Avatar’s Update #295: Play R57 Now! Collector’s Boxes Shipping & Arriving!

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

Play Release 57 Now!

Release 57 successfully launched yesterday, August 30, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Check out the Release 57 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new content.

We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing this Release!

If you have not downloaded the game yet, go to www.shroudoftheavatar.com and click the “Play Now” button. The game is also available on Steam.

Release 57 Player Instructions

Release 57 Known Issues

Here are what some players are saying about the release so far:

Sean Silverfoot: Great Release Port! Truly appreciate your efforts!

Steevodeevo: Wow. Just Wow. The biggest and best monthly patch ever maybe? How did you achieve all this? Huge kudos to you all. Can’t wait to play it.

Daxxe Diggler: Oh, and to @DarkStarr and the entire Port crew… WOW! I can’t believe all the new stuff you squeezed into this release. My confidence in this game just jumped way up again.

Elgarion: What a crazy long list of game updates! Great work, Portalarium!

Moussaka: FREAKING AWESOME!

Greyfox: Wow! Is the one word description. The quality of life improvements are significant. Little changes like the new loot inventory screen is amazing. So many significant and minor additions have created a wonderful experience.

Lord Trady of Blix: Just got and opened my box. What an amazing feeling! Beautiful cloth map – I felt like I was 10 years old again and opening the Ultima IV box for the first time. I just want to send a big thank you to Portalarium for making this box as nice as it is, an amazing collectors piece I’ll treasure for years! Thank You!!!

Elay: What a fantastic release, so much stuff, absolutely brilliant. This game gets better and better every month, loving it. Really well done Port, you’ve excelled yourselves.

Release 54 Livestream(s) Items (cont.)

The Release 54 Livestream(s) items were all Tropical and Polynesian themed in honor of the summer months. Damon “enalNomad” Waldrip, Reid Rollo and Scott “Scottie” Jones have been busily working on creating them this release and they are turning out amazing! This week we are revealing the final remaining item: the Leaf Backpack, which will go live in Release 58.

Leaf Backpack (Scott “Scottie” Jones):

Collector’s Boxes Shipping & Arriving!

Great news Avatars! The Collector’s Boxes are shipping from the manufacturer and have already started arriving! We have multiple confirmations of them arriving at our backers’ homes complete with all sorts of beautiful goodies! 

(photos courtesy of @Lazarus Long)

As noted earlier we will post when the Retail Boxes are available on Amazon.

Please note that the manufacturer was supposed to send an email to each backer when their item shipped unfortunately this appears not to have happened and we are following up to find out why this failed. Additionally the invoice mistakenly lists “Lord of the Manor” on all boxes in one place but does correctly list the pledge type in a second, lower place.

Shroud at Gamescom

Shroud of the Avatar was at Devcom and Gamescom last week in Cologne, Germany. Richard “Lord British” Garriott was there to support the Travian team and it was the first public appearance of the Retail Version of the box!

[From a forum post by Cerus]

Greetings Avatars,

We are now back from Gamescom 2018! A truly amazing experience for hundreds of thousands of gamers not only from Germany but from all around the world. We were happy to participate and to present Shroud of the Avatar at the Travian Games booth. Lord British himself came by to inspect and approve our setup.

We had a great time connecting, engaging, discussing and having fun with hundreds of roleplay gamers at our booth.

Additionally, every day we launched an interactive trivia event, in which our Grand Duke challenged the Seekers and Avatars who visited us.
Those of them, who were able to prove their knowledge about the Ultima lore, mythology, role-playing and medieval times, were greatly rewarded.

It was an amazing experience for us to engage with Lord British and the veteran Avatars.
Also, new Avatars have now found their way to New Britannia and will join us on this journey.

Thank you, Community, for making this journey possible.

Cerus & the Grand Duke

Release 56 Stretch Goals Final Results

Congratulations! This past Friday, August 24, we met another Release 56 Stretch Goal: the Aether Dragon Statue!

Reminder we have updated the way we track stretch goals, which now happens every Friday of the release versus just once (or sometimes twice) as we have done in the past.

This means that each Friday of the Release at noon we will turn on the big mega “everything” sale and start tracking the stretch goals where we last left off from the previous Friday (plus any additional Rewards Program participants). We will then track the totals until midnight of that Friday and then repeat for each Friday of the Release. This will give us an entire Release to build up to the stretch goals! During the weekly one-hour Community Livestream we will remind everyone about the stretch goals but those livestreams will remain in the same format: 30 minutes of news and then 30 minutes on a topic (housing, new scene, new feature, etc.).

