Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Play Release 26 Now!
• The FireLotus Release 26 Party!
• R26 Patch Notes
• SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Final Wipe and Lot Selection
• Shooter Jennings’ In-Game Worldwide Premier of New Album “Countach”
• The Entrance to Artifice
• Valentine Goodies
• New Player Homes
• Checkers Anyone?
• The Giant Yew Tree
• In-game Community Events
• This Week In the News
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

Play Release 26 Now!

Release 26 successfully launched yesterday, January 28, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to explore, including:

• Full Wipe to allow for fundamental changes to several systems, including crafting and quests
• New Summon Chaos Daemon Spell, plus polished/balanced dozens of existing spells & skills
• New Consider System to show level difference between player and enemy
• Points of Interest polish added to 16 existing scenes
• 5 New scenes including Resolute, Aerie, North Varisalla Foothils, Sanctus Spine, and Dysborg Ruins (PVP zone)
• New Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year items
• New Grasslands Biome Template for Player Owned Towns
• 21 New Player Owned Towns
• New Crafting System that allows for material modifiers, gear naming, components, etc.
• Agriculture System Balance/Polish
• Performance Imrovements
• Language Translation Progress
• …and more!

Read more…

UPDATE: JULY 12, 2016: Updated the group numbers to current backer numbers.

[A SotA Public Forum post by Starr Long]

Greetings Avatars,

We are incredibly excited to announce that we have scheduled final lot selection and our final wipe, including all social data (names, friends, guilds), [UPDATE: 06/21/2016] for Release 32, July 28, 2016! After Release 32, we will no longer be wiping the game state. Your characters and your properties will be persistent from that date forward.

Please understand that final wipe is not “launch”. We will continue to be working to finish the game’s story content well past final wipe, while we remain in Early Access. Until then, the game is neither “launched” nor complete, but as mentioned below, the concept of “launch” may not even be applicable to this development model. Launch will be when we pull the game out of Early Access and we start marketing / public relation campaigns to pull in new customers. We have no plans to do those things in July. We know that this plan will generate a lot of questions and stir up plenty of emotions, but we firmly believe this is the best possible course of action for the project.

By Release 32, our goal is that the virtual world and economy will be fully functional and reasonably balanced. Additionally, the Love storyline will be polished and playable from beginning to end, with all characters and quests complete. The Truth and Courage storylines will also be completely playable from beginning to end, although not in as polished a state as Love. We are purposely holding the finale part of the storyline that ties the three threads together until the entire plot has been polished. This allows us to really focus on the new user experience and one storyline instead of spreading that effort out too thinly. ***Please note that the story is nonlinear and non-exclusive. It is designed to allow free movement between the three storylines and it is only until all three are complete that you move to the finale (this structure will be very familiar to Ultima players). So just because you finish the Love story, you are not excluded in any way from experiencing the other plots.

As part of all of this, we are also announcing the 2016 Spring and Summer Expiration Events.

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• The Making of Paladis Shardfall
• The Making of Dysborg Ruins
• Changes to Expired Patron, Navigator, and Developer Pledges
• POLL: All Content Available in Offline Mode?
• R25 End Of The World Party (Doc’s Cotton Pickin’ Party)
• Fastest Decorator in the West
• Bear Tavern Brawl R25
• Fireworks 45-Piece Assortment 2
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

The Making of Paladis Shardfall – Part 2

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

Hey guys, its SorcerousSteve once again, here to give you an update on the Paladis Shardfall!

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SotA Release Schedule Update
• Dysborg Ruins
• The Making of Paladis Shardfall
• Kobold Architecture
• Sojourner Tales Printing Press
• Player Owned Towns: Grasslands Template
• The Wondrous Winter Telethon of the Avatar!
• Many Thanks For the Awesome Holiday Party!
• Lunar New Year Replenishing Fireworks Boxes
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SotA Release Schedule Update

We are working diligently on detailing our schedule for 2016. We plan to provide you with an update as soon as next week (but definitely before the end of January). We are very excited because this schedule will include the date of our final wipe as well as the start days and times for final lot selection.

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• The Making of Sanctus Spine
• The Wondrous Winter Telethon of the Avatar!
• Community Sponsored Portalarium Holiday Party
• Grannus, The Titan of Courage
• Release 26 Grand Tour Quest Reward: Bowler Hat
• Spoon’s Silly Spectacles – the Treasure Hunt of the year 478
• Final Weekend for 10% Holiday Bonus
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

The Making of Sanctus Spine

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

Hey guys, once again this is SorcerousSteve chiming in and today I will be giving you a sneak peak at the upcoming Sanctus Spine, my first map of 2016! The Sanctus Spine is located on the mountainous border of where South Paladis meets North Paladis.

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Happy New Year!
• Only 4 Days Remaining Until the Winter Reward & Price Expiration Deadline
• Resolute
• North Varisalla Foothills
• The Making of The City of Aerie – Part 2
• NPC Submissions Requested for Aerie and Resolute!
• Dev+ Asset Packs Galore in December!
• Brass Clockwork Raven
• White Stone Castle Wall
• Release 24-25 Christmas Decoration Contest Winners!
• 24 Hours of New Year’s Parties!
• New Years Day Costume Party In Obsidian Caverns
• 4B’s Get In Shape Maze
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

As the final hours of 2015 countdown for us here in Austin, Texas, the entire Shroud of the Avatar Development Team wishes you the happiest of New Year’s! All of you have made 2015 an amazing year for us, and we are excited for what the New Year holds for Shroud of the Avatar!

As a special thanks during this holiday season, we are gifting all our current backers, plus any new backers thru January 11, 2016, with the 45-piece Rocket Fireworks Assortment. If you haven’t already received it, you will find it in your inventory when next you log into the game. We hope you have as much fun with them as we have!

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Happy Holidays!
• Announcing the 10% Holiday Bonus!
• Play Release 25 Now!
• The FireLotus Release 25 Party – Christmas Edition!
• R25 Patch Notes
• Q1-2016 Schedule Update
• SotA’s Dye System
• SotA Backers Decorate Portalarium for the Holidays!
• Wake Up New Britannia!!! – 12 Days of SotA
• MMORPG.com Players’ Choice 2015 – Most Anticipated
• 2015 Winter Holiday Bundles
• 17 Day Countdown for Winter Reward & Price Expirations
• In-game Community Events
• This Week In the News
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

Happy Holidays!

The entire Shroud of the Avatar Development team wish you the Happiest of Holidays!

We were especially diligent to make sure Release 25 launched successfully in time for all of you to enjoy it during your holidays. Fireworks were activated in this Release, and we have to admit, they were more fun than we expected. Darkstarr and Chaox were providing the fireworks show during the Traditional FireLotus Release Party, as shown in the image above!

We are honored to have such an amazing community of backers, and will never be able to thank you enough for all you do! For your enjoyment this holiday season, we are gifting all our current backers, plus any new backers between now and January 11, 2016 (see below for the significance of this date), with the 45-piece Rocket Fireworks Assortment. You will find it in your inventory when next you log into the game. We hope you have as much fun with them as we did today!

[NOTE: Portalarium offices are closed from December 21 thru December 25 so there will be no Update of the Avatar next week. We will return the following week.]

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• The Making of The City of Aerie
• New Dev+ Asset Pack: All Avatar Animations
• Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 24 Postmortem
• NPC Submissions Requested for Trading Outpost of Kiln
• HoBLotH III: Lifeblood of the Hearth
• Envyco Gaming’s Tour Guide R24 – Pilgrim Bonnet
• Stone Creature Statues
• Release 24-25 Christmas Decoration Contest!
• 31 Day Countdown for Winter Reward & Price Expirations
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

The Making of The City of Aerie

Shot of Castle Aerie at sunset

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

Hey guys, once again its SorcerousSteve and I’m going to give you a sneak peak at the upcoming City of Aerie!

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

To all who celebrated the American Thanksgiving holiday this week, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! Today is Black Friday, and marks the final weekend to get your 15% Black Friday Bonus! If you were planning to purchase any pledges or items, you better hurry while you can still get an extra 15% bonus applied to your purchase (see details below)!

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

• Making of the Demon
• It’s the Final Weekend to Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus!
• Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 24 Postmortem
• Athanil’s Arena Construction 101
• Smack’s SotA Standup Archive
• SuperMicro Server Blades of the Avatar
• 38 Day Countdown for Winter Reward & Price Expirations
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

Making of the Demon

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Geoff “Qball” Mellon, Lead Character Artist]

It’s been about 4 Releases since I’ve had the time do a creative process post, but here is one at last!

Before we get to that, I want to give you a look at some of the things I have been working on:

Read more…