Release 54 Instructions

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked Player Guide and Known Issues.

Release 54 is our second release since launching out of Early Access. As promised, we are continuing our cadence of monthly releases, just as before. Release 54 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Thursday, May 31, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 54 is the second release in which we focused on the current iteration of our Top 10 Priorities (from Q2 2018 post). We were able to address most of the items on that list in some fashion. We made strong progress on performance, physical goods, improved reward cycle, user interface polish, player direction and story polish. We will be spending more time on enemy behaviors and repeatable content in the next release and in Q3.

Performance: We have made major improvements to both framerate and load times through a combination of Unity upgrades, asset optimization, performance fallbacks, and bug fixes.

New and Polished Scenes: Steady progress continues on rebuilding scenes that were previously cloned from other scenes. In Release 54, we uncloned two more adventure scenes: Upper Tears and Shaminian Hills. We also uncloned the town of Westend. Additionally, we polished almost 20 different scenes in the game with various improvements like additional conversations, new books, quest improvements, and additional traps.

Story Polish and Side Quests: We continue to polish the story with additional side quests, balance, and dialogue additions including backer NPCs for the Novian capital of Central Brittany. There are also now side quests to obtain the gear the Companions wield and that gear has virtue effects tied to it. Finally, there is a new set of quests leading to underground areas in the Perennial Coast that tie into story elements from Solace Bridge Outskirts.

Companions: Rounding out your party with the three Companions in Offline Mode will be much more rewarding in Release 54. They are more powerful as the party levels up, they have many more abilities to use, they are better at using their abilities (i.e. knowing when to heal), and they are more aware of their combat environment.

Crafting & Economy: We added a ton of new recipes and patterns to the game, including recipes for banners, bathtubs, Elven lights, and a new cloak. We also improved the Commission Player Vendors such that they now charge a commission when an item is sold rather than a fee when it is listed. Finally, we added Pattern Removers to the game as another option in addition to salvage and replacement for retrieving applied eternal patterns.

Skeleton Plunderers & Polish: Skeleton Plunderers (who look remarkably like pirate skeletons) are the latest addition to the armies of the Undead. We also polished some existing characters including the Ice Wolves, the Crown Merchant, and the Frostgeist victims.

I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to the players who tested the items listed below on our QA server. They found many bugs and also provided editorial feedback on this post so that it is easy to read and actually matches what is in the game.

Before offering feedback and/or reporting a bug, we kindly ask that you read this whole message and the linked Player Guide and Known Issues to get up to date on the current game state. To keep up to date, please check out the Patch Notes.

By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and effort can be focused on new “unanswered” questions and addressing critical issues that impact each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.

Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is also working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check the schedule for player-run events (via the player-run websites: NBNN Community Calendar and Events of the Avatars). You can also get the latest official events on the Main Website.

Without further ado, here is a list of what you can expect to see in Release 54.

Key:

• Plain Text: The original plan for the Release deliverables from the Q2 2018 Schedule Update. We intentionally preserve the original text so that our backers can compare plan versus actuals.
• Italics: Detailed notes of what was actually delivered.
• Strikethrough: These are items that did not make the release (but are still planned).

