Update of the Avatar #148 – 2015.10.23: Hello One Far West, BMC Convention, NBNN at Portalarium, Sprichst Du Deutsch?, Pianist Bernie Katzman & Markee Dragon, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Hello One Far West
  • Britannian Mining Company Convention
  • NBNN at Portalarium
  • Water Gets an Experimental Makeover in Release 23
  • Sprichst Du Deutsch? Ou peut-être français?
  • Small and Subtle: Tier Markers
  • Starr Long Intel Buzz Presentation: Design Vision vs. Feedback: Developing in the Open
  • Pianist Bernie Katzman Joins Markee Dragon Playing Shroud of the Avatar LIVE
  • Halloween Party with Costume and Music Contests!
  • 17 Day Countdown for Fall Reward & Sale Expirations
  • Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus
  • In-game Community Weekend Events
  • Upcoming Events
  • Recommended Games to Back


Hello One Far West

Last week we bid farewell to the Greystone One office building, where we’ve been officing since the completion of our Kickstarter campaign in 2013. As we mentioned before, we moved ourselves in order to conserve our backer funding. Fortunately for us, the BMC was holding their first annual Convention here in Austin on that very same weekend, with BMC guild members coming in from all points of the country.

True to the spirit of a backer funded project, Duke Ezekiel (BMC founder and leader) and the attending BMC members volunteered their services to help us move! But they weren’t the only ones! Backers from all over Texas (and beyond) arrived by the car load to help the Shroud of the Avatar team with the move.

We had planned on the move taking all day Saturday, and had worked out a 3-shift schedule starting at 9am. It didn’t quite work out as planned. Unlike most product development schedules, this endeavor came in way ahead of schedule! With so many volunteers helping us, everything was moved to the new office in about 3 hours! Wow!

There were well over 30 people that participated in the move throughout the day, with representatives from several SotA guilds, including the BMC, PaxLair, Phoenix Republic, Clan of the Wolf, and the Order of Drunken Elders. Here are a few photos that show many (but not all) of the volunteer movers:

SotA_Hello_OneFarWest_office

 

Portalarium_Move_2015_1

Themo Lock and Winfield designed and printed a special “The Big Move” poster, all signed by Lord British and Darkstarr, that were given out to each of the volunteer backers that participated!

BigMovePoster_Oct2015

TheBigMove


Words are inadequate to express the depth of our appreciation to all of you that were able to visit us this weekend and help with our Big Move! It was a deeply “moving” experience for all of us, literally and emotionally! From all of us on the SotA Dev Team, a most heartfelt “Thank You!”


Britannian Mining Company Convention

As mentioned previously, the Britannian Mining Company was in Austin for their first annual convention this past weekend. Richard Garriott and Starr Long attended the BMC event and used the opportunity to personally present the BMC with their Royal Warrant, as well as an Order of the New Britannia Empire (ONBE) Award to Duke Ezekiel, the founder and leader of the BMC. Lazarus of the NBNN was also awarded an ONBE. Lazarus was streaming the event and provided this excerpt video:


NBNN at Portalarium

Thanks to Lazarus of the NBNN for also providing this excerpted video of other events during the weekend in Austin, including the initial tour of Portalarium Studios, lunch with the visiting community members, the play “Much Ado About Nothing” by The Baron’s Men, and capping the night off with a romp through the Scare For A Cure haunted house!


Water Gets an Experimental Makeover in Release 23

SotA’s water system is getting an experimental makeover in Release 23 with the Ceto Ocean System for Unity. The new water will appear in a couple of island scenes, including Hometown, as an experiment until we can work out the kinks. Here are some of the features described in the Unity Asset Store:

Ceto brings advanced ocean effects to your game. From first person games where the ocean is just a back drop to fully interactive shipping simulations where the ocean is the focus of the application.

  • Uses a projected grid as the mesh to provide you with a infinite ocean plane while still retaining enough detail in the mesh for small scale waves.
  • Fast querying wave information (like wave height) at any location.
  • Wave generation is decoupled from the rendering. So If you need a server to just generate the wave data for buoyancy calculations and not render anything you can.
  • Wave generation using FFT. Option to run the FFT on the CPU using multi-threading or on the GPU. Allows the best performance options for your game needs.
  • Ability to easily modify wave conditions in local areas using the overlay system. Mask out the waves near your shore lines, add foam trails to ships or clip away the ocean mesh for inland caves.
  • Ability to change waves conditions quickly. Go from calm to rough seas in a instant.

