Avatar’s Update #354: Release 71 on QA this Weekend! Freshwater Fishing Contest 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 71 on QA this Weekend (Live at end of Oct)

An early version of Release 71 will be on the QA server this weekend! Be sure to watch the QA Bug Forums for an announcement. Release 71 is full of new content and fixes. An early version of the Release 71 Instructions is also available for review. We could really use everyone’s help to test all of this amazing content before it goes live at the end of October!

Tartarus Level Polish & New Content
Decoration Palette
Gold and Silver Scrap Recipes
Agriculture Economy Balance
Wyvern Trophy Head
Wyvern Haunch Recipe
Winter Holiday Recurring Items Return
Sword of Midras Rewards
R71 Rewards Program Items: Fall Theme!
November Login Reward: Turkey Statue
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.

Thanks Avatars!

Freshwater Fishing Contest Livestream Today

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday Oct 18, at 4 PM CT on Twitch! This week we are going to have another Fishing contest! This time it will be a Freshwater Fishing 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 + Desktop Fish Trophy
3rd Prize: Small Longboat Water Decoration (digital) + Bronze Fish Trophy
2nd Prize: Shogun Lighthouse Village Water Home (digital) + Silver Fish Trophy
1st Prize: Player Owned Town Village Water Lot Property Deed (digital) + Gold Fish Trophy

Release 70 Rewards Program Exclusive Items (Spooky Theme!)

Halloween is right around the corner so we decided to make the Rewards Program items for Release 70 spooky themed! Reward Program members will receive these exclusive items immediately upon logging in during Release 70!

- Obsidian Order Altar
- Executioner’s Mask
- Baby Black and Orange Spider Pet

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 “Nightmares do come true” in the chat window (no purchase necessary).

Watch on Twitch today, Friday at 4 PM CDT!

Are You a Livestreamer?

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

10/18 Crown Shop Updates

Greetings Avatars,

The Crown Shop is packed with new items this week including Holiday String Lights, Snow Covered Spruce Trees and Glowing Magic Symbol Mugs! Summer is barely over, and Fall is just starting, and already we have Snow Covered Pine Trees and Holiday String Lights in the Crown Shop! Are we now that kind of store that starts selling winter holiday items before even Halloween?!?! Also don’t forget that Spooky Seasonal Recurring items are back for a limited time until November 8! We are continuing the spooky theme for the Vault with another round of expired spooky items and livestream spooky items!

Snow Covered Spruce Trees: Finally, owners of Alpine Player Owned Towns and players decorating for a winter / holiday theme have appropriate trees in the Crown Shop with these Snow Covered Spruce Trees!
Holiday String Lights: Do you have a relative trapped in the Upside Down that you need to communicate with? Maybe you just want to decorate for the holidays? Well you can do either with the wide variety of colors and lengths of Holiday String Lights now available in the Crown Shop!
Glowing Magic Symbol Mugs: The glowing mug with the Water Magic symbol on it that we created for Water.org was very popular so we have created glowing mugs for the Crown Shop for every magic school!
Melted Candles: These candles are perfect for your next séance or romance times, whichever you are in the mood for. You can find these mood enhancing lights in the Crown Shop. Sorry, no scents provided.
Spooky Seasonal Recurring Items: With Halloween coming up we have brought back all of the Spooky Seasonal Recurring items to the Crown Shop for a limited time! Get them before they expire again until next year on November 8!
- Undead Specimen Vats
- Giant Lich Statue with Magic Portal Dungeon Entrance
- Giant Grim Reaper Statue with Magic Portal Dungeon Entrance
- Ornate Giant Grim Reaper Statue with Magic Portal Dungeon Entrance
- Ornate Scythe & Pattern Pack
- Dead Tree with Spider Webs 6-Pack
- Day of the Dead Masks
- Spooky Emotes: Breathe Spiders, Rain Spiders, Puke Blood, etc.
- Woven Spider Web Cloak
- Spider Web Cloak
- Ornate Spider Legs
- Zombie Pets
The Vault: Current round of Vault items are available until Thursday, October 24 at 10:30 AM Central Time. At that time, the next round of 9 items will be available for two weeks, and then the next, etc
- 2016 Rotten Armor
- 2016 Rotten Flesh Cloak
- Ghost Dog (digital)
- Ghost Cat (digital)
- Ghost Raven (digital)
- Juggle Skulls Emote
- Zombie Wings
- Zombie Mask
- Obsidian Village Home (note this was supposed to be in the last round)

October Login Reward: Skull Mask

Next week is the first week to login and obtain the October login reward! To celebrate Halloween, every player who logs in during the month of October will receive a unique Skull Mask!

To receive the rewards simply login to the game before the end of October and check your rewards tab!

NOTE: You still have three days left to receive the September login reward (Dragon Statue with Flames)!

Release 70 Reward Program Exclusive Items: Spooky Theme!

- Obsidian Order Altar
- Executioner’s Mask
- Baby Black and Orange Spider Pet

NOTE: You must login during the release to receive each release’s exclusive rewards.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Gold Crowns, AND receive exclusive monthly reward items!

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

900 Gold Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Exclusive Monthly Reward Items (~ 3 per month)
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
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
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

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.

Player Made Content & Various Other Livestreams (YouTube)

The Shroud of the Avatar Convention livestream with a live studio audience last week was a first! Here is the livestream from our YouTube channel in case you missed it:

Atos and others also sometimes livestream 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 they go live.

Upcoming Events Calendar

Be sure to check out the Forums Recurring Events section for other events!

Oct 19 – Release 70 Dance Party
Oct 31 – Release 71
Nov 14 – Release 72
Dec 12 – Release 73
Jan 30 – Release 74
Feb 27 – Release 75
Mar 26 – Release 76

Meretz: Win a Haunted Pirate Galleon City Water Home

Win a Haunted 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, and tons more. With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away the Haunted Pirate Galleon City Water Home! Use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes.

What are you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY!

Community Event: Release 70 Dance Party

[Forum post by Darkstarr]

Saturday October 19. 2 – 4 PM Central Time.

Join DJ Darkstarr on Virtue Radio for the Release 70 Dance Party in Blue Rose Isle (near Etceter) hosted by Drake Aedus and Wind Silvermoon!

Community Event: 5th Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Event

[Forum post by Lace]

Prism and Diamond Fields Present the 5th Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Event

As some may be aware October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. For our 5th annual event in game we have created Breast Cancer Awareness Packs rather than our Bi-Athalon with the free countach pink gear. (sorry the dye is no longer in the Make A Difference store hint hint @DarkStarr ).

In order to distribute these free backpacks of goodies, I am calling on governors, guild leaders and streamers to help us out. For those wishing to participate here is the plan.

Meet Lace Delamorte, (or possibly Robyn Hood) in Diamond Fields at the distribution center located at the crafting pavilion.

You will receive one pink dyed free standing banner to use as a display, one trunk and 10 pre-filled backpacks from our distribution chest and display. (you cannot mail/trade containers of items, this is workaround) You can always request more backpacks when your supply is depleted.

You will take banner and trunk to wherever you want to set it up at a guild house, lot, or POT and place trunk there. Set its permissions to public for removal, and place you filled backpacks inside. If You don’t mind, Announce via your gmotd, potmotd the location for your community .
- The backpacks will contain:
  - 5 Pink Dyes
  - 5 Dark Pink Dyes
  - 5 Light Pink Dyes
  - 1 Dyed Coconut Bra
  - 1 Sheet Music for Gloria Gaynor’s I Will survive-Lute
  - 1 Sheet Music for Theme from Rocky- Gonna Fly Now-Lute
  - 1 Pamphlet/Book about Breast Cancer and Awareness
(Distributors DO NOT put the backpacks in the distribution trunk then the distribution trunk in another container, the contents will come out of the bags and have to be re-packaged, this is why we are handing these pre-filled backpacks out separately)

We want the whole community to PAINT IT PINK so that means bribery, I mean prizes ….

Post Pics of a Group of 5 or more in your Pink Gear/House Display – 1st Prize 3000 Coto 2nd 1000 Coto

Post Pics of Individuals (1-4 people) in your Pink Gear/House Display 1st Prize 1500 Coto 2nd 1000 Coto

Post Individual Best Display of a Distribution Center 1st Prize 1000 Coto, 2nd 500 Coto–(this is for the distributors that help with this effort)

Please Post Pictures to this thread and include category in case it is not obvious. Contest ends November 1, meaning postmarked by October 31st midnight on forums.

Diamond Fields will have a distribution center for individuals on the east side of the crafting pavilion. As other distributors let me know where they will be located (by posting in this thread) I will add them to a cumulative listing on this post.

Distribution Centers:

Diamond Fields east side of crafting pavilion
Novia Market on docks by bulletin board
Caeltis Canton

Our Community has already lost players to this disease, be aware, educated, and get your checkups and remind your friends to as well.

Community Event: Halloween Fishing Contest

[Forum post by Phamyns]

On October 26 2019, I will be hosting a fishing contest in Stormsong Vale.
This town has been set to salt water.
This contest will be ” Biggest Fish Takes All ” contest.

Start and End Time : Contest starts at Noon CT on Saturday October 26. and will go till 3pm CT Saturday October 26.

How to Win! : Catch the biggest fish you can in the 3 hours given, at end of 3 hours announce your biggest fish, you will have to place in trade window to show as proof on live stream.

Fishing Contest Prize : First Place – 1500 Crowns / Second Place – 1000 Crowns / Third Place – 500 Crowns

Once fishing contest is done, we move to a costume party out front of the Water Way Tavern in Stormsong Vale located in Town Boundary #4. So wear your best costume as there will be some prizes for costumes!

For more information you can find me in-game Phamyns .

Community Event: Shroud International Convention Pics & Vids

[Forum post by Laz]

Hiya Folks!

Here’s all the goodies I know many have been waiting for!

If anyone who was in attendance wants to add their pics to the google album contact me via PM with your email address and i’ll get you added.

Or share here

VIP Photo

Group Photo

Check Presentation

Chaos Medal

And for more photos and videos see the links below

SOTAICON 2019 Photos
https://photos.app.goo.gl/k4FTxn7qiQ11xZiU7

Short Movies
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4d9gsu8uvbtA4VM39

SOTAICON 2019 Full Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCymbV4LJtaWB6fvAK-Io6TrHUSB2lxmC

Enjoy!

Laz

Project to Support – Pantheon Rise of the Fallen

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen takes place on the high-fantasy world of Terminus, a wildly diverse land formed from fragments of many different realms and times, bringing with them their unique civilizations and deities. Explore long lost realms, as their people and cultures vie for power and form alliances, struggling to gain a foothold in an unfamiliar world. Uncover civilizations and awe-inspiring locales that offer incredible adventures for you and your friends to experience. Enter a world where the environment itself tells the story and where content is always king!

Project to Support – Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

The Avatar Express is a Shroud of the Avatar fan news site!

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain.

You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express.

Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS.

Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

—–

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no committment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immidiate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

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.