Release 98

RELEASE 98, January 27, 2022
The Catnip Games development team now brings the players of Shroud of the Avatar another round of new content and improvements. For Release 98 (R98), our primary focus was bugs but we did manage to sneak in a number of new game elements! First off, more large cats (black panthers, jaguars, snow tigers) have been added, most of which can be tamed! Players will find these new creatures scattered through many scenes throughout New Britannia! Also, a entirely new category of powerful but fragile artifact has started to appear in some scenes.

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 Players Guide and Known Issues list for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

Release 98 Patch Notes!
Below is a list of game changes and new content that are live as of Release 98 (R98). A handful of combat balance changes and other fixes will be patched in within the next week before moving on to our February release


 * More big cats have finally made their appearance in Novia: Jaguars, Black Panther, and Snow Tigers
 * With the exception of the very rare, very powerful version of each species, all big cats can be tamed!
 * Jaguars and Black Panthers have chances to spawn in:
 * Forest road encounter in Novia, Hidden Vale, and Mistrendur
 * Ravensmoor
 * Verdantis Shardfall
 * Norgard Fens
 * Sawtooth Thicket
 * Snow Tigers have a chance to spawn in:
 * Snowy Tundra encounters in Novia and Mistrendur
 * Jotungrund


 * Added a randomize button to the character creation screen.
 * Added a street light to Righ Inis on the overworld map to make it easier to find.
 * Added big cat trophy heads and rugs
 * Added Lua function ShroudPlayerGold to get current gold amount of the player.
 * Added pristine to the new big cat head component
 * Added ShroudOnPlaySound which will catch Lua and UI sound name and also ShroudStopUISound which is used with the first function to stop a sound from
 * Being played in the UI channel right when its being played.
 * Added ShroudSceneMusic(active) lua function to stop or re-enable back the scene music.
 * Adjusted and added missing deco surfaces for the Lord of the Isle Aquarium dungeon room. SOTA-70104
 * Aerie: Fixed an issue where the “Find Another Blacksmith” compass marker was displaying prematurely. SOTA-70085
 * Ardoris: Added a compass marker for players finding certain evidence related to the black arrow murders. SOTA-70078
 * Ardoris: Improved the journals, responses, logic, and compass markers related to meeting with Siranto, Khasi, Pintar, Damai, and the spirit-talkers.
 * Ardoris: Improved the logic which Shaaria uses to clear her “Give Advice to Shaaria” task. SOTA-70092
 * Ardoris: Removed a redundant keyword from Rolf the guard’s conversation, to stop build errors.
 * Ardoris: The “Meet with Siranto” task has had several text improvements, including being renamed to “Mention Undead to Siranto.”
 * Ardoris: Updated the tasks related to Samael and Kardan Marbane pointing the avatar to talk to Min Liang Tan. SOTA-65292
 * Bard songs vfx should no longer continue after the song is over.
 * Battle of Solace Bridge: Corrected spelling of “Soltown” in “Tell Abigail About Charlotte” journal entry. SOTA-70094
 * Big cats collision was overly large and made it difficult to loot things with a large cat pet out. These have now been adjusted downward to make them less annoying.
 * Big cats should all now have a ROAR ability that grants different effects
 * Big cats will no longer pounce while rooted.
 * Blood River Massacre: Improved how the “Find a Weapon” task resolves itself and archives this task. SOTA-70080
 * Blood River Outskirts: Adjusted the path grid to help keep a deer from spawning within a certain tree. Added POI-specific music at the outposts and ziggurat. SOTA-70143
 * Broochash: Avatars cannot choose to skip a conversation with Albreda if they have Umberjack’s “shakedown note” for her. SOTA-70079
 * Castle ATOS now has a Scene Map. SOTA-70149
 * Castle Atos teleporter now takes you to Castle Atos
 * Castle Atos: Moved items floating over the storehouse shelter to rest on the roof.
 * Castle Atos: Removed line-of-sight conversation requirement from the banker. SOTA-70126
 * Castle Atos: The faction for the chickens in Castle Atos have been changed to “chicken” faction, allowing them to be attacked. SOTA-70100
 * Castle Atos: The Storehouse Containers in Castle Atos have been updated, and the unique turn-in item at the uncommon crate requires 2 Purple Wyvern Eggs.
 * Crown Shop: added castleSet wizard’s tower village home to store
 * Deep Savrenoc Timberland: Resource nodes are now correctly set to tier 4. SOTA-70139
 * Dungeon Kit: Fixed a low LOD version of a single door drame wall piece.
 * East Vauban Foothills: Updated the terrain by the lake to help accommodate players still on the ruins when they sink. SOTA-70066
 * Elysium Mines: Adjusted several ore nodes to improve pathing while mining them. SOTA-70138
 * February 2022 Login Reward: Heart-Shaped White & Gold Footstool
 * Fix: Fixed a bug in vendor items list window that were not showing the numbers of items sent to bank.
 * Fix: Fixed Lua functions ShroudUnsetMask and ShroudMinMaxSize which was always returning false. Also removed the transparency on panel when draging it around which caused problems while setting your own transparency on panels.
 * Fixed an error thrown when doing a “Get Direction” on vendor listing when scene has changed.
 * Fixed deco issue with Leather Flame Armor
 * Fixed deco issue with Triangle & Acara Shield
 * Fixed icon for ball of clay -adjusted block of clay icon brightnesss
 * Fixed icon for Ornate Wooden Hot Tub -increased contrast on hot tub icon
 * Fixed loot issues with 6 Wax Cylinders. Desolis I and II, Sands of Grunvald, and Into the Epitaph now drop properly in the Epitaph at a relatively small rate per creature. Solania now has a small chance to drop from the demon in Solania Catacombs. Kas Ruins now properly drops from the Lich Boss in Kas Ruins at a 100% rate.
 * Fixed storage item count on Celestian Commode
 * Frost giant should now give XPs to even a large party
 * Greyacre: Corrected the spawn-in orientation at the southwest entrance to face the road. SOTA-70098
 * Halls of Artifice: Fixed a typo in a trigger warning UI message. SOTA-70082
 * Improving horse hoof sounds. (Spoiler alert, they still are not good but now just less bad)
 * Jaanaford: Renamed the “Travel to Jaanaford” task to “Ask About Bonesteel in Jaanaford” and improved the logic which archives it. Also, improved the logic in Jenna Karttunen’s responses regarding bonesteel. SOTA-70081
 * Jaguar and Panther: Added to Forest Road Encounter in Novia (southwest), Hidden Vale, and Mistrendur. SOTA-70136
 * Jaguars and Panthers: Added new NPCs to Ravensmoor, Verdantis Shardfall, Norgard Fens, and Sawtooth Thicket. SOTA-70136
 * Jaguars, Snow Tiger, and Black panthers have started appearing in the wilderness.
 * K’rul: Increased the size of a certain doorway to ensure players could always pass through. SOTA-70125
 * Kingsroad: Adjusted some spawner locations and rates for better distribution. Overall, there should be one or two additional spiders, bears, and skeletons in the scene. Also, added ranged and caster skeletons, and a chance for a tier 2 wolf. More nightshade may spawn near the graveyard. Some garlic may spawn along the road.
 * Kingsroad: Fixed a broken spawner to stop build errors.
 * Kobold Expeditionary Camp: Updated the “Free Sir Patrick!” task to be more clear and correct regarding that task. SOTA-70145
 * Kobold Expeditionary Camp: Updated the logic used by the compass marker when doing the “Free Sir Patrick!” task. SOTA-70144
 * Large Cats now feature unique loot tables per cat type and size, and all wolf items have been removed from their loot tables.
 * Loot, 9 Ephemeral Relics were added to the game and will appear as extremely rare drops throughout the world of New Britannia. Ephemeral Relics are typically more powerful than their crafted counter parts, but cannot be repaired and feature a small amount of durability. Use these relics wisely for important battles!
 * Malice: Updated the logic which archives the “Speak with Sequanna” task after completing the Path of Love.
 * Many female NPCs were incorrectly using a male or neuter voice, especially in the Perennial Coast area. This has now been corrected.
 * Massive and Legendary crocs will now have different stats.
 * Moonlight and Sunlight enchantment will now appear in the tooltip of the equipments.
 * Mounted head and rug trophy recipes for big cats -added bigCats head item componnet for recipes
 * Necropolis: Added a connection to the Midmaer Passage near the exit to Midras Ruins. SOTA-69908
 * New elf loot tables for Despair.
 * New Lua functions ShroudLoadSound(filePath, AudioType), ShroudListSound, ShroudPlaySound, ShroudStopSound and a new enum AudioType. Lua scripters now have 5 audio channel to play sounds on at once.More information can be found on the API Doc and a demo on will be shown on forum scripting section.
