Dark Age Of Camelot: Cold and Stale Grab Bag.

Taken from here

Q: Does mob level have any bearing on drop chances? I ask particularly relating to scrolls. Does a blue con mob have a lower chance to drop a scroll than an orange or red con mob?

A: I asked the Item Mistress, and the answer isn't a simple yes or no. She said "The difficulty of an encounter is one factor in determining the number of *magic* items that are dropped, as well as the drop rate of specific items in a particular encounter. The level of the mob does not necessarily correspond to the difficulty of the encounter, therefore the mob level is not used in setting the drop rates.

"Scrolls do not follow the same rules as magic items for their drop rate. There are two possible drop rates for each scroll, with higher level mobs receiving the higher rate."

Q: Will the RA Mastery of the Arcane raise buffs above the hardcap listed in a previous grab bag (click here for the reference)?

A: I am told no, the cap still applies.

Q: Does the necro armor change (based on pets hits) mean the armor will degrade as if the necro was a tank?

A: Not exactly like a tank - but according to Balance Boy, it should be on a par with "a suppression bonedancer, who tends to tank while their pets heal them... Necros now take the same amount of durability penalty as every other cloth wearing class in the game. For example, if a Necro pet is hit 1000 times by a sword, and a runemaster is hit 1000 times by a sword, both should suffer the exact same penalty to item durability." I certainly appreciate all the feedback on this topic, and please rest assured it has been passed to the live team.

We're NOT DONE investigating various reported issues. Please see my first announcement below for instructions on how to help us isolate any decay rate issues. Did I say NOT DONE INVESTIGATING VARIOUS ISSUES?

Q: (Insert question here about staff durability.)

A: One of our programmers responded, "A staff will generally only lose condition when it is used as a focus item to cast a given spell (which I assume at the higher levels it almost always will be)." And of course, if the staff is used as a melee weapon, it would lose condition at the same rate as any other melee weapon.

Q: My artifact says I need to hunt "primitive races" to level it up. What exactly are primitive races?

A: The world team Minion 2.0 tells me that in Albion, it's the Highlander and Half-Ogre; in Midgard, the Troll and the Valkyn; and in Hibernia, the Firbolg and the Shar.

No insult is intended to these noble races, who have all contributed much to their respective alliances.

***

As I travel around the internet, I see comments about bugs - often, how obvious such and such a problem is, etc. Here's the thing, y'all. If we can't duplicate it, we can't fix it. We can know about a problem as players, we can hear you guys talking about a problem, but if we can't make the bug happen while we're running debug programs, we're stuck.

You can help us duplicate the bugs, though! The more information you give us, the faster we can set up the proper scenario in our testing dungeon and make it happen. Give us locs, give us item names, NPC names, zone names. We don't need elaborate descriptions, usually, although we do appreciate complete sentences. "Fix gear bug" in a game with hundreds of thousands of items won't help us. "My ancient silver ring was at 98 CON at 2:30 PM, and by 3:30 PM, it was 84 CON. I fought harpies as the main tank for 45 of those minutes" - now, we're cooking with gas. Bring on the details in those bug appeals!

***

I've seen a number of posts and questions about the Realm Ability revamp. That revamp is scheduled to launch with Frontiers, and fair warning, we're not talking about a couple tiny adjustments here. The new system is not at all ready for public consumption, even as a rough draft. But so far, it looks to me to be clearer and more consistent. It's a true system, meant to work as a cohesive unit. Anyway, you'll see it before you have to use it, don't fret.

***

Wow, a deluge of feedback on the proposed Midgard Frontier map. It was overwhelmingly positive, and we're glad to know we're on the right track. By far, the primary concern you guys expressed to us was your horror of travel time between the three frontiers, and your fear of increased travel within a particular frontier in general. While I can't say anything specific right now, since the details aren't actually programmed, I know the guys had travel time as one of their primary design concerns, and will be unveiling their transportation ideas next month.

There was also a lot of good feedback on tower placement, strategic point locations, and questions about movement. Thanks for everything.

You guys would have enjoyed hanging out in my office as I went through the hundreds of forms. I read one feedback form explaining in detail why he wanted more hills and rocks in the terrain, and how the expansion wouldn't be cool without it. The very next form explained in detail why we should remove every hill and shrub if we wanted to make the expansion cool. Then I opened one form telling me we'd be fools if we put any monsters into the frontier, but that was followed by a note from a pet charmer, asking us to be sure we didn't limit the monsters to the woods! We'll do our best to make compromises that don't compromise the quality of the expansion.

I had a brilliant idea for a pet vending machine, and then I realized I'd left the cap off my markers. Those fumes are killer, gang. Never sniff and type. Or, for that matter, never drink spiked eggnog and drive, hint hint. Be careful out there during this festive season.

***

That's it for the 2003 Grab Bags. I'd like to send love to Amodin and the rest of the Vault Board Moderator gang for all they've done for us this year. Hugs and sloppy kisses to Catacombs for all the features they host to make life more fun for the players. Shout out to DAOCMODS for their contribution to helping people understand our most technical new feature. Warm thanks are due to Allakhazam's, Warcry, GameRifts, Vault, and the rest of the websites that report our news, host movies and features, and tolerate me with such grace. (I'm probably leaving someone out - I'm sorry in advance :)) A wink and a wave to all the IRC chatrooms I lurk in under various names, pure feedback without observational bias is always a hoot.

And to all of you players in the game that I've hung out with, twinked and been twinked by, been killed by and... been repeatedly killed by, bless your hearts for keeping it all fun for me. Have a wonderful holiday season.