Jack T. Lamplighter

Will be fixed in a patch. Was a miscommunication internally. Thank you everyone for your patience and for not over reacting and not posting a bunch of angry threads about it. View the full article

Greetings Avatars, We are incredibly excited to announce that we have scheduled final lot selection and our final wipe, including all social data (names, friends, guilds), for Release 32, July 28, 2016! After Release 32, we will no longer be wiping the game state. Your characters and your properties will be persistent from that date forward! Please understand that final wipe is not “launch”. We will continue to be working to finish the game's story content well past final... Final Wipe and Lot Selection View the full article

Hello everyone! Lord Baldrith here solo still without Acelpius…He should be back next week yay!! Happy Birthday Lord British!! Hope you are enjoying Release 31 Play Release 31 Now Release 31 Postmortem (with exclusive items) Shroud in the News: MMORPG R31 and Jearbear’s Top 10 2016/17 MMOs Q3 2016 Schedule Update Elven Armor The Making of Brittany Estates Add-On Store Goodies! 26 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook Upcoming Events Community Resources – Players Helping Players Status of ONBE Shipments Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back The post Echoes From the Caverns 07-01-16 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 31 Now Release 31 Postmortem (with exclusive items) Shroud in the News: MMORPG R31 and Jearbear’s Top 10 2016/17 MMOs Q3 2016 Schedule Update Elven Armor The Making of Brittany Estates Add-On Store Goodies! 26 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook Upcoming Events Community Resources – Players Helping Players Status of ONBE Shipments Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back Play Release 31 Now! Release 31 successfully launched yesterday, June 30, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including: New scenes including Brittany Alleys and Brittany Wharfs New User Experience Polish including a completely reworked Solace Bridge “New You” in-game Character Customization Gems unlocking specific enchantments on weapons Salvage returning components at high skill levels Revamped Housing Permissions system New Camera Effects including Depth of Field and Sharpness Filter …and much more Check out the Release 31 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 31! If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. The basic Adventurer level pledge is also available on Steam Early Access. Release 31 Player Instructions Release 31 Known Issues Release 31 Postmortem: Join us Thursday, July 7th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! The team will be chatting about Release 31 and looking ahead to Release 32 (important updates coming this week on R32!). And of note, let it be known that Lord British and Lord Darkstarr will play host to a special reliquary event… and blood will be spilled! Consider the squeamish among you forewarned. As always, we will be giving out awesome swag, and answering your questions. For a chance to win a prize, join Discord chat during the broadcast. Be sure to stick around throughout the Hangout for multiple chances to win! Tweet with us @ShroudofAvatar during the Hangout to know when a winner has been announced! Watch here at 3pm CDT on Thursday, July 7th: Post your questions in the post here! Only one post submission allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less! This will allow us to get to as many players as possible. Please keep in mind that 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. Thank you! Shroud in the News: MMORPG.com: Release 31: Nearly Move-in Ready?: Red Thomas wrote another interesting article for MMORPG, this time focusing on how we are getting ready for Final wipe and lot selection. Here’s an excerpt from Red’s article titled: Release 31: Nearly Move-in Ready? Just a month until final wipe. In many ways, the 31st release for Shroud of the Avatar is summed in that simple statement. So many things are right, a few things aren’t quite there yet, there’s a certain anticipation of finally being able to play in a truly persistent game-state, and yet there’s this nagging concern in the back of my mind that the concept might be a little too ambitious. Of course, it’s too ambitious. No one creative enough to develop video games is going to limit themselves to realistic expectations. Whatever mental switch most people have that warns them of projected danger, it’s non-existent in the minds of entrepreneurs and game developers. It takes experience and great mental discipline to drive entire teams of that sort of people towards some semblance of a marketable product, a process made even harder when it’s done right in front of the player-base and with all the opportunities for comment that entails. With one month of development left until the final wipe, there are legitimate questions about whether the team can reach the expected state or not. In this month’s article, we’ll take a look at some of the bigger updates in this release, as well as a couple of other major shifts in direction for the team. Unlike the last major trajectory change with the targeting system, I’ll explain why I like these a lot and why some people may not. Lastly, I’ll also be spending a bit of time exploring the current state of the game with how it relates to the final wipe. Stuff of Newness The standard pace of new scenes continues unabated as the team rolls out a solid list of both player-owned towns and player-run towns (The latter being developed towns that are not owned by a specific player, but don’t have any particular story element located in them. Think of them basically as empty developer-placed space to drop a house.). New story scenes, mostly around Brittany, have been added. Also, several cloned scenes have been placed in the more remote areas to even out resource gathering and adventuring space. [Read More] Jearbear’s Top 10 Upcoming MMO’s of 2016-2017! Youtube host and Twitch streamer Jearbear picked Shroud of the Avatar as #6 in his list of Top 10 MMO’s coming out in the next year in a recent video. Q3 2016 Schedule Update [From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long] Greetings Avatars, As we have stated previously, our goal is to once-per-quarter post an updated schedule for our monthly releases. Even though these goals will likely change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to provide you an updated roadmap periodically. Our goal continues to be to deliver our backers content each and every month so that we can get feedback and use it to iterate improvements. This continues to benefit the game, with sweeping changes, like the switch over to use-based advancement. Meeting that monthly goal is our highest priority, but we require flexibility in our deliverables in order to meet that goal. As you have seen in previous releases, sometimes we push things out, but we also often pull new things in. The third quarter of 2016 starts with the Final Wipe and Lot Selection and then moves on to steadily progressing through the list of features and content promised during our Kickstarter. As always, all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change as we adjust our designs based on direct feedback from you, our backers. RELEASE 32, July 28, 2016 Final Wipe: Please note that if you have been waiting to convert your purchases to store credits, these will be your FINAL three chances to do so as long as you do NOT claim your rewards at the bank. There will be three windows the week of release to convert your purchases to store credit. These windows will be on Monday, Wednesday, and then finally on the day of release, Thursday. This will work exactly as it has in previous releases. Lot Selection: Starting at 11:00 CDT players can begin selecting lots in the game in order of their lot selection group. You can view your lot selection group on your account page. Story: The Love Path will get a major polish pass with a special focus on NPC behaviors in Soltown and Ardoris. Greater Brittany will be finished with the addition of the final neighborhood of Brittany Estates, a plush area composed mostly of City sized lots. Additionally several NPC towns, including Spite, that are currently clones will be replaced with original scenes. New User Experience Polish: Continued polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes with special focus on the Isle of Storms and Bloodriver. Service Hardening: We will continue a series of passes through the client, authentication, and server to harden the service for security and customer service. Special attention will be paid to the Patcher. Player Towns & Player Housing: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations on the town templates may also appear. Performance: Major efforts will be done to optimize performance. This will include frame rate improvements, load time improvements, and memory footprint improvements. Multiplayer Economic Balance: A pass will be made through creature loot bundles, merchant pricing, property taxes, public vendor fees, harvesting rates, agriculture growth, crafting recipe ingredient amounts, and other factors to begin establishing an equilibrium for the multiplayer economy Multiplayer Combat Balance: A pass will be made through combat skills, creature stats, player stats, advancement rates, zone difficulties, and other values to establish an equilibrium for multiplayer combat. Crafting: More enchantments and more masterwork modifiers will come online. Most decorations will be removed from NPC merchants and moved to recipes for crafters. Additionally several homes will be craftable for the first time. Character: A polish pass will be completed through all the hair styles. 