Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #273

by GolemDragon · April 2, 2018

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Launch is finally here, and while some of us are having fun finding goofy mistakes, quirks, derps, graphical issues, and more. Other players are giving the story a shot after years of development. So for this post-Launch Week, here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

Game Development

Launch is Here!

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues (Episode 1) (aka Release 52) launched, leaving Early Access this past Tuesday, March 27, withplayers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the launch version! There’s new content to explore, including:

Frame rate Improvements
Scene Rebuilds: South Boundless Forest, Northwood, Blood River Forest, Quel Shardfall
Companions
Multiple Characters
Heraldry
Offline Spawning Rules
Story Polish
More Side Quests
New Recipes & Patterns
More Virtue Banners
Combat Polish (New Skills, Dragon Wing Gust)
New Decorations (Wood & Stone Inn, Novia Globe, Ornate Planters)
More Emotes
Spring 2018 Items
R50 Telethon Items
R52 QA Testing Incentive Winners

…and much more!

Release 52 Player Instructions

Release 52 Known Issues

The Making of Quel Shardfall

The great Cataclysm from the shattering of the two moons happened hundreds of years ago and showered the land with meteors. The largest shards created huge areas of devastation called shardfalls. The influence of the Oracle is weak in these areas and Outlanders can slay each other at will (making it an Open PvP zone). After months of meteor showers one particularly large shard has been approaching steadily and has finally crashed.

The latest shardfall has obliterated North Quel Woods, and the Quel Shardfall has appeared in its place. Unlike other shardfalls that are hundreds of years old, this shardfall is so fresh that the ground is on fire, the air is thick with electricity that periodically discharges (ouch!), lava flows in places, and the amount of floating shards is staggering.

The devastation of this new shardfall has exposed an ancient crypt, corrupting the resident lich and transforming him into a unique Obsidian Lich who uses Chaos Magic (much like the Chaos Daemon). Slaying the Obsidian Lich can reward you with a unique Obsidian Lich Helm.

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

Hey guys! SorcerousSteve here with screenshots of the Quel Shardfall! The culmination of a month long meteor shower has ended with a cataclysmic impact in the Quel Region.

In designing the Quel Shardfall we wanted to illustrate the idea that a recent catastrophic event had just occurred, it is this idea that differentiates this shardfall from all the others. The sky has grown dark, lightning storms rage around the impact site, pieces of obsidian float as though the exact moment of the meteoric collision has been suspended in time, and colorful gases and flames cover the crater. This is an area that is very much hazardous…

Coming in at cosmic speeds the meteor tore through the slopes of the Brightbone Mountains to the west, slicing the top of trees, before ripping a gash in what once was the North Quel Woods.Bolts of lightning and sparks sizzle between pieces of obsidian as the area is still very much active.A windmill caught a flame stands solemnly amidst the devastation.

High voltage sparks can prove a threat to players that wander in this area. Beware!

Dust and gas has been pushed up into the atmosphere in the moments following the impact.

The devastation of the meteor has unearthed an entrance to a once forgotten crypt. Light emanates from the ancient symbols adorning the entrance.

From this crypt a unique danger lurks at the center of the crater…an Obsidian Lich, slaying him will reap great rewards.

Inside of the mysterious crypt, its existence unveiled after the recent meteor impact.

Happy Launch to all!

Esteben Zaldivar
Level Designer

Heraldry Items (cont.)

From what it appears to be, the former College of Arms work in regards to Heraldry is completely out. Which means all of the coat of arms that were already approved and supposed to be ready to go when this feature went live, need to all be resubmitted for approval. They also appear to be making it available to all players later this year, despite it being pitched as for players of a certain pledge level or higher. Players have started submitting artwork via this dev guide for submitting blazon artwork. I submitted my finalized one from when i was involved with the College of Arms, if it needs changing, the devs can let me know.

Q2 2018 Schedule Update

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

Greetings Avatars,

After several incredibly successful years of Early Access, we have launched into full Live mode! Now we will move fully into acquiring new users with a dedicated marketing campaign and a steady slate of press and public appearances.

As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates detailing our monthly releases and those monthly releases will continue just as before, on the last Thursday of each month. Even though the goals outlined in these schedules are likely to change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to periodically provide you with an updated roadmap.

