Updates

Fall into Winter Telethon of the Avatar

November 28, 2016

Fall into Winter Telethon Avatars! Are you ready to join us on Twitch and continue celebrating the biggest event to hit New Britannia since the great cataclysm itself? Today, we’re announcing the ‘Fall Into Winter’ Telethon!

At Midnight CST, November 28, 2016 (6:00 UTC, November 29, 2016), we are expiring the following content / features:

House Stacking in Bundles (only 1 House per Bundle going forward)
Adobe 2-Story with Upper Deck Village Home
Adobe 2-Story with Patio & Balcony Village Home
Adobe 2-Story Village Home
Adobe Brick 2-Story with Roof Access Village Home
All Kobold Masks (some will still be exclusively available in Kobold Bundles)
All Prosperity Tool Packs (will still be available as part of Bundles)
Wax Cylinder Soundtrack Vol 1
Battle Banner
2016 Jack O Lanterns
2016 Jack O Lantern Mask
2016 Jack O Lantern Mask with Glow
2016 Grim Reaper Statue
2016 Grim Reaper Mask
2016 Rotten Armor
2016 Rotten Flesh Cloak
/juggleseveredheads
/jugglezombieheads
/jugglejackolanterns
2016 Spooky Soundtrack

Help us to achieve the following goals during this next event!

As a special bonus, we are offering Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). The Fall Into Winter Telethon of the Avatar Funding Stretch Goal Rewards are:

Achieved! $10,000: Rain Autumn Leaves Emote (/rainautumnleaves)
Achieved! $25,000: Autumn Leaf Crown (increases length of /rainautumnleaves emote)
Achieved! $35,000: Autumn Fairy Leaf Dress + Autumn Leaf Wings
Achieved! $50,000: Red Tufted Squirrel Pet
Achieved! $65,000: 2016 Snowball Box (100 Snowballs!) + Ice Wings
Achieved! $80,000: Ice & Snow Shooting Bagpipes
Achieved! $100,000: Frozen Fountain
$130,000: Ice Titan Statues

Update of the Avatar #204 – 2016.11.25: Black Friday Weekend is Here!, Superstition Canyon & Blood Bay, Player Town of Dragomir, and More!

November 25, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Final Weekend for Expirations, 15% Black Friday Bonus, and Fall into Winter Telethon (now with schedule & prizes)

Only 3 days left until our Fall into Winter Telethon and your last chance to purchase a bunch of items that are expiring, as well as receive your 15% Black Friday Bonus! Note that we’ve added the schedule for the telethon and the list of prizes we will be giving away!

At Midnight CST, November 28, 2016 (6:00 UTC, November 29, 2016), we are expiring the following content / features:

House Stacking in Bundles (only 1 House per Bundle going forward)
Adobe 2-Story with Upper Deck Village Home
Adobe 2-Story with Patio & Balcony Village Home
Adobe 2-Story Village Home
Adobe Brick 2-Story with Roof Access Village Home
All Kobold Masks (some will still be exclusively available in Kobold Bundles)
All Prosperity Tool Packs (will still be available as part of Bundles)
Wax Cylinder Soundtrack Vol 1
Battle Banner
2016 Jack O Lanterns
2016 Jack O Lantern Mask
2016 Jack O Lantern Mask with Glow
2016 Grim Reaper Statue
2016 Grim Reaper Mask
2016 Rotten Armor
2016 Rotten Flesh Cloak
/juggleseveredheads
/jugglezombieheads
/jugglejackolanterns
2016 Spooky Soundtrack

Community Spotlight: Dragomir – Player Owned Town

November 23, 2016

This week’s community spotlight features the Player Owned Town, Dragomir! Each week we tour towns and talk with guilds and other groups, all of which are open to be spotlighted on coming tours brought to you by Berek, your community wood elf druid.

This spotlight tells a special tale, where CatherineRose, govenor of Dragomir, shares her story about the town from the beginning. Have a read:

The funeral marched on toward the evening setting sun as Spirit and I watched as my dear husband is carried across the sea.

The dream of a peaceful paradise named for thee, my husband Duke Gregorie Dragomir, seems to fade as the setting sun disappears into the sea and darkness overtakes the land.

Ye chose this land and this town to be the home of our dreams but a horrible fire dragon devastated all we created. In the final days of the battle to save Dragomir from the wrath of dragons, my precious husband and I were defending our town against the last dragon’s assault. The dragon with the advantage and my strength fading, my death loomed before me and I knew the end would soon be. With great courage and love pushing him, my precious Gregorie lunged between me and the dragon and dealt the final victorious blow. I watched with terrified eyes as the dragon and my husband plunged into the great abyss to their death below the cliffs of Dragomir.

Alone, I survived.

Read more…

The Making of Blood Bay and Xenos Polish

November 21, 2016

From last week’s Update of the Avatar #203, we covered two scenes in the game that are getting special attention from World Builder, Travis Koleski, and Senior Environmental Artist, Scott Jones. Have a look below at the Making of Blood Bay and the continued work on Xenos Polish!

