AC2:Announcements - 2003/07 - Rebirth

Teaser

Original Link (now dead) - http://ac2.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=75

July Episode: "Rebirth"

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posted on 31-Jul-2003

"Scroll, scroll," Saelar muttered as he riffled through the papers surrounding the tome he had just been examining. "Where is that scroll?"

"What, Master?" came an echoing response from across the room.

"Hrm?" For the first time in nearly three days, the Undead Archon looked up and took notice of his surroundings. The world around him had faded from view as he had become increasingly engrossed in his studies, and the Book now consumed his full attention His concentration broken, he noticed that his cavernous Library was nearly empty, with the exception of himself and Tenshiel, a lesser researcher who in life had been one of Rytheran's Yalaini students. "Oh, Tenshiel. Where are the others? The Library is usually so active at this time."

"At this time, Master? It is nearly three hours past rising and most are resting, meditating and strengthening their wills."

"Three hours past rising? Amazing!" Saelar said, shocked. "Ah well, the Book is fascinating."

"I can see that it is, Master." Tenshiel said, a note of concern entering his voice. "Perhaps, though, you should consider getting some rest as well."

"Soon, soon. Although one must be careful not to rest too much." Saelar nodded to himself, broodingly. "Yes. Otherwise events pass by and the nexus is missed. That singular moment in time when the future's course is determined. We are standing on the cusp now, Tenshiel. Matters are moving faster."

"Yet your stratagems proceed according to plan, Master. The constructs now scour the land, breathing life into the remains of all they find." Tenshiel snickered, "We are fortunate that so many met their end on these accursed isles. So many servants for us to raise against Geraine."

"Indeed." Saelar agreed, raising a hand to his chin, "And while our efforts give us much cause for pride, we must not let that pride become hubris. We must acknowledge our failures, so we can learn from them."

He stepped away from the Book and continued, "Yes. Look at our rediscovery of the Atuars. They have proved a boon to our warriors, but by unleashing them on the land, we unwittingly allowed the mortals to summon Atuars of their own. In addition, we still have been unable to completely pierce the wards that protect the Fettermounds." Saelar then let out a rasping sound that sounded much like a sigh, "And do not forget those miserable failures, the Gurog, Burun, and Drudges. Of course, we can hardly be blamed for them; they were Geraine's pets. They just proved convenient tools for us at the start of our campaign."

Tenshiel nodded, "True, Master. I am curious though, what do you make of the mortals' recent rebuilding? They seem to be continually improving those towns of theirs, even as we continue to assault them."

Saelar laughed, "It would be easier to pierce the veil of time and reveal the founding of the world than to understand the minds of those barbarians!" He then paused for a moment. "Yet, it is interesting that the reanimated mortals still fight against our control. That is one of the areas I have been researching in my studies. We must perfect our control over their revived minds, or we will lose control over them as we did the minds of some of those raised at Artefon."

Tenshiel nodded once more, "I see. Then may I be of assistance to you? A few moments ago you said you were looking for a scroll?"

Saelar gestured toward the area surround him. "Yes, I was looking for a copy of Scroll of Je'lal. I thought I had one here at my fingertips, but I seem to have misplaced it."

"Ah, yes. I was in the Library when Hahnain came for it. I believe he said it contained a passage that he needed to dispel the final wards protecting the Radiant Temples."

"Excellent!" Saelar clasped his hands together. "Although lacking our refinement and natural ability, I must acknowledge that those mortals have proved an excellent resource for us, providing us both servants and raw magical power. Power we will need very soon..." Saelar trailed off for a moment and then retuned his attention to Tenshiel, "Ah, but if that is to happen, I will need to get back to my studies! Retrieve the Scroll for me, please. I really must have it if I'm to continue."

"Of course, Master. I will return shortly."

"Excellent." Saelar turned his attention back to the Book, which was spread out in front him, then brought his head up sharply and called out. "And Tenshiel, be sure to get the original Falatacot version. That Yalaini translation isn't worth the parchment it's inscribed upon."

