AC2:Announcements - 2003/03 - Revelations

Episode 4: "Revelations" Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/default.htm?nc=1

March '03

"Revelations" Teaser (Text--no video this month)

Complete March Episode Guide
- NEW Command Aliases for EQ and DAoC Players

Teaser Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_teaser.htm?nc=1

March Episode - "Revelations"

She grimly released arrow after arrow into the hordes as the mages worked feverishly behind her. An incoherent scream nearby told her that another of their number had fallen, but she dared not turn to see who it was. It sounded like Eldeth… Another friend lost in this battle. Of course, she thought, all who had chosen to stay behind had known the consequences.

The last stragglers squeezed through the nearly-closed doors of the fortress. The resounding thud of the doors finally closing was quickly followed by the sharp clang of its bar sliding into place. The doors secured, she looked out into the darkness from her position on the fortress walls. She could already hear the low drumming of Gurog hooves slamming into the frozen tundra. They would be here soon.

The constant drumming had driven nearly all the feeling from his fingers, yet he continued. As he beat a rhythm to ease his companion's pain, he looked out over the walls of this, their last holding in Omishan. Only a dim gloom illuminated the scene below, for heavy clouds of ash obscured most of the sun's light. Even that dim illumination was all he needed to see the vast tide of Burun still surrounding the fortress, a tide that stretched off into the distance.

She sat among the rough assemblage of warriors, those lucky enough to have survived the initial onslaught. This was the mortal races' first-and last-council of war on the Nemesis attacks. The most accomplished portal mages stood before the assembly explaining their plan, the only hope they saw of saving most of the survivors. Upon conclusion of their presentation, they asked if there were questions, but she knew there would be none. Everyone present understood what was at stake; there was nothing to question.

As he turned to direct his next attack, a Burun appeared before him. It swung its scythe-like blade at his head, but he ducked under the swing and quickly drummed a beat that called a lightning bolt down on the creature. The Burun's limbs twitched erratically as electricity coursed through its body, then it fell over. As two more Burun heads peeked over the wall, a cry came from behind him: "The wards are almost set! Just a moment more!"

A moment more and he could rest.

She swung her blade, severing the Gurog's head. As its body fell to the ground, she saw out of the corner of her eye a Gurog Champion rushing toward her, its axe already in motion. Even as she tried to evade its blow, she felt a sharp pain cross her chest. Falling to her knees, she struggled to draw breath, but only a wet gasp escaped her lips. A moment passed. A shadow passed over her. She looked up, struggling to focus her eyes. Finally her vision cleared and she saw the Champion looking down on her.

"Rock pusher," it sneered as it raised its axe once more.

A ragged cheer rose up behind her. She turned to see a violet light piercing the heavens. Looking back over the wall, she saw the Drudges break off their assault and look up. She allowed herself a tight smile as a few turned to run. The wards were complete; her duty was almost finished.

She was looking up at the Gurog when it was suddenly backlit by violet light. The Gurog turned to face this new enemy and roared in rage as the expanding brightness drew nearer. As she concentrated on trying to draw breath, she turned her head to look down at the ground before her. "Rock pusher," she muttered. "Feh." She gasped one final time, and the ground drew closer. Then there was nothing.

In the blink of an eye, an intense violet light banished the gloom. His Burun adversary turned and sheltered its eyes with its hands. He, too, squinted into the brightness and followed the line of the violet arc as it raced upwards into the sky. Suddenly, with a thunderous crack, the arc expanded and terrified croaking filled the night air. The light blazed ever stronger; soon there would be nothing else.

*****

Telkhe started from his sleep. Sitting up, he looked around their campsite. Jasi was still asleep beside the fire. Thukkos was on watch, looking out into the darkness of the night. The low sounds of the jungle night and the crackle of the fire were all he heard, but he knew something had awakened.

Complete March Episode Guide Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_complete.htm?nc=1

March Episode - "Revelations"

NEW! Experience Reward
The first time characters log in during our March episode, they will be awarded one half of the experience needed to advance to their next level, up to a maximum of 5 million experience points. For more details on why this is the case, please take a look at this thread on the official Asheron's Call 2 message boards.

