Even during the Kickstarter campaign of Shroud of the Avatar, the developers spoke about city sieges. These have now been presented in more detail – and they raise some eyebrows.
During the Kickstarter campaign in 2013, a video showing city sieges was presented. Enemies attacked a city under siege with siege weapons, while it was ablaze. The heroes had to break the siege, save the city, and repel the enemies. For a long time, nothing was heard about this feature. However, with Release 37 scheduled for the end of December, sieges will find their way into the game.
Sieges of the Wilderness!
Already, there is information that differs significantly from what was once planned. When a city is under siege, the siege does not take place in the city. Instead, it occurs in the wilderness. Those who want to enter a besieged city on the overland map will instead be taken to a new wilderness zone, where enemies and siege weapons can be found. This “siege” must be broken before one can enter the city.
There is no exact reasoning given for why this feature was altered so significantly. However, it could be related to the housing system, which the developers have mentioned before. In Shroud of the Avatar, housing plays a very important role, as the developer studio finances itself mainly through houses, properties, decorative items, and player cities. Housing enthusiasts often spend several thousand US dollars for this. Each city in the game represents a housing zone. According to the developers, it is technically not possible to create different instances of housing zones.
This affects quests, for example. In cities, there cannot be consequences for the actions of players. An NPC cannot essentially die or end up in prison. They cannot leave the zone, and a new NPC cannot enter the zone due to quest requirements. Changes to the area or its NPCs would pose issues. On the one hand, in the multiplayer aspect. What if one player decides to kill an NPC, but another player in the same quest decides to let the NPC live?
No Instances for Housing Zones
In order to do this, different instances of the zone would have to be created for each player based on their decisions. Similar to what The Elder Scrolls Online does. However, that presents problems with the housing system, as houses would have to be copied for each instance. This apparently does not work for technical reasons. Therefore, housing zones in the game will not change – and that includes all the cities in the game world.
And this is where sieges come into play. Aside from the fact that housing fans who have spent thousands of dollars on their home would not be very pleased to see it burning, an instance of the zone would also have to be created for the siege. And that does not work. Thus, it will not be cities that are besieged, but the wilderness before them.
Many fans of Shroud of the Avatar express disappointment and fear that the sieges will have no impact on the cities, and that for example, the inhabitants will continue to behave as if nothing has happened. Shroud of the Avatar is, by the way, promoted on the official website as a game where players must make difficult decisions that have consequences. However, that does not seem to be the case…
