Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
- Play Release 17 Now!
- AetherVision: twitch Headquarters for Streaming R17 and the PaxLair Weekend Events
- PVP Grudge Match: 30 Day Tournament
- R17-R18 Deco Contest – PUB CRAWL!
- In-game Community Weekend Events
- Paving the Way: New Pavers and Fences
- Receiving Pledge Rewards and Add-On Items
- Changes to Store Credit Conversions
- Steam Access Keys Available for All Backers
- How to Cancel Monthly Layaway Payment Plans
- Upcoming Events
Play Release 17 Now!
FireLotus Release 17 Party in the new town of PaxLair. Check out more screenshots in the Release 17 Screenshot Gallery.
Release 17 successfully launched yesterday, April 30, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to explore, including:
- PaxLair: SotA’s first Player Owned Town
- 8 improved adventure scenes
- Steam Achievements
- New Crafting Events: Success, Critical Success, Recovery, and Failure
- New Summon Phoenix skill
- Player Titles
- Lot Access Permissions
- Fences, pavers, and books
- 21 Pledge Rewards
- …and more!
Check out the Release 17 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new R17 content.
The Grand Tour Quest
Just as in our last several releases, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. You will be able to get the Fez Hat by completing the Release 17 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 17 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in soon and talk to all the Tour Guides!
We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing Release 17!
If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. The basic Adventurer level pledge is also available on Steam Early Access.
Release 17 Player Instructions
Release 17 Known Issues
R17 Patch Notes
Thanks to all our community members that jumped right into Release 17 and started reporting bugs. We’ve already fixed quite a few of them and pushed out several patches. Click here for the most up-to-date Patch Notes.
May 1, 2015
Build Number 257: 5:00 PM
Fixes:
- Goatee facial hair should now be visible
- Grand Tour Quest can now be completed (unfortunately everyone will have to do this quest again)
- Edvard (the NPC in the starting scene) does not respond to any text in his first dialog
- Fixed issue where crafting items can sometimes result in “red items” on the crafting table.
- Plate Leggings, Plate Chest, Leather Chest, and Leather Leggings recipes should now work
- Skeletons in Solace Bridge (starting scene) should be much more feisty
- /bug should now send you to the correct forum location (R17)
- Path to the boat in Solace Bridge should now be more obvious
- Magic Printing Press can now be picked up after being placed as a decoration
- Fixed Friendly NPCs attacking the players in certain situations
- Augmented Plate Leggings extend all the way to the feet and Augmented Plate Torso extends all the way to the hands
- Your own deaths should no longer count as PVP kills in your PVP kill count
- Fixed some animation alignment issues with tools when using a crafting station
- All crafted weapons can now be enchanted
- Fences should now work much better when placed around a player lot
- Corner Ornate Iron Fence section is no longer rotated 90 degrees so therefore is now usable
- Known Issues in game book should now be up to date
- Fixed overly shiny material on dock pieces
- Fixed transparency/sorting issue with windows
- Various fixes for AI not getting aggressive with players
- You can no longer /zone to someone if they are on a player lot you do not have access to
- Fixed sit locations on hot tubs and bleachers
- Added “Royal Crier” title
- Added all refined material recipes to merchants
- Aimed Shot should now be working again
- Novia Overworld cardinal directions should now be correct (i.e. North should actually be North)
- Added 5 Story Row Basement to Lord pledge rewards
- Fixed entry/exit issues with Soltown and Spectral Mines
- NPCs will now reliably give directions to people and places in Ardoris and Solania again, including the bank.
- Epic Plate Leggings now have correct leather under layer (instead of non-textured white under layer)
- Water walking is no longer possible in Solace Bridge starting scene
- Additional minor propping in PaxLair
- You can now emote again in the Overworld
- The top of the Knights Lighthouse is once again accessible
- Casting spells while moving no longer locks the Avatar out of jumping
- In Game Events book in game should be up to date
- Solania town crier now realizes he is in Solania (not Holtrot)
- NPCs which offer to buy raw crafting materials now buy them again.
- Trainers in Ardoris will now actually train players
- Fixed some animation blending issues that were causing twitchy arms
- Fixed some incorrectly scaled stairs in various locations
- Fixed color issues with Plate Armor
- Corner rough stone fence piece no longer floating above ground
- Fix for bug that caused decorations to be picked up from behind UI windows
- Items in new characters inventory should once again have zero value
- Chat over player heads now back to original timing (removed variable timing based on length)
- Toned down brightness on some speedtree leaves and billboards
- Owls Wash exit-to-overland is now much closer to Owls Wash
- Full encumbrance no longer completely immobilizes
- Quest items now properly are removed when the quest is completed
- Casting spells should no longer leave the Avatar stuck in the casting animation.
Known Issues:
- Some basements are not working properly
- Some fence pieces cannot be placed
- Some Grand Tour Hats are missing in the game
- Some decorations (like fences) can be placed off the edge of a lot
- Doors and Gates can sometimes break
- Short Corner Stone Wall floats in the air
- Some assets on the Overworld do not look correct when seen up close via the new camera
- Some cities are experiencing performance spikes
- Some assets create flash bulb like sparks on screen
- The screen may go dark unexpectedly in some cases. If this occurs, you can open the video options and turn off Tone Mapping as a temporary fix.
- Many pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support. These will not be complete until later this year
- The update to Unity 5 caused a host of general texture and lighting related issues, and not all of these have been resolved.
- Distant tree billboards may have a white outline that is especially noticeable at night, and some trees may shimmer with white at night.
- Skin tone will sometimes not match properly on different parts of the body
- Interior Player House culling system also culls objects on balconies, porches, roof, etc.
- Unity 5 engine bug: Terrain is not accepting shadow casting lights and terrain lighting shows up on grid vs. radius
- ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT
- Unity 5 Engine Bug: Objects in the foreground sort incorrectly against objects in the distance like trees and the horizon
- Spectral Mines and Graf Gem Mines do not have metal ore nodes
If you are new to Shroud of the Avatar we highly recommend taking a few minutes to watch the excellent New Player’s Video Guide from community member The Mad Hermit:
Click here to check out all of The Mad Hermit’s amazing SotA how-to videos!
Traditional FireLotus Release (17) Party!
Every Release, our Community Manager, Gina “FireLotus” Dionne, hosts a Release Party during the afternoon of the first Friday of the Release. Today’s Release 17 Dance Party was held in a Wody’s Tavern in the new Player Owned Town of PaxLair.
Thanks to WinField (Governor of PaxLair) and the many citizens of Paxlair that provided such an amazing place to party and the hard work they put into the decor! And yes, it just wouldn’t feel right without Oneandonly’s “kill all” event:
AetherVision: twitch Headquarters for R17 and the PaxLair Weekend Events
Special thanks to WrathPhoenix for the tremendous work he did coordinating over fifty twitch broadcasters for the Release 17 opening weekend featuring the plethora of special events that PaxLair has planned for this weekend. They have a steady stream of twitch broadcasts all weekend long, so check out the AetherVision website WrathPhoenix constructed to make it easy to see who is currently broadcasting at any given time.
PVP Grudge Match: 30 Day Tournament
![SotA-Fireswords-HD-transparent-Header2[1]](http://d2sx9mrt4zumaq.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SotA-Fireswords-HD-transparent-Header21.png)
[From a R17 Event Forum post by Duke Violation]
We will be hosting PvP Tournaments and giving you guys an actual leader board this release! Order of Vengeance is proud to host the first month long tournament in Shroud of the Avatar and will be accepting submissions of those willing to be openly flagged as pvp for at least 2 days each week during the release. Also, you need to play for a couple hours each time actively available for combat… more details to come!
GRUDGE MATCH ZONE: PaxLair
How to sign up:
Please post a sign up by replying below or register on the site… there are two tournaments so you would need to register twice. Details on each will be provided in a couple days.
