Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #182

by GolemDragon · June 27, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Sorry this is a bit late, life has been crazy lately for me with medical stuff. Some great updates this time around, especially the Solace Bridge and Elven Armor updates. Also, the new Cult of Spears lore is also up to be posted later this week as well (spoiler: SOUL MAGIC!).

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

Announcing the 15% Summer Bonus!

If you were thinking of purchasing (or upgrading) a pledge or Player Owned Town before they expire, between now and the Summer 2016 Expiration Event: Part 2 (see below), the dev team are offering a 15% Bonus on all purchases! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, Make a Difference items, and service vouchers) between 12:00 am CDT June 24, 2016 and Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) August 22, 2016, they will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward additional purchases (which includes pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and player owned town upgrades).

[NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CDT for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of Service Vouchers or Make a Difference items]

You can use the 15% Bonus to save on your next purchase! For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge, you would normally pay the extra $45 for the upgrade. But using the 15% bonus you can immediately save $5. To do so, you would first purchase $40 worth of Store Credit Gift Coupons (via PayPal, Amazon, Bitcoin, or credit card; excluding existing Store Credit) then use the “Convert to Credits” option on your account page to transform the Store Credit Gift Coupons into Store Credit. Within 24 hours an additional $6 bonus ($40 x 15%) would be applied to your Store Credit account, bringing it up to $46. You would then use $45 of your Store Credit to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge.

Welcome Back to Solace Bridge!

[From a Dev Post from Scott “Lum” Jennings]

As part of next release, we’re completely redoing the Solace Bridge sequence of the Path of Love tutorial. Since this may be relevant to the interests of this forum, here’s what we have implemented (@Attenwood and crew just started killing my hopes and dreams with it today):

– No more help windows with text

Players tend to ignore them and turn them off, and with the new reticle system they’re difficult to interact with. We are keeping them post-tutorial for R31 but will continue to evaluate them.

– Help is IN YOUR FACE

Here’s an example of what you see instead:

Instead, it makes more sense to practice combat on, you know, things that try to kill you. So we’ve ramped up the number of undead on Solace Bridge (from 4 to 12ish), and have them be more active. You get context-sensitive hints for moving and firing your new bow as you move down the bridge.

– Wait, 12 undead, as a new player? What?

Well, you have help. Edvard no longer just magically clones himself – instead he will fight alongside you (well, ahead of you – he tanks and could probably take on the bridge by himself since having him die during the tutorial would be rude) and accompanies you to the other side where you meet him previously. (He also gives you 250 arrows to start out with, so no more scavenging around for enough arrows to just finish the scene with)

– But Lum, I don’t WANT to use a bow!

That’s fine. As mentioned earlier, we’ve placed a weapon rack in the scene so you can select whatever starting weapon you ‘d like (sword, polearm, mace, and shield). You don’t start with any skills for them but if you know you wanted them anyway it’s probably not a concern. You are still prompted to use a bow and have basic skills for them.

– What about that kid, anyway?

As part of making the scene in general more interesting/have more to do, we’ve introduced a brief quest where Charlotte Gray (the child in Solace Bridge) now must be saved from the battle by you. You can decline to do so, or get her killed, and all of these choices will have appopriate consequences.

We look forward to see your reaction to this moving forward, since much of it is directly based on your feedback!

The Making of Brittany Estates

NOTE: Brittany Estates is primarily comprised of City sized lots and is scheduled to go live in Release 32.

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

Just wanted to give you guys some more screenshots for the last week of work. Just over 50% done, but I feel it has an established style and look, that is unique to this zone.

The Making of Brittany Wharfs

NOTE: Brittany Wharfs is the center of commerce for Greater Brittany and is mostly comprised of Town sized lots. It is scheduled to go live in Release 31.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

UPDATE ON BRITTANY WHARFS

Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here once again to give you the latest scoop on the Brittany Wharfs. Now this weeks update on the Wharfs is pretty jammed pack with screenshots as the map approaches completion for this upcoming release; including a top down view of player properties and the overall map layout.

Overlooking the Harbor, a protective fort looks out to Sea protecting the vital trade market of the Brittany Wharfs.

Water communities in the northside of the Brittany Wharfs. With 30 Water Lots, the Brittany Wharfs is a must go to place for Water Property lovers.

The Warehouse District pictured right below the gate to Brittany. Rumors abound of a black market in the area filled with notorious activity and contraband smuggling; the dark side of the merchants and trade that keep the Brittany Wharfs alive.

Waterfront property right next to the Harbor.

Merchants who make their lives on bargain and trade live in the Wharfs propering from the rich trade in the area.

Rusty Satyr Inn.
A place for merchants and sailors to sit down and have a drink after a long day at the Harbor.

Open areas for players are plentiful in the Wharfs, from outdoor water patios to small stages all focused on providing the best commodity for players.
On the upper left you can catch a glimpse of a Duke Island Lot.

Esteben Zaldivar
Level Designer

Polished Elven Armor

As part of the rework of the Avatars the dev team are steadily progressing through many of the clothing and armor items to improve their visual quality. They periodically update the progress of this effort.

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

Hey guys!
Just got done with a revamp of the Elven Fighter Armor.
More on the way in the near future!

Elven Armor by Shroud of the Avatar

Elven Mage Robes by Shroud of the Avatar

SotA Con 2016

[From a forum post by Violation Clauth]

We’re happy to announce the first annual Shroud of the Avatar Convention in 2016 to take place on November 4-6 2016 in Baltimore, MD. This convention will be one of our making as a community. The schedule, pending announcement based on funding, has a lot of exciting opportunities and our ambitions are grand. What we know for sure at this point: players will be there.

The goal for this Con is to create a Shroud of the Avatar themed gathering, on the east coast so that players and developers can come together, grow together, and share ideas. What we don’t want is people to attend, thinking that there will be big sponsors and expensive swag bags. The goal is to simply come together, make friends, have a great time, and talk about Shroud of the Avatar

We are asking for funding for the event and for everyone to let us know if they are able to attend. The hotel we have offers group rates for rooms and we would love to make sure everyone gets the best deal possible. We need people to stay at the hotel to get the best price for the convention rooms.
Some of the things we have in the works:

At least someone from PaxLair, Port Phoenix, Avatars Radio, NBNN, and many other communities have committed to attendance.

At least 3 developers have committed to attendance

Potentially, we will recreate a board game using the map of Novia as the board!

Group gaming opportunities

Potentially, group meals with garb encouraged!

Vendors from the SotA community

Potentially, a kid friendly area!

A 1st year exclusive attendance reward will be given out at the event!

We need volunteers. Both local to the area, to help with logistics and planning, and others to help facilitate a smooth and enjoyable time for everyone. We also need financial backing as well as attendees. I would like to thank the three people who have already committed to helping this project and a special thanks to @Winfield for being a sounding board for the last five or so months that we’ve been planning this. We are excited for this event and can’t wait to see everyone and have a great time. I would also like to thank @DarkStarr for his initial support @Berek for his current and future support in making sure we can have Portalarium in attendance.

Please visit sotacon.org for more information. If you would like to attend or volunteer, please get a hold of me. More details will come in the near future.

Recommended Projects to Back: Crowfall’s First Ever Telethon!

Get Ready for Crowfall’s First Ever Telethon!

Our friends over at Crowfall are having their first ever telethon. We wish them the best with their fundraising goals! Be sure and tune in during their 12-hour telecast and lend your support. And be sure to suggest that Gordon and Todd sing, dance, or take a shot as the backers pledge their support! Here’s an excerpt from the CROWFALL LIVE post:

The ArtCraft office is swirling with activity as we prepare for the first-ever “Crowfall Live!” on Monday [June 27, 2016 at 8:00 am Central].

We don’t want to spoil any surprises, so we can’t show any of the works in progress – but here is a teaser shot from our newly-installed ACE studio (i.e. the big closet that we were using a week ago for storage).

Props to our video producer John Gibson and our new production intern Max Lancaster for pulling this together!

Here are some of the things we have in store for you during the livestream:

A partnership announcement,

Surprise guests,

Design reveals (new information about both systems and content!),

Live demonstrations from our amazing artists,

Beat-the-Dev playtests,

Murder of Crows live (more info on this soon!)

Future plans for ACE

Hourly prizes and sales

And even more…

This 12-hour “Crowfall Live!” event will begin at 8 am Central, so drop in as often and for as long as you can throughout the day on Monday, June 27th twitch.tv/crowfallgame.

Come join us for what promises to be a great time!

Todd & Gordon
Co-Founders, ACE