PC Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues

[basis]

For gamers who remember the Ultima series and those who had the opportunity to play in the legendary Ultima Online, this may interest you!

Do note the game is split into 5 episodes, the current entry Adventurer pledge USD45 grants only the first episode. If you want all 5 episodes, you'll want the Explorer - all digital pledge is USD135. This game is not for everyone because it doesn't have alot of bling bling, not about gear, has no classes or power-leveling. It is more about adventuring and exploring together old school in the style of UO, EQ1 or SWG. It has a very strong crafting system, very in-depth skill tress, no classes, will have pets to tame, will have player housing, reagents for spells etc.

If you are interested in pledging, please PM me as we can help you get the Early Backer Rewards. Otherwise you'll only get Benefactor rewards.

Journey to the world of Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a computer role playing game created by Lord British (aka Richard Garriott), creator of the genre defining Ultima series of computer games, Starr Long, director of Ultima Online, and Tracy Hickman, author of the Dragonlance series. It combines rich story, like those of the single player Ultimas, with deep and varied multiplayer experiences, like Ultima Online.

Players will adventure in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them. Play options will include solo, friends only, or open multiplayer via the Selective Multiplayer system. Players can specialize in a wide range of combat and non-combat skills, provided by a robust, classless skill system, and full-featured crafting and housing mechanics.

Shroud is crowd funded and that allows the developers to work directly for, and with, the player, versus working for a large publishing corporation. Shroud is also crowd sourced so players can submit Unity compatible content (art, sfx, music, world building, etc). Once submitted content is approved the submitter can choose to be compensated in real or virtual currency.

Built using the Unity Game Engine, Shroud of the Avatar will support Win/Mac/Linux for official launch at the end of 2014. Backers gain early access at the end of 2013.

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SotA FAQ





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some screenshots from the latest alpha build.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/ind...ng-skills.3937/

Ok skills discussion thread that used to be in Dev+ forum is now public. Do read up.

Sigil cloaks

more details here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=33594#more-33594

those interested in the installer music, please look at the first post. i'm not going to share the direct link. so enjoy
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/ind...246/#post-81838

Chapter 5 of the serialized SotA novel written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott.

Reveal of the Founder Edelmann Waterfront Cabana

New weapons & equipment:

more from: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=34088#more-34088



Dev Hangout Recap: Multiplayer in Shroud of the Avatar - Forsaken Virtues - Shroud of the Avatar

New Stretch Goal:

If they hit $3.25M, Richard and Starr with fence in puffy shirts.

Bonuses:

1) If they get to $3.25 by R3 (Feb. 20) – there will be a cheesy training montage video with Rustic (Joseph) showing Starr how to fence.

2) If they make it to $3.3M by R3, the loser of the fencing match will jump in the cold lake next to Richard’s property.



Q&A- Matchmaking

1)* Will I be able to filter out one individual?

You can block someone’s text, but not block them from view.

2) How does friending work?

Similar to Google+.. You can add someone to your friends list.* They will get a notice that you did so.* Then they can add you if they wish.

This style may result in people you don’t like tracking you, so they need to experiment with this.

3)* Can we change the criteria for sorting the matchmaking?

They will be building algorithms over time as they get players feedback and test results.* It is not planned to allow players to adjust parameters.

4) Can I whitelist/blacklist players, guilds, factions, etc. from purchasing from my vendor?

They like the idea of allowing* you to only sell to certain groups.* They may add this after E1.

5) Can I set a strangers-only mode?

They like this idea, and Chris gives a “why would you want to do that?” example of acting out your cross dress fantasies over by the docks…* LOL

6) How can we locate other players in multiplayer mode?

They plan to allow seeing locations of people on your social list.* If they are in a non-adventuring area like a town, they would consider allowing you the option to go into their instance.

7)* What factors go into matching in OPO?

They are working through this.* Factors can be:* How long has the instance been open or what is the party’s distance into the dungeon?* (they wont let more people in at some point.)* Other factors include friends, guildmates, kindred,* have you traded before, have you completed a quest together, etc.

8) What is the planned handing of Friends Mode when you don’t share friends?

You will see friends of friends if your shared friend is there.* Statistically it should be uncommon for a long string of “friends of friends” to show up.



Q&A- Parties, Guilds, More

1) How will joining your friends in a scenario in progress work?

You will join at entrance – you can’t appear where they are.* In some cases the map will have respawned and you will have to fight your way through to your party.* There might be a summon player spell.

2) How will your party chat with NPCs?* Will we overhear other player NPC conversations?

They are still discussing and they will be taking feedback from players.* There is a problem with players overhearing spoilers, so they may whisper back spoiler/quest stuff.

3)* How will multiplayer mode prevent/permit other players from joining your private scenarios?

Some plot relevant scenes will be private, and some adventuring spaces will be public.* This is scene dependent.

4)* How will loot be split in multiplayer?

“As fairly as they can make it happen.”

They are considering all ways of this from free-for-all, to tagging, to most damage…* probably not entitlement (everyone gets loot.)* It’s easy for them to change tech-wise, so they will test it out.

5) Multiplayer aspects of house ownership?

Multiple levels of house permissions:

- Closed – only you can get on property
- Kindred – can do what you can do on the property except sell/switch house structure. They can decorate, place vendor, craft.
- Guildmates – set permission so guildmates can come to property but they can’t necessarily change things.
- Friends – friends can come to property, use crafting but can’t decorate.
- Open, public – players can come to property and use crafting station but can not modify your home/possessions.
- Guild property – property of guild, the guild become like kindred – not the same as specific guild structures, which will be discussed after R4.

6) When will we get to hear more about guild housing?

After R4.

7) Will guildmates have priority sorting in multiplayer?*

Yes and they may sort ahead of friends.

8) What about the population limit in a hex when it comes to guild wars?

They recommend doing large scale guild battles in multiple areas.* They will know more about the number limits around R3/R4.

[insert comment from Lord British about the UO drunken naked vomiting mobs of UO]

9) How many players can use crafting table at once?

Concerns are visual (standing on top of each other, etc) but they don’t plan on having limits on public stations because of griefing potential.

10) Will characters have trading ability?

There will be secure person to person trading.

11)* How will offensive players be dealt with in game?

You can ignore another player (remove their speech).* There will be a support staff handling reports.* They are discussing a karma system.

12) The results of moving from peer to peer to Portalarium hosted servers?

Too many problems with peer to peer.* Port hosted = more security, privacy, tracking suspicious activity.* It does introduce a little more lag and they are working on this.

13) In game voice chat?* Will there filters, tabs for text chat?

Standard chat channels, filters, such as chat from friends, guild, local, crafting results,* catch-all.

For E1 they are not planning integrated voice chat.

14)* How will harvesting resources be handled in multiplayer?* Is it personal, competitive, go in your own instance?* Will there be more resources in OPO?

Instance is randomly seeded with resources.* Once you are harvesting a node, you won’t be competing for that node.* You may be competing with other people on the same map to get to each node.

If there are more players, more nodes may show up on map, or may have more resources.* If theres a PVP flag there may be some competition.* There will likely be an increase in the chance of rare resources in challenging areas (be it challenging PVE or PVP)

15) Will there be more mob spawns in OPO to account for extra people?

Depends on the zone.* Some spaces will have a pre-defined number/difficulty.* Others may change dynamically.

16) Can we drop items on the ground?* Can people use them?* What permissions to use/pick up?

Richard thinks there are roleplay reasons to work through the problems associated with allowing item placement in public areas.

Starr’s thoughts- Currently, if it’s your house property, you can place items anywhere on the property.* In public spaces, there are issues like bypassing secure trade (scamming).* Creating black holes by putting too many objects in one spot.* People trapping you with furniture.

They can solve these issues, but it takes work and time.

Chris’ thoughts – allows for emergent behavior so they will likely compromise.* They want to retain emergent behavior but limit griefing.

17) How can complex story be built into a multiplayer game?

Richard acknowledges the difficulty of this, and is striving for a mix of your own individual accomplishments, and other times when it is not necessary to feel like you are the one sole hero.


Q&A- Submitted during the $3M Celebration



1) Any more scene jams planned?

They want to, but they have been busy with releases.* After R4.

LB is expecting to take contributions for music and art.* Will provide guidance soon.

2) How will death be handled, loot on death, blessed items?

Anything that is part of your pledge rewards or any add-on store item would be immune to loot in a pvp situation.

The rules about looting are still being worked out.* They have an idea about taking some items from body, but victim can pay ransom to get items back.

3)* How will guild properties be obtained?

- declaring your own house open to the guild
- an actual guild hall that have requirements to obtain (details post R4)

4) Will guild houses be of unique types?

Yes there will be guild exclusive buildings.

5)* Does game client make use of hyperthreading?

Yes

6) Will any responsibilites be required of players with titles?* eg. if you are a knight, are you required to defend the town?

They like these ideas, not for E1.

7)* Rogue skills?

Nothing to share yet, working on it.

8)* Death penalty?

No details yet.* Goal: death has consequence- be it a course run, cost, experience hit… without being overly brutal.

9) How do you balance the economy when some players take risks in OPO PVP and others don’t?

One way is to put the rare resources in the challenging areas, but they emphasized that the reward of PVP is the PVP play and challenge itself.

10) Where is the line drawn between RPing evil or being bannable?

Judgment call by support staff.* Are you within the TOS?* No harassment, no racial slurs, etc.

11) Can you combine spells and combat skills?

There is nothing that limits them technically from making these combos.* So, yes.

12) Can you elaborate on how I can help with assets?

Busy through R4, they will get to this after R4.

There is a spreadsheet with Unity assets they are looking for in the Dev Depot.

13) Can you strategically hide behind objects to avoid ranged attacks?

Yes, they can do that (it’s not in the schedule though)

Instant direct spells will not be avoidable once cast.* You may be able to avoid some damage from fireballs and such by movement.

from: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/ind...y-meeting.7156/

looks like MP is coming along nicely.

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With the recent influx of New Founders, we feel it is important to differentiate all the original backers who, during our brief Kickstarter campaign, championed our team and our project. It was their efforts and generosity that allowed the Shroud of the Avatar project to happen! To that end, we will be recognizing our original backers (those who backed us before May 20, 2013) with the title Royal Founder. We will also be creating a set of Royal Founder items that include the Founder symbol with a white color scheme (instead of the blue color scheme). These rewards are in addition to all the other Founder rewards and are associated with the same tiers (i.e. Shield for Adventurers/First Responders/Second Responders, Cloak for Immortal Adventurer, etc.).

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/ind...l-backers.7234/
The list of Royal Founder items includes:
Cloak
Shield
4 Starter Armors
2 Melee Weapons
Tunic
2 Ranged Weapons
Plaque
Taming Horn
Crystal Sword

---------------

devs just shared that being rude to NPCs now has consequences....

Ricoxg: Mr. Hickman, it?s a real pleasure to meet you. I?d like to start by asking about the genesis of Blade of the Avatar and how this collaboration with Richard Garriott came about.

Tracy Hickman: Richard and I have actually known each other since the mid-80s. We met at DragonCon all those years ago and have been friends since. I?d played Ultima and was a big fan of his and it turns out that he?d read a couple of my books and was a fan of mine. So when I heard Richard was doing Shroud of the Avatar, I called right away to tell him I was glad to hear he was doing something new and asked if there was anything I could do to help.

The more we got to talking about it, the more we realized that my schedule really gave me an opportunity to work on the project, and Richard was pretty excited to have my help on the story. We?d realized that finally after all these years, we might have an opportunity to collaborate on something. Then when he asked if I?d like to help create the story, I said that I?d love to.

more @ http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/inter...h-tracy-hickman

Definitely a must read for SotA players

As I pointed out in my recent interview with Tracy Hickman, some fantastic information was dropped in my lap that I felt would make an excellent article. Tracy let me in on the back-story for magic in Shroud of the Avatar, as well as the origin of the non-human races in the new game. I immediately fired off a note to Richard Garriott to ask if I could use the new information. He not only agreed, but spent some time on a call to give me additional information on the subject.

Fans of the game will be interested in what comes next because this is information that hasn’t been released anywhere else yet, but I’d like to specifically capture the attention of those who aren’t following the game as closely yet. The way history is being handled in SotA and the thoughtfulness behind the meta-human species in Shroud are indicative of professional game development taken to the point where it becomes art. Yes, I am a fan of the work that’s being done here, but hopefully I’m about to demonstrate for you why this is something worthy of your fanaticism.

more @ http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/inter...igin-of-species

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https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=35430

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

Hearts of Britannia Valentine’s Poetry Reading!
Extra, Extra Early R3 Test Results
Founder Lord Waterfront Houseboat
Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 9
Hearth of Britannia Cabinet of Virtues
Tanning Knife of Prosperity
The 6-More Pack of Prosperity
Stretch Goals: Lord British vs. Darkstarr
Last Week for the Pantheon Kickstarter Special Cross-Game Cloak
New Events Page
Only 52 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Only 52 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges
Until the promotion ends on April 7th, 2014, Founder backers will be able to purchase and/or gift additional Founder pledges containing all the original Founder rewards, as well as upgrade any of their pledges at original Kickstarter prices. After April 7th, prices for upgrades, gifts, and purchases will increase to Benefactor prices and no new Founder pledges can be created. Don’t miss out!

For those who remember the Ultima games or ever yearned for UO, EQ or even SWG to return, please contact a known Founder to assist if you are interested to be a Founder in SotA.

 

[basis]

some snippets from: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=35848

lease 3 successfully launched yesterday, February 20, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and exploring the new content!

In this release we’ve added multiplayer mode, allowing players to see each other and interact through an enhanced chat system, friend list, and emotes. In addition to the towns of Owl’s Head and Kingsport, there is a new village to explore, Braemar. There are numerous crafting enhancements as well as merchants where you can sell your crafted goods. Also included are several new songs created by the community via The Bards of Poets’ Circle. The much requested ability to reconfigure the game controls has been added, and player housing and decorating can be fully experienced in the single player online mode.

Property Owner Backer Plaques

Benefactor Citizen Piano

Combat Ready Skeletons for Release 4 (Introducing combat phase)

First unique pet:

 

[basis]

some merch has arrived for me

What's in the box?

T-shirts with Combat & Crafting Sigils

front of the collector's coin

rear of the collector's coin

 

[basis]

updates on the future of releases:

RELEASE 4: March 27 - 30, 2014
Performance Optimizations: Introducing multiplayer in Release 3 exposed some performance issues that needed resolution sooner than later. To that end we are making this a top priority for Release 4 so more players can enjoy the game. Giving this the time it needs requires us to both move the date for Release 4 out by one week and to move much of the combat work we had originally planned out to Release 5 and beyond.
Overworld Map System: An initial version of our dual scale navigation system will launch and players will use it to navigate between towns and adventuring areas.
10 Scenes: The Hidden Vale, a hidden island north north east of the mainland, will be complete with 10 scenes including towns, wilderness, caves, and dungeons.
Combat: Those first scenes will have nasty beasts in them, so we’ve decided we should give you a way to fight back! This first release of combat will be extremely simple and focus just on auto swing using your equipped weapon. Death will also be kept simple for now: you will auto resurrect at your death location after a short time interval.
Quests: Players will be able to participate in quests that will send them around the world and even change game state in the scenes based on quest flags. Testing this early is important because our quest system operates differently than the current standards (e.g. no exclamation points or convo trees). As a stretch goal we will also provide the first version of the journal.
Loot: Killing those nasty creatures you encounter and quests will generate loot including gold and resources.
Crafting: Resource Gathering will be added to crafting with resources appearing in the world. More recipes will also become available
Player Housing: The housing system will be re-launched with persistence in the online space. Since we are still on the small island of Hidden Vale there are not yet enough lots to go around. To continue to allow everyone to try out player housing the ownership of the lots will cycle every hour or two
Parties: We will continue to expand our social systems by adding a Party system so players can group together and adventure.
Mac/Linux Patching: No longer will you have to download a full executable whenever we release a new patch. Mac and Linux versions will patch just like the Windows version.
Swimming: Jumping was just the first step to giving players a much greater feeling of movement freedom. Like jumping, swimming will eventually be governed by game systems like encumbrance and focus.
2014 SECOND QUARTER RELEASES:

RELEASE 5, April 24 - 27, 2014:
Combat and Magic Skills: Finally you will no longer be confined to auto attack now that a wide array of combat and magic skills will be at your disposal. To let you test out a wide variety of these skills we will give you a bunch of skill points to allocate up and down as you wish. This allocation of points will automatically build your deck. Skills can be locked in your toolbar or left unlocked so they can be used in combos during combat.
Death System: OooOoooOOOOooo! Death will now turn you into a ghost. Current thinking about the death system will be shared at a later date.
Main Continent Scenes: Finally players will get to see their first maps on the main continent including a city that is part of the story, adventuring areas, and a player town.
Interactive Areas: Don’t you wish you could move that chair in the tavern to have a better view of the front door? Public areas like taverns will now be flagged as interactive areas. This will allow more freedom in those spaces by allowing the moving but not taking of items.
AI Behaviors: NPCs will now start to have schedules and change behavior according to the time. This will include things like going around turning on the lights around town as the sun goes down. NPCs will also now react to players taking and breaking stuff so watch out when you try to steal that loaf of bread!
Books: Books will no longer just be decorative objects! Read lovely poems and stories written by our very own community in the game. Try to collect them all!
RELEASE 6, May 22 - 25, 2014:
Combat Decks: You will be free of the confines of the auto-built deck as deck building comes online. You will now be able to build and equip multiple decks to try out different strategies and play styles. To support this flexibility more skills and more AI combat behaviors will come online
Player Housing Improvements: Do you desire even more from housing? Your greatest desires will be answered with advanced features that greatly expand the player housing system including waterfront lots, basements, and exterior decorations. We will also introduce player lot access permissions so you can control who can visit your space (everyone, friends, or kindred)
Crafting Expansions: Crafting will greatly expand to include Makers’ Marks, Repair, Enhancement, and events during crafting that will affect the outcome. We will also introduce Alchemy and Cooking for the first time which brings not only a whole new set of recipes but also consumables to the game like potions and food (and beer of course). On top of all that player made items will begin appearing in NPC vendor inventories.
Non Combat Pets: Fluffy! I missed you so! Summon a non-combat pet to follow you around the world.
Waterfront Scenes: More scenes on the main continent will appear including more plot specific maps. For those more aquatically inclined we will introduce Player Islands and the Waterfront Twin City of Ardoris to support waterfront housing.
Character Creation Improvements: Do you wish you could style yourself even more? Well wish no longer as we add more options to modify, more content to select, and improvements to the interface.
Player to Player secure trade: Did you discover something cool you wish to give your friend? Need to share some potions with a party member? Did you craft something amazing you want to sell? Secure trade is the answer and will allow you to make exchanges of goods between you and other players.
RELEASE 7, June 26 - 29:
Advancement: Adventuring and Crafting will now earn you experience points that will level you up and earn skill points. You can spend those skill points with trainers to learn new skills as well as re-train existing skills.
Duels: Finally a way to settle your differences like real Avatars with the first taste of PVP. Duels between two players can now be initiated. Glove slaps to the face optional. Note that a mega-post about our current thinking on PVP is in the works and will go up before the end of next week.
Crafting: Enchanting items including the creation of wands and staves will finally make an appearance in the game. Additionally player made items will begin to appear in adventuring scenes including corpses of slain NPCs.
Combat Expansions: Combat will continue to expand with more skills and more AI behaviors.
Player Made Books: For those aspiring writers you can now write books in the game. These original manuscripts will be one of a kind items that can be traded or sold or submitted for publishing for a small fee. Published books will get copied and placed throughout the world.
Drop Items Anywhere: Not content to place object only on player property? Well rejoice because we will now enable item placement anywhere. Some minor constraints and limits will regulate this activity but the main goal is to provide freedom and immersion.
Guilds: Guilds as a social structure will now be in the game including the ability to declare any player property a Guild Chapter House (Guild Halls will come in a later release).
Wearable Dyeing: Tired of that red dress? Wish you could make it blue? Well wish no longer as the ability to dye items will now available
More Scenes: More Plot specific maps and adventuring areas will appear
NPC Player Vendors: Players will be able to setup their very own NPC vendors that they can stock full of goods to sell to other players
Combat Pets & Taming: Taming creatures to fight alongside you will be available so stock up on taming collars or creature calls.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...rly-access-schedule-update-releases-4-7.8124/

 

[Noodles]

Liking the merch! Those shirts look pretty cool.

 

[Sixteenvolt420]

I wish some of these PC games would come out for consoles, since i don't play PC games.

 

[basis]

We caught up with Richard "Lord British" Garriott last week at his home in New York to talk about Shroud of the Avatar, current progress on the ultimate RPG, and the to get some first-hand looks at some of the game's systems. In this video, Garriott walks and talks us through crafting as it stands in Release 3 of Shroud of the Avatar.

 

[basis]

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=37444

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Founder Teachable Emotes
Founder Lord House Servant
Golden Eagle Pet
Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 14
Alienware R5 Weekend Access Keys and $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
Upcoming Events
This Week In The News
Only 17 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Founder Lord House Servant

Included in the Founder rewards of the Lord pledge tier is your very own, unique, house servant, appropriate to your stature as a Lord!

Alienware Sponsors 1000 Release 5 Weekend Access Keys

Every week for four weeks, starting March 24th, 250 members of the Alienware Arena Shroud of the Avatar Group will receive Weekend Access Keys to SotA Release 5, scheduled for April 24-27.

Giveaway Periods:

March 24 ? 30
March 31 ? April 6
April 7 ? 13
April 14 ? 20
250 members of the Alienware Arena Shroud of the Avatar Group will be able to gain weekend access to SotA?s Release 5 during each giveaway period. For more details, jump on over to the Alieware Arena site and make sure you?re registered in their Shroud of the Avatar Group!

[Note: Weekend Access Keys are non-transferable; Make sure that your SotA account uses the same email address as your Alienware Arena account in order to utilize the Weekend Access Keys]

And only 17 days left towards end of Founders pledging! If interested, ask us.

 

[basis]

New Britannian State of the Realm


and... Release 4!
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/release-4-update-instructions.8519/

Release 4 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, March 27 at 10:30 AM Central Time. Release 4 access will end on Sunday, March 30 at 10:00 PM Central Time.

