Player Guide
Release 9: August 22, 2014
Thank you for your continuing support of Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues! We’ve provided information here on what is available in the current build of the game for you to explore, test, and give feedback on. If you are a returning player, features that are new for Release 9 are highlighted.
Logging In and Avatar Creation
Player Menu (“Right-Click Menu”)
Player vs. Player Combat (PvP)
Creating and Setting Permissions For A House
Installing the game
SotA can be played on Windows, OSX (Macintosh), and Linux computers.
Note: Mac and Linux users will need to download the installer and reinstall the entire game this release, due to changes in the launcher.
Windows
Download the installer file, “SotAInstaller.exe” from this link:
Running this file will install the Shroud of the Avatar Launcher application, which will download the rest of the game. We recommend having at least 4GB of free disk space on the drive you install to, though the game will only download about 1.5GB of data. Note that downloading and installing the game may take some time, especially on slower Internet connections.
You can update the game for future releases by running the Launcher again; there is no need to re-download it.
The Launcher uses BitTorrent bandwidth sharing to distribute the Shroud of the Avatar game files to other players. Leaving the Launcher open will help us and others by providing some of your bandwidth to assist others in downloading the game, but doing so is optional. If you do not wish to use BitTorrent at all, you can turn it off via an option in the Options screen of the Launcher.
From the option screen, you can also specify using “borderless window mode” (a special windowed mode that aligns with the primary monitor of your system, which is helpful for users with multiple monitors) and whether or not you wish to use the 64-bit version of Shroud of the Avatar. The 64-bit version will use more of your memory if it is available, and may be more stable, but will not run on older 32-bit operating systems.
Once the game has finished downloading and is patched to the latest version, you can click the “Launch Game” button to play the game.
Macintosh
Download the installer package from this link:
Open the file (which by default should be in your Downloads directory) and run it; it is a standard installer file that will install “Shroud of the Avatar - Launcher” to your Applications directory.
Running the Launcher will download the rest of the game and allow you to launch it from there. We recommend having at least 4GB of free disk space on the drive you installed the Launcher to, though the game will only download about 1.5GB of data. Note that downloading and installing the game may take some time, especially on slower Internet connections.
You can update the game for future releases by running the Launcher again; there is no need to re-install it.
The Launcher uses BitTorrent bandwidth sharing to distribute the Shroud of the Avatar game files to other players. Leaving the Launcher open will help us and others by providing some of your bandwidth to assist others in downloading the game, but doing so is optional. If you do not wish to use BitTorrent at all, you can turn it off via an option in the Options screen.
Once the game has finished downloading and is patched to the latest version, you can click the “Launch Game” button to play the game.
If you have participated in previous releases, and have an older “Shroud of the Avatar” or “Shroud of the Avatar - Launcher” app outside of Applications, you should delete it as it is no longer needed.
Linux
Download the installer file, “latestPatcherLinux.tar.gz”, from this link:
This file contains the Shroud of the Avatar Launcher application (which unpacks by default into the folder “StandaloneLinuxUniversalPatcher”), which will download the rest of the game. Included are two launcher binaries, “Shroud of the Avatar - Launcher.x86” and “Shroud of the Avatar - Launcher.x86_64”. Run the one most appropriate for your system architecture (most likely “Shroud of the Avatar - Launcher.x86_64”).
We recommend having at least 4GB of free disk space on the drive you install to, though the game will only download about 1.5GB of data. Note that downloading and installing the game may take some time, especially on slower Internet connections.
You can update the game for future releases by running the Launcher again; there is no need to re-download it.
The Launcher uses BitTorrent bandwidth sharing to distribute the Shroud of the Avatar game files to other players. Leaving the Launcher open will help us and others by providing some of your bandwidth to assist others in downloading the game, but doing so is optional. If you do not wish to use BitTorrent at all, you can turn it off via an option in the Options screen of the Launcher.
Once the game has finished downloading and is patched to the latest version, you can click the “Launch Game” button to play the game.
Logging In and Avatar Creation
Logging In
Once you launch the game, after the initial screens, you will be prompted to log in.
Note that at this time Shroud of the Avatar is only open for access during very specific launch windows, as we actively develop the game. If it is currently not an active Release weekend (which usually occurs once a month) the login window will denote such.
User accounts are handled through the Shroud of the Avatar website, at https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/. If you are a Kickstarter backer, you need to link your Kickstarter pledge to a Shroud of the Avatar account at our website to gain access to the game. Otherwise, a Shroud of the Avatar account is created for you when you purchase a pledge for the game at the $45.00 Adventurer level or above. Your Shroud of the Avatar user name and password is used to access the game, even in Single Player Online mode.
The currently available modes for play are “Multiplayer Online”, where you play Shroud of the Avatar in the same game world as everyone else currently playing, and “Single Player Online”, where you play Shroud of the Avatar in your own private space, though you will see the works of other players such as housing and player towns. Choose whichever you prefer; you play the same character in both and can switch your character between the two at any time by logging in again to the other play mode. (Note that this may change in the future.)
If you already have created a character, you will be asked whether to play Shroud of the Avatar with that character or delete it so that you can create a new one.
Otherwise you will be taken to avatar creation after logging in. Note that while Shroud of the Avatar is in early development, your character can and will be deleted (“wiped”) frequently.
Avatar Creation
Avatar (or character) creation is accomplished through a series of screens.
On the first screen, you can pick the following options:
- Your avatar’s name, which is checked online immediately to see if it is valid or already chosen by another. The combination of first and last names are unique; you can share the same first name as someone or the same last name, but not both. If your name is rejected, the reason will appear in the status line below.
- Your avatar’s gender. The only effect avatar gender has is in your avatar’s appearance and (in the future) minor changes to how non-player characters respond to you.
- Your avatar’s size in-game (you can see the avatar scale as you maneuver the slider).
After this screen, you can if you choose select “create character” to accept all other customization options as is, or continue to the next screen using the “next” button.
On the second screen, you can pick the following options, all of which are purely cosmetic:
- Your avatar’s skin tone
- Your avatar’s eye color
- Your avatar’s head type. (For this release, there is only one head type implemented.)
You can see the options take effect as you select them. After this screen, you can if you choose select “create character” to accept all other customization options as is, or continue to the next screen using the “next” button.
On the third screen, you can pick the following options, all of which are purely cosmetic:
- Your avatar’s hair color
- Your avatar’s hair style.
Note that you can rotate your avatar in the preview window to get a better view of each possible hairstyle.
After this screen, you can if you choose select “create character” to accept all other customization options as is, or continue to the next screen using the “next” button.
The final two screens allow you to fine tune your avatar’s eyes in great detail. Like the other customization options this is purely cosmetic.
You can page through all these screens using the “back” and “next” buttons, and when finished, click “create character” to enter the world of New Britannia.
Playing the Game
Once the game is launched, you will see yourself in the world of New Britannia.
User Interface
The menus for the game appear in the upper right hand corner. They are described in more detail below.
At the top of the screen is a compass, along with the name of the area you are currently in (in this example, the village of Braemar).
A view of your health and focus (and those of your party members) appears in the upper left hand corner. The stats of your currently selected target (which can be yourself, as in this example) appear next to those. Note that your selected target will also be surrounded with a glow; blue for a friendly target, red for a hostile target.
By default, your conversation log appears in the lower left corner, though that can be moved.
At the bottom of the screen is the Non-Combat ability bar. Non-Combat spells, tools, maps, and consumables can be used here. Note that a different ability bar appears during combat, which is described in detail in the Deck and Deck Building section. Potions and other consumables can still be used in combat, they just need to be part of your Deck. Again see the Deck and Deck Building section for details.
Menus
The available menus in the upper right of the interface are, in order from left to right:
- Stained-glass window: a drop-down list of many useful windows in the game.
- Crossed swords and shield: a view of the character, with basic stats (none of which are currently functional) and the character’s bags and inventory slots.
- Saddlebag: opens up the players’ inventory
- Gears: opens the option menu
- Audio tab contains various options for audio control
- Video tab allows video and graphics setting adjustments
- Game tab contains options that affect in-game play
- Controls tab allows the user to rebind the key controls
- Quit will allow a user to quit the game
- Question mark: launches a web browser to display this document
- Sealed envelope: launches a web browser to display the bug reporting forum for the game’s current release.
Moving through the World
You can move through the game world using the “W-A-S-D” keys (used in most PC games). You can redefine these keys to any others preferred (the arrow keys, for example) in the Controls section of the options menu. You can also move forward using the mouse by holding both the left and right buttons down simultaneously.
Pressing the spacebar key will cause your Avatar to jump. The longer you hold down the ‘SPACEBAR’ the higher the Avatar will jump. Jumping consumes a small amount of Focus, but has a chance (20%) to break stun and root effects.
Double-tapping A, S, or D allows you to perform a quick directional roll left, back, or right respectively. Rolling consumes Focus and requires a short break before it can be done again.
You can swim simply by moving into deep water. You cannot currently swim underwater, you cannot jump while swimming, and you cannot engage in combat while swimming.
You can toggle between running and walking (for example, someone role-playing an event may find it inappropriate to be constantly running everywhere) by using the / key on the numeric keypad. The /walk command will also do this.
Pressing the Num-Lock key will cause your avatar to “auto-run”, or move without a key being pressed. Pressing the Num-Lock key again will cancel this.
Holding down the right mouse button while moving your mouse will cause you to “mouselook”, or look around to better view your surroundings. There is an option in the options menu (the gear icon) to invert how this works if the default is not comfortable for you.
You travel between towns and areas of adventure in the game using an “overworld” map. This is a large interactive map of the world laid out via a hexagonal grid (there will be the option to display this grid in future releases). You will know if you are about to leave the area you are in through a “fading out to black” effect as you walk towards the edge of the area.
Many exit points can also be found by looking for a stone archway that looks like the one pictured above.
To move around the world map, single click a point on the map to move towards it. Note that travel speed will be affected by certain types of terrain - movement along roads is faster than movement through forests. To enter a given area, double-click on that point. Every area on the map contains an opportunity for exploration and adventure, though some are generic placeholders at this time. If you are in a party, the location of your party members will be shown on this map as well.
You can use your mouse’s right button to pan around the map, similar to mouselook in the game. Using your mousewheel will allow you to zoom your viewpoint in and out.
Some areas of the game can be accessed via fast travel.
- The Owls Head lunar rift has destabilized, and will now route you to different locations depending on the time of day. This has opened access to several new locations, such as the city of Ardoris. The rift currently changes it’s destination approximately every six hours (15 minutes Earth time).
Afternoon: Ferig’s Battle Encampment
Evening: Graff Gem Mines
After Midnight: Blackblade Pass
Morning: City of Ardoris
- The Kingsport lunar rift is currently offline due to cosmic misalignment. It may be restored in later releases.
- To travel to the islands of Port Mirren, the Brave Coast, and Estercove, there are boats at the Kingsport docks that will ferry you to each of these locations.
- Thanks to enterprising smugglers, the mainland city of Ardoris can be reached from a smuggler skiff as well. Note that the NPCs do not yet acknowledge this and will in fact disavow any knowledge of a working transport to the mainland.
- Underground tunnels have been discovered linking together many caves, sewers, and dungeons. Look for torches with purple flames marking tunnels that take you to a different area.
Some areas of the game have entrances to other areas of adventure. For example, entry to the Ravensmoor dungeon requires navigating through a mountaintop pass guarded by undead and finding the entrance carved out of the rocky shore. Many areas of adventure have similar entrances to discover.
Avatar Character Management
All character management windows are available via hotkeys, or as a list from the stained glass window icon in the top right menu.
The character menu (‘C’ key or crossed sword and shield icon) will bring up your Avatar’s paperdoll and basic character information.
The journal (‘J’ key) keeps track of information that your Avatar learns through her travels in New Britannia.
The inventory screen (‘I’ key or saddlebag icon) will toggle opening or closing your inventory bags. Note that there are two ways of displaying inventory, a list of your items and a graphic representation that may be familiar to players of other older role playing games. You can switch between the two via the “Use List Inventory Mode” checkbox in your options menu. More detail on using your avatar’s inventory is detailed below.
The ‘‘N’ key displays the names of other players and NPCs over their head. This is not active by default.
This also toggles NPC health bars and combat damage feedback. If names are hidden, so are health bars and combat feedback.
Avatars with green names are friendly and cannot be attacked. In PvP zones, at present this will only be party members. Avatars with yellow names are hostile and can attack and be attacked by you. Avatars with purple names are Shroud of the Avatar developers. Be sure to give us feedback on the game if you see us!
By default you only see the full name of NPCs that you know; otherwise you will see a descriptive title such as “Guard” or “Shopkeeper”. To learn the names of NPCs, talk to them and ask them their name!
The emotes menu (‘O’ key) allows you to perform a variety of useful and fun animations that others around you will see. Check often as new emote animations are added to the game frequently!
The compass is toggled via the ‘M’ key. Note that you will see the name of the town or area you are currently in underneath the compass.
Your avatar’s skill trees can be accessed via the ‘K’ key. More on skill usage is detailed below. Note that Crafting skills are not yet implemented. Skills without icons are also not yet implemented. To purchase a skill, click that skill to spend a skill point if your character has any available. At this time, you can reset your skills at any time by right-clicking in the skill tree to refund the points you have spent in that skill.
Skills that your avatar knows are accessed via the ‘L’ key. From here you may drag skills to your hotbar for use in the world, or into the deck builder screen for building a combat deck. The interface for combat deck building is opened via the ‘Y’ key and is detailed below.
The ‘B’ key opens the crating journal. You begin with a few recipes already known and any new ones you discover are recorded here. The crafting journal is used frequently in crafting, which is detailed below.
The ‘F’ key brings up the Social menu where you can add or remove friends and party members.
- Type in a name in the search field followed by the ‘ENTER’ key to add a user as a friend. Friends are account-based, not character based; if you create a new character you will keep the friends that you have made (though you may need to re-introduce yourself).
- Select a friend from the list and left click Unfriend to remove the selected friend
- The Party tab allows you to invite other players, promote another player to party leader, kick a player if you are the leader, and leave the party.
The ‘H’ key will bring up the Blocked users list that will block any users from appearing within your chat window.
- Type in a name followed by the ‘ENTER’ key to add a user to the blocked list
- Select a user from the list and left click Unblock to remove the selected user from being blocked
The ‘V’ key brings up the character stats sheet. Note that many of these are obsolete, not implemented yet, or are not updating properly in this build.
The ‘F11’ key will take a screenshot of the game and save it to your installed SotA directory
The ‘Alt-F4’ key combo or left-clicking the options menu “Quit” tab will exit the game.
You can close all open interface screens via the ‘ESC’ key. Pressing ‘ESC’ with no interface screens open will bring up the options menu.
Typing /AFK puts your avatar in /AFK mode. Your avatar sits down and AFK gets appended to its name. Moving cancels /AFK mode.
You may drag harvesting tools (like a pickaxe) and select non-combat spells (like light) to the non-combat hotbar at the bottom of the screen. In combat this is swapped out for your equipped deck and returns once you sheath your weapons.
Inventory Management
To wear equipment, open the character sheet (‘C’ key), drag equipment onto the display avatar or corresponding highlighted equipment slot and release the left mouse button. Items can also be equipped by dragging them onto the actual Avatar within the world. Non-equippable Items will automatically be added to your top-most inventory bag if they are dragged onto the Avatar within the world.
To move items into a bag, open the bags inventory interface (‘I’ key) and drag items onto the desired bag followed by releasing the left mouse button to place the item within the selected bag.
SHIFT + Left Click allows you to break up stacks of identical items (like arrows).
Maps
Avatars begin play with several maps and it may be possible to buy, loot, or even craft more later.
Maps can be used directly from your inventory or dragged to a Non-Combat hotbar slot and used from there.
If you view the map for a scene you are currently in you will be able to see your Avatar’s current location and facing, represented as a small red triangle. This can make finding your way around much easier.
Interactive Objects
Interactive objects in the world (the cursor will change when hovered over) can either be interacted with by double left-clicking or picked up by left click + dragging the mouse.
Interactive objects are outlined in yellow when selected.
Some examples of interactions:
- Doors can be opened and closed.
- Chests can be opened and looted.
- Light sources can be toggled on/off.
- Ladders can be “climbed” (currently a teleport)
- Many objects in the environment can be picked up and looted by left click + dragging the mouse. Drop them on the Avatar or in an inventory window.
- You can move many items within the world, such as housing decorations, crafting components, and equipment, by selecting the item, holding down the left mouse button while dragging it to its desired location.
Adventuring with others (Parties)
Shroud of the Avatar can be played as a single player adventure, but most find it fun and rewarding to meet challenges with like-minded friends. These are called parties (sometimes referred to as groups for those familiar with the concept in other online games)
Players can be invited to party with you if you are the leader of a party or if you are not currently in a party. When invited to a party, a dialog will pop up that the player may accept or decline.
Parties are limited to eight members.
All party members are shown in the list and their status is listed, status includes: Leader, invited, member of party.
If the party leader disconnects or leaves the party, party leader status will be assigned to a new party member.
Party leaders can:
- Invite new party members to join
- Kick party members
- Make new party leader
- Manage invited members that have not accepted (uninvite)
Offline party members will remain in the party, but their name will be greyed out.
HUD elements (displayed vertically in the top left corner) for the party include name, health, and focus of current party members.
Most areas (called scenes) are shared by everyone in them. This includes most city, town, road, and wilderness scenes. It is possible to encounter Avatars not in your party in these scenes.
Other scenes are specific only to your Avatar and members of your party. These are called Adventure Scenes. Examples are the Owls Nest Bandit Hideout, The Clink, and the Ravensmoor Dungeon at the south end of the Vale. If you are inside an Adventure Scene, you will only see players that are in your party. Other players will be placed in different instances of that scene.
When you create a party and you are already in an adventure scene, scene ownership converts from private to group so others can join. If others in the party are also in their own private instance of an adventure scene, they are invited to “reload” so that they can join the party.
When you leave a party (or get kicked), you leave the instance as well, if the instance is an adventure scene.
If on the overworld map, you will see the location of party members on that map.
You can currently travel to where your party members are by typing ‘/zone [character name]’. This is to make testing easier and will be removed as the game develops further.
Player Menu (“Right-Click Menu”)
While adventuring, you can bring up a player menu by right-click on another Avatar. This allows you to do a variety of interactions with that Avatar.
- Trade opens the Secure Trade interface. Place your offer on your side and click “Accept Trade” when you’re happy with the trade. The trade only goes through when both parties click accept. Either person can cancel at any time before then.
- The ability to trade gold is planned for a later update and not implemented at this time.
- Through this menu you can also add/remove a player as a friend, ignore/unignore them, or block/unblock them.
Combat
New Britannia can be a hostile place. At some point, you may find it necessary to defend yourself.
Hostile creatures and Avatars turn the cursor red when hovered over and are highlighted in red when selected. Neutral creatures have a yellow outline and may fight back if attacked or if certain conversation options are chosen to antagonize them.
“Z” sheaths and unsheathes your equipped weapons. Most combat options cannot be taken with a sheathed weapon, even spells.
While hovering over a creature/NPC that can be attacked, double left-click to engage in auto-attack combat with your equipped weapon. Your weapon will be drawn automatically if it is sheathed.
While auto-attacking an enemy, double-tapping one of the WASD keys will perform an evasive roll.
“T” toggles auto-attacking your target on and off. When in Auto-Attack mode but unable to hit your target your Avatar’s name (over your health and focus bars) will turn yellow. When you are in range and Auto-Attacking your name will turn red.
‘TAB’ cycles your target through nearby enemies. ‘CTRL-TAB’ cycles your target through nearby friendly characters. (Handy for healing allies in a pitched battle)
Enemies that are defeated and have loot for the Avatar will highlight the cursor bronze when hovered over and can be double left-clicked to bring up the loot window. The party that does the most damage to a monster gets first looting privileges. After five minutes, looting opens to anyone. A lone Avatar counts as a party of one.
If the Avatar drops below 0 health they will be incapacitated for a moderate time until they regain consciousness at full health. Allies can also use the Resurrect spell to revive you. A more detailed death system will be implemented later.
Numbers indicating damage dealt and received appear over the Avatar and creature’s heads. These can be disabled with the N key along with health bars and nameplates.
Focus will begin to regenerate if no skills are used for a short time, but will regenerate slowly with your weapon drawn. Health regenerates very slowly until you sheath your weapon and leave combat.
Heavier armor can help protect an Avatar in combat, but is difficult to cast spells in. This is represented by the “Fizzle” attribute on each piece of armor, indicating the percentage chance a spell will fail. Combat skills are not affected by Fizzle chance, only Magic skills. Ways to mitigate Fizzle will be added in a later release.
You can target party members for healing and other beneficial skills by clicking on their nameplates in the left side of the screen, or by using the F2-F8 keys. You can target yourself by using the F1 key. (This is required for healing spells). Holding down the ALT key while casting will also cast a given spell upon yourself.
