THE HERALD

Banners have been raised, commands shouted, and battles fought. Towers have been razed, Keeps overrun, and Relics captured. What we’ve long called “New” Frontiers has hosted hundreds of thousands of players over its lifespan who have fought tooth and nail for every inch of terrain. So long, in fact, that New Frontiers has been in use much longer than Old Frontiers ever was. Which brings us to the point of this posting: On December 12^th, 2013 The New Frontiers Revamp is coming to Pendragon!
 
Below you will find our outline of planned changes. Click the ‘More’ Button to read on!
 

Please note that these are not final patch notes, which will have the finer details, but the breadth and scope as well as the ‘what’ of the revamp will be made clear. In addition to the forthcoming patch notes, we’ll be doing a live Q&A session to explain the ‘how’ and ‘why’ for some of our changes as well as answer any other questions you all are certain to have.
 
First, this revamp is only Part One. Part Two will focus on Keep fights, Siege mechanics, Relic bonuses, and overall Realm incentives for participating in the Realm War. Part One will focus on Layout, Porting, Boating, Movement, and RvR Objectives.
 
Second, we want to take your feedback into account before and after these changes go Live. We want to get this right, even more than usual, due to the magnitude and fundamental nature of these changes. Please submit feedback, hop on Pendragon when the changes appear there, and participate in our to-be-announced Q&A session.
 
Without further delay, here are the changes!
 

Keep and Tower Layout

 
The changes outlined in this section largely have to do with Tower removal, Keep and tower moves, and a few impassable area edits. Combined with the changes outlined in the Porting section, we hope to focus action into essentially the four zones of Agramon, Hadrian’s Wall, Odin’s Gate, and Emain Macha as the default state of the Realm War.
 
These changes are intended to free up some space, in these four zones particularly – well as the rest, in order to allow for greater freedom of movement without running into NPC guards and safe areas. We view these changes as necessary given the amount of players we expect to be traveling and fighting within the zones at any given time.
 
That said, the goal is not to prevent the Realm War from ever reaching the center zones or relic keep zones, but rather to require a more planned and staged assault of a realm in order to do so. And when that assault happens, still facilitate quick and predictable action around that invasion.
 
Players should first break through one of an opposing realm’s milegates, then establish a foothold by capturing the realm’s dock (more on this later), and finally by establishing port to one of the 2 remaining beachhead keeps in each realm.
 
Additionally, we want to facilitate predictable, yet still varied, action. Predictable can sometimes have a negative connotation but in our view here it is a positive. Predictable thoroughfares and locations that players can venture through and to in order to find action help facilitate player strategies and behaviors that are conducive to a Realm’s defense, offense, reinforcement, and general fun.
 
Conversely, in the Frontiers currently it can be too unpredictable at times where an invasion will occur or a fight will happen that players can spend too long running, boating, or porting around just looking for an enemy to engage.

Albion Frontier Changes:
 
 

 
Hadrian’s Wall

•   All Berkstead towers have been removed
•   Caer Berkstead has been moved further east against the zone wall
•   Erasleigh Outpost (4) has been moved north on top of the plateau.
•   Benowyc Guardtower (1) and Outpost (3) have been removed
•   Caer Benowyc, Benowyc Watchtower (2), and Benowyc Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

 
Pennine Mountains

•   Erasleigh Spire (3), Boldiam Outpost (3), Sursbrooke Spire (4), and Renaris Outpost (4) have been removed

 
Snowdonia

•   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
•   Hurbury Outpost (3) and Hurbury Spire (4) have been removed

 
Forest Sauvage

•   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
•   Renaris Spire (3) and Renaris Outpost (4) have been removed

Midgard Frontier Changes: 

 
Odin’s Gate

•   A few paths have been cut through the impassable terrain near Nottmoor Faste.
•   All Nottmoor towers have been removed
•   Nottmoor Faste has been moved further north and west against the zone wall
•   Bledmeer Watchtower (2) and Outpost (3) have been removed
•   Bledmeer Faste, Bledmeer Guardtower (1), and Bledmeer Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

 
Jamtland Mountains

•   Glenlock Outpost (4) has been moved east across the river and just into the zone of Uppland
•   Glenlock Spire (3), Blendrake Spire (3), and Hlidskialf Outpost (4) have been removed

 
Yggdra Forest

•   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
•   Arvakr Outpost (3) and Arvakr Spire (4) have been removed

 
Uppland

•   Glenlock Outpost (4) in Jamtland has been moved east across the river and just into Uppland
•   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
•   Fensalir Outpost (4) and Fensalir Spire (3) have been removed

 Hibernia Frontier Changes:
 

 
Emain Macha

•   All Crimthainn towers have been removed
•   Dun Crimthainn has been moved further west against the zone wall
•   Crauchon Watchtower (2) and Outpost (3) have been removed
•   Dun Crauchon, Crauchon Guardtower (1), and Crauchon Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

 
Breifine

•   nGed Outpost (4) has been moved west and north across the river
•   nGed Spire (3), Bolg Spire (4), and da Behnn Spire (3) have been removed

 
Mount Collory

•   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
•   Scathaig Spire (3) and Scathaig Outpost (4) have been removed

 
Cruachan Gorge

•   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
•   Ailine Outpost (3) and Ailine Spire (4) have been removed

Porting

 
Permanent Portal Keeps
With this revamp, one of our major goals was to facilitate a more staged, progressive, and predictable avenue for attack, defense, and reinforcement. This means utilizing the Agramon milegates as natural defense points and the island of Agramon as a major thoroughfare. However, Agramon can only work if players have consistent and predictable access to the island.
 
With that in mind, we will be introducing one Permanent Portal Keep inside each realm’s frontier with the following attributes:
 

•   Unattackable and uncapturable
•   Very High Level Guards
•   Open courtyards with no inner keep
•   Relatively close and equidistant to Agramon

 
 
The following existing keeps in each realm have been altered to be PKs:
 

•   Albion players will teleport to Caer Berkstead
•   Midgard players will teleport to Nottmoor Faste
•   Hibernia players will teleport to Dun Crimthainn

Portal Ceremony

 The portal ceremony is back!
 
Returning the ceremony, along with the permanent portal keeps, helps give the Realm War a more predictable reinforcement pattern that will facilitate realm organization and grouping.
 

•   The ceremony will occur on the classic side of each realm’s border keep (where it’s always occurred) on top of the portal pad.
•   When /releasing in the Frontiers now, players will zone back to the classic side of the Border Keeps as well. We realize zoning after each death can be an inconvenience but it should actually help increase performance over longer play sessions and on the game as a whole as zoning clears out a lot of the excess data on the game client and server.
•   The ceremony will occur every 3 minutes instead of the old value of every 15.
•   The ceremony will port everyone standing on the pad to the portal keeps mentioned above with no need to wear a necklace. Because of this, apprentice teleporters have been placed just outside of the portal pad that will see to your normal porting needs.
•   There will be a teleport NPC inside each Portal Keep that will teleport you back to the classic side of the Border Keep.

 
Portal Stones and Keep Porting changes
 
Realm portal stones have been removed from the following locations and these locations can no longer be teleported to via the remaining stones:
 
In Albion:

•   Caer Renaris
•   Caer Hurbury
•   Caer Benowyc
•   Castle Sauvage Border Keep
•   Snowdonia Border Keep

  
In Midgard:

•   Fensalir Faste
•   Arvakr Faste
•   Bledmeer Faste
•   Svasud Faste Border Keep
•   Vindsaul Faste Border Keep

 
In Hibernia:

•   Dun Ailinne
•   Dun Scathaig
•   Dun Crauchon
•   Druim Ligen Border Keep
•   Druim Cain Border Keep

 
Portal stones in the Relic Towns will now only teleport players to the classic side of Border Keeps.
 
The remaining Portal Stones will function as before:

•   The center keep in each realm, permanent portal keep, and two invade-able beachhead keeps in each realm can be teleported to with the standard 5-second wait time
•   For the center and invade-able beachhead keeps, the requisite amount of towers will still need to be controlled in order to port.

Boating

 
In addition to porting and the layout affecting the flow of realm defense and invasion, boating is another important aspect. As such, the following changes and limitations have been placed on purchased boats:
 

•   Docks and associated NPCs in the Relic Keep zones have been removed.
•   Center Keep and Merchant Keep docks are still available.
•   Center Keep docks will only have boat tickets available that take players to the mouth of their own realm’s river.
•   Merchant Keep docks will only have two boat tickets available for purchase, one to each opposing realm.
•   The drop-off locations of the Merchant Keep tickets will be on the opposite coast from the Portal Keep.
  •  In between Benowyc and Erasleigh in Albion
  •  In between Bledmeer and Blendrake in Midgard
  •  In between Crauchon and Bolg in Hibernia
•   The Merchant Keep docks will be capture-able objectives. The Center Keep docks will not be capture-able.
•   A realm will be unable to purchase boat tickets that take them to an opposing realm until that opposing realm’s dock is captured.
•   When a dock is captured in 1 realm, BOTH other realms will be able to purchase tickets and boat to that realm. In other words, when the Benowyc dock is captured by Hibernia or Midgard, both Hibernia and Midgard will be able to boat to Albion.
•   When a Merchant Keep dock is captured, the home realm will not be able to purchase tickets from either dock.
•   Players already on boats when a dock is captured will be able to continue their boat ride.
•   Merchant Keep docks will have asymmetrical encounters that control who owns them:
  • Defending realm Dockmasters will be protected by 2 orange-red guards and 1 red-purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than half a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time.
  • When a dock is captured by an enemy realm, the dock will be protected by 4 red-purple guards and 1 purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time.
•   When a dock is captured, the opposing realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with their realm’s prescience node.
•   When an enemy guard contingent is defeated, the home realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with the dockmaster and prescience node.

Movement

 
With the removal of permanent boating and the focus on running being the primary means of travel outside of the portal ceremony we have some exciting changes coming to movement speed.
 

•   The Hastener NPC buff Speed of the Realm will be increased from 150% to 170%.
•   The bounty gem speed buffs will be increased from 150% to 170%.
•   The last level Sorcerer, Theurgist, Healer, Runemaster, Enchanter, and Warden speed chants will be increased from 156% to 176%.
•   Mount Saddles and Armors will now have a +54% speed increase attached to them.
•   When combined with a horse (which has a 150% speed bonus) the player will be able to travel at 204% speed – or the same speed as a Skald, Minstrel, or Bard.
•   Mounts will maintain their multitude of restrictions and disadvantages:
  •  Players must stand still for 3 seconds to call their mount
  •  Shapeshifts will prevent being able to mount
  •  Mounts will not dive
  •  Mounted players are bigger targets
  •  Players will be unable to mount when indoors or underground.
•   Mount Saddles and Armors are craftable items in the Metalworking line.
•   Mount Saddles and Armors will all have the same 54% speed increase but will be differentiated by their art and use requirements:

Crafted:

o   Heroic Saddle (Champion Level 0) (still have to be level 50 for this)
o   Heroic Light Armor (CL1)
o   Heroic Medium Armor (CL3)
o   Heroic Heavy Armor (CL5)
o   Sinister Saddle (CL1)
o   Sinister Light Armor (CL2)
o   Sinister Medium Armor (CL4)
o   Sinister Heavy Armor (CL6)
o   Mystic Saddle (CL2)
o   Mystic Light Armor (CL3)
o   Mystic Medium Armor (CL5)
o   Mystic Heavy Armor (CL7)

Dropped:

o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Saddle (CL5)
o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Light Horse Armor (CL8)
o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Medium Horse Armor (CL9)
o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Heavy Horse Armor (CL10)

RvR Objectives

 
Ruined Keeps
 
Ruined Keeps are meant as a break in the terrain and defensible locations that players in smaller forces can venture to try and hide from, defend against, or to ambush larger forces passing by. Ruined Keeps and Towers will also provide a Realm point and Bounty point bonus for fighting in and around them similar to normal keeps. Once again, there are no NPCs in or around these structures, the doors are open, and the keep outer walls have several holes in them.

Capture-able Docks
 
These docks provide a realm objective that rewards the capturing players with TBD items and other rewards and their realm with access to valuable boat routes. Preventing the capture of your realm’s Merchant Keep dock will also be the first step of preventing a full scale invasion.
 
 

Milegates
 
The Agramon milegates are largely unchanged with the revamp but will be much more of a focal point of action. They are each realm’s first line of defense and the first place to overrun when invading another realm. Milegate Doors will now remain permanently open. The guard house doors on the 2^nd floor of the milegates will be more easily destroyed but still only function for the home realm’s players when they are up.
 
 
Minotaur Relics
 
Minotaur Relics in the frontier have had their locations and bonuses changed and one new one has been added. The restrictions on frontier Minotaur relics spawning and several of them requiring players to be grouped in order to hold them have been removed. They will always be spawned and available on the map now. The locations of Minotaur relic holders will still be displayed but the bonuses should now balance out this penalty more.
 
Uruz (Agramon)

•   Provides 10% bonus to RP/XP/BP/Coin
•   No mob encounter
•   Found in the center of Decayed Lands

 
Farsia (Pennine):

•   Currently 10% Heal Bonus
•   Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder
•   Now found on the plateau in between Benowyc and Erasleigh

 
Thatanu (Hadrian’s):

•   Currently 10% Heal Bonus
•   Changing to 10% Heal bonus + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)
•   Found in the same place south of Berkstead

 Benun (Jamtland):

•   Currently 50% Siege Protection
•   Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder
•   Now found on the coast in between Blendrake and Hlidskialf

 Unver (Odin’s Gate):

•   Currently 75% Siege Protection + 70.0 Essence Damage (which actually means damage to objects like doors/siege/fonts etc.)
•   Changing to 10% Aura of Health + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)
•   Moved west onto the plateau closest to Bledmeer

 
Temel (Breifine):

•   Currently 10% bonus to XP, BP, RP, Coin, and CLXP
•   Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder
•   Now found on the coast in between Bolg and da Behnn

Mahir (Emain):

•   Currently 10% bonus to XP, BP, RP, Coin, and CLXP
•   Changing to 5% melee/magic crit + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)
•   Now found on the hill overlooking where Crauchon Outpost (3) used to be, behind the gorbachend encampment.

Individual Objectives

 
Doppleganger Quests have returned!
 
The Doppelganger Quest makes its return as a permanent feature of the Frontiers. This popular quest will remain the same in how it generally works except for a few very important changes:
 

•   Doppelgangers will no longer grant RPs or BPs when killed
•   The amount spawned in each realm will be increased to 6 at a time, from a potential 24 locations and 1 of 3 in Agramon.
•   Doppelgangers will instead drop a Realm-specific Shard
  • Doppelgangers in Albion will drop an Albion Shard
  • Doppelgangers in Midgard will drop a Midgard Shard
  • Doppelgangers in Hibernia will drop a Hibernia Shard
  • Doppelgangers in Agramon will have a chance to drop any of the 3 shards
•   /Using these Realm specific shards will grant players a random shard piece that can be combined with the other 2 types of shard pieces into a very rare item.
  • Albion Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 1 of 3 items
  • Midgard Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 2 of 3 items
  • Hibernia Shards can be /used to obtain 3 of 3 items
•   Players will need each 1, 2, and 3 shard pieces in order to obtain a complete item from the turn-in NPC. This will require players to venture to opposing realms regularly to be able to obtain these high-end items. There will be no leveling up or other process involved with the items once all 3 shard pieces are turned into the NPC.
•   ML10 Weapons, some ML10 armor, other rare items, new Mythirians, and rare mount armor are examples of some of the obtainable items.
•   The realm specific shards will also have a chance to drop stacks of rare alchemy components and siege ammunition instead of the item shard pieces.
•   The standard Doppelganger quest rewards will still be available as well.

Keeps

In an effort to incentivize the Realm War, we have increased the bonuses realms receive for keep ownership. Additionally, we’ve altered the amount of keeps required for each bonus since the maximum amount of keeps a realm can ever own is now 13 instead of 21. Finally, realms now start off receiving the first 3 bonuses listed and will lose them as they are invaded.
   

As you can tell from the picture, Darkness Falls access is once again only controlled by Keeps owned instead of both Keeps and Towers.

What these changes mean for…

Relics

With the possible number of capturable keeps now reduced, there is 1 less keep than there are relics. For now, we will be allowing 2 relics to be placed in Caer Boldiam, Glenlock Faste, and Dun nGed. Part Two of the revamp will address this further.

Labyrinth

With Agramon being a major thoroughfare the Labyrinth has undergone a few changes:

• The guards inside the Agramon Labyrinth towers have been removed.
• Zoning into the Labyrinth from Agramon now takes players to an obelisk in Nurizane’s Crossroads.
• Exiting the Labyrinth to the Agramon tower is no longer possible. This zone line has been disabled.

In order to reach the safe areas within the Labyrinth, players will need to use the maze entrances and then run a short distance to the safe area. Using the Gateway spells or /release to return to the Labyrinth’s Bind Stone will work as they always have.

These changes and those yet to come are designed to improve the RvR experience in many ways. We are looking forward to this update, and it is our fervent hope that you enjoy the ‘new’ NF experience.
 
We’ll see you in the Frontiers!

John Thornhill
Lead Designer
Dark Age of Camelot