Dark Age Of Camelot: Time to Bring Out the Grab Bag

Taken from here.

Q: I'm a level 5 (insert starting class here). Why won't the (insert advanced trainer here) in the Hall of Heroes zone [or outlying towns in Shrouded Isles] let me become an (insert advanced class here)?

A: I shall quote the Quest Goddess: "Only certain trainers will promote players from their starting class to an advanced class. In the classic zones, these trainers are located in the three main cities - Camelot, Jordheim, and Tir na Nog, as well as the small towns where new characters first enter the world (the base trainers direct players to the appropriate advanced trainers). In Shrouded Isles, only the trainers in the starting areas of Caer Gothwaite, Aegirhamn, and the Grove of Domnann will promote players to their advanced classes. The advanced trainers in these areas are set up to either start the guild track quests or to direct players to the trainer that begins the guild track quest.

In other words, trainers in the outlying towns of Shrouded Isles and those in the Hall of Heroes zones in ToA will not promote players from a starting class to an advanced one."

Q: You mentioned earlier on the Herald that you would find out how the new death penalty system in New Frontiers would apply to the Mordred server. Got any updates?

A: The answer is that the new system won't apply at all. On regular servers, being killed in PVE gives your character a special flag. In RVR, you get a different flag. All deaths on Mordred are flagged as PVE, so the new system (which needs the RVR flag in order to work) won't apply.

Q: Last week in the grab bag you mentioned that you were coming to Canada. I didn't even know about player meet in Toronto!

A: It was a Percival server gathering, planned and run entirely by players, for players. I was there to sip cosmopolitans, answer questions, and generally horse around. And tease the guy who didn't realize I was actually from Mythic until three in the morning. Actually, if you want to be specific, it was a gathering of players who post on a specific message board revolving around the Percival server. Anyone can put a gathering together! Go ahead, go crazy! If it's big (around fifty players, give or take a few uncomfortable looking spouses), drop me a line and we'll see if we can send anyone to the party.

And of course, you can email events AT mythicentertainment.com, with GATHERING in the header, and we'll pop your event in the "Player Gatherings" section of the Herald. The link is up there to your left under "Herald Features."

Q: What does Mythic mean by "population" and "underpopulation"? The context is in regards to the fee reduction schedule posted in 1.70W.

A: We look at a number of factors. Raw population is just the beginning. We also look at population over level 30, the population of players over level 40, RVR activity in terms of realm points exchanged, RVR activity in terms of territory changing hands, relics, the number of people in RVR zones, realm population, realm activity as it related to realm population, and more.

I know I'm dodging your real question, which is "what's the formula?" Our concern with releasing the actual formula is that it wouldn't take much for an organized group to have an unwanted impact. Please rest assured that we take a lot of factors into consideration, and that we recalculate the numbers on a weekly basis.

Q: This guy has a TERRIBLE name, and it's not changed yet. What's up?

A: Our system requires five individual appeals from five different people. After that minimum standard is reached, a ticket is generated and sent to a CSR. A really terrible name (involving major religious figures, race or gender stereotypes, natural but somewhat icky bodily functions, or some combination thereof) usually hits that five appeal threshold in milliseconds.

Sometimes it takes a little longer, because community standards vary from server to server. If a name annoys or offends you for more than a week, you're welcome to send it to me. I am unlikely to reply due to sheer volume, but I will forward your note to CS and we'll look into it.

Q: What happened to my skald's sparkly feet when my speed song was running?

A: We removed the effect in response to overwhelming player feedback, complaining that the sparkly feet made them a big fat target in RVR. I have passed on the request for a toggle switch. (The toggles in game right now are strictly client side, meaning they only control whether or not the visual effects are on or off on your machine - as far as the server is concerned, the effects are always on. To do a server toggle would be a brand new bit of programming.)

Q: You stated earlier that legendary weapons con stat is going to be changed to either dex or str. Is there anyway to get which are going to have str and which are going to dex?

A: Our lovely Item Mistress responds, "The new versions of the legendary weapons are currently on Pendragon. I would suggest that curious players log in there and take a look, as there are really too many weapons to list here."

***

Big thanks to "Anders" - he wrote to me about an automatic boat issue. Internally, they were working. On most servers, they were fine. I don't know what happened to his server, but we finally tracked down the problem, and I want to thank Mr. Anders for being so persistent. The Content Underlord sent me this email: "The boats have been returned to their regularly scheduled routes. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times. You must be at least three feet tall to ride this ride."

I think I'm learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so! Badly paraphrased eighties music aside, I just want to remind any players with an interest in a Japanese language server that you do NOT need to be a current customer in order to sign up for the Japanese server beta. The links are at the bottom of the Herald's left side bar - spread the word!

Not all Dark Age of Camelot-sounding URLs belong to us. It would be impossible to own all possible Camelot related URLs, after all! There's a URL out there that I refuse to glorify with a link, but it uses a common acronym for this little game. There's no actual content there, but it redirects to the official-sounding website of a scam artist/auction site lamer with the ethics of rat droppings. Anyway, one of our customers went there, didn't understand what she'd stumbled into, and clicked on "live help." She was asked for her account name, and then informed that her account was canceled. Of course, you can guess what happened next. If you have given your account name to someone on this site, please be advised - we cannot restore your characters, your equipment, or your gold. Once someone has your password, they can do whatever they want with your account, and we can't stop them. In fact, if you give them the secret word in addition to your password, they can even take permanent control of your account, and we're helpless. We recommend you change your password (and if needed, your secret word as well) as soon as possible, and protect yourself from thieves.

Okay, gang, stick a fork in me, because I think I'm done. I'll see you back here on Monday morning... or maybe slightly before that, out in the Frontiers.