Greetings Fellow Avatars!

The Catnip Games development team now brings the players of Shroud of the Avatar another round of new content and improvements. For Release 97 (R97), players will experience a large variety of changes to the game. First off, large cats (lions and tigers) have been added, most of which can be tamed! Players will find these new creatures scattered through many scenes throughout New Britannia! Also, wyvern eggs have also been added as loot to the game. These eggs can be utilized as decorations or even used in a new cooking recipe! Further uses for these eggs will be added in the future.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let’s see what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

News Announcements

• Release 97 Patch Notes!
• Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!
• Crown Store: New Town-Sized Home, Enchanted Wyvern Eggs & More!
• January Login Reward: Caduceus Wand!
• Release 97 Subscriber Login Rewards: Caduceus Staff & Lion Cub Pet!
• Bug Brigade & Testing Directives
• Streamer Rewards Program
• Upcoming Release Dates

Community Updates

• Community Events & Resources
• Project to Support: Ghostbusters: The Gates of Gozer
• Project to Support: Shard RPG
• Project to Support: Shadow of Valhalla
• Project to Support: Avatar Express
• Resources: Players Helping Players

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Release 97 Patch Notes!

Below is a list of game changes and new content that are live as of Release 97 (R97). This release is a short release due to the holiday season, but we still managed to provide a considerable amount of new items and changes to keep everyone entertained. Additional content, improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R98 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 97! Happy holidays!

World, Quests, and Miscellaneous Changes:

• Big cats have finally made their appearance in Novia: Lions and lionesses and tigers, oh my!
  • With the exception of one very rare, very powerful lion, all big cats can be tamed!
  • Lions and lionesses have chances to spawn in these locations:
    • Desert Encounter
    • Plains Encounter
    • Crag Foothills
    • Midras Ruins
    • Sequanna Colossus
    • Oracle Colossus
    • Elysian Ruins
    • Spectral Peaks
  • Tigers have chances to spawn in these locations:
    • Forest Road Encounter
    • Swamp Road Encounter
    • East Veiled Swamp
    • Far Hinterlands
    • East Longfall Wetland
    • Kas Ruins
    • Twins Foothills
    • The Fall
• Aerie: Improved the logic for “help” responses by both Devotional Caretakers.
• Ardoris: Improved the logic for archiving the “Meet with Khasi” and “Meet with Siranto” tasks for avatars if Min is defeated before these tasks are completed.
• Ardoris: Merchant Guildmaster Cai Lau now always has the “Sheng Lau” keyword available to ensure all localized versions have access to that keyword.
• Blood Bay: Removed the chances that the ebb and flow of lava will block lava fishing at both volcanoes.
• Blood River Outskirts: The “Ask Phineas for Poison” compass marker should never appear after the Phineas Drumplemouth questline is complete.
• Castle Atos: The shrine buff will now work correctly when 1-3 players are in scene.
• Castle Atos: Several stuck spots have been fixed.
• Castle Atos: Player’s should no longer appear to fall when exiting to Novia.
• Castle Atos: The scene has received a number of new decorations, to include a piano in the tavern, toilets, and benches.
• Castle Atos: Now features an interactive well to obtain water.
• Castle Atos: Now features a seasonal Yule tree in the plaza.
• Castle Atos: Mage of Mystery Quang has replaced Divum.
• Castle Atos: Blocked the underside of a staircase from view.
• Castle Atos: The chef daily quest at Castle Atos now provides more varied and increased rewards, to include the very occasional wyvern egg.
• Castle Atos: The Shrine will now grant the blessing again if the buff was cancelled and the shrine reentered.
• Caverns of Skrekk: Added/updated props of some buildings near the palace.
• Central Brittany: Reactivated the Krampus quest given by Kinga and Ronin.
• Central Brittany: Updated some parts of Arabella’s trivial responses.
• Control Points: “Mages of Mystery” in all control points have lowered their teleportation fees. Crossing to the opposite side of the same control point is now 15 gold, while teleporting to a different control point is 50 gold. (Those worthy of being teleported to the Manor of Mystery is still free.)
• Desert Encounter: The sculptor merchants that sometimes spawn in these scenes will now always be humanoid.
• Despair:  Several visual glitches have been fixed.
• Estgard: Improved “safety” logic that archives the “Convince Knight in Estgard” tasks when players complete the Path of Courage.
• Forest Encounters with Unicorns: Fixed an issue that cause the “great threat” message to appear prematurely.
• Graff Gem Mines: Adjusted the location for a skeleton that was spawning halfway into a wall.
• Halls of Artifice: The “spike cage” room mechanics have been updated to include a trigger warning and two very visible locks. One of these locks replaces the hidden pressure plate and it’s disastrous results. The avatar can now make a mildly-informed choice as to which lock to use. Also, two children in a cage in a different room have been replaced by two adults.
• Hills Encounter: Updated the path grid to help stop a certain wolf from leashing sometimes.
• Hilt Fortress: Fixed a stuck spot in the Obsidian Forge area.
• Jaanaford: Updated the logic which displays the compass markers related to the Broken Echoes Silver Mine’s foreman.
• Jotungrund: Assigned lower LOD meshes to rock mesh colliders to allow for easier access to particular resource nodes.
• Jotungrund: Avatars that were told by Wymond about his bone chips quest but didn’t accept it should now be able to do so.
• Jotungrund: Several “stuck” spots have been fixed and several floating boulders fixed.
• K’rul: Fixed a stuck spot in a gazebo.
• K’rul: Moved large automatons out of small rooms. Added props to an empty shed.
• Lord British’s Castle: Fixed an issue where a secret door wasn’t opening.
• Manor of Mystery: Moved floating mandrake roots to the ground, removed candles on the floor near a building entrance, and shifted the pink-purple cloth on the return teleporter disc to purple.
• Manor of Mystery: Removed redundant mages. Moved floating mandrake to the ground. Avatars with the “incorrect reputation” in the manor may find the mages will notice this and teleport them away.
• Manor of Mystery: Some mages of mystery referred to the old price of 500 gold for passage. They now know to only ask for 50 gold.
• Mysterious Swamp: The rare Spawn of Sobek, T15 crocodile is now tameable!
• Nightshade Pass: Moved a small floating rock to the ground.
• Oracle Temple: Improved the logic that dismisses the “Find the Cerulean Lens” compass marker.
• Overworld: The default option for new players will be to show town names in non-runic letters.
• Player-Run Towns: These towns have received a minimal complement of NPCs and crafting stations near their default entrances, and all Player-Run Towns allow for POT only deeds to be utilized:
  • Aldhaven
  • Estercove
  • Greyacre
  • Highiron
  • Holtrot
  • Kingswood
  • Lochfield
  • Northshire
  • Owl’s Wash
  • Port Mirren
  • Ravensend
  • Redmill
  • Righ Inis
  • Shadowmist
  • The Brave Coast
  • Valemark
  • Westhollow
• Player Villages: All “player village” scenes have been reclassified as Player-Run Towns which enables placement of POT only deeds within their borders.
• POT Forest 01b template: Removed anomalous world objects.
• Serpent’s Spine Foothills: Squirrels now have a chance to spawn instead of rabbits.
• Shaminian Hills: Adjusted the mechanics of the magical elevator to help ensure the crystal receptacle stays in the proper state. Added a “Reset Platform” button near the top of the elevator for situations where the receptacle might still go out of sync.
• Skrekk: Added/updated decorations within some buildings.
• Skrekk: Updated the compass marker for “Caverns of Skrekk” to read as such.
• Solace Bridge Outskirts: Avatars cannot use the “skip conversation with merchants” option for Ackerley’s until after they finish his quests.
• Soltown: Stanley now has small quests that point players to Arabella in Soltown and Baozhai the guard in Castle Atos.
• South Majestic Forest: Fixed typos in CBY-60053’s responses about the virtues.
• Spite: Fixed the icons for several compass marker discoveries, including the Moratorium.
• The Outlaws’ Run: Fixed a typo in Miloslava’s “stone” response.
• The Outlaws’ Run: Moved floating roots to the ground.
• The Outlaws’ Run: Fixed typos in “Tell Guard About Mlroslava” journal entries.
• The Rise: Fixed decoration issues in one room.
• Valhold: New avatars who don’t meet the requirements cannot access the interior of Valhold Palace.
• Vertas: Improved the response and journal from Kiakis regarding his suggestion of going through Vertas Pass to Jaanaford.
• Petrified Dragon Eggs on store now come in 3 packs.
• The Saddle and Bags with Stand decoration item is now called Saddlebags with Stand since there is no saddle present on the item.

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

• Wyvern Eggs and a related food recipe are now available:
  • These eggs have a small chance to drop from wyverns, with higher tier wyverns having greater chances.
  • Elves in Savrenoc Stronghold now have a small chance to drop a Wyvern Egg Salad recipe, which increases a character’s Song Duration by an additional 25% for 2 hours.
  • These eggs can also be placed as decorations.
  • More recipes for these food components are coming soon!
  • Soon, the Castle Atos storehouse containers will accept wyvern eggs as the uncommon crate item, so hold on to your extras!
• Mimic Pets can now sit and dance!
• Spider room recipes to include the spawned version are now available.
• A pedestal to enable spawns has been added to the Hilt Spider Room with Spawns.
• The Hilt Spider Room Pristine now features improved decoration surfaces.
• Fixed typos in the Acaran Gauntlet upgrade recipe display names.
• Celestian Sofa is now dyeable in primary slot.
• The Bottle of Wine and Elven Bottle of Wine can be rotated on an additional axis.
• Lava pool decorations will no longer damage players when dragged over a player in decoration placement mode.
• Mounts that are locked in inventory can once again be used.
• The Ravensmoor teleporter steps now feature improved collision and no longer require players to jump to ascend the steps.
• Streamer bundles now have a unique color (purple) compared to other supply bundles when placed as a decoration.
• The 2021 Extra Live cloak will now correctly salvage to the 2021 pattern instead of the 2017 pattern.
• The Antique Shop now features improved decoration surfaces.
• The Labrys Axe pattern now has the proper display name.

Combat & Skill Changes:

• Ardoris Arena: Ardoris arena now has skill caps, level caps, and a 75% reduction in stats provided by gear.
• Players who are flagged for open world PvP or in a PvP scene now receive a 5-second resurrection debuff instead of a 15-second debuff.
• Lightning Storm:
  • Fixed an issue which caused lightning storm to stun excessively by ignoring crowd control resistance effects.
  • Now fizzles as intended.
  • Now applies aggro properly to the caster.
  • Lightning Storm can no longer be parried.
  • Lightning Storm now properly consumes the listed reagents.
• Cone of Cold will now use fewer reagents.
• Summoning spells should now level more quickly.
• The rate at which many mobs parry has been dramatically reduced.
• A number of potions no longer erroneously expire when a player dies.
• Summoning spells should now level more quickly.

Player Economy, Rewards, & Loot Changes:

• Castle Atos now features unique freshwater fishing loot tables! The first unique item, which is a rare drop, is a Floating Barrel (Flotsam). Use this barrel as a water decoration in your Player-Owned Towns or on your water lot properties. Players can also open the barrel (which destroys it) to receive a considerable amount of Elven Brandy, Satyr Spirits, or Kobold Spirits.
• Mustard seeds are now available on various cooking merchants throughout New Britannia, which is one of the ingredients for Wyvern Egg Salad.
• Streamer Bundles are available by request for highly active streamers to provide as prizes. The Player Livestreams & Videos forum will be updated soon with a thread to provide qualification information. Streamer bundles now only provide no-trade items.
• The Delicate Feather of the Phoenix now drops for players without the phoenix feather quest.

User Interface, Lua, & Performance Changes:

• Player health bars are now MOVEABLE! This option can be enabled in the options menu, which is set to “off” by default.
• The player dungeon UI has received a significant update. Now, players may select dungeon pieces from their inventory while the dungeon piece selection UI is open.
• A new option in the options menu has been added which allows players to be mounted automatically upon scene load, which is set to “off” by default.
• The inventory search bar filter has been improved. Now, search results also consider the original name for a renamed item.
• Fixed an issue which caused the scene to reload repeatedly, and logging has been improved to help analyze future related bugs.
• Fixed an issue which caused the Lua object ID to change when a previously created object was destroyed.
• The Lua function ShroudOnSceneLoaded() will now execute only once after all the game objects are fully loaded.
• Additional Lua changes, fixes, and additions are now live. Documentation with updates can be found here.
• The chat window no longer changes a private message target when the intended private message target has logged off.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

• Duanor: Upgraded to Town.
• Greymorn: Upgraded to Hamlet.
• Hawker’s Retreat: Added new holdfast to Hidden Vale, northeast of Wynton’s Folly.
• Jade Mountains: Upgraded to Hamlet.
• Jade Valley: Upgraded to Megalopolis.
• Norstead: Moved to Novia, southwest of Estgard.
• Reverie: Upgraded to Town from Crossroads Village.
• Wolves Den: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.

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Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!

The weekly Community Livestream is Friday, December 17th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a community 1-hour livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “happy holidays” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums each month. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live very frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
• Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
• Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
• Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/GuBXakQ

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Crown Store: New Town-Sized Home, Enchanted Wyvern Eggs & More!

Many new store items are coming your way in the month ahead! Keep an eye out each week as the following items become available in the in-game Crown Store. Available today on December 16th, a new town-sized house! This 5-story home not only features a widow’s walk, but also veranda on the 4th floor.

• Stone Five-Story w/ Veranda (Town Home)

Becoming available on December 24th, Enchanted Wyvern Eggs! Added this release are 8 smaller versions which drop as loot throughout New Britannia, but players can also acquire these store versions which are larger AND glow in the dark!