RELEASE 4: March 27 - 30, 2014
Performance Optimizations: Introducing multiplayer in Release 3 exposed some performance issues that needed resolution sooner than later. To that end, we made this a top priority for Release 4 so more players can enjoy the game.
Overworld Map System: Our dual scale navigation system will launch and players will be able to use it to navigate between towns and adventuring areas.
10 Scenes: The Hidden Vale, a hidden island northeast of the mainland, will be complete with 10 scenes, including towns, wilderness, caves, and dungeons. NOTE: We actually have 14 scenes (although two are merely placeholders).
Combat: Those first scenes will have nasty beasts in them, so we’ve decided we should give you a way to fight back! This first release of combat will be extremely simple and focus just on auto swing using your equipped weapon. Death will also be kept simple for now: you will auto resurrect at your death location after a short time interval.
Quests: Players will be able to participate in quests that will send them around the world and even change game state in the scenes based on quest flags. Testing this early is important because our quest system operates differently than the current standards (e.g. no exclamation points or convo trees). We will also provide the first version of the journal. NOTE: For R4 we were unable to get the Journal UI implemented but you can still get the data by typing /journal in the chat window.
Loot: Killing those nasty creatures you encounter and quests you complete will generate loot, including gold and resources.
Crafting: Resource Gathering will be added to crafting including resource nodes placed in the world. More recipes will also become available. NOTE: For R4, gathering includes tree chopping (wood), field dressing (animal hides), harvesting (cotton) and mining (ore).
More Recipes: 16 more recipes bring our grand total to 169.
Player Housing: The housing system will be re-launched with persistence in the online space. Since we are still on the small island of Hidden Vale there are not yet enough lots to go around. To continue to allow everyone to try out player housing, the ownership of the lots will cycle every hour or two. NOTE: While waterfront housing and basements are not working yet, we wanted you to still be able to view them. Waterfront houses (Frigate, Galleon, Houseboat, Lighthouse, Duke Island Castle, etc.) can be found in Kingsport and basements can be found in various buildings around Owlshead, Kingsport, and Braemar. These are static buildings / scenes and not player owned.
Parties: We will continue to expand our social systems by adding a Party system so players can group together and adventure.
Mac/Linux Patching: No longer will you have to download a full executable whenever we release a new patch. Mac and Linux versions will patch just like the Windows version.
Swimming: Jumping was just the first step to giving players a much greater feeling of movement freedom. Like jumping, swimming will eventually be governed by game systems like encumbrance and focus.
So now that it is clear what you can expect, we should also be as clear about what you should not expect:
Combat: As noted above combat does not yet include skills, magic, decks, or advancement.
Performance: We have only done rudimentary optimizations and we do not yet have a full suite of performance fallbacks (LODs, etc.). This means the game will be quite slow on older machines, and due to memory usage, might be unstable in certain conditions (like densely decorated areas). With each release we will be doing further optimizations and adding to our fallbacks to improve performance.
Navigation: We have not yet put in a compass or a mini-map, so navigation can be quite challenging at times.
Crafting: The crafting system is in the game as a framework, but is still missing some key components like repair, events, and enhancement. Skill checks are also not in yet, so results are always 100% successful. Long term, the percentage chance to make items will depend on a myriad of variables and can result in a variety of results including: making the item desired, making a simpler version of the item that will need to be enhanced, or making a damaged version of the item that needs repair.
Game Loop: Release 4 is the first time we will have a rudimentary game loop, but it is still very bare bones. Expect this to expand with each subsequent release but it won’t be truly complete until we hit Beta later this year
Advanced Player Housing: There are some advanced features for player housing, including waterfront properties, basements, home exterior decorations, and ceiling decorations that are not yet integrated. Expect to see these appear in future releases.

 

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Deep Dive - Combat, Magic, & Affinity

Only 6 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges
Until the promotion ends on April 7th, 2014, Founder backers will be able to purchase and/or gift additional Founder pledges containing all the original Founder rewards, as well as upgrade any of their pledges at original Kickstarter prices. After April 7th, prices for upgrades, gifts, and purchases will increase to Benefactor prices and no new Founder pledges can be created. Don’t miss out!

 

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Duke's Castle

Rustic 2-Story with Balcony Village Home

Wood & Plaster 2-Story with Great Hall Village Home

haha, 2 jokes in 1. monty python fans would get it and so would SOTA fans clamoring for mounts in episode 1.

Deep Dive - Combat, Magic, & Affinity


Deep Dive -- PvP & Death


Deep Dive -- Crafting


Deep Dive - Housing


Deep Dive - Single Player Offline


Deep Dive - Multiplayer & Instancing


One-Hour Daily Developer Hangouts from March 31st thru April 6th
4:00 p.m. CST Monday, March 31st: Combat, Magic, & Affinity
4:00 p.m. CST Tuesday, April 1st: PvP & Death
4:00 p.m. CST Wednesday, April 2nd: Crafting
4:00 p.m. CST Thursday, April 3rd: Housing
4:00 p.m. CST Friday, April 4th: Single Player Offline
3:00 p.m. CST Saturday, April 5th: Multiplayer & Instancing
3:00 p.m. CST Sunday, April 6th: Fishing & Character Customization
Noon to Midnight Video Hangout Telethon on April 7th
Allow Backer Access to SotA Release 4.x from Morning to Midnight on April 7th
Assorted free prizes to be given away during the final week, including:
Alienware_Gaming_Laptop_SotA_Giveaway_small
April 7th Drawing for one (1) Alienware Gaming Laptop
April 7th Drawing for one (1) trip to Austin, Texas for a tour of the Portalarium Studios and some design brainstorming with the SotA Dev Team (flight & 1 night hotel expenses covered)
Ten (10) Founder Adventure Pledges given away during each daily hangout
Ten (10) Weekend Access Passes to Release 5 given away during each daily hangout

And remember only 2 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

 

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Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! (Did We Happen To Mention “Thank You?”)

The One-Year Anniversary Telethon was an amazing success, raising over $95,000 and setting a new record for post-Kickstarter single-day funding! The day was filled with tons of community interaction, prize giveaways, and the usual zany antics that seem to be a common theme running through SotA Telethons. If you missed the live streams, you can watch the recorded videos here.


One year ago, at the conclusion of our successful Kickstarter campaign, we wrote these words:

Wow! Words can’t adequately express how overwhelmed we are with the incredible outpouring of support and dedication that all of you gave to the Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter campaign, and to all of us on the SotA Team! Because of your incredible support, we raised a total of $2.03M, double our original goal!

But it didn’t stop there! Over the past year you have helped us raise another $1.95M, bringing our total funds raised to $3.98M! We have plowed every nickle of those additional funds back into the development of Shroud of the Avatar through new content and enhanced features. Each month that our development funding increased, we would add more team members, and at 31 members we have more than doubled the size it was a year ago.

We cannot thank you enough for the tremendous support that all of you have shown over the past year, with your generous contributions to the funding of the project, and your passionate collaboration on this game we are all building together. The past year we have spent with you has exceeded all our expectations, and it is with great excitement that we look forward to our next year together!

Lord of the Manor’s 2-Story Castle Stone Basement

Founder Duke Crown

more from: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=38898

 

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Published on Apr 24, 2014
Shroud of the Avatar Pre-Alpha R5 has been released! Join me as we look at all the new features this iteration brings and I share some tips to help you get the most out of it in the shortest amount of time.

Overview Includes:
New overland map view, early skill-based combat, linear lighting, new creatures, Kingsport Sewers, compass, dialog journal, housing, and more!

Finally, if you have a friend who is already a Shroud of the Avatar backer and you are thinking of backing the game as well, make sure you use their referral code during the sign-up process. This will increase their in-game pledge amount in the game.

will add some screenies later.

 

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from https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=39961

Spoiler

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

One Hundred Thousand New Britannians!

It is a testament to the exploding interest in Shroud of the Avatar across the entire world-wide gaming community that the number of New Britannians on the SotA website has surpassed 100,000 and keeps on growing! Long live New Britannia!

Development Team Growth

The SotA Team is currently comprised of:

31 full-time, 7 part-time
21 employees, 17 contractors
Roles
12 Art
8 Programming
6 Design
3 Production
1 Web
3 Community/CS/QA
5 Markting/PR/Finance/Legal/Admin (all part-time contractors)
If you haven’t already done so, we welcome you to learn more about each of our team members by checking out their bios on the Dev Team Page, including our newest team member, programmer Zack Sheppard, who joined our team last week.

On a personal note, in the 32 years that I (dallas) have been making games, this is by far, one of the most rewarding development projects I’ve ever been involved with, and that is directly attributable to this amazing team that has joined together with all of you, our equally amazing community of backers, to create this amazing game!

Only 4 BotA Chapters Left!

e latest installment of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! If you are a Founder, or you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the current installment of the novel on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner). If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website.

Wedding Dress & Tuxedo

Upcoming Events

2014.05.22 – Release 6 Access
2014.06.10 – SotA at E3
2014.06.26 – Release 7 Access
2014.08.09 – SotA at synDCon
2014.08.29 – SotA at Dragoncon

 

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Overview Includes:
Graphical improvements, lightening adjustments, How To find a home site, How to take a picture without your avatar in the way, Evade combat maneuver, How to equip/Unequip weapons, How to give items to another player, 4 new home types, and more!

 

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Updated game trailer, including latest game footage through Pre-Alpha Release 6 (May 2014). Introduced at E3, June 10, 2014

 

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