Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #311 and #312
Greetings Friends! Ont his wonderful New Years Eve, I hope you all have a safe and fun filled evening however you spend it. Not much is available for news on Shroud of the Avatar, however I have chosen a few items here for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar.
- Free Respec During Release 61 (R61)
- More Shipping Updates on SotA Collectors Editions
- Amazon Boxed Edition $19.99!
Login during R61 for free Respec!
Players who login December 20th through January 30th will receive a complementary item entitled “Obsidian Item of Greater Unlearning (Expires Soon)” that when used allows them to to reset all skills in a skill tree to minimum levels and move 100% of the experience to the experience pool for spending elsewhere. Alternatively, they can use it to set all adventurer or crafting skills to their minimums and return 100% of experience to your pool for reapplying in a new way. This effectively grants players a full respec to rebuild their character however they choose. This is something absolutely fantastic that a number of people i know who still play SotA have wanted for a while. This is something that they will keep available as an in purchase feature/item called “Obsidian Item of Greater Unlearning” from the Crown Merchent interface.
NOTE: This free item must be used by January 30!
More Shipping Updates on SotA Collectors Editions
Devs have said they are in the middle of Phase 2 of shipping physical pledge rewards to eligible backers, some people who didn’t get theirs during phase 1 have started to get theirs. Those who recently got an email from Stamps.com with a tracking number, should be getting theirs soon!
Sadly for too some, they still haven’t received an email from Stamps.com, they they will hopefully be part of the Phase 2 that ships mid-January.
The shipping of these physical rewards have been such a problem for Portalarium. Some people have had to repurchase again the International Shipping for a second time, giving more money they didn’t want to give to Portalarium. Plus non-KS Backer boxes arrive faster than actual KS Backer boxes. I truly feel for those who have yet to get their SotA Collector’s box, including our own Withstand the Fury Dragon aka WTF Dragon.
Amazon Boxed Edition $19.99! 
In their continued need for more revenue and to sell more copies of the game to try and get an influx of new players, Portalarium has lowered the cost of the retail Boxed Edition from Amazon to $19.99. Additionally for a limited time we are also offering a signed version of the retail Boxed Edition (see above) for purchase directly from their website! Each signed box will be numbered with only 200 of these special numbered boxes available.
If anything this continues to ring of desperation on their part. However vanity items have continued to bring in some revenue and as you can see below, some of these vanity items have yet to be made. A good point was brought up, completing all the unfinished Episode 1 content won’t bring in revenue. After all, such completion of content is expected to be done and gamers won’t pay devs to complete incomplete content. We have seen this before in the past with other games that did a retail release but was incomplete in a very noticeable way. It also seems that the remaining player base along with the devs don’t’ care about NPCs, Quests, Story, and other such content. (insert bandwidth joke)
These non backer retail editions include:
Physical Goods:
- Game Box signed by Lord British* (signed edition only)
- Game Manual
- DVD in case
- Runic Translation Card
- Ankh Trinket
- Cloth Map
- Our Epic Origins
Digital Items:
- Digital Download of Shroud of the Avatar, Episode 1 (Full Game Access)
- 30 Bank Slots to store your gear
- 1 Gold Crown
- Pick 1 Obsidian Potion
- Digital Download of Shroud of the Avatar, Episode 2 (Full Game Access when released)
- Exclusive Title: Visionary
- Exclusive Emote (exact emote to be created at a future date)
- NEW: Unique Item (to be created at a a future date)
$139 with Richard’s signature
$19.99 with no signature
I think the guy is great and I am a fan but that seems pretty crazy. Thanks for the post about this. I have no intention of ever playing SOTA but I was happy to add a boxed copy to my Ultima collection for $19.99 with free shipping.
Great write up and commentary! Shroud has sadly become a complete joke and a disappointment to those of us who were hoping for that next iteration of Ultima game. You are spot on that the devs and current players simply want dance parties and incomplete sandbox elements, like the dungeons. None of this is what I pledged for during the Kickstarter and am highly disappointed in how this game turned out. I really am shocked that our beloved Lord British is OK with this…
@PanBenda, you mentioned before in your comments that the game would be undergoing a major shift soon. Portalarium just announced that they are getting rid of the real money store on their website, implementing an in-game COTO store for items and changing the exchange rate for COTOs as well.
Was that what you were talking about?
Do you have a link for that? Because this is something they’ve already tried doing once before.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/store-adjustments-for-launch-store-reduction-crown-bundle-repricing.110157/
A link for what? The in-game COTO store announcement? (https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/crown-store-and-cash-shop-changes-in-early-2019.148680/#post-1190707) Or PanBenda’s comments? (https://ultimacodex.com/2018/12/shroud-of-the-avatar-update-of-the-avatar-307-308/)
Anyway, Portalarium has already lost 2 more employees this month. Serafina is leaving today and Tassillo left last week. And Scottie is listed on the dev team but according to reddit he is part time and hasn’t done any work for the game since November.
SOTA had become worse than disappointing. It’s an engine of depression at this point. I had hopes of introducing my friends to the world of the Ultimas, and making new friends and reconnecting with old in a new, yet familiar fantasy world. I can’t bring myself to even log in anymore, and if I had gotten any of my friends to buy into this…thing, I could never forgive myself. It’s somehow worse than a scam. It’s a catastrophic failure, and evidence that our once great king very likely fluked his way into the role in gaming history. I can’t even play the older games anymore. My view of them has been tainted by this whole experience.
I’ll stop there, but I will say that between this, and Underworld Ascension, I have no faith left in the great devs of yesteryear. If we ever hope to see a gaming experience like we remember (which is arguably seen through a VERY rose-colored lens) we need to look elsewhere.
Take pride in the fact that you recognise it for what it REALLY is. When the game finally closes, there’s going to be a lot of toxic individuals who’ll try and justify their foolishness, and all the profiteering and hatred they engaged in defending this disaster, and will lash out at you for somehow making the end happen… but you were right.
I’ve got boxed originals of the prior Ultimas too. I’ve considered disposing of them myself, because I can’t bear to see the names behind Shroud associated with the memories those older products once inspired. But then I remember that I personally stayed true to the meanings of them. But whilst Garriott, Long, Spears et all may trash their own legacy, you don’t have to let them poison your own. Protect the value of your own past, even if they no longer respect it.
Yes, it’s been depressing to watch not just the Ultima community, but even the internet itself fail to learn any lessons, reject self improvement, abandon empathy and just generally drag itself down, especially when tied so closely to the game that only exists because it scammed people who wanted to return to a better, even if fictional world… but you don’t have to let them define you, yourself.