Updates

Release 40 Instructions

March 29, 2017

[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).

Update of the Avatar #220 – 2017.03.24: New Vile Weapons, The Making of Verdantis Mines and Other Scenes, Easter Flash Sale, Community Livestream, Player Town Spotlight, and more!

March 24, 2017

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.

Community of the Avatar – Exploring Kas Ruins

March 23, 2017

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!

Community Spotlight: Owl Sky City – Player Owned Town

March 23, 2017

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 :).

World Water Day – Make a Difference Sale Today

March 22, 2017

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:

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

March 17, 2017

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

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

March 15, 2017

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!

March 15, 2017

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

March 15, 2017

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.

Lord British Original Shroud Cloth Map Prototype #1 Bundle

March 14, 2017

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.