Public Holy Week: The Trials of St. Bedford

Between the days of Monday, May 4th and Monday, May 11th, is a holy week to recognise the holy deeds of William Bedford in the name of Auros Apollon. The church of Auros has graciously given all members of Wessex a week free from taxes where, to quote His Excellency, Raven Sothenic;

“Let no man pay tax to his Liege Lord.

Let no man be cruel to his countryman

Let all subjects work together for the common good.

Let the peoples of Wessex form into parties, to collect the timber and stone from the land to build his home, under the instruction of the Lords of Wessex.

Let the Reeve’s of the court in this time accept donations to Auros from all peoples high and low, by giving freely as much or little as they desire.

Let those who give generously and those who show great devotion to our heavenly father be rewarded by His Excellency, the Bishop of Wessex.”

May Auros shine upon all of His faithful followers.

Interview With Sir Beric Veincrusher

Quite recently, Sir Beric Veincrusher was knighted, and received the fiefdom of Brockmoore. He graciously took time out of his busy day to answer some questions for us;

Afayir: Is Brockmoore turning out how you originally wanted it to?Sir Beric: Brockmoore turned out a lot better than I thought it would. What makes or break a small fiefdom like Brockmoore going into launch is the people, and I was dealt a fantastic group of guys.

Afayir : Did you ever think that you would rise so far in Wessixian society? Sir Beric : Yeah, I really enjoy the aspect of the game which I currently occupy, so I worked fairly hard for it. It's something I've done before. In Wessex it's worth ten times as much, because it's not a position you can idle in, but you have to earn it. I'll play as a knight as long as King Manus wants me to, because it's sort of like holding a political office. When I can no longer perform I'll vacate the position. The nice part of Wessex is every position is designed to fit a certain play style, so honestly I'd be happy as a villien if I wanted that kind of freedom.

Afayir: How different is your character template now than when you first discovered Darkfall?Sir Beric: I've stayed true to my dwarven intentions, which was a concern at launch. I wanted to be dwarven, but at the same time the clan needed me down in Human lands. In the end you have to strike a compromise between what's useful and what you'd like. The way Darkfall works you can see my character in my stats. I've spent a lot more time gathering, spell casting, and using archery then I initially imagined.

[Continued on next page]

Afayir: Do you ever find the task of leading a fiefdom daunting?Sir Beric: If you don't enjoy a bit of pencil pushing you're going to hate leading a fiefdom. I love trying to find ways to work smarter, but sometimes it's a matter of staying up later on a weekday. The Brockmoore court (comprised of all freeman in Brockmoore) handles most of the strategic decisions, which takes a lot of the burden off of me. I try and ask people about things they know best, because I don't have time to learn every facet of the game

Afayir : Do you feel that Brockmoore is safe enough from attack?Sir Beric : No, Brockmoore should expect to be attacked. This is a PvP game, and the enjoyment of the game comes from the inherent risk of everything we have being destructible. As Brockmoore expands I believe it will become safer, however I live by the saying that no matter how safe we can make it, "Trust in Auros and tie your camel".

Afayir : How does it feel being a knight?Sir Beric : Great! I feel a large sense of duty. Everyday you play it's an honour to be called Sir.

Afayir : How do you handle the responsibilities of leading a fiefdom?Sir Beric : With an even head. I first check the forums, then I say hello on vent, and then I head into game. My responsibility is to know the best information, so I can give the best advice.

Thank you very much for your time, Sir Beric Veincrusher!

Political Map Released: April 30th

Here, a recently released map shows that Hyperion possesses 9 cities and 10 hamlets (19 total), as opposed to the 5 cities and 7 hamlets owned by CotC (12 total). Noticeably, the Death Alliance now controls 9 cities and 8 hamlets (17 total). Dusk owns 4 cities and 4 hamlets (8 total). Cairn has 5 cities and 5 hamlets. (9 total). The Yssam Coalition owns 3 cities and 3 hamlets (6 total). The Shadowbane Alliance owns 5 cities and 2 hamlets. (7 total). Atonement controls 2 cities and 3 hamlets (5 total). Also, it shows that Hyperion controls all of Mercia.

Listings:

Hyperion (9, 10; 19)Death (9, 8; 17)CotC (5, 7; 12)Cairn (5, 5; 9)Dusk (4, 4; 8)Shadowbane (5, 2; 7)Atonement (2, 3; 5)

Recent Patch and Design Notes

Magic

Cool-down has been removed from Eldritch Sphere in Lesser Magic

The following spells now have a longer duration:

Earth Magic:Acid ward Tarnish

Air Magic:Arrow Ward Guiding Wind Lighting Ward Lighting Weakness

Spell Chanting:Bless Other Hymn of Intellect Hymn of Might Hymn of Skill Hymn of Swiftness Hymn of Vigor

-Continued on next page-

Recent Patch and Design Notes (continued)

Necromancy:

Bludgeoning Weakness Desecration Infernal Ward Mental Weakness Pestilence Piercing Weakness Slashing Weakness Undeath

Water Magic:Cold Ward Delayed Shot Gills Slow Water Breathing Weakening Chill

-Continued on next page-

Recent Patch and Design Notes (continued)

Witchcraft:Disease Exhaust Ominous Drain Palsy Sluggish Spell Curse Stupidity Tongue Rot

Fire Magic:Fire Ward Haste Rapid Shot Weakening Blaze

Greater Magic:Flesh Curse Frailty Infliction Ward Arcane Magic

-Continued on next page-

Recent Patch and Design Notes (continued)

Lesser Magic:Magic Ward

Monsters:Major Monster Redistribution. AI tactics have been updated and improved

OptimizationsAuto optimization has been enabled on the client. This will try to automatically increase the frame rate when you are in huge battles. To use, open Options > Video Options > to disable/enable and to set your target FPS.More optimizations to the client.More client crash sources have been addressed.

CorrectionsThere have been several bug fixes to the world-building Skill Gain in all Crafting Mastery Skills has been increased. Clan Guard Towers have been fixed Bug fix to the rare situation where you had problems hitting a player using a cannon A challenger in a non-asset holding clan vs. city / hamlet conquest will now always be rogue for the duration of the siege. Clan lightning cannon reach has been tripled

-Continued on next page-

Recent Patch and Design Notes (continued)

Most clan cannons deal more damage to players now Armour durability damage while in combat has been decreased by 30%

FeaturesAuto Harvesting Enabled. Simply stand in front of the resource node and click the left mouse button. Your character will continue to harvest from the node until the node is depleted, character runs out of stamina, or is interrupted. A hotkey can now be assigned to each slot in the hotbar. Go to options > Input bindings to set them.

Notice the auto-harvesting, hotkeys, siege optimizations, and durability.

Design Notes

In today’s patch we introduce the first step of our ongoing commitment to improving the Darkfall PvE and solo/small group experience. We’ve added new low level spawns and updated many existing spawns to be more suited for solo players or small groups. These spawns are primarily located on the sub-continents and on the various small islands surrounding the mainland of Agon. This placement should make it easier to find secluded spots to hunt at.

This will enhance the following dynamics in Darkfall:

-Continued on next page-

Design Notes (continued)

-More secluded spawns you can handle alone or with a friend- More opportunities for solo players or small groups to make gold- More readily available reagents for spell-casting- As smaller groups become more viable, small scale PvP frequency will increase significantly.- More purchasing power for individual players means a significant boost for the crafted items market

While we continue improving the solo to small group experience, our next PvE balancing priority is to improve things for larger groups.

Hopefully, this will help some of our more lone wolf type players.

Final Tribute to Shadowbane

Sadly, the glorious and memory filled Shadowbane will be closing down it’s servers on July 1st 2009. Many people spent time in Aerynth, but all things must come to an end, and Shadowbane will finally be powered down. Let’s take a moment to remember our times in Shadowbane.

/tear

Play to crush. Let’s hope this is the beginning of a new, better era of MMO’s. Goodbye, Shadowbane. Goodbye.

I Simply Spawn Another Mount-Ninogan Swiftstep

On April 19th Ztyx a former member of The Duchy of Wessex now leader of Solo Raider announced a duel in the Darkfall clan discussion forums between his character Celiah Ailey and Haeso LeGaude. The fight was to take place on Yssam and it was to be a no rules fight. Haeso responded in the thread telling Ztyx he would be shot down from his mounts (Ztyx is well known for his love of horses and other rideable creatures) and that mounts are a liability against good players. In the forum thread users could vote on who they thought would win and Haeso dominated the poll. While waiting for the fight to actually take place Ztyx was posting in the thread a lot and his ego was surging: ”You can all come at me. I don't care. I am the best, I will win.”

Haeso responded with exactly what was on my mind at the time: “I'm done talking to you, you're fucking insane, set something up already and just stop talking, you give me a headache.”

The thread filled with replies from tons of people. Most of them were saying Haeso would stomp Ztyx into the ground. A lot of people were nerd raging something fierce either at Ztyx or at Haeso. I was one of the many people very convinced that Haeso would humiliate Ztyx and I followed the thread while waiting patiently for the fight.

Finally after a long wait and many, many pages of trolling, flaming and idiocy the fight took place on Yssam. I wish I could write “and what a fight it was!” but that would have been an insane exaggeration. I couldn’t personally attend the fight and Ztyx wouldn’t give me the location when I asked him: “Shut the fuck up, Ninogan! You can suck on Haeso if u want the location.” As usual Ztyx wasn’t making much sense at all and raging at me when asking a simple question was just weird (it’s ok though since Hellmoob’s got my back ) and Ztyx’s use of

-Continued on next page-

Centered text inBold and varying colors

just added to the confusion. However thanks to fraps and YouTube I got to see the entire fight along with some hilarious (not intended) commentary by Ztyx. Watch the YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBbHUBCpbQ0&feature=relatedBefore the YouTube video was linked people were saying Haeso had lost. I was baffled at reading that Ztyx had emerged the victor. It was however the truth. Ztyx had won against Haeso. Haeso replied shortly after the announcement: “I honestly didn't expect such mount spam, I outplayed him but brought fewer mounts - I don't care about the 10k, I proved my point though. If I'd brought 30 or whatever mounts I would have won eventually as the fraps will show.”Judging from the fight Haeso would most likely have won if they would have had the same amounts of mounts. Watch the video and enjoy the colorful commentary by Ztyx (FIRE KICK!) and if you can manage to watch the entire thing (seriously mounted combat is boring) you’ll see that Ztyx is being outplayed but he simply spawns another mount. Ztyx made sure that the fight took place in a really barren part of Yssam. There is no leverage anywhere for Haeso to use. A perfect place for a mount crazy guy like Ztyx.

Ever since this fight took place Ztyx is calling himself the best PvP’er in Darkfall. I bet he is a pretty good PvP’er but I doubt he will ever feel comfortable enough in his skills to not use a ton of mounts in combat and I don’t think the best PvP’er is a guy that is a simple one trick pony. I think mounted combat as it is right now is pretty boring and being able to spawn a huge amount of mounts feels stupid. I wouldn’t mind a change to it. Perhaps some restriction making you only being able to put one or maybe two mount figurines in your backpack at once would make people practice all the other parts of combat. It’s not just Ztyx that uses this tactic either. I have so far met more than a handful of people carrying around ten mounts and it get’s annoying. I also don’t get why we can’t have the option to use a bow while riding.

-Continued on next page-

You could just press down the numlock key to make your horse auto-run and only then could you nock the arrow. I think that would work pretty well and be a lot of fun. What do you guys think? Oh, and while I’m writing this they have just fixed the FIRE KICK! and I hear Ztyx is not happy.

The End

Notable Promotions and Congratulations

We would like to congratulate the following people for significant promotions within Wessex.

Ranik Osoga- Esquire

Armorsmith Master: Kaylem SothenicApprentice Armorsmith- Maligrad HealhammerApprentice Armorsmith- Ludovico Sforza Apprentice Armorsmith- Nannari Springfall

Weaponsmith Master: Quinn MorganApprentice Weaponsmith- Kannabai KannibanoidApprentice Weaponsmith- Haeso Legaude

Max Payne- Pursuivant to Barden Jusik

Malachi Drake- Chaplain of the Garrison

Special Notes and Thanks

None of this could be possible without the help of a few generous people:

Paul Varden- Entire template (the whole thing)

Ninogam Swiftstep- Contribution of “I Simply Spawn Another Mount”

Open Positions

Currently all positions are open.

Editor----------------------------Reviewing and editing articlesWriter----------------------------Writing articles of all sortsInterviewer------------------------Interviewing members of the publicReporter--------------------------Reporting event occurring in Wessex and Darkfall

If you’re interested in helping out with the Ducal Press, send me a PM on the Wessex forums or contact me at connor.feeley@hotmail.com.

Also, Wessex needs Heralds. For those of you unfamiliar with Heralds, we’re tasked with creation of graphics (banners, forum signatures, coats of arms), messenger duties, flag sergeant duties, keeping the recruitment post updated, and diplomacy. In return, you receive tax exemption and receive a minimum payment of 100-200 gold per signature you make for a Wessex member. If you are interested please contact me through the forums or through email.