Five on Friday - September 8, 2006

1. When do you expect pre ordering for the 9th Anniversary Collection to begin and when will we find out what will be included?
Aaron "Darkscribe" Cohen, Producer: Pre-ordering at online software retailers will start this month. We will have a list of recommended retailers on the official 9th Anniversary Collection website.

2. Rumor has it we might see an increase in monthly fees around the same time as the new client, is this true and if so why should we pay more?
Aaron "Darkscribe" Cohen, Producer: There will not be a rate increase when the new client is launched, and there is no rate increase planned for the foreseeable future. As with all consumer products, it is possible that one day the price could go up, and if that should ever occur, players will be given ample notice before it does. But let me reiterate, there is no plan to raise the subscription fee when we launch the new client.

3. Will rate over time skill training on Siege ever be changed to make training faster?
John@EA "Wilki", Community Coordinator: We'd like to see more players on Siege, and we're looking at perhaps speeding up rate over time skill gaining to encourage that. Currently, it's quite slow, and there isn't really a compelling reason to make a veteran player wait so long to have a developed character.

4. Any thoughts by the team on changes to some of the more difficult skills that require lots of repetition of things people would never do naturally?
John@EA "Wilki", Community Coordinator: Yes, ideally, every skill would be feasible to gain during normal gameplay, even at high levels. For example, instead of gaining only from taming the same creatures repeatedly, perhaps one could also gain through using a pet in combat. That would be much more fun than taming and releasing hordes of white wolves.

5. When will hiding/stealth be fixed? My thief can’t even walk 5 tiles without being revealed with 100 hide, 90 stealth.
John@EA "Wilki", Community Coordinator: We're hoping to have some changes in Publish 43. Currently, every time you take a step while stealthed, every mobile around you does a skill check. Even at low detection rates, those add up pretty fast. That will almost certainly be changed.