Avatar’s Update #427: Play Release 92 Now! Potion System Update! UI Improvements! New Crafting Recipes! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 92 is upon us, and the potion system revamp has begun! Potions of Health, Focus, and Restoration have received the initial changes for the new system, with many more potion system updates in the works for R93! The User Interface (UI) has received many improvements, and a considerable amount of new crafting recipes have been introduced into the game! A large number of bug fixes and quality of life improvements are now live! For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let’s see what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

News Announcements

Community Updates

Release 92 Patch Notes!

Below are a list of updates that are live as of Release 92 (R92) in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R92 is a polish, improvement and bug fixes month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R93 next month which is slated to include two additional adventure scenes! We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 92!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

The following additions and changes to potions have occurred:
- A new “Aether” tier of potions and their associated recipes have been added to the Health, Focus, and Restoration series of potions, which is considerably more powerful than their “Imbued” counterparts.
- In addition to the new “Potion of Restoration, Aether” recipe, the Restoration Potion series now includes 6 more recipes to match the available tiers, batching, and combining recipe types available for Health and Focus potions, which also includes the previously missing Lesser and Greater versions of these potions. Other than the Aether version, all of the new Potion of Restoration recipes are available on Alchemy merchants.
- All of the new “Aether” potion recipes utilize a new crafted “Empty Flask, Hardened” that has a recipe which drops from Kobold Grenadiers. This flask recipe provides additional uses for Zinc as an ingredient.
- The new “Aether” recipes also utilize a new item called the “Aether Infusion” which can be purchased at alchemy merchants and also occasionally received from utilizing Uncommon Storehouse Containers. The Aether Infusion item will be used in many more recipes coming in the releases ahead.
- The recipe for the “Potion of Health, Aether” drops from the dragon in Ulfheim each time it is skinned.
- The recipe for “Potion of Focus, Aether” drops from the lich lord deep within Owl’s Head Sewers with every kill.
- The recipe for “Potion of Restoration, Aether” drops from the ghost commander within the Elysium Mines temple at a significantly common rate.
- Health, Focus, and Restoration potions now feature a 30 second cooldown and a stacking Elixir Receptiveness penalty of 25% which lasts for 30 second and can even affect existing potion buffs throughout the debuff duration. As more powerful potions are added to the game, many of which will be for situational use, we’ll be employing these effectiveness type debuffs to encourage more careful/planned use of potions yet still afford some flexibility if another potion must be taken in emergency situations at a reduced effect. (The first patch just after release will contain improvements to the stacking of this debuff.)
- All Health, Focus, and Restoration potions are now affected by Adventurer Level. The higher a player’s Adventure Level, the more effective all of these potions will be at all tiers. As the potion system continues to be revamped, nearly all upcoming potion work will include considerations for Adventurer and Production Level in the buff calculations.
- All potions other than Lesser Focus and Lesser Health have been removed from loot and merchants to encourage more potions being crafted by the community of crafters.
- The Lesser Restoration Potion has been added to the same loot tables and merchants which drop/sell the Lesser Health and Lesser Focus potions.
Invisible walls/walkways (9 variations) have been added to the game. Of these 9 variations, 3 are craftable, and 6 are premium which are shown in the Crown Store section further below. These items become visible once a player approaches or when the player utilizes the Night Vision spell. The 3 crafting recipes drop in The Rise from the Imps in the invisible wall maze. As a result of their increased responsibility in New Britannia, these Imps hit the gym and have been increased to Tier 10.