Tournament 1: http://challonge.com/OoVr17t1
Tournament 2: http://challonge.com/OoVr17t2
NEED TO KNOWS / HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
- Sign up (below, by replying, or above, by registration) to be on the Tournament 1 hit list… only people on the hit list will qualify for taking another member out and the selection of your opponents will be based on randomizing the list. I NEED YOU SIGNED UP BEFORE THIS SUNDAY THE 3rd PLEASE!
- 5 points per win
- 4 rounds scheduled for R17
- Take a screenshot of you fighting your foe and be sure to capture the combat log so we can see who wins. Post the screenshot here and I’ll list you as a victor in a grudge match! Both the victor and the loser must agree to the match to not encourage random PKers in SotA.
- 1 point per win, 2 points MAX per opponent
- unlimited opponents for R17
Prizes:
At the moment I’m personally offering a $50 Shroud of the Avatar gift card to the winner. I am in conversation with a few people about getting that amount increased by other members of OoV.
Tournament Details:
We’re going to focus pvp into 4 different zones… one each week. I will keep the “grudge” zone of the week updated here. For the start I would like to see all PvP focus in on PaxLair for week 1. I will announce new zones a day or two in advance. We will additionally have a world-wide swiss tournament that overlays. The person with the most points from both events combined wins.
How you get points:
- The overlaying weekly tournament that is world-wide!
- 5.5 points per match win
- 1.0 points per match tie
- 0.5 points per bye (unlikely to occur)
- The Grudge Match zone that is 1 zone per week.
- 1.0 points per match win (maximum of two times with the same opponents per tournament, does not apply to weekly tournament)
The nitty gritty details:
Avatars will be pit against each other for world pvp and zone pvp. The use of zoning is not encouraged but is allowed (http://sotawiki.net/sota/Commands#Zone). Killing an avatar 1v1 is required for this tournament. Use of screen shot (http://sotawiki.net/sota/Controls) will be required. The kills will be documented with your combat log open to see who killed who first. If your Damage Over Time effects kill the opponent it counts as a tie. If the two who are matched against each other cannot agree on a victor or there are complaints of exploitation we will stage a match and officiate it.
R17-R18 Deco Contest – PUB CRAWL!
[From an R17 Events Forum post by lollie]
The R17-R18 Deco Contest is open, this one is a two month long affair so plenty of time to get your gold and mats together and get that entry in.
The theme of this contest was suggested by one of our community members – Blake Blackstone.
This time we’re asking everyone to come up with some kind of drinking establishment for the Deco Contest, so at the end once the contest is closed and everyone has completed their entries, the whole community will be invited for an epic pub crawl through the streets of New Britannia.
What we’re looking for:
Your entry should be some kind of bar/pub/club/tavern/speakeasy/social venue. We’re looking for a place where people would come together and enjoy the company of others, and unwind.
Can be indoors, outdoors, above ground, in a basement, open to everyone, or a secret place where you need to know people to get in – you choose! Anything goes, so long as this is the kind of place where people come together to have fun, drink, and be merry!
We look at all the effort you put into making this place as well as what you made, how you put things together, how you express your imagination and bring the place to life.
At the very end once all entries are in, we’ll be inviting the entire community out for an epic pub crawl through every single bar (or as long as you can keep standing)! Bring your mug and your best drinking hat!
Prizes:
$15 – first prize
$10 – second prize
$5 – third prize
Here’s how to enter:
Name – write your ingame name here (both the name of decorator and name on the sign or stone on the lot).
Location – write the coordinates of your lot (type /loc when you’re in the game, standing out right by the sign or stone of your lot).
It’s very important to get the exact location coordinates, so make sure you submit this information along with your entry. You can modify your initial post later (be sure to let me know you’ve done this so I update your entry) – so in the meantime just get your entry in if you think you might like to enter.
Entry cutoff time coming later.