Tenshiel, who had paused before the portal leading to the main holding, said, "Yes, Master."

Saelar turned his attention back to the Book. Soon, he thought, Geraine would be thrown down and a new era would begin. He and his fellow Archons would lead the remaining nobility of Dericost into a glorious future. Perhaps, he mused, they would find a way to return some of the living Dericost to Dereth and establish the Ice Throne once more. Oh, a few of the other Empyrean races could be allowed to return as well, as long as they knew their place. Those Dericost, guided by the Archons and other nobles, could spread forth across the planet. Then they'd have a Golden Age of their own.

"But first," he said, speaking to the empty Library, "there is much work to be done." He returned his attention to a passage in the Book.

 

Rollout Article

Original Link (now dead) - http://ac2.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=74

July Guide: "Rebirth"

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Lifestones twisted and reborn as monsters... Ancient sites of power revealed... Something stirs in the depths of Artefon...

At locations throughout Dereth, Lifestones have been shattered by dark magics. The shards of these Lifestones have been twisted and reanimated into something new, a creature bent on scouring the land looking for remains to reanimate into undead minions. It is also said that the work of the Undead continues in Artefon, and something is stirring deep in its labyrinthine catacombs.

Elsewhere, the Archons have broken through wards that once hid sites of power constructed in the Golden Age. These sites were built through the cooperation of the Kingdoms, and, when they were completed, heralded a new era of understanding between those parties, a truce that lasted until Bael'Zharon broke forth. In the darkest days of the Devastation, powerful wards were cast on these sites, shielding them. Those magics have now been shattered by the Undead, in what seems to be a bid to take control of these sites or steal certain artifacts from them. It is rumored the remnants of the Kingdoms, not seen in generations, are each working to prevent both the Undead and other Kingdoms from holding these sites for very long.

Significant changes have been made to the game world in our July episode, the details of which can be found below. Only changes to existing content and dynamics are listed, since we don't want to spoil new content!

SKILL CHANGES

Before detailing the classes that are being changed in July, we want to provide you with a list of classes that will be reset on login. The following classes will be automatically reset when they first log in during the July episode:

• Human Enchanter
• Human Sorcerer
• Lugian Berserker
• Lugian Raider
• Tumerok Clawbearer

The skill reset for these classes will work the same as it did in June, with these classes having a one-hour grace period during which they can use the "/skills reset" command repeatedly to correct any mistakes they may make in spending their experience. After that hour has passed, they will not be able to use the command again. All other classes will be receiving one skill reset that they can use during the July, August, and September episodes. Classes that are forcibly reset will be receiving this additional skill reset that they can use at any time as well. Please note that if you have not used your skill reset from June, that skill reset will be lost, so you will only have one skill reset available per character.

In the skill information that follows, if you notice a skill that has not been mentioned, it means the functionality of the skill has not changed, although it may have been moved to a different position in the skill tree.

Human Enchanter

The Human Enchanter tree has been completely reworked, with a number of skills being removed and others put in their place. The revised tree looks like this:

Human Enchanter Skills

Balance: This spell has been revised so that it now reduces the Vigor Cost of a weapon by 8% to 20% and decreases its Combat Delay by 10% to 20%. The spell costs 1 vigor point to use and lasts 5 to 30 minutes.

Impenetrability: This spell is now a player-targeted skill that adds 6 to 60 points of armor to the target. If the target already has another armor increasing effect on it, such as Encase or Shield Wall, half of the Impenetrability buff will stack with the target's original armor buff. The other half of the Impenetrability buff is overridden. If the original buff wears off, Impenetrability returns to full strength. The spell costs 1 vigor point, has a 1 second reset timer and lasts 5 to 30 minutes.

Psionic Axe: This is a new ranged attack that flings an ethereal axe at the target. The range of the attack is 60 meters, it costs 110 vigor to cast, has a reset timer of 4 seconds, and does 7 to 200 points of damage. Note that this attack cannot be used at point blank range.

Infected Caress: This spell now increases the damage of a weapon by 10 to 80 points of damage, depending on the skill level of the caster. In addition, this spell can only be cast on weapons, not on shields. Finally, if the skill level of the caster is higher than the weapon's level requirement, the spell is applied to the weapon at the level of the wield requirement. (Ex. - If an Enchanter with 45 points invested in Infected Caress casts the enhancement on a weapon with a wield requirement of 42, Infected Caress is applied at a skill level of 42.) This spell costs 1 vigor, has a reset time of 1 second, and lasts 5 to 30 minutes.

Tattercoat: This spell is now a player or monster targeted skill that reduces the armor level of the target by 10 to 100 points. If the target has any other armor-reducing effects on it, only half of Tattercoat's value is removed from their armor value. The other half of the armor debuff is overridden. The skill costs 400 vigor points to use, has a 5 second reset timer, and lasts for 30 seconds on the target.

Taunt Orb: This is the first of the Enchanter's new Orb spells. This generates a floating pet that has no attacks, but gains monster aggression through repeated taunts. Once the pet is destroyed, it does 12 to 260 points of armor-ignoring damage to all targets in a 5 meter radius. The pet has 25 points of health per skill level and 1 point of armor per skill level. It costs 1 vigor point to summon and has a reset timer of 60 seconds. Note that an Enchanter can only have one Orb active at a time.

Bladeskin: This skill causes blades to erupt from the skin of the target. These blades reflect 5% to 10% of all incoming damage back on the attacker. Every time some damage is reflected back, there is a chance that the skill will wear off. How many hits the skill reflects back depends on the skill rating of the caster, so on average a level 25 skill would reflect back 25 attacks. Please note that this is an average only, so each time Bladeskin is cast it may not reflect back the exact same number of attacks as your skill rating.

Blood Loather: This skill is now a player- or monster-targeted skill that reduces all of the target's attacks by 5 to 40 damage points. The skill costs 400 vigor points to use, has a 5-second reset timer, and lasts for 30 seconds on the target. Note that all of this skill's effect stacks with other damage-reducing skills, like "Rotten Core" or "Intimidate."

Dagger Orb: This is the second of the Enchanter's new Orb pets. The pet is very fast moving and attacking, but has a fairly weak attack, which is equal to 2 points per skill level. The pet has 15 points of health and 3 points of armor per skill level. The Dagger Orb also has a slightly better chance of evading attacks than other pets. It costs 1 vigor point to summon and has a 60 second reset timer. Note that an Enchanter can only have one Orb active at a time.

Axe Orb: This is the last of the Enchanter's new Orb pets. This pet is a glowing orb with two axes attached to it. Each of the pet's attacks strikes the target 4 times, each attack doing 4 points of damage per skill level. It also has 20 points of health per level and 3 points of armor per level. This pet also costs 1 vigor point to summon and has a 60 second reset timer. Note that an Enchanter can only have one Orb active at a time.

Swordstorm: This is a new line-of-sight attack that causes swords to appear above the target. This attack does 12 to 260 points of damage to any targets within 5 meters of the target and causes them to lose 2 to 8 points of health per second for 30 seconds. This skill costs 220 vigor points to use, has a range of 40 meters, and a reset timer of 12 seconds.

Human Sorcerer

The Human Sorcerer tree has also been completely reworked for our July episode, with a few spells being removed from the tree and replaced by new spells. The new Sorcerer tree looks like this:

In addition to these tree changes, all of the Sorcerer's debuffs have had their casting animation time reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.

Quickening: This skill has been moved down the tree to become the entry-level Sorcerer skill.

Turnblade: This skill has been tweaked so that it now negates 5% to 20% of the damage the Sorcerer receives. While this is a reduction from the previous amount it negated, the skill now negates damage 100% of the time, instead of the previous 50%.

Decrepitude: The range of this skill has been increased to 60 meters while the Vigor Cost has been reduced to 200. In addition, its power-up animation has been removed.

Clear Minds: The attack skill increase has been decreased from the equivalent of 5 to 50 Mastery points to be equivalent to 3.5 to 35 Mastery point increase in all three attack types.

Gossamer Flesh: The armor reduction effect applied to targets by this skill has been increased from 15 to 150 points of armor to 17 to 170 points of armor.

Storm's Blessing: This skill reduces all lightning damage-over-time effects by 5 to 20 levels, weakening the amount of damage these attacks can inflict. The effect lasts on the target for 5 to 30 minutes, costs 1 vigor point to cast, and has a reset time of 1 second. Note that this protection effect reduces both forms of lightning effects, those that do health damage and those that do vigor damage.

Cassius' Circle of Flame: This skill fires off two 10-meter-radius, caster-centered, area-of-effect attacks. Each attack can do 7 to 200 points of damage and applies a fire effect on all targets. This fire effect causes targets to lose 2 to 8 points of health per second for 30 seconds.

Alacrity: The maximum this spell can increase your combat speed has been reduced from a 40% increase to a 30% increase.

Vacuum: The Vigor Cost on this skill has been reduced from 520 to 400 vigor points.

Celdiseth's Runes: This is a new line-of-sight spell that the Sorcerer can use against targets. If the spell strikes the target, it does 12 to 260 points of damage. In addition, the target loses 40 to 400 points of vigor. The Vigor Cost of this skill is 200, it has a reset time of 5 seconds, and it has a range of 40 meters.

Lugian Berserker

Although the Berserker received some small changes in June, we've made further changes in July, removing some skills, adding new ones, and moving skills around the skill tree. The new Berserker tree looks as follows:

Expel: This skill has been moved down the tree and parented to "Berserk." The Vigor Cost has been reduced to 110 points, it can do 7 to 200 points of damage, and it can knock the target back 10 to 40 meters.

Reckless Abandon: This skill does two 7 to 200 point damage attacks that ignore the protection value of shields. It also reduces the Berserker's defensive values by 15 Mastery points (at a skill rating of 1) to 10 Mastery points (at a skill rating of 50) for 4 seconds. The skill has a 5 second reset timer and costs 140 vigor points to use.

Flurry, Cascade, Deluge, and Avalanche: Each of these skills has been changed so that the damage they cause is only reduced by 80% of the target's armor. (Ex. - If used on a target with 200 points of armor, the skill would damage the target as if it only had 160 points of armor.) The other stats for the skills are as follows:

Skill Attacks Damage per Attack Vigor Cost Reset Timer Skill Credit Cost Flurry 3 3 to 75 110 10 seconds 2 Cascade 4 7 to 80 130 5 seconds 2 Deluge 5 10 to 90 150 5 seconds 3 Avalanche 6 13 to 100 180 5 seconds 3

Rallying Cry: This skill provides a 10% to 70% combat speed increase to all of the Berserker's fellows for 30 seconds. The reset timer for this skill is 3 minutes and it costs 1 vigor point to use. This skill costs 3 skill credits to purchase.

Circle of Pain, Wheel of Pain, Storm of Pain, and Vortex of Pain: All of these skills inflict damage on targets within 5 meters of the Berserker. In addition, 50% of the damage inflicted by these skills is ignored by monsters, making it more likely that monsters will ignore the Berserker and focus their attacks on another nearby target. The other stats for the skills are as follows:

Skill Attacks Damage per Attack Vigor Cost Reset Timer Skill Credit Cost Circle of Pain 2 3 to 75 110 10 seconds 2 Wheel of Pain 3 7 to 80 130 5 seconds 2 Storm of Pain 4 10 to 90 150 5 seconds 3 Vortex of Pain 5 13 to 100 180 5 seconds 3

Please note that Vortex of Pain does differ from other skills in this line in the fact that its damage is not reduced by shields; instead, it ignores the shield's protection value entirely.

Defiance: This skill immediately dispels any stun, root, or slow effects that have been cast on the Berserker. However, in removing these effects, it also removes the immunity timer, meaning that the Berserker is immediately susceptible to these sorts of attacks again. Finally, it improves the Berserker's run speed by 1% to 50% for 4 to 16 seconds. The skill has a two minute reset timer, and costs 110 vigor points to use.

Intimidate: This is a 10 meter area-of-effect attack that actually does no damage to targets surrounding the Berserker. Instead, it reduces each of those targets' attacks by 10 to 60 points of damage for 30 seconds. The skill costs 220 vigor points to use and has a 3 minute reset timer.

Triumphant Shout: This skill is a 40 meter line-of-sight attack that does 12 to 260 points of damage to the target. It is parented to the Avalanche skill, costs 220 vigor points to use, and has a 7 second reset timer.

Lugian Elementalist

We decided to push out all previously announced changes to the Elementalist to a later episode.

Lugian Raider

The Lugian Raider tree has received only minor changes, with Slow Pursuit replaced by a new double attack skill called Double Throw. The revised tree follows:

Bowl Over: This skill will do tremendous amounts of damage when the target is vulnerable, similar to "Revenge" in the Lugian missile tree. It also has an easier time overcoming the missile defense values of the target, making it more likely to hit, although it still has the same chance of missing a moving target.

Lava Flow: The Vigor Cost for this skill has been reduced from 170 vigor points to 150 vigor points.

Snowball: The Vigor Cost for this skill has been reduced from 200 vigor points to 180 vigor points.

Double Throw: This is a new skill that replaces Slow Pursuit. This skill consists of two attacks that can each do 5 to 120 points of damage to the target. The Vigor Cost for this skill is 160 points, and it has a range of 70 meters and a reset timer of 5 seconds.

Frost Heave: The Vigor Cost for this skill has been reduced from 230 vigor points to 200 vigor points.

Magma Throw: The Vigor Cost for this skill has been reduced from 230 vigor points to 200 vigor points.

Underground Assault: This skill's damage has been increased to 7-200 points of damage.

Fulminating Throw: This skill's damage has been increased to 12 -260 points of damage.

Lugian Tactician

We decided to push out all our previously announced Tactician changes to a later episode.

Tumerok Invoker

All Tumerok Invoker Pets: The number of pets an Invoker can summon now depends on the type of pets they are using. An Invoker can now choose to summon one pet from the "Invoke the Grandfather" line or three pets from the "Invoke the Grandmother" line. The Invoker will not be able to summon a pet from one line if a pet exists from another line. (Ex. - Trying to summon a Brat while you still have a Redeemer active will fail.) In addition, we've given unique appearances to Brat, Minor, and Master pets and reduced the light they cast. The Brat is now smaller and yellow, the Minor is normal size and purple, and the Master is larger and red in color.

Summon Brat: The Brats' damage has been increased from 4 points per level to 5 points per level. In addition, Brats now only do their additional bonus damage after a Master has applied their armor debuff to the target. This additional damage has been increased from 10-100 points to 30-160 points.

Summon Minor: Minors no longer do any additional bonus damage to their targets, whether the Master has applied an armor debuff to the target or not. In addition, all of the Minor's attacks now draw more monster aggression, each attack causing the monster to think the Minor has inflicted damage equal to 5% of its total health. Finally, since Minors are now drawing more monster aggression, the Minors' armor has been increased from 3 points per level to 3.5 points per level.

Summon Master: Masters can now apply their armor debuff skill from a 10 meter range, letting them stand farther back from a battle. In addition, only 50% of the Master's attacks are applied to a monster's aggression, making it more likely monsters will attack other targets. Finally, the Master's armor debuff is not being removed by Brat or Minor attacks; instead, it now wears off 30 seconds after it is applied to the target.

The Reckoner: The Reckoner's armor has been increased to 2 points per skill level and its health has been increased to 20 points per skill level. In addition, only 50% of the Reckoner's AOE attack is applied to monster aggression, making it more likely that monsters will focus their attacks on other nearby targets. Finally, the amount of damage the Reckoner's fire damage over time effect does has been reduced. Previously this effect did 10 to 50 points of damage for 10 seconds, akin to the damage done by static pets; it now does 2 to 10 points of damage for 30 seconds.

The Redeemer: To make the Redeemer a better support pet, we've given it a 4 to 200 point heal to use on its master, and completely removed its attack ability so that it will focus its attention on its master. Please note that the pet's buff and heal spells work best if used in combination with the pet commands, with the pet's master issuing commands to the pet when they want to be healed or buffed.

The Vindicator: We've increased the Vindicator's armor from 1 point per level to 3 points per level and its health from 10 points per level to 20 points per level.

The Avenger: We've reduced the Avenger's health from 40 points per level to 35 points per level.

Intervention: This skill now reduces damage of all incoming attacks by 3-10%. While this is a reduction in the amount of damage this skill will absorb, it now works 100% of the time, instead of the previous 50%.

Tumerok Clawbearer

The Tumerok Clawbearer tree has only been slightly modified, with only Hamper Movement being removed from the tree and replaced by a new skill called Misdirection. The new tree looks like this:

Launch: This skill has been given two improvements. The first is that it now does significantly more damage to targets that are vulnerable. The second is that its damage has been increased from 3-75 points of damage to 7-200 points of damage. Finally, this skill can now be used at point blank range.

Misdirection: This is a new skill that does 3-75 points of damage to the target and also reduces the monster's aggression toward the Clawbearer by 10% to 15% of the monster's total health. The skill has a range of 70 meters, costs 160 vigor to use, and has a reset timer of 5 seconds. Note that this skill can be used at point blank or melee range.

Thunderous Motion: We've reduced the reset timer on this skill from 5 minutes to 4 minutes. In addition, the skill now has no power up animation and can be cast while running.

Rend Armor: This skill can now be used on targets 20 meters away from the Clawbearer and costs 3 skill credits to purchase.

Fling Sand: This skill costs 2 skill credits to purchase.

Claw Storm: We've increased the damage of this skill to 12-260 points of damage. This skill still costs 2 skill credits to purchase.

Twin Shot: This skill can now be used at point blank range. In addition, its Vigor Cost has been reduced from 200 vigor points to 160 vigor points. The skill costs 3 skill credits to purchase.

Addle Wits: The Vigor Cost of this skill has been reduced from 400 vigor points to 350 vigor points. This skill costs 2 skill credits to purchase.

Maul: This skill's Vigor Cost has been reduced to 200 vigor points.

Mortar: This skill's damage has been increased from 7 to 200 points of damage to 12 to 260 points of damage. We've also increased the range of the skill to 60 meters and increased the area-of-effect to 12 meters. Finally, we've given the skill a knock back effect that can knock targets back 10 to 30 meters.

Hail Storm: This skill's run speed slowdown effect has been increased from a 10-40% decrease to a 20-60% decrease. In addition, the Vigor Cost has been reduced from 460 points to 350 vigor points and its range has been increased to 80 meters.

MONSTER CHANGES

We've only made minor adjustments to monsters in our July episode. The most significant changes have been to change the levels of certain quest boss monsters and Vault boss monsters. The monsters that have had their levels changed are:

Monster Old Level New Level Shades of Lost Heroes Bosses 60 56 Gevoth Vault Boss 60 56 Mount Malthabbor Vault Boss 53 49 Winterhollows Vault Boss 52 48 Nepeth Strata Vault Boss 51 47 Oriad Vault Boss 38 45 Farali Vault Boss 38 36 Naderu Vault Boss 33 32 Tou-Tou Vault Boss 33 32 Lumari Spill Isles Vault Boss 31 30 Ariaki River Valley Vault Boss 28 27 Kydi Delta Vault Boss 23 22 Prosper Marches Vault Boss 24 23 Drudge Citadel Vault Boss 23 21 Cobalt Sweeps Vault Boss 15 14 Mad Crone Vault Boss 15 14

We've also slightly changed the combat regeneration of group monsters. They will now regenerate 10% of their maximum health every minute in combat, while their vigor will regenerate at a rate of 4% of their maximum vigor every minute. (Note that this does not include the Tyrants found in the "Armorsmith's Lament" quest or the "Darvain's Reward" quest. Those monsters have a 2% combat health and vigor regeneration rate.) The final change made is a general reduction in the damage Revenant-type Undead monsters are able to do. These types of monsters had their damage reduced by 9% for our July episode.

ALLEGIANCE MANAGEMENT

Monarchs have a few new commands to help them manage their allegiances in our July episode.

Allegiance Recall Points: Each of Dereth's 22 towns has a new Allegiance Hall. These Allegiance Halls consist of a building on the landscape with a portal leading to an allegiance dungeon. Within this dungeon there is a binding stone and a teaching stone. To set their allegiance's recall point, the monarch first needs to double-click on the teaching stone. Then they need to double click on the nearby binding stone. At this point 20,000 gold is subtracted from the monarch's gold bag and the allegiance's recall point is set. If the monarch does not have 20,000 gold, the command fails. A monarch can change their allegiance's recall point every three days. Once the Allegiance monarch has tied to a hall, all members of the Allegiance can recall to the Hall using the free "Allegiance Recall" skill found in the "Specials" skill panel.

Please note that with the exception of the Palisade's dungeon hall, all of the dungeon halls are peaceful areas. The Palisade dungeon hall matches the surface hall and is marked as a Conflict area, which means that Kingdom-aligned players can be attacked there, but neutral players are safe from attack.

Allegiance Officers: Monarchs can now designate 8 people in their allegiance as officers. To give someone the rank of officer in their allegiance, the monarch would type, "/setofficer <name>" -where <name> is the character's name. To revoke an officer, the monarch would need to type, "/revokeofficer <name>" - where again <name> is the character's name. Allegiance officers can break people from the allegiance, set titles of members in the allegiance, and change the message of the day.

Allegiance Titles: Monarchs and Allegiance Officers can give special titles to members of their allegiance. To do so, monarchs and officers would need to type, "/settitle <name> <title>." The <name> field would be the name of someone in the allegiance, while <title> would be the character's new title. This title needs to be 32 characters or less and is displayed in the allegiance panel, replacing the default rank titles. A title can be removed by the monarch or an officer by typing "/removetitle <name>." This would restore the character's default rank title.

Kingdom Restrictions: Monarchs can now restrict which Kingdoms are allowed in their monarch. Monarchs have three options available to them:

• "/allegiancekingdom_on" - Setting this option sets the Monarch's Kingdom as the allegiance's Kingdom. Only characters of the Monarch's Kingdom could join the Allegiance and all existing allegiance members would be prevented from joining any other Kingdom, including joining the Neutral faction. If a character is not of the Monarch's Kingdom, they would be locked into their current Kingdom until the Kingdom restriction was turned off or they leave the allegiance.
• "/allegiancekingdom_neutral_on" - This option works similarly to the "/allegiancekingdom_on" command and sets the Monarch's Kingdom as the allegiance's Kingdom. However, this command allows characters to leave the monarch's Kingdom and join the Neutral faction, and allows Neutral characters to swear into the allegiance. Existing characters would be unable to join any Kingdom other than the Monarch's Kingdom or the Neutral faction.
• "/allegiancekingdom_off" - This turns off all allegiance Kingdom restrictions.

Additional Member Information: Each member's Kingdom, their raw numerical rank and whether or not they are an officer is now included in the Allegiance export XML.

COMBAT AND PETS

• We've improved the code that limits the number of pets a character can summon. Previously a character had a maximum number of pets they could summon, no matter their type. This included both pet summon skills and quest rewards. We've changed this and the number of pets a character can summon is now limited by the type of pet. This will allow a character to always use their quest pets, no matter how many skill summoned pets they have active. In addition, it allows better restriction on what type of pets can be active on a character at any one time.
• Pets and monsters will no longer respond at all to targets they cannot attack. Previously a pet or monster would run up to the target, as if to attack it, and then realize the target could not be attacked.
• Monsters will never do their victory emote after killing a pet. In addition, they will only choose to do a victory emote over a dead player about half of the time.
• We've found and fixed one situation that could lead to a Lugian Tactician's Turret to stop attacking nearby targets. The fix should make this situation occur much less often. If you still find a situation where this is happening, please provide the following information in the thread entitled "Tactician Turret Error Reports" in the July section of our official discussion boards: Where you were fighting, how long you had been fighting there, what sorts of creatures you were fighting, how many players were in your group, and any other details you feel would be important.
• The skill level of ranged wounding skills on all higher level Reedsharks has been reduced by one third.
• The harsh, drying effects of the sun are taking their toll on the Olthoi Grubs. After their mounds are destroyed, Grubs will only last for 15 minutes on the landscape before disappearing back into the ground, and, additionally, may occasionally be struck by heat stroke and keel over dead in combat.

TREASURE CHANGES

• The gold value of both Mundane and Magic items has been increased.
• All treasure generated helms have a monetary value now.
• The method used to determine the Minimum Level Requirements for weapons has been changed. This should prevent low damage weapon with high level wield requirements from appearing as treasure. Additionally, solo monsters will sometimes drop very good weapons similar to those found on group monsters; however, this is not at the same frequency as group monsters.
• Previously, when treasure was generated, the treasure had a 66% chance of being specific to the race of the character that opened the treasure source. This has been increased to 74%.
• The odds of a weapon receiving the following effects have been improved: "Critical Hit," "Grace" and "Vigor Cache."
• The "Vigor Cache" effect has been improved.
• The probability of staffs appearing as treasure has been reduced, increasing the chance that drums will be generated.
• Crone Slayer, Thornling Slayer, and Ero-bal Slayer weapons will no longer appear in high-level loot sources.
• The armor ratings for robes have been increased.
• Previously, items that were generated with the Scheming skill effect for Lugian Tacticians tended to be skewed more toward improving the Armor Piercing skill than other skills. That effect has been tweaked and now all Tactician skills have an equal chance of being chosen when a "Scheming" item is generated.
• The Tumerok Hivekeeper skill-boosting effect has been renamed to "Keeper of Nests."
• The Banderling Chief now drops treasure.
• Tyrant and Gigurath treasure has been upgraded.
• Stony Armoredillos and the Gurog Mountain King are all dropping more loot.
• Linvak Reedshark treasure has been fixed to generate items more appropriate to the level of the Reedshark.
• Musical instruments are no longer "mutated" by the treasure system. This will result in more unique instruments being found in the treasure system. For instance, guitars and "Voices of the Ancients" are no longer being renamed as Lutes and Panpipes.
• All six types of Sigil Keys are now stackable.
• The pyreal motes needed for the Soulbound quests are now stackable.

TWEAKS AND FIXES

• The memory usage by the particles found in many locations in-game and on quest items has been reduced significantly. This should improve frame rate in particle heavy locations.
• The game client is more efficient about releasing graphics memory. This should lead to an overall reduction in the amount of memory the client uses.
• The way memory is used to draw the game landscape has been changed. This should lead to a reduction in the memory consumed at the lowest game settings, but a slight increase at the highest settings. This will lead to smoother transitions between landscape landblocks.
• We've made a slight change to the way DirectX sound drivers are loaded by the game to improve sound performance.
• Direct chat tells, those that use the "/tell" and "/retell" command, no longer go through the GUN chat servers. These chat messages are now handled by the AC2 game servers. Players should not notice this change, with the exception of the fact that tells to characters that don't exist and characters that are not logged in will now both result in the "<name> does not exist" error message.
• We've fixed an exploit that allowed characters that had just died to resurrect at the spot where they were killed instead of at their Lifestone.
• We've corrected a problem that could cause a mounted player to get stuck when trying to leave the water. In fixing this bug, we've also given mounted characters a standing vertical jump.
• We've corrected a bug that was preventing the rank of new monarchs from being updated properly.
• Killing an Inferno Murk Drudge now advances the "Rashan's Revenge" quest.
• The Starter weapon recipes were taking 24 in-game hours to reset, instead of the 24 real-time hours we intended. This has been corrected.
• Crafted Robes now have armor values comparable to treasure-generated ones.
• Forges without fuel now provide a small crafting bonus.