Avatar’s Update #288: Shooter Jennings Release Party, Aether Creatures, & R55 Livestream 2

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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

 

Aether Creatures Sighted in New Britannia!

Astronomers across New Britannia have noted that the approaching comet has agitated the creatures of Novia and Hidden Vale, making many bolder and more ferocious. Rumors suggest that the aether surrounding the comet has been mutating some of the most powerful creatures into new monstrous variations. Explorers of the world’s most dangerous regions are reporting sightings of Aether Dragons, Aether Corpions, and even Aether Liches! Woe be to any unwary Avatar who stumbles into their path!

 

Shooter Jennings “Shooter” Album Release Party!

You are invited to another historic album premier inside the realm of Shroud of the Avatar! Rolling Stone lists Shooter Jennings’ latest album: “Shooter”, which releases on August 10, as one of the most anticipated albums of 2018!

For his latest album, the follow-up to his adventurous tribute to Giorgio Moroder, Countach (For Giorgio), country-rock-electronica mad scientist Shooter Jennings looked to his outlaw lineage, cutting an album of stripped-down classic country in the vein of his dad Waylon and one of his heroes, Hank Williams Jr. He also returned to where it all began, re-teaming with Dave Cobb, who produced Jennings’ 2005 debut, Put the ‘O’ Back in Country – the first album the Grammy-winning Cobb ever produced too. Simply titled Shooter, the LP will be released sometime this year via Cobb’s Low Country Sound imprint on Elektra. Says Jennings, “It’s the most country album I’ve ever done.” J.H.

The event will kickoff through a series of quests that will appear in Release 56 which goes live on Thursday July 26. The quests will lead to the party at 7:00 PM CDT on July 31st inside Shroud of the Avatar, in the Player Owned Town of Ordinis Mortis. The first players to collect the clues and finish the quest will receive prizes from Shooter himself! Those prizes will include exclusive items with Shooter’s heraldry in the game (armor, brewing casks, etc), wax cylinders with songs from Shooter’s new album, and framed art of Shooter’s heraldry that they can decorate their home with. At the party you will get an advance listen of the new album, among other festivities!

Shooter has a long history with Shroud of the Avatar. It all started when he decided to have the World Premier of his album Countach in the game a couple of years ago! Shooter said about the event, “Having created a system where you can not only listen to streaming radio inside the game, but also having the ability to collect wax cylinders with audio stored on them which you can play on in-game phonographs, it seemed like a no-brainer to be able to share music inside Shroud of the Avatar. So I suggested we do a listening party in the game.” One news outlet dubbed it “…arguably the weirdest gaming event of all time.” He followed that up by donating wax cylinders of the album, album cover art, and other items to our Breast Cancer Make A Difference Store

He backed up this charitable work by donating items to and participating in a Think Pink Streamathon to raise funds for breast cancer which raised over $8000.

He even played our Launch Event this March at the Bob Bullock Museum! So join our longtime friend and collaborator for another night to remember on July 31 at 7 PM CDT and hear the new album “Shooter”!!


Release 55 Livestream Part 2!

We had an amazing Release 55 Monthly Livestream on July 6, just two short days after Lord British’s birthday! We raised an amazing $54,500 by the time we got to midnight and we got all the way to the Lord British Pavers stretchgoal! We were also able to give a nice sneak peek into Episode 2. However we have more to reveal about Episode 2 and Lord British really, really wants more items in his theme (not that he is jealous of how many Darkstarr items there are…). So we decided to have a Part 2 of our Release 55 Livestream!

We plan to go deeper on some of the Episode 2 features we discussed in the first livestream, like Item Affinity, but we also plan to tease some new information too! One of the new features we plan to discuss is a set of new building tools including dungeon creation (player property) and defense building (player property, castle defenses and control points). These are part of a larger effort to increase the community’s ability to craft their own adventures that includes existing tools like notes and signs but is also expanding with other new features like advanced container settings (locks, place/take settings, etc.) along with craftable/purhasable/placeable traps and spawners (spider eggs, skeleton crypts, etc.). When you put all of these things together your ability to craft adventures will be limited only by your imagination!

