GameStreet – Asheron’s Call News

New Patch, "Present Dilemma" 11/13/11

The December Event Present Dilemma, is scheduled to go live on Tuesday, December 13th. On that day all worlds will be down from 8am – 11am Eastern. You can read all about the December Event by Clicking here!

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Luminance & Bonus XP Weekend!

In light of the recent luminance weekend being cut short, we are happy to announce that there will be another Luminance and bonus XP weekend.

Starting in the afternoon on February 18th through the morning of February 21st, Luminance will be available in addition to bonus XP for quests and hunting.

from Official Forums

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Bonus Quest XP and Luminance Weekend!

We will be having a bonus quest experience weekend starting sometime before 6pm Eastern on Friday January 14th and ending on Monday January 17th. (Sometime Monday morning before noon)

All quest XP rewards during that time will be increased by 50% for a total of 150% experience.

Additionally, we will be having a bonus quest Luminance weekend starting sometime before 6pm Eastern on Friday January 28th and ending on Monday January 31st. (Sometime Monday morning before noon)

All quest Luminance rewards during that time will be increased by 50% for a total of 150% Luminance.

from Official Forums

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August Patch Tree: Quiet Before the Storm

August Patch Tree: Quiet Before the Storm

The February event is going live on Tuesday Auguts 10th from 7am to 11am EST, and our patch tree is open and awaiting your submissions!

Unfortunately we still haven’t been able to sort out the spam problem, so please contact us via email to submit your patch tree goodness at http://acvault.ign.com/siteinfo/mail.php?staff=Submissions

See you in Dereth!

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Turbine Community Update

Turbine Community Update

Turbine have posted an update explaining exactly how the new purchase by WB is going to affect Asheron’s Call. You’ll be happy to hear that AC is not going away, and in fact Turbine hopes to be able to put some of these new found resources into "expanding" the franchises.

AC3? We hope so!

You can discuss this update here or on the official Asheron’s Call forums

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New Armour Concept Art

New Armour Concept Art

In the May event, players will be able to pick up new armour courtesy of Matt "Scenario" Elliott who designed the concept and in game artwork.

You can view it right on the official site

Feel free to comment on it right here or on the official forums

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Warner Bros Buys Turbine!

Warner Bros Buys Turbine!

Hot off the press, Turbine has just been purchased by Warner Bros!

What does this mean for Asheron’s Call? Good question! We’ll be watching carefully!

Check out the Press Release at Turbine.com

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Asheron’s Call Gets New Race, New Armor and More

Some things are afoot in the world of Asheron’s Call.

Turbine has implemented some changes including the addition of a new race: Shadows.

Some of these dark characters look as though they’re half made of smoke, as seen here:

It also includes multi-slot armor, the addition of barbers and hairstyles, and a new kind of magic called Aetheria.

You can read more details in the press release below.

Turbine Introduces New Playable Race to Asheron’s Call; Launches Additional Features

New Playable Race-

Now you can play as a Shadow!

Players can now choose to be a Shadow, living among the peoples of Dereth! Isin Dule has harnessed the power of the Lifestones to grant those who want it, a chance at life among those who follow the light! You can read more about the new playable race here!

Aetheria-

By researching the ancient writings of Empyrean magic, the Archmages of the Arcanum have unlocked the secrets of a new kind of magic that the Empyreans called Aetheria. In ancient times, powerful Empyrean mages learned to infuse Aetheria in Dereth with pure mana to empower it. Find out more here!

Barbers and Hairstyles-

In addition, barbers have also set up shop to prepare people for the wedding. These artisans can help you freshen up your look, using their expert techniques to restyle your hair and freshen your look. Their craft is not entirely mundane for they can even change your appearance as they freshen up your look. Located near the tailors, you simply talk to the barbers. If you can pay their price you will find a variety of options appear to allow you to change your style. The barbers are very particular about their time, however. You pay up front, and their fee stands regardless of what look you choose, even if change your mind and get cold feet.

