Update of the Avatar #96 news - Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• Play Release 11 Now and Get Your Carnival Mask Tricorn Hat
• Release 11 In-game Community Events
• R11 Steam Access Keys Now Available for All Backers
• SotA Quick Reference Card by Stile Teckel
• New Housing Page
• Get Your 15% Bonus
• Last Chance Exclusives
• Flexible Placement Stretch Goal: Stables
• Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Play Release 11 Now and Get Your Carnival Mask Tricorn Hat

Release 11 successfully launched yesterday, October 23, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to check out, including:

• Character Advancement: Our first pass at advancement will allow players to begin accumulating experience points and levels, while earning skill and attribute points that can be spent.
• 9 New Skills: Including Summon Skeletons and Liches, Light Armor: Escape, Heavy Armor: Taunt, Ranged: Blinding Shot, Tactics: Dexterity, Focus: Intelligence, etc.
• New Scenes: The dynamically changing Solace Bridge, Kobold Battle Camp, Obsidian Keep, Swamps, and more.
• 29 Cooking, Butchery and Alchemy Recipes: Alchemy makes its first appearance with the ability to craft health and focus potions. Cooking also premiers with such recipes as Garlic Cheese, Bark Bread, Ardoris Coleslaw, Iolo’s Cat Gut Gulash, and Gorn’s Venison Roast.
• Improved Creature Combat AI: We targeted the Liches this Release, and give them the ability to summon skeleton allies, stun/root multiple players, and generate area of effect spells around them.
• Control Point Prototype: Vertas Pass is our first prototype of a control point. If you manage to defeat the Dark Elves holding Vertas Pass, then you can attempt to hold it against increasingly difficult waves of Dark Elves.
• 54 New Wearables: We’ve made wearables directly obtainable in-game, including Admiral’s clothing, backers tunics & cloaks, Elven bow, Sword of Ba’Heer, etc..
• 24 new decorations: Including that nifty new life size chess set!
• …and more!

The Grand Tour Quest

Just as in our last release, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. And just in time for Halloween, you will be able to get the Tricorn Hat with Carnival Mask by completing the Release 11 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 11 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in to R11 (Oct 23-26) and talk to all the Tour Guides!

Release 11 In-game Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for Release 11. If you missed out on these player events during the previous Releases, we highly recommend you check some of them out this weekend. Here is the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar (Avatarscircle.com):

Friday, October 24
2:00pm CST – DJ FireLotus Release 11 Party, at Fire Lotus Tavern (Owl’s Head)
6:30pm CST – Story of Vengeance – Town Meeting
7:00pm CST – PaxLair Gathering – Valemark Entrance

Saturday, October 25
9:00am CST – Story of Vengeance – Revenge
10:00am CST – Britannia Theatre Troupe, Performing “They who dwell in darkness” – Live @ PaxLair
12:00pm CST – Welcome Quest in R11 (details)
2:00 pm CST – Community Hangout – R11 Feedback
3:00pm CST – Storytelling Event in Port Phoenix (Holtrot)
4:30 pm CST – Explore Novia! Spooky Braemar

Sunday, October 26
10:30am CST – Church of The Dark Star – Power of Chaos – Creating a fuller, better life.
12:00pm CST – Bear Tavern Brawl (1v1 & 4v4v4 free-for-all) (details)
2:00pm CST – Maze Event
4:00pm CST – All Town Gathering
5:45pm CST – Story of Vengeance – Serenite
6:01pm CST – Story of Vengeance – Malus
7:00pm CST – PaxLair Meeting – Valemark

Release 11 Steam Access Keys Now Available for All SotA Backers

SotA will launch on Steam Early Access on November 24, but we’ve made Steam Access Keys immediately available to all our backers as part of their basic pledge rewards! Once you’ve redeemed your Steam Access Key you’ll have the option of playing SotA either with the Steam client or the regular client (or both). Here are the instructions for redeeming your Steam access key and installing the SotA client:

