Features you'd like to see in Shroud of the Avatar

A way to get off the escalator and still contribute meaningfully to the game/game world.

One of my problems with the Worlds of Winter is that there's a very strong pressure - both mechanically and socially - to take your character to its maximum and spend most of your in-game time doing end-game content. Items crafted during leveling aren't useful at all in the end game, for instance, and it'd be nice if a few items (non-combat, maybe) were useful to everyone. Likewise, since most of the active players are clustered up at the maximum level, late-comers don't really have anybody to interact with - just as elder siblings tend to ignore the younger ones, the maxed-out players tend to ignore the still-climbing ones. And like the younger siblings, the late-comers are in this state until they reach adulthood - but that's the entire game. Which is frustrating when you want to do things with your friends, and you're the late-comer.

 

A Full Completed Virtue System,

similar to the one currently used in Ultima Online which after years of play... is still not complete...

 

<blockquote cite="Hightower">Unique names, and Kickstarter people allowed to reserve one name for a player Avatar.</blockquote>

Oh geez, I've gotta <b>anti-wish</i> that, man. Please don't make names unique! It's frustrating when you can't use the name you want, and whoever heard of a world where nobody has the same name?

Use something other than name to make characters unique. Even a weird name like mine has been taken before on games I've played, along with everything reasonable I come up with, and I have to make a name out of random gobbledy-gook.

Ideally though, I'd like to see it go even further in the opposite direction, where you don't even know someone's name untill they introduce themselves.

 

the ability to fly!

 

I second none-unique names! Manage characters/friend requests via facebook/email/username...anything.

There is nothing more frustrating than having to create a new name for your character. Let there be 100 Avatars.

 

Day/Night cycle and the posibility to camp in the overworld map like first Ultimas.

In multiplayer you could see some other player's camps in the map and enter, to ambush them or simply to spend the night trading, chatting or just try to make the camp more safe in case of an attack from other ppl.

 

First let me describe my dream avatar.

A jolly, burly blacksmith who owns a store.

Now this may seem to be a simple request, however it is very complex.

~ I would like the virtue or moral standing to have an affect on your character. (Example- A good moral standing character would be smiling and laughing, while an evil moral standing character would be grim.) Other ideas to show your personality would also be great.

~ Character creation that allows me to be a big and hairy blacksmith.

~ Exclusive and limited housing/store plots. I think if everyone had a house/store then owning one would be less exciting and fulfilling. (Financially and otherwise.)

 

Contrary to what most probably want, I would enjoy being able to sneak into a house at night and steal from a player. Of course this should be MUCH harder in the more expensive housing areas. I should have to work very hard to get get even a simple item in a city house, but a small village should be easy.
For balance sake, I would say that it would work best if I could only burglar a house whose owner is currently online.

 

One thing I would like to see is maybe a hardcore, function where when you're character die's you character's gone.

 

I would like to see the following:

1) Non-combat stance (i.e. - Weapon sheathed, shield on back, Helmet off, etc.)
2) Lots of emotes for role play.
3) Mini-games like those in UO (Chess, Backgammon, Solitaire) with more variety; maybe poker or dice games you can gamble your gold with other players.
4) Traps/Locks/etc. in dungeons.
5) A way to find friends if you don't have any gamer friends who are playing SA.
6) Lots of non-combat challenges (i.e. - Puzzle missions, sneaky thief missions, etc).
7) Adequate bank storage, especially considering the limits being proposed for housing.
8) Romance options with NPCs.
9) Day/Night/Weather/Seasons.
10) Holiday celebrations for the fantasy world, not our real world. No Halloween or Christmas; what kind of harvest festivals or customs are celebrated in the world of SA?
11) Immerse me!

 

I second the unique holidays/festivals. A game having its own unique pagan-esque seasonal rituals (perhaps one every few months) in the most appropriate town (rural city for agricultural holidays etc, port city for a the day of a sea god, an old religious site ala stone henge?)

Fluff like that really brings a game to life.

