Weekly Dev Activities - 8/27/07

[Quarion]

Weekly Development Activities

In QA
These items are in QA and are scheduled for Module 5: Accursed Ascension (Litany of the Dead Parts 3 & 4).

General
Dolurrh environmental effects will now display an appropriate screen overlay.
Players should no longer experience ethereality issues after a tavern brawl.
We have added a glossary tool to the game. To look up a word, type "/glossary {word}
There have been changes to the lifetimes of mail. Unopened mail will now remain for 21 days and opened mail will remain for 5 days. Only mail received or opened after the update will follow these new rules.UI Improvements
When you close and reopen the Adventure Compendium it will now remember which tab you were on and reopen to that tab.
Added a button called “Modify Party” to the “Outstanding Invitation Requests” panel which will open up the “Create Party” panel directly instead of having players open it by opening the social panel first, then hitting the “Create Party” button.
Fixed a problem where it was difficult to resize the grouping panel using the lower-right corner.
Added a new button to the character options panel called “Gameplay” which contains an option which will allow players to customize the way their quest end rewards are generated. By default, they are generated based on the character’s main class, but some players (especially multi-classed characters) may prefer for these end rewards to be completely random.
There is a new option located under the Options->Gameplay tab that allows you to turn on the "Fellow Sticky Selection". Description: "Check to prevent 'Select Fellow' keys from toggling/clearing your target when selecting the same fellow."
Sorting by quest name in the Adventure Compendium now ignores "The " at the beginning of the name. The Quest Journal will also function in the same way when sorting the Area tabs and the quest list.
Primitive drow should now appear correctly in the focus orb.
NEW -A new command '/quest completions' will display the number of times you have completed each raid.
Auctions
Sorting by duration now works correctly.
There are now restrictions on when you may cancel an auction. You may cancel your auction at any time if it has no bidders, or within the first hour of the posting regardless of the number of bidders.Tooltips
Added active/toggle/passive usage to action tooltips.
Tooltips that display long cooldown periods will display them in minutes and seconds – e.g., 2 minutes 30 seconds instead of 150 seconds.
Action tooltips will inform the user when an action is useable in water, not useable in a brawl, or when it is useable only in public. They will also display the target type for the action.
The tooltips on the character stats page have been streatched out to allow 4 digit numbers to be displayed. This was an issue for magic users with 1000+ spell points, for example.
Disabling tooltips now disables all tooltips including shortcut bar and examination tooltips.
Tooltips for skills now include the key ability.
Tooltips for spells and feats now include the save DC and save type(s).Shopping
You can now ctrl-click on an item in a shop to purchase the item in bulk. A pop-up dialog will prompt you to enter the number of items to purchase. Note: This dialog is only used when purchasing items. There is still no way to control the number of items you sell from a stack.
When items in a shop are alphabetized, they are sorted first by base name (e.g. sword, dagger) and then by prefix (e.g. masterwork, vorpal).
When you add items to the shopping cart, the cumulative cost of the items in the cart will affect the “can afford” status of the items available for purchase / repair.
If a player’s haggle skill changes, then the shopping cart display price will now update to reflect the change.
Blessed Cold Iron Khopeshes, Blessed Cold Iron Mauls and Blessed Cold Iron Heavy Picks will now always be sold at the Divine Reagent vendor in Feather Fall's Apothecary in House Jorasco.
The examination display now displays the "adjusted base value" which takes charges and permanent damage into account. This is the value that the vendors used to figure out how much they would purchase items for, so your items are not losing value, just displaying the item's value more accurately.Vendors now use the adjusted price to determine if they would purchase the item or not. So if you had a sword that was too pricy for a given vendor to buy, then once it is well used, it may drop to a value at which the vendor is now able to purchase it from you.Spells
Spell tooltips now include blocks that describe whether or not a spell can be resisted, and what the specific material component is for a given spell (if any).
Spell tooltips now include a metamagic information block. This block lists the kinds of metamagic that can affect this spell.
Monsters
Monsters now should stop throwing stuff and attacking while they are held or otherwise helpless.
Minotaurs may occasionally use thrown weapons if charging headlong at an opponent doesn’t seem to be working.
Combat
Offensive spells with “touch” range now possess significantly more lenient heading checks. These include Chill Touch, Ghoul Touch, Inflict (various) Wounds, Otto’s (ir)Resistable Dance, Slay Living, and Touch of Idiocy.
The Crushing Despair FX are now persistent.
Now if you are a divine caster and are using wands or scrolls of divine types and you happen to be under the effect of Quell’s Intercession, you will have to perform a UMD check just like every non divine caster type.
Focusing Chant now displays a proper icon when cast.
The metamagic system in Dungeons and Dragons Online has undergone significant changes in Module 5.0: Accursed Ascension.
The biggest change that casters will discover is that each metamagic feat other than Heighten Spell now has a fixed spell point cost increase rather than multiplying the spell point cost of a spell as they did before Module 5.0. These surcharges are as follows:
Empower Spell: +15 SP
Empower Healing Spell: +10 SP
Enlarge Spell: +10 SP
Eschew Materials: +2 SP
Extend Spell: +10 SP
Maximize Spell: +25 SP
Quicken Spell: +10 SP
Heighten Spell: Special (Changes base cost of your spell to that of your highest level spells)

These cost increases are cumulative if multiple metamagic feats are active simultaneously, so a Quickened, Maximized, Enlarged Fireball would cost:
20 (base) + 10 (Quicken) + 25 (Maximize) + 10 (Enlarge) = 65 Spell Points

Improved Metamagic enhancements have all been changed to flat cost reductions on these surcharges. Sorcerer Improved Maximizing III, for instance, has become "Using the Maximize Spell feat costs you 9 fewer spell points." Wizard Improved Heightening II is now "Using the Heighten Spell feat costs you 2 fewer spell points per level of heightening."
Targetting issues with wall of fire have been fixed.
Magic missiles now do a better job of tracking moving targets.
Despite the protests of the Silver Flame clergy that have grown rich from curing adventurers suffering from curses, Bestow Curse effects are now removed on death.Skills, Feats, & Abilities
The number of Turn Undead attempts per rest will now be calculated on the current displayed Charisma modifier. Previously only permanent changes to Charisma from level advancement and tomes were counted.
The Listen skill now helps you detect hidden monsters.
Old feat lists in the feat respec dialog now look like most of the other lists of feats and enhancements in-game and sub-feats have their icons again.
Players who have a feat called “Feat Respec Token” will once again be allowed to respec the “Feat Respec Token” and then other feats.
Barbarians now possess a new ability in the feats section of their character sheet. “Dismiss Rage” can be used at any time to prematurely end their barbarian rage. Note that you will still be subject to fatigue from your rage, and it functions only on the barbarian class ability - you cannot dismiss any other ragelike effects.
It is now possible to trade a feat for a feat which can be aquired multiple times when the player already has one. So players can now aquire Toughness as many times as they like through feat respec.
Cure <various>Wounds spells, including the Mass Cures, can no longer be Heightened as Clerics can already freely cast the higher level versions of those spells and are the ones most likely to use them as offensive spells against Undead. Note that the Heal spell is unaffected by this change as there are more circumstances under which you may wish to Heighten the spell. </various>
A Paladin's Aura of Courage will no longer cause various other spell effects to repeat over and over. The Aura of Courage bonus has also been changed to a Sacred Bonus to Will Saves vs. Fear, and as such, will stack with Morale effects.
The Barbarian Dismiss Rage ability now will only function if you are enraged.
A Paladin's Aura of Courage will no longer cause various other spell effects to repeat over and over. The Aura of Courage bonus has also been changed to a Sacred Bonus to Will Saves vs. Fear, and as such, will stack with Morale effects.
Crippling strike now occurs with ranged sneak attacks using bows, crossbows, and thrown weapons.
Favored Enemy: Orc can now be taken during character generation by rangers.
Halflings have always had their +1 bonus to attack with thrown weapons. Now this race specific feat will appear on the character sheet.Enhancements
Lines of Item Defense enhancements have been added to Barbarians, Paladins, Rangers, and Rogues. Note that these lines, unlike the Fighter Item Defense line, are only three enhancements deep, and are acquired at higher levels than the Fighter Item Defense enhancements. Paladins receive Item Defense enhancements at levels 3, 7, and 11, while the others receive them at 5, 9, and 13. Fighters continue to receive them at levels 1, 5, 9, and 13. As with all class enhancements, purchasing level one in one class will lock out the lines from the other classes.
Halfling luck, instead of only affecting Reflex saves, is now three distinct enhancement chains. These are not exclusive.
Halfling Luck (Fortitude) I
Prereq: Halfling Level 1
Cost: 1 Action Point
Grants a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves.
Halfling Luck (Fortitude) II
Prereq: Halfling Level 5, 14 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Fortitude) I
Cost: 2 Action Points
Grants a +2 bonus to Fortitude saves.
Halfling Luck (Fortitude) III
Prereq: Halfling Level 9, 29 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Fortitude) II
Cost: 3 Action Points
Grants a +3 bonus to Fortitude saves.
Halfling Luck (Reflex) I
Prereq: Halfling Level 1
Cost: 1 Action Point
Grants a +1 bonus to Reflex saves.
Halfling Luck (Reflex) II
Prereq: Halfling Level 5, 14 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Reflex) I
Cost: 2 Action Points
Grants a +2 bonus to Reflex saves.
Halfling Luck (Reflex) III
Prereq: Halfling Level 9, 29 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Reflex) II
Cost: 3 Action Points
Grants a +3 bonus to Reflex saves.
Halfling Luck (Will) I
Prereq: Halfling Level 1
Cost: 1 Action Point
Grants a +1 bonus to Will saves.
Halfling Luck (Will) II
Prereq: Halfling Level 5, 14 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Will) I
Cost: 2 Action Points
Grants a +2 bonus to Will saves.
Halfling Luck (Will) III
Prereq: Halfling Level 9, 29 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Will) II
Cost: 3 Action Points
Grants a +3 bonus to Will saves.
Human Versatility has undergone some revisions, and now grants five subabilities. Instead of being restricted only to a skill boost, Humans may now display their versatility by gaining a short duration increase to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class. These boosts draw from one common pool of 5.
Human Versatility I
Prereq: Human Level 1
Cost: 1 Action Point
Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +2 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Skills I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Damage I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Attack I.Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Saves I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Armor Class I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility II
Prereq: Human Level 4, 10 Action Points Spent, Human Versatility I
Cost: 2 Action Points
Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +3 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Skills II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Damage II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Attack II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Saves II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Armor Class II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility III
Prereq: Human Level 7, 21 Action Points Spent, Human Versatility II
Cost: 3 Action Points
Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +4 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Skills III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Damage III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Attack III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Saves III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Armor Class III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility IV
Prereq: Human Level 10, 32 Action Points Spent, Human Versatility III
Cost: 4 Action Points
Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +5 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Skills IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Damage IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Attack IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Saves IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
Human Versatility - Armor Class IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds. Items
In order to alleviate inventory clutter by collectables and gems, players will now be able to use a new object known as the “collectable bag” and “gem bag”. Small, medium and large versions of both are available. The small version will be awarded to those who complete, or who have already completed the low level intro quests. Medium bags are for sale at vendors, and large bags will be rare treasure. Each bag will occupy one inventory slot, while holding a number of gems or collectables depending on it’s size.
Critical hit effects on weapons were preventing sneak attack damage from applying in certain rare circumstances. This has been fixed
When you inscribe a scroll and already have the spell, it would fail with and give an error message but still take your inscription component. This has been fixed.
The chance for raid items to drop is increased when the raid dungeon is run on higher difficulty levels.The actual increase in drop rate is dependent on the actual increase in danger of the raid as the Difficulty Level is increased. The maximum drop rate of raid items from any raid on Elite is 25%
Kargon's Tasty Ham can now be enjoyed throughout Stormreach and its environs. No longer must one enter a drinking establishment to revel in the taste of the bestamest ham ... evemar.
Characters which have improved UMD skills due to feats, such as "Skill Focus: Use Magic Device" and have an item equipped using UMD which is above the UMD score the player has without the skill focus feat, will no longer find thier item unequipping itself whenever they log in.
+2 Tomes and Manuals will no longer drop as Raid loot in the Stormreaver raid. Any +2 tomes found in the warded chest will have been generated as normal treasure. The drop rate for +3 tomes has been increased to compensate for this change to the raid treasure table.
Every 20th time you finish a raid quest your end quest rewards will be selected from the raid loot table instead of being randomly generated. The number of items to choose from will be just under half of the total number of raid items without any duplicates. This is in addition to the normal chance of raid loot dropping for each player during the raid.
NEW -The 4.2 release introduced the new treasure effect Bodyfeeder. Bodyfeeder does not function when applied to ranged weapons even though a bug allowed ranged weapons to be created with this effect. As of the Module 5 release, all ranged weapons that previously had the Bodyfeeder effect will have it replaced with a new effect Lifeshield. Equipping a Lifeshield weapon grants a 10% chance each time the character is hit to gain 15 temporary hitpoints that last for 1 minute.
NPC's
Restless Isles
Mu-Tong will now place the sigil in your inventory overflow if your inventory is full or if you are encumbered. PVP
Nothing to report

Monsters
The fleeing rust monsters in Stromvauld's Mine will no longer trip over their own feet.
Monsters that are hiding or invisible can no longer be tab (or `) selected unless a player can detect the monster using their Spot or Listen skills.
Patrolling creatures should get stuck less often.
Slimes telekinetically controlled by the Sorcerer/Wizard spell Ooze Puppet are now also telekinetically prevented from splitting. As such, you will no longer lose control of the slime due to splitting.
Monsters are more likely to respond appropriately to "calls for help" from other monsters when attacked at extreme distances.
The poison immunity that many devils and demons have has been expanded to include more poison effects that they should be immune to. This includes the cloudkill spell.
Hobgoblins with pikes will now only trip if they first successfully roll to hit.
Black wolves, such as those in the Searing Heights, now use their trip ability much more rarely.Quests
Gianthold
The Gnolls that were erroneously spawning in a tent will no longer respawn.
Players should no longer fall through the Gianthold Tor bridge.
The Reavers Fate quest will no longer inform players on success via the world broadcast.
Okay okay, Drexelhand's defeat will go un-noticed then.
Madstone Crater
Players should now get fewer cases of hot feet a few steps from the lava’s edge.
Necropolis
The Bloody Crypt
Gullet the Famished One will no longer respawn
Plane of Night
Velah has informed the guardians of the islands within the Plane of Night that if they leave the areas they are supposed to be protecting, she will eat them.
The bridges within the Vault of Night should no longer occasionally be ethereal.
Searing Heights
Searing Heights has a mapnote indicating the location of its entrance
Vile Apothecary
Quickfoot Casters in The Proof is in the Poison quest have been downgraded significantly. They no longer have dance or fear spells, have had their caster levels and casting ability stat reduced, have slightly less AC, and have fewer hit points. This quest should be noticeably easier as a result of these changes. Other
The metamagic system in Dungeons and Dragons Online has undergone significant changes in Module 5.0: Accursed Ascension.

The biggest change that casters will discover is that each metamagic feat other than Heighten Spell now has a fixed spell point cost increase rather than multiplying the spell point cost of a spell as they did before Module 5.0. These surcharges are as follows:

Empower Spell: +15 SP
Empower Healing Spell: +10 SP
Enlarge Spell: +10 SP
Eschew Materials: +2 SP
Extend Spell: +10 SP
Maximize Spell: +25 SP
Quicken Spell: +10 SP
Heighten Spell: Special (Changes base cost of your spell to that of your highest level spells)

These cost increases are cumulative if multiple metamagic feats are active simultaneously, so a Quickened, Maximized, Enlarged Fireball would cost:
20 (base) + 10 (Quicken) + 25 (Maximize) + 10 (Enlarge) = 65 Spell Points

Improved Metamagic enhancements have all been changed to flat cost reductions on these surcharges. Sorcerer Improved Maximizing III, for instance, has become "Using the Maximize Spell feat costs you 9 fewer spell points." Wizard Improved Heightening II is now "Using the Heighten Spell feat costs you 2 fewer spell points per level of heightening."
The primary warded chest in all raids has been converted to the standard format for all chests in DDO. Every player in the raid will have their own treasure generated and assigned to them when they look into the chest. The locking glyphs are no more.

Each character has a 1 in 6 chance to receive a special item from that raid’s loot table. Otherwise, a standard treasure from the maximum treasure table appropriate for that raid will be generated for that character. Players may re-assign any items to other characters in the raid using the new treasure re-assignment feature. This includes any special raid only items.

The raid only items are still bound once they are removed from the chest. A warning confirmation box appears when attempting to grab a bind on acquire raid item from the chest.

In addition, the primary warded chest creates the list of characters that are allowed to loot the chest at the time chest spawns. This list contains all the members of the raid at the time the list was created. Characters not on the list do not have treasure generated for them when they open the chest and may not have items re-assigned to them.

[Mad_Bombardier]

First!

Lifeshield is semi-Neat-o. But, especially for a Ranged combatant, you tend to hit a lot more often than you yourself get hit. Will Lifeshield be available in future loot tables, too? And can you get lifeshield melee weapons, too?

[Aesop]

oi Second

Lifeshield... ok


Quest Completion... okie dokie pokie


but enough business... how was the trip? :) Meet any cuties... get any numbers? I mean I know they're gamer geeks and all but hey first rule of dating nerds,

Often the odds are Good but often the Goods are Odd

Aesop :D

[Lifespawn]

near the first post :) good stuff

[dragnmoon]

I Liked Mine better :D:rolleyes::p;)

Weekly Dev Activities: 8/27/07 *Faux* (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=119426)

[Luthen]

NEW -A new command '/quest completions' will display the number of times you have completed each raid.

NEW - Bard: ~And they removed this one anyways~
Inspire Heroics
Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4 dodge bonus to armor class. Requires 18 ranks of the Perform skill to use.

NEW -The 4.2 release introduced the new treasure effect Bodyfeeder. Bodyfeeder does not function when applied to ranged weapons even though a bug allowed ranged weapons to be created with this effect. As of the Module 5 release, all ranged weapons that previously had the Bodyfeeder effect will have it replaced with a new effect Lifeshield. Equipping a Lifeshield weapon grants a 10% chance each time the character is hit to gain 15 temporary hitpoints that last for 1 minute.


Are you fecal mattering me? ROFL all day and this is what you guys took so long to add? Well it's obvious SOME people are on vacation. :p

[Mad_Bombardier]

Are you fecal mattering me? ROFL all day and this is what you guys took so long to add? Well it's obvious SOME people are on vacation. :pLook at the post date. Q posted this one Friday morning at 2am. For what ever reason it wasn't made viewable until now. Probably just goofed on the settings somewhere.

And WDAs are typically sparse when it comes to changes so close to Release date. Take it as a good sign. :)

[Luthen]

Look at the post date. Q posted this one Friday morning at 2am. For what ever reason it wasn't made viewable until now.

And WDAs are typically sparse when it comes to changes so close to Release date. Take it as a good sign. :)

Which makes it even worse. not better. Oh and don't assume we're "close" to release just yet. Not until they man up and set a date. :D

[Clerical]

He probably left it and told somone to post it up monday morning. That message must have been lost along the way. Thx for the update though, now about risia...

[Gelandor]

I Liked Mine better :D:rolleyes::p;)

Weekly Dev Activities: 8/27/07 *Faux* (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=119426)

I agree, yours is much better :D

[Verlok_the_Red]

The Reavers Fate quest will no longer inform players on success via the world broadcast.
Okay okay, Drexelhand's defeat will go un-noticed then.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! !!!!! (for space reasons I will omit the other 994 Thank You's!!!!)

[Dragonhyde]

NEW - Bard:
Inspire Heroics
Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4 dodge bonus to armor class. Requires 18 ranks of the Perform skill to use.


Say Wha?:)

[Kalanth]

I wanted to kick and scream, yelling obsenities about the lack of new things... Then I remembered that the entire list is new, and just the little, red tags are what is really New new.

[dragnmoon]

NEW - Bard:
Inspire Heroics
Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4 dodge bonus to armor class. Requires 18 ranks of the Perform skill to use.


Say Wha?:)

Anyone notice that, that dispaeared from the Original post....

I am not suprised... since it is a 15th level ability... Somone is jumping the gun... hmmmm

[Coldin]

Anyone notice that, that dispaeared from the Original post....

I am not suprised... since it is a 15th level ability... Somone is jumping the gun... hmmmm

Well, when the level cap gets raised (tentatively Mod 6 if rumors are to be believed), Bards would get Inspire Heroics. Still kinda odd that slipped in there.

[binnsr]

Maybe they're hiding something from us ... like mod5=level cap increase? :cool:

[dragnmoon]

Maybe they're hiding something from us ... like mod5=level cap increase? :cool:

I doubt it..... Would be nice... But I doubt it..

[Mad_Bombardier]

Anyone notice that, that dispaeared from the Original post....

I am not suprised... since it is a 15th level ability... Somone is jumping the gun... hmmmmAnd from my first response, too! (but not from other followup responses). I KNOW the Pirate camp is firmly with me, so I blame the ninjas.

[Ringlord]

Yes that is a strange one... hmmmmm... makes me think... but I have been doing too much speculation lately so maybe I will lay off this one as it leaves too much room to be too far off :D

[binnsr]

I doubt it..... Would be nice... But I doubt it..

I doubt it too, but it's never too early to start a rumour :D

[Coldin]

Here's a rumor..

Due to complaints about lack of content, the devs have decided to push up the level increase to Mod 5. Unfortunately, only Bards and Rogues were completed up to level 16. All other classes will have to wait till Mod 6.

Of course I'd have no problem if this were really true...*points to sig* :D


The above is complete bs

[Andy_of_GSI]

coldin your disclaimer wasn't clearly displayed. :P

[Coldin]

coldin your disclaimer wasn't clearly displayed. :P

Shhh... I was hoping someone would start spreading that rumor across the forums. :)

[Dragonhyde]

Here's a rumor..

Due to complaints about lack of content, the devs have decided to push up the level increase to Mod 5. Unfortunately, only Bards and Rogues were completed up to level 16. All other classes will have to wait till Mod 6.

Of course I'd have no problem if this were really true...*points to sig* :D


The above is complete bs

hehe half of my guys will be extremely happy then :P

[Qzipoun]

Wow... can anyone say "disappointment" ?

The devs disappear from the forums for a week and come back with 2 useless changes? *sigh*

Are you saying NOTHING has been changed or added since the last WDA? And even the last WDA was posted before monday (just made visible monday) so in over a week there has been no dev Activity!?

[dragnmoon]

Wow... can anyone say "disappointment" ?

The devs disappear from the forums for a week and come back with 2 useless changes? *sigh*

Are you saying NOTHING has been changed or added since the last WDA? And even the last WDA was posted before monday (just made visible monday) so in over a week there has been no dev Activity!?

Since the Mod was supposed to be out by now... And it was delayed to fix bugs and not add content.. I am not suprised at all to the lack of content on the WDA

[Riddikulus]

NEW -A new command '/quest completions' will display the number of times you have completed each raid.
Darn... just raids? I so wanted to know how many times I've run PoP.

[binnsr]

Darn... just raids? I so wanted to know how many times I've run PoP.
Having a running tally in the compendium (for each difficulty) would be a much better option..



Quest Level Quest Location Completions Reps Favor
Prison of the Plains lvl14 GiantHold N H E 36 24
The Crucible lvl14 GiantHold N H E 3 24
Maze of Madness lvl13 Ruins of GiantHold N H E 17 21
The above example would show that you've completed PoP 36 times, including normal and elite, The Crucible 3 times, including Hard and Elite and MoM 17 times, including once on each difficulty.


I think Q mentioned that they had something like this in the works a while ago.. but I'm too lazy to go look it up right now .. i should be playing the game instead of posting at this time of night!

edit: here's the post and it was Graal, not Q:


There will be at least a /command in Mod5, similar to /quest, to view a character's number of completions for raid quests. We are also working on adding the number of completions to the Adventure Compendium for all quests, just in case you wondered how many times you have done Prison of the Planes.

[Freeman]

Darn... just raids? I so wanted to know how many times I've run PoP.

Come on, be reasonable. The computer can only store numbers up to a certain size before they have to start using floating point numbers. Besides, I don't think the servers could handle the workload of counting PoP runs :)

[The_Cataclysm]

Darn... just raids? I so wanted to know how many times I've run PoP.

Here you go. Quote from Graal last week's WDA.



There will be at least a /command in Mod5, similar to /quest, to view a character's number of completions for raid quests. We are also working on adding the number of completions to the Adventure Compendium for all quests, just in case you wondered how many times you have done Prison of the Planes.

[Prinstoni]

Weekly Development Activities

Plane of Night
Velah has informed the guardians of the islands within the Plane of Night that if they leave the areas they are supposed to be protecting, she will eat them.
The bridges within the Vault of Night should no longer occasionally be ethereal.


Are you serious? This means that VON 6 will be almost impossible for a level 10, or am I mistaken and the quest is going to be changed to a level 16 quest on normal?

This is a stupid change. I am sorry, but I am getting tired of the constant changes to existing quests. There is no reason to make that quest harder. I am certain that many people have troubles with Velah as it stands (especially L10's), and this change will make that quest impossible to complete.

STOP CHANGING EXISTING CONTENT AND JUST CONCENTRATE ON THE NEW STUFF!!!

[Mercules]

Are you serious? This means that VON 6 will be almost impossible for a level 10, or am I mistaken and the quest is going to be changed to a level 16 quest on normal?

This is a stupid change. I am sorry, but I am getting tired of the constant changes to existing quests. There is no reason to make that quest harder. I am certain that many people have troubles with Velah as it stands (especially L10's), and this change will make that quest impossible to complete.

STOP CHANGING EXISTING CONTENT AND JUST CONCENTRATE ON THE NEW STUFF!!!

You missed the boat on this rant. They already had it 2 weeks ago and while several people freaked out and said VoN6 was no longer able to be done, other people simply pointed out a half dozen OTHER tactics that work but people are too lazy to do because the luring tactic is common and well practiced.

[Ringlord]

Guys there is already a place to find the tally on how many times you have run a quest. You find the number in the same window you can see the stupid kill counts for party members. It tells how many times you have completed the adventure based on the difficulty you are currently running it on. It has been there from day 1. Now with the promised addition of those numbers to the Adventure Compendium it will just be easier to find out :D

[dragonofsteel2]

Guys there is already a place to find the tally on how many times you have run a quest. You find the number in the same window you can see the stupid kill counts for party members. It tells how many times you have completed the adventure based on the difficulty you are currently running it on. It has been there from day 1. Now with the promised addition of those numbers to the Adventure Compendium it will just be easier to find out

Sorry this only works til become caped. Second it tells u how many times you have run the quest period, unless it your first time running the quest on hard or elite. The reason the first time on hard and elite do not tally up is because the first time bonus they give you. Though I do agree there a system counting how many times done the quest. It stops counting when capped so you can do that quest for xp later when more levels or added.

[Shadow_Flayer]

Guys there is already a place to find the tally on how many times you have run a quest. You find the number in the same window you can see the stupid kill counts for party members. It tells how many times you have completed the adventure based on the difficulty you are currently running it on. It has been there from day 1. Now with the promised addition of those numbers to the Adventure Compendium it will just be easier to find out :D

Actually, this method doesn't work reliably. I have at least one capped character thats shows 'You have completed this quest 0 times' when looking at the XP report while doing the Demon Queen. And that character has done it at least ten times, and has a number of the raid items to prove that.

[StanC]

Come on, be reasonable. The computer can only store numbers up to a certain size before they have to start using floating point numbers. Besides, I don't think the servers could handle the workload of counting PoP runs :)

Wow Freeman posted to a WDA and didnt ask about 1 thing :D
Sorry couldnt resist Freeman

[Shade]

Are you serious? This means that VON 6 will be almost impossible for a level 10, or am I mistaken and the quest is going to be changed to a level 16 quest on normal?

This is a stupid change. I am sorry, but I am getting tired of the constant changes to existing quests. There is no reason to make that quest harder. I am certain that many people have troubles with Velah as it stands (especially L10's), and this change will make that quest impossible to complete.

STOP CHANGING EXISTING CONTENT AND JUST CONCENTRATE ON THE NEW STUFF!!!

Yea because VoN6 was so hard.

People have freaking solo'd VoN6 dude.. A minor change like this won't prevent a group of 12 lvl10s from completing it. 2 rangers can easily do it without taking even agroing the mobs. Decent melees can just run in there and kill them. Decent arcanes can just crowd control and disintigrate them.. All valid, and more fun tactics then suicide to get the job done, and all doable by level 10s. Hell i've done it on my melee that way when lvl10 was the cap a bunch of times. Even do it on my arcane now just because I dont like the pulling junk, on elite.

[Cowdenicus]

Come on, be reasonable. The computer can only store numbers up to a certain size before they have to start using floating point numbers. Besides, I don't think the servers could handle the workload of counting PoP runs :)

what about crippling strike? :D

[binnsr]

Yea because VoN6 was so hard.

People have freaking solo'd VoN6 dude.. A minor change like this won't prevent a group of 12 lvl10s from completing it. 2 rangers can easily do it without taking even agroing the mobs. Decent melees can just run in there and kill them. Decent arcanes can just crowd control and disintigrate them.. All valid, and more fun tactics then suicide to get the job done, and all doable by level 10s. Hell i've done it on my melee that way when lvl10 was the cap a bunch of times. Even do it on my arcane now just because I dont like the pulling junk, on elite.

<nitpick>
Not that I disagree with you, but disintegrate is a lvl6 spell. Last time I logged in, lvl6 spells were available at lvl11 :D
</nitpick>

[Ringlord]

LOL ok you learn something new every day :) So the current counting system for quests has a few bugs in it :D

I know until recently I was not able to do loot runs on the giant caves in Threnal because of my old computers poor graphics device ( very long story ) but I would get a run or tow in once in a while. There is the one cave that is an actual quest you get completion for doing ( you smash the crates along the way ) and I did it 1 time on Normal and Hard. Well now I have been doing it on elite and the first time I was in there on elite it showed I had never completed it before.

To me that means the counter was supposed to work by keeping seperate track of how often you ran the quest on each difficulty, but obviously from what others have said it is very hit and miss and once you get no more XP for a quest apparently the counter stops. I have never reached that point on any quest yet since as I said my poor performing graphics device on my old computer made loot runs of any kind almost impossible ( was an integrated graphics device with a max setting of 64MB of RAM :o )

[Riddikulus]

Yea because VoN6 was so hard.

People have freaking solo'd VoN6 dude.
Not to detract from the rest of your point, which is spot on... oh really?

I'd like to know how someone manages to solo VoN6, the pillars in particular.

[Cowdenicus]

Not to detract from the rest of your point, which is spot on... oh really?

I'd like to know how someone manages to solo VoN6, the pillars in particular.

Photoshopped.

[Qzipoun]

Not to detract from the rest of your point, which is spot on... oh really?

I'd like to know how someone manages to solo VoN6, the pillars in particular.

I know of at least one person who has, check the European forums there's a whole thread where he talks about it and even has videos of it.

[LA_MIKE]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=15806036

[Riddikulus]

I know of at least one person who has, check the European forums there's a whole thread where he talks about it and even has videos of it.
Nifty... the last part of the pillars is cut off though, but I found his thread here (http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204396) and it seems that is on purpose because he thinks it might be an exploit.

[Kalanth]

I would like to see a change to ALL raids to make them hard again. While impressive that people can solo the dragon, queen, and reaver, I find it dissapointing as well. It was more fun when the quests were the talk of the town and it would take people months to figure out how to defeat it.

[Spookydodger]

Come on, be reasonable. The computer can only store numbers up to a certain size before they have to start using floating point numbers. Besides, I don't think the servers could handle the workload of counting PoP runs :)

Binary-coded decimal, my friend. The workhorse of the Fortran era brought to you, fellow DDOites, for your PoP-ad-naseum needs!

[Spookydodger]

I would like to see a change to ALL raids to make them hard again. While impressive that people can solo the dragon, queen, and reaver, I find it dissapointing as well. It was more fun when the quests were the talk of the town and it would take people months to figure out how to defeat it.

It still takes people months to figure them out. That figuring out usually starts on Risia.

Quests/Raids being easier now due to finding tricks doesn't make them less difficult.

In almost any case you could care to cite, soloing a mission requires incredible equipment, prodigious talent, excessive knowledge of the game, and mind-boggling use of expendables such as scrolls and potions.

Just because it's soloed doesn't mean one should mistake it for "easier"

It's just a matter of someone not doing "insane mode" first, and eventually getting so good at something that they make it look like child's play.

Making it harder would generally make the quest totally impossible for casual gamers. I still see more Reaver raids fail than succeed.

[Riddikulus]

I would like to see a change to ALL raids to make them hard again. While impressive that people can solo the dragon, queen, and reaver, I find it dissapointing as well. It was more fun when the quests were the talk of the town and it would take people months to figure out how to defeat it.
It takes lots of practice and lots of consumables to solo raids... I don't think it's a big deal.

In any case, what would you do to make them hard?

How about a room full of red named beholders who are all buffed up with everything we cast on ourselves?

The only way to make raids a true challenge is to only allow each account to complete the raid once.

It would be interesting if the raid counted up how many times each person has repeated, totaled them up, and changed tactics accordingly. Once you've repeated Velah 20 times or so, she starts showing up as an ancient red dragon, etc. Have the AI metagame the metagamers... :D

[Kalanth]

It takes lots of practice and lots of consumables to solo raids... I don't think it's a big deal.

In any case, what would you do to make them hard?


I realize that people put a lot of effort into the raid to learn it so they can solo or reduce the number of people involved. And I don't look at just monsters as making something difficult. Monsters can be defeated, in many cases easily. I would say randomize the traps, make obsticles which require the mind, hide little pieces of the puzzle and randomize where that piece is hidden (like the bodies in Stromvaulds Mine). Little twists to the SOP of the raid would make it feel less like a chore and more like the grand adventure that it should be.

[Riddikulus]

I would say randomize the traps, make obsticles which require the mind, hide little pieces of the puzzle and randomize where that piece is hidden (like the bodies in Stromvaulds Mine).
Yeah, I find stormvauld's more annoying than challenging. Where is that last stupid freakin piece?... we've killed everything and we're just back tabbing our way from top to bottom. Yeah that's challenging... not.


Little twists to the SOP of the raid would make it feel less like a chore and more like the grand adventure that it should be.
The raid and raid prereqs are quite a grand adventure already IMO... the problem is that there are not enough of them, so people repeat them to the point where they have it memorized.

[Kalanth]

Yeah, I find stormvauld's more annoying than challenging. Where is that last stupid freakin piece?... we've killed everything and we're just back tabbing our way from top to bottom. Yeah that's challenging... not.

It's not that bad if you are actually thinking as you go through it. But you missed the first two parts, such as random puzzles and more mentally challenging puzzles. Maybe a social solution with answers that change? Or sure, you would limited on the total number of correct answers and questions, and eventually someone would memorize it, but at least they are ideas that go beyond, "Hey, if I put a Gorgon here and made him immune to everything but chicken feathers, I wonder how long the players would take to figure it out?"

[MasterofDungeons]

/clip The above example would show that you've completed PoP 36 times, including normal and elite, The Crucible 3 times, including Hard and Elite and MoM 17 times, including once on each difficulty./clip

That would be brilliant, please devs...

[Drfirewater79]

QUOTE
"The chance for raid items to drop is increased when the raid dungeon is run on higher difficulty levels.The actual increase in drop rate is dependent on the actual increase in danger of the raid as the Difficulty Level is increased. The maximum drop rate of raid items from any raid on Elite is 25%"


thank you for listening i have been saying that this needed to be done for over a year now good on ya

ps why is it that we never get any new spells these days i know the focus of this update is missions and new metamagic focus

but can we see more prestige and spells in the next update?

[dragnmoon]

ps why is it that we never get any new spells these days i know the focus of this update is missions and new metamagic focus

but can we see more prestige and spells in the next update?

Most new spells are added when thier is a Level Cap raise. No level Cap raise so hence lack of new spells.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

Nifty... the last part of the pillars is cut off though, but I found his thread here (http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204396) and it seems that is on purpose because he thinks it might be an exploit.

You do know there are 3 parts to the video right? If you view them all you can see him take down all 3. I imagine the concern about "exploit" comes from how he gets at 2nd base. Brilliant really, clealry unintended by the devs, but brilliant.

[Riddikulus]

You do know there are 3 parts to the video right? If you view them all you can see him take down all 3. I imagine the concern about "exploit" comes from how he gets at 2nd base. Brilliant really, clealry unintended by the devs, but brilliant.
Yes, I saw that there were three videos.

I didn't see him take down the pillars.

The first video ends with him jumping the barrier into velah's pen, running to the back and prepping 2nd base all while getting fireballed a zillion times.

The second video starts with him facing off with velah after the pillars have dropped.

I don't see where he actually destroys the three pillars at more or less the same time. If you do see it, let me know which video and about what time position.

[Montrose]

Yes, I saw that there were three videos.

I didn't see him take down the pillars.

The first video ends with him jumping the barrier into velah's pen, running to the back and prepping 2nd base all while getting fireballed a zillion times.

The second video starts with him facing off with velah after the pillars have dropped.

I don't see where he actually destroys the three pillars at more or less the same time. If you do see it, let me know which video and about what time position.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2052618109

Right at the start. I can't give time position because the video doesn't actually have that info (so far as I can tell)

[Riddikulus]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2052618109

Right at the start. I can't give time position because the video doesn't actually have that info (so far as I can tell)
OK thanks... I must have had some weird glitch earlier today.

The second video does show him taking all three pillars down in time. I don't know why I missed it the first time... it was like I started it halfway or something.

Very cool.

[arminius]

I wish the change to /death had been listed here.

It is leaving off stuff like that that makes the community paranoid and scouting behind every rock and bush for other undocumented changes. Then they start imagining phantom undocumented changes and a firestorm builds till finally the devs have to step in and swear on a stack of Bibles that X was in no way changed. All the bad feelings and doubts remain, no matter how the issue is resolved. What a mess.

I understand withholding some exploit fix information to the last minute, but overall the rule should be: If you change something, you should list it. If you are certain enough about a change to put it on Risia, then you should be certain enough about it to list it.

_

[Drfirewater79]

Most new spells are added when thier is a Level Cap raise. No level Cap raise so hence lack of new spells.


yes more spells are added when the cap is raised then when not but we have still gotten new spells in between as well really i guess what i am wondering is when will we see a real spell update even with the next level of spells there are almost no lvl 7 spells that damage and same can be said for a few other levels

and besides i would love to see the orb spells and they cant possibly be that hard to program/ animate the spell is just a small glowing orb would look just like a magic missle only smaller ... what level is mass hold monster?

[Shade]

LOL ok you learn something new every day :) So the current counting system for quests has a few bugs in it :D

I know until recently I was not able to do loot runs on the giant caves in Threnal because of my old computers poor graphics device ( very long story ) but I would get a run or tow in once in a while. There is the one cave that is an actual quest you get completion for doing ( you smash the crates along the way ) and I did it 1 time on Normal and Hard. Well now I have been doing it on elite and the first time I was in there on elite it showed I had never completed it before.


Thats not a bug its a feature. The counter works correctly.

The game wants to prevent you from ruining your firsttime +25 hard and +50 elite bonus, so it doesn't penalize you for any previous atttempts, regardless of difficulty on the first run of each difficulty.

So it will temporarily disable the completion # penalty for all first runs, on hard and elite. But once you complete normal hard and elite at least once, the counter will always display the correct number (counting all the runs that were "first runs")..... unless... You are XP capped. Once you are XP capped, the counter is frozen to prevent XP loss on next level cap increase.

I've done most quests while XP capped. So say twilight forge, ive done 40+ times.. But it says 0 times because I was always xp capped while doing it. But it no longer says first time +XX bonus on any difficulty. (those are lost regardless if you are capped or not)

Ideally the counter will increase but not penalize you, and I believe that is planned in the future. Or at least to show you the true completion # in the adventure compedium.

[Prinstoni]

Yea because VoN6 was so hard.

People have freaking solo'd VoN6 dude.. A minor change like this won't prevent a group of 12 lvl10s from completing it. 2 rangers can easily do it without taking even agroing the mobs. Decent melees can just run in there and kill them. Decent arcanes can just crowd control and disintigrate them.. All valid, and more fun tactics then suicide to get the job done, and all doable by level 10s. Hell i've done it on my melee that way when lvl10 was the cap a bunch of times. Even do it on my arcane now just because I dont like the pulling junk, on elite.

I'd love to see someone solo it...

How did they get there?
How did they take out all three pillars solo?
How did they get through the switches and runes in Von 5?

Nice rant. I am so sick of the devs changing content because of wanna be zergers like you that it makes me sick. You probably die in every quest, and come in to smash a post with your stupidity.

I am not even close to the best player in the game, but I can say that I have ran every quest in the game elite. I can also add that there have been plenty of wipes in every raid I have been in. Especially, when they first come out.

The reason why people are leaving the game is because they are sick of constant nerfs to existing content instead new content, nerfs to our characters, massive bugs, and a few other reasons. This is just contributing to the problem.

[Prinstoni]

It still takes people months to figure them out. That figuring out usually starts on Risia.

Quests/Raids being easier now due to finding tricks doesn't make them less difficult.

In almost any case you could care to cite, soloing a mission requires incredible equipment, prodigious talent, excessive knowledge of the game, and mind-boggling use of expendables such as scrolls and potions.

Just because it's soloed doesn't mean one should mistake it for "easier"

It's just a matter of someone not doing "insane mode" first, and eventually getting so good at something that they make it look like child's play.

Making it harder would generally make the quest totally impossible for casual gamers. I still see more Reaver raids fail than succeed.

HA... My Point Exactly! Thank you for putting it in words that are not a /rant.

[Kalanth]

I'd love to see someone solo it...

How did they get there?
How did they take out all three pillars solo?
How did they get through the switches and runes in Von 5?

Nice rant noob.

My guess is they have help getting through VoN 5, then they do this:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=15806036

[Riddikulus]

I'd love to see someone solo it...

How did they get there?
How did they take out all three pillars solo?
How did they get through the switches and runes in Von 5?

Nice rant noob.
Not a rant... it's true. I was amazed.

He did have a party through VoN5, but then solo'd VoN 6. Watch for yourself:

Part 1: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=15806036
Part 2: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=15809910
Part 3: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=15815148

[Prinstoni]

Yeah, I find stormvauld's more annoying than challenging. Where is that last stupid freakin piece?... we've killed everything and we're just back tabbing our way from top to bottom. Yeah that's challenging... not.


The raid and raid prereqs are quite a grand adventure already IMO... the problem is that there are not enough of them, so people repeat them to the point where they have it memorized.

Exactly why people only run it for favor... If this was done to raids it would be the same thing.

[Prinstoni]

Not a rant... it's true. I was amazed.

He did have a party through VoN5, but then solo'd VoN 6. Watch for yourself:

Part 1: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=15806036
Part 2: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=15809910
Part 3: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=15815148

So how would the devs new change prevent him from soloing if that is the point? Also, just because one guy did it doesn't mean that everyone can do it.

I also saw many spots here where it could have been instant failure for him, so there was a lot of luck on his side.

1) When he jumped the barrier. He could have fell.
2) He could have spawned more mobs over in that corner, but he was fortunate.
3) Velah almost killed him at one point (he stopped to self heal and it was almost not fast enough)
4) he was real close on time 41 min completion.

Proving it was done, but it was not easy.

BTW I am amazed, and I think anyone inventive and dedicated enough to solo will do it no matter what changes are made. The biggest affect is to casual to moderate players.

That group (of which I would consider myself in) always get the shaft whith changes to characters and quests. It doesn't affect the elite. They will do these quests solo and short man anyway. The majority of players get hurt by changes because we don't have everything ubber (well most of us :P), and we always play by the rules.

[HFGfeather]

Bags
Dev's You are doing a great job love the new Collectable Bags and new Gem Bags idea. Thank you

Quiver suggeston
I am not a ranger, but I have seen how many arrows or bolts that Rangers go through. I am thinking that they might be in need of a special Quiver that would house all thoes arrows or bolts. And maybe if it were a really magical one it would make loading a little faster.

Keep up the great work.
Azari

[lostinjapan]

Bags
Dev's You are doing a great job love the new Collectable Bags and new Gem Bags idea. Thank you

Quiver suggeston
I am not a ranger, but I have seen how many arrows or bolts that Rangers go through. I am thinking that they might be in need of a special Quiver that would house all thoes arrows or bolts. And maybe if it were a really magical one it would make loading a little faster.

Keep up the great work.
Azari

/agreed on the quivers. PLEASE read this thread (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=1334847) and help us archers out!