Tell us what you think of the August teaser!

[Ibn]

Passers-by were not being very kind to the Mosswart who huddled near the branches of a fern, sitting on a stone to rest his legs. He had arrived the previous night with a small slip of parchment bearing Elysa’s seal. A member of the Royal Guard had escorted him into Bai Yao Feng’s tent; when the little creature assured Bai Yao in broken Roulean that he was there at the behest of the High Queen, the guard nodded her confirmation.

Read it here. (http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=262)

[Pvt tusker]

Bleeargh is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thx Ibn

[Televangelist]

That picture... is it of Aerlinthe?

[Silifi Of Death]

Ahhhh! I knew it! You owe me 5 sings!

Of course, they're gonna kill the renegades, haha! I predicted the storyline!

[Palum]

Uhhh burun/tusker crossbreeds? Can we try something a bit less campy next time? :P

[Merubin]

Haven't seen one of those blue & gold robes in awhile :)

Silifi of Death said:
they're gonna kill the renegades, haha! I predicted the storyline!They had already said that's what their plan was in the note before they made their alliance (Burun Cavern I think the dungeon was called, whichever had the lockpick).

Palum said:
burun/tusker crossbreeds? Can we try something a bit less campy next time? :PThose were an AC2 monster they brought into AC1 last month, they've got a third variety of some really big guys in that game we haven't seen yet :)

[Skinnerc]

i like the way that things are very suspenseful, and are kind of, what is going on, what are they doing, how does it all relate? but, i think we need a more dramatic feel, maybe some more movies similar to gaerlen/martine, more powerful revelations, things from the past, the empyreans, and so forth, a more explosive storyline, using alot from the old empyreans, someway to tie it in, plz reply to this people, k ive had my say

[EvilElvis]

One thing I really want to comment on: I hope the new buruns (browerk looking ones) don't become too commonplace. I really like the idea of having some unique modeled mobs on a few quests. The last thing I'd want is for this to become just another mob that you see turn up in every quest for the next few months with a few dozen palette/name swap variants.

Other than that... I hope I'm wrong, and that that's a sinister shadow, and not a shadow lieutenant or something. As much as I've wanted to hear from Isin Dule, the last thing I want is for him to get caught up in this whole burun thing after being MIA for the past 3 years.

[ChildoftheKoRn]

Still waiting on beal'zharon, bring him back through an ancient cult ritual and have him slaughter allt he o.0's pkl's and pk's

[Mildly amused]

New canescant robe. Dyeable?

[Tara Malkav]

It's not new, it's old, and why would it be dyable? There are two versions of it.

My question would be, can we turn in our old robes for these? Also, what becomes of the people who never took off their Canescent robes and still have these?

[Calladyn]

I think I "guessed" the extra on the matty robe...

http://forums.ac.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12113

--------------------------------------------------
palum, the burun are from ac2 including the design concept for the new ones.
--------------------------------------------------
looks like aery is getting an upgrade as previously stated
--------------------------------------------------
and the shadow have been interested in the mosswarts for a while, check out idol spawning grounds, I don't think that diungeon was changed since it's release.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Better robes sound exciting.... but the rest so far looks like another yawner. We need all NEW stuff.. ALL new monsters, ALL new quests.. not variations on older quests. NEW! How can you keep a 6 year old game interesting if nothing ever changes...

Anyway, here's hoping...... again.

[Tara Malkav]

*cough* Burun *cough* Falatacot *cough* Blackmire *cough* Guruk *cough*

But lets ignore all the new content and complain anyways. :eek:

[Frieze]

YAY CANNY ROBE YAAAAAY =)

When everyone was whining on VN about what the surprise would be, I said I hoped Cannys would go back to their old style.

I loved that robe and I hated to take it off on my WE main after 2 years. I'm going to make a point of logging on WE and getting it again.


:) :D :) :D :)

[Madgic]

HIya me again,

Looks good and as always some nice new content.

Nice to see the new Barun are being used again Not many people saw them last patch as Jumping seems to be a thing of the past LOL.

