[AC] Feb LttP

[Ziv]

[turbine]

February Letter to the Players + Teaser

http://ac.turbine.com/?page_id=441

Welcome to the February Letter to the Players.

Last month we saw some exciting new features and changes in Asheron's Call. We saw some movement on the part of Queen Elysa in the ongoing effort to Stop King Varicci and his forces. Will we see this trend continue, or will Varicci strike back?

New for February

Character Title Panel
In the January event we introduced the Friends Panel. In this month we have another exciting new feature we would like to introduce, which is the Title Panel. With this panel you will be able to change your character's display title – which is the title that other players see when they look at you – any time you want to any title that you have listed in your Title Panel.

The first time you login after the February event goes live, the title you currently have will be automatically added to your Title Panel. Unfortunately, we previously had no way to track any titles that you may have gotten and discarded, so we are not able to automatically add any of your past titles. But any title you gain after this will be added into the panel, and will then be immediately available to use as your display title.

One really cool feature of the panel will be the ability for others to see how many titles you have when they ID your character. Like fishing skill or chess rank, you can turn this bit of information on or off through a Character Option.

Inventory Management
Last month we introduced some changes to the way inventory is managed on players. After reading the feedback we got on these changes, we have added a couple of new options for inventory management with this month's update.

You can now assign a key to the action 'Move selected item to main pack'. This action is very much like 'Move selected item to inventory' (the F key by default), but it ignores whatever pack you have open. This should be useful for those of you who regularly used the F key to sort items in your side packs into your main pack.

There is also a new character option that allows you to always use your main pack as your preferred pack, instead of using whatever pack you happen to have opened at the time.

We hope that these options, plus the inventory management changes we implemented last month, will help all players manage their inventory in a way that's convenient for them. And of course we'll be watching for your continued feedback on this matter.

Quest Driven Loyalty Decisions
This month we will continue the series of quests, started in Throne of Destiny, that ask you to make a choice in the ongoing war between Queen Elysa and her followers and the forces of King Varicci. Be careful in your choices. They may have an effect on quests in the future. The things you decide to do now will affect the future of your character for a long time to come.

PvP Improvements
The first of our PK improvements will be going into the game in February. By completing a quest, players will be able to pick up an item that gives a 10% bonus to the attack modifier of the weapon they are holding at the time when they use the item. Please note that this spell does not affect any weapon that is not enchantable, which includes the Weeping suite of weapons. As we continue to move forward, more changes will be made in this area. We will be continuing to get player feedback on what things are most important to PvP and what changes need to be made. We appreciate all of the feedback we have gotten up to this point, and we are looking forward to continuing the dialog about these issues.

Darktide Hardware Upgrade
We are happy to announce that on the day the February event goes live on February 15th, we will be giving the Darktide server its much needed hardware upgrade. All of the worlds will be down from 9am EST until 3pm EST for the update, but Darktide will remain down until 6pm EST in order to receive the new hardware. We regret the necessity of the extra downtime, but this is not a trivial operation and we want to make certain that it is completed correctly. As always we will inform you of any changes to this, as well as keeping you updated on the status of the upgrade on the day it is happening

Rares System Changes
When we the introduced rare item system in the Throne of Destiny expansion, we had two main goals: the system as a whole should effect a large number of players; while at the same time, rares should be rare, and finding a rare item should be a special event. We designed a two-pronged approach that would help us meet these goals. First, you would have a tiny, tiny chance of finding a rare with each eligible creature that you killed. And second, you would also have a tiny, tiny chance of finding a rare each day that you logged into the world.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the resources at the time to complete both prongs, so Throne of Destiny shipped with rares based on creature kills only. Now half this system is arguably better than none, but we've always wanted to get the rest of the system in place. And we finally had the opportunity with the February update.

So let's talk about this new part of the rare item system. You've heard us call it the 'login rare system' before, but a more accurate name would be 'real time rare system' because finding these rares is based on real time, not on the number of creatures killed. In short, every character with the Throne of Destiny expansion is guaranteed the chance to find at least one rare item every two months, in addition to the rare items that they might have found in that time in the old way.

What do you have to do to benefit from this new system? Nothing special! You will still find rare items by killing eligible creatures. The real time rare system just makes sure that regardless of how limited your play time is, and even if you have a streak of bad luck, as long as you can get out and do a little killing, you will find at least one rare item every two months.

In addition, we've had time to collate the data about how many rare items players are finding so far. Even with the addition of the real time rare system, this number is a bit low, especially for the highest tiers of rare items. What good are all these super-cool rare items if no one ever finds them? So also in the February update we will be making your chances of finding a high tier rare item just a smidgeon higher.

These are just some of the changes that will be taking place in the February Event, A Change in Tactics.

In Concept
These are some of the game changes we are thinking about for the upcoming months in Asheron's Call. We cannot guarantee when or even if any of these changes will be added to the game, as scheduling and priorities change. These changes are in addition to the new quests, dungeons, and items we'll be introducing in each monthly event. Your feedback on these topics is particularly valuable.

- Additional Allegiance Improvements
- Additional Player-vs.-Player Improvements
- Additional High Level Hunting Areas
- More Story Driven Loyalty Decisions
- Chat Filters for Global Channels

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