Multi-slot Armor

Many blacksmiths have worked their craft in the lands of Dereth and ancient armor can be found all over. It is not uncommon for smiths to create large pieces of armor that offer coverage over multiple areas of the body. To the discerning adventurer trying to create the perfect suit of armor, however, these larger pieces can be inconvenient to fit into their suit even though the piece may have powerful magics and look very good when worn. Smiths have perfected powerful craft magic which will rework these pieces so they are much more efficient and cover less area. This allows adventurers to more easily fit pieces into existing suits. Read more!

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February 2010 Teaser Image

February 2010 Teaser Image

Our patch tree has been updated with release notes and the ACV exclusive teaser image.

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February 2010 Patch Tree: Winter’s Knight

February 2010 Patch Tree: Winter’s Knight

The February event is going live on Tuesday February 9th from 6am to 11am EST, and our patch tree is open and awaiting your submissions!

Unfortunately we still haven’t been able to sort out the spam problem, so please contact us via email to submit your patch tree goodness at http://acvault.ign.com/siteinfo/mail.php?staff=Submissions

See you in Dereth!

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January 2010 Exclusive Teaser Image!!

Better late then never!!!

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This Week With Turbine

Issue 161 is up!

This week, Severlin answered questions about Two Handed Weapons, as well as the issue of corpses not dissolving, and also talked about the future possibility of adjusting some quest timers. Django addressed more concerns about the "Armor Swapping" system, and also talked about the new Gearknight Fortress. Frelorn announced a bonus XP weekend, from November 25th through the 30th, all quest xp will be boosted by 50%!

Happy Holidays to those of you who have them this week! Turbine’s Holiday hours are also inside this week’s column.

As a side note, I will be moving across the country the day after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure when I will have Internet access back, so next week’s This Week With Turbine may be late, or I may end up doing a Two-in-One issue once I get Internet access back.

Enjoy!

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This Week With Turbine

Issue 160 is up!

This week’s questions mainly revolved around the item mentioned last week in Severlin’s Producer’s Letter: The ability to move spells and armor value from one item of armor to another (same slot) kind of armor, allowing for player customization. There seems to be some confusion, and some controversy about this system, so the issues were addressed by Severlin and Django.

Additionally, the Asheron’s Call Video Contest winners were announced. Congratulations to Connor the Craftmaster, An Adventurer, and Damien Sarin for their winning entries!

Enjoy!

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This Week With Turbine

Issue 159 is up!

First, my apologies for this being late. The hard drive in my computer died, and I had to wait for a new one to be shipped and installed. Sorry! (And yes, I was going through withdrawl! 😀 )

So, another busy week! The big news came in the form of a Producer’s Letter, where it was announced that Severlin was the new Asheron’s Call Producer! Congratulations, Sev! Severlin’s letter prompted many questions, and he and Django were busy answering those questions. Also the hotfix issues were discussed, Severlin talked at length about the trinkets, and the Pumpkin Carving Contest winners were announced!

Enjoy!

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Hot off the RSS Feed: Letter from the Producer

Hot off the RSS Feed: Letter from the Producer

With the 10th Anniversary which just landed upon us, apparently some people have been looking for evidence of a clear direction for where AC is going. Well, Turbine is listening and has posted the first Letter from the Producer (and you’ll all be pleased to know that Severlin got promoted to producer – grats!) in a few months.

November 2009 Letter to the Players (source

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So, Asheron’s Call has reached its 10th anniversary. It’s incredible to have fans that have been with us through so many years, so many updates, and so many changes of the guard. It’s been an amazing 10 years in Dereth.

The AC team learned a lot in the year since our 100th update in August 2008, and after it was implemented we sat down and took a hard look at what worked and what didn’t. The initial patch was not what we wanted it to be when it launched. Fixing the subsystems took a number of updates, and we learned a lot of new things about our capabilities and the speed at which we can develop content. Although we finally feel that the systems introduced with that patch are close to our initial vision, we still want to continue making some adjustments to the systems and expand on the content areas from that patch.

In spite of the issues , the 100th update brought knowledge and many needed changes that were crucial to our ongoing plans. It was the first time since Throne of Destiny, our 2005 expansion, that the team split its focus and began to develop two areas of the game simultaneously. The 100th update delivered a new loot tier, and a mechanism through which questing could receive loot pulls. It also introduced a lot of new tech, including a whole new faction system to allow creatures to fight with one another and ally with players. This tech has already been used in a gambling-oriented monster arena and in faction areas.

For the 10th anniversary, we wanted to deliver new ways to play the game while staying true to Asheron’s Call. We added Two-handed Combat to the game to give you a new archetype for playing the game, and also added new capabilities to old skills that gave you further options to develop new types of characters. On top of that we added an entirely new item slot with a rich system of upgrading these new items to add depth to an already great loot system. We added a new interface where players could record information and track real-time quest timers, with the ability to sort and search through that information.

We also moved the game world forward, adding an entire new class of creature to the game with Gear Knights. These creatures/constructs provide a new threat — and potentially a new source of allies — to the players. With them came two new hunting areas to give more options to both high level characters and lower level characters.

With the 10th anniversary mostly behind us, and adjustments and fixes already well underway, I wanted to look ahead and share some items on our development wish list. I wanted to give you some insight about the areas of the game we are looking to improve; not as an announcement of features, but rather as a preview of the things we will be examining. Some of these things might be set aside as our priorities and understanding change. Some will be embraced and implemented!

Our first goal is to hit the ground running and deliver our next big update in the late spring or early summer of 2010. Although this new update is still a work in progress, I wanted to talk a bit about some of the things we are examining in the coming months to see if it’s possible to deliver them in that update.

I see an important wedding being announced in game to the people of Dereth. To celebrate this wedding, we will present a special update with some new features and special content. With a wedding comes an opportunity to dress sharp, and we are looking into systems to help characters look their best for the content and live events that will take place around this wedding.

With the wedding approaching, the nobles hope to sponsor artisans to style hair and treat the skin of the people of Dereth. We hope to add new hair styles and facial features to character options. This is, of course, far less compelling without Barbers to allow existing characters to change their hair, facial features, and perhaps even skin color. (Yes, if possible we will allow changes to the eyes, nose, and mouth. Barbers with access to the magic of Dereth can perform some wondrous things.)

With the wedding approaching, the nobles hope to sponsor artisans to enhance clothes and armors that appeal to the senses, yet still allow wedding guests to be on guard for dangers that might occur. We will look at the possibility of adding tailors to help players look their best. What we hope to do is create tailors that allow players to take one piece of loot gear that has great stats, but perhaps lacks in visual appeal, and exchange its stats and spells with those of another piece of loot gear that has inferior stats but has an appealing visual style and color. By allowing this for regular loot items we hope to allow players much more control over how their characters look. (This tailoring would not be possible with quest items or some specialty items like society armor.)

If we can implement the tech for these new looks, we also hope to implement an option to hide a character’s helm so you can show off your new look without getting your brains caved in should trouble arise.

We will look at the possibility of fixing up some of the animations that cause egregious gaps. We want to change a few animations where characters raise their arms above their head, like the jump animation and the logout animation, into something that does not cause the arms to obviously leave the body. We also want to fix the archery animation so the arm does not obviously detach from the torso. We want to see if this can be done in an acceptable timeframe without changing the duration of those animations.

The happy couple will celebrate by welcoming many of the estranged races of the land to join their kingdom as full citizens. Although many creatures will ignore their invitation, some stragglers, progressives, and visionaries from other races of Dereth might trickle into the kingdom. We hope to be able to offer one or more additional race as player characters to represent these exceptional beings who come to the kingdom and accept the citizenship from the King and Queen.

We want to add anti-aliasing (and the option to turn it off), which is a graphical option on a lot of video cards that smoothes out edges to reduce jagged lines.

We hope that these features will add a lot of options and customization to how characters look and help improve the overall look of Asheron’s Call.

In closing, I’d like to thank our players for their support and love of the game, and for those players curious enough about this game to be joining us or returning to us with the 10th anniversary. In the coming months we really want to elicit even more player feedback and make those suggestions into game reality.

To everyone who has played Asheron’s Call with us for 10 glorious years, we thank you for all of your support. See you in Dereth!

Severlin~

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