Updates

Update of the Avatar #75 – 2014.05.30: Release 6 Perspectives, R7 thru R10 Update, Royal Founder Rewards, Through the Lunar Rift, Final BotA Chapter, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Release 6 Perspectives
  • Blade of the Avatar: The Final Chapter
  • Release 7 and Q3 Update
  • Royal Founder Rewards
  • Founder Teachable Emotes
  • Through the Lunar Rift!
  • Wood & Plaster 3-Story with Open Floor Plan Village Home
  • Plantronics Partnership
  • Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events

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Release 6 Perspectives

From Lord British:
Lord_British

Polish, polish, polish… and yet so much more polishing left to do! The team mainly focused on cleaning up what we had already done for this release, including shining up (and in some cases, darkening) the lighting and troubleshooting the issues that its implementation created for us. While we are VERY happy with the new lighting system, there were still some either glowing or pitch black textures remaining to fix. So there remains some work to be done, especially to the systems we switched out, and plan to switch out, like the map. Still, in the short time we delivered R6 to you, we did manage to add a few new things as well, and overall, we remain VERY happy with the new stuff we put in.

By far, my favorite part of R6 was to see how much YOU the players were able to do with it. Hedge mazes in Owls Head, parties in pubs, player towns popping up… they were all incredibly inspiring to the team and myself! We came away re-inspired to deliver even better player features for the next release. The areas I am pushing the team on now include gathering resources, and even more crafting recipes for decorations, weapons and armor. Also, I want to be sure that our adventure areas have real data behind them, so when you finish an adventure, you get reasonable rewards along the way and a payoff for finishing. It will be an important step in making sure the in-game economy keeps getting better and better!

THANK YOU again for inspiring us, sharing your feedback, and for journeying with us on this adventure. See you in R7!

[Join the conversation in the forums]

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Memorial Day Remembrance

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Today is Memorial Day, and we at Portalarium take this day to pause from our normal work routines, to remember all the men and women, here and abroad, that have sacrificed their lives in military service protecting the lives, and the futures, of all our loved ones.

We are leaving Release 6 open the rest of today. And as Starr Long said in his forum post last night: “Enjoy yourselves but also please take a moment to honor those who have fallen.”

(click here for more complete instructions on downloading and playing Release 6)

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Update of the Avatar #74 – 2014.05.23: Play R6 Now, The Guardian (voice) Returns!, Founder Emotes, VIP Roundtable Pics, BotA, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Come Play Release 6 Now!
  • The (voice) of the Guardian Returns!
  • Founder Teachable Emotes
  • March Duke’s Roundtable, V.I.P. Picnic, & Duel
  • Plantronics Partnership
  • Wood & Plaster 2-Story with Front Porch Town Home
  • Only 2 BotA Chapters Left!
  • Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events

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Come Play Release 6 Now!

Release 6 successfully launched yesterday, May 23rd, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes!

Release 6 is our inaugural, once per quarter release, focused mostly on polish and iteration. Many of the polish changes were behind the scenes, but some visible changes include: lighting fine-tuning, improved bump mapping shaders, character improvements (skin, anims, movement during combat, etc.), increased environment polys, more crafting anims, looping emotes (dances), new & improved player homes, and more!

Players have posted some great screen shots in the forum showcasing the visual enhancements in Release 6 (like the image shown above)! Here are a few samples:

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Release 6 Instructions

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[A Public Forum post by Starr Long]

Darkstarr

Greetings Avatars,

Thank you to our loyal backers of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 6 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, May 22 at 10:30 AM Central Time. Release 6 access will end on Sunday, May 25 at 10:00 PM Central Time. Starting today, you can begin installing and patching (see instructions below), but login will not be enabled until Thursday morning.

