Asherons Call: Another ACPL Review

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Wow! Where to begin. Let me first say that 7 hours on a plane from California
to Boston is EVIL. Having never been to Boston I have only one question: What's
with the donuts, people?

Ok, now that that's out of my system....

http://ac.warcry.com/images/acpl2002/turbine.jpg" title="" target="_blank">The morning after I arrived, Surfal and I dropped by Turbine to see what was
what. What this picture doesn't show is the plaque at the head of that silver call "Space Reserved for The Hammer". I never did find out who that was.

I met Alan Maki (Orion) in the Lobby. I have to say, Alan is one of the most enjoyable people I've ever met. He's forever positive and open. And simply a lot of fun. And as I was to see later - he's a damn good drudge dancer.

That evening, approximately 35 Turbies and fans met for dinner at Vinnie Testa's (yummy). Kim Payson, Ken Karl, Alan Maki, Maggie the Jackat, Ned Cleversun, Eldreth, Ravlen, Sean Huxter, Salmoneus, Maddy, Auz and many many others were there to eat, drink and have fun.

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[p]After dinner that evening, Auz, Eldreth, Maggie, Ramen, Ravlen, Surfal and I were taken to Turbine for a "super-secret" event. After signing our NDA's and being escorted to that restroom and back, we were treated to the big Gaerlan Event. Check out Surfal's write up from Thursday night if you haven't already. It was a lot of fun and really wonderful to see how much the Devs enjoy interacting with the players. It was also a treat to finally meet Keth, who did an awesome job filming the event. Make sure you don't miss this one when it goes up on the Zone.
[p]We left Turbine at 1:30 that morning just in time to get a few hours sleep before returning for a company bar-b-q. The weather in Boston was beautiful and perfect for a BBQ. We all sat outside relaxing in the shade - that is those of us who weren't playing hacky sack :)

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After lunch, we were once again escorted inside of Turbine. Although we weren't allowed in 75% of the building, we did have the opportunity to sit and speak with the devs about AC. Kim was kind enough to spend some explaining to me the creative process behind the monthly events - once I put the finishing touches on that, I promise to post it.
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The time and effort the devs put into the game was evidenced in the office atmosphere. Sean's desk was difficult to find under all of the figurines! Alan kicked us out after a while so they could all get back to "work". Heh.
[p]Back at the hotel I came upon some 25 different AC players in the lobby. Salmoneus had been kind enough to arrange for us all to attend a movie that evening, but with time to kill we headed over to the local restaurant/bar. Apparently, 20 or so other players had the same idea as we happened upon them finishing their lunch. Luckily, one of them was Ibn Schachabo! http://ac.warcry.com/images/acpl2002/ibnlunch.jpg" title="" target="_blank">

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Ken Karl offered to take up to 50 people to see Reign of Fire that evening! Woot! The theatre didn't take American Express. Apparently, Microsoft's money isn't good enough for them! After much disorganization, we all made it into the theatre. There were few good reviews about the movie. AC players are picky!

Next was the Corrib Pub whereI know that Kim told me something important I wanted to tell you all, but in truth, I don't remember. :( But! I did meet Krell.
[p]The next morning was the big day. Ibn had gone to the airport to get Optim Shi the night before and we all met for breakfast in the hotel lobby. As we maximized the IV flow of coffee into our systems, Kwip and Kwipette stopped by to say hello. It was at this point that I began passing around the super-secret birthday card for Ravlen. Ibn had picked up a cake that morning and I'd found an Iron Chef hat at the local Kitchen store. Add to that Twinkies wrapped in Barbie wrapping paper and 300 people singing him Happy Birthday and Ravlen has his birthday dreams come true! http://ac.warcry.com/images/acpl2002/acplbday.jpg" title="" target="_blank">
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[p]Before lunch (and Ravlen's bday) Ken Troop and a panel of AC live members had a Q&A sessions with the audience. Among the questions answered were:

Q. Will we ever have potatoes in game?

A. Anything's possible

Q. Can I have a refund for all of the server downtime?

A. No (from Ken Karl)

Q. What caused the Wi flag?

A. Sandra gave a detailed accounting of the math that caused it. Let's just say there was a flaw in the hashing that made the random number not random

Q. Can you make me l33t? K, thx. (from Ravlen)

A. It's coming. (and to the audience) Rav's a thrown weapons character!

Q. With all the difficulties with servers, etc, why not just put more money into it to fix it?

A. As easy as that sounds, money wouldn't necessarily fix anything. There are limitatations to the technology that is being used that money just can't fix.

Q. Why are events kept small? So little of the population gets to experience them.

A. As evidenced by the size of the Gaerlan event, when the population reaches approximately 150, it becomes a lagfest and isn't fun for anyone.

Q. Why does lag seem to be increasing in the new dungeons? And will there be new housing?

A. Yes, there will be new housing. Both RQ's and new houses in exisiting settlements. But, the lag that is being experienced and the slow down of housing are caused by the same issue. They are simply running out of unpopulated areas on the servers to place new items. The more full it becomes the slower things become.

Q. Is there an answer to why the Dev Team can't be increased? or is it simply a monetary issue?

A. Money. (from Ken Karl)

Q. Will the CoC on macros be changing?

A. To change the existing CoC after this much time would be too disruptive to the game. However, the survey on macros showed that players do not care for combat macroing. As such, combat macros will not be allowed in AC2.

Q. Will old quests ever be revisited and updated?

A. It's very difficult to revisit a dungeon created by someone else and make changes to it. It's simply not time efficient to change exisiting dungeons. Its much more so to build a new one from scratch.

Q. With the spawn changes, old dungeons are often very difficult to get to for the level intended. Will this be reviewd?

A. Yes, this is being reviewed.

Q. Will the Fellowship rules ever be reviewed? It's dismaying to go to Aerlinthe at level 45 and not be able to find anyone willing to hunt with.

A. This is something that has been discussed and may be changed in the future.

I'm sure I'm missing more, much more. But, my tired fuzzy brain just isn't recalling them at the moment. I'm going to skip my review of the AC2 demo here and place it on the AC2 site this evening.
[p]Throughout the day there was a raffle for various door prizes including Gforce4 cards, a faran robe and a one of a kind Martine mask. Over $1300 was raised for Habitat for Humanity! Our own Quendor took home not only a new video card but a signed poster for Dungeon Siege!
[p]Next up was the "Who's Drudge is it Anyways?" contest. Let's just say this was FUN. The contestants had about 2 minutes each to come up a skit to various subjects including: "Cooking with Bael Zharon", "Dereth's Better Homes and Gardens", "Martine Takes Anger Management Classes", "The New Foci" and the winners, "How to Get into Beta".

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