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. New User Experience Polish: Continued polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes with special focus on Highvale. Player Towns & Player Housing: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations on the town templates may also appear. Additionally the Lot Deed Lottery system for in game purchase of Lot Deeds will come online. Offline Mode Combat Balance: A pass will be made through the game to adjust combat balance for play in offline mode with companions. Offline Mode: Patching and Reward delivery for Offline Mode become available to players using this mode to play. Crafting: Cooking and the Food System will expand with more recipes and more functionality including more food buffs. Creatures: We will begin a major polish pass through our creatures. RELEASE 34, September 29, 2016 Story: A final polish pass will be completed through the Love Path of the story and we will begin a polish pass on the Courage Path. Aerie and Resolute NPCs will also get a behavior improvement pass. Additionally several NPC towns that are currently clones will be replaced with original scenes. Player Towns & Player Housing: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations on the town templates may also appear. Offline Economy: The economy in offline mode will be tuned to be better balanced for single player. NPC merchants will buy player crafted items at a profit to the player for instance. Additionally pledge and add-on store items will be available from NPC merchants for purchase with in-game gold. Crafting: Recipes will become teachable (much like emotes). Agriculture will get a polish pass and some new content. Creatures: We will continue a major polish pass through our creatures. Roving Encounters: Potential encounters (wandering merchants, monsters, etc.) will appear on the overworld for players to engage (or avoid). We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the funding you provide makes all of this possible, it pales in comparison with the faith you have in us, the feedback you provide us, and the content you are making for everyone to enjoy. We are humbly grateful, and we cannot wait to see you again in New Britannia! Before I go, I wanted to include an excerpt from my original post about our Early Release Schedule that is important to set the framework for our ongoing schedule: As a crowd funded and crowd sourced project, we feel it is incredibly important that we provide our backers with information and access well before game studios would normally do so in a traditional development model. Traditionally, the players are given information and access only after the development team has already decided exactly how things will be done, and at times, even after it has already been implemented. By the time the public normally has access to the product, there is usually no time to meaningfully react to the public feedback. Shroud of the Avatar is different than the traditional model, as we intend to offer our backers extremely early access to information and even the game itself. With that said, we also want to be very careful that we only provide access to portions of the game when they are ready for a wider range of feedback. If we can play it internally and we know it is not ready, then there is nothing to be gained by having a wider audience come to the same conclusion. In fact, it could be quite damaging to do so. Our strategy over the next few months is to provide you with focused and iterative releases of content. Your feedback during these releases will be critical to making the final product the best it can be, and we appreciate that you are all so willing to devote your time to helping us. With each release, we will have specific tests we will ask you all to make. As we get closer, we will send instructions on how to download, install, report bugs, etc. After each release we will review the results and reevaluate the plan including the duration of availability of each release. Please note that game data will be wiped periodically during early access. It is important to note that all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change. Sincerely, Starr Long Executive Producer Shroud of the Avatar Elven Armor Last week we updated you on the polish work that Fletcher “Skullmuncher34” Kinnear was performing on the Elven Armor from the now expired Elven Stretch Goal. We showed you the Elven Mage Robes and Elven Fighter Armor. Below you can see the Elven Archer Armor. Elven Archer Armor by Shroud of the Avatar The community reaction to these has been incredibly positive and players requested the ability to purchase them again because they looked so much better than they had originally. However, since we had already expired these items we could not resell them, so we have created visual variants that are now for sale in the Add On Store. These are called Elven Elder Armor and represent base level armor. Elven Elder Archer Armor by Shroud of the Avatar Elven Elder Fighter Armor by Shroud of the Avatar Elven Elder Mage Robes by Shroud of the Avatar The Making of Brittany Estates NOTE: Brittany Estates is primarily comprised of City sized lots and is scheduled to go live in Release 32. [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Richard “RrMatey” Matey] Here is one last post and update on the Brittany Estates before I finish it for next week. (note: above is the new Viking Stronghold that is part of a new Viking bundle that will go live in Release 32) Add-On Store Goodies! Lot’s of new items added to the Add-On Store this week, including: Signs Players can now place signs on their lots, homes, and player owned towns. These signs have customizable tooltips that players can use to name their shops, homes, guildhalls, taverns, streets, squares, etc. The signs come in 4 Materials (Plain Wooden, Fancy Wooden, Brass, and Silver), 3 Types (Wall, Hanging, and Ground), and over 45 Symbols (including a blank sign). The plain wooden versions are all craftable in game, while the other materials are purchasable in the Add-On Store: 15% Summer Bonus and 26 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 As we march toward the Final Wipe and Lot Selection milestone, we are having a Summer 2016 Expiration Event split into Two Parts! Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on July 27, 2016, we are expiring the homes and basements from the Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2 pledges. We are also expiring new Player Owned Towns (upgrades of existing POTs will continue to be available). All other rewards (including tax free property deeds) that are currently available in the remaining pledges will continue to be available. The final wipe of all game data will also occur at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on July 27th. To commemorate this momentous milestone, we are holding a 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 1, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Wipe at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC). Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 2 At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on August 22, 2016, we are expiring ALL remaining pledges, including: Adventurer, Founder, Royal Artisan, Explorer, Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2. To commemorate the final expiration of all remaining pledges, we are holding a 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 2, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Pledge Expirations at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC). Get Your 15% Summer Bonus! If you were thinking of purchasing (or upgrading) a pledge or Player Owned Town before they expire then now’s a great time to do it! For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, Make a Difference items, and service vouchers) between 12:00 am CDT June 24, 2016 and Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) August 22, 2016, we’ll add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! [Read more…] The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook The Sword of Midras, by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, is a revised and expanded version of the Blade of the Avatar novel (originally included in pledge rewards through May 31, 2015). The expanded The Sword of Midras includes four additional chapters not seen in the pledge reward version of Blade of the Avatar, extending and elaborating on key elements of the story. The release date is June 21, 2016 by Tor Books. The Hardcover, Kindle, and Nook, versions by Tor Books are available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Release date for the unabridged audiobook version is July 12, 2016 with pre-orders available now at Audible.com. Here is sample of the audiobook on SoundCloud: [NOTE: The original Blade of the Avatar novel has already been delivered as an electronic PDF to all pledges prior to May 31, 2015 (when it expired). For those who qualify for this reward, you can find the link to the PDF on your SotA website account page Special Rewards tab for download. The physical and signed versions of the novel that are rewards at the Patron and Citizen level up through May 31, 2015 will be a paperback print version of the original Blade of the Avatar novel that has been delivered as an electronic PDF. This physical reward will be delivered to backers at the same time that all physical rewards are delivered, which we currently expect will be toward the end of this year Some backers have asked if they will receive The Sword of Midras, or the 4 additional chapters that were written for it, as part of their Blade of the Avatar novel pledge reward. Unfortunately, Portalarium is contractually not at liberty to distribute The Sword of Midras, or the additional chapters, in print or electronic form, as part of our original pledge rewards. This was a requirement In order to procure a mass market book publishing agreement with a major book publisher. We felt the mass market distribution of The Sword of Midras was critically important to help increase the worldwide exposure of Shroud of the Avatar. If The Sword of Midras is successful, it will help introduce many readers to our game, and potentially bring them in as new players, which is a long-term benefit for the game and the community.] Upcoming Events 2016.07.07 – R31 Postmortem Livestream at 3pm CDT (with blood!) 2016.07.27 – Summer Telethon Part 1 + Pledge Homes / POT Expirations (Final Wipe at Midnight) 2016.07.28 – Release 32: Lot Selections 2016.08.22 – Summer Telethon Part 2 + Final Pledge Expirations Episode 1 (Pledge Expirations at Midnight) 2016.08.25 – Release 33 2016.08.26 – Syndcon 2016 2016.09.02 – DragonCon 2016 2016.09.21 – Austin Games Conference 2016.09.29 – Release 34 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 the Release 30 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events. Event of the Week – Welcome Quest – An Archaeology Event Mash Up! The Welcome Quest showcases many of the Player-owned and Player-ran towns in New Britannia. Come for unique events in each town. We rotate towns between each Welcome Quest. Sometimes we quest on the overland map to cover a larger area. We are visiting the Celtic Holdfast – Dara Brae (see map). A small piece of bone was discovered while creating our Skara Brae replica house. We have dismantled that house and the pavilion and have begun our “dig site”. You are invited to help us finish the dig and discover what is there. This event is part of the “Lord British Birthday weekend” celebration of events this weekend! Come and enjoy some virtual cake! We will spend a few minutes honoring our liege, Lord British, before the dig starts. You can teleport to Greagoir (who will be available 30 minutes before the event). If adventure is more your style, travel to Elysium island (ferries are available from Quel and Longfall), then in the crescent opening on the south side of the island is Dara Brae. (See original post for additional details) 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. Resource of the Week Role-Players of the Avatar (RPOTA) Role-Players of the Avatar is a social environment where you will find a creative outlet for story writing and adventure creation. We are a community which feeds your desire to be someone else… a crazed barbarian, a cunning scoundrel, maybe a quirky wizard or perhaps a mysterious assassin. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing. Status of ONBE Shipments The Order of the New Britannia Empire (ONBE) awards are now shipping to our amazing community recipients! There are still several recipients that have not updated mailing address information on their accounts. If you are expecting an ONBE, please do this now! We are also sending out e-mails to ensure we have the correct address. Please check that support@portalarium.com is unblocked from your e-mail account to receive these e-mails! Visit SotA Wiki for a current list of those who have received or are expecting ONBEs. 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. For country and regional tax assessment purposes, our tax accountants have requested that we start collecting a buyer’s physical/shipping address for all purchases, whether digital or physical. We’ve tried to streamline that process as much as possible, such that once you’ve entered a physical address we will pre-populate the address fields with your default address. A reminder to please be sure that support@portalarium.com is unblocked from your e-mail account! Recommended Projects to Back LightEaters Here’s the latest from BrightLocker, the first crowd publishing platform for games. BrightLocker was launched by fellow ex-Originites Mark Rizzo and Ruben Cortez, members of the original Ultima Online Network Ops team from back in the day. Their first game, LightEaters, just launched and is now available through the App Store. LightEaters is the first game fully integrated with the BrightLocker platform. That means when you earn rewards, achievements, and digital currency by playing LightEaters you can spend these on the platform to help select and crowdfund the next game you want to play. Explore the perils and pitfalls of the night with the help of your trusty flashlight in this whimsically spooky platform adventure game. You’ll need wits, speed, and the power of your imagination to navigate through the dark, defeat traps and puzzles, and evade the enemies in your way. A huge thanks to everyone who participated in the first 5 Semi-Final voting rounds. Round 6 is open, so get those votes in for your favorite video game ideas and submit an idea yourself – it could be chosen to be made into an actual game! The FINALS begin soon, where the top finalists from each round are pitted against each other. BrightLocker will choose an idea from the top vote-getters from this round to develop into an actual game. Xounts Kickstarter: Shroud of the Avatar Special! We’re excited to announce that Xounts is offering a free Shroud of the Avatar style when you support their unique speaker system Kickstarter campaign. The ‪Xounts‬ system is fantastic at delivering great sound, looks really cool wherever it’s placed, and supports custom themes… including a really SWEET Shroud of the Avatar theme. We even have a SotA styled Xounts in our office! Save Save View the full article

We've lifted the limitation on SIGs to have PNGs! Please keep in mind that all other rules for SIGs still apply. Also, we are limiting these PNGs (and in the future, all SIGs) to 600 width x 120 height. Please let us know if you have any concerns with a SIG image or text you intend to use. View the full article

The build crashed last night and had to be restarted. Mac and Linux will be live on time however Windows will be delayed by 30-60 minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience. View the full article

Greetings Avatars, As we have stated previously, our goal is to once-per-quarter post an updated schedule for our monthly releases. Even though these goals will likely change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to provide you an updated roadmap periodically. Our goal continues to be to deliver our backers content each and every month so that we can get feedback and use it to iterate improvements. This continues to benefit the game, with sweeping changes, like the... Q3 2016 Schedule Update View the full article

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long] Greetings Avatars, As we have stated previously, our goal is to once-per-quarter post an updated schedule for our monthly releases. Even though these goals will likely change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to provide you an updated roadmap periodically. Our goal continues to be to deliver our backers content each and every month so that we can get feedback and use it to iterate improvements. This continues to benefit the game, with sweeping changes, like the switch over to use-based advancement. Meeting that monthly goal is our highest priority, but we require flexibility in our deliverables in order to meet that goal. As you have seen in previous releases, sometimes we push things out, but we also often pull new things in. The third quarter of 2016 starts with the Final Wipe and Lot Selection and then moves on to steadily progressing through the list of features and content promised during our Kickstarter. As always, all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change as we adjust our designs based on direct feedback from you, our backers. RELEASE 32, July 28, 2016 Final Wipe: Please note that if you have been waiting to convert your purchases to store credits, these will be your FINAL three chances to do so as long as you do NOT claim your rewards at the bank. There will be three windows the week of release to convert your purchases to store credit. These windows will be on Monday, Wednesday, and then finally on the day of release, Thursday. This will work exactly as it has in previous releases. Lot Selection: Starting at 11:00 CDT players can begin selecting lots in the game in order of their lot selection group. You can view your lot selection group on your account page. Story: The Love Path will get a major polish pass with a special focus on NPC behaviors in Soltown and Ardoris. Greater Brittany will be finished with the addition of the final neighborhood of Brittany Estates, a plush area composed mostly of City sized lots. Additionally several NPC towns, including Spite, that are currently clones will be replaced with original scenes. New User Experience Polish: Continued polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes with special focus on the Isle of Storms and Bloodriver. Service Hardening: We will continue a series of passes through the client, authentication, and server to harden the service for security and customer service. Special attention will be paid to the Patcher. Player Towns & Player Housing: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations on the town templates may also appear. Performance: Major efforts will be done to optimize performance. This will include frame rate improvements, load time improvements, and memory footprint improvements. Multiplayer Economic Balance: A pass will be made through creature loot bundles, merchant pricing, property taxes, public vendor fees, harvesting rates, agriculture growth, crafting recipe ingredient amounts, and other factors to begin establishing an equilibrium for the multiplayer economy Multiplayer Combat Balance: A pass will be made through combat skills, creature stats, player stats, advancement rates, zone difficulties, and other values to establish an equilibrium for multiplayer combat. Crafting: More enchantments and more masterwork modifiers will come online. Most decorations will be removed from NPC merchants and moved to recipes for crafters. Additionally several homes will be craftable for the first time. Character: A polish pass will be completed through all the hair styles. 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. New User Experience Polish: Continued polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes with special focus on Highvale. Player Towns & Player Housing: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations on the town templates may also appear. Additionally the Lot Deed Lottery system for in game purchase of Lot Deeds will come online. Offline Mode Combat Balance: A pass will be made through the game to adjust combat balance for play in offline mode with companions. Offline Mode: Patching and Reward delivery for Offline Mode become available to players using this mode to play. Crafting: Cooking and the Food System will expand with more recipes and more functionality including more food buffs. Creatures: We will begin a major polish pass through our creatures. RELEASE 34, September 29, 2016 Story: A final polish pass will be completed through the Love Path of the story and we will begin a polish pass on the Courage Path. Aerie and Resolute NPCs will also get a behavior improvement pass. Additionally several NPC towns that are currently clones will be replaced with original scenes. Player Towns & Player Housing: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations on the town templates may also appear. Offline Economy: The economy in offline mode will be tuned to be better balanced for single player. NPC merchants will buy player crafted items at a profit to the player for instance. Additionally pledge and add-on store items will be available from NPC merchants for purchase with in-game gold. Crafting: Recipes will become teachable (much like emotes). Agriculture will get a polish pass and some new content. Creatures: We will continue a major polish pass through our creatures. Roving Encounters: Potential encounters (wandering merchants, monsters, etc.) will appear on the overworld for players to engage (or avoid). We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the funding you provide makes all of this possible, it pales in comparison with the faith you have in us, the feedback you provide us, and the content you are making for everyone to enjoy. We