Re: Weekly Update 10/9/06 - 10/10/06 (by Frelorn)

Weekly Update 10/16/06 Staff Update! - 10/16/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there and welcome to the October 16th edition of the Asheron’s Call weekly update.

This week we have some exciting news for everyone. We are going to be using this opportunity to introduce you all to our new Senior Game Engineer, Severlin! He comes to us with an enormous amount of engineering experience, and a fresh outlook on what can be done with Asheron’s Call. In this thread, Severlin is going to briefly introduce himself to everyone, and say hello. Make sure we all give him a warm welcome. We don’t want to scare him away before he can really dig into things, so go easy on him.

We are all very excited about things to come with the Addition of Severlin to the team. As time goes on and he becomes more accustomed to this community and the job in general, I am sure we will see more of him here. For now we don’t want to distract him too much. He will be concentrating on getting himself up to speed with all the inner workings of Asheron’s Call. This is no easy task, to say the least.

Other than helping our newest addition to the team get up to speed, the rest of the team is working on the November update. At this stage we are getting things implemented and the testing/balance process has already begun. I must say, so far things are looking really good from what I’ve seen.

That’s about it for now. Once again make sure to welcome Severlin to the team. He is looking forward to becoming a valued member of the community.
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Re: Weekly Update 10/16/06 Staff Update! - 10/16/06 (by Severlin)

Greetings,

I wanted to write a quick post to introduce myself. My name is Rob and I have joined the AC team as a senior games engineer. If I was a better person I would have a witty post of introduction to endear myself to the community, but I am not that cool. Instead, I will tell you I am extremely excited to be here and make this great game even better. I will be poking my nose into the forums when I am not buried in code. I am looking forward to seeing you all online in game and on the forums!

Severlin
 

Massive Magazine Back Cover - 10/18/06 (by Frelorn)

Now that it has been a little while I wanted to give everyone a chance to check out the ad we ran on the back cover of Massive Magazine. We also have more to come, but I wont say too much more on that until it happens.


Click me to see the back cover!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update 10/23/06 - 10/23/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there and welcome to the October 23rd edition of the Asheron’s Call Weekly Update!

We would like to start out by thanking everyone for giving Severlin a warm welcome to the team. He is still getting used to his new surroundings and getting up to speed on the game code, so he has been a very busy person this last week. I am sure we will hear more from him here on the forums as he gets more comfortable in his new role. He has already brought up some exciting ideas for things he would like to do in the future.

So we had a chance to try out some new toys over the last couple of weeks here, so I took the opportunity to make my first attempt at an official Asheron’s Call Screensaver. You can download a version with or without sound. The version with sound comes with the music that has graced most of our videos in the past, “Excalibur”. Both versions run the same images, so it is a matter of preference if you want sound or not. This was my first attempt at creating a screensaver so your feedback is welcome. The more I know about what folks want, the better the next one will be. Click here if you want the version with sound, click here if you want the version without sound. Enjoy!

As much as I would like to, I cannot give away any clues about the November event yet. What I can do is give you a sneak peek at one of the new heritage masks that will be available in the November event. That will just have to hold everyone over until we can give you some more information.

That’s it for this week. Everyone have a great week and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Asheron's Call Free Trial Returns! - 10/27/06 (by Frelorn)

The Asheron’s Call team has been hard at work with some great game improvements and exciting new content. In an effort to continue our commitment to the Asheron’s Call Franchise we are proud to announce the Asheron’s Call 14 Day Free Trial! To show our dedication to this program the upcoming holiday issue of PC Gamer Magazine, which will hit shelves in mid November, will feature a full page ad for the 14 Day Free Trial! Starting next week, we will be opening the free trial site to everyone interested in joining the exciting world of Dereth! This is a perfect opportunity to invite friends and family to check out Asheron’s Call.

More information on this exciting news will be available as we get closer to the launch of the trial program. Make sure to check back here often for more information.
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update 10/30/06 - 10/30/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there and welcome to the October 30th edition of the weekly update.

This week’s update is going to be a short one due to the fact it is our annual Halloween event here in the Turbine offices. Every department does some decorating of their area in preparation for the children of employees coming in for some Halloween fun. Many of us get in costume and just have a good time. Needless to say, this can be a bit distracting at times.

This week the team is working on fixing any issues that may still remain in the November event, Remembering the Past, tentatively scheduled to go live on November 14th. At this point all the content is done and is being tested and fixed as things are found.

As I am sure you can guess we are all excited about the upcoming free trial. This is something we have been working on getting done for some time now, and we think that along with the full page add in PC Gamer, we should be seeing some new players coming into the world of Dereth very soon. We know there are quite a few questions surrounding the upcoming trial, and those questions will be answered in short order once the trial is live and ready to go.

That’s about it for this week. Everyone have a great week and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

What If? Housing Barriers - 10/30/06 (by Severlin)

For everyone who has been following the boards, the housing barriers on the PvP server are a big source of discussion. This is also an topic within our group, and we have been discussing some (hopefully) cool ideas if the housing barriers can be reasonably changed. Before I go off and spend a lot of time investigating the tech needed to modify how housing barriers can be tweaked the team wanted to get some preliminary feedback here.

Now, we are taking a big chance here. We want to solicit feedback, but we also want to make sure people know that this stuff is not scheduled nor promised. If we post preliminary ideas here occasionally we can work with the players, but if we get burned on this I won't be able to put up preliminary thoughts anymore. Just so you folks understand my position. Also, some things we will keep super secret. We also want to surprise players with some features and content, so we certainly wouldn't be doing this all the time. Players shouldn't have that expectation.

On to the fun stuff...

The team is discussing two changes to the housing barriers on PvP servers, which at this point means Darktide.

First, Turbine might consider holding all out PvP madness nights occasionally where the housing barriers come down and people can raid as they wish. These events would be scheduled and it is even possible they would be run as a live event. Something in the game world would force the barriers down and from there, well you can imagine.

Second, there could potentially be an uncommon drop of a special key (if I can implement the tech in a reasonable amount of time) on PvP servers. With this key a character with maxed lockpicking could use it to drop a housing barrier for some amount of time. Times we are discussing would be 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour. The frequency of this drop is still under discussion.

This would provide Dark Tide people with times where the people who prefer to PvP without housing barriers could do so, and no one would be absolutely safe.

First, do players find prelimary postings useful even though we might not be able to implement the tech? Second, would these systems be fun for PvPers?

Sev~

Re: What If? Housing Barriers - 10/30/06 (by Severlin)

Originally Posted by robthehand
Why not go full out? Complete removal of all barriers.

Good question.

One of the things I find cool about AC is allegiances. It really is a unique feature for the game, and we want to encourage them. One thing an allegiance can do for its members is provide buff bot and mules in their housing that can benefit their members. With full out removal of housing barriers 24/7 our concern is that these subsystems would be quickly devastated by constant death and we would actually reduce the usefulness of allegiances and housing on PvP servers. This runs contrary to our goals of making allegiances even more cool.

Another problem with housing and PvP is that there is a huge advantage to attackers in a game like AC simply because allegiances cannot be on all the time to protect their housing. It is, quite frankly, trivial to schedule raids when an allegiance is short staffed, making the raid less fun. If we have a scheduled night for PvP then we maximize the chance that the players can get on all their friends and the raids will rock the house because it is far more likely that offense and defense will be balanced.

Does that make sense?

Re: What If? Housing Barriers - 10/30/06 (by Severlin)

Originally Posted by Kid
Suggestion: How about remove the housing barriers but do not allow non-allegiance members to enter the basement portal? That way if an allegiance wanted to run a buff-bot in the basement, they are free to do so without having another allegiance coming in and killing them.
This is just a suggestion from me as I do not play DT all that much.

Our worry is that the situation would be exactly as it is today, except that the basement would be proof against PvP. Yes, it opens up the other parts for combat, but it doesn't actually change the situation. Of concern is if people were safe in the housing before they could simply move to the basement and nothing much would change.

Re: What If? Housing Barriers - 10/30/06 (by Severlin)

Originally Posted by OldSchoolACPVP
LP is not a skill people take on Darktide. Maybe a player could drop a key(% Chance) and that key would unlock their mansion and or house with a # of uses.

If people want to be able to occasionally break the barriers and raid during off times they have to want it enough to increase their lock picking. Otherwise they would raid on Mayhem Night when the barriers go down.

Plus it makes lockpicking useful. Only one allegiance member would have to maintain the skill to use the keys...

But these types of concerns are exactly why we are posting here.

Sev~

Re: What If? Housing Barriers - 10/30/06 (by Severlin)

Originally Posted by robthehand
To affect a guild you need to hit them where it hurts. Currently on DT you really cant "affect" a guild. Stopping their xp flow? Impossible with their being so many places to level.
Camping their mansion? Useless due to the fact that every player on DT has a safe place to go.

Removing all housing barriers is truely the only way this will have any affect on DT.
Someone is camping your xp spot? Find his mule spot and whack him back.

Really want to hose a rival guild? Save your keys and use them in succession to nail them. That's the idea. A lot of the trick is making the keys drop just enough to make this fun. But you can't just randomly make existance miserable for *all* buff bots and mules. You have to "want" it. That's the balance we are looking for.

DT has been begging for this for a long time. Really the only voices you will hear against this are people who number 1 dont play DT. Number 2 recent O.o server DT converts.

make the right choice.

This thread is one step to determine exactly what DT *has* been begging for. Do a majority of players share your views? Maybe. I am not saying a single thread will be the end all - be all of finding out what PvP players ultimately want, but this is exactly the type of feedback we are trying to solicit.

Sev~
 

Re: What If? Housing Barriers - 10/30/06 (by Severlin)

Originally Posted by robthehand
Another idea would be to implement this with some sort of land control.

Currently if you camp another guilds mansion their is no benifit to you to continue camping it (other then a few kills at the crystal) or any benifit for the defending guild to defend it.

If you make it so if a guilds mansion has oppsoing guild touching the crystal of their mansion all xp that guild makes would go down by a certain % there would be a serious reason to defend your mansion. Or camp an oppsoing guilds mansion. Even better it would maybe force guild out of mansion all together and back into towns!

I prefer a reward solution rather than a punishment solution. I would instead envision each mansion having a banner. If an allegiance grabs a rival banner the entire allegiance that is online gets XP. If the allegiance defends their banner successfully during Mayhem Night then *they* would get the XP. But now we are going into design elements I haven't discussed with the team and these might not be possible without serious tech.

The stuff we are talking about, however, is not designed to be the solution to cool land control based PvP. It is designed to reward and encourage PvP in a manner that maximizes both fun and the chance that players can engage in satisfying interplayer conflict.

Sev~

Weekly Update 11/6/06 - 11/6/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there and welcome to the November 6th edition of the weekly update.

This week we are going to address one of the issues most discussed on this forum over the last few months, the pre-order gem.

After much debate from the community as well as internally here in the office we have come to a decision we feel is optimal given the situation. Starting in the November event players will be able to get a new augmentation which will grant them an 8% health bonus for 24 hours upon use. Getting this augmentation will give players a gem in their inventory similar to the pre-order gem some players already have. The cost of getting this gem will be 2 billion experience and the gems effect will NOT stack with the Asheron’s Benediction gem that those who did pre-order have in their inventory. We feel this is the best solution to an issue which has stirred up debate for quite some time now.

Remember that this upcoming Friday the November Letter to the Players and new Event fiction will be released. This month is going to mark the beginning of the latest story arc in Asheron’s Call. What does the future hold for Dereth in the coming months?

That’s about it for this week, everyone have a great day and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

November Event Delayed - 11/10/06 (by Frelorn)

During our testing of the November event a small issue was found that requires some extra attention to fix. In order to make sure this is done correctly we have decided to change patch day from Tuesday the 14th to Thursday the 16th of November. This will allow us enough time to make sure that the fixes going in to the game are sufficiently tested by the team and our QA department.

The new downtime window for the November event is Thursday November 16, 8am - 3pm EST.
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update 11/13/06 - 11/13/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there and welcome to the November 13th edition of the weekly update.

As many of you know the Asheron’s Call free trial site was live over this past weekend. Unfortunately we had to bring the site live before originally planned and before all of the development support was ready. This allowed some players to possibly abuse trial accounts in an unintended manner.

The positive side of this is we have information for those people and we will be checking the system based on the information we have. Anyone found to have exploited the system by gathering either rank chains or excess housing may be subject to a ban across all of their accounts, both trial and existing accounts. This will mean any accounts associated with trial accounts caught abusing the system could be banned. If you are a player who used the trial in a legitimate manner, you will not need to worry about any type of repercussions with your account.

We had hoped it would not come down to this, but some players felt the need to once again try to gain advantages over other players. This trial is meant to re-energize AC and this kind of behavior only serves to hurt the game and the community.

When the Free Trial officially goes live there will be restrictions in place that will prevent this from being an issue. Until this system is in place we will be monitoring all account transactions related to the free trial for abuse.


The November event, Remembering the past is tentatively going live this Thursday, the 16th. All worlds will be down from 8am – 3pm EST and players will not be able to log in to the game. Make sure to check out the various fan sites for the tease images related to the November event, and check out the Remembering the Past event page.

That’s about it for this week. Have a great day and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Re: Quest Organizer - 11/13/06 (by Severlin)

Things are still in the concept phase, but the implementation will be dependent on what quest information is available to the game. Quests with flags are easier, as are quests with timers. It's all those quests that don't give these that become the design issue.

With the number of quests in the game we have to be careful about a tracker that requires information added to the quests because any decision to do that requires lots of changes and the QA to retest every quest we ever put into the game would be... non-trivial.

The quest tracker has two design goals. One is to let players track which quests they have encountered so they can see what they are doing. Another goal is to give the players a summary of the quests they can pursue at a particular level. The team believes that many players don't realize the large amount of quests actually available. If we do something that shows all quests then we would have to decide how hard it will be to have "hidden" quests that only appear on the tracker if you find them.

Sev~
 

Re: November Event Delayed Updated: 11/14/06 (by Frelorn)

As many of you know already we had decided to delay the November patch for a few days in order to make sure some issues we ran into were resolved. Well, as it stands today these issues have not yet been resolved. Rather than releasing the patch with some things we are not happy with, we have decided to delay the patch until November 21st. This was not an easy decision for us, but we would rather delay things by a few more days rather than release a patch with possible issues. If there are any other schedule changes we will be sure to let everyone know.
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update 11/20/06 - 11/20/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there and welcome to the November 20th edition of the Asheron’s Call Weekly Update!

The November event, Remembering the Past will be launching tomorrow November 21st. Please remember that all worlds will be down from 8am – 3pm EST.

This week the team is working on implementing some of the things for the December event. That means they get to see how they look in a game environment, and how they work. We then begin making the appropriate changes to these quests and items to bring them in line with what the initial vision for the particular item or quest is supposed to be.

Much to my surprise today we had a visit from one of our oldest friends here at Turbine, Kwip. He and his wife came by to say hello to some old friends and to hand out some jerky to some of the staff. For many it was nice to see them in for a visit, and for me it was finally nice to meet him and his wife. You can check out Kwip’s work over at http://www.neenerneener.net.

Finally, this is a reminder that most of us here will be having a long weekend this week to celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday. Customer service will still be working during the time the rest of us are off. Billing and technical support hours will be as follows:

Account & Technical Support will be closed in observation of the Thanksgiving Day Holiday, Thursday November 23rd, 2006.

Account & Technical Support will be available Friday November 24th, via live chat and email. Account Management phone support will be closed. Please plan accordingly.

Both departments will re-open on Monday November 27th during the regular business hours of 12pm-9pm EST. Phone, email, and live chat services will be available.


That’s about it for this week. Everyone have a great week and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc