Jack T. Lamplighter

Known Issue with trying to leave instances. We have temporarily enabled a command that lets you zone to someone else. Just type /zone <playername> in chat and you will be free! Note this command will be disabled as soon as we have fix for this issue. View the full article

Join us Friday, September 9th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! The team will be chatting about Release 33 and looking ahead to Release 34. As always, we will be giving out rare Lord British artifacts of immense power and glory, and answering your latest questions. For a chance to win an artifact, be in Discord chat during the livestream. There will be multiple chances to win throughout the broadcast! Watch live on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar: Watch live video from shroudoftheavatar on www.twitch.tv You will also be able to watch the telethon directly on YouTube: www.youtube.com/portalarium! The final postmortem recording will be archived here as well. If you wish to win prizes during the Telethon event, be in Discord or IRC chat! Post your questions in the comments below! Only one post submission allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less! This will allow us to get to as many players as possible. Questions and feedback related to this release’s specific topics will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief. Tweet with us @ShroudofAvatar during the Hangout! View the full article

UPDATE: We are delaying the Free Tickets until the Release 34 Raffle. Updated text below: As mentioned in the Release 33 instructions we have begun the distribution of in-game Lot Deeds via Raffles. The raffles will be monthly and for this first month's raffle we will be handing out 75 Place Anywhere Deeds and 600 Player Owned Town Deeds. Raffle Tickets can be purchased from Home Decoration merchants in various locations throughout the game. For those backers who do not yet own property we... Free Raffle Tickets for Release 34 Raffle View the full article

As mentioned in the Release 33 instructions we have begun the distribution of in-game Lot Deeds via Raffles. The raffles will be monthly and for this first month's raffle we will be handing out 75 Place Anywhere Deeds and 600 Player Owned Town Deeds. Raffle Tickets can be purchased from Home Decoration merchants in various locations throughout the game. For those backers who do not yet own property we are going to automatically enter you into both Raffles! Anyone who has game access to... Free Raffle Tickets View the full article

Please accept our apologies for making all of you poorer over the last few days after adventuring and going to sell your hard won goods. NPC Merchant prices that they pay for goods were set too low for R34 and will be going back up with tomorrow's patch. View the full article

We have new openings at Portalarium! Are you a Shroud of the Avatar fan (of course you are )? Want to work with an awesome team that is passionate about the game? Come work with us! Please note these require being in Austin, TX. Please see below for openings, qualifications, and how to contact us with interest: World Builder/Level Designers (2) We currently have an opening for 2 junior-level to senior-level World Builder/Level Designers with artistic... Current Job Openings View the full article

As mentioned in the Release 33 instructions we have begun the distribution of in-game Lot Deeds via Raffles. The raffles will be monthly and for this first month’s raffle we will be handing out 75 Place Anywhere Deeds and 600 Player Owned Town Deeds. Raffle Tickets can be purchased from Home Decoration merchants in various locations throughout the game. For those backers who do not yet own property we are going to automatically enter you into both Raffles! Anyone who has game access to Shroud of the Avatar, but does NOT yet own property, will automatically be given a gift of 1 Raffle Ticket of each type to the First Raffle. To claim your tickets simply login to the game, go to the nearest bank and claim your rewards. The drawings will be held on September 28, 2016 and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in Release 34. Backers are not eligible for this gift if they meet the following criteria: Own an Ancestor Pledge or above Own a Viking 2-Story Row Bundle or above Own a Kobold 2-Story Row Bundle or above Own any quantity of Add On Store Deeds Own any deeds won through previous drawings, contests, etc. View the full article

Unfortunately we are under a Denial of Service attack from at least one source (perhaps multiple) that started at 3:00 AM CDT. We are blocking them as quickly as we can. If you are getting ALTAIR9000 disconnect messages that is the cause. We apologize for the inconvenience and we are working hard to solve this issue as quickly as we can. View the full article

Greetings Avatars! Here is the news for August 26, 2016. On my own this week as Lord Baldrith has computer issues. Hope to have him back next week! Hope you survived the landrush and are enjoying R33! This is the news of the week: Play Release 33 Now! Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 Results $10 Million Gift: Virtue Cloak Swamp Island POT Templates Lot Deed Raffle Breathe Emotes, Smoke Emotes, Pets, and Fancy Clothes Upcoming Events Richard Garriott at Dragon Con Dawn of New Britannia Community Trailer Contest Results Community Resources – Players Helping Players Job Openings (4) Recommended Projects to Back The post Echoes from the Caverns 08-26-2016 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns. View the full article

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar: Play Release 33 Now! Release 33 Patch Notes Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 Results $10 Million Gift: Virtue Cloak Swamp Island POT Templates Lot Deed Raffle Breathe Emotes, Smoke Emotes, Pets, and Fancy Clothes Upcoming Events Richard Garriott at Dragon Con Dawn of New Britannia Community Trailer Contest Results Community Resources – Players Helping Players Job Openings (4) Recommended Projects to Back Play Release 33 Now! Release 33 successfully launched yesterday, August 25, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in and checking out the new changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including: New uncloned scenes including Port Graff and Estgard New User Experience Polish, including a reworked Bloodriver New NPC Behaviors and Polish in Ardoris and Spite More Random Encounters (dragon!) Lot Deed Raffle Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier World Starting Gift Lots of new emotes Summer Telethon Part 1 Rewards …and much more Check out the Release 33 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new content. We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing Release 33! If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Get Early Access!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase one of our game access bundles. Game Early Access is also available on Steam Early Access. Release 33 Player Instructions Release 33 Known Issues Release 33 Patch Notes August 26, 2016 Build Number 472 2:30 PM Fixed multiple props incorrectly placed in Port Graff Fixed terrain holes in Brittany Wharfs Adding Flechier Tapestry Formal Suit assets Updated the banner for Owl’s Nest in Hidden Vale so it says “Owl’s Nest” and not “Owl’s Nest Mine” Added ability for items to ignore merchant dynamic pricing Fixed chain helmets that are removing facial hair Fixed required level on enchant to prevent error case Added Nightshade Pass navigation mesh colliders along problematic ramp Paladis Shardfall water type reverted until we can have multi-level support new water Fixed Brookside merchant inventory referencing wrong merchant inventory Fixed male steampunk goggles clipping Fixed candlestick glow Updated a Central Brittany bridge to better accommodate navigation Fixing possible nonresponsive keyword with Edvard’s conversation in Blood River tutorial Fixed female zombie masks with gap at neck Resource survey visuals updated Made sure property lot in Xenos was flat Fixed male clothing looking bad on character screen Adjusted attunement bonus from rings and amulets Fixed Verdantis Shardfall stuck spot Fixed The Clink guards horrifying appearance Replaced Novia collision on the shoreline from Harvest through Dysborg area to Player Town Caer Dracwych Taenby Landing is now better positioned on Novia within its entrance volume Fixed a Verdantis Shardfall floating tree Fixed tiaras that were sorting into hairstyles too much Fixed resolution discrepancy between Aeronaut hats and suits Added minimum and maximum loop times for all emotes on NPCs in Brittany Alleys Fixed scale issues with all resources in Norgard Fens Logging out in Equitas Passage and then into Novia will now put players in a reasonable location at ground level and not in a floating or stuck location Replaced the stairs in the “Hold of Virtue” with better ones Flechier clothes added to a bundle Fixed Charon’s returning players to Spite from Malice Removed matchmaking mode from HUD – replaced with “Scene Access Mode” on compass that indicates the mode of the current instance (solo, solo/party, multiplayer. or open pvp) Bruno Martelli in Ardoris now properly responds to “work” and variations thereof to work his arcane magicks to create a New You Water trigger volume in Broochash did not extend past exit volumes Fixing issue with new Ardoris quest. Fixed the rotations of two player lots in Estgard that were changed inadvertently, and rebuilt Estgard city walls in the vicinity to give more space between them and the nearby player lots. Estgard terrain texturing and trees polish added Fixed flowers emote to have the animation track on the “start” slot rather than the “loop” slot Estgard navigation mesh changes Fixed incorrect name on merchant inventory for raffle tickets Known Issues Popping sound caused in scenes with Broadcast Phonographs Some armor causes male avatar skin to appear white Pets cannot be healed or resurrected Masterwork/Enchanting has a new base level requirement that prevents low-level access to these crafting elements Some items listed in the R33 instructions are not in the game yet (mostly the Add On Store stuff) including: Aeronaut Outfits Tiaras Obsidian Book of Unlearning gift Using the Mirror on Isle of Storms can crash sometimes Novia Overworld rework has introduced various stuck spots, incorrect collision and “exit into the air” issues Some UI text is not wrapping correctly Rain is coming through the roof of some buildings The new Targeting system still has various issues that need fixing Stability: The latest version of Unity we are using has introduced significant stability issues along with memory leaks. We are working with Unity to resolve these as quickly as we can Pathfinding is breaking in some houses and basements Local chat is failing in some situations Many SFX are not properly tied to the sound volume controls. Lighting and fog levels are still being tuned to work with the new weather system, expect anomalies Death and Resurrection do not work properly in the team arena Water lots in Dynamic Player Owned Towns can currently only be placed along shorelines, not on docks If your video drivers are out of date characters will appear as if they are covered in triangles. Some cities are experiencing performance spikes Some pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support. The update to Unity 5 caused a host of general texture and lighting related issues, and not all of these have been resolved. Distant tree billboards may have a white outline that is especially noticeable at night, and some trees may shimmer with white at night. Skin tone will sometimes not match properly on different parts of the body ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 Results Our Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 was a huge success! In fact, it was our biggest telethon to-date! We achieved all our original Stretch Goal Rewards and even had to create new ones! A heartfelt thank you from the entire Dev Team to all of you, our backers, that have contributed to the development funding of Shroud of the Avatar! Monday’s Telethon was yet another example of your amazing support and contributions! The total as of Midnight, August 22nd, was a staggering: ** $200,000 ** As promised, Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards will be rewarded to any backers that pledged a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight August 22 (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). These rewards should show up on your account page within the next several weeks and will begin showing up in the game over the next few releases starting with Release 34. Achieved! $10,000: /aeroplane emote Achieved! $25,000: ? and ! Hats Achieved! $35,000: Aeronaut Outfit Achieved! $50,000: Accordion musical instrument Achieved! $65,000: Mini Automaton Pet Achieved! $80,000: Baby Clockwork Dragon Pet Achieved! $100,000: /camera emote with Tin Type Camera (takes tin type black & white screenshots) Achieved! $130,000: Clockwork Armor (helmet has built in radio) Achieved! $150,000: Flaming Bagpipes (musical instrument) with Metal and Leather Kilt Achieved! $175,000: Weather Changing Clockwork Umbrella Achieved! $200,000: /firedance emote with Leather Outfits We had deep dives, answered questions, danced, sang, did shots, spun the Wheel of Fortune & Doom, had flash sales, went behind the scenes, and handed out tons of prizes including: Store Credits Town Lot Property Deeds Obsidian Tower Village Home Star Citizen Aeronaut Helmet Starter Bundle Cloaks, Juggle, Musical Instruments, Pets, Prosperity Tool, Kobold, and other bundles Rare Lord British relics Special Challenge Coins Shroud of the Avatar t-shirts Sword of Midras audiobook AND hardcover copies! Razer Gear Missed participating in the telethon event? Watch the entire stream on YouTube : Warning: Telethon is Rated PG-13 for Alcoholic Content $10 Million Gift to All Backers On Monday August 22 during our Summer Telethon, we achieved the amazing milestone of $10 Million raised. As an expression of our gratitude to all of you who helped make this happen, anyone who has ever given us any money as of midnight August 22, 2016 will receive the Enchanted Virtue Cloak. It will begin appearing on your account page sometime during Release 33 and it will appear in game as soon as Release 34. The Enchanted Virtue Cloak gives off light that changes color based on your current virtue; whether it is trending towards good or evil. The intensity of the light increases as your character’s level increases (Producer or Adventurer). Thank you community! It is because of YOU Shroud of the Avatar was able to reach $10 Million in funding. Your generosity is humbling! Virtue Cloak by Shroud of the Avatar on Sketchfab Swamp Island POT Templates The Swamp Islands are the newest templates for the Player Owned Towns. These new templates are lowland islands covered in swampy terrain. We offer two versions, a normal version and one that has an Obsidian Style spiked wall surrounding the large island. While this is based on the original Island template, the terrain has been lowered to better represent a swampy area. This also has the nice byproduct of creating much more flat space for building placement! In fact, this template is only rivaled by the Grassland templates and Inland Forest (a modified Grassland) in available space for building. We are planning on making walled versions of the other island templates in R34. For R33, the Swamp Island templates are only available as options in the POT submission form. In R34, these templates will begin showing up for those that select it for their Dynamic POT and as one of the example POTs in Hometown. Lot Deed Raffle For those backers who do not own property yet, this is your opportunity to become a land owner! As mentioned in the Release 33 Instructions, we have begun the distribution of in-game Lot Deeds via Raffles. The raffles will be monthly and for this first month’s raffle we will be handing out 75 Place Anywhere Deeds and 600 Player Owned Town Deeds. Raffle Tickets can be purchased from Home Decoration merchants in various locations throughout the game. The drawings will be held toward the end of this Release and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in Release 34. Breathe Emotes, Smoke Emotes, Pets, and Fancy Clothes Lots of new stuff available in the Add-On Store! Check these out: Upcoming Events 2016.08.26 – Syndcon 2016 2016.09.02 – Richard “Lord British Garriott at DragonCon 2016 2016.09.09 – Release 33 Post-Mortem Hangout 2016.09.21 – Austin Games Conference 2016.09.29 – Release 34 2016.10.27 – Release 35 2016.11.04 – SotACon 2016.11.17 – Release 36 2016.12.15 – Release 37 Community Activities Visit the official Community Calendar to see the great lineup of activities our amazing community has planned for this weekend! And be sure to check out this month’s Release Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events. Event of the Week – All Player Towns Gathering Release 33 The All Player Towns Gathering is a time for many Player Owned and Run Towns to meet to talk about town development, diplomacy, and ideas. All towns and people are invited to attend. This is your chance to meet other town leaders, citizens, and adventurers. We will have some plenary topics followed by workshop sessions. Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 1 PM Central US Time in PaxLair, Novia, New Britannia, East of Brittany at mouth of Brisach River (see map) ‘Dawn of New Britannia’ Trailer Contest Results! Wow! We had an outstanding community trailer contest this month. All submissions were truly fantastic and a pleasure to watch. Our team struggled mightily in narrowing it down to only three winners, as each entry was done well and were quite unique from each other. In fact, the debate over first and second place continued until the very last moment! Well done participants! We present to the community the winners of the contest: 1st Place goes to Ember for ‘New Britannia Awaits’: Ember receives: $1,000 Store Credit, SotA signed t-shirt, Sword of Midras hardcover book, SotA COTOs coin, and a specially signed congratulations letter from Richard Garriott. 2nd Place goes to Net for ‘Experience Shroud of the Avatar’: Net receives: $500 Store Credit, SotA signed t-shirt, Sword of Midras hardcover book, SotA COTOs coin 3rd Place goes to Selene for ‘Welcome to New Britannia!’: Selene receives: $250 Store Credit, SotA signed t-shirt, Sword of Midras hardcover book, SotA COTOs coin You can view all entries in the contest in a playlist at youtube.com/portalarium. Note that the order of the trailers in the playlist is not in order of those we selected, except for the top 3 winners placed at the top of the list. Congrats again to the winners, and to all that created a beautiful Shroud of the Avatar trailer for the community! For more about the contest, visit the Contest Announcement Article. Community 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. Job Openings (4) World Builder/Level Designers (2) We currently have an opening for 2 junior-level to senior-level World Builder/Level Designers with artistic skills for Shroud of the Avatar to build out scenes (these positions are less focused on game play elements). Qualifications for “ideal candidates” are: Minimum 2 years industry experience for junior-level (preferably on a shipped game) Minimum 5 years industry experience for senior-level (minimum of at least 1 shipped game) Unity3D proficiency Scripting ability Experience building, texturing, and decorating natural, terrain based exterior environments An artistic eye for detail, with strong scene compositional skills BONUS: Ability to model and texture in 3D art tools Quality Assurance We currently have an opening for an entry-level Quality Assurance agent for Shroud of the Avatar. Qualifications for the “ideal candidate” are: Avid game player Experience with RPGs and MMOs Willingness to also do Customer Service tasks as needed Desire to expand into other areas of game development long term BONUS: Experience with Quality Assurance Programmer We currently have an opening for a Programmer for Shroud of the Avatar. Qualifications for the “ideal candidate” are: Minimum 2 years industry experience Strong C#/C++ skills Database development experience Awesome debugging skills Windows programming experience Network programming experience Extensive Multi-threaded programming experience Ability to work in unstructured, non-hierarchical environment Strong software architecture skills BONUS SKILLS (any one or more of these): Minimum 5 years industry experience (minimum of at least 1 shipped game) Unity development experience Mac development Avid game player Web development experience (C#, PHP, ASP.NET, XML/web services, JavaScript) UNIX experience MMO game development experience If you’d like to join the Portalarium Tribe working on the ground-breaking Shroud of the Avatar, please submit your resume to jobs@portalarium.com. Provide links to your work (if possible), including actual game play, videos footage, and document form (images, maps, and event descriptions). Recommended Projects to Back Torment: Tides of Numenera Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player, isometric role-playing game set in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting, Numenera. Torment is striving to create a rich role-playing experience that explores similar deep, personal themes. Backer Shipping Addresses In preparation for shipping backers’ physical pledge rewards later this year, we have added Shipping Address fields to your Account Profile page. To enter your shipping address, log in to the SotA website, select “Account” in top right corner, then select “Edit Profile” located in top left corner, beneath your Avatar image. A reminder to be sure that support@portalarium.com is unblocked from your e-mail account! Save Save Save Save Save Save View the full article

We are removing the Quest requirements for Estgard in the patch going live tonight. We are very, very sorry for the inconvenience caused by this. View the full article

Avatars, Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues. Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 33 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, August 25, at 10:30 AM US Central... Release 33 Instructions View the full article

We are aware of the issue that is causing incredibly slow login times and creating very long login queues. We have identified the issue and are working on a fix now. View the full article

Hello everyone, this is Asclepius, with another great story from Them Lock. It is entitled The Hanging Tree Background music by Smartsound The elder dryad of Grunvald has long been dormant. Deep in the forest, nestled within her sacred grove, she had taken root and entered a cycle of hibernation that would last one hundred years. Her delicate frame had grown strong and tall, towering above the canopy in the form of a massive oak tree. Her presence enriched the very soil for miles around her, invigorating growth and warding off disease. Immobile but aware, the forest had grown vibrant and flourished around her and for a time she had known joy in its purest form. She initially became aware of the outlanders presence when the first trees were felled, the distant harvest at the very edge of her realm stung her like a salted lash. She had reached out with her mind, sending forth the predators of the forest in an attempt to bring the intruders to justice. But one by one the creatures consciousness were lost to her, victims to the same axes that had murdered her wards. Saddened, the dryad poured her energy into the forest in an attempt to heal some of the damage. But the massacre had only just begun, as each day passed more and more axes tore at her forest as stones were driven into the soil in an ever expanding scab of roadways that delved ever closer. Nothing slowed the brutal advance, she had summoned thorns and brambles and swarms of biting insects to no avail. Day after day, month after month and year after year… she was losing ground. It was twelve long years before the monsters reached her. Frozen in place, she stared down at them with fury as the horrid creatures took shelter from the sun beneath her boughs. If she could move she would eviscerate them, but move she could not. It was one week later when her heart splintered and broke. Her sacred grove, her children, her greatest loves were taken from her. Before her eyes axe and saw tore her babies from the earth, their bodies dragged aside, drawn and quartered. Her silent screams sent out a shockwave that caused panic throughout the forest, birds took flight and deer bolted, all life for miles sensed her pain and fled… all except the outlanders. In the days that followed, her wailing continued as, with horror, she looked on as the dismembered remains of her family were crafted into a great hall. Like maggots in the rotting corpse of her grove, the outlanders grew quickly in number, a forest of human structures sprang up around her in cruel mockery of her loss. The green life that once surrounded her was replaced with cold, grey stone and the air was filled with the unbearable stench of burning wood. They had made her a captive, a centerpiece, a trophy of war displayed at the very heart of their lifeless, ugly settlement. The weight of foot traffic compounded the pain of cobblestones that bit deeply into her network of roots, causing her great pain and cutting her off from the outside world. As far as she could tell, all life had been wiped out. She was utterly defeated and so very alone, she had begun to will her own death to no avail. As a stage was constructed at her feet and ropes hung from her boughs, the dryad could not help but wonder what fresh torment her captors had in store. A crowd of the stinking beasts gathered at her feet, jeering and calling out as a trio of outlanders were led to the ropes, hands bound behind their backs. In horrified amazement the dryad watched on as the creatures were hung by their necks from her limbs. She felt the life slip from their bodies as they dangled and twitched from the ropes… they were killing their own kind!. Over the years many such executions took place, and she grew to take pleasure from the act. After decades of tortured misery she had come to delight in the fear she sensed in the condemned. Sanity had long since abandoned her, she had forgotten her own name and all that came before her captivity. Now she had a new name, a name that gave her purpose… her name was Hanging Tree. And then it happened. At first she thought she had imagined it, but no. Ever so slowly, over several days… she clenched her outstretched, woody hand into a fist. Ninety years had passed, her hibernation cycle was nearing completion. Her mind raced, the fires of hatred flared brightly within her, soon she would be mobile. In ten short years time she would tear herself free from this polluted soil and finally make her true presence known. Oh and how the outlanders would know her. She is rancor, she is retribution… she is Hanging Tree, and she will hang them all. The post The Hanging Tree – by Themo Lock – narrated by Asclepius appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns. View the full article

[A SotA Public Forum post by Starr Long] Avatars, Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues. Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 33 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, August 25, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC). Impact of Persistence: Release 33 is our first Release since we went Persistent with Release 32. Being persistent of course has had an impact on the project and how we move forward. We made the tactical decision that the immediate needs of R32 would take precedence over any R33 work. Quality of life, balance issues, exploits, stability, performance, etc. in R32 would be patched regularly, daily if needed, even if it cost us some R33 deliverables. The result of this decision has been incredibly positive. Overall player mood remains high as does our funding, which reached an astounding $10 Million during our Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 (which by itself raised $200K!) This funding will allow us to finish the Roadmap we outlined earlier this year that both finishes our Kickstarter promises, while at the same time polishes the game to a very high standard. Thank you community for your incredibly humbling generosity. Housing: Lot Selection has wrapped up and in Release 33 we will be starting the Lot Deed Raffle for Taxable Lot Deeds in the game. This will be our method to distribute the remaining available land in the game in all locations (NPC towns, Player Run Towns, and Player Owned Towns). Additionally, Release 33 will be the first appearance of uncloned scenes that include player lots after persistence. These will give players a chance to see how we will be improving and individualizing each scene while preserving the game mechanics. PVP: We have always said that all PVP in Shroud of the Avatar will be consensual and players will choose to engage, or not to engage. With that said, we also want to make sure PVP is an integral part of the experience and is a balance of risk vs. reward. For those reasons, players will now encounter other players in zones flagged for PvP regardless of their match-making mode. You will no longer be able to enter these areas in Single-Player or Friends modes to circumvent PvP risk. There are a few areas, like the Obsidian Ruins, where story elements require venturing inside. However, we are going to work on alternate ways for players to navigate those areas like we have experimented with in some of the Control Points (i.e. the teleporting Wizard). For example the Crypt of the Avatar which is located in the Midras ruins can now be alternately accessed via the Midmaer Passage. We know this change will be controversial, but we believe it is the best decision for the long-term health of the game. Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post. So, they are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game, and that it is easy to read. While we are getting closer to launch, we are still in a constant state of change, and we do not yet have all the in-game systems to inform players of these changes, or to share ways to help them to explore new content and systems. This means we rely mostly on this message, and the linked instructions and known issues to convey the current game state. We regularly have to answer questions or filter bug reports because some players elect not to read this valuable information. By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and efforts can be redirected to focus on new “unanswered” questions, and addressing critical issues impacting 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 working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check out a couple of the event calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websites: Avatars Circle and Events of the Avatars). 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 33. Key: Plain Text: The original plan for the Release deliverables. We intentionally preserve the original text so that our backers can compare plan versus actuals. Italics: Extra notes and new deliverables. Strikethrough: These are items that did not make the release. RELEASE 33, August 25, 2016 Story: The polish pass through the Love Path of the story will continue with special focus on NPC behaviors in the town of Spite. Brittany NPCs will also get a behavior improvement pass. Additionally, several NPC towns that are currently clones will be replaced with original scenes. Port Graff (Unclone): Port Graff, located on the western coast of Drachvald, serves as a docking point for the valuable gems coming from the Graff Gem Mines. The gems make their way by cart to Port Graff, are shipped to Graff Island, and are sculpted before being added to weaponry and jewelry. Port Graff started out as a cloned scene based on Kingsport. It was rebuilt this release with plot-specific additions related to the gem trade between the Graff Gem Mines and Graff Island, along with a host of other visual changes and NPC improvements. NOTE: When we un-clone scenes we do NOT change locations of player lots, NPC buildings, or entrances. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage. Estgard (Unclone): Estgard sits on the eastern shore of Norgard and is part of the Path of Courage. Outlanders must pass through Estgard on their way to Valhold. Estgard was another cloned scene, based on the Forest 01 PRT/POT template (aka the “PaxLair” template). It was rebuilt this release with NPC improvements, a plot-specific perimeter wall, and a host of other visual changes to make it match the visual style of the Norgard region. We plan to make another polish pass on this scene in Release 34 to add more Norgard stylistic touches and more visual changes near the entrance areas. NOTE: When we un-clone scenes we do NOT change locations of player lots, NPC buildings, or entrances. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage. Polish: Brittany NPCs Behaviors Delayed: We chose to stay focused on polish along the Love Path, which Brittany is not on, so the Brittany Central NPCs are going to remain with their default behaviors until R34. Solo Instances vs. Party Leader: Party Members will no longer get the summoning message when their party leader enters a Solo Instance (example: The Necropolis). Spite: Many NPCs in Spite now have daytime/nighttime schedules which they use for patrolling, workplace activities, and even sleep. These NPCs also have various special behaviors—similar to the work we did with Soltown and Ardoris—to make them feel more active and alive. Ardoris: Building on our previous efforts to bring more life and activity to Ardoris, this city received another pass on NPC daytime/nighttime schedules and interests, as well as animations. True to its name as the City of Love, this includes the addition of amorous couples romancing throughout the city. New quests have also been added which speak to different aspects of the darker side of love and loss. Speak to Simone von Eglinger and Shariaa Barista to begin them. Random Encounters: Random Encounters are no longer only in Perennial Coast and Drachvald; they are now sprinkled throughout Novia and Hidden Vale. Currently, they can be one of four biomes (forest road, plains road, plains wilderness, and swamp road) and some of them have region-specific content (such as the dragon that can appear in the plains wilderness of Drachvald). Scene Teleporter Visuals: Prior to this release, scene teleporters had different visuals that related to the biome is connected with (e.g. forest-targets used as wagon teleporters and islands used boat teleporters), but we did not differentiate between target scenes that were important to the Story versus player towns. Now we have visuals to indicate that difference. Plain: All wagon, boat, and balloon teleporters that point to POTs, PRTs, Player Villages, and other scenes without story elements uses the “plain” versions. Red Accents: All wagon, boat, and balloon teleporters that point to the overworld, story scenes, big city scenes (like Brittany or Harvest), or adventure scenes use new, “special” versions of scene teleporters: red canopies on wagons, red sails on sailing ships, and red balloons. New User Experience Polish: Continued polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes with special focus on Highvale. Highvale Delayed: We chose to focus on Blood River instead of Highvale this release. Blood River: We have redone the Blood River sequence of the Path of Truth tutorial. It now reflects more closely the story of the Path of Truth and does not require players to loot helpless victims of a massacre to progress. Players will now meet a new character, Robert Villines, a magistrate from Aerie who, like the player, is trying to determine what caused the massacre. There are other plot-centric characters and changes that occur relating to elves and the secrets of bonesteel, while at the same time the experience for new users is made as clear as those who go through the Path of Love in Solace Bridge. That being said, being as important as first impressions are, this is still a work in progress and we welcome player input. Note for players who have already made characters: you can play in Offline mode and experience the Blood River new user experience without otherwise affecting your main character, and we ask that our valued testers do so to poke and prod at the content we are adding without asking you to make a new character in Online mode. Bank Hint: After watching a few video streams of new players early experiences in SotA, we realized that many new players were not aware that they need to go to the bank to claim their Add-On store purchases and pledge rewards. So we have added a new quest journal hint when speaking with Arabella at character creation, bank-related tutorial hints near bank locations in the starting towns (i.e. Soltown), and unlocked Banks discovery/compass markers in those early areas immediately upon arrival in those towns. Our apologies to experienced players who already know what banks are, who will get pop-up tutorial hints the first time they enter the very popular Soltown Inn and Tavern. Player/Houses Towns: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations of the town templates may also appear. Additionally, the Lot Deed Lottery system for in game purchase of Lot Deeds will come online. Lot Deed Raffle: Players can now buy raffle tickets with in-game gold for a chance to win Taxed Lot Deeds. There are two raffles, one for each lot type: Place-Anywhere Deeds (PAD) and Player-Owned Town Deeds (POT). Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win a deed of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly and we will have multiple winners for each lot size (numbers will vary each month). Place-Anywhere Deed raffle tickets are more expensive but will have fewer deeds in each raffle than POT raffle tickets, which are more affordable and will have many more deeds in each raffle. This means your chances to win a POT deed are much greater. The following are the numbers we will be releasing in the first raffles: Place Anywhere Deeds (75): Row: 40 Village: 20 Town: 10 City: 5 Player Owned Town Deeds (600): Row: 320 Village: 160 Town: 80 City: 40 Lot Deeds Tradeable: Now that Lot Selection is complete, Lot Deeds can now be traded between players once again. Swamp Island POT Templates: This new template is a lowland island covered in swampy terrain. We also offer a version of this template that has an Obsidian Style spiked wall surrounding the large island. We are planning on making walled versions of the other island templates in R34. For R33, the Swamp Island templates are only available as options in the POT submission form. In R34, these templates will begin showing up for those that select it for their Dynamic POT and as one of the example POTs in Hometown. Royal Scepter: This pledge reward from the Lord Pledge is now functional in the game. It can be used once per month to add 50% tax credit to the lot owner’s tax account. The credit can then be manually applied to the lot (or any other lot). NOTE: This is the equivalent of the description on the pledge reward where it says it “reduces the taxes on a single lot by 50%”. Hometown: Hometown, our example POT, returns to the Island template in R33 to better show off water lots. It is located off the coast of Novia near Soltown. Wizard Tower: The stairs on this home now animate with simple floating animation New POTs/POT Changes Admont: Removed POT. Aelasar’s Forest: Upgraded to Hamlet. Aethyria: New addition. Ahnen Hain: Ownership changed. Arx Draconis Embassy: Renamed (formerly Grayskull). Astrum: Interconnection (with Brittany Wharfs). Avallon: Ownership changed. Interconnections (with Fons Vita and POT Gravewater Shores). Brickfalls: Renamed (formerly Umbra Pugno Holdfast). Ownership changed. Brickport: Converted to Forest 02. Rotated to 180. Brittany Shores: New addition (nested in Brittany Wharfs). Caelestis Canton: Set to PvP. Interconnections (removed Brittany; added POTs PaxLair, Dragons Watch, Islands of Wonders, Knowhere, Lockbrier, Serenity Isle, and Tenakill) Dead Horse: Upgraded to Hamlet. Den of Delirium: Renamed (formerly Straits of Delirium). Converted to Underground. D’Jernstad: Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Dooms Den: Converted to Tropical Island. Drachental: Upgraded to Metropolis. Rotated to Right. Dragon’s Rest: Rotated to Right. Dragons Watch: Interconnections (with Caelestis Canton, Sea Nymph Grotto, and Serenity Isle). Dragonshores: New addition (nested in Dragonvale). Dragonvale: Ownership changed. Renamed (formerly Ager Mori). Rotated to 180. Changed location. Interconnections (with Port Graff and Dragonshores). Forgewright: New addition (nested in Kiln). Forptycle: Converted to Mountains. Gladsheim: Converted to Snowy Mountains 01. Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Great Reed Alpha: Upgraded to Village. Hamberia: Converted to Forest 01a. Changed location. Havenstead: Ownership changed. Renamed (formerly Ruins of Old Raven’s Head). Converted to Swamp 01a. Nested interconnection changed to within Aerie. Hometown: Converted to Island. Honor Hold: Converted to Forest 01. Interconnection (with Magna Planitia). Islands of Wonders: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton). It’s a Town: Converted to Desert 01. Nested interconnection changed to within Owl’s Head. Jade Island: Renamed (formerly Orion’s Hold). Converted to Tropical Island. Rotated to Left. Jade Mountains: Renamed (formerly Paws). Converted to Snowy Mountains 01. Rotated to Left. Knowhere: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton). Lockbrier: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton). Metallicus: New addition (nested in Harvest). Mount Nylorac: Renamed (formerly Isle of Nylorac). Converted to Mountains. Numinous Gleann: New addition (nested in Ardoris). Ogygia: New addition (nested in Etceter). Owl Sky City: Converted to Mountains. Rotated to 180. Set to non PvP. Painted Caves: New addition (nested in Oceania). PaxLair: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton). Pomerantz: Converted to Tropical Island. Recluse: Ownership changed. Saint Haley: Renamed (formerly Saint Haley’s Refuge). Upgraded to Village. Sanctus Solus: Renamed (formerly Lea Lochry). Converted to Forest 02. Rotated to Right. Interconnection (with Elad’s Lighthouse). Sea Nymph Grotto: Interconnection (with Dragons Watch). Serenity Isle: Interconnections (with Caelestis Canton, and Dragons Watch). Sionann: New addition (nested in Ardoris). Sirens Cove: New addition (nested in Soltown). SQiRLS DEN: New addition (nested in Brave Coast). Storms End: Renamed (formerly The Stormlands). Rotated to Left. Changed location. Upgraded to Metropolis. Swamp of Sorrow: New addition (nested in Brittany Wharfs). Tenakill: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton). The Hatter’s Estates: Renamed (formerly Serpent’s Den). Ownership changed. The Wildwoods: New addition (nested in Aerie). White Hart: Rotated to 180. Winter Spur: New addition (nested in Oceania). Wisteria Lane: New addition (nested in Central Brittany). Performance: Major efforts will be done to optimize performance. This will include frame rate improvements, load time improvements, and memory footprint improvements. Character LODs: To date, we have only created LODs for scenery like buildings and decorations. In R33, we have begun creating LODs for Characters which are very intensive graphically. This should greatly help performance. Leather Armor Cloth Armor Plate Armor Chain Armor NPC Guards Scenery LODs: Caves Plaques Cloud Imperium Sky Navy Airship Single-Player Offline Combat Balance: A pass will be made through the game to adjust combat balance for play in offline mode with companions. Single-Player Offline Combat Balance Delayed: We still have some fundamental updates we need to do to the combat system before we can start this part of the project where we create a new set of numbers for offline mode. Offline Mode: Patching and Reward delivery for Offline Mode become available to players using this mode to play. Offline Mode Patching and Reward Delivery Delayed: We made a large effort to update to Unity 5.4 (but were unsuccessful). This combined with our focus on almost daily patches for R32 forced us to delay work on Offline Mode. Crafting: Cooking and the Food System will expand with more recipes and more functionality including more food buffs. Cooking and Food System Expansions Delayed: We chose to focus on improving loot tables and tuning/balancing Taming instead of expanding Cooking and Food. Loot Improvements: We have begun laying the foundation for improvements to loot across the game. In Release 33, we have made the following changes: Breakable Containers: These crates and barrels are now connected to the Loot Tables system and will generate randomized loot. Long-term, we will break these up by difficulty levels so the loot will scale based on the challenge level of the scene these containers are in. Dead Bodies: All dead bodies now have a chance to drop consumables. Dead guards and skeletons have a chance to drop basic weapons and armor. Some crafting components have a small chance of dropping as well. Race-Specific Weapons: We’ve began adding racial-specific weapons that drop exclusively in game. For R33, high-level elves have a chance to drop elven weapons. Boss Loot Bundles: Bosses now have a chance to drop consumables, crafting components and occasionally weapons. Bundle Store Expert Crafting Stations: Some Bundles in the Bundle store come with these Expert Crafting Stations (identical to the pledge ones but without the Founder or Benefactor flags). These are now being delivered to those who purchased the bundles that include them. Salvage Button: We moved the Salvage button away from the Craft and Repair buttons to prevent accidental Salvaging. We also changed the color of the Salvage button to red to further differentiate it from the other buttons. Low Durability Icon on Repaired Items: Fixed issue where the Low Durability icon would never reappear on repaired items when they started to get worn down after being repaired. New Recipes: Ornate Aeronaut Outfit: Live out all your flights of fancy with this embossed version of the Aeronaut Outfit. Tiaras: You can craft a Tiara and an Ornate Tiara and then, and only then, will you be fancy…oh so fancy. You can even enchant them! Repair and Salvage: Repair and Salvage are now specific recipes in the recipe book that can be used to bring up the needed ingredients. Sow Seed: You can now use this recipe to plant the seed rather than dragging the seed and water onto the bed each time. This should greatly decrease the number of required repetitive steps in Agriculture. Creatures: We will begin a major polish pass through our creatures. Creature Polish Delayed: Work on telethon rewards and continued efforts on hair polish is delaying this work for now. Combat: Removed Auto Lunge Forward: We have removed the “beloved” feature that was forcing players to Auto Lunge Forward in combat. This was done to improve the visuals of combat but it was removing control from players and therefore negatively impacting players ability to manage encounters. PvP Zones Are Open Multiplayer Only: Players will now encounter other players in zones flagged for PvP regardless of their match-making mode. You will no longer be able to enter these areas in Single-Player nor Friends modes to circumvent PvP risk. There are a few areas like the Obsidian Ruins where story elements require venturing into those areas and we are going to work on alternate ways for players to navigate those areas like we have experimented with in some of the Control Points (i.e. the teleporting Wizard). For example the Crypt of the Avatar which is located in the Midras ruins can now be alternately accessed via the Midmaer Passage. We know this change will be controversial, but we believe it is the best decision for the long-term health of the game. Obsidian Book of Unlearning: Players can now purchase a magical book from Obsidian Crown merchants that can reduce a skill down to the minimum level and recover 90% of the experience points used to level it (these are returned to your experience pool so they can be used to level other skills). We are giving each player one of these books as part of the changes to taming in case they want to reclaim some of the experience spent on taming. Agro: Fixed issues related to how creatures calculated and recalculated agro. This should allow players to actually tank finally. Also, interactions with items (looting, containers, etc) are now blocked when a creature has agro on you. Taming Polish & Tuning: There were various issues with Taming. Many of these were related to the fact that players with no taming skill could purchase taming whistles with high level creatures attached and use those to farm high level areas. Additionally, Taming levels were not having any effect on the summoned creature level. Here is a summary of the changes we made to taming. Collar Recovery Skill: We fixed issues with taming collar consumption and cleaned up the way we represent the Collar Recovery skill. Previously, there was not a stat displayed for this skill. Concentration Skill and Focus Drain: Fixed an issue with concentration skill that reduces the amount of max focus for having an active tamed creatures. The stat that the skill adds is clearer now and should be easy to calculate. The focus drain is now exponential such that higher level creatures drain a large amount of max focus. Summoning, Combat Training and Tamed Creature Level: The Summoning Skill now modifies the Maximum Level of a summoned creature within a defined range for that creature. Additionally the Combat Training Skill will also modify the creature’s power beyond this level affecting the overall power of the creature. The net effect is that leveling up these two skills will increase the power of a summoned tamed creature. Creature Power Scaling: Tamed creature stats and power now scale up with their Creature Level. Refresh and Summoning Cooldown: At some point, our restriction for quick resummoning disappeared. The idea was to apply a cooldown time to resummoning to prevent players from dismissing and resummoning after each combat. The Refresh skill reduces this value. The summoning cooldown issue is now fixed and the restriction has now been re-enabled. Taming Cooldown and Range: As the base Tame Creature skill increases, the cooldown time is reduced from 30 to 10 seconds at max skill and the range is increased from 15 to 25 at max skill. Previously, the cooldown was 10 seconds with a 10 second cast time. This effectively means previously there was zero cooldown. Players can get back to this value but only at max skill (200). Previous range was 20. Hard Limits on Summoning: Summoning creatures from a taming necklace now requires a minimum summoning skill level. The skill level required is related to the creature that is stored inside the necklace. This is a hard limit and the creature cannot be summoned until the required skill level of summoning is reached. This limit is displayed in a tooltip for the taming necklace. World Starting Gift: Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier: All backers of Shroud of the Avatar with game access as of midnight July 27, 2016 will receive this Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier as a small expression of our gratitude. This wearable device uses the latest Kobold technology to allow the wearer to tune into streaming radio stations including our very own Avatar’s Radio or WRFB Radio Free Britannia. We chose this specific gift to honor our community because it started as a suggestion from our community, was initially created by our community, streams content from our community, and is used by our community as part of their events. Star Citizen Cross-Promotion Items: We are doing a cross-promotion with Roberts Space Industries/Cloud Imperium Games in which players who purchase certain limited edition items in Shroud of the Avatar also get access to items in Star Citizen. It’s like Origin Systems reborn! Star Citizen Aether Aeronaut Helmet: The Cloud Imperium Sky Navy equips its daring Aeronauts with these helmets that include the latest in Kobold Aether Vibration technology, allowing the user to tune into radio stations. This can be purchased as part of the Star Citizen Aether Aeronaut Helmet Package, which includes the Star Citizen Mustang Alpha Starter Package. Cloud Imperium Sky Navy Airship: The Cloud Imperium Sky Navy has recently decommissioned 150 of their armor clad airships and lucky Outlanders can purchase them to use as homes on their City Lots. These float above a city lot, providing ample living area while preserving almost 100% of yard space! Purchasing this item also grants the player the Cutlass Black Starship in Star Citizen. Blood Reliquary Make A Difference Bundle Items: Players who bought the Blood Reliquaries started receiving the unique items in R32 including the POT Castle Lot Deed, Blood Fountain, /bloodrain emote, the Lord British and Darkstarr blood red cloaks, and the Reliquary decorations. In R33, we have added the Blood Elemental Pet. Blood Elemental Pet: Show off your love of blood with this cute diminutive companion (if you think a seething, roiling, mass of blood is “cute”). Summer Telethon Part 1 Rewards: We have the first set of Summer Telethon Part 1 Rewards created and being delivered in the game. Any backer who pledged a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight on July 27th (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase did not apply) will receive these rewards (which you can view on your account page). All the rewards were themed around the steam(punk)iness of summer. The second set of Part 1 Rewards should be delivered in R34 along with the first set of the Telethon Part 2 Rewards. /fan emote (with equippable fan): This new emote works when you equip a fan. The emote has you open the fan and then fan yourself against the interminable heat all these Kobold devices generate. Aeronaut Helmet: What else would you wear when you stand in your Hot Air Balloon but an Aeronaut Helmet? Hacked Oracle Crawler Pet: Clever Kobolds have hacked some of the Oracle Crawlers and made them ignore the commands of the Oracle. The Kobolds selling these to Outlanders assure us that the Oracle can no longer observe through them… Clockwork Wings: Kobolds have been experimenting with winged flight for years, albeit unsuccessfully. Outlanders though have begun recently wearing these despite their lack of function just for the looks. Hacked Oracle Flyer Pet: Clever Kobolds continue hacking that which they shouldn’t and hacked some of the Oracle Flyers to make them ignore the commands of the Oracle. The Kobolds selling these to Outlanders assure us that the Oracle can no longer observe through them… Tiny Airship Pet: Novian Aeronautics created these promotional clockwork items to encourage sales of their airships but interestingly there are now more of these Airship pets floating around Novia than there are actual Airships! Emotes: /conduct: It is rumored that Felicia Perdue of Aerie, the great conductor of the feline orchestra, has been known to teach her skills to Outlanders if they are also cat lovers. /belch: A prisoner held captive in the depths of the Epitaph will teach you the benefits of letting gasses escape through the esophagus. /sneeze: The hapless Jeffrey Post in Ardoris will share what he calls a “skill” of sneezing on command. /cough: When in Jaanaford you might ask Joshua Hugtight about his name if you want to learn how to convincingly fake cough. /grovel: This can be learned by offering to give the annoying beggar Chad in Soltown a coin, and then refusing to at the last minute. You scoundrel. /smoke variants: If you would like to impress folks at your next party then purchase one of these fancy smoking tricks from the Add-On Store. /smokering /smokerings /smoketriplerings /smokeheart /smokehearts /smoketriplehearts /smokeburst /breathefire variants: Do you like breathing fire but you wish you could mix it up and exhale other things like flowers or snow? Well, now you can by purchasing one of these new breathing variations from the Add-On Store. /breatheflowers /breathesnow /breathesparkles /breathbluefire /breathefirering Wearables & Equippables: Black & Chrome Ornate Aeronaut Outfit: For those of you who are too cool to be seen wearing brown leather and brass in your Airship, this Add-On Store outfit was made for you. Flechier Tapestry Formal Suit: The newest in our line of fancy outfits in the Add-On Store is sure to draw attention at the next party. Elaborate Tiara: If the two craftable Tiaras mentioned above are just not enough, ooh la la, then you simply must upgrade in our Add-On Store to the most elaborate Tiara in Novia! Pot Belly Fixes: We made various fixes to the male avatar’s posture and animations to fix the infamous “pot belly.” Pets: Grey Great Dane: Do you love your Deutsche Dogge but really wish he were the color of Winter mornings when everything is overcast and it seems the sun will never be seen? Well your wishes have been granted with the newest canine addition to the pets section of the Add-On Store. Silver Mini Automaton: Brass not your color? Miss the Summer Telethon Part 2? Loved the movie A.I.? Whatever the reason, come to the Add-On Store and adopt a Silver Mini Automaton! So, now that it is clear what you can expect, we should also be as clear about what you should NOT expect: Stability (especially Linux): The latest version of Unity that we updated to for Release 29 introduced quite a higher level of instability and memory leaks than we have ever previously encountered. This is especially bad for the Linux version of the game. We are working directly with Unity engineering to resolve this as quickly as possible. Performance: We have begun performance optimizations (LODs) as well as a first round of performance fallback routines via a Performance Manager. However we still have some work to do, particularly for older machines. Additionally, with the latest version of Unity we are using has some serious stability issues and memory leaks that we are working closely with them to resolve. Please be patient with us as we work through these issues. With each release, we will be doing further optimizations and adding more fallbacks to improve performance. Game Loop: Release 33 is a further iteration on our game loop, but is still missing some key components. Expect this to expand with each subsequent release. Visual Quality: Efforts to improve visual quality are ongoing. We will continue to iterate on these until we have highly competitive visuals. Pledge Rewards: Pledge Rewards that have been built and have tech to support them are in the game; all other rewards are awaiting either content creation or tech support. You can find an updated list of these items in known issues. Here are links to instructions and known issues. 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, Starr Long aka Darkstarr Executive Producer Save Save View the full article