Yep, I'm trying something else. Over the past ~3 months, I've tried continuing Fell Omens, tried...
Shard of Virtue Online [MMO Quest]
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[Session 1] Character Creation Pt. 1
Yep, I'm trying something else. Over the past ~3 months, I've tried continuing Fell Omens, tried continuing Learnset, tried writing another Pokemon fic and tried continuing Rogue's Gallery. Unfortunately, I then got sick for about a week, which more or less completely resets whatever I'm writing.
Since I don't know whether I'll be continuing Fell Omens, I'll be allowing the transfer of boons if the people who accrued them want.
I know it looks a bit like an SAO style quest, but this is actually derived from the fifteen hours I've spent with Crosscode. And my experience with FFXIV, natch.
* * * * * * * *
After the release of 'Shard of Virtue: The Last Magus', Thaumatic Entertainment went quiet for a full half a decade. The developer was renowned for being tight lipped and secretive, but this was well and truly over the top. No releases. No word of upcoming games. No communications or announcements. Barely a presence on their own forums. Not a whisper of what was in store for the future. A curious occurrence to say the least, in an industry dominated by bravado, promises, social media and marketing, made all the more so by how successful the developer had been over their four game run. All four Shard of Virtues were well received by critic and public alike, with the third oft cited as a modern classic. As the company's silence went from notable, to forgotten, to a baffling fact occasionally brought to mind with 'What ever happened to those guys who made Shard of Virtue?', the lack of news became newsworthy in its own right. Some speculated the developer had silently imploded due to internal issues, but had remained locked under some legal gag. Others believed they were working on their own magnum opus. Some were optimistic. Others assumed disappointment. Most expected nothing at all, and had forgotten all about the little indie developer.
What Thaumatic pulled, no-one expected.
Shard of Virtue Online. Coming soon to VR-Pod. Apply for the closed beta here.
Upon first announcement (after, of course, confirming that this wasn't some hoax), many dismissed it as pure, unadulterated hubris. Thaumatic was tiny; regardless of how quiet they were about what happened in-house, their employment was, at most, in the high double digits and there'd never been any talk of a publisher. They weren't nearly big enough to run a normal MMO, far less one running on the most complicated, data-hungry platform ever devised.
Speaking of which, even the biggest publishers baulked at trying an MMO on the VR-Pod. As great as it sounded on paper, as impressive as it'd be to the public, it wasn't even close to feasible. Even with the advances in VR as more than a novelty. Even with the massive increase in accessibility after price drops and improvements made to the tech's stability and lifespan. Even considering the spike in the purchases of the VR-Pod that the MMO would spur, it was a disaster in the making. The unfeasibly small player base, the cost of maintaining servers, how infamously difficult it was to program for the VR-Pod, and those were just the tip of the iceberg. No publisher with a lick of sense would give the go ahead for such a reckless endeavour.
And yet, here you are.
You're one of the roughly eighty thousand players accepted as part of the third wave of beta testers. Like many others, you applied for it as soon as the first round of reports reached the public. Though technical wizardry required to simply make the game work was what dominated the public conversation, the second biggest talking point was of SoV Online as a legitimate action MMO in its own right, beyond the novelty of VR. It wasn't unimpeachable, of course. Few things are. Some had hoped for a more traditional MMO, while others decried the simplification of the combat system derived from the original game, or found the 'true' first person action game experience to be disagreeable. Overall, however, the complaints usually skewed either subjective or petty; barely enough to even slow the hype train.
It's taken you hours to finally get ready; setting up the VR-Pod's wi-fi connection was a pain and a half, but with the installation complete and your account created, you're finally ready to delve into the game.
Past the unimaginative loading and title screens (which feature little more than a bar crawling across the screen, and the game's title in the same, old font it's used since the first game), you're abruptly thrown into character creation.
It begins with an implicitly male, wireframe mannequin upon a suitably mystical background of ethereal lights against the dark. The word 'Gender' hangs overhead in no-frills, immersion defying Arial. It's probably keyed to switch genders with either Swap Gender or something similarly clunky, but as a veteran of the VR-Pod, you've built up your own mental shorthand for navigating menus. It's somewhere between the command to Change and the mental equivalent of swiping the joystick. Sure enough, the wireframe shifts to a classically feminine shape. You alternate a couple of times, as a sort of brain warm-up, the shape contorting rapidly.
