Jack T. Lamplighter

You may have noticed I have been absent of late from my favorite haunt (these forums) but I have returned! I of course have a LOT of catching up to do. Please be patient as I try to digest the last two weeks of discussions. I plan to adopt the old saying: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” View the full article

The following is an excerpt from my Final Wipe and Lot Selection Post where I listed all the items we are planning on having in the game for Release 32 and all the items that will be in the game after that time. However each Post Mortem players ask questions about items on this schedule which made me realize that players may not even remember that this Roadmap even exists inside that post! So I have pulled that section out, updated it with the latest information, and posted it here as it's... Roadmap View the full article

Hello everyone! Lord Baldrith here still going solo with Asclepius on vacation! Hope you enjoy the news! The Making of Brittany Estates RizeUp Gaming’s 4th Annual Multiple Sclerosis Charity Drive, June 17-19 Pledge Stats Update Womby & Friends Present: Incident in Skrekk (A Tour of Kobold Homes) 40 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 Preorder The Sword of Midras SotA Novel and Audiobook! Upcoming Events Community Resources – Players Helping Players Lace’s SotAWiki How-To Video Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back/li> The post Echoes From the Caverns 06-17-16 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: The Making of Brittany Estates RizeUp Gaming’s 4th Annual Multiple Sclerosis Charity Drive, June 17-19 Pledge Stats Update Womby & Friends Present: Incident in Skrekk (A Tour of Kobold Homes) 40 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 Preorder The Sword of Midras SotA Novel and Audiobook! Upcoming Events Community Resources – Players Helping Players Lace’s SotAWiki How-To Video Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back 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] Hey guys back again to keep you posted on the progress of another Brittany neighborhood. Brittany Estates is a gated community with lovely scenery and magnificent gardens. A great place to settle down and find that house or castle of your dreams. One of the new things I experimented with in this scene is creating running water streams / rivers. So far it’s been very successful and here are some shots of a small stream that runs through Brittany Estates. RizeUp Gaming’s 4th Annual Multiple Sclerosis Charity Drive, June 17-19 [The following excerpt is from a RizeUp Gaming Twitch Channel Subscriber Letter] We are excitedly preparing for our June charity: the Fourth Annual Multiple Sclerosis Society Charity Drive hosted live on the channel the 17th through 19th. Look forward to seeing our everyday streamers in additional to a few of our newest members recruited to the stream team. Long-time supporter, Indie, will be casting from the channel Saturday, June 18th, at 10am PDT. RizeUp Owner, Firecrow, will be casting the same day at 8pm PDT. All streams during the marathon will have special donation incentives to make donating to the MS Society Charity a little more interesting as we attempt to reach our $1000 goal. Prizes for this marathon include two Steelseries headsets, one 60-day Minecraft server hosted by WTGHosting, artwork by artists in our community, and Steam game code packs. We will be giving out Steam game codes when we reach certain follower, subscriber, and donation increments to viewers in chat and through the RizeUp Twitter. Make sure to come by the channel and show off your sub emotes while we raise money for MS. https://www.twitch.tv/rizeupgaming Donate to RizeUp Gaming’s National MS Society Charity Drive here! #StrongerThanMS Pledge Stats Update [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Dallas Snell] Greetings Avatars, It’s been a year since we last posted pledge stats (see May 2015 report) and we’ve received several requests from the community for an update…so, here ya go! This first chart shows the change in pledge counts from May 2015 to June 2016. The data does not include Steam Early Access, Guilt Pledges, or unassigned pledges. The largest percentage increase was the Knight Marshal (increased 84% from 109 to 201). The largest increase in sheer quantity was the Ancestor tier, which increased by 441 pledges (followed closely by Immortal Adventurer at 416 pledge increase). The Ancestor tier became quite popular once it was improved to include a tax-free row lot and 2-story row house! This next chart shows the change in pledge revenue per tier from May 2015 to June 2016. The Duke pledge tier posted the largest gains, by far (just as it did last May): This next chart shows the current pledge data with the pledge counts as vertical bars and the dollar value of each pledge tier as a gold line. The Knight tier was dethroned for the first time in terms of pledge revenue, being handily trounced by the increasingly popular Duke tier. Since the Citizen pledge has been expired, we show it and the Edelmann tiers separately for this report (unlike previous reports where we combined them). Those pledges had been selling at almost equal rates until the Citizen expired, and now the Edelmann is beginning to pull ahead. Quite honestly, we’re surprised that every Citizen pledge owner hasn’t upgraded to Edelmann, since it is only $25 to upgrade and for that you move 9 groups earlier in Lot Selection Priority, receive a unique beer brewing recipe, a German automaton (inspired by the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Munich), a Deutsche Dogge pet, a unique bird bath deco, an additional “Edelmann” title (and even more rewards if you are a Founder-era or Royal Founder-era backer)! Pledges with property (Ancestor and above) represent 12% of all backers (up 2% from May 2015 report) and 70% of all pledge revenue (up 7% from May 2015 report). Pledges without property represent 88% of all backers and 30% of pledge revenue. And this final table shows the current number of Player Owned Towns that have been purchased thru Jun 16, 2016. A total of 310 towns have been sold, up from 202 reported in May 2015. Of these 310 towns, only 230 have direct Overland Map access, and the remaining 80 towns are linked to other POTs or to NPC towns. Womby & Friends Present: Incident in Skrekk (A Tour of Kobold Homes) [From the Hospitallers’ SotAHelp.org Video Tutorial page] Think you might be interested in a Kobold home? Well this video could help you decide! The talented Shroud of the Avatar player, Womby, with an amazing cast of actors, bring us this wonderful tour of the in-game Kobold homes in a charming and whimsical story format. Not only is it entertaining, it’s informative! On the morning of Sunday, May 15 486 PC, a father and son sneaked into the Caverns of Skrekk, a vast underground Kobold Settlement. This is their story. 40 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). Pre-Order Now: 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 are available for pre-order 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 Monster Mash Dungeon Crawl Every Virtue is Lasting holds a dungeon crawl every Tuesday (for advanced players) and Saturdays (for newer, less experienced players) to provide fun and experience for their members and guests. All are welcome! The meeting point for Tuesdays is in Owls Head (map) at the center of town near the trainer (Zenie is your teleportation Avatar and dungeon master), and for Saturdays it is in Soltown (map; Shady Death is your teleportation Avatar and dungeon master) (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 SotA Wiki A premier source of information for all of New Britannia! This site is being actively updated, so if there isn’t something you need, let them know! Lace’s SotAWiki How-To Video There can be a learning curve to navigating and utilizing the special features within the SotAWiki site, especially if you are unfamiliar with Wiki interfaces. Have no fear! For Hospitaller Lace is here with this in-depth guide to assist users and potential contributors with their SotAWiki ventures. This is the first of a planned 4 part series. Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing. 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 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! View the full article

