Borg

Founder bonus

Each level has different starting bank slots......Lord = 350

Rumble....this Village size kinda looks like it would be a Blacksmith....if not of Dwarvin lore....sorta.... Rustic 3-Story Village Home (digital)1/2 PRICE SALE: Available at 50% off the regular $90 price Sindee....... The idea was the 3 story buidling shown in picture for the Bar/Brothel and future casino (cellar)

Rumble...Knight size is Village.....same as Bals and Wolfs....so we basically have 4 non-planned Village...if your going Knight Tower with Blacksmith theme....probably the first one near the Officers Barracks? Then your vendor could be near entrance to Hold area? Pick one Rumble...and I will note it. The ROYALS (Dev spots) are the two linked to the Lysts on the "southern" wall (or up at top of image)....I am hoping they build something nice for themselves. One sorta for Lord British (more Virtuous) and one for Lord Blackthorn (more Religious).....which will look to be the two main faction sides of sorts in game...hence why I gave them each a Pillar of the Jousting Arch to display their colors and as champions occur they will have declared one side or other ....or none...then they wont appear on Pillars past Champions.but instead become like a STAR on Walk of FAME and would have a stone CoAs on the road from archway to the Lysts. I am not sure on this at all.....but in discussions with Starr....>Balandar (yes you) and I will hope to win over all our design goals and then push for even more.... Water housing locations in Lake Dupre.....NOTE: This would mean losing ROW houses....1 Village = 4 Row spots......we would give up 12 row house spots and gain 4 water locations for players. THIS TOPIC Is the BENEFIT OF getting donations enough to upgrade our town to the next size larger..... HAMLET $700 more needed..............gains us 7,200 sq feet of Lots....(1 Town, 22 Village....36 Row)......IFF we compare to our HOLD Plan. (1Town, 11 Village, 36 Row)..........we gain 11 Village lots more. Note: 1 Village is used for Balandars ADD ON Pavillion...in HAMLET we get to use another ADD ON...so we only gain 10 more village spots since 1 would be used for an add on. ALSO....Hamlet gives us another NPC Building to choose......currently we have chosen BANK......could choose another. Here is the Updated Player Owned Town grid of pricing from SotA (attached image

Edelmann Level would be good for a Bartender since it gives you special Brewing ability of beer.....just remember Sindee.....Bars are the #1 visited site for all towns player or npc...running it will come close to a part time job of sorts....but will gain relations with the other players and "ROYALS" (our name for DEV and POLATARIUM Team members)...since they have committed to frequenting these locations. Tie in our JOUSTING connection...and we should be very busy interaction wise, event wise and simple social fun wise. There are 3 other areas in between ORCHARD and FIELDS n LIVESTOCK areas that we are hoping for special housing from members interested in a more targeted role within the guild/HOLD..... VIKING HOME = So to speak caretaker of Livestock (Leatherworker and Animal resource items) WIND MILL HOME = So to speak caretaker of Agriculture foods etc (Harvesting) WIZARD HOME = So to speak Lead Alchemist, Mage, Reagents etc These 3 would be the go to places for such items and/or Vendors maintained and stories written around such. Rumblebore has the green light to be our SMITHY Lead as he has put 100s of hours into the Alpha in such.....he also is most knowledgeable for most crafting tricks....he and Wolf are experts. Remember everyone can be whatever they want.....the above listings are ideas and plans we have for key interactive high RP roles within the guild that we want to support with as much layout (dev created) within our Player owned Town to really help the player enjoy and benefit the experience within the game engine.

Rumblebore's idea on the Blacksmith being of "dwarf" female origin is a winner....and we will go with it and push for it via the lore of the underground caverns in Lake Dupre that will gain access to places within SAWTOOTH mountains.....Dwarvin areas? A shout out to Sindee.....THANK YOU FOR DONATION to the GUILD....we will look to use it for getting our ARENA under the Guild Hall....THANK YOU. Starr announced the game will launch this year....so I am thinking pre Holiday.....THANKSGIVING as a target they probably are looking to hit. Start SPREADING NEWS and keep checking on the SoTA page as they will surely be doing quick impromtu sales or events in game to support the launch and beta time coming soon. The ROW HOUSING we will try to keep the neighbors of similar housing designs....ie ....4 storys next to each other....vs in between a 2 story or 1 story lot. 5 Story housing will start in Corner and work Southward (yup you will be able to see over the wall for sure by at least 1 level (duck when Catapults start flying) (Can someone find a link with all the kinds of Village and Row Housing....was unable to locate it...I know it exists with pictures....just found this) https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=44577

