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| Aluvians | First Hints of the August Event - From the Zone July 30, 2002
August 9, 2002 (View the preview movie for the August Event
here --14.5 MBs.) Asheron had not yet stirred, and every day the color drained out of his face a little more. Borelean's mother dressed the wound every few hours, yet each new dressing revealed that the old one was horribly stained. The wound simply would not knit. When his mother slept, Borelean had tried to heal Asheron's wound using what little life magic he had been taught. It was to no avail. Asheron was dying, and Dereth with him. Rithwic was silent, save for the peddlers who mostly wept and wondered when Gaerlan's forces would return. Worse, they pondered where this Harbinger would rise, what it was, and how they would stand against it. Gaerlan had proven to be unstoppable. His armies had swept across Osteth into the civilized towns and laid siege without effort. Now they held nearly every city across Dereth in an ever-tightening grasp. For every elemental that fell to the blades of the Isparians, another would rise, followed by its brethren. Gaerlan had proven that he was immune to the barriers Nuhmudira had created to shield the Isparians from the Empyrean, so even the sanctity and safety of being within one's home had become unsure. In mansions maintained by the richest and most powerful nobles, panicked voices rose to question Gaerlan's intent. “Is he bringing back the Hopeslayer?”“Is it Bael'Zharon?”“The master Lady Aerfalle speaks of?” All these questions and so few answers. In a time before, his mother had stood by the side of many of these men and women and brought down a Shadow Spire outside Cragstone. Those days were now forgotten. Some muttered now that High Queen Elysa Strathelar was a corrupt noble who had secured her position through her friendship with Asheron. Regicide was never far from their minds. Borelean was young, but he was quickly losing his innocence about the world and the people who would one day be his subjects. During his mother's council meetings, he had listened to the councilors and watched the proceedings through a crack in the door. He knew that his mother was the strongest-willed person on this world, and though at times she was overprotective of him, her first duty was the safety of her people. Now, however, she knew that they faced a foe against whom they had no hope--none without Asheron. The Isparians truly were fledglings on this world. The magic at Gaerlan and Asheron's command was advanced far beyond anything any of them understood. That is, any except Martine. Borelean remembered when Bael'Zharon had first come to Dereth, how his mother had warned him that she was going to face grave danger and that he needed to be brave for her. He had not understood what she'd meant, until now. He passed the beleaguered Lugian Emissary speaking to a passer-by. “Have you heard anything about Linvak Tukal? Timaru?” the gray giant asked in a deep gruff voice. The passer-by shook her head and moved on into the night. Borelean stopped and looked at the Lugian as the first drop of rain fell from the sky. “Linvak Tukal? Are you worried that your home is in danger too?” he asked. The gray giant kneeled to speak to him. “Of course I am, little boy. Whoever this man is, he will not stop with your race. He does not mean to stop with any of us. He will fight until we are all gone.” The Lugian managed a smile and stood upright once more. Borelean gazed up at the hulking mass of the Lugian for a long moment, then sprinted toward the portal as the rain intensified. The tunnels were easy to navigate. He wasn't the only child among those who milled within, so he easily made his way through the crowd without being noticed. He followed the passage upward and looked in on the throne room where Martine sat. Creeping silently across the floor and past the two slumbering forms outside, he pulled himself through a window and looked at the man. “Why did you try to kill Uncle Asheron?” he asked without fear. The man's head, devoid of skin, twisted unnaturally as the masked face seemed to regard him. “He's not dead. Not yet. You can make things right.” Borelean's words were met with silence. “It is not possible!” Gaerlan fumed. “I followed the rituals perfectly as they were laid out in the book! How could she have been freed? There is no way. . .” His ice blue eyes looked out over the horizon. Below him, off at a great distance, he could see the Crater Lake. “Vermin! Freeing a murderer, a seeker of Falatacot ways! A Blood Witch! You are not worthy!” He gripped the hilt at his waist and let out a low growl. “Soon Iasparailaun, soon.” He tapped the hilt and turned toward the tower. Wind rushed over the edge of the battlements and coalesced into a tangible being. “Master. We are prepared.”The voice slipped into his mind. Concentrating for a long moment, he saw what his army saw. Each stood ready for the final assault. Although he still commanded the forces of the elements, the Harbinger could not be summoned without a physical form to contain its power. Undoubtedly the small minds of these Isparians were oblivious to his failing, and the occupation of Osteth would crush their wills and secure his victory. Nevertheless, he needed to act quickly. The vermin must not be given any chance to take advantage of this setback. One example had already been made, and as long as the wreckage smoldered, etched in their memory, he had an advantage over