Grab Bag - November 2, 2007

Q. My question is this ... Are HoTs from Vampiires, Valkyries, and Maulers affected by healing effectiveness from items and from Mastery of Healing?

A. No, they are not affected by Mastery of Healing and pluses to Healing like most heal spells. Although, Heal over time spells are unaffected by disease and heal for full value. It is a trade-off between the every day heal spells and heal over time spells. Thanks, Balancinator!

Q. I am confused as to what Spellcrafting is like now. There's too much old information on the internet. When I have a Dragonsworn item that I have made that is 99% or 100% quality and I am spellcrafting gems onto it, do the gems need to be 99% or 100% to reduce chance of blowing up and to have the right quality of stats? This is assuming that I am using either a 5 point overcharge or a 5.5 overcharge, to be clear.

A. The Trade Goddess helped us out with this one: The quality of the gems or item being spellcrafted no longer matter for imbue amount or overcharge success. Here is the relevant information from Version 1.87:

- Crafted item quality is no longer considered when determining the number of imbue points an item has. All crafted items now have the maximum number of imbue points for their level. For example, all level 51 crafted items have 32 imbue points. All level 49 crafted items have 31 imbue points.

- The overcharge system has been changed so that the quality of spellcraft gems are no longer used to determine the success or failure of an overcharge. Overcharge success or failure now relies solely upon the quality of the object being spellcrafted, the number of points overcharged, and the skill level of the spellcrafter.

- At 1000 skill, a spellcrafter has a 10% chance to critically fail a 5 point overcharge on a 100% quality item.

- At 1000 skill, a spellcrafter has an 18% chance to critically fail a 5 point overcharge on a 99% quality item.

- Critical failures are now defined as failures in which the spellcrafter explodes and spellcraft gems used are destroyed. The item being spellcrafted is no longer destroyed with a critical failure.

Q. I just got an email that the Guild House is about to be repossessed, and was wondering if the email is sent to every GM, or to the one whose account is closed, cause if its the latter, I'm not the one that bought the house and so it should go to the correct person, plus I'm paying the Guild house payment, is there a way to keep it from being condemned if it's still being used?

A. This concerned me, because it sounded at first as though guild houses were in danger of being condemned. The question is a little confusing. The Bearded Wonder assured me: Guild Houses can't be condemned. http://www.camelotherald.com/news/news_article.php?storyid=3117

If the guild house is being repossessed, that is a different story. As long as someone is paying the rent or there is money on the Consignment Merchant, then the house should be fine. CS has also asked me to remind you: The lockbox is available to the guild at any time the server is up (and rent time doesn't count down when the servers are down), and is the only proper way to track rent. Email notifications and popup messages are a courtesy, and not the proper way to track your rent. The lockbox is the proper way a player or guild member should track their rent.

Q. Why is it that lately Cuuldurach will leave his den and kill people near Tailtiu? Is this a bug? Did Cuuldurach escape? Can/will you fix this issue?

A. When you're hunting in dragon territory, beware! The Lumberjack explains: This isn't a bug. Each dragon has multiple patrol paths through their epic zone. After spending some time in the lair, they randomly choose which path to take and begin their flight through the zone. These patrol paths were established long ago when the epic zones were originally developed, though with the changes brought about during and because of "A Dragon's Revenge" they're more likely than before to go patrolling.

Q. What is the base run speed in units per second? Does sprint add a constant value to this speed or is it a multiplier? In other words, does the act of sprinting while you have bard speed up add more than sprinting with no speed up?

A. It's a percentage so, technically, the answer to your question is yes. Says the Bearded Wonder: The base run speed varies by zone. Simply put, the base velocity for RVR is 100 and for PVE zones it is 125. Sprinting gives you a 30% bonus to your current velocity. For example, if you are running in an RvR zone your velocity would increase by 30% of 100, or 30. If you are running in an RvR zone with a speed buff, then sprinting would add 30% of whatever your modified velocity is, which would be more than 30.

Q. I have friends in Canada. The trial version on your download page says "US/Mythic Only". Does "US" include Canada or do they fall in a different category? They are eager to try out DAoC.

A. That statement does indeed include Canada. "US/Mythic" in this case means the US servers, and has nothing to do with where the player is located.

Q. How long after an account is closed does the 'condemned' status process begin? How long after the account is reactivated does the 'condemned' status get removed?

A. The condemned status on any given house is decided every 12 hours. The system runs through each hour, checking 1/12 of the houses, so each house is checked twice in a day. That means that each hour after your account lapses, your house may be in one of the batches of houses being checked, but it's guaranteed to be flagged within twelve hours. Similarly, if you resubscribe, the house will no longer be flagged as condemned next time it's checked, which should be sometime in the next 12 hours.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Want to be featured in the next Dark Age of Camelot Newsletter? We're looking for your Fan Fiction to add some spice to our content! Write a story with a winter theme and send it in following the guidelines posted here. Entries will be judged by the Herald team. You have until November 5. Good luck!

Calling all Necromancers! We're still looking for a Necromancer Team Lead. If you're passionate about your class and want to hob nob with the devs, send in your application today! We have other positions open, too. You can view open positions and the application process here.

If you missed the announcement about our new Pendragon testing process, you can read it here. We're really excited about the level of involvement this new process is going to allow our players, and we hope you're excited, too!

Next week we'll be disabling the Trials of Atlantis client on Pendragon. There's a more detailed announcement to come, but I wanted to give those of you who still use that client some extra time to download Catacombs or higher. Our downloads page is here.

Want a question answered in the Grab Bag? Go here and select Questions from the dropdown menu.

Have a great weekend everyone, and be safe!