|
Aluvians
Gharu'ndim
Sho
Viamontians
Ispar History
Auberean History
Texts
Rumors |
Event Teaser - From
the Turbine Site
“In the
course of our travels to other worlds, it has become apparent that we are
not the only entities that are aware of the place that exists between these
worlds. It can be theorized that we are not the first race to pass through
these portal wells, nor will we be the last.” – Asheron Realaidain, Master
of the Lyceum at Knorr
Wails grew louder and the little figured looked backward, tripped on a root,
and tumbled into the thick muck of the Blackmire Swamp. Though the nights
were warmer than they had been only weeks before, the night air was still
wintry. The creature’s muscles stiffened and his blood became as viscous as
the winter swamp about him. Another wail sounded and the mosswart clapped
his yellow-green hands over his ears and met the sound with a scream of his
own. His breath came in short gasps and his saucer eyes looked about wildly.
“Dead all!” the little thing howled into the night. Crying and whimpering,
he grasped the roots of the nearby banyan tree and struggled to his feet.
The wail echoed through the swamp again, the sound of hundreds of claws
drawing across slate in perfect unison. Chills ran down the mosswart’s spine
and he pushed away from the tree and launched into a full sprint. His wide
feet sent the filth of the Blackmire into the air as he ran southeast from
his home.
For hours Grearrk ran. Squealing, scampering, tumbling, running, covered in
filth and blood, driven by the panic and fear that had crept into his heart
as he slept and the horror that had nearly drained his soul when he woke. He
ran through the swamp, northwest toward the humans. They would help. The
Banderlings were as much an enemy to them as they were to the Mosswarts.
When the torches of Sawato became visible the panic in Grearrk’s heart began
to subside. He was filled with hope and pressed his little form even harder.
Ite Kenzen had stepped out of his tavern to enjoy the first of what he hoped
would be several warm nights in Wintersebb, when he saw the yellow-brown
form charging toward him with large wild eyes. He yelped and tried to roll
to his right as the mosswart sprung upon him and toppled him to the ground.
“Help won’t you, Grearrk! Help won’t you!” The mosswart screamed again and
again. Its little voice sounded hoarse. The creature lifted Ite to a sitting
position and then slid behind him, cowering and using his body as a shield.
Ite felt a wave of panic wash over him -- the mosswart was fleeing from
something and he was being used as a shield. As the creature’s voice fell to
a whimper, Ite began to scan the outskirts of the town for signs of what
happened. A patron came from the tavern and drew a sword. The mosswart
screeched and scurried beneath the steps of the establishment, bawling and
begging in broken Roulean.
Ite, free of the creature’s grasp, stood and held a hand up toward the
adventurer. He shook his head and then spoke to the mosswart in a gentle
tone.
“What happened?”
“Wanga, without warning comes Wanga. Machine of screams is hidden in home.
Banderlings bring Wanga in screams. Very bad is new magic! Dead all, dead
all! Grearrk escape only. Help won’t you Grearrk?” The little creature
crouched on all fours and shifted left and right, wary that the
sword-wielding human would lash out him.
Ite looked at the frightened creature and turned to adventurer. “Fetch a
guard for me.”
“Hurt no, Grearrk. No weapons he brings. Hurt no, Grearrk,” the creature
sobbed.
“I am going to help you, Grearrk.”
*****
Ulgrim staggered along the roadside and smiled as he saw the broken
lifestone in the distance. Taking another pull from his ale he made his way
up the short incline and stared at the shards of blue. He dropped his stein
to ground. It landed with a thud and miraculously did not spill a drop. From
within the folds of his robe he produced a wand and started an incantation.
In the middle of the casting a belch escaped his lips and a scent of burning
hair was all that remained of the mage. Fortunately, he had grabbed his
brew.
*****
“I am sorry, Aulakhe, I have not heard from Lord Asheron in several weeks.”
Elysa sat beside the crouching Tumerok and spoke softly, trying to console
him. “If the place where the atua ngamaru are keeping Aun Tanua has become
unstable, I am sure that many will come to investigate.” The tumerok bowed
his head and shook it in agreement once.
“Thank you, Ispar Elysatah. I will do my best to strengthen the will of
those in my akiekie.” He rose and turned to leave but stopped short as he
heard footsteps coming to the door.
Antius pushed the door open and gave a half-bow and salute to Aun Aulakhe,
then turned his attention to Elysa.
“It is true. The mosswart’s name is Grearrk. He’s resting now just outside
of Sawato. We looked over the structures he directed us to between Sawato
and the ruins of Yanshi.” He smiled lightly. “We found that there were
several mosswarts who were not attacked, but he spoke true. His hovel looked
like a massacre had taken place.” He passed Aulakhe and sat beside Elysa.
The Tumerok lightly beat the drum at his waist. “We searched the area
briefly; aside from the stench we could see nothing out of the ordinary.”
“We shall see what the morning light brings,” Elysa said calmly and nodded
her head as she placed her hand atop Antius’.
“Ispar Elysatah, Ispar Antiusnua, the spirits are agitated. Their words warn
of a terrible kah that comes to us all. They know fear,” Aun Aulakeh said in
a quiet tone.
“Whatever that is, Aulakhe, we shall stand against it and set the spirits to
ease once again. Our Xuta’s will be strong, together.” Elysa smiled to
reassure the young Tumerok leader.
*****
As the sun began to rise over the Blackmire, a thin vine reached through the
surface of the swamp and promptly perished.
Exclusive Teaser Pics
(click to enlarge) |

Maggie |

Vault |

Stratics |

Warcry |

Mystics |
|
Teaser Pics
(click to enlarge) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Roll Out Article -
From
the
Turbine Site
The sound of porous bone
drawn across supple flesh presages the appearance of blood-soaked words.
There is no quill writing upon the page, nor is there light in this chamber,
far removed from the surface of the world. No footfalls in the hallways, no
being working over the tome, only a whisper of a woman’s voice endlessly
speaking, followed by the sound of bone carving the flesh of the book. So it
has been since the coming of the dark ones, since the world grew cold and
darkness consumed darkness while the light whimpered and watched its
children fall.
The sun rises each morning. The moons come each night. Words ceaselessly
appear on the pages of this book. Auberean has survived by way of these
constants. But what happens to creation if the words one day…stop?
The Ongoing Saga
Dangers seem to be everywhere in Dereth these days. Zharalim working for the
Queen have gone rogue, and statues of the Hopeslayer have appeared in towns,
calling to Isparians to shrug off Asheron’s Protection.
In the town of Sawato, near the Blackmire, a terrified mosswart fled some
unknown threat. Those who investigated found a massacre, with no hint as to
what could have caused such destruction. What new danger lurks just below
the surface of the fetid swamp?
Many of this month’s changes have already been described in detail in the
Letter to the Players and the Follow-Up. There are three more topics that
we’d like to mention in detail.
Portalspace and the Invoker
This month, we’ve updated the Portalspace quest, including the Buadren and
the Invoker. The changes are intended to make the quest less confusing and
less likely to result in players getting stuck and unable to complete it.
The quest and the rewards have also been rebalanced. Here are the most
important changes:
- Players who have
become stuck in the past – generally through loss of the Ember – should
now be able to complete the quest successfully.
- There is no longer a
timer on creating a Buadren.
- All of the Buadren
parts have been renamed and moved onto new monsters. Since this is a
simple name change, if you currently have any Buadren part in your
possession, you can still use it to create a Buadren.
- None of the items
required to create a Buadren are Attuned or Bonded anymore, although the
Buadren itself is still Bonded and Attuned.
- The Portalspace /
Invoker part of the quest is now restricted to 70+.
You no longer have to attempt Portalspace within a month after having
created a Buadren. Aun Aulakhe will always remember that you’ve created
a Buadren.
- Getting an Invoker is
now repeatable.
- The Invoker has been
upgraded. If you have an old Invoker, it will not be automatically
changed. However, you can trade it for a new Invoker by giving it to Aun
Saritea. If you trade for a new Invoker, you can never get the old
Invoker back.
- The Portalspace
dungeon has seen considerable changes.
Yaraq
The other content revision this month is to the town of Yaraq. Yaraq has
been revised in the same way that Shoushi was in January, and Holtburg will
be in April. Portal drops and Lifestones have been moved, and the
surrounding content has been revised.
In Concept / In Development
We’re working on a better means of keeping you up-to-date on our development
activities. We don’t expect to give the full status on each topic in each
month’s Letter to the Players, we’d prefer to let you know which topics have
been changed or updated. We’ll most likely be adding permanent In Concept
and In Development pages to the official Asheron’s Call website.
Developer's Notes -
From
the
Turbine Site
New Functionality and Content
- We’ve revised the Portal Space/Invoker
Quest and made some improvements to the city of Yaraq.
- Phase two of the ongoing Treasure
revisions has been introduced.
- Life Magic transfer spells have been
adjusted, with transfer caps and improved efficiency for the lower-level
versions of the spells.
- It is now possible to cast Item Magic
spells directly on the chest area of a player if you have that player
targeted.
- Crafting Confirmation is a new option
allowing players to find out their chances of success prior to
completing of a crafting interaction.
- There are new Character Options for
choosing to display various facts about your character to players who
identify you.
- It’s Spring, and the snow has melted!
Miscellaneous Changes and Improvements
- The formula for Arc spells has been
adjusted.
- Those weapons with Biting Strike or
Crushing Blow now display these previously hidden properties.
- The Character Options panel has been
reorganized.
- Auto-enforcement for speed-altering
program violations is now active on all eight worlds.
- Multi-strike weapons now display as such
in a special property when they are identified.
