Dark Age Of Camelot: Grab Back the Grab Bag

Let's go:

Q: I was reading the new patch notes, and had a few questions about the single line respec stones. Are the stones going to be tradeable?

A: Nope. There are no actual stones with the new system, just an eligibility flag on your character. Players are still welcome to trade any stones they get from raids and so forth.

Code Ed gave me the chart with the costs for each level, but I'm going to hold off on posting it until we're further along with 1.76 - we're still making adjustments and tweaks.

Q: Where is the 2005 free expansion?

A: Early in the winter, we had to make a choice in terms of where to put our focus. We decided the best thing to do would be to make improvements to the existing game over the course of several patches. As you may have noticed, the last few patches have been much meatier than the typical patch, and 1.76 is shaping up to be nearly as massive. Rather than spending time on a separate project, we chose to spend all of our development time improving and upgrading the old world, the new user experience, and now our guild system.

Q: Would it be possible for when you guys are updating the Server.XML to break it down so there is a File per Server to help cut down on bandwidth?

A: The Code Warrior says yes, and will work on that as soon as he can.

Q: Regarding the new Merit System stuff for guilds, will the patch retroactivate for players, guilds, and guild leaders who have already reached these levels?

A: The answer for now at least is no - the intent behind the system is add another mechanism that rewards our guilds for helping new players. New players stay longer and enjoy the game more when they have guilds helping them to belong.

There are many other benefits to this new system, obviously, but our focus is on the new player.

Making the benefits retroactive would have a much larger impact on the game than to simply start from scratch, and after three and a half years, it seems best to start off with everyone even.

At the same time, I do understand why people want the changes to be retroactive. I've been playing since launch, obviously ;) It sort of feels like I'm losing something, although that's definitely not the case. Really, I'm going to start out at the exact same place as everyone else in terms of the ability to make new friends and help them along. It could not be more fair, I know. But it still feels weird. I have passed on your feedback along with some wonderful suggestions from the community. Please keep the feedback coming.

Q: Why is it that when you cast a spell on something you get two types of line of sight error messages? "Your target is not visible" and "You can't see your target from here."

A: I hadn't thought about that before. I asked Code Ed for you, and he told me that the first is a message from your client, your local copy of the game. The second message is coming from the server. You have to pass both checks to have a valid LOS.

I learn something new every day around here.

Q: When will mithril go into the game?

A: It won't J As most of our players know, it's not actually possible to GET a mithril in Dark Age of Camelot, and we're actually planning to remove the field when we redo the default interface. Platinum is as good as it gets.

Q: Is there any difference in how much aggro is generated with, say, five small heals of 200 hits each, vs. two big heals of 500 hits each? Both total 1000 hits healed, but the number of spells cast is different. Also, of course, the small heals are baseline heals while the big ones are spec heals...does that make a difference as well?

A: Code Ed was kind enough to do the research for this, and here's his reply: "From a purely mathematical view, no, there is no difference. At the end of casting, the healer will have registered the same amount of agro in those two cases. Obviously though, game play makes that statement kind of moot, in that everyone else around the target will have different amounts of agro in each situation due to the times the spells are cast."

Q: I bought some aurulite items in the shar labyrinth, nothing unusual there until it took the aurulite off me. A 54x dagger cost me 20 aurulite caches and 34 aurulite clusters instead of the 3 caches or 4 clusters I expected it to cost.

A: The Mistress of Content answered "There are five types of aurulite: chip, fragment, shard, cluster, and cache. The only difference between the types is the number put into the players' inventory when they pick up the aurulite. If a player picks up a single shard, it will be displayed as five shards in the player's backpack. Those five aurulite shards have the same value as five aurulite chips. A good comparison would be the Darkness Falls Daemon and Fiery Seals."

Q: Do population bonuses apply to RvR tasks?

A: Code Ed again (a popular fellow, that man): "No, the population bonuses are only for RvR kills."

Q: "Bonus to style damage: 6% -Requirement: vs Humanoids" Do Humanoids include RvR Player characters or just PvE?

A: The Mistress speaks again: "The damage and range bonuses that have a "vs. humanoid" requirement are only effective against humanoid monsters. They do not have any effect against players. Currently the only objects that have range and damage bonuses that are effective against players are artifacts and the items from Celestius."

Q: Why is the resist rate of the Vampiiric Embrace claw so much higher than the Shadow Mastery? Due to this resist rate I have reverted to using my level 19 Shadow Mastery claw because it is resisted much less than the Vampiiric Embrace claw and it is level 41. I've also heard that the Dementia claw is resisted a fair amount, as well but haven't had a chance to test it.

A: Says the Spell and Style Goddess: "The Vampiir's claw attacks are specifically set up to behave in this manner. Cutting Claw and Chilled Claw (Vampiiric Embrace and Dementia) are set up similar to normal damage spells.

"Heated Claw (Shadow Mastery) attacks are set up slightly differently. These have a lower chance of being resisted (but they are not set up in such a way as to be 100% unresistable)."

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A popular topic that I did not cover this week has to do with Midgard and the population bonuses. Here's why I didn't cover it - the following two emails were right next to each other in my Questions folder:

"The realm of Midgard is disappearing and losing on every server. When are you going to make the population bonus worthwhile?"

"How come the Midgard realm is still getting a huge population bonus? Their population may be lower but they're winning in every way that counts on the following servers (snip)."

My mail on the topic of Midgard is running a 60/40 split along those lines. I realize this is not at all the split you're seeing on the message boards, so please, no need to email me to share that information. I know. I'm just telling you what I'm looking at from deep inside this pile of email.

I have no real information to share, other than assurances that we watch all kinds of metrics, and that the discussion of class and realm balance will not end as long as we're collectively drawing breath. I appreciate the many emails that are written well with constructive comments. I just wanted you to know I'm not ignoring it, and that as soon as I have something useful to say, I'll say it.

Don't forget that Billing and Tech Support are closed on Monday, the USA's Memorial Day. Please, everyone, be safe and take care of yourselves this holiday weekend.