the Isparians. Still, the Harbinger was coming. Unless he stopped it, it would consume everything. He still had time. Not much, but enough. ***** “The Lugians delivered the armor to us as promised. But when the storehouses were raided, we lost every last piece. We have had very little luck ascertaining the whereabouts of anything that was taken.” Ciandra paused and looked across the room, then swallowed hard before she continued. “We also lost the amulets, all of them. We sent citizens to collect them, but all that have been retrieved are ruined. High Queen Elysa has been more than helpful, her Royal Guard have assisted us at every turn. “Asheron came to us a few months ago. . .” Ciandra stopped short as her guest lifted a quizzical brow, a lattice of wrinkles joining together in a spider web across her forehead. Ciandra cleared her throat, then continued. “His assistance proved invaluable in much of our research. We have created a new kind of device, as instructed, that will allow weapons and wands to bite deeper against a chosen entity. Thus far we have only succeeded in altering the focus to deal with the elemental menace, but we continue our research to increase the spectrum of creatures that such items will affect.” Her guest reached forward and collected a ceramic mug from the table. Carefully, Ciandra lifted the teapot and filled the mug. “We have also made great strides in tinkering as well. Everything has continued to fall into place.” Ciandra paused. “Nuhmudira?” Her guest sipped the tea gently. “How did you escape?” “There are more important things to attend to than the how of my escape.” Nuhmudira smiled, and placed the mug on the table with a gentle clink. “Please tell me more. . .” Ciandra obliged as the night slowly gave way to the dawn. ***** Antius drank from his waterskin. Timaru was fast becoming a second home to him, though Lytelthorpe was only a few portal trips away. He had been upon Marae Lassel since the High Queen had asked that he watch the comings and goings from Martine's Holding some months before, and he had come to appreciate the free spirit of Timaru. He stayed with the Aun Tumeroks from time to time and listened to the wisdom imparted by Aun Hareltah. He had found them to be an intricate people with a rich heritage far more in tune with the spirits of the world than the Isparians'. News of recent events on Dereth had reached Aun Hareltah and had disturbed the quiet of the Timaru Xuta. The disquiet was grave enough to call the Shamans from their drumming circles. As Antius watched the discussion being held in the lodge, he wondered what could possibly be so important as to call them from the Menhir Rings. After a few hours, Hareltah emerged from the tent and walked in a slow gait toward Antius. “The Spirits within the world weep, but their tears are drying quickly,” Aun Hareltah said. A look of concern passed over the elder's face. “Our duty is to protect Palenqual from Wharu, Ispar Antiusnua, yet the spirits of the land have spoken to us. You will be needed soon by your Xuta. There is a great force coming, one that will lead to the eradication of all that lives and dies. Even Wharu's children cannot face down this thing.” Antius looked at the Elder quizzically, then nodded. Magic had fluctuated and not for the better. Everything had changed in the wink of an eye, and though it was possible to adapt, it was nevertheless something that had not been expected. “Before your people came among us, one like you, but touched by Atua Ngamaru, spoke of a powerful Pale One who had not left with the others. He called that one Asheron. You must seek him. He is needed for this world to survive.” The Elder placed his hand upon Antius' shoulder and bowed his head gently. Antius repeated the gesture, pondering what Hareltah had said. As the Elder turned back to the tent, Antius withdrew a sapphire orb from his pouch and muttered the words that would take him to High Queen Elysa's castle. He arrived to find the castle in utter ruin. “The same happened in Yanshi.” A voice called behind him. A man in the yellow and red robes of the royal guard stood at attention, looking at him as though he knew him. “Antius Blackmoor, yes?” Antius nodded. “The High Queen has a new request of you. Please follow me.” ***** The fever tugged at him again. Elysa pressed the cloth against his burning brow and spoke to him as she had for nearly two months now. “Do you remember when you told me that you had made a difficult decision, Asheron?” She smiled as she dipped the cloth into the basin. “I know what you meant, and I'll be damned if you made that choice just to leave us. So you need to fight. We need you. Gaerlan is growing stronger by the day.” A tiny voice sounded from behind her, distant, almost unreal. “Mother. . .” She turned and saw Borelean. In one fluid motion, her left hand grasped the bow as her right hand slipped an arrow from beneath Asheron's bed. She had nocked and aimed the arrow by the time she was standing. Her eyes were fixed on the eyeholes of the mask of the man standing behind her son. Beneath them, she could see a glint of white, of something not quite human, not quite Virindi. A chill ran down her spine. It was Martine. “Hello, Elysa.” Unlike any other gaming experience, the
world of Asheron's Call continues to evolve. Join us,
as we open our August Event, Atonement. Be sure to
continue your part in this incredible ongoing story, and we'll see you in
Dereth! Roll Out Article - From the Zone August 15, 2002 (View the teaser movie
here : 14.5 MB) It began with an earth-shattering explosion violently shaking the people of Yanshi from their beds. Pure mana exploded up from the earth below Yanshi, igniting the buildings of the town and sending the residents fleeing. Those that couldn't escape were killed in the explosions, but the Lifestones resurrected all--save one. The Jeweler Xao Wu never appeared. The survivors were stunned, for only a few had truly died a violent death since Asheron had perfected the Lifestones. The question was muttered among them: had Gaerlan found a means of breaking their connection to the Lifestones? Yet the desperate times have brought boons to mages and warrior alike. The Arcanum's continued research into Empyrean transmutation techniques has resulted in new abilities for Tinkers. Now that they can imbue weapons and wands with abilities unseen before, Tinkers know they will be getting little sleep in the days to come. At the same time, the world's magical fields continue to shift, giving war mages new spells and increased power. After suffering from the effects of Gaerlan's tampering for months, these new abilities are a welcome change. Along with all of this, tales are being told though that Martine has shaken off his stupor, and that the people of Dereth, coupled with the visit of young Prince Borelean, were responsible for helping him. As fantastic as these tales sound, more surprising events have happened. All that the people of Dereth can do is prepare themselves for the battles that are sure to come. Following is a list of the most interesting additions made to the game with this update. However, please note that not everything has been included--that would spoil the fun of finding out all manner of things added or changed! As usual, though, the town criers, barkeeps, and scribes may know the latest news. Also, the trades of crafting and selling are always in flux, so changes to prices and features are not always listed here in their entirety. Highlights Include:
Developer's Notes -- August - From the Zone August 15, 2002 (View the teaser movie here : 14.5 MB) Here are just some of the additions made in the August 15 game update, Atonement. The following list is comprised of detailed notes straight from the developers themselves. For a summary of things of interest, be sure to consult the official event article, Atonement. We appreciate your feedback and bug reports in helping to ensure that the world of Dereth is a stable and fun place to be. Please submit any such bug reports to http://bugs.zone.com. New Functionality and Content
Miscellaneous Improvements and Changes
Minor Details
Letter to the Players - From the Zone August 15, 2002 August is another exciting month for players of Asheron's Call! Here is a summary of the changes and additions for August. Armor Changes
Tassets: We've had a breakthrough in armor technology. Players will now find upper leg armor, called tassets, as treasure at all levels of play. Armor Coloring: Both the tassets and the Covenant Armor have unique abilities to allow players to customize their appearance. The Covenant Armor pieces have the ability to take on the color of the character's shirt and pants and use those colors as highlights. Players will be able to change the appearance of their armor simply by changing or dyeing their underlying clothing. Tassets also have the ability to take on another color, but in this case, they take on the color of the character's greaves. However, there is a restriction on this: the tassets only take on the color of the greaves if the tassets and the greaves are of the same type. If both pieces are metal, the tassets will take on the color of the greaves. The same is true if both pieces are leather, yet if the pieces are of different types, with one being metal and the other leather, the tassets will not take on the color of the greaves. Areas Protected by Clothing and Armor: A long-standing issue in Asheron's Call has caused some confusion about what areas of the body are protected by various pieces of clothing and armor. When examining a piece of clothing or armor, a line of text detailing this item would appear in the examination panel. However, instead of stating what areas of the body this item protected, this was only a list of the areas of the character's body the item covered. For example, when examining a pair of boots, the examination panel would display that they covered the feet and lower legs. In reality however, the boots only provided damage protection for the character's feet. We have modified the examination panel for all pieces of armor and clothing so that it accurately displays the areas of the body these items protect. Areas Protected by Clothing and Armor: A long-standing issue in Asheron's Call has caused some confusion about what areas of the body are protected by various pieces of clothing and armor. When examining a piece of clothing or armor, a line of text detailing this item would appear in the examination panel. However, instead of stating what areas of the body this item protected, this was only a list of the areas of the character's body the item covered. For example, when examining a pair of boots, the examination panel would display that they covered the feet and lower legs. In reality however, the boots only provided damage protection for the character's feet. We have modified the examination panel for all pieces of armor and clothing so that it accurately displays the areas of the body these items protect.
Example: A piece of armor has a 1.3 protection (Above Average) against fire damage. Previously, casting Flame Bane 6 on this item would raise its protection to 2.8. Casting this spell now will only raise the protection to 2.0. Enhancements for Player Killers
The first feature is a new log off timer. Player Killer characters now take an additional 20 seconds to log off. During these 20 seconds the character is unable to move, chat, or otherwise interact with the game. After 20 seconds the normal log off animation will be played. It should be noted that any time a character is logging off, PK or not, all physical attacks against them become automatically critical. (Note that spells do not share this behavior.) We hope this will stress the need to log off in a safe place. The second feature is a new timer added to the “Portal Sending” spells. Portal Sending spells (such as “Aerlinthe Recall” and “Recall the Sanctuary”) and the spells cast by quest gems (such as Shendolain Portal Gem), now delay by 2 seconds before transporting the character. This 2-second delay is the normal delay seen in other portal recall spells. Please note that these timer changes only affect Player Killer characters. Hollow Weapons: In the August event, we've made some revisions to Hollow Weapons to make them more effective and provide players with more options in PK combat. To make these weapons more effective, the maximum damage for all Hollow and Deadly Hollow weapons has been increased. In addition, players will now be able to craft Deadly Hollow versions of all Hollow racial weapons. Another revision provides a new version of the Ravenous weapons, called Phantom weapons. The damage dealt out by these Phantom weapons ignores all armor values on a target. This includes the armor values provided by armor worn on the target as well as armor spells cast on the target. The only factors that reduce the Phantom weapon's damage are either the target's Natural Resistances or Life Protection spells. Although we had hoped to provide Hollow and Phantom missile weapons for this event, we lacked the time to properly implement them. However, they will be available in a future event. Wield Requirement Changes
Also, we have added two new levels of wield requirements for missile weapons and adjusted the existing level of wield requirements to be more equivalent--in terms of invested experience--with the melee requirements. Missile weapons can now spawn with weapon skill requirements of 250, 270, or 290, depending upon their damage modifier. Note that these changes only affect new weapons generated this month. Existing weapons will not be changed at all. War Magic Changes
Critical Strikes: In addition to the skill-based damage bonus, each projectile spell has a 2% chance of causing a critical hit on the target and doing increased damage. A magical critical hit is similar in some respects to melee critical hits (although the damage calculation is handled differently). While a melee critical hit automatically does twice the maximum damage of the weapon, a magical critical hit will do an additional half the minimum damage of the spell. For instance, a magical critical hit from a level 7 spell, which does 110-180 points of damage, would add an additional 55 points of damage to the spell. Arc Spells: August also sees the addition of a new type of projectile spell, the Arc. While most projectile spells fly straight at their target, these spells arc similar to an arrow. They also differ from projectiles in the fact that they do not “track” like other spells. While a typical bolt spell will estimate where the target should be and aim for that location, an Arc spell will land where the target was when the spell was launched. Slayer Wands: Projectile spells also now benefit from the “slayer” quality that first appeared on melee and missile weapons. While wielding slayer wands, players will see an increase in the damage dealt by projectile spells to the creatures that match the slayer type of each wand. Other effects of other types of spells, such as life magic transfers and harms, creature ineptitudes, or item enchantments, are not enhanced by this quality. Magic Item Tinkering
Imbuing a Weapon: Imbuing a weapon with a new property involves many of the same steps as other Tinkering operations. As with other operations, one hundred units of a material have to be salvaged before the material can be used to imbue a weapon. The difficulty of the operation is also based on the same factors as other Tinkering operations. This means that the quality of the salvaged material, the quality of the target item, and the Magic Item Tinkering skill of the character all still affect the difficulty of the operation. It should be noted that imbuing is more difficult than other Tinkering operations, and in this tricky process the chance of success is never great. The other restrictions also still apply, so an imbued sword or dagger cannot be hilted, and these imbuing operations count against the total number of tinkering operations that can be performed on an item. Effects: The following three effects are available in August: --Critical Strike: Applying this effect to a weapon or wand increases the chance of inflicting a critical hit when wielding this item. The percentage of increase is determined by the base skill of the character wielding the item. --Crippling Blow: This effect increases the amount of damage a weapon or wand does when it causes a critical hit. Again the higher your base skill, the more damage you will do when causing a critical hit. --Armor Rending: The final Magic Item Tinkering effect allows a weapon to ignore a portion of the target's total armor, including the value added by a shield. The effect is similar to the effect of Phantom weapons. The percentage of armor the weapon ignores is based upon the base skill of the character. This effect is not available for wands because war magic already ignores physical armor and armor spells. The Future
The Defense of the Cisterns - From the Zone September 17, 2002 On the night of September 16th, 2002, the AC Team suited up specially created characters for a series of Live Ops on the worlds of Thistledown, Harvestgain and Darktide. In laying out the August Event, we included an element that would allow players to mount a defense of the final Lightning Cistern Core. The Shard of the Herald defense organized by players back in the November, 2000 event is something that people in the community and on the AC Team look back to fondly. However this time we decided to add a different element than was seen in the Shard defense. Instead of the obvious choice seen in the Shard defense--releasing Bael'Zharon is never a good thing--the choice in the August Event was more ambiguous. Would you choose the devil you knew, Gaerlan, or the devil you didn't, the Harbinger? Would you trust High Queen Elysa's leadership and destroy the crystal, or resist her? We were unsure exactly how the community would respond, but it was a feature we wanted to add to the event and planned for it accordingly. In monitoring the various discussion boards after the community learned of the upcoming PK element, we saw people taking sides and forming factions almost immediately. Over the weekend we checked in on the progress of the various worlds, and were impressed with the dedication and the abilities of the players, whether they were attacking or defending. We were particularly impressed with a group of players on Darktide who spent seven hours destroying the low level crystal! On the majority of the worlds the attackers banded together and broke through whatever lines the defenders placed and destroyed the crystals. However on the worlds Thistledown, Harvestgain and Darktide, the crystals stood. Seeing this, we decided to implement the series of Live Ops we had sketched out. The Queen Onslaught
Those that mean to keep the final cistern core intact stand with Gaerlan. They stand against Dereth, and they stand against their race. As High Queen it is my duty to defend and stand for and with the people of Dereth. You have two hours. Then, if you continue this folly I will bring my might to bear against you. I implore you to reconsider your actions. We have worked too hard to fail now. Gaerlan must be stopped and the defeat of these crystals is the only way to breach his Citadel's defense. Stand with your fellows. . . or face my wrath. Those on the AC Team participating in the event then began the process of creating and equipping the characters they would need. The Queen's team consisted of:
Gaerlan would also be making an appearance, gloating and killing those who attacked his final crystal core. One choice the team made for these Ops was to create characters that could be killed. We wanted this to be a fair fight. . . or as fair as a fight of 9 versus 60 could be. Still it would not be god-like characters deciding the fate of the world. We also established one rule for the Live Ops: if Queen Elysa were to be killed in the final Crystal room, we would declare that the defenders had held the line and conclude the Live Op. The first world visited by the team was Thistledown, famous for its defense of the Shard of the Herald. Here we found ourselves facing an enormous number of defenders and had great difficulty even entering the dungeon. Eventually the team made its way to the final room and began the attack on the Crystal. However, the defense mounted finally overcame the Queen, and Martine parted the scene with the final words, “Very well, you have made your choice. I will do this on my own.” After licking our wounds, we visited the world of Harvestgain. We found more equal numbers of defenders and attackers on Harvestgain, and progressed to the final crystal room much more quickly. Slowly the attackers, Royal Guard, and Elysa began chipping away at the Crystal, when suddenly the Queen fell, to our surprise. Later review of what happened revealed that two or three players, who had been attacking the Crystal, turned on the Queen, firing two Hecatomb bolts at her, almost completely draining her of life. A few melee attacks and the Queen was dead. After the Queen fell, Martine parted the scene again with the same final words. The final world visited was Darktide. Many of the Crystals had been left standing on Darktide, and the Queen's called all who would to assault these crystals and destroy them. We found that many of those who responded role-played well, and we were glad to have them at our side as we destroyed the various crystals. The portal to the final Crystal opened and the Queen and the attackers made their way to the crystal to begin the assault. A few Royal Guards remained behind to try and prevent defenders from entering. These Guards held the line, and the Queen and her people finally destroyed the Crystal. Gaerlan, who had been battling Martine in the Crystal room prior to this, left with a final sneer to the defenders, “You weak Isparians! You cannot do even the SIMPLEST thing!” With the last Live Op concluded, the team began to again review player reactions, both in-game and on the discussion boards. We do want to apologize to anyone who was trying to aid in the attack on the Crystal and was killed by the Queen or members of her party. Sometimes in the heat of battle, minds can be clouded by bloodlust. If you were killed by Gaerlan and were defending the crystal, well, just remember Gaerlan's opinion of Isparians! Now What?
The Asheron's Call Newsletter - August 2002
Welcome to the Annals of Dereth, the newsletter for the Asheron's Call online role-playing game! We bring you this bulletin every month to give you a wide view on Dereth's evolving community, events, and features. 1 -- OUR SAGA THUS FAR... Borelean moved quickly. It was necessary; he would soon be missed, and he could not bear the strain that it would put on his mother. He decided to go after the start of Alba'rel's cycle, slipping through the portal under an assault of acidic clouds and frosty air. Asheron had not yet stirred, and every day the color drained out of his face a little more. Borelean's mother dressed the wound every few hours, yet each new dressing revealed that the old one was horribly stained. The wound simply would not knit. When his mother slept, Borelean had tried to heal Asheron's wound using what little life magic he had been taught. It was to no avail. Asheron was dying, and Dereth with him. Unlike any other gaming experience, the world of Asheron's Call continues to evolve. Join us as we open our August Event, Atonement. Be sure to continue your part in this incredible ongoing story, and we'll see you in Dereth! 2 -- MAJOR EVENTS ATONEMENT Our latest event, Atonement, opened Thursday, August 15. Find the full details in the official article set, comprised of the Rollout, Developer's Notes, and Letter to the Players. LATEST DEV CHAT
SECURITY REMINDER 3 -- COMMUNITY EVENTS ALLEGIANCE HALL To have your monarch listed in the Allegiance Hall, simply send a completed update to asheron@microsoft.com. Updates must include a screen shot to verify monarch information: name, title, and number of followers. In addition, please state on which server world the monarch resides, the name of the allegiance, and the URL to the allegiance Web site. SEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO A FRIEND, AND LET THEM KNOW TO: PLAY IT ON THE ZONE! 4 -- TROUBLESHOOTING
If you have any problems with Asheron's Call or the
Zone, check out our Troubleshooters and Frequently Asked Questions and find
the answer to your problems there. You registered to receive this newsletter on the MSN Gaming Zone. To unsubscribe, do the following: 1. Go to MSN Newsletters:http://g.msn.com/0NL33946/117 2. Log in with your Zone ID (not your AC character name) and password. 3. Uncheck the box that's labeled "Send me the Asheron's Call newsletter every month to: (your e-mail address)." THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to change in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1. All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included 2. All copies must contain Microsoft's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein 3. This document may not be distributed for profit. c2000 Microsoft, Inc.Interview with Turbine's Les Nelken - From the Zone August, 2002 During the June 2002 event, Castling, players were introduced to the Arcane Pedestal and the “Precarious Sojourn” floating dungeon. The designer, Les Nelken, took time to answer a few questions about that particular quest and content design in general. How did it all get started? Did you go into the
quest to provide a specific reward to the players? Or did you have a
specific experience you wanted to give the players?
With this item in hand, the main experience I wanted to give players was the “Precarious Sojourn” floating dungeon. What was your inspiration for a floating dungeon?
To start with, I did a concept sketch of the structure and its components. I gave this list to Sean Huxter [Lead Artist for AC], who did his usual fantastic job and created the art assets necessary to build the dungeon. Because the formats of the platforms are the same as those used for buildings, this is the largest outdoor structure on Dereth. As part of the experience--like you might see in a movie--I wanted players to arrive at the dungeon, but not see the full extent of it. As they go around a corner, a vista would open up and they would get to see the rest of the structure, with the endgame tower floating off in the distance. And if the time of day was just right, they would see the sun rising behind it. I spent some time trying to find the proper location in Dereth for this structure. Eventually I found an appropriately shaped canyon, although it wasn't completely perfect. I had to modify a cliff so that it blocked the view of the rest of the dungeon when you first arrived. I also modified the canyon so that if you are really good at jumping, you can jump onto a platform from the cliff. But don't miss! What problems did you encounter when you were
developing this quest? One of the first problems appeared when I was trying to test the portal's placement. This test essentially consists of playing AC on a private server located on my computer. It isn't completely independent though; the local server is still linked to a remote database server that stores and retrieves game information. When I had placed the portal in Worldbuilder, our in-house content tool, I had it floating out in the air at the end of the bridge. However when I would enter the game world on my private server, the portal was completely missing. After tracking the problem down, I found that the portal was falling to the earth below and disappearing. Modifying the portal's properties and setting the portal to ignore gravity made it essentially weightless and kept it from falling and disappearing. While this seems obvious, Worldbuilder had given nary a clue that this was going on and had given the appearance that the portal was floating exactly where I put it. Okay, fine! The placement of the portal caused another problem. I had placed it close enough to the bridge so that if you strained forward, you would get sucked through. However, for some reason this would cause you to appear at the arrival point with an incredibly high forward velocity, flinging you, screaming and flailing, to the hard soil of the Direlands far below. This was a bit more of an arrival thrill than I had intended! Sean Dickinson [Data Integrator for AC] suggested putting up invisible walls to contain the errant characters. For some reason the portal was adding inertia to the avatar. The invisible walls were a simple solution and they seem to have worked. Another issue turned up when I was scripting the Slithe Traddittor NPC. I wanted to push the tech a little so that players could hand in the bronze statue parts in any order. This sounds like a simple goal, but it's harder to implement than it sounds. In AC1, the scripting process that makes our NPCs function requires a certain degree of programming logic. In the end, I could see a couple of ways that it could be made to work. And it did too, but not without everyone racking their brains over it. Half the time, I still expect Slithe Traddittor to hand me a toaster-oven instead of the Arcane Pedestal. Was there anything in the quest that you wanted to
do, but couldn't, for whatever reason?
There are a number of steps in completing the quest
and receiving the final reward. How did you determine the number of steps
you wanted to use to complete it? Do you go into a quest thinking of how
long you want it to take the players to complete it?
With regard to how long I wanted the quest to take, the story really influenced my decision. Slithe is a thrall of Gaerlan and wants to be able to produce a number of these devices for him. The length of a quest has to “feel right.” It would have been too short if all the players had to do was capture the image of the Pedestal in the Imaging crystal and hand it to Slithe. Also, since the Arcane Pedestal is partially a mechanical device, it made sense to use some of the bronze statue parts that had recently been added to the game. Alatar Locke, the long lost explorer, reappeared in
your quest! Was he in the quest from the beginning, or was he just a bit of
flash that came later? For quite a while, you were involved in placing
housing on the landscape. Was it a relief to start doing something other
than housing? |
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He moved quickly. It was necessary; he would soon be missed, and he could
not bear the strain that it would put on his mother. He decided to go after
the start of Alba'rel's cycle, slipping through the portal under an assault
of acidic clouds and frosty air. 