Here is a short video snippet created by Chris Spears of how the water will appear in Release 23:

Chris has been experimenting with the features of the Ceto Ocean System and created this video of choppy water during stormy weather, which might be implemented in a future SotA Release:


Sprichst Du Deutsch? Ou peut-être français?

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Joaquin “wizardsmoke” Del Canto]

JoaquinHello everyone,

You might have noticed that Jason and I have been working on localization recently. For those of you who may not know, localization involves translating all of the text that exists in the game from English to various other languages. There is A LOT of text that needs to be translated, and that text is stored in various different formats and contexts throughout the project. The text is also constantly changing during the course of day-to-day development. Needless to say, localization of SotA has been a significant undertaking. In this post, I will share some of the specifics about the localization process that we have been developing.

GetLocalization

Translations will be crowd-sourced via a web service called GetLocalization. Sometime in the next few weeks, we plan on organizing volunteer translators from the SotA community and giving them access to the GetLocalization project. There, translators will be able to compose and collaborate on translations for individual pieces of text in the game.

In order to use a service like GetLocalization, we need a way to deliver all of our English text to that service, as well as a way to bring translated text from that service back into the game. Our goal has been to develop and automate this pipeline.

Exporting English Text

The first step in developing this pipeline was identifying all of the places where English text is stored in the project. We came up with a list of several main categories/places where text is stored:

  • C# Scripts – Hard-coded strings throughout our C# code.
  • Serialized Assets – This includes text stored in assets that are serialized by Unity, including Scenes, Prefabs, and ScriptableObjects.
  • Books – Each book has an English text file associated with it.
  • Help – Similar to books, help/hint windows each have an associated English text file.
  • NPC Conversations – All of the things that NPCs can say.
  • Skills – Names, descriptions, and related pieces of text for each skill. These are defined in a spreadsheet.
  • Titles – Similar to skills, each title (Lord of the Manor, etc.) is defined in a spreadsheet.

With this list in hand, the next step was to develop automated processes for each category in the list that would aggregate the text for that category into a single file. We call these processes “generators”, since they generate a file. We have written generators for several of the categories on the list, such that we now have a small set of files; one file for each category.

These generated files constitute our “source” localization database. In addition to the raw English text, these files store a revision number, a comment, a unique identifier, and some information about where the text came from.

With the source files in place, we were ready to upload text to GetLocalization. For each of our source files, we convert the file to a special format (XLIFF) that GetLocalization can understand before uploading it. After the files are uploaded, GetLocalization can then display the English text and accept translations.

Importing Translated Text

GetLocalization generates one translation file per language per source file. For example, if we were translating to German and Spanish, then for each source file, there would be a German translation file and a Spanish translation file.

After we download these translation files from GetLocalization, we then convert them to the same format that our source database files are stored in. These files constitute our “target” localization database.

From there, the last step was putting the text back into the Unity project. For the most part, this was a simple process of copying data from the target database to parallel files in the Unity project.

Going Forward

Now that we have this pipeline in place, we are almost ready to begin accepting translations. Tomorrow, we will have a meeting to decide how to begin organizing the community, and to determine a rough timeline for launching the GetLocalization project. (Stay tuned during the upcoming weeks for more information about how you can get involved! :))

It has been satisfying to see all of these processes come together, and I expect that it will be even more satisfying to see the whole system in motion when translators become involved. Once we do have active translators, we anticipate receiving feedback about the translation process that we can then use to improve it.

While I did not explain every detail, I hope that this has helped illuminate some of the work that we have been doing, beyond just “Localization” in the daily meeting reports.

-Joaquin / wizardsmoke


Starting with German, our first round of translations will include (with more to come later):SotA_Emote_Edelmann_Dance2a

  • German
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Italian
  • Portuguese

Look for a post soon where we will be looking for volunteers and community leaders for each language.


Small and Subtle: Tier Markers

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

keith_quinn_headshotAs a level designer, I love working on little things that help make a game feel more like a world. Most of my adventure scene work is focused on making things feel natural and doesn’t get a lot of special attention, but I wanted to take some time to show off something small and subtle I’ve been working on. I call them “tier markers.”

Some of you may have noticed a few outdoor scenes now have a spike with skulls next to their exit archways, but maybe you didn’t. No one can blame you, they’re pretty unobtrusive. If you did see them, you may have blown them off thinking they were simply decorations, but you’d be wrong, my friend! Those skulls are the “tier markers” I’m talking about and they indicate the difficulty of nearby enemies; the more skulls on the spike, the more challenging the enemies. Only a few maps have these right now, and not every map will get them, but more and more will get these skulls over time.