In the end, what do you settle on?
CHOOSE ONE
[] Male
[] Female
With that taken care of, the screen shifts to listing off the six starting classes, each accompanied by a premade, vaguely archetypical example and a short, mostly useless blurb. A reminder that you can change classes in game by completing quests appears at the corner of your vision. Word on the grapevine is class swapping only becomes available once you complete the first branch of the story quest, so you'll be stuck with it for some time.
Which do you pick?
CHOOSE ONE
[] Soldier
"The Soldier is a tank class with elements of melee dps. As one of the easiest classes to learn and one of the most self-sufficient, Soldier is the class of choice for those wanting to learn how to tank."
[] Thief
"The Thief is a melee DPS with supportive elements. While frail and forced to brave the danger zone up close, the Thief's mix of burst damage and crowd control allows them to finish fights quickly."
[] Hunter
"The Hunter is a pure ranged DPS. Free from long cast times, the Hunter is able to move around the battlefield, raining down arrows while keeping out of the way of incoming attacks."
[] Cleric
"The Cleric is primarily a support class, supplemented with powerful AOE spells. While known for their defensive capabilities, the Cleric's magic is also surprisingly potent on offence."
[] Magician
"The Magician is a hybrid of damage and support. The magician locks their enemies in place with powerful crowd control, before finishing them off with a flurry of magic. "
[] Pyromancer
"The Pyromancer is a pure ranged DPS class. With massive damage with each spell cast, the Pyromancer can blast apart weaker monsters before they even realise what's happened."
Since I don't know whether I'll be continuing Fell Omens, I'll be allowing the transfer of boons if the people who accrued them want.
I know it looks a bit like an SAO style quest, but this is actually derived from the fifteen hours I've spent with Crosscode. And my experience with FFXIV, natch.
* * * * * * * *
After the release of 'Shard of Virtue: The Last Magus', Thaumatic Entertainment went quiet for a full half a decade. The developer was renowned for being tight lipped and secretive, but this was well and truly over the top. No releases. No word of upcoming games. No communications or announcements. Barely a presence on their own forums. Not a whisper of what was in store for the future. A curious occurrence to say the least, in an industry dominated by bravado, promises, social media and marketing, made all the more so by how successful the developer had been over their four game run. All four Shard of Virtues were well received by critic and public alike, with the third oft cited as a modern classic. As the company's silence went from notable, to forgotten, to a baffling fact occasionally brought to mind with 'What ever happened to those guys who made Shard of Virtue?', the lack of news became newsworthy in its own right. Some speculated the developer had silently imploded due to internal issues, but had remained locked under some legal gag. Others believed they were working on their own magnum opus. Some were optimistic. Others assumed disappointment. Most expected nothing at all, and had forgotten all about the little indie developer.
What Thaumatic pulled, no-one expected.
Shard of Virtue Online. Coming soon to VR-Pod. Apply for the closed beta here.
Upon first announcement (after, of course, confirming that this wasn't some hoax), many dismissed it as pure, unadulterated hubris. Thaumatic was tiny; regardless of how quiet they were about what happened in-house, their employment was, at most, in the high double digits and there'd never been any talk of a publisher. They weren't nearly big enough to run a normal MMO, far less one running on the most complicated, data-hungry platform ever devised.
Speaking of which, even the biggest publishers baulked at trying an MMO on the VR-Pod. As great as it sounded on paper, as impressive as it'd be to the public, it wasn't even close to feasible. Even with the advances in VR as more than a novelty. Even with the massive increase in accessibility after price drops and improvements made to the tech's stability and lifespan. Even considering the spike in the purchases of the VR-Pod that the MMO would spur, it was a disaster in the making. The unfeasibly small player base, the cost of maintaining servers, how infamously difficult it was to program for the VR-Pod, and those were just the tip of the iceberg. No publisher with a lick of sense would give the go ahead for such a reckless endeavour.
And yet, here you are.
You're one of the roughly eighty thousand players accepted as part of the third wave of beta testers. Like many others, you applied for it as soon as the first round of reports reached the public. Though technical wizardry required to simply make the game work was what dominated the public conversation, the second biggest talking point was of SoV Online as a legitimate action MMO in its own right, beyond the novelty of VR. It wasn't unimpeachable, of course. Few things are. Some had hoped for a more traditional MMO, while others decried the simplification of the combat system derived from the original game, or found the 'true' first person action game experience to be disagreeable. Overall, however, the complaints usually skewed either subjective or petty; barely enough to even slow the hype train.
It's taken you hours to finally get ready; setting up the VR-Pod's wi-fi connection was a pain and a half, but with the installation complete and your account created, you're finally ready to delve into the game.
Past the unimaginative loading and title screens (which feature little more than a bar crawling across the screen, and the game's title in the same, old font it's used since the first game), you're abruptly thrown into character creation.
It begins with an implicitly male, wireframe mannequin upon a suitably mystical background of ethereal lights against the dark. The word 'Gender' hangs overhead in no-frills, immersion defying Arial. It's probably keyed to switch genders with either Swap Gender or something similarly clunky, but as a veteran of the VR-Pod, you've built up your own mental shorthand for navigating menus. It's somewhere between the command to Change and the mental equivalent of swiping the joystick. Sure enough, the wireframe shifts to a classically feminine shape. You alternate a couple of times, as a sort of brain warm-up, the shape contorting rapidly.
In the end, what do you settle on?
CHOOSE ONE
[] Male
[] Female
With that taken care of, the screen shifts to listing off the six starting classes, each accompanied by a premade, vaguely archetypical example and a short, mostly useless blurb. A reminder that you can change classes in game by completing quests appears at the corner of your vision. Word on the grapevine is class swapping only becomes available once you complete the first branch of the story quest, so you'll be stuck with it for some time.
Which do you pick?
CHOOSE ONE
[] Soldier
"The Soldier is a tank class with elements of melee dps. As one of the easiest classes to learn and one of the most self-sufficient, Soldier is the class of choice for those wanting to learn how to tank."
[] Thief
"The Thief is a melee DPS with supportive elements. While frail and forced to brave the danger zone up close, the Thief's mix of burst damage and crowd control allows them to finish fights quickly."
[] Hunter
"The Hunter is a pure ranged DPS. Free from long cast times, the Hunter is able to move around the battlefield, raining down arrows while keeping out of the way of incoming attacks."
[] Cleric
"The Cleric is primarily a support class, supplemented with powerful AOE spells. While known for their defensive capabilities, the Cleric's magic is also surprisingly potent on offence."
[] Magician
"The Magician is a hybrid of damage and support. The magician locks their enemies in place with powerful crowd control, before finishing them off with a flurry of magic. "
[] Pyromancer
"The Pyromancer is a pure ranged DPS class. With massive damage with each spell cast, the Pyromancer can blast apart weaker monsters before they even realise what's happened."
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Character Sheet
Character Sheet
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Username: ???
Character Name: ???
Avatar Gender: Female
Favourite Class: Cleric [Level 1]
General Skills
Mechanics: Gimped (100/250 EXP)
Mastery: Passable (250/500 EXP)
Awareness: Passable (250/500 EXP)
Lore: Balanced (500/1250 EXP)
Specific Skills
Aim: Untested (Unknown)
Attend: Untested (Unknown)
Craft: Untested (Unknown)
Dodge: Untested (Unknown)
Execute: Untested (Unknown)
Focus: Untested (Unknown)
Gather: Untested (Unknown)
Mitigate: Untested (Unknown)
Predict: Untested (Unknown)
Taunt: Untested (Unknown)
Class Experience
Soldier: [LOCKED]
Thief: [LOCKED]
Hunter: [LOCKED]
Cleric: Level 1 | lol [0/10 XP]
Attend [+0] / Predict [+0]
Magician: [LOCKED]
Pyromancer: [LOCKED]
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Username: ???
Character Name: ???
