October marks a very exciting time in the land of Dereth. Not only will Asheron's Call Dark Majesty hit the store shelves later this month, but tomorrow will be the normal monthly update. No, this update will not just be new features from the expansion. We are as dedicated now to monthly updates that impact our entire player base as we have always been.

In fact, this month players with the proper training in Alchemy will actually be able to create their own Heath and Mana elixirs (Stamina elixirs are around the corner, too). There are some new cooking ingredients for the chefs of Dereth to experiment with and some exciting changes to Mana stones. We are also bringing back our October tradition of monster masks, with some new twists. And as for storyline. . . well, let's just say there are some very compelling quests this month.

Tomorrow's downtime will be slightly extended to compensate for our final preparations for Asheron's Call Dark Majesty; players should expect an extended download, much like September's. With this download comes the final pieces for Asheron's Call Dark Majesty as well as our regular monthly update.

We know there are a lot of questions about housing. One of the most important is how are we avoiding a "first come, first served" housing availability issue? This was one of our main concerns as we designed our housing system. We didn't want the sole criterion for house ownership to be who bought the expansion the fastest.

As a result, we created a number of different dynamics that will help to spread out, over time, the availability of our houses. First, the housing availability for the month of October will happen in three "waves." The first wave will be timed to coincide with the release of Asheron's Call Dark Majesty. The second and third waves will be opened to the players at times yet to be determined in between the release and the day of the November event. It is only when the houses have been made available that players will be able to see what items they need to purchase that house, so that people will generally be unable to stockpile items in preparation beforehand. In some cases it will be downright impossible.

Most importantly, we are dedicated to adding additional housing as part of our monthly updates to ensure there will be numerous future opportunities to purchase a house.

We also have some exciting things coming in November with the mansions on the landscape. Initially, these large structures will not be available for sale. Coming in the month of November however, most will open up with a further allegiance requirement. In addition to that requirement, there will also be some allegiance-specific commands tied to it that you will only have with these allegiance houses.

This is indeed a very exciting time in Dereth and the entire AC Team would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players for making Asheron's Call the success it is today. It is because of you that we are able to give you this incredible month, and we are certain you will enjoy some of the additions to come in the following months.

--The Asheron's Call Team