Welcome to Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues Early Access Release 31! Notes on what is in this release are available here. July 30, 2016 Build Number 450 10:45 AM Changes:

• Fixed issue where effects like fire DOTs from Flame Fist were getting applied to caster in PVP
• Fixed weird head side-to-side bobbing while running
• Because Fog doesn't work well with legacy foliage assets, we edited the weather data file to give that weather type a 0% chance of occurring, until such time as we can get all those old assets replaced
• Polish on stance of the avatar on bow idle animations so they are not as hunched over
• Jeanne in Soltown now always accepts her daughter's necklace if you have found it.
• Fixed rain falling inside Soltown tavern
• Liches in Etceter Crag mines can longer move past magic barrier areas.
• Removed blank books from starting player items since they cannot be traded nor used as decorations
• Jaanaford: Fixed issue with water appearing out of place, up high.
• Ferig's Battle Camp: Added min and max times on looping emotes.
• Brittany Estates: Added min and max times on looping emotes.
• Fixed deco pets in basements that weren't spawning
• Fixed issue where Braids and Page style male haircuts were reverse labeled.
• Japeth's Love quest fixed.
• Renabled decoration merchant with increased prices for decorations
• Fixed Hot Tub stair collision
• Fixed tree assignment on swamp biome Keep and Castle island terrains
• Owlshead sewer spawn rate reduced
• Melee Skeleton Tier 7 difficulty increased 10%
• Non-PVP players must now soft target PVP players.  Non-PVP players are no longer automatically flagged for PVP (while "Show Open PVP Confirmation" option is disabled).
• Ore spawn rates in OwlsNest have been reduced to be more in line with the risk.
• Ashton in Soltown no longer looks for you to kill 5 zombies, but instead looks for a book held by the zombies.
• Journal entry added for Arabella's first conversation with the Avatar in the Isle of Storms
• Adjusted power downwards of special tamed mimic from pledge rewards
• Added back in short hair option to Female character creation
• Brittany Wharfs: Added min and max times to all waypoints for emotes. SOTA-32474
• Death touch effect targeting changed to arc system.  Updated sub effect targeting from AOE to single target.
• Generic child dialogs
• Soltown: Named the 4 children
• Fix for when NPCs bump into player and complained about being run into.
• Changed cooldown on fireball to 15 seconds
• POT Shadow's Rest: Fixed issue preventing lot placement
• Removed non-basic craftable armor from tailoring merchant
• Fixed rotation of duke keep walls on one of the Keep Island Lots
• Fixed rotation of keep walls on one of the Keep Island Lots
• Removing non-basic armor off tailoring merchants
• Increased fuel count on general crafting merchant at player request (99->1000)
• Added new POT maps to map merchant
• Updated deco lights that are offered at bookstore
• Removed craftable light from mining merchant
• Royal Artisan Supply Cache pledge reward now being delivered
• Skrekk: Deleted giant-sized mug at (9.9, 65.0, 132.5)
• Brittany Estates: The gate that should lead into Central Brittany now does so.
• Soltown Catacombs: The gap in the section of wall at (-220.6, 0.0, 101.5) has been closed.
• Reliquary decorations got the final love they needed to be ready to deliver
• Brittany Central: More Decorating NPC Buildings
• Kobold 3-Story w/ Open Deck (Town Home) display names are updated

• Some items listed in the R32 instructions are not in the game yet including:
  • Merchant inventory overhauls for POT Merchants
  • New Recipes
  • New Juggles
  • Blood Reliquary Bundles
  • Expert Crafting Station balance
  • Wings
• Using the Mirror on Isle of Storms can crash sometimes
• Bloom can't be disabled
• Armor Set Bonuses not working
• Novia Overworld rework has introduced various stuck spots, incorrect collision and "exit into the air" issues
• Some UI text is not wrapping correctly
• Rain is coming through the roof of some buildings
• The new Targeting system still has various issues that need fixing
• Stability: The latest version of Unity we are using has introduced significant stability issues along with memory leaks. We are working with Unity to resolve these as quickly as we can
• Pathfinding is breaking in some houses and basements
• Local chat is failing in some situations
• Many SFX are not properly tied to the sound volume controls.
• Lighting and fog levels are still being tuned to work with the new weather system, expect anomalies
• Death and Resurrection do not work properly in the team arena
• Water lots in Dynamic Player Owned Towns can currently only be placed along shorelines, not on docks
• If your video drivers are out of date characters will appear as if they are covered in triangles.
• Some cities are experiencing performance spikes
• Some pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support.
• The update to Unity 5 caused a host of general texture and lighting related issues, and not all of these have been resolved.
• Distant tree billboards may have a white outline that is especially noticeable at night, and some trees may shimmer with white at night.
• Skin tone will sometimes not match properly on different parts of the body
• ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT

• Episodic Content: Shroud of the Avatar will consist of five episodes that will tell a series of virtue based stories created by Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman. All supported by a series of prequel novels starting with Blade of the Avatar. Forsaken Virtues is the first episode (this is what you are purchasing access to).
  
• Single Player Offline Mode: Players will adventure through over 40 hours of story in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them.
  
• Selective Multiplayer Modes: If you want to go through the story online you can play with everyone in a single world with three different online modes (Single Player, Friends, and Open).
  
• Classless Character System: Vast customization options with hundreds of skills and spells in over 20 different skill trees.
  
• Skillful Combat: A new way to prepare and fight in an RPG by building custom decks of skills and dynamically activating them in combat.
  
• PVP: Consensual with Open PVP flags, zones, and Guild Warfare.
  
• Player Housing: Non instanced, finite, and embedded in the world with multiple group living options.
  
• Player Driven Economy: Deep crafting system where the best items are made by players and player items are the main source of loot found in the game.
  
• Pay Once to Play: No subscription fees. Each episode (released approximately annually) is a one time fee and everything in the game can be purchased with in game gold that can be earned (except for some exclusive backer rewards).
  
• Social: Full Guild System, Highly Active Community and Player Owned Towns.
  
• Crowd Sourced & Funded: Support the project by contributing content (and receive compensation) or by pledging (and receive exclusive rewards).
  
• Open Development: Players help shape the game by giving feedback on monthly early access releases, videos, weekly updates, blog postings, forums, chat, etc.

Current Version

• Housing: Purchase property and a wide variety of buildings to place there. These can be customized with hundreds of items (paintings, crafting stations, chairs, tables, food, plants, fountains, statues, lights, etc.). Players can also set permissions that allow them to share this property with other players. Higher level pledges begin the game with property and house deeds. (Find out more at www.shroudoftheavatar.com)
  
• Crafting: Gather and refine resources to craft a wide variety of objects including weapons, armor, potions, food, and furniture.
  
• Player Trading: Trade with each other for items or gold.
  
• PVP (Duels and Zones): Fight other players in Open PVP zones of the map or 1 on 1 duels in any location.
  
• Dual Scale Map: Explore the world by walking across a map (aka The Overworld) like old school RPGs with random and roving encounters mixed among named points of interest.
  
• Combat and Magic Skills: We have over 100 skills in a wide variety of combat and magic schools including Blades, Fire, Water, Life, Polearms, Shields, etc.
  
• Multiple Online Modes: Play how you want in one of two modes: Single Player Online or Open Multiplayer Online.
  
• Character Customization: Customize your character's facial features, hair style, hair color, facial hair, skin tone, and gender. Also express yourself with a vast array of different gear that when equipped shows on your character. (cloaks, armor, weapons, hats, tools, torches, etc.)
  
• AI Behaviors: Archers will try to maintain distance, warriors will try to surround you, Liches will summon skeletal allies, and villagers will turn on lights when night falls.
  
• Advancement: As you gain experience fighting and questing you gain levels which give you skill points that you can use with a trainer to purchase new skills or to raise your attributes.
  
• Hint System: Each time you attempt something for the first time a hint will appear with basic instructions (this can be disabled in options)
  
• Fully Interactive World: Every attempt is made to make the world respond to you. All the lights you see can be turned on and off, doors can be opened/closed/locked/unlocked, objects can be taken from shelves/tables/etc.
  
• Dynamic Lighting: Time of day changes as you play along with all light sources casting light in a realistic fashion.
  
• Summoned Allies: Certain schools of magic can summon allies including Ice Elementals, Fire Elementals, Liches, and Skeletons.
  
• Control Points: Grab control of Vertas Pass and see how long you can hold it against ever increasing waves of Dark Elves.
  
• Emotes: Express yourself with a wide variety of emotes including dances, bows, laughs, bows, yawns, etc.
  
• Guilds: You can form or join a guild
  
• Banks: Store all your gear and loot when it gets too heavy to carry around.
  
• Character tied to Pledge: All versions of the game (aka pledges) come with special rewards (gear, houses, titles, emotes, etc.).
  
• Player Owned Towns: Players can purchase and customize from templates their very own town.
  
• Player Vendors: You will be able to set up NPC vendors to sell the goods you have crafted or found adventuring.
  
• Player Made Books: Write your own book in the game and pay in game gold to have it published widely.
  
• Dye-able Gear: Customize your gear by changing the colors.
  
• Crowd Sourcing Create content for the game (music, sound effects, and art) and be paid for it.

Future Updates

• Story: A rich narrative that presents you with complex moral choices will come online closer to launch.
  
• More Scenes: Many additional scenes will come online including cities, dungeons, deserts, arctic areas, swamps, fortifications, battlegrounds, etc.
  
• Performance: Continued optimizations as well as sophisticated fallback routines will greatly improve performance.
  
• More Magic & Combat Skills: More skills will be coming including the Chaos Magic School.
  
• Localization: Support for multiple languages.
  
• More Creatures: More creatures along with multiple variations and new behaviors.

• OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or newer officially but most linux flavors supported
• Processor: Quad Core 2.4 GHz or fasterMemory: 12 GB RAM
• Memory: 12 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 11 Compatible NVIDIA 960 / AMD 560Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 30 GB available space

• OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or newer officially but most linux flavors supported
• Processor: Quad Core Processor 2.8GHz or fasterMemory: 16 GB RAM
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 11 Compatible NVIDIA GTX 1070 / ATI Radeon HD 5870Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 30 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Performance significantly improved with an SSD