This one is going to be huge guys – let’s make it a good one
In-game Weekend Community Events
Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Here is the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:
Ongoing
– PVP Event 30 Day Tournament (PaxLair; details)
– SotA RPers Present: The Doomsayer May 1-3 (details)
– R17-R18 Deco Contest – PUB CRAWL! (details)
Saturday, May 2
9:00am CST – PaxLair Tour – Host Winfield (PaxLair; “/zone Winfield”)
10:00am CST – Beast Race (PaxLair; “/zone Bambino LudoVate”
11:00am CST – Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service (PaxLair,; details)
12:00am CST – Welcome Quest in R17 – Starting with the new PaxLair (“/zone Dara Brae”; details)
2:00pm CST – Last Man Standing PvP (PaxLair, “/zone Bambino LudoVate”; details)
3:00pm CST – Lux Sanctuary’s Festival of Fools (PaxLair)
4:00pm CST – All Towns Gathering R17 (PaxLair, “/zone Winfield”)
6:00pm CST – Gustball (PaxLair, “/zone Bambino LudoVate”)
8:00pm CST – Capture the Dane (PaxLair, “/zone Blake Blackstone” or “/zone Bambino LudoVate”)
Sunday, May 3
6:30am CST – Explore Novia with royalsexy (PaxLair Moon Tower, “/zone royalsexy”)
9:00am CST – New Britannia Theater Troupe presents “Aurum Berries” and “Regulations” (PaxLair)
11:00pm CST – The Running Man PvP Footrace (PaxLair, /zone Bambino LudoVate)
12:00pm CST – Hide and Seek – aka Find the DJs (PaxLair; details)
12:00pm CST – PaxLair Tour – Host Winfield (PaxLair; “/zone Winfield”)
1:30pm CST – 4B Maze Event (PaxLair, central lot by Moon Tower)
3:00pm CST – Gustball (PaxLair, “/zone Bambino LudoVate”)
5:00pm CST – BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration (details)
6:00pm CST – BMC First Blood at Grid-Iron (details)
6:00pm CST – The Doomsayer Meeting (PaxLair, “/zone Bowen Bloodgood”; details)
7:00pm CST – PaxLair Meeting (PaxLair “/zone Winfield”)
8:00pm CST – Fishing with Winfield (some lake or pond, “/zone Winfield”)
9:00pm CST – Beach Party by BMC (contact Wind Silvermoon for details)
Be sure and check out the Release 17 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.
Paving the Way
We introduced new paver decorations in Release 17, some available in-game and some in the Add-On Store. Now you can dress up your yard, deck, patio, or walkway with a variety of paver styles!
Rough Wood Pavers (available in-game)
Rough Stone Pavers (available in-game)
Coyote Gray Cobblestone Pavers (available in the Add-On Store)
Checkered Maple Parquet Pavers (available in the Add-On Store)
Umber Gray Ceramic Pavers (available in the Add-On Store)
Fallow Granite Pavers (available in the Add-On Store)
Polished Midnight Black Marble Pavers (available in the Add-On Store)
Bone White Marble Pavers (available in the Add-On Store)
Fences Now Available
All of the fences that were showcased in the past few Updates are also available in the Add-On Store! If you want to give your property that special look, then you might want one of these fence sets:
Ivy Covered Stone Fence (normal and tall)
Green Leaf Box Hedge Fence (normal and tall)
White Floral Box Hedge Fence (normal and tall)
Receiving Pledge Rewards and Add-On Items
Go to any bank to claim your Add-On items and Pledge rewards. There is a banker NPC in every map where there is player housing because when you switch houses or unclaim a lot, all the decorations will go to your bank. In most locations the Town Crier is now also a banker.
Banks are local only. You can see your items in other bank locations (they appear in location tabs), but you can only access the items in the bank you are currently at. Pledge rewards are an exception to this and can be accessed from any location.
[NOTE: there are some Add-On and Pledge reward items that have not been built yet so you may notice some of your items not showing up in your bank. If you delete your character, all equipped and inventory items, including pledge reward items, will be deleted and cannot be recovered until the next wipe]
Player Bank Upgrades
Your bank inventory size can easily be upgraded with in-game gold, with the price in gold increasing the larger your bank gets. For those that need/want really big banks faster, we’ve added a Bank Upgrade to the Add-On Store. Currently, each Bank Upgrade adds 10 more slots to your bank inventory, but that number is subject to change based on game balancing needs.
