Updates

Update of the Avatar #237 – 2017.21.07: NEVERDIE, Norgard Clothing, Scene Polish, Trailer Contest, New Flash Sale, Origin PC Offer, Free Trial, Comic-Con & PAX Dev, Community Spotlight & Events, and More!

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

The Latest Game Progress

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Norgard Garments

We have begun creating the Viking-inspired clothing for the NPCs in the Northwest regions of Novia, including Norgard and Verdantis. This will complement the already established architectural character of the region and help to better define the area as a whole. We are creating garments for Guards, Citizens, and Merchants/Nobility, all of whom “courageously” display the color yellow which everyone knows drives the Kobolds mad, or so they say.

For Release 44 we hope to have the Guards in the region updated. In Release 45 we will update the other NPCs (Citizens, Upper Classes, and even enemies) in the region and we will create player wearable versions of these outfits.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “SkullMuncher34” Kinnear and Kevin “UglyFist” Wells]

Hey all! So we thought we’d make a post showing our current progress with Norgard clothing. So far we’ve modeled out a few variations of basic shirts and pants for NPCs and are starting to create player wearable versions of everything. Keep in mind that these images are subject to revision as we move forward. Cheers!

Read more…


Partnership with Neverdie Studios – Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

Today we announced a partnership with Neverdie Studios to support the company’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Neverdie Studios produces games, live action movies, records and virtual products. Their ICO is a blockchain-based project aiming to create an Ethereum-based gaming platform. Shroud of the Avatar is the first game outside the Neverdie product lineup exploring how to utilize Neverdie Coins (NDC). The two companies also announced today that Garriott would become an advisor to Neverdie Studios.

Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs, Neverdie Studios founder said, “This is a historic accord between two iconic avatars aligning to champion avatar rights. With the wise council of Richard “Lord British” Garriott, a legendary avatar, adventurer and world builder, providing priceless insight into the development of the gamified virtual reality infrastructure to unite MMORPGS and virtual worlds, I’m confident that our noble ambitions will remain virtuous and have the greatest chance to succeed. Richard’s council on the structure and balance of universal gaming tokens will be invaluable.”

“We are devout believers that people living in and contributing to our virtual worlds can and should earn real world value for the time and value they bring to our world,” said Garriott, Portalarium’s CEO and Shroud’s creative director. “Having direct access to a publicly tradeable currency is a great way to provide this. I’m also extremely pleased to be invited to advise Neverdie on this exciting and ambitious project. Additionally, Shroud of the Avatar already has a deeply committed player base while in early access. We are exploring how our players can earn market based value with NEVERDIE NDC and TPT tokens that are both useable directly in the game as well as traded on the open market.

To learn more about the offering and how you can get Neverdie coins, visit the official ICO page. The copy above came from today’s press release.


Community Livestream – Aerie and Vertas Scenes

We will be kicking off this week’s Community Livestream by giving players a first look at all the new changes making their way into both Aerie and Vertas scenes! Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar will be driving the master build machine as we explore around the scene and discover its hidden secrets.

As we are focusing on the Path of Truth we are spending time to not only polish the story elements (dialogue, NPC names, quests, etc.) we are also updating visuals along the path as needed. For Release 44 this includes polishing the visuals for three of the towns you visit along the Path of Truth: Aerie, Vertas, and Jaanaford. Each of these towns is getting updated to include more color (especially blue, the color of Truth), more visuals related to Truth (books, libraries, statues of the Titan of Truth, etc.), and general polish (terrain, foliage, etc.).

For more about Aerie, check out SorcerousSteve’s recent Dev+ blog update in the forums.

After these changes go live, we have even more content, including quests, you can look forward to in future releases!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about this scene.


Community Spotlight: Shadow’s Rest – Player Town

Shadow’s Rest is a Player Owned Metropolis due West of Brittany, along the coast of Lake Equitas. The town is the headquarters for the A Rose From Sequanna services offered to members of the community and welcomes all members regardless of reputation, guild affiliations, or other neutral status.

Founded in Marse 3rd, 482 PC, Shadow’s Rest was a small holdfast residing along the source of the Oso River in Norgard. Aidenolm Rosemourne built his home in that location in hopes of one day bringing peace between the Kobolds and Avatars in the area. With his extra land deed he allowed anyone who needed a home to stay for free.

Read more…


Update of the Avatar #236 – 2017.07.14: New Scene Polish, Trailer Contest, Comic-Con and RTX Updates, Free Trial, Key Giveaway, Telethon Qs Answered, New Flash Sale, Community Events, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Aerie Scene Polish

As we are focusing on the Path of Truth we are spending time to not only polish the story elements (dialogue, NPC names, quests, etc.) we are also updating visuals along the path as needed. For Release 44 this includes polishing the visuals for three of the towns you visit along the Path of Truth: Aerie, Vertas, and Jaanaford. Each of these towns is getting updated to include more color (especially blue, the color of Truth), more visuals related to Truth (books, libraries, statues of the Titan of Truth, etc.), and general polish (terrain, foliage, etc.).

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

Hey guys! Sorcerous Steve here to give you a look into some of my latest work!
For this release I was tasked with making several cosmetic improvements to the City of Aerie otherwise known as the City of Truth.

Aerie Castle has been rebuilt with a full interior and now stands as a prominent landmark to the city. As Aerie is the City of Truth we made sure to accentuate the color blue throughout the city, every district has now taken on its own color palette, all of which include blue.

Read more…


‘Welcome to New Britannia’ Community Trailer Contest

Get those eye popping video ideas ready, Avatars! Like last year’s trailer design contest, this is your chance to show that Shroud of the Avatar is both the game, and community, that new players will want to play to launch and beyond.

The ‘Welcome to New Britannia’ Community Trailer Contest kicks off today!

You have from July 13, 2017 (Now) to August 18 22, 2017 (11:59 PM CT) to design a video trailer for all New Britannians to admire. Capture shots of key city districts, bustling player-owned towns, luxurious houses, intense combat, majestic outdoor scenes, crafting valuable goods, or any of the other amazing features of our game that you think will help sell the game to other players.

Read more…


Community Livestream – Grannus Colossus and Hallowed Plains

Community of the Avatar

UPDATE: Congrats to the following prize winners during the livestream!

– Dragonbooster (Ornate Kobold Backpack)
– @GuinnessThe3Cat (Ornate Kobold Backpack)
– Oskandra (2017 Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake (digital))
– Rentier (Magic Mushroom Pack)
– Shadowjade (Magic Mushroom Pack)
– Sky Drifter (Ornate Kobold Backpack)
– Zombified (2017 Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake (digital))

We will be kicking off this week’s Community Livestream by giving players a first look at all the new changes making their way into Hallowed Plains! Chris “Seawolf” Wolf will be driving the master build machine as we explore around the scene and discover its hidden secrets.

After Chris shows us Hallowed Plains, Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski will jump on the stream to show off his work on some finishing touches with the Grannus Colossus!

SPOILERS: On the outskirts of the Boundless Forest and to one side of the Broken Road is the Hallowed Plains, a sacred site to humans because of a massive battle once fought in this location. Kobolds do not have the same respect for this land and have begun building along the road despite protests from locals. This scene was temporarily a clone of another scene but is being completely rebuilt. We hope to have the Hallowed Plains ready for Release 44.

After these changes go live, we have even more content, including quests, you can look forward to in future releases!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about this scene.


Update of the Avatar #235 – 2017.07.07: New Elves, Scene Polish, Shroud at RTX, Free Trial Live, Telethon Results, Your Questions Answered, New Flash Sale, Contest Winners, Community Events, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

New Elves & Elven Outfits

As we have been working on the Paths of Truth and Courage we have been spending more time in areas with Elves. This has highlighted our need for more visual variations in the Elves, including the need for female elves. Fletcher has been hard at work creating both new outfits as well as female faces and bodies for the Elves. These new elves will appear in Release 44 starting in Bloodriver Outskirts and will propagate to other scenes over the next several releases.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Fletcher “SkullMuncher34” Kinnear]

Hey all! So as you may have heard we’ve been working to expand the variations of enemies in the game. One notable inclusion is that of female elves to go alongside male ones. In addition to creating new female elf NPC’s this has also given us an opportunity to populate the game with more equipment. Female elven armours will soon be available in game as well. These include Female Elven Mage, Female Elven Archer, and Female Elven Fighter. I’ll be posting updates to this thread with screenshots and other media in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Female Elven Fighter:

Read more…


Lord British’s Birthday Bash Telethon – July 6th

** $100,000 **

Telethon Funds Raised


Telethon Stretch Goal Rewards:

  • ACHIEVED! $10,000: Silver Fireworks
  • ACHIEVED! $25,000: /flowerwandtrick: make a magic wand turn into flower bouquet
  • ACHIEVED! $35,000: Lord British Helmet with Silver Serpent: includes light source
  • ACHIEVED! $50,000: Lord British Throne (chair with Lord British symbol on it)
  • ACHIEVED! $65,000: Tuxedo with tails + 2 Magic Emotes (/birdtrick & /endlessclothtrick)
  • ACHIEVED! $80,000: Lord British Version of Moondial
  • ACHIEVED! $100,000: Magical Pet Broom


Avatars, get ready for a birthday bash like no other! Today, we are announcing a special mini-telethon around Lord British’s birthday! Event begins on July 6th and runs from 3-9pm CT. Lord British’s birthday is on July 4th, a couple of days before the telethon.

Telethons are livestreamed on Twitch and include a complete schedule of developer Deep Dives, answers to your gameplay questions, community activities, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more!

Celebrate with the community as the telethon approaches in one of the many soon-to-be-announced party contest celebrations!

Expiring Items

In honor of Lord British’s birthday, at 9pm CT, July 6, 2017, we are expiring the following content from the Add On Store (and the in-game Crown Merchants). This means that these items will no longer be available in our store after this date.

Before the following items expire for good, we have put them on sale at approx. 20% off! Check out what’s currently on sale:

Read more…


Free Trial Test #4 – July 3-26

We are excited to announce the latest test of our Free Trial system, running from July 3-26th! This will be the longest test so far of the system so that we can gather even more data on uptake, drop-off, conversions, etc. These tests are invaluable for us in order to improve the New User Experience and the Free Trial System itself.

If you know anyone who may want to try the game for free, please send them to the Download Page.

Free Trial access during the game’s current Early Access period allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play:

  • Free Trial Current Time Period: July 3-26, 2017
  • The term (Visitor) is appended to your Character Name
  • Cannot give items to other players via Trade
  • Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors
  • No ownership of property nor use of lot signs
  • Cannot interact with public chests
  • Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions
  • Cannot flag as Open PVP
  • Cannot gain nor do they create any ransom items when they kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)
  • Character data may be deleted after Free Trial period is over if character is not upgraded to a paid account
  • Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Period is over unless you purchase Game Access
  • Cannot play in Offline Mode
  • Can only start on the Path of Love

You can still explore hundreds of scenes, talk with thousands of players, adventure through the opening quests, and gain experience and skills as you get used to the world of New Britannia! If you wish to continue playing after the free trial concludes, you can obtain an Early Access account here.

For when you get started in the Free Trial, we would love your feedback! We have opened up of our Release 43 Feedback Forums. If you have a constructive comment about this release that will help the game to improve, please post it there. You can also say hello in the New Player Forum!

Have fun, and thanks for trying out Shroud of the Avatar in Early Access!