Updates

Update of the Avatar #66 – 03/28/14: Play Release 4 Now!, Star Citizen Crossbow, Greyhound Pet, Rustic Village Home, BotA, Alienware Promotion, 1-Year Events, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Come Play Release 4 Now!
  • SotA’s One-Year Anniversary Events
  • Star Citizen Crossbow and Vanduul Polearm
  • Expert Crafting Stations
  • Brindle Greyhound Pet
  • Rustic 3-Story Village Home
  • Town and City Lot Homes
  • Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 15
  • Alienware R5 Weekend Access Keys and $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events
  • This Week In The News
  • Only 10 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Come Play Release 4 Now!

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Release 4 successfully launched yesterday, March 27, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and exploring the new content!

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Release 4 Instructions


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[A Public Forum post by Starr Long]

Darkstarr

Hello Everyone,

Thank you to our loyal backers of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 4 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, March 27 at 10:30 AM Central Time. Release 4 access will end on Sunday, March 30 at 10:00 PM Central Time. Starting today, you can begin installing and patching (see instructions below), but login will not be enabled until Thursday morning.

We are happy to say that we are going to deliver almost every single Release 4 item and a few extras. Here are those deliverables again, along with some extra notes and the bonus deliverables in italics.

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Update of the Avatar #65 – 03/21/14: Founder Emotes, Lord Servant, Golden Eagle Pet, BotA, Alienware Promotion, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Founder Teachable Emotes
  • Founder Lord House Servant
  • Golden Eagle Pet
  • Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 14
  • Alienware R5 Weekend Access Keys and $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events
  • This Week In The News
  • Only 17 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges


Founder Teachable Emotes

Get ready to show off (and teach) your unique emote, included in the Founder rewards of every pledge tier! Here are five of those emotes:

Immortal Adventurer: Muscular Flex Emote

SotA_Founder_ImmortalAdventurer_FlexEmote

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Update of the Avatar #64 – 03/14/14: Alienware Promotion, 1-Year Anniversary Events, Lord of the Manor Castle Lot, Baron Galleon, Lord Rewards, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 5 Weekend Access Keys
  • SotA’s One-Year Anniversary Events
  • Lord of the Manor Castle Lot
  • Founder Baron 2 & 3 Waterfront Galleon
  • Lord’s Throne
  • Founder Lord Lynx Pet
  • Town Stone Arena Basement
  • Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 13
  • Upcoming Events
  • Only 24 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

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Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 5 Weekend Access Keys

Every week for four weeks, starting March 24th, 250 members of the Alienware Arena Shroud of the Avatar Group will receive Weekend Access Keys to SotA Release 5, scheduled for April 24-27.

Giveaway Periods:

  • March 24 – 30
  • March 31 – April 6
  • April 7 – 13
  • April 14 – 20

250 members of the Alienware Arena Shroud of the Avatar Group will be able to gain weekend access to SotA’s Release 5 during each giveaway period. For more details, jump on over to the Alieware Arena site and make sure you’re registered in their Shroud of the Avatar Group!

[Note: Weekend Access Keys are non-transferable; Make sure that your SotA account uses the same email address as your Alienware Arena account in order to utilize the Weekend Access Keys]

Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!

[NOTE: Only one Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon can be used per account. Coupon does not apply to Add-On Store items]

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Update of the Avatar #63 – 03/07/14: Dev+ Test Results, PvP & Death Megapost, Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade, Knight Rewards, BotA, Domesday Certificate, Black Cat, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

  • Post-Mortem: Dev+ Party on the Baron’s Frigate
  • PvP & Death: Current Thinking Megapost
  • Knight’s Round Table
  • Founder Knight House Servant
  • Patron Domesday Certificate
  • Black Cat Pet
  • Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 12
  • Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade
  • Upcoming Events
  • This Week In The News
  • Only 31 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

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Post-Mortem: Dev+ Party on the Baron’s Frigate

Last week we invited Dev+ backers to join us for a one-hour, online party on the Baron’s new frigate in Kingsport to test performance enhancements the team’s been working on since Release 3. Here’s what Chris Spears (Technical Director) had to say about the results:

Thanks to all Dev+ backers who took part in the impromptu performance test!  While performance was better, there were a number of huge finds that came up by getting real players in the game that we will be addressing before doing another performance test, likely next week!  The biggest items impacting frame rate were a bad error function that happened when one player’s network view got out of sync somehow, name plates being handled VERY poorly, footstep sounds being played far too much and in a costly manner, animations being played for things that weren’t visible, and no cap on the number torches that cast shadows!  These were all things that didn’t come up in our personal testing that quickly become horrible problems with lots of players present. We’ll get these and other issues fixed and do another test sometime in the next week or so! Thanks again!

[Check out Chris’ Performance Test Results conversation in the Dev+ forums (Dev+ forum access available to backers at the Developer Pledge level, or above).]

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