Update of the Avatar #161 – 2016.01.29: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Final Wipe & Lot Placement, Shooter Jennings Countach Album World Premier, Play R26 Now, Valentine Goodies, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Play Release 26 Now!
• The FireLotus Release 26 Party!
• R26 Patch Notes
• SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Final Wipe and Lot Selection
• Shooter Jennings’ In-Game Worldwide Premier of New Album “Countach”
• The Entrance to Artifice
• Valentine Goodies
• New Player Homes
• Checkers Anyone?
• The Giant Yew Tree
• In-game Community Events
• This Week In the News
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

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Play Release 26 Now!

Release 26 successfully launched yesterday, January 28, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to explore, including:

• Full Wipe to allow for fundamental changes to several systems, including crafting and quests
• New Summon Chaos Daemon Spell, plus polished/balanced dozens of existing spells & skills
• New Consider System to show level difference between player and enemy
• Points of Interest polish added to 16 existing scenes
• 5 New scenes including Resolute, Aerie, North Varisalla Foothils, Sanctus Spine, and Dysborg Ruins (PVP zone)
• New Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year items
• New Grasslands Biome Template for Player Owned Towns
• 21 New Player Owned Towns
• New Crafting System that allows for material modifiers, gear naming, components, etc.
• Agriculture System Balance/Polish
• Performance Imrovements
• Language Translation Progress
• …and more!

Check out the Release 26 Instructions update for detailed information about all the newcontent.

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The Final Grand Tour Quest

We introduced the Grand Tour Quest in Release 10 in september 2014, with the Cavalier Hat quest reward! Now here we are in Release 26, and it is with bittersweet feelings that we announce our final Grand Tour Quest, designed to guide you through all the new content. The Bowler Hat will be the final Grand Tour Quest reward, and can only be unlocked during this Release (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in soon and talk to all the Tour Guides!

If you need help with the R26 Quest, community member E N V Y has provided this helpful video walk-thru (Thanks Envy!):

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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 25!

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 26 Player Instructions

Release 26 Known Issues

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Avatars Radio Presents: The FireLotus Release 26 Party!

This month’s traditional FireLotus Release Party, the first of 2016, was held in Phoenix Fields! Fireworks and Cupid Wings were in abundant supply! Here are a few screenshots:

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R26 Patch Notes

Thanks to all our community members that jumped right into this Release 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.

January 29, 2015  

Build Number 370, 6:30 PM

Changes:

• Now able to use the “Enter” key to confirm a pop-up message
• Picking up the key in East Perennial Trail no longer makes the entire house disappear
• Heart cloaks names updated to match add-on store
• Food buff channels now working
• Aerie NPCs now working properly
• Polish pass on male 2-handed blade animations
• Fog is now working properly with smoke visual effects
• Fixed water lot placement in the POT Grasslands template
• Aerie Town Crier now responds to double click, really.
• Lowering the water level 1 foot to keep waves out of the shore in Aerie
• Fixed / polished materials on Plate armor and Clockwork pets
• Fixed the bug that caused blank recipe book upon learning a recipe
• Fixed timing on fire damage over time visual effects
• Summon demon swap out to low poly version.
• Fixed a small transform error on the daemon pet.
• Attached light to flying watcher (the light did not previously rise along with the watcher while it flew)
• Removed extra Ardoris map from the Novia Map Atlas Pack
• NPCs can now move about under the Yew Tree decoration
• Various performance optimizations
• All inventory bundles pushed to players from pledges or add-ons now have the word “Reward” in them for easier finding and context
• Removed developer only and pledge items from some merchants
• Grand tour guides now properly give quest credit
• Fix for most of the see through houses when viewed at range.
• Fixing the LODs on the lord marshall house to not cull as soon.
• Character names still show up in social UI (friends/party/guild) even if character is deleted
• Fix combat shop npc building
• Fixed improper cloud layers on island skies
• Error message now displayed if attempting to promote a player to leader, but target character has been deleted.
• Knights of Norgard now properly exit conversation upon saying goodbye, and offer to open the keep gates when appropriate.
• Chest Armor now shows up properly on Alchemy Table
• NPCs will no longer force-open a conversation if other players are in the same scene.
• Fixing conversations for animals and oracle minions
• Arabella in Resolute now responds properly
• Fixed certain Aerie NPCs so they display their name overhead when asked
• Fixed dialog for elf child in Blood River Massacre
• Fixed animation hold / alignment issues with the Daemon holding his Trident of Chaos
• Fixed typo in Oracle dialog
• Dye Preview fixes: Changed the character sheet to prevent equipmant changes while in preview mode and made it display a message if attempted to make it clear. This prevents a lot of odd use-cases from happening. Also, the equipment tab in the inventory will no longer break the preview UI.
• Fixed issues with turning in Stanley’s notes to Cugel in Ardoris
• Added more keywords to complete Cai Lau / Sheng Lau quest
• Various fixes / polish in Aerie (floating objects, stuck spots, etc.)
• Fixed rusty weapons not being able to be salvaged
• Fixed bows/wands/staff salvage producing leather
• Fixed wands and staves to work as bludgeons (really, we mean it this time)
• Crystal ore nodes now properly update their collision when harvested
• Fixed dialog for minor prisoners in the Clink
• Now able to fire off a ranged free-attack when auto-selecting a target
• Disabled heat distortion effect throughout our game for R26.  It destroys the frame rate even in small doses.
• Removed half the Oracle crawlers and fliers from Ardoris for performance
• Fixing journal entry for Brigid in Resolute to denote that Path of Courage currently ends in Resolute.
• Changed confusing reference to boat location in Blood River tutorial
• Fixed buff and debuff icons not disappearing when the effects expire
• Chairs: Added interactive text to many chair prefabs (some already had this text) and updated the “can’t sit here” error message players see to include these interactive text labels (so players will, for example, soon see messages saying they can’t sit on “Wooden Chair” instead of “?borg_chair01?”)
• Fixed Night Vision effect cutting out randomly

Known Issues:

• The Castle Wall Sets are not being delivered properly yet.
• Quest to take message from Resolute Lord Marshal to the Captain in Ardoris  is not working
• Summoned Daemon is invisible except for trident and visual effects
• We do not yet officially support Windows 10. If you have upgraded to Windows 10 you may experience instability
• Lighting and fog levels are still being tuned to work with the new weather system, expect anomalies
• Weather has not been propagated to all scenes yet so there may be mismatches
• Death and Resurrection do not work properly in the team arena
• Water lots in Dynamic Player Owned Towns can currently only be placed along shorelines, not on docks
• If you upgrade from a property owning pledge between data wipes you will receive extra lot deeds.
• Time is not in synchronized between scenes that have the new sky vs. the old sky
• If your video drivers are out of date characters will appear as if they are covered in triangles.
• Some cities are experiencing performance spikes
• Some pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support.
• 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
• ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT

[Complete Patch Notes…]

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Final Wipe and Lot Selection

[A message from Starr Long]

Greetings Avatars,

We are incredibly excited to announce that we have scheduled final lot selection and our final wipe, including all social data (names, friends, guilds), for Release 32, July 28, 2016! After Release 32, we will no longer be wiping the game state. Your characters and your properties will be persistent from that date forward.

Please understand that final wipe is not “launch”. We will continue to be working to finish the game’s story content well past final wipe, while we remain in Early Access. Until then, the game is neither “launched” nor complete, but as mentioned below, the concept of “launch” may not even be applicable to this development model. Launch will be when we pull the game out of Early Access and we start marketing / public relation campaigns to pull in new customers. We have no plans to do those things in July. We know that this plan will generate a lot of questions and stir up plenty of emotions, but we firmly believe this is the best possible course of action for the project.

By Release 32, our goal is that the virtual world and economy will be fully functional and reasonably balanced. Additionally, the Love storyline will be polished and playable from beginning to end, with all characters and quests complete. The Truth and Courage storylines will also be completely playable from beginning to end, although not in as polished a state as Love. We are purposely holding the finale part of the storyline that ties the three threads together until the entire plot has been polished. This allows us to really focus on the new user experience and one storyline instead of spreading that effort out too thinly. ***Please note that the story is nonlinear and non-exclusive. It is designed to allow free movement between the three storylines and it is only until all three are complete that you move to the finale (this structure will be very familiar to Ultima players). So just because you finish the Love story, you are not excluded in any way from experiencing the other plots.

As part of all of this, we are also announcing the 2016 Spring and Summer Expiration Events.

We are expiring approximately half of the currently available pledges during the Spring 2016 Expiration Event, which occurs at 10:30 AM CST, May 2, 2016 (following the next wipe during Release 29). We are then expiring all of the remaining pledges and Player Owned Towns during the Summer 2016 Expiration Event, which occurs at 10:30 AM CST, August 1, 2016 (following the final wipe during Release 32). After August 1 a purchase of the game on our website or through steam will only include access to the game, it will not include any pledge rewards.

We are also expiring the Stretch Goal Store on February 29th at 10:30 AM CST. After that date, those items will no longer be available and we will no longer be considering those stretch goals as part of Episode 1. As part of that, we have changed these items so they can be re-gifted now. Additionally, Release 26 is officially the final Grand Tour for Episode 1 (so you better log in to get the very last Grand Tour quest reward!).

Finally, we are going to be making almost all the add-ons and pledge rewards (except tax free lots) available through gameplay in single player offline mode. Players will still have to earn enough gold to purchase them, or gather enough resources to craft them in-game. For reference, the cost to purchase a Castle Deed in Offline Mode will be at least $120 million gold and it will have a very high tax rate. Players that purchased add-on items and received pledge rewards will start the game with them, just like they do now.

We have decided to do all of this because wiping player progress decreases player engagement and prevents us from getting the economy of the game started. It has also caused us to push polish until later in the project which is a traditional approach to development, but we are not approaching this traditionally. We are also going to stop using the terms “Alpha” and “Beta.” Our product is in a constant state of development and we have been live since November 2013, so using those terms no longer makes sense. Starting with Release 26, we are going to adopt the term “Early Access,” instead.

Here is a list of all the work going in between Release 27 (February) and Release 32 (July). Please note that we will not be posting a revised Q1 schedule, but you can expect the Q2 schedule at the normal time when we launch Release 28 in March.

Pre-Wipe Schedule:

• Performance: We will be spending a great deal of each release making improvements to performance via optimizations and fallback routines.
• New User Experience: This part of the game will be much more guided and instructive. It will also be better paced with a bigger feeling of accomplishment when leaving the starting areas and having completed the beginning of the game.
• Story: The Love storyline will be polished and playable from beginning to end, with all characters and quests complete. The Truth and Courage storylines will also be completely explorable.
• Character Art: Major focus will be put on upgrading the visuals of the characters, with special attention paid to wearables, skin, hair, and face.
• Animation: Polish passes will be done across all animations in the game with emphasis on speeding up the combat animations to feel MUCH more responsive.
• Combat Balance: Through a combination of regular internal play sessions, community feedback, and metrics analysis, we will be balancing combat across all levels of difficulty, magic/combat schools, gear equipped, PVP, and PVE. We will also finish the last few gaps in skill trees (Shields, Ranged, and Chaos) and will add the ability for unlearning skills from trainers.
• Economy / Crafting / Loot Balance: Through a combination of regular internal play sessions, community feedback, and metrics analysis, we will be balancing crafting across all levels of difficulty and crafting schools. This includes tuning resource generation (with higher yields in PVP areas), vendor pricing, success chances, and loot. We will also flesh out the crafting skill trees for more breadth and depth to allow for more specialization within schools (ex. Weaponsmith vs. Armorsmith).
• NPCs: Polish passes will be made across the characters and creatures, with special emphasis on human NPCs. You can expect much more polished heads (for example, starting with Arabella). The Wisp will also finally make an appearance as the second support pet (Water Elemental was the first).
• Fast Travel: Crafted magical fast travel items created through crafting will appear in the game to replace the /zone currently in game.
• Item Use Logging: Players will be able to view which players have used interactive items on their player property including doors, chests, and perhaps books.
• Single Player Offline Features: Single Player Offline will differ from Online play in the following ways.
  • Companions: Various characters will adventure with you.
  • Pause / Save: Players will at least be able to pause game play, but we hope to also allow the creation of multiple save games.
  • NPC Economy: The economy in offline mode will be tuned so that creating and selling items to NPCs will be profitable.
  • Spawn Rules: In Offline Mode, some scenes will never respawn creatures and resources (clearing a dungeon for example). The scenes that do respawn may do so on a very slow timer, or only if there is a game state change that requires them to respawn (ex. a Town Siege by the Undead). We will balance this to make sure the game feels like it is reacting to the player but is also providing enough resources for crafting.
  • All Items Available: After positive response from a recent poll with our backers, we have decided to make all items from pledges and add-ons available in game through crafting or gold purchase.
• Sorting Algorithms for Multiplayer: Algorithms to support sorting players into instances with “people they know” will be polished and iterated.
• Novia Overworld: A major polish pass will be made across the Novia Overworld map to better align locations and shapes to the original cloth map drawing, while simultaneously normalizing the scales of objects.
• Tier Markers and Enemy Consider System: All adventure scenes that are directly accessed from the overworld will have tier markers near the entrance to indicate difficulty. We will also be introducing a consider system for enemies so you will know approximately how hard they are in relation to your level.
• User Interface Polish: A pass will be made through the UI to make improvements on visuals, usability, and customizability
• Lot Selection Sequence: This will allow us to sequence players for lot selection without having to limit who can play the game. Players will be able to view their group and start time on their account page. See separate post for the details about how lot selection sequence will work and the start times for each group.
• Physical Goods: As soon as the Novia Overworld task listed above is complete we will begin manufacture and shipping of the physical goods with the goal to have this completed by the end of 2016.

Pre-Wipe Feature / Content:

This is a complete list of all content and features that will be present in the game by Release 32.

• Combat
  • Use Based Advancement.
  • Classless System with fully customizable builds from all schools.
  • 7 Combat Schools with 65+ Combat Skills.
    • Blade
    • Bludgeon
    • Heavy Armor
    • Light Armor
    • Polearm
    • Ranged
    • Shield
  • 9 Magic Schools with 85+ Magic Spells.
    • Air
    • Chaos
    • Death
    • Earth
    • Fire
    • Life
    • Moon
    • Sun
    • Water
  • 4 Strategy Schools with 35+ Skills.
    • Focus
    • Subterfuge
    • Tactics
    • Taming
  • Free Attack and Auto Attack options.
  • Fixed Hotbar and Dynamically Dealt Deck options.
  • 20+ Weapon Types: Swords, Daggers, Polearms, Axes, Hammers, Bows, Staves, Wands, etc.
  • 12+ Armor Types: Cloth, Leather, Augmented Leather, Chain, Plate, Epic Plate, etc.
• Movement: Walk, Run, Sprint, Jump, Swim, Tumble.
• World & Story: 150+ scenes.
  • 75+ Outdoor Adventure Scenes.
  • 25+ Dungeons & Sewers: All connected as one vast Underworld.
  • 40+ Towns.
  • 6 Control Points that block access to different parts of the map until taken (or snuck through).
  • 10 Open PVP Areas: Obsidian Ruins, Shardfalls, etc.
  • 2 Overworld Scenes.
  • 12+ Random Encounters.
  • 100s of unique NPCs with names, conversations, and schedules.
  • 10+ Merchant Types.
  • 100s of quests.
  • Love Storyline Complete and polished.
  • Truth and Courage Storylines fully explorable
  • Minimaps for starting scenes and the Love storyline scenes.
  • Journal.
• Creatures: 30+
  • Bosses: Dragons, Trolls, Phoenix, Daemons.
  • Magical: Elementals, Golems, Chest Mimics, Barrel Mimics, Imps, Wisps, Slimes, Maneaters, Flesh Flayers
  • Undead: Skeletons, Zombies, Liches, Ghosts.
  • Humanoids: Elves, Kobolds, Bandits, Satyrs, Fauns, Reshapers.
  • Creatures/Animals: Bears, Wolves, Corpions, Spiders, Deer, Rabbits, Cats, Dogs, Horses, Llamas, Chickens, Donkeys, Turkeys, Ravens, Eagles, Automaton Cats/Dogs/Ravens, Crocodiles, Pigs, Sheep
• Character Customization
  • Facial Feature Morphing, Hairstyles, Skin Tone, Eye Color, Hair Color.
  • 65+ Emotes including emotes that can be taught/traded between players.
  • 9 Slots for Gear: Head, Chest, Arms, Legs, Feet, Finger, Neck, Back, Musical Instrument.
  • 100s of Wearables including dresses, masks, hats, cloaks, and armor.
  • 20+ Pets including eagles, rabbits, cats, dogs, lynx, etc.
• Crafting
  • 100s of recipes for gear, decorations, potions, food, etc.
  • 100s of modifiers on crafted gear based on materials, critical success, location, and enchantments.
  • Recipes that can be found, purchased, or discovered.
  • 50+ materials to be gathered.
  • Classless crafting system that can be freely mixed with combat skills.
  • Public and Player Vendors to sell goods.
  • Purchase Order system to buy goods through vendors.
  • Specialized Trainers to teach skills.
  • Regional Economies with relative abundance/scarcity of goods.
  • Player created books and book printing.
  • 6 Schools of Gathering with 20+ Skills.
    • Agriculture
    • Field Dressing
    • Fishing
    • Foraging
    • Forestry
    • Mining
  • 5 Schools of Refining with 5+ Skills.
    • Butchery
    • Milling
    • Smelting
    • Tanning
    • Textiles
  • 5 Schools of Production with 15+ Skills.
    • Alchemy
    • Blacksmithing
    • Carpentry
    • Cooking
    • Tailoring
• Housing
  • 6 Lot Sizes: Row, Village, Town, City, Keep, Castle.
  • 50+ different houses.
  • 50+ different basements.
  • 100s of decorations including furniture, walls, fences, paintings, rugs, food, trophies, statues, trees, etc.
  • Detailed decoration system to make your place truly unique.
  • Land Tax System.
  • Housing Permissions so multiple players can share the same land.
  • Dynamic Player Owned Towns where owners can customize lot placement and town decorations.
  • Servants and house pets.
  • Public Cache Chests.
• Social / Misc
  • Friends.
  • Guilds.
  • 5 Musical Instruments (Lute, Drum, Piano, Harp, Flute) with songs played via ABC/MML files including ability to play as a synched group.
  • Text Chat with multiple channels (guild, party, private).
  • Radio linked to customizable webstreams.
  • Banking System.
  • DnD 1 playable on a teletype machine.

Post-Wipe Schedule

By now you might be asking yourself “but what about feature X?” With this focus on polish and functionality, it is indeed true that some features and content will be going live after the final wipe. We intend to continue monthly updates for the life of the project, so nothing about that will change with the wipe. Please rest assured that we are still planning on getting the content and features below in those monthly releases. Here is the list of Post-Wipe features and content. As before, we will be releasing quarterly schedule updates for when these will go live. Please note that our plan is to complete all of the below before starting work on Episode 2.

• Player Housing
  • Magic Movers: Store/move a house/basement with all decorations intact.
  • Fencing/Wall Tools: Snapping together automatically and selecting complete sets to surround your lot.
  • Gear Decorations: Placing armor, weapons, etc., as decorations in your home.
  • Spawner Decorations: Placeable items that spawn a certain number of creatures like spider eggs / webs that spawn spiders and coffins that spawn skeletons.
  • Renting Rooms: Players can rent rooms to other players within their homes and basements.
• Player-Owned Towns: Please note that following R26 we will have a thread in the forums to discuss PoTs and address specific questions about Static vs. Dynamic (among other things).
  • Multiple Templates for each Biome: For the final wipe, we will have 1 template for each biome. Post-wipe, expanding each biome to have 2-3 template options will be our highest priority for housing. As more templates come online, we will also create tech that allows us to swap a biome in a town without deleting everyone’s stuff.
  • Custom Static Player Owned Towns: As soon as we have multiple templates, we will begin working down the list of players who wish to have custom static towns. Order will be based on size and purchase date (i.e. the oldest and biggest will be built first). Please note that as long as you have filled in your form with a town name and template selection by 10:30 CST on May 27, 2016, your POT will be in the game as a dynamic POT.
  • POT Blessings: Blessings from objects placed in the town that scale based on occupancy.
  • Dynamic Overworld Indicators: Dynamic visuals that reflect occupancy (total and current) including the presence of nested PoTs.
  • Dynamic Resource Spawners: Spawners that scale based on total population. The more lots placed the less resources (critters, minerals, and plants).
  • Offline POT: Ability to access your POT in offline mode
  • Tools
    • Snap-to-Adjacent-Lot for Lot Markers: Tool to allow you to place lots directly adjacent to each other and have them align automatically (useful for row lots in particular).
    • Start Point Selection Tool: Allows owners to pick from a set of start points.
    • POT Connection Tool: Allows players to define connections between adjacent POTs.
    • “Lawn Mower”: Clears foliage and trees.
    • Water Lot Placement on Docks: Allows placement of water lot markers on manmade structures like docks and waterfronts (not just beaches).
    • Island Water Lot Placement: Allows placement of Duke and Lord of the Manor Island lot markers.
• Player Customization
  • Armor Enamels and Leather Dyes: Ability to add enamels of different colors to metal armor and dye leather armor.
  • Custom Duke and Lord of the Manor Heads: As soon as we finish with overall character polish, we will begin work on these custom heads and the tech to allow them to be used instead of the heads from character creation.
  • Custom Family Crest (aka Heraldry): Unique art that can be displayed in game on shields, cloaks, and banners.
  • Multiple Characters: Multiple characters on a single account with shared property ownership, bank inventory and reputation.
• Crafting
  • Alcohol: Brewing beer and distilling liquor which has mixed effects on the player.
  • Teachable Crafting Recipes: Teaching recipes to other players, much like emotes.
  • Public Gardens: Rentable planting beds in public areas for those who don’t own land but want to do agriculture.
  • Player Made Items in Loot: Crafted gear sold to NPC Merchants will have a chance to appear as loot on humanoid enemies.
• Combat
  • Item Reputation & Affinity: Items will gain a reputation and affinity to the player wielding them after repetition of certain actions. That reputation will be represented by a name and an effect. For example, after killing 1000 dark elves, your trusty long sword is now called “Elf Bane” and deals an extra 2% of damage against dark elves.
  • Castle Defense Scenarios: PVP variations of control points.
  • Town Sieges: Story-related towns will periodically come under siege by the Cabalists. While under siege, the town’s functions will be affected.
  • Cover: The cover system will modify attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover.
• World/Story
  • Weather Game Effects: Weather will affect game conditions including watering plants for agriculture, damaging gear (rust), and slowing movement rates when raining or snowing.
  • Roving Encounters:  Roving encounters (patrolling creatures) on the overworld map can be engaged (pulling you into a scene) or avoided if you wish to sneak past.
  • Shipping Lanes: Boats will become more than just teleporters to different scenes. They will have schedules and a chance to have random encounters while at sea.
  • Theater System: Rentable theater spaces with paid seating and audience rules.
  • Unique Scene Visuals: Once we get Novia filled with all the needed scenes (some created by cloning existing scenes), we will circle back and start modifying all cloned scenes to be visually distinct.
  • Unique NPCs: Once we get Novia filled with all the story-related NPCs and generic clones for all other NPCs (guards, merchants, etc.) we will circle back and add unique names and conversations for all the non-story-related NPCs
  • Player-Designed NPCs: Some of these will be present by the final wipe, but this backer reward won’t be entirely fulfilled until we complete the “Unique NPCs” task above,
  • Place Items Anywhere: Being able to drop items anywhere in the world, not just player property is a hallmark of Ultimas and we hope to support this as well. Please note that this may only be available in offline mode.
  • Truth and Courage Storylines: Truth and Courage will be fully explorable by wipe, but not in a polished state.
  • Shroud Finale: The culmination where all three storylines come together
  • Minimaps: While the system will be complete and in place, we may not have maps generated for every scene prior to wipe. Pre-wipe priority will be placed on starting scenes and Love storyline scenes. Post-wipe we plan to have minimaps for every scene.
• Social
  • Voice Chat: We will integrate something like Teamspeak into the game to allow for voice chat between players
  • Leaderboards: These track player rankings in PVP, Guild Warfare, House Decoration (determined via voting), etc.
  • Name on Tombstones: Player names displayed in the Brittany graveyard and on the Ancestor pledge reward.
  • Name in Domesday Book: Player names displayed in the Domesday Book.
  • Mail: Players will be able to mail each other (or themselves) items for a fee. This might also be the way we deliver some content like vendor sale proceeds.

Thank you for everything you do for us including your monetary support (without which this wouldn’t even be possible), your feedback, and, of course, your patience. It has been a long road, but we are finally getting there.

Sincerely,
Starr Long
aka Darkstarr

Postscript: LOT SELECTION SEQUENCE

This is the final Lot Selection Sequence, including exact start times for each group. 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. This lot selection affects ALL lot placement including NPC towns and Player Owned Towns.

What will be the SORT ORDER?

• Tier
  • Era (Royal Founder, Founder, Benefactor)
    • Pledge Amount

What will be the NUMBER OF LOTS?

• The final number of lots (outside of Player Owned Towns) for final wipe will be locked at midnight on July 27 and will be based on pledges sold, plus Add-On Store lot allocations, plus 30% more for in game gold purchase.

When is START OF LOT SELECTION?

• Final Lot selection begins on July 28, 2016, at 11:00 CDT (NOTE: All times are given in 24 hour format).

Where is the LOT SELECTION LOCATION?

• Lot selection will happen in game.
• All lots will be available, but please note that you will have to complete the first two starting scenes (Island of Storms and Highvale/Solace Bridge/Bloodriver) before you can proceed to lot selection in game; which is why start times are 30 minutes after the start of Release 32.
• Lots in Player Owned Towns won’t be available until the owner puts down the appropriate markers. Once that is done, lot selection in PoTs will be governed by all the same rules

What will be the LOT SELECTION METHOD?

• Each pledge tier will get a LOT SELECTION WINDOW of time to select a SINGLE lot.
• Inside the tier window, the amount of time available to each sub-group will be based on their pledge era (Royal Founder, Founder, Benefactor) and total pledge contribution.

What is the LOT SELECTION WINDOW DURATION?

• Each Pledge Tier will get 64 hours total, with each subgroup starting in 5 hour increments, before the next group begins selection
• The lowest subgroup in a tier will get 24 hours to pick their lot before the next tier window would start.
• Lot selection for a group continues from their start time until the start of Release 33 on August 25, 2016, 10:30 CDT when we will begin selling lots inside the game and allowing those to be placed.

MISC:

• Add-On purchases do not factor into the dollar total that affects lot selection priority.
• EDIT: Many backers have inquired how to add dollars to their pledge.
  • Option 1: Start and cancel a payment plan
  • Option 2: Purchase a $25 Service voucher and send a request to support@portalarium. We will then add that $25 plus whatever amount of available store credits or gift coupons you wish to your pledge.
• Only 1 pledge allowed per account. If you have multiple pledges on a single account you will need to convert any extra pledges to add on store credit or move them into separate accounts prior to lot selection.
• You can change your mind and claim another lot at any time but there will be a time limit on how quickly you are able to do this.
• Only 1 Lot can be claimed per account until the start time for Group 91 (Add Ons and 2nd pledge lots)

What is the TIER ORDER?

• Tier order would start at the most expensive tiers and work backwards.
• Dollar amount over minimum pledge amount will grant priority by being sorted into groups (i.e. NOT literally per dollar, but rather greater/less than).
• Total dollar amount will never get you sorted before another tier nor before another era (i.e. it is the last sort variable).
• TIER ORDER Sequence:
  • Lord of the Manor 1 and 2 (Castle Lots and below)
  • Duke (Keep Lots and below)
  • Barons 1, 2, and 3 (City Lots and below)
  • Lord and Lord Marshal (Town Lots and below)
  • Knight and Knight Marshal (Town and Village Lots and below)
  • Edelmann and Edelmann Digital (Village Lots and below)
  • Citizen (Village Lots and below)
  • Developer (Row Lots)
  • Navigator (Row Lots)
  • Ancestor (Row Lots)
  • Add-On Lots plus Secondary Lots (Lord and above): These will not have any sub groups and would all go at once (but still before general public)
• SUB TIER ORDER Sequence and Duration
  • ROYAL FOUNDERS: (pre-May 20, 2013 Backers)
    • Group 1 = 64 hours
    • Group 2 = 59 hours
    • Group 3 = 54 hours
  • FOUNDERS:(Benefactors who received Founder gift pledge)
    • Group 4 = 49 hours
    • Group 5 = 44 hours
    • Group 6 = 39 hours
  • BENEFACTORS: (post-May 20, 2013 Backers)
    • Group 7 = 34 hours
    • Group 8 = 29 hours
    • Group 9 = 24 hours

OFFICIAL START TIMES FOR LOT SELECTION:.All times are in 24 hour format. These times will appear on your account page no later than June…

[Click here for the full schedule of Lot Selection Start Times…]

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Shooter Jennings’ In-Game Worldwide Premier of New Album “Countach”

[From a Release 26 Events Forum Post by Amber Raine]

Shroud of the Avatar
and
Avatars Radio
Presents

Join Shroud of the Avatar and Avatars Radio for what will without question be the Ultimate Concert of the decade!

SHOOTER JENNINGS with Marilyn Manson, Lord British and many other artists in his newest album Countach!

Join us in game for events: quests, parties and a world premier first time listen
February 22nd 2016. 7pm NBT

Groups from around New Britannia are joining forces to bring you the party you will never forget.

Thanks To:

Shooter Jennings – For the opportunity to bring you this party!
A (possible) live in-game performance of Shooter’s songs via ABC files! (thank you Eniko for the coding to make this possible!)
The New Britannia Theatre Troupe – For the stage performances and quests
Minerva et Team – Decorating the establishment the whole thing will take part on
Kazyn Phoenixfyre, Eclipse Maiden, and the entire variety of Twitch and Youtube Streamers
Wake Up New Britannia – The Pre-show!

Prizes from various groups as well could be yours including:
Pink Vinyl physical copies of Countach
In-Game Wax Cylinders of Shooter Jennings Tracks!

IF you only plan to attend one party in R26
THIS is the party you do not want to miss!

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The Entrance to Artifice

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Scottie Jones]

As most travelers and pilgrims to Xenos know,…across the rolling plains of Elysium,… several day’s journey beyond the River Fall,… and perched in a crook of the craggy northern arm of the aptly-named Rumor Peaks,… lay the mysterious and legendary destination known as Artifice. Though there are a variety of tales that claim to know the truth behind why it was created, and by whom,…the only rumors that draw hopeful visitors from across the world to gather with needy abandon in the halls of Xenos are the stories told of the dreams and wishes that can come true for those lucky enough to win the lottery granting permission to enter Artifice’s secluded depths.

This lottery, open to the rich and poor alike, grants the holder the power to pass beyond the glimmering golden door, and to feast one’s eyes finally upon those things which are close to any pilgrim’s heart. The lame, it is said, will be healed. The hungry, it is said, will be fed. The lonely, it is said, will find love. There are some who complain that those who are wealthy and affluent seem to win the lottery more often than those who are poor and in need of its miracles… But, honestly, who can truly judge the mercurial whims of whatever powerful forces created this mystical place? Surely, only the MOST worthy can hope to share in the miracles offered in Artifice, and if the groveling masses are kept at bay, allowing only the best of us to pass within its walls, then one can be assured that the rewards within must be truly fabulous,…and justly deserved.

Here is a little teaser of my work on the entrance of Artifice… My goal is meant to be a mix of the mythic gardens of Babylon and some ruined garden of earthly delights… Based loosely on an early concept by Stephen, and composed of existing props and set pieces,… the views of waterfalls, crumbling columns, and lush plants contrasted with the sparse and somewhat barren scenery below should make this place a fun little area to explore, and an interesting enigma to experience once players gain access to the marvels within. As soon as I have the chance I’ll throw a few more images your way! Enjoy!

