Epic Update of the Avatar #76 – 2014.06.06: R6 Re-Opens, 10% Pledge Bonus, New Pledges & Rewards, Row Lots, Stretch Goal Store!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

This week we have one of our most epic, and most exciting, updates in a long time! We’re re-opening Release 6 for the entire week of E3, we’re introducing two new pledges, and over 70 new, bonus pledge rewards, we’ve added lower cost Row Housing, added the ability for players to own entire towns, launched the Stretch Goal Store, revealing Ardoris, the City of Canals, and announcing a 10% Pledge Bonus Promotion that runs from now through Lord British’s birthday on July 4th!  So, without further ado, let’s get started with this week’s edition of “Epic” Update of the Avatar:

• Release 6 Re-Opens for Entire Week of E3!
• Ardoris, The City of Canals
• New Bonus Pledge Rewards, New Pledge Tiers, Row Lots, Player Owned Towns & Stretch Goal Store Megapost
• Bonus Ancestor, Navigator, and Developer Row Lot Pledge Rewards
• Lot Selection Sequence Process
• Row Lot Property Deeds
• Wood & Plaster 4-Story with Balcony Row House
• Row Stone & Timber 5-Story Basement
• Replenishing Birthday Cake
• Return of the Replenishing Fireworks Box
• Through the Lunar Rift!
• The Final Map Reveal
• Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
• Upcoming Events

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Release 6 Re-Opens for Entire Week of E3!

We are excited that Shroud of the Avatar will be a featured game at the Plantronics booth at E3. We want the audio landscape of SotA to be as immersive as the visual landscape and Plantronics is a great partner for us to work with on achieving that goal. During our one year anniversary promotions you may have noticed that some of the prizes we were giving out were Plantronics headsets and at that time we hinted about more to come, like this, from that partnership.

At E3 we will be premiering a new trailer with music from the Space Bards and voice over by Bill Johnson (aka the Guardian). E3 attendees can play the game and will receive a collectible coin and free access to Release 7. Richard Garriott, Starr Long, and Finn Staber will be representing the game at the Plantronics booth in the South Hall at booth 515 so if you are at the show come see us!

As a special bonus to our backers we will be re-opening Release 6 starting Monday June 9 at 10:30 AM Central and it will remain open until Friday June 13 at 10:30 AM. Note that all lot ownership has been reset except for the town of Valemark.

If you’re a fan of Plantronics Gaming Headsets (like we are), then check out their Plantronics Gaming Facebook page, and if you like what you see then give them a “Like”!

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Ardoris, The City of Canals

Ardoris, “The Isle of Eternal Dawn” is the first city on the mainland of Novia to be revealed. It is located in the southeast area of the continent and is located in a river delta between the rivers Tempest and Rage. Over the centuries it was built up on the network of islands that covered the marshy river delta much like the Venice of Earth. It is a beautiful city of canals that draws its power from the water of the two rivers that bracket it as well as a system of aqueducts from the surrounding mountains. Across the rivers are mighty cliffs that are topped by a pair of identical castles that face each other: The Palace of the Mountain to the west is home to the Shogun Siranto. The Palace of the Winds to the east is home to the High Priestess Siri. While the Shogun and the Priestess are married rumor has it that they are estranged which is why they now reside separately. Rumor has it that the rift has something to do with the Necropolis, the largest concentration of undead in Novia, which is not too far west of Ardoris.

Below are are a couple of Ardoris concept pieces by Stephen Danielle (a city scene and castle view), as well as a couple of in-game images prepared by Michael Hutchison:

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New Pledge Rewards, New Pledge Tiers, Row Lots, Player Owned Towns & Stretch Goal Store Megapost

[The following is from a megapost in our public forums by Starr Long]

Greetings Avatars,

As you can tell by the title of this post, I am here to discuss some very broad and sweeping changes including new pledge rewards, new pledge tiers, a new housing type, and a stretch goal store. In this post I want to share with you how and why we came to this place. In the process I will end up sharing information with you that on any other project would be insane to make public – but we are not any other project! We have the most transparent, and I would argue healthiest, relationship with our community of any other project on the planet. That makes me confident that sharing ALL of this will be a good thing. There is a ton of information here to digest. Please read ALL of it and consider the whole picture, not just the individual pieces that may affect your particular interests. As always this data is current thinking, plans always change during implementation. “Don’t lawyer me bro” on the details of these proposals, if they change due to feedback or implementation reality.