I have wonderful news for all of you, Avatars! As we approach Final Wipe, and ultimately launch, we want to be sure that the Community continues to grow and evolve into all that it can be. To do that, we are bringing in a new community manager who will be dedicated to you, our amazing Community! Our team has a lot planned for the upcoming milestones, especially R32, and having a Community Manager in the office and focused on Community is a big part of it. Please show your support by... Exciting News for the Shroud of the Avatar Community! View the full article

[The following excerpt is from a RizeUp Gaming Twitch Channel Subscriber Letter] We are excitedly preparing for our June charity: the Fourth Annual Multiple Sclerosis Society Charity Drive hosted live on the channel the 17th through 19th. Look forward to seeing our everyday streamers in addition to a few of our newest members recruited to the stream team. Long-time supporter, Indie, will be casting from the channel Saturday, June 18th, at 10am PDT. RizeUp Owner, Firecrow, will be casting the same day at 8pm PDT. All streams during the marathon will have special donation incentives to make donating to the MS Society Charity a little more interesting as we attempt to reach our $1000 goal. Prizes for this marathon include two Steelseries headsets, one 60-day Minecraft server hosted by WTGHosting, artwork by artists in our community, and Steam game code packs. We will be giving out Steam game codes when we reach certain follower, subscriber, and donation increments to viewers in chat and through the RizeUp Twitter. Make sure to come by the channel and show off your sub emotes while we raise money for MS. https://www.twitch.tv/rizeupgaming Donate to RizeUp Gaming’s National MS Society Charity Drive here! #StrongerThanMS View the full article

If you have Add On Store items you wish to convert to credit, then you can do so on the Shroud of the Avatar website three times during the week of April 25. Remember to do it before you login to the game server (Live or QA) since logging in will make all add on store items “claimed in game.” Please note that because we are wiping offers multiple times this week you will end up with multiple sets of rewards. Here are the days/times when we will wipe offer data to allow melt-down: ... Melting Down for Store Credit for R29: 3 windowsView the full article

Hi community! As you may have seen this morning, we're starting to roll out some basic changes to the forums here. There are three goals with these changes in mind: 1 - Remove clutter and unused forums 2 - Improve readability and access (especially for new players) 3 - Decrease tension/confusion to post topics The first phase is a quick move of the more official forum sections the developers post in, to a new section at the top of the forum Index:... Forum structure changes View the full article