Here are the Release 56 stretch goals we are tracked during the release:

  • ACHIEVED $10K: Aether Lich Statue (Foyer Size)
  • ACHIEVED $25K: Aether 1H Sword and Aether Shield
  • ACHIEVED $35K: Double XP Every Weekend in August
  • ACHIEVED $50K: Aether Bow & Aether Crossbow
  • ACHIEVED $65K: Box of Replenishing Aether Dye
  • ACHIEVED $80K: Aether Dragon Statue (Village size)
  • $90K: Aether Axe, Aether 1H Spear, Aether 2H Bludgeon
  • $100K: Celestial Themed Wizard Robes

Community Livestream (Aug 24): Player Made Dungeons

Last Friday we talked about the upcoming Player Made Dungeons feature which is getting previewed in Release 57 with some example dungeons players can place on their properties along with some customizable entrances! In Q4 we will launch the system where players can modify and expand the dungeons themselves through adventuring, crafting, and purchase! Join us to see some of the new dungeon kits and rooms we have built to support the system and learn more about how the system will work. If you missed the livestream it is available for viewing on YouTube:

For more livestreams and gameplay videos, be sure to subscribe to www.youtube.com/portalarium!

Release 57 Livestream: Dungeon Themed 

The Release 57 Livestream is set for Friday September 7! All Avatars from around the world are welcome to join us in the livestream activities. We will be doing deep dives, answering questions, having sales, handing out prizes, and tracking towards stretch goals. In honor of the upcoming Player Made Dungeons feature the theme for this livestream is Dungeons which are previewing in R57 and will go live as soon as Q4!

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: Player Made Dungeons
  • 4:30PM: Q&A
  • 5:30PM: Deep Dive 2: Fishing
  • 6:30PM: Q&A
  • 7PM: Ending Announcements

STRETCH GOALS (Dungeon 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 September 7 from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CDT (September 7 17:00 to September 8 05:00 UTC). In honor of the upcoming Player Made Dungeons feature the theme for this livestream is Dungeons which are previewing in R57 and will go live as soon as Q4!

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!

Please note that we have extended availability of the stretch goals to every Friday of the release for 12 hours per the new Stretch Goal Tracking Changes.

  • $10K: /rolldice
  • $25K: Flame Trap Decorations (non-harmful)
  • $35K: Candle Helm
  • $50K: Spike Trap & Arrow Trap Decorations (non-harmful)
  • $65K: Unique Dungeon Entrance Eternal Pattern
  • $80K: Torture Set: Torture Chair, Torture Table, Rack
  • $90K: Key Themed Weapon Set: Sword, Mace, Polearm
  • $100K: Unique Dungeon Room Blueprint

*Please keep in mind that stretch goal rewards take time to develop and will most likely not be available until Release 60 at the earliest. We will keep you updated!

12 HOURS OF SALES:

We will be having twelve hours of sales around the livestream from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CDT (Septermber 7 17:00 to September 8 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!

  • Ancient Tome Dungeon Entrance plus 50 Point Dungeon
  • Magic Mirror Dungeon Entrance plus 75 Point Dungeon
  • Ruined Stone Arch Dungeon Entrance plus 100 Point Dungeon
  • Circle of Stones Rift Dungeon Entrance plus 125 Point Dungeon
  • Shroud of the Avatar: Episode 2 Early Access + Ornate Brass Darklamp (digital)
  • Row Lot Property Deed (digital) + Row Prison 5-Story Basement (digital)
  • Skeleton Dungeon Prop Set: Skeletons & Dungeon Iron Cages
  • Spider Dungeon Prop Set: Spider Webs & Spiders

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. Enter for a chance to win a prize by either logging into the game and typing “Roll the dice” 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!

Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program: Titles Announced

This week we announced the first set of exclusive titles for the Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program that will be awarded for every 3 months of participation. These titles are all themed around supporting Shroud of the Avatar under the broad umbrella name of “Keepers of the Shroud” (as in “Keeping the Faith”) so the broad naming convention will be “Keeper of the <insert>”.
Here is the first set of titles:

  • 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
  • 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
  • 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
  • 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you 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

Weekend Flash Sale: Water Items

In Release 57 we introduced a new POT lot marker type for “Full Water Lots” that can be placed completely offshore. These markers create lots similar to the Keep and Castle Island lots when “No Land” is selected and provide a small dock area in the water to connect water homes to (Ships, Lighthouses, etc.). In honor of this new marker type all water homes, water lots, water decorations, and water related items are on sale this weekend, including the entire Water.org Make a Difference Store!

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!

Upcoming Events Calendar

Aug 30 – Sept 1 – Dragon Con
Aug 31 – Weekly Livestream: Tier Markers
Sept 3, 2018 – Release 57 Dance Party
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.

Community Event: shawn’s “Sell and/or buy all the things” Challenge!!!

[From a Forum Post by that_shawn_guy“]

Thanks to the new receipt files in release 55 and some terrific work by @Titania Xylia on the new vendor tool at https://shroudoftheavatar.net/sotaItemPriceList, we now have a great way to track our sales and find good prices for all the things. To celebrate this new tool I am running a merchant challenge during release 56.

shawn’s “Sell and/or buy all the things” Challenge!!!

Think your the best merchant in all of New Britannia?
Think you move more Iron Ore that anyone else?
Bet you can get the best price for that Unicorn recipe?
Well, now’s your chance to prove it and win some great prizes!

Don’t own a lot and only have access to guild or public vendors? You can win massive gold!!!!!

