Jack T. Lamplighter

As of midday Saturday April 29 we discovered that the data on the server that contains the information for everyone's Journals (quests, tasks, etc) is not loading properly. This means your Journal is suddenly blank and you cannot progress through your quests.

Our deepest apologies that this has happened and we are working as fast as we can to address it.

UPDATED (6 PM): We have found the issue and made a fix. The good news is no data has been lost. We will get a patch out as soon as we can.

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[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

As of midday Saturday April 29 we discovered that the data on the server that contains the information for everyone’s Journals (quests, tasks, etc) is not loading properly. This means your Journal is suddenly blank and you cannot progress through your quests.

Our deepest apologies that this has happened and we are working as fast as we can to address it.

UPDATED (6 PM): We have found the issue and made a fix. The good news is no data has been lost. We will get a patch out as soon as we can.

 

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Hello everyone! Welcome to Release 41! Here is the news of the week!

 

• Play Release 41 Now!
• Moondial Madness
• The Oracle (update)
• The Making of Highvale Outskirts (update)
• The Making of Bloodriver Outskirts (update)
• New and Improved Store Purchasing Interface
• Autism Awareness Month Sale – Final Weekend
• City+ Property Weekend Flash Sale
• R40 Lot Deed Raffle Winners
• Join the Localization Team!
• Community Livestream: The Rise of The Fall
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Trophy Room Contest
• Community Events: Welcome Quest R41 and May Day
• Community Resources – Players Helping Players
• Recommended Project to Back – The Bard’s Tale IV

The post Echoes from the Caverns 04-28-17 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• Play Release 41 Now!
• Moondial Madness
• The Oracle (update)
• The Making of Highvale Outskirts (update)
• The Making of Bloodriver Outskirts (update)
• New and Improved Store Purchasing Interface
• Autism Awareness Month Sale – Final Weekend
• City+ Property Weekend Flash Sale
• R40 Lot Deed Raffle Winners
• Join the Localization Team!
• Community Livestream: The Rise of The Fall
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Trophy Room Contest
• Community Events: Welcome Quest R41 and May Day
• Community Resources – Players Helping Players
• Recommended Project to Back – The Bard’s Tale IV

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Play Release 41 Now!Release 41 successfully launched yesterday, April 27, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

• Path of Truth First Playable
• Artifice Dungeon
• Solace Bridge Outskirts
• Verdantis Mines Unclone
• Kas Ruins Unclone
• The Fall PVP Dungeon
• Siege Polish
• Headgear, Tools, and Shields as Decorations
• Combat Balance
• Taming Balance
• Blunt Weapon Balance
• New Moon Magic Spells
• New Weapons
• Spring Telethon Weapons
• New Cloaks
• New Decorations
• New Recipes
• New Patterns
• New Emotes
• User Interface Polish
• R40 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

…and much more

Check out the Release 41 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new content.

We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing this Release!

If you have not backed the game yet, go to www.shroudoftheavatar.com and click the “Play Now” button. Game Early Access is also available on Steam Early Access.

Release 41 Player Instructions

Release 41 Known Issues

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Moondial Madness

Recently we did some re-ordering of the celestial bodies in the heavens. Additionally there are now more game systems directly tied to the positions of these celestial bodies. For instance Town Sieges are directly tied to these. Due to these changes Richard “Lord British” Garriott has decreed that we update our orreries to not only accurately reflect these new sequences but also add the constellations in an outer ring. The first pass is to update the Darkstarr Moondial that players already own. We also created a new Silver Darkstarr Moondial that will only be available through our Referral program when that comes back online. Other variants that look very different from the Darkstarr versions will then be created including a craftable version (more mechanical in nature) and an Ornate version for the Add On Store that will come in a variety of sizes ranging from table top to a giant version that you can walk under!

The updated Darkstarr Moondial is live in Release 41. Stay tuned for updates on when the other versions will become available.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Scott “Scottie” Jones]

Yes indeed,…it’s that time again! Time for Richard to request that I add to the existing Darkstarr Moondial once more, due not only to the change in the recent order of the moons in the night sky, but also due to some slight changes in the magical constellation overlay and background stars that exists in the sky-dome itself!

Much like last time, when changes were made to the original Moondial to account for us getting much closer to our actual in-game sky and all its celestial bodies,…this time, with our system incorporating not only the correct moon order, but also the ideology and actual timing of the attacks of the Cabalists and their unholy minions, the Moondials themselves (which Richard always wanted to be functionally-accurate tools of celestial observation) needed to change once again to reflect our most recent updates…

The magical constellation overlay seen when using either the Astrolabe or the Moondials changed only slightly, with me “cleaning up” the lines a bit to organize the night sky into 12 “sectors” roughly in the middle of which each constellation can be found (with the outliers being Chaos and the Principals interlocking circles, which are not currently factored into the attacks of the Cabalists, and are bisected by a line between two sectors)… By gazing into a clear night sky when these items are invoked, you can now easily see the sector line demarcations stretching from one axis of the celestial dome to the other, with the constellations hovering between them either above or below the galactic swath. The three middle horizontal lines pass through the two outlier constellations, with the central horizontal line describing the path of the galactic swath itself. Here’s a portion you can see below.

What this means, as far as the Darkstarr Moondial is concerned, is the addition of an extra ring around the outside to which are attached iconic versions of the primary constellations (mimicking the Devotional depictions, of course), and the alignment of their “sectors” as compared to the various moons in orbit around our world…. One then uses the Moondial more easily and accurately now by merely standing beside the Moondial facing the planet at its center, visually aligning yourself with the constellation representing a Devotional within the town you’re interested in, and seeing which moons fall within that sector slice that angles in from the sector edges on either side of the constellation toward the center of the world… The Cabalists representing the antivirtues of those moons should be attacking any city bearing that particular Devotional at that time… In the example below you can see that towns hosting a Devotional of Honor are being currently attacked by Avara while Dolus prepares to withdraw his minions, and Nefas is readying his forces in vicious support that is soon to come!

In addition to upgrading the Darkstarr Moondial in this way, I was also tasked to create a variation on it which is a silver version held aloft by a hand of bluish-purple marble. I’m not sure how this will become available, but I enjoy its alternate color scheme… While I like the gold/bronze warmth of the original, blue and silver are some of my favorite color combinations!

And lastly, having created these, I was asked to begin work on two other versions of the Moondials. I’m quite excited by these, because one is a version you’ll be able to craft yourself, made out of materials such as brass, copper, silver, wood, and various mechanical parts and pieces (recipe yet to be determined), and the other is meant to be an “ornate” version you can purchase which will come in four sizes (tabletop, “room”-sized like the ones above, Village Lot sized, and Keep Lot sized)… The exact scale of these has yet to be determined.

Below you can see them in their beginning stages as compared to the existing Darkstarr version. The Craftable Moodial (lower left), will eventually be seen as made from multiple materials as described above, and has a “naturally-mechanical” look to it, with no magically-floating elements, and sports a slightly tilted “cage-dome” representing the tilted axis of the world itself as roughly compared to the abstractly-depicted rotational plane of the moon and suns. The discs bearing the supports that hold up each of the celestial elements rotate independently upon the base column. The central Moondial is the beginnings of the “Ornate” version, which will appear in the four sizes mentioned, and unlike the others can be walked beneath when large enough. It showcases cool, glowing “Aetheric Energy” elements that typify some of the more arcane/technological devices in our game, such as the orbital rings of the moons, and the magically-projected celestial dome that surrounds the construct as a whole in which the constellations can be seen.

I hope you all enjoy these so far. Stay tuned, and I’ll update this thread with more images and progress descriptions as I keep working on them!

Take care everyone!

Scottie ^_^

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The Oracle (update)

As we are moving through the final sections of the story we are working on the characters you will interact with at critical parts of your paths. In Release 37 we added Priestess of the Wind Khasi and Shogun Siranto. In Release 43 we will be adding the Oracle who watches all. This week we started putting her inside her temple and connecting her to all of the monitors.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “SkullMuncher34” Kinnear]

More pictures of the Oracle!

What we’re about to show you is going to take two livestreams! For Part 1, tomorrow we will bring back Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski to show off the now live Solace Bridge Outskirts. Then Chris “Seawolf” Wolf and Damien “Puuk” Foletto will show you the upcoming Highvale Outskirts scene.

As we announced during the Spring Telethon, we are adding three new maps to the game that we are calling “Outskirts”. These scenes will be very close to the three starting scenes and players will go directly there after finishing those starting scenes. Outskirts will be very large scenes, similar in scope to some of our recent big scenes like Blood Bay. This will allow them to be large enough that players can base themselves in a single scene for adventuring, resupply for their first couple of hours without having to go through multiple scene loads, or having to use the Overworld.

One month from now (don’t worry, we will have livestreams in the interim), we will be talking about all three Outskirts scenes, including Bloodriver Outskirts!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask your questions about these Outskirts scenes.

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The latest Lot Deed Raffle was drawn with deeds awarded to the following lucky winners. There were two raffles, one for each lot type:

Place Anywhere Deeds (10):

• Row: 5
• Village: 3
• Town: 1
• City: 1

Player Owned Town Deeds (10):

• Row: 5
• Village: 3
• Town: 1
• City: 1

Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win deeds of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City)....

Release 40 Lot Deed Raffle Winners and R41 Raffle Details

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Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 41 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, April 27, at 10:30 AM US...

Release 41 Instructions

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[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 41 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, April 27, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 41 (R41) is another leap forward in progress with an incredible amount of new content (5 new scenes!) as well as a ton of balance and polish. The Path of Truth is now playable from beginning to end, including the twisted Halls of Artifice, Solace Bridge Outskirts now eases new players into the game at a much better pace, more gear can be placed as decorations, combat got lots of balancing including Taming, and Localization has resumed.

Truth and Artifice: The Path of Truth is now playable to completion with the addition of the Halls of Artifice. In this single-player, plot-driven experience, the avatar will delve into the mystery of why the satyrs of Elysium are welcoming pilgrims into a life of bliss… Of course, I am sure that a place called Artifice along the Path of Truth would not be filled with lies, right?Solace Bridge Outskirts and Interface Polish: We are continuing to focus on steady improvements to the new user experience. This effort is twofold. First, we have begun to  create new “Outskirts” maps, which will be expansive scenes in which  new players will be able to explore many different aspects of the game. Solace Bridge Outskirts appears in Release 41, with more to follow in upcoming releases. Second, we have continued to make incremental improvements to the user interface. One such improvement in R41 is the addition of an information button to several interfaces that brings up help information. A myriad of other UI fixes and improvements are detailed below.

