Q4 2015 Schedule Update

Greetings Avatars,

As we have stated previously, our goal is to once-per-quarter post an updated schedule for our monthly releases. Even though these goals will likely change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to provide you an updated roadmap periodically.

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

As always, all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change as we adjust our designs based on direct feedback from you, our backers. Speaking of changes, you will see below we will not be launching by the end of this year as we had hoped. We made every attempt we could to make that happen, but several factors have contributed to us deciding that we wanted and needed more time. None of these factors by themselves moved our dates, but instead, it is the combination of all of them, along with a host of other minor issues. These factors include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Iterative and Responsive Development: Co-development and responding to feedback to improve the game while we are still developing takes a bit longer but we believe that this makes the game better and is the right thing to do. Without this method we would not have swimming and jumping in the game. We also would not have changed to a Use Based Advancement system.
• Unity Engine Upgrade: Switching to Unity 5 from 4 cost us a couple of months but the additional features it supports will be worth this in the end.
• Hiring: As you may know we have been slowly ramping up our hiring as more systems come online and we are ready to build more content to fill those systems. Hiring is always slow and it has been particularly challenging for us in some areas like Visual Effects. This is coupled with a few departures that we have had to backfill.
• Time for Polish and Balance: When we finish adding systems and content, we want to have adequate time to polish and balance before the final wipe / launch.

We will do everything in our power, however, to complete Episode 1 in as timely a manner as possible without sacrificing scope or quality. It is worth noting that based on our current funding and fundraising data trends, that we we will still be able to complete the game without any financial issues, even with slips like this. NOTE: With this schedule change we extended payment plans to February.

I feel incredibly excited about how we are finishing 2015. As I stated in my Release 22 post yesterday, I really do feel we are at a turning point in the project. We are expanding in both axes that are the quintessence of this project: Sandbox and Story. The breadth of features that let you interact with the world and other players continues to widen and will now start to deepen as we add more content to those systems; systems like weather, fishing, crafting, etc. The depth of the story will lead you even further into the murky ethical dilemmas that identify the works of Lord British. There is, however, a third axis that we continue to dedicate ourselves to: you, our community. That third leg of the tripod is perhaps the sturdiest, for it is the base on which this entire experience depends and I could not be more thrilled with the quality of that support. This is truly a magnificent community that delicately balances passionate support with honest critique. You are the ones who will take our work and make it great. Thank you for being here with us.

Now without further ado here are our goals for the Fourth and final quarter of 2015:

RELEASE 23, October 29, 2015

• Full Wipe: We are going to make some fundamental changes to item architecture that require us to do a full wipe for Release 23. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please note that if you have been waiting to melt down add-ons, this is your chance to do so as long as you do NOT login once R23 goes live (which automatically claims the items and prevents melt down).
• Halloween Content: Prepare for an explosion of spooky stuff! Masks, decorations, statues, potions, makeup... the works!
• Servants and House Pets: Players can now place servants and pets in their home. Servants will have conversations and pets will do their own business (note that peeing on rugs is a stretch goal).
• Spells & Skills: We will continue to make a pass through the skill trees and add new skills, balance existing skills, and replace less useful skills.
• Taming: Taming will expand with new skills and will now allow players to have more than one tamed creature in their inventory. Players will also now be able to trade and sell tamed creatures.
• Story: More polish passes will be made on existing maps for balance and story support. We will also continue to expand the story with new scenes including the town of Etceter and Highvale Village, a single player experience that is the starting map for the Courage quest line (and the final starting map of three).
• Player Owned Towns: We will add an additional template for the Underground biome and we will add the ability for Dynamic Town owners to place the various NPCs they chose (Guards, shopkeepers, etc.).
• Crafting: More Refining and Production skills will come online. Additionally Crafting Table quality, location, and calendar will begin to factor into crafting results. We will also create more armor, weapon, and cooking recipes
• Creatures: The enslaved Fauns will start appearing alongside their masters the Satyrs.
• Master / Apprentice System: Adventuring with a player who has achieved Grand Mastery in a skill will increase the rate that you advance that same skill.

RELEASE 24, November 19, 2015:

• Polish and Performance: We will work to improve overall polish and performance in the game. We will focus not only on improving frame rate, but also lowering load times. We may also spend some time on usability issues. This will be the main focus of Release 24 so content delivery will be smaller than a “normal release”.
• Story: The story continues to expand with the control point of Hilt and the dungeons beneath that contain the only known forge capable of forging with Obsidian. Additionally, a handful of new towns will appear beyond the Perennial Coast that include story quests.
• Localization: We will begin crowdsourcing the translation of the game into various languages.
• Weather: More types of weather will come online, like snow. Weather will also be linked to seasonal changes, vary based on location (it won’t snow in the desert generally), though it will have some randomness.
• Earlier Delivery Date: Due to the US Thanksgiving holiday, R24 will be coming out one week earlier than normal releases.

RELEASE 25, December 17, 2015

• Story: More towns with story content will appear in Novia along with the dungeon of Artifice on the island of Elysium that will be the climax of the Truth Quest line.
• Property Tax: Property ownership will now incur regular fees (unless you are using a tax free deed from a pledge). If the fees are not paid, the player will lose their claim, and their possessions (including the house and decorations) will be moved to their bank.
• Combat: The cover system will be introduced and will modify attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover.
• Creatures: Our creature list will continue to expand with Chaos Demons and Wisps.
• Guild Warfare: Guilds will now be able to declare war on each other.
• Agriculture: Players will be able to start planting and harvesting as Agriculture appears in the game.
• Player Owned Towns: We will continue to expand the number of templates.
• Multiple Characters: Players with pledges that include additional character slots can now create and play with those additional characters. As mentioned previously, all these characters share reputation, bank, pledge rewards, add-on items, and property. Additionally, if the first character has a last name, all additional characters will have that same last name.
• Earlier Delivery Date: Due to the Christmas holiday, R25 will be coming out one week earlier than normal releases.

We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the funding you provide makes all of this possible, it pales in comparison with the faith you have in us, the feedback you provide us, and the content you are making for everyone to enjoy. We are humbly grateful, and we cannot wait to see you again in New Britannia!

Before I go, I wanted to include an excerpt from my original post about our Early Release Schedule that is important to set the framework for our ongoing schedule:

As a crowd funded and crowd sourced project, we feel it is incredibly important that we provide our backers with information and access well before game studios would normally do so in a traditional development model. Traditionally, the players are given information and access only after the development team has already decided exactly how things will be done, and at times, even after it has already been implemented. By the time the public normally has access to the product, there is usually no time to meaningfully react to the public feedback.

Shroud of the Avatar is different than the traditional model, as we intend to offer our backers extremely early access to information and even the game itself. With that said, we also want to be very careful that we only provide access to portions of the game when they are ready for a wider range of feedback. If we can play it internally and we know it is not ready, then there is nothing to be gained by having a wider audience come to the same conclusion. In fact, it could be quite damaging to do so.

Our strategy over the next few months is to provide you with focused and iterative releases of content. Your feedback during these releases will be critical to making the final product the best it can be, and we appreciate that you are all so willing to devote your time to helping us. With each release, we will have specific tests we will ask you all to make. As we get closer, we will send instructions on how to download, install, report bugs, etc. After each release we will review the results and reevaluate the plan including the duration of availability of each release. Please note that game data will be wiped periodically during early access.​

It is important to note that all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change.​

Sincerely,
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Shroud of the Avatar

 

Onward!

 

Halloween !!!

 

When can we pledge for the new stretchgoal?

 

Release 23 - Gee, we can only place one house pet? I was hoping to have them all running around in my barn home Can't wait to see what Lum comes up with with regards to the house servant dialogue


Release 24 - SNOW. Will this vary in intensity (i.e., from light snowfall up to a raging blizzard)? Enough said

Release 25 - Multiple characters - Yay, now all three generations of the Nightshadow clan can be in Novia (Time travel is a really tricky thing...)

 

Pets: fixed. now says multiple
snow: hopefully!

 

PLEASE please PLEASE make masks hide a persons name from hovering over their head for a temporary period of time.

PLEASE!

please

 

@DarkStarr, isn't Release 23 happening on October 29th not the 23rd? Or did somehting change the schedule?

 

Doh! Fixed

 

Player accountability is very important to me. I realize that many players will have multiple accounts that will not be linked together, but for the people using multiple characters on the same account, I love what you're doing here with property, reputation, last names, etc...

Still, I have a question about this:

For players that only have a first name, I think there should be a way to tell which character is connected to the ALT. So maybe having a way to see "known associates" would be a good right click option on every player. Basically it would show you a list of their ALTS on the same account.

 

I missed this somewhere? Is there a new stretch goal?

 

Release 24 - Story: Silly question, but does this mean that if we find the forge we will be to create Obsidian armor and weapons in that release or will this feature come in later?

Release 25 - Property tax: Will players see some sort of timer indicating how much time is remaining before they lose their claim? This might be more helpful rather than a single notification at the start of the period...especially for someone who does not log in on a daily basis

 

Riya was playing with my joke about pets peeing on rugs being a stretch goal (hint: not a real stretch goal).

 

Can someone remind me what happens to POTs exactly during a full wipe?

For dynamic POTs they go back to square one, correct?

 

RE: Obisidian: We hope so but not sure just yet.
RE: Tax: Yes there will be some kind of UI

 

Yes they go back to blank slates.

 

I still expect Juxtapose being cast on an Outhouse to have its own effect (stretch goal).

 

ahhh ok

 

Thanks, looking forward to the new releases.

It seems that the roving encounters for the overland map have been pushed back to the next year?

 

I want to name my skeleton deco Elvis, and put him in the outhouse!