Release 38

January 26, 2017
Release 38 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, January 26, at 10:30 AM US Central Standard Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 38 is one of our larger releases because some of the work was started before the holiday break and some of the content has been worked on for several releases (Xenos, Blood Bay, Scaled Crafting).



Scenes and Story: We made huge strides forward on multiple scenes throughout the game, including rebuilds of Brookside, Xenos, Vauban Pass, Solania, and multiple Perennial Coast scenes. We also added the new Canyon Siege scene to the Town Siege rotation and added the new PVP scene of Blood Bay to Spindrift Bay. Additionally, we began polishing the Path of Courage with special attention to Highvale. On top of all that, we did a massive cleanup pass in almost every scene in the game to fix bugs. Finally, to better help tell the story in all these scenes, we rebuilt the NPC conversation interface.



More Interactions: We changed the way that keys and locks worked in order to introduce the concept of breaking keys. We also began adding traps to existing scenes. Two types appear in Brittany Sewers and a third in Ardoris Sewers in R38. Finally, we created moving platforms and you can jump on the Blood Bay airship patrol to experience the first example of this new feature.

Scaling Crafting and New Recipes: Equipment improvements gained from Enchanting and Masterworking now scale with your skill level as well as the number of previous improvements. This greatly improves the rewards gained in exchange for the risk taken, and provides better incentives for specialization in crafting. We also added over 20 new recipes; mostly new combat potions. Additionally, we greatly improved the power of Bone Armor and Obsidian Gear.

Rare Loot: High level enemies now have a chance to drop a variety of new rare items, including 17 new combat potions and magical artifacts! The potions include stronger health and focus potions, potions that speed regeneration rates, and potions that grant increased stats. The magical artifacts are unique non-craftable items that, when worn, give the wearer unique benefits but also have some interesting downsides…

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. More importantly, they caught some major balance issues before they got to the live servers. They also provided editorial feedback on this post. 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. We do not yet have all of the in-game systems needed to inform players about these changes, and 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 these player-run websites: Avatars Radio and Events of the Avatars). You can 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 38.

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 (but are still planned).

RELEASE 38, January 26, 2017


 * Story: The Path of Love will get some final polish passes including the propagation of the Asian influenced assets we created for Ardoris across all of the Perennial Coast, as well as adding Brookside and Graff Island to the plot. Brookside will be getting uncloned during this process. We will be polishing the other starting scenes for the other two paths: Blood River and Highvale. We will begin polish on the entire Path of Courage. Vauban Pass will be uncloned, thereby making all the Control Points unique scenes. Finally, the all-new polished version of Xenos will be going live, in all its Greco-Roman influenced splendor, and the volcanic PVP violence of Blood Bay will debut.
 * Perennial Coast Improvements (Architecture/Flora): In Release 38, we are moving through all the scenes along the Perennial Coast and updating the flora and architecture to match the new Asian influence we first showed in Ardoris during Release 37. This includes replacing all the exit arches, adding in more bamboo (along with other flora), adding or swapping out Asian architectural elements, along with other details. The only scene we are not touching in R38 is Celestis, which is getting its own specific un-cloning task in a future release.
 * [[Image:Perennial-Coast-4.jpg|580px]]
 * Perennial Coast Improvements (Character): All NPCs along the Perennial Coast are now using custom regional Asian influenced outfits including the Guards, Citizens, Farmers, Merchants, and Nobility. Additionally all Guards along the Perennial Coast are now equipped with Katanas. This, of course, includes Ardoris itself.
 * Solania: The small town of Solania is located in the Perennial Coast region in the southeast of Novia. Solania is located on a high point in the Celestial Swamp that lines the southern shore of Celestial Lake, so getting there can be quite dangerous. Like the other Perennial Coast scenes, Solania got a polish pass to incorporate the Asian influence. This included updating all of the NPC buildings with new rooflines (blue tiles) and wall textures, putting in a new perimeter Shogun style wall, updating the foliage, and adding in various other details. As with all polish and un-clone passes we make on maps we do NOT change lot placements. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage.
 * [[Image:Solania5.jpg|580px]]
 * Brookside: Brookside is located in the Drachvald region in the northeast of Novia directly south of Spite. It is the hometown of Samael and was overrun by the Undead armies of Anapa not long ago. Starting with Release 38, players will encounter this town when following their quests along the Path of Love. Brookside started as a cloned scene using one of our PRT/POT templates based off of the Forest 02 POT template (a forested variation of the Grasslands POT template). In Release 38, it is was rebuilt with new flora, new atmospheric settings like permanent fog, a graveyard, and other unique features for the plot including Samael’s farm. Note that when we un-clone these scenes, we do NOT change lot placements. We only make cosmetic changes of building styles, terrain, and foliage.
 * [[Image:Brookside7.jpg|580px]]
 * Highvale Polish: Various changes were made to this starting scene on the Path of Courage. The scene in general has been given a level of polish with the addition of many more difficulty-appropriate monsters in previously unused areas, fixing of outstanding bugs, fixing pathing errors, etc., so that it is comparable to the other two tutorial areas. A new optional quest has been added to the tutorial as well—visit the central keep to begin.
 * Courage Path Polish: Various changes were made to the Path of Courage. In addition to other bugs addressed with quests in Resolute and post-tutorial Highvale, players who were unable to progress the Path of Courage due to a certain uncommunicative NPC within Valhold Keep will find the path open to them now.
 * Vauban Pass: Vauban Pass is one of the numerous Control Points that limits travel between regions in Novia. It is located between the Grunvald and Drachvald regions and is controlled by the Undead armies of Anapa. Vauban Pass started as a clone of Sanctus Spine but now has been completely rebuilt for Release 38; making all the Control Points unique scenes.
 * [[Image:Vauban-Pass-1.jpg|580px]]
 * Xenos: Right before we went persistent, we uncloned Xenos and made some modifications to it for specific plot points. However, we were not satisfied with the level of polish, so we chose to do a major rebuild of this scene to bring it up to the quality it needed to be at. Xenos is on the island of Elysium, southwest of Novia, and is a critical juncture on the Path of Truth. The modifications focused on bringing out the Greco-Roman character of the region as well as highlighting the various aspects of the Lottery of Artifice—including pilgrim encampments, an ancient caravanserai, and the temple of Boreas. We also greatly expanded the aqueduct system, rebuilt the dock area, and added a Lagoon of Pleasures.
 * [[Image:Xenos-Subpost-III_07.jpg|580px]]
 * Blood Bay: Blood Bay is a tropical island that was smashed by shards of the moons during the Cataclysm. These shards triggered a massive volcanic event that is still happening today. Toxic minerals in the lava have stained the water red, giving the island its distinctive name. Obsidian Shards in the area make the Protection of the Oracle impossible, making the entire island an Open PvP zone where Outlanders slaughter each other at will. Due to the incredibly unstable nature of the island, only the most desperate and dangerous individuals dare live there: Pirates, Brigands, Thieves, etc. In response, some others who follow a more virtuous path have taken it upon themselves also reside here to keep a watchful eye on the miscreants of the island. Both groups have formed their own settlements on the highest cliffs opposite the volcano above the bay. These two settlements represent opposite ends of the spectrum of virtue and are known as Scoundrel’s Hold and Judge’s Watch, respectively. In future releases if your virtue is high, the townspeople of Judge’s Watch will interact with you, but if your virtue is low, they will refuse to have any business with you. The opposite will be true for Scoundrel’s Hold, where they will only interact with you if your virtue is low. For R38, the NPCs work just like other towns and the virtue mechanic does not yet factor in. Outside the towns, the island is filled with dangerous beasts and a landscape just as dangerous, filled with quicksand (slows you down), fields of poison gas, magic-boosting shards, magic nullifying shards, fields of confusion, and other hazards. This map is a testing ground for many of these new systems, features and ideas that we will then propagate out to other maps over the next several releases. Player housing is not yet available in Blood Bay but should be available in the next few releases.
 * [[Image:SotA_BloodBay_5.jpg|580px]]
 * Canyon Siege: We created another scene for use in the Town Sieges. This scene is a bridge across a canyon for use in towns near mountainous areas.
 * [[Image:Canyon-Siege-1.jpg|580px]]
 * Control Points: Mages in control points now have spells that manipulate player position (much like the Daemon). Additionally, during the final wave there is a small chance a boss-level NPC will show up, of a type appropriate for the NPCs of that control point. Those bosses are:
 * Arachnairn Deathbringer: A massive spider whose poisonous bite is almost guaranteed to kill you.
 * LuRK: A Kobold scout from K’rul who is a master of magic.
 * Skelrin Nayer: An ancient lich lord who is kin to the lich in The Rise.
 * Namron Hathcock: An elite member of the Ebon Dawn archers who is VERY deadly with a bow.
 * Non-Hostile Overworld Encounters: Roving Encounters on the Overworld now have the ability to be flagged as Non-Hostile. We can use this flag for prey animals like Deer or domestic animals like Sheep as well as wandering merchants (when we add that encounter). This means that these particular encounters will no longer attack you on sight (we are very sorry if you enjoyed being chased by aggressive deer).
 * Aerie Lighthouse: This landmark had previously been empty but is now fully decorated.
 * Deep Ravenswood: We added some Points of Interest to this scene, moved around some creature spawns to better match these new points of interest and randomized some of the spawns to introduce more variability in the scene (while maintaining the overall challenge). We also added a boss level spider so watch out!
 * Brittany Castle: Previously the various parts of the castle and grounds were not in alignment, but this has now been corrected. Now the main castle entrances are aligned perfectly all the way from the main gate through the bell tower to the entrance. Additionally we made sure the staircase on the first floor and the tiles were aligned to the front door. Finally, on the second floor we properly aligned the throne room main staircase with the throne.
 * Sky Bug Fixes: We fixed several issues with the sky including a mysterious black box and jittery planetary movement at certain times of the day. We also increased the resolution of the stars a bit.
 * Scene Bug Fixes: We went through tons of scenes in the game, fixing major and minor bugs including stuck spots, floating assets, missing assets, missing sfx, bad NPC patrols, missing labels (Overworld), inaccessible ore nodes, missing collision, missing/misplaced Rez Ankhs, falling through the world, etc.
 * Ardoris
 * Battle of Highvale
 * Battle of Highvale (return)
 * Brittany Alleys
 * Brittany Wharfs
 * Central Brittany
 * Crag Foothills
 * Desolate Hills
 * Grasslands 01 POT Template
 * East Perennial Trail
 * East Vauban Foothills
 * Eastreach Gap
 * Elysian Plains
 * Elysium Mines
 * Estgard
 * Etceter
 * Etceter Crag Mines
 * Forest Siege
 * Graff Island
 * Harvest
 * Holtrot
 * Nightshade Pass
 * North Fetid Swamp
 * North Brightbone Woods
 * North Naryad Pinelands
 * Northern Grunvald Barrens
 * Owl’s Head
 * Owl’s Nest
 * Paladis Shardfall
 * Plains Roads Encounter
 * Resolute
 * Resolute Sewers
 * Restless Woods
 * Ruined Keep
 * Sequanna Colossus
 * Serpent’s Spine Foothills
 * Shuttered Eye
 * Solace Bridge
 * Soltown
 * Soltown Catacombs
 * South Fetid Swamp
 * Southern Grunvald Barrens
 * Spectral Mines
 * Spectral Peaks
 * Spite
 * Superstition Canyon
 * The Epitaph
 * Twins Foothills
 * Underground 01 POT Template
 * Valhold
 * Vauban Pass
 * Vertas Pass
 * West Perennial Trail
 * Graff Island Plot Changes Delayed: We chose to only spend time on the first half of the Muriel’s grave side-plot which is in Brookside. We will add the second half which takes place on Graff Island in Q2.
 * Blood River Polish Delayed: Since our current focus is on the Path of Courage we chose to keep our efforts on Highvale since Blood River is on the Path of Truth.


