We are staging the publish to all shards now. European shards will receive the patch today during their normal maintenance cycle. 

Here are the publish notes for your reading pleasure:

Publish 77.0.0

City Loyalty

In addition to assisting to quell the still ongoing unrest throughout Britannia three new ways to gain City Loyalty have been added:

• Participating in Champ Spawns will award City Loyalty to the City you have chosen to declare citizenship to.  The more difficult the level of the champ spawn, the more love you will receive.
• Turning in BoDs in a Loyalty City will award love to that City depending on the difficulty of the BoD.
  • New Magincia, Minoc, and Yew are proud to announce the opening of new Smithy and/or Clothier shops to serve the needs of the citizens! 
  • You may visit the “Sand in Ya Britches Tailor Hut” and “The Sandy Smith” right next to the Modest Damsel Inn located on the Isle of New Magincia. 
  • You may visit the “Tinderbox Smithy” and “The Elves Thimble” located within the center of Yew. 
  • You may visit the “Survival Threads” clothier in Eastern Minoc. 
• City Trade Ministers have begun accepting a variety of basic resources to assist in rebuilding and providing for the citizenry. City Trade Ministers will accept goods across a variety of Professions including, Lumberjacks, Miners, Hunters, Cooks, Fisherman, Archers, Alchemists, Tamers, and Herders.
  • Trade Ministers can be found at the major shipping hubs within each City. These include the Docks in most Cities, Great Oak Vessels in Yew, and the Stables in Minoc. 
  • To donate a single item or stack of items drop them into the crate. 
  • To donate a bag of items, drop the bag into the crate. A gump will appear with the quantities of each of the item groups you are donating.  Make sure to check your donations, as all donations to the City are final! 
  • To donate a tamed or herded animal double click the hitching post and target the animal you wish to donate. A confirmation gump will appear making sure you wish to donate that animal.
  • Double click the Trade Minister NPC to see a full list of items accepted.  Basic resources are all that are necessary for donation.  

Farspeakers (Improved Communication Crystals)

• 4 Listen Mode Settings – off, public, personal, and spy
• 4 Volume Settings – off, private, dual, and loud
• 4 Output Mode – Normal, Show my name, show sender, show both
• Crafted by Tinkers
• Improved user interface
  • Can link up to 10 speakers
  • Work across subserver lines
  • Rechargeable with gem stones
• Higher maximum number of charges – 5000 max charges or if exceptional 10000 charges

Faction Artifact Changes

• All faction artifacts have their Rank requirement changed to 1
• The price in silver for Faction Artifacts depends on the buyer’s rank:
  • Tier 1 artifacts cost 2,000 silver for Rank 1 players; and 1,000 silver for all higher ranks
  • Tier 2 artifacts cost 8,000 silver for Rank 1 players; 6,000 silver for Rank 2; 4,000 silver for Rank 3; and 2,000 silver for Rank 4 and higher
  • Tier 3 artifacts Cost 18,000 silver for Rank 1 players; 15,000 silver for Rank 2; 12,000 silver for Rank 3; 9,000 silver for Rank 4; 6,000 silver for Rank 5; and 3,000 silver for Rank 6 and higher
  • Tier 4 artifacts cost 32,000 silver for Rank 1 players; 28,000 silver for Rank 2; 24,000 silver for Rank 3; 20,000 silver for Rank 4; 16,000 silver for Rank 5; 12,000 silver for Rank 6; 8,000 silver for Rank 7; 4,000 silver for Rank 8 and higher
  • Tier 5 artifacts cost 50,000 silver for Rank 1 players; 45,000 silver for Rank 2; 40,000 silver for Rank 3; 35,000 silver for Rank 4; 30,000 silver for Rank 5; players; 25,000 silver for Rank 6; 20,000 silver for Rank 7; 15,000 silver for Rank 8; 10,000 silver for Rank 9; and 5,000 silver for Rank 10 players
• All faction artifacts have a maximum lifespan of 30 days
  • The remaining life displays in the item tooltip
  • This lifespan is in real time
• Faction artifacts have a new Item Property: Moonbound
  • Moonbound items are Indestructible when in a Felucca ruleset area. They will frequently repair themselves to maximum durability, and will not lose maximum durability.
  • Moonbound items are Ephemeral when in a Trammel ruleset area. They will lose 1 point of maximum durability per six minutes spent in active combat.
• All existing faction artifacts will convert to this new system with this publish
• Note that faction consumables are not affected by this change

