Re: Reentering Deep Mukkir Nest? - 7/27/06 (by Kitani)

The Quest to gain access to the Dark Isle works like this: You gain access to the quest from the Shadow. This flag lasts for 24 hours. If you successfully gain access to the Dark Isle, you can no longer gain access to the dungeon. Once the 24 hour flag expires, you cannot get back in. If you do not gain access to the Dark Isle before the 24 hour timer expires, you can talk to the NPC again to get reflagged.
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Kintani
AC Content Designer
Turbine, Inc.

Re: Reentering Deep Mukkir Nest? - 8/1/06 (by Kitani)

*looks around*

A-hem...

"Due to popular demand, access to the Deep Mukkir Nest will become permanent in the August Prop. For those who have already completed this quest and gained access to the Dark Isle, they will need to speak with the Shadow who sent you to the Deep Mukkir Nest originally, in order to gain permanent access to the Deep Mukkir Nest."

"We now return you to your scheduled Forums. Have a nice day."
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Kintani
AC Content Designer
Turbine, Inc.

A Day in the Life - 8/3/06 (by Frelorn)

Many have asked and some may have not asked but here it is anyway.

A Day in the Life...

Just a warning, this page may wreak havok on anyone on 56k.
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Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update  - 8/1/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there everyone, and welcome to the slightly belated version of the weekly update. I apologize for the delay, as I was in the middle of moving to a new home. As many of you know, moving is just not fun at all and personally, I am glad it is done. Now if I could just make my internet connection work, I would have all I need.

Anyway, that’s enough about me; let’s get on to what going on this week in Asheron’s Call news.

All of us here on the Asheron’s Call team are happy to announce that this year at The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX as most folks know it, Asheron’s Call will have a strong presence. As a matter of fact all of our games will be there. I will personally be there speaking on behalf of AC, giving away goodies like free game boxes and other goodies autographed by the entire AC team, as well as some past members of the team. We will also be having some contests for all sorts of prizes and AC goodness. Did I also mention the giant banner that we are having made just for PAX? For anyone interested in going, please check out the official PAX website for all the event details. I am hopeful that I will get the opportunity to meet many AC players and fans at this event.

We are continuing to watch and gather feedback on the Dark Isle and the associated quests that go with it. As with any new thing we do, we gather this information and make any changes that may be needed as we go. So while alot of players do not like how things are working right now, please understand that this is a work in progress and we will continue to try and make things as enjoyable for players as we can.

The forums upgrade was a complete success. Everything went off without a hitch and we are very happy with how things have turned out so far. The non subscriber section will be coming soon and I am hopeful to have a date set for when that section will go live sometime this week. As part of these new forums I am going to be launching a bit of an amnesty program for former members of the community who were banned from these forums for certain reasons. Those forum accounts will be un-banned on a conditional basis. In returning they will be allowed only one chance. If they break the forums rules again, they will be removed permanently and not be welcome back here.

And last but not least we want to remind you to keep an eye open for the live events going on all this month. They can happen anytime, anywhere, so make sure you are ready! Grael has already wreaked havoc on many towns throughout Dereth.

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

Re: Weekly Update  - 8/1/06 (by Frelorn)

Without getting into the specifics, mostly because we haven’t ironed out all of the details just yet, here is some of things we are looking at doing for PAX this year.

We will be having contests involving different quests in the game at different levels. If you complete the quest within a certain time window or just survive, depending on the quest, you get one of the many special prizes.

Some AC trivia questions for prizes.

I will also be handing out free copies of the game to as many people as I can.

There is more, but I don't want to spoil everything for those who are going. The more people we get to come in for AC the better.
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Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update  - 8/7/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there everyone, and welcome to the weekly update. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

First off we want to once again thank everyone for being patient with us during our authentication issues last month. We really appreciate the understanding that most people showed us during that time. As a token of our appreciation, during the August event all players will be able to speak to an NPC for a special token of our appreciation. Upon speaking to one of the appropriate NPC’s, players will receive a special pack doll. Now before anyone says anything this pack doll serves a double role. If you want to keep the pack doll you can, however if you give the pack doll back to the NPC who gave it to you, then you will be given one free level. Players will only be able to turn in one doll per character, though they will be able to trade it or give it to others. This is our way of saying thanks to everyone who was patient while we worked through the issues with the Authentication servers.

Now that we have that out of the way let’s get on to what else is going on this week. As many of you may have already seen or been a part of, Grael has started to pick up the pace on his attacks around Dereth. Will anyone be able to stop him?

During this week the team is getting things done for the August event. We are also in preparations for some changes to the website itself. What this basically means is that everyone is especially busy around here this week. We have also already started the planning for the September event. I cannot say for sure when the changes to the site will begin, but they are coming. The goal we have for the site is to make it alot more simple and easy to navigate.

That’s about it for this weeks update. As always I will update everyone if we have more information or announcements to make. Have a great week and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc

Weekly Update  - 8/14/06 (by Frelorn)

Hello there everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend.


The August event, Shattering the Dark is scheduled to go live this Thursday August 17, 2006. The downtime window we have scheduled is from 8am EDT – 3pm EDT. As always, this is subject to change if we come across something in our testing that would cause us to delay things.

The August Letter to the Players will be out a bit later today as well as the event Fiction. It is an exciting time in Dereth, a time when people will need to pull together in order to face common foes.

As I mentioned last week, we are all getting ready for The Penny Arcade Expo, which is taking place August 25-27th in Bellevue, Washington. I will be there representing Asheron’s Call and more specifically I will be spreading the word to as many people as I can about this great game. I will also be running some contests for various prizes including but not limited to autographed boxes and official Asheron’s Call T-shirts. People in attendance will also be the first to see some of the new features we have going into the game. All of us here on the team are very excited about this event and I am looking forward to meeting many of you while out there.

I would now like to take this time to answer a couple of general questions that have been asked here on the forums.

1. Can we look forward to a VoD update?

It is on our list of things to address in the coming months after the current story arc has been completed. This is not definite, but it is something we would like to do if time allows.

2. Would it be possible to have server forums set up here?

It would definitely be possible. If the demand is high enough for them it can be done. Please keep in mind that if we did do this that those forums would not be off topic friendly as some other message boards are. The rules of the forums would remain in line with what we have here now.

3. Could we get a possible Silfi of Crimson Stars update?

Only if you ask really nicely.

4. Are there any plans to revisit the Spec and Unspec temples/timers again?

At this time we have no plans to revisit this. In the grand scheme of things we have many more pressing issues to address in the game before we ever think of going back to this system again. The temples were designed to allow players to make some changes and or fix some mistakes made in creation. They are not intended to allow players to totally swap their current template for another one at the drop of a hat. Every choice should have some consequence.

Well that’s about it for this weeks update. As always I will update everyone if we have more information or announcements to make. Have a great week and see you all in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc