Q:  Where is my veteran's title?

A: As I put in last week's grab bag, and as I put on the teaser for the 1.79 notes on the front page of the Herald, the veteran's titles are not going to be enabled until our actual four year anniversary.

The thing that's REALLY confusing me is that people had to go to the Herald to send me this question via a feedback form. It's my second most popular question, and the answer was kind of, you know, there on the front page when people went to file the form. Should I sneak some freaky photos into the grab bag, or the patch notes, so people will read them more?

Don't answer that. And definitely don't send photos.

Q:  (Most popular question) How can I tell if my account is going to be eligible for a title?

A: We're putting in a nifty little feature that will let you see your start date with the billing interface next week (if all goes well) or the week after (if it all goes to hell).

Q: Why did you change my favorite workaround (see 1.80B note). And was that ALL you accomplished in version B?!!

A: 1.80B was bigger than it appeared, thanks to the NDA. The one note you see is simply the only note not covered by the NDA!

The exploit that allowed you to pop up outside the dungeon and save the run back had to be fixed, because there are potentially other, um, "applications" of the flaw in the code. However - please note that we know most everyone was just using it to save themselves a run back from their bind point, and according to one of our best programmers, "we are planning on adding a new /release option to some instances which will allow players to release outside the instance, rather than to their bind points."

In other words, we're cool with the functionality, we just want you to have it intentionally, as opposed to by accident.

Q. I was looking through my quest log, and I noticed that the old epics pending in my quest log prior to the patch now say level 99. Is my quest bugged?

A. No, your quest isn’t bugged. According to the Pixie Queen, as of 1.79, "The level 99 tag simply means that anyone working on the old epics prior to the patch can complete them, but anyone new to epic quests can’t start the old ones. Note that this only applies to the former epic quests."

In other words, only you can see the "99." Because there are many players with incomplete stages of the Old Epic quests, and we want to let people finish the quest they have in progress, we could not remove them from the game. But we had to do something to keep new players from getting any of the Old quests, so we tagged them as 99th level. Since we won't ever have that level in DAOC, no player will be able to start these quests from now on.

Your friends in CS would like to remind you that they cannot clear any quest that is Epic-related from your journal.

Q: I can't get the "advanced" keyword from my trainer!

A: There needs to be an active, New Epic quest in your journal. If, for example, your friend Bob (who finished the Old Epic) did the 5th Level stage of the New Epic and finished it while we had all our drama this week, the trainer doesn't acknowledge that he's entitled to skip a few steps, until Bob starts the 10th Level stage of the New Epic. But Bob doesn't need to do anything but accept the 10th Level quest, and then go to the trainer. He'll see the [advanced] option appear.

Q: In Darkness Rising, will Gaheris players be able to purchase cross-realm armor for their horses, or will they be stuck with only their own realm?

A: The Item Princess is back among us! She replies: "Gaheris and Mordred players will indeed be able to purchase cross-realm armor and bardings, as long as they find a willing crafter with the appropriate tradeskill level."

Q: I can't see the new emotes.

A: The new emotes (and the upcoming animations for the Champion weapons) are currently only available for people using the Catacombs character models in the Catacombs client, for technical reasons. While we are hoping to be able to engineer a version of these emotes and animations for our older clients, I don't know when or if we'll be able to do it soon.

Q: I just was wondering, is there a plan to upgrade the loot that drops from the boss mobs in DF (IE Princes, Legion) with the expansion?

A: The Content Queen says, "Yes, as we update the named monsters in Darkness Falls we will also upgrade the items they drop."

 ***

Last week, one of the answers was the following: A: The quest ladies leapt to the database, and Lady Jersey told me, "Both Bechard and Silcharde are linked to a level 43 quest for Minstrels, Sorcerers and Wizards. The quest is "Symbol of the Broken."

It's one of the original epic quests, still available so people can finish them. (Those who have finished the original epic quests will be able to trade their armor in and start the new epics partway through.)"

Our Content Queen let me know that my answer was a little misleading, as you do NOT need your old armor - and in fact, you never need to trade it in. It's yours to keep or toss as you choose.

Many have written to ask me when the next phase of beta will begin, and the answer is "scheduled for next week, so cross your fingers."

I sure am sorry for all the drama with the New Epics this week. About the only thing I'm glad about is that we did the repairs without having to take down the servers. I have a long and somewhat tortured analogy out on a couple message boards explaining what happened to cause the drama, but the long and short of is that I am HUGELY sorry for the problems with the New Epics, and that the problems won't happen again.

We're counting down to Vegas! Our flights are scheduled for next Friday morning, and we can't wait to meet you all.

I am outta here. See you Monday.