Roll Out Article - From the Turbine Site (Dec. 8, 2004)

He looked down at his flesh. It was still new to him. He both loved and loathed its alien feel - its texture; its smell; its oils. So powerful, yet still so flawed and weak compared with the existence he had previously known.

He looked at his brothers. He nodded to the youngest of them. The changeling nodded in assent and ran east. The other two looked to him for their own orders.

He removed a map from his pack and unrolled it. He placed a large finger on two locations. Each of his brothers nodded and began the trek to their designated posts.

He held the map to his blade of flame and watched the paper crumble to ash. Then he began his own journey. For he, too, had a part to play in this great game.

Many of this month's changes have already been described in detail in the Letter to the Players. Here are some additional topics that we'd like to discuss in detail:

As we referenced in the Letter to the Players, starting this month the Asheron's Call client will begin checking to make sure you have the necessary software to allow you to migrate your account when the migration process begins.

In addition to the required Internet Explorer version, we have identified an additional requirement: You must have SSL enabled in Internet Explorer to ensure that the Asheron's Call client will be able to correctly communicate with the migration servers.

To enable SSL:

1. Start Internet Explorer.

2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

3. On the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Security section, and then select the Use SSL 2.0 and Use SSL 3.0 options.

4. Click OK.

Dev Notes - From the Turbine Site (Dec. 8, 2004)

• A number of improvements have been made to Holtburg, Shoushi and Yaraq as part of our ongoing work to turn these towns into Social Centers.
• After a two-month delay, the fun of Masks and Guises has returned to Dereth! And don't let the snow on the ground fool you – the Scarecrows roam the land as well!
• In preparation for the upcoming Billing Migration, the Asheron's Call game client now checks to ensure that you are running a sufficient version of Internet Explorer. In addition we recommend that you check to make sure that you have SSL enabled in Internet Explorer.

• Using the @allegiance ban command without an argument will no longer crash your client.
• The life protection and regeneration fellowship spells were not increasing in mana cost for additional targets and required a player target. We have adjusted the spells so that they correctly increase in mana cost and are now self-targeted.
• The mana burn rate on Noble Armor has been changed to 1 point per 60 seconds, and the Hieromancer's Ward spells have been replaced with Brogard's Defiance.
• The Burun Floatee can now be hooked on rooftops.
• A generator that was spawning 80+ creatures in a 20+ area of Aphus Lassel has been removed.
• A portal on the island of Qin Xikit that was unintentionally tieable is no longer tieable. Any ties to this portal will no longer work.
• We've tweaked Gentleman Jake so that he is less likely to fail to give you a portal gem to the Bandit's Lair while on the Noir quest.
• Some changes have been made to the statues Hevk Loz, Jif Loz and Kir Loz to prevent players from getting into a broken state while answering their questions.
• The in-game credits have been updated.

• Typos in the description of several fellowship life protection scrolls have been corrected.
• The name of the Pack Burun Kukuur is now spelled correctly.
• A typo in the description of Priceless Ore has been corrected.
• When you hand in the token for having defeated all six Burun Kings, Guard Devon correctly announces that you have defeated all six Kings.

December Letter to the Players  - From the Turbine Site (Dec. 1, 2004)

Welcome to the December Letter to the Players!

Over the last month in Dereth, the Burun Kukuur have mounted several incursions in the depths of ancient Falatacot temples. Each time, they have been repelled by the force of arms of Isparian heroes.

Finally, King Browerk, greatest of the Kukuur, entered Dereth. Again the Burun attempted to make their foothold on our world permanent, and again they were repelled. With the defeat of Browerk, it would appear that the Burun threat has finally ended. Again the heroes of Dereth have been tested, and again they have prevailed!

Now, let us look ahead to the December event.

As we've mentioned previously, the Live Team has been in the process of moving to Turbine's new Santa Monica studios, where we will work right alongside the Throne of Destiny development team. The move is complete as of today.

As part of that move, changes have been made in two key positions on the Team. Our Producer, Kim "Mirin" Payson, and our Lead Designer, Allan "Orion" Maki, have both moved on to other projects at Turbine. Brandon "meanbeard" Salinas, one of the designers for Throne of Destiny, has taken over as Lead Designer of the Live Team.

As for the Producer role, Sandra "srand" Powers is scheduled to return to the position once development on Throne of Destiny has finished. Until that time, the Producer responsibilities will be divided between meanbeard, Executive Director Steven "Ski-Dawg" Kaminsky, and me – Alex "Ibn" Beckers.