ALRIGHTY....We have some decisions and a nice layout and plans to submit which I will do so on MONDAY NIGHT. FIrst off here is the document I am submitting with the Player Town proposal for our......HONOR HOLD. I will say that Balandar and I are leveraging Starr Long's commitment that he has made to the realm that JOUSTING WILL BE PART OF THE GAME at RELEASE....albeit coconut jousting at first...the system of JOUSTING WILL EXIST. (watch the second videos where I get answers directly from Lord Blackthorn and Lord British personally) WE WILL BE THE HOME BASE and FOCUS LOCATION for JOUSTING TOURNAMENTS. That being said the layout of our HOLD has the allotted housing slots. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=41907 1 TOWN LOT (for the LORD FOUNDER house I have for the starting guild house) https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=40207#lordHomes (we will have underground Arena Room) 11 VILLAGE LOTS (Citizen, Eldermann or Knight) 1 Location will be used for the PAVILLION that Balandar has purchased for HOLD work stations https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=9085 32 ROW LOTS (all other members of T.H.E. pre game ranks that will need to purchase in or out of game a Lot deed) Who will be your neighbor? https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=9085 (REMEMBER you can also EXPAND DOWNWARD in CELLAR purchases up to 4 levels for a row house.....fo 5 level row house and 5 level cellar = 9 floors!!! more space than Town Lot.) As you look at the Layout....we are reserving the one Village slot near the 32 Row housing area near the entrance of the Hold to be for someone interested in being the Barkeeper/Brothel/Casino Owner and Operator....Minimum it is a Bar with convenient judicial and prison next door...heheh Games of chance Casinos (Basement) will eventually come into the game and all good Bars do have some comforts for the weary traveler upstairs. HEAVY Roleplaying position but....Richard, Starr and all the dev team have already committed to visiting and frequenting the Player Owned Town establishments. I have taken liberty to provide int he layout ROYAL HOUSE and ROYAL CHURCH/HALL for Realm dignitaries that visit and/or attend the Monthly Official Jousting Tournament for the realm if not smaller weekly ones that may be conducted by guilds. WE WILL BE THE HOME OF THE GAME MECHANICS and SYSTEM for JOUSTING scoring etc....whoot!!! Again...that being said I took some creative liberty and put in those Royal Housing and the JOUSTING area LYSTS themselves .....if this FOOTPRINT is larger than a normal HOLD....who cares....there is room to scrunch it. OUR HOUSING SPACES are within the rules and not more.....the extra are for the DEVS to use and have as a warp in point etc....and are designed with the Roleplaying and Storyline content behind it.....including the CONWEC RIVER that runs beside the HOLD, Swamp of Souls and even the small Lake Dupre.....all have references to our UO days. (Jon Snyder who died was Baltazar Con Wec....and we will be building a quest in his honor of INVISIBILITY, Swamp of Souls and small lake refer to areas around Olympus north of Trinsic and DUPRE is the famous Knight and Lord of HONOR from Ultima Online.....connection to Richard Garriott. The Massive statue arch depicted is just freeking cool as hell and will be adored with Coat of Arms Banners of Lord British (Richard Garriott) and Lord Blackthorn (Starr Long-DarkStar) who will lead the game engines opposing major factions. The HOLD will have our Guild Coat of Arms on banners throughout the Garrison building fronts and on our Guild Lord House. etc. The Layout (SOUTH IS UP and NORTH is DOWN FYI) is so that as the sun sets it will keep sunlight on the LYSTS for as long as possible....the highest level of HOLD.....that slopes down to the ROW Housing level that the entry is on and farming area. Yes you will be able to Jump off the South Wall into Lake Dupre.....(Lord British loves diving for treasure I heard) MOAT we built that runs the north side of the HOLD will be populated with Gators...good for hides n meat gathering....Swamps with snakes, spiders and creepy crawlies n spectral Ghosts (some for quests).....the Lake will be for abundant fishing of course and lost plunder quests in time as well....rumor has it there is a beast that lives in there but rarely is seen....as there are rumored under cave systems that are unexplored and reach into the SAWTOOTH Mountains. The Town Crier will be COLIN MOR (stationed near the JOUSTING ARCH) and will announce information on tournaments etc.....loves wine and cheese in exchange for secrets. The HOLD NPC Building will be a BANK Teller = Gordan (reference to WoW Treasurer for years) Guard = Arthil (reference to Arthil of UO who would protect our raiding loot) Now we hope to keep growing over time but at this point we are a HOLD size and can accommodate 8 Village size Home owners and 32 Regular Row Houses (Remember you can expand in CELLAR purchases)

