[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]
Greetings Avatars,
For those of you too young to remember this April Fool’s prank (yes this is a joke) was based on the infamous split of Ultima Online into two worlds: Felucca and Trammel in the Renaissance Expansion.
Again this was an April Fool’s joke. We will NOT be doing a land wipe, nor another landrush, nor will we be dividing the land between PVP, and non-PVP. Just wanted that to be crystal clear.
[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]
Apparently the gods do not like April Fools pranks and decided to punish us.
At approximately midnight CDT one of our servers at our data center experienced a catastrophic hardware failure. Players inside the game could remain connected as long as they did not change scenes but anyone changing scenes would lose connection and anyone trying to log in to the game could not.
As of 7:50 AM CDT we were able to temporarily resolve the issue and the servers can be reached again. We were (and are) dealing with a hardware error that we haven’t fully identified, yet, but were able to resume service nevertheless, for now. We’ll continue looking into it, with hopefully no additional downtime. We might need to replace a machine, though, which would come with a short maintenance downtime, in case of. In that case, we’ll announce it ahead of time.
We apologize for the inconvenience this caused anyone.
We are currently experiencing some issues with our data center, not allowing to connect to the game. Existing connections seem to be unaffected. We are in contact with the data center to address this, as quickly as possible.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Update (7:50 CDT): Servers can be reached again. We were (and are) dealing with a hardware error that we haven’t fully identified, yet, but were able to resume service nevertheless, for now. We’ll continue looking into it, with hopefully no additional downtime. We might need to replace a machine, though, which would come with a short maintenance downtime, in case of. In that case, we’ll announce it ahead of time.
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
Play Release 40 Now!
Release 40 successfully launched yesterday, March 30, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:
[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]
Greetings Avatars,
As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates for our monthly releases. Even though the goals outlined in these schedules are likely to change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to periodically provide you with an updated roadmap.
Our priority continues to be to deliver new content to our backers each and every month so that you can give us feedback that will help us iteratively improve Shroud of the Avatar. This collaborative process continues to benefit the game, and often results in sweeping changes such as the upcoming addition of the Outskirts scenes. As you have seen in previous releases, the flexibility inherent to this process means that we sometimes push things out, but we also often pull new things in.
New User Experience (NUE): A large priority for the second quarter is going to be improving the new user experience. For several years now, our backers have been providing us feedback that the first few hours of our game have several major issues. Those issues include too many loading screens, scenes that are too small, overloading the user with too many options, and starting towns that include player housing/vendors. As we shift our focus to improving the New User Experience, and as we are able to measure new player progress during events such as our recent free trial, we realize that we must address these issues sooner rather than later. Read more…
[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]
Avatars,
Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.
Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 40 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, March 30, at 10:30 AM US Central Standard Time (15:30 UTC).
Release 40 is full of so many important changes that it is hard to know where to begin! The Obsidian Cabalists are now spreading their vileness throughout New Britannia, weapons can now be placed as decorations, we have shifted more of our focus to improving the new user experience (NUE), there are tons of new patterns (both in-game and out), and we finally upgraded to Unity 5.5 (which should address some major AMD issues).
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
The Vile Weapons of the Obsidian Cabalists
The Obisidian Cabalists will begin appearing in Town Sieges in Release 40. Each Obsidian Cabalist wields a unique artifact weapon made from Obsidian and bearing their anti-virtue symbol. Players who defeat Cabalists have a chance to find these weapons on their corpses as loot (along with hoods, robes, and plate boots). We made sure that each weapon type (including a shield) was represented so that players would have a chance to get a weapon of the type they favored.
Join us this Friday at 4pm CT for another Community of the Avatar livestream!
Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar (World Builder/Level Designer on the team) is back to show you Kas Ruins, another scene he’s working on. Kas Ruins started out as a clone of Opalis Ruins, an open PvP scene.
The Kas Ruins are one of the six ruined cities found in Novia that date back to the period in Novian history in which the Obsidian Order rose to power. (As described in the Sword of Midras prequel novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott). The exact history of some of these cities has been lost to time, but it is rumored that some of them may have been abandoned even before the rise of the Obsidians. Kas is the site of the ruins of an ancient Paladin fort high atop a mountainside. At the foot of the mountain is an abandoned village with a small graveyard. The entire area has become overrun by the undead.
Ask your questions (up to 3 in one post please) in the Comments section below for Esteben! During the livestream, also join us on Discord chat to win prizes and ask any other questions you have.
The fun begins live on Twitch this Friday!
Owl Sky City is a player owned metropolis located right next door to Owl’s Head. It is a non-PvP city with a variety of arenas for high skilled duelers of many sorts! Owl Sky City is great for both new players and veterans, and has some great scenic spots for visitors.
Owl Sky City is well-known for having the cheapest prices for spell, crafting, and repair kits. There are vendors selling the most rare and unique of items in all of the Hidden Vale. The local folk are currently expanding player vending at strategic locations.
The OWL guild also resides here, where they have been active since 2014. The guild is friendly to new players, but are known to hunt mid and high level players as well… those wearing PVP flag of course :).
Today is World Water Day and through our partnership with Water.org, we are helping promote this day by discounting all our Water.org Make a Difference 
items by 20% until end of the day.
As a reminder, Portalarium will donate 50% of its share of the purchase price of these items to Water.org on a bi-annual basis. We have been participating in this charity for two years now, and since 2015 have raised for Water.org over $27,000 with your support.
To learn more about World Water Day and how you can help, please visit the Water.org website.
Here is a complete list of all the Water.org Make a Difference items you will find on sale:
