Jack T. Lamplighter

07/12/2023 07:02 AM

During Friday's LB Birthday livestream a special shield was handed out to players in attendance. Announcements were made that only one shield per person was allowed.

A very small number of players obtained multiple shields. After the event we audited the logs and reposessed the excess shields. No other actions will be taken; however, this does bring to mind the phrase "This is why we cannot have nice things." As a result, we are now looking into adjusting methods used to distribute...

The case of too many shields ...

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07/11/2023 11:00 PM

This is just an FYI: Around 5pm CT we noticed that the SotA discord server [in addition to a number of other Discord servers] had a red exclamation point on them and no longer displayed channels.

This appears to have been an issue on the Discord side and is resolved by quitting and restarting your Discord client.

All is well; we were not hacked.

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07/11/2023 05:09 PM

We have deployed the client and server patch to end all of the sales for Lord British's birthday. Thanks to all who attended the annual Birthday Bash Friday!

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07/01/2023 02:05 PM

The July login rewards are being deployed...

Players currently logged in may get an "Instance Closing" message. Once the rewards have ben deployed to the server, they will be delivered on next the player's next login

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06/28/2023 07:22 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 115 goes live June 29th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 115 (R115), we offer more words, floating beacons of menace, and birthday cake.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have...

Play Release 115!

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06/28/2023 07:20 AM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 115 goes live June 29th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 115 (R115), we offer more words, floating beacons of menace, and birthday cake.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Lord British Birthday Bash: R115 Livestream

Join us on July 7th at 4 PM CDT for our annual Lord British Birthday stream! We will be talking about Release 115 and replying to questions both from the streaming audience as well as from the askadev postings and the devs will set out into the game world teaming up with players to go adventuring!

We will be starting the stream at our usual time, but we expect that the stream will extend past the usual length (more prizenings!)

More info is below.

The Great New Britannia Mapping Project Update

This month our team of cartographers has completed maps in South Paladis, bringing ten maps online. Next, we are sending our team into Quel and possibly mounting an expedition into the vastness of Verdantis. Though we have lost personnel there before, we will yet again attempt to document these lands.

Release 115 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 115 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R115 is a polish month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R116 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 115!

Crafting, Decoration, Gear, & Inventory Item Changes:

All cloaks can now be placed on partitions and wall sections. SOTA-69778
Fixed the fire dancer outfit disappearing in water.
Fixed typos in couriers’ undelivered letter. SOTA-71474
The Jotungrund Runestone now uses the correct decoration object.
Fletchers of New Britannia have gone through a re-training course to produce arrows that are more consistent in weight. SOTA-71384
Reviewed all keys; updated and fixed several. Some keys that couldn’t be destroyed now can be and it’s likely they can be reacquired from the original source (which is always true if they are needed for a quest). Common, non-quest keys acquired through combat may now be sold to merchants for a very small gold value. Examples of updates include: the Tartarus Treasure Room key now pointing to the proper deco object, the Key of Nothing for Boreas Colossus can now be destroyed and reacquired from the original source once a day, and the locked prison wagons in Blood River Outskirts can now be unlocked with a new Fragile Longfall Cage Key and may sometimes hold dead bodies with loot.
All shopkeepers are now able to be patterned. SOTA-70163
The Wizard’s Hat can now be re-shaped. SOTA-70588
The Ancient Xenossian Winged Plate Helmet Eternal Pattern can now be used to reshape helms. SOTA-70525
The dyable tuxedo patterns will now apply. SOTA-70004
Eternal heraldry patterns can now be removed from heraldry thrones with pattern removers. SOTA-70258
For those who don’t throw back the tiny ones; the smallest of the Arapaima are now mountable. SOTA-71252
Balanced inputs on red, yellow, orange, and pink crafted dye recipes so gold returns in selling the dyes to NPC merchants are even. SOTA-71343
The Croctails recipe is no longer discoverable nor teachable.

User Interface, Store Information, Inky, & Lua Changes:

Added debuff icons that were missing for summoned fire, air, and ice elemental attacks. SOTA-70623
Corrected date and version on the Commercial TOS.
Fixed typo in Guild Leader change message. SOTA-71480
Corrected name of Snowy Owl upon delivery from Crown Store. Pre-existing owls will be fixed by data migration in the future.
Added a sound preview button to wax cylinders in the crown store.
Adjusted Gossamer Cloak image size in the Crown Store.

Adjusted the character limits of the premium and pledge conversationalists: the premium and pledge versions intended for more advanced functions will now allow for up to 60K characters. The craftable conversationalists intended for basic scripts will continue to be capped at 2K characters.
Completed an audit of conversationalists to ensure only the craftable ones are set to the low content limit and, as a result, updated all the mini automatons as well as the original pledge automaton to the 60K character limit.

World and Quest Changes:

