September 21, 2005 -
It's patch day again! The teaser, letter to the players, rollout article, and the Dev Notes have all been posted. Also check out the teaser images on Maggie's, ACVault, Warcry, and Mystics. Looks like a busy patch - a new island, plenty of new quests, chat windows and global chat, another loot system change! The Viamontians have invaded Marae Lassel and the Carenzi Resistance is fighting for its existance. Somewhere on the new island, Vissidal Island, lies a potent secret that threatens to destroy the Isparian kingdom in Dereth...
September 1, 2005 -
First, a bit of belated congratulations. I finally set the monarchy's allegiance officers and they are Ja'afar and Ci. Although the positions themselves don't really carry any responsibilities, both Ja'afar and Ci have done great things for the monarchy and deserve to be recognized, even if by title only.
Lots of AC news lately. First off, AC2 will cease 12/30/2005. Evidently their expansion pack failed to draw in any meaningful increase in population and the low server pops finally forced the issue. Somewhat related to AC2's demise is that Turbine's staff will be closing their California office and relocating all the AC staff back to Massachusetts. Some of the California staff has announced that they will not be making the trip - most notably srand, the producer, Ibn, srand's replacement as producer and former community relations head, and Meanbeard, the lead designer. Replacements for those positions are being named, but the move is still up in the air. Most likely, the September patch will be delayed into October (although it is possible that the September patch will come out on schedule). In the meantime, Turbine will be running more Live Events. This time, it looks like Turbine themselves will be running them, so we won't have the inept Jolt people in charge. To read more or comment, check out THIS THREAD on the forums.
On a lighter note, congratulations to everyone on your levels and finds during Double XP, Triple Major Weekend. I know most of you gained several levels and found some useful majors. Special congrats to Silver Death, who reached 80 for the first time, Gato, who is almost 90 and can now use 335 wield Xbows, and EC Gordon, who not only reached 126 for the first time, but found a Scroll of Dark Rain in short order! Many of you have found majors you can't use and wanted to give to fellow Paladins who could use them. I've put most of them in one of the mansion chests, but it's almost overflowing! ACGM has a 'Found' and 'Seeking' section, but since Decal is down and ACGM might not even work once Decal is restored, I've put up 'Found' and 'Seeking' sticky threads in the forums. I'll add the contents of the mansion chests to the Found thread when I have a chance.
Speaking of the mansion, the August Patch changed the number of portal and magical devices a mansion may have hooked at once. There are now a total of 10 portal devices - 2 Blackmires, all 6 Burun King portals, the Tursh Totem, and the Knath Lair portal. You can find these in the large SE first floor room, the second floor patio, and the Tursh Totem is outside the mansion along the NE corner. Additionally, there are 4 new magical items up - 3 Monster Plants and the Tome of Blood and Bone. The Tome casts Moderate Focus for 30 minutes and the 3 Plants each cast a spell that increases stat renewal by 25% for 3 hours. None of the new spells stack with cantrips, unfortunately. Two of the plants are just inside the main entrance and the third plant and the Tome are along the central west wall outside the mansion.
Last, but not least, I've added more quest write-ups to the site, including several for this month's new quests and the ToD quests. Typically I don't start a guide until ACMAPS has posted a map for the quest dungeons, but a good number of this month's quests either don't have a dungeon or the dungeon isn't terribly complicated.