Category Archives: Update of the Avatar

Update of the Avatar #202 – 2016.11.11: Midras Ruins, Forest Town Siege, Xenos Polish, R35 Postmortem, Decoration Contest Winners, Beran’s Reach, and More!

November 11, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

“The abandoned shells of buildings looked silently down on them from either side of the road.”
– From The Sword of Midras by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott

The Making of Midras Ruins

The Midras 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. Midras, in particular, is significant because it is the location of the Crypt of the Avatar. Note that all eight of the ruins are Open PVP zones.

Midras started as a clone of the Opalis Ruins but is getting completely rebuilt this release to have a unique layout and visuals. 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.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here to give you an update on the Ruins of Midras coming this R36!

The Ruins of Midras are nestled in the peaks of Midmaer. I took a lot of inspiration from its reference in Blade of the Avatar along with adding my own take to the map.

Aesthetically I was inspired by the city of Osgiliath in the LOTR. Especially the idea of having ruins that had vertical space and were now only frames of what they had once been.

Update of the Avatar #201 – 2016.11.04: World Toilet Day, Yule Stockings, R35 Postmortem, Elad’s Lighthouse & Graff Island, Bay Lunaire POT, Lunar Rift Chronometer, and More!

November 4, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Happy Halloween from the Portalarium Team!

We hope all of you had a safe and enjoyable Halloween this week! We certainly did! One of the perks of having a full-time community manager onsite is being able to plan community events for the Portalarium team members! Thanks to Mathew “Berek” Anderson for coordinating our very first annual Portalarium Halloween Costume Contest! The contestants were voted on by the Portalarium team across four categories, and the winners were:

Scariest Costume: Skeleton (Starr “Darkstarr” Long)
Funniest Costume: Olaf aka The Best Dad Ever (Chris “Atos” Spears)
Best Themed Costume: Shegan aka The New Boss (Sarah “Serafina” Dworken)
Most Unique Costume: Ness (Dan “PlagueofLocusts” Brennan)

Release 35 Instructions

October 26, 2016

[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 35 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, October 27, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Path of Love Polish

With Release 35, we have continued polishing the Path of Love storyline. Ardoris continues to be our main focus with lots of fixes, polish, and additions to the city and the quests leading from it. In particular, the Tower of Shuttered Eye is no longer a side quest, and has been fully incorporated into the main Path of Love storyline. It has also been better balanced to match the players expected levels at that point in the story. While we did make progress on the region specific clothing for Perennial Coast, even getting new NPC faces for several characters including Min Liang Tan, the region clothing will not appear in game until Release 36.

Roving Encounters

When we first unveiled Shroud of the Avatar in our Kickstarter, we showed Roving Encounters on the Overworld with flying Dragons and rolling gypsy wagons. We have finally returned to that original vision! No longer are encounters on the Overworld map hidden as random surprises over which you have no control. Now, the encounters are actual creatures that move about, and that you can choose to either engage or avoid.

Food and Water

With Release 34, we did a major overhaul to the cooking system, and we are continuing that with more recipes with higher level effects. We have also added the ability to gather water, and planters now indicate whether the plants have been watered or not. Finally, we have added more plants to agriculture which, when combined with water gathering and more gathered ingredients, makes cooking a much more self-sufficient profession than the previous implementation in which it relied much more on purchased ingredients. Read more…

Update of the Avatar #199 – 2016.10.21: Roving Encounters, Elad’s Lighthouse, Harvest, & Graff Island, Critical Hit Balancing, Gold Crown Merchants, and More!

October 21, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Roving Encounters

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Keith “Sannio” Quinn]

Shroud of the Avatar already has random encounters–you’ll be walking across the Novia or Hidden Vale overworld maps and, without warning, you’ll be teleported into a small encounter scene. We like the idea of running into unexpected threats on the overworld, but the “without warning” part is less than ideal… So, as of Release 35, we’re changing how random encounters are triggered.

You won’t be blindly caught by a Random Encounter anymore. We’re replacing that part of the encounter system with new overworld enemies who will trigger encounters when you get too close. These overworld enemies will be similar to the ones you’ve battled countless times in adventure scenes, except they can’t be engaged in combat. Instead, if you approach too close to the new overworld enemies and they see you, they’ll run at you. If they get next to you, you’ll be pulled into the encounter associated with them. For example, bandits will pull you into bandit encounters while wolves pull you into a scene full of wolves. Once you see the enemy, you can walk around it to avoid the encounter or run toward it to force the encounter. If the enemy has already spotted you and you’re quick, you can try to run away before the enemy catches up and keep the encounter from ever triggering.

Both overworld maps have encounters scattered about. They might be wandering in the woods, meandering along a shoreline, or patrolling along a road. Initially, we’ll be adding in common encounters like wolves, bandits, and undead. Over time, dragon encounters will return and we’ll include other rare situations like merchants.

Update of the Avatar #198 – 2016.10.14: Darkstarr & Lord British at Ultima Dragon 25th Anniversary, Harvest & Graff Island Revisted, Silverhold POT Spotlight, R34 Postmortem, and More!

October 14, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Darkstarr Joins Lord British for the Ultima Dragons 25th Anniversary

We are very excited to announce that Starr “Darkstarr” Long will be joining Richard “Lord British” Garriott and other Origin Veterans at the Ultima Dragons 25th Anniversary Bash!
This is the final week of their Kickstarter and as a reminder we are running a special cross promotion where anyonewho backs both Shroud of the Avatar (at a level with Game Access) and the Ultima Dragons 25th Anniversary ($30 Recommended) will get a special custom Clasped Gauntlets Cloak in Blue and Silver that says “Ultima Dragons 25th Anniversary”.