Last livestream we also did not get a chance to talk another cool thing coming for Episode 2 which is the ability to “un-nest” and/or transfer your Player Owned Town into the new lands! The time is nigh to start reserving your slots on the surface of the new lands beyond Novia! Lord British himself is doing that as well! His very own Lord British’s Castle will be on the new Serpent Archipelago.

All Avatars from around the world are welcome to join us in the livestream activities. We will be continuing the deep dives, answering questions, having sales, handing out prizes, and tracking towards stretch goals. In honor of our sovereign’s recent day of birth, this event’s stretch goals remain Lord British themed and we will be picking up where we left off so the next goal will be the Lord British Round Table!

LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE (Central Time Zone)

Monthly livestreams are on Twitch and include answers to your gameplay questions, world building tours, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! Here is the schedule:

  • 3PM: Introductions
  • 3:30PM: Deep Dive 1: Episode 2 Sneak Peek Part 2!
  • 4:30PM: Q&A
  • 5:30PM: Deep Dive 2: Housing & Decoration System
  • 6:30PM: Q&A
  • 7PM: Ending Announcements

STRETCH GOALS (Lord British Birthday Themed!)

As a special bonus, we are offering funding rewards to any player that makes a minimum purchase of $5 during a twelve hour window during the day of the livestream, on July 20 from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CDT (July 20 17:00 to July 21 05:00 UTC). You can also earn the stretch goals by being part of our Rewards Program. Our theme for this livestream is Lord British of course! In honor of his birthday many items will either have the silver serpent or the Lord British full crest on them. They will also be themed around things that Lord British loves like fireworks, space, and magic!

All purchases during the twelve hour window will count towards the stretch goals, not just the four hours of the livestream! Also participation in the Rewards Program counts towards our stretch goal totals! NOTE: We are picking up the funding goals where we left off from last time!

  • ACHIEVED $10K: Blue, Yellow, Red, Silver Aerial Combo Replenishing Box of Fireworks
  • ACHIEVED $25K: Silver Serpent Crackle Aerial Combo Replenishing Box of Fireworks
  • ACHIEVED $35K: Lord British Silver Serpent Wand (he loves magic!)
  • ACHIEVED $50K: Lord British Pavers
  • $65K: Lord British Round Table
  • $80K: Lord British Large Telescope
  • $90K: Lord British Sword and Halberd
  • $100K: Lord British Coronated Leather Helm and Bow

*Please keep in mind that stretch goal rewards take time to develop and will most likely not be available until Release 57 at the earliest. We will keep you updated!

CHEER ON THE DEVS

StarrDancingFor every $2,500 contributed, all devs on camera have to dance, sing, or perform some other act of amazement.

12 HOURS OF SALES:

We will be having twelve hours of sales around the livestream from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CDT (July 20 17:00 to July 21 05:00 UTC)! Items in the following categories will be on sale at approx. 20% off. As noted above, all purchases during this time will count towards the stretch goals!

WIN THESE GREAT PRIZES!

  • Signed Cloth Maps!
  • Light Unicorn Mask + Dark Unicorn Mask
  • Lord British Rares Pack:
    • 2018 Replenishing LB Cake
    • Lord British vs. Darkstarr Battle Banner
    • Lord British Cloak
    • Lord British Shield
    • Lord British Shield Pattern Pack
    • Lord British Basement Hatch
  • Heraldry Beer, Wine, & Spirits Eternal Patterns
  • Fireworks Mega Set & Sparklers Mega Set
  • Portrait Paintings Leaders Set
  • Large Ornate Telescope + Ornate Moondial
  • Observatory Home

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. PRIZE UPDATE: Enter for a chance to win a prize by either logging into the game and typing “Happy birthday LB” into chat OR by purchasing any item from our store during the livestream!

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS

We will be answering questions throughout the livestream, so submit them in the comments section of the original post or on Discord chat during the event.

Please do NOT post questions containing:

  • More than 3 questions in total (post all three in a single reply)
  • Bugs or other problems best posted in the bug forums
  • “When is this coming” or anything related to schedule (for those answers please refer to our quarterly updates or our post release plans)
  • Questions with more than a couple of sentences. Please keep them brief! We will likely understand the context of your interest, so just ask the question and we’ll be able to respond.

For bug reports and extra idea suggestions, please use the forums for this purpose.

A Final Thought: We see a LOT of repeat questions. Please consider reviewing one of the other missed question posts, previous monthly livestreams, livestream transcripts, and/or reading our Post Episode 1 plan post before posting a question. Your question might have already been answered.

Watch @ShroudofAvatar updates throughout the day of the livestream. See you on Twitch!

For those who missed part 1 here it is on youtube:


Episode 2 Stretch-Goal Store: New Items

As revealed in the Release 55 Livestream and last week’s update we have launched the Stretch Goal store for Episode 2! These are stretch goals with rewards that can be used in the game now (or at least very soon)! When you purchase the item you will get it as an in-game reward immediately (or very soon if the item is still in progress), even if the stretch-goal is not met. These rewards are completely unique. They will not be sold in the add-on store, in-game nor as a bundle item. Once the stretch-goal is met we will begin work on the functionality for Episode 2 and all the items purchased would gain some function related to the goal when Episode 2 launches. For instance the foal from the Mounts stretch goal would grow into a horse that you could then ride. Each goal will have a progress bar underneath tracking the progress. General philosophy is that these items cost slightly more than equivalent items because they are linked to stretch goals.

We are starting with the Mounts Stretch-goal and will add further stretch-goals over the next several months including Flexible Lot Placement, Pack Animals, and Half-Elven Playable Race. NOTE: Many of these items are similar to the previous stretch-goal store items but these are different and unique.

Mounts: Players will be able to ride horses around the game (including horses tamed in the game)! These baby horses will grow up to be fully grown and mountable horses when this feature goes live in the game. NOTES: There will be some kind of summon mount emote / key. When mount appears you automatically vault into the saddle. Cannot fight while mounted. If you are hit / enter combat while on horseback you are knocked from your horse. Mounts cannot be ridden indoors or underground. We have started this store last week with the Ornate Hitching Post, as well as Roan, Appaloosa, and Dun Foals. 

This week we have transferred four equine themed items from the Add On Store to the Mounts Stretch Goal Store including the two Unicorn masks we added in Release 55 and the two horse statues. This means that all purchases of those items (including past purchases) now count towards the Mounts stretch goal. This immediately increased the Mounts stretch goal by over $3000!

Light Unicorn Mask:

Dark Unicorn Mask:

Horse Statue:

Giant Horse Statue:


Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program

We are excited to announce the launch of our Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program! Earn the best rate on purchasing Gold Crowns, AND receive rare stretch-goal items from our monthly livestreams! This program automatically enrolls you in the monthly livestreams (counts as the $5 minimum purchase) along with other perks.

For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

  • 9 Gold Crowns of the Obsidians every month
  • Automatic Participation in the Monthly Livestream Stretchgoals (counts as the $5 minimum purchase)
  • Exclusive Title every 3 months
  • Pick any Dye Pack every 6 months
  • Pick any three of the 7 Obsidian Potions every month, including:
    • Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
    • Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
    • Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
    • Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
    • Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
    • Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
    • Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting

Lord British Birthday Double XP Weekends

In celebration of Lord British’s birthday on July 4th, starting this weekend (June 22) and through the end of July, Avatars will earn double XP (Adventure & Production) when playing on the weekends!

NPC Submission Requests: Brittany Alleys (extended to R56)

Earlier this month Scott “Lum” Jennings posted our latest request for NPC submissions for Brittany Alleys. This is for Developer+ level backers who are eligible for the “Design an NPC” reward “Help create and name a character in the game”.

For reference here is our current status on which towns we have done this work on and which towns remain to be done:

Done:

  • Aerie
  • Ardoris
  • Braemar (no backer NPCs)
  • Brittany Wharfs
  • Central Brittany
  • Desolis
  • Estgard
  • Etceter
  • Graff Island
  • Jaanaford
  • Kiln
  • Kingsport (no backer NPCs)
  • Northwood
  • Owl’s Head (no backer NPCs)
  • Resolute
  • Solania (no backer NPCs)
  • Soltown (no backer NPCs)
  • Spite
  • Xenos
  • Yew

In progress:

  • Brittany Alleys

To be done:

  • Bramble
  • Brittany Fields
  • Broochash
  • Brookside
  • Celestis
  • Eastmarch
  • Elad’s Lighthouse
  • Fortus End
  • Goti
  • Mud
  • Noreach
  • Point West
  • Port Graff
  • Storm’s Reach
  • Westend

NOTE: We are extending the submissions for another release.

Humility[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Scott “Lum” Jennings]

Thank you for your continuing support of Shroud of the Avatar! This month, we move from the jewel of the realm to its seamy underbelly – the district known as Brittany Alleys. The dark streets of the Alleys are full of mysteries and stories, perhaps one of which is yours…

Because of Brittany Alleys’ size, this will be the only area we are adding backer NPCs to for this release. If you do NOT want your backer NPC to be in Brittany Alleys for whatever reason, or if you absolutely have a character who should be in a given city not named Brittany, you should wait until we advertise for that city. We do plan on eventually populating every city in the game with unique NPCs!

First, some brief notes:

  • Brittany Alleys has many NPCs which are not currently unique. Thus, the NPCs are already in the game, but we can change appearance (to a degree, as seen below), gender, etc. to suit your request. If you want to pick a specific NPC (for example, one near your own house) we will do our best to accommodate you but may not be able to.
  • NPC visual customization, as you may have noticed, is still at a very early stage in development. Right now for the backers who want to be added to Brittany Alleys, we cannot offer any visual customization options beyond our standard gallery of NPC models. (Do note, however, that we frequently add to that gallery – the pool has doubled over the past 6 months, for example.) If you would like to have input over the visual customization of your NPC, you can wait for further releases when we can offer this. We will also allow a one-time visual re-customization once customization has been added if you would like to add your NPC now.
  • There are MANY NPCs within Brittany Alleys’ walls. Although we will be accepting submissions on a first come first serve basis, if you are a Developer+-tier backer (as in, you can see this post), you are welcome to submit an NPC of your own design, but people who have not yet submitted an NPC will take priority over those who have. If your NPC doesn’t appear in Brittany Alleys, feel free to respond again in future posts. We still have quite a few towns and cities to populate!
  • When responding, please list a first and second choice for profession.
  • Due to the great number of NPCs to populate this release, the amount of custom dialog we can add will by necessity be limited. If you would like specific custom dialog added for your NPC, it would help us GREATLY if you could submit in the form of [keyword that triggers a response] [the response desired] so that we have a better idea of how you would like that NPC implemented. We reserve the right to edit or change any dialog submitted, or not use it if we feel it inappropriate for the NPC or the game in general.
  • Things that will cause Lum to send you a regretful message saying we can’t use your NPC’s background: if your NPC has a backstory that contradicts the lore of the game (“my grandfather helped Aren Bennis win the Obsidian Wars”), thinly-disguised advertisements for your player-owned town or guild, references to races or major events that do not appear in-game (“my mother was an orc”), or a name that is an obvious reference to a real person, popular fictional character, or historical figure.
  • This is currently for the district of Brittany Alleys ONLY.
  • NPCs for Brittany Alleys should be primarily human, but we will consider submissions of elven migrants.

Still with us? Great! Here’s what we need for Brittany Alleys:

  • 40 38 guards
  • 89 85 citizens/travellers
  • 24 20 children/orphans
  • 1 guild registrar
  • 2 1 bankers
  • 3 1 town criers
  • 2 public vendors
  • 2 combat trainers
  • 1 crafting trainer
  • 1 alchemist
  • 1 blacksmith
  • 1 weapons salesperson
  • 1 butcher
  • 2 cooking supplies salespersons
  • 1 housing deco salesperson
  • 1 housing deeds salesperson
  • 3 2 fisherfolk
  • 2 farming supplies salespersons
  • 1 baker
  • 2 innkeepers
  • 1 tavernkeeper
  • 2 waiters/waitresses

If you’d like to have your namesake be a resident of Brittany Alleys, please respond via private message on this forum to Sannio using the following format:

  • NPC name:
  • NPC gender:
  • NPC profession (first choice):
  • NPC profession (second choice):
  • District NPC appears (optional):
  • NPC background (optional): A paragraph on whom your NPC is, how they would respond to nosy outlanders poking about their business, what brings them to Brittany Alleys (or keeps them there), or anything else you’d like to add. We may or may not use this background, and reserve the right to edit and/or reject any background that does not fit the lore and setting of the game.

Please specify in your submission that this NPC is for Brittany Alleys.

