Join us Thursday, July 7th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! The team will be chatting about Release 31 and looking ahead to Release 32 (important updates coming this week on R32!).
And of note, let it be known that Lord British and Lord Darkstarr will play host to a special reliquary event… and blood will be spilled! Consider the squeamish among you forewarned.
As always, we will be giving out awesome swag, and answering your questions. For a chance to win a prize, join Discord chat during the broadcast. Be sure to stick around throughout the Hangout for multiple chances to win!
Tweet with us @ShroudofAvatar during the Hangout to know when a winner has been announced!
Watch here at 3pm CDT on Thursday, July 7th:
Post your questions in the comments below! Only one post submission allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less! This will allow us to get to as many players as possible.
Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to this release’s specific topics will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief.
Thank you!
Q: What’s the lore behind all the immortal cats?
Q: Why do they say “miaow” instead of “meow”?
Q: Any plans on making dogs immortal?
9 lives, and they don’t speak American English
Q: Roughly when can we expect to see robes? Cloth tunics don’t cut it. Mages need robes!
Q: Could we please have spells books that can be enchanted just like staves and wands so that we can have an alternative to staves and wands?
Q: When will the Oracle Head Statue begin to function in game?
Q: When will the moondial begin to function in game?
Combat tomes!!!! Yes plz!
How about Magic Scroll/cards similar to Magic the Gathering or Yugioh? Alchemists would make different level scrolls depending on crafting level and reagents used. The scrolls would have their own limited rechargeable mana which could be augmented by the users mana. Scrolls could have a monetary use fee which would be deducted upon use and deposited into the creators bank. The durability of the scroll would depend on the level of the scroll, the level of the spell bound to it, the level of summoned creatures, the use of mana overcharging, and other environmental influences. Summoning scrolls would be similar to using the Summoning spell yet each scroll could be bound to any type of creature including other avatars.
When will we see asset packs for deco that are currently in other scenes or NPC cities: i.e., the pipe works in Resolute or Brittany, decorative gardens with flowers as in Brittany, palisade fencing as in the Brittany outer scenes or the Brothers war camps?
Also perhaps bench packs that are PoT useable.
Is there any thought to one more increase in deco limits for PoT’s?
Also in the future will it be possible to get NPC buildings that match a theme, such as kolbolt,viking,elven?
Oh and a pipe please!!!
Q1: When will we see harder level areas??? Greater than 5 skull.
Q2: Will there be elite spawns or drops in game before finial wipe?
Q3: Will there be any sort of end game content before launch?
Q1: Any chance of some of the cloth physics used on cloaks being applied to other long pieces of clothing like tunics, robes and dresses so they animate dynamically as our Avatars move?
Q2: Some of the original house assets (such as the tower village home) have relatively low resolution brick wall textures which are very noticeable at 1440p. Do you foresee LOD restrictions ever enabling such assets to be higher resolution or would performance trade offs (especially in the largest scenes) prevent this?
Q3: (for Lum!) Will there be a storyline further down the road with a focus on Serpent Isle style virtues like Order, Chaos and Balance instead of Courage, Love and Truth?
Q: Are there any plans for more complex dungeons and multi level dungeons (like loadings zones from level 1 to level 2 ect with different paths? At the Moment dungeons are reallly short and dont really invite for exploring.
At the moment dungeon exploring and enemy approaching is really simpel and for most part boring. They do not really invite for exploring and fighting enemy’s feel all ways the same
Q: Are there any plans to improve enemy placement and behavior.
For example:
Calling for help or activating alarm when a player is spottet (can be prevent by player after it happens by preventing them from reaching alert system) Protect
Protecting healers or archers. Getting buffed and angry when a player slays a comrade, or surrenders and or run away instead to be forced to kill them (with out them get aggro again)?
Q: Do you ever thought about that typing/shouting to enemys could effect them. Like insulting them to get there attention?
At the moment dungeon exploring and enemy approaching is really simpel and for most part boring. They do not really invite for exploring and fighting enemy’s feel all ways the same
Q: When will the virtue system be in place? Is this planned from the start of persistance, or a later date?
Q: Can we expect to have a Open PvP server with Full Loot in the futur ?
Q1. Will be see some high level loot from bosses?
Q2. Can we please have wine goblets in game.
Since players will be able to buy pots with in game gold and final wipe very near my questions are about that.
Will pots bought with in game gold have over land access.
Will pots purchased with ingame gold be upgradable with in game gold?
Will pots purchased via cash be able to be upgraded with in game gold?
Trying to decide if I just need to buy one now or aquire later thanks.
Is there a way you can prioritize updating us on the Unity/Linux bugs?
Ive basically stopped playing altogether due to them. I understand it may be out of your control at the moment, but could Port be less quiet about it in general? Even hearing the same status over and over again might renew my faith a bit, as of right now it seems like it will still be Broke AF for post-final-wipe.
The game is unplayable in Linux and I think that deserves a lot more attention.
I apologize for not including this in my post above (which really amounts to emotional whining, feel free to skip over my question above heh) :
When will the Cooking skill get some attention? What are the future plans for cooking?
When I last tried to level cooking, it felt impossible as basic ingredients were extremely difficult to locate, and some I am convinced are not even in the game at all. Basic cooking should be as simple as I go to the market vendor or the tavern, get ingredients, and go home and cook a lot. I had to quest all over Novia to find the one or two locations some critical/fundamental fuels were being sold by NPCs. Can this change so that every town / city has the cooking ingredient/fuel basics?
I’m right there with you, Linux realy need some love.
Seconded, even if R31 fixed a long standing linux bug I was suffering (about resolution and settings), it’s still very hard to play compared to R28. Unfortunately we’re a smallish demographic, and also upstream at Unity our grievances have lesser impact on dev teams…
Q: Could you please explain how the future lot deed lottery system will work?
+1
+1
+1
Question 1: Will there be separate permissions for Basements when the Rent-a-Room feature is implemented?
It would be advantageous to be able to set separate permissions for Basements to allow people more flexibility in how their lots are used. An Avatar could rent rooms in their basements, and leave the house proper restricted to their own use. Or, for those that would like to use the above ground portion of their property for Public facilities, set the lot for public access, and reserve the basement for their own living space, restricting access to themselves, their Guests, and Kindred.
Question 2: Would it be possible to separate the number of Monuments that can be placed in POTs from the number of NPC Buildings, and give separate totals for each?
The Monuments are meant to provide some in-game benefit for those POTs who have them placed, while the NPC Buildings are now purely decorative. This encourages Governors to forego the NPC Buildings and placing their Vendors therein in favor of the Monuments. Having separate limits for each would balance this out. (Please don’t reduce the number of NPC buildings I can place!!! )
Question 3: Can Bleachers and Stages, Stage Stairs the similar items be made POT decorations that can be placed outside the boundaries of a Lot, please?
Questions
Can you tell me if the spell animations are place holders, example healing touch throws up a symbol and there is back ground sound. Will that apear cooler eventually?
Will rare deco items ever drop or be found in scenes, like I find this super sick vase there are only 10 of in the game etc?
Thanks peace out.
Q: When will the stairs be added back to the Town Arena Basement?
Q: Are there plans to allow material (or at least color) changes to houses? 90% of the houses/buildings on the Add-On store would be 100% more appealing to me if I could change their color/material scheme…
1) can crafting station be converted to pot decorations, I know you dont want to turn these into lots but making stations a deco item that towns can use in pots makes sense. Im not asking for containers or house decorations just to make a mini crafting gathering areas (community building areas) with out needing to buy village lots all over town.
2) how are my droppable gold piles in my house coming? Inc. Ore piles crown piles. My treasure room requires bling.
3) when can we get smaller container sizes (craftable) like tiny wood crates and wooden boxes etc.
Im very excited for all the great stuff you have done, this will be an excellent game thanks team.
.
+1 for community building areas
1) How many of the scenes are still going to be simple clones of others after the final wipe?
2) Will there be any craftable enhancement thing, that improves maximum durability instead of decreasing it?
3) Will it be possible to improve a pledge item thru crafting or enchanting?
4) Is there any hope, that we’re getting a better chat system akin to wow or eso, with linkable crafted items, a more intuitive ui and the ability to remove a tab we no longer want?
5) How do you intend to combat the exceptionally poor rating sota has on steam?
1. When will we see the POT Village and Town Tax Free Lot deed bundles?
+1
Will there be one last chance to convert add-ons to credit with the final wipe?
Thanks in advance
Q: What have you done to accommodate those of us who are “Old School” UO players? People who played before the creation of Trammel. People who enjoyed earning profit by murdering/stealing when the time is right. The pvp seems to be a gratuitous afterthought and lacking any real risk/reward. I want to lose my things (or at least some of them) when someone kills me, and I want to loot a player when I kill them.
Id sign up for se of this if it were availble.
Can we have Quivers to carry our arrows in, and a map case for all our maps please…..
+3
Would you please consider making this area near the default grasslands and forested grasslands template zoned for housing? http://i.imgur.com/STgsZgm.png
Will there be a mastercrafting sub category for staffs and wands?
Any chance we can get metrics from our player vendors to figure out who our best customers are? And perhaps a gift system so we can give customers a gift when they return to the vendor? Any thoughts on player vendors temporarily changing their jobs – such as standard vendor, auctioneer, junk/scrap vendor, etc? Most of these questions are listed in this post with some auctioneer examples: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/player-vendor-roles-and-other-wish-list-functionality.52904/
In addition to vendor metrics I’d like to see a resource report that queries all vendors in a POT or town – perhaps you could right click on the town and see how many resources are available for sale. If you’re looking to buy a huge amount of copper, you’d be able to figure out which towns to target simply by wandering the overland map?
What is the plan for Item counts?
In POTS:
Will all POTS see and increase in items, containers and lighting counts
If so, what numbers do you have in mind?
For Lots:
Will item counts and Pets allowed be increasing?
If so, what numbers do you have in mind?
For both lots and POT can we get an add-on like the bank add-on, where you can buy more “item count space” via the Store?
Any chance you would be able to hold these events when people don’t have to work? I’ve missed so many already as it is because I have a Monday – Friday career 7am-530pm CST – Anyways, enjoy the event everyone. Wish I could be there!
Q: Do short Avatars have less jumping ability? i.e. does a character’s body length affect the height that can be jumped?
Q: Will the “Patrol” range of our (decoration) pets on our lots be increased? They do not seem very active at the moment.
Q: Does keeping the door of our greenhouses closed help with either growing speed or yield?
Q: Are there any Belts in-game already? If not, when are they planned?
apologies -running on memory about a limit of 5 questions, please ignore the one about Belts, I can wait!
Q: Will we be able to lock items in our inventory so they can’t be sold by accident?
Q: Will the glitchy/jittery camera be fixed soon? (in close quarters the glitch is so bad that the characters gets turned around losing the direction they were headed, at times it’s unplayable)
My question only 1 but worth 5
Currently you cannot have a Tamed pet out and use your magery summons spell, Im assuming that you have not got to this vrs having this to be intended. Can you please confirm the direction here?
1. In the notes for RELEASE 34, September 29, 2016, it says: Crafting: Recipes will become teachable (much like emotes).
Please discuss and clarify. Will we no longer purchase recipes or be able to make something unless we are taught the recipe?
2. I purchased the blue Kobold furniture. Will we be able to purchase the Kobold bench and chair in blue instead of red someday?
3. With final lot selection approaching, crafters may wish to live in a zone where the resource(s) they plan to gather the most are plentiful. As I recall, there is, or was, a plan to make a resource more plentiful in some areas but scarce in other areas. If so, is there a chart you could share that indicates whether a resource is scarce, medium, or plentiful for each zone?
4. When can we craft plates and bowls needed for cooking?
5. Will additional resources that players can gather be added, such as honey from beehives, pine needles for tea, various plants to use in potions, etc.
Q1: Would you please making the wild aggressive animals stop being sissy and run away when they are stronger or outnumbered me? It is very unrealistic to chase them around like chasing a herd of chickens.
Q2: Would you please make buff icons on the upper left scalable? When we have more than one line of buff icons, they are blocking the view of pets’ and party members’ HP/Focus bars.
Q3: What’s the status on Unity fix(es)?
Q: when will people that starts end up in 3 different places instead of as now in soltown only
(making it harder to run to the place you want your house for some)
Q: Early we had so when you gained adventurer experience you also gained a small amount of crafting experience (or crafting experience also gained you small amount of adventurer experience)
Has you abandoned this method?
Good question! It was nice getting a bit of experience for the other side when advancing levels. Would be nice to fit this in with use-based skill advancement.
