[8-09-2006] The Camelot Reporter (EU)

Ogrelin

Two main issues this week : we will study version 1.84 in details as it is scheduled to go live on servers next week and of course we will present you with the Atlantean Tablet Enigma results. The background piece will reveal the origins of the mysterious Atlantean Tablet which was the starting point of the contest.

Version 1.84 release scheduled on Wednesday 13
Tests are now almost over and the 1.84 release date has been set to Wednesday 13. This patch day will be the same as the last ones and the last details will be made known to you the day before. Servers will be down early in the morning and will be reopened late in the afternoon.

Remember you can log into the game faster when the servers reopen if you downloaded the update files which are already available . If you still haven't done so we invite you to as soon as possible, then save them. But do not install them until the servers reopen in version 1.84.

Last but not least, the consignment merchants are eventually up and running smoothly again with this new version.

As always you can make the most of this pause to check this version's patch notes , but here is a brief summary of the main new features :

- Cathal Valley : a new battleground for level 45 to 49 characters which was presented to you last week.
- Dun Crauchon's bridge has been moved and is now situated on the opposite shore.
- Modifications have been made on certain spells belonging to Banelord line, reducing their range or their interrupt ability.
- Teleports have been standardized and now offer the same destinations.
- Teleports have appeared in the Catacombs towns and close to the housing areas' market explorers.
- Le coût de réparation de tous les artefacts a été réduit de 50%.
- The guild commands /gc promote ; /gc demote ; /gc remove now work on offline characters. The /removeaccount has been added and enables to remove from a guild all the characters from the same account.
- The following pets can now have emotes : Necromancers' abominations, Enchanters' Underhill pets, Spirit masters' spirit allies, Cabalists' pets and eventually the Bone Dancers' skeletons.
- It is now easier to earn master abilities experience points.
- The bolt spells have been improved to increase their hit rate and lower their casting speed.
- The classes which will receive a respec with a new patch can now use the /respec mythic and will no longer be forced into re specializing or doing so before levelling up.
- Those of you playing Valewalkers, Reavers and Valkyries are invited to read the patch notes related to their class carefully since they can benefit from a Mythic respec after the changes made to their characters.
- Buildings and monsters have received visual upgrades in the Catacombs client.
- Certain monsters which are stronger than their con suggests now have a special title.
- The first steps towards making crafting easier have been taken. Basic crafting items such as smithy hammers, sewing kits, planing tools, spellcraft kits, mortars and pestles, and alchemy kits are no longer required. It is now possible to stack more components, some of them being now lighter in weigh. Certain recipes have been simplified.
- Aquatic areas -Lakes, rivers, seas- similar to those which appeared on Midgard in version 1.83 are now accessible to Albion and Hibernia players who can now dive under the surface in the classic areas and meet underwater creatures. Personal boats can sail on these waters and the very poor can at least benefit from a few boat lines on lakes and rivers.
- New Channelers -who can port characters between servers- have been added in the frontier keeps, Shrouded Isles capital cities, the Ruins of Atlantis and Oceanus.
- A new quest journal has appeared. Therefore you must update your personalized interface if you are using one.

Results for the Las Vegas Roundtable Contest
As we announced last week, the fastest among you solved the enigma during the night between August 31 and September 1. Congratulations to all who did it, since the 'race' took place with a genuine spirit of fair play and many were those who helped each other in order to progress.

We had to wait before publishing the complete list of the winners so that each realm of each server got a winner. It is now done and we can eventually reveal the names of those whose statues will be admired in their realm's capital cities.

The adventurers rewarded by the kings are :
Calea, on Albionr
Gyssi, on Hibernia
Symn, on Midgard

Sculptors started working and the statues will be erected on wednesday.
These statues will benefit from visual upgrades when version 1.85 will be released.

Since suspense is now reaching its peak, it is now time to reveal the winners' names :
The fastest among all is Ratakaboum, the small kobold from Brocéliande, who will represent European player at the Las Vegas Roundtable on September 28. It took her 28 hours 33 minutes and 40 seconds to solve the enigma since activating step 1.