Faction Artifacts for Gargoyles

• The faction reward sellers now sell gargoyle versions of all rewards except: Kasa of the Raj-In, Spirit of the Totem, Hunter’s Headdress, Inquisitor’s Resolution, Stormgrip
• The reward seller will not list any non-alterable artifacts on the menu for Gargoyles
• Gargoyles who purchase faction artifacts receive gargoyle equivalents
• Faction Artifact Alteration
  • Gargoyles may hand faction artifacts to the Faction Reward Vendor. If the artifact can be altered into a Gargoyle version, the item will be altered and returned.
  • In all other cases, the item will be returned un-altered.
  • Special conversions:
    • Fey Leggings (chain pants) alter into Garg plate legs
    • The Robe of Command alters into a standard robe which can be worn by gargoyles

Faction Point Distribution Update:

• Faction kill points will now be distributed based on involvement in faction fighting. Players can earn points through dealing damage, taking damage, and healing damage when opposing faction members successfully kill someone in an opposing faction.
• Points are awarded based on rank of the victim killed:
  • Ranks 1 – 3 are worth 4 points.
  • Ranks 4 – 6 are worth 8 points.
  • Ranks 7 – 9 are worth 12 points.
  • Rank 10 is worth 16 points.
• The amount of kill points taken from the victim is based on their faction rank when killed or 10% of their current points whichever is highest. Players in stat loss will be worth 1 point or 10% of their current points whichever is highest.
• Awarded points are divided between the participating characters in the kill:
  • The killer will receive 40% of awarded points.
  • The remaining 60% of awarded points is divided amongst the killer and all assisters.(Max 4 assisters)
  • Eligible participants will receive 40 silver for each kill.
• The most deficit points any faction member can have is now 12.
• Siege – Faction kill points will now be awarded on all facets in addition to victims receiving stat loss penalty.

Faction Silver Changes

• Containers of Sending will no longer accept silver.
• Silver rewarded for capturing a town sigil has been increased to 750 from 100.
• Silver rewarded for faction kills has been increased to 100 per victim faction rank from 40.
• Silver rewarded for faction trap kills has been increased to 100 from 40.
   

Bug Fixes

• Resolved the issue which was causing equipped items, mounts and even backpacks from disappearing in dungeons.
• Fixed the issue involving healers getting looting rights properly.
• Fixed the issue with altering the Quiver of Infinity into Gargoyle Wing Armor
• An adjustment has been made to Cora’s Mana Vamp range
• Prisoners will be deleted after they leave Wrong Dungeon
• The issue with placing 1 tile house addons on the Brit Ship has been fixed
• Sudiva was placed in her permanent home
• Containers of Sending will no longer accept silver.
• Silver rewarded for capturing a town sigil has been increased to 750 from 100.
• Silver rewarded for faction kills per victim faction rank has been increased to 100 from 40.
• Issue with the healers quest resetting was fixed

Classic client 7.0.26

Classic Client Patcher Update

• Cliloc Changes

Enhanced Client 4.0.26

• Cliloc Changes
• The “Target by Resource” feature has been fixed and works with Fishing.
• There is now a way for players to reset their enhanced client UI elements (hot-bars, main menu bar, backpack gump location, etc.) to their default location.

The authorities want you to know:

If you placed your boat near the place Blackthorn’s old castle was standing, please remove it before tomorrow, Wednesday July 11th, at midnight EDT. If your boat isn’t removed, it might get buried and destroyed in some landscaping works that are about to happen in that area.

It seems the slimes in Britain Sewers are running out of algae to eat! Many of the slimes have been spotted in the swamps south of Destard, near the savages. We must keep these creatures under control!

Written by the EM Team

    The grass beneath his tread was soft, and covered in the morning dew from a sun that was rising in the east. Each step was taken without any specific destination, and there was no greater purpose in these steps beyond wandering; the land was unfamiliar and strange, and there were no clear landmarks to guide the way, and no signs of any sort…so he wandered. His robe dragged along the ground, fraying its edges as he went…but he paid it no heed. Finally at the end of his energy for the moment, he dropped to his knees in the soft grass, and meditated. An answer would come, or a path would be found. As he grew accustomed to the scents and sounds all around him, a new and unfamiliar sound crept to his ears. He drew himself up and brushed grass from his robe, before altering his direction…and headed in the direction of the wail of anguish he’d heard.

    It took some time, but eventually he saw a thin wisp of smoke rising in the air; soon after, the smell of cooked meat reached his nose. Thinking to find himself at some sort of gypsy outpost, he was far more confused to hear noises that could only be associated with the sick and dying, and he hastened his pace. He stopped suddenly as he saw a red and white sign affixed to an ankh in front of him. While the ankh served to give him some minor comfort that he was not in completely alien circumstance, the sign brought confusion and curiosity to the forefront.

Quarantine Area! Danger! Entry Prohibited By Order Of Queen Zhah

    There was a fence to lend credence to the quarantine order, but the gates were missing, and he found no guard barring his entry. Were it truly this dangerous, would there not be more stringent measures taken? And what of this Zhah, whom the sign ostensibly claimed to be a Queen? It had seemed there was far more to know than he could have imagined.

    He was close enough now to hear the coughs and moans of the dying and deathly ill, and looking at the sign once more, he strode brazenly past the fencing, paying the sign no more attention. Perhaps the people here could answer his questions, he thought. It was only to find yet another shock as he approached, to see that what lay before him in the area were naught but gargoyles…and not even gargoyles as he knew them. He observed the strange gargoyles carefully and was already mentally cataloguing their symptoms in his head as best he could, despite his unfamiliarity with them. As he walked through the makeshift camp, he stepped onto finely grained sand and rounded the corner of a building before blanching at the sight before him, and realized that his initial assumption earlier wasn’t too far off about cooked meat. His sight was consumed by a funeral pyre, tended by two healthier looking gargoyles, who even as he watched silently threw another limp body atop it. His jaw set with determination at the sight, and despite his curiosity, he knew what had to be done.

    All initial attempts and conventional remedies had failed him; his magic was equally ineffective in curing these gargoyles of their affliction. It had been…an indeterminable amount of time since he had needed to apply himself in such a manner as this, and certainly even longer since being presented with one that would require his knowledge of alchemy. Still, with as focused as most alchemists had become on only the most basic potions, the archaic way he approached it had opened up new avenues, and he checked over the list he’d come up with. He wasn’t absolutely certain it would work, but he knew it was a better chance than they’d had before. Still, it would be dangerous to gather some of the ingredients, if they could even still be gathered. He was unsure if the Blightborn slimes could even be found, but he was fairly certain that Orcs and Terathans were too hardy to have vanished completely. Add that to sugar and vanilla, which any horticulturist should be able to gather, and a cure should be able to be fashioned.

    The problem would be with the disease itself; it seemed to constantly change itself and stop responding to what few treatments they’d already used to stifle it, so that meant that the cure wouldn’t be consistent. It was possible that with different quantities of each ingredient mixed in different fashions, the same ingredients could continue to be effective for some time. He now only found himself with one major problem; being without anyone to assist in finding and gathering the ingredients.

We will perform an extended maintenance during the regular downtime of each shard tonight. This will prolong the regular maintenance by about two hours.

Thank you for your support.

Greetings,

We will push Publish 75.0 to all shards during the next maintenance cycle, in the early morning of March 27.

Here are the complete notes for your reading pleasure, enjoy and see you in the game!

Publish 75.0.0

Global Arc

Acts 3 and 4 for the awakening have been completed.  Please keep an eye on your Town Criers for upcoming news.  Continue on with this quest and you too can have your own heirlooms.  As always watch the herald for future fiction.

Clean up Britannia – 4 new dyes

• Glossy Fuchsia
• Deep Blue
• Vibrant Seagreen
• Murky Amber

Faction Score System

• All faction scores will be scaled down instead of wiped.
• All faction members’ rankings will be updated to reflect the new scaled points.
• Faction score now decays at a rate of 1% (rounded down) of score per day. Scores of 99 or below will have a scaling chance to decay 1 point per day. The closer the score is to 0 the smaller the chance is of having point decay.
• Players with 0 Faction score will always be assigned Rank 1 and are no longer counted in Faction membership totals when determining the size of ranking brackets.

Faction Pet Combat Fixes

• Faction players may now order their pets to attack member of the same faction
• Pets will now correctly guard against attacks from same-faction players
• If a faction player attacks the summoned creature of a member of the same faction, the summoned creature will retaliate
• Summoned creatures will attack aggressors who are in the same faction as the summoner

Commodity Broker Fixes

• Commodity Brokers can now deal in brilliant amber, parrot wafers, taint, putrefaction, scourge, and all Spellweaving scrolls
• Commodity Brokers now identify and can trade in exceptionally crafted commodities. Any exceptional items that are “hidden” in Commodity Broker inventory will become accessible by the owner, allowing retrieval or price setting.
• The Commodity Broker window has been widened to better accomodate the longer commodity item names
• Enhanced Bandages are now named “Enhanced Bandage” instead of “Clean Bandage”
• Commodity Brokers now deal in Enhanced Bandages

Poison Cure Changes – Increased chance to Cure

Greater Cure Potion:
25% chance to cure lethal poison
45% chance to cure deadly poison
75% chance to cure greater poison
100% chance to cure standard and lesser poison

Cure Potion:
15% chance to cure lethal poison
25% chance to cure deadly poison
45% chance to cure greater poison
95% chance to cure standard poison
100% chance to cure lesser poison

Lesser Cure Potion:
5% chance to cure lethal poison
10% chance to cure deadly poison
15% chance to cure greater poison
35% chance to cure standard poison
100% chance to cure lesser poison

Bestial (Berserk) Suit

Players can no longer remain in stealth while in rage. Berserk timeout duration updated to 8 seconds and greatly reduces all healing effects while in all stages of rage. After exiting the berserk state all healing is still reduced for 8 additional seconds and a cool down of 60 seconds goes into effect which prevents players from entering rage.