Hello everyone! Asclepius is on vacation, so I will do my best to keep you awake Here is the news of the week! Preorder The Sword of Midras SotA Novel and Audiobook! HoBLotH III Community Event Royal Warrant Awarded to The Phoenix Republic Xounts Kickstarter: Shroud of the Avatar Special The Mysterious Chamber at the Confluence The Making of Brittany Wharfs 47 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 Upcoming Events Community Activities Community Resources – Players Helping Players Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back/li> The post Echoes From the Caverns 06-10-16 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: Preorder The Sword of Midras SotA Novel and Audiobook! HoBLotH III Community Event Royal Warrant Awarded to The Phoenix Republic Xounts Kickstarter: Shroud of the Avatar Special The Mysterious Chamber at the Confluence The Making of Brittany Wharfs 47 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 Upcoming Events Community Activities Community Resources – Players Helping Players Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back Pre-Order Now: 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 are available for pre-order 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. [NOTE: The Sword of Midras is not the version of the novel included in the SotA pledge rewards. 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 version of the novel that was a reward at the Citizen (and above) 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]. HoBLotH III Community Event Last week was amazing in Austin for both Portalarium and the SotA community! Many on our team had the pleasure of attending the community run event, HoBLotH III, which stands for Hearth of Britannia: Lifeblood of the Hearth. The event generated a huge amount of activity for over five days at Castleton Village near the office. Dancing, storytelling, and LARPing quests and contests occurred throughout each day with many events extending well into the evenings. Tuesday was the official kick-off day with the real fun beginning on Wednesday with a bunch of quests that included testing one’s knowledge of Britannia, a scavenger hunt, fishing, and fighting for valor in LARP combat! Read more Royal Warrant Awarded to The Phoenix Republic Kazyn and Jenny Phoenixfyre were in Austin for HoBLotH III and took the opportunity to visit with us at the Portalarium Studio. On behalf of The Phoenix Republic, Kazyn and Jenny accepted the Royal Warrant award, presented by Richard “Lord British” Garriott (attending via robot from New York). We first wrote about the merits and the lore of The Phoenix Republic, including their capital city, Port Phoenix, in Update #132 in July 2015. Port Phoenix was the third Player Owned Town in Shroud of the Avatar, and the first to be built with the swamp biome. Port Phoenix is situated on the island of Elysium at the edge of the Bay of Storms (see map). Port Phoenix, once known as Sparrow Bay, is a town of hearty (some might say stubborn) people who have survived many natural disasters and wars throughout the town’s history. The Phoenix Republic is governed by a sovereign leader ruling along with the help of a council of the Republic’s leadership. Their goal is to ensure every citizen has a voice and that each group within the republic is able to live out to their true potential. Together, the Phoenix Republic makes up a unique group of guilds, towns and individuals which work together collectively in the name of friendship and family. 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! Get your Xounts here! The Mysterious Chamber at the Confluence [A Dev+ Forum Post by Scottie Jones] In the land of North Paladis, at the strange confluence of the wine-red Fortus River and the bluish river Sanctus, lay the dangerously lush crater of the Paladis Shardfall. Here these two rivers intertwine and then separate in a way that can only be explained by some deep magic brought into play, no doubt, by the fall of the obsidian moon-shards long ago. The waters of both rivers mingle together here to create a flow of delicate purple hues before separating once again, as if by enchantment, to continue their paths miraculously restored to their original, distinct colors! And here, as if signifying the place from which such magic must have been harnessed, is a small iron door tucked behind the waterfall leading into the crater itself. Those who have dared the twisted and sometimes lethal foliage growing here may find this door easily. Nothing bars one’s way, save the inherent peril of its surroundings, and the doorway opens with little effort… Beyond it rests a chamber of obvious Obsidian Order creation, though much of it has long since been overgrown by the strange, glowing fungi and other alien flora that thrives here. A roaring sound fills the chamber, echoing from its inward sloping walls and down from the curved ceiling above, pierced by black shards. Looking straight ahead, a carved stone path leads to a platform surrounded by ancient obelisks, set into the glowing waters of a pool shimmering with violet hues. The sound, of course, comes from the crashing waters of an underground offshoot of the two rivers above. Here, at the far end of this strange and mysterious chamber, the two different waterfalls of blue and red cascade down to blend into the lambent, glowing violet pool that surrounds the observer as they walk across the ancient path. At the center of the chamber, at the far end of a dais inscribed with the Obsidian Septagram of Dominion, rests a lone and empty marble podium facing the falling water. What Obsidian Lords once stood in this dark place? And what dire words did they whisper to the roaring waters before them? Perhaps, instead, it is a place yet to fulfill its unknown purpose…and the podium awaits in this strange, twilight cave for some terrible fragment of long-forgotten lore. Regardless, no answers are forthcoming from the silent and otherworldly sentinel vegetation, nor do the grim obelisks share their secrets. For the time being, the Chamber of the Confluence must remain a mystery. I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a glimpse into this secret place… Perhaps its purpose won’t remain forgotten for much longer… Scottie ^_^ The Making of Brittany Wharfs [A Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar] Hey Folks, here is an update on this week’s progress on the Brittany Wharfs. Located just North of Brittany, the Brittany Wharfs is a coastal neighborhood rampant with merchants and trade. Town Lots will predominate in this neighborhood. Below we catch a glimpse of the Harbor at dawn. Big and small boats fill the harbor, industry and shipbuilding are present, and a fort overlooks the harbor providing defensive support to the heart of Brittany located just down the coast. A water community with plenty of water lots is located on the north side of the Wharfs. For all you water lot lovers, there will be village, town, city and even a keep island lot, but you gotta catch them while they’re hot! I’ve started the process of detailing areas of the map, below is a cluster of shops focusing on armor, combat, and weapons all conveniently located a short walk away from player housing. Stay tuned for the next update on the Brittany Wharfs! Esteben Zaldivar Level Designer 47 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). 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 Fashion Show – Summer Edition [From a Release 30 Events Forum Post] Put on your finest attire and strut your stuff down the catwalk to try and be crowned the best in show. At the event will be several mystery judges who will score the contestants and award prizes for the best dressed male and female avatars so don’t delay come along and dress to impress! Contestants: #1: Contact Lacey or Brickbat if you have any questions. #2: Message Brickbat at least 24 Hours before the event, by Saturday June 11th by 4:00 PM NBT (Central-Server-Time), here on the Shroud forum that you are participating and with details on your costume. If you don’t provide details on your costume, then I as the event’s Master of Ceremonies am not libel for any snarky comments, exaggerations of reality, or colorful descriptive comments regarding your attire. Also, if your wearing purple and I am not warned I will definitely liken you a certain purple singing dinosaur! #3: Please arrive at least 30 minutes early, for sequencing and last minute questions. Spectators: #1: Show up, take a seat in the viewing area, and enjoy the show, we will begin a close to 4 PM as possible. #2: You are prohibited from catching a sneak peak in the dressing room, so wish your friends and loved ones good luck in advance and definitely cheer for your favorites and the sharpest dressed Avatar! We look forward to meeting everyone and hope you will all join us in Cottage Grove for a fun evening. Teleportation avatars are EVL or Lacey. Community Resources – Players Helping Players Our new community manager, Mathew “Berek” Anderson, has been busy improving the structure of the SotA Forums, making it easier to find what you’re looking for. One of his recent changes has been to make Town Hall the topmost forum group and to add the New Player Welcome Forum to the Town Hall, making it easy for new players to find! In addition to the New Player Welcome Forum, the Player Created Resources Forum has 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 Avatars’ Circle Avatars’ Circle is one of the first Shroud of the Avatar resource sites created by by the SotA community, not only providing links to other popular SotA resource sites, but also home to the first SotA community events calendar! Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing. 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 Descent: Underground Eric “Wingman” Peterson and team are bringing back six-degrees-of-freedom combat by blasting 90’s action game favorite, Descent, into the 21st Century with current-generation gaming technology. Descent: Underground is more than a graphics upgrade. Get ready for multiple types of customizable ships! Prepare for upgradable weapons and sensors with richly-detailed tech trees. Brace yourself for destructible voxel maps with new power-ups and mod tools to make your own maps and more! View the full article

Last week was amazing in Austin for both Portalarium and the SotA community! Many on our team had the pleasure of attending the community run event, HoBLotH III, which stands for Hearth of Britannia: Lifeblood of the Hearth. The event generated a huge amount of activity for over five days at Castleton Village near the office. Dancing, storytelling, and LARPing quests and contests occurred throughout each day with many events extending well into the evenings. Tuesday was the official kick-off day with the real fun beginning on Wednesday with a bunch of quests that included testing one’s knowledge of Britannia, a scavenger hunt, fishing, and fighting for valor in LARP combat! COMMUNITY EVENTS Lazarus Long and Jack “SinAssist” (Laz & Jack) from NBNN were in attendance, leading several community quests on Wednesday. Kacey Cupcakes also had a Wednesday workshop where you could learn how to create your own etched shot glasses, mugs, and even style one right there on the spot! Blake Blackstone, Doc Holiday, Goldenflame, Minerva, Shamus, Sir Edward Virtalis, Winfield, and many other active community members also ran quests during the event. Here are just some of the quest highlights involving team members from Portalarium: The Great Debate: Lord British vs. Darkstarr The infamous Darkstarr attempts to stand his ground against the might of Lord British! In a contest of wits and courage, the two faced off on Friday evening to defend their character’s philosophies. Spectators cheered on each side while questions were taken by the Unseen Order guild. Can you guess who won the coveted trophy from the event? Lord British’s account: “Fridays Great Debate between myself and the honorable Lord Darkstarr brought together by Unseen Dragon was a rousing event! I was very impressed with Lord Darkstarr’s framing of the case for Chaos, personal freedoms, and personal responsibilities. Had the event ended soon after our opening remarks, I have no doubt the votes would have strongly favored Chaos over Virtue. Fortunately, through a series of cross examinations, the people ultimately saw that having Virtue as a guide in one’s decision making, was not antithetical to personal freedoms and responsibilities, but could rather augment it, and thus Virtue rightly won the day! But, I must remind thee all, Virtue and Chaos are not in opposition. Vice is the opposite of Virtue and Order perhaps Fascist Order is the opposite of Chaos.” Capture the Keg – A Battle of Virtue As HoBLotH hit the height of the weekend, Lord British and Darkstarr each started searching around the grounds to recruit fighters for their individual causes. The newly formed armies fought each other in a themed boffer battle of epic proportions that shook the core of Britannia itself, and sent waves of both victory and the cries of defeat from one end of HoBLotH to the other. Watch the battle unfold (thanks Noni for sharing this video!): Lord British’s account: “Last year at HoBLotH 2, my forces of Virtue won the day at the Capture the Keg battle… but I am embarrassed to admit, that this was largely the fault of my side and our alcohol induced forgetfulness causing us to short-cut some of the resurrection rules and such. Rightly, Chaos should be acknowledged as the winner of last year. Similarly this year, Chaos…under Darkstarr’s leadership… was winning. Yet, when it came to the attention of Lord Darkstarr that his forces outnumbered those of virtue, he virtuously granted a few combatants across the sides… to his own demise! Chaos once again, this time “officially”, lost. It is interesting to note that Virtue was Chaos’ undoing, and that twice they deserved to win!” Stone Soup with Lady Minerva A day’s worth of questing goes perfectly with a hearty meal at the end. Lady Minerva dished up a special soup of hers on Thursday evening. Actually, it was the Stone Soup event, so everyone in attendance had a chance to toss in something delicious! Lord British’s account: “Lady Minerva invited Princess Kinga and myself to attend a making of Stone Soup. Not only was the soup itself a wonderful meal for the evening, but she gave the princess a copy of the book Stone Soup, which we read before the meal. I should also point out though, that while it cooked, the princess attacked and killed no less than 3 attendees and placed their body parts in the soup! You can tell that she is lobbying for cannibalism in New Britannia. Kinga made Stone Soup again, on her own, in the final hours before we left the site.” Fishing with Winfield Everyone knows that Winfield is one of the most famous fisherman in all of Britannia. He was at HoBLotH throughout the week at the fishing docs, telling tales of old fishing times, while keeping a watchful eye on his fishing pole for anything that might bite. The week’s light rains favored his fishing spot, for he happened to catch a real beauty of a fish! Lord British’s account: “While Princess Kinga and I arrived too late for the official “Fishing with Winfield” Event, Kinga did take up a pole and in fact caught two fish! She proudly took both to Lord Winfield and to the Pirates with whom she spent much of her time at HoBLoth. Many of the Hospitallers participated by preparing the fish, which she joyously shared with her friends! Winfield kindly granted her a pin from fishing with Winfield, as well as one for telling the story of catching a fish. For all this, we are grateful!” Werewolves at Buccaneer’s Den! Berek, the new community manager for Portalarium, was also in attendance. His favorite animal being the wolf, he couldn’t help but participate in the werewolf game at Buccaneer’s Den. For those who do not know the game, you either play as a villager, werewolf, or seer. Werewolves know who their kindred are, prey upon the villagers each day. Villagers can suspect who is a werewolf and end up voting to hang supposed werewolves. In the end, the werewolves will win if they are equal or greater to the population of villagers. Was Berek a menacing werewolf or a simple villager? You decide :). GOOD TIMES HAD BY ALL Perhaps the event’s peak was when Lord British led the renewal of wedding vows for multiple couples. Vows were also said between Kazyn Phoenixfyre and Jenny Phoenixfyre of the Phoenix Republic guild. Congrats to all! So many other events are not covered here, that we encourage anyone interested in learning more about HoBLotH to visit: www.hearthofbritannia.com. Good times were had by all attendees, both community and developers alike. A special thanks to Joseph “Rustic Dragon” Toschlog for coordinating and driving such a fantastic event. The memories shared will be fondly remembered by attendees for years, and perhaps, if we are lucky, they will share those stories again when the next on-site event for the community is announced! If you are interested in learning more about all of our community events, visit www.shroudoftheavatar.com! View the full article