 * New lua functions ShroudOnPlayFX and ShroudStopFX which will give ability to lua scripter to stop an fx from being played. Look at the API doc for more information.
 * Northwest Blackblade Mountains: Adjusted how close NPCs can get to a certain exit volume. SOTA-70107
 * Novia: Moved the banners above Mud and the Naryad Moors to be above the treeline. SOTA-70097
 * Ore Nodes: Corrected the scaling on high-tier ore nodes.
 * Pet sheet will now be displaying dodge and magic resist.
 * Plains Road Encounter: Removed the”line-of-sight” conversation requirement from the merchants that appear after the boss wave, to help stop them from canceling conversations. SOTA-70147
 * Players will no longer get trapped with the fishies in the Lord of the Isle Aquarium dungeon room. SOTA-70104
 * Players will now be able to place a Dry Docked Huge Pirate Galeon (Keep sized home) on a Castle lot as well as a Keep lot. SOTA-69091
 * port_pirate_galleon_town_playerHouse: Secret door sound effects are now located at the secret door.
 * POT Arx Draconis Lowlands: Upgraded to Town from Village. SOTA-70113
 * POT Moonglow: Added new Holdfast west of Fortus End. SOTA-70091
 * POT Rajazel: Upgraded to City from Town. SOTA-70089, SOTA-70088
 * POT Silverdale Market: Upgraded to City from Town. SOTA-70103, SOTA-70101
 * Previously, the new tall 5 story Town lot sized house would block decoration in some towns with higher elevation. This should now be fixed.
 * Process Big Cats recipes -added carcasses for loot
 * R98 Reward: Heart-Shaped Console, Queen’s Sitting Room Set: Heart-Themed Coffetable, Heart-shaped end table, Heart-backed white & gold throne
 * Ravensmoor Player Dungeon Room Deco Surface fixed. SOTA-70135
 * Savrenoc Stronghold: Adjusted a location where NPCs would get stuck in a world object. SOTA-70099
 * Savrenoc Stronghold: Instead of the northeast and east entrance sharing one compass marker and entry point, these two are now split into two separate compass markers and entry points. (Players will continue to spawn by default into the same location, called East Entrance.) SOTA-70083
 * Seasonal Monsters: Changed the name of Krampus’s list to “Krampus’ List: Naughty Boys and Girls” to help players find it in their inventories.
 * Seasonal Monsters: Krampus has gone dormant until next year, while Envy Angel has returned to Necropolis Barrens. SOTA-68642
 * Set Ancient Essence to be valid ingredient for smelting
 * Set Standing stone deco recipes to be discoverable since they are re-teachable.
 * Several issues which could cause creatures to stop spawning in some scenes have been fixed. This was most common in cities.
 * Snow Tigers: Add new NPC to Snowy Tundra Encounters in Novia and Mistrendur, Vertas Pass, Brightbone Pass, and Jotungrund. SOTA-70136
 * Solace Bridge Outskirts: After finding the missing scout, the avatar will get a task to ask her about Ebon Dawn (to ensure a more obvious transition to the “disrupt ritual” quest). SOTA-70105
 * Solace Bridge Outskirts: Fixed typos in in the Deliver Bloody Bones journal entry, and another in Talk to First Memory of Three journal entry. SOTA-70109, SOTA-70108
 * Solace Bridge Outskirts: Moved a lantern than wasn’t working when looked at from certain distances and angles. SOTA-70065
 * Solania: Updated the logic used by Merriweather in her responses about Simone’s book quest. SOTA-70087
 * Soltown and other scenes: Corrected typo for “Town Crier” in teleport-to-zone lists. SOTA-70062
 * Soltown: Regenerated Arabella’s conversation components to help prevent “not found” error messages. SOTA-70146
 * Spectral Mines: Changed the archlapin bone quest items to be destroyable. SOTA-69429
 * Taming Frenzy finally has a unique icon!
 * The Breach: Adjusted the path grid to better accommodate the Blackened Clockwork Dragon. SOTA-70068
 * The various large cats in New Britannia now have a chance to drop Cat Claws, which can be utilized in a new potion recipe, the Potion of the Stalking Cat. This potion grants a small bonus to Rend, Sneak Attack, and when attacking from behind. This recipe is a somewhat rare drop from the elves in Despair.
 * Toned down Chaos Shield visuals to be less distracting
 * Updates to big cat stats to make adult, ferocious, and obsidian cats have different stats.
 * Upper Fortus: Fixed a typo in a letter found on a table in a building. SOTA-70096
 * Wyvern Eggs: Set “Merchant Availability” to “Not Available” to stop build errors.
 * Xenos: Updated the “Enter Artifice” journal entry to be more specific and to “Enter Halls of Artifice,” among other improvements. SOTA-70086
 * Known issue: Young Snow tigers appear orange (fixed patch 1)

Player Owned Town Updates:


 * Arx Draconis Lowlands: Upgraded to Town from Village.
 * Moonglow: Added Holdfast to Novia, west of Fortus End
 * Rajazel: Upgraded to City.
 * Silverdale Market: Upgraded to City.

February Login Reward: Heart-Shaped White & Gold Footstool!
Log in during the month of February, and you’ll receive a Heart-Shaped White & Gold Footstool! Be the envy of all your neighbors with this amazing piece!

Release 98 Subscriber Login Rewards: Ancient Xenossian Winged Plate Helm, Heart-Shaped Console, and Ornate Large White & Gold Heart-Backed Throne
These new heart-themed furniture items will also be featured in the Crown Shop in the new Queen’s Sitting Room Sets.

Avatars! Rewards Program login items for Release 98 are a must have — don’t miss out! This month’s collection includes the last of the Ancient Xenossian collectibles: The Winged Ancient Xenossian Helm. It also includes two new heart-themed furniture items: The Ornate Large White & Gold Heart-Backed Throne, as well as the Heart-shaped Console. Subscribers to the Reward Program must login during Release 98 to receive these special login items:The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:


 * 900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
 * Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
 * Exclusive Title every 3 months
 * 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
 * 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
 * 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
 * 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
 * 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
 * 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
 * 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
 * 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
 * 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant


 * Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
 * Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
 * Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
 * Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
 * Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
 * Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
 * Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
 * Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
 * Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting


 * While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
 * Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
 * 24 Additional Deck Slots!

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 2022 Release Schedule is as follows:


 * This release: Release 98 – Jan 27 (Polish)
 * Release 99 – Feb 24 (Content)
 * Release 100 – Mar 31 (Polish)
 * Release 101 – Apr 28 (Content)

Additional Information

 * Release 98 Instructions
 * Release 98 Known Issues
 * Quick Reference Card