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

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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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade
• Early Access Schedule Update: Releases 4 – 7
• Release 3 Perspectives
• PvP Current Thinking
• Combat-Ready Elves!
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 11
• Founder Baron Waterfront Frigate
• Benefactor Edelmann Automaton
• Benefactor Edelmann Great Dane Pet
• Founder Citizen Owl Pet
• Cleaver of Prosperity
• Dev+ Party on the Baron’s Frigate: Post R3 Performance Test
• Upcoming Events
• Only 38 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

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]

Early Access Schedule Update: Releases 4 – 7

[A forum post by Starr Long]

It has been an incredible journey so far has it not? When we first proposed this monthly release schedule back in November of last year we were hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. As Chris Spears, our Tech Director, likes to say we were “doing it wrong but in the best way.” Not only were we giving access to players earlier than most any game but we were also committing to definite dates of releases every month with detailed lists of deliverables! Were we crazy? I am pleased to say that our faith in this community was rewarded and you completely understood what we were doing and were able to give constructive and valuable feedback.

Our goal continues to be to deliver our backers content each and every month so that we can get feedback and react to it. This has already paid off with additional game features like jumping and swimming as well as improvements to systems like crafting and conversations. Meeting that monthly goal is our highest priority but we require flexibility in our deliverables to meet that goal. As you have seen in previous releases sometimes we push things out but we also often pull new things in.

[Join the Early Release conversation in the public forums]

Q1-2014 Release

• Release 4: March 27 – 30, 2014

Q2-2014 Release

• Release 5, April 24 – 27, 2014
• Release 6, May 22 – 25, 2014
• Release 7, June 26 – 29, 2014

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Happy Valentine’s Day Fellow Avatars!

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

• Hearts of Britannia Valentine’s Poetry Reading!
• Extra, Extra Early R3 Test Results
• Founder Lord Waterfront Houseboat
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 9
• Hearth of Britannia Cabinet of Virtues
• Tanning Knife of Prosperity
• The 6-More Pack of Prosperity
• Stretch Goals: Lord British vs. Darkstarr
• Last Week for the Pantheon Kickstarter Special Cross-Game Cloak
• New Events Page
• Only 52 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Hearts of Britannia Valentine’s Poetry Reading!

All the poetry submissions are in, and today, Valentine’s Day, the winners are being decided by Dame Lori, Sir Dom, Lord British, Firelotus, Stephen and Starr!

The winners will be announced and poems narrated by Holt on a special Live Hangout on February 15th. A Roast shall take place afterward where entertaining anonymous runner-ups are also narrated. The Hangout/Poetry Reading will begin at 7 pm CST, Saturday, February 15th. The hangout link will be announced 15-30 minutes ahead of time.

All winning entries will be bound into an in-game book which can be found in-game. The top winners of the Lord British and Darkstarr poems will receive the in-game Darkstarr or Lord British cloaks. We will also create a video of Richard, Starr, Gina, and Stephen reading the winning poems that were written to them.

MAY THE BEST POETS WIN LUV 4 ALL TIME!
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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 8
• Stretch Goals: Lord British vs. Darkstarr
• Upcoming Duke and LoM Events
• Star Citizen Vanduul Polearm
• Royal Founders: Recognizing our Original Backers
• Ancestor Tombstone
• Developer Tinkerer Certificate
• Pets at Founder Tier: Option to get all 3?
• Knight’s Lighthouse Animation
• Cubit Measure of Prosperity
• Website Upgrades: Pledge Page & Campaign Statistics Page
• Pantheon Kickstarter Special Cross-Game Cloak
• “Hearts of Britannia” Valentine’s Poetry Competition!
• Only 59 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 8

The latest installment of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! If you are an Early Founder, or you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the current installment of the novel on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).  If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

Here is a brief excerpt of the latest installment (illustration by Denis Loubet):

Chapter 8: Hilt

Evard Dirae, Craftmaster of the Cabal of Obsidians, rode his horse through the last and grandest of the gates of the fortress at Hilt. The challenge which the guards tried to voice at his approach died on their lips, each falling silent at the passage of a sorcerer.

Evard kept his cold, pale green eyes forward as he passed into the upper courts of Hilt. He did not need to look back down over the multiple concourses that formed the fortress. He had taken them all in with mounting anger as he rode up the various switchbacks, passing through each gate with increasing disdain. Now, as he passed through the final gate, he felt entirely too familiar with the grand structure and, so far as he was concerned, the true reasons for its existence were all too evident.

