Release 125

RELEASE 125, APRIL 25, 2024

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 125 goes live April 25th 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 125 (R125), we offer days with frog and troll.

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

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Events

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News

Scottie Recreates His Elegant Wooden Lion Chair

(From a Forum Post by Scott Jones)

Salutations!

I’d meant to post this a bit earlier, but alas life seems to get in the way (honestly, I’ve had my nose pressed onto FAR TOO many different grindstones, and it’s been difficult juggling everything)! But I’ve been wanting to create THIS particular item for quite some time! Back in the days when a lot of local player events were going on in Austin, I was honored to host quite a number of our players at my own humble home! As a result, they were able to get a gander at some of the interesting artifacts that fill my house, and especially some of my favorite relics of furniture, costumery, and other decorations that I’ve always enjoyed taking to SCA encampments and wearing when attending medieval and renaissance fairs both near and far! One type of furniture I have always treasured (and which is often commented upon by guests) is my late medieval-styled, lion-headed, wooden folding chair …of which I was lucky enough to acquire three!

Mine are not true historical artifacts, but instead the result of some really good work (I believe coming out of India, at the time) which was being sold at a place called Pier 1 Imports long, long ago, back in the late 80’s, when I first joined the SCA! You can still find chairs like this being sold from time to time, but CERTAINLY not at the insanely low prices I got mine for when Pier 1 decided they were done carrying them, and sold them all of for the stultifying price of $15 EACH!!!!! The design is based on one of the MANY different styles of these chairs, such as the Sedia Savonarola, which was a late medieval folding chair that originated in Northern Italy and became popular during the 15th and 16th century! Certainly go check out such chairs online to see the plethora of styles that existed!

A chair made of many curved ribs, with an ornately-carved back, lion-head armrests, and a red cushion on the seat, sits close to a wall in front of a black and tan tapestry.

I really don’t recall the mind-set, at the time, which guided the original artist towards that particular color-scheme, but it certainly always had that “copper and bronze steampunk” sort of aesthetic appeal. Its original motto inscribed at its base, “AS TIME PASSES DEATH APPROACHES”, added a wonderfully sinister edge to the already macabre design and somewhat rusty appearance of its inner workings and gear/scythe combination that gets exposed as part of its “tick-tock” timing mechanism within. Fun stuff! But how to re-visit and offer something a bit different while still maintaining and respecting the initial design?

Read of my work and see the result in my forum post.

Anyway, when all was said and done I was really happy with the outcome, and I’m hoping you enjoyed my little creative journey I took making something for you fine folks that I’ve been wanting to make for quite a while! As always, I’m not exactly sure how the “powers that be” will be making it available to you all, but I do know that it should be coming your way fairly soon! Thanks again for your interest in my endeavors!

Scottie ^_^

Latest News and Q&A in the April Livestream

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, April 26th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Stephen “Ravalox” Reinen and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “leaf April behind” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

• Twitch/shroudoftheavatar
• Add-On Store

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team stream on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/shroudoftheavatarofficial and on Discord at https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar.

Release 125 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 125 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R125 is a content month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R126 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 125!

Crafting, Decoration, Gear, & Inventory Item Changes:

Four wooden camp chairs with leather seats, of similar shape as Nimrond's Elegant Wooden Lion Chair, sit around the remains of a campfire near some desert scrub. Mountains, the sea, and a pair of boat sails are visible in the distance.

• Made Cushioned Seat chair and recipe, to be found on decoration merchants on the Perennial Coast. SOTA-72023
• Made a reteachable recipe for clay blocks from combining small balls of clay and added it to carpentry recipe merchants. SOTA-70264
• Mounted Plesiosauri will no longer interfere with the spawning and navigation of pets, NPCs, or players attempting to use furniture in their vicinity. SOTA-69248
• The various Fancy Toilets will no longer interfere with the spawning and navigation of pets, NPCs, or players attempting to use furniture in their vicinity. SOTA-71937
• Increased available scaling on Confection Platter and Stand.
• Removed the inoperable dye slots from the Shogun Chair and Stool.
• Made Small Nightstands stackable in inventory.
• Fixed floating nest spawners. You’d think the eggs would be enough…

Combat & Skill Changes:

• Made the small non-hostile frogs tameable. SOTA-71497
• All wyverns in the Well of Aldur are now tameable. SOTA-72025
• Changed the descriptions of Voice Training and Pick Pockets skills to indicate that they are not currently active. SOTA-72028

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

A little green frog sits by his human on a hilly pond bank. Watch your feet, he's rightfully nervous.

• Made food and drinks that are not subsequent ingredients in other recipes not show as valid ingredients on crafting stations. SOTA-71929
• Corrected large icons for Royal Sun Crystal Chandelier, Fancy Vase C, Fancy Vase D, Fancy Vase E, Spike Trap, Wooden Storage Chest with Copper Bands, Wooden Storage Chest with Gold Bands, Ornate Tavern Counter B, Egg Hunt Cloak 2024, Floating Water Lantern, and Silver & Gold Lepus Mask. SOTA-71974, SOTA-71993, SOTA-72008, SOTA-72010
• Removed visible outlines in the mannequin icons.
• Changed the Egg Hunt 2024 Cloak description. SOTA-71993
• Fixed typos in choose-one dye bag descriptions.
• Removed the loading screen tip about pickpocketing.
• Corrected the spelling of reversible in three UI windows.
• Fixed a typo in the dark gothic bedroom set store description.

World and Quest Changes:

The Luminous Atavist and some of his Atavists of Purity in the desert of Grunvald.

• The Arch Lapin will go dormant and the Luminous Atavist will return on May 16th.
• Aether Dragons, Aether Liches, and Aether Corpions will awake in their respective stomping grounds as the two-tailed comet comes within range of the world on May 27th.
• Added [REDACTED] to [REDACTED]. SOTA-72004
• Fixed a shader issue for swamp water plants.
• Ardoris: Fixed typos in “harmony” and “spirit talker” responses for Shaaria Barista. SOTA-71987
• Blood Bay: Moved the Town Crier teleport destination locations up off the shoreline and into the Judge’s Watch and Scoundrel’s Hold towns. Added unlockable teleporter scroll locations for Scoundrel’s Hold Dock and Isle of Bones Dock. Fixed “Scoundrel’s Hold” typo in teleporter boats within Novia. SOTA-72003
• Blood Bay: An invisible teleporter boat along the eastern shore is now visible again. SOTA-72002
• Grusk: Fixed a typo in the “Offer Help to Kortreek Again” journal update from Kortreek the Magic Merchant. SOTA-72014
• Grusk: Fixed a typo in one of Vishpop the Lighthouse Keeper’s journal updates. SOTA-72013
• The Rise: Fixed a data issue that was causing errors and, sometimes, NPCs to not spawn. SOTA-71999
• Shaminian Hills: Corrected the nameplate of a mislabeled elf mage. SOTA-72000
• South Fetid Swamp: Fixed a stuck spot. SOTA-71996
• Upper Tears: Fixed a stuck spot in ruins within the water. SOTA-72001

Player-Owned Town Changes:

• Ocllo: Added a new hamlet east of Noreach.
• Sionann: Upgraded to Metropolis.

R125 Map of Novia POTs

Player-Owned Dungeon and Basement Changes

• Made totems above the first tier salvagable (at a loss) at a smithing station for totems of lower tiers. SOTA-71919
• Elf, kobold, spider, and troll totems, and the slots they fit in, now look like themselves, not liches. SOTA-66044
• Corrected elf totem display direction for the Rise Library with Spawns.
• Recategorized eleven dungeon pieces that were not showing in the dungeons and blueprints inventory category. SOTA-71995

Sales, Rewards and Crown Store

Sales and Bonus Events

Spring is here and in full bloom! From April 25th through end-of-day May 1st, we celebrate Beltane:

• Crown Store sales will be 30% off.
• Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off.

Release 125 Subscriber Login Rewards

Everyone should sit and read to their plants. It’s good for them! Toward that end, the Rewards Program login items for Release 125 are a Nimrond’s Elegant Wooden Lion Chair, a Blank Ornate Street Lamp with Sign, and a set of Sparse Foalfoot Flowering Pavers!

• (See Rewards Program)

A pair of chairs made of many curved ribs, with ornately-carved backs, lion-head armrests, and red cushions on their seats, sit on a red and gold rug below a tapestry of desert boulders forming a lion's head above an ominous door. Perhaps that door's what those campers from above sailed in search of!

A graceful iron lightpost with a sign pointing to the right sits in a bed of yellow flowers between a cobblestone path and a wrought-iron fence. We cannot read the sign; it might say 'Do Not Pick the Flowers.'

An intermittent patch of foalfoot with bright yellow flowers makes a vivid line across a dark forest floor.

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 125 to receive these special login items.

May Login Reward

Cakes and ale for May Day! (Bring your own ale.) Each account that logs in during the month of May will receive a one-time gift of a Mixed-Berry Tort Cake with a Confection Stand.

A tall two-layer cake, dripping with chocolate and covered with fruit, sits on a confection stand on a kitchen counter, a knife at the ready to the side. (To be clear, the cake will be cut, not do the cutting.)

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for today’s release:

• Animal Spawner, Frog (Choose One) - This choose-one bag contains a red, a green, and a blue toadstool, but whichever you pick, the frog it spawns is green.

A red, a green, and a blue toadstool grace the edge of a pond where a green frog boss is getting all his frogs in a row. It's not easy being green.

• Sign (Choose One) - This choose-one bag contains nine more choose-one bags, dividing all the available signs by material and placement.

Wall plaques, jutting signs, and signs on free-standing posts, of brass, steel, and a dark finished wood, are clustered on a rooftop waiting to be engraved with their assigned symbols. Always engrave with good ventilation.

• Foalfoot Flowering Paver Set

A solid patch of foalfoot with bright yellow flowers makes a suspicious rectangle on a dark forest floor. I wonder what could be under it...

• Small Very Sparse Foalfoot Flowering Pavers

A few random splotches of foalfoot with bright yellow flowers stand out against a dark forest floor.

• Foalfoot Paver Set

Where have all the flowers gone? A solid patch of foalfoot leaves makes a suspicious rectangle on a dark forest floor. Is it just too early to bloom, or too late?

• Sparse Foalfoot Paver Set

An intermittent patch of foalfoot leaves along a dark forest floor. Don't trust plants with feet.

• Small Very Sparse Foalfoot Pavers

A few random sprouts of foalfoot leaves quite a bit of space to plant more.

The chess and checkers sets below aren’t new, but they now deliver in prepacked bags for easy regifting rather than as a loose assortment of individual pieces.

• Chess Set

A life-sized chess set shows a game in progress in the paved formal lawn of a grand white stone house. A shogun lightstring is available for night games.

• Tabletop Chess Set

Two black and red curule chairs face off across a chessboard on an elven end table. May the best chair win!

• Checkers Set

A life-sized checkers set sits in the corner of a fenced yard, a marble bench ready for spectators. I hope there's refreshments!

• Tabletop Checkers Set

A checkers board sits on a low gothic table between white-and-gold-upholstered seats. No one is playing, and why would they? Through the windows we can see that it's gorgeous out. Checkers are for rainy days.

…and for May 1st:

• Mixed-Berry Tort Cake

A tall two-layer cake, dripping with chocolate and covered with fruit, sits on a confection stand on a kitchen counter, a knife at the ready to the side. (To be clear, the cake will be cut, not do the cutting.)

…and for May 10th:

• Nimrond’s Elegant Wooden Lion Chair 2-Pack

A pair of chairs made of many curved ribs, with ornately-carved backs, lion-head armrests, and red cushions on their seats, sit on a red and gold rug below a tapestry of desert boulders forming a lion's head above an ominous door. Perhaps that door's what those campers from above sailed in search of!

• Blank Ornate Street Lamp with Sign 6-Pack

A graceful iron lightpost with a sign pointing to the right sits in a bed of yellow flowers between a cobblestone path and a wrought-iron fence. We cannot read the sign; it might say 'Do Not Pick the Flowers.'

• Sparse Foalfoot Flowering Paver Set

An intermittent patch of foalfoot with bright yellow flowers makes a vivid line across a dark forest floor.

…and in a patch after release:

• Antique Broom Decoration Pet

An autonomous broom has been abandoned in a dark and crowded attic, but he'll continue to keep the floor clean with Manny the Mannequin's encouragement. One hopes the trident propped in view does not similarly animate.

The Spring Equinox store items are available until Sunday May 5th:

List of Spring Equinox items:

• Brown Bunny Ears & Slippers Set
• Bunny Ears & Slippers Set
• Decorative Dyeable Egg Pack
• Flower Crown
• Lepus Mask 2017
• Lepus Mask 2018
• Silver & Gold Lepus Mask
• White Lepus Mask
• Rabbit Tailed Bodice Ensemble
• Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2016
• Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2017
• Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2018
• Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2019
• Spring Fountain w/ Floating Candles

Although there are not currently enough items to make a whole new category for them, a few St. Patrick’s Day items can be found in other categories (Wearables and Outdoor Decorations) through Monday May 6th:

List of St. Patrick’s Day items:

• Garden Leprechaun
• Leprechaun Bowler Hat
• Leprechaun Bowler Hat with Shamrock
• Leprechaun Hat
• Pot o’ Gold

To celebrate his birthday, the Darkstarr Rares store items will be available through Monday May 27th:

List of Darkstarr items:

• Darkstarr Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
• Darkstarr Chaos Throne
• Darkstarr Chaos Throne (Reverse Colors)
• Darkstarr Clock Tower
• Darkstarr Clock Tower (Reverse Colors)
• Darkstarr Fur Collared Cloak
• Darkstarr Pavers
• Darkstarr Shield
• Darkstarr Shield Pattern Pack
• Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
• Mosh Emote

The Summer Seasonal store items will be available from Friday May 24th through Monday September 23rd:

List of Summer Seasonal items:

• Firedancer Outfit
• Fire Dance Emote
• Fire Dance Cross Emote
• Flame Scimitar
• Flame Shield
• Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
• Flaming Bagpipes
• Hula Emote
• Island Spear
• Island Flower Crown
• Island Dress

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 2024 Release Schedule is as follows:

• This Release 125 – April 25 (Content)
• Release 126 – May 30 (Quality of Life)
• Release 127 – June 27 (Quality of Life)

Additional Information

• Player Guide
• Known Issues
• Quick Reference Card

See Also

• Release 123
• Release 124
• Release 125
• Release 126
• Release 127
• Release Features 2024
• New Britannian Calendar