Avatar’s Update #355: Q4 & 2020 Schedule Updates! Release 71 on QA! Haunted Homes Tour 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

Q4 & 2020 Schedule Updates

This weekend we posted some information to the forums about our upcoming schedule including slides we used at our panels at the Shroud of the Avatar International Convention!

[Forum Post by Darkstarr]

Greetings Avatars,

At the recent Shroud Convention we held several panels about Shroud of the Avatar. Most panels followed a similar format. We covered the highlights of what we accomplished over the last 12 months, what we hoped to accomplish in Q4 of 2019, and what our plans were for 2020. After numerous requests we are publishing the slides from those presentations here. Here’s a summary of what we talked about (some of which Atos covered in his recent post):

Q4 2019:

LUA Integration (Phase 1)
New Overworld for Ep 2 (maybe even allowing POT settling?)
Inky Integration (Phase 1)
New CS Team Member!
Cross Promos with other like minded Projects (Crowfall, Pantheon, etc.)!!! (Phase 1)
Paid Ads (Phase 1)

2020:

Misc:

LUA Integration (multiple phases, Phase 1 in Q4!)
Player GMs
Player Vendor Polish
More Trophy Data (Agriculture, Trophy Heads from creatures)
Property Rating System (thumbs up!)
New Creatures / New Bosses / More Tameables (Nightmares, Unicorns, etc.)
New Skills
Cross Promos with other like minded Projects (Crowfall, Pantheon, etc.)!!! (multiple phases)
Paid Ads (multiple phases)

Ep 2!

New Overworld
News Scenes & New Towns
Quest System Revamp (Inky open source scripting language)
Journal Revamp (Inky open source scripting language)
Theater System
Treasure Hunting with Treasure Maps
Item Affinity & Reputation
Taming Expansions: Pet Leveling, Pet Skills, Pet Customization
Customizable NPCs including Convos (Inky open source scripting language)
Expanded Permissions system for containers & doors
In-Game Achievement System

Shroud International Convention Decks:

[Forum Post by Atos]

Greetings Avatars! As many of you know we have had some exciting changes recently that will positively impact the game in many ways. There will be some questions I won’t be able to answer but I’m pretty sure I can hit the big ones fast, so I can get on to the more exciting stuff.

Just listing the answers as the questions are pretty obvious:

No, the team didn’t change as a result of the ownership change
No, Richard and Starr aren’t going away
Yes, Episode 2+ is still coming as expected
Yes, Seed Investor still have an investment in the success of Shroud

The slightly longer question to answer is “why?” There are a lot of reasons but the big ones are cost savings, risk, and company focus. Costs savings include not having to pay for 3 extra types of insurance that ran several $k a month, not needing an employment company that increased overhead dramatically, not needing a lawyer and multiple CPAs to deal with corporate and tax filings quarterly, and a number of other pointless costs. Risk is reduced because we have far fewer things to screw up as a result of the simpler structure and fewer filings. Finally, company focus going forward will be on one thing, making Shroud of the Avatar better and better every month without having a mountain of paperwork completely unrelated to the game weighing us down.

For the last few people who are still waiting on boxes, those will resume shipping again. We had been blocked because we needed additional signatures from Richard but I just had him sign 500 more items last week. There are less than 100 boxes left to ship and I’m committed to shipping these personally.

Now it is time to talk about the stuff most really want to hear about, the future of Shroud of the Avatar, the challenges we face, and why I’m more optimistic now about Shroud than ever!

So first off, let’s talk about some stuff that isn’t changing. We are still working towards episode 2 and we’ll continue to release more information about that over the coming months. We will still be doing monthly releases. The devs, including Richard, Starr, and Chris, will still be involved with the players.

The stuff that will be changing is a far more substantial list but in many cases will be subtle. If I had to sum it up in a single sentence I think it would be that we are going to have a more open and collaborative game creation process.

When we started the project, we involved the players in development in many ways. We are going to work to try to involve players far more going forward. Our community is one of our strongest assets and we’ve made them stand on the sidelines far too much lately. We are working on a number of initiatives to fix this.

First, one of the things that players love are community events. While players have been running their own events for a while, our European partner had someone who ran some of these with his special GM powers and players loved it. Sadly, when that partnership ended, so did the GM events.

In the future, we will be making some of our dev commands available to a handful of community members who have proven over the years to be highly responsible and trustworthy. Those who take part will be asked to create a new account that can be flagged so they can remain anonymous to the community if they choose to. These new Game Masters(GMs) will not get the full suite of dev powers but rather a subset to allow them to appear invisible, summon creatures, apply temporary buffs, change the weather, summon other players, and teleport to other players.

Are You a Livestreamer?

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

10/25 Crown Shop Updates

Greetings Avatars,

The Crown Shop is packed with new items this week including two more Remote Dungeon Entrances (The Fall and Lost Vale), Spider Webs with Crawling Spiders, Blood Splatters, and a Fall Wreath. Also don’t forget that Spooky Seasonal Recurring items are back for a limited time until November 8! Additionally we are continuing the spooky theme for the Vault with this year’s final round of expired spooky items including the much sought after original Witch Hat!

Lost Vale & The Fall Remote Dungeon Entrances: Player Owned Town owners and Lot Owners now have the option to place a Remote Dungeon Entrance on their property! This entrance allows direct access to the designated Dungeon area from the property it is placed on. Please note that these items are quite large so you will need a large amount of space for placement. This week we added two more Remote Dungeon Entrances to the Crown Shop including Lost Vale and The Fall.
Spider Webs with Crawling Spiders: A pack of 6 webs in 3 sizes with creepy crawling spiders that can adorn your floors or walls is now available in the Crown Shop – Perfect for your haunted house or dungeon!
Blood Splatters: A pack of 19 different blood splatters that can adorn your floors or walls is now available in the Crown Shop – Perfect for your haunted house or dungeon!
Fall Wreath: This door wreath made from fall hued leaves is the perfect accent for your fall decor. You can find it in the Crown Shop.
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, November 7 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, etcGrim Reaper Mask
- Grim Reaper Statue
- Ornate Skull Candle
- Stone Zombie Statue
- 2017 Large Headless Horseman Grim Reaper Statue
- 2017 Headless Horseman Grim Reaper Statue
- Witch Hat
- 2017 Ornate Scythe
- Obsidian Tower Village Home

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.

Freshwater Fishing Contest & Various Other Livestreams (YouTube)

The Freshwater Fishing Contest livestream was a blast! 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 31 – Release 71
Nov 8 – Release 71 Livestream
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: 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: Murder in Blackrock Cove

[Forum post by thradia]

Murder in Blackrock Cove – October 24th to 31st – Solve the Mystery!

A body, a note, a shadowy figure: What is normally a quiet and safe town has become the scene of a crime.
The townspeople fear for their safety, as this unknown threat skulks in the darkness of Blackrock Cove.We need your help to investigate the crime scene and find out what has happened.
Look for clues, gather information on each suspect, and name the killer.The event will run for 1 week (Oct 24, to Oct 31, 11:59 pm NBT)___________________________________________________

Information on where to start this quest will be released on October 24th.

So watch this thread for more details!

___________________________________________________

Once you have decided who the murderer is, you will need to send mail in-game to Thradia.

~~~~~~~

Everyone who is correct will get a prize.

The first 5 people to get it correct will win a large prize package including:

COTOs, Gold, Obsidian Potion Reward, Rare Dyes, a rare item and more!

All others will receive a small prize back that includes:

Gold, rare dyes, a mystery item and more! Each bag is a little different

Project to Support – Crowfall

Be part of shaping the next great MMO by becoming a Crowfall Backer! Crowfall is the first and only online Throne War game. You can win. Join intense PvP battles that demand strategy, survival and a fierce competitive spirit. Reap the spoils of war as an Eternal Champion!

Claim virtual territory on behalf of your guild or faction. Capture mines, mills, and quarries to secure resources, build castles, and besiege your neighbors. Scavenge artifacts and relics from the Dying Worlds and install them in your temples to grant blessings to your vassals. Capture lost spirits to do your bidding — or bind them into your weapons to infuse them with sorcerous power!

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.