[AC] November Letter to the Players

[Ziv]

[turbine]

http://ac.turbine.com/?page_id=496

Welcome to the November Letter to the Players!

With the Festival season in full swing, this is normally a time of peace and tranquility in Dereth. This year however, appears to be different. Some questions still remain unanswered and there are people who want to know why. Can I out Drink Ulgrim? Why are the members of the Tanada Clan suddenly in Dereth after all this time? Where has Asheron been for the last year? What is the meaning of life? Ok so maybe that last one won't get answered, but other questions and more will begin to be answered with the November event, Remembering the Past!


Addressing Asheron's Benediction
For some time now players have been asking us to look into the matter of the pre order health gem, Asheron's Benediction and the balance issues it has caused. When the November event goes live, players will be able to get a new augmentation at a cost of 2 billion XP, which when used will grant the player an 8% bonus to their health. Getting this Augmentation will place a gem in the users pack similar to the already existing pre order gem. The health bonus will not be stackable with the 10% pre order gem. This new augmentation will come at a cost of 2 billion XP. We do understand that making this change is going to stir up some very strong feelings both for and against this new augmentation. We feel that this is the best solution to what was a growing problem.


Masks you say?!
After taking some time off, the crafters of Dereth have created the latest tier of heritage masks. There is a new mask for each playable race in the game. Make sure to get them all!


Housing Improvements
Several new items have been added to the list of things that Agents of the Arcanum will accept in exchange for Writs of Refuge. Make sure to check in with the agents for the updated list.

In keeping with the idea of wanting to improve the overall housing experience, mansion owners should now be able to hook two more portal devices and two more casting devices.


Quest Love
The quest item from The Mines of Despair can now be turned in for XP rewards if you feel you do not need the item.

The Orphanage quest has been revised. A new step has been added and players will be able to obtain experience along with the classic reward. Based on these changes, the timer for turning in the item from the Orphanage is now 13 days.


Drink anyone?
Ulgrim has decided he want to test everyone's drinking prowess. Players may want to spend some time on Ulgrim's Island looking for a way to challenge him.


In Concept
These are game changes that we are thinking about for upcoming events. We cannot guarantee when or even if these changes will be added to the game, as scheduling and priorities can change. These changes are in addition to the new quests, dungeons, and items we will be adding to the game. Each month we will be discussing one new in concept topic, in order to give you as much information about the item that we can.

Quest Organizer
We are currently investigating options for identifying and organizing quests in the game for the benefit of our players. A lot of content has been introduced into the game over the seven years that Asheron's Call has existed, and the first, and largest, step is going to be to try to organize this information in some sort of fashion that is useful to players – give intended levels for content, quest starters, estimates on how long a piece of content takes, and whether it's balanced for group or solo play. We are also going to investigate how difficult it will be to hook in quest flags and such into the display UI, to reflect your current status on any quests you embark upon. There's still a great deal of groundwork to be laid, and at this early stage we cannot make any promises as to the form it will eventually take – depending on how the tech works out, it may be as simple as an additional help file cataloging the quests of our game, or as complex as a fully-featured UI with all sorts of tracking options. We also would likely not put newly-introduced quests on it until a subsequent month, as we do want to preserve the experience of discovering content for the first time. However, we are committed to making any quest system the best we can within the limits of our technology.

So there are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron's Call in November and beyond. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the November event.