Release 118

RELEASE 118, SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 118 goes live September 28th 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 118 (R118), we offer an improved shopping experience, but not in Jotungrund.

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

Support Breast Cancer Research with New Make a Difference Items

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and, going live October 1st, our Make a Difference Store is having a few items added to its breast cancer charity section. Catnip Games donates 20% of the net purchase price of items in this section to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Starting on the first of the month, a Pink Fireflies 3-Pack will be added!

October 1st also heralds the return of the Pink Katana, which was removed from the in-game store when the Make a Difference store relaunched; a new Pink Katana Pattern 6-Pack has been created to go with it.

Our own reminder, as the month is about awareness, not just donations: despite all the pink, breast cancer is not ONLY a woman’s disease. Men have vestigial breast tissue and can develop cancer as well. It’s rare, but they tend to have worse outcomes because it’s not something they are routinely screened for and so it’s generally caught later in the disease process. If you’re a man who’s noticed any odd changes to your chest, please don’t ignore them!

Improvements to the Vendor Listings in Zone Window

The Vendor Listings in Zone window has seen some performance and usage improvements from DevilCult this month:

The window will no longer be destroyed when closing it; it will now just be hidden. A message will appear in chat upon opening the list informing you that you may close the window and let it load in background. While the list continues loading, it might still affect the game a little depending on how many vendors and items are being loaded. Once the list finishes loading, another chat message will appear showing the number of items loaded and the number of vendors in the town, letting you know that it’s ready for use.

Data caching for the vendors (though not the listed items) has been added: when leaving a town and then returning within an hour, that list will still be downloaded but will need to repopulate the items, which can still take some time.

The scroll bar will now resize correctly with the window. Finally, the dark ‘loading’ overlay has been enlarged so players can’t click the columns to sort or the refresh button until the whole list is loaded, which was delaying its completion.

We hope these changes help you search for that rare conversation piece or deadly dagger!

A New Helm in the Jotungrund Ice Crevasse

Some far-ranging members of the Ice Bear clan that inhabit the ice crevasse in Jotungrund have noticed the fierce giant occassionally found far to their south and have decided that he’s a stylish dude. They’ve been making helms to mimic his iconic headgear and you can get one too! They even have patterns, should you have the skill for it. As these barbarians refuse to put their wares for sale on vendors despite the recent UI improvements, may we suggest violence?

Release 118 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 118 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R118 is a polish month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R119 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 118!

Crafting, Decoration, Gear, & Inventory Item Changes:

• Slightly enhanced the effects “glow” that the bronze, silver, and gold Courage Club commemorative coins have. SOTA-71682
• Linked a new open book icon to the existing books that display as open. SOTA-71662
• The Heavy Halberd now has the correct deco appearance and a new icon that matches. SOTA-71554
• Sound effects from the Arx Draconis Dragon Statue should no longer play when entering the scene from distant locations. SOTA-70317
• Floating Barrels now always give alcohol items and also have a chance for a single copy of a random wax cylinder. SOTA-70403
• Allowed placement of (small!) items on the three pledge plaques.
• Fixed several item icons with distorted proportions. SOTA-71685
• Garbage Bin: Another try to stop the question marks in the mouseover name.

Combat & Skill Changes:

• Frog Goliaths will now give experience when skinned. SOTA-71598

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

• In Options > Controls, renamed Deco Flip to Mirror Flip Decoration (which has default key N.)
• Many minor store description fixes. SOTA-70170, SOTA-70172

World and Quest Changes:

• Plains Encounter: Moved a floating garlic node to the ground. SOTA-71698
• Aerie, Ardoris, Central Brittany, Etceter, Resolute, and Soltown: Adjusted or removed schedules from some NPCs (primarily merchants). If there are still quests blocked by a town NPC’s day/night schedule, please report them! SOTA-71690
• Aerie and Xenos: Corrected misspellings of Boreas and other typos in multiple conversations. SOTA-71606
• Spindelskog, Ulfheim, and Vikland: Corrected a typo in the negative-Courage monolith message. SOTA-71696
• Aerie: Fixed a logic issue in Albert Lock’s keywords.
• Ardoris: Improved logic in Khasi’s responses to help archive the “Speak with Khasi” task.
• Blood River Forest: The west entrance now has the proper display name when entering from Novia. SOTA-71684
• Blood River Outskirts: Added extra safeguard logic to reduce how often the vigilante gate guards draw avatars into their conversations. SOTA-71312
• Brittany Alleys: Changed compass discovery label from “Wreck of the Dracherz” to “Wreck of the Drachherz.” SOTA-71695
• Brittany Estates: Corrected a sign display name from “Equipment” to “General Store.” Added construction barricades in some buildings. SOTA-71683
• The Fall: Moved a pile of floating bones to the ground. SOTA-71699
• Graff Island: The wells and fountains should no longer be protected by the anti-theft system. No guards should claim their personal name as “Guard.” Fixed typos in several NPC responses. SOTA-71675, SOTA-71676, SOTA-71677
• Jotungrund: Removed unused conversational responses from Frost Giant (but barks and death remarks remain.)
• Jotungrund: Moved some interactables from within ice to where players can get to them.
• Jotungrund: Updated some world collision. Regenerated path grid. SOTA-71672
• Owl’s Head: Added a signpost teleporter next to the Town Crier. Removed the nearby “Lower Merchant Row” signpost. SOTA-71524
• Port Harmony: Fixed the scale of a coil of rope that had became dramatically oversized.
• Solace Bridge Outskirts: Some NPCs now advise avatars to sell their extra gear and that a bank exists in the next town.
• South Varisalla Foothills: The large hanging braziers are now interactable and have improved fire and smoke effects.
• This month the members of the Great New Britannian Mapping Expedition ventured into North Paladis and the surrounding area, completing maps for the following locations: Desert Encounter, Hills Siege, Grannus Colossus, Hallowed Plains, Kas Ruins, Libris Ruins, Mysterious Swamp, Paladis Shardfall, Serpent’s Spine Foothills, West Sanctus Forest, the Brave Coast, Estercove, Grumridge, Port Mirren, and Smaragar.
• Discovered that the Red Sash Bandits were at it again and somehow messed with the compass of anyone who dared to try to find the entrance to the Owl’s Nest Mine. Placed an arcane dampening field which caused the map to snap back into position. SOTA-71519

Player-Owned Town Changes:

• Magnolia: Added new village to Novia north of Brittany.

Sales, Rewards and Crown Store

Release 118 Subscriber Login Rewards

Invite a visitor over for checkers and then scare the stuffing out of them! The Rewards Program login items for Release 118 are a Dark Gothic Dining Table and two Dark Gothic Dining Chairs, a Pale Tiki Demon Mask, and a Baby Green & Yellow Spider Pet. Don’t let the spider move the checkers.

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 118 to receive these special login items.

October Login Reward

As the nights grow longer, there may be things about that you’ll need to deter. Each account that logs in during the month of October will receive a one-time gift of a Tiki Demon Mask!

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for today’s release:

• Silver Virtuekrug

• Green Electric Sword

…and for October 13th:

• Dark Gothic Dining Table

• Dark Gothic Dining Chair 6-Pack

• Dark Gothic Dining Chair 2-Pack

• Pale Tiki Demon Mask

• Baby Green & Yellow Spider Pet

• Pirate’s Booty Accessory (Fish Tank)

• Blue Faerie Circle

• Red Faerie Circle

• Yellow Faerie Circle

• Green Faerie Circle

• Orange Faerie Circle

• Purple Faerie Circle

• Pearlescent Faerie Circle

The Spooky Seasonal store items are available from Friday September 29th until Monday November 6th.

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 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 117
• Release 119
• Release 120
• Release Features 2023
• Release Dates