Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 24 Now!

Celebrate 2 Years of Releases at FireLotus Release 24 Party!

R24 Patch Notes

The Making of Brittany Graveyard

Player Run Postal Services Established in New Britannia

Going Public With SotA Daily Standup Notes

New Musical Instruments: Harp and Drum

Satin Bodice Bundle

2015 Winter Holiday Items

Only 11 Days left to get your 15% Black Friday Bonus!

46 Day Countdown for Winter Reward & Price Expirations

In-game Community Events

Upcoming Events

BrightLocker: A New Take On Crowdfunding/Crowdsourcing

Recommended Projects to Back

Play Release 24 Now!

[A scene from the FireLotus Release 24 Party!]

Release 24 successfully launched yesterday, November 19, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to explore, including:

New scenes including Nightshade Pass, Mariah Overlook, Britanny Outlander Graveyard, and Etceter

Lots of Winter Holiday content

Localization started

More types of weather coming online

More combat balancing and new skills

Guild Chapter Houses

Over 15 new Player Owned Towns

…and more!

Check out the Release 24 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new R24 content.

The Grand Tour Quest

Just as in our last several releases, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. You will be able to get the Pilgrim Bonnet by completing the Release 24 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 24 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in soon and talk to all the Tour Guides!

We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing Release 24!

If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. The basic Adventurer level pledge is also available on Steam Early Access.

Avatars Radio Presents: The FireLotus Release 24 Party – Celebrating Two Years of SotA Releases!

Release 24 is a major milestone for SotA, marking two years of monthly Releases! This month’s traditional FireLotus Release Party was held in the Garden in the center of Hometown, an island town just south of Solace Bridge in the southeast quadrant of Novia! Special thanks to all the players that have beautifully decorated Hometown, to Avatars Radio for producing these Release Parties, Lord Blake Blackstone for hosting the party, and to Lady FireLotus for her most excellent DJing!

R24 Patch Notes

Thanks to all our community members that jumped right into this Release and started reporting bugs. We’ve already fixed quite a few of them and pushed out several patches. Click here for the most up-to-date Patch Notes.

November 20, 2015

Build Number 354 10:00 PM CST:

Fixes:

Player Owned Towns: Fixed naming, connection, and ownership issues that were blocking access to almost all PoTs in the game

Brittany Graveyard now has proper exits to Novia

Known Issues:

Mystery boxes are not always working properly

There are two versions of Etceter in the game. If you claim property there you will have to zone to your home to get to the proper version.

Aether Amplifiers do not work on Mac nor Linux clients

Players are unable to interact with triggers with weapons

We do not yet officially support Windows 10. If you have upgraded to Windows 10 you may experience instability

Lighting and fog levels are still being tuned to work with the new weather system, expect anomalies

Weather has not been propagated to all scenes yet so there may be mismatches

Some skills have not been fully adjusted to work properly with the new use based system

Sound effects are not always playing properly

Death and Resurrection do not work properly in the team arena

Water lots in Dynamic Player Owned Towns can currently only be placed along shorelines, not on docks

If you upgrade from a property owning pledge between data wipes you will receive extra lot deeds.

Time is not in synchronized between scenes that have the new sky vs. the old sky

If your video drivers are out of date characters will appear as if they are covered in triangles.

Some cities are experiencing performance spikes

Many pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support.

The update to Unity 5 caused a host of general texture and lighting related issues, and not all of these have been resolved.

Distant tree billboards may have a white outline that is especially noticeable at night, and some trees may shimmer with white at night.

Skin tone will sometimes not match properly on different parts of the body

ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT

Unity 5 Engine Bug: Objects in the foreground sort incorrectly against objects in the distance like trees and the horizon

[Complete Patch Notes…]

The Making of Brittany Graveyard

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

Brittany Outlander Graveyard

“The Avatars now flooding the land are not the first Outlanders who have visited Novia. An earlier wave of Outlanders appeared in Novia, but did not share the immortality of the current visitors. When they eventually met their demise, they were interred in this massive graveyard on the outskirts of Brittany where most had made their homes. Most Outlanders were buried in this separate graveyard from other Novians due to the inherent distrust most Novians harbor towards Outlanders.”

In a future release, these gravestones will contain the names that Ancestor and above backers choose to represent their “ancestors”, but for now these gravestones are blank.

Inspiration for the Brittany Graveyard was heavily drawn upon from the Arlington National Cemetery:

Chatting with Art Lead, Michael Hutchison, we came to the idea that we wanted this to be a place to honor those who have fallen.

Placing 5000 tombstones was no quick task…well at first. Through the use of a tool by Tech Director Chris Spears, we were able to speed up the process and snap the tombs to terrain level.

The winding paths through perfectly aligned tombstones and little gardens nestled between tall oaks provide a serene experience.

Esteben Zaldivar

Level Designer

[NOTE: If you want your name permanently recorded on a tombstone in the Britanny Graveyard, then make sure you have pledged at the Ancestor pledge tier or higher before that reward expires on January 4, 2016]

Player Run Postal Services Established in New Britannia

[From a forum post by WrathPhoenix]

Last night Port Phoenix and Serenite established the first ever permanent two way mail delivery service. A first run was done from serenite to port phoenix and back – all recorded and posted on video. Big thanks to @Violation there! Post offices in Port phoenix and serenite have been established and a system of delivery has been constructed with in town and inter town deliveries starting today. Here in Port Phoenix our services will be directed by @Bodhbh Dearg our resident post master.

Since then we have also established postal connections to Wolves Den thanks to @Justyn04 and will soon be running deliveries to the clan of the wolf as well. Connections to PaxLair and Beran League towns i am hoping to establish soon :). The creation of this system also marked the creation of one of – if not the very first – outright trade agreement with agreed-upon resource per resource exchange rates established and posted in the post office.

I for one thank @EMPstrike and @Violation and @Minerva as well as any others who have become involved since. I am very excited to see this kind of infrastructure established in New Britannia. I am sure @RichardGarriott and @Winfield will be pleased to hear this! I will use this post to keep track of recommendations we would need to make this system better.

…This idea blew up even bigger than @Violation and I had planned. So far in 48 hours people from 4 different clusters in 13 main towns and accounting for almost 50 total player owned towns jumped on board.

Duke Violation captured a video stream of the journey from Serenite to Port Phoenix for the first ever mail delivery by New Britannia’s first ever mail carrier, Arkah EMPstrike. WrathPhoenix posted “The irony is the first delivery to Serenite was a shipment of Port Phoenix brochures! Junk mail ^^”

Going Public With SotA Daily Standup Notes

As many of you know we strive to be as transparent as possible to our backers through weekly updates, monthly releases, and quarterly schedule updates. We also post our Daily Standup notes to the Founder section of the forums. That read only forums section was created to satisfy the Founder pledge reward of “Developer Blog Access” which promised: “You will be privy to the game development progress before it is live! As concepts are created, screenshots are taken, and news is delivered for the game, they will be posted to a private Developer’s Blog page to which you will have access.” Among other content, this was the place we put our Daily Standup Notes. This unfortunately placed them behind a $65 paywall (a $20 increase from the base pledge). On top of that, because this section was Read Only the only way our backers could discuss the standup notes was to be Dev+ which put conversations about standups behind a $550 paywall.

After some very pointed feedback from our backers, and some serious soul searching, we believe that our standup notes should be public information and not behind any paywalls. Additionally, discussion about them should be available to all those with forum access ($5 and above). To that end, effective immediately, we are eliminating the Founder section of the forum and removing the “Developer Blog Access” reward from Founders pledge. All content in the Founder section will now be relocated to the “Shroud of the Avatar Announcements and Dev Posts” Forum (formerly “Community Announcements”) and our Daily Standup Notes will be posted there as a Read Only thread (to make it easier to go back and read each day if you have been away for a bit). We take very seriously the removal or expiration of any reward but we feel the increased level of transparency this will bring is better for the project.

New Musical Instruments: Harp and Drum

In addition to the flute, we also introduced the craftable harp and drum in Release 24. These instruments can be carried with you, always handy when you wish to enchant the crowds with your beautiful music. They can be played freeform using simple key presses along the number row (1-8), with two modifier keys (SHIFT and ALT) providing the player access to a full two octaves of notes, sharps and flats included. You can also use these instruments to play ABC/MML music files stored in the Songs directory. With Synchronized Play, members of a party can play synchronized songs together!

Along with the craftable versions, the ornate Cordovan Harp and Cordovan Maple Inlaid Drum are available now in the Add-On Store!

Satin Bodice Bundle

These Satin Bodice ensembles, available now in the Add-On Store, are just the thing to make that special evening even more special, whether it be a night on the town or an evening at home. This bundle includes:

1 ea Short Skirted Satin Bodice

1 ea Long Skirted Satin Bodice

1 pair Long Satin Gloves

1 pair Satin & Lace Ankle Boots

Dark Stone Spiked Castle Wall

Ever want to build a castle wall around your property? Well now you can with this Dark Stone Spiked Castle Wall set, available now in the Add-On Store. This set will completely enclose a Town Lot, and includes the following segments:

5 ea straight walls

4 ea corner walls

2 ea corner tower walls

2 ea straight tower walls

1 ea short gated wall

1 ea long gated wall

Some wall segments can be placed on a Village lot, but you will need a Town Property (or larger), or a Player Owned Town, to construct a completely enclosed wall perimeter. The minimum segments needed to completely enclose various lots are:

Town: 1 ea short gate, 4 ea corners, 5 ea straights

City: 1 ea long gate, 4 ea corners, 10 ea straights

Keep: 1 ea long gate, 4 ea corners, 18 ea straights

Castle: 1 ea long gate, 4 ea corners, 30 ea straights

The following screen shots show an example Castle Wall constructed on part of a City lot:

In a recent forum post, community member Senash Kasigal demonstrated that it is possible to fit a Knight Marshal home on a Town lot with the Castle Walls (the wall style shown here are the ones included in the Duke and LotM pledges):

2015 Winter Holiday Items

We received community feedback requesting Seasonal items be made available earlier in the season so players would have more time to decorate their homes and towns prior to the holidays. We didn’t have time to do that for the Fall holidays, but we did manage to get several of the Winter holiday items in this Release. Here are all the Seasonal items included in Release 24:

2015 Cornucopia

No holiday table would be complete without its own cornucopia centerpiece! But this unique cornucopia, specially crafted for the 2015 Winter holidays, is more than just an attractive table decoration, this Horn of Plenty generates a random edible item or ingredient per day (food, fruit, berries, mushrooms, flour, egg, etc.). During the Fall and holiday seasons there is a percentage chance of other kinds of items being generated.

White Turkey

This White Turkey is a non-combat pet that can follow you wherever you go.

2015 Yule Hat

Celebrate the Earth Winter holidays in style with this dyeable 2015 Yule Hat!

2015 Menorah

Make the holidays even more beautiful with this ornate Menorah. Uniquely handcrafted, it’s a treasure to behold! Interactive lights can be turned on/off.

Tabletop Yule Trees

Dress up any shelf, mantle, or table this holiday season with these miniaturized tabletop versions of the 2014 and 2015 Yule Trees! Interactive lights can be turned on/off.

2014 Tabletop Yule Tree

2015 Tabletop Yule Tree

2015 Yule Tree

This unique Yule Tree will create a festive mood in all who see it. Perfect for both in-door and out-door decorating! Interactive lights can be turned on/off.

2015 4-Story Yule Tree

Make a bold statement this holiday season with this beautifully decorated 4-story Yule Tree! Interactive lights can be turned on/off.

Winter Holiday Wreath

Adorn your walls this Winter holiday this unique Holiday Wreath!

White Reindeer

This White Reindeer is a non-combat pet that can follow you wherever you go.

2015 Replenishing Sowball Box

For the 2015 Earth Winter Holidays we crafted this ornate magical snowball box containing 50 snowballs that regenerates annually during the Earth holiday season.

Yule Velvet Bodice Ensemble

Celebrate the winter holidays in style with this elegant Yule Velvet Bodice ensemble, which includes:

Yule Short Skirted Velvet Bodice

Yule Long Velvet Gloves

Yule Velvet & Lace Ankle Boots

Only 11 Days left to get your 15% Black Friday Bonus!

Time is running out to take advantage of our Black Friday 15% Bonus, especially helpful for backers that intend to pledge or upgrade prior to upcoming Expiration Events! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, stretch goal items, and Make a Difference items) between 12:00 am CST October 2, 2015 and 12:00 am CST December 1, 2015, 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 CST for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Any monthly payments paid during the promotion period also receive the 15% bonus; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of stretch goal 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.

46 Day Countdown for Winter Reward & Price Expirations

As major milestones such as Alpha and Beta loom ever closer on the horizon, we are announcing the Winter Reward Expiration Event that occurs at 10:30 am CST, January 4, 2016. This event includes the following reward expirations:

General Rewards (Custom Crest, Name on Tombstone, Custom Avatar)

(Custom Crest, Name on Tombstone, Custom Avatar) All Physical Rewards

All In-Person Rewards

Player Owned Town Add-On Store Houses

Additionally, the price will increase for several Add-On Store items.

