Greetings and welcome to the September Release Notes! This month the team many changes to how some of our newer systems work.  Many of these changes are based directly on player feedback we have gathered over the past couple of weeks, and we thank everyone who let us know what they thought about our 100th content update.  Going into the last update, the team was aware that there were going to be some needed adjustments, particularly to drop rates and the new tier of treasure.  The adjustments have been made and are listed below.

So without further delay, lets see what happening this month in Asheron’s Call!

Miscellaneous Changes and Improvements

•    The Society NPC’s will now allow players to hand in a piece of society armor they don’t want, as the society texts state they should.

•    The timer on the PvP towns has been reduced from 72 hours to 68 hours.

•    The drop rate on the Pyre Skeletons has been increased so that players can complete their tasks more easily.

•    Pyre Shrouds now stack to 20.

•    The Drop rate on mana shards has been increased substantially. Players should now find these with more ease.

•    An issue where society armor was spawning with racial requirements has been resolved.

•    With the new level 8 spells we found that there were several older spells that would override the newer more powerful ones. This should now be fixed and spells should now work as they are supposed to.

•    Casinos have received some long needed attention. Some of the new attractions include Carenzi races and monster fights that players can wager on.

•    New PvP oriented weapons have been added to the Black market vendors. These weapons are known as Blighted weapons and will feature increased stats on the weapon, but they will decay after 24 hours.

•    Several quests have had their rewards updated to include the drop of keys to be used for the new higher loot tier. These quests are:

Aerbax's Defeat
Aerbax's Prodigal Shadow
Aerbax's Prodigal Olthoi
Aerbax's Prodigal Harbinger
Saving Asheron

•    The PK/NPK timer on all worlds (except Darktide) has been reduced to 15 minutes.

•    The shard turn in NPC has been changed to 25 shards and a new NPC has been placed by him that takes 10 shards. You can hand in to the 10 shard NPC 5 times a week.

•    The Recruiters for the societies will now tell you if you’re below 180 you can't join instead of sending you to the portal which has a level 180 limit.

•    There is now a 5 minute timer placed on a player who uses the PK banners in a town to take control of it. This should allow other players to have time to arrive to defend the towns and prevent one person from soloing the town before aid can arrive.

•    Vendors and archmages in society halls have had their speech fixed.

So there are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron's Call in September. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the September event.

Release Notes - August 

Greetings and welcome to the 100th content update for Asheron’s Call! This is a special time for all of here at Turbine, having reached this most incredible milestone.  With this update we wanted to make sure we did something special for the players.  For the longest time, the one thing we have been asked for was an Elder Game system.  So with this update, we are giving players the beginnings of that system. We are also giving our PvP players something to fight over, with two new PvP controllable towns.

The entire staff here at Turbine is proud to be able to release this update to our players as a small token of our appreciation for everyone who has heard the call over the years. So lets get in to all the new and exciting things coming this month in Asheron’s Call!

Societies are Coming!

A new faction system has been introduced with this update. Players wishing to join one of the three new Societies will speak with one of the Society Recruiters located in the capital cities of Dereth. The Celestial Hand will be in Hebian-to, the Eldrytch Web will be in Cragstone, and the Radiant Blood recruiter will be located in Zaikhal. Once players choose which society they wish to join, they will begin their journey with the initiate quests. The recruiters for each society will have all the details a player will need to make their choice as to which side to join. When a player completes the tasks set out by one of these recruiters, they will be well rewarded and then instructed on how to claim their rewards.

As part of this new system, some creatures will now be able to discern which faction you and they are a part of. NPC’s who are part of your faction will not attack you, however if you get too close to those belonging to another faction, they will attack.  These NPC’s can and will also attack each other, if they come in contact.

Deception and Assess Person now have another use for players involved in the Faction system.  All players who join a faction will display which faction they belong to in their description panel.  Based on a skill check of Assess Person and Deception, some players may be able to “hide” which faction they are a part of.  This ability can be particularly useful in conjunction with the new Land Control elements of the game.

PvP Land Control

Two new PK towns have been added to the game.  The first of these towns is located just north of the Vesayen Isles, while the other town is located in Northern Osteth, near the top of the Dereth mainland.  Each town will start out being held by a rogue faction of Moarsmen who will need to be defeated in order to gain control of the town.  Players who want to control one of these towns will need to be player killers, however.  Non-player killers will be able to fight the NPCs of the town, but will not be able to claim control of the town.

Each town will have three banners that a PK must gain control of in order to take the towns.  Once all three of these banners are “controlled” by the same faction, the town will be owned by that faction thus granting access to the Black Market.  This portal will only be useable by the members of the controlling Society.

The Black Markets are the provenance of the Shroud Cabals, unscrupulous humans who have allied with the Virindi to exploit the factional chaos sown by the three new Societies.  Players may use the various Vendors and NPC’s in the Black Markets to buy unique items.  The Archmage and Shopkeep will also have some nice extra items unavailable elsewhere.  Some of the items players will be able to purchase only in the Black markets will include XP gems which can be purchased for MMD’s and level 8 dispel gems.  There are some other items of high value that these vendors will sell as well.

New Loot

A new tier of loot is now available to players. This new tier of loot will have a base wield requirement of level 150 and will have the potential to generate with level 8 spells and or Epic level cantrips.  There will also be the chance that this new tier will be part of a greater set of armor.  Pieces which are part of a loot generated set will have a base level 180 requirement in order for players to equip them.  Spell components for the creation of level 8 spells will also be found in this new higher loot tier.  This new level of loot will mainly be found as rewards from questing, but there will also be a chance for players to collect Mana Shards off some landscape creatures, which they can then use to purchase keys to gain access to this new tier of loot. In addition, we will be adding these keys to several of our older quests in the coming months, starting in September.  Here is a breakdown of how players will get keys for the new tier of loot.

Basic Mechanics

Get 10 Pristine Mana Shards via hunting.
Bring the 10 Shards to the Shard Collector within one of the three Mana Forges in Cragstone, Hebian-To and Zaikhal, and get a key.
Use key on the chest for the desired loot.
 

Hunting areas that Pristine Shards will be available:

Graveyard of Despair
Dark Isle
Freebooter Isle
Moarsman City
 

Alternate key mechanics:

Society Rank Gateway Quests give Keys the first time they are completed.
Society Trade Tokens can be used to purchase Treasure Writs, which can be turned in for a Key once every 2 weeks 
 

Level 8 Spells

Level 8 spells have been introduced into the game.  To accommodate the desire of some players to have a research system in the game while at the same time accommodating others’ lack of desire to participate in a research system, we have implemented a new system for learning level 8 spells.  Players may obtain quills, inks, and glyphs from our new highest tier treasure profiles which may be used to craft spells.  Quills may be combined with the new Mana Scarab item (which is also the casting scarab for level 8 spells) in order to craft infused quills. Infused quills may be crafted with inks to create a combination of the two. This combination may then be crafted with a glyph to create a level 8 scroll.

All components may also be traded or sold to a vendor, and the scrolls may likewise be traded or sold to a vendor.  We anticipate that those who wish to participate in the system will enjoy it, while those who do not will be able to obtain the scrolls they need through trading.  It should also be noted that not all spells exist at the level 8 tier – notably, we have elected not to implement Creature Other buffs, Life Other buffs, Life Other imperil and vulns, the self debuffs, and the item spell Defender.  In addition, the Item spell Blood Drinker 8 will appear only on treasure and will not be available as a player-castable spell.  If crafting something you expected to work fails, very likely the spell simply does not exist for level 8.  You will not lose components upon failed crafting, and there is no skill associated with level 8 spell crafting, so feel free to experiment safely with the various components and see what you may accomplish!

New Areas

A new landmass has appeared near the Vesayen Isles, known as Freebooter Isle. While many of the landscape features will look familiar to the region, many of the creatures that will appear on this new landmass will be changed in some way.  Creatures on this island will also have a chance of dropping Mana Shards, which can be used to purchase keys for the new tier of loot.  In order to gain access to this new island, players will need to join one of the new Societies.

There is a new Moarsman city that has been discovered.  Players will need to discover how to access this new area.

The Graveyard has been expanded to help accommodate the number of players who will be hunting there for Society-related tasks.

So there are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron's Call in August. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the August event.

War had finally come to Freebooter Isle. The tropical fortress resounded with the shrieks of combatants, the cries of the wounded, and the ever-present hum of magical energy. Even as the keep’s foundation stones shook with the magical energy unleashed by both besieging and defending forces, two men sat in the deepest subterranean fortress levels and enjoyed a quiet drink in the last few undisturbed moments they had.

The two men were old friends, comrades in a long-ago war on another world, and had not seen each other in years. Still, they seemed to be uninterested in making conversation or trading stories about their adventures, as was the usual conduct of two Aluvian veterans meeting over mugs of beer. Instead, they both seemed to be more curious about listening to, and analyzing, the sounds of battle that filtered down to them through the many passageways that led to the surface from this room.

There was one particularly deep, resounding boom from above, followed by a moment of silence. Then, rising above the piteous cries of the wounded and dying, there came the staccato beat of many boots, running down stone corridors.

The taller of the two men stood up and adjusted his weapon belt. He tipped his cap to his companion. “That’ll be it, then,” he said. “The gate’s gone, the flags will be up shortly I’m sure, and you’ll soon have some new temporary business partners.”

The other man, still seated, nodded his head. “Aye, I’m sure they’ll be down here soon enough, demanding to confiscate me stocks and expectin’ the laird o’ the castle treatment, just for clearin’ the front yard of all that scaly trash.”

His companion shrugged melodramatically. “You could give it up, MacTavish. Just accept my offer. In the days to come, with so many people to play off against each other, there will be riches beyond even your greediest dreams. High risk, high reward, never boring. And you’re guaranteed an equity position in the group, of course…”

“’Tis a tempting offer, old friend,” MacTavish said. “But I’m too old to get back into the game. Either that or I’ve gotten too soft here, working for the Shrouds. I’m content to leave the risk to the young bucks now and just take a percentage off what they bring in.” He stretched elaborately, popping and cracking a few joints as he did so, as if to punctuate his point about his advancing age.

“What a pity,” the other man said as he stepped away from the table. “I could have taught you the secrets to life and death, a secret known only to a handful of people on this odd, troubled world. Knowledge I haven’t yet shared with any of my eager acolytes.”

MacTavish shook his head. “Even more reason to turn ye down. I’ve only just gotten used to the lifestones… I know me limits. I know I’m just a smuggler and a brigand, I know I’ve not got the courage or the craziness to take on such power. In truth, I wonder what that power will do to yer own head,” he said, chuckling lightly to try and take some of the sting or challenge out of his words. When he looked around, though, his friend was gone. Even with a smuggler’s keen senses, he’d not heard the man depart.

All for the best, he reflected. He finished his beer. “Say hello to me cousins, when ye see them again,” he muttered to the darkness as he stood.There was a sound from the far end of the complex, the extended shriek of a great door moving on rusted hinges. That was followed shortly by the tromp of several boot heels as a small party entered the tunnels, presumably a delegation from the victorious conquerors of Freebooter Isle, coming to claim the entire island as their own.

Out of the dark corridors stepped a man and a woman, at the head of a column of soldiers in red and gold armor. The man was, by his form and bearing, an old warrior and a commander of soldiers. He was Gharu’ndim, and his age and scars marked him as a veteran of the Gharu’ndim resistance against the Viamontian invasions back on their home world of Ispar. He was dressed in elaborate plate armor, the color and ornamentation of which reflected his rank as a senior officer of his Society. The giant mace in his right hand still steamed from the blood and ichor of the Moarsmen he’d slain on his way to clearing the path into the fortress.

The woman was older, well into her elder years, and wearing a simple grey robe that carried not a hint of decoration or even a badge of rank. Even so, MacTavish recognized her as Nuhmudira, blood sorceress, former member of Queen Elysa’s royal council. She was the warlord in charge of this group.She carried herself with the same kind of arrogant self-assurance and cold-eyed stare as that of his friend who’d just left walked… And no wonder, MacTavish thought, as they both had mastered the same secrets to life and death…

The old woman’s gaze swept the room until it settled upon him. “You are the smuggler captain MacTavish?” she asked in an imperious voice that echoed the underground chamber.

“That’s me, milady,” MacTavish nodded pleasantly. “I’ll guess ye’re the witch Nuhmudira that I’ve heard so much of.”

Nuhmudira gazed blankly at him, not even bothering to acknowledge his question, and pressed on with her own agenda. “Where is he?”

“Ye’ll have to be more specific than that, milady. Where is who?” He was being more insolent than he strictly needed to be, and that was probably because he was still buoyed up by drinks with his famously arrogant and self-assured friend. He sat back down and leaned back in his chair, kicking his boot heels up on the table.

“You know exactly who I mean,” the woman hissed. “The assassin, Oswald! He was just in here, and he skulked out just before my troops could get down here to capture him. Don’t try and lie to protect him, I can smell his stink still in this room.” She looked to the soldier who stood next to her.“General Tamiar, have your men secure the entire facility. I want no one leaving or entering without my warrant.”

