First a message from Gunder about the new patcher he wrote for us. As he says below switching to the new patcher will be mandatory!

There is a spoooooooooky lotto going on in game currently! There are three individual drawings you can enter - be sure to talk to the Lotto Master in Athica to get all the details!

Happy Halloween!

The following encounters have been slightly changed to stop unintended actions that make the fights much easier.

-The Eternal Well encounter has been sped up to its previous speed. I am still not 100% sure why it was slowed down but I think it had to do with a code change that went into one of its primary functions. Either way there are no more 10 minute waits between mobs.

-The Generals encounter in Tower of Tarhyl has been tweaked to both make kiting much easier and tanking harder.

-A certain section of the Enthann encounter has been reconfigured so you can not pause the script and med to full. A certain spell has been added to offset the higher difficulty this causes.

-Two encounters in the Plane of Frost have been changed to be less specific class demanding.

These changes were all offset as to not make the fights harder. Instead they take out aspects that allow you to trivialize large portions of the fight by using unforeseen exploitative strategies.

Shojar's Plane of Frost is looking to make its appearance on Thursday as Azmaen, The Heart of Frost.

Azmaen will span tier 8 and early tier 9 meaning difficulty will be on par with Lower Thazeran's Tower and the Lower Tower of Tarhyl. It is about equal in size to the similar portions of the previous two zones mentioned.

This is step 1 of 2 of our effort to help the congestion currently in this raid tier. Be aware that step 2 is most likely a long ways down the road so be sure to take advantage of the extra options this new zone adds now rather than later.

See ya there Thursday!

The final zone in the Vah mini expansion has been added - The Deepshade!

The Deepshade is a zone suited for level 58+ characters that borders on Runnyeye. It has a layout slightly different then the normal experience zone so be sure to explore!

Finally its "cash payout" is also different than other zones. You will notice an artificially low amount of actual money coming out of the monsters themselves but should also notice something else balancing the zones rewards.

Thanks to the efforts of Cvetkaa and her friends in Exodus, the Vah are once again active on Dalaya. Their home zone of tarhylcrags is now live, as is the lowbie dungeon Runnyeye nearby it, and Vah characters can now be created. Be warned that the naming policy will be strictly enforced for these characters, and until we say otherwise, anyone making deliberately terrible names will have their main jailed for a week. Otherwise, play nice and have fun with the new content!

Note: Tarhylcrags is a GoD zone, and requires Gates of Discord files to play.

The Mountain Crags of Tarhyl contains content for characters levels 1-15, along with a large amount of class quests for Vah classes and general quests available to anyone who works up faction with the city (through quests obtainable there).

The Runnyeye Citadel contains content for characters levels 10-35. It is a dungeon zone open to all players, though extremely high-level characters may find themselves very unwelcome indeed...

A new quest for low-tier level 65 players has been added to the Southern Wastes of Tarhyl.

A new quest for high-tier level 65 players has been added to the Fire Grottos.

Bonetower, Siege Golem is once again active in Kaezul's armies.

A new zone for level 5-30 players has been released. Situated at the back of the city of the Oggok, the Oggok mines features both hunting and alignment-heavy quests from the two factions fighting over dominance in the mines.

Currently only the first tier of quests are implemented, and Oggok Mines will be available for level 30 and below players only until it is fully finished.

We have created a Shards of Dalaya YouTube channel to try and better organize all the SoD videos out there! Please give it a gander and perhaps subscribe if you like what you see! (It is very much a work in progress so be sure to be gentle.) If you would like any of your SoD related video work to be added to the channel please PM Waldoff on the forums with the link or file!

Shards of Dalaya YouTube Channel

In conjunction with this we have also created a streamlined way for you to earn fame while promoting the server. Check these opportunities out here.

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On the Ikisith front things are going fairly well. The first six zones are almost completely done with a fair amount of work being spread around all other areas. Of course thats completely ignoring the huge amount of work that has been put into spells, items, abilities, tomes and the like that have been put in since the teaser post.

So what exactly have we been doing?

Our local coder Gunder has been slaving away plugging memory holes to make way for the extra server load and new features. Tyrsell has been focusing on the Deity quests but has still had time to almost completely finish a zone or two. Xardon spent hours getting all the zonelines functioning and streamlined. Finally Zaela has been trying her hand at zone creation instead of item creation. Not only is her zone beginning to shape up very nicely but she has not broken the server even once doing it. Now you might think that is not the most impressive statistic but compare it to my first zone (3 server breaks) or Tyrsell's (1209.5 server breaks*) and you begin to see the picture.

Till the next update! Perhaps with a bit of tome teasers.

*Dalayan Census Bureau - 4689 AF Statistics. Estimated to the nearest half server break.

Deck hands scramble to place several large wooden crates neatly in the the spacious cargo hold that surrounds you. Suddenly you feel the crate that you are hiding in being lifted up. You take a moment to consider what is happening but mid-thought you are thrown harshly onto a pile of other boxes and chests - anything to make more room for the objects of the Kaezulian Empires greed you suppose. As the large Iksar deck hands finish their work and begin filing out of the hold to resume their other duties you close your eyes and allow your mind to wander.

Perhaps stowing away on a Kaezulian ship is not the most triumphant entrance into Ikisith, but it is only the beginning. Kaezul must feel the retribution of the Old World and you will be amongst those who inflict it.

After some time you force yourself to fall asleep. There will be plenty of time to begin avenging your dead brethren in the morning when the ship docks in the heart of Ikisith.

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Introducing "Shards of Dalaya: Fury of Kaezul" the second full expansion in Shards of Dalayas history. (Working title)

Featuring:

-Kaezulian spells to pilfer allowing all classes to both progress current abilities and add new ones.
-Dozens of new tomes to advance or specialize your character!
-22 completely new zones featuring level 55+ content for both casual players and raiders alike!
-A progressive raid sequence allowing Dalayans to finally confront the Kaezulian Empire in its own territory!
-Dozens of new quests spanning from short experience tasks to epic undertakings.
-A lore-rich storyline that finally reveals the origins of the suffering that has been inflicted on Dalaya for so long.
-Hundreds of new items for you to equip and deck out your character.


Development has already begun. Expect to get your chance to brave Ikisith soon.