Shards Online

[Vlaid]

Way early in it's development, but I thought I would bring this to the attention of EFU. This was brought to my attention in #EFU and at first I blew it off but after looking over the site, then looking over the youtube videos and some pre-alpha footage it has warmed the smallest twinge of hope.

It looks like at least a passable game that could recreate all or most of the key features of NWN1/NWN2 style PW server storytelling.

It seems like it hits a lot of the key features needed to have  an updated modern platform for running ambitious RP worlds on. Something  to keep an eye on for the future.

Cautiously optimistic.

• Something similar to DM client: NPC posession, teleportation, spawn items, become invisible, create/spawn items etc.
  
• Fully Customizable/Hosted Servers: You can host, mod and create fully custom content for your own server. Appears to have a toolset and everything you would expect to have or want in NWN1 when making a server. Maybe even more control to a level more like WC3 or SC2 where you can make completely different games out of the engine.
  

Youtube Channel for Developers
Shards Online Site

[manyscruples]

Might not be a replacement but it looks like it might be good fun irregardless.

[Rocinante]

Hello EFUers, been awhile but I thought I would give you all an update since I've been one of the early backers since the beginning. Its been four years but Legends of Aria (formerly known as Shards Online) has been greenlit for STEAM and will be released for early access December 4th of this year (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=694714097) Though modding tools will be made available to everyone when the game is considered finished the developer team is taking applications for new server admins which will grant those accepted access to all the current tools which are finally beginning to include custom assets such as maps (meaning you can finally build your own world instead of relying on the base map.) Further good news is that a team has been in the works of writing a 5th edition D&D ruleset and intend to release it to the community when they have a working product. If you're interested in helping out shoot me a PM here and I'll give their email if you have knowledge in C# or any of the main programmer languages than I am told LUA should be quite easy to pick up.   

[bobofwestoregonusa]

I briefly played this game and it controlled like resident evil. I mean the old ones. Like in the worst way possible. Is this still a thing?

[Rocinante]

On the subject of controls:
I have learned that the team who is responsible for creating the 5th edition ruleset has confirmed the possibility to mod the control scheme to give a similar feel to NWN though not an exact replica. Also here is a very early preview of the custom GUI being designed for the 5th edition ruleset. Merry Christmas EFU

[bobofwestoregonusa]

Does it still have tank controls worse than resident evil 2 or those old might and magic games? Because if it does that's a hard pass.

[Rocinante]

I had no trouble with the controls myself, if you purchased a copy of the game you can download the newest client for yourself and see.  The 5th edition ruleset will further modify the controls so it handles similarly to NWN.

[bobofwestoregonusa]

I have to be honest, I probably won't ever pick up shards. I'm not impressed with games having pre alpha releases of projects they haven't even started then using Kickstarter to fund the product even though it will take nearly half a  decade to finish. Shards is bad and their business practices are bad. If you kickstart your product should be FINISHED by the time you release it, not going to early access under a rebranding. I saw Shards at the start of its kickstarter YEARS ago and they were promising us a game to be released in 2016. I don't support the business practice of taking people's money YEARS in advance for a product that wouldn't even qualify as a proof of concept model to investors and saying you're going to make a full game out of it. Not to mention the subsequent backing they've been accepting four years later. Maybe this game will leave early access after its first decade and probably go the way of a lot of other early access projects.

As an example of their shady business practices: Did you know back in pre pre pre pre pre alpha before they even rebranded you could pay an entire 40 USD to play their completely unfinished tech demo? It was terrible, didn't work, and unfun and they charged retail price for it right out of kickstarter.

[Rocinante]

Thought I would drop in to let folks know that the Palanai team has transitioned from Legends of Aria to becoming their own independent company so that they may pursue their vision more freely. See the announcement below

Gabe (Phaernun)11/06/2019
@everyone As some of you may have heard, this year our team has begun a grand adventure. While we are still a ways off before we feel ready to announce our project to a wider audience, we do want to involve this community in our development process early on. So without much further ado - we would like to give you a glimpse of what we are working on.
Project Alona is our main project. It is a third-person, fantasy CRPG. The game will not only include a singleplayer campaign, but our team is also dedicated to providing players with powerful, easy-to-use modding tools to allow them to create their own singleplayer experiences for the community, as well as build and run their own Persistent Worlds. The game is being developed in Unity.
Project Zephyra is a tabletop product closely related to our game's development. Being developed by a part of our writers and game designers in a collaborative effort with the rest of the team, we are working on a Campaign Setting that will allow players to dive into our world with their friends around a table and roll some actual dice.
The information on release dates, specific features, the rulesets and or content of our Campaign Setting will still need to wait a while. We are not yet ready to share the details on these. However, as consolation, we will start introducing you to two key members of our adventuring party.
First up is one of our bards. Stephen Nowland is the lead narrative designer on Project Alona, and the creative force behind our Singleplayer Campaign's story. He is the author of the Aielund Saga and Ballard Trilogy novels. Some of you may also know him from the Neverwinter Nights community as 'Savant', the creator of the popular Aielund Saga modules.
We also want to introduce you all to one of our mages, 'Ectoplasm'. Chris is the technical director and lead programmer on Project Alona. Chris joined us from the gaming industry, where he has spent several years as an engine developer. There are few people who are as passionate about the modding tools and community server support as Gabe (Phaernun). Chris certainly gives him a run for his money on that front.
In the coming weeks and months, we will start introducing you all to more members of our adventuring party, who we are tackling these beasts projects with. We would also love your feedback on what kind of development updates you would like to see. Be it blogs or development streams (technical or otherwise), Q&A sessions with members of our team, or updates here via discord.

[Rocinante]

So some bad news and some great news. First off the bad news

Gabe (Phaernun)06/13/2020
@here Hey everyone, I'll be covering this in greater detail on Monday, but we'll be ending development on the video game side. We've looked at and discussed our options extensively, turning this every which way to see if there is an option we overlooked - but in the end we do not see a reliable path forward. The challenges have become too steep in the current climate, and as a result the risks are too high for us to put in the time and money to continue in hope things may get better in time.

Sadly the Project Alona team will not be continuing with their project at this time. However, as luck would have it through a random google search I found a project that has currently in development for over two years which aims to do what Shards Online originally promised when it comes to moddabilty (Yes you can write in a 5th edition rule set). Even better luck the project director is a fan of Neverwinter Nights. The plan is to do a kickstarter in early next year while releasing the first of their demo modules in a few weeks. The name of this project is called Reworld Online: https://www.reworldonline.com/

You can join their Discord channel to keep up with all the latest stuff.
https://discord.gg/ZWFnmY


MassivelyOP feature

https://massivelyop.com/2020/07/05/procedural-gen-mmo-reworld-online-teases-coming-test/

[Rocinante]

Road Map

[Rocinante]

The Game Design Document has been uploaded and will be updated as the project goes on. The lead developer has encouraged anyone who wants to leave feedback to do so via Google comments.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ertP8qj5q5NQ00vv83H689F8cnNmQ5RNxfTMtfkjwM/edit?fbclid=IwAR2mzJDh7aBHTlpgCCDZROvAtE7Bd9sZRFsVvqdaEhSt9ao7Z3VVlVge-Vg