Honor Hold............Honor Station..........Honor Way.........??? Tavern names.......... The Barbed Lance........The Splintered Lance......... SONGS.......Combat and Ruins Hard Road Ahead

NAME LOCATION NPC HERALD Colin Mor Balding white short haired man with well kept white short beard n stash....a regal man. Legendary in the sport of JOUSTING, he has served in years past as many official positions within the Jousting Committee and Records. Loves wine and will give secrets out in exchange for wine. ADDITIONAL NOTES.......... This is town is the HOME of the realm's JOUSTING sport...where it began and has the HQ for quests revolving around JOUSTING in SoTA (currently coconut jousting) but for lore sake Everything JOUSTING came from this town and it has a Tournament field and stables to support Tournaments. (eventually a monthly player event and then ability for player training or jousting for fun or wager) SONGS...............listen here to options https://soundcloud.com/shroud-of-the-avatar/sets/shroud-of-the-avatar Start adding your commentary....we need to get this in early so we have MAX amount of time for modifications.

Player Owned Town Submission Form (BETA) Now Available The Beta version of the Player Owned Town Submission Web Form is now live on the SotA website. If you are a PoT owner you can link to the submission form by clicking on the name of your town on your SotA Account page. We only have one template available at this time, but more will be added as they come available. We ask that all PoT owners please start entering their town design criteria. We will be reviewing uploaded images to help guide our template creation process, so get your design layout images uploaded just as soon as you have them available. LETS START DISCUSSIONS BELOW>.......

