Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #121

by GolemDragon · April 18, 2015

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Good Afternoon. I know, I am so late with posting. I was out till early this morning and I slept way too long. This update of the Avatar has 4 things for ya. The Vertas Pass stuff was a set of stuff I had been hoping for so I am glad to share them. Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

Steam Special Promotion: 25% Off Thru April 21
Abe’s Vertas Pass Upgrades
Judging a Book by its Cover
Fences Galore

Steam Special Promotion: 25% Off Thru April 21

If you’ve been thinking about pledging to Shroud of the Avatar at the starting $45 Adventurer pledge tier (or buying one as a gift for someone), now’s a good time to do it over on Steam Early Access. Steam is running a 25% discount on the basic $45 package thru April 21st.

Abe’s Vertas Pass Upgrades

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Abe Robertson]

Hello everyone!

Lately we’ve seen some very exciting improvements to our game, notably the Unity 5 lighting, the standard shader, speedtrees, as well as an ever growing library of high fidelity art assets. I recently had some time to reiterate on one of our older scenes, Vertas Pass, to see what could be aesthetically possible after integrating all of these improvements. I’ve included a few before and after screenshots, as well as some sneak peek screenshots at the bottom.

The above screenshot was one of the first areas I revisited, beginning with the replacement of all of the old rocks. (A few devs told me they looked like meatballs) The desert rocks worked perfectly after a texture pass to make them appear arctic themed. I also integrated a retextured version of a rock pile asset I built for the Spectral Mines exterior, to improve the blending between the terrain and the natural walls.

Here is an example of some winter themed speedtrees, which look far more detailed than the previous palette, and are animated in a more realistic manner. Lighting contrast has been increased to make the environment appear colder.

More rocks are being used to line the cliff so it feels more natural and more detailed.

I covered the background hills in spruce trees to give a better sense of depth, and to evoke a feeling of being surrounded by a forest.

Sneak Peek Screenshots:

Hope you guys like the changes!

Abe

Judging a Book by its Cover

In Update #119 we introduced you to the some of the new book covers that Scott Jones has been working on for Release 17. Each unique book cover is designed to give players a hint of the book’s contents. Rick Holtrop has been integrating the books into R17 and decorated these shelves using the new books:

Here are more of Scott’s new book covers you can expect to find in Release 17:

Combat

Magic

Crafting

Miscellaneous

Cities

Fences Galore

The team areadding sixteen new fence styles to Release 17 which launches on April 30. Some of the fences will be available in-game and some in the Add-On Store, and some will even be added to basic pledge rewards (stay tuned for that info in an upcoming Update). Below are seven of the sixteen new fences.

They are also adding a variety of new “pavers” to R17 that can be used for decoration, and will showcase them in an upcoming Update. In the following screenshot, the cobblestone pavers used in combination with the Ivy Covered Stone Fence make for a very attractive look.

Ivy Covered Stone Fence (add-on)