With physical items being produced right now what about the novel?

Tier from Patron onwards should get the printed novel by Tracy Hickman. Is this already being produced?

 

That is the Blade of the Avatar novel. It is already written and ready. In the standup notes one can see that some kind of testprint proofing has been done.
So I'd guesstimate that it is being ordered now to be printed and then delivered alongside the rest of the physical box.

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Tracy_Hickman's_Blade_of_the_Avatar


A small note is that it will differ between the Blade of the Avatar which is the pledge reward, and Sword of Midras which is the same story but a different bookdeal with two extra chapters.

 

Theyll most likely just have Tor send them what they need.

Here is the Sword of Midras Spoon References.
http://amzn.to/2EHDitM

There also exists the Advanced Read copy which has some slight differences of course. In full disclosure, this is my ebay listing. I ended up picking up an extra. Im most likely going to pull my listing soon and keep it rather then let it go for less then $10.00.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/222823730690


Supposedly Tracy Hickman also agreed to write 2 more books. Hes also agreed to do 3 for Underworld. But since his involvement in the Void and with his son on that, Ive seen very little work in his other projects take place (My understanding is that 3 years ago he was close to releasing a players version of XDM). Given the Void is probably a regular decent paycheck for him, working with his son, having fun, etc.. Ill be surprised if we see all those. Or itll be something he has to force himself to do, and I think something is lost when an Artist has to force the art.

 

hmmm... i certainly hope this backer reward isn't a paperback.

 

I'd be very surprised if it isn't paperback or other similar non-expensive solution.
Adding extra costs for hardcover without that being an explicit promise doesn't follow the logic of other decisions like the number of pages in the manual or the size of the cloth map etc.

 

Im sure youre right... even tho a 3 dollar paperback as a 200 dollar pledge reward is sad.

 

This was covered month and months ago when the drama started on learning that The Sword of Midras, with content not included in The Blade of the Avatar, was to be published as a commercially available hard and softback novel.
The Blade of the Avatar (should your Pledge Level qualify for it) is currently available for electronic download (and has been for a couple of years at least) on your Account Page, Special Rewards tab at the bottom.
The Pledge Reward (as noted in the OP) "Printed Novel by Tracey Hickman" will be, as discussed previously, The Blade of the Avatar likely printed on 8.5x11 plain paper stock and bound with something like a spiral or comb binding.
This will meet the Pledge Reward (A Printed Novel by Tracy Hickman), without the unnecessary expense of setup and production of a very limited run of perfect bound paperbacks, or, more ridiculously, sewn section hardbacks.

Hopefully they have set up the file to send out for printing with a smallish font to keep the page count down, and take whatever other steps possible to limit the expense of printing as this, while necessary to fulfill a promise, does not directly contribute to the production of the game.

Upon receipt those of us that have a pledge level sufficient to qualify for the printed and bound edition of The Blade of the Avatar will have a truly unique item... A copy of a very limited run of a pre-publication edition of the Tracy Hickman novel The Sword of Midras.

 

I disagree for the reasons stated above and because for that $200 Patron Reward made during the Kickstarter one would receive in Addition to the printed copy of the Tracy Hickman Novel, The Blade of the Avatar these items...

Titles:
Benefactor, Pioneer (gold), Adventurer, Immortal Adventurer (gold), Pilgrim, Founder (gold), Artisan, Royal Artisan (gold), Archivist, Royal Archivist (gold), Cartographer, Royal Cartographer, Explorer (gold), Curator, Royal Curator (gold), Patron, Royal Patron (gold), Royal Founder (gold)

Digital In-Game Items:
Rottweiler hunting dog, Replenishing Snowball Box, Coconut Horse, Steampunk Hat, Founder Shield, Immortality Fruit Seed, Benefactor Cloak, Ankh of Virtue Necklace, Founder Cloak, Royal Elderberry Seed, 1 Non-combat pet, DarkStarr Cloak, 2 starter melee weapons, Crystal Sword, Founder Tunic, 1 Starter (Benefactor) Crafting Tool, Double starting recipes, Artisan’s Box of Plenty, Supply Cache, 1 Non-combat clockwork pet, 2 starter ranged weapons, Ability to tame elusive monster (Taming horn), DarkStarr Metronome, Lute designed by Iolo, second non-combat pets, Puzzle Box, Box cover art decoration, 1 Starter (Founder) Crafting Tool, Founder Armor (4 sets), additional non-combat clockwork pets, World map decoration, a third non-combat pets, Fyndoro’s Tablet of Finding, Magical Printing Press, a third non-combat clockwork pet, Domesday Book certificate decoration

Other Digital Rewards:
Digital download of game, Early bird alpha & beta access, Hickman novel (Blade of the Avatar) digital download, Story of Mondain digital download, Akallabeth original notes scan digital download, Dev Blog view access, Episode 2 & 3, beta access, digital download, Runic language translation print digital download, Soundtrack digital download, PDF art book digital download, Second character slot, Family crest, Episode 4 & 5, beta access, digital download, Name in the in-game Domesday Book

Emotes:
Gypsy Dance, DarkStarr Salute, Two Thumbs Up, Flourish, Flex, Dust Off, Facepalm, Chicken Taunt, Gaze, Slap in the Face, Stand on Head

Physical Rewards:
Collector's box, Printed game manual, Recorded media game, Recorded media soundtrack, Cloth map, Cloth map signed, Runic language translation printed, Mysterious physical artifact, Collector's coin, Original notes of Akallabeth printed, Original notes of Akallabeth signed, Story of Mondain printed, Story of Mondain signed

If one is concerned about Value, the Digital In-Game Items alone could be sold in the Player Marketplace for far more than the two hundred dollars donated through the pledge.

 

I am still puzzled why people are willing to pay so much for digital items... Server closes everthing is gone... very strange. For me, I would never have paid 200 dollars for digital items...

 

Are you derailing your own thread too?

 

I was just writing down a thought that came to my mind.

 

Of course you do.

 

The nice thing about SOTA is with offline mode you can have everything you bought available “almost forever”* if/when the servers are turned off.

Unlike other games, what helped draw me in was the ability to play the game offline and keep whatever I bought in that mode.

As everything is available offline through gold or COTOs from the add on store or pledges, you can buy anything digital from the game and never spend more than $40 for the game. The only exception to this rule is offline Player Owned Towns currently.

* = depending on if Port removes the online activation of offline mode and if your PC you have it loaded on stays running or if you can copy of hard drive with an activated copy of the game into a Virtual Machine and keep it on offline mode only.

 

Lord British was already talking about this summer i think in the Telethon about the sequel Which i'm looking forward to, probably in the winter i can sit by the imaginery fire and read the book.