Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar. Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday we’re publishing the update early this week. Lot’s of great stuff to share, including the first installment of the SotA novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, and some awesome Black Friday weekend promotions!

• First Installment of Blade of the Avatar Novel
• Combat Design
• The Immortality Fruit
• The Royal Elderberry
• The Pickaxe of Prosperity
• Black Friday Weekend Promotions
• Kickstarter: The Space Bards Present Their First Album, “Neon Milk”!
• Movember: Shroud of the Mustache

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[Book Cover Art by Stephen Daniele and Tracy Hickman]

 

Blade of the Avatar Novel, Installment 1 – Prologue

The first installment of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! Digital version of BotA is included as an Early Founder reward at all pledge levels $25 or higher, and is also available in the Add-On Store for everyone. Early Founders can download the first installment at the new Early Founder Rewards area in the community forums (accessible to Early Founders only; Early Founders are backers that pledged any amount by May 20, 2013). If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

If you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the first installment on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).

This installment consists of the Prologue. Here is a brief excerpt (illustration by Denis Loubet, renowned Ultima artist):

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PROLOGUE

The Destiny Pool

The End is the Beginning of us all.

Hear the soundless lamentation of the ages lost! The past is hidden from the eyes of the weary, blanketed beneath ash and tears. The old world is passed away, its mountains shaken, its rivers torn from its courses, its plains rent with fire and the shining towers of man tumbled to ruin. The orb of night is broken, its black shards falling from the dome of night to fall as judgment’s cruel, black rain. The music of daughters fails to resound, the proud boasts of men are as dust in their mouths and fear reigns in the dark silence that follows. The flesh is turned to dust and all that we once were is forgotten and lost in the shuttered past.

Where now are the virtues of the world now fallen? Were they taken from us or were we taken from them? Were they abandoned or were we orphaned by them? Was this not the blade of too fine an edge that cut between the light and night; between me and thee? Avatars of our dreams or nightmares, did you steal away from us in the night or…

Click here to download the full first installment of Blade of the Avatar

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Here is this week’s Map reveal:

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Combat Design

Chris Spears shared the dev team’s design notes for the combat system in the Dev+ Forums last week and the conversation exploded to a 15 page thread!  A lot of great feedback was provided on that thread, and after synthesizing the feedback, Chris posted a revised version of the combat design in the Public Forums for all to see: Let’s talk about combat!  Here is an excerpt from that post:

Let’s talk about combat in Shroud of the Avatar! Before jumping into the deck mechanics of combat (what some may call the really interesting part) I’ll clear up two items people seemed to be confused about.

First, players will still have an “auto” attack that just uses their equipped weapon. That equipped weapon can be a sword, axe, shield, wand, etc. For simple encounters, this will be sufficient for most people to achieve victory.

Second, when out of combat no bar will be present but the player can press the alt-key at any time and their non-combat toolbar will slide up. We’ll make it an option to leave this up at all times out of combat for those less concerned with immersion. The non-combat toolbar will work just like any other game where you can assign skills to it to use when not engaged in combat.

When a player enters into combat is where things get interesting… before diving into specifics, I’m going to define a few items so we’re all on the same page in terms of language:

Skill – For simplicity, we’re calling any element that can show up on your toolbar in combat a skill. This can include combat skills, spells, consumables, items, and abilities but we’re going to call them all skills.

Deck – This is a set of skills that the player has created or the game has created for the player. There is a minimum number of skills that can go into a deck based on the player’s level. It will start at around 10 skills at level one and rise to around 30 skills at level 20. Players can have multiple decks configured and swap them in and out when not in combat. Players will be able to switch during combat but it will take several seconds of doing nothing.

Slug – A slug is a skill that does nothing but takes up a spot in the deck. These can show up in a number of situations for balance, missing skill requirements, or to fill out a deck that is below the minimum size. For instance if you have skills relating to slashing weapons in your deck but have a mace equipped, some of the skills in your deck may become greyed out slugs.

Combo – Some skills can be combined with other skills on the fly. This result is a new, likely more powerful skill which can then be used.

Noble Skill – A noble skill is a skill which cannot be combined with any other skill. Some skills are always noble but some become noble for various reasons such as a skill being used on you or because the skill is in a locked slot. Noble skills will almost always have a higher cost of some kind. Example costs could be cooldown, reagent use, focus cost, etc.

