Updates

Community Spotlight: Saint Haley – Player Owned Town

This latest Player Owned Town spotlight has Berek exploring the seaside port of Saint Haley! Neighboring Aerie, entrance to the town is as convenient as using the provided transport.

When I stepped out of the boat that brought me here, the first thing I noticed was the breeze coming from the sea. The lack of other noises besides the soft crashing of waves along the shoreline, and the sound of the seagulls high in the air, instantly calmed myself from the rough boat ride. I also noticed the glow of the obsidian lights and the towering Oracle statutes off to my right.

I walked up the slope and found myself at a massive walled fortress. It was clearly an ancient Obsidian outpost with its dark walls and pointed spires.

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The Making of Rhun Ruins

The Rhun Ruins are one of the six ruined cities found in Novia that date back to the period in Novian history in which the Obsidian Order rose to power. (As described in the Sword of Midras prequel novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott). The exact history of some of these cities has been lost to time, but it is rumored that some of them may have been abandoned even before the rise of the Obsidians. Rhun was a city devoted to Compassion but has since been overrun with the undead. It is located in the Drachvald region in the northeast of Novia.

Rhun started as a clone of the Dysborg Ruins, but is getting completely rebuilt this release to have a unique layout and visuals. We are expressly focusing on being sure the map has interesting setups for PVP conflict, with plenty of space for hiding, escaping, ambushing, and skirmishing.

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

Hey guys! SorcerousSteve here with a sneak peek of the Rhun Ruins! Currently a work in progress, the Rhun Ruins are located on the eastern coast of Drachvald. Once a City of Compassion, its fascination with Obsidian became so high that it brought about its own demise.

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Update of the Avatar #213 – 2017.02.03: The Making of Upper Fortus, Rhun Ruins, & K’rul, R38 Postmortem, IronMaiden’s Chemo Relief Telethon, Water Decorations, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

The Making of Upper Fortus

The Fortus River runs south-to-north through a large canyon in the North Paladis region near the Sanctus Spine Control Point. Kobolds have established a mining facility here using steam to soften the terrain. Bandits have a camp nearby and have been raiding the shipments of ore and therefore, the Kobolds have been ramping up their defenses of the mining facility. Expect strong resistance when trying to raid the Kobold mining camp; and the bandits are not going to be too friendly either!

This scene started as a clone of North Varisalla Foothills but is being completely rebuilt for a live date hopefully in Release 40.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Chris “Sea Wolf” Wolf]

I have a few screenshots of progress being made on Upper Fortus.

The Southern Canyon/ Upper Fortus Falls

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Community of the Avatar – Exploring Blood Bay

Community of the Avatar

Join us this Friday at 4pm CT for another Community of the Avatar livestream!

A special guest, Keith Quinn (World Builder/Level Designer on the team), will be taking us on a tour of the very dangerous scene of Blood Bay! If we don’t immediately fall prey to the dragon rumored to be lurking somewhere in the mountains, we may get a chance to show off some new screenshots of K’rul, an upcoming Blood Bay dungeon set to go live in Release 39.

The fun begins live on Twitch tomorrow!


The Making of K’rul

From last week’s Update of the Avatar #212:

Underneath Blood Bay, far from the prying eyes of the Oracle, top Kobold researchers work in the Kobold Research Underground Laboratories; aka K’rul. In this vast underground facility, Kobolds work to harness Obisidian shards, build ever larger and more dangerous automatons, and craft mysterious weapons. Like Blood Bay, K’rul is an Open PVP zone but it also has a lot of PVE opportunities with top tier Kobolds and automatons to battle with, as well as dangerous technological traps and puzzles to contend with.

Our goal is to have a first iteration of this dungeon live in the game for Release 39.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

K’RUL progress screenshots

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Update of the Avatar #212 – 2017.01.27: Play Release 38 Now!, Valentine’s Goodies, Making of K’rul, R37 Deed Raffle Winners, Perennial Polish, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 38 Now!

Release 38 successfully launched yesterday, January 26, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

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Release 37 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

The latest Lot Deed Raffle was drawn with 85 lot deeds awarded to the following lucky winners. There were two raffles, one for each lot type:

  • Place Anywhere Deeds: 10 Total
    • Row: 5
    • Village: 3
    • Town: 1
    • City: 1
  • Player Owned Town Deeds: 75 Total
    • Row: 40
    • Village: 20
    • Town: 10
    • City: 5

Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win deeds of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly (total deed 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.

This is another raffle where we limited winners to one deed per raffle type. Visit the forums to read more about this recent change.

Below is a complete list of the winners for this release’s raffle. Winners can claim their deed(s) simply by logging into the game and claiming rewards at any bank.  A reminder that you may have received multiple deeds to claim if you received tickets for a guild or other group.

If you wish to review all of your account rewards outside of the game, you can do so by going to the Account menu on the main website and then selecting the ‘Special Rewards’ tab in the page menu.

Listed below are the winners:

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Release 38 Instructions

Starr_avatar

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Greetings 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 38 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, January 26, at 10:30 AM US Central Standard Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 38 is one of our larger releases because some of the work was started before the holiday break and some of the content has been worked on for several releases (Xenos, Blood Bay, Scaled Crafting).

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The Making of North Drachvald Spur

From last week’s Update of the Avatar #211:

North Drachvald Spur is located in the Sirens mountains in the Drachvald region in the northeastern section of Novia. It started as a clone of the Whiteguard Foothills and is getting rebuilt to go live as a new scene in Release 39.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Chris “Sea Wolf” Wolf]

Hey folks, today I will be sharing some screenshots from the uncloning of North Drachvald Spur. The area is home to a group of bandits who have been ambushing supply convoys using rock slides. The area will also feature the remnants of an abandoned mine, and a mysterious watchtower.

The terrain has also been reshaped to feature a ridge line of mountains to the east, which are present in the overworld map. The biome has been swapped for one inspired by the mountains of the pacific northwest United States.

Inspiration (Mt Rainier Washington)

The New Road

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