WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS PRE-ALPHA. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME VIA CROWD FUNDING, BUG TESTING, AND FEEDBACK. PLEASE ONLY PURCHASE IF YOU ARE ALSO PREPARED TO HANDLE PERIODIC WIPES, SERIOUS ISSUES AND INCOMPLETE CONTENT. PLEASE READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS PRIOR TO PURCHASE, MANY OF WHICH WARN YOU OF THE CURRENT UNFINISHED STATE OF THE GAME. Greetings Avatars, Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues. Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 29 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, April 28, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC). As we move ever closer to Final Wipe and Lot Selection, we are rapidly expanding the content and feature set of Shroud of the Avatar. We are also critically appraising our feature set and making sure each and every feature is as it should be for those critical events of Release 32. With those thoughts in mind, we looked at a few key aspects of the game related to housing, crafting, and targeting and made some important changes in Release 29. These changes were not easy, nor were they without controversy, but we believe they are changes that need to be made for the long term health of the project. The biggest and most obvious change is to targeting which now uses a reticle in the center of the screen and makes interaction modal. Hitting the TAB key or invoking any interface window will cause the game to play almost exactly as before but this is still a VERY big change. For a while now, we have tried to avoid making our game modal. To date, we have solved that by requiring mouselook by holding down the right mouse button. This means that you can always have a cursor but it makes targeting hard, especially for ranged combat, and means you have to constantly hold down a mouse button (which players complain hurts them after playing for long times). Additionally, most modern 3D games use free mouselook and use a modal interface to bring up a cursor for interactions, inventory, etc. So with R29, we decided to make the plunge and moved our game to be Reticle Targeting based and Modal. Please note that you do NOT have to keep the reticle on directly top of the target to hit it. Once you have a target identified you just need to have them in your forward arc and in range to hit them. You do NOT need to have the reticle always on top of the target. We are NOT a shooter. We know that many of you have concerns about this change, and rest assured we are listening. We fully intend to support the play style our loyal backers have become accustomed to while expanding the abilities of the game. We are aware of and looking at solutions for those of you with physical challenges we have not yet solved and those of you who want more mouse-centric options. Please be patient while we work through this which may take more than one release. The next big change was related to land and housing. Since the addition of Player-Owned Towns (POTs), the amount of "potential" available land has greatly increased and therefore a potential demand for more lot deeds has been created. However that land is only potential, not guaranteed, until the owner puts down lot markers and unlocks the lots. So we still have to be very careful in how we add deeds to the game to make sure those who purchase deeds have a place to use them. So we are adding POT-Only Lot Deeds. As normal Lot Deeds sell out in-game (and in the Add-On Store), Portalarium will sell limited quantities of POT-only Lot Deeds in the game (and in the Add-On Store). These deeds can only be used inside Player-Owned Towns. These will only be sold in the lot sizes that sell out, and will be sold for the exact same price as normal lot deeds. NOTE: At this time that means we have only introduced Village and City sized POT-only Lot Deeds (but only in the Add-On Store since lots are not currently being limited in-game). As with everything with the game, we will carefully monitor the situation and if there is ever a significant shortage of lot deeds and a surplus of land we will release more as needed. Finally we looked at Crafting, specifically using crafting stations in List Mode, and came to the conclusion that we could add Recipes to the Station interface and therefore remove the need to have the Recipe Book displayed while crafting in List Mode. This should let player explore the new expansions to Alchemy with Tool Engraving and Enchantments much more easily.
Of course, in addition to the above we added a lot of other things including almost 40 more scenes including  the Crypt of the Avatar and the central part of the sprawling capital of Novia; Brittany. The Love Storyline is now playable from start to finish, and many more NPCs have unique stories to tell you. We are testing out Lot Selection Sequencing for the first time in 30 minute windows, and to support that, we added and expanded the number of available housing lots a thousandfold by adding new POTs, new Player-Run Towns (PRTs), and expanding the size of some NPC towns by replacing their source scenes. Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post. So, they are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game, and that it is easy to read. While we are getting closer to launch, we are still in a constant state of change, and we do not yet have in-game systems to inform players of these changes, or to share ways to help them to explore new content and systems. This means we rely entirely on this message, and the linked instructions and known issues to convey the current game state. We regularly have to answer questions or filter bug reports because some players elect not to read this valuable information. By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and efforts can be redirected to focus on new “unanswered” questions, and addressing critical issues impacting each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post, and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide. Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. So, be sure to check out a couple of the Community Events Calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websites Avatars Circle Community Events and Events of the Avatars calendar). Without further ado, here are the R29 deliverables: WARNING: STORY SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION! Some players requested that we warn you that you may want to skip the story section of the update if you want the story to remain a complete mystery before you play the game. Full Wipe (except Social): We wiped all player data including inventory and housing. Social information (friends and guilds) will remain intact. If you have Add On Store items you wish to convert to credit, then you can do so on the Shroud of the Avatar website multiple times this week. Remember to do it before you claim your rewards in the bank (Live or QA) since that will make all add on store items “claimed in game.” Also please note that if you upgraded a property owning pledge since the last wipe, you ended up with extra lot deeds which will have now been wiped (lot deeds do not stack). Your current deed amount will match your purchases when R29 goes live. Please note that because we are wiping offers multiple times this week you will end up with multiple sets of rewards. Love Story-line First-Playable: With the addition of the Crypt of the Avatar beneath Midras, the Path of Love is playable from start to finish. Progress on polish and improvements will continue to make this and the other two paths bug-free, compelling, and fun. Brittany (Central): The capital of Novia! Center of Commerce! Home of Arabella! This will be surrounded by 4 other housing neighborhoods as well as the Brittany Graveyard. Please note that story elements have not yet been added for central Brittany, and all NPCs remain generic for now. Many Developer-tier backers have expressed an interest in having their pledge reward of a named NPC being found in Brittany and this will take place during the story pass in a future release.
Crypt of the Avatar (beneath Midras Ruins): The ancient Crypt of the Avatar, as found by Aren and Syenna in "Blade of the Avatar," is open for exploration by those who have fought their way through the halls of Necropolis. Much can be learned here of the danger facing Ardoris and Novia… NOTE: This is a single-player instance.
Lot Selection Sequence: The Lot Deed UI has been modified to show your Lot Selection Group(s) and an error message will appear if you try to claim before the start time of your group. Please note that for this test of the sequence, the windows are spaced apart by 30 minutes instead of 24 hours. Also, the start times displayed on the account pages are for the Final Lot Selection, not this test run. Control Points Perks: We now have the ability to link the unlocking of items like doors and containers to the state of a Control Point. So as players successfully take and defend a Control Point, we can grant access to previously inaccessible content. For R29, we are testing this new feature in Vertas Pass—for each wave of enemies that players face, a new door somewhere in the the village will unlock and give access to a treasure chest, but when the control point is lost, all doors re-lock. And Much More! Click here for the complete R29 Instructions [And did we mention that you should read the negative reviews that warn you about the unfinished state of this game before you purchase? Don't buy this game until you read them!]