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|  | Posted By: Sanya Thomas | 2003-02-21 18:31:49 |  |
| |  |  Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin:
Q: Is there a faster way to select how much gold I’m going to give to someone? One at a time makes my carpal tunnel disease flare up.
A: Hold down shift as you click, and you’ll move select ten per click.
Q: I have not seen my question answered, even though I’ve sent it in every week.
A: Keep sending it in – believe it or not, there is a method to my Grab Bag madness. Each question you see here was asked by more than one player since the previous Friday AND I was able to get the Official Answer approved. I read the forms every week! By the way, you can increase your odds of seeing your question by not swearing or using the word "suck," and by quickly proofreading your submission to be sure it makes sense. Thanks :)
Q: What is a scabbard used for in the game and how would I use it?
A: According to our Item Princess, we don’t have any sword scabbards (it’s the thing a sword rests in, a sheath, for those of you new to fantasy and ancient history) that are used as part of your outfit in the game at this time. Right now, there’s the Albion relic, there’s a crafted item in the "trinket" category, quest related items, and "cash loot" items – items that aren’t used for anything, they’re just there for fun and to sell at the end of a hunting trip.
Q: What is the arcanium simulacrum's advantage over the other "natural" simulacrums? How many hitpoints does it have? Everyone seems to say it does the same damage as the sapphire, before the proc.
A: Because it is higher level, the arcanium simulacrum hits harder in melee, absorbs more damage and has more hitpoints. One thing to note – we’re planning on taking another look at these in the near future, and you may find that they become more distinctive. If you quote me on this, notice I didn’t give an ETA ;)
Q: Question about "overcapping" buffs. As a Friar, I use my lower level base buffs since they hit the buff cap of 50 with my enhance score of 45. If they go over the 50 limit, does the game "store" any overage in case of debuffs? In other words, is there any benefit whatsoever in overcapping if we can do it, be it by equipment, buffs, or elsewise?
A: I am told that right now, points over the cap just poof into the void, but I’m told that the caps are going to get another look soon – and that overcapping points may in the future be stored for the exact reason you mention. Again, see above, I’m not giving any ETA’s, just giving you an idea on things we’ll be looking at soon.
Q: Does the toughness RA add 3% of your hp WITHOUT items or 3% of your max HP including the points you get from loot?
A: The bonus is applied to the number of hit points you have before hit points you get from +HP items are added in.
Q: Hello! I'm writing to inquire about summonable pets and their armor and weapons. I noticed when I played a spiritmaster that the initial pet is unarmored and unarmed. As the SM grows in strength and gets new summon spells, the pets start becoming armored and armed. My question is this: do they actually have armor on, and do their wielded weapons actually make a different, or are they merely graphics? (i.e. is a spirit champion actually wearing chain? and an abomination, as it appears, plate?)
A: The armor shows what sort of damage the pet’s armor is vulnerable to. If a pet is wearing "plate" armor, then the pet is susceptible to crush damage, as if it were wearing plate armor... but it's not actually WEARING the armor. It is not benefiting from the absorption or armor factor. By the way, a pet’s displayed weapon works the same way – a pet swinging a hammer isn’t actually holding the hammer, but will get a bonus against plate armor.
Q: How come my applied tincture isn’t working? Is this a bug?
A: Nope! See if this makes sense – there are three different sorts of tinctures that an alchemist can make and apply. Reactive, volatile, and stable tinctures all have different purposes.
Reactive – these are applied to armor worn on the head, torso, arms, hands, legs, or feet. When you are hit in one of those areas, this tincture’s effect has a chance of going off. These do not work when applied to weapons or shields. A reactive tincture is a defensive measure.
Volatile – there are applied to weapons and shields, and have a chance of going off when the weapon or shield scores a hit of some kinds. The shield tincture won’t go off when the shield is used to block. A volatile tincture is used as an offensive technique.
(By the way – I should spell out "all weapons except bows," and the reason for that is long, confusing, and boils down to "because bow damage is a range effect and calculated more like a spell than a weapon.")
Stable – these are charges, effects that can be used, that can be applied to most anything that holds still. Please note – if an alchemist puts a charge on something, only an alchemist can recharge that something. The NPC chargers are of no use when it comes to player made charges.
Most of the appeals we’ve gotten on this topic, saying their tincture is bugged and not working, come from players who attempted to apply reactive tinctures to weapons and shields. Just check first to see what type of tincture was used before you report it as a bug.
And that’s the bag. If you were going to make fun of me for that song reference I opened with, now's the point in our program where we do so :)
Announcement time: On Monday we’re bringing 1.60 live, and it’s a pretty hefty patch. Albion hadn’t had a turn under the microscope in a few months, and it seems like we made up for lost time in one fell swoop. There’s also big things with battlegrounds, and roleplaying meat and marrow (weddings and hats), and literally tons more. I recommend putting aside a few hours Monday just to read the patch notes!
Regular visitors to the Herald have noticed our efforts to improve documentation. If you host a message board devoted to DAOC, you’re welcome to start a thread about what you’d like to see the most under "Game Docs" over there to your left. Send me the link, and we’ll do our best to get the favorites up and running!
Your friends at the Catacombs just redid their map index section – a handy "table of contents" to the DAOC maps on the internet. Check it out.
Also worth a look is the IGN Vault Online Worlds Roundtable - our own Matt Firor, Producer Man, was a participant.
Just a gentle reminder to our friends and fans who play on servers outside the United States – we’re thrilled to have you playing DAOC, but I, Sanya, can only help with issues affecting our customers who play on US servers. If you’ve got technical issues, you need to contact the company that hosts your servers. Of course, you’re more than welcome to fill out a Camelot Herald Feedback Form and ask questions for the grab bag. But please note - I don’t have special character sets installed on my computer, so mail arriving from y’all in Asia tends to be gibberish to me. So please, use the English alphabet for your emails and feedback forms. (If those of you who are bilingual could translate this message and post it to foreign language fan sites, I would be eternally grateful.)
Have a fabulous weekend, all.
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