- As part of our ongoing town revisions,
rumors sold in towns will be color-coded to reflect the intended level
range of the associated content. Light Blue notes are for 1–10, Blue are
for 10–20, Green are for 20–40, and Orange are for 60–80. For March, the
town rumors to receive these updates are those in Yaraq and Shoushi.
- Allegiance chat is now bright orange.
- If you use the @allegiance on/off
command, you will no longer get an error message advising you to type
@help allegiance.
- The "Tell to Selected" and "Tell to
Allegiance" chat options work properly.
- You can now separate wrapped bundles of
barbed arrowheads, greater barbed arrowheads, and deadly barbed
arrowheads.
- The starter town Archmages now sell all
9 starter town portal gems, which have a reduced cost of 500 pyreal.
- They will also sell a gem to open a
portal to Xarabydun.
- The Empty Soul (Jojii's Adherent) quest
now has a correct minimum level of 35, and two of the notes have more
accurate directions.
- You should no longer be able to get
stuck in the Arcane Pedestal quest in a situation where you can't get a
new imaging crystal from Slithe Traditor.
- Celcynd will no longer keep Aluvian
stamped letters
- The Creepy Statues no longer appear as
portals on radar, and are easier to see from a distance.
- Cultists and Zharalim no longer use
spell words when they cast spells.
- The armor on the Pyreal Target Drudge
has been increased.
- The sign at East Sawato Settlement is
now correct, and East Sawato Cottages have been renamed to West Sawato
Cottages as they are, in fact, west of Sawato.
- The burden panel will scroll when
necessary.
- Also to improve graphical performance,
red steam vents are seen less frequently in volcanic areas.
- The icons for spells which affect entire
fellowships no longer appear as though they are Self spells.
- Weight of Eternity now overrides
player-cast Weakness spells
- The first chest in the Academy now
spawns multiple Application Forms
- New Gharu'ndim characters start with
bread instead of cheese; this is to prevent a situation in which a
starting Gharu'ndim crossbow character could end up without any bolts
due to burden.
Minor Details
- The Ice Badge and Olthoi Sollerets are
now hookable.
- Bowls now do bludgeoning damage.
- The look of the Olthoi Mutilator head
has been adjusted.
- Olthoi Heads floor and wall-hook
properly.
- The Weeping Bow now looks correct when
it is hooked, as do Bouquets.
- Margul are slightly louder when they
cast spells.
- The Puppeteer's Skull no longer hovers
over your hand.
- Brother Gonun the Scribe in Shoushi no
longer sells rumors; look for these rumors with the two barkeeps in
town.
- The Stamped Society letters no longer
have "A" in front of their names.
- A typo in the name of the Crucible with
Quicksilver has been corrected.
- Some typos in Scroll names have been
corrected.
- A typo in the text of the Aluvian
society agents has been corrected.
March
Letter to the Players -
From the
Turbine Site
Welcome to the March 2004 Letter to the Players! This
letter was initially intended for Monday, March 1st, but we held it so that
we could include additional comments regarding the treasure changes.
In Dereth, we were reminded that not all threats to
civilization need come from outside. Near Zaikhal, an entire force of
Zharalim fell to corruption and madness, and strange small statues were
found in several towns, encouraging the citizens of Dereth to refuse
Asheron’s protection and battle one another.
Now let’s take a look at some of the changes coming in the
March event.
Treasure
Last month, we introduced the first part of sweeping
changes to our treasure system, and we received a great deal of negative
feedback.
One thing that the feedback made clear is that we failed
to properly prepare you for both the long-term and short-term impacts of the
change. In addition, your feedback has alerted us to a number of issues with
the change that we are working to resolve.
What is the long-term goal of these changes? Essentially,
it is to resolve a number of limitations in our loot system. The old loot
system had a number of issues. There were four generic levels of loot that
we could give to creatures intended for characters below level 50, but only
two levels of loot for characters above level 50. This made balancing loot
for the most uber characters very difficult – almost anything that we added
for the most difficult monsters would start appearing in monsters intended
for all 50+ characters. This was the largest flaw, but there were other
issues across the board.
Our goal is that creatures intended for a specific level
range should be more likely to drop loot that is useful for that level
range. For example, newbie characters should not find 325 wield req weapons
that they can’t use, and Uber characters should not find weapons with no
wield req. Also, there should be no creatures that always drop “useless
loot”. There will always be a range of loot, but that range should be more
reasonable than it has been in the past.
The first phase of our changes tied the six levels of loot
directly to the six target levels of characters that have existed in the
game for some time: Newbie (1-20), Low (20-40), Mid (40-60), High (60-80),
Extreme (80+), and Uber (100+). Creatures intended for characters in a
specific level range should drop loot appropriate for characters in that
level range. This improved loot overall for many creatures – many Tuskers
are a good example – but also decreased the average quality of loot found on
other creatures – such as many Olthoi. Many types of Olthoi had been given
loot well above their target level. This was good for players who just
wanted to loot a lot of peas easily, but was annoying for the players who
were intended to fight these Olthoi. These low-level players tended to get
weapons and items as loot that they wouldn’t be able to use for some time.
How do you know where to find creatures for your level?
The best place to look is at our Creature Distribution Map, which can be
found on our
Download page. This map shows how the creatures were laid out during the
landscape redistribution last year. The levels given are suggested player
levels, so that gives you a place to start hunting and see how it feels.
Now, just to be very clear about this – AC is a
skill-based game, not a level-based game. The ranges on that map are
suggestions based on assumptions we have made about average skill levels and
hunting styles. We suggest that you start with the range that that
corresponds to your level and see how you like it. If you've pumped more XP
into your combat skills, or if you like to live life out on the edge, you
may want to go up a range and see how that feels. If you have spread your
experience out more, or you're a more conservative sort, you may be happiest
trying out the range below your actual level. Our goal with this map was
merely to make some useful suggestions about where to start.
I cannot overemphasize the fact that the changes to
creatures are not done yet. Due to the size and scope of these
changes, it was not possible to make all of them in one month. As we
mentioned in last month’s Rollout Article, there are still a number of
issues. Some of these issues will be resolved in this month; others are
pending for April and later.
The following issues will be resolved in the March event:
- Spell scrolls: The scrolls
dropped by creatures haven’t been on-target for some time now, but the
February changes really exacerbated this issue. For March, we have
adjusted the scroll drops on creatures and in treasure – you should now
find scrolls that are appropriate for your level. Our goal is that you
should be able to find most of your scrolls for your next level before you
need to buy them.
Does this mean that there is a chance to find level 7
scrolls on creatures and in loot?
Yes. Yes it does.
- Spells on items: As we
said in the Rollout Article, spell levels on creatures intended for 80+
characters were out of whack. After receiving your feedback on this issue,
we realized that the problem was more widespread. For March, we’ve
adjusted the spells on items upwards for all creatures and chests intended
for characters higher than 20.
Does this mean that there is a chance to find level 7
spells on loot items?
Sorry, not at this time.
- Chests: Last month, we
concentrated primarily on creatures. This month, we’re turning our
attention to chests. Chests should now, in general, spawn items useful for
characters in the level range for which they are intended.
In addition, some chests have been adjusted so that they
have a chance of providing better loot than other sources within the same
target level range. Runed Chests and the Virindi Troves are good examples
of this.
The Singularity Trove deserves its own comment. The
Singularity Trove used to be in the class with the best possible loot in
the game – but the troves and keys could be found by characters at a lower
level. The Singularity Trove is now in the 80+ target range of loot.
At the moment though, the 80+ and the 100+ ranges have a
lot of overlap. In addition, many of the issues that were reported with
Singularity Troves in February – such as scroll levels and weapon
modifiers – will be resolved this month.
- Offense and Defense Modifiers:
In all cases, we’ve increased the average offense and
defense modifier on melee weapons. We’ve also increased the maximum mod
that can be found at each level – except the top level, which was already
the maximum possible. This change was made primarily as a result of player
feedback.
The following issue should be resolved in the April event:
- Border Creatures: Right
now, if a creature is intended for level 60 characters, it will have loot
for level 40-60. This can make it very challenging to “break in” to the
next level of creatures – you can’t fight stronger creatures without
getting better equipment, but you can’t get better equipment without
fighting stronger creatures!
Starting in April, creatures that are designed for
characters within 5 levels of a difficulty break will have the treasure
intended for the next highest difficulty. For example, creatures that are
intended to be fought by level 36 characters will have loot intended for
characters from 40 to 60.
In addition, some creatures that are completely outside
the system will be brought in, and other creatures will be adjusted as
necessary.
It is important to remember that a creature’s level is
not a direct correlation to the level of character that should be
fighting it. In general, you should be able to take on creatures that are
higher level than you are. When we rebalanced creatures last year we tried
to line up the display level so that there is an obvious relationship
between that and difficulty – so that a level 110 monster is harder than a
level 100 monster. However, some creatures are easier for one type of
character – mages, say – and harder for another – melee, say. So if you're
a melee, a level 100 mage-oriented creature may be tougher for you than a
level 110 melee-oriented creature.
The following issue will be resolved in a future update:
Another issue that has resulted in a great deal of
feedback is the value of items – many players have reported difficulty in
making enough pyreals through hunting to pay for their components, mana
charges, and other consumables. We are watching the situation closely, but
at this time we have no plans to directly change the value of loot items.
Many of the other changes that we are making – both in treasure and
elsewhere – may change the situation considerably. In particular, the scroll
changes may resolve the issues reported with mages not being able to afford
scrolls that they needed.
We understand that a large number of you were very
surprised and upset by these changes. We believe that this was caused by two
main factors. The first is that the changes are not complete, and you are
seeing an incomplete system at work. The second is that I personally did not
properly explain the goals and phases of these changes – I hope that this
letter explains things to your satisfaction.
Armor Buffing, Transfer Spells, and Arcs
What do these topics have in common? The two changes are
being made primarily from a PvP point of view, but they also impact NPK
players.
Armor Buffing
In the past, there has been no means of buffing or
debuffing another player’s armor. Negative armor Item Enchantment spells
such as Lures or Brittlemail were only useful on a target wielding a
shield. PK and PKL players have never had a means of countering, or
“breaking through,” the positive effects cast upon an opposing player’s
armor. Starting in March, you will now be able to do so – with some
limitations.
Beginning in March, Item Enchantment armor buffs or
debuffs cast upon a player who is not wielding a shield will redirect
to whatever armor is worn on that player’s chest. If the player is not
wearing armor, the spell will fail. Clothing, such as a shirt or Asheron’s
Raiment, does not count in this situation – but robes do, as they are
considered armor. When cast on a player wielding a shield, these spells will
redirect to his or shield, as they have for several months now.
This allows for several new options for players. NPK
players can assist a friend with armor buffing, so long as their friend is
not wielding a shield. However, we expect these changes will be most useful
to PKs and PKLs, who can now debuff the armor of their opponents.
It is important to note that the dynamics associated with
buffing or debuffing a target’s armor will work similarly to that of a
target’s shield or weapon. If the targeted item is not wielded at the time
the spell is cast, the spell will fail. If the targeted item is
unenchantable, the spell will also fail.
This change is intended to provide a method to directly
counter the ability to debuff another player’s weaponry. Without the
ability to negate a player’s positive armor Item Enchantment spells, it was
often very difficult for a melee or missile attacker to inflict meaningful
damage on an opponent. A player could always debuff a weapon, tilting the
combat advantage in his or her favor – yet the player using a physical
attack had no equivalent tactic available.
Transfer Spells
For some time, the low-level transfer spells have been
unbalanced at high levels, and not as effective as hoped at the low levels
for which they were designed. For example, a high level mage can often cast
Stamina to Health I and restore almost all – if not all – of his health.
This seems inappropriate for a first-level spell. Why is it so much better
than Heal Self I, for example?
Let us define what is meant by Life Magic transfer spells:
Health to Mana, Health to Stamina, Mana to Stamina, Mana to Health, Stamina
to Health, and Stamina to Mana are all of the spells that we consider to be
part of the Life Magic transfer class of spells. These spells traditionally
take a portion of one secondary attribute (health, mana, or stamina), and
convert some amount of that portion into a different secondary attribute.
Starting in March, the first three levels of transfer
spells will have their percentage returned increased, to improve their value
for low-level characters. In addition, to reduce the imbalance issue, the
first four levels of transfer spells will have their maximum transfer
capped.
Please see the table below – bold numbers represent new
values:
|
Level of Transfer Spell |
Percentage Drained |
Old Percentage Converted |
New Percentage Converted |
Old Maximum Transfer |
New Maximum Transfer |
|
I |
50% |
75% |
90% |
None |
50 |
|
II |
50% |
90% |
100% |
None |
100 |
|
III |
50% |
105% |
110% |
None |
150 |
|
IV |
50% |
120% |
120% |
None |
200 |
|
V |
50% |
135% |
135% |
None |
None |
|
VI |
50% |
150% |
150% |
None |
None |
|
VII |
50% |
175% |
175% |
None |
None |
“Maximum Transfer” refers to the maximum value either
drained or converted. For example, Stamina to Health I, when cast by a
character with 150 Stamina, used to drain 75 points of Stamina and provide
56 points of Health. Now, it will only drain 50 points of Stamina, and
provide 45 points of Health. No level I transfer spell will drain or
provide more than 50 points of any pool.
This change is intended to increase the value and usage of
low-level transfer spells for low-level characters, while decreasing their
power when used by high-level characters.
Arc Spell Words
Since their introduction, arc spells have used the same
spell words as bolt spells, due to the fact that they use the same
components when not using Foci. For example, both Flame Bolt and Flame Arc
use the words Zojak Quaguz.
In today’s PvP arena, this means that one aspect of player
skill – knowing what the spell words mean so you can know what your opponent
is casting at you – cannot be used when trying to distinguish Bolts from
Arcs.
Starting in March, Arcs will have a different formula –
they will use Amaranth instead of Hawthorn. Players who use Foci will not
notice a difference – they will still use prismatic tapers and scarabs – but
the spells will now have Kedrack as their first word instead of
Zojak. If you aren’t using the War Magic Foci, you will need to buy
Amaranth before you will be able to cast Arc spells.
So now, if you see your opponent say Zojak Quaguz,
you will know that he’s casting a bolt and not an arc.
Additional PvP Concerns for the Future
As we stated in the February Letter to the Players, we are
taking a closer look at a number of PK and PKL issues. In the near future,
you may see changes to:
- The lack of an Aegis-like ability for archers.
- The balance of dispels – dispel spells, gems, and
potions.
- The Jumpspin issue – how can we prevent players from
using our physics code to guarantee escape from sticky melee, and yet
still provide a means for skilled players to get away from the melee that
is targeting them?
- Melee weapon damage over time in PvP – specifically,
bringing more diversity to melee beyond “if you’re not sword, you’re out
of luck”.
- “Loot Weapons” vs. “Quest Weapons” – Re-examining PK-oriented
quest weapon suites to provide viable choices between the different types
of weaponry
- New/Improved pathing choices for missile attacks,
similar to the arc/bolt choice for War Magic
I can’t provide a specific ETA for any of these changes,
but we want to let you know what we are working on. The feedback threads
that we’ve run on our forums have given us a lot of great information about
what you do and don’t like about PvP combat in Asheron’s Call. We’ll be
using that information to make PvP better for the folks who play it most.
Content Revisions
In March we are continuing our ongoing process of updating
out-of-date quests and areas. This month, you’ll see Yaraq and its
surroundings receive an update similar to Shoushi’s update in January. The
Invoker, or Portalspace, quest will also be updated.
Fellowships and Quests
One of the new quests this month has as a key part of it a
quest dynamic that you’ve not seen before – fellowship quests and “locked”
fellowships. A fellowship quest means that your whole fellowship is on the
quest, not just an individual. If you drop out of the fellowship, you will
not be able to complete the quest. A “locked” fellowship is one in which new
members cannot be recruited for the length of the quest. Fellowship members
who leave the group have 15 minutes to get back in before they are unable to
rejoin.
Please, don’t take these changes as an indication
that we are removing Asheron’s Call’s soloability! The ability to advance
while playing alone is one of Asheron’s Call’s strengths, and we have no
intention of removing it. However, in certain special circumstances or for
specific quests, we may use these new features to ensure that the quest be
tackled by a group of players.
Our Next Story Arc
As we’ve hinted at elsewhere, March is the first month of
our next exciting story arc: The Shattered Coil. What danger now
menaces Dereth? Only time – and your adventures and explorations – will
tell.
Letter to the Players Follow-Up -
From the
Turbine Site
In listening to the feedback received since posting the Letter to the
Players, we’ve realized that there are some gaps in our communication
process. One of the largest of these is that frequently players are not
advised of changes included in an upcoming month until the Letter to the
Players for that month is posted. Because of our schedule, this means that
by the time we are seeing your reaction to planned changes, we are already
in a freeze state in which altering or reverting those changes are very
difficult.
I’d like to apologize for not taking further steps to prevent all of you
from being blindsided by some of our upcoming changes. More to the point,
we’re making some big changes to the way we release information about
upcoming updates. We’ll be releasing information farther ahead of time,
which will allow us to listen to your feedback and discuss these concepts
and ideas with you long before we begin development on them.
In addition to this article, we plan to provide in-depth articles
regarding several large-scale systems and our visions for them. The first of
these, regarding PvP combat, should be posted early next week. The second
will be regarding the Treasure changes and will follow a week or so later.
The third will talk about our plans to improve the buffing process and will
probably follow a week after the Treasure article.
Each Letter to the Players will now have three sections. The first
section is going to contain information about the upcoming month. The second
section, “In Development,” will contain information about what we are
working on for the next month. The third section, “In Concept,” is
going to contain information about changes that we are working on for later
updates. This will give you more information about future changes and more
opportunity to provide feedback on these changes before we even write a
single line of code. Only changes to existing game systems will be included
in these updates; in general we will not release information about upcoming
content.
It is important to stress that nothing in the "In Development" or
"In Concept" is final. These are all works in progress. Nothing in
either section is guaranteed to go into the game in the form described, or
even at all. The purpose of these sections is to find out how you feel about
these topics before they are final.
Rather than explain in further detail, you can see exactly what I mean
below. We wanted to get this information about April and beyond up as soon
as possible, as many of the changes you’ll see below directly impact many of
the concerns that were raised regarding the March Letter to the Players.
Coming in March (These are items that are
coming in the March event. In the past, we would have saved this information
for the March Rollout Article. Under the new communication system, they are
appropriate for the Letter to the Players.) “Hidden” Properties No
Longer Hidden There are several quest weapons, such as the
Quadruple-Bladed Axe, that have what we’ve referred to in the past as a
“hidden property”. Starting in March, these properties will appear when you
ID such an item.
An item that is described as having the Biting Strike property has
a greater chance of a critical hit in combat. An item that is described as
having the Crushing Blow property has a greater than normal critical
multiplier – it is likely to do more damage in a critical hit.
Unlike imbues, these properties do not scale with your skill; they are
set to a specific level.
Character Options Over the years, we’ve added several options to
the Character Options panel. The grouping of these options was, well,
counterintuitive at times. Starting in March, the options will be grouped
under the following headers: User Interface Behavior, User Interface
Display, Grouping, Other Players, Character Behavior, and Chat.
In addition, we’re adding several new options – Character Display
Options, and Crafting Confirmation.
Character Display Options These options will be found under
Other Players and control what other players can see if they
successfully assess you. The different pieces of information that you can
toggle on or off are:
- Your real-time date of birth.
- Your in-game age.
- Your chess rank.
- Your fishing skill.
- Your number of deaths.
All of these options are toggled off by default.
Crafting Confirmation This is something that has been requested
several times, and we’re happy to be able to provide it. Starting in March,
there will be a new option in the Character Options panel under User
Interface Display: “Crafting Chance of Success Dialog.”
This option is unchecked by default. If you leave it unchecked, all
crafting interactions, including Tinkering, behave as they have in the past.
Most interactions simply either succeed or fail, while some interactions –
mostly Tinkering – have a warning in advance.
If you check this option, any existing warnings will not be shown.
Instead, you will make the “clapping” motion and the following will occur:
- If you have a 100% chance of success in this craft interaction, it
will succeed.
- If you have a 0% chance of success in this craft interaction, it will
automatically abort and you will receive the message, “You cannot
possibly succeed” in the upper-left.
- If your odds of success are somewhere between 0% and 100%, you will
receive a dialog box stating your odds and asking you if you want to
continue. If you choose to continue, the interaction will either succeed
or fail as it has in the past. If you choose not to continue, the craft
interaction will abort and you will receive the message, “You chicken
out” in the upper-left.
Obviously, few crafters will leave the option permanently checked or
unchecked. If you’re making flour and your odds are, say, 95%, you probably
want to leave it unchecked. On the other hand, if you’re tinkering your best
weapon with Black Garnet, you probably want to check the option so you have
an idea what your odds are.
Ulgrim We want to warn you in advance that Ulgrim won’t be found
in his house immediately after the March event. Don’t worry, he’s not gone
for good! He’s just run into a bit of trouble – see the
teaser.
You’ll be seeing more of Ulgrim later in the month, and you’ll be able to
complete the quest in his house again before the month is over.
In Development (These are the game changes
that we are working on for the April event. None of these items are
guaranteed to be added for April, as scheduling and priorities can change.
Once the process has matured over the next two months or so, In Development
will contain items from the In Concept section that we’ve discussed with you
and decided to put in the development pipeline. There is no set schedule for
In Development items to go into an episode; this section only notes that
they are being worked on.
As this is the first month for this section, it contains the work for
April and your feedback on these topics would be particularly valuable.)
Settlement Portals For some
time, the Settlement Portal Hubs have been found outside almost all of the
towns and cities of Dereth. These Hubs provided fast transportation all
across Dereth, but many players have complained that... well, they just look
ugly.
In April, we are planning to introduce the first phase of
a two-phase process to remove the Settlement Portals. The first phase is the
creation of portal summoning gems for all of the Settlements that are
currently linked to the Hubs. Each Settlement will have a vendor who will
sell that Settlement’s gem.
The second phase, currently planned for May, is the
removal of the Settlement Portal Hubs entirely.
The goal of these changes is to remove the ugliness of the
Hubs, as well as encourage exploration and travel through Dereth’s
wilderness. If there are several Settlements that you visit regularly, you
have the opportunity to purchase gems for these Settlements in the month of
April, before the Hubs are removed. If you wish to visit your friend’s home,
you can ask you friend to purchase that Settlement’s gem for you. We would
not be surprised to see gems for particularly popular Settlement
destinations being traded in the Marketplace!
Content Revisions We plan
to revise two towns and two quests in April. Holtburg will be revised in the
same way that Shoushi was in January and Yaraq will be in March. The portal
drops and Lifestone locations will be made more convenient, and the
surrounding content will be adjusted for balance.
The second town that we are planning to revise is the
Lugian fortress of Linvak Tukal. It will be getting a Lifestone and direct
portal access, without the need to fight through the entryway.
Along with Linvak Tukal, we plan to revise the Arm, Heart,
Mind quest. Confusing aspects of the quest timing will be fixed, and the
quest rewards will be adjusted.
The second quest to be revised is the Little Green Seeds
quest. Terese’s interactions and the Swamp Garden will be revised, and new
types of seeds for higher-level creatures will be introduced. This doesn’t
mean new colors of dye, however.
Vendor Buy-Sell Rates Ever
since the creature spawn changes, there have been some disparities between
the difficult of hunting around certain towns and the buy-sell rates of the
vendors inside those towns. In April, we plan to adjust the vendor buy-sell
rates in several towns to better reflect the surrounding area.
In addition, to give each town some unique flavor, each
town will have one or two vendors who have better buy/sell rates than the
rest of the town.
Dispel Revisions For some
time, the dispel gems have been considerably better than any of the dispel
spells or dispel potions. Dispel gems could remove all of your debuffs in
one shot, they only removed negative spells, and they could remove level VII
spells.
To improve the situation and create more versatility and
usefulness for dispels, we are planning to add level VIIs to spells and
potions, and decrease the power of gems:
- Dispel spells: There will
be level VII versions of Item, Creature, and Life dispels, both Self and
Other. These spells will remove a random number of negative spells from
the target when successfully cast, and will not remove positive spells.
In general, when I write, “a random number” above, the
final random range has not yet been finalized. We’re looking at a range of
or near 1-6 spells for each dispel.
Buffing Improvements The
Buffing Changes article that will be following will provide information on
all of our planned buffing improvements and how they fit together. The first
of these, faster self-buffs, is planned for April.
In April, we plan to make all Creature and Life Self buffs
cast at the same speed as a level I spell, no matter what their level. This
should cut down on the amount of time spent preparing for battle for players
who cast their own buffs.
Why the Self spells and not Others? We believe that
training a skill yourself should always have some advantage over relying on
others who have trained the skill.
What about Banes? As there are no “Self” or “Other”
versions of these spells, we need to be a bit more careful about our changes
to them. You’ll see some information regarding our plans for Banes in the
In Concept section below, as well as in the coming Buffing Changes
article.
House Purchase Timer An
issue that has resulted in a great deal of feedback is that of players
camping houses solely for the purpose of resale and a profit.
After receiving all of your feedback, we've come at this
issue from a different angle. If we can prevent these players from being
able to quickly unload these houses and purchase new ones, it will impede
their ability to tie up the entire housing market.
To that end, we would like to introduce a one month timer on purchasing
cottages, villas, and mansions. Residential Quarters will be exempt from
this timer. This timer is per account, not per character. The timer would
not extend across worlds.
What does this mean? All players, whether they own a house or not, would
have a field in their housing panel stating the last time that they
purchased a house (for these purposes a "house" is a cottage, villa, or
mansion) and when they can purchase another one. You cannot purchase a house
until 30 days after the last time that you purchased a house.
It is important to note that this has nothing to do with when you lose a
house, either through @house abandon or failure to pay maintenance. If you
have owned a house for several months and abandon it, you will be able to
purchase another house immediately. What you cannot do is purchase a house,
abandon it less than 30 days later, and then purchase another house
immediately.
Purchasing an apartment in the Residential Quarters does not change this at
all. You could buy a house, immediately abandon it, and then immediately
purchase an apartment. However you would still have to wait the 30 days
before you could purchase another house.
There is a feedback thread on this specific proposal
here.
Treasure Changes, Phase 3
We’ve already mentioned several of the ongoing Treasure changes coming in
April in the March Letter to the Players, such as adjustments to border
creatures. In addition, we plan to make the following changes:
- Attack and Defense modifiers will appear more
frequently on weapons. In March, we’re adjusting the minimum, maximum, and
average modifiers that are found – in April, you will find these modifiers
more frequently in general.
- Mana Conversion modifiers will also appear more
frequently on casters. At high levels of loot, you will no longer be able
to find casters that don’t have a Mana Conversion modifier. In
addition, the average Mana Conversion modifier will adjusted upwards.
- New Defense Modifiers. In
April, you will be able to find Melee Defense modifiers on casting items,
and Missile Defense and Magic Defense modifiers on all weapons and casting
items. Casters will now be able to have Defender cast on them, as well as
be tinkered with Brass. At some point in the future we may create
equivalent spells and tinkers for Missile Defense and Magic Defense
modifiers on weapons and casters.
- Casting items will have the ability to generate with
Defender due to the above change, and will also have the ability to
generate with the Hermetic Link spell or cantrips for any of the spells
that can be found on them.
“Second-class” Weapons Get Upgrades
In the past, some weapons within a weapon class were just
plain undesirable. For example, if you were a Mace user and you wanted
maximum damage, there was no reason to look at anything other than a
Morningstar. You turned up your nose at a Kasrullah.
In April, we’ll be making changes to bring the low-end
damage weapons closer to par with the maximum damage weapons in each class.
This is similar to the changes we made to bows and crossbows last year;
however we are not necessarily giving all weapons within a class the same
maximum damage. In many weapon classes there will still be weapons that have
a lower maximum than others, but the difference will be much smaller.
No weapon class is having its maximum damage increased,
and some classes are being changed more than others. For example, all three
types of Unarmed Combat weapons had the same maximum damage, so they will
not be touched. Weapons that are considered to be a “secondary damage type”
– Rapiers, Spiked Clubs, Naginatas, and Warhammers – are not being changed,
and we are taking into account the differences between hiltable and non-hiltable
Swords and Daggers.
Fellowship Spells As we
have hinted in the past, we are introducing spells that can be cast on all
members of a fellowship simultaneously. The first of these spells are
planned for April. We are taking it slow with these – they are only
attribute buffs, and no more powerful than existing spells.
Envoy Policy Changes Katahdin is
working with the Dev Team to help the Envoy team better assist you, our
players. Here are two of the ideas that we are currently considering:
- Inscriptions. While their
primary responsibility would always to be handle calls that are in the
Help or Abuse queues, Envoys could make themselves available to uninscribe
items upon request. There would also be scheduled times and places on each
world where you could find an Envoy to uninscribe your item. We’re still
working on many of the details and are interested in your thoughts on this
topic.
- The Marketplace. On some
worlds, trade bots are not placed in the outlying rooms and instead
cluster in the primary portal drop room. This can create graphical lag and
issues for players who are portaling in to the Marketplace.
The Envoy team would like to encourage players to move
their bots into the outer rooms of the Marketplace. In addition, players
need to ensure that the speech that they are having their trade bots use is
not offensive. We are considering removing offensive or badly-placed trade
bots from the Marketplace. These bots would not be banned or booted, but
would be removed to isolated rooms until their owners return.
Tell us what you think of the ideas In Development!
In Concept (These are the game additions and
changes that we are thinking about for May and beyond. We cannot guarantee
that any of these additions and changes will be added to the game. The whole
purpose of this section is to let you know what we’re thinking about doing,
give you a chance to comment and to have a dialogue with us about them.
I can’t stress strongly enough – it is entirely
possible that none of the changes listed below will ever make it into
the game. We are going to be carefully watching what you post about these
concepts.)
Content RevisionsIn the future, we would like to
revisit all towns in the same fashion that Shoushi has been revisited, and
Yaraq and Holtburg will be revised in March and April respectively.
We also would like to revise the difficulty and rewards of Marae Lassel,
Aerlinthe, and the Vesayens in the same way that we revised the Singularity
Caul. In each case the island and associated quests would be revised for new
(not necessarily higher) target levels.
We would like to revise the following quests: Palenqual’s Living Weapons,
Singularity Weapons, the “Three Crystals Quests” (aka the Fenmalain,
Caulnalain, and Shendolain Vaults), the Quiddity Weapons, and the Composite
Bow and Crossbow.
Better WeaponsIn discussing the Treasure changes, we’ve
mentioned that one of the reasons that the changes were necessary was to
allow us to add cool new loot at the top end. What are we thinking of?
We’re thinking of higher wield-req melee and missile weapons and wield-req
casting items. To prevent these new items from throwing off existing
damage-over-time balance, as well as PvP balance, we are looking at
possibilities other than simply increased damage. One possibility is new,
special imbue effects that cannot be added through tinkering, or – for the
missile weapons and casters – special bonuses to specific types of
elemental damage.
New Loot Armor
Right now the loot system has some rather obvious flaws when it comes
to armor, such as when a high-level creature drops AL20 leather. We have
held off on adjusting the armor drop system as we are looking at a
complete revamp of it including new types of armor. We’re looking at
adding a new class of armor for each of the three races. These new types
would not be considerably better than existing armor, but would mix up the
existing racial armor stereotypes. For example, perhaps the new Aluvian
armor has metal protections like Celdon, but is a two-piece set like Amuli?
These questions are still being investigated.
If it appears that we will have to delay the introduction of the new
armor, we can look at adjusting the armor drop tables without them. We
would prefer not to, but we understand that you would prefer to stop
finding AL20 armor in non-low-level loot as soon as possible.
Rares
Rares would be an entirely new type of loot drop, separate from
existing loot and trophies. Rares would have an extremely small chance of
dropping from any creature, at any time – you would be just as likely to
find a Rare on a Drudge Prowler as you would on a Virindi Profatrix.
Rares would be designed to be useful to almost any character, but not
better in way that could be unbalancing. For example, we are considering a
Rare form of healing kit that has interesting properties with regards to
chances of healing and the amount healed. We would probably not consider a
Rare sword that has a base damage triple existing swords.
Rares are intended to be exciting and interesting semi-unique items.
When you find a Rare, we want your reaction to immediately be, “Cool!” no
matter which Rare it is.
One interesting note – to help us determine what the drop rate on Rares
might be, we decided to find out exactly how many creatures are killed by
our players in a given month. We added code to the game that would count
this for us! In the time between the January and February events, here are
how many creatures each world killed:
Darktide: 13.5 million
Harvestgain: 10.4 million
Frostfell: 10.1 million
Wintersebb: 9.2 million
Leafcull: 8.9 million
Solclaim: 8.8 million
Thistledown: 8.8 million
Morningthaw: 8.4 million
We won’t be doing these counts every month, but it’s some interesting
information to think about!
More information on the above three Treasure topics may be found in the
upcoming Treasure article.
Further Buffing Improvements
In addition to accelerated self buffs and Fellowship spells, we are
looking at introducing spells that buff multiple attributes
simultaneously. These spells could be introduced for Life, Creature,
and/or Item Magic. The exact details of these spells – how do you learn
them, what is the cost, how many attributes do they buff
simultaneously – are still in development.
More information on this topic will be in the upcoming Buffing
Improvements article.
Missile Attack Improvements
We are investigating two improvements for Bow, Crossbow, and Thrown
Weapons characters:
Town Improvements
We are investigating several ideas to increase the appeal of towns and
increase the number of players that can be found in towns at any given time.
Some of these ideas include some form of crafting bonus that can only be
found in towns, or some form of capture-and-hold dynamic to appeal to PK and
PKL players.
Allegiance Improvements
We’re investigating a number of improvements to Allegiances in general.
Some of these include allegiance officers with titles, more controls on who
can and cannot enter an allegiance (such as account bans), better chat
functions and controls, and the ability to name your Allegiance.
Mansion Improvements
We’re well aware that many players feel that Mansions are not worth their
maintenance cost, and we are working on several ideas to make Mansions more
valuable. Most of these are special hookable objects similar to Jojii’s
Font.
PvP Changes
A number of the above topics touch on PvP combat, but there are other
topics that are specifically focused on PvP:
- Adjustments to the damage-over-time of the PvP weapon suites: Hollow
weapons, Phantom weapons, and Weeping weapons. These adjustments would be
intended to improve the viability of non-sword melee classes, as well as
improve balance overall.
- A resolution to the Jumpspin issue. There should be a way for skilled
players to, in some way, get away from a melee that is “stuck” to them.
However the ability to indefinitely jump and spin, throwing off the
melee’s client prediction, is not the answer. The final solution on this
issue should also resolve the PvP jumping stamina penalty issues.
- Housing barriers on Darktide. We are investigating possibilities
regarding this issue. Some of these include removing all housing barriers,
removing only mansion and villa barriers, or applying the PK timer to the
house barrier in some way. Other suggestions, such as allowing the barrier
to be temporarily destroyed in some way, appear to be too difficult to
implement in the foreseeable future.
- Points, areas, locations, or the like to fight over. The first attempt
at this was found in the February event, and we are watching the feedback
carefully. This may also be tied to town improvements, as mentioned above.
More information on our vision and goals for PvP will be found in the PvP
article early next week.
Web Integration
Once we finish the billing transition, currently scheduled for this
summer, we can begin looking at tying the Asheron’s Call website more
tightly to the game. Some of the features we are considering include a
single login to both the game and the forums, the ability to view your
character or allegiance statistics on the web, and ranking or ladder
systems.
Tell us what you think of the ideas In Concept!
Conclusion
Wow! That’s a lot of information to throw at you all at once. Again, it’s
important to remember that these are all things we are working on (In
Development) or thinking about (In Concept). Only the
Coming in March items are going to be in the game. But now you have
almost as much information as we do about our goals for the game in
the coming year and beyond.
In addition, I should note that just because something isn’t on
the current list of In Development and In Concept items, that
doesn’t mean we won’t do it. There are always bug fixes and changes
that can come up late in the development cycle. We’ll work hard to let you
know of these changes as soon as we know they’re coming.
Your feedback on all of these topics will be extremely valuable, as will
your feedback on this new level of communication.
Tell us what you think!
The Future of PvP -
From the
Turbine Site
We’ve recently made or proposed a number of changes to the world of PK
and PKL combat, and we’d like to take this time to provide more information
on where we are, where we’re going, and how we feel about the state of
Asheron’s Call’s PvP.
Much of the information in this document comes directly from the feedback we
requested on our forums. Some of the changes were not taken directly from
the feedback, but are part of our overall vision for PvP.
It’s important to note that what we describe below is not set in stone.
While we feel strongly about many of the gameplay changes we suggest, we
want to hear your feedback on them. The enormous amount of negative feedback
regarding the March PvP changes reminded us of exactly what happens when we
don’t come to the PvP community before implementing these changes.
The Current Status
The current state of Asheron’s Call PvP is, in our opinion, very good, but
nowhere near perfect. While there are a number of issues that need to be
resolved, we believe that our PvP combat is as good as, if not better than,
the PvP that you’ll find in any other fantasy MMP. What makes AC’s PvP so
good?
- The animation and physics system. Projectiles are
real objects that can be dodged. You have the ability to maneuver in
combat, and your movement choices have real consequences.
- Character choices. The skill system, the vast amount
of varied equipment in the game, and the ability to prepare for
different opponents creates a number of different tactics and strategies
for players.
- Player skill matters. While numbers – such as number
of levels and number of opponents – are very important, they are not
necessarily the deciding factor. A skilled player can defeat a more
powerful unskilled player, although it may be difficult.
- Speed. One mistake in PvP combat – just one – can
cost you your life. Combat can happen at any time.
- Very few safe zones on Darktide. One of the hallmarks
of Darktide is the knowledge that nowhere is “safe”. You can be attacked
anywhere, at any time. The housing system has thrown a bit of a wrench
in this, however.
However there are a number of factors that
prevent AC’s PvP from being as great as it could. Some of these factors are:
-
Balance issues. While Mage / Sword
balance is very tight, the other melee classes and archers are currently
less competitive. There is still a wide gap between the Weeping Weapons
and all other weapons and weapon classes in PvP combat.
-
Animation issues. The same system that
makes AC’s combat feel realistic has a number of problems. Jump-spin,
“godmoding” potions and other consumables, fastcasting, slidecasting...
these are just the top issues. This has been exacerbated by varied Dev
Team response and a lack of communication regarding which, if any, of
these actions are “acceptable” and which are “exploits”.
-
Time spent preparing. Since you can be
attacked at any time, you must be at maximum readiness at almost all
times. This results in a great deal of time spent buffing and not
fighting.
-
Lack of meaningful fights. By this we
mean battles that have consequences, whether that is control of a
location or resource, or some sort of recognizable achievement such as
placement on a PK ladder. Left with this void, players on Darktide have
created their own resources to fight over – macroing locations.
All of the above issues need to be handled in
order to make AC’s PvP all it can be.
Our Goals for the Future
Our vision for AC’s PvP can be summed up in one sentence: Improve upon the
positive and eliminate the negative. We want to take those features
mentioned in the first bullet-point group above and add to them, while
resolving the issues in the second bullet-point group.
When designing for PvP combat, the first group that we must always consider
is Darktide. Darktide is the home of the majority of our most loyal and
experienced PvP players, and any changes we make to PvP combat should be
done to improve their gameplay first and foremost.
One goal that we strive for is balanced group combat. There is a
considerable difference between, say, PKL dueling and a Darktide raid. In
the former, the two opponents can set rules and guidelines, such as, “No
debuffing,” or “No gems”. In the latter, you have no way of knowing which
tactics your opponents may be ready to use against you.
In addition, we want to have an environment in which a diverse group will
tend to be more powerful than a group of similar characters. For example,
two melees and a mage should have an edge over three melees of a similar
level. This edge should not be overwhelming – the three melees may be
skilled enough to defeat their opponents – but we want to encourage
diversity.
We want to increase the number of options and tactics in PvP combat. To give
you an example of what we’re trying to avoid, think of a typical arcade
fighting game. When your opponent picks his character, you know – in general
– what to expect and how best to try and counter it. While player skill is
extremely important, you know the type of attacks that will be coming as
soon as you see which character your opponent selected.
This is what we don’t want in Asheron’s Call. When you are attacked by a
mixed group, you should not be able to know ahead of time exactly which
tactics they will be using. There should be multiple equally effective
tactical options, and each option should have an effective counter. This
last paragraph speaks to a number of recent changes – banes should be able
to be countered with an appropriate lure, and Blood Drinker should be able
to be countered with Blood Loather. Negative spells should be able to be
countered with dispels.
Specific Proposals
I’d like to take the bullet points above and speak specifically on what our
plans are to emphasize, or resolve, each one.
Animation and Physics
Most of the issues here will be touched on under resolving the negatives. It
is important to stress that we want to keep the ability to move in combat.
Character Choices and Player Skill
Some of our more controversial recent changes have been towards increasing
the number of options available to players in combat. These include the
ability to debuff Weeping weapons and player worn armor, the planned changes
to dispel gems, and the changes to Arc spell words. We seek to increase the
number of choices available to players in combat, and to make multiple
viable responses to the choices made by their opponents.
In the case of Arcs, we want to continue to reward players who recognize the
spell words used by their opponents and adjust accordingly. In the case of
the Dispels, we wanted to create the option of dispelling level VII spells
through a means other than gems, and then balance gems alongside these new
methods. We are still considering much of the feedback that we’ve received
on this topic, such as timers, speed of spellcasting, and stacking the gems.
Other planned changes include the upgrades to “second-class” weapons and
adjustments to the damage-over-time of the PvP weapon suites. We are also
looking at the possibility of creating PvP-specific imbues for loot weapons.
It is our goal that, for example, a melee who wants to take part in PvP
combat has options beyond “Weeping Sword or nothing”. To that end, we plan
to adjust the Weeping, Hollow, and Phantom weapons.
We are looking at ways to improve the low-end weapons in PvP, as well as
improve the Hollow and Phantom weapons, without significantly impacting
their balance in PvM play. The goal is for Hollow and Phantom weapons to be
viable alternatives to Weeping weapons, and for other melee weapon groups to
be viable alternatives to Sword. Sword will still be strongest, but the gap
between it and the other weapon groups will be decreased.
It needs to be stated plainly: It may be necessary to decrease the damage of
the Weeping Sword. Our current damage-over-time charts, as well as in-game
experiences, indicate that it may be slightly stronger than intended.
Speed
The most important goal with regard to speed is that we not change the
current situation. While we may introduce further “countermeasure” equipment
such as the Aegis shield, this equipment should have drawbacks in group
combat. In addition, tactics that decrease a player’s damage should be able
to be countered through spell or dispel.
Safe Zones
This brings us to the topic of housing barriers on Darktide. There is strong
feedback to do something about them, but the best solution may not be
technically feasible for some time. We are looking at removing them
altogether, only removing barriers from villas or mansions, or introducing
some form of PK timer on the ability to pass through friendly barriers. One
feature which we’ve seen requested – the ability to temporarily destroy a
hostile housing barrier – is most likely not something we can add to the
game anytime in the near future.
This issue is still in discussion internally, and we value any feedback that
you may have.
Balance Issues
Many of the topics mentioned under Character Choices and Player Skill
apply equally to Balance. We have also tackled other balance issues
recently, such as the imbalance in the low-level life transfer spells.
There are a few topics for the future that are quite specific to Balance,
primarily the state of missile characters in PvP. We currently have three
ideas in concept to improve the state of PvP missile characters.
-
Aegis-like equipment. Our current design
is an item that could be used on any loot missile weapon to add a Magic
Absorbing property to it. This property would be similar to the Aegis
Shield and would scale based on the wielder’s Magic Defense. The
downside is that the missile weapon would lose any melee defense
adjustment that it might possess. Also, obviously, one would need to
choose between this weapon and one’s Weeping Bow, Crossbow, or Atlatl.
We are also looking at the possibility of
creating similar equipment for casting objects, in order to give mages a
choice similar to the choice we are giving missile users.
-
Pathing options. We would like to
introduce a new pathing type for missile attacks. War Mages have the
ability to choose between Bolts and Arcs for the purposes of targeting,
whereas missile users have only one option. Any new option would likely
be either through some sort of option in the attack bar, or through a
new form of ammunition
-
Speed vs. accuracy. Currently setting the
speed/accuracy slider to the far left allows you to fire at maximum
speed, but penalizes your skill by 50%. Likewise, setting the slider to
the far right gives you a 50% bonus to your skill, but fires at the
slowest rate.
We are investigating the possibility of
adjusting this slider to allow for fastest speed with a smaller penalty – or
no penalty – without changing the bonus given at slowest speed.
These ideas are still in the design process and your feedback would be
useful.
We are working to ensure that many of the topics listed in the March Letter
to the Players Follow-Up, such as higher wield-req weapons, do not
negatively impact PvP balance.
Animation Issues
Right off the bat, we’d like to differentiate between animation issues that
we now consider to be legitimate player tactics, and animation issues that
we plan to resolve.
Legitimate Tactics:
-
Player-controlled casting times – the
current “fastcasting” and “delay casting”. However if a new form of
fastcasting emerges that would allow players to rapid-fire spells beyond
that which is currently seen, it would likely be considered an issue to
resolve.
-
Slide-casting within the current movement
limits.
Issues to Resolve:
-
Jump-Spin. More on this below.
-
“Godmoding” potions and food.
-
Getting around the PK jumping stamina
loss. (The Jump-Spin resolution may make this a non-issue.)
-
Animation-breaking issues not listed
above. This is the catch-all for lesser-used animation-breaking actions
or ones not discovered or reported yet.
Jump-Spin deserves its own paragraph, if not
more. One the one hand, it seems unfair that a player should be able to so
badly throw off his opponent’s client simply by jumping and spinning
mid-jump that it breaks sticky melee and allows the player to run away. On
the other hand, if that is the only means of escaping from a melee, what
else do we expect that player to do?
We are still working on solutions to this issue. We have previously
considered solutions such as restricting movement while jumping, only to
find that they did not resolve the issue. Currently we are designing and
testing several other solutions, such as adding a PK jump timer (which would
allow you to jump-spin, but not as frequently) or improving client
prediction such that a target jump-spinning does not throw off sticky.
We are also investigating the relationship of the Run skill to sticky melee.
Perhaps a character with a high Run skill should have a chance to break
sticky from a slower opponent? These are questions that require research,
both into whether we can do this, and whether or not we should.
Time Spent Preparing
A number of topics in the Letter to the Players Follow-Up touch on this
directly, from faster self buffs to multi-stat buffs and fellowship spells.
In general we want to decrease the amount of time you spend preparing for a
fight, and increase the time you spend actually fighting.
Lack of Meaningful Fights
This is perhaps the most long-term issue to resolve. It is clear that the
PvP community, Darktide in particular, wants something to fight over. We
have just scratched the surface with our town revisions (putting Lifestones
in towns) and the PK battle dungeons in the February event. We would like to
add more things to fight over, with better and more tangible rewards.
However, it is in our best interests to resolve the other issues listed
above before we create meaningful combat goals and rewards. So this may be
one of the last issues we resolve. As we work on it, we will ask you for
your feedback on our ideas and proposals.
Lag
A frequently mentioned issue for the Darktide community is the subject of
lag. We receive frequent reports that lag on Darktide is worse than on any
other server. We are always working to resolve any server-side lag issues
that we find, in addition we are working on adding improved performance
monitoring to our servers. When this is completed our ability to diagnose
and resolve any server-side issues should be greatly improved.
Conclusion
Asheron’s Call’s PvP players are some of our most dedicated, passionate, and
vocal. Many of you know the guts of this game as well as we do, and we
respect that. We want to improve our communication with you so that you can
help us make Asheron’s Call’s PvP as great as we all know it can be.
We hope that this article has been helpful in understand the Dev Team’s
goals for PvP. As I wrote earlier, the proposals that I’ve listed above are
not set in stone. Your feedback will help us prioritize and update these
ideas to better match what it is that you want to see in AC.
In the end, we want PvP in AC to be fun. If it’s fun, we’ll enjoy designing
for it, and we’ll all enjoy playing it. Thanks for taking the time to read
this, and let us know what you think!
PvP Dev Chat - March 4, 2004
<@Uzi> before we begin thanks to jessica for doing this
<@Inhuman> were going to pause for a few minutes here
<@Uzi> thanks to s/divine one and inhuman for the idea and thanks to all the moderators for their hard work
<@[twisti]> seems alex isnt home yet, but he said he would try to come if
traffic allows
<@shadowcouncil> thank you
<@Uzi> and also thanks to everyone on darktide for doing this and shadow council for getting jessica with us. we're going to pause for a few min while we discuss questions that
have been asked
<+Jessica> AFK to get coffee
<@Inhuman> If anyone has a question they would like to submit, please do so
to #dt-mods now
<@shadowcouncil> to reitterate what I said earlier ONLY MRCH PATCH QUESTIONS everything else will be handled at a later meeting if this
one goes well
<@[twisti]> Jessica, you know why we invited you here most of all, the
debuffable armor issue. i'm certain turbine has already seen the huge uproad
that announcement caused. any word on preliminary thoughts you already came
up with, turbine-internal ?
<@shadowcouncil> First I would liek to thank Inhuman Uzi Doomgaze Som and
everyone else that made this meetnig possible and the ability to show
turbine we have adult players here
<+Jessica> sure... let me preface the answer
with something we discussed today... I was trolling the boards last night
and reading the, uh, outrage over the debuff issue... in the middle of that,
shadowcouncil's PM arrived... so we started communicating and one thing led
to another... once we were schedule, I had a meeting with some of the team
at Turbine... to go over this whole issue. Pretty much the first thing said
was, "If they knew what was coming in April, they wouldn't be so mad!" At
which point, someone lese said, "Uh... should we tell them" It was a real
Doh! moment for us. The esson there was, we should have come to you much
sooner... with our complete thoughts on what we wanted to do with PvP...
Sometime early next week, Ibn will post a full explanation... however, the
debuffs were only one part of this. Another part, scheduled for April, were
level7 dispells
<+Ibn> Hi folks, sorry I'm late.
<+Jessica> Hey, Ibn Anyway, the upshot is, in erfect hndsight, we
probably should have implemented the debuffs separately from the dispell
changes. er, SHOULDN'T HAVE implemented, I meant
<@Inhuman> Ok, the first question comes from Solarch Arcar of the
Fremen Knights. Why do the devs expect us to adapt to such an extreme change.
This is comparable to asking humans to adapt to an asteroid hitting earth.
Sure we can survive but how many really will still be around? This is also
like bringing nukes to the 12th century. So my question i guess is, why
change something so drastic that threatens to leave your only PvP server
practically empty?
<+Jessica> Good question. As I mentioned just a bit ago, we borked the
communication on the PvP changes... f we had come out sooner with the full
thought for your evaluation and comment... we wouldn;t be here today, wih me
falling on my sword and bleeding all over the floor. So, yeah, it looks
drastic... until you look at the whole of it.... and then it starts to mesh
up. But you're right, it is a big change... and we should have been out here
sooner, beating the bushes for comments and ideas. Thazt answer the question
well enough?
<+Ibn> I'd also like to say If I may
<+Jessica> and pardon my spelling; I'm typing fast and taking no prisoners.
<+Ibn> Jessica is not the only one falling on her sword here. Communication
with you is my responsibility And I should have presented this information a
long time ago, when it first came up, rather than springing it on y'all like
this. It won't happen again.
<@Inhuman>
Next questions is a follow up from Ainvar of Og. Even if you have wonderful plans for pvp in the long run...the short term
effects may prove to be too much to bear for a few months. Wouldn't it be
better to leave them in testing until you can complete the full plan,
instead of putting a few changes in, that screw some ppl over?
<@shadowcouncil> Ibn to be honsest I think you have gona above and beyond
trying to get answers especially after all of teh personal attacks on you on
ac boards. You've given 110% and b eing here proves that
<+Jessica> Another good wquestion... first, I
don't necessarily agree that anyone is getting screwed over by the change...
<+Ainvar[Og]> anyone not playing a melee char might disagree ;/
<+Jessica> but I don't expect a lot of sympoathy here
for that view, In a perfect world, we would just run it in the dev track for
the two-three months necessary to complete it all... In this case, that
wasn't possible for a number of reasons... the main one being, we would
probably have had to split out the builds into two tracks... and that would
have just sucked royally. The devs here can testify how ugly that can get...
and not just ours, bt any developer. If we'd done our communication on this
correctly, it would have been livable and caused far less comment...
springing it on you exacerbates the situation. Now, when were five days
before the launch of the episode... it isn't even possible to revert without
delaying the launch for a week, maybe two. It isn't as simple as just
reverting to an older version (trust me on this one, we could argue it all
night)... So the lesson for us here is, again: get the info out to you MUCH
sooner... @[twisti]> Flash of DT asks:
Why not leave the changes you are talking about, and allow no movement
fizzle? That way, mages can have *skill* again, and melees can have a chance
at 1v1 (considering you now have massive stamina loss when jumping so the
historical godmode wouldnt be possible either way)
<+Jessica> Let me ask srand about that... we'd hve to break code freeze and probably delay the prop, but
I'll ask her for an opinion on that.
<@Inhuman> Next
question is from Doomgaze of KoC. In the march letter to the players, it
hints around new armor types, could you elaborate on this more? Perhaps if
you make this more clear then the whole concept of lures/brittlemail would
be less extreme?
<+Ibn> I can grab this one. We'll be revealing more information on this in a
post tomorrow, but I can talk about it now as well. One of the reasons that
we did a treasure revamp is so that we could add more interesting things at
the top end Such as new types of armor, as one example. You'll notice that right
now the treasure drops in loot are *weird*, like getting AL20 leather off
creatures in the Direlands. This is because we are working on the armor
aspect of loot along with this new armor. However the new armor is probably
not coming in April, it looks like May or later, so we'll be tweaking the
armor in loot to adjust. In the long term I would not expect this armor to
be considerably better than what you can get now with maxed AL and
tinkering. But as it is still in development, this can change. One thing
that is being particularly looked at is to get away from the Aluvian=lots of
pieces, Gharu=2 pieces, Sho is inbetween model. So you may end up with a 2
piece armor set that has metal prots like Celdon. As I said, this is all a
ways out. I am not sure that this directly impacts the lure/brittlemail
issue, but that's the answer. *done* <@Inhuman> Next
question is from Addiction of Blood-Elite. Currently in pvp, if someone
recieves a Blood Loather 6, they will fight with the loathered weapon rather
then stop, and cast a dispell that consumes all their mana and a good
portion of time. What makes you feel dispells will be viable in PVP in april,
when they realistically have not been thus far?
<+Jessica> I'll let Ibn answer that one, Me, I'm the ignorant one.
<+Ibn> The main problem with a lot of the existing dispels -- other than
gems, unless I'm forgetting something -- is that they can remove positive
spells, AND there's no 7 version. We're fixing both of these issues. There
will be a level 7 item dispel, and it will only remove negative spells. Not
ALL negative spells, but a random number. The issue of time and mana are
good ones -- I will make sure to relay to the team that we need to look at
the mana cost and time spent casting dispels. This is why it's good to bring
these things up earlier -- I think we would have thought of the mana and
casting time, but it never hurts to have a reminder.
Does that answer the question?
<@Uzi> yup
@Inhuman> Next question is from Uzi of Shadow Council. Will all dispells soon be removing only negative enchantments, or
will this apply to only item enchantment?
<+Ibn> All dispels. Spells, gems, and potions. Also, while we're on the topic I should bring this up. Right now gems remove all negatives, again unless I'm misremembering,
while spells and potions do not. We will be decreasing gems such that they also only remove a random #
of debuffs, not all. Spells and potions will have a slightly higher chance
of removing more debuffs than gems. This is not set in stone, however,
And there will be both self and other versions of the dispell spells, I
believe (don't have the spec in front of me unfortunately)
<+Ibn>
oh wait! sorry, one last thing... you'll be able to craft dispel potions and level 6 and 7. I think to do that we're pulling the lower levels as they are rarely
used. OK, now I'm done
<@Inhuman> Next question is from Misadventure of Art of
War. Even then, people can still just use 3-5 gems, depending on the number
of spells removed, and their debuffs and vulns will be gone. Why not just
put a timer on them?
<+Ibn> I'm actually not sure that we *can* put a timer on them.
<+Jessica> And I;m not sure a timer provides more or less oportunity fir
strategy
<+Ibn> But I will suggest looking into it
<+Jessica> We could probably do new tech for a timer, but it wouldn;t be an
immediate thing.
<+Ibn> I don't believe that "You have to wait x seconds before you can do
that" is a particularly popular message to get in the heat of battle.
Sometimes a timer is the best solution, but not always. *done*
<@Inhuman> Next question
is from Solarch Arcar of The Fremen Knights. If i may ask about the life
magic changes. Many people not only mages(but majority) use stamina to
health 1 as a quick way to regain health in the heat of battle. The changes
being made seem to limit the ability to have great and long lasting fights.
What made you guys decide or encouraged you to change the current setup of
these spells?
<+Ibn> It was a hard decision. But what you said -- many people use it.
Across the board, at high levels. But it's not intended for that -- this is
supposed to be the *weakest* Stam-to-Health, the one you in general *least*
want to use at high levels. This wasn't done specifically for PvP. It was
also used by folks on the white worlds when playing PvM. When we see a level
1 spell being used frequently by level 126s to the exclusion of
higher-powered versions of the spells, we have to investigate whether that
spell is perhaps a bit too useful
<+Jessica> In other words...
ok, what
he said.
<+Ibn> heh
<+Jessica>
It didn't make a lot of sense.
<@Inhuman> Next question is from Storm of Blood.
Why not make lvl 7 stam2health cast as fast and in same manner as level 1
does now?
<@[twisti]> kinda like streaks
<@Inhuman> in essence, a level 7 'streak'
<@Uzi> it's necessary in pvp to cast that spell fast, otherwise your chances
of suriving are low
<+Ibn> so the penalty is in the increased difficulty, chance to burn a plat,
and increased mana cost? it's something I can suggest to the team
<+Jessica> We no doubt could, but doesn't it seem like higher level spells
should take more effort and time? Just asking.
<+Ibn> I can't personally say "sure, good idea!" or "no way" without
consulting the devs
<@Inhuman> The penalty is the length of the spell,
much of the fighting on DT is up close and personal, not alot of room to
move.
<@[twisti]> the only reason to use the spell is
because it is fast, and the "penalty" is the stamina loss that usually has
to be followed by two casts of revit 7
<@Uzi> it is similar to streaks, when someone is low on health its necessary
to fire a quick shot at them to finish them
<+Ibn> We can certainly discuss it. Some of our other spells will be getting
faster in April, not sure if Jessica mentioned that before I got here.
<@Uzi> the same thing applies when you're low, you
need to be able to heal fast
<+Jessica> OK, I've cut and pasted that into the word doc of questions.
We'll discuss it and get you an answer.
Nope,
didn't get around to it yet (re: faster spells)
<+Ibn> Ah, OK. Well, I've let the cat out of the bag, I might as well
explain, since this will be posted tomorrow at any rate. Life and creature
self buffs will all be at level 1 speed in April.
<@Lotusx[OG]> That doesn't affect pvp at all
though Ibn does it?
<+Ibn> Well, only in that it'll be faster to buff before a fight, and that
we're not opposed on principle to making spells faster. Specific spells need
to be looked at on an individual basis. *done*
<@Inhuman> Next question
is from Xantcha of Art of War. We feel that identical spell words for arcs
and bolts makes combat more interesting and skillful, and that changing this
will lead to longer and less tactical fights. What do you feel are the
benefits of such a change?
<+Jessica> As it turns out... I asked srand the same question earlier
today... her answer was: Arcs were the only spells in the game that shared
spell words with another type of spell. The only reason this is important is
because different types of spells need to be dodged in different ways. So if
you know your spellwords, you know what the mage is about to fire at you and
you know which way to dodge. But this didn't work for arcs or bolts, because
you never knew which type of spell the mage was about to fire.
<@Xantcha[AoW]> That's exactly the functionality
that we want.
<+Jessica> From the mage viewpoint, this makes it easier to hit the melee.
From the melee viewpoint, this removes all the skill of knowing the
spellwords and knowing how to react to each type of spell. (bear with me.
You can beat me up when I'm done, ) Since PK balance favors the mage in
general, we felt that restoring this minor bit of skill to the melee tactics
was useful and not unbalancing. OK, that was the answer she gave me. Did
that answer your question on our raationale, at least?
<@Inhuman> To some extent
<+Jessica> follow up?
<@Xantcha[AoW]> We understand the rationale, we
simply feel that it takes a lot of the skill out of mage combat.
<@Inhuman> From KTV of SUN
<@Inhuman> just a note: many players also believe spellwards had more skill
to the game since players have to adapt and react depending on what is
casted.
<@Xantcha[AoW]> The arc/bolt issue is also important in mage-only fights.
<+Jessica> OK, please do this: Inhuman, would you write up the objection and
email it to me? The more detailed, the better. And we'll take a second look
at it.
<@Inhuman> absolutely, were getting quite a few
counterpoints on it
<+Jessica> No promises, but we WILL discuss it. I'll PM you the email
address. If we still aren't convinced, we'll have another chat about it with
you.
<@Inhuman> Next question is from Darken Soul. Would you every consider
giving DarkTide its own set of rules? It is a different environment. For
example, UCMs can be killed on Darktide. Why ban them? If you aren't able to
kill it it isn't bothering you, because anyone can kill a UCM if they see
it?
<+Jessica> In some things, no. Let me explain... While it is tempting to
allow Darktide to enforce the CoC on it's own.... the problem we have is
that we want to have a level playing field, and a sense that any player can
get justice within the COC and TOS...
<@Inhuman> I believe most DT'ers are more worried
about UCM, and not the CoC in general
<+Jessica> to do thay, we have to be consistent in our enforcement... and
that means the CoC has to be consistently enforced across all worlds.
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> I'd like to add something here. I
think the UCM banning would be a fine concept on darktide if it were
enforced fairly. Instead we have 3 players banned per month
<+Jessica> If a player in DT reports apossible UCM that is hogging a Tusker
hunting area, for example... are we to ignore him? Suince Monday, we have
banned at least 15 players for UCM. Should we post these numbers daily? or
weekly?
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> is the
hall of shame still used?
<+Ibn> The Hall of Shame is being revamped.
@Inhuman> The most asked question right now is why
not ignore him? UCM's are incapable of fighting back, if its really a UCM he
could just kill the character
<+Ibn> I'm working with Katahdin and her team to get good metrics posted,
but the final form of those metrics hasn't yet been decided.
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> in responce to what you just said
up above jess... you mentioned a senario of a ucm hogging a tusker spawn.
that's whY i feel ucm's reports aren't taken seriously on darktride because
simply put, ucms don't hog spawns here, they log off or get killed.
<+Jessica> I understand, it was just an example
<+Ibn> There are other aspects to UCM than just hogging spawns
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> it's allright, this was about the
march issues, we'll stick to that. inhuman's going to continue now.
<+Jessica> OK, last quesion for tonight...
<@Inhuman> From the majority of darktide on this
one. A lot of darktiders feel that the devs just don't understand what group
fights on Darktide are like. Currently, once more than 1 melee targets a
mage, the mage has to run and be healed just to stay alive. If you add in
the decreased effectivness on stam to health, plus the luring/brittle, and
the decrease in war magic effectivness against skilled players because of
the spell words, mages will be as good as dead in group fights.
<+Jessica> but we will do this again in 4 to 6 weeks.
<@Inhuman> There simply is no way that a mages
fellowship can heal him, gem him, item dispell him and keep him alive vs
multiple melees.
<+Jessica> OK, I'm going to punt this one... to our PvP expert on the Dev
Team... i b n, and get a response from him tomorrow. he is a High level mage
with War and Life spec'd, everything else (including missile defense and
healing) trained. so he should have an opinion on this one.
<@Justinian[Blood]> anyone being attacked by
multiple melees; it just happens that it's a mage nine times out of ten
<+Jessica> I've cut and pasted it into the question doc. OK, that isit for
tonight, folks
<@[twisti]> who's your pvp expert ?
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> One last thing i'd like to bring up.
There's 221 people in this
room, making it the largest room on this irc network currently. knowing all
these people showed up cause of their concerns with the march patch
<+Jessica> I want to thank you for inviting us in.
<@Justinian[Blood]> well jessica, it's been a
pleasure having you once again our humble thanks for hearing us out
<+Ibn> Yes, thank you all -- this has been very well-run and organized.
<@[twisti]> thanks a lot for coming here tonight
and sacrificing your time jessica, ibn, it means a lot to most of us
<@Justinian[Blood]> thanks to you too ibn
<+Jessica> I'm a little dazed. I wasn't called a freak bitch even once. I
may faint.
<@shadowcouncil> =D
<@[twisti]> jessica we've been filtering
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> I hope you realize how serious we
feel about this...
<@shadowcouncil> I told ya we would be serious about this =D
<@Justinian[Blood]> ibn, don't be so hard on yourself either
<@Justinian[Blood]> like shadow said before
<+Ibn> We definitely realize how serious you feel about that -- the activity
spike on our forms says enough.
We
definitely appreciate how passionately you all feel about our game. It's
humbling in many ways.
<+Jessica> Doomgaze: Yep, we do, that is why we are here. to open the lines
of communication.
<@Doomgaze[KoC]> well then you have my thanks for
at least listening...
<+Ibn> Speaking of communication.
There's
one topic that I'd like bring up, while you are all here. Question for the
moderators -- can you folks temporarily make the forum open to all for
speaking after I ask a question? Say for 5 minutes while I log the varied
responses?
<+Jessica> Please, all; read the doc on PvP that Ibn will post, and discuss
it with us on the forums.
<@shadowcouncil> Well problem is soemtimes some of
our older players have a temper issue. It helps after the emotions die down
to get you in touch witht eh peopel who could form coherant thgouths
withotuhaveing to attack anyoen personally
<@Justinian[Blood]> even though they can't type
<@Justinian[Blood]> :P
|