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

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Log Homes

In Release 50 and 51 we will be adding three new log homes to the game, two craftable and one purchaseable.

Hollow Log House: Players really liked the witch’s hollow log house that we introduced in South Longfall Wetland in Release 46 so at the suggestion of our players we have turned it into a house! The Hollow Log House is a single story village sized house that will be craftable via a recipe in-game that you will gain from a quest in Release 51.

Hollow Log Two-Story House with Tower: While building the Hollow Log House we came up with an idea to make a slightly larger version with a second story facilitated by adding a vertically oriented second hollow log to make a tower addition. The Hollow Log Two-Story House with Tower will be village sized and available in the Add On Store and on Crown Merchants in-game for Release 50.

Front of the home with second story balcony:

Interior of main room with second story loft:

Overhead view of hollow log tower with roof access:

Interior of hollow log tower:

Log Cabin: The Log Cabin will be craftable via a recipe in-game and is village sized. It is a classic frontier style building with an open plan that is built of raw timbers on the outside yet finished nicely on the inside. We hope to have this in game for Release 50.

Making of Yew (cont.)

The Elven city of Yew has been shielded from outsiders by a nearly constant shroud of fog that only clears during certain alignments of the heavenly bodies. The city itself is full of wonderful Elven architecture and because of the natural foggy defenses has never been fortified. Yew is currently a clone of Jaanaford but is being rebuilt for Release 50. As with other town rebuilds the locations of player lots, merchant locations, and scene exits will not be changed.

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

Hey guys! SorcerousSteve here to give you an update on the town of Yew!

Before the holidays I showed you guys a look at the main entrance into town, now here is a look coming in from the opposite direction. As you’ve seen before there are some small streams that cross the town center, these streams actually originate from a large underground spring. This underwater sinkhole with crystalline waters plunges to dark unknown depths and is a key landmark in the town of Yew.

Come explore Yew and take a dive into its elven springs!

A caravan wagon depot near the entrance to town. Yew looms in the background.

Looking down from atop the walkways high above in the tree canopy. A bonfire can be seen at the town stage in front of the central Hero tree.

Yew at night, a low level mist covers the town square. Can’t wait for you guys to pay your visit to Yew!

Esteben Zaldivar

Level Designer

R48 Telethon Items (cont.)

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

We have begun creating the items from the Release 48 Postmortem Telethon. The theme was once again Icy and our very own Fletcher “Scathana” Kinnear and Reid Rollo have been hard at work freezing their hands off sculpting new frozen treats for you!

Ice Crown

Ice Wand

R49 Postmortem Telethon

Greetings Avatars,

The winter season has set in and we’re beginning preparations to celebrate the arrival of what is going to be an exciting 2018! We’re announcing this release’s postmortem telethon with new holiday Stretch Goal Items ready to be achieved, Prizes to give away, and more informative Developer Deep Dives. And all of this is coming up fast on January 8!

As was stated with the R48 telethon, we’ve changed the format for these livestreams. We will be somewhat going back to briefer but more focused Deep Dives. Also, we will be focusing more on related questions to those Deep Dives. See below on what questions we will and will not be taking.

LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE (Central Time Zone)

Telethons are livestreamed on Twitch and include answers to your gameplay questions, world building tours, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more! See what we have planned below beginning at 3:00 PM CT on January 8:

3PM : Introductions (Black Sun) and Postmortem Q&A

: Introductions (Black Sun) and Postmortem Q&A 3:45PM : Deep Dive 1: Advanced Combat/Skills/Leveling

: Deep Dive 1: Advanced Combat/Skills/Leveling 4:30PM : World Building Tour

: World Building Tour 5:30PM : Deep Dive 2: Story

: Deep Dive 2: Story 6:15PM : Postmortem Q&A Continues

: Postmortem Q&A Continues 7PM: Ending Announcements

Schedule is subject to change. Check back here before the livestream begins!

EXPIRING ITEMS:

There will be NO expiring items this telethon.

STRETCH GOALS (Icy Themed!)

As a special bonus, we are offering funding rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 for twelve hours during the day of the telethon, on January 8 from 12:00 PM to 11:59 PM CT (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply) .

NOTE: While the livestream ends at 7pm CT, everyone will have until 11:59 PM CT to spend $5 to get the stretch goals. We will announce the final total on the following day.

$10K : /jugglesnowballs

: /jugglesnowballs $25K : Frost Pipe

: Frost Pipe $35K : Snowdragon (snowman dragon made of sticks and such)

: Snowdragon (snowman dragon made of sticks and such) $50K : Ice Chess Set

: Ice Chess Set $65K : Ice Halberd, Ice Spear, Ice Axe

: Ice Halberd, Ice Spear, Ice Axe $80K: Ice Dragon Statue with icy effects

*Please keep in mind that stretch goal rewards take time to develop and will most likely not be available in-game at Release 51 at the earliest.

CHEER ON THE DEVS!

For every $2,500 donated, all developers on camera have to either dance, sing, or perform some other act of amazement.

Additionally, we will be spinning the Wheel of Fortune! The wheel will have 12 different categories of sales plus the Lord British and Darkstarr wildcards where they get to choose any category! Each time a category comes up it will go on sale at approx. 20% off for 1 hour.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE FLASH SALES:

WIN THESE GREAT PRIZES!

Frosty goodies!

Bank Upgrades

COTOs

Store Credit

RelicsbyRild.com merchandise

and a bunch of items we will announce on the livestream!

We will be giving prizes away on an hourly basis with many being given away multiple times. If you wish to win prizes during the event, be in Discord chat! We will be active on Twitch and YouTube chats as well, but they will not be our portal for prize giveaways.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS!

We will be answering questions throughout the livestream, so submit them in the comments section of the original post or on Discord chat during the event.

Please do NOT post questions containing:

More than 3 questions in total

Bugs or other problems best posted in the bug forums

“When is this coming” or anything related to schedule (for those answers please refer to our quarterly updates or our post release plans)

Questions with more than a couple of sentences. Please keep them brief! We will likely understand the context of your interest, so just ask the question and we’ll be able to respond.

For bug reports and extra idea suggestions, please use the forums for this purpose.

A Final Thought: We see a LOT of repeat questions and requests. Please consider reading one of the other missed question posts, watching one of the previous post mortems, reading one of the post mortem transcripts, and/or reading our Post Episode 1 plan post before posting a question. Your question might have already been answered.

Keep an eye on @ShroudofAvatar for updates before, during, and after the livestream. See you on Twitch at 3:00 PM CT on January 8!

Happy Holidays, Avatars! See you next year!

[Read More…]

New Free Trial Continues!

The now always-on Free Trial continues! Here are the detailed changes as of Dec. 14, 2017:

As a reminder this version of the Free Trial has a few changes in it. We are moving Free Trial users to the Path of Courage because using melee weapons is an easier introduction to the combat system. We are also going to limit interaction with the story to only the Path of Courage. Visitors will no longer be able to start the other story paths. Also, we are now going to limit how far Visitors can advance their skills to only level 50.

Free Trial access allows you to play the entire game in any of the Online modes with a few key differences in game play. You will be able to 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!

Here is the updated list of Visitor limits:

The term (Visitor) is appended to their character name

Max skill level set to 50

Start on and limited to the Path of Courage story line

Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors

No ownership of player property nor use of player property signs

Cannot move/interact with items on a player property (even if given permissions)

Cannot interact with public chests

Cannot give items to other players via Trade or Mail

Cannot flag as Open PVP

Cannot gain nor create ransom items when you kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)

Character data may be deleted if not eventually upgraded to a paid account

Cannot play in Offline Mode

Join us in New Britannia for free today!

Job Opening: Office Admin / Executive Assistant

Thank you for your interest in Portalarium! We currently have an opening in Austin, Texas for a full-time, Office Administrator / Executive Assistant position, as described below. If you’d like to join the Portalarium Tribe, the team building the ground-breaking Shroud of the Avatar game, please submit your resume/cover letter to: jobs@portalarium.com

Job Description:

Coordinating general office activities and operations to secure efficiency and compliance to company policies, maintain stocks of office supplies, manage phone calls and general office correspondence (e-mail, letters, packages etc.), support budgeting and bookkeeping procedures, create and update records and databases with personnel, financial and other data, assist colleagues whenever necessary. Assist founder/CEO with company and personal administrative tasks including: managing calendars, making travel plans, meeting and event arrangements, payment and filing of invoices, managing mail, preparation of reports, and errands.

