03.26.02 - Ken Karl on Plats
Found this in this thread http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=26489099
when talking about money making runs.
Yes, this means you will have to hunt more
for money for stuff like plats... but we also realize there are some
problems in that dynamic and goes against our "reduce tediousness"
in the game.
We have some changes in mind to address this as well, that are in our
"mage changes" but as we stated, we want to make sure all our
Melee changes are well in place before we start looking at mage. Right now,
around the May/June timeframe.
And then answering about why plats are so expensive
Plenty of good reasons when 7s were
introduced... over time however, many things start to show their age and
need to get some plastic surgery.
Also about doubling spell durations
Again.. we have plenty of ideas for
mage changes... in time, I think most will enjoy, much like they are
starting to with melee changes (minus those who use staff who hate me
right now hehe)
03.26.02 - Mage Interviews
What started out as a whim has turned out to be one of the best additions
to this site yet. I've had this idea forever and just never got around
to doing it, thinking that there would not be enough participation to really
make it worthwhile. Boy was I ever wrong.
So with out further ado it is my great pleasure to present interviews
with some of the greatest mages to hit the AC mage scene. In the
line up I have such greats as Merry, Og the One Eye, Emeraldwind, Fist de
Yuma, Grandpa, Quetozin and I even got a turbinite, Thyell to answer
it. And these aren't the only ones there are no less than 20 in
all.
So hop on over to the interview section here http://dizzarian.com/acmages/Interviews
I hope that this will be an ever expanding section and that many more
of our colleges will join in on the fun.
03.22.02 - Resource Section Updated
It's been a long time since I even touched this section and it was
woefully out of date. I've removed the dead links and added some new
items. Resource Section
If you think I'm missing something (which I know I am) let me know and
I'll get it added.
03.21.02 - Weapon Damages
Ok that's not quite a mage headline, I know, but as mages we pick up a
ton of loot. A lot of the times I know that I really have no idea if the
item is any good or not, especially when it comes to melee
weapons. There's a new chart here Weapon Max Damge & Bonus Chart
This will show you just exactly what items are worth trading or not.
03.21.02 - Og Rez Journals
In my continuing effort to bring you complete information on all
templates I have recruited the journals of Og Rez, written by
Oren.
Oren has done an exceptional job at keeping these up to date and updates
them often.. very often. They are a source of great information and if
your thinking of doing an Og mage the old fashion way then these are the
journals you need to read.
We start out with no less than 8 journals for your viewing
pleasure. In fact the latest is his graduation journal so go give him
a congrats while your at it.
03.21.02 - Contacting Dizz
Just to let everyone know that if you want to email me do it
to dizz@dizzarian.com not the yahoo
address as it is going away (Thank god this account is a continual source of
spam for me) Also a reminder that I am on ICQ for anyone that wants
to message me. My icq# is 119735853. If you do message me on icq
though make sure that I know you came from this site or it may look like
spam and I'll accidentally ignore you.
03.18.02 - Level 7 Spell info updated
I've been meaning to do this for a while, I've updated the level
7 spell info with current information and I've also added the short
cuts to all the essences since this this seems to be a common
question.
03.18.02 - 1.1 year Anniversary of the Site
I can't believe I let this slip by last month so I'll do it now.
This site has officially been open for over a year now. Let's
take a little walk down memory lane because a lot has happened over the
year.
The site started because I wanted a place to store my journals
online. They became very popular and the site grew to contain others
journals and a lot of other mage information. During the year I have
had to change providers 6 times mostly do to being shutdown for bandwidth
problems. The site went from
http://www.geocities.com/dizzarian/
(still avtive) to http://www16.brinkster.com/dizzarian (no longer
active) to http://www.worldzone.net/dizzarain
(http://www.worldzone.net/dizzarain/News.html
to see the news when I left there)
From there It became an offical website at http://dizzarian.com
since then I have changed providers a couple of more times do to bandwidth
and forum hosting problems
Some Statistics
This is where it gets intersting. First the thing that I'm most
proud of on the site is the forums. They have become a refuge away
from the flaming and childish behavor that inhabits other boards. On
my boards someone can always ask a question and be answered promptly and
fully without any fear of being ridiculed for it. There have only
been 2 forums since the inception of this site. The first forum was
with ezboard http://pub55.ezboard.com/bdizzsbattlemageforums
and then later we moved to the much improved spam free boards that are now
active on the site. Here's the stats
ezboard
Total users : 460
Total posts : 11,427 |
Current
Total users : 135
Total posts : 1,159 |
Not bad for a non-mainstream board. There are some
real gems on the old boards so if you've never been to it make sure you go
check it out.
