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Port Harmony

April 26, 2023

Port Harmony welcomes players to Mistrendur.

Keith gives a preview of Port Harmony before it's official release. Click to watch the video on YouTube.

The preceding video was originally Livestreamed at Twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar (now archived at YouTube), in which the first half of the livestream focuses on Keith describing the new scene called Port Harmony.

There are many reasons that Port Harmony is an important location in Mistrendur, not the least of which is that it's the first NPC town and adventure scene players encounter when they arrive in Shroud of the Avatar's Episode 2 region. Keith knew it needed to be special and ensured it had a unique look, access to all the crafting stations and merchants, and plenty of quests.

Port Harmony, as it's name implies, is a seaside town that has clearly spent a lot of time on water management. It's got two giant locks that control access to several man-made canals that trace through the city. A gondala drifts through the canals, operated by a humanoid automaton. Early quests have players helping the town's "watersmith" with water-themed tasks. Port Harmony is a recent extension of the New Britannia community that's firmly entrenched in the original "Episode 1" region to the south, with construction sites and piles of unplaced cobblestones acting as evidence that the port is still growing.

Most of the town's non-player characters (NPCs) are grouped into categories like "Resident," "Merchant," and "Guard," which helps players understand that most trivial responses will be shared by similar NPCs and, therefore, similar. However, there are many unique NPCs and even those that are categorized will still have several unique responses and possibly roles in one or more quests. Keith was able to give unique appearances to several of Port Harmony's signature NPCs, including the ministers that run the town, the watersmith mentioned above, and even a woman lounging in the tavern who claims to be the one, true Avatar of legend.

Included in Keith's goals for Episode 2 is to encourage player choice and for the results of those choices to make visible changes. Because nearly all of Shroud of the Avatar happens in shared spaces, both of these goals weren't considered by previous designers. Keith accomplished both by having Port Harmony's main story arc have a start, a finale, and a "choose your own side quests" gap in the middle. All players would essentially start their Port Harmony story arc the same way before being allowed to literally choose any local side quests they wanted. Once the game detected the player had completed about half of the available sidequests, their character would be considered to have enough renown that they would be summoned to engage in the Port Harmony story finale. Throughout the town are hidden decorations that become visible when any player who completed the finale came into that area, demonstrating that a player who completes the finale has made a visible change in the world without disrupting the experience of players who haven't yet reached the same stage of the storyline.

Keith created a gazebo with a unique appearance for Port Harmony's "New You" character model merchant. Players found it appealing enough that the gazebo was modified to become a version that players could place on their own housing lots.

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