet music or in groups. We also have fishing and fishing contests and much more. Anyway here is something I posted before I hope it helps you and as always I am Majoria in game if I can ever help. Just PM me here or as mentioned whisper if you see me, or send me an in game mail by clicking on a mailbox that is usually all around player owned towns or at banks. Click on send mail, then type Majoria as addressee, and then subject is a short note to me or longer if you use a blank book or paper. Ok here you go for a repeat of the Post I made. I do hope it helps you. Don't forget you can ask questions in Universe chat in game too but sometimes you have to repeat your question for when someone is watching it who can answer the question for you but sending the mail message will be a good alternative to getting your answers so don't hesitate to do that. See below and have fun There is much to see and much to do. Lots happened since 2019. For one Episode 2 is getting implemented and Castle Atos is a great place to go to get buffs and explore. You can visit this scene without having Episode 2. It is a great meeting place. Anyway But Episode 2 is not all in yet. Quest lines are not in but some dailies can be found through out. It is a much higher level but you are safe in Castle Atos. Still many areas to run into and I always do Well of Aldur daily crystal quests. Some old areas were revamped. Anyway exploring is the thing to do. Here is a copy of some features of the game info I made for a new person. Also just to say there are So many new recipes, new items etc to name that have been added o the in the last few years. I'm majoria in game. I accept all friends requests and am happy to answer questions anytime. Here are some basics I can think of: 1-You get 2 free property deeds now. Row deed from doing captain Kinseys quests in Solace Bridge outskirts. A village deed you get from completing the story. These deeds are taxed and only place able in player owned towns. Row lots have a default house and you can craft or buy different homes to change the house later. 2-We have a mail system. You can send almost anything by mail . To mail something click on a mail box do 'send mail' then player name, then drag items, type subject which can be a long subject or write on blank paper, flyers, or books to send a longer note to someone. You can also craft mailboxes for your house. 3-Don't forget to talk to the oracle in an Oracle building placed in most player towns you enter into or most npc towns. Click on test and say yes or no to the question they ask. If you haven't done any quests yet your answers could be yes or no. Read and see if you have an affinity to a certain virtue or hold it in disdain which is a no answer. You get 500 gold and 10000 xp a day for doing this. If you answer wrong you have to wait until the next day. 4- Also don't forget to talk to the town criers. They give you 250 gold for first visit to a town (player towns also). In many places that is. I have found a few who don't. Plus visiting new locations will get them marked on your teleport to zone scroll as explained below. 5-Our modes of travel are varied. Such as teleportals and sign posts players have put down for moving around in a town easier and npcs towns also have the sign posts. We have recall scrolls, teleport to friend scrolls and most importantly teleport to zone scrolls. Teleport to zone scrolls are my favorite. These have a variety of utility. So it is useful to drag the scrolls to your non combat bar but if not they still work the same way by clicking on 'use'. Unlike the other scrolls they do not immediately take you anywhere. They show you places you have visited. If you visited a location before zone scrolls were implemented they won't show those locations and you have to re-visit to get locations marked. So the zone scrolls can not be used If unencumbered. So when unencumbered a list of locations you have previously visited will come up when you use the scroll. You can cursor over the locations and press the control key to see location descriptions of what is in the scene. You can also filter the list by various things by typing in the filter area. These scrolls will mark all locations you have visited. The scrolls are craftable, for sale on player vendors, and sometimes found in loot. 6-You can click the y key to create a deck. and the k key looks at your skills. Our skill system draws from a pool of experience seen at the bottom