Our priority continues to be to deliver new content to our players regularly, so that you can give us feedback that will help us to iteratively improve Shroud of the Avatar. This collaborative process continues to benefit the game, and often results in sweeping changes such as the recent balance passes to combat. As you have seen in previous releases, the flexibility inherent to this process means that we sometimes push things out, but we also often pull new things in.

Q2 Top 10 Priorities: As mentioned previously, we keep a running list of our Top 10 priorities at all times that we use when building our schedule and prioritizing where to allocate our team’s resources. We often refer to it when making decisions about the project. While it has a VERY strong influence on what we work on at any given time, it does not mean that we only work on something that is on the list. It just means that if someone can assist with something that will help address an item on the list, then we will make sure they do that first before working on anything else. Sometimes team members cannot assist with anything on our top priorities, so they work on other tasks such as visual polish, combat balance, or content that helps us raise funds. Q2 will focus on performance, localization, loot, and shipping the physical goods.

Performance: In Q1, we made huge strides forward in performance with three steady months of frame rate improvements. While the game is much more playable now, we feel there is still more to be gained so in Q2 we will continue making code and content changes to improve performance.

Localization: In Q1, we made significant progress in all our languages but we were unable to get fully localized versions. In Q2, our goal is to complete this work.

Physical Goods: We made the decision in Q1 to spend more development time to increase the overall quality of the physical goods promised during the Kickstarter, including the cloth map, manual, runic card, etc. We now plan on shipping all physical goods no later than the end of Q2. The components have now all been designed, we are just working on final fulfillment.

Improved Reward Cycle: In Q1 we added lots of new in-game rewards, including Virtue Armor, Virtue Banners, barbarian armor, recipes, patterns, emotes, and more. In Q2, we will significantly expand these rewards with more decorations, more armor, and most importantly, player-crafted items as part of the loot tables.

User Interface Polish: In Q1, we polished various UI elements, and we will continue to do so during Q2 with a focus on consistency across UI elements while also improving merchants and vendors.

User Acquisition: Now that we have moved out of Early Access, we are ready to start our campaign to acquire new users through marketing, press, and convention appearances. To maximize the impact of these efforts, we will be optimizing our website, store, and other first time experiences for the user.

Clearer Player Direction: We will continue improving the in-game mapping service with Linux support and Localization.

Story Polish: In Q2, we will continue to add more compelling experiences that put you in situations that will hopefully make you care more about the world, and at the same time provide you opportunities to either fulfill or turn away from the virtues.

Improved Enemy Behaviors: Most of our enemies have very simplistic and repetitive behaviors that can be easily gamed and do not require a high level of coordination nor planning. We hope to improve on this so that enemies have markedly different behaviors, resistances, and also weaknesses. For bosses in particular, we want to introduce patterns of behaviors that change over time as the battle progresses.

Repeatable Content: Right now there are not enough good reasons to revisit areas in the game, nor are there enough repeatable activities, especially for high level players. In Q1, we started to address this in small ways with things like the reward blessings. In Q2, we hope to start solving this with dedicated features like Castle Defense Scenarios.

As always, all dates, durations, and deliverables are subject to change as we adjust our designs based on direct feedback from you, our players.

RELEASE 53, April 26, 2018

Story: We will continue to work on adding side quests and polish to the Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. Also, we will continue to add and update maps for the in-game map system. We will also add backer NPC conversations to Northwood and Brittany Wharf. Finally, the scenes Tenebris Harbor, Eastmarch (town), and Penmawr Island will be rebuilt from scratch.

Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15 second load time target.

Looking for Group: A tool to help players find a group to adventure with will appear in the game.

Crafting & Economy: We will add more loot to the game like Worn Armor (to complement the Rusty Weapons) on humanoids. We will also introduce the system where player crafted gear sold to merchants will start appearing as loot in the game. Finally, in Offline Mode the drop rates for rare items like artifacts and rare components will be greatly increased.

User Interface Polish: We will make various improvements to the in-game map system, including support for localization and Linux.

Combat: A pass will be made on combat balance looking at different combat and magic schools.

Player Towns & Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.