are humbly grateful, and we cannot wait to see you again in New Britannia! Before I go, I wanted to include an excerpt from my original post about our Early Release Schedule that is important to set the framework for our ongoing schedule: As a crowd funded and crowd sourced project, we feel it is incredibly important that we provide our backers with information and access well before game studios would normally do so in a traditional development model. Traditionally, the players are given information and access only after the development team has already decided exactly how things will be done, and at times, even after it has already been implemented. By the time the public normally has access to the product, there is usually no time to meaningfully react to the public feedback. Shroud of the Avatar is different than the traditional model, as we intend to offer our backers extremely early access to information and even the game itself. With that said, we also want to be very careful that we only provide access to portions of the game when they are ready for a wider range of feedback. If we can play it internally and we know it is not ready, then there is nothing to be gained by having a wider audience come to the same conclusion. In fact, it could be quite damaging to do so. Our strategy over the next few months is to provide you with focused and iterative releases of content. Your feedback during these releases will be critical to making the final product the best it can be, and we appreciate that you are all so willing to devote your time to helping us. With each release, we will have specific tests we will ask you all to make. As we get closer, we will send instructions on how to download, install, report bugs, etc. After each release we will review the results and reevaluate the plan including the duration of availability of each release. Please note that game data will be wiped periodically during early access. It is important to note that all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change. Sincerely, Starr Long Executive Producer Shroud of the Avatar 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 31 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, June 30, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC). We are only one release away from Final Wipe and Lot Selection and we are focusing on the final tactical changes in order to prepare for that momentous event. Those tactical changes in Release 31 include an intense focus on the New User Experience, character customization inside the game, additional neighborhoods for Greater Brittany, and continued expansions to the crafting system. The Novian Aeronautics Manufactory in Brittany Alleys New User Experience: For Release 31, we have begun focusing our efforts on improving the new user experience starting with Solace Bridge (which has been completely reworked) and Soltown (which we’ve begun reworking). This reworking includes a new onscreen hint system, new NPC behaviors, and a better flow through the scenes. We selected Solace Bridge and Soltown as part of the polish pass on the the Love path of the story. This means that, for now, we will be putting any further work on the Courage and Truth paths on hold until we feel that the Love path truly represents our goals for Shroud of the Avatar’s story. Crafting: Crafting continues to expand with Masterworking gaining more specialized modifiers per type of gear. This means that higher level Smiths, Tailors, and Carpenters can get really specific on each piece of equipment by adding very specific exact benefits. Alchemists also unlock specific enchantments when they socket gems into weapons and chest armor. These changes are getting us closer to our goal of what we envisage as “Bespoke Crafters” who create very custom gear for the most demanding customers. We also worked on the other side of the life cycle of gear and improved Salvage so that, at high levels, it now has the chance to return components. Housing: With Release 31, housing number requirements are basically achieved for Episode 1 (minus Brittany Estates). The additions of Brittany Alleys, Brittany Wharfs, and 19 new PRTs represent thousands of new lots. Additionally, we finally have Keep and Castle island lots working for the Dukes and Lords of the Manors bringing us in line with the numbers for those pledges (see below for locations). We also greatly improved the granularity of the Housing Permissions system. Stability: We have been working non-stop with Unity for six weeks now on the Unity engine stability issues. We have made some progress on the crashes that happen in scenes (aka the “zombie crashes”). Unfortunately, we are still seeing the crashes that happen during scene transitions and the fix for the in “zombie” crash represents a reduction in visual quality of our water system. 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 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 entirely 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. So, be sure to check out a couple of the Community Events Calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websites Avatars Circle Community Events and Events of the Avatars calendar). 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 31. 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 31, June 30, 2016 Story: The dungeon of Artifice on the island of Elysium will welcome pilgrims for the first time, and the Courage storyline will be playable from beginning to end for the first time. Artifice & Courage Path Delayed: We decided to focus our efforts entirely on the New User Experience and polishing the Love Path versus trying to add another storyline. Brittany Wharfs: This sprawling neighborhood of Brittany is the center of commerce for Greater Brittany and is composed of mostly town-sized lots. Brittany Alleys: This suburb of Brittany houses the bulk of the population of Greater Brittany and is composed of mostly row-sized lots. It is also the center of industry for Greater Brittany and where Novian Aeronautics has their factory. Kiln Cistern: This new underground area beneath the town of Kiln is filled with puzzles, danger, and plenty of water. It also bridges a significant gap in the Underground Network, connecting to Blackblade Pass to Etceter Crag Mines via Quel Passage, and Spectral Mines via the new Midmaer Passage. Midmaer Passage: Midmaer Passage allows underground travel between Kiln Cistern and Spectral Mines. Defeat the Raging Water Elemental in Kiln Cistern or the Ghastly Deadeye in Spectral Mines to get their key and unlock this passage. Brittany Sewers (Phase 1): Begin exploring the treacherous underside of Brittany in this new underground area. Currently accessible from central Brittany and Brittany Alleys, additional entry points will be added to this scene in a future release. Iolo Stories: Players can now find 10 chapters of The Sorcerer’s Daughter by David Watson (our very own Iolo the crossbow maker) at various locations in the game. Note this replaced the last few books we had in the game that had “Lorem Ipsum” text in them. Polish: Novia Cleanup Phase 2: We did more cleanup, polish, and bug fixing on the Novia overworld, including tightening up collision and reintroducing some of the propping that we had to eliminate during the rework. Underground Network: The way in which the Perennial Coast’s underground scenes connect with each other has been updated — Spectral Mines, Soltown Catacombs, and Ardoris Sewers now connect directly with Solania Catacombs, but not with each other. Soltown Catacombs: This beloved underground area received a major overhaul of its Soltown entrance, a simplification of its many tunnels, and general cleanup and polish throughout. Soltown: Soltown is being reworked over the next couple of releases to make it more useful to new players, more immersive, and to feel more alive. By R32, we plan to have most towns along the path of Love feel much more polished and feel like what players expect from a Lord British game. For R31, several (4) new quests have been added to test your virtue. So, be sure to chat with the people you meet, even if you’ve already chatted with them before. You might be surprised by what they have to say. Also, all inhabitants of Soltown are now on schedules, new inhabitants have been added, and some old inhabitants may behave differently or have a different tale to tell. Under Construction Signs: Scenes that we plan to go back to later for major updates (primarily scenes that were cloned from other scenes which need to be made unique) now have notifications to let players know of that temporary state. This notification includes a message on screen that says “Attention: This area is in early development and is temporarily based on another scene.” Also, actual barricades are at the entrances of these scene which players have to walk around before entering. New User Experience Polish: Final polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes. Solace Bridge: We have completely redone the Solace Bridge sequence of the Path of Love tutorial as described by Scott “Lum” Jennings in this forum post. We have removed the pop up windows with tutorial text in this scene. They can still be found in other scenes but we are evaluating completely replacing them everywhere with the new context-sensitive hints that appear now in Solace Bridge. These hints contain one or two lines of text and are onscreen for a few moments versus the windows which were walls of text (note that these new hints cannot be dismissed). Other changes include the removal of the target dummy, meaning you’ll have to practice your combat skills on, you know, things that try to kill you. Edvard will now fight alongside you (well, ahead of you – he tanks so you can practice your ranged skills). He also gives you 250 arrows to start out with, so no more scavenging around for enough arrows to just finish the scene. There is now a weapon rack in the scene so you can select whatever starting weapon you ‘d like (sword, polearm, mace, and shield). However, you will not start with any skills for them and will need to seek out a trainer in Soltown. To make the scene in general more interesting, we’ve introduced a brief quest starting with Charlotte Gray, a young child left behind in the battle whom the Avatar can rescue from certain death. However, saving her will be tough, and if you fail to do so, there will be consequences. Isle of Storms: Butterflies and Watchers were added along with the Magic Mirror (see “New You” section below) and an Oracle Confirmatory. In R32, the Oracle will be asking the Virtue questions instead of Arabella. We also changed the Virtue questions to remove words that sounded too much like classic character classes since those do not apply to our game. (For example, “fighter” replaced with “student of the sword.”) All players begin in Solace Bridge: For R31, we are starting all players in Solace Bridge regardless of what choices they make in Isle of Storms. We will open up the other tutorial scenes to new characters as they are re-done. They can still be entered in their current form, but new characters will not be directed to them. New Female Avatar: A complete overhaul of the female avatar, including a completely new sculpt and skin texture. New Female in R30: This was actually delivered in Release 30. Service Hardening: We will begin a series of passes through the client, authentication, and server to harden the service for security and customer service. Special attention will be paid to the Patcher. Service Hardening: Various changes were made behind the scenes. 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 have delayed this work in order to work on expanding Crafting functionality (see below) Player Towns: Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game, and more Player-Run Town (PRTs) scenes with small NPC cores with basic functions (banks, shops, trainers) will appear across Novia. New variations on the town templates may also appear. New Grassland PRTs in Novia: Magna Planitia (inland grassland in Quel, northwest of Brightbone Pass) Anseldale (inland grassland in Midmaer, southeast of Kiln) Etan Glen (inland grassland in Midmaer, east of Nightshade Pass) Blumdel (inland grassland in Grunvald, west of Desolis) Grimmdalur (inland grassland in Verdantis, east of Dysborg Ruins) Horngap (inland grassland in Longfall, southeast of Blood River) New Swamp PRTs in Novia: This PRT template is based on the Swamp 01 POT template. Grumridge (coastal swamp in southeast Longfall) Smaragar (coastal swamp in northeast Nordgard) New Island PRTs in Novia: This PRT template is based on the Island 01 POT template. Nesoskia (island off the northern coast of Elysium in the Bay of Storms) Pericaliya (island off the southwestern Coast of Longfall, near Aerie) Parrot’s Roost (island north of Quel in the Bay of Storms) Platinum Keys (island off the western coast of Verdantis) Exile Island (island west of Drachvald in Spindrift Bay) New PRTs in Hidden Vale: Port Titan (coastal forest, southwest of Westhollow) Forewind (coastal forest, southeast of Kingsport) Littlecreek (inland forest, southwest of Kingsport) Shady Copse (inland forest, SE of Ravenswood) Umber Heath (inland grasslands, west the Ruined Keep) Greenfall (inland grasslands, southwest of Kingsport) New Dynamic POTs & Dynamic POT Changes: We processed all Locked submission forms for Dynamic POTs. We also removed POTs that had incomplete payment plans. Ahnen Hain: Ownership changed. Renamed (formerly Blackbear Cove (Sea Cave)). Converted to Swamp. Changed location. Interconnections (removed Blackbear Cove (Surface), added Brekken Bay). Antilles Cove: Interconnection (with Prime Mori). Artemis Outland: Converted to Forest. Avallon: New addition (nested in Xenos). Bearskin Grotto: Interconnection (with Jade Valley). Blackrock Cove: Interconnections (with Mara Mesta, Blue Rose Isle, and Taenby Landing). Bladewyke: Ownership changed. Changed location. Blue Rose Isle: Converted to Tropical Island. Bravehaven: Rotated to Left. Changed location (minor). Interconnection (with Fortus End). Caelestis Canton: New addition (nested in central Brittany). Caladruin: Converted to Swamp 1a. Christophs Perch: Converted to Mountains. Clevedon: Nested interconnection changed to within Brittany. Cooper Shoals: Removed POT. Dara Brae: Changed location. Upgraded to Hamlet. Removed Interconnection (with Storm’s Reach). Dawn’s Keep: Rotated to Left. Eodon: Removed POT. Gensicke: Renamed (formerly Gensfield). Upgraded to Hamlet. Glacebourg: Removed POT. Great Reed Alpha: New addition (nested in Mud). Grimmstone Fields: Renamed (formerly Soggy Bottom). Converted to Grasslands. Changed location. Grym: Ownership changed. Renamed (formerly Blackbear Cove (Surface)). Converted to Forest 2. Changed location. Removed interconnection (with Blackbear Cove (Sea Cave)). Heorth: Rotated to Right. Hy-Brasil: Converted to Tropical Island. Islands of Wonders: Converted to Tropical Island. Jade Valley: Interconnections (with Bearskin Grotto and Siren Song Bayou). Lacedaemon: Removed POT. Lions of Amore: New addition (nested in Serenite). Lyonesse: Converted to Tropical Island. Magincia: Removed POT. Mara Mesta: Converted to Mountain. Changed location. Interconnections (with Blackrock Cove, Obsidian Ridge, and Taenby Landing). Mediolanum: Converted to Forest 1a. Memphomai: Converted to Mountains. Minock: Removed interconnection (with Obsidian Ridge). Ownership changed. Changed location. Neverland: New addition (nested in Spite). New Vesper: Converted to Forest 1a. Obsidian Ridge: Removed interconnection (with Minock). Added interconnections (with Mara Mesta and Taenby Landing). Pirate’s Hideout: Renamed (formerly Pirate’s Den). Converted to Mountains. Changed location. Prime Mori: Interconnection (with Antilles Cove). Radio City: Converted to Mountains. Rats Nest: Changed location (minor). Raven’s Head: Upgraded to Metropolis. Saint Haley’s Refuge: Converted to Tropical Island. Upgraded to Hamlet. Sanguine Stand: Rotated to Right. SilverHold: Converted to Alpine 1a. Upgraded to Town. Siren Song Bayou: Upgraded to Hamlet. Interconnection (with Jade Valley). Stonegate: Converted to Forest 1a. Storm’s End: Removed POT. Straits of Delirium : New addition (nested in Owl’s Wash). Tara’s Rest: Removed POT. Wind: Removed POT. Winterbourne: Removed POT. Wyrmgard: New addition (nested in Resolute). Performance: Major efforts will be done to optimize performance. This will include frame rate improvements, load time improvements, and memory footprint improvements. LODs/Simplified Collision: Wrecked Galleon Medieval Boats Spider Eggs Oracle Head Statue Outhouse Lord Thrones Dragon Bones Garden Shed Ardoris Lanterns Baron beds Hedge walls Practice Dummies Footbridges Saddle Stands Longboats & Gondolas Baron Mirror Dragon Statue City walls Creature Statues Water Wheels Rustic Village Buildings Wood and Plaster NPC buildings Wind Turbines Kobold Tower Obsidian Architecture Blacksmith Pack items SpeedTrees: With efforts ongoing, we have created new SpeedTrees to replace some older tree assets which were causing issues negative to performance. Crafting Gems: Adding a gem to a weapon now unlocks specific enchantments related to the gem’s school of magic in addition to increasing attunement to the magic school. For example, adding a Necromancy Gem allows you to add Life Drain to your sword. Note that Gem Socketing is now permanent and can no longer be changed at will. Salvage Returns Components: At high levels of Salvage skill you now have the chance to get components back from salvaged gear, not just scrap or raw materials. Masterworks Skills: These skills now add very specific modifiers to gear based on the type of skill and gear. So, if you are a Smith and you specialize in Blades, you can add modifiers like +5 to Blade speed to a sword. Durability Protection for Purchased Items: Pledge Rewards and Add On Store purchases no longer suffer maximum durability reduction, only current durability. This means they have to be repaired but they will not break. Enchanted/Masterworked Gear VFX: All Enchanted / Masterworked Gear now has a visual effect on it to indicate that it has been enhanced. Tool Engraving: Applying engraving to Tools reduces maximum durability the same way that Masterworking and Enchanting affect maximum durability on weapons and armor. Tool Prices: Prices for in game tools have increased 49 Plain Wooden Signs Recipes: Recipes have been added that generate 49 different symbols on 3 different styles of signs (Wall, Ground, Hanging). See the “Signs” bullet point in Housing below for more details. Combat: Damage distribution based on durability of items: Durability reduction on items is now distributed based on their max durability so they all reduce at approximately the same rate. Experience Bars Removed: These have been removed from the main screen to give more usable space on the main screen. You can still view your accumulated experience pools in the skill windows. Next Level now +20: The “Next Level” display in the Skills window now displays the effect your skill will have when you increase by 20 points versus just 1 point (was legacy when we just had 5 levels). Testudo Durability: This skill no longer constantly drains durability while used. Reveal Hidden: Now leveling properly. Confusion: Targets affected by this spell’s debuff now have sparkles! Shield Bash: Now does a true stun instead of mesmerize but duration has been decreased slightly. Stealth Skills & Spells: Now all share a single channel so they cannot be stacked. This fixes several exploits including being able to harvest while stealthed. Near Death Bonus: The near death bonus for death magic has been doubled. Max bonus is now 100% for players very near death! Body Slam: Now scales damage properly with skill and stacking. Skewer: Root on skewer should now work as expected. All Magic Damage Spells: All magic spells that deal damage have had their focus cost increased. Discharge: The damage for discharge has been lowered and the stun duration decreased dramatically. Chain Lightning & Lightning Bolt: Stun duration decreased dramatically. Death Ray & Death Touch: Damage and heal effect increased significantly. Ice Arrow & Ice Fist: Damage increased modestly. Obsidian Arrow & Stone Fist: Damage increased modestly and the effect of strength on the damage increased. Ring of Fire: Damage over time effect now has increased damage per time but for shorter times. Soothing Rain: Small increase to the healing effect. Character: “New You”: Players can now change their physical appearance in the game. Initially this can be done on the Isle of Storms during your encounter with Arabella using a Magic Mirror. After that, you can seek out Crown Merchants for this service. For R31, these merchants can be found in the Ardoris “New You” shop (located in the docks area), and in Brittany near the Obsidian Crown potion merchant on South Portside Avenue. Polished Hair: We have begun a major polish pass on all the hair styles. Currently only a few have been updated to new models (Short for the Female, and Bob for both genders). By next release, we plan to have all the hair styles remodeled and updated to a new and better shader. Children: Small humans can now be seen wandering Novia and suffering for it. Cloth