Grab Bag - June 6, 2008

The Grab Bag is back!

I was wondering about the flying type birds you can ride from the level 1 place where you start. I was riding one and I saw how much fun they were and the view. Are we going to be able to buy those at some point?

I caught the Lady of the Jewels dreaming of flying and she had this to say: You'll be happy to hear that we have plans for adding more flight travel routes in an upcoming patch. At this time, however, the possibility of player controlled flying mounts is not likely in the near future.

Me and some of my guildies have a burning question that arose due to the server downtime the other day. We were wondering about those days when you take the servers down early in the morning and they don't go back up until, say, midnight that night. Are the same people working on them the entire time? It would seem like a very long day. If the same people ARE working, we just wanted to say, "Thank You!" and to tell them to get some rest today! I guess we were just curious, how does all that work?

I asked The Bearded Wonder who has been known to stay up at all hours when necessary: Yes, the people that begin a patch or server downtime are working on the issue the whole time to bring the servers back up as soon as possible. That can mean long hours if something crops up, but that's the job. :)

I was recently making a Cathal Valley template for my 49 Valkyrie. This template I made called for two level 50 rings called "Ring of the Mindwall." The item says level 50 but no big deal I can still use it at level 49 because it does not say "Level 50 Required" when I delve the item right? Wrong. I end up buying two of these and equip them only to get the message "This item does not effect you". It was my understanding that items that said "level 50 required" would not work. But the ones that said nothing, even though they were level 50 items for example "Enraged Wolf Pelt Cloak" would work at level 49. Is this a bug and will I still be able to count on using these at level 49?

The Lady of the Jewels thanks you for all the details and after a few minutes of investigation explains: The ability for an item to affect players at a specific level is determined by the amount of total bonuses the item gives. The Ring of the Mindwall has a very high bonus level and therefore can only affect level 50 players. The item level listed is the recommended level for the item to be used at, but the bonus level is the level at which the item will effect players. In an upcoming patch, players will be able to delve items to view the bonus level. If an item delve has a line that says something like "Level 49 required", that refers to the bonuses and spells listed below that text, not the entire item. I apologize for the confusion. Keep an eye on the patch notes for the addition of the visible item bonus level field.

What drops "Black Pearl Ring" in Midgard?

Mastering the depths of aquatic Master Levels, the Lady of the Jewels smiles as she answers: This item drops from the Antron Treasure Hunters in Sobekite Eternal, but because this mob also drops items that are required for the Master Level 2.9 encounter, it will only drop other loot when there is someone in the group who needs credit for the 2.9 encounter.

I was really curious as to what the Mystical Essence Jewel does in Spellcrafting. It says stat "power", but it does not raise power pool. If someone could please fill me in on this I would greatly appreciate it. It's racking my brain!

We can't have any racking, so the Lady of the Jewels will do her best to cure it for you: I tested this on our internal server and this bonus adds directly to the total amount of power in a player's power pool. For example, if someone has a power pool of 300 and then they equip an item that gives +5 to power, they will then have a power pool of 305. The total amount of this bonus that will affect players is 26.

With more and more players reaching RR12 plus, is there any intention to add additional post Realm Rank 12 incentives? Example: additional titles, per 10 million. Thank you. I have also included this as a suggestion for feedback.

Smiling at a drifting invisible particle in the air, the Balancinator pondered and nodded slightly before answering: We have been tossing around ideas here at the office for rewards and the realm rank curve in general. We still have not made a decision though.

My question is about the Friar instant combat haste buff "Alacrity of the Heavenly Host". As the game stands now, this instant that gives Friars a 38% combat haste buff for 30 seconds is basically useless. Most Friars will have a base alacrity spell already cast on them, in the case of my Friar with 50 in the Enhance spell line which would be "Imbue Greater Alacrity". This gives the Friar a base 20% attack speed increase. The problem we have been having for a while now is these two spells will not stack. In a combat situation, a Friar has to first cancel his/her base haste, and pop Alacrity of the Heavenly Host. After the 30 sec. timer is up, the base Alacrity must then be recast. Are there any plans in the future to look into and fix this problem? Your friendly neighborhood Friars thank you for your time.

Your friendly neighborhood Balancinator wanted to you let you know that the Friar Team Lead has brought this issue to our attention: It is getting looked at, but no ETA on a potential fix to the situation.

Currently I'm working on the "Mau of Sekhmet" faction quest on my scout, and the quest journal states, "Read the Sphinx Papyrus you recieved from Inarus. You must solve the riddle upon it to continue. If you have lost the papyrus, return to Inarus for another." The problem I'm having is it's been so long since I've done this quest, I've forgotten how to "read" the papyrus. / read, /use don't work. Could you maybe reword it in the quest journal so others may not run into the same problem?

Specializing in the deep researches of Atlantis the Lady of the Jewels suggests: In situations like this if /read and /use are not working it is most likely /interact that is needed. Sorry for the lack of clarification in the text. The wording of this step in the player journal will be updated in an upcoming patch to be more clear.

Completed the Summoner quest in Albion and the Realm Points read as follows: 200 bonus realm points 2200 realm points 44 extra realm points for outpost ownership 88 extra realm points for your artifact 44 extra realm points for guild merit bonus When I /stat it shows that I received 2376 realm points. Shouldn't it be 2576? And what is this extra 200 bonus realm points?

When it comes to calculations The Bearded Wonder was the one to ask: The 200 bonus is included in the 2200 figure. You get 2000 normally, the 200 bonus is added there. Then the rest is above and beyond that.

I was wondering what other procs will stack with Omni procs, and how many different procs can be placed on (1) piece of armor using Alchemy?

The Lady of the Jewels says that only one proc may be placed on an armor piece by an Alchemist: As for the first part of your question, if you are referring to whether more than one armor proc can proc at a time the answer is no, only one can proc per time your are struck by an enemy. The piece of your armor which was struck is the one that has a chance to proc.

When a keep reaches level 10, does the Guild Level determine how many guards are in the keep or Lord Room?

The Bearded Wonder knew this answer immediately: The guild level has no bearing on the amount of guards at a claimed keep.

I need to exchange my Midgard cloak of magic for a Midgard cloak of might for a new template. Is it possible to do this, and if not, when will a similar cloak be available?

Knowing all about items, the Lady of the Jewels was a little sad as she replied: I'm afraid that these cloaks cannot be exchanged; however it is possible that a similar set of cloaks will be made available again in the future.

I came from a RvR server only to notice that the Fine Steel Long Sword is different on Gaheris than it is on the RvR server. The secondary proc is a DD proc instead of the 40% haste decrease. Is there any logic to this?

Once again I leaned upon the Lady of the Jewels for some insight about this: The dragons were given a separate set of loot on the Gaheris server to provide items that are more tuned to a PvE only environment. For example, a melee haste decrease, while quite useful in an RvR setting, is not nearly as effective against monsters. Instead, a Direct Damage proc was put on the item, which is much more useful for PvE battles.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Thank you to everyone who attended our IRC Dev Chats this past week, we had a great time getting a chance to speak with all of you and answer your questions. We're hoping to have more IRC chats in the future, so keep an eye out for the next one.

Our next Road Trip is not too far away, it will be in San Diego, California on July 26th. I'll be there along with the Lady of the Jewels to answer your questions and talk about Camelot. We need to be sure to order enough snacks, so please make sure to RSVP if you are going to attend!

Have you ever thought about becoming a Team Lead for you favorite class? We've got a couple of Available Positions that we are looking to fill. If you believe you have what it takes, we want to hear from you.

In case you missed it this week, our Letter from the Producer went out and we announced the coming of a new server type that features Old Frontiers. We've gotten such a great response so far, keep that Feedback coming, we love to hear what you think. The FAQ for the new server will be updated during the next week, so keep an eye on that.

It's time for me to head on home, have a great weekend and I will see you out in the Frontiers !