These changes will start to take effect Friday June 6, 2014. The new content will be available at that time, including new pledges, add on items, pledge upgrades, stretch goal purchases (mounts only at first), etc.

CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS

Recently a poll was posted in the Dev+ forums about the desire for new pledge tiers specifically aimed at folks who might be interested in upgrading but might not want to make as big a jump between tiers as it sometimes takes. Additionally after we provided a Castle Lot to the Lords of the Manor, the Duke’s began campaigning for a lot that was twice City sized. Also there was continuing negative feedback on our visual quality which we realized we had to address. We could not stick to the budget nor schedule we had originally planned and still make a product that satisfied our backers’ visual standards.

While all this was happening our original Founder pricing was expiring and we had our two best fundraising months since Kickstarter! This steady increase in fundraising let us expand our team and double down on increasing the quality and level of detail in the product.

As we expected there was a big drop in funding after the original Founder pricing expired, so we quickly realized that we needed to set new goal posts for our fundraising. This challenge inspired us to analyze where we were and then build what we feel is a great plan that increases value for our backers.

ANALYSIS

All of the above led us to do a critical analysis of our fundraising efforts and consider ways we could improve things. We felt very strongly that were we to pursue any different strategies they had to include some compensations for our existing backers along with new content to incentivize upgrades and/or additional purchases.

We started by looking at the numbers of pledges at each level. There has been a lot of interest in our exact pledge numbers and I am happy to provide that information here. What we discovered is that there are some very obvious places in our pledge structure where people stall out on upgrading. In the chart below, peaks represent the biggest spikes in pledge purchase. The valleys represent where we have big drop-offs in upgrading of pledges.

* NOTE: Long term we plan to add this detailed information to the Campaign Stats page.

NEW PLEDGE TIERS AND NEW REWARDS

Based on your direct desires have bridge tiers and our desire to fill in some of those valleys we decided to make two new pledge tiers while also adding new pledge rewards across the board to make each pledge feel equally compelling. We specifically targeted pledges we felt did not offer a strong enough incentive to upgrade to or which did not represent a good enough perceived value. We also targeted the two biggest valleys and the most requested fillers for those valleys between Knight and Lord and between Lord and Baron.

The addition of these new tiers required us to rethink how we were allocating lots for each pledge. To make these new tiers work we realized that we had to either add a whole bunch of new lot sizes, and therefore increase development time/cost and possibly decrease the overall number of lots OR we could start giving multiple lot deeds at higher level tiers. As you will see below we chose the latter, and now starting with the Lord, pledge backers will receive an extra Lot Deed in addition to the deed that they originally received!

We also noticed that many of you questioned our decision to only allow one character per account when many of you wanted to explore a variety of play styles and skill builds. We decided that adding second and third account slots to some pledges would satisfy this need to better explore all the character options while also adding value to those pledges. At the same time, we wanted your choices to be meaningful and your pledge rewards to be easily accessed by all your characters. That led us to decide that all characters on a single account share the same reputation, last name and are automatically marked kindred so they can share housing and items.

While all this was happening we were hanging out with our friend Ernie Cline who wrote the amazing book Ready Player One (go read it now, trust me). Ernie’s a huge Ultima fan so the respect is mutual of course. He kindly offered to let us put a couple of items from Ready Player One into Shroud so look for them in the new pledge rewards below.

NEW HOUSING TYPE: ROW HOUSES

We then looked at our current property distribution and the relative sizes of the lots against each other. We went back to older posts like this one that talked about higher density housing in the cities. We realized that if we came up with a new smaller lot size and houses that directly connected with each other that we could increase the number of lots in the game by literally thousands and at the same time push property ownership lower down in our pledge structure. At the same time we realized that performance in these areas of the game would be fantastic due to all the culling that these closely packed streets could provide.

All of this led us to create a new house and lot type we call Row House. These are houses and lots that are contiguous like New York City, Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc. While the lot they sit on is only 10 X 15 meters (¼ the size of a village lot) the house fills the entire lot so it provides a tremendous amount of living space. Row Lots only allow the placement of Row Houses, but Row Houses can be placed on regular lots (Village and above). Also “Empty Lot” is not an option for a Row House Lot. Other than that, Row Houses operate just like every other house. Additionally, larger lot deeds can be used to claim a Row House Lot. We will be adding Row Housing to our pledge tiers as tax free deeds and we will be adding taxed row lots to the add-on store. We will also be creating Row Lot sized basements.

PLAYER OWNED TOWNS

While we were thinking about housing we talked about Player Towns. We love what we are seeing with how the players are creating their own towns (Pax Lair in Valemark!) and we brainstormed how we could further facilitate these activities and offer the players even more control of those towns. At one point we discussed these as pledge tiers beyond Lord of the Manor but after discussing it with our Dev+ backers we quickly moved away from that and are instead going to make these Add On Store purchases.

• New Add On Store Items:
  • There are a new set of Add On Store items that allow you to buy a scene and keys that lock/unlock all the lots in that scene
  • You do not get lot deeds with these purchases
• Locked Lots:
  • Owner of the keys can lock and unlock lots at will so they can actively control who gets to live there
  • The key owner can evict an occupant and lock the lot using the key
  • Note that players will still need lot deeds to claim the lots once the town owner unlocks the lots
• Houses:
  • +X Free House(s) of appropriate size from Add-On Store
• Design Session: with Team to define details:
  • Lot Selection: Which lots of which size they want
  • Biome: Forest, Mountains, Grasslands, Swamp, etc.
  • Name of Town
  • NPC Building Definition (inn, smithy, etc.)
  • NPC names and stories
  • Location: Roughly which quadrant of the map. Exact hex will be determined by Port
• Lot Variance: There will be more lots than can be claimed in each town (limit set by town size), much like the player towns we have prototyped so far.
• NOTE: There will be a path to achieve this in game via in game gold purchase but the ownership of the scene will incur a rental fee.

Lot Sizes in Meters (for reference):

• Row: 10 x 15 = 150 sq
• Village: 20 x 30 = 600 sq
• Town: 30 x 40 = 1200 sq
• City: 40 x 60 = 2400 sq
• Keep: 60 x 80 = 4800 sq
• Castle: 80 x 120 = 9600 sq

Town Sizes in Meters (for reference):

• Braemar = 18,000 Square Meters of Player Lots
• Kingsport = 19,800 Square Meters of Player Lots
• Wooded Player Village 1 = 25,800 Square Meters of Player Lots
• Wooded Player Village 2 = 29,400 Square Meters of Player Lots
• Owlshead = 63,000 Square Meters of Player Lots

Player Owned Town Sizes:

• Holdfast: $750
  • Keys to 12,600 Square Meters of Player Lots
  • NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds
  • Sample Layouts:
    • 21 Village
    • 5 Village + 1 Castle
    • 20 Row + 1 Castle
    • 13 Village + 1 Keep
    • 13 Village + 4 Town
    • etc
  • Keys = number of lots chosen
  • Central Square with 1 NPC owned building
  • 1 Add On Store Village House
• Hamlet: $1200
  • Keys to 19,800 Square Meters of Player Lots
  • NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds
  • Sample Layouts:
    • 33 Village
    • 17 Village + 1 Castle
    • etc
  • Keys = number of lots chosen
  • Central Square with 2 NPC owned buildings
  • Add On Store Houses
    • 2 Add On Store Village Houses
  • Example in game town: Kingsport
• Village: $1500
  • Keys to 25,200 Square Meters of Player Lots
  • NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds
  • Sample Layouts:
    • 42 Village
    • 26 Village + 1 Castle
    • etc
  • Keys = number of lots chosen
  • Central Square with 2 NPC owned buildings
  • Add On Store Houses
    • 2 Add On Store Village Houses
  • Example in game town: Wooded Player Village 1
• Crossroads Village: $2000
  • Keys to 33,600 Square Meters of Player Lots
  • NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds
  • Sample Layouts:
    • 56 Village
    • 40 Village + 1 Castle
    • etc
  • Central Square with 4 NPC buildings
  • Keys = number of lots chosen
  • Add On Store Houses
    • 2 Add On Store Village Houses
    • 2 Add On Store Town Houses
    • 1 Add On Store City House
  • Example in game town: Wooded Player Village 2 (plus a bit more)
• Town: $3,000
  • Keys to 50,400 Square Meters of Player Lots
  • NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds
  • Sample Layouts:
    • 84 Village
    • 68 Village + 1 Castle
    • etc
  • Central Square with 6 NPC buildings
  • Keys = number of lots chosen
  • Add On Store Houses
    • 2 Add On Store Village Houses
    • 2 Add On Store Town Houses
    • 2 Add On Store City Houses
• City: $4,000
  • Keys to 67,200 Square Meters of Player Lots
  • NOTE: Does not include the lot deeds
  • Sample Layouts:
    • 112 Village
    • 96 Village + 1 Castle
    • etc
  • Central Square with 10 NPC buildings
  • Keys = number of lots chosen
  • Add On Store Houses
    • 3 Add On Store Village Houses
    • 3 Add On Store Town Houses
    • 3 Add On Store City Houses
  • Example in game town: Owlshead

