Updates

Community Spotlight – Rauchbier Platz

Welcome to another Community Spotlight! 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 toured the player owned town of Rauchbier Platz. It is a town nested within Central Brittany that is dedicated to the art of brewing beer. In anticipation of brewing being added to the game, the governor of Rauchbier Platz, Hannah Alpenglow, provides a tour of this snowy festival town.

As told by Hannah Alpenglow:

Greetings, Avatars! Welcome to Rauchbier Platz – please, enjoy a mug of our finest beer while we walk through town. Rauchbier Platz was founded by my late husband and I in 517 PC to help establish our beer brewing business here in New Britannia. The main area of town is set up a bit like a civic square that one might find in Bavaria, as we wanted to bring a bit of our homeland to this world. Rauchbier Platz roughly translates to ‘Smoked Beer Place’ and is meant to be a happy, laid back town where one can enjoy time with friends old and new.

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #280: Female Peasant Wearables

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

Female Peasant Wearables

In Release 50 we replaced all the art for our female peasants to upgrade the visuals and in Release 53 we did another iteration on their faces for further improvements. For Release 55 we are making wearable versions of the Female Peasant clothing that will be available in-game as either recipes or patterns. There will be eight dresses, two hats, and three shoes. All of the cloth items will be dye-able.

Plaid Shawl Peasant Dress

Read more…


Community Livestream – Westend & Store Housing

Another content packed Community Livestream coming this Friday! We will be kicking off the livestream with Bob Cooksey and Michael Hutchinson to show off the upcoming store housing! Then Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar will be on to show off the new seaside scene of Westend.

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!


Personalize Your Avatar with Heraldry

Screenshot taken by community member Oakenhammer

Personalize your avatar and your home with custom imagery via our Heraldry system! Heraldry is a broad term that encompasses the design and display of coats of arms. Heraldry is can be added to various items worn by your Avatar including all four types of armor (Cloth, Leather, Chain, and Plate), Shields, and Cloaks. It can also be added to several decorations including Banners and Chests.

Heraldry can be created using our Blazon Generator or you can submit a custom image (providing it meets our visual guidelines). Once created you can then use the Heraldry patterns in the game on an item to turn it into a heraldry item and display your coat of arms. Note that the heraldry displayed is determined at the time the pattern is applied by the person who applies the pattern.

As of Release 53, heraldry is open for everyone through the sale of Heraldry Eternal Patterns in the Add-On Store and Crown Merchants! Note that these items are visually distinct from the Founder versions delivered in Release 52.

Did you know that our Blazon Generator and our rules for coat of arms generation were started by a player group called the College of Arms? They studied traditional heraldry and were instrumental in insuring that our heraldry followed traditional standards.

We have a large selection of Heraldry items to choose from and each release we add more. In Release 54 for example we are adding Standing Banners and Chests!

Read more…


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.