Update of the Avatar #130 – 2015.06.19: Prattkeeping, Port Phoenix, Swamp Template, Vengeance Tournaments, Unreliable Travel Guide, $10 for $10 Bonus, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Prattkeeping, er, um, I Mean Tame Emote
• Port Phoenix and the Player Owned Town Swamp Template
• Order of Vengeance Tournaments
• The SotA Writing Round Table Unreliable Travel Guide: R18 Edition
• $10 for $10 Summer Bonus
• World Builder/Level Designer and VFX Artist Job Openings
• In-game Community Weekend Events
• Sign Up for the Bear Tavern – War of 5 Armies!
• PaxLair’s Farewell to Release 18 Party
• The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter
• Receiving Pledge Rewards and Add-On Items
• Changes to Store Credit Conversions
• Steam Access Keys Available for All Backers
• Word of Mouth Marketing
• How to Cancel Monthly Layaway Payment Plans
• Upcoming Events

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Prattkeeping, er, um, I Mean Tame Emote

We found it amazingly coincidental that our new taming emote (/tame), included in Release 19 next week, bears some resemblance to Chris Pratt’s velociraptor taming pose from the recent Jurassic World movie. How weird is that!

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Port Phoenix and the Player Owned Town Swamp Template

Michael Hutchison has completed our third Player Owned Town template, the swamp biome. Port Phoenix was selected as the first swamp-based Player Owned Town to help test the template. This template can now be selected and viewed in the Player Owned Town Submission form. Here is the template and a few scene images, which you will be able to see live in Port Phoenix in Release 19 next week, June 25th:

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Order of Vengeance Tournaments

Located at the northern end of the Grunvald Desert, the PvP town of Vengeance was introduced in R18 as the second Player Owned Town in New Britannia. Vengeance has hosted numerous PvP community events almost every night since they launched! Here are examples of some of their exciting events:

Moon Tower Power

Team 1 and Team 2 will be told when to start via whisper and they will rush the moon tower. Team 1 is attempting to keep the tower powered ON… Team 2 is attempting to shut it OFF. After 15 minutes the teams will switch sides and purpose. Each time the judge will be attempting to keep an eye on the power and hopefully not get killed too many times. In the event he is killed there will be a pause to the event timer that will NOT be announced. The judge will call out when the time is up and suggests you do what you can to keep fighting for the tower until you see the text “TIME’S UP!” spammed in front of the moon tower.

Seige the Keep

Prior to the event starting a Kindred or Trustee member of the Keep will spend up to 120 seconds moving up to three obstacles to create choke points in the keep.

Team 1 and Team 2 will be told when to start via whisper. Team 1 is attempting to guard and protect the Keep… Team 2 is attempting to siege the keep and open the Darkstarr Metronome. After 10 minutes the teams will switch sides and purpose. Each time the judge will be attempting to keep an eye on the Metronome and hopefully not be killed too many times. In the event he is killed there will be a pause to the event. The judge will call out when the time is up OR when the siege is successful and who opened the Metronome.

In order to win the Metronome must be open for at least ten seconds. That means a guard placed on the roof from Team 1 can defend the flag from being captured by closing it and killing the attacker. In the event the attacker kills the guard before reinforcements arrive the chance of defending the keep is greatly reduced.

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The SotA Writing Round Table Unreliable Travel Guide: R18 Edition

As posted in the Release 18 Events Forum:

The Unreliable Travel Guide is published by two drunken layabouts who have nothing better to do than try to derive a dishonest income from newly arrived avatars.​
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To do this they have created a travel guide which consists of nothing more than tall tales about random local landmarks. They sell copies of this to unsuspecting avatars.​
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Once again they have discovered, through extensive use of such research tools as alcohol and imagination, several exciting locations to visit in R18. These locations probably do exist, but have unique descriptions that are highly unlikely to be true. Enjoy!​
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Dear Readers: Sorry this edition is reaching you late. You will see we had some trouble at North Brightbone Lake, story below.​
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(This series is created at the SotA Writing Round Table. You can add your own unique tall tales for the entertainment and probable confusion of others…Or simply take advantage of our peer review process to polish any SotA related fiction.)​

With the introduction of Zombies and Player Written Books in Release 19, it seems fitting to share the following stories from the Unreliable Travel Guide. Enjoy!

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People for the Ethical Treatment of the Alive-Challenged

A horrifying picture, isn’t it? Yet believe it or not, every day scores of innocent alive-challenged individuals are brutally attacked by sick thrill seekers, adventurers and callous looters.

Here at P.E.T.A-C. we say enough is enough! From now on we intend to step up our campaign through public education, cruelty investigations, research, skeleton rescue, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

We will focus attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of skeletons, ghosts, zombies and other members of the alive-challenged suffer the most intensely: claustrophobic imprisonment of skeletons, random attacks by adventurers, farming by ectoplasmic residue collectors and molestation by necromancers.

Lately our organised protests have gone from strength to strength. Our recent Necropolis sit-in actually resulted in a net rise in the number of alive-challenged people. Well done, team!

Of particular concern, however (and this is a worrying new phenomenon), is the refusal of Avatars to remain alive-challenged. By returning to life, they make a mockery of the hardships suffered by our handicapped brethren. For them, being alive-challenged is a passing affectation, and their refusal to take it seriously is an insult to alive-challenged people everywhere.

In fact, the recent rise of so-called “PVP enabled” Avatar communities is making the situation considerably worse. Fewer and fewer people take the state of being alive-challenged seriously. It is only a matter of time before the genuine alive-challenged make their feelings known in as forceful a way as possible.

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The Lamp of Learning Glows More Brightly

We at the Unreliable Travel Guide count on a literate and extremely intelligent clientele. That’s why we find the opening of an array of bookstores and libraries across Novia very encouraging. New locations have recently appeared in Owl’s Head, Kingsport, Solania, and PaxLair.

We wanted to know the reason behind this sudden increase of interest in the printed word. It turns out there is no single answer. Of course, we want to believe that the population of Novia is growing in intelligence and knowledge. There is however, that disturbing opening of a bookstore in the back alleys of Brittany. We’ve heard it offers the most lewd tales imaginable. Most days they are struggling to keep the shelves stocked. Be assured we only know this second-hand.

One of the reasons for the appearance of bookstores (which our more tasteful and astute readers have noticed) is that the production of covers has improved greatly, allowing for new materials and a variety of design. According to the old adage, new and more attractive covers lead to books being more appealing.

Another reason for the the surge is a dynamic duo comprised of a carpenter and a wizard crafting better and faster presses. These can only be acquired through one agent, P.R.T. Larium. He has an exclusive contract for all of Novia. He is a fair and respectable businessman, but considers himself the investor in the work that the two press makers do. As such, he is unwilling to divulge any information about them. Being the exclusive salesman is his only reward for the capital he provides that allows them to work.

Finally, although Mr. Larium will not confirm the rumors, it seems that the new presses will actually speed up and expand the ability to produce books. Right now, it is not hard to assemble a fairly comprehensive library of the volumes available in Novia. If the rumors are true, book production could explode. Perhaps the bookstores simply represent enterprising business people trying to get ahead of an opportunity for new coin.

We could even see a new competitor to the Unreliable Travel Guide spring up with this ease of access. We are all for it. There is no shortage of wild and weird things happening in Novia to cover.

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$10 for $10 Summer Bonus

To help everyone get their summer off to a great start, we’re having a $10 for $10 Summer Bonus Promotion! If you make any single purchase of $10 or more on the SotA website between 3pm CDT June 11 and 10 am CDT June 27 we will make a one-time deposit of an extra $10 into your Store Credit! Happy Summer!

[NOTE: The $10 for $10 offer can be exercised only once during the promotion period.
$10 Store Credit should show up in your account within 24 hours of a qualifying purchase]

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World Builder/Level Designer and VFX Artist Job Openings

We currently have openings for junior-level to senior-level World Builder/Level Designers for Shroud of the Avatar. Qualifications for the “ideal candidate” are:

• Minimum 2 years industry experience for junior-level (preferably on a shipped game)
• Unity3D proficiency
• Scripting ability
• Experience building, texturing, and decorating natural, terrain based exterior environments
• An artistic eye for detail, with strong scene compositional skills

We also have an opening for VFX artist with the following “ideal” qualifications:

• Minimum 3 years experience as VFX artist for games
• Unity3D proficiency
• FX scripting and ability to create custom FX shaders
• Artistic and technical particle effect skills

If you’d like to join the Portalarium Tribe working on the ground-breaking Shroud of the Avatar, please submit your resume to jobs@portalarium.com. Provide links to your work (if possible), including actual game play, videos footage, and document form (images, maps, and event descriptions).

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In-game Weekend Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Special thanks to community member SpookyJenny (aka Jenny Phoenixfyre in-game) for her help in compiling the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

• Player Town: Vengeance – Quests!
  • A Runic Scroll was found in Vengeance describing a quest for one and all (details).
• The R18 Unreliable Travel Guide
  • The Unreliable Travel Guide is not an event, but a a collection of hilarious short stories published by two drunken layabouts who have nothing better to do than try to derive a dishonest income from newly arrived avatars. (Created at the SotA Writing Round Table)
• “The Tavern Respite” RP Event (Mondays, 8pm CST)
  • The tavern door opens before you, and the scent of pipe and stew waft outwards with a wall of warmth from the hearth. Join in with the patrons of the Bear Tavern as they share tales of their adventures amid endless mugs of ale, legs of mutton, and merriment unbounded (details)!
• Happy Hour Wednesdays (Wednesdays, 8pm CST)
  • Otherwise known as “Spend Stryker’s Gold” – Stryker will open a bar tab at one of the local Novia taverns for an hour or so for drinks, stories, news, critique of the arts, dancing, and otherwise unplanned mayhem. Zone /Stryker Sparhawk or watch this thread for locations each week!
• Novian Academy: The Philosophy of Order (Fridays, 5:00pm CST)
  • Join Kazyn Phoenixfyre on a weekly discussion on the philosophy of Order and their interconnection to the virtues (PaxLair, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre)
• Vengeance Tournaments
  • These tournaments will insure there is a PVP event EVERY NIGHT in Shroud of the Avatar  (details)
• R17-R18 Deco Contest – PUB CRAWL!
  • The theme for this contest is some kind of drinking establishment! Prizes to the top three winners!  (details)
• Daily Breakfast Club – 12am CST (London UK); 6am CST (Central US); 3pm CST (Sydney Australia)
  • Breakfast Clubs offer a time when people from around different time zones can gather. (Wody’s Pub, Paxlair)
• Shardfall Madness PVP – Everyone fights it out in a royal rumble (Fridays, 6pm CST; Verdantis Shardfall, Novia or  /zone harry underworld; details)
• Phoenix Republic Open Mic Night (Thursdays, 7pm CST)
  • Come hang out in Wody’s Bar. Have a story or a song, Maybe want to do some stand up? Every Thursday the audience will vote on the winner of the weekly prize (PaxLair, Wody’s Bar, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Jack Knyfe)
• Beach Party by BMC (Fridays at 9pm CST)
  • Come join the BMC for dancing and fun at the Beach (/zone River Beauchamp or Wind Silverrmoon)
• Challenge Dungeon Run (Fridays at 7pm CST)
  • This is a self-host event, meet at the Braemar Cemetery and organize into groups to take on the infamous Chillblain’s Compendium of Pain & Suffering!

Saturday, June 20

• 9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours
  • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. (/zone Winfield)
• 10:00am CST Bear Tavern – War of 5 Armies
  • War has broken out on the island of Brave Coast. Pick a side and join the fray! Prizes! (Meet in Kingsport on the dock with the boat to Brave Coast; details)
• 11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service
  • Join Lady Amber Raine, High Priestess of the Church of the Dark Star along with Kazyn Phoenixfyre of the Church of the Sun, as they bring another thought provoking service. (PaxLair; details)
• 12:00am CST BMC Craft Faire
  • Come and learn the finer arts from the master craftsmen of the BMC! Participants will receive material kits for one of two weapons, which will be used for a hands-on demo! (Owl’s Head)
• 2:00pm CST Port Phoenix Storytelling Event
  • Join Kazyn Phoenixfyre and others as we gather around and share stories, poems, songs and other verses. (/zone kazyn phoenixfyre)
• 5:00pm CST By Royal Warrant: Vengeance Tournament!
  • Join Order of Vengeance as they host a player vs player tournament! This will be either a 1v1, 3v3, or FFA tournament. The winner always gets a prize! (/zone Violation to join)