NEW PLEDGES AND BONUS PLEDGE REWARD DETAILS

We were then ready to assemble all these ideas of new housing, new pledge tiers, additional characters slots, and more into a master plan. Below you will find a list of additional pledge rewards per tier as well as the new pledge tiers: Knight Marshal & Lord Marshal. Please note that these two new tiers place their lots in the same pre-launch window as the tier below them (ex. Knight Marshals will go with Knights). This decision was made to preserve the lot selection sequence of the original pledge tiers. Current thinking about lot selection sequence can be found here.

This represents over 70 new rewards (or upgrades to existing rewards). Many of these are just initial concepts with more details and visuals to come later.

For existing Pledge information prior to this change you can refer to here, here, and here. Please note that all of these are Benefactor rewards [also available to Founders], we will not be adding any Founder-only rewards as part of this restructure.

• Adventurer: $45
  • All existing Rewards
• Immortal Adventurer: $55
  • All existing Rewards
• Founder: $65
  • All existing Rewards
• Royal Artisan: $90
  • All existing Rewards
  • Double Starting Recipes: you start with twice as many known recipes as other players
  • Artisan’s Box of Plenty: Generates a random resource / reagent once per week
  • Starting supplies sufficient to craft four of each starting recipe in the book
  • Non Combat Clockwork Pet: Choose 1 of 3. NOTE: This is in addition to the other non-combat pets you receive from other tiers.
• Virtual Collector: $110
  • All existing Rewards
  • Second Character Slot (Rent Free): Marked as Kindred and shares reputation and last name. Character slots purchased via Add On Store will be charged a monthly rent via in game currency that if not paid will prevent login with that character.
  • Puzzle Box: Once per week this box presents the player with a puzzle to solve. If solved the box will generate a random thing (money, weapon, resource, etc).
• Explorer(s): $135 – $140
  • All existing Rewards
  • Non Combat Clockwork Pet: Choose 1 of 3
• Collector: $165
  • All existing Rewards
• Patron: $220
  • All existing Rewards
  • Fyndoro’s Tablet of Finding: Once per day can be used to find a player by writing the name on the tablet. A version of this item appeared in the book “Ready Player One” by Ernie Cline
  • Magical Printing Press: Once per week a Patron can use this object to publish a book in the world for free (publishing normally costs a fee per copy)
  • Non Combat Clockwork Pet: Choose 1 of 3
• Ancestor: $275
  • All existing Rewards
  • Third Character Slot (Tax Free): Marked as Kindred and shares reputation and last name. Character slots purchased via Add On Store will be taxed
  • Ancestor’s Cloak: cloak with the Ancestor symbol
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed
  • Stone 2 Story Row House
• Navigator: $375
  • All existing Rewards
  • Novia Map Atlas: All the minimaps in one compendium (other players have to collect them individually)
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed
  • Stone 3 Story Row House
  • 1 Story Row Basement
  • Phonograph: Plays wax cylinders of music
• Developer: $450
  • All existing Rewards
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed
  • Stone 4 Story Row House
  • 2 Story Row Basement
  • Wireless Device: Plays streamed audio content
• Citizen: $550
  • All existing Rewards
  • Wind Power House Deco
  • Reagent Plant: Choose 1 of 3 that grows a common reagent. It must be watered each day. Once per day (if watered) 24 hours later it will generate a reagent
• Edelmann(s): $570 – $575
  • All existing Rewards
  • Birdbath: attracts flocks of birds when placed in yard
• Knight: $800
  • All existing Rewards
  • Sword of the Ba’Heer: Starting level weapon that includes precious metals and jewels that can be used to enchant the sword. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source. A version of this item appeared in the book “Ready Player One” by Ernie Cline
  • Knight’s Cloak: Cloak with the Knight’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.
  • Reagent Plant: Choose 1 of 3 that grows a common reagent. It must be watered each day. Once per day (if watered) 24 hours later it will generate a reagent
• Knight Marshal (NEW TIER): $1200
  • Rent Free Town Lot
    • NOTE: Knight Marshals will place their lot during the same pre-launch window as Knights. See lot selection post for more details.
  • Knight Marshal’s Tower Keep
    • 3 Story + Roof
    • Same footprint as Knight’s Keep but taller
  • 2 Story Town Basement
  • Title: Knight Marshal
  • Knight Marshal’s Winged Helm: Starting level helm that includes precious metals and jewels that can be used to enchant the helm. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.
• Lord: $1600
  • All existing Rewards
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed (new)
    • NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).
  • 3 Story Stone Town Basement (upgrading from 1 story)
  • 5 Story Row Basement
  • Lord’s Cloak: Cloak with the Lord’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.
  • Noble’s Magical Discourse Orb: Object that gives access to a Nobility chat channel. All Game Devs have palantirs as well so are on the same chat channel
  • Reagent Plant: Choose 1 of 3 that grows a common reagent. It must be watered each day. Once per day (if watered) 24 hours later it will generate a reagent
  • Royal Scepter: Once per month grants one lot deed 50% rent discount for 1 month
  • Royal Orb: Once per month grants one vendor 50% commission discount for 1 month
  • 5 Indestructible Crafting Tools: You will receive five (5) starter-level, indestructible, crafting tools for the skills of your choice. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers
  • 4 Crafting Stations: Four (4) total Expert level crafting stations for your home, uniquely identifiable as Benefactor’s crafting stations. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers
• Lord Marshal (NEW TIER): $2200
  • Rent Free Town Lot Deed
    • NOTE: Lord Marshals will place their lot during the same pre-launch window as Lords
  • Rent Free Village Lot Deed
    • NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).
  • Lord Marshal’s Great Hall
  • 5-Story Town Basement
  • 2-Story Village Basement
  • Lord Marshal Title
  • Lord Marshal’s Automaton Servant
  • Drinking Horn
  • Lord Marshal’s Throne
  • Great Hearth
  • Helmet with crown: Starting level helm that includes precious metals and jewels that can be used to enchant the helm. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.
  • 10 Indestructible Crafting Tools: You will receive ten (10) starter-level, indestructible, crafting tools for the skills of your choice. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers
  • 8 Crafting Stations: Eight (8) total Expert level crafting stations for your home, uniquely identifiable as Benefactor’s crafting stations. Note: This reward does not stack with previous tiers
• Baron 1, 2, & 3: $3800
  • All existing Rewards
  • Rent Free Village Lot Deed (new)
    • NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).
  • Baron’s Cloak: Cloak with the Baron’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.
  • Talking Mirror
• Duke: $5300
  • All existing Rewards
  • Rent Free Keep Lot (new): The lot size for Duke’s will be increased to equal two City sized lots
  • Rent Free Village Lot Deed (new)
    • NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).
  • Duke’s Cloak: Cloak with the Duke’s symbol that has golden & silver thread woven into it that can be used to enchant the cloak. Comes with permanent enchantment of being a light source.
  • Duke Island Castle: The Duke Island Castle will be revisited to add an actual island around the perimeter now that the lot size increase will support this change.
• Lord of the Manor: $12,000
  • All existing Rewards
  • Rent Free Town Lot Deed (new)
    • NOTE: This is a 2nd Lot Deed which can only be placed after all other Pledge Reward Lot Deed selection windows are over (currently this would be at the same time as Add On Store lot deeds).
  • Additional Honorific Title Options “Prince” / ”Princess” / ”Highness”

STRETCH GOAL STORE

Not satisfied with a complete overhaul of our pledge structure, new housing types, and player owned towns, we decided to revisit the concept of stretch goals.

As some of you may remember I was actually an opponent of stretch goals. I felt that they had the potential to cause us to over commit and they could take up time we could otherwise spend on responding to feedback. The other flaw we had with stretch goals is that not everyone was in favor of every stretch goal – some of you might not want us spending time on mounts or VR.

Then Chris Spears had the truly brilliant idea of creating a Stretch Goal Store that operated differently than stretch goals normally do. It was a way to have players vote with their money on exactly what features we should add to the project while at the same time receiving in game goods, regardless of whether the funding goal was met!

These are stretch goals with immediate rewards! When you purchase the item you will get it as an in-game reward, even if the goal is not met. These rewards are completely unique. They will not be sold in the add-on store, in-game nor as a pledge reward. Once the goal is met we will begin work on the functionality and all the items purchased would gain some function related to the goal. For instance the foal from the Mounts stretch goal would grow into a horse that you could then ride. Each goal will have a progress bar underneath tracking the progress. General philosophy is that these items cost more than equivalent items because they are linked to stretch goals. NOTE: stretch goals will only get completed AFTER all the other Kickstarter goals are reached.

Horse Mounts will launch in the store first with additional goals being added on average once per week. [Check out the Horse Mounts in the Stretch Goal Store now]

In order for this to be a successful fund raising mechanism it would have to be separate from pledges and add on purchases so therefore the rules would have to be slightly different including:

• Stretch Goal purchases cannot be melted down
• Add On Store credit cannot be applied to Stretch Goal purchases

STRETCH GOAL STORE ITEMS:

• Horse Mounts (non combat): Goal = $250,000
  • Description: Players can ride horses around the game!
  • Rules:
    • There will be some kind of summon mount emote / key
    • When mount appears you automatically vault into the saddle
    • Cannot fight while mounted. If you are hit / enter combat while on horseback you are knocked from your horse
    • Mounts cannot be ridden indoors or underground
  • Mounts Stretch Goal Full Package: $100 (package discount)
    • White Foal (baby horse) non-combat pet: $20
    • Black Foal (baby horse) non-combat pet: $20
    • Buckskin Foal (baby horse) non-combat pet: $20
    • Riding Outfit Female: $20
    • Riding Outfit Male: $20
    • Saddle House Decoration: $10
• Elves Playable Race: Goal = $300,000
  • Description: Players can choose Elf as a playable race during character creation. Elves have a natural affinity for Lunar Magic, Ranged Combat, and Forestry Skills.
  • Rules:
    • Each race will have a slight affinity for 1 magic, 1 combat, and 1 crafting skill. Affinity would equal something like cheaper skill costs or % increases in effectiveness of those skills.
    • Will require specific customization options like heads, hairstyles, and skin tone.
  • Elves Stretch Goal Full Package: $150 (package discount)
    • Elven Cloak: $20
    • Elven Bow: $20
    • Elven Warrior Armor: $20
    • Elven Archer Armor: $20
    • Elven Mage Robes: $20
    • Elven House in a Hill: $75
• Pack Animals: Goal = $100,000
  • Description: Pack Animals will help you carry all your valuable goods around the game
  • Rules:
    • Pack animals are basically mobile storage
    • Pack Animals cannot engage in combat nor can they be targeted
    • Pack Animals life/death state is linked to the owner’s. When owner dies the pack animal dies
    • Killing a player with a pack animal doubles the number of items available for loot/ransom
  • Pack Animals Stretch Goal Full Package: $40 (package discount)
    • Cria (baby llama) non-combat pet: $20
    • Foal (baby donkey) non-combat pet: $20
    • Saddlebags House Decoration: $10
• Boats: Goal = $500,000
  • Description: Players can sail boats around the waterways of New Britannia. From rowboats to Frigates, the world is your ocean
  • Rules:
    • Each Boat will have a Captain’s location. Standing/Sitting at that location will give that player movement control of the ship
    • Boat owners can set permissions much like housing:
      • Public: Anyone can go on the boat but they cannot change anything or control the boat
      • Private: Only boat owner can be on boat
      • Friends: People on owner’s friends list can get on the boat but not control it
      • Kindred: Kindred can enter and steer the boat
      • Guild: Guildmates can enter and steer the boat
    • Boats cannot engage in combat but players can fight on ships
    • There will be at least 4 sizes of boat
      • Rowboat: 2-4 people
      • Longboat: 6-12 people
      • Frigate/Galleon/Houseboat: 20+ people
    • Larger boats can double as houses (including the boats that are in the Founder pledges)
  • Boats Stretch Goal Full Package: $100 (package discount)
    • Admiral’s Hat: $20 alone
    • Admiral’s Outfit Male: $20
    • Admiral’s Outfit Female: $20
      • same as male but with skirt at bottom vs. pants
    • Rowboat House Deco: $20
    • Anchor House Deco: $20
    • Longboat House Deco: $20
    • Spyglass (aka Telescope): $20
      • Fully functional, view distant objects up close through the science of lenses
• Flexible Lot Placement of Structures: Goal = $250,000
  • Description: Players can now place multiple structures on a single lot. Players can also rotate and move structures versus a fixed location. This will be a GREAT stretch goal that will allow player built towns to really look amazing, for example: On large central lots of town, guilds could build shared services and town squares, on castle lots, players could host an array of guest structures and services in their courtyards, even more modest lots could be built out as twin towers versus a single house.
    • Note: These objects will be decorations for your yard that are NOT decoratable themselves. If the stretch goal is met these will then become decoratable objects.
  • Package: $200 (package discount)
    • Garden Shed: $30
    • Small Knight’s Tent: $30
    • Large Knight’s Tent: $40
    • Greenhouse: $50
    • Stables: $65

Huge thanks to our Dev+ folks for helping us come up with this plan. They gave great feedback on all the details.

[This concludes Starr Long’s forum megapost. Please join the conversation in our public forums]

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10% Pledge Bonus Promotion!

And if the 70 new bonus rewards, new lower-cost Row House rewards, and new Knight Marshall and Lord Marshall pledge tiers weren’t enough to get excited about, we’re also running a month-long, 10% Pledge Bonus Promotion from now thru Lord British’s birthday on July 4, 2014! Here are the details:

For all new pledges or pledge upgrades that you purchase for yourself, or as a gift, between 12:00 am CST June 6, 2014 and 12:00 am CST July 5, 2014 we will add an additional 10% bonus to your pledge account! For example, if you’re considering the new Row House included as a bonus reward in the Ancestor pledge and purchase it for $275, we will add an additional $28 to your pledge account ($275 times 10% equals $27.50 rounded up to $28; our pledge package doesn’t handle cents so we round up to nearest dollar).

[NOTE: The 10% bonus pledge won’t show up in your account immediately. Give us about 10 business days after the end of the promotion period to tally everyone’s purchases and add the bonus pledge to your account. The 10% Pledge Bonus is non-transferable and is not applied toward Add-On Store or Stretch Goal Store purchases]

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Horse Mounts Stretch Goal

As mentioned above, Horse Mounts is the first stretch goal in the Stretch Goal Store. The horse mount items available for purchase are foals, a saddle, and riding clothes:

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Bonus Ancestor, Navigator, and Developer Row Lot Pledge Rewards

Rent free Row Lots are now included in the basic rewards (at no additional cost) for the Ancestor, Navigator, and Developer Pledge tiers! Here are the new housing rewards for each of those pledges:

• Ancestor Pledge Tier
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed
  • Stone 2-Story Row House
• Navigator Pledge Tier
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed
  • Stone 3-Story Row House
  • 1-Story Row Basement
• Developer Pledge Tier
  • Rent Free Row Lot Deed
  • Stone 4-Story Row House
  • 2-Story Row Basement

Below are some images of the Row Houses and basements now included as bonus rewards in these pledges:

 

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Lot Selection Sequence Process

With all the new pledge changes and new row houses, Starr Long posted an update reflecting our current thinking on Lot Selection Sequence Process. Here is an excerpt:

In a recent Founders questions, our backers asked about lot selection sequencing. This is our attempt to come up with a fair system that is easy to communicate and rewards both early backers and the Kickstarter promise that extra pledge dollars would influence lot selection. We are also investigating a web based solution (like concert seat selection) but the implementation of this depends on funding. While this is our current thinking we welcome your feedback before we finalize this policy.