Overworlds: All cross-continent galleon teleporters now have compass marker discoveries. SOTA-71483
Novia: Fixed the position of several floating and sunken POT landmarking props. SOTA-71499
Outskirts: Enabled rain visuals.
Plains Road Encounter: Moved an inaccessible ore node. SOTA-71457
Sieges: Avatars with 36 or more arcane catalysts will be able to turn in 36 for their daily quest instead of only 18, for double the experience and gold. SOTA-71436
Aerie, Ardoris, and Resolute: Improved the logic used by these devotional caretakers for their “visit the shrines” quest. SOTA-71489
Aerie: Updated the items assigned to anti-theft protection. Moved a floating bowl to the ground in the cat lady house and added alternative cat types. SOTA-71470, SOTA-71471
Ardoris: Improved the logic which both Caravaggios Wolf and Stephanie Broadmeadow use to archive their “collect 5 paintings” quests.
Ardoris: Fixed a typo in Simone von Eglinger’s responses.
Broken Echoes Silver Mine: Fixed several stuck spots. SOTA-71458
Celestis: Added missing elements into a compound interactive script on the stage elevator.
Celestis: The combat merchant now has a proper NPC title and personal name. SOTA-71500
The Clink: Updated Warden Tully’s response for his own name. SOTA-71236
Crooked Shank: Fixed typos in Erno’s responses. SOTA-71493
Eastreach Gap: Adjusted the path of the tornado.
Etceter: Updated the collision on several stairs to help avoid having to jump over the top steps. SOTA-71469
Highvale: Removed a redundant choice from the scene entry menu. SOTA-71468
Highvale: Fixed a typo on a grave marker. SOTA-71460
Highvale Outskirts: Updated Gilbert the merchant’s logic so you can’t block conversation with him while you need to talk to him for a quest.
Highvale Outskirts: Update Captain Burnes’ responses for consistency. SOTA-71444
Highvale Outskirts: Moved an inaccessible garlic node. SOTA-71459
Kingsport: Fixed an item in a crate that was clipping through its walls. SOTA-71450
K’rul: Moved floating “splash” effects back to the center of the lava field parent. SOTA-71449
Middle Downs: Fixed a stuck spot at one of the mounds. SOTA-71484
Owl’s Head: Added ladders to some of the towers attached to castle walls in the city. SOTA-71454
Owl’s Head: Mary, the College of Arms registrar, now points to her correct conversation. SOTA-71453
Owl’s Head: Joseph, Dorothy, and Rickard now use alternative “beggar” models.
Owl’s Head: Bartender Thomas Strongbeard once again sells mutton meals. SOTA-71451
Owl’s Head: Tanderly now mentions Joseph has an exclusive contract to sell his family’s pecan nuts. SOTA-71452
Port Harmony: Corrected a double-negative in Watersmith Annora Jenkins’s responses. SOTA-71491
Port Harmony: Hollow wooden ducks may appear in random locations.
Spectral Mines: Updated the path grid. SOTA-71466
Tartarus: Added two Obsidian Elf spawn locations. Adjusted the positions of many ore nodes. SOTA-71446
Tower of the Shuttered Eye: The beds used by skeletons can no longer be used by Avatars. SOTA-71488
Ulfheim: Regenerated the path grid. SOTA-71467
Created map for Blackblade Foothills.
Created map for Far Hinterlands.
Created map for North Hinterlands.
Created map for North Shattered Hills.
Created map for Opalis Ruins.
Created map for Oracle Colossus.
Created map for Sanctus Spine.
Created map for South Hinterlands.
Created map for South Shattered Hills.
Created map for Sunless Barrens.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Jamestown: Added new Crossroads Village south of Brittany in Novia.
The Port: Added new town south of Solace Bridge Outskirts in Novia.
POT templates Forest 01b and Forest 01c: Removed redundant block near corner of docks. SOTA-71448
PvP POTs: Any POT that is set as PvP will now have floating Obsidian shards floating outside their perimeter (or on the cavern ceiling for Underground PvP POTs). SOTA-39004

Player-Owned Dungeon and Basement Changes:

Added deco surfaces and removed spiderwebs from the Sword of Midras Library dungeon room entrance halls. SOTA-68125
Lava Pool Stairs should now place correctly in Player Dungeons and Basements. SOTA-71463
Fixed deco colliders missing in stairways of Town Arena and City 3-Story Stone basements.

Latest News, Q&A, and Birthday Livestream

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, July 7th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Stephen “Ravalox” Reinen and other members of the development team for an extended community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “Happy Birthday Lord British” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team stream on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Sales and Bonus Events

To commemorate the birth of Lord British, from June 29th through July 10th:

Double XP wil be turned on.
Crown Store sales will be 30% off.
Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off.
Deed Upgrades will be 20% off.
Player Owned Town upgrades for Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off. These upgrades may only be initiated by an email to Support.

Release 115 Subscriber Login Rewards

Block the sun and make your own light: The Rewards Program login items for Release 115 are a Beach Umbrella (which has newly-expanded sizing and placement options), a pair of Gold Candlesticks, and a set of 2023 Cupcakes.

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 115 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
- 30 Months: Keeper of Countless Devotions
- 33 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Three Corpions
- 36 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Six Serpents
- 39 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Nine Tulips
- 42 Months: Keeper of Forty-Two Roses
- 45 Months: Keeper of Forty-Five Lilies
- 48 Months: Keeper of Forty-Eight Daisies
- 51 Months: Keeper of Fifty-One Staves
- 54 Months: Keeper of Fifty-Four Daggers
- 57 Months: Keeper of Fifty-Seven Arrows
- 60 Months: Keeper of Sixty Swords
- 63 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Three Coins
- 66 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Six Gems
- 69 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Nine Jewels
- 72 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Two Goblets
- 75 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Five Rings
- 78 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Eight Amulets
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

July Login Reward

In honor of Lord British’s Birthday, log in during the month of July and you’ll receive half a dozen each of slices of Lord British Birthday Cake and of Fireworks (Red-White-Blue Missiles).

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store today:

Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2023

…and for July 14th:

Gold Candlesticks (Set of 4)

The Summer Seasonal store items will be available until Monday September 25th:

List of Summer Seasonal items:

Firedancer Outfit
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Scimitar
Flame Shield
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Hula Emote
Island Spear
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress

The Lord British store items will be available until Friday August 4th:

List of Lord British items:

2014 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2016 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2017 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2018 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2019 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2020 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2021 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2022 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2023 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
Lord British Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Lord British Cloak
Lord British Fur Collared Cloak
Lord British Moondial
Lord British Pavers
Lord British Round Table
Lord British Salute Emote
Lord British Shield
Lord British Shield Pattern Pack

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, Flair Minamoto, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Butterfly Pet (Blue)
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX
Autumn Fairy Wings
Green Fireflies VFX
Landing Flies 3-pack
Blue Fireflies
Mounted Ladybug Specimen
Mounted Rhinoceros Beetle Specimen
Mounted Firebug Specimen
Mounted Diving Bug Specimen
Mounted Asian Ladybug Specimen
Swallowtail Butterfly Pet
Mounted Potato Beetle
Silver Bug Sprayer
Mounted Dung Beetle Specimen
Mounted Hissing Cockroach Specimen
Mounted Maybug Specimen
Mounted Stag Beetle Specimen
Mounted Flower Beetle Specimen

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2023 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 115 – June 29 (Polish)
Release 116 – July 27 (Content)
Release 117 – August 31 (Polish)
Release 118 – September 28 (Polish)
Release 119 – October 26 (Content)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Recurring Events:

Monthly Release Fishing Contests: This will be a rotating, multi-location contest sponsored and organised by Rajazel, The Town Museum and its Governor Diablotine.
Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle hosts a monthly auction held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Avatar Relics

Community member Shawn Butts has opened a Shroud of the Avatar merchandise store with Catnip Games’ approval. Visit for pins, mugs, shirts, posters, and more here.

