Update of the Avatar #84 – 2014.08.01: R8 Perspectives, PvP Tournaments, Lord Marshal Throne, BotA Cloak, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Release 8 Perspectives
• Player Hosted PvP Tournaments
• Lord Marshal Throne
• Lord British and Darkstarr Outfits
• Through the Lunar Rift!
• Blade of the Avatar Cloak
• More Stretch Goal Store Goodies
• Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon
• World Builder/Level Designer Job Opening
• Upcoming Events

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Shroud of the Avatar backers were “rooted” to their computers all weekend enjoying the new PvP combat!

Release 8 Perspectives

From Starr Long:

Greetings Avatars,

Last month when we announced we would be redirecting Release 8 to focus on PVP, I have to admit I was a tiny bit nervous. Not only were we going to pull in a system several months earlier than planned, but we also were going to tackle one of the more polarizing elements of our game: Deck Building & Deck Combat. However, after we began our daily Dev death matches, my nervousness began to be replaced by excitement. Each day, as we iterated on it and then pulverized each other in the arena, it got more and more exciting. We were having fun! We realized that you, the players, would likely have fun with it too.

We of course realize that it still needs a lot of work and balancing. We also realize that there is a very steep, but short, learning curve that has to be overcome. That steep climb is complicated by years of training that we have all had with more traditional systems. Even with those hurdles, most of you seemed to be having fun with the new combat, especially in PVP. From Vengeance beach on the Brave Coast Island to the Bear Tavern Brawls in the arena, there was a huge community effort to make this first release of PVP both be fun and valuable from a testing standpoint.

It wasn’t all just combat of course. The community continues to amaze us with what they are doing with our tools, even this early. The plays in PAXLair, the welcoming quest, the ever more insane maze building, the list goes on and on.

I continue to be amazed and humbled by this great community. We cannot wait to give you more, so keep coming back each release and help us make the greatest crowd funded RPG ever.

Here is the revised R9 plan (with the old R9 plan below my signature for reference). We will post a Q4 schedule update sometime near the end of R9 or beginning of R10.

RELEASE 9, August 21 – 24, 2014:

• PVP: We will introduce some simple PVP rules / mechanics including scoring and the concept of teams.
• Combat Systems: We will be iterating and adding to the fundamental systems that support combat, including more secondary effects like bludgeons damaging gear. Magic will now require reagents to cast spells at full strength (current thinking is you can still cast without reagents but the effectiveness of the spell is reduced for each missing reagent). We will also be adding the ability to execute combos and we will add functionality to positioning and cover.
• Combat Skills: For Release 9, our goal is to flesh out more of the schools of Water, Bludgeons, and Light Armor. We will also make a pass at adding innate skills to all schools.
• Scenes: Ardoris, the waterfront city on the main continent filled with canals and framed by two opposing castles, will now be available to players. Other adventuring scenes on the main continent will also appear. These new scenes on the mainland will be accessed via the Lunar Rifts which will now change destinations based on time of day. The player town island will now come in two additional density levels that increase the number of lots on those islands.
• New Creatures: Several new creatures will come online including a new mimic and an Ice Elemental, as well as variations on existing creatures (liches, kobolds, etc.).
• Crafting: Durability and Repair will come online. Attacking will have a chance to decrease durability on weapons and damage received will have a chance to decrease armor durability. Durability decreases will NOT decrease the effectiveness of items.
• Overworld Animating Avatars: Players will now see their avatars (along with their party members) animating on the overworld map.
• Intro Cinematic: We are making an animatic version of the intro with narration by our very own Bill Johnson (aka The Guardian).
• Character Customization: At least one new facial feature will come online. Additionally an update to how we handle hair and facial hair will add layers, transparency, and animations.
• Minimap System: Tired of getting lost in Owlshead? Well you can now rejoice, for in R9 you will now have maps (as inventory objects) that when used will bring up the map of the scene you are in and mark your location on it. This will be the first iteration of the minimap system, so only a few maps will be available.

Release 8 is dead! Long live Release 9!

Sincerely,
Darkstarr aka Starr Long

[Read the rest of this post in the forums]

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From Chris Spears:
First, lets do the boring stuff! The number of players and hours played were about inline with release 7. I personally had predicted a small bump for R8, but when I made that prediction, I didn’t know that Bungie was going to open Destiny to anyone who wanted to play during, you guessed it, Thursday to Sunday. :p

I think the more important number for this release is 11,045. That is the number of PVP kills between Friday and Sunday. The actual number of kills would be much higher but we had some issues with logging, so a lot of kills were probably missed.

Ok, on to my usual blathering!

The big new shiny things for R8 were obviously the combat system and PVP. While there is LOTS more work to do on the new combat system, overall response has been amazingly positive. Even a few of the long term skeptics were willing to post positive things about it.

So, in hindsight, here are just some of the big ways we screwed up combat this release:

• New and very different combat and skill system with steep learning curve and nearly zero in game help and no real documentation or videos outside the game until after we were live
• We focused on completing a number of skill trees rather than evenly scattering them about. This means that if you didn’t go heavy armor and blades, you were at a disadvantage because those were the only two combat trees we finished.
• Didn’t give enough skill points to allow for players to experiment with multiple builds at once. Until I added 40 more skill points on Friday night, most people didn’t have enough points to get any focus skills and have a full set of 20
• Not enough feedback to the user on what was going on (buffs, debuffs, critical attacks, etc.) made it difficult to know when something important happenedThere’s probably a hundred more things we could list but the good news is: IT WAS FUN!

[Read the rest of this post in the forums]

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As always, the players posted some great screen shots from Release 8 in the forums, so be sure and check them out. Here are a few samples:

 

Now this is an awesome way to heat up the water in the hot tub:

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Player Hosted PvP Tournaments

Not one, but two sets of PvP tournaments were coordinated by community members for Release 8’s new PvP combat system: The Order of Vengeance Tournaments and the Bear Tavern Brawl!

The Order of Vengeance PvP Tournaments

The Order of Vengeance Guild hosted multiple tournaments starting on Thursday, July 24th and continuing through the weekend. The tournaments were held on The Brave Coast player island. Vengeance members procured two boats, a light house, and a Knight’s Keep across the pond from Lord British’s castle. The fights occurred on the beach with spectators watching from the bow of the boat.

Duke Violation (a Vengeance GuildMaster) had this to say about their tournaments and R8 experience:

Hail from Vengeance!

We were excited to share the first look of Player vs Player with everyone on the beaches of The Brave Coast! We have followed in the footsteps of PaxLair with taking a Player Run Town and using it to host our Player Owned Town events until we have our town in game. This week we held 7 different pvp events with a variety of different winners! It was a fun time training everyone about how to build their decks, modify their Focus skills to allow their decks to populate faster, and lock their abilities if they didn’t like the deck system. We were extremely pleased with the results, finding people from all over the world coming to join us in our battles.

First up, the results with deck building and combat: Everyone was extremely frustrated for the first five to fifteen minutes but after taking the time to talk through the deck system they ended up loving it. We found that people who took the time to watch the help videos were much happier with their experience.

Next up, the results with our tournaments: All of these events were officiated by Violation and were recorded and verified. Here are your first ever PvP Tournament winners in Shroud of the Avatar! We had more events than this but these are the results from the first event of each type.

• 1v1: Winner, Sciamano; runner up, Lorimus
• 2v2: Winners, Net and Soleidad; Runners up, Balec deCani and John Connor
• Free for All (Last man standing): Winner, Espada; Runner up, Lorimus. (Watch on YouTube)

Finally, other things we did with the community:

• We were able to help demonstrate combat to the MMORPG community, if you missed it catch the video and the entire interview of Darkstarr here: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/…arr-Long-shows-off-Release-8-with-MMORPG.html .
• We were invited by Mul Girtab to guard the Bear Tavern Brawl and did so successfully (possibly contributing as well with a touch of chaos at the end).
• We were please to participate in the Welcome Quest with PaxLair (thanks Soleidad for decorating our house boat!) and the Celtic Holdfast. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their Welcome Torch, benches, and Welcome Sword!

We were honored to be able to protect fellow Avatars in Vengeance and throughout New Britannia and hope you join us for many more tournaments as we continue to run them and guard spectators throughout all the future releases! Shroud of the Avatar has offered us a chance to have a fast paced Interactive Combat System that molds preparation and reaction together to form an unparalleled gaming experience that is truly exciting us. The potential that we see with this combat system has us excited and at the edge of our seats to jump in and enjoy R9.

-Duke Violation

[Check out the forum post for more tournament results, videos, and comments]

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The Bear Tavern Brawl

The Bear Tavern also hosted a major tournament on Sunday, July 27th. Their tournament was held at the PvP Castle Arena Basement located in Owl’s Head, and quite a few spectators showed up to watch:

Duke Violation and his Vengeance crew volunteered for guard duty to make sure the tournament wasn’t interfered with by any overzealous players trying to get in on the fight! Community member, MulGirtab, a Guard Captain with the Bear Tavern Guild, summarized the event thus:

First and foremost, Thank You to all of the SotA Dev team for allowing us to test out both PVP and the deck system much earlier than initially planned. It was fun learning a new way of combat, with each battle showing us some different deck and skill combinations that made it much more intriguing than expected.

The Bear Tavern Brawl was a HUGE success! 32 fighters signed up to fight with more waiting in the crowd for their chance to step in and show us what they had. Being as how this was the first time we have ran a tournament, we had a few hiccups at the beginning. Getting the players set up and organised, then moving them to their fighting positions required a few arrows to the back of the head of some. Once we were able to get them in the right spot for Round 1 of the tournament, things began to run smoothly. Although we had a few no-shows in the first round, we were able to keep the tournament going.

It was amazing to see how fast some fighters fell and how other battles seem to never end. Those involved showed tremendous skill and abilities using different classes of armor with an array of weapons and spells. One fighter truly stood out, Espada, coming to the battle as a last minute stand-in before the tournament started. He not only took on some highly competitive contenders but stormed through the brackets with what seem to be the greatest of ease, sweeping away the opposition to be the FIRST avatar crowned as the SotA Pre-Alpha Bear Tavern Brawl Champion. I would also like to say congratulations to DavenRock from MGT470 for securing second place and Violation from Vengeance taking third place.

The Bear Tavern and Beran’s Reach would like to say thank you too all that participated and attended the tournament. Without you this would not have happened. FAME, GLORY, BEER!

– MulGirtab

Here were the complete Bear Tavern Brawl Tournament standings:

[Check out the forum post for more tournament results, videos, and comments]

Espada, the winner in a couple of these tournaments, demonstrated that he is indeed a formidable opponent. To paraphrase the lyrics from the old Jim Croce song, “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim”:

You don’t tug on superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don’t mess around with Espada

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Lord Marshal Throne

This regal throne is one of the rewards of the Lord Marshal pledge:

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Lord British and Darkstarr Outfits

A variety of characters in the game will have unique outfits. Here are concept sketches by Stephen Daniele for Lord British and Darkstarr’s unique outfits:

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Through the Lunar Rift!

These tales, told as a series of journal entries written by Gina “FireLotus” Dionne, will feature the people and places of New Britannia and give you a bit of insight, and hopefully some inspiration, when creating your own stories while exploring the lands of Shroud of the Avatar.

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Curiosity and Stone Circles

It all started with what I thought was a really odd migraine. At least that’s what I thought at the time. You know the kind where you start seeing auras. But there was no pain… things just kept getting brighter, and then they began to wash out. Of course, by that time, I had already closed my book and started imagining what kind of brain tumor could cause something like this to happen. What can I say? I have a vivid, slightly morbid imagination.

And then I stood up. I’m still not sure if that was a mistake. If maybe I had remained sitting, I would still be at home. But somehow I doubt it would have made a difference. I could feel it then just as strongly as I feel it now. I was meant to end up here.

The light was blinding. I squeezed my eyes shut against it and held up my hands to try and ward it away somehow. And then the feeling of vertigo… of falling. I’ve never felt more disoriented in my life.

When the vertigo had passed and the intense light that my eyelids seemed unable to block out began to dim, the smell of flowers, sweet as honeysuckle, filled my senses. I began to think that maybe it hadn’t been a tumor at all, but a stroke. Then I felt it; a warm breeze. But it was the middle of winter. I had been bundled up under a blanket on my sofa, reading a book in front of a fire that barely stole the chill from the air. A warm breeze… the smell of wildflowers. Those are things I would have to wait a few months to enjoy.

So I slowly started to open my eyes. Color began to wash in to my vision, replacing the haze. Vibrant greens speckled with points of color. A vivid blue marbled with white above me. A glimpse of violet and gold streaks of energy pulsing around me. My mind raced trying to understand what had happened.

I was someplace I didn’t recognize. Outdoors. In a meadow. In the center of a stone circle. Yes, it must have been a stroke. One that I did not survive…

Read the rest of the story in the forums

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Blade of the Avatar Cloak

If you loved the Blade of the Avatar symbol, then you’re especially going to love it adorning this beautifully crafted cloak! Available now at 33% off in the Add-On Store!

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More Stretch Goal Store Goodies

Here are a few more images for items in the Stretch Goal Store:

Boats Stretch Goal: Spyglass

 

Elves as Playable Race Stretch Goal: The Eleven Bow

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Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!

[NOTE: Only one Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon can be used per account. Coupon does not apply to Add-On Store items]

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World Builder/Level Designer Job Opening

We currently have an opening for a mid-level to senior-level World Builder/Level Designer for Shroud of the Avatar. Qualifications for the “ideal candidate” are:

• Minimum 3 years industry experience (preferably on a shipped game)
• Unity experience
• Scripting ability
• Experience building, texturing, and decorating natural, terrain based exterior environments
• An eye for detail, with strong scene compositional skills

If you’d like to join the Portalarium Tribe working on the ground-breaking Shroud of the Avatar, please submit your resume to jobs@portalarium.com. Provide links to your work (if possible), either as actual game play or in document form including images, maps, and event descriptions.

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Upcoming Events

2014.08.09 – SotA at synDCon
2014.08.21 – Release 9 Access
2014.08.27 – Monthly Video Hangout: R9 & R10 Discussion
2014.08.29 – SotA at PAX Prime Seattle
2014.08.29 – SotA at Dragoncon
2014.09.25 – Release 10 Access
2014.10.01 – Monthly Video Hangout: R10 & R11 Discussion
2014.10.23 – Release 11 Access
2014.10.24 – SotA at Captivate
2014.10.29 – Monthly Video Hangout: R11 & R12 Discussion
2014.11.14 – Duke & Lord of the Manor VIP Design Roundtable with Lord British and Portalarium Studio Tour
2014.11.15 – HoBLotH II: Legends of the Hearth
2014.11.20 – Release 12 Access
2014.11.26 – Monthly Video Hangout: R12 & R13 Discussion
2014.12.18 – Release 13 Access

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