Sunday, June 21

• 6:30am CST Explore Novia with royalsexy (PaxLair Moon Tower, /zone royalsexy)
• 10:00am CST Phoenix Republic Town Hall/Working Hours
  • A Gathering of members of the Phoenix Republic to cover important topic areas of the month. (PaxLair, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Jack Knyfe)
• 12:00am CST Novian Academy: Roleplay Courses by Luka Melehan
  • Join Luka Melehan as she teaches an ongoing course on Roleplay! In this course, you can learn how to get accustomed to roleplaying in New Britannia and participate in future roleplay events. (PaxLair, /zone Luka Melahan, details)
• 3:00pm CST Litha (Midsummer) Ball
  • Wind Silvermoon and the BMC hosts a Ball welcoming in summer. Prizes will be given away! (PaxLair)
• 3:00pm CST Gustball
  • Two teams are pitted against each other by using Gust to a “gustball” (aka avatar) around the field and into your opponent’s goal. (PaxLair, /zone The Ball, details)
• 5:00pm CST BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration
  • Register to compete in the BMC Gridiron and mingle with other participants and spectators before the big fight! (details)
• 5:30pm CST BMC Gladiator’s Grid-Iron
  • The BMC is proud to present the nastiest, the foulest, the most feared arena in all of New Britannia! The Grid-Iron is equipped with a pit-style arena, locker rooms, a VIP round-table, betting & vendor booths, and all the blood-sport you can handle. (details)
• 7:00pm CST PaxLair Meeting
  • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions!  (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
• 8:00pm CST Fishing with Winfield
  • Come sit with Winfield on a log or rock to hear some fish tales or tell your own. Chat about anything from the moons to the earth worms. Spend a relaxing day in nature near a stream or lake — bring insect repellent or a sword.  (some lake or pond, /zone Winfield)

Be sure and check out the Release 18 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

FireLotus has created the Release 19 Events forum so you can get a headstart posting your R19 events!

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Sign Up for the Bear Tavern – War of 5 Armies!

Saturday, June 20, 2015
10am-11am Central (Austin, TX)
Meet in Kingsport on the dock with the boat to Brave Coast

War has broken out on the island of Brave Coast. Pick a side and join the fray!

• Step 1: Select a team (Red, Yellow, Green, Brown or Blue). Max 8 members per team.
• Step 2: Post in this thread your in-game name and the color team you would like to join. Once in-game name is verified, it will be added to the team.
• Step 3: Show up at the event, party with your team. Each team will select one of their members as King, and will share the name of their King with the other teams.
• Step 4: After gathering and reviewing rules, we will take the boat to Brave Coast and the 5 teams will be disbursed. Kings must stay on land in the zone for the duration of the event.
• Step 5: WAR! Kill the other team’s kings.

[Sign up on the Bear Tavern – War of 5 Armies! Release 18 Event Forum Post]

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PaxLair’s Farewell to Release 18 Party

Join Governor Winfield and his fellow PaxLarians at 7pm CST, June 24, for the Release 18 Farewell Party at Wody’s Pub and the wharf in PaxLair. Plenty of partying, dancing, fishing (why not?), and celebration of the the most recent Player Owned Town, Vengeance! /zone Winfield

[Release 18 Event Forum Post here]

 

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The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter

We know that many of you loved The Bard’s Tale games as much as we did, so we want to make sure you know about their Kickstarter campaign. They’ve already met their funding goal, but need your help with their stretch goals and cool Social Achievements. As described by our long-time friend and colleague at inXile, Brian Fargo:

As you may know, it marks the 30th anniversary of The Bard’s Tale, the game that started my career in game development in earnest. And now, we want to bring back The Bard’s Tale IV with the power of the crowd once again…The original game has a special place in my heart and fans have shown me time and again they still love the dungeon crawl genre and want more. With your help, I can finally make this long-awaited true sequel to the original The Bard’s Tale trilogy, bringing you that sense of discovery with challenging dungeons and devious puzzles that you loved and cursed all at once.

We’re very excited about the revival of the dungeon crawler genre that Bard’s Tale IV is helping to drive. As described by inXile, it is a single-player, party-based cRPG with dynamic phase-based combat, challenging puzzles and riddles, and a game set to beautiful Gaelic music, where the Bard’s songs and melodies affect gameplay.

Pretty cool stuff, right? If you’re as excited as we are to see one of the most amazing RPG series live again, then head over to inXile’s Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter campaign and pledge your support!

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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

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

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)!

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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).

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Upcoming Events

2015.06.25 – Release 19
2015.07.25 – SotA at Classic Game Fest 2015
2015.07.30 – Release 20
2015.08.27 – Release 21
2015.08.28 – SotA at Syndcon
2015.09.04 – SotA at Dragon Con
2015.09.24 – Release 22
2015.10.29 – Release 23