Jack T. Lamplighter

04/13/2017 10:32 PM

Here are the questions that we did not have time to get to. I tried my best to answer these but some we just don't have details yet to provide. I will try my best to follow up but please understand I probably won't have time to do any follow ups to these.

TeddyMIT: Can you remove the material limitation of the Pattern Pack?
I am not sure what this question means. What material limitation? If you mean you can’t make a polearm look like a dagger or a...

R40 Post Mortem Missed Questions

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04/13/2017 03:04 PM

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

Chapter 1, “The Visitor”
When you see and experience what I have experienced I would wager you would not have done what I am about to tell you. I should have known not to have dabbled in the Darkness again, but as you will see, its pull was stronger than I fathomed.

Years after the events of Savenroc Timberland I again encountered the dark mysterious magic of the Obsidians. Even after being the sole survivor of my first encounter, I was still drawn to learning all I could about it. Perhaps I will never be rid of it.

It did take time. It may not seem that way to you, dear reader, poring over my records decades, maybe centuries later – if someone hasn’t already destroyed these volumes.

I returned to Ardoris after the terrifying events of the Savenroc Timberland. I busied myself with menial tasks of everyday people: cooking, sewing, shopping at the market, all the trappings of a regular life.

When I gathered a small amount of courage I went to the local library or bookshop and read some stories – simple pleasant stories. I cared not for the dark mystery of the Obsidians that engulfed my time months before. That is what I told myself.

I met a young, excited traveller there. She was a fiery woman determined to explore and learn. She reminded me of myself years before but she held much more confidence.

Her name was Sonya, and she told me of the Shard Falls. She told me of stories she had heard and books she had read. She was planning on going to one of these craters: Grundvald Shardfall in the barrens to the north.

I politely listened but my palms sweated at my side in clenched fists as she spoke. She was a young excited explorer fully engaged in her curiosity. She did not begin to understand the dangers she may unlock and unleash on herself.

I could not hold it in any more when she showed me an illustration of a Shard Fall in a book she carried. It was done in black ink. I looked at the crystalline chunks of floating obsidian and was taken back to Savenroc, the gaping void that drew in kobold and friend alike. I grabbed the book from her hands, slapped it shut and threw it down. I looked at the woman and pleaded with her to stay away. Whatever she read and learnt about was nothing compared to what she would learn if she went there. She had no idea of the danger she was getting herself into.

I was about to relate my tale to her. She shook her head and reached for the book. I told her there was a darkness beyond black that the Obsidians awoke and there would be nothing for her, a fate worse than death, something she could never come back from. She picked up her book and walked quickly away, muttering that I was crazy.

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

Time passed. Years. Colour returned to the world. I felt the echoes of happiness, I remembered warmth. The darkness returned to being a fact after the sun set, something that would always fade with the rising of the sun. My dreams became mundane and pedestrian.

Then she came back. Sonya. She looked for me, searched me out. She was clearly older, more than the years would have aged her. She had bags under her brown eyes. Her hair, once neatly tied, hung around her ears out of a messy bun, broken and dry. Her clothes were torn and dirty from long, long travel. She recognized me by sight, grabbed my arm and said: “You were right.”

Then it all came back.

The void, the emptiness and the nothingness beyond death. The screams of human and kobold as they were torn from reality. The scent of the forest air tinged with ozone and an odd unearthly scent of space and stardust.

She was helping me up then. I must have fallen – fainted. She propped my head up with a pillow from a nearby chair.

“Everything you said was right. And more. There is more magic the Obsidians used, it doesn’t just tap into the void, it does something else,” she said. She was excited.

I kept shaking my head and told her everything. I told her of the kobolds, the forest, the amorphous void summoned in the dark. She went pale, gasped, but her curiosity remained. Even after what I told her and what she already saw, she remained curious.

I told her then of her folly, of the very high chance that if she continued on this path she would perish. She risked the fate of my friends and the kobolds of being swallowed by the void. But she maintained that she wanted to learn more.

“No great discovery was without risk,” she said.

I’m trying to recall how I was convinced to accompany her. I don’t remember. Maybe the void was calling me somehow. Maybe I was connected or a part of it. Maybe it was the time since I last encountered the void. Maybe time healed all wounds and I wasn’t as afraid of it as I was then, or now. I remember thinking that all I would be is an observer, a guide. Someone who could warn of telltales and triggers to protect her and myself from the Obsidian’s magic. She was the adventurous one, I would be safe.

She took care of everything. Travel arrangements, food, lodging, all of it. She bought books and ink for me to use. I recorded our journey as we went through Soltown, across the peaceful village of Solace Bridge and through Eastreach Gap. We stayed in Desolis. Two more days and we would be at the Grundvald Shard Fall.

There were regrets I felt about being here following Sonya to meet what has become my biggest fear. Her confidence helped me. She was not afraid – not truly – no matter how much I told her. She wanted to see the void. She wanted to learn how these portals were made and what their true purpose was.

There was no purpose I knew. I doubt the Obsidians knew what they were doing or what they created, summoned or tapped into.

She believed she could find out.

The post The Darkness in the Forest 1 – by Olthadir – narrated by Asclepius appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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04/12/2017 06:58 PM

From last week’s Update of the Avatar #222:

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!

Farmland Area

Wide-shot of the map from the East (looking inland, West)

Gratuitous sunset shot

We hope to have this scene live in Release 41 or 42. On Friday in this week’s Update of the Avatar #223, we will have a second Outskirts scene to reveal!

More about Solace Bridge Outskirts: [A Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

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04/12/2017 04:27 PM

Last Thursday's patch (4/6, #587) introduced a small problem where the patcher fails to patch certain files depending upon the configuration of your patcher at the time.

The percentage of those that have failed patch files is extremely small. You will be able to play the game fine, except in rare instances where you craft certain items, the game may crash. We are working on resolving the issue and hope to have it fixed by R41 at the latest.

In the meantime, for all, please be sure that you...

Isolated crafting crash bug notice

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04/10/2017 10:13 PM

The month of April recognizes Autism Awareness. For the rest of the month, we are putting all Autism Awareness Charity items in the Make a Difference store on sale at 20% off. For each item purchased, Portalarium will donate up to 50% of the cost. Donations are equally split between the National Autism Association and the National Autistic Society.

As part of Portalarium’s founding purpose to promote good will and make a positive difference in the world, we’ve provided these charity items as a channel through which our community of backers can contribute to causes they support. Since we opened the Make A Difference Store, our amazing community has purchased over $12,500 of these Autism Awareness items. By purchasing these items, you make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves.

We started by creating a Puzzle Tree 6-Pack in the format of our other tree packs, available in the Make A Difference Store now. The pack includes:

2 one-story tall trees
2 two-story tall trees
1 three-story tall tree
1 four-story tall tree

Then we released the following two cloaks, the Puzzle Pattern Cloak and the Puzzle Tree Cloak:

SotA_AutismAwareness_Puzzle_Pattern_Cloa

SotA_AutismAwareness_Puzzle_Tree_Cloak_w

Two new puzzle tree items recently added to the store this year were the Tabletop Puzzle Tree 3-Pack and the Epic Puzzle Tree!

The Tabletop Puzzle Tree 3-Pack, Puzzle Tree 6-pack, Puzzle Tree Cloak, and Puzzle Pattern Cloak are all included in the Puzzle 4-Pack:

There are several other items in the Make a Difference Store as well that are not in this sale, but support different charities. Thank you for supporting those as well!

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04/08/2017 02:51 AM

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

The Making of Solace Bridge Outskirts (update)
Release 40 Postmortem
Summer Telethon 2017 Part 1
Free Trial Test 2: April 6 – 10
Weapons Weekend Flash Sale
Tech Talk Tuesday Episode 3
Community Livestream: TRAMMUCCA!
Upcoming Events
Community Events of the Week
Community Resources – Players Helping Players
Job Openings
Recommended Projects to Back

The post Echoes From the Caverns 04-07-17 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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04/07/2017 08:01 PM

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)

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]

An update:

Farmland Area

Wide-shot of the map from the East (looking inland, West)

Gratuitous sunset shot

Release 40 Postmortem

We have been extremely happy with the community’s reaction to Release 40 so far, and want to hear more of your valuable feedback! Join us Tuesday, April 11th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) on Twitch for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar. We will be answering your questions and looking ahead at what’s on the development schedule in Q2 2017!

Once you get a chance to check out Release 40, post your questions in the comments section of the original post at this link. Only one post submission per player allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less. This will allow us to get to as many questions as possible.

As always, we will be giving out rare artifacts of immense power and glory. For a chance to win an artifact, or to speak your voice on the latest game changes, be in Discord chat during the livestream. There will be multiple chances to win throughout the broadcast!

Follow @ShroudofAvatar to keep updated as the postmortem approaches!

Summer Telethon 2017 Part 1

Avatars! Get ready to soak up the summer sun with us. Today, we’re announcing the Summer Telethon 2017 Part 1! Telethons are livestreamed on Twitch and include a complete schedule of developer Deep Dives, answers to your gameplay questions, community activities, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! See what’s all included below…

Summer “Hot Air” Expirations Sale Begins!

In honor of the waves of hot air that will be blowing over us this summer we are expiring all of our hot air Aeronaut items. At Midnight CST, May 31, 2017 (5:00 UTC, June 1, 2017), we are expiring the following content from the Add On Store (and the in-game Crown Merchants). This means that these items will no longer be available at all after this date.

Before the following items expire for good, we have put them on sale at approx. 20% off. Check out what’s now on sale:

Help us to achieve the following goals during this next event!

As a special bonus, we are offering Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). The Summer Telethon 2017 Part 1 Funding Stretch Goal Rewards are:

$10,000: /smokevirtue: blow the virtue symbol in smoke from a pipe
$25,000: Balloons: a small cluster of balloons held in your hand. These particular balloons are black with a silver virtue symbol.
$35,000: Miner’s Helmet with flame on top (generates light)
$50,000: Flame Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp (3 Pack)
$65,000: Fire Elemental Statue with flame effects
$80,000: Flame Shaped Shield and Scimitar
and more to be revealed if we hit these goals…

Did you see what was unlocked in the last telethon? This one might be even bigger!

Cheer on the Devs!

StarrDancing For every $2,500 donated, all developers on camera have to either dance, sing, or drink a shot of alcohol.

Additionally, we will be spinning the Wheel of Fortune! The wheel will have 14 items at any given time, but dozens of sales will happen! Each time an item comes up it will go on sale for approx. 20% off for 1 hour.

As the wheel is spun, what is selected will be replaced by something else. Items already selected will be removed for a time (some may not come back onto the wheel for the rest of the telethon). Keep in mind that some of these may never come up, so cross your fingers for your preferred item!

Wheel of Fortune Flash Sales:

Pattern Packs
Make A Difference incl Blood Reliquaries
Kobold Bundles
Viking Bundles
Shogun Bundles
Elven Bundles
Obsidian Bundles
All Lot Deeds
Water Homes & Decorations
Pattern Packs
Greenhouses (incl Ornate Glass Roof Rowhouse)
Music
Emotes
Fireplaces and Lamps
Pavers, Fences, and Walls
Trees & Statues
Signs
Row Homes
Village Homes
Town Homes
City Homes
Clothing and Wings
Pipes, Fans, Umbrella & Cane
Hats & Masks
Pets
Games & Gustball Court
Dyes
Basements

Telethon Schedule*

12:00 PM: Welcome to the Summer Telethon!
12:30 PM: R42 Postmortem (Chris, Richard, Starr)
2:00 PM: Player Housing & Player Owned Towns Deep Dive (Starr, Hutch, Bob Cooksey)
3:00 PM: World Building Tours (Esteben, C-Wolf, Keith, Dan)
4:30 PM: Story Deep Dive (Lum, Richard)
5:30 PM: ONBE Awards & Community Hour
7:00 PM: Crafting & Economy Deep Dive (Chris, Starr, Richard, Brandon)
8:00 PM: Boss Fight! (Chris, Richard, Starr)
8:30 PM: Combat & PVP Deep Dive (Chris, Starr, B, Richard)
10:00 PM: Artifice Tour and Lore discussion (Scottie, Lum, Richard)
11:00 PM: Q&A / Wrap-up (Chris, Starr, Richard)

* Schedule subject to change, check back here before the telethon to for final schedule.

Win These Great Prizes!

Seasonal Rare: 2017 Lepus Mask (last day to get!)
Ornate Chainsword
Wood Duck pet
Wings and other wearables
Several wearables pattern packs
Large and Tabletop Statues
Trees and Tree Packs
Ancient Wall Sculptures
Baby Clockwork Dragons
Water Decorations
Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
Bank Upgrades
Remote Bank Access Device
COTOs and Store Credit
Several items that are expiring tonight
Plus more prizes from the Add On Store
And several items courtesy of RelicsbyRild.com

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. If you wish to win prizes during the Telethon event, be in Discord chat! We will be active on Twitch and YouTube chats as well, but they will not be our portal for prize giveaways.

Watch The Telethon on Twitch and the final recording will be archived on YouTube! after the event as well. Please be aware that if we have any connection problems, YouTube will be the first service to be dropped from the stream.

Submit your questions! We will be answering questions throughout the telethon so submit them in the comments section of the original post (see here) or through Discord during the Telethon. Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to each segment will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief. When you submit your questions in the Comments section of the original post (see here), please keep it to 3 total questions max!

Free Trial Test 2 Begins! This April 6 – 10

We are excited to announce our second test of our Free Trial system April 6 – 10. If you know anyone who would like to try the game for free, then send them to the download page. These tests are invaluable for us in order to improve the New User Experience and the Free Trial System itself.

Free Trial access allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play.

Free Trial Current Time Period: April 6 – April 10, 2017
The term (Visitor) is appended to their character name
Cannot give items to other players via Trade
Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors
No ownership of property nor use of lot signs
Cannot interact with public chests
Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions
Cannot flag as Open PVP
Cannot gain nor do they create any ransom items when they kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)
Character data may be deleted after Free Trial period is over if character is not upgraded to a paid account
Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Period is over unless you purchase Game Access
Cannot play in Offline Mode

Weapons Weekend Flash Sale

We added over 20 new weapons and shields to the game in Release 40! Most were added as in-game loot drops, but a few got added to the store as well! To celebrate we are putting all weapons (including shields) on sale this weekend for 20% off.

Here is a complete list of the weapons and shields that you will find on sale this weekend:

Tech Talk Tuesday Episode 3

Community member Violation Clauth reached out to our Technology Director Chris “Atos” Spears about doing a regular hangout where they dug into the the details of the “numbers”. Chris of course agreed and this wonderful thing is now a regular semi-regular thing! Enjoy!

Technically this latest episode happened on Wednesday but let’s not quibble!

[From a forum post by Violation Clauth]

Issue #3

Experience types in SotA
Adventuring Experience
- How to gain experience
- How to apply experience
- How to lose experience
Crafting Experience
Combat Math revisited: Crit Math (with math on notepad screen!)

Community Livestream: TRAMMUCCA!

Missed last week’s Community Livestream and heard about the mysterious land called TRAMMUCCA? Watch this recording and have a good hearty April Fool’s laugh with us :). Broadcast starts at 0:59:

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

Upcoming Events

Apr 6 – 10, 2017 – Free Trial Test 2
Apr 11, 2017 – R40 Postmortem
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.

Community Events of the Week

Grand Opening of Vyrin & Womby’s New Britannian Bookstore – Apr. 8th @1pm CT

Thanks to the graciousness of Lord Andernut, Governor of the New Britannian Market, Womby & Vyrin are pleased to announce the opening of our FIFTH bookstore!

Please join us for an open house marking the occasion: Saturday, April 8, 1-2 PM NBT in New Britannian Market

This event is a casual meet-and-greet for authors, bibliophiles, and friends. We are happy to answer any questions you may have about writing and publishing. Our vendors will be selling new books from five different authors! The offerings are described here. Following on the Spring Telethon, we will be commemorating the event with free Spring-time giveaways. (No matter the season in game!) We will also be going on a duck hunt! The first to identify the locations of all the hidden ducks in the store will win a copy of the published chapters of Vyrin’s series Revelations. These are limited edition collectors items!

Serpent’s Watch – Race Challenge – Apr. 8th @4pm CT

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! All ye Kings and Queens, Knights and Nobles, Citizens and Peasants! Serpent’s Watch invites you to attend their Race Challenge! To be held on the 8th of April at 4pm CT (NBT).

If you consider yourself fleet of foot, a bit of an acrobat or just enjoy a good laugh, then this is the event for you! See the forum announcement by Woftam for details on how to attend and how to sign up to the challenge.

Community Resources – Players Helping Players

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

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

Job Openings: 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).

Recommended Projects to Back

STARFIGHTER INC

Starfighter Inc. is a hard-science multiplayer space combat sim in development by a 20+ international team. They recently launched a Kickstarter to add more support and provide fans with exclusive content. With rigorous attention to scientific detail, this game is set in a plausible future 200 years from now. Players are mercenary pilots who fulfill contracts for corporations and other organizations that have settled into our solar system. A rich background narrative provides context for the events and battles the players are part of. The international team is led by industry veterans Jack Mamais (MechWarrior 2, Crytek), David Wessman (X-Wing and TIE Fighter series), and Rusel DeMaria (original X-Wing and TIE Fighter fiction) and was just awarded the Seal of Approval by the popular science site, Atomic Rockets, alongside Kerbal Space Program.

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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04/07/2017 07:30 PM

We have to perform some hardware maintenance on one of the servers. Downtime estimated to be no more than 60 minutes.

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04/06/2017 10:20 PM

Join us this Friday at 4pm CT for another Community of the Avatar livestream!

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 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. 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.

Ask your questions (up to 3 in one post please) in the Comments section below, or wait until the livestream and post them in chat! Also be on Discord chat to win some great in-game prizes we’ll be giving away!

The fun begins live on Twitch this Friday!

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04/06/2017 04:15 PM

We are excited to open up our second test of the Free Trial System! This latest trial begins now and will end on April 10. If you know anyone who would try the game for free, please send them to the Download Page. These tests are invaluable for us in order to improve the New User Experience (NUE) and the Free Trial System itself.

Shroud_of_the_Avatar_Forsaken_Virtues_Bo Free Trial access during the game’s current Early Access period allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play:

Free Trial Current Time Period: April 6-10, 2017
The term (Visitor) is appended to your Character Name
Cannot give items to other players via Trade
Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors
No ownership of property nor use of lot signs
Cannot interact with public chests
Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions
Cannot flag as Open PVP
Cannot gain nor do they create any ransom items when they kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)
Character data may be deleted after Free Trial period is over if character is not upgraded to a paid account
Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Period is over unless you purchase Game Access
Cannot play in Offline Mode

You can still explore hundreds of scenes, talk with thousands of players, adventure through the opening quests, and gain experience and skills as you get used to the world of New Britannia! If you wish to continue playing after the free trial concludes, you can obtain an Early Access account here.

For those in the Free Trial, we would love your feedback! We have opened up of our Release 40 Feedback Forums. If you have a constructive comment about this release that will help the game to improve, please post it there. You can also say hello in the New Player Forum!

Have fun, and thanks for trying out Shroud of the Avatar in Early Access!

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04/05/2017 04:34 PM

Avatars! Join us on TWITCH and get ready to soak up the summer sun with us. Today, we’re announcing the Summer Telethon 2017 Part 1! Telethons include a complete schedule of developer Deep Dives, answers to your gameplay questions, community activities, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! See what’s all included below…

Summer “Hot Air” Expirations Sale Begins!

In honor of the waves of hot air that will be blowing over us this summer we are expiring all of our hot air Aeronaut items. At Midnight CST, May 31, 2017 (5:00 UTC, June 1, 2017), we are expiring the following content from the Add On Store (and the in-game Crown Merchants). This means that these items will no longer be available at all after this date.

Before the following items expire for good at the end of the telethon on May 31st, we have put them on sale at approx. 20% off*. Check out what’s now on sale:

Help us to achieve the following goals during this next event!

As a special bonus, we are offering Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). The Summer Telethon 2017 Part 1 Funding Stretch Goal Rewards are:

$10,000: /smokevirtue: blow the virtue symbol in smoke from a pipe
$25,000: Balloons: a small cluster of balloons held in your hand. These particular balloons are black with a silver virtue symbol.
$35,000: Miner’s Helmet with flame on top (generates light)
$50,000: Flame Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp (3 Pack)
$65,000: Fire Elemental Statue with flame effects
$80,000: Flame Shaped Shield and Scimitar
and more to be revealed if we hit these goals…

Did you see what was unlocked in the last telethon? This one might be even bigger!

Cheer on the Devs!

StarrDancing For every $2,500 donated, all developers on camera have to either dance, sing, or drink a shot of alcohol.

Additionally, we will be spinning the Wheel of Fortune! The wheel will have 14 items at any given time, but dozens of sales will happen! Each time an item comes up it will go on sale for 20% off for 1 hour.

As the wheel is spun, what is selected will be replaced by something else. Items already selected will be removed for a time (some may not come back onto the wheel for the rest of the telethon). Keep in mind that some of these may never come up, so cross your fingers for your preferred item!

Wheel of Fortune Flash Sales:

Pattern Packs
Make A Difference incl Blood Reliquaries
Kobold Bundles
Viking Bundles
Shogun Bundles
Elven Bundles
Obsidian Bundles
All Lot Deeds
Water Homes & Decorations
Pattern Packs
Greenhouses (incl Ornate Glass Roof Rowhouse)
Music
Emotes
Fireplaces and Lamps
Pavers, Fences, and Walls
Trees & Statues
Signs
Row Homes
Village Homes
Town Homes
City Homes
Clothing and Wings
Pipes, Fans, Umbrella & Cane
Hats & Masks
Pets
Games & Gustball Court
Dyes
Basements

Telethon Schedule**

12:00 PM: Welcome to the Summer Telethon!
12:30 PM: R42 Postmortem (Chris, Richard, Starr)
2:00 PM: Player Housing & Player Owned Towns Deep Dive (Starr, Hutch, Bob Cooksey)
3:00 PM: World Building Tours (Esteben, C-Wolf, Keith, Dan)
4:30 PM: Story Deep Dive (Lum, Richard)
5:30 PM: ONBE Awards & Community Hour
7:00 PM: Crafting & Economy Deep Dive (Chris, Starr, Richard, Brandon)
8:00 PM: Boss Fight! (Chris, Richard, Starr)
8:30 PM: Combat & PVP Deep Dive (Chris, Starr, B, Richard)
10:00 PM: Artifice Tour and Lore discussion (Scottie, Lum, Richard)
11:00 PM: Q&A / Wrap-up (Chris, Starr, Richard)

** Schedule subject to change, check back here before the telethon to for final schedule

Win These Great Prizes!

Seasonal Rare: 2017 Lepus Mask (last day to get!)
Ornate Chainsword
Wood Duck pet
Wings and other wearables
Several wearables pattern packs
Large and Tabletop Statues
Trees and Tree Packs
Ancient Wall Sculptures
Baby Clockwork Dragons
Water Decorations
Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
Bank Upgrades
Remote Bank Access Device
COTOs and Store Credit
Several items that are expiring tonight
Plus more prizes from the Add On Store
And several items courtesy of RelicsbyRild.com

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. If you wish to win prizes during the Telethon event, be in Discord chat! We will be active on Twitch and YouTube chats as well, but they will not be our portal for prize giveaways.

*Watch The Telethon on Twitch and the final recording will be archived on YouTube! after the event as well. Please be aware that if we have any connection problems, YouTube will be the first service to be dropped from the stream.

*There will be some really awesome prizes awarded during the telethon, but you have to be present in the Discord chatroom to qualify for each drawing.

Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to each segment will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief. When you submit your questions in the Comments section below, please keep it to 3 total questions max!

Keep an eye on @ShroudofAvatar for updates before, during, and after the telethon. See you on the livestream chat at Noon this coming March 9th!

Warning: Telethon is Rated PG-13 for Alcoholic Content
(might get upgraded to Rated-R depending on rate of pledges)

Save

View the full article

04/04/2017 03:55 PM

Hi forum posters!

I wanted to update you all on an improvement in our communication to those who have posts affected by moderation. To clarify a few things first on current moderation methods. Threads/posts are never permanently deleted. They are also always followed up with a message to the poster on why it was removed or altered.

Today we have made an adjustment to how we handle these types of removed or adjusted posts. A series of moderation commands have been implemented in the forums...

Forum moderation update on hidden posts

View the full article

04/04/2017 03:11 PM

Here's another great chance to ask questions about the game directly to the devs! The Release 40 Postmortem Livestream has been set for next Tuesday, April 11th at 3pm CT:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=70620

Please ask your questions in the Comments section in the article linked above. See you all in Discord chat then!

View the full article

04/03/2017 07:54 PM

We have been extremely happy with the community’s reaction to Release 40 so far, and want to hear more of your valuable feedback! Join us Tuesday, April 11th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) on Twitch for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar. We will be answering your questions and looking ahead at what’s on the development schedule in Q2 2017!

Once you get a chance to check out Release 40, post your questions in the comments section below. Only one post submission per player allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less. This will allow us to get to as many questions as possible.

As always, we will be giving out rare artifacts of immense power and glory. For a chance to win an artifact, or to speak your voice on the latest game changes, be in Discord chat during the livestream. There will be multiple chances to win throughout the broadcast!

Follow @ShroudofAvatar to keep updated as the postmortem approaches!

View the full article

04/01/2017 03:19 PM

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

Greetings Avatars,

For those of you too young to remember this April Fool’s prank (yes this is a joke) was based on the infamous split of Ultima Online into two worlds: Felucca and Trammel in the Renaissance Expansion.

Again this was an April Fool’s joke. We will NOT be doing a land wipe, nor another landrush, nor will we be dividing the land between PVP, and non-PVP. Just wanted that to be crystal clear.

View the full article

04/01/2017 03:17 PM

For those of you too young to remember this April Fool's prank (yes this is a joke) was based on the infamous split of Ultima Online into two worlds: Felucca and Trammel in the Renaissance Expansion.

Again this was an April Fool's joke. We will NOT be doing a land wipe, nor another landrush,...

TRAMMUCCA Lot Selection Sequence

View the full article

04/01/2017 02:33 PM

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

Apparently the gods do not like April Fools pranks and decided to punish us.

At approximately midnight CDT one of our servers at our data center experienced a catastrophic hardware failure. Players inside the game could remain connected as long as they did not change scenes but anyone changing scenes would lose connection and anyone trying to log in to the game could not.

As of 7:50 AM CDT we were able to temporarily resolve the issue and the servers can be reached again. We were (and are) dealing with a hardware error that we haven’t fully identified, yet, but were able to resume service nevertheless, for now. We’ll continue looking into it, with hopefully no additional downtime. We might need to replace a machine, though, which would come with a short maintenance downtime, in case of. In that case, we’ll announce it ahead of time.

We apologize for the inconvenience this caused anyone.

View the full article

04/01/2017 02:33 PM

Apparently the gods do not like April Fools pranks and decided to punish us.

At approximately midnight CDT one of our servers at our data center experienced a catastrophic hardware failure. Players inside the game could remain connected as long as they did not change scenes but anyone changing scenes would lose connection and anyone trying to log in to the game could not.

As of 7:50 AM CDT we were able to temporarily resolve the issue and the servers can be reached again. We were...

Connectivity Issues April 1, 2017 (Saturday Morning)

View the full article

04/01/2017 09:34 AM

We are currently experiencing some issues with our data center, not allowing to connect to the game. Existing connections seem to be unaffected. We are in contact with the data center to address this, as quickly as possible.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update (7:50 CDT): Servers can be reached again. We were (and are) dealing with a hardware error that we haven’t fully identified, yet, but were able to resume service nevertheless, for now. We’ll continue looking into it, with hopefully no additional downtime. We might need to replace a machine, though, which would come with a short maintenance downtime, in case of. In that case, we’ll announce it ahead of time.

View the full article

04/01/2017 01:19 AM

Hello everyone! Lord Baldrith all ALONE here still…Excellent to be playing release 40!!!! Here is the news of the week!

Play Release 40 Now!
Q2 2017 Schedule Update
Free Trial Test 2: April 6 – 10
The Making of Verdantis Mines (update)
Shroud in the News: MMORPG.com & IGN Unfiltered
Novia Renamed to TRAMMUCCA
R39 Lot Deed Raffle Winners
Pattern Packs Weekend Flash Sale
Tech Talk Tuesday
Community Livestream: Kas Ruins – First Look
Upcoming Events
Community Resources – Players Helping Players
Recommended Projects to Back

The post Echoes From the Caverns 03-31-17 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

View the full article

03/31/2017 10:17 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 40 Now!

Release 40 successfully launched yesterday, March 30, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Obsidian Cabalists
Obsidian Cabalist Artifact Weapons
Obsidian Cabalist Artifact Armor
Weapons as Decorations
Improvements to the New User Experience
SotA Map Integration
New Weapons
New Shields
New Decorations
New Recipes
New Patterns
Rhun Ruins Unclone
Serpent’s Spine Mines Unclone
Town Sieges affecting POTs
User Interface Polish
More Decks Allowed
Moving Decorated Houses
Spring Telethon & Easter Content
AMD Incompatiblity Fix
R39 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

…and much more

Check out the Release 40 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 40 Player Instructions

Release 40 Known Issues

Q2 2017 Schedule Update

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

Greetings Avatars,

As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates for our monthly releases. Even though the goals outlined in these schedules are likely to change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to periodically provide you with an updated roadmap.

Our priority continues to be to deliver new content to our backers each and every month so that you can give us feedback that will help us iteratively improve Shroud of the Avatar. This collaborative process continues to benefit the game, and often results in sweeping changes such as the upcoming addition of the Outskirts scenes. As you have seen in previous releases, the flexibility inherent to this process means that we sometimes push things out, but we also often pull new things in.

New User Experience (NUE): A large priority for the second quarter is going to be improving the new user experience. 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, overloading the user with too many options, and starting towns that include player housing/vendors. As we shift our focus to improving the New User Experience, and as we are able to measure new player progress during events such as our recent free trial, we realize that we must address these issues sooner rather than later.

As we announced during the Spring Telethon, one of our solutions to these issues 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 the recently added big scenes like Blood Bay. Each Outskirt 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.). The large scale of the Outskirts, as well as the variety of experiences and services that they provide, will allow new players to base themselves in a single scene for adventuring and resupply for their first couple of hours of gameplay without needing to go through multiple loading screens or needing to use the Overworld.

In addition to Outskirts, we plan to improve the new user experience by delaying more advanced features until later in the game (which we began doing in Release 40). We also plan to implement Contextual Help, Improved Tutorial Systems, and a Polished Skill Training Interface.

Polish: In addition to the focus on the first few hours of gameplay, Q2 will include a lot of work on polishing the overall experience of playing Shroud of the Avatar. A large focus of this work will be on performance and stability, which is why you may see fewer new features than in previous quarters as you scan the list below. However, we will be adding some new features that are aimed at polishing the game. These include Mail, Looking for Group, and a Raid System. Additionally, continual passes will be made each release to address overall balance issues, especially in the first few hours of game play.

Story Complete: Our goal is to complete the story by Release 44 (July), so story efforts in Q2 will be focused on bringing the Paths of Truth and Courage to a playable and polished state. We also plan to unveil the game’s Finale. Since the story will be complete in R44, we plan to allow all players to make a one-time-only reset of the story status for their character (so they can start fresh with their current character) in Release 44 (July).

To repeat what I said in the Q1 post:

“We believe that we have reached the final 20% of development before Commercial Release, at which point we will transition out of Early Access. The next two quarters will be the most exciting and challenging times for the project so far. This will be when we get the final features and content in the game and make the last important balance changes. The changes will be fast and furious, and they may occasionally be hard to understand when you become accustomed to the way things were before. Please trust that we firmly believe that every change we make is best for the long term health of the project.”

As always, all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change as we adjust our designs based on direct feedback from you, our backers.

RELEASE 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.
Performance: Significant focus will be made on performance this release with emphasis on stability, framerate, memory, and load times.
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 place-able as decorations.
Combat: 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.
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.
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.
Game Balance: Major efforts will be devoted towards game balance.
Crafting: More recipes and more patterns in gear that is dropped from enemies.

RELEASE 42, May 25, 2017

Story: We will do final polish on the Path of Truth including incidental NPCs and side quests in areas like Xenos and Etceter. We will polish visuals of the final sequence with Titan Boreas in the Path of Truth. Highvale Outskirts, a new scene that players start in after the Battle of Highvale Village, will come online for the first time.
Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
Combat: We will continue our polish pass on all the visual effects related to combat.
Character: The Titans Sequanna and Boreas, as well as Arabella, will get their own unique visuals. We will also do some polish work on Player Customization.
Crafting: More recipes and more patterns in gear that is dropped from enemies.
Raid System: Tools will come online for large groups, and groups of groups, to go on adventures together.
Looking For Group: A tool to help players find a group to adventure with will appear in the game.

RELEASE 43, June 29, 2017

Story: Polish will begin on the Finale of the plot including work on the Destiny Pool and the Oracle Chamber. Blood River Outskirts, a new scene that players start in after Blood River Massacre, will come online for the first time.
Character: The Oracle herself will appear for the first time in the game as will the Shroud of the Avatar. We will be doing polish work on various creatures in the game, such as the Troll. We will also begin creating Viking-inspired clothing for the NPCs in the Norgard and Verdantis areas of Novia to better define that region, including outfits for Royalty, Guards, Citizens, and Merchants.
Performance: Significant focus will be made on performance this release with emphasis on stability, framerate and load times.
Bug Fixes and Game Balance: Much of this release will be spent on fixing bugs and balancing game systems.
Mail: Players will be able to send mail to each other through an in-game interface.
Offline Combat and Economy Balance: A pass will be made through the game to adjust combat balance for play in offline mode with companions. Additionally, the economy in offline mode will be tuned to be better balanced for single-player. For instance, NPC merchants will buy player-crafted items at a profit to the player. Also, pledge and Add-On Store items will be available from NPC merchants for purchase with in-game gold.
Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. Additionally the ability to rent rooms in a player home will start to become available to homeowners.

We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the funding you provide makes all of this possible, it pales in comparison with the faith you have in us, the feedback you provide us, and the content you are making for everyone to enjoy. We are humbly grateful, and we cannot wait to see you again in New Britannia!

Before I go, I wanted to include an excerpt from my original post about our Early Release Schedule that is important to set the framework for our ongoing schedule:

As a crowd funded and crowd sourced project, we feel it is incredibly important that we provide our backers with information and access well before game studios would normally do so in a traditional development model. Traditionally, the players are given information and access only after the development team has already decided exactly how things will be done, and at times, even after it has already been implemented. By the time the public normally has access to the product, there is usually no time to meaningfully react to the public feedback.
Shroud of the Avatar is different than the traditional model, as we intend to offer our backers extremely early access to information and even the game itself. With that said, we also want to be very careful that we only provide access to portions of the game when they are ready for a wider range of feedback. If we can play it internally and we know it is not ready, then there is nothing to be gained by having a wider audience come to the same conclusion. In fact, it could be quite damaging to do so.

Our strategy over the next few months is to provide you with focused and iterative releases of content. Your feedback during these releases will be critical to making the final product the best it can be, and we appreciate that you are all so willing to devote your time to helping us. After each release we will review the results and reevaluate the plan including the duration of availability of each release.

It is important to repeat that all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change.

Sincerely,
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Shroud of the Avatar

Free Trial Test 2: April 6 – 10

We are excited to announce our second test of our Free Trial system April 6 – 10. If you know anyone who would like to try the game for free, then send them to the download page. These tests are invaluable for us in order to improve the New User Experience and the Free Trial System itself.

Free Trial access allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play.

Free Trial Current Time Period: March 3 – March 9, 2017
The term (Visitor) is appended to their character name
Cannot give items to other players via Trade
Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors
No ownership of property nor use of lot signs
Cannot interact with public chests
Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions
Cannot flag as Open PVP
Cannot gain nor do they create any ransom items when they kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)
Character data may be deleted after Free Trial period is over if character is not upgraded to a paid account
Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Period is over unless you purchase Game Access
Cannot play in Offline Mode

The Making of Verdantis Mines (update)

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 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.

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

The scene is close to being finished, and I have a few more screenshots to share. Its probably worth mentioning that I turned on most of the lanterns in the scene to help illuminate it for these screenshots, however in-game, only a handful of lanterns will be lit.

The Old Mine

The Elf Camp

The Ancient City

The Ancient City (as seen from the bridge)

The Trench

The Citadel

Chris Wolf
Level Designer

Shroud in the News: MMORPG.com & IGN Unfiltered

MMORPG.COM: Red Thomas got a sneak peek at our Q2 schedule update last week and wrote a preview article for MMORPG.com entitled “Shooting Solo“.

Shroud of the Avatar has been making major strides towards completing much of the vision backers funded four years ago, this April. While the online and multiplayer of the game has been critical to the financial success of the project, plenty of people backed the project anticipating a more solo experience. Development over the next quarter should go a long way towards delivering on that expectation.

I recently spent a day in Austin talking with the team and getting the scoop on what their plans were for the next few months. A lot of the last quarter was spent working on the economy, improving character models, expanding the diversity of weapons and armor in the game, and putting more story into the game.

The next quarter will see the rest of the story from the three lines put into place, and a good amount of content polish. Economy polish will also continue, with specific focus on making the offline economy more viable. Shroud will also be getting some major help in the new player experience, with new scenes and concepts specifically implemented to introduce new players to the game.

IGN Unfiltered: Ryan McCaffrey the host of IGN Unfiltered did a long interview with Richard “Lord British” Garriott and they posted it in three parts as well as a few excerpts like “What It’s Like to Poop in Space”. Alex Osborn covers each of the highlights in a few mini-articles to complement the videos.

Interview Part 1: Ultima creator Richard Garriott discusses his journey to outer space, his love of haunted houses, pulling pranks, pooping in space, and more!

Highlight 1: Space Poop: In addition to creating the beloved role-playing series Ultima, Richard “Lord British” Garriott has been to outer space and discussed the unpleasant experience of pooping in zero gravity many miles away from Earth. On the latest episode of our interview show IGN Unfiltered, Garriott noted that while books have been written how to go to the bathroom in space, they’ve always detailed the way you’re trained to go in space, and no one as far as he knows tells the “actual story of how troubling it is to go to the bathroom in space.”

Interview Part 2: Richard Garriott discusses how early success made him an “asshole” and when the police told him he could shoot a home intruder with an Uzi.

Highlight 2: EA Shot Down Ultima Online Pitch 3 Times: From “bastard stepchild” to worldwide phenomenon. Electronic Arts needed a whole lot of convincing before Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriott was given the green light to make Ultima Online. On the latest episode of our interview show IGN Unfiltered, Garriott shared the story behind the creation of Ultima Online. He and his team wanted to make a multiplayer Ultima game—which they referred to internally as “Multima”—for quite some time, but waited until the market was ready for such a product. When the internet started to take off, Garriott and Starr Long decided now was the time to finally pitch their “Multima” idea to EA. As part of the publisher’s proposal process, Garriott said the project’s lifetime sales estimate needed to justify the costs required to make the game, “but the way to determine that is with comparables,” of which there were none at the time. The closest comparison they could find had 15,000 sales. So, taking into consideration the appeal of the Ultima brand, they doubled that to 30 thousand, which still wasn’t nearly enough to green light the project.

Interview Part 3: Ultima creator Richard Garriott discusses the challenges and triumphs of the industry-changing Ultima Online MMORPG, plus his vision of the genre’s future.

Highlight 3: Ultima Creator on the Future of the RPG Genre: Better tech doesn’t necessarily result in deeper games. Richard “Lord British” Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series, recently shared his thoughts on the future of the role-playing genre and how increasing CPU power will continue to result in games that aren’t very deep. When asked on the latest episode of our interview show IGN Unfiltered where he thinks the RPG genre is heading in the next five or ten years, Garriott replied by discussing where he thinks all genres are headed. “One of my pessimisms about the gaming industry is a problem that is created by the success of the increase in CPU power due to Moore’s Law,” he said.

Novia Renamed to TRAMMUCCA

For many years now players have been debating having PVP and non PVP areas be mixed together on the map. They have also debated having a PVP system where players can flag PVP and be in areas that are not PVP. There have also been demands for making PVP more like the original Ultima Online and include full loot. Many players on both sides want to play fully undisturbed by the other kind of players. PVP players want to play only with PVP players and Non-PVP players want to only play with other Non-PVP players.

After much consideration, we have taken all of that feedback and have decided to rename Novia to TRAMMUCCA (see if you can guess where we got that name). The land will be split approximately in half. The northwest will be all Open PVP and Full Loot and the southwest will be completely Non-PVP (not even flagging nor Dueling allowed). As part of this we are going to wipe all land claims starting at 11:59 PM April 1 and we will start a new landrush following similar rules and sequence as before (see here for the original order of lot claiming). New Bundles will be added to the lot claiming sequence so lot claiming will now take 2 months instead of 1 month. The new lot selection sequence will be posted at 10:30 AM April 1. Please note it is critical that you NOT unclaim before the automatic unclaiming goes into effect or your order will not be correct.

Additionally we have gotten a lot of requests for a global chat so we tonight we are adding full global chat without moderation. We feel that this makes the need for forums obsolete so we are shutting down our forums immediately.

Welcome to TRAMMUCCA!

Watch our livestream of the announcement…

Watch live video from shroudoftheavatar on www.twitch.tv

R39 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

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 Total

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

Player Owned Town Deeds: 20 Total

Row: 10
Village: 6
Town: 2
City: 2

Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win deeds of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly (total deed numbers will vary each month). Place-Anywhere Deed raffle tickets are more expensive but will have fewer deeds in each raffle than POT raffle tickets, which are more affordable and will have many more deeds in each raffle. This means your chances to win a POT deed are much greater.

This is the latest raffle where we limited winners to one deed per raffle type. Winners can claim their deed(s) simply by logging into the game and claiming rewards at any bank. A reminder that you may have received multiple deeds to claim if you received tickets for a guild or other group:

Release 40 Lot Deed Raffle has begun! Details in the forums.

Pattern Packs Weekend Flash Sale

We have added over 100 patterns to the game in Release 40! To celebrate we are putting all Pattern Packs on sale this weekend for 20% off.

Here is a complete list of the pattern packs that you will find on sale this weekend:

Tech Talk Tuesdays

Community member Violation Clauth reached out to our Technology Director Chris “Atos” Spears about doing a regular hangout where they dug into the the details of the “numbers”. Chris of course agreed and this wonderful thing happened. They hope to make it a semi-regular thing as their schedules allow. Enjoy!

[From a forum post by Violation Clauth]

Greetings!

I had this crazy idea of “how” things work… SotA Style. So, I reached out, and this happened.

Breakdown:

Issue #1
- Introduction
- Loot Math
- Combat Math
- Unity Assets
- Polish / Performance
- Hangout teaser!

Issue #2
- Aiming
- Dodge
- Network Packets vs Network Bandwidth vs FPS
- Attunements, Armor, and Resistances
- Skill Effectiveness

I’m giving 5-15 ideas to Chris and letting him pick. I’m going to look for the “likes” on everyone’s ideas. And the more likes you guys give each other the more likely I put it on the list for Chris. Then it’s up to him if he answers it or not.

Also, stay tuned, Hangout of the Avatars may be back soon!

Community Livestream: Kas Ruins – First Look

Get a first look at an upcoming scene with us from last week’s community livestream!

More about Kas Ruins in the Weekly Update #220. Watch other videos and livestream recordings at: www.youtube.com/portalarium

Upcoming Events

Apr 6 – 10, 2017 – Free Trial Test 2
Apr 11, 2017 – R40 Postmortem
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.

Events of the Week – R40 Welcome Quest and Bookstore Grand Opening

R40 Welcome Quest – Apr. 1st @12pm (Noon) CT

By Royal Warrant, we present to you the Welcome Quest! You are invited to join the Welcome Quest in Release 40. It will be held on Saturday, April 1, 2017 starting at 12pm (noon) central time/new britannian time and lasting an hour. It is added on the Avatar’s Circle community calendar for easy time zone conversion. Plus it is in your in-game Events book.

Grand Opening Dara Brae Bookstores – Apr. 1st @1:30pm CT

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! You are invited to the grand opening of the Dara Brae Bookstores. Saturday, April 1, 2017 at 1:30pm New Britannian Time / Central US – after the Welcome Quest. Travel to the island of Dara Brae (SW of Xenos in Elysium) to attend the first bookstore located in a Nature Reserve of Dara Brae and the first in Elysium.

First 100 attendees will receive a limited edition book – limited to 100 copies only.

All of our Dara Brae Supply and Books locations will also have the same books available in Brittany Alleys (at entrance to the right), Solania (at entrance to the left), and Greenfall, Hidden Vale (the Windmill you see from the entrance).

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.

Recommended Projects to Back –

STARFIGHTER INC

Starfighter Inc. is a hard-science multiplayer space combat sim in development by a 20+ international team. They recently launched a Kickstarter to add more support and provide fans with exclusive content. With rigorous attention to scientific detail, this game is set in a plausible future 200 years from now. Players are mercenary pilots who fulfill contracts for corporations and other organizations that have settled into our solar system. A rich background narrative provides context for the events and battles the players are part of. The international team is led by industry veterans Jack Mamais (MechWarrior 2, Crytek), David Wessman (X-Wing and TIE Fighter series), and Rusel DeMaria (original X-Wing and TIE Fighter fiction) and was just awarded the Seal of Approval by the popular science site, Atomic Rockets, alongside Kerbal Space Program.

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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03/31/2017 10:41 AM

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 Total
- Row: 5
- Village: 3
- Town: 1
- City: 1
Player Owned Town Deeds: 20 Total
- Row: 10
- Village: 6
- Town: 2
- City: 2

Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win deeds of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly (total deed...

Release 39 Lot Deed Raffle Winners and R40 Raffle Details

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03/30/2017 04:17 PM

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

Greetings Avatars,

As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates for our monthly releases. Even though the goals outlined in these schedules are likely to change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to periodically provide you with an updated roadmap.

Our priority continues to be to deliver new content to our backers each and every month so that you can give us feedback that will help us iteratively improve Shroud of the Avatar. This collaborative process continues to benefit the game, and often results in sweeping changes such as the upcoming addition of the Outskirts scenes. As you have seen in previous releases, the flexibility inherent to this process means that we sometimes push things out, but we also often pull new things in.

New User Experience (NUE): A large priority for the second quarter is going to be improving the new user experience. 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, overloading the user with too many options, and starting towns that include player housing/vendors. As we shift our focus to improving the New User Experience, and as we are able to measure new player progress during events such as our recent free trial, we realize that we must address these issues sooner rather than later.

As we announced during the Spring Telethon, one of our solutions to these issues 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 the recently added big scenes like Blood Bay. Each Outskirt 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.). The large scale of the Outskirts, as well as the variety of experiences and services that they provide, will allow new players to base themselves in a single scene for adventuring and resupply for their first couple of hours of gameplay without needing to go through multiple loading screens or needing to use the Overworld.

In addition to Outskirts, we plan to improve the new user experience by delaying more advanced features until later in the game (which we began doing in Release 40). We also plan to implement Contextual Help, Improved Tutorial Systems, and a Polished Skill Training Interface.

Polish: In addition to the focus on the first few hours of gameplay, Q2 will include a lot of work on polishing the overall experience of playing Shroud of the Avatar. A large focus of this work will be on performance and stability, which is why you may see fewer new features than in previous quarters as you scan the list below. However, we will be adding some new features that are aimed at polishing the game. These include Mail, Looking for Group, and a Raid System. Additionally, continual passes will be made each release to address overall balance issues, especially in the first few hours of game play.

Story Complete: Our goal is to complete the story by Release 44 (July), so story efforts in Q2 will be focused on bringing the Paths of Truth and Courage to a playable and polished state. We also plan to unveil the game’s Finale. Since the story will be complete in R44, we plan to allow all players to make a one-time-only reset of the story status for their character (so they can start fresh with their current character) in Release 44 (July).

To repeat what I said in the Q1 post:

“We believe that we have reached the final 20% of development before Commercial Release, at which point we will transition out of Early Access. The next two quarters will be the most exciting and challenging times for the project so far. This will be when we get the final features and content in the game and make the last important balance changes. The changes will be fast and furious, and they may occasionally be hard to understand when you become accustomed to the way things were before. Please trust that we firmly believe that every change we make is best for the long term health of the project.”

As always, all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change as we adjust our designs based on direct feedback from you, our backers.

RELEASE 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.
Performance: Significant focus will be made on performance this release with emphasis on stability, framerate, memory, and load times.
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 place-able as decorations.
Combat: 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.
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.
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.
Game Balance: Major efforts will be devoted towards game balance.
Crafting: More recipes and more patterns in gear that is dropped from enemies.

RELEASE 42, May 25, 2017

Story: We will do final polish on the Path of Truth including incidental NPCs and side quests in areas like Xenos and Etceter. We will polish visuals of the final sequence with Titan Boreas in the Path of Truth. Highvale Outskirts, a new scene that players start in after the Battle of Highvale Village, will come online for the first time.
Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
Combat: We will continue our polish pass on all the visual effects related to combat.
Character: The Titans Sequanna and Boreas, as well as Arabella, will get their own unique visuals. We will also do some polish work on Player Customization.
Crafting: More recipes and more patterns in gear that is dropped from enemies.
Raid System: Tools will come online for large groups, and groups of groups, to go on adventures together.
Looking For Group: A tool to help players find a group to adventure with will appear in the game.

RELEASE 43, June 29, 2017

Story: Polish will begin on the Finale of the plot including work on the Destiny Pool and the Oracle Chamber. Blood River Outskirts, a new scene that players start in after Blood River Massacre, will come online for the first time.
Character: The Oracle herself will appear for the first time in the game as will the Shroud of the Avatar. We will be doing polish work on various creatures in the game, such as the Troll. We will also begin creating Viking-inspired clothing for the NPCs in the Norgard and Verdantis areas of Novia to better define that region, including outfits for Royalty, Guards, Citizens, and Merchants.
Performance: Significant focus will be made on performance this release with emphasis on stability, framerate and load times.
Bug Fixes and Game Balance: Much of this release will be spent on fixing bugs and balancing game systems.
Mail: Players will be able to send mail to each other through an in-game interface.
Offline Combat and Economy Balance: A pass will be made through the game to adjust combat balance for play in offline mode with companions. Additionally, the economy in offline mode will be tuned to be better balanced for single-player. For instance, NPC merchants will buy player-crafted items at a profit to the player. Also, pledge and Add-On Store items will be available from NPC merchants for purchase with in-game gold.
Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. Additionally the ability to rent rooms in a player home will start to become available to homeowners.

We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the funding you provide makes all of this possible, it pales in comparison with the faith you have in us, the feedback you provide us, and the content you are making for everyone to enjoy. We are humbly grateful, and we cannot wait to see you again in New Britannia!

Before I go, I wanted to include an excerpt from my original post about our Early Release Schedule that is important to set the framework for our ongoing schedule:

As a crowd funded and crowd sourced project, we feel it is incredibly important that we provide our backers with information and access well before game studios would normally do so in a traditional development model. Traditionally, the players are given information and access only after the development team has already decided exactly how things will be done, and at times, even after it has already been implemented. By the time the public normally has access to the product, there is usually no time to meaningfully react to the public feedback.
Shroud of the Avatar is different than the traditional model, as we intend to offer our backers extremely early access to information and even the game itself. With that said, we also want to be very careful that we only provide access to portions of the game when they are ready for a wider range of feedback. If we can play it internally and we know it is not ready, then there is nothing to be gained by having a wider audience come to the same conclusion. In fact, it could be quite damaging to do so.

Our strategy over the next few months is to provide you with focused and iterative releases of content. Your feedback during these releases will be critical to making the final product the best it can be, and we appreciate that you are all so willing to devote your time to helping us. After each release we will review the results and reevaluate the plan including the duration of availability of each release.

It is important to repeat that all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change.

Sincerely,
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Shroud of the Avatar

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03/30/2017 04:16 PM

Greetings Avatars,

As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates for our monthly releases. Even though the goals outlined in these schedules are likely to change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to periodically provide you with an updated roadmap.

Our priority continues to be to deliver new content to our backers each and every...

Q2 2017 Schedule Update

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03/30/2017 03:02 AM

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 40 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, March 30, at 10:30 AM US...

Release 40 Instructions

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