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First, thanks to all for the
feedback we've been receiving on the boards at http://www.accmty.com
and http://forums.turbinegames.com.
It's been very helpful for us, and we appreciate the community's
participation. Last month was quite exciting with the defeat of
Gaerlan, and we received great feedback on this very unique
quest. The month of October brings the traditional season
of festivities to Dereth, and this year's will not disappoint!
From new masks to new dungeons, this month has many exciting
additions for you.
Before I address some of the
content and changes this month, please read this important
notice regarding Skill Level Changes; it's fairly detailed to
give you the complete rundown. This has been posted for some
time now, but in case you didn't read it, we wanted to include
it in the Letter to the Players.
Skill Level Changes
Some recent changes to our
internal systems have resulted in two changes involving skill
levels that will occur with the next update. This letter
explains these changes in excruciating detail.
First, we should give you some
background. The level of a skill is made up of three different
parts: the part that comes from your attributes, the part that
comes from the experience points you have invested into the
skill, and the "free" points that get added in on top
of the other two parts. Note that the part from experience
points includes both proficiency points earned by using the
skill, character points that you spent on the skill, and some
quest rewards (such as from turning in tessera). Also note that
we have never previously used the third category, the
"free" points.
Specialization Bonus
With this update, we are
changing the nature of the bonus that you get when specializing
a skill at character creation. This change will be
retroactive-that is, it will apply to all existing characters
with specialized skills as well as to new characters created
after the update.
Previously, when you specialized
a skill at creation, you were awarded 671 free experience points
into that skill. That experience gave you 10 levels' worth of
skill, but it also increased the experience cost of the next
skill level. After the update, you will not receive any free
experience for a specialized skill, but you will instead receive
10 "free" levels of that skill. These levels are added
onto the levels from your attributes and the levels from
invested experience, and therefore do not affect the cost of
your next skill level.
Existing characters that have
specialized skills will lose the 671 experience points (that
they were given at creation) from that skill, but they will
receive in exchange the same 10 "free" levels that new
characters receive. Note that losing 671 experience points may
drop your skill level one or more levels, so that you may not
immediately be a full 10 levels higher in a specialized skill.
Investing 671 more experience points into the skill, however,
will make up this difference.
Also note that this change only
applies to specialized skills. There is no change to the nature
of the bonus you get when training a skill at creation. Training
a skill at creation will continue to give you 526 free
experience points in that skill, which is enough experience to
purchase the first 5 levels of your skill.
Regarding Quest Skill
Experience Rewards
As mentioned above, quests that
reward you skill points, like the tessera and the Scroll of Dark
Rain, actually increase the level of invested experience in your
skill. Because of a flaw in the experience system, it used to be
possible to use the rewards from certain quests to raise the
level of a specialized skill above the maximum normal level.
That is, you could invest experience points in the skill until
it was at its maximum level from experience, and then turn in
tessera to raise the skill another 1-5 levels. If you tried to
accomplish this same goal with a trained skill, however, you
would still use up the tessera, but you would receive no lasting
benefit.
This behavior was never
intended, and recent changes to the internal structure of the
experience system no longer allow it. From now on, trained and
specialized skills will behave the same way with respect to
tessera: if you have already invested the maximum experience
possible into the skill, then quest rewards like the tessera or
the Scroll of Dark Rain will not benefit you in any way. We
strongly recommend, therefore, that you do not attempt to
receive a quest reward for a skill in which you've already
invested the maximum amount of experience. Indeed, we have
always recommended this.
Characters who have already used
quest rewards to raise the level of a specialized skill above
the normal maximum will lose the excess levels of that skill
with the next update. For example, let's say that Bob has
invested experience to get his war magic skill to 223. (Note
that we are only talking about the part of his skill level that
comes from experience here; we're ignoring the part from
attributes.) Then he turned in 5 war magic tessera. His war
magic skill is now 2 levels above the normal maximum from
experience, or 228. After the update, Bob's war skill will lose
those 2 excess levels, and his war magic skill from experience
will be 226. Of course, since Bob has war magic specialized-and
we know that he must, or he wouldn't have been able to get those
excess points from tessera-he also receives the 10 free levels
for having the skill specialized. Overall, his war magic goes up
8 levels.
Now, let's move on to the
summary of the changes and additions for October.
Hollow and Phantom
Missile Weapons:
Many of you have patiently waited, and now poppa's got a brand
new bag… er, quiver. We created them, played with them,
tweaked them, re-tweaked them, and now we're finally satisfied
with their performance. We have added Hollow and Phantom missile
weapons to the game! Sorry for holding off on them for so
long, but we wanted to make sure they balanced well for both
Player vs. Environment and Player vs. Player. The arrows
are obtained through a quest similar to (but different than) the
hollow melee weapon quest. Happy hunting!
New Tinkering Effects:
This month sees the introduction of three new Tinkering effects.
The first uses Item Tinkering to increase the maximum amount of
mana a magical item can hold. The second uses Magic Item
Tinkering to increase the mana conversion modifier on magic
casters-wands, orbs, staffs, and scepters. Note that this Magic
Item Tinkering effect is not an imbue; it follows the same rules
as normal Tinkering and not the special imbue rules.
Ivory Tinkering:
While this is not Tinkering in the strictest sense (as it does
not require a Tinkering skill to apply and therefore you cannot
fail), it does allow you to change a limited number of
no-give/no-drop quest items in order to either store these items
or give them to another character. Please note, however,
that these quest items will only be wieldable by their original
owner. The specific quest items that you can affect this month
are:
- Hollow Missile Weapons
- Deadly Hollow Melee Weapons
- Phantom Weapons
- Gaerlan's wands and robes
- Martine's mask and robe
We will be adding this feature
to additional quest items as time goes on. Since it requires
that we modify each weapon, not all will be immediately
available. Look for more over the coming months.
Misc. Tinkering
Improvements:
Several of the original sets of Tinkering effects now have a
more pronounced effect. Here's a quick chart for your reference:
|
Tinkering
Effect
|
Old Benefit
|
New Benefit
|
| Burden Reducing |
- 10% |
- 25% |
| Value Increasing |
+ 10% |
- 25% |
| Value Reducing |
- 10% |
- 25% |
| Slashing Resistance Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.2 |
| Piercing Resistance Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.2 |
| Bludgeoning Resistance
Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.2 |
| Acid Resistance Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.4 |
| Cold Resistance Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.4 |
| Fire Resistance Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.4 |
| Lightning Resistance Increasing |
+ 0.1 |
+ 0.4 |
| Tighten Damage Variance |
0.2 |
20% |
| Speed Decreasing |
- 5 |
- 50 |
Note that the variance Tinkering
changed from being an additive effect to being a multiplicative
effect. Also note that these changes are not retroactive;
items which have already been Tinkered will not benefit from the
changes.
Gaerlan Quest Changes:
The quest to face Gaerlan has gone through some
significant changes to make the quest more accessible and to
address the bugs that were found after the release of the quest.
Overall we are pleased with the results of the quest, but there
were some areas that we found were a little too harsh (or too
easy), and the difficulty has been adjusted accordingly.
Additionally, some of the rewards were found to have bugs with
the spells, damage, variance, and restrictions that were placed
on them. These have been addressed and rectified. Here are the
primary changes:
Start points for the quest have
been moved to the places where the essences once lived. A unique
creature there will begin the quest when it dies. Be warned it
will take a while for that creature to appear.
The access to the valley should
now be impossible. If you do find an area of the landscape that
is still passable, please send a report to bugs.zone.com or post
a thread on the accmty.com website.
The golem will now know if you
belong in the valley. This means that those of you that find any
passable landscape will be unceremoniously expelled.
The golems within the ziggurats
will now be there 24/7/365.
Gaerlan's rewards will now be
given to all players that take part in the fight against him.
Gaerlan's sword has been buffed
for the High and Extreme levels.
Rolling Death now places you in
a safe spot upon entry. But you should still be very careful
when you enter because something has changed about the dungeon.
A portal to the Citadel Library
has been placed in Eastham for players that are killed by the
aspect of Gaerlan.
Gaerlan should no longer spawn
after being killed. Be considerate when you kill him, move
along, nothing more to see here.
Raudaloi now does Slashing on
High power and Piercing on low power.
Raudaloi now has a variance more
on par with other swords.
The four versions of Taulandoi
now have Moderate War Magic Aptitude. The mana rate has not been
changed.
Saelgauloi now has a 225 Missile
Requirement and can be dropped. This should make it as usable as
the shield.
Dauloirae has been given Blade
Protection 5, and has had its protection against blade raised
slightly.
Palauloi has had its damage
bonus increased to 140%.
PK Logoff Changes:
After reviewing the recent Player Killer logoff delay, we've
decided that some changes are necessary to prevent escaping
instantly during a PK fight. For all you PK'ers out there,
after you are attacked by another player, you'll find that you
will not be able to use any portal or recall spell for the next
20 seconds. In addition to this, if you have been attacked by
another Player Killer within the past two minutes, the 20-second
logoff time will be applied to you; otherwise, Player Killers
will logoff normally.
We hope you enjoy this festive
month in Dereth. Next month's update is taking form, and it's
shaping up to be some good content. We'll see you next month,
and thanks for playing!
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