Scottie ^_^

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Valentine Goodies

We have a variety of new items just in time for your Valentine’s Day celebrations, including the Valentine Card 5-Pack, Cupid Ensemble, Cupid Heart Cloak, and Valentine Hearts Cloak. Available now in the Add-On Store!

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New Player Homes

We have several new homes available, including:

Kobold 2-Story with Rooftop Deck Village Home

In our new line of Kobold architecture is this 2-story, 3 room, village home that includes a roof-top deck.

Stone 2-Story Keep with Courtyard Town Home

This spacious 2-story, 16 room, town home also includes 4 corner towers with roof-top decks, and a large, central courtyard.

Stone 2-Story Round Tower Village Home

This unique 2-story, 4 room, tower village home also includes two second story decks and a rooftop deck.

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Checkers Anyone?

Now you can invite your friends over for a friendly (or not so friendly) game of checkers. We’ve added a tabletop version and a life size version of these decorations, which come complete with board, 12 black checkers and 12 red checkers.

Tabletop Checkers Set

Checkers Set (Life Size)

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Yew Tree

This giant tree was originally designed for the Duchy of Dara Brae player owned town, but is now being made available to all. Requires a Castle sized lot (as shown in image below), or equivalent sized area on a player owned town. Available now in the Add-On Store.

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In-game 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 schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

• RPOTA Monthly $170 Writing Contest – January Janus Creation Contest features Cataclysm or Survival Themes!
  • Here ye! Here ye! Biographers, Historians, Diplomats, Journalists, Story Writers, Quest Designers and Videographers! RPOTA is in dire need of your amazing talents! Role-Players of the Avatar is hosting a monthly contest to award those most famous with their quill or camera! (details)
  • 
• The Unreliable Travel Guide
  • The Unreliable Travel Guide, created at the SotA Writing Round Table, is not an event, but 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)
• Avatars Radio (Daily Programming)
  • Welcome New Britannians to Avatars Radio – Radio of the Avatars. Rocking your socks off from the town of Radio City with the Terrestrial and New Britannian bards together under one roof through the power of the Moon Towers.  Check out their daily program of amazing DJs:  http://avatarsradio.info/schedule.php
• NBNN Lunch with Laz & Jack (Weekdays, 12pm CST)
  • Join NBNN every weekday for Lunch With Laz & Jack. They will be covering the daily goings on in SOTA. Calendar updates, Relevant issues happening in the days news. Come chat with us about upcoming events and general information. http://nbnn.info
• Daily War Time PVP Event (Daily, 8pm CST – 9pm CST)
  • Invitation to all guilds, PK hunters, PVP’rs or players interested in PVP training to come to Chaos Crossroads (Located at the crossroads outside of Kingsport on the road to Owl’s Head). PVP Event rules: None! Use whatever spells you want, kill in mobs or solo, group with new allies and defend your territory, lure newbies into the town and wack them! (details)
• EVL Hat Master Weekly Grand Tour Quest (Mondays, 7pm CST)
  • Have you ever wanted that cool looking release hat you’ve seen around town? Well now is your chance! It is with great pleasure that Every Virtue is Lasting < EVL> would like to announce a new weekly event aimed at anyone who wishes to grab the current release hat but needs a little help and direction to do so. (Soltown Tavern, /zone Gnick Gnack; 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 (The Bear Tavern; /zone Elgarion De’Khali; details)!
• Order of Vengeance Guild Meeting (Mondays, 9pm CST)
  • Held at the Guild Hall in Vengeance
• Challenge Dungeon Run (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10am & 7pm CST)
  • This is a self-host event that meets at the Braemar Cemetery. Join whoever can make it for a dungeon run, adventure or something along those lines. Come prepared for combat. Learn how to set up your combat system if you need help.
• PaxLair Town Manager Hour (Tuesdays, 2:00pm CST)
  • Join PaxLair’s Town Manager, Sean Silverfoot, to ask questions about PaxLair, being a Citizen, holding a lot and any other questions concerning PaxLair or any of it’s boroughs (Dragons Watch, Tenakill, Lockbrier, Island of Wonders, Knowhere, Sea Nymph Grotto & Serentiy Isle)
• Novian Academy – New Citizen Outreach (Tuesdays, 6pm CST)
  • /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre of Novian Academy in Soltown as they provide guidance to those new to the world of New Britannia.
• EVL Dungeon Crawl (Tuesdays, 7pm CST)
  • Every Virtue is Lasting will be holding a dungeon crawl every Tuesday to provide fun and experience for our members and guests. All are welcome! The meeting point is in Owls Head at the center of town near the trainer.
• Wednesday Knights (Wednesdays, 6pm CST)
  • This will be mainly an impromptu event but on occasion I may plan on doing something ‘knightly’. All will be welcome. Some possibilities include RP, boss hunts, gathering materials & crafting, hat quests, hanging out or whatever people feel up for. (Caer Dracwych; /zone Bowen Bloodgood; details)
• EVL Pip Squeak PvP Tournament (Wednesdays, 7pm CST)
  • Looking to break into the PVP scene but don’t want to be placed against established god-like players? We have you covered with two divisions, one for the newer, less experienced player, and one for the cream of the crop who have something to prove! (The Underworld, /zone Jar Laxle or Jade; details)
  • 
• Stryker Sparhawk’s 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!
• Phoenix Republic PVE Nights (Thursdays & Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • Join the Phoenix Republic as we send our weekly foray into the control points, dungeons and other of the most dangerous locales. Each week we will depart to a different PVE locale to help train our combatants. Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Malakas for more info!
• Thursday Night Throwdown (TNT) a PVP Event
  • PvP fight night – Come Watch or Participate. Team and individual fights. This is a no pressure event. This is for fun and for people to try their hand at PVP. The group matches allow newer players a chance get a taste of battle. Jam out as Apollox Evanheart plays the hardest music on Avatars Radio from ringside. (Obsidian Caverns; details)
• Novian Academy – Role Play Courses (Fridays, 4pm CST)
  • Luka Melehan is hosting RP classes and practice sessions. (/zone Luka Melehan)
• Shardfall Madness (Fridays, 6pm CST)
  • A PvP event. Contact Wind Silvermoon for details.
• 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)
• EVL Capture the Flag (Fridays, 7:00pm CST)
  • It is with great pleasure that Every Virtue is Lasting would like to invite everyone to our weekly capture the flag event. This is a two team PvP event where each team competes for control over three bases; the team who captures all three bases wins. (The Underworld, /zone Jar Laxle)
• Astronomy Event (Fridays, 7:30pm CST)
  • Interested in New Britannia Astronomy? Just enjoy gazing at the stars? Join us every week as we explore the night sky above New Britannia. (Player Town of Caer Dracwych, /zone Bowen Bloodgood; details)

