My Disastrous Adventures 2: Diary of a Replicant

The best improvement of the Release 6

The past release was a release for polish. Not too much content added, not new locations. But I noticed of of the best improvements until now. Not in the graphics, not in the items, not in the mimic chests... Morton, that guy that was ALWAYS talking in the Firelotus tavern, was finally muted!

Morton, making enemies since Release 1

Fast history of UO2

The UO2 history is not very long. We can enter in details, but this is the resume (thanks to Athelstan for sending the photos of the pyromaniacs fiesta):

*click to enlarge*

While I think that they know how to burn code I wish to make them a recommendation for the next wtf amigos fiesta:

Featured by Shroud of the Avatar

Yesterday I just noticed not only that my site is listed in the official forum but also that is in the top in a "featured elite place" and... dragons flying around with rose petals. Or more or less like this.

Probably someone that had too many bloody marys the day before wrote that, but I don't care. I'm going to put myself in the "Hall of Fame". I want to have my fifteen minutes of fame.

Lovely mortal death in the forums

This week I had not my Game of Thrones episode, so I was a purple -but also little blue- llama. Though yesterday my site had the first comments (no, this time was not me) and even two kind entities pressed the "Recommend this on Google" button two times. I have no idea what that means, and was probably an error, but I like it. Thanks, thanks! :)

Now is time to investigate a place full of nice comments to cheer me up. Maybe the official forum?

It's time to buy an axe, one with missiles.

Llama mini interview: Borg

One day in the official Shroud of the Avatar forum one member (Borg) invited us to enter in their own "showroom". I had read something about that kind of places, about the naked humans and the hot dancers in the night. But no, I was a confused llama.

A "showroom" is a place where 3d designers can upload and share with everyone via website their own creations with the Unity Engine. And thanks to the "Call to Art" Portalarium initiative these creations could be finally chosen by the devs and added to the game.

Today I want to share this fast llama mini interview with Borg, but I forgot to ask him if his nickname is just a second name or it means "killer zombie-like cyborg".

He already assimilated a castle. Now he is just looking for the house plot in the game.

 

Hoof of the Avatar #10: Hecatomb

Original Version

Memorial Day Monument to the World Peace

We llamas could be crazy, but we know when something is really important and then we put all our heart in it.

The last monday was the Memorial Day in a human country called USA, homeland and mother of Shroud of the Avatar. I can't do too much but I want to dedicate this modest mausoleum that I could prepare in this R6 to the fallen and the world peace.

Some community members took very good screenshots of the mausoleum. In particular some of the best and more talented shots were made by Mata to contribute to the cemetery contest.

With respect and love here is a small gallery with few of those shots for you all:

Monument to the Fallen and the World Peace. (Braemar)

"Make your own graveyard" winner!

Here is the only one the best custom cemetery received for the "Make your own graveyard" llama contest. The winner is Kumakaze, from The Bear Tavern, and it is not just a cemetery but also a cool design for the inhabitants of your house, dead or alive.

The secret prize is a black kitty, congratulation Kumakaze! Contact her for more information about house designs. 

And remember: support the 3D map and buy a kitty, or don't support it and buy it anyway, they rock!

Purple Llama rides again!

I'm back! It was cool to cross a little the universe of the humans, in special this small and blue sweet world called... Oh! I don't remember well, but I could learn a lot about the people, especially about how they taste!

My favorite time was to meet some mates working in some kind of part time job, in a typical burro (donkey) taxi station.

Hoof of the Avatar #9: Hands of Fate

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #8: Cave of Thrones

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #7: Mirage

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #6: Nightmare

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #5: The Miracle

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #4: Swampmallow

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #3: The Marvelous Bang

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #2: Misty Path

Original Version

Hoof of the Avatar #1: The Cateway

This vortex llama will be crossing the universe for the next days, so probably I will not have too much time to stop around here. But don't worry, you will be not alone.

"Hoof of the Avatar" will accompany you these days of galloping. My own and demented serie with some personal reimaginations of the most famous and iconic Shroud of the Avatar conceptual art. I've beaten seriously my neurons to give you all something that you really deserve in my chronicles.  

The vortex opened and the madness broke free over this world... Prepare your brain, llama art is coming!

Original Version

Special offer in Throne of Bones!

Did you lost the "Lich Lord" bullying of the previous releases? Don't want to get your hands dirty to get the Throne of Bones? Are you only interested in pvp ganking?

Don't worry, we are over stocked of thrones in the Hidden Vale and we become crazy, crazy and more crazy with the prices!

Llama contest: Make your own graveyard!

I want to share with you all Midiam, the first custom cemetery in Shroud of the Avatar, a little and peaceful place that I prepared in the past R5: 

What a lovely place... let´s bury everyone here! Nicolas Cage the first one.

Pledgers beggar's life

Begging, a useful skill for pledgers.

Llama mini interview: Thunderbird3k

One of the best and more creative rewards that we can find in the pledges list is in the "Founder Virtual Collector" level: the custom crests for the game.

The upload process has some rules that might not be easy if you are not an expert. To help us with the design, the heraldry and everything we have the College of Arms. They are a specialized group of players that emerged spontaneously, like the spongers in a house party but in a kind and sublime way. Skip the "lawyer bro" moment and contact hem!

Today we have a very special (no that mini) llama interview with one of the heraldic artists of the CoA group. He is the person that helped to this hilarious purple llama with his blazon, and the designer of my main symbol: the talented Thunderbird3k!

Lord houses love stravaganzza

The new official update came with a great new: the new redesign of the Lord homes. The old Lord house was already my favorite, even with that phantom inaccessible window, maybe llamas have odd tastes... Now they look a little less spooky, but anyway I must admit that they are nearly perfect.

It's a pity that I will have this mansion only in single player mode, since it's hard to sell a purple llama liver in this plane of existence. Also it's the first time that I think that the Founder model is way better, but both are awesome. The regular shape of the Benefactor building fits very well with the upper terraces.

Be a Lord and "feel like a Sir".

Scene Jam winners compilation

Last year Portalarium organized a Unity contests in four parts to design sceneries. It was some time ago and we llamas have a very bad memory. But with a little effort I will try to compile fast what happened in the four events.

Take care! The lunar rifts are a little bit unstable for now and you cannot be sure where they go.

A new victim has reached Felucca

You just take a bad path in a dark corridor of a dungeon and...

"The Evil Cateway", Midas customized house.

Llama mini interview: The Mad Hermit

Today I have a double session of mini interviews, mini but awesomes. I have been fortunate to make some questions to one of the best known members of the community, the distinguished TheMadHermit!

I still have no place to live, so let's make this in the Firelotus tavern. Here we go!

Llama mini interview: UnseenDragon

We llamas are very curious. Our craving for knowledge and understanding is limitless, that is why we smell and bite all those things. For this reason I will try to prepare a serie of mini interviews with people of the Shroud of the Avatar community, because I want to know about you all.

My first illustrious guest is UnseenDragon, the creator of Sota Bricks, the site dedicated to building with Lego the sceneries of New Britannia. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I do.

Suit up in the Hearth of Britannia party!

Llama solutions: the fireplaces

Ah, the fireplaces! The perfect place to get drunk with some friends and to start chaotic conversations is in front of one. Great places the fireplaces!

Some of the new houses available include fireplaces, but most of them have not. The devs are studying how to include fireplaces in houses as decoration, but they are not that easy to implement as an addon, especially because the “chimney issue”.

But don't worry, I found the perfect solution to have a fireplace without space problems or other issues:

Improve your yard space!

Problems of space in your village land lot? Your wood & plaster home looks too conventional? Do you need a good roof? Don't worry, the Vortex Llama have the solution:

A perfectly placed and legal house

Supermassive basements

One of the few good ideas that I had in the early days was to suggest basements in the houses. I always wanted to have one in Ultima Online, they are perfect places to imprison enemies, secret meetings or to breed your dinosaurs. One dev (Bzus) replied the thread and Portalarium planned to include them in the next episode, but finally we will have basements from the beginning!

I think that they are a great addition. They not only solve the problem of the house space without overloading the memory but they also bring more variety to the housing styles. Right now you already can find mines, arenas or other kind of basements up to five floors. :) 

And they can be very, very big, I got lost in one of of them. Well, I always get lost, but that will not stop me. I've already planned my little evil underground lair: 

*Vehicles not included, mounts will be added in the next episode.

Lord British, the true ironman

Some people believe that the strongest man over New Britannia is Darkstarr. That is propaganda! Lord British is the strongest one, even in his young age he was as immeasurably strong as a llama.

Here you have an irrefutable evidence:

And yes, the true feat is that he programmed Ultima Exodus with those gloves.

The Firelotus secret

Maybe in the next release we will able to visit Ardoris, the shogun city. But until now we didn't have too many interesting places to meet people. So mostly everyone did it in the lady Firelotus tavern.

But I discovered an obscure secret, a forbidden topic. Maybe you also can see it there, in the dark right side of the photo...

A suitable map for my business

Yesterday we had a very interesting live video, even with Tracy Hickman in the connection. There was much talk of the background of the game, but certainly one of the most desirable developments has been the new 3D map.

The overworld was still in a very early stage, but we could check the feeling of the new work.

My very little Tracy Hickman museum

For me one of the big surprises of the crowdfunding campaign was the addition of the famous co-author of the Dragonlance saga "Tracy Hickman". Now the lines of The Blade of the Avatar are almost done and I need more. The good point is that we will continue the story inside of Shroud of the Avatar.

It's A very well done novel, not just a complement. And you can believe me, I'm a little expert llama about this. I have a full collection of Margaret Weis & Tray Hickman novels. 

Here is my little tribute to Tracy:

I have more books in my room... but I don't have more table in my house

The cheapest way to dress for your wedding

In the last update Portalarium added to the shop a wedding dress abd a tuxedo that costs just 20$ for both. That is a very cheap invest for a wedding, even for a poor llama.

If you are interested they have now a 33% discount over the normal price. But money is not refunded if you (or a part of you) divorce.

 

Johnny Bravo preffers the dress of the lady. I preffer the grass in the back.

Midas, the pvp cat

This glorious lord is Midas, my friend and hardcore pvper, and also the honorific antagonist of this site. Sadly, because of the pvp system, he is not going to play Shroud of the Avatar, even when I gifted him an account.

He doesn't want to know about "that shit for noobs" and he was ganking me the full afternoon. Yes, of course I cried.

He simply is going to continue "fishing players" in Ultima Online.

The Village of Recluse

You are going to notice that I will do a lot of references to other sites. One of the sites that undoubtedly I will use more is going to be TheMadHermit Youtube channel, since there is a lot of good reviews and guides.

But I want to make a special reference to the "Village Of Recluse", a Unity website where you can check directly some of the houses in the game.

High grass, perfect for wild pokemons and hungry llamas.

My eternal gratitude to Lord Baldrith

Here you all have the first member of my "Hall of Fame", Lord Baldrith!

Thank you my friend! (Yes, that is a fake human hand)

My positive thoughts about the R5

I know that was not perfect, but this release was my favorite since R1. My final words are postive and I'm going to share something about my least and most favorite points of the R5. First the ugly part:

- Bugs: Yes the game is still full of bugs and performance issues. But not enough purple bugs.

- More bugs: Yes, there were a lot. But for those bugs the community is here also. 

- Overland map: I know, now it is a little bit improved. But still... not good. Anyway it will change with the new full 3D map. :)

R.I.P. Giger :(

In my childhood I had two human idols. One was Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series and now Shroud of the Avatar, the second was H.R. Giger, the Swiss surrealist well known for his work as a designer in Alien ("xenomorphs"), but also the creator of Darkseed (a book and a mythical graphic adventure) and a master of the dark art.

I still have a poster of him  in my room here, and I just found out that yesterday Giger died. I can't do anything more but to leave here my little tribute in the form of gallery with their big work. Today I´m a sad llama.

R.I.P Giger. :(

The Knight house evolution

The exclusives houses looks great, but there is always a way to improve them. The building with more criticism has been the house of the Knights level, probably because is one of the most popular pledge levels with house.

First for some people the Benefactors "castl"e looked much better that the Founders "stone keep". Now the new "Wood & Plaster 3-Story Village Home" in the add-on store looks like a good alternative for a big village house without spending too much money. So the ideas continue ...

SotA Bricks, powered by Lego

Our special guest today is a child friendly site. Sota Bricks is the fusion of two legendary great games: Shroud of the Avatar and Lego. It's a shame that you can not play if you have hooves ...

A cake for a king

Something better that Shroud of the Avatar? Shroud of the Avatar and cakes!

Don't lawyer me, bro

And remember, keep calm and...

Support the 3D map, buy a kitty!

The overworld map changed a little bit in the last alpha releases. In the old videos we saw a basic 3D map, but in the releases we had a cloth map vaguely inspired in the Games of Thrones show opening (or better a pop-up book).

A secret weapon

In the past R5 we could finally try some skills from the deck of combat. The most popular by far was the fireball. Fiwald discovered and reported the first combo in the game, a crushing one.

In this video you can check this magnificent attack:

Letters from Barataria

The friends from thecaverns.net broadcasted a little tale that the druken bard of the llama wrote some time ago. Here you have that story, but the best way to enjoy it is with the great voice of  Lord Baldrith. And, if you have enough free time, you could also to take a look to the original version in Spanish.

Letters from Barataria *

There was no enemy capable to sink your moral, or defeat that could shake your principles. You were always true to yourself, without betraying yourself because of what others said. You offered the heart in a selflessly way and there was no despise that prevented you to do it.

You charged against monsters and villains, without a minimum hesitation, to make the world a better place. You were you able to understand that an emaciated animal could be the most beautiful steed in the universe, and you demonstrated us with your nobility that the courage, the trust and the love were much more needed and piercing weapons than the most ferrous spear.

My Disastrous Adventures 1: A Glitched Travel