Release 62

Other (75)

• Performance:Performance work will mainly focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay. Work will also continue to be done on load time reduction on the few outstanding scenes that are not meeting our 15-second load time target.
• Bug Fixing: Time will be allocated to a general sweep through all systems, features, and content to reduce overall bug counts.
• Combat: After a millennium of being unable to produce offspring dragons are finally reproducing! Baby Dragons have been sighted in various remote locations across Novia. Don’t be fooled by their size though! They are still dangerous beasts, even when young! We will also do some balance work on pet balance including summons and tamed creatures.
• Crafting & Economy: Back slot items (cloaks, wings, backpacks, etc.) will now be able to have stats, enchantments, and masterworks associated with them.
• Player Towns & Player Housing:Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
• Livestream and Seasonal Content: We will add recent livestream stretch goal items and 2019 Valentine items.
• Story: We polished various areas of the story around Owl’s Head, one of our oldest areas of the game.
• Quality of Life Improvements & User Interface Polish:
• Lord of the Isle: Episode 2 Bundles: As one of the biggest and earliest supporters of Episode 2 you will be granted the largest lot deed in the land (Castle), the title Lord (or Lady) of the Isle, a tour of the Portalarium Offices, and dinner with the game leaders including Lord British himself! Only 24 of these unique bundles will be sold!
• Streaming Textures: Work started on enabling streaming textures. This will improve load times and memory footprint in scenes with a high number of objects with unique textures, like towns with high deco counts. This work will be ongoing
• Bug Fixes: Two issues were fixed that were causing significant extra overhead with any area effect abilities in towns. This was most visible in towns where PVP was occurring.
• Unity Versions:Progress was made towards moving to the latest version of Unity (2018.3) but too many stability problems have come up in the latest version. We will likely do release 62 on the current version of Unity, 2018.2, which also has stability problems, but far fewer than the latest release.
• Bug Fixing: We dedicated a significant portion of the release to working solely on fixing bugs and reducing our overall bug count. We addressed over 100 issues with 95 of them highlighted in the google spreadsheet, including fixes to various scenes (typos, stuck spots, etc.), quests, crafting fixes, combat fixes, and various user interface fixes. NOTE: We have purposely not shown issues related to exploits, security, and customer service issues.
• Young Dragons: We have updated the name to be Young (vs. Baby) Dragons. Northwest Blackblade Mountains might have Young Yellow Dragons; Grunvald Shardfall might have a Green, Blue, or Orange; Novia Plains Encounters might have a Red or Blue; Hidden Vale Plains Encounters might have a Purple or Blue. NOTE: These cannot be tamed in the current release but will be in future releases.
• Summoned Pet Balance: A pass was made to improve the summoned pets from the magic schools. Changes will vary from pet to pet but generally include increased health and strength. For casters that specialized in a school with a summon, they will find their pets have additional bonuses that vary by type. NOTE: Balance for tamed creatures was delayed by server relocation work and will come in a future release.
• Dexterity Updates: As part of our ongoing balance work, dexterity has received a number or extra bonuses. The critical hit chance for ranged weapons with dexterity has been increased slightly. Additionally, most light armor skills have received bonuses based on dexterity.
• Back Slot Items Patterns, Enchanting & Masterworking: Previously the only back slot item that had any stats associated with it was the Shroud of the Avatar item. Now all back slot items can be Masterworked and Enchanted. They also now use the Patterns system. There are four basic types of back slot items: Backpacks (Strength & Carry Capacity), Cloaks (Defense & Attack Speed), Wings (Dexterity & Move Rate) and Quivers (Dexterity & Ammo Recovery). In the process of creating this feature we added Eternal Patterns for 115 pre-existing items, including:
• 97 Cloaks
• 12 Wings
• 3 Backpacks
• 2 Quivers
• Masks as Patterns for Helms: After numerous requests by players, we have updated our masks so that they can be used as patterns for helms. We have added Eternal Patterns to 61 masks (27 cloth, 34 leather). We have also created Pattern Packs for the masks in the Add On Store (Dragon, Wolf, Goggles, etc.).
• Lot Deed Quest Rewards: One of the strongest features in Shroud of the Avatar is our Player Housing system. Previously, we rewarded players with a Player Owned Town Row Lot Deed for completing the entire story, approximately 40 hours of gameplay (less if you watch YouTube!). After collecting lots of feedback and data from our players we have decided to move that reward to much earlier in the game experience. Now players will receive a Player Owned Town Row Lot Deed for finishing any of the Outskirts quest lines! We have also upgraded the story completion reward to a Player Owned Town Village Lot Deed and Shingle Roof Village Home house deed.
• Lot Deed Taxes Lowered: We have lowered property taxes for all Lot Deeds larger than Row (which were already lowered in a previous release), especially the largest lot deeds, to reduce the burden of property ownership. Price changes listed below (gold per day). NOTE: This was actually patched into Release 61.
• Tax Prepayment Time Increased: We have increased the days you can prepay from 90 days to 180 days.
• Upgrading Lot Deeds with Crowns: Lot Deeds can now be upgraded with Crowns by right-clicking on a deed and choosing to “Upgrade item…” Note this only allows upgrading of lot size within a deed type, not conversion of one lot deed type to another (i.e. you cannot use this function to convert a taxed lot deed to tax free).
• Natural Caverns Player Dungeon Rooms and Hallways: This newest set of Player Dungeon Rooms and Hallways are cavern themed and feature a room with a fishing spot. You can purchase these items from the decoration crown merchant or from the Add-On Store.
• POT Deco and Light Limit Increases: We increased decoration and light limits for Player-Owned Towns, by roughly one tier. So, for example, a holdfast now has the deco and light limits of a hamlet. See the linked google docfor updated numbers. NOTE: This was actually patched into Release 61.
• Player Portrait Paintings: We added seven new player portraits that players had commissioned from various artists to the art crown merchant. NOTE: This was actually patched into Release 61.
• Duke Dungeon Throne Room: Duke level pledges and above will receive the unique Duke Dungeon Throne Room with plenty of space for the accompanying unique Duke Heraldry Pavers.
• Duke Heraldry Pavers: Duke level pledges and above will receive a set of unique Duke Heraldry Pavers that can be placed anywhere, including the new unique Duke Dungeon Throne Room.
• Ornate Fish Throne: This ornate variation of the Fish Throne can be purchased in the Add On Store and Crown Store.
• Ornate Fish Pavers: This ornate variation of the Fish Pavers can be purchased in the Add On Store and Crown Store.
• New and Updated Dynamic POTs:
• If you have already completed any one of the Outskirts storylines and don’t already have the row lot deed reward, just return to the main contacts (Kinsey, Burnes, Alberic, or Phineas Drumplemouth) and use the “deed” keyword to receive this reward.
• If you have completed the main storyline, simply go to any Confirmatory and talk to the Oracle. She’ll give you the village lot and house deeds just for saying “hello” to her.
• You can only obtain these deed quest rewards once per account. The quests are not repeatable.
• Village: 1000 now 500
• Town: 2000 now 1000
• City: 3500 now 2000
• Keep: 14000 now 3000
• Castle: 28000 now 4000
• A’doe Trunalor: Enabled open PvP.
• Caladruin:Upgraded to Town.
• Chao Insula: Upgraded to Town. Replaced interconnections with balloons to Owl’s Head and Festival.
• Crossroads Alleys: Upgraded to Town.
• Drachensumpf:New Swamp Island Town nested within Dracheninsel.
• Dragomir Mori: Upgraded to Municipality.
• Festival:Added interconnection with Chao Insula.
• Isle of Valhalla:Upgraded to Crossroads Village
• Kai:Upgraded to City.
• Lancermane Stronghold: Changed name from Grumpie Hermit’s Hide-a-way and biome to Tropical Island 01a.
• Light City: Upgraded to City.
• Novia Market: Upgraded to Town.
• Outlander Welcome Center:Upgraded to City.
• Skalabrekka:Changed biome to Snowy Mountains 01a. Now nested within PaxLair. Added other interconnections.
• Snottingham:Changed name, location, and biome to Mountain 01.
• Release 58 Livestream Items: We have finished the last two remaining Dragon themed Release 58 Stretch Goal Items.
• Release 59 Stretch Goal Items: We have completed all the Fish themed Release 59 Stretch Goals!
• Release 60 Stretch Goal Items: We have completed one of the Cornucopia themed Release 60 Stretch Goal items and hope to address the rest in Release 63.
• Traditional Yule Hat:Celebrate the holidays with this traditional Yule Hat which can be found on the Add-On Store or Crown Store. This recurring item expires this Friday February 1st! NOTE: This was actually patched into Release 61.
• Valentine Items: Celebrate the holiday of love with these Valentine items which can be found on the Add-On Store or Crown Store. These items will expire on March 8, 2019.
• Dragon Helm
• Dragon Bow
• Fish Mask Set (Bass, Trout, Tuna)
• Fish Pavers
• Fish Throne
• Big Trophy Fish Statue Set
• Unique Dungeon Encounter Room with Fishing Spot
• 2019 Valentine Gift Boxes (this year they are heart shaped!)
• 2019 Valentine Gift Cards
• Myra in Owl’s Head:Myra’s quest to free her brother from the Clink has received a few improvements in her conversation, journal entries, and compass markers. Also, taking on Myra’s task unlocks another quest opportunity in Owl’s Head!
• Colman in Owl’s Head:If Myra vouches for you, then that’s good enough for young Colman! In this new quest, Colman needs you to get an important message to his father in the Clink. Oh, and if you lose Myra’s key, Colman may be just the boy to get you a replacement….
• The Clink: Both guards and prisoners in this beloved scene have had some conversation updates.
• New In-Game Store: The new store is always available via the HUD, and replaces the previous store interface. This store interface includes many more items, as well as screenshots and descriptions for each item. Note that prices in the new store may be different than prices in the Add-On Store on our website (ShroudOfTheAvatar.com). The new store is still in development, so its prices are not yet affected/reduced by sales advertised on our website.