Don't panic. You didn't just lose all your friends and guild mates. There is a small issue that some people are seeing that is causing a problem when connecting to the social server. We're working on a server side solution now but in the worst case, it may be broken until we get a new client build out. Either way, Don't Panic! your data is fine and we'll be addressing this ASAP. UPDATE: This should now be resolved if you log out and log back in. Sorry for the scare! View the full article

I was a bit surprised to see that 6 people tried to hack the client last week. I banned the most flagrant two and sent the others warnings. There were two additional ones who look like they used it for a minute to test to see if it worked. Please stop. Once we go live our policy will most likely just be to permaban people. There is no excusable reason for people to be doing this post live and I'm asking you don't do it now unless you want to tell us in advance when you will be doing it.... Warning: We're going to start banning hackers View the full article

After hearing your requests to be able to view all the current templates I created a new web page where you can see them all here. View the full article

We introduced Crowns of the Obsidians (COTOs) as rare items back in Release 28. COTOs drop from almost any activity, with higher occurrences on higher level creatures and resource nodes. They come in several different metal types, and each type can be exchanged for specific types of items. In Release 29, we introduced Potions of the Obsidians that could be purchased with COTOs, and these grant... Gold Crowns of the ObsidiansView the full article

Hello everyone! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar! We had a surprise guest this week while the podcast was going! We are happy to have guest: Cordelayne Berek Release 30 Postmortem Brittany Wharfs Brittany Alleys Gold Crowns of the Obsidians Clarifications Revamped Founder Leather Armor, Benefactor Cloth Tunic & Founder Cloth Tunic Richard Garriott is Certifiable (on Twitter) Unity Onsite Austin Unity Developer Meetup: Worldbuilding with Finn & Esteben Updates to POT Pages Keep Stone Arena Basement Clarification on New Game Access Bundles Viking 4-Story Row House & Viking Wearable Bundles 54 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 Viking 4-Story Row House & Viking Wearable Bundles Upcoming Events Community Activities Community Resources – Players Helping Players Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back The post Echoes From the Caverns 06-03-16 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: Release 30 Postmortem Brittany Wharfs Brittany Alleys Gold Crowns of the Obsidians Clarifications Revamped Founder Leather Armor, Benefactor Cloth Tunic & Founder Cloth Tunic Richard Garriott is Certifiable (on Twitter) Unity Onsite Austin Unity Developer Meetup: Worldbuilding with Finn & Esteben Updates to POT Pages Keep Stone Arena Basement Clarification on New Game Access Bundles Viking 4-Story Row House & Viking Wearable Bundles 54 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1 Upcoming Events Community Activities Community Resources – Players Helping Players Backer Shipping Addresses Recommended Projects to Back Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 30 Postmortem Our first Postmortem with our new Community Manager, Berek, at the helm went great! Richard, Starr, Chris, Scott, Gina, and Matt chatted about Release 30 and provided a sneak peek at Release 31. A greadt deal of time was spent on the durability changes and the Gold Crowns of the Obsidians, and Berek fielded lots of questions and feedback from the original post and live in the chat-room; including the new Discord chat server! We gave out lots of prizes including store credits, an ISS challenge coin from Richard’s trip to space, 2 Shroud of the Avatar T-shirts, and even some new Viking items! Darkstarr even modeled his garb for the HOBLOTH 3 event going on down the road at Castleton. Chris then followed up with an AMA in Discord, where he answered a ton of questions that were later posted to the forums here. And a good time with the community and great feedback were not the only things the team took away from the hangout. One of the things this Post Mortem helped us realize was that many of the questions posted were repeated requests for information about when certain features are going to be coming online. We noted that, though many of those questions could be answered by reading the Final Wipe & Lot Selection post, the information was not as easily accessible as it could be. So, we pulled the basic Road Map out of that post, updated it, and made it it’s own post. Brittany Wharfs NOTE: Brittany Wharfs is scheduled to go live in Release 31. [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar] Hey Folks, SorcerousSteve here to give you a sneak peek at the upcoming Brittany Wharfs currently in production! The Brittany Wharfs are located directly north of Brittany. It is an area heavily focused on trade, merchants, and crafting. Below we catch a glimpse of the main harbor and boat traffic at its peak. Looking north to the Warehouse District. Rails line the streets to facilitate the transportation of cargo from the warehouses to the harbor. For those of you in search of bigger size lots, you may be pleased to know that Brittany Wharfs will have plenty of town sized lots. As a matter of fact the vast majority of lots in this neighborhood of Brittany will be town size. Produce market lies in the foreground. A serene street just a few blocks away from the hustle and bustle of the harbor. Stay tuned for more screenshots on Brittany Wharfs as it progresses! Esteben Zaldivar Level Designer Brittany Alleys NOTE: Brittany Alleys is scheduled to go live in Release 31. [From a Dev+ Forum Post by Richard “RrMatey” Matey] Here is a quick update on the progress of Brittany Alleys. New water lots. The factory is on fire. Gold Crowns of the Obsidians Clarifications [From a Forum Post by Chris “Atos” Spears] 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 should have given much more detail. So our goal all along has been to make a game that has as few pay to win elements as possible. We have always said that Guild Wars 2 was the closest thing to our model but honestly upon closer scrutiny we thought it actually had too much Pay 2 Win for our taste. The amounts they chose were for short period of time and very large. +50% XPs and +50% crafting crit chance. Instead, with our initial offerings, decided to go much longer and lower with our buffs. We felt that was both less P2W and also more friendly than having short buffs where you must constantly spend to refresh them. So the thinking behind our week long buffs was that if players just wanted one or two buffs at a time, they could probably get those through normal drops. If they wanted 3 or 4 buffs at a time then it would cost about what people would pay for a subscription to an MMO. Even with all 7 buffs on, players don’t have a significant advantage over someone who has none. Once entering into PVP combat, the buffs have zero effect on who will win, NONE. They could make your life very slightly easier outside of combat through fewer repairs and fewer trips back to sell stuff, but in combat, they do not help at all and that has always been the goal. There are a few people who keep beating the drum on the