Repercussions

Gharu'ndim

Sho

Ispar History

Auberean History

Texts

Rumors

Event Teaser - From the Zone

July 12, 2002

(View the preview movie for the July Event here --16.5 MBs.)

She placed the cloth against his brow. It still burned, the fever having held him now for ten nights and showing no sign of abating. She had never seen him ill, and to look at him now with sunken cheeks and ashen skin brought her near to tears. But she had not cried since she had lost Thorsten, and she was not going to cry now. She was not going to lose Asheron.

When Thorsten died, she had hated Asheron. Hated everything that he was and what he had done to them, allowing them to enter that place without his protection. She had thought him a coward, a nothing, a scared old man who hid in his tower and played at a game of chess in which she and the other Isparians were pawns.

She had pulled herself from that Olthoi hive, tired and broken, one of the few survivors against the True Queen and her armies. She had clawed her way back into the daylight not for herself, but for her son. She had lost everything but the child inside of her.

The Aluvian people, newly freed from their slavery, had flocked to her and named her their Queen. Soon, other pockets of humans crept out of the darkness. New Aluvia grew as Elysa developed into a strong and powerful leader whose command went unquestioned. But her sorrow had continued to weigh heavily upon her.

She had written to her friend, Lania Cartoth, shortly after Thorsten's death. Elysa had continued the correspondence for some time, but the duties of a new Queen restricted her time and the years had kept her parted from her friend. Lania was now dead, slain at the hands of someone, or something--the same someone or something that now commanded the undead in the halls housing Thorsten's armor and axe.

Nuhmudira had disappeared after it was revealed she had sacrificed her loyal Zharalim in a hidden temple beneath her mansion. Sclavus had taken control of the place now, as they had every place that Nuhmudira had once frequented.

Worse, the thing that had been Candeth Martine had become obsessed with Elysa. He was fixated, deviant, and intrusive. She felt betrayed by everyone, everything. Nothing was right. Everything was falling apart around her. But Elysa was made of a far stronger fiber than anyone had ever credited.

Anyone save Asheron.

He had come to her shortly after Thorsten's death, remorseful and sincere. He'd helped her then, helped her to cope. He'd provided assistance in the establishment of Cragstone and in the building of Thorsten's tomb. Asheron had sealed the true resting place of Thorsten's armor and axe with powerful magics, concealing them from the encroaching monsters that eventually overran the underground city that had once been the Isparians' home. He was a rock.

She had despised him so. Yet, in the end, she had found that the only one who understood her isolation was Asheron. He too, was alone. His resolve and his determination had given her the strength to continue, to grow, and to lead. She had left her people once, for some five years, while she studied and learned from Asheron. She had come to know him then, to respect and understand him, and to love him as a friend and kindred soul.

She had never seen him weak. She had seen him fail, but failure was a learning experience, a new way to study a problem. She had never seen him like this, and she feared for him, for everyone. She wrung the cloth she had dipped in water. As she did, the mumbling began again.

Asheron watched from within his study as they approached. Gaerlan strode through the hall after his brother Delacim, their footfalls resounding off the alabaster floor and ceiling. He was Delacim's junior by some twenty years, less skilled and even more headstrong. Avarice drove him, and his relation to Asheron's apprentice afforded him some minor freedoms that he used to the fullest. Gaining the Emperor's ear at a formal gathering had been one such freedom.

Gaerlan was a poor student and had none of his brother's natural aptitude. That he would insist on sitting in on lessons and listening to lectures meant nothing to Asheron. Delacim was to be Asheron's successor. Whatever minor inconveniences Asheron needed to endure were insubstantial, but he had underestimated Gaerlan's capacity for recollection and retention.

During a banquet held in Asheron's honor after a visit to another world, Gaerlan's devious nature was brought to the elder man's attention. As he watched the two brothers enter his study, that earlier conversation played over in Asheron's mind:

“Vizier.”Emperor Kellin II made his way toward Asheron and took his arm. He waved his escort away and brought the mage onto a balustrade that overlooked the capital city and the Haelin River. “I have been speaking to your student, Gaerlan.”

“Excellency, Gaerlan is no student of mine. He is a brother to my apprentice--”Asheron tried to protest.

But the Emperor continued, “Long-lived men such as yourself should be more careful with whom they allow in classrooms. Especially when they speak of history as though they lived it.”The Emperor's eyes met his. “Valind shall be spared your tale, Asheron. I will see to that. But, there will be changes and efforts made to reinforce your expeditions. The Throne must hold a much tighter reign, it seems.”He clapped Asheron on the back and stepped through the golden doorway into the arboretum. Asheron was left there, staring out over the river.

The next morning their ship was loaded with the leading scholars of the court, chosen to become Adepts of Asheron's lessons and studies. As they departed for the Knorr Lyceum, Asheron appointed Delacim his chief assistant, placing him in charge of teaching the new Adepts.

*****

He shivered.

Elysa pulled the silken sheet over him more tightly. Blood stained the dressing on his chest. The wound had still not closed. “Strength, Elysa, strength.” She looked at her friend and thought back to two months before.

The news of Lania's fate had come on the heels of Nuhmudira's betrayal. Antius had reported movements of Martine's forces on Marae Lassel, and Elysa's councilors had responded like frightened Mites, each one shouting disparate views of what venture would be best. Fuming and saddened, Elysa had cursed everything that had happened since she arrived on Dereth. She had cursed Thorsten, Nuhmudira, and Asheron in turn.

Martine had been there, listening all along, watching her from the shadows, silent. She hadn't noticed. She had settled for bed, and as she drifted into a lazy dream he had made his move. At first she had thought it was a dream, then came the realization that he was truly there. How often had it happened before? How often had he come to her room and watched her as she slept? When he stepped from the shadow, a grim, violet halo wreathing his mask-clad head, she had wanted to leap, even scream, but he had pinned her in the air with the dark arts the Virindi had taught him.

He stumbled toward her in his misshapen canter, spouting words of love. Calling her name, he drew closer. She had wanted to reach for her bow, to strike him down and end all of this. But she was motionless, unable to respond. This was the moment she had always feared. And then, she had heard Asheron's voice.

She would not admit the relief she had felt at his timely arrival. He had not betrayed her again.

She looked upon him now and cursed herself. She knew there was nothing that she could have done, nothing that would have changed the moment, but it still pained her and preyed in the shadows of her mind.

He shivered again.

*****

As the brothers crossed the study's threshold, Asheron noticed the brooch adorning Gaerlan's collar. It was a gift from the Emperor, a cresting wave in the color of the throne, cerulean.

The Emperor had been true to his word; no further utterance had been made about Asheron's longevity. The years had passed uneventfully, and Valind had never come to Asheron's school nor hindered his teaching. But the reach of the Throne was great and now rested within the mage's halls.

The two brothers met his gaze and bowed, in a salute of honor, before they made their way to the sapphire chairs. Asheron bade them sit and took a seat across from them behind his alabaster desk.

Delacim was the shorter of the two and fairer. His fingers were thin and long, matching his slight frame. His hair was the color of the setting sun of autumn, a rich red. He wore braids on either side of his brow. He wore the robes of the apprentice, a deep and regal blue trimmed in violet.

His brother was slightly taller. His hair was dark, and he wore a sharply pointed beard. His eyes were a cold steel blue and he wore a scowl upon his face. He never seemed happy.

“Delacim. Gaerlan. I have consulted my charts and formulated a destination to a new world. I would like to begin preparations for a visit but wanted to ensure your work was done on Aerlinthe.”

“Master,”Delacim spoke crisply and clearly. “I have nearly completed my study of the portal structures across Aerlinthe and back to the mainland. Little has hindered my progress and the populace has been more than cooperative.”He paused. “Gaerlan has been helpful as well, as an intermediary with the workers. He has also assisted in the construction of several automata that will be deployed in the lower areas of the foundry. One small note of concern has arisen over rumblings that have begun to the southeast of the island. I have yet to investigate myself--”

“I have been to the affected area,”Gaerlan interrupted. “And found that there is little there, other than a place where the invisible river flows strong.”His gaze was always more harsh and challenging than Delacim's. “I will investigate further on my own if you wish, but truthfully, it is something too meager for your apprentice to pay particular heed to it.”

Asheron thought a moment, meeting the steel gaze of the young man. As he thought about his response, Gaerlan moved a hand to adjust the brooch. “Very well, Gaerlan,”Asheron said. “Investigate if you wish. If you say that there is no need for Delacim's involvement, I shall trust your judgment.”He paused and pulled at his long beard. “We have other matters that must be discussed.”

*****

The darkness was all around Nuhmudira now. As her strength faded, the sound of footsteps and visits grew more infrequent. Her people had passed their judgment. She was not dead, not yet, but there was nothing shielding her from the shroud of death that surrounded her. Others memories had eroded her own as the ocean takes the shore. It was a battle she had lost, long ago.

Her chest grew heavy with each breath, mired by the weight of guilt and the ravenous hunger of jealousy over losing her power. Even now, as she lay upon this slab with death closing upon her, she wished for nothing more than the power that had once been hers. She knew that she could make everything right if only she had--

The song began as a lullaby, a soothing lullaby sung by the voice of an angel. It echoed in the near-empty room and reverberated through her sagging flesh and into her bones. Then came the voice, singing to her, calling to her. It asked, and she answered.

The first of the Sclavus crested the top of the structure and emptied its throat into the basin beneath her head. The second began to hiss a rite that was unfamiliar to her at first, but as it continued she found she knew the words, the inflection, the power that it was infusing. She raised her broken voice to echo that of the Sclavus. Others clamored over the edge of the tower and arranged themselves in the correct order for the ritual to succeed.

The darkness was no longer the cold captor it had been. Memories that were hers began to drive back the tide, and as the final words were spoken and her bonds shattered, only one thought came to her.

Freedom.

*****

Thoughts. They consumed him. He had not moved from his throne in days. He had remained stoic. His eyes were vigilantly fixated on a tiny grain of sand that was a shade lighter than the stone brick that lay in the middle of the wall opposite him.

For days he had stared at that one point. Servants had entered and left, until he sealed the doors. Now there were only two guards. Two of his most trusted, Hibdin and Ambrosia, stood watch over his room. He was silent, but coherent and mindful.

Voices echoed along the walls of his retreat from time to time, but that mattered little to him. The oddly colored grain of sand remained the focus of his gaze and it hadn't moved.

He clutched the book tightly in his hands, and wondered how long it would be before they came for him, he who had become the hope-slayer.

*****

“The four of you shall be my commanders, my ears, eyes, arms, and swords against his heart. He is not dead yet, I can feel that much, but he drains himself by using his arts to hide from me. It will matter little in the end.” Gaerlan paused and looked over his generals, each the epitome of their kind, the absolute elementals. “The wound that Martine gave him is fatal. There is no one left on this world with magic powerful enough who would save Asheron.”

*****

A tiny voice broke the silence that had filled the room when his murmuring ceased.

“Mother? Is Uncle Asheron going to die?”

Borelean stood at the door, upright, tall, young, and innocent. His eyes were wide and curious, but not at all the eyes of an eleven year-old boy. His features were not quite that of a young man, but they had lost their youthful vigor, taking on the more distinct edges of his father. Elysa mustered a weak smile and put her hand out for him to come to her.

As she pulled him close to her and kissed the top of his head, she fought the tears and hugged him tightly. “I pray he does not, Borelean, I pray he does not.”

Roll Out Article - From the Zone

June 18, 2002

A world without Asheron. Even those Isparians who had spoken the loudest against him now have a difficult time imagining a world without him. He had been with the Isparian people since their arrival through the release of the Hopeslayer and the formation of the New Singularity. For some, Asheron has seemed as constant as the two moons circling in the night sky. Now he lies mortally wounded in his castle, the life slowly draining out of him. What will become of the world if Asheron falls? Even the insane Martine, a man those on the fringes of society proclaimed to be a hero of the Isparian people, has been driven into catatonia once it was revealed he had been Gaerlan's pawn. And this Gaerlan, an Empyrean bent on Asheron's destruction, how has he returned to Dereth and why does he hate Asheron? Yet in the minds of the Isparians, one question rises above all others: can High Queen Elysa and her people resist Gaerlan and his Elemental army?

There are still glimmers of hope. With the knowledge Asheron shared with them, Arcanum researchers have rediscovered primitive Empyrean transmutation techniques, which the Isparians label “Tinkering.” Those skilled in assessing the value and workmanship of weapons and armor rapidly have begun salvaging and enhancing their wares with these techniques. Moreover, all are able to benefit from these discoveries, not just those skilled in tinkering. With an Ust in hand, even the dimmest warrior can salvage materials from items in the field, thus lightening his pack and allowing him to stay in the fray longer!

In Zaikhal, those members of the Arcanum who had never despaired of releasing Nuhmudira from her imprisonment have brought back a disturbing report. Nuhmudira is once more missing. Hearing this, her most zealous followers proclaim that she has escaped her imprisonment and is now working to atone for her sins. As proof that she is aiding them in their battles, these zealots point to the fact that even more powerful weapons are being found in the land. More rational minds remain skeptical, yet they are grateful nonetheless for these new tools in their fight against Gaerlan.

The disturbances that Gaerlan has caused in the forces of magic continue to destabilize the world's magical fields. In the previous month, these disturbances appeared as a reduction in the power of various spells. Now, those dependent upon Life Magic find their ability to harm other creatures through their magics changed and in many ways hampered. Fortunately, to help them overcome these new restrictions on their abilities and develop new techniques, the master archmages have researched new spells. Given the name “Life Bolts,” these spells involve taking a portion of a mage's life force and hurling it at a target to inflict damage. The thought of intentionally hurting themselves through their magics puts more than a few mages off, but the majority vow to try these new magics and learn to be effective in the field once more.

With Gaerlan revealed and his elemental army forming, a scheme started long ago now reaches fruition. The world may be forever changed.

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:

• Gaerlan steps from the shadows--the Isparians' true enemy is finally known.
• Tinkering!
• More powerful weapons and armor may be found.
• New housing and Residential Quarters are available for purchase!

Be sure to check the Developer's Notes for July and the Letter to the Players to learn more details of the Repercussions 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 18, 2002 

Here are just some of the additions made in the July 18 game update, Repercussions. 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, Repercussions.  

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

• Per our Tinkering Letter to Players, we implemented the Tinkering system in July. In addition to our letter, please see the important points listed in the Tinkering section of these notes.
• The entire weapon and armor treasure system has been tweaked. For details, see the July Letter to the Players.
• We have changed aspects of the Life magic system for July. Please see the previous Transfer Spell Changes Letter to the Players for more information on the changes to Life Magic. Also, the current July Letter to the Players details the most recent additions and changes to the system.
• Several new features have been added to the spell book. At the bottom of the spell book panel, we've added filtering buttons to allow you to choose to display spells from a specific school and level. With these new filtering options, the spell book is once again sorting spells alphabetically by name, with the exception of level 7 spells. A level 7 spell will appear below the level 6 version of the spell.
• The Arcanum builders are still at it! 500 Residential Quarters, 150 Cottages, 40 Villas, and 10 Mansions have been added to the landscape for purchase.
• Flags, flags, flags. . .
• Something about the Obsidian Plains just draws monsters to it. Adventurers will find more creatures to fight there now.
• A new “@font” command has been added that will allow you to change the font used by your Asheron's Call client. For full details on how to use this new command, type “@help font” in the chat window. Remember that any changes you make to your font won't show up until you completely restart your client; logging your character out and logging them back in is not enough.

Tinkering-Specific Changes
With the addition of Tinkering to the game, we've introduced a number of Tinkering-specific changes. For more details, please see the earlier Tinkering Letter to the Players.

• Appraisal skills have been removed and new Tinkering skills have been added in their place.
• All skill credits spent to purchase appraisal skills have been refunded to the characters. Gharu'ndim characters are the exception; all Gharu'ndim characters are now trained in Item Tinkering, which replaces the racial default Item Appraisal skill.
• All experience spent on Appraisal skills, no matter what the character's race, has been refunded.
• Spells that increased or decreased the Appraisal skill of a character now affect Tinkering skills. The Item spells that increased or decreased an item's resistance to being Appraised are still available, but at this time serve no purpose. These Item spells may be removed or given a new purpose in the future.
• The Ust (the tool used to salvage materials) and a book explaining the basics of Tinkering can be found on sale in the original nine Nexus towns and the racial capital cities of Cragstone, Hebian-to, and Zaikhal.
• In order to ensure a good mix of materials at all workmanship levels, the rates at which certain materials are dropped have been slightly tweaked.
• All items that can be enhanced or salvaged now display their workmanship as both a name and a numeric value in a separate field when examined. Items without this field cannot be enhanced or salvaged.
• Before any enhancement takes place, a confirmation box appears to make sure the player wants to perform this operation.
• Tinkered items display the number of times they have been Tinkered and the name of the last person to Tinker the item. Time to make a name for yourself!
• In an effort to keep Tinkering honest, any time a Tinker attempts to enhance an item, a local emote will broadcast the result of this interaction. Typing “@filter --craft” can filter out these broadcasts from the chat window. Of course, we recommend that you remove this filter any time you have an item Tinkered by a third party. The local emote broadcast will contain the following information: the name of the item being enhanced, the type of material being applied, and the workmanship of the material being applied. If the item being enhanced is inscribed, the author of the inscription is also broadcast.

Miscellaneous Improvements and Changes

• The long-fabled “Wi flag,” a troublesome bug that would cause creatures to consistently pick one character to attack over others, has been found and squashed. Wi will live on in our memories. . .
• Prismatic Tapers now stack up to 1,000 tapers per stack. Mages rejoice at their regained pack space!
• The “@fillcomps” command can now purchase up to 5,000 of one item. Also typing “@fillcomps --clear” will clear out the list and amounts of components the command will try to purchase.
• Trade notes worth 150,000, 200,000 and 250,000 pyreals can now be found on all vendors that sell 100,000-pyreal trade notes.
• Due to the size of fonts on some systems, the client was truncating the display of 10,000 pyreal stacks to 1000. This has been corrected.
• Portals to house dungeons can no longer be linked or recalled to. This should prevent you from losing your portal recall when you enter your house's dungeon.
• Deadly Atlatl darts can now be crafted.
• New Royal Atlatls, with significantly higher damage modifiers, can be found as treasure.
• Arms such as the Isparian weapons, that do increased damage against certain types of creatures, now display this “Slayer” information when examined.
• Characters no longer turn towards a target when they try to Appraise it.
• Characters that pass through portals before landing on the ground no longer receive impact damage from the portal.
• The addition of Foci backpacks introduced the unintended change of making it impossible to open backpacks that were on the ground. This has been fixed.
• We fixed a bug that would destroy items with wield requirements if a character attempted to wield that item directly from the ground and not from their inventory.
• It is no longer possible to stand upon the Basalt and Obsidian Shards found in various parts of Dereth. This should prevent characters from perching on these shards and attacking creatures.
• We've lowered the prices for a number of cooking and fletching creations.
• Vendors are trying to display their wares in a more logical order. Prismatic Tapers and Scarabs can now be found at the beginning of component lists, while spell scrolls should now be in a roughly alphabetical order.

Minor Details

• Characters can no longer log off in The New Singularity dungeon, which is accessible by providing the correct items to Ecorto the Lost Director. Any character that is logged off in the dungeon will log in at their Lifestone.
• We've fixed a bug in the Arcane Pedestal Quest that caused Slithe Tradditor to hand back a Sclavus bronze statue part if given a Skeleton bronze statue part.
• The security in the Tenkarrdun Foundry has been beefed up again. Along with a few more changes to areas favored by macros, we've added a few Pyreal Golems to spice things up.
• All scrolls should now correctly display whether they are “Self” or “Other” versions of the spell.
• When accessing the Covenant Crystal, the display should default to the “Buy” panel for unowned housing and to the “Maintenance” panel for owned housing.
• The Barkeeps now sell festival lights.
• We've added an Item Scrivener to Uziz, and a 3rd level Item vendor and 4th Level Item vendor to Hebian-To.
• The mana cost on Blade Volleys has been cut in half to match the mana cost for the other Volleys.
• The mouse-over locations for Wei Jhou and Danby's Outpost were slightly off. These have been fixed.
• Characters can now wield Flags in their weapons slot.

July Letter to the Players - From the Zone 

June 18, 2002 

As we enter into our July Event, Repercussions, we have a number of things to discuss:

Life Magic Changes
We appreciate the feedback from players over these last few weeks with regard to our life magic changes. From your feedback and that of playtest groups, we have made a few changes to our initial proposed system:

• The drain range on the higher level Drain spells has been increased.
  • -- Drain 4 Range(Initially Proposed):11 (New):15
  • -- Drain 5 Range(Initially Proposed):13 (New):20
  • -- Drain 6 Range(Initially Proposed):15 (New):25
  • -- Drain 7 Range(Initially Proposed):20 (New):35
• The mana cost for the higher level Drain spells has been reduced.
  • -- Drain 5 Mana Cost (Old): 60 (New): 55
  • -- Drain 6 Mana Cost (Old): 70 (New): 60
  • -- Drain 7 Mana Cost (Old): 70 (New): 60
• The damage multiplier on the Life Bolt spells has been increased.
  • -- Lifebolt 1 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):.50 (New):.75
  • -- Lifebolt 2 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):.65 (New):.90
  • -- Lifebolt 3 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):.80 (New):1.05
  • -- Lifebolt 4 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):.95 (New):1.25
  • -- Lifebolt 5 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):1.10 (New):1.50
  • -- Lifebolt 6 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):1.25 (New):1.75
  • -- Lifebolt 7 Damage Multiplier (Initial Proposed):1.40 (New):2.00

  Refer to the original Transfer Spell Changes Letter to the Players for more details.

  Tinkering Changes
  The mid-month Tinkering Letter to the Players, and the bullet points in the dev notes give an overview of what the Tinkering system is and how to use it. We're really excited about this system, and we hope you enjoy it. Characters can find the Ust Tinkering tool and a book which explains the Tinkering system in the nine newbie towns and the capital cities (Zaikhal, Cragstone, and Hebian-To).

  Treasure System Changes
  This month, we implement the final major step to our treasure system revamping begun back in January. (There will be some minor tweaks and additions in August or September.)

  One change which may not be immediately obvious is the elimination of such treasure system oddities as a 6-11 sword with a 250 wield requirement on it. The existence of this type of weapon occurred because we had to use one type of treasure system to generate the basic weapon, and a different system to determine whether the weapon carried a damage bonus that demanded a wield requirement. We have now combined these systems so that all weapons have logical parameters for when they require a wield requirement.

  Another result of this change will be the more frequent appearance of higher-damage weapons in all levels of the treasure system.

  We also took this opportunity to increase the maximum damage of all weapons, and introduce a new discrete level for the wield requirement. Weapons which now reach their maximum damage potential will have a wield requirement of 325. Each weapon will still have a range of damage that produces a wield requirement of 250. The maximum damage potential (and variance ranges) are listed below.

  Please keep in mind that these numbers represent the ranges for treasure found at high levels (e.g., from SIK chests and certain monsters such as Umbris Shadows), and the very highest levels of treasures, such as Singularity Chests and Crystal Lords. Generally, both of these levels of treasure have the same maximum limit when it comes to damage, but you will be more likely to find quality items from Singularity Chests then you will from SIK chests.

  Weapons:

  • Melee weapons now have a maximum attack and defense bonus of 15% (but only through Singularity Chests. SIK Chest-type loot can only reach a maximum of 12%).
  • Swords now have a max damage capacity of 40. Their variance can shrink to .40.
  • Axes have a max damage capacity of 36. Their variance can shrink to .40.
  • Maces have a max damage capacity of 33. Their variance can shrink to .30 (and in some extremely rare cases, .25).
  • Spears have a max damage capacity of 28. Their variance can shrink to .45. (These numbers really only apply to tridents.)
  • Unarmed Weapons have a max damage capacity of 14. Rarely, their variance can shrink to .60 (and in some very rare cases, .50).
  • Staves have a max damage capacity of 15. Their variance can shrink to .30 (and in some extremely rare cases, .25).
  • Daggers remain unchanged for now.
  • Bows and Royal Atlatls now have a max damage bonus of 130%. 130% and 120% bows/atlatls have a wield requirement of 250. 150% crossbows now also exist, along with a wield requirement of 250. As mentioned in the bottom section of this letter, missile launchers no longer have attack bonuses, but instead have defense bonuses.

  Armor:
  Generally, armor has the potential to have higher armor levels for each type of armor.

  Housing
  This month, we're releasing another 150 Cottages, 40 Villas, and 10 Mansions. We also released another 500 Residential Quarters. For at least the next few months, we will see how much housing demand we can meet with the Residential Quarters, as we are quickly running out of room to put in new landscape dwellings.

  Next Month and Beyond
  Next month will see additional Tinkering interactions, additional Residential Quarters, a lot of exciting new content, the addition of a skill-based bonus for War spells, and more! We'll see you next month.

  --The AC Team

  P.S. As promised last month, following is our shocking expose of AC secrets. Enjoy!

  Two Secrets
  As we mentioned in last month's Letter to the Players, there are two secrets about which we feel it is time for us to come clean. One we've suspected for a long time, but the issue proved ever elusive to track down (so elusive, in fact, that we wondered whether it ever existed, our own anecdotal evidence to the contrary). The other we've known about for awhile, but we were unsure what to do about it.

  Now the truth will be revealed.

  First, the Wi Flag. For those of you who don't know what the Wi Flag means, a little history. From the beginning of AC, some players have complained about unbelievably bad luck. When the swarm of Lugians spawn in the citadel, they will go after certain players--every time. The player's level doesn't seem to matter, nor does the number of other players in the room. What does seem to matter is that this player is cursed with that most unfortunate of distinctions: the Wi Flag.

  For some players, the flag came and went. For others, it was a perpetual nightmare, present in nearly every monster experience. To live a Wi-Flagged life meant to be hunted at every turn. Perhaps other adventurers could know peace in a BSD or a Citadel, but there was no rest nor respite for one under Wi.

  Our developers at Turbine initially answered these complaints by saying that they could find no such bug. Occasionally, a senior Turbine engineer could be found who would admit that perhaps there was something “not quite right” with the system, but they still could not identify a cause, if one even existed. Easy culprits, such as a malfunctioning random-number generator, were eventually dismissed.

  But our search went on. For there were people even at Turbine convinced that the Wi Flag existed, and that they had it in spades.

  And then one day, long after most people had learned to either forget or ignore the Wi Flag, the answer was found. Here in the report from Sandra Powers, AC Live's Lead Engineer, on the nature of the Wi Flag. We warn you in advance that it is a very technical explanation, but we hope it is of some interest to those of you who have long been afflicted with this terrible burden.

  “Many of our players have complained for a long time that their character are `Wi-Flagged'--that is, that creatures attack them a much greater proportion of the time than random chance or distance should dictate. After looking at the code in depth, I believe I have found out why this might happen.

  Generally, a creature chooses whom to attack based on who it was last attacking, who attacked it last, or who caused it damage last. When players first enter the creature's detection radius, however, none of these things are useful yet, so the creature chooses a target randomly, weighted by distance. Players within the creature's detection sphere are weighted by how close they are to the creature -- the closer you are, the more chance you have to be selected to be attacked.

  The actual algorithm for selection looks like this: We roll a random number within a certain range--say between 0 and 1. Each player is given a portion of the range based on how close they are to the creature. The closer you are, the larger a portion you get. The player who owns the portion into which the random number falls is selected to be attacked.

  This algorithm is sound. The problem comes up when we are assigning portions of the range to various players. If we wanted distance from the creature to be proportional to your chance to be selected--that is, if the closer you are the *less* chance you have of being attacked--then we would assign this range by taking your distance from the creature over the total distance--the distances of everybody under consideration added together. But we really want the inverse of this ratio--so that the closer you are, the *more* chance you have of being selected. So we invert this ratio by subtracting it from 1 to assign you the size of your portion.

  An example:

  A is 5 meters from the creature.

  B is 2 meters from the creature.

  C is 3 meters from the creature.

  D is 10 meters from the creature.

  Total distance is 20.

  The size of A's portion is 1 - 5/20, or 0.75.

  The size of B's portion is 1 - 2/20, or 0.90.

  The size of C's portion is 1 - 3/20, or 0.85.

  The size of D's portion is 1 - 10/20, or 0.50.

  So we assign these people these portions of the total range:

  A has between 0.00 and 0.75.

  B has between 0.75 and 1.65.

  C has between 1.65 and 2.50.

  D has between 2.50 and 3.00.

  Notice, however, that while the original ratios added to 1 (.25 + .1 + .15 + .5 = 1.0) that the inverted ratios -- and thus the total range from which we should have rolled the random number -- no longer add to 1. Instead, they add to 3. (Some algebra will convince you that the assigned portions always add to n-1, where n is the number of people under consideration.) So in order to randomly select some portion of this total range, we should roll a number between 0 and 3.

  But in the existing AC code, we always roll a number between 0 and 1.

  You can easily see in this example that if the random number is always been 0 and 1, only A and B have any chance at all of being selected, and A has the majority of the chance. And the reason that these two have all the chance is simply because they are first in the list, and so were assigned the low parts of the range. Normally--if we had rolled between 0 and 3 in the example--your order in the list should have no effect on how likely you are to be chosen. But because we only rolled between 0 and 1, the earlier you appear in the list, the more skewed your chance of selection is. And as it happens, in AC code, your position in this list is determined by the InstanceID of your character, which is assigned when you create the character and never changed. (Note that the InstanceID is hashed--mutated by the system into another number--to determine position. So it's not a simple relationship like the older the character, the earlier in the list they will be. It is, however, a static relationship--an ID that hashes to an early position will always hash to an early position, although it's exact position will depend on what other ID's are also under consideration.)

  So what does this mean? The way this random targeting algorithm is implemented right now, if you happen to have an InstanceID that hashes to an early position, you will tend to be attacked more than your fair share when the creature is using random targeting, regardless of your distance from the creature. In other words, you are Wi-Flagged.”

  We're glad we were finally able to fix this bug. With the July Event, may you know peace in the fast-spawning dungeon of your choice!

  The second issue will, in some ways, be both more troubling and more inconsequential for players. HeartSeeker does not affect missile launchers. It never has. Bows, crossbows, and atlatls get no benefit from the HeartSeeker spell or from innate attack bonuses (such as those found on the Singularity Bow). The only variables that determine whether a missile character hits their target is their bow/xbow/tw skill, the missile defense of the target, and where they set their accuracy meter while they are attacking. However, the Defender spell, as well as innate defensive bonuses, do work on missile launchers.

  The AC Live team has been aware of this for the last several months. Once we knew the situation, the question became what to do about it. Should we “fix” an issue that probably isn't broken?

  Almost no archer/atlatler complains about not being able to hit their target. They have a built in “HeartSeeker” all the time. If anything, most monsters' missile defense scores have historically been so low that many players regard archery as the fastest way to level a character up through the first 30-40 levels. We did not feel that “fixing” such a system would improve the game balance for anyone in Asheron's Call, archer or no.

  Ultimately, we decided to resolve the situation through our changes to the treasure system this month. From now on, missile launchers will have a chance of having an innate defensive bonus, but not an offensive one. While many old quest weapons still retain their (useless) attack bonus, we will not be putting any new ones into the system.

  As we said, this news may seem inconsequential to many players; however, once we determined the proper solution, we did want everyone to know why we were making these changes.
   

  ---

State of the Code - From the Zone 

June 18, 2002

This is the latest installment of a frequently updated series of reports on The State of the Code for Asheron's Call. In this report, we keep players informed as to the state of some of the more technical aspects of AC, particularly bugs we are working on and technical limitations of which you should be aware. Look at the News page on the Zone for other articles about recent additions and changes to Asheron's Call.

July Event Update
There were a number of bugs that we fixed with the July Hotfix. The most important of these was a bug in which players could tinker armor and weapons far beyond the normal ranges for these items. This bug was so potentially disastrous to the balance of the game that we had to rollback the servers to right before the July Event. We apologize for the inconvenience. Here is a list of other bugs that we fixed, and a list of bugs that we are aware of, but will not be fixed until August:

Items fixed in July's Hotfix

• Any landscape dwelling sold in June had been inadvertently "turned off" such that a player could not buy or pay maintenance on one of these houses. This has been fixed.
• Unarmed weapons were not spawning with any attack or defense bonuses. This has been fixed.
• Salvaged goods now sell for their correct rates. There had been a bug in which they were selling for far, far less than their true worth.
  Deadly Atlatl darts now no longer erroneously require the bow skill to wield.
• There had been a bug in the covassal/allegiance chat in which the name of the speaker was lopped off from the beginning of the message. This has been fixed.
• There was a bug in which the Singularity Dungeon had not been made no_login, as was mentioned in this month's Developer's Notes. This has now been fixed.

Items that will be fixed in August

• Non-magic gems can currently not be salvaged. This will be fixed in August.
• We have reports that deleting spells from your spellbook can cause your client to crash. We have been unable to repro this, and will try to fix for August.
• Materials and gem types display improperly when identifying an item. This will be fixed in August.
• There are two minor bugs with the Shimmering weapons. The Shimmering Crossbow has an incorrect Slayer property, and the Shimmering Atlatl is named a Shimmering Axe. Both bugs will be fixed in August.

Material Value Bug
Salvaged materials retain a portion of the value of the items that were salvaged to create the material. So, as an example, if you have a Salvaged Gold made from two items--a Gold Tachi that was worth 4,678 py and a Gold Yumi that was worth 1,234 py--then the Salvaged Gold might be worth 2,398 py. When you sell this Salvaged Gold to a vendor, you would expect to collect nearly all of that 2,398 py, depending on the vendor's buy rate. Unfortunately, there is currently a bug that causes the vendors to pay a mere 10 py or so for salvaged materials. Basically, salvaged materials are considered stackables, and the value of a stackable comes from the "unit value" quality instead of from the normal "value" quality. Salvaged materials have the proper "value," but an erroneous "unit value." This leads the value of a salvaged material to display correctly, but means that vendors will not actually pay that price.

Because this bug does not affect the primary purpose of tinkering, we will not be hot-fixing it. It will, however, be fixed in the next regularly scheduled monthly update. So, if you collect expensive salvaged materials this month, you can sell them next month for nearly face value.

Annals of Dereth

The Asheron's Call Newsletter - July 2002

	Annals of Dereth

In this issue: 1 -- OUR SAGA THUS FAR 2 -- MAJOR EVENTS       REPERCUSSIONS       EVENT CHRONICLES       GENCON 3 -- COMMUNITY EVENTS 4 -- TROUBLESHOOTING

ANNALS OF DERETH The Asheron's Call Newsletter July 2002 Play it on the Zone! http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall

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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.

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1 -- OUR SAGA THUS FAR...

She placed the cloth against his brow. It still burned, the fever having held him now for ten nights and showing no sign of abating.  She had never seen him ill, and to look at him now with sunken cheeks and ashen skin brought her near to tears.  But she had not cried since she had lost Thorsten, and she was not going to cry now. She was not going to lose Asheron.

She felt betrayed by everyone, everything.  Nothing was right. Everything was falling apart around her. But Elysa was made of a far stronger fiber than anyone had ever credited. Anyone save Asheron.

She had never seen him weak. She had seen him fail, but failure was a learning experience, a new way to study a problem. She had never seen him like this, and she feared for him, for everyone. She wrung the cloth she had dipped in water. As she did, the mumbling began again.

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

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2 -- MAJOR EVENTS

REPERCUSSIONS
A world without Asheron.  Even those Isparians who had spoken the loudest against him now have a difficult time imagining a world without him. He had been with the Isparian people since their arrival through the release of the Hopeslayer and the formation of the New Singularity. For some, Asheron has seemed as constant as the two moons circling in the night sky. Now he lies mortally wounded in his castle, the life slowly draining out of him. What will become of the world if Asheron falls? Even the insane Martine, a man those on the fringes of society proclaimed to be a hero of the Isparian people, was driven into catatonia when it was revealed he had been Gaerlan's pawn. And this Gaerlan, an Empyrean bent on Asheron's destruction, how has he returned to Dereth and why does he hate Asheron? Yet in the minds of the Isparians, one question rises above all others: can High Queen Elysa and her people resist Gaerlan and his Elemental army?

Our latest event, Repercussions, opened Thursday, July 18. Find the full details in the official article set, comprised of the Rollout, Developer's Notes, and Letter to the Players.

EVENT CHRONICLES
For those unable to attend the historic meetings, we have made available both transcripts and video of Elysa Strathelar and Asheron's historic meetings with the players. Not to be outdone, Candeth Martine--or what remained of him--appeared as well, bringing events to their terrifying climax. Be sure to view the entire chronicles here: 

• Episode 1: During the month of Seedsow PY 13 (June, 2002), High Queen Elysa Strathelar called her people to the Thistledown Festival Stone for an important festival.

• Episode 2: Elysa continued the ceremony of lighting the Festival Stones and conveyed important information to her subjects about the state of the world.

• Episode 3: Elysa attempted to ceremonially light the Leafcull Festival Stone, but was interrupted by the lovesick Martine.

• Episode 4: Although Elysa held this ceremony to unite the peoples of Dereth against their common foe, Asheron interrupted with a disturbing discovery.

• Episode 5: In holding this final ceremony, Queen Elysa had hoped to bring hope to the hearts of her people. Unfortunately, a shocking attack brings the people anything but hope.

UPCOMING AC PLAYER GATHERINGS: GEN CON: AUGUST 8-11, 2002
Microsoft and Turbine will be showcasing Asheron's Call 2 at this year's Gen Con in Milwaukee, WI. Fans who are attending Gen Con, and those who live in the area, are invited to stop by to get an early peek at this next-generation MMORPG. Also, Microsoft will be scheduling an AC player gathering during the convention and will release more details shortly. For more information about attending Gen Con, please visit (http://g%2Emsn%2Ecom/0NL33946/107).

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3 -- COMMUNITY EVENTS

ALLEGIANCE HALL
At times, the strongest Allegiance forms from communal leadership. Recently, three monarchs have joined together to compose the HG Warriors Alliance of Harvestgain. On Solclaim, two more Allegiances have been founded: Heirs to Dereth, and--a vestige group of Del Cabon's--Star Shadow.

To have your monarch listed in the Allegiance Hall, simply send a completed update to asheron@microsoft.com. Updates must include a screen shot to verify monarch information: name, title, and number of followers. In addition, please state on which server world the monarch resides, the name of the allegiance, and the URL to the allegiance Web site.

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SEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO A FRIEND, AND LET THEM KNOW TO:

PLAY IT ON THE ZONE!

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4 -- TROUBLESHOOTING

If you have any problems with Asheron's Call or the Zone, check out our Troubleshooters and Frequently Asked Questions and find the answer to your problems there.

Troubleshooters:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/games/zone/asheron/tshoot/default.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/support/games/zone/tshoot/default.asp

Frequently Asked Questions:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/games/zone/faq/asheron/default.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/support/games/zone/faq/default.asp

Play it on the Zone!
http://www.zone.com/asheronscall

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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.

Security Reminder - From the Zone 

July 31, 2002

We wanted to take this opportunity to remind all players about the importance of helping to protect the security of your Asheron's Call account. At present time, a particular third party site is promising that by downloading its new tool, players will be able to duplicate items and use other bug exploits.

In response, we must remind players that no program will ever allow you to duplicate items. Furthermore, downloading and running programs from untrusted sources can result in people obtaining your account information, as well as the loss of characters and items--which Asheron's Call and Zone personnel will not be able to retrieve.

The present third party program in question is nothing more than a Trojan Horse designed to obtain your account name and password. We give our strongest warning to players not to attempt using this program, and to always take extreme caution with your Asheron's Call account information. For more information on Trojan Horse programs and account security, please refer to the following article.

Thank you.

--The AC Team

August 13, 2002 - Dev Chat

MrQuazarr_MS says: Welcome to the monthly Asheron's Call 1.0 Developer Chat.
MrQuazarr_MS says: My name is Ken Karl, the Producer at Microsoft for Asheron's Call 1.0.
MrQuazarr_MS says: And no, for those of you who have asked, I have not died
MrQuazarr_MS says: I have simply been traveling the world a lot over the past 1.5 months. I hope to start my regular visits back on the fansites very soon
MrQuazarr_MS says: Before we begin, I have a few VERY important announcements to make
MrQuazarr_MS says: First, I want to remind everyone that this chat is JUST for Asheron's Call 1.0. No questions about AC2 will be taken
MrQuazarr_MS says: That said, I have one piece of news about AC2 that will make most of you very happy
MrQuazarr_MS says: Starting about 2 hours ago, we started the invitation process to the AC2 beta for all the remaining AC1 players that will in the snapshot we took back in May.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Yep, thats right, you are finally ALL being let in (unless of course you were not in this snapshot, in which case, you will have to wait just a few more weeks till we go into open beta).
MrQuazarr_MS says: Later tonight or tomorrow you will receive your invitation to the AC2 Beta Community.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Then, about 1 or two days later, you will receive your account information and where to download the program... Then... you will be helping to make the next great MMORPG!
MrQuazarr_MS says: On the lines of AC2, we are also ramping up the AC2 Live team. Much like AC1, we will have a dedicated team to monthly updates.
MrQuazarr_MS says: You may notice that Mr Ken Troop is not with us this evening.
MrQuazarr_MS says: That is because Ken Troop is officially moved over to the AC2 Live team as the Producer
MrQuazarr_MS says: I too will be joining Ken as the Producer from Microsoft. We are very excited about taking everything we have learned from Asheron's Call 1.0 Live process and using it to make a stronger AC2 Live team
MrQuazarr_MS says: Also joining Ken and myself will be Kim Payson as Lead Designer
MrQuazarr_MS says: Now fear not, AC1 is not going away.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Quite the contrary as you can see with the last few months props and what is to follow, we intend to keep going strong.
MrQuazarr_MS says: So with that in mind, I would like to introduce you to the new Producer at Turbine for Asheron's Call 1.0, Tim Holman.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Tim comes from VR1 where he worked on both console and online games, including Tides of War, Hired Guns, Nomads of Klanth, EmailSoccer, and Lost Continents, a pulp-era MMORPG currently in development.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Please take a moment to welcome Tim to the team. Initiation will begin in 1 week
MrQuazarr_MS says: One final announcement before I turn it over to Tim for other introductions, The August Prop is scheduled for Thursday. WOOT!
MrQuazarr_MS says: Now, Tim can tell us who else is with us this evening.

Tim_Turbine says: Sorry folks, small tech problem Greetings to all! I'm very excited to join the AC Live team and continue the delivery of quality content you've all come to expect - being a long time player of AC, this is a dream come true.
Tim_Turbine says: I've been a fan of AC since it's launch and while I have only been here one week, the talent and dedication of the team amazes me.

MrQuazarr_MS says: OK sorry about going slow to begin with, we have some rude people spamming questions
MrQuazarr_MS says: But, we just banned them from the chat and AC.. they won't be a problem any longer.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Now, on to the questions.

Tim_Turbine says: Ken Karl, solver of problems

lrdka in AsheronsCall asks: What was the armor that was in the teaser pics?? As in AL and quest or loot gen. stuff?
srand_Turbine says: Well, we don't want to give away too much about upcoming content, but I can tell you that 1) this armor drops as loot, and 2) it looks *really* nice.

Ultimatus2 in AsheronsCall asks: What ever happened to the extra storage for dwelling?
MrQuazarr_MS says: While extra storage is something we always have and still want to do, in adding in Residential Quarters and other features for housing, we discovered some issues that make it not quite as easy as we had first hoped it would be.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Those problems basically would result in extremely bad performance across all of Dereth. While we still want to do this, it is unlikely that it will every be added at this point.

ChyEld in AsheronsCall asks: How about some info on Magic Tinkering.
srand_Turbine says: I get all the tough questions tonight. *grin*
srand_Turbine says: So, no detials -- you'll find them out soon enough. But a few comments to whet your appetite: the first three Magic Item Tinkering effects are what we've been calling 'weapon imbuing'. You can apply these to melee and missile weapons, and two of them can
srand_Turbine says: be applied to magic casters (wands and orbs).
srand_Turbine says: The three effects are: Critical Strike, which let's you critical more often; Crippling Blow, which let's you critical for more damage; and Armor Rending, which let's your weapon ignore some portion of your opponents armor.
srand_Turbine says: It's important to note that the power of these effects, once they've been imbued into a weapon, depend on the skill level of the weapon's wielder.

exaMagus in AsheronsCall asks: Will you ever open a new pvp server?
MrQuazarr_MS says: There are no plans on adding a new PvP server.

STRONGJ25 in AsheronsCall asks: Concerning pvp: What changes in the near future are taking place with War dmg, Hollow arrows, and Fast Casting
Toddb_Turbine says: Well, we are making several PvP changes this month. For starters, there will be a logout timer for PK to making it harder to flee from combat...
Toddb_Turbine says: We are also adding the normal portal recall delays to Portal Sending spells and Portal Sending gems...
Toddb_Turbine says: Next month also sees further changes to Hollow weapons to help melee PvPs...
Toddb_Turbine says: And there are some projectile spell changes which I'm sure will come up later that should address some mage concerns.
Toddb_Turbine says: These changes are all in for August, and these timer changes only effect PK players on all worlds.

Gothor_X in AsheronsCall asks: Will Quiddity weapons get upgraded like Singularity weapons were once ?
Orion_Turbine says: At this point in time we have no plans to adjust quiddity weapons.
Orion_Turbine says: But as stated in previous chats, we are looking over many quests items for adjustment in the future.

bigmikeCR01 in AsheronsCall asks: How many more mansions do u guys plan on adding, as i hear dereth is running out of room?
MrQuazarr_MS says: Over the next few months we will only be adding Residential Quarters. Come October, we will analyze the housing picture, how much room is left on the landscape and how many houses/RQs are available, then determine if/when we will add more housing.

sun_tzu000 in AsheronsCall asks: Any details on the upcoming War spell Economy that you can share with us?
Toddb_Turbine says: Well, for starters the old economy is not coming back. What will will have is a skill based damage bonus for mages.
Toddb_Turbine says: Basically the higher your skill the more damage potential you will have.

M_a_C1 in AsheronsCall asks: Will the issue with greaves ever be addressed?
srand_Turbine says: Yes.
srand_Turbine says: Oh .. err .. you want more?
srand_Turbine says: Okay .. in August, you will begin finding upper leg armor in loot. It's a little strange in some ways -- there were some graphics engine issues we had to work around, but it works.

NATHAN_538 in AsheronsCall asks: Will the protect Gems the 2 lugie vendors sell be fixed, last time I used one, it gave only 15 min. instead of 30
srand_Turbine says: Yes, the Lugian Gemsellers' gems have increased duration in August. So does Arcane Restoration and Unnatural Persistance.

Zifadel in AsheronsCall asks: Will we be seeing a change to banes at any time soon?
Toddb_Turbine says: Yes, banes will be changed to cap at 2.0 in August.

nacoomer in AsheronsCall asks: Are there ever gonna be any hangable portals for houses?
srand_Turbine says: Eventually. This is something we've wanted for awhile now, and we still plan on doing it, but it's not quite ready yet.

Mike_15_UK in AsheronsCall asks: whats with the new Arc spells? give us some info !
Toddb_Turbine says: These spells are the same casting cost and damage as normal war bolts...
Toddb_Turbine says: but they travel in an arching path similar to the way arrows travel...
Toddb_Turbine says: the are also special in that they don't track like normal spells. Instead of leading the target they aim at the exact location the target is standing when the spell fires.
Toddb_Turbine says: They can be fairly helpful when fighting on uneven terrain though.

Diane657 in AsheronsCall asks: What happened to that idea of a "high level playground"?
Orion_Turbine says: Well the first touch was the obsidian plains.
Orion_Turbine says: They got a little tougher this last patch.
Orion_Turbine says: However, the alteration and addition will not end there. We have plans for more in the future.

Crimson_SC in AsheronsCall asks: How will the new hollow arrows work?
srand_Turbine says: Unfortunately, hollow arrows are trickier to implement than we had first thought.
srand_Turbine says: We wanted to get them in this month, but they just aren't ready yet. We hope to have them ready soon, however.

Brave_Phoebus in AsheronsCall asks: Will we see the implementation of armor ignoring hollows anytime in the future?
Toddb_Turbine says: Yes.

razius in AsheronsCall asks: Will dagger loose triple strike this coming patch?
srand_Turbine says: At this point, we have not yet made a final decision about triple-strike dagger. We are still considering various options.
srand_Turbine says: So no, there are no changes to triple-strike dagger this month.

kenshinowns in AsheronsCall asks: Are we going to see new Dye pots at the Shadow Armor Vendors?
MrQuazarr_MS says: Nope.
Orion_Turbine says: There are plans for some quest items to become dyeable in the future.

MYLMiddie13 in AsheronsCall asks: Fastcasting..it staying or going?
Toddb_Turbine says: For those who don't know, fast casting is an exploit that allows players to cast spells faster than intended.
Toddb_Turbine says: This exploit is possible due to the limitations of our animation system.
Toddb_Turbine says: While we cannot remove those limitation, we are making a change that will limit fastcasting.
Toddb_Turbine says: Starting next month there will be server-side timing on how fast you can cast spells.
Toddb_Turbine says: This timer should be completely unnoticable to normal players.
Toddb_Turbine says: Only those who were using fastcasting should even notice it.

chillen_AC in AsheronsCall asks: People have been able to appear to log, and turn invisible and invulnerable, This a bug or some glitch?
Toddb_Turbine says: So while folks can still use animation breaking techniques to cast a single spell faster they will not obtain much benefit.
srand_Turbine says: Well, it *was* a bug.
srand_Turbine says: It should be fixed with the August update.

MercilessHunter in AsheronsCall asks: Will we only be able to imbue an item once, or will i be able to imbue my weapon with critical strike, crippling blow and armor rending
srand_Turbine says: Ah, I should have mentioned that before.
srand_Turbine says: You can only imbue a weapon once. So you only get one effect per weapon, and you can't change it once you've chosen. Choose carefully.

MrQuazarr_MS says: Just an off topic comment real quick:
MrQuazarr_MS says: There have been a lot of questions here and elsewhere about where I have snuck off too and why I am not posting on the boards as much.
MrQuazarr_MS says: I wanted to assure everyone that I shall return.
MrQuazarr_MS says: In starting some transition to AC2 as well as AC1, I have been traveling quite a bit lately (heck, I seem to never be here anymore). I spent more time in Boston then Redmond
MrQuazarr_MS says: I will be taking a vacation at the end of this week for one week, and then after that, I shall be back for at least one whole month (WOO HOO!).
MrQuazarr_MS says: I intend to pop back on the boards then and catch up as best as I can.
MrQuazarr_MS says: I will start a thread as normal on Patch Day for Patch Day questions only.
MrQuazarr_MS says: I will answer some of the questions and Tim will fill in for me.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Then when I return, I will dive into some of the off topic Qs (such as the big thread waiting for me about life magic
MrQuazarr_MS says: Just wanted to assure everyone that I shall return lol.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Ok, back to the program.

brk_it_dwn in AsheronsCall asks: Will The Glowing Trees on ML ever be given a purpose?
Orion_Turbine says: Actually the trees on Marae Lassel have a very real purpose.
Orion_Turbine says: There are three of them.
Orion_Turbine says: They each speak on things that have either come to pass, possibly that are happening now, or things that could come to be.
Orion_Turbine says: The trick is to ready into what they say.

firecross in AsheronsCall asks: Will their be deadly hollow katar staff or dagger?
Toddb_Turbine says: Staff, Unarmed, and Dagger will also see hollow weapon upgrades this month, including the addition of deadly hollows.

KKehl22 in AsheronsCall asks: What has happened to the "Bunny Master" Quest? Larry is gone for good?
Orion_Turbine says: Funny you should ask.
Orion_Turbine says: We may have finally found why Larry wanders off so often.
Orion_Turbine says: That being said, we want to make sure that when we make the fix that he never leaves again.
Orion_Turbine says: So it will be a while longer.

MrQuazarr_MS says: OK, and as normal, we shall end out chat with the completely worthless, why did they ask that question to end our chat.....
LordPetkov in AsheronsCall asks: Will Ken wear a boobie dress to the premiere of AC2?
Orion_Turbine says: I vote, Yes!
Tim_Turbine says: You mean apart from the everyday boobie dress?
Sean_Turbine says: *shudders at the thought*
Toddb_Turbine says: I'd pay a dollar to point and laugh at that.
MrQuazarr_MS says: Oh man, you would not want to see that picture... but just imagine me imagine me in a female Tumerok Armor Piece... with an attachable Tail... yeah.. that would be cool.
MrQuazarr_MS says: OK, with that, we come to the closure of another Developer's Chat.
Spd_turbine says: Yeah, we will make him
MrQuazarr_MS says: We thank you all for ocming
Orion_Turbine says: Good night everyone!
Tim_Turbine says: Great hearing from everyone, am looking forward to the next Dev Chat!