Greetings Fellow Avatars!  I appreciate some of the recent well wishes from some ppl during my recent health problems.  I am doing better, and am happy to bring a quick little update today on Shroud of the Avatar as I promised I would do so long ago, as often as I could.

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

• Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2
• NPC Submissions Requested for Spite!
• Port Graff Revisited (Part 2)

Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2

Portalarium is continuing their telethon celebration of resistance as well as push for more money and vanity items.  However in more important news at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on August 22 (TODAY!), 2016, they are expiring ALL remaining pledges, including: Adventurer, Founder, Royal Artisan, Explorer, Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2.

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: Adventure Tour and AMA

Watch The Telethon on YouTube!

NPC Submissions Requested for Spite!

If you have a high enough pledge level for the NPC submission, you have an opportunity. I am waiting for for NPC requests for a specific city so I am still waiting just so I can at least claim that pledge reward.  See Lum’s post here:

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Scott “Lum” Jennings]

This month, we’re seeking entries for inhabitants of the village of Spite!

Spite is a village full of forboding, across Stormwater Lake from the dungeon of Malice. Yet despite that, many good folk still do carve out a living among the cliffs of the Sirens. More info on Spite has been posted by SorcerousSteve who led up the reworking of Spite here.

First, some brief notes:

• Spite is the first of our “uncloning” scenes, where we go back post-final wipe and fill out unique content for each village and city. Thus, the NPCs are already in the game, but we can change appearance (to a degree, as seen below), gender, etc. to suit your request. If you want to pick a specific NPC (for example, one near your own house) we will do our best to accomodate you but may not be able to.
• NPC visual customization, as you may have noticed, is still at a very early stage in development. Right now for the backers who want to be added to Spite, we cannot offer any visual customization options beyond our standard gallery of NPC models. If you would like to have input over the visual customization of your NPC, you can wait for further releases when we can offer this. We will also allow a one-time visual re-customization once customization has been added if you would like to add your NPC now.
• Response to this will be on a first-come first-served basis for each call for responses. If your NPC doesn’t appear in Spite, feel free to respond again in future posts. We have quite a few towns and cities to populate!
• We are allowing people who have already submitted NPCs to submit their ideas for Spite as well if they like, but people who have not yet submitted an NPC will take priority over those who have.
• When responding, please list a first and second choice for profession.
• NPCs for Spite must be human. No undead, please.

Still with us? Great! Here’s what we need this month:

• 9 guards
• 1 innkeeper
• 1 waiter/waitress
• 2 fish merchants
• 2 farming supplies merchant
• 3 food/cooking supplies merchants
• 1 crafting merchant
• 1 housing decorations merchant
• 1 housing deeds merchant
• 3 blacksmiths
• 1 mage supplies merchant
• 1 alchemy supplies merchant
• 8 citizens (currently called “travellers” but can be residents that are not merchants)
• 1 combat trainer
• 1 crafting trainer
• 1 banker
• 1 town crier
• 1 public vendor
• 4 children

If you’d like to have your namesake be a resident or visitor of Spite, please respond via private message on this forum to me (Lum) using the following format:

• NPC name:
• NPC gender:
• NPC profession (first choice):
• NPC profession (second choice):
• NPC background (optional): A paragraph on whom your NPC is, how they would respond to nosy outlanders poking about their business, what brings them to Spite (or keeps them there), or anything else you’d like to add. We reserve the right to edit and/or reject any background that does not fit the lore and setting of the game.

Please specify in your submission that this NPC is for Spite.

We will respond if: your NPC is used; if it is rejected for whatever reason (such as an inappropriate name); if a supplied background is inappropriate, or if your NPC missed the cutoff for this release.

Thanks for your support, and see you in Spite!

Port Graff Revisited (Part 2)

Port Graff is a cloned scene based on Kingsport. It is getting rebuilt this release and will go live with Release 33. 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. This is continued from last week’s post.

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

UPDATE ON PORT GRAFF

Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here to give you the latest on Port Graff coming to you this R33!

Port Graff is located on the western coast of Drachvald and is a crucial link in the gem trade from the Graff Gem Mines to Graff Island.

Gems ready to be loaded and shipped to Graff Island.

Blue Gem Creek, this fast flowing creek located in north Port Graff gushes down the rocky hillside and gets its name from the blue gems found along its rocky banks.

Graff Island can be spotted offshore from Port Graff.

Southern Entrance to Port Graff

See you next time!

Esteben Zaldivar
Level Designer