Avatars,

Release 56 of Shroud of the Avatar goes live this Thursday, July 26, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

There is a ton of new content going live this release including:

Bug Fixing: We dedicated a significant portion of the release to working solely on fixing bugs and reducing our overall bug count.

Performance: Ongoing performance work this release should show some improvement across the performance spectrum.

Obsidian Trials: In Release 56, we have completed the first playable version with multiple features including timed matches, a poisonous boundary that reduces the play area, a revamped PVP scoreboard, two new currencies, and new rewards including emotes, potions, and titles. Best of all, when you are killed you do not lose any items, nor trophies, to the person who killed you!



User Interface Polish: We made a huge amount of polish adjustments to the user interface, including finishing the work on making most windows borderless, adding a sound cue to whispers, removing the miscellaneous messages from NPC chat, and expiring old mail.

Global Visual Improvements: We have started overhauling some of our global systems to dramatically improve the visual quality throughout the game. To see the difference, simply toggle between “Good” and “Best” in an outdoor scene.

Before:

After:


The Comet and its Influence: The comet will be closest during August and is already influencing the creatures of New Britannia. In some cases it is merely increasing their power, but in a few cases it is actually mutating them into entirely new creatures: Aether Dragons, Aether Corpions, and Aether Liches. It is rumored that there are rare rewards for defeating these new creatures…



and much, much more!

For all the details, please read the entire R56 Instructions and Updates Notes post, as well as the linked Instructions and Known Issues within the post to ensure a smooth update to your game client.

Have fun exploring New Britannia!