The Dog House

[Codog]

Howdy and welcome to the Dog House.

This is Codog's personal thread on the forums where you can come hang out and talk to Codog about combat, character classes, spells, and abilities in the game. I would like everyone to follow some simple guidelines when posting so that we can keep the thread constructive.

Please be respectful of others who are posting here. I'm not interested in reading long debates, arguments, or personal attacks on each other. These kinds of interactions waste time that could be spent evaluating somebody's ideas. If you see an idea you disagree with, post an alternate idea rather than debating its merit or defacing its originator.
Please be respectful to the development team in your posts. I consider the DDO team to be some of my best friends and it is very difficult to see the merit and creative genius of a post if I'm personally frustrated with its author. I understand that many of you are passionate ( and/or angry ) about the game and want to have your voices heard. The best way to convey messages to us is in the form of crisp factual posts.
I will be reading every post that is made on this thread. However, I do not have time to respond to every post or question on this thread. I will mostly be reading and responding to the thread on my own time so as to not impact my scheduled deliverables at work.
Feel free to bring up bugs/problems you have noticed. Keep in mind that my primary area of responsibility in the game is surrounding combat and character abilities. I won't be much help when it comes to content/quest issues. When reporting problems, I would very much appreciate relevent information to reproduce the problem. If it is location specific, please use the /location command and post the location and what quest you happened to be on at the time.
Small evolutionary change that can be completed in shorter stretches of time is more readily achieveable for us than large _revolutionary_ change. Revolutionary change can be rather destabilizing from an engineering and balance perspective.
Finally, please keep in mind that I am unable to disclose too much information about the future of this product. That job belongs to marketing. Quarion is hiding in the breakroom with a True Law Spork of Greater Codog Bane (sprinkled with soy sauce), poised to spork me if I miscommunicate our direction or purpose. From time to time, you will get some glimpses of what I'm currently working on through our conversations.I feel very privileged to be a developer of this product. I feel that having a feedback mechanism from you, the customer, is valuable when we are making decisions. There have been many times that a forum post has been brought to a game systems meeting for discussion and debate. I'm very impressed with the maturity of this audience and moreso with your willingness to contribute your ideas about the game. I can speak for the team when I say that we all have a common goal here which is making the game better over time. Let's communicate and help each other do just that!

Best regards,

Codog

[Yaga_Nub]

Thanks for doing this Codog.

I would like to address something that was said in last night's dev chat.

A question was asked regarding the second level of some PrC via enhancements.

I notice that you have Arcane Archer scoped out to level 20 but does that mean that it is now set in stone and you won't change what you have listed or is there still the possibility of adding phase arrows, and arrows of slaying?

The Deepwood Sniper and Tempest Ranger don't show anything past what is listed. Does that mean they end there or are there plans to do a second level enhancement?

[Sem34]

Yes Thanks Co-Dog... great move in the right direction.

[Missing_Minds]

Nice. You probably won't see anything from me in here till Mod 6 gets released. You've got enough changes in the work that anything I speak up about now may be a non issue.

Oh yeah, could you talk to the person responcible for getting gear repaired. It would be nice if at some point we could actually repair the damage done to our throwing RETURNING weapons. It is rather annoying to not be able to sell a weapon for gold because it is damaged and you can NOT repair the sucker. Or if the thrower is something really nice like the Dwarven Thrower, disruptor, wounder, etc.

[Kisaragi]

There are three things in the game currently that I really wish players would get access to. Could you give me any indication on when these might happen?

1.) Scythes
2.) Exploding Ammunition
3.) Thrown Spears

Many NPCs use all of them fairly regularly, so I have to wonder what's holding it off? I'll probably have more questions later when I can sit down and figure out what's really important.

[MysticTheurge]

I've been known to make a suggestion or two in the past, so I'm sure I'll have some stuff to add once I gather my thoughts up.

[Yaga_Nub]

I've been known to make a suggestion or two in the past, so I'm sure I'll have some stuff to add once I gather my thoughts up.

You? I've never seen your names on the forums at all! ;)

[Serpent]

Hey Codog awesome idea. I do have a question. What will be the attack rate increase on Rangers when they take the Tempest enhancement?

[BurnerD]

CODOG DESERVES A RAISE!

Kudos to you for putting in the extra effort to reach out to the community.

That is all.

A Joyous Festivult to All!

[Eelpout]

I would really like to see slings find there way into the game. I appreciate that throwing hammers were added to appease the blunt throwing weapon crowd, however, I believe that the cleric and mage crowd don't have proficiency with the axe (which is what the throwing hammer is typed as). It would be great to have a simple weapon that was ranged and did blunt damage. Thanks for starting this thread and for being so passionate about this game!!

[Mad_Bombardier]

I would really like to see slings find there way into the game. I appreciate that throwing hammers were added to appease the blunt throwing weapon crowd, however, I believe that the cleric and mage crowd don't have proficiency with the axe (which is what the throwing hammer is typed as). It would be great to have a simple weapon that was ranged and did blunt damage.We have Festivult Coal (we just need slings to hurl them for 1d4 instead of 1d2). :) More simple weapons would be great.

[chrisrtld]

Who let the dog out! Woot! Woot!..Woot! Woot!

[Wizzly_Bear]

great idea codog, thank you.

[daydrmrzzz]

I use a joystick with the single attack button mapped to the trigger, but you can duplicate the problem by mapping single attack to any key (like the space bar, for instance), As far as I can tell the problem stems from the fact that the default for single attack is the left mouse button, which is also used to click buttons on hot bars, drag overlay windows (like the examination orb, chat boxes, etc) around, and so on. Therefore, there is a routine that disables the attack function when the cursor is over any of the overlay windows. However, when single attack is mapped to another key, the left mouse button still does all the window overlay functions, the new key does not. However, the attack function is still disabled whenever the cursor is over an overlay, even though this is no longer needed or desired. So, you wind up trying to swing your weapon for a couple of seconds before you realize it isn't working, grab the mouse to move the cursor off the hot bar and trying to swing again, only to realize the cursor landed on the quest completion window, or the orb, or the xp bar or something else. You still can't swing and then, suddenly you're dead. I first bugged this problem during beta (althouogh this post contains more info than my bug report), and it has been very exasperating on many occasions.

PS: I love what you guys have planned for mod 6, but I think you should consider not making the prestige class enhancements exclusive. Prestige classes in D&D are not exclusive, and if someone wants to go to all the trouble of meeting the requirements for several prestige enhancements, they should be allowed to do so. They will be self limiting in the huge number of feats and enhancements they will need to take in order to meet all the requirements.

[Kire]

Hehe.

Codog you already have my ideas on these but i figure i'll post these for the community to see.

Stances. For Rangers.

Heres what i propose:

Stance of Power - Similiar to power attack. Really almost exactly similiar. One-Handed Weapons = Short Bows, Two-Handed Weapons = Long Bows. Same plusses and minuses as Power Attack. One Exception - Make it so you get it with Deepwood Sniper. This would increase the appeal of Deepwood Sniper and also appease the straight dex rangers.

Stance of Speed - While in this stance you gain an increase to attack speed (10-25%), while taking -4 (can be adjusted) to hit. Make it only available with Arcane Archer maybe? I personally wouldn't use this, because quality before quantity (unless its many shot!) :D. However, many people would love this i think.

Both of these would have to be toggeable of course. Theres some merit in making your stance break after having for so long or after moving for a set period of time without stopping to shoot anything. Does not matter to me, i could deal with it pretty simply as long as the cooldown isnt bad on it ( maybe the same as defensive fighting?).

Thanks Codog,

~Kire

[daydrmrzzz]

Title says it all!

[~Jules921]

CoDog,

Thank you so much for doing this. Communication, interaction and feedback are excellent ways of letting us know what's going on. I'm really excited about the Ranger Speciality developments that are slated for Mod 6. I have 2 rangers that should be able to take advantage of a Tempest and Deepwoods flavors. This is my first mmo (been here for over a year now) and the development of the game is one of the major things that keeps me here (well that plus its DnD :D ).

Jules

[Bloodyfury]

Hi CODOG, Partymaker over here ;)

As always, you're doing a great job and this post can only help to improve the game, no doubt!

The only thing I'm not sure about is if something was done about the reload animation and the "I fire a bolt/arrow uselessly after reloading" bug. :p

Wouldn't it be possible to code it so, once the reload animation start on a range weapon, it doesn't keep any action in queue? If reloading, queue = empty.

This is a major pain for any range character and even worst for casters. Often, you can't cast anything for 5 secs (which is like a decade when you're in a fight!) because the toon stupidly reload-shot-reload...

Would also be cool to know if you've been able to fix for MOD6 the bug with the Black Dragon armor, that is preventing us from the Haste combat speed bonus while we're wearing this armor.

Tx for your time and keep up the good work! ;)

[tihocan]

Well since you started a new thread I feel like I can re-ask that question:

Does the THF line of feats have any impact on fighting with quarterstaves, and if yes, which one exactly? (DeadlyGazebo said a long time ago it had no impact, but at least two people have found it added glancing blows on the 4th attack with GTHF).

[DeadlyGazebo]

Since I don't want codog to get all the fans, I'll be reading this thread too and stealing some of the questions. Bwahahaha!


There are three things in the game currently that I really wish players would get access to. Could you give me any indication on when these might happen?

1.) Scythes
2.) Exploding Ammunition
3.) Thrown Spears

Many NPCs use all of them fairly regularly, so I have to wonder what's holding it off? I'll probably have more questions later when I can sit down and figure out what's really important.

Exploding ammo: that's in the to-do list; it's not very difficult, but hasn't been a very high priority. So, there's a decent chance you'll see them in the not-too-distant future. Kobold throwers shouldn't have all the fun with grenades...

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.

[KoboldKiller]

Thank you CoDog. I will reserve any Paladin questions until a later date.

[Fetchi]

Since I don't want codog to get all the fans, I'll be reading this thread too and stealing some of the questions. Bwahahaha!



Exploding ammo: that's in the to-do list; it's not very difficult, but hasn't been a very high priority. So, there's a decent chance you'll see them in the not-too-distant future. Kobold throwers shouldn't have all the fun with grenades...

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.

...concerning dual-wielding throwing weapons for my rogue..Thank you.

[llevenbaxx]

This is in another thread atm but it always seems to happen to me also. The ol held or paralyzed mobs sliding around sometimes being able to still attack or cast spells well into the supposedly inactive state.

Seems to be able to happen just about anywhere on any different mob who are affected by these types of status modifiers. Its a long time problem in my experience though I remember there was some dev talk about it a while back. Was there no solution found to it or has the real problem never been identified? Very curious since this can really affect every character in the game.

EIDT Like the idea of getting the answers to the difficult questions even if they arent the ones we want to hear. Great thread idea.

[Kire]

Since I don't want codog to get all the fans, I'll be reading this thread too and stealing some of the questions. Bwahahaha!



Exploding ammo: that's in the to-do list; it's not very difficult, but hasn't been a very high priority. So, there's a decent chance you'll see them in the not-too-distant future. Kobold throwers shouldn't have all the fun with grenades...

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.



What about Double Hammers?

~Kire

[Strakeln]

One question: Funnel-able potions like lesser restoration and barbarian or madstone rage (you can't drink a lesser restore while raged, it breaks stances, etc). Any hope for a change to this?

[Codog]

Well since you started a new thread I feel like I can re-ask that question:

Does the THF line of feats have any impact on fighting with quarterstaves, and if yes, which one exactly? (DeadlyGazebo said a long time ago it had no impact, but at least two people have found it added glancing blows on the 4th attack with GTHF).

As currently implemented for staff combat:

GTHF adds a glancing attack to attack 4
STHF adds a glancing attack to attack 5 (raising it from 1 to 2 glances)

If you have spring attack, GTHF adds a glancing attack to mobile attack 2.

Cheers,

Codog

[Kargon]

Kargon are wondering when the followaming enhancemanent going be implementamed propermaly:

Spell FaceBlock
Requiremaments: Barbarian 12, 250 HP, Barbarian Improved DR II, Toughness
Cost: 8 AP
Descriptimion: Any damaging spell which allow a reflex save for half damanage have a 50% chance of being blocked by you face whenever you succesfumully make the reflex save. A FaceBlocked spell deal no damanage to you, and have a 5% chance of be reflectamed back at the spell castermer.

Kargon know this enhancemament will be widelamally acceptamed as the best enhancemament evermer.

[Kire]

Hah Stickied. Beautiful.

~Kire

[Cedrica-the-Bard]

Not sure if this belongs here but here goes:

Could you make shield blocking/bashing work when a wand is in my hand??? That would be sweet and I'm not sure why it doesn't work, maybe there is a reason.

[Codog]

One question: Funnel-able potions like lesser restoration and barbarian or madstone rage (you can't drink a lesser restore while raged, it breaks stances, etc). Any hope for a change to this?

This is a bug in my queue and I hope to fix it in the future. It turns out that potion drinking actions have a "self only" designation coded into the action. Drinking a potion was one of the earliest actions coded in the game and needs a bit of rework. The "funnel-able" potions was a clever workaround our treasure designer attempted to overcome this problem without us having to rewrite the potion drinking action. Turns out that he used a similar pathway to wands and scrolls and rage prohibits these types of actions. It is on my radar. However, a lot of other fixes have taken priority over this one.

Regards,

Codog

[Kire]

One question: Funnel-able potions like lesser restoration and barbarian or madstone rage (you can't drink a lesser restore while raged, it breaks stances, etc). Any hope for a change to this?

Hm should be pretty easy. Im not a coder and i don't know how they are coding it but prolly something like this.



if
usr.Drink == Restoration
usr.Rage == 1
usr.stat == 0


thats probably wrong (the usr.stat one mostly) but its the general idea.


~Kire

[MysticTheurge]

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.

I'm not too familiar with the current quarterstaff animations, but shouldn't most double weapons be able to use those?

And shouldn't most polearms be able to use the Great Axe animations?

I know they wouldn't be perfect but given that we already use the same animations for rapiers and longsword (which would be used in two completely different ways in "real life") I think most people could settle for animations that were "slightly off."

[Codog]

Kargon are wondering when the followaming enhancemanent going be implementamed propermaly:

Spell FaceBlock
Requiremaments: Barbarian 12, 250 HP, Barbarian Improved DR II, Toughness
Cost: 8 AP
Descriptimion: Any damaging spell which allow a reflex save for half damanage have a 50% chance of being blocked by you face whenever you succesfumully make the reflex save. A FaceBlocked spell deal no damanage to you, and have a 5% chance of be reflectamed back at the spell castermer.

Kargon know this enhancemament will be widelamally acceptamed as the best enhancemament evermer.

I want a Kargon action figure to have at my desk for inpirmaration. It has a pull string and says things like:

"MMMM... Ham...."
"That were the most delicimous ham evermer!"
"Smoke Cured Ham... bah hummamabug."
"Nevermer fear, Kargon are block it with my face!"

I hope Santamaclaus will bring it for me.

--Codog

[tihocan]

As currently implemented for staff combat:

GTHF adds a glancing attack to attack 4
STHF adds a glancing attack to attack 5 (raising it from 1 to 2 glances)

If you have spring attack, GTHF adds a glancing attack to mobile attack 2.


Awesome, thanks a lot!
I guess back when DG said THF had no effect, maybe we didn't even have GTHF, so it was true for THF and ITHF. That would make a lot of sense :)

[Mad_Bombardier]

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.Can't double weapons just use the quarterstaff animation (a la Shining Crescents)?

D'oh! MT beat me to it. :o

[Ironik]

Not sure if this is something for ya Codog but there has been a lot of talk about the way trip (or knockdown, or whatever) is handled with some monsters (Specifically air elementals) is this something you think needs to be changed or is the dev team happy with the way we fall on our faces? :)

[tihocan]

As currently implemented for staff combat:

GTHF adds a glancing attack to attack 4
STHF adds a glancing attack to attack 5 (raising it from 1 to 2 glances)

If you have spring attack, GTHF adds a glancing attack to mobile attack 2.
I hate to bug you again on this topic but I actually have to ask an extra question. Is it correct to assume this means that THF does NOT give a to-hit bonus to glancing blows with quarterstaves, and ITHF does NOT increase glancing blows damage with quarterstaves?

[Dariuss]

cool thread, thanks for this guys!

not a big deal, but would it be possible to have the attack button activate a wand if you are holding a wand? instead of having to click on the wand on your taskbar?

would make the wand whipping more intuitive i think.

[pACMANx]

I started a thread a few days ago about a few fixable newbie woes. There has been (nearly) universal agreement, and I was hoping that either yourself or another dev would very briefly comment: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=129224

Thanks!

[Lorien_the_First_One]

This is a bug in my queue and I hope to fix it in the future. It turns out that potion drinking actions have a "self only" designation coded into the action. Drinking a potion was one of the earliest actions coded in the game and needs a bit of rework. The "funnel-able" potions was a clever workaround our treasure designer attempted to overcome this problem without us having to rewrite the potion drinking action. Turns out that he used a similar pathway to wands and scrolls and rage prohibits these types of actions. It is on my radar. However, a lot of other fixes have taken priority over this one.

Regards,

Codog

Glad to hear its on your radar, but we've been living with this VERY annoying bug for 6 months now. Its time for it to make it closer to the top of the list...

[Lorien_the_First_One]

This is Codog's personal thread on the forums where you can come hang out and talk to Codog about combat, character classes, spells, and abilities in the game. I would like everyone to follow some simple guidelines when posting so that we can keep the thread constructive.

Thanks for creating this thread and the personal time you have chosen to put into it. We very much appreciate your dedication, and the dedication of others who we have also seen go above and beyond.

[Spookydodger]

Codog, sir, honored among us...

What's the possibility of getting shortcuts changed so that you could drop multiple items onto them to get them to stack? Such as dropping 2 weapons onto a shortcut to make a weapon set, or a weapon and a shield to get a weapon set, for example.

[Spookydodger]

Since I don't want codog to get all the fans, I'll be reading this thread too and stealing some of the questions. Bwahahaha!



Exploding ammo: that's in the to-do list; it's not very difficult, but hasn't been a very high priority. So, there's a decent chance you'll see them in the not-too-distant future. Kobold throwers shouldn't have all the fun with grenades...

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.

I know there are some of us, myself included, who have done character animations in the past.

Any chance any of us could lend a hand towards the war effort?

At this point, after having played some other games, I know I love the combat system too much to see this game die. I hate the missteps, but I have to go with the best mechanics.

[Spookydodger]

This is a bug in my queue and I hope to fix it in the future. It turns out that potion drinking actions have a "self only" designation coded into the action. Drinking a potion was one of the earliest actions coded in the game and needs a bit of rework. The "funnel-able" potions was a clever workaround our treasure designer attempted to overcome this problem without us having to rewrite the potion drinking action. Turns out that he used a similar pathway to wands and scrolls and rage prohibits these types of actions. It is on my radar. However, a lot of other fixes have taken priority over this one.

Regards,

Codog

w00t for guessing this right. Sorry, I just feel very clever right now :D

[Coldin]

I didn't think this suggestion was worthy of a thread of it's own, so I'll post it here.

Do you think you could extend the range of the Repair over time ability granted by the Way of the Mechanic enhancement? Currently it's so short that I frequently lose a boost while my Iron Defender spazzes out, or the Warforged I'm grouping with decides to take a few steps to the left.

Alternatively, could we possibly cut the activation in half or so, that way there's at least less time for something to go wrong while using it?

[lostx]

I recently re-rolled my cleric, and I was curious of what her to hit would be with divine favor and divine power. Casting diving power first and saw a hefty increase. Next casting divine favor and the to hit actually dropped 2 points on the inventory screen.

Rozzanna level7 cleric.

[Twerpp]

Can't double weapons just use the quarterstaff animation (a la Shining Crescents)?

D'oh! MT beat me to it. :o


That's a great idea because the quarterstaff animation is REALLY cool looking. Nobody with 4 attacks uses staffs though and simple weapon prof classes rarely use them. It looks really cool when a hasted, haste boosted fighter attacks with it, and the cleave animation with them is so huge, it looks like an attack out of Dynasty Warriors.

[DrAwkward]

Kargon are wondering when the followaming enhancemanent going be implementamed propermaly:

Spell FaceBlock
Requiremaments: Barbarian 12, 250 HP, Barbarian Improved DR II, Toughness
Cost: 8 AP
Descriptimion: Any damaging spell which allow a reflex save for half damanage have a 50% chance of being blocked by you face whenever you succesfumully make the reflex save. A FaceBlocked spell deal no damanage to you, and have a 5% chance of be reflectamed back at the spell castermer.

Kargon know this enhancemament will be widelamally acceptamed as the best enhancemament evermer.

Pssst, Kargon... Beholdamer's Disentagramate ray is a Fortamatude save. That means no face-blocky.

[MrCow]

Meh, faceblock can be reworked so it works on reflex-based damage effects and damaging ray effects. :p

[Dark_Helmet]

Howdy and welcome to the Dog House.

This is Codog's personal thread on the forums where you can come hang out and talk to Codog about combat, character classes, spells, and abilities in the game. I would like everyone to follow some simple guidelines when posting so that we can keep the thread constructive.
[LIST]

Best regards,

Codog
Very nice, but you asked for it:


Any thought of returning the proper durations to spells (e.g. solid fog, FW) that were reduced to address monster agro issues? Really, they AI on the monsters is agro based now so they go after the caster and not sit there and "cook"
Any thought on implementing monster AI to know who actually did the casting? It seems like when someone brings a monster back to an effect, the monsters immediately knows who did the casting and goes past party members after them - even when there are people in robes in front (dang pesky rangers, rogues). I mean kobolds are not THAT smart! :p
How come monster casters can target a person who is invisible or hidden? While you can damage someone who is invisible the area spells due to targetting their "square", you should not be able to target an individual unless you can "see" invisible creatures.
Where is mirror image? (not just the spell but devs who are not afraid of users) :D

[KatanAztar]

I have a question about cleave. Why does all other races/gender combination cleave so much master then human males? Will this ever be fixxed?

For instance, roll up some level 1 fighters and take power attack and cleave as your first feats. Get sheilds equipped on them and compare cleave speed on human male vs everything else... it's awful :/
thank you

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Codog,

Since you are starting a fresh thread, I figured I would come in with a few things that could (hopefully are) simple 'fixes' to things that have long been bugs/issues, that hopefully you can shed some light on.

1) Ranged Combat "Queue": Ranged weapons allow an attack queue, that can create some difficult circumstances. Can we please either have No Action Queue, or a Clear Action Queue on Reload (Specifically thinking of Repeaters for the second option). There is nothing worse than having your Bow user locked into 2-3 more shots when you need to switch to a wand, or just the wasted arrows, because the mob went down too quickly.

2) Currently Opened Quest Difficulty Display: This has been around since Beta. We zone into a quest on Elite, but someone coming up to the door opens the Portal UI and it displays Normal. Happens all the time, and causes confusion.

3) A Reminder when you open a Portal UI if you are not currently active on this quest. This will save so much frustration and problems if someone forgets to talk to Marek (VON's), or to talk to Hargo/Bruku/Archibishop twice (Delera's/GreyMoon/Catacombs) and not completely forward the quest, resulting in missing out on rewards, or worse, not actually queuing for a later quest or Raid. A Simple Pop-Up Error Message (like the existing error messages display) upon activation of a Portal UI if you are not actively on the quest you are trying to enter.

4) Inventory Slot-Locking. Please, some type of system to lock Inventory Items into one specific spot in your inventory. Maybe assign on Locking an item, that item will return to the last manually selected slot upon de-equip. I have noticed that the usual behavior is that say youare sword-and-board, and switch to a scroll. The weapon you were wielding takes the Scroll's old spot, and if you re-equip the same weapon, the scroll switches back, causing them to go back to where they were. However, if you use an Item Set, then whatever is replaced out of your hands will go back to the 1st bag. This is very annoying. Some way to lock items into spots, and allowing Weapon Sets to swap spots instead of dropping back into the 1st bad.

5) More than 10 Toolbars. With the necessity of carrying multiple weapons and items and potions and scrolls and Feat abilities and Enhancement Abilities, 10 toolbars isn't enough anymore. Can we please get 12-15 or more?

6) Character Select Screen re-ordering. Newer rolled characters used to go to the bottom of the list, now they go to the top. Can we please be allowed to re-order them... or order them by Level (Decending) and then Name (Ascending)?

7) Teleporter gates: Can we please get them added to the Necropolis & Gianthold?

8) Gems - Some way to sell them for a decent price? 10% is just not worth picking them up for, since there is no Broker to get more pp for them, nor is there any in-game use. Or multiply the base price by 5x or 10x, so that they are worth the inventory space and Gem Bag?

9) Allow Bow-and-Arrow combination for Weapon Sets? Let me select my Greater Giant Bane bow with my Giant Slaying Arrows as a Weapon Set... or my Fire Bow with Acid Arrows to go Troll hunting... or my Greater Construct Bane Bow with Adamantine Arrows for Golems, and the like.

That's all I can think of for the moment!

[tekn0mage]

1. Cure Critical Wounds wands

For God's sake man, hasn't it been long enough?

[Westerner]

Locking Elite quests, so that you can't recall/reenter to replenish resources.

[tekn0mage]

Locking Elite quests, so that you can't recall/reenter to replenish resources.


Say what??

Ok, so what happens when you die and recall?

[Rindalathar]

Since Deadly Gazebo said he's looking in as well, I gues I'd mention something that might not be your realm of influence, C-Dog, but how about Deathward, Mass as a spell consideration? I know many clerics would sing Turbine's praises if this could be made a reality.

PS Someone already mentioned it, but are there any plans for dual-weilding throwing weapon feats, enhancements, animations? (pretty please:))

[Dariuss]

Locking Elite quests, so that you can't recall/reenter to replenish resources.

seems like something that you migth be able to accomplish with guild rules/self control - but hey, i support anything that makes people happy as long as it doesn't take away from new content creation

[Crarites]

Say what??

Ok, so what happens when you die and recall?

Game Over Man, Game Over!!

[jkm]

i'm going to consolidate all of my spell issues here. the spells that have these issues are: scorching ray, fireball, cone of cold, disintegrate, and niacs

first issue: targeting with these spells

when these spells have a target, there are a multitude of issues that can happen. scenarios following:

scenario: cast spell and target moves beyond your limited viewpoint
result: spell is invisi-cast(a) with the "you must face x" error being thrown - spell points charged
expected result: it should go to where the target was and doing AOE damage if AOE and hit the next target(if applicable) in line if ray

scenario: cast spell and target dies during cast
result: spell goes straight to the ceiling with no damage even if there is something in the AOE - spell points are charged
expected result: it should go to where the target was at during cast and doing AOE damage if AOE and hit the next target(if applicable) in line if ray

scenario: cast spell and target dies after cast
result: spell is invisi-cast(a) at the target with no damage inflicted - spell points charged
expected result: it should go to where the target was at during cast and doing AOE damage if AOE and hit the next target(if applicable) in line if ray

scenario: cast spell and target moves behind object and is blocked
result: spell is invis-cast(a) at the target with an error message "target A is blocked"
expected result: the spell should either end or detonate at the blocking point. if it is a ray a notification of 'target A is blocked' should be thrown to prevent tantrems, but if it is AOE it should explode at contact doing AOE damage.

scenario: cast spell and target moves out of range of spell
result: haven't messed with this in a while so i'm not sure if it gives an error message or not
expected result: ray spells should fizzle (as they do). AOE should detonate doing damage to all in the AOE

second issue: untargeted spell casting

it just isn't practical to cast ray spells without targeting. there are several reasons for this that i'll list below

1. the limited resource that is spell points - while arrows are for the most part limitless so that if you miss on 1 or 2 it isn't noticed, missing a target with a direct damage spell is painful

2. cast times - even for a sorc with fast cast time, a ranger can fire off many more arrows than a sorc can spells

3. the spells seem to always cast low, not sure why

it however is very practical to cast AOE spells without targeting, however the most effective ways tend to be of two varieties:

1. horizontally into groups in open areas - the most effective spell for this BY FAR is cone of cold. fireball tends to need you to be slightly above your target to get optimal results. one thing that i noticed that i like is that fireballs into doorways tend to be marginally effective because of the blast zone.

2. focused straight at the ground - this is about the only way that you can consistently get an untargeted AOE spell to go off correctly. even then, it will sometimes shoot straight up in the air unless you are at the apex of a jump.

final thoughts about spells

niacs is better at targeting than scorching ray.
scorching ray is better at not fizzling with 3 rays than 1
cone of cold has weird size metrics. if you are standing still the length of the cone is a lot longer than if you are moving.
cone of cold has issues at the originating point of the cone. it tends to include creatures to the right and left of the point, but not anything at the origination point. this seems to be backwards.

all AOE effect spells do not realistically handle the blocking effects of monsters behind another monster. this may be by design, but it would stand to reason that the spell doesn't pass through another monster at full strength. while i like my nice row of ice sculptures, it doesn't seem like it should work that way.

(a) invisi-cast is when you see the spell cast (fireball, etc) but it hits the targets and does no damage.

[Hvymetal]

Say what??

Ok, so what happens when you die and recall?
It is Elite, what hapened to all the posts that only the uber l33t with the best gear and build should be doing elite quests? Obviously the l33t don't die so it won't be an issue now will it? :D

[jakeelala]

MT and Mad Bomb are right,

You already have the Quarterstaff and Great Axe animations to make pole arms and Double-Ended weapons.

Is there any other reason they couldn't be fast-tracked/added?

[Hence]

There has been a long standing problem since the changes to enemy AI in which melee cannot hit a fleeing mob they get no attack rolls. I know you have done a lot of work on the ranged aspect of this, but the melee need some looking into.
When a mob is fleeing, or chasing someone... you can be right on top of the mob and not get any dice rolls.

This hurts the Spring attack feat.
Possible fixes: 1. make melee weapons have a larger attack range.
2. change the physics of the mob to detect collisions while they move away from a player.
3. make the physical dimensions (hit range) of mobs larger.
4. change Spring Attack to a larger attack radius, similar to Cleave and GCleave attack radius.

Thanks for your devotion to this wonderful game. Id love to see this game really shine because it has the potential to be the best MMO out there.

[tekn0mage]

...

There fixed it for you. The rest of it was just argumentative.

[CrazySamaritan]

i'm going to consolidate all of my spell issues here. the spells that have these issues are: scorching ray, fireball, cone of cold, disintegrate, and niacs

huh, I can tell you don't play clerics. Searing Light's been bugged bad since launch; the spell does the same as you say, PLUS:
has a period of space where the "too far away" message doesn't appear, but the spell doesn't reach the target.
has a period of space where the "target is blocked" message doesn't appear but the spell doesn't reach the target.

(edit: and nimbus of light seems to be based on the same sub-routine)

[Soul-Shaker]

Heres my list since you asked for it :).


Spring Attack and Shot on the run will have to be re-evaluated because DDOs current progressive BAB system defeats its worth.
Mobility Shouldnt only but on tumble. Possibly giving the +4 on moving would make Spring Attack/Shot worth more.
Problems with Meleeing a running target that you are chasing at due to collisions (even if you can outrun that target to).
Shield blocking facing in PvP currenty does not work(you can stand behind someone and attack. Defender still gets full block DR). And you can block while held, stun, tripped which is wrong.
Punching as a weapon does not show info in Inventory
Whirlwind needs reevaluting since when greater cleave is 10 seconds cooldown, 360degree, about .5 second swing time and only takes 3 feats . Whirlwind is 15 seconds cooldown, 360 degree, 1.5 second swing time, and takes 5 feats.
Would like a button or way to select target and certain spells manually without needing to deselect.

[Kisaragi]

Thanks for answering my questions previously.I understand the budgetary concerns, but I'd still be willing to pay more to get more.

[Magic Strength?]
So as I sit here this afternoon I think about my wizard. What I'm always a bit annoyed about is that most of effective spells in the game to use against monsters seem to be 'damage' based. Yet some of the strongest spells enemies use against us are non-damaged base. Blind/Slow/Knockdown and Cloud spells just make battlefields messy for players. Versus enemies they rarely seem to have the same effect, at least in my opinion.

That combined with the fact that often spells aren't affective unless you heighten/maximize/empower/or extend means there are very few level 5 and under spells in my hotkey.

I'm left with many unused spells because they don't work in situations 75% of the time. My suggestion would be that spell casters could turn in unused spell slots for more manna, or other benefits.

I have a hard enough time trying to beat spell resistance with level 7 spells, let alone a level 2 spell heightened to level 7.

[Magic Books]
I have in my bank right now, The Dead Girl's Spell Book, the Xorian Cipher, the Seal of Shan-ta-kor, the grimore of the king of the cats, the scroll of preservation, and the rites of ascension (first two parts). You would imagine the bankers would be glowing by now. Alas, these books and others want are blank, empty, useless. The only reason I collect them is that someday they might be useable. Yes, I realize I'm a packrat.

Long have I desired to research, to study such tomes, and gleen their secrets. If they're so powerful they should hold power, or be a guide to research such power. Whether they are attuned to charisma, wisdom, or intelligence, they should hold secrets, or have some sort of in game effect.

I find it funny when my drow wizard has an int of 34 and when I look at the xorian cipher it says 'the runes are illegible'. Funny, since it's used by enemies with a CR of 8 to 10. I'm not expecting a big result but when the Wayfayers tell me The Seal of Shan-Ta-Kor threatens the entire city, you expect it to have some sort of abilities.

I just makes me wish there weren't two different worlds existing within the city, where NPCs that reach CR 10 or higher can threaten the city, but players who reach level 14 are treated as if they have no power. No respect from NPCs, no new options for dialogue. Do I have to hold Coyle hostage myself in order to get respected?

PS. I am holding Coyle hostage and going to turn him into a reaver mummy with the Dead Girl's Spell Book and the Xorian Cipher.

Lastly [Create Undead]

I mentioned this in another thread, but Create Undead as a spell is nearly useless. Here's my rationale;

So here's the thing. Create Undead, a level 6 spell, with extra spell components (crushed black pearl) doesn't seem to be much benefit.

Let me show you the logical details of what's going on and we can see that this spell isn't making very much sense.

Compare this the following to a regular summon spell

Create Undead 'This evil spell allows you to create several powerful sorts of undead: ghouls, ghasts, or mummies. Created undead are automatically under the control of their creator, but have a chance to resist every 3d12+12 seconds.'

Summon Monster VI 'Summons a fiendish troll to fight for you for a brief time. Casting this spell locks out casting any other Summon Monster spell for 6 minutes.'

Now as I said, they both have the same cost sp wise. Yet Create Undead also has an extra component cost and the undead do not remain under my control. A little expensive for something that can turn on me that quick don't you think?

I was trying it out in tangleroot (I'm level 14). The creatures out there killed all three types of summoned undead, because none had any sort of weapons or decent attacks.

A troll I summon can kill most things out there without a second thought.

So we have a weaker summon that I can't control, costs more, and has an additional weakness. This necromancer was more then a little annoyed. It seems that this spell only exists as a 'more difficult' button. Enemies I'm using to help me with fights make fights harder since they turn on me really quick.

So I have some suggestions;
1.) Allow undead I create with my manna, and components to be under my control like summoned monsters. If they're going to cost extra components they either need to be stronger/better equipped, or the extra component needs to be cut.

2.) Summoned undead who turn on me get 2 seconds to attack me, other players, or my allies. After that time my manna link to them is destroyed and they vanish.

3.) Created undead are under my control until I cast some other spell. As long as I pay the costs of such, they exist under my control and do not die. So if the ghouls would die, the spell cost is subtracted from what I have, and they go back to full health. This makes them more interesting. The spell allows necromancers to have a army of the undead and use them instead of drawing aggro with big destructive spells.

4.) Created undead are linked to casters and under their control. As such you must destroy the undead before the caster is damaged. Any damage the caster would take is instead subtracted from the undead. Once they're dead the caster is fair game. So this becomes a defensive spell for a would be necromancer.

There, four options plus any of the others players have. This spell needs to be updated, because as it is right now, it's broken. The cost for what casters are getting out of them compared to summon monster VI is way overboard.

I wanted to be a necromancer. That's my preference. Whether it be finger of death, or control undead, I love that school. I'm really looking forward to horrid wilting, but a necromancer without their own undead is really a sad thing.

Color Codes for Clarification
Red - Topics/Issues
Skyblue - Suggestions
Green - Important
Yellow - Critical

[marcosoneghett]

Codog,

How about inserting in the crafting system new skins for armor, clothes and weapons made?

We already have a medium collection of skins, but from posts i've read many players aren't happy with our variety. Introducing more skins via the crafting system would be a gradual way of inserting more visual content in our game.

[MysticTheurge]

6) Character Select Screen re-ordering. Newer rolled characters used to go to the bottom of the list, now they go to the top. Can we please be allowed to re-order them... or order them by Level (Decending) and then Name (Ascending)?

Or just most recently played first.


how about Deathward, Mass as a spell consideration?

Luckily enough, it's a level 8 spell, meaning clerics would get it at 15th.

[Kire]

Hm i was wondering if we could get a list of possible things we can add to our items in teh raids. Can i have :

a +3 icy burst longsword of lightning bolt?
a +5 acid Double Hammer of Finger of Death?

The possibilites are endless if we can choose any spell in the whole game to add to the end of the wep.

~Kire

[Riggs]

As above - spell targetting can be a real pain.
Aim at the ground to Fireball a group of monsters right in front of you - and the spell shoots to the ceiling.

Aim at the first monster coming at you in a group - that is 15 feet away when you start casting, and very often the spell fails as soon as the monster runs to your side, and you get the 'failed spell monster is behind you' message.

Ditto invisible monsters and players do not function the same way. players cannot target a stealthed or invisible monster until it attacks or you have a high spot skill. Monsters can hear you even if your invisible, and immediately target you will attacks and spells, even if you move beyond line of sight or hearing and come back.

Archery. One thing that is frustrating - enemy archers can hamstring you, or stun you. Why cant my ranger hamstring or use stunning blow at range also? Hamstring is hard to accept really - you are charging an archer, and from the front, while in full armor, he cuts your hamstring on the back of your legs slowing you down - with an arrow.

Trip- The sword Whirlwind has a description something like "on a critical hit the target has to make a balance save to remain standing"...so somewhere in the game it seems a mechanic to allow balance skill to be used exsists instead of merely a dex/str save to remain standing. Yet Balance is the ONLY skill in the game that is reactive - not proactive. Ex. Haggle, affects the price of items, before you buy, not that you get a discount after. Jump, Tumble - you get the benefits the moment the effect occurs - so Tumble reduces falling damage before you take it. Concentration, affects you the moment something tries to break it.

Yet Balance doesnt help you stay....balanced. It only comes into effect AFTER you have already fallen over. Given that monsters with overrun/trip spam - like Air Elementals and Mariliths can trip you just by being near you - you can get multiple trip effects that reset your timer, it is possible to stay on your back for some time before you even get a roll. And even then you get up only to be immediately knocked own over and over as no one has a dex or str score high enough to save more than once in a while vs a high dc whirlwind/overrun. Balance skill should really be used (or reflex) if it is higher than just the str/dex modifier.

Also - looking at Djinn - they have a whirlwind ability, that functions much like in the paper rules. They attack melee or spells, then once in a while can activate a whirlwind and knock people over, then after a short time (where they would need to rest from the extra effort a whirlwind takes to do) and go back to regular attacks. Air elementals in the paper rules also are only listed as using whirlwind once every 10 minutes, and only for 1 round per 2 hd. Also it lists reflex saves as a defence, not dex, which is a huge difference since in every case reflex saves are much higher than just the pure dex modifier.

These two facts, balance vs dex/str, and 'always on whirlwind' make fighting these types of creatures (not just elementals, but anything that can trip at will) extremely frustrating. And by extreme it is safe to say that this one aspect has caused a large chunk of cursing and swearing at the game. Because unlike other things that you fight, or dungeons you enter - other things have a defence or solution, trip does not.

A stable of D&D always has been, every attack has a defence, every defence has a hole. Every action can be countered in some way if you have the tools, spells, equipment, or skills etc. Yet trip is something that there is absolutely nothing a player can do to avoid - other than preventing the monster from attacking, or not being the one being attacked. Which really goes against the whole system where D&D was balanced in that regard.

Kudos on going above and beyond by responding to players requests and gripes.

[Yukiko]

Yes, please comment on crafting. Ive been waiting so long for some kind of crafting skill and or feat

[Riggs]

Reading up a bit, have to agree summons are really weak in most cases.

The level 1 dog is great in the harbor. After that it goes downhill for the most part - the troll can be good, but its regeneration rate is much slower than a 'real' troll.

One of the wizard specialization classes in pnp was conjuration/summons. And with all the levels of spells - you could have a little army to fight for you, or summon things with special abilities that could accomplish things for example.

I realize it would get abusive to have unlimited summons, and slow down the dungeon - but so does casting 10 firewalls in a small space. At the very least, it should be possible to summon one of every level of monster. (I do miss the days when the hellhound staff was unlimited, and groups would run around with 20 hellhounds killing stuff - that was a real hoot).

If 4 people out of 6 in a group started summoning stuff, then it could potentially get out of hand, the lower level ones would vanish quickly, but you could have 20-30 summons running around, so yeah it could gum things up by adding a lot of work to the computer. Perhaps a limit of 3-4. But right now a limit of 1 is really weak. (And create undead is really weak too...as above). Keeping a limit of 1 from items would be fine

If we are stuck with only being able to summon one thing at a time - then they should be stronger than a normal version would be - not weaker as is currently the case it seems.

Animal companions. This is going to be a larger issue if and when Druids come into things. One possibility is a persistant spell effect - like paladin aura or the reverse of 'healing up while in town' aura. Whenever you enter a instance, the persistant effect/feat/enhancement or whatever kicks in, and your ranger/druid animal buddy gets auto-summoned. If you ever lose line of sight for more than 10 seconds, it tethers back to you. If you change quests, enter a new door etc, it always pops back to you. If killed, some kind of delay (10 minutes say) could maybe be put in so people dont just go around sending it in to get killed every room.

[Kire]

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh307/Byondkire/Untitled.jpg


haha

[Talon_Moonshadow]

I'd just like to say, plz make only small changes to the game and not radical ones that many people seem to want. The game is great....yes it can always get better.
But I signed up to play D&D not everquest or someone's dream MMO etc.

I don't like nerfs...and I don't like making something immune for no real reason.

The average player is not uber and the average group is a PUG that does not work together well.....plx keep this in mind.

Smarter AI would go a long way. Design dungeons with player tactics in mind. (looks like Devils in mod6 will go a long way)

AH were a bad idea......promotes plat farmers. (actually this is a perfect example of how bending to player demands can make the game worse)

Druids! I know shape changing can be a pain to code, but most of the other stuff already exists.....seems to me you could give us an ok Druid soon and improve it later.

It's been almost forever since I looted something that I kept for the toon looting it. Plz look at a way to make loot seem better without overpowering the game.

Weapons of Rightiousness should do "good" damage. (Devils)

I'd like to be able to make a cleric with a 14 or 16 Wiz and be able to activate wisdom runes.....especially in the harbor.

high abilities or skills should be for optional objectives, not required for quest completion.

Quests should be doable by anyone, but made easier by certain types of toons/abilities.

Non-combat objectives.....and resons for other skills we do no not normally put points into....this would help pure rogues.

Thos puzzles that require levers in sequence etc......they should be more forgiving and easier to do....more time between resets etc.
It's very frustrating to depend on RL player keyboard skill to accomplish something. (I also hate mario brothers jumping quests)

Chests that clerics cannot jump to are not fair! That DQ chest really annoys me and everyone who groups with me because I have so much trouble getting to it!

Random hidden stuff is good. (secret doors, traps)

Some players take a long time to load in....it is unfair if things start attacking us before we can load in and fight back. TE3 used to be horrible for this. find another method if your goal is to limit player buffing time.....single burst anti-magic field maybe right before monsters spawn.

Just some random thoughts....thx.

[Riot]

Several things I'd like to see implemented:

Improved Combat Expertise - it used to be an enhancement modification but was since dropped. I'd like to see it return as a Feat liek it is in PnP. I'd also like to see a way to preset your Combat Expertise mode. Such as having combat Expertise would provide you with 3 stances. A +1 mode, a +3 mode, and a +5 mode. Each stance is a toggle. And only 1 toggle may be active at a time.

Shields - I'd like to see more enhancement specialties for SHIELDS. Improved DR, Improved attack/damage, or improved special effects while bashing or blocking. Shield combat has alot to be explored.

I'd like to see some Enhancement mods for high level fighters which replicate prestige type classes. Pretty much the way the Bard is treated and the Rangers and Paladins.

[Velorn]

...the one potion that should have been in the game a long, long time ago. The HEAL potion. Something along the lines of the Pneumonic potions....Lesser Heal (25 - 75 HP), Heal (75-150 HP), Greater Heal (150 - 300 HP). Make them chest rewards and end rewards like Pneumonic potions. The addition of these potions to the game would help bring clerics more in line with their P'n'P counterparts. I mean that in relation to the true potential of the Cleric class vs. just babysitting. Not that I'm against having a healbot in the party. I have been known to occasionally be needy, but it would be comforting to know that I am not totally relying on anyone for burst healing if they're participating in the beatdown. That would also apply to any healing class (whether it be using SP or wands). Would it create more imbalance? Would it make playing a cleric more enjoyable? My thoughts anyway.

[Arianrhod]

Mobility Shouldnt only but on tumble. Possibly giving the +4 on moving would make Spring Attack/Shot worth more.
[/LIST]

Another possibility would be having mobility negate the bonus mobs get for attacking people with bows equipped, to simulate the P&P function of giving a bonus vs. attacks of opportunity.

[Kargon]

Pssst, Kargon... Beholdamer's Disentagramate ray is a Fortamatude save. That means no face-blocky.

actuamally, kargon was trying use a Markus Shining Crest mirror glued to kargon face for reflectaming disintimigrates. It never work so good so far, but that nevermer stop kargon before!

[shineing_citadel]

I look on the forums quite a bit and no one brings up the fact that elven wizards only get elven arcanum for choosing caster. This seems very unfair to that class because in pen and paper wizard is the favored class of an elf. 60 extra points it seems very unfair when warforged can self heal and its not even their favored class. Is there anything in the works to give the elf his or her due when it comes to that?

[Shrazkil]

Would love to see true strike added for casters now that a mechanism has been made available.

A short duration cast (like close wounds) followed by an immediate attack at +20. Appropriate level 1 recast.

[Ghoste]

Any plans to fix problems related to AI and/or monsters mechanics for tracking players?

If you are not aware of the matter, I would be happy to provide you with more information.

[Shrazkil]

I second (or well in this case um... tenthen) the need and desire for Scythes and especially Spears.

[CoolHand_Luke]

I've posted this before and I thought that this might bew a good place to re-mention it...

Could it be possible to impliment an Alliance Chat Tab?

There are several guilds that run with each other and an aliance chat can be useful. Also it could be handy for those large guilds that have "two" guilds to handle all their members, as well as those guild that have "feeder" guilds for lower levels.

Basically if you were forming for, say a raid, and you need to fill out the ranks, you can go to a "second" teir (guild chat being the "first" tier) by sending out a message over Alliance chat.

Also this will enable those who enjoy thier guild, but they belong to a small guild, and will expand thier network.

Guildleaders can do say /aliance invite "guildname", that will send an invite to the guildleader of the other guild. They can accept or deny. Gildleaders Can limit who can post or read to the aliance net, to only officers or all. And sent aliance messages will only goto your aliances, not you aliances' aliances.

[Kire]

Any Word on a Trade Channel in game? similiar to LFM listing but with items that people are selling or with items that people want where it normally shows the quest info. Would cut down AH costs and therefore plat farmers some.

~Kire

[parvo]

There is an issue with a lot of abilities that don't "land" but still set the timer off. It is particularly bad on things like Unyielding Soverienty, Rage and such. I'm sure it's been covered elsewhere but since my last two PD clerics bit it when these didn't land (but still started ticking 10-min timers), I figured I'd bring it up again.

Second; Chasing after mobs that run away is increasingly annoying. The collision detection doesn't allow you to get ahead of them enough to target the actual spot where they are. It's like the target spot is about two feet in front of where the collision point is. It wasn't allways like that. I think it got messed up in mod four.

[Riot]

Touch AC.... Please add it.

[HumanJHawkins]

Hi CoDog,

From your post in the "Newbie" thread (http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=1473502&postcount=34), I can tell you are well aware of how good ideas get lost in information overload and excessive repetitive discussion. Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest impediments to efficiently reporting and prioritizing ideas.

What we need to solve this, is a moderated "Game Suggestions/Complaints" thread... Or better yet if feasible, a chart. Note, it must be moderated. We have had unmoderated threads like this before, but they immediately fill up with repetition, jokes, and 50 page theses on game theory.

People should be able to propose additions, modifications, etc. However, they shouldn't make it into the thread/chart until a moderator decides they add something meaningful enough to warrant putting them in.

This could probably be done with forum technology, or perhaps an outside web-viewable service like Google Spreadsheet. Most importantly, there should be some indication of status... I.e. We haven't even started considering that yet... We like it and hope to do it someday... We are arguing about this internally and will keep you posted... We're working on it... Or in lucky cases, "It's done, send us cupcakes."

I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers to set this up... I would be one for sure. However, I think it would kind of have to be a Dev thing, as there are bound to be disagreements about priority, wording, whether one issue is the same as another, etc.

Do you think this is something you, Q, T, or E would go for?

It could also act as a FAQ about issues... You could go up there and see that something was reported, got a lot of support, but just isn't going to happen because of some technical or time limitation. Thus, less screaming.

[GramercyRiff]

Touch AC.... Please add it.

Yes, so spells like Wraithstrike can be added.:D

Seriously, Touch AC would be a nice addition as would SR working as it should, stopping all spells that are affected by it, ie even damaging spells. Obviously, this would make the Conjuration school (put in the Orb spells please) and spell penetration far more important.

Also, summoning is very weak when compared to PnP. Summoning is quite a potent option in PnP. Unfotunately, it is relegated to uselessness in DDO. Feats like Augment Summoning, Greenbound Summoning, and Rashemi Elemental Summoning would help as would increasing our options on what we can summon. Rashemi Elemental Summoning is the most potent of the three, as an earth elemental with the Thomil template is admittedly quite powerful as is the Orglash template for the air elemental (45d6 from 3 cones of cold is some blasting power for sure). In addition, perhaps some enhancements could be added to bolster the HPs and combat abilities of summons even further. Ultimately, all of the above, plus allowing multiple summons to be in play at a time would be optimal, but might pose programming issues, and worse, balance issues. Surely there has to some middle ground though to make summoning viable. Admittedly there are other problems to solve before we address the casters. Maybe this can be worked on by the time Druids come out, as summoning is a big part of the Druid's game, along with the animal companion. That's a ways off though.