What had once been a small mountain bowl nestled above a steep, stony canyon, was now an unfortunately crowded construction site. A grand tower keep, far more impressive than practical, was nearly complete toward the front of the bowl just behind the still incomplete defensive curtainwall. The five cascades from the surrounding peaks contributed to the deep glacier lake at the back of the bowl. This, in turn, emptied into the swift moving river that plunged through a gap in the curtainwall and down its restricting channel over the concourses below. In every other otherwise reasonably dry spot, buildings of various size and designs were evident in every conceivable state of incompleteness. Some were cleared ground only, whose foundations had barely been laid out. Others had their walls partially completed with stone pillars standing free, either in their intended place or on their side. A very few others appear to be nearly complete, only lacking in a few finishing details such as a roof or doorway. The shod hooves of Evard’s horse rattled against the newly laid cobblestone paths which wound between the structures.

Such a pointless waste, Evard thought. A monumental conceit that served no real purpose…

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Release 2 Perspectives
• Pantheon & SotA Co-Backers Receive Special Cross-Game Cloak
• “Hearts of Britannia” Valentine’s Poetry Competition!
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 7
• Early Founder Knight Village Waterfront Lighthouse
• Founder Tier Pets
• Virtual Collector Iolo Lute
• Early Founder Royal Artisan Iolo Crossbow
• Smelting Tongs of Prosperity
• Stretch Goals: Lord British vs. Darkstarr
• Purchase, Transfer, or Gifting of Founder Pledges

Release 2 Perspectives

Lord British shared his royal perspective on the Release 2 results in a post on the public forums:

Greetings Citizens,

We continue to be amazed by the outstanding community we have participating in Shroud of the Avatar! Many thousands of you joined us in the Release 2 test phase and the data we got back was invaluable. More importantly, we are learning each cycle how better to provide you the game you want. The boards have been humming with GREAT suggestions as has my twitter feed. Which, if you don’t follow, is simply @RichardGarriott. Please join me there too!

I was particularly fond of people joining my party so that we could group chat which, while a temp hack, foreshadowed what is coming soon in Release 3! While we still have TONS of work to do, I think / hope now that people can easily tell where we are heading and that the clarity should grow with each release. If you are seeing the rich world interaction detail like Ultima VII, the start of a deep virtue based story ala Ultima IV, and the diverse interrelated professions such as combat, crafting, gathering, and player created content, then you see where we are going.

The team in Austin is exceptionally happy that you continue to play and offer feedback of such quality. Every day at the office is a day of joy. We are working hard in your service!

Thank you,
Richard “Lord British” Garriott

Join the conversation with Lord British on the public forums!

Starr Long (Executive Producer) also shared his perspective on the forums:

Greetings Avatars,

Thank you all for helping us test Release 2. We feel even more strongly now that we are on the right path to make a great product with all of you. The tight feedback loop we are establishing is already making things better. With Release 2, we were able to respond to your feedback from Release 1 by adding features like jumping. We took this a step further and during Release 2, we released multiple patches to fix bugs and even add features (e.g. highlighting crafting icons on crafting tables and invert mouse look). This was a great test of the team and our patching abilities but also hopefully an indication of the kind of responsiveness we strive for.

Release 3 will be the first time we enable Open Multiplayer Mode and that will consume all of our resources to make happen. Even the simple act of enabling this requires us to solve a myriad of issues like seeing other players’ equipment/customization/animation, creating rule sets for how interactive items work (so two people can’t sit in the same chair for example), creating rules for spinning up instances when zones get full, propagating changes players make across all those instances (for when housing is re-enabled), etc. Making all those things work is why we won’t be adding new major systems until Release 4. However, as with Release 1, we really want to respond to feedback you are giving us about Release 2. Specifically we are adding these stretch goals to R3…

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Come Play Release 2 Now!
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 6
• The Spoony Interviews
• Early Founder Royal Artisan Starter Bow
• Immortal Adventurer Ankh of Virtue Necklace
• Lord British’s Silver Serpent Necklace
• Scissors of Prosperity

Come Play Release 2 Now!