• Enchanted Black Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted Blue Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted Green Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted Orange Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted Purple Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted Red Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted White Wyvern Egg 3-Pack
• Enchanted Yellow Wyvern Egg 3-Pack

Becoming available on December 31st, a gorgeous semicircle display table! Time to redesign your bar and merchant areas, because this item is a MUST have:

• Ornate Wooden Semicircle Display Table

Becoming permanent year-round store entries, these 30 prior seasonal items from the winter recurring and vault sections of the store will remain on the store after the winter season ends on February 8th:

• Breathe Blue Fire Emote
• Breathe Emote 6-Pack
• Breathe Snow Emote
• Fountain of Frozen Waters
• Frost Pipe
• Frozen Bagpipes
• Ice Elemental Statue
• Ice Hot Tub
• Ice Nightmare Mask
• Ice Wings
• Icy Ancient Stone Cathedral
• Icy Ancient Stone Room Fishing Grotto
• Juggle Snowballs Emote
• Reindeer Decoration Pet
• Snow Emote
• Snowflake Pattern Cloak
• Virtue Ice Crown
• Virtue Ice Gown Outfit
• Virtue Ice Shield
• Virtue Ice Sword
• Virtue Ice Wand
• Virtue Icicle Cloak
• White Raven Decoration Pet
• White Reindeer Decoration Pet
• White Rottweiler Decoration Pet
• White Squirrel Decoration Pet
• Winter Lynx Decoration Pet
• Winter Pattern Glass Chandelier 3-Pack
• Winter Pattern Glass Floor Lamp 3-Pack
• Winter Pattern Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack

Also, the Winter Seasonal are still available! Here’s a listing of all of these seasonal items. Some will feature only for 1 week in the Vault, but others will remain in the store throughout the holiday season, so don’t miss out! Winter items will be available until February 8th:

• 2016 Winter Holiday Soundtrack
• Blank Yule Card 2017 5-Pack
• Blank Yule Card 2018 5-Pack
• Blank Yule Card 2020 A 5-Pack
• Blank Yule Card 2020 B 5-Pack
• Candy Cane Wand
• Ceiling Yule Tree
• Dark Yule Outfit
• Giant Haunted Yule Tree
• Giant Yule Tree 2015
• Giant Yule Tree 2016
• Giant Yule Tree 2017
• Giant Yule Tree 2018
• Haunted Sleigh
• Haunted Snow Family
• Haunted Snowman Mask
• Haunted Yule Tree
• Holly Wreath with Candles Hat
• Holly Wreath with Sparklers Hat
• Krampus Mask
• Krampus Statue
• Kwanzaa Table Decorations
• Large Haunted Yule Tree
• Large Yule Tree 2016
• Large Yule Tree 2017
• Large Yule Tree 2018
• Menorah 2014
• Menorah 2015
• Menorah 2016
• Menorah 2017
• Menorah 2018
• Menorah 2020
• Menorah 2021
• Ornate Mantle Garland 2017 12-Pack
• Ornate Mantle Garland 2018 12-Pack
• Ornate Replenishing Snowball Box 2014
• Ornate Replenishing Snowball Box 2015
• Ornate Replenishing Snowball Box 2016
• Ornate Sled
• Ornate Sleigh
• Ornate Snow Family 2015
• Ornate Snow Family 2016
• Ornate Snow Family 2017
• Ornate Snow Family 2018
• Ornate Wall Garland 2017 12-Pack
• Ornate Wall Garland 2018 12-Pack
• Ornate Yule Music Box
• Ornate Yule Wreath 2015
• Ornate Yule Wreath 2016 3-Pack
• Ornate Yule Wreath 2017 3-Pack
• Ornate Yule Wreath 2018 3-Pack
• Red-Nosed Reindeer Mount
• Small Ornate Wall Garland 2017 12-Pack
• Small Ornate Wall Garland 2018 12-Pack
• Snow Globe 2020
• Snowdragon
• Snowflake Pattern Cloak
• Snowman Mask 2015
• Snowman Mask with Hat & Moustache 2018
• Snowman Mask with Stovepipe Hat 2016
• Snowman Mask with Stovepipe Hat 2017
• Tabletop Elf Statue with Yule Hat
• Tabletop Haunted Yule Tree
• Tabletop Yule Tree 2014
• Tabletop Yule Tree 2015
• Tabletop Yule Tree 2016
• Tabletop Yule Tree 2017
• Tabletop Yule Tree 2018
• Traditional Yule Hat
• Yule Elf Outfit
• Yule Gift Box 2016 3-Pack
• Yule Gift Box 2017 3-Pack
• Yule Gift Box 2018 3-Pack
• Yule Gift Box 2020 3-Pack
• Yule Gift Box 2021 3-Pack
• Yule Hat
• Yule Stockings 2016 3-Pack
• Yule Stockings 2017 3-Pack
• Yule Stockings 2018 3-Pack
• Yule Stockings 2020 3-Pack
• Yule Stockings 2021 3-Pack
• Yule Tree 2014
• Yule Tree 2015
• Yule Tree 2016
• Yule Tree 2017
• Yule Tree 2018
• Yule Velvet Bodice Ensemble

Don’t forget! Hometown is an amazing resource for players. At Hometown, which is located just east of Soltown, players can examine available houses, Player-Owned Town templates, and even new Crown Store items. Why not be certain you like it before you make a purchase? So head on over to Hometown and check things out! If you have questions about what’s on display in Hometown, please visit this forum thread and post a question.

To see a full listing of all the items which rotate through the Vault, we have prepared a forum post showing all items which could appear throughout the year!

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January Login Reward: Caduceus Wand!

Log in during the month of December, and you’ll receive an Ancient Xenossian Caduceus Wand! Show your enemies you mean business by wielding this intricately designed magical item.

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Release 97 Subscriber Login Rewards: Caduceus Staff & Lion Cub Decoration Pet!

Avatars! Rewards Program login items for Release 97 are a must have — don’t miss out! This month’s collection adds another item to the Ancient Xenossian set and more! The Ancient Xenossian Caduceus Staff adds yet another style to available staves, and this staff is simply amazing! The intricate metal work along the staff’s head truly draws the eye. For those excited about the new lion and tiger creatures added to the game this release, you’ll be even more excited to hear you’ll be receiving a Lion Cub Decoration Pet as a subscriber login reward. This little fella is a cutie! Subscribers to the Reward Program must login during Release 97 to receive these special login items:

• Ancient Xenossian Caduceus Staff
• Lion Cub Decoration Pet

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

• 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
• Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
• Exclusive Title every 3 months
  • 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
  • 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
  • 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
  • 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
  • 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
  • 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
  • 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
  • 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
  • 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
• Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
• Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
  • Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
  • Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
  • Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
  • Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
  • Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
  • Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
  • Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
• While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
  • Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
  • 24 Additional Deck Slots!

Read more…

Happy Thanksgiving! In observance of the holiday, various rewards and sales have begun:

• +100% Adventure and Crafting EXP
  
• Holdfast Player-Owned Towns 20% Off!
• 2-Hour Flash Sale Items 25% Off!
• Crowns of the Obsidian 20% Off!
• 5X Additional Crowns in Loot Drops!
• Player-Owned Town Upgrades 20% Off! (Crown Upgrades Only)
• Deed Upgrades 20% Off!
• Episode 2 Access $4 Off!
• New Character Slots $2 Off!

