Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #296

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Greetings Friends! In preparation of what I know will be an extremely busy Monday for me, I am taking some time to make sure to do the regular Shroud of the Avatar update post today.  Not much for information but one controversial one for sure.

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

Commission Free Vendors, Expert Crafting Stations (+ more) in the Store!

 

So Portalarium in today’s update posted by Starr Long, stated that “at the request of players we are making several items, previously exclusive to Bundles, available for individual purchase in the Add On Store!”  This isn’t the first time either that Portalarium has taken Pledge/Backer-only items and decided to provide people outside that scope the ability to buy these items. The creation of the Bundles was one of these moments.  If you look back there were a number of Kickstarter Backers who were upset by this.  Many sadly decided to attack the devs, and not wait for or request information.  For some, the similarity to pledge/backer accounts and the higher financial cost, that these Bundles had were enough that many did not mind this decision by Portalarium.  For example, this helped with the tax free lots that could be bought through the bundles.  The continued limitation of these tax free lot deeds was to keep the rarity but at the same time allow the normal lot deeds to be a regular “gold-sink” in the game to help balance the in-game economy.

There were still some exclusive only items like the Royal Founder and Founder crafting stations, decor items, and other items that made up for this change to lots, due to their look.  The Devs even explained and backers could even see on the Kickstarter page, that these founder expert crafting stations would have non-founder expert crafting stations available for all players. There was self-evident by the wording on the SotA Reward graphic on the Kickstarter website.   The creation of non-founder version of some items would be the case with various other items (gear, pets, homes, tools, etc) as well, each with looks different from the unique backer/pledge ones.  However some items would still be exclusive for backers/pledges, one great example would especially be certain houses.  However, I believe vendors were also such a case, as limiting commission free vendors would provide a “gold sink” in the game to help balance the in-game economy.  This would also push for use of the normal NPC vendors to be used as a core central place to buy/sell items, as well as reduce the clutter of vendors on every player owned lot.  It could be that with such a small player base, that gold sinks is something the devs are trying to remove, to keep their current player base.

Sadly in the past, we tend to not get much information from the devs, about the “why” certain controversial decisions are made. We have reached another moment of an expansion of de-limiting something many had the impression was a limited item. Only this time instead of a bundle with the higher cost of an appropriate level backer/pledge level, it is going in the addon store at a much reduced cost/value. I have put in a request for more information about this current decision to sell the Commission Free Vendors in the add-on store cause those were originally supposed to pledge/backer only.  The Commission Free Vendor is selling for less than 1/3 the cost of what it was selling for those who already owned them, which is something that could greatly affect the in-game economy in regards to in game item sales as the number of them in-game grow substantially.  It is possible this is actually the goal, to reduce in game gold costs for items that players sell to other players.

I personally am not upset by this decision to de-limit items, but I just wish we could get a more clear, honest, and detailed answer to why this decision was made than because players wanted this. Communication is something that has been in issue, so I hope they break from this pattern. This is also why i put in a request for more information to Portalarium about this decision, however like my previous request, I sadly do not expect an answer from them. I do hope they at least do what they did with the Collector’s boxes and make some sort of Forum post explaining the situation, reasoning, goals, etc.

Some of these other Bundle only items like the Expert Crafting Stations, themed pets, themed weapons, and themed decorations, were expected by many of us to see in the Add-On store for those who do still wish to give Portalarium money. The timing of this change for these items comes at an opportune time for Portalarium, who is in need of an influx of money, as they are looking forward at Episode 2 story and content.

Here is a complete list of these items now available for purchase:

Weapons & Shields:

Vendors, Crafting Stations, & Decorations:

Pets:

Water Lot Conversions

At the request of players and to support the new “Full Water Lots” devs added in Release 57, Portalarium have added the ability to upgrade land lots to Player Owned Town (taxed) Water Lots via a service token! Village, Town, and City lots can be converted and devs will begin processing these requests as soon as Release 58! So if you have been wishing to live in a ship, lighthouse, watermill, etc. and wish to spend money to do this you now have this available.  This is something I personally am glad to see as water lot homes, especially high end pledge level water homes, can be especially enjoyable for players to use.

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