Today's Grab Bag is devoted entirely to questions asked as a result of Friday's Producer's Letter. 

They're great questions and we're really pleased to be able to provide the answers. We have questions about the adjustments to New Frontiers, the addition of 5 new Champion Levels, improvements to the LFG window and more!  Without further ado - your Grab Bag:

Q: how about sending everyone a free 15 day time code after the change give everyone a chance to experience?

A: We’d be happy to do a ‘Come Back To Camelot’ campaign around the time we release the adjustments to NF as well as the Champion Level updates! We’re excited to have the Frontier population increase so that everybody gets the chance to experience some awesome action! We’ll follow up with announcements on when it will take place, and rest assured it will be long enough for players to get their opportunity to play. 

Q: Will there be new titles to go along with CL11-15?

A: Yes, a new title will be given for each Champion Level from 11 to 15.


Q: Is there an ETA on these changes?

A: Our plan is to have the changes to the Frontiers out by late August and the rest we will work with you to test and hop to release around mid-to-late October, this year.


Q: Will there be new CL15 weapons?

A: Our plan is to introduce new CL15 weapons and armor.


Q: Will CL11-15 increased HP?
 
A: Yes, at the same rate that CL1-10 did. However, we are currently planning for Champion Level 11-15 to effectively require the same amount of total experience needed for CL1-10. That is to say, each Champion Level from 11 – 15 will require about 50% more XP to earn. The reasoning here is to make the journey from 10 – 15 challenging. It’s also important to keep in mind that there are currently much more efficient ways to obtain CL XP quickly than there were when CLs 1-10 were introduced.


Q: What are you going to do to address the % increase from CL 15 with % based heal procs? It’s a genuine concern from a solo/smallman perspective. Could you either put a restriction on the chests so only support has access to them or change it so it’s no longer a % HoT? Maybe a large ablative or a flat heal proc?
 
A: There are several items and abilities that will need some re-balancing with the increase to CL15. We plan to address those as quickly as possible. This is a great opportunity to begin a discussion with us on your opinion of the strategic significance of Champion Sub-Classing abilities. There are some truly unique approaches taken by players, and we would like to make these changes meaningful and balanced.


Q: As someone below pointed out, won't putting the relics back allow people to essentially invade the portal ceremony town, or will very high level guards be posted around it preventing siege deployment etc?
 
A: The relic portal towns already have invulnverable guards and do not allow siege to be placed around them.


Q: New Mythirians to go with cl15? Higher cap and higher stat increase etc?
 
A: There are at present no plans to introduce any more mythirians, but that can change based on feedback. With the plan to introduce both CL15 weapons and armor, we are hesitant to add even more items with this update.
 
Other than the health increase, there are no current plans to increase caps or stats.
 
  
Quote: “Relics will return to Relic Temples and Relic Keeps will revert to standard, defensible Keeps”
 
Q: This seems sweet but how does it impact the portal ceremony area?
 
A:  The relic towns are well-guarded with invulnerable guards, do not allow siege weapons to be placed in a large radius around them, and do not allow relics to be carried into their (quite large) guard aggro-range.
 
This should make the impact of relics in the temples fairly minimal towards the portal ceremony areas; however, we are still looking into what changes, if any, will happen to the portal ceremony, so this all may be moot if it is removed alltogether.


Quote: “Docks will return to their original locations and the capture element will be altered or removed based on additional planning and feedback.”
 
Q: Which original locations?
 
A: Docks were an ambitious experiment which, from an academic perspective seemed to ‘fit’ in the dynamic of the New Frontiers. Ultimately – for lack of a better term, they complicated things. One of our principles is that: ‘well designed features are complex, *not* complicated’ – and we try our best to hold to that maxim.
 
Docks will be returning to their original New Frontiers locations with their original boat paths and drop-offs. This means 4 docks with the 6 destinations available as they were prior to patch 1.115 (including the planned removal of the boat routes to Berkstead, Nottmoor, and Crimthainn). We feel the speed increase is an overall positive, so that will remain.
 
We are currently planning to keep the Agramon docks and boats as they are for now, with the opportunity to improve upon them on a later update.


Quote: “The Merchant Keeps (Benowyc, Bledmeer, and Crauchon) will once again be capture-able, claim-able, and will have port functionality - but will remain in a ‘ruined’ state”
 
Q: Can you please add some clarity as to what this means?
 
A: The Merchant Keeps will remain in their Ruined State but will effectively function exactly as normal keeps. We are leaving them ruined due to the considerable feedback that we received praising them as being fun areas to fight in and around due to the open/accessible layout. However, we do want to give realms that control these (now much harder-to-control) keeps the ability to port in and out of them, as well as upgrade and claim them.
 
The book isn’t closed on Merchant Keeps, and we are open to change as a result of player testing.


Quote: “Keeps and towers have had their light-mapping updated! The difference is quite stunning and we are looking forward to showing you these great art updates!”
 
Q: This must mean that someone there now can do art upgrades. Huzzah. Cloaks next prz.
 
A: Huzzah indeed! How about new Champion Weapon and Armor art instead?



Q: Any changes to the portal ceremony in here?
 
A: We are still looking at how best to approach the portal ceremony. It is likely to remain unchanged with this coming update, but as mentioned before - there will be live tests and time for additional feedback.


Q: Any plans to increase the RPS per kill or reduce the timer that makes a person not worth any RPS?
 
A: Not at this time.


Q: Will there be any incentive to solo players who don't want to group? Perhaps in the form of increased RP's, BP, ML, Arti, CL XP and coin?
 
A: The short answer is that we do not wish to incentivize any one play-style over another. We believe that solo players know quite well the extra risks (and reward) of venturing out alone and would do so regardless of any incentives we gave them.


Q: What will be the mechanics required to take a relic from the relic temple? Will it be the same as it used to be or something different?
 
A: It will be very similar but with one important change:  we are doing away with the pillar-mechanic entirely.  We will likely institute a Relic Temple Lord that must be killed in order to unlock the relic housed in the temple.
 
The reason for this is mainly that we do not like the idea of “hard-caps” on RvR objectives. The pillar required 16 players to stand on it for roughly 2 minutes in order to lower the relic. We view that as a “hard-cap” that can frustrate players – (especially 15 of them!). Instead, the new Lord will be a difficult encounter to defeat, but one that, with enough time, can be killed by a varying (read: fewer) amount of skilled players if necessary.


Q: Will the PK's be changed back to normal keeps or will they remain?
 
A: They will remain as Portal Keeps. We’ll continue to monitor action and feedback after this update and can re-visit Portal Keeps as necessary.


Q: could you advise on your definition of near term and mid term. We are not looking for exact date, just something along the lines or 6-8 weeks 4-5 months etc.
 
A: As stated above, near term is roughly around the end of August and mid term is around mid-to-late October.


Quote: "The Merchant Keeps (Benowyc, Bledmeer, and Crauchon) will once again be capture-able, claim-able, and will have port functionality - but will remain in a ‘ruined’ state." 
 
Q: What does this mean? You can take the keep, claim the keep but it won't be reparable?
 
A: Yep, that’s what it means.


Quote: The Merchant Keeps (Benowyc, Bledmeer, and Crauchon) will once again be capture-able, claim-able, and will have port functionality - but will remain in a ‘ruined’ state…
 
Q: If claimed what advantage does the claim realm get? The keep can't up grade. When under attack does the claim keep send out a spam count? Will more defensive guards pop if claim over time? The only reason I ask is because the new towers on the island can be claimed but claiming them gives no advantage over not claiming....
 
A: Claiming them does grant the guard spam numbers. Claimed keeps also upgrade, which means taller walls and more hiding places. We are still in the planning stages on the amount of guards we’ll be placing in the Ruined Keeps. We are leaning towards fewer guards. We’d like for these keeps to be difficult-to-hold. Think of them as player-driven battlefield objectives to a greater extent than ‘normal’ keeps. If no-one from your realm is online, then it should be fairly easy to take.

 
Q: Concerning DF, will y'all be running any of the raids? Will it be open to all realms or is the keep and tower method still going into effect. And what new loots will i be going crazy for!?!?!
 
A: We are not planning on running any event-raids at this time, but that may change! Additionally, we are not planning to open DF to all realms at once. It will remain open to one realm at a time. The inter-play of keep and tower takes controlling DF ownership is integral to the frontier dynamic.
 
We will be doing an almost complete overhaul of the purchase-able items in DF. This will almost certainly mean new items. Additionally, we are planning on introducing a new Seal currency that will gate the purchase of the new CL15 armor and weapons while using the existing Diamond seals to gate the purchase of level 35+ items. This will mean that Diamond seals will drop off lower level mobs and that the new currencly will drop off the higher-end mobs and epic encounters.
 
 
Q: I actually have a few Molvik templates that use DF Loot. Will the overhaul break my templates?
 
A: Some of the existing items will have to be changed, however, we will do our best to only improve upon their existing stats rather than change them wholesale.


Q: Make the BP XP scrolls tradeable …pretty please ? 
 
A: Negative, ghost rider. The pattern is full.
 
(Translation: We’re afraid not!)


Q: Will the account management changes mean that the game "distances" itself further from EA? I mean, when BS took over it was quite obviously still EAs game since all economic transactions were handled by them. Will we be paying our money to Broadsword or EA now?
 
A: To shoot straight – our ultimate goal is have Broadsword be fully responsible for all subscription management. EA currently handles our transactions because it’s quite difficult to ‘unplug’ one billing method and ‘plug-in’ another. This transition will take place in phases, and as a player, these phases will be transparent to you. The first phase will be releasing the updated Account Management Site that’s currently in testing, but until we know we can make this transition without negative effects to our customers we will be quite cautious about the changes we make.



Q: I don’t fully understand how the planned LFG finder is supposed to work. Do you flag yourself as LFG and then get placed in a group that isn’t full, even if this group is not listed as looking for new members? Or will it work in such a way that a group for example sets the LFG flag for a healer and a healer flags himself as LFG, this healer gets assigned to the group?
 
A: When a group is formed, it will be flagged as either an “open” or a “closed” group. This will be toggle-able by the group leader any time after the group is formed as well. Only “open” groups will have players using the “group finder” button placed into them.
 
Additionally, the group finder will not instantly place players into a group, but will rather queue them up for one. Once there are enough players available to make a group (4-6 for RvR groups, 2+ for PvE), all players will be placed into the group simultaneously. Groups formed via this mechanic will automatically be flagged as “open” to start. Given the number of players looking for groups at any given time, this process should be consistently fast. Testing and tweaking will ensure that the updates made to the group finder will provide quick, intuitive, and easy grouping.
 
“Closed” groups will still be able look for players as they do now and use the 2^nd phase of the LFG window’s improvements to find players that fit what they are looking for.


Q: Do you intend to integrate a way to define our nationality in the LFG window?
 
A: This is a great suggestion, but may not make it into our first pass. We will do our best to make sure that an option like this is not put on the backburner. We recognize the importance of how truly global Dark Age of Camelot is – and would like to make sure that players get the opportunity to group comfortably.


Q: Will the new account center allow us to ay by Paypal?
 
A: Not at this time, however we’ve been getting this request for a while, and our opinion is that player’s should be able to use whichever (secure) payment method that is most convenient for them. We’ve been investigating what implications accepting PayPal would have and will continue to do so. If and when PayPal becomes an acceptable method of payment, several clear announcements will be made!

Thank you very much for the wonderful questions. We look forward to answering more in the very near future!

Be well, serve your realm, and we'll see you in the Frontiers!