Jack T. Lamplighter

We will be having a hosted testing session tonight at 8pm CT on the QA server that should last for about 2 hours. Temporary Deeds will be handed to assist in testing deco placement issues. Please see this post in the QA forums for details: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-assisted-testing-event-on-qa-tonight.162266/ View the full article

Avatar’s Update #370: Play Release 75 Now! Universal Broadcast Orb Transformed! Land Rush Q&A Livestream Today at 4pm CDT! https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=121916 Thanks for all the help getting the notes together -- you guys rock!!! 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 Universal Broadcast Orb Transformed! Land Rush Q&A Livestream with Atos Today! New Store Items: Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms and More! Mistrendur: Land Rush Update! Darkstarr Vault Round! March Login Reward: Leprechaun Hat! Release 75 Reward Program Exclusive Login Items: St. Patrick’s Day Theme! Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! World & UI Changes Crafting & Economy Changes Combat Balance 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 an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Podcasts & Poetry Return to Virtue Radio! Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Universal Broadcast Orb Transformed! To celebrate the upcoming 2nd anniversary of Shroud of the Avatar’s official launch, a major enhancement has been made to the Free-to-Play (FTP) experience. The Universal Broadcast Orb was formerly a $2 Add-On Store item which gated FTP players from having initial access to the global chat channels. This feature offered some level of spam protection to our in-game chat, but it also inadvertently stifled communication for new FTP players wanting to participate in our community. Well now the FTP players will be heard! As of R75, the Universal Broadcast Orb will no longer be required to utilize Universal nor Trade chat channels. This item has been removed from the Add-On Store, and for those already having one in their possession? Those users have received a stunning orb decoration as a replacement. The new decoration version of the Universal Broadcast Orb also emits light and counts as a light source. This enhancement to the FTP player experience 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! Land Rush Q&A Livestream with Atos Today! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, February 28 at 4PM CDT on Twitch! Join us today for a community Q&A session! Chris Spears a.k.a. Atos and other developer team members will be present to answer questions about the Land Rush for Mistrendur as well as other topics broached by the community. Hope to see you all there! To enter the prize drawings, type “love makes the world go round” 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 CDT! New Store Items: Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms and More! New to the CotO Store for Release 75 are the Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms. Let the more stylin’ Gustball tourneys begin! Also, a Dirt Path Pavers Set is now available on the store! And better late than never, patching in during R75, a Fancy Kitchen Sink and Fancy Wash Basin Set will arrive on the store! Lots of great decoration items were patched in throughout R74, 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 to the game recently were a variety of stone/boulder packs, crystal chandeliers, goofy fish trophies, and even a new variety of VFX decoration — Fireflies! Dyable Heraldry Gustball Uniforms Dirt Path Pavers Set Fancy Kitchen Sink (will patch in during R75) Fancy Wash Basin Set (will patch in during R75) Conversationalist (Female, 4 Varieties) Conversationalist (Male, 4 Varieties) Boulders (4, 6 and 10 Packs) Fireflies (Blue, Green, Orange and Yellow) Crystal Chandelier (Several Varieties) Goofy Fish Trophies 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! Recently, we delayed the start date for the land rush by 2 weeks to ensure future settlers of Mistrendur have more time to prepare, and so the developers could provide a better land rush experience to the players. We’ll soon be providing an improved map (the prototype is shown below) and include MANY more location indicators on the Mistrendur overworld to ensure you can make a well informed decision. Also, 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! 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 Bard Skills in Player Test Environment (QA)! The bard skill tree now has many skills available for testing on the Player Test Environment (QA) server. QA testers can train these skills by visiting the Advanced Skills Tactics Trainer in Desolis. We’re hard at work adding 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. Here’s a list of 5 additional abilities, but keep in mind a total of 16 will be added: 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 World & UI Changes Many updates that affected the game world or aspects of the user interface (UI) were patched in during R74 or went live for R75: Mistrendur: New Episode 2 continent was patched in during R74 and will receive constant updates in preparation for the upcoming land rush. Changes have included the addition of a galleon to Novia as well as rowboats from/to each island. Additional location markers are being added to assist with player land rush decisions. Ambient sounds, discoveries, Episode 2 tier markers were added. POT placeholders were adjusted to be centered in their hexes and some slight terrain change follow-ups occurred. Collision was regenerated and the navmesh was rebaked. Ruined Keep: This scene now allows for full open multi-play. It had previously been restricted to Party and Solo modes. Galleon Updates: Below is the full list of “Cross-Continent Galleons” that will be available in R75 across the three overworld maps. Using one will bring up a list of all the others, in a manner similar to the lists available at POT signpost teleporters. Aerie (New!) Ardoris (New!) Brittany Jaanaford (New!) Kingsport Noreach (New-ish!) Mistrendur (New-ish!) Skrekk: Extra dialogue was added to Kobolds. Aether Creatures: Have left New Britannia after having long overstayed their welcome. Adventuring Trainers: “Bypass conversations with merchants” can no longer be skipped with adventuring trainers unless you have a specific “training” flag that relates to that trainer. This ensures players are less likely to bypass receiving advanced attack techniques and advanced deck options. Goti: This town has received a boat to Novia. POT Decorations: These items can now be placed as POT decorations but were formerly only allowed as housing decoration. Crafting Stations Printing Press Flat Basket Hand Basket Bucket Tent Small Campfire Bedroll Barn Stall Thin Barn Stall Aether Vibration Amplifier Console Blue Toadstool Green Toadstool Red Toadstool Sturdy Bench Gnome Miner Gnome Couple Ornate Dual Wax Amplifier Basic Chess/Checker Board (and pieces) Writeable Paper Digging Shovel Flat Shovel (Blacksmith) Flat Shovel (Viking) Pickaxe Pitchfork Plant (Dracaena) Plant (Laurentii) Plant (Pink Brush) Plow Simple Wooden Stick Torch Square Shovel Bench Iron Lantern Barrel Crate Water Well: Now allows for placement in Player Dungeons. Torture Rack and Table: These items now have decoration surfaces. Lord of the Isle Mansion: Added a secret room to the Lord of the Isle Mansion. Property Manager: Cooldown time for utilizing the magic movers/property manager interface has been lowered from 300 to 30 seconds. Crafting & Economy Changes Many fantastic changes to the player economy and crafting were patched in during R74 or went live for R75: Dyable Gustball Uniforms: These non-heraldry gustball uniforms can be crafted by players! These will patch in and the recipes will be available on tailor merchants during R75. Fishing: The river has been deepened in Crooked Shank for swimming/fishing. Recall/Teleport Scrolls: Using these scrolls will now only take 5 seconds. Cupid Bow: Now has an associated eternal pattern from salvaging this item. Printing Press: Added the standard Printing Press to deco merchant. Necklaces: Durability of necklaces have been increased. Belts: Durability of belts have been increased. Wyvern Heads: Several wyverns now have increased head drop rates (Note: These are still SUPER rare). Spell Components: Banish Undead, Fireball, Ring of Fire, and Solar Flare all received tweaks to reagent consumption to make them consume more player grown reagents and fewer merchant purchased reagents. Artifact Enhancement: Acara plate, the Tricorn of the Cap’n, and the Quiver of Jealousy can now all be upgraded. The Heart of V’rul, Gaia’s Heart, and Frozen Tear can now all be socketed. Ink NPC Conversationalists: These new types of NPC’s that allow for player customizable dialogue scripts have all received a sizable boost well beyond the original 1000 character limit. Fishing Book Pattern: This pattern made special for the anglers of New Britannia has been added to book merchants. Combat Balance 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 R74 or went live for R75: Simultaneous Use of Identical Artifacts: These changes didn’t quite make it for R74, but coming in with R75, expect a wide range of artifacts to no longer allow simultaneous use. For instance, your character will no longer be able to use dual wands, ankhs or even rings of the exact same variety in each hand or ring slot. Simultaneous Use of Related Artifacts: Also not making it for R74, and to be pushed in sometime during R75, players should expect a variety of similar artifacts to be prohibited for simultaneous use. Examples will vary, but Rings of the Frogkin will not be allowed with Rings of the Cuttlekin, and Vexlyn Wands with Wands of Undying Embers. Attunement: The power coefficient for Attunement calculations was changed from 0.67 to 0.66 only for damage spells. Control Point Kobolds: Balance tweaks have been performed on Kobolds which spawn at control points. Vauban Pass: Risk vs reward adjusted to be more in line with other control points. Undead: Previous versions of undead had a 2X penalty to their Life and Sun magic resistances. This has been reduced to a 1X penalty. Several tweaks to zombies and skeletons were also made throughout the entire game. Fireball: Has been changed so that the DoT now only affects a maximum of 5 targets. The initial blast still hits 10 targets. Purify and Purify Burst: These two spells now remove confusion effects from players. Banish Undead: The base focus cost of this skill has been increased from 8 to 24 and it’s cooldown increased from 10 to 15 seconds. Stonefist: Now stun targets as originally intended. Updated Player-Owned Towns Bard’s Rest: Now nested within Novia Market. Upgraded to City. Added interconnection with Silverdale Market. Saint Mary’s Island: Changed biome to Desert 01b. Shadowwood Forest: Size upgrade from Crossroads Village to City. Woodhaven: Added new Holdfast nested in Beran’s Reach. Bug Fixes Albeit many bug fixes were patched in during R74 or will patch in for R75’s release, here are some of the highlights! Fixes for vendor and overworld font issues. Spelling and typo fixes in numerous quests and UI elements. Snowy Mountains Road Encounter: Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter the Troll variant of this encounter. Fixed holes in POT template terrain (desert_metropolis_01b_template). Brittany Graveyard: All players given Owen’s key for the Serpent’s Spine Foothills should be able to use it on his secret treasure chest. Leprechaun deco and washbasin stand deco can no longer be flipped. Obsidian Plate Leggings once again should appear correctly instead of having bright green highlights. Acara Plate should now also appear correctly. Fix for Skrekk crash was implemented. Fix for collision issues in Blood River Forest Pit traps was implemented. Fire attunement loss now working properly for Magic Warding. Owl’s Head: Players will now properly unlock Guard Winslow’s name. Ravensmoor: Moved floating rocks to the ground and rebuilt the navmesh. Devotional Caretakers: fixed an issue where the devotional caretakers were stating the player had been to Jaanaford even when they hadn’t. Fixed store tags for rock and boulder packs. Adjusted lights on Fireflies VFX decorations. Blood River: The two guards named “Robert Townsend” are now named “Rob Townsend” and “Bob Townsend” (and they’re cousins). LOD performance work was performed for many decorations. Piano: Female Avatar’s name plate now moves to the right place when playing. Fixed an issue where the camera would not follow the character correctly when traveling on elevators. Ardoris: Updated the “boy in the attic” journal and responses from The Boy and Captain Cugel, including adding compass markers. Resolute: Added “bandit head” responses to Godbert’s “hello” responses which better match his “help” responses. Resolute: All the knights/guards now can respond to the “godbert” keyword. Battle of Solace Bridge: Updated the auto-switch that opens the “magically locked” gate to better account for grandfathered characters from before the BoSB revision. Fix for potential mail message overflow when mailing a lot of heavily crafted items. Summoned Wisps can now vanish after being slain. Visual and nav mesh fixes for the Snowy Mountain Road Encounter were implemented. Lord of the Isle decoration surface fixes, graphics fixes, and performance work were implemented. Marissa in Highvale Outskirts will now properly remember player names. Plains Road Encounter has had several balance and AI fixes. Prosperity tools will now show the correct stat bonuses. Fixed rain leaking through several popular houses. Fixed visuals when lutes are being used by female characters. Fixed quests dealing with Micsere in South Majestic Forest. Imbued Restoration potions will now restore the proper amount of health. Fixed Saddle bags being used as decorations. Fix for player bouncing in various situations was implemented but reversed due to side effects. Fixes for seams between head and torso on the pale male model were implemented. Fixed a problem that could cause messages from unrelated NPCs to be shown in the NPC chat window. IMPORTANT FIX: Eggs are once again place-able on walls! We are sorry we made these behave according to the laws of physics and regret our decision to change them. Fixed an issue causing the Bard Skill tree to prematurely appear on the live server. Bard skill tree items are still available in the Player Test Enironment (QA). Numerous visual fixes for The Clink including fixes for floating spider webs, floating torch, and other small visual glitches. Fixed conversations for Clink NPCs and Hidden Vale. Fixed new toilet and sink. They can now be used as POT decos. Fixed NPC dialogue editor. The scroll bars now work properly. Fixed scaling for some wolves. Alpha Wolf in Solace Bridge Outskirts no longer has a messed up looking snout. Women’s version of the Dark Starr boots are no longer tilted upwards. Fixed Godbert’s quest in Ardoris. Conversation responses have also been improved. Blue battle banner now has a bluer light. Vermilion lens quest in Hilt Fortress has been fixed. Fixed Unicorn skill issues. Problem with Decoration Palette causing unusual decoration aberrations has been fixed. Gates in Solace Bridge operate more effectively for grandfathered players completing it after the Solace Bridge revision. Sheep are no longer trapped inside of a Kingsport building. Fixed a floating trash pile in Brittany Alleys. Fixed Edvard’s ability to spell Ardoris. Using the boat to Estgard in Novia will no longer advance the Courage storyline unless the player has Brigid’s amulet. 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 Feb 27 – Release 75 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 Obsidian Tower 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 Obsidian Town Tower 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 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 – 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 -- it's that time of month for the DRAFT RELEASE NOTES! Huzzah!!! Also, this is your preview into what to expect for the patch tomorrow. We now only have 1 version of weekly updates which happen on every Friday, but for release Fridays, I'll be sure to always get them done ahead of the time so you not only get to see the draft and offer suggestions, BUT you'll also get a sneak peak at what's patching in tomorrow!... Draft Release 75 Notes & Play Instructions for R75 View the full article

