The Return of Lord British!

So it has been a long time since my days spent traversing the world of Ultima Online (many many days).  I’ve looked back fondly at those times and wish I could go back.  Sadly, without close friends, the game feels just like any other mmo without friends… gimped.  Since UO2 or UXO was shot down because EA hates me and wanted to make a mobile version instead, I had to wait for … well… some developer to get off their duffs and make an MMO that had all the options and versitility that the original UO had 16 years ago!  Is that too much to ask? (I know the answer to that.)

Map down view for part of this game... how will that work?  Maybe like old school Final Fantasy?
In a nod to Garriott’s early RPG works, Shroud of the Avatar is split up into a high-level overland map and adventure scenes. Scenes are generally re-playable and can be experienced solo or with others.”

So in comes Richard Garriot (Lord British) with a long awaited sequel to Ultima (but not really Ultima because EA owns that) with Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.  Some of the features given were:

-“Fully interactive virtual world – If it looks usable, it should do something”
-“Multiplayer Online Game – which can also be played solo player / offline”

*EDIT* Just watched a live broadcast interview with Garriot and he described the multiplayer and ad-hoc. So if you’ve allowed them social media access to your Facebook or Google+ then you would see your friends in the world, but not nessecerilly everybody else. The world would be persistant, but the players would not be as to not create extreme lag in the main cities like they have in UO. This will mean that you’ll need a lot of friends to actually be playing this game to see others. So maybe this isn’t the next UO, but a co-op RPG… Will that work in this day and age because you know people will just not completely understand the concept.

-Classless Character System: “Unlike most RPGs, players will not be limited to the class they select at the beginning of the game.”  Hopefully it will be like UO where you simply leveled what you used and could add and subtract points as you went along.
-“Player housing will live in the persistent shared world, so real estate will have location value.”
-Non-lame crafting: “Craft as a hobby or as a career! The results of all crafting elements have value as consumables and components in the combat system, as well as maintenance and upgrade elements for housing and cities.” Apparently you could play just as a crafter, not my thing, but I’ve done it before.

 

Alpha is scheduled for possible December 2013 so if you're discrediting the game for these pre-alpha shots, you should punch yourself in the nose.
Alpha is scheduled for possible December 2013 so if you’re discrediting the game for these pre-alpha shots, you should punch yourself in the nose.

There is a Kickstarter campaign up and running for Shroud of the Avatar which I would encourage anyone that liked or loved UO to check out.  I’m considering the simple $25 amount to get alpha/beta access.  I don’t feel I need to drop much more than that as I’m not drooling at the mouth excited (there’s no shame in that though).  You could drop $10k though and get a slew of goodies plus meet the never completely buttoned Lord British himself!  Or you could drop $10 and “Thank Lord British and prove your virtue with a $10 donation. If you ever pirated an Ultima game or used an exploit to grief other players in Ultima Online, here’s your chance to repent! For your $10 donation you will receive a clear conscience and Lord British’s undying gratitude.”  lols.

Feel like spying on the team that’s working on the game?  Click it, you know you want to!

Love it or hate it, let me know!