Gamers have always been fighting to be recognized as intelligent individuals who are competitive. The fight started before a computer game existed, but the thoughts are still there, even with World of Warcraft and their billions of players. One of the first individuals to fight for video games, and those that play them was Raph Koster.

Despite gaming being a bit more accepted in our culture, I think there's still plenty of resistance overall to regarding games as a medium comparable to any other. I also think there's a persistent notion within the industry that they don't deserve to be, and we need to get over that.

READ MORE about his past, the present, and where gaming is going tomorrow.

Your breath huffs into the air on a cold December night. Seeing red, you quickly jump into the nearest fighter jet and take off, knowing they'll never be able to catch you. As soon as you take off, however, you remember that you aren't the most skilled pilot at this type of plane. Someone on the ground quickly takes you out as you hear laughter in your ear. "Gotcha!" If this action fills your blood with adrenaline, keep reading about War Rock, a new Online FPS, currently in Open Beta.

Each character class has its own strengths and weaknesses. For instance the Heavy Weapon Trooper has weapons that blow the snot out of vehicles, but for smaller, more nimble targets (like infantry) it’s harder for him to bring his big guns to bear. We’ll be changing the Heavy Trooper to actually be a bit tougher, but just a tad slower than other troops, so if you like the big bruiser with the Big Guns, the Heavy will be your guy.

Discover for yourself why this game is so much fun!

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a new feature we have here at WoW Stratics, the WoW Stratics Cast! Our fabulous reporter Jacan has stepped up to the plate and produced a FANTASTIC first cast. Below are the patch notes from his very first cast.

Summary of this week's show:

• 00:26 - Introduction of WoW Stratics Podcast
• 00:50 - US and EU News…
• US - WoW gets 4 new realms
• US - Taiwan Gets TBC.
• US - WoW TBC Cinematic intro
• EU - Winter Veil is here
• EU - Blizzard at Dreamhack in Sweden
• EU/US - Before the Storm review
• 06:40 - This Week in Blue - Housing will it come?
• 07:50 - Outro

Play Now:

Direct Link to WoW Stratics Cast Show #1
Note: File size is 11.5 MB

Send Jacan an email!

We also have an RSS feed set up for all of our WoW Stratics Casts, so don't forget to sign up!

All of our WoW Stratics Cast links are located on our left side menu for your convenience.

~Enjoy!

Please join us on Wednesday, December 20th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!

The Festival Jester Arrives!
[19-Dec-2006]

The Coin Lords have scattered Festival Coins across Stormreach and Xen'drik to celebrate Festival!

Festival is a new holiday commissioned by the Coin Lords of Stormreach. Since ancient times, the folk of Eberron have observed Long Shadows during these chill weeks -- a grim season when the power of the Shadow, god of the Dark Six, is at its strongest. Dire magic gathers in dusky corners, and evil stalks the night in a thousand guises. The Coin Lords have determined that the terror of Long Shadows must end! To this end, they devised Festival, a celebration to drive evil out of the city. Instead of cowering from the Shadow, citizens are encouraged to exchange gifts with their adventuring partners and loved ones. And by slaying the monsters who threaten the city's well-being, they may collect Festival Coins to demonstrate their dauntless spirit in the face of Long Shadows and the Dark Six!

If you are bold enough to collect any Festival Coins, look for theJester of Festival, a disguised "friend of the Coin Lords." Nobodyknows the true name of this fellow, but he can easily be identified by his colorful garb and dwarven stature. He will exchange Festival Coins for gifts from House Ghallanda and House Cannith, crafted especially for the season. These treasures can be found nowhere else, so do not miss your chance to acquire them!

From the Coin Lords, the dragonmarked Houses and all of Stormreach, we wish you a Happy Festival and a profitable new year!

Sincerely, Sir Lawrence d’Deneith

***********

During the holiday season every treasure chest has a chance of droppingFestival Coins in addition to the usual treasure! There are three typesof coins: copper, silver, and gold. If you collect enough festivalcoins, bring them to the Festival Jester, a surly looking dwarf NPC,and he will give you a random gift from his festival bag of holding!

Three Copper Festival Coins gives you a chance to get:

• A Lamannia, the Twilight Forest Jelly Cake
• A Syrania, the Azure Sky Jelly Cake
• A Thelanis, the Faerie Court Jelly Cake
• A Velah, the Red Dragon Gingerbread Cookie
• A Queen Lailat, the Marilith Gingerbread Cookie
• A Warforged Titan Gingerbread Cookie
• A Lump of Coal

Two Silver Festival Coins gives you a chance to get:

• A Daanvi, the perfect Order Jelly cake
• A Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams Jelly Cake
• A Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead Jelly Cake
• A Shavarath, the Battleground Jelly Cake
• A Xoriat, the Realm of Madness Jelly Cake
• A Mabar, the Endless Night Jelly Cake
• A Beholder Gingerbread Cookie
• A Candy Cane Wand

One Gold Festival Coin gives you the chance to get:

• An Irian, the Eternal Day Jelly Cake
• A Kythri, the Churning Chaos Jelly Cake
• A Fernia, the Sea of Fire Jelly Cake
• A Risia, the Plane of Ice Jelly cake

There is a very small chance that the Festival Jester will give you an exceptional gift when you give him one Gold Festival Coin, but what those might be you'll just have to wait and see. Each gift does something special and we think you will love what our artificers and cooks have crafted for you this Festival Season!

Now, you may be wondering where the Jester can be found in Stormreach? You can find him near the main gate of each of the House ward as well as in the Marketplace and the Harbor. If you don't find him in one place, don't despair. He periodically will move around the city, or take a quick break and then come back.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for special items appearing in random places throughout the world. You never know when you might come across something fun! To give you a hint: use the backspace key to search because these items won’t appear in the middle of the street.

Turbine would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday and we hope you have fun with this event!

In ancient times and wars, the Magnia Crystal was forged from the power of pure magical energy by the Elves. The crystal was originally created to aid in the defence against their foes after the age of Giants. Throughout the years, the crystal was passed onto a lineage of chosen defenders known as "Keepers of the Crystal".

Trailing in the footsteps of his ancestors, Ya-dul La-us-ian had been raised and trained as a powerful mage in order to become the next defender of the crystal. Unbeknownst to him, the thieves of the Dark Mantis guild had also been training and observing, waiting for their moment to steal the ancient artefact for their own. However, Ya-dul La-us-ian had the advantage over the scoundrels from the Dark Mantis guild, as he knew how to take proper care of the crystal once in possession. Unfortunately for all the thieves were successful in their plot and once they had acquired it and stored it into their coffers at their guildhall, the crystal became unstable and shattered. Many thieves have come and gone and since then the shards have been looted away across Stormreach by many greedy hands.

In his quest to find the whereabouts of the pieces of the crystal, Ya-dul La-us-ian hired a bunch of mercenaries from Stormreach to help him, as it was not a job for one person alone. Lead by a skilled and experienced dwarf named Oskar Runaheim, the mercenaries were set out on an investigative quest throughout the dark and treacherous back alleys of Stormreach to gather information. A list was needed. A list that contained the location of each of the crystals.

Oskar, ever suspicious and perhaps a tad over-zealous wrote every morsel of information down in riddles. His encounters with the various thieves and lowlifes over the years had made him increasingly paranoid. So as a security measure, he wrote them down in a way that only he would remember. Everything Oskar wrote down was painstakingly converted in the form of a riddle.

Several months later Oskar had his list of locations and set upon returning to Ya-dul La-us-ian to deliver the prized information. It was a job well done, he knew. Yet the treachery would pursue him to the end and but a few miles from Ya-dul's front door, one of his very own team of mercenaries seized the opportunity to jump Oskar and steal the precious parchment. Oskar's wound was fatal, his quest never to be fully completed. The band of mercenaries that had accompanied him were never seen or heard from again.

Ya-dul La-us-ian has now enlisted the help of all adventurers across Stormreach to help him decipher the codes. As a reward, he offers a bounty of untold splendour.

We are excited to announce a €10,000 treasure hunt competition for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach!

That’s right; you could be in with a chance of winning some great cash prizes in our special winter competition.

Over the next 90 days we will be randomly placing special Soul Stones in the game world. Each one will be worth €1,000 in real world money. There will be a total of 10 Soul Stones each placed at random times on random servers. All you have to do is find one of them and hand it in to a competition official to claim your prize. A competition official can be identified by a ‘+’ symbol in front of their name.

When and where can you find the Soul Stones exactly?
Throughout the 90 days, riddles and cryptic clues will be given out to provide hints on the whereabouts of the Soul Stones. Once they’re given out, it will be a race to decipher the clues and find the Soul Stones!

What to do when you find one?
As soon as you find one of the Soul Stone pieces of the crystal, a GM will immediately come to you and congratulate you. To complete the process, you will need to hand the Soul Stone back to the GM, who will then tell you what the next steps are. A ‘GM’ or competition official can be identified by a ‘+’ symbol in front of their name.

When will this all take place?
The competition will run from 11th December, 2006 until 10th March, 2007, with the Soul Stones being dropped at random intervals during this time. Clues will be available just before the Soul Stones are dropped, so keep your eyes and ears peeled! It could happen at any time!

Can you win more than one prize?
Of course! There are 10 shards in total, placed on random servers at random times. The first person to solve the riddle and find the Soul Stone wins.

So if you are an existing DDO player all you need to do to enter the competition is find a Soul Stone to win!

If you don’t already play DDO then don’t worry… You can download and enter the DDO FREE TRIAL now by visiting http://www.ddo-europe.com/request-key.php

If you would like more information on where to buy the game from, please click here.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Full terms and conditions can be found here

WoW Stratics 2006 Holiday Movie Contest!

WoW Stratics  in conjunction with Warcrackwear.com and Zboard are proud to bring you our 2006 Holiday Movie Contest!

We're looking for the best WoW movie with a holiday theme. Got a dwarf that looks like Santa, an orc that stole Christmas, use your imagination and see what you can come up with.

Winners will receive the following prizes:

• Grand Prize: One winner will receive a Zboard along with a Limited Edition World of Warcraft Keyset.
• First Prize: One winner will receive a sweatshirt with your design of choice from Warcrackwear.com.
• Second Prize: One winner will receive a t-shirt (Beefy-T or Babydoll) with the design of your choice from Warcrackwear.com .

Head on over to our contest page to read up on the contest rules!

 Good luck everyone!

Stratics Exclusive Desktop Wallpaper Created by LFGComic

A new webcomic has hit the MMO world by storm recently. The masterminds behind the popular webcomic Least I could Do have teamed up again to released their beautifully drawn and well written MMO comic LFGComic to the world.

Ryan Sohmer and Lar Desouza have brought their fantasy world to life with 6 comics so far. Mostly set in the World of Warcraft scenario, a Blood Elf character enters the world ready to be a hero, when he finds that the people allied with him aren't so heroic at all. Even though the comic is geared toward WoW, Sohmer has said "LFG is a spoof, homage if you will, to all the fantasy MMO's out there".

The LFGComic team has been kind enough to send some fantastic Stratics desktop wallpapers. You can find these along with all of our other World of Warcraft related wallpapers by visiting the Wallpaper section over at WoW Stratics.

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[1024x768]
[1280x1024]
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Stratics would like to thank the LFGComic creators for their awesome wallpaper and we hope you enjoy them! Writer Ryan Sohmer is also with Blind Ferret Studios which is an animation studio responsible for creating PVP: The Series. A new web subscription based animated cartoon made by popular webcomic artist Scott Kurtz of PVP fame. Sohmer has hinted at the possibilty of using the animation studio for some new things coming to LFGComic, we'll keep you up to date when we learn more!

Final Release Notes for the Evil Resurgent Update
[13-Dec-2006]

The most dangerous evils have the deepest roots…

Parthilcar Tower Crypt - Anabele d’Jorasco claims that someonetried to kidnap her but she managed to escape. She found herselfoutside of Parthilcar Tower Crypt, remembering nothing but an insidiousvoice in her head and a vague image of several house nobles. What isgoing on in the depths beyond the blue barrier?

From Beyond the Grave - Deathshadow is long in the ground buthis evil lives on. Through dark magics and sheer force of will, thenecromancer haunts the convict cemetery called Penitent’s Rest and isnow summoning forth an army of the undead. With a legion of walkingcorpses and ethereal horrors at his command, he intends to break outfrom the pauper’s grave and invade Delera’s Graveyard, the restingplace of Stormreach’s prosperous and elite. Meet his forces head on ina fight to the death…again!

Spire of Validus - The Spire of Validus recently burst throughthe ground in Delera’s Graveyard. Now the torches are lit and the dooris open. Ascend the tower to meet the lich, Calliphor Validus, and tosend him back from whence he came.

Whisperdoom - When Splinterskull fell, Whisperdoom found herselfwith a very large new lair. However, a group of Ogre Magi came uponSplinterskull and Whisperdoom and captured her. They have taken her toa new lair, and have begun to imbue her with magical abilities, withthe hopes of creating an army of magic wielding spawn of Whisperdoom todo their bidding.

Haywire’s Grotto - Haywire has a new contract with HouseKundarak and has established a mine in the Black Anvil Forest toconstruct improved Iron and Clay Golems, but something has gone wrong.The last shipment never arrived, and Haywire’s speaking stones havebeen silent. What has the artificer managed to get himself into thistime?

Gate of Nightmares - Long ago when the Dal Quor invadedXen’drik, they built many temples that were attuned to the Plane ofDreams, and served as conduits for their soldiers. The Cult of Madnesshas found one of these temples, and has managed to alter the attunementto be aligned with Xoriat. Several of the smaller portals have beenreopened, and the central gateway is not far from becoming fullyoperational.


Something special's in the air

We are receiving reports that Festival Coins have started appearing inthe treasure chests of Stormreach. This can only mean one thing – TheFestival Jester must be on his way!


Changes to the Social Panel

One of the best aspects of Dungeons & Dragons Onlineis finding a great party and then running through an adventuretogether. The most important tool we have to help you find a good groupis the Social Panel. Since the launch of DDO in February we havechanged and expanded the social panel several times in an effort tomake finding a group easy. These latest changes are based almostentirely off player feedback. We feel that our newest iteration is ahuge improvement and we hope you like what you see.

To read the complete article that outlines all of the changes please click here.


General

• The Wayfinder's Foundation has offered tosubsidize the exploration of the Menechtarun Desert! ZerchiSpire-Keeper in the Marketplace now offers free airship travel toZawabi's Refuge.
• Zawabi's refuge has been added to both the postal service network and the auction house network.
• We have added some monetary caps to the Auction House. Initial priceand buyout price can no longer exceed 2M pp. Bid price can no longerexceed 4M pp.
• When blinded, floatynames will once again appearover friendly and neutral people. You will still not be able to see thenames of hostile people.
• There are new tooltips for abilitydamage that give you information about how to recover from that type ofdamage. For example, "Your Strength has been damaged. Resting at ashrine will allow you to recover partially. To recover fully, stay atan inn or tavern."
• Players who have their name changed should not have to log out and back in for their friends list to work properly.

UI Improvements

• We have added an "invite to guild" button and an "add friend" button to the focus orb.
• When hitting the "create party" button on the LFM UI, the Create Party UI will now appear as its own window.
• Playerswill no longer be able to post LFM and LFG want ads while anonymous.Don't worry Clerics - this is a temporary situation only.
• Ifyou click on white bolded player names in the chat window the chatentry line will automatically be filled in with "/tell ".
• The map of the Sands of Menechtarun has been revised for greater accuracy.
• The Resist Disease enhancement has the proper octagonal (passive) icon instead of a square one.
  
• The Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration feats have new icons.
  
• Fixed the blank space in shield examination.

Monsters

• Changes to monster classification. We haveintroduced a new color coded system that will help you determine thedifficulty of the named monster you are facing.
  • Minibosseswill have orange names and limited protections. This is actually adeparture from before – minibosses are no longer immune to many of thethings they were previously immune to. In particular, casters willenjoy this change.
  • Bosses will have red names and will have thesame immunities as before. It is important to note that some monsterswho used to be classified as bosses (such as optional bosses) are nowdesignated as minibosses.
  • Raidbosses have purple names. Thereare currently only four raidbosses: Sorjek, Velah, the Warforged Titan,and Queen Lailat. Raidbosses have all of the immunities of bosses and afew more as well.
  • Monster names will default to these colors but can be reset via the UI options panel.
• Queen Lailat
  
  • QueenLailat has enhanced her defenses by modestly improving her guards andraising the lava level around the circle of eternity. Zawabi hascountered by adding a new portal that allows you to escape the pitshould you accidentally fall in.
  • Wrack now has a saving throw.
    
• Monsterswhich are stealthed will now break stealth anytime they cast a spell(the same way players do), instead of only breaking stealth whencasting harmful spells.
• Monsters charmed by a Symbol of Persuasion will now remain charmed even if they wander away from the symbol.
• Ogre Mages now disappear properly after a fiery death.
• Harga Fire Dancer and Yurrugh the Swift will now drop treasure from their correct treasure tables.
• Thedescription for the poison Hulrak Slime Mold now lists all threeabilities that may be damaged: Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma.
  

Combat

• Low level ranged combat speeds have been increased.

Spells

• Spell crits were not working properly on some AOEspells; now they will properly register the crit when casting and thenapply the extra damage to all targets for the full duration of thespell.
• Disintegrate, Harm, Heal, and Otiluke's Freezing Sphere now penetrate spell resistance the same way other damage spells do.
• Theduration of both Aid and Protection from Energy now increase at levels11 and 12. Please note: their effects are still capped at level 10. Inaddition, the duration of Resist Energy now increases at level 12,although the effect is still capped at level 11.
• Barkskin waserroneously giving a higher natural AC bonus than intended. We havetherefore adjusted it to consistent with p&p rules (2 ac, +1 forevery 3 levels past third, to a maximum of +5 at 12th level).
• TheWall of Fire spell will now burn away webs and obscuring mists and canset burnable things (like crates and barrels) on fire.
• TheWaves of Fatigue spell is now properly considered a fatigue effect (itcan now be removed by effects that remove fatigue). Therefore,creatures (such as warforged) that are immune to fatigue are alsoimmune to the spell.
• Disease effects, such as Filth Fever, nowuse their own disease icons rather than poison icons (this does NOTaffect Mummy Rot, which has its own icon).
• Glyph of Warding andGlyph of Warding, Greater were inadvertently doing too much damage.Their damage has been reduced to what is stated in the spelldescription.
  
• The bard's Song of Freedom now has the correct icon.
  

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• If you respec out a toggle feat (metamagic feats, for example), they are now toggled "off" when they are removed.
• The Quick Draw feat's description has been updated to reflect the changes made to the feat in The Demon Sands Module.
• Manyshot's description has been updated to properly include the scaling number of arrows rather than claiming it's always 2.
• Warforged are now immune to all of a Beholder's Flesh to Stone rays (and not just some of them).
• Fixed instances where warforged immunities were still being called resistances.

Items

• Reports of fantastic ancient treasures are comingin from the Restless Isles. Some say the ogre mage, Ghola-Fan, ishoarding legendary items. Others tell of crystal-forged items imbuedwith the resonant power of the Shrieking Mines.
• Ancient treasures have been unearthed in the desert of Menechtarun. Will you be lucky enough to find them?
• Sale on Bless potions! 80% off!
• Spellcasters can now attempt to activate scrolls containing spells higherlevel than they can currently cast by using a caster level check.Characters must roll d20 + 2*CasterLevel >= 2*Minimum level to castthe spell to succeed in activating the scroll. This is a deviation frompen and paper D&D that does not double the caster levels todetermine success. We feel that given the higher availability ofscrolls in DDO it is necessary to reduce the chance for lower levelcharacters to activate higher level scrolls.
• Tools and scrolls will appear less frequently in random chest treasures.
• Mithral Armor now weighs 1/2 of the normal steel armor weight. This change will be retroactive.
• "of Backstabbing" weapons now do even more additional damage on any attack that would qualify as a Sneak Attack.
• Items that cast the various damage amplification spells X/rest now have a much quicker activation time.
• Newlyfound Filtration Modules will now have Acid Resistance instead of theprevious +4 bonus to saves versus Poison. Filtration Modules already inexistence will not be affected by this change.
• The effects onTyrzza's Bane, a weapon found in the Invasion dungeon, have beenmodified so that the weapon will properly negate the Damage Reductionof Tyrzza. This is not a retroactive fix.
• The Staff of ArcanePower is now equipable by Wizards, Sorcerers and Bards. This changeaffects all Staffs of Arcane Power, those already in existence as wellas newly created staffs.
• The named weapons that lacked the +to-hit/damage portion of the Bane effects have been corrected.
  • Kelmar’s Justice
  • Sword of the Giant Slave-Masters
  • Giant Stalker’s Knife
  • Spider Spike
  • Spiked Mace of the Elements
• Several of the new named treasure items that were erroneously marked Bind on Acquire are now freely tradeable:
  
  • Spectacles of Spirit Sight
  • Thornlord
  • Whirlwind
  • Sirroco
  • Bejeweled Letter Opener
  • Stinkpelt's Hide
  • Vambraces of Inner Light
  • Silken Mail
• Beholder Optic Nerves will once again protect against ALL Beholder eye beams.
• Fixed a situation that would sometimes cause crests not to spawn in some dungeons.
• Fingalard'Phiarlan is now being properly credited as being a source for areplacement Pendant of Time if you were to lose yours for any reason.
• The Circlet of Persuasion and Minor Circlet of Blasting have been updated to use new Circlet art.
• TheArmor and Shield examination panels now show the arcane spell failurepercentage for that item. Please be aware that bards do not sufferarcane spell failure if they are wearing light armor and casting bardspells. To find out what your total current spell failure chance is,please refer to the tooltip of the spell that you will be casting.

NPCs

• Items forged by Galrias the Smith in the Black Anvil Mines will now be stored in your overflow slots if your inventory is full.
• MaseiMkembe will now offer you your deserved reward even if you accidentallyclosed his window while talking to him. He will also give you moreitems to choose from when you turn in Ancient Brass Tokens. WARNING -DO NOT abandon the quest the Mkembe gives you to select your reward.You will not be refunded any tokens in this case.
• Trader Trevia in the Wavecrest Tavern will no longer train enhancements for players after they reach level 3.
• HarvenderDragonborn in the Portable Hole has finally reached level 12 and is nowable to help other Sorcerers switch out Level 6 spells.
• SigmundBauerson, proprietor of the Wavecrest Tavern, has had a startlingrealization: Warforged do not eat ham! He now offers a more appropriatereward to Warforged adventurers for fetching his cask of Old Sully'sGrog.
• Ostler Caulstone (a vendor in the Restless Isles) will nolonger have his shop window get "stuck open" if you walk away from himwithout closing it.
• Fred the Feat Respec Mindflayer has relocated to an area with less sunlight. He will now also properly close his dialog box.

PVP

• We have changed the water depth in certain arenas to prevent unintended player behavior.

Quests

• If you ended your conversation with NyxDurandimion before acquiring your +2 Manual/Tome (when you reached 1750total favor) you should go talk to Nyx again and he will reward you foryour efforts. Additionally, when you gain 1750 favor you will now betold to talk to Nyx to get your reward, rather than the current,less-informative message.
• "Titan Awakes," "Bounty Hunter," and "Path to Madness" will all properly show up in the Adventure Compendium again.
• Black Anvil Forest
  
  • The survey crew no longer inappropriately respawns.
    
• Black Anvil Mines
  
  • The Duergar in the King's wing in Black Anvil Mines will now return to their posts if they stray too far away.
    
• The Court of Lailat
  
  • About 4% of the time the text for the "Tome of the Six Swords" riddle was incorrect. This has been fixed.
• Desert Caravan
  
  • You should no longer be able to destroy the caravan.
    
• The Foul Chambers
  
  • Fixeda kobold thrower who wasn't scaling properly with quest difficultylevel. Solo players should now encounter the proper CR.
    
• Restless Isles
  
  • There is now an extra key-bearing overseer in the Restless Isles.
    
• The Scavenger's Warren
  
  • Furor should no longer become stuck at the top of a ladder.
    
• Shrieking Mines
  
  • Wildmen caught sleeping on the job have been severely chastised by their masters and are consequently far less lazy.
  • TheMind Flayers living here were always kind of shrimpy. Something in theair must have been stunting their growth. Whatever it was has beencleared out, as the Mind Flayers are now just as big as their otherbrethren.
• Shrouded Vale
  • Recalling from the Shrouded Vale will now always return you to House Phiarlan.
    
• Sorrowdusk Isle
  
  • Libram of the Six will now drop upon exit. Seriously. We promise.
    
• Tomb of the Physician
  
  • Picking up the Seal of the Soul will now award a small amount of optional XP.
    
• Tomb of the Wizard-king
  
  • Now has higher level collectibles in it.
    
• Twilight Forge
  
  • TheTwilight Forge has just gotten friendlier! There is now an extra chestat the end with a chance to spawn unique loot. In addition, several ofthe other chests throughout the dungeon will also have a chance tospawn unique loot. And if that's not enough reason to try the dungeonagain, more rest shrines have also been added throughout!
  • The Warforged Titan should get stuck on broken pillar bases less often.
  • The power crystal in the WFT encounter will now go into an overflow slot if you pick it up when you have a full inventory.
  • Thepower crystal in the WFT encounter is no longer destroyable. If youdrag it out of your inventory, it'll fall to the ground.
    
• The Vulkoorim Creche
  
  • Vulkoorim Creche now has chests and collectables.
  • Fixed a problem where players were receiving multiple alerts that they had charted the breeding pits.
• The Waterworks
  
  • Pets and monsters will no longer refuse to follow you across the bridge before the entrance to Clan Gnashtooth Lair.

Click here to read the Known Issues list.

That Cursed Virus!

Greetings All:

As you can see, the Stratics Sites are once again available. The virus we discovered yesterday has been removed and the source of the virus has been eliminated.

You would be well-advised to scan your computer's hard disk in search of any viruses that may have been injected if you visited any of our sites during the past couple of days. As you know, there are people who have nothing more to do with their time than to cause pain to others with utter disregard for our privacy.

While researching this problem, we found a couple of security vulnerabilities. Those have been modified to tighten up the security on all of our sites. Hopefully, we found them all.

Thank you very much for your patience while we eradicated this virus and made our sites much more secure. And thanks to all who donated their time and the information they found that indicated the problems. It's very much appreciated.

Roger "Teresk " Brown
Stratics Content Director
Stratics Forums Programmer
Guild Forums Administrator

Alpha Keys for Voyage Century Online!

The sailor came to shore at Alexandria, and dusted off his breeches. Looking up, he had to shield the sun from his eyes as he looked down upon the amazing city. After speaking with the harbor master, he went into town for a drink at the local pub. After a few drinks, he started telling tales about the sea and the infamous pirates that raided their waters. Of course, few of the others believed a drunken sailor, but they would soon find out the truth.

If you would like to live this tale, you would normally have to wait for a game like Voyage Century Online to go live. Or maybe get into their Beta testing. Now is your chance to test this game before everyone else!

Stratics Central has obtained approximately 200 Alpha keys for Voyage Century Online!

Remember that Voyage Century Online will be free to play once it is live.To find out more about how to get your key, check out our Alpha Giveaway site!

Please join us on Tuesday, December 12th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest II at 4:30 PM Pacific / 7:30 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics, however a main focus will be the recent expansion, Echoes of Faydwer.

We hope to see you there!

Please join us on Tuesday, December 5th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest II at 4:30 PM Pacific / 7:30 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics, however a main focus will be the recent expansion, Echoes of Faydwer.

We hope to see you there!

The time you’ve all been waiting for is finally at hand. We’ve gone over all the submissions and picked out our favorites... Believe me it was no easy task. There were some outstanding entries so don’t be discouraged if yours didn’t make the final cut. After the contest is complete all the submissions will be posted in our “Players Corner” for everyone to enjoy.

Public voting will last for an entire week to ensure everyone has the chance to vote. The three medal winners in each event will receive a beta slot as per the Original Contest Rules.

Happy voting and good luck to all our contestants - you’re already winners in our books.

Start Voting Now!

While planning out what gifts you are going to be sharing with your loved ones, remember those in need this Holiday Season. Every gamer has the ability to be able to spend a few hours in a different world. As gamers we should help those who need this getaway dearly! Vids for Kids is a charity that provides children with games and game controllers to help pass the time while waiting in hospital beds for their next treatment.

“We felt DeFRAG should strive to embody the ideas of St. Vincent DePaul. DePaul University takes a lot of pride in being an active member of making Chicago a better city, so naturally the student organizations should also follow this. Also, besides the obvious reason we wanted to bring video games to kids, fun video games make you lose your sense of time. They can take you to other worlds. Kids in the hospital could probably use another world. This just seemed like a great idea to us.”

READ MORE!

Risia open again this weekend
[01-Dec-2006]

We have brought the Risia Server up again to give you a chance to play a newer version of "Evil Resurgent." Here's your chance to give feedback on the new dungeons we are adding before they go live!

We are using the same servers and character data that we used last time Risia was up, therefore we are giving out 10x the normal XP rate to help get you up and running on the Risia server faster. As a reminder, the servers that had character data copied to Risia last time were: Adar, Aerenal, Argonnessen, Aundair, Fernia, Ghallanda, Kyber, and Lhazaar, and the characters were copied at the beginning of October. Don't worry if your server isn't on this list or if your character has gained levels since the data was copied – the XP bonus will help you catch up in no time!

