Release 117

RELEASE 117, AUGUST 31, 2023

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 117 goes live August 31st 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 117 (R117), we offer challenges and coins. En Garde!

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.

Features

Courage Club: New Arena, New Challengers, New Rewards

Courage Club has gotten a series of improvements! Note that some of these were suggested and encouraged by players, but things got a little out of hand and we added some extra bells and whistles.

Courage Club is a secret fight club where avatars can prove their mettle by fighting several enemies, one at a time, in a small, private arena. There are Courage Clubs in Aerie, Central Brittany, Mud, Resolute, Valhold, and Westend; talk to the local guards to get a Courage Club Key and find a hatch to enter, generally near the guard offices.

After some heavy excavation, the Club has expanded its small boxy fighting pit into a bigger, rounder arena. This improved space has attracted more and tougher participants:

Previously, players would fight five enemies of random capabilities and ever-increasing threat and the last enemy was a champion with a unique name. Now, that’s Bracket 1! (You only need to complete Bracket 1 to receive the Banner of Valor. Also, completing or slinking away from Bracket 1 will now modify your virtue once a day, rather than only the first time.)

The NEXT three enemies, Bracket 2, are tougher, with a named and possibly uniquely-styled champion as the third opponent. Then there’s Bracket 3: three of the toughest competitors, with the final being a champion with a unique name AND appearance.

Remember to ransack the fallen: the defeated of Bracket 1 drop Courage Club Bronze Coins, Bracket 2 drops Courage Club Silver Coins, and Bracket 3 drops Courage Club Gold Coins. Make sure you collect them for a bonus reward! The referee will trade ten Bronze Coins, seven Silver Coins, and/or seven Gold Coins for a reward.

You can choose to trade the coins in for gold and experience once a day, as three separate daily quests, OR trade them for decorative versions of the same coins as often as you have enough: a Commemorative Courage Club Bronze Coin, Silver Coin, and Gold Coin. These coins are always slowly spinning on their edges and have a visual effect glow (but are not a light source).

(Known issue: for now, you’ll need ten each of gold and silver coins to trigger the turn-in for these commemorative coins, even though you only need to hand in seven.)

There are four new leaderboards to track these underground feats: a main one for Courage Club fight totals but also ones tracking fights against the final champions of each bracket.

Perhaps this is why the Oracle knows about Courage Club! If you participate in Courage Club and then ask the Oracle about courage, she might have some feedback on your performance. Who doesn’t like to watch a good fight? I wonder who she roots for…

Release 117 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 117 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R117 is a polish month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R118 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 117!

Crafting, Decoration, Gear, & Inventory Item Changes:

• Adjusted Founder Royal Elderberry Seed to prevent player from right-click destroying the seed and selling them to Merchants. SOTA-71668
• Adjusted baits (excluding red worms and minnows) to prevent players from selling them to merchants. SOTA-71621
• Increased container limits on chests of drawers and end tables that were too low for their size.
• Enabled use of pattern removers on Heraldry Tables. SOTA-71622
• Fixed faerie belts showing as enchantable when they are not. SOTA-70162
• Removed the Wood and Plaster Three-Story Row Home from the in-game-gold merchant SOTA-71655
• Made an icon for the Highvale bandits’ heads. SOTA-71626
• Attached an existing elf icon for the Highvale Outskirts Obsidian Elf Camp Commander’s head.
• Changed house names at the lotstones to match the names on deeds for the Red Barn Two-Story (Village Home), recently renamed, and for eleven other houses that had text not matching their deeds after previous changes.
• Corrected spelling of eight Perennial Coast paintings. SOTA-71620
• Fixed a typo in the text description of the mounted minotaur beetle.
• Corrected Owlshead to Owl’s Head in dungeon piece, blueprint, and recipe names and a book pattern name.

Combat & Skill Changes:

• The buffs from the store/reward and the no-trade versions of Obsidian Potions won’t be stackable anymore. The Obsidian Potion of Precision had been fixed previously to prevent excessive meticulous collection, but we feel this limit should be consistent across all of them.

User Interface, Store Information, Inky, & Lua Changes:

• Added the output from /translate to its own chat tab option: Translate. Don’t forget to check this option in the cogwheel if you want to see the output in whichever tab you’re translating in!
• Added caching for the leaderboards for better local performance.
• Added some colors to the leaderboard on the side menu, on alternate row backgrounds, and on your avatar’s row listing.

World and Quest Changes:

• NPC Towns: Updated Justicars’ responses and appearances to help present them as a pan-community order. SOTA-71635
• Sieges: Fixed typos in siege scouts’ responses about how many arcane catalysts are required for their quest. SOTA-71670
• Random Encounters: The Altruist pilgrim that sometimes appears after the large battle will now include Port Harmony in their listings of cities relevant to the “Talk to an Altruist Monk” task. SOTA-71634
• Random Encounters: Updated the data used to direct players to a turn-in NPC for when an avatar has a bounty slip, ecology survey ticket, or prayer card. SOTA-71650
• Artifice, Malice, Midras, Valhold, and Vertas: Corrected spelling of Boreas in multiple NPCs’ responses. SOTA-71606
• Ardoris: Shaaria Barista now refers properly to Sequanna Square and has had small typos in her responses fixed. Updated the position of the compass marker for the Peladjar Inn. Updated the signs hanging outside the Tavern of the South Wind to display that name. SOTA-71510
• Ardoris: Updated the master shields and blades trainers’ responses about themselves and each other. SOTA-71653
• Blood River Massacre: Moved a dead body so it’s not clipping through a building. SOTA-71647
• Blood River Outskirts: Moved a floating mushroom to a nearby rock. Regenerated the path grid. SOTA-71623
• Blood River Outskirts: Corrected the spelling of “Blood River” in multiple journal entries, NPC responses, and compass marker discoveries.
• Blood River Outskirts: Fixed typos in responses from the Hermit in the tree at the elf camp and Gus the automaton. SOTA-71665
• Blood River Outskirts: Fixed several typos in the various warrants and manifestos acquired in this scene. SOTA-71652
• Broochash: Shrunk Umberjack’s wander radius to keep him from walking too far from his “home” on the dock. Added some crates and a lantern near Umberjack. Regenerated the path grid. SOTA-71627
• Brookside: Fixed a typo in the compass marker for the cemetery. SOTA-71651
• Brookside: Samael will no longer perform the “squat” emote.
• Castle Atos: Fixed a typo in Oliver’s “job” response. SOTA-71664
• Castle Atos: Added a dev switch for a crowd control barrier at the castle steps.
• Despair: Removed loot meant to be exclusive to the Fall from all enemies in this scene. SOTA-71654
• Estgard: Fixed several stuck spots at the cenote. A wayward Valhold guard outside the west gate has been replaced by a local guard. Added a blacksmithing station in the smithy. Added a compass marker discovery at the bank. Removed collision from some yellow banners that sometimes blocked player movement. SOTA-71637, SOTA-71638, SOTA-71636
• Grusk: Reduced the range of thunder sound effects near the lighthouse to stop them from triggering each time a player took the boat to the lighthouse. SOTA-71624
• Middle Downs: Improved the interaction collision used by a sturdy vine in a trap. SOTA-71663
• Myrkur: Removed loot meant to be exclusive to the Fall from all enemies in this scene. SOTA-71654
• Owl’s Head: Added a signpost teleporter by the west entrance. SOTA-71524
• Port Harmony: Players should now be able to create guilds with Romina the guild registrar. SOTA-71642
• Port Harmony: Fixed typos in Zouch’s “lie down” and Corbyn Sallow’s “job” responses. SOTA-71633, SOTA-71628
• The Rise: The “Boss Lich Room” blueprints and recipes can now only be found in the Rise. Local lich Elrin Nayer is the primary source for these items, but avatars also have a much lower chance to loot them from several high-threat Obsidian Elves elsewhere in the scene. SOTA-71658
• Ruined Keep: Increased the leash ranges for the patrolling trolls that sometimes spawn by the bridge. SOTA-71641
• Shaminian Hills: Adjusted collision for some of the ruins sections.
• Solania Catacombs: The exit volume to Spectral Mines once again works properly. SOTA-71649
• South Boundless Forest: Changed two 1-way climbable roots to 2-way climbable roots. Regenerated the path grid. SOTA-71639
• South Fetid Swamp: Slightly moved a book next to a skeleton so it can be grabbed. SOTA-71646
• Upper Fortus: Added some rocks at the top of a waterfall so players don’t see the edge of the waterfall collider. SOTA-71640
• Vikland: Fixed typos in rumors shared by residents and merchants. Liva will now share her name when asked. Added some props next to the groceries merchant. Fixed Erling’s “crystal” response so he doesn’t say he gave you a yellow crystal. SOTA-71630, SOTA-71632, SOTA-71631, SOTA-70987

Player-Owned Town Changes:

• Desert POT Templates: Corrected many floating palm trees.
• Avallon: Added loading background image and loading message.
• Dark Bayou: Moved island to Norgard area east of Norgard Fens.
• Umbra: Replaced Umbra Regnum with a new Tropical Island near Soltown on Novia.
• R117 Map of Novia Player-Owned Towns

Sales, Rewards and Crown Store

Sales and Bonus Events

To commemorate Labor Day, until end-of-day September 4th:

• XP will be doubled.
• Crown Store sales will be 30% off.
• Deed Upgrades will be 20% off
• Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off.

Release 117 Subscriber Login Rewards

I’m not evil. Why do all my houseguests think I’m evil? The Rewards Program login items for Release 117 are a Dark Gothic Chest of Drawers, Heavy Chair, and Footstool.

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 117 to receive these special login items.

September Login Reward

Just the size for an un-poisoned cup of tea: each account that logs in during the month of September will receive a one-time gift of a Dark Gothic Side Table!

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for September 1st:

• Dark Gothic Side Table

…and for September 15th:

• Dark Gothic Chest of Drawers

• Dark Gothic Footstool

• Dark Gothic Heavy Chair 6-Pack

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 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

See Also

• Release 116
• Release 118
• Release 119
• Release Features 2023
• Release Dates