same handful of topics so I want to talk about those first, then I will dive into the bigger picture of the economy. The following clarifications should make it clear that SotA’s monetization model is not P2W, but is more aimed at those capable, and inclined, to support the game, versus making every player feel like they have to pay to stay competitive. So first, the experience bonus. I looked at GW2 and other games. GW2 sells a 2 hour 50% XP boost. That felt like way too short and too much to me. We put ours at a week long timer and 10% exp boost. Why did I go with 10%? For those who didn’t know, each level is about 10.5% more XP than the previous level. So, let’s pretend you use the exp boost potion your entire time while in game while you’re adventuring with your buddy who doesn’t. You guys are always grouped, play the exact same number of hours and split every kill. When your partner dings level 40, you will still be level 40 for a few more kills. When he hits level 80, you will still be level 80 and then ding level 81 soon thereafter. So really what it boils down to is that for roughly a 4 dollars a month subscription (to buy four 1-week exp boost potions), you can get an extra level. Fair enough so far? Next up, coins for repair. So quick briefer on what this means. To make sure that crafters will have an audience, we have always planned on item durability having a max durability that slowly decreases. Eventually the item will not be worth repairing and you’ll need to buy new stuff from a crafter. We added an alternative, which is using a crown to repair a weapon can increase the max durability again as well to avoid buying new stuff. This topic was fairly heated before the crowns were introduced. Adventurers want items to last for ever and never wear out. Crafters want them to wear out far faster than they do now so they can have a more vigorous market. Neither side is happy about the crowns because they each want their own version and the crowns was really just the gas on the fire. So before I dive into the numbers and logic of the current system, let me first address what our crafting system is intended to be. First, it is not World of Warcraft’s crafting system. In world of Warcraft, crafting had almost zero meaning to the economy and in reality was just more of an incredibly long grindy quest with gear reward at the end. The only gear that could be made that was worth wearing was no drop. That is not now and never will be the intent of our crafting system. Our crafting system is where the best gear comes from, and before we’re done, the system will have enough challenges and complexities to it that the best gear will only come from the most dedicated crafters. Many will do it as their full time occupation. Gear made by crafters is one of the biggest economic drivers in our game. Part of making sure that the crafters always have an audience is making sure items are removed and need to replaced. The crowns to avoid replacing gear was a compromise to make it so players who wanted to wear really nice gear all the time could avoid having to spend massive amounts of money to replace them. I think our initial stab at this was actually off target. My expectation is we’ll change it so the number of crowns it costs to repair gear scales up over time so eventually players will go back to the crafters. Ok, so now for the math on damage. I’m introducing a new measurement system for durability called a “Bear hour.” This is the amount of damage done to a player with no durability skills or buffs and no defensive skills, in one hour by a small bear. I know it sounds silly but I need some measurement as to what it actually means because saying 100 durability really has no meaning in explaining how often something will need to be repaired. So, to drop a piece of armor from 100 current durability to 0 current and 90 max it takes 25 bear hours. The armor can then be repaired up to 90 and last 22.5 bear hours. You use it until it gets down to 20 max durability it will have delivered 135 bear hours before needing to be repaired or replaced. Now let’s figure out how that feels to a mid-core player. We’ll say the mid-core player spends 20 hours a week in game and 15 of those hours are spent either adventuring or doing PVP. While adventuring they are actively being attacked about 1/3rd or 33% of the time. That works out to around 5 hours of being attacked. That means that a player’s gear will last 135/5 hours or 27 weeks before needing to be coin repaired or replaced. So for an average player, they might only need to do this once every 6+ months! BTW, that same player would almost certainly find more than enough crowns during that time to pay for those repairs. So based on that, the crafters should be the ones freaking out right now and that might actually need an adjustment back towards faster damage. The reality though is that things that hit harder, break stuff quicker than a bear that hits for 5-8 points. Also, weapons break much quicker than armor. My best guess based on the data I’ve seen so far is that weapons will be adjusted to last a bit longer than what they do currently and armors will be be damaged more quickly before final wipe. My target number that I hope to tune to is an average player will need to replace gear about once every 3 months. For most players it will happen faster than that because they will be outgrowing their current gear and retiring it. I know this is a hot topic on both sides but we’ll be working to find a balance that feels equally fair (or equally punishing if you’re a pessimist) to both sides. That balancing will almost certainly continue post final wipe. On to the third, and possibly most contentious element, selling crowns for gold! This element was largely only contentious due to a couple screw ups on our part. The initial price of 2500 gold was thought to be so low that no one in their right minds would sell them to a vendor. That was the case when there were few and they were only dropping in game. When we added them to pledges, suddenly we flooded the market with an item that currently only had 3 purposes. First, it could be used for week long buffs. That will eliminate them all but not for weeks. Second, item repair! Also, it will remove some but not for weeks to months of people abusing their gear. That leaves only the third option for something to do with them in the short term, selling them to the vendor for gold. So our intent was that they not be used selling to vendors. The reason for this is pretty simple and tied into the economy. Doing so would create a large source of gold inputs to the economy that was not tied to any game system and couldn’t be controlled. The only way this would be feasible would be if we had a system where the value of the crowns varied based on demand. So more people selling crowns to merchants would drive down the cost. We chose not to go that route and instead make the crowns something that has value in game but little gold value (soon to be no value) in game. This allows the players to set the price BUT effectively they can still use them to buy gold but without negatively impacting the economy. This probably needs more explanation before it will sink in as to what this means. So player A wants to buy some gold with some real money. He goes and buys some crowns. He puts those crowns on a vendor for what he thinks is a fair price. Player B