Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• 52 Day Countdown for 10% Summer Pledge Bonus & Reward Changes
• Hangout of the Avatar: Release 19 Postmortem, Royal Warrant & ONBE Awards
• NBNN Interview with Chris Spears
• Very Large Creatures: Trolls (work-in-Progress)

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52 Day Countdown for 10% Summer Pledge Bonus & Reward Changes

If you were thinking of pledging your support to the development of Shroud of the Avatar, or upgrading your existing pledge, now’s a great time to do it! To celebrate twenty months of successful monthly releases, Portalarium are offering a 10% Summer Pledge Bonus! Starting at 10am CST, July 10 and running through Midnight CST, August 31, 2015, you will receive an additional 10% bonus added to your Store Credit for any pledge purchases or pledge upgrades (including monthly pledge payment plans).

(NOTE: The 10% Store Credit will be applied daily starting early next week, but all purchases as of 10am CST this morning will qualify for the 10% bonus)

Additionally, as we enter the last half of 2015, and major milestones such as Alpha and Beta are looming closer on the horizon, the team will be announcing a series of expiration events regarding pledges, rewards, and related services. The first expiration event coincides with the end of our 10% Summer Bonus promotion at Midnight CST, August 31, 2015. These expirations include:

• Select Pledges (including their specific rewards):
  • $220 Patron Pledge
  • $375 Navigator Pledge
  • $450 Developer Pledge
• Signed physical goods (Patron pledge and above)
• Home and basement stacking (Ancestor pledge and above)
• Secondary lots (Lord pledge and above)

Please know that these expirations DO NOT affect any backers that already have these rewards. If you already got ’em, then you get to keep ’em! These expirations only affect new backers, or existing backers that have not upgraded to the specified pledge tiers before the expiration date.

[NOTE: Any payment plans started for the specified pledge tiers (Patron, Ancestor, & Lord) prior to Midnight CST, August 31, 2015 will not be affected by these expirations]

Pledge Expirations

The Patron, Navigator, and Developer pledge tiers will no longer be available after August 31, 2015. Any current pledge less than Patron that upgrades after August 31, 2015 will not receive any of the unique pledge rewards included in those tiers (regardless of Era: Royal Founders, Founders, and Benefactors). This includes:

• Patron Pledge Rewards:
  • Autographed “The Story of Mondain in the World of Sosaria”
  • Autographed Akallabeth D&D Campaign
  • Honorific title of “Patron” or “Royal Patron”
  • Teachable Emote – Head Stand
  • Your name permanently listed in the in-game Domesday Book
  • All Three Non-Combat Clockwork Pets
  • One (1) non-combat pet (out of 3 to choose from)
  • Fyndoro’s Tablet of Finding
  • Magical Printing Press
• Navigator Pledge Rewards:
  • Honorific title of “Navigator” or “Royal Navigator“
  • Teachable Emote – Tai Chi
  • Novia Map Atlas
  • 3-Story Row House
  • 1-Story Row Basement
  • Phonograph
  • Cloth map hand signed by Richard “Lord British” Garriott
• Developer Pledge Rewards:
  • Honorific title of “Tinkerer” or “Royal Tinkerer”
  • Your name proudly displayed in the in-game credits
  • Printed “Tinkerer” Certificate, hand signed by Richard “Lord British” Garriott
  • Help create and name a character in the game
  • Teachable Emote – Shadow Boxing
  • 4-Story Row House
  • 2-Story Row Basement
  • PDF version of Developer Design documents
  • Unity Asset Packs
  • A digital, framed “Tinkerer” Certificate as an in-game decoration
  • Aether Vibration Amplifier (i.e. wireless device to listen to Avatar’s Radio)
  • (Dev+ access to private Developers Forums will remain available to all pledges above the Developer pledge tier)

All pledges at or above Patron level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive all of the expired rewards at or below their pledge level as they upgrade.

Signed Physical Goods (Patron pledge and above)

Any current pledge less than Patron that upgrades after August 31, 2015 will not receive any signed physical goods pledge rewards (regardless of Era: Royal Founders, Founders, and Benefactors). This includes:

• Richard Garriott’s “The Story of Mondain in the World of Sosaria” (Patron+ pledges)
• Richard Garriott’s  Akallabeth D&D Campaign (Patron+ pledges)
• Cloth map signed by Richard Garriott (Navigator+ pledges)
• “Tinkerer” Certificate, signed by Richard Garriott (Developer+ pledges)
• Village Property Deed signed by Richard Garriott (Citizen, Edlemann, Knight pledges)
• Blade of the Avatar novel signed by Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman (Edlelmann+ pledges)
• Town Property Deed signed by Richard Garriott (Knight Marshal, Lord, Lord Marshal pledges)
• City Property Deed signed by Richard Garriott (Baron 1,2,3 pledges)
• Keep Property Deed signed by Richard Garriott (Duke pledge)
• Castle Property Deed signed by Richard Garriott (Lord of the Manor 1 & 2 pledges)
• (Note: The signed Akalabeth Cassette Cover will remain in the LotM 2 pledge rewards)

All pledges at or above Patron level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive all of the signed physical goods at or below their pledge level as they upgrade.

