[POLL] How was the Pre-Alpha Release 1?

My only real problems were collision issues and NPCs need more to say. Also the hair and eyes on the characters could use some work but I'm sure this will improve a lot in the next build. A lot of the problems have already been fixed.

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Overall, I am pretty happy about the progress made so far on the game. It looks completely different and much better than the early KS videos. I am very glad that they let us see this game in such an early state. It has reignited my interest in the game and I can't wait to check out more alphas.

The good:
-The Launcher/Patcher worked very well. Within minutes of downloading it I was patched and in game.
-The lighting is fantastic. I spent a lot of my time moving lights around in houses trying to get perfect lighting. I also like how dark it gets at night, as it helps show just how nice the lighting can be.
-On that note, as someone who has in the past said they don't care for housing too much, I actually found it to be quite fun and user friendly. Being able to place books and bottles on shelves is very neat and provides a lot of options for customization.
-Even in its early state, I found the conversation system to be interesting. Just bringing up other topics and keywords I heard around the town with the barkeep lead to me talking to Bentham and Myra and discovering a quest about helping freeing her brother from the Clink. Even though I couldn't find the Clink, it was so cool to stumble across something like that quest.
-The little interactions, like being able to turn off streetlights and open doors with secret switches, were really cool. I hope to see more interaction with the surroundings as the game reaches retail.
-The controls are pretty standard and intuitive for M+KB setups. A method to turn the camera independently of the character is all that is really needed at the moment.

The bad:
-The running speed is quite slow.
-Movement is a bit clunky. Changing direction while strafing is one in particular I recall being a little weird. I think either the animation for it needs to be nicer or the current animation needs to be sped up.
-I'm not really too concerned about the jumping vs no jumping debate, but at least a prompt that would allow us to hop down/climb up low ledges and straddle over certain fences would be nice.
-It seems like the music volume completely drowns out the sound volume, even when the music volume is low. The only way I can hear things like footsteps is to completely turn off the music.
-I regularly fell through steps and platforms and had to use the /stuck command or relogging to escape. This mostly happened in the Knight and Viking houses.

It's really amazing the amount of work that has been accomplished since kickstarter. I rated it a 4, and feel that for a pre-alpha it did what it set out to do.

 

Overall I gave the Pre-Alpha a 4/5

Install / Patching System
Did not have many problems here

Login / Registration
During the final hours of the game had plenty of login issues, had none during the first couple of days of testing

Character Creation
No really impressed so far but I really don't care about seeing my character much, I would rather see better developed NPC models rather than player character models but that is probably just me!

Single Player Online
Felt kind of lonely overall, the guard chatter was amusing at times, I especially liked the comments about not touching the sheep! Laughed so hard when I read that comment.

First Town (Owl's Head)
I liked the village of Owl's Head, did not seem big enough to call it a town! Vendors did not have any routine, they just stood around which is not so great, I hope this will change!

Conversation
Not bad for the Pre-Alpha, I was not expecting much here and this exceeded my expectations. However, I entered the town on the side and the guards were bugging me about not talking to Michael. I asked where he was and got generic "I don't understand responses". I expect that this will be tweaked as time goes on.

Bag Inventory
Feels like Ultima 7, I like this feel, forget about meaningless slots, the stone system is back!

Equipment
I like the look of most items encountered.

House Claiming
I played with this quite a bit, not bad once you get used to it. I had to remember to remove my stuff first, forgot I had stuff in the first house, remembered after that!

House Decoration
Was having fun with this. I had taken over a Lord of the Manner house and put a Guillotine next to a Butchering station in the master bedroom. I did not find a bed to put next to that! I will try that for the next Alpha/Beta! Also had fun decorating the house with pictures, and fish!

Metrics
Found the in-game coordinate system a little cumbersome. Would like to see an option to make it visible on the screen (perhaps in the lower right corner or something.

 

I thought it was a very very good first look at Shroud of the Avatar The Dev Team should be proud of what they have so far .... lots to work on Owls Head still but It captured me as Uo did , it was very strange but inviting how if Felt as if I was In the same world however maybe on a different con tenant. Bravo Devs .

 

Well regarding this game and how it is at this point. It is not yet our game. We were informed that we were doing this to help and that this will be a very rough example. So I for one won't participate in judging the game itself but for doing the Alpha I enjoyed it very much. How easy it is to forget what we are doing, I know I am anxiously awaiting. I know we are not playing a game we are testing certain elements and developing conversation. This is not the game at this point. I am just excited for the more to come.

 

Yes they told us it would be very rough. I don't think we need to worry. We have a very creative team working on the game. We just need to be creative help to them if they ask for it.

 

I play several games that use the WASD keys for movement, but I also like having the option to switch that to the arrow keys instead which I can do with almost all the games I play. For me this is the one major issue I wish would be an option, I prefer having opened ended editing of key bindings or at a minimum having both the arrows and WASD control movement. For example, combat and spellcasting depending on how they are accomplished can be tricky and awkward when your left hand has to control both movement/spellcasting/combat. Anyhow, just my two cents on the only thing that really bothered me in this release, but not enough for me to reduce my "5" vote down because of it.

