Things are almost always changing in Shroud of the Avatar, but it sounds like some of those changes are now going to be arriving a bit more frequently, if not incrementally. Release 68 is now out in the wild, and with it comes the arrival of “a continuous integration model of development” where the devs are able to push out updates on a weekly or even sometimes daily basis. This also means a quarterly schedule update is no longer needed.
So just what’s in R68? Updated and new Stories and Scenes, several tweaks to combat including scaled pet healing and revamped Focus costs for skills at higher levels, new Masteries for Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Carpentry, and Tailoring crafters, and some quality of life things and new items for player housing among other updates; there’s actually a pretty significant number of things added for this update.
The notes even offer a little hint at Episode 2’s arrival at the end, along with plans for the rest of the year:
“The rest of 2019 will continue to be an amazing year for Shroud of the Avatar players! Grandmaster Craftsman only effects, more loot improvements, more expansions to the fishing system, better boss fights and more.
Join us for Episode 2 which will have a new story, new lands, a revamp of the Quest and Journal system, a Theater System, Treasure Hunting with treasure maps that show up as loot, Item Affinity, Taming system expansions, Customizable NPCs, and expanded permissions for containers and doors!”