 * Traps and Locks: We are going to greatly enhance the interactivity of our dungeons and other play spaces with more traps including flame jets, pressure plates, and arrow shooters. We are also refactoring our key, lock, and door system to make it easier for our developers to add locked doors and keys to their maps.
 * Traps and Puzzles: We have implemented a set of new traps and puzzles for the game. Release 38 will include Pressure Plates (these can open doors as well as trigger traps), Flame Jets, Arrow Shooters, and updated versions of the old Spike Traps. We will begin propagating these throughout the game over the next several releases. In R38, you can find Arrow Shooters and Flame Jets in the Brittany Sewers.
 * Keys & Locks: As you adventure throughout Novia and the Hidden Vale, you’ll find that many keys now have a chance to break on each use. Keys may have a good chance to break (such as the keys for the locked passages that interconnect underground scenes and the cages found in wilderness scenes throughout Novia), while others break about half the time (such as the key for the Kiln Cistern Alchemist’s Workshop), and some will never break (such as special keys required for quests). When a key breaks, a message will appear in your chat window telling you so: “Your key broke during use.” If you try to unlock a lock, for which you have several keys, only one key will potentially break.​ (In other words, not all keys of that type will break, only one at a time.) If there is ever a situation where more than one key type can be used to open a lock, the system will use a key that never breaks when one is available, otherwise it will use a key that has the greatest chance to break.
 * Moving Platforms: We now have the ability to move players on platforms for things like elevators, mine carts, etc. Our first example is an airship patrol of Blood Bay. We will be adding many more examples in upcoming releases.
 * [[Image:Blood-Bay-30.jpg|580px]]


 * New NPC Conversation Interface: We will be doing a polish and refactor pass of the NPC Conversation System to make it both more immersive and easier to use.
 * New NPC Conversation Interface: We have updated the conversation window used for interacting with NPCs to make it both more immersive and easier to use. For immersion, we are hiding almost all of the other interface elements, including all other chat and the hotbar. We are also placing the chat in the very middle of the screen where you are looking at the NPC in order to keep you focused on the interaction. We have also tried to keep the interface itself as minimal as possible, with very few borders and as much transparency in the elements as we can. For ease of use, we are placing all the keywords in a toolbar at the bottom of the window. This toolbar will include every keyword you have uncovered with the NPC, including keywords relating to quests you are currently on and keywords learned from past conversations with that NPC. This saves you from having to scroll back to find keywords you might not remember. Players who preferred the older text-based conversation interface will find that still works as well, and in some cases will discover hidden secrets.
 * [[Image:NPC-convo-UI-with-spaces-and-name-colors.jpg|580px]]
 * Camera and Character Placement: As part of this new feature, we added the ability to define where the avatar stands and where the camera is located when you enter a conversation. For now, this only works if we know exactly where the NPC is going to be standing, so we are only using it for the conversations with the Oracle. But in the future, we hope to be able to use this tech to prevent awkward camera placement.


 * Chat Windows: Chat tabs will be able to be pulled off and placed within the game window as separate chat windows.
 * Chat Windows Delayed: We chose to spend time doing more iterations on the new NPC chat interface instead of working on the separable chat windows.


 * Crafting: Enchanting and Masterworking level will now have much greater influence on the outcomes of item creation. The higher your skill level, the greater the power of the effect added to the item and the greater number of choices you will have . At Grandmaster level, you will even have the chance to sometimes add maximum durability back to the item. Additionally, the power of the effect is directly proportional to how many levels of masterworking/enchanting have been applied, to better balance risk versus reward. We also hope to greatly increase the number of possible Enchantment and Masterwork effects.
 * Scaling Masterworking and Enchanting: The higher your skill level in Masterworking and Enchanting the higher the power of the effect you add.
 * Proportional Masterworking and Enchanting: The power of the effect added is now directly proportional to how many levels of masterworking/enchanting have been applied to better balance risk versus reward. So the power of the first effect added is much weaker than the sixth effect added.
 * Weapons and Armor Enchanting Skills: There are now two specialization skills in Enchanting: Weapons and Armor. You will need to level these up in order to gain access to higher level enchantments (aka Major Enchants). The addition of these is to further our efforts to rewards specialization in crafting.
 * Grandmaster Masterworking Maximum Durability: If you are a Grandmaster at Masterworking, you have a chance to add Maximum Durability back to the item you are working on instead of adding an effect.
 * Grandmaster Enchanting Durability Hardening: Grandmaster Enchanters now have the ability to add an enchantment that hardens weapons and armor against durability reduction.


 * Attunement and Resistance Enchantments: There are now attunement (weapons) and resistance (chest armor) available to enchanters where the effects are tied to the gem used.
 * Food Buffs in Combat: Buffs and bonuses from food now work during combat as well as out of combat.
 * Bucket Helm Fixed: This can now be Masterworked and Enchanted.
 * Ornate Aeronaut Helmet: Fixed name from Ornate Aviator Cap and Goggles.
 * Bone Armor: Bone Armor has been greatly increased in power. As a reminder, Bone Armor is classified as Light Armor but offers a level of protection similar to Plate while still being very light in weight and low in Fizzle. For R38, we increased the Damage Avoidance, increased Durability, and added some Damage Resistance.
 * Obsidian Armor and Weapons: Obsidian Armor and Weapons have been greatly increased in power as well. Both weapons and armor have had their maximum durability raised to match other gear and had their weight reduced. Armor also had its Fizzle chance reduced greatly and Damage Resistance was increased. As a reminder, Obsidian Armor comes with a damage reflection bonus and Obsidian weapons have a high critical damage chance.
 * Crafted Homes: We added glass to all house recipes that have windows or some kind of glass component.
 * Torches Burn Out: Handheld torches now have a durability that slowly goes down as they are used, eventually burning out. This is coupled with a new recipe to make a torch.
 * Over 20 New Recipes: See Combat section for description of Potion effects
 * Torch


 * Welcome Torch
 * Perennial Coast Farmer Outfit (including hat)
 * Perennial Coast Peasant Outfit
 * Circlet
 * Fancy Circlet
 * Shogun 1 Room Bungalow
 * Shogun Wall Dividers
 * Lesser Healing Potion
 * Greater Healing Potion
 * Maximum Healing Potion
 * Lesser Focus Potion
 * Greater Focus Potion
 * Maximum Focus Potion
 * Restoration Potion
 * Potion of Acumen
 * Potion of Deftness
 * Potion of Might
 * Health Regeneration Potion
 * Focus Regeneration Potion
 * Essence of the Wolf Potion
 * Potion of Cat’s Grace
 * Potion of Elemental Resistance
 * Potion of Magic Resistance
 * Merchant Regional Diversification and Cleanup: We did a major pass through all the merchants in the game to ensure that the merchants matched the shop they were placed in, had different inventories in each city and region to reward exploration, added merchants that were missing, and fixed any broken merchants. Here is a comprehensive list of all the changes:
 * Overall:
 * Weapon/Combat/Armor Merchants: Now have Smithing recipes since smiths have been removed from many scenes.
 * Farmer Market Stall Merchants: Many of the Farmer Market Stall merchants have been reworked to have regional raw food ingredients along with their seeds (if available). For instance, if the farmer sells apples she also sells apple seeds now. Each merchant now has about 15-17 things for sale. 
 * City by City:
 * Aerie: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on MarketStall Textiles (was generic Tailoring) and Swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Ardoris: Added Blacksmith merchant to Weapon & Armor Shop. Added Decorations merchant to Bank. Fixed Deed merchant that was broken.
 * Bramble: Removed Spice merchant (was generic Cooking). Swapped out Blacksmith with Carpenter since few scenes have Carpenter. Swapped Alchemy merchant with MarketStall Reagent merchant since there is no building.
 * Broochash, Celestis, Eastmarch, Graff Island, Noreach, Point West, Storms Reach: Swapped Blacksmith merchant with Combat Shop merchant to sync with building sign and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Etceter: Added Waitress merchant bundles to waitresses and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Fortus End: Added Combat merchant to Combat Shop and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Goti: Swapped Alchemy merchant with Market Stall Reagent merchant since there is no building.
 * Harvest: Swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Jaanaford: Removed Spice merchant (was generic Cooking) and swapped Alchemy merchant with Market Stall Reagent merchant since there is no building.
 * Mud: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Fishing Shop (was Market Stall Fish) and removed generic recipe merchant. Swapped Blacksmith merchant with Combat Shop merchant to sync with building sign and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * 'Northwood: Added Combat merchant to Combat Shop and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Owlshead: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Market Stall Baker (was generic Cooking).
 * Port Graff: Moved Alchemy merchant inside of Alchemy Shop. Removed one of two generic cooking merchants that were in close proximity to each other. Removed two of three generic Blacksmith merchants that were in close proximity to each other.
 * Resolute: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Combat merchant (was deprecated weapon bundle). Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Market Stall Baker (was generic Cooking). Swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Solania: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Fishing Shop (was Market Stall Fish). Removed generic recipe merchant. Swapped Blacksmith merchant with Combat Shop merchant to sync with building sign and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Spite: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Combat merchant (was deprecated weapon bundle). Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Market Stall Butcher (was generic Cooking). Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Market Stall Farmer (was generic Cooking). Swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Valhold: Removed Butchery merchant standing in the middle of nowhere.
 * Vertas: Fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Market Stall Baker (was generic Cooking) and fixed incorrect merchant inventory on Market Stall Farmer (was generic Cooking). Set NPC Respenta to be an Armor merchant instead of Blacksmithing per his conversations. 
 * West End: Removed generic recipe merchant and swapped Alchemy merchant with Magic Shop merchant to sync with building sign.
 * Yew: Removed Spice merchant (was generic Cooking) and swapped Alchemy merchant with Market Stall Reagent merchant since there is no building.
 * More Choices at Grandmaster Delayed: While we were able to add more effects this release, we feel we do not yet have enough to make more choices at Grandmaster meaningful enough; so we chose to delay work on this feature.


 * Character: Clockwork Dragons will make their appearance in the game in several versions, including the Summer Telethon pet as well as a full-size behemoth! Citizens of Ardoris and the Perennial Coast will now be adorned in Asian-influenced clothing and we will also be updating the Guards in all Perennial Coast scenes with the Ardoris City Guard outfits. Work on other Telethon reward items will also continue including Clockwork Armor, Ice Wings, and Ice Bagpipes. Finally, rumors of a yet-unnamed and unseen stealthy clockwork beast loose in the Kobold areas have been shocking to hear.
 * New Avatar Movement Animations: We recently purchased some animation reference material to help us improve some of our animations. Using those references we have replaced the walk, run, and sprint animations for the male and female avatars with much more polished and lifelike animations.
 * New Creatures
 * Clockwork Dragon: Kobold scientists at the K’rul (Kobold Research Underground Lab) unleashed these gigantic mechanical terrors on Novia to invoke panic among humans. Their program appears to be succeeding… You can find one in Blood Bay, if you dare.
 * [[Image:SS_Clockworkdragon_J.jpg|560px]]
 * Shock Monkey: Shock Monkeys are another mechanical nightmare from K’rul, developed for covert missions. These mechanical monkeys are a terrible version of their cute organ grinder cousins, with sharp claws and teeth plus a shocking electrical attack. They also have stealth abilities that allow them to completely disappear from view. They are rumored to have been found in Skrekk, Blood Bay, Sanctus Spine, and a few other location in Novia.
 * Wild Grey Squirrel: Grey Squirrels (who have much less pointy teeth than shock monkeys) can now be seen throughout Novia in cities and adventure scenes.
 * New Pets:
 * Baby Copper Clockwork Dragon Pet (Telethon): Haven’t you always wanted a cute little reminder of the screams and smells of an entire village being burned to the ground by a giant mechanical horror? Well, if you were part of the Summer Telethon Part 2, you get your wish!


