Updates

Update of the Avatar #219 – 2017.03.17: Making of Kas Ruins, Spring Telethon Recording, Decorations Flash Sale, World Water Day, and more!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

The Making of Kas Ruins

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.

Kas started as a clone of the Opalis Ruins, but is getting completely rebuilt this release to have a unique layout and visuals. Like all the other Ruins and Shardfalls, this is an Open PVP area so we are expressly focusing on being sure the map has interesting setups for PVP conflict, with plenty of space for hiding, escaping, ambushing, and skirmishing. Our goal is to have Kas Ruins go live in Release 41 or 42. Read more…


Community Spotlight: Knightmare Falls – Player Owned Town

This week’s Player Owned Town spotlight has community manager Berek exploring Knightmare Falls. Located just south of Serpent’s Spine Foothills, it is a welcome rest for those who wish to hunt kobolds and other regional creatures.

Berek: Making my way to the town, I heard a sharp whistle, followed by “Mal, we got company!” A tall man in blue greeted me before I had taken more than a few steps. “Welcome to the Falls! Name’s Vindorein.”

Vindorein, it turned out, was the steward of the main square. The town itself was broken into three parts. “You got the main square here, Knightmare Estates up the hill over there run by Daemoh,” He pointed to the West.

Read more…


Community of the Avatar – Boss Fight Livestream!

Community of the Avatar

It’s back on! While we didn’t have the Berek Bloodbath, errr, the PvP Mashup during the last Community Livestream, and had to cancel at the last minute the Boss Fight event on last week’s telethon, we are rounding up the Portalarium troops for this Friday!

We have a group of cautiously brave developers ready to team up with the community to fight some of the nastiest of boss creatures in the game. After we charge through various scenes, we will end back at Blood Bay in a Community vs Developer mashup to see who is left standing!

During the battles we will be in Discord and Twitch chat looking for your combat related questions! If you haven’t been on Discord before, join us during the livestream to ask your questions and win some in-game prizes.

The fun begins live on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT!


NPC submissions requested for Harvest

Humility

For Developer+ Pledge holders who have the pledge reward to create NPCs please see this post from Scott “Lum” Jennings.

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

Thank you for your continuing support of Shroud of the Avatar! This month, in addition to Estgard, we’re seeking entries for inhabitants of the village of Harvest!

Harvest is the port of entry to the kingdom of Norgard, on the mainland side of the channel. It is primarily a farming community, but sees a good bit of traffic between the Knights of Norgard bastion of Resolute and Norgard proper.

If you do NOT want your backer NPC to be in Harvest, you may want to wait. I will update this thread if we are running low on submissions – generally we are OK on duplicate submissions for characters who don’t get adopted (such as guards) but if you absolutely have a character who should be in a given city (such as Brittany) you should wait until we advertise for that city.

Read more…


Lord British Original Shroud Cloth Map Prototype #1 Bundle

From last week’s Update of the Avatar #218:

During the original Kickstarter for Shroud of the Avatar, artist Stephen Daniele drew the very first version of the map of Novia used in the demo. Richard “Lord British” Garriott then took that original drawing and using a piece of cloth and an iron-on kit he created a prototype of what the cloth map might look like.

This is that actual first Cloth Map Prototype Number 1 handmade by Lord British himself and now available for sale in our Make a Difference Store! As with the other Blood Charity items 10% of the proceeds will be donated to a not-for-profit Blood Bank that you can help select.

Read more…


Update of the Avatar #218 – 2017.03.10: City Kobold Weapons, Obsidian Cabalist Wearables, Making of New Scenes, Bigger Bundles, Music Weekend Flash Sale, Rare Map Bundle, and more!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

City Kobold Weapons

In Release 39, we began work on what we are calling our City Kobolds. These are the Kobolds that live in Skrekk and other places like K’rul. They are much more advanced than anyone else in Novia and the source of almost all of the technology that you see in the game, including clockwork creatures and aether vibration amplifiers. City Kobolds use advanced armor and weaponry including chainswords, electric axes, gas guns, electric blunderbusses, grenades, etc.

In Release 39 we introduced few new weapons for the City Kobolds including an Electric Blunderbuss and a Chainsword. The Chainsword can be looted from the Kobolds and wielded. It can even be salvaged for patterns. In Release 40 we will be introducing a handful of new bludgeon weapons for these Kobolds as well that players can loot from them and wield or try to salvage for patterns. In future releases players will also be able to loot the ranged weapons and use them as well. We are also adding the Ornate Chainsword to the Add On Store.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “SkullMuncher34” Kinnear]

New Kobold Weapons! The Kobold Arsenal is getting an upgrade as well. Here are some new items which include both one-handed and two-handed Electric Axes as well as a Steam-Powered Hammer!

1-Handed Electric Axe 

Read more…


Spring 2017 Telethon Livestreamed on Twitch

The Spring Telethon of the Avatar starts at 12pm CT (Noon) today! We will be streaming for 12 hours with deep dives into game systems and answering your questions. There will be lots of flash sales, items will be expiring, and tons of cool prizes will be given out!

** $87,500 **

Current Telethon Funds Raised
(Dev Team shots/songs/dance every $2500 increment)

Watch on Twitch from 12pm-Midnight CT:

Watch live video from shroudoftheavatar on www.twitch.tv
To win great prizes and participate in asking questions in chat, join the community on Discord chat!

As a special bonus, we are offering Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). The Spring Telethon of the Avatar 2017 Funding Stretch Goal Rewards are:

    • Achieved!  $10,000: /flowerleap emote (leap into the air and throw flowers)
    • Achieved!  $25,000: Butterfly Mask
    • Achieved!  $35,000: Stained Glass Hand Lantern
    • Achieved!  $50,000: Floral Pattern Stained Glass Oil Table Lamp (3 Pack)
    • Achieved!  $65,000: White Flowered Topiary Creature Statues (3 Pack of Dragon, Bear, Satyr)
    • Achieved!  $80,000: Leaf Shield and Leaf Spear
    • $100,000: Large Spring Themed Fountain with Floating Candles
    • $130,000: Thorn Bow and Thorn Sword

Update of the Avatar #217 – 2017.03.03: The Obsidian Cabalists, Free Trial Test, Spring Telethon Next Week, King Korabar, Underground Vaults, Patterns Weekend Flash Sale, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

The Obsidian Cabalists (SPOILERS)

The Obsidian Cabalists are ancient sorcerers of the Obsidian Order who have prolonged their lives through twisted use of magic. These horrible entities worship the eight anti-virtues and seek to fulfill the Dire Prophecies by laying siege to the towns of Novia. Starting with Release 40 they will be found in Town Sieges wielding unique vile artifacts that players who are able to defeat them may be able to loot. Those artifacts include unique hoods and weapons for each cabalist as well as the robes. Below is the list of the Cabalists and their (current) powers. Please note that these powers may change during implementation. Read more…


Storing and/or Moving a Decorated Lot or Basement via the Property Manager (aka Magic Movers)

Greetings Avatars,

As mentioned in the Release 39 Instructions we added a really powerful new feature to Player Housing where:

“Players can now save a fully decorated lot or basement and reload it later onto that same lot or onto a different lot in that same scene (as long as that lot is the same size). Players will start with 5 slots and, in future releases, will be able to purchase more for Gold Crowns. In a future release, we will expand this feature to allow movement of a fully decorated lot/basement between separate scenes for an, as yet, undetermined cost.”

We added detailed instructions for how to use this new feature in the Player Instructions document as well and those are reprinted in full here in this post.

Storing and/or Moving a Decorated Lot or Basement

You can use the Property Manager window to store a fully-decorated lot or basement and unpack it to either that same lot or another empty lot of the same size that you have claimed in that same scene.

You can access the Property Manager window from the Stained Glass menu icon, the Lot Deeds options menu, or from any lot sign in any scene. The left side of the window shows your available slots and their current storage status. Each player has 5 storage slots. The right side of the Property Manager window shows all of your claimed lots. Each lot includes the name of the deed used to claim the lot, the location of the lot, and the size of the lot. Each lot also has two slots: one for the primary contents of your lot (including the house), and one for the basement and its contents.

Read more…


Update of the Avatar #216 – 2017.02.24: Play R39 Now, New Scenes, Weapon Polish, Weekend Homes Flash Sale, Lot Raffle Winners, Telethon, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 39 Now!

Release 39 successfully launched yesterday, February 23, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Read more…