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

Ignore button that will eventually ensure that people I don't like will not be grouped with me again. Like the next time I enter a city. This way gold spammers, greifers, and other idiots eventually end up together where they belong. If I use it to much I end up grouped with other complainers where I belong.

 

The one thing I look forward to most is a detailed, complex taming system. Ultima Online is the ONLY game with a good skill-based taming system. I want the following out of my taming.

-Tame nearly ANYTHING. Any monster/animal/creature should be tamable, if you have the skill.
-Creature control is based on happiness and player skill. If a creature is happiest it's easier to control.
-Tamed creatures can be trained to get better than a wild variety of that creature.
-Animals have to be stabled. None of these systems like WOW where an animal/pet is just an item or a slot in your char sheet to be summoned at any time. You have to travel with and keep track of your pets.
-Taming should be DIFFICULT. I don't want everyone to be a tamer. I want taming to be a balanced powerful play option but one that many don't choose because of the time consumed in skill building.

 

All skills and crafts (including combat and magic) should be learnable and TRAINABLE by any character with the skills or craft. Everyone can do anything at zero-th level, however you want to define it. But, warriors and mages should be able to train others in their various skills, and depending on their ability, the students should be able to apply their skill at whatever their innate ability is. If the student doesn't have the potential, their ability to apply the training should be at the zero-th level. I could see guilds and schools being established around charismatic warrior trainers or mages or thieves.

I might define zero-th level ability as the bottom of the barrel basic application of the skill. Anyone should be able to pick up a stick and hit something with it, for maybe 1 point of damage, but we can all do that, right? Likewise, an untrained citizen might have a zero-th level magic skill, meaning, well, he can perform tricks of little or no application (zero, say).

Which gets me to a second point here, that at generation, all stats and characteristics should be on a sliding scale under player control. If you want to run a warrior with no STR or CON, then knock yourself out, but expect to die a lot. Low INT mage? High WIS thief? That's all the players' lookout. You get the switches any way you want, once, at character-creation. You can get temporary effects like buffs later, but the stats are set once. Minor note: Charisma or similar measure of attractiveness should be a stat that only affects NPCs, since players would probably be responding to how the alt is played, rather than sheer appearances.

Along these lines, there should be two paths of character appearance generation. One, a quick-start where a random selection of physical descriptors is applied to a generic body type, and maybe a second palate of minor appearance changes (mustache/no mustache, hair color). Boom, the PVPers and others who just want to start grinding can jump in and go.

On the other hand, as a roleplayer, I would like a far more powerful and varied ability to choose my alts appearances. Height, weight, age, gender, hair/tentacle color, etc, down to the individual stat-ranges which of course vary to the player-character species.

 

In case no one else has mentioned it yet...the swim skill. Lets a person cross a river, small pond, or dive under water to look for a hidden passage. And the person can drown too.

 

If person crosses fast moving creek or river, they are swept down stream, over waterfalls etc.

 

Just reading through all the posts and aggregating; lots of new suggestions guys (and gals): Interactive physics for weather, water, swimming, more on guild halls including room-based permissions for houses, all pretty amazing.

I'm intrigued by weapons having histories, and the thought of a shared-social reputation system. Having people build aggregated social reputations via others players sounded like it might produce emergent behaviours too; very, very cool stuff.

Please keep the ideas coming, folks.

 

Ability for players to play as monsters gain points to choose tougher monsters to play. Groups of monsters (players) could harass caravans, towns etc.

 

if it is ability to play as monsters just have it a spell you cast and take over the mind of a monster

 

I'm not sure if my suggestion about alignment/reputation has any traction, but I will pile-on my earlier comment by noting it allows an easy mechanic for simulating intelligent weapons. They just add high rep to a given faction.

 

Here's a bit of personalization for the alts: call them quirks. Characters can occasionally pick up a gesture, unusual jewelry, or something that they just do every so often. Like a tic, or maybe they gesture a little broadly when they talk. Heck, how about just being able to occasionally hum a tune as they walk, or during idle moments? They shouldn't happen all the time, not everyone should have one. I would hand them out very sparingly, like random rare drops, or maybe winning a contest. You could probably sell these as a premium. Heck, imagine being able to choose or change the tune your alt hums? Some rap, maybe a pop tune, or just whatever the top 20 lute bands are playing at the inn.

 

I never played UO. But I simply love the IV-VI lore. I would want a new game based on where these left off using modern technology. (I have no idea if you have rights to this content.)

No gear grind. The "grind" part is actually fine. It's the losing to another player or not being able to run a dungeon due to gear that's a problem. Unfolding this in a story is fine, but unbalanced instances (PvP or PvE) doesn?t make any sense. (Gear can of course be cooler looking and have stories beyond any stats.)

