Tis Friday again and Sanya from the Camelot Herald posted her Grab Bag Q & A today. Please note the part about the name generator, I was /rofl at that one. So remember to always look at your name and considering anything that could become of it before hitting the accept option. All right! Got a lot to cover today, so let's go. Q: When do hostile mobs become aggressive? A: Our faction chain isn’t completely linear: ”Hostile does not proceed to aggressive; hostile and aggressive are the same faction rating. The difference is that some mobs are flagged “attack” and some are flagged “never attack.” In other words… if you kill enough of a neutral mob it will become EITHER hostile if flagged never-attack OR aggressive if flagged attack… a hostile mob will never become aggressive or vice versa.” Thanks to our Mentalist team lead for the concise answer! Q: I want to go to events. Where do I find them? A: Over there on your left is a link to the calendar. All kinds of people are putting together events for trade fairs, guild recruitment, RVR wars, and even poetry contests. Go find one, or even start one. If you want to have an event, you need to provide information – a place for people to gather, a time to get together, a contact name or three, and a real life email address for me to contact you if I have questions. Q: The manual states the auto-release timer is one minute per level. This is not true. A: You’re right, it’s not. The manual is incorrect – as of this writing it’s ten minutes across the board. Q: I got into trouble for using a name that YOUR name generator gave me. Uh, what’s up with that? A: Well, our name generator basically takes several authentic sounding syllables, mushes them together, and presents it to you as an option. **You still need to use your judgment.** If the resulting name looks or sounds like a racial slur, a disease, or something else nasty, don’t use it. Remember, every warning or suspension letter has a contact address at the bottom for disputing actions taken against your account, and we do read all such emails and have reversed name suspensions in the past. Q: Hi! Just hit 9th with my Cabalist and all my pets are green, regardless of which pet spell I cast. I tried everything to get a better pet, no dice. A: At level 9, the pet is always green, although at 10 you have a shot at blue ones again, Mr. Cabalist. The max level of your pet is a percentage of your level, so it’s always the same ratio to you – 88% of you. So, at level 9, high green and low blue are the same, and your level is so low that 88% of you is green. Q: How do focus staves work? A: Oh, boy. Okay, first let me say we are CHANGING this. The current system is not as effective as we want it to be at higher levels. Focus staves do not affect skill, they affect power costs. It costs 120% of nominal power cost to cast a spell without a focus stave. It also costs 120% of the power cost if the spell is higher in level than the level of the stave. Having the right stave can lower your casting cost down to 90% under the current system. All existing staves are triple-foci. That is the current system. I am going to take a risk here and tell you how the new system will work in advance. The new system combined with new staves currently in development will be more effective for the higher level players (40+) and (with the right stave) lower the casting cost to 80%, not 90%. Again – THIS SYSTEM IS NOT YET IMPLEMENTED. It will be SOON. Do not write to tell me it doesn’t work this way – I know. It doesn’t yet. It will. Watch the patch notes for exact timing. The current system caps you at 90%. Here goes, straight from the designer’s keyboard: “The value of a focus item is based on the *level* of the spell that is being cast. It is not based on the caster casting it, or the spec level of the caster. If the spell level is equal to or less than the number on the focus staff the spell will be cast at 80% of power cost. If the spell level is greater than the focus on the staff you will see diminishing returns. If the focus is 3/4 of the spell level the spell will be cast at 90% of power cost, 1/2 of the spell level the spell will be cast at 100% of power cost, 1/4 will be cast at 110%, and no focus will be cast at 120% of power cost. Keep in mind this is a sliding scale and these are not tiers, they are just points that I chose to illustrate power costs at different intervals. Depending on the focus stave you use you can literally end up with a power cost of anywhere between 80-120%. (Note from Sanya – in other words, if your stave is marked 20, and your spell is level 20 or below, that stave will make the spell cost 80% of the listed power cost. If the stave is 15, and the spell is 20, your spell will cost 90%. If the stave is 25 and the spell is 50, the cost will be 100%. And so on.) There will also be staves that affect a single focus, they will have a bit more spice than the standard 3 foci staves. It will be much easier to bring a focus to minimum power cost using these new ones, albeit at the cost of focusing the other 2 foci.” I hope to heaven that made sense. And people wonder why I prefer Unga Kill classes; you spellcasters make my head hurt on Friday afternoons. ;) Q: How can you tell what realm a siege weapon belongs to? A: Take a whack at it, or cast a spell on it. If you can hurt it, it’s not yours. I have heard that the person who BUILT the thing can damage his own machine, but I have not personally confirmed that. This is a design choice so that the attackers can cast AE spells without damaging friendly weapons. Have a good weekend, be safe. Next week: Parry and evade skills and how they work.