Castling

Gharu'ndim

Sho

Viamontians

Ispar History

Auberean History

Texts

Rumors

Event Teaser - From the Zone

June 10, 2002

Elysa Strathelar knew she was dreaming. She struggled against the invisible tendrils that held her, and that felt real enough. Panic and anger surged within her as she fought, twisting and snarling. . . but it was obviously a dream. A figure stood just outside of the corner of her eye, enough so that she knew he was there, could not see him directly. He seemed to flicker, there, not there, there, not there.

And she was floating, hovering above her bed. She could not turn her head, which was bound like the rest of her body, but she was several paces from her vaulted stone ceiling, and she could see the torch flames on the wall lapping up the warm night air as soft breezes blew in through the open tower windows.

In a back corner of her mind, behind the rage and fear as she fought against her unseen tormentor, she wondered what the dream meant. Yet another example of the icy rage she felt toward Martine? Her continued attempts to deal with the shock of almost losing her son? Her previous resentment towards Asheron, as she had had to cope with these problems alone? All of these, perhaps.

There was mumbling. She could hear the tones, but the words were hard to make out, and Elysa could not turn her head to catch the sound. Eventually, she heard two voices. One was low and deep, with an almost keening quality. The other was high and tinny; hollow tones encased in dank metal.

How unusual to have such lucidity during a dream, she thought. There was none of the usual muddled slew of images barely connected to one another. No, there was only the struggling and resistance. The anger and the fear.

The voices were closer now. “Elysa. . .” This was the low voice, and the stark need in it made her wonder what hell the person uttering her name had gone through. Twenty years in Dereth had made her intimate with pain, and she recognized immediately the sound of someone similarly seared.

She stopped struggling. She wanted to comfort the man, reassure him. As she ceased struggling, she felt her body slowly lower back towards the bed.

This time the voice was right behind her head. “Elysa, I. . .” and she felt a hand touch her, stroke the sides of her hair. It felt warm and wet, and glistened red at the edge of her vision. This was not a dream.

Elysa convulsed, disbelief warring with the worst fear she had ever known. The voice continued, “I know I have said, and done, horrible things, Elysa. But here, hidden away in stone and shadow, there is no wider audience. There is only you and me. And so, so much to talk about.” Acid bile rose from her stomach, making her gag with the vileness of it, of him. This was not a dream. She tried to break free from his magical bonds, she tried to scream. Nothing. She could not move. This was not a dream.

“What was it, Elysa, that first drew me to you? In the beginning, I admit, there were certain opaque intentions and manipulations in regards to your Empyrean advisor. I wanted him dead, I needed him dead. You were, at first, a tool. One of many at my disposal, I thought.”

“Warning. Proximity. . .”

“Silence!” There had been that tinnying voice before Martine had cut it off. It came from her side as well. Someone else? Elysa struggled to control her fear. She tried to draw strength from her one consolation. . . Borelean was not here. She had sent him away with Asheron to a safer, less public place, after the first reports had trickled in of Martine's appearances throughout Dereth.

Her son was safe. Now all she needed was for Martine to. . . he brought up his deformed claw against the side of her face and pressed it there. She could feel its warmth. It throbbed. All thought left her mind as Elysa screamed silently.

“Yes, my darling. I understand that emotion well. You have known pain. Such exquisite pain. And that was why I marked you. You had lost, as I had lost. You had grieved, as I had grieved. I had thought that you should lose a child, as I had lost a child. . . but that is behind us now. We will raise Borelean together, as man and wife. We will rule Dereth as King and Queen. Dereth and beyond.

“Tonight is when I claim you, Elysa. We shall be married. We shall be in love. No one will stand in our way.

“Warning. . .”

The heavy oak door leading to Elysa's bedchamber exploded inward. The invisible bonds holding Elysa up immediately disappeared. As she fell back she glanced to her side. Surrounded by a blue nimbus, his eyes flashing scarlet, Asheron stood in the doorway.

__________

Finally. Martine had waited for this moment for such a long time. And now everything was at hand. His bride-to-be at his side. His nemesis in front of him. A corpse-to-be. Martine raised his hands sending a coruscating stream of flame at Asheron. An appetizer for the banquet to follow.

He saw Elysa fall and land on the bed. She reached under the pillow and hurled something at him. A throwing knife, flipping end over end, the light of the flame shining off its metal blade. Asheron had warded off the fire and bolts of acid and frost were now speeding back toward Martine. His heart warmed to see what a little lioness Elysa was. Lovely.

He snatched the knife out of the air and tucked it behind his back. It could be a memento to show their children. The acid stream and frost bolts he let through. As his surface flesh crackled and burned, he wanted to show Asheron the type of pain he should expect. He looked Asheron in the eye and smiled.

On each side of the splintered door, stone blocks ripped apart as two of Asheron's Diamond Golems thundered into the room. They towered over everything, animated man-shapes of diamond, Asheron's special creations, representing over a millennia of Empyrean demiurgic research.

They stood motionless as Asheron stepped forward. Elysa had scampered out of sight, but Martine would have time to finish their date later. Asheron was here. Martine giggled.

“Martine, you must stop this madness. We, all of us, are in grave danger. . . we need. . .” Asheron spoke with the tremulousness of an old man. Even the halo of color that surrounded him, a mark of Empyrean power, flickered occasionally, revealing him to be nothing more than the tired, pathetic husk he was. It almost seemed unworthy for this man to have earned so much of Martine's hate. But Martine wanted this play finished.

“We need what? We need nothing, fool. You warn me of sycophants and mice. No one will oppose me. No one can. You are old and tired. I have come to give you the gift of permanent rest, Weyrava. It is far more than you deserve, but today is my wedding day and I am in a generous mood.”

Martine moved forward as the Diamond Golems stepped in front of Asheron. His first spell took the head off of one of them. Its form continued to lumber about and swing at Martine. The second one landed a clean blow to the side of Martine's body that drove him against the far wall. Martine floated himself up as the ribs on his right side began to reform.

Asheron pressed the attack, bolt after bolt of eldritch might slamming into Martine. Martine took each blow, letting the pain of each ravaging attack strengthen his resolve. Enough.

Martine teleported quickly behind the last remaining Golem, the first one having succumbed to its beheading, and plunged his hands through the magical bonds that kept it animated. The Golem blew up, spraying shards of diamond throughout the room. Martine shielded himself from the explosion and saw Asheron do the same. He couldn't see Elysa, but he could always repair her later.

No more words came from Asheron, his focus stayed completely on spewing magical energies at the approaching Martine. There were no more Golems, however. No more saviors and no more tricks. Asheron was his.

As the arrow entered the back of his neck and through his throat, Martine gurgled, a short gasp of air and blood. The sharp metal point of the arrow glistened and dripped red beneath his head. He turned, almost stumbling, to see Elysa behind him, her bow already nocked with another arrow and firing.

“Elysa,” he tried to say, although his vocal cords were still not quite working. Even as he disintegrated the approaching arrow and sent a shockwave knocking Elysa hard against the stone wall, he wanted her to know he still loved her. She crumpled down to the floor. Asheron leapt by Martine to come to her side, but Martine grabbed him as he passed and flung him to the ground.

Martine held Asheron there in the same bonds he had held his bride with, as he took the arrow and passed it through his throat, healing the ripping and tearing as it occurred. A few dry gasps, and he was ready.

“How does it feel, little Empyrean, to be in the presence of a superior. For so long you have hid behind your powers, your “benevolent” attitude toward the Isparians hiding the contempt that you, that every one of you, feel toward my former “lesser” race. Shake your head all you wish. We know the truth.

“But I promise you this, Asheron Realaidain. I will watch and protect these people better than you ever did. Yes, there will be pain. There will be sacrifice. Greatness requires it. But they will love me. I will love them. If you ever cared for any of the Isparians at all, let that be your final consolation.”

Martine's hand glowed with purple sparks as he raised it for the killing blow.

__________

Asheron looked up at Martine and prepared himself for one final strike. It was possible that Martine would focus all of his energies to kill him, leaving Asheron free to cast his own last spell. Asheron had little hope of killing Martine, but any blow might help. I am sorry, Elysa. I am sorry, Martine. I failed you, both.

Martine's blow did not fall. Asheron saw Martine's mask ripple, and the black holes of his eyes filled with a purplish glow.

“Please. It hurts very much to do this. He is fighting me very hard. He is not. . . happy.”

Though the speaker did not speak with the usual syntax of his race, Asheron recognized the high, metallic tones of the Virindi. Had the Virindi side of Martine finally broken through? And did that improve the situation? He struggled to speak, but the bonds continued to hold him in place.

“No. No time to release you. You must listen to me. I have died once already. It's important that you understand that. They had fused the human and my. . . self together. This had never been done before. But they did it, and the human killed me. Complete assimilation. There was no self. There was only Martine.”

Asheron had not realized the depths of the Virindi experiments upon Martine. He had had suspicions. . .

“But he brought me back. Do you see? I did not exist, and he recreated me. I am not Virindi. I am a part of him that he made into Virindi. Please understand. Even then, so long ago, he did not trust. He knows. He does not want to know, but he knows.”

The Virindi screamed.

“He is going to kill me again. He cannot stand betrayal. But I knew that you must not die now. Martine knows. Please. I. . . I am losing hold. My death did not hurt this much the first time. Leave. Take the woman and leave now. Remember that Martine understands! Leave!”

Asheron was free once more. He spared one final glance for Martine's body, wracked by pain and struggle, and heard the final, anguished screams of the tortured Virindi. He gathered up Elysa, unconscious but still breathing, and began to portal them both out of the chamber.

Martine looked up at their disappearing forms and screamed. Asheron felt Elysa's tower coming apart as Martine let loose with his destructive power. And then there was shadow and silence.

It was time to begin the final plan.

__________

Unlike any other gaming experience, the world of Asheron's Call continues to evolve. Join us, as we open our June Event, Castling. Be sure to continue your part in this incredible ongoing story, and we'll see you in Dereth!

Roll Out Article - From the Zone

June 13, 2002

Any comfort brought to the people by the victories against the Bronze Statues and their new weapons was shattered by the assault on their Queen and the destruction of her castle by the insane Martine. Just barely escaping the destruction with her and her son's lives, Queen Elysa begins taking steps, with the aid of Asheron, to truly make Dereth her people's homeland. The last Empyrean has been of great assistance of late to the people of Dereth and has some wondering if he can indeed be trusted as the Queen has always maintained. Martine's rage at having the Queen snatched from his grasp has not been satiated by the mere destruction of her castle, and he continues to formulate plans, breathing hate for Asheron.

Still reeling from this attack, the people were dealt another blow when mages were jolted awake in the dark of night, clutching their heads in pain. Throughout the ley lines of magical force deep in the planet, a vast fluctuation was felt. Reports trickled in that the magical Essences, those forces that aided the people in learning higher magics, were destroyed, and the rings where they stood smashed. To their dismay, the recovered mages discovered that their magics were not as powerful as they had once been. They were able, though, to take some solace in the fact that this fluctuation caused their magics to last much longer than they had previously.

Realizing what a blow this was to the Isparians, Asheron shared knowledge on how to create magical foci with the Arcanum. These bulky packs contained the essence of the magical schools known to the Isparians. With these in hand, along with Prismatic Tapers and Scarabs, Isparians could cast their spells without the other components they had used since their arrival on Dereth. Asheron also shared a means to record scrolls so that all those skilled in the various schools could understand them, not just lore scholars. Scriveners quickly set up shop in the various towns selling scrolls for purchase.

Amidst these events, the exploration of Dereth continues. Rumors return of an ancient Empyrean construct unlike any seen before, containing artifacts of an unknown purpose. Parties have begun gathering to find this construct and pull what secrets they can from it.

