Shroud of the Avatar – Pledge & Store Megapost

by GolemDragon · June 5, 2014

Good Afternoon Friends and Avatars! Every so often one of the members of the dev team at Portalarium gives us a megapost which inevitably will have at least dozens of pages of comments (both good and bad) in the hours and days thereafter. This time, like most before, we have a megapost from Starr Long.

As I write this, I just got home and am reading his post that he made to the Community Announcements section of the Shroud of the Avatar Forums. Now, Starr did make a post about this in the Dev+ forums back on May 29th. I hinted at the fact there was new info in the end of last week’s Update of the Avatar. While I did briefly look at Starr’s original post, I wanted to without my own comments until his more public post, this way I can see what changes/edits were made to their “current thinking”, and give feedback based upon my own thoughts and feelings.

So without any further delay, below is the post from Starr Long, and remember not to “lawyer the team, bro”:

Greetings Avatars,

As you can tell by the title of this post, I am here to discuss some very broad and sweeping changes including new pledge rewards, new pledge tiers, a new housing type, and a stretch goal store. In this post I want to share with you how and why we came to this place. In the process I will end up sharing information with you that on any other project would be insane to make public – but we are not any other project! We have the most transparent, and I would argue healthiest, relationship with our community of any other project on the planet. That makes me confident that sharing ALL of this will be a good thing. There is a ton of information here to digest. Please read ALL of it and consider the whole picture, not just the individual pieces that may affect your particular interests. As always this data is current thinking, plans always change during implementation. “Don’t lawyer me bro” on the details of these proposals, if they change due to feedback or implementation reality.

These changes will start to take effect Friday June 6, 2014. At that time you can begin making purchases of this new content including add on purchases, pledge upgrades, stretch goal purchases (mounts only at first), etc.

CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS:

Recently a poll was posted in the Dev+ forums about the desire for new pledge tiers specifically aimed at folks who might be interested in upgrading but might not want to make as big a jump between tiers as it sometimes takes. Additionally after we provided a Castle Lot to the Lords of the Manor, the Duke’s began campaigning for a lot that was twice City sized. Also there was continuing negative feedback on our visual quality which we realized we had to address. We could not stick to the budget nor schedule we had originally planned and still make a product that satisfied our backers’ visual standards.

While all this was happening our original Founder pricing was expiring and we had our two best fundraising months since Kickstarter! This steady increase in fundraising let us expand our team and double down on increasing the quality and level of detail in the product.

As we expected there was a big drop in funding after the original Founder pricing expired, so we quickly realized that we needed to set new goal posts for our fundraising. This challenge inspired us to analyze where we were and then build what we feel is a great plan that increases value for our backers.

ANALYSIS:

All of the above led us to do a critical analysis of our fundraising efforts and consider ways we could improve things. We felt very strongly that were we to pursue any different strategies they had to include some compensations for our existing backers along with new content to incentivize upgrades and/or additional purchases.

We started by looking at the numbers of pledges at each level. There has been a lot of interest in our exact pledge numbers and I am happy to provide that information here. What we discovered is that there are some very obvious places in our pledge structure where people stall out on upgrading. In the chart below, peaks represent the biggest spikes in pledge purchase. The valleys represent where we have big drop-offs in upgrading of pledges.

* NOTE 1: Pledge data from May 11, 2014; Does not include Guilt Pledges or Unassigned Tier Pledges
* NOTE 2: Long term we plan to add this detailed information to the Campaign Stats page.

NEW PLEDGE TIERS AND NEW REWARDS:

Based on your direct desires have bridge tiers and our desire to fill in some of those valleys we decided to make two new pledge tiers while also adding new pledge rewards across the board to make each pledge feel equally compelling. We specifically targeted pledges we felt did not offer a strong enough incentive to upgrade to or which did not represent a good enough perceived value. We also targeted the two biggest valleys and the most requested fillers for those valleys between Knight and Lord and between Lord and Baron.

The addition of these new tiers required us to rethink how we were allocating lots for each pledge. To make these new tiers work we realized that we had to either add a whole bunch of new lot sizes, and therefore increase development time/cost and possibly decrease the overall number of lots OR we could start giving multiple lot deeds at higher level tiers. As you will see below we chose the latter, and now starting with the Lord, pledge backers will receive an extra Lot Deed in addition to the deed that they originally received!

We also noticed that many of you questioned our decision to only allow one character per account when many of you wanted to explore a variety of play styles and skill builds. We decided that adding second and third account slots to some pledges would satisfy this need to better explore all the character options while also adding value to those pledges. At the same time, we wanted your choices to be meaningful and your pledge rewards to be easily accessed by all your characters. That led us to decide that all characters on a single account share the same reputation, last name and are automatically marked kindred so they can share housing and items.

While all this was happening we were hanging out with our friend Ernie Cline who wrote the amazing book Ready Player One (go read it now, trust me). Ernie’s a huge Ultima fan so the respect is mutual of course. He kindly offered to let us put a couple of items from Ready Player One into Shroud so look for them in the new pledge rewards below.

NEW HOUSING TYPE: ROW HOUSES:

We then looked at our current property distribution and the relative sizes of the lots against each other. We went back to older post like this one that talked about higher density housing in the cities. We realized that if we came up with a new smaller lot size and houses that directly connected with each other that we could increase the number of lots in the game by literally thousands and at the same time push property ownership lower down in our pledge structure. At the same time we realized that performance in these areas of the game would be fantastic due to all the culling that these closely packed streets could provide.

All of this led us to create a new house and lot type we call Row House. These are houses and lots that are contiguous like New York City, Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc. While the lot they sit on is only 10 X 15 meters (¼ the size of a village lot) the house fills the entire lot so it provides a tremendous amount of living space. Row Lots only allow the placement of Row Houses, but Row Houses can be placed on regular lots (Village and above). Also “Empty Lot” is not an option for a Row House Lot. Other than that, Row Houses operate just like every other house. Additionally, larger lot deeds can be used to claim a Row House Lot. We will be adding Row Housing to our pledge tiers as tax free deeds and we will be adding taxed row lots to the add-on store. We will also be creating Row Lot sized basements.

PLAYER OWNED TOWNS:

While we were thinking about housing we talked about Player Towns. We love what we are seeing with how the players are creating their own towns (Pax Lair in Valemark!) and we brainstormed how we could further facilitate these activities and offer the players even more control of those towns. At one point we discussed these as pledge tiers beyond Lord of the Manor but after discussing it with our Dev+ backers we quickly moved away from that and are instead going to make these Add On Store purchases.

New Add On Store Items:

There are a new set of Add On Store items that allow you to buy a scene and keys that lock/unlock all the lots in that scene

You do not get lot deeds with these purchases

Locked Lots:

Owner of the keys can lock and unlock lots at will so they can actively control who gets to live there

The key owner can evict an occupant and lock the lot using the key

Note that players will still need lot deeds to claim the lots once the town owner unlocks the lots

Houses:

+X Free House(s) of appropriate size from Add-On Store

Design Session: with Team to define details:

Lot Selection: Which lots of which size they want

Biome: Forest, Mountains, Grasslands, Swamp, etc.

Name of Town

NPC Building Definition (inn, smithy, etc.)

NPC names and stories

Location: Roughly which quadrant of the map. Exact hex will be determined by Port

Lot Variance: There will be more lots than can be claimed in each town (limit set by town size), much like the player towns we have prototyped so far.

NOTE: There will be a path to achieve this in game via in game gold purchase but the ownership of the scene will incur a rental fee.

Lot Sizes in Meters (for reference):

Row: 10 x 15 = 150 sq

Village: 20 x 30 = 600 sq

Town: 30 x 40 = 1200 sq

City: 40 x 60 = 2400 sq

Keep: 60 x 80 = 4800 sq

Castle: 80 x 120 = 9600 sq

Town Sizes in Meters (for reference):

Braemar = 18,000 Square Meters of Player Lots

Kingsport = 19,800 Square Meters of Player Lots

Wooded Player Village 1 = 25,800 Square Meters of Player Lots

Wooded Player Village 2 = 29,400 Square Meters of Player Lots

Owlshead = 63,000 Square Meters of Player Lots

Player Owned Town Sizes:

Holdfast: $750

Keys to 12,600 Square Meters of Player Lots

NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds

Sample Layouts:

21 Village

5 Village + 1 Castle

20 Row + 1 Castle

13 Village + 1 Keep

13 Village + 4 Town

etc

Keys = number of lots chosen

Central Square with 1 NPC owned building

1 Add On Store Village House

Hamlet: $1200

Keys to 19,800 Square Meters of Player Lots

NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds

Sample Layouts:

33 Village

17 Village + 1 Castle

etc

Keys = number of lots chosen

Central Square with 2 NPC owned buildings

Add On Store Houses

2 Add On Store Village Houses

Example in game town: Kingsport

Village: $1500

Keys to 25,200 Square Meters of Player Lots

NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds

Sample Layouts:

42 Village

26 Village + 1 Castle

etc

Keys = number of lots chosen

Central Square with 2 NPC owned buildings

Add On Store Houses

2 Add On Store Village Houses

Example in game town: Wooded Player Village 1

Crossroads Village: $2000

Keys to 33,600 Square Meters of Player Lots

NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds

Sample Layouts:

56 Village

40 Village + 1 Castle

etc

Central Square with 4 NPC buildings

Keys = number of lots chosen

Add On Store Houses

2 Add On Store Village Houses

2 Add On Store Town Houses

1 Add On Store City House

Example in game town: Wooded Player Village 2 (plus a bit more)

Town: $3,000

Keys to 50,400 Square Meters of Player Lots

NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds

Sample Layouts:

84 Village

68 Village + 1 Castle

etc

Central Square with 6 NPC buildings

Keys = number of lots chosen

Add On Store Houses

2 Add On Store Village Houses

2 Add On Store Town Houses

2 Add On Store City Houses

City: $4,000

Keys to 67,200 Square Meters of Player Lots

NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds

Sample Layouts:

112 Village

96 Village + 1 Castle

etc

Central Square with 10 NPC buildings

Keys = number of lots chosen

Add On Store Houses

3 Add On Store Village Houses

3 Add On Store Town Houses

3 Add On Store City Houses

Example in game town: Owlshead

NEW PLEDGE STRUCTURE DETAILS:

We were then ready to assemble all these ideas of new housing, new pledge tiers, additional characters slots, and more into a master plan. Below you will find a list of additional pledge rewards per tier as well as the new pledge tiers: Knight Marshal & Lord Marshal. Please note that these two new tiers place their lots in the same pre-launch window as the tier below them (ex. Knight Marshals will go with Knights). This decision was made to preserve the lot selection sequence of the original pledge tiers. Current thinking about lot selection sequence can be found here.

This represents over 70 new rewards (or upgrades to existing rewards). Many of these are just initial concepts with more details and visuals to come later.

For existing Pledge information prior to this change you can refer to here, here, and here. Please note that all of these are Benefactor rewards, we will not be adding any Founder rewards as part of this restructure.

Adventurer: $45

All existing Rewards

Immortal Adventurer: $55

All existing Rewards

Founder: $65

All existing Rewards

Royal Artisan: $90

All existing Rewards

Double Starting Recipes: you start with twice as many known recipes as other players

Artisan’s Box of Plenty: Generates a random resource / reagent once per week

Starting supplies sufficient to craft four of each starting recipe in the book

Non Combat Clockwork Pet: Choose 1 of 3. NOTE: This is in addition to the other non-combat pets you receive from other tiers.

Virtual Collector: $110

All existing Rewards

Second Character Slot (Rent Free): Marked as Kindred and shares reputation and last name. Character slots purchased via Add On Store will be charged a monthly rent via in game currency that if not paid will prevent login with that character.

Puzzle Box: Once per week this box presents the player with a puzzle to solve. If solved the box will generate a random thing (money, weapon, resource, etc).

Explorer(s): $135 – $140

All existing Rewards

Non Combat Clockwork Pet: Choose 1 of 3

Collector: $165

All existing Rewards

Patron: $220

All existing Rewards

Fyndoro’s Tablet of Finding: Once per day can be used to find a player by writing the name on the tablet. A version of this item appeared in the book “Ready Player One” by Ernie Cline

Magical Printing Press: Once per week a Patron can use this object to publish a book in the world for free (publishing normally costs a fee per copy)

Non Combat Clockwork Pet: Choose 1 of 3

Ancestor: $275

All existing Rewards

Third Character Slot (Tax Free): Marked as Kindred and shares reputation and last name. Character slots purchased via Add On Store will be taxed

Ancestor’s Cloak: cloak with the Ancestor symbol

Rent Free Row Lot Deed

Stone 2 Story Row House

Navigator: $375

All existing Rewards

Novia Map Atlas: All the minimaps in one compendium (other players have to collect them individually)

Rent Free Row Lot Deed

Stone 3 Story Row House

1 Story Row Basement

Phonograph: Plays wax cylinders of music

Developer: $450

All existing Rewards

Rent Free Row Lot Deed

Stone 4 Story Row House

2 Story Row Basement

Wireless Device: Plays streamed audio content

Citizen: $550

All existing Rewards

Wind Power House Deco

Reagent Plant: Choose 1 of 3 that grows a common reagent. It must be watered each day. Once per day (if watered) 24 hours later it will generate a reagent

Edelmann(s): $570 – $575

All existing Rewards

Birdbath: attracts flocks of birds when placed in yard

Knight: $800

All existing Rewards

Sword of the Ba’Heer: Starting level weapon that includes precious metals and jewels that can be used to enchant the sword. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source. A version of this item appeared in the book “Ready Player One” by Ernie Cline

Knight’s Cloak: Cloak with the Knight’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.

Reagent Plant: Choose 1 of 3 that grows a common reagent. It must be watered each day. Once per day (if watered) 24 hours later it will generate a reagent

Knight Marshal (NEW TIER): $1200

Rent Free Town Lot

NOTE: Knight Marshals will place their lot during the same pre-launch window as Knights. See lot selection post for more details.

Knight Marshal’s Tower Keep

3 Story + Roof

Same footprint as Knight’s Keep but taller

2 Story Town Basement

Title: Knight Marshal

Knight Marshal’s Winged Helm: Starting level helm that includes precious metals and jewels that can be used to enchant the helm. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.

Lord: $1600

All existing Rewards

Rent Free Row Lot Deed (new)

NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).

3 Story Stone Town Basement (upgrading from 1 story)

5 Story Row Basement

Lord’s Cloak: Cloak with the Lord’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.

Noble’s Magical Discourse Orb: Object that gives access to a Nobility chat channel. All Game Devs have palantirs as well so are on the same chat channel

Reagent Plant: Choose 1 of 3 that grows a common reagent. It must be watered each day. Once per day (if watered) 24 hours later it will generate a reagent

Royal Scepter: Once per month grants one lot deed 50% rent discount for 1 month

Royal Orb: Once per month grants one vendor 50% commission discount for 1 month

5 Indestructible Crafting Tools: You will receive five (5) starter-level, indestructible, crafting tools for the skills of your choice. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers

4 Crafting Stations: Four (4) total Expert level crafting stations for your home, uniquely identifiable as Benefactor’s crafting stations. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers

Lord Marshal (NEW TIER): $2200

Rent Free Town Lot Deed

NOTE: Lord Marshals will place their lot during the same pre-launch window as Lords

Rent Free Village Lot Deed

NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).

Lord Marshal’s Great Hall

5-Story Town Basement

2-Story Village Basement

Lord Marshal Title

Lord Marshal’s Automaton Servant

Drinking Horn

Lord Marshal’s Throne

Great Hearth

Helmet with crown: Starting level helm that includes precious metals and jewels that can be used to enchant the helm. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.

10 Indestructible Crafting Tools: You will receive ten (10) starter-level, indestructible, crafting tools for the skills of your choice. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers

8 Crafting Stations: Eight (8) total Expert level crafting stations for your home, uniquely identifiable as Benefactor’s crafting stations. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers

Baron 1, 2, & 3: $3800

All existing Rewards

Rent Free Village Lot Deed (new)

NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).

