Darkstarr's Release 8 Impressions + R9 Update

Greetings Avatars,

Last month when we announced we would be redirecting Release 8 to focus on PVP, I have to admit I was a tiny bit nervous. Not only were we going to pull in a system several months earlier than planned, but we also were going to tackle one of the more polarizing elements of our game: Deck Building & Deck Combat. However, after we began our daily Dev death matches, my nervousness began to be replaced by excitement. Each day, as we iterated on it and then pulverized each other in the arena, it got more and more exciting. We were having fun! We realized that you, the players, would likely have fun with it too.

We of course realize that it still needs a lot of work and balancing. We also realize that there is a very steep, but short, learning curve that has to be overcome. That steep climb is complicated by years of training that we have all had with more traditional systems. Even with those hurdles, most of you seemed to be having fun with the new combat, especially in PVP. From Vengeance beach on the Brave Coast Island to the Bear Tavern Brawls in the arena, there was a huge community effort to make this first release of PVP both be fun and valuable from a testing standpoint.

It wasn't all just combat of course. The community continues to amaze us with what they are doing with our tools, even this early. The plays in PAXLair, the welcoming quest, the ever more insane maze building, the list goes on and on.

I continue to be amazed and humbled by this great community. We cannot wait to give you more, so keep coming back each release and help us make the greatest crowd funded RPG ever.

Here is the revised R9 plan (with the old R9 plan below my signature for reference). We will post a Q4 schedule update sometime near the end of R9 or beginning of R10.

RELEASE 9, August 21 - 24, 2014:

• PVP: We will introduce some simple PVP rules / mechanics including scoring and the concept of teams.
• Combat Systems: We will be iterating and adding to the fundamental systems that support combat, including more secondary effects like bludgeons damaging gear. Magic will now require reagents to cast spells at full strength (current thinking is you can still cast without reagents but the effectiveness of the spell is reduced for each missing reagent). We will also be adding the ability to execute combos and we will add functionality to positioning and cover.
• Combat Skills: For Release 9, our goal is to flesh out more of the schools of Water, Bludgeons, and Light Armor. We will also make a pass at adding innate skills to all schools.
• Scenes: Ardoris, the waterfront city on the main continent filled with canals and framed by two opposing castles, will now be available to players. Other adventuring scenes on the main continent will also appear. These new scenes on the mainland will be accessed via the Lunar Rifts which will now change destinations based on time of day. The player town island will now come in two additional density levels that increase the number of lots on those islands.
• New Creatures: Several new creatures will come online including a new mimic and an Ice Elemental, as well as variations on existing creatures (liches, kobolds, etc.).
• Crafting: Durability and Repair will come online. Attacking will have a chance to decrease durability on weapons and damage received will have a chance to decrease armor durability. Durability decreases will NOT decrease the effectiveness of items.
• Overworld Animating Avatars: Players will now see their avatars (along with their party members) animating on the overworld map.
• Intro Cinematic: We are making an animatic version of the intro with narration by our very own Bill Johnson (aka The Guardian).
• Character Customization: At least one new facial feature will come online. Additionally an update to how we handle hair and facial hair will add layers, transparency, and animations.
• Minimap System: Tired of getting lost in Owlshead? Well you can now rejoice, for in R9 you will now have maps (as inventory objects) that when used will bring up the map of the scene you are in and mark your location on it. This will be the first iteration of the minimap system, so only a few maps will be available.

Release 8 is dead! Long live Release 9!

Sincerely,
Darkstarr aka Starr Long


RELEASE 9, August 21 - 24, 2014:

• Card Combat Decks: You will now be able to build and equip multiple decks to try out different strategies and play styles. To support this flexibility more skills and more AI combat behaviors will come online
• Damage Types & Resistances: Damage types and resistances (fire, ice, physical, etc.) will begin to affect combat
• Player Housing: Exterior Decorations and Permissions: Do you desire even more from housing? Your greatest desires will be answered with advanced features that greatly expand the player housing system including exterior decorations, house purchase in game, and player lot access permissions so you can control who can visit your space (everyone, friends, or kindred)
• Crafting Expansions: Crafting will expand to include enhancements and events during crafting.
• Player Made Books: For those aspiring writers you can now write books in the game. These original manuscripts will be one of a kind items that can be traded or sold or submitted for publishing for a small fee. Published books will get copied and placed throughout the world.
• Character Creation Improvements: Do you wish you could style yourself even more? Well wish no longer, as we add more options to modify, more content to select, and improvements to the interface.
• New Creatures: Several new creatures will come online including clockwork creatures, gremlins and female elves.
• Encumbrance: Weight limits and values will come into play
• Overworld Roving Encounters: Encounters will now move around the overworld including monsters, NPCs, gypsy wagons, etc.
• Combat Skills: More combat skills will come online
• Party Loot Rules: Set how loot will be divided amongst party members. Leave the party leader in charge or random distribution? You decide.
• Scenes: More adventuring scenes, player towns, and plot areas on the main continent will also appear.

 

Shroud of the Avatar's first alpha release of its combat system is amazing! Deck system is genius!

Seeing is believing.

