Announcements - 2002/06 - Castling

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June 2002 - Patch Page

Teaser

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEeventteaser0602.asp

Castling

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June 10, 2002

Elysa Strathelar knew she was dreaming. She struggled against the invisible tendrils that held her, and that felt real enough. Panic and anger surged within her as she fought, twisting and snarling. . . but it was obviously a dream. A figure stood just outside of the corner of her eye, enough so that she knew he was there, could not see him directly. He seemed to flicker, there, not there, there, not there.

And she was floating, hovering above her bed. She could not turn her head, which was bound like the rest of her body, but she was several paces from her vaulted stone ceiling, and she could see the torch flames on the wall lapping up the warm night air as soft breezes blew in through the open tower windows.

In a back corner of her mind, behind the rage and fear as she fought against her unseen tormentor, she wondered what the dream meant. Yet another example of the icy rage she felt toward Martine? Her continued attempts to deal with the shock of almost losing her son? Her previous resentment towards Asheron, as she had had to cope with these problems alone? All of these, perhaps.

Unlike any other gaming experience, the world of Asheron's Call continues to evolve. Join us, as we open our June Event, Castling. Be sure to continue your part in this incredible ongoing story, and we'll see you in Dereth!

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEeventteaser2.asp

Castling

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Continued...

Asheron watched from within his study as they approached. Gaerlan strode through the hall after his brother Delacim, their footfalls resounding off the alabaster floor and ceiling. He was Delacim's junior by some twenty years, less skilled and even more headstrong. Avarice drove him, and his relation to Asheron's apprentice afforded him some minor freedoms that he used to the fullest. Gaining the Emperor's ear at a formal gathering had been one such freedom.

Gaerlan was a poor student and had none of his brother's natural aptitude. That he would insist on sitting in on lessons and listening to lectures meant nothing to Asheron. Delacim was to be Asheron's successor. Whatever minor inconveniences Asheron needed to endure were insubstantial, but he had underestimated Gaerlan's capacity for recollection and retention.

During a banquet held in Asheron's honor after a visit to another world, Gaerlan's devious nature was brought to the elder man's attention. As he watched the two brothers enter his study, that earlier conversation played over in Asheron's mind:

“Vizier.”Emperor Kellin II made his way toward Asheron and took his arm. He waved his escort away and brought the mage onto a balustrade that overlooked the capital city and the Haelin River. “I have been speaking to your student, Gaerlan.”

“Excellency, Gaerlan is no student of mine. He is a brother to my apprentice--”Asheron tried to protest.

But the Emperor continued, “Long-lived men such as yourself should be more careful with whom they allow in classrooms. Especially when they speak of history as though they lived it.”The Emperor's eyes met his. “Valind shall be spared your tale, Asheron. I will see to that. But, there will be changes and efforts made to reinforce your expeditions. The Throne must hold a much tighter reign, it seems.”He clapped Asheron on the back and stepped through the golden doorway into the arboretum. Asheron was left there, staring out over the river.

The next morning their ship was loaded with the leading scholars of the court, chosen to become Adepts of Asheron's lessons and studies. As they departed for the Knorr Lyceum, Asheron appointed Delacim his chief assistant, placing him in charge of teaching the new Adepts.

*****

He shivered.

Elysa pulled the silken sheet over him more tightly. Blood stained the dressing on his chest. The wound had still not closed. “Strength, Elysa, strength.” She looked at her friend and thought back to two months before.

The news of Lania's fate had come on the heels of Nuhmudira's betrayal. Antius had reported movements of Martine's forces on Marae Lassel, and Elysa's councilors had responded like frightened Mites, each one shouting disparate views of what venture would be best. Fuming and saddened, Elysa had cursed everything that had happened since she arrived on Dereth. She had cursed Thorsten, Nuhmudira, and Asheron in turn.