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts books! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! They officially launched September 30. Check out their official trailer here.

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

View the full article

06/26/2023 07:52 PM

Reminder: We will be starting the update process on Thursday by taking the game server down at 8am. The server should return to service by 10:30am.

The Release 115 livestream is being postponed until July 7th. This will be our annual Lord British Birthday Bash stream, with Lord British, members of the team and possibly others

This year our plans include the usual R115 update info, Q/A, lively discussion and game play! This should be an extended stream, so even if not available to...

Scheduling Notice: R115 and Livestream

View the full article

06/25/2023 02:54 AM

Our Certificate Authority changed their Root Certificate, forcing us to update our certificate chain used during login. Though we updated and added the new info to our chain to allow for a transition, Unity is flagging a failure event though the cert is valid, worked and let you login.

Because of this error, it sends an indication that the EULA and Commercial TOS must be acknowledged.

I'm doing a QA build right now with the fix for the Certificate. We have tested in internally and the...

EULA and TOS acknowledgement on every login

View the full article

06/07/2023 05:02 AM

It is time; the Remembrance Sales and 2XP have come to an end.

Our thoughts have gone towards those who have been lost in conflict or in an effort to keep the peace during this holiday. Honoring the memory of those we have lost in this reality, as well as in New Britannia not only allows those many lives were lost under the rule of the Obsidians and during the Obsidian Wars live on in our memories and those that come after us, but will hopefully, deepen the lesson that senseless killing and...

...And the Remembrance Sale is but a memory

View the full article

06/06/2023 08:27 AM

Used car salesman voice: "Our overstock on XP is your gain!"

Ran into an issue when getting the Live build ready. Decided not to push forward with turning anything off. (I'd rather turn off all the sales and 2XP at the same time).

Chris and I are working on the issue (it looks like it's somewhat related to the "unknown item" bug. I am hoping to get a build going tomorrow afternoon for a patch deployment early hours Wednesday.

View the full article

06/01/2023 04:49 AM

When the rewards are deployed, the game server will indicate that the instance will be closing. This is to apply the login rewards to the server and make them available for your next login.

Enjoy!

View the full article

05/28/2023 08:16 PM

We have built a patch that includes a number of Player Owned Town (POT) changes that missed the deadline for R114 and a fix for the Crown Store. (and some other stuff... see patch notes when published)

The patch is uploading now, and we plan to release it at 3pm CT

Normally we would wait until next Release (June 29th) to publish the POT updates, but since this is a long weekend we wanted to get them in for those who were looking to get in there and start playing with their "new toys"!...

R114 Patch1 - Incoming!

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05/25/2023 05:09 PM

Starting with this release we shifted the release deployment one hour earlier, and as a result the server was brought online with R114 at about 09:30 CT instead of 10:30. Future release work windows will continue to be listed as ending at 10:30 since some releases will take longer than others.

In addition, I hosted a music broadcast session in our official Discord server while Allium and I worked on the deployment. The first hour of the work window is really just waiting for the database...

R114 Deployment completed with Earlier window and with a DJ!

View the full article

05/25/2023 12:02 AM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 114 goes live May 25th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 114 (R114), we offer a few new quests in Port Harmony and a few old beings who resent have been awakened.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring...

Play Release 114!

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05/25/2023 12:00 AM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 114 goes live May 25th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 114 (R114), we offer a few new quests in Port Harmony and a few old beings who resent have been awakened.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Release Day Work Window Changes

[From a Forum Post by Ravalox]

Starting with this release, we will be taking the game server offline at 08:00 AM CT instead of 9am as in the past. This is mainly to streamline the time used for the work window and prevent our maintenance from extending further into the day when additional maintenance is required.

Shifting our work windows to start at 8am better syncs with our pre-scheduled database backups (preventing us from having to execute a second backup when we take the server down) and provides more time to perform any additional maintenance steps, including database migrations, while still returning the server to operation by 10:30 AM CT.

Our published work window will be from 08:00 AM CT to 10:30 AM CT, but we will bring the server back up as soon as work is completed if earlier than the end of the work window. This means that, for most release deployments, the work should be completed and the server restored to service by 09:30 AM CT instead of the usual 10:30 AM CT.

In the event we have a larger deployment, we will still advise the community of any extended outage times well in advance of the scheduled work day/time.
– Ravalox

Blood River Outskirts and Vermillion Lens Quest Items

We are working to resolve issues that are preventing players from obtaining or using certain quest items in Blood River Outskirts as well as the Vermillion Lens Assembly quest.

Though we put a fix in place, it appears that the issues are not fully resolved. We will provide a patch for this as soon as we have verified a fix on the QA server.

– Ravalox

The Great New Britannia Mapping Project Continues

All of Novia Region Seven (the Longfall region, including Aerie) should now have in-game maps. Next up is Region Six (South Paladis, including Resolute).

Region Six is missing a bunch of maps (twelve in total), so this region may spill over into R115. Once Region Six is complete, I will be moving on to Region Nine (North Paladis).

– Ravalox

Release 114 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 114 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R114 is a polish month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R115 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 114!

(This is a short list: many changes scheduled for this release were included early and are listed on the patch notes page under R113 here.)

User Interface and Store Information Changes:

Made another attempt to fix Variant delivery from Snowy Owl store entry.
Adjusted image compression for Black Stag store entry.
Deed expiry notification emails have been adjusted to 15- and 10-day notices, with “Final Warning” in the subject line of second email.

What power art thou, who from below
hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
from beds of everlasting snow?

World and Quest Changes:

Arabella: Reviewed Arabella’s conversations in various scenes and made small tweaks. SOTA-71169
Kiakis: All versions of Kiakis should now have similar responses, promoting the perception of them as one person. SOTA-71418
NPC Conversations: Added a response to “thank you” to the shared response file.
Aether Dragons, Aether Liches, and Aether Corpions will awake in their respective stomping grounds as the two-tailed comet comes within range of the world on May 27th.
Brittany Fields: Updated props and paths near the Central Brittany large gate. SOTA-71408
Ferig’s Battle Camp: Removed line-of-sight from Ferig’s conversation. Added a delay for situations where Ferig believes you’re done with his quest and cuts off the conversation. SOTA-71400
Highvale Outskirts: Fixed an issue with several spawn-in targets that incorrectly shared the same name.
Highvale Outskirts: Fixed a typo in Guard Horatio’s responses, clarified his desire for a “Elf Sniper’s Short Bow,” and have him explain he’s cleaned up the short bow he awards the Avatar at the end of his quest. SOTA-71370
Malice: Approaching Sequanna for the first time will always show her imprisoned. Improved logic that activates the exit teleporter. SOTA-71411
Malice: Sequanna will now be sitting when the avatar approaches her at the proper quest stage. SOTA-71411
Northern Grunvald Barrens: Corrected the compass marker label for the Atavists of Purity camp.
Port Harmony: Fixed a typo in a journal entry and responses from watersmith Annora Jenkins.
Port Harmony: Fixed a typo in responses and journal entries by watersmith Annora Jenkins, Lunden, and Winifred.
Port Harmony: Watersmith Annora Jenkins now has a proper redirect for her new quest in her “help” response.
Port Harmony: Fixed a typo in “Mention Visitors to ‘Avatar'” journal entry. SOTA-71397
Port Harmony: Fixed typos in Zouch’s responses, including correctly mentioning the bakery stall instead of the produce stall. SOTA-71395
Port Harmony: Fixed an issue that disallowed players from getting a proper response from Peregrine when they mentioned “visitors” instead of “visitor.” SOTA-71399
Port Harmony: Added “loyal fanatics” quest assets. Updated conversations for Winifred, Lunden, Verity Webb, and Madalena. SOTA-71392
Port Harmony: Moved the town crier’s spawn-in target out of a statue and next to him. SOTA-71398
Port Harmony: Updated conversations for NPCs at the tavern. Added “dropped water” quest from Watersmith. SOTA-71391
Resolute: Corrected the “Ferig” response for Vella and the other knights in this scene. SOTA-71407
Spectral Mines: Fixed an issue with the archlapin timedevent settings.
Spectral Mines: Fixed an issue where the lepus zombies were spawning in the wrong location.
Vikland: Added a bounty master named Gulla to the village near the bonfire. SOTA-71320
Created East Longfall Wetland in-game map.
Created Longfall Woods in-game map. SOTA-71405
Created South Longfall Road in-game map.
Created South Longfall Wetland in-game map.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Adjusted the Fishing Bonus POT rotation blacklist to exclude Dev-run POTs. SOTA-71406
In an upcoming patch Dragonshores: Removed POT.
In an upcoming patch Dragonvale: Changed biome to Island 01a, upgraded to Municipality, and moved to Mistrendur near Port Harmony.
Lamplight: Upgraded to Hamlet from Holdfast.

Latest News and Q&A May Livestream

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, May 26th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Stephen “Ravalox” Reinen and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “beware the comet” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team stream on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Remembrance Sale

This is the time of year that our thoughts go towards those who have been lost in conflict or in an effort to keep the peace. In this reality, events such as past world wars and current conflicts have taken too many lives to bear counting. The world of New Britannia is no different; many lives were lost under the rule of the Obsidians and during the Obsidian Wars.

Between May 25th and June 5th, we celebrate the memories of those we have lost with the following sales:

Double XP.
Crown Store sales will be 30% off.
Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off.
Deed Upgrades will be 20% off.

Release 114 Subscriber Login Rewards

They think they can get away with it because they’re cute: The Rewards Program login items for Release 114 are a Silver Marble Top Console, a Black End Table, and a Cream Shiba Inu who needs to stop knocking things off of them!

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 114 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
- 30 Months: Keeper of Countless Devotions
- 33 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Three Corpions
- 36 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Six Serpents
- 39 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Nine Tulips
- 42 Months: Keeper of Forty-Two Roses
- 45 Months: Keeper of Forty-Five Lilies
- 48 Months: Keeper of Forty-Eight Daisies
- 51 Months: Keeper of Fifty-One Staves
- 54 Months: Keeper of Fifty-Four Daggers
- 57 Months: Keeper of Fifty-Seven Arrows
- 60 Months: Keeper of Sixty Swords
- 63 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Three Coins
- 66 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Six Gems
- 69 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Nine Jewels
- 72 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Two Goblets
- 75 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Five Rings
- 78 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Eight Amulets
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

June Login Reward

We love the sun, but not TOO much sun: each account that logs in during the month of June will receive a one-time gift of a Floppy Beach Hat!

