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

Character Creation:

Since players will be coming into New Brittannia as folks from Earth, it would be nice to see PCs choose from background templates in terms of occupation and hobbies which would confer bonuses to skills or abilities of New Brittanian occupations and abilities. For example, a factory worker who loves to go fishing when the weather permits could have bonuses affecting smithing and fishing respectively or a doctor/nurse who likes to sing Karaoke or plays in a band on the weekend can have bonuses towards alchemy or healing and have bonuses towards the performing arts.

Also, in consideration of the above, I would not like to see everyone who comes into New Brittannia have the ability to be adept at killing things right off the bat. If one is not accustomed in the real world to using weapons or killing animals or people (soldier, police, criminal, hunter), then it should not be an easy task for one who comes to New Brittannia. There should be a focus on training skills and it should be a time investment as well that demands some amount of practice/sparring in order to be proficient in the use of weapons and martial styles as well as giving players the opportunity to be: guardian, criminal, or average citizen (sheepdog, wolf, sheep respectively) in game.

 

I'm not a big fan of an idea of people getting a leg up in the skill tree. If you were a factory worker, sure, concentrate on professions related to that. That would only be natural, but do it the old fashioned way. Earn it.

 

@Owain

Well I didn't mean a huge bonus, just a slight bonus towards attributes or skill points which a player can take advantage of in that a player could then focus on a career that is similar to one's Earthly profession or ignore and take up other professions/hobbies/skills that don't take advantage of these bonuses. Either way, the bonuses would never be anything significant to give one combination an advantage over another. It might merely shave off a few minutes of earning a subsequent early skill or simply affect the rate by which a player learns related skills.

 

Ultima Online! only 3d. Pre UO-R. The more of that you encapsulate the happier I will be.

 

Disguise/Roleplaying kits.

If we're limited to one character in SotA, this would be of great benefit to the roleplayers in our ranks. Basically, this kit would allow a player to change (at the least) their PC's name, gender and appearance (but not inventory), for as long as the kit is in use.

I figure either a single kit would allow for multiple custom disguises, or each kit could retain a single new identity (eg. I have 2 kits, one each for my RP characters of 'Lord British' and 'Shamino').

Having both limited use kits (for fun and events) and infinite use kits (for serial RPers) would be sweet too.

 

I like that idea Shadow of Light Dragon.

 

I want to climb and descend things using rope and tackle and other climbing equipment. If I can see it, I should be able to scale it if I have the skill: Trees, mountains, buildings, dark chasms in the ground, etc... Don't give me only one way (the expected way) to get somewhere. I want to make my own way.

 

Limits on fast travel. Even the moongates provided a tool that made an otherwise large world seem small. I personally like the idea of establishing your character in an area (town/village, region, continent) versus everyone being able to be everywhere. The Runestones in UO became a way to avoid movement in the world instead of facilitating it.

 

What is an adventure without a good soundtrack to truly flesh out the heart and soul of a world? If there is one thing that has to be done well it's a game's soundtrack. I remember getting on a ship in Ultima 9 and then hearing that uplifting trumpet theme and it made me feel totally awesome. If this sense of adventure can be replicated in SotA it would make me very happy indeed

 

can we have a full non lethal combat skill set i think being able to go thru the game without killing anyone would be a good challenge and can we have stealth afflicted by the light level in the area maybe let us have water arrows to but out torches and stuff or maybe just illusion magic to make myself look like an orc to get past the orc camp

 

Hey guys, i just featured this thread in my latest blog post - keep up the great suggestions
http://oftheavatar.com/news/
- Jay

 

Full MoCap. If Cloud Imperium get their hands on a full MoCap studio, perhaps something could be worked out with them so Portalarium can use the studio when CIG is not doing MoCap work for SC.

DF

 

Disguise kits? Nice. Nice Post @Vjek, although I think the amount of text might get skimmed for the majority. Very good ideas. Glad to see people still posting. Thank you for continuing to do so; please carry on!

 

**MOONSTONES & INTERSTELLAR DEBREE**

I'm sure this is probably part of the game some how, but just in case I figured I'd mention it. After the cataclysm I would imagine that metorites would land in the world and it was said this caused a disturbance with magic.

