Update of the Avatar #134 – 2015.07.17: Batten Disease Drive, Obsidian Architecture, Pledge Merge/Split Countdown, NBNN Interviews Starr, Tantalus Town Guide, Trees, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Architecture of the Obsidians!
• One Month Countdown for Pledge Splits and Merges
• Do you have a Public Cache Chest Quest?
• NBNN Interview With Starr Long
• 10% Bonus on Player Owned Towns & Capping Overland Map Access to 230 Towns
• Tantalus Consortium Visual Guide to Player Owned Town Submission Form
• 45 Day Countdown for 10% Summer Bonus (Now including Player Owned Towns) & Reward Expirations
• Community Sponsored SotA Con at Gen Con 2015!
• Batten Disease Charity Drive by Rize Up Gaming
• Koldar’s Trading Card Giveaway
• The Kobold Mask 4-More Pack
• Tree Lovers Delight!
• In-game Community Weekend Events
• Upcoming Events
• World Builder/Level Designer and VFX Artist Job Openings
• Recommended Games to Back

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Architecture of the Obsidians!

[This is a continuation of A Dev+ Forum Post by Scottie Jones first reported in Update #132]

Having created the primary building blocks for the large outer walls, I’m now moving forward with sets of smaller items I can use to decorate the scenes I’ll later be creating, and that others can use to add hints of Obsidian architecture to regions of the world that may have been touched by them. Here we have a set of items I’ve already determined we need based on some simple sketches I did for the Chamber of Souls.

In addition to these smaller items, I’ve also created a few new, larger building-block elements for use with the exterior map areas as well as the underground. The two you see below are some Barracks with an accessible guard tower above it, as well as my initial work-in-progress for the Chamber of Souls itself.

Here are these same items as seen in the game editor, placed on a somewhat starkly-lit test-art map I created to make sure all the materials were rendering properly. Eventually I’ll be testing them out on a much more environmentally rich map (such as Hutch’s swamp, as I did with the earlier wall pieces, to take full advantage of the softening effect of the atmospheric fog.

And lastly, we have the gloomy interior of the Chamber of Souls. The first image shows the scene from a floating point above, so you can enjoy the elaborate stone and inlaid metal floor dais where the Obsidian Council once met long ago. The second image is from the perspective of a player standing on the dais near one of the thrones, looking up into the domed ceiling.

 

Of course, as they say, “the devil’s in the details”… These spaces are all bare-bones and empty until I finish a few more details, additions, and decorations. I look forward to showing you more as I continue!

Scottie ^_^

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One Month Countdown for Pledge Splits and Merges

As many of you know, we have a very complicated pledge reward structure where backers with the same pledge tier get different rewards based on when they backed (i.e. the eras of Royal Founder, Founder, and Benefactor). With our announcement last week of certain pledge and pledge reward expirations, that complication just increased by an order of magnitude (or maybe several orders of magnitude). And over the rest of this year, there will be even more pledge and reward expirations, adding more and more orders of magnitude complexity to our ability to track which backer gets which rewards at which tiers.

Because of this growing complexity and the labor costs to manage it, we no longer believe it is a good use of our backers funds to continue offering pledge splits or merges after the End of Summer Reward Expirations. Therefore, we are starting a 1-month countdown to get all pledge split and merger requests processed. Backers will have thru August 17, 2015 to request a pledge split or merger, after which we will no longer be able to do them.

We will continue to transfer whole pledges from one account to another. The only exception will be pledges that were purchased on Steam, or those where the Steam key has been claimed. In those cases the Steam access is permanently attached to your personal Steam account and you will no longer be able to transfer or sell $45 of your pledge value.

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Do you have a Public Cache Chest Quest?

[This message that Lord British shared in Update #129 bears repeating as a lead-in for this article]

Greetings Avatars,

Many months ago, I began to see the amazing creativity of our community in the creation of quests. They were hacked in by players despite little intentional support from us to make this easy or powerful. Until now, live players had to stand in real-time to be the waypoints along any quest line. Likewise live players had to take or give any items or be the obstacles along any quest path. We began to explore ways we could create tools to help increase the ease and power of such community created events. Our goal is to allow players to craft deeper quests directly into the game world itself, to be able to leave clues in the world 24/7, and to have treasure (and ultimately protection of those treasures) that do not demand 24/7 live players to be ever present.

In R19, we are releasing the 1st features along this path. Writable books & notes and chest permissions open a broad new pallet for community quest making. Imagine for example, a community purposefully spreading a rumor about the local grave digger and his sinister nocturnal activities… players could write and leave notes in the graveyard they created in their town, describing how this grave digger bargained for body parts of deceased pets in graveyards in allied towns graveyards, or a specific person’s home. Sequences of notes could be placed such that false leads abound, and only carefully following the trail from the start will lead through the correct sequence. Finally when the ultimate destination is found, a new cache chest could be placed (which allows all visitors to take anything out of or put anything into it). The creators of this quest could stock that chest with pet call whistles that summon the supposedly restored pet. Pets that the gravedigger may have brought back to life!

All of these notes and cache chests must be left on a player owned lot at the moment and all “treasure” left in the cache chest must be stocked by the owners as well, but I believe this is an important first step in creating tools for powerful player created quests.

Good luck in your quest building, I look forward to experiencing and celebrating some of the best ones created in each release!

– Lord British

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Duke Gréagóir started a Release 19 Event Forum thread asking community members to post their public cache chest quests. Here are a few excerpts:

Do you have a Public Cache Chest? Public Cache Chest Quest…

Duke Gréagóir: Let me know if you have one where I can get to it and I will drop off something for you in there…Mine is outside located in PaxLair downtown at the Pavilion with the Adobe Stables. Area: PaxLair (POT_forest_metropolis_01_paxlair) Loc: (51.4, 38.0, 197.7)…This is a NO HOST event as it is occurring all over Novia at any time.

Kendric Darrow: I have one in Owls Head, opposite Firelotus tavern, behind the lot which is used as a crafting centre. The chest is inside the house, left front corner…This is exciting!

Lained: I’ve one outside my home in Ashhaven, just follow the road left past the town crier.

Alexander: Finally have my community chest set up. I am located in Soltown in the Founders keep, near the cemetery. I also left a writable book in the chest with a simple message. The chest is outside, but not in plain sight. Look by the wind tower. Area: Soltown (Novia_R1_City_Soltown) Loc: (-147.0, 28.4, -96.5)

Spoon: Soltown. Right after the refugee camp on the right. Got them marked with baguettes, since folks don’t spot the difference between public and non-public chests. Usually fill them with good for new folks stuff and books in the other.

There are 4 pages to this thread, so be sure and check out all the community created quests!

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NBNN Interview With Starr Long

Lazarus interviews Starr Long on twitch.tv about the upcoming Release 20! Starr talked about a wide range of subjects ranging from Chaotic philosophy to the challenges of building a narrative structure on top of a sandbox. Perhaps though the most intriguing topic was the news that we are experimenting with a new usage based advancement system for skills that we might see in game as soon as R21.

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10% Bonus on Player Owned Towns & Capping Overland Map Access to 230 Towns

In communications back in February with the Dev+ SotA community (see forum post here), we mentioned we were thinking that somewhere around 200 Player Owned Towns might be our limit for Episode 1. Now that we have begun allocating Overland Map locations for Player Owned Towns (PoTs), we decided to cap the number of PoTs with Overland map access rights at 230 total. We were at 220 when we announced this cap and sold out of the remaining 10 in less than a day.

We are still making PoTs available that do not have Overland map access rights, but can connect to another PoT that has Overland map access. Additionally, PoTs that do not have Overland map access (or have foregone that right), and have not requested connection to another PoT with Overland map access, will be connected to one NPC town in the quadrant/biome you requested (you may request a specific NPC town to connect to in your PoT Submission form and we will do our best to honor such requests).

Additionally, we are including Player Owned Towns (with or without Overland map access rights) in our 10% Summer Bonus promotion! Starting at 10am CST, July 10 and running through Midnight CST, August 31, 2015, you will receive an additional 10% bonus added to your Store Credit for any Player Owned Town purchases/upgrades (including monthly payment plans).

(NOTE: The 10% Bonus will be applied to your Store Credit within 24 hours of your purchase; 10% Bonus is for pledge or Player Owned Town purchases/upgrades/payment plans only and does not apply to Add-On, Stretch Goal, or Make a Difference Store purchases; Existing Store Credit applied toward a purchase does not qualify for the 10% Bonus)

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Tantalus Consortium Visual Guide to Player Owned Town Submission Form

The Tantalus Consortium, led by community member Blake Blackstone, has created a very impressive, 36 page, visual guide helping to explain the Player Owned Town Submission Form that town owners use to submit their town design requests. If you’re a town owner and haven’t entered your town data yet (and there’s still over a hundred of you that haven’t), we recommend you check out the Tantalus visual guide. Here is the original forum post that includes the link to the guide. Check out these samples of the 36-page guide:

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45 Day Countdown for 10% Summer Bonus (Now including Player Owned Towns) & Reward Expirations

If you were thinking of pledging your support to the development of Shroud of the Avatar, upgrading your existing pledge, or purchasing/upgrading a Player Owned Town, now’s a great time to do it! To celebrate twenty months of successful monthly releases, we are offering a 10% Summer Pledge/Town Bonus! Starting at 10am CST, July 10 and running through Midnight CST, August 31, 2015, you will receive an additional 10% bonus added to your Store Credit for any pledge purchases/upgrades, or Player Owned Town purchases/upgrades (including monthly pledge or town payment plans).

(NOTE: The 10% Bonus will be applied to your Store Credit within 24 hours of your purchase; 10% Bonus is for Pledges and Player Owned Town purchases/upgrades/payment plans only and does not apply to Add-On, Stretch Goal, or Make a Difference Store purchases; Existing Store Credit applied toward a purchase does not qualify for the 10% Bonus)

Additionally, as we enter the last half of 2015, and major milestones such as Alpha and Beta are looming closer on the horizon, we will be announcing a series of expiration events regarding pledges, rewards, and related services. The first expiration event coincides with the end of our 10% Summer Bonus promotion at Midnight CST, August 31, 2015. These expirations include:

• Select Pledges (including their specific rewards):
  • $220 Patron Pledge
  • $375 Navigator Pledge
  • $450 Developer Pledge
• Signed physical goods (Patron pledge and above)
• Home and basement stacking (Ancestor pledge and above)
• Secondary lots (Lord pledge and above)
• Player Owned Towns with Overland Map Access

Please know that these expirations DO NOT affect any backers that already have these rewards. If you already got ’em, then you get to keep ’em! These expirations only affect new backers, or existing backers that have not upgraded to the specified pledge tiers before the expiration date.

[NOTE: Any payment plans started for the specified pledge tiers (Patron, Ancestor, & Lord) or above prior to Midnight CST, August 31, 2015 will not be affected by these expirations]

[Click here for more details…]

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Community Sponsored SotA Con at Gen Con 2015!

[From a SotA Public Forum Post by Sir Stile Teckel]

Did you go in 2014 and want to go again in 2015? Did you miss it in 2014 and after hearing how cool it was you wish you had went?

No worries, I am doing it again for 2015! Announcing SotA Con @Gen Con 2015!

Last year I hosted a player meet at Gencon. This was a series of various meets at different places at different times so that people could enjoy the convention as well as meet players from SotA!

Read more…

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Batten Disease Charity Drive by Rize Up Gaming

Rize Up Gaming (www.twitch.tv/rizeupgaming), the company that sponsored the Water.org charity drive in May, is starting one of their largest marathons of the year, the Third Annual Natasha Beck Charity Drive, raising money for the Charlotte and Gwenyth Gray Foundation to help fund research into curing Batten Disease! It will last from 3pm PST on Friday, July 17, until 11:59pm PST on July 27!

For more information on Batten Disease, please visit this link: http://curebatten.org/

Go here to donate to the Rize Up Gaming Batten charity drive: http://www.gofundme.com/zjr4a6p

Community member Amber Raine (of Avatar’s Radio) put together this video in support of the drive:

 

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Koldar’s Trading Card Giveaway

In conjunction with our 10% Summer Bonus promotion, community member, and forum moderator, Koldor, is generously giving away 28 MtG Shield of Avatar trading cards signed by Lord British! Check out his forum post for how to qualify: Giveaway – Celebrate the Summer Bonus!

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The Kobold Mask 4-More Pack

The Kobold Mask 4-Pack was so popular that we’ve added the Kobold Mask 4-More Pack to the Add-On Store! This pack contains the following masks: 1) Kobold Tusker, 2) Kobold Elder, 3) Kobold Veteran Fighter, and 4) Kobold Worker:

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Tree Lovers Delight!

We are introducing trees and large plants as decorations in Release 20 (launching July 30). Yay! Now you can give your property a touch of natural beauty with this wide assortment of trees and plants available in the Add-On Store!

Tree height is measured in one-story units based on Row House story heights. Here is an example with the White Oak trees next to a Row House:

 

White Oak Tree 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 one-story tall trees
• 2 two-story tall trees
• 1 three-story tall tree
• 1 four-story tall tree

 

Common Linden Tree 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 one-story tall trees
• 2 two-story tall trees
• 1 three-story tall tree
• 1 four-story tall tree

 

Yellow Cedar Tree 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 one-story tall trees
• 2 two-story tall trees
• 1 three-story tall tree
• 1 four-story tall tree

 

Common Aspen Tree 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 one-story tall trees
• 2 two-story tall trees
• 1 three-story tall tree
• 1 four-story tall tree

 

Blue Spruce Tree 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 one-story tall trees
• 2 two-story tall trees
• 1 three-story tall tree
• 1 four-story tall tree

 

Fountain Palm Tree 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 one-story tall trees
• 2 two-story tall trees
• 1 three-story tall tree
• 1 four-story tall tree

 

Saguaro Cactus 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 small cacti
• 2 medium cacti
• 2 large cacti

 

Saguaro Multi-Branch Cactus 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 small cacti
• 2 medium cacti
• 2 large cacti

 

Saguaro Broken Branch Cactus 6-Pack

Set includes:

• 2 small cacti
• 2 medium cacti
• 2 large cacti

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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

• Novian Academy – The Philosophy of Order (Fridays, 5pm CST)
  • Weekly discussion on the philosophy of Order and their interconnection to the virtues. Learn how to overcome the misconceptions of order and chaos and instead learn about the realities behind the creation of both the Order philosophy and the virtues. (/zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre)
• The R19 Unreliable Travel Guide
  • The Unreliable Travel Guide, created at the SotA Writing Round Table, 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. (details)
• “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!
• Vengeance Madness (Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • This is an Open PvP event where everyone fights it out in a royal rumble to see who the ultimate death dealer is! (City of Vengeance; /zone Bambino LudoVate)
• 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)
• 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 (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 (Ester Cove Party Boat, /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, July 18

• 9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours
  • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. (/zone Winfield)
• 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)
• 12:30pm CST An Archaeology Event with Greagoir
  • An event where you play as “Indiana Jones” and adventure on a quest to find “something”. “Something” will be determined right before the event. (Paxlair, Duke Greagoir’s Houseboat at the pier, /zone Dara Brae; details)
• 6:00pm CST Vengeance 1v1 Tournament
  • The longest running Player vs Player tournament in Shroud of the Avatar. (City of Vengeance)
• 7:00pm CST Battens Disease Fundraiser Block Party
  • Join the citizens of Port Phoenix as we dance, party, fight, race and partake in any number of random events this Saturday as we celebrate and help raise awareness and funds for the 3rd Annual Natasha Beck Battens Disease Charity! Prizes will be given away courtesy of WhosGamingNow! (Port Phoenix, or /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre)

Sunday, July 19

• 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. (Republic Town Hall, Port Phoenix, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Jack Knyfe)
• 2:00pm CST Hangout of the Avatars – Roleplay in SotA
  • The next community hangout will be on roleplay in SotA. I’m going to let this one run kind of wild so we’ll keep agenda very loooooose. Currently on agenda: What is Roleplay (casual, immersive, event driven, etc.)? What do we need for roleplay (game mechanics, animations/emotes, visual/clothing? (Hosted by Duke Violation; details)
• 3:00pm CST Gustball
  • Two teams are pitted against each other in a sporting event not dissimilar from soccer, football, and basketball. The object of the game is to Gust a Gustball around the field and into your opponent’s goal (PaxLair, /zone Bambino Ludovate, 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! (Merriston, west of Ardoris, 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. (Merriston, west of Ardoris, 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 19 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

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Upcoming Events

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

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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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Recommended Games to Back

Crowfall

In this Throne War Simulator, characters are persistent but the campaign worlds are not, thanks to voxel technology which enables fully-destructible settings. A seamless blend of an MMO with a large-scale strategy game, players are immortal champions, traveling between realms to fight in an eternal War of the Gods.