In a few short years The Honor Empire will hit its 20th Year anniversary. 20 years....amazing run. While the team has adventured from game to game picking up new friends and family we have constantly maintained a home base forum for its members to chat and interact. Some games were hits and keep going while others went bust and burned out. The guild forums still holds those memories and places of our adventures and conflicts. Yeah we have had our battles ingame and personality clashes over the years for sure...but in the end we still stand proudly to say we are THE HONOR EMPIRE...a community and family of gamers who just want to enjoy the time in the game industry together doing whatever our big kid minds think of. All along this journey there have been attempts by myself to bring extra fun to the members of THE....in game and out of game with contests and challenges. This still is a priority for me to achieve for you my friends and online family. Technology moves faster than any of us can keep up so it is a challenge to be able to master something that we can put into the website due to various issues. One issue always is participation....the hardest challenge. Nowdays the ease of FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTANT MESSENGERS and PHONE APPS to communicate with each other....it challenges us greatly to keep the website active and a destination that it once was daily or constant for many of us on our computer task bars as an open program. Balandar has the FACEBOOK Group (The Honor Empire Gaming Collective) linked to our Twitter feed and our TEAMSPEAK Server showing people utilizing its rooms for their gaming or communication needs. ( Teamspeak3 server = thehonorempire.org password = honor) If your in a new game we do not have listed in TS or here on the forums....lets talk and look to give you a spot here. We built this for you our gamer family to flow with your gaming changes and as the industry changed too. We are currently looking to revamp the graphics and layout of the website, as this has been constant for many years. Wolf, Damien Wicke, did much of it and now is very busy in the 3D graphics world today as a bigtime player. https://www.youtube.com/user/WolfzoneTV Today is his BIRTHDAY also by the way....Happy Birthday Damien!!!! He is planning on returning to gaming with many of us in SHROUD OF THE AVATAR which moves back to CONTENT with great visual graphics game engine that most games have spent less n less on content and more and more on visual or expansion of landscape...but with no community options. One of the areas that will be a growing segment of THE website will be areas that members can help members in the real world via work, commerce or referral programs. Many of us have jobs that we actually can help each other in terms of simple work. Insurance, Travel Agents, Lawyers, Dentists, Doctors, Chiropractors....etc While some may not live in same city....some may be able to help from afar directly or via referral help of who they should seek. Examples.... Borg has IDLife Nutritional program for anyone seeking help losing weight and/or getting in shape. http://gethealthier.idlifeoffice.com/ I am down 45 pounds after 4 Months on my IDNutrition portion of options IDLife can provide......check it out....design YOUR INDIVIDUAL Life going forward. We have an AMAZON program for anyone who shops on AMAZON Balandar has a referral link for anyone who wants to buy P90x video series. http://www.fitcornernetwork.com/products/p90x2-power-90x2-extreme-training-system Sindee has a referral link for anyone who wants Razor Club monthly. (NEED THIS FROM SINDEE) Maube has her Omnomnom Jams business which has THE HONOR EMPIRE GUARDIAN GRAPE as a flavor. http://omnomnomjams.com/store/ The website has a growing list of commission opportunities for any purchases at Amazon, EBWorld, Gamestop, WAL-MART, TigerDirect, Sideshow Collectibles, Microsoft Store.....I am working on this currently as well as a SQUARE store to sell our TShirts and game collectibles that are no longer available to purchase in retail stores or directly from game engines. LOOT CRATE = http://looted.by/cpoB6 I am seeking someone who is experienced in Beer Crafting and if someone does this and they have a means for referral benefits....contact Borg asap. One of the largest additions though will be a TWITCH Channel/Feed of The Honor Empire which will have myself and various special guests as the plan exploring our existing game worlds, new games in the future and stand alone games for example like Total War Attila or future Star Wars Battleground etc. I hope this can help bring in new gamer friends that have the same demeanor and interests as well as gain more notoriety for the website to gain more membership benefits in terms of Alpha/Beta keys and/or special meetings with development teams....fun stuff including free give away products from vendors. The opportunity that we could get followed enough and then gain viewer subscriptions is a goal so that we can then in turn invest that back into the site for more benefits of its membership. I am planning on hosting this and at least 1 time a week having a special time show that is not for the faint of heart or easily offended...no way PC Correct and Adult content commentary....called GRUMPY OLD GAMER GUYS where eventually one of us will "spout off" at something that irritates us in gaming or real world life.. we are getting pretty old. Martok has a version of this he was doing in a blog called Dear Diary......Drunk again. I hope you are all doing well in your real lives and if at a tough time...may our brotherhood and support of each other help you through this tough time. I understand greatly as I, at this moment still am seeking employment after being downsized and now finished recovery of medical issues.... STRENGTH AND HONOR!!

Muru/Aleis (Dave WIght) and I completed a good team BEATDOWN in Heros of the Storm Beta If anyone else is in Beta for Heros.....join us in evenings after 7pm EST.....Dave and I pop in then....battlegrounds last about 25 min each avg FRIENDS list gives you 50% bonus on gold and exp...plus you can get a 7 day STIM pack bonus at level 10....we can get you there in about 5 games We use Teamspeak3 Server= TheHonorEmpire.org Password=honor

post some pictures Skywatcher

damn time thing keeps changing by an hour grrrr...

I am suggesting SUNDAY the 5th......10pm EST or 6pm PST...... Rumblebore set up in one location Naladinya set up in another Balandar set up in another Borg set up in another Then peeps start at beginning...then just zone to each of us? Someone could create a hunting group for everyone else that completes the mask event then gather leather/hides.