Ruins of Kas, Verdantis Mines, and The Fall: These three new scenes bring an incredibly diverse range of play opportunities to the game. The Ruins of Kas provide a vertical fortress assault in an Open PVP area. Verdantis Mines is a dungeon full of danger and ore. The Fall is a PVP free-for-all full of crazy powerups centered around a giant vertical shaft.

Decorations: What you can decorate your home with got yet another dramatic expansion this release with over 200 new pieces of gear now placeable as decorations. This includes all shields, tools, and headgear (as well as some additional weapons). We also expanded the Patterns/Reshaping system to work with decorations so that custom covers may be applied to books.

Combat Balance: Improving balance in combat was a major focus for Release 41. We made major improvements to Taming, Summoned Creatures, the entire Bludgeons combat school, creature resistances, and more. We also added two new Moon Spells, new weapons, and our first new ranged weapon since ranged combat was introduced: Crossbows.

Localization: We are very excited that localization has started again with our amazing international community using the Zanata platform.

Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post. They are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game and that it is easy to read.

While we are getting closer to launch, we are still in a constant state of change. We do not yet have all of the in-game systems needed to inform players about these changes, and to help them to explore new content and systems. This means we rely mostly on this message, and the linked instructions and known issues to convey the current game state. We regularly have to answer questions or filter bug reports because some players elect not to read this valuable information.

By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and efforts can be redirected to focus on new “unanswered” questions and addressing critical issues impacting each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.

Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check out a couple of the event calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player-run websites: Avatars Circle and Events of the Avatars). You can also get the latest official events on the Main Website.

Without further ado, here is a list of what you can expect to see in Release 41.

Key:

• Plain Text: The original plan for the Release deliverables. We intentionally preserve the original text so that our backers can compare plan versus actuals.
• Italics: Extra notes and new deliverables.
• Strikethrough: These are items that did not make the release (but are still planned).

RELEASE 41, April 27, 2017

• Story: We will begin polishing the Path of Truth with the Dungeon of Artifice coming online for the first time. We will also polish visuals of the final sequence with the Titan Grannus in the Path of Courage. The incidental NPCs and side quests along the Path of Courage will also be worked on in locations like Estgard and Harvest. Verdantis Mines and the Kas Ruins scenes will both be uncloned. The Fall, a new PvP dungeon underneath Blood Bay, will appear in the game. Solace Bridge Outskirts, a new scene that players start in after the Battle of Solace Bridge will come online for the first time.
  • The Path of Truth and Artifice: The Path of Truth is now playable to completion with the addition of the Halls of Artifice. A single-player, plot driven experience, the avatar will delve into the mystery of why the satyrs of Elysium are welcoming pilgrims into a life of bliss… To enter the Halls of Artifice, ensure that you have followed the plot of the Path of Truth to Xenos, in particular having spoken to the elf Notus, and then speak with the satyr at Artifice’s entrance. Note: even if you have spoken with Notus before R41, you will need to speak with him in Xenos again this release to gain admittance.
  • Titan Grannus Finale: MINOR SPOILERS: At the completion of the Path of Courage, Grannus the Titan undergoes a visual transformation that matches the storyline to that point.
  • Estgard & Harvest: The non-plot focused characters of Harvest and Estgard now have schedules, directional conversations and patrols. These two towns are encountered along the Path of Courage.
  • Verdantis Mines: The Verdantis Mines are in the northern tip of the Mariah Mountains in the Verdantis region which can be found in the northwest of Novia. The elves of the region have been mining these mountains for many years and recently they broke through to an ancient underground city full of rich ore nodes and other treasures. Unfortunately, it is also full of undead and, in its deepest places, Fire Elementals. The Verdantis Mines started as a clone of Graff Gem Mines but has been completely rebuilt for Release 41. Based on feedback received regarding resources in Serpent’s Spine Mines, we have increased the ore resource node counts as part of the scene unclone.
  • The Fall: No one is quite sure who built this mysterious dungeon beneath Blood Bay, but it is filled with an incredible array of dangers and rewards. The Fall gets its name from the giant vertical open space that defines the middle of the dungeon with crisscrossing bridges and elevators. This dungeon is an Open PVP area, so enter at your own risk!
  • Kas Ruins: The Kas Ruins are one of the six ruined cities found in Novia that date back to the period in Novian history in which the Obsidian Order rose to power. (As described in the Sword of Midras prequel novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott). The exact history of some of these cities has been lost to time, but it is rumored that some of them may have been abandoned even before the rise of the Obsidians. Kas is the site of the ruins of an ancient Paladin fort high atop a mountainside. At the foot of the mountain is an abandoned village with a small graveyard. The entire area has become overrun by the undead. Kas started as a clone of the Opalis Ruins, but has been completely rebuilt this release to have a unique layout and visuals. Like all the other Ruins and Shardfalls, this is an Open PVP area so we are expressly focusing on being sure the map has interesting setups for PVP conflict, with plenty of space for hiding, escaping, ambushing, and skirmishing.
  • Rhun, Kas, Dysborg, & Midras Ruins Vaults: There are six ruined cities found in Novia that date back to the period in Novian history in which the Obsidian Order rose to power. (These were first described in the “Sword of Midras” prequel novel, by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott). The exact history of some of these cities has been lost to time, but it is rumored that some of them may have been abandoned even before the rise of the Obsidians. These ruins include Opalis, Libris, Rhun, Midris, Kas, and Dysborg. Deep beneath these ruins lie Underground Vaults that rumors hint are somehow linked to the Dire Prophecies. Rumor also has it that the vaults are not only connected to the ruins above, but also the vast underground network of dungeons and sewers that crisscrosses Novia below. In Release 41, the Vaults beneath Rhun, Kas, Dysborg, and Midras are now connected.
  • Solace Bridge Outskirts: For several years now our backers have been providing us feedback that the first few hours of our game have several major issues. Those issues include too many loading screens, scenes that are too small, and starting towns that include player housing/vendors. As we shift our focus to improving the New User Experience (NUE), and as we are able to measure new player progress through events like our recent free trial, we realize that we must address these issues sooner versus later. As we announced during the Spring Telethon, our solution to this is to add three new maps to the game that we are calling “Outskirts.” These scenes will be very close to the three starting scenes and players will go directly there after finishing those starting scenes. Outskirts will be very large scenes, similar in scope to some of our recent big scenes like Blood Bay. This will allow them to be large enough that players can base themselves in a single scene for adventuring, resupply for their first couple of hours without having to go through multiple scene loads, or having to use the Overworld. Each scene will have a small outpost that will include some shopkeepers, trainers, crafting stations, and a few quest givers (and no player housing!). The scenes will also include plenty of adventuring areas (forests, ruins, bandit camps, etc.). Our first Outskirts scene is Solace Bridge Outskirts. It is downriver from Solace Bridge where the Solace River meets the ocean. The small army that was defeated at Solace Bridge has retreated here and sent the villager refugees to Soltown. They have made camp in a ruined tower overlooking the swampy shoreline. However, they are not getting to rest in their retreat, for a nearby bandit camp is preying on them, stealing supplies. Plus, across the river lie the ruins of an ancient village infested with the very undead they just retreated from! NOTE: This the first iteration of the scene and it contains 6 quests. We plan to add at least one more quest and do a few polish passes on this as we get data on players using the scene.
  • Siege Polish:
    • Sieges and POTs: Sieges are now visible when entering POTs from the Overworld, not just when leaving.
    • Siege Messaging: When you try to enter a town under siege a message now appears: “The town you are trying to enter is under siege. To enter the town you must first fight your way through the siege lines. Do you want to proceed?”
    • Sieges and Low Levels: Characters below level 20 now bypass sieges completely and receive a message: “Due to your relatively low power sympathetic defenders wave you through the siege lines directly into the town.”
    • Catapults Visibility: NPCs in Sieges now immediately spawn in when the scene starts and do not wait for players to get within 90m like in other scenes. This now makes it so that player will now immediately see catapults firing in the distance when entering these scenes.
  • Love Path for Trial Visitors: Since the Love Path is our most polished experience and the first path to get one of our new Outskirts scenes, we are going to temporarily force all Trial Visitors down the Love Path.
  • Task and Hint Polish in Starter Scenes: Started polishing the pace and sequencing of the tasks and associated on screen hints in the starter scenes starting with the Battle of Solace Bridge. This will continue to be polished over the next several releases.
  • Approach to Tower of the Shuttered Eye Polish: Added more interest to the map including poison gas fields, confusing gas fields, and other dangers!
  • Kiln and Jaanaford Devotionals: Kiln now has the Honor Devotional (was Justice) and Jaanaford now has the Justice Devotional (was Honor). Players rightly pointed out that since the Druid Jaana was devoted to Justice, that Jaanaford (her namesake town) should have the Justice Devotional, so we swapped the Kiln and Jaanaford Devotionals.
  • Serpent’s Spine Mines: In response to player feedback, we have added some additional iron and silver ore resource nodes to this scene.
  • Brittany Sewers: A new, modestly-sized section of Brittany Sewers has been opened up under Brittany Wharfs. This area does not yet connect with the rest of the scene, but does provide an additional point of access to The Fall.
  • Ardoris: Added street signs and street names to aid navigation through the city.
  • Archery Targets: These are now functioning in all scenes.
  • Virtue Tests: We have added more events in the game that will affect your virtue.
  • Twins Foothills: Added Tier 6 and Tier 8 plunderers to the camp at the northwest corner of the map. The Tier 8 enemies mostly come at night. Mostly.
  • Skrekk: The surface map that leads to the Caverns of Skrekk now has Tier 8 and Tier 10 City Kobolds (Brawlers) in a small outpost near the entrance to the underground capital of the Kobolds. The Kobolds guarding the immediate entrance to the Caverns of Skrekk now have City Kobold appearances as well.
  • Elad’s Lighthouse: Wildlife (birds, rabbits, and other creatures) has been scattered around the entire scene.
  • Soltown Sewers: Adjusted spawn rates and decreased max spawn counts.
  • Superstition Canyon: Katagus will now teleport you across the control point properly.
  • Mallard Ducks: These cute waterfowl can be found in a several towns across Novia, including Storms Reach, Point West, and Brittany Fields, amongst others.
  • Rez Ankhs for Starter Scenes: Doubled the number of Resurrection Ankhs in Battle of Solace Bridge, Bloodriver Massacre, and Battle of Highvale to be kinder to new players who might die.
  • Selling Quest Items: Fixed a bug where these items could be sold to merchants, therefore making it impossible to finish quests.
  • Scene Fixes: We went through tons of scenes in the game fixing major and minor bugs including conversations, stuck spots, floating assets, missing assets, bad NPC patrols, inaccessible ore nodes, missing collision, missing/misplaced Resurrection Ankhs, falling through the world, etc.
    • Aerie
    • Ardoris
    • Battle of Highvale
    • Battle of Solace Bridge
    • Blood Bay
    • Brittany Alleys
    • Broochash
    • Central Brittany
    • Crypt of the Avatar
    • Deep Ravenswood
    • Desolis
    • Dysborg Ruins
    • Estgard
    • Etceter Crag Mines
    • Forest Siege
    • Greymark Forest
    • K’rawl
    • Kiln
    • Kingsport
    • Midras Ruin
    • Owls Head
    • Resolute
    • Rhun Ruins
    • Ruined Keep
    • Serpent’s Spine Mines
    • Solania
    • Soltown
    • Spectral Foothills
    • Spite
    • The Necropolis
    • Upper Tears
    • Verdantis Shardfall
    • Vertas
• Performance: Significant focus will be made on performance this release with emphasis on stability, framerate, memory, and load times.
  • Shader Instancing: We have started using instancing for our shaders which should result in an overall framerate increase in all scenes. This both reduces GPU and CPU load especially in scenes with a large number of duplicate objects, like cities.
  • Fireworks Boxes: Optimized the textures of these objects.
  • Performance Focus Delayed: While we did a couple of tasks related to performance, it was not the major focus we had intended. We hope to spend more time in Release 42 and 43 on performance improvements, including another Unity upgrade which has generated significant improvements on internal tests.
• Player Towns & Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. Additionally Shields, Tools, and Helmets will become placeable as decorations.
  • Shields, Tools, and Headgear Decorations: Over 200 additional equippable items can now be placed as decorations, including all shields, tools, and headgear (helmets and hats). You can view the entire list in this forum post. Here is just a small sample of that giant list: 
    • Chainmail Helm
    • Augmented Chainmail Helm
    • Cloth Helm
    • Augmented Cloth Helm
    • Epic Cloth Helm
    • Leather Helm
    • Augmented Leather Helm
    • Epic Leather Helm
    • Plate Helm
    • Augmented Plate Helm
    • Epic Plate Helm
    • Steel Clockwork Armor Helm
    • Bucket Helmet
    • Viking Helmet
    • Knight Marshal’s Winged Helm
    • Lord Marshal Helm
    • Imperial Heater Shield
    • Adorned heater Shield
    • Norgard Heater Shield
    • Rectangle Shield
    • Viking Brynhildr Shield
    • Viking Guor Shield
    • Viking Tyr Shield
      
    • Heavy Round Shield
    • Imperial Buckler Shield
    • Adorned Buckler Shield
    • Gilded Buckler Shield
    • Hoe
    • Mortar and Pestle
    • Smithing Hammer
    • Cleaver
    • Carpentry Hammer
    • Cooking Pot
    • Fishing Rod
    • Harvesting Axe
    • Pickaxe
    • Sickle
    • Skinning Knife
    • Cubit Measure
    • Smelting Tongs
    • Tailoring Scissors
    • Tanning Knife
    • Loom Shuttle
    • etc
  • Weapon Decorations: Fixed a few weapons that we missed in R40:
    • Dastardly Vile Sword
    • Electric Two-Handed Axe
    • Falchion
    • Gaudy Vile Spear
    • Indignant Vile Halberd
    • Morning Star
    • Norgard Spatha
    • Norgard Spiked Club
    • Obsidian Hand Axe
    • Ornate Norgard Battle Axe
    • Shard of Night
  • Ancient Columned City Home: This enormous home is based on the Hall of Boreus (historical spelling of the Titan Boreas) found in Xenos. With its imposing front steps, numerous tall columns, gilded details, and marble floors it is suitable for a great hall, temple, court of justice, guild chambers, or an ostentatious residence. You can find this home in the Add On Store. SPOILER: It also features a secret lower level accessed via a sliding hatch. 
  • Harpsichords: Our newest placeable musical instruments are Lord British’s favorite: Harpsichords! There is an in-game craftable Harpsichord and an Ornate Red & Gold Filigree version in the Add On Store.
  • Bottom Exterior Floor Decoration Flag: In Release 40 we introduced the “Bottom Floor Decoration Flag” to restrict certain items for placement only on bottom floors. This allows us to keep items that only make visual sense on bottom floors constrained to those floors. A whole class of items that we either only allowed for placement outside or we allowed inside (but could be placed nonsensically) can be placed properly indoors. This includes Gravestones, Tombs, Crypts, Wells, and Basement Hatches. We are extending this in Release 41 with an additional flag, the “Bottom Exterior Floor Decoration Flag” that encompasses Porches, Patios, Decks, Docks, etc. so that you can also place these items in your home’s exterior spaces.
  • Vendors and “Magic Movers” (Property Manager): Player-owned Vendors now keep their inventory when a house or basement is stored via the Property Manager. This should facilitate use of multiple property configurations. For example, a player may want to have both business and party home setups. This is now possible without needing to restock vendor inventories each time that the business setup is sent to storage.
  • Hospitallers Artwork: Community member Leostorm’s loving tribute to the Hospitallers is now an in-game painting and tapestry for sale at Caravaggio’s Wolf, the Gold Crown Art Dealer in Ardoris.
  • Darkstarr Moondial: This orrery has been updated to reflect the latest changes to the astronomical positions of the heavenly bodies and we have added an outer ring for the constellations. It can also be placed in POTs now.
    
  • New Statues
    • Topiary Statues: For the Spring Telethon we made topiary statues covered in white flowers which players seemed to really like so we made plain versions without flowers of a bunch of our statues. You can find these in the Add-On Store.
    • Titan Statues: Originally the Titan statues were only available in gigantic forms as Player Owned Town decorations, but after numerous player requests we have made normal statue scaled sizes of these. The statues of the Titan of Love, Titan of Courage, and Titan of Truth can be found in the Add-On Store.
    • Lich Statues (larger): Players really loved the table top lich statue we created in Release 39 and asked for a full size version, so we created a full size and giant version of this statue for the Add-On Store.
    • Tabletop Greco-Roman Statues: Players really loved the Greco-Roman statues we added to the game in Release 39 and asked for tabletop versions, so we created these smaller sizes of all three sets (Ancients, Nobles, and Reclining) for the Add-On Store.
  • Fine Upholstered Furniture: This new furniture suite consists of 7 different pieces and comes in two versions: Fine Red Upholstery and Fine White & Gold Upholstery. They will be sold in 8 piece sets in the Add-On Store.
    • Chair (comes as a pair)
    • Armchair
    • Barrel Chair
    • Barrel Sofa
    • Loveseat
    • Wooden Trimmed Loveseat
    • Long Couch
  • Blacklist for NPC & Item Naming: Item naming now uses the same blacklist as player names. This includes NPCs (POT, Vendors, etc.), pets, items (chests, gear), etc.
  • Bedrolls: These can now be slept in by using them (invoked via double clicking).
  • Fine Oak Bookshelf: Increased height of shelves so player made books will fit. NOTE: This makes the bookshelf slightly taller and will adversely affect placed decorations until they are repositioned.
  • House Fixes: Fixed various issues in homes including places where decorations could not be placed, stairs that could not be climbed without jumping, etc.
    • Baron Frigate
    • Citizen Benefactor Village
    • Edelmann Founder
    • Greenhouse Homes (Fixed growth rate bonus bugs)
    • Keep Stone 2-Story Basement
    • Stucco 4 Story w/Left Alcove Row
    • Village Tower
    • Wood & Plaster 3 Story Village
  • R40 Lot Deed Raffle Tickets: The drawings for our Eighth Lot Deed Raffle will be held on April 27, 2017 and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in Release 41.
    • Place Anywhere Deeds (10):
      • Row: 5
      • Village: 3
      • Town: 1
      • City: 1
    • Player Owned Town Deeds (10):
      • Row: 5
      • Village: 3
      • Town: 1
      • City: 1
  • R41 Lot Deed Raffle Tickets: This will be the Ninth Lot Deed Raffle. As always, Raffle tickets can be purchased with in game gold. As with R40 each person can only win a single deed of each type (maximum of one place anywhere and one POT). The drawing and winners will be in R42.
    • Place Anywhere Deeds (10):
      • Row: 5
      • Village: 3
      • Town: 1
      • City: 1
    • Player Owned Town Deeds (10):
      • Row: 5
      • Village: 3
      • Town: 1
      • City: 1
  • New and Updated Dynamic POTs:
    • Beregost: Upgraded to Hamlet. Interconnections (with Greenfall, Kingswood, and Littlecreek).
    • Constitutio Chaos: Renamed (formerly Verat Chaos). Changed nested interconnection to within Verat Chaos.
    • Darkshire Hills: Ownership changed.
    • Flowing Waters Forest: Renamed (formerly Specto Mori). Converted to Forest 02. Ownership changed. Changed location. Interconnections (removed Aerie; added Brekken Bay and Falling Waters Fortress).
    • Grumpie Hermit’s Hide-a-way: Converted to Swamp Island 01a. Interconnection (with Flowing Waters Forest).
    • Lake Cusabo: Renamed (formerly Dooms Den). Converted to Mountains 01. Ownership changed. Upgraded to City. Changed location.
    • Moonglade: Upgraded to Metropolis.
    • Novia Market: Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Changed location (minor).
    • Oracle Oasis: Upgraded to Village.
    • Refugees Hideout: Converted to Mountains 01. Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Reverie: Upgraded to Village.
    • Sequanna’s Peace: Renamed (formerly Mount Nylorac). Converted to Desert 01c. Ownership changed.  Interconnections (changed nested interconnection to within Granite Gardens; added Serenite and Isle of Mists).
    • Serenity Isle: Converted to Swamp Island 01a. Rotated to Left.
    • Steubenshire: Renamed (formerly Nido dell’Aquila). Converted to Mountains 01. Ownership changed. Interconnections (changed nested interconnection to within Verat Chaos; removed Central Brittany, Brittany Alleys, and Elad’s Lighthouse).
    • Verat Chaos: Renamed (formerly Praga). Ownership changed.
    • Whyte Roc: Changed location. Upgraded to City. Interconnections (with Taenby Landing and Blue Rose Isle).
• Combat and Game Balance: We will continue our polish pass on all the visual effects related to combat as well as make major improvements to the new user experience with combat. Major efforts will be devoted towards game balance.
  • New Moon Magic Spells: Moon magic was very unbalanced compared to the other magic schools because it had no damage spells or spells that directly assisted with combat beyond mesmerization. These two new spells greatly increase the effectiveness of Moon magic.
    • Fireflies: Tier 2 spell. Surrounds target with fireflies making target easier to hit and increasing crit chance. Also clear way to mark designated target for large group combats.
    • Meteor Shower: Ground target spell, cast it and it summons an AOE with little meteors falling.
  • Tamed Creatures Balance: Taming has needed some attention for some time now, and we spent Release 41 first analysing the issues, and then implementing some needed changes to make taming more balanced and useful. The goal was to increase their combat survivability and DPS output but at the cost of slightly more maintenance.
    • Increased Damage Resistance: All creatures gain damage resistance to match their wild counterparts.
    • Increased Speed: Fixed movement rate and made them match the creature type. Wolves are fast, bears moderate, spiders still slowest. This makes all movement speeds all at least 50% faster than what they were previously.
    • Increased Strength: All creatures gain at least 20 base strength. This increases both damage and hit points.
    • Reduced Health Regen: Out of combat health regen reduced to combat level health regen.
    • Taming on Utility Bar: All taming skills have been made usable from the utility bar vs combat bar.
    • Taming Unlearn Credit: Added all tame skills to the “100% unlearn list” for R41. Those that still do not approve of Taming after these improvements to it will have the option to reclaim almost all the experience they spent on it.
  • Creature and Environment Effects Balance:
    • Body Slam: Fixed bug where this skill was ignoring Roots cast by NPCs.
    • Cabalist Effects: Fixed all Cabalist effects to not affect dead players.
    • Confusion Fields: Fixed confusion fields to not affect dead players.
    • Daemon in Solania Catacombs: Added a spawn delay for Daemon in the catacombs to discourage farming.
    • Damage Resistance/Avoidance/Parry: Gave all creatures some level of Damage Resistance, Avoidance, and Parry. Major side effects:
      • All melee types will be slightly less effective. High hit, low damage effects (Double shot, rapid shot, multishot, etc) will suffer the most BUT those were designed with this in mind.
      • Warrior types will get some, mages probably none which will also help differentiate them more. Best way to deal with casters will be melee, best way to deal with warriors will be magic.
    • Elemental’s Resistances: We did a major pass on elemental resistances because they were only taking 50% of damage from all melee. We removed that and replaced it with more standard damage resistance, avoidance, and dodge based on type.
    • Ghosts: Now much more resistant to melee/physical damage. And Confusion no longer works on them.
    • Hit Points: Balance pass on melee creature hit points to bring them down to a more reasonable value since they will now take less damage.
    • Tier 8+ Elven Warrior: Updated the top tier warrior elf to make him more challenging. Currently only found as a mini boss type in the dog room shooting gallery in The Rise.
  • Bludgeon Balance: Major focus on balancing Bludgeoning to make it more effective, especially versus Blades.
    • Break Weapon: Increased the amount of damage reduction caused by Break Weapon skill, increased the duration, and made it so it can stack up to 3 times.
    • Break Armor: Debuff power decreased from 1+skillLevel/25 to 1+skillLevel/50 but duration tripled and changed to stack up to 3 times. GM in the skill can now decrease a target’s Damage Resist by 9 (or more with Break Armor buff gear) for 30 seconds vs old version of 5 for 10 seconds.
    • Ground Pound: Damage changed from meleedamage + (2 to 10) to meleedamage*1.4, base focus increased from 16 to 22, and cast time changed from 1.5 to 2 seconds. General idea being to make high tier runes bigger, more powerful Damage multiplier will scale much better at high levels.
    • Stun Duration: Stun duration on crushing blow and knock back doubled and chance to stun cut in half. Fewer stuns means they are less likely to be resisted so even though this seems bad or neutral, this is actually better in actual practice.
  • Summoned Creatures Balance: Summoned Creatures were only really useful at low levels because they did not level with the player. Now we have made it so they increase their level based on the caster’s skill and level using the formula: (skillLevel) + ((adventurerLevel/2)/4). So if you’re level 80 and have an 80 in summon fire elemental skill, instead of your fire elemental being level 10 as in previous releases, it will be 10+(80+(80/2))/4 = 10 + (30) = level 40 fire elemental and have about 3-4X hps and a better hit chance.
  • Skills Balance and Bug Fixes:
    • Acrobatics: This passive Light Armor skill that added Damage Resistance now instead adds a full time dodge chance. For the duration of R41, players who choose to unlearn Acrobatics will regain 100% of the experience spent on it back to their pool.
    • Blue Blooded: This innate is now in line with Fireproof and Well Grounded innates at 0.25 points of resistance per point. Added Blue Blooded to the 100% experience reclaim on untraining for R41.
    • Confusion: This now requires a successful cast to apply experience.
    • Cover: Completed a survey of 400+ skills to make sure they were accurately set to work with cover (many were not!). Also fixed the getting hit by a spell AFTER the target has moved behind a wall issue. 
      • All appropriate spells and skills should now be blocked correctly when the target goes behind a wall or gains cover during casting time. Yes, this means that you should be able to more accurately jump behind pillars to avoid firebolts, etc
      • Many skills/spells were set wrong for damage flags so they were not receiving cover bonus, now fixed. (Seriously, too many to list)
      • Many skills had flags corrected to be properly blocked, parried, dodged. The most noticeable was Double Thrust first attack could be blocked, dodged or parried but the second attack was couldn’t be defended against. Lots others fixed as well.
    • Death Magic: After investigating crafting bonuses and how they were applied specifically for Death magic we found a very bad math bug:
      • Bonus for near death was being applied like this: bonus = 1.0 + percentDead + nearDeathPowerBonus
      • BUT should have been this: bonus = 1.0 + (percentDead *(1+ nearDeathPowerBonus))
      • That means that the near death power bonus from gear was being applied to all death magic all the time before. So if you had a piece with a 20% near death bonus, it was really a 20% to all death magic all the time.
      • This is now fixed so it only applies when you are actually near death, not all the time.
      • We looked over the numbers and we believe that the death magic gear bonuses are still too high. It is really the only magic school that gets straight up damage bonuses and it really doesn’t need them.
      • Going to go with just those two changes to death magic for R41 and see if that gets things under control a little bit. If not, we will reexamine it again in R42.
    • Decay: Maximum skill decay that can be accumulated has been raised from 12 hours to 24 hours.
    • Deck Switching with Coconuts: This is now possible
    • DOTs and Elevation: Height differences should no longer impact damage calculations for DOT effects.
    • Douse: Fixed tooltip for Douse to only show the newer value for the first resistance.
    • Evasion: Duration increased to be more in line with other short duration defensive skills.
    • Fortify Defense: This skill is now fixed! It was actually working before but only vs very limited category of attacks. Now it should work if within 1-2 seconds of being critically hit by any attack not flagged as a magic type.
    • Glyph Shuffling Bug: Fixed Bug where excess skill glyphs were not being reshuffled into the deck when creating Combos.
    • Hamstring Combo: Damage now scales based on skill levels. This makes this combo much more powerful (as it should be).
    • Ice Field: Updated this Water spell to be a persistent effect in an area as it should have been all along. This means you cast it on a spot, it creates an ice field and entering that field will slow you down even if you weren’t in that area when it was cast.
    • Ignite Weapon: Fixed the bug where VFX were persisting after the buff expired.
    • Invulnerability: The effect you have on you after resurrecting or first appearing in a scene now properly protects from other effects besides direct damage like Knockdown.
    • Opportunity Strike: This skill is now much improved. The window for use after dodge is increased and damage on bonus hit raised from 1.25X base to 2X base and still bypasses armor.
    • Pick Pocket: Changed Pick Pockets to be player only until we have a system in place that feels meaningful. Right now it just gives you a virtue hit and lets you do it while they stare at you.
    • Poison: Added new shared stat for Poison Effectiveness that makes poison more powerful. Updated the poison effects to use the bonus. All but Chaos Poison use it on both debuffs and damage. Daggers, short blades, and 1-handed polearms are now more effective with poison.
    • Recall: Fixed bug where combat was not interrupting Recall.
    • Resurrection: Fixed bug that would block players from being resurrected if they were regenerating health at the exact moment of death.
    • Reveal Hidden: Now works for all players in the area, not just the caster.
    • Riposte: Fixed tooltip typo. Also will now only train and give defensive bonus when the attack hits something. Additionally, Riposte was only giving defensive bonus to the first attack! That has been changed to all attacks for the duration of the skill. This skill will likely get some real love soon to make it more compelling.
    • Shield of Air: Fixed bug where it would actually get worse when stacked
    • Shield of Crystal: This spell can no longer be cast on Pets. Added Shield of Crystal to the 100% experience reclaim on untrain list.
    • Stillness Buff: Damage on the player now clears the stillness buff so mages can’t stand toe to toe in combat and get bonuses.
    • Tabula Rasa: Fixed this spell so that it now properly wipes the target’s deck, not the caster’s deck.
  • Weapon Balance and Bug Fixes:
    • Caltrops: The slowing effect on these has been increased to 50% slow effect and they now do damage.
    • Explosive Potions: These can now be placed on the Utility Bar.
    • Gear Decay: Increased the rate at which things get damaged by 25%. We will probably keep creeping this value up as currently both from testing and player reports, stuff never needs replacing.  We also will continue to evaluate armor vs weapon break rates which currently feel a bit off.
    • Knight Marshal Helm: Fixed Knight Marshal’s Winged Helm to not break set bonuses.
    • Maximum Critical: Added a max crit stat to weapon archetypes. Set to current value of 2 for all weapons but now at 2.5 for Polearms and Crossbows. This was added for Crossbows because unlike bows, they do not get a strength bonus of any sort.
    • Polearms: Their critical damage multiplier is now 2.5x (vs 2x).
  • Artifacts:
    • Gaia’s Heart: Fixed Gaia’s Heart so it can be used in either hand.
    • Instrument Artifacts: Fixed all artifact instruments to be easier to use. They were only attempting to recast 1 time every 20 seconds and if you weren’t busy with a note right at that moment it waited another 20 seconds to recast. Not it will check every 5 seconds and the buff will last 30 seconds. NOTE: Many of these do not and will not help the user. For instance, the fleet flute and stealth instrument do nothing for the guy playing them!
    • New Artifacts: Added 7 new artifacts to the game including a new type of buff to support one of them and new effects for new weapons.
    • Torch of Jerik: Added new effects to Torch of Jerik.
• Character: The Titan Grannus will get his own unique art for the first time. Wounded variations of our guards and soldiers will appear in game. We will also be polishing the medieval peasants.
  • Titan Grannus: Ruler of the Norgard people, Titan Grannus, is one of the pivotal characters you will encounter along the Path of Courage. He wears Viking inspired royal armor with the yellow highlights thought to keep Kobolds at bay. SPOILER: We actually had to make two versions of Grannus so that we could show the corrupted version and the revitalized version of him.
  • Cabalist VFX: The dark energies powering the Obsidian Cabalists pulse through and around them making them even more sinister than they were before.
  • Male Commoner Polish: We created a new custom head and face for the male commoner along with several variants.
  • Wearable Backpacks: Backpacks can now be worn in the back slot like cloaks, wings, etc. For now there is the plain Backpack which is craftable in-game and the Ornate Backpack (originally created for the Wealthy Merchant NPC) which can be purchased in the Add-On Store. These can also be placed as decorations and used as containers.
  • New Weapons:
    • Elven Woodwind Short Bow (2-handed Bow): Top Tier Elven Archers
    • Broad Hand Axe (1-handed Axe): Low to Mid tiered Barbarians
    • Double Axe (1-handed Axe): Low to Mid tiered Barbarians
    • Hafted Axe (1-handed Axe): Low to Mid tiered Barbarians
    • Kobold Slag Sword (1-handed Sword): Mid tiered Kobolds
    • Flamberge (2-handed Sword): High tiered Humanoids
    • Vile Two-handed Sword (2-handed Sword): High tiered Humanoids
    • Walking Stick (2-handed Staff): Low tiered Mages
    • Ornate Vile Glaive (2-handed Polearm): Obsidian Bundle Exclusive
    • Ornate Glaive (2-handed Polearm): Add On Store
    • Ornate Satyr Bardiche (2-handed Polearm): Add On Store
  • Spring Telethon 2017 Weapons: During our Spring Telethon 2017 these were the stretch goals for hitting $80K (Leaf Shield & Spear) and $130K (Thorn Bow & Sword). As always anyone who spent $5 or more during the telethon will be receiving these in Release 41. These are the first four that have been built (the other Thorn weapons will be worked on and delivered in Release 42):
    • Leaf Shield
    • Leaf Spear
    • Thorn Bow
    • Thorn Sword
  • New Cloaks:
    • Darkstarr Fur Collared Cloak: This new fur collared version of the Darkstarr cloak also features the health hiding effect once only available in the Lord British Cloak. This can be purchased in the Add On Store.
    • Lord British Fur Collared Cloak: This fur collared version of the Lord British cloak has a different color scheme and also features the health hiding effect. This can be purchased in the Add On Store.
    • Fur Collared Sigil Cloaks: These 3 cloaks feature the Crafting, Magic, and Combat Sigils on fur collared and trimmed cloaks with a different color scheme than the original Sigil Cloaks. These can be purchased in the Add On Store.
  • Butterfly Masks: The Butterfly mask we first introduced during the Spring Telethon now comes in Black and White versions in the Add On Store.
  • Emotes: We have added quite a few new emotes that can be learned from various NPCs in the game.
    • /scare: Use this emote to frighten your friends! SPOILER: A “Forgetful Ghost” in a haunted house in the Solace Bridge Outskirts will teach this emote to players. NOTE: this was formerly known as /boo but that is now used for jeering (see below).
    • /boo: Use this emote to express your displeasure at the next performance you attend! SPOILER: Speak to Kitra, a pilgrim in Etceter, about her love of fauns, learn how to jeer at people when they do something you do not like. NOTE: The name for this emote was formerly used for the emote /scare (see above).
    • /timerift: Impress everyone at the next dance party with this amazing sequence of moves! SPOILER: Eugena, a new NPC added to the non-tutorial version of Solace Bridge, will teach this dance to players.
    • /lighthopak & /heavyhopak: Outlanders from Ukraine brought this dance to Novia and have been stunning partygoers with it. SPOILER: Geof, the refugee in Soltown very excited about iron blades, will teach this unique dance.
    • /waltzlead & /waltzfollow: These stately dances are a graceful statement at any noble gathering. Getting the timing right can be a challenge, just like in real life! SPOILER: Damai in Ardoris will teach.
    • /tiphat: If you want to show your respect to others when greeting them then you must obtain this emote! SPOILER: Kardan Marbane in the Ardoris tavern will provide.
    • /beg: For those times when you have to get on your knees and plead for mercy you will wish you had this! SPOILER: Ellery in Ardoris will show you how.
    • /huzzah: When a simple cheer is not enough you need a hearty “Huzzah!” SPOILER: Smelly Bob in Spite can provide.
    • Mining emote for NPCs: Added the ability for NPCs to use the mining animation.
    • Face Selected Target: Players will now face the selected target when using emotes like /bow and /point
    • /toast: You can once again get drunk from using the /toast emote. NOTE: For now this is the only way to get drunk and it just produces a visual distortion effect. It also does not matter what you have equipped. Eventually getting drunk will be tied to alcohol consumption and certain potions and will include other effects like the movement input swapping of the Confusion spell as well as puking.
  • Mallard Ducks: This version of duck is our wild variant and can be found scattered around Novia.
  • Light Spell: The visual effects for the Sun Magic spell Light have been completely redone.
  • Polished Torch and 1 Handed Weapon Hold: There was a bug in the hold pose for torches and 1 Handed Weapons that made the character look really awkward. These have been fixed.
  • Double Animations Bug: Fixed bug that was causing some animations to play twice (examples: Fishing, casting Light Spell, Opening Chests, etc.)
  • Musical Instrument Sync Issues: Fixed bug where sheet music sync would break after the first song was played.
  • Wounded Soldiers and Female Peasant Polish Delayed: We chose to spend more time working on Grannus and The Oracle and so we are pushing these two items to Release 42.
• Contextual Help: A contextual help system will come online that allows players to hover over content (interface elements, items, etc.) in the game and get information about it.
  • Information Button: We have added an information button “?” to many of our interfaces that when clicked on brings up a window containing more information about that interface and/or the system that interface interacts with. This text often replaces the pop-up tutorial text (and often uses that same text).
  • “Just in Time” Text: Added short explanatory text to interfaces where possible to merchant, vendor, bank, combat bar, utility bar, and trade windows. Example: “Drag items here” when the trade window is empty.
  • Vendor Interface Tooltips:
    • Buy: “Buy items listed for sale by other players.”
    • Sell: “Fulfill purchase orders created by other players.”
    • Manage Inventory: “Add or remove items that you would like to sell.”
    • Manage Orders: “Create or remove purchase orders for items that you would like to purchase.”
• Crafting: More recipes and more patterns in gear that is dropped from enemies.
  • Reshaping & Patterns for Decorations: Previously Patterns and Reshaping could only be used on gear (weapons, armor, clothing, etc.) but now the system has been expanded so that it functions on other items including decorations.
  • Book Cover Patterns: The first decorative item to use patterns in the game will be books. Using the Tailoring station you will now be able to change the Book Cover to over 60 different Custom Book Covers. Player books can also now be salvaged for materials and patterns.
  • New In-Game Weapon Patterns:
    • Kobold Electric Axe (1-handed Bludgeon)
    • Kobold Electric Great Axe (2-handed Bludgeon)
    • Elven Woodwind Short Bow (2-handed Bow)
    • Broad Hand Axe (1-handed Bludgeon)
    • Double Axe (1-handed Bludgeon)
    • Hafted Axe (1-handed Bludgeon)
    • Kobold Slag Sword (1-handed Sword)
    • Flamberge (2-handed Sword)
    • Vile Two-handed Sword (2-handed Sword)
    • Walking Stick (2-handed Staff)
  • New Add On, Bundle, and Pledge Weapon Patterns:
    • Founder Crossbow (Crossbow)
    • Royal Founder Crossbow (Crossbow)
    • Ornate Vile Glaive (2-handed Polearm)
    • Ornate Glaive (2-handed Polearm)
    • Ornate Satyr Bardiche (2-handed Polearm)
  • New Recipes:
    • Crossbow: Crossbows are the third ranged weapon that can be crafted (in addition to the Short Bow and Long Bow). Finally something to put that Vile Crossbow pattern on!
    • Boss Creature Trophy Heads: There are now trophy head recipes for 3 of our bosses: Dragon, Phoenix, and Troll.
    • Rustic Wood & Leather Furniture: Rough wooden logs with bark still on them and stitched leather cushions
    • Canvas Upholstered Furniture: This new furniture suite consists of 7 different pieces:
      • Chair
      • Armchair
      • Barrel Chair
      • Barrel Sofa
      • Loveseat
      • Wooden Trimmed Loveseat
      • Long Couch
    • Harpsichord: Lord British’s favorite musical instrument is craftable in the game and even this version is quite fancy!
    • Norgard Chairs: These two heavy wooden chairs are built in the Viking inspired Norgard style.
    • Heavy Rustic Chair: A sturdy wooden chair
    • Stag Hat: Much like the Bear and Wolf hats this hat is made from the head of a Stag and sports the characteristic antlers of that beast.
  • Obsidian Forge: We have doubled the Health and Focus drain at the Obsidian Forge in Hilt Fortress to better balance the benefits associated with Obsidian gear.
  • Warlock Chain Bug: Fixed the Warlock chain recipes so they don’t destroy items.
  • Rose Polish: The colors are now much brighter on the rose blooms.
  • Masterworking Wands: Now skills up Bludgeon Masterworking in Carpentry.
  • Merchant Shirt: Now properly classified as Cloth Armor.
• Localization: Translation into multiple languages has been restarted on the Zanata platform.
  • Russian Language (Cyrillic) Support: Russian is now an officially supported language including Cyrillic fonts.
  • Localization Rewards: As part of our resumed Localization effort, we will begin rewarding volunteers with Gold Crowns and the titles of “Scribe” and “Royal Scrivener”. See the linked post for details on how to earn the rewards. For more information about joining our volunteer localization team, click here.
• User Interface Polish:
  • Training Window: Now only shows the skills you can learn from that trainer instead of showing all skills.
  • “Newly Claimed” Rewards in Bank: Newly claimed rewards now appear in green text in your bank.
  • SotAMap Player Position: Fixed player direction arrow bug so it now updates direction properly in real time.
  • SotAMap & Convos: We now properly hide SotAMap when in conversations with NPCs as we do all other windows.
  • Basement Interface: “Cancel” and “Accept” buttons are now reversed.
  • Vendor Item Location UI: Players can now view a list of all items that they have listed for sale on player-owned Vendors throughout New Britannia. This is accessible via the cog context menu button in the bank interface, and should help players locate items that may have moved via the Property Manager.  Items in the list may be sent to the local bank in order to easily retrieve items that may be placed on a vendor that is currently in storage.
  • Play Mode Selection (Offline, Friends, Open): This is now accessible from the Options Menu, allowing players to switch modes from inside the game without having to log completely out. Before this mode change takes effect, the player must wait 20 seconds, followed by an automatic reload of the current scene.
  • Focus Bars: These are now only visible if other players are in your party.

So, now that it is clear what you can expect, we should also be as clear about what you should NOT expect:

• Stability: Stability while better with Unity 5.5 still has issues on systems with minimum memory.
• Performance: We plan to make steady improvements each release until the game is running smoothly on minimum spec machines in big cities. However, we only made a little time in Release 41 for any significant performance improvements, so performance remains relatively unchanged since last release.
• Game Loop: Release 41 is a further iteration on our game loop, but is still missing a few key components and balance. Expect this to expand with each subsequent release.
• Visual Quality: Efforts to improve visual quality are ongoing. We will continue to iterate on these until we have highly competitive visuals.
• Pledge Rewards: Pledge Rewards that have been built and have tech to support them are in the game; all other rewards are awaiting either content creation or tech support. You can find an updated list of these items in the known issues.
• Delayed Content and Features: As mentioned above, some features scheduled for this release did not make it (and in each case we explained why). In some cases items from previous releases move into the next release but often they will move further out, either into the next quarter, or even farther. About once per year (around mid-year) we put out a Road Map that details all content built to date and all remaining content.

Here are links to instructions and known issues. Thank you again for your continued support. This is truly the most amazing community we have ever worked with, and we are proud to be on this journey with you.

Sincerely,
Starr Long
aka Darkstarr
Executive Producer

 

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As we announced during the Spring Telethon, we are adding three new maps to the game that we are calling “Outskirts”. These scenes will be very close to the three starting scenes and players will go directly there after finishing those starting scenes. Outskirts will be very large scenes, similar in scope to some of our recent big scenes like Blood Bay. This will allow them to be large enough that players can base themselves in a single scene for adventuring, resupply for their first couple of hours without having to go through multiple scene loads, or having to use the Overworld.

Each scene will have a small outpost that will include some shopkeepers, trainers, crafting stations, and a few quest givers (and no player housing!). The scenes will also include plenty of adventuring areas (forests, ruins, bandit camps, etc.).

From last week’s Update of the Avatar #224, we’ve introduced the second and third outskirts scenes! See the amazing screenshots below:

The Making of Highvale Outskirts

SPOILERS: After Highvale Village was overrun by Obsidian Elves the villagers escaped to Resolute and the soldiers who were defending the village fled to a nearby abandoned monastery high in the mountains in a scene we are calling Highvale Outskirts. They have made camp there but are blocked from completing their retreat to Resolute by an encampment of Elves who are patrolling the area. Players following the Path of Courage will go directly to this scene after Highvale Village and will assist the soldiers as well as follow numerous other quests and side quests. The monastery will include some crafting stations, merchants and trainers among the soldiers who can help players outfit and train. This very large scene also contains a small Kobold mining camp, a hunters cabin on an alpine lake, and an abandoned farm. We hope to have this scene live in Release 42.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Chris “Sea Wolf” Wolf]

Hey folks, I have a few screenshots to share of the upcoming Highvale Outskirts. This is one of three new introductory areas that are designed to help new players learn about the basics of gameplay in SotA. The centerpiece of the map (metaphorically speaking) is a forgotten monastery, where the forces from Highvale have retreated. From this monastery, players will be able to take on local quests throughout the map.

The inspiration for this map is drawn from European monasteries such as the ones in Meteora Greece, where monks would study in isolation.

Most of the map is open fields and patches of forest, perfect for hunting wild game. The map also features a lake where players can fish, and even a fishing boat which circles the lake.

The Monastery Cliff-side

The Monastery Chapel (exterior)

The Monastery Chapel (interior)

The Under-croft

The Elven Camp

The Fisherman’s Hut

The Wilderness

Also here’s a sneak peak video I did yesterday for Pen of the Avatar:

As always, feel free to leave feedback!

Chris Wolf
Level Designer

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The Making of Bloodriver Outskirts 

SPOILERS: Players following the Path of Truth encounter the Elven village of Bloodriver massacred by vigilantes from Aerie. The elves have fled for their lives into the forests upriver and invaded the home of an Elven hermit who dwells in a ruin deep in the forest. They have set traps to protect themselves from the vigilantes who have pursued them here and are harassing them still. Elven soldiers from Vertas are arriving from the north to protect them while Aerie soldiers are streaming in from the south east to try and stop all out war between the humans and elves. We hope to have this scene live in Release 43.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here once again to give you a sneak peak of Bloodriver Outskirts!

Tucked away in a dense forest, Elven survivors from the recent Bloodriver Massacre have sought refuge and built a camp atop a woodland plateau. They protect themselves from the humans who pursue them they have chosen this reclusive spot and have booby-trapped the surrounding area!

Elven Camp

Bloodriver: Here is the blood red river as it cuts through the dense forest.

Vigilante Camps: Scattered throughout the scene are these camps led by humans to capture and kill elves. Pictured below are pens, and cages meant to hold the elven captives, truly a grim sight.

Traps: Some new traps will make their way into Bloodriver Outskirts like this “Indiana Jones” inspired rolling boulder trap. Run!

See you next time!

Esteben Zaldivar
Level Designer

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The first Outskirts scene, Solace Bridge Outskirts, was revealed in Update #222:

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Updated 6/14

Here's what we're working on right now. Please post any bug reports below this. I'll update this post as we work on hammering things out.

- A few minor bugs persist with avatars where they display incorrectly in various places (such as the pop up window when you click on a user's name)
- Log into the forum automagically when logged in to the main SotA website. This works when you log in now, assuming your email is the same on the SotA website and here. Note...

The Official Website & Forum Bug List

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This morning we updated the store purchasing interface with a new and friendlier design! For all items purchased though the ‘STORE’ menu on the main website, you now have an easier view of which transaction options are available with which to purchase items:

You will notice that we do not have Bitcoins listed as we did before this change. It was necessary to remove the option while we explore an improve compatibility with Bitcoin transaction processes and the new store interface.

Bitcoins will make a return! We do not have an exact date on this return just yet, but will let you know as soon as we have one to announce.

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From last week’s Update of the Avatar #224:

No one is quite sure who built this mysterious dungeon beneath Blood Bay, but it is filled with an incredible array of dangers, and rewards. The Fall gets its name from the giant vertical open space that defines the middle of the dungeon with crisscrossing bridges and elevators. This dungeon is an Open PVP area, so enter at your own risk! We plan to have this live in Release 41.

An update to The Fall:

This area is the duel arena where players can come and participate in or watch duels. The doors to waiting rooms can be opened by a MC above for fair timing. There’s a couple moving platforms to make it interesting (if you fall in the holes they’re full of nasty spikes but you can jump back up via vents on either side).The layout is somewhat bare to avoid collision issues and ensure better performance.

From a duelist’s perspective:Thanks for following!

More about The Fall in [A Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski, Level Designer]

Also on Friday last week, Travis and Dan joined us on the Community Livestream to show off some of the secrets and dangers of The Fall…

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This morning we updated the store purchasing interface with a new and friendlier design! For all items purchased though the 'STORE' menu on the main website, you now have an easier view of which transaction options are available with which to purchase items:





You will notice that we do not...

New and Improved Store Purchasing Interface

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Hello everyone! Here is the news of the week!

 

• The Oracle and Grannus
• Spring Telethon Weapons: Leaf Shield & Spear, Thorn Bow & Sword
• The Making of Highvale Outskirts
• The Making of Bloodriver Outskirts
• The Making of The Fall (update)
• Autism Awareness Month Sale
• Decorations Weekend Flash Sale
• Tech Talk Tuesday Episode 4
• Join the Localization Team!
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Trophy Room Contest Begins!
• Community Spotlight: Port Phoenix – Player Owned Town
• Community Event: Prism Presents a Grandmaster Tutoring Event
• Community Resources – Players Helping Players
• Recommended Project to Back – HoBLotH IV

The post Echoes from the Caverns 04-21-17 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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Get your houses ready for the most intense contest yet this year! Over the next several weeks, you will have the fun opportunity to show off your hunting heroism, crafting coordination, and trophy triumphs in this new three part contest kicking off today.


The Magnificent Trophy Room Contest Begins!

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This thread is for submissions and direct responses to submissions to the Trophy Room Contest ONLY. Please post questions in the Announcement Thread, as well as your suggestion for a title the participants will receive.

Have fun hunting, crafting, and decorating!

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• The Oracle and Grannus
• Spring Telethon Weapons: Leaf Shield & Spear, Thorn Bow & Sword
• The Making of Highvale Outskirts
• The Making of Bloodriver Outskirts
• The Making of The Fall (update)
• Autism Awareness Month Sale
• Decorations Weekend Flash Sale
• Tech Talk Tuesday Episode 4
• Join the Localization Team!
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Trophy Room Contest Begins!
• Community Spotlight: Port Phoenix – Player Owned Town
• Community Event: Prism Presents a Grandmaster Tutoring Event
• Community Resources – Players Helping Players
• Recommended Project to Back – HoBLotH IV

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The Oracle and Grannus

As we are moving through the final sections of the story we are working on the characters you will interact with at critical parts of your paths. In Release 37 we added Priestess of the Wind Khasi and Shogun Siranto. In Release 41 we will be adding the Titan Grannus, currently ruler of the Norgard people. Titan Grannus is one of the pivotal characters you will encounter along the Path of Courage. He wears Viking inspired royal armor with the yellow highlights thought to keep Kobolds at bay. In Release 43 we will be adding the Oracle who watches all. This week we posted progress on these two characters.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “SkullMuncher34” Kinnear]

Hello all! So we’re finally creating the Oracle as an in-game NPC. Not the automatons or the outpost oracles, but the one true ORACLE. This is where we will post screenshots and works in progress as we get her ready for an upcoming release. Cheers!

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Kevin “UglyFist” Wells]

Hey all! For this release I got to make Grannus – King of Norgard.

I’ve only just made the first pass on textures, so stay tuned for further polish and model/texture updates. Hope you guys like it.

Get your houses ready for the most intense contest yet this year! Over the next several weeks, you will have the fun opportunity to show off your hunting heroism, crafting coordination, and trophy triumphs in this new three part contest kicking off today.

PART 1: Hunt down a creature, kill another player (to get their skull), or catch a fish!

PART 2: Craft the trophy from that creature (human skulls come as-is, no preparation needed…)

PART 3: Display your trophy triumphs in a single room of a house you have access too!​

WINNERS & PRIZES

Prizes will be awarded on a tier basis:

• 1st Place: 100 in-game COTOs and three developer skulls of your choice.
• 2nd Place: 50 COTOs and two developer skulls of your choice.
• Two Runner-ups: 25 COTOs and one developer skull of your choice.
• All valid entries will receive a custom title in-game (exact title yet to be decided… community suggestions are welcome! Should refer to the contest in some way, and not be a title that we would use for other hunting/trophy purposes.)

As we receive contest submissions, they will be announced in the forums and on social with eventually a gallery of all submissions put together. Winners will be announced at the start of the Summer Telethon on May 31 around 12:30pm CT.

Read more about the contest and submit your entry in the forums!

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This week’s Player Owned Town spotlight has me, ‘Berek’ as I go by in the community, travelling by boat to visit the popular town of Port Phoenix on the Isle of Elysium. I received a direct...

Community Spotlight: Port Phoenix – Player Owned Town

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Watch your step and your stamina, Avatars! We’re going to be carefully making our way through the treacherous PvP dungeon known as The Fall on tomorrow’s community livestream. World builders Dan & Travis will be joining us to show off the scene.

No one is quite sure who from the world’s historical residents originally built this mysterious dungeon beneath Blood Bay, but it is filled with...

Community of the Avatar – The Rise of The Fall

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Watch your step and your stamina, Avatars! We’re going to be carefully making our way through the treacherous PvP dungeon known as The Fall on tomorrow’s community livestream. World builders Dan & Travis will be joining us to show off the scene.

No one is quite sure who from the world’s historical residents originally built this mysterious dungeon beneath Blood Bay, but it is filled with an incredible array of dangers and rewards. The Fall gets its name from the giant vertical open space that defines the middle of dungeon with crisscrossing bridges and elevators. It is also an Open PVP area, so enter at your own risk…

The Fall is due to rise in next week’s Release 41 game update!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask your questions about The Fall and other livestream shenanigans.

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Hello everyone, this is Asclepius, with the conclusion to this great story from Olthadir, entitled
The Darkness in the Waste
Background music by Smartsound

Chapter 2, “The Waste”
We arrived at the crater at midday – at my expressed intent. The sun was hot overhead, but it allowed us a good deal of time in the light.

The shards were scattered around a crater, floating. And there was a central cluster made up of large pieces that were much larger than myself. And they were black, very black, but still, thankfully, earthly black.

Maybe Savenroc was a dream.

Sonya got straight to work, measuring the shards, testing their density, collecting samples of the earth below. She wrote a good deal in her book. She spent the whole day and far into the night writing her observations.

The night was peaceful – thankfully. I watched the campfire light reflect dully off the floating shards. I remained a safe distance away from the crater. Far enough to see her while she worked, but far enough from the shards themselves. She worked through the night. I simply watched.

The stars wheeled overhead and nothing happened.

We didn’t talk the next day. She kept working and I grew anxious. Either something was going to come and devour us or I was truly mad. I began to wonder if I imagined the events of Savenroc forest. Did my friends even exist? Were my last few years of reclusion a lie? If nothing was happening here I began to question the validity of my memory.

I could hardly stand it. I went towards Sonya and began talking – asking questions to see if my recollection of events matched what I told her days before. She ignored me, raising a hand to hush me.

“Listen. That hum. The frequency… I’m trying to measure it.”

I spoke to her again, trying to get her to understand but she hushed me. The look in her eyes was terrible. A moment later she returned to scribbling in her book.

I grew even more anxious, feeling the low humming in my chest now as I walked around her and looked over her shoulder at what she was writing.

Lines. Waves. Scribbles.

She turned the page and scribbled on. It was nonsense. I looked for her first volume and flipped through it. She started coherently, speaking about physical measurements, harmonics, apparent weight of the shards versus how high they levitate. Then halfway through the book, scribbles.

On the fourth last page stood a testament to her madness. It was a page so full of ink it bled through to the back cover. She drew a circle hundreds if not thousands of times, creating a frightening representation of the void I saw years ago.

“You didn’t want me to come here originally,” Sonya said, standing a safe distance before me, dagger in hand. “It’s because you wanted this all for yourself. You couldn’t finish your own research, you were too afraid. So you want mine.”

I started walking backwards. She matched me, step for step.

“There is no research,” I said, turning the book towards her. “It’s only scribbles.”

“Of course it is!” She screamed, her shrill voice echoing off the shards. “I don’t want you or anyone stealing it. I have learned so much. The void is endless, unfathomable. If I can use it…” she trailed off, her eyes wild and wide, furious at my perceived betrayal. She stopped in mid step and the sun set.

Above her I saw purple lightning arc between shards. I smelled ozone and felt the cold chill wind of emptiness. It was here, I recognized it. I wasn’t mad, it was all real and unimagined. Before I could search the darkness for a sign of the void Sonya lunged at me.

I don’t carry weapons. I stopped after Savenroc. I saw no point. If I was killed by a weapon, I would find peace. Anything would be better than existing in the void. All I had was her journal to defend myself with. I moved to block her stab as I turned, giving her less of my body to hit. The sudden force of her attack propelled by the strength in her entire body overwhelmed me. I fell on my back, my head hitting the dry ground. I moved as best I could to avoid the descending blade. My eyes had sparks in them. I tasted blood in my mouth from the fall, I must have bitten my tongue. Sonya struggled on top of me attempting to wrench her dagger from her journal. I kept twisting it trying to keep the blade trapped somehow. It was the only way I could defend myself.

I am ashamed to record what happened next. I assure you, dear reader, that I was defending myself. I had no choice. As you see, I was near death, being attacked by someone gone mad.

I timed a counter push as she tried to draw the dagger from the journal, slamming the dagger’s pommel into Sonya’s face. It hit her in the mouth, cracking teeth. I pushed again, hitting bone. I pushed again and again. I pushed countless times, feeling bone, flesh and blood rain down on my hands, the journal and my face…

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I am writing this in Ardoris, safe as I ever was. I am alive, writing this months after the events I just wrote down. I killed Sonya. I crushed her skull with the blunt side of her dagger and her scribbled nonsensical journal. I still feel the blood on my hands.

You may not believe me. It was the shards. It was the void they were a part of. They turned Sonya against me, it turned her suspicious. It turned me into a murderer. Yet, as much as I know this is the truth, I am wracked with guilt. It is the only reason why I am writing this. I have killed because of the shards, because of the Obsidians and their desire to explore beyond Novia. Sonya could have lived a full beautiful life if she didn’t become curious and find me.

But what of me? I have survived two encounters with the void. I have changed because of them. What does that make me?

The post The Darkness in the Waste 2 – by Olthadir – narrated by Asclepius appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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This week’s Player Owned Town spotlight has me, ‘Berek’ as I go by in the community, travelling by boat to visit the popular town of Port Phoenix on the Isle of Elysium. I received a direct invitation from Count Kazyn Phoenixfyre, who I met while admittedly getting a bit lost exploring the nearby Elysian Plains.

I arrived late in the evening on the docks and was immediately taken by the calm, quiet beauty of the townscape. With little energy for the evening, we made are way to the Once and Future Inn for a room for myself and a hot meal. Kazyn helped me get checked in and then departed until we planned to meet after I got some needed rest.

The next morning I walked out of the inn to stand in front of an opulent building known as the “Capitol Building”. As it turns out, the building is not just the center of activity in this town – or even for a single guild – but instead a central meeting place for the entire alliance known as the “Republic Alliance”. Paintings, flags and statues from many cultures were scattered about, each representing the different cities, guilds, and groups within the alliance.

It was then that I discovered I had arrived during a time of grand celebration. Kazyn walked up and met me in the crowd as we all emptied out the rear of the building. We were treated to drinks and food as I got the opportunity to mingle with the many alliance representatives.

They were celebrating what would be the alliance’s third anniversary. The Phoenixfyre family and alliance members were intent on giving me the royal tour.

Our tour began right there within the nearby garden as dark clouds settled overhead. This was a magnificent garden split into two halves representing the duality of the universe. Life and Death, Order and Chaos, Yin and Yang were both represented.

The leaders of all of the alliance guilds present knelt before a grand memorial. I was told that this memorial represented avatars that they had known and loved who had passed recently. I learned that with each avatar that passed on the other side of the rift, that a new memorial is added to honor their memory within New Britannia.

A grand stage up front providing a central place for the town’s entertainment and gathering events.

After we departed the gathering of leaders an hour later, Kazyn and a group of followers walked with us along the shore to the Grand Boardwalk. Any ship entering town is greeted by the three statues of the Titans looking upon them, and new visitors are greeted by Sequanna, Titan of Love. Kazyn explained to me that Love, in fact, was a central theme behind the founding of the town.

I took in the beauty of the town as Kazyn talked about its rich history as a small naval fortress originally known as Sparrow Bay. It was through much conflict that the town was burned down several times and rebuilt from scratch – eventually coming to earn its name.

As we began discussing the topic of commerce and trade, we came upon Main Street which was populated with all manner of shops and vendors. Many of the followers that were with us seemed to disappear within the shops instead of continuing on our tour…

We then walked to an enormous Gustball field with a small hut and bar nearby. The field, known as Firehawk Field, was home to the local Gustball team: “Port Phoenix Firehawks”. The bar was built as a place to gather and have drinks while watching the game. Its name, Wody’s, was derived from a long standing history of Wody’s bars in the community. As long as Port Phoenix has been around, there has been a Wody’s in it somewhere.

We then turned back past the bell tower to visit another famous locale – the Salty Dog Cafe, which thankfully didn’t actually have any salty dogs, but did have some excellent pretzel bread rolls.

Much like Wody’s, the cafe had been a local tradition for many years. It was one of the first of its kind to offer both local dine-in food and delivery (no fees attached) for the weary traveler.

Next up was the Port Phoenix government building. This was an office to Damien Ragnarok and Bodhbh Dearg – the town’s foreman and post master general. But underneath the building was one of the largest vaults I had ever seen! There was a collection of over 200 separate lock boxes, which together held all of the town’s reserve supplies, as well as acting as a central bank of sorts.

As we walked away from the town in order to get a better view, I was shown the house of a reclusive Samurai warrior sworn to protect the area. The house stood prominently at the top of a tree covered hill. While we didn’t get a chance to meet this “Andreas Whitefire”, I was told he was quite well known and respected among the areas other visitors, when they happened to encounter him.

While returning to the main part of the town from our walk, we crossed the historic “Kings Crossing” bridge. The bridge was said to be constructed with pieces of older walkways which once stood in the same spot – each one having been taken by the swamp in years past.

We closed the tour and celebration with another fine serving of food and drink in the Capitol Ballroom and then headed back to the docks. Kazyn waved goodbye and told me to invite anyone else I knew to the town, as all are welcome. Upon preparing to depart on one of the outgoing ships, I took one last look back to admire the town’s hospitality, generosity, and spirit.

So long, Port Phoenix, may you receive many visitors in the years ahead!

There is so much to explore in Port Phoenix and other towns throughout New Britannia. If you are interested to become part of the Port Phoenix community, feel free to contact WrathPhoenix in the forums with any questions you have!

Do you have a town, guild, or other group we can spotlight? Message Berek!

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Hello everyone! Asclepius is back!! Here is the news of the week!

 

• The Making of Solace Bridge Outskirts (update)
• Release 40 Postmortem Recap
• Autism Awareness Month Sale
• Telethon Goal: New Flame Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp!
• Patterns Weekend Flash Sale
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Community Livestream: The Making of Verdantis Mines
• Community Event – The Great Wood Duck Hunt
• Community Event – Prism Presents a Grandmaster Tutoring Event
• Community Resources – Players Helping Players
• Job Openings
• Recommended Projects to Back

The post Echoes From the Caverns 04-14-17 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• The Making of Solace Bridge Outskirts (update)
• Release 40 Postmortem Recap
• Autism Awareness Month Sale
• Telethon Goal: New Flame Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp!
• Patterns Weekend Flash Sale
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Community Livestream: The Making of Verdantis Mines
• Community Event – The Great Wood Duck Hunt
• Community Event – Prism Presents a Grandmaster Tutoring Event
• Community Resources – Players Helping Players
• New Job Openings!
• Recommended Projects to Back

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The Making of Solace Bridge Outskirts (update)

For several years now our backers have been providing us feedback that the first few hours of our game have several major issues. Those issues include too many loading screens, scenes that are too small, and starting towns that include player housing / vendors. As we shift our focus to improving the New User Experience (NUE), and as we are able to measure new player progress through events like our recent free trial, we realize that we must address these issues sooner versus later.

As we announced during the Spring Telethon, our solution to this is to add three new maps to the game that we are calling “Outskirts”. These scenes will be very close to the three starting scenes and players will go directly there after finishing those starting scenes. Outskirts will be very large scenes, similar in scope to some of our recent big scenes like Blood Bay. This will allow them to be large enough that players can base themselves in a single scene for adventuring, resupply for their first couple of hours without having to go through multiple scene loads, or having to use the Overworld. Each scene will have a small outpost that will include some shopkeepers, trainers, crafting stations, and a few quest givers (and no player housing!). The scenes will also include plenty of adventuring areas (forests, ruins, bandit camps, etc.).

Our first Outskirts scene is Solace Bridge Outskirts. It is downriver from Solace Bridge where the Solace River meets the ocean. The small army that was defeated at Solace Bridge has retreated here and sent on the villager refugees to Soltown. They have made camp in a ruined tower overlooking the swampy shoreline. However they are not getting to rest in their retreat for a nearby bandit camp is preying on them, stealing supplies. Plus across the river lie the ruins of an ancient village infested with the very undead they just retreated from! We hope to have this scene live in Release 41 or 42.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

Update to The Ruined Village & Graveyard

Thanks for following the progress!

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Release 40 Postmortem Results

Our R40 Postmortem was this past Tuesday. We answered a ton of questions and gave away lots of in-game prizes, including a Hot Air Balloon Decoration, Gold Crowns, and a 2017 Lepus Mask.

While we did not have time to answer all the questions, Starr “Darkstarr” Long got on the forums afterward and answered the remaining questions here.

The livestream recording for those who missed the postmortem:

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Autism Awareness Month Sale

April is Autism Awareness Month so we are putting all the Autism Make a Difference items on sale for 20% off until Monday May 1. Portalarium will donate 50% of the net purchase price of these items split equally between The National Autism Association, (a parent-run advocacy organization and the leading voice on urgent issues related to severe autism, regressive autism, autism safety, autism abuse, and crisis prevention) and The National Autistic Society, (the leading UK charity for people on the autism spectrum [including Asperger syndrome] and their families). Both provide information, support, services, and campaign for a better world for people with autism.

Here is a complete list of Autism Make a Difference items that will be on sale for the rest of April:

• Puzzle Pattern Cloak – Autism Awareness Charity (digital)
• Puzzle Tree Cloak – Autism Awareness Charity (digital)
• Puzzle Tree 6-Pack – Autism Awareness Charity (digital)
• Puzzle Package – Autism Awareness Charity (digital)
• Tabletop Puzzle Tree 3-Pack – Autism Awareness Charity (digital)
• Epic Puzzle Tree – Autism Awareness Charity (digital)

Shortly after kicking off the sale, we heard back from a representative at The National Autistic Society on the last payment we sent them:

“I’d like to say thank you on behalf of everyone at the National Autistic Society and those we work with; your support means a great deal and will help us to keep working so that people with autism can lead the lives they choose. Approximately every 1 in 100 people is autistic, which in the UK means over 700,000 people are on the autism spectrum. Together with their families, they make up over 2.8 million people whose lives are touched by autism every day. Your support helps us to deliver projects and services which will give the information, advice and support that individuals and families so desperately need.”

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Telethon Goal: New Flame Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp!

Check out this just added Flame Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp to the list of Telethon Stretch Goal Rewards! The Summer Telethon is set for May 31st:

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Patterns Weekend Flash Sale

We added over 100 new patterns to the game in Release 40! Half of those were added as in-game loot drops, but a few got added to the store as well! To celebrate we are putting all new Release 40 patterns on sale this weekend for 20% off.

Here is a complete list of the Release 40 patternss that you will find on sale this weekend:

• Ornate Chainsword Pattern Pack (digital)
• Ornate Kimono Pattern Pack (digital)
• Ornate Floral Kimono Pattern Pack (digital)
• Ornate Short Kilt Pattern Pack (digital)
• Ornate Long Kilt Pattern Pack (digital)
• Fancy Riding Outfit Pattern Pack (digital)
• Flechier Tapestry Formal Suit Pattern Pack (digital)
• Wedding Dress Pattern Pack (digital)
• Wedding Tuxedo Pattern Pack (digital)
• Satin Bodice Bundle Pattern Pack (digital)
• Ornate Marching Band Shirt & Hat Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Tricorn Hat Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Top Hat Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Bycocket Hat Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Highwayman Hat Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Plague Doctor Mask Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Plague Doctor Hat Pattern Pack (digital)
• Brown Bowler Hat Pattern Pack (digital)

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Upcoming Events Calendar

Apr 27, 2017 – Release 41
May 25, 2017 – Release 42
June 29, 2017 – Release 43
July 27, 2017 – Release 44
Aug 10 – 14, 2017 – Syndcon (Austin)
Aug 31, 2017 – Release 45
Sept 1 – 4, 2017 – Dragon Con
Sept 22 – 23, 2017 – Ultima Online 20th Anniversary Party
Sept 28, 2017 – Release 46
Oct 13 – 15, 2017 – SotA Con 2017 (Austin)
Oct 26, 2017 – Release 47

Visit the official Community Calendar to see the great lineup of activities our amazing community has planned for this weekend! And be sure to check out this month’s Release Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events.

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Community Livestream: The Making of Verdantis Mines

Chris “Sea Wolf” Wolf (World Builder/Level Designer on the team) is back to show you live the Making of Verdantis Mines, a new uncloned scene he’s working on!

Verdantis Mines is in the northern tip of the Mariah Mountains in the Verdantis region which can be found in the northwest of Novia. The elves of the region have been mining these mountains for many years and recently they broke through to an ancient underground city full of rich ore nodes and other treasures. It is also full of undead and in its deepest places Fire and Earth Elementals.

Verdantis Mines started as a clone of Graff Gem Mines but is being completely rebuilt and will hopefully go live in Release 41 or 42.

Watch other videos and livestream recordings at: www.youtube.com/portalarium

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Community Events of the Week

The Great Wood Duck Hunt – Now thru 4/19

Vyrin & Womby’s new store has been infested by migrating wood ducks. If you can travel to New Britannian Market and help us find them all, we would be most appreciative!​ “Wooden ducks” have been hidden around the store. They could be in any spot on the property. Some are hidden in tough spots! Your job is to find them all. Once you think you have, PM @Vyrin and @Womby on the forum with the total number you found and the /loc location of each one. The /loc only has to be close, not exact. We only ask it to prevent guessing.

There are no metaphorical ducks, duck patterns or encoded ducks. You only have to find the literal wooden duck decoration items. The winner will be selected at random from all the correct entries. Entries are due by APRIL 19, 2017 @ 11:59 PM.

Prism Presents a Grandmaster Tutoring Event in Diamond Fields – Apr. 15th @1pm CT

We invite all grandmaster Crafters to come and share their knowledge to new and would be grandmasters! If more grandmasters donate their time then even more can be mentored. You must bring your own materials to this event. There are merchants very near by the crafting pavilion in Diamond Fields but prices may increase due to turn out (other sub pots have merchants in case this happens). A banker is also near buy so you can shuttle in your raw materials and squirrel them away ahead of time for the event.

You can teleport to Lace Delamorte, or zone into Port Phoenix and take the first boat on the left to Diamond Fields. Hope to see you there!

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Community Resources – Players Helping Players

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

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

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Job Openings: Quest Writer / Designer and Localization Coordinator / Quality Assurance

We currently have openings for a junior-level to senior-level Quest Writer / Designer, and a Localization Coordinator / Quality Assurance agent for Shroud of the Avatar. All jobs are full time contract positions onsite here in Austin, Texas. Qualifications for the “ideal candidates” are:

Quest Writer / Designer

• Preferred 2 years industry experience for junior-level (preferably on a shipped game but experience working on mods will be considered as well)
• Preferred 5 years industry experience for senior-level (minimum of at least 1 shipped game)
• Strong writing skills with an ability to craft believable characters
• Scripting ability
• BONUS: Unity3D proficiency
• BONUS: Level design experience
• BONUS: Experience with Quest design and implementation specifically for RPGs and MMOs

Localization Coordinator / Quality Assurance

• Strong communication skills
• Avid game player
• Experience with RPGs and MMOs
• Willingness to also do Customer Service tasks as needed
• Desire to expand into other areas of game development long term
• BONUS: Experience with Quality Assurance
• BONUS: Can speak and write two languages
• BONUS: Experience with Game Localization

If you’d like to join the Portalarium Tribe working on the ground-breaking Shroud of the Avatar, please submit your resume to jobs@portalarium.com. Provide links to your work (if possible), including actual game play, videos footage, and documents (images, maps, and event descriptions).

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Recommended Projects to Back – Wasteland 3

Our friends over at inXile have successfully completed their Kickstarter for Wasteland 3! The game is a party-based role-playing game with complex story reactivity and strategic combat. It also features a deep and engaging story utilizing a newly-revamped dialog tree system from the celebrated writers of Torment: Tides of Numenera!

By including vehicles, environmental dangers, and a revamped, more fluid action system, inXile is evolving on Wasteland 2’s deep tactical turn-based combat and unique encounter design. Play by yourself or with a friend in story-driven synchronous or asynchronous multiplayer. Choices open up (or close off) mission opportunities, areas to explore, story arcs, and lots of other content.

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Backer Shipping Addresses

In preparation for shipping backers’ physical pledge rewards later this year, we have added Shipping Address fields to your Account Profile page. To enter your shipping address, log in to the SotA website, select “Account” in top right corner, then select “Edit Profile” located in top left corner, beneath your Avatar image.

A reminder to be sure that support@portalarium.com is unblocked from your e-mail account!

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