Combat wears down weapons and armor, represented by an item’s Durability rating. The ability to repair items will be added in a later release, so at present it may be necessary to periodically replace your equipment as it breaks. Some skills may make your armor more resistant to damage, inflict additional durability damage on hostile Avatars, or risk additional durability damage as part of their cost to use.
It is technically possible to dual wield one-handed weapons, but the system is not fully implemented yet. At present the Avatar will still only attack with their main hand weapon.
Player vs. Player Combat (PvP)
Some of the deadliest monsters are human - other players who seek the challenge of defeating like-minded players in combat. This is called Player vs. Player combat (usually abbreviated PvP). Shroud of the Avatar has an active PvP community and development continues on creative ways to maim and wound your friends. Note that PvP combat is still in early development and more structure, goals and advancement will be added soon.
Player versus Player combat is restricted to select scenes. The entrances to these scenes are watched by guardians who give warning, and will also note that they are PvP scenes if hovered over with the mouse.
There are currently eight PvP scenes that can be accessed. They can be accessed from Kingsport (the Brave Coast ferry on the dock and at the northern guard tower), Owlshead (to the northeast of FireLotus Tavern near the gate to the town center and within the weapon shop near the barracks) and Braemar (within the very surprised young lady Bridget’s house). The current sole team based PvP arena can be accessed through the College of Arms, off the main square in Ardoris. There are also two forest road scenes accessible via the overworld map.
Most PvP scenes currently work as “Free-for-Alls”. You may attack and be attacked by any Avatars not in your party. Spells and weapons work on Avatars just like they do on monsters.
Team combat arenas work a little differently, pitting teams on the sides of Virtue (Blue) and Chaos (Red) against one another. On entering the arena you will be able to choose your team by running through the appropriate portal, which will take you to your team’s preparation room. If one team significantly outnumbers the other the numerically superior team’s portal may temporarily close, routing new players to the team that needs them.
You do not need to be in a party with your team members, though inviting them may help co-ordination in combat. At present, there are no win or loss conditions for team based combat.
Players you can attack (and be attacked by) will have yellow names. Party members will have green names.
Being in a party allows you to use beneficial skills on one another (like healing) and prevents you from harming party members with Area of Effect abilities (like Fireball). You may heal, buff, and resurrect party members even in an open PvP scene.
Team combat arenas work a little differently, pitting teams on the sides of Virtue (Blue) and Chaos (Red) against one another. On entering the arena you will be able to choose your team by running through the appropriate portal, which will take you to your team’s preparation room. If one team significantly outnumbers the other the numerically superior team’s portal may temporarily close, routing new players to the team that needs them.
You do not need to be in a party with your team members, though inviting them may help co-ordination in combat. At present there are no win or loss conditions for team based combat.
Jumping consumes focus but attempting to jump has a chance (20%) to break stun and root effects.
Receiving damage also has a chance to break being stunned or rooted.
Attacks from behind a player will do more slightly more damage.
You may review your performance (And that of allies and enemies) under the PvP stats screen, accessible through NumPad 0 by default.
Skills
Press the ‘K’ key to bring up the Skills menu. Skills are divided into Adventuring and Crafting tabs. Right now only Adventuring Skills are present. (Though it is still possible to craft.)
Adventuring Skills are further divided into Combat and Magic Skills. Select the Combat or Magic header to expand it and see the available skill trees. Red skills are active offensive abilities used on enemies. Blue skills are short-term self buffs and are usually defensive in nature. Green skills heal or restore the target and can be used on yourself and allies. Grey skills are innate upgrades that do not need to be used and are always in effect.
Skills that do not have an icon are not finished or useable.
Any individual skill can be increased up to level 5. Only Innate (Grey) skills become stronger with more points spent. Spending points on skills for Active skills gives you more Glyphs of that skill to put in your deck (up to 5 each).
Left click on a skill icon to buy a level and right click to remove a level and refund your skill points. Some skills require at least one level in prerequisite skills before they can be bought. Not all skills cost the same number of points, and some become more expensive at higher ranks.
Press the ‘L’ key to show your list of purchased skills. Skills can also be dragged to your toolbar and deck builder from here. Only utility and healing skills (like Light and Healing Touch) can be used on your non-combat toolbar.
You must buy at least 1 level of all prerequisite skills before you can you can purchase a skill. The layout of skills in the skill tree indicates what the prerequisites are. Note that skills we have not implemented yet will show as black boxes but you still need to spend points on them to get access to higher level skills.
Most skills require enough focus and the correct equipment to use. For example “Crushing Blow” requires a bashing weapon. Your equipped chest armor determines what armor skills can be used. Cloth and Leather clothing is light armor. Chainmail and Plate is heavy armor.
Heavier armor can cause spells to fizzle. Combat skills never fizzle.
Many skills and spells have secondary effects like stunning enemies, causing damage over time, or slowing enemy movement and attack speed.
Decks and Deck Building
Using skills in combat requires you to build and equip a Deck. You can access the Deck screen with the “Y” key. New characters begin with a handful of pre-built sample decks, but most players will eventually want to build a custom deck.
Deck Creation
Select “New Deck”. Drag skills from your Glyph list (with the “L” key) over to your deck to populate it.