The other winners who get an MSI GeForce 7600GT video card are :
Alkesh, on Carnac
Shiro, on Logres
Klient, on Lyonesse
Ghostie, on Stonehenge
Finalh, on Ys

Eventually, those who will receive a Dark Age of Camelot T-shirt are :
Rommie on Avalon
Lucchini, on Cumbria
Brytchen, on Dartmoor
Ikki, on Deira
Gyssi, on Excalibur

About one thousand players have achieved the quest, a quest that is probably the most difficult we have ever offered. Congratulations, everyone ! It seems like you all appreciated it despite its unusual complexity and the problems encountered. We would like to thank all of you who have left comments, either to let us know your feelings about this quest or to suggest new animations corresponding to your expectations.

Being offered for a special event, we wish to remind you that this quest will not stay on the servers. Take advantage of this week end to finish it off or start it since it will be removed on Monday. We are sure that the players who have achieved it will keep good memories of this unique adventure. The background piece will help you understand better the origins of the tablet and the enigma.

Under populated realms
The bonus granted to underpopulated Realms which bring some help to the Realms suffering from a lack of players have been updated at the beginning of the week. The table below shows you the current situation on the servers that interest you :

		Level Reward Bonus	Camp Bonus	RvR Bonus	Hookpoint Purchase
Excalibur/Prydwen	Albion	7	85%	0%	100%
	Midgard	7	93%	0%	100%
	Hibernia	4	102%	5%	50%
Glastonbury	Albion	7	96%	0%	100%
	Midgard	4	102%	5%	50%
	Hibernia	7	82%	0%	100%
Camlann	Albion	7	0%	0%	100%
	Midgard	7	0%	0%	100%
	Hibernia	7	0%	0%	100%

Background Piece : The Mysterious Atlantean Tablet
When Atlantis was at the top of its glory, its kings liked to challenge each other and measure themselves. The trials the 10 kings of Atlantis liked best were testing their wisdom and sagacity.

Prince Escrunos owned an artifact that had the power to give his parties a fairy and marvelous dimension every time they took place in his palace. As a result, all the other celebrations looked dull and annoying regardless of the efforts deployed.

Annoyed by this situation, an Atlantis king plotted the thievery of this artifact and called upon a robber named Pillas who had to hide it in the planes, where the trials took place. Once done, the robber sent the victim an emissary in charge of telling him the conditions of the king (whose identity was never revealed) and giving him a tablet informing him that his precious artifact was hidden in the planes and that he was defied to go get it back using the obscure information carved in the tablet.

The prince announced before his gathered court that he was taking up the challenge. Shortly after, he secretly met the representatives of an ancient Order : the Ainigmat & Aporreton Order. Their symbol was a star-shaped medallion representing the cardinal points. Their members agreed to decipher the tablet and asked Astorus, one of the best members of the Order, to go and search the lost artifact.

Here is what the tablet said :
"Escrunos, the invention you are so proud of is in fact one of those superficial things you love too much ! In order to teach you a lesson I had it stolen and hidden somewhere among the planes. The indications concealed in the mentioned area give you a chance to get it back if you find the necessary object and if you are crazy enough to take up this challenge even if it means risking your unproductive life !
In the middle of the five, there is one. Between the two, there are three. Dig at the centre of the three to find the soil one cannot dig, only there shall you unearth the hope to find what you have lost."

The other rooted habit in old Atlantis was spying. Either with complex mechanisms or elaborate spells, kings were spying on each other all the time and had an efficient network. For that reason, the king who had started the whole challenge realized pretty soon Escrunos' game and decided to get rid of the Order and its treasure hunters.

To do so, he hired Kompos*, a Sobekite, who is always there when it comes to achieving vile actions and adding a new element to his trophy collection. After getting round a treasure hunter who was interested in his collection, Kompos hastened to tell the instigator where and when the Order meetings were taking place. As a consequence, the latter sent his guards butcher all of them. In acknowledgement, Kompos was offered the trophy he wanted : a necklace of the Order members.

Later on, the surviving members were stalked and killed one after the other and Astorus was liquidated just before he could lay his hands on the artifact. In the end, there couldn't be any final outcome between the prince and the king since the cataclysm put an end to the Atlantean civilization…

*Kompos means 'boastful' in Ancient Greek. This character was introduced to you in the background piece of July 7th but his name hadn't been revealed to let the most perspicacious players find out by themselves.

I understand why many of you are longing for Wednesday but in the meantime, have a great week end, and see you next Friday !

Billius8

The Camelot Reporter:  "Streets are empty today in Camelot as we expect afternoon showers and partly raining conditions the following day.  Oh, behind me there is movement.  No, that is just an NPC.  As I said, streets are empty today..."

Ogrelin

We are all hiding from you.