Avatar Gender: Female
Favourite Class: Cleric [Level 1]
General Skills
Mechanics: Gimped (100/250 EXP)
Mastery: Passable (250/500 EXP)
Awareness: Passable (250/500 EXP)
Lore: Balanced (500/1250 EXP)
Specific Skills
Aim: Untested (Unknown)
Attend: Untested (Unknown)
Craft: Untested (Unknown)
Dodge: Untested (Unknown)
Execute: Untested (Unknown)
Focus: Untested (Unknown)
Gather: Untested (Unknown)
Mitigate: Untested (Unknown)
Predict: Untested (Unknown)
Taunt: Untested (Unknown)
Class Experience
Soldier: [LOCKED]
Thief: [LOCKED]
Hunter: [LOCKED]
Cleric: Level 1 | lol [0/10 XP]
Attend [+0] / Predict [+0]
Magician: [LOCKED]
Pyromancer: [LOCKED]
Last edited:
Mechanics Compilation
StellarMonarch
Myrmidon
- Location
- Québec
[X] Female
[X] Cleric
No actual preference for gender, but Cleric has my attention. Support, survivability, and decent DPS sounds amazing.
[X] Cleric
No actual preference for gender, but Cleric has my attention. Support, survivability, and decent DPS sounds amazing.
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- Location
- Who Knows
[X] Female
[X] Cleric
fuck me, I love VR genres. Also, there aren't enough female protagonists for the field. Or, not many that are super good.
[X] Cleric
fuck me, I love VR genres. Also, there aren't enough female protagonists for the field. Or, not many that are super good.
StellarMonarch
Myrmidon
- Location
- Québec
What would be a good name for a Female Cleric? And what about our own username?
StellarMonarch
Myrmidon
- Location
- Québec
Hmmmm...
Ziggurat, Maryam, Immaculata, Nazarethian, HonorThyGod, FemCleric, iPrayForLoot, HolyC, Evangile, Godlayer, Hera...
Eh. We'll think of something.
Ziggurat, Maryam, Immaculata, Nazarethian, HonorThyGod, FemCleric, iPrayForLoot, HolyC, Evangile, Godlayer, Hera...
Eh. We'll think of something.
Rem
fite me
What the hell, I'm in.
[X] Female
[X] Cleric
Yes.
We shall be the grouchiest healer of them all.
[X] Female
[X] Cleric
Yes.
We shall be the grouchiest healer of them all.
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
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It's a well known fact that healers are naturally grouchy IRL
. That's something the MMO animes never get rightOstensibly yes (unless you mean a dnd style 'cleric has different stuff depending on the deity they worship' in which case...For certain classes, yes. For the Cleric base class, no). That said, if Cleric wins out, I'll be addressing that in the immediate next post.
BTW, a reminder that the character isn't married to their starting class.
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[X] Female
[X] Pyromancer
In the words of everybody's favorite pyro: "Mmmmf! Mmmf! Mf Mmmmmmmmf!"
Truly these words are an inspiration to us all.
[X] Pyromancer
In the words of everybody's favorite pyro: "Mmmmf! Mmmf! Mf Mmmmmmmmf!"
Truly these words are an inspiration to us all.
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BlackHadou
Bunny-Sensei
[x] Female
[x] Soldier
Just to screw with the lot of you. I want my Paladin.
[x] Soldier
Just to screw with the lot of you. I want my Paladin.
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Huh, is my hunch on combined classes being a thing correct? If so, what path for the Inquisitor/Witch Hunter? Cleric+Thief? Cleric+Hunter? Cleric+Thief+Hunter?
List of Dual Classes (Base)
The fifteen dual classes are more or less public knowledge, though information on obtaining them is more difficult to come by. May as well list them here.
Mercenary - Soldier/Thief
Ranger - Soldier/Hunter
Paladin - Soldier/Cleric
Rune Knight - Soldier/Magician
Battlemage - Soldier/Pyromancer
Assassin - Thief/Hunter
Vigilante - Thief/Cleric
Ninja - Thief/Magician
Saboteur - Thief/Pyromancer
Inquisitor - Hunter/Cleric
Trickster - Hunter/Magician
Gunslinger - Hunter/Pyromancer
Magister - Cleric/Magician
Shaman - Cleric/Pyromancer
Alchemist - Magician/Pyromancer
It's also decently public knowledge that there's three other pseudo base classes that aren't initially available; Berserker, Druid and Warlock. Combinations for those are less well known.
Anywho, I'll probably call the first vote some time tomorrow.
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StellarMonarch
Myrmidon
- Location
- Québec
Hmmm. Since I hope we're going for a Cleric, I think dual-ing with Soldier, Pyro or Hunter would be best to up survivability or DPS. Druid sounds like it would add to Supporting, Berserker sounds like a more DPS oriented Soldier and Warlock is a wild card.