We're driving 60 miles an hour

As promised in the MotD, here's a slightly more in-depth discussion regarding the new speed change.

Before this update, entities gained an additional attack at certain speed "breakpoints" (388 speed, 412 speed, etc.) At higher speed values, these breakpoints were absolute - you either had enough speed or you didn't. There was no difference between, say, 320 or 381 speed in terms of attacks; the extra speed points were "wasted".

Now, however, every speed point contributes slightly to your attack frequency. The base underlying "breakpoints" remain similar (for example, about 490 speed will net you about 12 base attacks, just as before). However, that number of attacks is no longer set in stone. For example, at 400 speed, you will usually perform from 10-11 base attacks, with more 11-attacks than 10-attacks. As your speed increases beyond 400, your 10-attack rounds will decrease and your 11-attack rounds will increase, slowly increasing your average. By the time you hit about 440 speed, 10-attack rounds will be rarely seen, 11-attacks will be much more common, and you will start to see 12-attack rounds beginning to pop up. As you approach 500 speed, you'll be doing 12-attack rounds more often than 11-attack rounds... and so on.

The net result is that speed is no longer a game of "hitting that breakpoint", but a stat that scales just as the other stats do. This should make gearing for speed a bit less restrictive, as you won't have the "I can't take off my speed wristband because it will drop me below a breakpoint" problem anymore. If you were previously right on a breakpoint and had more than 300 speed, you may notice a slight decrease (half an attack, or slightly more at very high speeds as those breakpoints were shifted up a few points).

This change was implemented and tested with crafted gear in mind. If things work out as I hope (with balance remaining fair and the restrictiveness of speed easing up a little), I may be able to leave speed gear at its current levels rather than tweaking it as mentioned on the Nodeka 411 discussions. (I have some ideas in store for the attributes that are just slightly undervalued at the moment by many classes, such as hit and dexterity.)

And, in the meantime, the wood-based crafting fix should open up more crafted gear possibilities for you in certain slots (such as caster/finesse weapons). I pushed this particular fix up the timeline because of a serious bug which was brought to my attention by Iron (with a wonderfully descriptive, analytical e-mail, I might add - makes bugzapping so much easier, thank you!). In fixing that bug, I had to rewrite some of the same AI that was causing the wood-based crafting anomaly, so I mashed the bugs together and made an update stew. Now, I need to step away from this little distraction and get back to the Fields of Guidance. =) Thanks for playing, and thanks for your patience - great things are coming, folks!

Everything old is new again

Busy busy busy! Still hacking away at that Fields of Guidance update; it should be pretty soon now. =) There were a lot of underlying issues I had to poke at, and even tasks that sound simple (such as writing the quest text) present some surprising challenges.

In the meantime, I've addressed a few of the current discussions over at Nodeka411, so if you're feeling a little information-starved, mosey on over to these threads:

http://www.nodeka411.net/forum/showthread.php?t=423
http://www.nodeka411.net/forum/showthread.php?t=433