Shroud of the Avatar Release 5 Coming Thursday April 24th

The One Year Anniversary is behind us and right on the heels of Release 4, we have Release 5. The next update is scheduled to come out on Thusday April 24th. The update features the following milestones:
    Combat Skills using early version of card dealing
    New player town forest maps without fences and new for sale sign
    New Dungeon: Sewers with water level changing puzzles and damaging sewer water
    New Creatures: Chest Mimic
    New Lighting Model
    Compass
    Overland Map improvements: zoom, pan, party members, animations, dotted line
   
What makes this exciting for me is that not only am I not working this weekend so I can once again dedicate some serious time to figuring out how to play this game, but we have updates to the combat system – the piece that plagued me during the last update. If you recall, I spent far too much face down in the dirt because I lost every fight. And the reason I lost every fight is because I was going around trying to cause trouble with nothing but hopes and dreams in my hands. I couldn’t find or equip a weapon, I had no armor, I had no shield, I had no common sense. Even though I’m still going to be light on common sense, I hope to be rich in weapons and gear. That may not be the reality of the situation, but I’m a hopeful kind of guy.

I won’t be in the game until Friday afternoon – chores must be done before playing games – and then I play to give it my all. I’ll post my thoughts and some screenshots as I make my around town. If anyone has advice on getting my armor and weapons sorted out, please drop me a line. Or if you want to be a real sport, why not let me know when you’re online and we’ll see what kind of mischief we can get in to together.

More brilliant musings about my adventures in New Britannia

• Shroud of the Avatar Release 4 – March 27-30
• Shroud of the avatar Release 4 Notes and Thoughts
• What’s Happening in the Shroud of Avatar Release 6 Weekend?
• The opening volley for Release 10 has gone incredibly poorly
• Now is a good time to try archery and ranged attack
• I’m not sure I understand Portalarium’s meaning of economy
• How will Emotes advance the game?
• Dev Hangout – Chris Spears, Richard Garriott – PvP and PvE
• Time to get ready for Shroud of the Avatar Release 13
• Some parting thoughts over Shroud of the Avatar Release 11