Q1: Would you consider a collector’s edition of The Sorcerer’s Daughter? https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-sorcerers-daughter.53505/
Q2: The chat interface can use a facelift, especially when talking to NPCs. Will we see a revision to this before release?
Q3: What lore can you share with us this month? I.e., the names of the planets, why the cultists are going to be siegeing towns, etc.
Will we ever be able to customize the Razer Chroma lighting. I like that SotA lights up my combo keys but I would like to add some additional lighting, like highlighting the WASD keys, or lighting some of the command keys.
1. Any chance we can get to melt down add-ons that are already claimed BEFORE Final Wipe ? Please !
2. When are belts ( the empty slot on character sheet ) coming into game
3. Will we get more bow styles like the different sword types ?
1 was answered in the Q3 2016 article: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/q3-2016-schedule-update.53494/
“Final Wipe: Please note that if you have been waiting to convert your purchases to store credits, these will be your FINAL three chances to do so as long as you do NOT claim your rewards at the bank. There will be three windows the week of release to convert your purchases to store credit. These windows will be on Monday, Wednesday, and then finally on the day of release, Thursday. This will work exactly as it has in previous releases.”
Q: Why is the focus cost of sword skills so much higher than all the other martial art skills? Not whining, just curious.
Q: Did the economic and loot balancing get pushed back to R32, or are there more things in line in front of it?
Q: We havent been seeing any effects from the advanced masterworking skills. What exactly should they be doing?
Q: Do ya’ll like the way the moon magic tree is at the moment? Or are ya’ll considering changing it up at all?
Needs a gate spell and a farie fire type spell imop.
Q1: What plans are there for long-term play after completing the storyline? (In game rares, rare drops for crafting, epic equipment, rare decorations etc.)
Q2: Are you considering an “escape” spell? Some of the town scenes are huge.
Q3: Suggestion really: Please replace all the wagons with a single wagon and NPC in front of that wagon who will take you to each of the nested POT’s.
Please expand @Lord Andernut’s Q3 to include all the boats for island POTs to boatmen.
Question: Will we ever be able to move things like backpack, chat window, or the health/focus bar, onto a second monitor?
Q1: Will there be items that can only be made by GM level crafters or something else to reward people who have achieved the highest levels in their craft besides saving costs on lost materials?
Q2: Will Crafting Stations be Craftable — or are the tables from the highest pledge levels always going to be the best crafting stations in the game?
Q3: Why are there so many more gold nodes in the game than silver? Is that intentional or just a temporary issue as more areas are being put in place?
Q1: What are the official avatar naming rules going forward with persistence: Will last names be required? Will names/ last names be retained/reserved through final wipe for ALL avatars, just Founders, or will they be completely reset in part or full?
Q2: With the addition of customizable signs in the game, should we expect recipes to create player written book covers with the same collection of symbols?
Q3: Any hints on the stretch goal items for the upcoming telethon events?
Q1 : Loving the new signs, are we likely to see more in the way of hanging exterior housing items.? I really like to see hanging baskets and window boxes with the option of planting and growing decorative flower seeds.
Q2 : We had a blast after the release party killing Trolls and Dragons spawned by Darkstarr, he said that was a taste of things to come for the pre-final wipe and was suprised at how quickly we handled the first spawn of 2 trolls 2 dragons, can we expect harder Mobs . ? ..or … More than orginally planned for the event.. ?
Will we ever be able to see our weapons equipped on our avatars in non-combat mode (bow and quiver on back, sword strapped to side)?
Q: Currently you can drag emotes out of the emote menu, and their icon looks about the same size as a glyph. Any chance on allowing these icons to be placed on the non-combat bar?
Q1. In Release 32, will we see any Soltown NPCs drinking beer inside the Soltown tavern? In Ultima 9, you can see NPCs drinking beer inside taverns.
Q2. In Release 32, will we see any Soltown NPCs turning on street lamps, and litting candles and lighting the fireplace inside the Soltown tavern? In Ultima 7, you can see NPCs turning on street lamps.
Q3. In Release 32, will we see smoke coming out of the chimney of the Soltown tavern?
[QUESTION] Can we have chests with combination locks please? Needed so player quests can reveal digits as players progress.
When can I expect to stop feeling like I am moving through molasses?