Featured

Sneak Scene

January 25, 2024

Keith describes Sneak scene's gameplay and construction. Click to watch the video on YouTube.

The preceding video was originally Livestreamed at Twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and is now archived at YouTube. Starting at 34:04, Keith begins showing off this new playable area and it's unique gameplay elements.

Although Shroud of the Avatar doesn't have true "sneak" mechanics (as of this writing, non-player characters (NPCs) have full 360 awareness and will always see a player character when within range), Keith used the conversation system within Sneak Scene to give players a sense of sneaking past enemy guards. In the scene, players are tasked with collecting several tokens from treasure chests within a dark room while staying out of every NPCs's trigger area (as indicated by the light of a bright torch that each NPC carries) and within a limited amount of time. If the player avoids the lights and collects the tokens before the time runs out, they're allowed to progress to another room. There are seven rooms in total, and each one harder than the last. If they get caught in a light of a torch, or don't finish a room before it's timer expires, the event is over. Players can turn in the tokens they've collected to an overseer at the start of the scene for special rewards not available anywhere else.

Also, Sneak Scene has parallels to another scene already in the game, Courage Club. Where Courage Club rewards those who rush headlong into combat, Sneak Scene celebrated those who avoided confrontation. The list below shares some of the important points of Sneak Scene.

  • Several guards in each room: Sneak Scene has seven rooms. Each room has at least two guards that patrol it. More guards will appear in later rooms, up to four of them.

  • Rooms grouped into brackets: Rooms are organized into three brackets. The first three rooms are Bracket 1, the next two are Bracket 2, and the third is Bracket 3. Not all rewards are offered in each bracket.
  • Named NPCs end each bracket: To help promote the parallels between Sneak Scene and Courage Club, each bracket ends with a room that includes a uniquely named "champion" with a custom appearance and dialogue.
  • Daily quests: A daily turn-in quest was added to encourage players to return to Sneak Scene.
  • Valuable rewards: Rewards were added that also parallel those from Courage Club, including decorative tokens and banners that players could place in their in-game homes, as well as additional negative "Courage" points (related to the game's "Virtue"/karma system) for players who prove they could avoid combat.
Tags: , , , , , , ,