THE HERALD

This week’s Grab Bag is focused on answering questions you’ve asked regarding the Patch 1.126 and Endless Conquest notes now up on the Pendragon test server!

October’s newsletter also went out this week, which you can view here in your browser, and includes a poll on housing – so get readin’! Make sure you get the newsletter as soon as it’s out by signing up!

The Endless Conquest FAQ and features table are now available in German (FAQ link / Features Table link) and French (FAQ link / Table Link), with thanks to Shileah and Fugo 🙂

Thank you all for sending in your questions, and remember to please keep sending them in for our devs! You can submit any game related questions you have for our DAoC Devs through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game mechanic questions. Feedback/ideas/suggestions should be sent in through our feedback form.

Read on for the many, many, questions and answers 🙂

Is the monthly buggane’s pot tradeable, if not can it be? Some only play a couple of our toons so we would go through the 20 charges really quickly.

It will not be tradable but we can look at increasing the number of charges!

Does the removal of Shadow Seek from assassins mean they will have  the same stealthed walk speed as archers? 

Yes they will have the same potential for in-stealth movement speed now with the level of Mastery of Stealth trained determining their in-stealth movement speed.

We are also looking into changing Mastery of Stealth into a realm ability for archers in 1.126 too.

I’m not sure exactly what “Stealth detection mechanics and movement speed will return to pre– 1.121 mechanics.” means but Mastery of Stealth has the same tooltip/description on Live and Test so I assume the description on Test is inaccurate. 

“Pre-1.121” mechanics simply mean that the potential for composite-stealth speccing returns and that Mastery of Stealth will once again be what provides the +stealth and +in-stealth movement speed benefits to Assassins rather than Shadow Seek. Shadow Seek behaved slightly different than MoS in that it increased run-speed more and had slightly different stealth detection bonuses. The tooltip is accurate for Mastery of Stealth on both Pendragon and Live servers.

Is it possible to add the Stacking RP bonus potions (MTX) for purchase with bounty points, even if they are very expensive?

We will look into adding this option, yes!

Does that mean that the dragon scale merchants will not sell anything after the patch, or will these merchants sell them for BP instead?

No, Dragon Scale merchants will still sell their wares for dragon scales. ALL accounts with alternate currency stockpiled will still have that currency in their packs and can trade them freely while Veteran (subscribed) account players will still be able to convert or spend the alternate currencies at their stores!

The only change being made to dragon scales is that it will no longer drop or be given out as a reward. Additionally, there are already some dragon items that can be obtained from Doppelganger shards (which are bought with bounty points) and we will eventually add the rest of the dragon items to Bountycraft as well!

So Darkness Falls weapons, armor, and accessories will now will cost bounty points instead blood seals?

No, all Darkness Falls stores will remain as is. The emerald/sapphire/diamond/blood seal stores all still require those currencies to buy their items for sale. ALL accounts with alternate currency stockpiled will still have that currency in their packs and can trade them freely while Veteran (subscribed) account players will still be able to convert or spend the alternate currencies at their stores!

It’s also worth noting that all Darkness Falls’ weapons and armor that can be bought with blood seals are already available in Bountycraft.

The only change being made to these seal-currencies is that they will no longer drop or be given out as a reward. Additionally in 1.126, the [Darkness] quests from Mystemas will grant bounty point awards AND wherever the seals currently drop from monsters in Darkness Falls will now be replaced with bounty point drops instead.

From the 1.126 notes:

• All emerald, sapphire, diamond, and blood seals have been replaced with 1 bounty point, 10 bounty point, 100 bounty point, or 2,000 bounty points, respectively.
  • These bounty point amounts are auto-split like an item reward but upon auto-splitting simply award that character with the specified BP amounts (This means these particular BPs will follow all existing autosplit mechanics).

Is the Battlefield potion going to be available to buy with bounty points with aurulite now gone?

First, aurulite is not gone. ALL accounts with alternate currency stockpiled will still have that currency in their packs and can trade them freely while Veteran (subscribed) account players will still be able to convert or spend the alternate currencies at their stores!

The only change being made to aurulite is that it will no longer drop or be given out as a reward. Additionally, all of the Dragon’s Curse chapter and [Elite] quests will grant bounty point rewards instead of aurulite!

Second, we may allow a Battlefield potion to be sold for Bounty points in the future, but to start it will only be available via the existing aurulite store. Don’t forget that Veteran accounts will also receive a free Bound Buggane potion (which grants a bonus to RPs, BPs, and Coin) every month on every level 50 character after 1.126 launches!

Does that mean that Atlantean glass items all have to be bought with bounty points now?

Not entirely. Artifacts and scrolls are no longer sold via glass stores and can now only be purchased with bounty points at their existing stores.

Master level tokens, legendary weapon crafting components, and the Star of Destiny can still be purchased by Veteran (subscribed) accounts at the Atlantean glass merchant with any remaining Atlantean glass currency.

Again, ALL accounts with alternate currency stockpiled will still have that currency in their packs and can trade them freely while Veteran (subscribed) account players will still be able to convert or spend the alternate currencies at their stores.

Do artifact and Master level encounters now drop bounty points since glass no longer drops from them?

Yes!

From the 1.126 notes:

• All artifact and Master Level encounters now grant the equivalent BPs to what their glass drops used to be (100, 200, 500, or 1,000 BPs).

Additionally, the TOA Bounty quests (old Atlantean glass quest chain) now grants bounty points too, totalling 116,500 BPs for fully completing the quest-chain plus the 3 new [Weekly] repeatable quests that grant 15,000 BPs each.

Will we still be able to get the Full Master Level Tokens from Doppelganger shards?

Yes! Veteran (subscribed) accounts will still be able to obtain and turn-in Full Master Level Credit Tokens from Doppelganger shards AND can still receive them as rewards from the Silver-bound, Gold-bound, and Platinum-bound chests.

Why is there such a large increase to the cost for ML1-10?

Bounty point gain was dramatically increased in 1.126 coupled with the fact that the existing costs for Master Levels were already too inexpensive and easy to obtain for such important character progression. With the new bounty point gain increases, the new 450,000 bounty point price tag for ML10 is almost able to be obtained on a new character after they complete the TOA-Bounty quest chain, A Dragon’s Curse campaign, and the [Darkness] quests in Darkness Falls (not to mention the normal monster kills there); all things they are likely to be doing any way as they reach or hit level 50! The experience rewards from those quests (and the Otherworlds campaign) will also have them well on their way to reaching Champion Level 15!

With the new King’s armor set updates, new characters are able to enter RvR immediately after that (or before if they so choose) and can also work on earning additional bounty points through RvR and its own bounty point quests like Supplies for the Cause to improve their gear through Bountycraft and finish obtaining any Champion Levels.

Additionally, we are looking into lowering the *atlantean glass-based* Master Level token costs from their current proposed levels to make their prices more affordable for Veteran (subscribed) accounts.

Is house repossession being re-enabled with 1.126 as mentioned in a previous Grab Bag?

House repossession processes will remain disabled with the launch of patch 1.126 and Endless Conquest.

We did mention in the Grab Bag on June 7th 2019 that the process would not be turned on again until the next server downtime but are going to hold off on re-enabling it with this version. We will be re-enabling it at a later date and will provide plenty of notice before we do!

Developer’s Note: This may mean that some users come back to the game and still have their house up, including as an Endless Conquest (free) account, but they will still only be able to access it and its vaults as a Veteran (subscribed) account.

Any plan on expanding classes available to Endless Conquest (free) accounts?

Returning accounts that come back as an Endless Conquest account can play ALL classes/races as long as the character is level 15+, was created prior to the launch of Endless Conquest, and has 7+ days /played (which is true for quite a lot of characters!).

Otherwise, there are no plans to expand beyond the announced 5 classes and 3 races per realm allowed on Endless Conquest accounts.

I’ve read that buff potions are restricted to Endless Conquest (free) accounts. Will it be also for the swimming speed one?

Only stat-buff potions (Draught of Heroism, Supremacy, and individual stat-buff potions) are restricted from Endless Conquest (free) accounts. Items that provide single stat-buffs via /uses are not restricted while item /uses that provide multiple stat-buffs like the Pendragon’s Ring/Bracer and the Illustrious Bracer are restricted. Other potions like healing, regen, water breath, speed of the hunt, etc. are not restricted.

Are there any plans to pay for individual unlocks (like house) through the Mithril Shop?

The only way to own or access a house will be through a Veteran (subscribed) account.

Will I get the new [Returning Player] Quest rewards if I come back to the game now, before patch 1.126 and EC launch?

Current returning characters will receive the currently active Returning Player quest rewards from patch 1.22A. The new rewards will only be available post-1.126’s launch.

Illustrious weapons are now inferior to the free epic weapons (not shields). Any interest in upgrading them to be comparable?

Only the Exemplar accessories’ stats were updated (but still have no /uses). The Exemplar weapons were not updated (they are merely used for calculating the full King gear set’s stats) and their stats are still inferior to the Illustrious weapons. There are no incoming changes to Illustrious weapons.

How is cumulative subscription time tracked for Veteran Rewards?

We run a daily tally of all subscribed accounts. After an account reaches the required days-subscribed threshold to receive a Veteran Reward year, the account is made eligible. If the account is not subscribed or is active but an Endless Conquest (free) account, the daily tally will not include them.

Will accounts be able to choose one additional reward on every date that they get an additional year of active account status? (For example. Let’s say a player is a 5 year veteran (maybe 4 months off of 6) account but want’s the pendragon’s bracer. Would they have to save at least one of their choices and wait for the 4 months, or when the account updated would they be granted an additional reward (and could then chose a level 6 reward).

Yes, each time they unlock a new threshold they will receive an additional choice that they can choose spend on the newly unlocked year’s rewards or any previous year’s!

Will there ever be a feature in account management to tell you how long our account has been open/credited for? It be nice to know account has been active for 15 yrs 7 months example. /title only gives you answer to what you reached not how long till your next achievement.

Yes, this is coming shortly after the launch of Endless Conquest. Each account will display their achieved Veteran Reward year threshold! Additionally, players will be able to see which account has which characters on which server with this update!

With the increase in cost to the Speed of the Hunt gems, won’t battleground players be hurt by this change?

Battleground bounty merchants now sell speed of the hunt gems directly (at much cheaper prices).

From the notes:

• Battleground Bounty Merchants now sell a Lesser Speed of the Hunt (1 charge) for 10 BPs and Improved Speed of the Hunts (20 charges) for 200 bps.

So is 1.126 going live next week?
 

We’ll have another Pendragon version coming early next week that will address a lot of the feedback received. Assuming all goes well with that, we’ll be going live shortly thereafter!

Lots to digest there, but tons of info!
Don’t forget to check out Pendragon for the changes and send in your feedback 🙂

Enjoy the weekend, all!

Welcome to this week’s Grab Bag! This Grab Bag is focused on answering some of the recurring and top questions we’ve been asked regarding our recent Endless Conquest announcement. 

Thanks to  everyone for sending in these questions, and remember to please keep sending in your general grab bag questions for our devs! You can submit any game related questions you have for our DAoC Devs through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game mechanic questions. Feedback/ideas/suggestions should be sent in through our feedback form.

On to the questions!

I’m not sure I fully understand what this is all about. Can you give a quick summary of what Endless Conquest is?

Sure thing!

Currently Dark Age of Camelot is a subscription-only game where accounts must subscribe monthly in order to access the game and its features. Endless Conquest will be a new account type that does not require a subscription to access Dark Age of Camelot and allows EC-enabled accounts to explore the realms, participate in our fabled RvR combat and generally play for free, albeit with some gameplay-restrictions like certain classes, buffs, and more.

With the launch of Endless Conquest, players will have a choice to play on an EC-enabled account (no subscription) or a Veteran (subscribed) account. Veteran accounts will have access to several rewards and events that EC accounts won’t and generally have unrestricted access to all gameplay features, classes, and more. Our announcement earlier this week goes through those restrictions and privileges in detail.

Will accounts get any special treatment for being previously subbed for a long period of time and attaining the elder title? I feel like some special perk should be given to those who subbed for a long time before EC.

We absolutely agree! Subscribed accounts will receive a choice of at least 1 Veteran Reward at each of the 11 planned cumulative subscription thresholds. The Veteran Reward can be redeemed once per account and some of them can be traded to other characters (though they won’t be usable by an EC account).

The full details of this system will have to wait until the Patch 1.126 notes but we can promise they’ll be coveted rewards and the longer you’ve subscribed, the more coveted they’ll become!

Additionally, subscriptions will get a bonus quest every month that gives a meaningful reward to every level 50 character on their account.

Will we be able to post on the Official Forums if we have only have an active EC account?

Yes! Users with active game accounts can post on our Official Forums. We currently are not planning on any forum-specific restrictions on EC-enabled accounts, but that could change if necessary.

How will EC work regarding multiple accounts/multiboxing? Can I run a macro-team?

No, Endless Conquest accounts are not permitted to multibox/macro-group in PvE or RvR. Further, one Endless Conquest account is able to be logged in per user at a time.

If that restriction is somehow circumvented, any EC accounts that are being operated with 3rd party multibox/macro-team programs will be actioned on a much shorter leash than for Veteran accounts. This can include the revocation of that account’s eligibility for Endless Conquest or simply termination of the account for even first or second offenses, depending on the severity.

The same can be said for any violations found on EC accounts.

Quick question about EC and Battlegrounds. Will existing characters that already have xp/rp off automatically have them turned on if it is not a subscribed(veteran?) account?

Yes. /xp off and /rp off commands will not be usable and any returning EC account with them already enabled will have them disabled upon login.

Additionally, characters will no longer lose experience on PvE deaths and EC accounts will be prohibited from using the Realm Point Remover NPC. EC accounts will be able to visit the Mithril store and have the option of purchasing temporary buffs that cease XP/RP gain for their duration if they want to stick around a particular battleground a bit longer.

How were the classes that EC players have available to them chosen, and for what reasons? Will the available classes ever rotate or be expanded upon?

With the five chosen classes, EC accounts have access to their realm’s primary, secondary, and tertiary healing, primary buffing and crowd-control, and a maximum realm speed class, along with a ranged and melee DPS class.

As any experienced player knows, those aspects are extremely valuable to have in RvR groups. We want to encourage the ability for EC accounts to be invited to groups and to be able to add to the experience of their fellow players. By choosing classes that would be sought after in RvR, we aim to have EC accounts add value to the existing Veteran accounts who just need that 1 more support or crowd control class.

On the flip side, the chosen classes are not necessarily the greatest or most popular in PvE encounters, which limits their self-sufficiency there, and there are certainly some fun and awesome classes and races that EC accounts miss out on. As such, we’re quite happy with the balance struck. We do not have plans for expanding which ones are offered beyond the five and will not be rotating them with other classes.

There’s already been some excitement in region about EC coming live with new people popping in to the chat to possibly check things out. If an account was recently inactive for 180 days does that still count, or does it need to remain inactive until EC starts for this to work?

Unfortunately we have to draw the line somewhere.

Only previously-subscribed, 180 day+ inactive accounts, in good-standing, or newly created accounts will be eligible as Endless Conquest accounts. Any account that is currently subscribed or was subscribed less than 180 days ago (starting from the launch day of EC), will not be eligible for EC. We feel very strongly that EC will be adding to the value of our current and future Veteran accounts but if a user wishes to or circumstances dictate that an account be deactivated, it will only become eligible for EC again after 180 days of inactivity.

Endless Conquest is about giving players an opportunity to try and play Dark Age of Camelot for free as first timers or to return and rediscover their love for their realm and characters, all while still able to contribute towards the end-game in a meaningful way. Without that ability to contribute, we don’t think Endless Conquest would be worth it. We strongly feel that the more players playing DAoC, the better the experience is. Veteran accounts will especially benefit with more people in the game RvRing, PvEing, and socializing, making the value of a subscription increase that much more!

If I subscribe, make a non-EC class like a Bonedancer, then end my subscription at a later date, do I have to wait the 180 days before EC kicks in to play DAoC as a free player? Once the 180 day period ends, can I play my Bonedancer?

Yes, if an account’s subscription lapses, it only activates Endless Conquest after 180 days of inactivity, regardless of the classes on it.

Once the 180 period has passed and it becomes an EC account, the Bonedancer will only be playable if it has 7+ days on their /played stat, is above level 15, and was created *before* the initial launch of EC. Otherwise, the account will only be able to play or create the EC-enabled classes.

From the EC FAQ: Returning EC account characters that have already trained Realm abilities will have those abilities automatically respecced and their realm skill points refunded on first login; any existing Champion abilities will be automatically removed too.

Regarding this… what happens if you upgrade your account to a Veteran account? Do the CL abilities and Realm skill points get restored?

Yes, any account that upgrades from EC to Veteran will have their applicable Champion Ability points restored (if the character has CLs completed) and will be able to spend above the 60 realm skill point threshold. Characters on upgraded accounts will also have any trained realm abilities automatically respecced to ensure they have the full availability of realm skill points.

This is also a good opportunity to clarify that accounts who upgrade from EC to Veteran will need to fully log out their game client before the Veteran (subscribed) status benefits will apply.

When does the realm timer countdown start? From log out or last RP gained? Why 15 minutes and not 30?

The timer starts when realm points are gained from an RvR kill, not logout. We have gone back and forth between 30 and 15 minutes quite a bit and it may be that something in between ends up being the sweet-spot, but we want to start out on the low-end and increase from there if it’s still not long enough; rather than the reverse.

Are there any class or RvR changes planned to go in with EC?

Yes, some! We are mostly focusing on Endless Conquest with patch 1.126 but we have some impactful RvR and some much-requested class changes on the way too. No hints though!

Okay, fine.

For RvR, we’ll be performing some fairly-involved progression changes within the Battlegrounds to help give all players a chance to once again spend some quality RvR time there, as well as taking another look at Frontier daily rewards and RvR bonuses, along with spreading some Bounty Point love to non-RvR areas. Is the ‘Supplies for the Cause’ quest going back to fully repeatable!? /wink. For classes, we still feel a few are over-performing in certain areas and some need a little love too. Oh you wanted to know which ones? Not yet, friend!

Choc full of info! 
That’s it for this week, have a good weekend all 🙂

See you in the frontiers!

It’s a Friday the 13th Grab Bag! Nothing spooky or scary in here, though 🙂

As always, thanks everyone for your questions, please do keep sending them in! You can submit any game related questions you have for our DAoC Devs through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game mechanic questions. Feedback/ideas/suggestions should be sent in through our feedback form.

Read on for the questions!

I recently used the master level ability cowering bellow on some bonedancer pets. When all 3 failed to be affected, it got me curious about the spells mechanics. Did they all resist? I’m not sure, because it doesn’t provide any log feedback. So, can you elaborate on the mechanics of cowering bellow? Are there pets that are immune?  Can the spell be resisted?
If so, with what probability?

Cowering Bellow cannot be resisted.

However, Bonedancer pets are a bit unique when it comes to pet scares. Because the pets /assist each other by default, if the Cowering Bellow effect does not hit ALL of the pets at once, the remaining pets will not be scared and cause the commander pet to re-aggro immediately due to the sub-pet(s) that are still attacking. 

Pet-scaring all of a BD’s pets at once can admittedly be hard to accomplish when they are spread out, but this is an intended benefit of the Bonedancer class.

So according to Excidio’s charplanner it says the level 5,13,21,26,33,41,46 bainshee aoe cone roots shouldn’t break on damage but ingame they do. Is this just a typo from the website or was it changed and they haven’t updated it? They also have the Cone slow which works perfectly and doesn’t break on dmg

The CAoE (cone area of effect) roots in the Spectral Guard specialization (Disturbing Voices line of spells) have always and still do break on damage dealt.

With dual wield, do both weapons need to be the same speed?  What happens when one is slower than the other?  Is it good to have one faster than the other and if so which one, main or off-hand?

With Left Axe, does the damage type spec have to be raised as well or will LA alone provide max damage?

All dual-wielded weapons have their mainhand and offhand weapon speeds averaged to determine their “true” weapon speed for total swing speed calculations. So a 4.4s mainhand and a 3.0s offhand will average to a 3.7s weapon speed for calculating the overall swing speed. However, this “haste” effect is ONLY applied to Celtic Dual and Dual Wield swings when both the mainhand and offhand swing. Left Axe gets this effect on all swings since the offhand always swings.

It does not matter which hand has the faster or slower weapon in terms of calculating swing speed as the two weapons’ speeds are simply averaged. However, it’s probably preferable to keep the slower weapon in the mainhand slot because weapon-style damage bonuses only affect the mainhand swing while offhand swings are unstyled; and if using CD/DW styles because their offhand doesn’t always swing.

Specializing in Left Axe directly raises offhand swing damage while specializing in Sword/Axe/Hammer directly raises mainhand swing damage (regardless of the weapon styles used). Left Axe differs from CD/DW in that specializing in CD/DW only raises the chance for the offhand to swing while their mainhand specialization is what raises damage of both their mainhand and offhand swings. On net, both LA and CD/DW should maximize their composite mainhand and offhand specializations to achieve max damage.

Is scripting commands allowed? If so, to what extent?

From a previous Producer’s Letter:

We will no longer be enforcing against multi-keybind software or hardware that allow for multiple actions per keystroke per character. An example would be setting up a ‘macro’ that allows your “w key” to cast both disease and a heal spell.

Please note that if this software/hardware is used to play unattended (anywhere) or to control multiple characters at once (in RvR zones on a subscribed account, or anywhere on a trial) it’s still a violation. 

Obviously, if this software/hardware is used to abuse some game mechanic or is used against the general spirit of the game (as determined on a case by case basis) it would also still be a violation.

With physical health buffers, how long to they last?  I never see that in the delve.  For instance, with the Midwinter’s Frozen Medal of Honor, exactly how does a 250 value with 50% absorption work?  I’ve always wanted to know this!

The duration of health buffers should show on the delve of the item that procs it or has the /use attached. For instance, Midwinter’s Frozen Medal of Honor’s Frozen Protection health buffer shows a duration of 10 minutes on its delve. However, a health buffer will dissipate immediately whenever its buffer value is used up, even if that is prior to the listed duration.

Continuing this example, Frozen Protection’s health buffer will absorb 50% of all incoming melee damage until the health buffer value of 250 is reached. As soon as the health buffer has absorbed 250 damage, it will dissipate. So, an attacker would need to deal 500 outgoing damage to their target, hitting the target for 250 damage while the health buffer absorbed the other 250 in order to fully dissipate the health buffer.

Don’t forget our Saturday night giveaway streams have returned! Tune in to our official Twitch channel from approx. 10:30PM GMT / 5:30PM EST!
See you there 🙂