Asherons Call: A Halloween Style Grab Bag of Dev Q & A (Part 1 of 2)

Question: Avernus- - Rumor has it that a graphics update may be coming to AC1.
Answer: Orion-Turbine - Your rumor mills are always so much better than ours. So far as I know at this time there is no such thing planned.

Question: ipeacefrog - What is the future of AC1? You can't buy it any more. Microsoft's site says that it is no longer for sale. And it's near impossible to find in the stores. It's listed on Amazon but when someone tried to order it, it was not shipped due to being out of stock. Can we get some info on this?
Answer: Orion-Turbine - The future is that we continue to provide monthly events, more changes to keep the game dynamic and thrilling and host of new ideas that open more and more on the world of Auberean, showing the influence and changes made to the face of Dereth by the Isparians who now make it their home. The future is bright.

Question: The_Last_Blademaster - Problems with Terese of the Swamp Garden? I've noticed that Terese, the hippie NPC in the Swamp Garden Dungeon near Yanshi, has gotten quite stingy lately. Taking half a dozen green seeds to her used to yield anywhere from four to ten plants, depending upon the kind of shreth the seeds came from.
Answer: Orion-Turbine - Yes. There were problems. We think we have ironed them out for November.

Question: Wei_Ti-Ka - Hi devs, When night falls, it's really difficult to see the chess boards. Could we perhaps get some lightposts around them?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - The "invisible" building idea is what I've been toying with, but that's not as easy as it sounds. The invisible walls around Gaerlan's citadel are not the same. The worst complication with that is the camera movement. It would completely block players from being able to move their cameras around at will, to get the angle they want. So no good solution presents itself yet. I have some more thinking to do... And no, torches do not work on the landscape. Just indoors. In buildings and dungeons.

Question: Trimfect - Can we expect tunnels in the future instead of portals?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - This has nothing to do with landblocks for islands. If anything, this gives us MORE room, since the dungeon is actually part of the landblock the entrance is in, and no longer in the ocean somewhere where an island could be placed. Yes, you'll probably see more of these in future, since we now have a tool to do it. This is a holy grail for us. We've wanted to do this from day one, but have not had the time it took to devote effort into making a tool to do it. Thanks to two of our team, Sean Dickinson and Todd Berkebile, we can now do it. And it's only through their dogged determinism (ie: stubbornness) that it became possible. So now that we have the tool, and it was so long coming, it would be foolish not to use it.

Question: Eddie_the_Crazy - How many deaths do you need in order to get the Wi Flag?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - I'm pretty sure MY character could probably craft one... :-)
*editor note* Further in the thread it states the required death count is 500 or more.

Question: KainetheDragoon - Bug with chess. My friend and I were playing. I got into a "Check" situation, and the system counted it as "Check Mate" and I lost all my guys. I had could have moved my king out of check, and then he would have had two options. Kill my queen, and get his queen killed. Or cause a stalemate. I should not have lost this match..
Answer: Sean_Huxter - I'm guessing a knight was in the way or something. I've played quite a bit, and it is very intelligent at figuring out check-mate. I accidentally check-mated one guy. I had failed to consider my knight. I thought I had about three moves left, when they all fell over dead. But my knight was in position to prevent the king from moving out of check.

Question: -Hokanu- - Forced Remote Client Crash to desktop bug. Possible Exploit? I've had this happen twice now, and I think I can reproduce it with a little fiddling, since the circumstances were fairly restrictive. Essentially, you can force someone to crash to desktop, with only a little unwitting assistance from them. Where does one report this?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - PM me. I'll forward it to the coders.

Question: Pyreal_Gnat - The staff graphic update was much appreciated. I don't know who was behind the OK for doing the new artwork, but the artists did a really good job. Thank you, from the bottom of both my Gharun'dum character's hearts. =)
Answer: Sean_Huxter - If you're asking me if I'm biased towards Gharu'ndim, the answer is no. Nor is Greg, who created the masks. I play only Sho characters myself. But the approval of the masks is reached by concensus by the designers and myself. We think all three masks are cool.

Question: Patrick785 - Why cant you guys fix the radar bug?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - The bug has been fixed on our end. Now it just has to wait for the next update to be fixed. No, it's not likely fixing this bug will hinder our progress on the next event. Since it's done and all... and took about 8 minutes.

Question: piejack - is there a way to 'turn off' the rain? My house is in the desert of Al-Arqas, and I notice it rains waaay too much, and I want to turn it off. Is there a way?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - Actually, this past event I halved the number of rainy days you should get. 80%? Riiiight...

Question: Korvus_Korax - A question for Artistic Mathematicians! I like the particle effects in AC. Unfortunately, I've been staring at them for God knows how long and a question has been nagging at me. Is it possible to revamp some of the particle systems we use in everyday casting?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - Our particle system is fairly rudimentary. It allows for uni-directional "tossing" of a particle. A particle will adhere to certainr rules, but I do not have the power to change the particle's properties once it's fired. So I can't send it out, then back, or walk it through a series of keyframes. Once thrown, the particle has little else it can do but follow the one rule it was given until it dies.