Tunic: This new craftable cloth armor can be dyed. Elven Elder Armor : After we polished the original Elven armors from the Stretch Goal Store (see below), players requested the ability to purchase them again because they looked so much better than they had originally. However, since we had already expired these items we could not resell them, so we have created visual variants that are now for sale in the Add On Store. These represent base level armor. Elven Elder Fighter Armor Elven Elder Archer Armor Elven Elder Mage Robes Polish: Gambeson: Formerly known as Cloth Doublet. This is now a piece of craftable Cloth Armor. Chainmail: Fixed belly on male character. Founder Leather Armor Founder Tunic Benefactor Tunic Red Dress Elven Fighter Armor Elven Archer Armor Elven Mage Robes /juggle: Players can learn this emote from Vivian Deventer, the “New You” merchant in the Alchemy shop on South Portside Avenue in Brittany. /macarena: Players can learn this dance from Bruno Martelli, the “New You” Salon owner in Ardoris. /puke & /drunk: Eventually overindulging in drink will cause your Avatar to throw up and have a different, more wobbly, idle animation. Invoking the /puke emote will force your Avatar to throw up in an even more spectacular fashion than normal whenever you wish, you sadistic bastard. This emote is available in the Add-On Store and comes with the /drunk idle as well. New Basic emotes: We added the following emotes to all characters: /smile /frown /scowl /giggle /goodbye /welcome /yes /no NPCs and Creatures Fire Elementals: Now emit light. Oracle Watchers: Watchers now scan players and NPCs with a visual effect and use head tracking. Head Tracking and Noticing: Townspeople now notice each other and players and they turn their heads to track accordingly. Corpse Eating: Undead have a new, and disturbing, idle behavior… Scheduling Granularity: NPC schedules can now be done at much higher granularity than before. Player Housing Housing Permissions: We have modified the permissions of our housing system to give owners greater control over how they share use of their property. This includes more levels of permissions and permission control per item. WARNING: All permissions have been wiped and need to be redone as part of this change. Guest Can open locked doors. Can not place or remove decorations. Kindred/Guild member Identical to Guest with the additional ability for the owner to grant item access permissions (chests, vendors, etc.) Can place, modify, or remove decorations dependent on item access privilege. Trustee Can add/remove permissions for lower ranks. Can place, modify, or remove decorations dependent on item access privilege. Co-Owner Can add/remove permissions for lower ranks. Can place, modify, or remove any item on the plot. Owner Actual home owner. Can add/remove any permissions. Can place, modify, or remove any item on the plot. 6 Shingle Roof Homes: Community member SeleneNoctua suggested that the little Shingle Roof home that comes as a default with some of the lot deeds has a really nice exterior and interior style and requested other larger homes in that same style. Other players agreed, so we took all the Wood & Plaster style homes and made versions of them with this style. Furthermore, we have chosen to make these available in game via merchant and 4 additional ones will be craftable in R32. 2 Story Shingle Roof Row House 3 Story Shingle Roof Row House Shingle-Roof 3 Story Open Plan Village Home Shingle-Roof 2 Story with Great Hall Village Home Shingle-Roof 2 Story with Overhang Village Home Shingle-Roof with Balcony Village Home Signs: Players can now place signs on their lots or on their homes. These signs have customizable Tooltips that players can use to name their shops, homes, guildhalls, taverns, streets, squares, etc. The signs come in 4 Materials (Plain Wooden, Fancy Wooden, Brass, and Silver), 3 Types (Wall, Hanging, and Ground), and over 45 Symbols (including a blank sign). The plain wooden versions are all craftable in game, while the other materials are purchasable in the Add-On Store. Symbols include: <blank> Hospitaller Combat Blade Bludgeon Light Armor Heavy Armor Shield Polearm Ranged Agriculture Alchemy Blacksmith Butcher Carpenter Cook Field Dressing Gathering Forestry Milling Mining Smelting Tailor Tanning Textiles Magic Air Chaos Death Earth Fire Life Moon Sun Water Armor Armor and Weapon Bank Book Seller Clothing General Crafting Fishing General Store Guild Inn Real Estate Tavern Trainer Weapon Keep and Castle Island Water Lots: Holders of a Founder Keep Deed or Founder Castle Deed can use that deed to claim a new type of water lot that has the option to have an island underneath it. These island lots can be found in all coastal PRTs, most coastal towns that are cloned (Spite, Estgard, Port Graff, etc.), all Island PRTs, and many of the larger waterfront NPC towns (including Aerie, Brittany, Ardoris, Brittany Alleys, and Brittany Wharfs). We plan to make these work in Dynamic Coastal, Underground and Island POTs later this year as well, but will likely be preplaced versus fully dynamic due to their size and the fact that they include terrain. Slow Decoration Rotation Speed now Slower: We have slowed the slower decoration rotation speed (called via a key modifier) to be even slower (0.1 degrees per second) to allow for much finer adjustments. House Pets and Servants: We have eliminated the need to have two objects (call & deco version) for Pets and Servants. Note this now means if your Pet or Servant is at your home, it can no longer also be out adventuring with you… Radiant Energy Coil & Capacitor: These sparking energy devices based on Kobold technology are sure to be a conversation starters. Bell Tower: This decoration item has eight bells that can be rung by players, each with a different note. Telescope: This placeable item allows players to view objects far away, similar to the handheld version from the now expired Ships stretch goal. Viking 2-Story Village Home with Dual Balconies: New in our line of Viking homes, this beautiful 2-story, village home, with 2 rooms on the first floor, a single large room on the second floor, and both a front and rear balcony on the 2nd floor. Keep Stone & Timber 5 Story Basement: The newest addition to our line of basements is a Keep sized 5-story basement using the split level Stone & Timber style. Built in Lighting: Added more built in lighting to the following homes: Crafting Pavilion Lord Marshal Stucco Row Houses Ardoris Docks: Waterlot dock areas in Ardoris can now be decorated by owners Audio: We did another pass through the game upgrading and adding various sound effects including the following: Isle of Storms Oracle Watchers Sheep Cow Chicken Fireworks Ocean Overall music volume turned down (to balance mix) Sheath and Unsheath Weapons Swords Bows Polearms Daggers Hammer Axe Mace Wand Emotes (these include new male and female vocals): Angry Backflip Belly Laugh Boo Cheer Chicken Clap Come Here Cry Drink Face Palm Face Slap Flex Flower Giggle Hand Stand Jumping Jacks Kiss Laugh Meditate No Panic PlayDead Ponder Rock, Paper, Scissors Royal Gesture Royal Wave Salute Scowl Shadow Box Shakes Fist Shake Head Shooter Table Flip Talk Talk Angry Taunt Throat Cut Thumbs Up Toast Yawn Yes Miscellaneous: Crowns for Items: Crown merchants will now offer crowns for certain items. For now, this is limited only to house deeds from Pledges and Add On Store purchases but may expand to support other purchased items as well. This is to help support players wishing to still be able to “melt down” after final wipe, but who may have already claimed their items. Camera Effects: We have introduced new camera effects in this release as part of our ongoing efforts to improve our visuals and improve performance. Ambient Occlusion: We have upgraded our AO filter with new filter that gives better results for a fraction of the cost. Depth of Field: Distant elements now have a softer appearance during the day that fades during the night. Color Grading: A much simpler color grading system has been added. The result should be a more natural color tone and more natural saturation tuning. Sharpness filter: To go with depth of field filter, we now use a sharpness filter on near objects. The result is near objects are more crisp than past releases and distant objects are slightly blurred. Bloom: We have switched to a new bloom filter that gives a much better and less exaggerated effect. Lord British’s Birthday Items: To celebrate Lord British’s birthday on July 4th, we are putting Fireworks and new version of the birthday cake in the Add-On Store Red, White & Blue Rocket Fireworks Red, White & Blue Missile Fireworks 2016 Lord British Birthday Cake: This is a new color variation for this year that yields a different array of fireworks. 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 31 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. Persistence: As part of development, we will need to periodically wipe data including characters, property, etc. There will be only one more wipe in July before everything goes persistent with Release 32. So consider everything gained during early access temporary. 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 View the full article

It is no secret that the Shroud of the Avatar team has chosen a very different path than any other project out there. From day one we wanted to change how games were developed and funded. As we move closer to something that feels like a final product we also need to move closer to something that feels closer to a final business model that is sustainable in the long run. So Friday we introduced the rough plan for the new model. I think we only gave it a paragraph or two and clearly we... Explanations on monetization thinking on SotA View the full article

Join us Thursday, July 7th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! The team will be chatting about Release 31 and looking ahead to Release 32 (important updates coming this week on R32!). And of note, let it be known that Lord British and Lord Darkstarr will play host to a special reliquary event… and blood will be spilled! Consider the squeamish among you forewarned. As always, we will be giving out awesome swag, and answering your questions. For a chance to win a prize, join Discord chat during the broadcast. Be sure to stick around throughout the Hangout for multiple chances to win! Tweet with us @ShroudofAvatar during the Hangout to know when a winner has been announced! Watch here at 3pm CDT on Thursday, July 7th: 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. Please keep in mind that 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. Thank you! View the full article