RELEASE 54, May 31, 2018

• Story: We will continue to work on adding side quests and polish to the Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. We’ll continue to add and update maps for the in-game map system. We will also add backer NPC conversations to Central Brittany. Finally, the scenes Shaminian Hills, Westend (town), and Upper Tears will be rebuilt from scratch.
  • Conversation Polish: We polished the order at which the keywords appear in the menu to better aid conversation navigation. We also fixed over 500 typos and finally added a spell checker to our conversation tool to prevent these in the future.
  • New User Experience Polish: We added more hints to the new user experience including information about the following:
    • Targeting
    • Encumbrance
    • Healing faster when out of combat
    • Quest Indicators on the Compass (blue sparkles)
    • Heal Spell
  • Scene Rebuilds: The following scenes were previously clones of other adventure scenes but were completely rebuilt for this release.
    • Shaminian Hills: This hilly Tier 3 scene in the Midmaer region is filled with giant outcroppings of blue crystals. It is also the site of an ancient open-air cathedral and a monastery, both long-abandoned but still possessed of ancient power. Elves who still follow the ways of the evil Obsidian Eye are rumored to be here, trying to unlock the mysteries of this place—and where the Obsidian Eye is worshipped, the undead are often nearby as well.
    • Westend: The town of Westend is located in the Verdantis region on the western coast of Novia. The combination of Norgard architecture and wetlands adds a unique visual element to the town not seen anywhere else in Novia. Its port serves adventurers traveling to Verdantis Shardfall. While the town remains small, it has grown prosperous from trade because of the resources brought back by those lucky enough to survive the threats throughout the Shardfall. Of course, many say those resources came off the bodies of adventurers who weren’t lucky enough to return… Westend was originally cloned from an early version of Solania, but has been rebuilt for Release 54. As with other town rebuilds, the locations of player lots, merchants, and scene exits have not been changed.
    • Upper Tears: This Tier 4 canyon scene in the Verdantis region is near the Kas Ruins along the mighty river Tears. The river was, until recently, controlled by a dam in this part of the world. Unfortunately, the dam burst and the resulting flood wiped out the town. Barbarians and bandits have since swarmed in, scouring the ruins for weapons, food, and other treasures.
  • Side Quests: (SPOILERS)
    • Fiona FitzOwen’s Merchandise: Every good musician has merchandise for sale! Luckily, Fiona will give you hers for a song; speak to her either as a companion (in Offline Mode), or while she is giving a performance at Peladjar’s Inn in Ardoris (in Online Mode), and ask if you can help her to learn how to obtain her unique FitzOwen Legacy Gear (including the unique Triple Crossbow and Lute!).
  • • Armor Fit For A Knight: The armor worn by the most stalwart of the Knights of Norgard is built to withstand the toughest punishment, its mettle tested in the fires of war. Now you can assist the Knights and earn the right to wear your own, just like that worn by Sir Conrad Dupre, one of Norgard’s finest defenders. Speak with Conrad, either as a companion (in Offline Mode) or at his post in Resolute (in Online Mode), to learn the secrets of the Knightly Order Plate—rumor has it that true stalwarts will be rewarded not only with a complete set, but with a matching Sword and Shield much like Conrad’s own!
    • The Last of the Order: Ariel Rosehaven, the last surviving member of the Order of Truth, is willing to share the secrets of the arcane robes that members of the Order wear. Speak with Ariel (either as a companion while in Offline Mode, or in the Aerie town square in Online Mode) and ask about the Order of Truth to learn how these robes can be yours, along with the legendary Mighty Cudgel of Obvious Truth (rumored to enable its user to win almost any argument!).
    • Defeat Four Cabalists: We improved the journal entries to better inform players to only report back after the full set of four cabalists have been defeated.
    • Ebon Dawn Scheming: A new Ebon Dawn prisoner is being held at a guard post in Port Graff. Players can chat with him to learn about the Ebon Dawn (and the new /scheming emote).
    • The Prank is on Shandy!: Shandy Chapman (see Wandering Merchant in Scene Polish below) can’t really handle being pranked and if you lie to him enough he will almost have a heart attack, thus you will learn the new /heartattack emote.
    • Stinking Bandits: Stan Clark, the bard in the Soltown Inn, will send you into the Soltown Sewers to retrieve his family ring from the Bandit Leader. Returning his family ring will reward you the Head Bandage, which has a special health regeneration effect. After all, being an adventurous avatar will cause the occasional head injury, so Stan feels the Head Bandage is the perfect reward!
    • The Bandit and the Skeleton Prince: The Skull Orator makes another appearance, this time inside Soltown Sewers! He has been instructed to test your virtues once again by requesting that you retrieve two items—a Blue Gem Container from the Bandit Leader and a Red Crystal Phylactery from the Skeleton Prince. As usual, the Orator does not care how you get the items, just that you fulfill their task. Will you complete the task to get in the League of Skulls good graces and receive the League of Skulls Copper Coin, or will you attract their ire and get visits from Skull Clippers and Skull Cutters? The choice is yours.
    • Heart Stone Horrors: Going deeper into the Soltown Sewers, you will run into fearsome Bloodbone Footmen, Mages and Archers. Defeating and looting these enemies may give you a mysterious Heart Stone—a blood-red, hand-sized stone carved into the shape of a human heart. The Heart Stone seems to push you further into the sewer depths and into Solania Catacombs. What could this strange stone want that’s within the Solania Catacombs? It’s up to you to find out!
    • The Ichor Witch Waits: While investigating the Solania Catacombs, you may find a wounded Whiteguard soldier. She will tell you that she is investigating the uprising of the Bloodbones—skeletal abominations that bear a striking resemblance to Bloody Bones of Solace Bridge Outskirts. She will ask you to finish what she started by going deeper into the Catacombs and eliminating what could be the thing that brought the Bloodbones—the Ichor Witch! Defeating the Ichor Witch will get you a nice, black skull trophy to put alongside your Bloody Bones skull trophy… and those eyes!
    • /oldprospector Quest: In Release 53, we added this emote as a sidequest with an extremely limited availability (only the opening weekend of the release). Even though the emote was teachable, and therefore still attainable from other players, we received a large amount of negative feedback on this delivery method. So, we’ve added this new follow-up quest from the same old prospector, and this time there’s no time limit on the availability of the dance reward. (Even players who have already completed the Lucky Nugget quest can pick up this new quest.)
    • Courage Chest Armor Quest Polish: We made some improvements to the Broken Echoes Silver Mine foreman’s conversation.
    • Virtue Armor Migration: In Release 53 we fixed the quests to obtain the various pieces of the Virtue Armor so that all the armor items would have the correct material bonuses. Example: Leather Armor Leggings of Love. In Release 54 we willperform an item migration for everyone who got the items before this fix so they should now have the correct items.
    • Arcane Catalysts: We have adjusted the Scout quest in the Sieges so that the Arcane Catalysts can only be turned in once per day. To balance this limit we have increased the required catalysts to 18 and the reward to 12,000 XP. Note this quest previously had no daily limit and therefore was being used for leveling exploits.
