Updates

Avatar’s Update #279: New Creatures! Skeleton Plunderers and Unicorns

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

New Creatures: Skeleton Plunderers and Unicorns

New creatures will soon be appearing in Novia, some more rare than others!

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 should appear in R54 in areas like Blood Bay and Penmawr Island.

Plunderer Skeleton Warriors: 

Read more…


Community Livestream – LFG & Heraldry

Another content packed Community Livestream coming this Friday! We will be kicking off the show with a presentation by our design team of the new Looking For Group (LFG) feature.

After looking for a group (possibly in preparation for the dragon event on Saturday!), we will then show you a bunch of cool stuff about heraldry, including visiting a player town to have a look at some of the existing community heraldry on display!

Don’t know what heraldry is all about, or how to submit your designs? We’ll be explaining all of this on the livestream as well, so don’t miss the show!

Watch on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT! Also join the community’s Discord chat to ask questions about what’s presented:

 

 

Are You a Livestreamer?

Get this exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Livestreamer Program!


Avatar’s Update #278: The Making of Westend

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

The Making of Westend

The town of Westend is located in the Verdantis region on the western coast of Novia. The combination of Norgard architecture and wetlands creates a unique visual element to the town not seen anywhere else in Novia. Westend is the port that serves adventurers traveling to Verdantis Shardfall and while the town remains small it has grown prosperous from trade because of the resources brought back by those lucky enough to survive the Shardfall. Of course many say those resources came off the bodies of dead adventures…

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

Hey guys SorcerousSteve here to give you a sneak peek at the uncloning of Westend!

Westend is located on the western end of Verdantis in close proximity to the Verdantis Shardfall. Alongside this it is in close proximity to Norgard, so for this particular uncloning we decided to bring in our Viking style architecture and improve the theme of the area as a coastal swamp biome.

The NPC center and cluster of shops in the heart of town have now received a major makeover with multi-level platforms that rise above the swamp alongside the addition of bringing in viking themed architecture, furniture and additional propping.

Read more…


Release 53 Livestream – May 4, 2018 (Sky Navy Themed!)

** $90,000 **

R53 Livestream Funds Raised

Another release livestream is upon us! The Release 53 Livestream is set for next week May 4, right after Release 53 goes live on April 26 this week.

All Avatars from around the world are welcomed 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 spring time here in the north, this event’s stretch goals are entirely spring themed!

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 and Q&A
  • 3:45PM: Deep Dive 1: Combat & Crafting
  • 4:30PM: World Building Tour: New Scenes
  • 5:30PM: Deep Dive 2: Physical Goods
  • 6:15PM: Q&A Continues
  • 7PM: Ending Announcements

 
EXPIRING ITEMS: Store Credits convert to COTOs on May 7!
 

Read more…


Charge of the Dragons Event

Avatars,

Our fears have been confirmed!

The meteor that recently struck Quel has destroyed an undiscovered dragon lair and awakened dozens of savage creatures that have been sleeping for centuries. Arisen from their deep sleep, enraged by the devastation of their lair, they have taken to the sky and are setting off for human cities. The Charge of the Dragons is about to begin…

A drop of sweat dripped onto the parchment, where Merim the bard had just recorded his diary entry.

At the time, he did not know it would be his last. The devastated lair, those scales, the reptilian bones, of which some were still glowing. The traces of wrath all around him, he followed the giant footprints heading north-east. He knew he should head home, back to Brittany, and report what he had discovered. But his curiosity prevailed, and so he followed the traces, even though the sun had already set. He started shivering when he suddenly noticed a gentle but lofty growl just a few steps behind him.

Red, glowing eyes were the last thing he saw. The only thing that remained of Merim was half a diary page.

Read more…


Introducing Looking For Group

A party leader can now add their party (aka “group”) to a public listing of open groups for others to join! Players who are looking for a group to play with can use this listing to find an open group.

Looking for Group is a separate window that is accessed via Alt-F. It can also be opened from the Social window Party tab by clicking the “Join Party” button (while not already in a party).

This is also a great tool for Hospitallers to let other players know they are available to provide help. Hospitallers can add listings for groups that want generalized help, or specific groups that teach crafting, or combat, or taming, etc.

For the first iteration in Release 53, the party leader can enter a simple description in a text entry field that includes whatever information they wish (Tier 1-5, PvP, Help, Roleplay, specific scene, etc) and then those looking for groups can filter by any term. Future iterations may include terms like these as pre-defined checkboxes.

You can read more about Looking For Group and discuss with the rest of the community other new R53 content in the Release 53 Instructions post.


Avatar’s Update #277: Play Release 53 Now!

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 53 Now!

Release 53 successfully launched yesterday, April 26, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

…and much more!

Read more…


Community Livestream – Hospitallers & Ambassadors

Another content packed Community Livestream coming this Friday! We will be kicking off the show with a presentation by our design team of the new houses that went into the game in Release 53.

After a tour of the new homes, we have two community exclusive features for you! The first is a visit to Portalarium by community member Ravalox who will be on the show to talk about Hospitallers and new players. Then we’ll have on the show via remote connection our community Ambassadors!

Who are the Hospitallers?

Hospitallers offer assistance to any player who has questions in the game, forums, Discord (chat), and other community areas. Any player in return can also wear the Hospitaller title (found in-game) and offer assistance to other community members.

Who are the Ambassadors?

Ambassadors are community members that lead a particular group of players from an international community. They are volunteer only and work to answer questions in their specific language from other players that only speak that language. Find them in the forums here!

Watch on Twitch this Friday from 3-5pm CT! Also join the community’s Discord chat to ask questions about what’s presented:

 

 

Are You a Livestreamer?

Get this exclusive in-game Streamer Camera for being a veteran of our Livestreamer Program!


Release 53 Instructions

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

Avatars,

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

Release 53 is our first release since launching out of Early Access. As promised, we are continuing our cadence of monthly releases, just as before. Release 53 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Thursday, April 26, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 53 is the first 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, localization, 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 two releases. Read more…


Community Spotlight – Ordinis Mortis’ Gallery of Fine Art

Welcome to another Community Spotlight feature! These spotlights are dedicated entirely to community content, usually about a player town and presented by a single individual or an entire guild. For this week’s spotlight, we visited Ordinis Mortis’ Gallery of Fine Art.

As told by Amarth Shadowstring:

Located in Ordinis Mortis, a city continuously growing in its splendor and inhabited by the Order of Chivalry, is based a gallery dedicated for the finest art in Shroud of the Avatar. The city itself is quickly becoming a key trading hub with over a hundred vendors and a carefully kept inventory of traders by the town governor, Minerva. One would think that the city would’ve grown colder with a more business feel as it grows; but quite on the contrary, it has amiably maintained its warm and welcoming atmosphere.

Read more…