Happy New Year Fellow Avatars!
Welcome to our first edition of Update of the Avatar for 2014! We hope all of you enjoyed your holidays and brought in the New Year with a bang! We’ve got some cool stuff to help get your New Year off to a great start:
- SotA Makes the Forbes and MMORPG.com Top Games Lists of 2014
- More Spoony
- Benefactor Cloak
- Add-On Store Conversion
- Let’s Talk About Lots
- Darkstarr Salute
- Hammer of Prosperity
- Sigil Capes
- Changes to Chat
SotA Makes the Forbes and MMORPG.com Top Games Lists of 2014
MMORPG.COM Ranks SotA #2 Most Wanted MMO of 2014!
The staff at MMORPG.com are kicking off the New Year with their Top 10 List of The Most Wanted MMOs of 2014, and Shroud of the Avatar came in at #2!
“The spiritual successor to Ultima Online, driven by much of that game’s staff, and featuring both MMO play and completely offline adventuring. Need we really say more?”
Here’s their complete 2014 Top 10 List:
- Wildstar Online
- Shroud of the Avatar
- EverQuest Next: Landmark
- Elder Scrolls Online
- World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
- ArcheAge
- Destiny
- The Division
- Elite Dangerous
- The Repopulation
Forbes Includes SotA in their Best Video Game RPGs of 2014 and Beyond!
“When it comes to roleplaying video games, it often feels as though the golden days are behind us…But when you start looking at all the incredible games coming out in the next couple years, you begin to realize that there are in fact quite a few great-looking RPGs in the works…From the creator of the old Ultima games, Richard Garriott, Avatar is a crowdfunded RPG that promises to bring back some of what made those games great.”
More Spoony: “Richard Garriott’s Art Gallery…”
Can’t get enough Spoony? Neither can we! Check this video out!
Better 1, or better 2? I’ll let you decide.
Map Reveal
Here’s another map piece for your collection:
The Benefactor Cloak
The unique Benefactor symbol, created by Stephen Daniele and based on the concept of the shattered moon orbiting the world, will be incorporated into a variety of in-game items that will only be available to our backers:
The first item to proudly display the Benefactor’s symbol is the new Benefactor Cloak! In appreciation of our backers, we’ve added The Benefactor Cloak as a new basic reward in the Immortal Adventurer pledge tier (and above). Here is Geoff Mellon’s beautifully crafted in-game version of the Benefactor Cloak:
Add-On Store Conversion
Starr Long (Executive Producer) weighed in on some forum hot topics during the holiday break. An especially juicy topic was triggered by the release of the 6-Pack of Prosperity. Backers that had diligently pledged for every item of Prosperity as they were released felt the sting of early adoption when they realized if they’d just waited long enough they could get the same items at a reduced price. We totally agree with that sentiment and have begun planning a solution. Here’s an excerpt from Starr’s forum thread:
“I am happy to announce that we will begin work in the new year on a program that allows you to convert your add on purchases to credit that can be applied to your pledge or even other add on store purchases. We got this fantastic idea from our friends over at Star Citizen. We hope that this change improves your experience of being a loyal backer.”
There are still a lot of details to work out, so if you have an opinion you’d like to share then jump in on the forum thread and let us know!
Let’s Talk About Lots
Another juicy forum topic during the holiday break involved Lot Property Deeds. Some backers were concerned that we might oversell deeds and not have enough in-game lots at launch to accommodate all the deeds. Starr laid their fears to rest:
“Recently I fielded some questions about Lot Deeds that were centered around concern that a person might purchase a Lot Deed from the Add On Store or receive it as a backer reward but not be able to find a lot to claim. Let me assure everyone that we will never sell more Lot Deeds outside of the game than there are lots in the game. On top of that we will make sure there is a significant number of lots available for in game purchase at launch.”
Click here to read the rest of the thread…
The Tax Man Cometh (or not)…
In another forum thread, Starr provided clarity regarding tax free lots:
There have been some questions about when we might sell tax free lots in the add on store. Tax free lots can only be obtained through pledges. We are not going to sell tax free lots in the add on store. That is one of the reasons add on store lots are less expensive than pledges with similar lot sizes.
Click here to read the rest of the thread…
The Darkstarr Salute
In celebration of Starr Long joining the SotA Dev Team back in July 2013, we memorialized his Darkstarr online persona with several new pledge rewards. One of those rewards, available to all backers that pledged prior to July 31, 2013, at the $25 First Responder tier or higher, is the Darkstarr Salute! A special emote that only backers can master and teach to others. Check out this video of the Darkstarr Salute animation:
Smithing Hammer of Prosperity
Next in our “Prosperity” line of unique items is The Smithing Hammer of Prosperity!
This unique indestructible smithing hammer increases the ability to make higher quality items, enhance existing items and repair damaged items. While hammers with similar effects can be crafted and purchased in the game this particular hammer never needs repair.
Get Your Smithing Hammer of Prosperity Now and save 33%!
For a limited time we’re offering 33% off the Smithing Hammer of Prosperity! Reserve yours (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store!
The Sigil Cloaks
If you loved the Magic, Combat, and Crafting Sigils, then you’re especially going to love them adorning these beautifully crafted cloaks!
The individual Sigil Cloaks will be available for 33% off for a limited time, or get the 3-pack bundle and save even more! Reserve yours (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store!
Want More Replenishing Snowball Boxes?
Last week we announced the addition of the Replenishing Snowball Box to the basic rewards of all pledge tiers as a holiday gift to our backers. Several backers asked if they could get more of the Snowball Boxes (thus insuring themselves a steady supply of snowballs in between the holiday regenerations), so we added it to the Add-On Store. It’ll only be available thru January 6th so grab them while you can!
Only 4 Days Left to Get Your Holiday Items
Just a reminder that all of the seasonal holiday items are only available through January 6, 2014 (4 more days)! These exact holiday items might not be available again, so you better reserve yours (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store now! These holiday items include:
- Taming Turkey Call
- Taming Reindeer Call
- Cornucopia
- Yule Tree
- Menorah
- Replenishing Fireworks Box
- Replenishing Snowball Box
The 2013 Holiday Bundle!
For the next 4 days, you can get all 7 of these holiday items at an even greater savings with the 2013 Holiday Bundle! Check it out in the Add-on Store.
Changes to Chat
We’ve got a new chat server that is being hosted by the good folks at UltimaCodex. We’d like to thank our previous hosts at arg-irc.net for their generous support of the SotA chat server.
To use a dedicated IRC client, the server settings are: irc.ultimacodex.com, port 6667 (or 6697 for SSL), channel #SotA.
Please review the Forum Rules before participating in the Chat Room.
A Thursday update?!? What a pleasant surprise! 2014 will surely be the Year of the Avatar.
Thanks for the update, Dallas! Its great to see SotA at #2 on MMORPG’s list.
More snowballs, thanks!
Thanks Dallas! Here’s another Top 10 list that SotA made:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/02/perfect-ten-new-mmos-to-watch-in-2014/
I think the Crafting Sigil Cloak (as seen in the add-On store) is using the picture of the Combat Sigil.
Can we dye the Sigil Cloaks a royal purple?
Yes you can dye the Sigil Cloaks but you cannot dye the Lord British, Benefactor, Founder, or Darkstarr cloaks
“In celebration of Starr Long joining the SotA Dev Team back in July 2014”
Heh, I think you meant 2013
thanks, fixed!
Nice! Thank you!
Thanks for the update ! Cant wait for Release 2
The Design of the available houses are already final or will they be even more inproved till release ?
There will be some incremental changes made to some houses based on player feedback leading up to release but few if any major overhauls.
I wasn’t expecting to see any type of update this week being that it is the holiday season, it’s a nice surprise thank you. You know I seem to have collected all of property items so it would be really good to have a tool rack to store these items.
Hmm the first I found out about the chat IRC changes was being banned off arg-irc.net by one of the admins with a rather rude ban message ;o
Those cloaks look fantastic. Great work!
Loved the Spoony art gallery tour. I had to reshare that one on FB and particularly mentioned to watch around the 3:45 mark. I’ve been telling folks since the 90s during my tech support days that they had to reboot BEFORE they called me for help. Apparently the uber-smart folks that designed the space shuttles are proof that I wasn’t wrong.
Awesome art gallery. I was watching it and proudly peering over my monitor at a few of the same maps that have adored my office walls for decades. Now I just gotta convince the hubs that I need to get all this stuff professionally framed. He’s always so supportive of my gaming addic… I mean passion. Perhaps I could get it done for late Xmas gift! Hum… *starts plotting*
Will Blade of the Avatar return in the next update?
Yes it will. We were unable to get a chapter out for this update due to the holidays.