Could Shards Online be our new platform?

[Percy]

Okay so I've been playing/following [http://shardsonline.com/]Shards Online[/url] since 2014 and the resemblance to Ultima Online is extremely similar except with slightly better graphics.

The game has just been released into the Alpha stage with the Beta release (and release on Steam) being roughly Q2 this year and final release some point later in the year if all goes well. What makes this game great, which you can read for yourselves on the website, is it boasts the ability to have fully customised private servers.

There are so many things you can create just by manipulating these templates. Here are just a few examples:

*NPCs and creatures – You can specify the equipment they are wearing and the loot they have in their pack. Give them custom dialogue and add special behaviors.
*Equipment – Templates specify the name, color, attributes and special abilities of weapons and armor.
*Spawners – Define the region, types of creatures and respawn frequency for NPC and creature spawners.

At the core, nearly every aspect of gameplay is defined by behaviors written in the Lua scripting language. Even the entire combat system including skills and abilities is defined with behaviors. Here are some examples of things you can change in script:

*Create new skills, abilities, crafting recipes, rare resources
*Write new AI for NPCs and creatures.
*Create new story lines and events.
*Create new game modes.

Live Server Editing

Admins will customize their world without ever logging out. From creating portals, to monster spawners, to even custom NPCs with their own stories, every single shard will have its own stories and encounters for players to experience. This level of world customization will require absolutely no technical knowledge or artistic skills.

Custom Assets (Phase 2)

At some point during Alpha, we will begin to roll out the ability for player run servers to use custom assets. Modders will use the Unity editor to create new items, equipment, monsters and even completely new maps. These custom assets will be automatically synced down to the player when they connect to a server running them. This will take modded shards to a completely new level.

So as you can see the game is pretty much limiteless with the correct imagination and I think this is where this, what 17 year old?, server should be headed to. Obviously, with the game still being in Alpha some skills are still missing, mounts do not exist in-game yet, they're still working to make it easier for scripters to customise their own servers but it's a work in progress and progress is going fast.

If we can get a scripter or two ready to work on this game when it's more complete I don't mind throwing down the extra cash now to get the pledge that contains the featured server that appears at the top of the server list when the game is released so we can get a new player influx too.

What do you guys think? Seriously, take a look, there's not too much I can say about it because it's under full NDA for the next 30 or so days, but there are some videos up that give you a look at how the game already runs and how it looks. With a little work we I really think this is where it's at now and that it's the next best thing we can get since lets face it Pangaea is dying and we're all fighting a loosing battle to keep the game relevant and fun.

[Glarundis]

I'm so pleased to see a game like this
It's like..I hope Pangaea survives, one way or the other, because of the community and the unique stuff we have here, class system, religions, etc.

But from the videos I saw on youtube I liked it so much, that I wouldn't really be troubled that we used pangaea there. Of course, the main problem is, it wouldn't feel like UO. A lot of stuff needs to be exactly like the way it is on UO for the whole feeling to be the same, and not just graphics. But it looks quite good. In fact, if there were a group of people from Pangaea willing to join that game so we could rp/pvp/pvm/whatever, I think I'd have to consider that

[Cyrus Tegyr]

I'll take a gander but I'd like to point some things out with regards to switching to a completely different game if the idea is to keep the L&F of Pangaea alive.

Most of Pangaea was handed to Repsak on a silver platter, he did not need to script any of the cooking system, any of the skills, none of the specialty spell systems, most if the religion framework was done for him, most of the non traditional UO mobs were already scripted for him, the housing system was scripted for him, the dot commands were mostly scripted already for him and a whole host of other things I am forgetting were already done by another person for another shard(s).

What he did add was the custom ores but not the actual mining system to my knowledge, custom wood which required adding to the lumberjack skill, class system and the macro check system with some other minor edits and revisions.

Why am I saying this?
I'm throwing this out there because Pangaea was as close to an overnight success as one can get precisely because most everything was already scripted and in place to how it essentially works today. I'm not sure what a pre-built server of this game will look like but just keep that in mind, most everything that Pangaea has to offer for good and for bad was taken from other shards where those scripts and packages had Years of development already put into them before Repsak got his hands on them, this meant for the most part there was little anguish when it came time for the shard to go live.

I am not trying to discourage other avenues but just giving a warning of the little known history of how Pangaea came to be and why I believe it was a success and has not yet crashed and burned. The players make up a good percentage of why it is still around but more importantly, almost everything Pangaea offers has at least 4 Years of life on live strong servers that predate Repsak and Pangaea.

Ultimately, it might be worth checking out but, keep in mind much of the trial and error involved in starting up a new shard was pretty much kneaded out by others long before Repsak had a twinkle in his eye with regards to Pangaea.

[yuusou]

Exactly. As JE died, Pangaea came up after it very very quickly.
All other attempts of moving Pangaea forward have failed miserably.

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm gonna take a Monad stance on this and just keep Pangaea more or less as it is (except the improvements you guys are doing now).
Anything beyond that and it just won't happen, it'll die.

[Percy]

I'm so pleased to see a game like this
Of course, the main problem is, it wouldn't feel like UO. A lot of stuff needs to be exactly like the way it is on UO for the whole feeling to be the same, and not just graphics. But it looks quite good. In fact, if there were a group of people from Pangaea willing to join that game so we could rp/pvp/pvm/whatever, I think I'd have to consider that

There are already a a group of roleplayers who are actively pushing for a roleplay shard as it is on here, they do mainly come from UO however it's more so the original UO. The PvP is there, it just needs tweaking, in fact there is already a criminal system in place as well and as for the PvM it's getting there. The mechanics for PvM are very sound it just needs tweaking and some more interactive mobs to kill.

As for the whole feeling 'like UO' I completely understand that we're never going to actuall have another UO/Pangaea however they recently released a control scheme in an attempt to mimic how UO worked.

I'll take a gander but I'd like to point some things out with regards to switching to a completely different game if the idea is to keep the L&F of Pangaea alive.

I'm not sure what a pre-built server of this game will look like but just keep that in mind

I am not trying to discourage other avenues but just giving a warning of the little known history of how Pangaea came to be and why I believe it was a success and has not yet crashed and burned.

Ultimately, it might be worth checking out but, keep in mind much of the trial and error involved in starting up a new shard was pretty much kneaded out by others long before Repsak had a twinkle in his eye with regards to Pangaea.

I completely agree with what you're saying Cyrus, I do. Maybe I'm pushing too much for a complete conversion and maybe that's what everyone else wants and is why every overhaul has failed. Maybe we should look at is as more of a new adventure based on a similar platform.

I do however know that at some point, between now and release of this game, the developers are doing everything in their power to make the game as easy to modify as possible and that, eventually, is their end goal and they're more than happy to assist with any issues with that. From what I believe their end game isn't on their own servers, the whole idea around this concept is for the game to be kept alive by the community and not them. They also have monthly Server Admin time where they sit down with anyone who is and Admin to adress issues and speak to them as a small group to see how their life can be made better.

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm gonna take a Monad stance on this and just keep Pangaea more or less as it is (except the improvements you guys are doing now).
Anything beyond that and it just won't happen, it'll die.

Yeah like I just said, I think maybe I took a too strong approach to it. Instead of re-doing Pangaea, maybe it's just another platform we can implement some of the things that made Pangaea great and just take it from there.

[aldath c'om]

man i wish the cheapest way to get playing wasnt sold out

[Percy]

Wait for it to come on Steam sometime in Spring, I'm guessing it might be a little cheaper there.