The general bowed and turned to issue orders to the troops who’d entered behind them. Nuhmudira stepped forward to confront MacTavish, who was still lounging insolently in his chair. “Aye, me friend was down here. I see ye’re already familiar with him. We were just downing a couple o’ brews and talking about old times. We were in the wars together, back on Ispar, ye see.”

Nuhmudira sneered. “I know all about your war service with Oswald, knifing Viamontian scouts in the back as they marched throughout your benighted country of drunken ruffians and half-civilized brutes. I’m more interested in why you’re treating with him now, placing yourself in a very precarious position with my own occupying forces here.”

MacTavish laughed. “Don’t think to threaten me like that, lady,” he cautioned her. “I’m not some apprentice ye can order about and abuse. I’ve got me own backers who look out for me, and I imagine we’ve got some wares in our stocks that even yer own soldiers, well supplied as they must be, will find useful. So it wouldn’t be in yer best interests to kill me and cut off yer supply of such rare and wonderful items…”

Nuhmudira stared down at the insolent smuggler with unconcealed contempt. “My people have given me a briefing on why it is we should tolerate your presence on this island, and they have even convinced me that you are too useful to kill outright. But I will suffer none of your insolence, and if I find even a hint that you are colluding with Oswald against me, I will bleed you on an altar and bribe your masters to forget the inconvenience.Because even they have a price, smuggler.”

The surety of her words and the dangerous gleam in her eyes made MacTavish sit up and adopt a slightly more polite posture. “Aye, I’ll keep it respectful from here on out, milady,” he said. He was about to say more when there was a series of explosions from outside and a rumble that shook the walls of the underground redoubt. Shouted commands rang out from the corridors as Nuhmudira’s soldiers ran back to the surface, alerting each other to the presence of another group of invaders on Freebooter Isle. The old woman barked a couple of commands at the soldiers nearest her, preparing to head back up herself.

MacTavish smiled broadly as he addressed Nuhmudira again. As I was saying, I’ll be respectful from here on out, and I look forward to a mutually beneficial arrangement between yer Society and the trade consortium who backs me Provided ye can hold the island against yer own competition, milady. Looks like there’s someone out there taking issue with yer plans for domination. Worry not though, I’ll be here, ready to do business… with whoever comes back down the corridor.

Furious, Nuhmudira trudged back up the tunnels to organize the defense of the keep, even as the smuggler captain’s laughter echoed bitterly in her ears.
 
 
 

Originally Posted by Frelorn The Society system is till going in. The new tier of loot is still going in. The level 8 spells are still going in. New armors and armor sets are still going in. Oh and did I mention Faction based PvP town control, in two new areas? That little bit may have slipped my mind... and a new Island? Did I forget that one too?

IGN folks acquired an interview with Frelon, see more details here:  http://acvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Exclusives.Detail&id=25

We are shooting for the the 26th, but with a patch this size that date is subject to change.  Once the date is set in stone, I will let everyone know.

Hello and greetings from the Asheron’s Call team here at Turbine.  We’ve had quite a full year of big changes and exciting developments, and we’re eager to be able to share with you some of what we’ve got planned.  As you no doubt know, Asheron’s Call has been going strong now for almost nine years, and we’re soon to celebrate our 100th monthly update, a milestone that no other game or company has come close to reaching.  We’re very aware of the historic nature of Asheron’s Call’s longevity, and we will be celebrating it in style in August.

 
Before we discuss what the next few months and the next year will bring, I’d like to review some of the great things the team did in the last year or so.

 
After we resolved the story around Asheron’s kidnapping and rescue from the other world of Bur, we re-introduced a favorite character from the past, the mad tinkerer and rogue Virindi Aerbax, who stepped out of the shadows to take a central role as a threat to the people of Dereth.  Aerbax’s ascendance allowed us to showcase a dozen of our most popular creature races as the mad scientist’s “Prodigal” creations infiltrated and attempted to dominate each race.  The Aerbax story arc concluded in February with an epic fight with the tentacled mastermind himself on giant platforms above the Direlands, and will go down as one of the most memorable “boss battles” in the long history of Asheron’s Call. 

 
Along the way, as we learned more of Aerbax’s agenda, we developed a storytelling technique that allowed us to re-visit and even play through some of the most important moments in the history of Asheron’s Call: the opening of the portals to Ispar, the defeat of the first Olthoi Queen, and the defeat of Bael’Zharon.  These “memory quests” were some of the best-received content we’ve had in years.  They show that, after more than eight years and almost a hundred monthly updates, we are still able to come up with new storytelling techniques that surprise and amaze our players.

 
Of course, it wasn’t just a great story and epic fights in the last year of Asheron’s Call development.  With ambitious engineering and innovative content design, we’ve broadened the gameplay available to our players.  The Colosseum Bosses we introduced in June deepened the challenges presented by the very popular Colosseum.  We added craftable “alchemy grenades” to bring a new dimension to our combat system, both against monsters and against other players. 

 
Not only have we broken new ground with our content and systems over the last year, we’ve also dedicated ourselves to retrofitting older content to come more in line with modern standards of challenge and reward.  We’ve re-visited some beloved old quests like Lilitha’s Bow, the Green Mire Grave, and the Impious Staff to tweak mechanics or reward items to make them more compelling to a newer audience, while remaining true to the original spirit of the content.  In a game as steeped in history and tradition as Asheron’s Call, it is important to remember the great early experiences that made us love this great game in the first place, and you can expect us to keep updating older quests as we move forward.

 
Perhaps the most important content development of the last year has been the unearthing of the Empyrean Graveyard, which is almost a “skunkworks” of new technology and content innovation.  The Graveyard started out as a showcase for the day/night generators and roving monster technology we’d developed as a way to create more dynamic hunting areas.  The response was overwhelmingly positive, and we built on that success by adding even more innovations to the new hunting ground.  The Mhoire coins found within the graveyard were part of our ongoing effort to find compelling new rewards and an alternate currency system to allow our high-level players to distinguish themselves.  The rise of the Mhoire Jester and his collectible card decks were another new frontier in Asheron’s Call content development, one we’ll be using in the future. 

 
Now we’ve started another epic story line that taps into the deep lore that is one of the great strengths of Asheron’s Call.  We have ventured into the long memories of the Undead kingdom of Dericost and the deeper-still recollections of the dark gods of the Falatacot to find a threat to the nature of magic in Dereth.  The very structure of the world is threatened by a long-buried elder god, and various factions of Dereth, as they always have, are rising to confront the danger.

 
The difference this time around is that players will be able to join those factions.  We’ve introduced three secret societies: the Celestial Hand, the Eldrytch Web, and the Radiant Blood.  Each society is tied into one of the well-established factions of Dereth lore, part of all the history that has gone before, in this game of unprecedented story depth.  Players have already met members of each of the societies and have had an opportunity to learn about the tenets and guiding principles of each of these mysterious groups.  Starting with the 100th Update in August, players will be able to swear allegiance to one faction and work to advance their faction’s interests in the struggle for the fate of Dereth.

 
Last year, when I wrote this letter, I announced that we were starting development on an “elder game” system that would give our players the opportunity to play Asheron’s Call in a different way.  While our quest content is second to none and our player v. player combat is still what we consider the most dynamic in the industry, we recognized that players want to be able to compete against each other in other, meaningful ways.  It’s been a long time in development, but with our 100th Update in August, you’ll see the fruits of our labor.  Players in different factions will be able to compete with each other, both through PvP combat and through PvE questing.  They will be able to directly advance their faction’s power in the world by gathering resources and conquering various locations in Dereth.  Each action they undertake in service of their faction will also earn them rewards and recognition within the faction.  They won’t just be working for their faction’s interests, but their own as well.  And the rewards they earn will leverage a new tier of rich treasure and a new level of spells.

 
We’ve been hard at work on content for the 100th Update for months now.  You might have noticed that the last few content updates have been lighter than you’re used to.  We made the decision to split a couple of developers off from the monthly Live updates to work, long-term, on the deep and ambitious plans we had for the 100th Update.  This kind of split brought challenges to both the Live developers and the 100th Update developers, but it’s been a labor of love all throughout this process.  We feel confident that when you suit up for one of the factions in August and join the struggle on their behalf, you’ll see that all the work was worth it.

Of course, the 100th Update is not the end of our efforts to improve and expand Asheron’s Call.  We’ve got a number of other initiatives in the works, including an upcoming Hardware upgrade, all in the service of improving gameplay and ensuring the continued longevity of the Asheron’s Call franchise.  For now, we can’t reveal any specific initiatives, but rest assured that the Asheron’s Call team is not content to rest on its laurels.  While we appreciate the achievement of our 100th Update, we know that our best work is still ahead of us, and we hope that you continue the journey along with us, into our ninth and tenth years together in Dereth, and beyond.

Dave “Crowley” Javier