History of Avalon - Timeline

- Timeline Gallery -

 

2007 - Foundation

Everything started out with a small parcel of 512 m
² and a small store for avatar eyes and some outfits. With a very small income, and a slowly growing store, we moved to a bigger parcel, extended the store and the products. After that another even bigger parcel, that was actually ¼ sim already. Now the store sortiment consisted already of several artful skin sets for avatar. Soon the income was high enough, to afford the upkeep for a complete sim.

And this is when the Avalon was born, in the middle of the year 2007. A sunny tropical island with beautiful beaches and palm trees, in the S/W area a dock with a yacht and a large store building, with a restaurant on the first floor.

Due to connections of the sim owner to the czech community, Avalon became the home for the very first czech SL capital city called „Bohemia“, which was founded and built by the sim owner in the N/W region of the sim. For several months, „Bohemia“ served many czech citizens as a meeting place. After a few months, the czech community was able to afford their own sim, so „Bohemia“ was moved off of Avalon.

At the same time, the adventure quest that we know as “Catacombs of Avalon” was originally created exclusively for the czech community. The adventure started out as a small project called „Catacombs“ in a skybox in the upper levels of the sim, consisting of a small graveyard and a one-floor dungeon. The size was barely a fourth of the size of the actual Catacomb area. At first, the short story, all dialogues and item names were written in czech language.

Soon the Catacombs adventure became known among english-speaking communities and since the czech community was already split up in several smaller factions, the adventure was renamed to „Catacombs of Avalon“ and completely translated into the english language. The dungeon itself was extended by two floors and had now twice the size of the original Catacombs. At that time, everything was built with prims only.

The community group „Order of Avalon“ was founded in July 2007. A scripted and animated prim dragon was added as the end boss on the lowest floor of the Catacombs. The dragon had a scripted attack/defense engine, that was created by Akkarin Dryke (SL Name).

 

2008 - Evolution

Tthe game was now quite popular and the community group „Order of Avalon“ had already several thousand members. A new Episode of the Catacombs of Avalon adventure was released: The Curse of the Necromancer.

The new episode contained quests on the main sim, including conversations with NPCs (non player characters), the return to the Catacombs, into a new section and a few minor dungeons. When sculpt technology became available, parts of the quest, all NPCs including the dragon in the Catacombs were rebuilt with sculpts.

The End of the Episode remained unfinished, since the scripter of the dragon encounter wasn’t available to script the battle.

 

2012 - Golden Age

The „Golden Age“ of Avalon was at its peak. Traffic on the sim boomed. The community was active with a stable community core. The knights of the round table were upholding law and order on the sim. Frequent events were held on the sim and people enjoyed their time on Avalon. These were the most glorious times in Avalon’s history.

 

2015 - Downfall

In 2015 the whole sim, including the adventure quest, was fully reconstructed into mesh. The Catacombs dungeon itself increased to double the size (same size as we know today) and two additional floors were added (a total of five floors now). The number of quest items and dragon rewards were increased.

The „Friendly Bear’s Tower“ was set up where the czech capital „Bohemia“ was once located.

As the years passed, the traffic on the sim seized and due to inner conflicts, the fellowship of the knights started to fall apart. One by one, the knights left the fellowship. And finally, the last knight and a close friend of mine left. The knights of the round table were no more. A monument was set up on the shore between the stronghold and the village, to keep their memory in honor.

The end of the adventure quest „Catacombs of Avalon - Episode Two: Curse of the Necromancer" remained unfinished, since there was no capable scripter available to script the end battle. A third episode wasn’t planned at this time.

 

2018 - Recent Past

In 2018 a new effort was taken, to revive a dead and forgotten sim and an inactive community.

New plans were forged, to finish Episode Two with a less spectacular ending scene and move the final encounter battle to Episode Three.

Products from the Avalon Forge Store, especially dragon avatars and shoulder dragons, were recreated in full mesh and their script memory was reduced significantly.

All dragon mounts were also converted to mesh.

Scripts on the sim and in the dragon encounter were significantly reduced, which resulted in better performance and FPS.

 

13. July 2022 - Avalon shutdown.

Avalon closes its doors.