Since these metors are made of a substance that has such great influence on magic that perhapse they can be used to forge items with mysterious properties, or even the stones themselves could be used to open portals since the moons seem to have the ability to create wormholes/fold-space to create the lunar rifts.

Since the moons have the ability to open these portals, maybe they can be used as a focus agent in the meditative states I mentioned earlier, to fall into a trance on a particular lunar phase. While in the trance your essence may visit another plane like where the shirne of spirituality is or the codex of ultimate wisdom is located... something like that.

 

Come to think of it according to what I've heard about wormhole theory... A wormhole should be able to join two points in space, but it isn't limited to that. A wormhole can also join two points in time in the same physical location.

So if there is any correlation between New Britania's physics and Earth's, then theoretically the moongates should be able to bridge a point in space to another point in time.

Maybe at a certain time per annual cycle at the right time of day a gate to the past could be opened for some type of quest in another era, and maybe interact with people from the book that Tracy is writing. Maybe he could add a portion in the book some place where a stranger from another era comes to the aid of a hero so it fits in.

 

Crafting

Housing

Fishing

Treasure Hunting

Animal taming

Bard class of some type

Vendors

STEALING / thief builds ( stealing from players )

SOME kind of full loot system.
Example, To be able to loot someone, they have to be flagged "full loot" and so will you. You will not be able to loot a full loot corps until you you have been flagged full loot for at least 10 min. Having full loot toggled on will boost stats by 15% or something like that for a little incentive and risk vs. reward type thing. And once full loot is toggled off, there is a 10 min grace period before it is actually turned off to prevent system abuse.

Multiple characters. 95% of the players will not be role players. If you want to be a one toon role player, then just make one toon.

 

4 things: 1) make the world concepts realistic and non cartoony (UO and D&D good, WoW bad) 2) don't turn New Britannia into a Disney film, let us adults have some adult topics and politics too 3) keep the GUI and game data windows similar to UO 4) and for goodness sake please do not make magical numbers pop into the air when I whack things.

 

***Non-Combat Magic***

I hope there is a rich set of non-combat magic available to us who devote their times to becoming an arch-mage. Also the use of items that like crystal balls and other devices to aid in spell success and duration. See spells below for example:


* Magical Knowledge and discoveries through researching magic in game.

* Long Distance Telepathy to communicate with friends by projecting thoughts to the person you are channeling, or even people you don't know with the chance of spell being resisted.

* Seeing through another player's eyes (perspective as if you were the player playing him).. Function similarly to Telepathy by selecting a player from your friend's list or using Clairvoyance on a person who isn't a friend with a chance of spell resistance.

* Claraudio (spelling) to hear what some other character is hearing and can be combined with clairvoyance.

* Astral Projections to explore places in real time that are in a different spot on the world map, but be undetectable, and preferably in an altered state (because it's viewed from the astral plane) so you cannot read text bubbles but can see the people and where they are standing, and you can also check to see danger before you encounter it (except for magically protected locations).

* Spell to counteract the spells listed above so you can be assured of your privacy from other magical spies.

* And any other non-combat related spells, and abilities that can gather knowledge supernaturally.


TRULY A WIZARD OR AN ARCH-MAGE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THESE THINGS AND HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS OTHER PEOPLE DO NOT.

 

Had another idea along this line...

* Astral projections stay the same as above, but add the option to chanel additional mana to manifest an apparition that can communicate with the people in the area that you were astral traveling, or for less mana click on one of the people there to use the telepathy spell to send one of the people a private mental message in that area you are viewing.

***I would use this skill for hours just checking people out for fun. I'm sure others would love to do that too.

* Since we are on the topic of divination how about a spell to have insight into a person's soul like the gypsies. that is not just clairvoyance, but to gather information about a person by *** viewing the character's personal profile description and how well they are doing (good or bad) following the virtues. And even peak into their backback which may have information as well.

 

Given the lack of long term editing on these forums, I've created a shared public dropbox folder for the SotA related ideas & mechanics I've been working on.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u33sestask1talq/gwnjcPkH3L

If anyone wants to have a read through and then email me to discuss, please do! I can be reached at vjek.vjek@gmail.com

Looking forward to dissecting, brainstorming, and further enhancing some of my ideas. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome.