31st October 2006 - Community Updates + Newsletter - November - December   ELLO EVERYONE. I'm pleased to announce the release of a massive update, targetted particularly at players of evil characters. There have been many requests over the last few months and even beyond for changes and additions to evil content and I'm most confident that this update will address the many comments we've recieved. There's a number of other changes on and off the server which I will be outlining with the other changes, as follows (to go live within 72 hours, pending testing) :   New Quest! - "Diversionary Tactics" is the latest evil quest designed for a party of levels 14 - any above. Those in the service of Mordor and already hold maximum rank have immediate access to this quest. Report to the Mouth of Sauron to see if you can be entrusted with this quest. I hope to oversee the first party participating in this quest.     Player resources have now been nicely arranged and a check added to the first portal to ensure everyone undrstands before entering the game properly.     The majority of evil quest reward XP (particularly at the lower level quests) has increased by between 25% and 50%. This is aimed at reducing the "gulf" in suitable quest activites for evil characters.     A number of common encounters have been made more dynamic, spawning a more varied, level based range of NPCs.     Random "boss" spawns introduced. When approaching an NPC "boss" area, you will spawn a random boss version. Basically, I made identical copies of bosses and gave each one different loot to encourage some variation and less predictable loot drops.     Mirkwood exterior areas improved.     We have added massive new support for ranged weapon users; dedicated, affordable ammo stores are scattered around the world, usually as a seperate store at a Blacksmith shop. These stores generally sell the full range of ammo types, which means that archers can get hold of what they need, as long as they have the funds. Archers are now a useful part of any company! Throwing axes have had weight reduction added as standard.     A range of new foods have been added to Dol Guldur.     The new proposed dialogue system for UTT3 is being trialled in various parts of the game.     Quest save points have now been added as part of a trial. There are currently three which have been added to large, multi-part quests; Deadly Surroundings, Diversionary Tactics, Forochel - Sorcerous Suggestions.     Reduced the number of animated visual effects in Arlendras Village (Deadly Surroundings quest) to help the NPCs behave better.     The entire Orc and Goblin range of NPCs has been updated. All the cartoon orcs and goblins should be gone (that includes CEPs, though their nice Uruks remain). Stats and abilities have been revised.     The above build revisions have also been performed on: Gondorians, Nurn Blades, Ithilien Rangers, Black Numenorians and Dwarves. Basically, your common enemy NPC will now be somewhat easier to defeat whilst most "boss" NPCs retain the bulk of their power. Re-builds have been completed in lline with racial/regional build guidelines we've created for UTT3.     New! Black Uruks of Mordor     Some adjustments to encounters around the game (made a tad easier).     A number of faction conflict issues have been resolved.     Changes to improve DM access to game resources.     Mordor token ranking system updated; Tokens named to allow comparison and faster troubleshooting for DMs. Updated rank recognition in Mordor conversations. New Rank! - Champion of the Eye.     Recent updates and improvements by DMs Aiwendil, Curumo and Gwaihir compiled into this update.   As you can see, an awful lot of work has been done which will improve the quality of the game for many players (that's what I hope for anyway). I felt that too many evil characters, particularly those of higher level, were dying far too often - this just puts people off, which is really not what I like to happen. A new line of thinking is taking place on quests - we want to move away from offering challenge after challenge till a character dies. Instead we are looking to make the experience of the quests and being in a party of friends an exciting and thrilling tour around the world, seeing new places, encountering new people and, when the time is right, a jolly good fight. So that's updates done. Any questions or comments, just let us know on the forums or in IRC. I really hope you enjoy the changes. I'm sure you all know by now - we have three new member of staff who are DMing already. Please extend a very warm welcome to DMs Unien, Namo and Melian. Already they have proven themselves as great DMs in the making. Our thanks to all who applied for the position of DM, it was a hard decision deciding who to take on. Eventually we just had to vote on it! Thanks for your continued support. Comments and feedback welcome. DM Kev Untold Tales Of Tolkien I + II WCN - Wireplay Community News - Manager