Bug Fixes

• It is no longer possible to obtain extra empty bottles by drinking Invisibility Potions.
• The Damage Eater property now counts as a property for Imbuing and Unraveling purposes. The property weight is 90%; the normal cap is 6% (this is 100% intensity), and the “overcap” maximum is 9% (150% intensity). A 9% Damage Eater counts as 135% weighted intensity.
• Items turned in for Clean Up Britannia now only go to the Cavern of the Discarded at the intended 1% rate.
• NPCs can no longer become Angry Rioters or Angry Protesters if they are in the Yew Prison.
• Players can no longer attack prisoners in Wrong. Monsters, however, still can attack the prisoners as they are being escorted.
• The Britannian Ship now travels at maximum ship speed, whether it was initially placed from drydock or from a new deed.
• Players mounts will no longer randomly become auto-stabled on login.
• Archery no longer allows players to trigger special moves on weapons with Use Best Weapon Skill.
• Potion Kegs now update their weight when used on a gardening plant
• Brokers will no longer open the gates to their animal pens
•  Shame and Wrong loot generation now produces better quality item from tougher creatures
•  City Banner deeds can be purchased from the City Guards by those with sufficient City Loyalty
•  There are two new foundation sets in House Customization: Gothic and Board and Batten (require account entitlements)
•  Scroll of Alacrity effect will now pause when the character logs out and the timer resumes on next login
•  The Focusing Gem of Virtue Bane can no longer be used on runic hammers
•  Shame monsters now have Fame and Karma ratings more in line with their toughness
•  The Hungry Ogre no longer drops an empty bag as part of its loot
• Snow has been removed from Britannia
• Reduced duration of the slow walk effect for splintering weapons to correct time of 4 seconds.
• Mobs are no longer able to bleed attack players who are in bleed attack immune forms.
• Soul Charge properly works on the cool down period for 40 seconds.
• Increased natural poison resistance to 20% of the player’s poisoning skill.
• If you are wearing Morph Earrings your elven items will not be sent to your bank upon death
• The Dryad bow will no longer spawn with a throwing skill
• Players have to be within 2 tiles to dress a Mannequin or vendor
• Night Terrors will no longer teleport players  to a stuck location
• The Binding rope is blessed now
• The Pilots wheel will retain being blessed in deed form
• Norton the Fisher should no longer be missing from the New Haven Docks
• You will no longer to make exceptional Enchanted Apple.
• If a runebook hue is 0, it will no longer be changed to default hue automatically.
• Black dye tub will have a localized name.
• You will be able to add “blessed” status to various hooded robes.

Classic client  7.0.24

Classic Client Patcher Update

The classic client patcher has now be updated to streamline the patching process for the Classic Client.  This change should cut down on patching errors a lot of our players have experienced.  A new installer can be found on our download page.

• Cliloc Changes
• Fixed client crash during the intro movie

Enhanced Client  4.0.24

Item Property Classifier

The character abilities window now features a detailed listing with descriptions of all active item properties that your character has from equipment. It also displays a detailed list of all available properties that can be displayed.

•  Fixed crash when dynamic objects or mobiles are drawn and deleted continually.
• Cliloc Changes

Greetings,

We will publish a new client this afternoon for an art update for the Global Arc. Please make sure to patch.

Update 1:15 pm EDT: Both shards are available again.

The shards Drachenfels and Europe in our European datacenter are currently unavailable.

Our teams are investigating the situation and will bring both shards back online as soon as possible.

Update 2:30pm EDT: Oceania is back online. We are investigating the lag issues.

We have been informed by our service provider that there are issues to connect to shard Oceania.

The situation is under investigation. Keep an eye on the Herald for updates.

Greetings,

Publish 75.0 comes to Origin tonight. These are the changes to the Publish 75.0 Notes:

Faction Score System

• All faction scores will be scaled down instead of wiped.
• All faction members’ rankings will be updated to reflect the new scaled points.
• Faction score now decays at a rate of 1% (rounded down) of score per day. Scores of 99 or below will have a scaling chance to decay 1 point per day. The closer the score is to 0 the smaller the chance is of having point decay.
• Players with 0 Faction score will always be assigned Rank 1 and are no longer counted in Faction membership totals when determining the size of ranking brackets.

Bestial (Berserk) Suit

• Players can no longer remain in stealth while in rage. Berserk timeout duration updated to 8 seconds and greatly reduces all healing effects while in all stages of rage. After exiting the berserk state all healing is still reduced for 8 additional seconds and a cool down of 60 seconds goes into effect which prevents players from entering rage.

Changes to Cure

Cure Potion:

• 15% chance to cure lethal poison
• 25% chance to cure deadly poison
• 45% chance to cure greater poison
• 95% chance to cure standard poison
• 100% chance to cure lesser poison

Lesser Cure Potion:

• 5% chance to cure lethal poison
• 10% chance to cure deadly poison
• 15% chance to cure greater poison
• 35% chance to cure standard poison
• 100% chance to cure lesser poison