Updated 6/14 Here's what we're working on right now. Please post any bug reports below this. I'll update this post as we work on hammering things out. - A few minor bugs persist with avatars where they display incorrectly in various places (such as the pop up window when you click on a user's name) - Log into the forum automagically when logged in to the main SotA website. This works when you log in now, assuming your email is the same on the SotA website and here. Note... The Official Forum Bug ListView the full article

Greetings 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 30 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this... Release 30 Instructions View the full article

Hello everyone! Here I am, all alone, with Asclepius still on vacation, so hope you can stay awake! Hope you enjoy the news! Announcing the 15% Summer Bonus! Welcome Back to Solace Bridge! The Making of Brittany Estates The Making of Brittany Wharfs Polished Elven Fighter Armor and Mage Robes Prism In-Game Event: Remembrance of the 49 Victims of the Orlando Shooting Massacre SotA Con 2016 Viking 2-Story Village Home with Dual Balconies 33 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook Upcoming Events Community Resources – Players Helping Players Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back: Crowfall’s First Ever Telethon!/li> The post Echoes From the Caverns 06-24-2016 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: Announcing the 15% Summer Bonus! Welcome Back to Solace Bridge! The Making of Brittany Estates The Making of Brittany Wharfs Polished Elven Fighter Armor and Mage Robes Prism In-Game Event: Remembrance of the 49 Victims of the Orlando Shooting Massacre SotA Con 2016 Viking 2-Story Village Home with Dual Balconies 33 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook Upcoming Events Community Resources – Players Helping Players Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back: Crowfall’s First Ever Telethon! Announcing the 15% Summer Bonus! If you were thinking of purchasing (or upgrading) a pledge or Player Owned Town before they expire, then now’s a great time to do it! Between now and the Summer 2016 Expiration Event: Part 2 (see below), we are offering a 15% Bonus on all purchases! Here are the details: For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, Make a Difference items, and service vouchers) between 12:00 am CDT June 24, 2016 and Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) August 22, 2016, we will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward additional purchases (which includes pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and player owned town upgrades). [NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CDT for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of Service Vouchers or Make a Difference items] You can use the 15% Bonus to save on your next purchase! For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge, you would normally pay the extra $45 for the upgrade. But using the 15% bonus you can immediately save $5. To do so, you would first purchase $40 worth of Store Credit Gift Coupons (via PayPal, Amazon, Bitcoin, or credit card; excluding existing Store Credit) then use the “Convert to Credits” option on your account page to transform the Store Credit Gift Coupons into Store Credit. Within 24 hours an additional $6 bonus ($40 x 15%) would be applied to your Store Credit account, bringing it up to $46. You would then use $45 of your Store Credit to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge. Welcome Back to Solace Bridge! [From a Dev Post from Scott “Lum” Jennings] As part of next release, we’re completely redoing the Solace Bridge sequence of the Path of Love tutorial. Since this may be relevant to the interests of this forum, here’s what we have implemented (@Attenwood and crew just started killing my hopes and dreams with it today): – No more help windows with text Players tend to ignore them and turn them off, and with the new reticle system they’re difficult to interact with. We are keeping them post-tutorial for R31 but will continue to evaluate them. – Help is IN YOUR FACE Here’s an example of what you see instead: Instead, it makes more sense to practice combat on, you know, things that try to kill you. So we’ve ramped up the number of undead on Solace Bridge (from 4 to 12ish), and have them be more active. You get context-sensitive hints for moving and firing your new bow as you move down the bridge. – Wait, 12 undead, as a new player? What? Well, you have help. Edvard no longer just magically clones himself – instead he will fight alongside you (well, ahead of you – he tanks and could probably take on the bridge by himself since having him die during the tutorial would be rude) and accompanies you to the other side where you meet him previously. (He also gives you 250 arrows to start out with, so no more scavenging around for enough arrows to just finish the scene with) – But Lum, I don’t WANT to use a bow! That’s fine. As mentioned earlier, we’ve placed a weapon rack in the scene so you can select whatever starting weapon you ‘d like (sword, polearm, mace, and shield). You don’t start with any skills for them but if you know you wanted them anyway it’s probably not a concern. You are still prompted to use a bow and have basic skills for them. – What about that kid, anyway? As part of making the scene in general more interesting/have more to do, we’ve introduced a brief quest where Charlotte Gray (the child in Solace Bridge) now must be saved from the battle by you. You can decline to do so, or get her killed, and all of these choices will have appopriate consequences. We look forward to see your reaction to this moving forward, since much of it is directly based on your feedback! The Making of Brittany Estates NOTE: Brittany Estates is primarily comprised of City sized lots and is scheduled to go live in Release 32. [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Richard “RrMatey” Matey] Just wanted to give you guys some more screenshots for the last week of work. Just over 50% done, but I feel it has an established style and look, that is unique to this zone. The Making of Brittany Wharfs NOTE: Brittany Wharfs is the center of commerce for Greater Brittany and is mostly comprised of Town sized lots. It is scheduled to go live in Release 31. [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar] UPDATE ON BRITTANY WHARFS Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here once again to give you the latest scoop on the Brittany Wharfs. Now this weeks update on the Wharfs is pretty jammed pack with screenshots as the map approaches completion for this upcoming release; including a top down view of player properties and the overall map layout. Overlooking the Harbor, a protective fort looks out to Sea protecting the vital trade market of the Brittany Wharfs. Water communities in the northside of the Brittany Wharfs. With 30 Water Lots, the Brittany Wharfs is a must go to place for Water Property lovers. The Warehouse District pictured right below the gate to Brittany. Rumors abound of a black market in the area filled with notorious activity and contraband smuggling; the dark side of the merchants and trade that keep the Brittany Wharfs alive. Waterfront property right next to the Harbor. Merchants who make their lives on bargain and trade live in the Wharfs propering from the rich trade in the area. Rusty Satyr Inn. A place for merchants and sailors to sit down and have a drink after a long day at the Harbor. Open areas for players are plentiful in the Wharfs, from outdoor water patios to small stages all focused on providing the best commodity for players. On the upper left you can catch a glimpse of a Duke Island Lot. Esteben Zaldivar Level Designer Polished Elven Armor As part of our rework of the Avatars we are steadily progressing through many of the clothing and armor items to improve their visual quality. We periodically update the progress of this effort. [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “Skullmuncher34” Kinnear] Hey guys! Just got done with a revamp of the Elven Fighter Armor. More on the way in the near future! Elven Armor by Shroud of the Avatar Elven Mage Robes by Shroud of the Avatar Prism In-Game Event: Remembrance of the 49 Victims of the Orlando Shooting Massacre The worst mass shooting in recent American history occurred on June 12, 2016, when forty-nine people were killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The New York Daily News published this composite image of those victims: Community member Lace is postponing her Battle of the Bands event in order to hold a Solidarity March at 1pm CDT, June 25, 2016, in remembrance of “…those who lost their lives, those who are still fighting for their lives and for the friends and families of all those affected.” Here is an excerpt from her Release 30 Events Forum post: We will meet in Brittany (map) and I will give exact coordinates once I have mapped out a route for the march. Torches for those that need them will be handed out. (May I request a few volunteers to hand them out? I will purchase them np, but need folks to be on hand out duty. [see original post to volunteer]) The plan is to assemble at 1pm NBT [CDT] time, do a brief march through the city taking approximately 15 minutes or less. At the end of the route I will ask for any that wish to speak to come forward. Say whatever is on your mind, we would all welcome it. (I would ask that you prepare your speech so you can cut and paste it into chat, rather than going off the cuff and typing, it will keep things brief and allow more to speak that wish to do so) At approximately 2pm NBT [CDT], in conjunction with Avatar’s Radio, we will host a dance party for one hour so the healing energy can flow among us all. I am looking for perhaps someone with a larger lot for the dance party that would be willing to host it so we can have in game radios (let me know if willing to host on your lot — would like town or higher but village can work as well [Community member Spoon has volunteered his Brittany town lot]) Wear whatever you like, but if you would like to be ‘flamboyant’ and need materials for dyes I have a stock I have been selling but would be willing to donate some of the maple or pine barks etc or make dyes. Send me an in-game tell to Lace Delamorte, or @Lace on the forums and I will do what I can till I run out. Do not feel you have to be flamboyant, if you want to be a warrior marching with us that is most welcome, as I want to promote this as a brothers and sisters in arms