Saturday, January 30

• 6:00am CST Wake Up New, Britannia!!! With Woftam and Selene
  • Woftam and Selene Noctua broadcast on AvatarsRadio from the Wake Up New Britannia Studio in Owlshead (right behind the crafting pavillion). Includes Interviews with the Community, Contests for in-game Gold, What’s new for the week in New Britannia, and your Best Bets for SotA weekend events! (details)
• 9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours
  • Come to PaxLair and see what’s happening! For two hours (more or less) we work together on projects, create ideas and have fun together. It’s sort of a weekly time to gather and do things together. Everyone in Novia is welcome! (PaxLair, /zone Winfield or Sean Silverfoot)
• 11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service
  • High Priestess of Chaos, Amber Raine, and the Dean of the Novian Academy, Kazyn Phoenixfyre, welcome you to the Church of the Dark Star. A shared project, built upon equality, where all are welcome. Services range from what is Chaos and Order to how they affect different aspects of our life. The path you choose is yours. (PaxLair)
• 12:00pm CST Welcome Quest R26
  • Welcome Quest showcases many of the Player-owned and Player-ran towns in New Britannia. Come for unique events in each town. We rotate towns between each Welcome Quest. (/zone Dara Brae)
• 12:00pm CST Beran League Construction – Harvest & Craft
  • A weekly craft & harvest event for the purpose of supporting all towns, guilds and player run establishments within the Beran League! All harvested materials, crafted items and decorative items purchased will be collected and sorted in a specially designated warehouse. Town owners, guild leaders and proprietors of the Beran League (and those designated by them) will have access. (Meet at the Bear Tavern in High Rock or /zone Bowen Bloodgood; details)
• 6:00pm CST Port Phoenix: Social Nights
  • Come out and join the republic in one of many potential events (chosen new each week). Each week we get together for everything from fishing, to music, to gustball to PVE duneoneering and adventuring. (Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre for details)

Sunday, January 31

• 5:30am CST Explore Novia! with royalsexy
  • Starting at the entrance to Owl’s Head, come explore the wide world of Novia – for people on our side of the clock!
• 8:30am 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; teamSpeak: 43.245.163.15:10099)
• 2:30pm CST Gustball Training
  • Want to learn how to play Gustball? Need some tips on how to improve your deck or hone your skills on the field! Join Coach Sheamus McGuinness of EVLs for a 30 minute Gustball lesson and practice session just before the big game at 3pm (/zone Sheamus McGuinness)
• 3:00pm CST Gustball
  • The game of Gustball is a great community event, not dissimilar from soccer or football, where Avatars of all levels & skill can compete in a fun, friendly game that uses the Gust skill (1st level Air Magic spell) to blow a Gustball into your opponents goal. (/whisper or /zone Sand, Sheamus McGuinness, or 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! (Blackrock Cove on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, 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. (Blackrock Cove on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, 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 fishing spot or pond, /zone Winfield; details)

Be sure and check out the Release 26 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

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This Week In the News

January 28 – MMORPG: Column: Release 26: It’s the Final Countdown

 

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Upcoming Events

2016.02.25 – Release 27
2016.03.16 – GDC 2016
2016.03.17 – SXSW Gaming
2016.03.31 – Release 28
2016.04.22 – PAX East
2016.04.28 – Release 29
2016.05.26 – Release 30

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Recommended Projects to Back

Torment: Tides of Numenera Now on Steam Early Access

Torment: Tides of Numenera launched on Steam Early Access on Tuesday, January 26! One of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time, it is the thematic successor of Planescape: Torment.

A single-player, isometric role-playing game, set in Monte Cook’s Numenera, and with original team members like Chris Avellone, Colin McComb and Mark Morgan involved, inXile is looking to deliver a deep story-driven experience reminiscent of the original Torment. If you haven’t already backed the game, then check it out on Steam Early Access!

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Star Citizen

From the mind of Chris Roberts, acclaimed creator of Wing Commander and Freelancer, comes STAR CITIZEN, a living, breathing science fiction universe with unparalleled immersion… and you’re invited to follow every step of development!

More than a space combat sim, more than a first person shooter and more than an MMO: Star Citizen is the First Person Universe that will allow for unlimited gameplay.