 

It was fine, I had no major issues outside of falling through floors constantly but had a smooth run around the town mostly. I was able to maintain a frame rate of about 20 fps with fraps on so not too shabby. The decorating worked like a charm imo, okay a few placement glitches but otherwise perfect.

 

I felt most of the houses gave a dirty and worn impression.
Even many of the higher tiers.
Notable exceptions were the Wizard and Tower homes, Town Lord home and City Lord of the Manor home, they looked kind of newly built.
Perhaps the building will be polished as time progresses.

 

it was nice to explore the town and see all the player houses they have made so far. i just feel the markets and other key places in the town need something to distinguish them from the sea of player houses. they need something that draws you in to the heart of the city. road signs maybe a clock tower?

 

I was impressed with the chat NPC system and the way you could put items in the world, even on walls etc. But talking to NPC is whats gonna define this game over other MMO, Its the most original aspect, the fact you feel is their something else i can get out of this person, what other secrets do they have, instead of a bucket list of questions to click like in most MMO.

The player animations have no fluidity to them, Look to GW2 as the player character in that game runs and has great fluid movement with weight to stopping etc, also the speed is spot on in that game as well.

The player housing in a separate area please, spoils the look of the town.

Poor texture work inside the houses, also poor architecture in many of the houses, Rooms with nothing in them except walls and ceilings, No beams etc no details. damn ugly in places.

Outside regions looked good with the paths and grass etc and the lighting at night looked great but the lighting in the day looked off to me, Unnatural and kind of harsh!

But overall i was excited by this release and had a lot of fun playing around, keep it up, thanks.

 

+1

 

I agree that text should not be highlighted in the conversation boxes, otherwise the rest of the conversation is just filler. Let us figure out the key words like we are supposed to.

 

I very much enjoyed the pre-alpha for what it is, a slice of what is to come and our chance to help improve it. I'm really happy to finally experience a more real conversation system again, even in it's beginning stages. I simply loved the housing and decorative options, and I'm positive Shroud of the Avatar will very much feel like a real world, and not just a game. It's what I loved about Ultima Online, but have not experienced since, and now I'm thinking I'll be experiencing something much better with Shroud of the Avatar. I'm looking forward to being here during all the little steps of it's way towards realization.

 

Install / Patching System: No problem, flawless

Login / Registration: No problem

Character Creation: we knew it was going to be limited... have 2 bald head types...clean shaven and stubbly...I'm a clean shaven kinda guy!

Single Player Online: Seemed ok, Might play in this mode some of the time

First Town (Owl's Head): Nice..its pretty big and easily confusing...a compas and map to keep track of location would help greatly

Conversation: A little rough and limited but we were forwarned

Bag Inventory: Hate it! Please switch to a grid based bags. It might have been fine back in old UO days but its an inconvenience and even though I have a 17" laptop...small black objects are hard to see with lots of other stuff in the bag. Add in the option for auto looting, or click on it and loot...saves time in rough areas where you don't have 5 minutes to sort through

Equipment: its ok... I wasn't over impressed with the armour...but its a pre alpha test...so I know there is time to make it look awesome!

House Claiming: real easy I do hope over time they offer some other small 2 story homes for village sized lots.

House Decoration: Placement was easy but I couldn't figure out how to rotate them around... but I decorated my lil wizard tower nicely!

Metrics: the animals were kinda twitchy...especially that white horse in the stables lol

I think the game shows good promise, and this was a sort of pre alpha test so we could see whats going on...I have seen the video's where richard got the skull throne so the mechanics for combat will be coming soon.!

 

Don't forget that it's an online game. If you look at all the games that are MMOish or have a heavy online component, DC Universe Online and Elder Scrolls Online come to mind, none of them are as graphically good as single player games. I mean ESO is a prime example.

Other than clipping and technical issues I'm sure will be solved, The only thing about it that really irked me was the inventory management system. I really think we need a grid, and be able to sort it, stack items, etc. It's very difficult and slow to manage inventory atm.

 

Tl;dr - I think there needs to be some more optimization, fleshing of tested systems, and NPC implementation. I currently feel, however, that I made a very good choice backing Richard and crew. 4.5/5 stars.

Just as a reminder, here are the core systems that they wanted us to playtest for Pre-Alpha Release 1.


Install / Patching System: 5.0 - Very intuitive, and easily performed. I generally have to wait for 12 hours with my high-speed connection to get high-budget games installed, updated, and running correctly. I managed to complete the SoTA pre-alpha install within about 15 minutes as soon as the link was published.


Login / Registration 4.5 - As with every initial game release, the login servers were overwhelmed for the first half hour. The fact that the team got everything working (at least for me) that quickly is an impressive feat. If I were being subjective, I'd give it a perfect 5 since even big-name games would have scored a 3.5 or less on my scale. After the initial bogging I never had another problem logging back in.