Here are some screenshots of a few of them so you can see for yourself what I’m talking about.

SotA_TierMarkers

Next time you enter a outdoor area, check with the spiked skulls to see if you’re ready for the challenges within!

Keith Quinn


Starr Long Intel Buzz Presentation: Design Vision vs. Feedback: Developing in the Open

The annual addition of the Intel Buzz Workshop was held in Austin, Texas for the first time, and Starr Long was one of their featured speakers. The Buzz Workshop provides technical sessions, panels, and networking to help game developers tackle their biggest challenges. Starr’s presentation was titled “Design Vision vs. Feedback: Developing in the Open.” Intel broadcast the presentations on twitch.tv. Here is Starr’s segment:

StarrLong_Intel_Buzz_Workshop_presentation


Starr at SXSW Interactive: Co-Development: Open and Agile Game Development

SXSW_Interactive_2016_logoStarr’s speaking circuit is already filling in for next year as he was approved for a presentation at SXSW Interactive in March 2016. His talk is entitled “Co-Development: Open and Agile Game Development”, which contains some elements of his Intel Buzz presentation, but elaborates in other areas:

Traditional game development consists of the developer working behind closed doors on their vision. Periodically, and in very controlled circumstances, the customers can see the work in progress but that is mostly elaborate trailers, often not even showing actual game play. Most importantly the customers cannot give feedback while the game is still being developed.

Co-development by being Open and Agile completely changes that paradigm. Customers see the game at all stages and begin playing it as soon as it is possible, providing feedback that can change the game for the better. This method requires full transparency and a very regular cadence of content delivery.


A Moment in SXSW History

It’s good to see that Portalarian/Originites are still bookending SXSW Interactive as speakers/presenters. Starr is covering the 2016 bookend while Richard Garriott and Dallas Snell covered the beginning bookend as speakers at the inaugural, 1994 SXSW Film & Interactive:



Pianist Bernie Katzman Joins Markee Dragon Playing Shroud of the Avatar LIVE

markeeandbernie-1050x656[1]

[From a Release 22 Events Forum Post]

Professional Pianist, Singer and Composer Bernie Katzman aka Piano Improman will play the music live for Markee Dragon for a special show of Shroud of the Avatar. Bernie will be playing keyboard while Markee adventures through these new lands. Bernie has played at prestigious locations such as the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Now for the first time he’ll be playing for a video game.

When: Saturday October 24th 2pm Eastern, 11am Pacific, 18:00 UTC
Where: Simulcast to the following channels
Markee Dragon’s Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/markeedragon
Piano Improman’s Twitch (Bernie Katzman): http://www.twitch.tv/pianoimproman
Markee Dragon’s YouTube https://gaming.youtube.com/markeedragon

We’ll have about 2 hours of adventuring in game with Bernie improvisationally playing all of the music. Followed by Q and A with both Bernie and Markee.

BernieKatzman_twitch.tv

Bernie’s version of “Stones” with lyrics


Halloween Party with Costume and Music Contests!

[From a Release 22 Events Forum Post by Sascha Biermanns]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of this world,

Lord Blake Blackstone of the Weeping Seven, Lord Jatvardur Elden of the RSFIE and Edelmann Sascha Biermanns would like to invite you to an End of the World R22 Party (Halloween event) at the Graveyard in the town of Vanguard, an Island southeast of Vertas Pass, west of the Blackblade, Arx Draconis and Blackstone Bluff.

The event shall be held on Saturday, the 24th of October 2015, at 3pm Austin Time (9pm GMT – UK, 10pm CEST – Central Europe).

You are invited to our party and we will entertain you with the following competitions:

  • Best Costume
  • Best original music piece from a player (The condition of originality is such that you compose your own piece.)

The prizes for the winners will be:

  • 1st — Grim Reaper Statue ($15)
  • 2nd — Witches Hat ($10)
  • 3rd — $5 store coin

Each of the two competitions are separate and have their own set of prizes.