    • Virtue Banners: Players will no longer accidentally receive quest completion flags from being traded or picking up another player’s virtue banner, which prevented them from being able to receive their own.
  • Scene Polish: (SPOILERS)
    • Central Brittany: NPCs with names and backgrounds created by our backers as a Kickstarter reward have been added.
    • Ruins of Ravensmoor: We have increased the scale of this scene to make the rooms and corridors more spacious to give more space for combat. We have also increased the overall difficulty of this scene to Tier 8+ through various changes including higher level enemies, more enemies overall, and the complete elimination of leashing distance. The increase in difficulty of this scene is part of a longer term effort where we will be increasing the difficulty of all scenes in the Hidden Vale to at least Tier 4 and we are going to expand the Tiers up to Level 10.
    • Ruined Keep: Similar to Ravensmoor, this scene received some polish and was also upgraded to be T10+. This scene is NOT for the faint of heart. The scene was enlarged, moved to be party-based, and updated with spawns that increased slightly in number but GREATLY in difficulty. The new manager of the keep is Goruk and we’ll make a post on who kills him first! The increase in difficulty of this scene is part of a longer term effort where we will be increasing the difficulty of all scenes in the Hidden Vale to at least Tier 4 and we are going to expand the Tiers up to Level 10.
    • Soltown Sewers & Solania Catacombs: The Tier of both of these sewers has been raised to Tier 2, with some Tier 3 enemies in the deepest parts. The increase in difficulty of these scenes is part of a longer term effort where we will be increasing the difficulty of our lowest level scenes because by the time you leave the Outskirts you have leveled beyond Tier 1.
    • Wandering Merchant Random Encounter: Shandy Chapman is back! Look for a “Traveler” in Novia along the roads of the Perennial Coast and check out his uncommon goods. But, be careful about what you say to him—saying the wrong thing could give him a heart attack! (Spoiler: Shandy can teach you the new /heartattack emote!).
    • Brittany: All the Brittany neighborhoods now have teleporter signpost networks that allow for fast travel within each scene. Also, the large gates that separate each neighborhood now allow teleporting to Novia or the connecting neighborhood. Finally, we have removed the redundant “neighborhood locations” wagon and balloon teleporters.
    • “Where Is?” Advice: NPCs in many towns along the path of the story will now advise players that they can ask them the location of other NPCs by asking “Where is <insert name>?”
    • Bespoke Gear Advice: Adventurer Trainers in Aerie, Ardoris, and Resolute will now advise players to upgrade their gear with Outlander crafted items.
    • New Book: “The Runes of the Obsidian Septagram”: Scholars looking to fill out their bookcases of Obsidian philosophies will want to add this one. It can be found in the Reliquarium of Jaanaford, among other places.
    • New Book: “Lord British Sings Work Songs”: Make your workday pass quickly with these memorable ditties adapted by Lord British in this songbook that can be found somewhere in Castle Brittany.
    • New Books in Runic: “The Cataclysm, “Obsidian Magic,” “Concave of Celestis,” “Fomorian Wars,” and “About the Dirae Prophecy”: Several new books have been added that share bits and pieces of history which can be learned…as long as you can read runic! These new books can be found in the Reliquarium in Jaanaford and the castle library in Central Brittany.
    • Grannus Colossus: The gates which lock during the wave battles in this scene now have accompanying VFX.
    • Grunvald Shardfall: We deleted one of the spawn points so players will no longer have a chance to appear next to the dragons.
    • Blood Bay: We shifted one of the scene’s entrance spawns so that it would no longer collide with a player lot.
    • Nightshade Pass and Hilt Fortress: Both of these scenes now have a variety of traps added to them (they were both built before we had traps).
    • Skrekk: We added traps to the prison area at the entrance to the Caverns of Skrekk and also added traps to the outdoor entrance map of Skrekk (they were both built before we had traps).
    • Soltown: We fixed an issue where the refugees had stopped sitting.
    • Bandit and Skeleton Roving Encounters: We converted these encounters to wave battles. Be careful of the high-threat menaces that appear from killing a few of the starting enemies!
    • Blood River Outskirts: We made the water below the “broken log bridge” deeper, so that new players will no longer fall to their death in a starting scene.
    • Aerie: We replaced one of the two textile merchants with a tailoring merchant. Check in with Sally Buttons by the docks about her new inventory!
    • Isle of Storms: The “Enter the Lunar Rift” task should now clear properly from your task list.
    • K’rul: In the Shock Monkey Arena, we added red lights flanking each door which flash while the monkey(s) that enter from that door are engaged. We also deleted sulfurous ash resource nodes that were spawned awkwardly in open spaces, or moved them toward walls.
    • Challenge Dungeon: The waves are now staggered so that half of the enemies spawn at the start of the wave and an additional enemy spawns every few seconds until the maximum for that wave is reached, rather than having them all spawn at once as before.
    • Resolute: We polished the visual effects of all the geothermal steam effects in this city.
    • South Boundless Forest: We added the proper visual effect for the Blessing of the Tamer.
    • Cave Fables 1-4: Previously booksellers only stocked Cave Fables 2 and 3. Now you can read the complete works as we have stocked booksellers with Cave Fables 1, 2, 3, and 4.
  • New & Polished In-game Maps: We added several new in-game maps.
    • Blackblade Foothills
    • Blood River Forest
    • Boreas Colossus (underground area)
    • Desert Roving Encounter
    • Dysborg Vault
    • Kas Vault
    • Libris Vault
    • Longfall Woods
    • Midras Vault
    • North Quel Way
    • North Shattered Hills
    • Northwest Blackblade Mountains
    • Northwood
    • Opalis Vault
    • Oracle Temple
    • Quel Shardfall
    • Rhun Vault
    • Tenebris Harbor
    • Troll Snowy Mountains Road Roving Encounter
  • Scene Fixes: We went through many scenes in the game fixing major and minor bugs including conversations, stuck spots, floating assets, missing assets, bad NPC patrols, inaccessible ore nodes, missing collision, audio issues, falling through the world, tree issues, tasks that won’t complete, tasks that complete but not marked complete, etc. The list includes:
    • Ardoris
    • Battle of Solace Bridge
    • Blood River Massacre
    • Blood River Outskirts
    • Brittany Sewers
    • Elysium Mines
    • Hallowed Plains
    • Highvale
    • Highvale Outskirts
    • Jaanaford
    • Necropolis
    • Nightshade Pass
    • North Drachvald Spur
    • North Fetid Swamp
    • Northwood
    • Oracle Colossus
    • Penmawr Island
    • Point West
    • Resolute
    • Serpent’s Spine Mines
    • Solania
    • Spindrift Passage
    • Superstition Canyon
    • Tenebris Harbor
    • The Rise
    • Verdantis Foothills
    • Vertas
• Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15 second load time target.
  • Load Times: We identified a major Unity bug that have been causing load times to steadily increase over the last few releases, offsetting all the gains we had managed to achieve! Luckily, we identified the issue and have implemented a workaround that has gotten us back to our 15-second (or shorter) load time target on most maps.
  • Audio: We have identified and fixed several issues with how we were loading and streaming audio that were hurting performance.
  • Reflections: We rewrote how we handle reflections (on water for example) and we also added this to the quality settings in the option menu. During this work we also fixed the issue with AMD video cards which would sometimes cause scenes to look incorrect when first loading into them (this was most visible to Linux users).