Character Creation 3.5 - The fact that the system WORKS this early in development is impressive. I would have liked to see more options available for customization, but I fully understand that we were testing different aspects of the game at this point. For the most part, I was able to quickly create my character and jump right into playing.


Single Player Online 5.0 - Meh. I want to play fully online, but I suppose the system that we were here to test seemed to function properly. I think? I personally prefer interaction.


First Town (Owl's Head) 4.5 - I REALLY liked the open-ended feeling of this town. I was pleasantly surprised with how incredibly large the town was after I completely explored it. Again, to say that I prefer online play -- I'm hoping that this city will be alive with activity, neighbors chatting outside of their homes, warriors dueling in the outskirts, and merchants conducting business in the town square. The loss of .5 for me was simply because it didn't seem very "alive" with the majority of the NPCs just occupying a single tile. I know this will be remedied.


Conversation - 3.0 - This needs to be fleshed out more, but they know that. I like the fundamental way it will work, but I wish that our text would also appear above our heads. Text boxes, timestamps, and PMs RUIN immersion for me in the long run. "Oh, but Stanwood, text doesn't float above your head in real life!" I know, I know...


Bag Inventory - 3.5- Duping, and drag/drop mechanics need to be fixed, but it reminds me of Ultima / Ultima Online, which I love! I believe you should focus a lot on this UI. I feel that in a 3D game, you'll run into a lot of the inventory issues Darkfall devs did if you aren't careful. Slotted inventory is so boring.


Equipment- 4.0 - Needs to be fleshed out more, but all-in-all, I like!


House Claiming 5.0 - Functions as intended. Love me some UO-style housing. ' Nuff said.


House Decoration 4.5 - LOVE it, but I think placement boundaries need to be created so that things aren't looking ugly, stuck in walls, or being used to gain access to otherwise impossible areas. This would get a 5.0 if not for those small, fixable problems.



BONUS QUESTION: If there is *one* feature that you'd like to see improved more for Pre-Alpha Release 2, what would it be?


More of the conversation system needs to be implemented for further immersion. I felt like the game was full of deaf grandfathers after about 20 minutes. At least Guard Michael wasn't as socially awkward as the rest of his city-folk.

 

I can certainly understand how one can have such a POV, however I think its important to note that this has everything to do with the level of housing you speak of as well as a renaissance appearance... esp. when one is discussing the smaller more villager style homes. In the simplest of terms when you think of both context and environment, a peasant/villager home isn't going to be as polished as say a Lord's home, nor should it be by design, IMHO. The housing setups now and the opportunities to obtain them are indeed limited and governed by sponsorship and thusly is why the appearances of current are what they are. Despite this, when it's all said and done, not everyone will be able to say they even have a home and/or may be able to obtain one easily in the future given lot limitations.

By the same token and once again giving consideration to both environment and contribution towards development, each pledge level offers certain bonuses and expectations as a result of the same. If everyone puts forth what they are both willing and capable of affording in terms of backing, than one can achieve a securing of what one may consider best or better. I love for example the Lord of the Manor home and pledge level benefits/privies, but I am not prepared to spend the pledge amount required at the moment (LOL, the hubby would kill me). That's not to say that regardless of what home one gets as a part of one's pledge (or not) or if they perhaps make a home/basement purchase at the add-on store that it wouldn't be nice for a player to have some control over the color/appearances of the walls etc., however I think this may be unlikely given server space constraints in the larger picture. I could always be wrong though

With that being said, for example - in Second Life - all houses were governed by "Prim" limitations which meant that the total amount of space dedicated to the home itself, its décor and items stored within the same could only be up to a certain amount in the form of XXX number of Prims. Wall coverings took up a lot of space and as a direct result reduced the total overall capacity in terms of storage and prim allotment within the home. In the simplest of terms, if you wanted that much control over the interior of the house, it cost you quite dearly reducing your allotment and you couldn't always fit everything you wanted into the home as a result. The only way around this was to spend much money on purchasing "land" to purchase and place a larger prim limitation "home" upon the same, thusly increasing your server space (in essence) and allowing you more control. In that scenario, if one was prepared to pay huge monthly fees for the same (several hundred dollars and up), you could change your house to your hearts content. But for those of us with a more basic need and subscription level, the provided lot and home was good enough despite the fact that upgrading the walls would sorely reduce one's ability to more fully enjoy the home in terms of use and décor.

Personally, I think more focus will/should be given into the quality and appearance of the items that a player outfits and decorates their home and property with than any option to change the design, texture or color of interior walls. For me, I think the more detail, texture and variety that can be given to any of these such items is more important to make your home both your own and personalized, with a flare of one's own perception of their characters affluence and personal requirements. Regardless of what they do in this regard however, those who are able to have homes and/or lot properties are going to be very lucky indeed, as there will come a point and time where they won't be available anymore.

 

I agree, the 'commercial areas' of the town need to stand out more from player houses. The tavern isn't obvious enough, maybe a bigger sign?

 

For pre alpha i say 5. I have been in a few beta tests that lacked much more than this build.