Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Play Release 3 Now!

Property Owner Backer Plaques

Benefactor Citizen Piano

Combat-Ready Skeletons!

Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 10

White Raven Pet

Loom Shuttle of Prosperity

Stretch Goal Success: Lord British vs. Darkstarr

Last Day for the Pantheon Kickstarter Special Cross-Game Cloak

Upcoming Events

This Week In the News

Only 45 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Come Play Release 3 Now!

Release 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.

SotA community member, The Mad Hermit, created an awesome walkthru video, Guide To Pre Alpha R3, highlighting many of the new multiplayer features and game enhancements. It’s an absolute “must see”, so take a few minutes, crank the video quality up to HD, and let The Mad Hermit give you the grand tour of Multiplayer Release 3:



We’ve already received tons of great feedback! We published a new patch yesterday that addressed the following items:

Audio fixes for taverns

A fix for being unable to open some doors

Reduce overall music volumes

Fix for a few memory leaks

A few map updates

Added dresses to some of the treasure chests

Today we are working on a patch for chest respawns and NPC conversations. Starr Long (Executive Producer) covers these patches and other issues in his public forum post: R3 Update: Patches, Troubleshooting, etc.

We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game systems, so please join us in playing Release 3.

[Note: This early release contains both multiplayer and single player online mode. Release 3 access will end on Saturday, February 22, at 10:00 PM Central Time]

Hurry and join us in playing Shroud of the Avatar while Release 3 access is open! 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.

(click here for more complete instructions on downloading and playing Release 3)

Property Owner Backer Plaques

All backers at the Citizen, Edelmann, Knight, Lord, Baron, Duke, and Lord of the Manor pledge tiers, will receive a special Benefactor, Founder, or Royal Founder plaque as a digital, in-game decoration for your home.

Benefactor Citizen Piano

It just wouldn’t be a Lord British game unless there were musical instruments you could actually play! Included in the basic rewards of the Citizen pledge tier is this unique, in-game, musical piano for your home!

Combat-Ready Skeletons!

The team has been working on Release 4 tasks, whose main focus is, of course, combat. The character art team is busily creating monsters to fight, and the skeletons were one of the first to be completed. Shown below, are three basic types: Mage, Fighter, and Archer (along with variations of each). Each type will take advantage of different AI behaviors we are building for R4 including: ranged fighting, melee fighting, offensive magic, support/defensive magic, summoning, etc.

Mages

Fighters

Archers

Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 10

The 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 an Early 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 (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

Here is a brief excerpt of the latest installment (illustration by Denis Loubet):

Chapter 10: Councils

Baroness Gianna Baden–Fox closed her eyes in frustration. This effectively blocked the sight of the arguing factions but, unfortunately, did nothing to alleviate the assault on her ears from the increasingly vitriolic arguments that were being flung in attack and counterattack from all sides of the Hall. The Baroness opened her eyes once more and tried to take in the turmoil at the center of her keep.

It was too much, and her anger, that beast within her over which she always held tight control, could be restrained no longer. The Baroness stood suddenly from her chair at the end of the audience hall, raised her ornate staff of office and jabbed its metallic tip violently against the stones at her feet.

The sound shot through the rhetoric, cutting a brief silence in the space of which her words could be heard.

“There will be order in my hall!” The words of the Baroness were a statement of fact whose very tone dared anyone to challenge its absolute reality. “The sovereigns and ambassadors who have come to counsel will conduct themselves with courtesy within my hall. Those who cannot will find their accommodations moved to my stockade. There you may shout at each other all you like; I will not hear you and will sleep all the sounder for it. So, my most honored and esteemed guests, you will all sit down, or by the Storm Gods, I will have you removed from my hall.”

Download your copy of the latest installment of BotA to read the rest of this exciting chapter!

Map Reveal

For your map puzzle collection:

White Raven Pet

We have added our first unique pet, the White Raven, to the Add-On Store. The White Raven is a flying, non-combat pet that can follow you wherever you go.

For a limited time we’re offering 33% off! Reserve yours now (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store!

While creating the White Raven, Michael Hutchison developed improvements that he carried over to the Black Raven, one of the three non-combat pets offered as a basic reward at the Founder pledge tier. Here’s the new and improved Black Raven pet:

Loom Shuttle of Prosperity

This unique, indestructible loom shuttle increases the quality and quantity of items produced when weaving. While loom shuttles with similar effects can be crafted and purchased in the game this loom shuttle never needs repair.

For a limited time we’re offering 33% off! Reserve yours now (or send as a gift) at the Add-On Store!

Stretch Goal Success: Lord British vs. Darkstarr

We’re happy to announce that we reached two of our three stretch goals! Not only do we get to experience Lord British and Darkstarr fencing in puffy shirts, but we also get a video montage of Darkstarr’s fencing training! Yay!

The duel will take place on the afternoon of March 7, 2014 on Richard’s lake property, following the Duke & LotM VIP Design Roundtable and Portalarium Studio tour.

Even though we didn’t quite reach the third stretch goal, we are still holding out hopes that someone, through some means, will end up in the lake (Go Team Lake!)

Only 1 Day Left to Get Your Special Pantheon/SotA Cross-Game Cloak

In a joint effort with Visionary Realms, both Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and Shroud of the Avatar are offering a cross-game cloak to those who back both projects. Pantheon will feature a Shroud of the Avatar symbol (Lord British’s Coat of Arms) emblazoned on a cloak in their game, while Shroud of the Avatar will have a cloak bearing the Pantheon symbol.

To qualify for the special Pantheon/SotA cross-game cloak you must be a Pantheon backer at the FALLEN’S SPECIAL PLEDGE tier (or higher) and the SotA FIRST RESPONDER (Kickstarter) / ADVENTURER (post-Kickstarter) Pledge tier (or higher). There’s only 1 day remaining in the Pantheon Kickstarter campaign, so if you’re as big a fan of Brad’s games as we are, then head over to the Pantheon Kickstarter site and pledge your support!

Upcoming Events

2014.02.20 – Release 3 Access

2014.03.07 – Duke & Lord of the Manor VIP Design Roundtable with Lord British and Portalarium Tour

2014.03.07 – Portalarium at SXSW

2014.03.20 – Release 4 Access

2014.03.22 – Lord of the Manor Dinner and Tour of Britannia Manor

2014.04.07 – End of One Year Founder Pledge Promotion

2014.04.18 – Duke & Lord of the Manor VIP Design Roundtable with Lord British and Portalarium Tour

This Week In the News

February 19 – VentureBeat: Where are they now? An update on 10 of gaming’s biggest Kickstarters

February 17 – Ten Ton Hammer’s Exclusive First Look at Multiplayer in Shroud of the Avatar’s Release 3

Only 45 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!

Referral Bonus for Gifted Pledges!

Early Founders who wish to act as patrons to their family, friends, guildmates, or members of the SotA community, will also continue to receive the $25 Referral Bonus for every additional pledge they purchase as a gift for others. Not only are you helping out others to become Founders, but you are also growing your own pledge account by $25 every time you do! Win-win for everyone!

We’ve created the Player Marketplace area in the forums to help facilitate these transactions between our community members and we ask that you keep these transactions in that section.

Hurry and take advantage of this tremendous offer as there are only 45 days remaining until the Early Founder Pledge Promotion ends on April 7, 2014.

[NOTE: Any pledge payment plans started prior to April 8, 2014 will remain in effect at the original Early Founder price until that plan is completed or cancelled. Until we automate the process, you can send a request to support@portalarium.com to have your pledges merged.]