[More Winter Reward Expiration details…]

In-game Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Special thanks to community member SpookyJenny (aka Jenny Phoenixfyre in-game) for her help in compiling the schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

RPOTA Monthly $150 Writing Contest – November Theme is Thanks, Goodwill, and Cooperation Here ye! Here ye! Biographers, Historians, Diplomats, Journalists, Story Writers, Quest Designers and Videographers! RPOTA is in dire need of your amazing talents! Role-Players of the Avatar is hosting a monthly contest to award those most famous with their quill or camera! (details)

The Unreliable Travel Guide The Unreliable Travel Guide, created at the SotA Writing Round Table, is not an event, but a collection of hilarious short stories published by two drunken layabouts who have nothing better to do than try to derive a dishonest income from newly arrived avatars. (details)

Avatars Radio (Daily Programming) Welcome New Britannians to Avatars Radio – Radio of the Avatars. Rocking your socks off from the town of Radio City with the Terrestrial and New Britannian bards together under one roof through the power of the Moon Towers. Check out their daily program of amazing DJs: http://avatarsradio.info/schedule.php

NBNN Lunch with Laz & Jack (Weekdays, 12pm CST) Join NBNN every weekday for Lunch With Laz & Jack. They will be covering the daily goings on in SOTA. Calendar updates, Relevant issues happening in the days news. Come chat with us about upcoming events and general information. http://nbnn.info

Daily War Time PVP Event (Daily, 8pm CST – 9pm CST) Invitation to all guilds, PK hunters, PVP’rs or players interested in PVP training to come to Chaos Crossroads (Located at the crossroads outside of Kingsport on the road to Owl’s Head). PVP Event rules: None! Use whatever spells you want, kill in mobs or solo, group with new allies and defend your territory, lure newbies into the town and wack them! (details)

“The Tavern Respite” RP Event (Mondays, 8pm CST) The tavern door opens before you, and the scent of pipe and stew waft outwards with a wall of warmth from the hearth. Join in with the patrons of the Bear Tavern as they share tales of their adventures amid endless mugs of ale, legs of mutton, and merriment unbounded (The Bear Tavern in PaxLair; /zone Elgarion De’Khali; details)!

Challenge Dungeon Run (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 7pm CST) This is a self-host event, meet at the Braemar Cemetery and organize into groups to take on the infamous Chillblain’s Compendium of Pain & Suffering!

PaxLair Working Hours – Host Sean Silverfoot (Tuesdays, 2pm) PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. We will be in New Britannia doing things as a town when many people can work together. Sean Silverfoot hosts this working period. / zone Sean Silverfoot

Novian Academy – New Citizen Help Hours (Tuesdays, 6pm CST) /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre of Novian Academy in Soltown as they provide guidance to those new to the world of New Britannia.

Happy Hour Wednesdays (Wednesdays, 8pm CST) Otherwise known as “Spend Stryker’s Gold” – Stryker will open a bar tab at one of the local Novia taverns for an hour or so for drinks, stories, news, critique of the arts, dancing, and otherwise unplanned mayhem. Zone /Stryker Sparhawk or watch this thread for locations each week!

Gladiator Wars (Thursdays, 7pm CST) A call to all fighters PVE and PVP! Would you like to participate in the “Gladiator Wars” PvP Tournaments? Registration starts at 6pm CST. (Finchfield; /zone Pestilence; details)

Phoenix Republic PVE Nights (Thursdays & Fridays, 7pm CST) Join the Phoenix Republic as we send our weekly foray into the control points, dungeons and other of the most dangerous locales. Each week we will depart to a different PVE locale to help train our combatants. Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Malakas for more info!

Novian Academy – Role Play Courses (Fridays, 4pm CST) Luka Melehan is hosting RP classes and practice sessions. (/zone Luka Melehan)

Shardfall Madness (Fridays, 6pm CST) A PvP event. Contact Wind Silvermoon for details.

Vengeance Madness (Fridays, 7pm CST) This is an Open PvP event where everyone fights it out in a royal rumble to see who the ultimate death dealer is! (City of Vengeance; /zone Bambino LudoVate)

Astronomy Event (Fridays, 7:30pm CST) Interested in New Britannia Astronomy? Just enjoy gazing at the stars? Join us every week as we explore the night sky above New Britannia. (Player Town of Caer Dracwych; details)



Saturday, November 21

9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. (/zone Winfield)

11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service High Priestess of Chaos, Amber Raine, and the Dean of the Novian Academy, Kazyn Phoenixfyre, welcome you to the Church of the Dark Star. A shared project, built upon equality, where all are welcome. Services range from what is Chaos and Order to how they affect different aspects of our life. The path you choose is yours. (PaxLair; details)

12:00pm CST Welcome Quest R24 Welcome Quest showcases many of the Player-owned and Player-ran towns in New Britannia. Come for unique events in each town. We rotate towns between each Welcome Quest. (/zone Dara Brae; details)

6:00pm CST Elysium Social Nights – SotA Concert Series! Each Saturday we meet together in Elysium and have a whole series of activities with our friends inside and outside of the island and the republic. Join us this week in Port Phoenix and listen to some of Shroud of the Avatar’s musicians play music from our many varying instrument types. Want to watch? Then take a seat! Got a new piece you want to show off? Come play for the crowd! Want to show off your whole band? Then bring them on out! We will play as little or as much as there is interest! (details)

8:00pm CST Vengeance 1v1 Tournament The longest running Player vs Player tournament in Shroud of the Avatar. (City of Vengeance)

8:00pm CST Gladiator Tournament Hosted by The Weeping Seven, held in Chaos Crossroads. Purchase your Entry ticket from the Vendor outside the arena in Chaos Crossroads and your name will be entered for the follow Saturday’s Tournament. 1st Place wins 40% of Entry Fee total. (City of Chaos Crossroads; details)



Sunday, November 22

5:30am CST Explore Novia! with royalsexy Starting at the entrance to Owl’s Head, come explore the wide world of Novia – for people on our side of the calendar! (Dancing Rock, Owl’s Head Entrance, /zone royalsexy)

8:30am CST PaxLair Meeting Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions! (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)

11:00am CST Phoenix Republic Weekly Teamspeak Meeting A Gathering of members of the Phoenix Republic to cover important topic areas of the month. It is here that the republic shall discuss new event types, ideas on new laws and other concerns effecting the Phoenix Republic. (Republic Town Hall, Port Phoenix, teamspeak at ts3.portphoenix .com)

12:00pm CST Violent Underground – Team Tourney Join War Sage in Hometown in group combat! This 4v4 (And more!) Team tournament creates a wargame where only the best team wins! Come on our and grab a drink, cheer on your team, and BATTLE! This tournament takes place every other week and tests only the best of the teams in SotA! (Hometown)

1:00pm CST Serenite Shopping Extravaganza Shopping Extravaganza at the Serenite Selfridge Mall. Crafters will be available for special orders.

3:00pm CST Gustball Two teams are pitted against each other in a sporting event not dissimilar from soccer, football, and basketball. The object of the game is to Gust a Gustball around the field and into your opponent’s goal (/zone Bambino Ludovate, details)

3:00pm CST Gustball 5:00pm CST BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration Register to compete in the BMC Gridiron and mingle with other participants and spectators before the big fight! (Blackrock Cove on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)

5:30pm CST BMC Gladiator’s Grid-Iron The BMC is proud to present the nastiest, the foulest, the most feared arena in all of New Britannia! The Grid-Iron is equipped with a pit-style arena, locker rooms, a VIP round-table, betting & vendor booths, and all the blood-sport you can handle. (Blackrock Cove on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)

7:00pm CST PaxLair Meeting Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions! (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)

8:00pm CST Fishing with Winfield Come sit with Winfield on a log or rock to hear some fish tales or tell your own. Chat about anything from the moons to the earth worms. Spend a relaxing day in nature near a stream or lake — bring insect repellent or a sword. (some fishing spot or pond, /zone Winfield; details)



Be sure and check out the Release 24 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

Upcoming Events

2015.12.17 – Release 25

2016.01.28 – Release 26

2016.02.25 – Release 27

2016.03.17 – SXSW Gaming

BrightLocker: A New Take On Crowdfunding/Crowdsourcing

Fellow ex-Originites, Mark Rizzo and Ruben Cortez, members of the original Ultima Online Network Ops team from back in the day, publicly announced “BrightLocker”, their new crowdpublishing platform. As described in yesterday’s press release, “BrightLocker is the first platform to allow its community to actually participate in the funding, creation, selection and development of games.” Starr Long commented that “I’ve been privileged enough to have been asked to give a little advice on this project and I’m super excited for them and for the potential of crowdpublishing. Go check it out. Beta soon with extra goodies if you sign up.”

We wish our former Origin and Ultima Online colleagues the best of luck with their ambitious project! For more information on BrightLocker, and to sign up for the Closed Beta, please visit www.brightlocker.com.

Recommended Projects to Back

Torment: Tides of Numenera

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player, isometric role-playing game set in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting, Numenera. Torment is striving to create a rich role-playing experience that explores similar deep, personal themes.