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for June 9th:

Silver Marble Top Console
Black End Table
Cream Shiba Inu

To celebrate his birthday, the Darkstarr Rares store items will be available until Monday May 29th:

List of Darkstarr items:

Darkstarr Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Darkstarr Chaos Throne
Darkstarr Chaos Throne (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Clock Tower
Darkstarr Clock Tower (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Fur Collared Cloak
Darkstarr Pavers
Darkstarr Shield
Darkstarr Shield Pattern Pack
Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
Mosh Emote

The Summer Seasonal store items are available from Friday May 26th until Monday September 25th:

List of Summer Seasonal items:

Firedancer Outfit
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Scimitar
Flame Shield
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Hula Emote
Island Spear
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress

The Lord British store items are available from Friday June 23rd until Friday August 4th:

List of Lord British items:

2014 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2016 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2017 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2018 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2019 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2020 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2021 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2022 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
Lord British Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Lord British Cloak
Lord British Fur Collared Cloak
Lord British Moondial
Lord British Pavers
Lord British Round Table
Lord British Salute Emote
Lord British Shield
Lord British Shield Pattern Pack

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, Flair Minamoto, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Butterfly Pet (Blue)
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX
Autumn Fairy Wings
Green Fireflies VFX
Landing Flies 3-pack
Blue Fireflies
Mounted Ladybug Specimen
Mounted Rhinoceros Beetle Specimen
Mounted Firebug Specimen
Mounted Diving Bug Specimen
Mounted Asian Ladybug Specimen
Swallowtail Butterfly Pet
Mounted Potato Beetle
Silver Bug Sprayer
Mounted Dung Beetle Specimen
Mounted Hissing Cockroach Specimen
Mounted Maybug Specimen
Mounted Stag Beetle Specimen
Mounted Flower Beetle Specimen

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2023 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 114 – May 25 (Polish)
Release 115 – June 29 (Polish)
Release 116 – July 27 (Content)
Release 117 – August 31 (Polish)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Recurring Events:

Monthly Release Fishing Contests: This will be a rotating, multi-location contest sponsored and organised by Rajazel, The Town Museum and its Governor Diablotine.
Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle hosts a monthly auction held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Avatar Relics

Community member Shawn Butts has opened a Shroud of the Avatar merchandise store with Catnip Games’ approval. Visit for pins, mugs, shirts, posters, and more here.

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts books! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! They officially launched September 30. Check out their official trailer here.

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

View the full article

05/22/2023 09:45 PM

Starting with this release, we will be taking the game server offline at 08:00 AM CT instead of 9am as in the past. This is mainly to streamline the time used for the work window and prevent our maintenance from extending further into the day when additional maintenance is required.

Shifting our work windows to start at 8am better syncs with our pre-scheduled database backups (preventing us from having to execute a second backup when we take the server down) and...

Release deployment work window May 25th for Release 114

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05/20/2023 05:11 PM

There was a service interruption that began shortly after midnight server time Yesterday (Friday). This outage was caused by a software upgrade event being performed by the ISP we use through the DataCenter.

Initial investigation shows that the ISP had notified the DataCenter of the impending work, but the DataCenter did not forward that notification to us. The SotA team acted and were on the line with the DataCenter performing triage, isolation the issue to the Internet connectivity....

Game Server Access interruption May 19th circa Midnight CT: RCA

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05/11/2023 07:09 AM

This patch includes a handful of fixes in addition to the lepus zombies were spawning in the wrong location and an issue with the Archlapin’s (and other seasonal boss) timed event settings.

For a complete list of changes, please see the patch notes here.

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05/09/2023 12:14 AM

We are in the process of building a patch that should correct the "unknown item" issue showing in some players' inventories. The unknown items are quest items that have been disassociated or unlinked erroneously.

Once the patch is in place these items are expected to be correctly listed as yellow in the quest items list.

This patch is expected to be ready around 4am CT.

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05/05/2023 07:00 PM

This is a small patch that corrects an issue when progressing the main story quest line with obtaining the Shards of the Vermillion Lens.

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05/01/2023 09:06 AM

The May login rewards have been deployed on the server. Players should get the rewards delivered if they log on to the game from this point forward.

Reminder: The May Day COTO and Crown Store sales will be ending tonight at the end of the 1st Central Time.

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04/26/2023 11:35 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 113 goes live April 27th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 113 (R113), we offer the new scene of Port Harmony and newly-tameable reef spiders.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have...

Play Release 113!

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04/26/2023 11:00 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 113 goes live April 27th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 113 (R113), we offer the new scene of Port Harmony and newly-tameable reef spiders.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Scene: Port Harmony

The Ministers of Port Harmony welcome all outlanders to their growing seaside community!

With direct access by galleon from both Novia and Hidden Vale, and acting as a cultural hub for all of Mistrendur, Port Harmony is a thriving New Britannian colony with something for everyone. Shop in our bustling dockside marketplace, stroll past the fountain in the nearby town square, wander into our charming residential neighborhoods, chat with our friendly residents, or just relax on a lazy gondola ride in the canals. Our Virtuous city offers many of the amenities of the largest southern communities, including a hospital, a New You pavilion, and a militia that keeps everyone safe both inside our borders and out in the surrounding territory.

So what are you waiting for? Come to Port Harmony, your home in Mistrendur!

Port Harmony is a new Tier 8 adventure scene, available to Episode 2 players, featuring a large city with merchants, crafting stations, and quests.

2023 Roadmap Update

So far we are pretty much on track to keep the roadmap schedule.

The one item we have a delay on is implementing Unity 2021. We are now in process of migrating servers and applications to new Virtual Machines as well as adding new internal build and Dev/QA environments. This will eliminate the process bottleneck we currently have and allow for the parallel development work on our current Unity 2018 platform and Unity 2021 until it is ready to be deployed into production.

The first phase of our Treasure Map system is currently in development. Devilcult is doing a great job of prototyping the maps and setting up the tech and systems that we will need to move forward with more advanced features.

As detailed farther down in these release notes, we are in the final push to get the in-game scene maps completed. There is still much work to be done to catch up but we have met our commitment to ensure that any new qualifying scene released will have a map on day one. Work on the SotaMap server is still on the schedule as well but is blocked by server and infrastructure updates being done to our website datacenter. This will be an ongoing project and updates will be provided as we reach the next stage.

Episode Two work continues and is progressing beautifully! Sannio (Keith Quinn) has created a unique and bright town in Port Harmony that will greet players as they first arrive on Mistrendur. Sannio has outdone himself again!

