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- Coming Soon
- *****
- --02-15
- --03-31
- 86400.0
- Minor Details
- 2005.0
- In-Concept
- Miscellaneous Changes and Improvements
- And just to add to your joy, imagine some of the previous developers who wrote some of this the code, people long gone from the company, didn't provide frills such as documentation or commenting the code, so that those who followed after would know what those various bits of the code were supposed to do.
- Ah, much to discuss this time around. Much news, as well as much that is new; this is going to be a long one covering a wide range of subjects. We had intended to post this a couple weeks ago, but several dates had to be firmed up and confirmed with our partners; we wanted to be confident talking about them. So, to paraphrase Bette Davis: "Buckle up, boys; it's going to be a bumpy ride."
- We also have a price cap: We expect the Suggested Retail Price to be at or around $29.99. If the SRP is going to end up much different than that, we'll let you know immediately.
- So, if you don't receive an invitation for this first round, don't worry, you may get a chance to preview it later on. There will be a pretty hefty download involved, around 400 MB; you've been warned. You'll also need an active account on the Turbine Billing system to be part of the test or preview. If you haven't yet migrated your account and want to be involved with the test or preview, now is the time, :D.
- -7776000.0
- Can you imagine the conflicts you'd run into trying to do that? That old legacy code is going to be an issue every step of the way. It can be done; it just has its own set of unique issues with which you have to deal and you never know when something you didn't anticipate is going to rear up and bite you in the butt.
- Which worlds, you ask? This question scares me, because everyone is going to want the fresh machines for their main world and we can't please everyone. One world is an obvious choice: Darktide. The nature of the combat on that world is such that it makes sense to have it running on our best hardware, so Darktide will be getting one of the makeovers. As for the second world: we'll look over the logs and make a choice based on a number of metrics, including the number of active accounts and overall use. If two or three worlds are close on those metrics... I don't know, maybe we'll hold a raffle or take bribes, :D.
- And because someone is certainly going to ask: Yeah, we did plan a lot of extra slack time into the engineering schedule long before we began coding, more than I've ever planned into a project before; I'm talking about a full man-year of padding just for legacy issues. We ended up being bit harder than we thought we would by those issues.
- While this isn't directly related to the expansion pack, I want to discuss hardware in general. As most of you know, when we bought the game back from Microsoft, we inherited the old equipment used to run the game – servers, routers, hard drive arrays, et al – as part of the deal. Some of those servers are seven years old and are starting to act funky; remember the SQL servers that died last year? Some of these funky-acting game servers are bound to start failing soon; hey, you'd keel over, too, if someone kept you working for seven years straight without a break.
- Our NetOps crew has much of the equipment in hand and we're hoping to get this done before the expansion launches . When we do make the replacements, the two worlds that are getting the fresh equipment will be down for most of a day while we transfer the databases; we'll give you plenty of advance notice on that.
- Right now, we're currently deep in internal testing. On the front lines, we now have a larger dedicated team assigned from QA exclusively to the Throne of Destiny project, including a couple senior testers with years of MMO testing experience that we stole made the move to Turbine from a competitor. We also have large external teams standing by to do hardware/software compatibility and performance testing on the CCC builds; the sheer number of hardware configurations among personal computers boggles the mind and we have to test as many as we can. For example, every test that is performed on a computer running Win XP with an Nvidia card has to be completely duplicated on a computer running Win98 with an Nvidia card, and then on a PC running Win98 with an ATI card... you get the picture. This takes literally thousands of hours.
- Jessica Mulligan
- So, please accept my apologies for the delay, but I hope that you understand– and believe that you do understand – the necessity of it. I think we'd all rather take the extra time than ship too early.
- Which brings us to the bad news: We are running into some of those legacy code issues and it is slowing us down. We actually expected to be code complete by now and into nothing but bug fixes; however, because of some of those legacy issues and the need to get them scoped out and fixed right now, we're behind schedule. That's going to affect our release date; more on that below.
- Since the gems are bonded and attuned, they won't be tradable; they'll only be useful to the character they were given to originally. Essentially, we're handing out perma-buffs, two of them if you pre-order, one if you just buy the expansion when it hits the shelves.
- We're ready to start inviting more people into the testing. Beginning next week, we're going to start offering invitations to some players to be involved in the first round of closed Beta player testing. We've had plenty of requests to be involved and we thank you for those; later on, we're going to throw open the doors to more people for load testing. However, for the first round of player pounding, we're going to stick with a core group of about 300.
- It also gives us a chance to see just how the new content and systems will react to all that new UI code and graphics engine changes, which scared us a bunch every time we thought it. One of the larger risks of this project, if not the largest, is the sheer amount of old code we've had to touch to get an improvement in the graphics display and make the user interface easier to deal with. In the biz, we call this "legacy code."
- We've been replacing hardware as it fails, but we're going to accelerate that process a bit. We can't replace everything all at once; my budget doesn't allow spending the millions needed to do that. Our current short-term plan is to replace the seven or eight machines that are showing signs of senility and all the machines on two worlds with fresh hardware. Then we'll take the old machines that still work adequately and distribute them among the other worlds to A) help increase performance and B) act as a safety net in case one or more machines on a world dies.
- After tossing out the senile machines, this should result in at least two extra servers on every world still using the old hardware and, in most cases, three of them. If we can recover the senile machines without having to rebuild them , we'll add them in, too.
- The test hardware for the player betas is being set up and burned-in now. This will be a new world, matching the number of servers and the software set-up of our current worlds, so we can get an accurate measurement of how the server-side of this expansion is working. Testers will be accessing it from the Turbine launcher with a special build of the game.
- About Throne of Destiny, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is: we have merged the two separate development trees, the User Interface/Graphics Upgrade tree and the Content and Game System tree, into one big honking tree and it works pretty well. Well, for the most part. This merged the new UI code and graphics engine work with the new quests and game systems and much of the new art, so we could debug more effectively.
- First up, you've probably already heard about the distribution agreement with Sony Online Entertainment's Station Publishing. Throne of Destiny will be on the shelves of most, if not all, of the major retailers, not just GameStop and EB. There will be very strong retail support including pre-order boxes, posters, and even shelf and counter displays at key locations.
- Some of the legacy code we're working with is going on eight years old; that's enough to make any sane engineer mad as a loon. As an example, imagine you are an engineer and someone gives you the task of upgrading one of the top ten selling games from 1997, such as Dungeon Keeper or Diablo,* but because you don't have two years of development and six months of debugging to work with, you have to keep most of the underlying code. You need to make sure it works on today's machines, graphics cards and operating systems, which have changed a number of times in those eight years, and that it has a better graphics look to it, but you can't just toss is out and start from scratch, which is what you'd normally do.
- So, one might ask, just when will the expansion pack ship? If you've read this far, then you know we're running behind where we wanted to be and that player testing is starting late. And we want to have a meaningful round of player tests, so that we can have multiple iterations of the test/debug/retest process and catch everything we can before the launch. It doesn't make much sense to do that until we've run our own tests internally and with third party compatibility and performance testers to fix the obvious bugs. On top of that, we need to turn out the master duplication disc at least one month earlier than the launch date, so the game can be pressed onto discs, slipped into boxes and trucked to the stores in time to hit the shelves.
- Elysa held her fur-lined robe tightly around her slight frame, bracing herself against the cold air which howled through the open window. Logs crackled and split in the fire behind her, but their heat was not enough to fill this large room.
- "Yes," answered Amaroth, taking up his own weapon. "As should we be. No doubt, Lord Kresovus is rallying the Isparians against us. They will be here soon."
- The intruders rounded a bend and showed themselves. They appeared identical to his own Lugians in dress, form, and armament. But there was something about their eyes...
- He looked back down at the turmoil below. K'rank - if he could believe that truly was K'rank - swung his axe wildly about, slaughtering a ring of attackers that had descended upon him. Kresovus noted with some satisfaction that K'rank still wore a full suit of armor. No trips to the lifestone for that warrior.
- As we've said in the past, all topics previously listed as In-Concept are still on the table for discussion unless otherwise noted in a previous Letter. We've got a lot of plans for improvements to the game even in addition to the fantastic stuff coming in Throne of Destiny!
- Many of this month's changes have already been described in detail in the Letter to the Players. Here is an additional topic that we'd like to discuss in detail:
Billing Migration
- When the last of the intruders was dead or gone, Kresovus allowed himself a moment to rest. He bore not one wound, just the aching muscles of battle. He was pleased to see that Balor had fared the same.
- Dozens more of the impostors raced upwards, brandishing their gleaming axes before them. Kresovus and Balor fought back their attacks, cleaving gray flesh and knocking warriors downward towards their doom. As hard and fast as the intruders pressed, they could not withstand the stalwart defense of the lord of Linvak Tukal.
- For this reason, there is no In-Development or In-Concept section in this Letter. All of our designers, artists and engineers are hard at work on Throne of Destiny. As the launch date approaches, we'll revisit our priorities and resources for the Live monthly events, and come back to you with our plans for the months ahead.
- Antius nodded. "I will find them. The people will help me find them."
- As discussed in the In-Development section of the January Letter to the Players, in February we will be introducing a set of tiered dungeons specifically for the PvP world of Darktide. These dungeons will have multiple entrances scattered across Dereth, and deep within them one can find a means of very rapid character advancement. Those who want to quickly reach a more competitive level of PvP combat should seek out these Mausoleums; those who wish to prevent their foes from quickly advancing should also seek them out, if only to defend the Pillars and Effigies within from being used!
- One of the Lugians, a rather large one who still wore his armor, looked up at Kresovus. He hefted a massive boulder and threw it. Lord Kresovus dropped his axe and caught the rock, its velocity slamming him against the stone wall behind him. Without pausing to catch his breath, he stepped forward and flung the boulder back down at the offending Lugian. The warrior tried to duck out of the way, but Kresovus had anticipated that dodge, and led his target appropriately. The boulder crushed the Lugian's head. His body dropped to the ground.
- The initial tiers of these dungeons span a range of levels from 20 to 109. Based on player use and feedback, we are working on plans for higher tiers after the launch of Throne of Destiny.
- While you're exploring the new February content, be sure to take part in one of the regular Live Events being run by our new Live Event Operators, or +LEOs! Whether you're tasked to chase down a prison escapee or cook a particular type of cake, you never know what you might get as a reward.
- Suddenly, a terrible thought gripped her heart and pushed aside all feelings of peace and renewal. Though death on Dereth was not to be feared as it was on Ispar, Asheron had not completely defeated it. Her own brush with oblivion had proven that well enough. She knew that each time she sent Antius on one of these missions, he might not return. Such was the risk that all her soldiers took. But for some reason, that fear that she might lose him was much stronger now than usual. He was so precious to her, so much more important than her crown or castle. More important even than the people who swore their loyalty to her. If she were to lose him...
- As we have said in the past, these dungeons are intended to benefit the unique gameplay environment on Darktide. Those who seek to test their skills against other players are drawn to Darktide, and they want an opportunity to level the playing field so skill alone is the deciding factor in battle. The Mausoleums of Hate can assist those who can survive within.
- He blinked, his head throbbing in pain. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked up through blurred vision. A gray hulking mass stepped into view.
- These are not the only changes that we would like to make to the Atoll; however further changes will need to wait until Live Events start up again after Throne of Destiny's launch.
- Urleg smiled, clearly relishing the fight ahead. "Excellent."
- Before he had time to process this fact, he heard footsteps pounding their way up the ramps that led to his quarters. Kresovus picked up his axe and readied himself for the attack. He looked to Balor. The Mattekar crouched low to the ground, ready to pounce at any who might attack his lord and master.
- "A scavenger hunt," she grimaced.
- "My Lady," he chuckled. "I'm just going to Yaraq."
- "See that you do," she replied.
- "Yaraq," he answered. "I could use the warmth."
- "Yes," he bowed. "I will return soon, my Queen."
- It is very important to note that after the worlds come down for maintenance tomorrow you will not be able to recover any corpses inside the Mausoleums.
- So there it is, all the news to date: the great and the good, the bad and the ugly. I apologize again that we weren't able to get all this out to you earlier, because some of it is truly great news, like the hardware replacements and pre-order gems. I hope you'll bear with us for that lapse and have patience with us as we prepare to ship this truly humongous effort of an expansion pack to the stores.
- Right now, pre-orders of the retail package are scheduled to be available about a month before ACTD launches. You'll be able to pre-order at retail software stores and we're offering a couple incentives for doing so. All those who pre-order Throne of Destiny will receive both:
- These items will automatically be dropped into the inventory of every character when they log in. If there is no inventory slot available, the game will just hold onto it until the character logs in with an open slot.
- (posted on 04-Feb-2005)
"Fellow warriors, aid me!"
- (posted on 08-Feb-2005)
- (posted on 08-Feb-2005)
February, 2005
- "Go," she commanded. "Go, and find out what evil threatens my realm."
- -- Ibn
- Kresovus studied the battle again. This time he noticed that each time a naked Lugian fell, he was resurrected at the lifestone. But when an armored Lugian fell, he stayed down.
- All worlds will be brought down for scheduled hardware maintenance tomorrow at 6AM PDT / 9AM EDT. In addition to this maintenance, at this time the Mausoleums on Darktide will be shut down. No player will be able to enter the dungeons as the Gatekeepers will disappear from landscape. In addition the Pillars and Effigies will disappear from the dungeons.
- Spring had come earlier than usual. The snows which had so recently appeared were gone just as quickly, though they left behind their frigid chill.
- So if you haven't guessed it already, the tough news is this: For the first time in the five-plus year history of the game, after 52 free monthly episodes that make up the equivalent of eight or nine expansion packs you'd normally buy at retail, we're forced to skip not just one, but two of them. That means there will be no episodes for March or April. The expansion pack will launch in May with new content for all character levels and we'll resume our normal episode schedule in June.
- AND WHAT YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW...
- He caught movement on the edge of his vision. Kresovus whipped his head around. The hammer crashed into his face and he fell to the floor.
- DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS
- Executive Producer/Creative Director, Asheron's Call
- The thought of her lover brought a smile to her lips. Throughout all the trials of the previous year, he had been the most steadfast and supportive of all her advisors. He had his doubts about Nuhmudira - as did they all - but in the end he agreed with Elysa's decision and did as he we asked.
- * The buy cap on vendors in Holtburg, Shoushi and Yaraq has been raised to one million pyreals.
* An early thaw has come to Dereth snow has melted and snowmen and scarecrows have left the landscape.
* Outlying spawns in the Withered Atoll have been reduced in number.
* Withered Tumeroks no longer spawn with shields.
* We've fixed a bug that was causing spawn and item duplication in the Umbral Halls and Fortified Sewer Vaults.
* The War Room portal, part of the Drudge Hot Air Balloon quest, is no longer tied to a quest flag.
* Some creature spawns that were too close to player housing have been removed.
* The upper level limits have been removed on the Royal Oil quest dungeons.
* The Dark Idol can now be used on the new higher wield-req missile weapons.
* Nen Ai's pet Drudge Skulker will no longer aggro on players who attack a Drudge nearby.
- HARDWARE
- Higher Wield-Req Weapons
- Mausoleums of Hate
- Urleg kicked the wounded Mattekar into the cell, then slammed the iron gates. The beast roared and crashed its massive body into the bars, rocking them in their stone moorings. "We cannot keep it here," Urleg growled. "This cage cannot hold."
- PRE-ORDERS
- RETAIL DISTRIBUTION
- See you in Dereth!
- Social Center Vendor Revisions
- TESTING: CLOSED PLAYER BETA COMING UP
- The Lugian was not resurrected.
- This was no mock battle. This was an assault.
- For right now, let's take a look at what's coming next week in the February event!
- These weapons will be found in the highest tier of treasure; this is the treasure found on creatures found in the Valley of Death, Singularity Caul and Withered Atoll; as well as the most challenging creatures in the West Direlands and the Obsidian Plains. This treasure can also be found in other ways as well, including some new surprises we've got for you in this month's event!
- Withered Atoll Revisions
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