A new raw material has been introduced called Pure Elemental Ice which has a slight chance to drop from Tier 1 and Tier 5 Ice Elementals, but has a much better chance to drop from Tier 15 Ice Elementals. Overall, those 3 sources will provide very small amounts of this new crafting material into the player economy; however, a new frozen tundra adventure scene known as Jotungrund has been added which is the primary drop location for Pure Elemental Ice. Currently, the scene is available for early testing and the frost giant known as Jotun will not yet spawn. Jotun is only available for testing on the QA server. The first or second patch after release will add Pure Elemental Ice to the loot tables on the live server for barbarians throughout the scene, and the frost giant will be dropping larger quantities once he becomes available on live.
Pure Elemental Ice can be placed as a decoration which looks like a tiny ice cube.
Pure Elemental Sand can now be placed as a decoration, which looks like a small dirt/sand pile.
A recipe for the “Floor Turbine, Low Power” has been added as a drop in the Mysterious Swamp. The kobold commander atop the keep has a 100% chance to drop the recipe, and all the kobold minions in and surrounding the keep have a very slight chance to drop the recipe.
Three Wooden Mooring Post decorations (Short, Medium, Tall) can now be crafted, and their related crafting recipes are now available (and discoverable) on the decoration merchant in Owl’s Head. These items can provide an immersive look to your waterways but are also great for player-made jump puzzles.
Two new decoration recipes have become available on Carpentry merchants. The Box Crate is a plain decoration item which works well in player vendor, docks, or crafting decoration areas, and the Box Shelf provides a rustic look to wall décor.
Many cooking recipes now result in increased product, such as Butter, Flour, Pie Dough, Beef Stock, Cooking Oil, Nut Butter, Vegetable Stock, and Yeast.
Animal Bone, Animal Sinew, and Fat can now be obtained across almost all animal butchering recipes.
Commoner dead bodies can now be processed at butchery tables to provide items such as Rotting Flesh, Corpse Wax, Skeleton Bones, Skeleton Pelvic Bones, and Pristine Skeleton Rib Cages. The drop rates for these dead bodies has been significantly reduced.
Unicorns now drop haunches, which can be processed into meat for the three unicorn food recipes. Unicorn haunches drop more regularly than the prior meat drops did, and the processing of the haunches provides extra meat, animal bone, animal sinew, and fat possibilities.
Lingering gear exclusion info has been removed from Rare versions of The Ring of the Unknown BMC Member. All varieties of BMC rings can now occupy either ring slot with no exclusion considerations for other items.
The Legendary version of the Ring of the Unknown BMC member no longer features the same bonus as the Epic, and therefore has been reduced to 5% Meticulous Mining Chance from 6%.
A small blue light will now emit from the Radiant Energy Capacitor when it is activated.
Potted flayer decorations and store entries have been renamed to indicate they are “potted” and 4-Story or Epic size descriptors have been removed as they were neither 4-Story nor Epic in size.
The lich spawned from the Lich Fighter Spawner Statue T15 will no longer fight other creatures in player-created dungeons.
42 varieties of tables can now be scaled in size at a wider range so players can have more control over their size in comparison to chairs and other decorations. These 42 items were also adjusted if necessary to ensure they could be placed as POT decorations or onto other decorations which accept child objects such as castle walls or blocks.
The item effects for the Shroud of the Avatar no longer features negative values. Aggro Boost was replaced with Attack Speed. Slight adjustments to other stats were made to ensure characters that are purely virtuous or purely anti-virtuous received appealing buffs. Base stats with neutral virtue are now also more appealing.
Acara’s Shield of Defiance, Shield of the Wicked King, and Shield of Attraction (all variations) can now be socketed with non-imbued gems.
The tooltips for skill unlearning items have been improved to better explain their functionality.
Crafted Rectangular Shields now properly feature a block stat.
The Two-Handed Sword of Elf Slaying now utilizes the proper animations for free/auto attacks.
The Xen Penetrator, Shard of Night, and Halberd of the Sun patterns no longer apply the Legacy indicator (L) to the name of a patterned item.
Artifact one-handed swords can now accept all one-handed blade patterns. Also, all varieties of the Cutlass of the Swashbuckler can also have their patterns removed using a pattern remover.
Adjusted the VFX for the Lava Hot Tub so it no longer bleeds into a floor below if placed on upper floors.
Colliders on the Tower Archway Teleporter have been adjusted to alleviate some placement problems as a decoration.
The Beach Umbrella has received improved visuals.
Various guide books provided to new players have received improvements.

Combat & Skill Changes:

The Damage-Over-Time (DOT) effect for Flame Fist has been fixed.
NPC spell casters will use the Ice Field spell less often, and when it is cast it will have a shorter duration

User Interface & Lua Changes:

Players can now ask questions to developers by typing askadev <question> into universal chat. Developers will use this pool of questions for answer sessions during livestreams and within forum threads.
Player can now see more stats for their character by clicking “Show More” at bottom of the character sheet. Many of these stats are approximations and could vary based upon your combat targets and their innate resistances.
Broken and nearly-broken armor indicators will now show the name of the equipment items which are broken or nearly-broken. (This change will be in the first patch just after release.)
A new “Dismount” button has been added to the user interface.
The text for recipes in inventories or merchant interfaces will be displayed in light blue instead of white if the recipe is not yet learned.
A new menu option has been added allowing players to double their mouse cursor size.
By popular demand, the inventory UI has received another round of improvements. Tabs are once again available, and the “All Items” tab can be filtered for a large variety of item types. The Equipment, Crafting, Housing, and Consumable tabs are not affected by “Sorting Options” drop-down menu selections. The “All Items” tab label and the “Sorting Options” drop-down field label are both orange to help players associate the two items. A tooltip has also been added when the mouse hovers over “Sorting Options” to indicate the menu only affects the “All Items” tab.
Added “Container” and “Artifact” to the “Sorting Options” drop-down menu in the inventory window.
The “Hide Quest Item” inventory option (available by left-clicking the cog in the top-right corner of the inventory window) no longer hides quest items in the “All Items” tab if “Quest” is selected within the “Sorting Options” drop-down menu.
“Show Locked Items” and “Hide Locked Items” are new inventory options (also available by clicking the cog mentioned above). “Hide Locked Items” will hide any locked items from view unless “Locked” is selected within the “Sorting Options” drop-down menu, in which case they would only be visible in the “All Items” tab.
Players can once again sort by name or weight in their inventories.
The icon which opens the Social window will now display the correct player count.
Teleport scrolls will now be affected by the “Show PvP Zone Confirmation” option available in the Multiplayer menu in Options.
Issues pertaining to the width for the Decoration Palette window have been fixed.
An overly transparent “X” button in the bank interface is now fully visible.
Crafting material bonuses displayed in tooltips should now properly show stats for negative effects.

Player Economy, Rewards, & Loot Changes:

A new artifact known as the Necklace of the Meticulous Forester has been added to loot tables in Serpent’s Spine Foothills and Serpent’s Spine Mines. The bandits in the foothills have a slight chance to drop the Common version of this artifact. The kobolds within the mines have a slightly better chance to drop the Common version of this artifact. The mysterious lich lord at the bottom of the pit will always drop the Common version of this artifact with small chances at an Uncommon or Rare version being possible. Salvaging the necklace provides chances to yield an Imbued Jewel of the Meticulous Forester, which can only be applied to crafted/non-artifact rings and necklaces.
All potions and poisons have been removed from loot tables and merchants, except for Lesser Health and Lesser Focus potions. These lesser potions were also added to many loot tables and merchants, with many more lesser potion varieties coming in the future. With the removal of many potions from loot and merchants, players will have more potions viably available for crafting and posting for sale on their player vendors.
Cinnamon Bark, Browncap Mushrooms, and Pecan Nuts have been removed from NPC merchants. All 3 items have increased chances to appear in Grey and Yellow Supply Bundles, and as Storehouse Container rewards.
- Cinnamon Bark now also has significant chances to drop from Fauns.
- Pecan Nuts now have increased drop rates with squirrels and can also be found in containers and destructible crates throughout Novia.
- Browncap Mushrooms can also be looted from all tiers of fungus creatures.
Zinc, which is utilized in the new “Floor Turbine, Low Power” recipe, has been added to loot tables for all clockwork creatures, with a significantly higher chance to drop from Automatons.
The drop rates of the Two-Handed Sword of Elf Slaying on non-control point kobold fighters (T2 through T10) have been increased.
Drop rates for Kobold Essences have been increased to be more on par with the drop rate of Elf Essences. Also, Kobold Essences will drop from many more T5 Kobold types than before.
Clockwork Dragons now also drop significant amounts of mechanical parts as loot.
Granite mining nodes will now yield significantly more granite.
Subscribers to the Rewards Program can now choose the glowing, glowing pulse, and sparkling pink dyes when utilizing their Dye 12-Pack Reward.
The gold value for crafted belts has been reduced.

