December 2001

This is a good time to update all of you with what's going on with Camelot's development.   I try to do these updates from time to time, but alas, I never seem to be able to do them as often as I'd like.

First and foremost, I'd like to give everyone my best holiday wishes.  I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Feature List Update

I'd like to update you all on the list of items that Mark posted here on the Herald on December 7, and give you the status report.  The good news is that we're going to have almost everything on that list up on Pendragon by the first week in January for testing.  The bad news is that there are a couple of items that will not make it and they are:

- The water and lava texture and visual upgrade.  Basically, we're moving to a totally new engine at some point in 2002, and if we made any water/lava changes now, we'd have to do them again in the new engine.  The time that it would take in order to truly improve the water and lava effects can be better used elsewhere for the game.

- We're not going to have the 50th level "Epic" quests done by the first week of January.   The reason:  we're revamping the 40th level quests to be, well, more "epic", which entails stretching them out over the entire course of levels 40-50, and culminating in one super 50th level quest.  This is far cooler than having separate quests for 40 and 50.  Now, they will all be bound together - which of course, is much more work.  So, we have to move out the deadline on those.

I'll make another post during the week of the 7th describing the new stuff, how it will work, and update you on any changes to this list.

Macro Programs

We are aware of the various macro programs that players are using to artificially level their characters.  For those that aren't aware of these, macro programs "drive" your character around the world and fight monsters for you.  This is, of course, directly counter to our code of conduct, and we will be taking steps to stop macroing, including taking action against those that are using it.  Consider yourselves warned.

Assassin Classes

We know that many players of Camelot are devoted to the Assassin classes of the game (Infiltrator, Shadowblade, Nightshade).  Camelot launched with the classes implemented, but not fully effective.  Since release, we've added a lot to these classes, including the addition of Safe Fall, redoing combat styles so that these classes do more damage than they used to, and tuning up the way that envenoming weapons (and poison damage) works.  We know we're not done with the class - we have a couple of high level skills to add, and there's always tuning and tweaking to be done.   However, the proliferation of high level assassin classes shows that the classes are now viable.

Hibernia

There is a perception that Hibernia is somehow "weak" compared to the other two Realms.   We're actively looking into why this perception exists.  We've made some changes to help Hibernia - on Pendragon right now are some long-awaited spell additions.  Also, their high level dungeon has been (finally) itemized, so now high level characters can find decent equipment.   Even though we know the Realm is solid, we'll continue to add tweaks and changes (some in the patch coming the first week of January) to ensure that Hibernia remains the viable option is always has been.

Midgard and the Stunning Problem

We are aware of the intense dislike by Albion and Hibernian PvP'ers of the Midgard caster area-of-effect stun spells.  We're looking into why these cause so much trouble for the other Realms, and will be taking appropriate action.  We think we *may* have identified a bug which allows the stun to last longer than it should, and if that is correct, we will fix it.  Also expect stun resistance spells shortly.

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Hello everyone!  We realize that we have a vague area in our policy concerning use of third party software and I wanted to come out, discuss and clarify this issue.

There is some concern being voiced about the use of communication methods external to DAoC.   These can be anything from Roger Wilco, to IRC, to the telephone.  We currently do not have a written policy that addresses this directly, and the last thing we want to do is write policy that is not in the best interest of the majority of the population of Camelot, or write policy that is un-enforceable.  The conundrum that we have is that we also do not want certain people to have an unfair advantage over other people who play the game.  External communication devices can give this type of advantage.  Here is what we have decided:

1.  We will not write any policy specifically against using external communication devices.
2.  As long as no other policy is broken (such as cross-teaming, spying, DAoC client hacking, etc...), then the use of external communication devices is acceptable.
3.   We discourage the use of these types of devices, as we do feel that they give an advantage when used in RvR against people who are not using these types of devices.  We feel that this violates the spirit of the game.
4.  We will not support, in any way, the use of these types of devices.  Please do not contact a CSR, or call technical support if you are having any problems.

So there you go.  We realize that this is not the perfect answer, but we also realize that there is no perfect answer.  We are just trying our best to be fair and realistic about these types of issues.