All these sale & reward items will last until Monday, December 6th at Noon CT, so don’t miss out! Happy shopping, Avatars!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

The Catnip Games development team now brings the players of Shroud of the Avatar another round of new content and improvements. For Release 96 (R96), players will experience a large variety of changes to the game. First off, players can now explore a new social hub scene called Castle Atos! This scene will be the focal point for providing many social in-game events, content, and rewards in the future, and already we’ve populated this new scene with many activities and items to keep players entertained. The reward blessing present there even scales in power with the number of players in scene!

The Ancient Undead attack! This ancient race of creatures are appearing throughout New Britannia. Will you be able to defeat them?

Dread Artifacts can now be patterned, and evictions will move move evicted items to the Property Manager window instead of a player’s bank. SO many changes, so what are you waiting for? Get in there and play Shroud of the Avatar!

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let’s see what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

News Announcements

• Release 96 Patch Notes!
• Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!
• Crown Store: Statues, Xenossian Helmets, Wax Cylinders & More!
• December Login Reward: Snow Goggles!
• Release 96 Subscriber Login Rewards: Wood-Burning Stove, Snowy Pine Trees, Labrys Axe!
• Bug Brigade & Testing Directives
• Streamer Rewards Program
• Upcoming Release Dates

Community Updates

• Community Events & Resources
• Project to Support: Ghostbusters: The Gates of Gozer
• Project to Support: Shard RPG
• Project to Support: Shadow of Valhalla
• Project to Support: Avatar Express
• Resources: Players Helping Players

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Release 96 Patch Notes!

Below is a list of game changes and new content that are live as of Release 96 (R96). This release is a short release due to the holiday season, but we still managed to provide a considerable amount of new items and changes to keep everyone entertained. Additional content, improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R97 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 96! Happy holidays!

World, Quests, and Miscellaneous Changes:

• A new danger has arisen in some remote locations. A previously-unknown ancient undead humanoid, from before any recorded history, has emerged to threaten all of humanity. Ancient Undead now have chances to appear in Despair, Opalis Ruins, Mysterious Swamp, Forest Road Encounter, Plains Encounter, Plains Road Encounter, and Swamp Road Encounter. These new arrivals to New Britannia will soon provide unique loot items in R97, but these horrific and powerful beings are currently in-game now. Go test your mettle!
• Castle Atos is a new social hub scene and is now available to players. Head on over and explore this new town, and hang out with your friends! With launch of this scene, we worked hard to populate it with as many new items as we could in the short release cycle, but more are coming! Castle Atos will appear on the overworld map (along the road between Soltown and Solace Bridge Outskirts) in the first patch after release. Look for new additions in upcoming months!
  • Here are some of the features available at Castle Atos now:
    • Unique Blessing: Adds a health, focus, and melee critical hit damage reduction bonus to your character, and the power level of the buff is directly proportional to the player count in the scene. Get your friends over there and get a stronger buff!
    • Special vendor items! Initially only new Wax Cylinders have been added to the innkeeper, but each merchant features a unique merchant item table for future additions, so be on the lookout! Here are the Wax Cylinders available at Castle Atos:
      • Sunrise in Jaanaford
      • The Streets of Aerie
      • The Harbors of New Britannia
      • Love Returns to Ardoris
      • Along the Fallion River I
      • Along the Fallion River II
      • Within the Mists of Brookside
      • The Solace River
      • Castle Atos
      • Lament of the Titans
      • The Markets of New Britannia
    • New Quests!
    • Theater stage for in-game plays and concerts!
    • Feast hall for parties!
    • Giant aquarium with swimming dolphins!
    • Public Cache Chest!
    • Storehouse Containers!
  • These are some of the features that will be added to Castle Atos in the near future:
    • Unique fishing loot!
    • More unique vendor items & crafting recipes!
    • Unique storehouse container turn-in items!
• New music has been added to a variety of scenes.
• A new Wax Cylinder is available from the innkeeper at Fire Lotus Tavern in Owl’s Head.
• A new streamer bundle has been created. Keep an eye out for news about how to obtain this bundle to provide to your viewers!
• Halls of Artifice: Added safety teleporters for avatars who get caught in the void between teleporters.
• Jotungrund: Added POT-specific music to the entry camp and barbarian camp in the crevasse.
• Kobold Expeditionary Camp: In the “Save Sir Patrick” scenario, moved incidental kobolds away from the wave battle fighting ring.
• Lord British’s Castle: Added props to secret room. Do you know where the secret room is?
• Mysterious Swamp: Added a chance for an ancient undead enemy to appear in the lich areas.
• Necropolis Barrens: Moved a love letter to the ground that was unreachable due to being in a tree.
• Necropolis Barrens: Removed a love letter within Envy Angel’s house onto the nearby floor.
• North Drachvald Spur: Fixed an issue where a climbable rope on the “jumping puzzle” tower wasn’t functioning.
• Northwood: Added responses for “help” and “health” to Daemyn the guard.
• Northwood: The “bye” button for Saha Rohandas now works properly.
• Opalis Ruins: Added random chance for ancient undead to appear in the “lich boss” fight.
• Random Encounters: Added possibility of ancient undead appearing in undead scenarios for Forest Road, Plains, Plains Road, and Swamp Road Encounters.
• Resolute: Added hints that the avatar needs to talk to the gate guard to get the gate opened by way of signs next to the gate and a “fail” message on the gate switch. Also, once the guard opens the gate for the avatar at least once, the avatar can use the outer switch on their own, at will.
• Seasonal Monsters: Pumpkin Head has gone dormant again while Krampus has awakened.
• Shaminian Hills: Expanded the timespan which the time-locked sarcophagus lid can be opened, from 15.00-16.00 (2.5 minutes) to 13.25 to 17.25 (8.125 minutes).
• Soltown Catacombs: The skull orator is more emotive while standing in his location. Also, he’ll do his best to ensure his nearby lantern stays lit.
• Soltown: Abigail will now have a compass marker for avatar’s who saved Charlotte. Also, after helping Stanley and saying “help,” he’ll sometimes point those same avatars to Abigail to ask her about Charlotte.
• South Drachvald Spur: Moved an ankh to ensure it was above ground.
• South Quel Woods: Changed tier from 3 to 3+. Changed logging office area to a mansion. Changed logging camp to an infested, abandoned farm. Lighting all 4 prop scarecrows in the farm’s fields within 30 seconds will initiate a short wave battle that ends with the Scarecrow seasonal monster. Added some higher tier enemies in farm area. Added some mandrake and higher tier iron ore in farm area.
• South Quel Woods: In the Scarecrow fight, there can be up to 3 fire elementals during the “spider waves,” and there are now a few seconds between each wave. Also, added some hay piles into the farm field.
• The Outlaws’ Run: Added an additional safety method to clear the “Mention Miloslava to Milosh” task.
• The Outlaws’ Run: When telling Miloslava about Milosh, she now clearly asks if you’ve talked to her about the colored stones.
• Ulfheim: All tiered resource nodes within the barbarian community have been changed from tier 5 to tier 8.
• Ulfheim: Removed orphaned ore nodes to stop build errors.
• Understorm Gold Mine: Fixed a typo in the “Search for Evidence in Understorm Mine” journal entry.
• Valhold: To gain access to Valhold Palace to talk to Grannus, players must have the amulet AND finished the “save Sir Patrick” quest.
• Jotungrund: Updated the signal tower compass markers to help them appear when you have the signal tower quest.
• Several mount visuals have been improved/fixed.
• Greenhouse store entries now include information in the description explaining they only function as decorations if placed as a POT decoration.
• The Yew Tree decoration is now called Epic Yew Tree, and it has received the same price reduction as the other epic trees received last release.