We're continuing our internal work on migrating all of you off of Microsoft's .NET Passport and MSN Gaming Zone billing and authentication, and on to Turbine's proprietary billing system and launcher. One change that you may notice in December is that Asheron's Call will begin checking the version of Internet Explorer on your PC. This is because we are using some security features of IE for migration, and these features are only found in IE 5.5 with 128-bit encryption or IE 6.

If a sufficient version of Internet Explorer can't be found on your computer at launch, Asheron's Call will prompt you to upgrade. For the moment, you can cancel this upgrade and play the game normally, but be aware that you will not be able to migrate without upgrading.

There are a few things that you can do to prepare for migration. The first is to make sure that your .NET Passport account is secure. We recommend that all players change the passwords of the .NET Passport account associated with their Asheron's Call accounts, you can do this at the Passport website.

This is particularly important for any account that may have been shared between players in the past. If another player with access to your account were to migrate it, that other player would be the account owner from Turbine's perspective. Don't let this happen to you! Change your password at your earliest convenience.

We'll be putting out more information regarding the migration in the next few weeks.

(These are items that we plan to implement in the December event. Many of these items were mentioned in prior articles. These changes are in addition to the new quests, dungeons, and items that we'll be introducing in the December event.)

Before we say anything, let's stress again what's written above: Anything you see in the Letter to the Players is in addition to new quests and items that you'll be seeing in each monthly event.

As we've mentioned in previous Letters, the creature masks and guises that traditionally enter the game in October were held back until the December event due to resource scheduling issues. Starting in December, you'll be able to find all your old favorites, as well as a few new ones!

As also mentioned in previous Letters, over the next few months we will focus on the towns of Holtburg, Shoushi and Yaraq. Our goal is to increase player traffic through these towns, to make them more desirable places to spend time in-game.

In December we'll be making a number of improvements to these three towns. These include:

• Making the portals into the towns more consistent and increasing the number of portals out of the towns.
• Moving the casinos closer to the towns.
• Adjusting the starter quests based in these towns.

In addition to the three bullet points above, there are some improvements that we can't mention here – things that players will discover over the course of the December event.

In the near future we'll be putting up a new article explaining exactly what our goals are for the social centers, and the steps that we're taking to get there. Look for that in the next few weeks.

(These are the game changes that we are working on for the January event. None of these items are guaranteed to be added for January as scheduling and priorities can change. These changes are in addition to the new quests, dungeons, and items that we'll be introducing in the January event. Your feedback on these topics is particularly valuable.)

We've been teasing these for several months now and we're happy to be able to announce that the first tiers will likely be added to loot in the January event. These include new melee weapons with a 350 wield requirement, missile weapons with a 315 wield requirement and magic casters with 290 and 310 War Magic wield requirements.

The higher wield-req melee weapons will simply do more damage than existing weapons. The missile weapons and magic casters will gain a damage bonus based off a specific elemental type. For example, a 290 or 310 wield-req caster might receive a damage bonus to all fire-based War spells. For all other spells, it would act the same as a standard caster.

We'll be presenting more details on this in the near future, before the January Letter to the Players.

(These are the game changes that we are thinking about for February and beyond. We cannot guarantee when – or even if – any of these changes will be added to the game, as scheduling and priorities can change. These changes are in addition to the new quests, dungeons, and items that we'll be introducing in each monthly event. Your feedback on these topics is particularly valuable.

If not mentioned elsewhere in this Letter, topics listed as In Concept in prior articles have not changed status.)

An issue that's been raised by the community frequently over the last several months has been an apparent imbalance in hunting at high levels, particularly between mages and melees or missile characters without Life Magic.

The basic issue is that missile and melee damage is reduced by the creature's effective armor level to the given element in addition to its natural resistances, while war magic damage ignores armor levels and only is reduced by resistances. This means that melee and missile attacks require that the creature be Imperil'd to do the same damage as a war magic attack.

The Live Team is committed to increasing the amount of high-level hunting, before the expansion pack, as part of it, and after it. We're also committed to making sure that all players have the ability to progress at a reasonable rate, whether or not they have Life Magic.

To that end, one thing we are considering is the introduction of a high-level hunting ground or dungeon populated by creatures that are immune to all non-projectile magic. This would allow us to give them an armor level that is fair to melee and missile characters without having to worry about whether or not the creature becomes too easy once Imperil'd; the creature would be immune to Imperil spells. However, War Mages and Martyr Mages would still be effective against these creatures.

Depending on our research and resources, as well as your feedback, it is possible that the first of these areas could go into the game for January. However, it is more likely that this would occur in February.

It is also important to stress that this is not by any means what we would consider a final solution to the Life Magic/high-level hunting issue. As we mentioned at Turbine Nation, we would like to re-evaluate the Armor Levels of many of the creatures in the Valley of Death and the Caul. We have other ideas that we're discussing as well.

Now you're caught up on the Live Team's plans for December and beyond. We've got some nice content surprises for you as well, but we're not giving any hints yet!

See you in Dereth!
 

AC1 Billing Migration Status Update - From the Turbine Site (Dec. 17 2004)

Hi folks! As you know, we’ve been talking for quite some time about the upcoming transfer of accounts from Microsoft’s billing and login system to Turbine’s new billing system.

Now we’re at the point where we have the details nailed down and can tell you how things are going to work.

Initially, MSN Gaming Zone accounts will be selected in batches for the opportunity to migrate. If your account is eligible for migration you will be prompted to transfer your account the next time you start up Asheron’s Call. When you accept, you will go to Turbine’s account creation system.

Once there, you will create your new Turbine Billing account and enter your billing information. After your credit card is confirmed, you will be able to download and install Turbine’s launcher. From then on, you will use Turbine’s launcher and your Turbine account to log in to Asheron’s Call. Shortly thereafter Microsoft will cancel the recurring billing on your MSN Gaming Zone account; once that occurs you will no longer be able to log in with your Zone account.

As we said, initially migration will be voluntary and in small batches of accounts, so we can slowly ramp up. As we continue into migration, we’ll make the group of eligible accounts larger and larger until all players can elect to transfer their accounts.

For those who do not go through the transfer process when prompted, Turbine will begin a required migration. This will occur sometime after voluntary migration begins. Once we move into the required migration phase, you won’t be able to log in to the game until you transfer your account to Turbine Billing.

That’s it. It’s that simple. You don’t need your original CD-Key; you don’t even need to know your current Zone account name. All you need to do is log in to the game.

The one thing you do need is to be an active customer. You can’t migrate if you can’t log in. If you are currently unsubscribed and want to re-subscribe, just go to the Asheron's Call Quicklaunch page on the MSN Gaming Zone and sign in with your .NET Passport. Click “Subscription” at the bottom. If you have issues re-subscribing or logging in, you can contact Zone Support here.

Obviously, there may be some special cases or other issues that aren’t covered in this post. That’s why we’re working on a full FAQ that will be posted soon. The FAQ will answer questions about things like accounts that have been banned by the Zone, accounts that you can’t re-subscribe to before the end of migration, etc. We already have an initial FAQ online in our Fuze system.

So, last question – when does all this start? We’re currently shooting to start the first groups early next week. We’ll definitely let you know if this changes.

We’re pretty excited about this last step in the transition of Asheron’s Call from Microsoft to Turbine, and we hope you are too!

AC Billing Migration: Important Update From Turbine (Dec. 20, 2004)

Turbine Entertainment Software is ready to begin transferring Asheron’s Call (AC) community members’ accounts to the publisher’s newly launched billing service. Ultimately, every one of the thousands of Asheron’s Call players will need to transfer their information, which includes account and character information, from Microsoft’s Zone to Turbine’s new system.

To complete the seamless migration of billing information, AC members will receive a pop up message when they launch the long-running MMORPG, prompting them to transfer their account from Microsoft’s Zone to Turbine’s billing system. Once they are in the process players will be asked to re-enter billing information to keep their accounts active. Start to finish, the entire process should take players less than 10 minutes. Members who bypass the initial pop up window request will eventually be required to migrate their account – meaning they will not be able to log into the game unless they complete the process.

The Asheron’s Call community is Turbine’s first live service community to transfer their information away from Microsoft. The Asheron’s Call 2 community will start the same process just after the New Year. As a convenience to players Turbine expects to maintain existing billing dates, so users should see no changes to their subscription schedule or monthly fees.

The billing account transfer is the final step in Turbine’s acquisition of the AC franchise from Microsoft, a process that began in early 2004.

More information on the billing migration can be found at http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=289.