Updates

Community Spotlight – Veritas Sanctuary


This week’s Player Owned Town spotlight takes us to Veritas Sanctuary nearby the Longfall region. Here is the town’s story as told by governor Dereck Visaard:

We are happy to announce a new town on the Path of Truth, Veritas Sanctuary. The town, released in R45 and located in the Longfall region of Novia adjacent to Blood River and Blood River Outskirts, is devoted to the search for Truth in a forsaken land.

Veritas Sanctuary has a rich history dating back prior to the Obsidians’ rise to power when a band of humans and elves allied to escape their former masters from the north and find sanctuary and a new life in the Longfall area. Ruins of the ancient settlement still exist in town and can be seen in the northern and southern residential areas. In fact, an ancient wizard’s tower has been restored and is available for rent for those who dare to tempt the ancient magic that still lives there.

Most recently, the town has been settled by an active group of avatars who hail from Earth as far west as Western Canada and as far east as Prague. Most residents are online and in town daily.

Our mission in Veritas Sanctuary is to create a unique, active, and engaging community for new and established residents and visitors while providing a strategic base of operations for players on the Path of Truth and an excellent sales location for discerning vendors. To that end, the town council has master-planned the community to cater to all playing styles and will continue to invest in the town as it grows. The town is also guild-neutral, meaning that anyone is welcome to take up residence, whether solo or a member of any guild.

Read more…


Nightmares of New Britannia – A Spooky Halloween Contest


BOO! Spooky content abounds in New Britannia this Halloween season, some of old, some of new! Here’s your chance to show it off to the rest of the community in your own unique style!

We’re announcing today a two-part challenge of decorating a home or property in a spooky theme, or wearing a themed costume. You can submit an entry for both segments, though you are only eligible to win in one of them. As we get entries, we will announce on social media the latest entries in a Facebook gallery. You will also be able to view the entries as they are posted in the forums.

 
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Avatar’s Update #247: Play Release 46 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 46 Now!

Release 46 successfully launched yesterday, September 28, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

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Q4 2017 Schedule Update


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[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.

Top 10 Priorities: We keep a running list of our Top 10 priorities at all times that we use when building our schedule and prioritizing where to allocate our team’s resources. We often refer to it when making decisions about the project. While it has a VERY strong influence on what we work on at any given time, it does not mean that we only work on something that is on the list. It just means that if someone can assist with something that will help address an item on the list, then we will make sure they do that first before working on anything else. Sometimes team members cannot assist with anything on our top priorities, so they work on other tasks such as visual polish, combat balance, or content that helps us raise funds.

Until now we have only used this list internally and we have not shared it externally with you, our backers. However, we felt that as we approach launch we definitely should share this list, especially because our current Top 10 list consists of everything that we need to address BEFORE we are ready to launch.

Read more…


Community Livestream – Celebrating Release 46


Get ready Avatars, this is going to be another fun Friday livestream! We kick it off with updates from Starr Long about Release 46 and details on the next quarter of development.

After Starr’s updates, Hutch and Fletcher will give you a sneak peek of some of the new items they worked on for the release, including the very cool Scythes! Take a look…

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about what’s presented:


Cyber Monday Crown Bonus is happening now!


NOTE: In celebration of Black Friday we are extending the Crown Bonus to December 1 to coincide with the Release 48 Telethon.

Greetings Avatars,

‘Tis our favorite time of year: the holiday season! It is that special time where you purchase gifts for the ones you love (including yourself) and it is that special time where we release all sorts of fun holiday goodies for Halloween, Fall, and Winter.

To celebrate we are rewarding all purchases of $15 or more with a bonus of Gold Crowns.

Here is the exact award chart (NOTE: Dollar amounts between tiers will be awarded the Gold Crown amount of the tier below it. E.g., Spending $100 will get you 10 Gold Crowns.):”

  • $15      =       2 Gold Crowns
  • $35      =       5 Gold Crowns
  • $70      =     10 Gold Crowns
  • $165    =     25 Gold Crowns
  • $325    =     50 Gold Crowns
  • $665    =   100 Gold Crowns
  • $1665  =   250 Gold Crowns
  • $3325  =   500 Gold Crowns
  • $5000  =   750 Gold Crowns
  • $6665  = 1000 Gold Crowns

The above will be awarded for all new purchases (including bundles, bundle upgrades, add-on items, player owned town upgrades, and Make a Difference items) between 10:30 AM September 28, 2017 and Midnight CST, December 1 November 27, 2017 (6:00 UTC, December 2 November 28, 2017). NOTE: This will not count for purchases made with store credit.

[NOTE: The crown bonus is calculated every day for all purchases within the previous 24 hours and then added to your account]


Release 46 Instructions


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[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 46 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, September 28, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 46 is the first release where we are starting to truly focus on our Top 10 Priorities for Launch. While we were able to make considerable progress on our targeted work of scene rebuilding, side quest creation, new creature addition, and more, we also began to spend more time on performance than ever before.

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #246: The Making of Blackblade Foothills and More Halloween and Oracle Items!


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 Blackblade Foothills

We have been focusing many of our scene rebuilds (aka “un-clones”) on the lower tier scenes near the cities along the paths of Truth and Courage. These are all Tier 1 – 3 scenes that players encounter near the beginnings of their play experience. In addition to being rebuilt, we are also adding side quests to them. One of the scenes being rebuilt for Release 47 is Blackblade Foothills which is an arid area in the South Paladis region directly southwest of Nightshade Pass.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Chris Wolf]

Hey folks! Today I’ll be sharing a few screenshots of the uncloning of Blackblade Foothills. Blackblade Foothills will be home to a caravan of restless nomads, Kobold prospectors, groups of scorpions, and frequent but powerful dust devils. This scene is still in a very early state, and I’m able to show small portions of the map. You can expect more updates in the future.

The Oasis

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Community Spotlight – Knight’s Watch


This week’s Player Owned Town spotlight takes us to Knight’s watch in Hidden Vale. A bustling suburb of Kingsport, this vibrant coastal town is governed by Astor Cerberus. I (Berek) am about to arrive by boat at the docks to meet with him. Read on as the town folk provide a great tour!

I clamber off the boat to meet a charming promenade of row homes along the water. There is a bustle of commerce as vendors advertise their wares to bystanders. Taking in the view, I notice that Astor is not yet present. Instead, I’m approached by an intriguing looking outlander who introduces herself as Belladonna Rose.

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #245: New Scene & Item Content and SeedInvest Perk Screenshots!


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 Northwest Blackblade Mountains

SPOILERS: For Release 46 we are reworking Blackblade Pass to establish a path through the mountains and underneath the lava that is Tier 2. This involves adding Tier 2 side paths in Southeast Blackblade Mountains and Northwest Blackblade Mountains that connect to the entrances to Blackblade Pass, as well as adding a Tier 2 bypass tunnel in Blackblade Pass itself.

Additionally, we have completely rebuilt Northwest Blackblade Mountains (it was previously a clone of another scene) and it now contains a devastated arid landscape of dragon bones, mesas, sand, and possible dragon encounters!

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

Here’s some early teaser shots of progress on un-cloning the Northwest Blackblade Mountains. Let me know what you think of them!

Read more…