of the skills window, tabbed by adventure skills, and producer skills which are crafting, harvesting etc. The x key is the default to change decks you are using but also an icon can show in the lower right corner. It shows if you have set an alternate deck to switch between. When clicking y to create a deck you can click the blue gear to modify and drag spells to your hot bar for that deck don't forget to click use current equipment and you can have a musical instrument on at all times they weigh only 1 pound. If you see someone has placed music you can click on it and your instrument will already be ready & available to hear it. 7- We do have a music system (speaking of instruments). We have the ability to play in groups or solo. We also have the ability to convert or get converted abc files or midi files to our Shroud of the Avatar sheet music folder to later make into sheet music. Once in sheet music form anyone can play from that sheet music. For example my song vendor in game has many sheet music's sitting out for you to click on to hear and I'm happy to send some sample songs to you. You don't have to have the sheet music on you and you can also drag a sheet music to your non combat bar to play at any time. 8-The c-key is to see your character, the j-key is to see your journal, the b-key is to see your recipe book, the o-key is to see your emotes,/t is the trade window, /u is for universe chat, /l is for local chat to someone next to you, /z is for all in the scene or zone you are, /p is when you are in a party for party chat, /g is for guild chat when in a guild. 9-Chat windows can be dragged out from the original window to create various options to not miss anything such as whispers from someone. Then you can resize them using the arrows on the sides and top and bottom of each window. Then use the right blue gear to uncheck what you see in each window to customize your experience in finding things. 10-Regarding combat we have a use system so using skills raises them. You can raise as many as you like. After 40ish your skills will take too much xp so turn off some to not raise all at once. Don't forget to get passives from different trees to help you survive such as fire is important. We don't have a cap on skills in this game. I've heard that some will have a soft cap heading to ward the 200 mark but you don't have to worry about that too often unless later you do. I never personally have and I've been here since 2013. Also regarding for example life and death choices they would affect attunement and damage of each. I for example do life so I don't do death. Another example is fire and water but I have some of each to get the passive protection. 11-There are also many dailies throughout the game if you like to do quests. Here is a link created by a player who did much good for the game @Anpu and added to sota wiki if you are interested. https://sotawiki.net/sota/Daily_Quests Happy journeys. Hope to see you in game Ok just some things I was thinking of lol. I am not an expert on everything but I do hope this helps. Happy journeys. Hope to see you in game Edited for clarity and corrections.
Find a Player Owned Town and have a Row Lot Deed in your inventory. Find an available Row Lot and click on the lot stone on the ground. Click the Claim Lot Button. Press the J key and read each quests journal entry. They have detailed instructions on what to do next to complete a quest. Players in general buy Gold Ore, Silver Ore, Pine Wood and Maple Wood. The rest you can decide to keep and maybe use later, or you could turn some of them into Storehouse Containers once a day for a reward. Players use Teleport to Zone scrolls and just zip straight off to different scenes, so you won't in general see a lot of people. Might see people here and there on the World Map from time to time. There are SO many scenes, that many people are just busy in them. Can usually find many people in Castle Atos from time to time. Hopefully that helps a little.
Give us your in-game name, so that we can put you on "friends" list, and then you can use a teleport scroll to go where we are. You can also add the following names to your "friends" list: (all quite helpful) Phule Anachron Haraldr Skjaldarberi Farmer Jack Skutter Luchnyk Ordezko
These responses are overwhelming, I am really glad I posted - I do want to enjoy the game. I will add all these names to my friends list! (Thieves) Thank you so much, everyone. I have so much to do!