Look for more roadmap updates at the end of June!

– Ravalox

Preparation and Announcement of Dev Events

This last Release cycle we hosted our annual Egg Hunt event. Special thanks goes out to Laney, Veepers, Devilcult, and Allium for taking the time to setup and run this year’s hunt! Many of our Developer-run events require time to plan and decorate the scene where the event is to be held. The Egg Hunt is one of the most laborious efforts; this year extra work was done to set up the entire scene with buildings, deco, and (of course) the eggs and other prizes.

A number of players have asked why we did not advertise or otherwise announce the event prior to it occurring. This year, the event was moved from Hometown to Mount Midir because the popularity of the event had drawn excited players to come ‘watch’ the Dev Team prepare which, in the case of an Egg Hunt, rather defeats the purpose. Some of our events are scheduled and advertised and others are what are known as ‘pop-up’ events. By advertising the event, we would have had even more player detectives on our trail while we hopped around the scene setting things up.

We are working on tech that will allow us to close a scene for ‘maintenance’ without a client patch. This will allow us to better prepare our events and surprises while keeping the players informed that something is coming, which in turn will allow us to plan and devise more somewhat-on-the-fly special events. More on that in the coming months!

– Ravalox

The Great New Britannian Mapping Project

Progress with creating the last missing scene maps has been slow as of late. Recently there have been posts in the forums on this topic, and it was (rightfully) pointed out that some of the remaining missing maps are part of the main storyline. Up until now, I have been working on the maps in order of scenes most visited. Starting with this release I have pushed the priority up on map making overall and have changed the approach slightly, whereas I am now weighting the effort by in game region, and if the scene is part of the main story line.

Region one (The Perennial Coast) has been completed with this release. This next Release I will concentrate on Region7 (Longfall) first and then on to Region6 (South Paladis) and beyond.

As a reminder, Adventure Dungeons, Player Dungeons and Basements, along with a few other interior scenes will not have maps under our current mapping system. These scenes will have a “map card” with a (sometimes) witty note. Overall, providing a map that allows players to scroll through an entire dungeon provides an unfair advantage, and the various unions and caucuses ranging from the Kobolds against Outlanders to Undead forever (local 42) have lodged their concerns and indicated that if maps were provided that unprecedented events would certainly follow.

Maps for these areas will be reconsidered when a sufficient fog of war system can be implemented. Fog of War is a method where in which only the area of the map that is visible to the player is the current surrounding area or areas that have been discovered by way of progress. At this time, the tech to implement either of these methods is not present and will need to be designed and a test implementation done. We will discuss this internally toward the end of 2023 for consideration for the 2024 roadmap plan.

– Ravalox

New Pets: Reef Spiders

Prepared visitors to the beaches of Vikland can now abscond with the wildlife: the local reef spiders have become used to human presence enough that they can now be tamed. Like their wild counterparts, tamed reef spiders are (currently) visual variants of red spiders and have no unique skills of their own.

Release 113 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 113 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R113 is a content month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R114 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 113!

Crafting, Decoration, Gear, & Inventory Item Changes:

Renamed exotic fish and accessories to have (Fish Tank) at the ends of their names so it’s easier to search in inventory and containers.
Removed erroneous dye slots from Gothic Chair. SOTA-71261
Adjusted upgrade recipe names for Supple Gloves of Riding. SOTA-71277
Fixed naming discrepancy with One-Man Band hat/shirt recipes. SOTA-71278
When placing a decoration pet, the name will be facing correctly in the deco preview.
Pets and conversationalists set to “Stay here” and “Patrol” will stick to what they were last set to when placing it again from inventory. Pets and conversationalists will stop going back to their last location when placed from inventory.
Time will now reset correctly when kobold time machine decorations are picked up or the player changes scenes. Improved performance in POTs due to the time machines’ script which was creating a lag spike every 15 seconds. SOTA-69779
Fixed LOD warnings when placing a kobold time machine.
Small Campfires will now clear weeds underneath them when placed. SOTA-71325
Fixed broken UI when dragging LB Chest onto a female paperdoll. Fixed additional chest pieces: Virtue Flame, Copper Clockwork, and Ancient Xenossian Plate. SOTA-67446
Corrected equipment channel for females on Egg Hunt 2023 Cloak. SOTA-71258
Fixed NPC/pet placement and deco surfaces of front stoops for the pledge stone row homes. SOTA-71025, SOTA-58996

Combat & Skill Changes:

Reduced song duration buff from Wyvern Egg Salad. SOTA-70752
The previous removal of the PVP 25% experience bonus in player dungeons missed some dungeons. The rest have now been updated. Reminder: this was removed because players could just lock the dungeon entrances and get extra xp at no risk.
Skills from taming tree, healing and frenzy, were previously usable from the utility bar while in combat, which is inconsistent with other skills. They have been made not usable while in combat. The only skills that should be used in combat mode from the utility bar are summons, resurrects, and night vision and light spells.

User Interface, Store Information, Inky, & Lua Changes:

Added spider essence to purchase orders. SOTA-71246
Added a new function for conversationalist scripts: “listEmotes” will list all the emotes available for that NPC. Conversationalists’ scripted emotes will now work for all humanoids (trolls and dragons don’t count.) Fixed a problem with variables from conversationalists displaying letters and numbers along with the correct names.
Inky NPC function to load variable now works correctly with number of type int. Previously variables were saved by account, now it’s by character. SOTA-71231
Changed the message when items are sent back to users from a lot, basement, or dungeon to mention to look in the decoration palette for any missing items.
Fixed the nameplates of NPCs being missing once back from editing character appearance in New You salons when conversation close-ups are enabled. SOTA-71291
Fixed a typo in the store description for Brown Bunny Ears and Slippers. SOTA-71307

World and Quest Changes:

Seasonal Monsters: The Arch Lapin will go dormant and the Luminous Atavist will return on May 16th.
Novia and Hidden Vale: The “Mistrendur” listing for the teleporter galleons now says “Mistrendur at Port Harmony.”
Encounters: Fixed dragon encounters which were spawning aether dragons before their time. Adjusted how the aether monsters spawn based on the TimedEvent script. SOTA-71239
All guild registrars now have proper conversations while in offline mode, although you still can’t create or access guilds.
Battle of Solace Bridge: Edvard now mentions the player will get a free row lot deed when Captain Kinsey’s tasks are done. The associated journals are updated with information. SOTA-71304
Blood River Outskirts: Vigilante guards Julius and Claude now eventually stop pulling you into their conversations. Fixed typos in their conversations. SOTA-71312
Blood River Outskirts: No NPCs in this scene will have Solace Bridge Outskirts Heirlooms in their loot anymore. SOTA-71350
The Clink: Updated Warden Tully’s “guard” and “Hamtooth” responses. SOTA-71236
Eastmarch: Kobold Landscapers report that the weeds in The Ventaceaster have been eliminated. As part of the service, they checked the other houses in the area as well. SOTA-71324
Eastmarch: The mysterious foam islands in the bay have vanished. SOTA-71323
Eastreach Gap: Added dangerous “tornado” hazard that appears during the highest-threat, repeatable wave. This tornado flies through parts of the control point area and does high damage to anyone on its path. When the control point is lost, the tornado disappears. SOTA-71253
The Fall: Updated the daemon battle with fewer repeating waves before the daemon appears and the second half of those preliminary waves are higher-threat than the starting enemies. None of the enemies should spawn in ambush position and they will now all randomly move around the room.
The Fall: Added a few tier 10 ore nodes. SOTA-71235
Fishing Expedition: Replaced the rowboat and ladder next to the galleon. The ladder is now a 2-way teleporter. SOTA-71249
Jotungrund: Added repeatable quest for killing the frost giant, with a meager reward that includes the “Giant Killer” title on the first turn-in. SOTA-71234
Jotungrund: Added Wymond’s Token, with deco ability.
Jotungrund: Adjusted the placement of the windwall for one of the Frost Giant platforms to ensure no gap at the bottom.
Port Harmony: Updated Peregrine’s responses. SOTA-71290
Port Harmony: Added missing responses for many NPCs, mostly related to the ministers. SOTA-71293
Port Harmony: Fixed a typo in the graveyard caretaker’s responses. SOTA-71296
Port Harmony: Removed flora clipping through the floor of some buildings. Fixed two stuck spots. The tailoring shop no longer has a “real estate” sign. A guard tower now allows Avatars to enter and exit. The adventuring trainer’s sign now reads as such. Most commoners now refuse to give their name instead of stating it’s simply “commoner.” The NPC in the hospital now has a unique conversation. The baker now sells bakery items instead of meat. The produce merchant now sells produce. SOTA-71302, SOTA-71299, SOTA-71300, SOTA-71298, SOTA-71301, SOTA-71297, SOTA-71292, SOTA-71295, SOTA-71294
Port Harmony: Fixed z-fighting in floor of New You pavilion. Updated “pressure relief” assets, including improved dialogue, evidence quest item, and better compass markers. SOTA-71254
Port Harmony: You can no longer fish within the canals.
Port Harmony: The overworld teleporter boat now sends players to their last known location in Mistrendur. The Merchants Dock is now an unlockable spawning entrance. The hawkers’ newsletters can now be freely taken. Fixed a typo shared by all hawkers. Fixed a path grid issue on a small island. SOTA-71311, SOTA-71309, SOTA-71310
Port Harmony: Added unique conversations for visitors and some commoners. Added assets for “Proper Greeting” quest, including QuestData for compass markers and visitor NPCs. SOTA-71313
Port Harmony: Fixed several early issues in the “Proper Greeting” quest which blocked its progression. Updated Peregrine, visitor, and Guild Registrar conversations. SOTA-71313
Port Harmony: Corrected spelling of “avowal” in all appropriate locations. Fixed a typo in Peregrine’s responses.
Port Harmony: Removed overlapping real estate sign from tailor shop. Adjusted creature spawning and ensured all are accessible. Avatars should now remember Hawker Nuntium’s name. Other children no longer claim their name is “Child.” Fixed several typos in journal entries. SOTA-71300, SOTA-71330, SOTA-71332, SOTA-71297, SOTA-71331
Port Harmony: Moved floating carts to ground. Updated responses for visitors, Minister of the Hearth, and Guild Registrar. Minister’s “proper greeting” quest now properly progresses past awarding avowal to daily version. SOTA-71313
Port Harmony: For the “proper greeting” quest, updated journal entries and responses. SOTA-71335
Port Harmony: Changed the scene limit to allow 64 players.
Serpent’s Spine Mines: Fixed a stuck spot. SOTA-71237
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Captain Kinsey now mentions the player will get a free row lot deed when her tasks are done. The associated journals are updated with information. SOTA-71304
The Rise: Added a few tier 10 ore nodes. SOTA-71235
Verdantis Mines: Five locked rooms now have special loot chests that restock when keys unlock the entry doors. SOTA-71225
Verdantis Shardfall: Removed a line in the water that was showing up near the edge of the scene. SOTA-71250
Vikland: Flattened ground that was clipping through a dye tub. SOTA-71238
Vikland: Changed the scene limit to allow 64 players.
Created map for Port Harmony. SOTA-71063
Created map for Hallowed Plains. SOTA-71306
Converted Necropolis Barrens map to new system to fix offsets/marker drift. SOTA-71319
Converted Restless Woods map to new system to fix offsets/marker drift. SOTA-71318
Converted Solace Bridge Outskirts to new map system to fix offsets/marker drift. SOTA-68624
Converted Solania map to new system to fix offsets/marker drift. SOTA-71315
Converted Soltown map to new system to fix offsets/marker drift. SOTA-71317

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Mistrendur: Moved several POTs that were slightly pushed into the terrain to ground level. SOTA-71051
POT Template Swamp 01 and Swamp 01a: Added extra waterfall effects. SOTA-71251
Avanish Hope: Changed biome to Swamp 01a.
Solaris: Upgraded to Town.