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:

• More Cottages and Villas can be found for purchase.
• Find your Fellowship leader more easily.
• New magic foci can be used in place of traditional spell components.
• Tedious magical research has been removed and replaced by easily-read scrolls.
• More things to make your home uniquely you!

Be sure to check the Developer's Notes for June to learn more details of the Castling event. Join us as we continue the ongoing saga of Asheron's Call, and we'll see you in Dereth!

Developer's Notes - From the Zone 

June 13, 2002 

Here are just some of the additions made in the June 13 game update, Castling. 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, Castling.  

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

• 150 Cottages and 50 Villas have been added to the game.
• See our earlier letter to the players for all the details about our changes to the magic system.
• There is now a separate panel for negative magical enchantments (the original enchantment panel now lists only positive magical enchantments). Both panels are in the far right upper corner.
• @allegiance info is a new monarch-only command. Typing @allegiance info <charactername> (for a character in that monarch's allegiance) will display the following: the full name and title of the character, the full name and title of the character's patron, and the full name and title of each of the character's vassals. This command can only be used once every 30 seconds.
• The number of allegiance broadcasts the allegiance speaker can make per day has been raised from 3 to 10. In addition, monarchs may now assign speaker status to someone even if they are not currently online.
• The leader of a Fellowship now shows up as a triangle dot on radar.
• You can now use the @filter command to filter out recall messages. See @help filter for more details.

Miscellaneous Improvements and Changes

• All vendors now accept all trade notes.
• Pyreals now stack to a maximum of 10,000. In July we will introduce three additional trade notes into the game.
• Mansions now have 100 hooks in them, all of them usable.
• Neutral Balm's burden has been reduced from 135 to 65 and is now available in more vendor locations.
• The Select Self key now works to have a targeted action actually work on oneself. For example, a player can use a healing kit and then the Select Self key to heal oneself.
• You now have a number of UI panels and character options that you can bind to a keyboard map.
• A new mana stone, the Superb Mana Stone, can be found at some mage vendors. In addition, many more mage vendors now carry High and Great Mana Stones.
• All Bronze trophy items are now givable and droppable again.
• New characters who start with a magic school will start with the correct focus, 5 Lead Scarabs, and 25 Prismatic Tapers. New characters who start with additional magic schools will receive additional foci, but not additional scarabs or tapers.
• The time it takes to read and learn a spell from a scroll has been reduced to roughly one second.
• When a character attempts to use a mana stone to drain mana from an item, there will now be a confirmation check even if the item does not contain any mana.
• Isparian Bows, Crossbows, and Atlatls are now unenchantable.
• The Isparian Modifying Tool is now unbreakable. The stones, however, will break each time you put them in an Isparian weapon.
• The Arcane Lore difficulty on Gorgets with Nuhmudira's Boon has been altered. The new difficulty levels are Red (High) = 180, Blue (Mid) = 150, and Green (Low) = 120.
• Isparian Daggers now have the correct damage range. Perfect Isparian Daggers have a maximum damage of 8, Superb 7, Good 6, and Quality 5.
• You now get 3 Wood, Copper, or Obsidian Keys when you successfully carve Wood, Copper, or Obsidian Hearts.
• We made a few changes to the Tenkkardun Foundry to reduce the viability of combat macroing in that location.
• Last month we introduced a bug which prevented users from playing if they were using a machine running Win95a. This should be fixed now.
• We believe we have fixed the bug where, occasionally, a character logging into the world would find that their items had lost all mana. This was a difficult bug to reproduce, and we would appreciate any reports if players experience this bug in the future.
• There was a bug with the Fellowship panel last month that kept it from updating properly. This should be fixed now.
• The bug where a character quits a fellowship and the character keeps attempting to assess a person in the fellowship has been fixed.
• We fixed a bug where the cursor appeared as an hourglass on the Fellowship panel before a player actually created the fellowship.
• There were a few bugs with the XP-sharing code for certain fellowships involving players over level 50. These have been fixed.
• There was a bug where you could exploit a vendor by selling healing kits with less than full uses, then buying them back cheaply at full uses. This has been fixed.
• For Creature Mastery scrolls, you will need to ID and read the description to determine if it's a Self or Other scroll. Self and Other do not appear in the title of the scroll. This will be fixed in July.

Minor Details

• The Invoker now displays the correct inscription.
• The portal to the Arcanum Research Facility now has a level restriction prohibiting those characters under level 20.
• Ciandra decided to reverse her impromptu sex-change operation, and now looks like a woman.
• When using a mana stone on yourself, you will receive a message letting you know when all your items are full.
• All non-used hooks now become visible whenever a house is abandoned.
• Players can no longer open the doors to the inside of the statues from the outside, unless they use the correct key.
• Statue Portal dungeons are now no-recall, no-tie, and no-summon.
• The Isparian Dagger model has been changed.
• The experience point total for a few statue creatures has been reduced.

Letter to the Players - From the Zone

June 14, 2002

Why Now?
Castling, our June Event, marks what may be the most significant change ever made in the history of Asheron's Call--the complete revamping of how players learn and cast magical spells in Dereth. We did not approach this change lightly; indeed, it was the subject of many intense conversations! Those hours of discussion and argument ensured that the changes we finally agreed upon all served our goal: to make Asheron's Call as fun and compelling for as wide an audience as possible.

Many people have asked us, “Why now?” After two and a half years of relatively few game system changes, why would Turbine and Microsoft embark upon a path of such major changes? Our determination to make these changes ultimately has to do with our desire to see Asheron's Call thrive for a long time to come. Each major change that we make comes from our strong belief that the specific change will enhance the fun of the game for the vast majority of our players.

We could have decided to play it safe and make only a few changes, to introduce small amounts of content designed to placate our existing subscriber base until the ship of Asheron's Call 2, to allow (and so encourage) AC to pass away in time for AC2.

Obviously, we chose a different path. And we're not stopping with this month's magic changes! Next month, in addition to the first stage of the Tinkering system, we will be making significant changes to the Transfer spell system. Transfer spells, such as Drain Health, will be altered substantially in July. (Look for more details to be posted before the July Event). And in the following months, look for continued tweaks to melee weapons, including addressing the Triple-Strike Dagger issue.

Yes, we know that change can be scary and sometimes painful in the short-term, but we also know that change is necessary for long-term growth and happiness. We are striving to make sure that any time we make major changes that reduce an ability of a given class or skill, we also offer new benefits to that class or skill.

So why didn't we make some of these changes a year ago? Although it was easy to see, in some cases, that things were not working as well as they should, it was more difficult to come up with solutions that we and the players would be happy with. Over the past eight months, we developed a strong vision and consensus on what problems needed to be addressed and how to address them. You are seeing the fruits of those efforts now.

We're excited about the world that Asheron's Call is coming to represent, and we hope you are, too.

Long live Asheron's Call!

Housing
This month we're releasing another 150 Cottages and 50 Villas. While we are not releasing any Residential Quarters at this time, we are planning to release 500 RQs in July (in addition to more Cottages, Villas, and even new Mansions!). We're putting out 500 RQs instead of 1,000 so that we can better monitor the impact of the RQs on the servers in July. Depending on the data, we will decide how many more RQs will be released in the upcoming months

We also implemented 100 total hooks for Mansions this month, each one of them usable by the monarch owner. There are no plans to revisit hooks for any of the landscape dwellings at this time.

As for future housing improvements, the server performance issues related to RQs a few months ago have caused us to shelve our plans for incremental storage, at least temporarily. Once we are assured that the worlds can support enough housing for all our players, we may revisit the idea of allowing players to purchase increased storage for their landscape dwelling.

However, we are still planning to implement the ability for characters to “use” items on hooks, which would allow a number of neat features, such as the ability to place permanent “portals” in one's home. Look for the start of this feature in the next several months.

Miscellaneous Changes

• We're always happy when we can implement new allegiance and fellowship improvements. We hope the @allegiance info tool and the increased uses of the allegiance broadcasts help monarchs manage their allegiances more productively. We're also pleased with the new triangle radar shape for fellowship leaders. After being frustrated for a long time by the inability of a large group to easily follow a leader on the landscape, we hit upon this simple yet effective solution. We hope you enjoy it.
• We fixed a number of longstanding and irritating bugs this month. Two of the biggest were the “vendors not buying back their own trade notes” and “characters logging back into the world and occasionally discovering that all their items had lost all their mana” problems. Our solution to the vendor issue was to make all vendors able to purchase all trade notes, regardless of what trade notes they sell. As we mentioned in the Dev Notes, the “items losing mana” issue was extremely difficult to track down and reproduce, so please report any instances if you see it happen again.
• Money, money, money. After analyzing the current state of the pyreal economy and factoring in new changes such as the updated magic system, we decided to increase the stack size of the pyreal to 10,000. We think this change will help improve the liquidity of the pyreal, especially at such a time when the pyreal may have its greatest value.
• Superb Mana Stones. One change we wanted to make sure to introduce whenever we implemented the new, extended buff times was a new, high-mana mana stone. The Superb Mana Stone has a reservoir of 2,000 mana, and can be found at many mage shops throughout Dereth.

Hot Topics

• @filter recall command. While we knew that some players would eventually learn to ignore the spammy text messages from the numerous recall options available today, we wanted to give players stronger relief from the incessant barrage should they desire. (As one of our grandfathers always says, “Back in my day, we didn't have all this newfangled `recallin'' all over the dang place. We had to walk back to Serac Vault, in the snow, uphill. Both ways!”)
• Bronze weapons. We apologize for not telling people in advance about the sudden change to the Bronze trophies making them no-give. This had been planned as a one-month-only change, and we are glad to change them back to their natural state this month.
• Hollow Weapons/Racial Weapons. For July, we will be making some minor tweaks to unarmed weapons, staves, and hollows (including some of the racial weapons). While the racial weapons still will not have the effectiveness of their non-racial counterparts, or of the current Triple-Strike Dagger, they will receive some bonuses. It remains true that the four non-racial weapons, sword, axe, mace, and spear, should be considered the “better” class of weapons in the game. However, we do recognize that the current state of non-dagger racials needs some improvement, and we hope to implement that in July.
• Fast-casting exploits. We're working hard to get a fix for this in either July or August.

Next Month and Beyond
As we mentioned above, next month will see the advent of the first stage of Tinkering, as well as changes to Drain and other Transfer spells.

While we have mentioned more Treasure system changes (affecting both armor and weapons) for the last two months, we unfortunately have had to postpone these changes due to our focusing on the Magic and Tinkering systems. We really think July will see at least some of these changes; August for sure!

And while it will be hard for us to rival the suspense and excitement building in our current storyline, we will discuss two top-secret issues in our next Letter to the Players. People have suspected one of the issues for a long time, but the other is something that almost no one ever knew?

See you next month!

--The AC Team
 

Transfer Spells - From the Zone

June 19, 2002

What are Transfer Spells?
Transfer spells include the Drains (Drain Health, Drain Mana, Drain Stamina); Self Transfers (Stamina to Mana, Stamina to Health, Mana to Health, Mana to Stamina, Health to Mana, Health to Stamina); and Remote Transfers (Infuse Health, Infuse Stamina, Infuse Mana). They do not include such spells as Harm (with the exception of one important point which will be highlighted below).

What are changing with the Transfer Spells?

• The range on Drains and Harm, Mana Drain, and Enfeeble will be changed to the following table. In the new system, range increases with each higher level of Drain or Harm, with a range of 5 meters at Level 1, capping at 20 meters at Level 7:

• The percentage you drain from the creature/player, and what you receive from that drain has been changed to the following table. This only affects Drain spells, not Self-Transfer spells. In the new system, the amount drained no longer remains constant at 25%, but rather increases up to a cap of 50% at Level 7 Drain. And the amount received now reflects exactly what was drained. The maximum cap of 100 points drained or received remains in place.

• A character can now no longer drain or transfer vitals more than the amount that character is deficient in. For example, if you are at full health, you will not be able to Drain Health at all, nor use Stamina to Health or Mana to Health. If you are down 50 health, and you would have normally been able to drain a monster for 100 health, you will instead only gain 50 health (and the monster will only have lost 50 health).
• There will be a new Life spell, levels 1-7 (name to be determined). This Life spell acts like a projectile War spell, and it takes off a certain percentage of the Life caster's hit points, and redirects that damage total at a creature/player. The table currently looks like this (this information is subject to change):

Developer's Chat - From the Zone

June 20, 2002

mrquazarr_MS says: Welcome everyone to another edition of the Asheron's Call 1 Developer's Chat.
mrquazarr_MS says: My name is still Ken Karl, Program Manager at Microsoft for Asheron's Call
mrquazarr_MS says: With me as always is Ken Troop, Producer at Turbine who will introduce the whole gang (who I have the privilage of sitting with live
this time)

kentroop_turbine says: Greetings everyone. With us tonight are Kim, Les,
Allan, Sean D., Sean H., Brandon, Sandra and Todd

mrquazarr_MS says: Great... Lets get on with the first question of the
evening

Raide_Duku in AsheronsCall asks: Will the Grivver Nest dungeon expand next month?
Spd_turbine says: Well, there does seem to be a deeper cave in the dungeon. You will just have to wait and see...

Alua in AsheronsCall asks: How's the progress on Tinkering coming along? Is it going to be ready for next patch?
kentroop_turbine says: Tinkering is coming along nicely. Early next week
there should be a detailed letter put up on the Zone describing the system.
kentroop_turbine says: We expect that at least part of the functionality
will be in for July, if not everything. Also, the skill/xp credit for
assess skills will definitely be in for July.

Astroth1 in AsheronsCall asks: Hi, in the next patch, you have given a hint
about fixing dagger to be more fair to the game. Is that change indeed
nerfing triple strike?
kentroop_turbine says: Here are our long term plans for weapons, including
dagger.
kentroop_turbine says: Please keep in mind that these new systems are still being designed, and are subject to change, perhaps drastic change.
kentroop_turbine says: Our ultimate goal for tinkering is to allow players
to "imbue" random loot melee weapons with various special dynamics.
kentroop_turbine says: For example, I could try to make any loot generated
mace I found, a double-striking mace.
kentroop_turbine says: Now, each time I attempt to imbue a weapon, I risk
destroying it.
kentroop_turbine says: And I can only imbue a weapon once, I can't
"double-imbue" a weapon.
kentroop_turbine says: The exact list of "imbue" characteristics is still to
be determined
kentroop_turbine says: But such dynamics as double-strike, perhaps
triple-strike, a weapon that randomly casts a certain spell, etc. are all
being considered.
kentroop_turbine says: One important thing about these new imbued weapons, is that their effect will never work 100% of the time
kentroop_turbine says: So that even if you did have a triple-strike spear,
for example, the number of times you successfully triple-striked would
depend on the type of weapon, and your skill level.
kentroop_turbine says: If and when we do implement this new dynamic, our
thought right now is to remove all hilts from the game.
kentroop_turbine says: So that all weapons follow this new dynamic.
kentroop_turbine says: Until we introduce this feature, however,
double-strike swords, and double and triple-strike daggers will not be
changed at all.

bytor13 in AsheronsCall asks: Is anything going to be done about the
Kailndan? It is the hardest quest weapon in the game to get, and almost
unusable.
Orion_Turbine says: There are a host of quest weapons from the past that we are looking into enhancing. This process will take time.

Jff_1 in AsheronsCall asks: Will the war spell economy be put back in?
kentroop_turbine says: Our primary reason for taking the economy out was,
with the duration changes, the vastly superior nature of creature/life buffs
vs. arcane lore buffs.
kentroop_turbine says: With that in mind, we are working on implementing a
system for putting a new "skill-based" bonus for War spells only.
kentroop_turbine says: This would be exactly like the system we had
originally conceived of, detailed in the dev chat two months ago, but again,
for War spells only.
kentroop_turbine says: The exact details are still tbd...but you should
expect this change in August.

EvilMavi in AsheronsCall asks: Will Prismatic Taper Peas ever exist? If not,
is there any chance that perhaps you could make Prismatic Tapers a part of
monster loot so they drop like other components?
kentroop_turbine says: We are looking into increasing the stack size for the
prismatic tapers to 500 or more. At this time, we have no immediate plans
for prismatic taper peas to be sold. At some later point, we may introduce
prismatic tapers dropping off of creatures.
kentroop_turbine says: The stack size change is occurring in July.

drobb68 in AsheronsCall asks: If/when can we expect more storage/hooks to become available for RQ's, Villas, Cottages, Etc.
kentroop_turbine says: Not anytime soon, if ever.
kentroop_turbine says: While we have been very excited in the past to
implement features that give players more storage options...
kentroop_turbine says: right now our primary concern is server stability,
which increased storage for characters could jeopardize.
kentroop_turbine says: So, we will be rolling out RQs slowly....and if we
feel like everyone who wants a house type has one, and the servers are still
performing well, then we will look into increased storage options.
kentroop_turbine says: There are no current plans for any additional hooks
for any type of dwelling.

Robbie1986 in AsheronsCall asks: Are you guys going to fix fastcasting?
kentroop_turbine says: We're working hard on fixing this. Right now our
best estimate is August. It is a difficult fix to do right, and we want to
minimize the potential of us having to revisit the change.

crazy_town420 in AsheronsCall asks: If/when hilts are removed from the game, would the players lose the swords/daggers they hilted?
kentroop_turbine says: No.
kentroop_turbine says: There are still a number of things we have to
determine about how we roll out this system.
kentroop_turbine says: But players would not lose these weapons. At worst,
they would just become unhilted.
kentroop_turbine says: Just a general point.
kentroop_turbine says: Every change that we've made over these last 6
months: from deadly arrows and new weapons, to the endurance changes, and to the magic and now drain changes ----- all of it has been done because we feel strongly that these changes make the game of AC bette
kentroop_turbine says: better. More fun and more compelling.
kentroop_turbine says: Yes, we know that some of these changes hurt
established playstyles and characters. Sometimes very harshly. But we have not taken any of these changes lightly. And each time we undertake to
"balance" a system, we try very hard to introduce new and...
kentroop_turbine says: exciting dynamics to the system being changed.
kentroop_turbine says: Ultimately, our main focus and purpose...the reason
why we are paid...is to make AC a better game.

Paradox27 in AsheronsCall asks: Will we ever have the functonality to
multi-selecti tems, or select items by type? This will reduce selling time
in towns.
kentroop_turbine says: While we would love to do it, it is a very difficult
task given our UI code. So unfortunately, no.
Ganondorf99 in AsheronsCall asks: Will Arwic ever be rebuilt?
Orion_Turbine says: You never know what the Queen will do. She may well be having those masons in the Arcanum thinking about rebuilding Arwic at this moment. But like all things they take time.

Shiloh_MS in AsheronsCall asks: whats the reasoning behind the drain
changes, don't you think it's a bit late in the game life ?
kentroop_turbine says: Primarily it was because Drain Health 1 should have
been fixed a long time ago, and we finally decided to do it.
kentroop_turbine says: Also, while we were at it, we also wanted to
partially address some pvp and macro issues, although we don't think our
changes are a solution to either of those issues (macroing or balanced pvp)
kentroop_turbine says: People should keep in mind that our end goal is to
have a system that is fun and works
kentroop_turbine has left the conversation.
kentroop_turbine has joined the conversation.
kentroop_turbine says: People should keep in mind that our end goal is to
make a system that is fun and that works...and that we've shown that we're
willing to continue to tweak the system if our changes require it.
kentroop_turbine says: Finally, one last note on the changes in general.
kentroop_turbine says: If AC were to continue to stay the same, and never
change, it ultimately would die.
kentroop_turbine says: We agree that unrestrained "nerfing" is a horrible
idea. But we aren't doing that. We're attempting to create new systems and
new forms of play, that hopefully will allow AC to continue as a fun game
for far longer than it would otherwise.
kentroop_turbine says: Of course, we continue to welcome feedback, whether positive or negative, to ensure we're staying on that course.

AC_Tandy_HG in AsheronsCall asks: Will the attributes that tinkering skills
will be based on be the same as the current appraisal skills? If not, what
attributes will they be based on?
kentroop_turbine says: For Magic Item tinkering it's just Focus.
kentroop_turbine says: For Weapon Tinkering its focus + strength /2
kentroop_turbine says: For Armor Tinkering it's Focus + Endurance /2
kentroop_turbine says: For Item Tinkering it's Focus + Coordination /2
kentroop_turbine says: (For all of those it was (att. + att) /2

RolandoMartinez in AsheronsCall asks: Currently PvP has been nearly
impossible, and far more frustrating and annoying than it is worth. The game
has been nerfed over and over till we are at the point where no one can kill
anyone else. Do you plan to fix this or are you content to let PvP die?
kentroop_turbine says: We think that with the return of the war economy, and two other changes, the pvp dynamic will allow for easier deaths....
kentroop_turbine says: These 2 changes are:
Payson_Turbine has left the conversation.
kentroop_turbine says: 1) increased hollow weapon damage, for all hollow
weapons (and new hollow arrows) and new "armor-hollow" weapons and arrows (that will not be nearly as good as war spells, but still have some impact))
kentroop_turbine says: 2) We will be looking at adding a logout timer for
pkers...as well as making sure that all "recall" opportunities take a
significant amount of time.
Payson_Turbine has joined the conversation.
kentroop_turbine says: we're planning on introducing this in August.

Angel_Uriel in AsheronsCall asks: Will there be more color dye's for the Neo
GSX???
kentroop_turbine says: No, there are no plans for new dyes for the neo gsx.

SpongerX in AsheronsCall asks: Will banes ever be made less powerful? I
believe that melee users are not doing near enough damage in PVP with level 7 imperil/vuln as they should
kentroop_turbine says: We're thinking about changes to banes. Right now,
the primary thought is to limit banes to 2.0 effectiveness. Once we decide,
we will let the players know before we introduce it in an Event.

LifeguardAC in AsheronsCall asks: Will creatures follow the same rules
regarding the new drain spells as players?
kentroop_turbine says: Yes, although for right now, no creature will have
the ability to cast the new life bolt spell. Also, keep in mind the new
lifebolt spells have no prot/vuln, although they are resisted by Drain
Resistance.

DarthDakhanavar in AsheronsCall asks: Will you balance out the "tinkering"
of weapons with the skill credit cost? For example Will Unarmeds Triple
strike(6 skill credits) Be more powerful than swords(16 credits)?
kentroop_turbine says: Yes, our primary goal is that the higher the skill
cost of a weapon, the more effective it is. That goal has not changed.

Strike_Line0 in AsheronsCall asks: I noticed a wierd building in the water
SE of Aerlinthe Island, there doesn't appear to be any way up or portals
near by, Whats the deal with this place?
Orion_Turbine says: My favorite thing about working on Asheron's Call is
that we get to tell an Epic story. The appearance of this Citadel is
grounded in stories that have been part of Asheron's Call for some time now.
Orion_Turbine says: The ultimate purpose of that place will become more
apparent as this storyline unfolds.

Caarth1 in AsheronsCall asks: Is there going to be new ways to get writs,
soon?
Orion_Turbine says: Yes.

cb377 in AsheronsCall asks: Will tinkered items be no drop and/or no give?
kentroop_turbine says: No, tinkered items will not be no-drop or no-give.
The tinkering skills are both for personal use and for trade.

FWH_Spinky in AsheronsCall asks: Now that you have determine the fact that the "Wi Flag" DOES exist, can you give us details as to why we've spent the last 18 mos. collecting thousands of deaths? I'd like to know exactly what made me the target of most monster's hostility.
kentroop_turbine says: Look for the details in our July Letter to the
Players, it's a juicy story...
kentroop_turbine says: Well, at least if you're a geeky coder, it's juicy
kentroop_turbine says: But all the same, we'll reveal all the sordid details
in the letter.

mrquazarr_MS says: And now its time to end our chat with our Trademarked
"Totally Irrelevant Question on the Night"...
valkyrie509 in AsheronsCall asks: Are you the muffin man?
Orion_Turbine says: The muffin man?
les_turbine says: The Muffin man?
mrquazarr_MS says: the muffin man
kentroop_turbine has left the conversation.
Payson_Turbine says: Who lives on Drury Lane?
les_turbine says: Yes, I know the Muffin man!
Spd_turbine says: The Muffin Man?
Payson_Turbine says: Pop Goes the Weasel!
les_turbine says: The Muffin man!
Sean_Turbine says: She's married to the muffin man...
mrquazarr_MS says: I am the Muffin Man
Orion_Turbine says: Pop goes the weasal, cause the weasal goes Pop!
Sean_Turbine says: Doctor Who Roolz!
Spd_turbine says: Yeah
les_turbine says: Yo, da Weaz know de Muffin Mna
Orion_Turbine says: Good Night all!
mrquazarr_MS says: Night
Spd_turbine says: Goodnight
Orion_Turbine has left the conversation.
Sean_Turbine says: Nighty-Night!
les_turbine says: Good night
Payson_Turbine says: Night all
Payson_Turbine has left the conversation.
Spd_turbine has left the conversation.
mrquazarr_MS has left the conversation.
Azeraphel_Turbine has left the conversation.

Letter to the Players - Tinkering - From the Zone 

June 25, 2002

If there is one constant that defines all massive multiplayer online games it is change. We feel this is especially true of Asheron's Call. In the past few months we've revised the treasure system--and we aren't done yet! We've simplified how magic works, and provided a thrilling story arc whose effects will resonate far into the future. Now we are on the cusp of adding the new Tinkering system to the game, along with entirely new Tinkering skills. All of us are extremely excited about this system and feel that it is going to introduce fascinating new dynamics for all Asheron's Call players. The thrust of this letter is to convey to you the whys, hows and whats of this new system.

What's This About a Skill Credit Refund?
In July, the old Appraisal skills will be completely removed from the game. They will not be available for new characters to train. However, the Tinkering skills will be available for them. Existing characters that had either trained or specialized an Appraisal will be refunded the skill point cost for those skills. The exceptions to this are Gharu'ndim characters. Instead of being refunded the skill point cost of their default racial skill, Item Appraisal, they will be trained in Item Tinkering, their new default racial skill.

Any experience that was spent in the Appraisal skills will be completely refunded to the character. This includes any experience a Gharun'dim character may have spent in Item Appraisal. If any skill tesseras were spent to increase the character's Appraisal skills, the experience equivalent to purchasing that point of skill will be refunded to that character. This does not, however, reset the quest flag for those tessera. In addition, the experience represented by the +5 skill points for training (+10 skill points for specializing) an Appraisal that was given to a character at creation will not be returned to the character.

The following tables explain the refund of skill credits in detail:

Table 2: Skill Credit Refund for Characters with Appraisal Skills Specialized*

* -- Note that all experience spent on these skills is refunded to the character, no matter their race.

The New Tinkering Skills
With the Appraisal skills gone, what do the new skills look like? The following charts explain the new Tinkering skills as compared to the old Appraisal skills:

Table 3: Item Tinkering

Table 4: Armor Tinkering

Table 5: Weapon Tinkering

Table 6: Magic Item Tinkering

Note that these new skills cannot be specialized. This is because existing characters are unable to specialize skills after their creation. Allowing new characters to specialize these skills would give them an unfair advantage over existing characters. With no one able to specialize Tinkering skills, a level playing field is created for all characters, new or existing.

What can these new skills do? As was mentioned above, only Item, Armor and Weapon Tinkering currently have defined enhancing effects. The list provided below is only the effects that will be seen in July. More effects can and will be added in the coming months. The effects provided by Magic Item Tinkering, once available, will entail giving items unique abilities they do not currently have.

Table 7: Item Tinkering Effects

Table 8: Armor Tinkering Effects

Table 9: Weapon Tinkering Effects

Trust Quality Workmanship
Before detailing the process of Tinkering, it is necessary to explain the workmanship of treasure-generated items. While workmanship has always been an element of treasure items, it hasn't been important enough for the players to take notice of. Workmanship is now a fundamental part of Tinkering and acts as a modifier in Tinkering operations, reducing the difficulty of these operations. The table provided explains the different levels of workmanship, from lowest to highest.

Table 10: Workmanship of Treasure Generated Items

So I Have the Skill. . . Now What?
Tinkering actually involves two steps. The first step is salvaging certain materials--like steel or alabaster--from items generated by the treasure system. These salvaged materials are collected until you have a certain quantity and are then used to enhance the abilities of another item.

While all material types found in the game are salvageable, only a handful of materials currently have defined enhancing effects. More effects will be assigned to materials in the coming months. In addition, players won't see the effects provided by Magic Item Tinkering in July, but we hope they will be available in August.

Example: Keryth's patron Tarka gives her a quantity of Salvaged Wool. The item is described as “Salvaged Wool (75)”in her inventory. Examining it reveals that Armor Tinkering uses this material and that it increases armor's cold resistance. It also reveals that the average workmanship of the material is 4. Her patron also gives her “Salvaged Ivory (15)”. Examining this reveals that this item has no apparent use (no Tinkering skill uses it).

How Do I Salvage?
The Tinkering skills--like the Appraisals--can be used without being trained, so any character can salvage. Trained characters though will have the advantage of being able to salvage more material and value from an item than untrained characters.

For a character to start their career in salvaging, they will need to purchase an Ust. Ust is an ancient Empyrean word meaning “That Which Reduces” and is a fundamental part of the salvaging process. An Ust will be easy for players to find, as vendors in the major cities will be selling them at a low cost.

Once the Ust is in the character's inventory, double-clicking on it will bring up the Salvage panel. Items of similar material types can be dragged into the panel, and once the player has all the items they want to salvage in the panel, they can click the Salvage button. The character then receives a portion of the material salvaged from the original items. The amount of material returned is based upon the workmanship of the items put in and the character's highest Tinkering skill.

Example: After defeating a pack of Banderling Maulers, Keryth picks up a Flawless Gold Hammer, an Utterly Flawless Pyreal Tungi, and a set of Exquisitely Crafted Gold Bracers. None of these items are really worth hanging on to, so she decides to salvage materials from them.

She places all three of the items in the Ust, but the Ust won't let her salvage them because they are different materials. Noticing her mistake, she places the Gold Hammer and the set of Gold Bracers in the Ust. The Ust reduces the items into “Salvaged Gold (10)”. Examining the gold reveals that it is of an average workmanship of 6. Placing the Pyreal Tungi in the Ust by itself creates “Salvaged Pyreal (3)”in her inventory. Examining the pyreal will show an average workmanship of 8.

Later on Keryth comes across a Well-Crafted Pyreal Yumi. She places the salvaged pyreal she created earlier and the Yumi into the Salvage panel. The Yumi and the previously salvaged pyreal are combined into “Salvaged Pyreal (4)”. Examining the pyreal now reveals that the average workmanship is 5.

The salvaged materials also retain a portion of the value of the items used in their creation, but retain almost none of the burden of those items. These salvaged materials can then be sold to almost any vendor, if the player has no interest in using them in later Tinkering processes.

Example: The combined value of the Gold Hammer and the set of Gold Bracers used by Keryth to create her salvaged gold was 8,360 pyreals and their combined weight was 875 bu. The salvaged gold is worth 842 pyreals and weighs 100 bu.

As each item is added, its workmanship will affect the value and average workmanship of the entire stack. Combining shoddy items with a stack of higher workmanship material will reduce the workmanship of the stack as a whole. Items can continue to be added to a stack until the stack reaches 100 units of material. At that point no more material can be added to the stack and the player should start a new stack. Also, smaller stacks of material can be combined into larger ones. When combining smaller stacks of material, the skill of the salvager does not affect the quantity or value of the material in the resulting combined stack. Players should be aware that if the total material in the smaller stacks is over 100, the excess materials are lost.

Example: Keryth has two stacks of salvaged gold in her inventory. One stack is “Salvaged Gold (40),”which has an average workmanship of 8 and a value of 4,323 pyreals. The other stack is “Salvaged Gold (65)”with an average workmanship of 9 and a value of 6,468 pyreals.

When she combines these stacks in her Ust, she receives “Salvaged Gold (100)”. Examining the combined stack of gold shows that its average workmanship is 8 and it is worth 10,278 pyreals. The 5 excess units were lost.

How Do I Enhance?
Once there are 100 units in a stack of salvaged materials, the material is ready to be used to enhance an item. While all characters can salvage, only characters with trained Tinkering skills can attempt to enhance an item. In addition, since each material is specific to the Tinkering skill that uses it, only characters trained in the right skill can use that material.

Enhancing an item is the most dangerous step in Tinkering as there is a risk of destroying the item if the Tinkering fails. Additionally, whether the enhancement was a success or a failure, the salvaged material is always consumed in the process.

There are a variety of factors that affect how difficult it is to enhance an item. Some factors make the application easier, while others make it more difficult. The workmanship of the item being enhanced increases the difficulty, as a higher workmanship item is harder to enhance than a lower one. Also some enhancements are harder than others, making the enhancement harder. Finally, the number of times the item has been tinkered increases the difficulty. Making the process easier is the average workmanship quality of the salvaged materials; higher workmanship materials are easier to work with than shoddy materials. Of course, the higher the skill of the Tinker the better chance they have of successfully applying the enhancement.

Example: After her hunts, Keryth comes back with quite a few salvaged materials. The items used to create some of her salvaged materials weren't of the best workmanship and aren't complete stacks, so she decides to sell them. However she did come back with “Salvaged Gold (100)”with an average workmanship of “Flawless”. Since she's trained in Item Tinkering, she decides to risk using the gold to enhance the value of a favorite keepsake.

The item she selects is an Exquisitely Crafted Alabaster Orb. Crossing her fingers, she applies the salvaged gold to the Orb. Unfortunately she fails and the Orb is destroyed. She also loses the gold, but she knew that was going to happen, no matter whether she succeeded or failed.

Back at the allegiance mansion her patron surprises her and gives her “Salvaged Mahogany (100)”with an average workmanship of “Incomparable”. When she examines it she sees that the Mahogany is used in Weapon Tinkering and can increase the damage modifier for her bow. Since she's not trained in Weapon Tinkering and knows this is a difficult enhancement, she seeks out the allegiance Weapon Tinker. Fortunately Jill of All Trades is there and offers to apply the Mahogany to her bow. As Keryth holds her breath, Jill applies the material to the bow. Fortunately Jill is successful and Keryth is thrilled to see that 4% has been added to the damage modifier of her bow.

Remember, no matter the success or failure of the Tinker, the salvaged material is always consumed in the enhancing process.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
We hope that now it's obvious why we are so excited about this new system. In our own discussions we came up with a number of uses for Tinkering and we are confident that it will add a whole new level of enjoyment for Asheron's Call players. We are also confident that the community will come up with some fairly ingenious uses for Tinkering as well.

So be prepared, come July the possibilities will be almost endless!