New Updates: More Control, Smoother Combat, and Better Tools

Today’s update brings several quality-of-life improvements and fixes that make your time in Shroud of the Avatar smoother and more enjoyable. With all six control points now escalating—including Vertas Pass and Vauban Pass—long runs across these zones now count toward the Control Points leaderboard, rewarding persistence and strategy.

Pets and summons now return to you after a battle, no longer frozen in place, making group combat and exploration feel more natural. If you’ve ever joined a party only to wonder who was already in it, you’ll appreciate the new feature: LFG listings now show who’s already in the party before you join, thanks to feedback from players like Akandriel.

Chat just got more powerful—vendor listings, merchant stock, and recipes can now be shared via link or dragged directly into the chat box. And if you ever lose access to a lot, your items are now safely returned to your bank, with the lot sign now able to send your items directly there.

Creature abilities are now active across the board: bears, barbarians, Obsidian elves, summoning liches, dragons, zombies, Cabalists, and the four Elemental Lords of The Breach all have their full abilities unlocked. Wolves now Call the Pack, making their combat even more dynamic.

Combat adjustments refine balance: shield blocking no longer works while mesmerized or against damage-over-time effects, and high Strength values now contribute less to block effectiveness, making it more balanced at higher levels.

Personalization continues to grow—name colors for parties, guilds, and players can now be customized in the Nameplate Colors menu. Quest markers are now clearer too: gold ! and ? icons appear above NPCs with tasks, show alongside floating names, and hide behind walls like the names do. Over 55 new quest givers in starting areas now carry the !, and task-giving NPCs appear on the map in gold.

The Conversationalist Teleporter now supports any look from Eternal Patterns, letting you customize your teleporter’s appearance. Performance sees a big win in Nightshade Pass, where the draw distance was reduced—cutting frame time at the entrance by a third. Add-ons are lighter too: the Buff Icons example now uses 8 KB instead of 38.7 KB per draw and runs 58% faster, with three engine bugs fixed.

Finally, the new web store and server migration are complete and tested, and guild and town pages are now live on the main website—try them out today!

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