  • Unity 2018: We have upgraded to the latest version of Unity on PC and Mac. Linux is still awaiting a fix from Unity for input issues.
  • Default Quality Setting: The default quality setting was originally set to “Fastest” before we made a lot of our recent performance optimizations. We have now upgraded the default to “Good.”
  • Asset Optimizations: Several assets in the game were either too high polygon count, too large of a texture, made of too many individual objects, too many particles, etc. We continue to make passes through those objects and fixing those issues.
    • Lost Vale Grand Artificer Sluice Doors
    • Avatar Wearables LODs
    • Humanoid NPCs LODs
    • Rugs & Pavers (now set to not cast shadows)
    • Memory use for all icons in the game was cut in half
  • Mail Loading: A recent discovery was that we reload mail after each scene change. For players with a large amount of mail, this could amount to several seconds or more. This should be resolved in the first patch and mail load time will be moved to be incrementally loaded after the scene starts.
• Crafting & Economy: The crafting system will expand to include the ability to brewing alcoholic beverages. We will also continue to expand the amount of loot in-game with more patterns, recipes, and gear as well as a large amount of decorations as loot.
  • Commission Player Vendors Fee Change: Player Vendors who charge commission now charge a commission when the item is sold, instead of a fee when the item is listed. This should make those managing inventory in these vendors and using patterns on these vendors much more palatable. NOTE: For players who have existing listings (for which a fee was already paid), we have zeroed-out the “sold” commission, so they will not get charged twice.
  • Pattern Removers: Previous to Release 54, the only way to change a pattern or retrieve an Eternal Pattern that had been applied to an item was to either salvage the item (therefore destroying the item) or to apply another pattern to the same item. Those methods will still work, but there is now a third option: use a Pattern Remover at a crafting station. Using a Pattern Remover resets the item to the original visual state and removes the Eternal pattern (or destroys the regular pattern) without destroying the item. Pattern Removers can be obtained from the Add-On Store.
  • Radio Effect on Patterns: The radio function that comes with the Clockwork Armor helmets would previously be lost when the Eternal Pattern was salvaged (and was not present at all on the consumable patterns). This has been fixed such that the radio function is now attached to the pattern and is preserved when salvaged and when the pattern is applied!
  • Vendor Items Sort by Name: After reviewing feedback from the players we have reverted the default sorting of items on Vendors to alphabetical by the name of the item instead of by date of listing or time remaining.
  • Double Producer Experience: For the first two weeks of Release 54 you will get double producer experience for all crafting related activities. You will also gain double producer experience for any quests that reward producer experience.
  • Recipe Costs: We have begun adjusting recipe prices so that some higher difficulty recipes sold on merchants will cost higher amounts of gold. The first recipes affected are houses and musical instruments recipes.
  • Recipe Decorations: Recipe items may now be placed as decorations on player lots.
  • New Recipes & Patterns:
    • 2-Story Storefront Row House (Recipe on Ardoris Carpentry Merchant)
    • Basement Hatch (Recipe on Brittany Decoration Merchants)
    • Mine Basement Hatch (Pattern on Deed Merchants)
    • Manhole Basement Hatch (Pattern on Deed Merchants)
    • Storm Cellar Basement Hatch (Pattern on Deed Merchants)
    • Craftsman Basement Hatch (Pattern on Deed Merchants)
    • Shogun Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Obsidian Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Viking Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Elven Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Kobold Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Nautical Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Heraldry Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Darkstarr Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Lord British Basement Hatch (Eternal Pattern on Add-On Store)
    • Wooden Bathtub (Recipe on Brittany Decoration Merchants)
    • Porcelain Bathtub (Recipe on Brittany Decoration Merchants)
    • Wooden Hot Tub (Recipe on Brittany Decoration Merchants)
    • Elven Chandelier (Recipe on all Elven Enemies)
    • Elven Table Lamp (Recipe on all Elven Enemies)
    • Elven Streetlamp (Recipe on all Elven Enemies)
    • Elven Floor Lamp (Recipe on all Elven Enemies)
    • Elven Wall Sconce (Recipe on all Elven Enemies)
    • Recorder (Recipe in Music Stores)
    • Wooden Crate (Recipe on Brittany Decoration Merchants)
    • Wooden Barrel (Recipe on Brittany Decoration Merchants)
    • Long Standing Banner (Recipe on Aerie Decoration Merchants)
    • Short Standing Banner (Recipe on Aerie Decoration Merchants)
    • Kobold Chandelier (Recipe on all Kobold Enemies)
    • Common Cloak (Recipe on Tailoring Merchants)
    • Cloth Heraldry Boots (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Cloth Heraldry Gloves (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Leather Heraldry Boots (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Leather Heraldry Gloves (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Plate Heraldry Boots (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Plate Heraldry Gloves (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Chain Heraldry Boots (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Chain Heraldry Gloves (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Heraldry Chest (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Short Heraldry Standing Banner (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Long Heraldry Standing Banner (Eternal Patterns in Add-On Store)
    • Obsidian Order Cloth Armor (Eternal Pattern in Add-On Store)
    • NOTE: We had also hoped to get recipes for the Tea Service and a Wooden Framed Novia Map but neither made the release.
  • Brewing Delayed: We were able to get a lot of the foundational work done for brewing including the creation of casks, barley, hops, white/green grapes, goblets, and cups. However, on the programming side, we realized we needed to resurrect the ability to store containers within containers to make brewing scalable for most players (so they could store their casks). Thus, work on containers within containers (see below) and work on changing vendor fees (see above) has caused us to have to delay Brewing until Release 55.
• User Interface Polish: Various elements of the UI will get polished for usability as well as improvements to information displayed.
  • Containers within Containers: Containers can now be placed within other containers. This also means you can send containers in the mail system. Please note that the item limit is controlled by the top container and is not per container, so adding containers does not increase the limit of the top container.
  • Visual Status of Chests: Treasure Chests now have multiple visual states. If the chest has treasure, or will soon have treasure (after scene load), its lid will be closed. The lid will open slightly while being looted. The lid will be mostly open after being looted and awaiting restocking, or fully open after being looted for chests that do not restock. This should help in preventing some frustration about time wasted searching chests.
  • Hospitaller Title Login Reset: The Hospitaller Title must now be set each time a player logs in. Some players were setting themselves as Hospitallers and then forgetting to remove the title even when they were no longer actively helping other players so this change is meant to address that issue.
