Hope everyone's staying dry - this rain just keeps coming here on the East Coast. On to the bag:

Q: Oh Sanya,

Armswomen don't make the "Top 25 Armsmen" Lists! 

My character has 400K rps total and from what the Guinevere list shows, she should be in the top 25 armsmen on the server. 

A: When this poor Armswoman sent in her question a month ago, I whisked it to the guys who fix the Herald among many other duties. They are the same people who have been handling much of trials and tribulations of network migration, and have been unable to address Herald problems as quickly as usual.

This week I was notified that the fix was in! However, I was ALSO notified that our migration to the EA network had left behind the Herald hamster while I was out of the office, so nothing updated for a bit there. But in theory, everything is now back up. If you or someone you love is not on the Herald in their true and proper form, wait 24 hours – and if things still aren’t right, send a feedback form, category “Herald Issues.” Thanks for your patience with all this. I’m told the worst is over.

Q: Will the new Labyrinth be instanced, open to RVR like Passage of Conflict, or will it only open to realm w/ the most towers like Darkness Falls?

A: Sorry, I’m still not allowed to answer these until we get to Vegas. But I am allowed to mention that those of you going to Vegas will be able to play the expansion at the Vegas LAN…

I’ll drop a hint on this very passion-inspiring topic and say that getting into the Labyrinth will not be a matter of controlled territory.

Also, as a side note, Minotaurs are half-MAN, half-BULL. There are not going to be girl minotaurs. Early concept work revealed that there was nowhere good to go with that whole udder thing.

Q: In the notes for 185E on Pend, it says:

 - Clockwork Cat - As a token of appreciation, Royal Escorts located outside the throne room of each Realm will gift players who pre-ordered Labyrinth of the Minotaur with a special clockwork cat.

Does this mean the preorder form is available now?

A: Yep. http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/lotm/ - the “order today” link is active.

The cat is just something neat to have, like the puppy or the orb, so if you’re unable to preorder the expansion, you won’t be at a disadvantage in combat.

Q: 1.85 is awfully light on class fixes so far. Is this it?

A: Yes, most likely. BUT:

- This does *not* count as the full “turn” for the classes we started working on before one of our best programmers went on paternity leave and we changed class designers. That leads to:

- We started working on changes, and then the class balance designer changed projects. The Red-Headed Stepchild is the best possible replacement, but changing horses mid-patch had an effect on our process. I had hoped we would be able to catch up faster, but… anyway, we realized we were making avoidable mistakes and held off making some of the major changes we were considering.

I’m really sorry, guys, but this was the soonest I could let you know what was going on. We had so much hoped otherwise, but I am now fairly certain that 1.85 won’t have more substantial changes. But, again, this patch is not anyone’s (specifically the archers’) full turn at bat. Those patches will still come, but not in 1.85.

Side note: This has been a very strange, unusual, and I dearly hope unrepeatable summer. A lot of things happened all at once, things that won’t ever happen again. I mean, we can only be bought by EA once, right? And now that EA has bought us (and is busily recruiting programmers) we’ll be big enough that we can better absorb staff changes and the unexpected.

Q: Where is the Artifact Database you guys have been talking about?

A: I am thrilled to bits to be able to post the link to the latest greatest documentation on the Herald, thanks to Missy and the team leads: http://www.camelotherald.com/artifacts

Missy has repeated the first column, by the way. The name of the artifact appears on both the left and the right, so those of you with narrower monitors or large print settings don’t have to scroll side to side. If you spot any mistakes, please use the Herald Issues feedback form to let us know.

Q: I heard that you announced the upcoming crafting changes at the Leipzig Game Convention. I don’t believe some of them. What did you say?

A: I said, first off, that I had no idea when these things would hit Pendragon. Then I said that normally I didn’t like to mention things that weren’t on the schedule yet, but I wanted the European players to have some exclusive news for once. I said this wasn't everything, just a handful of highlights. Then I died inside when I realized people were pointing cameras at me. For the love of heaven, people, if I thought I came across at my best in person, I would not have put so much effort into working ONLINE. But I digress.

Here’s what I said:

- We have hired an interface artist who will help us design a better crafting interface

- We are changing the crafting timers so no recipe takes more than one minute to do

- We will be dinking with the skill increase rate (and how that works with item success/failure rates) so that it will take roughly 40% fewer items in order to reach LGM status

- We plan to allow characters to get more than one tradeskill, without facing a cap on their secondary trade

- We will allow any class to be any trade

- We’ll add crafter titles to /title

- We’re planning tradeskill quests, downtime reducing devices, and more

Someone out there read that list and said, “Uh huh. You had to delay the archer patch and you’re going to do ALL THAT for crafters.” Someone, whoever you are, you read my mind, and I hit the Moderately Evil Overlord with that. He pointed out that we’d been running short on server programmers – and that most of the crafting plans involve client and interface issues, with the related server code being pretty straightforward. Class changes involve staring at a plate of server spaghetti, with some noodles being combat code, others realm, others character restrictions, and more. Implementing crafting stuff, once it’s designed and balanced, is more like operating a switchboard. It’s not quite that easy, but it can be done by our client team.

But still, I won’t even dare say what patch we’ve SCHEDULED for the crafting highlights, lest I jinx the whole thing.

***

I had the best time meeting players in Leipzig. It was my first time in Europe, and I will be forever grateful to the GOA team and all the GOA players for taking care of me. I hope I’ll see you all again next year, even you, Dishkar.

The Vegas item that will appear in the inventories of all who attend is finished and posted! From the artist: “You can let the players know that are four different sets of cards.  I was calling each a Full Realm.  Anyway, if you put it up on the wall and rotate it 90 degrees each time, they’ll eventually get to the hand where their realm’s king is on top.  Of course, one hand is lead by the minotaur in a jesters cap.” Check it out here: http://roundtable.darkageofcamelot.com/images/VegasRoundtable2006ExclusiveItem.jpg

See you on the flip side.