doesn’t believe in spending real $ and instead plays a lot and accumulates extra gold. He goes to the vendors and buys crowns from player A for in-game gold. So, why is this awesome for everyone? Player B got exactly what he wanted, effectively trading some of his time for crowns. Player A got exactly what he wanted, in game gold for real $ without having to give $ to someone he doesn’t trust. Here is the most awesome part: It doesn’t change how much gold is in the macro economy and cause inflation because it is really just gold moving from one player to another. (Oh, and the side effect is that it financially supports Portalarium to help us maintain, expand and improve the game!) Got it? Player A gives us money for coins, Player B gives Player A gold for coins he just bought and everyone wins and the inflation isn’t affected because it is just a voluntary transfer of gold from A’s pocket to B’s pocket. The only challenge for us is in making sure we have enough cool, but not P2W, elements in game to be purchased with crowns! Thanks for reading and remember, the only constant on the project is change. If something ends up not feeling as good as we planned, we’ll change course as needed. Revamped Founder Leather Armor, Founder Tunic & Benefactor Tunic 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 all! Here’s a preview of some items coming next release! A revamp of the Founder Leather armor, revamp of Founder Tunic, and a revamp of the Benefactor tunic! Port M Founder Leather by fletcherkinnear on Sketchfab: Benefactor Tunic by fletcherkinnear on Sketchfab: Founder Tunic by fletcherkinnear on Sketchfab: Richard Garriott is Certifiable (on Twitter) On May 24, Richard Garriott learned that he lacked the magical blue check mark on Twitter (aka Verified Accounts) from twitter user and Shroud community member Lord Dreamo. This meant that Lord British did not exist in the Twitter verse! This would not do! Immediately our community sprang into action with a campaign on twitter to get our sovereign certified. A post on the forums by Sir Frank drove Avatars to twitter and after only a single day Richard Garriott successfully achieved his Blue Check mark on Twitter! Don’t forget to also follow the game on Twitter @ShroudofAvatar! Unity Onsite As many of you are aware, since upgrading to the Unity 5.4x we have been experiencing more than normal stability issues. We have been working with Unity to resolve them as quickly as possible and, after discussions with them, we decided the best course of action was an onsite Project Review with one of their engineers. Normally, the wait time for this service is months, but they were aware of our upcoming Final Wipe and they were able to find us an engineer who was able to come out this week. Andrew Speiring from Unity was here two days this week and was able to start digging into the problems we have been seeing. Austin Unity Developer Meetup: Worldbuilding with Finn & Esteben Portalarium sponsored the monthly Austin Unity Developer Meetup event on May 31 with a tech workshop focused on Terrain Sculpting + NavMesh + AI Scripting. Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar (World Builder) and Finn Staber (Programmer/Designer) gave an in-depth overview of the Unity tools used for level design in Shroud of the Avatar. Updates to POT Pages Last update, we noted that we had created a new web page that shows all the current Player Owned Town Templates so that town owners can view all their options. Since that time Hutch, Chaox, and Darkstarr have been working hard to update that page and the POT Submission Form so that it contains overhead images and screenshots for every template. Additionally, as of today the POT Submission Form now includes the Rotated Versions of the templates that we announced for R30 so town owners can now start selecting those for their towns. Keep Stone Arena Basement After a very long campaign from our Dukes, we had Scottie Jones craft a new Stone Arena basement for Keep sized lots, available now in the Add On Store! Clarification on New Game Access Bundles When we added the new Viking bundles to the Add-On Store last week, they included Game Access. This was in preparation for when Pledges expire and Game Access won’t be available through pledges. After a few puzzled inquiries from our community, we realized that this caused some confusion. Please note that these bundles CAN be purchased and combined with a pledge. The Game Access does not conflict with the Game Access included with your pledge. This Bundle does not count as a second pledge, so it does not follow the same requirement of “Only one pledge per Account”. We added the following text to the bundles to help clarify: This bundle is fully functional on any account that may, or may not, already have a pledge with game access. If you already have a pledge with game access, then the next time you log in you will be able to claim all of the items in this bundle. If you don’t have a pledge with game access, then this bundle will grant you game access. Viking 4-Story Row House & Wearable Bundles After much demand, we are making the new Viking 4-Story Row House and the new Viking Wearables (Cloak & Helmet) available for purchase in the Add On Store separately from the full Viking Lot & Home Bundles. 54 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). 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 – RPOTA Monthly $170 Writing Contest Here ye! Here ye! Biographers, Historians, Diplomats, Journalists, Story Writers, Quest Designers and Videographers! RPOTA is in dire need of your amazing talents! Role-Players of the Avatar is hosting a monthly contest to award those most famous with their quill or camera! (details) Special thanks to community member SpookyJenny (aka Jenny Phoenixfyre in-game) for compiling player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar. Community Resources – Players Helping Players The official SotA Player Created Resources Forum is the place to find 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. Resources of the Week Hospitallers Hospitallers are volunteer players that help new players (or veteran players) that are seeking guidance, or just friendly conversation (in-game or out). While in-game, new (or veteran) players can signal to other players they would like help, or newcomer guidance, by pressing Keypad “-” and setting their title to “Outlander“. Helping players can display their “Hospitaller” title to signal they are available to help other players. SotAHelp.org SotAHelp.org is a player support site run by a team of volunteers, or Hospitallers, dedicated to improving the new player experience within Shroud of the Avatar. Can’t find a Hospitaller in-game? Then go to SotaHelp.Org where you can ask questions offline or schedule an in-game meetup. Multiple languages supported. Join us for our weekly in-game meetings (Sundays at 11am CT, TeamSpeak 3 Server: Pax et Veritas, 43.245.163.15:10099, Discord Chat Channel). Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing. 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 Torment: Tides of Numenera Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player, isometric role-playing game set in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting, Numenera. Torment is striving to create a rich role-playing experience that explores similar deep, personal themes. View the full article