Here ye! Here ye! By royal decree, the process details for the Mistrendur land rush has been issued to the peoples of New Britannia and are posted below! The time has come for players which made POT reservations in the new territory to step forward and be heard! Take heed of the following guidance: The site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased... Mistrendur: Land Rush Guidance!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 Guidance! Darkstarr & Atos Livestream Today! Kobold Vault Round! Hrrrrk! New Store Items: NPC Conversationalists and More! February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote Release 74 Reward Program Items: Valentine’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 an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Release 74 Dance Party! Community Event: Traveling Swap Meet! Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Mistrendur: Land Rush Guidance! 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 site selections will be made in the sequence the reservation vouchers were purchased The first bracket of players will commence with their selections on February 29, 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! Darkstarr & Atos Livestream Today! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, February 21 at 4PM CDT on Twitch! Darkstarr has much to share about his latest ventures during his short time away. Albeit we very much look forward to Darkstarr’s return in the not too distant future, let’s check out what exactly he’s been up to: Terrasurf Boards: the most exciting Onewheel XR accessory ever created. Check it out! Dragon Fight VR: an internal experiment to see how a short, single level, visceral dragon fight could work in VR. Also, Atos has been working diligently on the new Bard Skills coming to QA shortly. A total of 16 skills we be added into the Bard Skill tree. Be sure to pick his brain about these new abilities during today’s livestream! To enter the prize drawings, type “love makes the world go round” 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 CDT! Kobold Vault Round! Hrrrrk! The current round of Vault items are available until Friday, February 27 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Kobold Mask Kobold Fighter Mask Kobold Archer Mask Kobold Mage Mask Spike Trap Decoration (non-harmful) Hacked Oracle Crawler Pet Kobold 3-Story with Open Deck Town Home Ornate Kobold Metal Storage Chest Kobold 2-Story with Rooftop Deck Village Home New Store Items: NPC Conversationalists and More! Lots of great decoration items are being added throughout this release, some of which are already in-game! Just added were 8 amazing non-player characters (NPC’s) readied for the player created dialogue scripting system! These new type of NPC’s are known as Conversationalists. Other items added to the game recently were a variety of stone/boulder packs, crystal chandeliers, goofy fish trophies, and even a new variety of VFX deco — Fireflies! Conversationalist (Female, 4 Varieties) Conversationalist (Male, 4 Varieties) Boulders (4, 6 and 10 Packs) Fireflies (Blue, Green, Orance and Yellow) Crystal Chandelier (Several Varieties) Goofy Fish Trophies February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote The /breathehearts emote has arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day, known as “Sequanna’s Day” in New Britannia. This new festive emote will be added to your character’s emote list for February’s login reward. Just log in during the month of February to receive this free reward! Release 74 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Valentine’s Day Theme! Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 74 are Valentine’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 74! Heart-Shaped Footstool Heart Top Hat Heart Spear 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 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 (to be revealed later) 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 (to be revealed later) 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 Feb 22 – Release 74 Dance Party Feb 27 – Release 75 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 Obsidian Tower 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 Obsidian Town Tower 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 Events: Release 74 Dance Party [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Virtue/Avatars Radio Presents the Release 74 Dance Party & Stress Test Location: Rinzai (Nested in Desolis) Host: DJ DarkStarr, Executive Producer of Shroud of the Avatar, a.k.a. Starr Long When: Saturday, February 22, 2:00 – 4:00 PM CDT 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: Traveling Swap Meet [Forum Post by Vlademir Begemot] Greetings! The Traveling Swap Meet travels to different locations every Sunday at 1 p.m. Central Time. Avatars gather with each other to buy, sell and trade. Not only is it a great way to offload that giant stack of raw materials, but it is a great opportunity to bring Avatars to your town, home, or store. The swap meet last for only half an hour, so don’t be late! Location: Mith Ly’atharin When: Sunday, February 23, 1:00 PM CDT See you there Traders! 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: Episode 2 Continent Update! Valentine’s Dinner Community Livestream Today! Kobold Vault Round! Hrrrrk! New Store Items Valentine’s Day 20% Crown & Deed Upgrade Sale! February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote Release 74 Reward Program Items: Valentine’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 an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Sequanna Fashion Show! Community Event: Festival of the Avatar Heraldry Contest! Community Event: Release 74 Dance Party! Community Event: Traveling Swap Meet! Community Event: 4th Annual Valentine Dinner! Community Event: Festival of Sequanna Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Mistrendur: Episode 2 Continent Update! Sometime very soon during Release 74, Avatars of New Britannia will be able to explore the overworld map of Mistrendur, the Episode 2 continent for Shroud of the Avatar! We will shortly announce the location selection process for Player Owned Town reservations within these new lands, whether it be a new town or one transferring from Novia or the Hidden Vale. All are welcome to explore and take in the spectacular views once this overworld map goes live! As the year rolls out, content will be added to this new region so that players can actually begin entering the various scenes therein, some as they become available, and others at the official launch of Episode 2. This new land mass is just one exciting new feature arriving this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud 2020 Vision post by Chris Spears! Valentine’s Dinner Community Livestream Today! Another weekly Community Livestream is this Friday, February 14 at 4PM CDT on Twitch! The developer team, feeling a little peckish, has decided to crash a party at Ordinis Mortis! PLEASE keep in mind this event actually starts at 3PM CDT, an hour before the official start time of the stream, so don’t be late… like us… For information about this fantastic event, now 4 years in running, be sure to read more below. Also, Chris will dive into Q&A with the community. As usual we will be giving out prizes! Simply type !raffle throughout the stream to enter. We will also be answering questions throughout the livestream, so submit them in Twitch Chat and insert !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CDT! Kobold Vault Round! Hrrrrk! The current round of Vault items are available until Friday, February 27 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Kobold Mask Kobold Fighter Mask Kobold Archer Mask Kobold Mage Mask Spike Trap Decoration (non-harmful) Hacked Oracle Crawler Pet Kobold 3-Story with Open Deck Town Home Ornate Kobold Metal Storage Chest Kobold 2-Story with Rooftop Deck Village Home New Store Items Lots of great decoration items are being added throughout this release, some of which are already in-game! These cool additions include a variety of stone/boulder packs, crystal chandeliers, goofy fish trophies, an ornate toilet paper dispenser, and even a new VFX deco item — Fireflies! Fireflies will have four colors available: blue, green, orange and yellow. What a way to add some glowing allure to your town’s nighttime experience! Boulders 10-Pack Boulders 6-Pack Boulders 4-Pack Fireflies (Blue) Fireflies (Green) Fireflies (Orange) Fireflies (Yellow) Ornate Toilet Paper Dispenser Crystal Chandelier (Several Varieties) Goofy Fish Trophies Valentine’s Day 20% Crown & Deed Upgrade Sale! In celebration of Valentine’s Day, all Gold Crowns of the Obsidian (COTO) packages are on sale for approximately 20% off until February 16th! All deed upgrades are also 20% off! Crowns of the Obsidian can be purchased on the web store. Deed Upgrades can be performed in-game. Right-click the deed while it is in your inventory, and you’ll be presented with upgrade options using crowns from your inventory. As a reminder, Valentine’s Day themed items are currently available in the Crown Shop. Some of these rare Valentine’s collectibles are only available on the current vault round, with a new round coming VERY shortly — don’t miss out! February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote The /breathehearts emote has arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day, known as “Sequanna’s Day” in New Britannia. This new festive emote will be added to your character’s emote list for February’s login reward. Just log in during the month of February to receive this free reward! Release 74 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Valentine’s Day Theme! Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 74 are Valentine’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 74! Heart-Shaped Footstool Heart Top Hat Heart Spear 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 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 (to be revealed later) 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 (to be revealed later) 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 Feb 22 – Release 74 Dance Party Feb 27 – Release 75 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 Obsidian Tower 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, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Obsidian Town Tower Water Home (No Trade)! You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card and other cool prizes. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Sequanna Fashion Show [Forum Post by Minerva] The Cat Walk is waiting for you! Join us for the first Sequanna Lingerie Fashion Show When: February 14th – 6PM CT Where: Ordinis Mortis, Beneath the Sequanna Brasserie Restaurant The event will start after the Valentine Dinner at the restaurant. Please message @Minerva or post below if you would like to have your moment under the disco ball. The models have dressing room available to prepare for their big moment! We are looking for male and female models to show their sexy outfits and lingerie. This is a time to be creative and show your inner diva. You would like to model, but don’t feel you have the style to pull it off, there are people that like to help. On the other hand, if you don’t like the attention, but love to create outfits, there is a place for you. Please comment in the forum thread or message @Minerva for more information. The guests have a hot tub to view the show! Relax and enjoy the creative community we live in. We look forward to sharing this fun evening with you! Community Events: Festival of the Avatar Heraldry Contest [Forum Post by Flair] Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Festival of the Avatar shall be an event beyond any experienced this side of a moongate! Imagine a reality where Avatars from all different worlds and shards come together under a single banner to feast, fight, quest, learn, and enjoy general hobnobbery. More information will be published soon about the Festival with dates and an itinerary of events. In the meantime while we prepare the official website for our grand reveal, we need your help with designing the official Festival of the Avatar Heraldry! We need your help!!! We are sponsoring a contest to create the Heraldry that the Festival will use on it’s official releases and website. Submissions should be 300 DPI, have a print size of 18”x18” and be received by February 11, 2020. Please send all entries to: contest@festivaloftheavatar.org Please do not use copyrighted images or material in your submission, it must be an original creation. The winner will receive an in game (SotA) full set of specially crafted (light or heavy) armor, a cask of their choice and a banner, all with the Festival Heraldry imbued upon it. In addition, a signed* official banner used during the Festival (real world item – delivered after the Festival’s completion). The winning entry will be used, whole or in part, for the Festival of the Avatar. The entrants understand that they are releasing submitted artwork and usage rights to the Festival of the Avatar. Author of the winning entry will get credit as the original artwork designer. * Physical Banner will be signed by Lord British, Darkstarr, and Atos … With possible bonus mystery signatures. For more information and questions, visit the original post on the forums. Community Events: Release 74 Dance Party [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Virtue/Avatars Radio Presents the Release 74 Dance Party & Stress Test Location: Rinzai (Nested in Desolis) Host: DJ DarkStarr, Executive Producer of Shroud of the Avatar, a.k.a. Starr Long When: Saturday, February 22, 2:00 – 4:00 PM CDT 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: Traveling Swap Meet [Forum Post by Vlademir Begemot] Greetings! The Traveling Swap Meet travels to different locations every Sunday at 1 p.m. Central Time. Avatars gather with each other to buy, sell and trade. Not only is it a great way to offload that giant stack of raw materials, but it is a great opportunity to bring Avatars to your town, home, or store. The swap meet last for only half an hour, so don’t be late! Location: Inselberg Wastes When: Sunday, February 16, 1:00 PM CDT See you there Traders! Community Events: 4th Annual Valentine Dinner [Forum Post by Minerva] A night of fun or romance is waiting for all on the banks of the river in Ordinis Mortis. You are cordially invited to our Valentine Dinner at the beautiful Sequanna Brasserie. When: February 14, 2020, 3 pm to 6 pm CT Location: Ordinis Mortis (right near the entrance of town) The event will be followed immediately by the Sequanna Lingerie Fashion Show. You can come alone and meet new friends or with a party, or come as a couple for a quiet night together. Sitting arrangements are available for everyone, and there is a chair waiting for you. We are taking reservations, please message @Minerva or post in this thread to save your place and time. We are also currently looking for staff, if you would like to be involved please message @Minerva. There a number of places you can be involved from server, chef, photographer, or something new… Community Events: Festival of Sequanna – Letters to Sequanna [Forum Post by Sean Silverfoot] All Avatars are invited to join us in PaxLair, at the Dueling Archers Tavern for our Festival of Sequanna. This year we will revisit the “Letters to Sequanna” event where all attendees are asked to write a message or prayer. We will take all of these and make the 2nd Edition of the Letters book series. Location: PaxLair Date: Friday February 14th Time: 8pm NBT/CST , following the events in Ordinis Mortis. Music provided by DJ Celith of Virtue Radio! 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

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, all Gold Crowns of the Obsidian (COTO) packages are on sale for approximately 20% off until February 16th! All deed upgrades are also 20% off! Crowns of the Obsidian can be purchased on the web store. Deed Upgrades can be performed in-game. Right-click the deed while it is in your inventory, and you’ll be presented with upgrade options using crowns from your inventory. As a reminder, Valentine’s Day themed items are currently available in the Crown Shop. Some of these rare Valentine’s collectibles are only available on the current vault round, with a new round coming VERY shortly — don’t miss out! 2016 Cupid Heart Cloak 2016 Valentine Hearts Cloak 2016 Valentine Card 5-Pack 2016 Cupid Ensemble Double Smoke Heart Emote Smoke Heart Emote Triple Smoke Heart Emote Heart Tub 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 New Lord of the Isle Mansions! Combat Balance & Lord of the Isle Mansion Livestream Today! Bard Skills Update Valentine’s Day Vault Round February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote Release 74 Reward Program Items: Valentine’s Day Theme New Store Items 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 Obsidian Tower Town Water Home (No Trade) Community Event: Sequanna Fashion Show! Community Event: Festival of the Avatar Heraldry Contest! Community Event: Mad Splatter Tea Party! Community Event: DJ Asclepius Rock’in a Different Schedule! Community Event: 4th Annual Valentine Dinner! Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players New Lord of the Isle Mansions! As we step deeper into 2020, more and more exciting features will become part of our gaming world, to include the introduction of an entirely new architecture concept. The first lot size to receive this new architecture is the castle-sized lots for the Lord of the Isle supporters. As time progresses throughout the year, homes of this style will become available for other lot sizes. Be sure to pop on over to Hometown and check out this truly spectacular new home. This is just one of the many fantastic additions coming to the game this year. Read more about what’s on the horizon in the Shroud 2020 Vision post by Chris Spears! Combat Balance & Lord of the Isle Mansion Tour Livestream Today! Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday February 7, at 3 PM CT on Twitch! Ravalox and friends will be giving a role-played tour of a decorated Lord of the Isle Mansion in Hometown which are in-game and soon to be distributed to Lord of the Isle supporters. Also, Chris will be diving into combat balance discussions and Q&A with the community. As usual we will be giving out prizes! To be eligible all you need to do is either make any purchase in the store OR log into the game and type “Love makes the world go round” in the chat window (no purchase necessary). 3 PM: Introductions and Q&A 3:30 PM: Lord of the Isle Mansion Tour 4:00 PM: Combat Balance and Q&A 5 PM: Ending Announcements We will be answering questions throughout the livestream, so submit them in Twitch Chat during the livestream and insert !question at the beginning of your text. Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 3 PM CDT! Bard Skills Updates Hail musically inclined Avatars! We’ve all been anxiously awaiting the addition of the Bard skill tree into the game, and portions of it will be patched in shortly. Already, master artist Damon has created art for the new skills, and here are just a few to whet your appetites. Many more skills are yet to be revealed in the Bard skill tree, so stay “tuned” Avatars! This, plus so much more is coming to you in 2020! This is going to be a fantastic year for Shroud of the Avatar. Be sure to check out the Shroud 2020 Vision, Bards are just the beginning! Anthem of Alacrity: a new buff for your entire adventure party! Atonal Aria: Causes AOE damage and boosts aggro! Bard Innate Ability: what passive bonuses might this ability reveal? Concussive Canticle: this musical ability is a damaging area-of-effect attack! Ditty of Detection: this melody reveals hidden entities surrounding the bard! Mastery: this ability is reserved for only the most talented of minstrels! Melody of Mending: this soothing tune heals surrounding party members! Winter Vault Round! Current round of Vault items are available until Thursday,February 14 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. 2016 Cupid Heart Cloak 2016 Valentine Hearts Cloak 2016 Valentine Card 5-Pack 2016 Cupid Ensemble Double Smoke Heart Emote Smoke Heart Emote Triple Smoke Heart Emote Heart Tub February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote The /breathehearts emote has arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day, known as “Sequanna’s Day” in New Britannia. This new festive emote will be added to your character’s emote list for February’s login reward. Just log in during the month of February to receive this free reward! Release 74 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Valentine’s Day Theme! Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 74 are Valentine’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 74! Heart-Shaped Footstool Heart Top Hat Heart Spear 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 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 New Store Items Lots of great decoration items were added to the store this release to include a Crystal Chandelier and a long chain version, Goofy Fish Trophies, and long-chain iron chandeliers with brighter lighting to help illuminate those vast halls and chambers. Additional items include bathroom fixtures, new shelving and a giant snow paver pack! Crystal Chandelier Long Chain Crystal Chandelier Goofy Fish Trophies Long Chain Iron Great Hall Chandelier Long Chain Iron Chandelier Fancy Bathroom Sink Fancy Kitchen Sink (will patch in early R74) Fancy Indoor Toilet Fine Oak Bookshelves (Empty, Pack of 3) Snow Paver (Pack of 14) 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 the Portalarium Offices, 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 (to be revealed later) 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 (to be revealed later) 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 Portalarium Offices 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 Portalarium 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!!! 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 Feb 27 – Release 75 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 Obsidian Tower 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, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Obsidian Town Tower Water Home (No Trade)! You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card and other cool prizes. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Sequanna Fashion Show [Forum Post by Minerva] The Cat Walk is waiting for you! Join us for the first Sequanna Lingerie Fashion Show When: February 14th – 6PM CT Where: Ordinis Mortis, Beneath the Sequanna Brasserie Restaurant The event will start after the Valentine Dinner at the restaurant. Please message @Minerva or post below if you would like to have your moment under the disco ball. The models have dressing room available to prepare for their big moment! We are looking for male and female models to show their sexy outfits and lingerie. This is a time to be creative and show your inner diva. You would like to model, but don’t feel you have the style to pull it off, there are people that like to help. On the other hand, if you don’t like the attention, but love to create outfits, there is a place for you. Please comment in the forum thread or message @Minerva for more information. The guests have a hot tub to view the show! Relax and enjoy the creative community we live in. We look forward to sharing this fun evening with you! Community Events: Festival of the Avatar Heraldry Contest [Forum Post by Flair] Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Festival of the Avatar shall be an event beyond any experienced this side of a moongate! Imagine a reality where Avatars from all different worlds and shards come together under a single banner to feast, fight, quest, learn, and enjoy general hobnobbery. More information will be published soon about the Festival with dates and an itinerary of events. In the meantime while we prepare the official website for our grand reveal, we need your help with designing the official Festival of the Avatar Heraldry! We need your help!!! We are sponsoring a contest to create the Heraldry that the Festival will use on it’s official releases and website. Submissions should be 300 DPI, have a print size of 18”x18” and be received by February 11, 2020. Please send all entries to: contest@festivaloftheavatar.org Please do not use copyrighted images or material in your submission, it must be an original creation. The winner will receive an in game (SotA) full set of specially crafted (light or heavy) armor, a cask of their choice and a banner, all with the Festival Heraldry imbued upon it. In addition, a signed* official banner used during the Festival (real world item – delivered after the Festival’s completion). The winning entry will be used, whole or in part, for the Festival of the Avatar. The entrants understand that they are releasing submitted artwork and usage rights to the Festival of the Avatar. Author of the winning entry will get credit as the original artwork designer. * Physical Banner will be signed by Lord British, Darkstarr, and Atos … With possible bonus mystery signatures. For more information and questions, visit the original post on the forums. If you have an event you’d like publicized during the Weekly Updates, contact Elgarion on the forums! 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 CT Atire: 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 Events: DJ Asclepius Rockin’ a Different Schedule [Forum Post by Asclepius] Be it known to one and all that that Asclepius has decided to shift his monthly time slot on Virtue Radio! So the random rocking singalong, swinging and headbanging with DJ Asclepius that happens only once every 4 weeks will from this week on (starting on the 5th of February) be happening at 8 PM US CT. It’s just what you need after a long day at work–a nice evening show to unwind and get you refreshed! Tune in via the Avatars Radio link on your aether device, or point your browser to https://zcu.io/jXP8 Community Events: 4th Annual Valentine Dinner [Forum Post by Minerva] A night of fun or romance is waiting for all on the banks of the river in Ordinis Mortis. You are cordially invited to our Valentine Dinner at the beautiful Sequanna Brasserie. When: February 14, 2020, 3 pm to 6 pm CT Location: Ordinis Mortis (right near the entrance of town) The event will be followed immediately by the Sequanna Lingerie Fashion Show. You can come alone and meet new friends or with a party, or come as a couple for a quiet night together. Sitting arrangements are available for everyone, and there is a chair waiting for you. We are taking reservations, please message @Minerva or post in this thread to save your place and time. We are also currently looking for staff, if you would like to be involved please message @Minerva. There a number of places you can be involved from server, chef, photographer, or something new… 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

Our old crusty and somewhat moldy and somewhat unkempt and smelly resources page got a pass. It now mirrors 4 other areas of links. As always, if you see links that need updating, removed, considered for addition -- please let me know Site: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=59279 Forums (3 sticky threads): https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/help-for-new-and-existing-players.161596/ Discord: simply points to the... Community Resources Page Updated... View the full article

Listed below are the core rules & guidelines that establish a fair grounding for understanding what is appropriate conduct in the community, what is inappropriate, and possible actions the Catnip Games team may take to resolve breaches of conduct. This document is also a guideline for player use of the official Catnip Games venues to encourage maximum and enjoyable participation. These Community Rules & Guidelines apply to the following Official Catnip Games venues. Please keep in mind, our... Community Rules & Guidelines View the full article

Hi folks, another round of forum lovin' just came: Dev+ Forums un-nested from Dev Depot, now sub forum in Announcements Dev Depot moved from main to sub forum in Announcements. This was a slightly used forum that didn't need to be in main directory. Game Room (formerly The Game Room) moved from FireLotus sub-forum to Archive. Screenshot & Video Galleries now sub-forum to General Discussion. This forum did not have enough activity requiring it to be in main directory, and... Forum Updates Continue (Moving Items, Stickies)View the full article

