November 2006 News
November 28, 2006 -
One quick but important update on the ACMaps situation. I have finished retrieving as many maps as I could fish out of the ACMaps archive I found and ended up with roughly 375 maps. That's pretty good and certainly better than nothing, but it isn't perfect either. I converted all of those images into less memory intensive JPGs (they were bitmaps if anyone cares) and now they are all hosted here. I have compiled a database you can use to search through the maps I do have - if you run into any problems, please let me know. I am now in the process of creating an alphabetical listing to see what I have and what I am missing. Be aware that practically every map link in the Quest Section is still down until I have a chance to manually go through everything and either redirect the link to the site or remove it entirely in the case of maps I couldn't retrieve. If you happen to have maps from ACMaps you may have saved on your hard drive, please get in touch with me. Again, I admittedly do not have the permission of anyone involved with ACMaps, so this whole endeavor might come crashing down around my ears soon, but I think it's worth it.
Update - there are issues with the search functions in both the Quest and Map databases. For whatever reason, you can only view pages 1, 2, and the last page in any search. To compensate to some degree, I increased the number of results pulled per search from 5 to 25. Of course, that doesn't fix the problem, but hopefully you'll be able to find what you're looking for in those 75 or so results. Unfortunately, this problem will affect any page on the entire site that uses ASP (which is practically everything including the forums). Most of the issues are minor (like every topic appearing purple instead of yellow in the forums), but I am still working to fix it soon.
November 27, 2006 -
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!
If you go into the Quest Section, you will find many, many external broken links. It looks like ACMaps, who I have been using for many of my quest guides, has either shut down or had some other similar problem befall them. I am currently retrieving archived maps from that site as a last resort, but I will definitely be losing some maps because of the date of the archive I am using. Of course, even if I can successfully retrieve everything, there's the whole publishing without permission issue, but given that the site is down and the admin's email address was through the site, there's pretty much no way to get in touch with anyone relevant. Oh well.
November 21, 2006 -
It's Patch Day! Check out the Patch Thread for the Dev Notes and Rollout Article, as well as all the pre-patch info. The Quest Section has been updated accordingly and I'll update it as soon as this month's quests are discovered. The biggest change this month is that everyone who didn't pre-order ToD will have the opportunity to buy a slightly toned down version of the health bonus gem. For 2 billion XP and an Augmentation gem, non-pre-order people can buy a gem that increases your health by 8%. The gem will not stack with the existing 10% gems, so people who pre-ordered shouldn't bother.
The other changes that will affect everyone is that our mansion will be able to support two more portal devices and two more magical items. Currently we have all of the existing portal devices up (which leads me to believe there will be more devices added this month), but we don't have the Wallbound Niffis and the Moderate Grael Spear up. As soon as the patch goes live (and I have a moment to get ingame), I will put the Niffis back up where it used to be (right by the entrance). We do NOT have a moderate Grael Spear though. I am looking to buy one, but if you do come across one, please let me know.
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 16, 2006 -
The Magic Item Overtink was a success! Himura was completely successful in all the tinkers he did and he finished off the 10th tinkers on several wands. If anyone has an interest in a weapon or armor overtink session in the near future, one can be arranged. I have at least one weapon and armor tinkering rare stashed away. Leave a post on the boards and I'll plan a session when we have sufficient demand.
Patch Day has been pushed back twice now and is currently planned for the 21st of November. Have a look at the Patch Thread if you'd like to see the Teaser and the Letter to the Players.
Next time you visit the mansion, look for the Viamontian Pennant. It's a flag mounted on the north face of the mansion by the servant's entrance. It casts a 30 min moderate loyalty buff when you use it. Currently, the mansion is missing two spellcasting items - the 100-150 level Grael Spear and the Wallbound Niffis. The Niffis is currently down because I have used all the spellcasting item slots the mansion supports. Fortunately, November's patch will increase the total number of hookable casting items by two. That will allow me to hook every casting device. I don't have a mid-level version of the Grael Spear, so if you have one and would like to donate it, please let me know. I don't have a combat character in that level range or I would plan a quest myself.
November 4, 2006 -
Our Magic Item Overtink is coming on November 13th at 8 PM ET. If you have wands you want to improve, now's the time! I will post success rates on the forums shortly so you can know what workmanship salvage you will need, but a rough rule of thumb is that you will be able to do 10 tinks on w6 wands with any quality salvage and almost 100% success with w10 salvage on w7 wands. If you can't make it that evening, talk to Himura or me and we can get your items and salvage beforehand.
Congratulations to everyone who made it through the Harbinger quest today. Kenoki, I'm sorry about your deaths - we'll make sure you survive the next trip. Offhand, I don't really have any other quests in mind to do in the short-term, but I am always open to suggestions!
November's Patch, Remembering the Past, is scheduled for the 14th. Check out the teaser images on the Patch Thread. Looks like more Ninjas are in store for us.