This week's Grab Bag is a right mix of questions, and a good read. So grab a cuppa and a minute, and read on!

Thanks to everyone who sent in questions, keep 'em coming! You can send in your questions through our Grab Bag submission form.

On to the info!


Will we see additional PVE Campaigns that utilize underused zones such as SI?

Yes! As stated in the Producer’s Letter we are introducing our next PvE campaign with the launch of 1.122C to the Live servers. While this one won’t go into Shrouded Isles zones, another future campaign almost certainly will. This next campaign will last a bit longer than our previous ones and will focus on both the classic world and eventually another expansion area. If you’ve been reading the recent lore-posts so far for hints I’m sure you can figure out which areas are involved!

We’re especially excited to bring this next campaign to you because much of your recent feedback regarding PvE will be incorporated into it. First, we’ll be toning down the power of the rewards to coincide with the upcoming 1.123 item changes. This campaign’s rewards will still certainly be useful and coveted but they won’t shift the power of gear nearly as much as the Otherworlds campaign did.

Secondly, we want players to be able to complete *most* chapters at their own pace and not have to wait for a battlegroup to form up in order to continue. While most chapters will require just the help of a few friends to complete some will be able to be completed solo, and a select few will still require multiple groups. Regardless of the chapter’s difficulty, all steps will be battlegroup credit.

Finally, with the conclusion of this campaign we’ll be launching a comprehensive revamp of an entire expansion. Updated lore, enemies, dungeons and of course, loot! With this revamp, we’re most excited about introducing a new system for obtaining and potentially upgrading loot found elsewhere in the game; as a solo player.

More details about the upcoming campaign will be found in the 1.122C Live Patch notes (coming next week!) and as it unfolds we’ll be releasing more details on the revamp of the soon-to-be-revealed expansion content!

Would broadsword ever consider adding new terrain obstacles around high traffic areas, similar to the "towns" on the outer ring of EV, in order to offer a partial haven for solo and smallman action the way the ruined keeps and mazes have?

This is certainly something we’ve considered! There are many “high traffic” areas that have already been given some obstacles and features for smaller forces to use such as the milegates, the many standing and fallen towers, ruins, and staircases on Ellan Vannin, the removal of monsters from some of the Roman ruins in Hadrian’s Wall, new fallen trees and wooded areas in Emain Macha, and the new mountainous paths in Odin’s Gate.

That said, we’re absolutely open to adding some more so long as they don’t inhibit the larger forces too much from their objectives. Just send us some feedback on where you’d like to see them and we’ll absolutely take a look!

Will guild Bounty Points and Merit Points ever be able to be used for more than house rent and guild buffs?  Something that benefits the guild in a big way such as special bonuses for double XP for 12 hours, or being able to put up more than two guild buffs at a time?

We toyed with re-incorporating guild-bounty points into a more robust keep claiming and upgrading system but decided against it for now. Perhaps in the future we can add that in if desired. For the merit points, there are already some valuable bonuses that can be put up and many high realm rank guilds are actually seeing a lack of available merit points. We’d like to address that issue prior to giving any other bonuses to spend the merit points on.

Does your weapon skill affect whether or not your shield styles (like slam) penetrate defenses like it does for your weapon or is it solely based on your shield spec and your dex? For example could a thane spec 50 shield and no weapon, and still be able to penetrate defense trying to slam or brutalize?

In short, your shield specialization, dexterity stat, and +shield skills are the determining factors for landing shield styles. Your other weapon specializations do not affect your penetration chance when using shield styles. So yes – one could spec 50 shield, 0 weapon and land your shield styles just fine!

That said, “weaponskill” doesn’t really determine defense penetration for “normal” weapon specs either but is rather an index value that takes into account things like your spec, stats, +skills, and your class’ inherent ability with that weapon line to give you an idea of how well you might stack up against others.

Additionally, the weaponskill value displayed on your character’s attribute page is only for your “normal” or “main” weapon specialization. This means if a Thane adjusted their Sword, Hammer, or Axe specialization it would update its value but it wouldn’t if they adjusted their Shield spec. You can test this by fully respecializing and then training up your Shield spec. You will see that the displayed weaponskill value does not change.

For Shield spec, there is a hidden “shield weaponskill” value that gets adjusted based on your shield spec, +skills, and your dexterity stat but again, that weaponskill value doesn’t directly determine your defense penetration, anyway.

What are the angles (degrees) of the front, side, and back arcs for landing styles? Similarly, what is the angle (degrees) of the front arc for casting spells (having target in LOS)?

For landing melee styles, the front and rear arcs of a target are each 60 degrees wide and each of the side arcs are 120 degrees wide. Meaning if your target stood facing due north, you could land frontal positional styles on them if you are standing north of them, facing due south, and are within a 30 degree angle to the east or west of their position.

For spell casts, the frontal arc is 180 degrees – meaning if you are facing due north, you can cast on a target standing 90 degrees from you at due west AND on a target standing 90 degrees from you due east, without moving your character’s facing.

Additionally, the frontal arc for melee defenses like parry and (non-360/advanced) evade is 120 degrees; for block it is 180 degrees.

Bola and Patella Shot - What affects if these shots "Miss" or not. Is there a certain mechanic that makes it miss? I am not talking "resisted" but when it says the shot missed.

These shots’ miss rates should already be fixed in patch 1.122C which is currently on the Pendragon server. Please give them a test!

Is there any update on the player-base survey and its results?

The recent survey was a huge success! We were heartened by both the number of respondents and the responses themselves. In short, there appears to be an appetite for some sort of alternative ruleset server. Our team is continuing to flesh out and iterate on the the best approach to deliver one that accomplishes the following goals:

• Closely meets the most-desired ruleset based on survey results.
• Can be released in a reasonable timeframe.
• Allows our team to continually develop and update the Live servers.
• Ensures the Live servers' remain engaging in the near term after the launch of an alternative ruleset server with the long-term aim of increasing their population.

We won't release an alternative ruleset server unless it can meet ALL of those goals. We will be doing a more targeted, follow-up survey in the coming weeks once we are confident in our plan. Until then, stay tuned!