August 10 Development Update: Lot Sales, Decorations, Pets, and Bug Squashing

Today’s work focused on polishing the player‑driven housing market, tightening up visual quirks, and clearing a big batch of bugs that were affecting everyday gameplay.

Lot sales are finally live
After a day of tester feedback, the lot‑sale system is now fully operational. When you buy a lot the transaction completes cleanly, and if a purchase is abandoned the listing automatically becomes available again after five minutes. Every listed lot now displays a floating “For Sale” price tag, making it easy to spot opportunities while you’re strolling the world.

Decoration layouts get smarter
We noticed that applying a saved decoration layout to a house that didn’t match the original blueprint could cause items to hover in mid‑air. The new logic skips those mismatched pieces and reports how many were omitted, so you’ll no longer see floating furniture when you experiment with layouts on different homes.

Pets breathe easier
A subtle interaction between a recent self‑heal removal and pet health data caused wounded pets to lose a tenth of their health every five seconds, even while standing still. That drain has been eliminated, so your companions will stay at the health they earned in combat instead of slowly fading away.

A big bug‑kill session
The team closed 44 reported bugs from the tracker, ranging from UI glitches to quest‑related hiccups. While we won’t list each one here, you should notice a smoother, more responsive experience across the board.

Reverting a few premature fixes
Four changes from yesterday’s unattended bug run turned out to be incorrect. After a careful review, we rolled them back to preserve the intended behavior of the Brittany Castle secret room, player‑dungeon spider drops, the Serpent’s Spine pipe ladder, and the second map marker at Lamech’s Bazaar. Thanks to community member alliumoop for catching these early.

Overall, today’s updates tighten up the core systems that keep Shroud of the Avatar feeling alive and player‑focused. Keep an eye on the market, enjoy your fully grounded decorations, and give your pets a well‑deserved break from unwanted health loss. As always, let us know what you notice, and happy adventuring!

Summarized from Chris "Atos" Spears' work log at Catnip Games.