Hello everyone, this is Asclepius, with the next instalment of this wonderful story from Ulf Berht. The saga is entitled Virtue’s Forge Background music by Smartsound Chapter 2 – Uprooted “I have come to think that you, Merlin, are either the Devil or, at the very least, one of his henchmen. You have caused me to be sent to this benighted land, a place that is neither Heaven nor Hell. Death is everywhere, yet no one dies. The bones of men, stripped of all mortal flesh, frequent the dark tunnels beneath many villages and hamlets. Grotesque amalgams of human and beast patrol the woodlands and seek to wage war upon us. Of late, hordes of ill-mannered ruffians chop down great swaths of forest and construct entire villages dominated by stone castles. And still you stalk me and seek my aid. Yet, if I grant it, you will no doubt wreak additional insults upon me. Merlin, what transgression have I performed to warrant this?” “Ulf, you could not be more wrong. We have both been wronged by a third party and I sorely need your trust. Without you, I would still be entombed in a great slab of granite, unable to move or communicate. For me, it has been centuries of desperate loneliness, with only the faintest hope of escape. That hope was the jewel that Ninianne gave you. In the darkness, I could see a single point of light a vast distance away. It would grow infinitesimally brighter if I focused on it. Ninianne had some purpose in mind when she bound the gem to me, a purpose that was thwarted when you were transported away. I learned over time how to strengthen that slender thread and eventually managed to pull myself out of that dark trap.” “I trust you not, Wizard. Your words, I believe, are only to trick me into becoming entangled with your schemes. I have no intention of giving you aid beyond a slap on the rump of a departing horse.” “”Ulf, while it is true I would ask for your aid, is it not true that you are also in need?” “Accepting aid from you would, no doubt, eventually incur a cost greater than any amount of gold could repay. So leave me be.” “Ulf, answer me true and I will be gone. Are your clothes not worn thin? Is your landlord not threatening eviction? And even here in this public house, do you not drink alone? I know that rumors abound and gossip mongers whisper that you are the cause of this plague of outlanders. Before you there were none, and now there are many. You and I are both maligned by events not of your doing.” Ulf Berht stared down at a tepid mug of ale. Even in the dim and smoky tavern, he could not help but see the suspicious and hostile looks they were getting. He stood up and quickly left, hoping to get away from Merlin and the truths he told. The goodwill he had received when he first arrived had recently evaporated. Outlanders cavorted in town, often engaging in private duels, disturbing the peace of this quiet hamlet. Chickens, sheep, and cows were often slaughtered with impunity and the game, once abundant out of town, grew scarce. He had repeatedly professed his innocence in these deeds, but to no avail. He was Outlander. He wandered aimlessly for a few hours, trying to ignore the spectacular but intimidating view of a shattered moon swirling across the night sky. Every night when I see this, I can never forget that I know not where I am, thought Ulf. Cowering in my room has not brought any joy. My forge is cold and all my tools have been confiscated by bailiffs. Can listening to Merlin make things any worse? When he finally made his way home, it was no surprise to see Merlin on his front steps, calmly smoking a long-stemmed clay pipe. “We must leave here,” Merlin said. “To where? For what purpose? Why should I accompany you?” “It is obvious to many that someone or something is forming an army,” said Merlin. “War has swept this land before, and in all wars you must pick a side. Swords and magic, metals and alchemy will rule in this upheaval. You are an outlander here and suspicion of you will only grow into hate. You will never find peace here.” “Nor do I think I will find it with you. “But there is truth in what you say. We are to voyage away from here, to an outlander town then?” “Yes, to Kingsport, and from there by boat to the mainland. To Ardoris eventually for it is a city more worldly than this village. A master craftsman like you will quickly find employment. The mainland is not that far from here and with fair winds we may even be able to travel there directly. Sea voyages have their dangers, but not as many as overland these days,” said Merlin. The post Uprooted – by Ulf Berht – narrated by Asclepius appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns. View the full article