In advance of last weekend’s Unity Scene Jam, Portalarium published a new update to the Shroud of the Avatar website, in which a Richard Garriott-narrated video was featured. In it, Lord British walks us through the process of decorating a house in Shroud of the Avatar…which, it must be said, is a pretty slick system overall:

I’m not entirely sold on the idea that one can cram e.g. an entire crafting table into one’s backpack, thus enabling it to be carried between locations in and around one’s home. Not, I suppose, that there are many other effective ways to realize such a system. But it seems a tad immersion-breaking, even so.

Also included in the update was a look at kobolds, one of the monsters that will evidently feature in Forsaken Virtues:

Rawraghblaghblurg!

Portalarium note that this particular monster is based upon this Unity Asset Store asset. In fact, they released their modified version of the asset back to its original creator (although as yet it has not been re-posted to the Asset Store).

There’s also an animation of the kobold in action:

Of course, no Shroud of the Avatar update would be complete, at this time, without some sort of housing-related update…and, in fact, Portalarium have given us two houses to look at this week. The first is the Edelmann home, which those who pledge at the Edelmann level ($575) will receive. As can be seen here, it’s a bit bigger than a standard Village-level home, with a more open interior, and moderate Germanic influences in its design:

Additionally, the Tower home — in both its Village and Town sizes — was shown off in this update:

The interior shots are all taken from the Town-level version of the home, which includes a lower level (unlike the Village-level version). As can be seen, it’s a spacious dwelling, framed by columns and featuring elegant stonework…to say nothing of the commanding view of one’s surroundings.

Tower homes are on sale on the Shroud of the Avatar store, and can be obtained for the next little while for 50% off (a Village-level home will cost $50, and a Town-level home will cost $75). Obviously, you’ll need to own a plot in a village or town to take advantage of the respective Tower home for each.