Hail Avatars! Among other things, I spent some time cleaning up the forums at the marketplace area. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?forums/player-marketplace.73/ You'll see the names might be a little more clear, but mainly the main forum should just be a directory and informational. I did this in preparation for the update to the guidelines I'll be working here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?posts/1275613/ Always open to input... Forums Updates Continue (Player Marketplace) 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 Release 74 is Live! Exploring The Clink Livestream Today! Valentine’s Day Vault Round February Login Reward: Breathe Hearts Emote Release 74 Reward Program Items: Valentine’s Day Theme Story and Scenes Changes Teaser Pictures of Episode 2 Overworld Map New Tamable Creatures! User Interface & Player Scripted NPC Dialogue System Crafting & Economy Changes New Store Items Combat Balance Bard Skills Inbound! 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 Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galleon (Vault Edition) Community Event: Reaching Out-Rising Up Support Group! Community Event: Festival of the Avatar Heraldry Contest! Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Release 74 is Live! Greetings Avatars! Release 74 includes lots of exciting updates including the return of Envy Angel, revamp of the Upper Tears wave battle, updates to The Clink, new tamable creatures, a new player scripted NPC Dialogue System, 8 new artifacts, and many combat balance measures. These are just SOME of the changes and additions coming in R74. Be sure to read below to find out more! These are just some of the many exciting items coming your way this year. If you missed out on what’s on the horizon, be sure to check out the 2020 Vision Post by Chris Spears. Exploring The Clink Livestream Today! Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday January 31, at 4 PM CT on Twitch! Sannio and Elgarion will be demonstrating the wondrous new changes to “The Clink” adventure scene today — this time on the stream will be on the secondary Community Channel. Chris is feeling a bit under the weather, so let’s wish him well! As usual we will be giving out prizes at 4:15 and 4:45! To be eligible all you need to do is either make any purchase in the store or log into the game and type “The weather outside is frightful” in the chat window (no purchase necessary). Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CDT! Story and Scenes Changes Envy Angel Returns: The envious witch has somehow managed to miss “Sequanna’s Day” yet again and now she’s especially mad! Poor Hyun the Courier did not learn from last year’s folly and once again has attempted to cut through her territory, and wouldn’t you have guessed it? She stole his letters… again! Avatars, steer FAR clear of the Necropolis Barrens. Hyun indicates she might have another trick or two up her sleeve, or she might even have a new artifact on her person. Also, don’t forget — you can aid Hyun on a daily basis even after Envy Angel departs for the season! Krampus Goes Dormant: Now that the dark winter is ending, Krampus sleeps once again. Beware Avatars, the naughty brats still roam the lands! Upper Tears Reborn: For R74, many changes occurred with the Upper Tears adventure scene to make it more balanced and enjoyable. For a full explanation about combat balancing in 2020 to include reasoning behind the redesign of Upper Tears, check out the post by Chris Spears on the forums. Here is a summary of these changes: Liches have always been one of the weakest creatures in the entire game in regards to risk versus reward. Their stats have been improved and more importantly, their level has been increased and more abilities have been added. High level lich mages will now push players out of melee range, and lich fighters will now pull players into melee range. Liches of melee variety can also enrage, and lich casters have several new damage type spells in their arsenal. The Upper Tears wave events now require a minimum time to elapse before the next new wave type spawns. Before, waves would instantly respawn if you defeated the prior wave. A new timer has been added between respawns. Early waves have an 8 second timer which will grow upwards of 15 seconds for the later more difficult waves. A mysterious obsidian shard of power spawns in the middle of the chamber and emanates a strong magical buff onto surrounding enemies. This stone is on a separate respawn timer causing it to appear at different times than the minion wave event spawn times. Two additional waves have been added at the end of the wave cycles which are more challenging. These new waves generate less experience per hour but have more desirable loot chances. Updates to The Clink: The famous prison under Owl’s Head is enjoying a good number of improvements to its layout in R74. Changes include improved guard dialogue, adjusted hallways, more “airlock” gate systems, a mess hall for the prisoners, and even a kitchen (complete with sewage pipe exit)! When checking out these changes, be careful how you enter. The prisoners are always rioting if you use the main entrance, but the prisoners are calm when entering through the pipe that leads to the kitchen (unlocked after acquiring Colman’s quest). There is an even chance of rioting when entering from the guard headquarters. When a riot is active, new “high threat” prisoners and guards will actively attack strangers, including players! When the prisoners are calm, security is heightened in the cell blocks. If you get too close to a guard, they’ll force you into a conversation. If you don’t have proper authorization, you might get thrown into a cell! Speaking of authorization, a Red Sash Forger has been seen across the bridge from young Colman. When you take on Colman’s quest, he puts in a good word with the forger on your behalf allowing you to purchase authorization papers to help you schmooze your way past the Clink guards. Be warned! Sneaking into the Clink through the sewage pipe is an option that helps avoid combat, but the Oracle may consider avoiding combat as having a negative impact on your Courage standings. The Fall: The Fall just got a LOT more dangerous! The bridge spawns were previously 5.5 minute spawns of 2 tier 6 Ebon Dawn humans. Now, the spawns will be 3.5 minute spawns of 3 tier 10 Ebon Dawn humans. Those hunting in The Fall will earn roughly 6 times more experience! Tartarus: If you haven’t been to Tartarus this month, you might not have noticed the decorations and spawning updates! Many tunnels, rooms, and even the maze have had fantastic layout improvements. Also, scattered around the scene are crates, tables, books, lanterns, rubble, and many props that help tell the “story” of this exciting underground labyrinth. Finally, most enemies within these caverns have better patrols and interactions with their revised environment. (Patched in during R73) Winter Vault Round! Current round of Vault items are available until Thursday,February 14 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. 2016 Cupid Heart Cloak 2016 Valentine Hearts Cloak 2016 Valentine Card 5-Pack 2016 Cupid Ensemble Double Smoke Heart Emote Smoke Heart Emote Triple Smoke Heart Emote Heart Tub February Login Reward: Krampus Statue The /breathehearts emote is just in time for Valentine’s Day, known as “Sequanna’s Day” in New Britannia, a new festive emote will be added to your character’s emote list for February’s login reward. Just log in during the month of February to receive this free reward! Release 74 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Valentine’s Day Theme! Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 74 are Valentine’s Day themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 74! Heart-Shaped Footstool Heart Top Hat Heart Spear 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 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 Teaser Pictures of Episode 2 Overworld Map List Rostov has been hard at work developing the new land mass for Episode 2. This map will patch in sometime during R74 but in the meantime, here are a handful of teaser pictures captured from Unity to wet your appetites! New Tamable Creatures Light Unicorns: Search for these elusive creatures in roaming encounters throughout New Britannia, because now they’re tameable! And don’t kill them. Really… who would kill a unicorn? Dark Unicorns: Even the dark-coated cousins of the Light Unicorns have become tameable! Find these rare beasts roaming within various overworld map roaming encounters. Nightmares: Master tamers throughout New Britannia might even be able to tame the Nightmare, if they survive the attempt! User Interface & Player Scripted NPC Dialogue System Pooled XP Font Size Increase: On everyone’s skill sheets (default “K” to open), the font size of Pooled Experience was increased so newer players would notice how important this stat is. This item was suggested live during F’zol’s livestream interview with Chris — great input F’zol, thank you! (Patched in during R73) Polearm Ability “Reach” Tooltip: Tooltip was improved to better indicated the ability’s purpose. Great suggestion F’zol! (Patched in during R73) Mail System Subject Line: The character limit for subject lines in the in-game mail system has been increased from 50 characters to 125 characters. Drag Glyph Toggle: A new interface option was added to help prevent accidental dragging of glyphs on your combat bar. If toggled on, dragging glyphs will only be allowed while pressing either CTRL key. This new setting is off by default. (Patched in during R73) Ink NPC Dialogue System: As part of the SotA 2020 Vision for Q1, the first rendition of the NPC dialogue system has gone live in R74. Soon, a greater number of available NPC’s will be added to this new system with expanded conversation options! Initially, the Automaton Decoration Pet is the only pet available with this system. This is perhaps a bad choice on our part since it was a pledge reward NPC. No worries! Currently, anyone with the tradeable Lord Marshal reward “Automaton Decoration Pet” will be able to experiment with this new system, but other NPCs are on the way! An introduction and two guides are available for the Ink NPC Dialogue system, which are linked below: Introduction to Ink NPC Dialogue System Beginners Guide on Inkle Studios Website Advanced Guide on Inkle Studios Github Page Crafting & Economy Changes Second Ring Slot: Characters can now equip 2 rings at once! (Patched in during R73) Second Ring Slot/Off-Hand Item Changes: As mentioned in the Combat Balance section below, players might consider a wider variety of equipment items since there will be restrictions as to what might be equipped simultaneously. Fishing Book Cover Pattern: There’s a new pattern awaiting players at your local bookstores, which is certainly fine bait to attract the fishermen and ladies out there! Item Salvage: Players salvaging equipment items will no longer be limited to 15 at a time. Players can now batch 50 at a time to queue for salvaging. (Patched in during R73) Multi-colored Clockwork Dragon Heads: expect some new varieties of the metallic beasts and related trophy head… Silver, Blackened, Bronze and Gold! Eggs: Chickens and ducks now drop more eggs. Feathers: Chickens and ducks now drop more feathers. Pecan Nuts: Squirrels now drop more pecan nuts. Durability Increased for Crafted Legs: Leggings now have more durability, allowing for more chances to Enchant and Masterwork the item. Great idea F’zol! (Patched in during R73) Durability Increased for Crafted Rings: Rings now have more durability, allowing for more chances to Enchant the item. Another great idea from F’zol! (Patched in during R73) Grass/Tree Removers: Player-Owned-Town decoration limits are no longer affected by tree and grass removers. (Patched in during R73) Reagent Merchants: Reagent merchants will now sell magical reagents 10K at a time. New Artifacts: Additional artifacts have been added in R74 to include an armor set and a new drop for Envy Angel! Acara’s Plate Armor Set and Shield (drops mostly at control points) Quiver of Jealousy (drops from Envy Angel) The Tricorn Hat belonging to the skeletal Captain in Tartarus now has stats and tiers New Store Items Lots of great decoration items got added to the store this release to include some long-chain chandeliers with brighter lighting to help illuminate those vast halls with ample lighting. Long Chain Iron Great Hall Chandelier Long Chain Iron Chandelier Fancy Bathroom Sink Fancy Kitchen Sink (will patch in early R74) Fancy Indoor Toilet Fine Oak Bookshelves (Empty, Pack of 3) Snow Paver (Pack of 14) Combat Balance 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 in R74 and the releases to come. Here are just a small number of the balance items addressed in R74: Simultaneous Use of Identical Artifacts: Coming in with R74, expect a wide range of artifacts to no longer allow simultaneous use. For instance, your character will no longer be able to use dual wands, ankhs or even rings of the exact same variety in each hand or ring slot. Simultaneous Use of Related Artifacts: Also expect a variety of similar artifacts to be prohibited for simultaneous use. Examples will vary, but Rings of the Frogkin will not be allowed with Rings of the Cuttlekin, and Vexlyn Wands with Wands of Undying Embers. Earthquake: Earthquake ability for Earth Mages had its casting time reduced if they are specialized. Root: This Earth Mage ability received a balance pass. Stone Fist: This short range ability now has a chance to stun. Bard Skills Inbound! Expect some bard skills coming to QA shortly with much if not all of the tree going live during R74 this month! For a hint as to what’s coming, check out the names of some of the musical skills coming our way: Melody of Mending Atonal Aria Mesmerizing Melody Anthem of Alacrity Concussive Canticle Psalm of Stagnation Ditty of Detection Savage Sonata Chorus of Conservation Rhythmic Readiness Chant of Charming Updated Player-Owned Towns Bard’s Rest: Upgraded size. Britt Mart: Added interconnection with Novia Market. Jade Mountains: Transferred to new governor. Novia Market: Added interconnection with Britt Mart. Port Royal: Added new Municipality to Hidden Vale. Silk Road: Added new Crossroads Village near Desolis. Silverdale Market: Added interconnection with Bard’s Rest. S Mart Factorium: Moved to north of Solace Bridge. Stonegate: Changed governor. Changed biome to Forest 01b. Bug Fixes Albeit MANY more bug fixes went in this release and into R74, here are some of the highlights! Grass removed and land leveled beneath tavern in PRT Greenfall Savage Handle once again has a chance to break down into craftable parts when salvaged. Disco Ball effects will no longer create flashing squares in some situations. All Gauntlets of Lead variants should now be enchantable. Small Fancy Shed can now be placed in a player made dungeon. Guard waypoints in Ardoris are improved. Second ring slot no longer interferes with equipment changes during deck swapping. Players now receive a PvP warning as they transition into the PvP areas of Tartarus. Simone von Eglinger now exhibits an off-duty response when “Buy” dialogue option selected. Exiting into Savrenoc Stronghold from Tartarus now brings you to the proper location and a bad shader was fixed at that location. Collision boxes fixed at still in East Perennial Coast moonshine shack. Water-Lot conversion vouchers were fixed to match pricing of in-game deed upgrades. Players can no longer walk underwater in Broken Echoes Silver Mine Book inside of crate at Oracle Colossus can now be collected. One of the Ankhs in Tartarus is no longer beneath the ground. All players in a party can now collect the Vermillion Lens shard at Grannus Colossus. Captain Burnes in Highvale Outskirts no longer refers to multiple deeds when speaking to the player. Only a single deed is mentioned. The quest from Davropos in Necropolis Barrens to find the Mors Ex Tenebris book now has proper compass markers. Improvements were made to Valhold NPC conversations. Cugel, Simone, and Rolf’s dialogue has been improved for the Black Arrow questline. Compendium of Pain and Suffering (Challenge Dungeon) Teleporter can now be placed as both a house and town decoration. Central Brittany citizen Fred Becker’s gender has been switched to male. The visuals of the Braemar NPC Halmar now properly represent his homeland of Norgard. Halmar’s dialogue was also improved. Sir Patrick questline has been improved for better flow. No longer will players be able to retrieve the key before completing the wave battle with the automaton monkeys. Pets should now path correctly in the The Rise Shaft player made dungeon room. Lot decoration pets are now placeable in player made dungeons. Highvale Outskirts received a large number of improvements, especially the quest related to finding Michael’s note for Hyla/Rebecca. Kobold Expeditionary Camp: Players can no longer acquire the key to free Sir Patrick at the wrong time (which blocked the quest). Players currently blocked can return to this scene, free Sir Patrick again, and talk to him after he is freed to complete the scene. The secret room with the Page of Corporeality in Central Brittany will now magically teleport players outside that room when it reseals itself. In addition to the changes mentioned above, a large number of fixes have been applied to various conversations, journal entries, quest props, spawning, and/or compass markers in many scenes, including Aerie, Blood River Outskirts, Braemar, Brookside, Jaanaford, Middle Downs, Necropolis Barrens, Resolute, Soltown, and Spite! 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 the Portalarium Offices, 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 (to be revealed later) 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 (to be revealed later) 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 Portalarium Offices 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 Portalarium 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!!! 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 Jan 30 – Release 74 Feb 27 – Release 75 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 Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galleon (Vault Edition) 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, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galleon Keep Sized Home (Vault Edition)! You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card and other cool prizes. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Reaching Out-Rising Up Support Group [Forum Post by Fionwyn Wyldemane] Reaching Out-Rising Up is a self-help support group started by @Justyn04 , Samsara Invictus (@Fireblood) and @Fionwyn Wyldemane to provide a safe space for Avatars who are battling depression. We will have weekly meetings going forward every Saturday, same time, same place: 4PM-5PM CST (9PM-10PM UTC) in Wolves Den.​ We do have a Discord server available for this and future meetings as well as private channels if you prefer to speak to one of us individually. We have posted articles and videos. Discord is optional, not required. Let us know if you have any questions and we will do our best to answer them or, you can contact us via Forum PM or Discord PM for more information about joining the support group. Community Events: Festival of the Avatar Heraldry Contest [Forum Post by Flair] Hear Ye, Hear Ye! The Festival of the Avatar shall be an event beyond any experienced this side of a moongate! Imagine a reality where Avatars from all different worlds and shards come together under a single banner to feast, fight, quest, learn, and enjoy general hobnobbery. More information will be published soon about the Festival with dates and an itinerary of events. In the meantime while we prepare the official website for our grand reveal, we need your help with designing the official Festival of the Avatar Heraldry! We need your help!!! We are sponsoring a contest to create the Heraldry that the Festival will use on it’s official releases and website. Submissions should be 300 DPI, have a print size of 18”x18” and be received by February 11, 2020. Please send all entries to: contest@festivaloftheavatar.org Please do not use copyrighted images or material in your submission, it must be an original creation. The winner will receive an in game (SotA) full set of specially crafted (light or heavy) armor, a cask of their choice and a banner, all with the Festival Heraldry imbued upon it. In addition, a signed* official banner used during the Festival (real world item – delivered after the Festival’s completion). The winning entry will be used, whole or in part, for the Festival of the Avatar. The entrants understand that they are releasing submitted artwork and usage rights to the Festival of the Avatar. Author of the winning entry will get credit as the original artwork designer. * Physical Banner will be signed by Lord British, Darkstarr, and Atos … With possible bonus mystery signatures. For more information and questions, visit the original post on the forums. If you have an event you’d like publicized during the Weekly Updates, contact Elgarion on the forums! 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