Changes to Store Credit Conversions
If you wish to convert any of your purchased Add-On items to Store Credit, you will need to do so before logging into Shroud of the Avatar.
The instant you log into the game all of your available Pledge reward items and available Add-On items will be flagged as “claimed” and deposited in your in-game bank. Once the Add-On items are “claimed” they cannot be converted to Store Credit until the next wipe (which is currently unpredictable). After you’ve logged into SotA, the “Convert to Credits” button on your account page will be deactivated for all those items available in the game, so if you had any plans to sell back some of your Add-On items, make sure you do it before you log into the game!
We intend to change the claiming process in an upcoming Release so that items are not automatically claimed when logging in, but will require you to actively claim them in your bank before they can be used.
If you purchase any new Add-On items, or upgrade your Pledge tier, those new items and upgraded rewards will automatically appear in your in-game bank the next time you log into the game (providing those items are available in the game).
Steam Access Keys Available for All SotA Backers
SotA successfully launched on Steam Early Access on November 24, and we’ve made Steam Access Keys available to all our backers as part of their basic pledge rewards! Once you’ve redeemed your Steam Access Key you’ll have the option of playing SotA either with the Steam client or the regular game client (or both).
Click here for instructions to redeem your Steam access key and installing the Steam SotA client…
If you play SotA on Steam you can collect the SotA Trading Cards! Collect a full set of SotA trading cards to earn SotA badges, profile backgrounds, and emoticons that help you customize your profile and show off your Shroud of the Avatar gameplay. Check out Steam’s trading card FAQ for more information.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Our goal is to make Shroud of the Avatar the best game we can for you, our backers, and the best way we can do that is by growing our community of backers through the power of word-of-mouth marketing. That’s where we could use your help! With essentially no marketing budget, we rely on things like press coverage and friend-to-friend networking on platforms such as Facebook and Steam. Here’s how you can help us with your word-of-mouth efforts:
If You Like SotA then Like Us On Facebook
Current Facebook Likes: 5,869 (+27 from last week)
Facebook can be a powerful word-of-mouth marketing tool at very little cost, but only if we can reach a large enough network of Facebook users. You can help us to reach a larger Facebook audience simply by going to the Shroud of the Avatar Facebook page and clicking on the “Like” button. If every one of our 50k backers gave us a “Like” the marketing reach of our Facebook posts would be incredible!
If You Like SotA then Write Us a Positive Steam Review
Current Positive Steam Reviews: 349 (+5 from last report)
One of the most important word-of-mouth tools on the massive Steam platform is their user reviews. Many Steam users rely on a game’s Steam reviews to help them decide if they want to play a game or not. If you feel positive about SotA, or feel positive about what SotA may become, even if you have concerns and issues, then please jump over to our Steam Store Page and give us a positive review (and feel free to include your concerns and issues in that review as well)!
How to Cancel Monthly Layaway Payment Plans and What In-Game Rewards to Expect
Remember that Pledge payment plans are not canceled automatically after reaching the desired pledge. You must manually cancel your monthly payment plan, which can be done at anytime on your SotA Account page. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, but it is a result of how recurring billing functions with PayPal, Amazon, and Stripe (our credit card service).
If you are on a monthly payment plan, the rewards you receive in-game may not reflect the final pledge tier you are making payments toward, but will reflect the rewards for the current pledge tier that your cumulative monthly payments have reached (your current pledge tier is shown on your Account page on the SotA website).
Upcoming Events
2015.05.28 – Release 18
2015.06.16 – SotA at E3
2015.06.25 – Release 19
2015.07.25 – SotA at Classic Game Fest 2015
Love the fence options! I wish we had a few castle and keep alternatives.
This has been a really enjoyable release as the polish has gone a long way to improving the game. Also glad to see some new items in the store and the player titles and housing permissions are a welcome addition. Keep up the good work.