Please ignore the whiners, I have spent the whole of this patch trying to work out the new items introduced and I do not fully believe everything has been discovered and disclosed. They will never be happy unless you introduce something that directly benefits them and even then only if it makes them better than any one else in game. Lets face it if the quest is open to all in the game the whiners will never be happy. And if its a 1 person per server quest they will never be happy because they will be here whining about it rather than in game getting it.

Keep going I have played this game every day since release and it still offers me interest and challenges ever day.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Originally posted by Tara Malkav
*cough* Burun *cough* Falatacot *cough* Blackmire *cough* Guruk *cough*

But lets ignore all the new content and complain anyways. :eek:

You missed the point though. Of this "new" content, what are we seeing in other content? Why, variations of the same "new" content, until, like all the others, it becomes old and stale.

I.E. Since the Living Tome (Falatacots), Falatacots have shown up in all Blackmire's, etc. Just a variation of the same. Burun, how many variatons of them? Related to Lizards? They don't even resemble them! Just like Gromnies or Tuskers or Mattekars, etc., etc., ad nauseum, we're going to see 50,000 varieties of Burun, Falatacot, Guruk? No thanks... b-o-r-i-n-g.

How about new content being *cough* exclusively new for each *cough* new month. Now that would be a new *cough* concept, making the game seem fresh and *cough* new. Yes?

Who's complaining? We all PAY for this, don't we? Or was the hike in monthly fees to fund Turbine Nation, Billing Migration, and whatever is left to help cover the new salaries, while MS keeps raking in the $9.99, like they still are now? :p

Don't you like value for your dollar? That's not a *cough* new concept, but one that's still quite valid. :)

[Tara Malkav]

I think you are the one missing the point. New content has and continues to be put in. The sole purpose of revamping old content is to give it more use in modern AC. It is an ever evolving world and times change, therefore, so things don't become completely obsolete, they change as well.

As for putting value on my dollar, of course I do. In fact, AC saves me money. If it weren't for AC, I'd go to the arcade a lot more. But, instead, I save my money and simply stay home and play. To me, that is a very good thing. Though not everyone is coming from that and not everyone used to be an arcade guru.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

I'm certainly no arcade guru. Didn't need to be, since I was fortunate enough to be part of a group which specialized in beta testing games, such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and then Quake II prior to being accepted into Asheron's Call beta. Been here ever since, which is quite something and does say AC has certainly had pull on myself.

But, as with any game... eventually it wears off. There's only so much of the SAMEness a person can take. I'd say lasting into my 6th year here is a good sign for Turbine as a whole, but even then there comes a time where one must say "Okay, enough already!" could we have something NEW now? Please? The same old answer comes with each patch. They spiel off a few paragraphs of double-talk gibberish about some new this and that which involves always the same characters (generally speaking), and then tell us to stay tuned for the continuing saga of AC etc.

Well, that's the problem.. the continuing saga. Nothing ever changes. Anyone who can't see this, obviously hasn't been here very long or they've spent too much time as sheep loving, bunny rulers. :D Arcades do suck, no doubt about it... but at least you get something new every other month. Buying single-player games, and even some of the other major MMOG's is a change of pace. Ever notice that the only people who return to AC are those who played it previously? You don't often see 100% new blood in here, because all the other titles have everything that AC doesn't, and if the expansion still caters to people running AC now (older systems), you'll see SOME new faces, but once they realize it's just a revamped design of the same old engine, it'll likely fall off again.

Don't get me wrong here, I love AC! I think it's still right up there among the best... but that's ONLY because I've played it for all these years on a daily basis, and have established a lot of good friendships, apart from the game itself. But now, even with all these wonderful people I've met and get along with, there's still something missing. Do you remember how mysterious AC was when we all first started? How long it took to get to know Dereth like we do now, and how spooky etc., quests were because you just DIDN'T know the outcome... and even after you'd done the same quest 5 times, it was still real cool? Well, THAT'S what I'm talking about... THAT'S what's missing. Oh sure, you could argue "but a new quest produces spookiness in not knowing the outcome", which would be correct from the dungeon layout standpoint... but the monsters within, being the same old as in every other quest and standard play.... you already KNOW what you're up against, and what the best plan of attack is! That's why people breeze through brand new quests within minutes after being released with the monthly patch... then a writeup about it is on the forums 30 minutes later, and now EVERYONE knows what to do. It's CRAZY! Where's the fun in that?

There's only ONE way to restore FUN.... hire some creative people with a NEW vision. Not the same old people who ran the show from the start, and CERTAINLY NOT people who played this game, and then went on to becoming the new devs, managers, designers, etc. There's your problem in a nutshell. The only thing you'll get from old players (now Devs etc) is how THEY think the game should change from the OLD, and not anything about what NEW it needs to recreate the mystery and awe. That's what's gone from this game... Mystery and Awe.

Same old land mass, same old dungeons, same portals in the same locations, year after year after year. Housing might be a great thing, but they should've put housing underground, or on a seperate island, leaving the exploration of the mainland/dires untouched... for... exploring? Wow, what a novel idea! Now instead, anyone can get to almost anywhere if you know the housing portal routes. Mystery and awe of the landscape is gone.. destroyed... don't need to deal with mountains blocking you anymore.. no more danger of scaling high peaks, risking death from falling off... noooo. now we just avoid all that hassle and zip to where we want to go via a housing portal. Why not just give everyone the same teleportation powers of an +Envoy? May as well.. we have housing portals, starter town recall gems, 2 portal recalls, 2 lifestone locations, now a hometown recall. It's absurd... there's no LIFE in this game anymore because the "unknown" has been removed.

Anyway, I could go on a fair bit more... but it's probably all falling on deaf ears and blind eyes.

We need ALL NEW, not SAME OLD. In terms of who's missing the point, there's no point mentioning it, because no one is ever willing to give an inch, once they've been handed a foot by Turbine. New content continues to go in, except that it uses the same old monsters. If you create a new monster for a quest, let it be for that quest, and then make something new for the next quest.. don't use a variation of the same thing following for the next 10 quests.... very boring.

It is an ever evolving world.... hmmm.. tell me the last MAJOR (not some insignificant insect etc.) all new species that has been found in RL to back up this theory of ever evolving? It isn't there, just like it isn't in AC. Difference being that RL events are forever with lasting and very final consequences. In a game environment, we have the power to alter and change whatever we wish.... question is: Why don't we?

For MY dollar, I want CHANGE... not the same old, forever.

[Pvt tusker]

It's not staying the same forever, this is just one story arc.

I like the way it is, new stuff all the time would make it hard to continue the lore.

[sublimaze]

Turbine is doing an excellent job on new content every month. People just like to whine...and whine, and *cough* whine some more.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Originally posted by Pvt tusker
It's not staying the same forever, this is just one story arc.

An arc that started November 3, 1999. I likely won't be around in 20 years from now to ask when the second arc commenced.
Then again, neither will anyone else. :p

[SuzySwiftblade]

Tell me it isn't so........! Please do NOT make the Canescent Robe look like every other lame robe in the game ! The one nice thing about it is the fact that it looks differant, looks more like a dinner suit, but I guess its already set in stone, so I am here waisting my 2 pyreal, but I don't care cause at least I am telling you how I really feel !

I like the fact that your bringing the old things back into the game, such as the low ws, low value armor, weapons etc, but some things were changed to make them better and should have been left as they were...I was afraid you guys were going to do this so at least tell us that you upped the AL maybe added some useful pros, but even this I doubt.

I hope this isn't like 90% of the changes you make to the game because its getting pretty sad when us OG (BETA) Players have come to the point where we DREAD, no make that LOATHE updates to anything, cause sure you may make them better in 1 aspect but its the 20 aspects that you make them negative in, that makes the items not even worth trying for...

Need some examples ?

GSx...sure got a major, before that was some life pros, but the wield requirements have long since made this armor obsolete unless of course you play on DT and don't have the luxury of pre-patch armor.

Diamond Shield...sure level 6 pros, impen, but ya didn't change the SL and ya put a wield requirement on it, the weld was completely unneccesary on a shield that has such a low SL to begin with.

Crystal Sword...I think this item speaks for itself, when was the last time you seen anybody in game wielding one of these other than for looks ? ubber noob sword if ya take off the rediculous wield of 300 maybe 250 would be more appropriate.

THE Overlord Sword...Absolutely UBBER...with its self buffing to 45-90 but what happened to MODERATE SWORD ? Not all of us wear Sunstone Gaunts cause we don't like the LOW AL and the crappy pros that they provide...If you gonna take moderate sword from it, at least give us something like crushing blow or biting strike since these seem to be your favorite imbues for all the other quest items.

I am gonna stop with my explanation of the items and just give you a list of items and I think you can figure out where you went wrong and what needs to be changed. Please note that some of these items have differant levels available BUT all need to be revamped...

Bandit Weapons, Atlan Weapons, Assault Weapons, Quiddity Weapons, Hollow Weapons, SoLL, SoLH, SoFF (or should we say the Long Dagger of Frozen Fury), Simulacra Quests etc, etc, etc.

You see, you guys have the right idea with the wield requirements that you place upon these items, BUT, why are we going to quest for items that by the time we can wield them, we can tink things that blow them out of the water?

You see, an intelligent Quest Master, Dungeon Master or whatever you guys fancy yourselves as, will design items that exceed anything that can be tinked at that level, in otherwords, you did a great job with the Overlord's Sword, 45-90 damage cannot be touched by any tinker, it's actually worth questing for this item if you hunt with mages alot against foes that are naturally weak to electrical attack, because when the mage lands imperil and light vuln on the critters, look out !!! GIVE THE MAN WHO THOUGHT OF THIS A PROMOTION and fire all the rest of your quest designers!!!

This is what makes questing worth it, because we all know, that genarally xp sux on quests, so we should at least get an overlord sword or a font of jojii, or a head of the homunculus, something that is actually useful for once!!!

Now, you guys seem to be getting the idea, the Walking Boots (can you add another Lich that gives us the Walking Solls if we desire), the new Lugian Helm and Tumerok Breastplate, the Ancient Vestment, Bracers, Boots and Gaunts, The new Singularity Wand (not the other weapons though, most unfortunately, and who knows after you guys nerf it this patch!) these are some great ideas, I mean sure, they can be outinked, BUT the spells on them make them worth getting, SO, someone there is using their God givin gift of a brain, finally!!

Now if you guys would learn from these and go back and fix the old stuff... make the bandit weapon desireable again, allow us to make 300, 325 and 350 wield Bandits, in all Melee weapons, make a Staff that actually resembles a Bo-Staff that you hold in the middle with both hands and do double and triple strikes with it, where did you guys get the idea that a staffer wields a shield is what I want to know?

You see, a good staffer, with high melee and staff skills, can use their staff as a shield and attack while they are defending!!! UA toons are the same, a true UA uses no weapons, except maybe a claw that resembles your Nekode, and even these are on both hands, and UA does multiple Strike in all situations!!! Nice Forearm Bracer/Gaunlets allow them to block sword and other attacks succesfully without losing their arms, God, do you guys ever watch old Ninja movies? Their best friend is their Shuruken (check spelling) or Ninja Star, which some brainiac there decided was a Thrown Weapon, and a GIMP one at that, rather than a UA weapon...

Anyhow, these are just a few of the LONG list of things that someone there needs to ponder, sorry for getting off of the subject, its just that, well, your "updates & upgrades" to things, are generally the exact opposite, or, are half-azzed and miss some really important details...

TY & Good Day

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Originally posted by SuzySwiftblade
I hope this isn't like 90% of the changes you make to the game because its getting pretty sad when us OG (BETA) Players have come to the point where we DREAD, no make that LOATHE updates to anything, cause sure you may make them better in 1 aspect but its the 20 aspects that you make them negative in, that makes the items not even worth trying for...

Wow, excellent post! Happy to see there's someone else out there not afraid to speak up for what's right about what's wrong. Wish there were more like us..... but beware, you're likely gonna be labelled a whiner in the next 1 or 2 posts. :p

[burzum]

Originally posted by FmrSentFlatfoot
..... but beware, you're likely gonna be labelled a whiner in the next 1 or 2 posts. :p

not by me, nice post suzy

[-Kaxak-]

OMFG !!! I sure hope that's not the new color of the Matty's , if it is , you guys really need to see an EyE DoCtOr !!! for color Blindness ...... That is the WORST Color ingame



1) Rain Makes LAG !!! we don't need it to rain 23 hours a day !!!

2) Attacking Monsters should NEVER leave an attacker , if that attacker is ATTACKING !!!

3) Higher al , lower work armor on HIGH level Monsters !!!!

nobody likes to get that perfect matching helm , coat , BP , legs , etc , off a High level monster, only to find out it's al 190 work 10 !!!

[Fiction_LC]

^Rain makes lag? wow i never get lag from it hmm

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

^Rain makes lag? wow i never get lag from it hmm

I'll second that. Actually, ever since VT opened, I rarely get any lag anymore. Makes my day, and helps to get through all the other negatives. lol

EDIT: I notice this new Forum Setup requires longer loading time for edits, replies, etc.

[Nexus-HG]

Lifestone Sending, as it was apperently intended would have to be the most useless thing one could think of. You wont give us a /a recall command to go to the mansion dungeon, but you will give us an item that takes us to where /lifestone would go?

you give the rank and file +11% to skills and and +8 pts to defenses, but for the monarchs you give a statue so everyone can /lifestone?

I just dont understand...

Also, Mansion "portal items" are limited in usage (you can only have THREE items hooked at one time).

That to me would indicate A> there are no more future portal items forthcoming or B> we will have to pick and choose what gets hooked at the mansions (which no one wants anyway cause of rank, maintance, and a horde of other reasons).

But that is all ok now.

We have Lifestone Sending.

People will come back to mansions in droves now... at least to use the bugged version and run round until you (hopefully) remove it in September.


In summation


Added Storyline... Great

Revamped Arefalle... Very Great

Warpaint... Cool

Lifestone Sending / Mansion Love... What were you all drinking last night?

[Yinchi]

The problem with having uber new items each patch is twofold. Whether it be a loot drop or quest item.

Anyone remember how much fun it was to get your Atlan, then you had to have the major stones, (this involved more quests) to get them. Then you had to find a portal to the crater and take your chances of getting it. For a long time, this was the weapon to have. Just as for ages, GSA was the armor to have. These two quest items had meaning, we were proud of them. Nothing introduced in the patches nerfed them for a very long time.

We are spoiled, we expect something new and wonderful each patch. Yet, we complain that everything we have is no longer of any value, things we worked hard to achieve.

How many quests were involved in that one weapon (the Atlan) that are no longer done? This is true of so many quests. If they update one quest, they nerf two others, if they introduce one new loot drop, 4 quests are now a thing of the past.

Turbine wants this a loot based game to prevent camping of uber quest items. But by this very fact, quest items are nerfed almost as soon as they are introduced. Our mules are full of useless items, some were just obtained last patch or even this patch.

We all want bigger, badder, better items but is it really healthy for the game? Why not have something else instead?

We will have a new level cap, this will perpetuate this system. There has to be something better than this.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Lifestone Sending, as it was apperently intended would have to be the most useless thing one could think of. You wont give us a /a recall command to go to the mansion dungeon, but you will give us an item that takes us to where /lifestone would go?

you give the rank and file +11% to skills and and +8 pts to defenses, but for the monarchs you give a statue so everyone can /lifestone?

I just dont understand...

Also, Mansion "portal items" are limited in usage (you can only have THREE items hooked at one time).

That to me would indicate A> there are no more future portal items forthcoming or B> we will have to pick and choose what gets hooked at the mansions (which no one wants anyway cause of rank, maintance, and a horde of other reasons).

But that is all ok now.

We have Lifestone Sending.

People will come back to mansions in droves now... at least to use the bugged version and run round until you (hopefully) remove it in September.


In summation


Added Storyline... Great

Revamped Arefalle... Very Great

Warpaint... Cool

Lifestone Sending / Mansion Love... What were you all drinking last night?

Lifestone sending, as it WAS intended, was stated by Ibn that it was not for the playerbase, but got stuck in there by accident. This is obviously an +Admin feature, and will be fixed next patch. It's intention as I see it, is for use by +Envoy's for when people get stuck somewhere, and the +Envoy can then "send" them to their respective lifestone to unstick them.

In terms of a portal to the mansion dungeon. Why? Everyone's been doing just fine up till now, are people THAT lazy that they can't spend 30 seconds running down like they've been doing for the past 2 years? Pretty soon people will want Turbine to set their accounts on auto-pilot while they sleep? Hey, how about just giving everyone totally maxed characters at creation.. that way no one has to do anything at all.. just pay a monthly fee so they can brag at how uber they are, to people who don't play the game, and will think their friends are way cool!

I agree that the owner of the mansion (one account) should have a recall to the chest room. Apart from that, let everyone else run down like they always have.

You don't like @allegiance hometown recall? I think it's unecessary also, but it still comes in very handy at times. So it's a good thing, not bad.

Mansion portal items can be changed anytime Turbine chooses to. Simple. No need to speculate on "no more future portal items forthcoming". It's not up to you or I.

Rest assured, Lifestone Sending will be gone next patch.

Yes, Aerfalle is much better. :)

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Just as for ages, GSA was the armor to have. These two quest items had meaning, we were proud of them. Nothing introduced in the patches nerfed them for a very long time.

Where were you when they nerfed GSA from AL190 to AL150? It didn't take very long (two months Max) for them to tell us "we made it too good". How long did it stay nerfed, making the originals PPGSA? I very long time. Two years even. When they re-introduced the original stats, it was still different, in appearance, hence we still have PPGSA in existence, which is rare and very expensive to buy, if anyone chose to sell.

We are spoiled, we expect something new and wonderful each patch. Yet, we complain that everything we have is no longer of any value, things we worked hard to achieve.

That's an understatement. Only Turbine can fix it, but instead they're doing the same as Microsoft, buckling under the pressure of what the customers want, to a point. We need some tough management now to right all the wrongs of the previous administration. Jessica posted a very positive message about CHANGE when Turbine was gearing up to take over, and yes, things started to look like she was seriously tackling the problems.. but as of late (the past 3-4 months)... it's like the +Envoys are the same as MS +Admins, non-existant anymore... you call, and call, and call.. and get no reply. The potty mouths at Ayan Lifestone area (PKLs) still rule, and there's no admonishment happening at all... they even know it and are returning to laughing at others who claim they'll report the filth.

Like I always said, pay someone to enforce rules and eventually they will care more about their paycheque than the rules they're enforcing, and the people who are supposed to be punished for breaking those rules will get away with it scott-free. BUT, allow a volunteer to enforce the rules, and they will make SURE those rules are enforced by the book, because they're mind is not clouded by what they're going to buy with next week's pay, but instead with cleaning up the system and meting out punishments to those who deserve it, for breaking the rules. In short: Paid employees care more about their pay than the customers; and volunteers care more about the customers than anything else, because there is nothing else to care about!

We will have a new level cap, this will perpetuate this system. There has to be something better than this.

It's too late for that now. Too much damage has been done. Asheron's Call has evolved into a ME ME ME, I I I, GIMME GIMME GIMME game....

[Yinchi]

Yes, I knew about the nerf to the orginal GSA. But they did not nerf GSA completely, it remained the best no drop armor for a long time to come.

That is the problem we have today, what is uber today, is junk tomorrow.

To the developers.....

What we need are useful items. There does not need to be a ton of them each patch and they don't have to be uber. One really great quest is worth 3 fed ex's.

For instance, useful items....

The focus stone - a quest that is done on a regular basis.

Thorsten's armor - this is still done, it is a great Death item.

Map of Dereth - This was an awesome concept, everyone I took there was awed by the panorama, this item would have been more useful as a death item had it had a burden like Thorstons, 500 is too much so the quest fell by the wayside. Lower the burden, we would do it again.

The ones above were not uber items, they were simply useful


Now... for really great quests that people would go on even if there was NO reward. They simply love the challenge.

Aerlinthe - they do that to this day, they all have the recall

Queens Quest - Another fun quest, people go just to go.

Gaerlan's - This is my favorite quest. I don't care about the items, I just love the challenge.

What I am saying, in spite of people asking for more and more, and the developers giving it to us, it does not make the game more fun, it simply loads our mules with worthless junk that we loved two patches ago.

Btw, "Semi useful" items are not very useful, if they don't stack and we have 3 other things that are similar, they will be muled.