Editing Announcements - 2002/05 - Hidden Vein (section)

== Release Notes ==

{{Microsoft Zone
 |  Link = <nowiki>http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEeventbuild.asp</nowiki>
 |  Date = May 15, 2002
 | Title = Developer's Notes
 |  Text =
[[Image:img_painting.jpg|left]]
<br><br><br><br>Here are just some of the additions made in the May 15 game update, Hidden Vein. 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, [[Announcements - 2002/05 - Hidden Vein#Rollout Article | <font color=#FFFFCC>Hidden Vein</font>]].
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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 <nowiki>http://bugs.zone.com</nowiki>.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''New Functionality and Content'''</font>

:* There's a number of new quests available this month.
:* Monster activity on the Caul Island has now increased significantly.
:* Monsters that now become "stuck" for a long period of time will teleport back to their home position, instantly regaining their full hit points.
:* It is now significantly harder to "lure" monsters away from their pack one at a time without them alerting all of their fellow monsters.
:* All duplicate hooks, storage chests, and Covenant Crystals have been removed. Any items in those hooks or storage chests have been lost.
:* Players now no longer need their appraisal skills to successfully appraise any items except for some rare quest/monster items, which will remain unappraisable regardless of a player's skill.
:* There have been a number of changes to the way item loss on death works. From levels 1-5, players no longer lose any items or pyreals. From 6-10, players lose half their pyreals on death, but no items. From 11-20, players lose half their pyreals and 1 non-wielded item on death. From 21-35, players lose half their pyreals, and a normal (compared to the previous system) number of non-wielded items on death. For levels 36 and up, there are no changes to the previous system. Players will continue to lose the normal amount of pyreals and items, including wielded items. Please note this change does not affect any PK interactions at all.
:* Two new spellcasting tabs have been added, for a total of seven.
:* The fellowship panel now displays the hps/mana/stamina levels for each player in the fellowship.
:* Players are now able to point the mouse over a town icon on the map panel to display the town name. Settlements previously represented by a white dot now have their own separate icon.
:* There is a new option in the Character Panel called "Display Allegiance Logins". When checked, you will receive a friends-list style notification when your patron or any of your vassals logs on or off. This option is off by default.
:* @house available command now lists # of apartments available, although it does not list locations.
:* If a player has less than 10 mb of hard drive space open when attempting to download the latest Event update, a dialog box will popup letting the player be able to clear up space on their hard drive before continuing.
:* Changing Natural Resistances so that they have no effect on Hollow damage, and changing the transfer spells so that drain resistance has no effect on them, were two changes that did not make their way into the May Event, but will be changed in June. Please see this month's [[Announcements - 2002/05 - Hidden Vein#Letter to the Players| <font color=#FFFFCC>Letter to the Players</font>]] for more details.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Miscellaneous Improvements and Changes'''</font>

:* There was a bug with the new portal changes that allowed characters who tied to summoned portals to bypass the restrictions on the original portal. This has now been fixed, and the earlier ties will now summon portals with the correct restrictions.
:* Over 150 creatures now have higher experience point values. The increases range from minor to very significant.
:* There was a bug where house hooks would become visible even after the owner had turned them invisible, under a variety of different circumstances. This has now been fixed.
:* The Crystal Lord and its Minions have been tweaked to present a tougher challenge for players. Players should expect to have work together with a number of fellows to take down the Crystal Lord.
:* The rate at which dual and treble-spell jewelry drops have been doubled again. There is now also a possibility of finding dual-spell clothing.
:* There are now new versions of the "newbie creatures" (e.g., Drudge Slinker, Young Banderling, etc.) in dungeons that are aggressive, i.e., they will attack players unprovoked. The landscape versions of these creatures remain non-aggressive.
:* House Settlement Portals for those settlements added in April have been added to the world.
:* Players can no longer use keys to lock a chest.
:* Players are now told that they have 90 days grace period for a Residential Quarter, as opposed to the 30 days for a landscape dwelling.
:* Lifestone Tie's spell difficulty has been lowered from 150 to 100, to match Lifestone Recall's difficulty.
:* A bug preventing players from imbuing their Hollow Mace with Bloodhunter oil has been fixed.
:* Virindi Executors now have a small chance of dropping Singularity Keys.
:* Handing in Unlocked Tiny, Small, and Large Mnemosynes to their Undead Collectors now award 5, 25, and 75k xp respectively. The old values were 3, 15, and 45k.
:* We had planned on having a successful craft interaction to create Wood, Copper or Obsidian keys from the appropriate Golem heart to create three keys instead of one. Unfortunately, this is bugged for the May prop and will be fixed for June.
:* Players are now able to appraise an item while it is on a hook.
:* Wrapped arrowheads can now interact with wrapped atlatl darts.
:* A number of macro spots in the Serac Vault have been removed.
:* A number of macro spots in the Singularity Dungeon have been removed.
:* A bug that sometimes prevented the appearance of a Thorsten Armor quest chest in a cottage south of Eastham was fixed.
:* Magic items spawned in monster loot now can have more max_mana, and will always spawn with maximum mana.
:* A number of changes were made to the Aerlinthe quest. Please see our previous Zone [[Microsoft Zone Archive/News & Events/Upcoming Changes to Aerlinthe|<font color=#FFFFCC>note to the players</font>]] for more details.
:* The Bronze trophies have been made no-drop/no-give.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Minor Details'''</font>

:* Both sets of wedding raiment can now be dyed in all nine colors.
:* Help text was added for @help endurance, to explain the new basic properties of endurance, which were added in the April update. Note that there is no @endurance command.
:* The Timaru Crafter will now exchange the Siraluun Hat for a Siraluun Bag with one Kithless feather inside.
:* Shield of Valor, Songview, and Tusker Notch Settlement Portals have now been placed.
:* Some typos were corrected in the letters in the Thorsten's Armor quest.
:* The message a player gets when imbuing a Hollow Sword with Bloodhunter oil now correctly refers to a sword instead of a spear.
:* Diamond Powder is now droppable/givable.
:* Quiddity Fragments, Olthoi Claws, Red/Gold Letters, dye plants, Palenqual totems, mana stones, and a number of food items are now hookable.
:* The Ruined Cave portal's level restriction has been upped to level 20.
:* We removed the old Wedding books from Scribes' inventories.

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