Shroud of the Avatar’s twenty-sixth monthly test release — Release 26, as it is colloquially known — begins today. Naturally, Starr Long has posted a very lengthy set of instructions and change notes for it:

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 26 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, January 28, at 10:30 AM US Central Time (16:30 UTC).

We decided to start 2016 with a BANG by making Release 26 one of our biggest releases to date! The world expanded with five completely new scenes including new segments in the Truth and Courage storylines (along with polish across multiple scenes). We also made over 100 playability tweaks to combat to address responsiveness, playability, and balance. On top of that, we migrated to the new crafting architecture which unlocked a huge swathe of crafting changes and additions.

Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post, so they are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game, and that it is easy to read.

While we are getting closer to launch, we are still in a constant state of change, and we do not yet have in-game systems to inform players of these changes, or to share ways to help them to explore new content and systems. This means we rely entirely on this message and the linked instructionsand known issues to convey the current game state. We regularly have to answer questions or filter bug reports because some players elect not to read this valuable information. By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and efforts can be redirected to focus on new “unanswered” questions, and addressing critical issues impacting each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post, and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.

Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. So, be sure to check out a couple of the Community Events Calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websitesAvatars Circle Community Events and Events of the Avatars calendar).

The change notes are truly massive for this Release; Starr Long mentioned to me that the notes run to about seventeen pages in whatever program he drafts them in (compared to the average of nine or ten pages that has evidently been established over previous releases). As such, you will really be much better-served by reading the notes in their entirety, rather than the high-level overview notes here in the event calendar entry.

And — personal thing — here’s one portion of the change notes I found to be most intriguing:

Combat Speed: Melee combat in R26 will be much faster than in previous releases. Magic will be slightly faster but more powerful than before. Damage per second is up on both sides but players will need to pay attention to managing their focus as it is now much easier to completely deplete your focus!

Full disclosure: I haven’t exactly been a fan of the combat in Shroud of the Avatar to date. That said, given this, I’m looking forward to giving it another look.