Major Skill Changes Edit

Original Link (now dead) - No Link Available

March Episode - "Revelations"

NEW! Experience Reward
The first time characters log in during our March episode, they will be awarded one half of the experience needed to advance to their next level, up to a maximum of 5 million experience points. For more details on why this is the case, please take a look at this thread on the official Asheron's Call 2 message boards.

Skills
We've spent the last few months collating player feedback and performing our own detailed analysis of the skills present in the 9 main and 18 specialty trees. For our March Episode, "Revelations," we are tweaking a variety of skills.

Our focus in this first comprehensive pass is on non-functional skills and/or true bugs. In some cases, we've made design changes to balance out certain skills or specialties. This list is not our attempt to make all classes equal; distinctly superior and inferior specialties still remain. We will share our initial plans to address these inequalities sometime next month.

Because of the sheer number of changes made to skills in March, we've decided to offer players a one-time opportunity to remake their skill choices. When you login after our March episode has gone live, you will have one-time access to a "/skills reset" command. Typing this command will untrain all of a character's skills and return the skill credits and experience spent on those skills. You can then choose to spend those credits and experience again on a new skill set. This command will only be available during the March episode, so if you want to make use of it, you must do so during this episode. We want to stress that while we may offer this command again when we make sweeping changes to the game's skill set, it may not be available again for a few months or it may be limited to specific character classes.

Important notes about the "/skills reset" command:

You will only be able to use this command once per character.
You will only be able to use this command during the March Episode. Once the April Episode goes live, you will not be able to use this command.
Only characters created before the March Episode will be able to use the command.
We suggest that you spend your skill credits first. Only once you are happy with your skill credit allocation, then spend your XP.
Make sure you train all the skills you want to train. Sometimes it can be easy to forget a Paragon or Adept skill because they are not visible in all skill trees.
Be careful of inadvertently spending too much XP too quickly. Skills can cost a lot of XP at the higher levels. Make sure you have enough XP for all of your important skills.
We will not be offering this command again anytime soon, so please be careful if you decide to reallocate your skill credits and experience. Game Admins will not be able to help you in this matter.

What follows is a list of the skill changes. Please keep in mind that we are publishing these changes early with the goal of getting your feedback. Threads will be started on the official AC2 message board to collate the feedback.

Character Class Index

Human	Melee Missile Magic	Bounty Hunter Ranger Enchanter	Defender
Lugian	Melee Missile Magic	Juggernaut Raider Elementalist	Tactician
Tumerok	Melee Missile Magic	Feral Intendant Hivekeeper Invoker	Zealot

