Updates

Release 57 Instructions

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

Avatars,

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

Release 57 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Thursday, August 30, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 57 is the second release in which we focused on the current iteration of our Top 10 Priorities (from Q3 2018 post). We continued to make great progress on Systems and User Interface Polish with a specific focus on improving Quality of Life. We also continue to fix huge numbers of bugs.

Quality of Life Improvements: This was the main focus of Release 57. Our goal here was to improve moment to moment and daily gameplay. Siege skipping, Control Point skipping, Global banks, removed NPC slowdowns, double XP as the new normal, reduced Roving encounter awareness and other similar changes should all make very noticeable improvements to every Avatars play experience by removing continual inconveniences and slow-downs. Read more…


Community Livestream – Tier Markers (Aug 31)

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday August 31 at 4 PM CDT on Twitch!

This week we are going to talk about Tier Markers. Keith “Sannio” Quinn and Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski will be explaining how we label each scene with a Tier Marker to indicate the level of challenge of that scene. They will be using our existing scenes like Hallowed Plains to illustrate how the system works and highlight some of our recent changes to the system including the addition of the “+” to indicate varying degrees of challenge and the addition of Tiers 6-10 (was previously only 1-5) to better indicate higher levels of challenge for our top level players.

In exciting news this Friday is the first Friday where all purchases from noon to midnight count towards the Release 57 Stretch Goals which are dungeon themed in honor of the upcoming Player Made Dungeon feature which is previewing in Release 57 and going live in Q4!

  • $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

As usual we will be giving out prizes at 4:15 and 4:45! To be eligible all you need to do is either make any purchase in the store or log into the game and type “Roll the dice” in the chat window (no purchase necessary).

Watch on Twitch this Friday at 4 PM CDT!

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #294: Dyeable Decorations, R55 Livestream Items, R57 on QA

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

Dyeable Decorations (starting in R57!)

We now have technology and user interface support to allow the use of dyes to change the colors of decorations including banners, beds, couches, sofas, and more! We have begun updating our game assets to accept dyes. This will take time as each asset has to be modified individually. Our plan is to maintain a careful balance between craftable items and store items in this effort. For now we are focusing on cloth items but we plan to expand to leather, and possibly wood as well. In Release 57 many Banners (including Heraldy Banners), Canvas Furniture, Fine Red Upholstered Furniture, and Fine White & Gold Upholstered Furniture will support dyes. Above you can see an assortment of the those furniture pieces dyed. Below is what the Fine Red Upholstered Long Couch looks like with a variety of dyes applied to it. 

Read more…


Community Livestream – Player Made Dungeons (Aug 24)

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday August 24 at 4 PM CDT on Twitch!

This week we are going to talk about the upcoming Player Made Dungeons feature which will be 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. Join us again for the Release 57 Livestream (link coming soon) where we will be going into even more detail with a dedicated Deep Dive!

This Friday is the last Friday where all purchases from noon to midnight count towards the Release 56 Stretch Goals. Last Friday we managed to achieve the Box of Replenishing Aether Dye, this Friday let’s see if we can hit the Aether Dragon Statue, or even the Aether Weapon Set (Aether Axe, Aether 1H Spear, Aether 2H Bludgeon)!

Watch on Twitch this Friday at 4 PM CDT!

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #293: R54 Livestream Items & Player Made Dungeons Sneak Peek

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

Release 54 Livestream(s) Items

The Release 54 Livestream(s) items were all Tropical and Polynesian themed in honor of the summer months. Damon Waldrip 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 Polynesian Spear and Polynesian Dress with Tropical Flower Crown.

Polynesian Spear (Scott “Scottie” Jones):

Read more…


Community Livestream – Side Quests 2 (Aug 17)

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday August 17 at 4 PM CDT on Twitch!

Last week’s livestream focused on Side Quests! Keith “Sannio” Quinn and Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski started taking us through a “greatest hits” of all the side quests in Shroud of the Avatar. However there are so many side quests in Shroud that we barely scratched the surface last week! Crushing Atavists of Purity, navigating creepy clocks and zombie children in the House on the Hill, finding all the Banners of Virtue, defeating all the Obsidian Cabalists, daily confirmations with the Oracle, fetching lost mail, finding all the virtue armor, retrieving the companion gear, learning every emote, there are just so many! So we are returning to Side Quests again this week so we can show off more including the mysterious happenings in Crooked Shank!

And remember all purchases from noon to midnight on Friday count towards the Release 56 Stretch Goals!

Watch on Twitch this Friday at 4 PM CDT!

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #292: Player Made Dungeons

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

News Announcements

Community Updates

 

Player Made Dungeon Update

In the past week we have had design kickoff meetings for several game systems including Fishing (Phase 2) and Player Made Dungeons. We will be posting more about Fishing (Phase 2) soon! In exciting news we have been able to make faster progress on Player Made Dungeons than expected due to how much it uses underlying systems like our basements. While we had originally planned this for an Episode 2 feature we now believe we can have a version of the system up and running as soon as Q4 of this year without affecting our work on other systems like Fishing! To kick off the upcoming launch of this exciting player made content we are going make available five dungeon entrances, along with five static example dungeons in Release 57. One dungeon entrance and one example dungeon will be craftable, four will be purchasable from the Add On Store.

The included static example dungeons, complete with creatures and loot, will vary in point size and difficulty level and can be used until the player built dungeon feature goes live. When the player built dungeons feature goes live in Q4 2018, the example dungeons will vanish and be replaced by an entry room but the player will receive the blueprints to all the pieces needed to rebuild the dungeon (some assembly required!). Player built dungeons will be expandable and customizable with in-game craftable rooms and/or Add On Store rooms.  As a bonus the Add On Store Dungeons include a Unity asset pack of dungeon rooms and hallways that you can experiment with using Unity which is free for non-professionals to download!

Tomb Entrance plus 50 Point Dungeon (craftable)

This sarcophagus can be crafted to use as the entrance to your dungeon. There will also be a craftable 50 point example static dungeon, complete with creatures and loot, for low level players that can be used until the player built dungeon feature goes live. Read more…


Community Livestream – Side Quests (Aug 10)

Another content packed weekly Community Livestream is this Friday August 10 at 4 PM CDT on Twitch!

This week’s livestream will focus on Side Quests! Keith “Sannio” Quinn will taking us through a “greatest hits” of all the side quests in Shroud of the Avatar. There are so many side quests in Shroud that it is hard to choose which ones to pick from in order to augment your Avatar! Crushing Atavists of Purity, navigating creepy clocks and zombie children in the House on the Hill, finding all the Banners of Virtue, defeating all the Obsidian Cabalists, daily confirmations with the Oracle, fetching lost mail, finding all the virtue armor, retrieving the companion gear, learning every emote, there are just so many!

And remember all purchases from noon to midnight on Friday count towards the Release 56 Stretch Goals!

Watch on Twitch this Friday at 4 PM CDT!

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #291: Shooter Album Party Recap, R56 Livestream Goals Updated, & Cosmos Double XP Weekends

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

 

Shooter Jennings Album Release Party Recap

This past Tuesday, July 31st, Shooter Jennings treated all of us to a preview of his newest album, “Shooter”, at a special album release party in the player owned town of Ordinis Mortis. For a brief time when Release 56 launched there were multiple “Shooters” scattered around Novia who had a special quest. The first 25 players who completed the quest got on the secret guest list to get backstage at the event and received prizes directly from the real Shooter Jennings. Those prizes were Shooter heraldry items and wax cylinders of tracks from Shooter’s album. While the prizes were being handed out DJ Darkstarr spun tunes on Avatars Radio. After the prizes were handed out everyone got to hear the new album which releases on August 10th and then DJ Darkstarr played spun more tunes for another couple of hours while everyone danced. NOTE: Everyone who completed the quest before the event also received a couple of Shooter prizes in their in-game mailboxes courtesy of Serafina and Vas Corp Por.

Shooter Heraldry Art:

The event itself was held in a basement decorated amazingly by a crew led by Minerva and included the efforts of Cambria Stormlin, Shimizu, Griffler, Wind Silvermoon, Gaelis Tragan, Karrin Murphy, Sindariya Tyelma, Gurney, Arianna, Drake Aedus, Rambo, and Luca Xante. Above ground there was a maze that spelled out Shooter and before the event started there was a line that built up (just like a real concert!).

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #290: Play Release 56 Now & Global Visual Improvements

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 56 Now!

Release 56 successfully launched yesterday, July 26, 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…