Release 72 Instructions

Avatars,

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

Release 72 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Thursday, November 21, at 10:30 AM US Central Time (15:30 UTC). Release 72 includes lots of exciting updates including Lua Integration (Phase 1), Krampus Returns, Unicorn cooking Recipes, Reagent Agriculture balance, POT Animals, 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 72, November 21, 2019.

Story and Scenes: 

• Krampus Returns: Each winter the Krampus wakes from hibernation. It is said that he makes his home in East Sanctus Forest and it is rumored that he derives much of his power from his army of naughty brats (zombie children) that surround him. Watch out for a roving encounter full of those naughty brats who will ambush you before you even reach the home of the Krampus! Young Clara in Northwood knows first-hand how monstrous those naughty brats can be … they stole her precious chess piece! Are you brave enough to venture into Krampus territory and recover her one-of-a-kind keepsake? NOTE: This was actually supposed to not go live until Release 72 but was accidentally got patched into Release 71, so folks got a couple of extra weeks of Dark Winter!
• Pumpkin Head Dormant: Now that the harvests are ending, Pumpkin Head is no longer terrorizing those who dare venture into the fields at night, at least until next year’s harvests…
• Necropolis Barrens: Added a chance for a Tier 12 Brown Spider to sometimes spawn at night. 

User Interface:

• Lua Integration (Phase 1): Phase 1 of Lua Integration is now live! Lua is a full-featured but simple to use scripting language that can be used to create new features, UI, or other client side add ons with just a few lines of code. Players now have a way to query an ever growing set of data via a console. Join the Lua Discussions and Player Created Scripts discussion in the forums to find out what everyone is making! Also, those on Discord can join the Lua-scripting-api channel for real time chat and information! 
• Free Storage of No-Trade Items In Bank: All no-trade items can now be freely stored in the bank without contributing to bank item limits.
• “E” Key for Non-Targeted Looting: The “E” key now loots the nearest corpse with loot if nothing is currently targeted. NOTE: This was actually part of Release 71 but due to some miscommunication we did not include it in the Release 71 post.

Crafting and Economy: 

• Reagent Agriculture Balance (Phase 2): In Release 71, we improved the balance for pricing of fruits and vegetables on NPC merchants versus the agricultural output of players by simply increasing the prices of items that are agricultural outputs and crafted components. In Release 72, we continued this Agriculture balancing effort by doubling the agricultural output of Reagent plants. This means farmers will, on average, get double the number of reagents from agriculture. Note that, to preserve economic balance, we simultaneously halved the sale value of reagents (function being favored over value). 
• Unicorn Stews: What kind of horrible monster kills and eats unicorns?!?!? The answer is people! Unicorns can now be harvested for either light or dark unicorn meat (depending on the Unicorn type). There are three recipes that use these meats that give a varying degree of Intelligence bonus. 
  • Unicorn Medley: Light and Dark Unicorn meat stew medley that provides a static Intelligence bonus (i.e. bonus not affected by virtue) 
  • Light Unicorn Stew: Light Unicorn Meat stew that provides an Intelligence bonus based on positive virtue.
  • Dark Unicorn Stew: Dark Unicorn Meat stew that provides an Intelligence bonus based on negative virtue.
• Grilled Wyvern Chops: Grilled Wyvern Chops is just what an ailing adventurer needs to reinvigorate!
• Fish Sticks Recipe: Everyone loves Fish Sticks! Put them in your mouth and savor them! This simple recipe can be made using any fish.

Player Towns and Player Housing: 

• Book-filled bookshelves: A variety of fine oak bookshelves that are filled, and half-filled with books are now available in the Crown Shop to make your home and library feel more literary.
• Garden Gnomes: Bring cuteness and life into your garden with gnomes! Now available in the Crown Shop.
• Blackbird Decoration: This Crown Shop decoration will be sure to add that menacing harvest ambiance to your farm. Sadly, even though this is full of blackbirds, you cannot bake four-and-twenty of them into a pie! NOTE: This was patched into Release 71.
• Town Teleporters: We have new teleporters available in the Crown Shop that allows direct connections between Player-Owned Towns and various Towns around the world. The first three towns to be added are Ardoris, Owl’s Head, and Central Brittany! NOTE: This was patched into Release 71.
• Player-Owned Town Animals: Town Owners can now purchase items that, when placed, cause various animals to appear around their towns! For example, placing the saucer of milk causes a cat to appear! Some of these can be purchased from the Crown Shop and some are available from NPC Decoration Merchants. The initial list of animals includes:
  • Calico Cats (NPC Merchants)
  • Cats: Siamese & Tabby (Crown Shop)
  • Deer (Crown Shop)
  • Pigs (Crown Shop)
  • Reindeer (Crown Shop)
  • Rabbits (NPC Merchants)
  • Sheep (Crown Shop)
  • Squirrels (NPC Merchants)
  • Turkeys (Crown Shop)
• New/Updated Player-Owned Towns:
  • Jade Mountains: Transferred to new governor.
  • Port Royal: Added new Municipality to Hidden Vale.

Performance: 

• Combat Performance: Our focus for this release was on improving combat performance! While we have been making great improvements to non-combat performance month after month, combat performance has lagged significantly.This release some time was spent to improve combat, especially party combat with high area of effect use.

Sword of Midras Printed Copy Reward Replacements: 

• Teleporter to Compendium of Pain and Suffering: This teleporter allows direct access to the Compendium of Pain and Suffering dungeon from the property it is placed on. The teleporter itself is disguised as a magical book with the Blade of the Avatar symbol on the cover! This reward will go to Kickstarter backers at the Patron level who were eligible for a physical copy of the book.
• The Sword of Midras Magical Printing Press: This magical item allows you to create 12 book copies per week without needing any blank books, and each of these copies automatically comes in a book bound with a Blade of the Avatar symbol book cover! This reward will go to Kickstarter backers at the Citizen level (and higher) who were eligible for a physical copy of the book signed by Richard and Tracy.
• The Sword of Midras Library: The Sword of Midras Library is a huge unique library-themed dungeon room, built from the Lyceum in Artifice. It comes bundled with lots of shelves, including the new book filled shelves and partially book filled shelves. It can be placed in any Player Made Dungeon.

Release 72 Rewards Program Items: To receive these exclusive rewards, all you need to do is join the Rewards Program during Release 72 and login to the game during Release 72.

• Autumn Leaf Mask
• Autumn Leaf Shield
• Autumn Leaf Trident

Character: 

• Holly Wreath Hat with Sparklers (December Login Reward): This lovely crown woven from holly leaves is lit with sparklers and is December’s login reward. Just login during the month of December to receive this free reward!

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 (Phase 2), 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, 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