WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS. 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.
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 37 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, December 15, at 10:30 AM US Central Standard Time (15:30 UTC). Performance: It has been far too many releases since we focused on issues related to performance, so we made the hard decision to push out some work on features in order to focus most of our programming team on performance. We have made a wide swath of changes that have improved just about every aspect of performance, including install size, load times, frame rate, and stability. We still have much work to do, and large cities with lots of characters and decorations can still cause some machines to struggle. Another Short Release: Normally our release cycle lasts approximately four weeks, giving us 3 weeks of development time and 1 week of polish before the release goes live on the last Thursday of the month. However, November and December each have holidays that require us to do our release earlier in those months. That only gives us 2 weeks of development time and 1 week of polish before we release. Despite that brevity and our focus on performance, we still managed to deliver a lot of new content. Superstition Canyon (Unclone): South of Resolute is Superstition Canyon, a control point connecting South Paladis and Verdantis. A friendly faction of elves settled in this remote valley to escape the conflicts their human-hating brethren so crave and have since become caretakers of an ancient, abandoned fortress. Unfortunately, the violent Vertas Elves heard rumors that items of power were buried beneath the crumbling fortress. They slaughtered their peaceful cousins, started their own excavations beneath the ruins, and now dominate the canyon's control point. Meanwhile, anyone unlucky enough to journey between Verdantis and South Paladis must fight their way through. Superstition Canyon started as a clone of Brightbone Pass, but has been completely rebuilt for Release 37. It's difficulty has been slightly upgraded; most notably the first few waves of the control points should be harder than other control points.
Ardoris Polish: We continued fixing bugs and polishing conversations, quests, and NPC behaviors around Ardoris. Additionally, we focused time on upgrading the visuals of the scene and the characters. We recently purchased an Asian-themed asset pack from the Unity Asset store and we used that to polish the visuals of Ardoris. We are also going to propagate those assets throughout the Perennial Coast region. We also polished Shogun Siranto’s outfit and added a headdress to Priestess Khasi’s robes. Additionally, we created new Asian-themed guard outfits for the Shogun’s guards, city guards, and the Priestess’s guards. Finally, we created new Asian-themed outfits for the citizens of Ardoris. This now completes the regional character art for the Perennial Coast and we will be propagating these across various other scenes in the region. These visual changes to the architecture and characters will give the entire area a more distinct regional feel.
Town Sieges: Towns are now coming under siege according to Celestial Mechanics. As the eight planets pass through the twelve sections of the sky representing the virtues, the cabalist(s) whose planets are in front of a given constellation join a siege that is set upon ANY towns that contain "devotionals" to that Virtue. Devotionals could include things like statues of the Titans of Truth, Love, and Courage, for example. When a town is under siege, catapults and signs of battle will appear outside that town on the overworld. When you try to enter that town, you will instead enter a Siege scene. These scenes will eventually consist of different biomes and scenarios depending on the location. Like Control Points, there will be a main path that takes you directly to a challenging (and rewarding) battle, and a side path for those who seek a less-challenging but longer route. NOTE (Experimental): This does mean that we will be experimenting with making POT Blessings linked to Town Sieges when POT Blessings come online in a future release.
Stealth on Overworld: Players can now use Stealth skills on the Overworld to sneak past other players and avoid Roving Encounters. Damage Bonus Based on Elevation: A modest damage modifier is now applied based on elevation between yourself and your target. Note that this modifier only applies to melee and ranged weapons (not spells). A max modifier of 25% is achieved with around a 7 meter elevation difference, but even a 1 meter difference will give around 10% extra (so this is not just for archers). Having the higher ground and attacking down gives a bonus and likewise, attacking up will decrease your damage accordingly. So the most extreme case would be 2 archers exchanging fire, one is on the ground and the other in a 7m tower. The archer on the ground would be doing 75% of normal vs 125% for the archer in the tower. Floral Meadow POT Template: This new POT template was a suggestion from the players and is a variation of the Grasslands template. This flower carpeted plain has a river running through it. Like all Grassland templates, it has more available space for lot placement than any other templates. You will be able to preview the new template on the POT templates page or view it directly in game where it will be linked from Hometown. If you wish to switch to this new template we will begin those updates in Release 38. POT Water Lot Deeds: After repeated requests from the community, we are releasing a limited number of special Taxed POT restricted deeds that can be used to claim land AND water lots in Village, Town, and City lot sizes. The total numbers made available in the Add On Store will be smaller than other lot deeds because there are much fewer water lots available in POT templates than land lots. Next week, we will start adding new water homes to the game including water variations of existing homes as well as completely new water homes.
Ardoris Guards plus Polish to Shogun Siranto and Priestess Khasi: Guards around Ardoris can now be seen wearing three different sets of armor including the Shogun’s guards, the Priestess’s guards, and the City guards. The city guard models will also replace other Perennial Coast guard models in future releases. We also polished the textures and colors on Shogun Siranto’s outfit. We also added a headdress to Priestess Khasi’s robes.
Obsidian Bundles: These bundles include some unique Obsidian-themed items as well as an assortment of other new items to the game including Obsidian Sarcophagi, Ornate Vile Weapons, an Obsidian Cloak, Obsidian Rowhouses (with roof access!), and a sprawling Obsidian City Keep.
Offline Reward Delivery: Reward delivery for Offline Mode is now available to players using this mode to play. This means that if you have a pledge, bundle, or any items purchased from the Add On Store, you will now finally be able to claim those rewards at a bank in Offline mode. Loading Screen Tips: Various tips on how to play the game will now appear on the loading screens. We are also finally going to show different random art backgrounds on the loading screens, so you will no longer have to stare at that same exact drawbridge battle over and over and over and over and over... Skill Decay Start at 40: Skill decay now does not apply to skills that are below level 40. Once a skill achieves Level 40 skill decay begins applying as before. And much more including more recipes, new Unique NPCs, more story polish, combat balance, etc.! Click here for the complete R37 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!]