Jack T. Lamplighter

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Check out what’s new this week! Gathering XP has received a HUGE update! A new Vault round has arrived — Riding and Pack Animals! New one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Also, be sure to also review the Players... Avatar’s Update #380: Gathering and Meticulous XP Update! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Check out what’s new this week! Gathering XP has received a HUGE update! A new Vault round has arrived — Riding & Pack Animals! New one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Also, be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let’s see what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Gathering & Meticulous XP Rewards Update! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream! Riding & Pack Animals Vault Round! Latest Store Items: Dark Shogun Armor, Electric Katanas & More! May Login Reward: Greenery Day Potted Plant! R77 Reward Program Login Items: “May the Fourth” Theme! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streaming Reward Program Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade) Community Event: Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney! Community Event: Riptown Creek Rat Race! Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands Community Event: Fish Finder Contest Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Gathering & Meticulous XP Rewards Update! Gatherers of New Britannia… Rejoice! Experience awarded for gathering has been significantly increased at various tiers. This change was implemented to ensure players could obtain crafting XP in a more efficient manner. The more efficiently players can increase the amount of XP in their crafting pool through gathering, the more quickly they can raise their refining and production skills. New players might find crafting to be a little less daunting, and veteran players will be able to increase their crafting skills even further! Experience from Tier 4, 5 and 6 gathering nodes were affected in the following way: Tier 4 Nodes: Increased from 600 to 1,000 per node Tier 5 Nodes: Increased from 1,000 to 2,500 per node Tier 6 Nodes: Increased from 2,000 to 5,000 per node Currently, Tier 6 mining nodes only reside in Tartarus, so be sure to delve downward into the more dangerous levels of that adventure scene to reap those increased rewards! Also, there has been a significant change to how meticulous results award experience while gathering. For each and every meticulous success within a single gathering attempt, you’ll now be awarded an XP amount equivalent to that node’s tiered reward. For instance, if you are mining a T5 Iron Node, which results in a Meticulous x3, the player will receive 7,500 XP. This is just one of the many exciting changes to arrive this year. Happy gathering, Avatars! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, May 8th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other development team members for a community 1 hour livestream! Expect a little extra fun and prizes this time around. While we answer questions from the community, Atos will teleport around the world displaying subtle views of various scenes. The first player to find him in-game will win a prize! This is IN ADDITION TO the prize drawings normally present during the Friday livestream. To enter the prize drawings, type “may the fourth be with you” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! Riding & Pack Animals Vault Round! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, May 21st at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Saddlebags Decoration Grey Donkey Cria (Baby Llama) Saddle Stand Decoration Lady’s Riding Outfit Gentleman’s Riding Outfit Black Foal White Foal Adobe Brick 2-Story with Roof Access Village Home Latest Store Items: Dark Shogun Armor, Electric Katanas & More! Exciting new additions which arrived lately to the Crown Store are the Electric Katanas coming in three colors (Pink, Red and Green). These “electrifying” new 2-handed swords, if salvaged, will yield eternal patterns which can be applied to player-crafted 2-handed swords. Also recent to arrive is a pack of English ivy to adorn the deco surfaces of building sides — perfect for making that knight’s keep a little more rustic! Last but certainly not least — plants! Many plants! The Cherry Pie Plant, the Potted Banana Plants (3-Pack) and the Potted Chusan Palm Plants (3-Pack) will all offer much more variety to the plant-type deco throughout your homes and gardens. Recently, the Dark Shogun Armor Set boldly strode into the store! This armor set will yield plate armor Eternal Patterns if salvaged, which can be applied to other plate armor to apply the style. These new decorations and gear were inspired by “May the Fourth,” Japan’s Golden Week and Greenery Day! Dark Shogun Armor Set Pink Electric Katana (Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Item) Red Electric Katana Green Electric Katana Ivy Wall Decoration Set Cherry Pie Plant (Heliotrope) Potted Banana Plants (3-Pack) Potted Chusan Palm Plants (3-Pack) May Login Reward: Greenery Day Potted Plant! In celebration of Greenery Day, this decorative potted plant is yours simply by logging in during the month of May. It’s a perfect addition to your home or garden, and in the spirit of this celebration, players can express their love of plants and nature. Happy gardening, Avatars! Release 77 Reward Program Login Reward Items: “May the Fourth” Theme! Avatars! Rewards Program login reward items for Release 77 are “May the Fourth” themed! Reward Program members will receive these items immediately upon logging in during Release 77! “May the fourth be with you!” Electric Sword Training Orb Pet Electric Sword Training Helmet Blue Electric Katana NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home (pictured above) NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Choice of 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 1000 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one-on-one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums: 2020 Events May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade) to FOUR lucky winners! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney For the Anglers of New Britannia, a weekly developer run fishing event has arrived! These weekly tournaments start at Noon CT every Friday and will last until Noon CT the next Friday. Players may register towns to be put into a registry list which will dictate most of the venues available for the fishing competition. Every week, the venues shift to the next 3 towns from the registry. Also each week, a new spotlighted PvE and PvP scene cycle into the contest. Each category (POT, PvP, PvE) features different prizes and goals. All fish must be caught within the timeframe of the contest. Here are some of the details: Largest Saltwater Fish (Town): Prizes: Player Owned Town Row Lot Deed, Large Gold Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught from one of these towns Whyte Roc (@Cypher Black) Brittany Fort (@Sonja) PaxLair (@Sean Silverfoot) Largest Fish (PvP):​ Prizes: 2 Chained Obsidian Shard 3-Packs, Large Silver Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught in Verdantis Shardfall Largest Lava Fish: Prizes: Fishing Rod of Prosperity, Large Bronze Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught in Blackblade Foothills Consolation Prizes: Prizes: Small Bronze Fishing Trophy Rules: Everyone who submitted an entry that did not win an above prize Prizes provided by the Community Manager will be available for attendees, but governors, guild leaders and players are welcome to sweeten the pot by providing additional prizes based on objective criteria entirely of their own design. In fact, please consider planning events to overlap the duration and chosen weekly locations of the Fishing developer events. Please post these events in the in-game events forums and the Community Manager will promote accordingly. Expect a constant stream of weekly events, each to feature new locations and new objectives. Head on over to the Fishing Event Forum Thread for more information. Happy adventures, Avatars! Community Event: Riptown Creek Rat Race [Forum Post by Mhtic] ​ Mhtic and friends are very glad to announce Riptown Creek Weekly/Monthly Events! This week’s event is a Drunken Rat Race! Head on over to Riptown Creek at the City Lot in the town center on Saturday, May 9th 2020 (time pending, contact @Mhtic and @Bee Striker). Future Events will include: Parkour/Rat Race <== Saturday, May 9th 2020 Treasure Hunts Mazes Gustball Tournaments Dance Parties Music Performance PvP Tournaments Fishing Contests Feedbacks and ideas are always appreciated, and if you’d like to reserve the central City Lot for your event, simply contact Mhtic! For more information, please visit this forum post by Mhtic. Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands [Forum Post by CatherineRose] Another chapter of the Black Sails Saga has begun, Avatars! When the creative minds of CatherineRose and friends start writing a new chapter, it can mean only one thing — adventure awaits thee! Typically, these stories start as forum story writing and role-play, which then work their way into the game as role-playing adventures. Upon the chapter’s end, a giant battle between players usually takes place, so be sure to get involved now. Ready thine quills and ink, oh pirates of New Britannia, for a grand player-made adventure awaits thee! For more information, please contact CatherineRose for an invite to the planning conversations on the forums. Months before this day ……….. A spy for our Black Sails had given a message to one of the guards to warn us that as the great leader @Antrax Artek was leaving his headquarters with his army and as he made his way toward the battle which was underway in Blood Bay, a strange purple mist began to overtake the army. As the spy looked on with horror he saw one by one of each of the soldiers fall to the ground. Their bodies began to shake as if a great monster were picking each up and violently throwing each into the air. Upon falling to the ground they did not move from any position whether arms were out stretched or bent into grotesque shapes. All succumbed in like manner even the great Antrax himself as well. The next strange and frightening thing to happen was that each of the soldiers beginning with Antrax woke. They stood up at attention as if ready for orders to be given. Yet they were in some kind of stupor or trance. Antrax turned, in this trance as well, and shouted orders to his army. “We are to battle in Blood Bay. You will kill all living avatars except for any in our own army, Antax Army. You will kill all Pirates as well as all Obsidians. Let their blood reach from the edge of the cursed water’s of Blood Bay across the battle ground until it flows and touches the mountains . Let no one escape your sword.” “Show no mercy.” Antrax and his army did just that. Blood ran deep from all this death. The deadly purple mist affected all who marched through it. No one was spared. Mass confusion took place as well. No one that day had the ability to think like a fighter. No one that day could distinguish allies from enemies. In time the purple mist cleared from the survivors bodies. Antrax and his army returned to his headquarters. The Black Sails and Allies who survived, that were able, began to train for the next battle. We knew we would never retreat. We would never give up the goal of having peace. The evil Obsidians had again used the powerful knowledge they possess to continue their quest to control and then to destroy all of Novia. However,we knew our purpose would l not be thwarted. We repaired our ships, bandaged our wounded. We also, sadly buried the many dead. I received, from one of my guards this message which was intercepted by one of our spies: “I, Lord of a Obsidians, Master of all the World, now order you bring together our most feared fighters as well as the strongest of the trained animals which are scattered about Novia. Bring them to the Underworld under the purple mist in Blood Bay where the four rivers of Lava meet. Antrax and his army along with The pirates and allies are working to becoming again. Ha! They will not be strong enough to go against the mighty Obsidians.. We will go to the place called Malus and stop them from crossing into their new lands… (continues on the forums) Community Event: Fish Finder Contest [Forum Post by Phamyns] ​ The Fish Finder Contest is 5 weekends of fishing splendor in 5 different towns and will change towns every Saturday. Anglers! Ready your poles! Ready your bait! Fish like you’ve never fished before! Location: Crossroads Estates Date : May 9, 2020 Start Time : Noon CST Duration : 8 Hours Water Type : Fetid Prizes: 1st 150,000 Gold, 2nd 100,000 Gold, 3rd 75,000 Gold, 4th 50,000 Gold, 5th 25,000 Gold Rules : Each contestant will turn in one fish, the largest fish they caught during the timeframe of the contest. At the end of the 8 hours, 5 winners will be awarded based off of the size of the fish they chose to submit. Once a fish is submitted the contestant is done for that day. Each contestant must provide a single fish entry Phamyns in game via trade window or in-game mail by Noon CST on Monday. For more information, please visit this forum post by Phamyns. Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Wednesday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack [Forum Post by Lazarus Long] Bringing you the latest news and entertainment, Laz & Jack report on hot Shroud of the Avatar topics every weekday, 12PM – 1PM CST! Players can tune-in at Twitch.com, at WRFB.rocks or using in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Visit their main forum post to learn more about tuning in to WRFB broadcasts. Interested in becoming a DJ on WRFB? Send a PM to @Lazarus Long on the forums. Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Avatars! Here’s the latest and greatest line-up from those DJ’s over at Virtue Radio! Players can tune-in using their website or in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Podcast and Poetry with DJ Asclepius, Mondays 7pm NBT Radio Oz with the Doctor DJ Asclepius, Every 4th Wednesday 7pm NBT DJ Jarkith Chaotic Country, Thursdays 10PM NBT DJ Alliene Dragonfyre: The Beat Of Novia, Fridays 8PM NBT DJ Mick Foley Holds the Rocking Power Hours, Saturdays 2PM NBT DJ Stryker: Lost in the Spaces, Sundays 9AM NBT DJ Celith Wraine: Faster and Louder, Sundays 12 Noon NBT Interested in DJ’ing on Virtue Radio? Send a PM to any of our staff members @Alleine Dragonfyre @Celith Wraine @Stryker Sparhawk, @Asclepius for help! Project to Support – RodasurfAvatars! Yet another news outlet has spotted Darkstarr on a RodaSurf board. Be sure to check out this latest sighting in this latest Austin360 news article! Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team also dazzled us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News not too long ago! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure to check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Release 77 is live -- happy adventures Avatars! https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=123007View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements New Adventure Scene: Bunker C! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream! Dark Shogun Outfit! New Store Items: Electric Katanas, Ivy & More! May Login Reward: Greenery Day Potted Plant! R77 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: “May the Fourth” Theme! Sky Navy Vault Round! Spindelskog Adventure Scene Preview! World & UI Changes Crafting & Economy Changes Combat Balance & Changes Updated Player Owned Towns Bug Fixes Double Experience Points Continue! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streaming Reward Program Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade) Community Event: Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney! Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands Community Event: Fish Finder Contest Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players New Adventure Scene: Bunker C! Keith “Sannio” Quinn has completed “Bunker C” which is now available for adventurers in R77 to explore! “Bunker C” is a new underground scene accessible from the caves underneath the Northwest Blackblade Mountains. Players are directed to this crumbling underground shelter as part of a quest that starts in Novia’s Far Hinterlands. The bunker challenges players with deadly lava in addition to undead and elemental threats. This bunker also includes a vault door puzzle, multiple traps and even lava fishing! “An unusual doe wandering near the entrance of the Far Hinterlands needs your help to remove the curse that has turned her into an animal! Along the way, you’ll venture into the newly uncovered “Bunker C” and brave the high-threat dangers that lurk underground!” This new adventure scene is just one of many to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, May 1st at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other development team members for a community 1 hour livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “may the fourth be with you” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! New Dark Shogun Outfit! An exciting new addition arriving soon to the Crown Store is the Dark Shogun Outfit. This bold and shadowy armor set is a must have for any players venturing down the path of anti-virtue. Featuring “plate like” qualities, if this heavy armor set is salvaged to obtain eternal patterns, the patterns can be applied to player-crafted plate armor to take on the appearance of this new armor set. The outfit also features an emblemed black cloth cloak which also yields an eternal pattern when salvaged for application onto cloaks. The Dark Shogun Outfit is one of many additions this release recognizing “May the Fourth” and Japan’s “Golden Week” seasonal celebrations. (The armor set is still in design and testing but should arrive shortly after release.) New Store Items: Electric Katanas, Ivy & More! Exciting new additions arriving to the Crown Store are the Electric Katanas coming in three colors (Pink, Red and Green). These “electrifying” new 2-handed swords, if salvaged, will yield eternal patterns which can be applied to player-crafted 2-handed swords. Also arriving to the store is a pack of English ivy to adorn the deco surfaces of building sides — perfect for making that knight’s keep a little more rustic! Last but certainly not least — plants! Many plants! The Cherry Pie Plant, the Potted Banana Plants (3-Pack) and the Potted Chusan Palm Plants (3-Pack) will all offer much more variety to the plant-type deco throughout your homes and gardens. These decorations, to include the Dark Shogun Armor previously spotlighted in these release notes, were inspired by “May the Fourth,” Japan’s Golden Week and Greenery Day! Pink Electric Katana (Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Item) Red Electric Katana Green Electric Katana Ivy Wall Decoration Set Cherry Pie Plant (Heliotrope) Potted Banana Plants (3-Pack) Potted Chusan Palm Plants (3-Pack) May Login Reward: Greenery Day Potted Plant! In celebration of Greenery Day, this decorative potted plant is yours simply by logging in during the month of May. It’s a perfect addition to your home or garden, and in the spirit of this celebration, players can express their love of plants and nature. Happy gardening, Avatars! Release 77 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: “May the Fourth” Theme! Avatars! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 77 are “May the Fourth” themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 77! “May the fourth be with you!” Electric Sword Training Orb Pet Electric Sword Training Helmet Blue Electric Katana NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Sky Navy Vault Round! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, May 7th at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Star Citizen Airship City Home Burned Skeletons Cylindrical Automaton Pet Blue Electric Sword Electric Halberd Adobe Dome Deco Set White Aeronaut Clockwork Full Face Helm All Metal Crossbow /floatmeditate Emote Spindelskog Adventure Scene Preview! Spindelskog is an upcoming Episode 2 adventure scene located on the new Mistrendur continent which is currently deep in design with List Rostov at the helm! List has shared additional screenshots of his work, and adventurers will be able to sample this adventure scene sometime soon on the QA server. For those familiar with the Mistrendur Land Rush, this location has been indicated for some time as Adventure Scene 1, far to the northwest of the continent. List also shared a foreboding description of this mysterious forest… “Amidst the fetid swamps of the Northwest of Mistrendur hides Spindelskog, a rotting and decrepit old-growth forest. Swathed in ancient webs and choked with detritus and weeds, this forest can go without sunlight for months at a time. Within this foreboding darkness, the summer growth falls into decay and the webs and shadows creep across the woods. It is home to creepies and crawlies, huge predators and mysterious creatures of shadow.” World & UI Changes These miscellaneous updates affecting the game world or aspects of the user interface (UI) patched in during R76 or will go live on or shortly after R77: Level-Up Effects: Players now receive an audio prompt and VFX when gaining an adventure or production level Food Consumption Duration: The time it takes to devour food has been reduced greatly Bard Trainer: The Bard skill tree trainer has been added to the Ruins of Utheim Quest XP Increased: Potentially a temporary amount, players currently receive x10 XP for completing quests GPU Occlusion Setting: (Windows Only) can now be toggled in the Options Menu XP Command: Added a /xp command allowing players to see additional XP data in the chat interface Pooled XP: Experience is no longer shared between characters on the same account (XP earned prior to the change is still shared) Repeatable Quests: various repeatable quests became daily quests due to increased XP rewards Solace Bridge Outskirts: Improved how the “Investigate the Undead Mystery” task clears Aerie: Improved how Yngvarr responds when returning to him with the Reclamation Unit Parts package Celestis: All boats to Novia also have the option to go to Solania, and added rowboat teleporters to interconnect the four primary docks (similar to signpost teleporters in POTs) Resolute: Improved the “weapons upgrade” quest turn-in for Whitten Crafting, Items & Economy Changes These changes to the player economy, in-game items, or crafting patched in during R76 or will go live on or shortly after Release 77: Crafting Batch Size: Have been increased from 20 to 50 Supply Bundles: Now have a chance to include an XP reward item that scales with bundle type (will be tradeable soon) Water Buckets: Weight reduced to 0.2 lbs from 2 pounds Aether Orb: This off-hand item now features enhanced VFX and can be placed as a decoration Heart of Vrul: This off-hand item now features enhanced VFX and can be placed as a decoration Outdoor Lighting: Nearly doubled for all player housing lot types Mini Automaton (Gold, Silver, Brass): Now feature Ink conversation system abilities Aetheric Amplifier Console: Improved store item description and Player Guide entry Combat Balance & Changes These changes to combat skills or concepts patched in during R76 or will go live on or shortly after Release 77: Bard Specialization Skill: Now available on the Bard skill tree Concussive Canticle: Balanced and damage output was reduced Bard Skill VFX: Additional bard skill VFX were added/updated Bard Skill Cast Time: No longer affected by cast duration reduction effects such as Chaotic Feedback Updated Player Owned Towns These updates affected Player Owned Towns which patched in during R76 or will go live on or shortly after Release 77: Alaric’s Holding: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Allaman: Moved to Mistrendur Arx Draconis Annex: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Ashiya Hama: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Bedlam: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Belly of the Snake: Renamed from Saint Mary’s Island, moved to Mistrendur, and updated interconnections Beran’s Reach: Upgraded to Megalopolis Black Mesa East: Moved to Mistrendur Bricktown: Moved to Mistrendur Caladruin: Moved to Mistrendur Candlelight Stronghold: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Cayo Hueso: Added new Holdfast, nested in Brittany Fields Clevedon: Moved to Mistrendur Cottage Grove: Changed owner Cremetorium: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Crossroads Landing: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Crypt of Dysis: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Dara Brae: Moved to Mistrendur Darkshire Hills: Upgraded to Megalopolis Devil’s Lair: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Drachensumpf: Moved to Mistrendur Dragonhame: Moved to Mistrendur East Port: Renamed from Aerie Centre Exchange. Move to near Soltown En Nox: Changed governor Far Green: Added new Village island to Mistrendur Festival: Moved to Mistrendur Goober’s Gas Station: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Haunted Keep of Solania: Moved to Mistrendur Heartwood: Moved to Mistrendur Helmgart: Added new Hamlet to Mistrendur Immortal City: Moved to Mistrendur Jade Gardens: Renamed from Jade Caverns, changed to Forest 02, and moved to Mistrendur J’Tavern: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Knowhere: Moved to Mistrendur Lamplight: Changed governor Logan’s Farm: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Meadow’s Edge: Added new City to Mistrendur Multivisium: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur New Heaven: Changed owner NobleBright: Added new Hamlet to Mistrendur Noshima Island: Moved to Mistrendur Notuo: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Obsidius: Added new Village to Mistrendur Oracle Oasis: Moved to Mistrendur Ordinis Mortis: Upgraded to Megalopolis Organized Chaos Market: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Outlandia: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur PaxLair: Upgraded to Megalopolis PaxLocus: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Phoenix Haven: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Ravenshead: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Reef of the Occult: Moved to Mistrendur Refugees Hideout: Moved to Mistrendur Reverie: Moved to Mistrendur Rinzai: Moved to Mistrendur Riptown Creek: Added new Village to Mistrendur Sentinel Stand: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Silent Ascent: Changed nesting to Ordinis Mortis Silver Springs Market: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Siren Song Bayou: Upgraded to Municipality Storms End: Upgraded to Megalopolis Traveller’s Rest: Added new Crossroads Village to Mistrendur Tune: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Verschneites Expeditionslager: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Bug Fixes Albeit many bug fixes patched in during R76 or will go live on or shortly after Release 77, here are some of the highlights! Fixed pillars of smoke on every house Fixed broken textures on female NPC’s Fixed various client stability issues Fixed font size bug affecting performance Fixed some of the lighting issues currently affecting players Fixed exit volume issue where they became visible to players Fixed Troll Toenail exploit where daily limit could be bypassed Fixed missing texture on Baron’s servant Fixed occlusion issue with Norgard Fens elevator Fixed 2 Tartarus Barrels which were overlapping Fixed Ornate Oak Panel Wardrobe to work as container Fixed collision with Tulip Vase (significantly reduced) Fixed “Start on World Map” functionality for Mistrendur Fixed Levitating boulder in Plains Encounter Fixed navmesh issue in Ulfheim Fixed basement hatches not placing in LOTI Mansions Fixed basement hatches not placing in Rustic Antique Shop Fixed collision issue with trees on Mistrendur (turned off now) Fixed tree overlapping player lot in Central Brittany Fixed Magic Warding skill on Tactics trainer in Desolis (now trainable) Fixed a hitching issue with Linux client Fixed store description with Cloth Aeronaut Helm Fixed pattern functionality with Cloth Aeronaut Helm Fixed an issue where Pendro (Yew) was sometimes accepting a rune bag more frequently than once each day Fixed “Disable Friendly Buffs” functionality in Options Menu Fixed Toggle UI and Ping Lot Signs keybind issue Fixed trigger volumes for South Midmaer Way puzzle teleporter Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! For the near future, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Hourly XP attenuation limits have also increased. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home (pictured above) NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Choice of 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 1000 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one-on-one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums: 2020 Events Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade) to FOUR lucky winners! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney! For the Anglers of New Britannia, a weekly developer run fishing event has arrived. The first of these events started at Noon CT on Friday, April 24th and will last until Noon CT on Friday, May 1st. Players may register towns to be put into a registry list which will dictate most of the venues available for the fishing competition. Every week, the venues shift to the next 3 towns from the registry. Also each week, a new spotlighted PvE and PvP scene cycle into the contest. Each category (POT, PvP, PvE) features different prizes and goals. All fish must be caught within the timeframe of the contest. Here are some of the details: Largest Fish (Town): Prizes: Player Owned Town Row Lot Deed, Large Gold Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught from one of these towns Dragomir Mori (@CatherineRose) Caer Dracwych (@Bowen Bloodgood) New Britannian Market (@Lord Andernut) Largest Fish (PvP):​ Prizes: 2 Chained Obsidian Shard 3-Packs, Large Silver Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught in Paladis Shardfall Largest Lava Fish: Prizes: Fishing Rod of Prosperity, Large Bronze Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught in Sunless Barrens Consolation Prizes: Prizes: Small Bronze Fishing Trophy Rules: Everyone who submitted an entry that did not win an above prize Prizes provided by the Community Manager will be available for attendees, but governors, guild leaders and players are welcome to sweeten the pot by providing additional prizes based on objective criteria entirely of their own design. In fact, please consider planning events to overlap the duration and chosen weekly locations of the Fishing developer events. Please post these events in the in-game events forums and the Community Manager will promote accordingly. Expect a constant stream of weekly events, each to feature new locations and new objectives. Head on over to the Fishing Event Forum Thread for more information. Happy adventures, Avatars! Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands [Forum Post by CatherineRose] Another chapter of the Black Sails Saga has begun, Avatars! When the creative minds of CatherineRose and friends start writing a new chapter, it can mean only one thing — adventure awaits thee! Typically, these stories start as forum story writing and role-play, which then work their way into the game as role-playing adventures. Upon the chapter’s end, a giant battle between players usually takes place, so be sure to get involved now. Ready thine quills and ink, oh pirates of New Britannia, for a grand player-made adventure awaits thee! For more information, please contact CatherineRose for an invite to the planning conversations on the forums. Months before this day ……….. A spy for our Black Sails had given a message to one of the guards to warn us that as the great leader @Antrax Artek was leaving his headquarters with his army and as he made his way toward the battle which was underway in Blood Bay, a strange purple mist began to overtake the army. As the spy looked on with horror he saw one by one of each of the soldiers fall to the ground. Their bodies began to shake as if a great monster were picking each up and violently throwing each into the air. Upon falling to the ground they did not move from any position whether arms were out stretched or bent into grotesque shapes. All succumbed in like manner even the great Antrax himself as well. The next strange and frightening thing to happen was that each of the soldiers beginning with Antrax woke. They stood up at attention as if ready for orders to be given. Yet they were in some kind of stupor or trance. Antrax turned, in this trance as well, and shouted orders to his army. “We are to battle in Blood Bay. You will kill all living avatars except for any in our own army, Antax Army. You will kill all Pirates as well as all Obsidians. Let their blood reach from the edge of the cursed water’s of Blood Bay across the battle ground until it flows and touches the mountains . Let no one escape your sword.” “Show no mercy.” Antrax and his army did just that. Blood ran deep from all this death. The deadly purple mist affected all who marched through it. No one was spared. Mass confusion took place as well. No one that day had the ability to think like a fighter. No one that day could distinguish allies from enemies. In time the purple mist cleared from the survivors bodies. Antrax and his army returned to his headquarters. The Black Sails and Allies who survived, that were able, began to train for the next battle. We knew we would never retreat. We would never give up the goal of having peace. The evil Obsidians had again used the powerful knowledge they possess to continue their quest to control and then to destroy all of Novia. However,we knew our purpose would l not be thwarted. We repaired our ships, bandaged our wounded. We also, sadly buried the many dead. I received, from one of my guards this message which was intercepted by one of our spies: “I, Lord of a Obsidians, Master of all the World, now order you bring together our most feared fighters as well as the strongest of the trained animals which are scattered about Novia. Bring them to the Underworld under the purple mist in Blood Bay where the four rivers of Lava meet. Antrax and his army along with The pirates and allies are working to becoming again. Ha! They will not be strong enough to go against the mighty Obsidians.. We will go to the place called Malus and stop them from crossing into their new lands… (continues on the forums) Community Event: Fish Finder Contest [Forum Post by Phamyns] ​ The Fish Finder Contest is 5 weekends of fishing splendor in 5 different towns and will change towns every Saturday. Anglers! Ready your poles! Ready your bait! Fish like you’ve never fished before! Location: Justice Hold Date : May 2, 2020 Start Time : Noon CST Duration : 8 Hours Water Type : Salt Prizes: 1st 150,000 Gold, 2nd 100,000 Gold, 3rd 75,000 Gold, 4th 50,000 Gold, 5th 25,000 Gold Rules : Each contestant will turn in one fish, the largest fish they caught during the timeframe of the contest. At the end of the 8 hours, 5 winners will be awarded based off of the size of the fish they chose to submit. Once a fish is submitted the contestant is done for that day. Each contestant must provide a single fish entry Phamyns in game via trade window or in-game mail by Noon CST on Monday. For more information, please visit this forum post by Phamyns. Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Wednesday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack [Forum Post by Lazarus Long] Bringing you the latest news and entertainment, Laz & Jack report on hot Shroud of the Avatar topics every weekday, 12PM – 1PM CST! Players can tune-in at Twitch.com, at WRFB.rocks or using in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Visit their main forum post to learn more about tuning in to WRFB broadcasts. Interested in becoming a DJ on WRFB? Send a PM to @Lazarus Long on the forums. Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Avatars! Here’s the latest and greatest line-up from those DJ’s over at Virtue Radio! Players can tune-in using their website or in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Podcast and Poetry with DJ Asclepius, Mondays 7pm NBT Radio Oz with the Doctor DJ Asclepius, Every 4th Wednesday 7pm NBT DJ Jarkith Chaotic Country, Thursdays 10PM NBT DJ Alliene Dragonfyre: The Beat Of Novia, Fridays 8PM NBT DJ Mick Foley Holds the Rocking Power Hours, Saturdays 2PM NBT DJ Stryker: Lost in the Spaces, Sundays 9AM NBT DJ Celith Wraine: Faster and Louder, Sundays 12 Noon NBT Interested in DJ’ing on Virtue Radio? Send a PM to any of our staff members @Alleine Dragonfyre @Celith Wraine @Stryker Sparhawk, @Asclepius for help! Project to Support – RodasurfAvatars! Yet another news outlet has spotted Darkstarr on a RodaSurf board. Be sure to check out this latest sighting in this latest Austin360 news article! Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team also dazzled us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News not too long ago! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure to check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Adventure Scene Update: Cellblock C! Friday Livestream: Atos Haircut! Darkstarr Update! Cellblock C! Extra POT NPCs, Buildings and Devotionals Available Soon! Sky Navy Vault Round! New Store Items: Decorative Urns & Vases! Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney! Mistrendur: Land Rush Completion & Update! Double Experience Points Continue! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: Springtime Theme! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Release 76 Dance Party Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands Community Event: Fish Finder Contest Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Adventure Scene Update: Cellblock C! Keith “Sannio” Quinn, one of the master world builders and quest designers here at Catnip Games, is hard at work on “Bunker C” and decided to give us another sneak peek into his progress! Bunker C is a new underground scene accessible from the caves underneath the Northwest Blackblade Mountains. Players will be directed to this crumbling underground shelter as part of an upcoming quest that will start in Novia’s Far Hinterlands. The bunker will challenge players with deadly lava in addition to undead and elemental threats. This bunker also includes a vault door puzzle, multiple traps and even lava fishing! “An unusual doe wandering near the entrance of the Far Hinterlands needs your help to remove the curse that has turned her into an animal! Along the way, you’ll venture into the newly uncovered “Bunker C” and brave the high-threat dangers that lurk underground!” Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Friday Livestream: Atos Haircut! Darkstarr Update! Cellblock C! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, April 24th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears, Starr “Darkstarr” Long and Keith “Sannio”Quinn for a community 1 hour livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “April showers bring May flowers” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! Extra POT NPC’s, Buildings & Devotionals Available Soon! Exciting news for Player Owned Town Governors and Stewards! Coming soon to the Crown Store, nearly all of the Player Owned Town NPC’s, NPC Buildings, Statues, Decorations and Devotionals will be available for purchase separately. Upon purchase of a new town, players already receive a large variety of these items automatically, but through the years, Player Owned Towns have received additional slots for placement of these items. With the new Megalopolis sized town, it became very clear to us that we simply haven’t provided a way for town Governors and Stewards to acquire additional items to fill these available slots, nor did we provide the flexibility town owners would prefer in utilizing a larger number of a particular asset. Soon, these concerns will be alleviated! These items can only be placed as decoration by town Governors and Stewards. Check out this amazing list of items soon to be available separately from a town purchase: Armor Merchant NPC (female) Armor Merchant NPC (male) Banker NPC (female) Banker NPC (male) Bartender NPC (female) Bartender NPC (male) Caretaker NPC (female) Caretaker NPC (male) Combat Merchant NPC (female) Combat Merchant NPC (male) Cooking Merchant NPC (female) Cooking Merchant NPC (male) Crafting Merchant NPC (female) Crafting Merchant NPC (male) Decorations Merchant NPC (female) Decorations Merchant NPC (male) Fishing Merchant NPC (female) Fishing Merchant NPC (male) Guard NPC (female) Guard NPC (male) Homes Merchant NPC (female) Homes Merchant NPC (male) Magic Merchant NPC (female) Magic Merchant NPC (male) Pet Merchant NPC (female) Pet Merchant NPC (male) Tavern Customer NPC (female) Tavern Customer NPC (male) Town Crier NPC (female) Town Crier NPC (male) Weapon Merchant NPC (female) Weapon Merchant NPC (male) Armor Shop (NPC Building) Bank (NPC Building) Cemetery (NPC Building) Combat Shop (NPC Building) Cooking Shop (NPC Building) Crafting Shop (NPC Building) Dragon Bones (NPC Building) Fishing Shop (NPC Building) Guard Tower (NPC Building) Home Shop (NPC Building) Magic Shop (NPC Building) Moon Tower (NPC Building) Oracle Confirmatory (NPC Building) Oracle Guardian Statue (NPC Building) Stables (NPC Building) Tavern (NPC Building) Titan of Courage Statue (NPC Building) Titan of Love Statue (NPC Building) Titan of Truth Statue (NPC Building) Weapon Shop (NPC Building) Devotional of Compassion Devotional of Courage Devotional of Honesty Devotional of Honor Devotional of Humility Devotional of Justice Devotional of Love Devotional of Sacrifice Devotional of Spirituality Devotional of Truth Devotional of Valor Sky Navy Vault Round! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, May 7th at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Star Citizen Airship City Home Burned Skeletons Cylindrical Automaton Pet Blue Electric Sword Electric Halberd Adobe Dome Deco Set White Aeronaut Clockwork Full Face Helm All Metal Crossbow /floatmeditate Emote New Store Items: Decorative Urns & Vases! New to the Crown Store are the Decorative Urns 5-pack and the Decorative Vases 5-pack. These new ornate pottery pieces feature of beautiful array of patterns and shapes. Recently, a Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home) modeled after Starr Long’s family antique store was added to the Crown Store. Also added were two amazing helmets which allow players to tune-in to our community in-game radio stations. Coming in both cloth and leather, these Aether Aviator Helmets are available for purchase with Crowns! Both can be salvaged to receive Eternal Patterns. These patterns can then be utilized to apply the look of the Aviator helmet to another cloth or leather helmet. The cloth version is dyable. Decorative Urns 5-Pack Decorative Vases 5-Pack Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home) Leather Aether Aviator Helmet Cloth Aether Aviator Helmet (Dyable) Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney! For the Anglers of New Britannia, a weekly developer run fishing event has arrived. The first of these events started at Noon CT on Friday, April 24th and will last until Noon CT on Friday, May 1st. Players may register towns to be put into a registry list which will dictate most of the venues available for the fishing competition. Every week, the venues shift to the next 3 towns from the registry. Also each week, a new spotlighted PvE and PvP scene cycle into the contest. Each category (POT, PvP, PvE) features different prizes and goals. All fish must be caught within the timeframe of the contest. Here are some of the details: Largest Fish (Town): Prizes: Player Owned Town Row Lot Deed, Large Gold Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught from one of these towns Dragomir Mori (@CatherineRose) Caer Dracwych (@Bowen Bloodgood) New Britannian Market (@Lord Andernut) Largest Fish (PvP):​ Prizes: 2 Chained Obsidian Shard 3-Packs, Large Silver Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught in Paladis Shardfall Largest Lava Fish: Prizes: Fishing Rod of Prosperity, Large Bronze Fishing Trophy Rules: Must be caught in Sunless Barrens Consolation Prizes: Prizes: Small Bronze Fishing Trophy Rules: Everyone who submitted an entry that did not win an above prize Prizes provided by the Community Manager will be available for attendees, but governors, guild leaders and players are welcome to sweeten the pot by providing additional prizes based on objective criteria entirely of their own design. In fact, please consider planning events to overlap the duration and chosen weekly locations of the Fishing developer events. Please post these events in the in-game events forums and the Community Manager will promote accordingly. Expect a constant stream of weekly events, each to feature new locations and new objectives. Head on over to the Fishing Event Forum Thread for more information. Happy adventures, Avatars! Mistrendur: Land Rush Completion & Update! By royal decree, the Mistrendur land rush data intake has concluded! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and we just spent approximately 21 days collecting location selection preferences from voucher holders. The event went very smoothly — thank you! Sannio is hard at work processing all these new towns and town relocations. These changes will patch bit-by-bit into the game as the master world builder completes his work. The community manager (Elgarion) will continue to collect location selections from any stragglers possessing unused Episode 2 Vouchers. The official announcement thread has been modified slightly to provide information to these stragglers, but feel free to contact Elgarion via forum conversation, and he’ll walk you through the whole process individually. The Mistrendur continent is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! For the near future, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Hourly XP attenuation limits have also increased. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Just in time for the return of the notorious Arch Lapin, a new springtime wearable becomes available! Be sure to log in sometime between April 1st and 30th to receive this special and festive Bunny Ears headpiece! WARNING: The Bunny Ears headpiece does not cause the Arch Lapin to befriend you nor does it provide bonuses to hearing. Enjoy! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Springtime Theme! The hillsides are abloom, bunnies abound, and evidently ladybugs are also around! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 76 are springtime themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 76! Giant Bunny Companion Ladybug Backpack Bunny Slippers NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home (pictured above) NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Choice of 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 1000 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one-on-one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums: 2020 Events Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: Release 76 Dance Party Virtue/Avatars Radio Presents the Release 76 Dance Party & Stress Test Location: Crossroads (West of Entrance, Rooftop of Duke Keep) Host: DJ DarkStarr, Executive Producer of Shroud of the Avatar, a.k.a. Starr Long When: Saturday, April 25, 1:00 – 3:00 PM CST Come out and sport some awesome dance moves, trade emotes and recipes, chat with friends, launch off fireworks and simply have a lot of fun! For more information, check out the main forum post on the official forums. If you’d like to learn how YOUR town can become a site for upcoming Release Dance Parties, find out here! Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands [Forum Post by Boris Mondragon] Another chapter of the Black Sails Saga has begun, Avatars! When the creative minds of Boris Mondragon, CatherineRose and friends start writing a new chapter, it can mean only one thing — adventure awaits thee! Typically, these stories start as forum story writing and role-play, which then work their way into the game as role-playing adventures. Upon the chapter’s end, a giant battle between players usually takes place, so be sure to get involved now. Ready thine quills and ink, oh pirates of New Britannia, for a grand player-made adventure awaits thee! For more information, please contact CatherineRose or Boris Mondragon on the forums. Community Event: Fish Finder Contest [Forum Post by Phamyns] ​ The Fish Finder Contest is 5 weekends of fishing splendor in 5 different towns and will change towns every Saturday. Anglers! Ready your poles! Ready your bait! Fish like you’ve never fished before! Location: Crossroads Alleys Date : April 25, 2020 Start Time : Noon CST Duration : 8 Hours Water Type : Salt Prizes: 1st 150,000 Gold, 2nd 100,000 Gold, 3rd 75,000 Gold, 4th 50,000 Gold, 5th 25,000 Gold Rules : Each contestant will turn in one fish, the largest fish they caught during the timeframe of the contest. At the end of the 8 hours, 5 winners will be awarded based off of the size of the fish they chose to submit. Once a fish is submitted the contestant is done for that day. Each contestant must provide a single fish entry Phamyns in game via trade window or in-game mail by Noon CST on Monday. For more information, please visit this forum post by Phamyns. Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Wednesday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack [Forum Post by Lazarus Long] Bringing you the latest news and entertainment, Laz & Jack report on hot Shroud of the Avatar topics every weekday, 12PM – 1PM CST! Players can tune-in at Twitch.com, at WRFB.rocks or using in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Visit their main forum post to learn more about tuning in to WRFB broadcasts. Interested in becoming a DJ on WRFB? Send a PM to @Lazarus Long on the forums. Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Avatars! Here’s the latest and greatest line-up from those DJ’s over at Virtue Radio! Players can tune-in using their website or in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Podcast and Poetry with DJ Asclepius, Mondays 7pm NBT Radio Oz with the Doctor DJ Asclepius, Every 4th Wednesday 7pm NBT DJ Jarkith Chaotic Country, Thursdays 10PM NBT DJ Alliene Dragonfyre: The Beat Of Novia, Fridays 8PM NBT DJ Mick Foley Holds the Rocking Power Hours, Saturdays 2PM NBT DJ Stryker: Lost in the Spaces, Sundays 9AM NBT DJ Celith Wraine: Faster and Louder, Sundays 12 Noon NBT Interested in DJ’ing on Virtue Radio? Send a PM to any of our staff members @Alleine Dragonfyre @Celith Wraine @Stryker Sparhawk, @Asclepius for help! Project to Support – RodasurfAvatars! Yet another news outlet has spotted Darkstarr on a RodaSurf board. Be sure to check out this latest sighting in this latest Austin360 news article! Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team also dazzled us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News not too long ago! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Developer Run In-Game Events Coming! Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream! New Store Items: Decorative Urns & Vases! Springtime Vault Round 2! Mistrendur: Land Rush Completion & Update! Double Experience Points Continue! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: Springtime Theme! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands Community Event: Fish Finder Contest Community Event: Mad Splatter Tea Party Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Developer Run In-Game Events Coming! The time for battle draws near, Avatars! Don thine armor and ready thine weaponry, or strip down bare so thine armor and thine weaponry not be looted by thine enemy! Objective-based developer run PvP events are just around the corner. Scheduled for 10AM and 10PM CST on Saturday, April 25th in Paladis Shardfall, the first two of these events will commence. During and after these initial test events, the Community Manager (Elgarion) will experiment with gathering activity data within the scene related to the stated goals for each player within the event. Lessons learned should allow for more elaborate goals and objectives for future events as these concepts continue to unfold. Please provide registration information if you would like to compete (per the guidance) as well as any feedback on the PvP Event Forum Thread. For the Anglers of New Britannia, another developer run event is in the works. Scheduled to start Noon CT on Friday, April 24th, this fishing derby will last until Noon CT on Friday, May 1st. Players may register towns to be put into a list which will dictate the venues available for the fishing competition. The first fishing venture will take players to at least 3 towns from the registry, Sunless Barrens and Paladis Shardfall. Head on over to the Fishing Event Forum Thread for more information. Prizes provided by the Community Manager will be available for attendees of the PvP and Fishing events, but governors, guild leaders and players are welcome to sweeten the pot by providing additional prizes based on objective criteria entirely of their own design. In fact, please consider planning events to overlap the duration and chosen weekly locations of the PvP and Fishing developer events. Please post these events in the in-game events forums and the Community Manager will promote accordingly. After the first week of these events, likely there will be a pause for planning before additional weeks start rolling in, but after that point? Expect a constant stream of weekly events, each to feature new locations and new objectives. Happy adventures, Avatars! Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, April 17th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members for a community 1 hour livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “April showers bring May flowers” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! New Store Items: Decorative Urns & Vases! Coming to the Crown Store shortly are the Decorative Urns 5-pack and the Decorative Vases 5-pack. These new ornate pottery pieces feature of beautiful array of patterns and shapes. Recently, a Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home) modeled after Starr Long’s family antique store was added to the Crown Store. Also added were two amazing helmets which allow players to tune-in to our community in-game radio stations. Coming in both cloth and leather, these Aether Aviator Helmets are available for purchase with Crowns! Both can be salvaged to receive Eternal Patterns. These patterns can then be utilized to apply the look of the Aviator helmet to another cloth or leather helmet. The cloth version is dyable. Decorative Urns 5-Pack Decorative Vases 5-Pack Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home) Leather Aether Aviator Helmet Cloth Aether Aviator Helmet (Dyable) Springtime Vault Round 2! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, April 23rd at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Leaf Spear Leaf Shield Large Spring Themed Fountain with Floating Candles Thorn Bow Flower Crown Giant Dragonfly Pet Thorn Sword Elven Keep Village Home /Flowers Emote Mistrendur: Land Rush Completion & Update! By royal decree, the Mistrendur land rush data intake has concluded! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and we just spent approximately 21 days collecting location selection preferences from voucher holders. The event went very smoothly — thank you! Sannio is hard at work processing all these new towns and town relocations. These changes will patch bit-by-bit into the game as the master world builder completes his work. The community manager (Elgarion) will continue to collect location selections from any stragglers possessing unused Episode 2 Vouchers. The official announcement thread has been modified slightly to provide information to these stragglers, but feel free to contact Elgarion via forum conversation, and he’ll walk you through the whole process individually. The Mistrendur continent is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! For the near future, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Hourly XP attenuation limits have also increased. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Just in time for the return of the notorious Arch Lapin, a new springtime wearable becomes available! Be sure to log in sometime between April 1st and 30th to receive this special and festive Bunny Ears headpiece! WARNING: The Bunny Ears headpiece does not cause the Arch Lapin to befriend you nor does it provide bonuses to hearing. Enjoy! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Springtime Theme! The hillsides are abloom, bunnies abound, and evidently ladybugs are also around! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 76 are springtime themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 76! Giant Bunny Companion Ladybug Backpack Bunny Slippers NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home (pictured above) NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Choice of 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 1000 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one-on-one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums: 2020 Events Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: Black Sails Saga – From the New Lands [Forum Post by Boris Mondragon] Another chapter of the Black Sails Saga has begun, Avatars! When the creative minds of Boris Mondragon, CatherineRose and friends start writing a new chapter, it can mean only one thing — adventure awaits thee! Typically, these stories start as forum story writing and role-play, which then work their way into the game as role-playing adventures. Upon the chapter’s end, a giant battle between players usually takes place, so be sure to get involved now. Ready thine quills and ink, oh pirates of New Britannia, for a grand player-made adventure awaits thee! For more information, please contact CatherineRose or Boris Mondragon on the forums. Community Event: Fish Finder Contest [Forum Post by Phamyns] ​ The Fish Finder Contest is 5 weekends of fishing splendor in 5 different towns and will change towns every Saturday. Anglers! Ready your poles! Ready your bait! Fish like you’ve never fished before! Location: Solace Bridge Outskirts Date : April 18, 2020 Start Time : Noon CST Duration : 8 Hours Water Type : Fresh / Salt Prizes: 1st 150,000 Gold, 2nd 100,000 Gold, 3rd 75,000 Gold, 4th 50,000 Gold, 5th 25,000 Gold Rules : Each contestant will turn in one fish, the largest fish they caught during the timeframe of the contest. At the end of the 8 hours, 5 winners will be awarded based off of the size of the fish they chose to submit. Once a fish is submitted the contestant is done for that day. Each contestant must provide a single fish entry Phamyns in game via trade window or in-game mail by Noon CST on Monday. For more information, please visit this forum post by Phamyns. Community Event: Mad Splatter Tea Party [Forum Post by Lily Byrd] The Mad Splatter Tea Party takes place every 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month, which is a tea party in my back garden at my home in Jade Valley. There are drinks and eats, there is sometimes music, there are often party games with prizes, and sometimes we just sit and talk about life in Novia. Not only are you welcome to join us but I would like to find out how to have this added to the community calendar here in the forums. Location: Lily Byrd’s Cottage and tea garden is south of the Hall of Inquiry and Learning. Time: 3pm CST, April 19th (Usually every 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month) Attire: This is a role playing event tea party come as your avatar We play games, we eat cake and drink…various teas and drinks… There are goofy prizes for winning games if we play them. See you there, Lily Byrd. Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Wednesday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Community Event: Lunch With Laz & Jack [Forum Post by Lazarus Long] Bringing you the latest news and entertainment, Laz & Jack report on hot Shroud of the Avatar topics every weekday, 12PM – 1PM CST! Players can tune-in at Twitch.com, at WRFB.rocks or using in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Visit their main forum post to learn more about tuning in to WRFB broadcasts. Interested in becoming a DJ on WRFB? Send a PM to @Lazarus Long on the forums. Community Event: Virtue Radio Weekly Schedule [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Avatars! Here’s the latest and greatest line-up from those DJ’s over at Virtue Radio! Players can tune-in using their website or in-game devices such as Clockwork & Aviator Helmets, Clockwork Pets or Aether Vibration Amplifiers! Podcast and Poetry with DJ Asclepius, Mondays 7pm NBT Radio Oz with the Doctor DJ Asclepius, Every 4th Wednesday 7pm NBT DJ Jarkith Chaotic Country, Thursdays 10PM NBT DJ Alliene Dragonfyre: The Beat Of Novia, Fridays 8PM NBT DJ Mick Foley Holds the Rocking Power Hours, Saturdays 2PM NBT DJ Stryker: Lost in the Spaces, Sundays 9AM NBT DJ Celith Wraine: Faster and Louder, Sundays 12 Noon NBT Interested in DJ’ing on Virtue Radio? Send a PM to any of our staff members @Alleine Dragonfyre @Celith Wraine @Stryker Sparhawk, @Asclepius for help! Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Rodasurf Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team once again dazzle us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

All Remaining Episode 2 Town Voucher Redemptions: Thank you, the bulk of the data intake is complete for the Mistrendur Land Rush town location selections. I'll still be accepting stragglers if any players have unutilized EP2 Player Owned Town Vouchers. Simply open a forum conversation with me (Elgarion), provide the following information, and I'll walk you through the whole process individually: ACCOUNT NAME OF TOWN OWNER TOWN NAME ACCOUNT NAME OF... Episode 2 Player Owned Town Voucher RedemptionsView the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements New Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home)! Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream! New Store Items: Cloth & Leather Aether Aviator Helmets! Springtime Vault Round 2! Mistrendur: Land Rush Completion & Update! Double Experience Points Continue! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: Springtime Theme! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Fish Finder Contest Community Event: Mad Splatter Tea Party Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players New Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home)! For those players who’ve frequented Central Brittany, you might have noticed a peculiar antique shop nestled away not too far off from the bustling business of the harbor. This shop is reminiscent of a real-life store which was known as “Goudeau Antiques” and run by Cary Long, who had passed away many years ago. Cary Long was father to Starr Long, our beloved Darkstarr. Many releases ago, as a gesture to Starr, Richard Garriott tasked a world builder to design a version of the antique store and place it in Central Brittany. Soon, this building will be available to all players! The Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home) will be added to the Crown Store and become available as a new town-sized home. The expansive interior will allow shop owners a considerable amount of elbow room to display their wares. Whether your character is a tailor, a blacksmith, a carpenter or simply a tradesman of resources and discovered treasures, this building will offer a great home to any would-be merchant within the world of New Britannia. Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, April 10th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members for a community 1 hour livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “April showers bring May flowers” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! New Store Items: Cloth & Leather Aether Aviator Helmets! Soon to arrive on the Crown Store are two amazing helmets which allow the player to tune-in to our community in-game radio stations. Coming in both cloth and leather, these Aether Aviator Helmets will be available for purchase with Crowns! Both can be salvaged to receive Eternal Patterns. These patterns can then be utilized to apply the look of the Aviator helmet to another cloth or leather helmet. The cloth version is dyable. Also soon to patch in is the Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home)! Other items which recently became available were the Tulips Flower Arrangement, the Pink Dye Pack and a Silver & Gold Lepus Mask! Leather Aether Aviator Helmet Cloth Aether Aviator Helmet (Dyable) Rustic Antique Shop (Town Home) Tulips Flower Arrangement Pink Dye Pack (Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Item) Silver & Gold Lepus Mask (Dyable) Springtime Vault Round 2! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, April 23rd at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Leaf Spear Leaf Shield Large Spring Themed Fountain with Floating Candles Thorn Bow Flower Crown Giant Dragonfly Pet Thorn Sword Elven Keep Village Home /Flowers Emote Mistrendur: Land Rush Completion & Update! By royal decree, the Mistrendur land rush data intake has concluded! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and we just spent approximately 21 days collecting location selection preferences from voucher holders. The event went very smoothly — thank you! Sannio is hard at work processing all these new towns and town relocations. These changes will patch bit-by-bit into the game as the master world builder completes his work. The community manager (Elgarion) will continue to collect location selections from any stragglers possessing unused Episode 2 Vouchers. The official announcement thread has been modified slightly to provide information to these stragglers, but feel free to contact Elgarion via forum conversation, and he’ll walk you through the whole process individually. The Mistrendur continent is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! For the near future, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Hourly XP attenuation limits have also increased. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Just in time for the return of the notorious Arch Lapin, a new springtime wearable becomes available! Be sure to log in sometime between April 1st and 30th to receive this special and festive Bunny Ears headpiece! WARNING: The Bunny Ears headpiece does not cause the Arch Lapin to befriend you nor does it provide bonuses to hearing. Enjoy! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Springtime Theme! The hillsides are abloom, bunnies abound, and evidently ladybugs are also around! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 76 are springtime themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 76! Giant Bunny Companion Ladybug Backpack Bunny Slippers NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home (pictured above) NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Choice of 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 1000 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one-on-one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums: 2020 Events Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: Fish Finder Contest [Forum Post by Phamyns] ​ The Fish Finder Contest is 5 weekends of fishing splendor in 5 different towns and will change towns every Saturday. Anglers! Ready your poles! Ready your bait! Fish like you’ve never fished before! Location: Crossroads Date : April 11, 2020 Start Time : Noon CST Duration : 8 Hours Water Type : Fresh Prizes: 1st 150,000 Gold, 2nd 100,000 Gold, 3rd 75,000 Gold, 4th 50,000 Gold, 5th 25,000 Gold Rules : Each contestant will turn in one fish, the largest fish they caught during the timeframe of the contest. At the end of the 8 hours, 5 winners will be awarded based off of the size of the fish they chose to submit. Once a fish is submitted the contestant is done for that day. Each contestant must provide a single fish entry Phamyns in game via trade window or in-game mail by Noon CST on Monday. For more information, please visit this forum post by Phamyns. Community Event: Mad Splatter Tea Party [Forum Post by Lily Byrd] The Mad Splatter Tea Party takes place every 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month, which is a tea party in my back garden at my home in Jade Valley. There are drinks and eats, there is sometimes music, there are often party games with prizes, and sometimes we just sit and talk about life in Novia. Not only are you welcome to join us but I would like to find out how to have this added to the community calendar here in the forums. Location: Lily Byrd’s Cottage and tea garden is south of the Hall of Inquiry and Learning. Time: 3pm CST, April 19th (Usually every 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month) Attire: This is a role playing event tea party come as your avatar We play games, we eat cake and drink…various teas and drinks… There are goofy prizes for winning games if we play them. See you there, Lily Byrd. Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Wednesday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Rodasurf Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team once again dazzle us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

