Selective Multiplayer Online

=Selective Multiplayer:=

Traditional MMOs vs Selective Multiplayer
Traditional MMOs:
 * "Shards" Players away from each other.
 * The vast majority of players ignore each other.

Selective Multiplayer:
 * One "Shard" for all players.
 * Fill YOUR instance favoring friends than strangers.
 * Allows Ad-Hock private instances for story telling.

Shroud of the Avatar is neither a traditional Massive Multiplayer Online Game aka MMO (Uses a Client that connects to a Server which tells the Client what content to display at all times) nor is it a regular Single Player RPG (however there is a full single player offline mode that doesn't update with an online persistent world). Shroud of the Avatar is a Selective Multiplayer Online RPG or SMORPG.

Selective Multiplayer Modes
On Shroud of the Avatar there are currently 4 modes listed on the Login Screen. These are subject to change because this is from a Pre-Alpha Build.


 * Single Player Offline
 * Single Player Online (SPO)
 * Friends Only Online (Friends Play Online or FPO)
 * Multiplayer Online (Open Play Online or OPO)

How it works:
The first thing we need to establish is that the game uses a dual scale map meaning everything in the actual game in the zoomed in map is Instanced when you enter it after everyone leaves the instance is disappears but the data is synced across too all the other players to maintain the online persistent world. Each player of the game runs their own instance of the game and connects via ad-hoc to other players based on an algorithm which takes into account your settings, play style, who is closed to you, and who it thinks you want to play with. There are several modes that determine who you want to see in the game that you can set at the login screen Single Player Offline, Single Player Online, Friends Only Online, and Multiplayer Online. There is a main server that everyone connects to that maintains the persistent world by syncing and verifying data between players the server also uses your friend graph to choose which players will appear in your instances. So the server handles things like player housing, items trades, and verifying game save data. The entire game itself is running on your computer this is why you can run it offline as opposed to being required to be connected to a server to even play at all. There will be difference with the offline version because you are not synced up with the persistent world that other players interact with this is why you're encouraged to play Single Player Online as opposed to Single Player Offline. When you enter an instance if someone you know already has an instance for that hex on the map you'll enter their instance of the hex otherwise your game will create an instance and anyone that enters the hex after you will enter your instance of the hex on the map. Because of this there is only one server that runs the persistent instead of running the entire game like most MMORPGs do.

Temporary Offline for your Online Characters:
Richard Garriot talked about in the interview that he wants to make it so eventually we'll be able to play offline temporarily for short periods of time (48 hours or less). How this would work is if it's enabled when you play your game would automatically put XP, Gold, and other items aside for you to "earn" on the temporary offline mode. This would prevent cheating because you already earned those things previously and can't earn more than you have already saved up. Also things such as buying or selling items will be restricted especially for special items. This is just Richard's idea and not an officially announced feature but it sounds really cool and would be awesome if it was introduced at after the game has been released.

Shroud of the Avatar Friend Graph
Based on what the developers have said there are resources that may be used to form your Friend Graph: (Please note these have not been officially announced and are speculation) Because of API restrictions Facebook may not be supported, Chris Spears has mentioned this in a several of the videos. Facebook no longer allows apps except Mobile applications to access your friend list. Twitter will also most likely not be supported because they only allow 100,000 users to login from any given application and SotA will hopefully have a lot more than this. Of course these things are subject to change depending on Facebook and Twitter.
 * Google+ using the Google Play Games API.
 * Steam which has APIs for chat and social support.
 * Email Address books.
 * The Forums Friend list in-game which should be possible.
 * Those who you manually search for and add in game.
 * Who you interact with most in game.

Player VS Player

 * There won't be a simple PVP On/Off Toggle.
 * Young Players won't be able to be PKed and will have PVP turned off by default.
 * If you PVP you will be grouped with PVPers otherwise you will be grouped with Non-PVPers.
 * There are areas that will be considered "Dangerous" where PVP will always be enabled.
 * There will be PVP quests for example, you may be required to hunt down another player or be the one hunted by players because you are carrying an illegal item across the map.
 * If you are a PKer there will be consequences perhaps being marked as a murder or serving jail time if you're caught. If PVP is enabled in towns there may be guards this has not been officially announced.
 * PVP integrated into story line with a strong Good vs Evil component.
 * There is no PVP in Single Player Offline/Online.
 * Anything is subject to change the game has only been in development for a few months and most of this has not been programmed yet.