Release 71 Instructions

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked Player Guide and Known Issues. 

NOTE: We are releasing one day early because of the Halloween holiday!

Release 71 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Wednesday, October 30, at 10:30 AM US Central Time (15:30 UTC). Release 71 includes lots of exciting updates including the Decoration Palette, Wyvern Trophies, Gold and Silver Scrap, new content and polish for the dungeons Tartarus and Despair, Winter Holiday recurring items, Economy balance for Agriculture, and more!

I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to the players who tested the items listed below on our QA server. They found many bugs and also provided editorial feedback on this post so that it is easy to read and actually matches what is in the game.

Before offering feedback and/or reporting a bug, we kindly ask that you read this whole message and the linked Player Guide and Known Issues to get up to date on the current game state. To keep up to date, please check out the Patch Notes.

By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and effort can be focused on new “unanswered” questions and addressing critical issues that impact each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.

Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is also working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check the schedule for player-run events (via the player-run websites: NBNN Community Calendar & Avatars Circle). You can also get the latest official events on the Main Website.

Without further ado, here is a list of what you can expect to see in RELEASE 71, October 30, 2019.

Story and Scenes: 

• Tartarus: The new levels that appeared in Release 70 received polish. We also added lots of new content including two wave battles, new bosses, and 5 new artifacts! Additionally a second entrance to the bottom level of the dungeon (that leads directly to the mines area) was added in the Savrenoc Stronghold scene.
• Despair: This dungeon is getting some upgrades! Now it has wave battles, “defeat boss” or “solve mystery” requirements to open some doors, and some treasure chests that restock upon defeating all defending enemies.

Combat: 

• Multishot: This ranged skill is getting a boost for R71. Again, to help compensate from the extra pain archers suffered from the damage resistance on NPC fix. Initial hit will do an extra 33% more damage, while second and third hits remain the same
• Death Shield: This skill previously had the effect of healing AND also blocking an equal amount of damage. This was resulting in it being twice as powerful as expected. This was known for some time but as players and gear progressed the net result was that many players were approaching 50% heal and 50% damage block, therefore becoming effectively invincible. This has finally been corrected to just do one, but not both. Since this could dramatically impact some builds, all Death Magic has been set to return 100% experience on unlearn.
• Solar Flare: Sun Magic Specialization now provides a Sun Resistance debuff that stacks with the debuf from Searing Ray. Also, damage has been increased dramatically along with focus cost.

Crafting and Economy:

• Solar Flare Enchantment: We have added an Enchantment for Solar Flare Damage tied to a Sun Magic Gem Socketed Chest Piece. 
• Ground Pound Masterwork: One handed and two handed Bludgeon weapons (Maces, Hammers, Axes) now have a Ground Pound Damage bonus effect offered during Masterworking.
• Gold and Silver Scrap Salvage: Gold and Silver Scraps can now be obtained when salvaging Gold and Silver Items, most notably crafted rings and amulets and jewelry caught while fishing.
• Batch Crafting Improvement: Leftover ingredients after a failure during batch will now be kept on the crafting station for use in the next iteration of the batch. Formerly when a failure occurred during batch crafting, the remaining unused ingredients were cleared off of the crafting station and sent to the player’s inventory, only to be immediately replaced with identical ingredients from the player’s inventory. Since many players prefer to keep crafting ingredients in a particular container within their inventories, sending the unused ingredients to the main inventory resulted in a mess within the inventory that had to then be cleaned up manually by the player.
• Wyvern Trophy: Players can finally craft the head of the Wyvern into an amazing trophy!
• Fruit and Vegetable Market Balance: We have better balanced the pricing of fruits and vegetables on NPC merchants versus the agricultural output of players. Note that the old prices were holdovers from before agriculture could produce these items. This will be done in phases. For Release 71 we have simply increased the prices of items that are agricultural outputs and crafted components. Note that at this time reagents were not changed even though they’re technically part of this group of items. A later phase will alter values, adjust agriculture outputs and further tweak the merchant price.
• Artifact Masterworking and Enchanting: All artifacts that are part of the tiered system should now be able to be Masterworked and Enchanted (except belts).
• Updated Artifacts: More legacy artifacts have been updated to the new tiered system:
  • Belt of the Troll Lord
  • Claymore of Cessation
  • Crossbow of Accuracy
  • Cutlass of the Swashbuckler
  • Halberd of the Sun
  • Hands of Lead
  • Mace of Unsummoning
  • Quartermaster’s Cutlass
  • Ring of the Mouse
  • Staff of Anarchy
  • Staff of Death
  • Sword of Speed
  • Vexlyn’s Wand of Conflagration
  • Wand of Air

Player Towns and Player Housing:

• Decoration Palette: The Decoration Palette is a new tool that helps players collaborate while decorating a lot. Since no-trade items can now be placed on a lot, we want to help players share decorations, regardless of no-trade status. A no-trade item on a lot cannot be picked up by anyone except for its owner, but anyone with proper permissions on the lot can move the item. Hiding or un-hiding an item to/from the deco palette will be treated the same as moving it. Also, a player could add a no-trade item directly to the decoration palette as a hidden item for others to use as a decoration as they wish.
• Turkey Statue (November Login Reward): This regal bird is commemorated in an equally regal statue that every player will receive as the November Login Reward.
• Pirate Airship Home: Piracy is no longer just something to be feared at sea! Pirates have taken to the air as well! Some of these fearsome airships have been converted to luxurious homes for the wealthy and can be purchased from the Crown Shop.
• Fall White Birch Trees: These trees not only have fall hued foliage, they also have falling leaves! You can find them in the Crown Shop.
• 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. NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• 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! NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• 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! NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• 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. NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• Fire Breathing Dragon Statues: The popular September login reward of the Foyer sized Fire Breathing Dragon Statue is now available in a wide variety of other sizes in the Crown Shop, ranging from Desktop all the way up to Keep sized! NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• 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! NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• 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! NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• 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. Several Remote Entrances are available in the Crown Shop including The Rise, Tartarus, Lost Vale, The Fall, and Ravensmoor. NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• Stonegate (Player Owned Town): Upgraded size to Town.

Performance: 

• Load Time Baking System: We made some improvements to this system that have resulted in a nice boost to frame rate.

Winter Holiday Seasonal Recurring Items: With the winter holidays coming up we have brought back all of the Winter Holiday Seasonal Recurring items to the Crown Shop for a limited time! Get them before they expire again until next year on February 7, 2020!

• Breathe Blue Fire Emote
• Breathe Emote 6-Pack
• Breathe Snow Emote
• Ice Building Blocks 110-Pack
• Ice Nightmare Mask
• Ornate Sled
• Ornate Sleigh
• Ornate Yule Music Box
• Traditional Yule Hat
• White Raven
• White Squirrel
• Winter Pattern Glass Chandelier 3-Pack
• Winter Pattern Glass Floor Lamp 3-Pack

Release 71 Rewards Program Items: To receive these exclusive rewards, all you need to do is join the Rewards Program during Release 71 and login to the game during Release 71.

• Scarecrow Mask
• Giant Gray Squirrel Pet
• Giant Scarecrow Statue

Character: 

• Miners Goggles: These are now a rare pattern loot drop from Elves in Verdantis Mines.
• 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! NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.
• Ornate Shogun Crossbow: The Ornate Shogun Crossbow is our latest addition to our Crown Shop ranged weapons arsenal and is a beautiful example of Shogun design. NOTE: This was patched into Release 70.

Thank you so much for reading all the way here to the end!

Join us for 2020 where we will have tons more in store including LUA integration, Inky Integration, more team members, Cross Promos with other teams, Player GMs, Player Vendor Polish, More Trophy Data (Agriculture, Trophy Heads), Property Rating System, More Creatures/Bosses/Tameables, New Skills, Bards, POT Animal Spawners, and more!

There will also be 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 a reminder, here are links to Player Instructions and Known Issues. Thank you again for your continued support. This is truly the most amazing community we have ever worked with, and we are proud to be on this journey with you.

Sincerely,

Starr Long
aka Darkstarr
Executive Producer