Yes, your deed and home can be used in an Player owned town on a lot of the size of the deed if its empty can claimable. you can also upgrade your deeds by right clicking which there is a cost path to change it to another type. Must like many open world games quest are a lot harder as they can be anywhere and on any npc. some will wave if they have quests. there is a Journal which has information on the quests. sometimes its very important to read the journal or npc information careful as some things are based on specific times of the day for instance, others require you to do something before you can move forward. with out known specific on what you are stuck on its hard to know how to help you for which quests. It depends on if you plan to ever craft or not. if you dont plan to craft you can sell to both players for more value or vendors depending on the items. pretty much everything in game has some value for something but mostly for crafting/crafters for most of that type of stuff. so you will have to decide or find out what you may or may not need and its value to make the best decision. Players are all over the place. the world is way bigger than player base and its also instanced in that there are open world and private instance for scenes. so some play only in private well others wander open. most players tend to hang with their guilds so not often enough do you see many open groups. but there are some here and there. if you want to see more people its generally recommended to join a more active one. there are many active ones in game. This is a hard one for survival type / sandbox games as they are not designed the same as theme park mmo's with hub to hub, or quest to quest guidance. its open explore type game where you can go any where and do anything no need to even follow to story if you choose. but there are rewards for doing so that make it worth it. as to direction if you got a more active guild that would be the best option to help with direction, that or use more /u chat to ask people playing for groups and or help on where you should go to hunt etc.. really depends on what you want from the game.. not all people are hunter types and there is something for more people... pvp is lacking though so limited in that space. As one person mentioned add people you see as friends than you will always have people on your list. with out that you will have a hard time finding people unless you happen across them on and adventure or on the map. as there are way to many places they could be
Get the deed and row house from the bank. Look at the deed. There are two things to look for: PA or POT - PA is Place Anywhere and means you can use it in any town. POT is Player Owned Town and means you can only use it in any of the player owned towns. Row, Village, Town, City - These are the lot sizes, from smallest to largest. Go to a city. Under the city's name, check to see if it says "Player-owned". If you have a POT deed, these are the only towns you can settle in. Click on the Window Selector in the top right corner of the screen. (Looks like a stained glass windows) Go down to Lot Listing. (F2 Key) This brings up a listing of all the lots in the town. Look for a lot that is the same as the deed you have. For instance, if you have a village deed, look for village lots that say <Available> Click "Set Destination" in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen Follow the little red house on your compass until you arrive at the marker. It will look like a hanging sign or an ankh. Double click on it. Select "Claim Lot" A screen will come up with all your deeds. Select the deed and click Claim. From here you will need to Bind yourself to the lot and click Change House to put your house on the lot. Sometimes the lot will have a default house that you are free to use. This is the biggest issue for the game. At first, there seems like very little to do. There are no mentions of all the systems and activities you can be doing. Let me try to list some of them: You want to grow your adventure XP pool by killing mobs. You want to grow your crafting XP pool by collecting resources. I would go to the lowest tier zones and just kill/collect everything in sight. A lot of zones have quests that you will come across from just exploring. And that is my biggest advice. Explore the world and don't be beholden to quest lines. Quite frankly, the quests are not going to set your world on fire. Some of them have cool rewards, but nothing great. Train one skill at a time, up to 100. How fast a skill trains relies on many factors. One of which is how large your XP pool is. The more XP you have in the pool, the more XP that will apply to the skill each time it is used. I believe the default rate for training a skill is like 2% of whatever is in your XP pool, each time you use the skill. 2% of 2 million is a lot different than 2% of 200. The more skills you train at once, the slower they will train. I don't know the exact rate, but lets say there is a 6% limit on moving XP from the XP pool to trained skills, each combat round. If you are training 10 skills at once, they have to divide that 6% limit among themselves. Example 1: You have 100k XP in the pool. You are training 10 skills from level 1 to level 2. Each skill requires 1k XP to level up. You need 10k XP total to level up all 10 skills. There is a limit of 6%, so on the first round of combat, the most XP you can apply toward skills is 6k. So you won't be leveling all those skills up in one combat round. In fact, if you divide 6k by 10 you 600 XP. You will have to do 2 combat rounds to level each one up. As the levels increase, the XP for each level increases and the leveling slows down. If you continue to train those same 10 skills, the combat rounds can get into the hundreds or thousands before they level up at once. Example 2: You have 200 million XP. You want to level 1 skill from level 1 to level 100. That requires 100 million XP. 6% of 200 million is 12 million. You would only need 8 combat rounds to get one skill from level 1 to 100. In short, bank as much XP as you can and worry about leveling skills later. And watch how many skills you level at