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| Aluvians | Event Teaser - From the Microsoft Insider AC Site October, 2002 "Wilomine, another ale!" Caebyrn bellowed as he leaned over the bar. "Patience, patience," Wilomine replied from the back of the tavern. "It's coming." "Telling the tale of how I beat Gaerlan is tiring work!" Caebyrn bellowed back, then turned back to face the crowded bar. "Now, where was I?" "Something about riddles," said a voice from one of the tables. "Right, right, the Tribunal. So, the Tribunal posed a riddle to each of us. Of course, I had no problems." A voice in the back of the room snickered, "Only because someone gave you the answer." "You know Earnbil, if I were another man, I might have to take you to task for that comment," Caebyrn paused to reach around and pick up the pint of ale Wilomine had placed on the bar behind him. "Anyway, after I answered the Tribunal's riddle, it transported me into this long hallway. At the end there was this barred door; couldn't see any way through other than beating on it with my axe." Caebyrn paused again and took a sip of his ale. "Then I heard the rumbling. I turned around and this huge ball of fire was rolling toward me. I just barely dodged it in time, only to see another roll out of the alcove next me. It was pretty close there." "After a few of us beat on that door for a bit, it finally caved in and we made it through the other trials in the Citadel. We found that item that Asheron wanted. I gave it to him and then he sent us off to face Gaerlan." "What's he like?" came a voice. "Gaerlan?" Caebyrn took another drink of his ale. "He's a dolt." "No, no. Asheron," came the same voice. "Oh him. Seems like a nice fellow. I invited him by for an ale… Surprised he didn't show up," replied Caebyrn. "So, as I was saying, there we were, facing Gaerlan. He was muttering insults at us, swinging this huge flaming sword. People were falling down dead before him left and right. I barely dodged one of his swings." "And probably soiled your armor in the process," called out the voice in the back, accompanied by a few snickers. "Earnbil, if you don't shut that mouth of yours, I'll tell everyone about that time a Reedshark snuck up and bit your-" Caebyrn cut himself short. "Well there are ladies in the room." "So," Caebyrn said, looking back at the crowded tavern, "Gaerlan is swinging that sword, summoning creatures, casting spells. Just about everyone around me is cut down by him, when I finally land my axe on him and he starts to fall. Then, just before he hits the ground--and this is something I'll never forget--Nuhmudira appears." A few mutters of surprise were heard from the table, and Caebyrn continued, "Aye, I know! So Nuhmudira appears and suspends Gaerlan's body in the air. She goes on to say about how he tried to condemn her to an eternity of torment, or some such. Then she creates this filactrum… thallicum… phillatree…" "Phylactery?" came from a table near Caebyrn. With a snap of his fingers, Caebyrn continued, "That's it. So this phylactery grows up from the ground and Gaerlan's body disappears. I look into the thing and see Gaerlan floating around in it. I'll tell ya, he didn't look happy. Then when I touch the thing, a shield extrudes from its surface and I grab it." A low noise of disgust was heard from some in the room. "Aye, it was rather unnerving." He paused to take another drink of his ale. "But, I have to say, the shield is respectable. I carried it when I defeated the Harbinger-" The room erupted in laughter. "Psssh, if you don't believe me, that's fine." Caebyrn tilted back his head and finished his ale. "Queen Elysa's thanks was more than enough reward." Wilomine appeared behind Caebyrn and picked up the now-empty pint. "Ok, ok, Champion of Dereth, now that you've saved us all, what are you going to do?" "Me?" Caebyrn replied, "I'm going to the Festival Grounds!"
Roll Out Article - From the Microsoft Insider AC Site October 15, 2002 With Gaerlan defeated, the heroes of Dereth
now enjoy calm and reflect on the dramatic changes they have seen in the
last few months. Many are amazed when they think of the world as it was
before. Martine, who had caused so much trouble, has redeemed himself and is
now gone. Their Queen has stepped forward and taken a much more active role
in the affairs of her people, something she had not done for years. Even the
races formerly at odds have reached an accord unimaginable just a few months
before. In honor of this, the festival season promises to be especially notable. The various mask makers have kept their festival tradition and are providing new wares for everyone to enjoy. Many will find that they can use the needed respite to hone their crafting skills, taking advantage of the master crafters found outside of Glenden Woods. Yet the season is marred by new dangers, some found on the twisted landscape of the Obsidian Plains, while others are found much closer to home… Just a few of the changes made in October are noted below. To learn more of what is happening in Dereth, make sure you talk with town criers, barkeeps, and scribes! Highlights Include:
The Developer's Notes for October and the Letter to the Players contain even more details about the Festivus event. Join us as the saga of Asheron's Call continues, and we'll see you in Dereth! October Dev Notes - From the Microsoft Insider AC Site October 15, 2002 Thank you for your continued feedback and bug reports. They are a valuable tool in our pursuit of making the world of Dereth a stable and fun place to play. 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 Microsoft Insider AC Site October 11, 2002 First, thanks to all for the feedback we've been receiving on the boards at http://www.accmty.com and http://forums.turbinegames.com. It's been very helpful for us, and we appreciate the community's participation. Last month was quite exciting with the defeat of Gaerlan, and we received great feedback on this very unique quest. The month of October brings the traditional season of festivities to Dereth, and this year's will not disappoint! From new masks to new dungeons, this month has many exciting additions for you. Before I address some of the content and changes this month, please read this important notice regarding Skill Level Changes; it's fairly detailed to give you the complete rundown. This has been posted for some time now, but in case you didn't read it, we wanted to include it in the Letter to the Players. Skill Level Changes Some recent changes to our internal systems have resulted in two changes involving skill levels that will occur with the next update. This letter explains these changes in excruciating detail. First, we should give you some background. The level of a skill is made up of three different parts: the part that comes from your attributes, the part that comes from the experience points you have invested into the skill, and the "free" points that get added in on top of the other two parts. Note that the part from experience points includes both proficiency points earned by using the skill, character points that you spent on the skill, and some quest rewards (such as from turning in tessera). Also note that we have never previously used the third category, the "free" points. Specialization Bonus With this update, we are changing the nature of the bonus that you get when specializing a skill at character creation. This change will be retroactive-that is, it will apply to all existing characters with specialized skills as well as to new characters created after the update. Previously, when you specialized a skill at creation, you were awarded 671 free experience points into that skill. That experience gave you 10 levels' worth of skill, but it also increased the experience cost of the next skill level. After the update, you will not receive any free experience for a specialized skill, but you will instead receive 10 "free" levels of that skill. These levels are added onto the levels from your attributes and the levels from invested experience, and therefore do not affect the cost of your next skill level. Existing characters that have specialized skills will lose the 671 experience points (that they were given at creation) from that skill, but they will receive in exchange the same 10 "free" levels that new characters receive. Note that losing 671 experience points may drop your skill level one or more levels, so that you may not immediately be a full 10 levels higher in a specialized skill. Investing 671 more experience points into the skill, however, will make up this difference. Also note that this change only applies to specialized skills. There is no change to the nature of the bonus you get when training a skill at creation. Training a skill at creation will continue to give you 526 free experience points in that skill, which is enough experience to purchase the first 5 levels of your skill. Regarding Quest Skill Experience Rewards As mentioned above, quests that reward you skill points, like the tessera and the Scroll of Dark Rain, actually increase the level of invested experience in your skill. Because of a flaw in the experience system, it used to be possible to use the rewards from certain quests to raise the level of a specialized skill above the maximum normal level. That is, you could invest experience points in the skill until it was at its maximum level from experience, and then turn in tessera to raise the skill another 1-5 levels. If you tried to accomplish this same goal with a trained skill, however, you would still use up the tessera, but you would receive no lasting benefit. This behavior was never intended, and recent changes to the internal structure of the experience system no longer allow it. From now on, trained and specialized skills will behave the same way with respect to tessera: if you have already invested the maximum experience possible into the skill, then quest rewards like the tessera or the Scroll of Dark Rain will not benefit you in any way. We strongly recommend, therefore, that you do not attempt to receive a quest reward for a skill in which you've already invested the maximum amount of experience. Indeed, we have always recommended this. Characters who have already used quest rewards to raise the level of a specialized skill above the normal maximum will lose the excess levels of that skill with the next update. For example, let's say that Bob has invested experience to get his war magic skill to 223. (Note that we are only talking about the part of his skill level that comes from experience here; we're ignoring the part from attributes.) Then he turned in 5 war magic tessera. His war magic skill is now 2 levels above the normal maximum from experience, or 228. After the update, Bob's war skill will lose those 2 excess levels, and his war magic skill from experience will be 226. Of course, since Bob has war magic specialized-and we know that he must, or he wouldn't have been able to get those excess points from tessera-he also receives the 10 free levels for having the skill specialized. Overall, his war magic goes up 8 levels. Now, let's move on to the summary of the changes and additions for October. Hollow and Phantom Missile Weapons: New Tinkering Effects: Ivory Tinkering:
We will be adding this feature to additional quest items as time goes on. Since it requires that we modify each weapon, not all will be immediately available. Look for more over the coming months. Misc. Tinkering Improvements:
Note that the variance Tinkering changed from being an additive effect to being a multiplicative effect. Also note that these changes are not retroactive; items which have already been Tinkered will not benefit from the changes. Gaerlan Quest Changes:
PK Logoff Changes: We hope you enjoy this festive month in Dereth. Next month's update is taking form, and it's shaping up to be some good content. We'll see you next month, and thanks for playing! A Summary of Life Magic Tweaks - From the Microsoft Insider AC Site October, 2002 IMPORTANT NOTE: None of these plans are set in stone either in terms of scope or timing. We're going to try to get them done quickly, but we may need to change our plans, and we may need to push them back a month or more. Now, keeping that in mind, this is what we have planned: First, the ranges for all drain spells will be increased to 20 meters, which is the current range of level 7 drain spells. We believe that this will alleviate the problems with the limited range of drain spells. This change also applies to Harm and related spells (this is the first of the exceptions mentioned above). Second, the travel speed of life bolts will be increased to make them comparable with war magic bolts of the same level. Please note that life bolts are not meant to be the main offensive strategy for life magic, but this change should make them a little more fun to use. We will also consider some other changes to the dynamics of life bolts, but don't look for those immediately (this is the second exception). Third, the percentage that is drained by the lower level spells will be going up slightly, and the absolute maximum cap on how much you can drain will be adjusted at all levels. We present these two together because they are really intertwined, but let's pick them apart so we can see what's happening. Before the Transfer changes, all drain spells drained 25% of the target's health (or mana or stamina). In July, this percentage changed depending on what level of spell you were casting, so that level 1 drains drained 10% and level 7 drains drained 50%. In November, no level will drain less than 25%. This means that the percentage drained by the lower level spells will be increasing, but the percentage drained by the higher level spells will remain unchanged. The following table illustrates these changes. We believe that this will help increase the effectiveness of drain spells at low levels. Table 1: Percentage Drained by Spell Level
Now, in tandem with this change, we will be adjusting the absolute maximum amount that you can drain with each level of spell. Previously, this absolute maximum was 100 for all spell levels. In the future, this maximum will depend on what level of drain you are casting. The following table summarizes this change. Table 2: Maximum Drain Amounts
Note that this absolute maximum is still overridden by the amount of health (or mana or stamina) that the caster has space for. In other words, if you are only down by 5 health, you will only be able to drain 5 health from your opponent no matter what level of spell you cast. But if you are down 150 health, then casting a level 7 drain would allow you to drain up to 150 health from your opponent. Casting a level 6 drain would allow you to drain a maximum of 120 health from your opponent. We believe that these two changes together—an increase in the percent drained at low spell levels and the adjustment of the maximum amount drained—will allow for more effective draining at all levels, without allowing low level drain spells to become as unbalanced as they had been in the past. So these are the changes to drain spell mechanics that we are planning to implement in the coming months. There are three other changes which are not specific to drain spells or even to life magic, but which deserve a mention here as they will help alleviate some of the problems that all mages face. First, in the October update we introduced changes that increase the average effectiveness of mana conversion at high levels. This—plus the mana conversion modifier on magic casters and the ability to increase that modifier through Tinkering—should help all mages with the important task of mana management. Second, we will soon be raising both the natural rate at which projectile spells land critical hits, and the effect of using a magic caster imbued with Critical Strike. This will help both war mages and life mages who use life bolts. Third, we will be introducing a way to
"sell-back" skills that a character no longer wants and to specialize skills
after creation. This will be accomplished by completing a quest. This
quest will be restricted to players of level 25 or higher and may only be
completed once every two weeks. Each time a player completes the quest,
they will be given the opportunity to unspecialize a specialized skill
(i.e., knocking it down to trained), untrain a trained skill (i.e., making
it untrained), or specialize a trained skill. Please note that you still
need the required amount of skill points to specialize a skill this way, and
that you cannot untrain a skill which was given to the character for free at
character creation (e.g., Jump or the racial skills).
When unspecializing a skill:
When untraining a trained skill:
Note that you can "untrain" a skill that was
given to the character for free at character creation (such as Jump or a
racial skill) in order to be refunded the experience invested in that skill.
However, you will not be refunded the skill credit cost of the skill, nor
will it actually become untrained. We hope that these tweaks and proposals will improve the experience of playing a life mage, and indeed improve the experience of Asheron's Call all around. As mentioned above, your feedback has always been extremely important to us in identifying the rough spots in the game and in formulating the solutions. We look forward to your continued feedback about these proposals. --The AC Team The Asheron's Call Newsletter - October 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 -- AC2 BETA NEWS We've given FilePlanet another chunk of
AC2 Beta accounts to distribute. You'll be given login information when you
install the game from the setup file. Don't
delay, these always go fast! Note that you
do NOT need to subscribe to FilePlanet's monthly paid service to get the
beta--just look for "Public Servers" in the list of download sites. 2 -- END OF AC2 BETA EVENT The end of the AC2 beta is in sight, and we have posted
a special teaser for the grand finale. The
event runs from 10/31-11/3, so plan for some time to play!
You won't want to miss it. 3 -- PREORDER AC2 Get a jump on the competition by
preordering Asheron's Call 2 from participating merchants. Check our
preorder page for all the details, including a way for you to reserve a
character name when you order from Amazon! EB and Gamestop are even running
contests where you can win an account for life, so click over! 4 -- NEW HOME FOR AC NEWS Current AC1 news has moved to some new pages. Please take note of our new State of the Network, State of the Code and Event News pages. We also have an official, moderated message board. See you there! 5 -- 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. |
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