As far as site statistics it gets a little fuzzy due the amount of
times the site has moved. Heres about the best I can come up with.
Total Visits : 200,000
Total Page Views : over 1 million
Data Delivered : 2 gig / month
Avg visits/day : 1,000
Most Popular non journal item : Level
7 Spell Information
Most Popular non Dizz journal : Tie between Emeraldwind
and Devastator
Number of Journals/Colums Hosted : 12
Once again I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support of
this site. There are so many people that I'd like to thank for
making this site what it is at the top of the list (sorry if I miss
anyone) I would like to thank Devastator, Emeraldwind, Enmity,
Fahrenheit, Tehanu, Tokugawa, Trendkill, and Tribal Priestess. You
guys have always been with me and this is a much your site as it is
mine... Thank you.
03.13.02 - Patch Day News
Nice stuff so far. Build
Notes, Rollout
Notes and Letter
to Players here's the highlights that effect us
Build Notes
- Players can now use mana stones and
charges on their paper doll to charge all of their items at the same
time. When players use mana stones in this fashion, the game computes
which items would run out of mana first (including those items which
have run out of mana), and recharges those items to maximum capacity,
and then moves on to the next item, etc., until the mana stone runs
through its mana and is destroyed. As in the original dynamic, excess
mana is still destroyed if all your items are fully charged, and you
have to re-wear items that have completely run out of mana once you
recharge them in order for the item's spells to take effect.
- You now receive a warning two minutes
before an item you are wielding runs out of mana.
- We have improved the monster selection
keys slightly, such that you should be more likely to select the monster
actually closest to you when you 'Select Nearest Monster,' instead of a
monster on a level right above or below you.
- There had been a longstanding bug
where a player who had never entered a recallable portal had been able
to recall to their logout spot. This bug has been fixed. Now, if players
have never entered through a recallable portal, and they cast portal
recall, it will recall them to their Lifestone instead.
- There was a bug that set everyone's
personal spell economy at .92 effectiveness even if the person had never
cast the spell before. This has been fixed so that a person's personal
spell economy begins at 1.00 effectiveness.
- The Buadren is described correctly now
as doing fire, not slashing, damage.
Letter to Players
- Hollow Weapons--Due to a bug at the
last minute, Hollow Weapons changes have been pushed to April. Expect
upgrades to Hollow Axe, Sword, Mace, and Spear for the April Event.
- As with our changes to mushrooms this
month, expect more changes to areas in the future to make it more
difficult for players to gain experience by killing creatures while away
from their keyboards
Next Month informations
- Everyone, regardless of whether they
have Item Magic, will receive the ability to recall to their Lifestone
without dying.
- Those players with Item Magic will get
a host of new features:
- The ability to “Lifestone tie” so
that they will have access to two Lifestones.
- A second portal tie, recall, and summon
spell so that one can tie to two portals.
- The ability to recall through a
“last-used” portal if one hasn't learned tie will be removed. In its
place will be a new item magic spell, “recall through last used
portal” which will be available to everyone with Item Magic.
Finally, just because being a mage
may be the most effective way to play Asheron's Call right now, it
doesn't mean it's the most fun. Once we implement some of these changes to
the melee dynamic, we will then begin unveiling some radical (and fun!)
changes to the way magic works in AC.
Now excuse me while I go play my favorite game ;)
03.13.02 - The Final Emeraldwind entries
Well I got some good news and I got some bad. The good news is we
have not 1 but 2 new journal entries for Emeraldwind.
As always Emeraldwind has done a bang up job on these. I don't know
what else to say but that you have to read them. The bad news is
that it appears these will be the last of her journals. She's not
leaving AC but the journals have come to an end.
And
now I must say a goodbye to all of you. It’s been a long road (I keep
on saying but that road WAS long, I swear) and it’s at an end (in some
ways). I’ve lost some people (vassals and patron), I’ve gained many
new friends, and I’ve learned a lot about the game and world that
I’ve come to love ever since I started playing it in Beta 2 back in
October of 1999. I’ve had more fun than I probably should be allowed
to have and I’m going to keep on having that fun until the day
Leafcull crashes, burns, and explodes into a million pieces. And I want
to thank everyone who’s ever read my journals, ever @tell’d me in
the game congratulating me or giving me encouragement, or ever supported
War Mages. It’s meant an incredible amount.
I'd like to take this time to publicly thank Emeraldwind for her
service to the mage community and especially for her great journals and
for taking such a huge part in this site.
Check out the last entries Part 11
and Part 12
03.12.02 - Al-Sahir Entry 7
Al-Sahir has made a nice small entry
to his Og Journal so go check out entry
number 7.
"What? So
soon?" you say? Well yah, I've been kinda powerleveling lately in BSD
so I could hit aerlinthe this weekend. I just smacked down 45 last night the
27th. I must admit it was rather bland for the past 5 levels although a few
interesting things happened. I have to admit this will be one of the
shortest journals.
03.12.02 - AC Dev Chat Highlights
Whoa 2 dev chats back to back, never had that happen on the news
page. Once again here are the highlights and my comments as
well. http://cod.xrgaming.com/index.php3?library=logs/zonechat_020311
Formidable_ in AsheronsCall
asks: Will there be any changes to the
"Spot Tie" ability of players who have never gone through any
recallable portals? This greatly increases player's ability to combat
macro and "jack" other people's quests.
kentroop_turbine says: Yes. It's
going away in two days.
Dizzarian: Whosajigga what? Well now
this is unexpected in a way, this is something they once said was an
advantage now it seems as though they consider it an exploit. Ahh
well guess it wasn't a waste after all to learn it.
HonestRocket in AsheronsCall
asks: What about the multiple ties
you've talked about before? is that very soon or just soon?
kentroop_turbine says: "Real
soon"
kentroop_turbine says:
"Real" means about a month from now
kentroop_turbine says: Coming in
April, we are doing a number of changes to the transportation system
kentroop_turbine says: First,
everyone, regardless of whether they have Item Magic, will have the
ability to recall to a lifestone
kentroop_turbine says: without
dying.
kentroop_turbine says: Second, those
with Item Magic, will get a number of new spells:
kentroop_turbine says: The ability
to tie to a lifestone (so, is able to recall to 2 lifestones)
kentroop_turbine says: The ability
to tie to, recall to, and summon a second portal
kentroop_turbine says: Third, the
ability to recall through a last used portal, if you haven't learned tie
-- that's going away
kentroop_turbine says: In it's place
will be a new spell that repeats that functionality
kentroop_turbine says: but
accessible to all Item Magic users
kentroop_turbine says: Again, this
is all planned for April.
kentroop_turbine says: Just in case
my wording wasn't clear.
kentroop_turbine says: This new
spell would allow you to recall through your last used portal (as long
as that portal was flagged as recallable)
Dizzarian: GET DOWN! I'm estatic, so
we're not loosing the the functionality of the previous were just
getting an offical spell for it. PLUS 2 lifestones?!? someone
catch me I'm feeling faint.
q640 in AsheronsCall asks:
Will Mages ever get another level of spells, possibly requiring a
specialization in that skill, even for just one school?
mrquazarr_MS says: Nope! Level 7 is
as high as the schools of magic will ever be
Dizzarian: Thanks for putting that
to rest. I've heard this for so long and I always suspected as
much
msnunrelated in AsheronsCall
asks: What about mage love?
kentroop_turbine says: Our current
focus is on improving various melee dynamics: to empower them, and make
it a more fun experience.
kentroop_turbine says: After that,
we have a lot of ideas of how we want to "tweak" magic in AC.
kentroop_turbine says: Magic may be
the most effective career path in Dereth, but it also is very tedious.
kentroop_turbine says: We want to
revisit some of the basics of that system to make it less so.
