Updates

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

September 16, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Estgard Polish

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

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

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

REVISITING ESTGARD

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

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

Introducing the New Testing Incentives Program

September 13, 2016

[From a Forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]
Program updated September 20, 2017

Greetings Avatars,

Thank you everyone for the amazing work you all do reporting issues in the game. It is only through your bug reports that we can find and fix issues with the game.

The volume of reported issues from the Live Server has remained steady, but now that we have reached persistence, it is understandably challenging to convince players to divide their time between the “real” world of Novia and the fleeting world of the QA Server. We still have a critical need for testing on the QA Server right before a monthly Release goes live.

That is why we are launching the Testing Incentives Program.

We want to reward testing efforts on the QA server because we understand that time spent there is time lost on advancing your character on live. At the same time we do not want to repeat the mistakes of past incentive programs, so instead of rewarding quantity we have created a lottery.

For each release we will randomly reward 4 of each of the following rewards (one prize per player):

5 Gold Crowns
Ant Farm
Antennae
Bug Cloak
Set of Bug Paintings

In order to qualify you must meet the following requirements:

Install the QA version of the game
Login and play on QA for at least 4 hours per release
Report at least 1 bug in the QA section of the forums

Note that players will only be submitted for the lottery once per QA cycle. Continued bug reporting will not count toward additional submissions into the lottery.

Thank you everyone for the incredible work so far and we look forward to more of it in the future!

Richard Garriott Hi-jinks: AMA! Dragon Con Wedding and Storytelling

September 12, 2016

Reddit AMA: Richard had one of his busiest schedules at Dragon Con ever this year, with 9 different events to preside over. Despite that, he still found time to do a Reddit AMA Sunday night where he answered questions about everything from how he got the name Lord British through what languages can he speak to how he celebrates Halloween.

Check out the entire AMA on Reddit.

Speck’s Wedding: Not one to stay idle, after the New Britannia Round Table on Saturday, Richard presided at the wedding of a community member, Speck, who was given away by her childhood friend, Shooter Jennings. It was a true Dragon Con wedding with the groom dressed as Deadpool and a Jedi cutting the cake with a lightsaber. MJ Guthrie at MassivelyOP even covered the wedding!

Storytelling Interview: Richard had just landed in Austin from Dragon Con when he was interviewed by Unseen Dragon about storytelling.

Many from the community also attended Dragon Con to meet with Richard Garriott, Tracy Hickman, and to celebrate their presence in the game with each other. Enter the forums to see more photos of their adventures, and to post your own if you attended Dragon Con as well!

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

September 9, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Tropical Island POT Polish

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

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

Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 33 Postmortem

September 8, 2016

Join us Friday, September 9th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! The team will be chatting about Release 33 and looking ahead to Release 34.

As always, we will be giving out rare Lord British artifacts of immense power and glory, and answering your latest questions. For a chance to win an artifact, be in Discord chat during the livestream. There will be multiple chances to win throughout the broadcast!

UPDATE! Livestream has concluded. You can now watch the archived recording on YouTube here:

You will also be able to watch directly on YouTube: www.youtube.com/portalarium! The final recording will be archived on YouTube after the event as well.

If you wish to win prizes, be in Discord or IRC chat during the livestream! Post your questions in the comments below. Only one post submission allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less. This will allow us to get to as many players as possible.

Questions and feedback related to this release’s specific topics will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief.

Tweet with us @ShroudofAvatar during the Hangout!

Update of the Avatar #192 – 2016.09.02: Free Lot Deed Raffle, R33 Postmortem, Estgard Polish, Fireplaces, Elven Bundles, Lord British at Dragon Con

September 2, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Free Lot Deed Raffle Tickets in Release 34 Raffle

As mentioned in the Release 33 instructions we have begun the distribution of in-game Lot Deeds via Raffles. The raffles will be monthly and for this first month’s raffle we will be handing out 75 Place Anywhere Deeds and 600 Player Owned Town Deeds. Raffle Tickets can be purchased from Home Decoration merchants in various locations throughout the game.

For those backers who do not yet own property we are going to automatically enter you into both Raffles in Release
34! 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 1 Raffle Ticket of each type to the First Raffle. To claim your tickets simply login to the game, go to the nearest bank and claim your rewards. The drawings will be held on October 27, 2016 and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in Release 35.

Backers are not eligible for this gift if they meet 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.

Come Work With Us! New Job Openings

September 1, 2016

We do not currently have any openings.

Free Raffle Tickets in Release 34 Raffle

August 29, 2016

UPDATE: Because the many users had already purchased tickets and the release of these free tickets will change the odds we are delaying the free tickets until Release 34. See updated text below.

For those backers who do not yet own property we are going to automatically enter you into both Raffles in Release 34! 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 1 Raffle Ticket of each type to the First Raffle. To claim your tickets simply login to the game, go to the nearest bank and claim your rewards. The drawings will be held on October 27, 2016 and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in Release 35.

Backers are not eligible for this gift if they meet 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.

Update of the Avatar #191 – 2016.08.26: Play Release 33 Now!, Summer Telethon Results, $10M Backer Gift, Lot Deed Raffle, Swamp Island POT, and More!

August 26, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 33 Now!

Release 33 successfully launched yesterday, August 25, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in and checking out the new changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

New uncloned scenes including Port Graff and Estgard
New User Experience Polish, including a reworked Bloodriver
New NPC Behaviors and Polish in Ardoris and Spite
More Random Encounters (dragon!)
Lot Deed Raffle
Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier World Starting Gift
Lots of new emotes
Summer Telethon Part 1 Rewards

…and much more

Release 33 Instructions

August 24, 2016

[A SotA Public Forum post by Starr Long]

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 33 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, August 25, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Impact of Persistence:
Release 33 is our first Release since we went Persistent with Release 32. Being persistent of course has had an impact on the project and how we move forward. We made the tactical decision that the immediate needs of R32 would take precedence over any R33 work. Quality of life, balance issues, exploits, stability, performance, etc. in R32 would be patched regularly, daily if needed, even if it cost us some R33 deliverables. The result of this decision has been incredibly positive. Overall player mood remains high as does our funding, which reached an astounding $10 Million during our Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 (which by itself raised $200K!) This funding will allow us to finish the Roadmap we outlined earlier this year that both finishes our Kickstarter promises, while at the same time polishes the game to a very high standard. Thank you community for your incredibly humbling generosity.