sotaCombat_01mar14In the latest update from Shroud of the Avatar‘s Executive Producer, Starr Long, the much anticipated topics of PvP (Player versus Player) and Combat came up. As we all know, there is a lot of guessing and conjecture throughout forums far and wide about what is being planned for SotA’s systems, especially PvP and Combat! Will this game revolutionize active combat between players, or will it flounder and flail about as a copy-cat of others?

 

Ultima Online‘s combative systems surprised the world (and very much the developers – many of whom are working on this title!) as players performed actions in ways never dreamed of by the devs. It also taught many lessons in ethics, trolling, balancing, skill development, code development, policing and more. Many are the heated threads in the official SotA forums – some (if not most) only available to those of the Developer Pledge level or higher. Long gives a few hints as to the direction being taken by the SotA team…

“Our goal with PVP is to balance the thrill of unpredictable encounters with the desire by a large segment of the community to feel ‘safe’ at all times.” A lofty goal which stirs the imagination to possibilities – but is it attainable with an open world free-for-all? “Rest assured,” Long continues, “that no matter what we do, players who wish to avoid PVP will never be forced to participate in PVP nor will there ever be non-consensual PVP.”

SotA’s Executive Producer continues to describe some of the player combat situations many gamers are familiar with – segregated maps/worlds as well as the previously mentioned open-combat format – then he offers up that the SotA team believes they can blend these extremes! This is an interesting concept, and one that this writer is positive the team is keeping close to the hilt with discussion and proposals for this in the private Dev+ section of their forum. If you would like to participate in this conversation, you must pledge up. If you haven’t already linked your Kickstarter Account to your SotA Account – perhaps you should now?

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Also mentioned is a sort of race/monster combination, “Combat-Ready-Elves”. These creatures have been added to the “monsters” list to serve as combat targets in upcoming releases. Each type of elf will have different ways of fighting, making for what could be some very interesting PvE (Player versus Environment) action. One thing that raises a brow, is what will this do for those who role play elvish races? We are not attempting to be LotR (Lord of the Rings) or even Elfquest, but there are many people who have built very dynamic characters on the “elder races” and are indeed not too happy with SotA’s team relegating them to “mobs”. Some questions that have been whispered…

  1. What exactly is this elvish race?
  2. Does this mean the canon from the Ultima series be followed (that man created the magical races)?
  3. Will the ability for players to establish “friendly elvish races” be allowed? What of elvish towns?
  4. Will players actually get to create elvish-styled characters (Player Character Races)?

There is a lot of questions being flung about, but also just as many ideas, too. Want to participate in the conversation? Choose your forum of choice below, and contribute! To participate in the official PvP threads at SotA (along with branistorming with the developers and dev-community) you must be pledged up to the Developer level at minimum. Otherwise, everything else is pure guessing.

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