Avatars, Please read this entire message, as well as the linked Player Guide and Known Issues. Release 74 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this... Release 74 InstructionsView the full article

Avatars, Please read this entire message, as well as the linked Player Guide and Known Issues. Release 74 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Thursday, January 30, at 10:30 AM US Central Time (16:30 UTC). Release 74 includes lots of exciting updates including the return of Envy Angel, revamp of the Upper Tears wave battle, updates to The Clink, new tamable creatures, a new player scripted NPC Dialogue System, 8 new artifacts, and many combat balance measures. These are just SOME of the changes and additions coming in R74. Be sure to read below to find out more! We want to express a huge amount of gratitude to the players who tested the items listed below on our QA server. They found many bugs and also provided editorial feedback on this post so that it is easy to read and actually matches what is in the game. Keep the input coming, and again — thank you! Before offering feedback and/or reporting a bug, we kindly ask that you read this whole message and the linked Player Guide and Known Issues to get up to date on the current game state. To keep up to date, please check out the Patch Notes. By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and effort can be focused on new unanswered questions and addressing critical issues that impact each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide. Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is also working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check the schedule for player-run events in the Community Events Forums. You can also get the latest official events on the Main Website. Without further ado, here is a list of what you can expect to see in RELEASE 74, January 30, 2020. Story and Scenes: Envy Angel Returns: The envious witch has somehow managed to miss “Sequanna’s Day” yet again and now she’s especially mad! Poor Hyun the Courier did not learn from last year’s folly and once again has attempted to cut through her territory, and wouldn’t you have guessed it? She stole his letters… again! Avatars, steer FAR clear of the Necropolis Barrens. Hyun indicates she might have another trick or two up her sleeve, or she might even have a new artifact on her person. Also, don’t forget — you can aid Hyun on a daily basis even after Envy Angel departs for the season! Krampus Goes Dormant: Now that the dark winter is ending, Krampus sleeps once again. Beware Avatars, the naughty brats still roam the lands! Upper Tears Reborn: For R74, many changes occurred with the Upper Tears adventure scene to make it more balanced and enjoyable. For a full explanation about combat balancing in 2020 to include reasoning behind the redesign of Upper Tears, check out the post by Chris Spears on the forums. Here is a summary of these changes: Liches have always been one of the weakest creatures in the entire game in regards to risk versus reward. Their stats have been improved and more importantly, their level has been increased and more abilities have been added. High level lich mages will now push players out of melee range, and lich fighters will now pull players into melee range. Liches of melee variety can also enrage, and lich casters have several new damage type spells in their arsenal. The Upper Tears wave events now require a minimum time to elapse before the next new wave type spawns. Before, waves would instantly respawn if you defeated the prior wave. A new timer has been added between respawns. Early waves have an 8 second timer which will grow upwards of 15 seconds for the later more difficult waves. A mysterious obsidian shard of power spawns in the middle of the chamber and emanates a strong magical buff onto surrounding enemies. This stone is on a separate respawn timer causing it to appear at different times than the minion wave event spawn times. Two additional waves have been added at the end of the wave cycles which are more challenging. These new waves generate less experience per hour but have more desirable loot chances. Updates to The Clink: The famous prison under Owl’s Head is enjoying a good number of improvements to its layout in R74. Changes include improved guard dialogue, adjusted hallways, more “airlock” gate systems, a mess hall for the prisoners, and even a kitchen (complete with sewage pipe exit)! When checking out these changes, be careful how you enter. The prisoners are always rioting if you use the main entrance, but the prisoners are calm when entering through the pipe that leads to the kitchen (unlocked after acquiring Colman’s quest). There is an even chance of rioting when entering from the guard headquarters. When a riot is active, new “high threat” prisoners and guards will actively attack strangers, including players! When the prisoners are calm, security is heightened in the cell blocks. If you get too close to a guard, they’ll force you into a conversation. If you don’t have proper authorization, you might get thrown into a cell! Speaking of authorization, a Red Sash Forger has been seen across the bridge from young Colman. When you take on Colman’s quest, he puts in a good word with the forger on your behalf allowing you to purchase authorization papers to help you schmooze your way past the Clink guards. Be warned! Sneaking into the Clink through the sewage pipe is an option that helps avoid combat, but the Oracle may consider avoiding combat as having a negative impact on your Courage standings. The Fall: The Fall just got a LOT more dangerous! The bridge spawns were previously 5.5 minute spawns of 2 tier 6 Ebon Dawn humans. Now, the spawns will be 3.5 minute spawns of 3 tier 10 Ebon Dawn humans. Those hunting in The Fall will earn roughly 6 times more experience! Tartarus: If you haven’t been to Tartarus this month, you might not have noticed the decorations and spawning updates! Many tunnels, rooms, and even the maze have had fantastic layout improvements. Also, scattered around the scene are crates, tables, books, lanterns, rubble, and many props that help tell the “story” of this exciting underground labyrinth. Finally, most enemies within these caverns have better patrols and interactions with their revised environment. (Patched in during R73) Teaser Pictures of the Episode 2 Overworld Map: List Rostov has been hard at work developing the new land mass for Episode 2. This map will patch in sometime during R74 but in the meantime, here are a handful of teaser pictures captured from Unity to wet your appetites! New Tamable Creatures: Light Unicorns: Search for these elusive creatures in roaming encounters throughout New Britannia, because now they’re tameable! And don’t kill them. Really… who would kill a unicorn? Dark Unicorns: Even the dark-coated cousins of the Light Unicorns have become tameable! Find these rare beasts roaming within various overworld map roaming encounters. Nightmares: Master tamers throughout New Britannia might even be able to tame the Nightmare, if they survive the attempt! Bard Skill Tree: Expect some bard skills coming to QA shortly with much if not all of the tree going live during R74 this month! For a hint as to what’s coming, check out the names of some of the musical skills coming our way: Melody of Mending Atonal Aria Mesmerizing Melody Anthem of Alacrity Concussive Canticle Psalm of Stagnation Ditty of Detection Savage Sonata Chorus of Conservation Rhythmic Readiness Chant of Charming User Interface: Pooled XP Font Size Increase: On everyone’s skill sheets (default “K” to open), the font size of Pooled Experience was increased so newer players would notice how important this stat is. This item was suggested live during F’zol’s livestream interview with Chris — great input F’zol, thank you! (Patched in during R73) Polearm Ability “Reach” Tooltip: Tooltip was improved to better indicated the ability’s purpose. Great suggestion F’zol! (Patched in during R73) Mail System Subject Line: The character limit for subject lines in the in-game mail system has been increased from 50 characters to 125 characters. Drag Glyph Toggle: A new interface option was added to help prevent accidental dragging of glyphs on your combat bar. If toggled on, dragging glyphs will only be allowed while pressing either CTRL key. This new setting is off by default. (Patched in during R73) Ink NPC Dialogue System: As part of the SotA 2020 Vision for Q1, the first rendition of the NPC dialogue system has gone live in R74. Soon, a greater number of available NPC’s will be added to this new system with expanded conversation options! Initially, the Automaton Decoration Pet is the only pet available with this system. This is perhaps a bad choice on our part since it was a pledge reward NPC. No worries! Currently, anyone with the tradeable Lord Marshal reward “Automaton Decoration Pet” will be able to experiment with this new system, but other NPCs are on the way! An introduction and two guides are available for the Ink NPC Dialogue system, which are linked below: Introduction to Ink NPC Dialogue System Beginners Guide on Inkle Studios Website Advanced Guide on Inkle Studios Github Page Crafting and Economy: Second Ring Slot: Characters can now equip 2 rings at once! (Patched in during R73) Second Ring Slot/Off-Hand Item Changes: As mentioned in the Combat Balance section below, players might consider a wider variety of equipment items since there will be restrictions as to what might be equipped simultaneously. Fishing Book Cover Pattern: There’s a new pattern awaiting players at your local bookstores, which is certainly fine bait to attract the fishermen and ladies out there! Item Salvage: Players salvaging equipment items will no longer be limited to 15 at a time. Players can now batch 50 at a time to queue for salvaging. (Patched in during R73) Multi-colored Clockwork Dragon Heads: expect some new varieties of the metallic beasts and related trophy head… Silver, Blackened, Bronze and Gold! Eggs: Chickens and ducks now drop more eggs. Feathers: Chickens and ducks now drop more feathers. Pecan Nuts: Squirrels now drop more pecan nuts. Durability Increased for Crafted Legs: Leggings now have more durability, allowing for more chances to Enchant and Masterwork the item. Great idea F’zol! (Patched in during R73) Durability Increased for Crafted Rings: Rings now have more durability, allowing for more chances to Enchant and Masterwork the item. Another great idea from F’zol! (Patched in during R73) Grass/Tree Removers: Player-Owned-Town decoration limits are no longer affected by tree and grass removers. (Patched in during R73) Reagent Merchants: Reagent merchants will now sell magical reagents 10K at a time. New Artifacts: Additional artifacts have been added in R74 to include an armor set and a new drop for Envy Angel! Acara’s Plate Armor Set and Shield (drops mostly at control points) Quiver of Jealousy (drops from Envy Angel) The Tricorn Hat belonging to the skeletal Captain in Tartarus now has stats and tiers Shroud 2020 Vision: Be sure to check out the Shroud 2020 Vision Post! Chris Spears updates the community on what we can expect from Catnip Games this year. Below are three videos where Chris Spears goes into intricate detail on each item in the vision — enjoy! New Store Items: Long Chain Iron Great Hall Chandelier Long Chain Iron Chandelier Fancy Bathroom Sink Fancy Kitchen Sink (will patch in early R74) Fancy Indoor Toilet Fine Oak Bookshelves (Empty, Pack of 3) Snow Paver (Pack of 14) Combat Balance: 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 in R74 and the releases to come. Here are just a small number of the balance items addressed in R74: Simultaneous Use of Identical Artifacts: Coming in with R74, expect a wide range of artifacts to no longer allow simultaneous use. For instance, your character will no longer be able to use dual wands, ankhs or even rings of the exact same variety in each hand or ring slot. Simultaneous Use of Related Artifacts: Also expect a variety of similar artifacts to be prohibited for simultaneous use. Examples will vary, but Rings of the Frogkin will not be allowed with Rings of the Cuttlekin, and Vexlyn Wands with Wands of Undying Embers. Earthquake: Earthquake ability for Earth Mages had its casting time reduced if they are specialized. Root: This Earth Mage ability received a balance pass. Stone Fist: This short range ability now has a chance to stun. Valentine’s Day Vault Round: These are some of the upcoming Vault Items available on Thursday, January 30 at 10:30 AM CT in celebration of the upcoming Valentine’s Day season, known as “Sequanna’s Day” in New Britannia: 2016 Cupid Heart Cloak 2016 Valentine Hearts Cloak 2016 Valentine Card 5-Pack 2016 Cupid Ensemble Double Smoke Heart Emote Smoke Heart Emote Triple Smoke Heart Emote Heart Tub Performance: Various improvements were made to server hardware this release. Release 74 Rewards Program Items: To receive these exclusive rewards, all you need to do is be a member of the Rewards Program during Release 74 and log in to the game during Release 74. Heart-Shaped Footstool Heart Top Hat Heart Spear February Login Reward: /breathehearts Emote: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, known as “Sequanna’s Day” in New Britannia, a new festive emote will be added to your character’s emote list for February’s login reward. Just log in during the month of February to receive this free reward! New/Updated Player-Owned Towns: Bard’s Rest: Upgraded size. Britt Mart: Added interconnection with Novia Market. Jade Mountains: Transferred to new governor. Novia Market: Added interconnection with Britt Mart. Port Royal: Added new Municipality to Hidden Vale. Silk Road: Added new Crossroads Village near Desolis. Silverdale Market: Added interconnection with Bard’s Rest. S Mart Factorium: Moved to north of Solace Bridge. Stonegate: Changed governor. Changed biome to Forest 01b. QA Testing & Incentive Program: The QA Testing Incentive Program will be returning in R75 with Ravalox at the helm! Community members provided helpful input on the forums about the status of our QA testing program. Ravalox was quick to jump in with a plan and replied promptly. Thank you to everyone! Bugs/Fixes for R74: Albeit MANY more bug fixes went in this release and into R74, here are some of the highlights! Grass removed and land leveled beneath tavern in PRT Greenfall Savage Handle once again has a chance to break down into craftable parts when salvaged. Disco Ball effects will no longer create flashing squares in some situations. All Gauntlets of Lead variants should now be enchantable. Small Fancy Shed can now be placed in a player made dungeon. Guard waypoints in Ardoris are improved. Second ring slot no longer interferes with equipment changes during deck swapping. Players now receive a PvP warning as they transition into the PvP areas of Tartarus. Simone von Eglinger now exhibits an off-duty response when “Buy” dialogue option selected. Exiting into Savrenoc Stronghold from Tartarus now brings you to the proper location and a bad shader was fixed at that location. Collision boxes fixed at still in East Perennial Coast moonshine shack. Water-Lot conversion vouchers were fixed to match pricing of in-game deed upgrades. Players can no longer walk underwater in Broken Echoes Silver Mine Book inside of crate at Oracle Colossus can now be collected. One of the Ankhs in Tartarus is no longer beneath the ground. All players in a party can now collect the Vermillion Lens shard at Grannus Colossus. Captain Burnes in Highvale Outskirts no longer refers to multiple deeds when speaking to the player. Only a single deed is mentioned. The quest from Davropos in Necropolis Barrens to find the Mors Ex Tenebris book now has proper compass markers. Improvements were made to Valhold NPC conversations. Cugel, Simone, and Rolf’s dialogue has been improved for the Black Arrow questline. Compendium of Pain and Suffering (Challenge Dungeon) Teleporter can now be placed as both a house and town decoration. Central Brittany citizen Fred Becker’s gender has been switched to male. The visuals of the Braemar NPC Halmar now properly represent his homeland of Norgard. Halmar’s dialogue was also improved. Sir Patrick questline has been improved for better flow. No longer will players be able to retrieve the key before completing the wave battle with the automaton monkeys. Pets should now path correctly in the The Rise Shaft player made dungeon room. Lot decoration pets are now placeable in player made dungeons. Highvale Outskirts received a large number of improvements, especially the quest related to finding Michael’s note for Hyla/Rebecca. Kobold Expeditionary Camp: Players can no longer acquire the key to free Sir Patrick at the wrong time (which blocked the quest). Players currently blocked can return to this scene, free Sir Patrick again, and talk to him after he is freed to complete the scene. The secret room with the Page of Corporeality in Central Brittany will now magically teleport players outside that room when it reseals itself. In addition to the changes mentioned above, a large number of fixes have been applied to various conversations, journal entries, quest props, spawning, and/or compass markers in many scenes, including Aerie, Blood River Outskirts, Braemar, Brookside, Jaanaford, Middle Downs, Necropolis Barrens, Resolute, Soltown, and Spite! As you can see, there are so many more exciting features and improvements coming to players of Shroud of the Avatar this year, and R74 is just the beginning! The Shroud 2020 Vision Post by Chris Spears outlines a wondrous schedule of features coming our way. If you’d like to follow a day-by-day play-by-play posting of Chris’ activities, check out the Official Catnip Games Twitter Feed to get the most up-to-date information! And just because something didn’t make it into the 2020 Vision Post, no worries! There’ll be many new features that sneak in throughout the year as each release unfolds. Episode 2 features are in-bound which includes new story, new lands, a revamp of the Quest and Journal system, a Theater System, Treasure Hunting with treasure maps that show up as loot, Item Affinity, Taming system expansions, Customizable NPCs, and expanded permissions for containers and doors! As a reminder, here are links to Player Instructions and Known Issues. Also, a list of helpful links is available on our New Player Welcome Forum pinned right at the top! Thank you again for your continued support. This is truly the most amazing community we have ever worked with, and we are proud to be on this journey with you. Sincerely, Shroud of the Avatar Development Team View the full article

Hello Avatars! We're were hard at work today doing some forum clean-up. These changes were in no way related to moderation but were to enhance the experience of the forum user. Outdated pinned posts were unpinned. Directory of links was pinned at the top of the New Player Welcome forum Additional links added to this directory of links Immediately improved view quality of directory from feedback Pinned threads with confusing or wordy titles were renamed... Forum UpdatesView 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 Upper Tears Reborn Upper Tears Reborn Livestream FLASH SALE: Crowns of the Obsidian 20% Off All Weekend! Winter Vault Round January Login Reward: Krampus Statue Release 73 Reward Program Items: Winter Holiday 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 Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galleon (Vault Edition) Community Event: Virtue Radio Release Party Hosting & Holiday Coverage Planning! Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Upper Tears Reborn Greetings Avatars! Word has spread throughout the land that new dangers await adventurers in Upper Tears! The undead which inhabit this territory have sent word to their masters that their rest has been disturbed–many times! Over and over! In fact, they were being grinded for experience, with only the magical powers of Experience Attenuation holding adventurers at bay. Take caution Avatars! Reinforcements have arrived! The denizens lurking behind the waterfall of Upper Tears will now have much greater power at their disposal! Enemies that Charge! Enemies with Chain Lightning! These changes as well some combat balance and attenuation changes are now patched into QA and should patch into the live server soon! These are just some of the many exciting items coming your way this year. If you missed out on what’s on the horizon, be sure to check out the 2020 Vision Post by Chris Spears. Upper Tears Reborn Livestream Today! Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday January 24, at 4 PM CT on Twitch! Chris Spears will demonstrate the changes to Upper Tears, Combat Balance and Attenuation! As usual we will be giving out prizes at 4:15 and 4:45! To be eligible all you need to do is either make any purchase in the store or log into the game and type “The weather outside is frightful” in the chat window (no purchase necessary). Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CDT! FLASH SALE: Crowns of the Obsidian 20% Off All Weekend! Attention Avatars! For those who missed out on the holiday Crown of the Obsidian sale, worry not! For it has returned for a short weekend Holiday Sale Revival! Crowns will be on sale for the entire weekend. You might just need it after seeing what’s up on the vault this round. Enjoy! Winter Vault Round! The Vault: Current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, January 30 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Ice Hot Tub (Vault Edition) Virtue Icicle Cloak(Vault Edition) Virtue Icicle Sword (Vault Edition) Virtue Ice Wand (Vault Edition) Virtue Ice Shield (Vault Edition) Virtue Ice Gown Outfit (Vault Edition) Virtue Ice Crown (Vault Edition) January Login Reward: Krampus Statue To celebrate the final month of Dark Winter, every player who logs in during the month of January will receive a unique Krampus Statue! To receive the rewards simply login to the game before the end of January and check your rewards tab! Release 73 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Winter Holiday Theme! Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 73 are Winter Holiday themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 73! Candy Cane Wand Ceiling Yule Tree Desktop Elf Statue with Yule Hat 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 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 the Portalarium Offices, 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 (to be revealed later) 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 (to be revealed later) 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 Portalarium Offices 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 Portalarium 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!!! 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 Jan 30 – Release 74 Feb 27 – Release 75 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 Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galleon (Vault Edition) 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, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galleon Keep Sized Home (Vault Edition)! You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card and other cool prizes. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Events: Virtue Radio Release Party Hosting & Holiday Coverage Planning [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] Welcome to The Virtue Radio Release Party Hosting & Holiday Coverage Planning Thread! In the past, many Avatars that would have liked to host Release Parties were not able to because of a few key obstacles. The biggest one was that a lot of Avatars didn’t know they could host a Release Party or how to sign up to be a host. A few times, last year, we lost a few hosts due to RL or they were not playing at the time. To be fair, knowing what the future holds 5-10 months ahead can be a challenge!​ So we’ve decided to come up with a new way for Avatars to request hosting a Release Party that should help solve that stuff and make it super fair for everyone too. By the way, we provide a custom-artwork poster for the Release Party that includes photography from your venue (be ready for Alleine’s camera a few weeks before the party!) and distribute it in Social Media, Discord and the official Forums. Of course, hosts may distriubute their posters wherever they wish as well.​ Here’s how Hosting works: Every month, the week immediately following the current Release Party, we will be posting a request for volunteers wishing to host the next Release Party right here in the forums. If you would like to host a Release Party, simply add a reply to this thread, AFTER the notice goes up, saying which in-game Avatar will be hosting. We will keep the post open for 7 days. After 7 days, we will take everyone’s name and drop it in a hat, live on Twitch, and choose a winner. The winner will host the next Release Party! We will be drawing a 2nd name as a backup in case something happens with the winning host. Release Party Host Rules:​ ANYONE can host a Release Party. As long as you have a space that can fit anywhere from 30-100 rowdy Avatars and potentially the following: random monster spawns, fireworks, streakers, forest and farm animals, time warps, television coverage, pvp attendees, erratic weather and general chaos. Join us on the Avatars Radio Discord Chat to discuss planning: https://discord.gg/G47DsdC You may only host one Release Party per year. This includes alts. The Zone you plan on hosting a Release Party must have PvP allowed. Release parties are all-inclusive.​ More information at Alleine’s original post on the Shroud of the Avatar Forums! If you have an event you’d like publicized during the Weekly Updates, contact Elgarion on the forums! 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

After a rather frustrating stream yesterday I realized that we might not have clearly stated our goals for the next few releases in terms of balancing. Also, there are some repeated comments I keep hearing that are not based in reality that I wanted to clear up. Before I go into the changes, I just wanted to discuss the reality of player behavior a bit and why balance is so critical. While there are a handful of players who have a play style or class in mind and stick with that class, the... Explanation and update on balancing efforts for R74 and Q1 View the full article

Hello everyone, this is Asclepius, with the next instalment of this wonderful story by Draxenath. It is entitled “Interview with the Dragon Goddess”. Background music by Smartsound Part 14: Humenalia’s Message With the ancient library now residing within Draxenath’s hiding place, we had unimaginable amounts of knowledge at our disposal. The Goddess entered the library and went straight to the automaton behind the desk and proceeded to examine it. – The magitronic circuit boards are intact, – she said. – the only damage they have is the interconnecting fibers were severed, it is easy to repair them. She took a strange tool from a toolbox under the desk and proceeded to re-attach the automaton’s tendrils. After she was done, the automaton lit up and started making noises, then slowly got up on its feet and addressed us. – Welcome visitors, I am the librarian, how can I assist you? – it said with its unnatural voice. It looked at us for a moment, then it reacted erratically upon looking at Draxenath. – How ca… Please wait… How can I…… Please wait… How… Please… Overriding main program. Identity confirmation required, please remain still while a biometric scan is performed. The automaton set its eyes on the Goddess’ face for a moment. – Identity confirmed. – the automaton said. – Lady Draxenath, welcome back to Curiosity’s Central Library. It has been 445,327 days since your last visit. I have an urgent video message for you from our administrator, it is 438,627 days old. Would you like to display it? The Goddess nodded. – Please display it on the screen at your desk. – she said, and the picture at the large slab on the desk changed. It was very realistic, the face of Humenalia, so real I felt like I could almost touch her. She was sad, her eyes red, probably from shedding too many tears. – Draxenath! – Humenalia said. – I know you will come back one day, but I don’t know what will be of me by that time. My chest aches so much… I barely had time to mourn Sari’s death at the hands of Merealla, and now Athaldar is dead by his own father’s hands… first my grandchild, now my son… both murdered by those of their own blood…murdered by those too selfish and envious to understand how important their work was… – I have always admired you, and so have many of the humans. The other gods hate humans, but you don’t, because you understand humans are a cursed race. You understand humans lack so many things and have been misguided. Humans have no magic of their own, no fur, no fangs, no gills, no fins, no claws, no wings, and have become used to feel entitled to take things from others by force. That’s how Amaxis taught them. – You understood, and in the beginning, stood up to defend humans from the aggressions of the other races. Your kindness to us ignited a spark in my son Athaldar. He always thought his father’s ways and teachings were not entirely correct, and so did I, but didn’t dare to go against Amaxis’ will. I always admired you for standing your ground against Amaxis, but still seeing humans as your people to protect and support. – You loved my son, you supported each other in the common goals you had and did many things I never dared to do myself. You worked to eliminate the hate among the races, to build a common history from the ground up for all races together. You gave hope to those who thought nothing would ever change. Unfortunately, things went wrong because no race was ready to leave their hate behind. My grandchild… your son was betrayed and murdered by those we least suspected, by the dearest and closest. – Your world crumbled, you talked about committing suicide, then you left. But you are strong, I have faith that you will come back one day. My world is crumbling now as I record this message. As you were no longer at my son’s side, I gathered the courage to support him, to stand against Amaxis, I felt good, felt strong and empowered, but things didn’t go as I expected. My son was just killed by my husband, the one I thought would never do that! – I am a weakling and feel like there is no hope. But you are much stronger than me, I know you are only taking a rest from all of this, that you will come back with renewed strength and put an end to this neverending cycle of hate and misery. Please, I beg you as a mother who also lost her most beloved child. Do not let our children’s death be in vain. – And thank you for everything you have done for me, for the humans, and for all other races, even if so many don’t appreciate it, that’s how being a mother and a goddess is, I suppose. But in the long run, after everything has settled down, we finally see the fruit of our efforts. The message ended. Draxenath walked towards a wall and rested her forehead on it as she took several deep breaths, then spoke. – Librarian, do a blue highlight on the location of the following books: History of the Divine Conflict, volumes 1 to 10 by Humenalia and Draxenath. History of Mortals volumes 1 to 24 by Humenalia and Draxenath. Also, do a red highlight on the location of Magitronics Journal from The Magic Press, all issues. She looked at me with kindness and said: – The interview will have to end now, there are duties I need to attend, lots of plans to be made, the world is not ready for my return, just as it was not ready for me to free it a millennium ago, so I need to prepare my plan to get them ready. You can stay as long as you wish, I requested a list of books to be highlighted in blue for you to read. There will be an automaton cooking food at a regular schedule, and a room for you to sleep. My life was completely changed with that. — Grand Finale will be Part 15, stay tuned for it — Echoes From the Caverns The post Interview with the Dragon Goddess 10 – by Draxenath appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns. View the full article

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday January 10, at 4 PM CT on Twitch! This week we are going to talk about the 2020 Vision that got posted this week!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 Shroud 2020 Vision 2020 Vision Livestream Today Winter Vault Round January Login Reward: Krampus Statue Release 73 Reward Program Items: Winter Holiday Theme Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles Various Other Livestreams (YouTube) Upcoming Events Calendar Community Updates Meretz: Win a Obsidian Tower Town Water Home Community Event: Calling all Pirates and Others all Across Novia! Community Event: Release 73 Dance Party with DJ Darkstarr Project to Support: Pantheon Project to Support: Crowfall Project to Support: Avatar Express Resources: Players Helping Players Shroud 2020 Vision [Forum Post by Chris “Atos” Spears] Greetings Avatars! As a team, we try to remain as flexible as possible to work on what feels most important at any given time. With that said, we wanted to give players some insight into what our focus will be as we head into 2020. It is important to note that this is not intended to be some kind of binding contract where we promise we will hit each and every item mentioned. Rather this is just intended to be a vision of where we believe we are headed for the next year. Items will move around, sometimes slip, or sometimes move earlier in the schedule, In some cases we might decide that an item no longer makes sense once we start digging into to it and we might remove it. The obvious elephant in the room that needs to be discussed first is Episode 2; what that means and when it will arrive. How to deliver it is the really big question. We have some people who are angry we are not currently creating content. At the same time we have other people who say they want us to hold all of Episode 2 until it is 100% done and not trickle it out to people. There is some logic to each of these views and where we will end up is likely somewhere in the middle. Our goal will be to roll out some new content on a continuous basis, roughly one new scene per release. Simultaneously we want to keep the Episode 2 story held back until we have full confidence in our new quest system. The current plan is that once we have confidence in the new quest system we will start rolling out the main Episode 2 quest line on QA only. Additionally, at least once each release we will migrate data from Live to QA and effectively reset your progress on the main quest line on QA. New Episode 2 content in the form of new maps, items, creatures, and skills will roll out monthly. Our goal will be to average roughly one new scene a release starting with the February release. Long term our goal would be to get to two scenes per month in the second half of the year. As previously discussed, we do expect to have a large quest line comparable to Episode 1. However we do plan on keeping the questing areas confined to far fewer spaces and we plan to reuse the spaces more so players can better build a familiarity with them. Rather than build dozens of NPC cities and scenes and then sometimes using them for just a single step, we will be using the storyline scenes many times. NPC cities in Episode 2 will largely be NPC focused with far fewer player houses (maybe none at all). This will not only help us make more use of the space for story lines but also improve performance and load times for those scenes. Ask any 100 players what they think we should work on and you will get 100 different lists. However there are a lot of common items that will fall into most of those lists. The reality is that the thing we need most of all is not something we can code but rather something we have to earn which is a larger player base. While we continue to do some advertisements and have brought in lots of new players we are really only managing small growth to our player base over the past months. Roughly 500 – 700 new players try the game each week and of those, roughly 12% stick. That stickiness number is actually very good by F2P standards. Most of the people that quit, do so within the first scene. This means one of the following: their machines are out of date, they didn’t like the look of the game, didn’t like how the game played in general, or they really were just passing through and didn’t have a real interest in playing. We have spent countless man months working to improve the starting scene and we have seen some modest improvements; but there are some people we will never get to stay. Our conclusion is that continuing to try to improve the stickiness rate with early game polish is not cost effective. It also doesn’t benefit existing players directly. Players who were with us last year saw us spending months on improving the starting experience while apologizing to existing players for not making the rest of the game better. Buying more ads is also extremely expensive and also doesn’t benefit the existing players directly. Based on the above data my belief is that rather than trying to grow the player base through large ad spends or by spending all our efforts on the starting experience, our focus must be primarily on fixing things that make players leave, slowly improving the reputation of the game, doing modest ad spends, working with other games for some cross promotion, and earning a larger audience over time. Now for some details on specific plans for 2020! Some of these things are more of a constant focus: performance, bug fixes, and stability. While we might make bigger pushes for those things don’t expect to see them listed below BUT do know they are always being worked on. Q1 2020: First quarter our primary goals are: Episode 2 Overworld Map: live in a real way with POTs moving in. Halls of Balance (HoB): This is the working title for a new scene that is the Episode 2 version of the Challenge Dungeon AKA “Compendium of Pain and Suffering”. This will be a primarily linear dungeon that gets progressively harder. The idea being that it will get so difficult that players will never beat it completely. The reality is more like they will beat it and we’ll make it tougher or add more rooms at the end and it will continue to help us identify what really is the upper limit for encounter difficulty. This will also be used to drive some new in game rankings in the existing player rankings. Bard skill tree: This will be a new tree in the strategy section that will be music driven skills. Major combat balance pass: This is long overdue and very important to existing high end players. While an initial pass will be made in January, even more passes will be done over time based on finding from the HoB. Prospectors Canyon: Working title for a new mine scene. Current plan for this is not to make it an underground mine scene but rather more of an ore rich, branching slot canyon or ravine that snakes and winds through a large scene. Miners need more fresh air! Custom NPC Convos: Player written branching dialog trees for NPCs using the Ink markup language. This should go live in January and continue to receive updates to allow more flexibility and options over time. Major loot and reward overhaul: Currently one of the top concerns for existing players and will be a large part of our focus for Q1 and into Q2. Misc: Other minor additions include more server ranking categories, second ring slot, improved deco item scaling options, Lua feature expansion, GM feature expansion Tiered subscription options: More options for subscriptions Maps: We will be restoring the more feature rich web based SOTAMap system back in place with community driven map content creation but in a faster delivery system than before. While Catnip Games will host the system, we plan on turning this over to be under the control of the community. New creatures: Big Cats, Koala Bear Pet (charity item for Australia fires), plus secret Party Size: Expanded party size for up to 24 players in a raid sized party along with toggle for condensed party UI. Depending on what challenges we encounter with this, there is a chance this could slip into Q2. Verbose mode options for combat: This will give a very detailed log of combat showing behind the scenes calculations that were done to reach the final numbers. Attenuation: Attenuation removed after a couple of scenes receive a balance pass. For Release 74 in January, this will be changed to only attenuate players over level 100. Going forward, our goal is to remove this system completely and instead improve the content and skill balance to be within our design ranges for experience rewards. Build System: Moving to a more robust build system, delivery system, and publishing practices. While this isn’t directly visible to the players the results will improve the quality of the game. It means we will always be able to keep QA up and current, that patches through our system will be smaller and faster to download and install, and that patch frequency and quality will both improve. With our old extremely long build process, we rarely rejected builds due to issues because we knew that would mean no patch for the players for almost a full day. Our goal is to make our start to delivered process under 2 hours. Progress was made over the Christmas break but some more work is still needed. Q2 2020: Second quarter vision: Looking for Group: Expansion of the Looking for Group system to include some queue features for scenes and PVP. Our current plan is to expand upon the existing system and allow players to join scene queues for some scenes rather than just joining parties. If this ends up not being the right way to go, we’ll work to introduce a separate queue system. Weather: Weather system updates for more control, more variety, improved visuals, and also weather effects on combat. Having snow for Christmas was fun but reminded us of how much we need to do to improve the system. Both in terms of visuals and also some of the quirky behavior like snow moving with the player and snow falling in some indoor scenes. Quest System: Shroud quest system 2.0 initial release for developer created content. This will be in the early stages but will be based on our new, 100% bug free *knocks on wood* system for player quests and NPC dialog. Steam purchase options: Currently between 1/3rd and 1/4th of our player base plays on steam BUT we make them jump through a lot of hoops to purchase things on our website. POT Customization: Expanded POT customization options and tools to allow for some mild terraforming to flatten some lumpy areas or paint new ground textures. Lua: Expanded Lua options to include limited execution of server commands through Lua scripts and more UI options. Skills: Expanded skill trees with roughly 40 new skills and combos. This will start happening in Q1 but we hope to wrap this up but Q2. We will be adding at least 2 skills per tree to help add a tier 6 level skill plus at least one additional skill to help balance the tree based on what it is most lacking. Theater system: This will actually be done by completing a few new tools like placeable exclusion zones that block some players out of a volume, silence zones to limit certain types of chatter, voice extenders for the actors, more donation box options, light and dark volumes, new decos, and a few other key items to help theater-goers. Port’O Bones: new episode NPC port town build on connected atolls, reefs, floating platforms, and wrecked ships. Snowshears: story related overworld adventure of mostly snow and ice that will reveal some of the main themes of the episode 2 storyline. POT Templates: Two new “High fantasy” POT templates plus one new POT template based loosely on Port’O Bones New Home Styles: New architecture set based roughly on the style of the new Lord of the Isle mansion. This will include some NPC builds and also some new player houses New Creatures: Wendigo , Yeti, plus secret. These will be completely new models and combat mechanics and will include multiple variations on each one. Find Items: Global item find to track down your misplaced items. This is as much to reduce the teams work load as it is to benefit the players as this is a common support issue. We have the tech for this already and just need to figure out how to expose it to the players. Pet and tamed creature improvements: This includes support for multiple combat pets at once, improved response time, improved behaviors, and a heavy balance pass. Our goal will not be to make them significantly more powerful (though some summons will be improved) but rather make them more interesting and less frustrating. Q3 – Q4: Second half of 2020. The order of these is more vague as these are likely to get shifted around: Mounts: This will initially include only horses, will instantly dismount for combat, and not usable indoors or dungeons. Faction system: This is primarily for PVP but will also have some PVE implications and options Player craftable outdoor scenes: Similar to the player dungeon system, this will allow for player customizable outdoor instances that can be decorated, modified, filled with encounters, and used for adventuring or become part of a player quest line. Perk System: Perk system for an alternate advancement opportunity for end game players. These are small bonuses that can be earned through a new system unrelated to the skill tree. These will be expensive and aimed mainly at end game players. Example, Death Proof perk, +1 death magic resistance per perk. Each perk level in it costs 1mln pooled xps per level per level. So +1 costs 1mln, second +1 cost 2mln, third +1 cost 3mln. Crafting System Expansion: This is another one that might slip into Q1 or Q2.This will include more enchantment options, more masterwork options, more special ingredients, and some updated crafting math. Tamed pet progression: Tamed pets will have a limited range of advancement. The current design for this is fairly primitive and generally just increases the creature level and general power but you can expect more features to come up when we get started on it and discuss it with players. Town resident chat channel and online list: As we’ve seen how player owned towns have developed and grown and become a major element of the game we’ve failed to improve aspects of their community building elements. Town residents will gain additional chat channels that are sent to anyone who has a home in a POT whether they are currently in that zone or not. So for instance, “/paxlair Greetings Avatars” would message any paxlair residents who are currently online. PoT governors will have an opportunity to use an alias for their POT channel since some have long names. More end game challenges: This is another one of those items that should be in a 36 point font!This is another one that will start happening in Q1 and Q2 as we nail down more mechanics and act on what behavior and results we see from the HoB. This will be a major focus for Q3/Q4 though as map production increases its pace. Mail system improvements: As someone who uses the in game mail system I can confirm this system is long overdue for an update. This will include some minor quality of life stuff; like right click to reply, and also a number of big fixes like automatically opening the note writing system for writing and receiving mail. Also, searching, history, and other basic improvements will almost certainly make it in for this update. Improved inventory filtering and searching options: This will allow for custom control on filtering rather than just a few preset categories. Also, searching will be improved to do things like search for text in notes. Item history and advancement: While this system is still in design, there are a number of ideas we like all centered around improving items or opening up additional enchantments for them, based on what they have been used for. Guild system expansions and improvements: While the guild system is functional it is severely lacking. Also, the 1 account to 1 guild bond is very limiting in how players actually want to use it. We’ll be investigating breaking that and also expanding functionality. Quest System: Quest system fully functional and in use for a significant number NPC quest lines in Episode 2 Ransom system overhaul: While recent experiments with no ransom have shown that not having ransom increases participation, we believe that there is definitely a need for having ransom in some situations or scenes. Achievement System: Achievement system expansion and moving it from being steam only to all clients. This is another one I wish we could find a way to move into Q1/Q2 that is long overdue and important for player reward and the feeling of progress New Creatures: Chaos spawns (3+ completely new and different creatures), secret story creatures, plus at least 2 tameable (yes, your read that right) mount options Episode 2: Main episode 2 story quest line reveal will begin on QA. While we would love for it to be complete and ready to roll out by EOY 2020, we currently believe that without sacrificing scope or quality dramatically, that isn’t practical. Treasure maps: Essentially these are one time use tickets to a higher reward scene. These also might get moved to Q2 as we continue to make better loot and rewards a priority. Challenge Scenes: Smaller, repeatable content scenes. These will use some of the new quest system mechanics and treasure map mechanics to provide some once a day style scenes that are highly rewarding. They will be aimed at only requiring a 15-30 commitment but can have significant and specialized rewards and also 24-72 hour unique buffs/blessings. Scenes: With the quest system functional, new targets what “Challenging” means, and new architecture sets ready, players can expect 1-3 scenes per release for the second half of the year. Many of these already have descriptions in the main quest breakdown. While I won’t share spoilers, I will let you speculate on them by sharing some of the scene names: Emberpool: Story related Morningside: Story related The Stadium: Story related Efreet Junkyard: Story related The Factory: This is actually a trials map for PVP The Junction: The sequel to The Rise To be named: Sequel to the Fall Teirman’s pass: A team based PVP map based on the control of a keep. 4+ more identified and defined but not yet named scenes Ongoing Work: These are the items that will be added or worked on throughout the year and don’t really fall into any one specific category: Bug fixes: Work on this will stop when there are no more bugs! I don’t think we’re there yet… Performance: Performance work will continue including some major changes to how we handle dynamic lights and shadows. Also, we will be investigating several new major performance fixes including more runtime mesh and texture baking, new dynamic occlusion systems, more options to limit vfx in more intelligent ways, layered dynamic screen resolution, and a number of other fixes to chip away at our trouble areas with the focus being on our worst case scenarios of high deco / high light count POTs and high AoE combat situations with high target counts. New dungeon rooms: As always, as we create new areas of interest that make sense, we’ll be converting these into player usable content. New crafting recipes. While a major crafting overhaul is planned in Q3, you can expect new recipes to appear off most releases throughout the year. New Artifacts: New artifacts including armor sets focused on different play styles. At least 3 additional armor sets will appear before the end of Q2 but likely more than that will find their way into game based on the popularity of the current set. Lua: Various Lua functions as needed and on requests.Our goal is still to give Lua players enough functionality to replace many of our clunkier UI systems. Currently only a few dozen hooks have been added but lots more are on the way. Player GMs: New GM powers as needed. Ongoing quality of life items: While not popular with some players, we strongly believe that favoring fun elements and balance over some of our older reality modeling or immersive elements is critical to our primary goal of expanding our player base. Again, this is not all that we will be working on for 2020 but rather just some of the biggest items. As always, we will keep our ears open and listen to the players and adjust when needed. If your dream feature or addition did not make this list, fear not. We are always listening and willing to adjust! As always, thanks for your support. I’m sure the above information will spur many conversations over the next few weeks so expect this to be the focus of our streams for a while! See you in game and look for some more exciting announcements in the near future regarding changes to store offerings, heritage items, and other exciting news. Chris “Atos” Spears 2020 Vision Livestream Today! Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday January 10, at 4 PM CT on Twitch! This week we are going to talk about the 2020 Vision that got posted this week! Release 73 Rewards Program Exclusive Items (Winter Holiday Theme!) Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 73 are winter holiday themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 73! Candy Cane Wand Ceiling Yule Tree Desktop Elf Statue with Yule Hat As usual we will be giving out prizes at 4:15 and 4:45! To be eligible all you need to do is either make any purchase in the store or log into the game and type “The weather outside is frightful” in the chat window (no purchase necessary). Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CDT! Are You a Livestreamer? Get this exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Livestreamer Program! Winter Vault Round! Greetings Avatars, One more week for the current round of Winter and Yule themed items in the vault, including some exclusive winter themed stretch goal items like the Ice & Snow Shooting Bagpipes and Frozen Fountain! The Vault: Current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, January 16 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc. Please note the extended availability of this round due to the winter holidays! /snow Snowflake Cloak Ice & Snow Shooting Bagpipes 2016 Snowman with Stovepipe Hat Mask White Reindeer 2016 Yule Tree 2015 4-Story Yule Tree Frozen Fountain Viking Great Hall City Home January Login Reward: Krampus Statue To celebrate the final month of Dark Winter, every player who logs in during the month of January will receive a unique Krampus Statue! To receive the rewards simply login to the game before the end of January and check your rewards tab! Release 73 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Winter Holiday Theme! Winter has arrived so the Rewards Program items for Release 73 are Winter Holiday themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 73! Candy Cane Wand Ceiling Yule Tree Desktop Elf Statue with Yule Hat 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 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 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 the Portalarium Offices, 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 (to be revealed later) 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 (to be revealed later) 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 Portalarium Offices 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 Portalarium for Tour & Dinner. Sneak Peek & Various Other Livestreams (YouTube) Atos and others also sometimes livestream and you can check those out on our YouTube channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Note that if you subscribe to the channel you will be notified when they go live. Upcoming Events Calendar Be sure to check out the Forums Recurring Events section for other events! 2020 Jan 18 – Release 73 Dance Party Jan 30 – Release 74 Feb 27 – Release 75 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 an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home Win an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home & earn free SotA in-game items daily! 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, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home! You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card and other cool prizes. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY! Community Event: Calling all Pirates and Others all Across Novia! [Forum Post by CatherineRose] Hear Ye. Hear Ye. Calling all Pirates and Others all Across Novia! Just as any good military action prepares through eating right and increasing each fighters strength of body so Black Sails are building strength in the coming days. Many of you are following or even writing in the Black Sails Chronicles, New Beginnings story which is located: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f…black-sails-chronicles-new-beginnings.160814/ We, Black Sails Pirates (sympathisers as well), will conduct our first Training Maneuver. We will be fighting and jumping, in Blood Bay. This maneuver will be held in preparation for the next great battle (which will be in Malus) with the Evil Obsidians. Please sign your name to participate. Include your Game Name and your PVP experience level (such as no experience, some experience, much experience or highly skilled) All of Novia, whether on the Good side or the Evil side are invited to participate in this maneuver so please sign your name as soon as you read this. We will not be either good or evil for this training maneuver. If you are in a voice chat such as in discord or team speak you will find it much easier to know what is going on during the event. I will be in Shroud of the Avatar Events Voice channel Shroud of the Avatar: Events voice channel Watch the forum the next days until January 12 for more information about this event. Location: Blood Bay – Judges Watch Day: January 11, 2020 Time: 1:30 PM (CST) Duchess CatherineRose Governor of Dragomir Mori Pirate Queen of the Black Sails Pirates Community Event: Release 73 Dance Party/Stress Test with DJ Darkstarr [Forum Post by Alleine Dragonfyre] by Royal Warrant You are cordially invited: Release 73 Dance Party & Stress Test hosted by DJ @DarkStarr on Virtue Radio Saturday January 18th 2-4pm NBT White Hart(map) 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 this week. 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] The Avatar Express is a Shroud of the Avatar fan news site! 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 Avatars! As a team, we try to remain as flexible as possible to work on what feels most important at any given time. With that said, we wanted to give players some insight into what our focus will be as we head into 2020. It is important to note that this is not intended to be some kind of binding contract where we promise we will hit each and every item mentioned. Rather this is just intended to be a vision of where we believe we are headed for the next year. Items will move... Shroud 2020 Vision View the full article

To celebrate the final month of Dark Winter, every player who logs in during the month of January will receive a unique Krampus Statue! To receive the rewards simply login to the game before the end of January and check your rewards tab!View the full article