Home and Basement Stacking (Ancestor pledge and above)

Currently, any pledge that includes property receives the home and basement for that pledge PLUS all the homes and basements from the previous pledges. After August 31, 2015 any pledge below Ancestor that upgrades will only receive the home(s) and single basement available to the pledge they upgrade to (actual reward will vary by era). For instance the Lord (Founder era) pledge currently includes 16 homes (see list below), after August 31st, the Lord (Founder era) pledge will only include 2 homes.  All pledges at or above Ancestor level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive all the homes and basements included at or below their pledge level as they upgrade. As a reminder, here is a list of all the rewards that currently stack, but no longer will after August 31st:

• Ancestor: 2-story stone Row house
• Navigator: 3-story stone Row house; 1-Story Row Basement (plus all those above)
• Developer: 4-story stone Row house; 2-Story Row Basement (plus all those above)
• Citizen: Shingle Roof Village Home (+ Waterfront Cabana for Founder/Royal Founder); 1-Story Village Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Edelmann: German-style Village Home (+ German-style Waterfront Cabana for Founder/Royal Founder);  (plus all those above)
• Knight: Keep Village Home (+ Waterfront Lighthouse for Founder/Royal Founder); 2-Story Village Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Knight Marshal: Tower Keep Town Home; ; 2-Story Town Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Lord: Lord’s Town Home (+ Waterfront Houseboat for Founder/Royal Founder); 3-Story Town Stone Basement & 5-Story Row Basement (plus all those above)
• Lord Marshal: Great Hall Town Home: 5-Story Town Stone Basement & 2-Story Village Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Baron 1: Baron’s City Home (+ Waterfront Frigate for Founder/Royal Founder); 2-Story City Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Baron 2/3: Baron’s City Home (+ Waterfront Galleon for Founder/Royal Founder); 2-Story City Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Duke: Duke’s Home (+ Waterfront Island Castle); 2-Story Keep Stone Basement (plus all those above)
• Lord of the Manor: LotM City-sized Home (+ Waterfront, Grand Island Castle with Keeps); 2-Story Castle Stone Basement (plus all those above)

Double Lots (Lord pledge and above)

Currently Lord and above pledges include a second smaller lot deed and corresponding basement. After August 31, 2015 any pledge below Lord that upgrades will only receive a single lot deed and basement.  All pledges at or above Lord level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive both lots and both basements. Expiring items include:

• Lord: Rent Free Row Lot Deed & 5-Story Row Basement
• Lord Marshal: Rent Free Village Lot Deed & 2-Story Village Stone Basement
• Baron 3: Rent Free Village Lot Deed
• Duke: Rent Free Village Lot Deed
• Lord of the Manor: Rent Free Town Lot Deed

To try and help summarize this information, here is a table that shows the home, basement, and lot changes for all Founder Era pledges that will be affected:

 

To repeat what was said above, please know that these expirations DO NOT affect any backers that already have these rewards. If you already got ’em, then you get to keep ’em! These expirations only affect new backers, or existing backers that have not upgraded to the specified levels before the expiration date.

[NOTE: Any payment plans started for the specified pledge tiers (Patron, Ancestor, & Lord) prior to Midnight CST, August 31, 2015 will not be affected by these expirations]

 

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Hangout of the Avatar: Release 19 Postmortem, Royal Warrant & ONBE Awards

The dev team had a great Hangout of the Avatar yesterday with Richard, Starr, and Chris chatting about Release 19 and looking ahead to Release 20. And, of course, FireLotus was fielding questions and feedback live in the chat-room as well as from the original post! Lots of great material was covered, awesome prizes were handed out, as well the following community members were granted awards by Lord British:

• Royal Warrant awarded to the SotA Forum Moderator Group for all the volunteer time they give to keep the forums and chat channel awesome!
• ONBE awarded to WrathPhoenix for Founder of Phoenix Republic, Governor of Port Phoenix, founder and Dean of the Novian Academy, orchestrated and coordinates dozens of SotA Twitch Stream Teams, orchestrated SotA’s involvement with Water.org Campaign
• ONBE awarded to Themo Lock Organization/involvement in-game events, designer/builder of theatrical areas, and regular contributor to the Player/Dev Combat Scrum
• ONBE awarded to Bambino as the creator and organizer of Gustball tournaments, organization of PvP Events, and regular contributor to the Player/Dev Combat Scrum
• ONBE awarded to Rild for establishing the Sota merchandising site, Relics by Rild, designing and manufacturing all that wonderful SotA SWAG

If you missed the live hangout, then you can watch it right here:

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NBNN Interview With Chris Spears

Chris Spears sits down with Lazarus on twitch.tv to spill the beans on numerous previously undisclosed secrets!

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Very Large Creatures: Trolls (work-in-progress)

Last week we were introduced to some of Geoff Mellon’s initial work-in-progress on Trolls, our first very large creature. As stated last week, the team intend to make the combat experience with very large creatures different than what will be found with normal sized opponents. For the Troll they are working on huge area of effect attacks that include striking the ground for nearby attackers and throwing boulders for distant enemies.

Geoff’s got a 5-page thread going over in our Dev+ forums where he’s been keeping our Dev+ community up-to-date with his ongoing work on the troll. Here are a few sample images from his forum posts: