Release 33 Instructions

[SotA Stratics]

[A SotA Public Forum post by Starr Long]

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 33 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, August 25, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Impact of Persistence:
Release 33 is our first Release since we went Persistent with Release 32. Being persistent of course has had an impact on the project and how we move forward. We made the tactical decision that the immediate needs of R32 would take precedence over any R33 work. Quality of life, balance issues, exploits, stability, performance, etc. in R32 would be patched regularly, daily if needed, even if it cost us some R33 deliverables. The result of this decision has been incredibly positive. Overall player mood remains high as does our funding, which reached an astounding $10 Million during our Summer Telethon of the Avatar Part 2 (which by itself raised $200K!) This funding will allow us to finish the Roadmap we outlined earlier this year that both finishes our Kickstarter promises, while at the same time polishes the game to a very high standard. Thank you community for your incredibly humbling generosity.

Housing:
Lot Selection has wrapped up and in Release 33 we will be starting the Lot Deed Raffle for Taxable Lot Deeds in the game. This will be our method to distribute the remaining available land in the game in all locations (NPC towns, Player Run Towns, and Player Owned Towns). Additionally, Release 33 will be the first appearance of uncloned scenes that include player lots after persistence. These will give players a chance to see how we will be improving and individualizing each scene while preserving the game mechanics.

PVP:
We have always said that all PVP in Shroud of the Avatar will be consensual and players will choose to engage, or not to engage. With that said, we also want to make sure PVP is an integral part of the experience and is a balance of risk vs. reward. For those reasons, players will now encounter other players in zones flagged for PvP regardless of their match-making mode. You will no longer be able to enter these areas in Single-Player or Friends modes to circumvent PvP risk. There are a few areas, like the Obsidian Ruins, where story elements require venturing inside. However, we are going to work on alternate ways for players to navigate those areas like we have experimented with in some of the Control Points (i.e. the teleporting Wizard). We know this change will be controversial, but we believe it is the best decision for the long-term health of the game.

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 all the 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 mostly 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. Be sure to check out a couple of the event calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websites: Avatars Circle and Events of the Avatars). 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 33.

Key:

• Plain Text: The original plan for the Release deliverables. We intentionally preserve the original text so that our backers can compare plan versus actuals.
• Italics: Extra notes and new deliverables.
• Strikethrough: These are items that did not make the release.

RELEASE 33, August 25, 2016

• Story: The polish pass through the Love Path of the story will continue with special focus on NPC behaviors in the town of Spite. Brittany NPCs will also get a behavior improvement pass. Additionally, several NPC towns that are currently clones will be replaced with original scenes.
  • Port Graff (Unclone): Port Graff, located on the western coast of Drachvald, serves as a docking point for the valuable gems coming from the Graff Gem Mines. The gems make their way by cart to Port Graff, are shipped to Graff Island, and are sculpted before being added to weaponry and jewelry. Port Graff started out as a cloned scene based on Kingsport. It was rebuilt this release with plot-specific additions related to the gem trade between the Graff Gem Mines and Graff Island, along with a host of other visual changes and NPC improvements. NOTE: When we un-clone scenes we do NOT change locations of player lots, NPC buildings, or entrances. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage.
  • Estgard (Unclone): Estgard sits on the eastern shore of Norgard and is part of the Path of Courage. Outlanders must pass through Estgard on their way to Valhold. Estgard was another cloned scene, based on the Forest 01 PRT/POT template (aka the “PaxLair” template). It was rebuilt this release with NPC improvements, a plot-specific perimeter wall, and a host of other visual changes to make it match the visual style of the Norgard region. We plan to make another polish pass on this scene in Release 34 to add more Norgard stylistic touches and more visual changes near the entrance areas. NOTE: When we un-clone scenes we do NOT change locations of player lots, NPC buildings, or entrances. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage.
  • Polish:
    • Brittany NPCs Behaviors Delayed: We chose to stay focused on polish along the Love Path, which Brittany is not on, so the Brittany Central NPCs are going to remain with their default behaviors until R34.
    • Solo Instances vs. Party Leader: Party Members will no longer get the summoning message when their party leader enters a Solo Instance (example: The Necropolis).
    • Spite: Many NPCs in Spite now have daytime/nighttime schedules which they use for patrolling, workplace activities, and even sleep. These NPCs also have various special behaviors—similar to the work we did with Soltown and Ardoris—to make them feel more active and alive.
    • Ardoris: Building on our previous efforts to bring more life and activity to Ardoris, this city received another pass on NPC daytime/nighttime schedules and interests, as well as animations. True to its name as the City of Love, this includes the addition of amorous couples romancing throughout the city. New quests have also been added which speak to different aspects of the darker side of love and loss. Speak to Simone von Eglinger and Shariaa Barista to begin them.
    • Random Encounters: Random Encounters are no longer only in Perennial Coast and Drachvald; they are now sprinkled throughout Novia and Hidden Vale. Currently, they can be one of four biomes (forest road, plains road, plains wilderness, and swamp road) and some of them have region-specific content (such as the dragon that can appear in the plains wilderness of Drachvald).
    • Scene Teleporter Visuals: Prior to this release, scene teleporters had different visuals that related to the biome is connected with (e.g. forest-targets used as wagon teleporters and islands used boat teleporters), but we did not differentiate between target scenes that were important to the Story versus player towns. Now we have visuals to indicate that difference.
      • Plain: All wagon, boat, and balloon teleporters that point to POTs, PRTs, Player Villages, and other scenes without story elements uses the “plain” versions.
      • Red Accents: All wagon, boat, and balloon teleporters that point to the overworld, story scenes, big city scenes (like Brittany or Harvest), or adventure scenes use new, “special” versions of scene teleporters: red canopies on wagons, red sails on sailing ships, and red balloons.
• New User Experience Polish: Continued polish passes will be done on the Tutorials, hints, and starting scenes with special focus on Highvale.
  • Highvale Delayed: We chose to focus on Blood River instead of Highvale this release.
  • Blood River: We have redone the Blood River sequence of the Path of Truth tutorial. It now reflects more closely the story of the Path of Truth and does not require players to loot helpless victims of a massacre to progress. Players will now meet a new character, Robert Villines, a magistrate from Aerie who, like the player, is trying to determine what caused the massacre. There are other plot-centric characters and changes that occur relating to elves and the secrets of bonesteel, while at the same time the experience for new users is made as clear as those who go through the Path of Love in Solace Bridge. That being said, being as important as first impressions are, this is still a work in progress and we welcome player input. Note for players who have already made characters: you can play in Offline mode and experience the Blood River new user experience without otherwise affecting your main character, and we ask that our valued testers do so to poke and prod at the content we are adding without asking you to make a new character in Online mode.
  • Bank Hint: After watching a few video streams of new players early experiences in SotA, we realized that many new players were not aware that they need to go to the bank to claim their Add-On store purchases and pledge rewards. So we have added a new quest journal hint when speaking with Arabella at character creation, bank-related tutorial hints near bank locations in the starting towns (i.e. Soltown), and unlocked Banks discovery/compass markers in those early areas immediately upon arrival in those towns. Our apologies to experienced players who already know what banks are, who will get pop-up tutorial hints the first time they enter the very popular Soltown Inn and Tavern.
• Player/Houses Towns: Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game. New variations of the town templates may also appear. Additionally, the Lot Deed Lottery system for in game purchase of Lot Deeds will come online.
  • Lot Deed Raffle: Players can now buy raffle tickets with in-game gold for a chance to win Taxed Lot Deeds. There are two raffles, one for each lot type: Place-Anywhere Deeds (PAD) and Player-Owned Town Deeds (POT). Raffle tickets grant the holder a chance to win a deed of any size (Row, Village, Town, or City). Raffles will be held monthly and we will have multiple winners for each lot size (numbers will vary each month). Place-Anywhere Deed raffle tickets are more expensive but will have fewer deeds in each raffle than POT raffle tickets, which are more affordable and will have many more deeds in each raffle. This means your chances to win a POT deed are much greater. The following are the numbers we will be releasing in the first raffles:
    • Place Anywhere Deeds (75):
      • Row: 40
      • Village: 20
      • Town: 10
      • City: 5
    • Player Owned Town Deeds (600):
      • Row: 320
      • Village: 160
      • Town: 80
      • City: 40
  • Lot Deeds Tradeable: Now that Lot Selection is complete, Lot Deeds can now be traded between players once again.
  • Swamp Island POT Templates: This new template is a lowland island covered in swampy terrain. We also offer a version of this template that has an Obsidian Style spiked wall surrounding the large island. We are planning on making walled versions of the other island templates in R34. For R33, the Swamp Island templates are only available as options in the POT submission form. In R34, these templates will begin showing up for those that select it for their Dynamic POT and as one of the example POTs in Hometown.
  • Royal Scepter: This pledge reward from the Lord Pledge is now functional in the game. It can be used once per month to add 50% tax credit to the lot owner’s tax account. The credit can then be manually applied to the lot (or any other lot). NOTE: This is the equivalent of the description on the pledge reward where it says it “reduces the taxes on a single lot by 50%”.
  • Hometown: Hometown, our example POT, returns to the Island template in R33 to better show off water lots. It is located off the coast of Novia near Soltown.
  • Wizard Tower: The stairs on this home now animate with simple floating animation
  • New POTs/POT Changes
    • Admont: Removed POT.
    • Aelasar’s Forest: Upgraded to Hamlet.
    • Aethyria: New addition.
    • Ahnen Hain: Ownership changed.
    • Arx Draconis Embassy: Renamed (formerly Grayskull).
    • Astrum: Interconnection (with Brittany Wharfs).
    • Avallon: Ownership changed. Interconnections (with Fons Vita and POT Gravewater Shores).
    • Brickfalls: Renamed (formerly Umbra Pugno Holdfast). Ownership changed.
    • Brickport: Converted to Forest 02. Rotated to 180.
    • Brittany Shores: New addition (nested in Brittany Wharfs).
    • Caelestis Canton: Set to PvP. Interconnections (removed Brittany; added POTs PaxLair, Dragons Watch, Islands of Wonders, Knowhere, Lockbrier, Serenity Isle, and Tenakill)
    • Dead Horse: Upgraded to Hamlet.
    • Den of Delirium: Renamed (formerly Straits of Delirium). Converted to Underground.
    • D’Jernstad: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Dooms Den: Converted to Tropical Island.
    • Drachental: Upgraded to Metropolis. Rotated to Right.
    • Dragon’s Rest: Rotated to Right.
    • Dragons Watch: Interconnections (with Caelestis Canton, Sea Nymph Grotto, and Serenity Isle).
    • Dragonshores: New addition (nested in Dragonvale).
    • Dragonvale: Ownership changed. Renamed (formerly Ager Mori). Rotated to 180. Changed location. Interconnections (with Port Graff and Dragonshores).
    • Forgewright: New addition (nested in Kiln).
    • Forptycle: Converted to Mountains.
    • Gladsheim: Converted to Snowy Mountains 01. Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
    • Great Reed Alpha: Upgraded to Village.
    • Hamberia: Converted to Forest 01a. Changed location.
    • Havenstead: Ownership changed. Renamed (formerly Ruins of Old Raven’s Head). Converted to Forest 01a. Nested interconnection changed to within Aerie.
    • Hometown: Converted to Island.
    • Honor Hold: Converted to Forest 01. Interconnection (with Magna Planitia).
    • Islands of Wonders: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton).
    • It’s a Town: Converted to Desert 01. Nested interconnection changed to within Owl’s Head.
    • Jade Island: Renamed (formerly Orion’s Hold). Converted to Tropical Island. Rotated to Left.
    • Jade Mountains: Renamed (formerly Paws). Converted to Snowy Mountains 01. Rotated to Left.
    • Knowhere: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton).
    • Lockbrier: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton).
    • Metallicus: New addition (nested in Harvest).
    • Mount Nylorac: Renamed (formerly Isle of Nylorac). Converted to Mountains.
    • Numinous Gleann: New addition (nested in Ardoris).
    • Ogygia: New addition (nested in Etceter).
    • Owl Sky City: Converted to Mountains. Rotated to 180. Set to non PvP.
    • Painted Caves: New addition (nested in Oceania).
    • PaxLair: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton).
    • Pomerantz: Converted to Tropical Island.
    • Recluse: Ownership changed.
    • Saint Haley: Renamed (formerly Saint Haley’s Refuge). Upgraded to Village.
    • Sanctus Solus: Renamed (formerly Lea Lochry). Converted to Forest 02. Rotated to Right. Interconnection (with Elad’s Lighthouse).
    • Sea Nymph Grotto: Interconnection (with Dragons Watch).
    • Serenity Isle: Interconnections (with Caelestis Canton, and Dragons Watch).
    • Sionann: New addition (nested in Ardoris).
    • Sirens Cove: New addition (nested in Soltown).
    • SQiRLS DEN: New addition (nested in Brave Coast).
    • Storms End: Renamed (formerly The Stormlands). Rotated to Left. Changed location. Upgraded to Metropolis.
    • Swamp of Sorrow: New addition (nested in Brittany Wharfs).
    • Tenakill: Interconnection (with Caelestis Canton).
    • The Hatter’s Estates: Renamed (formerly Serpent’s Den). Ownership changed.
    • The Wildwoods: New addition (nested in Aerie).
    • White Hart: Rotated to 180.
    • Winter Spur: New addition (nested in Oceania).
    • Wisteria Lane: New addition (nested in Central Brittany).
• Performance: Major efforts will be done to optimize performance. This will include frame rate improvements, load time improvements, and memory footprint improvements.
  • Character LODs: To date, we have only created LODs for scenery like buildings and decorations. In R33, we have begun creating LODs for Characters which are very intensive graphically. This should greatly help performance.
    • Leather Armor
    • Cloth Armor
    • Plate Armor
    • Chain Armor
    • NPC Guards
  • Scenery LODs:
    • Caves
    • Plaques
    • Cloud Imperium Sky Navy Airship
• Single-Player Offline Combat Balance: A pass will be made through the game to adjust combat balance for play in offline mode with companions.
  • Single-Player Offline Combat Balance Delayed: We still have some fundamental updates we need to do to the combat system before we can start this part of the project where we create a new set of numbers for offline mode.
• Offline Mode: Patching and Reward delivery for Offline Mode become available to players using this mode to play.
  • Offline Mode Patching and Reward Delivery Delayed: We made a large effort to update to Unity 5.4 (but were unsuccessful). This combined with our focus on almost daily patches for R32 forced us to delay work on Offline Mode.
• Crafting: Cooking and the Food System will expand with more recipes and more functionality including more food buffs.
  • Cooking and Food System Expansions Delayed: We chose to focus on improving loot tables and tuning/balancing Taming instead of expanding Cooking and Food.
  • Loot Improvements: We have begun laying the foundation for improvements to loot across the game. In Release 33, we have made the following changes:
    • Breakable Containers: These crates and barrels are now connected to the Loot Tables system and will generate randomized loot. Long-term, we will break these up by difficulty levels so the loot will scale based on the challenge level of the scene these containers are in.
    • Dead Bodies: All dead bodies now have a chance to drop consumables. Dead guards and skeletons have a chance to drop basic weapons and armor. Some crafting components have a small chance of dropping as well.
    • Race-Specific Weapons: We’ve began adding racial-specific weapons that drop exclusively in game. For R33, high-level elves have a chance to drop elven weapons.
    • Boss Loot Bundles: Bosses now have a chance to drop consumables, crafting components and occasionally weapons.
  • Bundle Store Expert Crafting Stations: Some Bundles in the Bundle store come with these Expert Crafting Stations (identical to the pledge ones but without the Founder or Benefactor flags). These are now being delivered to those who purchased the bundles that include them.
  • Salvage Button: We moved the Salvage button away from the Craft and Repair buttons to prevent accidental Salvaging. We also changed the color of the Salvage button to red to further differentiate it from the other buttons.
  • Low Durability Icon on Repaired Items: Fixed issue where the Low Durability icon would never reappear on repaired items when they started to get worn down after being repaired.
  • New Recipes:
    • Ornate Aeronaut Outfit: Live out all your flights of fancy with this embossed version of the Aeronaut Outfit.
    • Tiaras: You can craft a Tiara and an Ornate Tiara and then, and only then, will you be fancy…oh so fancy. You can even enchant them!
    • Repair and Salvage: Repair and Salvage are now specific recipes in the recipe book that can be used to bring up the needed ingredients.
    • Sow Seed: You can now use this recipe to plant the seed rather than dragging the seed and water onto the bed each time. This should greatly decrease the number of required repetitive steps in Agriculture.
• Creatures: We will begin a major polish pass through our creatures.
  • Creature Polish Delayed: Work on telethon rewards and continued efforts on hair polish is delaying this work for now.
• Combat:
  • Removed Auto Lunge Forward: We have removed the “beloved” feature that was forcing players to Auto Lunge Forward in combat. This was done to improve the visuals of combat but it was removing control from players and therefore negatively impacting players ability to manage encounters.
  • PvP Zones Are Open Multiplayer Only: Players will now encounter other players in zones flagged for PvP regardless of their match-making mode. You will no longer be able to enter these areas in Single-Player nor Friends modes to circumvent PvP risk. There are a few areas like the Obsidian Ruins where story elements require venturing into those areas and we are going to work on alternate ways for players to navigate those areas like we have experimented with in some of the Control Points (i.e. the teleporting Wizard). We know this change will be controversial, but we believe it is the best decision for the long-term health of the game.
  • Obsidian Book of Unlearning: Players can now purchase a magical book from Obsidian Crown merchants that can reduce a skill down to the minimum level and recover 90% of the experience points used to level it (these are returned to your experience pool so they can be used to level other skills). We are giving each player one of these books as part of the changes to taming in case they want to reclaim some of the experience spent on taming.
  • Agro: Fixed issues related to how creatures calculated and recalculated agro. This should allow players to actually tank finally. Also, interactions with items (looting, containers, etc) are now blocked when a creature has agro on you.
  • Taming Polish & Tuning: There were various issues with Taming. Many of these were related to the fact that players with no taming skill could purchase taming whistles with high level creatures attached and use those to farm high level areas. Additionally, Taming levels were not having any effect on the summoned creature level. Here is a summary of the changes we made to taming.
    • Collar Recovery Skill: We fixed issues with taming collar consumption and cleaned up the way we represent the Collar Recovery skill. Previously, there was not a stat displayed for this skill.
    • Concentration Skill and Focus Drain: Fixed an issue with concentration skill that reduces the amount of max focus for having an active tamed creatures. The stat that the skill adds is clearer now and should be easy to calculate. The focus drain is now exponential such that higher level creatures drain a large amount of max focus.
    • Summoning, Combat Training and Tamed Creature Level: The Summoning Skill now modifies the Maximum Level of a summoned creature within a defined range for that creature. Additionally the Combat Training Skill will also modify the creature’s power beyond this level affecting the overall power of the creature. The net effect is that leveling up these two skills will increase the power of a summoned tamed creature.
    • Creature Power Scaling: Tamed creature stats and power now scale up with their Creature Level.
    • Refresh and Summoning Cooldown: At some point, our restriction for quick resummoning disappeared. The idea was to apply a cooldown time to resummoning to prevent players from dismissing and resummoning after each combat. The Refresh skill reduces this value. The summoning cooldown issue is now fixed and the restriction has now been re-enabled.
    • Taming Cooldown and Range: As the base Tame Creature skill increases, the cooldown time is reduced from 30 to 10 seconds at max skill and the range is increased from 15 to 25 at max skill. Previously, the cooldown was 10 seconds with a 10 second cast time. This effectively means previously there was zero cooldown. Players can get back to this value but only at max skill (200). Previous range was 20.
    • Hard Limits on Summoning: Summoning creatures from a taming necklace now requires a minimum summoning skill level. The skill level required is related to the creature that is stored inside the necklace. This is a hard limit and the creature cannot be summoned until the required skill level of summoning is reached. This limit is displayed in a tooltip for the taming necklace.
• World Starting Gift: Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier: All backers of Shroud of the Avatar with game access as of midnight July 27, 2016 will receive this Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier as a small expression of our gratitude. This wearable device uses the latest Kobold technology to allow the wearer to tune into streaming radio stations including our very own Avatar’s Radio or WRFB Radio Free Britannia. We chose this specific gift to honor our community because it started as a suggestion from our community, was initially created by our community, streams content from our community, and is used by our community as part of their events.
• Star Citizen Cross-Promotion Items: We are doing a cross-promotion with Roberts Space Industries/Cloud Imperium Games in which players who purchase certain limited edition items in Shroud of the Avatar also get access to items in Star Citizen. It’s like Origin Systems reborn!
