A little early today, eh?

Edited 10/16/2006

Edited again 10/17/2006

Q: Are the anniversary bonuses really working?

A: Yes. We’re seeing some reports that they are not – but so far, in every case, the problem has been that when we rebooted the servers, many of the camp bonuses for underused areas were reset. In other words, what you were seeing yesterday in some places was several weeks of camp bonuses. What you are seeing today is the base XP being doubled, but without the camp bonus being built up for several weeks. We will keep watching, of course, and we are investigating new reports. And by we, I mean Rob, the guy who spearheaded the double plus goodness for everyone. He feels very paternal about it.

Q: Recent notes say that the players crafting in the capital cities will get bonuses.  Now, players that are crafting at home pay less for their supplies. Why not give the crafting bonuses at home? 

A: The whole point of the new bonuses is to give people a reason to come to the city again. Crafting areas used to be vibrant, interesting places where you could always find someone. We’d like to bring that back.

10/16 Edit: The above question stated that players crafting at home pay less for their supplies. This is untrue. Housing discounts apply only to services such as healers and smiths, but do not apply to crafting supply merchants.

Q: How did you determine the range of Nearsight?

A: Nearsight was meant to affect archers and casters, so in order for it to be meaningful with that intent, we set the range so it would be effective versus a long range archer.

As always when I answer this type of question – you may send feedback. ;)

Q: Why isn’t the savage isn't allowed to use 2H weapons that are slower than 5.5, but the armsmen now have melee haste, theurgist haste (or charge haste), and celerity from paladins?

A: From the Red Headed Stepchild: “The reason savages can’t use the slowest, 6.0 weapons is because they possess a DPS buff and a haste buff in their savagery line. No other class has access to a DPS buff, and most other classes need a second class to provide them with melee haste. Because the savage can do it all themselves, they are limited in what weapons they can use.”

Q: Why are armsman trains able to kill much faster than, say, a warrior train?

A: I don’t usually answer questions like this, because to be honest, the question has at its base the assumption that an armsman train can kill faster than a warrior train. In other words, I can’t answer the why of something when the base assumption is not necessarily true. From the designers: “Warriors have access to all the same speeds of weapon, including 6.0 speed dragon drops. Warriors have access to the same haste options as an Armsman. In fact, Armsmen are required to spend twice as many spec points to get two handed weapons than Mid or Hib classes.”

So why did I post this question and the one before it? A lot of armsman traffic this week, that’s all. And I could use a slushie.

Q: Why do warlocks get tireless but no other casters?

A: Straight from the design team: Because their chambers burn endurance in a way that no other casters have to deal with, and we gave them tireless so they’d be able to run away in situations where casters usually… run away.

Q: Why is the 4th level Dual Wield style for a Mercenary off an evade when Mercenaries don't get evade until level 10?

From the Redhead, again: “Because you'll still have the style when you hit level 10, and you can use it then. It’s at that level because the weapon line happens to be shared with other classes that get evade at earlier levels.”

Q: I heard that the staff for the new mauler class will be based on str. Why change the staff paradigm?

A: Did you just use paradigm in a sentence without irony? The horror!

The answer is that the mauler staff is a different weapon type entirely compared to existing staves – a mauler staff can only be used by a mauler. And the designer (Redhead, again, a busy man this week) tells me that maulers won’t be able to use the kind of staves that are already in the game.

Q: I have heard that the mauler class will have to be unlocked by the realm. I have many concerns about this.

A: I understand, and had many of the same questions. I believe, however, that the way we’re doing it will work out for everyone in the end. Here’s what the Content King sent over:

-          Players will be required to carry X number of Minotaur Relics to a certain location on Agramon Island.  I don’t have the specific location, but it’s in the center of the island and there’s a big blue spherical effect players can’t miss.

-          Once all Minotaur Relics are in this location simultaneously, it completes the event and triggers the spawning of the Mauler trainers.  There will most likely be some kind of server message, though I don’t have the specifics as we aren’t finished yet.

-          We will have the ability to change the number of Minotaur Relics required to trigger the event for each server cluster, for the benefit of lower populated realms.

-      Gaheris and Mordred won’t have to unlock the Mauler class. They’ll have access from day one  of launch.

We’re going to keep a close eye on the status of things, and unlike other population-based problems, we have the ability to take swift action if it becomes necessary. But we think the pace and difficulty will prove accessible to everyone.

Q: Concerning the upcoming changes to crafting in the capital cities, does the 5% bonus to crafting skill gains stack with that given by the various tools from the tradeskill quests? For instance, will it make a total crafting skill gain of 12% between working there and using the [smarter] tool gained from the 700 skill quest(s)?

A: From our Bardic Goddess, the designer in charge of the revamp: “Yes. The bonus stacks with the craft tools from the tradeskill quests and also stacks with the guild bonus (the guild merit bonus that is a 5% craft haste).”

***

Hey, speaking of the crafting changes, BG told me something I really want the crafters to see. We’ve been getting the same posts every patch, but guys? The crafting revamp isn’t over until we say it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Sorry, sorry, my frat house days getting through the filter again*. Anyway, here’s the Goddess: “I saw on one of the boards that a lot of folks think, again, that these few changes in 1.86 is all I'm doing for the revamp. We haven't even gotten to the really good bits of the revamp yet! I wasn't expecting to see the programmers set the 5% city bonus up until much later in the revamp, but when I got it early, I decided we should go ahead and make use of it. It's geared towards the people who are skilling up, potentially getting them to gather together for communication and camaraderie.

“I don't know about you, but I miss the old days when I could stand crafting next to an LGM and ask him for advice while I skilled up, helping out new players when they passed by the area, and just the general chatter that's missing from the capital cities now.”

For the people emailing to ask how the Troll haiku could win, because the last line had too many syllables – that’s the joke. Trolls can’t count!

Who's that new girl posting? She's so old school she's new again. Lori has been working for Mythic years longer than me, so on a day when I have to leave early, Richard's heading for Texas for Warhammer, and Missy is out... well, Lori's in charge of community stuff, just like she was back before we launched.

Okay, guys, I’m out of here. See you in the Frontiers -

*"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor" is a quote from a movie called Animal House. It was very popular with me approximately ten million years ago, when I was living in a frat house.  Living in a frat house whilst still being, you know, a girl, did not erode my knowledge of history so much that I actually believe this quote.