 * Baby Silver and Baby Blackened Metal Clockwork Dragon Pets: What? The monstrosity that incinerated all that you knew and loved wasn’t copper colored? You wanted something in Silver or Blackened Metal to better remember them by? Well, we have what you need with these two color variations of the telethon version that can be purchased from the Add-On Store.
 * White & Black Squirrels: Squirrels are nature’s way of reminding you that you didn’t really prepare well for the winter and you are surely going to perish; but don’t think about that! Instead think about how darned cute these little tree rodents are! These color variants can be purchased from the Add-On Store.
 * Mandarin Duck: There is a long running joke/history of ducks with Ultimas, so we have known for a long time that we had to have ducks in Shroud as well. For our Shogun bundles, we knew we needed animals from Asia and we wanted a bird, so when we found the male Mandarin duck, we knew that we had the perfect match! Expect more ducks in future releases.
 * Pallas Cat: Another Asian native we were excited to add to our game! He’s so fluffy!
 * Shiba Inu Dog: What? We can have one of the cutest dogs there is that also fits our Shogun theme and is an Asian native? We win!
 * New Emotes:
 * /readpaper, /writepaper, /readbook, and /writebook: These emotes have been added to the standard emotes all characters automatically receive. In a future release these will also be triggered automatically when players read or write.
 * New NPC/Player Outfits:
 * Perennial Coast Farmer Outfit: Since the Perennial Coast is at the southern end of Novia working the fields can get quite hot. This can be crafted in-game.
 * Perennial Coast Peasant: Laborers and other commoners wear this sensible clothing when working along the Perennial Coast. This can be crafted in-game.
 * Ornate Kimono: Layers of silk with lovely geometric patterns adorn this ornate kimono favored by the nobility of Ardoris and the Perennial Coast. It can be found in the Shogun Bundles or purchased from the Add-On Store.
 * [[Image:Ardoris_Elite_Male_front.jpg|300px]]
 * Ornate Floral Kimono: Beautiful floral patterns cover this ornate kimono worn by nobility of Ardoris and the Perennial Coast. It can be found in the Shogun Bundles or purchased from the Add-On Store.
 * [[Image:Ardoris_Elite_female_front.jpg|300px]]
 * Katana: This curved blade is wielded by the guards all along the Perennial Coast (and some bandits).
 * Ornate Katana: This ornate blade has a dragon head on the pommel and can be found in the Shogun Bundles.
 * Copper Clockwork Armor (Telethon): Kobold tinkerers are always seeking ways to improve everything, and now they have made their own version of a Plate Armor that has clockwork assisted movement to offset the weight. Unfortunately, the gears themselves also weigh a lot, so it turns out the benefit is nullified. However, Outlanders who saw the armor loved the look and asked the Kobold tinkers to keep making it; if only for the looks. The helmet has a built-in Aether Vibration Device so you can tune into your favorite radio stations. This version is a telethon reward for the Summer Telethon Part 2.
 * [[Image:Clockwork_Armor_Bronze_Front.jpg|300px]]
 * Silver, Black, Steel Clockwork Armor Variants: If Copper doesn’t go with your eyes, then you have three other colors to choose from in the Add On Store! Like the telethon version, the helmets in each of these have a built-in Aether Vibration Device so you can tune into your favorite radio stations.
 * [[Image:clockwork-montage.png|560px]]
 * Frozen Bagpipes (Telethon): Some Outlanders were jealous of the Flaming Bagpipes they saw some of their brethren sporting so they yet again convinced some Kobold tinkers to “improve” their bagpipes. This time, they upgraded them to shoot snow! This is one of the Fall into Winter Telethon rewards (note was originally called Ice Bagpipes).


 * Ice Wings (Telethon): Wearing these wings reminds you of how cold your heart really is and how you should have really written your mom that letter. This is one of the Fall into Winter Telethon rewards.
 * Round Wide Brimmed Hat: If you wanted the hat but not the mask from the Plague Doctor Mask, then now you have your chance in the Add-On Store.
 * Bug Sprayer (Testing Incentive Program): Bug Sprayer equippable with /bugspray emote that makes a green cloud.
 * Ornate Circlet: This elaborately carved circle of metal will be sure to make anyone look regal and is available in the Add On Store.
 * Fancy Circlet and Circlet: These regal bands of metal worn on the head can be crafted in-game.
 * Iron Maiden’s Chemo Relief Fund Cloak: In support of the Go Fund Me campaign for community member Iron Maiden’s chemotherapy, we created this customized Clasped Gauntlets cloak in Blue, Purple, and Silver for everyone who contributes $25 or more to the fund.
 * Portalarium Holiday Party January 2017 Cloak: In support of the community funded 2017 Portalarium Holiday Party, we created this customized Clasped Gauntlets cloak in Green and Red for everyone who donated to the party.
 * Bug Fixes:
 * Bouncing Sitting Avatars: We fixed the bug where other players would appear to be bouncing when sitting.
 * Teleport Effect: Fixed a bug where this was playing every time an avatar appeared in a scene instead of only after using a Lunar Rift.
 * Folding Avatars: Fixed a bug that was causing characters to fold in half (legs would fold upwards while body stayed upright).
 * Fortified Cloth Boots Bug: Fixed issue where these boots were not accepting secondary dye color.
 * Portable Aether Vibration Amplifier Light Bug: The headphones now light up when played again.
 * Fancy Merchant Boots: These were appearing as shoes while the boot shafts were actually connected to the pants. This has now been fixed.
 * Elven Mage Robes: Fixed parts that were not being properly affected by dye and/or were showing up as incorrect color.
 * Elder Elven Archer Gloves: Now properly set as Light Armor.
 * Epic Cloth Chest: Removed pouches from straps on back to prevent sorting issues with cloaks, wings, etc. Also made this more form fitting for female characters.
 * Epic Cloth Gloves: Now properly displaying dye.
 * Flechier Tapestry Outfit: Fixed issue where it was not dyeing properly.
 * Obsidian Cloak: Fixed issue where the cloak was not properly scaling to various armors causing it to float.
 * Dye Remover: You can now purchase packs of dye remover from the Add-On Store that will restore clothing to its original default colors.
 * Underwear Removal: Added tech so that clothing items can be flagged to replace the underwear. This lets us create good looking items that are skimpier than the default underwear (firedancer outfit, bodice, etc.).
 * New NPC Non-Combat Behaviors:
 * Emotes/Dance: We now have the ability to add emote commands to pets. The first example is the dance command for the Clockwork Monkey. If you right click on your Monkey, you can now choose “Dance” as one of your commands. We plan to expand this to include tricks for pets and expressions for Companions. This tech also opened the door for increased behaviors for all NPCs.
 * Jabbering Bertha Conversation: Equipped items can now talk. The first example of this is the Jabbering Bertha item from the Add-On Store which is a cross promotional item with Underworld Ascendant.


 * Player Towns & Player Housing: We will continue to expand our housing with a focus on water based housing and houses in our Shogun line. We will also be adding a water decoration surface layer, so players will be able to add decorations to the water around their water homes. Additionally, we will be doing some expansions to the Player-Owned Town toolset including the ability to clear foliage and view lot boundaries at all times. Finally, updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns that have locked submission forms will appear in the game.
 * Interior Light Limits: Interior Light Limits are now based on Lot Size only, not number of floors.


 * Remote Bank Access Device: Not everything coming from K’rul is terrifying like the Clockwork Dragon. You can now purchase a Kobold invention from the Add-On Store that allows you to teleport your goods back and forth from your local bank to your home. It is a placeable decoration that anyone with lot permissions can access. Access permissions can be set up on the device just like any other placeable decoration.
 * Backpack and Bag Decorations: Backpacks and Bags can now be placed as decorations and used as containers in your home and on your lot.
 * Container Limits: Containers (Chests, Wardrobes, Backpacks, etc.) now have item limits. Furniture (Chests, Wardrobes, Sarcophagi, etc.) can hold up to 300 items. Bags (Backpacks, Bags, Gift Boxes, Stockings) can hold up to 150 items. Note that a stack of items counts as a single item when calculating limits, no matter how many items are in the stack. If you have a container that is currently over these limits, you will NOT lose anything; you just will not be able to add any more items to that container until it goes below the limits (much like how the Bank works). We needed to add these limits for optimization purposes because having no limits was causing significant server side performance issues, not only for the individual opening the container, but also for all other players sharing that scene since opening a container would add the items to the scene.​
 * Bags inside Bags: Nesting empty bags inside other bags in your inventory is no longer allowed. Existing nested bag structures in player inventories will be flattened to be only one level deep. If you had bag within a bag in your personal inventory or bank, it will be now be accessible directly from the main inventory or bank inventory UI. Empty bags that were inside chests on lots have been moved to local bank storage for the owner of the lot. This change was made in order to improve performance dealing with inventory and to make the rules governing containers simpler and uniform.
 * Inventory Management: We have made a few improvements to the usability of inventory management. Firstly, when multi-selecting items in a list, the number of selected items is now displayed. Secondly, when drag-and-dropping multiple items, the number of items being moved is now displayed next to the mouse cursor.
 * Containers in Banks: Containers in your bank can now be opened directly from the bank UI. Items inside containers are no longer visible unless you open the container.
 * Deco Books and Letters: All books and letters you come across, whether related to quests or just for flavor, can now be placed as decorations, and are readable while placed.
 * Taxes and Claiming: When claiming a lot, you will immediately owe 1 day of rent if you claim with a taxable lot deed. Note that you will not have to pay immediately, but the debt is incurred instantly. This change was to close a loophole where players could claim and unclaim a lot in 23 hours and not have to pay taxes.
 * Weight Limit Removed in Banks: There is no longer a weight limit for items stored in banks. Limits are now only based on item numbers (reminder stacks count as a single item).
 * Water Homes:
 * Water Surface Decoration Layer: Items flagged for placement on water can now be placed as water decorations. While we do not yet have any that qualify, we plan to add several beginning in R39 (starting with obvious items like the Longboat and Gondola).
 * Pirate Galleon City Water Home: Yarr! Strike fear into those land lubbers with this fearsome galleon that has two stories of cabins on the rear deck, an additional cabin on the foredeck, and two levels below decks. She sports three jolly rogers from her three masts! You can purchase this fine vessel in the Add-On Store.
 * [[Image:SotA_PirateGalleon_view1_orig.jpg|560px]]
 * Dry Docked Pirate Galleon City Home: This is a dry docked version of the Pirate Galleon that can be placed on a regular land lot. No water lot required! You can purchase this fine vessel in the Add On Store.
 * Water Home Crown Merchant: This merchant sells all the Water Homes and Water themed items for Gold Crowns and can be found in the Brittany Wharves. When the water decorations become available they will also be found on this merchant.
 * Shogun Homes and Decorations:
 * Shogun Row Houses: These variations of the Blue Tile Roof row houses use similar materials to the other homes in the Shogun line of homes and can be found in the Shogun Bundles and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * Shogun 3-Story Town Home: This towering home offers the signature features of the Shogun line of homes, including carved wooden window frames, paper walls, and blue-tiled roof, and can be found in the Shogun Bundles and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * [[Image:SotA_ShogunTownHome_orig.jpg|560px]]
 * Shogun 5-Story City Home: The largest of our Shogun line of homes offers the signature features of the Shogun line, including carved wooden window frames, paper walls, and blue-tiled roof, and can be found in the Shogun Bundles and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * [[Image:SotA_ShogunCityHome_orig.jpg|560px]]
 * Shogun 1 Room Bungalow: This cute little one room home leaves plenty of room on a village lot for a garden and features the signature features of the Shogun line of homes, including carved wooden window frames, paper walls, and blue-tiled roof. This home can be crafted in-game.
 * Tansu Chest: A distinctive shogun themed container that can be found in the Shogun Bundles.


 * Ornate Tansu Chest: An ornate version of the distinctive shogun themed container that can be found in the Shogun Bundles.
 * Bamboo Trees: These come in the same size assortments as our other trees in 1, 2, 3, and 4 stories as well as a potted version. These can all be purchased in the Add On Store and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * Foo Dog Statue: This decorative statue of a Foo Dog can be placed in or around your home or in your garden and can be found in the Shogun Bundles and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * Large and Giant Foo Dog Statues: These larger versions of the Foo Dog statue can be placed in or around your home or in your garden and can be purchased in the Add On Store and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * Shogun Room Dividers: These simple wood and paper room dividers are perfect for breaking up the open plan of the Shogun homes and can be crafted in-game.
 * Ornate Shogun Room Dividers: These ornate wood and paper room dividers are perfect for breaking up the open plan of the Shogun homes and can be purchased in the Add On Store and on the Shogun Crown Merchant.
 * Shogun Crown Merchant: Located in Ardoris, this merchant sells many of the items from the Shogun Bundles for Gold Crowns.
 * 2017 Valentine Items:
 * 2017 Valentine Gift Boxes: Continuing in our line of gift boxes, these are themed for Valentine’s Day with hearts and bright pink colors. You can purchase these in the Add On Store.
 * 2017 Valentine Card: These are player writable notes that look like hearts. These are newly shaped for 2017 and can be purchased in the Add On Store.
 * Other Misc Items:
 * 5-Story Stone Row Home Basement: Until now, there was only one style of basement available to Row Home owners… but now they have a choice with the new Stone style. You can purchase this new basement style in the Add On Store.
 * Ornate Iron and Glass Wall Light: A new wall light made of iron and glass. You can purchase these in the Add On Store.
 * Diagonal Muntin Wall Light: This wall light features diagonal muntins for a unique look. You can purchase these in the Add On Store.
 * Chained Obsidian Shard: This unique item can only be placed in an Open PvP area (PVP POT, player lot in a PVP PRT, or PVP Basement). You can purchase these in the Add On Store.
 * Bug fixes:
 * Growth Rate Fixes: Fixed various issues where agriculture growth rate modifiers were either not working properly inside homes or not updating properly when planters were moved inside homes. We also fixed issues related to incorrect growth rate modifiers under overhangs (like in the Wizard Tower).
 * Upscale Stables: In order to fix technical errors with the Upscale Stables decoration from the Mounts Stretch Goal, which were causing bugs like not clearing trees, we needed to correct the offset of the structure relative to the pivot point of the decoration. Doing this will re-position the stables anywhere players have put it in the world, while other decorations they might have placed inside or nearby will be unchanged. In order to fix this, players will have to remove all their decorations, re-position the stables back where they want it, and then redecorate. Also, last release we fixed various issues (that we forgot to mention) including fixing broken doors, making the lights interactive and actually produce light (and making them look better overall), as well as a host of minor polish issues.
 * R37 Lot Deed Raffle Tickets: The drawings for our Fifth Lot Deed Raffle will be held on January 26, 2017 and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Deeds will be delivered in Release 38.