World, Quests, and Miscellaneous Changes:

Jotungrund, the new icy adventure scene has become available on live to allow players more expanded testing opportunities for the scene. The giant will not be available until R93, but players can explore the scene and engage in various roaming bears, barbarians, and air elementals.
Aerie: Fixed a typo in Arabella’s conversation.
All Outskirts: The adventurer trainers in Blood River Outskirts, Highvale Outskirts, and Solace Bridge Outskirts now have the title “Basic Adventurer Trainer.” Also, the Blood River Outskirts adventurer trainer now shares his name, Titus.
Arch Lapin: Fixed errors in the “Collect 3 Bones” task.
Ardoris, Aerie, and Resolute: Improved the logic which displays compass markers for the Devotional Caretakers’ “Tell <City> About <Cabalist>” tasks. (Players who have lingering compass markers should say the related Cabalist name to one of the caretakers in that city to help clear the marker.)
Battle of Solace Bridge: Edvard no longer gives the “Investigate the Undead Mystery!” task, Also, Avatars already on this task may find it automatically archives itself.
Battle of Solace Bridge: Added a safety so that the “Speak to Edvard the Wanderer” task automatically archives.
Blood River Forest: Every sack in this scene now guarantees at least one item for the first person looting that sack.
Bramble: Added a mailbox next to the bank stall.
Brittany Estates: Brush and trees clipping into housing lots and buildings have been fixed.
Brittany Wharfs: Avatars will now get this city’s town crier compass marker when entering from the default entrance or the main docks.
Eastmarch: Fixed a typo in Millicent Davis’s responses.
Elad’s Lighthouse: Moved a lot marker outside of the lot boundaries.
Elysium Mines: Fixed several stuck spots.
Etceter: Added missing conversation elements for Eric.
Etceter Crag Mines: Corrected the scale of many oversized ore nodes.
Explosive Chest: Fixed an issue where the explosion effects were incorrectly repeating.
Graff Island: Added a compass marker to lead players to Lauran Graff when they have Samael’s broken ring.
Necropolis Barrens: Changed the logic by which the “Give Another Dead Body to Davropos” task to improve automatic archiving.
North Drachvald Spur: Updated the mine so that rain no longer falls inside.
Northwood: Improved the logic used to archive Clara’s “Recover Chess Piece” task.
Novia: Increased the chance that a Naughty Brat random encounter will appear in North Paladis.
Port Graff: Corrected the label for a teleporter boat to correctly say it leads to Player-Owned Towns.
POT Underground Template: Fixed an area where players could get outside the play space.
Random Encounters: In addition to a message saying “You sense a great threat approaching….” before a wave of higher-threat enemies approach, there’s now a second message saying “You sense the greatest threat has passed….” after those enemies have been defeated.
Resolute: Removed the schedule from Molly the alchemist because her off duty conversation wasn’t working properly.
Resolute: Fixed a typo in the response for “avatar” used by the knights in this scene.
Resolute: Sean Campbell has been scolded by human resources and has agreed to no longer obsessively close the building door.
Ruins of Ravensmoor: Made small updates to some conversations. Also, players can now delete the Roedberk quest items.
Skrekk: Returned the south exit archway back to its correct location.
Solace Bridge: The “Speak with Frightened Child” task is now easier to complete.
Storehouse Containers: Corrected the name of the “Animal Hide” crate. Also, added hide props to the crate.
Well of Aldur: Fixed a stuck spot.
Well of Aldur: For the scholar, fixed a typo in his fragments response as well as adjusted some of the daily turn-in logic.
Well of Aldur: Fixed an issue with some cyan-colored collision which was unintentionally visible.
Yew: Improved Pendro’s response about Yew, and he no longer indirectly refers to himself in the third person.
Yew: The elevator no longer sinks into the mud.
Fixed various decoration surfaces in the Ornate Triple Connection Marble Dungeon Foyer.
Players no longer get stuck in small doorways as a result of recent improvements to movement up stairs and small obstacles.
Fixed various error spammers which were causing lag in some situations.
Fixed the bug which allowed players to play (and fish!) as a ghost indefinitely.
Fixed movement issues with a number of larger footprint pets like bears, crocodiles, young dragons, corpions, spiders, and earth/ice elementals.
Fixed for an issue which prevented dismounting when another player was in the same scene.
Players will no longer sink into the ground slightly when idle.
A new store section has been added in the Adventure Design area called “Magical Walls & Walkways” to accommodate the new Invisible Walls and Walkway items as well as future offerings.
A new store section has been added in the Adventure Design area called “Traps & Mechanisms” to accommodate the new turbine and decorative trap store items.
To improve performance, view distances for NPCs are now based on their size on your screen rather than fixed distances.
The Ardoris PvP arena now features several more ankhs for resurrection.
The dragon in K’rul will no longer fly into the hallway.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Ahnen Hain: Upgraded to City. Consolidated interconnection boats.
Broken Ground: Added new POT in the south side of the central island of Mistrendur.
Crossroads Alleys: Upgraded to Metropolis.
Hammaburg: Consolidated boats into one list teleporter boat.
M’hul Island: Upgraded to Hamlet.
Mist Village: Added City to shoreline near Grumridge.
Mossrest: Upgraded to village and moved to near Soltown.
Mysteria: Upgraded to Metropolis.
NobleBright: Upgraded to Village.
PaxLocus: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
Rajazel: Upgraded to Town.
Salem: Upgraded to City.
Skalabrekka: Moved to Novia on the road north of Soltown.
Soltowns Harvest: Added Hamlet on the road west of Soltown.

Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!

The weekly Community Livestream is Friday, July 30th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a community 1-hour livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “live in the sunshine” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums each month. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4 PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ

Crown Store: Invisible Walls, Turbines, Gothic Furniture, Seasonal Items & More!

Many new store items are coming your way in the month ahead! Keep an eye out each week as the following items become available in the Crown Store. Available today on July 29th, Floor Turbines! The Medium and High Power Turbines will shoot players up into the air at different altitudes when they jump from the surface! The Low Power Turbine has been added to the game as a crafting recipe. A large variety of gothic furniture and lighting has also been added to the store! “Choose One” items for the various letter and number packs available on the store is now also available, which allows players to pick a single letter or number instead of purchasing an entire pack.

Floor Turbine, High Power
Floor Turbine, Medium Power
Gothic Display Case
Gothic Side Table
Gothic Wall Coat Rack
Gothic Serving Table
Gothic Pedestal
Gothic Heavy Study Chair 6-Pack
Gothic Footstool
Gothic Bench
Gothic Stand
Gothic Long Wooden Storage Chest
Gothic Wooden Chair 6-Pack
Gothic Wood & Canvas Room Divider 3-Pack
Gothic Great Hall Long Chain Fancy Iron Chandelier
Gothic Great Hall Fancy Iron Chandelier
Gothic Long Chain Fancy Iron Chandelier
Gothic Fancy Iron Chandelier
Block Letter (Choose One)
Block Number (Choose One)
Ornate Brass Number (Choose One)
Ornate Runic Letter (Choose One)

Becoming available on August 6th, 8 new Xenossian Shields featuring amazing predesigned heraldry as well as a customizable version which allows for player-created heraldry! For those town owners and water lot owners wishing to decorate their water surfaces, two varieties of piers have also been added to the store:

Ancient Xenossian Round Shield 8-Pack
Ancient Xenossian Round Crab Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Gorgon Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Phoenix Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Ram Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Corpion Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Ship Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Sphinxes Shield
Ancient Xenossian Round Triskelion Shield
Ancient Xenossian Heraldry Round Shield
Wooden Pier with Ladder
Wooden Pier 5-Pack

Becoming available on August 13th, a painting of a flower by community member Irishize! Also, 6 varieties of invisible wall and walkway packs have been added to the store, with smaller craftable versions of these invisible items now also available when players obtain the in-game recipes from the Imps in The Rise. Players can only see these invisible items by standing very close to them or if the Night Vision spell is activated. In the months ahead, players can expect to see more magical wall and walkway varieties becoming available which are triggered by different effects and actions:

Flower Painting
Invisible Wall, Medium (5-Pack)
Invisible Wall, Wide (5-Pack)
Invisible Wall, Tall, Medium (5-Pack)
Invisible Wall, Tall, Wide (5-Pack)
Invisible Walkway, Medium (5-Pack)
Invisible Walkway, Long (5-Pack)

Becoming available on August 20th, a painting of community member Xee and a Floating Crate 3-Pack which is perfect for waterway jump puzzles and decoration:

Painting of Xee
Floating Crate 3-Pack

The Summer Seasonal store items are still available! These rare summer items will remain on the store until September 25th:

Hula Emote
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Island Spear
Flame Scimitar
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress
Flame Shield
Firedancer Outfit

The Lord British Birthday seasonal store items are also still available! These rare items will remain on the store until August 5th:

Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2021
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2020
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2019
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2018
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2017
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2016
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2015
Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2014
Lord British Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Lord British Cloak
Lord British Fur Collared Cloak
Lord British Shield
Lord British Shield Pattern Pack
31 Varieties of Rare and Year-Round Fireworks

To see a full listing of all the items which rotate through the Vault, we have prepared a forum post showing all items which could appear throughout the year!

August Login Reward: Floating Lantern 3-Pack!

Log in during the month of August, and you’ll receive three fantastic Water Lanterns which can be placed on water or on other flat decoration surfaces!

Release 92 Subscriber Login Rewards: Fancy Ice Box, Mini Ice Elemental, & Xenossian Spear!

Avatars! Rewards Program login items for Release 92 are a must have — don’t miss out! Reward Program members must login during Release 92 to receive these special login items:

Ancient Xenossian Spear
Fancy Ice Box
Miniature Ice Elemental Pet

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 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
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- 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
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting

Updates to the Streamer Rewards Program!

Several months ago, a program was proposed for the Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar. The ultimate goal being to showcase Shroud of the Avatar while giving SotA streamers a reward for their efforts. The program is currently in Phase I, with Phase II technology currently being discussed and worked internally. So, let’s talk Phase I!

Phase I:
Streamers who wish to be included in the Streamer Program must contact Laney via in-game mail or in a private message on the forums with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not, you’re on the list, and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.
Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and a brand-new LIVESTREAMING title. Future incremental rewards will occur at 6-month intervals. (More information to come).

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Items of Note:

SotAbot: Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
Graphics & Overlays: An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.

Watch the forums for more information, coming soon, regarding Titles, future rewards and for info on Phase II of the program. We love our Streamers, so get out to Twitch and follow them, watch them, and support them!

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was recently relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running for two months now, and the volunteers are getting into a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to cleanup the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

As was recently announced on a Twitter post by Chris “Atos” Spears, the upcoming development time for Release 84 will be primarily spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Already, much improvement has been noticed by the development team, and we’re so very excited to see the program successfully back in action!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who took time out to participate in the QA Testing Directive for the upcoming Mount System. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs were identified and fixed prior to the system going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Also, the Bug Brigade would like to welcome its newest Bug Moderator, Echondas! Please congratulate him the next time you see him in-game or on the forums. This new member expands the Bug Moderator team to: Alley Oop, Echondas, and Justyn. Thank you Moderators! Your efforts are highly valued by the development team!

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing, and the bug rewards are back! And they are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Blue Butterfly Pet
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, signup and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravolox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2021 Release Schedule is as follows:

Release 92 – Jul 29 (Polish)
Release 93 – Aug 26 (Content)
Release 94 – Sep 30 (Polish)
Release 95 – Oct 28 (Content)

Community Updates & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums:

Catnip Games Contests:

Catnip Games Monthly Fishing Tourney: Greetings Anglers! The monthly Catnip Games Fishing Tourney is live! Join in on the fun! SO many prizes available for the anglers of New Britannia!
Catnip Games Monthly Screenshot/Video Contest: Avatars! For those of you skilled with the camera or screenshot key binding, a monthly screenshot and video contest is underway which features a large number of valuable prizes. The focus will be for players to submit creative or informative screenshots and videos of content introduced to the game during the latest 3 monthly releases.
Catnip Games Monthly Treasure Hunting Contest: Want to go hunting for rare items? Want to see if you can beat other players in this quest for treasure? Well join in on the monthly treasure hunting contest, Avatars!

Special Announcements:

Fionwyn Wyldemane on WRFB: Join Fionwyn for music and community fun on WRFB every Saturday from 6PM to 8PM CT!
The New Britannia Theater Troupe Needs YOU: If you would like to join this band of merry story writers and voice actors, give Asclepius a reply on the forums or send him a PM. Already there is a very rich selection of past work written and performed by the troupe which is available in audio form here at the Caverns.net.

One-Time Events:

Lained R91 Fishing Contest: For the duration of R91, the Player-Owned Town of Lained is running a fishing contest alongside the monthly Catnip Games Fishing Tourney. Lots of great prizes, Avatars — grab your fishin’ poles and head to the waters of Lained!
Rajazel R91 Fishing Contest: Head on over to Rajazel for some extra fishing fun during Release 91! Prizes, prizes, prizes! Good luck, Anglers!

Recurring Events:

Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding the loot in New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that you find in loot. Turn in what you find every contest period! R92’s contest period lasts until August 24th!
Ironhall Tournament & PvP Training: The Player-Owned Town of Ironhall holds weekly player training events every Saturday at 1PM CT. Events are held in the village of Virtus Mons in Ironhall and can be reached easily via use of the fast travel signs.
M’Hul Island Monthly Fishing Contest: Join Asmodi M’hul and friends at M’hul Island for their monthly fishing tournament that lasts from Release Day to Release Day! Prizes are available!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
Combat & Crafting Sunday School: Head on over to Immortal City every Sunday from 7PM to 9PM CT to learn the tricks of the trade in combat and crafting!
500 Crown Fishy Prize: If you’re ever worried there isn’t an active fishing contest going on, well worry no longer! Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “bagged” link provided to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
RHEC Traveling Pop Up Fishing Contest: Keep an eye out in universe chat, trade chat, and the forums! Asmodi M’hul will routinely announces at least one pop up fishing contest every week for those anglers out there anxious for extra prizes and fun!
PvP Fishing with RHEC: The RHEC anglers of New Britannia will be hosting PvP fishing contests in The Brave Coast! There are 3 tourneys which will take place on July 23rd and July 24th from 7PM to 9PM CT, and July 25th from 5PM to 7PM CT. Hope to see you there!
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Ladies and gentlemen! The Citizens of Lightbringer Isle welcome you to the weekly auctions! The auctions are about bringing together people from all corners of the community, with the Lightbringer Isle’s market being the perfect place to do so! Join us every Sunday at 11AM CT!

New Fan Fiction:

Latest Plays from The New Britannia Theater Troupe: Gabriel Nightshadow, Asclepius, and friends have now made available the radio versions of “Daggers in the Dark” and “A Small Indiscretion” which feature many voices from players throughout the community. Don’t miss out on listening to these creative and highly intriguing stories!

New Community Resources:

Guide to Naming Housing Lots: The Guide Making Extraordinaire has stuck again! Anpu has made this fantastic guide for helping players rename their lots so the customized names can show on the new Lot Listing functionality. Read, learn, and give this Knight of New Britannia a thank you!
New Skill Information at SotALore.com: A new section has been added to SotALore.com, and it’s a fantastic way to determine EXP required for achieving certain levels of skills by cost factor, and most certainly a great way to visual skill leveling in the game. Enjoy and thank you Gravidy!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Core Books Bundle! If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this unique gaming system and setting, now’s your chance! This bundle includes two beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardcover books: the original Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts book! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Shadow of Valhalla

Shadow of Valhalla is a visceral physics-based VR combat game with dynamic RPG elements, set within an ancient realm of Viking lore and mystic powers! Early Access beta includes “endless horde mode” featuring a variety of enemies with progressive difficulty. Also, players can discover many magic spells to unlock! So much more is coming!

Finn Staber with Chicken Waffle, will join the Shroud of the Avatar team on Twitch during their Friday the 28th livestream to showoff this new Early Access game! Also, here is a teaser video on YouTube:

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The development team is working hard to create additional environments and new quests! Shadow of Valhalla is available on Steam as Early Access. Additional features coming to the game:

More Enemies!
More Environments!
More Magic Spells!
RPG Quests!
Weapon Forging and Crafting!
Much, much more!

If you would like to learn more about Shadow of Valhalla, be sure to stop by the main webpage for the game as more news becomes available!

Project to Support: Dragon Fight

Darkstarr has also been hard at work with the team for Dragon Fight VR which recently went live on Steam! Dragon Fight VR is an internal experiment to capture the “essence” of a dragon fight, the classic penultimate experience of every fantasy story. We wanted to create a short visceral, realistic experience stripped of user interface, lobbies, scores, levels, and other visual intrusions that might distract. There were some key elements of fighting a dragon that we wanted to capture and we felt VR was uniquely qualified to convey:

Face to face with a large scale hostile creature trying to kill you
Using a sword and a shield
Fire!
Nowhere to run!

This started out as an internal experiment to learn some things about VR’s capabilities, be reductionist in our designs, etc. We felt that the experiment was successful enough to release as a free experience to share. Enjoy! Available for free on Steam!

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

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 commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate 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.

Avatar’s Update #427: Play Release 92 Now! Potion System Update! UI Improvements! New Crafting Recipes! Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!

Inuphet

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