  • Star Citizen Aether Aeronaut Helmet: The Cloud Imperium Sky Navy equips its daring Aeronauts with these helmets that include the latest in Kobold Aether Vibration technology, allowing the user to tune into radio stations. This can be purchased as part of the Star Citizen Aether Aeronaut Helmet Package, which includes the Star Citizen Mustang Alpha Starter Package.
  • Cloud Imperium Sky Navy Airship: The Cloud Imperium Sky Navy has recently decommissioned 150 of their armor clad airships and lucky Outlanders can purchase them to use as homes on their City Lots. These float above a city lot, providing ample living area while preserving almost 100% of yard space! Purchasing this item also grants the player the Cutlass Black Starship in Star Citizen.
• Blood Reliquary Make A Difference Bundle Items: Players who bought the Blood Reliquaries started receiving the unique items in R32 including the POT Castle Lot Deed, Blood Fountain, /bloodrain emote, the Lord British and Darkstarr blood red cloaks, and the Reliquary decorations. In R33, we have added the Blood Elemental Pet.
  • Blood Elemental Pet: Show off your love of blood with this cute diminutive companion (if you think a seething, roiling, mass of blood is “cute”).
• Summer Telethon Part 1 Rewards: We have the first set of Summer Telethon Part 1 Rewards created and being delivered in the game. Any backer who pledged a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight on July 27th (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase did not apply) will receive these rewards (which you can view on your account page). All the rewards were themed around the steam(punk)iness of summer. The second set of Part 1 Rewards should be delivered in R34 along with the first set of the Telethon Part 2 Rewards.
  • /fan emote (with equippable fan): This new emote works when you equip a fan. The emote has you open the fan and then fan yourself against the interminable heat all these Kobold devices generate.
  • Aeronaut Helmet: What else would you wear when you stand in your Hot Air Balloon but an Aeronaut Helmet?
  • Hacked Oracle Crawler Pet: Clever Kobolds have hacked some of the Oracle Crawlers and made them ignore the commands of the Oracle. The Kobolds selling these to Outlanders assure us that the Oracle can no longer observe through them…
  • Clockwork Wings: Kobolds have been experimenting with winged flight for years, albeit unsuccessfully. Outlanders though have begun recently wearing these despite their lack of function just for the looks.
  • Hacked Oracle Flyer Pet: Clever Kobolds continue hacking that which they shouldn’t and hacked some of the Oracle Flyers to make them ignore the commands of the Oracle. The Kobolds selling these to Outlanders assure us that the Oracle can no longer observe through them…
  • Tiny Airship Pet: Novian Aeronautics created these promotional clockwork items to encourage sales of their airships but interestingly there are now more of these Airship pets floating around Novia than there are actual Airships!
• Emotes:
  • /conduct: It is rumored that Felicia Perdue of Aerie, the great conductor of the feline orchestra, has been known to teach her skills to Outlanders if they are also cat lovers.
  • /belch: A prisoner held captive in the depths of the Epitaph will teach you the benefits of letting gasses escape through the esophagus.
  • /sneeze: The hapless Jeffrey Post in Ardoris will share what he calls a “skill” of sneezing on command.
  • /cough: When in Jaanaford you might ask Joshua Hugtight about his name if you want to learn how to convincingly fake cough.
  • /grovel: This can be learned by offering to give the annoying beggar Chad in Soltown a coin, and then refusing to at the last minute. You scoundrel.
  • /smoke variants: If you would like to impress folks at your next party then purchase one of these fancy smoking tricks from the Add-On Store.
    • /smokering
    • /smokerings
    • /smoketriplerings
    • /smokeheart
    • /smokehearts
    • /smoketriplehearts
    • /smokeburst
  • /breathefire variants: Do you like breathing fire but you wish you could mix it up and exhale other things like flowers or snow? Well, now you can by purchasing one of these new breathing variations from the Add-On Store.
    • /breatheflowers
    • /breathesnow
    • /breathesparkles
    • /breathbluefire
    • /breathefirering
• Wearables & Equippables:
  • Black & Chrome Ornate Aeronaut Outfit: For those of you who are too cool to be seen wearing brown leather and brass in your Airship, this Add-On Store outfit was made for you.
  • Flechier Tapestry Formal Suit: The newest in our line of fancy outfits in the Add-On Store is sure to draw attention at the next party.
  • Elaborate Tiara: If the two craftable Tiaras mentioned above are just not enough, ooh la la, then you simply must upgrade in our Add-On Store to the most elaborate Tiara in Novia!
  • Pot Belly Fixes: We made various fixes to the male avatar’s posture and animations to fix the infamous “pot belly.”
• Pets:
  • Grey Great Dane: Do you love your Deutsche Dogge but really wish he were the color of Winter mornings when everything is overcast and it seems the sun will never be seen? Well your wishes have been granted with the newest canine addition to the pets section of the Add-On Store.
  • Silver Mini Automaton: Brass not your color? Miss the Summer Telethon Part 2? Loved the movie A.I.? Whatever the reason, come to the Add-On Store and adopt a Silver Mini Automaton!

So, now that it is clear what you can expect, we should also be as clear about what you should NOT expect:

• Stability (especially Linux): The latest version of Unity that we updated to for Release 29 introduced quite a higher level of instability and memory leaks than we have ever previously encountered. This is especially bad for the Linux version of the game. We are working directly with Unity engineering to resolve this as quickly as possible.
• Performance: We have begun performance optimizations (LODs) as well as a first round of performance fallback routines via a Performance Manager. However we still have some work to do, particularly for older machines. Additionally, with the latest version of Unity we are using has some serious stability issues and memory leaks that we are working closely with them to resolve. Please be patient with us as we work through these issues. With each release, we will be doing further optimizations and adding more fallbacks to improve performance.
• Game Loop: Release 33 is a further iteration on our game loop, but is still missing some key components. Expect this to expand with each subsequent release.
• Visual Quality: Efforts to improve visual quality are ongoing. We will continue to iterate on these until we have highly competitive visuals.
• Pledge Rewards: Pledge Rewards that have been built and have tech to support them are in the game; all other rewards are awaiting either content creation or tech support. You can find an updated list of these items in known issues.

Here are links to instructions and known issues. Thank you again for your continued support. This is truly the most amazing community we have ever worked with, and we are proud to be on this journey with you.

Sincerely,
Starr Long
aka Darkstarr
Executive Producer

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