Release 4

**Release 4** is the fourth early access testing phase open to backers of Shroud of the Avatar. The release ran from March 27 10am CST to March 30 10pm CST.

## Deliverables

### Original deliverables

These are the deliverables as outlined in the early access schedule.

* **Hidden Vale:** A hidden island north north east of the mainland with numerous biomes to explore via the overworld map system
* **10 Hidden Vale Scenes:** With the opening of the overworld, we need something to do between the cities so we will be turning on the first 10 scenes including wilderness, caves, and dungeons.
* **Combat / Magic:** Those first 10 scenes might have stuff in them, so we've decided we should give you a way to fight back! A wide array of combat and magic skills, along with the ability to assemble these skills into decks, will now become available.
* **Advancement and Skill Trees:** Players will start earning experience points for fighting, crafting, and questing. This will lead to level increases and skill points which can be spent to learn new skills or improve existing skills.
* **Quests:** Players will be able to participate in quests that will send them around the world and even change game state in the scenes based on quest flags. Testing this early is important because our quest system operates differently than the current standards (e.g. no exclamation points or convo trees).
* **Loot:** Creatures and quests will generate loot including gold and resources.
* **Crafting:** Resource Gathering will be added to crafting including resource nodes placed in the world. Item wear begins happening and in turn, Repair will now be available. Item enhancement will now also be possible, allowing upgrading of items to more powerful versions. On top of all that, more recipes will become available
* **Player Housing:** The housing system will be relaunched with persistence in the online space. Housing choices will now be based on backer level, add on purchase, or what can be bought in the game. Waterfront housing will also come online.
* **Wearable Dyeing:** Clothing and Armor will now be dyeable
* **Social Systems:** The first social systems will come online including Friends and Parties. Safety in numbers!

### Release deliverables

Changes from the original deliverables are ~~crossed out~~ and bonus deliverables are in *italics*.

* **Performance Optimizations:** Introducing multiplayer in Release 3 exposed some performance issues that needed resolution sooner than later. To that end, we made this a top priority for Release 4 so more players can enjoy the game.
* **Overworld Map System:** Our dual scale navigation system will launch and players will be able to use it to navigate between towns and adventuring areas.
* **10 Scenes:** The Hidden Vale, a hidden island northeast of the mainland, will be complete with 10 scenes, including towns, wilderness, caves, and dungeons. *NOTE: We actually have 14 scenes (although two are merely placeholders).*
* **Combat:** Those first scenes will have nasty beasts in them, so we’ve decided we should give you a way to fight back! This first release of combat will be extremely simple and focus just on auto swing using your equipped weapon. Death will also be kept simple for now: you will auto resurrect at your death location after a short time interval.
* **Quests:** Players will be able to participate in quests that will send them around the world and even change game state in the scenes based on quest flags. Testing this early is important because our quest system operates differently than the current standards (e.g. no exclamation points or convo trees). ~~We will also provide the first version of the journal.~~ *NOTE: For R4 we were unable to get the Journal UI implemented but you can still get the data by typing /journal in the chat window.*
* **Loot:** Killing those nasty creatures you encounter and quests you complete will generate loot, including gold and resources.
* **Crafting:** Resource Gathering will be added to crafting including resource nodes placed in the world. More recipes will also become available. *NOTE: For R4, gathering includes tree chopping (wood), field dressing (animal hides), harvesting (cotton) and mining (ore).*
	+ ***More Recipes:** 16 more recipes bring our grand total to 169.*
* **Player Housing:** The housing system will be re-launched with persistence in the online space. Since we are still on the small island of Hidden Vale there are not yet enough lots to go around. To continue to allow everyone to try out player housing, the ownership of the lots will cycle every hour or two. *NOTE: While waterfront housing and basements are not working yet, we wanted you to still be able to view them. Waterfront houses (Frigate, Galleon, Houseboat, Lighthouse, Duke Island Castle, etc.) can be found in Kingsport and basements can be found in various buildings around Owlshead, Kingsport, and Braemar. These are static buildings / scenes and not player owned.*
* **Parties:** We will continue to expand our social systems by adding a Party system so players can group together and adventure.
* **Mac/Linux Patching:** No longer will you have to download a full executable whenever we release a new patch. Mac and Linux versions will patch just like the Windows version.
* **Swimming:** Jumping was just the first step to giving players a much greater feeling of movement freedom. Like jumping, swimming will eventually be governed by game systems like encumbrance and focus.

## Patches

Two patches were posted for this release:

### PC-v85, OSX-v10, Linux-v12

* Overworld now picks better paths based on tile types
* Red Sash Quest now works: Added new red sashes back to Enmar's quest, Laurent's merchant bundle, and the Red Sash loot bundle.
* Replaced old Skeleton Models with New Skeleton Models
* Added wand, staff 10% drop to skeletal mages
* Players should now land facing away from exit points
* Cleaned up some performance issues caused by lighting gone crazy
* Sped up combat by halving cool down for Avatar attacks (from 2.0->1.0)
* Fixed some decoration items that were unable to be moved once placed
* Female avatar can now rotate in character creation
* NPC text barks should now appear again.
* Increased cool down on Skeletal Mage attack (they were a bit too hard)
* Reduced hitpoints on all mages (they were a bit too hard)
* Fixed sorting issues with using a wand or staff when offhand item (shield, torch, etc.) is equipped
* No longer able to see edge of map in the water from Baron’s Frigate in Kingsport

### PC-v86, OSX-v11, Linux-v13

* Entering a hex will now put you in an instance tied to that specific hex on the map versus sorting everyone into the same scene. In other words there will now be multiple instances of the forests, not just one.
* Entry and exit points for the clink should now work correctly
* Lich now does damage (and lots of it)
* Added sounds to some weapons and visual effects
* Adding a few more music triggers in various locations
* Humanoids (Satyrs, Skeletons, and Elves now 10% harder)
* Fixed issue that was causing players to fall through the ground when destroying crates & barrels
* Disabled flickering light script that was displaying incorrectly
* Fixed Ore and Cotton Nodes in Forest
* Fix sliding for female characters
* Fixed incorrect text on ore nodes (said “Harvest Wood” instead of “Harvest Ore”)
* Fixed ruins in forest LODs that was popping
* Fixed issue that was trapping players in Owls Nest (aka Red Sash Bandits)
* Lich loot revisited
* LOTS of music changes. Braemar is where the bards are…
* Memory work for Braemar and beyond
* Trees cleared from player lots should now also clear their collisions
* Myron properly flags when the player finishes his dialog. Myra only gives the player one key.
* NPCs no longer announce "excuse me" bump style barks when they are colliding with other NPCs, or when they are dead.
* Slash commands for party invite/uninivite
* Text directed to NPCs does not broadcast to the entire zone. And there was much rejoicing.
* You can no longer see edge of map in the water from Baron’s Frigate / Galleon
* NOTE: Player lots in Owlshead were reset with this patch

## See also

* Release 1
* Release 2
* Release 3
* Release 5

## References

1. ↑ Early Access Schedule by DarkStarr
2. ↑ Release 4 Update & Instructions by DarkStarr
3. ↑ Release 4 Patch Notes

## External links

* Early Access Schedule
* Darkstarr's Chaotic Release 4 Impressions
* Lord British's Virtuous R4 Impressions
* Chris's Release 4 Ramblings!