Limited number of combat skills. Make them feel natural. e.g. if I have a sword and a shield and 1 is hide behind the shield, 4 swing with everything I have and 2 and 3 are something in between, combat will feel a whole lot more fluid and natural than hunting around for a dozen keybinds. Combos like 3324 (swing, swing, parry, riposte) are fine as long as the number of buttons is limited.

NPC "bots". I should be able to a 2 man instance with either "Iolo" or another player. (GW1 worked something like this.)

I'm not sure how to rationalize open PvP with the virtuous avatar. I see something more like realm x falls behind in honesty. This unlocks some scenario where both sides believe they had justly purging the bad element.

The game should be fun. I should pretty much always have more to gain than lose for doing something. (Otherwise why play?) "Hardcore" is nice for about a week...then people lose their favorite sword and rage quit.

 

Im hoping for total outfit,armor, and weapon customization color and looks, loved uo color capability not necessarily need neon sword but be cool haha

 

Another feature I would like to see is no health bar for creatures/players. I don?t mind a health bar to inform me about my Avatar's health. But the only indicator I want for the creature in front of me is the actual visible wounds. ?Ooo, the wolf has a nasty cut and is spurting blood. I hope it dies before I do.? Also, I don?t want to see damage or healing numbers appear on screen either. I find those type of pops up annoying.

 

As intricate and detailed as this game is shaping up to be, I don't know how realistic this is but I would like to see the minimum game specs run as low as possible. My laptop is about four years old (so not totally obsolete) but it can't run high end games like Diablo III without some serious upgrading. I realize it's my responsibility to keep up with current technology and I don't expect developers to sacrifice performance for the few players on older machines. That being said, lower system requirements make the game more accessible and generate more sales from casual buyers. Either way it goes, I would really like to see the specs as soon as they are finalized so I have time to upgrade before the release, if necessary.

 

-> Treasure maps/treasure hunting and associated skills and quests

-> Boats/ships and as much maritime gameplay as possible (within reason, obviously)

And thanks for taking this project on!

 

Unrestricted (or less restricted) PVP:

-Casting spells with full plate armor and weapons equipped, without experiencing any negative effects on meditation or stamina.
-Plate armor becomes more of a privilege for those strong enough to use it. Stamina is only checked for melee and running away? you can only get so far on a set amount of stamina and mana before you run out of potions.
-Bring back the murderers and bounties, and please God, Trammel/Felucca -- the grouping algorithms should be able to create a scenario like this for those who are purely interested in PVP!
-Using bandages and drinking potions without disarming one's self, but the player still can't swing a weapon or cast while doing so.
-No mercy for those who can't keep up!
-Speed, speed, speed, and more speed.
-Shorten the casting delay to be equal to the weapon speeds, and base the stamina or mana consumption on how much damage the weapon or spell successfully lands.
-Don't let a specific type of melee or specific type of mage be more powerful, but instead, make it so that one must incorporate all possible skills at once in order to maximum PVP.
-Bring back the tank mages, and glorify them at the same time! ^_^

This works very well if there is no total skill cap, so any player could be "Grandmaster" of all skills if they invest enough time into each skill, but only ample resources will produce a profit for craftsmen. Only sharp reflexes would result in PVP victories. Pump up the AI with reduced delays as well on the very rare dragons and demons, but not so much that a player cannot kill it solo. It should be like practice for the fastest possible PVP combinations.

It pretty much comes down to reflexes and resources at that point. There is little to no room left for error. It's all about speed and wise decisions under pressure. This makes group PVP even more exciting. Every extra delay and restriction removed allows for faster dumping and a more a hardcore PVP style. There could still be tournament arenas with betting pots for players to settle disputes in 1v1, 2v2, etc.

Please don't leave out the good PVP!

 

Focus on player crafted items.
Minimal loot drops (unless that loot was picked up by the mob off a npc.)
Or a low quality drops off of random mobs.

Focus on economy, scarcity and inflation.
PVP, and Ranked PVP (arenas)

Castles, fortifications player skills to build towns houses, castles etc..

Players impacting safety and security of the land. Kill that troll camp no more trolls in the area, let it grow and it turns into a problem.

 

Regardless if the player chose single-player or multiplayer options there should be multiple start locations with different beginner quests.
When my friends asks, ?Hey when you started in the town of Tarslon, how long did it take you to do the ?pig mission???
I can reply, ?I have no idea what you are talking about. I started the game in a cemetery right outside of Skara Brae.?

 

Definitely need more in the $125 to $250 Bracket. Maybe a mount or something special that screams..."Hey I'am a dedicated and long-term SotA supporter." Or maybe even a lower class housing for the aforementioned price of around $250. Considering there are about 700 of the 1000 spots allotted for Kickstarter housing still available. LLTS-

 

On a housing note I'd really like to see boats you could live on. I was thinking you could make a little gold as a merchant buying & selling goods, transportation & fishing. There could be docks in each coastal city / town / village, where you could buy a berth or even a floating city.