1. If you are not currently a backer of SotA you will need to purchase a pledge. Click here for more information about our pledges.
2. Log into SotA and go to your Account page (or look on the right side-bar of the main page)
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a box on the right side labeled “Play SotA through Steam”. Click on the link that reads “…click here to redeem an access key by signing in through Steam!“
4. You’ll be instructed to Sign in through Steam
5. Click the “Allow” button to redeem and activate the SotA key on your Steam account
6. You’ll see a SotA “Congratulations” message confirming successful Steam activation. Click the “account page” link to return you to your SotA Acccount page.
7. Scroll to the bottom of your account page and you’ll see “Play SotA through Steam” box now states that your Steam access key has been redeemed, and displays the Steam Account it is associated with.
8. You will need to launch your Steam desktop client to see Shroud of the Avatar in your Steam Library (because SotA is not yet available in the Steam Store to the general public, it will not show up in your library if you view your Steam account through a web browser)
9. Select Shroud of the Avatar in your Steam Library and click on “INSTALL”
10. Follow the Steam installation instructions and once the download is complete you will be able to launch SotA from Steam (but remember, you won’t be able to play SotA until Release 11 launches next week, Oct 23).

Let us know if you have any problems and thanks for helping us test the Steam client in preparation for launching SotA on Steam Early Access on November 24th!

SotA Quick Reference Card by Stile Teckel

Community Member Sir Stile Teckel created a very handy Quick Reference Card for SotA, including some great game resource links. He put this together initially for Release 9 and has been updating it with each new Release. Here’s page 1 of the latest version:

New Housing Page

We’ve added a new housing page to the SotA website (under the “Store” menu). This section compiles all the housing images and details currently scattered across all the pledge descriptions and weekly updates. Additionally, we’re including blueprint images for each house (thanks Rustic Dragon). The housing page is still under construction so look for additional houses to be added each week.

Only 39 Days left to get your 15% Black Friday Bonus!

If you were thinking of pledging your support to the development of Shroud of the Avatar, upgrading your existing pledge, or purchasing an add-on item, player owned town, or stretch goal item, now’s a great time to do it! From now thru Black Friday Weekend we’ll add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and stretch goal items) between 12:00 am CST October 10, 2014 and 12:00 am CST December 2, 2014, we will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward any additional purchase (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, and player owned towns).

[NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CST and added to your Store Credit account; Store Credit cannot be applied toward stretch goal items]

For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge which includes Episodes 2 and 3 as pledge rewards, you would normally pay the extra $45 for the upgrade. But using the 15% bonus you can immediately save $5. To do so, you would first purchase $40 worth of Store Credit Gift Coupons (via PayPal, Amazon, Bitcoin, or credit card; excluding existing Store Credit) then use the “Convert to Credits” option on your account page to transform the Store Credit Gift Coupons back into Store Credit. Within 24 hours an additional $6 bonus ($40 x 15%) would be applied to your Store Credit account, bringing it up to $46. You would then use $45 of your Store Credit to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge.

Last Chance Exclusives

Every week going forward we are removing select items from the Add-On Store, so if you want them you better get them before they are gone! Over the past few weeks we’ve phased out the Shingle-Roof Village Homes, Cubit Measure of Prosperity, and the Crafting Sigil Cloak. This week, the following item is available for an additional 20% off, and then will no longer be available in the Add-On Store.Rustic 2-Story with Balcony Village Home
In our line of rustic homes is this quaint, 2-story, 2-room village home (you may have seen this house in Braemar).

Flexible Placement Stretch Goal: Stables

If you’d like to support the flexible lot placement with multiple structures stretch goal then head over to the Stretch Goal Store and purchase these stables. It’s the perfect out-building to hold your mounts and other assorted fauna found in New Britannia. If the stretch goal is met, this item will gain the ability to be decorated:

Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!