Newletter, March 27, 2001

Newsletter

MAGGIE THE JACKCAT'S IRREGULAR AC NEWS
March 27, 2001 Edition
Brought to you by Maggie the Jackcat of Thistledown
Web Site: www.thejackcat.com/AC
Email: Maggie@thejackcat.com or thejackcat@xrgaming.net

CONTENTS:

* An Explosion of 3rd Party Programs!
* Maggie the Jackcat's Kick-Ass Fabulous AC Web Site Turns 1 Year Old!
* AC Sites in the News
* Maggie the Jackcat's Kick-Ass Fabulous Site News

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AN EXPLOSION OF 3RD PARTY PROGRAMS
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Dave Simpson started it all with Dereth Cartography. Soon afterwards, a group of enterprising folks got to work on uncovering other ways to enhance game-playing enjoyment. Are these new 3rd party programs and add-ons cheats? Will it be the END OF AC AS WE KNOW IT?!?!? Will it pit the "haves" against the "have nots"? I'll leave those questions for others to ponder. As far as I know, at this time Turbine does not have an official stance on any of these programs. Now here are just a few them for you to enjoy or despise:

Sixth Sense
http://ac.webefx.com/
Sixth Sense is a plug-in for Decal, written in C++ by Madar al-Aziz of Harvestgain which acts as an extended radar for AC, giving you notification and coordinates of a configurable set of items and monsters through the Decal UI. My vassal tried this one out and has decided not to use it on a regular basis. He said he ran into problems with lag; it slowed everything down. He suggests that DSL or cable modem users might not have the same problem. Plus, he also indicated that the extension on the radar wasn't enough to make that huge a difference to him in-game. I've heard from others, however, who just rave and rave about it!

Spiltbeans
http://www.archgrove.co.uk/spiltbeans.html
Is it the end of spell research? Sure looks that way. Asriel of Thistledown and folks at ACDev. org appear to have finally cracked the seed your personal tapers are calculated on, based on your zone ID. Run the program and in seconds, you'll get a complete listing of all spell formulas for your character. Who knew that there were spells like the following: Groovy Portal Sending (Description: Sends you on a magical, groove-filled trip....) or Bovine Intervention (Description: When Cow gods intervene.....)? Don't run it if you don't like spoilers and prefer to do your spell research the old-fashioned way, because this one really and truly SPILLS the BEANS!

Dungeon Viewer
http://www.acdev.org/
You may have seen these 3D dungeons on various web sites. Now view them on your own computer! (If you have a good system ;-) Asriel of Thistledown has also created this beta version Dungeon Viewer. Explore Dereth's dangerous dungeons offline without the threat of Plasma Golems breathing down your neck.

For further exploration, try these nifty links:
DECAL Home
Dave's Asheron's Call Development
ACDev.org
Decal Plug-ins
Par's Plug-Ins

DISCLAIMER: Please use extreme caution when downloading any application to your own computer and always scan for viruses. I have no personal connection to any of these authors, so use at your own risk! I repeat: use at your own risk. Always download from trusted locations to minimize the risk of Trojans. And please don't come to me for tech support! As someone who didn't even get around to installing ACExplorer until Level 36 or so and who has never even personally used Splitpea, I'm really not the best person to ask about these sorts of things. ;-) You may also want to read Turbine's response on the Q&A page about the risks of using these plug-ins.

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MTJ'S KICK-ASS FABULOUS AC WEB SITE TURNS 1 YEAR OLD!
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Yes, it's true. And no one finds it harder to believe than me! I'm amazed that something has managed to keep my interest as long as AC has. In part I think it's because the web site took on a life of its own. I had no idea when I started it how popular it would become. As many of you know, the site began as a bunch of Excel spreadsheets where I documented game information for the future use of my vassal, who didn't make it in to beta testing until the later part of the program. We had both been toying with the idea of leaving another game which had started to lose its luster and were looking for something else to play together.

Currently the site receives well over 5,000 unique visits a day, and during patch days, that number has exceeded 8,000. The traffic has increased so much since its launch that my hosting company recently contacted me and informed me I was going to have to upgrade the account. Ouch! ;-)

Aside from a few rather ugly displays of just how unbelievably nasty people can be when they really try, both playing AC and doing the web site have remained extraordinarily fun for me. As long as they remain fun, I plan to continue. I'd just like to say, once again, thank you to all my site visitors for your wonderful letters, news, screenshots, in-game hellos and contributions to the site. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the nice words, even when I get terribly behind answering email. I think AC must have the best on-line community anywhere on the web! And, of course, thank you to Turbine for making such a kick-ass game to write about!

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AC SITES IN THE NEWS
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Flying Cow of Doom
http://ac.flyingcowod.com/
The Flying Cow of Doom wrote to me recently and informed me that I was missing an Atlan from my quest write-up: The Pathetic Shivering Atlan Claw! He included a picture for me of his sad little weapon, with its 0-2 Cold Damage. It really made me laugh. To see more of the Flying Cow quest items, including the Granite Bowling Ball, visit the link above.

Pack Monsters -- The Game
http://seekers.acsage.com/Games/Games.html
Two members of the Seekers, Arianda and Avazel, have designed a charming game in the tradition of Concentration. Match different pack monsters by overturning tiles. Complete with a rousing theme song, and little dancing Mosswarts, this is a game that shouldn't be missed. I loved it! Finally, something that can tear me away from Bejeweled! ;-)

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MAGGIE THE JACKCAT'S KICK-ASS FABULOUS SITE NEWS!
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1 year old! Yay!! What could be bigger news than that? :) But, as usual, here's some of the latest news from the site. The Spring's Sorrows patch page was extremely popular this past week, along with the Mnemosyne write-up. My vassal even used it! Ned Cleversun is really not much of a quest guy. I can only drag him along if there's an item involved that will help him kill stuff more easily. I think the only ones I've managed to get him to do were the Composite Bow (he's an Archer), the Focusing Stone (he's a Life Mage), and most recently the Mnemosynes (he's always covered in those nasty debuffs). He likes those gems, indeed! I was glad, since I take my Patron duties very seriously and always try to keep on top of the latest things just for him. It's hard sometimes to keep a Vassal who's 21 levels higher than you in the know.

And because I think so highly of my vassal, the site will also have a new feature in the very near future: Tips from Ned Cleversun! Soon, you too will have the opportunity to listen to the many lectures he so loves to dispense! Brace yourselves! ;-)

Other sections of the site that have received a huge number of page views have been the newly finished Bargains and Crafters sections. I still have to add the latest patch information, but I'll try to keep them as current as possible. And, as always, ... more coming soon! ;-)

See you in the game!

- Maggie the Jackcat
Thistledown

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Copyright 2001 by Maggie the Jackcat. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be used or reproduced or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.