  • Field of View: We have adjusted the field of view setting of our camera to improve the perspective of the game and added sliders in options that allows players to adjust field of view settings for third person camera views as well as first person view. Note, increasing the field of view will increase the graphics load as more objects will be visible.
  • Item Viewer Resizable: We have made the in-game item viewer window resizable to make viewing items easier. We are planning on more improvements to this feature in future releases.
  • Player Guide on Launcher: We added a “?” to the launcher which takes you to the Player Guide.
  • Quality Settings Renamed: The original video quality settings naming was unintuitive so we renamed the settings to better indicate a progression. The new names are:
    • Fastest
    • Fast
    • Simple
    • Good
    • Very Good (formerly Beautiful)
    • Best (formerly Fantastic)
  • Multiplayer Mode Renamed to Open: We renamed Multiplayer Mode to Open Mode in all the in-game menus to match the naming we use in the Player Handbook and Physical Goods.
  • Looking For Group Confirmation: We added a confirmation dialog to the LFG feature which clarifies the purpose and rules for using the tool.
• Character: Polish passes will continue to be made on the Male Peasants and Pledge Servants.
  • Skeleton Plunderers (aka Pirate Skeletons): Skeleton Plunderers are Undead Plunderers who are cursed to wander the land forever seeking treasure. Kevin “UglyFist” Wells built these latest additions to our Undead army by meshing our Plunderers (who Fletcher “Scathana” Kinnear built in R53) with our Skeleton Mages, Warriors, and Archers. Skeleton Plunderers will appear in Release 54 in areas like Blood Bay and Penmawr Island.
  • Companion Armor and Weapons (quest rewards): The armor and weapons, including the lute, that the three companions of Truth, Love, and Courage (Ariel Rosehaven, Fiona FitzOwen, and Conrad Dupre) wear and wield are now also player equipment that can be obtained by completing quests from the companions (see Story section above).
    • Ariel’s Cloth Armor (otherwise known as the Order of Truth armor)
    • Conrad’s Plate Armor (otherwise known as Norgard Knightly Order Plate armor)
    • Fiona’s Leather Armor (otherwise known as FitzOwen Legacy armor)
    • Fiona FitzOwen’s Triple Crossbow
    • Fiona’s Lute
    • Silverthorn, Conrad’s Sword of Courage
    • Throneguard, Conrad’s Shield of Courage
    • Ariel Rosehaven’s Staff of Truth (otherwise known as the Mighty Cudgel of Obvious Truth)
  • Common Cloak (craftable): In Release 53, we introduced the Worn Cloak as part of the suite of worn armor found on low level humanoids. Players loved this cloak and requested a pristine version—which we have now provided! The recipe for the lovely Common Cloak can be found on Tailoring merchants throughout the realm.
  • Head Bandage (quest reward): In Release 47, we added an Ornate Head Bandage to our Make A Difference store. In Release 54, we’re adding an in-game version that you can receive as a quest reward in Soltown that has a health regeneration effect (see sidequests in the Story section above).
  • Streamer Cloak: This cloak was created as a reward for our streamer program and features an image of our Old Time Camera.
  • Kings Dinner 2018 Community Cloak: This clasped gauntlets community cloak was created for SOTA Con VIP Dinner Guests and is blue with yellow trim.
  • Additional Character Slots: Players can now purchase up to ten additional character slots on the Add On Store.
  • Obsidian Order Cloth Armor: While creating the Obsidian Order armor for the Release 52 livestream, Fletcher “Scathana” Kinnear also created this amazing Obsidian Order Cloth Armor that, while light in weight, is heavy in intimidating visuals. You can purchase this foreboding gear in the Add-On Store. Note that we are going to be using this Obsidian Order armor as a basis for making unique visuals for the Ebon Dawn Cultists in a future release as they are the modern successors of the Obsidian Order. Those versions of the armor will be obtainable as loot drops from defeating the Cultists.
  • Recorders: Remember those amazing times in elementary school where you were able to torture your parents with playing the recorder? Well you can relive those precious moments again with our newest musical instrument the Recorder! Recorders (also known as duct flutes) are arguably the oldest known wind instrument, dating back to the Neolithic period. Our recorders are based on the medieval style which appeared starting in the 14th century. The recipe for the in-game craftable version can be found in Music stores and the Ornate Recorder can be found in the Add-On Store.
  • Gold Crown Merchant Polish: Until Release 54, the Crown Merchants looked identical to our other merchants which was confusing because those merchants sell completely different inventories and more importantly Crown Merchants use our premium currency. So, for Release 54, we have modified the visuals on these merchants to be more unique by incorporating the Obsidian Crown into the necklace they wear. Hopefully, this will make them more easily differentiated and recognizable. NOTE: For now, we did not change those with Caretaker, Kobold, or Elven visuals.
  • Heraldry Armor Boots & Gloves: When we first created the Heraldry Armor, we only created Chest and Leggings to support the display of tabards. The idea was that players could use boots and gloves from other armor sets to round out the look but players rightly noted that none of the boots and gloves from other armor sets matched perfectly, so we have created matching boots and gloves for the Heraldry Armor. These have been added to the store armor sets and will be automatically delivered to those of you who already purchased the armor as well as those of you who received heraldry as part of your pledge rewards.
    • Cloth Heraldry Boots
    • Cloth Heraldry Gloves
    • Leather Heraldry Boots
    • Leather Heraldry Gloves
    • Plate Heraldry Boots
    • Plate Heraldry Gloves
    • Chain Heraldry Boots
    • Chain Heraldry Gloves
  • Frostgeist Victims and Ice Wolf Polish: The first iteration of these were simple modifications done by one of our quest designers and while passable did not meet our minimum visual requirements. So we had our character and VFX team do passes on these to improve the visuals.
  • Dance and Sit Animations for Summons: Most summoned creatures now have dance and sit animations (like other pets). This includes the Lich, Daemon, all Elementals, Skeleton, and Phoenix. NOTE: You will need to purchase the “Unlock Pet Dances” from the Add-On Store to invoke the dances. We hope to have the Wisp working in Release 55.
  • Crossbows Polish: The bowstrings on crossbows now animate properly.
  • Emotes:
    • /oldprospectordance: This jovial new folk dance can once again be obtained from a quest starting in Tenebris Harbor, this time without any time limits (see Side Quests in the Story section above).
    • /scheming: We know you are always plotting the demise of someone, now you can show it with this animation of you rubbing your hands together gleefully. To learn this emote, find the Ebon Dawn prisoner in Port Graff (see Side Quests in the Story section above).
    • /heartattack: This is definitely the “big one” and it is probably because you ate too much bacon! You can learn this amazing new emote from Shandy Chapman, the Wandering Merchant (see Side Quests in the Story section above).
    • /drink and /toast Polish: We have polished these emotes so they properly work with a wider variety of drinking vessels beyond just the mug including the drinking horn, goblets, cups, etc.
  • White Fireworks Variations: In Release 53, we created four new kinds of fireworks: Pinwheels, Deluxe Aerial Bursts, Elysium Candles, and Fountains. In Release 54, we have added white versions of all of these. You can obtain these in the Add-On Store.
  • Gear Fixes: We made cosmetic fixes (gaps, dyes not applying correctly, sorting errors, etc.) on several assets.
    • Female Assassin Boots