RELEASE 54, May 31, 2018

Story: We will continue to work on adding side quests and polish to the Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. We’ll continue to add and update maps for the in-game map system. We will also add backer NPC conversations to Brittany Central. Finally the scenes Shaminian Hills, Westend (town), and Upper Tears will be rebuilt from scratch.

Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15 second load time target.

Crafting & Economy: The crafting system will expand to include the ability to brewing alcoholic beverages. We will also continue to expand the amount of loot in-game with more patterns, recipes, and gear as well as a large amount of decorations as loot.

User Interface Polish: Various elements of the UI will get polished for usability as well as improvements to information displayed.

Character: Polish passes will continue to be made on the Male Peasants and Pledge Servants.

Combat: Chaos magic will be expanded with new spells and better balanced against the other schools of magic.

Player Towns & Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.

RELEASE 55, June 28, 2018

Story: We will continue to work on adding side quests and polish to the Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. We’ll continue to add and update maps for the in-game map system. We will also add backer NPC conversations to Brittany Alley. Finally the scenes Norgard Fens, Bramble (town), and East Vauban Foothills will be rebuilt from scratch.

Performance: Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15 second load time target.

Physical Goods: Physical goods including the cloth map, box, trinket, manual, lot deeds, etc. (and the signed versions of each) will ship.

Crafting & Economy: We will continue to add more loot to the game. We will also work on improving the controls for player vendors to better allow sharing of vendors as well as improving the entire stocking, restocking, pricing, and repricing experience.

User Interface Polish: Various elements of the UI will get polished for usability as well as improvements to information displayed with a focus on the quest journal.

Castle Defense Scenarios: New scenes will be created similar to our control points where groups of players can fight over control of a fortress in order to gain temporary ownership and therefore gain benefits from that ownership like access to special areas, merchants, and quest givers. Work on this system will also help improve the existing control points.

Character: Polish passes will be made on the Spiders and a new seasonal creature will be introduced: The Jingo!

Localization: All interface text and quest dialogue will be fully translated into our launch languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

Player Towns & Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.

We continue to be incredibly thankful for the support we receive from this amazing community. While the financial support you provide makes all of this possible, it pales in comparison with the faith you have in us, the feedback you provide us, and the content you are making for everyone to enjoy. We are humbly grateful, and we are always excited to see you each month in New Britannia!

Sincerely,

Starr Long
Executive Producer
Shroud of the Avatar

2-Week Double XP Launch Spree!

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Starr “Darkstarr”]

Greetings Avatars,

In celebration of the successful launch of Episode 1 we are going to double the experience points everyone receives when completing a quest (Adventurer and/or Producer XP), and when defeating enemies (Adventurer XP), for the next two weeks. This event starts today, March 28, and ends on April 11. Enjoy!

NOTE: The softcap on experience gain of 1 Million XP / hour is still in place, so higher end players in high XP earning environments will hit that softcap faster.

For new players, register an account and get started today by clicking here.

You can also pick up the game on Steam.

Monthly Livestream: Release 52 – April 6, 2018 (NEW DATE)

The next Dev Live Stream is coming up fast and will be on April 6th.

LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE (Central Time Zone)

Monthly livestreams are on Twitch and include answers to your gameplay questions, world building tours, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! Here is the schedule:

3PM: Introductions and Q&A
3:45PM: Deep Dive 1: Combat
4:30PM: World Building Tour: New Scenes
5:30PM: Deep Dive 2: Story
6:15PM: Q&A Continues
7PM: Ending Announcements

EXPIRING ITEMS:

STRETCH GOALS (Obsidian Themed!)

As a special bonus, devs are offering funding rewards to any player that makes a minimum purchase of $5 during a twelve hour window during the day of the livestream, on April 6 from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CT (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply) .

NOTE: While the livestream ends at 7pm CT, everyone will have until 11:59 PM CT to spend $5 to get the stretch goals. Devs will announce the final total on the following day.

$10K: /evileye
$25K: Interior sized Obsidian Obelisk
$35K: Obsidian Pavers
$50K: Obsidian Throne
$65K: Obsidian Wizard Robes
$80K: Obsidian Plate Armor

*Please keep in mind that stretch goal rewards take time to develop and will most likely not be available in-game until Release 54 at the earliest. We will keep you updated!