Fifty-four! That’s the number stamped on today’s Shroud of the Avatar release, going live at 11:30 a.m. EDT this morning. The monthly update includes two adventure scenes, an uncloned town, scene polish, new side quests, new recipes (including one for a new row house), improved player vendors, pattern removers, improved skeleton baddies, UI tweaks (like containers inside containers), and a nice buff to companions:
“Rounding out your party with the three Companions in Offline Mode will be much more rewarding in Release 54. They are more powerful as the party levels up, they have many more abilities to use, they are better at using their abilities (i.e. knowing when to heal), and they are more aware of their combat environment.”
Brewing didn’t make it into this update as planned, unfortunately; Portalarium says a lot of the “foundational” work for Brewing was completed, but the need to include containers-within-containers for the system caused a delay. It’s now expected in R55. The Chaos Magic balance pass was also delayed.
“We made strong progress on performance, physical goods, improved reward cycle, user interface polish, player direction and story polish,” Portalarium’s Starr Long notes. “We will be spending more time on enemy behaviors and repeatable content in the next release and in Q3.”
The team has a new video out today (and a free trial).
