Category Archives: Update of the Avatar

Avatar’s Update #299: Play R58 Now, Taming Livestream Today, Signed Box Edition (Limited Time!)

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Play Release 58 Now!

Release 58 successfully launched yesterday, September 27, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

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Avatar’s Update #298: Final Friday for R57 Stretch Goals, R58 on QA, & Player Books Livestream

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Fishing Phase 2 Updates: Lava Fishing Rod

Fishing Phase 2 is going to include some amazing expansions to the fishing system and we outlined these during the Release 57 livestream. The wildest expansion we mentioned was the addition of Lava as a water type you can fish in! This week we are unveiling the first Lava fishing rod made by our very own Scott “Scottie” Jones! Lava fishing was invented by Kobolds to catch the rare flaming fish, lava eels and other hot trophies. Lava fishing rods are made out of materials that won’t melt in lava like high grade tempered steel, carbon, and diamond.

Here’s a list of some of what Fishing Phase 2 includes and will be appearing over the course of Q4 this year:

  • 4 Different Water Types: Fresh, Salt, Fetid (Swamp, Dungeon, Sewer), and LAVA!!!!
  • More Fish: New fish types to go with the new water types including more rare and fantastical fish (rainbow trout that have actual rainbow coloring).
  • More Loot: We will add more random loot to fishing.
  • Different Bait and Lure Types: Different lures/baits work better/worse with different water types and for catching different fish. Gems are the only lure that works in Lava.
  • Bait as Active Skill: To use all the different bait types this will now become an active skill, much like seeds are the active skill in Agriculture
  • Trophy Data: You will now have a chance to catch a “trophy fish” that will have extra data on it including information like Weight, Who Caught, When Caught, etc.
  • More Recipes: More recipes using the new fish introduced as well as new recipes using original fish.
  • Group and Social Bonuses: Randomly selected Player Owned Towns with water will get a short fishing bonus. We will also be introducing an experience bonus for fishing while grouped.

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Avatar’s Update #297: Collector’s Boxes Shipping Phase 2 & Weekend Music Sale

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

News Announcements

Community Updates

Collector’s Boxes Shipping Phase 2 (and printed book update)

As of three weeks ago almost 4000 Collector’s Boxes shipped out to eligible backers (Explorer level and above) who supported us during the initial Kickstarter campaign or through our website prior to January 4, 2016! The good news is that these have been arriving as planned! The not so good news is about 700+ of you have yet to receive your boxes. We expect all of these initial 4000 boxes, or what we have been calling internally, Phase 1, to arrive no later than September 21, 2018. Read more…


Avatar’s Update #296: R57 Livestream Today, Commission Free Vendors & Expert Crafting Stations For Sale, & Spooky Items Return!

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Release 55 Livestream(s) Items (cont.)

The Release 55 Livestream(s) items were all Lord British themed in honor of his birthday which falls on July 4th. In honor of his birthday the items either have the silver serpent or the Lord British full crest on them. They are also themed around things that Lord British loves like fireworks, space, and magic! Almost all of the items went live in Release 57. This week we are revealing the The Silver Serpent Wand made by our very own Scott “Scottie” Jones! This final R55 item will go live in Release 58.

Lord British Silver Serpent Wand:

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Avatar’s Update #295: Play R57 Now! Collector’s Boxes Shipping & Arriving!

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Play Release 57 Now!

Release 57 successfully launched yesterday, August 30, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #294: Dyeable Decorations, R55 Livestream Items, R57 on QA

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Dyeable Decorations (starting in R57!)

We now have technology and user interface support to allow the use of dyes to change the colors of decorations including banners, beds, couches, sofas, and more! We have begun updating our game assets to accept dyes. This will take time as each asset has to be modified individually. Our plan is to maintain a careful balance between craftable items and store items in this effort. For now we are focusing on cloth items but we plan to expand to leather, and possibly wood as well. In Release 57 many Banners (including Heraldy Banners), Canvas Furniture, Fine Red Upholstered Furniture, and Fine White & Gold Upholstered Furniture will support dyes. Above you can see an assortment of the those furniture pieces dyed. Below is what the Fine Red Upholstered Long Couch looks like with a variety of dyes applied to it. 

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Avatar’s Update #293: R54 Livestream Items & Player Made Dungeons Sneak Peek

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Release 54 Livestream(s) Items

The Release 54 Livestream(s) items were all Tropical and Polynesian themed in honor of the summer months. Damon Waldrip and Scott “Scottie” Jones have been busily working on creating them this release and they are turning out amazing! This week we are revealing the Polynesian Spear and Polynesian Dress with Tropical Flower Crown.

Polynesian Spear (Scott “Scottie” Jones):

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Avatar’s Update #292: Player Made Dungeons

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

News Announcements

Community Updates

 

Player Made Dungeon Update

In the past week we have had design kickoff meetings for several game systems including Fishing (Phase 2) and Player Made Dungeons. We will be posting more about Fishing (Phase 2) soon! In exciting news we have been able to make faster progress on Player Made Dungeons than expected due to how much it uses underlying systems like our basements. While we had originally planned this for an Episode 2 feature we now believe we can have a version of the system up and running as soon as Q4 of this year without affecting our work on other systems like Fishing! To kick off the upcoming launch of this exciting player made content we are going make available five dungeon entrances, along with five static example dungeons in Release 57. One dungeon entrance and one example dungeon will be craftable, four will be purchasable from the Add On Store.

The included static example dungeons, complete with creatures and loot, will vary in point size and difficulty level and can be used until the player built dungeon feature goes live. When the player built dungeons feature goes live in Q4 2018, the example dungeons will vanish and be replaced by an entry room but the player will receive the blueprints to all the pieces needed to rebuild the dungeon (some assembly required!). Player built dungeons will be expandable and customizable with in-game craftable rooms and/or Add On Store rooms.  As a bonus the Add On Store Dungeons include a Unity asset pack of dungeon rooms and hallways that you can experiment with using Unity which is free for non-professionals to download!

Tomb Entrance plus 50 Point Dungeon (craftable)

This sarcophagus can be crafted to use as the entrance to your dungeon. There will also be a craftable 50 point example static dungeon, complete with creatures and loot, for low level players that can be used until the player built dungeon feature goes live. Read more…


Avatar’s Update #291: Shooter Album Party Recap, R56 Livestream Goals Updated, & Cosmos Double XP Weekends

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

 

Shooter Jennings Album Release Party Recap

This past Tuesday, July 31st, Shooter Jennings treated all of us to a preview of his newest album, “Shooter”, at a special album release party in the player owned town of Ordinis Mortis. For a brief time when Release 56 launched there were multiple “Shooters” scattered around Novia who had a special quest. The first 25 players who completed the quest got on the secret guest list to get backstage at the event and received prizes directly from the real Shooter Jennings. Those prizes were Shooter heraldry items and wax cylinders of tracks from Shooter’s album. While the prizes were being handed out DJ Darkstarr spun tunes on Avatars Radio. After the prizes were handed out everyone got to hear the new album which releases on August 10th and then DJ Darkstarr played spun more tunes for another couple of hours while everyone danced. NOTE: Everyone who completed the quest before the event also received a couple of Shooter prizes in their in-game mailboxes courtesy of Serafina and Vas Corp Por.

Shooter Heraldry Art:

The event itself was held in a basement decorated amazingly by a crew led by Minerva and included the efforts of Cambria Stormlin, Shimizu, Griffler, Wind Silvermoon, Gaelis Tragan, Karrin Murphy, Sindariya Tyelma, Gurney, Arianna, Drake Aedus, Rambo, and Luca Xante. Above ground there was a maze that spelled out Shooter and before the event started there was a line that built up (just like a real concert!).

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Avatar’s Update #290: Play Release 56 Now & Global Visual Improvements

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

 

Play Release 56 Now!

Release 56 successfully launched yesterday, July 26, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Read more…