Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
- SotA Steam Trading Cards
- Release 13 Grand Tour POI: Desert Scene
- R12 Steam Access Keys Available for All Backers
- Hair and Hats Play Nice in R13
- R13 Player Deco Items
- New Mad Hermit Video: How To Find And Identify Magical Reagents
- RECAP: Cyber Monday 12 Hour Telethon
- In-game Community Weekend Events
- Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 13 Weekend Access Passes
- Holiday Specials
- Last Chance Exclusives: The Hoe of Prosperity and Obsidian Cloak
- How to Cancel Monthly Payment Plans
- Recruitment Bonus Allocation Expiration
- This Week In the News
- Upcoming Events
SotA Steam Trading Cards
We launched the Shroud of the Avatar Steam Trading Cards today, which includes these seven unique cards:
If you are not familiar with Steam Trading Cards, they are collectible (virtual) cards you get by playing games on Steam. Collect a full set of SotA trading cards to earn SotA badges, profile backgrounds, and emoticons that help you customize your profile and show off your Shroud of the Avatar gameplay.
You can get SotA trading cards simply by playing the game. As you play, you’ll occasionally receive trading card drops which will be placed in your Steam Inventory. You can only receive about half of the SotA cards by playing and will need to collect the other half of the set from other community members. Try the beta group discussions, community market, barter with friends, and trade discussions. You can check how many drops you have remaining on your badges page (check out Steam’s trading card FAQ for more information).
Here are images of the SotA trading card badges, emoticons, and sample profile background:
Steam Access Keys Available for All SotA Backers
SotA successfully launched on Steam Early Access on November 24, and we’ve made Steam Access Keys available to all our backers as part of their basic pledge rewards! Once you’ve redeemed your Steam Access Key you’ll have the option of playing SotA either with the Steam client or the regular game client (or both).
Click here for instructions to redeem your Steam access key and installing the Steam SotA client…
Release 13 Grand Tour POI: Desert Scene
A desert area is one of the new scenes and biome types we are introducing in R13. It will also be part of the R13 Grand Tour Quest.
The R12 Grand Tour Quest
Just as in our last few releases, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. You will get this Pilgrim’s Hat reward by completing the Release 12 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 12 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in to R12 and talk to all the Tour Guides!
Better hurry if you want to add the Pilgrim’s had to your collection because the R12 Grand Tour Quest ends at 10:00 am CST on December 18 when we launch Release 13 (and then there’ll be a new Grand Tour Quest reward)!
Hair and Hats Play Nice in R13
We’re happy to announce that you will no longer have to give up your hair to wear a hat in Release 13! Yay!
R13 Player Deco Items
There will be many new decorations available in R13, including hedges, stone walls, room dividers, and even a stage with stairs. Can’t wait to see the R13 mazes created with these decorations!
New Mad Hermit Video: How To Find And Identify Magical Reagents
Thanks to community member The Mad Hermit for providing yet another great How-To video for Shroud of the Avatar. In this video he shows you how to find and identify magical reagents in Pre-Alpha Release 12. Magical Reagents are needed for casting higher level spells and can be purchased from certain vendors. They can also be obtained by killing certain creatures, field dressing certain animals, harvesting plants and mining rocks.
Click here to check out all of The Mad Hermit’s amazing how-to videos!
RECAP: Cyber Monday 12 Hour Streamathon
We’d like to thank all the special guests that participated in our Cyber Monday 12 Hour Streamathon on December 1st! The twelve hours flew by with all the fun stories and design discussions that were shared! And thanks to all of you that tuned in to listen and post your questions!
We gave away tons of prizes, including 120 free weekend passes to Release 13 (starting December 18), twelve $100 Store Credit coupon winners, and fifteen winners of Plantronics and Alienware peripherals, including one lucky grand prize winner of the Alienware Gaming Desktop computer!
We also presented the Order of New Britannian Empire and Royal Warrant awards to the following SotA community members:
Order of New Britannian Empire
- Fenyx4 ~ Programming
- Melchior Meijer ~ SFX, Music and Art contributions
- Stile Teckel (The Caverns.net)
- Riya (New Britannia’s Builders of Bemusing Bewilderments)
Royal Warrant
- Joseph Toschlog (Rustic Dragon) ~ Hearth of Britannia
- Joe Garrity ~ The Origin Museum
- Amber Raine ~ Avatar’s Radio
- Balec ~ Accepting for the Bear Tavern
- Duke Violation ~ Order of Vengeance (PvP Tournaments)
- Duke Gréagóir ~ Dara Brae, The Celtic Holdfast (Welcome Quest)
- Languard and Aartemis: Society of Dungeoneering Cartography Scene Collaboration.
You each have our heartfelt thanks for the amazing time and effort you contribute to the Shroud of the Avatar project and community!
If you missed the live Streamathon you can view it here…
Release 12 In-game Weekend Community Events
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Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for Release 12 this weekend. If you missed out on these player events during the previous Releases, we highly recommend you check some of them out this weekend. Here is the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar (http://avatarscircle.com/community-events/):
Friday, December 5
10:00pm CST – Dungeon Run – Braemar Cemetery
7:00pm CST – Dungeon Run – Braemar Cemetery
Saturday, December 6
9:00am CST – PaxLair Working Hours – Host Winfield (in Valemark)
11:00am CST – Church of the Dark Star – The Monsters that Dwell Within – Deceit (PaxLair, Valemark)
12:00Pm CST – Welcome Quest 12.5 – (in Northshire, “/zone Dara Brae”, details)
Sunday, December 7
5:30 am CST – Explore Novia with royalsexy (Braemer cemetery)
5:00 pm CST – PvP – 1×1 Tournament (at the Brave Coast or “/zone Duke Violation”)
6:00pm CST – Tag – Vengeance Style! (at the Brave Coast or “/zone Duke Violation”)
7:00pm CST – PaxLair Meeting – (in Valemark or “/zone Winfield PaxLair”)
Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 13 Weekend Access Passes
Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring 1000 Release 13 Weekend Access Passes to members of their Alienware Arena community! All you have to do is join the Shroud of the Avatar Group on the Alienware Arena site and you are eligible to win one of these R13 weekend passes. These passes allow you to play Shroud of the Avatar Release 13 for free from 10:00 am CST December 18 thru 11:00 am CST December 22!
Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and sign up for your free Release 13 Weekend Access Pass!
Holiday Specials
Yep, it’s that time of the year again. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve brought back all of your holiday favorites. You can get all 7 of the 2014 holiday items at an even greater savings with the 2014 Holiday Bundle! Includes Taming Turkey Call, Taming Reindeer Call, Cornucopia, Yule Tree, Menorah, Replenishing Fireworks Box, and the Replenishing Snowball Box. Available for a limited time in the Add-On Store.
Last Chance Exclusives
Every week going forward we are removing select items from the Add-On Store, so if you want them you better get them before they are gone! Over the past few weeks we’ve phased out the Scissors of Prosperity, Cubit Measure of Prosperity, Cooking Pot of Prosperity, Blade of the Avatar Cloak, Combat Sigil Cloak, Crafting Sigil Cloak, Magic Sigil Cloak, Shingle-Roof Village Homes, Rustic 2-Story Village Home, Rustic 2-Story with Balcony Village Home, and the Wood & Plaster 2-Story with Balcony Town Home. This week, the following items are available for an additional 20% off, and then will no longer be available in the Add-On Store.
Looking to intimidate your enemies with legends of the past? Well, there is nothing like the greatly feared Obsidian Order (as seen in Blade of the Avatar) to strike fear into your foe. For centuries, this symbol has been synonymous with power, destruction, and dark magic. The Obsidian Cloak can be yours to wear proudly, if you dare the consequences…
This unique, indestructible, hoe increases the quality and quantity of the crops harvested as well as increasing the speed of harvesting. While hoes with similar effects can be crafted and purchased in the game this particular hoe never needs repair.
How to Cancel Monthly Payment Plans
Remember that Pledge payment plans are not canceled automatically after reaching the desired pledge. You must manually cancel your monthly payment plan, which can be done at anytime on your SotA Account page. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, but it is a result of how recurring billing functions with PayPal, Amazon, and Stripe (our credit card service).
Recruitment Bonus Allocation Expiration
The Recruitment Bonus Program ended at 12:00 pm CST December 2, 2014, but you will have until midnight CST December 31, 2014 to alter the allocation of your recruitment bonuses on your Account page. After the deadline, the “Recruits” user interface on your Account page will no longer be available, and any unallocated recruitment bonuses will be automatically applied to your pledge (or to your highest valued pledge if you have more than one).
This Week In the News
November 27 – PC Gamer – Shroud of the Avatar impressions: Lord British’s rough new world
Upcoming Events
2014.12.18 – Release 13 Access
2015.01.22 – Release 14 Access
2015.02.19 – Release 15 Access
2015.03.13 – SotA at SXSW Interactive
2015.03.26 – Release 16 Access
Trading cards! woot. Now collecting….
So…. I have 2013 and 2014 holiday bundle. What is the difference?
Yes, the trading cards look cool. Will have to start collecting.
Outstanding! Thanks dallas for another great update! I always look forward to them every week to feed my SotA obsession.
Very much looking forward to exploring that gorgeous desert scene. I’m hoping we will have really huge and vast deserts to explore through. What wonders, mysteries and dangers will we find there?!
And love the new deco objects. Can’t wait to see what the community does with these!
Amazing News! I will no longer be bald!! – Thank you team for being able to fix the head gear and hair!
My first trading card – DarkStarr! … was it rigged?
Big congratulations to all ONBE and Royal Warrant recipients, and to the community. Thank you for allowing us to do what we do! You are the reason it was possible.
Can we please have a summary of the main topics and discussions done during the Cyber Monday 12 Hour Streamathon?
Thank you
The hourly schedule is on the original post where the video links are: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=46412
I must say the desert map looks really awesome !
Are the trading cards signed Stephen Daniele?
Maybe Portalarium could auction off some personally signed trading cards or put them in the store. Would a 10% commission for Stephen (on top of his wage of course) be fare? 20%?
Awesome cant wait to collect them ^_^