The Novian Aeronautics Manufactory in Brittany Alleys

WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS PRE-ALPHA. 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.

Greetings 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 31 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, June 30, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

We are only one release away from Final Wipe and Lot Selection and we are focusing on the final tactical changes in order to prepare for that momentous event. Those tactical changes in Release 31 include an intense focus on the New User Experience, character customization inside the game, additional neighborhoods for Greater Brittany, and continued expansions to the crafting system.

New User Experience:

For Release 31, we have begun focusing our efforts on improving the new user experience starting with Solace Bridge (which has been completely reworked) and Soltown (which we've begun reworking). This reworking includes a new onscreen hint system, new NPC behaviors, and a better flow through the scenes.

We selected Solace Bridge and Soltown as part of the polish pass on the the Love path of the story. This means that, for now, we will be putting any further work on the Courage and Truth paths on hold until we feel that the Love path truly represents our goals for Shroud of the Avatar’s story.

Crafting:

Crafting continues to expand with Masterworking gaining more specialized modifiers per type of gear. This means that higher level Smiths, Tailors, and Carpenters can get really specific on each piece of equipment by adding very specific exact benefits. Alchemists also unlock specific enchantments when they socket gems into weapons and chest armor. These changes are getting us closer to our goal of what we envisage as “Bespoke Crafters” who create very custom gear for the most demanding customers. We also worked on the other side of the life cycle of gear and improved Salvage so that, at high levels, it now has the chance to return components.

Housing:

With Release 31, housing number requirements are basically achieved for Episode 1 (minus Brittany Estates). The additions of Brittany Alleys, Brittany Wharfs, and 19 new PRTs represent thousands of new lots. Additionally, we finally have Keep and Castle island lots working for the Dukes and Lords of the Manors bringing us in line with the numbers for those pledges (see below for locations). We also greatly improved the granularity of the Housing Permissions system.

Stability:

We have been working non-stop with Unity for six weeks now on the Unity engine stability issues. We have made some progress on the crashes that happen in scenes (aka the “zombie crashes”). Unfortunately, we are still seeing the crashes that happen during scene transitions and the fix for the in “zombie” crash represents a reduction in visual quality of our water system.

Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post. So, they are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game, and that it is easy to read.

While we are getting closer to launch, we are still in a constant state of change, and we do not yet have in-game systems to inform players of these changes, or to share ways to help them to explore new content and systems. This means we rely entirely on this message, and the linked instructions and known issues to convey the current game state. We regularly have to answer questions or filter bug reports because some players elect not to read this valuable information.

By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and efforts can be redirected to focus on new “unanswered” questions, and addressing critical issues impacting each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post, and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.

Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. So, be sure to check out a couple of the Community Events Calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websites Avatars Circle Community Events and Events of the Avatars calendar). You can also get the latest official events on the Main Website.

Without further ado, here is a list of what you can expect to see in Release 31.

Brittany Wharfs: This sprawling neighborhood of Brittany is the center of commerce for Greater Brittany and is composed of mostly town-sized lots.


Brittany Alleys: This suburb of Brittany houses the bulk of the population of Greater Brittany and is composed of mostly row-sized lots. It is also the center of industry for Greater Brittany and where Novian Aeronautics has their factory.


Soltown: Soltown is being reworked over the next couple of releases to make it more useful to new players, more immersive, and to feel more alive. By R32, we plan to have most towns along the path of Love feel much more polished and feel like what players expect from a Lord British game. For R31, several (4) new quests have been added to test your virtue. So, be sure to chat with the people you meet, even if you've already chatted with them before. You might be surprised by what they have to say. Also, all inhabitants of Soltown are now on schedules, new inhabitants have been added, and some old inhabitants may behave differently or have a different tale to tell.

Under Construction Signs: Scenes that we plan to go back to later for major updates (primarily scenes that were cloned from other scenes which need to be made unique) now have notifications to let players know of that temporary state. This notification includes a message on screen that says “Attention: This area is in early development and is temporarily based on another scene.” Also, actual barricades are at the entrances of these scene which players have to walk around before entering.

New User Experience Polish: We have completely redone the Solace Bridge sequence of the Path of Love tutorial. We have removed the pop up windows with tutorial text in this scene. They can still be found in other scenes but we are evaluating completely replacing them everywhere with the new context-sensitive hints that appear now in Solace Bridge. These hints contain one or two lines of text and are onscreen for a few moments versus the windows which were walls of text (note that these new hints cannot be dismissed).


“New You”: Players can now change their physical appearance in the game. Initially this can be done on the Isle of Storms during your encounter with Arabella using a Magic Mirror. After that, you can seek out Crown Merchants for this service. For R31, these merchants can be found in the Ardoris "New You" shop (located in the docks area), and in Brittany near the Obsidian Crown potion merchant on South Portside Avenue.

Gems: Adding a gem to a weapon now unlocks specific enchantments related to the gem’s school of magic in addition to increasing attunement to the magic school. For example, adding a Necromancy Gem allows you to add Life Drain to your sword.

Salvage Returns Components: At high levels of Salvage skill you now have the chance to get components back from salvaged gear, not just scrap or raw materials.

Housing Permissions: We have modified the permissions of our housing system to give owners greater control over how they share use of their property. This includes more levels of permissions and permission control per item.

Camera Effects: We have introduced new camera effects in this release as part of our ongoing efforts to improve our visuals and improve performance. These include upgrades to existing effects like Ambient Occlusion and Bloom as well as adding entirely new effects like Depth of Field and a Sharpness Filter.

And Much More! Click here for the complete R30 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!]