Greetings Fellow Avatars!
The Catnip Games development team now brings the players of Shroud of the Avatar another round of new content and improvements. For Release 93 (R93), two new adventure scenes have been added to the game, Jotungrund and The Outlaws’ Run! 12 new potions and potion recipes have arrived! 2 new artifacts! New quests! MANY new craftable items, and a long list of UI improvements and bug fixes are also live as of R93. Check out the update below! For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let’s see what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
News Announcements
Community Updates
New Adventure Scene: Jotungrund!
Jotungrund, an enormous new Tier 14 adventure scene in Mistrendur which is only available to Episode 2 access holders, has been discovered! As the development team works to deliver more and more Episode 2 content, Mistrendur has become a popular hunting grounds to many adventurers of New Britannia, and this icy scene is likely to be a favorite amongst them. Packed with new content, concepts, and loot, players will have much to do in this frigid wasteland…
“Far to the northeast of Mistrendur awaits the vast icy wasteland known as Jotungrund, the Plain of Giants. Large packs of oversized wolves, hidden enclaves of fearsome barbarians, and furious “ice devil” hazards are mere distractions for the hardiest avatars. Make sure to bring your friends before you climb to the battlefield dominated by the most fearsome threat in New Britannia: a storm-wielding Frost Giant!”
The Frost Giants of Jotungrund utilize an entirely new character model with amazing new animations and special attacks with ominous VFX befitting their grandeur and prowess in combat. Their sheer size alone would frighten off most adventurers of New Britannia, but YOU are the Avatar! Will you dare to test your mettle against such a threat?
There are other challenges within Jotungrund, for those willing. Seek out the friendly inhabitants of these lands and lend them your sword arm. Obtain rare artifacts and other treasures! Horde precious raw materials to utilize at your crafting stations, such as Pure Elemental Ice which is a common material for the new player-crafted invisible walls and walkways! But what else can one obtain within these icy reaches of Mistrendur?
The common version of a new artifact known as the Ice Hammer of Jotungrund has a small chance to drop from the barbarians in Jotungrund. Players completing the first iteration and daily version of Hisa’s “signal fire” quest can also receive a common version of this artifact. This upgradeable artifact scales between Common to Epic tiers and offers varying bonuses to Ice Arrow damage. A new imbued gem can be salvaged from all tiers of this artifact at varying chances, which provides an Ice Arrow Damage bonus to items accepting imbued gems. Players can also salvage all tiers of this artifact to receive a pattern which can be applied to other two-handed bludgeon weapons.
A new artifact known as the Frost Giant’s Eye can be looted from the Frost Giants in Jotungrund. Every giant will drop at least a Common version, and this artifact, which is upgradeable and scales between Common to Epic tiers, offers bonuses to Water Attunement, Ice Field Damage, and Ice Field Radius. Also, a new imbued gem can be salvaged from these artifacts at varying chances, which provides Ice Field Damage and Ice Field Radius bonuses to items accepting imbued gems. An additional stat will be added during R93 which allows wielders of this artifact or items socketed with the related imbued gem to apply a frost resistance debuff to their combat targets.
The Frost Giant Skull has a small chance to drop as loot from a Frost Giant, which offers those with “peculiar tastes” to decorate their home or Player-Owned Town (POT) with this sinister decoration.
The Frost Giants in Jotungrund also have a small chance to drop either a Frost Giant’s Hammer Fragment (Head) or Frost Giant’s Hammer Fragment (Handle) which can be used in a high level carpentry recipe to form the Frost Giant’s Hammer Trophy. The recipe also has a small chance to drop from the Frost Giants in Jotungrund.
The Frost Giants also drop various fragments of their giant helmet when slain. These fragments can be utilized to to rebuild a Frost Giant’s Helm decoration as a trophy to place in your POT or property. Upon the first completion of Hisa’s “signal fire” daily quest, you will receive the recipe for rebuilding this helmet.
We hope you enjoy this latest addition to Episode 2 content. So many more scenes are coming to the lands of Mistrendur, and as they’re added, the story of this new continent will continue to unfold. More quests, more challenges, and more rewards are inbound, so stay tuned and keep your blades sharpened!
New Adventure Scene: The Outlaws’ Run
The Outlaws’ Run is an additional new Tier 8 adventure scene added as R93 content, which is also only available to Episode 2 access holders. This densely wooded area is loaded with nooks and crannies to explore and dangers to face, for much is hidden from view under the thick canopy of the forest. Bandits abound! New quests aplenty! Will you dare to explore The Outlaws’ Run and claim the treasures therein?
“For years, merchant caravans of Mistrendur’s central island risked using a wilderness shortcut known as The Outlaws’ Run. Recently, the criminals dominating these woods have become bolder and more aggressive, robbing caravans, destroying one of the two local waystations, and even kidnapping a handful of travelers! Unable to venture too far from the road for fear of lawless bandits, vicious wildlife, the deadly Ancient Druid that haunts the nearby groves, or getting lost in the ever-shifting hedge maze that is rumored to surround a secret outlaw village, desperate caravanners are relying on the avatar to conquer these threats before their livelihoods are destroyed forever!”
Hidden throughout this bandit-ridden territory, much treasure is rumored to exist, but will you survive long enough to discover these riches? Four of the 12 new potion recipes are rumored to exist in the hands of the denizens here, but will you be able to wrest these papers from their dying grip? Or will you become lost in these woods, never to be seen again?
Release 93 Patch Notes!
Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 93 (R93) in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R93 is a content, improvement and bug fixes month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R94 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 93!
Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:
- All 27 varieties of regular agriculture plants now have a small chance to also yield a decorative version of the plant during an optimal harvest. The chances for the new plant decorations to drop vary slightly between plant types, but none are greater than 5% and none lower than 1%. These new plant variations can be placed on any ground surface to include the ground in Player-Owned Towns. Each plant features 2 versions, one regular and one mature, providing a total of 54 additional plant decorations. All supply bundles (and therefore Storehouse Containers) also feature a chance to drop these new plant decorations, with chances varying between bundle type. The “Ancient Druid” enemy which sometimes appears in Outlaw’s run, has a 100% chance to drop one of these 54 plant decorations upon every kill. In future releases, the ability to salvage these decorative plants for crafting materials and spell reagents will be introduced.
- 3 new Aether versions of the Potions of Acumen, Deftness, and Might and their recipes have been added to the game. The original versions of these potions have also been altered to behave in a fashion related to these new Aether versions. Each type exists in its own channel. For instance, only 1 Acumen potion can be imbibed, whether it is an old version or a new Aether version. Each Acumen, Deftness and Might potion scales with adventurer level, and each also features a small penalty to the other primary stats. Recipes for the new Aether potions can be found in these locations:
- Potion of Acumen, Aether: Satyr Mages in the Tartarus maze.
- Potion of Deftness, Aether: Bandits in The Outlaws’ Run.
- Potion of Might, Aether: Goruk in Ruined Keep.
- 9 Potions of Magic Mastery and their recipes have been added to the game, one for each school of magic. These potions provide a bonus to each school’s mastery ability, and the bonuses scale with adventurer level and your specialization ability. Only one Mastery potion can be taken at any given time as they all share the same channel. Recipes for the Magic Mastery Potions can be found in these locations:
- Potion of the Master Air Mage: Suutak in Aldur.
- Potion of the Master Chaos Mage: Tharsis Vrul in Solania Catacombs.
- Potion of the Master Death Mage: Elrin Nayer in Despair.
- Potion of the Master Earth Mage: The druid in The Outlaw’s Run.
- Potion of the Master Fire Mage: Xavara and Tier 15 Fire Elementals.
- Potion of the Master Life Mage: The druid in The Outlaw’s Run.
- Potion of the Master Moon Mage: Wisps in The Outlaw’s Run.
- Potion of the Master Sun Mage: The Phoenix in Rhun Ruins or Wynton’s Folly.
- Potion of the Master Water Mage: The Frost Giants in Jotungrund.
A Withered Flesh Flayer Baby has a small chance to drop from Flesh Flayers in all scenes available, which are primarily located in PvP Shardfalls. Supply Bundles and the new druid NPC in The Outlaws’ Run also have a chance to drop a Withered Flesh Flayer Baby. This withered plant can be placed as a decoration, or players can utilize a recipe to revitalize the withered plant. The revitalization recipe can be found in the loot of the three elf mages in the small room just southwest of the Flesh Flayers in The Rise. When all the ingredients for the recipe are found, players can then craft a Revitalized Flesh Flayer Baby using an alchemical and magical procedure at their alchemy crafting station.
Two new craftable decorations and their recipes have been added to the game to provide bulletin board or mounting board concepts to player-decorated walls. The recipes for the very rustic looking Wall Board (Square) and Wall Board (Rectangular) are now available on the decoration merchant above the bank in Central Brittany. Many wall decorations such as bulletin board flyers can be placed on these items.- The Small Canvas Tent recipe has been added to the game and is available on the decorations merchant above the bank in Etceter.
- The Small Kobold Tent and the Triangle Kobold Tent recipes have been added to the game which have small chances to drop from the kobolds in Greymark Forest.
- Property deeds have been renamed to better indicate their functionality as well as to improve sorting results in inventories. Also, the tooltip descriptions have been revamped to better describe their functionality and how to perform an upgrade. No-trade deeds now clearly indicate that they are no-trade in their display names and tooltip descriptions, which also is indicated in the upgrade context menu if listed.
- All fishing bait now includes “(Bait)” at the end of each nomenclature to improve inventory search/filtering capabilities.
- All backpacks can now be placed as POT decorations.
- The Aether Vibration Amplifier Backpack can no longer be rotated along the additional axis, nor can it be placed onto walls as of this update.
- Newly-crafted Large Pots and Cleavers in the two kitchen utensil set recipes now feature 50 extra durability since exceptionals no longer provide 50 durability.
- Recipes using Pecan Nuts no longer require nearly as many nuts as before.
- Salvaging mundane items such as beakers, test tubes, flasks, and jars now provide a little more quartz per attempt.
- Zinc has some chance to be obtained by salvaging mundane items which appear to have metal parts.
- Fixed the issue with exceptional ranged weapons not getting exceptional modifier.
- Fixed the issue with leather belt masterwork attempts using the cloth armor masterwork skill. Now masterworking these leather belts properly uses leather armor masterwork skill.
- Fixed the issue with color deviations in dragon masks after being patterned.
- Fixed the visuals on the Jar of Oil and Jar of Vinegar items.
- Fixed the jar decorations so they can properly stack.
- Emotes and recipes can once again be traded properly.
- Empty Flask and Empty Flask, Hardened items now actually appear as empty when placed as a decoration.
- Fixed an issue with books not displaying the correct name in the tooltip when switching from runic to normal text.
- Applying the patterns from The Shard of Night, the Xen Penetrator, or the Halberd of the Sun no longer include the tier of the artifact in the patterned item’s name.
- Merchants with the same wares as Emily from Owl’s Head will no longer display two separate stacks of torches for sale.
- The artifact upgrade recipes for the Two-Handed Sword of Elf Slaying, the Two-Handed Mace of Elemental Slaying, and the Wand of Wild Lightning now also reflect the new names recently applied to these artifacts.
- The recipe for the Round Rug (Royal) has been renamed to “Recipe: Oval Rug (Royal)” to match the item it creates.
- The Skull Mask no longer allows attempts at applying dye. The visuals for this item were never designed for dyes, but dye application was inadvertently enabled for this item.
- The Fancy Ice Box can now be traded.
- The New Water Lanterns can now be placed as POT decorations.
- Adjusted many chandelier decorations to allow for exterior ceiling and POT placement.
- The Isabelline Stone 2-Tier Outdoor Fountain and the Cinereous Stone 2-Tier Outdoor Pedestal Fountain can now be placed on other decoration items which accept other decorations as child objects such as castle walls or building blocks
- Adjusted all the Xenossian shields to be placeable as POT decoration.
- The Ancient Xenossian Bracers eternal pattern now functions and can be applied to hand slot items.
- The ground and hanging versions of the Dunkleosteus trophies will now scale based upon the size of the lava fish.
- The Heraldry Heart Shield can now be placed on exterior wall surfaces.
Combat & Skill Changes:
- Creatures throughout all of Novia now have improved hearing and can detect players behind them up to 12 meters away instead of 6 meters.
- The base weapon skills in the Ranged Combat, Polearms, Bludgeon, and Blades skill trees were not being applied to special attack calculations for almost all active weapon skills. This has been fixed.
- The Spinning Attack polearm skill will now be able to critically hit and also include polearm specific bonuses.
- The combo Icy Puncture’s range should now scale with the player’s polearm Reach skill.
- Ice Fist’s range was utilizing fire range as an additional modifier, which has been removed.
- The “Gust Chance” buff provided by the Ring of Air artifact or items socketed with the Imbued Jewel of Gust now correctly applies to the player’s character.
- Flaming Bash and Shield Smash buff descriptions now show properly on the icon tooltip in the buff window if active.
- Icefield damage now utilizes the correct damage bonus stat. Previously it was using the Meteor Shower damage bonus.
- Melody of Mending and Atonal Aria now display the proper icon in the active buff bar instead of Ice Field’s icon.
User Interface, Lua, & Performance Changes:
Added a pet version of the character sheet which features many pet statistics for your summoned and tamed pets. Simply right-click the nameplate or the pet to reveal the context menu, then select the “examine” option. The sheet also features 3 equipment slots which will be utilized by upcoming pet gear items to be revealed in future releases.- A new feature has been added which allows players to right-click the gear item to select repair options. The appropriate repair tool must be in the player’s inventory.
- A performance pass was made on many UI elements and NPCs to improve frame rate for scenes with high numbers of creatures.
- The following items were added to the character sheet which appears when examining another player:
- Second ring slot.
- Extended character stats.
- Show “more” character stats button and functionality.
- The Looking For Group window now indicates the time the party was formed.
- Critical chance calculations have been improved on the character sheet and a new tooltip was added to reflect this change.
- Created in-game maps for the following locations:
- Obsidian Panopticon
- Desolate Hills
- Jotungrund
- Skrekk (Exterior)
- Kobold Battle Camp
- The Outlaws’ Run
- Added feedback in the chat window for when the AskADev command is properly utilized.
- Additional improvements to the game’s mouse cursor have been implemented.
- 82 more items have been added to the player vendor “Manage Orders” listing, to include items such as totems, young fish, wyvern heads, dragon eggs, quartz, and many more.
- Added 4 new Lua functions: ShroudGetCurrentSceneNameRaw() ShroudGetPetInfo() ShroudGetPetBuff() ShroudGetPlayerBuff().
- Fixed an issue where the loot window would show color codes when resized.
- Fixed the subterfuge checkbox in the decks window filter which was not remaining checked when selected.
- The Hamstring combo now displays properly in the decks window.
- Fixed the issue for cloaks showing after dismounting even if the option to hide the cloak was enabled.
- Fixed the issue where the low ammo indicator was showing instead of the damaged weapon indicator.
- Fixed the missing low ammo indicator tooltip which showed an error.
- Fixed the mount icon reappearing when changing scenes while mounted.
- Fixed the Romeus disconnection issue when players would go AFK.
- Fixed for text aberrations in the decoration palette window.
- Fixed the issue in the dye application version of the character sheet which was inappropriately displaying the show “more” button.
- Fixed the issue where the mount button misbehaved when another player would mount next to you.
Player Economy, Rewards, & Loot Changes:
- Added a new uncommon quest reward for the newly added Kingsport Storehouse Container which accepts 100 diamond fragments for the Uncommon container. The Common containers feature Metal Scrap, Leather Scrap, Fabric Scrap, and Wood Scrap.
- The drop rates for Zinc have been increased greatly across all mechanical/clockwork beings such as Automatons, Spiders, Flyers, Cats, and Dogs. Automatons still remain the likely primary farming source for Zinc since they are guaranteed to drop Zinc with every kill. Grey, Yellow, Blue, and Orange supply bundles will now provide much larger quantities of Zinc and at higher drop chances within their loot tables, which also increases Zinc’s availability at Storehouse Containers. Clockwork Dragons now also drop significantly large stacks of Zinc with every kill.
- The gold value of Zinc has been greatly reduced.
- Grey and Yellow Supply bundles now have a greater chance to drop a stack of Pecan Nuts, Brown Cap Mushrooms, or Cinnamon Bark.
- The little scavenger girl in Tanglemire now also provides Pecan Nuts as a reward to the Missing Bones daily.
- Pecan Nuts have been added back to NPC merchants for the duration of R92 with a price increase from 15g to 25g. They’ll likely be removed from NPC merchants in R94.
- Quartz nodes now also provide more quartz.
- Clockwork Monkeys in the Monkey Room of K’rul were unintentionally featuring regular loot and now feature reduced control point type loot.
- The loot for the kobold boss in Mysterious Swamp once again drops kobold boss loot.
World, Quests, and Miscellaneous Changes:
- Aerie and Resolute: Improved the logic which allows the devotional caretakers to recognize when the avatar has defeated their respective Cabalists.
- Aerie: Fixed a typo in one of Vivienne’s responses.
- Arabella: Updated her responses related to the starting locations (Blood River, Highvale, and Solace Bridge) of the three Episode 1 storylines.
- Ardoris: Updated a cushioned chair so that NPCs have a better sitting orientation.
- Ardoris: Updated Siranto’s “undead” response logic to help ensure he gives the proper dialog.
- Blood River Outskirts: If a player receives the “reward” version of the manifesto from Alberic, then accidentally destroys it before giving it to Captain Bearfield, they can get a replacement by saying “manifesto” to Alberic.
- Blood River Outskirts: Updated the logic which Phineas uses to give poison to the avatar.
- Blood River Outskirts: Updated the logic, compass markers, and food interaction for the “poison the food” quest. Also, avatars on a certain stage of the quest can now delete the poison item and get a replacement from Phineas.
- Broken Echoes Silver Mine: Replaced several nonfunctional destructible crates with functional versions.
- Highvale: Updated the “Aldorn is missing” quest with improved dialog, updated journal entries, compass markers, and the chance to find “evidence” in the Battle of Highvale the same as its aftermath.
- K’rul: Fixed an issue with several crates that had displaced collision.
- K’rul: Swapped the plane version of the grate for the 3D version.
- Necropolis Barrens: Fixed an issue with one love letter that couldn’t be collected.
- Necropolis: When Davropos accepts a dead body, he’ll advise the player that he’ll return anything he finds that’s not the body.
- North Brightbone Woods: Katana-wielding Ebon Cultist Champions now wear proper Ebon Dawn gear.
- Novia: Fixed an issue where players were being drawn into a swamp encounter in a hills location.
- Plains Encounter: Avatars will no longer get a message about a great threat when entering the Hidden Vale dragon scenario of this encounter.
- Plains Encounter: Fixed an issue where the Mistrendur dragon scenario was incorrectly pointing to Hidden Vale assets. Also, ensured all random encounter locations with Aether dragons are able to spawn them.
- Return to Previous Destination teleporters: Added “return” boats or balloons to the docks or default entrances to several scenes. These teleporters have purple canvases.
- Serpent Spine Mines: Updated stairs in a “lich boss area” to improve the path grid.
- Skrekk: Added a “skilled hacker” and props near the west entrance to this area.
- Skrekk: Added compass marker to skilled hacker that appears for avatars that have a virtue recalibration kit in their inventory.
- Solace Bridge Outskirts: Bancroft will advise places who have received their Episode 1 lot deed to visit the banker in Soltown, now named SLT-3113.
- Solace Bridge Outskirts: Updated the logic which Kinsey uses to set players on the quest to deliver the report to Stanley.
- Solace Bridge: Updated text for Quincy’s compass marker.
- South Drachvald Spur: Updated the path grid to help NPCs walk on troublesome slopes.
- Tanglemire: A new load screen has been added for Tanglemire, which is an alteration of a screenshot provided by the screenshot contest winner Ian Berie — congrats on your contest win, and thank you for the submission, Ian!
- Tenebris Harbor: Changed the ore nodes from tier 4 to tier 5, as befitting the scene’s tier.
- The Brave Coast: Removed a redundant target (West Docks) from the signpost teleporter network.
- The Obsidian Panopticon: Moved an exploding barrel away from a bed that it was intersecting.
- Valhold: Added a compass marker for the Town Crier.
- Valhold: Fixed typos with the “amulet of testimony” quest.
- Valhold: Players are no longer blocked from finishing the Valhold amulet of testimony quest when trying to finish after completing the path of Courage.
- Wynton’s Folly: Swapped tier 5 ore nodes for tier 6 nodes, as befitting this tier 6 scene.
- Fixed issues with the dismount dissolve animations.
- Fixed the issue which allowed players to perform various actions while a ghost.
- Ankhs are now properly visible in the Ardoris PVP Arena.
- Linux players will no longer see a mysterious ladder appear and disappear in the Hills Random Encounter.
- Adjusted the spawn locations in the Village Mine Basements to prevent players from spawning inside of a support post.
- Decorations on the Dais in the player-made dungeon Lich Room no longer float above the surface.
- The player-made dungeon “Hilt Rotunda” can now be decorated on the first floor, the dais, and on the mezzanine.
- All store entries for planting beds (elven and viking) have been split into separate entries.
- All planting beds and areas are now in the crafting section instead of the outdoor planter section of the store.
- Cloaks, Wings, and Backpacks are all now in a new store subcategory called Cloaks, Wings, Backpacks.
- Fixed a typo in the Ancient Xenossian Spear store entry.
- Fixed a typo in the Fancy Ice Box store entry.
Player-Owned Town Changes:
- B’azaar of the B’izarre: Upgraded to Teralopolis.
- Broken Ground: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
- Kustingen: Added new holdfast to Novia west of Ardoris.
- Nauvoo: Upgraded to Metropolis.
- Quel Regional Market: Added crossroads village southeast of Etceter.
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