Release 3

**Release 3** is the third early access testing phase open to backers of Shroud of the Avatar. The release was originally scheduled to run from February 20 10am CST to February 22 2014 10pm CST, but was extended to February 24 at 1030am CST. The server didn't actually go down until after 5pm CST.

## Deliverables

### Original deliverables

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

* **Open Multiplayer Online:** FINALLY we will let you see what the other players look like BUT we'll be taking away your house for the month as we prepare housing to have persistence in the multiplayer space for Release 4.
* **Chat:** You know, so you can talk to your friends!
* **Emotes:** More than 30 emotes online so you can look like a clown with your friends.
* **Town 3:** A third municipality opens up (perhaps the lovely oceanside village of Kingsport).

### Stretch goals

On 29 January 2014, Darkstarr announced stretch goals for Release 3.

* **Alternate Control Scheme + Key Rebinding:** This was by far the most requested feature for R1 & R2. We initially did not have this in our roadmap until after R4, but after witnessing the surge of requests for this, we have pulled it into R3. More details about the alternate scheme and what level of key rebinding we will have will be released closer to R3.
* **Swimming:** Jumping was just the first step to giving players a much greater feeling of movement freedom. In R3, players will be able to swim along the surface of the water. Like jumping, swimming will eventually be governed by game systems like encumbrance and focus.
* **Crafting Auto Place:** Once you discover a recipe you can double click on it in the recipe log to automatically place all ingredients and tools on the table.
* **Walking:** With the run speed increase it became increasingly obvious that we need an option to walk.

### Release deliverables

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

* **Open Multiplayer Online:** FINALLY we will let you see what the other players look like ~~BUT we'll be taking away your house for the month as we prepare housing to have persistence in the multiplayer space for Release 4.~~
* **Chat:** You know, so you can talk to your friends! *The chat interface now sports a tabbed interface and filters for different channels.*
* **Emotes:** More than ~~30~~ 18 emotes online so you can look like a clown with your friends. *NOTE: We wanted to use facial animations in several of the emotes so they ended up taking a bit longer than planned. Also the additions of jumping and walking took up animation time. Our final count of emotes is 19. On a brighter note we just added another animator to shore up our animation efforts so our animation speed is going to rise dramatically.*
* **Town 3:** A third municipality opens up (the tiny forest village of Braemar). *This is a new type of village that starts tiny and overgrown. The forest gradually becomes cleared out as it becomes more populated.*
* **Shopping:** Shopkeepers will be open for business for selling and buying. *NOTE: Now that we have this functionality coupled with crafting we have removed many of the loot chests and greatly reduced the content that can be found in them. The chests mentioned in the Ten Ton Hammer article were only for very early testing of R3.*
* ***Configurable Controls:** We completely understand the myriad reasons why players desire the ability to play the game with different control schemes so we have started adding this functionality. This first version is quite basic so expect us to expand what controls this can change as we get further in the schedule.*
* ***Crafting Improvements:** We made a bunch of improvement to make crafting more useable while preserving the experimentation and discovery aspect.*
	+ ***Auto Place:** Once you discover a recipe you can double click on it in the recipe log to automatically place all ingredients and tools on the table.*
	+ ***Take All:** There is now a "take all" button that removes everything on the table*
	+ ***Starter Recipes:** Crafting Log now starts with a handful of recipes*
	+ ***Recipe Status:** Recipes now display the status of whether they can be crafted including details about what ingredients you have, or do not have, in your inventory*
	+ ***More Recipes:** 52 more recipes bring our grand total to 153.*
* ***Walking:** With the run speed increase it became increasingly obvious that we need an option to walk.*
* ***Friends & Anti-Friends (Blocking):** Friends and Blocking were originally R4 goals but we managed to sneak them in for R3.*
* ***Player Housing in SPO:** We originally planned to disable all housing in R3 because of the complexity of dealing with ownership in multiplayer. We realized though that we could leave it functional in single player online without having to spend time solving the multiplayer issues in R3. This means you can still experience house ownership and decoration, but only in single player online mode.*
* ***Player Made Music:** The Bards of Poets' Circle Guild selected a set of songs for us to include in the game and we have spread them around the three maps for your listening pleasure.*
* ***Ladders:** Using ladders will now teleport you to the next floor of a structure*

## Patches

### v69

* Welcome to Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues Pre-Alpha Release 3! Notes on what is in this release is available here

### v71

* Audio fixes for taverns
* A fix for being unable to open some doors
* Reduce overall music volumes
* Fix for a few memory leaks
* A few map updates
* Added dresses to some of the treasure chests.

### v73

* In multiplayer, you must now target NPCs (click on them) for them to respond to your messages. This is to prevent NPCs from responding when you mean to talk to other players.
* In multiplayer, chests should now respawn properly, and do so about every 3 minutes.
* A fix for getting stuck in chat mode.
* A few misc bug fixes.

### v74

* Some bug fixes and extra diagnostics to help us find various multiplayer/network related issues.

## See also

* Release 1
* Release 2
* Release 4

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Early Access Schedule by DarkStarr
2. ↑ Shroud of the Avatar Release 3 Weekend Access Extended
3. ↑ Release 2 Impressions (+ Release 3 Stretch Goals!) by Darkstarr

## External links

* Release 3 Instructions on official site
* A Royal Reflection of R3 by Lord British
* Darkstarr's Release 3 Impressions by Darkstarr