Martine had been there, listening all along, watching her from the shadows, silent. She hadn't noticed. She had settled for bed, and as she drifted into a lazy dream he had made his move. At first she had thought it was a dream, then came the realization that he was truly there. How often had it happened before? How often had he come to her room and watched her as she slept? When he stepped from the shadow, a grim, violet halo wreathing his mask-clad head, she had wanted to leap, even scream, but he had pinned her in the air with the dark arts the Virindi had taught him.

He stumbled toward her in his misshapen canter, spouting words of love. Calling her name, he drew closer. She had wanted to reach for her bow, to strike him down and end all of this. But she was motionless, unable to respond. This was the moment she had always feared. And then, she had heard Asheron's voice.

She would not admit the relief she had felt at his timely arrival. He had not betrayed her again.

She looked upon him now and cursed herself. She knew there was nothing that she could have done, nothing that would have changed the moment, but it still pained her and preyed in the shadows of her mind.

He shivered again.

*****

As the brothers crossed the study's threshold, Asheron noticed the brooch adorning Gaerlan's collar. It was a gift from the Emperor, a cresting wave in the color of the throne, cerulean.

The Emperor had been true to his word; no further utterance had been made about Asheron's longevity. The years had passed uneventfully, and Valind had never come to Asheron's school nor hindered his teaching. But the reach of the Throne was great and now rested within the mage's halls.

The two brothers met his gaze and bowed, in a salute of honor, before they made their way to the sapphire chairs. Asheron bade them sit and took a seat across from them behind his alabaster desk.

Delacim was the shorter of the two and fairer. His fingers were thin and long, matching his slight frame. His hair was the color of the setting sun of autumn, a rich red. He wore braids on either side of his brow. He wore the robes of the apprentice, a deep and regal blue trimmed in violet.

His brother was slightly taller. His hair was dark, and he wore a sharply pointed beard. His eyes were a cold steel blue and he wore a scowl upon his face. He never seemed happy.

“Delacim. Gaerlan. I have consulted my charts and formulated a destination to a new world. I would like to begin preparations for a visit but wanted to ensure your work was done on Aerlinthe.”

“Master,”Delacim spoke crisply and clearly. “I have nearly completed my study of the portal structures across Aerlinthe and back to the mainland. Little has hindered my progress and the populace has been more than cooperative.”He paused. “Gaerlan has been helpful as well, as an intermediary with the workers. He has also assisted in the construction of several automata that will be deployed in the lower areas of the foundry. One small note of concern has arisen over rumblings that have begun to the southeast of the island. I have yet to investigate myself--”

“I have been to the affected area,”Gaerlan interrupted. “And found that there is little there, other than a place where the invisible river flows strong.”His gaze was always more harsh and challenging than Delacim's. “I will investigate further on my own if you wish, but truthfully, it is something too meager for your apprentice to pay particular heed to it.”

Asheron thought a moment, meeting the steel gaze of the young man. As he thought about his response, Gaerlan moved a hand to adjust the brooch. “Very well, Gaerlan,”Asheron said. “Investigate if you wish. If you say that there is no need for Delacim's involvement, I shall trust your judgment.”He paused and pulled at his long beard. “We have other matters that must be discussed.”

*****

The darkness was all around Nuhmudira now. As her strength faded, the sound of footsteps and visits grew more infrequent. Her people had passed their judgment. She was not dead, not yet, but there was nothing shielding her from the shroud of death that surrounded her. Others memories had eroded her own as the ocean takes the shore. It was a battle she had lost, long ago.

Her chest grew heavy with each breath, mired by the weight of guilt and the ravenous hunger of jealousy over losing her power. Even now, as she lay upon this slab with death closing upon her, she wished for nothing more than the power that had once been hers. She knew that she could make everything right if only she had--

The song began as a lullaby, a soothing lullaby sung by the voice of an angel. It echoed in the near-empty room and reverberated through her sagging flesh and into her bones. Then came the voice, singing to her, calling to her. It asked, and she answered.

The first of the Sclavus crested the top of the structure and emptied its throat into the basin beneath her head. The second began to hiss a rite that was unfamiliar to her at first, but as it continued she found she knew the words, the inflection, the power that it was infusing. She raised her broken voice to echo that of the Sclavus. Others clamored over the edge of the tower and arranged themselves in the correct order for the ritual to succeed.

The darkness was no longer the cold captor it had been. Memories that were hers began to drive back the tide, and as the final words were spoken and her bonds shattered, only one thought came to her.

Freedom.

*****

Thoughts. They consumed him. He had not moved from his throne in days. He had remained stoic. His eyes were vigilantly fixated on a tiny grain of sand that was a shade lighter than the stone brick that lay in the middle of the wall opposite him.

For days he had stared at that one point. Servants had entered and left, until he sealed the doors. Now there were only two guards. Two of his most trusted, Hibdin and Ambrosia, stood watch over his room. He was silent, but coherent and mindful.

Voices echoed along the walls of his retreat from time to time, but that mattered little to him. The oddly colored grain of sand remained the focus of his gaze and it hadn't moved.

He clutched the book tightly in his hands, and wondered how long it would be before they came for him, he who had become the hope-slayer.

*****

“The four of you shall be my commanders, my ears, eyes, arms, and swords against his heart. He is not dead yet, I can feel that much, but he drains himself by using his arts to hide from me. It will matter little in the end.” Gaerlan paused and looked over his generals, each the epitome of their kind, the absolute elementals. “The wound that Martine gave him is fatal. There is no one left on this world with magic powerful enough who would save Asheron.”

*****

A tiny voice broke the silence that had filled the room when his murmuring ceased.

“Mother? Is Uncle Asheron going to die?”

Borelean stood at the door, upright, tall, young, and innocent. His eyes were wide and curious, but not at all the eyes of an eleven year-old boy. His features were not quite that of a young man, but they had lost their youthful vigor, taking on the more distinct edges of his father. Elysa mustered a weak smile and put her hand out for him to come to her.

As she pulled him close to her and kissed the top of his head, she fought the tears and hugged him tightly. “I pray he does not, Borelean, I pray he does not.”

_______________

Rollout Article

Original Link (now dead) - http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEeventrollout.asp

Castling

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June 13, 2002

Any comfort brought to the people by the victories against the Bronze Statues and their new weapons was shattered by the assault on their Queen and the destruction of her castle by the insane Martine. Just barely escaping the destruction with her and her son's lives, Queen Elysa begins taking steps, with the aid of Asheron, to truly make Dereth her people's homeland. The last Empyrean has been of great assistance of late to the people of Dereth and has some wondering if he can indeed be trusted as the Queen has always maintained. Martine's rage at having the Queen snatched from his grasp has not been satiated by the mere destruction of her castle, and he continues to formulate plans, breathing hate for Asheron.

Still reeling from this attack, the people were dealt another blow when mages were jolted awake in the dark of night, clutching their heads in pain. Throughout the ley lines of magical force deep in the planet, a vast fluctuation was felt. Reports trickled in that the magical Essences, those forces that aided the people in learning higher magics, were destroyed, and the rings where they stood smashed. To their dismay, the recovered mages discovered that their magics were not as powerful as they had once been. They were able, though, to take some solace in the fact that this fluctuation caused their magics to last much longer than they had previously.

Realizing what a blow this was to the Isparians, Asheron shared knowledge on how to create magical foci with the Arcanum. These bulky packs contained the essence of the magical schools known to the Isparians. With these in hand, along with Prismatic Tapers and Scarabs, Isparians could cast their spells without the other components they had used since their arrival on Dereth. Asheron also shared a means to record scrolls so that all those skilled in the various schools could understand them, not just lore scholars. Scriveners quickly set up shop in the various towns selling scrolls for purchase.

Amidst these events, the exploration of Dereth continues. Rumors return of an ancient Empyrean construct unlike any seen before, containing artifacts of an unknown purpose. Parties have begun gathering to find this construct and pull what secrets they can from it.

Following is a list of the most interesting additions made to the game with this update. However, please note that not everything has been included--that would spoil the fun of finding out all manner of things added or changed! As usual, though, the town criers, barkeeps, and scribes may know the latest news. Also, the trades of crafting and selling are always in flux, so changes to prices and features are not always listed here in their entirety.

Highlights Include:

• More Cottages and Villas can be found for purchase.
• Find your Fellowship leader more easily.
• New magic foci can be used in place of traditional spell components.
• Tedious magical research has been removed and replaced by easily-read scrolls.
• More things to make your home uniquely you!

Be sure to check the Developer's Notes for June to learn more details of the Castling event. Join us as we continue the ongoing saga of Asheron's Call, and we'll see you in Dereth!

Release Notes

Original Link (now dead) - http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEeventbuild.asp

Developer's Notes

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June 13, 2002

Here are just some of the additions made in the June 13 game update, Castling. The following list is comprised of detailed notes straight from the developers themselves. For a summary of things of interest, be sure to consult the official event article, Castling.

We appreciate your feedback and bug reports in helping to ensure that the world of Dereth is a stable and fun place to be. Please submit any such bug reports to http://bugs.zone.com.

New Functionality and Content

• 150 Cottages and 50 Villas have been added to the game.
• See our earlier letter to the players for all the details about our changes to the magic system.
• There is now a separate panel for negative magical enchantments (the original enchantment panel now lists only positive magical enchantments). Both panels are in the far right upper corner.
• @allegiance info is a new monarch-only command. Typing @allegiance info <charactername> (for a character in that monarch's allegiance) will display the following: the full name and title of the character, the full name and title of the character's patron, and the full name and title of each of the character's vassals. This command can only be used once every 30 seconds.
• The number of allegiance broadcasts the allegiance speaker can make per day has been raised from 3 to 10. In addition, monarchs may now assign speaker status to someone even if they are not currently online.
• The leader of a Fellowship now shows up as a triangle dot on radar.
• You can now use the @filter command to filter out recall messages. See @help filter for more details.

Miscellaneous Improvements and Changes

• All vendors now accept all trade notes.
• Pyreals now stack to a maximum of 10,000. In July we will introduce three additional trade notes into the game.
• Mansions now have 100 hooks in them, all of them usable.
• Neutral Balm's burden has been reduced from 135 to 65 and is now available in more vendor locations.
• The Select Self key now works to have a targeted action actually work on oneself. For example, a player can use a healing kit and then the Select Self key to heal oneself.
• You now have a number of UI panels and character options that you can bind to a keyboard map.
• A new mana stone, the Superb Mana Stone, can be found at some mage vendors. In addition, many more mage vendors now carry High and Great Mana Stones.
• All Bronze trophy items are now givable and droppable again.
• New characters who start with a magic school will start with the correct focus, 5 Lead Scarabs, and 25 Prismatic Tapers. New characters who start with additional magic schools will receive additional foci, but not additional scarabs or tapers.
• The time it takes to read and learn a spell from a scroll has been reduced to roughly one second.
• When a character attempts to use a mana stone to drain mana from an item, there will now be a confirmation check even if the item does not contain any mana.
• Isparian Bows, Crossbows, and Atlatls are now unenchantable.
• The Isparian Modifying Tool is now unbreakable. The stones, however, will break each time you put them in an Isparian weapon.
• The Arcane Lore difficulty on Gorgets with Nuhmudira's Boon has been altered. The new difficulty levels are Red (High) = 180, Blue (Mid) = 150, and Green (Low) = 120.
• Isparian Daggers now have the correct damage range. Perfect Isparian Daggers have a maximum damage of 8, Superb 7, Good 6, and Quality 5.
• You now get 3 Wood, Copper, or Obsidian Keys when you successfully carve Wood, Copper, or Obsidian Hearts.
• We made a few changes to the Tenkkardun Foundry to reduce the viability of combat macroing in that location.
• Last month we introduced a bug which prevented users from playing if they were using a machine running Win95a. This should be fixed now.
• We believe we have fixed the bug where, occasionally, a character logging into the world would find that their items had lost all mana. This was a difficult bug to reproduce, and we would appreciate any reports if players experience this bug in the future.
• There was a bug with the Fellowship panel last month that kept it from updating properly. This should be fixed now.
• The bug where a character quits a fellowship and the character keeps attempting to assess a person in the fellowship has been fixed.
• We fixed a bug where the cursor appeared as an hourglass on the Fellowship panel before a player actually created the fellowship.
• There were a few bugs with the XP-sharing code for certain fellowships involving players over level 50. These have been fixed.
• There was a bug where you could exploit a vendor by selling healing kits with less than full uses, then buying them back cheaply at full uses. This has been fixed.
• For Creature Mastery scrolls, you will need to ID and read the description to determine if it's a Self or Other scroll. Self and Other do not appear in the title of the scroll. This will be fixed in July.

Minor Details

• The Invoker now displays the correct inscription.
• The portal to the Arcanum Research Facility now has a level restriction prohibiting those characters under level 20.
• Ciandra decided to reverse her impromptu sex-change operation, and now looks like a woman.
• When using a mana stone on yourself, you will receive a message letting you know when all your items are full.
• All non-used hooks now become visible whenever a house is abandoned.
• Players can no longer open the doors to the inside of the statues from the outside, unless they use the correct key.
• Statue Portal dungeons are now no-recall, no-tie, and no-summon.
• The Isparian Dagger model has been changed.
• The experience point total for a few statue creatures has been reduced.

Letter to the Players 1

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ASHEletter0602_3.asp

Letter to the Players

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June 14, 2002

Why Now?
Castling, our June Event, marks what may be the most significant change ever made in the history of Asheron's Call--the complete revamping of how players learn and cast magical spells in Dereth. We did not approach this change lightly; indeed, it was the subject of many intense conversations! Those hours of discussion and argument ensured that the changes we finally agreed upon all served our goal: to make Asheron's Call as fun and compelling for as wide an audience as possible.

Many people have asked us, “Why now?” After two and a half years of relatively few game system changes, why would Turbine and Microsoft embark upon a path of such major changes? Our determination to make these changes ultimately has to do with our desire to see Asheron's Call thrive for a long time to come. Each major change that we make comes from our strong belief that the specific change will enhance the fun of the game for the vast majority of our players.

We could have decided to play it safe and make only a few changes, to introduce small amounts of content designed to placate our existing subscriber base until the ship of Asheron's Call 2, to allow (and so encourage) AC to pass away in time for AC2.

Obviously, we chose a different path. And we're not stopping with this month's magic changes! Next month, in addition to the first stage of the Tinkering system, we will be making significant changes to the Transfer spell system. Transfer spells, such as Drain Health, will be altered substantially in July. (Look for more details to be posted before the July Event). And in the following months, look for continued tweaks to melee weapons, including addressing the Triple-Strike Dagger issue.

Yes, we know that change can be scary and sometimes painful in the short-term, but we also know that change is necessary for long-term growth and happiness. We are striving to make sure that any time we make major changes that reduce an ability of a given class or skill, we also offer new benefits to that class or skill.

So why didn't we make some of these changes a year ago? Although it was easy to see, in some cases, that things were not working as well as they should, it was more difficult to come up with solutions that we and the players would be happy with. Over the past eight months, we developed a strong vision and consensus on what problems needed to be addressed and how to address them. You are seeing the fruits of those efforts now.

We're excited about the world that Asheron's Call is coming to represent, and we hope you are, too.

Long live Asheron's Call!

Housing
This month we're releasing another 150 Cottages and 50 Villas. While we are not releasing any Residential Quarters at this time, we are planning to release 500 RQs in July (in addition to more Cottages, Villas, and even new Mansions!). We're putting out 500 RQs instead of 1,000 so that we can better monitor the impact of the RQs on the servers in July. Depending on the data, we will decide how many more RQs will be released in the upcoming months

We also implemented 100 total hooks for Mansions this month, each one of them usable by the monarch owner. There are no plans to revisit hooks for any of the landscape dwellings at this time.

As for future housing improvements, the server performance issues related to RQs a few months ago have caused us to shelve our plans for incremental storage, at least temporarily. Once we are assured that the worlds can support enough housing for all our players, we may revisit the idea of allowing players to purchase increased storage for their landscape dwelling.

However, we are still planning to implement the ability for characters to “use” items on hooks, which would allow a number of neat features, such as the ability to place permanent “portals” in one's home. Look for the start of this feature in the next several months.

Miscellaneous Changes

• We're always happy when we can implement new allegiance and fellowship improvements. We hope the @allegiance info tool and the increased uses of the allegiance broadcasts help monarchs manage their allegiances more productively. We're also pleased with the new triangle radar shape for fellowship leaders. After being frustrated for a long time by the inability of a large group to easily follow a leader on the landscape, we hit upon this simple yet effective solution. We hope you enjoy it.
• We fixed a number of longstanding and irritating bugs this month. Two of the biggest were the “vendors not buying back their own trade notes” and “characters logging back into the world and occasionally discovering that all their items had lost all their mana” problems. Our solution to the vendor issue was to make all vendors able to purchase all trade notes, regardless of what trade notes they sell. As we mentioned in the Dev Notes, the “items losing mana” issue was extremely difficult to track down and reproduce, so please report any instances if you see it happen again.
• Money, money, money. After analyzing the current state of the pyreal economy and factoring in new changes such as the updated magic system, we decided to increase the stack size of the pyreal to 10,000. We think this change will help improve the liquidity of the pyreal, especially at such a time when the pyreal may have its greatest value.
• Superb Mana Stones. One change we wanted to make sure to introduce whenever we implemented the new, extended buff times was a new, high-mana mana stone. The Superb Mana Stone has a reservoir of 2,000 mana, and can be found at many mage shops throughout Dereth.

Hot Topics

• @filter recall command. While we knew that some players would eventually learn to ignore the spammy text messages from the numerous recall options available today, we wanted to give players stronger relief from the incessant barrage should they desire. (As one of our grandfathers always says, “Back in my day, we didn't have all this newfangled `recallin all over the dang place. We had to walk back to Serac Vault, in the snow, uphill. Both ways!”)
• Bronze weapons. We apologize for not telling people in advance about the sudden change to the Bronze trophies making them no-give. This had been planned as a one-month-only change, and we are glad to change them back to their natural state this month.
• Hollow Weapons/Racial Weapons. For July, we will be making some minor tweaks to unarmed weapons, staves, and hollows (including some of the racial weapons). While the racial weapons still will not have the effectiveness of their non-racial counterparts, or of the current Triple-Strike Dagger, they will receive some bonuses. It remains true that the four non-racial weapons, sword, axe, mace, and spear, should be considered the “better” class of weapons in the game. However, we do recognize that the current state of non-dagger racials needs some improvement, and we hope to implement that in July.
• Fast-casting exploits. We're working hard to get a fix for this in either July or August.

Next Month and Beyond

As we mentioned above, next month will see the advent of the first stage of Tinkering, as well as changes to Drain and other Transfer spells.

While we have mentioned more Treasure system changes (affecting both armor and weapons) for the last two months, we unfortunately have had to postpone these changes due to our focusing on the Magic and Tinkering systems. We really think July will see at least some of these changes; August for sure!

And while it will be hard for us to rival the suspense and excitement building in our current storyline, we will discuss two top-secret issues in our next Letter to the Players. People have suspected one of the issues for a long time, but the other is something that almost no one ever knew?

See you next month!

--The AC Team