Update of the Avatar #158 – 2016.01.08: Sanctus Spine, Winter Telethon, Backer Sponsored Party, Titan of Courage, Bowler Hat, Final Weekend of 10% Bonus, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• The Making of Sanctus Spine
• The Wondrous Winter Telethon of the Avatar!
• Community Sponsored Portalarium Holiday Party
• Grannus, The Titan of Courage
• Release 26 Grand Tour Quest Reward: Bowler Hat
• Spoon’s Silly Spectacles – the Treasure Hunt of the year 478
• Final Weekend for 10% Holiday Bonus
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Projects to Back

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The Making of Sanctus Spine

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

Hey guys, once again this is SorcerousSteve chiming in and today I will be giving you a sneak peak at the upcoming Sanctus Spine, my first map of 2016! The Sanctus Spine is located on the mountainous border of where South Paladis meets North Paladis.

Inspiration for the Sanctus Spine has been drawn from the Karakoram Range in Pakistan. Home to some of the tallest peaks in the world (K2/Trango).

(In-engine)

In crafting the Sanctus Spine, I wanted to push the boundary of mountains that we’ve made so far.

Utilizing the new Gaia Terrain Tool has allowed me to create more detailed geographical features, shown above are the results. These may very well be some of the highest peaks in Novia, yet.

The Control Point itself inside the fortress waiting to be spawned by the Shroud of the Avatar spawn team.

See you next time!

Esteben Zaldivar
Level Designer

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The Wondrous Winter Telethon of the Avatar!

It has been a truly amazing and humbling Holiday Season! With Alpha Testing on the horizon, our amazing community continues to grow and the eight million dollar mark in fundraising is fast approaching. To celebrate, we will be hosting an all-day, Wondrous Winter Telethon on Monday January 11, from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM Central Time (16:00 UTC to 04:00 UTC).

Here is a tentative schedule of events:

10:00 am CST: Welcome! Meet the Devs/Office Tour

11:00 am CST: R25 Post Mortem
You can pre-post your R25 Post Mortem questions in the OP comments section!**

12:30 am CST: ONBE and Royal Warrant awards

1:00 pm CST: Lunch with the Team! Tabletop Gaming Session & IRC Q&A/AMA session with the Devs!

2:30 pm CST: Deep Dive: Combat, Spells, Skills

4:00 pm CST: Deep Dive: Gear Crafting & Economy; Kickoff the Community Sponsored Portalarium Holiday Party

5:00 pm CST: Deep Dive: Agriculture & Food

6:00 pm CST: Scenes and Story

7:30 pm CST: Deep Dive: Player Housing and Player Owned Towns

9:00 pm CST: Deep Dive: PVP & Guild Warfare

10:00 pm CST: Goodbyes and Thank Yous with everyone still standing!

And, because it would not be a proper Telethon of the Avatar without merriment and spirits, there will of course be shots. Past Telethons have taught us, however, that too much of a good thing can make the following workday…. well, unpleasant. So participating Dev Team members will once again be taking 1 Shot/Sip for every $2500 of new money raised during the telethon!

The Wondrous Winter Telethon of the Avatar will include deep dives, lots of prize giveaways* (like coins, t-shirts, store credits, even pledges!), and even some surprises, so you don’t want to miss a moment of it!

* There will be some really awesome prizes awarded during the telethon, but you have to be present in the IRC chatroom to qualify for each drawing. 

**Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to each segment will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief.

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Community Sponsored Portalarium Holiday Party

When local SotA community members learned that Portalarium does not spend backer funding on holiday parties, they asked if they could sponsor a holiday party for us (yep, the same group that decorated the Portalarium office for the holidays). We were deeply moved by such generosity, and gratefully accepted. We thought it would be great to hold the party during the telethon, allowing backers from around the world to view the televised event, and even participate remotely!

The party will start at 4:00 pm CST Monday, January 11, and run thru 8:00 pm. In addition to our Telethon Google Hangout, the party will be Twitch streamed by Lazarus with NBNN and EclipseMaiden of RizeUp Gaming. There will also be a Backers Merry Christmas compilation video coordinated by Amber Raine of Avatars Radio, and a simultaneous in-game party at the player owned town of SilverHold, located in Elysium in the southwest corner of Novia:

[Check out Kacey’s forum post for more details about the Portalarium Holiday Party]

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Grannus, The Titan of Courage

“After the moons collided and civilization fell, three great and powerful leaders rose to become the Titans of Truth, Love and Courage, the surviving principles of the times before the fall. Great are they, and great are the monuments built to them. While the Titans themselves may no longer exist, we are still inspired by colossal statues in their likeness, occasionally found throughout New Britannia.”           – Lord British

The above image shows Stephen Daniele’s original concept art for Grannus, the Titan of Courage (rightmost image). Andy Cortez shared the below work-in-progress images of Grannus, expected for Release 26 on January 28th:

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Release 26 Grand Tour Quest Reward: Bowler Hat

Just as we’ve been doing since Release 10, we’re including a Grand Tour Quest in R26 designed to guide you through all the new content. By completing the R26 Grand Tour Quest you will be rewarded with a Bowler Hat. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 26 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in to R26 starting January 28 and talk to all the Tour Guides!

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Dyeable Brown Bowler Hat

And for those that love to accessorize, the dyeable Brown Bowler Hat is now available in the Add-On Store!

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Spoon’s Silly Spectacles – the Treasure Hunt of the year 478

[From a Release 25 Events forum post by Spoon]

So, as a ‘longstanding’ tradition, the mayor of Lux Sanctuary has again snuck out in the middle of the night and put out (Public) treasure chests in the wild regions of Lux Sanctuary.

This time with a twist though. Every three days Spoon will add another level onto the challenge, in a poor homage to iterative development, for a total of three iterations. (Unless he finds it too fun and can’t stop).

First Challenge – really easy (follow a pirate treasure map kinda deal)
Second Challenge – easy (follow a pirate treasure map where the pirate has drunk enough rum to think he is clever)
Third Challenge – puzzle (some SotA lore trivia related puzzle to figure it out, potentially through some NPC towns as well)

This notification is about the First Challenge. (Links to the others will be posted when they go live).
You can also find a post below about the Second Challenge which starts where the First Challenge ends.

Since the hints are on Vendors you will need to have about 50-150g or so to buy them and the prize.
(Tried using Public Chests for clues as well but someone always eventually cleaned them out, so doing a combo now, early birds can find stuff in chests, but there is backups on the Vendors).

The hunt itself starts in the Daedalusian market, in Lux Sanctuary.
You can find details on how to find us and the market here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f…o-lux-sanctuary-graff-miners-take-heed.42385/
If you look on those pics you might already get a clue on which vendor could possibly have rumors to spread on where to start the hunt.

At the end you will find a (Public) Treasure Chest that might contain treasure if not plundered (I will refill sporadically), plus a vendor where you can purchase Vouchers and Mementos (so I can keep track).

This event will be ongoing for the rest of R25 until wipe. There will be continously new prizes added to the treasure chests.

So do these challenges whenever you wish.

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Final Weekend for 10% Holiday Bonus

Better hurry while there’s still time to get your 10% Holiday Bonus! For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, stretch goal items, and Make a Difference items) made thru Midnight CST January 11, 2015, we will add an additional 10% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward additional purchases (which includes pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and player owned town upgrades).

[NOTE: The bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CST for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Any monthly payments paid during the promotion period also receive the bonus; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of stretch goal or make a difference items]

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In-game Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Special thanks to community member SpookyJenny (aka Jenny Phoenixfyre in-game) for her help in compiling the schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

