Announcements - 2009/12 - Gaining Ground

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Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=529-gaining-ground&catid=75-2009&Itemid=68

Gaining Ground

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Nario scratched his sweaty head looking at the paperwork before him. Order partially filled. Ration shortage. Back-ordered. The numbers just didn’t work--but did they ever at one of these backwater posts? To be honest, the Celestial Hand did a better job than most in supplying their smaller outposts and he could almost understand the upper brass’s point of view on these things. He had been a quartermaster for far too long not to get such things. Sure the Empyreans needed a presence here at Freebooter Isle-- Ley Lines needed to be protected. The other factions needed to be prevented from gaining any footholds anywhere. And Nario knew this was high on the upper brass’ agenda. But by the Light, how could they focus on any agenda if they were spending so much of their time just trying to get their basic needs from things they foraged from the island.

As he drummed his fingers on the rough surface of the palm wood desk, he couldn’t help but smile.

Speaking of scrounged materials, he thought.

Just then a burst of energy by the name of Zaria bolted through the door

The young Medical Officer had been stationed on Freebooter Isle and had yet to lose her enthusiasm, which surprised him since she looked so frustrated today.

“What’s wrong lass?” he asked, ignoring her rank--such formalities in private were often disregarded. That’s one advantage of a backwater post.

“We’ve gotten another batch of causalities in from yesterday’s foraging sweeps,” she said making her way in the back where medical supplies were kept. Usually Nario didn’t let anyone touch his supplies, but when medics were in a rush he made the exceptions.

“Those damn bugs again?” Nario asked.

“Hard to think of those four foot horrors as ‘bugs’.” My brain just doesn’t want to accept it.” Zaria grimaced as she wiped the sweat from her brow--the heat of the day was affecting her as well. But then, who wasn’t susceptible to such temperatures? It made the medics jobs even harder. “But yes, several of our troops were taken out by the Killer Phyntos wasps.”

Nario shook his grizzled gray head. “Hard enough to fight a four foot bug, but a flying bug with its own personal impaling blade is just nasty.”

“Luckily, no one got impaled this time,” she said moving things around the shelves. “Just some deep cuts. The troops are getting better at fighting them.”

“That’s a relief,” Nario said. “It should be smooth sailing once you stitch them up,” he said nodding towards the surgical thread she had placed into her apron. Life Mages were either on active duty elsewhere, or weren’t sent to small outpost groups unless they expected to see heavy fighting.

“I wish that was the case,” Zaria said her short black hair swaying as she shook her head. “But its infections that are the problem. With all this damn heat, a bacterial infection can set in and a patient can die from what was a minor wound. Not to mention the whole heat and dehydration thing.”

“Be lucky we’re on this island, lass,” Nario said. “That jungle out there lets us make up for what we don’t get in the supply shipments.”

She sighed in agreement. “Speaking of supply shipments, where are the antibiotics we ordered? I can’t find them.”

“They didn’t come,” he said holding up the invoice. “Backordered.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” she yelled. “How am I supposed to prevent gangrene without antibiotics?”

“Relax lass,” Nario said. “Learn from the experience for an old dog who’s been doing this way too long. If you’re in this for the long haul then you need to see the hidden benefits from your problems.”

Zaria smirked, her brown eyes filled with an expression somewhere between annoyed and amused. “Excuse me?”

“Take that volcano out there,” he said pointing his quill towards the open window. “It’s a threat, right?”

“Hmmmm. Could blow us up at any minute? I’d classify that as a threat.”

“But that volcano is what makes this island so abundant in plant life which gives us food and trust me if you’ve ever been stationed in a barrens, you’d understand how lucky we are.”

“And how am I supposed to see these mutant bugs as a hidden benefit?”

The gears in Nario’s brain began to crank into full gear as he remember a note from a recent report.

Seeing his concentration, Zaria asked, “What are you thinking?”

“Didn’t the latest reports say that these wasps give off honey?”

“Yeah, there’s a big-to-do because they’re probably a new species. Wasps, at least as we know them, don’t make honey.”

“Isn’t honey a natural anti-biotic? Keeps wounds from getting infected and helps fights of colds and such?”
“How do you know that?”

“I’m a supply officer, I make it a point to know a little of everything about everything,” he said with a smirk, “I also know a guy in just about every line of work out there.”

“But we don’t know if this honey is like the honey we’re used to.”

“But don’t you think that it would be worth it to find out? A possible food supply and an antibiotic?”

“Could be a real boon,” Zaria said nodding, pleased.

“And you never know,” Nario said leaning back in his seat. “Others outposts might find it as well. Having a valuable supply could help raise the importance of this place. The more value this place has to the higher ups, the less backorders and short ships we’ll get.”

“Trying to kill two birds, or wasps, with one stone?” Zaria asked.

“I’m a supply officer,” Nario said the large man standing up, “it’s what we do. I’m off to see the C.O.--take what you need and leave me a list.”

“Why the rush?” Zaria asked.

“Because if we’ve come to the conclusion that this honey might be a resource of value than the other factions will come to the same conclusion shortly, if they haven’t already.”

And with that the quartermaster left the medic to her scavenging.

Rollout Article

Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=531-rollout-fiction&catid=75-2009

Rollout Fiction

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The scout stood outside the door preparing himself for the news he was about to deliver. It seemed that he was always the one to deliver the failings of the current mission, and feared his commander would begin associating himself with the news. It was better just to get it over with and get out of site as quickly as possible.

“Sir, we have the reports from our efforts on Nyr’leha.“

He stood hunched over the maps on his table, calculating his next moves. This new mission set forth by the powers above was the most difficult one this fledgling society had yet to receive. The dangers that lay on the newly discovered lands was not yet fully known, and sending men there to find out also meant sending men to their death.

As he looked up at the young scout he knew that these new reports would almost certainly be filled with failure and death, a common read since this mission began. If his own morale mirrored that of his troops then hope was fading quickly. The beasts on these islands were more powerful than most of the creatures any of these men had encountered before. Their armor seemed thin and weak like parchment, their weapons and spells seemed but training instruments compared to those of their enemies.

“Bring them here”

As he read over the reports the disdain was apparent in his face. Their beach head on Nyr’leha was being attacked almost daily, the losses were many. To make matters worse the other societies had begun making their own attempts at gaining control of the area.

He had tried to warn Her Mistress that the isle was too dangerous to begin moving troops there, but his protest had been ignored. There is no other choice at a time like this and the orders must be followed, even if they sound foolish and ill-conceived. He wondered if his men understood this, or if they blamed him for the deaths of their friends and brothers.

“And what of our scouts on freebooter isle, what news have they sent.”

The scout seemed to get nervous, his hands could not remain steady and his eyes shifted from the commander’s gaze. He knew his commander was not known for his self control and his outburst of anger could mean trouble for the young soldier.

“We haven’t heard a word from any of them, and have had no success in attempting to make contact ourselves.”

Color began to wash over his face until it was as deep a red shade as was his gauntlets that slammed into the table in front of him. He strained to control his anger, why did She insist on forcing him to plan these missions. Did she not understand these are normal men, not an ancient or undead race, just men? Now he would have to deal with her wrath, even though he had tried to put a stop to this foolish plan. Perhaps he would try one last assault before passing the news along, he would play his last card from his hand.

“The Mistress will not be pleased to hear this news. I think it is time we put our new recruits to work, dispatch orders that all soldiers are required to report to the beach head and aid in defense there. And send out a party to find out what happened to our scouts on Freebooter Isle, tell them to be prepared. Whatever is out there, it is most certainly dangerous.”

“At once sir.”

The messenger turned and left quickly before the commander’s anger had a chance to fully set in. The days ahead would be difficult and many good men will fall before the mission is complete.

Release Notes

Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=527-december-2009-release-notes&catid=75-2009

December 2009 Release Notes

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Greetings and welcome to the December Letter to the Players! There is much going on this month. Winter is upon Dereth once again and the landscape shows this change. As we head into the Holiday Season, All of us here at Turbine and the AC Team want to wish everyone Happy Holidays!

So now without further delay, lets see what is new and exciting this month in Asheron’s Call!

• Winter is here! The Fall creatures have once again gone into hibernation for the season.
• Alchemy Phials now stack to 250 and cost half as much.
• Fester Phials are now available.
• The value of Crafted Grenades is half of what they were before this update.
• Motes now create 3x the Aqua Vitae as they did before.
• Making alchemy protection gems now yields twice as many.
• Special landscape creatures now have local broadcasts. (Caul, Direlands and Mainland boss creatures that have unique loot. This includes Fallen and Banished creatures.)
• The spawns on Freebooter Isle have been toned down some.
• A new dungeon has been discovered on Freebooter Isle.
• The low level Gearknight area has had its tasks level lowered by 10.
• Two handed weapon icons are now reversed to make them stand out more.
• The following Two-Handed weapons have been added:

• Quidity
• Chimeric
• Assault
• Spectral/Soulbound

• Virindi Gems no longer share the same cooldown timer as preorder gems.
• Red Runed sword had its damage restored to the correct level.
• The spell on the Two Handed Red Runed sword has been changed to a two handed spell.
• The icon for torches has been fixed.
• Grand Knight and Grand Mother will check your fort flagging once you finish the quest line. This should allow anyone who originally skipped over the bottom quests to have access to the fort and access to eaters.
• There are new Society Quests in Moarsman City.
• Trinkets can now have other materials applied to them. (Note: You should only be able to tinker these 10 times like other items, so if you were to put 10 pine on a trinket you would not be able to put any armatures on it. Also these extra materials are added with item tinkering skill not gearcrafting)

• Copper
• Ebony
• Gold
• Leather
• Linen
• Moonstone
• Pine
• Porcelain
• Satin
• Silk
• Silver
• Teak
• Un-inscribe Gem

• Salvage used on trinkets can now be bought off of the alternate currency vendors.
• Weapon kits are available on the alternate currency vendors.
• The RM/WB vendors are no longer in the Eldrytch Web. They have been dismissed for bad behavior.
• The Shard drop rate on Freebooter Isle and Moarsmen City has been increased.
• Thug Armor is no longer attuned.
• If you Town Crier the Seal for the Knorr Occultus quest, you can now go back and talk to the golem to receive a new one.
• The Remoran on Vissidal that was dropping top tier loot has been fixed.
• Society quests have all been shortened to 3 day timers, as has the turn in time for ribbons. All NPCs that mention time should also now say 3 days.
• Society head/feet/and hand armor has had its armor level increased.
• Two different society members had their names changed from bin to ibn.
• Celestial Hand helmet should now look correct when placed on the ground or a house hook.
• The Dedication Set now adds +3 with each spell (was +2) capping at +15.
• Two handed weapons have been adjusted so that you should no longer get in a state of swinging at a monster without hitting it.
• Ries Woron will now give the first person to start the dungeon an item with a lifespan, similar to what is used in Colosseum.
• Dark Isle Bosses will now only spawn 1 wave of creatures.
• Adding Gromnie Hide to a minor armature now shows the correct description.
• The Epic Gearcrafting spell is now named properly.
• The Two Handed skill buffs should no longer show up on loot shields.
• A typo in Armature descriptions was fixed.
• The Whispering Blade/Rossu Morta Chapterhouses had a mis-textured area fixed.
• The Vissidal Deep shortcut portal flagging issue fixed.
• The Karlun Breastplate is now ivoryable.
• The Mana Forge Chests have had some adjustments made to their loot profiles.
• Royal/Princely Runed Two-Handed weapons can be turned in for skill XP.
• Base Armatures of a material type have the overlay for that material.
• Applying a material to an Armature of the same type changes the icon underlay.
• Armatures with materials applied to them can't have another material applied over that.
• Adding a major armature to a trinket will change the icon underlay color to match that of the marterial underlay.

So there are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron's Call in December. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the December Event.

Developer Comments

December Known Issues

December 18th, 2009 - Link

Here are the known issues that will be fixed for January.

~ The gargoyle that summons the entrance to Mhoire Castle can become inoperative if someone uses the gargoyle without a key to Lord Cynreft's Tomb and the quest flag for the Mhoire Castle opening quest.
(Portals have been created to Mhoire Castle at Hebian To for those who are already flagged.)

~ Once someone has cummoned the shade of Rytheran from the throne they will not be able to summon him again if they repeat the quest. They will need someone who has never summoned him before.

~ The gargoyle that summons the entrance to Mhoire Castle doesn't take the strange jewel when you complete the initial quest.

~ The Fire gargoyle in the elemental gargoyle test fails on one of the quest paths. It's the path where it's Air Water Fire Earth.

~ Mhoire Castle Portals don't have radar dots.

~ The quest giving Ormend in Mhoire Castle doesn't actually tell you how many rings you need. (It's ten.)

~ The Killer Phyntos Queen does not respawn after she is killed unless the landblock is cleared and allowed to reload.

~ Quiddity staff currently strikes for Frost/Fire and should be Bludgeoning. The damage is also too low.

~ Players who ran the Gift Box quest last year may find that they "complete" the quest before discovering all 12. This will prevent the effected players from getting their full number of gift boxes.

Sev~

Severlin Producer

December 18th, 2009 - Link

Q: Was the nerf of the GW spawns intentional?

A: Yes the change is intentional.

Sev~

Severlin Producer