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- 20.0
- Festivus
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- Just a few of the changes made in October are noted below. To learn more of what is happening in Dereth, make sure you talk with town criers, barkeeps, and scribes!
- Second, the travel speed of life bolts will be increased to make them comparable with war magic bolts of the same level. Please note that life bolts are not meant to be the main offensive strategy for life magic, but this change should make them a little more fun to use. We will also consider some other changes to the dynamics of life bolts, but don't look for those immediately .
- Minor Details
:* Through the use of certain quest items, characters had been able to raise their specialized skills above the maximum level allowed. We have corrected this bug. For more details on this fix, please see our previous Letter to the Players.
:* A few of the quest rewards given out by Gaerlan's Phylactery have been modified and enhanced. The Letter to the Players has more information.
:* Scarecrows and Pumpkins dot the landscape again.
:* The Aun Tumeroks of Marae Lassel have stumbled across a new Olthoi Hive.
:* A few trophy items can now be dyed. These items are old style Olthoi helms, new style Olthoi Helms, old style Mattekar Coats and Armoredillo Hide shirts. In the future, more trophy items may receive this upgrade.
:* Weapon damage is now displayed to two decimal places. This will allow a better display of the effects of Tinkering on these items.
:* Creatures will no longer drop components such as herbs, powders, and tapers as treasure. In place of these components, they will drop scarabs. It should be noted that those creatures that dropped as treasure component peas , still do so.
:* Items that cannot be enchanted by Item Magic will now display this property when examined.
:* We've corrected an error that prevented fire staves from being Tinkered. Players should now be able to improve these items.
:* Female allegiance titles are being displayed properly again. You can be a Duchess again!
:* The town of Xarabydun is more accessible to players of all levels.
:* The people of Dereth are evolving--they have thumbs now!
- Yet the season is marred by new dangers, some found on the twisted landscape of the Obsidian Plains, while others are found much closer to home...
- We will be adding this feature to additional quest items as time goes on. Since it requires that we modify each weapon, not all will be immediately available. Look for more over the coming months.
- New Functionality and Content
:* With Gaerlan defeated, the people of Dereth can devote themselves to enjoying the festival season!
:* Hollow and Phantom missile weapons make their debut. Get out your Hollow armor!
:* Three new Tinkering effects have been added, including the unique Ivory Tinkering. See the Letter to the Players for more details.
:* Mana Conversion now provides additional benefits as the character's skill increases. To complement this change, the treasure system will now be generating casting wands that provide a percentage bonus to mana conversion.
:* The benefits of skill specialization have been increased. For more details, please see our previous Letter to the Players regarding this change.
:* An additional 500 Residential Quarters are available for purchase and can be found in the towns of Khayyaban, Lin, and Samsur.
- ''Regarding Quest Skill Experience Rewards
- This month sees the introduction of three new Tinkering effects. The first uses Item Tinkering to increase the maximum amount of mana a magical item can hold. The second uses Magic Item Tinkering to increase the mana conversion modifier on magic casters-wands, orbs, staffs, and scepters. Note that this Magic Item Tinkering effect is not an imbue; it follows the same rules as normal Tinkering and not the special imbue rules.
- First, the ranges for all drain spells will be increased to 20 meters, which is the current range of level 7 drain spells. We believe that this will alleviate the problems with the limited range of drain spells. This change also applies to Harm and related spells .
- In honor of this, the festival season promises to be especially notable. The various mask makers have kept their festival tradition and are providing new wares for everyone to enjoy. Many will find that they can use the needed respite to hone their crafting skills, taking advantage of the master crafters found outside of Glenden Woods.
- Hollow and Phantom Missile Weapons:
- Ivory Tinkering:
- Existing characters that have specialized skills will lose the 671 experience points from that skill, but they will receive in exchange the same 10 "free" levels that new characters receive. Note that losing 671 experience points may drop your skill level one or more levels, so that you may not immediately be a full 10 levels higher in a specialized skill. Investing 671 more experience points into the skill, however, will make up this difference.
- Misc. Tinkering Improvements:
- After reading feedback from players, we have isolated a number of problems that life mages have been having since we made the changes to transfer magic in July. Some of these problems we have already addressed , and some are going to require further action. Based on your feedback--and I want to stress here how important your feedback has been in this process--we are planning to implement the following tweaks to drain spell mechanics.
- New Tinkering Effects:
- Third, the percentage that is drained by the lower level spells will be going up slightly, and the absolute maximum cap on how much you can drain will be adjusted at all levels. We present these two together because they are really intertwined, but let's pick them apart so we can see what's happening.
- Skill Level Changes
- Table 1: Percentage Drained by Spell Level
- The Developer's Notes for October and the Letter to the Players contain even more details about the Festivus event. Join us as the saga of Asheron's Call continues, and we'll see you in Dereth!
- Also note that this change only applies to specialized skills. There is no change to the nature of the bonus you get when training a skill at creation. Training a skill at creation will continue to give you 526 free experience points in that skill, which is enough experience to purchase the first 5 levels of your skill.
- Previously, when you specialized a skill at creation, you were awarded 671 free experience points into that skill. That experience gave you 10 levels' worth of skill, but it also increased the experience cost of the next skill level. After the update, you will not receive any free experience for a specialized skill, but you will instead receive 10 "free" levels of that skill. These levels are added onto the levels from your attributes and the levels from invested experience, and therefore do not affect the cost of your next skill level.
- With Gaerlan defeated, the heroes of Dereth now enjoy calm and reflect on the dramatic changes they have seen in the last few months. Many are amazed when they think of the world as it was before. Martine, who had caused so much trouble, has redeemed himself and is now gone. Their Queen has stepped forward and taken a much more active role in the affairs of her people, something she had not done for years. Even the races formerly at odds have reached an accord unimaginable just a few months before.
- First, thanks to all for the feedback we've been receiving on the boards at <a href="http://www.accmty.com">http://www.accmty.com</a> and <a href="http://forums.turbinegames.com.">http://forums.turbinegames.com.</a> It's been very helpful for us, and we appreciate the community's participation. Last month was quite exciting with the defeat of Gaerlan, and we received great feedback on this very unique quest. The month of October brings the traditional season of festivities to Dereth, and this year's will not disappoint! From new masks to new dungeons, this month has many exciting additions for you.
- Thank you for your continued feedback and bug reports. They are a valuable tool in our pursuit of making the world of Dereth a stable and fun place to play. Please submit any such bug reports to http://bugs.zone.com.
- This behavior was never intended, and recent changes to the internal structure of the experience system no longer allow it. From now on, trained and specialized skills will behave the same way with respect to tessera: if you have already invested the maximum experience possible into the skill, then quest rewards like the tessera or the Scroll of Dark Rain will not benefit you in any way. We strongly recommend, therefore, that you do not attempt to receive a quest reward for a skill in which you've already invested the maximum amount of experience. Indeed, we have always recommended this.
- Some recent changes to our internal systems have resulted in two changes involving skill levels that will occur with the next update. This letter explains these changes in excruciating detail.
- First, we should give you some background. The level of a skill is made up of three different parts: the part that comes from your attributes, the part that comes from the experience points you have invested into the skill, and the "free" points that get added in on top of the other two parts. Note that the part from experience points includes both proficiency points earned by using the skill, character points that you spent on the skill, and some quest rewards . Also note that we have never previously used the third category, the "free" points.
- Several of the original sets of Tinkering effects now have a more pronounced effect. Here's a quick chart for your reference:
- Now, let's move on to the summary of the changes and additions for October.
- Characters who have already used quest rewards to raise the level of a specialized skill above the normal maximum will lose the excess levels of that skill with the next update. For example, let's say that Bob has invested experience to get his war magic skill to 223. Then he turned in 5 war magic tessera. His war magic skill is now 2 levels above the normal maximum from experience, or 228. After the update, Bob's war skill will lose those 2 excess levels, and his war magic skill from experience will be 226. Of course, since Bob has war magic specialized-and we know that he must, or he wouldn't have been able to get those excess points from tessera-he also receives the 10 free levels for having the skill specialized. Overall, his war magic goes up 8 levels.
- As mentioned above, quests that reward you skill points, like the tessera and the Scroll of Dark Rain, actually increase the level of invested experience in your skill. Because of a flaw in the experience system, it used to be possible to use the rewards from certain quests to raise the level of a specialized skill above the maximum normal level. That is, you could invest experience points in the skill until it was at its maximum level from experience, and then turn in tessera to raise the skill another 1-5 levels. If you tried to accomplish this same goal with a trained skill, however, you would still use up the tessera, but you would receive no lasting benefit.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: None of these plans are set in stone either in terms of scope or timing. We're going to try to get them done quickly, but we may need to change our plans, and we may need to push them back a month or more. Now, keeping that in mind, this is what we have planned:
- Before the Transfer changes, all drain spells drained 25% of the target's health . In July, this percentage changed depending on what level of spell you were casting, so that level 1 drains drained 10% and level 7 drains drained 50%. In November, no level will drain less than 25%. This means that the percentage drained by the lower level spells will be increasing, but the percentage drained by the higher level spells will remain unchanged. The following table illustrates these changes. We believe that this will help increase the effectiveness of drain spells at low levels.
- ''Specialization Bonus
With this update, we are changing the nature of the bonus that you get when specializing a skill at character creation. This change will be retroactive-that is, it will apply to all existing characters with specialized skills as well as to new characters created after the update.
- Before I address some of the content and changes this month, please read this important notice regarding Skill Level Changes; it's fairly detailed to give you the complete rundown. This has been posted for some time now, but in case you didn't read it, we wanted to include it in the Letter to the Players.
- While this is not Tinkering in the strictest sense , it does allow you to change a limited number of no-give/no-drop quest items in order to either store these items or give them to another character. Please note, however, that these quest items will only be wieldable by their original owner. The specific quest items that you can affect this month are:
:*Hollow Missile Weapons
:*Deadly Hollow Melee Weapons
:*Phantom Weapons
:*Gaerlan's wands and robes
:*Martine's mask and robe
- Highlights Include:
:* New and enhanced tinkering effects!
:* Mana Conversion provides even more benefits for mages!
:* New regalia for the festival season!
- Beyond these most obvious changes seen in the world, daily lives have been transformed. Cumbersome packs of spell components are gone, replaced by magical Foci. Weapons and equipment now possess power that was unknown before. And scrolls that all can easily comprehend have replaced the study of the arcane that consumed the time of so many. Although the people of Dereth know this peace will not last long, never before have they been so prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead.
- Many of you have patiently waited, and now poppa's got a brand new bag... er, quiver. We created them, played with them, tweaked them, re-tweaked them, and now we're finally satisfied with their performance. We have added Hollow and Phantom missile weapons to the game! Sorry for holding off on them for so long, but we wanted to make sure they balanced well for both Player vs. Environment and Player vs. Player. The arrows are obtained through a quest similar to the hollow melee weapon quest. Happy hunting!
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