Asherons Call: Dev Notes / Rollout

<SPAN class=Title2>The Slumbering Giant</SPAN>[/P]
The taverns are abuzz with tales of the creatures that have been seen. Those who had the misfortune to meet these creatures drown their sorrows in pints of ale, moaning that no one could stand before the creatures'' immense power. A few even say they have sighted a threat not seen since the founding of Holtburg. Yet not all the tales are so dire. One adventurer brings back a tale of the immense wealth he found, a treasure hoard the likes of which has never been seen before. This one tale is enough to motivate many adventurers to scour the Direlands in search of the creatures and the hoards they guard, even though death surely awaits.[/P]
The Queen and the Arcanum have continued to bolster their defenses for any threats to come. This is especially true in Arwic, which is now surrounded by a set of thick walls. In addition, the Arcanum, under the direction of the Queen, has created a special Marketplace that is accessible to all of the people of Dereth. Now with just a simple act of will, those in search of goods or services can be transported to the Marketplace, making it easier for everyone to find the materials they need to prepare themselves for whatever challenges lie ahead. Ciandra, head of the Arcanum, has also made a breakthrough in her studies of the gems uncovered by Nuhmudira. Those gems could allow one to change his or her body of knowledge and skills, but Ciandra has found a means to use them to change the base qualities that one was born with. While some mutter that this magic is horribly unnatural, most avail themselves of the chance to change any deficiencies they find in their makeup.[/P]
It may be that these projects are completed just in time, as the first signs appear that the quiet following Gaerlan''s defeat is being broken. The Queen''s scouts report that a strange new portal has been found on the Singularity Caul. Parties that have traveled through the portal report of a facility filled with all manner of creatures, most of them twisted by Virindi experimentation. Some even whisper that Shadows could be found therein...[/P]
Here are the changes introduced in our January event. Changes to game functionality and existing content are listed, but new content is up for you to find! Speak to town criers, barkeeps, and scribes for the latest happenings in Dereth. For more information on this month''s event, please see this month''s Letter to the Players. Please submit any bugs you come across to http://bugs.zone.com.[/P]
New Functionality and Content[/P]

• Wealth! Wealth beyond the dreams of avarice!
  [LI]Characters can now redistribute their base attributes! See the Letter to the Players for more details.
  [LI]Nuhmudira''s students are continuing their studies of the Lifestones.
  [LI]Arwic has been fortified against future attacks.
  [LI]The Marketplace is open for business!

• The Harbinger''s spirit has been more restless lately...
  [LI]Life, war, and item magic spells have received a number of enhancements. Please see this month''s Letter to the Players for the full details.
  [LI]The Bane and Lure spells have been given new icons to better differentiate them from each other. This includes all variants of the Impenetrability and Brittlemail spells.
  [LI]Ivory can now be applied to a number of additional quest items that are bonded to the character, making it so these items can be taken from the character''s inventory and stored. In addition, a book is now on sale in-game that explains which items can receive Ivory. If you are unsure whether an item in your inventory can have Ivory applied to it, feel free to try a bag of Ivory on the item. If the item can''t receive the Ivory, you can''t hurt it!
  [LI]The restrictions on portal use for Player Killers have been enhanced. The restrictions are now applied to both the attacker and the person attacked, but only if the attack was successful. If the attack was evaded or resisted, the portal restrictions are not applied to either party. In addition, the restrictions are only applied if a negative effect was applied to the target, such as a harmful spell or attack. It should be noted that casting negative Item spells does not cause these restrictions to be applied to the attacker or defender.
  [LI]The corpse protection for monsters has been increased from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. During those 90 seconds, only the character that killed the monster, or a member of his Fellowship if Fellowship sharing is enabled, will be able to loot a monster''s corpse. After that timer expires, anyone can loot the corpse.
  [LI]The damage modifiers for the various Hollow and Phantom weapons have been increased. The changes to these weapons are shown below:

• The parts of Ulgrim''s Scroll of Recall can now be given, in case you''re just dying to know where Ulgrim has been recently.
  [LI]New characters that have fletching trained at their creation will start with 30 Atlatl dart shafts.
  [LI]New characters that have thrown weapons trained at their creation will start with a Starter Atlatl and 250 Atlatl darts.
  [LI]The stack size for carved wood, copper, and obsidian hearts has been increased from 3 to 50 keys per stack.
  [LI]In simplifying the code used to dye items, it became nearly impossible to have failed dyeing interactions result in pink or orange items. These failures have been restored. Now every time a dyeing interaction fails, the item will be dyed pink or orange.
  [LI]To aid in many crafting interactions, you can now drag many unusable items to your hotkey bar. These items can then be selected easily as targets for a crafting interaction.

• If a housing chest or hook is a duplicate and not properly "attached" to your house, you will no longer be able to place items in it. If you try to place items in these duplicates, you will be given a warning message that it is a duplicate. It is important that you remove all items from the duplicate and then let the house reset. For more information on letting your house reset, please see our article on Double Hooks and Storage chests.
  [LI]As mentioned in the Letter to the Players, we''ve tweaked the dynamics of the Gaerlan quest, which should make the quest, as a whole, much more reliable.
  [LI]Players who have defeated Mowen in combat will now be able to receive the Tusker Paw from Oolutanga every three days, as was originally intended.
  [LI]A bug that was causing some treasure items to be generated without racial requirements has been corrected.
  [LI]Last month, armor that came from lower level treasure sources was being generated with armor values much lower than intended. This has been fixed, and newly generated armor from these sources will now have the intended armor values.
  [LI]Occasionally if a chest was not closed properly, it would not regenerate its treasure. This has been corrected.
  [LI]Although players were informed that turning in a Liberator Tusk would result in a 75,000 experience point reward, the NPC was actually rewarding only a fraction of that. The NPC is now giving the correct amount of experience to players.
  [LI]The NPCs for the revised Neydisa and Bandit Castle quests introduced in December could break under certain conditions. This has been fixed and they should no longer break.
  [LI]Ashbane, the sword found in Lady Aerfalle''s treasure chest, can no longer be lost on death.
  [LI]The Guardian of the Helm is once again leaving his quest items behind on his corpse.
  [LI]The rate at which elemental weapons are generated by the treasure system has been slightly increased.
  [LI]An item that has had its inscription removed will no longer show "--" as the inscription.
  [LI]The log command has been modified to handle certain characters better.