Avatar’s Update #319: Crown Store Buff, New Decorations, Freshwater Fishing Contest Livestream Today

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

News Announcements

Community Updates

Crown Store Buff & New Decorations for Release 63

Back in October of last year Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski started a thread in the forums entitled “Deco Wishlist that is already in-game”. The purpose of the thread is “…for world decorations that are already in the game that are not yet player-facing decos that people would like to have.” The thread has been steadily filling up with player requests and we are happy to say that the first round will be ready for Release 63 and will be available in the Crown Store!

Speaking of the Crown Store, to encourage players to find the Crown Store button we have added a buff! Players will get a small one-day long buff with any purchase from the Crown Store. The buff strength is the same whether you spend 1 crown or 1000. You can have up to three buffs at once and there are currently 22 variations. These buffs will remain in place for at least two months / Releases but possibly longer to help players with the transition to an in-game store.

Here are the converted deco items for Release 63 so far:

Bird Cage:

Perfume Bottles:

Book Decoration (multiple empty books for decoration purposes only): Fishing Traps:Fishing Nets (outdoor deco):Cherry Trees (tabletop):Cherry Trees (pack):

Pirate Items for Release 63

Yar! There be pirates coming to Release 63 me mateys! Starting with Release 63 we are introducing a range of pirate themed items to the game to go with scenes like Tenebris Harbor and Blood Bay. For Release 63 this is a range of wearable items including a Hook Hand (gloves), Bicorn Hat with Eye Patch, Tricorn Hat with Eye Patch, and more!

Hook Hand (gloves):

Tricorn Hat with Eye Patch:Bicorn Hat with Eye Patch:

Freshwater Fishing Contest Livestream Today!

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday February 15 at 4 PM CT on Twitch!

This week we are going to have another Fishing contest! This time it will be a Fresh Water contest in Celestis!

To participate in the contest go to Celestis and start fishing at 4:15 PM. The best trophy fish (longest) caught by 5 PM will win a prize! NOTE: We will be verifying location and time!

Fishing Contest Prizes:

Runners Up (2): Ornate Fish Throne
3rd Prize: Small Longboat Water Decoration (digital)
2nd Prize: Shogun Lighthouse Village Water Home (digital)
1st Prize: Player Owned Town Village Water Lot Property Deed (digital)

This is the second Friday to earn the Release 62 Carnival stretch goals by making a purchase or by participating in the Rewards program!

ACHIEVED! $15K: Masquerade Mask
ACHIEVED! $30K: Carnival Colors (Purple, Green, Yellow) Cycling Dye Replenishing Box
ACHIEVED! $45K: Jester Mask Wand & Jester Mask Staff
$60K: Brewing Themed Basement Hatches
$75K: Formal Dress (Wedding Dress Variant)
$90K: Tuxedo Variant
$105K: Ballroom Dungeon Room
$125K: Jester Outfit

As usual we will be giving out prizes at 4:15 and 4:45! To be eligible all you need to do is either make any purchase in the store or log into the game and type “Let the good times roll” in the chat window (no purchase necessary).

Watch on Twitch this Friday at 4 PM CDT

Are You a Livestreamer?

Get this exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Livestreamer Program!

Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles

As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of the Portalarium Offices, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold!

Complete List of Rewards:

UPDATED: Lord of the Isle Place Anywhere Castle Lot Deed: Tax Free Forever (when placed in a POT) and Tax Free for 1 Year (when placed outside of a POT). Placeable on water as well as land!
Title: Lord of the Isle or Lady of the Isle
NEW: Unique Lord of the Isle Home (to be revealed later)
UPDATED: PLUS Choice of any 1 House currently available in the store
Castle Basement currently available in the store of your choice
Castle Wall Set currently available in the store of your choice (with enough for Castle Lot)
NEW: Unique Lord of the Isle Dungeon Room (to be revealed later)
1400 Crowns
999 Bank Slots
Pick 12 Prosperity Tools
2 Unique in-game items (to be revealed later)
Early Access to Episode 2
Episode 1 Box and map signed by the team
1 hour one on one with Chris for design discussion (via video-conference)
One real silver ring crafted personally by Lord British: Numbered 1 – 8
In-game version of the Lord British ring: Numbered 1 – 8 (including a place-able decoration version)
Tour of Portalarium Offices
Fine dinner and drinks with Lord British, Darkstarr, & Atos at a location TBD in Austin or NYC.

NOTE: Digital items that are currently available will begin delivery as soon as Release 62 (Jan 31). Other items will be delivered at a future date TBD.

NOTE: Travel costs NOT covered by Portalarium for Tour & Dinner.

Store & Crowns: Please read about important upcoming changes!

[Forum post by Chris “Atos” Spears]

Greetings avatars! As many of you know, there are some BIG changes underway with Shroud of the Avatar. After far too long, we are finally getting rid of our giant online cash shop and moving to the model that every other game uses. This is a LONG overdue change and definitely one that benefits the players and the Shroud team.

Maintaining the existing cash shop was a full time job for several people. Managing everything in game versus a webstore is both easier for us and benefits the players with easier browsing, searching, instant delivery, and is generally a much simpler process for everyone.

Also, in addition to removing the majority of the web store items, we’re also going to be changing up our semi-premium currency, Crowns or COTOs. Previously the rough target was 1 crown = $1. This was problematic because it did not give us the granularity needed for pricing smaller item and it got even more problematic when we wanted to put something on sale!

Starting in Release 63, players will see that each of their crowns will be converted into 100 crowns. Store prices will follow that conversion for now and then over time will have their prices updated to more appropriate numbers. This means some items will go up and some will go down.

With the increased resolution of crown we were also able to adjust our prices for crowns to more closely match what we wanted. Those prices will also go live with Release 63 in just over 2 weeks! The conversion rate is very slightly worse with most packages but now fall into what we believe will be a better set of numbers for the long term.

As for store and crown sales, I think most people have seen we left our sales on this entire month. This is because after looking at what we sell things for, we had effectively targeted prices based on what they cost on sale. Going forward, we will be doing far fewer and much smaller sales BUT the normal price will be roughly the current sale price.

For crown sales, we’ve also gotten people used to them always being on sale. Starting in R63 we’re going to start reducing that sale each release until we get to zero discount. We will still have sales but only briefly and only for special events.

I repeat, we’re going to reduce and then kill off the reliance of store and crown sale pricing starting in just over 2 weeks, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Also, for those who haven’t seen the new planned crown bundle prices:

$10.00 –> 750

$20.00 –> 1600

$35.00 –> 3200

$60.00 –> 6300

$100.00 –> 10750

Also, since I know some of you just read the top and bottom of the post, here is the tl;dr version:

98% of the cash shop going away
We’re doing a 1 to 100 split for crowns to give us more pricing resolution for smaller items
We’re doing away with huge sales and moving to a more steady but realistic price
Crown store sales will be going away over the next few months starting with a reduction starting with R63

As always, thanks for your patience with this stuff and thanks for your support! Also, we have a number of exciting, upcoming announcements so keep your eyes on the forums over the next two weeks!

50% Items and 20% Crowns (Extended!)

We have extended our 50% off weekend holiday sale! To celebrate our final release of our launch year we are putting most items* in the store on sale for 50% off, our deepest discounts ever!

We also have extended our Holiday Crowns Sale! Some packages are discounted as much as 20%!

Note that the Crowns sale will be slowly going away over the next few releases!

Automatic Redemption of Rewards Release 63

As part of our continuing improvements to Quality of Life in Shroud of the Avatar we are going to remove the extra step required when receiving purchased items inside the game. You will no longer have to click on a “Redeem Rewards” button. Instead we will automatically send the items to your rewards interface when you next login to the game. If you are currently logged in then they will appear as soon as the purchase transaction completes. We are also going to provide an onscreen notice for when rewards are delivered to your Rewards Interface. This improvement will go live with Release 63 on February 28, 2019

Player Quest Livestream (YouTube)

Last week’s livestream to show of Player Made Quests was incredible! We showed off Lilybird’s pirate treasure quest and were stumped by the quest in PAXLair!

We also made progress on the Carnival themed stretch goals!

ACHIEVED! $15K: Masquerade Mask
ACHIEVED! $30K: Carnival Colors (Purple, Green, Yellow) Cycling Dye Replenishing Box
ACHIEVED! $45K: Jester Mask Wand & Jester Mask Staff
$60K: Brewing Themed Basement Hatches
$75K: Formal Dress (Wedding Dress Variant)
$90K: Tuxedo Variant
$105K: Ballroom Dungeon Room
$125K: Jester Outfit

In case you missed the fun times here is the stream on YouTube:

Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Gold Crowns, AND receive rare stretch-goal items from our monthly livestreams! This program automatically enrolls you in the monthly livestreams (counts as the $5 minimum purchase) along with other perks.

For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

9 Gold Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Automatic Participation in the Monthly Livestream Stretchgoals (counts as the $5 minimum purchase)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
Pick any Dye 12 Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills

Upcoming Events Calendar

Feb 28, 2019 – Release 63
Mar 8, 2019 – Release 63 Livestream
Mar 8 – 17, 2019 – SXSW
Mar 18 – 22, 2019 – GDC
Mar 28, 2019 – Release 64
Apr 5, 2019 – Release 64 Livestream
Apr 25, 2019 – Release 65
May 3, 2019 – Release 65 Livestream
May 30, 2019 – Release 66
June 7, 2019 – Release 66 Livestream
June 27, 2019 – Release 67
July 25, 2019 – Release 68
Aug 29, 2019 – Release 69

Meretz: Win an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home

Win an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home & earn free SotA in-game items daily!

Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy!

Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away an Obsidian Tower Town Water Home – valued at $300! You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card and other cool prizes. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes.

What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY!

Project to Support – Mechanica (Kickstarter)

“Build the best factory to manufacture adorable vacuum robots in this unique strategy board game.”

Mechanica is the latest game from our friend Mary Flanagan who featured our very own Lord British in her game Monarch.

Mechanica is a unique engine building game where you race your opponents to create the best vacuum robot factory out of interlocking puzzle pieces. The game features:

Dynamic factories that are fun to build and run
12 types of jigsaw piece-shaped tiles that snap together!
Rotating shop board
Instant setup: just open the box and play! The game stays in the tray
Exciting 1-player mode
Beautiful illustrations and adorable robots by Ann-Sophie De Steur

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.

Avatar’s Update #319: Crown Store Buff, New Decorations, Freshwater Fishing Contest Livestream Today

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