Requirements:

At least 2 years experience as an office administrator or executive assistant to a C-level executive

Presentation/Communication/Writing skills

Has a professional writing style that represents Portalarium and CEO well

Able to follow creative/technical/business conversations

Has a professional writing style, with the ability to craft business emails, as well as ~750 word articles when provided general ideas to develop

Organization skills

Able to efficiently translate assigned tasks (verbal or written) into prioritized checklists/schedules and can effectively manage those checklists/schedules.

Is able to self-organize and self-prioritize when necessary

Expert Outlook Calendar management, able to clearly detail pertinent event information

Research skills

When given research materials or a publicly available topic to research, will be able to conduct search and summarize key points on a topic efficiently.

Other critical skills

High attention to detail

High adaptability & takes feedback well

Self-driven with high work ethics, able to stay focused on work-related tasks, seeks out tasks during down time.

High level of self-reliance

Willingness to tackle all kinds of tasks for any and all admin needs

Proficiency with Microsoft Windows environment and Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), Adobe Acrobat, Docusign, etc.

Optional skills

Basic accounting including use of Quickbooks

Familiarity with Google Docs, Google Sheets, Dropbox, Slack, and JIRA

Party: Portalarium Studio Grand Holiday Party – Jan. 12

Let it be known far and wide that a Grand Holiday Party will be held at the Portalarium Studios and in Shroud of the Avatar on Friday, January 12, 2018 at 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM Central Standard Time (US)(2300 UTC to 0400 UTC).

We are going to have a lot of fun and activities for people attending in Austin AND also all those online from around the world:

Meet the Developers

Plenty of Drinks and Food

White elephant gift exchange

Games, Storytelling and Jokes

Live in-game party in Shroud of the Avatar

Video live stream

Live music

Twitch streaming

Audio streaming

Discord chat

Visit the discussion forums for details on this community hosted party!

Weekend Flash Sale: Clocks

In honor of the release of the Ornate Clock Tower and the in-game craftable Clock Tower going live in Release 49 all time-telling related items are on sale this weekend including clocks, moondials, and the Bell Tower! Get a look at the lineup below. All of the sale items are available on the Add-On Store, and several are also available for sale on in-game Gold Crown Merchants (located in Ardoris, Central Brittany, Resolute, Aerie, and Owl’s Head):

Upcoming Events Calendar

Jan 8, 2018 – R49 Postmortem Telethon

Jan 12, 2018 – Portalarium Grand Holiday Party

Jan 25, 2018 – Release 50

Feb 2, 2018 – R50 Postmortem Telethon

Feb 22, 2018 – Release 51

Mar 9 – 18, 2018 – SXSW

Mar 21 – 23, 2018 – GDC

Mar 22, 2018 – Release 52: Launch Candidate

Visit the official Community Calendar to see the great lineup of activities our amazing community has planned for this weekend! And be sure to check out this month’s Release Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events.

Creative Writing Contest Winners Announced!

Congrats to the following winners of the New Britannia Carolers Creative Writing Contest! Similar to previous contests, entries were selected based on the following themes:

Most inventive theme goes to… Hroth! Romantic theme goes to… Moxiepilot! Holiday theme goes to… WRFB/Woftam! Adventure theme goes to… Catherine Rose! Character/NPC theme goes to… LoneStranger! PvP/Combat theme goes to… Dartan Obscuro! Unexpected theme goes to… Leelu!

PRIZES

Each winner will be awarded 25 COTOs, as well as the 2016 Winter Holiday Soundtrack – Wax Cylinders – perfect for replaying holiday tunes well into the 2018 new year.

Congrats, Avatars!

The Avatar’s Guide to Knowledge and Virtue Contest – Weekly Winners!

Congrats to the following two weekly winners in the still going video creation contest!

Datendrache’s ‘Crafting Complete Ep. 2’

All current entries can be found here

The ‘Avatar’s Guide to Knowledge and Virtue’ video contest ends Jan. 15, 2018, so you still have time to design a walkthrough video for all New Britannians to use!

When you have a video to submit, please post it in this thread. You are allowed to edit your posts up until the submission deadline on Jan. 15, 2018 at 11:59 PM CT (Jan. 16 at 5:59 AM UTC). We will be posting all final videos on Portalarium’s YouTube channel in a Playlist after the contest ends.

Below are the details of the contest, including what you can win!

[Read More…]

Spotlight: The Metropolis of Moonglade

Located in the North Paladis region of Novia, the Metropolis of Moonglade was founded as a village alongside the more well known Yew town (which is getting a makeover for Release 50!). Now these two towns share heavy traffic as goods are traded on a daily basis. Moonglade has a lot to offer, so we sent our very own community manager, Berek, to check it out.

Excerpts from Berek’s Novian Travelog…

Berek, friend of Novia, to outlanders far and wide: By royal decree, my travels have recently taken me in search of Yew, the hidden city of the elves, to learn of their culture and customs. While searching for the reclusive elves, several dark towers marking the metropolis of Moonglade reached above the tall trees bordering the Hallowed Plains. Perhaps the residents of Moonglade could direct me to the hidden city… Almost forgotten to time, the locals recount tales of Yew long past in which humans, not elves, lived in what we now call North Paladis. Tall, densely packed trees encircle Moonglade, but the town is not the first to grace the forest glade. The earliest recorded settlement was built near the ruins of an ancient monastic citadel, the nature of which has likely been lost to the cataclysm. The ruins can still be explored not far from the city center.

[Read More…]

Virtue Marathon 2018: Children’s Miracle Hospital Network



Avatars, on your marks!

AERIE Fund, Meretz, and Portalarium invite you to join Team ‘Avatars’ as we sprint & dash in support of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital Network!​ Join Lord British and the crew from Portalarium, AERIE Fund, and Meretz as we tackle the 5K, Half Marathon and Full Marathon to raise funds and awareness for the CMNH at the Austin Marathon 2018.​

This event is open to all community members, friends and families to attend and/or support!

Austin Marathon Event Info:

When: Sunday, February 18th

Where: Downtown Austin, TX

Participate in the Marathon (Deadline to Join Team Avatars – Midnight, January 5th!):

1. Register for Team Avatars! Join us on marathon day in Austin. Sign up for the event and make sure to select ‘Avatars’ as your team.

2. Share this fundraising page with your friends and family – any pledges received will go directly to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital! You can use the social share buttons at the top of the page to make it easy. ​

AERIE Fund is providing all ‘team members’ with a ‘Team Avatar – For the Virtues’ performance t-shirt for race day. Join us now!

Did You Know: Shroud Features Moondials?

Avatars! This is Elgarion from @SotAHelp with a regular “Did You Know?” feature kicking off in 2018! Expect to see these posted regularly on community channels, and here in the weekly update! Did you know @ShroudofAvatar features amazing in-game moondials? If you find one on an evening stroll, use it and look up—the constellations unfold before your eyes! But beware! Cabalists also use the stars to direct their siege warfare!

Recommended Project to Support – Denis Loubet Patreon

Our good friend Denis Loubet, and the one responsible for Shroud of the Avatar’s cover art and almost every piece of cover art for Ultima, as well as many other art pieces in SotA’s early days of development, is now running his own project. Denis is creating more Science Fiction and Fantasy Art for you to enjoy. Check it out over at Patreon!

If you remember the Ultima series of computer games, I’m the guy that did most of the covers and the manual illustrations, as well as a lot of the in-game art and animation. I’ve been doing game art since the 80s for companies such as Steve Jackson Games, Hero Games, Origin Systems Inc, Kingsisle, Disney, and many more. I want to try doing art directly for my fans, with no middleman. That’s the reason for this Patreon project.

Resources – Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

Backer Shipping Addresses

In preparation for shipping backers’ physical pledge rewards around the game’s launch period, on your Account Page, please enter your shipping address, log in to the SotA website, select “Account” in top right corner, then select “Edit Profile” located in top left corner, beneath your Avatar image.

A reminder to be sure that support@portalarium.com is unblocked from your e-mail account!