Updates

Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 31 Postmortem

June 28, 2016

Reliquary Join us Thursday, July 7th at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 UTC) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! The team will be chatting about Release 31 and looking ahead to Release 32 (important updates coming this week on R32!).

And of note, let it be known that Lord British and Lord Darkstarr will play host to a special reliquary event… and blood will be spilled! Consider the squeamish among you forewarned.

As always, we will be giving out awesome swag, and answering your questions. For a chance to win a prize, join Discord chat during the broadcast. Be sure to stick around throughout the Hangout for multiple chances to win!

Tweet with us @ShroudofAvatar during the Hangout to know when a winner has been announced!

Watch here at 3pm CDT on Thursday, July 7th:

Post your questions in the comments below! Only one post submission allowed, and keep questions to 3 or less! This will allow us to get to as many players as possible.

Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to this release’s specific topics 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.

Thank you!

Update of the Avatar #182 – 2016.06.24: 15% Summer Bonus!, New Solace Bridge, Brittany Estates & Wharfs, Polished Elven Armor & Robes, SotA Con 2016, and More!

June 24, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Announcing the 15% Summer Bonus!

If you were thinking of purchasing (or upgrading) a pledge or Player Owned Town before they expire, then now’s a great time to do it! Between now and the Summer 2016 Expiration Event: Part 2 (see below), we are offering a 15% Bonus on all purchases! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, Make a Difference items, and service vouchers) between 12:00 am CDT June 24, 2016 and Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) August 22, 2016, we will add an additional 15% 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 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CDT for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of Service Vouchers or Make a Difference items]

You can use the 15% Bonus to save on your next purchase! For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge, you would normally pay the extra $45 for the upgrade. But using the 15% bonus you can immediately save $5. To do so, you would first purchase $40 worth of Store Credit Gift Coupons (via PayPal, Amazon, Bitcoin, or credit card; excluding existing Store Credit) then use the “Convert to Credits” option on your account page to transform the Store Credit Gift Coupons into Store Credit. Within 24 hours an additional $6 bonus ($40 x 15%) would be applied to your Store Credit account, bringing it up to $46. You would then use $45 of your Store Credit to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge.

Update of the Avatar #181 – 2016.06.17: Brittany Estates, Multiple Sclerosis Charity Drive, Pledge States, Sword of Midras Audio Sample, and More!

June 17, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

The Making of Brittany Estates

NOTE: Brittany Estates is primarily comprised of City sized lots and is scheduled to go live in Release 32.

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Richard “RrMatey” Matey]

Hey guys back again to keep you posted on the progress of another Brittany neighborhood. Brittany Estates is a gated community with lovely scenery and magnificent gardens. A great place to settle down and find that house or castle of your dreams.

RizeUp Gaming’s 4th Annual Multiple Sclerosis Charity Drive, June 17-19

June 15, 2016

[The following excerpt is from a RizeUp Gaming Twitch Channel Subscriber Letter]

We are excitedly preparing for our June charity: the Fourth Annual Multiple Sclerosis Society Charity Drive hosted live on the channel the 17th through 19th. Look forward to seeing our everyday streamers in addition to a few of our newest members recruited to the stream team. Long-time supporter, Indie, will be casting from the channel Saturday, June 18th, at 10am PDT. RizeUp Owner, Firecrow, will be casting the same day at 8pm PDT.

All streams during the marathon will have special donation incentives to make donating to the MS Society Charity a little more interesting as we attempt to reach our $1000 goal. Prizes for this marathon include two Steelseries headsets, one 60-day Minecraft server hosted by WTGHosting, artwork by artists in our community, and Steam game code packs. We will be giving out Steam game codes when we reach certain follower, subscriber, and donation increments to viewers in chat and through the RizeUp Twitter.

Make sure to come by the channel and show off your sub emotes while we raise money for MS.

https://www.twitch.tv/rizeupgaming

Donate to RizeUp Gaming’s National MS Society Charity Drive here!

#StrongerThanMS

Update of the Avatar #180 – 2016.06.10: Pre-Order Sword of Midras Novel, HoBLotH III Recap, Phoenix Republic’s Royal Warrant, Confluence Chamber, Xounts SotA Special, and More!

June 10, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Pre-Order Now: The Sword of Midras SotA Novel for Hardcover, Kindle, Nook and Audiobook

The Sword of Midras, by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, is a revised and expanded version of the Blade of the Avatar novel (originally included in pledge rewards through May 31, 2015). The expanded The Sword of Midras includes four additional chapters not seen in the pledge reward version of Blade of the Avatar, extending and elaborating on key elements of the story.

The release date is June 21, 2016 by Tor Books. The Hardcover, Kindle, and Nook, versions are available for pre-order now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Release date for the unabridged audiobook version is July 12, 2016 with pre-orders available now at Audible.com.

Portalarium Attends HoBLotH III

June 9, 2016

Last week was amazing in Austin for both Portalarium and the SotA community! Many on our team had the pleasure of attending HoBLotH III, which stands for Hearth of Britannia: Lifeblood of the Hearth. The event generated a huge amount of activity for over five days at Castleton Village near the office.

Dancing, storytelling, and LARPing quests and contests occurred throughout each day with many events extending well into the evenings. Tuesday was the official kick-off day with the real fun beginning on Wednesday with a bunch of quests that included testing one’s knowledge of Britannia, a scavenger hunt, fishing, and fighting for valor in LARP combat!

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Update of the Avatar #179 – 2016.06.03: R30 Postmortem, Brittany Wharfs, Unity Onsite, Gold Crowns Clarifications, Viking Un-Bundles, and More!

June 3, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 30 Postmortem

Our first Postmortem with our new Community Manager, Berek, at the helm went great! Richard, Starr, Chris, Scott, Gina, and Matt chatted about Release 30 and provided a sneak peek at Release 31. A greadt deal of time was spent on the durability changes and the Gold Crowns of the Obsidians, and Berek fielded lots of questions and feedback from the original post and live in the chat-room; including the new Discord chat server! We gave out lots of prizes including store credits, an ISS challenge coin from Richard’s trip to space, 2 Shroud of the Avatar T-shirts, and even some new Viking items! Darkstarr even modeled his garb for the HOBLOTH 3 event going on down the road at Castleton. Chris then followed up with an AMA in Discord, where he answered a ton of questions that were later posted to the forums here.

And a good time with the community and great feedback were not the only things the team took away from the hangout. One of the things this Post Mortem helped us realize was that many of the questions posted were repeated requests for information about when certain features are going to be coming online. We noted that, though many of those questions could be answered by reading the Final Wipe & Lot Selection post, the information was not as easily accessible as it could be. So, we pulled the basic Road Map out of that post, updated it, and made it it’s own post.

Update of the Avatar #178 – 2016.05.27: Play R30 Now, Hospitaller Stations, R30 Postmortem Invite, Gold COTO, Tax Free POT Lot Bundles, and More!

May 27, 2016

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 30 Now!

Release 30 Instructions

May 25, 2016

[A SotA Public Forum post by Starr Long]

Greetings 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 30 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, May 26, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

The pace of change as we approach Final Wipe and Lot Selection continues to accelerate as we make our final few, but quite impactful changes and additions to Shroud of the Avatar. Release 30 is full of these important changes, and includes large additions to the story, reworkings of the crafting system, and refinements of the new targeting mechanics we introduced in R29.

The statue of Grannus in front of the crumbling Valhold Castle

Hangout of the Avatar ~ Release 30 Postmortem

May 24, 2016

Join us Wednesday, June 1st at 3:00 PM Central (20:00 GMT) for our monthly Hangout of the Avatar! Richard, Starr, and Chris will be chatting about Release 30 and looking ahead to Release 31, as well as starting to talk about the impeding R32!

In an exciting twist to the normal flow of the livestream, the new community manager, Mathew “Berek” Anderson, is set to spice things up by not only taking your questions and feedback live in the chat-room and also in advance right here in the comments section, but will be on the livestream in the office with Starr and Chris!*

We will be giving out some really awesome prizes during the livestream. All you have to do to qualify for one is to come hang out with us in the IRC chatroom during the broadcast. Be sure to join us throughout the livestream for multiple chances to win cool Shroud of the Avatar swag!

Watch here at 3pm CST on Wednesday, June 1st:

*Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to this release’s specific topics 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.

Only one post submission allowed! If you have multiple questions (please keep it to 5 or less), place them into that one post. This will allow us to get to as many players as possible. Thank you!

Updates

COMMUNITY EVENTS

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