• Vanguard Decoration Contest – R24 / R25
  • Vanguard is hosting a decoration contest. To enter you must place a lot in Vanguard and decorate it as best as you can. If you don’t have a lot / house then you can borrow one for the duration of the contest. If you already have a lot / house then feel free to drop by and take an empty lot. This contest lasts for the whole duration of R24 and R25. 1st Place wins $30 Store Credit! (details)
• RPOTA Monthly $160 Writing Contest – December contest involves Good Will or Winter Themes!
  • Here ye! Here ye! Biographers, Historians, Diplomats, Journalists, Story Writers, Quest Designers and Videographers! RPOTA is in dire need of your amazing talents! Role-Players of the Avatar is hosting a monthly contest to award those most famous with their quill or camera! (details)
• The Unreliable Travel Guide
  • The Unreliable Travel Guide, created at the SotA Writing Round Table, is not an event, but a collection of hilarious short stories published by two drunken layabouts who have nothing better to do than try to derive a dishonest income from newly arrived avatars. (details)
• Avatars Radio (Daily Programming)
  • Welcome New Britannians to Avatars Radio – Radio of the Avatars. Rocking your socks off from the town of Radio City with the Terrestrial and New Britannian bards together under one roof through the power of the Moon Towers.  Check out their daily program of amazing DJs:  http://avatarsradio.info/schedule.php
• NBNN Lunch with Laz & Jack (Weekdays, 12pm CST)
  • Join NBNN every weekday for Lunch With Laz & Jack. They will be covering the daily goings on in SOTA. Calendar updates, Relevant issues happening in the days news. Come chat with us about upcoming events and general information. http://nbnn.info
• Daily War Time PVP Event (Daily, 8pm CST – 9pm CST)
  • Invitation to all guilds, PK hunters, PVP’rs or players interested in PVP training to come to Chaos Crossroads (Located at the crossroads outside of Kingsport on the road to Owl’s Head). PVP Event rules: None! Use whatever spells you want, kill in mobs or solo, group with new allies and defend your territory, lure newbies into the town and wack them! (details)
• “The Tavern Respite” RP Event (Mondays, 8pm CST)
  • The tavern door opens before you, and the scent of pipe and stew waft outwards with a wall of warmth from the hearth. Join in with the patrons of the Bear Tavern as they share tales of their adventures amid endless mugs of ale, legs of mutton, and merriment unbounded (The Bear Tavern; /zone Elgarion De’Khali; details)!
• Challenge Dungeon Run (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10am & 7pm CST)
  • This is a self-host event that meets at the Braemar Cemetery. Join whoever can make it for a dungeon run, adventure or something along those lines. Come prepared for combat. Learn how to set up your combat system if you need help.
• Novian Academy – New Citizen Outreach (Tuesdays, 6pm CST)
  • /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre of Novian Academy in Soltown as they provide guidance to those new to the world of New Britannia.
• Wednesday Knights (Wednesdays, 6pm CST)
  • This will be mainly an impromptu event but on occasion I may plan on doing something ‘knightly’. All will be welcome. Some possibilities include RP, boss hunts, gathering materials & crafting, hat quests, hanging out or whatever people feel up for. (Caer Dracwych; /zone Bowen Bloodgood; details)
• Happy Hour Wednesdays (Wednesdays, 8pm CST)
  • Otherwise known as “Spend Stryker’s Gold” – Stryker will open a bar tab at one of the local Novia taverns for an hour or so for drinks, stories, news, critique of the arts, dancing, and otherwise unplanned mayhem. Zone /Stryker Sparhawk or watch this thread for locations each week!
• Gladiator Wars (Thursdays, 8pm CST)
  • A call to all fighters PVE and PVP! Would you like to participate in the “Gladiator Wars” PvP Tournaments? Registration starts at 6pm CST. (Finchfield; /zone Pestilence; details)
• Phoenix Republic PVE Nights (Thursdays & Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • Join the Phoenix Republic as we send our weekly foray into the control points, dungeons and other of the most dangerous locales. Each week we will depart to a different PVE locale to help train our combatants. Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Malakas for more info!
• Novian Academy – Role Play Courses (Fridays, 4pm CST)
  • Luka Melehan is hosting RP classes and practice sessions. (/zone Luka Melehan)
• Shardfall Madness (Fridays, 6pm CST)
  • A PvP event. Contact Wind Silvermoon for details.
• Vengeance Madness (Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • This is an Open PvP event where everyone fights it out in a royal rumble to see who the ultimate death dealer is! (City of Vengeance; /zone Bambino LudoVate)
• Astronomy Event (Fridays, 7:30pm CST)
  • Interested in New Britannia Astronomy? Just enjoy gazing at the stars? Join us every week as we explore the night sky above New Britannia. (Player Town of Caer Dracwych, /zone Bowen Bloodgood; details)

