[AC] Frelorns Weekly Update

[Sun_al-Mage]

[turbine]

http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=28668

Hi there. Welcome to this weeks update. Let’s get right into it, as this is going to be a busy week.

In case anyone forgot, this is event week. The March event, Down Twisting Paths will be going live on Wednesday, and we are excited about all of the new things going on in Dereth. As with all of our events, we are looking forward to player feedback on the things we have been able to implement this month.

This week I have decided to answer a couple of the bigger questions that have been asked here on the forums.

Will there ever be characters classes who are “tinkerers” or “mule” type characters that can be made special from creation?
As of right now no, however in Dereth we never say never. The tech for making special mule characters is not really in place at the moment. Though it would be nice for something like this, it is not on the radar at the moment, as the team is more focused on more in-game things.

You keep telling us that CD keys will be available soon. When is soon?
Unfortunately as of right now I cannot give you a solid date, I wish I could but there are several factors that come into play when getting this done. The first issue is compatibility. In order to do this one of the first things we needed to do was make a new installer. This new game installer will allow everyone to download the latest version of the game. This will include users of the new Windows OS. Now in order to make sure that these systems all work we need to test the installer several times under many different circumstances. This takes some time to complete.

The next thing we have to do is generate the CD keys themselves and make sure they work with our billing system. After that is done the system for distributing the keys must be tested and retested to make sure that everything is working correctly. After that is done then the secure page for these transactions must be made. After all of that is completed, we test everything again, just to be sure. Then we will be able to release the keys for everyone to purchase and use. This is not a process we are going to rush into without taking the needed steps to make sure everything is secure and working correctly.

That all being said, we are very close to having all of this completed, and as soon as I have a concrete date for when the sales will begin, I will make sure to have announcements everywhere we can put them. On a side note about this, as many have posted, the Turbine store recently ran out of stock of ToD. An order has been placed recently and more copies will be in stock within a week or so. Once the stock has been refilled, all orders will be sent out.

When will we see more live events?
Soon. We have some live events ideas in the works right now. I would like to add that based on feedback from previous events, we will be doing these events 2 ways. One will be a set of scheduled events. The schedule for these events will be posted for everyone to see so players can plan to participate. We will also be running these same types of events randomly, for those who want more of a surprise feel. The decision to do things this way was solely based on the feedback we got from you, the players. This new way of doing things will hopefully allow everyone who wants to participate, the ability to do so. We are looking forward to these events, and as we get closer to them, we will post the schedule.

What’s going on this week?
This week the team has shifted its focus from the March event, and has moved on to April. We have just about completed the testing for March, though QA will still be checking things out until the event goes live. This is the time the team concentrates on getting everything they want to do for April documented and ready to be placed in our internal test world.

That’s about it for this week. We are all excited about the upcoming event, and we look forward to your feedback. Everyone have a great day, and see you in Dereth!
__________________
Andy "Frelorn" Cataldo
AC Community Relations
Turbine, Inc