November 2001

I got this note from a player:

"Is yellow armour intrinsically better than blue, or is it all based on AF?"

So I asked Mahrin Skel (a world developer, for those of you not familiar with him), and he replied:

"Effective AF is all the combat algorithm looks at, if blue gear is giving better AF than yellow because of higher Quality, the blue gear *is* better.  I've tested this extensively, 50 percent quality 30th level armor gives the same performance as 100% 15th level armor of the same type (assuming you are 30th).  We're going to be changing the right-click item info to display effective AF so people are more aware of this."

I replied with a look of confusion.  There are two kinds of AF?  What the heck?   He gave a longer explanation, with tons of detail:

"Okay, I'm going to have to talk in math here.

"Effective AF" is derived from base AF (the number currently displayed on right-click).   Every armor item has a base Armor Factor, base AF divided by 2 equals Item Level for everything but Cloth, where AF = Level.  But when you're in combat, the base AF is affected by Quality and Condition.  Quality affects both the chance the armor will completely absorb the blow, and the amount of damage you take when it does, so the impact of quality "double dips".   Condition only affects the damage taken.  So "Effective AF" equals Base AF times Quality squared times Condition.

The "ArmorFact" field on the character display has always reflected this effective AF rather than base AF.  Soon, right-click will also show effective AF, and base AF will only be shown on Shift+I."

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Falling through the floor?  Getting trapped under the world?  Failing to see the humor in either situation because you'd rather be playing?  Please submit a bug report.

There are two ways to do this.  Send an email to [email protected], or /appeal in game and select the "bug" option.   If you choose the in game method, please bear in mind that you will not hear from a CSR.   Instead, you'll get an email acknowledging the report.

All bugs are collected weekly, and gone over in agonizing detail.  Please be as specific as possible with sticky or falling bugs - where are you?  Can you take a /loc?  Any landmarks?  Any NPCs you are close to? - to help us track down the spots as quickly as we can.

Thanks!

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A quick and dirty spellcraft description, the link to the siege weapon documentation, and a guild page clarification.

A player asked what spellcrafting would be like, and this was my reply.  As a spellcrafter, you imbue gemstones with magical properties - strength, resists, etc.  Then you apply the gems to high quality player-crafted armor and weaponry.  The skill gains come from making the gems - for the sake of our programmers, the game will assume that if you have the skill to make the gem, you have the skill to apply them.  Of course, if you go beyond certain parameters (you can only add so many gem properties to a piece safely) and try to over enchant an item, there is a chance the item you're trying to decorate will blow up in your face and injure, maybe even kill you.

Only casters can be spellcrafters - pure melee and hybrids won't be able to even try.

Check out the siegecraft documentation located here.  One helpful tip?  If the defenders are repairing the door against your battering ram faster than you can do damage, other siege weapons might be of assistance ;).

Finally, I'm getting a lot of email (thanks for the love and the constructive criticism, you guys rock), and a number of you have had questions about the guild pages.  Here's what I told one guildmaster - Right now, the website information will only have the guild name, the emblem, and the number of realm points the guild has accrued.  All of that will be drawn automatically from the game, so your guild will be listed without you doing a thing.  Later on we hope to add more features, some of which might require your interaction, but you'll be able to access everything from the web.

If there's anything in particular you would like to see included in future features, please just let me know and I will include it in the feedback I pass on to Scott.

Okay!  Thanks everyone!

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This may look familiar - because it's a repost of part of a Q&A I did with OfCamelot.com.  But for the benefit of those of you not familiar with that wonderful website, I have copied the data below.  Coming next week, Mahrin promised to give a similar explanation for armor.

Quality - the direct modifier to how much damage your weapon does.

Condition - another direct modifier, but one that kicks in AFTER quality.

Durability - has no effect on anything but how long a weapon will remain in the world.

So, all other things being equal (and dozens of factors go into the damage rolls, I can't explain them all without some serious mathematics, and guys, cut me some slack, I majored in theatre and secondary English education), if you (with your skill in the weapon type) wielding the weapon could do 100 damage, but the quality and condition of the weapon were both 80%, then the weapon would first be cut to 80 (quality) and then 80% of 80 (the second 80% being the weapon's condition).

Bonus - This takes into account any bonuses on the armor of the person you're hitting.   I'll use the simplest possible example.  Let's say your opponent is wearing a shirt with a 10% bonus.  You have a sword with a 15% bonus.  What you then have is a 5% addition to your "to hit" (which is simply your chance to hit the opponent).  It doesn't affect how MUCH you hit for, it increases your chances of landing a hit on him at all.

Your specialization in the weapon type determines your "range" - the number between the minimum damage the weapon can do and the maximum.  Let's say someone with no spec in sword can hit, with a certain type of sword, for as low as 5 points and as many as 20.  If you have points in that type, you could still only hit for a max of 20, but your damage floor would be higher - let's say 10.  The more spec points, the higher the floor.  So being specced in a weapon type means you will over time do a much higher average damage than someone who is untrained.

The whole system is an attempt to make it as realistic as possible.

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We added even more goodies to version 1.37 - realm war information, bug fixes, and more.

Look on your left, and select the link "Currently In Testing."  At the top, you'll find the notes for 1.37B.  (All that material is IN ADDITION to version 1.37, not in place of.)   There's an explanation of how the realm point titles work, among a ton of other things.

I'll be cruising the boards looking for reactions.  Before you comment, please try out the changes.

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In response to player questions, Archon has written up a quick and dirty weapons skill document.

Weapon skills are utilized differently in all 3 realms.  Here is the weapon skill break down:

Albion

The base skill types are Slash, Crush, and Thrust used alone or with dual wield they depend on the base skill associated with the damage type.  Two-handed weapons and Polearms, there are 3 damage types of two-handed weapons in Albion.  Any two-handed weapon / polearm that does slash damage uses the slash skill, thrust damage uses thrust skill, crush damage uses crush skill to tighten the damage range.

Midgard

The base weapon skills in Midgard cover both the one-handed and two-handed versions of the weapons.   They are Axe, Hammer, Sword, Spear.  Please note that there is no one handed version for spears.  This means that raising your axe skill helps you to be effective with both one-handed and two-handed axes.  The same goes for the other weapon skills in this realm.

Hibernia

The base weapon skills in Hibernia are Blade, Pierce, Blunt, Large Weaponry and Celtic Spear.   Each of these skills are completely independent of one another and are raised as you would raise any standard weapon skill.  i.e.  Large weaponry does not use the base skill as it does in Albion to tighten damage, and Celtic spear does not use the pierce skill.

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