Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Male Epic Plate Armor Revamp
• The Halls of Artifice (A Work In Progress)
• Making of Valhold

Male Epic Plate Armor Revamp

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “Skullmuncher34” Kinnear]

Hello all! My name’s Fletcher. I’m a new character artist on the team. Here’s one of the polished armor sets I just finished. I’m using Sketchfab web-based 3D viewer to preview my models and the team is considering using this method to display progress for various assets in the future. Having the ability to have an interactive viewer that allows you to pan and rotate a model in real time is a very helpful and immersive way to show our work.

NOTE: Sketchfab’s renderer is different than Unity’s, so assets may appear differently in game but our goal is to match in game visuals as closely to this as possible.

Shroud of the Avatar Male Epic Plate Armor by fletcherkinnear on Sketchfab

Shroud of the Avatar Male Epic Plate Armor
by fletcherkinnear
on Sketchfab

The Halls of Artifice (A Work In Progress)

This is the continuing update on the progress on Artifice, scheduled to go live in Release 31.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Scottie Jones]

Curiosity, it seems, gets the better of you even in paradise… It’s soon time to make your way across the Entrance Hall to the last vestibule, to see where its golden door leads. The sight that greets you is most promising. Glittering stacks of gold coins and decorative urns of precious metals are scattered here and there around the portal. There are coffers here that promise riches within, and ornate decanters that surely are filled with a wealth of only the finest perfumes and exotic oils. You crave to see what further wonders await.

Upon entering, you are overwhelmed by a mighty chamber of riches beyond the dreams of avarice! Behold the Hall of Wealth Without Limit!… Here, amidst arabesque arches of gold-leafed alabaster and carved chalcedony, glowing with opalescent light filtered through decorative panels of leaded glass and enormous gemstones, lay piles of seemingly endless treasures and priceless works of art.

Everywhere you set your hungry gaze, mounds of gold coins and sparkling statuary delight the eye with the glow and glimmer of warm light reflected off of a thousand polished surfaces. Gem-studded swords, shields of silver and gold, and precious idols from distant lands all call to you to claim them as your own. Perhaps there will be others here that will join you in collecting the choicest of treasures, or perhaps the contents of this fabulous chamber are yours and yours alone.

Beyond the center displays there is more still to discover, as every shelf before every window offers more and more lucre. Golden platters are stacked high with coins of all kinds, and at every turn chests wait to be opened so that they may divulge their precious secrets.

And of course, like the other halls, as you approach the back wall you find yet another of those intricately carved containers, identical to the rest, and just as mysterious. In this hall of splendor, however, such enigmas are far outshone by the incredible beauty and opulence that surrounds you on every side.

Meandering wistfully through the chamber as a whole, you find that the golden portal is once again a reminder of the last exit you have yet to explore; the triple-locked doors that appeared behind you as if by magic when you first entered the Halls of Artifice. But now, while enjoying visions of what such wealth can surely buy you, and the shining future it will bestow upon you and all your kin, why bother with troubling thoughts of unknown passages beyond this heaven when there is treasure to claim!… Here and now are all that really matter, after all…

Hopefully you have found this delightful!

More to come in the following weeks…

Scottie ^_^

Making of Valhold

This is the continuing update on the progress on Valhold. Valhold is scheduled to go live in Release 30.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Richard “RrMatey” Matey]

Hey there Avatars,

I am wrapping up the exterior of Valhold. Moving onto The Crypt of the Avatar and will come back around to create the interior of the Valhold Castle. In the meantime you can check out the screenshots before the scene goes live.