Dark Age Of Camelot: Grab Baguette

Taken from here.

Q: I was participating in a card game/dice game/game of chance, and lost all my gold. Can your CSRs get it back for me?

A: Am I the only one who finds it deeply, deeply funny and yet deeply, deeply bizarre and disturbing that we have CASINOS operating within DAOC? Anyway, here's the deal with the gold or anything else you might bet - you have to trade with another player to give them gold (and all other items). All trades are FINAL in our game. Don't complete a trade with another player with anything you're not willing to lose forever. (And if that gambling problem of yours bleeds into the real world, please, as a friend in that creepy online way, I beg you - get help before it costs you more than virtual gold.)

And, on a related note: Don't accept a trade where you give someone an item and he promises to "pay you later," unless you trust that person implicitly AND you're willing to kiss the item goodbye.

Q: 1.69A notes said: - The stun component on the Albion thrust style, Dragonfang, has been reduced to 5 seconds. We will be offering a respec for those affected by the Dragonfang change before this change goes to the live servers.

Most recently in the Test Version 1.69n Release Notes this was also stated:

- Infiltrators have been granted a single line respec as a result of the changes made to the Dragonfang thrust style in version 1.69a.

So, does EVERYONE who uses Dragonfang get the respect or just INFs?

A: I can see how that note caused uncertainty - the answer is just Infiltrators. I've collected quite a bit of feedback from the other classes, and I expect there will be more. Just remember I am reading these things, so if you could keep that in mind as you list the reasons you disagree, I'd be forever grateful.

Q: I've had so much fun at the Pendragon events, when will we get them on live servers? What about other times for people on the left coast or overseas?

A: First, the second question - we're holding an event for the early (by East Coast standards) next week, barring unforeseen weirdness with Pendragon. If you're awake at 7:30 AM EDT on the 14th, and you've got nothing else to do, come on out. If attendance is good, our Miss Julie may be able to do more in the future.

Your second question - we don't do these events on live servers. I answered a similar question on the Role Play Vault board (I'd stopped by to see if anyone had welcomed our new RP TL). Here's what I said, edited for clarity:

"I know that some people, especially roleplayers, would love them. But we have no plans to do them on live servers.

"I have done roleplay events for other games, and they have a number of problems:

"1. Non-roleplayers (and griefers) swamp the event and disrupt it. The only way to even partially keep the event on track is to have more CSRs muffling, removing and suspending people than there are people doing the event... and even then that doesn't entirely work.

"2. Very few players get to participate directly, compared to the population of the server. Hundreds of people write to complain that they didn't get to interact with the characters or influence the plot.

"3. Negative feedback always outweighs the positive - the reward was "stupid," the story was "lame," etc.

"4. The staffing requirements for official events is significant as I hinted at in #1, and when we have the chance to add staff to our loyal pit crew, it helps more of our customers to add more CSRs. There are already complaints that we don't get to appeals fast enough - imagine the wait time if the twenty people working on Friday night had to ALL be at an event on one server to prevent chaos!

"5. Events are considered by many players as disruptive of their playtime - i.e., "I wanted to hunt in this dungeon tonight, but I can't because company representatives are there doing an event."

"There are lots of other reasons, but those are the big ones...

"But you know - nothing I've announced on Pendragon lately couldn't be done by a player on a live server. They haven't been roleplaying events at all, not by my definition anyway. You don't need me or anyone else to do these things on live servers. And Miss Julie's "submit news" button on the community section of the Herald would be perfect for announcing your own contest winners.

"Anyway, I know I won't convince too many people that Mythic shouldn't have events, but I thought you ought to have the explanation behind why we don't do them."

Q: As a sorcerer, I can charm pets that cast buffs. When I'm in a group where some people already have the buffs that the pet is casting, the pet doesn't stop spamming the buffs. ETA on a fix?

A: It is a bug we're aware of, but I have no ETA on a fix. Popular one, this week.

Q: Why did my guild not win the 1.69 Challenge?

A: We had many great guilds. A small number were great, and sadly didn't submit all three reports. High scoring guilds didn't have to write GREAT reports, but they did need to send three. I suggest that your guild leader apply for inclusion in the guild beta sign up - the form will be posted on about April 20th.

***

One of the 1.69 challenge winners had this to say in his last report: "The people on Pendragon are great. They've gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and have always been eager to help. They're excellent hosts, even though we turned Pendragon into an MMORPG version of the Sturgis Bike Rally. There's a wonderful sense of community here, with many people having characters in all 3 realms." Pendie regulars, take a well deserved bow!

Pendragon events will continue - simple, fun things that exist primarily to give everyone a starting time, a starting place, and a simple goal to aim towards. Most bugs that we don't catch with internal testing come out eventually as people simply play the game. I spent a good bit of time thinking about events this week. We're not spending that much time planning them, you know? We're just taking the lead on announcing a time and place - something every single one of you can do. I know we could use some more tools to that effect to help you all coordinate your own versions of scavenger hunts and hide and seek games. The problem usually comes when we try to take your suggestions and make them "jerk proof." Got a jerk proof suggestion for event functionality? Send it to me here at the Herald (Sanya at mythicentertainment dot com) with the subject line JERK PROOF EVENT TOOL. I make no promises, but I will make a list of the best ideas and send 'em up the chain.

Have a good weekend - for those of you driving somewhere to share a holiday, be safe.