Baron’s Cloak: Cloak with the Baron’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.

Talking Mirror

Duke: $5300

Rent Free Keep Lot (new): The lot size for Duke’s will be increased to equal two City sized lots

Rent Free Village Lot Deed (new)

NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).

Duke’s Cloak: Cloak with the Duke’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.

Duke Island Castle: The Duke Island Castle will be revisited to add an actual island around the perimeter now that the lot size increase will support this change.

Lord of the Manor: $12,000

Rent Free Town Lot Deed (new)

NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).

Additional Honorific Title Options “Prince” / ”Princess” / ”Highness”

STRETCH GOAL STORE:

Not satisfied with a complete overhaul of our pledge structure, new housing types, and player owned towns, we decided to revisit the concept of stretch goals.

As some of you may remember I was actually an opponent of stretch goals. I felt that they had the potential to cause us to over commit and they could take up time we could otherwise spend on responding to feedback. The other flaw we had with stretch goals is that not everyone was in favor of every stretch goal – some of you might not want us spending time on mounts or VR.

Then Chris Spears had the truly brilliant idea of creating a Stretch Goal Store that operated differently than stretch goals normally do. It was a way to have players vote with their money on exactly what features we should add to the project while at the same time receiving in game goods, regardless of whether the funding goal was met!

These are stretch goals with immediate rewards! When you purchase the item you will get it as an in-game reward, even if the goal is not met. These rewards are completely unique. They will not be sold in the add-on store, in-game nor as a pledge reward. Once the goal is met we will begin work on the functionality and all the items purchased would gain some function related to the goal. For instance the foal from the Mounts stretch goal would grow into a horse that you could then ride. Each goal will have a progress bar underneath tracking the progress. General philosophy is that these items cost more than equivalent items because they are linked to stretch goals. NOTE: stretch goals will only get completed AFTER all the other Kickstarter goals are reached.

Horse Mounts will launch in the store first with additional goals being added on average once per week.

In order for this to be a successful fund raising mechanism it would have to be separate from pledges and add on purchases so therefore the rules would have to be slightly different including:

Stretch Goal purchases cannot be melted down

Add On Store credit cannot be applied to Stretch Goal purchases

STRETCH GOAL STORE ITEMS:

Horse Mounts (non combat): Goal = $250,000

Description: Players can ride horses around the game!

Rules:

There will be some kind of summon mount emote / key

When mount appears you automatically vault into the saddle

Cannot fight while mounted. If you are hit / enter combat while on horseback you are knocked from your horse

Mounts cannot be ridden indoors or underground

Mounts Stretch Goal Full Package: $100 (package discount)

White Foal (baby horse) non-combat pet: $20

Black Foal (baby horse) non-combat pet: $20

Buckskin Foal (baby horse) non-combat pet: $20

Riding Outfit Female: $20

Riding Outfit Male: $20

Saddle House Decoration: $10

Elves Playable Race: Goal = $300,000

Description: Players can choose Elf as a playable race during character creation. Elves have a natural affinity for Lunar Magic, Ranged Combat, and Forestry Skills.

Rules:

Each race will have a slight affinity for 1 magic, 1 combat, and 1 crafting skill. Affinity would equal something like cheaper skill costs or % increases in effectiveness of those skills.

Will require specific customization options like heads, hairstyles, and skin tone.

Elves Stretch Goal Full Package: $150 (package discount)

Elven Cloak: $20

Elven Bow: $20

Elven Warrior Armor: $20

Elven Archer Armor: $20

Elven Mage Robes: $20

Elven House in a Hill: $75

Pack Animals: Goal = $100,000

Description: Pack Animals will help you carry all your valuable goods around the game

Rules:

Pack animals are basically mobile storage

Pack Animals cannot engage in combat nor can they be targeted

Pack Animals life/death state is linked to the owner’s. When owner dies the pack animal dies

Killing a player with a pack animal doubles the number of items available for loot/ransom

Pack Animals Stretch Goal Full Package: $40 (package discount)

Cria (baby llama) non-combat pet: $20

Foal (baby donkey) non-combat pet: $20

Saddlebags House Decoration: $10

Boats: Goal = $500,000

Description: Players can sail boats around the waterways of New Britannia. From rowboats to Frigates, the world is your ocean

Rules:

Each Boat will have a Captain’s location. Standing/Sitting at that location will give that player movement control of the ship

Boat owners can set permissions much like housing:

Public: Anyone can go on the boat but they cannot change anything or control the boat

Private: Only boat owner can be on boat

Friends: People on owner’s friends list can get on the boat but not control it

Kindred: Kindred can enter and steer the boat

Guild: Guildmates can enter and steer the boat

Boats cannot engage in combat but players can fight on ships

There will be at least 4 sizes of boat

Rowboat: 2-4 people

Longboat: 6-12 people

Frigate/Galleon/Houseboat: 20+ people

Larger boats can double as houses (including the boats that are in the Founder pledges)

Boats Stretch Goal Full Package: $100 (package discount)

Admiral’s Hat: $20 alone

Admiral’s Outfit Male: $20

Admiral’s Outfit Female: $20

same as male but with skirt at bottom vs. pants

Rowboat House Deco: $20

Anchor House Deco: $20

Longboat House Deco: $20

Spyglass (aka Telescope): $20

Fully functional, view distant objects up close through the science of lenses

Flexible Lot Placement of Structures: Goal = $250,000

Description: Players can now place multiple structures on a single lot. Players can also rotate and move structures versus a fixed location. This will be a GREAT stretch goal that will allow player built towns to really look amazing, for example: On large central lots of town, guilds could build shared services and town squares, on castle lots, players could host an array of guest structures and services in their courtyards, even more modest lots could be built out as twin towers versus a single house.

Note: These objects will be decorations for your yard that are NOT decoratable themselves. If the stretch goal is met these will then become decoratable objects.

Package: $200 (package discount)

Garden Shed: $30

Small Knight’s Tent: $30

Large Knight’s Tent: $40

Greenhouse: $50

Stables: $65

Huge thanks to our Dev+ folks for helping us come up with this plan. They gave great feedback on all the details.

Now, this is a lot of information at once. I am sure you have mixed emotions like most backers do. However, let me break it down for you into 4 main things, based upon how i would group things up broadly…

These changes take effect as early as tomorrow, Friday June 6th, 2014. This means availability of purchasing new content items including add on purchases, pledge upgrades, stretch goal purchases (mounts only at first), etc.
In an effort to continue to fund-raise to continue to not only fund the expansion of the development team but also improve the game, they analyzed not only the pledge tiers but also their fundraising goals.
With the Founders Pricing structure over as well as analyzing the tiers, a new pledge structure adding rewards as well as more tiers was considered. This affects the Royal Artisan levels on up. Knight marshal and the Lord Marshal tiers are the new tiers, fillnig gaps between levels they felt were there. Row Housing was added which now expands housing t more pledge levels as well.
Chris Spears came up with a unique, Stretch Goal Store, that was a way to have players vote with their money on exactly what features we should add to the project while at the same time receiving in game goods, regardless of whether the funding goal was met or not.For instance, if you bought a horse, if the steatch goal was not met it woudl still act like a horse, u just couldnt ride it. Since there is no time limit on the stretch goal, it may be met well after initial release of the game, and so functionality would come in a patch down the road.

For my initial thoughts, I have 2 things I like that stood out and 2 things I didn’t like, that stood out. Feel free to comment here or even on the SotA forums with your thoughts, ideas, and emotions about this current thinking…

Two Things I liked:

Row Housing are neat concepts…. because of how Europe expanded throughout history, such style of housing is found all over the place. Even here in the United States you can find similar housing as well. This is a great way to expand housing to more pledge tiers in a way that shows that the team does not want to devalue higher pledge tiers, but it also addresses the frustration many who were on a tight budget had when it came to the limited space in the game for housing. With the increase in rewards for so many tiers already, those who would consider this devaluing their pledge get some additional benefits as well.
The concept of the player run towns continues to intrigue me. I like the idea of people being able to pool resources and have a player run town. This could be great for large guilds as well as just large organizations in general. Now you have to place a lot of trust in one person who is the “keymaster” so to speak for the town. However it allows for some very interesting community involvement in the landscape of the new world we get to explore. I just hope these are spaced out far enough that no group of hexes have so many towns/villages that the world feels crowded.