A deck may not contain more Glyphs of a skill than you have ranks in that skill (Max of 5). Decks must contain at least 20 cards. Decks smaller than 20 Glyphs will fill out the extra slots with blank “Slug” Glyphs. Slugs do not help you in combat though they can be discarded (like all Glyphs). Make sure to fill out your deck. The maximum deck size is unlimited. In general, you may find it useful to concentrate on specific skills and combinations to assure that they are available when you need them.
Innate skills cannot and do not need to be added to your deck. They always are in effect for your Avatar.
The Focus skill tree contains many skills that let you increase your hand size, adjust your draw rate, lock Glyphs permanently in a slot, and more.
Decks and Inventory
The Linked Equipment box lets you associate a set of armor and weaponry with a deck. Equipping that deck will also equip that set, provided the items are still in your inventory.
Armor can interfere with complex maneuvers and may cause you to be dealt a Slug rather than a usable Glyph. Each piece of armor lists how many Slugs it will add to your deck. Skills exist in the Light and Heavy armor trees that allow you to mitigate a some Slugs.
Equipping Decks
A deck must be equipped before it can be used in combat. Select your finished deck from the list and use the Equip button. Decks may not be created or modified in combat, though you may still swap between already created decks (this will cost 50% of your current Focus). If you cannot modify a deck make sure to sheath your weapon.
Locked Glyphs
Glyphs placed in the numbered slots at the bottom of the deck builder screen become Locked. Locking Glyphs normally requires ranks in the Eidetic Memory skill from the Focus tree. Locking a Glyph in this fashion consumes a potential Glyph that could otherwise be put in your deck.
Locked Glyphs are always available in their assigned numbered slot on your hotbar. They are not dealt out at random and do not count towards the 20 cards in your deck. Unlike Glyphs dealt from a deck, locked Glyphs start on cooldown when you enter combat and have a cooldown before they can be used again. Locked Glyphs also cost +50% more Focus to use.
The “Use Only Locked Glyphs” checkbox disables drawing Glyphs for that deck and allows you to assign Glyphs more like a conventional hotbar. Locking Glyphs in this fashion does not require ranks in Eidetic Memory. Note that these Glyphs will still have cooldowns and the +50% additional Focus cost.
Using Decks in Combat
In combat, Glyphs from your deck are randomly dealt to your hand where they can be used. Using a Glyph removes it from your hand and places it back in your deck. Unused Glyphs are eventually replaced by fresh Glyphs.
You may discard a Glyph without using it by right clicking on it.
Experiment to build a deck that matches you play style. Don’t be afraid to adjust your hand size, Glyph composition, draw and discard speed, or locked Glyphs. Later many of these abilities may be unlocked by skills. Remember you can have more than one deck.
Spells and Reagents
More powerful spells (Third tier and above) require additional power to cast. This power comes from a class of consumable items called Reagents. Each cast of the spell consumes some (usually one each) of the required Reagents. Casting without the necessary Reagents can cause a spell to cost additional focus, have a longer cooldown, and be more likely to Fizzle.
A spell’s Reagent cost is listed when you hover over the spell in the Skills window, Glyphs window, or Hotbar. You can also see the remaining number of casts worth of reagents for that spell you have in stock by looking at the spell’s icon on your Hotbar.
Reagents can be bought from innkeepers in every town and select other merchants like alchemists. Combat skills do not require Reagents.
Consumables in Decks
Consumable items (like Health and Focus potions) appear in your Glyph list with your other Glyphs. Like other Glyphs consumables can be placed into your deck, where they will be randomly dealt into your hand.
By default you may not have more than 2 Consumable Glyphs in a deck. This limit can be increased by investing in the Consumption skill in the Focus tree. Consumables can also be locked into slots by buying ranks in the Eidetic Memory skill or enabling the “Use Only Locked Glyphs” option.
The “Show All Consumables” checkbox allows you to view and equip the Glyphs for consumables you do not currently own. Note that you will still need to obtain the actual consumable in your inventory for it’s Glyph to be useable. y
Consumables can be used any time out of combat by dragging them to your Non-Combat hotbar.
Combo Glyphs
The Combo Glyph system is highly experimental and likely to undergo significant changes, but is currently available for use in limited fashion. The combo system allows two lower ranking Glyphs to be combined into a different, potentially more powerful Glyph. This can be done even if the Avatar does not have any ranks in the skill for the combined Glyph.
Glyphs can be combined by dragging and dropping compatible Glyphs onto one another with the Left Mouse Button or by hitting the “R” key and the hitting the hotkeys for the two Glyphs you wish to combine.
Some current available combinations are:
Thrust + Double Slash = Whirling Blades
Flame Fist + Flame Arrow = Fireball
Locked Glyphs cannot be used for combos. Only Glyphs that have been randomly dealt into your hand may be combined. Combo Glyphs may be discarded and will eventually expire like normal Glyphs.
Player Housing
Player housing is one of the most impressive ways to make your mark on the world. Players can stake their claim to lots that appear in world to everyone and build and decorate dwellings ranging from humble cottages to towering island castles.
Claiming a Housing Lot
When in a scene, you can ask town criers or guards how many housing lots are available in their area, by asking them “how many houses are free”? You can also hold down the ‘P’ key to send out a visual “flare” beacon effect for any available housing lots in the area.
To claim an available housing lot, walk up to the ‘For Sale’ runic sign or marker stone and double left-click the sign.
Once you have a housing lot claimed, /home will teleport you back to your housing lot. This is implemented for testing purposes and may change in a later release.
Creating and Setting Permissions For A House
Once a housing lot is claimed, the owner may choose what house is displayed. Click the housing lot sign for your plot. Here the lot owner can grant other characters varying levels of control over the lot.
- Note that it is still not possible for the owner to block access to the house/lot itself.
- Currently all lots are set to public permission by default which means other players can enter your lot but cannot decorate it. In the house selection UI the Permissions button allows you to add other players as Guests, Kindred, or Trustees. Guests currently have no extra access because all lots are public. Kindred can modify items on the plot, and Trustees can modify Guest and Kindred permissions lists. Later releases will add more features to plot permissions.
- Currently all items on a lot are considered to belong to the owner and will be placed in their bank if the house is changed or lot is unclaimed. This includes items placed by Kindred and Trustees. Kindred and Trustees are also able to move or take any decorations on the lot, including those placed by the owner.
Decorating a House
There are a wide variety of decorations available to personalize your home. Note that for purposes of testing, there are vendors that sell all the available decorations at the entrance to the city of Owl’s Head.
- To decorate, make sure the avatar is within their claimed housing lot (lots are denoted by a runic sign post and only the owner of the lot may decorate) then left click+drag objects from the Avatar’s inventory into the world and release the left mouse button when the object is green to place it in the world. A red object will not be placeable.
- The ‘Q’ and ‘E’ keys will rotate the object during placement.
- Holding the ‘LSHIFT’ key while using ‘Q’ and ‘E’ to rotate will slow down the rotation for precision placement
- To remove decorations, left click and drag an item from within the world back into the Avatar’s inventory.
- Decorations will be removed when changing houses on a lot or unclaiming it. These decorations are returned to a storage bank, which can be reclaimed with the /bank command. This functionality may be changed later.
Crafting and Harvesting
In Shroud of the Avatar, the economy is in the hands of the players. Avatars who aspire to wealth and fortune will be able to gather raw materials in the world, assemble them into all manner of items used throughout the game, and sell them to other players. The process of harvesting and creating these items is commonly referred to as “crafting”.
Much of crafting is left for you to discover through experimenting with how items work with each other. You can share your discoveries with other players, either in the game itself or online, on Shroud of the Avatar’s official message board or on sites run by Shroud of the Avatar fans such as sotawiki.net.
Harvesting
Resource nodes throughout the world can be harvested in two ways; either through equipping the appropriate gathering tool (such as a mining pick when mining) and then double-clicking on a resource node, or through placing the gathering tool in your out-of-combat hotbar and then pressing/clicking that hot-key slot. Your avatar will then try to harvest the nearest resource node automatically.
Crafting
To craft an item, you will need to find a crafting station for the category of item that you are creating. Crafting stations can be purchased for placement in houses, and public crafting stations are available in the southern marketplace in Owl’s Head. (More public crafting areas will appear as development continues.) The categories of crafting are as follows:
- Smelting - allows you to refine raw materials from mining
- Butchering - allows you to refine raw meat (there currently is no butchering recipes in game)
- Milling - allows you to refine materials from wood
- Textiles - allows you to refine materials from plants
- Tanning - allows you to refine materials from animal hides
- Alchemy - allows you to create potions (there currently are no alchemy recipes in game)
- Blacksmithing - allows you to create metallic arms and armor
- Carpentry - allows you to create weapons and decorations from wood
- Cooking - allows you to create food (there currently are no cooking recipes in the game)
- Tailoring - allows you to create clothing and leather armor
Crafting items will require resources you find in the world, from hills you can mine, trees you can chop, animals you skin for hides, etc. Most recipes also require an ingredient (such as a chunk of coal) that you must purchase from a merchant. Handac, the merchant in the Owl’s Head public crafting pavilion, is an example merchant that sells most crafting ingredients that cannot be harvested in the game world.
You can see available recipes via your recipe log, available via pressing the R key.
The recipe log tracks which crafting recipes you have learned. As you discover new combinations of items to craft, they will appear here. If you do not have enough raw materials to create an item in a recipe, the title and the missing ingredients will appear in grey in the recipe log.
If you are at a crafting station, you can double click a recipe entry to automatically load items into the station and create the item. This is by far the easiest and quickest way to craft an item. You can always create an item manually (and will need to do so the first time you discover how to craft an item) by dragging the ingredients from your inventory to the crafting station, along with the crafting tool required, and then clicking the CRAFT button on the crafting station. The CRAFT button will only light up when items that are used in a valid recipe have been loaded into the station. Click the CRAFT button to create that item and, if not already present, to save that item’s recipe into your recipe log.
When discovering new recipes, you have to use the exact amount of ingredients necessary to create the item. If moving items from a stack of your inventory into the crafting station, you can use the CTRL key to grab a single item from the stack. Just moving a stack of items from your inventory will bring up a dialog asking how many you want to move.
All items can be removed from a crafting table by left-clicking the Take All button. This is helpful when cleaning up items after you are done with a specific recipe.
Example recipes to get you started:
Iron Longsword (Blacksmithing)
Iron Hilt (Blacksmithing)
Iron Longsword Blade (Smelting)
Iron Bar (Smelting)
| Iron Ingot (Smelting)
Chair (Carpentry)
Wooden Poles (Milling)
Wooden Board (Milling)
|
Talking to Players and NPCs
You will interact with other players, and with characters within the game itself, through the same interface, the conversation window.
To converse with NPCs or other players hit the ‘ENTER’ key to bring up your chat log. Type the text you want conveyed to the npc/players within the chat box, and hit ‘ENTER’ again to send the text, which also exits text entry mode (an industry standard we have adopted).
The conversation window has a tabbed interface, similar to a manila file folder. You begin with two tabs, but can create more. Each tab has a a drop down menu to allow filtering of what that tab receives. New tabs can be created with the + symbol on the right side of the chat window, and unwanted tabs can be closed with the small X symbol on the right of each tab. The chat log can be scrolled through by left click+dragging the slider on the right side of the chat window. You can disable the requirement to hit Enter before each text entry in the Options menu.
You can click the thumbtack in the corner of the chat window to lock or unlock the auto-hide feature. By default, the chat window auto-hides itself when not being used. To move the chat window, left-click + drag while the cursor is within the text receiving area, and to re-size it, left-click + drag the window borders as desired.
To send chat directly to a specific NPC, select them with your left mouse button before sending a message. A blue circle will appear below the NPC. Double-clicking on friendly and neutral NPCs opens conversation with them, assuming you do not have a weapon equipped. (In the future NPC’s may react negatively to people running around town carrying drawn weapons.) You can talk to NPCs as you would any other player; note that as of this writing humans still tend to be a bit more intelligent than computers, so some suspension of disbelief will be required. By default, keywords that the NPC understands will be underlined, and you can click on those keywords to ask more about that given subject. (This may be disabled, along with keyword highlighting to enhance immersion if desired.) Note that you will still need ask the NPC about some things explicitly via typing, such as answering questions and asking about things not explicitly mentioned in dialogue.
All NPCs respond to at least the following phrases you may remember from earlier RPGs:
- “name” / “What is your name?”
- “job” / “What do you do?”
- “health” / “How are you?”
- “help” / “What can I do to help you?”
- “bye” / “Farewell.” (This will close the conversation tab for that NPC after a few moments.)
NPCs open a chat tab specific to their conversation when you first address them. You can click on the chat tab created to automatically target that NPC to talk to them. Private messages from other players and messages from game administrators will appear in these tabs as well to ensure you do not miss them.
A list of chat ‘/’ commands and their functionality follows. To use a chat command, type in the command followed by any input required (denoted in the below list by a pair of <>) and the ‘ENTER’ key to execute it. For example, /w Lord British, Hello - will send Lord British a friendly greeting as a private message. Some of these commands are for testing purposes and may be removed later.
- /leave - leaves your active party
- /friend <playername> - add player to friend list
- /unfriend <playername> - remove player from friend list
- /block <playername> - add player to blocked list
- /unblock <playername> - remove player from blocked list
- /w <playername>, <text> - send a private message to a player
- /r <text> - reply to the last private whisper you received.
- /p <text>- switch to party chat text entry mode
- /l <text> - switch to local chat text entry mode
- /loc - print the player location in world coordinates
- /bug <text> - copy a bug small bug report to the clipboard
- /stuck - reset the Avatar’s position
- /follow - follow the targeted Avatar
- /zone <playername> - Teleport to player (if not blocked)
- /AFK - Enter AFK mode.
- /<emote> - the emotes from the emote list may be entered as a chat command
- /visible hides the Avatar model from view. (useful for screenshots)
- /home - Teleport to your home
- /bank - Claim any items banked from changing houses or un-claiming lots.
- /summon { Player Name } Teleports target party member to your location.
- /summonparty Teleports all party members to your location.
Shopping
Many NPCs buy and sell things. You can activate the Shopping interface in a number of ways.
Double-clicking an NPC will call up the Shopping interface window, if one exists. NPCs may also open up a Shopping interface window as part of a conversation. “What do you sell”, “Show me your store”, “What is for sale”, “What goods do you offer”, or the keywords “vendor” and “buy” will all work.
You can buy and sell goods from an NPC using a tabbed interface and set quantities for purchasing/selling multiple items. You will be asked to confirm a transaction before it is completed.
An Avatar starts with no gold, but will have a selection of crafting supplies and adventuring gear. Hunting monsters for loot and harvesting resources to craft items are both excellent ways to make money.
Reporting Bugs
As Shroud of the Avatar is in active development, we need your help to find any errant bugs you encounter so that we can quickly take care of them.
To report a bug, either left-click the sealed letter in the master menu or open up your chat log (‘ENTER’ key) and type in /bug followed by your bug report and the ‘ENTER’ key. This will copy your bug report and game information to the clipboard and bring up the SotA bug forum where you can paste the clipboard into a post for us to receive. Before posting in the forums please follow these guidelines:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IgbhfeXt8mTLZaY7cXGf3m-Pf-3BodoRK1-sVuHlHr8/edit
To find out the current position of the Avatar in game open up the chat log (‘ENTER’ key) and type in ‘/loc’ followed by the ‘ENTER’ key. This also copies out the location to your clipboard so that it can be pasted elsewhere as needed. Note that this is included in the information pre-loaded into the /bug command.
The ‘F11’ key will take a screenshot of the game and save it to your installed SotA directory; you may find it helpful to include a screenshot with your bug report.
From all the developers of Shroud of the Avatar, thank you for helping us make this game the best that it can possibly be!