Chad...Rumble....Wolfy.....how bout setting up a GRAND TOUR Black Rabbit Mask event.....for everyone to do on one night together? Picture time too...ehehhe

Citizen is the first tier that will get you a housing tax free deed. In the recent games you are free to play unless you want to own housing....so if your wanting to be a land owner / home owner and NOT have any monthly subscription/fee requirement.....Citizen is the minimum place to get to by the time the game launches. Balandar has a complete digested value idea of which is best....but I wanted to toss that info out to you and anyone

RELEASE 16, March 26, 2015 Steam Achievements: Players will now be able to earn Steam Achievements Achievements Rescheduled: Refactoring of interactive objects (see below) required us to push this to a future release Maps: Mainland scenes will continue to come online including Blood River Village, Vertas, and the Grunvald Shardfall. Region by Region Expansion: As mentioned in the R15 post, we are now expanding the scenes region by region; starting with Perennial Coast and moving north and west from there. For R16, we brought Perennial Coast closer to a finished state (minus some story elements) and moved into Grunvald (the shardfall we actually put in game way back in R14). Vertas and Blood River Village will now be worked on when we move to Verdantis near the end of our map building work (i.e. closer to launch). Please note that all scenes should be considered “in progress” which means they are simply in a functional state (and in some cases they cannot be “completed”). 7 New Adventure Scenes: The Perennial Coast and Grunvald regions are filled with places to adventure and gather resources. New scenes include: East Perennial Trail Southern Grunvald Barrens Northern Grunvald Barrens Savrenoc Timberland Deep Savrenoc Timberland Savrenoc Stronghold Necropolis Entrance 6 Improved Adventure Scenes: We circled back to new scenes we added in R15to make them more visually distinct from each other. The modified scenes include: West Perennial Trail South Celestial Wetlands North Celestial Wetlands South Brightbone Woods North Brightbone Woods West Veiled Swamp Necropolis (first pass): This city of the dead underneath the Brightbone Mountains is our very first map that is completely focused on the narrative and it is a single player instance (this is one of the few plot moments that require solitary play). It is also one of the most complex underground spaces we have ever built. We do not yet have all of the story elements working, and there are still some lingering issues with the space itself, but it is in a mostly playable space (and looks amazing for a first pass). 3 New Sewers: Entrances to sewers have been discovered in Ardoris, Soltown, and Solania! Rumor has it that smugglers have been seen entering in Ardoris and then popping up in the remote towns of Solania to sell their goods. Novia Overworld Expanded: Most of the Novia Overworld is now navigable and the scenes that are built are hooked up to their appropriate locations including Vertas Pass, Verdantis Shardfall, Graff Gem Mines, Blackblade Pass, and the Battle Camps. This also means we removed the Lunar Rift from Owl’s Head. Hidden Vale Overworld Rework: Abe put in some weekend overtime to bring the quality of the Hidden Vale overworld closer to the Novia Overworld. Overworld Travel Speeds: Overall travel speed for Novia and Vale should now be better aligned to anything that looks like a road (therefore increasing overall travel speeds). Soltown and Perennial Coast New User Rework: Perennial Coast is a much more friendly place for new users. Soltown is now located closer to Solace Bridge and will be the location you go to directly after Solace Bridge (reminder that Soltown is visually identical to Braemar currently). It has NPCs who will guide you through some low level quests and send you to level appropriate adventure areas nearby. Shop Signs: We have begun placing pictographic signs for businesses in the world starting with Braemar, Kingsport, Owl’s Head, Solania and Ardoris. This is a first step in making the game generally more navigable. We will expand to street signs next release. New Trees: One of the most important additions to Unity 5 was native support for Speedtrees! Speedtrees are both faster and better quality than the previous tree options available to us and we will be switching almost all scenes over to use the new trees! For R16, we switched out a few of the trees in Owl’s Head but for later releases you can expect to see a complete migration to the new tree system. Spells & Skills: Chaos Magic will expand to include more spells, and more combos will come online. New Spells/Skills/Combos Delayed: We made the decision to focus our tasks on shoring up skills for NPCs (see below) instead of adding more to the player skill trees. Housing: Permissions for property will greatly expand to better support groups sharing of property, including tools to rent rooms and set “per area/room” permissions. More Basements: Mine style basements and the Castle Arena will now be available in game for those who purchased them in the Add On Store. Decoration Proximity: Decorations can now be placed closer together to better make walls, fences, etc. Interior Object Culling: As part of our performance optimizations we are trying out a system that allows us to not draw any of the objects inside a player building until you enter the lot. This has a huge positive impact on performance in scenes with a lot of player housing like Owl’s Head and Ardoris Crafting: Crafting will now have events that occur during the crafting process that the player can interact with to influence the results. Events Delayed: We have a very strong design for the framework of events which we have started implementing, but it is not far enough along just yet to put in this release. Repair Kits Scale: Repair kits now repair items in an amount related to the value of item. This means using them on high level items will now make an actual difference. Creatures: Our creature list will continue to expand with Emps and Chaos Demons added to the game. Crocodile: The swamps now have crocodiles lurking and waiting… Obsidian Golem: These creatures are personifications of the rare obsidian. As if the shardfalls were not dangerous enough already! Sand Elemental: Scorpions are no longer the only desert dwelling creatures. Sand Elementals now inhabit these dry wastes. Rabbits: White Rabbits and Spotted Rabbits are now available in the game. The White Rabbit was a springtime limited time offer last year and the Spotted version is this year’s limited offer (available now in the Add-On Store). Combat: The cover system will be introduced that modifies attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover. Cover Delayed: With the work needed to complete the Unity 5 transition we did not have time to implement the cover system. Moveable Combat Bar: The combat bar can now be placed anywhere on screen (as can the non-combat bar). Undead Resurrection Behavior: Undead creatures will now appear to die, only to rise again (they are undead after all). For now they will do this at all times, but in further releases this behavior will be slightly randomized and will mostly only be triggered when Undead are killed by physical means (i.e. magic will usually destroy them the first time). We will also use this behavior as the basis for the Phoenix behavior (we hope to get the Phoenix in R17). This behavior we affectionately call the “I’m getting better!” behavior. Damage Types & Resistances: This release we have started adding damage types and resistances to creatures based on their type. For instance Fire Elementals are now highly resistant to fire damage and they deal only fire damage. NPC Skills: We are slowly expanding what our creatures will do by providing them various skills. In Release 16, this includes Dual Wielding Elves, Shield Bashing Skeletons, Poison Biting / Web Rooting Spiders, and Poison Tail Attacking Spiders (complete with a fancy new Poison Debuff icon). Weapon wielding creatures will also use skills related to the weapon they have equipped: swords cause bleed damage, bludgeons can stun and polearms can pierce armor. In future releases we will continue to expand this so that NPCs will take full advantage of all the skills players can use (based on the NPC type of course). A.I. and Door Improvements:Enemies will now reliably open a door that you closed behind you. Yes, this means the various clever tactics used in Vertas Pass (AKA the “hide behind the door” maneuver) won’t work anymore. Elven Warrior Armor: This armor was previously just a clothing item. Now it has stats (equivalent to Augmented Plate). Ambush Creature Nameplate Hidden: Nameplates for creatures waiting in ambush are hidden until they stand up. Attack Speed Skills Fixed: Any skill that modifies attack speed should now work properly. Double Death Penalty Fix: If you died and then resurrected and then changed scenes, the game was inflicting the death debuff and durability penalties a second time. This issue is now fixed. Animal Charm (now just for Animals): Players will no longer be affected by the Animal Charm spell (even though technically humans are just clever animals). Stealth improvements: Stealthed targets can no longer be tab targeted unless they are within a 60 degree front arc and within 5 meters of the player. This still allows tab targeting but requires you know their approximate area. Customization: New armor and clothing items will appear in the game. Unity 5 Cloth: Starting with Release 16 we are now using the Unity 5 cloth system. In addition to more controls over the behavior of the cloth, Unity 5 cloth supports cloth simulation for Mac and Linux! Wedding Dress: With the Unity 5 Cloth sim we were finally able to get the wedding dress to an acceptable state for wearing in the game. Weapon Flourish: Other players see your equipped weapon properly when you use the “Flourish Weapon” emote. Player Made Books: Players will be able tio write in blank books in the game, and share them with other players. Player Books Delayed: Player books were another victim of Unity 5 transition. We plan to circle back to them in Release 18. Localization: We will begin crowdsourcing the translation of the game into various languages Localization Delayed: We have been in the process over the last couple of releases of refactoring our dialogue and quest systems. In the long term, this work will make localization easier, but in the short term it means we have to delay work on Localization. Discovery System: Some points of interest (such as scene exits, merchants, banks, trainers, etc) will display icons on the compass showing their direction once you discover them. Not all scenes have been updated to include discovery items but will be in future releases. Razer Chroma Support: Razer approached us recently about partnering with them to show off their hardware and peripherals. In exchange, we would get the opportunity to be at trade shows (ex. GDC) with them and be promoted by their PR and Marketing teams. Our first project was to integrate the Chroma SDK, and it only took a few days to implement. The Black Widow Chroma keyboard by Razer is now connected to game state so that it changes colors based on what the player is doing. It is also linked to combos (corresponding numbers light up of spells that can be combined together) and hints (corresponding keys related to the system light up to teach players which keys do what). White = non-combat mode Blue = NPC Convo Mode and Crafting Green = Combat mode full health Yellow = Combat mode taking damage Red = Combat mode, near death No lights = Dead Flashing colors = Dancing Death View Cleanup: All player parts, creatures, and equipped items should now be properly invisible when the player is dead. Random Encounter Assistance: Party members can now join fellow party members that are pulled into random encounters. Shader Rework and Fully Deferred Lighting Model: In order for Unity 5 to look and run best required us to move over to the Fully Deferred lighting model. Additionally some fundamental changes happened with shaders that required us to touch almost every piece of art in the game (hundreds of them). This was a MASSIVE task and there are still many items we missed, so please report anything you see that looks “wrong” (examples include: too shiny, too wet, looks wrong at certain angles, too sparkly, too dark at night, etc.) Interactive Objects Refactor: Each release starting with R15 we’ve devoted some time to refactoring systems to improve performance, stability, security, and functionality. For Release 16, we focused on all interactive objects. The most visible change is that many of them now synchronize properly over the network which means you can see others crafting for instance. Performance: This represented the second largest amount of tech work in R16 and has resulted in a major increase in performance. In some cases we have increased frames per second by more than 50%. Also, performance is not as dependent upon shadow distances any longer, so these have been increased. Additionally load times should be generally better (and will be much better in R17). Pledge Reward Recovery: When you delete a character, any pledge rewards in that character’s inventory is now returned to the local bank. Data Rate Reduction: The game now uses less data once a scene has been joined. More Responsive PC and NPC Movement:We redid a large chunk of our update logic for both PCs and NPCs to remove most of the artificial lag we were introducing. Expect a few visual anomalies while we tighten this up a bit, but both should be much closer to real time with our latest changes! Grand Tour 16: As with each release, we will have a grand tour that will take players through the new scenes and scenes that have changed the most. Completing this quest is the ONLY way to gain a rare reward. The hat for this release is a Black Lepus Mask that we hope you will all enjoy. So, now that it is clear what you can expect, we should also be as clear about what you should not expect: Performance: We have only done rudimentary optimizations, and we do not yet have a full suite of performance fallbacks (LODs, etc.). This means the game will be quite slow on older machines, and due to memory usage, and might be unstable in certain conditions (like densely decorated areas). With each release, we will be doing further optimizations and adding to our fallbacks to improve performance. Crafting: The crafting system is in the game as a framework, but is still missing some key components like events. Skill checks are only in for Gathering, so results are always 100% successful for Refining and Production. Long term, the percentage chance to make items will depend on a myriad of variables and can result in a variety of results including: making the item desired, making a simpler version of the item that will need to be enhanced, or making a damaged version of the item that needs repair. Game Loop: Release 16 is a further iteration on our rudimentary game loop, but is still missing some key components like Crafting Skills for Refining and Production. Expect this to expand with each subsequent release, but it won’t be truly complete until we hit Beta later this year. Advanced Player Housing: There are some advanced features for player housing, including advanced permissions (renting, locking, etc.), guild housing and ceiling decorations that are not yet integrated. Expect to see these appear in future releases. 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 (ex. vendors). Persistence: As part of development we will need to periodically wipe data including characters, property, etc. As we near official launch the frequency should decrease, but there will definitely be a wipe right before launch. So consider everything gained during early access temporary. 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

Greetings Kang......yes today we secured a Player Owned town and will now begin to upgrade this over time if players wish to help upgrade the town we live in and do so.....optional to players. We hope many many MANY of the UOers return with some of their kids too in the guild for SoTA......bringing that total goofy big family fun back to all of us. We will have control of the town, taxes etc...and working with the Jousting system to be a hub for the whole game to visit us for quests etc revolving around the jousting system we are working on with Lord Blackthorn and Lord British. We have a solid foothold established and Bal and Rumble are maniacs at knowledge as well as Wolf becoming an expert at getting the monthly rares quests in pre alpha days...YES get in now to collect items for your account later when it launches....items not available any other way. We have so far Borg, Balandar, Wolf, Rumblebore, Piper, Schneider, Jimmer committed to The Honor Empire in SoTA.

Update: To read about Honor Hold, see our page here. We have secured a HOLDFAST currently as a Player Owned Town for the guild to have as a home base. CLICK HERE for description of the Towns https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=41907 We have not named the location but will as the time comes closer and our design appointments with the development team are scheduled. Balandar and Borg are working with Devs on JOUSTING system for in game and a continual option for players that will cycle thru the year with events etc. OUR TOWN will be the SoTA hub and center for JOUSTING, any Quests revolving Jousting, story content, fiction and lore......THIS IS A HUGE PRIVILEGE and HONOR. This should help our area be popular destination and keep funneling players into our area and vendor shops etc...as well as main story line and development characters. We are hoping more of our past gamer friends that loved the community building and construction facets of online gaming will join us in SoTA and build a home within our area and guild. We will be The Honor Empire as our guild title (pre blessing by Richard and Starr)...loved the connection with jousting and knights questing various personal goals. Below is a picture I will update as time progresses as a fundraising area that we now have started in hopes of upgrading our current level of Player owned Town. Borg is one of the first LORD FOUNDERS of the game engine and so his spot in the list of who gets to place when is quite early in the process....this gives us another leg up in picking where we want to have out town located. IN game as Pre Alpha, Alpha and Beta timelines go thru...lets keep all talking about where we should place the Town. Borg Stonewall is my character and Borg@TheHonorEmpire.org is the email that you can use the store to send any donation credits/certficates etc that will go toward the upgrades over time until construction appointment is declared by Development team. Below is the BIOME we will be selecting for our town and I have placed over it the HONOR HOLD design as I crafted it....and it fits well and with simple changes by Devs to the Mountain side....small changes to road outside the hold....it should look like this at the start basically. Keeping it easy for the Devs and so that just the HOLD area really needs the work...and its most likely we will succeed at getting our design in. I am hoping with some tennis tournament income to expand the HOLD into at least a VILLAGE (see above Donations graph to date) to have larger areas for member housing and RP options. Above shows the larger CITY Lot which is depicting what area will look like after EXPANSION to VILLAGE size.......

http://nodecanvas.com/showcase/shroud-of-the-avatar/

My settings are on the medium to low side on all things and NO shadows.....Balandar is the guru for the specs needed for this game....but for my current rig the settings are fine for Pre Alpha status.

Some screenshots from the other night adventuring.... Dancing with Lord British at a player pub, dueling a skeleton, finding a player build giant chess board and smaller ones.

We blew it and missed the Release 11 Tricorn Mask hat....boo hisss

I joined the festive location shortly after and upon attempting to get up on the wall behind Balandar (see bottom of the image) ....I successfully FACEPLANTED and broke my neck ingame I guess and died. So I officially have the first FACEPLANT .....perfect for my record of great epic faceplanting from other game engines. ehhehe Lord British spends HOURS in-game as do the other devs with their characters they stated. He said he is in game every day for some time, usually checking out player designed housing decors and/or visiting player activities as many as he can find. In the dev meeting and chat.....Lord British and Lord Blackthorn oddly were comfortable people....as in when conversing, joking and/or debating....it felt just like they were members of our old goofy group of gamers...so that was a good feeling that we are in the same mindset and humor seeking fun as players as well as them being the designers. Yes they both discussed the famous deaths of both their characters in UO and other times they screwed up something or another in game. Great fun it was indeed....GREAT JOB Balandar calling me to get in game.