Release 2 successfully launched yesterday, January 23, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and exploring the content! We need all your help with stress-testing the servers and testing the game systems, so please join us in playing Release 2.

In this release we’ve added the second town of Kingsport, a list inventory, increased character customization, recipe books, jumping and the very first stages of crafting. Crafting will initially focus on refining and production for smithing, tailoring and carpentry. There are more than 100 recipes with chests full of crafting resources spread throughout the land.

[Note: This early release is single player online only. Release 2 access will end on Saturday, January 25, at 10:00 PM Central Time]

Hurry and join us in playing Shroud of the Avatar while Release 2 access is open! If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login on www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above.

(click here for more complete instructions on downloading and playing Release 2)

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Lord British Hosts Hangout to Celebrate $3 Million Milestone
• 6 Day Countdown to Release 2 Launch!
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 5
• The Spoony Interviews
• Founder Edelmann Village Waterfront Cabana
• Founder Melee Weapons
• Cooking Pot of Prosperity
• Village Lots Make A Comeback
• 80 Days Remaining for Early Founder Pledge Prices

Lord British Hosts Hangout to Celebrate $3 Million Milestone

Shroud of the Avatar has crossed the $3M milestone thanks to your generous support! The team and I would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of our Backers for your belief in both our team and our vision for New Britannia!

To celebrate our $3 Million milestone, and the launch of Release 2, I’m hosting a late night Video Hangout next Thursday, January 23. We’ll post more details about the video hangout next week.

Your Humbled Servant
~Lord British

6 Day Countdown to Release 2 Launch!

We’re only 6 days away from the launch of Release 2 and the team is working feverishly to get it ready! We’re all looking forward to another great turnout from our backers, so please come check out the new features and content, and help us find bugs and provide design feedback! Stay tuned for a special update next Wednesday, January 22, providing all the details about Release 2.

Release 2 is only available to backers starting at the $45 Adventurer Pledge Tier (and $25 Early Founder First Responders), so if you want to play and haven’t backed the game yet, then please make sure you have registered on our website and made your pledge.

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Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Welcome to another edition of Update of the Avatar! The team is working hard to get Release 2 ready for this month’s launch, and the excitement is mounting! Stay tuned for more Release 2 launch information in an upcoming update. Here’s what we have for you this week:

• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 4
• SotA on More Top Ten MMO Lists for 2014
• The Spoony Interviews
• Founder Citizen Village Waterfront Cabana
• Founder Royal Artisan Taming Creature Call
• Carpentry Hammer of Prosperity

Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! If you are an Early Founder, or you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the current installment of the novel on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).  If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

Here is a brief excerpt of Chapter 4 (illustration by Denis Loubet):

Chapter 4: Messages

“Captain Bennis!”

Aren awoke with a start, sliding his feet over the edge of the cot and coming to sit in the familiar gloom of his tent. He was awake at once, though noted he was feeling a few aches and pains that were unfamiliar to him. He still wore the tunic and the breaches from the previous day. He reached for his nearby boots, dragging them on even as he spoke.

“I am here,” he called out, his voice still a little hoarse. “What is it?”

“General Karpasik requests that you come at once!”

The captain stopped what he was doing immediately, dropping the second boot and then running his hand back through his untamed hair. The cascade of actual emergencies that had suddenly flooded into his mind along with each of their dire and immediate responses fled from him. “And did the general say what it was that he wanted?”

“He… He would like to inquire as to just how soon the Victory March might begin.” The voice from beyond the tent flap was young and high-pitched. Aren felt some sympathy for the young warrior. Few soldiers in the Army of Conquest received a message from the general with politeness.

“The Victory March?” Bennis shook his head in disbelief. “Is the general in some particular hurry?”

“The General has received orders from the Obsidians,” came the muffled voice beyond the canvas of the tent. “We are to leave a garrison force, but the bulk of the Army is to strike the encampment and prepare to march.”

“So the General has received orders to move the Army, but he still insists on having his parade,” Bennis muttered, shaking his head once again. He raised his voice slightly so that the messenger could hear him clearly. “Please inform the General that I will report to him shortly.”

“Yes, sir! And… Err…” “What is it, boy?” Aren could hear the hesitance in the voice outside.

“The General asks that you bring the tribute that you discovered in the ruins yesterday,” the warrior said, tripping over his words.

Download your copy of the latest installment of BotA to read the rest of this exciting chapter!

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