News

The latest edition of the Friday Grab Bag has been posted at the DAoC site. As always, player questions are gleaned from the official forums and answered by devs. Additionally, important announcements are included:

The New Server Type Poll will be coming to a close soon, so we need you to vote and remind others to vote as well. The response has been great so far, keep those votes coming in. If you haven't already, go on and vote now.

In the mood for some PvE this weekend? The players of the Gaheris server invite everyone to join them in their last in a series of Play on Gaheris weekends. The fun starts tonight, it's a great chance to see what Gaheris is all about.

The Ghost Keep event is in full swing this week. We posted a Guide to help explain the different phases of the quests available. There is also a very sweet reward at the end for all your ethereal efforts; a little something called the Ghostly Medal of Honor.

There's lots to read so put on your glasses and jump over.

The v1.94 patch for Dark Age of Camelot has been released on Pendragon. Called "Repaving Foundations", the goal of the patch is to "give housing some love".

One of the main goals of 1.94 was to give housing some love and tweak the utility of the different tiers of housing available. The idea being that each tier should offer something that would justify the added initial and recurring expense of owning that tier. Based on feedback and internal discussion, we've made the following initial changes to housing.

Purchase Price:

Cottage: The cost of the cottage deed will remain at 1 platinum.

House: The cost of the house deed will drop from 10 platinum to 5 platinum.

Villa: The cost of the villa deed will drop from 40 platinum to 10 platinum.

Mansion: The cost of the mansion deed will drop from 100 platinum to 25 platinum.

Rental Price:

Cottage: The weekly rental price for the cottage will remain at 20 gold.

House: The weekly rental price for the house will drop from 200 gold to 35 gold.

Villa: The weekly rental price for the villa will drop from 800 gold to 60 gold.

Mansion: The weekly rental price for the mansion will drop from 2 platinum to 100 gold.

Along with the changes above, we are working behind the scenes to add additional utility to each of the tiers. This will mean additional hookpoints of various types for the higher level houses and follow in a subsequent 1.94 patch for this cycle.

There's more to the patch so jump over to the DAoC site and see what's what.

This past Monday, DAoC players began an event titled "Ghost Keep". Today, devs posted a guide to the event:

Since the debut of the new Event on Monday, we've seen a flurry of activity as the realms battle over control of the Ghost Keep. Each cluster has seen the ghost keep actively summoned six times or more since the premiere. To help out those who haven't gotten to check out the new content, we've decided to go ahead and put out a quick primer on how the event works and how you can aid your realm in securing the Ghost Keep!

The premise is simple. The realms race to complete 'Supply' quests that will allow the 'Ancient' NPCs enough power to begin a summoning process that will bring forth the spectral essence of a former Keep Lord for each realm (Lord Berkstead the First for Albion, Jarl Nottmoor for Midgard, and Chieftess Crimthainn for Hibernia.) Unless noted otherwise, the quests described below are available for levels 45-50.

The rest can be read at the Camelot Herald.

The Camelot Herald has been updated with the news that changes are forthcoming to the Ghost Keep Event:

Based on observation and feedback, we've made the following changes to the Ghost Keep Event:

• The RP/BP reward for participating in the defense of the Ghost Keep during the summoning phase has been decreased slightly.
• The repeatable maintenance quests offered when the Ghost Keep has been summoned have had RP/BP rewards added to them.

A walkthrough of the event will be posted to the Herald soon to help understand the different phases of the event and how you can aid your realm secure their own Ghost Keep and keep it!

When the walkthrough becomes available, we'll let you know.

The latest spooky announcement has come down via the Camelot Herald and involves decreasing numbers of doppelgangers but an increasing sense of foreboding:

With the Doppelganger forces thinning out, a strange ethereal calm has fallen over the Frontiers. Scholars in the capital cities have been discussing this strange feeling and what it could portend for the realms, but have been stymied at every turn. However, practitioners of ancient dark arts, arts that in some parts are forbidden, have come forward with more information about what this strange halcyon repose means for the war-torn Frontiers.

Based on investigation by these dark artists, it is believed that the incursion of such strong ancient evil as the Doppelgangers has weakened a number of magical boundaries, notably the boundary between life and death itself. In fact, reports from the primary border-keeps of each realm indicate the appearance of a ghostly champion, bringing news and hope that these weakened boundaries could be used to the realm's advantage in the ongoing realm war. It seems that the Doppelganger's interference may have inadvertently given the realms a strange new weapon or stratagem in their battle. The Kings of each realm are asking that adventurers meet with these spectral champions and aid them in procuring an advantage before the other realms can. The race is on!

Hot off the heels of the Doppelganger Invasion, a new event is making its debut today in the Frontiers*. Nicknamed the "Ghost Keep" around the office, the new event is available starting today and offers quests and content designed to promote RVR for characters level 45-50. There are PVE and RVR related goals in the Frontiers for this event so players can participate however they see fit. To participate, see the 'Ancient' NPCs at the primary border-keep of your realm.

Check out the PvE and PvP details at the link above.

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.

The weekly Grab Bag has been published at the Camelot Herald. As always, the Grab Bag features community questions with developer answers and announcements of interest to players:

We've got a new poll that we announced on the Herald this week that asks if you would be interested in a new server type that would include Old Frontiers. We really do want your input if this new server type interests you. If you haven't had a chance to vote yet, please do. Don't forget to let your friends know too. Go vote now!

Have the disappearing doppelgangers got you down? Worried you won't have any good eldritch horrors to eradicate? Well worry not; the doppelgangers have left untapped energies in their wake, and it's only a matter of time before someone puts them to use. Who will dare to claim this power? Keep an eye on the Herald for upcoming details!

Tomorrow night the Camelot crew hits the road for a journey about 20 miles west of our studios at the Dave & Busters in Bethesda, Maryland. Come on out and join us as we give away prizes, answer your questions about Camelot and munch on some free snacks. The festivities start at 7:00pm EDT and we can't wait to see you there! For more information of where it is and where our Road Trips will lead us in the future, please click here.

That's it for me this week, it's time for a bit of relaxation then onward to the Road trip tomorrow night. Take care everyone.

Check out the Q&A at the Camelot Herald.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

The weekly Grab Bag has been posted and, as usual, contains questions/answers gleaned from the official forums and announcements from developers.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

We have some more Road Trip dates to announce for you. We'll be in San Diego, California on July 26th just in time for the Comic Convention going on there. We also have our Austin Road Trip stop on September 13th. Our Road Trip map is still in the process of being updated, but more details will be coming soon.

Speaking of Road Trips, the Bethesda, Maryland one is almost here. Word here in the office says that there will be Devs-a-plenty at this event, so if you have a chance to be there, don't miss out! It is on May 10th and we would love to see you there. Please RSVP!

The players of Gaheris had such fun during last weekend's Play on Gaheris event that they are going to do it all over again this weekend. If you are a veteran or new to the Coop server it's a great time to get some playtime in. The list of raid times can be found here.

Do you believe you are an expert in your class? Well we've got some openings in our Team Lead Program that we are looking to fill. If you think you have what it takes, apply today!

The weekend is here. Have a good one everyone, stay safe.

Check out the questions/answers at the link above.

The Camelot Herald announced that the doppelganger invasion seems to be slackening off...another way of saying that the current 'adventure' with doppelganers is coming to an end:

Eyewitness reports indicate that fewer and fewer Doppelgangers have been spotted recently in the Frontiers. It appears that the actions of intrepid adventurers throughout the realms have helped to beat back these ancient foes! Scholars remain cautious though and still request that any Doppelganger pieces that adventurers find be brought to them for further study and appropriate reward. They want to be ready should this retreat be nothing more than a strategic recoup leading into a more calculated and devious attack in the future.

(Note: The current phase of the Doppelganger Invasion event will be ending soon. The quest-givers will remain after the event to redeem any current Doppelganger parts that players have, but the Doppelgangers will cease to spawn, in their current incarnation, in roughly a week.)

Get in on the adventure while you still can.