We're proud to announce the release of two major changes to Avalon: Crown Sterling for Subscriptions and Purchases, and the Active Progression system.

Crown Sterling: Subscriptions, Crown-only Purchases, Procuring Lessons

Crown Sterling affects everyone as we now provide many ways to obtain crowns. All purchases except for crowns and subscriptions, will now be in crowns, which includes lessons at a fixed rate of 3 lessons per crown. Subscriptions and buying crowns are the only exchange of real money, allowing the crowns chapter reward to have additional meaning for other players.

Since Active Progression removes the idling mechanic from lesson gain, Subscriptions compensate by giving 25% more crowns now. They have amazing discounts on a monthly crown purchase and indeed cheaper than any other method. On request, we have added a fourth plan for premium customers, called Platinum.

Bronze: 8 USD for 16 crowns (crown rate of 2.0 / 1 USD) = 48 lessons

Silver: 15 USD for 35 crowns (crown rate of 2.33 / 1 USD) = 105 lessons

Gold: 25 USD for 75 crowns (crown rate of 3.00 / 1 USD) = 225 lessons

Platinum: 50 USD for 165 crowns (3.33 CRS to 1 USD) = 495 lessons

Sponsorship will remain a factor of Avalon, so the benefit that Subscriptions do not require Sponsorship is something they all share.

Additionally, there is the Lifetime Subscription now open to everyone at 400 USD. Its benefits will have another dimension and be separately announced.

Trinkets: DEMO, Fixes, Tweaks

Trinkets have required polish for some time, for which we apologise. They represent a vital ansawer to the automated client and mobile experience, which has plagued the text format for over a decade. Done properly, trinkets will resolve this issue very neatly.

The first upcoming change to them is DEMO. For a small deposit on the price of the trinket, paid in crowns (so yes, free players can demo too), you can test the trinket in the Arena or Battle Isle. When leaving either of these areas, the trinket and deposit will be returned. DEMO will have very few restrictions on which trinkets you may choose, as we would appreciate everyone to know first hand what these curios do and give Avalon some factual feedback.

We will maintain transparency on trinket changes and be in direct communication with owners of artifacts which require fixes and tweaks. Many of you already know of the bugs you yourselves identified and daily avoid, but to polish your experience we may need to hear it again when it comes to doing a Trinket Session.

Trinkets, a brief history

On a related note and in response to recent concerns which appear whipped up by hysteria more than fact, I will take the time to explain briefly where trinkets, fireflies, TRIGGERS, and ALIASES came from. All of these additions in 2015 by Genesis were introduced in response to the inherent imbalance of desktop vs mobile user and automation vs manual. Belgarath gave a practical application of automation which made the average mortal exist at constant disadvantage. Not everyone is a programmer and Avalon never wishes to encourage one group over another so disproportionately. As a consequence, TRIGGERS, ALIASES, trinkets, and other curios appeared, especially their Market Yard incarnation, to provide basic utility that a client could. Some mobile clients, and indeed the mobile app we are about to release, will not be focused on automation. The intention is to enjoy the realm, not code your enjoyment. Trinkets which violate the principle of being better than a client will need adjustment, have been known they do, but because so few of you have any of them, they are not top priority until they are in the hands of those who would use them constantly. Contrary to windbagging and trolling opinion, most of the trinkets were already fixed of their worst effects in early 2016.

Avalon will continue on its 2015 trajectory: encourage winning by smarts, not losing by ignorance. It is subtly different and I urge you all to think hard on what is the difference between winning by another's loss versus by your own ingenuity.

We will begin a regular release of limited-edition trinkets starting in July. The measure of their effects will conform to the rule of automation, if they give such effects, and will aim to be some of the most interesting and mysterious of trinkets on offer. These trinkets will appear for a brief period on sale, with ample warning about what will be on offer and what they do. They will then disappear from the market for at least a year. In future, we intend to make these trinkets tradable for crowns between mortals.

Older trinkets will continue to receive further polish and balancing, to ensure they conform to the idea that automation should be defensive and, crucially, that Avalon must encourage winning by smarts, not losing by ignorance.

Active Progression: how do you progress now?

Active Progression is now fully live and in its bug fixing phase. I will take some time to explain how this system works, as it affects everyone.

Under this system, idle time in the open will not directly benefit you with lesson gain except every 120 minutes. To obtain lessons, you must do new things: a new CHAPTER task (aka an experience), new historic levels reached, new quests completed, and, coming soon, new people killed and legions destroyed. Anything that expands your knowledge of Avalon and the scope of your interaction with others will be rewarded. Repeating these actions will not reward lessons -- it is on a first-time basis.

We are fixing the chapter selections, experiences and tasks receipt process, and any other elements affecting the smooth running of Active Progression. Keep the reports on which ones are misbehaving and they will be addressed as soon as possible.

To date of writing, there have been over 8000 lessons gained by you all in three days. Bear in mind that Active Progression was modelled on how many of you play already, so most of your daily activities should merely continue as

they have.

Upcoming Changes

Finally, to wrap up this enormous status update, I will trot through what is coming next very briefly:

- Skill fixes are a major focus right now and throughout the summer

- Bug fixing sessions to focus on professions or specific systems (TBA)

- Economic system cleaned up to make commodities and gold coin meaningful

- A new novicehood system which focuses on loose interaction from the start

- A free month without sponsorship for novices who are not seconds

- The mobile client (delayed until mid/late June)

Conclusion

Thank you for your attention. We will be replicating future announcements by email newsletter to active mortals in the coming two weeks. Keep your eye on the MOTD and UPDATES, where we regularly announce the latest changes. We thank you all for your patience during these systemic changes to improve Avalon and reach a level of stability never before seen in the realm!

Cornelius, the all-consuming

Written and shown unedited exactly as rendered by text based game bulletin board on Avalon Online RPG and by my hand on the 22nd of Agamnion, in the year 1426.