Anyone heard of Shards Online?

Francis Marsten

Member
I was wondering if anyone has heard of the Shard Online project here. Its an upcoming MMO very much in the spirit of Ultima Online as well as that of UO private shard and modding community. I heard of the title a while back but zero details. They released a kick starter a while ago which is just about over.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1468280928/shards-online-a-customizable-sandbox-mmorpg

They have some good stuff like :

- A top down view, kinda like diablo
- Skill based character development (like uo)
- Player Housing and Crafting
- The ability to create your own "shard"
- GM like role available to players.

Tons more details on their page. However one disconcerting aspect is the "Optional Premium Subscriptions" instead of the standard service fee. That often needs to less than ethical choices when designing gameplay. The business model their have is hosting services for player shards and content. Which is not a bad idea.

Overall this seems like a really nice project, especially that there seems to be a lot of work to give modders the ability to script new content and stuff. However its missing the feature that is most important to me, that is world building. There are a set of maps available to work with, no listed feature to modify or create new maps.

So I have yet to buy into the kickstarter, dont know if I will. But I still like the what team behind this project is trying to create.
 
I personally think it could go somewhere, its like UO in a lot of aspects but I love how they encourage people to run their own "Shards" so they can control what happens and such like private UO Servers for example...

I personally hope it reaches its goal and I am more then likely going to be contributing.

If you are interested in this check this out!
http://citadelstudios.net/?p=2458

You can download and play etc!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OK, Probably done hearing my opinion of this but I just got done playing this game for about an hour and a half. It is amazing and the PvP was a blast. Can't wait for them to develop more stuff and make the game wider!

I approve, my donation is in.
 
xG00BERx said:
I personally hope it reaches its goal
Click to expand...
It's going to end up failing the kick starter goal. There is only 3 days to go and they still need $250k. That however does not mean they'll stop working on it. I watched some of the twitch Q/A they were doing and they said if that failed the kick started they'd just have to re-evaluate their position and move forwards from there. Either way they're said they are going to make the game to the best of their ability.
 
After playing the game for a while, I have to say its pretty solid for pre-alpha. They have way more to show for themselves than shroud of the avatar had at the time of its kick starters. It would take a miracle for them to reach their goal in the time they have left. The main problem too few people know that this project exists. They would have needed to do more work before the kick starters at getting known. They should have seriously approached the UO private shard community, one part to get known and one part to find out what is important to people making these shards as its real in the field data that would validate or put their designs in question.

Take a look at SotA, Lord British really knows to generate hype. He was getting funds well after the kick starter ended, I think they may have hit 4 million. LB pretty much sucked up all the funds from any and all UO minded people. That is another major strike against Shards current kick-starter.

I am going to follow the progress of the shards project, I truly hope they can achieve success.
 
Hank said:
It's going to end up failing the kick starter goal. There is only 3 days to go and they still need $250k. That however does not mean they'll stop working on it. I watched some of the twitch Q/A they were doing and they said if that failed the kick started they'd just have to re-evaluate their position and move forwards from there. Either way they're said they are going to make the game to the best of their ability.
Click to expand...
Many times kickstarter projects reach the goal in their last day. It is in that time where everybody start to spread the word like there were no tomorrow (which is, in fact, true)
 
Hank said:
It's going to end up failing the kick starter goal. There is only 3 days to go and they still need $250k. That however does not mean they'll stop working on it. I watched some of the twitch Q/A they were doing and they said if that failed the kick started they'd just have to re-evaluate their position and move forwards from there. Either way they're said they are going to make the game to the best of their ability.
Click to expand...

I did not see that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Active Shards

Donations

Total amount
$0.00
Goal
$500.00
View
Back