Update of the Avatar #197 – 2016.10.07: 15% Black Friday Bonus!, Breast Cancer Charity, House Deco Contest, Community Cloaks, 12 New POT Templates, and More!

October 7, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus Starting Now!

For the past two years we’ve extended our Black Friday Promotion to give you up to 8 weeks to take advantage of our Black Friday 15% Bonus, and we’re doing it again this year! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including bundles, bundle upgrades, add-on items, player owned town upgrades, and Make a Difference items) between Midnight CDT October 6, 2016 (5:00 UTC, October 7, 2016) and Midnight CST, November 28, 2016 (6:00 UTC, November 29, 2016), we will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward additional purchases (which includes bundles, bundle upgrades, add-on items, and player owned town upgrades).

[NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CT for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of Make a Difference items]

You can use the 15% Bonus to save on your next purchase! For example, if you have the $45 Elven Starter Bundle and really want to upgrade to the $90 Elven Tool Bundle, you would normally pay the extra $45 for the upgrade. But using the 15% bonus you can immediately save $5. To do so, you would first purchase $40 worth of Store Credit Gift Coupons (via PayPal, Amazon, Bitcoin, or credit card; excluding existing Store Credit) then use the “Convert to Credits” option on your account page to transform the Store Credit Gift Coupons into Store Credit. Within 24 hours an additional $6 bonus ($40 x 15%) would be applied to your Store Credit account, bringing it up to $46. You would then use $45 of your Store Credit to upgrade to the $90 Elven Tool Bundle.

Update of the Avatar #196 – 2016.09.30: Play R34 Now, Q4 Schedule, R33 Lot Raffle Winners, R34 Postmortem, Telethon, Inside Portalarium, and More!

September 30, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 34 Now!

Release 34 successfully launched yesterday, September 29, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Necropolis Polish
Estgard Polish
Bone Armor
Cooking and Food Expansions
Halloween Content
Daily Oracle Confessions
R33 Lot Deed Raffle Winners
R34 Free Lot Deed Raffle Tickets for Non Property Owners
Over 45 new Crafting Recipes
New Combat Skills and Spells
New Musical Instruments
New Emotes

…and much more

Update of the Avatar #195 – 2016.09.23: The Passing of Lacey, More Estgard Polish, Hometown Returns, Spotlight: Bastion’s Point

September 23, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

The Passing of Lacey

By now, many of you may have heard that one of our community members Lacey has passed after fighting a long, brave battle against breast cancer. Lacey was an incredible contributor to our community and was well known for her amazing decorating. We all benefited from her tremendous skills which she shared with us in projects like Hometown and the setup for the Devs vs. Players PVP match for the Spring Telethon.

You can see in this screenshot from the PVP match that Daxxe Diggler shared just how many people she impacted:

Update of the Avatar #194 – 2016.09.16: Estgard Polish, Lord British Attending SotA Con, Halloween Content, Austin Game Conference, R33 Postmortem Recap, and More!

September 16, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Estgard Polish

Estgard is on the island of Norgard and is part of the Path of Courage. It is a cloned scene using one of our PRT / POT templates based off of the Forest 01 base template (aka PaxLair). In Release 33, we did an initial rebuild (aka “un-cloning”) of that scene where we added a plot specific perimeter wall and a handful of other visual changes to have it more closely match the Viking like style of the island of Norgard. In Release 34, we are polishing that rebuild to bring it up to our visual standards. When we start focusing on the Courage Path in a future release, it will also get an NPC polish pass. In Update 192, SorcerousSteve gave you a preview of these changes and this week he is giving you another update on the upcoming improvements. WARNING: Plot spoilers below.

Note that when we un-clone these scenes we do NOT change lot placements. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

REVISITING ESTGARD

Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here to give you an update on Estgard! A few weeks ago we got to see a preview on the upcoming Estgard, we’ll continue that this week with a look inside the city walls. Estgard is a densely overgrown town located in Southeast Norgard along the Naryad Channel, it is a densely overgrown area constantly ravished by Kobold attacks.

The ongoing war between humans and Kobolds in this area has put people on the edge, so much that they believe that yellow will ward off the Kobolds and protect them.

Update of the Avatar #193 – 2016.09.09: Tropical Island POT, Economy Balancing, Testing Incentives Program, Sales Policy Update, and More!

September 9, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Tropical Island POT Polish

When we launched the Tropical Island Player Owned Town Template in Release 30 back in May, we were moving quickly to get it launched and in the hands of our POT owners. It was based on the Island 01 template and was a simple swap of tree type mostly without really any other major changes. Owners who chose this template were understandably underwhelmed by this variation so we decided that we needed to take another pass at this Island.

Hutch has been working this Release to improve the island and has made a host of improvements. He started by choosing a few different base terrain textures, ones that lend themselves better to a tropical environment. He then chose some additional terrain grasses and ran a process to apply them to the map in order to cover areas that were bare of grass before. He also added some more tree varieties to the map to improve variety and height differences and spread these more thoroughly throughout the map. The biggest changes, however, are an overall increase in foliage density throughout the island to create a more tropical jungle look and the addition of flat beach areas suitable for house placement.