Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 5 Weekend Access Keys
• SotA’s One-Year Anniversary Events
• Lord of the Manor Castle Lot
• Founder Baron 2 & 3 Waterfront Galleon
• Lord’s Throne
• Founder Lord Lynx Pet
• Town Stone Arena Basement
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 13
• Upcoming Events
• Only 24 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 5 Weekend Access Keys

Every week for four weeks, starting March 24th, 250 members of the Alienware Arena Shroud of the Avatar Group will receive Weekend Access Keys to SotA Release 5, scheduled for April 24-27.

Giveaway Periods:

• March 24 – 30
• March 31 – April 6
• April 7 – 13
• April 14 – 20

250 members of the Alienware Arena Shroud of the Avatar Group will be able to gain weekend access to SotA’s Release 5 during each giveaway period. For more details, jump on over to the Alieware Arena site and make sure you’re registered in their Shroud of the Avatar Group!

[Note: Weekend Access Keys are non-transferable; Make sure that your SotA account uses the same email address as your Alienware Arena account in order to utilize the Weekend Access Keys]

Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!

[NOTE: Only one Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon can be used per account. Coupon does not apply to Add-On Store items]

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Post-Mortem: Dev+ Party on the Baron’s Frigate
• PvP & Death: Current Thinking Megapost
• Knight’s Round Table
• Founder Knight House Servant
• Patron Domesday Certificate
• Black Cat Pet
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 12
• Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade
• Upcoming Events
• This Week In The News
• Only 31 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Post-Mortem: Dev+ Party on the Baron’s Frigate

Last week we invited Dev+ backers to join us for a one-hour, online party on the Baron’s new frigate in Kingsport to test performance enhancements the team’s been working on since Release 3. Here’s what Chris Spears (Technical Director) had to say about the results:

Thanks to all Dev+ backers who took part in the impromptu performance test!  While performance was better, there were a number of huge finds that came up by getting real players in the game that we will be addressing before doing another performance test, likely next week!  The biggest items impacting frame rate were a bad error function that happened when one player’s network view got out of sync somehow, name plates being handled VERY poorly, footstep sounds being played far too much and in a costly manner, animations being played for things that weren’t visible, and no cap on the number torches that cast shadows!  These were all things that didn’t come up in our personal testing that quickly become horrible problems with lots of players present. We’ll get these and other issues fixed and do another test sometime in the next week or so! Thanks again!

[Check out Chris’ Performance Test Results conversation in the Dev+ forums (Dev+ forum access available to backers at the Developer Pledge level, or above).]

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade
• Early Access Schedule Update: Releases 4 – 7
• Release 3 Perspectives
• PvP Current Thinking
• Combat-Ready Elves!
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 11
• Founder Baron Waterfront Frigate
• Benefactor Edelmann Automaton
• Benefactor Edelmann Great Dane Pet
• Founder Citizen Owl Pet
• Cleaver of Prosperity
• Dev+ Party on the Baron’s Frigate: Post R3 Performance Test
• Upcoming Events
• Only 38 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!

[NOTE: Only one Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon can be used per account. Coupon does not apply to Add-On Store items]

Early Access Schedule Update: Releases 4 – 7

[A forum post by Starr Long]

It has been an incredible journey so far has it not? When we first proposed this monthly release schedule back in November of last year we were hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. As Chris Spears, our Tech Director, likes to say we were “doing it wrong but in the best way.” Not only were we giving access to players earlier than most any game but we were also committing to definite dates of releases every month with detailed lists of deliverables! Were we crazy? I am pleased to say that our faith in this community was rewarded and you completely understood what we were doing and were able to give constructive and valuable feedback.

Our goal continues to be to deliver our backers content each and every month so that we can get feedback and react to it. This has already paid off with additional game features like jumping and swimming as well as improvements to systems like crafting and conversations. Meeting that monthly goal is our highest priority but we require flexibility in our deliverables to meet that goal. As you have seen in previous releases sometimes we push things out but we also often pull new things in.

[Join the Early Release conversation in the public forums]

Q1-2014 Release

• Release 4: March 27 – 30, 2014

Q2-2014 Release

• Release 5, April 24 – 27, 2014
• Release 6, May 22 – 25, 2014
• Release 7, June 26 – 29, 2014

Read more…