Asherons Call: Q&A Time!

Question PUNiSHER - With the new spec and un-spec/train quests, will there ever be a quest to change race?
Answer srand - We have no plans for a quest like this at this time. It has been suggested in the past that we might use a tinkering effect to rotate or remove the heritage requirements on a target item -- which is similar in some ways to what you suggest, but a lot easier to do.

Question Shi - (summarized) Suppose I want to spec a skill but don't want the total xp currently IN the skill to go to the spec'd level?
Answer srand - When you lower a skill through the sellback quest -- either untraining it or unspecializing it -- you are refunded all the experience in that skill. If you unspecialize a skill but you still want to have the same amount of experience in it, you will need to click the green button quite a bit to put the experience back into the skill after you unspecialize it. On the other hand, when you specialize a skill, the experience stays in the skill and is not refunded. So if you have a lot of experience in a trained skill, and you want to have *less* experience in the skill after you have specialized it, then you should untrain the skill first. This will refund you all the experience. Then retrain the skill (the normal way), and specialize it via the quest. Now you can put just the amount of experience you want into the skill, without 'wasting' any.

Question boats - Can we have a character name change quest?
Answer srand - We do not have any plans for such a quest at this time. Setting aside all other considerations, there are technical problems with the notion of changing your character's name. These problems could be overcome, but it would take a lot of time and effort. And, of course, there are other cosniderations.

Question Paraduck - 1) Will the Letter to the Players explaining the major changes now be released before the prop? 2) When is the December patch day? We have the letter, but no patch teaser.
Answer srand - As stated in the December Letter to the Players, we are changing the date when we release the Letter to the Players. Instead of putting up the Letter on the day of the update, we will be putting it up beforehand. We're doing this in order to provide more regular communication with the players, and so as not to barrage you with a lot of information all at once. We're aiming to have the Letter up a week before the teaser, but remember that there are many factors that can affect the exact date that our releases -- and our updates -- occur. We have not yet announced an exact date for the December update. You may remember that we mentioned, in the December Letter to the Players, some scheduling difficulties. Due to the holidays, the December update may be slightly later than normal, but it will happen -- all updates do -- and we will let you know beforehand exactly when to expect it.

Statement srand - Some characters, when they attempt to specialize a skill using the new post-creation specialization quest, are getting an error message telling them that they already have too many credits invested in specialized skills to complete the action, even though it seems that they should be able to specialize the new skill without going over the 50 credit limit. This issue is caused by a bug in the code that calculates the number of credits invested in specialized skills -- it is not properly calculating the credit value of specialized racial skills. This issue will be fixed in the next update.

Question Leviathan_LC - Can we use Ivory on Palenqual weapons in December?
Answer srand - Although there are no new ivory targets included in the December update, we do plan to make more items ivoryable in future months. (We just didn't have enough time this month, and you'll soon see why.)

Question Qi-Fist - The problem with Magic Tinkering with Melee Weapons is the great difficulty in the 1/3 percentage rate of Imbueing 1 Weapon for AR,CS or CB ~ let alone finding Elementals. I was thinking if we could use Alchemy to make Melee elemental Weapons, just like Archery?
Answer srand - We have no plans at this point to introduce any mechanics which modify the chance of success for imbuing melee weapons. We are, however, quite interested to see how the upcoming treasure table changes will affect this dynamic.

Question HunterXray - Can you make sunflowers dyeable?
Answer srand - Unfortunately, there are some technical issues that make dyable sunflowers infeasible. However, keep your eyes open in December for interesting sunflower alternatives.

Question Ping_of_HG - Why can't I use Untrained Tinker Skills?
Answer srand - Tinkering skills are a little bit weird. Unlike most skills, tinkering skills have two distinct uses. One use -- salvaging -- does not require the tinkering skill to be trained. In this sense, tinkering skills belong in the Untrained skill section. But the other use -- applying salvaged material -- does require tinkering skills to be trained. In this sense, tinkering skills belong in the Unusable skill section. We could be completely accurate by adding a new skill section -- Sometimes Unusable -- but that is perhaps even more confusing, and more trouble than it's worth.

Qustion Corroq - Will we ever see a male version of the Kithless Dress?
Answer Orion-Turbine - I think you should feel secure enough with yourself before you try to wear the dress as a man. J/K Honestly I doubt that we will make a male version, but nothing is ever impossible. If I had one with my chars I'd wear it.

Question Lost_Link - Why no PK ratings? We have Chess ratings.
Answer srand - We've been considering such a system. There are issues, of course, and we've come to no decisions yet. But we've been considering.

Question gelidite - Thank you for instilling a little bit of love for us dagger users in the upcoming December event. However, I feel prematurely that us dagger users will still be underpowered as compared to other melee classes.
Answer Voice of Turbine - In the December event, dagger will match in power skills of a similiar cost. Dagger has been through a few permutations, but with the December event, we feel Dagger will match in power other racial weapon skills of comparable skill point cost. This is mostly due to the fact that Dagger users will finally have access to the tinkered effects, bringing them in line with other weapons. We'll evaluate the effects of this change, but at this time, we don't have any other changes in mind for dagger. Hopefully though, once you are able to get a tinkered Dirk, you'll be a much happier dagger fighter.

Question Odh - Is anyone currently looking into the fact that monsters do not take damage from falling, standing on fire vents, etc..?
Answer Voice of Turbine - Since Asheron's Call launched, monsters haven't suffered from those sorts of damage. This is due to the fact that monsters simply aren't as smart as humans, and will try to take the shortest path possible to their enemy...which is you! That shortest path may be straight down or through a trap. If monsters did take those sorts of damage, they'd be far to easy to defeat. So this isn't likely to change. (Although some of us here know how frustrating it can be...especially when a Lich jumps off of a tower, lands on you, killing you instantly...only to survie and camp your corpse!)

Question Ping - Please clarify the December Letter to the Players regarding Allegiance Housing?
Answer Voice of Turbine - Those who currently own mansions and are not monarchs will NOT automatically lose them when the event launches. However, they will not be able to pay rent on them if they remain in their allegiance, so they will have to make a choice. Will they keep the mansion and remain a monarch, or will they abandon the mansion to return to their allegiance? Initially an automatic loss of the mansion may seem appealing, but it really is just the same choice. The difference would be that the choice would have to made earlier, but the choice remains the same.