Announcements - 2004/06 - Pillars Made of Sand

June 2004 - Patch Page

Teaser Images

Turbine:

Exclusives:

ACVault	Maggie the Jackcat

AC Stratics	Warcry's Crossroads of Dereth	Asheron's Call Mystics

Teaser

Original Link (now dead) - Original Link (now dead) - http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=247

Treaties in Stone

In a deep cavern, hidden far from the prying eyes and sharpened steel of Isparians, torchlight flickered across a stone table. Two figures stood there, bent over maps and parchments.

The larger of the two, a gray giant in black and gold armor, stepped back from the table. He stood quietly for a moment and then spoke in a voice that sounded like an avalanche. "Are we ready, then?"

His companion wore a green tunic and yellow sash which stood out in stark contrast from his black fur. His voice was not as deep but held the same note of strength.

"Patience, my friend. I have not finished going through the most recent reports."

The other made a rumbling noise and clenched his fist. "Niarltah, we know what we must do. Let us get on with it!"

"No, Muldaveus. Not yet," Niarltah replied. His eyes remained focused on the page in his hand.

Muldaveus roared with frustration and with one enormous hand swept half the table clear. He slammed his fist down onto the table's surface, took a moment to gather himself, and spoke through clenched teeth. "While you go over these documents, our time is slipping through our fingers! The Isparians have raided the valley fortress and it is almost certain that they know of our plans! We cannot waste any more time!"

Niarltah stood from the table, put down the parchment that he had been reading, smoothed his tunic and looked at Muldaveus. Although the Lugian was much more massive, they stood eye to eye.

"I am well aware of the situation in the Direlands," Niarltah said calmly. "I read it in Kamenua's report. And yes, time may not be on our side, but it would be foolish to make our move without being sure that we have all of the necessary facts."

He picked up a parchment seemingly at random from the stack at his side. He looked down at it and his eyes narrowed. "Example: There are reports that the Burun have begun attacking Isparian settlements. Question: Will this cause the Isparians to increase their counterattacks in the Blackmire and the A'mun?"

Muldaveus began to answer, but Niarltah interrupted him. "I already know the answer, my friend," he said with a malicious grin. He drew another parchment from the stack. "My spies have reported increased activity in the Isparian cities, centered on the large stone halls and the new crystals that their mages and alchemists have created. In addition, my reports state that the Isparians have found means to prepare for battle more quickly, and that they are spending less time in the shops of those who sell magical scrolls." Niarltah waited for Muldaveus to reply.

"But what does this tell us?" Muldaveus asked. "Nothing!"

Niarltah's grin grew wider. "It tells us what they are not doing, my friend. They are not, as yet, attempting to block our plans. They are not increasing their attacks on the newcomers. I believe they are still thinking that they should wait and see."

At this, Muldaveus began to grin himself, a fearsome sight to behold. "And what more do your reports tell you of the newcomers?" he asked.

"They continue to drive the Mosswarts out of the swamps, killing those that linger behind. The survivors have been migrating west and south... there are some rumors of a new cult rising in the midst of the fleeing packs. Interesting..." Niarltah paused briefly, his eyes narrowing. "Apparently a particularly bright Mosswart approached the Isparians, asking for help. According to my spies, the results were mixed. A Mosswart!" Niarltah spat. "On our world some of us hunted them for sport!"

He was reaching for another parchment when there was a knock at the door. A Lugian entered, and his deep voice betrayed his excitement when he addressed Muldaveus. "My Lord, they have all arrived. We are all ready."

The door closed and Niarltah set his pages down on the stone table. "Now. Now it is time."

Rollout Article

Original Link (now dead) - Original Link (now dead) - http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=249

Treaties in Stone

They had assembled in the vast caverns. From across Dereth they had come. From the captured citadels in the west to the pickets around Dryreach in the east; from the deep forests of the north to the snow-capped mountains in the south; they had come.

Shoulder to shoulder they stood in ranks, Tumeroks and Lugians. Muldaveus looked out at their massed strength and remembered the day that they had broken free from their masked and cloaked masters. As they murmured among themselves, Muldaveus remembered the pride of their victory, immediately followed by humiliating defeat after defeat at the hands of the Isparians. He remembered the failure of the siege at Tethana and the disaster at the fortress in the Lost Wish Mountains.

But that was the past. He raised his mighty arms and the assembled forces quieted immediately.

"My friends!" he called out in a voice that filled the cavern and reverberated from the walls. "For too long we have sought victory over the Isparians and our foolish brothers! We have sought allies, but our travels into the dark valley brought no aid. But we did not give up! Now, we stand poised to take the victory that we deserve!" He shook one fist and the Tumeroks and Lugians cheered.

Behind him, seated and silent, Niarltah smiled, baring his fangs.

Many of this month's changes have already been described in detail in the Letter to the Players. There are two other topics that we'd like to discuss in detail. Verdantine

With the June event, we are opening a brand-new Asheron's Call world: Verdantine. This is a standard rules server, set at the same point in time as the existing eight worlds.

We expect that this world will be popular and under heavy load, especially for the first few days after its opening. Players may experience heavy lag as a greater than normal player load comes and goes. Deleting Characters

You may notice that there is a new field under the Delete Character button on your character selection screen. To delete a character, you must now type that character's name into this field, in addition to selecting the character from the list, prior to clicking the Delete Character button. This is intended to help prevent accidental deletion of characters.

Characters may still be restored up to an hour after deletion. Deleted character will still lose housing and allegiance ties, even if restored.

Build Notes

Original Link (now dead) - Original Link (now dead) - http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=248

Developer's Notes

New Functionality and Content

The new world Verdantine opens today!
Allegiance Bind Stones are now active and can be found in many towns.
We've introduced Item Enchantment Redirection for self-cast Banes and Impenetrability.
Hollow, Phantom, and Weeping Weapons have been changed for balance.
Marae Lassel landscape hunting and several quests have been revised.
The Gaerlan Quest has been revised.
Most Creature Enchantment scrolls now have unique icons to allow for quicker identification. New icons for other scrolls will be added over time.
Player-craftable items can no longer be sold to vendors. This does not affect tinkered items or salvage.

Miscellaneous Changes and Improvements

Spring is turning to summer the landscape is different, baby animals can no longer be found, and the character selection screen background has been updated.
We have made it harder to accidentally delete a character at the character selection screen.
You can now bind a key to "Issue Slash Command". A key bound to this command will open the chat bar, type "@", and leave the chat bar open for further text.
Fishing has been changed to make fishing macros less profitable.
Some omissions in @help chatting have been corrected.
It is now possible to create Deadly Elemental Arrowheads by applying Elemental Oil to Deadly Arrowheads.
You can now use a Whittling Knife to separate Wrapped Spiketails.
Frost and Electric Spikes now stack to 250.
Allegiance officers can now use the @allegiance info command.
You can now use @allegiance motd as an alternative to @motd.
The rewards for the Golem Hunter quests have been increased.
Many types of armor should now generate with a lower average pyreal value.
The Forbidden Catacombs have been changed to make it slightly easier to get from one side of the dungeon to another.
The loot spawned in the Forbidden Catacombs quest chest has been slightly improved, as has the drop rate for the key to the chest.
The 80-99 portal-sending statue in the Liazik Itzi temple was sending players to the 40-69 dungeon. This has been fixed.
Parts of the Liazik Itzi temple were incorrectly set as no-logout. This has been fixed.
Ahurenga portal gems are now stackable to 25.
When purchasing gems from vendors, the default number to purchase is now 1.
The vendors in Martine's Retreat and the Training Academy no longer sell Handy Healing Kits.
The message that warns you that tinkering could destroy your item now has a red font to make it easier to distinguish from the Crafting Chance of Success dialog.
Items that cannot be sold to vendors now have a line indicating this when they are examined.
The Use Next Unopened Corpse and Use Closest Unopened Corpse keys will no longer attempt to use items other than corpses if there are no corpses nearby.
Two bugs that could cause strange visual results when selling stacks of items to vendors have been resolved.
A bug that could cause a player's spell tabs to be cleared at login should no longer occur.
We've resolved a bug that could make the Dryreach Rescue quest impossible to complete.
We've fixed an issue that was causing @die to not function as designed.
The spell Vigilance will no longer override Unflinching Persistence and Tenaciousness.
The Hunter's Acumen spells no longer incorrectly override more powerful cantrips.
Greater Thorns is no longer overridden by weaker Blood Drinker spells.
The rate of mana useage on the Drudge Championship Belt has been reduced to 1 every 40 seconds.
The Matron Hive North portal has been moved further away from the new Khayyaban Lifestone.
The old Al-Jalima and Glenden Wood meeting halls have been removed.
The positioning of the Shoushi meeting hall has been adjusted.
Several older dungeons from the Gaerlan story arc that could no longer be entered by players have been removed. If you were logged out in one of these dungeons, you will find yourself at the Lifestone at login.
Some creatures that were spawning in quest areas or on ledges have been moved.
Spawns have been increased at the center of the Singularity Caul.
Some Olthoi Warriors in the New Hive were getting stuck they have been replaced by Swarm Eviscerators.
Mosswart Idol textures have been tweaked to improve their appearance.
Some creatures were not using the new rebalanced loot profiles, they has been fixed.

Minor Details

The Coin of Attachment can no longer be sold.

The Shadow Stone Necklace is now hookable.

The Tauraloi now looks correct when hooked.

The value of all Knorr coats has been reduced slightly.

The old style Leather Shirts did not correctly change their icon color when dyed, this has been fixed.

Asmolum's Dagger and the Sacrificial Dagger are now explicitly unenchantable.

The size of Tanae's Okane of the Forests has been increased to match the other Living Daggers.

The Consumed Wraith is now more resistant to electric damage.

A typo in one of the Martine's Mask messages has been corrected.

Typos in @help allegiance and @allegiance ban have been corrected.

A typo in one of Ulgrim's tells has been fixed.

Harlune the Misanthrope no longer refers to "Ceclynd."

The name and description of the Head of the Painbringer have been corrected.

The Forbidden Catacombs chest now has a proper description.

The text on the Gems of Forgetfulness and Gems of Enlightenment are now more descriptive.

Holtburg's Tacklemaster now stands a little closer to the tackle shop's window.

Typos in the Fellowship recruitment text have been fixed.