Updates

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

October 14, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Darkstarr Joins Lord British for the Ultima Dragons 25th Anniversary

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

Community Spotlight: Exploring Silverhold – Player Owned Town

October 12, 2016

The second Player Owned Town spotlight kicks off with Silverhold! We will be touring towns and talking with guilds and other groups, all of which are open to be spotlighted on coming tours brought to you by Berek, your community wood elf druid. Near Port Phoenix, I saw a great many things in Silverhold that drove me to write this spotlight. Here is what I witnessed:

As I neared Silverhold, nestled in the higher elevations of Elysium, snow flurries began to fall around me. I realized this would be my first visit to a snow covered area of Novia. I did not prepare and bring a coat, but I managed.

It was no mild wintery weather here either, the white powdery stuff lay thick on the ground as the Town Crier greeted me upon entering the town. Clearly seeing I was new to the area, he suggested I visit the warmth of Silverhold keep. Governor Asher Silvarian enjoyed personally greeting newcomers to the town. I decided to take up this offer and headed up the trail toward monolithic stone structures in the distance.

12 New POT Templates Now Available!

October 11, 2016

As mentioned in the Release 34 Instructions, we created several new POT templates including Walled variations of the Island and Tropical Island POT templates as well as Stone Dock variations of the Forest and Desert templates. Those templates (including all 3 directional variations of the Island templates as well as the cobblestone variants of the Coastal templates) are now finally available in the POT submission form. We also added these to the POT Temlates page.

Island 01a (Walled):

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

October 7, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus Starting Now!

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

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

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

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

Clasped Gauntlets Cloak for Community Events

October 7, 2016

We believe very strongly that community events that extend into the real world are very important and we have always worked hard to support them. We have been considering for a long time now how players who attend these real world events can display their attendance inside the game.

With all that in mind we came up with the Clasped Gauntlets Cloak! Any Shroud of the Avatar community event, of any size, is eligible to receive a cloak for each attendee. The organizer will need to submit a request for approval and then once approved provide a list of backers who attended. Large events can request a customized version of the cloak with a unique color scheme and a custom name.

The first approved use of these customized versions are SotA Con East 2016 and Ultima Dragons 25th Anniversary Party (see below on how to get these rare exclusive versions of the cloak).

Changes to Unclaimed Bundles & Pending Gifts of Pledges

October 6, 2016

Unclaimed Bundles: In order to claim the reward of House Stacking that comes with Bundles you MUST claim your Bundles BEFORE midnight on November 28, 2016 (when House Stacking in Bundles expires).

This means that if you purchase a Bundle or upgrade a Bundle prior to the expiration you MUST login to the game and claim your rewards in addition to making the purchase or you will only receive a single house for that Bundle. As a courtesy we will be doing a one time automatic claiming of rewards for all accounts who have Unclaimed Bundles on Monday November 21. However if you upgrade after Monday you will still need to login and claim rewards again to get the additional homes.

Pending Gifts of Pledges: Any Pledges bought as gifts but not yet gifted will be taken out of that pending state and assigned to the purchaser’s account on October 21. At that point you will need to contact us at support@portalarium.com to let us know what you wish to do with those pledges if you don’t want to claim those pledges’ items yourself.

New Halloween Goodies, Musical Instruments, and Fireplaces

October 5, 2016

As you probably saw from the Release 34 Post, we have tons of new content in the Add-On Store including lots of Seasonal items. To help everyone better understand the relative availability of each item, we have come up with some new labels:

Seasonal Recurring: This is an item that will only be available on the store during a certain time frame. For instance, the Day of the Dead masks are only available during October and November each year for Halloween.
Seasonal Rare: These items are only available once for a season and then do not return to the store ever (except when Dallas and Starr have a senior moment). These are almost always labeled with the specific year they are delivered, but not always. For example: 2016 Jack O Lantern Mask is available only for October and November 2016.
Seasonal: Themed and on sale for a season, but otherwise available year round in the store and only ever leave the store during major expiration events like when we have telethons. Example: The Gothic Mansion which is on 50% sale until November 28th and will go on sale again next year at this same time.
No Label: These items are available year round in the store and only ever leave the store during major expiration events like when we have seasonal telethons. We will always broadcast these expirations well in advance (at least 30-90 days). For example, the Adobe Houses expiring during the Fall to Winter Telethon on November 28th.

Homes of New Britannia – Decorating Contest

October 4, 2016

Get those creative house decorating ideas ready, Avatars! Show the community the curb appeal you can bring to a town as folk walk down the street, and the wonder in the eyes of those who step in to visit your cozy abode. Throw it all up on the walls for this contest and see what sticks!

As the contest progresses, each week on either Monday or Tuesday, we will announce on social media the latest submissions in a Facebook screenshot gallery. Peruse the screenshots there, or go to the forum submission thread to find coordinates to the homes so you can tour them in-game!

If you have questions about this contest, or wish to comment on a particular submission, please post in the official contest forum thread.

TAKING SCREENSHOTS

Use the following guidelines to ensure the best and most impactful screenshots:

Image count: Minimum of 3, Maximum of 8 total screenshots.
Image views: Must include a minimum of 1 outdoor screenshot, and if applicable, 2 indoor.
Resolution: Minimum of 1920×1080, and always in 16:9 aspect ratio (you can trim if necessary).
Quality: Use in-game settings to their maximum, no post-screenshot alterations allowed.
Set the stage! Other players and staged items in the shot are great resources.
Stand your ground! Must be of your own house and plot as the main focus of the scene.
Protip! Be mindful of the game time for the best lighting angles you want on the home, if any.
Remember! UI must be off (Key: F9), no post-alterations to the screenshot.

Submit all screenshots in a single post response to this forum thread. Deadline to submit is 11:59pm CDT on Sunday, November 6th.

Tickets for Release 34 Lot Deed Raffle

October 3, 2016

We are having our second Lot Deed Raffle in Release 34 and there will be another 675 Lot Deeds available. The drawings will be held on October 27, 2016 before R35 goes live and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in R35.

There are two raffles, one for each lot type:

Place Anywhere Deeds: 75 Total
- Row: 40
- Village: 20
- Town: 10
- City: 5
Player Owned Town Deeds: 600 Total
- Row: 320
- Village: 160
- Town: 80
- City: 40

Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win deeds of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly and we will have multiple winners for each lot size (numbers will vary each month). Place-Anywhere Deed raffle tickets are more expensive but will have fewer deeds in each raffle than POT raffle tickets, which are more affordable and will have many more deeds in each raffle. This means your chances to win a POT deed are much greater.

For those backers who do not yet own property, we are going to automatically enter you into the raffle! Anyone who has game access to Shroud of the Avatar, but does NOT yet own property at the beginning of Release 34 (September 29, 2016), will automatically be given a gift of 2 Raffle Tickets (1 for a Place Anywhere deed and 1 for a POT deed) to the R34 Raffle.

To receive your gifted raffle tickets, you need to log in to the game and obtain them from the bank.

Backers are not eligible for this gift if they have met the following criteria on September 29, 2016:

Own an Ancestor Pledge or above
Own a Viking 2-Story Row Bundle or above
Own a Kobold 2-Story Row Bundle or above
Own any quantity of Add On Store Deeds
Own any deeds won through previous drawings, contests, etc.
Winner of the R33 Lot Deed Raffle

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

September 30, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 34 Now!

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

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

…and much more