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.

One of the new things I experimented with in this scene is creating running water streams / rivers. So far it’s been very successful and here are some shots of a small stream that runs through Brittany Estates.

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

[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 additional 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

Pledge Stats Update

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Dallas Snell]

Greetings Avatars,

It’s been a year since we last posted pledge stats (see May 2015 report) and we’ve received several requests from the community for an update…so, here ya go!

This first chart shows the change in pledge counts from May 2015 to June 2016. The data does not include Steam Early Access, Guilt Pledges, or unassigned pledges.

The largest percentage increase was the Knight Marshal (increased 84% from 109 to 201). The largest increase in sheer quantity was the Ancestor tier, which increased by 441 pledges (followed closely by Immortal Adventurer at 416 pledge increase). The Ancestor tier became quite popular once it was improved to include a tax-free row lot and 2-story row house!

This next chart shows the change in pledge revenue per tier from May 2015 to June 2016. The Duke pledge tier posted the largest gains, by far (just as it did last May):

This next chart shows the current pledge data with the pledge counts as vertical bars and the dollar value of each pledge tier as a gold line. The Knight tier was dethroned for the first time in terms of pledge revenue, being handily trounced by the increasingly popular Duke tier.

Since the Citizen pledge has been expired, we show it and the Edelmann tiers separately for this report (unlike previous reports where we combined them). Those pledges had been selling at almost equal rates until the Citizen expired, and now the Edelmann is beginning to pull ahead.

Quite honestly, we’re surprised that every Citizen pledge owner hasn’t upgraded to Edelmann, since it is only $25 to upgrade and for that you move 9 groups earlier in Lot Selection Priority, receive a unique beer brewing recipe, a German automaton (inspired by the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Munich), a Deutsche Dogge pet, a unique bird bath deco, an additional “Edelmann” title (and even more rewards if you are a Founder-era or Royal Founder-era backer)!

Pledges with property (Ancestor and above) represent 12% of all backers (up 2% from May 2015 report) and 70% of all pledge revenue (up 7% from May 2015 report). Pledges without property represent 88% of all backers and 30% of pledge revenue.

And this final table shows the current number of Player Owned Towns that have been purchased thru Jun 16, 2016. A total of 310 towns have been sold, up from 202 reported in May 2015. Of these 310 towns, only 230 have direct Overland Map access, and the remaining 80 towns are linked to other POTs or to NPC towns.

Womby & Friends Present: Incident in Skrekk (A Tour of Kobold Homes)

[From the Hospitallers’ SotAHelp.org Video Tutorial page]

Think you might be interested in a Kobold home? Well this video could help you decide! The talented Shroud of the Avatar player, Womby, with an amazing cast of actors, bring us this wonderful tour of the in-game Kobold homes in a charming and whimsical story format. Not only is it entertaining, it’s informative!

On the morning of Sunday,

May 15 486 PC, a father and

son sneaked into the Caverns

of Skrekk, a vast underground

Kobold Settlement.

This is their story.

40 Day Countdown to Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1

As we march toward the Final Wipe and Lot Selection milestone, we are having a Summer 2016 Expiration Event split into Two Parts!

Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 1

At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on July 27, 2016, we are expiring the homes and basements from the Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2 pledges. We are also expiring new Player Owned Towns (upgrades of existing POTs will continue to be available). All other rewards (including tax free property deeds) that are currently available in the remaining pledges will continue to be available. The final wipe of all game data will also occur at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on July 27th. To commemorate this momentous milestone, we are holding a 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 1, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Wipe at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC).

Summer 2016 Expiration Event, Part 2

At Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC) on August 22, 2016, we are expiring ALL remaining pledges, including: Adventurer, Founder, Royal Artisan, Explorer, Ancestor, Edelmann, Knight Marshal, Lord Marshal, Duke, and Lord of the Manor 2. To commemorate the final expiration of all remaining pledges, we are holding a 12-hour Summer Telethon Part 2, starting at 12:00 pm CDT (17:00 UTC) and running right up to the Final Pledge Expirations at Midnight CDT (5:00 UTC).