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

• Dread Artifact Update:
  • The Bonesteel Crown, Heart of Sorrows, and the Scepter of Dread can now be placed as decorations, but remain no-trade items.
  • The three cabalists of the related anti-virtues (Dolus, Temna, and Nefario) now each drop a no-trade Obsidian Forge recipe (all 3 recipes become available as drops in the first patch after release) for creating no-trade patterns for the related dread artifact, but these recipes only drop if the looter has completed the related storyline to obtain the particular artifact. Once the no-trade pattern is applied to an item, that player can either utilize the item themselves with the Dread Artifact visuals, or they can trade/sell such items to other players at will. The final patterned items are fully tradeable.
  • The Phoenix now drops a 1-3 Delicate Feathers of the Phoenix, one of which is required as a quill in these recipes, but this delicate feather can only be utilized one time before it dissipates into dust. These feathers will be utilized in future recipes as well, so keep on the lookout for new crafting opportunities on the horizon!
  • The pattern for the Heart of Sorrows is our first VFX pattern introduces a new concept for the neck slot. Soon, more neck slot patterns will be added to the store and via in-game loot drops to allow for further character customization, such as glowing eyes!
  • Each Dread Artifact now features a small amount of Adventure Level scaling in their stat bonuses.
• The Gem Studded Roll of Leather, Gold Studded Roll of Leather, Silver Studded Roll of Leather, Bronze Studded Strip of Leather, Copper Studded Strip of Leather, and Iron Studded Strip of Leather have been reduced in power significantly.
• Brave spelunkers will now be able to decorate their Player-Made Dungeon spider rooms! In addition, a pristine version of the room is now available which does not feature the webs and rubble. “With spawns” versions of these rooms are also available and drop from the spiders within Hilt Fortress!
• The Ornate Triple Connection Stone Dungeon Foyer now features additional decoration surfaces to include the ceiling.
• Basement Hatches can now be placed on other decorations that accept child objects such as walls and blocks, accept other decorations on top of them, and they can also be placed on all ground/floor type surfaces on a property which accept decoration items.
• The Teleporter to Compendium of Pain and Suffering decoration item can now be placed on other decorations which accept child decorations such as walls and blocks.
• The Tropical Flower Hairpieces (dyeable and non-dyeable versions) can now both be salvaged for eternal patterns which can be applied to head slot items.
• An issue has been fixed which prevented salvage of the Ornate Circlet. The Ornate Circlet’s pattern now indicates that it is an Eternal Pattern instead of a regular Pattern.
• Interactive items placed around the book player-made dungeon entrance should now function correctly.
• The new lava pools no longer conflict with fishing water type conversion statues.
• Removed a floating black square from various Player-Made Dungeon rooms.
• Dungeon Entrance Tapestry and Dungeon Entrance rug have been renamed to Tapestry of the Ruins of Ravensmoor and Rug of the Ruins of Ravensmoor so players to not mistake these items with Player-Made Dungeon entrance abilities.
• The holiday Menorahs have been updated to function this year.
• 2 new community cloaks have been added for Extra Life charity events.
• The “Bass (Deco)” now properly rotates on an additional axis.

Combat & Skill Changes:

• Gear scaling tech has been created and applied to two PvP scenes: Obsidian Trials and Ardoris Arena. These two locations feature gear scaling of 0.
• A new system which allows tuning of PVP vs PVE damage has been implemented. Currently, this new tech has been applied to ranged Auto-Attack, Aimed Shot, and Blinding Shot. Damage to all 3 of these sources has been reduced by 10% vs. PvP targets.
• Summoned pet spells from the magic schools now level more quickly.
• Additional logging has been created for PvP-related combat as we prepare for upcoming PvP balance work.
• PVP flagging bonus experience has been increased from 10 to 25%
• Player dungeons and basements will no longer grant XP bonuses for PVP players.
• Lightning Storm now features SFX, a unique skill icon, and VFX improvements.
• Lightning storm has been restored to the original, faster cast time.
• Stun durations present on Lightning Storm are now increase with skill level instead of decrease.
• Cone of Cold has received improved visuals.
• Dig In features no longer causes flickering in the buff bar.
• The globe from the Light spell now hovers properly over your character after dismounting.

Player Economy, Rewards, & Loot Changes:

• Many new Wax Cylinders are dropping as rare loot in adventure scenes throughout New Britannia. Will you find them all?
  • Dolus Approaches I
  • Dolus Approaches II
  • The Laboring Fauns
  • Avara’s Curse
  • The Dragon Clan
  • The Ice Plains of Jotungrund
  • The Bear Clan
  • Into the Epitaph
  • Tartarus
  • The Hallowed Plains
  • Rhun Ruins
  • Dysborg Ruins
  • The Faun’s Sorrow
  • The Solania Catacombs
  • Desolis I
  • Desolis II
  • Frozen Tears of a Lost Tribe
  • Kas Ruins
  • Norgard Fens
  • Longfall Road
  • Libris Ruins
  • Desolate Hills
  • The Boar Clan
  • Spectral Peaks
  • Ulfheim
  • Halls of Despair
  • The Sands of Grunvald
  • Solania
  • Yew
• The scarecrow boss now occasionally drops pieces of canvas fabric instead of the recipe for canvas fabric.

User Interface, Lua, & Performance Changes:

• Non-destructive evictions! When a player’s property is evicted by governors, stewards, tax defaults, or even lot activity expirations, the property will now be placed in the owner’s Property Manager (Magic Movers) window.
• The Player-Made Dungeon interface for selecting dungeon pieces in decoration mode has been improved.
• Fixed a bug that caused the inventory list to flicker when it contained a teleporter item that pointed to a scene that no longer existed.
• Added 5 new Lua functions:
  • ShroudCurrentDeck()
  • ShroudDeckList()
  • ShroudGetDeckCardList([deckName])
  • ShroudEmoteList()
  • ShroudPlayEmote(emoteName)
• Conversationalist scripts will now properly return integer values.
• Compass markers now display by priority. Quest markers are in front, destination markers are in the middle, and all other markers appear in the back.
• Guild member names now sort properly in the guild window.
• The Companion Level stat on gear now properly applies to summoned pets.
• MANY more functions have been added to your Lua toolbox! Go check out the updated API document!
• There are also script examples in the Lua section of the forum!

Player-Owned Town Changes:

• Dragon Hold: Added new holdfast in Novia along the mountains northwest of Soltown.
• Fidra: Added new Holdfast to Hidden Vale near Port Titan.
• Litwarf Hird: Added new Holdfast to Mistrendur near the center of the middle island.
• M’hul Island: Upgraded to Village.

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

The Catnip Games development team now brings the players of Shroud of the Avatar another round of new content and improvements. For Release 95 (R95), players will experience a very LARGE variety of changes to the game. Pet equipment has arrived! The first 6 gear items and 6 subcomponents are now available to create at your crafting stations!

A new decoration concept called “platforms” allows players to place decorations on uneven terrain! Lava Pools are the first line of player-placed traps that actually damage players, which can be utilized for concepts like PvP arenas or lava fishing endeavors!

The Conversationalist and Lua systems have been greatly expanded with new functions! SO many changes, so what are you waiting for? Get in there and play Shroud of the Avatar!

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let’s see what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

News Announcements

• Release 95 Patch Notes!
• Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!
• Halloween Sales Event!
• Crown Store: Fall Elm Trees, Cannibal Stew Cauldron, Haunted Dolls & More!
• November Login Reward: 1-Story Fall Elm Tree 3-Pack!
• Release 95 Subscriber Login Rewards: Witch Doll, Cauldron, 2-Hand Xiphos Sword!
• Bug Brigade & Testing Directives
• Streamer Rewards Program
• Upcoming Release Dates

Community Updates

• Community Events & Resources
• Project to Support: Ghostbusters: The Gates of Gozer
• Project to Support: Shard RPG
• Project to Support: Shadow of Valhalla
• Project to Support: Avatar Express
• Resources: Players Helping Players

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Release 95 Patch Notes!

Below is a list of game changes and new content that are live as of Release 95 (R95). This release is a content, improvement, and bug fixes month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R96 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 95!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

• 12 crafting recipes for pet gear and their subcomponents have been added to the game. Players can now craft gear items for their pets and place them onto the recently-added examine window for pets!
  • Players must first craft the subcomponents which are needed to craft a Collar, Toy, or Accessory. These subcomponents are called Strips and Rolls. Rolls have effects more related to tank type abilities, and Strips have effects more related to DPS type abilities.
  • The first round of Collar, Toy, and Accessory recipes includes 6 options, and each of these pet equipment slots feature a tank-related and DPS-related item. For instance, the first offering for a DPS accessory is called the Leather Harness of Speed, and the first offering of a tanking accessory is called the Chain Harness of Resistance. DPS-related items allow room for 3 Strips and 1 Roll in the recipe, allowing players to stack more DPS-related subcomponents into the mix, and tank-related items allow room for 3 Rolls and 1 Strip in the recipe, allowing players to stack more tank-related subcomponents.
  • These recipes drop as loot throughout New Britannia, and for those wanting to charge right in and find these items, here are the drop locations:
    • Gem Studded Roll of Leather: Skeletons in Graff Gem Mines.
    • Gold Studded Roll of Leather: Ebon Dawn in South Drachvald Spur.
    • Silver Studded Roll of Leather: Bandits in North Drachvald Spur.
    • Bronze Studded Strip of Leather: Barbarians and the Dragon in Ulfheim.
    • Copper Studded Strip of Leather: Satyr and Fauns in Spectral Peaks.
    • Iron Studded Strip of Leather: Liches and Skeletons in Despair.
    • Leather Harness of Speed: Elves in Shaminian Hills.
    • Chain Harness of Resistance: Invaders and Chests in Lord British’s Castle.
    • Leather Collar of Motivation: Barbarians and the Frost Giant in Jotungrund.
    • Leather Collar of Warding: Kobolds in Norgard Fens.
    • Leather Ball of Haste: Bandits and Druid in Outlaw’s Run.
    • Leather Ball of Dodging: Bandits in Longfall Woods.
  • We hope you enjoy this first round of pet gear which is available to all players as of R95. More pet gear items, subcomponents, and even Ephemeral Relics are coming to the pet gear system, so stay tuned!
• Platforms! A new decoration type called platforms becomes available for R95 which provides the decorators in New Britannia the ability to enhance the uneven terrain areas of their Player-Owned Towns! Here are some key features of this new decoration type which will greatly expand how and where governors and stewards can decorate their towns:
  • These special decoration items feature special collision which allows them to be placed on uneven surfaces, then players can place other decorations on top of these platforms.
  • They work great as bases for statues, lights, or any decoration which allows itself to be placed on another decoration as a child object.
  • The first round of these items are only available from the in-game Crown Store and and become available on November 12th, but crafted versions will be coming shortly in a more limited fashion.
  • These platforms currently do not allow for any wall decorations to be placed upon them, but taller versions such as the Stone Platform versions will soon feature a small decoration surface for this concept along the top edge of one side primarily for hanging objects like banners or wall lights.
  • Players can expect many decoration changes in the future related to this concept which includes the following:
    • Items such as castle walls and fences will receive updates to allow for better placement on uneven terrain.
    • Items such as statues will also receive updates for uneven terrain placement, but most will also receive settings allowing for placement on other objects which accept child objects (if not already possible.)
    • Foundation Property Markers inbound! Utilizing concepts similar to the new platform decorations, special property markers are being designed which allows players to slightly elevate their property onto a foundation, and these foundation property markers can be placed onto uneven surfaces.
    • Floating Island Property Markers inbound! Although the image provided features a test of concept utilizing a simple giant block, soon players will gain the ability to place special property markers in their Player-Owned Towns which allow for a property to be placed on a floating island similar to the one in Rhun Ruins. Although these islands will be stationary, they will feature signpost technology allowing governors and stewards to provide their guests and residents easy access to each and every floating island within their borders. Initially, these special property markers will only be offered in Row, Village, and Town sizes, but perhaps City, Keep and Castle sizes will join the system at some point in the future. The property stone beneath the floating island which interacts with the island will also be placeable on uneven terrain.
• Lava Pools! During R95, players will gain the ability to place traps that actually damage other players! The first line of these “traps” are actually raised pools of lava which allow for other decorations to be placed inside of them, and they become available in the Crown Store on November 5th. These decorations are fantastic for player-decorated PvP arenas and any lava fishing endeavors. Many more trap types will be coming in the future, many of which will be crafted, so be on the look out!
• Spider Essences now drop as loot so players can discover Spider Totem recipes during crafting to enhance their Stone Dungeon Room (Spider Encounter) with spiders! Spider Essences dropping as loot will become available with a patch very shortly after release.
• Conversationalists now feature improved functionality when the owner is not present, and they also can play many emotes and even save custom variables! Just utilize this syntax in your script to make your Conversationalist perform these new options:
  • Emotes:
    • First place this in the beginning of your Ink script:
      • EXTERNAL playEmote(emoteName)
      • EXTERNAL saveVariable(varName)
      • EXTERNAL loadVariable(varName)
    • Then place this example as code in any line you wish an emote to play:
      • ~ playEmote(“Aeroplane”)
  • Custom User Defined Variables:
    • First define your variables in the beginning of your Ink script:
      • VAR numberOfTimesWeTalked = 0
    • Then place this example as code in any line you wish to increment the count:
      • ~ numberOfTimesWeTalked = numberOfTimesWeTalked +1
    • Through use of custom variables, players can now ensure one Conversationalist will know if a player has spoken to ANOTHER Conversationalist.
  • Other new variables:
    • adventurerLevel
    • producerLevel
    • playTimeNumber (minutes)
    • playTimeString (days, hours, minutes)
    • PVPFlagged (1/0)
    • NBDayOfWeek
    • NBMonth
    • NBSeason
    • NBPeriodOfDay
    • NBPhaseOfMoon
    • NBWeatherName
    • NBWindType
    • VirtueTruth (Returns -1 for < -50, 0 for -50 to 50, and 1 for > 50)
    • VirtueLove (Returns -1 for < -50, 0 for -50 to 50, and 1 for > 50)
    • VirtueCourage (Returns -1 for < -50, 0 for -50 to 50, and 1 for > 50)
• Pressing the hotkey to display the “unwatered” indicator for planting beds now causes the effect to last 60 seconds instead of requiring the player to hold down the hotkey for a long duration.
• Animation lengths for sowing seeds, watering plants, and harvesting plants have been reduced so that players utilizing Elven Brandy no longer experience animations delaying their next agriculture skill attempt. Also lock times and cool downs have been reduced to provide a smoother transition from one agriculture skill attempt to another.
• The “Leather from Scraps” recipe now requires 12 Leather Scrap instead of 6, but also produces 2 Leather instead of 1.
• Fertilizer options no longer display in the agriculture sow seeds crafting interface.
• The Rise: Shaft player-made dungeon room now features spawns! Dungeoneers can apply either a Troll or Elf totem to activate the mixed spawns for this room. Also, the white rectangle is no longer visible in either version of the room. This room now also features improved collision and decoration surfaces, as well as improvements to the invisible walkway.
• The Imbued Jewel of the Ringmaster now provides 8 additional Tame Level instead of 6.
• 2 varieties of buckets can now be salvaged at a carpentry table.
• All varieties of Acaran gear are now viable pattern remover targets.
• These items no longer allow players to apply a dye since they do not feature dye layers:
  • Wealthy Merchant Boots
  • Fancy Merchant Gloves
  • Fancy Merchant Boots
  • Ancient Xenossian Greaves
  • Angled Tabard Gambeson Hood
  • Split Tabard Gambeson Boots
  • Split Tabard Gambeson Gloves
  • Split Tabard Gambeson Hood
• The variety of fireplace and chimney recipes that were broken for many players should now be fully functional.
• The Ancient Staff of Death is now invisible during stealth.
• The effects of the Frogkin Ring and Transformation potions on female avatars now look much more like the male versions of these effects.
• Glass objects in the Gothic Display Case now render correctly.
• Female hairstyles no longer poke through the front of Tiki Demon Mask, and hair now fully displays for both males and females when wearing the mask.
• All variations of the 4 artifact fishing rings now feature improved tooltips to indicate salvage and upgrade information, if applicable.
• The Obsidian Order Plate Helm can now be hidden on male and female avatars.
• The Ornate Scarecrow 2016 no longer indicates the year in the display name.
• Deed, City (PA, Tax Free, Water) can now be upgraded to Deed, Keep (PA, Tax Free, Water), which can in turn be upgraded to Deed, Castle (PA, Tax Free, Water).
• The Obsidian Streetlamp can now be placed on other decorations which accept child objects such as blocks and walls.
• The legacy version of the Epic Pax Ring now provides the appropriate jewels upon salvage. Any players who salvaged these items before the fix have already been sent any missing items via in-game mail.
• The legacy versions of the Epic Warlock’s Chain, Ancient Staff of Death, Ancient Staff of Anarchy, and Troll Belt now provide the appropriate chances to receive components used to craft these items upon salvage. Any players who salvaged these items before the fix have already been sent any missing items via in-game mail.
• The Warlock’s Chain recipe now only requires a Common Heart of Vrul.

Combat & Skill Changes:

• Lightning Storm: A new spell has been added to the Air Magic tree which summons a “volatile cloud of highly charged air which rains down lightning bolts on those caught within” the effective radius. Those so unlucky to be caught within this blast area are very likely to be stunned for a short period. This skill will be available on the trainer after the first patch this release.
• Chaotic Shield has been redesigned. This Chaos Magic spell now creates a field of chaotic energy boosting Confusion Resistance, Chaos Bolt Damage, Torpid Torment’s focus damage rate and range, Tabula Rasa’s range and the chaos mage’s Chaotic Feedback skill. Chaos Specialization increases the duration and power of these effects. This spell is considered a shield spell, and only a single shield spell can be active at any given time.
  • The Tabula Rasa skill has received additional benefits if Chaotic Shield is active, giving it new abilities that are effective versus players and NPC targets. As before, the spell’s abilities cause enemy player targets to instantly discard all glyphs which are then replaced with new glyphs from their deck, and Chaos Specialization adds a chance to apply a draw speed debuff to enemy player targets. Now, Chaos Specialization also adds a damage-over-time and knockdown effect which affects both enemy player and NPC targets, but ONLY if Chaotic Shield is your active shield spell.
• Elysium Illumination has been redesigned. This Sun Magic spell now provides a Sun Attunement buff and also features improved healing pulses, damage pulses, and duration. All 3 of these values scale slightly with skill level and attunement, but also significantly increase if specialized. The damage pulses affect all enemy targets, with additional damage applied to undead. Elysium Illumination is now considered a shield spell, and only a single shield spell can be active at any given time.
  • Searing Ray now has a 15% chance to apply a small Blind effect on your opponent for 10 seconds if specialized in Sun Magic and Elysian Illumination is your currently active shield spell.
• Verbiage about shield spell restrictions have been added to all shield spell tooltip descriptions.
• Design and implementation of new or improved damage effects are underway! Already, players utilizing bludgeon weapons will see improved effects vs. skeletons, with more changes in the pipeline for all creatures to have different resistances and vulnerabilities to bludgeon, piercing, and slashing damage types.
• Damage math for magic has been adjusted. Throughout the life of the game, player intelligence has increased far more than skill level. With this change, Intelligence will contribute less to magic damage and skill levels will contribute more to magic damage. Overall, almost all players will see a net increase in magic damage.
• Ring of Fire, an AOE spell in the Fire Magic tree, has been updated. The base tick timer has been increased from 2.00 to 2.25 seconds. The base damage range for each tick has changed from 2-5 to 1-5. This change provides roughly a 20% reduction in the spell’s DPS, but no change was made to the possible max damage per tick.
• Tamed wyverns should now be more responsive, attack faster, and also have poison that scales in power.
• Functionality for aggro abilities have been improved.
• Cone of Cold is now a 4X EXP skill. A player’s level in this skill could be reduced as a result of this change, but the total EXP the player applied to the skill was not changed.
• NPC spell casters in Superstition Canyon now feature increased damage and improved heal other abilities.
• Ice Fist no longer indicates that it has an effective radius in the spell’s description, and the description has been improved to indicate all possible effects.
• Multiple applications of Earth Attunement no longer apply to a character upon each cast of Splintering Strike. This Earth Attunement bonus no longer stacks, but Earth Specialization instead increases the effect’s amount. The skill’s description has been updated to reflect the changes.
• The tooltip description for Earth’s Embrace no longer indicates a movement speed penalty exists, and a new duration bonus for Earth specialized casters has been added to the spell’s effects and description.
• The loading tip related to maintained skills no longer indicates decay verbiage.
• When setting a specialization skill to maintain, the skill’s tooltip no longer indicates decay verbiage in the description and now mentions that only a single specialization skill be be set to train at a time.
• The tooltip for Anthem of Alacrity now better indicates the durations, and charging the skill now properly applies charged effects.
• Corpion poison attacks are now labeled as Corpion Spit or Corpion Sting in their tooltip descriptions. Spits no longer remove focus but instead cause a very small Focus Damage Rate debuff of 0.1. Also, the spit poison lasts 10s instead of 20s and only allows 1 stack instead of 3. These poisons can still be purified, and these changes do not affect tamed pet attacks.
• Players will now be able to move quickly after being attacked while fishing.

