Editing Announcements - 2002/02 - Fever Dreams (section)

== Letter to the Players 2 ==

{{Microsoft Zone
 |  Link = <nowiki>http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEletterfeb02-1.asp</nowiki>
 |  Date = February 14, 2002
 | Title = Fever Dreams
 |  Text =
<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Fever Dreams'''</font>
<br>Our February Event, ''Fever Dreams'', brings a lot of new content to Dereth: 9 new dungeons and 2 new quests, in addition to 500 new houses (400 cottages, 90 villas, and 10 mansions), and the return of the original Shadowhunter Armor and the Hoary Mattekar Robe to Asheron's Call.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Hoary Mattekar Robes and Shadowhunter Armor'''</font>
<br>Here are some notes about the Shadowhunter Armor and the Hoary Mattekar Robe. The basic dynamic is explained in the Developer's Notes. Keep in mind that if you have an original Greater Shadow Armor piece, that you will not be able to trade it in for either the "stoneable" (also called "post-patch") version of GS*, or the "neo" (what we are calling the new armor--hey, maybe it will stick!) version of GS*. If players desire to lose the advantages of the original GS* (no wield requirements, unique color), then we may implement some mechanic in the future for them to trade it in permanently for the stoneable/neo versions.
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We decided to put the Wield_Requirement of level 30 on the neo GS* because, having developed this new tech, we want to use it the way it should have always been used: allowing us to implement very cool weapon/armor/items for higher levels that don't have the potential of completely breaking the lower level advancement game. The original GS* was one of these items. Watch for more items soon that incorporate Wield_Requirements.
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Also note that there will be 3 new color options for each piece of GS* coming in March (neo LS* and MS* are the exact same armor as their original versions). We hope that this allows players to express their individual fashion choices in ways they couldn't with the old sets of GS*.
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As for the Hoary Mattekar Robe, this dynamic will be back in much the same way that it appeared during Sudden Season. The main differences will be that the Hoary Mattekars have been in training since their last appearance, and so are buff and mean. They also are making their visit to Dereth permanent this time, and so on their travels they don't carry everything on them all the time. So expect to have to kill a number of them before you find that coveted Hoary Mattekar Hide.
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Finally, a number of players have asked why we are bringing these back after we had removed them from the game in the first place. It's a good question. The primary reason is, as we discussed in last month's Letter to the Players, Asheron's Call is continually evolving. What was once considered "uber" and the ultimate in choices of weapons and armor quickly becomes commonplace. We had been discussing often over these last few months about whether to bring back the original Shadow Armor and the Hoary Mattekar Rbe, and the conversation quickly turned to "how" and not "if". After the duping issues that we faced two months ago, we realized it was a good idea to speed up the process of allowing all of our players in Dereth to have access to these items once again. We think that over the next few months, players will regard these armor items as a potential choice amongst a spectrum of possibilities, rather than the only desired option.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Housing'''</font>
<br>Our number one focus with housing continues to be storage. In January, we made some changes that would fix the underlying problems that caused item loss, except in those situations in which landblock rollbacks could occur as a result of a server crash. Our theoretical model was that we would occasionally see server crashes that resulted in players reporting partial item loss if they had recently placed some of their items, and total item loss if they had recently placed all of their items. In 90% of reports this is exactly what occurred. Our January changes represent a significant advancement in finding a permanent solution to this problem. However, there are still a few reports that do not fit into this pattern. We are still investigating to determine what the true cause of item loss was in these cases.
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Until we finish this investigation, however, we can still not recommend that players entrust important or valuable items in their housing hooks or storage chests until such time that we can be 100% sure of their security.
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There were a number of more minor bugs that we fixed for February. Players who had item loss found that their hooks were no longer usable in the vast majority of cases. Those item hooks should now be free to use. Players in Villas and Mansions may need to walk through both their houses and dungeons to make sure all their hooks reset.
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We also fixed the state in which the Covenant Crystals were not indicating a house was owned, even though it was. Furthermore, there were 10 Covenant Crystals linked with Mansions which were not usable in January. They should be fixed now. Finally, there were a number of dungeon portals for both Villas and Mansions which were not working correctly. This is now also fixed.
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If you notice any problems with any of the dynamics mentioned above, please report it immediately, either in-game, or through <font color=#FFFFCC><nowiki>http://bugs.zone.com</nowiki></font>.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Miscellaneous Issues'''</font>
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:* The Singularity Bow, Crossbow, Katar, Staff, and Dagger are now in the game. Martine's ways and methods are sometimes hard to fathom, however. Instead of requiring the Glowing Virindi Cloak like the Singularity Sword, Mace, Axe, and Spear do, these require the Glowing Mosswart Shroud. This will be changed in March so that the Hollow Minions require the Glowing Virindi Cloak.
:* "Wall-jumping." We fixed the bug that allowed players to side-jump and stick onto a wall. We did this with the intention of making it harder to gain experience from monsters with no risk involved. We will continue to address "perch" situations over the next few months.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Hot Issues</font>
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:* One issue that we have received a lot of feedback from players about recently is the allegiance experience dynamics. "XP Chains", as they are commonly referred to, have elicited many varied responses from players in terms of whether this dynamic should continue as is or be changed. We will be looking at this dynamic closely over this next month, and if we decide that a change is called for, we will share this information with the general player base some time before we implement it in the following Event (the earliest this change would occur would be April's).
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''The Future</font>
<br>The many different threads in our storyline are beginning to intersect with one another. Some mysteries will be resolved, new ones will be revealed, and the overall story will become clearer as we advance into the middle of our new epic. After a few months of focusing on game mechanics and bug fixes, this month starts a series of more content-heavy Events, with new quests, dungeons, and creatures coming your way.
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But there are still a number of overall game systems issues that need to be addressed. Issues such as intra-melee balance, melee vs. magic vs. missile balance, usefulness of all skills such as the Appraisals. And, like last year around this time, when we discussed ways in which AC could be more fun and less tedious, we are planning on implementing changes to existing dynamics so that more people have more fun with their day-to-day AC experience. As we get closer to specific implementations of these features, we are excited to share our plans and ideas with you.
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So our basic focus over these next 4-6 months will be wrapping up some of our more egregious "balance" issues. While things will never be static in an ever-changing game such as Asheron's Call, we think we have a set of systems being worked on that, at the end, will make every class excited and happy to play. Perfect? Probably not, but a couple of huge steps in the right direction. Hand-in-hand with these balance changes, we will also be changing and tweaking some of the basic aspects of Asheron's Call, ranging from magic to melee/missile to transportation and many other areas. Our changes in these regards are meant to make people enjoy their Asheron's Call experience now more than ever.
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After we get done with these goals, we will return to focusing almost exclusively on new content, as well as updating old quests that have become a little stale, and some of our more minor bug fixes. But first we want to even the playing field, and make the playing as fun as possible.
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We also have not forgotten housing, and we will continue to try and improve the housing feature over the next six months. Some of the important goals:

:* Residential Quarters: Cheaper storage potential that will probably not require maintenance payments.
:* An ability to use some items on hooks: "Gee, my life has become so much easier ever since I installed that portal to Marae Lassel in my house!"
:* Incremental Storage: being able to purchase additional storage in your house.
:* An @houses available command that allows one to see what houses are both open for sale, and not yet sold.
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While we have no immediate timeframe for these, we are working hard on them, and expect to see some of them soon. We are also still committed to opening up regular houses on Dereth. However, we will not be able to put 500 houses per month on Dereth like we have for the last two months. Expect another 200 houses for March and April. This will give us close to 3000 houses per world, with an ultimate goal of somewhere between 3500-4000 domiciles per world on Dereth and the same number of Residential Quarters in the next six months.
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As for next month: we will see the first step in our changes to melee and missile dynamics, as warriors of many of the melee classes and archers get to experience weapons that push the envelope of anything that has been seen before in Dereth. This is not our final solution, but merely that first step.
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Our dynamic for how people use mana stones will also undergo a couple of notable change, and we think they're great!
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Thank you for continuing to play and support Asheron's Call. It is your passion for Asheron's Call and the world of Dereth that make everything we do in service of this game worthwhile.

--The AC Team
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Final Note: Nexus Armor Removal on Darktide'''</font>
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Some of you may remember that as the result of people exploiting the duping bug back in December, the Nexus armor was actually duplicated on Darktide. We stated when we confirmed this that it was our intention to delete all copies of the Nexus armor with the February update. While this remains our intention, the work to make this happen was slightly greater then we anticipated. We decided it was more important for February for us to deliver on some incredible content for all players, then to take away some content to get a fix in for just Darktide that effects just a handful of people. As such, the deletion of the Nexus armor on Darktide will happen with the March update. We apologize for the confusion.
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