Got a spot in an NPC/PRT? One of these prizes could be your!!

Governors!!!! Help you’re residents get more traffic and you could win big too!!!!

Player Owned Town with the top Total Sales Rank (Governor’s Prize):

  • 1st Place: 100 Gold COTOs
  • 2nd Place 50 Gold COTOs
  • 10th Place 10 Gold COTOs

Player with the Top Sales Rank in any Player Owned Town:

  • 1st Place: 100 Gold COTOs
  • 2nd Place 50 Gold COTOs
  • 10th Place 10 Gold COTOs

Player with the Top Sales Rank in any PC/Player Run Town:

  • 1st Place: 100 Gold COTOs
  • 2nd Place 50 Gold COTOs
  • 10th Place 10 Gold COTOs

Make a Random Avatar More Richerer:

  • One lucky merchant will receive 333,333 gold

Rules:

  1. The challenge runs from the 11:59pm NBT Friday July 27th until the 11:59pm NBT Friday August 31st.
  2. No cheating
  3. Your data and player name must be in the public reports
  4. You can only win one prize
  5. If there is a tie, the prize will be split
  6. Obviously, Titania Xylia and myself are disqualified

We will have a running leader board setup and the link will be here.

How many of you are up to the challenge?

You have more than a month. Now get out there and move some inventory!!!!

You can find the Scoreboard at https://shroudoftheavatar.net/shawns-buy-and-sell-challenge

Community Event: **Royal Warrant** Avatars Radio – Traditional Release 57 Dance Party

It is time to put down your weapons and put on your party shoes,
Give yourself one last day to summer before falling into the “back to school” blues
Stop bickering about combat, the grind and PvP
Come join the party and celebrate in the festivities.
DJ Darkstarr is taking to the turn tables again and pumping out the beats
Avatars it is time to show outlanders everywhere how to move your feet
Today we celebrate 57 on time full releases of Shroud of the Avatar
Hosted on the docks of the bay in the wonderful town of Krabnevir

What: Release 57 Dance Party — DJ Darkstarr
Where: Docks of Krabnevir (POT
When: September 3rd 2018, 5pm – 7pm NBT

Directions: Krabnevir is a POT located east of Resolute in the South Paladis region, due South of the Sanctus Spine control point.


Added Contest from Avatars Radio: Get your bad humour out one last time and let us make everyone roll their eyes. For this party we are celebrating Release 57, which made Amber think of Heinz 57.. which made her think of hotdogs and memes… Don’t ask , she’s weird!

With that said, she wants to see how creative you can get and how many eyes you can make roll with your sense of humour..

Best “57 meme” contest — 3 places… winners will be announced at the party.
Need an example (see below at Amber making people roll their eyes).. One entry per person. Entries will stop being accepted Sunday and will be announced Monday.

Like Heinz you are going to want to hurry up and Ketchup… It is Release 57, might just be the sauciest release to date!

Meretz: Win a Topiary Town Dragon Statue

Whether you move a little or a lot, as a Meretz user you rack up valuable Meretz Points (MPs). The more MPs you have, the more stuff you can buy!
Think: in-game SotA goodies, Sweepstakes entries, Relics by Rild giveaways, and tons more.

With Meretz, we launch several sweepstakes every month. This month, we’re giving away a Topiary Town Dragon Statue – valued at $134!
You can also enter to win a Relics By Rild $50 Gift Card, SOTACon t-shirt, and SOTACon tickets. AND, use your MPs every day for in-game items like potions and emotes. What’re you waiting for? Download Meretz TODAY!

Meretz: 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 –  SotA: New Beginnings Comic No. 2

Relics by Rild is producing Issue #2 of the official Shroud of the Avatar comic. Kickstarter is being used to fund printing & help pay the artist & writer.

SotA: New Beginnings is a graphic adventure set in New Britannia, the world of Lord British’s revolutionary new game, Shroud of the Avatar™. It tells the story of Arianna and Christopher, a young couple who have fled their own cruel world through a magic portal. Separated on their arrival, we follow their journey as they attempt to make sense of this new world and find each other once more.

This issue is again illustrated by Indi Martin(Tortoise & Hare Creations), and written in collaboration with Rick Hart aka Elgarion. It will be produced and distributed by Relics by Rild, under official license by Portalarium, Inc. This issue has 32 pages of adventure! (prior to backer-generated content).

Our goal is very simple – to bring you this beautiful new issue of New Beginnings, and to continue producing issues going forward.

As the publisher of this comic, my aim is to create a viable model to keep releasing issues. Countless hours have been put in by Indi and Rick, and I want to pay them to keep telling the story. To further this end, we sold ad space in Issue #1. A special thank-you to all our previous patrons!

The thing is, we want to use this space for more than just ads, and we want it to be relevant. So we’re calling it Content Space, and inviting the entire SotA community to make an impact in this print analog to the game. In the spirit of CrowdSharing, we want to allow our backers to enhance and develop the space just as they have done online in New Britannia.

Join the Kickstarter now!

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.

 



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