Saturday, January 9

• 6:00am CST Wake Up New, Britannia!!! With Woftam and Selene
  • Woftam and Selene Noctua broadcast on AvatarsRadio from the Wake Up New Britannia Studio in Owlshead (right behind the crafting pavillion). Includes Interviews with the Community, Contests for in-game Gold, What’s new for the week in New Britannia, and your Best Bets for SotA weekend events! (details)
• 11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service
  • High Priestess of Chaos, Amber Raine, and the Dean of the Novian Academy, Kazyn Phoenixfyre, welcome you to the Church of the Dark Star. A shared project, built upon equality, where all are welcome. Services range from what is Chaos and Order to how they affect different aspects of our life. The path you choose is yours. (Alternate weekends at PaxLair and Port Phoenix; details)
• 12:00pm CST Beran League Construction – Harvest & Craft
  • A weekly craft & harvest event for the purpose of supporting all towns, guilds and player run establishments within the Beran League! All harvested materials, crafted items and decorative items purchased will be collected and sorted in a specially designated warehouse. Town owners, guild leaders and proprietors of the Beran League (and those designated by them) will have access. (Meet at the Bear Tavern in High Rock or /zone Bowen Bloodgood; details)
• 3:00pm CST 4Beasts – Taming Safari
  • Come and learn from a taming GM the secrets of taming animals. The number participants is limited to 14 people. Everyone gets 10 taming collars and a taming whistle for first tries. (West Ravenwood entrance; details)
• 6:00pm CST Elysium Social Nights
  • Each Saturday we meet together in Elysium and have a whole series of activities with our friends inside and outside of the island and the republic. Join us each month in a different spot within Elysium for a monthly block party celebrating all of the people and places that make Elysium great! This event was originally started by the Phoenix Republic in order to promote the foundation of Port PHoenix at the founders ball and has since evolved into a celebration of music, dancing, story telling, crafting and even occasional PVP! (Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre for details)
• 8pm CST Serenite Auction
  • Join us in Serenite, next to Vengeance, east of Grunvald Shardfall and Desolis, for a monthly Auction for all the best wares. Minimums are allowed but all bets will start at minimums if they exist.

Sunday, January 10

• 5:30am CST Explore Novia! with royalsexy
  • Starting at the entrance to Owl’s Head, come explore the wide world of Novia – for people on our side of the clock!
• 8:30am CST PaxLair Meeting
  • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions! (PaxLair, /zone Winfield; teamSpeak: 43.245.163.15:10099)
• 3:00pm CST Gustball
  • The game of Gustball is a great community event, not dissimilar from soccer or football, where Avatars of all levels & skill can compete in a fun, friendly game that uses the Gust skill (1st level Air Magic spell) to blow a Gustball into your opponents goal. (/whisper or /zone Sand, Sheamus McGuinness, or Bambino Ludovate, details)
• 5:00pm CST BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration
  • Register to compete in the BMC Gridiron and mingle with other participants and spectators before the big fight! (Blackrock Cove on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)
• 5:30pm CST BMC Gladiator’s Grid-Iron
  • The BMC is proud to present the nastiest, the foulest, the most feared arena in all of New Britannia! The Grid-Iron is equipped with a pit-style arena, locker rooms, a VIP round-table, betting & vendor booths, and all the blood-sport you can handle. (Blackrock Cove on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)
• 7:00pm CST PaxLair Meeting
  • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions!  (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
• 8:00pm CST Fishing with Winfield
  • Come sit with Winfield on a log or rock to hear some fish tales or tell your own. Chat about anything from the moons to the earth worms. Spend a relaxing day in nature near a stream or lake — bring insect repellent or a sword.  (some fishing spot or pond, /zone Winfield; details)

Be sure and check out the Release 25 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

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Upcoming Events

2016.01.28 – Release 26
2016.02.25 – Release 27
2016.03.16 – GDC 2016
2016.03.17 – SXSW Gaming
2016.03.31 – Release 28
2016.04.22 – PAX East
2016.04.29 – Release 29
2016.05.27 – Release 30

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Recommended Projects to Back

Crowfall

In this Throne War Simulator, characters are persistent but the campaign worlds are not, thanks to voxel technology which enables fully-destructible settings. A seamless blend of an MMO with a large-scale strategy game, players are immortal champions, traveling between realms to fight in an eternal War of the Gods.