May 2003

Things just keep rolling, rolling, rolling -

(You'll find 1.62L in the Pendragon notes section.)

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Dark Age of Camelot
Test Version 1.62m Release Notes
Thursday, May 29, 2003
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PET CONTROL NOTE

We've changed the way that the different "modes" (passive, aggressive) work when controlling pets.   Now, pets in aggressive mode will automatically attack non friendly targets (before that target performs any aggressive actions), so long as they are within the pet's aggressive range and the pet isn't currently engaged in another action.

In order to still allow the previous "aggressive behavior", where a pet in aggressive mode would not take any action on a target attacking the controller until the controller told it to, we have also changed the way that Passive mode works.  Pets in Passive mode will now set their target, attack, and change to defensive mode when the "attack" button on the Pet Control Window is pressed.

CAMELOT CLASSIC WORLD NOTES

Realm v.  Realm:

- The Master Eldritches of Hibernia defend their border keeps more aggressively than ever before.   Fellow Hibernians should no longer fear being killed while near their border keeps.

- You will no longer get experience for killing The Master Summoner of the Dead (the Hibernian Corpse Summoner)

Dungeon Notes

- The Naburite Drinkers in Darkness Falls that were set to uncharmable have been fixed.

SHROUDED ISLES WORLD NOTES

- We have removed the wait time for the portal from the expansion areas to the realm portal keeps after another player begins to teleport back.  Players can now teleport back to the portal keeps at any time without waiting for the portal ceremony to finish.

Midgard Quests

- Mammoth Hunt:  We have slightly toned down the difficulty of step 5, which requires players to clear a Morvalt camp.

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Hello, world.  We're back!  However, in the interests of getting back up tonight, we had to take a few shortcuts:

- Keep and relic status will not update until sometime tomorrow.  New guild data (roster changes, guild scores, etc.), same as above.  The Herald is currently working from a snapshot of April 22 for these, so any guilds created after that date will not display until tomorrow.

- Features requiring a log in (the polls, the realm-only calendars) will also be offline for now.   I don't have an ETA on this part, but "as soon as possible" applies.

Individual data should be updating back on schedule.  The various copies of 1.62L you've been seeing at the Vault, Catacombs, and Allakhazam are accurate (I sent them :)), and I will post them to here tomorrow.

Sorry, everybody.  We hope that this upgrade makes things better than ever!

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Hey, everyone.  The yellow ball in the sky isn't all it's cracked up to be, so I'm back under my rock.  I'm just now wading through two weeks of your love letters and advice, so please, I beg patience for those of you with urgent issues.  I missed you!

But the real reason for my post is to let you know that the long awaited 1.62 patch needs a little more waiting - we're still talking with our testers and team leads, and making adjustments.   We expect to have it live early next week, and I thank you for your patience and for all the feedback you've sent regarding this patch.

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Here is one last addition to the 1.62 patch before the weekend.

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Dark Age of Camelot
Version 1.62k Test Release Notes
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NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- We fixed a bug where archers were locked in their 'Aim' animation, even after they fired, when using Rapid Shot.  This fixes a Pendragon-only bug.

- Rapid Shot is now a mode which can be toggled on and off.  You now simply go into "Rapid Shot Mode" and you'll fire faster for less damage until you go out of that mode.

- Snare effects on combat styles will no longer break when the target takes damage.

- Armor absorption buffs now factor into Bolt damage.  They previously were not, adding into the massive damage being done against all cloth casters currently on Pendragon.  This fixes a Pendragon-only bug.

- We removed the armor level penalty reduction entirely for bolts - now bolts do naturally higher damage against less armored targets due to the armor type modifiers.

- Quickbar icons for 'Self Salvage', 'Self Repair', and 'Self Imbue/Combine' will now save properly across zoning and logging.  You can create quickbar icons from these buttons on the mini-craft window by pressing Shift-Right Click on the buttons.

- Fixed a bug where Elven Guardians were not correctly being assigned to a newbie guild.

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Here's the latest installment for 1.62, which contains mostly bug fixes to problems that have been found by the testing community.

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Dark Age of Camelot
Test Version 1.62j Release Notes
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Today's test update is comprised almost wholly of bug fixes to existing Pendragon problems that have been uncovered by our testing community.

NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- We fixed a Pendragon-only bug with bolts that was attenuating their damage, causing them to do far less damage than intended.  This has been fixed, and now bolts should be doing the correct amount of damage - which is more than bolts currently do on live.  This will have to be tested thoroughly by the Pendragon community.

- Animist turrets summoned on the corners of Hibernian keeps should now spawn at the correct height location.  This fixes a Pendragon-only bug.

- Previously Necromancers pets could run into visibility problems when trying to cast spells against obviously visible targets.  This was a Pendragon only bug and has been fixed.

- Previously, friendly Animist turrets sometimes tried to buff dead group mates.  This fixes a live bug.

- We fixed a bug where you would lose your new guild the first time you zoned.  This fixes a Pendragon-only bug.

- Rapid Shot damage should be properly adjusted based on time spent preparing the shot.   Previously Archers could get into a state where all their arrow damage was at 100%, whether it was rapid fired or not.  This fixes a Pendragon-only bug.

- Now, you can use the /level command anywhere near your trainer.  This is a change to the initial implementation of /level where you had to be in a capitol city.  This will make it easier for newly leveled characters to get to their 5th level class trainers.

NEWBIE GUILDS

We've implemented the newbie guild system to go on all live servers in 1.62.  This is the same system that has been featured on the PvP servers for the last few months.  Now, when you create a new character, you'll be placed in a guild that is based on your new character's starting location.  This will give legitimately new players some community in their general starting area via guild chat and an easy way to meet up with like-level new players.  If desired, you can leave the newbie guild at any time.

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We're proud to announce our next retail expansion called Dark Age of Camelot:  Trials of Atlantis, where your Camelot character can explore the fabled underwater lost civilization.

We have launched a website dedicated to TOA at www.trialsofatlantis.com, where you'll be able to track the expansion as it goes through development.  We're not going to release screenshots or detailed information about the expansion at this time, but we will be demonstrating it at E3 next week.  Stay tuned to the TOA website, as we'll release concept art, screenshots, and other detailed information on a regular basis.

Please note that we will be working on TOA and the upcoming RvR expansion at the same time - we'll release more details on the RvR expansion in a month or so.

http://www.trialsofatlantis.com/

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Smaller dose, this time:

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Dark Age of Camelot
Test Version 1.62e Release Notes
Thursday, May 1, 2003
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Here's some fixes that weren't quite ready for Pendragon testing earlier this morning when we locked down the 1.62d version because they were not approved by our Product Quality department.   They are ready for testing on Pendragon now.

NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- Some of the spell changes did not make the transition from our internal patch server to Pendragon in 1.62d.  Everything should now be as advertised on Pendragon.

- The 1.62d note:  "Added a L50 DD, Obsidian Strike, in the Darkness base list to make it more consistent with the base lists in other Realms" also applies to Bonedancers.

MORE ARCHER NOTES

- We've adjusted the way we calculate fumbles for Archery.  Archery attacks have always had fumbles calculated differently than regular melee attacks.  We've reworked this part of the Archery fumble calculation to be more in line with the way melee fumbles work, meaning Archers should notice a substantial decrease in their fumble rates, somewhere on the order of 1/4 what they were.

- Camouflage timers will no longer be reset by PvE attacks.  Only an attack by the Archer on another player or a pet or turret controlled by another player will reset the timer.   Camouflage is designed to let the Archer scout in PvP situations, so PvE interactions should not affect its timer.

- NOTE:  We have seen complaints that Archers miss their targets at a higher rate then melee fighters.  Please be aware that we have run extensive tests as well as looked at the formulas and have found the miss rates for Archers and melee are the same.  We will continue to look into this as more reports and logs are generated by Archers, but for now there are no miss fixes.

- NOTE:  We are working on one more fix for Archers, a long awaited See Hidden adjustment.   However, it is still going through testing here, and is not ready for today's version but will be ready soon.  We are currently looking at a system which will vary the range that an assassin can see a non camouflaged hidden archer anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 of the current range depending on the archer's stealth spec vs. the assassin's level.  On average this would mean an assassin would have to be within about 1/2 the range that he can see the archer from now.   Look for more on this change soon.

/LEVEL NOTES

- We no longer exclude Pendragon level 50's from using the /level command.

- Using /level will now temporarily result in a level 20 character for testing on Pendragon.

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