Avatar’s Update #383: Play Release 78 Now! Dynamically Scaled Difficulty! Shadow Creatures Preview!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

This week's update brings you some great news about a new concept coming to Episode 2 adventure scenes called Dynamically Scaled Difficulty! Soon after release, players will be able to experience the first scene enabled with this new tech. Also, take a sneak peek into the new Shadow Creatures effects coming to encounters near you! For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes. Now, let's see what we have for you in this week's edition of Update of the Avatar:



News Announcements

• Dynamically Scaled Difficulty!
• Latest News Q&A Friday Livestream!
• Shadow Creatures Preview!
• June Login Reward: Floppy Beach Hat!
• R78 Reward Program Login Items: Beach Theme!
• Packaging Items for Trade Available!
• Latest Store Items: Male & Female Shopkeeper Outfits, Electric Katanas & More!
• Obsidian & Island Vault Round!
• Packaging Items for Trade Available!
• World & UI Changes
• Crafting & Economy Changes
• Combat Balance & Changes
• Updated Player Owned Towns
• Bug Fixes
• Streaming Reward Program
• Recent Shroud of the Avatar Livestreams
• Lord of the Isle Episode 2 Bundles
• Upcoming Events Calendar

Community Updates

• Meretz: Win a Giant Lich Statue (No Trade)
• Community Event: Catnip Games Weekly Fishing Tourney
• Community Event: Silverdale Market Fishing Contest
• Community Event: Celtic/Irish Celebration
• Community Event: 6th Annual Soldier's Memorial Ball
• Community Event: Concert by the Sea
• Community Event: Black Sails Saga - From the New Lands
• Project to Support: Rodasurf
• Project to Support: Jar Wars
• Project to Support: Dragonfight
• Project to Support: Crowfall
• Project to Support: Avatar Express
• Resources: Players Helping Players

Be sure to check out full update for more information!

 

Tier 7 is considered easy? (laughs insecurily) at least for me i'll have to try to find a way to have my pet out at the same time as a summoned elemental, anyone know if out side groups that will ever be possible perhaps?

 

I believe that scenes in Mistrendur are going to be inherently geared toward high-level players. If not, then maybe they intend to re-invent what the power level of tiers are? But yeah, if I was a new player, and an "Easy" area was tier 7, I'd be pretty confused. And probably dead.

Though, again: can we get some lore-friendly rewards once in a while? I don't think there is a single asset made for the reward program that I have used since the end of the telethon days, when we would get weapons and armor. Even if the swimwear had a lore-based theme, it would at least be an improvement. As dumb as obsidian/kobold/elf/Ardoris bikinis would be, I could at least understand them. Save the garish real-world looking items for the crown store. I'd love a bunch of obsidian themed statues and other items, not Easter baskets and beach towels.

 

I actually like the beach towel and that hat. But that’s just me

Marking a Tier 7 level area as easy is going to be very confusing for new players. There really should be some lore or other indicators that clearly describes that Mistrendur is a dangerous area and you should proceed with caution.....

 

If placing an item per player into the world (ie almost anywhere) is ever a thing, that would make beach towels quite interesting.

 

Brother ; careful with bringing a water ellie with you. Mine happens to think she is a tank and train puller. I wonder when they will actually listen to commands again. I also expect Suntan lotion will be in the crown store @Elgarion ?

 

I'd love to hear how those levels are determined because if you're anywhere near marginal for an area the difference between 2 areas of the same difficulty can be jarring.

Area 1 with similar hit points mobs can be significantly easier than area 2 which has mobs with fewer hit points but a bigger aggro radius.

 

@Elgarion I'm very interested in seeing the new "scaled" scene mentioned in your OP "Lachem's Bazaar", but can't find it on the latest Mistrender map.
Can you give us a general location ?

 

FYI, Package Items for Trade didn't get enabled for Live (albeit was downloaded in your release build). It should be enabled for the second patch, since the first patch is being built already. Once live, If anyone spots heritage items which cannot be packaged for trade, please send me the item name so I can add it to a work list. Many thanks! The new scaled zone should also be in today after a patch.

 

It shows on the map near the geysers, but you can't yet enter it. Shortly

 

Hmmm... I'm looking at the Mistrender map that is part of the OP and don't see it. Do you have a link to what map you're looking at by any chance ?

 

Hmmm, maybe I was in my GM client -- in any case it'll be right next to the geysers when it goes live

 

This is where it'll be:

 

It'll be interesting to look around there. I go through the scene regularly for the blessing; it always feels like a wasted scene. There's a whole market full of people, run by satyrs, with human customers. And no conversations, no info on the area or its history. The buildings seem to be mostly empty. Kind of a problem in most scenes, really, but more so given that it's an adventure scene with a lot of NPCs and a cool setting.

 

Better yet, make it an ACTUAL Episode 2 area, so that only people who purchased Ep 2 access can enter. If necessary, let people enter POTs through their interconnections, but not exit from them onto the Mistrendur overworld. Then there wouldn't be a problem with new players getting lost and wandering into scenes labelled "easy" despite being designed for experienced players only.

 

Are they really limiting this to Heritage items only? There's still a bunch of no-trade items that don't have the Heritage tag. I've been waiting a year to get that damn dog out of my basement, that I know some newer player would love to have, but that last I checked, I still couldn't even destroy. Login punishments for the win... at least most of them are destroyable, though that's not exactly the kind of emotional reaction that will retain players. I've held on to most of them so far, thinking that eventually I'd at least be able to give the crap to someone else who didn't think it was crap. Please tell me I don't have a destruction spree in the near future.

 

Well, at least the beach towels are dyeable. Wouldn't be my choice of patterns and if I'd subscribed this month, I'd be pretty annoyed, but at least it's a small step closer to getting some rugs that match more decor schemes. Wondering if it's just the backgrounds that are dyable or whether the motifs can be dyed to match so that they become invisible? I'll take what crumbs we can get. (Which won't stop me from shaking my head at Portnip's choices.)

 

Holy [bleep] - scaled difficulty in the future!?! That's a nice surprise! Thanks! Here, bask in the glory of the '!'.

 

@Elgarion Will gathering nodes in scenes scale with difficulty as well? Or, at least in the case of South Midmaer, will the (probably tier 1 or 2) nodes be at least brought up to tier 5?

 

@Elgarion , thats what was mentioned in the notes. the higher the difficulty the more XP ( and not ONLY Crafting but also adventure XP for the nodes )