 

Great Success

 

The Deck System Combat in R8 outdid my high expectations for it, even though its in a raw and unbalanced state! Well done.

 

Awww, you took out the crafting enhancements and books...

 

They'll get to that.

 

Ardoris and minimap! Yay!

I didn't have much time this release but just playing around with the deck system and pvp was FUN. Some good times had on Vengeance Beach

 

Looking forward to release 9, Got into R8 a Little late cause I Was out of town but I hope I can enjoy R9 without to many issues.

 

Glad to see the continued focus on combat in R9! And R8 seems to be the most well-received release yet -- well, at least according to some polls....

 

Yay for durability and repair! Thanks for the update, Starr.

 

I'd just like to say, Fantastic Job on the Deck Combat System!

I was skeptical, but went into it with an open mind to try it for what it was, and not what I wanted it to be.

Even in it's Pre-Alpha Version 1 State, I found myself having a lot of fun with it.

Now i'm not a young whipper-snapper, I learned to program (Fortran) on a mainframe with punch-cards. So I've seen a lot and played a lot of systems in my day. Do I "Love" the combat system? No, that would be silly, it's far too premature for that. Do I "Love" the possibilities I see for it? Hells Yeah I do!

I raise my hand that over the years I have gotten pretty lazy with combat. Most games I have over 35 skills and for 80% of the fight I use 8. That's right, Mathematics at it's best - find the best skills (damage and rotation wise) I can manage on my G13, lock them in and play with um. Sure I might be better if I used more but for most battles, It's fine and I hold my own.

Ok, so no, I might not have exactly what I'm looking for when need it, but honestly, nobody else does either so at least that's fair. What I found though is that instead of focusing on that, I started to say, "OK, what skills DO I have and how does THAT skill work?" The more i thought of it, I realized that I now have a manageable way to have access to many more of the skills I could be using to make me a better player. What was even better was, I could tweek that manageability speed and bar width to whatever I was comfortable with.

Everyone certainly has the right to feel the way they want to about the Combat System and I respect that feeling. For me however, I am now very excited about the possibilities and potential of how I will be enabled to be a better player, and more versatile player by use of this system. For others, perhaps maintaining all those skills was not hard, but for this old timer, managing 30 skills at once was overwhelming - so i narrowed it down. What this system brings to the table (For me anyway) far outweighs having everything always available. I can learn to be flexible in my attack style and TBH I actually like NOT doing the same skills every damn time.

On top of all that, it's damn FUN.

Thanks so much for the innovative systems and keep them coming! Long Live R9!

 

Can we have a player town island template off of Ardoris to see what they'd look like?

Asking...for a friend...

 

Yay! I appreciate all of the updates and changes but I have to admit this update is very exciting for me. I am truly directionally challenged in the game. /zone home and well.. /zone to anyone who was available, has been my saving grace.

 

• Minimap System: Tired of getting lost in Owlshead? Well you can now rejoice, for in R9 you will now have maps (as inventory objects) that when used will bring up the map of the scene you are in and mark your location on it. This will be the first iteration of the minimap system, so only a few maps will be available.

Will have have to craft or buy the Mini-Maps of the area we are currently in in-order to have access to that map... Maybe not in R9 but in E1?

 

I enjoyed R8 and seriously looking forward to what awaits in R9. There is one thing I am sceptical on however. In your R9 notes you mention a chance for weapon durability to decrease on hits. Now I don't have a problem with that until this mechanic getslaced into a larger context. If archers need to replace arrows bevause every tume they use a bow an arrow is used and mages need reagents to cast spells, what do warriors need to replenish. If archers need arrows to do damage and they can't do damage without them, and mages need reagents to cast spells to do damage, what about warriors. If it is durability, why is just a chance to have durability happen. If is kept at a chance, I can see reagents have a chance not to be used. But what about the archer? Is there a chance that an arrow isn't used? I can see that warriors can use a damaged, broken?, weapon to continue to do damage at a decreased rate, and a mage, based on your comments, can or maybe should giving the warriors possibility to do damage with a broken weapon, can continue to do damage, but what about the archer? Can the archer still do damage without arrows? For me there should be similar mechanics for all three, not one ot two.

One more question re R9 comments. Will the bow take durability damage when used? Seems like that might be double jeopardy where a bow takes damage and they need arrows.

 

Release 9 was definitely fun and PvP together with a more complete combat system (e.g. more spells/powers) has kept me and my friends entertained the whole time even within an otherwise still very small/incomplete game. Your decision to add PvP rules and mechanics with the next release already is genius. PvP is something that allows players to entertain each other and continue testing even with little actual content (quests, dungeons etc) in the game yet.

 

Thanks!

 

Durability on a bow would (should) be super low...a bow string to be replaced on occasion. Now if the archer is using his bow to smack players and mobs upside the head, well then max out the durability reduction cause no bow is gonna hold up to that kind of abuse for very long.

 

@Darkstarr,

Love the new adaptable combat system. It introduces an exciting new dynamic, while at the same time allowing for old-schoolers to play in a traditional way. And then of course there is always the ability to do a little of both. A genius approach Sir that appeals to everyone IMHO!

#LLR9!