I Fell Out of the World In Shroud of the Avatar Last Night

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I was only able to log into Release 2 of Shroud of the Avatar last night, not for any technical reasons but because my Thursday nights are almost always very busy. But log in I did, and I almost immediately set out to attempt something I had been unable to do in Release 1.

Looming imposingly over the town of Owl’s Head is a volcano:

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That’s actually a screenshot I took during Release 1; I spent a good half-hour of my time in R1 testing the walls of Owl’s Head, looking for any gap I could slip through in order to run up to the base of the volcano.

Alas, in R1, I was unable to escape the town and wander into the wilderness beyond its walls. But in Release 2…well, you see, Portalarium added jumping to the game. (Never give me the ability to jump in a game if you want to keep me out of some areas.)

So…yeah…I was quickly able to vault over the side of the bridge leading into Owl’s Head:

And in no time, I was running through grass and fields that no Novian — or Avatar — should have been able to wander through:

It didn’t take long to reach the base of the volcano:

SotAR2_Screenshot_23012014_214202

This goal accomplished, I stopped to check out the windmills on the nearby hilltop:

The view of Owl’s Head is also quite excellent from the hilltop, it must be said.

Anyhow, it then occurred to me that I really hadn’t seen the best part of the volcano. So I resolved to climb it and stare into its lake of molten lava. Unfortunately, the 3D asset was rather less solid than necessary to allow for this:

“Oh well,” I thought to myself. “I should make for the edge of the map. Maybe I can find the shattered moon lurking in wait.”

Alas, as I continued on my way, I walked right into a hole in the terrain mesh:

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And then I guess I fell out of even the renderer’s reach:

SotAR2_Screenshot_23012014_214446

So…where will my character begin from when I log back in tonight? Will I have to create a new Avatar? There’s but one way to know.

Part of me is of a mind to report this as a bug…but on the other hand, I was exploring a place the developers clearly never intended for me to be able to reach. So is it that much of an issue?

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6 Responses

  1. mark says:
    January 24, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    The whole thing seems lame to me.
    Were you impressed by any of this? I watch Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and I think that this is what a developer with bravery, conviction, and ideas creates. The fans will reward them for this bravery.

    • WtF Dragon says:
      January 24, 2014 at 9:34 pm

      I’ll post my thoughts on R1 and R2 in the near future.

      As for Kingdom Come…I haven’t backed it yet, because CryEngine melts my system at home. But yeah…that’s a stunner of a game. I’m a tad worried they’ll cast the medieval church as the villain, but outside of that I am nothing but in favour of what Warhorse are doing.

  2. mark says:
    January 24, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    Also, I noticed that your blog doesn’t highlight which posts have comments anymore… or maybe i just missed it? I recall a lot more comment activity on previous iterations of the site. Now it seems a little less active, perhaps because a combination of the above, as well as the need to login.

  3. Sanctimonia says:
    January 26, 2014 at 2:10 am

    Awesome post. It reminds me of the early days of Ultima VI, with its exploitable oddities. Any good RPG lets you break its boundaries with experimental gameplay combinations. Your screenshots are a good visual narrative of the adventure.

    I fell through the map once in Painkiller. Once your world coordinates get far enough away the datatype resolution begins to degrade your position resolution and you start jerking around visually. Near/Far plane and floats…

    Also thanks for the mention during the three million celebration. You and Browncoat both. It was a good time for all. I actually recorded the Stones performance from YouTube and tried to sync it with the Ultima VI MT-32 recording. I had to cut it into segments then change the key/pitch and tempo of the MT-32 song to match the vocal and guitar performance.

    http://eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia/misc/Ultima%20VI%20Stones.flac

    I loved when he did the bad job on the trills but acted only mildly annoyed that the guitar didn’t produce the right sound. A proper performance.