Q: If the exploit fix was 1.82B, does that mean it's still on Pendragon and the exploit is still on live servers?

A: Nope. We zipped that up to live servers right away, and called it 1.82B just to keep our version numbers straight internally.

Q: Is the Orlando Road Trip stop still going to happen?

A: Yes, so if you're driving from out of town, you don't need to cancel your plans. Thanks to all of those who sent in suggestions for alternate locations, by the way - my players ALWAYS come through!

Miss Juli was able to save the day and grab us a spot at a place recommended by several players:

X-treme Play

9401 W. Colonial Drive, #345

Ocoee, FL 34761

http://www.x-tremeplay.com/

So, February? You, us, good times? Right, see you in Orlando.

Q: I use the Shrouded Isles client, and…

A: Let me stop you there. The Shrouded Isles client is about to be discontinued, as we said it would be at the launch of Darkness Rising. (When we launched Catacombs, we discontinued the Classic client, so you see the pattern.) When you patch the game using the SI client, you should be getting a message suggesting you upgrade.

If you have not gotten this message, please go to this webpage ASAP:

http://www.trialsofatlantis.com/downloads/

Note to new players: Do not worry about my cruelly refusing to answer the player who sent this question. He actually didn't need me, he needed the technical support team, and I redirected him to the right place.

Q: In the starter guild, a question came up. How many levels above you can your target be for resurrection. There were many answers given by many different players. Some said it's a flat 6 levels above, some said it depends on how you are specced, and some said it depends on your power pool. There was a level 13 Cleric trying to resurrect a level 20 player and could not. That is 7 levels. But I can remember resurrecting a level 50 player as a Cleric in my upper 30's or lower 40's, so that's about 10 levels. The question is: Is there a specific formula, or a specific level difference, or does it depend on how high your rejuv/nurture/mend is? I hope you can squeeze this in next weeks grab bag because there's a lot of people who may be confused or curious. Thanks! :)

A: I could have given a partial answer, but the Code Warrior can give you the whole answer: "It's based on power cost. A dead character of your level will cost 50% of your power. A dead player half your level or less will cost 25% of your power (the minimum the spell will cost to cast.) A dead player whose level is half again as high as yours (or 150%) will cost all of your power to raise. Higher levels than that will cost more power than you have, so you can't raise them.

So, a level 20 Shaman could raise a level 30 player if they were at full power, or a level 10 player for 1/4 of their power pool, but could never raise a level 31 player."

Q: In the following grab bag:

http://www.camelotherald.com/more/2295.shtml

You mention that the base chance to critical hit in melee and magic dmg is 10%. Does that include ranged (arrow) crit damage as well?

A: Yes.

Q: In 1.82C, friars get a 25% chance to fire off a heal proc, and wardens get a 15% chance. Why the difference?

A: Normally, I avoid these, because I am a coward. I know that approximately a thousand people will write in explaining that the answer I gave proves how much I personally am a giant loser for many reasons, all listed in the following email with footnotes. And a bibliography. Possibly with a bonus commentary track.

But I am trying not to be a coward in 2006! It is the year of Not Being A Wuss! (It is also the year of not taking… attitude… from inferior life forms, but so far, my beagle has not gotten the message. It is to be hoped that I do better with my anti-wuss resolution.)

Here's why I am wincing. The answer is simply that in this particular area, friars needed a bigger and better boost than wardens. Period. In addition, this heal proc thingy is not the only thing that friars and wardens are getting this patch. And friars and wardens did not get the same things, because they aren't the same classes and they had different needs. We listened to feedback, we talked to the volunteers, and we play tested the changes as a whole on our private, internal server. Less for the friar, or more for the warden, would not have worked in the context of all the changes that we made.

Now we need you to try them on Pendragon before providing your feedback. The numbers may well be adjusted in response to feedback, but it must be informed feedback. Thanks in advance for your help.

I got this response right from the design team. Any failure to communicate is mine.

Q: So… who is getting a respec?

A: We haven't decided for certain. Generally, our policy is that if we made you better (especially considering how much we've expanded the respec system over the past few years), we don't hand out freebies. And in some cases, nerfs are ultimately not so big as to drastically change how a class will generally choose to spec.

Wardens are going to be the exception that proves the rule, though. We've definitely made such enormous changes to this class in 1.82 that although we've added and not subtracted, a free respec is called for.

I'll post about other classes as I hear the news.

And can you believe it took me four years to finally add respec to my laptop's dictionary so I can stop backspacing over the "t" Word so desperately wants to add?

Q: The patch notes for 1.82C Test read:

- Critical strike styles that require the attacker to be stealthed will now destroy any bladeturn spell. The attack will hit the target unhindered. (Note: Before this change, the critical strike style would simply bypass the bladeturn, and the bladeturn would still block the next style. With this change, the critical strike style will actually destroy the bladeturn, preventing it from blocking the next style following the critical strike.)

This is not an improvement. It's not even a change! This is how it works right now on the live servers, and how it's worked for as long as anybody I've talked to can remember.

A: *bitter laugh*

Yes, our volunteers gave us an earful on this during the patch preview process. (One second while I wipe off the monitor and make a mental note to use fewer "p" words.)

The problem is, part of it always worked, yes. Part of it did not always work, although apparently it worked sometimes. Or something. I don't know anymore. What I do know is that there WAS a bug that we fixed with a code change. Whenever code is changed, we have to write a note. So we wrote a note. I am loathe to tell programmers that there might ever be a situation in which they should not write a patch note, you know?

The fact that we include even hotly debated patch notes should serve as further evidence that it IS an accident when notes do not accompany changes. We do not like stealth jakutaika any more than you do.

***

What the heck was that word in the last answer? I wanted to send a shout out to our new friends at Login Magazine, the coolest place for Japanese game news. The issue featuring their visit to Mythic HQ, with a great story including a not-unspeakably-horrible photo of yours truly, hit newsstands today. (Sadly for those of us who only speak English, the text is in Japanese.) When the reporter was in my office, he did his part to extend international gaming communication by teaching me the Japanese word for "nerf."

Well, that's it for your friendly neighborhood community weenie. See you next week, when I announce more drama fodder for the message boards.