The Judges of the competions will be:

  • Lady @FireLotus
  • Lady @Sindariya Tyelma
  • Lord @Winfield

In expectation of seeing you all,
Blake Blackstone – Jatvardur Elden – Sascha Biermanns


timeIsRunningOut6

10 Day Countdown for Fall Reward & Sale Expirations

As we approach the last quarter of 2015, and major milestones such as Alpha and Beta are looming ever closer on the horizon, we are announcing the Fall Reward Expiration Event that occurs at Midnight CST, November 2, 2015. This event includes the following reward expirations:

  • Future Episodes 2,3,4 & 5 of Shroud of the Avatar
  • Additional Character Slots 2 & 3
  • Waterfront Homes & Lots (including Cabana, German Cabana, Lighthouse, Houseboat, Galleon, Castle, and Castle with Keeps)

In addition to the pledge reward expirations, the sale will end on November 2nd for the following Add-On Store items and they will revert to their regular prices (as displayed in the item description): Battle BannerTower Village HomeTower Town HomeDruid Town HomeAirship City HomeRow Lot Property DeedsVillage Lot Property Deed (SOLD OUT)Town Lot Property Deeds, and City Lot Property Deeds

[More Fall Reward Expiration details…]


Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus Now!

Last year we extended our Black Friday Promotion to give you 8 weeks to take advantage of our Black Friday 15% Bonus, and we’re doing it again this year! This is especially helpful for backers that intend to pledge or upgrade prior to upcoming Expiration Events! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, stretch goal items, and Make a Difference items) between 12:00 am CST October 2, 2015 and 12:00 am CST December 1, 2015, we will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward additional purchases (which includes pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and player owned town upgrades).

[NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CST for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Any monthly payments paid during the promotion period also receive the 15% bonus; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of stretch goal or Make a Difference items]

You can use the 15% Bonus to save on your next purchase! For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge, 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 Royal Artisan pledge.


In-game Weekend Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Special thanks to community member SpookyJenny (aka Jenny Phoenixfyre in-game) for her help in compiling the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

  • RPOTA Monthly $150 Writing Contest – October is Horror, Mystery & Thriller Month
    • Here ye! Here ye! Biographers, Historians, Diplomats, Journalists, Story Writers, Quest Designers and Videographers! RPOTA is in dire need of your amazing talents! Role-Players of the Avatar is hosting a monthly contest to award those most famous with their quill or camera! (details)
  • Bilbo Baggins Decoration Contest
    • Community member Myrcello is offering $50 Store Credit to the player that comes closest to recreating the interior of Bilbo Baggins house (details)
  • Where in the World is Weinie?
    • Community member Weins201 (forum name) is wandering around and taking pictures of 50 different places, and is offering a $25 Store Credit (plus other gifts) to the player who can identify the most places (deadline for entries is the launch of R23; details)
  • The R22 Unreliable Travel Guide
    • The Unreliable Travel Guide, created at the SotA Writing Round Table, is not an event, but a collection of hilarious short stories published by two drunken layabouts who have nothing better to do than try to derive a dishonest income from newly arrived avatars. (details)
  • Avatars Radio (Daily Programming)
    • Welcome New Britannians to Avatars Radio – Radio of the Avatars. Rocking your socks off from the town of Radio City with the Terrestrial and New Britannian bards together under one roof through the power of the Moon Towers.  Check out their daily program of amazing DJs:  http://avatarsradio.info/schedule.php
  • NBNN Lunch with Laz & Jack (Weekdays, 12pm CST)
    • Join NBNN every weekday for Lunch With Laz & Jack. They will be covering the daily goings on in SOTA. Calendar updates, Relevant issues happening in the days news. Come chat with us about upcoming events and general information. http://nbnn.info
  • Daily War Time PVP Event (Daily, 8pm CST – 9pm CST)
    • Invitation to all guilds, PK hunters, PVP’rs or players interested in PVP training to come to Chaos Crossroads (Located at the crossroads outside of Kingsport on the road to Owl’s Head). PVP Event rules: None! Use whatever spells you want, kill in mobs or solo, group with new allies and defend your territory, lure newbies into the town and wack them! (details)
  • Daily Breakfast Club – 12am CST (London UK); 6am CST (Central US); 3pm CST (Sydney Australia)
    • Breakfast Clubs offer a time when people from around different time zones can gather. (Wody’s Pub, Paxlair)
  • “The Tavern Respite” RP Event (Mondays, 8pm CST)
    • The tavern door opens before you, and the scent of pipe and stew waft outwards with a wall of warmth from the hearth. Join in with the patrons of the Bear Tavern as they share tales of their adventures amid endless mugs of ale, legs of mutton, and merriment unbounded (The Bear Tavern in PaxLair; /zone Elgarion De’Khali; details)!
  • Challenge Dungeon Run (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 7pm CST)
    • This is a self-host event, meet at the Braemar Cemetery and organize into groups to take on the infamous Chillblain’s Compendium of Pain & Suffering!
  • PaxLair Working Hours – Host Sean Silverfoot (Tuesdays, 2pm)
    • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. We will be in New Britannia doing things as a town when many people can work together. Sean Silverfoot hosts this working period. / zone Sean Silverfoot
  • Novian Academy – New Citizen Help Hours (Tuesdays, 6pm CST)
    • /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre of Novian Academy in Soltown as they provide guidance to those new to the world of New Britannia.
  • Phoenix Republic Open Mic Night (Wednesdays, 7pm CST)
    • Join the Phoenix Republic as we explore a weekly series of shared creativity, stories, songs and music. We will have entertainment and dining, dancing and socializing with our friends. Those who wish to share in their creativity can take to the stage and show off their newest creative endeavor!
  • Happy Hour Wednesdays (Wednesdays, 8pm CST)
    • Otherwise known as “Spend Stryker’s Gold” – Stryker will open a bar tab at one of the local Novia taverns for an hour or so for drinks, stories, news, critique of the arts, dancing, and otherwise unplanned mayhem. Zone /Stryker Sparhawk or watch this thread for locations each week!
  • Storytime with royalsexy (Thursdays, 7am CST)
    • Join royalsexy in Radio City for stories and chats. /zone royalsexy or hike aaaaalll the way to Storytime Tavern in Radio City to join. Also live on Avatars Radio http://avatarsradio.info
  • Gladiator Wars (Thursdays, 7pm CST)
    • A call to all fighters PVE and PVP! Would you like to participate in the “Gladiator Wars” PvP Tournaments? Registration starts at 6pm CST. (Finchfield; /zone Pestilence; details)
  • Phoenix Republic PVE Nights (Thursdays & Fridays, 7pm CST)
    • Join the Phoenix Republic as we send our weekly foray into the control points, dungeons and other of the most dangerous locales. Each week we will depart to a different PVE locale to help train our combatants. Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Malakas for more info!
  • Novian Academy – Role Play Courses (Fridays, 4pm CST)
    • Luka Melehan is hosting RP classes and practice sessions. (/zone Luka Melehan)
  • Shardfall Madness (Fridays, 6pm CST)
    • A PvP event. Contact Wind Silvermoon for details.
  • Vengeance Madness (Fridays, 7pm CST)
    • This is an Open PvP event where everyone fights it out in a royal rumble to see who the ultimate death dealer is! (City of Vengeance; /zone Bambino LudoVate)
  • Astronomy Event (Fridays, 8pm CST)
    • Interested in New Britannia Astronomy? Just enjoy gazing at the stars? Join us every week as we explore the night sky above New Britannia. (Player Town of Caer Dracwych; details)