We are hoping that you will use the time that Risia is up to give us some feedback on our newest dungeons. We have six new dungeons in "Evil Resurgent" and we want to know what you think of them all! "From Beyond the Grave," "Dreams of Insanity," "And the Dead Shall Rise," and "The Enemy Within" are all given in House Jorasco. "The Spawn of Whisperdoom" starts in House Phiarlan and "Haywire Grotto" can be picked up in House Kundarak. We know that it's tempting to play through Shan-ta-Kor with the bonus experience, but we already have your feedback on that quest – we'd really appreciate it if you'd focus on the new quests and let us know what you think in the Risia Test Server forum on DDO.com.

To see the Known Issues for Risia please click here.

Playing on Risia requires the installation of a second DDO client. If you have played on Risia before you will be able to simply patch up for the latest version. Click here for the Knowledge Base article with download instructions and other very important information. We will keep you updated with server status throughout the week in the Risia Test Server forum.

In Testing: Changes to the Social panel

One of the best aspects of Dungeons & Dragons Online is finding a great party and then running through an adventure together. The most important tool we have to help you find a good group is the Social Panel. Since the launch of DDO in February we have changed and expanded the social panel several times in an effort to make finding a group easy. These latest changes are based almost entirely off player feedback. We feel that our newest iteration is huge improvement and we hope you like what you see.

Finding a group

When you want to either join a preexisting party or form a party of your own, your first stop should be the "Grouping" lobby. Here you can flag yourself as LFG. Don't forget to include your quest preferences or favorite character traits! Then simply hit "update" and you’re flagged with the LFG icon above your character. You will also be automatically listed in the "Who Is" section. (See below for the attached screenshots).

You don't need to wait for someone to approach you though! One of the best things to do while you wait is to peruse the want ads and ask to be invited into your ideal group. All the info you need is located in the same panel where you posted your LFG message! You can view all of the groups who are LFM and you can now filter out groups that aren’t looking for your player profile.

The first column shows you who the group leader is and any comments they have posted. Simply mouse over the leader's name to see a complete list of the rest of the party – name, rank, and class.

The next column, the Dungeon column, lists the group's preferred destination. If you see a group you like but don't like their preferred destination you can always see if they are flexible by selecting the group row and sending them a tell. The third column shows the party's desired classes, and the final column lists their ideal level range.

If you find a party you’d like to join just double click to send an instant invite request (you can also select and click on the "join" button). At this point the party leader will have a chance to examine your request and decide if you are the missing piece to their puzzle. Don't fret though – you don't have to leave your fate in only one group's hands - you can send requests to as many groups as you think you'd be a good match for...beware however, you will get placed into the first party that accepts your request so don't send a request to a group you don't really want to join. Your LFM panel will highlight the groups you have requested an invite from. If they decline your request (their loss of course!) the panel will update to reflect this.

Creating a group

Sick of waiting for a group to choose you? Do you think you have what it takes to lead a party? We have completely updated the tools to help you craft the perfect advertisement to attract the right players as quickly as you can.

You can still select your preferred classes and levels, but we've improved the interface to make everything easier. A new feature is that you can now pull your desired dungeon directly from an adventure list, which can be sorted by story arc or single dungeon listings. You don't need to worry about messaging the quest details; we take care of all the dungeon display information for you! You also have the option of posting what difficulty level you want to run the quest at. If you have any special requirements, for example you want everyone to run the adventure wearing only their underwear and using only their fists as weapons, you'll need to put that information in your comments panel.

The party leader can use this party management panel to review the invite requests players have sent to you. You will see the name, class, level, and guild of the player for each requested invite. The party leader can Decline, Accept, or send tells directly from this panel.

If you aren't getting satisfactory requests you can use the Who panel to hunt down individual players. Improvements to the Who panel include more advanced filtering, (including the re-introduction of the search by name option), class, level, and LFG. Everybody not marked as anonymous will be listed in the Who panel. New icons denoting party status will also help you sort: "In a party", "LFG", and "LFM" are all icons you can find in the first column on the left. You'll be able to see the current location of all LFG players by looking in the name column. You can now also see the complete breakdown of all multiclassed players.

As soon as your party is full, your advertisement will automatically be removed from the Lobby. If you decide you're good to go with only 4 party members instead of six you can manually hide your advertisement so you don't get interrupted with requests while trying to fend off Wisperdoom.