Tell us what you think of the November event!

[Ibn]

Please use this thread to tell us what you think of the November event -- Visions in the Darkness.

[Yew Wan Sum]

So far, so good. Lots of bells and whistles for the 'item collector' crowd, a VoD dungeon for the vitae loving crowd (=P), and another quest I'm working out, but not sure where to proceed yet.

Looking good. No bugs found yet, although I found it strange that the 'Strange Sclavus' didn't drop any items. The fate of the husband was apparent after I saw it die, but I have yet to find the proof I need. I wawsn't happy that you needed lockpick either. There should *always* be a key somewhere, that requires extra work to get to, but at least allows you to proceed.

I was hoping to see the hollow bow modified. Its utterly pathetic and hollow weapons are the *only* hope for solo participation in PvP for those without life magic. I wont even get started on the bad move of nerfing weeping bow damage and then *increasing* other melee weeping damage.

Last month I was really let down by the Queen not at least making temporary forays across the surface, 1-hitting everyone in her path and causing general destruction and mayhem, but I was extremely pleased with the alloy quest, and the revitalization of many of the older dungeons.

I see that new dungeons are being added and hopefully by continuing to upgrade the older ones as well, there will be plenty of appropriate content.

I notice no real changes to towns, other than a couple NPC's. There really needs to be a serious amount of effort thrown into towns in order to revitalize them. Over a year ago, I complained about NPC's that had never been updated with even so much as a new saying. They still haven't. Poor Tufa is the worst of the lot, but every town has the same problem. The vendors are lifeless and static. Instead of adding new NPC's to 'lead us to the quest', why not sell rumors in the bars, or have a wing collector mention a new dungeon, or similar. At least there would be some sense of dynamicism that way.

Bottom line is, this is a good month, and I see many more in the future. Nothing and no one is perfect, so obviously there are things some will like and others not, but overall I think the direction things are headed is basically good, with one exception.
The Monty Haul aspect of this game continues unabated. Not only is this detrimental to the long term viability of the game, but it makes so much existing content irrelevant that its counter-productive. Why have jewelry imbues if you are just going to hand out quest rewards with multiple minors on them? It really cheapens things. You've already forced yourself to rework the whole world just to deal with weapon imbues and uber-armor. Assuming you ever recover from that, please don't increase player power any further than it already is. The game has gotten WAY to easy, and addition of dungeon with 50+mil/hour potential is just making it worse. Add in the failed promise of perma banned macroers, and chains, and you have a game that has grown way out of hand. I am hoping to see some modifications to XP passup, as I and others have hoped for a very long time. All you need to do is require Leadership for passup to be at all efective. (i.e. add a divisor of 4 to the result of the effective leadership calculation) and change the way rank works a bit. Rank should be equal to the sum of the two highest ranked vassals, plus one, divided by 2 and rounded up(so all character have rank 1). Heres a table:

Vassals

#1 Rank #2 Rank
No vassals = ((0 + 0) + 1)/2 = 0.5 Rounded up = 1
Rank 1 + Rank 1 = ((1 + 1) + 1)/2 = 1.5 Rounded up = 2
Rank 5 + Rank 5 = ((5 + 5) + 1)/2 = 5.5 Rounded up = 6
Rank 5 + Rank 6 = ((5 + 6) + 1)/2 = 6
Rank 8 + no other vassals = ((8 + 0) +1)/2 = 4.5 Rounded up = Rank 5
Rank 8 + Rank 5 = ((8 + 5) + 1)/2 = Rank 7


See how easy that is? No more bogus Rank chains giving rank 8+ to hundreds of people.
Same with Leadership. To get max passup they would need over 600 effective leadership, instead of the easily attainable 165 with max vassals(swapped from other servers of course).



Its not hard to fix, you just gotta do it.

Now, I must get back to enjoying this patch. :)


p.s. Chicken hats :)

[Eddie the Crazy]

I love the Tremendous Monouga Pack Doll :D

[cindel]

Chicken hats!!!
Love the Chicken hats!

Want a chalkboard in my appartment tho.... :-(

[DadgaSilverhand]

wow, i am impressed with you Ibn, taking care of 2 boards, here and accmty.

had fun getting a new mask from moarsman. best artistic work on mask so far.
still early on patch report, but those shallow devourers drop nothing, not one coin or anything, each kills i made, all empty. how boring.

[Tara Malkav]

"had fun getting a new mask from moarsman"

::faints::

Can you say the one mask I've waited my whole AC career for? =P

[Jin Saotome]

I'm having second-thoughts about a hollow-pumkin-mask. I'd of like to see the Hollow Minion Face either like a doll mask, or the whole head (with the cool witch hat!) instead of a pumpkin with a stiched face on your head....erk.

[Tara Malkav]

I assume it's done like the one in Ulgrim's basement?

