Another new feature has been added to the site - a listing of current Team Lead Reports. We'll need your help to keep this feature current - if you know of any reports newer than the ones we have listed, please email me the link. You can find the new page here.

Yes, it's a silly title. You try to come up with something amusing after about 18 months worth of Grab Bags. No, really. Go here and post any clever titles you might have.

This week's Grab Bag includes information on what you should do if someone's using offensive language around you, what the "Gold" version of DAoC will include, who will be able to use /level, and whether crafter repairs are better than NPC repairs - among many other things, of course.

As anyone with eyes has probably noticed already, we've made some changes to the news page here. It is the duty of news sites to bring you the news from the Camelot Herald. However, on the other hand, a great deal of the Herald posts are things which really don't deserve a post by us, and don't need any explanation. How to solve the conundrum?

Obviously, our choice was to use the Herald's news feed. Every news item from the Herald will appear, with link, title and description, in the column to the right. Thus, we can post details on news that needs it, and more or less ignore things that don't.

Ever wanted to get a look at Mythic from the inside? Have the desire and the ability to deal with both the good and bad of the DAoC community without losing your cool (or at least without letting it show)? Mythic currently has some openings for first-level in-game support - a.k.a., CSRs. I imagine that very few of us dream of being the person who gets to answer appeals and deal with harassment, but folks at Mythic and elsewhere in the game industry have often stated that the best way to get into the business (other than by knowing someone, of course) is to get involved in the Customer Service department first.

Yeah... third update today... how rare is this? =) Anyhow, It seems that the DAoC version of My Pet Mage is dead =( The EZ-board forums are still alive, though, so I've updated all the links to point there. Also, I added a new section to the links page - Humor, under which I've added Camelot Addict - a page for DAoC Comics, and the Midgard Times - a spoof of Midgard news page.

As our first month on the new server draws to a close, I began running the numbers, and seeing where we ended up, bandwidth-wize. Well... we broke my predictions =) On the old server, I was never shy about revealing our traffic... we got roughly 5k unique visitors a day. The day after we launched the new site, we had 14k unique visitors, accounting for close to 50k hits, and using 1.9 Gb of bandwidth. Well... my monthly plan allows for a total usage of 20Gb. I'll wait while you do the math. Done? Yeah, I got 1.9 x 30 days is a lot more than 20gb as well.

So anyhow, to offset some of the costs of bandwidth, I have put up a donations page, with instructions on how to shuffle a few duckets into our account. You guys know how much I despise advertisements, so this is the next-best thing. You're not required to give, so don't feel guilty if you don't or can't, but those who choose to will get some extra lovin' in the forums. You can read the donations page for more info. Thanks guys.

The long-awaited patch to 1.62 has been postponed. If you haven't heard, 1.62 is going to make sweeping changes to the game, with a lot of spells being added, and class balance issues being addressed, and all that stuff. On the Herald, they're up to 1.62M, which has to be a record of some sort =) Sanya is saying that 1.62 should be out early next week, but we'll have to wait and see to be sure.

We have a new guide up, which deals with one of the least popular spec choices in the game - the BattleBard. It was sent in by Andres Ford.
    The kill task lists should now be sortable in newer versions of IE (5+, I believe), Netscape (6.2+), and Mozilla (1.2+). Those using even less popular browsers, or older ones... sorry.

We've got a new feature, as requested on the forums here - a Realm Rank Chart. Feel free to stop by the forums and suggest something you'd like to see here... you never know, it just might show up.

A few site changes for you today:
- The interactive FAQ mentioned in our press release is now up and running. With this FAQ, you'll be able to ask questions which the staff can then answer and add to the list.
- The Post-20 Kill Tasks pages are now sortable, for those of you using IE 5+. Other browsers will continue to see the tables as they were - we'll try to get more browsers supported as time goes on. Edit: the sortable tables now work for newer versions of IE, as well as Netscape 6.2+ and Mozilla 1.2+.
- Jester sent in an updated version of his Enchanter Guide.
- And lastly, the class pages now link to the correct guides, rather than the old non-ASP versions.

In a small update I've gone through and added in the names and locations of all the class trainers located in Shrouded Isles towns. This should make the trainer lists just about complete for every class. If you're visiting your class' page and notice that a trainer is missing, just drop us an e-mail and we'll check it out.

