Isle of Storms

Hi all,

I just finished reading Update #143 - https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=53410 - and I'm a bit puzzled about one specific sentence:

(Emphasis mine)

My concern is that all three main questlines will be accessible and doable from the very start - since you can be a new character facing either T, L or C plots.

What worries me is that, by the time you can complete "your" starting path, the other two will be trivially easy to steamroll through, basically replacing a single easy-to-hard main line with three interchangeable lines.

Also, it looks to me that each path has an "ideal" equipment to tackle it, and you can't switch from Love to Truth (for example) at very start, because you'd face something your avatar is not geared for.

Unless Port's wants to auto-scale difficulty level of all three plots (which carries its own baggage of problems - I hate autoscaling!), I'd love to be reassured there's a single progression, and equipment is not critical to solve any path.

TIA.

 

Great question.

If the starting points are only about 1% of the story lines, I assume that difficulty would scale up over time. But what happens when you start a new one? Or is each character intended to be a paragon of just one, not all three?

 

I'd assume each of the three starting paths is unique, but there are threads for all three in the middle as well. So you only see the Blood River Massacre if you choose that path, or the Battle of Solace Bridge if you choose another. You will still hear about both, and deal witht the fallout, but you only witness that intro through one of them.

That doesn't really change your experience, other than which event you see personally. The threads are all still there.

 

Good questions, Cause I want starting abilities that will support Archer, that's what I want to be..... so I want a bow and LOTS of arrows .... I was hoping at character creation I could decide what I want my char to be, so if I choose between fighter type, archer type, rouge type, or mage type, that's the starting stats I start with, with the appropriate equipment and weapon... So if I choose fighter, I start with str, plate , with a choice of 1 or 2/h weapon (blunt, spear or swords etc.) If I choose a ranger/Archer type I'd start with dex, chainmail, bow and arrows preferably in a quiver. If I choose rouge type, I'd start with dex, leather for movability, dual-wield daggers, and if I choose a mage then I'd start with Intel, Cloth, with a choice of 1 or 2h wand or staff. JMHO ....

 

I have been on this for awhile, and if you have been following my posts on storyline it is one of the things I have been harping on.

This post just brought more of it up.

So, if and this is a big if, they have it play like the storyline would have worked in Ultima 7 then you wouldn't have to go in any one direction at start...yes you could start out on a trek for love or whatever and then as you go wander through the land you could find other threads of the story that will pull you this way or that.

Now, that was easy because it was a single player game. This is a lot harder in the fact that people will be all over the map in ability. Especially with this new skill system where it will be harder for the devs to now the skill level of players when they could realistically be expected to be at when they tackle a facet of the story.

Now, Lum is on record as saying that the story wasn't really about challenging combat(or something a long those lines, to lazy to get the exact quote). I queried if it would be too easy then etc.

I'm really not sure how this is all going to work to be honest and have been sort of saying this since day one.

 

Arabella greets new avatars coming from Earth and guides them with a series of questions that will determine which path they start down: Truth, Love, or Courage. These paths not only determine which plot thread you begin with, they also determine what your starting abilities are and what equipment you have.
curious, what if we don't like the outcome of the questions we answer giving us the skills we don't want? Like I said, I want the skills for archery, that's the char I want to play.... even though the archer right now sux .....

 

This sounds kind of like classes to me... Or am I missing something?

 

It sounds exactly like the beloved gypsy from the old single player Ultimas. I am really excited about that. I'm not concerned about the starting skills and equipment. Acquiring new skills will be fun.

 

Starting skills and equipment don't worry me: actually it's a welcome change from the actual starting kit of blades+leather, if it can be "voluntarily nudged" toward our personal preference.

What worries me is that the three plots may be each scaled in difficulty from level 1 to level 20, so to speak.

So, intead of a single progressing quest covering levels from 1 to 60 (for example, numbers come from my backside, there's nothing official or based on any clue), we would have three parallel quests, each one scaled in a 1-20 range.

Once finished the first one, we'd be too strong to start the second, and once the second is done, we'd be laughably overpowered to start the third one.

That's my concern, and I hope I'm missing something.

 

Yeah, that's how I read it too. Your entry into the world and where you start is unique based on your answers to Arabella's questions. What you do after that is the same for everyone. You can ignore the plot thread and try to pursue the others or just ignore it completely.

Yep, they're going for the Ultima IV gypsy questions. Your starting equipment and location was based on your answer to those gypsy questions.

 

I wouldn't mind being laughably overpowered for a quest - it would be a relief after my R21 experience where I can hardly harm a fly

All kidding aside - maybe each avatar only gets to complete a single plot thread, not all three. When I first read the update I automatically assumed that I would need to create three characters to enjoy each plot thread. I don't think it is very clear yet how it will work, but I'll take it as it comes.

 

I would hope that people that complete the quest-line instead of skipping it would be rewarded with some kind of rare item, so they can have a trophy of such.

 

Same here!

Personally, that'd be the worst way to develop the story, as three independent and mutually exclusive sub stories.

Also because, how it'd work in Single Player? Isn't the Avatar of SP the one tasked to reunite the forsaken virtues?

No, please no.

 

Would be good to have that 3 character slots available when the testing of this starts (so can test them all)

 

Or 3 permanent character slots, y'know, whatever works

 

Classes dictate future advancement. This is just starting equipment.

 

We're not planning on doing scaling of quest lines. Once you finish one, you'll be directed to start another, and the others will be easier. As @rune_74 alluded to, the "point" of the quest of the Avatar isn't combat; it's just one tool in a toolbox.

 

One possibility is keeping the early areas and quests of all three lines fairly easy, but making the end of each of the three major virtue quests more difficult so you revisit them later. That way players may end up doing the beginning of love, the beginning of truth, the beginning of honesty, etc. and then finishing each up rather than playing the game so linearly. I expect players will be traveling back and forth all over the map to explore anyway.

 

Not entirely sure I'm enthusiastic about this answer.

I'll wait and see.