[Tahlisa]

I love the new leather armour, but I found a leather helm (AL117) with no wield requirements and it won't let me wield it. I just get a message saying it can't be wielded . This happens on all my characters from level 17 up to level 94 :(

Ok, I just found the bug page and see that it is a known bug. I'm happy now:)

[stafia]

Sry for posting here but couldn't post anywhere else. I want to talk abouot playing ac on darktide , it's super but there are already too many high levels into the game :( the only porpose there is not quest is about growing and gorwing so you could do pk after :). At first is fun but wen you become big is becoming booring , because beside raids is nothing to do.
The IDEEA how about bringing in the game not some new quest and something to protect to counqer something that monarhy's must protect , a piece of land , a house or something ...
Sry my bad english , pls gime a reply...

[Circeus]

I think the more turn-ins you create for all those items that we can get off of creatures the better. Drudge Charms are a perfect example (though I think lower level versions should exist like raiments do).

Didn't have time to do more than get a Bloodletter Necklace and some Chalkboards last night.

[Paraduck]

So far, the VoD dungeon has been fun and challenging (although I now hate Banderlings more than Mites.) We just need to figure out what to do with these NPCs!

[HeXt]

This is fun so far. I'm kinda frustrated/mad at the fact that the chick torched my book after I tried to inform her about her sclavus of a husband... Too bad my friend fragged him on the way in too. :/






Edit: And I wanna thank whoever though of mocking my blunt sword idea with the banderling arm. too funny. :/

[Seregil]

To tell you the truth, I wouldnt know anything about this patch--but it isnt for the lack of trying. The amount of lag and poor connections have plagued me ever since the patch went into effect. I spent a whole day trying to move around at the monarchy mansion without luck. Tonight, I managed to get buffed and portal to the Qalabar Citadel and actually move away from the portal drop--not far but far enough to engage a montrok. I managed to kill it but got stuck trying to loot and actually had to turn off my computer as I was motionless for over 10 mins--enough for the monster I killed to respawn. Maybe Turbine will smarten up and dump MS and their Zone passport.

[Jin Saotome]

I sometimes get problems with my Zone popups dropping me to decktop, but not often. Hows does the Zone or Passport give you lagg tho?

[Tahlisa]

I have had no lag problems at all, could it be something else? your ISP or Decal maybe?

[Paraduck]

Tonight I had better lag than I did during the whole month of October. Pings were less than 200 MS and I had 0% packet loss... hasn't been like that for ages. Then agian, lag and packetloss tend to get worse as the patch gets "older."

[Seregil]

How does the Zone and Passport cause me lag? Well when I surf other sites I do not experience this problem. However, when I try to play AC, everything goes smoothly until I hit the Zone/Passport login and from then on everything is bogged down with lag. Currently, the only way I can get into AC is thru the backdoor of the Silent Rooms. This tells me that the problem is with this particular patch as it has happened with some of the other patches. Something in the patch configuration is disrupting my connection and causing extreme lag. The same thing happened last patch but seemed to affect many more people if you watched many of the fan boards.

[Tara Malkav]

"I have had no lag problems at all, could it be something else?"

How often do you play, what server, and at what times do you play? I know Morningthaw, which is my server, has had a lot of issues. My ISP has not changed and if anything it has gotten more reliable. Also, I do not use decal. This is happening to plenty of people to the point where it can't just be blamed on ISP's or video cards etc. Granted you can get laggier do to your ISP, computer, and decal programs, but that is layered over the server lag.

[Tahlisa]

I wasn't meaning that it couldn't be zone/ac, just making a couple of suggestions. I play on Solclaim and have been playing about 5 hours a day lately. I usally play a couple of hours in our morning, mid afternoon to Americans and then a few in your evening and sometimes one or two in the middle of your night. One thing I have noticed today is that I have been getting some packet loss (0.3 or so) most of the time but still no noticable lag.

[Jin Saotome]

Hmmmm, I'm gonna try logging on through different backdoors and game-rooms, and see if any of them make a different in my ping time. I run on DSL, so it's pretty fast as it is. There any programs I can use to track speed while playing?

[HeXt]

If I sneeze the game lags too. :/

[cindel]

nother issuse with tracking packetloss is that the IP block that the actualy servers are on do not respond to any type of ICMP requests....so even if you run a traceroute or try to ping them then you wind up getting 100% packetloss when you try to cross that section of the network...

Note you can find the IP block in the readme file under one of the networking/ firewall sections...

the IP block listed is 207.46.173.*
so a samble trace route to IP 207.46.173.1 would be


C:\Documents and Settings\cindel>tracert 207.46.173.1

Tracing route to iusdgamesc7501-fddi-0-0.msft.net [207.46.173.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms server.clarkconnect.lan [10.10.100.1]
2 17 ms 11 ms 12 ms cdm-66-233-128-1.rsvl.cox-internet.com [66.233.128.1]
3 16 ms 15 ms 19 ms faytbbrc01-fex0537.ma.dl.cox-internet.com [208.180.32.100]
4 26 ms 24 ms 22 ms cdm-66-45-37.tyrd.cox-internet.com [66.76.45.37]
5 31 ms 28 ms 23 ms dllsdsrc01-gew0303.rd.dl.cox.net [68.1.206.5]
6 26 ms 27 ms 29 ms dllsbbrc01-pos0101.rd.dl.cox.net [68.1.0.144]
7 46 ms 47 ms 41 ms chndbbrc02-pos0103.rd.ph.cox.net [68.1.0.147]
8 45 ms 45 ms 60 ms chndbbrc01-pos0100.rd.ph.cox.net [68.1.0.162]
9 55 ms 52 ms 51 ms lvxxbbrc01-pos0103.rd.lv.cox.net [68.1.0.88]
10 81 ms 75 ms 74 ms paltbbrj01-pos010000.r2.pt.cox.net [68.1.0.95]
11 79 ms 75 ms 73 ms 68.105.31.2
12 76 ms 76 ms 76 ms 207.46.34.69
13 99 ms 94 ms 96 ms pos15-0.core1.sea1.us.msn.net [207.46.33.29]
14 93 ms 93 ms 92 ms 207.46.36.66
15 93 ms 91 ms 93 ms 207.46.155.17
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\cindel>

and a sample ping with 10 count sending very very small packets (8 bytes) and waiting 10 secnds for each reply would look like this...

C:\Documents and Settings\cindel>ping 207.46.173.1 -n 10 -l 8 -w 10000

Pinging 207.46.173.1 with 8 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 207.46.173.1:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 0, Lost = 10 (100% loss),

C:\Documents and Settings\cindel>


So it impossible for anyone except microsoft to pinpoint where packetloss occusrs unless it on our side of that magic router. And belive me I have tested the heck out of every hop along the way and never get more than an average of 0.03% packetloss to any of the hops unless I crank the packet size way up... In short

I run a machine that is probably 100x or more than the minimun requirements, and have little to no packetloss on any section of the net leading upto MS's network, is there is no reason for me to lagg out in game... unless either MS's network cant handel the trafic that it gets or the servers cant handel it anymore, either way its nothing I can do anything about short of comming here and saying "Why hasnt it been fixed yet!!!?" and "What happened to the server upgrades!!!?"

[Unthor]

Seems a bit more laggy than usual.

[Jin Saotome]

On a positive note, I love the new masks, and the fact we can get the bracelet of Dark Essence and Energy Crystals again. I would like to see old dungeons/quests/npc's/stuff updated in some patch instead of just new content put in.

[sionwarwick]

typo: "Crucible with Quick1silver Potion"

is unusable for further crafting.

I've posted to the official email addy as well.

[gimped mage]

Hi i noticed one thing lacking for sure in this months update ....

no wands with a melee d bonus =(

i been hoping for a couple years now for one .

maybe next update .

[Lyrah from TD]

I haven't had the lag problems that some seem to be reporting, for which I am grateful.

I love the new look for the gromnie armor etc... I, like others, would love to see more non armor clothing styles too though.

How hard would it be to change the character creation process? Tatoos, different hair options would be fun. It would be nice to have the options available on AC2. Why don't I just play AC2? Because the way the characters moved made me nauseated.

AC rules!

[Italuwa]

i like that(it seems atleast) that u have increased the scarecrowhead drop rate hugly! in the past years i have not found a single one, this year on my first scarcrow i saw droped one and i have found 4 more since...not even trying to find them. i think this masks up for privious years =D

[Tara Malkav]

Maybe that's why I can't find a scarecrow, you're killing them all. =P

[Tahlisa]

I found quite a few in the desert. Not the bit with dolls in, but the Samsur area

[Paraduck]

Check near Lyth. There's a TON there... just run circles around the town. :)

[Tara Malkav]

Lol, I'll give that a try.

[Paraduck]

That's how I got mine. :)

[Tara Malkav]

Another one?

[Paraduck]

mmhmm.

[HeXt]

Pumpkin masks are too annoying to search for. They take up alot of real life time. They should drop from ALL living Scarecrows.

[Morgwyn]

I have been unable to inscribe chalices and a friend of mine has found many of the new bowls, chalices, etc., are not inscribable. Is this intentional?

[Tara Malkav]

A lot of throw weapons, like jack-o-lanterns for example, can not be inscribed.

[Harzah]

Originally posted by Tahlisa
I found quite a few in the desert. Not the bit with dolls in, but the Samsur area

There are quite a few in the desert near Yaraq as well, just beyond the *thinks* North Outpost.

[Hellbound]

I really hoped the drop rate on the scarecrow mask was a tad better :(

I'm at 36 hours hunting for them, and still no mask.... Starting to get both boring an anoying!!!

HB