A new server... new features... new helpers?!?! Yes, as of this morning, I began the switch from my old University of Delaware account, to a premium, ultra high-speed, externally hosted account. You better be surprised... and happy... dernit.
      The new server now supports all of the cool things that we couldn't do on the old site - so take a look around. You will need to Register, and then Log In before you can post in our shiny new forums. We've got Realm Abilities up on the left Nav, a new section for me to abuse random things called "The Clog", and in a few days, we'll have a fully-interactive FAQ for your questioning pleasure. Did I mention we now have OUR OWN FORUMS? Written by yours truly, all I can say is that they friggin' rock, and after two years... it's about damn time, wouldn't you say? We've also added a news system, so we should have pretty much daily news here now, as well.
      In a day or two, the move should be complete, and typing in "http://www.classesofcamelot.com" will take you directly here. This is costing me a bundle of duckets... but unlike other sites I won't mention, I still have no intention of putting advertisements ANYWHERE on the site. So there.
      Go register... login... post in the shiny new forums. I promise we'll abuse everyone properly with derrogatory forum titles, and all those goodies.

This is it... this should be the last time we move or have any major change - ever.

   Friday we had news about Mythic asking for their customer's opinions - today someone else is asking for your thoughts. Nick Yee is the guy behind the Daedalus Project, which aims at better understanding MMORPGs and why we play them, along with a number of related issues. The fourth issue of the Daedalus Project is up here. There's also a new survey up, which you should take if you are interested in increasing the understanding of the games we play (or maybe if you're just tired of seeing articles about how MMORPGs are evil and cause untold problems). The survey will only take about 3-5 minutes of your time.
       In CoC news, we've got the Savage level titles up, thanks to Leiknir the Savage and Gargann of Percival. We're also looking for feedback on a couple of issues - what you'd like to see on CoC, and what kind of contests we could run that would be useful to the community in general rather than just the winners.

   The third Herald Poll is now up. This one deals with general issues, rather than a specific topic, and thus has been labeled the "General Feedback" poll. A couple interesting questions include "How satisfied are you with DAoC?" and "What Camelot game information sites do you visit regularly?". Don't look for Classes of Camelot as an answer to the second question, though - we're not listed as a choice, for some reason I can't quite fathom. If you have an active DAoC account (as with previous polls, those with closed accounts can't participate), I encourage you to take advantage of this chance to give Mythic your opinion and be sure they'll hear it. Log in with your DAoC account on the Herald here. The full list of questions, for those who don't have an active account or just don't feel like going to the Herald, is in the discussion thread.

-> Discuss "New Herald Poll" in the forums

   As one might be able to guess from the news title, we've got a new Featurette here at CoC: DAoC's patch history. It lists all the patches that are documented, including some before DAoC's release. Keep in mind that this history doesn't include read files, test server patches (except for pre-release), and so forth. It does include all patches placed on the live servers with their own number, as well as additions/corrections then patched to the live servers. The Patch History is here.

   First up today, some housing news. If you're interested in being able to test the housing system on Pendragon before it goes live (which is expected to be sometime in June), there are a couple of contests going on. Woody of GU Comics is giving away 10 spots - the only requirement seems to be emailing him. You can get the full rules on the GU comics forums. Catacombs is also giving away beta spots - 2 per day until this Friday. Participation in the contest requires that you send them artwork of some kind; read the details here
       Also, you may have noticed that our good friend Maia has not posted on Catacombs in the last few days. That's because Maia has moved to Allakhazam's DAoC site, where she now posts her news (of course, her news has always been available at her own site, Grail News). We're sure Maia will be able to help Allakhazam reach new levels. There's now another link to Allakhazam, in the "News and Forums Sites" section, although we already had links to a number of their individual databases.

   Mythic has made some comments about an upcoming retail expansion pack recently, most notably in the press release which came out with the housing "expansion". Today they've announced the name of the expansion and a few of the key features. The expansion will be called Trials of Atlantis and will be set in (not too surprisingly, considering the title) the ruins of Atlantis. Along with things they have doubtless yet to tell us about, the expansion will include another graphics engine upgrade, underwater areas, one new race per realm, boats, and Master Levels - a "new advancement system that teaches your character new abilities, spells, combat styles, and much more".
       One interesting thing to keep an eye on about this expansion (other than the fact that it's in Atlantis, of all places) is that your character may be able to advance in power beyond where those without the expansion can. If so, it'd be a reversal of Mythic's earlier policy, which was to make sure that players wouldn't have any real advantage over others simply from buying an expansion. You can read what little more is available at this time at Trials of Atlantis' official site.