Saturday, October 24

  • 9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours
    • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. (/zone Winfield)
  • 11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service
    • Join Lady Amber Raine, High Priestess of the Church of the Dark Star along with Kazyn Phoenixfyre of the Church of the Sun, as they bring another thought provoking service. (PaxLair; details)
  • 12:00pm CST Dark Tower in Dara Brae: An AD&D Adventure – Part 2
    • The second AD&D Adventure in Shroud of the Avatar hits Dara Brae. This adventure is a pseudo-SotA game play and pseudo-AD&D game play mixed into one. Come and adventure with us! (/Zone Greagoir to join in; details)
  • 1:00pm CST Pianist Bernie Katzman Joins Markee Dragon Playing Shroud of the Avatar LIVE
    • Professional Pianist, Singer and Composer Bernie Katzman aka Piano Improman will play the music live for Markee Dragon for a special show of Shroud of the Avatar. Bernie will be playing keyboard while Markee adventures through these new lands. Bernie has played at prestigious locations such as the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Now for the first time he’ll be playing for a video game.
  • 3:00pm CST R22 Halloween Party with Costume and Music Contests
    • Lord Blake Blackstone of the Weeping Seven, Lord Jatvardur Elden of the RSFIE and Edelmann Sascha Biermanns would like to invite you to an End of the World R22 Party (Halloween event) at the Graveyard in the town of Vanguard, an Island southeast of Vertas Pass, west of the Blackblade, Arx Draconis and Blackstone Bluff. Costume and Music contests! Prizes! (details)
  • 7:00pm CST Port Phoenix Social Nights
    • Come out and join the Republic in one of many potential events (chosen new each week). Each week we get together for everything from fishing, to music, to gustball, to PVE duneoneering and adventuring. (Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre for more details!)
  • 8:00pm CST Vengeance 1v1 Tournament
    • The longest running Player vs Player tournament in Shroud of the Avatar. (City of Vengeance)

