Update of the Avatar #101 – 2014.11.26: Steam Early Access Launch, R12 How-To Video, New R13 Scenes, Cyber Monday Telethon, Final Days of Recruitment Bonus, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

This week’s update is a couple days early due to the American Thanksgiving holiday. To all who celebrate it, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• SotA Successfully Launches on Steam Early Access
• The Mad Hermit’s Video Guide to Release 12
• New Release 13 Scene: Graff Gem Mines
• SotA Community is Rockin’ It!
• Cyber Monday 12 Hour Telethon
• In-game Community Weekend Events
• R12 Steam Access Keys Available for All Backers
• 6 Days Left to Get Your Black Friday 15% Bonus
• Holiday Specials
• Last Chance Exclusives: The Carpentry Hammer and Rustic Village Home
• Recruitment Bonus and Alienware Pledge Upgrade Promotions End
• Upcoming Events

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SotA Successfully Launches on Steam Early Access

What an exciting week it’s been, starting with the Release 12 Weekend and immediately followed by the successful launch of SotA on Steam Early Access! We’ve had a great response on Steam, currently rated as “Very Positive” across 52 player reviews! During the first 24 hours we even climbed as high as #11 on the Steam Top Sellers chart (for all Steam products).

Thanks to all our veteran community members that have put in extra effort to warmly greet the flood of new Steam players, providing a welcome atmosphere and guidance when needed!

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The Mad Hermit’s Video Guide to Release 12

Community member The Mad Hermit has crafted another excellent How-To Video, this one walking you through the various game mechanics to get you up to speed as quickly as possible in Shroud of the Avatar Release 12. It covers basic character controls, how to access various menus and interfaces, combat, experience, skill points, training, health and focus, deck building, crafting, harvesting, item repair, shopping, housing, Overworld travel, Lunar Rifts and death.

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The R12 Grand Tour Quest

Just as in our last few releases, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. And just in time for Thanksgiving, you will be able to get the Pilgrim’s Hat by completing the Release 12 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 12 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in to R12 and talk to all the Tour Guides!

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Player Posted R12 Screenshots

If you haven’t seen the community posted screenshots from Release 12 we encourage you to check them out! There is a  Release 12 Screenshot Gallery in the SotA forums, as well as the screenshots posted in the SotA Steam Community Hub. Here are a few sample player posted images:

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New Release 13 Scene: Graff Gem Mines

The Graff Gem Mines can be found in the farthest Northeast corner of Novia. Graff himself founded these rich mines long ago, and they have proven to be the most productive mines of the largest and most valuable gems ever known. Recently however, the difficulties with undead in the region have, hopefully, lead to their temporary abandonment. Rumors of Kobolds moving in to claim the mine’s wealth have recently been heard. Here are a few new images of the Graff Gem Mine entrances:

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SotA Community is Rockin’ It!

We would again love to celebrate the quality and diversity of music being created by the wonderful composers within our community. I believe we are ending up with one of the strongest soundtracks ever created for a game world. Today we offer you 3 more fine examples from 3 separate composers, and would also love to showcase the intro musical piece crafted for us by the beloved “Space Bards”, who recently produced their first album as “Recap” and played their first public full concert at the HoBLotH II:

Trade and Commerce, by Sir Wombat: https://soundcloud.com/sirwombat/trade-and-commerce-1
Sir Wombat has composed an amazing piece which will be found throughout the land in growing communities as they aspire to grow from small villages to industrious towns.

Trekking in the Tall Grass, by Kailef: https://soundcloud.com/kailef/tiptoe-version-4
Kailef provided “Trekking in the Tall Grass” to inspire explorers as they traverse the wide open plains of Novia.

Valor and Cowardice, by Peter Boiko: https://soundcloud.com/peter-boiko/valor-cowardice-final-updated-strings-1
Peter Boiko masterfully pulled off one of the more difficult requests, to begin to show the juxtaposition between the virtues and their forsaken opposites with “Valor and Cowardice.”

Dark Planet, by The Space Bards: https://soundcloud.com/spacebards/dark-planet
Finally, here is the complete instrumental created by the Space Bards for the opening cinematic for Shroud of the Avatar.

– Lord British

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Cyber Monday 12 Hour Telethon

Please join us Monday, December 1st at 10:00 AM CST (16:00 GMT) for our Cyber Monday 12 Hour Telethon celebrating our Steam Early Access launch and raising over $5 Million from our amazing backers! Richard, Starr, Chris, and the rest of our team, as well as various community members will be live on air throughout the day, hanging out and answering questions. As usual, I’ll be taking your questions and feedback live in the chat-room and also in advance,  (please post your Telethon comments/questions on the original post).

Schedule (tentative): All times and content are subject to change

• 10:00: Welcome, R12 Post Mortem & R13 Preview
• 11:00: Meet the Devs & Office Tour
• 12:00: Community Spot: Music
• 13:00: Deep Dive: Story & Single Player
• 14:00: Deep Dive: Crafting & Economy
• 15:00: Community Spot: In Game Events
• 16:00: Deep Dive: Player Owned Towns Templates
• 17:00: Deep Dive: Combat, PVP, & Death
• 18:00: Dev Team Table Top Gaming Session
• 19:00: Community Spot: Awarding of Orders of New Britannian Empire and Royal Warrants
• 21:00: Community Spot: Hearth of Britannia

Hourly Prizes: If you are registered on our website (no purchase required) you will be eligible to receive one of the many prizes we will be giving away every hour including: 

• Plantronics Headsets / Earbuds (1 per hour, 12 total)
• $100 Store Credits (1 per hour, 12 total)
• Release 13 (December 18) Opening Weekend Access Keys (10 per hour, 120 total)
• Alienware Desktop Grandprize for the the final hour

I’ll have the link to the broadcast posted Monday shortly before we’re set to go live, and a new link every 4 hours when we change the broadcast feed..  See you then!

– Lady Firelotus

[Click here to post your questions/comments for the Telethon]

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Release 12 In-game Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for Release 12 this weekend. If you missed out on these player events during the previous Releases, we highly recommend you check some of them out this weekend. Here is the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar (http://avatarscircle.com/community-events/):

Thursday, November 27
2:00am CST – Explore Novia with royalsexy (Braemer cemetery)

Friday, November 28
10:00pm CST – Dungeon Run – Braemar Cemetery
7:00pm CST – Dungeon Run – Braemar Cemetery

Saturday, November 29
9:00am CST – PaxLair Working Hours – Host Winfield (in Valemark)
1:00pm CST – Church of the Dark Star – Power of Chaos – The Hunger of Coveting (PaxLair, Valemark)
4:00 pm CST – Riya’s Birthday Bash (/zone Net , /zone Riya or /zone Amber Raine to attend!)
6:00 pm CST – PvP Tournament – 2×2 Double Elimination (at the Brave Coast or “/zone Duke Violation”; signup at http://challonge.com/OoVr12t3)

Sunday, November 30
5:30am CST – Explore Novia with royalsexy (Braemer cemetery)
12:00am CST – Bear Tavern Brawl R12
3:00pm CST – Guild Meet and Greet (at Castle Lot in Owl’s Head; open to all; sponsored by The Order of Drunken Elders)
6:00pm CST – Community Tag (Kingsport, details)
7:00pm CST – PaxLair Meeting – (in Valemark or /zone Winfield PaxLair)

You will also find the “Release 12 Events” book in your in-game inventory, providing a list of the community events provided by the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar. Here are some sample in-game images from the Events book:

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Steam Access Keys Available for All SotA Backers

SotA successfully launched on Steam Early Access on November 24, and we’ve made Steam Access Keys available to all our backers as part of their basic pledge rewards! Once you’ve redeemed your Steam Access Key you’ll have the option of playing SotA either with the Steam client or the regular game client (or both).

Click here for instructions to redeem your Steam access key and installing the Steam SotA client…

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Recruitment Bonus and Alienware Pledge Upgrade Promotions End

The Recruitment Bonus program that we started in August 2013 will be coming to an end after this Black Friday Weekend (12:00 am CST December 2, 2014). If you know anyone that’s been sitting on the fence about pledging their support to Shroud of the Avatar you have 6 more days to convince them to pledge and specify you as their referral so you can get your $25 Friend Referral pledge upgrade bonus. The recruitment bonus only applies to pledges purchased on the SotA website and does not apply to Steam purchases (click here for more details).

We’d like to extend a special thanks and deep appreciation to Alienware for the 9 months they sponsored their $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade coupon! We had planned to announce that the program would conclude at the end of Black Friday Weekend, but compliance with Steam policies regarding pricing mandated we act sooner, so we removed the promotion yesterday, November 25th.

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar and we still have plenty of Alienware promotions in the works, including giving away an Alienware desktop during our Cyber Monday Telethon, December 1! Alienware will also be sponsoring 1000 Free R13 Weekend Access passes so stay tuned for details in an upcoming update.

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Only 6 Days left to get your 15% Black Friday Bonus!

If you were thinking of pledging your support to the development of Shroud of the Avatar, upgrading your existing pledge, or purchasing an add-on item, player owned town, or stretch goal item, now’s a great time to do it! From now thru Black Friday Weekend we’ll add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and stretch goal items) between 12:00 am CST October 10, 2014 and 12:00 am CST December 2, 2014, we will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward any additional purchase (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, and player owned towns).

[NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CST and added to your Store Credit account; Store Credit cannot be applied toward stretch goal items]

For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge which includes Episodes 2 and 3 as pledge rewards, 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 back 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 Royal Artisan pledge.

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Holiday Specials

Yep, it’s that time of the year again. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve brought back all of your holiday favorites. You can get all 7 of the 2014 holiday items at an even greater savings with the 2014 Holiday Bundle! Includes Taming Turkey Call, Taming Reindeer Call, Cornucopia, Yule Tree, Menorah, Replenishing Fireworks Box, and the Replenishing Snowball Box. Available for a limited time in the Add-On Store.

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Last Chance Exclusives

Every week going forward we are removing select items from the Add-On Store, so if you want them you better get them before they are gone! Over the past few weeks we’ve phased out the Scissors of Prosperity, Cubit Measure of Prosperity, Cooking Pot of Prosperity, Blade of the Avatar Cloak, Combat Sigil Cloak, Crafting Sigil Cloak, Magic Sigil Cloak, Shingle-Roof Village Homes, Rustic 2-Story Village Home, Rustic 2-Story with Balcony Village Home, and the Wood & Plaster 2-Story with Balcony Town Home. This week, the following items are available for an additional 20% off, and then will no longer be available in the Add-On Store.

Rustic 2-Story with Loft Village Home

In our line of rustic homes is  this quaint, 2-story, 3-room, 1-closet, village home  (you may have seen this house in Braemar).

The Carpentry Hammer of Prosperity

This unique, indestructible, carpentry hammer increases the ability to make higher quality items, enhance existing items and repair damaged items. While hammers with similar effects can be crafted and purchased in the game this particular hammer never needs repair.

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Upcoming Events

2014.11.24 – SotA launches on Steam Early Access
2014.11.27 – SotA at Dreamhack (Sweden)
2014.12.01 – Cyber Monday, $5M & Steam Early Access All Day Telethon
2014.12.18 – Release 13 Access
2015.01.22 – Release 14 Access
2015.02.19 – Release 15 Access
2015.03.13 – SotA at SXSW Interactive
2015.03.26 – Release 16 Access