Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #189
Greetings Fellow Avatars! Not a huge amount of information this week so I figured I would surprise everyone with some articles and/or youtube videos from people from the past week or 2. I am also pleased to say that one friend of mine has been making alot of use of my lot, so while I am not playing SotA, I am pleased my pledge items are getting use.
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
- MMORPG.com article and YouTube Videos
- Port Graff Revisited
- Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2
- Password Change Request
- Static Player Owned Town Policy Statement
MMORPG.com Article and YouTube Videos
As one would expect, over the past 2 weeks, lots of articles and youtube videos have been making their way up onto the internet. So to highlight some of these, I am providing you with some links and/or video embeds. Please enjoy!
MMORPG Shroud of the Avatar Review in Progress Part 1 – A solid review on the current state of the game which, as the reviewer reminds ppl, will change as the dev team polish and add more content.
Village Monk
Grumpy Old Gamer
Desron.net aka Duke Violation
Markee Dragon
Port Graff Revisited
Port Graff is a cloned scene based on Kingsport. It is getting rebuilt this release and will go live with Release 33. Note that when the dev team un-clone these scenes we do NOT change lot placements. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage. In the case of Port Graff, it is getting a plot specific additions related to the gem trade between the Graff Gem Mines and Graff Island along with a host of other visual changes.
[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]
Hey guys, Sorcerous Steve here to give you a sneak peak at the uncloning process for Port Graff!
Port Graff started out as a Kingsport Clone and has undergone major renovations for its R33 release.
Port Graff is located on the western coast of Drachvald and serves as a docking point for the valuable gems coming from the Graff Gem Mines. The gems make their way to Port Graff via cart and are placed on boats for their transport to Graff Island where they are sculpted and added to weaponry and jewelry.
Carts filled with gems enter the Port Graff checkpoint. Port Graff is a mining port town heavy on trade with an abundance of guards protecting valuable shipments of gems.
Port Graff waterfront.
Gems are loaded onto boats and shipped to Graff Island, which can be spotted off in the distance.
Player homes line the boarded mud streets
Dawn sets in on the mining port town of Port Graff.
Small streams flow through the town of Port Graff.
Stay tuned for the next update on Port Graff!
Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2
At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on August 22, 2016, the dev team are expiring ALL remaining pledges, including: Adventurer, Founder, Royal Artisan, Explorer, Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2. To commemorate the final expiration of all remaining pledges, they are holding the 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 2, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Pledge Expirations at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC).
You can pre-post your questions in the article’s comments section, or post questions during the telethon in Discord chat.*
Help the team to achieve the following goals during the telethon!
As a special bonus, the dev team are offering Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). The Summer Telethon of the Avatar Funding Stretch Goal Rewards are:
- $10,000: /airplane emote
- $25,000: ? and ! Hats
- $35,000: Aeronaut Outfit
- $50,000: Accordion musical instrument
- $65,000: Mini Automaton Pet
- $80,000: Baby Clockwork Dragon Pet
- + More if we go beyond!
Cheer on the Devs!
For every $2,500 donated, all developers on camera have to either dance, sing, or drink a shot of alcohol.
Additionally, they will yet again be spinning the Wheel of Fortune & Doom! (they borrowed this idea from our friends over at Crowfall). The wheel will have 14 items at any given time, but dozens of total prizes ultimately will be given away! This includes developers that, if selected, have to either dance, sing, or drink a shot of alcohol.
As the wheel is spun, what is selected will be replaced by something in the list below. Items already selected will be removed for a time (some may not come back onto the wheel for the rest of the telethon. Keep in mind that some of these may never come up, so cross your fingers for your preferred item!
Wheel of Doom Items: (NOTE: not a complete list and list subject to change)
- Blood Reliquaries 10% off for 1 hour
- All Lot Deeds 25% off for 30 min
- Viking Houses 20% off for 1 hour
- Juggles 20% for 1 hour
- Elven Elder Armor 10% off for 1 hour
- Pets 20% off for 1 hour
- Hot Air Balloon & Airship 25% off for 1 hour
- Stone Statues (incl Dragons!) 15% off for 30 min
- Obsidian Homes 20% off for 30 min
- Pipes 30% off for 1 hour
- Wearable Bundles 20% off for 1 hour
- Prosperity Tools 10% off for 1 hour
- Wings 20% for 1 hour
- /breathefires 20% for 1 hour
- Kobold City 5% off for 30 min
- Viking City 5% off for 30 min
- Kobold Town 10% for 1 hour
- Viking Town 10% for 1 hour
- Viking Village Keep 10% for 1 hour
- Kobold Village Keep 10% for 1 hour
- Viking Village 10% for 1 hour
- Kobold Village 10% for 1 hour
- Kobold Row 10% for 1 hour
- Viking Row 10% for 1 hour
We also have these exciting prizes to give away throughout the telethon!*
- Store Credits
- Town Lot Property Deeds
- Obsidian Tower Village Home
- Star Citizen Aeronaut Helmet Starter Bundle
- Cloaks, Juggle, Musical Instruments, Pets, Prosperity Tool, Kobold, and other bundles
- Rare Lord British relics
- Special Challenge Coins
- Shroud of the Avatar t-shirts
- Sword of Midras audiobook AND hardcover copies!
- More Razer Gear
Here is a peek at what to watch out for as the telethon progress:
Schedule (All times and content subject to change)
- Noon: Welcome to the Summer Telethon!
- 12:30 PM: Community Trailer Contest winners announced!
- 1:00 PM: R32 Postmortem Q&A continues
- 2:00 PM: Studio Tour – Dev Rampage!
- 3:00 PM: Community Hour 1 – Getting Involved
- 4:00 PM: Story & NPCs Deep Dive
- 5:00 PM: Spite and Port Graff: Uncloning Process
- 6:00 PM: Player Housing Deep Dive
- 7:00 PM: Community Hour 2 – Contributors
- 8:00 PM: Crafting Deep Dive
- 9:00 PM: Combat Deep Dive
- 10:00 PM: Items & Scene Design
- 11:00 PM: Adventure Tour and AMA
Watch The Telethon on YouTube!
Warning: Telethon is Rated PG-13 for Alcoholic Content
(might get upgraded to Rated-R depending on rate of pledges)
See you on the livestream chat at Noon this coming August 22nd!
* There will be some prizes awarded during the telethon, but you have to be present in the Discord chatroom to qualify for each drawing. Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to each segment will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief. Only 3 Questions per person!
Password Change Request
Earlier this year, a few well-known games and sites were compromised and lists of usernames and passwords became widely available. Yesterday, it was revealed that DOTA2 was the latest victim.
The SotA Dev team continue to be fortunate enough to not be one of the victims of these attacks. However, the dev team have experienced a hacking attack that attempted to use these leaked username/password combinations to try and login to Shroud and have succeeded several times thus far. As a precaution, they temporarily disabled login to the official website until 6:00 PM CDT (11:00 PM UTC) on August 11, 2016. However, if you have played one of the games that has been compromised, you may be one of the victims we identified.
You must make sure your username, or at least your password is unique on our site. I would personally insist that you change your password if you have any doubt. FYI, this is good security behavior in general.
If you wish to change your password, click on “Account” to go to your Account Page, click “Edit Profile” link beneath your profile image, and enter a new password on your Profile Settings page.
Static Player Owned Town Policy Statement
[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]
Greetings Player-Owned Town Owners (and other interested parties),
We are still working on a few remaining Player-Owned Town (POT) Templates (like the Swamp Island), but as soon as we have what we consider adequate coverage across biomes, we can begin Static POT construction. We hope to start as soon as Q4. As part of this, we wanted to update everyone on our policies regarding Static POTs.
- Order: Construction order will be based on size and purchase date (i.e. the oldest and biggest will be built first).
- Contact: When we are ready to begin construction, we will contact the owner with any questions we have about customization requests.
- Templates: All construction will be done off of the base templates. Requests for other maps (ex. Kingsport) as base templates can be submitted, but it is very unlikely they are suitable for POT construction due to size and/or space limitations. This is because all POTs have to be built with the maximum size in mind of a Metropolis.
- Customization: We will make every attempt to get as close as we can to your customization requests as constrained by Item 3.
- Permanence: Once you choose Static and we begin construction of your POT, you can never convert that Custom Static town to Dynamic. It will be permanently Static. Lots work completely differently in static scenes versus Dynamic scenes and now that we are persistent we cannot change existing static lots into dynamic lots.
- Change Requests: If you want to make changes to your town after it is in the game, you will need to either upgrade to a larger town size or pay for those changes (charges will be determined based on scale of the change requests). Some requests cannot be made at all because of persistence (example: changing or deleting existing lots).
- Courtesy Unlock: If you wish to switch to Dynamic after reviewing these policies, we will provide you one courtesy unlock of your Player-Owned Towns Submission Form to convert to Dynamic.
Thank you for your support and we look forward to working with those of you who choose Static as your option.
