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- --02-27
- Ken Troop
- Skills and Pets
- Telkhe continued for a moment more, then looked up at Jasi. "This creature's keh was tortured. I was asking Blue Mother Heaven to give it peace." Standing up, he continued, "These are creatures of dreams, Jasi. We must help them." Without another word, he turned and walked away from the corpse.
- Telkhe stood impassively, seeming to ignore the danger that charged at him. He regarded the monstrous beast and its rider. The beast was obviously undead; exposed bone peeked out from decaying flesh, and deep gouges marred its back, signs that it had been driven hard over harsh territories. As it drew closer, the thundering sound of the beast's hooves grew deafening, and the stench of death and decay became almost overpowering.
- One of the more fascinating February quests concerns a new AC2 mechanic--mounts. After completing the Curse of the Undead quest, you receive three recipes for creating a magical saddle. Each saddle type summons an Ataur for a different length of time.
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Rumormongers have whispered many a tale in recent days, stories of undead soldiers mounted on beasts of legend. These undead are plaguing the lands surrounding the Fettermounds, those places that bind the Shelters to Dereth. Even worse, the undead are said to possess corrupting magics…
- Expect the gameplay for mounts to evolve continually throughout the next six to nine months, including a broader variety with different speed, cost, and duration trade-offs, terrain sensitivity, and other creative uses! The AC2 Team has a great deal of experience rolling out new features and believes the best method is to release small segments of a feature over the course of several months, rather than one large release in a single month. This ensures the feature rolls out the best possible way for players—and gives us a chance to hear your thoughts.
- We will proudly unveil our February Episode, "Ambuscade," shortly. There's lots of cool content for all levels of players… And we're certainly excited about being able to show off the first tier of a feature that will be released solely through the Live team process; no expansion pack required.
- Please keep in mind that for February, our goal is to give players an initial experience with mounts and a chance to try them out. Mounts are a fun new dynamic, but this is only the beginning!
- There are five level ranges for this quest. When you complete higher levels of the quest, additional recipes for other Ataur are granted. These higher-level recipes summon Ataur that are faster and different in appearance. For instance, the Veldt Ataur is 26% faster than the Ley Ataur . For more information, see Ataur Mount Specifications.
{{{!
- Continue to Part 2 for more details on mounts... And remember, you can always hit F1 in game for help!
- - The AC2 Team
- Not having the breath to respond to her sarcastic remark, Thukkos simply pointed and gasped, "Over there. Next to that beast."
- We know that this may be frustrating for some of you, but we feel our best path of success is to focus on one major "item" system at a time, instead of trying to split our attention on both. If you like the treasure changes over the next few months, then I think you will enjoy the direction the crafting system takes after that period.
- For February, the one major crafting change is that when you succeed in a Dye attempt, there is no longer any possibility of damaging your armor. Unsuccessful dye attempts still can damage your armor.
- "Fine, fine," Jasi grumbled. "No use in trying to talk you out of anything."
- Unlike any other game, the Asheron's Call franchise continues its proud tradition of epic storylines and compelling features delivered through regular monthly episodes. There's no waiting for expansion packs. We're proud to introduce mounts, our next major feature, just three months into the game's release!
- There is still an outstanding bug with Transmute All: It sometimes leaves behind one item in the chest. You get the error message "You cannot pick up the . You are too far away." We are working on fixing this for March.
- Although the skeleton was now only a scant ten yards away, Telkhe still did not move. Suddenly, a ball of fire struck the decaying creature's flank. It stumbled, narrowly missing Telkhe. As the creature slowed, still trying to recover from her initial blast, Jasi stepped from concealment behind a boulder and unleashed another spell. At the same time, Thukkos charged from some sheltering ruins to the creature's left, his sword arm poised to inflict a tremendous blow on the skeleton rider.
- We are excited to introduce player-controlled mounts to Asheron's Call 2 with our February episode. We won't spoil how you can obtain a mount here. Instead, we'll explain some of the game dynamics involved once you've obtained one. Once summoned, a mount will last for a limited amount of time and will give your character an increase to his or her run speed. Here are some of the dynamics and restrictions on mounts:
* The increase in the character's run speed depends on the tier of the mount summoned .
* The cost of summoning a mount depends on the tier and duration of the mount.
* You can dismount from a mount at any time, thanks to a new dismount button that will appear on the lower right tool bar once you are mounted.
* You can travel through portals that lead to surface locations while mounted, but if you travel through a portal that leads to a dungeon, your character will automatically dismount. You will also automatically dismount if you run into a dungeon seamlessly connected with the landscape.
* Mounts cannot be summoned inside dungeons.
* If you log out while on a mount, your character will automatically dismount.
* At this time, characters cannot fight from the backs of their mounts.
* Most emotes and actions are unavailable while mounted; however, you can do basic things like bind to Lifestones and pick up, put down, and give items.
The table below lists the costs for the various tiers and the run enhancement they provide.
{{{!
- Producer, AC2 Live
- Before I begin, one important note: There are a number of exploits that we have fixed for February which are not mentioned below but will be announced in a short addendum to the February Developer's Notes released the day of the Episode.
- For February, we've made only one notable change to the crafting system. In the next few months, the majority of our time will be devoted to expanding and adding a lot of cool things to the treasure system. We are committed to crafting in AC2, but our first priority is to add spice and variety to the treasure system, which for a few months will take the full attention of the team to improve in the fashion befitting AC2. Once we've completed the treasure system enhancements, we can then turn our attention to the crafting system, making it a suitable counterpart to the treasure system, and worth the time and attention that crafters have put into it.
- As its rider fell to the ground, the mount loosed an unearthly wail and collapsed, its animating spark now lost. Thukkos took no notice and continued his assault on the beast's rider. As Thukkos raised his sword to finish the skeleton, it raised its arm to ward off the blow. His sword cleaved both arm and breastplate, severing the creature in half.
- Please keep in mind that we always welcome player feedback, on mounts and other features, which the AC2 Team uses to help plan future content. So go get your mount, and let us know what you think!
- Quests are an essential aspect of AC2, and we have tried to make sure that the rewards of quests reflect their importance. However, there were a number of quest rewards that significantly overshadowed their skill-based counterparts. Some of these quests could be repeated often, which made those skills not very useful.
- We've improved or fixed various issues for February. The biggest series of improvements are our fixes to some of the sound issues that have been affecting players over the last few months. This has been a challenging problem for us, and we continue to welcome feedback and specific information from you if you have any issues with sound and performance. We also continue to look into lag reports, especially at Linvak Tukal. Again, please continue to report these types of issues to us.
- A hundred yards off, the skeleton rider considered Telkhe. Then holding its mace high, it spurred its mount, shouting, "We shall see whether you are truly worthy of my Master's regard, mortal!"
- As a result, we've reduced the reward on a number of different quests. To compensate, we've made most of these rewards stackable with skill bonuses.
- Jasi approached the fallen animal as Telkhe kneeled by its side, muttering something she couldn't quite make out.
- For February, we continued to focus on monster A.I. improvements, along with a few general combat tweaks. Our goals are for monsters to represent an appropriate danger for players in all situations. Once we feel that this goal has been accomplished, we will reassess the XP totals for Tyrants and Giguraths. The March Episode will represent the last of our planned changes/fixes to monster A.I. Our focus in monster A.I. will then change to expanding the repertoire of monster strategies and making them work more effectively together.
- Jasi eyed Thukkos and muttered sarcastically, "Yes, I surely wouldn't know what it is like to be around something that talks on and on for no reason." She then cast her gaze from side to side. "Where's Telkhe?"
- "So I fall," the creature breathed, the unnatural light fading from its eyes. "And yet the task remains…"
- For February:
* Improved Sound Performance—We've addressed several sound issues to improve performance. Performance may be improved further by lowering the "Number of Playing Sounds" slider in your sound preferences. Also, the music volume slider will now remember your setting throughout your current and future game sessions.
* Missing Shore Effects—A bug in the revised shoreline effects code has been corrected. Shoreline effects should display correctly again.
* Experience Display Bugs—If a skill was partially untrained, an error could occur that would give the impression that experience had been lost and that the skill could never be raised to its maximum skill level. This has been fixed. Now when examining a skill that has been partially untrained, whatever experience is needed to raise the skill by one point will be displayed.
Miscellaneous minor tweaks and bug fixes:
* The arrival point for the Northwest Outpost portal on the Malthabbor Ringway has been moved out of the Kingdom v. Kingdom zone and into the nearby Peaceful zone.
* The musical instruments introduced in January were accidentally set to bond to the character that picked them up. This problem has been fixed so that all newly generated instruments may be given to other characters. However, instruments generated in January are not changed and are still bonded to the character that picked them up.
Conclusion
- Furthermore, these buffs were actually overwritten by some skills, which is why people who had done the "Curse of the Moarsmen" quest reported that their skills negatively impacted their HPs when they used an HP-buff skill.
- "Telkhe, what's wrong?" she said, concern evident in her voice.
- Next month we will work on a UI for your Friends list, add additional backpacks and storage space to your inventory, and further improve the information you get from examining magical items and skill effects.
- A short distance away from the party, a lone figure stood in the shadows cast by the nearby ruins. It stood there considering them, then was gone.
- Minor crafting changes:
* Item Gambling Recipes are changed from "Boost " to "Improve ."
* The Mucor Mushroom Potion Recipes are now in the Potions section of the Quest Recipe vocation.
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
- Also for March, all skills that we're aware of as completely non-functional will be fixed. In the Skill examination panel, skills will display full information about their effect: duration, heal rates, damage-over-time rates, etc.
- Thukkos straightened, catching his breath, then said, "These undead. Always prattling on."
- Here are the fixes for February:
* I Hit This! —There was a bug affecting both players and monsters that sometimes prevented melee attacks from successfully making contact with either large monsters or monsters on a slope. This should be fixed now.
* Critical Hits actually work now! —Each auto-attack now has a 5% chance of being a critical hit, which will do double damage to the target. There was a bug preventing this from happening.
* Monster Targeting and Pathing Tweaks —There are lots of tweaks and improvements to monster A.I. to make them more likely to target those players who represent the most current danger to them. Factors such as Nemesis hatred of certain player races also still play a very large role. Monsters should also be more effective at negotiating difficult terrain to get to players.
* Fellowship Immunity —Fellowship members can no longer be affected by harmful attacks from the fellowship, whether these are area of effect attacks, single target attacks or auto-attacks.
* Dereth is Full of Wonders —Many landscape objects, such as many types of rocks and trees, and monster "cultural objects," are now ethereal to monsters and will no longer impede their movement.
Quest Changes
- One of the major pushes of the AC2 Live team over these first few months has been to polish and enhance the UI of the game. Whether that is better highlighting of information, or making a feature easier to use, we are committed to continuing to make AC2 a fun and enjoyable game free of frustration. This month, we improved the ability to loot corpses and enhanced the effects display on the top left portion of your screen, among other things.
- And while we continue to address existing issues in AC2, we're also striving to provide you with new gameplay experiences in an ongoing game that no other MMP can provide. We know that some of you would prefer us to focus only on bugs, others only on new content. We feel that the health and ongoing success of AC2 depends on us continuing to do both, using all the skills of our development team—the artists and programmers and designers—to make AC2 the best ongoing game experience possible.
- Enhancements and fixes for February:
* Far Easier Looting and Transmuting: When opening a monster's corpse or a treasure chest, there will now be two new buttons to use. The first button on the bottom left of the corpse UI is a "Loot All" button. If you have room in your inventory for all of the items, they will be placed in your inventory. The second button on the bottom right of the corpse UI is a "Transmute All" button. This button puts the converted gold directly into the character's gold bag; however, the character will still need one free inventory slot to temporarily hold each item as it is converted. Also note that "Transmute All" will ignore Quest items.
* Duration Status Bars: Each spell or effect cast on your character will now display a small yellow status bar below its icon. This status bar will shorten as the spell or effect wears off, and it should let you know at a glance which ones will need to be refreshed. We have also increased the number of effect icons which can be displayed at one time, from 5 to 9. The sorting on these icons has been changed as well, so those on the far left will run out sooner than those on the far right.
* Temporary Inventory Slots: In order to prevent numerous issues that crept up from people trying to interact with quests and NPCs when the player had a full inventory, we've added a few "overflow" slots to your inventory. So if an NPC gives you an item, and your inventory is full, the new item will appear at the top of your inventory, while the last item in your inventory will temporarily disappear. Don't worry, the last item in your inventory has not been lost; it simply isn't displayed until inventory space is freed up. There is a limit of 10 overflow slots, so we still recommended that you try to free up space in your inventory. Most NPCs will no longer advance your quest if they cannot give you a quest item.
Treasure and Crafting
- In February, our epic storyline also launches in full. Tales have been spreading that the undead have discovered the means to summon mounts, called "Ataurs" in ancient Empyrean myths. Stealing this knowledge from their withering grasp will not be easy, especially with large swaths of land, and the creatures that live there, poisoned by deadly magics. Fortunately, if they can find the right materials, adventurers will discover that they can craft cures to these poisons—as well as the means to summon mounts of their own!
- Everyone here at Turbine and Microsoft appreciates the time and energy you, our players, spend in these worlds. It is your passion that allows us to expand and evolve the world of Dereth. Thank you for playing Asheron's Call 2.
- For March, we plan to release our specific plans for changes to existing gameplay, quests, skills, and items sooner in our production process in order to give the Asheron's Call 2 community more insight into the ways that we are changing your world. We are keenly aware of the issues that continue to plague some of you—lag, sound issues, broken skills, monster exploits—and we are working hard to address each of these as quickly as we can. We depend on your feedback to continue to respond to those issues in a timely and effective manner.
- Although the majority of our gameplay changes are detailed in this month's Letter to the Players, there are a few more things we want to tell you about now that our "Ambuscade" episode has launched. Some of these changes were implemented after this month's Letter was released. Others are game exploits that we didn't want to make worse by pointing them out until fixes were in place.
* Skill Effect Precedence—There was a bug in which the last buff-skill used on a player "overwrote" a similar buff-skill, even if the first buff-skill had a bigger effect. We've fixed this for February, so now the level of the skill used determines which buff-skill stays on the character, with higher level skills trumping lower level versions. However, there are still possible issues with two different skills that do the same effect, such as Encase and Shield Wall. A higher level Encase would "overwrite" a lower level Shield Wall, even though the Shield Wall skill possibly has a greater boost to your armor. In most situations, though, this difference should be negligible.
* Blowing up Other People's Turrets! —You can no longer use beneficial skill-buffs on a Pet unless you are the owner of the Pet. This removes griefing tactics such casting Single Barrel on someone's Turret that has Double Barrel, or casting Self-Destruct Sequence on someone's Turret.
* More Anti-Exploit Code—If you receive the "that wasn't a fair fight" message when fighting a monster, the monster will no longer drop loot on death or grant any special death effects on characters. This includes creatures such as Guardians, so if they are unable to defend themselves against attack, they will not change Kingdom, nor will the ownership of the landblock they defend change.
* Portal Restrictions—All ringway and gateway portals on Omishan and Linvak Massif now have level restrictions appropriate to the level of the continent. For Omishan, this change restricts portals to character levels 15 or greater, while Linvak Massif portals are restricted to level 30 or greater. Any player-summoned portals will have these restrictions as well. For the March episode, we will offer more convenient ways for players of different levels to quickly meet with one another.
* Shrethbane Coat—We did not intend for the additional damage provided by the "Shrethbane Coat" recipe to be added to a weapon more than once. Weapons with multiple applications will be reduced to one application of the recipe, and characters will be refunded 11,000 gold for each recipe application that was removed from their weapons.
* "Jump Casting" Addressed—To address the "Jump Casting" exploit, all character skills can no longer be used in mid-air.
- Magics that can transform living creatures into undead servants…
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- I want to hit on some of the significant changes and bug fixes to be presented in this Episode. Consider this a combination of our usual monthly Letter and the Developer's Notes. I'll talk about skills, combat, quests, inventory and UI, treasure and crafting, and miscellaneous bug fixes.
- The trap now sprung, Telkhe spun around and beat a rhythm on his drum, releasing a bolt of lightning that struck the mount between its ribs. A moment later, Thukkos' blow knocked the skeleton rider from its saddle onto the parched earth below.
- For February, we've made some changes to the Tactician class. Additionally, we've fixed a couple of issues that we were not able to get in by the February deadline. These include Invoker pets failing to move to their target, and classes trying to summon a pet such as a Turret, but the pet fails to place even though the skill timer is greyed out. These things will definitely be fixed for March, and potentially sooner, should there be an intra-Episode patch.
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