[Check out Starr’s full post for detailed examples of lot selection sequence]

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Row Lot Property Deeds

We have added 1000 of the new Row Lot Property Deeds to the Add-On Store! These lots will be available in villages, towns and cities across New Britannia. The Row Lot Property Deed in the Add-On Store measures 10 x 15 meters and includes the Wood & Plaster 2-Story Row House, shown here next to an empty row lot (actual in-game row lots will never be empty but will have a placeholder row house on it until claimed):

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Wood & Plaster 4-Story with Balcony Row House

First in our line of Wood & Plaster Row homes is this 4-story, 6-room row house with a balcony, now available in the Add-On Store:

Get Your Wood & Plaster 4-Story with Balcony Row House Now for 50% off!

For a limited time we’re offering 50% off this home!  Reserve yours (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store!

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Row Stone & Timber 5-Story Basement

Bill Kirkman has adapted the Stone & Timber basement to fit with our new Row lots. Here is a view of his Row Stone & Timber 5-Story Basement (avavailable at 25% off in the Add-On Store):

Get Your Row Stone & Timber 5-Story Basement Now for 25% off!

For a limited time we’re offering 25% off this basement!  Reserve yours (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store!

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Replenishing Birthday Cake

Lord British’s birthday is coming up on July 4th, and to help celebrate his birthday we’ve added the Replenishing Birthday Cake to the Add-On Store! This is a special birthday cake, that each year on the anniversary of when you created your pledge account, will generate a random item! They’re only available until July 31, 2014 so reserve your Replenishing Birthday Cake (or send as a gift) in the Add-On Store now!

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Return of the Replenishing Fireworks Box

For those of you that missed out on the Replenishing Fireworks Box during the New Year’s sale, we’re bringing it back in time for Lord British’s birthday on July 4th, or the U.S. celebration of Independence Day, or if you just want to blow off some fireworks! A magical box of 50 fireworks that regenerates periodically. They’re only available until July 31, 2014 so reserve your Replenishing Fireworks Box (or send as a gift) in the Add-On Store now!

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Through the Lunar Rift!

These tales, told as a weekly series of journal entries written by Gina “FireLotus” Dionne, will feature the people and places of New Britannia and give you a bit of insight, and hopefully some inspiration, when creating your own stories while exploring the lands of Shroud of the Avatar.

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Conspiracy in the Clink

I’ve finally decided to repair the dry rot in the loft, as it was making the whole Tavern smell a bit musty and, truth be told, I was worried the kegs I store up there might end up crashing through the floor onto an unsuspecting Thomas. The previous owner must have been less handy with a hammer then I am. Lucky for me, I’ve discovered that Morton can be quite the handyman when he’s not drunk. And he’s willing to be my fixer-upper for a few tankards of free ale. I’m sure the fact that I don’t let Thomas throw him out of the Tavern when Morton starts to get obnoxious helps a bit too. 

So I paid Myra a visit to pick up the supplies that Morton needed. She was in a fretful state… looked as if she hasn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep in weeks and her eyes were all red and puffy as if she had been crying. Though I swore I’d keep these people at a safe distance lest they find out who I truly am, I could not help but feel the urge to sooth her obvious suffering somehow. So I asked what was wrong.

I had no idea that the infamous coward Myron was her brother; though in hindsight, the names should have been a clue. And twins no less. She told me that she’s been having nightmares that her brother was being tortured down in The Clink. She begged me to help her look into getting her brother out of there. Said that she had even been to see Lord Enmar himself. Unfortunately for Myra, the good Lord Enmar was of the opinion that Myron would die a prisoner of his own cowardice. Apparently, Enmar has little sympathy for deserters. 

The way I see it, we all have our moments of weakness. We all have that moment when we let our emotions get the best of us and act without thinking. And fear is one of the most difficult emotions to reign in before it makes fools of us. Some people run, like Myron. Some people lash out, even kill…

Read the rest of the story in the forums

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The Final Map Reveal

Here, at last, is the final map puzzle piece for your collection:

 

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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

2014.06.10 – SotA at E3
2014.06.26 – Release 7 Access
2014.07.04 – SotA at RTX
2014.07.24 – Release 8 Access
2014.08.09 – SotA at synDCon
2014.08.21 – Release 9 Access
2014.08.29 – SotA at Dragoncon
2014.09.25 – Release 10 Access
2014.10.23 – Release 11 Access
2014.11.14 – Duke & Lord of the Manor VIP Design Roundtable with Lord British and Portalarium Studio Tour
2014.11.15 – HoBLotH II: Legends of the Hearth
2014.11.20 – Release 12 Access
2014.12.18 – Release 13 Access