regardless of dress. Twitch streamers are very welcome! [See original post for additional details…] SotA Con 2016 [From a forum post by Violation Clauth] We’re happy to announce the first annual Shroud of the Avatar Convention in 2016 to take place on November 4-6 2016 in Baltimore, MD. This convention will be one of our making as a community. The schedule, pending announcement based on funding, has a lot of exciting opportunities and our ambitions are grand. What we know for sure at this point: players will be there. The goal for this Con is to create a Shroud of the Avatar themed gathering, on the east coast so that players and developers can come together, grow together, and share ideas. What we don’t want is people to attend, thinking that there will be big sponsors and expensive swag bags. The goal is to simply come together, make friends, have a great time, and talk about Shroud of the Avatar We are asking for funding for the event and for everyone to let us know if they are able to attend. The hotel we have offers group rates for rooms and we would love to make sure everyone gets the best deal possible. We need people to stay at the hotel to get the best price for the convention rooms. Some of the things we have in the works: At least someone from PaxLair, Port Phoenix, Avatars Radio, NBNN, and many other communities have committed to attendance. At least 3 developers have committed to attendance Potentially, we will recreate a board game using the map of Novia as the board! Group gaming opportunities Potentially, group meals with garb encouraged! Vendors from the SotA community Potentially, a kid friendly area! A 1st year exclusive attendance reward will be given out at the event! We need volunteers. Both local to the area, to help with logistics and planning, and others to help facilitate a smooth and enjoyable time for everyone. We also need financial backing as well as attendees. I would like to thank the three people who have already committed to helping this project and a special thanks to @Winfield for being a sounding board for the last five or so months that we’ve been planning this. We are excited for this event and can’t wait to see everyone and have a great time. I would also like to thank @DarkStarr for his initial support @Berek for his current and future support in making sure we can have Portalarium in attendance. Please visit sotacon.org for more information. If you would like to attend or volunteer, please get a hold of me. More details will come in the near future. Viking 2-Story Village Home with Dual Balconies In our line of Viking homes is this beautiful 2-story, village home, with 2 rooms on the first floor, a single large room on the second floor, and both a front and rear balcony on the 2nd floor, available now in the Add-On Store! 33 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 As we march toward the Final Wipe and Lot Selection milestone, we are having a Summer 2016 Expiration Event split into Two Parts! Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on July 27, 2016, we are expiring the homes and basements from the Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2 pledges. We are also expiring new Player Owned Towns (upgrades of existing POTs will continue to be available). All other rewards (including tax free property deeds) that are currently available in the remaining pledges will continue to be available. The final wipe of all game data will also occur at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on July 27th. To commemorate this momentous milestone, we are holding a 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 1, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Wipe at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC). Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 2 At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on August 22, 2016, we are expiring ALL remaining pledges, including: Adventurer, Founder, Royal Artisan, Explorer, Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2. To commemorate the final expiration of all remaining pledges, we are holding a 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 2, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Pledge Expirations at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC). The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook The Sword of Midras, by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, is a revised and expanded version of the Blade of the Avatar novel (originally included in pledge rewards through May 31, 2015). The expanded The Sword of Midras includes four additional chapters not seen in the pledge reward version of Blade of the Avatar, extending and elaborating on key elements of the story. The release date is June 21, 2016 by Tor Books. The Hardcover, Kindle, and Nook, versions by Tor Books are available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Release date for the unabridged audiobook version is July 12, 2016 with pre-orders available now at Audible.com. Here is sample of the audiobook on SoundCloud: [NOTE: The original Blade of the Avatar novel has already been delivered as an electronic PDF to all pledges prior to May 31, 2015 (when it expired). For those who qualify for this reward, you can find the link to the PDF on your SotA website account page Special Rewards tab for download. The physical and signed versions of the novel that are rewards at the Patron and Citizen level up through May 31, 2015 will be a paperback print version of the original Blade of the Avatar novel that has been delivered as an electronic PDF. This physical reward will be delivered to backers at the same time that all physical rewards are delivered, which we currently expect will be toward the end of this year Some backers have asked if they will receive The Sword of Midras, or the 4 additional chapters that were written for it, as part of their Blade of the Avatar novel pledge reward. Unfortunately, Portalarium is contractually not at liberty to distribute The Sword of Midras, or the additional chapters, in print or electronic form, as part of our original pledge rewards. This was a requirement In order to procure a mass market book publishing agreement with a major book publisher. We felt the mass market distribution of The Sword of Midras was critically important to help increase the worldwide exposure of Shroud of the Avatar. If The Sword of Midras is successful, it will help introduce many readers to our game, and potentially bring them in as new players, which is a long-term benefit for the game and the community.] Upcoming Events 2016.06.30 – Release 31 2016.07.27 – Summer Telethon Part 1 + Pledge Homes / POT Expirations (Final Wipe at Midnight) 2016.07.28 – Release 32: Lot Selections 2016.08.22 – Summer Telethon Part 2 + Final Pledge Expirations Episode 1 (Pledge Expirations at Midnight) 2016.08.25 – Release 33 2016.08.26 – Syndcon 2016 2016.09.02 – DragonCon 2016 2016.09.21 – Austin Games Conference 2016.09.29 – Release 34 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 the Release 30 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events. Event of the Week – EVL Siege Wars This Friday, June 24th, EVL will be holding their first ever Siege Wars in Forsaken Forest (entered through the player owned town of Brickport; map). We invite everyone that is interested in PvP, no matter their level, to come join us for a night of fun. We will have two towers, two relics, and two teams. The teams will battle against each other in a struggle to defend the relic in their own tower while at the same time attempting to capture the enemy teams relic. The teleport point for the evening is Jar Laxle. We will get things started at 8 p.m. server time. Hope to see you there! (details) 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. Resource of the Week New Britannia News Network NBNN is New Britannia’s premier video streaming news network. This community effort mobilizes streamers into a global endeavor of promotion for the greater Shroud of the Avatar community. Whether it be the latest news or a revealing interview, NBNN never fails to surprise! And much to my surprise while visiting their site, they have a decent number of maps to peruse. Check it out, friends! 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: For country and regional tax assessment purposes, our tax accountants have requested that we start collecting a buyer’s physical/shipping address for all purchases, whether digital or physical. We’ve tried to streamline that process as much as possible, such that once you’ve entered a physical address we will pre-populate the address fields with your default address. Recommended Projects to Back: Crowfall’s First Ever Telethon! Get Ready for Crowfall’s First Ever Telethon! Our friends over at Crowfall are having their first ever telethon. We wish them the best with their fundraising goals! Be sure and tune in during their 12-hour telecast and lend your support. And be sure to suggest that Gordon and Todd sing, dance, or take a shot as the backers pledge their support! Here’s an excerpt from the CROWFALL LIVE post: The ArtCraft office is swirling with activity as we prepare for the first-ever “Crowfall Live!” on Monday [June 27, 2016 at 8:00 am Central]. We don’t want to spoil any surprises, so we can’t show any of the works in progress – but here is a teaser shot from our newly-installed ACE studio (i.e. the big closet that we were using a week ago for storage). Props to our video producer John Gibson and our new production intern Max Lancaster for pulling this together! Here are some of the things we have in store for you during the livestream: A partnership announcement, Surprise guests, Design reveals (new information about both systems and content!), Live demonstrations from our amazing artists, Beat-the-Dev playtests, Murder of Crows live (more info on this soon!) Future plans for ACE Hourly prizes and sales And even more… This 12-hour “Crowfall Live!” event will begin at 8 am Central, so drop in as often and for as long as you can throughout the day on Monday, June 27th twitch.tv/crowfallgame. Come join us for what promises to be a great time! Todd & Gordon Co-Founders, ACE Xounts Kickstarter: Shroud of the Avatar Special! We’re excited to announce that Xounts is offering a free Shroud of the Avatar style when you support their unique speaker system Kickstarter campaign. The ‪Xounts‬ system is fantastic at delivering great sound, looks really cool wherever it’s placed, and supports custom themes… including a really SWEET Shroud of the Avatar theme. We even have a SotA styled Xounts in our office! Save View the full article