Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #294
Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
- Portalarium Communications & More Thoughts on the Physical Goods
- Dyeable Decorations (starting in R57!)
- Release 55 Livestream Items
- Release 54 Livestream Items (cont.)
- Release 57 on QA Server
Portalarium Communications & More Thoughts on the Physical Goods
Looking back at recent updates from Portalarium, a discussion of the communication from the SotA devs as well as more discussion on the Physical Goods have come up in a variety of posts on the various Shroud of the Avatar subreddits, Discord Servers, Twitter, Forums, etc. Because of this and a full week of many discussions with people on various platforms either publicly or via messages, I figured it would be good to discuss these topics some more. Please forgive me for any repeat information from past posts, for the sake of any new readers.
It has been one week since I requested clarification from Portalarium on the statement from one of their staff that “they didn’t have the bandwith to keep the Kickstarter page up-to-date,” as well as a clarification on if this means no more Kickstarter update emails, using the kickstarter update page section designed to keep backers of a project up to speed. My reason for asking, as specified in my email, was due to the reality that many backers relied on the Kickstarter update emails (of which the last one was May 30th, 2018 by Starr Long) due to the toxicity of the SotA Forums. Now, I have inferred that “bandwidth” means manpower (coincidentally, since the layoffs this has been a bigger issue for them), but I find in the business world, it is always best to clarify as sometimes certain individuals have a rather “unique” definition or interpretation of the words they use. As of exactly 7 days, I have yet to receive any response and I do not expect one from Portalarium within 10 business days of my email. As many individuals I have spoken with in regards to this topic have stated, “Anything emailed to Support at Portalarium is, by rule, deleted automatically before anyone there sees it.”
Due to the Kickstarter rewards of future episodes to a number of pledge levels, the lack of physical goods in the hands of kickstarter backers, the fact that nothing has even shipped yet even in regards to the physical goods, and the lack of statement on what if collector boxes are lost/damaged/stolen/etc, updates on major topics like physical goods, etc should be posted into the Update section on the SotA Kickstarter page. This is because these major topics tie into what was part of the pledges. Also, with how one Portalarium staff member said the website is the authority regarding current info on SotA, at the very least, a Kickstarter Update post to direct the non-forum using backers to this change over would be a smart business decision.
One interesting thing to note that was just brought to my attention before publishing this post, Starr Long stated Wednesday, Aug 22nd, that they plan to do a final post on KS once the rewards are shipping.
Addendum (8/28/18): a thread from July was brought to my attention in which Starr Long basically admits that Portalarium needs to not only improve their communications but that they did what so many of have said from the start… that they were overambitious, understaffed and under budgeted. Recently not only did one of the leads for the new God of War talk about the trials and mistakes they went through with development, but even CDPR with Cyberpunk 2077 have done the same, including that they did some “redos”. This sort of transparency and honesty is what Portalarium needs to have as their standard.
One of the topics I did not post about in my most recent update post on the shipping of physical goods, was something I noticed in regards to the Collector’s box itself. One of the thing earlier updates in the Kickstarter Update section (March 12th, 2013 to be exact), contained the following info on the Collector’s box:
You asked for a box, so you’re getting a box! A Collector’s Box is one of the most frequently requested reward items, so we’re creating a special box to hold your physical goods! We’ll update you with more information about the special cover art for the box in a future update!
Now I would infer based on this that this means the cover art for the collector’s box would be different from any retail or non-collector’s box, like most devs/publishers do with big box video games. They continued to call it a “Special Collector’s Box in the rest of the update, and in future updates posts they made. You can find all sorts of great collector’s edition box art throughout the history of video games, however based on Chris Spear’s response to the “lack of tracking on the soon to be shipped boxes” frustration from backers, my guess is they either didn’t have the “bandwidth” or the finances to do this. This means, we get more of a collector’s edition, that some games have done via special physical and or digital items, but no special artwork. The only special art on the collector’s box for SotA is a sticker saying it is a collectors version.
The time frame too with shipping of “will be shipping to Backers any day and should begin arriving at Backer’s homes within the next few weeks” is purposely designed to be as non-specific as possible as well as leave an opening in case whatever fulfillment center or by choice of Portalarium, the shipping is delayed till a future date. As a business person, I understand this tactic and have used it myself. However, backers on reddit and other platforms are obviously upset with the lack of firm or specific dates.
Edit (8/27/18): looks like we have our first post of someone getting their collectors box. The sticker is on the plastic wrap and not on the actual box. Also, if you look in his imgur post, he received a “Lord’s of the Manor” level box instead of what he actually backed, which was Citizen’s level.
Addendum (8/28/18): The thread linked above has been removed by Portalarium for an unknown reason. A new thread started by Starr “Darkstarr” Long has appeared and more confirmed cases, like from our own Browncoat Jayson, are available in the thread. Starr Long did confirm that emails were supposed to go out and they are looking into it. He also confirms the invoice mistakenly lists “Lord of the Manor” on all boxes in one place, but does correctly list the pledge type in a second place. It is good to see Portalarium be upfront and honest with these errors, however I do not understand why they had to remove that thread when all they needed to do was put this information in that thread and lock it.
Lastly, Chris Spear’s response (which I will not comment on as a whole) on the shipping update discussion, provided only one tiny bit of interesting info that I feel needs to be shared. Last Week, I specifically asked the following question, “Is Portalarium in a situation where they need to save every penny to stay afloat?” Well, i would say based on Chris’s response combined with the layoffs, that the answer is a whole-hearted, YES. He specifically states “It would have just been an extra expense that works out to a half an employee for a year just so you could see your package move from city to city but with no actual benefit other than you getting to watch a progress bar.” The cost is obviously an issue for them and while I completely disagree with his stance on the good tracking info can do for customers in working with shipping companies if their package is delayed, lost, damaged, stolen, etc, it is good to know a rough idea of what the additional cost would have been.
Dyeable Decorations (starting in R57!)
Devs have now implemented support to allow the use of dyes to change the colors of decorations including banners, beds, couches, sofas, and more! Thus the developers have begun updating game assets to accept dyes. This will take time as each asset has to be modified individually. Devs have stated their plan is to maintain a balance between craftable items and store items in this effort. Devs are starting with cloth items but plan to expand to leather, and maybe even wood items. Personally I find the idea of dying the wood to be as bad as painting wood. Why would you ever cover the natural beauty of wood items like tables, wardrobes, etc?
In Release 57, some Banners (including Heraldy Banners), Canvas Furniture, Fine Red Upholstered Furniture, and Fine White & Gold Upholstered Furniture will support dyes. With these images from the devs, you can see the assortment of the those furniture pieces and some cloth clothes items dyed. I would expect more “painful for the eyes” home decorating in-game with this being implemented.
Release 55 Livestream(s) Items
The Release 55 Livestream(s) items were all Lord British themed in honor of his birthday which falls on July 4th. In honor of his birthday the items either have the silver serpent or the Lord British full crest on them. They are also themed around things that Lord British loves like fireworks, space, and magic! Reid Rollo has started work on these this release and the first few items will go live in Release 57. This week we are revealing the Lord British Pavers, Lord British Round Table, and Lord British Large Telescope.
Lord British Large Telescope:
Lord British Round Table:
Release 54 Livestream(s) Items (cont.)
The Release 54 Livestream(s) items were all Tropical and Polynesian themed in honor of the summer months. Damon “enalNomad” Waldrip, Reid Rollo and Scott “Scottie” Jones have been busily working on creating them this release and they are turning out amazing! This week we are revealing the Polynesian Axe and the Large Tiki Heads with Flames.
Polynesian Axe (Scott “Scottie” Jones):
Large Tiki Statue with Flames (Damon “enalNomad” Waldrip):
Palapa (Reid Rollo):
Release 57 on QA Server
An early version of R57 is on the QA server along with an early version of the R57 post for review and feedback. R57 is full of new content most of which is now on the QA server for early testing. We could really use everyone’s help to test all of this amazing content before it goes live!
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- Player Made Dungeons Preview
- Dyeable Decorations
- Hide Helm Option
- Quality of Life Improvements: Siege & Control Point Skipping, Global Banks
- User Interface Polish: Health & Focus Bars, Vendor Button
- “Full Water” Lots
- Tons of Bug Fixes
- Combat Balance
- R54 Livestream Items: Tropical & Polynesian!
- R55 Livestream Items: Lord British!
- and more!
- Player Made Dungeons Preview
Testing on QA makes you eligible for Testing Incentive Rewards which aren’t much of anything, including gold crowns, the Ant Farm, Antennae, Bug Cloak and Paintings. 