Focus Skills – These are the skills that generally modify deck mechanics.

Locked Slot – By default skills are dealt out to the slots periodically, but by training in focus skills some slots can be locked and always contain a specific skill. Skills in locked slots are always noble and cannot be combined with other skills.

Now that we have the big combat terms defined, lets jump into how we put it together.

Upon entering combat, the combat bar slides up. This has between 6 and 12 buttons on it, depending on player skill selection and level. Skills appear on the buttons at a fairly slow and steady pace and then fade out after a decent amount of time (think 10 – 30 seconds). They can be used by clicking on them and dragging them to a specific target or by pressing the matching hotkey (1-10 key,-,+) and tapping space(by default) to execute. Combos can be created by either dragging one skill onto another one or by pressing the matching hotkey followed by the other skills hotkey. Creating a combo skill makes it behave as if it was a freshly dealt skill, meaning its fade out timer is reset. Skills can be discarded to free up a slot by dragging them off screen if the player has a faster deal speed than fade speed for skills.

The speed at which skills appear can be sped up through a learned focus skill and the duration they stay up can also be increased through a different focus skill. If there are no open slots at a given time, then new skills will not deal out until a slot opens up. So players with a slower dealing rate might have to use or discard skill elements just to free up spots for new skills to be dealt out. Each of those two elements has advantages to them, the idea is that players can adjust their deck dealing behavior to match their play style and these values can be tuned on a per deck basis.

Through the focus skill tree and leveling, players can gain the option to have 1 or more locked slots. These are slots that aren’t dynamically dealt out but become noble and can’t be combined with any other skills. The recycle time on this slot will vary depending on the skill used in it.

Focus Skill Tree

Instinct – Each level allows for one locked skill slot. How many locked skill slots are used can be configured per deck. Max locked slots is 1/3rd the total available skill slots. Locked skill slots replace a slot and reduces the number of dynamic slots.

Epiphany – Each level increases the number of skills that are available at the start of combat by 2. Without this skill players start with zero skills out other than locked slots.

Versatility – Each level increases the number of available skill slots by 1. Players start with 6 skills slots available. Players gain 1 additional skill slot at level 10 and another at 20 for free but 4 more can be acquired through skills to bring the total to 12 skill slots.

Second Guess – Each level grants a skill that can be used to push an existing skill into a random spot in the top five skills in the player’s deck.

Spark of Brilliance – Slugs normally have no purpose other than to take up room. With Spark of Brilliance, slugs can be be combined with other skills to increase their time till they fade. Each level adds 0.2 seconds up to a max of a 1 second extra time.

Recollection – Every level increases the fade out timer of skills by .1 seconds.

Brainstorm – Every level decreases the time to the next skill by .1 seconds.

Concentration – Each level grants a skill that can be combined with another skill and will temporarily extend the fade timer for a skill by 10 seconds. Unlike the permanent lock, this will not make the skill noble and can help capture more difficult combos.

Thanks for your input; we know that a system as core to the game as combat is will arouse very strong passions, especially when we reveal some of the risks we’re willing to take. We’ll continue to review your feedback closely, both now and as the system is introduced!

     – Chris “Dippy Dragon” Spears

Chris also included a Combat FAQ in the post. Here are the questions he included:

Combat FAQ:

• If the deck system ends up not being fun, what will you do with combat?
• Will I be able to build multiple decks?
• Can I switch decks during combat?
• When can I try it?!?
• I worry the UI will draw my attention away from combat, what is the plan for that?
• Why do some things make skills “Noble” so they can’t be used in combos?
• Combos sound cool, is it always just 2 skills or do they go deeper?
• Can skills be used out of combat?
• How will I set “Locked Slots” and how do they relate to the number of skills in my deck?

Head on over to the public forums to read the entire post and share your feedback!

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The Immortality Fruit

Included as a basic reward for all backers in the Immortal Adventurer pledge level is the Immortality Fruit seed. With the Farming Craft you can plant the Immortality Fruit seed, which will bear a single fruit. When eaten, this fruit will fully heal you, and leave you with a single seed which can be planted and harvested, over and over, for all eternity. The Immortality Fruit seed can be transferred between players.

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The Royal Elderberry

Included as a Founder’s reward in the Immortal Adventurer pledge level is the Royal Elderberry seed. Planting the Royal Elderberry seed will yield a Royal Elderberry which is necessary for crafting the unique, Royal Purple Founder’s Dye. There will be no other source, ever, for creating the Royal Purple Founder’s Dye. Utilizing the Royal Elderberry to craft the dye will also bear a single seed which can be planted and harvested, over and over, for all eternity. The Royal Elderberry seed can be transferred between players.

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The Pickaxe of Prosperity

Next in our “Prosperity” line of unique items is The Pickaxe of Prosperity!

This unique indestructible Pickaxe increases the quality and quantity of the ore mined as well as increasing the speed of mining. While pickaxes with similar effects can be crafted and purchased in the game this particular pickaxe never needs repair.

Get Your Pickaxe of Prosperity Now and save 33%!

For a limited time we’re offering a 33% discount on the Axe of Prosperity! Reserve yours at the Add-On Store!

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Black Friday Weekend Promotions

We have some great promotions lined up for Black Friday Weekend (& Cyber Monday)! Check these out:

15% Pledge Bonus on all New Pledges and Pledge Upgrades!

For all new pledges or pledge upgrades that you purchase for yourself, or as a gift, between 12:00 am CST November 27 and 12:00 am CST December 3, we will add an additional 15% bonus to your pledge account! For example, if you purchase a new Founder pledge for $65, we will add an additional $10 to your pledge account ($65 times 15% equal $9.75 rounded up to $10; our pledge package doesn’t handle cents so we round up to nearest dollar).

NOTE: The 15% bonus pledge won’t show up in your account immediately. Give us about a week after the end of the promotion period to tally everyone’s purchases and add the bonus pledge to your account.

15% Discount on Add-On Store Items!

We’ve dropped the prices in the Add-On Store by an additional 15% during the promotion period, so now would be a great time to get that special item you’ve been drooling over (or as a gift for some lucky person).

The Return of the Darkstarr Metronome and Moondial at a 33% Discount!

If you missed your chance to get a Darkstarr Metronome or Moondial back in July then now is your chance to grab one (for yourself or as a gift)! We’re bringing them back for Black Friday weekend only, at a 33% discount from the original price! Reserve yours now!

50% Discount on Viking Village Home!

The Viking Village Home was the first home we made available in the Add-On Store, and it has proven to be quite popular. For Black Friday Weekend only we are re-introducing the 50% discount off the regular price!

15% Discount on T-Shirts and Challenge Coins in the Merchandise Store!

If you don’t have a SotA T-shirt or Challenge Coin yet, or want to get one as a gift, then head over to the Merchandise Store and get them 15% off regular price!

[NOTE: Black Friday Weekend promotions end at 12:00 am CST December 3]

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The Space Bards “Neon Milk” Kickstarter

Remember the Space Bards that won the SotA Fan Video Contest back in April with their video “The Return of Lord British”? Well, they are Kickstarting their first album, “Neon Milk”, and could use your support! They had a fundraising telethon Monday night where they met their funding goal. They helped raise additional funds for SotA during the telethon and unlocked a Gypsy dance emote (as made famous in their video) for all SotA backers! Their Kickstarter campaign ends on December 1st at 4:17 pm EST so head on over there and check them out!

What IS “Neon Milk”?

Neon Milk is a concept album that follows the story of two aliens who have crash-landed on planet Earth, and are doing everything they can to blend in with the strange creatures known as ‘humans’. Dan Span and Dom John, who have been making music for many years, deftly mix genres as varied as rock, rap, dance, and dubstep into a tongue-in-cheek exploration of what it feels like to be an alien, even on your own planet.

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Movember: Shroud of the Mustache

We’ve raised $1,680.00 for Movember and still have three days left! Here’s the most recent picture of our mustachioed Movember Team!

Please join us and support a great cause!

The Movember Effect

Globally, the funds raised by our Mo Bros and Mo Sistas support world-class men’s health programs that combat prostate and testicular cancer and mental health challenges. These programs, directed by the Movember Foundation, are focused on awareness and education, living with and beyond cancer, staying mentally healthy, living with and beyond mental illness and research to achieve our vision of an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health.

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