 * Place Anywhere Deeds (10):
 * Row: 5
 * Village: 3
 * Town: 1
 * City: 1
 * Player Owned Town Deeds (75):
 * Row: 40
 * Village: 20
 * Town: 10
 * City: 5
 * R38 Lot Deed Raffle Tickets: This will be the Sixth Lot Deed Raffle. For this raffle, we again dropped the numbers lower to better match current demand and pace remaining stock. As always, Raffle tickets can be purchased with in game gold. As with R37, each person can only win a single deed of each type (maximum of one place anywhere and one POT). The drawing and winners will be in R39.


 * Place Anywhere Deeds (10):
 * Row: 5
 * Village: 3
 * Town: 1
 * City: 1
 * Player Owned Town Deeds (40):
 * Row: 20
 * Village: 12
 * Town: 6
 * City: 2
 * POT Tools Delayed: Some advance work to prepare for Magic Movers and Home Rental caused us to have to delay work on POT Tools.
 * POT Tools Delayed:''' New and Updated Dynamic POTs:
 * Ahnen Hain: Upgraded to Village.
 * Baubbleshire: Upgraded to Village.
 * Bay Lunaire: Upgraded to Town.
 * Bladewyke: Changed location. Interconnections (added Etceter, removed Taenby Landing).
 * Caelestis Canton: Removed PvP flag.
 * Cape Havoc: Interconnection (with Blood Bay).
 * ''Copper Lake: Renamed (formerly Grimmstone Fields). Converted to Mountains 01. Ownership changed. Changed location.
 * Elementum: Changed location. Interconnection (with Storms Reach).
 * Festival: Renamed (formerly Arx Draconis Embassy). Converted to Snowy Mountains 01. Ownership changed. Nested interconnection changed to within Owl’s Head.
 * Hatter’s Estates: Renamed (formerly The Hatter’s Estates). Changed location.
 * Heartwood: Renamed (formerly Malhelkyth). Converted to Forest 01b. Ownership changed. Interconnection (nested interconnection changed to within Oceania).
 * Hy-Brasil: Converted to Island 01a. Interconnections (with Etceter and Taenby Landing).
 * Insulam de Nocte: Upgraded to Town.
 * Irenholde: Upgraded to Village.
 * Isle of Mists: Renamed (formerly Jamestown). Converted to Island 01. Ownership changed. Rotated to “Right”. Nested interconnection changed to within Serenite.
 * Jade Valley: Upgraded to City. Rotated to “180”. Changed location (minor).
 * Lamplight: New addition (nested in Port Phoenix).
 * Nido dell’Aquila: Upgraded to Village.
 * Oracle Oasis: Renamed (formerly Forsaken Forest). Converted to Desert 01b. Ownership changed. Removed PvP flag. Interconnections (nested interconnection changed to within Soltown, removed Harvest).
 * Port Phoenix: Rotated to “180”.
 * Tenakill: Converted to Grasslands 01a.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Upgraded to Village.
 * Wisteria Lane: Converted to Grasslands 01a.
 * [[Image:R38Map_of_Novia_POT.jpg|560px]]


 * Combat: We will expand the number of decks players can build and save. We will also be adding more combos, more skills, and more spells. Additionally we will begin a major polish pass on all the visual effects related to combat.
 * Locked Deck Starting Default: When placing a glyph in an empty slot, the default is now set to Locked. This is to improve the new players experience, since they usually find dealt decks confusing at first.​
 * Critical Heal Color: Critical Heals now show up in a different color like the critical hits do in the combat log and the combat floating numbers.
 * New NPC Combat Behaviors:
 * Preferential Targeting: We now have the ability to set preferences on creatures for which kinds of targets they prefer. Starting with Slimes who prefer metallic targets (players wearing metal armor) and Flesh Flayers who prefer fleshier targets (players wearing cloth and leather).
 * Stealth: Creatures now have the ability to go into stealth mode like players. The first creature to take advantage of this ability is the Shock Monkey (see above).
 * Attack While Rooted: NPCs will now continue to attack while rooted (just like players).
 * Bug Fixes / Balance Changes:
 * Pickpocketing Breaks Mesmerize: Having your pocket picked now breaks the mesmerize effect.


 * Resist Crowd Control Stack Fix: Stacking for this was broken. This has now been fixed.
 * Stealth Visual Bugs: Fixed various bugs with equipment not displaying properly when stealthed.
 * Death Field: Death Field now becomes more effective the closer a player is to death like other Death Magic spells.
 * Aetheric Feedback: Fixed a bug where the regeneration buff for this spell would stop abruptly anytime another spell was cast.
 * Night Step: This can now only be used on a location the player could have normally walked to.
 * Soothing Rain and Healing Grace: These spells can now be dismissed.


 * Enlightenment: Fixed issue where the tooltip was not matching the intelligence bonus actually being given by this buff.
 * Moon Worship: This is now properly applying dexterity bonus at night.
 * Bludgeon Knockback and Knockdown in PVP: Fixed a bug that was preventing these skills from properly working in PVP.
 * Earthquake in PVP: Fixed a bug where this spell would get applied multiple times with just a single cast making it insanely overpowered. It now just gets applied a single time from a single cast as it should.
 * Earth Elementals: Summoned Earth Elementals can now damage and be damaged by wild Earth Elementals.
 * Linux Mouse Look Fix: Fixed issue where opening any window with a keyboard shortcut while holding down right mouse button caused avatar to rotate.
 * Typos: Fixed lots of typos in spell and skill descriptions.
 * Corpse Explosion
 * Spellbinder
 * Lightning
 * Discharge
 * Chain Lightning
 * Aetheric Feedback
 * Healing and Focus Potions: These have been tuned to be much more effective. Note that the Lesser versions are now the equivalent effectiveness of what the original potions were.
 * New Potions: All of the following potions are craftable in-game.
 * Lesser, Greater, and Maximum Healing Potions: Health potions now come in 3 additional strengths beyond the standard Health Potion. One weaker version (Lesser), and two stronger versions (Greater & Maximum).
 * Lesser, Greater, and Maximum Focus Potions: Focus Potions now come in 3 additional strengths beyond the standard Focus Potion. One weaker version (Lesser), and two stronger versions (Greater & Maximum).
 * Restoration Potion: Fully restores Health and Focus.
 * Potion of Acumen: Increases Intelligence.
 * Potion of Deftness: Increases Dexterity.
 * Potion of Might: Increases Strength.
 * Health Regeneration Potion: Increases Health Regeneration Rate.
 * Focus Regeneration Potion: Increases Focus Regeneration Rate.
 * Essence of the Wolf Potion: Increases run speed.
 * Potion of Cat’s Grace: Boosts Safe Fall skill.
 * Potion of Elemental Resistance: boosts resistances to all elemental schools of magic.
 * Potion of Magic Resistance: Boosts resistances to all non-elemental schools of magic.
 * Rare Loot: Players can now find rare Artifacts (non-craftable magical items) as loot on high level creatures they fight. They can also find recipes starting with the new potions we created this release (more recipes will follow).
 * Potion Recipes: The recipes for the new potions can be found as loot.
 * Ring of Brittle Brawn: Reduces hit points by 40% but adds significant (20-50) strength.
 * Ring of the Frogkin: When worn you are able to jump slightly higher. However your skin turns green.
 * Torch of Jerik: This large iron basket torch can be wielded as a mace.
 * Belt of the Ox: Cuts your move speed in half but quadruples carrying capacity.
 * Ring of Luck: Gives a small wishing well bonus.
 * Slipshod Shooter’s Sash: This belt gives a bonus to your Rapidfire skill, gives a small bonus to Rapidfire power, but decreases your Ammo Scavenger. So you can shoot more arrows but you lose more arrows…
 * Lavalliere of the Lagomorph: This necklace of the rabbit greatly decreases your strength but increases your movement and attack speed.
 * And perhaps others…
 * Increased Decks Delayed: Work on the new NPC conversation UI, prep for Magic Movers, and various inventory changes delayed work on increasing decks.
 * More Combos/Skills/Spells Delayed: We chose to work on the new potions, fixing existing skills, and the new Artifacts instead of adding new combos, skills, and spells.
 * VFX Polish Delayed: We spent most of the release cataloguing and reviewing our current VFX and building a plan to improve them which did not leave us much time to do the actual improvement.


 * Audio: The main focus of audio for Release 38 was creatures, but we also did some bug fixing as well.
 * Bug Fixes:
 * Bow Sounds: These should now be heard properly.
 * Viking Village Home: Back door should now have audio.
 * Street Organ: Added missing octave ranges.
 * Fountains & Kobold Wind Generators: Now properly tied to volume controls.
 * Sharps & Flats for Instruments: Fixed an issue where some instruments were not playing sharps or flats.
 * Unlinked Volume SFX: Fixed various sounds there were not linked to volume controls.
 * Roving Encounters: These now have audio attached to them including footsteps, alert cries and attack yells.
 * Creature Audio: We updated the following creatures with new sounds and/or polished existing sounds. This pass ensured that every creature on this list had sounds for all game states. (idles, footsteps, combat, death, etc.)
 * All Elementals
 * Automaton
 * Barrel Mimic
 * Catapult
 * Chaos Daemon


 * Chest Mimic
 * Clockwork Monkey
 * Corpion
 * Coyote
 * Duck
 * Faun
 * Ghost
 * Horse
 * Imp
 * Lich
 * Owl
 * Satyr
 * Skeleton
 * Slime
 * Stag
 * Wisp
 * Wolf
 * Zombie

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


 * Stability: Stability should be similar to Release 37 (after all the patches). However, there still seems to be the one remaining major issue with Unity and AMD A8 integrated graphics chipsets used in laptops that make the game unplayable (this affects other games using Unity as well). Unity is aware of the problem and working on a fix but we do not have an ETA from them on this.
 * Performance: We plan to make steady improvements each release until the game is running smoothly on minimum spec machines in big cities. However we did not make time in Release 38 for any significant performance improvements so performance remains unchanged since last release.
 * Game Loop: Release 38 is a further iteration on our game loop, but is still missing a few key components and balance. 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.

Release 38 Addendum

 * Fizzle changes: Several bugs had been reported with fizzle over the past few releases and we fixed all of them for this release. The result is that some players saw improvements in fizzle rates, but most saw their fizzle rates get worse. The worst case will be people wielding 2-handed weapons while wearing heavy armor and trying to cast Air, Death, or Fire magic. Those cases might have seen their fizzle rates go up by as much as 25%.
 * Some bonuses were being applied before armor multipliers and others after. We consolidated the math so all gear bonuses and held items bonuses are applied before the armor multiplier for spells.
 * We fixed the long lingering bug that made 2-handed weapons give a 15% bonus of dual wielding or using a shield. 2-handed weapons are already more powerful than 1-handed and this just didn’t feel like a fair advantage for them.
 * While we were adjusting the logic, we moved open hand fizzle bonus from 15% to 10%. Wands still grant 15% bonus and staves now grant 30% bonus. We expect to add other handheld focus items in the future that will also give bonuses.


 * Targeting Changes: A long standing issue with auto attacking was addressed; the “feature” that players affectionately called “Bowdar”. In previously releases, if you had auto attack enabled and there was any valid target, you attacked. Due to Novian bunnies being added to the endangered list, we decided to change how this works.
 * With auto attack enabled, players will attack any valid target continuously but only if the target has agro’d on the player OR if the target has been manually selected through clicking or the select target key (defaults to ‘g’). This means to attack bunnies, hidden skeletons, or other players (stealthed or otherwise) with auto attack, you must now manually select them.
 * In build 544 and earlier, the toggle between free and auto attack is on the game options menu.
 * Starting in Build 545, all attack mode options will be removed from the menu and instead, the toggle auto attack key (defaults to ‘t’) will switch between free attack and auto attack.


 * Elemental attack changes: Going forward, elemental attacks will do some melee damage in addition to their native elemental type. This was to relieve an exploit where players were using same type summoned Elementals to distract wild Elementals so they could then mine areas without any danger.
 * Pickpocket: This skill can no longer be used during combat. This was being used, along with a set of other skills, in a series of exploits.

Additional Information

 * Release 38 Instructions
 * Release 38 Known Issues
 * Quick Reference Card