Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• One Hundred Thousand New Britannians!
• Development Team Growth
• Only 4 BotA Chapters Left!
• Dev+ 3ds Max Rigged Avatar Model
• Extending Monthly Payment Plan
• Wedding Dress & Tuxedo
• Store Credit Gift Coupons
• Add-On Store Multi-Select
• Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
• Upcoming Events

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One Hundred Thousand New Britannians!

It is a testament to the exploding interest in Shroud of the Avatar across the entire world-wide gaming community that the number of New Britannians on the SotA website has surpassed 100,000 and keeps on growing! Long live New Britannia!

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Development Team Growth (or “Where’s the Money Going?”)

 

For all of 2013, personnel expenses represented approximately 86% of Shroud of the Avatar’s development cost. Thanks to all of all you that have backed SotA and helped us continue to increase our funding, we have ramped up personnel to where it now represents approximately 91% of total development expenses thru Q1-2014.

Our growing team allows us to continually improve the rate, quantity, and quality of game content we can create. As you can see from the below chart, we have more than doubled our total team size from 18 in April 2013 to 38 as of April 2014.

The SotA Team is currently comprised of:

• 31 full-time, 7 part-time
• 21 employees, 17 contractors
• Roles
  • 12 Art
  • 8 Programming
  • 6 Design
  • 3 Production
  • 1 Web
  • 3 Community/CS/QA
  • 5 Markting/PR/Finance/Legal/Admin (all part-time contractors)

If you haven’t already done so, we welcome you to learn more about each of our team members by checking out their bios on the Dev Team Page, including our newest team member, programmer Zack Sheppard, who joined our team last week.

On a personal note, in the 32 years that I (dallas) have been making games, this is by far, one of the most rewarding development projects I’ve ever been involved with, and that is directly attributable to this amazing team that has joined together with all of you, our equally amazing community of backers, to create this amazing game!

 

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Only 4 BotA Chapters Left!

The latest installment of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! If you are a Founder, or you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the current installment of the novel on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).  If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

Here is a brief excerpt of the latest installment (illustration by Denis Loubet):

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Chapter 21: Bargains

Tribune Marcus Tercius leaned back into the chair with a luxuriant stretch. The canvas of the large tent that sheltered him rustled slightly in the evening breeze. Before him the Legate of the Norgard, commander of the Fifth Norgard Army, stood glaring with a mixture of shock and outrage at the large, robe-clad man who had just materialized among them.

Inwardly Marcus was delighted. He had come to the tent of the Legate Planus Argo anticipating another boring evening of the tales of his military conquests. Legate Argo was an angular man with an expansive forehead and prominent cheek bones above a grim, narrow mouth. His armor often seemed to wear him rather than the other way around, but there was no questioning his strategic savvy on the battlefield and his uncanny ability to navigate the intricacies of Norgard politics. However, his skills as a storyteller were low on his list of accomplishments. Indeed, the evening had begun with the  legate precisely meeting the ambassador’s low expectations. The unexpected arrival had interrupted the legate’s droning narrative with a surge of excitement. This subsided, however, when the stranger had spread his arms wide, showed his hands to be empty even though he spoke softly of bringing a great gift to the legate and his Norgard Army.

“What is the meaning of this?” The legate demanded, his right hand fumbling to find the grip of his sword that was leaning casually against his own chair. “How did you get past my guard?”

“I am merely a humble traveler asking the hospitality of your tent,” the man answered. “And I come bearing urgent and vital information for the legate regarding the siege being conducted against the city of Opalis.”

“I already know all about the place,” said the legate as the back of his hand brushed against the sword hilt causing it to fall clattering to the ground.

“Oh, I think we should hear the man out,” said Marcus through his amused smile. “He might surprise us.”

“I doubt that,” Argo snarled…

Download your copy of the latest installment of BotA to read the rest of this exciting chapter!

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Map Reveal

For your map puzzle collection:

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Dev+ 3ds Max Rigged Avatar Model

James Cousar (aka “Thud” in the forums) posted the availability of our 3ds Max Rigged Avatar model on the forums (included in the Developer pledge rewards, and above):

Hey folks. We received some community interest in our rigged Avatar model, so we are making it available for download and use…Please note that the .zip contains a rigged 3ds-Max file with all accompanying textures, not a Unity import package.

If you missed the previous Asset Packs, Dev+ members can download them here:

• Unity Asset House Pack #1
• Unity Asset House Pack #2
• Crafting Table Pack

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Monthly Payment Plan Extended Through February 2015

We have received many requests from community members to extend the monthly payment plan past September 2014, allowing for smaller, more affordable monthly payments. So to help those of you that need a little more time to meet your pledge upgrade goal, we’ve added 5 more months to the plan, extending it to February 2015.

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Wedding Dress & Tuxedo

For those of you with a wedding to plan (or just wanting a different look while cavorting about New Britannia), we’ve added this elegant Wedding Dress & Tuxedo to the Add-On Store, at an introductory 33% off!

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Add-On Store Multi-Select

At long last, you no longer have to purchase Add-On Store items one at a time (yay)! Tassilo pushed out a new feature this week that allows you to select multiple Add-On Store items for a single purchase (kind of like a shopping cart). You’ll notice each item has a quantity field, allowing you select one or more of each item. Just specify the quantity of each item you want and they’ll be bundled together for a single purchase when you check out.

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Store Credit Gift Coupons

We’ve added Store Credit Gift Coupons to the Add-On Store, making it easy for you to help a friend or family member upgrade their pledge, or get the add-on item of their choice. There are 6 new coupons at various prices:

If you want to send a value different than the specific coupons, just use the new Multi-Select feature to combine coupons for the exact amount you desire. When the recipient receives their Store Credit coupon, all they have to do is go to their SotA Account page and select the “Convert to Credits” button next to the Store Credit Coupon and their Store Credit will be increased by that amount.

You can also use this Store Credit Gift Coupon to increase your own pledge by incremental values without having to upgrade to the next pledge tier. [CORRECTION: Store Credit Gift Coupons can only be used toward pledges when upgrading to the next pledge tier]

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Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!

[NOTE: Only one Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon can be used per account. Coupon does not apply to Add-On Store items]

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Upcoming Events

2014.05.22 – Release 6 Access
2014.06.10 – SotA at E3
2014.06.26 – Release 7 Access
2014.08.09 – SotA at synDCon
2014.08.29 – SotA at Dragoncon