Sunday, October 25

  • 6:30am CST Explore Novia with royalsexy (Dancing Rock, Owl’s Head Entrance, /zone royalsexy)
  • 8:30am CST PaxLair Meeting
    • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions! (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
  • 11:00am CST Phoenix Republic Weekly Teamspeak Meeting
    • A Gathering of members of the Phoenix Republic to cover important topic areas of the month. It is here that the republic shall discuss new event types, ideas on new laws and other concerns effecting the Phoenix Republic. (Republic Town Hall, Port Phoenix, teamspeak at ts3.portphoenix.com)
  • 2:00pm CST Serenite Shopping Extravaganza
    • Shopping Extravaganza at the Serenite Selfridge Mall. Crafters will be available for special orders.
  • 3:00pm CST Gustball
    • Two teams are pitted against each other in a sporting event not dissimilar from soccer, football, and basketball. The object of the game is to Gust a Gustball around the field and into your opponent’s goal (/zone Bambino Ludovate, details)
  • 5:00pm CST BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration
    • Register to compete in the BMC Gridiron and mingle with other participants and spectators before the big fight! (Blackrock Point on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)
  • 5:30pm CST BMC Gladiator’s Grid-Iron
    • The BMC is proud to present the nastiest, the foulest, the most feared arena in all of New Britannia! The Grid-Iron is equipped with a pit-style arena, locker rooms, a VIP round-table, betting & vendor booths, and all the blood-sport you can handle. (Blackrock Point on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)
  • 7:00pm CST PaxLair Meeting
    • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions!  (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
  • 8:00pm CST Fishing with Winfield
    • Come sit with Winfield on a log or rock to hear some fish tales or tell your own. Chat about anything from the moons to the earth worms. Spend a relaxing day in nature near a stream or lake — bring insect repellent or a sword.  (some fishing spot or pond, /zone Winfield; details)

Be sure and check out the Release 22 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.


Upcoming Events

2015.10.29 – Release 23
2015.11.19 – Release 24
2015.12.17 – Release 25
2016.01.28 – Release 26
2016.02.25 – Release 27
2016.03.17 – SXSW Gaming


Recommended Games to Back


Star Citizen

“I don’t want to build a game.
I want to build a universe.”

From the mind of Chris Roberts, acclaimed creator of Wing Commander and Freelancer, comes STAR CITIZEN, a living, breathing science fiction universe with unparalleled immersion… and you’re invited to follow every step of development!

More than a space combat sim, more than a first person shooter and more than an MMO: Star Citizen is the First Person Universe that will allow for unlimited gameplay.



14 Comments



  1. enderandrewenderandrew

    Congrats to BMC and Duke Ezekiel!

    I love the new ocean water system.

    Will there be a water replacement for lakes, rivers, etc?



  2. Baron Drocis FondorlatosBaron Drocis Fondorlatos

    The water videos looked fantastic. Can’t wait to see them in-game in future iterations.


  3. WombyWomby

    Yes, the new water system is a huge improvement! I especially liked the storm, with the boat rising and falling with the waves.


  4. Edward NewgateEdward Newgate

    I really love the new water system great job guys!
    And i hope your new offices will turn out great for you guys :)


  5. Drake AedusDrake Aedus

    So many great things, but I must say this: Don’t you just love that neck tie from the Intel workshop?


  6. DeliverenceDeliverence

    I agree with the others the updated water system is a huge improvement, I have my fingers crossed that this is rolled out across the game. I’m also glad to see Lazarus awarded for his efforts, he is a real asset to the community.

    It’s nice to see you giving SC a plug and I hope Richard makes an appearance for the SC anniversary sale next month. I don’t know what they have planned for this as yet, but they often do some type of live steam and if the cross promotion is still in effect it might be a good time to show how SOTA has come along and advertise this.

    Keep up the great work and I hope you all have a great weekend.


  7. JatvardurJatvardur

    The water is incredible. Good job.

    Also huge thanks for the shout out of the Halloween party. That picture of the graveyard is also incredible. Who took it?

    1. dallasdallas Post author

      I took the screenshot of your graveyard. We have developer’s tools that allow us to move the camera anywhere we need to. Unfortunately, we cannot provide this feature to players as it would give them the power to reveal landscape/geography that shouldn’t be seen from a birds-eye view as it would ruin the fun of discovery.




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