After Release 5, I posted about my impressions of that release and our decision to make Release 6 the inaugural, once per quarter release focused mostly on polish and iteration. As our first attempt at this kind of release, I am quite pleased with the results, even if many of them were behind the scenes. While we definitely made some forward strides on polish, we spent a significant amount of time on laying the groundwork for future work on lighting, terrain, texturing, item security, data security, combat balancing, visual effects systems, etc. All that groundwork will yield some amazing things in future releases, even if in the near term it isn’t the most visible of changes. Below are the original/revised R6 deliverables, along with some extra notes and new deliverables in italics.

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Update of the Avatar #73 – 2014.05.16: R6 Coming, Plantronics Partnership, Lord Town Homes, Royal Founder Rewards, New Team Member, BotA Chapter Countdown, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Only 6 Days Until Release 6!
  • Plantronics Partnership
  • Lord Town Homes
  • Royal Founder Rewards
  • New Dev Team Member: Alyssa Reuter, Technical Artist
  • Richard Garriott’s DND #1 Contest Update
  • Barn 2-Story Village Home
  • Upcoming Duke and Lord of the Manor Events
  • HoBLotH II: Legends of the Hearth
  • Only 3 BotA Chapters Left!
  • Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events

Only 6 Days Until Release 6!

The dev team is burning the midnight oil getting Release 6 ready for launch in just 6 short days! Next Wednesday you’ll receive the full Release 6 Instructions, but if you want a reminder of what is included in Release 6, check out Starr’s forum post about it.

We really hope you join us in playing Shroud of the Avatar Release 6! If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. For a limited time, you can get the Adventurer pledge for only $25 when combined with the Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon (see details below).

Plantronics Partnership

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We are happy to announce that Shroud of the Avatar will be a featured game at the Plantronics booth at E3. We want the audio landscape of SotA to be as immersive as the visual landscape and Plantronics is a great partner for us to work with on achieving that goal. During our one year anniversary promotions you may have noticed that some of the prizes we were giving out were Plantronics headsets and at that time we hinted about more to come, like this, from that partnership. Richard Garriott, Starr Long, and Finn Staber will be representing the game at the Plantronics booth in the South Hall at booth 515 so if you are at the show come see us!

If you’re a fan of Plantronics Gaming Headsets (like we are), then check out their Plantronics Gaming Facebook page, and if you like what you see then give them a “Like”!

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Community Spotlight ~ The Sights and Sounds of Melchior

This week’s Community Spotlight shines on the very talented Melchiormeijer!  Not only has he provided us with some pretty amazing Unity Art Assets for the game, but now he is wowing us with his SFX work!  I had a chance to interview him earlier this month, and I thought you guys would love getting to know him a bit more just as much as much as I did!

cairn6  micLo09  globeUnity7

FireLotus:  If you were an NPC in Shroud of the Avatar, how would describe yourself?

Melchior:  Well, if you would be looking for that NPC for some specific reason he would probably be the hardest to find in the game. Not because he’s hiding, but because he’s off doing something different every time you log in. He’s interested in almost anything, can be busy with the smallest insignificant thing for hours until it’s perfect. If something seems to be impossible to solve, this guy would find the weirdest way to solve it. BUT he WILL solve it.

Same thing when I’m working or creating 3D and sound assets for SotA. i can tweak some things on a small insignificant item that is almost too small to actually see. Like my bobbers for instance  . One of them is a cork with some letters on it. You will probably never be able to read those letters, but i spent WAY too much time on them to get them perfect.

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Update of the Avatar #72 – 2014.05.09: 100k New Britannians, Dev Team Growth, 4 BotA Chapters Left, Wedding Attire, Extended Monthly Payments, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • One Hundred Thousand New Britannians!
  • Development Team Growth
  • Only 4 BotA Chapters Left!
  • Dev+ 3ds Max Rigged Avatar Model
  • Extending Monthly Payment Plan
  • Wedding Dress & Tuxedo
  • Store Credit Gift Coupons
  • Add-On Store Multi-Select
  • Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events

One Hundred Thousand New Britannians!

It is a testament to the exploding interest in Shroud of the Avatar across the entire world-wide gaming community that the number of New Britannians on the SotA website has surpassed 100,000 and keeps on growing! Long live New Britannia!

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