Yesterday marked the Pre-Alpha Release 19 of the (MMO)RPG Shroud of the Avatar and brings several changes and innovations – including manual attacks.
The combat system of SotA is one of the most hotly debated game elements. The random principle, according to which “skill cards” compiled in a deck appear randomly in the hotbar, and the skill can only be used when it appears, divides the community. Some find the system interesting and believe it at least brings some fresh air into the overused hotbar combat system in the style of World of Warcraft.
Others would rather have exactly this WoW combat system, as they are familiar with it, and it is proven and effective. However, the card system will probably not disappear; with the new release, the option to perform manual standard attacks is now added. Until now, the character attacked automatically with standard attacks. Now, if the left mouse button is pressed while holding a melee weapon, the player strikes.
Faster mouse clicks lead to more frequent but weaker strikes. If the mouse button is held down for a while, the strike is “charged”, causing more damage. This is intended to bring more dynamism and action into the fights.
Slow Development
New is also that armor sets now provide a bonus, that strikes have more feedback like blood splatter and knocking back the opponent, and that players can now write books in the game and share them with others. This is a first step towards player-created quests. Through self-written books, players can leave hints, for example, and tell small stories. Enhanced sound effects, the third player city, revamped and new areas, as well as titles for female characters are also among the changes of Release 19.
Some planned changes for this update, such as dragons, guild wars, improvements to ranged skills, or player-managed vendors, had to be postponed. Shroud of the Avatar is actually supposed to be officially released by the end of the year. However, this seems rather unrealistic, considering what the developers still have to get done. Among those is the complete single-player mode, which is currently causing some excitement in the community.
