Episode 1 Launch

Episode 1 is launching out of Early Access with a candidate build at the beginning of 2018! So what does that mean exactly for a game that has been both persistent for over a year and been doing monthly releases for over 4 years? Well, for us it means that we are delivering the list of features, including physical goods, promised during the Kickstarter albeit with a few exceptions and/or replacements. It also means that we are going to grow our community through marketing campaigns.

As we present the overview of launch content it is worth reviewing what our vision is for Shroud of the Avatar. Shroud is a role playing game that is the spiritual successor of the Ultima* games that Richard “Lord British” Garriott started making 40 years ago that blazed the trail for what is often described as immersive sandbox role playing games. NPCs with schedules, choices that matter, the virtues, the word Avatar, games in a box, cloth maps: all those things came first with Ultimas*.

It is also the spiritual successor of Ultima Online*, the game that is credited with pushing MMOs into the mainstream & coining the term MMO. That game was built with Starr Long, aka Blackthorn, aka Darkstarr who is once again working with Richard on Shroud. Like the Ultimas*, and Ultima Online*, Shroud is a role playing game where you immerse yourself in a massive sandbox where you are challenged to make choices based on Virtues. It is a game where you can accept that challenge solo, with friends, or against other players through deep and interdependent roles supported by a complex crafting and economic system.

Much like all of Lord British’s previous works Richard pushes the team to make the world be interactive and immersive. This manifests itself with a working celestial system and day/night system that affects the game mechanics, fully dynamic lighting where every light can turn on and off, all the doors can open and close, traps and locks abound, NPCs have schedules, and much much more.

On top of that deep sandbox is a rich story that Richard co-wrote with Tracy Hickman that follows three converging paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. All of this is woven together by a unique system we call Selective Multiplayer that allows you to play Offline or three different Online modes including Single Player Online, Friends Online, and Open Online.

Now that we have reviewed the vision here is the broad overview of the launch content:


 * Multiple Play Modes:
 * Offline Mode with special features and content
 * Save Games
 * All Store, Pledge, Bundle Items available for gold in-game
 * Combat Balance
 * Companions
 * 3 Online Modes on One Worldwide Server (no Shards!)
 * Single-Player Online
 * Friends Online
 * Multiplayer Online


 * Multiple Platforms, Versions, & Languages:
 * PC, Mac, Linux
 * Steam & Direct Download
 * English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian (Game & Website)


 * Combat: Use-Based Advancement
 * Classless System with fully customizable builds from all schools
 * 7 Combat Schools with 75+ Combat Skills
 * Blade
 * Bludgeon
 * Heavy Armor
 * Light Armor
 * Polearm
 * Ranged
 * Shield
 * 9 Magic Schools with 95+ Magic Spells
 * Air
 * Chaos
 * Death
 * Earth
 * Fire
 * Life
 * Moon
 * Sun
 * Water
 * 4 Strategy Schools with 40+ Skills
 * Focus
 * Subterfuge
 * Tactics
 * Taming
 * Free Attack and Auto Attack options
 * Fixed Hotbar and Dynamically Dealt Deck options
 * Combo system where spells and skills combo into different abilities
 * 20+ Weapon Types: Swords, Daggers, Polearms, Axes, Hammers, Bows, Staves, Wands, etc.
 * 12+ Armor Types: Cloth, Leather, Augmented Leather, Chain, Plate, Epic Plate, etc.
 * Cover that affects combat
 * PVP: Open Flag, Duels, Guild vs. Guild, Open PVP Zones, Open PVP Player Towns, Open PVP Basements


 * Movement: Walk, Run, Sprint, Jump, Swim, Tumble
 * World & Story: 230+ scenes
 * Episode 1 Storyline Complete
 * Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage that can be completed in any order
 * Path of the Oracle (finale)
 * 220+ Scenes:
 * 100+ Outdoor Adventure Scenes
 * 30+ Dungeons & Sewers: A vast Underworld with a multitude of interconnections.
 * 60+ Towns
 * 6 Control Points that block access to different parts of the map until taken (or snuck through)
 * 13+ Open PVP Areas: Obsidian Ruins, Shardfalls, etc.
 * 2 Overworld Scenes
 * 10+ Roving Encounters
 * 100s of unique NPCs with names, conversations, and schedules
 * 10+ Merchant Types
 * 100s of quests
 * In-game Map system (also accessible via the website)
 * Journal
 * Town Sieges linked to working Celestial Mechanics
 * Dread Artifacts and the Shroud of the Avatar in-game item
 * Traps, Puzzles, Keys, Locks, Secret Doors, and Breakable Walls


 * Creatures: 55+
 * Bosses: Dragons, Trolls, Phoenixes, Daemons, Reapers, Liches
 * Magical: Elementals, Golems, Chest Mimics, Barrel Mimics, Imps, Wisps, Slimes, Maneaters, Flesh Flayers, Mushroom Men, Killer Plants
 * Undead: Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts
 * Clockwork: Clockwork Dragon, Clockwork Assassin, Clockwork Dog/Cat/Raven, Clockwork Monkeys
 * Humanoids: Elves, Kobolds, Bandits, Satyrs, Fauns, Reshapers, Barbarians
 * Creatures/Animals: Bears, Wolves, Corpions, Spiders, Deer (Stags and Does), Rabbits, Cats, Dogs, Horses, Llamas, Chickens, Donkeys, Turkeys, Ravens, Eagles, Crocodiles, Pigs, Sheep, Wild Boars, Ravens


 * Character Customization:
 * Facial Feature Morphing, Hairstyles, Skin Tone, Eye Color, Hair Color
 * 135+ Emotes including emotes that can be taught/traded between players
 * 10 Slots for Gear: Head, Chest, Arms, Legs, Feet, Finger, Neck, Back, Musical Instrument, Belt
 * 100s of Wearables including dresses, masks, hats, cloaks, and armor
 * 40+ Pets including Eagles, Rabbits, Cats, Dogs, Lynx, etc.
 * Multiple Characters on Single Account


 * Crafting
 * 100s of recipes for gear, decorations, potions, food, etc.
 * 100s of modifiers on crafted gear based on materials, critical success, location, masterworks and enchantments.
 * Gem Socketing, Enchanting, Masterworking, dyes, and patterns for a variety of post crafting, post process effects on items.
 * Recipes that can be found, purchased, or discovered.
 * Salvage system that can be used to gain raw materials, components, and patterns from gear.
 * Patterns that can be salvaged or purchased that can be applied to gear to change appearance.
 * 50+ materials to be gathered.
 * Classless crafting system that can be freely mixed with combat skills.
 * Public and Player Vendors to sell goods.
 * Purchase Order system to buy goods through vendors.
 * Specialized Trainers to teach skills.
 * Regional Economies with relative abundance/scarcity of goods.
 * Player created books and book printing.
 * Player created bulletins and bulletin boards.
 * 6 Schools of Gathering with 20+ Skills.
 * Agriculture
 * Field Dressing
 * Fishing
 * Foraging
 * Forestry
 * Mining
 * 5 Schools of Refining with 15+ Skills.
 * Butchery
 * Milling
 * Smelting
 * Tanning
 * Textiles
 * 5 Schools of Production with 25+ Skills.
 * Alchemy
 * Blacksmithing
 * Carpentry
 * Cooking
 * Tailoring


 * Housing
 * 6 Lot Sizes: Row, Village, Town, City, Keep, Castle.
 * Lot Deeds offered on website or through monthly in-game raffle.
 * 100+ different houses.
 * 50+ different basements.
 * 1000s of decorations including furniture, walls, fences, paintings, rugs, food, trophies, statues, trees, etc.
 * Detailed decoration system to make your place truly unique.
 * Magic Movers system that allows you to save and move your decorated home & basement.
 * Land Tax System.
 * Housing Permissions so multiple players can share the same land including renting.
 * 320+ Dynamic Player-Owned Towns where owners can customize lot placement, start locations, decorations, town blessings, tree coverage, music, merchants, and more.
 * Servants and house pets.
 * Public Cache Chests.
 * Player-Owned Town Blessings that offer various bonuses.


 * Social/Miscellaneous
 * Friends
 * Guilds
 * Text Chat with multiple channels (guild, party, private, scene)
 * Discord integration
 * Mail System
 * Radio linked to customizable webstreams.
 * Banking System
 * 13 Musical Instruments (Lute, Drum, Piano, Harp, Flute, etc) with songs played via ABC/MML files including ability to play as a synched group.
 * “DnD 1” playable on a teletype machine.

Where is my favorite feature?: While we were able to get almost all Kickstarter features, pledge rewards and every other randomly mentioned or thought of feature over the last four years complete by launch there are a few that are not going to make it in time. Please rest assured that we are going to put forth every effort to get all of these complete by the end of 2018 in one of our regular monthly updates (yes we are going to continue to do those each and every month just like we have for the last four years!).


 * Kickstarter Features, Pledge Rewards, Store Content: This is the short list of items from the Kickstarter, pledges, and store that will be finished in one of the post launch monthly releases.
 * Alcohol/Brewing: This includes the German Beer Recipe reward.
 * Fyndoro’s Tablet of Finding: While the home decoration item exists, it does not yet allow for the tracking of a person (player or NPC).
 * Puzzle Box: While the home decoration item exists, it does not yet have any puzzle functionality.
 * Theater System.
 * Castle Defense Scenarios/Castle Types/Castle Merchants.
 * Shipping Lanes/Boat Schedules & Random Boat Encounter Scenes.
 * Custom Duke/LotM Heads: We did not adequately prepare for how excited backers would be to upgrade to this incredibly high pledge level so we have contracted with an outside vendor to fulfill this reward, hence the delay. However we have every confidence in the delivery of these by the end of 2018.
 * Custom Static POTs: While over 95% of POT owners have opted for the flexibility of Dynamic POTs there are still a few POT owners who wish for a static customized town and we plan to honor those requests.
 * Content & Systems Polish: In addition to the above there is another short list of content that needs polish and additions that we have mentioned previously including:
 * Combos: More ways to combine existing skills & spells.
 * Public Gardens
 * Vendors: Vendor customization and finer vendor controls.
 * Fishing: fishing skills beyond the base, more fish variety, treasure.
 * Scene Rebuilds: There are approximately 30 scenes left to rebuild including a mix of adventure scenes and towns.
 * Looking For Group
 * Raid System (group of Groups)
 * Offline Spawning Rules
 * Agriculture: Weather influence and fertilizer.
 * Item Affinity/History
 * Player Items in Loot Tables

* Ultima and Ultima Online are Registered Trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc.