THE HERALD

It’s Grab Bag time!

Don’t forget to get your teams signed up for our 5v5 tournament! Registration closes Wednesday, August 23rd at 5PM EST/10PM GMT, so still plenty of time 🙂

Thanks to everyone for your questions. If you have any game related questions for our DAOC Devs, please send them in through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

On to this week’s questions…

Previously there was talk of a housing update, is this still in the works? Full consignment merchants, vault space, plat limit, better market search badly need looking at and improving.

Yes, we absolutely will follow-through with our earlier promises of a housing update. We have long-term plans for entirely new house art, house types, increased house vault space, a solution to full consignment merchants, and improvements to the market search usability and interface.

In the nearer term, we are focusing on the completion of our ongoing Dragon Curse campaign, RvR and class changes to address your ongoing feedback, the aforementioned MTX features like durability repair and race/gender/name respecs, as well as some soon to be announced initiatives! Once those near to mid-term goals are complete, we would love to return our attention to the much-needed housing updates!

As a cleric I wanted to change my small shield to Aten’s shield with the new Mithril system. But when I got the shield the scholar gave me a medium shield. Is there anyway broadsword is going to correct this so we can have a choice between small and medium?

This is something we can possibly look at in the future but it’s not technically a bug. One of the unique benefits of Clerics is that they have always been able to use medium shields whereas other non-melee healing classes have been limited to only small shields. This has meant that their rewards have been itemized with medium shields in lieu of small ones across most of the game’s content, with Aten’s shield included. Changing this item to allow Clerics to choose the shield size sounds like a logical enough idea on paper but of course there are many other examples of many other classes that will have similar requests. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but it’s not a priority at the moment and we would much rather tackle all of those changes in one fell swoop than do them piecemeal and have some classes feel left out.

Now that there is an official place for this question, I’ll ask something I’ve always wondered about. The game has every type of magic imaginable…except for water. As a Hib-only player, I’m seeing the nature connection in Hibernia with the naturalist classes, so if such a class or spec line were ever made, Hib would be the best place for it. Wizards have fire, Theurgs have wind, both have earth, Hibs have nature heals with vague names like “renascence” and “apotheosis”, thanes have lightning, and we even have magnetism and whatnot on the mauler, but why no water magic? I’ve always wondered why all the other magic types under the sun are available in one form or another, but this was the one that was left out. Why is that? I think it would be one of the coolest additions ever!

To be fair, Wizards and Theurgists do have Ice magic already! That said, Water magic would certainly be a great addition to the game and perhaps one day we can add it onto a relevant (or new!?) class.

Many feel that the current relic system is outdated with today’s game. They are only worth taking to annoy the other realms, but mostly not taken due to their slowness to run back. Does Broadsword have any plans to look into bringing relics in line with how RvR is today?

We have had some internal discussions as far back as patch 1.115 regarding relics and how they should be changed.

One of the larger ideas discussed was to institute a relic capture “ceremony” where the attacking realm must hold the relic temple or keep for X amount of time. Once the ceremony ended, the attacking realm would be teleported back to their realm’s relic temple along with the captured relic. Granted, that discussion revolved around the 1.115 rules where relics were stored in un-capturable keeps or the temples which kept them more open to attack by the defending realm.  The feedback at the time was to only tweak them slightly as many players enjoyed the opportunity to intercept relics on their way to a realm’s temple.

We are certainly open to the idea of upping the relic-carrier’s speed as well and are still open to any feedback on the relic bonuses themselves but have admittedly gotten very little feedback regarding relics over the past several months.

Is it true that every/certain armor and weapon pieces have different proc rates compared to others? I’ve heard that some meth fangs and timeless chest pieces have a much higher proc rate than others, or is it just RNG?

Offensive and reactive proc chances are set on each individual weapon or armor piece so it’s entirely possible that some items do have higher or lower chances to proc but as a general rule we use the following proc rates:

Reactive armor or shield procs: 10% chance
Offensive 2-handed or 1-handed weapon proc: 10-15% chance
Offensive dual-wielded weapon proc: 6-8% chance

Looking at the Timeless chest pieces and Astral Mephitic Fangs specifically, they each have proc rates in line with the values listed above.

With that in mind, if you do see an item that seems to have much higher or lower proc rates than what’s listed here, please report it as a bug and we’ll take a look.

Enjoy the weekend all 🙂

The downloadable Item Database has received the following updates and corrections:

• The database now includes items up to version 1.123B.
  • Fixed an issue where jewelry items were missing slot information.
  • Fixed an issue where some items had incorrect monster source information.
  • Fixed an issue preventing One-Time-Drop and certain store-based items from being included in the database.
• All metadata has been cleaned up and now correctly categorizes item bonus types and their ids.
  • The metadata has been removed from the database file and is now available as a separate file download.

Check out the database and metadata HERE!

It’s the weekend, time to relax and unwind…Start off with the Grab Bag!

But first! Our next DAoC newsletter will be out after the weekend, so make sure to sign up here for all the goings on in DAoC AND for a special preview of something new coming to our MTX store soon! 🙂

If you have game related questions for our DAOC Devs, don’t forget to send them in through our Grab Bag submission form. Please note this is for game questions, feedback should be sent in through our feedback form.

On to the questions!

In the last two years we’ve gotten a lot of powerful new items, but they all seem to have spirit as a main resist. In making a variety of templates for a variety of different classes and realms spirit always seems to be significantly over capped and/or you need to use less then desirable items to get the most utility. My question specifically is targeted at the new boots that were released with chapter 5 of the curse campaign. Is this setting up for future items that may replace old items or was spirit chosen to go well with the story line, etc.? Body, Heat, Thrust, Slash are all more desirable resists since primary template items usually fill the rest (especially since boots are typically one of two spell crafted pieces in a template). Can you take a look at spirit resists on items be changed for something with more utility?

We really, really, really, REALLY don’t like to change item stats, resists, or other bonuses once they’ve been released as many players will have already fit them in with the rest of their gear and any change would cause those players to have to reconfigure everything. Going forward, we can look at new items addressing some of the more uncommon resistances or stats. 

Does the durability of a harp effect chants ( speed, end, etc)? I was always under the impression that if it does not have a +skill you do not have to have it repaired.. many people are saying it’s what’s causing songs to drop.

The issue with the songs dropping has to do with a bug with “spell range increase” abilities (both from the new songs and from pre-existing items that have the ability). Any range increase ability will cause the rest of the songs on that player to end after a certain time has elapsed. Fortunately, we have a fix coming next week to address this as well as some other requested changes.

As to the question at hand, the durability% of an instrument doesn’t affect the use or duration of songs at all until the durability reaches 0% (in which case the item breaks completely). Similarly, an instrument’s condition% does not matter in regards to playing songs; nor does it affect their duration.

The only reason to repair an instrument is if the instrument has +skills bonuses on it. Any item that has +skills on it will not apply those +skills if the item is at 70% condition or less; it has nothing to do with instruments and songs specifically but is just a blanket rule for all equipment, including jewelry.

Can you clarify the parameters for obtaining a “solo kill” for /title count (not for solo quest)? Also, is there any plans to evaluate not worth opponents be worth solo kills? Currently if you kill someone solo and they are not worth RPS, you do not obtain a solo kill for /title count. This is disheartening especially since at times, you have no idea they may not be worth and use all of your RA’s/abilities.

Certainly! A solo kill requires the following parameters to be met:

-The player earning the solo skill is ungrouped and otherwise receives no help during the kill (heals from other players, etc.)
-The player earning the solo kill does equal to or greater than 80% of the damage to the enemy player who is killed.
-The enemy player who is killed must be worth full realm points.

That’s it! The deathblow is not actually needed so long as the player did equal to or greater than 80% of the damage.

Stay tuned for our update early next week for some changes to /released characters’ “RP worth” timer as well as changes to the daily solo quest!

In the spirit of some of the quality of life (QOL) changes that have been implemented in the past 6-12 months, is there any chance a “Entrance market return token” could be added to the merchants next to all of the Market Explorers? This would allow players to purchase their desired zone token and then an additional entrance token and avoid all of the shuffle that is involved in finding an unlocked house with teleporters in it. It’s a small question/change, but something that could save all players some time and frustration.

Great suggestion! Interestingly, this system is already setup and working but for some reason the Caerwent entrance, Meath entrance, and Erikstaad entrance return tokens were never added to the respective stores. Regardless, if you check in the housing regions you’ll see the entrance tokens available for purchase now!

Since MTX is released can you give us a sneak peek into upcoming features? I’d really love to be able to purchase a skin for my hunter pet that is automatically applied and/or some unique weapon skins (spear is lacking in cool factor!). Spending money on a game I enjoy has never been an issue for me and would love additional uniqueness, just want to see if you have intentions of this going forward.

We’re very excited about the response to the new Mithril shop and have been getting a lot of questions similar to this one. So it’s a perfect opportunity to lay out the general plan for “MTX” going forward:

• We plan on introducing new cosmetic options on a monthly cadence. This means the next update will be around mid-August. The reason for this is that we absolutely want to flesh out our ‘MTX’ offerings as we can see that there is a huge appetite for many of these cosmetic options and several quality-of-life features; but our foremost focus is and always will be on the game itself. A monthly cadence for ‘MTX’ gives us time to give commensurate focus on both!
• These updates will *generally* be small in nature as the bigger ‘MTX’ features are being worked on in the background. Obviously, once a big feature is ready, that month’s update will be big too!
• Cosmetically-speaking, most updates in the near to mid-term will focus on equipment (armor or weapons) and not other cosmetic options like new character faces, body types, hair options, and the like. Eventually, we will have those for you though!
• We are still toying with ideas on custom skins for things like pets or spells. While in theory those would be really cool, we also have to ensure that spell-effects and pets remain consistent with what players are used to seeing in combat. In other words, we really can’t stray too far afield there without hindering gameplay. At this time, we are not making concrete plans to introduce these sorts of options.
• We have plans for the following non-cosmetic, quality-of-life “MTX” features right now (these would be the “big” features mentioned above):

• Name changes
• Race respecs
• Gender respecs
• Intra-Ywain server transfers
• Account to Account transfers
• Item durability repair

Thanks to everyone for getting in touch with your questions.

REMEMBER! SIgn up for the newsletter for that sneak peak! 🙂

<3

We’re excited to announce the following changes!

• Buggane’s Obelisk will now rotate its locations in conjunction with the rotating daily bonus quest’s location.
  • This means if the daily bonus quest from the General is located in Albion’s Brough Ruins (Alb Maze) for the day, Buggane’s Obelisk will spawn there as well.
    • This does mean that if the obelisk is up in 1 location, it is down in all other locations.
    • Ellan Vannin will no longer have the obelisk up unless the daily rotating quest is also in Ellan Vannin.
  • When the quest changes at 12:01 EST each night, Buggane’s Obelisk location will change too!
  • Speak with General Kogis, General Bruki, or General Vegda in each realm’s relic town and they will also tell you where Buggane’s is located (along with aligning with their rotating quest that day).
    • Realm ownership of Buggane’s Obelisk will still show in the /realm window regardless of where Buggane’s Obelisk is currently located.
• Buggane’s Obelisk once again awards a bonus to realm points in addition to its bonus to bounty points and coin earned.
  • Its bonus amounts still scale as follows based on realm rank:
    • Realm Rank 1L1 – 3L9: 75% bonus to RP/BP/Coin
    • Realm Rank 4L0 – 5L9: 50% bonus to RP/BP/Coin
    • Realm Rank 6L0 – 7L9: 25% bonus to RP/BP/Coin
    • Realm Rank 8L0+: 15% bonus to RP/BP/Coin
  • Its duration is still 2 hours and lasts through death and logout; however, it no longer lasts after zoning out of the frontiers.
• Siege weapons are not allowed within 850 units of the obelisk.

• The quest [Daily] The Solo Road has had its kill requirements reduced from 20 to 10. Its reward remains unchanged.
  • We recommend visiting the General in each realm’s relic town to get the new version of this quest if you have more than 10 kills remaining on it currently.
  • All other daily quests remain unchanged.

Some quick tweaks to the new RvR daily quests have been made as follows:

• [Daily] Roaming with Friends: reduced from 75 to 25 enemy realm players killed while in open-field areas.
  • Still rewards 15,000 realm points for completion.
• [Daily] For the realm: reduced from 50 to 25 enemy realm players killed inside an under-siege keep’s area.
  • Still rewards 15,000 realm points for completion.
• [Daily] The Solo Road: increased from 15 to 20 enemy realm players killed while solo.
  • Still rewards 15,000 realm points for completion.
  • Any deathblow on an enemy player while solo will count towards this quest’s credit.
• The rotating daily quests have all had their enemy kills reduced from 50 to 25.
  • These quests still reward 25,000 realm points for completion.

If you have these quests currently, you may need to re-vist the General in each realm’s relic town to get the updated quest. Of course, if your quest is already closer than 25 or 20 kills (respectively) to completion then we’d recommend not doing so.