Dizzarian: hmm... sounds like the
right direction to me but then again making it easy to roll a BM, Og,
Opal etc would completely destroy Dereth IMO
Well now that was a very satisfying read. I
remember when dev chats used to make you madder than if they didn't have
them because they would be so vague about if it would implimented and
especially when. Now they are giving us a lot of detail and very
specific time frames. I love it.
The
Patches to Come Look Exciting!!!
03.11.02 - AC2 Dev Chat Highlights
I'm sure you've all read it but I'll go ahead and pick out the magical
content and comment on it. Dev chat here http://ac.xrgaming.net/index.php3?library=logs/ac2_zonechat_020307
Ashen4 in AsheronsCall asks:
Will AC2 have the options for Pets? .. or to create Golems?
Azeraphel_Turbine says: Monster
summoning is a viable strategy in combat, but it's not as simple as
having "pet classes".
Azeraphel_Turbine says: AC2's AI has
come a long, long way - monster loyalty can come and go, based on a
number of factors.
Dizzarian says: Just give me a
tusker, I'll be happy :)
DummyHouseWife in
AsheronsCall asks: Will the gameplay be
based on AC1? Eg Vulns and War spells. Or will it be basically a whole
new game?
JasonB_Turbine says: We took a hard
look at everything in AC1, retained the best parts of the game that fit
with what we wanted to do, while removing much of the tedium.
JasonB_Turbine says: And we of
course added a lot as well. A major focus on combat is providing a
compelling and interesting gameplay, where you do more than just vuln
and follow up with a war spell..
Dizzarian says: As long as there is
strategy I'll be happy but please just give us a little more info...
z2m2x2n2c2b in AsheronsCall
asks: Will the combat system depended
heavily on risk/reward? and will battles generally be different from
each other (non repeatitive?)
Azeraphel_Turbine says: Tactics!
Combat in AC2 is very tactical - the AI is formidable, and group tactics
and solo tactics are quite varied.
Azeraphel_Turbine says: Naturally,
there's a different sort of plan required for a 50-ft monogua than a
horde of drudges.
Dizzarian says: Thanks for answering
my previous question ;)
Well the exact form magic will be in with AC2 is still very hazy but I
will of course be on top of it and bring you all the cruical information.
Comment on AC2 here : AC2
Dev Chat and comments
03.11.02 - I'm back
Sorry for the lack of updates, my wife had unexpected surgery this last
week so it's been impossible to do anything. No worries though she's
back at home and everything turned out alright. I'll be trying to
add as much news as I can find today to make up for the lost time, that is
if work doesn't overwhelm me today.
03.01.02 - Everyone rejoice, new Fahrenheit up
That incredible story teller Fahrenheit
is at it again with a new tale of his trip to the isle of Aerlinthe
I dash out trying an oblique path. I
thread the needle between the Drudges and undead. I have the note close at
hand and Desert rats greet me as I hand in the note. A blast from behind
alerts me to the fact that I ran too close to the Drudges. At least one has
its sights set upon me. Thinking quickly I run around the nearest crypt and
the Drudge follows, I speed past the opening and around the far corner. The
beast so intent upon me runs into the opening, thinking that was my
destination. With glee I note the portal coalescing in a white spiral
pattern before me. As the desert fades behind me I find myself many leagues
to the north.
A good read to be sure let him know what you think here 11
D-note Death (Fahrenheit Journal entry)
02.28.02 - Ok everyone settle down Dizz made a new diary
Although it's not Dizzarian's it's Dizzop's my new Opal mage on
DT. It's been so long since I've made a journal that I hope I
still have the knack for it. Not much to say except check it out
here : Dizz's Diary of Darktide
After I get a few more of these up I'll officially add them to the site
and the contents.
Let me know what you think here : Dizz's
Diary lives agian
