Sanya posted on the Camelot Herald that they "...are working on optimizing the Herald during heavy traffic." and posted the 1.63B patch notes that went live this morning:

Attention all crafters in possession of old straps, scales, studs, and wires: you will now find in your crafting recipe list a new recipe, one that simply converts your unusable components and turns them into another component. This new component will sell for 98% of the cost of the original ingredients. Please note that these conversion recipes are temporary, and will not last forever. So convert your old components as soon as possible!

Sorry, everyone - we are working on optimizing the Herald during heavy traffic. ====================================== Dark Age of Camelot Version 1.63b Release Notes Wednesday, June 25, 2003 ====================================== IMPORTANT CRAFTING NOTE Attention all crafters in possession of old straps, scales, studs, and wires: you will now find in your crafting recipe list a new recipe, one that simply converts your unusable components and turns them into another component. This new component will sell for 98% of the cost of the original ingredients. Please note that these conversion recipes are temporary, and will not last forever. So convert your old components as soon as possible! This change was necessary to give crafters a way to convert into cash their now-unnecessary stores of ingredients, as we are phased out the use of straps, scales, studs, and wires in version 1.63. NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES - We've replaced the spell resist graphic (the "hand") with a more generic effect that is less intrusive and won't be confused with a normal spell effect. - Making hotbar buttons out of command window buttons should now work. - The leader of the chat group will now be displayed at the end of a "/cg who" list. - In the 1.63 patch notes, we said "We have added guild bounty point merchants to coincide with the bounty merchants in the capital cities and expansion starting cities. The NPC names are as follows (insert list of names)." This note was a bit premature, and those merchants are not yet active. To re-emphasize - you currently cannot use GBP to pay rent on the live servers, only Personal bounty points on a house that you personally own or a guild house where you are guild rank 0. - The following housing decorations were incorrectly priced and now cost 10 gold apiece: * The tall shrubbery garden item. * The holly shrubbery garden item. * A holly hedge. FOUNDATIONS WORLD NOTES The following lots are now working correctly: Albion - Lot 100 in Oakwick Midgard - Lot 1749 in Raisgill - Lot 1984 in Middleton - Lot 1997 in Ashmere Hibernia - Lot 3400 in Glantane WORLD NOTES - Midgard: Aiesill has returned to his post in Jordheim. - Co-operative server and PvP servers: the Medallion Master in Tir Na Nog will now correctly sell a "Medallion of Midgard Hearth Passage" in addition to the other ports available.