Player Economy, Rewards, & Loot Changes:

• All loot drop iterations of the Uncommon magical attunement rings now drop as a Common at an increased rate. At this point, all attunement ring drops should now be of the Common tier.
• Player Vendors placed in dungeons and basements will now populate the “Vendor Listings in Zone” window with all vendors currently placed within the dungeon or basement.
• Troll Heads and Lich Skulls now drop more regularly as loot.
• Attenuation limits have been increased from 12 million EXP to 15 million EXP.
• Subscribers to the Reward Program now receive greatly improved results from Obsidian Potions effects!

User Interface, Lua, & Performance Changes:

• Subscribers to the Reward Program now receive 24 extra deck slots, doubling the amount available.
• Hotkey assignments are now available for the previously available decks 13-24, but also for the newly created subscriber decks 25-48.
• Lua functionality has been greatly improved. UI elements function more quickly than before, and MANY new commands, functions, and hooks are now available and listed in this forum thread maintained by DevilCult.
• South Broken Road now features an in-game map.
• Both versions of Highvale now feature in-game maps.
• Going AFK no longer causes your Avatar to sit.
• Pet follow settings will now be remembered between sessions and scene loads.
• The Pet examine window now indicates Aggro Power instead of Taunt Power, which now calculates the base pet Aggro Power of the pet, gear items, and buffs.
• Evictions times have been increased to 60 days to allow players more time to catch up on unpaid rent for their taxed properties. Work is already underway to develop “Non-Destructive Evictions” by programmer extraordinaire Wizardsmoke. This new feature will place decorated property into the Property Manager (Magic Movers) interface rather than disassembling it and dumping individual items into a player’s bank. This feature will become available soon, so stay tuned!

World, Quests, and Miscellaneous Changes:

• Castle Atos: A new location is coming soon to Novia named Castle Atos! The bustling castle grounds will be a welcoming place for new and veteran players to gather. Special events will be held in and around the castle plaza! Avatars will find quests here as they learn about the castle residents, including the rivalry between royal chefs and a certain game the children play. Other features include crafting stations, merchants of all kinds, trainers, a public vendor, a Mage of Mystery, an Altruist monk, unique adventuring and crafting buffs, and much more! Future features include the entrances to new, unique dungeons of widely ranging difficulty. Come relax in the tavern, or perform for others on the tavern stage! Work on your weapon skills at the training grounds! Host your own wedding reception in the Great Hall! Meet and visit with other adventurers around town!
• New Scarecrow Enemy: On the edge of the South Quel Woods is a abandoned farm with buildings of rotting wood, overgrown fields, and decaying scarecrows. They say the farm is cursed, and that its fields are haunted by a frightful spirit possessing the form of one of the scarecrows. Many have have gone to the fields and tried burning the scarecrows, only to learn that this is exactly what draws out the fiendish tatterdemalion. Be warned: None of those foolish enough to summon this monstrosity have ever returned! (Will patch in shortly after release).
• Aether Creatures: Aether creatures will no longer spawn in the world.
• Desolate Hills, West Vauban Foothills: Fixed a staircase that was missing visible stairs.
• Jack of Diamonds: Rain should no longer come through the decks of the airship.
• Jotungrund: The Frost Giant no longer has skewed visuals when dead.
• Jotungrund: Elementals near the signal towers will now be tier 5 most often, but with a roughly 1 in 12 chance that one tier 14 elemental will spawn, instead.
• Jotungrund: Updated the compass markers for the signal fire quest to have markers appear more often at the signal towers.
• Jotungrund: Updated the ground hazard in the frost giant fight to help allow avatars to cast ground-targeting abilities.
• Jotungrund: Wymond can offer a quest to get a bone chip.
• Obsidian Panopticon: Added occasional creaks to the heavy chains holding up the prison cell rings.
• Owl’s Head: Removed a “Myra” keyword from Todd’s responses.
• Penmawr Island: A puzzle-related treasure chest will now always have some “treasure” when it restocks.
• Plains Encounter: Adjusted some of the terrain to better hint at the edge of the playspace.
• Skrekk: Updated the kobold hacker’s responses to be more clear about how he modifies virtue data.
• Solace Bridge Outskirts: Fixed an issue where Bancroft thought he already met an avatar he was actually meeting for the first time.
• Soltown: Removed a redundant listing for POT Sirens Cove from the Player-Owned Town teleporter wagon.
• South Majestic Forest: Fixed typos in CBY-60053’s conversation.
• Spectral Mines: Fixed an issue where ore nodes weren’t appearing in the scene.
• Spite: Fixed typos in Snag Baldrake’s conversation.
• Spite: Removed a “line of sight” restriction on Xia to help keep conversation errors from happening.
• Spite: Updated conversation references for “Lake Tempest” to “Stormwater Lake.”
• Tenebris Harbor: Each time Dekker’s treasure chest restocks, it should have at least one item. Also, all overturned chairs should be nonfunctional.
• The Outlaws’ Run: Improved Milosh and Lucien to help keep them from cutting off their respective conversations in some cases.
• The Outlaws’ Run: Updated the responses which the guards use to task avatars with finding Miloslava.
• The Sirens Foothills: Fixed a staircase that was missing visible stairs.
• The Rise: Reinforcements have arrived! More elven melee and skeleton enemies have been added and several elven archers have been removed.
• Troll’s Bridge and Random Encounters: In the overworld preview listings, fixed an issue with merchants being listed as within these scenes when they likely weren’t in them. Also, fixed an issue where the sculptor merchants in Desert Encounters weren’t selling anything.
• Verdantis Mines: Fixed several stuck spots. Split a certain spawner set to help ensure the associated NPCs spawn with a better distribution.
• The tree curtain visuals on the edge of scenes are no longer quite so dark.
• Mounted players are no longer dismounted when switching scenes.
• The Upward Acceleration Potion 3-Pack store entry no longer displays the scene change disclaimer 2 times.
• The Icy Cave Stone Hallway Set on the Crown Store now features transition pieces to ancient stone.
• The Snow Paver set is now available year round in the Crown Store.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

• Ironhall: Upgraded to Teralopolis.
• Ironhall Highlands: Removed POT.
• PaxLocus: Upgraded to Town.

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