Human Melee
Begrudge	Aura of Defense no longer needs to be enabled to use this skill. To compensate, the Vigor cost of the skill has been increased from 80 to 130.
Twin Blades	Aura of Defense no longer needs to be in effect to use this skill. The damage potential of this skill has been reduced from 7 (L1) - 200 (L50) to 3 (L1) - 75 (L50).
Insult	The taunt effect that this skill applies is now working.
Human Defender
Lay Hands	The reset timer has been reduced from 15 minutes to 3 minutes. This skill can only be used on others; it cannot be self-cast.
Righteous Fury	This triple-strike attack, when used with a sword, did not perform a triple-strike animation. This has been fixed.
Human Bounty Hunter
Lucky Charm	One effect of this skill is now more magically delicious, while another effect is less magically delicious. (While we try to be clear in all cases, we respect the power of mystery in isolated instances-such as this one!)
Hunter's Ruse	The Vigor cost for this skill has been reduced from 460 points to 260 points.
Hunter's Betrayal	This skill now has a 20% chance of a critical hit. The Vigor cost has been increased from 260 to 300.
Feign Death	This skill now works on all monsters, regardless of type, within a few meters of the Bounty Hunter. The reset timer has been reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.
Fate's Forgiveness	This skill now provides the effect detailed in the skill description; however, we may still tweak it as we re-evaluate its usefulness.
Human Missile
Critical Shot	This skill now has a 15% chance of a critical hit (previously, it had no chance of a critical hit). Its damage has been reduced from 12 (L1) - 260 (L50) to 7 (L1) - 200 (L50).
Impending Doom	We have corrected the weighting of the Grandmaster skill, which was being given the same weight as Mastery. Now each Grandmaster skill point is worth 2 Mastery points, which is the normal weight for this skill. This will result in an increased to-hit for this skill, which will become more noticeable as the skill level increases.
Human Ranger
Forage	The food created by this skill is now permanent. The food can now heal 30 (L1) - 300 (L50) points of Health, an increase from the previous 25 (L1) - 250 (L50).
Divining	The water created by this skill is now permanent. The amount of Vigor restored by the water has not been increased, and remains 40 (L1) - 400 (L50) Vigor.
Human Magic
Slithering Flames	The damage range for this skill's second attack has been increased from 3 (L1) - 63 (L50) to 3 (L1) - 75 (L50).
Human Enchanter
Blade of Frost	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute.
Blade of Fire	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute.
Lugian Melee
Double Strike	Previously, this skill's second attack was incorrectly set to reach its maximum damage at a skill level of 10. This has been corrected, and the second attack will reach its maximum damage at a skill level of 50.
Lugian Juggernaut
Maim	This skill now lowers all of the target's attack skills. Previously, this skill only reduced the target's melee attack skill.
Cataclysm	We've corrected a bug that was causing this skill to reach its maximum damage at a skill level of 10, rather than a skill level of 50 like other skills. Moreover, we've increased the damage potential from 7 (L1) - 200 (L50) to 10 (L1) - 260 (L50).
NEW! Decapitate	The maximum amount of health this percentage based attack can remove has been capped at 10,000 points per attack.
NEW! Dismember	The maximum amount of health this percentage based attack can remove has been capped at 10,000 points per attack.
NEW!Disembowel	The maximum amount of health this percentage based attack can remove has been capped at 10,000 points per attack.
Lugian Missile
Rout	The knock-back effect from this skill can no longer be used to move your Turret around.
Lugian Raider
NEW! Shatter Soul	The maximum amount of vigor this percentage-based attack can remove has been capped at 10,000 points per attack.
Lugian Tactician
NEW! Small Turret Casing	The reset timer on this skill and the duration of the summoned Casing has been reduced from 1 hour to 30 minutes. In addition, the casing can no longer be moved by knock back skills, either those used by players or those used by monsters.
NEW! Large Turret Casing	This skill has received the same revisions as Small Turret Casing. In addition, the casing can no longer be moved by knock back skills, either those used by players or those used by monsters.
Grapeshot	The skill description now better explains the effects of the skill (specifically, that the skill causes the Turret to rapidly fire weak area of effect shots).
Self Destruct Sequence	A change to pet AI prevented turrets from responding to this skill at all. This has been corrected and Turrets will now explode when this skill is applied.
Wall of Ice	We've given a valid attack animation to the Wall, so that it will attack enemies roughly once a second and should do so more consistently.
Slough Field	This Wall has received the same revisions as Wall of Ice.
Fiery Obstruction	This Wall has received the same revisions as Wall of Ice.
Lugian Mage
Pain Touch	The reset timer has been reduced from 5 seconds to 1 second.
Internalize Suffering	This skill redirects incoming damage from Health to Vigor. The skill was originally designed so that if a single attack did more points of damage than the Mage had remaining in Health, the Mage would die regardless of how much Vigor he had. Unfortunately, this did not work as planned-even if a Mage was hit by an attack that should have killed him, he'd survive if he had enough Vigor to absorb the damage. We've corrected this bug. Now the skill is working as originally intended.
Lugian Elementalist
Sand Fiend	The reset timer on creating a Sand Fiend has been increased from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. This pet will also consistently use its attack speed buff, which is roughly equivalent in power to the Human Sorcerer's "Alacrity" spell.
Sand Minion	The reset timer on creating a Sand Fiend has been increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
Guardian Spirit	This pet no longer considers its spells harmful to its master, so it will use them in all landblocks, not just Free-For-All landblocks. The power of its heal spell has been increased by 150%. The effect of the combat speed buff has been reduced to be equivalent to the Human Sorcerer's Alacrity spell.
Volcanic Rift	This creature never actually had an attack animation, which caused it to fire several attacks a second. The creature now has an attack animation and should fire roughly once per second. Note: this fix first appeared in our February Hot Fix.
Thunderstorm	As with the Volcanic Rift, this summoned creature never had an attack animation. It has now been given one and should fire roughly once a second.
Incendiary Cloud	The attack used by this creature has been changed so that it should hit its targets more consistently.
Tumerok Melee
Hunger	The reset timer has been increased from 1 second to 4 seconds.
Tumerok Feral Intendant
Iron Pincers	This skill may now only be used by itself. It cannot be used in conjunction with the Lumbering Might or Leader of the Pack skills.
Summon Beetle	We've updated this pet to bring it in balance with other pets, and to bring it in line with the role it was designed to serve as the Intendant's high damage pet. The damage potential has been reduced from 6 points per skill level to 4 points per skill level. The hit points have been reduced from 20 points per skill level to 10 points per skill level. The natural armor has remained unchanged and is 2 points per skill level.
Lumbering Might	This skill may now only be used by itself. It cannot be used in conjunction with the Iron Pincers or Leader of the Pack skills. In addition, the run speed debuff from this skill has been reduced. Instead of starting out as a 10% run debuff that increases to 60% as skill level increases, it starts at 30% and decreases to 10%.
Summon Shreth	We've also balanced this pet against other pets and brought it in line with its purpose of absorbing damage for its master. The damage potential has been reduced from 4 points per skill level to 3 points per skill level. Its hit points remain untouched, and are 30 points per skill level. The natural armor has been reduced from 4 points per level to 2 points per level.
Tenderize	When this skill increased the damage of the Shreth, it only provided a 7-point damage increase, no matter the level of skill. It will now double the damage the Shreth deals out for as long as the effect lasts on the target.
Leader of the Pack	This skill may now only be used by itself. It cannot be used in conjunction with the Lumbering Might or Iron Pincers skills.
Summon Reedshark	This pet was intended to serve as a multipurpose pet, an even mixture of damage absorption and attack. We've made changes to this pet to make it fit that role, along with balancing it against other pets. Its damage potential has been reduced from 4 points per skill level to 3 points per skill level. Its natural armor remains untouched.
Sanguine Orders	This skill suffered from the same problem as the Tenderize skill. It was only providing a 7-point damage increase for the Reedshark. It will now double the damage your Reedshark does to a target, for as long as the effect lasts on the target.
Tumerok Zealot
Onslaught	The second attack for this skill was reaching its maximum damage at a skill level of 10. In addition to correcting this, the damage potential for both attacks has been increased from 3 (L1) - 75 (L50) to 5 (L1) - 100 (L50).
Soft Flesh	If the target has the Shred Hope effect on it, Soft Flesh will now do an additional 80 (L1) - 300 (L50) points of damage, increased from the previous 20 (L1) - 75 (L50) points.
Skull Cracker	The skill credit cost of this skill has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits. You will need to completely untrain this skill and then retrain it to receive the skill credit back.
Bone Crusher	The skill credit cost of this skill has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits. You will need to completely untrain this skill and then retrain it to receive the skill credit back.
Spine Ripper	The skill credit cost of this skill has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits. You will need to completely untrain this skill and then retrain it to receive the skill credit back.
Back Breaker	The skill credit cost of this skill has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits. You will need to completely untrain this skill and then retrain it to receive the skill credit back.
Tumerok Claw Bearer
Expose	This skill now reduces all of the defensive skills of the target. (Previously, this only reduced the target's melee defense skills.)
Twin Shot	The damage potential of this skill's two attacks has been increased from 3 (L1) - 75 (L50) to 5 (L1) - 120 (L50).
Tumerok Hivekeeper
All Attack Skills	Prior to this episode, the Hivekeeper's attack skills were only using 5% of the value of the Hivekeeper Adept skill when calculating attack and defense modifiers. This has been corrected and each point of Hivekeeper Adept is equivalent to one point of Mastery.
Wax Statue	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
Tumerok Magic
Eye of the Storm	When examined, this skill now displays its Vigor-reducing effect information.
Tumerok Invoker
Ghost of the Past	The description on this skill has been corrected to indicate that the skill has an increased range, not an increased chance of hitting the target.
Invoke the Grandfather	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced to 5 minutes. The duration of the skill remains unchanged at 5 minutes.
The Redeemer	This pet suffered from the same problems as the Lugian Elementalist's Guardian Spirit. It will now use its attack speed buff spell on its master no matter what type of landblock the master is in. The power of this buff has been reduced to be roughly equivalent to the Human Sorcerer's Alacrity spell. The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
The Reckoner	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
The Vindicator	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
The Avenger	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
Astral Hunters	The damage of this skill's two attacks has been increased from 3 (L1) - 75 (L50) to 5 (L1) - 120 (L50).
Invoke the Grandmother	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced to 5 minutes. The duration of the skill remains unchanged at 5 minutes.
Summon Brat	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute.
Summon Minor	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute.
Summon Master	The reset timer on this skill has been reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute.

Inventory Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_inventory.htm?nc=1

Inventory

Your Inventory Panel now contains four separate containers: one main pack of 42 slots, and three side packs of 12 slots each, making a total of 78 slots (12 more than before). When you pick up items, the game will attempt to put them in the first open slot in your main pack, then in the first open slot in your top side pack, and so on down the side packs. Items that were toward the bottom of your inventory before the patch will be distributed to the other three side packs. Side packs are not separate objects, and cannot be dropped on the ground or given to other players.

While we know that most of you desire far more inventory space, increasing the inventory slots of a character dramatically increases the size of that character object. As larger and larger character objects get passed between servers, server performance begins to deteriorate. This is why we're moving forward cautiously with increasing inventory space. As we evaluate server performance with the March changes, we will be able to decide whether we can continue to increase personal character inventory slots in future months.

Friends, Fellowships, and Allegiances Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_groups.htm?nc=1

March Episode - "Revelations"

Friends Tab
We've added a new Friends tab to the Social panel. Clicking on this tab will give players the following options:

Check the online status of the characters on their Friends list. The different status types are "Available," "Do Not Disturb," "Away from Keyboard," and "Offline."
Set their own status to one of the status options ("Offline" will only display once the player logs out).
Add or remove friends from their Friends list. In order to add characters using the Friends tab you will need to have selected the character first. To remove a character from your list, you can simply select the name on the Friends list and click the "Remove" button.
Note that all the old "/friend" commands, such as "/friend status," still work.

Fellowship XP Bonus
Initially, AC2 had a fellowship bonus, but it was taken out before the game launched because fellowships were already far more effective than solo players in killing creatures and gaining XP. However, we recognize that some of the issues present in playing in a fellowship—finding a group, coordinating a group, developing effective hunting strategies—all contributed to many players choosing to stay solo. One of the core strengths of AC2 is in hunting, exploring, and questing with a group of other players; therefore, in order to overcome "solo-inclined" inertia and get more people excited about grouping without hurting the ability to solo, we have brought back the concept of fellowship XP bonuses as follows:

Fellowship Size	% Creature Experience Reward
2 Players	75%
3 Players	65%
4 Players	55%
5 Players	50%
6 Players	40%
7 Players	30%
8 Players	20%
9 Players	15%

Allegiances

Allegiance MOTD: Allegiance monarchs can now set a message of the day for their allegiance. All members of the allegiance will see this message when they log in or when they bring up the Allegiance tab in the Social panel. Monarchs can control the message of the day using the following commands:

Command	Description
/motd set <text>	Sets the message of the day for the allegiance.
/motd clear	Clears the message of the day.
/help motd	Provides help for the MOTD commands.

We've fixed a bug with passing up allegiance XP. If a vassal did the vast majority of his or her advancement through questing, the bug prevented the XP from being forwarded up to his or her patron. The allegiance system has been changed so that every time you level, whatever XP you have not previously passed up to your patron will be sent.

Skills: Continent Recall and Pets Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_skills2.htm?nc=1

March Episode - "Revelations"

Continent Recall
As a reward for completing all seven Vaults on a continent, you will be able to access a skill which allows you to recall to that continent's capital city (Cragstone, Ikeras, or Linvak Tukal). Once you have finished all seven Vaults, travel to a Nexus stone located on the outskirts of the specific capital for that continent. Use the stone to unlock the skill. Some things to keep in mind regarding Continent Recall:

NEW! There will be a 30-second "Lifestone protection" cast upon your character once you begin portalling back to the Nexus spot.
Like other recalls, you will need to have full Vigor to begin recalling, and recalling uses up all your Vigor upon completion.

Our goal with this skill is to allow characters to travel and congregate more freely, especially characters in different level ranges.

Skills and Pets
Outside of the extensive list of skill changes we detailed in our first letter, there are only a few more additional changes to mention for March.

Failing to summon a pet will no longer start the reset timer (so Tacticians who fail to place their turret will no longer have to wait an hour).
In the past, a pet owner had to turn on the "See Other Characters' Damage Numbers" option in order to see the damage being done by and to their pet. We've changed this so that pet damage is now shown automatically for all types of pets.

The Treasure System Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_treasure.htm?nc=1

March Episode - "Revelations"

Treasure
For March, we are adding a number of new effects into the treasure system. This represents only the first step in a series of planned transformations that will take place over the next several months.

We've added a variety of new beneficial effects to treasure items.
- Shields:
  - Splendor—Lowers the min. level requirement by 1.
  - Absorption—Absorbs a portion (3-12%) of damage 20% of the time.
  - Bone Splitter—Adds +2 or +3 damage.
- Weapons:
  - Grace—Lowers the min. level requirement by 1.
- For all pieces of armor:
  - Grace—Lowers the min. level requirements by 1.
  - Armor Increasing Effects—These effects increase the armor level of a piece of armor by the specified amount.

Effect Name	Armor Increase
Durability	1
Thickness	2
Renitence	3
Impenetrability	4-5
Imperviousness	5-7

It should be noted that any armor found with "Impenetrability" can still have its armor level increased by the Human Enchanter "Impenetrability" spell.

For breastplates and robes only:
- Specialized Class Effects—These effects provide benefits useful to the specialized class. The effects also limit the piece of armor so that it can be used only by that class. The names of the effects, the classes to which they apply, and the bonuses they provide are as follows:

Class	Effect Name
Human Bounty Hunter	Prowl
Human Defender	Posturing
Human Alchemist	Voltaic Energy
Human Ranger	Promises
Lugian Berserker	Rage
Lugian Juggernaut	Brawn
Lugian Raider	Strong Arms
Tumerok Feral Intendant	Brute
Tumerok Zealot	Devout
Tumerok Claw Bearer	Dreamer
Tumerok Hivekeeper	Hive
Effect Bonuses: 1-10 point Adept skill increase; 1-12 point damage increase

Class	Effect Name
NEW! Tumerok Invoker	Spirit
Effect Bonuses: 1-10 point Adept skill increase; 3-5% Vigor Regeneration bonus.

Class	Effect Name
Human Enchanter	Drawing
NEW! Human Sorcerer	Thaumaturge
Lugian Elementalist	Matterite
NEW! Lugian Sage	Wisdom
NEW! Tumerok Healer	Gift
Effect Bonuses: 1-10 point Adept skill increase; 10-60 point reduction in Vigor Cost.

Class	Effect Name
Lugian Tactician	Scheming
Effect Bonuses: 1-10 skill point increase to Armor Piercing, Double Shot, Fiery Obstruction, Grape Shot, Rapid Fire, Repair, Slough Field, or Wall of Ice.

Jewelry:
- Life Balance—Adds 10 to 120 Health, Subtracts 5 to 62 Vigor.
- Spirit Balance—Adds 20 to 150 Vigor, Subtracts 10 to 75 Health.

The first types of helms are making their appearance in the treasure system in March. Humans and Lugians each have one style of helm, while Tumeroks have two styles from which to choose. Helms don't receive all of the same effects that other pieces of armor do, but can receive effects that increase their armor level or decrease the wield requirement level.

Combat Delay on all newly created treasure has been evened out across the level ranges; that is, all items have a potential Combat Delay that ranges from 5 to 20, regardless of the item's level.

We've added some different "decal" effects to newly generated weapons in the treasure system. For March, some of these decal effects (such as bloody, cracked, rusty, corroded, and mossy) have no correlation to the relative strength and quality of the weapon. Other decal effects depict the type of spell that's on the weapon (a flame decal for fire weapons, etc.).

A bug in the Combat Delay and Vigor Costs affected how they generated the prefix for the name of an item. Names associated with benefits to these stats were placed on items that had penalties, and vice-versa. For example, an Even <item name> is supposed to have a reduced Vigor Cost, but instead had an increased Vigor Cost. This has been fixed.

Any class that uses a specialized weapon is now able to use its auto attacks with zero Vigor, just like weapons used by the main skill trees. Prior to this, a bug caused characters to be unable to auto attack with these specialized weapons if the characters had no Vigor.

Crafting and Dyeing Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_crafting.htm

March Episode - "Revelations"

Dyeing

With all the recent changes that have been made to dyeing, we want to take a moment to give a comprehensive history of this craft, so that the March changes will make more sense.

When Asheron's Call 2 launched, there were two types of dyeing success states and two types of failure states. Most success states were "critical successes," meaning the item took on the dye color. A smaller percentage of success states also gave the item the desired color, but slightly damaged the item. Most failure states would give the item the desired color, but horribly damage the item. Finally, there was a small chance for a "critical failure," which resulted in damage and a strange color, like orange or pink.

When the February Episode launched, the success state that damaged armor was removed, meaning there was only one success state and two failure states. However, the message given by the more common failure state was causing some confusion. Due to localization issues, we were unable to easily change this message in the update, so we temporarily disabled the common failure state. This means that in the February update, there are only two dyeing states, a success and a critical failure.

In the March Episode, there is again one success state and two failure states. A success state will give the item the color. A failure state will do nothing; the item will not change color or be damaged in any way. A critical failure state will damage the item and give it a strange color.

We apologize for this confusion. We also would like to say that we are aware that many dyed items do not take on the color they should. This is due to an issue with our graphics engine. We'll try to fix this in the coming episodes, but at this time, we can't provide a specific date on when the fix will be implemented.

UI and Shortcut Bars Edit

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March Episode - "Revelations"

UI and Shortcut Bars

Double-clicking on a skill icon in your Skills panel will no longer add a shortcut to any shortcut bar beyond the one currently displayed. (Previously, double-clicking would add a shortcut to whatever slot was next available, whether that shortcut bar was visible or not.)

Due to a UI bug, items at the bottom of your inventory were being hidden when items were generated in your character's overflow slots. It was only after three or more items were generated in the overflow slots that these items appeared. We've corrected this problem so that now all your items are displayed, whether they're in an overflow slot or not.

We have solved a problem that was causing tool tips to be far too small for the amount of text they needed to display. They should now display properly in the Options panel.

Previously when you created an alias that you wanted to appear on a specific shortcut bar, you needed to specify the slot number and the shortcut bar number. (For example, you would have to specify an alias to appear on "42" if you wanted it to appear on the second slot on your fourth shortcut bar.) Now the alias command simply assigns the alias to the specific slot on the currently displayed shortcut bar. So if the fourth shortcut bar is the currently displayed bar, you simply need to assign an alias to the 2 to have it appear in the second slot there.

If you type more than a multi-line text box can display at one time, the text box will now automatically scroll to display what you are typing.

Quest Change Edit

Original Link (now dead) - No Link Available

March Episode - "Revelations"

Quest Changes

The experience rewards given out by the following quests have been increased:

Quest	Old Reward	New Reward
Darkenfowl Egg Hunts	0 XP	5,000 XP
Mucor Mushroom	3,000 XP	6,000 XP
Sclavus Cabals	5,000 XP	60,000 XP
Shreth Gauntlet	4,000 XP	40,000 XP

Although the entrance to the Golden Age Reliquary was moved into a Peaceful zone, the dungeon was still set as a Kingdom versus Kingdom zone. The dungeon is now a Peaceful zone as well.

The Kehan Windmill now accepts any extra gears you may have collected in your adventures. At the moment, this is the only way to remove these additional gears from your inventory.

You can now pick up additional Sclavus Cabal Talismans at any point in the Sclavus Cabal quest, so fellowships can pick up spare Talismans for their current quest if needed. However, these Talismans cannot be saved and used to advance a future Cabal quest, since the quest advancement effect is tied to picking up a new Talisman. An old Talisman does not have this effect, so it won't advance your quest.

When examined, the portal to the Nepeth Strata Shard now displays that it leads to that shard (it used to display that it led to the Naderu Shard).

The "Surface Exit" portal in the Vesayan Vault will actually take you to the surface now, instead of teleporting you to the boss room.

For the sake of consistency, the minimum level requirement on the Dillo Rustlers quest is level 30.

NEW! The Three Doctrines quest has been revised; anyone who completed the quest twice and received the permanent +50 vigor buff twice will revert to only one application of this reward. Also, players who were in the midst of this quest and had been unable to complete it in our February episode should now be able to complete it.

Misc. Bug Fixes and Tweaks Edit

Original Link (now dead) - No Link Available

March Episode - "Revelations"

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes and Tweaks

Monster corpses now decay at different rates, depending on whether they've been looted or not. If the corpse has not been opened, it will last three minutes. If it has been opened and still has items on it, it will remain for one minute. If the corpse is empty, it will decay 15 seconds later. Exceptions to this rule are player corpses, which always last one minute; pet corpses, which don't have any loot and therefore decay in 15 seconds; and destroyed barrels, which always last three minutes so that they can shed their light.

Many creatures were not consuming Vigor when using their healing and Vigor-restoring spells. This has been corrected and these monsters are now using Vigor.

Failing to use a skill in mid-air no longer consumes Vigor.

When your character gains a level, the chat text now displays how many health and Vigor points your character has gained.

Saddles are now ethereal to players and monsters.

The graphic degrades for several styles of Human boots have been corrected.

NEW! The sounds that accompany skill and spell effects that disappeared in the February episode are now restored.

NEW! The rate at which some monsters were throwing missile attacks has been slightly reduced. For example, Gurogs should now be throwing their axes every 1.6 seconds, instead of 1.2 seconds.

NEW! The experience rewards given by landscape Tyrants and Giguraths have been restored to their December levels.

Episode Guide Addendum Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_add.htm

March Episode - "Revelations"

Command Aliases for EQ and DAoC Players Edit

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Articles/newcommands.htm?nc=1

Command Aliases for EQ & DAoC Players

In order to make Asheron's Call 2 more accessible to players of all sorts, our March episode included some new features to help players from EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot who are giving Asheron's Call 2 a try. They're still in the game, and they should making traveling from Norrath, Hybernia, Albion, or Midgard easier.

The first feature is two new key maps. One is for players familiar with EQ's keyboard layout, while the other key map is for players more comfortable with DAoC's layout. To alternate between these different maps, simply click the "Controls" button in the character selection screen. Here you'll find two new buttons, one labeled "EQ Keys," the other labeled "DAoC Keys." Clicking one of these buttons and confirming that you want to apply the changes will map your keys to a layout similar to those used in those games. There's also a new button to switch your keys back to the default Asheron's Call 2 keys.

Another feature added in March extends Asheron's Call 2 to respond to many common commands in other games. Using the "/rest" command will cause your character to sit down, providing the same functionality as the existing "/sit" command. In situations where Asheron's Call 2 doesn't offer the exact same functionality as another game, AC2 provides help text explaining how to get equivalent functionality. For example, typing "/quest" gives a new player a help message directing him or her to open up the Quest panel. Here, players can find information about what quests they are on currently.

We've also implemented two other minor changes which will benefit everyone. In March, hitting the "r" key will automatically start the "/reply" command in the currently active chat window. Also, if a character name consists of one word, the comma is no longer needed in a "/tell" command. So to send a tell to "Citan" in March, for example, you could type "/tell Citan give me phat lewt!" and have the message sent to that character. Of course using the comma in the tell command will still work, no matter the length of the character name.

We hope that these changes will make everyone feel welcome in Asheron's Call 2!