Release 116

RELEASE 116, JULY 26, 2023
Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 116 goes live July 27th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 116 (R116), we offer intruders that are not supposed to be in the water and animals that are.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

Something is Amok in Port Harmony Cistern!


Port Harmony’s underground cistern is at the heart of the Port Harmony water system. There are numerous pipes that run underground and all of them intersect within the cistern. It filters debris from their water, distributes clean water to certain locations, manages waste, and can even convert salt to fresh water. Its functions are a combination of small miracles! Lately, though, the water pressure has not been at the expected strength.

As the city’s Watersmith, Annora Jenkins maintains the canals and water management systems. If you’ve already completed all the tasks in Port Harmony that Jenkins needs help with, she will send you into the cistern to do repairs and find the cause of the low pressure. It might be sabotage! Who would do such a terrible thing?

New Creatures Spotted in Swampy Areas!


The warm spring has awakened some unusual creatures in East Sanctus Forest, East Veiled Swamp, Midras Ruins, and Tanglemire. The smallest of them seem harmless enough, but the larger ones are quite territorial!

From all reports, most frogs are green, but a few sightings of Red Poison Dart Frogs and Brown or Pale Frog Goliaths have been confirmed. It is even rumored that there are Blue Poison Dart Frogs, but that has not been verified as of this writing. Perhaps some hapless wanderer intrepid adventurer will stumble across track them down them in the coming months.

The tamers of New Britannia have managed to break Poison Dart Frogs to their will, but Frog Goliaths seem to be just too stubborn. Fortunately the chefs of New Britannia have stepped up and made alternate plans for them: general merchants in Tanglemire and Solania and a wandering merchant in Mistrendur now sell a recipe for fried frog legs.

At this rate, they’ll invade more wet areas soon! Perhaps someone should start a Cult of Anura just in case… not the chefs, though.

Release 116 Patch Notes
Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 116 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R116 is a content month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R117 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 116!

Crafting, Decoration, Gear, & Inventory Item Changes:

 * Graveyard caretakers that are also merchants (which now includes the Port Harmony caretaker) now sell Explorer’s Shovels. These are currently equipable as (weak) bludgeons and will be expanded upon in the future.
 * Added decorative plants from agriculture and water lilies from loot to the “Plants” crafting category which is used in recipes for hedge maze pieces, garlands, and wreaths. SOTA-71495
 * Made the deco scaling range on all numbers and runic letters larger to be consistent with the block letters that were expanded previously. Thanks, Owsley!
 * Added the ability to use pattern removers on all the light armor bandit, riding, and taming artifacts. SOTA-70047, SOTA-70255
 * Heavy Two-handed Axe Blades can now be used to craft axes. SOTA-70073
 * Adjusted the “Fish Fillet” crafting category to include all (and only) the common fish: added barramundi and removed pacu. SOTA-70904

World and Quest Changes:

 * Pumpkinhead arose to terrorize Drachvald on July 16th and won’t go to his rest until mid-November.
 * All master trainers now can inform the Avatar about the location of the other master trainers and they also have proper unique responses when told their own names. SOTA-71506
 * Plains and Snowy Tundra Random Encounters: To help distribute underrepresented wyvern colors, Plains Encounters with wyverns will now have red, green (replacing purple), yellow (replacing orange), and black (replacing white) versions. Snowy Tundra Encounters with wyverns will now have blue (replacing red), purple, orange, and white versions. Thanks, Ceal Astra! SOTA-71527
 * Hidden Vale: Added a compass marker for Mysterious Swamp and updated the one for South Ravenswood. SOTA-71531, SOTA-71532
 * Aerie: Lord Macsen now asks for the Avatar’s name using the same logic as other NPCs. SOTA-71546
 * Ardoris: Regenerated conversation files for Shaaria Barista. SOTA-71510
 * Ardoris: Corrected the color of some seaside ladders to red.
 * Ardoris: Fixed various typos in several NPC conversations. SOTA-71510, SOTA-71509, SOTA-71508, SOTA-71511, SOTA-71512, SOTA-71513
 * Blackblade Foothills: Set this scene to “Respawn at Spawn Point” when re-entering it. SOTA-71544
 * Broken Echoes Silver Mine: Adjusted the invisible collision that blocks players from going outside the playspace. SOTA-71545
 * Castle Atos: The town crier now gives his name as Caspian. SOTA-71516
 * Celestis: Reduced the collision for the shield on the coat of arms wall decoration. SOTA-71547
 * Central Brittany: Fixed a bed in the castle that was inaccessible. SOTA-71523
 * Crooked Shank: The river water is now deep enough to swim and fish within.
 * Crooked Shank: Fixed a typo in Stan’s responses.
 * Crooked Shank: Fixed collision on a handful of trees.
 * Crypt of the Avatar: Replaced a missing wall near the start of the scene. SOTA-71522
 * Etceter: The Avatar will now remember vegetable merchant Rowan Norfolk’s personal name. SOTA-71502
 * Ferig’s Battle Camp: Fixed several incorrectly-sized ore nodes. SOTA-71504
 * K’rul: Moved two Oracle Watchers away from the lava. Rebaked the path grid. SOTA-71549
 * Highvale: The default exit should now display as “South Entrance” when entering from Novia. SOTA-71468
 * Highvale Outskirts: Marissa now correctly gives the player all the items back as part of her gathering quest reward and gives a reasonable excuse for doing so. SOTA-71540
 * Highvale Outskirts: Inserted a task for Burnes’s quest to defeat the Obsidian Elf Commander that appears when you collect commander’s head, which directs you to deliver it to Burnes. SOTA-71529
 * Highvale Outskirts: Fixed an issue where players would sometimes not memorize Montgomery the hermit’s name. SOTA-71530
 * Kiln: Added props to the reagents merchant area. SOTA-71533
 * Kingsport: Adjusted sea mist locations slightly. SOTA-71518
 * Kingsport: Fixed typos and grammar in responses for guild registrar, old female shopper, and Jeremy the tailor supplies merchant. SOTA-71514, SOTA-71515, SOTA-71520
 * Owl’s Head: Added teleporter signs to several locations. SOTA-71524
 * Owl’s Head: A cabinet with awkward interaction has been improved. SOTA-71517
 * Port Harmony: Selleck has taken off hunting treasure for a bit. We’re sure he’ll have some fascinating things to tell us when he returns.
 * Port Harmony: Corrected the reponse that Jenkins the watersmith gives for her own name. Fixed a logic issue in the responses for the news hawkers when trying to praise them.
 * Port Harmony: Jeremiah the produce merchant now also sells lemons.
 * Port Harmony: Fixed a typo in Peregrine’s conversation. SOTA-71528
 * Port Harmony Cistern: Fixed spawn-in targets. Improved cavern terrain. Fixed collision on exit ladder. Adjusted water-soaked torches. Fixed typos in a letter. Added tooltip to water purication consoles. Adjusted quest logic in Jenkins’ responses.
 * Shores of Malice: Added lights next to Charon and Yama. Players can now destroy their Malice Far Gate key and reacquire one from Yama. Improved the logic that archives the “Learn How to Enter Malice” task. SOTA-71437
 * Solace Bridge Outskirts: Updated a few responses for Ackerley the Alchemist. SOTA-71503
 * Soltown: Corrected typos in two guards’ responses. Updated Emily’s “red cloth” response. SOTA-71505
 * Sunless Barrens: Removed grass from an inappropriate location. Added a waypoint path for some NPCs.
 * Tenebris Harbor: Removed plants from and slightly reshaped a cliffside. SOTA-71548
 * Ulfheim: The grand hall door will now display magical barrier effects the first and every time it closes. SOTA-65669
 * Vikland: Oski the bard trainer has moved from the Ruins of Utheim and now lives within the village of Vikland. SOTA-71506
 * Westend: Corrected the “read/write” settings for several walls and signs to ensure their collision is always enabled. SOTA-70896
 * Created map for the Crags. SOTA-58040
 * Created map for North Quel Way.
 * Created map for Quel Shardfall.
 * Created map for Sawtooth Thicket.
 * Created map for South Quel Woods.
 * Adjusted alignment for Brittany Alleys map.
 * Added map card for the Jack of Diamonds.
 * The next region for mapping is Verdantis.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

 * Avallon: Upgraded to Town.
 * Chiron Beta Prime: Upgraded to Village.
 * Dark Caverns: Added new Village southwest of Estgard in Novia.
 * M’hul Island: Upgraded to City.
 * R116 Map of Novia Player-Owned Towns

Website Changes:
We have removed the Twitter widgets from our webpage due to Twitter’s recent changes causing the website embed functionality to cease working as expected. Tweets cross-posted in Discord are partially working at this time. We are considering dropping Twitter as a communication channel and will post more information info on this in the official forums when updates are available.

Release 116 Subscriber Login Rewards
In the hottest days of summer, don’t be afraid of the dark. The Rewards Program login items for Release 116 are a Dark Gothic Cabinet, Console, and Serving Table.



Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 116 to receive these special login items.

August Login Reward
Give your valuables some contrast and some perspective: each account that logs in during the month of August will receive a one-time gift of a Dark Gothic Pedestal!



Crown Store Updates
New in the crown store for August 1st:


 * Dark Gothic Pedestal

…and for August 11th:


 * Dark Gothic Cabinet
 * Dark Gothic Console
 * Dark Gothic Serving Table

The Lord British store items will be available until Friday August 4th

The Summer Seasonal store items will be available until Monday September 25th

Upcoming Release Dates
Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2023 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 116 – July 27 (Content) Release 117 – August 31 (Polish) Release 118 – September 28 (Polish) Release 119 – October 26 (Content) Release 120 – November 16 (Polish) Release 121 – December 14 (Polish)

Additional Information

 * Player Guide
 * Known Issues
 * Quick Reference Card