Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #212

by GolemDragon · January 30, 2017

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 38 Now!

Release 38 launched January 26, with some backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s new content to explore, including:

New Blood Bay PVP scene
New NPC Conversation Interface+
Path of Courage Polish
Perennial Coast Polish
Xenos Rebuild
Brookside Rebuild
Vauban Pass Rebuild
Solania Polish
Over 15 New Potions
Rare Magical Artifacts
Grandmaster Crafting and Enchanting expansions
New Traps
Canyon Siege Map
Clockwork Dragons
New Combat AI including Steath and Preferential Targeting
R37 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

…and much more

Check out the Release 38 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new content.

Release 38 Player Instructions

Release 38 Known Issue

Release 38 Addendum

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Fizzle changes: Several bugs had been reported with fizzle over the past few releases and we fixed all of them for this release. The result is that some players saw improvements in fizzle rates, but most saw their fizzle rates get worse. The worst case will be people wielding 2-handed weapons while wearing heavy armor and trying to cast Air, Death, or Fire magic. Those cases might have seen their fizzle rates go up by as much as 25%.
- Some bonuses were being applied before armor multipliers and others after. We consolidated the math so all gear bonuses and held items bonuses are applied before the armor multiplier for spells.
- We fixed the long lingering bug that made 2-handed weapons give a 15% bonus of dual wielding or using a shield. 2-handed weapons are already more powerful than 1-handed and this just didn’t feel like a fair advantage for them.
- While we were adjusting the logic, we moved open hand fizzle bonus from 15% to 10%. Wands still grant 15% bonus and staves now grant 30% bonus. We expect to add other handheld focus items in the future that will also give bonuses.
Targeting Changes: A long standing issue with auto attacking was addressed; the “feature” that players affectionately called “Bowdar”. In previously releases, if you had auto attack enabled and there was any valid target, you attacked. Due to Novian bunnies being added to the endangered list, we decided to change how this works.
- With auto attack enabled, players will attack any valid target continuously but only if the target has agro’d on the player OR if the target has been manually selected through clicking or the select target key (defaults to ‘g’). This means to attack bunnies, hidden skeletons, or other players (stealthed or otherwise) with auto attack, you must now manually select them.
- In build 544 and earlier, the toggle between free and auto attack is on the game options menu.
- Starting in Build 545, all attack mode options will be removed from the menu and instead, the toggle auto attack key (defaults to ‘t’) will switch between free attack and auto attack.
Elemental attack changes: Going forward, elemental attacks will do some melee damage in addition to their native elemental type. This was to relieve an exploit where players were using same type summoned Elementals to distract wild Elementals so they could then mine areas without any danger.
Pickpocket: This skill can no longer be used during combat. This was being used, along with a set of other skills, in a series of exploits.

The Making of K’rul

Underneath Blood Bay, far from the prying eyes of the Oracle, top Kobold researchers work in the Kobold Research Underground Laboratories; aka K’rul. In this vast underground facility, Kobolds work to harness Obisidian shards, build ever larger and more dangerous automatons, and craft mysterious weapons. Like Blood Bay, K’rul is an Open PVP zone but it also has a lot of PVE opportunities with top tier Kobolds and automatons to battle with, as well as dangerous technological traps and puzzles to contend with.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

K’RUL progress screenshots