The Making of Blood Bay

Blood Bay is going to be an Open PVP area with two NPC towns, player housing, adventuring areas, and entrances to underground adventure areas. It is going to be a testing ground for several systems that will in turn propagate to other parts of the game if successful. We will be talking about more of those new systems and revealing more about the map during the Fall into Winter Telethon, so be sure to tune in.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

Here’s some early shots of Blood Bay.

Blood Bay is an open PVP map located on an atoll. At the ends of the arms of the atoll is a town founded by brigands and buccaneers. However, one side hosts more virtuous adventurers, while the other hosts adventurers with more colorful pasts, (there’s going to be a lot of fighting on this bridge).

Update of the Avatar #203 – 2016.11.18: Play R36 Now!, Blood Bay, Xenos, Game Balances, Lot Raffle Winners, Winter Holiday Goodies, and More!

November 18, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play R36 Now!

Release 36 successfully launched yesterday, November 17, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Release 35 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

November 18, 2016

Yesterday we had the drawing for our latest Lot Deed Raffle and awarded 170 lot deeds to lucky winners whom are being announced today. There were two raffles, one for each lot type:

Place Anywhere Deeds: 20 Total
- Row: 10
- Village: 6
- Town: 3
- City: 1
Player Owned Town Deeds: 150 Total
- Row: 80
- Village: 40
- Town: 20
- City: 10

Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win deeds of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly (total deed numbers will vary each month). Place-Anywhere Deed raffle tickets are more expensive but will have fewer deeds in each raffle than POT raffle tickets, which are more affordable and will have many more deeds in each raffle. This means your chances to win a POT deed are much greater.

Below is a complete list of the winners for this release’s raffle. Winners can claim their deed(s) simply by logging into the game and claiming rewards at any bank. A reminder that you may have received multiple deeds to claim if you received tickets for a guild or other group.

If you wish to review all of your account rewards outside of the game, you can do so by going to the Account menu on the main website and then selecting the ‘Special Rewards’ tab in the page menu.

Listed below are the winners:

Community of the Avatar Livestream – Hometown Tour

November 17, 2016

Join us for another Community of the Avatar livestream! We will be touring Hometown, as well as bringing onto the show a special guest to talk about all the homes available in the game.

Head on over to Hometown after the Fire Lotus Dance Party if you want to meet us! Community manager Berek will be leading the tour. The fun begins live on Twitch at 4pm CT this Friday!

Release 36 Instructions

November 16, 2016

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 36 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, November 17, at 10:30 AM US Central Standard Time (16:30 UTC).

Short Release: Normally our release cycle lasts approximately four weeks, giving us 3 weeks of development time and 1 week of polish before the release goes live on the last Thursday of the month. However, November and December have the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays which requires us to do our release earlier in those months. That only gives us 2 weeks of development time and 1 week of polish before we release. Read more…

The Making of a Forest Town Siege Map

November 14, 2016

Periodically, NPC towns will come under siege by the Obsidian Cabalists. The timing, duration, and location of these sieges will be driven by Celestial Mechanics. When you attempt to enter a town under siege, you will first enter the Town Siege scene where the enemy has made camp outside the town and is fighting the town defenders. You can choose to join the battle and end the siege early or work your way around the perimeter, perhaps encountering only some scouting parties.

We hope to have the first iteration of this feature and one map live in Release 37.

[A Dev+ Forum Posts by Chris “Sea Wolf” Wolf and Keith “Sannio” Quinn]

Hey folks, Sea-Wolf here with some screenshots for the new forest siege encounters!

The Entrance

Update of the Avatar #202 – 2016.11.11: Midras Ruins, Forest Town Siege, Xenos Polish, R35 Postmortem, Decoration Contest Winners, Beran’s Reach, and More!

November 11, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

“The abandoned shells of buildings looked silently down on them from either side of the road.”
– From The Sword of Midras by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott

The Making of Midras Ruins

The Midras Ruins are one of the six ruined cities found in Novia that date back to the period in Novian history in which the Obsidian Order rose to power. (As described in the Sword of Midras prequel novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott). The exact history of some of these cities has been lost to time, but it is rumored that some of them may have been abandoned even before the rise of the Obsidians. Midras, in particular, is significant because it is the location of the Crypt of the Avatar. Note that all eight of the ruins are Open PVP zones.

Midras started as a clone of the Opalis Ruins but is getting completely rebuilt this release to have a unique layout and visuals. We are expressly focusing on being sure the map has interesting setups for PVP conflict, with plenty of space for hiding, escaping, ambushing, and skirmishing.

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

Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here to give you an update on the Ruins of Midras coming this R36!

The Ruins of Midras are nestled in the peaks of Midmaer. I took a lot of inspiration from its reference in Blade of the Avatar along with adding my own take to the map.

Aesthetically I was inspired by the city of Osgiliath in the LOTR. Especially the idea of having ruins that had vertical space and were now only frames of what they had once been.

Updates

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