    • Rectangle Heraldry Shield (made dyeable)
    • Brown Highwayman Hat
    • Wealthy Merchant Hat
    • Knight Marshal Winged Helm
    • Stag Clan Bracers
  • Male Peasants and NPC Servants Polish Delayed: We chose to work on Skeleton Plunderers, making wearable versions of the Companion Armor, polishing other assets in the starter scenes (Ice Wolf, Frostgeist victims), and rounding out the Heraldry Armor instead of polishing the Male Peasants and NPC Servants.
• Combat: Chaos magic will be expanded with new spells and better balanced against the other schools of magic.
  • Companions Polish: We introduced two more companions in Release 52 for rounding out your party in Offline Mode. However, they were not really powerful enough in the later parts of the game and they did not have many abilities to aid you in your adventures. We have addressed both these issues in Release 54. First, we fixed an issue where their stats were not leveling up properly, which should make Companions more powerful at higher levels. While doing this, we adjusted the power scaling curve which previously flattened out about mid-level but now continues to increase to better match higher level creatures. Second, we greatly expanded the number of abilities and spells each companion has. While doing so, we improved the companions’ intelligence when using abilities and awareness of each other when using them. This means, for example, that they should be smarter about when and who to heal. Finally, we worked on making them more aware of their environment in combat, so will now better position themselves alongside the Avatar while also considering the positions of multiple enemies.
    • Ariel Rosehaven (Truth): Ariel is a mage who has mastered Air and Fire Magic. She casts the following spells: Fire Arrow, Fireball, Lightning, Chain Lightning, and Blink.
    • Conrad Dupre (Courage): Conrad is a master swordsman who is also adept with his shield. He has also dabbled a bit in Life Magic. He wields the following abilities and spell: Thrust, Double Slash, Rend, Whirling Blade, Shield Bash and Banish Undead.
    • Fiona FitzOwen (Love): Fiona is mainly an archer who wields her deadly triple crossbow but she also dabbles in Life Magic and is known to throw a heal around when needed. She has the following abilities and spells: Aimed Shot, Piercing Shot, Blinding Shot, Disabling Shot, Resurrect, Sprint, and Heal.
  • Scaling for Summoned and Tamed Creatures: As part of the work on improving companions leveling we discovered an issue with leveling of Summoned and Tamed Creatures where their stats were not leveling up. This has now been fixed so the power of these creatures should now be greater at higher levels.
  • Virtue Effects on More Gear: In Release 53, we added a system that allows us to add effects to gear where those effects are controlled by your avatar’s virtue and added effects to several items. In Release 54, we added virtue effects to additional items including the following:
    • Shroud of the Avatar
    • Ariel’s Cloth Armor
    • Conrad’s Plate Armor
    • Fiona’s Leather Armor
    • Fiona FitzOwen’s Triple Crossbow
    • Fiona’s Lute
    • Silverthorn, Conrad’s Sword of Courage
    • Conrad’s Shield of Courage
    • Ariel Rosen’s Staff of Truth
  • Solar and Lunar Blessings: We created two new scene blessings for rewarding players when completing quests and puzzles. The Solar Blessing gives Sun Attunement +15, Moon Attunement -20. The Lunar Blessing gives Moon Attunement +15, Sun Attunement -20.
  • Shroud of the Avatar: The Shroud of the Avatar was adjusted to give equal positive and negative bonuses based on virtue levels using the new virtue effects system.
  • Stealth Eggplants: A number of scenes have had stealth field “traps” which make nearby players and NPCs invisible, but the delivery system visuals and gas VFX were mostly indistinguishable from poison traps. Stealth fields now have unique “eggplant” visuals and gas coloration.
  • Double Adventurer Experience: For the first two weeks of Release 54 you will earn double Adventurer experience for defeating enemies and turning in quests.
  • Use Water Bucket on Self Polish: In Release 53, we added the ability to use a bucket of water on yourself to remove fire DOTs. In Release 54, we’ve added an animation and visual effects to this ability.
  • Gust versus Mesmerize: Gust will now remove any mesmerizing effects.
  • Stun, Root, and Knockdown: These skills will now be more difficult to remove and attempting to remove them by jumping will cost more focus. Stun now uses Intelligence, Root uses Strength, and Knockdown uses Dexterity for the test to break instead of all three using Strength. Stuns and Roots can now have a strength that determines how hard they are to break. Each failed check increases the chance of the next one succeeding. Note that this will likely get tuned over the first few patches.
  • Defensive Positions: The bonus for the Polearms skill Defensive Positions has been greatly increased. A skill of 80 will now give 6 Damage Resist instead of just 2.5.
  • Movement Speed in Combat: The movement speed bonus from spells, skills, consumables, and items will now be reduced by half when a player enters into combat mode. This applies for both when they willingly enter combat or are forced into combat mode by enemy attacks.
  • Lightning, Discharge, and Chain Lightning: The stun duration on these three air spells has been normalized. Previously, discharge was lasting as much as twice as long as lightning.
  • Platemail Torso: The stats for all platemail chest pieces have been increased  to match their large fizzle value.
  • Prone Targets: Prone targets caused by knockdown will now be treated as being on the ground for effects. The most common situation for this is that prone targets should now be hit for damage by Earthquake.
  • Shield of Air and Stealth: Having a Shield of Air active will prevent users from using stealth effects and abilities.
  • Blink Cooldown: The cooldown for Blink has been increased to 15 seconds.
  • Block and Parry: These are each capped to stop a maximum of 75% of damage each. So if an attack is both blocked and parried, it could stop up to 94% of damage.
  • Bludgeon Balance Work: A pass was made to try and balance bludgeon for PVE and especially PVP. All Bludgeon attacks cannot be parried now and will never result in a glancing blow. Additionally, Break Armor and Break Weapon have had their debuff values doubled. We believe these changes, plus the changes to Stun and Knockdown, will put Bludgeon in a much better place compared to the other weapon types.
  • Mooneater Fix: Due to an oversight, Mooneater had half the bonus of its sun counterpart. This has been fixed.
  • Stealth Fixes: We fixed various issues with Stealth where it would not work in certain cases (or in one case it worked too well!).
  • Reagents Tooltip Fix: We fixed an issue where reagent use chance would sometimes show up as a negative number instead of zero.
  • Multishot Fix: We fixed an issue with Multishot that was preventing the third shot from ever hitting.
  • Cover Messaging Fix: We fixed an issue where players were not getting proper messaging when they were in cover
  • Chaos Magic Delayed: The work on performance and overall combat balance unfortunately caused us to have to delay work on the expansions, balance and polish work on Chaos magic.
• Player Towns & Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
  • Increased Decoration Limits: With the steady progress in performance over the last few releases we are now able to make changes to decoration limits. Therefore we have increased the decoration limits for all Player Lots and Player-Owned Towns significantly.
  • Wooden Crate & Wooden Barrel Decorations (craftable): Players love smashing the various crates and barrels scattered about the game (and of course it is required in all video games to have crate-smashing or you are not allowed to sell your game). In the few seconds before smashing them, players have wistfully admired these storage objects and wished they could use them as containers on their own properties. Well we have granted their wish! Wooden Crates and Wooden Barrels are now craftable by carpenters and the recipes can be found in Brittany.
  • Bathtubs (craftable): In Release 53, we added Ornate Bathtubs to the Add-On Store. In Release 54, we have added Wooden and White Porcelain craftable in-game versions.
    • Wooden Bathtub
    • Porcelain Bathtub
  • Elven Lights (craftable): In Release 53, we added Ornate Elven Lights to the Add-On Store. In Release 54, we have added craftable in-game versions. The recipes have a chance to drop from any defeated Elven enemy.
    • Elven Chandelier
    • Elven Table Lamp
    • Elven Streetlamp
    • Elven Floor Lamp
    • Elven Wall Sconce
  • Square Wooden Hot Tub (craftable): After a hard day of battle, you really need to relax…and what could be more rewarding than a nice long soak in a hot tub that you crafted yourself? Nothing! We have added a craftable square wooden version to our line of hot tubs. The recipe can be found in Brittany.
  • Kobold Chandelier (craftable): We created this light for our worldbuilders when making Kobold areas and realized it would make an excellent addition to the array of craftable lights. The recipe has a chance to drop from any defeated Kobold enemy.
  • Lot Expiration Emails: If your lot is about to expire due to taxes, we will now send you an email (to the email registered to your account) warning you of the expiration and location of the lot(s) at risk. We hope to expand this service to also include lots expiring due to inactivity in a future release.
  • Keys and Recipes as Decorations: Keys and Recipes can now be placed as decorations in your home.
  • Storefront Row Houses: When we added the Greenhouse Row House home in Release 36, players loved the huge open windows on it and commented on how valuable they would be on the bottom floor for a shop, allowing potential shoppers to view the wares of shopkeepers. Even before that, Row Lot owners have lamented that Row Houses take up the entire lot and they couldn’t place their shopkeepers nor wares in visible locations to passersby. Now, there are Storefront Row Houses that solve these issues! They have windows that make up the entire front wall of the first floor (as well as the second floor of the 4-story version) and are completely open on the first floor, leaving plenty of room for counters, shopkeepers and displays. The 2-Story Storefront Row House recipe can be purchased in-game from the carpentry merchant in Ardoris and the 4-Story Storefront Row House can be acquired from the Add-On Store.
  • Village Basement Inns: Some players wish to run Inns but do not want to give up their homes do to so. Other Inn owners have filled up all their available rooms but still want to expand! We now have solutions in the form of Basement Inns! These 2-story Village Basement Inn can be purchased in-game from any Home Merchant and the 5-Story Village Basement Inn can be acquired from the Add-On Store.
  • Basement Hatches: For the longest time there has been only one kind of entrance to your basement preventing you from expressing yourself to those who crawl underneath your house. Those dark days are finally over! We have created a wide array of new Basement Hatches in various themes including one that can display your Heraldry!
    • Rough Stone Mine Entrance (In-game Pattern)
    • Storm Cellar Doors (In-game Pattern)
    • Manhole Cover (In-game Pattern)
    • Craftsman River Stone (In-game Pattern)
    • Shogun (Add-On Store)
    • Obsidian (Add-On Store)
    • Viking (Add-On Store)
    • Elven (Add-On Store)
    • Kobold (Add-On Store)
    • Nautical (Add-On Store)
    • Heraldry (Add-On Store)
    • Darkstarr (Add-On Store Rare Recurring)
    • Lord British (Add-On Store Rare Recurring)
  • Large Ornate Telescope: The large telescope that is in the Observatory home is now a free standing decoration that can be placed and used in other locations. It is available in the Add-On Store.
  • Standing Banners: We created craftable in-game Short and Long Standing Banners to decorate your home without using up wall space. In a future release, when the decoration dye system comes online, you will be able to make these custom colors. You can also use the Short and Long Heraldry Standing Banner Eternal Patterns (Add-On Store) on these craftable banners to display your heraldry.
  • Hourglasses: Are you tired of the complication of reading the time from hands on the face of those fancy clocks? Do you yearn for the simplicity of tracking the passage of the day, one hour at a time, manually? Well we have the solution for you! Hourglasses are interactive objects that can be turned over that then show sand pouring from top to bottom for one in-game hour. There is an Ornate version in the Add-On Store and a craftable version will appear in the game in a future release.
  • Globe Drink Cabinet: The first thought we had when we started working on brewing was “We should make a globe that has a bar hidden inside it!” Well, maybe that wasn’t the first thought we had, but that makes a great story! The Globe Drink Cabinet functions as a storage container just like a chest, and looks like it has a set of bottles and drinks in it when it plays the open animation. You can obtain one of these fine decorations in the Add-On Store.
  • Heraldry Chest: The latest addition to our line of Heraldry items is a chest crafted from fine burled wood and brass fittings. You can display your heraldry on any container by applying this Eternal Pattern on any craftable chest. The Heraldry Chest Eternal Pattern can be purchased from the Add-On Store.
  • Denis Loubet Illustrations: We used the beautiful illustrations Denis Loubet created for the Sword of Midras and the Player Manual to create over 30 framed pieces of art to decorate the walls of your home. You can purchase these in the Add-On Store.
  • Perennial Coast Landscape Paintings: We have begun creating lovely landscape paintings of each region. The first region to be featured is the picturesque Perennial Coast with its unique blue tiled roofs and cherry blossoms. You can acquire these striking works from the Add-On Store.
  • Animal Skin Rug Polish: We polished various issues on the animal skin rugs, including adjusting the relative scale of the rugs to match the scale of the source creatures, better matching the scale of the heads to the bodies, and making the heads lay more flat on the ground.
    • Wolf Skin Rugs
    • Bear Skin Rugs
    • Cow Skin Rug
  • Phonographs vs. Container Limit: Phonographs no longer count as containers when calculating the container limit on your lot, they simply count as a decoration.
  • Fire & Flame Effects Polish: All of the built-in fireplaces and lights with flame effects (candles, torches, etc.) have been updated to use the latest flame and fire visual effects.
  • Signs Tooltips Polish: We have removed the word “sign” from the tooltip from all signs. For example, the Inn sign will simply say “Inn” when you hover over it versus “Inn Sign” (even though that was a great pun: “Inn Sign Jones report to the bridge on the double!”).
  • Player Owned Municipality: At the request of several town owners who have reached the maximum lot allocation of a Metropolis we have created a new size of Player Owned Town bigger than the Metropolis. A Municipality increases the available lot area by 19,200 square meters (enough for two additional castle lots or 32 additional village lots).
  • R54 Lot Deed Raffle Winners: Tickets for the R54 Raffle were sold during R53, the winners of the raffle will be announced the day after R54 goes live. Deeds will be delivered shortly after that.
    • Place Anywhere Deeds (50):
  • • • Row: 20
      • Village: 15
      • Town: 10
      • City: 5
    • Player-Owned Town Deeds (100):
      • Row: 40
      • Village: 30
      • Town: 20
      • City: 10
  • R55 Lot Deed Raffle Tickets: R55 raffle tickets can be purchased during R54 with in game gold from home merchants. Each person can only win a single deed of each type (maximum of one place anywhere and one POT). The drawing will occur and winners will be announced in R55.
    • Place Anywhere Deeds (50):
      • Row: 20
      • Village: 15
      • Town: 10
      • City: 5
    • Player-Owned Town Deeds (100):
      • Row: 40
      • Village: 30
      • Town: 20
      • City: 10
  • House and Furniture Fixes: Fixed various issues with homes and furniture including places where decorations could not be placed, where stairs could not be climbed without jumping, where furniture could not be used, etc. The list includes:
    • Throne of Bone (now setup for NPCs)
    • Shogun Bungalow Village Home
    • Duke Water Keep
    • Duke Founder Home
    • White Dragon Head Trophy
    • Observatory Home
    • Adobe Keep
    • Elven Peaked Roof Village Home
    • Small Stone Keep
    • Shipwrecked Haunted Pirate Galleon
    • Stone 2-Story Row House
    • Knight Benefactor Village Home
    • Marble Bathtub
    • Baron Benefactor Home
    • Elven Guard Tower
    • Ladies Riding Boots
  • Player-Owned Towns on the Overworld: Automatic placement, removal, and renaming of POT locations on the Novia and Hidden Vale Overworlds in-game maps has been completed. The automated process does not yet detect POTs that have moved. If your POT has moved and you want it moved on the in-game map, for now just open a bug report. The process does not yet place nested POTs automatically. That will be in the next phase of the project.
    • Additions:
      • Aerie Cove
      • Alexandria
      • Avenguard
      • Breath of Fire
      • Britt Mart
      • Coral City
      • Crossroads Alleys
      • Da New Pitmuck
      • Dragomir Mori
      • Flowing Waters Forest
      • Formosa
      • Forptycle
      • Hameln
      • Hero Market
      • Hitomi’s Respite
      • Knightmare Falls
      • Light City
      • Luna City
      • Mystic Isle
      • New Heaven
      • Oasis
      • Rats Nest
      • Rockslyde Shores
      • S Mart Factorium
      • Shogun Ridge
      • Silent Hills
      • Silverdale Market
      • SilverHold
      • Taht Al’ard
      • The Devereux
      • The Drowned Mountains
      • Twilight Sparkle
      • Zerpville Bay
    • Removals and/or Name Changes: There were old POTs that have been removed OR had their names changed.
      • Ardonair
      • BattleDale
      • Clevedon
      • Dooms Den
      • Dragomir
      • Drakenhof
      • Findupre
      • Gensicke
      • Grunvald Oasis
      • Heorth
      • Irenholde
      • Isle of Ghosts
      • Knightmare falls
      • Neath
      • Nightdiamond
      • Owl’s Sky City
      • PenFranc Folklore
      • Raven’s Head
      • Saint Haley
      • Sea Nymph Grotto
      • Specto Mori
      • Terreg Wis
      • The Gloaming Grottotorch
      • Trysull
  • New and Updated Dynamic POTs:
    • Aerie Centre Exchange: Renamed (formerly Perfectus Mori). Converted to Forest 01b. Changed location.
    • Bastion’s Point: Rotated to 180. Changed location. Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Interconnection (with Harvest).
    • Black Mesa East: Renamed (formerly Banzai Bay). Ownership changed.
    • Blackstone Gate: Renamed (formerly Blackspire). Upgraded to Hamlet. Set PvP flag.
    • Bravehaven: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Breath of Fire: Upgraded to Hamlet.
    • Britt Mart: Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Interconnections (with Salisbury Plains and Brittany Fort).
    • Celina’s Hill: Renamed (formerly Silent Hills). Ownership changed.
    • Crafters Town: Renamed (formerly SeaHaven). Converted to Forest 01b. Ownership changed. Changed location.
    • Dead Horse: Upgraded to Village.
    • Heartwood: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Mystic Isle: Ownership changed.
    • Noshima Island: Renamed (formerly Bearskin Grotto). Converted to Tropical Island 01a. Ownership changed. Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Interconnections (changed nested interconnection to within Brittany Fields; removed Diamond Fields, Siren Song Bayou, Jade Caverns, Jade Valley, and Iron Gate; added Central Brittany, Brittany Wharfs, Brittany Estates, Brittany Alleys, and Brittany Fort).
    • Oceania: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Ordinis Mortis: Interconnections (with Malus, Verat Chaos, Britt Mart, Brittany Fields, and Brittany Alleys).
    • S Mart Factorium: Changed location. Upgraded to Hamlet. Interconnections (added Resolute; removed Johnna’s Bluff).
    • Shadowwood Forest: Renamed (formerly Nidhoggr Mountains). Converted to Forest 02. Rotated to 180. Upgraded to Village.
    • Silverdale Market: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Twilight Sparkle: Upgraded to Town. Interconnections (with Kingswood, Greenfall, and Forewind).
• Physical Goods: All physical goods have been finalized, signed-off, and are in production.
  • Signatures: Richard “Lord British” Garriott has personally signed over 5000 stickers that will be applied to various signed items. Note that stickers were used because of the different locations in which the items were being produced and packaged. At this point the only items left to sign are the cloth maps which will be signed directly. A condensed and edited video of the entire signing process will be downloadable at a later date after the cloth maps are signed.
• Audio:
  • Weapons: We updated the sound effects for all of the weapon types (blades, bludgeons, polearms) except for ranged weapons. This includes attacks, misses, parries, and sheathing/unsheathing. We also made it so that weapons will now make sounds when you swing them even if you do not have a target (previously they were silent).
  • Combat Impact Sounds: We did a polish pass on the impact sounds that happen during combat.
  • Music: Songs now randomize the order that they play in each scene and they also periodically will fade out to silence so that you can enjoy all the ambient sounds.
  • Player Houses: The floors of all player houses are now tagged to play the proper footstep sound effects.
  • Elevators: Elevators now have proper sound effects.
  • Chests: The open/close sound effect for chests has been updated.
• Monthly Livestream and Make a Difference Items
  • Release 52 Livestream Items: We have completed all the stretch goal rewards from the R52 Livestream that were Obsidian themed. For everyone who is eligible, the following items should appear in your bank for claiming in Release 54. You can see if you are eligible in your Account page on the Special Rewards tab: if so, it says “Release 52 Rewards.”
    • /evileye
    • Obsidian Order Plate Armor
    • Obsidian Order Mage Robes
    • Obsidian Order Throne
    • Obsidian Order Pavers
    • Obsidian Order Obelisk (interior size)
    • 2 Weeks Double XP (details in Combat & Crafting sections above)
  • Autism Awareness Blue Standing Torches: Players suggested that we turn these blue standing torches into decorations and we agreed to not only do that but to also make them part of our Autism Awareness Make a Difference Store!
  • Aerie Fund Primal Nature 2018: The Aerie Fund is running a funding drive for Conservation International and to assist with their efforts we have created two custom nature themed items that you can earn only by donating to the drive.
    • Primal Nature 2018 Reaper Sapling Pet: This tiny little reaper will win your heart with his little snaggle teeth and three little arm branches.
    • Primal Nature 2018 Community Cause Cloak: This lovely green cloak with brown trim is decorated with the Earth Magic symbol.

Whew! You made it all the way to the end of the post! Congratulations! Release 54 is going to be amazing, especially because of all your support! The rest of Q2 (R55) is going to be incredible too! Brewing, Unicorns, new seasonal creature(s), Tier Level adjustments, more side quests, and UI polish are just a few of the things coming up! We just have so much more to show you!

As a reminder here are links to Player Instructions and Known Issues. Thank you again for your continued support. This is truly the most amazing community we have ever worked with, and we are proud to be on this journey with you.

Sincerely,

Starr Long
aka Darkstarr
Executive Producer