Sincerely,

-Jeff

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Those of you out on the frontiers last night noticed some crashing between 11 PM and 12 AM EST. Here's why:

This patch, we introduced code that allowed archers to be interrupted after they had drawn and held the arrow, but before they actually fired.  Last night, if another player happened across an archer at that point in the firing process and successfully interrupted him, the region would crash.   This is why some servers seemed to have more crashes than others, yet some servers experienced no problems at all.  It was NOT related to server load, or population.

This bug was fixed around midnight EST.  I am really sorry about the inconvenience - it was deeply, deeply annoying.  I would know how frustrating it was at the various raids, by the way, I was at one of them.  =)

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That little patch at 4:00?  Here's why:

======================================
Dark Age of Camelot
Version 1.39A Release Notes
======================================

This is a small update version to 1.39 (released this morning) which fixes some problems introduced then.

NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- Blademasters between the levels of 5 and 9 will properly receive their Celtic Dual skill (instead of Dual Wield, which they were mistakenly being given).

- Players should no longer be able to climb the walls of Hibernian keeps.

- Many players reported getting stuck on objects (such as houses) in the world.  This has been fixed.

SPELL UPDATE

- Level 15 Minstrel stun Stunning Shout has had its timer corrected to 3 seconds.  It was erroneously set to 30 seconds.

- Characters with pulsing charm spells should no longer be able to charm friendly NPCs.

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We wanted to post a short message clarifying some issues about Pendragon, the Test Server. Hopefully this will clear up some issues that have arisen, and answer some questions about how we utilize the test server to make DAoC better for everyone.

1.  We use ONLY the test server for testing.  We do NOT ever test on the live servers.

2.  We may do any number of things to characters on the test server, to help facilitate our testing.  This includes bumping levels, giving skills, making items, and any number of other things that will help us to test certain aspects of the game.

3.  There may be times when a character is increased in levels for testing purposes.   When this happens, we will always try to de-level the character back to it's original state, once the testing is complete.

4.  We may at anytime ask others to help us with testing.  If this interferes with anyone's play time, please let us know and we will not bother you with special testing requests.

5.  We have many employees from Mythic that play on the test server.  These employee characters do not have any special abilities, powers, etc...  They are exactly like all other characters on the server.  However, we often use our employees to test on this server, and they may level, de-level, and have generally strange things happening to them.   We will always make our best effort to return these characters to the exact way they were before testing with them.

6.  If asked directly about being a Mythic Employee, we will answer directly with an affirmative, in hopes of preventing any misunderstandings.

Hopefully, this will clear up any issues or concerns that have arisen about Pendragon and how we utilize it to make DAoC a better game.

Thanks!

-Jeff

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Many people have asked me for a more comprehensive list of the /commands available in the game.   FYI, other commands do exist, but may not be documented or fully implemented.  If you know of a slash commands that I've accidentally left off this list, please feel free to let me know!  I'll be editing this list as I receive your feedback, so refresh early, refresh often.

To make a macro, type the following without the brackets:
/macro [title] [command/text]

So to make a "follow" macro:
/macro Follow /follow

and a hotkey will appear with FOL on it.

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF REPLY, THIS ENTIRE LIST USES A / IN FRONT OF EACH WORD AND DOES NOT USE QUOTATION MARKS.

Emotes:

"beckon"
"blush"
"bow"
"cheer"
"clap"
"cry"
"curtsey"
"flex"
"kiss"
"dance"
"laugh"
"point"
"salute"
"bang"
"victory"
"wave"

Chatting:

"say" (/s)
"send" (can also use /tell)
"broadcast" (/br)
"emote" (/em, or /e)
"yell" (/y)(/yell [text] is like say with a big radius, /yell results in a help message that gives your direction relative to the person reading it)
"group" (/g)
"whisper"
"chat" (/c)
"guild" (/gu)
"reply" (r - no slash, just hit r and then type to answer the last send you received)
"asend" (/as - talk on the alliance channel)
"osend" (/o - talk on the guild officer channel)
"ignore [name]" (ignores the person named)

Grouping:

"disband"
"join"
"invite"

Getting Help:

"appeal [text]" (be sure to choose the proper category from the pop up menu)
"appeal" (gives you the status of your appeal, unless it was a bug report, in which case an autoreply email will be sent to you)
"help"
"advisor" (makes you available to answer player questions)
"advice" (lists all advisors available)
"advice [name of advisor] [text]" (asks a question of that advisor)

More Information:

"time"
"played"
"quest"
"task"
"direction" (/dir)
"where [name]" (locates NPCs, not players, and only with a guard/sentinel type targeted)
"realm"
"friends" (lists your friends who are online)
"who" (can be modified with [name], [class], [#] level, [location], [##] [##] level range - please note that /who CSR will not show hidden CSRs)
"loc"
"keyboard"
"ignore" (lists the people on your ignore list)

Actions:

"stuck" (logs you out, hops you over a step, logs you back in)
"bind"
"sit" (/rest works as well)
"stand"
"quit"
"pray"
"anonymous" (/anon)
"afk"
"repair" (must have the required crafter skill to have this work)
"salvage" (another crafter command)
"release"
"upgrade" (another crafter command)
"filter" (the "cuss filter" command)
"friend [name]" (add someone to your friends list)
"follow" (assuming you are traveling at the same speed as the person you are following)
"autosplit" (toggles the autosplit on or off - if you are the group leader and type this, on or off will affect the whole group.  If you are a group member, your choice will only affect you.)
"autosplit loot" (only the group leader can type this and toggle loot on or off - if off, the loot will go into the inventory of the person who picks it up.  Coins will still be divided evenly regardless of who picks up the bag.)
"autosplit coins" (same as the above, except with loot and coins reversed.)
"trade" - toggles your ability to trade on and off

Fighting/Defensive Actions:

"assist"
"face"
"protect"
"guard"
"stick" (same as follow, but you remain much closer, and the range at which you get "too far away" and break loose is smaller)

Guild Commands (some commands can only be performed by the leader and those designated by the leader):

"guildcommand" (/gc - this without a modifier will dump out a list of all guild commands)
"gc info"
"gc emblem"
"gc form"
"gc invite [name]"
"gc accept"
"gc decline"
"gc remove"
"gc edit" (see the manual that came with the game for more guild leader commands)
"gc cancel"
"gc quit"
"gc motd [text]"
"gc motd" (to reread the Message of the Day)
"gc promote [#]"
"gc demote [#]"
"gc who"

Chat Groups:

"cg help" (displays all commands)
"cg invite [name]"
"cg who"
"cg remove [name]"
"cg disband" (if you are the chat group leader)
"cg leave" (to remove yourself)

Alliances (guild master only commands):

"gc aaccept"
"gc ainvite"
"gc adecline"
"gc acancel"
"gc aremove alliance [#]" (each guild in the alliance you lead has a number)
"gc aremove alliance leader" (removing your guild from an alliance)

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In the "we know when we've laid an egg and have decided to come clean about it" department, I'd like you all to know that we're going to change the Hibernian Sidewinder style back to the way it was prior to the 1.38 patch.  It will be changed on Pendragon and the live servers this evening to use Black Widow as its opening instead of Tarantula.  This means that non-shield wielding characters in Hibernia will now be able to use the spell.  Please note that because of this reversal, we had to tweak down the bonus damage of Sidewinder to match the new opening requirement.   We apologize for the confusion and heartache this process caused.

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Version 1.38 introduced a major revamp of how combat style damages are assessed.  This is a short article to fully describe what the changes are, why they were made, and the effect they will have on your character.
[EDIT]:  added additional Critical Strike Explanation

We made two major changes to the system.  They are:

1)  All your styles do more damage the more you train in the style's specialization.

2)  Harder to use styles (i.e. ones that require openings) now do extra bonus damage.

This change means that the more you train in a weapon specialization, the more damage styles you get from that specialization will do.  The only exception to this is the first style in each weapon specialization, which never grows in power.  What this does for your character is that now you have many more styles available to you that in the previous version were "too weak" to use.   You probably want to go back through all your older low-level styles (except the first one in each spec) and check it out again.

Also, we've added even more damage to certain styles - ones that are more difficult to perform.   Previously, performing hard-to-do styles didn't do enough bonus damage to justify their use - these are styles that require openings (such as parry, block, evade) and styles that are "chained" off other styles.  Now, performing these will do a lot more damage than they did before.

An example of this is an Albion character who specializes in 1 handed slash.  His first style (at 2 trains) is Ruby Slash.  This is the first style in the 1H slash spec, and as such never gets better.  This is a style that is quickly outgrown.  The second style in the 1H slash spec is Cross Slash, which requires you to be to one side of your opponent.   This style has an opening requirement, which means that it will now do more damage than it did before.   The third style in 1H slash is Uppercut, which has no opening requirement - you can use it any time.  Uppercut doesn't do any more damage than it did before, but now it will do more damage the more you specialize in 1H Slash - it will potentially never be "outgrown".

Because of these changes, we saw that the Hibernian Piercing style Sidewinder required an opening style (Black Widow), which had no opening style.  This means that under the new system, Sidewinder is much too powerful (because of its additional bonus damage) to be able to be used with no real opening - i.e. since Black Widow can be done any time, you can always easily chain into Sidewinder.  So, we changed Sidewinder to require Tarantula, which in turn requires you to block.  Now, to chain into Sidewinder, you must first block, then do Tarantula (extra bonus damage), and then Sidewinder (extra bonus damage).

Please note that Assassin characters (Shadowblade, Nightshade, Infiltrator) will not notice any changes to their Critical Strike series of styles in version 1.38.  This is because CS styles already were using this same bonus (they were the first class to receive these bonuses).   Please keep in mind that because the base damage for Critical Strike styles is significantly higher than base damages of other class's styles, Assassin characters still do more bonus damage than any other class.

The important thing to realize here is that you will be doing more damage with this new style change, since you are being rewarded for performing hard-to-do styles.  We apologize for not documenting the Sidewinder change - that one slipped through the cracks.

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Our spell designer was working on some details on druid pets for me, and decided that better documentation on the dex debuff change was warranted.  Here is the deal:

"I looked at all the patch messages from Nov. 1 on, and while there is a vague mention of dex debuffs being fixed, I really thought the full ramifications were more thoroughly discussed.   However, that's definitely not the case; this was an important change that was not documented well enough.  Basically what was happening was that dex buffs were erroneously affecting chance-to-hit, instead of affecting defense skill totals.  Chance to hit is based on a percentile (0-100), while defensive skill totals are more like 100-700.  So when a high level monster was being debuffed for 100, it was making its chance to hit 0, instead of reducing its defense by 100 (100/700 is about 15%, which is the target of the spell).

"The flip side of this was that dex buffs were directly affecting the chance to hit as well...   Where this was radically affecting balance was with summoner pets (since they're monsters, naturally).  Enchanter, Cabalist, and Spiritmaster pets were basically having their chance to hit maxxed out at 100% even on high level targets.  They were soloing oranges easily and in some cases reds.  When the dex buff fix went in, these guys were brought into line, but the oddball side effect was that the much lower level Druid pets were now effectively useless for damage dealing.  Since high Nature spec Druids weren't suffering any major balance issues (they were still soloing quite well), the issues hasn't been re-addressed.  Their pets are still useful for harrying enemy casters in RvR, and for dealing with adds during a pull.  The matter isn't closed though, and the issue of Druid pets is on my list to address."

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We needed to be a little more specific about some of the style changes (another article will be up shortly about this):

In addition to the item in the release notes about combat style changes (i.e. that style damage now scales up as you rise in level), there were two other changes:

- Sidewinder in the piercing list is now based off Tarantula, not Black Widow.  All combat styles (except previously for this one) in the game that are "chained" styles require an opening of some kind (i.e. block, parry, etc.).  Sidewinder was the only chain style in the game that did not require an opening move, and as such has been changed to require a previous style that in turn requires an opening move.

- The Executioner and Defender's Faith polearm styles for Albion Armsmen have been swapped.   Previously, Armsmen could find themselves in a situation where they had enough specialization in Polearms to receive Executioner but did not yet have Parry (the opening that is required for Executioner).  Now, Armsmen will get Defender's Faith at eight trains in Polearm, which has no opening move, and then Executioner at ten trains, when they will almost certainly have Parry.

In general, we make changes like these because players report that they did not get a style when they should have.  This happens because the game will not give you a combat style if you do not have the opening skill required for it.  This means that an Armsman who does not have Parry, will not receive any styles that require Parry as an opening (i.e. Executioner).  As more players report problems like this, we will make similar changes.

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There is a problem right now with high level styles, that make it appear you've lost styles you used to have.  We are in the process of fixing it.

4:45 PM - I have been told that the problem is fixed for most people.  People with an extremely high number of styles may still be missing a few, and the very highest level styles are still not processing.  Thanks for your patience the last few hours - we are working on the remaining few issues as hard as we can.

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Sometimes you get that message, and the target is in fact far away.  Other times you get that message, and the creature is right on top of you.  Why?  (Edit 12/12 - please note that this explanation is for PVE, not RVR.  That's a separate set of issues that we're aware of.)

When we spawn a monster, we sometimes manually give it a Z-coordinate.

For whatever reason - let's say that the Z-coordinate is wrong - too high.  The player is at Z-coordinate 1000, and the monster is at 5000.  The server determines that the monster is at Height 5000 and says "That target is too far away."

The client incorrectly displays the monster on the ground, and the players rightfully report it as a bug.

We most often see this with Stationary monsters (Archers) and point spawns (which are manually placed and have an assigned Z-coordinate).

Note that as soon as a monster moves - the server will calculate a new Z-coordinate and properly place the monster on the ground.

These bugs are fixed as soon as they come to our attention, so please, if it happens to you, submit an appeal and select the /bug option from the menu.  Be sure to tell us the exact monster name, the zone you were in, a /loc if you've got one, and if this is a recurring problem with the beast in question.  Oh, and the EXACT monster name ;)

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A quick and dirty description of how realm points work, a CS reminder, and two bug fixes.

You kill someone, and you get a huge number of realm points.  You kill another guy who cons the same as the first guy and get far fewer. What gives?

A person's worth in realm points is determined according to a formula.  The factors are the level of the player, and the realm level the player has attained.  (A player level 20 and below is not worth any realm points, unless he has earned a realm rank.)  If a group kills the individual, the realm points are supposed to be shared amongst the group.  Let's say I'm worth 250 realm points:

- If a group kills me, they share my points.  It is not straight division, it is slightly modified depending on your relative level within the group, but only slightly.
- If a group kills me, but had help from an ungrouped player, they will get fewer points than they got the last time they waxed me.
- If a solo player kills me, he gets all my points.
- If I was killed in the last 20 minutes, I am worth no points.

The points are **not** shared out in the group according to how much damage has been done.

Other notes - when you submit an appeal, please choose the best option from the menu.  If you are stuck, be sure to select "stuck" from the list of choices.  The general /appeal queue is not currently answered in less than fifteen minutes like the /stuck appeals are.  Also, you should know that whenever a CSR unsticks you, he or she notes the coordinates and submits that information to the bug team.  I still encourage you to let us know in a bug report where you find sticky bits of the world or holes in the floor, just to be safe.  If you can't get a loc, a description of where you were will be helpful.  "In this dungeon" isn't very specific.   "In this dungeon, third room, along the left wall by the urn" is terrific.  But remember, you need to submit two appeals - one for the /stuck queue, and one for the /bug queue.

In case you didn't see the updated test server patch notes over there to your left, we added two more fixes.  The realm rank two problems have been isolated and fixed, and will be live tomorrow.  We also fixed some siege equipment problems, namely recipe misprints and a bug that would cause you to be injured by friendly fire.  We want realism, but not THAT much realism.

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It is now almost sixty days since we launched... I wonder what comes next?

Folks,

Our two-month anniversary is coming up and I thought it appropriate to say a few (okay, more than a few) words about our game to the players that help make Dark Age of Camelot the unique world that it is today.  First, on behalf of Mythic I want to thank all the people who have purchased and are playing our game.  You are part of the most successful launch of an MMORPG in the United States to date.   We continue to set new records for sales and expanding subscriber count with each day that goes by.  We thank you for interest, your support and we hope, for your continued enjoyment of our world.  Second, as great as our launch was, no amalgam of software as complex as DAoC is ever perfect.  While it would be easy for us to relax now and enjoy the fruits of our labor; that is not what Mythic is all about.  I have written about our commitment to our players at length over the years and that commitment will continue to be shown by the amount of effort, time and money that will be spent by Mythic to honor that commitment.  So, without further ado let's get to the heart of the matter, what is coming down the road in the next month.

First, Mythic is the process of hiring additional personnel to continue to help achieve our goal of being the best MMORPG in the industry.  From artists to customer service to our first in-house sound engineer, Mythic will continue to reinvest in DAoC and its future.  Nothing comes cheaply, certainly not success and that is what we want DAoC to continue to be, the most successful MMORPG ever created by an independent developer.  However, that is not good enough for us.  We want to be the best MMORPG created anywhere by anyone at anytime.  To do this takes time and money and we are willing to spend it.

Second, we will be continuing to squash bugs and game imbalances wherever and whenever we find them.  Our #1 priority is a bug-free game.  New content is good but we would rather take a little longer (if necessary) to get in new stuff rather than gloss over what is left behind.   Both the world developers and the programmers are working diligently in improving this most challenging hurdle in developing and operating an MMORPG.  For the purpose of brevity (our new content list at the end of this letter is quite long enough) I am not listing these items here.   However, better balancing (including enhancements) the Realms and the classes are obviously quite important.

Third, even with our focus on bugs and balance issues, we will also be putting in a ton of new content over the next thirty days.  Please keep in mind that these are things that as of this writing we expect to have in but things can always change in this type of world.  However, we are pretty confident that everything contained herein will make it in before three-month anniversary of the game.  Also, this is not a full list but just the big things we have planned.   So, here we go:

1)  Climbing and ladders will be added to the game.
2)  You will be able to see arrows and ammo being shot by other players.
3)  Shapeshifting will be added.
4)  Bounty points (for Realm vs. Realm combat) will be added to the game.  As part of this we will also add a Realm Store where you can redeem your points.  We will also convert each character so that Bounty Points are added retroactively to your character based on the Realm Points you have accumulated so far.
5)  A new class of weapon effects will be added to the game for things like flaming swords.
6)  Battlegroups will be added to the game.
7)  We will look at improving the animations for both water and lava.
8)  New weapon animations for skills will be added.
9)  More unique NPCs will be added to the game.  What we mean by unique is NPCs that require their own special animations/attacks.  These are not NPCs whose type exist already in the game (to which we just add new skins) but whole new types of NPCs.
10)  More skins for NPCs (as separate from above).
11)  Ongoing Realm by Realm, Zone by Zone analysis of all parts of the Realms.
12)  Hibernia will get special attention in order to correct what people perceive it being the 'poor stepchild' of the game.  In particular all aspects of the development team will be turning their attention to that Realm (classes, spells, NPCs, dungeons) to improve it and the player's perception of the Realm.
13)  Increased itemization of certain dungeons and outdoor areas.
14)  Addition of Epic Quests to 40th level across all Realms.
15)  Addition of some Epic Quests up to 50th level.
16)   Addition of more non-Epic Quests.

So, that's the list.  In January we will be turning our attention to housing, server types and horses as well as lots and lots of other stuff.  We have also recently made a decision based on the current workload to plan for our first expansion pack a little later than we had originally considered.  We are doing this so we can continue to show our commitment to our current players in delivering a ton of new content as part of the subscription service.   Rushing an expansion pack out there could have endangered that effort and thus, we are delaying it by a couple of months.  As tempting as it is to get another SKU out, doing so would not be the right decision for Mythic or for the players.

Once again I want to thank you, our players, for your continued support and patronage.  We will continue to work hard to deserve it.

Mark

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Archery problems, relics, last night's Sanya Impersonator, and a glimmer of the bluebird of happiness:

There is a bug with archery.  I want to make it clear that no reduction in damage was intended, and that the problems a limited number of archers are experiencing are in no way intentional.   The trouble is, the problem is intermittent, and therefore extremely difficult to pin down.  The problem seems to be that sometimes arrows just... don't land.  We cannot duplicate the problem with artificially created characters, nor can we always duplicate it with live characters.  A whole bunch of you volunteered your characters (thank you!!!) with the problem for us to test, and even that didn't end up helping.  For instance, one character we test drove had the problem.  We logged her out, went to get another programmer to take a look, logged her back in... and the problem was gone.

SO.  There's more debugging code in the game now, to give us more help.  If you see any odd messages during gameplay, take a screenshot and please let me know.  Sending in your account name and character name/server is also helpful information.  We are NOT giving up on this.

Relics - okay, let me say again congratulations and a rousing MEA CULPA to the raiders on Merlin last night for beating down the relic keep.  For those of you who didn't hear, the end of the raid was not a happy one - the relic couldn't be moved.  This was... not supposed to happen.   The relics were priority number one today.  The results have moved to Pendragon, and will be live next week.  Please don't go after relics until then.

Speaking of Pendragon, thank you for your suggestions of how to get more and higher leveled players on that poor server.  We are talking about those ideas now.

Last night, before the Dev Chat in Vault's IRC channel, someone claiming to be Sanya hopped in and requested account names and passwords.  That charming person promptly logged in with those passwords and started behaving rather badly.  DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORDS.  IRC IS A PARTICULARLY BAD PLACE TO EVEN THINK ABOUT TYPING YOUR PASSWORD.  No one from Mythic will EVER ask you for your password.  Ever.  A real Mythic employee can get your password from just your account name.

And the bluebird of happiness?  Today we also spent a lot of time talking to team leads about the classes and gathering extensive feedback.  You should start seeing the results of that next week.

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Some loyal Hibernians were under the impression that their large weapons worked the way large weapons work in Albion - indeed, the much-abused, much-appreciated team leads seemed to think so.   But Hibernian large weapons work in a similar way to Midgard, and they've never worked any other way!  Why then the confusion?  I got a note from a beta tester:

"Hi Sanya!  I've been one of the beta testers of DAoC since April, extremely active and read every single developer post I saw especially those concerning melee.  I've got some insight on how the large weapon speccing misconception occurred.

"First, as you may be aware, all game testing started with Albion.  In Albion the weapons all have base skills that must be trained in addition to secondary skill.  So, a slashing two hand user must train both Slash and 2 hand.  The base skill that needs training is listed on the weapon info, as it is for all weapons in game, supposedly.  It's actually the damage type but it has become accepted that this is base skill type since that's how it works in Albion.

"Now when Hibernia came out with new skills, I cannot recall an explicit explanation as to how the weapon skills were different.  It was therefore assumed that large weapons required the base weapon type to be trained as well, since that's how it worked for Albion.  This was posted, not by devs, but by team leads and other knowledgeable testers, and this misconception was never spotted by an appropriate dev who could correct it.  Therefore, it was correct by gestalt (what a concept, eh?) and therefore was used as the explanation by anyone who needed to explain it.  After all, go look at the weapon info for the large weapons and they all list base type.  Yeah, we all know it's really not base type but damage type.  Useful information for choosing your weapon against mobs that may be more sensitive to one type of damage.   However, because it appears there, it "confirms" what the TL's and others had been saying.

"Basically, it all boils down to everyone being too busy to make sure everyone else understood all the implications of all the changes.   There were a lot of things that came through that way.  Most of them due to come to light when large numbers of people start not understanding.

"One important point.  Someone that has specced in both places isn't gimped.  We testers did a lot of work to try to insure that that isn't possible.  Instead, they are simply more versatile.  Look, if I'm a tank deep into hostile PvE territory and I'm having problems managing agro with my large slow weapon and the Healers/casters are dying, then because I have specced in a faster weapon skill (and blades are faster then large weapons) I can wield a sword in this situation and do a much better job managing agro for my group.  This makes me a much more useful player than someone who only has one weapon skill, large weapons.  (emphasis mine - ST)

"Ah well, I hope I've help shed some light and provided you with useful information."

Thanks to Glenn for this concise and accurate analysis.  I'd like to apologize to those who were confused because I did not catch and correct the misperceptions earlier.  I would also like to apologize to the team leads who felt that their honor was in question.  They have always done an excellent job communicating with the people they represent, and the fault was with us, not them.

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Here are the basics of the relics.  Go out and get them =)

Each realm has two relics at this time.  One adds a bonus to melee damage potential, one adds a bonus to magical damage potential.  Each of your relics, while safely nestled in its shrine, grants a 5% bonus to damage in player vs. player combat (the default).  If you control an enemy relic, it will grant a 5% bonus to damage for PVP and PVE.

Unless you control your own relic, you cannot go steal an enemy's relic of that type.   That is to say, if you don't have your melee relic, you must first steal it back before you go after your enemy's melee relic.

You cannot ever move a relic (either yours or your enemy's) from your homeland's relic shrine.   You can only pick up a relic (both yours and your enemy's) from an enemy relic shrine.   Once you have stolen an enemy's relic, it needs to go to the corresponding shrine in your own frontier.  That is, a stolen magic relic must go to your magic relic shrine.

Relic is really starting to look misspelled here.

A relic of any kind cannot be banked or sold.  It can be traded (handed off to another player in a relay), and it can be dropped.  It will automatically drop to the ground if you die or lose connection while holding it.  If a relic is away from a shrine for more than two real life hours, it will magically teleport back to the place it was last kept, be it the keep of friend or foe.  A dropped relic can be picked up by anyone.

Relic keeps cannot be taken over in the sense that the border keeps can be, although all their NPCs can be killed in a raid.

That's the system at this time - in the future, we are planning to integrate the amount of territory controlled with the relic keep's defenses, but that's awhile in the future.  We are also discussing a way that the carrier of the relic can be detected, possibly through the use of a "detect relic" sort of spell.  No firm plans.

Any questions?  Please email me, and I will update this little article if need be.

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A follow-up to the popular weapon stats article, here's a quick rundown on how armor condition, quality, and bonuses work.  Check the weapons stats dev note for a quick refresher.

As with the weapons, durability only affects how long the item will be in the world.   Every time an item is repaired, it loses durability.

A bonus on armor is compared with the bonus on the weapon doing the hitting.  A bonus on the armor higher than the weapon's means the attacker's chance to hit is reduced.

Armor factor modifies how much damage you take.  A higher AF means you'll take less damage overall than you would for a lower AF.

Quality also modifies the damage you take - you will take twice as much damage in a 50% quality item as you would in the exact same item with a 100% quality.  The condition percentage kicks in next, and further modifies your damage taken.

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This is the way it works, post 1.37.  Some small changes have been made, so if in your experience you think it's been different, it was.  :)  Thanks to Mahrin Skel for rounding this up.

Every material grade has a certain number of swings it would take for a weapon of that material to degrade from 100% condition to 70% condition.  Below 70%, the weapon (and ditto for the armor) cannot get worse in performance.

From the lowest number of swings to the highest, the materials are:

Bronze
Iron
Steel
Alloy
Fine Alloy
Mithril
Adamantium
Asterite

The damage dealt is not a factor in how quickly the weapon wears out.  Faster weapons do have more condition points than slow ones, so that weapons made of the same material will wear out at the same speed regardless of speed.  A weapon with a color con too high for your level will wear out at a faster rate than the standard.

Armor is treated differently, instead of changing the Condition based on speeds, a whole set divides up the base condition points based on how much coverage a piece supplies to the body.  The torso piece covers 25% of the body, and gets 25% of the condition points.  Each time your torso is struck, including times that it completely absorbs the blow and it is displayed as a miss, you will lose the same points that a weapon loses when it swings.

One wrinkle that gets thrown in here is that Condition does not go down in a linear fashion.   When half of the Condition points are remaining, the displayed Con would be 90%.  The numbers slope off from there.

Now, when it comes time to repair, each item has durability points.  To take an item from completely fried to its maximum points requires a certain number of its Durability points.   To repair a bronze item takes many more points from durability than asterite.

The amount of Durability removed is based on the proportion of Condition restored to the maximum condition of the object.  This is the part that worked differently in 1.36 and earlier.   The main impact of the changes that although higher-level materials will require repairs a little more frequently than before, they will be able to be repaired more in total, and the amount of wear will be more even across different types of items.  Armor pieces will now wear out at about the same speed, where before low-coverage items like Boots and Gloves outlasted Tunics and Leggings of the same grade and type.

The REAL point to all this is that it is always in your best interest to purchase player made goods, even if the cost seems higher initially.

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