once. Even if you level every skill up to 200, that won't make you the most powerful person in the game. Gear is just as equally as important. All gear comes with basic stats. There are three processes through which you can make gear better: Masterwork - Masterworking is a recipe you buy which allows you to use gold to enhance existing gear. Each time you use it, you will be presented with three combat skill buffs you can add to the gear. There are minor and major versions of the buffs. It can be a buff that gives +1.2 strength or +2 to earth magic. The attempt can also fail, which removes a buff. Enchanting - Enchanting is a recipe you buy which allows you to use silver to enchant gear. It works very much like masterworking, but gives you access to magical skill buffs. Gems - You mine unrefined gems which you can then craft into different gems based on color. Emerald gems turn into Earth Magic gems. I then slot those into gear to give me earth magic bonuses such as +2 to Earth Elemental. Crafting is fun and honestly the only way you are going to get the perfect set of armor and weapon. Others can craft armor for you, but as we see with masterwork and enchanting, there are decisions to be made. Each attempt costs resources and how much are you willing to pay someone to masterwork over and over for just the right buffs? But you can also craft just about any item you see in the world. Part of my fun is finding new recipes to buy or getting them as loot. Food, Potions, and Drinks - You can also craft these items and they all give you added buffs. Imagine equipping your best armor before a fight, which has all your strength buffs. Then eating bear stew to give you more strength and then drinking a potion to give you even more strength. Imagine using all of this to take down a dragon by yourself. Artifact Collecting - the orange items you collect as loot are artifacts. Artifacts are special items that can be combined from common to uncommon to legendary to epic, and gaining additional stats along the way. They can be used or broken down for a chance to get a gem of that artifact type which can be socketed into gear. Early on, sell everything. Even artifacts if you want. There is no benefit to new players in regards to crafting. It costs way too much money to create items when you are starting out. It is a sunk cost system by design, to remove excess gold from the economy. So sell everything and use the money to buy better gear. Once you get a house, buy tons of chests and store everything. It can take a lot of resources to make just one piece of armor. I literally can't seem to get away from people. They are everywhere. There are so many zones and you are not going to see anyone inside a zone, from the world map. You will only see them if you happen to be inside the same scene as they are. Even then, if you aren't in a party with them, you still won't see them. Some zones are so large, there can be dozens of people there with you, that you just can't see. There are also spells and multiplayer settings that can let other players not be visible to you. I started out with the same question as you. As I continued to add more and more friends to my list, I see people everywhere now. I think the system is designed to allow you the player, to decide how much community involvement you want. If you don't have friends on your list, the game just leaves you alone. If you want to be sociable, introduce yourself and seek people out in the larger cities. I am 100% there with you. It seems like no one is playing and the game has nothing to do. As a kickstarter early-bird backer, I checked in on the game every few months over the last 10 years. Each time, I would decide after a few days of playing that it wasn't ready yet and I would just come back later. Each time I played, I learned just a little bit more until about November of 2022 when it all clicked. SOTA is a very slow burn and it can take some effort to get into. There is a storyline quest, but it is not the heart of the game. SOTA is more of a sandbox game where your only goal is the one you set. I think for most of us, we want to be the best fire mage, the best blades fighter, the richest merchant, the person with the most houses, etc. You need to have a competitive edge to you. Lots of players just love the house decorations and they seek out to make the most impressive setups. I have seen some staged banquets that are unbelievable. Go visit player owned towns and enter every house you can. You will start to get an idea of the adventures you can have. This is the only game I know of that lets you venture forth, kill a dragon, mount that dragon's head on your wall, and then throw a feast to celebrate the battle. TL;DR 1. House, how to buy 2. No direction? 3. Gathering useless 4. Other players NOTE: In no way is this post meant to be upsetting, I honestly just have no idea what I'm doing. Please halp.[/QUOTE]
I don't think this is particularly true. The game seems to be designed to be the most lonely MMO experience in the world, hence players desperately looking for company on forums and /U chat. Only way to get consistent player interaction is by joining one of the few active guilds. Playing solo is mostly a single player experience.
Greetings Thieves If you crave interaction and group events use the Looking for Group (use "ATL-F) or join the guild raids. A lot of guilds have daily events for battle or taming creatures.
lol, or more so people that work that play when they can and use the forums at work to keep up with the goings on
Yes... a pity really. We need to keep referring to our forums when we speak on Universal ingame chat.... The "new" need help and hope, and the game lacks in both, sadly ............
Along time ago requests were made to have the journal provide a help/information about our game systems but in this game it has always come down to players helping players which is fine. Most of us do it when given the opportunity. The problem is there are too many players who do not want that interaction especially at first and they should not be left out. @Thieves I hope you did get some answers for your questions that help you. We are here to help.