Two Things I didn’t like:

Now these may get me alot of flak, but I am going to just be honest and lay out my thoughts here. These are just my current feelings. Like with anything, my feelings may change based on discussion with the dev team, backers, fans, or even just friends… it could even change based on the info given to us by the dev team over time.

Elves as a playable race….
- Based upon my understanding from the Blade of the Avatar book and lore as well as the numerous times Richard stated that this is us (you from real life, transported to New Britannia), and so, this is something that I do not like. Now Richard did comment to us about it and gave us this in response:
  
  Thank you all for the great feedback on this proposal. I understand that many of you have some questions about my vision for Shroud and how Elves and multiple character slots fit into that vision. Please understand that those features were discussed in depth and I feel very strongly that they definitely fit my vision. Let me explain in a bit more detail.
  
  I have been very vocal about why after Ultima III I removed elves, dwarves and hobbits from Ultima. It is because early Ultimas were filled with plenty of ideas from Tolkien, Time Bandits and Star Wars, while having little Intellectual Property that was truly original.
  
  I never minded having trolls, fairies, gremlins and such that were either more widely used, or traditional historically. And while elves and dwarves are far more than merely Tolkien, I pushed to build a new reality that was my own!
  
  For Shroud of the Avatar, long ago, I decided to bring in a broad range of mythical creatures, but with a local origin story. So, Tracy and I have crafted them back into Blade and Shroud. This includes Elves, Fawns and Satyrs, among others.
  
  I have also been vocal about how your avatar is you, your in game character is not some other person you advise. This is critical if the game is going to judge your behavior as a virtuous or non-virtuous person! That being said, many players, who clearly support my vision of “your avatar is you” still desire to role play and manifest in differing physical forms.
  
  I have never minded the fact that on Earth we may be computer geeks, yet we manifest in New Britannia in any gender or physique desired. It is Your Avatar! To make this clear in Ultima I forced unvarying human forms to be sure this was clear to the player.
  
  Yet as our community has grown, I noticed many in our community consistently play AS elves in every manifestation, in all games and even on our forums. In order to allow our community of role players to role play in their desired form, I have agreed to expanded options that include player elves IF there is enough support to pay for the art and tech time to allow it.
  
  Similarly, your manifestation is always YOU, not your evil/good twin. I am content letting role players have more than 1 physical form, as long as it remains YOUR spirit, animating that body. Thus we are allowing multiple characters per account but all those characters are still you so they share your reputation and your last name and cannot be played simultaneously. In effect you now have multiple ways you can manifest into the world but they are all still you.
  
  Richard “Lord British” Garriott
  Occasionally known as “Shamino Salle Dacil”
  
  While I respect Richard’s decision and his passion, I still do not agree with his decision. He still hasn’t won me over quite yet on this. Now it could be there is some sort of neat lore that ties into why you take an elven form instead that allows this to fit the story. Until such info is given, I will be one of those backers who respectfully disagrees but wont let this decision ruin my hopes for this game.
- Elves have affinity too which will already starts to bring us back towards the whole min/max issue we wanted to avoid. Yes, Humans will have some sort of affinity too, but the whole concept of affinity just takes steps in the wrong direction.
All of these new things focuses on expanding “stuff” that players have…. Personally, I would love stretch goals that continue to push improvements on existing features that are being worked on. Graphics, Animation, UI, maybe adding a level of API functionality for such things as streaming of Avatars Radio into the game or pulling up information outside of the game on PC or Mobile, etc. A big goal that I loved from one discussion I had was a mobile version of the game for tablets. Why not a goal for more hiring to help with development?Honestly, my main feeling was, “do we really need more ‘stuff’?” I would rather have a good game with solid core mechanics and features then continuing to add more items and features that we don’t need. Stretch Goals, new items, and new non-core features could wait until the point where Episode 1 is polished enough that we don’t need character wipes anymore.