A short time ago, we asked for questions about Asheron's Call to be sent to us via email, that you the players would want answers to. Based on the response, this seems like something we will be doing more often. So without further delay, here is te first edition of ask the Devs!

"Why do the servers lag more now with 300 people online than they did in AC's prime with thousands online? Sure the game has expanded, but a lot has also been removed. Weather, corpses, arrows on ground, xp levers, etc."

This is a difficult question to answer because the term "lag" is so generic. To answer fully we would have to evaluate the type of lag you are getting, the server you are on, and the areas you like to hunt. Server performance from our end looks pretty consistent. Our messaging queues in larger areas can rise as high as 5000 at peak times but generally hover around 2000. These values are not unusual and should not cause excessive lag. CPU usage and disk usage server side looks pretty good from our end.

We would have to answer your question with questions of our own.We assume the problem is not some internet slowdown because if that was the case other traffic intensive games would also have lag. Are you experiencing server lag or graphical lag? What zones are you playing in? Are you using any add-ons that could be contributing to that lag?

That said, one subsystem of AC that is somewhat inefficient is the code that tracks buffs and debuffs. This is the reason areas with lots of Dispel effects tend to lag. As the game progresses and we add new type of spells the number of spells on each character grows slightly and areas that are spell intensive tend to lag. One thing on my list is to plan to revisit this code and the spell casting code for creatures to make both more efficient.

"Why, when characters can run around with about 200 items in their packs, is storage so limited in housing?"

The technology of housing chests is limited such that changing the size on chests will cause those chests to re-spawn and basically lose all the items currently stored in them. We have a term here for players who might experience this phenomenon and it is "unhappy." The only way to add additional storage would be adding new code to our check-point systems or by adding additional chests to all the houses.

Even if we added tech to allow the check-pointed chests to upgrade without losing items (or took the time to add new chests to the houses), player feedback has provided two points that make us hesitant to go in that direction. The first point is that housing chests have taken players away from the cities. The second is that in the larger houses and mansions the chests are actually inconvenient to reach with all of the running and door opening after a house recall. To fix that we would need to change hundreds of portal spells to go directly to these chests or modify the landblocks to remove the doors which, you guessed it, would cause the housing chests to de-spawn. Finally, another point against adding to housing storage is that housing is actually one of the biggest problems we face if we ever implement code to open up server transfer. As such we are loathe to make players even more reliant on it.

We are not sure with the new Augmentations to remove the need for Foci that players even need more storage. If, however, we decided to explore options for more storage we are far more likely to implement a bank system based in the capitol cities that also allowed players to grant access privileges to additional characters.

"What is the purpose of the Olthoi spawns around the shadow crater in the northern Direlands?  I noticed a while back that it started out as workers and if you kept killing them legionnaires spawned, then soldiers, then nobles, then nothing more really happened."

The increasing Olthoi area in the Dires is tied to the ‘Olthoi Queen’ quest on Marae Lassel, and is an indicator of the state that quest is in. The spawns in the area you mention are affected by and scale with the current progression the Quest on Marae Lassel.

"Are the DEVs ever going to allow the rains to come to the game???  If Returned, is the rain going to have the loud 'thunder' that used to be a Very welcome part of the Game."

When Asheron's Call was moved to later versions of DirectX for Throne of Destiny the weather code was not implemented in the new code base. We  will look at the work it would take to move weather effects over for the next big update we are doing, but it might be too time intensive to implement in that time frame.

"Why was it decided that two handed weapons would be an entirely new weapon skill, and not a new feature to axe, mace, spear, and sword?"

Our goal was to provide new character options and templates with the 10th anniversary, not to simply buff one of the existing major skill types. We felt that melee characters were already pretty well balanced for their cost, and did not need a large buff with the addition of an on-demand damage boost that also provided area of effect damage for no additional cost. If we implemented it in that manner then melee would have received a huge buff and then I imagine that mages and archers would feel (understandably so) as though they should be also buffed to maintain balance. Our current implementation treats Two Handed Combat as an entirely separate skill set, so existing melee characters are not affected by the addition of the skill at all unless they pay additional cost for the versatility of the Two Handed skill.


"Does Turbine or the dev team have any plans to revisit the Asheron's Call "universe" and make a new game based on this or a new expansion to the original Asheron's Call?"

Turbine is always evaluating all kinds of game opportunities. That said, new games have a notorious tendency to fracture existing player bases, but in the future who knows?

As for new Asheron's Call "expansions" that term is often applied to large paid expansions. We don't have plans to suddenly introduce a paid expansion for Asheron's Call. We prefer to have free content updates.

That said, we are all psyched to see players running around having fun with the 10th anniversary update and we are already planning our next big celebration update. I can't give you the exact dates, but if everything works out the update might be as soon as late Spring. Stay tuned for future news and tidbits on this upcoming celebration.


"What about a level cap increase?"

This is also something we have been discussing lately and it is definitely not out of the question in the future. If we did increase level it would likely also come with an additional 2 credit points along the way. Players have been maxed at 275 for a long time now and it would be nice to allow them the chance to continue their way up.

"It takes forever to get all of the augs, have you considered adding another method of gaining these?"

We agree that it takes too long for a new player to collect all of the augmentations that they want. A discussion has been going on as to how we would go about a new quest for obtaining augmentations. Currently it seems most likely this quest would be involved with the societies in some form and would be on the same repeatability with current aug quests.

So thats it for this edition of Ask the Devs. We hope this was something you enjoyed reading and please make sure to have your questions ready for the next round that will be announced soon!