Avatar’s Update #328: R65 on QA, Deco Contest Preview 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

Release 64 on QA (Live next Thur)

An early version of R65 is on the QA server. R65 is full of new content and fixes, some of which is now on the QA server for early testing. An early version of the R65 Instructions is also available for review. We could really use everyone’s help to test all of this amazing content before it goes live next Thursday April 25!

Decoration Scaling
Decoration Flipping
Female Peasant Wearables
New Rare Random Encounter Merchants
The Vault
Tamed Pet Balance
More Young Dragons
Wave Battle Improvements
Lord British Cupcakes
R60, R61, and R62 Livestream Items
Performance Improvements
More Bug Fixes
and more!

Please join us in testing on the QA server (instructions are posted each release in the bug forums) so we can make each release the best it can be. By helping us test prior to the release we can insure there are less bugs, more stability, and more balance.

Participating qualifies you for the Testing Incentives Program! We will reward you for your efforts because we do understand that time spent on QA is time lost on advancing your character on live. Each release we will randomly reward the following rewards (one prize per player):

500 Gold Crowns (4 prizes)
Ant Farm (4 prizes)
Antennae (4 prizes)
Bug Cloak (4 prizes)
Set of Bug Paintings (4 prizes)
Bug Sprayer with emote (1 prize)
Insect Leg Table (1 prize)
Corpion Chair (1 prize)

In order to qualify you must meet the following requirements:

Install the QA version of the game
Login and play on QA for at least 4 hours per release
Report at least 1 bug in the QA section of the forums
Note that players will only be submitted for the lottery once per QA cycle. Continued bug reporting will not count toward additional submissions into the lottery.

NOTE: Our apologies for the EXTREME delay in getting these rewards out to players. We hope to get this up to date next week.

Thanks Avatars!

Deco Contest Preview Livestream Today

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is today, Friday April 19 at 4 PM CT on Twitch!

This week we are going to preview the progress on the POT deco contest going on in Mount Midir. First place will win their very own overworld player owned town and a tax free town deed! There is still plenty of time to enter as the contest runs until Saturday May 4th!

If we have time we will also show off some of the new Release 65 home decoration features like decoration scaling and decoration 180 flipping.

You can still earn Release 64 Dark Spring stretch goals for the next week before Release 65 goes live by making a purchase or by participating in the Rewards program!

ACHIEVED $15K: Flower Hairpiece
ACHIEVED $30K: Dark Leaf Spear
ACHIEVED $45K: Flower Bed
$60K: Dark Thorn Wand & Dark Thorn 1H Sword
$75K: Redthorn (Shardfall Plant) Decoration Pack
$90K: Dark Thorn Mace & Dark Leaf Shield
$105K: Cenote Player Dungeon Room (open to sky with water and plants)
$125K: Dark Thorn 2H Sword and Dark Thorn Staff

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 “Dark Spring has Sprung” 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!

Deco Contest

[Forum Post by Chris “Atos” Spears]

Greetings avatars! I am happy to officially announce a new deco contest, the 2019 Shroud Deco Challenge! Due to the significant prizes involved and our desire to keep the entries to a modest level, there is an entry fee of 100,000 gold or 1000 crowns. You can enter by either contacting Atos during one of his live streams or simply sending an in game mail with the gold or crowns. Players have until Sunday, April the 27th at midnight to enter.

Players who enter will be assigned a village plot in the dev town of Mount Midir. You must provide your own village deed. They will have roughly 3 weeks to deco the lot to their liking. Atos will be stopping by the town several days a week to check out the progress people are making on his live stream.

The contest starts immediately and runs until Saturday, May the 4th, when Atos and others will do a special 4 hour stream to inspect the player’s work! For each house, Atos will do a fly through showing off the house and decorations and players can vote. These will last roughly 1 to 2 minutes each so voters will need to be on their toes!The tentative plan for voting is that all viewers will be allowed to vote once per house. They can give it a 1 to 10 rating. To reduce groups artificially up/down voting, the top 25% and bottom 25% of the votes will be thrown out and the average of the middle 50% will be used for the final score. This will be handled by a streambot and results will be displayed in real time.After the quick initial pass on the houses, the top 10 scoring homes will get a second, longer fly through and a second round of voting. If the homeowner is present and wishes to, they can join Atos on Skype to briefly describe their home themselves! The winners of this second round of voting will determine the official winners!

The prizes will be as follows:

First place will win their very own overworld player owned town and a tax free town deed! Sannio will work with them to choose a location that is acceptable to them.

Second place will receive a tax free town deed.

Third place will receive a tax free village deed

All entries that make it to the top 10 will receive a large unique decoration celebrating their accomplishment!

All players who enter the contest will receive a small unique decoration.

Additionally, the devs present on the stream will choose and award prizes for the following categories:

Most chaotic decoration themed – Think, where would Darkstarr want to live?
Most nostalgic decoration themed – Think, where would Lord British want to live? *cough*make it feel like Ultima/UO*cough*
Most whimsical – Think, where would my 5 year old daughter want to live?

These will each receive a special prize (2500+ crown value) appropriate to their theme and the same unique decoration given to the top 10 scoring homes.

Finally, there will be a prize for the highest rated lot that uses only crafted, collected, or purchased with gold items from merchants items. No crown or cash shot items allowed. The prize for this category will be 5000 crowns.

To prevent players from doing all their decoration in secret and then moving their house in at the very last minute, starting in Release 65, Mount Midir will be flagged to not allow the use of the magical movers. Part of the reason for this contest is to help show off what amazing things are possible during video streams and we won’t be able to do that if everything happens in secret!

Also, should Mount Midir fill up, we will add an additional nested POT to handle the overflow.

Thanks again and we look forward to seeing the town quickly grow into an amazing showcase!

Q2 2019 Update

Greetings Avatars,

The first quarter kicked off 2019 with a huge bang! We added the Envy Angel (another seasonal boss), more expansions to the Player Made Dungeons (including Encounters!), Back Slot Items, Pronged Weapons, Pirate Items, Massive Repricing, Fertilizer for Agriculture, Crown Store Polish, Baby Dragons and Tons of Quality of Life Improvements!

The second quarter is going to be just as amazing as Q1! We will have Crafting Specializations (choose your effect!), the ability to flag your Row Lots as empty (crops!), the return of the Atavists of Purity (seasonal boss/creature), Episode 2 areas, Raid groups (groups of groups) and more quality of life improvements.

Stay with us for Episode 2 which will have a new story, new lands, a revamp of the Quest and Journal system, a Theater System, Treasure Hunting with treasure maps that show up as loot, Item Affinity, Taming system expansions, Customizable NPCs, and expanded permissions for containers and doors!

As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates detailing our monthly releases and those monthly releases will continue just as before, on the last Thursday of each month. 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 players regularly, 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 recent balance passes to combat. 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.

Q2 Top 10 Priorities: As mentioned previously we keep a running list of our Top 10 priorities at all times that we use when building our schedule and prioritizing where to allocate our team’s resources. We often refer to it when making decisions about the project. While it has a VERY strong influence on what we work on at any given time, it does not mean that we only work on something that is on the list. It just means that if someone can assist with something that will help address an item on the list, then we will make sure they do that first before working on anything else. Sometimes team members cannot assist with anything on our top priorities, so they work on other tasks such as visual polish, combat balance, or content that helps us raise funds.

Quality of Life: We will continue to make general improvements to quality of life by removing slowdowns and annoyances in gameplay.
Systems and User Interface Polish: Polishing and improving existing systems will continue to be a major focus. This will take priority over new systems. We will also continue to polish various UI elements.
Bug Fixing: We will continue to focus more on fixing bugs versus new content and new features.
Performance: While the game is much more playable now we feel there is still more to be gained so in Q1 we will continue making code and content changes to improve performance.
New User Experience Polish: We will polish and improve various elements of the New User Experience.
Seasonal Content: Content to support Summer events will be brought back.
Improved Reward Cycle: We will continue our focus on systemic and game-wide upgrades to the quality and quantity of loot.
Player Made Dungeons: We will also continue to add new features and content to the Player Made Dungeons feature.
Shipping Phase 3: Collector’s Boxes will ship to those who did not get theirs in the first or second rounds.
Episode 2: New areas for dwelling and adventure related to Episode 2 will go live.

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

RELEASE 65, April 25, 2019

Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15-second load time target.
Combat: A pass will be done on summoned pet balance. This will include additional party bonuses based on pet type.
Crafting & Economy: Fertilizer will now be able to be used in Agriculture to affect the outcome. Players will also be able to purchase items from the “Vault” section of the Crown Shop which will feature rare, previously-expired items that will be available for a limited time at a premium price.
Player Towns & Player Housing: Our first ever paintable homes will also go live! Additionally updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
Livestream Content: We will add recent livestream stretch goal items.

RELEASE 66, May 30, 2019

Story: The first area associated with Episode 2 will appear!
Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15 second load time target.
Combat: Players will be able to join multiple groups into large Raids (groups of groups).
Crafting & Economy: Crafters will be able to choose a single Crafting Specialization (Smithing, Tailoring, Alchemy, Carpentry) which will allow them to choose effects during Masterworking or Enchanting (versus random selection).
Player Towns & Player Housing: We will provide lot owners the ability to flag their Row Lots as empty which will open up the ability to do things like plant crops on Row Lots for the first time ever! Additionally updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
Livestream Content: We will add recent livestream stretch goal items.

RELEASE 67, June 27, 2019

Story: The Luminous Atavist has returned from hiding! Some residents of Novia are not pleased with the sudden and voluminous influx of Outlander immigrants. The Atavists of Purity have vowed to rid Novia of the Outlander scourge. “Their houses crowd our fair towns! Their wares compete with those of native Novian merchants!” yells their leader, the Luminous Atavist. He and his lieutenants, the Knight Purifiers, have been known to ambush unwary Outlanders on the road. They are even swelling their ranks with common folks who call themselves Unifiers.
Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15-second load time target.
Crafting & Economy: Upon achieving Grandmaster in a crafting school you will now unlock a set of new exclusive effects for Masterworking and Enchanting.
Player Towns & Player Housing: Players will have the ability to add custom conversations to their NPCs (shopkeepers, POT NPCs, servants, etc.). Additionally updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
Livestream and Seasonal Content: We will add recent livestream stretch goal items as well as the return of Lord British’s birthday recurring items.

We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the financial support 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 are always excited to see you each month in New Britannia!

Join us for Episode 2 which will have a new story, new lands, a revamp of the Quest and Journal system, a Theater System, Treasure Hunting with treasure maps that show up as loot, Item Affinity, Taming system expansions, Customizable NPCs, and expanded permissions for containers and doors!

Sincerely,
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Shroud of the Avatar

Darkstarr Recurring Items

It is the Regent Darkstarr’s (aka Starr Long) birthday on March 12th! In honor of his birthday the recurring rare Darkstarr items are in the Crown shop for a limited time! They will only be available this year until May 3rd and then you will have to wait for another full year before they become available again!

Here’s a list of those recurring items:

Darkstarr Fur Collared CloakLord British vs Darkstarr Battle BannerDarkstarr Shield & Darkstarr Shield Pattern Pack Darkstarr Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern

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.

R64 & Various Livestreams (YouTube)

The R64 Livestream last week was a blast! The Easter Egg tour was incredible with so many of our references to pop culture and the real world shown off. You can see many of these in this very detailed player forum post. Here is the livestream from our YouTube channel in case you missed it:

We also had our first ever Easter Egg Hunt in Hometown! Here are the winners:

1st: Player Owned Town Village Lot Property Deed (digital)
- Kal Knightwolf
2nd: Hollow Log Two-Story Village House (digital)
- Mandalar
3rd: Elven Guard Tower (digital)
- Silently
4th: Ornate Elven Furniture Set
- Molly Jaal
5th: Royal Elven Longbow
- Naid
Runners Up: White Rabbit Mask
- Gwendolyn Obscuro
- Zadien
- Ironfish Warhammer
- Veno Qorlan
- Andrew Knightowl
- Trufall Selarts
- Dundrum
- Araminis Darkblade
- Ashyeena Marsh

Atos has also been livestreaming most days and you can check those out on our YouTube channel (complete with “Mojito the dog” cam). Note that if you subscribe to the channel you will be notified when he goes live. Here are a few highlights:

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:

900 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

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 a Pirate Galleon City Water Home

Win a Pirate Galleon City 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 the Pirate Galleon City Water Home! 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!

Community Event: Spring Dance Party in Elementum

[Forum Post by Fionwyn Wyldemane]

Come join the fun at the “Spring Dance Party” in Elementum!
Hosted by @Tailz Suvorov in the redesigned

~♪~ Club Zero ~♪~

Saturday, 4/20 from 6PM – 8PM CST (11PM – 1PM UTC)

♥ DJ Sister Love will be in the house dropping the beats! ♥
`*=,. The club is in the basement .,=*`

Community Event: 1st Annual Novia Market Spring Equinox Egg Hunt!

[Forum Post by ldykllr]

Yes! Another event (I know, we just had one!). Sunday, April 21st from 1pm-2pm NBT in Novia Market! There will be dozens of eggs to find, so come join the fun!

Rules:

Eggs will NOT be hidden in chests – they will be placed somewhere in the POT next to a sheet of paper. This paper will have a number , that you will have to message Robyn Hood in-game with. At the end of the event, turn in the numbers you have collected (you’ll have to write them down) to be considered for a prize! The egg sets (Aether, Rainbow) will have a phrase that will be completed once you find them all – first person to message me with the phrase, wins! Eggs will be dyed different colors but will be bright so they will be visible. They will also be placed in areas near landmarks in the POT (and in-town). You will have to look in obvious (and not-so-obvious places). Participants who do not win, will be entered in the random drawing!

Prizes:

Find the most eggs
1st place – 1000 cotos
2nd – 500 cotos
3rd – 250 cotos

Find the 3 Aether Eggs – Replenishing Spring Equinox Confections Platter
Find the 3 Rainbow Eggs – Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2019
Random Prize(s) – Decorative Dyable Egg Pack 2019, Confection Stand, Dyable Cake (and possibly more prizes!)

Community Event: NBTT Presents — Daggers In The Dark – The Video!

[Forum Post by Asclepius]

Yes, we do have a video! This is the recording of our maiden performance, in the Sabra Rose Theater, in Rift’s End.

Hope you enjoy it!

Project to Support – Avatars Radio

Avatars Radio is a community run and community funded radio station founded by community member Amber Okhan (formerly Amber Raine). They air plays, music, sermons, speeches, and they organize the monthly release dance parties. You can listen to Avatars Radio on their website or through one of the Aether Amplifiers inside Shroud of the Avatar. Consider helping this community endeavor by supporting their Patreon!

“This station was created with the love of our community and fellow citizens in Lord British – Richard Garriott’s new world of Shroud of the Avatar. Our dream desire is to serve and share (simply by airing) communities work through the moon towers. We have an open welcoming of all submissions from our community. Talented musicians (be it instrumental, vocal, or mixer), poets, designers of station identifications and other sound bytes, or perhaps you have the face and voice for radio and would like to try your turn behind the desk as a DJ? This station shall always welcome the creative works of the community weighed over that of earthly!”

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.