I've got a build on QA right now that I would like to promote to live but I was hoping for some testers on OSX before I did so! View the full article

Greetings! This is the start of my Developer's Journal. I've been active both visibly and behind the scenes in a few areas, and I feel it's time for me to keep the playerbase up to date on what I'm up to. This may be boring, or it may be entertaining. At minimum, I hope my blathering on is educational. Most of you know who I am as being an active part of the community since before persistence. But an introduction for the newer Avatars out there surely is warranted. I learned to code... Ravalox' Dev Blog View the full article

Be sure to check out this week's update! The Bard Skill Tree and Parties of 12 went live this week! Also, List gave us a sneak peek into an upcoming adventure scene, Spindelskog! https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=122508 View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Spindelskog Adventure Scene Update! Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream! Bard Skill Tree is Live! Party Size Increases to 12! Mistrendur: Land Rush Final Bracket Underway! The Arch Lapin Returns! Latest Store Items: Tulip Flower Arrangement & Dyable Lepus Masks! Deed Upgrades 30% Off! Double Experience Points Continue! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! Springtime Vault Round! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: Springtime Theme! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: 2nd Annual Novia Market Easter Egg Hunt Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Spindelskog Adventure Scene Update! Spindelskog is an upcoming Episode 2 adventure scene located on the new Mistrendur continent which is currently deep in design with List Rostov at the helm! For those familiar with the Mistrendur Land Rush, this location has been indicated for some time as Adventure Scene 1, far to the northwest of the continent. Just this past week, List shared a screenshot of his progress with the scene, and the image definitely brings “spooky forest” to mind. “Amidst the fetid swamps of the Northwest of Mistrendur hides Spindelskog, a rotting and decrepit old-growth forest. Swathed in ancient webs and choked with detritus and weeds, this forest can go without sunlight for months at a time. Within this foreboding darkness, the summer growth falls into decay and the webs and shadows creep across the woods. It is home to creepies and crawlies, huge predators and mysterious creatures of shadow.” Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, April 3rd at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members for a community 1 hour livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “April showers bring May flowers” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! Bard Skill Tree is Live! The bard skill tree is has now officially entered into the world of New Britannia on the live server. Players can find the trainer for this new skill tree on the continent of Mistrendur at the main entrance to the Ruins of Utheim. So many skills await your mastery, Avatars! Go and test your musical prowess with these new abilities: Melody of Mending, Atonal Aria, Anthem of Alacrity, Psalm of Stagnation, Concussive Canticle, Savage Sonata as well as several innate abilities! Party Size Increases to 12! Avatars! Exciting news! The first iteration of Party/Raid type lovin’ for this year has arrived — Parties of 12! Players can utilize this new feature on the live server for Shroud of the Avatar! Expanding the capabilities of adventure parties is just one of the exciting new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Mistrendur: Land Rush Final Bracket Underway! By royal decree, the process details for the Mistrendur land rush have been issued to the peoples of New Britannia! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and the time to select locations is well underway! The official announcement thread is ready and full of information about the currently active land rush! Bracket 7 started Wednesday at Noon CT! This is the final bracket which lasts until Noon CT on April 4th. Keep those entries rolling in — we’re ready for them! If you have any last minute questions or concerns, reply to the official announcement thread, or contact Elgarion on the forums via forum conversation. The site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased. The seventh and final bracket of players commenced site selection on Wednesday, April 1, Noon CT. For more information, please read the official announcement in the forums. This new land mass is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! The Arch Lapin Returns! Deep within the cavernous Spectral Mines, lies something very… scary. With huge fangs! And cute little feet. Deadly feet! And fangs! Fangs that go on from here until tomorrow and then again to the next day and sometimes the day after that. Beware adventurers, for peril certainly awaits thee! The Arch Lapin is far more than a mere rabbit! It’s got fangs! And red eyes! Just look at the bones! Be sure not to miss out on this year’s return of the Arch Lapin! Many loot items can be found upon its corpse, such as rare paintings, a trophy head and an Orb of Obliteration! Latest Store Items: Tulips Flower Arrangement & Dyable Lepus Masks! Latest additions to the Crown Store include the new Tulips Flower Arrangement, Pink Dye and a Dyable Lepus Mask! Other items also recently added: a Gothic Candelabra, three Gothic Furniture Sets, a Gothic King Sized Bed, and Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms. Tulips Flower Arrangement Pink Dye (Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Item) Dyable Lepus Mask Gothic Candelabra Gothic Furniture Mega Set Gothic Furniture Dining Set Gothic Furniture Bedroom Set Gothic King Sized Bed with Black Leather Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms Deed Upgrades 30% Off! Avatars! Upgrading deeds in Shroud of the Avatar is still 30% off! To upgrade a deed, be sure the deed is in your inventory, then right-click it for upgrade options. If sufficient Crowns are available in your inventory, then select the desired upgrade. Be sure to take advantage of this amazing deal! Increase the size of your property then spend some nice quiet and safe time at home decorating, enjoy! Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! For the near future, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Hourly XP attenuation limits have also increased. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! After the Municipality town size became available, the Player Owned Town (POT) governors of New Britannia demanded even larger town size upgrade options! And more upgrade options they shall receive! Now, players of Shroud of the Avatar can upgrade their POTs to the size of Megalopolis. Springtime Vault Round! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, April 9th at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. 2017 Rabbit Tailed Bodice Ensemble White Rabbit Pet White Lepus Mask Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket Giant Butterfly Pet Stained Glass Hand Lantern Floral Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp (3 Pack) Shogun Four-Story Town Home /flowerleap emote (leap into the air and throw flowers) April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Just in time for the return of the notorious Arch Lapin, a new springtime wearable becomes available! Be sure to log in sometime between April 1st and 30th to receive this special and festive Bunny Ears headpiece! WARNING: The Bunny Ears headpiece does not cause the Arch Lapin to befriend you nor does it provide bonuses to hearing. Enjoy! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Springtime Theme! The hillsides are abloom, bunnies abound, and evidently ladybugs are also around! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 76 are springtime themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 76! Giant Bunny Companion Ladybug Backpack Bunny Slippers NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Festival of the Avatar FULL ticket (which includes admission, King’s Dinner, Barons Men Play, A Heraldry Banner) and one additional guest at a discounted rate. PLUS Choice of any 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 999 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one on one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Community Events section of the forum for events hosted by our wonderful community members! Below is a list of additional events as the year progresses: 2020 Events Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Elven 3-Story w/Dual Cabanas Town Water Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: 2nd Annual Novia Market Easter Egg Hunt [Forum Post by Robyn Hood] It’s that time of year again! Novia Market will be having it’s Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday, April 5th, at 1400 CST! Where: Novia Market When: April 5th, 2pm CST Duration: 30 minutes How it will work – Hidden throughout Novia Market will be brightly dyed eggs. Unfortunately, since folks can’t interact with eggs you can’t pick them up. However, placed near each egg will be a sheet of paper with a number on it. Write that number down and when you are done hunting for eggs, send a whisper to Robyn Hood with the numbers that you found! Random prizes will also be awarded for particular eggs (whoever sends me a whisper with the number for that egg first wins – I will announce which eggs I’m looking for prior to event start). Prizes include: Number of eggs found 1st place: 1500 Crowns 2nd place: 750 Crowns 3rd place: 250 Crowns Random prizes: Replenishing Spring Equinox Confections Platter, Silver & Gold Lepus Mask, 5 x Decorative Dyable Egg packs. Best dressed bunny – 2500 Crowns to the Avatar with the best Easter-themed costume! Be there or be square, Avatars! For more information, please visit the original post by Robyn Hood. Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry on Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Wednesday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Rodasurf Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team once again dazzle us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

The 10x quest experience bonus has been temporarily disabled. As frequently happens with number adjustments, this immediately exposed a number of issues that players were aware of but either hadn't reported or just didn't think were problems. One of those problems was a change I have long complained about and never wanted. It was made by a team member no longer with the team who did it without discussing it with others first. Once it was in, it was hard to undo. That change is the shared... Update on a few things View the full article

As we all know, we are in the midst of a global pandemic affecting each and everyone of us. It is especially during these times that we should remember that our words and actions have an affect on those around us. Since the Covid-19 Pandemic started we have had a small number of players making characters, or pets with names that make light of this disease. This type of behavior has never been acceptable under our TOS, and as we are made aware of them appropriate action is being taken.... Reminder: Naming Policy View the full article

So, I finally got to this page: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=35475 It was horribly out of date with a relatively long listing of recurring events which have long since gone by the wayside. Every Friday I will update the event spotlights at the bottom. It will mirror the weekly updates events which I also post on Friday. Recurring events will cycle in and out (as they do with the weekly update) but will not stay on either permanently. Yes, I know, the one event... Upcoming Events Page Update... View the full article

We identified the source of the problem and backed out that change BUT an issue with Unity caused a full library import that then failed. We believe we have addressed the issue but we still have not started the next build. Sorry again for the delay. I know the play experience right now kind of stinks. Our usual policy is that for a few days after release only safe bug fixes and changes get checked in and everything gets moved over. There was a miscommunication with a team member in this... Still working on a fix View the full article

The Shroud of the Avatar uses the BitTorrent internet protocol to distribute the game patches. It has been brought to our attention that at least one ISP may be blocking torrent downloads. Through testing we have confirmed that the patch server URL is being blocked even when surfed to via a web browser (so this is not a Launcher/patch client issue). If you are having issues downloading patches through the (non steam) client, please try to click this link to list the torrent seed list in... Are you having trouble patching your SotA client [not Steam]? View the full article

Hello folks -- here's the draft notes. Edit suggestions are welcome by replying to this thread. I won't edit the actual google doc, but I'll consider them for the final. I'll get it published on the main page sometime during server downtime tomorrow (9AM-1030AM CT). Thank you for any help you provide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EqXo2NJkZq8M6ZTAoUb5qd4ZWlFqv1IWX9ti5T2DL0Q/edit?usp=sharing View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements The Lord of the Isle Statesman Outhouse! Q&A Friday Livestream! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: Springtime Theme! Springtime Vault Round! New Store Items: Tulip Flower Arrangement & Dyable Lepus Masks! An Old Favorite Returns! Interactive Fancy Toilet Paper Holder! The Arch Lapin Returns! Deed Upgrades 30% Off! Double Experience Points Continue! Mistrendur: Land Rush Underway! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Party Size Increase in Player Test Environment (QA)! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! World & UI Changes Crafting & Economy Changes Combat Balance & Changes Updated Player-Owned Towns Bug Fixes Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Community Event: Britannian Mining Company Recruitment Event! Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragonfight Project to Support: Rodasurf Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Lord of the Isle Statesman Outhouse! Due to recent public outrage and many requests for more architecture in the Lord of the Isle Mansion style, the master architects of New Britannia have developed a new type of outhouse particular to the tastes of our most esteemed supporters, and just in time to stem the tide of “The Great Outhouse Rebellion of 2020!” Riotous throngs of unrelieved New Britannians took to the streets! Amongst the angry mob, one man’s anxious cries clamored above the rest, “Nay! I shall not use that wooden outhouse any longer! It be beneath me! And it puts splinters in my bottom! And it smells! And Bob used it! Don’t go in there! I shall simply hold it until my demands are met!” As you can see, the architects simply had no choice but to meet the demands of the unruly, for the regularity of supporters was surely at stake! And thus, the very regal Lord of the Isle Statesman Outhouse was created, and all were merry. (Coming to the Crown Store April 1st…) Atos Q&A Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, Mar 27th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members for a community 1 hour livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “march to a different tune” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT! April Login Reward: Bunny Ears! Just in time for the return of the notorious Arch Lapin, a new springtime wearable becomes available! Be sure to log in sometime between April 1st and 30th to receive this special and festive Bunny Ears headpiece! WARNING: The Bunny Ears headpiece does not cause the Arch Lapin to befriend you nor does it provide bonuses to hearing. Enjoy! Release 76 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Springtime Theme! The hillsides are abloom, bunnies abound, and evidently ladybugs are also around! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 76 are springtime themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 76! Giant Bunny Companion Ladybug Backpack Bunny Slippers NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Springtime Vault Round! The current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, March 26 at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. 2017 Rabbit Tailed Bodice Ensemble White Rabbit Pet White Lepus Mask Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket Giant Butterfly Pet Stained Glass Hand Lantern Floral Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp (3 Pack) Shogun Four-Story Town Home /flowerleap emote (leap into the air and throw flowers) New Store Items: Tulips Flower Arrangement & Dyable Lepus Masks! Coming to the Crown Store in early R76 — the Tulips Flower Arrangement, Pink Dye and Dyable Lepus Masks! Recent additions to the Crown Store also included: a Gothic Candelabra, three Gothic Furniture Sets, a Gothic King Sized Bed, and Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms. Tulips Flower Arrangement Pink Dye (Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Item) Dyable Lepus Mask Gothic Candelabra Gothic Furniture Mega Set Gothic Furniture Dining Set Gothic Furniture Bedroom Set Gothic King Sized Bed with Black Leather Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms An Old Favorite Returns! Sometime early in R76, an old favorite scene will return. “Ulfheim” received a wonderful revamp from Sannio not too long ago, which is an adventure scene which now features various paths of virtue ultimately leading to an encounter with a fierce dragon. Albeit this new uncloned scene was a stellar creation by our master world builder, some have missed their old grind spot in northern Novia. “Ulfheim” was originally a clone of Deep Ravenswood yet had distinct differences such as an excellent bear spawn point, undead minions, high level barbarians and various Reaper locations. Well, for those missing this piece of adventure history, long for it no longer! Sometime early in R76, the old “Ulfheim” (to be called “Utheim” in its newer version) will be restored to the game and be found somewhere in Mistrendur. Enjoy! Interactive Fancy Toilet Paper Holder! Avatars! Reports of toilet paper shortages have even spread throughout New Britannia! To combat this calamity, the high wizards of Novia have combined their magical prowess to enchant the existing Fancy Toilet Paper Holder (recently added to the Crown Store) to become interactive and with an ENDLESS supply of paper! No need to hoard! You’ll never run out. The Arch Lapin Returns! Deep within the cavernous Spectral Mines, lies something very… scary. With huge fangs! And cute little feet. Deadly feet! And fangs! Fangs that go on from here until tomorrow and then again to the next day and sometimes the day after that. Beware oh’ adventurers, for peril certainly awaits thee! The Arch Lapin is far more than a mere rabbit! It’s got fangs! And red eyes! Just look at the bones! Be sure not to miss out on this year’s return of the Arch Lapin! Many loot items can be found upon its corpse, such as rare paintings, a trophy head and an Orb of Obliteration! Deed Upgrades 30% Off! Avatars! Upgrading deeds in Shroud of the Avatar is still 30% off! To upgrade a deed, be sure the deed is in your inventory, then right-click it for upgrade options. If sufficient Crowns are available in your inventory, then select the desired upgrade. Be sure to take advantage of this amazing deal! Increase the size of your property then spend some nice quiet and safe time at home decorating, enjoy! Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! For the near future, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Hourly XP attenuation limits have also increased. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! Mistrendur: Land Rush Underway! By royal decree, the process details for the Mistrendur land rush have been issued to the peoples of New Britannia! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and the time to select locations is well underway! The official announcement thread is ready and full of information about the currently active land rush! Bracket 5 starts today at Noon CT, and every 3 days another Bracket ticks away! Keep those entries rolling in — we’re ready for them! If you have any last minute questions or concerns, reply to the official announcement thread, or contact Elgarion on the forums via forum conversation. The site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased. The fifth bracket of players commence site selection on Thursday, March 26, Noon CT. For more information, please read the official announcement in the forums. This new land mass is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! After the Municipality town size became available, the Player Owned Town (POT) governors of New Britannia demanded even larger town size upgrade options! And more upgrade options they shall receive! Now, players of Shroud of the Avatar can upgrade their POTs to the size of Megalopolis. Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Party Size Increase in Player Test Environment (QA)! Avatars! Exciting news! Patched into the Player Test Environment (QA), the first iteration of Party/Raid type lovin’ for this year has arrived — Parties of 12! Players can test this new feature and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. Players will no longer be limited to 8 members in their party, and will soon be able to group with others in a party of 12! Once this new feature is fully tested on QA, it will push to the live server! Expanding the capabilities of adventure parties is just one of the exciting new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! The bard skill tree is still available on the Player Test Environment (QA) server. Indicated in the picture above, one of the new spell effects whirls around the bard in a spiral of magical and musical notation. We’re hard at work adding additional visual and audio effects, but players can now experiment with many of these new abilities and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. QA testers can train these skills by visiting the Advanced Skills Tactics Trainer in Desolis. Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. World & UI Changes Many updates that affected the game world or aspects of the user interface (UI) were patched in during R75 or went live for R76: Mistrendur: considerable polish to the overworld Mistrendur map patched in during early R75 to include mesh and collision improvements and placeholder town locations to assist with land rush selections Snowy Mountains Road Encounter: The naughty brats now have a higher chance to drop a chest key in their version of this encounter Plains Road Encounter: This roaming encounter was added to the continent of Mistrendur Forest Road Encounter: This roaming encounter was added to the continent of Mistrendur Goti: This town has received a boat to Novia by the docks Crafting, Items & Economy Changes Many fantastic changes to the player economy and crafting were patched in during R75 or went live for R76: Crown Store Mannequins: The Crown version of the mannequins have had their prices cut by more than 50% Housing Interior Deco Limits Adjusted: All lot sizes have received an additional 200 interior deco slots Housing Interior Light Limits Adjusted: All lot sizes have received an additional 20 interior light slots Housing NPC Limits: NPC limits for all housing lot sizes have received double the NPC limits as before Player Owned Town NPC Building Limits: All POT sizes received anywhere from 2 to 6 additional NPC building slots Frozen Tear of Titans: This off-hand item can now be placed as a decoration Gaia’s Heart: This off-hand item can now be placed as a decoration Gothic King Size Bed: This item is now dyable Gothic Queen Size Bed: This item is now dyable Gothic Dining Chair: This item is now dyable Combat Balance & Changes As part of the SotA 2020 Vision Post, Atos indicates combat balancing efforts will be a big part of changes coming to Shroud of the Avatar this year. Read what we’ve got brewing for combat balance changes and his reasoning behind it. Here are just a small number of the balance items that were patched in during R75 or went live for R76: Bard Skills, Icons, VFX Added: Various additions/changes to the Bard skill tree were made on the Player Test Enviroment (QA) server PvP Ransom Loot: After a long period of PvP activity analysis with ransom turned off, many locations have had ransom restored as an option for PvP. Updated Player-Owned Towns Belly of the Snake: Renamed from Saint Mary’s Island, moved to Mistrendur, and updated interconnections Clevedon: Moved to Mistrendur Crossroads Landing: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur East Port: Renamed from Aerie Centre Exchange, moved to near Soltown Far Green: Added new Village island to Mistrendur Jade Gardens: Renamed from Jade Caverns, changed to Forest 02, and moved to Mistrendur Organized Chaos Market: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Outlandia: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur PaxLair: Upgraded to Megalopolis Phoenix Haven: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur Riptown Creek: Added new Village to Mistrendur Siren Song Bayou: Upgraded to Municipality Bug Fixes Albeit many bug fixes were patched in during R75 or will patch in for R76’s release, here are some of the highlights! Fixes for Vault items not showing Many quests received typographical fixes Ankhs in Tartarus PvP Maze should now be functional Dual wearable restrictions refined and fixed Major decoration bug was fixed which prevented some players from manipulating decoration Blood Spatter decoration was fixed Stats fixed on Gustball Uniforms Carmelo received bug fixes in Bramble Ring of Fire visuals fixed Multiple Mistrendur overworld collision issues fixed Wealthy Merchant visuals fixed South Longfall Wetland cage behavior improved Female avatar’s nameplate now shows in correct place during piano animations New gothic beds can now be used from either side Troll overworld encounter should once again be functional New gothic dining chair better accommodates male characters Cancelling a “Packaging Item for Trade” transaction no longer leaves item red/unresolved Fixed issue where Ferocious Red Arachnid and Ferocious Red Spider had same health Skrekk received many background fixes related to NPC barks Shark Trophy can one again be placed as decoration Pathing on broken stairs at the Ruined Keep has been improved Blood River Outskirts quest journal and marker improvements Kyle Berhand in Aerie has received improvements to the “weapon upgrade” task Full and Half Full Fine Oak Bookshelves are now more easily interactive Ornate Oak Panel Wardrobe can now be utilized as a container when placed as a decoration Highvale Bandit Leader received improved dialogue options Ardoris Devotional Caretaker now properly responds to “Corpus” when applicable Floating rocks fixed in Ravensmoor After completing Paths of Love, Truth and Courage, players receive improved guidance to visit the Oracle in Brittany Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Festival of the Avatar FULL ticket (which includes admission, King’s Dinner, Barons Men Play, A Heraldry Banner) and one additional guest at a discounted rate. PLUS Choice of any 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 999 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one on one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31, 2019). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Community Events section of the forum for events hosted by our wonderful community members! Below is a list of additional events as the year progresses: 2020 Events Mar 26 – Release 76 Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Britannian Mining Company Recruitment Event! [Forum Post by Tradia] The Britannian Mining Company is looking for new members!​ For the month of March, we will be holding ‘Meet & Greet’ events every Friday. Meet and chat with guild members, ask questions, check out the town of Blackrock Cove and let us show you the benefits of being part of the BMC! Founded June 6, 1998 in Ultima Online and establishing in Shroud of the Avatar in 2013, the BMC is knowledgeable in most aspects of the game. We are more than just miners! There is a place for adventurers of all kinds – there are no restrictions on what type of player you want to play!​ Meet & Greet Events will take place: March 13, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT March 20, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT March 27, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT​ We will be throughout the world chatting and answering questions. Feel free to come straight to Blackrock Cove and visit our Recruitment Center – or just PM and add any of us as a friend and we will help you get you there! Each of us is proud to carry the name of BMC – and we are happy to make you part of our family.​ You don’t have to wait for these events! If you are interested, feel free to check out our website and/or Discord server. One of our Emesarries or Ambassadors will be happy to get your application started. For more information, see the original post on the forums… Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Rodasurf Darkstarr and the Rodasurf team once again dazzle us with another interview which aired on Spectrum News! The RodaSurf board is an accessory to the Onewheel XR device. Simply snap and lock the Onewheel into RodaSurf’s latching system, and you’ll be surfing the streets before you know it! For the full article PLUS a fantastic video, be sure to head straight over to the Spectrum News Website and see our beloved Lord of Chaos show off his latest venture! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Sneak Peek into “Bunker C” Adventure Scene! Atos Q&A Livestream! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Double Experience Points Continue! Mistrendur: Land Rush Underway! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! Darkstarr Vault Round Part II! Latest Store Items! Party Size Increase in Player Test Environment (QA)! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: St. Patrick’s Day Theme! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Community Event: Release 75 Dance Party! Community Event: Britannian Mining Company Recruitment Event! Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragon Fight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Sannio Shows-Off “Bunker C” Design! In the Twitch video below, Keith “Sannio” Quinn shows off the early stages of a new scene, “Bunker C.” Players will be directed to this crumbling underground shelter as part of an upcoming quest that will start in Novia’s Far Hinterlands. The bunker will challenge players with deadly lava in addition to undead and elemental threats. The “Bunker C” adventure scene is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Atos Q&A Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, Mar 20th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members today for a community 1 hour livestream! Join us today! We’ll be ready to answer any questions about the land rush in Mistrendur, the Packaging Items for Trade feature, the new Bard Skill Tree or any other topic broached by the viewers. Hope to see you all there! To enter the prize drawings, type “march to a different tune” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CT! Packaging Items for Trade in Player Test Environment (QA)! Just arriving to the Player Test Environment (QA) server is a very useful new feature with which allows players to trade formerly no-trade Heritage items by packaging them for trade. Simply right-click the item, then select “Package Item for Trade” which will spawn an option window requesting a Crowns payment for the packaging. Once packaged, the item can be freely traded to another player, who can then unpackage it for use simply by double-clicking upon the item. Allowing for the trade of formerly no-trade Heritage items is just one of many useful new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Double Experience Points Continue! Head out into the lands of New Britannia and charge headlong into the dangers therein, Avatars! In the coming weeks, Shroud of the Avatar players will receive double experience points (XP) for their endeavors in Adventure and Crafting! Sometime this weekend, Atos will also provide a temporary boost to the hourly XP attenuation limits to extend throughout the double XP reward period. Please take advantage of the extra experience points! Stay home, stay safe and explore New Britannia! Mistrendur: Land Rush Underway! By royal decree, the process details for the Mistrendur land rush have been issued to the peoples of New Britannia! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and the time to select locations is well underway! The official announcement thread is ready and full of information about the currently active land rush! Bracket 3 started today at Noon CT, and every 3 days another Bracket ticks away! Keep those entries rolling in — we’re ready for them! If you have any last minute questions or concerns, reply to the official announcement thread, or contact Elgarion on the forums via forum conversation. The site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased. The third bracket of players commence site selection on Friday, March 20, Noon CT. For more information, please read the official announcement in the forums. This new land mass is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! After the Municipality town size became available, the Player Owned Town (POT) governors of New Britannia demanded even larger town size upgrade options! And more upgrade options they shall receive! Now, players of Shroud of the Avatar can upgrade their POTs to the size of Megalopolis. NPC Buildings, NPCs, Decoration Limits and Light Limits scale as follows: Darkstarr Vault Round Part II! The current round of Vault items are available until Friday, March 27 at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Darkstarr 1-Handed Sword Darkstarr Staff Darkstarr Dagger Darkstarr Throne Darkstarr Coronated Chain Helm Darkstarr Wand Interior Sized Obsidian Obelisk Kobold Four-Story Row Home Mosh Dance Emote Latest Store Items! Additional Crown Store goodies arriving during Release 75 include a Fancy Sink with Geometric Patterns as well as a matching Fancy Toilet. Recently added were a Gothic Candelabra, three Gothic Furniture Sets, a Gothic King Sized Bed and a variety of Gothic Chandeliers with varying chain lengths. Also new to the Crown Store this release are the Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms. Let the more stylin’ Gustball tourneys begin! Lots of great decoration items became available recently, such as the 8 amazing non-player characters (NPC) readied for the player created dialogue scripting system! These new type of NPC’s are known as Conversationalists. Gothic Candelabra Fancy Sink II (Geometric Pattern) Fancy Toilet II (Geometric Pattern) Gothic Furniture Mega Set Gothic Furniture Dining Set Gothic Furniture Bedroom Set Gothic King Sized Bed with Black Leather Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms Conversationalist (Female, 4 Varieties) Conversationalist (Male, 4 Varieties) Party Size Increase in Player Test Environment (QA)! Avatars! Exciting news! Patched into the Player Test Environment (QA), the first iteration of Party/Raid type lovin’ for this year has arrived — Parties of 12! Players can test this new feature and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. Players will no longer be limited to 8 members in their party, and will soon be able to group with others in a party of 12! Once this new feature is fully tested on QA, it will push to the live server! Expanding the capabilities of adventure parties is just one of the exciting new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! The bard skill tree is still available on the Player Test Environment (QA) server. Indicated in the picture above, one of the new spell effects whirls around the bard in a spiral of magical and musical notation. We’re hard at work adding additional visual and audio effects, but players can now experiment with many of these new abilities and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. QA testers can train these skills by visiting the Advanced Skills Tactics Trainer in Desolis. Here’s a list of 5 recently added abilities, but keep in mind a total of 16 bard skills will be featured: Savage Sonata: AoE enrage ability Chorus of Conservation: AoE focus cost reduction for party members Rhythmic Readiness: Passive skill that reduces ability casting time Resounding Reach: Passive skill which increases range of abilities Musical Fortitude: Passive skill which increases duration of abilities Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Just in time for Saint Patty’s Day, Avatars! Be sure to log in sometime between March 1st and 31st to receive this special and festive Leprechaun Hat! This clover-sporting gem of green headwear is a must have for any would-be celebrator this season. Enjoy! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Saint Patrick’s Day Theme! It’s time for all things green, Avatars! So don’t get pinched! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 75 are St. Patrick’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 75! Clover Pavers Leprechaun Statue Pot o’ Gold with Rainbow Effects NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Festival of the Avatar FULL ticket (which includes admission, King’s Dinner, Barons Men Play, A Heraldry Banner) and one additional guest at a discounted rate. PLUS Choice of any 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 999 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one on one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Community Events section of the forum for events hosted by our wonderful community members! Below is a list of additional events as the year progresses: 2020 Events Mar 26 – Release 76 Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Release 75 Dance Party [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Virtue/Avatars Radio Presents the Release 75 Dance Party & Stress Test Location: @Ragnarr Lodbrok’s Skalabrekka nested in Starfield (map) Host/DJ: Celith Wraine When: Sunday, March 22nd, 12:00 – 2:00 PM CST Come out and sport some awesome dance moves, trade emotes and recipes, chat with friends, launch off fireworks and simply have a lot of fun! Find out more information on Alleine’s orignal post! If you’d like to learn how YOUR town can become a site for upcoming dance parties, find out here! Community Events: Britannian Mining Company Recruitment Event! [Forum Post by Tradia] The Britannian Mining Company is looking for new members!​ For the month of March, we will be holding ‘Meet & Greet’ events every Friday. Meet and chat with guild members, ask questions, check out the town of Blackrock Cove and let us show you the benefits of being part of the BMC! Founded June 6, 1998 in Ultima Online and establishing in Shroud of the Avatar in 2013, the BMC is knowledgeable in most aspects of the game. We are more than just miners! There is a place for adventurers of all kinds – there are no restrictions on what type of player you want to play!​ Meet & Greet Events will take place: March 13, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT March 20, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT March 27, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT​ We will be throughout the world chatting and answering questions. Feel free to come straight to Blackrock Cove and visit our Recruitment Center – or just PM and add any of us as a friend and we will help you get you there! Each of us is proud to carry the name of BMC – and we are happy to make you part of our family.​ You don’t have to wait for these events! If you are interested, feel free to check out our website and/or Discord server. One of our Emesarries or Ambassadors will be happy to get your application started. For more information, see the original post on the forums… Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Pantheon Rise of the Fallen Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen takes place on the high-fantasy world of Terminus, a wildly diverse land formed from fragments of many different realms and times, bringing with them their unique civilizations and deities. Explore long lost realms, as their people and cultures vie for power and form alliances, struggling to gain a foothold in an unfamiliar world. Uncover civilizations and awe-inspiring locales that offer incredible adventures for you and your friends to experience. Enter a world where the environment itself tells the story and where content is always king! UPDATE: We were stunned to learn of the untimely passing of Brad McQuaid recently. He was one of the true pioneers and visionaries of our industry who brought Everquest to us. We have few words that can express how much we respect him; so we choose to honor him with a flaming sword tomb in Brittany Graveyard that reads: “Aradune: For the Brightest Flame Burns the Least Long”. Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Mistrendur: Land Rush Starts Tomorrow! Episode 2 Q&A Livestream! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! Darkstarr Vault Round Part II! New Store Items: Fancy Sink & Fancy Toilet with Geometric Patterns! Lord Darkstarr Sighting! Party Size Increase in Player Test Environment (QA)! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: St. Patrick’s Day Theme! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Community Event: Britannian Mining Company Recruitment Event! Community Event: Release 75 Dance Party! Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry Return to Virtue Radio! Community Event: Mad Splatter Tea Party! Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragon Fight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Mistrendur: Land Rush Starts Tomorrow! By royal decree, the process details for the Mistrendur land rush have been issued to the peoples of New Britannia! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and the time to begin selecting locations comes this weekend! The official announcement thread is ready and full of information about the land rush proceedings! Tomorrow, on Saturday, March 14, Noon CT, we’ll officially begin collecting land rush selection submissions and organizing the data collected for the first bracket. Let those entries roll in — we’re ready for them! If you have any last minute questions or concerns, reply to the official announcement thread, or contact Elgarion on the forums via forum conversation. The site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased. The first bracket of players commence site selection on Saturday, March 14, Noon CT. For more information, please read the official announcement in the forums. This new land mass is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Episode 2 Q&A Livestream! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, Mar 13 at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members today for a community 1 hour livestream! Join us today! We’ll be ready to answer any questions about the land rush in Mistrendur as well as other Episode 2 topics broached by the community. Hope to see you all there! To enter the prize drawings, type “march to a different tune” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CT! Megalopolis: New Town Size Available! After the Municipality town size became available, the Player Owned Town (POT) governors of New Britannia demanded even larger town size upgrade options! And more upgrade options they shall receive! Now, players of Shroud of the Avatar can upgrade their POTs to the size of Megalopolis. NPC Buildings, NPCs, Decoration Limits and Light Limits scale as follows: Darkstarr Vault Round Part II! The current round of Vault items are available until Friday, March 27 at 10:30 AM CST. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Darkstarr 1-Handed Sword Darkstarr Staff Darkstarr Dagger Darkstarr Throne Darkstarr Coronated Chain Helm Darkstarr Wand Interior Sized Obsidian Obelisk Kobold Four-Story Row Home Mosh Dance Emote New Store Items: Fancy Sink & Fancy Toilet with Geometric Patterns! Additional Crown Store goodies arriving during Release 75 include a Fancy Sink with Geometric Patterns as well as a matching Fancy Toilet. Recently added were three Gothic Furniture Sets, a Gothic King Sized Bed and a variety of Gothic Chandeliers with varying chain lengths. Also new to the Crown Store this release are the Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms. Let the more stylin’ Gustball tourneys begin! Lots of great decoration items became available recently, such as the 8 amazing non-player characters (NPC) readied for the player created dialogue scripting system! These new type of NPC’s are known as Conversationalists. Fancy Sink II (Geometric Pattern) Fancy Toilet II (Geometric Pattern) Gothic Furniture Mega Set Gothic Furniture Dining Set Gothic Furniture Bedroom Set Gothic King Sized Bed with Black Leather Gothic Chandeliers (4 Varieties) Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms Conversationalist (Female, 4 Varieties) Conversationalist (Male, 4 Varieties) Lord Darkstarr Sighting!This just in! Darkstarr (a.k.a. Starr Long and Lord Blackthorn) has been sighted! Fans of Shroud of the Avatar eagerly await the return of our beloved Lord of Chaos, but until that time comes… please enjoy this newscast from Austin, TX! Party Size Increase in Player Test Environment (QA)! Avatars! Exciting news! Patched into the Player Test Environment (QA), the first iteration of Party/Raid type lovin’ for this year has arrived — Parties of 12! Players can test this new feature and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. Players will no longer be limited to 8 members in their party, and will soon be able to group with others in a party of 12! Once this new feature is fully tested on QA, it will push to the live server! Expanding the capabilities of adventure parties is just one of the exciting new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! The bard skill tree is still available on the Player Test Environment (QA) server. Indicated in the picture above, one of the new spell effects whirls around the bard in a spiral of magical and musical notation. We’re hard at work adding additional visual and audio effects, but players can now experiment with many of these new abilities and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. QA testers can train these skills by visiting the Advanced Skills Tactics Trainer in Desolis. Here’s a list of 5 recently added abilities, but keep in mind a total of 16 bard skills will be featured: Savage Sonata: AoE enrage ability Chorus of Conservation: AoE focus cost reduction for party members Rhythmic Readiness: Passive skill that reduces ability casting time Resounding Reach: Passive skill which increases range of abilities Musical Fortitude: Passive skill which increases duration of abilities Streaming the Player Test Environment (QA) Now Permitted! Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar are now welcome to stream gameplay of their Player Test Environment (QA) experiences! We hope this new option will inspire increased new feature testing before these features go to the live server. When streaming from QA, please be sure to notify your audience that you are testing new and unfinalized features on the test server. March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Just in time for Saint Patty’s Day, Avatars! Be sure to log in sometime between March 1st and 31st to receive this special and festive Leprechaun Hat! This clover-sporting gem of green headwear is a must have for any would-be celebrator this season. Enjoy! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Saint Patrick’s Day Theme! It’s time for all things green, Avatars! So don’t get pinched! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 75 are St. Patrick’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 75! Clover Pavers Leprechaun Statue Pot o’ Gold with Rainbow Effects NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home NEW – Town Size Upgrade (if a town is not owned by the LOTI supporter, they may gift this size upgrade to another town owner. Maximum possible town sizes will be taken into account, but the Megalopolis size just became available!) Festival of the Avatar FULL ticket (which includes admission, King’s Dinner, Barons Men Play, A Heraldry Banner) and one additional guest at a discounted rate. PLUS Choice of any 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 999 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one on one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Community Events section of the forum for events hosted by our wonderful community members! Below is a list of additional events as the year progresses: 2020 Events Mar 26 – Release 76 Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Britannian Mining Company Recruitment Event! [Forum Post by Tradia] The Britannian Mining Company is looking for new members!​ For the month of March, we will be holding ‘Meet & Greet’ events every Friday. Meet and chat with guild members, ask questions, check out the town of Blackrock Cove and let us show you the benefits of being part of the BMC! Founded June 6, 1998 in Ultima Online and establishing in Shroud of the Avatar in 2013, the BMC is knowledgeable in most aspects of the game. We are more than just miners! There is a place for adventurers of all kinds – there are no restrictions on what type of player you want to play!​ Meet & Greet Events will take place: March 13, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT March 20, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT March 27, 2020 @ 8-9pm CST/NBT​ We will be throughout the world chatting and answering questions. Feel free to come straight to Blackrock Cove and visit our Recruitment Center – or just PM and add any of us as a friend and we will help you get you there! Each of us is proud to carry the name of BMC – and we are happy to make you part of our family.