We will respond if: your NPC is used; if it is rejected for whatever reason (such as an inappropriate name); if a supplied background is inappropriate, or if your NPC missed the cutoff for this release.

Thanks for your support, and keep a tight hold of your coinpurse when in the Alleys!

Weekend Flash Sale: Masks & Pets

In Release 55 we added a whole menagerie of new creatures including Unicorns, Swamp Reapers, and Child Zombies. To celebrate all pets and masks are on sale this weekend, including the new unicorn masks!

Follow the links to learn more about each item. Also, you’ll want to explore the game in detail for there are many more craftable items available!

King Grannus Meadhall in Kahli opening on July 14

[From a Release 55 Events Forum Post by Helvig Ingvildsdottir]

Announcing the grand opening of the King Grannus Meadhall in the new viking-inspired settlement Helheim in Kahli in the Hidden Vale on July 14, 3pm NBT.

We are serving quality drinks from select suppliers. Our beer is imported from the reknowned Alpenglow brewery of Rauchbierplatz, our wine comes from Von Kardigan’s Winery, a small winery in the Hidden Vale. We hope to be able to soon serve homemade mead, too!

Our supplier of beer even has a special in store for our first forty patrons: A limited edition Festbier that will be available only for a very short time and only at a handful of select establishments. We are very proud to be one of them! And as a special thank you to our opening-party patrons, all drinks will be free for the first two hours.

There will be live entertainment at the tavern on a regular basis where professional skalds, storytellers and musicians entertain our guests, but on common days the old viking rule applies: “Tell a story, sing a sang, show yer bum, or off ye gang”, meaning we expect patrons to be prepared to add to everyone’s entertainment one way or the other.

We expect all fighting except for friendly fist fights to happen outside the door. Patrons who cause bloodshed within the walls of the meadhall will be forcefully removed and will not be welcome back. The same counts for patrons that get too drunk to keep their stomach, bowels or bladder under control.

((OOC info: This is a RP establishment, where RP is encouraged, but everyone is welcome, entirely independent of play-style. Kahli is a POT consisting of several districts, gated communities and villages, of which Helheim is one, to be found near the northwestern border of Kahli. Kahli is near Braemar, to be accessed either from the Overworld map or through Braemar.))

Upcoming Events Calendar

July 20, 2018 – R55 Livestream Part 2!
July 26, 2018 – Release 56
July 31, 2018 – Shooter Jennings Album Release Party
Aug 3, 2018 – Release 56 Livestream
Aug 10 – 11, 2018 –Syndcon
Aug 21 – 25, 2018 – Gamescom
Aug 30, 2018 – Release 57
Aug 30 – Sept 3 –Dragon Con
Sept 7, 2018 – Release 57 Livestream
Sept 27, 2018 – Release 58
Oct 5, 2018 – Release 58 Livestream
Oct 11-13, 2018 – SOTACON Austin 2018
Oct 25, 2018 – Release 59
Nov 2, 2018 – Release 59 Livestream
Nov 15, 2018 – Release 60
Nov 30 or Dec 7, 2018 – Release 60 Livestream
Dec 13, 2018 – Release 61
Dec 21 or Jan 4, 2018 – Release 61 Livestream

Visit the official Community Calendar to see the great lineup of activities our amazing community has planned for this weekend! And be sure to check out this month’s Release Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events.

Win a Pair of SOTACON 2018 Tickets!

SOTACON Austin 2018 is giving away a pair of tickets and t-shirts to SOTACON Austin 2018!

Enter daily to win! To enter, get the Meretz App:
https://www.meretz.com/promo/sotaconaustin

Or watch Lunch with Laz & Jack Daily for additional entries, as well a chance to win a weekly prize of a Custom SOTACON t-shirt!

Project to Support – Crowfall

Crowfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), a game that is played online in a persistent, shared environment with thousands (and thousands, and thousands…) of other players.

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

Resources – Players Helping Players

SotA_NewPlayerWelcome_Forum

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.



3 Comments


  1. Daigoji GaiDaigoji Gai

    What an update!
    Also very excited Shooter is doing another release in Novia! Amazeballs!


    1. Daigoji GaiDaigoji Gai

      Check the forums. The Ordinis Astronomical Society identified and charted it’s movements long before the SoTA devs acknowledged it was a real event/thing.

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