Player-Owned Dungeon and Basement Changes:

Keep Stone Arena Basement: Aligned cell doors and switches on the far side of the arena. SOTA-71327

Latest News and Q&A April Livestream

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, April 28th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Stephen “Ravalox” Reinen and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “crawling purple people eater” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team stream on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

May Day Sale

Celebrate Spring, the time of flowers and renewal! May Day marks the (approximate) mid-point of the season so, as we prepare for the Summer to come, why not celebrate with your friends in the spirit of the Romans’ Floralia festival and cast a confetti egg in their direction! While enjoying their reactions, you can take advantage of these sales starting at noon on April 27th through May 1st.

Crown Store sales will be 30% off.
Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off.

Release 113 Subscriber Login Rewards

Everything’s gone green; time to eat outside. The Rewards Program login items for Release 113 are a pair of Elven Jewelry Boxes and a Rustic Wood Table with a pair of Rustic Wood Benches!

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 113 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
- 30 Months: Keeper of Countless Devotions
- 33 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Three Corpions
- 36 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Six Serpents
- 39 Months: Keeper of Thirty-Nine Tulips
- 42 Months: Keeper of Forty-Two Roses
- 45 Months: Keeper of Forty-Five Lilies
- 48 Months: Keeper of Forty-Eight Daisies
- 51 Months: Keeper of Fifty-One Staves
- 54 Months: Keeper of Fifty-Four Daggers
- 57 Months: Keeper of Fifty-Seven Arrows
- 60 Months: Keeper of Sixty Swords
- 63 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Three Coins
- 66 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Six Gems
- 69 Months: Keeper of Sixty-Nine Jewels
- 72 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Two Goblets
- 75 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Five Rings
- 78 Months: Keeper of Seventy-Eight Amulets
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

May Login Reward

Even rustic pieces can use a bit of decoration: each account that logs in during the month of May will receive a one-time gift of a Small Rustic Wood Table!

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for May 1st:

Small Rustic Wood Table

…and for May 12th:

Rustic Wood Table Set
Fancy Geometric Wood Inlaid Elven Jewelry Box 2-Pack

Although there are not currently enough items to make a whole new category for them, a few St. Patrick’s Day items (some of which were previously hidden in the vault) can be currently found in other categories (Wearables and Outdoor Decorations) until Monday May 1st:

List of St. Patrick’s Day items:

Garden Leprechaun
Leprechaun Bowler Hat 2-Pack
Leprechaun Hat
Pot o’ Gold

The Spring Equinox store items will be available until Friday May 5th:

List of Spring Equinox items:

Bunny Ears & Slippers Set
Decorative Dyeable Egg Pack
Flower Crown
Lepus Mask 2017
Lepus Mask 2018
Silver & Gold Lepus Mask
White Lepus Mask
Rabbit Tailed Bodice Ensemble
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2016
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2017
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2018
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2019
Spring Fountain w/ Floating Candles

To celebrate his birthday, the Darkstarr Rares store items will be available until Monday May 29th:

List of Darkstarr items:

Darkstarr Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Darkstarr Chaos Throne
Darkstarr Chaos Throne (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Clock Tower
Darkstarr Clock Tower (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Fur Collared Cloak
Darkstarr Pavers
Darkstarr Shield
Darkstarr Shield Pattern Pack
Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
Mosh Emote

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, Flair Minamoto, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Butterfly Pet (Blue)
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX
Autumn Fairy Wings
Green Fireflies VFX
Landing Flies 3-pack
Blue Fireflies
Mounted Ladybug Specimen
Mounted Rhinoceros Beetle Specimen
Mounted Firebug Specimen
Mounted Diving Bug Specimen
Mounted Asian Ladybug Specimen
Swallowtail Butterfly Pet
Mounted Potato Beetle
Silver Bug Sprayer
Mounted Dung Beetle Specimen
Mounted Hissing Cockroach Specimen
Mounted Maybug Specimen
Mounted Stag Beetle Specimen
Mounted Flower Beetle Specimen

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2023 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 113 – April 27 (Content)
Release 114 – May 25 (Polish)
Release 115 – June 29 (Polish)
Release 116 – July 27 (Content)
Release 117 – August 31 (Polish)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Recurring Events:

Monthly Release Fishing Contests: This will be a rotating, multi-location contest sponsored and organised by Rajazel, The Town Museum and its Governor Diablotine.
Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle hosts a monthly auction held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Avatar Relics

Community member Shawn Butts has opened a Shroud of the Avatar merchandise store with Catnip Games’ approval. Visit for pins, mugs, shirts, posters, and more here.

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts books! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! They officially launched September 30. Check out their official trailer here.

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

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04/19/2023 05:31 PM

Due to data center power maintenance, we will need to bring the servers offline for a brief period of time starting just before 11am CT.

The outage should only last for a short period while the data center personnel make their adjustments.

We have set a Message of the Day in game alerting everyone and started the countdown to taking the server offline.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

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04/09/2023 03:21 PM

Greetings!

Thanks to all the feedback on our 2023 April Fools' Day joke event!

For those who did not login on April 1st, and missed the follow up stream, here's a summary of what happened...

for the purposes of our event, April 1st started at midnight GMT (UK time) through to midnight April 2nd. (This translated to 7pm Central time March 31st to 7pm Central Time April 1st.)

We re-routed anyone who logged in on April 1st to a redux of the original Chicken Room. This was the very first...

April Fools Reprise, reprise

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Lord British Birthday Bash: R115 Livestream

The Great New Britannia Mapping Project Update

Release 115 Patch Notes

Release Day Work Window Changes

Blood River Outskirts and Vermillion Lens Quest Items

The Great New Britannia Mapping Project Continues

Release 114 Patch Notes

New Scene: Port Harmony

2023 Roadmap Update

Preparation and Announcement of Dev Events

The Great New Britannian Mapping Project

New Pets: Reef Spiders

Release 113 Patch Notes