​ You don’t have to wait for these events! If you are interested, feel free to check out our website and/or Discord server. One of our Emesarries or Ambassadors will be happy to get your application started. For more information, see the original post on the forums… Community Events: Release 75 Dance Party [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Virtue/Avatars Radio Presents the Release 75 Dance Party & Stress Test Location: @Ragnarr Lodbrok’s Skalabrekka nested in Starfield (map) Host/DJ: Celith Wraine When: Sunday, March 22nd, 12:00 – 2:00 PM CST Come out and sport some awesome dance moves, trade emotes and recipes, chat with friends, launch off fireworks and simply have a lot of fun! Find out more information on Alleine’s orignal post! If you’d like to learn how YOUR town can become a site for upcoming dance parties, find out here! Community Events: Podcasts & Poetry Return to Virtue Radio [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! After a long absence, Podcasts and Poetry are returning to Virtue Radio! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Monday Evenings at 7 PM CST How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Community Events: Mad Splatter Tea Party [Forum Post by Lily Byrd] The Mad Splatter Tea Party takes place every 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month, which is a tea party in my back garden at my home in Jade Valley. There are drinks and eats, there is sometimes music, there are often party games with prizes, and sometimes we just sit and talk about life in Novia. Not only are you welcome to join us but I would like to find out how to have this added to the community calendar here in the forums. Location: Lily Byrd’s Cottage and tea garden is south of the Hall of Inquiry and Learning. Time: Every 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month, 3ish CST Attire: This is a role playing event tea party come as your avatar We play games, we eat cake and drink…various teas and drinks… There are goofy prizes for winning games if we play them. See you there, Lily Byrd. Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Pantheon Rise of the Fallen Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen takes place on the high-fantasy world of Terminus, a wildly diverse land formed from fragments of many different realms and times, bringing with them their unique civilizations and deities. Explore long lost realms, as their people and cultures vie for power and form alliances, struggling to gain a foothold in an unfamiliar world. Uncover civilizations and awe-inspiring locales that offer incredible adventures for you and your friends to experience. Enter a world where the environment itself tells the story and where content is always king! UPDATE: We were stunned to learn of the untimely passing of Brad McQuaid recently. He was one of the true pioneers and visionaries of our industry who brought Everquest to us. We have few words that can express how much we respect him; so we choose to honor him with a flaming sword tomb in Brittany Graveyard that reads: “Aradune: For the Brightest Flame Burns the Least Long”. Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Avatar’s Update #371: Party Size Limits Increasing! Fishing Contest & Trivia Livestream Today! https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=122046 View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: News Announcements Party Size Limits Increasing! Fishing Contest & Trivia Livestream Today! New Store Items: Gothic Furniture and Chandeliers and More! Mistrendur: Land Rush Update! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! Darkstarr Vault Round! March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: St. Patrick’s Day Theme! Streaming Reward Program Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry Return to Virtue Radio! Project to Support: Jar Wars Project to Support: Dragon Fight Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Party Size Limits Increasing! Avatars! Exciting news! Patched into the Player Test Environment (QA), the first iteration of Party/Raid type lovin’ for this year has arrived — Parties of 12! Players can test this new feature and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. Players will no longer be limited to 8 members in their party, and will soon be able to group with others in a party of 12! Once this new feature is fully tested, it will push to the live server! Expanding the capabilities of adventure parties is just one of the exciting new features to arrive this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud of the Avatar 2020 Vision! Fishing Contest & Trivia Livestream Today! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, Mar 6 at 3PM CDT on Twitch! Join Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members today for a community two-hour livestream! 3 PM: Introductions and Q&A 3:30 PM: Shroud of the Avatar Trivia Time! 4:00 PM: Fishing Contest at the Fishing Expedition 5 PM: Ending Announcements To enter the prize drawings, type “march to a different tune” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website add-on store. Please submit questions into Twitch Chat by inserting !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 3 PM CDT! New Store Items: Gothic Furniture and Chandeliers! Additional CotO Store goodies are arriving during Release 75 to include three Gothic Furniture Sets, a Gothic King Sized Bed and a variety of Gothic Chandeliers with varying chain lengths. Also new to the CotO Store this release are the Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms. Let the more stylin’ Gustball tourneys begin! Lots of great decoration items become available recently, such as the 8 amazing non-player characters (NPC) readied for the player created dialogue scripting system! These new type of NPC’s are known as Conversationalists. Other items added of late were a Dirt Path Pavers Set, a Fancy Kitchen Sink, and a Fancy Wash Basin Set! Gothic Furniture Mega Set Gothic Furniture Dining Set Gothic Furniture Bedroom Set Gothic King Sized Bed with Black Leather Gothic Chandeliers (4 Varieties) Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms Dirt Path Pavers Set Fancy Kitchen Sink Fancy Wash Basin Set Conversationalist (Female, 4 Varieties) Conversationalist (Male, 4 Varieties) Mistrendur: Land Rush Update! By royal decree, the process details for the Mistrendur land rush has been issued to the peoples of New Britannia! Players made reservations to add or move towns to Mistrendur some time ago, and the time to begin selecting locations draws very close! The official announcement thread will continuously be updated as we draw closer to the land rush, so be sure to keep apprised of any new information as it comes to light. The site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased. The first bracket of players will commence with their selections on Saturday, March 14, Noon CDT. For more information, please read the official announcement in the forums. This new land mass is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in Shroud of the Avatar’s 2020 Vision! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! The bard skill tree is still available on the Player Test Environment (QA) server. Indicated in the picture above, one of the new spell effects whirls around the bard in a spiral of magical and musical notation. We’re hard at work adding additional visual and audio effects, but players can now experiment with many of these new abilities and provide crucial feedback to the development team on the Player Test Environment (QA) forums. QA testers can train these skills by visiting the Advanced Skills Tactics Trainer in Desolis. Here’s a list of 5 recently added abilities, but keep in mind a total of 16 bard skills will be featured: Savage Sonata: AoE enrage ability Chorus of Conservation: AoE focus cost reduction for party members Rhythmic Readiness: Passive skill that reduces ability casting time Resounding Reach: Passive skill which increases range of abilities Musical Fortitude: Passive skill which increases duration of abilities Darkstarr Vault Round! The current round of Vault items are available until Friday, March 13 at 10:30 AM CDT. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Darkstarr Black Chain Armor (outfit) Darkstarr 2-Handed Sword Darkstarr 1-Handed Spear Darkstarr Morningstar Darkstarr Crossbow Darkstarr Pavers Darkstarr Clocktower Elven 4-Story City Home Kobold 4-Story Great Hall City Home March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Just in time for Saint Patty’s Day, Avatars! Be sure to log in sometime between March 1st and 31st to receive this special and festive Leprechaun Hat! This clover sporting gem of green headwear is a must have for any would-be celebrator this season. Enjoy! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Reward Items: Saint Patrick’s Day Theme! It’s time for all things green, Avatars! So don’t get pinched! Rewards Program exclusive login reward items for Release 75 are St. Patrick’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 75! Clover Pavers Leprechaun Statue Pot o’ Gold with Rainbow Effects NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards. The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Gold Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following: 900 Gold Crowns of the Obsidians every month Exclusive Monthly Login Reward Items (~ 3 per month) Exclusive Title every 3 months 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith 6 Months: Keeper of the Word 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including: Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills Are You a Livestreamer? Soon, the Streaming Reward Program will be returning. As the details are getting reworked, we’ll reveal more information. Traditional streaming rewards included an exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Streaming Program! Expect the camera reward to return! More goodies will come to your way as the program fully develops. Thank you for streaming Shroud of the Avatar! Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of Lord British’s property, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold! Complete List of Rewards: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land! Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle Unique Lord of the Isle Home NEW: A Festival of the Avatar FULL ticket (which includes admission, King’s Dinner, Barons Men Play, A Heraldry Banner) and one additional guest at a discounted rate. PLUS Choice of any 1 House currently available in the store Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot) Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room 140,000 Crowns 999 Bank Slots Pick 12 Prosperity Tools 2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later) Early Access to Episode 2 Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team 1 hour one on one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference) One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8 In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version) Tour of Lord British’s property Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC. NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD. NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Catnip Games for Tour & Dinner. Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on our TWO Twitch Channels: twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar and twitch.tv/communityoftheavatar — be sure to get these channels on follow and get the latest information right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!! Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at our other social media venues: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/ Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Community Events section of the forum for events hosted by our wonderful community members! Below is a list of additional events as the year progresses: 2020 Events Mar 26 – Release 76 Apr 30 – Release 77 May 28 – Release 78 June 25 – Release 79 July 30 – Release 80 Aug 27 – Release 81 Meretz: Win a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy! Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Pirate Galleon Dry Dock Town Home (No Trade) to a lucky winner! AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events:Podcasts & Poetry Return to Virtue Radio! [Forum Post by Asclepius] Attention Avatars! After a long absence, Podcasts and Poetry are returning to Virtue Radio! The Shroud of the Avatar community is INCREDIBLY creative, and over the last five years, many community members have composed short stories, poems, and other creative works. Asclepius, along with a number of other narrators have had the privilege of rendering them into audio form. There is a huge vault of podcasts on the Caverns site with well over 200 amazing creative contributions. So after fiddling with the broadcast software, Asclepius now offers to share them with you. This is planned to be a regular WEEKLY segment, about an hour in duration. Listen in and you will hear a curated selection of short stories and poems, interspersed with some great community music. When: Monday Evenings at 7 PM CDT How to Listen: There are two methods to tune in to Virtue Radio Utilize your in-game Aether Vibration Devices for Avatar’s/Virtue Radio (radios, clockwork pets, clockwork helms, etc.) Simply point your browser to Avatar’s/Virtue Radio: https://zcu.io/jXP8 For more information about these reoccurring broadcasts on Avatar’s/Virtue Radio, please contact Asclepius on his forum post about this topic. Project to Support – Jar Wars While you are delving into Virtual Reality (VR), be sure check out this exciting and hilarious new game, Jar Wars! Our very own Darkstarr has been busy on some side projects, one of which is Jar Wars, a slapstick multiplayer game made just for VR enthusiasts. Battle your friends with wacky weapons and intriguing gadgets for total domination of the Moon! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Dragon Fight Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the Dragon Fight VR team which went live this week on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey: Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you Using a sword and a shield Fire! Nowhere to run! This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam! Project to Support – Crowfall Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion! Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power! Project to Support – Pantheon Rise of the Fallen Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen takes place on the high-fantasy world of Terminus, a wildly diverse land formed from fragments of many different realms and times, bringing with them their unique civilizations and deities. Explore long lost realms, as their people and cultures vie for power and form alliances, struggling to gain a foothold in an unfamiliar world. Uncover civilizations and awe-inspiring locales that offer incredible adventures for you and your friends to experience. Enter a world where the environment itself tells the story and where content is always king! UPDATE: We were stunned to learn of the untimely passing of Brad McQuaid recently. He was one of the true pioneers and visionaries of our industry who brought Everquest to us. We have few words that can express how much we respect him; so we choose to honor him with a flaming sword tomb in Brittany Graveyard that reads: “Aradune: For the Brightest Flame Burns the Least Long”. Project to Support – Avatar Express [Forum post by Vladamir Begemot] I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site. If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening. You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like. Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game. It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts! So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us! Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community. View the full article

Howdy folks! This should be the last round of my major forum changes for quite some time (letting the dust settle). The latest effort is aimed towards improving developer support to the community as a whole through participation and spotlighting of in-game events, SotA radio stations and DJ's as well as SotA livestreams and recorded SotA videos. Here's a breakdown of the framework. Expect the stickies in each forum to soon be populated with robust information about each sticky topic.... Forum Updates Finale (In-Game Events, Radio & Livestreamer Lovin') View the full article

Some verrrrrrry eager folks out there have made us realize a new rule is required. Everyone who's read the Mistrendur land rush announcement knows we're migrating away from needing geographical proximity to request an interconnect between towns, but we've recently had a few form unlock vouchers come in with a very large amount of...​ POT Interconnections & POT Voucher UpdateView the full article