 

Via Esham_the_unholy
Here is an idea for housing. Keep the city housing and also the village housing. But to make room for the thousands of possible players to have a home do something like they used to do in Asheron?s Call. Do instances of player housing. It?s basically an area near a city or village (lets say a stone arch). Once a player walks through the arch then it will give you the option to choose a ?zone/instance? and it tells you how many housing plots are available or allows you to enter it. This would keep the land uncluttered yet give an almost unlimited amount of player housing. So basically a nice scenic area with maybe 50 different plot sizes in each instance? Just an idea?

Also make the housing instances different for each town/village to allow people to have a choice in what kind of area they want their house in?

 

If any kind of Player Killing is allowed and that player is connected to my game experience in any way shape or form meaning that if the player can see me to kill me, I want the overworld map to indicate clearly where the PK is so that I can avoid them by choice.

Note; I do not want to be forced to play offline, and I do not want to be forced to play only with people I know because my group of friends does not include RPG players, and I do not want to be forced to manage a complex and clunky filter of players in which I can/cannot connect to.

 

Unsure how to reply to a specific post on this forum... so I'll just say that if lockpicking is a skill that people can spend tons of time grinding up so would give them the ability to just break into my house where all my items are kept. Items that took me a long time to acquire or craft or attain.. and these 'thieves' could just come into my house and steal my items.. sure, yeah I understand immersion and balance and all that.. but if theft of any kind is a skill that can be used to grief other players then also make a trap crafting skill so I can place traps around my house that would insta-kill anyone wanting to steal from me.

Then perhaps instead of me logging in to find half my house looted then I might login to find a dead thief laying in my house and then I could simply loot his dead corpse of everything he had taken from me and maybe I could get from him even what he'd acquired prior to him deciding to break into my house.

I suppose there could also be a skill that people could grind that would allow them to disarm traps but that's assuming they even spot the trap in the first place. There has to be ways to safe-guard our items and not just make it a free for all to those who want to be thieves.

 

I think it would be cool to see this game in the Chrome Store running on Native Client for people to tryout without having to download might be a great way to get people started playing.

 

1. Features that encourage roleplaying would be awesome. Maybe even in-game holidays (but not "special event quest" style; just NPCs celebrating holidays, etc.), to provide context of time as well as place.
2. Day/night (especially if it corresponds to real time somewhere in the world).
3. PVP being skill-based.
4. HUUUUGE land.
5. Ships. If you could have boats/ships/skiffs, that would be awesome.
5b. Sea warfare (and the resulting possibility of PKers being pirates).
5c. Sea monster attacks (preferably extremely rare, but often enough that there are rumors... or hey, just start rumors!).

 

1. League of legends fast pace combat.
2. UO style PK system
3. Server Wars=)
4. Utopia (web game) style nation wars.
5. Allegiance system from AC (more followers= ranks,special skills, stat bonus)

 

I'm seeing a lot of great posts here everyone; please keep them coming.

As a point of note there are some features being requested that oppose each other; e.g Unique versus Non-unique names. Once the KS has met it's goal, I'd like to run a poll on these contrasting items to see which items are most preferable. These will be aggregated into suggestions for public viewing. The more clear your suggestions are the easier this will be for me to aggregate.

Also, please note that the poll will simply be a barometer for measuring and sharing ideas. Hopefully it will be a good way for everyone to see where ideas are headed and which features are most preferred.

Thanks in advance, and keep the ideas coming! 8)

* http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0/#chart-exp-projection

 

I just wanted to add:

At least 2 Characters per account. Most of the media I have watched states that a player will have one character per account. I wanted to argue that a player should be able to have at least two; one for solo offline play and another for multiplayer. The two should definitely be independent of each other and not be able to swap/trade items though.

It has been stated that solo characters will not be able to make the switch to multiplayer due to issues surrounding potential exploits. It might be better if everyone is allowed to have both. Just my two cents....

 

What Hope said, and: Randomness. By the bucketload.