Feedback As It Comes To Me

So I thought I'd give my generalised sense of Shroud as I wandered around again; hopefully I'll remember to keep this thread going as I venture further!

To begin with, I was using the Steam client, and I was in game by 4:40 pm, 10 minutes after the server went live I believe. Like many I wanted to try and place as quickly as possible, so I skipped the tutorial, ran in "Fastest" graphics mode, planning to run to Owls Head, and pick up my deeds. I was ambushed 3 times on the way out of Braemar alone; I'm already not a fan of the current suggested design for lot placement, and straight away this indicated something which is even more likely to lead to negative opinions on the launch day... With time slots so limited (10 hours) it's entirely possible even if you can real life schedule the slot you're in, ambushes will randomly decide who places where regardless. Whilst we're all pretty relaxed about it now, with the placement not being permanent, I fully expect the forums to explode with anger on the actual day, because a bunch of Skeletons insisted upon saying hello, and thanks to that you saw someone else arrive at your dream home just before you did.

I would suggest then that random encounters be turned off for the placement process.

By the time I reached Owls head, at around 4:50, I discovered all the row lots had already been claimed. Disappointing, I wanted one near Moo the cow. So I set off for Kingsport. I was ambushed twice more on the way, and the lots there were gone too. I then proceeded around the lands finding none, until an hour or so after I got in game, I finally headed towards Ardoris. Until now, game performance had actually been relatively reasonable, presumably because none of the player's decoration was yet out. At Ardoris however, my poor system (Win7 64bit, 4gb Ram, ATI 4670HD 512mb) started to really suffer. What's worse, if you get more than a few seconds of frame rate problems the game kicks you back out to the title screen. After placing, it did this twice just trying to get screen shots of the next issue... I noticed with the recent release notes the requirements have raised to 6gb Ram. I may be able to upgrade to this before launch, but currently I'm seriously struggling, even on Fastest settings.

That next issue then? The sky box is seriously bad in Ardoris at present, at least on Fastest settings (I haven't dared try any others). It's a blazing, washed out orange with no indication of where the Sun is supposed to be... I thought it might be Bloom at first, and although that calms it down a little, it's still pretty harsh.

Images With Bloom, then Without;









After wandering around to nearby ships, trying to find their captains and force them to hand it over at cutlass point (Yaargh, fishermen need ships mateys, sell me one at launch ye swabs!) but discovering they were all lost at sea somewhere, I decided to try a little home-making.

Adventures In Interior Decorating:

I was a little disappointed you can't place small items above the fireplace, or on the small skirting boards that run around the walls; at least, none that of the starting rewards I have at Ancestor would fit there...



You can't place on the stairs into a Row House either, unfortunately.

Likewise the rules regarding clipping are inconsistent, the Fruit on the left has a footprint that will fit into the space on the right, but it won't go, presumably because at the angle it's currently at, it clips into the wall.

However, items which have an animation which expands the size of an object, such as the snowball lid, will clip into their surroundings;



Attempting to open my Darkstarr metronome, I discovered there is no "I Wish To Secure This" feature which holds an item in place? I accidentally moved it a fair few times clicking and waving my mouse around... I would like to see an option to have doors automatically close after a while too; perhaps have a spring mechanism you can attach to doors you'd like to shut themselves, which can be player crafted.

I'd have liked to have decorated my home with the Iolo Crossbows for instance, but I don't think weapons/items can be used as such as yet?

The home I have at Ancestor is the 2 Story Stone. Unfortunately one of it's only 4 windows is blocked by a wooden shutter, and it's the one which would have allowed the lovely view of the nearby ships; I'd like to see such features made optional, or at least the shutter openable. And for those with no house backing onto them, the option to punch a window into the wall. I know Row Houses aren't supposed to be high quality living, but the floor plan is punishment enough. Let us have some natural light at least!

Back Into The Outdoors With Cutlass and Fishing Rod

With little to really do with my rewards at home, I decided to have a look around the map; but first, trying to make a leap across a small gap, failing, and landing in the water led to me getting inescapably stuck behind a pole at this location;



Using /stuck to get out and to the world map, I wandered to Kingsport, and from there to Port Mirram. It would be a lovely home for a would be buccaneer... it reminded me pleasingly of our infamous Den in Ultima, so I was quite taken with the graphic design at least. But I'm not convinced by the depth of the sea around the island yet; Most of the water, including at this part where those wonderful frigates are docked, is only apparently ankle deep and you can walk through it quite merrily.



If house boats ever are allowed to sail freely, those channels should be ocean-deep and navigable really; or ifjust for atmosphere now, wading through them looks a bit silly.

And is it just me, or does the running animation feel like you have a hunched back? I can't quite put my finger on why. I thought at first it might be little changes in height around Port Mirram, but the more I ran everywhere the more I felt it was the running itself. It might be the sound effects which has a "stomp stomp stomp hobble" pattern, or possibly something about the way the shoulders are animated... but it's definitely there for me! Does anyone else see it?

Combat proved... confusing. Skeletons and giant spiders couldn't touch me at all in the Royal Founder Plate, even though I'd yet to gain a single level, so I just stood and went toe to toe with them. Which still sounds like you're tickling them with spoons rather than engaged in life or death struggle.

Maneaters however were able to kill me from enormous distances; and that may prove problematic because they're in an Open PvP zone. As they have incredibly strong ranged attacks they're bound to interfere with players fights, but as they'll be protecting increased rewards too, you don't want them to be too weak either.

I'd suggest maneaters have their ranged attack damage reduced considerably, and some sort of mechanism put in place which only starts a fight with reward harvesters. Maybe have the elementals spawn upon mining resources, like in Ultima Online and the Gargoyle Pickaxe? That way they'd not be there to get in the way of PvP normally, but would ensure if the zone was empty, as it was for me, there would still be a challenge for those after the resources.

I did manage to find the Tour Guide I was looking for eventually;

Spoiler

He's visible on the ridge from where you spawn into the zone, just to the right of the largest shard, but hard to see at night. I had to dodge between the two maneaters, then use the ridge to break line of sight to get to him safely.

And then headed off to Blackblade Pass to find the next one. Clicking on the gate back at Owls' Head actually took me to a small cave with a few spiders inside.

Including Invisible Spiders;



Fortunately I was able to hit them anyway! But even the ones I could see didn't leave lootable corpses.

I have to say, I wasn't impressed with this instance at all. It's just too small. At first I thought I must have missed a tunnel, but it really was just a few small rooms down a slope. The glowing mushrooms and crystals add a little atmosphere, but cave maps have proven the worst of Shroud in my perspective; they're just too simple, small and largely bland and forgettable. And I gather the next Tour Guide isn't in there regardless.

And that is where my first day's adventuring ended, to mixed feelings really. Trying to run off from random encounters towards the map boundary, dodging maneaters and wandering in tiny caves has left me feeling like the game really is just on too small a scale at the moment; the land rush and the reward scheme has in turn left me still feeling like I'm doomed to slum it even at Ancestor level. Combat is still very, very silly and unconvincing. However some of the scenery and the potential within player crafting and decorating hints at much more pleasant emergent gameplay; but it relies upon systems which are still only vaguely sketched out. Hopefully I'll get a better sense of that as I dip into crafting again over the next few days and weeks...