Unofficial poll: What do you most want out of Shroud?

1 - Hide
2 - Stealth
3 - Steal

 

1. PvP, with full loot including attacking without consent
2. Stealth, Stealing, Hiding, etc
3. A robust housing system (with the risk of somebody stealthing in behind you)
4. Guilds
5. Fishing, so much fishing.

 

I love UO. So my short answer is UO2.

My longer answer is I want it as realistic as possible. I like the top down 3d view that is zoomable. I like the thousands of items. I like that you can chop down a tree, use it to build a bow, shoot a deer with the bow, skin the deer, use the skin to make armor, etc... I like that there are strangers playing around you doing their own thing. I like the danger of Red players.

And the most important 2 things for me? 1) I want an open world with all buildings, structures, and natural terrain done to scale (ie UO). If my Avatar goes over a camp icon and then 'enters' the camp, where a new screen loads up, I will be so disappointed. 2) I want full loot. The fear of loosing your stuff does 2 very important things: 1) it creates a huge amount of excitement 2) It tempers your character's power. Instead of having 1 'spear of awesome destruction' that will never disappear, you buy 10 spears of 'grasshopper slaying' because you know that you will need more equipment to make it in this world.

Also, please do not make things look cartoony like WoW and please do not have numbers fly into the air if I smack something.

 

1) Huge levels of detail to things like fishing/hunting, crafting, gardening and such. See the post on fishing for more detail: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=make-fishing-simple-and-relaxing&paged=1

Getting to craft books would be great as well.

2) Great story lines

3) Beautiful and realistic environment and first person view. I don't need the photorealism look, and I don't want a cartoony look (like Nonoxynol) says. Nor do I like the idea of flying numbers when we hit something. But anyway, please pay attention to aesthetics while designing environments in the game.

 

Ethereal mounts. Updated content. Functioning housing system (as only LB can do it). Reds. Boats. Treasure Maps. Krakens! Ty.

 

I would like to snoop in a players backpack and take their goodies! Other than that PVP! I forgot to mention no safe zones, ?sorry trammies! ?

 

1. SANDBOX GAME = Freedom = Creativity = No more tread milling like a flock of sheep from level 1 to 90.
2. Gates, Recall, Marking Runes = Give us back the freedom to travel please! Makes no sense to force players to endure tedious, static taxi travels over and over, or wait hours to be able to recall or get together with friends.
3. Skill based character development, not level based. It would be so refreshing to play a game again where you can't tell what "level" someone is, unless you interact with them in some way. A game world where you are defined by your actions and experience, rather than a number floating above your character's head.

 

The thing that I want most out of this game isn't a nostalgia trip for Ultima's features. I don't care either way if PVP is open in online play or if it's restricted to certain areas. I don't particularly care how much I can decorate my house.

I want my freedom back. MMORPG's nowadays make you feel like you need to log in every day to get this or that accomplished. In World of Warcraft, if I miss a day or two of daily quests, I fall behind my peers in acquiring new gear. If I don't cap out my valor and conquest points every week, I can't get the newest competitive set of gear or upgrades. When I log in, I don't have any time to explore, to take things at my own pace, to dive into the lore, or to truly enjoy the game that's been made.

The same applies to every game with some sort of "daily" limit. If there's a daily limit, I feel obligated to work towards that limit before I do anything else. I am sick and tired of feeling like I am obligated to perform the same set of quests or tasks over and over again every single day. I want to feel like when I log in, I'm doing the things that I set out to do, not the things that the developers think I should want to do so I can get the next best thing.

More than anything else, Ultima had FREEDOM. You literally could do whatever you wanted to do. None of these "dungeon lockout timers," none of these "daily limits." I could spend my day hunting brigands or hoarding ore, and no way was the "wrong" way to play. That is the experience that Ultima players have been yearning for.

There are a few mechanics that add to freedom: The ability to choose a criminal life over a legitimate one, in exchange for the game becoming more difficult, by stealing from or murdering other players. You had the ability to decorate and customize your homes to your personal tastes. There was no central auction house or economy, so the prices of things were literally based off what someone would pay, not off of slight market fluctuations based off of a flawed system of supply/demand where supply is generated from nowhere. Crafters could live a combat-free life because gear was not permanent, and it couldn't just be repaired by an NPC for a fee.

For the record, Ultima's flag system system was not quite harsh enough, but perhaps since player owned homes are contained within cities now, maybe it will be different. As it stood though, many players found it more fun to grief others than to avoid crime. The consequences need to feel real for them to really have an impact on players.

Anyways, there's my rant... you should expect to see a few more from me on these forums. I've been following the development process, but I have been unemployed and could not afford to contribute. Now that I am working, I am going to see the most possible money I could set aside without negatively impacting my budget, and I will donate what I can. I have absolute faith in Richard Garriot as a developer, and I will gladly show as much support as I can!

 

I would love to see a game where there is real danger in quests...where you can't just walk in and stand tow to toe with something the size of a mountain getting clubbed and turn around and destroy it in seconds.

I would love a game where if i walked around a corner by myself and found 4 Cyclopses my first thought would be "oh ****...run"

Then I might high tail it back to town, get some mates, guildies, hirelings etc...and hunt those said cyclopses knowing that one swing of that mighty club could damn near kill me. Imagine the glory if we took them down!

I enjoy leveling characters and enhancing skills etc but I would love it if the game meant you were better, more formiddable, but still vulnerable. Maybe the speed of attack increases, and the damage of blows etc...but the damage taken is still high.

In terms of the world I would want it to be open and dynamic. So players actions have an impact on the world...if we vanquish a foe today...they aren't back tomorrow. But new events would be occurring that you would follow up on leading you away from familiar lands into more remote and dangerous places.

 

What I want is exactly what we had in UO. A game where we could log in and not have to go kill something. There was immersible crafting, decorating your house, working your vendors, shopping other peoples vendors, and then exploring and killing when you felt like it.

 

1 Full Loot Game
2 Open PvP World

 

The Amulet of Yendor

 

1) Full loot
2) Exploring
3) Pvp / thief

 

1) Engrossing and non-linear storyline
2) PvP with more to do than just arena-style killing each other.

 

PvP , Crafting , Loot , Loot , Loot... oh BTW... Did I say Loot? I remember Hunting IDOCS on UO, That was like a LootGazm most of the time. Remember getting a chest with five singing crystal balls inside from a 2 story stone and plaster. I was so happy, and soon after that. Much more rich..

Those times were so epic. People would usually get a chance to see something inside that they wanted and you would come to an agreement if there was a bunch of people there.... or it would turn into an all out PK fest... which was sometimes even better, unless you were on the losing end of the stick after picking up a chest with way to many stones and so ganked.. haha.

 

I believe that The Elder Scrolls series is a spiritual successor to the Ultima series and has eclipsed it in many area's. There are a few area's however that it still lags behind and this is what I want SotA to focus on.

1. Virtue - The fuzzy line between what is right and what is wrong and from what perspectives these are true. If there was one thing that Ultima taught me it was that right and wrong is a matter of perspective. You might decide to Honor your oath and protect an evil king from a mob or serve justice and give him up for his transgressions. It is this type of balance which made choices difficult in Ultima because they were hard, you had to search deep down inside and really decide what kind of person you were.

2. Food - Games have abandoned this aspect of realism in games. Gamers rejoiced when this happened but it was for the wrong reasons. Games tended to have archaic food systems where your character would need to eat a village worth's of food in a day to survive. With good balance a sensible food system could be introduced which would help balance the economy and return one of the most fun components to the game. I remember watching my sister play Ultima 7 and she would just go around collecting food items, making bread and selling it. She eventually earned far more gold than I had ever done. It was then as an aspiring game designer(age 7) that I thought about making a game where you had to eat, sleep, craft, design your house and run around town doing errands. Unfortunately Will Wright also thought of a similar concept and invented the Sims before my time . Even so you can see why this aspect is alluring toward a large segment of the gaming populace who might not be as inclined to battle as to crafting. It opens many doors and makes being a hunter a viable job.

3. Intelligent enemy design. Nothing bores me more than a game where the sole method of progressing is using the same tired attack over and over to kill every enemy. Perhaps you can slash every enemy to death but there should be a penalty to doing so(takes 10 times as long to kill as opposed to fighting it intelligently). The smart prepared adventurer should surely experience an easier adventure for his foresight. Torches may light a hallway but light from a magical source may cast shadows from creatures from another realm(normally invisible to the eye). Perhaps a beast once doused in oil and set on fire looses its magical defense or an arrow to the eye of a beholder causes it to fling around helplessly. Perhaps a torch held in the hand can ward off creatures better than a shield if the hand if they are afraid of fire.

 

I am less interested in specific game mechanisms than I am in the atmosphere I hope to experience in SotA. An example of the atmosphere I would appreciate can be seen in the History Channel series, Vikings. If you haven't been watching that program, you are missing out on a terrific program. Even the opening sequence/theme music evokes a feeling and an atmosphere of power and strength that I find missing from MMOs in general.

Previously, I think Lord British games have identified most strongly with Arthurian influences, and I expect SotA will as well, but the devs have indicated that there will be other cultures represented, such as gypsies for example.

One of the cultures I would like to see represented would be the Northmen.

 

1. I want the experience that was so great about U7 (both parts). With basic main plotlines to be discovered without the 'HEY HERE"S A QUEST' linearity that I so despise with more current games. Interactions with NPCs to not just be so trite so as to remove all question of discovery. I want to both be able to follow the scripted events that lead to progression but also just to do dumb things like wander into areas I won't be able to handle and experience the thrill of trying to extricate myself from those situations. What I'm trying to suggest here is an immersive yet exploratory environment that lends itself to both those who like to explore and those who want to follow 'the path'.

2. Non linear quest triggers. E.g. I find a fun book squirrelled away somewhere that leads to clues about a major quest/lore situation, I don't want it necessarily to point the way back to 'Step 1' of the quest chain, and be able to hop into it as warranted. This does two things. A) lets people discover multiple ways to follow major events but also B) not to expose players to every aspect of the chain, leaving the option to find earlier parts of the chain on their own.

3. Books, combs, shiny mirrors, and other assorted things that have no apparent use....yet. I'm sick to death of the thought that when you find something necessary, the item tells you it's necessary and tells you not to be stupid and drop it. While I don't believe we can go back to an inventory system we had in U7 (one big pile of unmarked/unflagged stuff), I don't want key items that have gameplay ramifications to have big giant alarms/bells/whistles on them to ensure that I know to just hang onto something.

That being said, in situations where these items can be lost/destroyed, i'd like for a way to find them again somehow in case they are integral to both major lore/quests but also for side quests and such.

I basically want the flexibility to be a packrat and keep everything that might be useful, want the ability to just dump stuff when I don't see a use for it, but finally be able to get it back somehow.

4. Housing housing housing. Phased in releases of plots so that latecomers arent' automatically excluded from access. If more housing space is needed, perhaps using instances to create more space/land. What I explicitly never ever want to see again is every single pixel of space on the continent to be stuffed/crammed with empty houses that do nothing to enhance the environment and only serve as a reminder to newbies that 'you got here too late, sucks to be you'.

5. Related to #4, I'd like to visually see the dynamic growth of cities and towns etc. If some out of the way outpost garners more interest as a center of activity, id like to see the game respond by adding more area to it, opening up the possibility of more space for housing/trade activities, and experience the growth over time.

There's nothing more bland than having one main city/town having what amounts to be a monopoly on all trade/civil activity. Giving the populace the option to control growth of activity centers will help the community dictate economic and civil power bases.

Want to see your local village grow? Attract other users who feel the same and watch that dynamically change over time to the point where you have to create more space and business. There are other socio-economic aspects that could arise like electing local representation, and fun things with governance and dynamic play.

I don't want this to turn into Civiization by any stretch, I just like the idea that over time, economic power bases can grown and ultimately eclipse the 'main city'. There are so many different avenues this can yield story wise too, that this one to me is really important.

 

1. I do NOT want to be forced to participate in PvP. Period.
2. I want an experience more like the Ultimas of old, and the chance to share that experience with my friends.
3. Crafting that is interesting and useful
4. Housing!
5. A sandbox experience (I point to Daggerfall as others have done) with a story that I create, as I go, based on my actions and their consequences.

 

1. Full Loot
2. Faction pvp with guarding city's thus controling them as in UO
3. IDOCS