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. Here is sample of the audiobook on SoundCloud:

[NOTE: The original Blade of the Avatar novel has already been delivered as an electronic PDF to all pledges prior to May 31, 2015 (when it expired). For those who qualify for this reward, you can find the link to the PDF on your SotA website account page Special Rewards tab for download. The physical and signed versions of the novel that are rewards at the Patron and Citizen level up through May 31, 2015 will be a paperback print version of the original Blade of the Avatar novel that has been delivered as an electronic PDF. This physical reward will be delivered to backers at the same time that all physical rewards are delivered, which we currently expect will be toward the end of this year

Some backers have asked if they will receive The Sword of Midras, or the 4 additional chapters that were written for it, as part of their Blade of the Avatar novel pledge reward. Unfortunately, Portalarium is contractually not at liberty to distribute The Sword of Midras, or the additional chapters, in print or electronic form, as part of our original pledge rewards. This was a requirement In order to procure a mass market book publishing agreement with a major book publisher. We felt the mass market distribution of The Sword of Midras was critically important to help increase the worldwide exposure of Shroud of the Avatar. If The Sword of Midras is successful, it will help introduce many readers to our game, and potentially bring them in as new players, which is a long-term benefit for the game and the community.]

Upcoming Events

2016.06.30 – Release 31

2016.07.27 – Summer Telethon Part 1 + Pledge Homes / POT Expirations (Final Wipe at Midnight)

2016.07.28 – Release 32: Lot Selections

2016.08.22 – Summer Telethon Part 2 + Final Pledge Expirations Episode 1 (Pledge Expirations at Midnight)

2016.08.25 – Release 33

2016.08.26 – Syndcon 2016

2016.09.02 – DragonCon 2016

2016.09.21 – Austin Games Conference

2016.09.29 – Release 34

Community Activities

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 the Release 30 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events.

Event of the Week – EVL Monster Mash Dungeon Crawl

Every Virtue is Lasting holds a dungeon crawl every Tuesday (for advanced players) and Saturdays (for newer, less experienced players) to provide fun and experience for their members and guests. All are welcome! The meeting point for Tuesdays is in Owls Head (map) at the center of town near the trainer (Zenie is your teleportation Avatar and dungeon master), and for Saturdays it is in Soltown (map; Shady Death is your teleportation Avatar and dungeon master) (details)

Community 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.

Resource of the Week

SotA Wiki A premier source of information for all of New Britannia! This site is being actively updated, so if there isn’t something you need, let them know!

SotA Wiki

Lace’s SotAWiki How-To Video

There can be a learning curve to navigating and utilizing the special features within the SotAWiki site, especially if you are unfamiliar with Wiki interfaces. Have no fear! For Hospitaller Lace is here with this in-depth guide to assist users and potential contributors with their SotAWiki ventures. This is the first of a planned 4 part series.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing.

Backer Shipping Addresses

In preparation for shipping backers’ physical pledge rewards later this year, we have added Shipping Address fields to your Account Profile page. To 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:

For country and regional tax assessment purposes, our tax accountants have requested that we start collecting a buyer’s physical/shipping address for all purchases, whether digital or physical. We’ve tried to streamline that process as much as possible, such that once you’ve entered a physical address we will pre-populate the address fields with your default address.



Recommended Projects to Back

Xounts Kickstarter: Shroud of the Avatar Special!

We’re excited to announce that Xounts is offering a free Shroud of the Avatar style when you support their unique speaker system Kickstarter campaign.

The ‪Xounts‬ system is fantastic at delivering great sound, looks really cool wherever it’s placed, and supports custom themes… including a really SWEET Shroud of the Avatar theme. We even have a SotA styled Xounts in our office!