PATCH NOTES 1.02

[style=color: #434343; text-align:center; font-family:Century Gothic; font-size:24px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: -4px;]C-LEVEL[/style] [style= border-top: 5px solid #434343;][/style]

The e-level system has been modified in order to create more balance and less overpowering in the early levels of the game. The e-level of the items your character may equip will now be equal to or lower than your character's level. This means that if your character is level 3, he or she will be able to equip weapons or armor that are e-level 3 or lower.

The old c-level system punished players for leveling a skill that is neither a weapon or armor skill. Leveling a skill should never punish a player but only grant bonuses. By leveling a skill other than armor or weapon skill, a player was effectively limiting their ability to progress through the game. Weapon skill level and armor skill level is still important in combat as the higher you level up your skill in each of these, the greater effectiveness you will get out of your equipment. Two players with the same c-level can now look to their skills to see who has the edge in quests. For example:



In the future, be on the look out and revisit the skills page to read up on bonuses these armor and weapon skills provide.

For any existing equipment, the e-level of all items will be converted to this system via the following equation:



X will always round up to the next whole number.

As for smithing and tailoring, every 10th level of the skill will allow a smith or tailor to create the next e-level of items. I.E. A smith must have weaponsmithing 10 to craft an e-level 1 item, weapon smithing 20 for e-level 2, so on and so forth.

[style=color: #434343; text-align:center; font-family:Century Gothic; font-size:24px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: -4px;]SKILLS[/style] [style= border-top: 5px solid #434343;][/style]

With the change in c-level, we will be modifying the description of weapon and armor skills. Every offensive weapon skill will now grant a passive damage boost of 1% for every 10 points in the skill. Meaning at 50 in the One-Handed Sword skill, your character will be dealing 5% extra damage.

The descriptions of the different armor classes will change as well. Light Metal Equipment will be used as the standard protection gear. Heavy Metal Equipment grants 1.2 x the protection Light Metal Equipment while Leather equipment only gives 0.8 of the protection Light Metal Equipment gives.

Stay tuned! A revamp of the smithing and tailoring system is in the works and coming soon. It will allow for a great deal of variation among players equipment through the addition of special effects to weapons and maybe even make players switch between weapons from quest to quest. I promise it'll be good!

[style=color: #434343; text-align:center; font-family:Century Gothic; font-size:24px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: -4px;]FLOORS[/style] [style= border-top: 5px solid #434343;][/style]

Each floor will now have a minimum and maximum c-level of the mobs that may spawn. The level ranges of mobs on each floor are as follows



This is to prevent a c-level 1 monster spawning on floor 4. The higher floors are intended to be dangerous. Please do not adventure in the wild on higher floors if you are not willing to risk your character's life. SAO is a death game. The towns on every floor are safe areas, free of monsters. Only in very specific cases will monsters spawn there.

A player of any level or c-level may venture onto higher floors so long as they stay in the towns. Most towns are safe and will be a safe area for lower-leveled players. Similar to how Kirito helped out the lower-leveled player Silica, less experienced players may also accompany higher-leveled players on dangerous missions if the person who is protecting them is of adequate level.

EX:
Player A has a c-level of 35 and decides to enter the 2nd floor. Player A can fight a majority of the monsters. Player B comes along who is still a c-level 10. Player B may not enter a combat-involved quest on the 2nd floor unless he or she has Player A helping out/protecting him or her.


[style=color: #434343; text-align:center; font-family:Century Gothic; font-size:24px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: -4px;]DEATH[/style] [style= border-top: 5px solid #434343;][/style]

DE threads now entail greater risks! DE-threads will be moderated by gamemasters. It IS possible for your character to die in these situations. With that in mind, do not enter a DE-thread and become upset if your character is killed. It's essentially a contract you have entered...and you are now fully aware of the consequences. When your character dies, you must make a new character. Characters who are killed in Death Enabled threads will have a chance to transfer over some of their character's EXP, COL, and items to the new character.

All equipment will be lost. Forged and tailored items will be converted into the raw materials that were necessary to make each item. After that, 30% of the overall items will be deducted. Additionally, 350EXP/COL x present character level will be deducted and what remains will be transferred over to a new character you will be required to make.

Keep in mind, if you have more than one character, you will not be able to transfer over any items to any other characters upon entering into a DE-thread until the thread is complete. If we see any likely signs of cheating, penalties will be more severe and you may very well lose everything your deceased character earned.

For the time being, DE threads shall only be classified as events that gamemasters will start up and run. Players will be forewarned in the quest log if a moderator has decided to make the event death-enabled. Players may not create normal threads that are Death Enabled.

In the case of PKing, duels, or a desired death of your own character, you may notify one of the quest staff members and ask for them to monitor your thread. We must receive permission from all participating parties before starting.

[style=color: #434343; text-align:center; font-family:Century Gothic; font-size:24px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: -4px;]ADVERTISING[/style] [style= border-top: 5px solid #434343;][/style]

Now that we've firmly transitioned from the old system into the new, we're going to be releasing a new contest in order to get this site active again. What's different about this contest, you may ask? Well, for one, there are more rewards compared to the first contest and also, all sites that have been advertised on in the contest will be listed on the first page to make things easier for advertising members.

So hopefully, by organizing everything a little bit more, we can make this contest easier to manage as well as provide you an fairly simple way to earn little bonuses for your character(s).

The link to this contest can be found here.

[style=color: #434343; text-align:center; font-family:Century Gothic; font-size:24px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: -4px;]CONCLUSION[/style] [style= border-top: 5px solid #434343;][/style]
A pretty big update, especially considering we just had a large one less than two weeks ago. We are looking to update more frequently than before as long as patches/fixes are needed. The next big patch is the revamp of the smithing/crafting system as stated in the skills section and the implementation of regularly staff hosted event quests!

As staff can't be in the cbox 24/7, a thread will be created HERE to discuss the recent patch notes as well as to talk about potential future updates. Some mods may post teasers in that thread as well.

We are also having an activity check. Please post in the following thread so we can get a headcount of everyone who still frequents the site. It is important for us to know as we will get an idea of the scale of the events we will be hosting in the future.

ACTIVITY CHECK

Quests will also be undergoing an 'activity' check of sorts. Quests that have been inactive in the quest log since Feb 28th will start being moved to the archives by next Friday on 04/19/2013 at 12:00 A.M. Midnight CST. If your thread was moved to the archives, PM a moderator and ask him or her to return your log to the quest area.

Thanks for the support and happy RP'ing!