Darkstarr's Release 6 Impressions

Greetings Avatars,

Thank you all again for another amazing opportunity to provide you with early access to Shroud of the Avatar. Thank you for the incredible amount of quality feedback that will make Shroud better. And thank you especially for your continued monetary support, without which we could not be making this, nor could we continually try to improve it.

Release 6 was our first attempt at an Early Access Release focused mainly on polish. The specific polish focus for R6 was on graphics, and I think we made some real progress. However we still have a lot of work to do, both on graphic polish and polish overall. While we are happy with the direction our lighting is going with the move to a Linear lighting model, it still needs a lot of balancing so that daytime is not overly bright, night isn’t overly dark, and shadows are not inky pools where nothing is visible. We also need to keep improving the avatars. We had hoped to be able to replace all of the heads with more attractive versions, but the task was just too big to fit inside this milestone.

All this polish work has to be balanced with continued progress on core systems like crafting, combat, skills, etc. Rest assured that while we are doing some work on polish, there is also a ton of work going on behind the scenes on those core systems. Sometimes that work will take longer than a single release so it may temporarily appear that no progress is being made, but please trust us, progress is being made!

I continue to be stunned by the power of this community. One of the most compelling examples of this was the building of Pax Lair in the player town of Valemark. Lord British and I took a tour on Sunday and the sheer creativity on display with the simple tools we provided really showed what is possible with our housing system. Of course my personal highlight was Amberraine’s Church of Darkstarr in Valemark where I was able to ascend to the podium and pontificate about the benefits of Chaos!

Release 7 is now underway and we have some cool things in store for you. I will be posting an R7 and Q3 schedule post later this week so stay tuned!

Release 6 is dead! Long live Release 7!

Sincerely,
Darkstarr aka Starr Long

 

Give me the R7!

 

i was pleasantly surprised with some of the graphical improvements this time around. looking forward to the next iteration!

 

I didn't really have time to play r6, but I l saw the screenshots and the graphics are indeed coming along very nicely. Can't wait for R7.

 

Thank you Darkstarr, and thankyou to all of Portalarium for taking this game on.
I can't wait to see more.

 

I truly enjoyed R6. Not only in watching as each update improved the graphical quality (and for those that were in the Dev+ you *know* it improved LOTS!!) but also the ability to build within the township of PaxLair - not a guild, but a player town that welcomes both sides, equally. I believe this release shall be one I shall not ever forget! Thank you DarkStarr for yet again doing something I had not thought I would ever see,

Thank you for another great release and visit home.

Long live Release 7!
(and Church of the Dark Star v2.0)

 

This was really great. Winfield also gave me a tour of Valemark, the first PaxLair village in Novia. The amount of creativity and likely huge amount of time and effort into building the town and the decoration in the homes was outstanding. The community came together to create their own Point of Interest on the map and gave it a strong purpose to come and visit. I know I will stop by during my travels on The Hidden Vale.

I really hope we see more of this for the other areas on the map, because wandering through those endless neighborhoods wasn't very interesting, as they were simply houses as storage boxes, with vacant towns and vacant dwellings. Kudos to those in the community that do come together and create their own stories and reason for being a POI on the map.

 

I didn't get to play this release but I'm excited to try the next one!

 

I'm not sure which one is growing quicker: the quality of the game or my excitement for the next release!

 

So are there minimum requirements for this game? If I was unable to play Release 6 on my machine, should I assume that I am out until I upgrade??

 

I doubt it. These pre-alphas really aren't optimized yet. The final game should be more forgiving.

 

All hail aarrrrr seven!

 

We of PaxLair want to thank you for taking the time to visit, it meant a lot to everyone there.

This game can be so much more than just the great official story line being written. It is a place where the players can truly make it come alive and build a story of their own, all combining into a wonderful tapestry of New Britannia.

Long Live New Britannia!
Long Live PaxLair!

 

Is there a thread with screenshots of pax lair? I completely missed it!

 

my old AMD Radeon HD 5700 graphics card can run SotA... maybe it will run on your machine as well...

 

I am sure there are several around - I know my church ((ember flame - that invisible twin sister of mine from Grimmwold would have been so proud of it!)) was in PaxLair and I have one group shot at night with some of the towns folk on sunset rock.
These pictures are in the R6 screen shot thread

 

yup just found a thread. Looks like you guys had a blast! Well I will swing by in r7.

 

It ran (although not very well) for Release 4 and 5 but with Release 6 all I got was a white screen and that was in single player. I suspect my video card is not good enough. Hopefully it will work later on after they optimize. Kind of disappointing though

 

R6 Was Fablous with graphics and performance. The tour of AmberRaines house & Her Church of the DarkStar were beautifully mastered by the High Priestess Of Chaos and Blessd by Lord DarkStarr Taking the Podium to invoke the benifits of Chaos . May it be much Chaotic Slpendor as we embark on the everlasting voyage of Chaos to infinity and beyond our most memorable moments..................

 

It was my first time playing SotA during R6, as I missed the previous release dates after pledging. I was able to understand the interface on the first day, found myself a village lot and started adventuring on the second day, and was starting to decorate my home via trading and crafting on the third day. On the fourth (extended) day, I started killing spiders, wolves and bears for wood and cotton harvesting, then a notification popped up that brought tears to my eyes as I could not play anymore because the testing was closed. I find myself continually checking the news to see if there was a miracle of moving the R7 to the start of June. I must get back in, as I just finished crafting a bed and must put it in my room, the spiders also might spawn too fast and get out of hand... I must get back in! My precious...