[Kaz_The_DM]

I want a Kargon action figure to have at my desk for inpirmaration. It has a pull string and says things like:

"MMMM... Ham...."
"That were the most delicimous ham evermer!"
"Smoke Cured Ham... bah hummamabug."
"Nevermer fear, Kargon are block it with my face!"

I hope Santamaclaus will bring it for me.

--Codog

I want one too ... where can I place my order?

Best,
Kaz

[Ranmaru2]

1) Is anything else being done to adjust Beholders being able to throw their magic rays in front of them, when in DDO, their central eye is always open, making it so they should not be able to do that at all? On the same note, is anything being done about making beholders not able to turn faster than any high end computer can see their animation, open their eye, and then turn around back to the original way they were facing? I realize this can somewhat be a client issue, but considering I've had it happen to plenty of guildies of different gaming machine levels, it's the game, and not on the user's end.

2) Is there any work being done to make player's attack arcs moving just like monsters when the player is moving and trying to attack that monster running away? (Related note) Anything being done to enemy movement speed to make it so you aren't hoping for Boots of Time Warp in order to catch any monster but an Ooze that's running away from you?

3) Any chance of working on a little more 3-D being worked into the game. Right now, jumping over a blade that's fixed to come out of the wall at a set height off of the ground automatically hits you as if you have no time to adjust (Tumbling or NOT), and I think that' an issue, as well as being able to Jump OVER blade barrier spells, or the Blades in the Demon Queen's raid. I've completely jumped one without landing into the blade and still gotten hit, which makes me sad that it can't be a strategy for those ABLE to make the leap.

I realize revealing future plans isn't something you can unveil, but these are long time bugs/issues that I'm wondering what's happening when they occur and if anything is being done to rework the mechanics or fixing them...

[kyebosh]

Hi there,
Just a quick suggestion:
Can you make it so Auto-Attack stays toggled when activating the Search skill?

Currently, searching (for traps etc) disables auto-attack (I assume to stop interruption), but it's a bit annoying having to turn it back on all the time.

Not a big deal, just thought I'd put it out there :)

[Hvymetal]

..............
There fixed it for you the rest was avoiding the question.

[MysticTheurge]

1) Is anything else being done to adjust Beholders being able to throw their magic rays in front of them, when in DDO, their central eye is always open, making it so they should not be able to do that at all?

I asked Eladrin basically this (though I also asked about changing their anti-magic to be a suppression instead of a dispel) and his answer was:


The plan was originally "as soon as I can turn off the effects of magic items within the area rather than only suppressing spells." It's been broken for so long though, that it's moving higher on the "things to change anyway" list.

Originally, the beholders "blinked", turning off their central eye for a short period of time when they wanted to shoot someone in their front arc, but that was even more obnoxious since it triggered another dispel prematurely when they reopened their eye.

[Lost_Leader]

Any chance we may see Touch Attack required with ray spells? Make a dex based caster a viable build, working with faster ray animations, so dodging isn't so much an issue (player dexterity) as actually having the character being able to dodge (character dexterity.)

I understand and love the fact the DDO has such a player involved combat system, but I still feel that rays should be more like arrows. They still need an attack roll. But for it to be properly done, we need Touch AC.

But, Touch AC seems to already be ingame, as wraiths and other incorporeals seem to use it. Is this true? I have noticed that wraiths will hit my heavily armored fighters without too much of an issue, but by using a mage armor clicky and turning on Combat Expertise, I get hit a lot less.... or am I imagining things.

And if it is already ingame, then couldn't it be implemented in other areas? (If it isn't, I guess this would be a pretty huge endeavor.)

[MysticTheurge]

But, Touch AC seems to already be ingame, as wraiths and other incorporeals seem to use it. Is this true? I have noticed that wraiths will hit my heavily armored fighters without too much of an issue, but by using a mage armor clicky and turning on Combat Expertise, I get hit a lot less.... or am I imagining things.

I think you're imagining things. We've kind of collectively decided on the Forums (with some research from various people whose names I can't recall) that incorporeal creatures just have inflated to-hits and aren't actually using any special kinds of Touch Attack rules. (Which also explains why there's no Ghost Touch armor in DDO.)

Which is all not to say I disagree with you. Touch attacks should definitely be added, for incorps and everyone else.

[Hvymetal]

I think you're imagining things. We've kind of collectively decided on the Forums (with some research from various people whose names I can't recall) that incorporeal creatures just have inflated to-hits and aren't actually using any special kinds of Touch Attack rules. (Which also explains why there's no Ghost Touch armor in DDO.)

Which is all not to say I disagree with you. Touch attacks should definitely be added, for incorps and everyone else.Agreed, and would love to see ref saves added to ray's, much like Niacs.

[BillBob]

Hey Codog,

I know that you guys are pretty busy with the upcoming module but i'd like to mention some ongoing concerns i have with rogue melee combat. (Especially high level or end game content and raids)

Rogues, by the nature of their low hps/saves and BAB, require more strategic positioning when meleeing mobs than fighter-type classes in DDO. Many of you know this but it seems that there are trends in the game that are making it increasingly difficult for rogues to participate successfully in high end and raid content. Here are a couple of observations I've made over the past few months playing my rogue:

Firstly, the perceived increase of mob cone attacks that will hit every enemy in a certain area around a mob. (side effect of addressing safe spots?) These attacks have made it more challenging to maintain a relatively safe melee position around mobs. i.e. DQ Marilith, golems, etc. While i don't mind these types of attacks and think they are appropriate for certain monsters, this can be quite nasty when coupled with my next concern.

The trend toward less predicable mob aggro (AI), especially boss aggro. The increase in unintelligent creatures (golems/undead) and maybe improvements to AI(?) make it more difficult to stay out of the way of these attacks or predict when it is possible to capitalize on flanking/rear attacks.

My last concern is the Trip mechanic. Once the rogue is immobilized they don't last long in a melee setting. Keeping mobile is key to their survivability. Saying this, I wouldn't mind seeing some sort of additional bonus to the trip saving throw tied to imp. evasion or imp. uncanny dodge boost. This could set up a nice niche for rogues :) Tanking air elementals and the like! hahaha (I know it's not PnP but it would be plenty helpful)

As it stands now there is very little need or perceived desire to have rogues participate in high level content in any combat capacity. Rogues do have umd and some range capability but they can be expensive and underpowered respectively. (Especially in DQ and Reaver raids for the above reasons)

Just a couple of concerns and observations!

[Ranmaru2]

thought of another question, but maybe, MT will ninja answer this one: Do Fire Reavers, Ice Flensers, and Flesh Renders use Cleave? I remember doing Threnal and all of the tanks getting hit by 1 swing from a Flesh Render with every other attack...Why is this? Cleave with every other attack or are they considered Glancing Blows?

[MysticTheurge]

Codog,

Re: Spells

Since the Resist Energy and Protection from Energy spells were combined into one spell with multiple options, we've been asking for additional choices for our Summon Monster spells. Originally we were told that the reason it couldn't happen was because there weren't enough options in the game and animating more would be time better spent on "Big bad floaty things" (or something awfully close to that). However, since then, additional monsters that have been added to the game could easily become additions to the summon monster spell at almost every level. For reference, I'm including a list of monsters in the game already, or monsters that could easily share models with other monsters in the game (and thus only have minor stat differences) that could fill the role of additional summons for each tier of spells.

SMI - Fiendish Dire Rat, Fiendish Small Monstrous Scorpion, Fiendish Small Monstrous Spider
SMII - Celestial Riding Dog, Fiendish Wolf, Fiendish Medium Monstrous Spider
SMIII - Any Small Elemental (Earth, Fire, Air),
SMIV - Celestial Lion, Any Mephit (Dozens of these are in the game), Fiendish Dire Wolf,
SMV - Any Medium Elemental (Fire, Air), Bearded Devil (confirmed as being added in Mod 6), Fiendish Large Monstrous Scorpion
SMVI - Celestial Dire Lion, Any Large Elemental (Earth, Fire, Air), Huge Fiendish Monstrous Spider
SMVII - Djinni, Invisible Stalker, Fiendish Huge Monstrous Scorpion
SMVIII - Any Greater Elemental (Earth, Fire, Air), Fiendish Gargantuan Monstrous Spider

And that's just from the SRD, going to other sources (MMII, III, IV and V for instance) might reveal even more possibilities. Plus, with the addition of Eladrin and more Devils in Mod 6 we'll probably be able to expand that list even further. I was also fairly conservative in terms of borrowing models. Shadow Mastiffs (SMV) and Yeth Hounds (SM IV), for instance, could probably readily utilize existing wolf/dog models with minor adjustments.

I realize some potential issues with the Huge and Gargantuan creatures, but honestly, I think most people would be ok with either a) them being really big and just knowing not to summon them in tight places or b) them being smaller with the stats of a creature of the appropriate size.

But those minor size issues aside, I'm really quite confused as to what would be difficult about adding the remainder of these creatures to the summon monster lists. And offering more versatility for casters here would go a long way towards making these spells more useful.

[Hafeal]

Well, if Codog doesn't regret his decision to start this thread already, he might at the end of day 2.

We are at 5 pages already and it will grow. There are a lot of great ideas here and a chart or "list" of some kind would be extremely helpful both for people to see, track and check dev response.

Otherwise, people will post without reading the 100+ posts prior to their because it becomes unreasonable and inefficient to do so.


Hi CoDog,

From your post in the "Newbie" thread (http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=1473502&postcount=34), I can tell you are well aware of how good ideas get lost in information overload and excessive repetitive discussion. Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest impediments to efficiently reporting and prioritizing ideas.

What we need to solve this, is a moderated "Game Suggestions/Complaints" thread... Or better yet if feasible, a chart. Note, it must be moderated. We have had unmoderated threads like this before, but they immediately fill up with repetition, jokes, and 50 page theses on game theory.

People should be able to propose additions, modifications, etc. However, they shouldn't make it into the thread/chart until a moderator decides they add something meaningful enough to warrant putting them in.

This could probably be done with forum technology, or perhaps an outside web-viewable service like Google Spreadsheet. Most importantly, there should be some indication of status... I.e. We haven't even started considering that yet... We like it and hope to do it someday... We are arguing about this internally and will keep you posted... We're working on it... Or in lucky cases, "It's done, send us cupcakes."

I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers to set this up... I would be one for sure. However, I think it would kind of have to be a Dev thing, as there are bound to be disagreements about priority, wording, whether one issue is the same as another, etc.

Do you think this is something you, Q, T, or E would go for?

It could also act as a FAQ about issues... You could go up there and see that something was reported, got a lot of support, but just isn't going to happen because of some technical or time limitation. Thus, less screaming.

[ghale]

This has been brought up before I know but could you please take a look at collision issues regarding moving mobs and players. There are a couple issues:

Currently to hit a moving mob you need to swing ahead of where they actually are. This wasn't too big of an issue before mob AI was changed causing them to move around much more frequently and run away from pc's to reposition themselves to attack again.

Mobs have the ability to hit us from behind or way off to the side of where we actually are. Ogres are one mob notorious for this where they hit you across the room with their 3 hit attack chain due to whatever technical aspect is going on.

As an aside the mob collision is currently why I find casters much more enjoyable to play since you rarely have to chase after anything :).


Also in terms of pets and maybe for suggestion/charm spells could we actually have some control over them? A little pet box where we have at least attack/follow/sit as currently pets are pretty ******** and all over the place in their AI.

[Pellegro]

Wow. Just wow.

This is really an amazing initiative. Unprecedented in MMOs as far as I know.

Cheers to Codog and the rest of the team for sticking their necks out in this way.

I can't think of any intelligent questions now, so I won't ask any.

But thanks again.

[Codog]

Hi CoDog,

From your post in the "Newbie" thread (http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=1473502&postcount=34), I can tell you are well aware of how good ideas get lost in information overload and excessive repetitive discussion. Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest impediments to efficiently reporting and prioritizing ideas.

What we need to solve this, is a moderated "Game Suggestions/Complaints" thread... Or better yet if feasible, a chart. Note, it must be moderated. We have had unmoderated threads like this before, but they immediately fill up with repetition, jokes, and 50 page theses on game theory.

People should be able to propose additions, modifications, etc. However, they shouldn't make it into the thread/chart until a moderator decides they add something meaningful enough to warrant putting them in.

This could probably be done with forum technology, or perhaps an outside web-viewable service like Google Spreadsheet. Most importantly, there should be some indication of status... I.e. We haven't even started considering that yet... We like it and hope to do it someday... We are arguing about this internally and will keep you posted... We're working on it... Or in lucky cases, "It's done, send us cupcakes."

I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers to set this up... I would be one for sure. However, I think it would kind of have to be a Dev thing, as there are bound to be disagreements about priority, wording, whether one issue is the same as another, etc.

Do you think this is something you, Q, T, or E would go for?

It could also act as a FAQ about issues... You could go up there and see that something was reported, got a lot of support, but just isn't going to happen because of some technical or time limitation. Thus, less screaming.

Very well stated. I'll talk to Tolero, Quarion, and Eladrin about this. Internally, there are a lot of processes and procedures in place for prioritizing and processing player requests, ideas, and feedback. Tolero and Quarion are great about bringing forward issues and pointing us to threads that seem important. I love them both for what they do for the dev team. ( even if Quarion wields a spork with my name on it and secretly plans my demise ) Having witnessed some of the goodness that can come from player/dev interaction firsthand, I think we are missing some feedback components that your proposal could solve.

At a high level, I like the idea. I'm super busy and won't be able to respond to other posts until either really late tonight or tomorrow night.

Best regards,

--Codog

PS. Thank you everybody!

[HumanJHawkins]

At a high level, I like the idea.

FYI, I threw together an example from the last few threads I've read... It is here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkdlj6w_RBZKhmekMteYFdw

Of course there are a lot of better ways to do this, but the example above is one of the cheapest and least time consuming...

Finally, I know there are business decisions to be made... If that is not professional enough for Turbine to want to be associated with directly, I am sure volunteers could be rounded up to maintain such a thing... Then Turbine would only have to mine it occasionally for good ideas.

Anyway, I'll drop it for now... Maybe after you guys all talk, you will come up with something way better.

Cheers!

[salmag]

Here goes.

1. Lower manyshot cooldown timer to 20-30 seconds, or make it a toggleable stance. I think it would easier to change the cooldown timer though. This would balance out archer damage and bring it more in line with melee and casters.

2. Make spell school enhancements instead of elemental enhancements. This would allow us to make enchanters, evokers, necromancers, conjurers, etc... If not then allow Wizards to get these enhancements instead of the elementals, and allow Sorcerers to keep the elemental ones. I like the latter idea better. It would also diversify them.

3. I know it would be hard since there technically aren't "Gods" in Eberron, But I would like to see Cleric Domains implemented somehow.

4. I would to see an increase in skills. Climbing, Knowledge [x], Crafting [x], etc... Along with this could be some sort of respec.

5. Different musical instruments for the different abilities at least. Flute for Music of the Makers, Drums for Inspire Courage, etc... If not this then allow the player to pick his instrument for his Bard.

6. Wizards, Sorcerers, and Rangers, need their Familiars and Animal Companions.

This is just a start, but I think the first 3 would be pretty easy to implement; maybe a little harder for the last three.
Thanks

[SableShadow]

Bluff/Improved Feint

Is it feasible to increase the effective duration on bluff/improved feint? At present, one sneak attack is all you get when you get a bluff or imp feint success; could this be extended to match that of the duration of a successful 'of Deception' weapon check (which gives you multiple sneak attacks on one success)?

Way of...

Is it feasible to increase the duration of Showtime from Way of the Thief-Acrobat? 20 seconds isn't very long at all, particularly if you're thowing other buffs as well. Would it be possible to extend this buff to a 1 minute or 2 minute duration? Similarly, could the duration of the Way of the Assassin poison application time be extended?

Thank you very much! :)

[Kindoki]

....when single attack is mapped to another key, the left mouse button still does all the window overlay functions, the new key does not. However, the attack function is still disabled whenever the cursor is over an overlay, even though this is no longer needed or desired. So, you wind up trying to swing your weapon for a couple of seconds before you realize it isn't working, grab the mouse to move the cursor off the hot bar and trying to swing again, only to realize the cursor landed on the quest completion window, or the orb, or the xp bar or something else......


Firstly, thanks for this thread. Top notch idea. Secondly, the quoted above is spot on - it drives me nuts as well. And lastly, could you make it possible to block while in the air, falling or jumping? Really the only reason I want that is to make it possible to tumble while falling or jumping, which would bring some usefulness back to tumble and be cool.

[DNDJESS]

I know one thing this game is missing, and it just doesn't make sense - 2-hand piercing weapons. Will these be added any time soon?

And while we're at it, how about making weapons to allow for an entirely new build: 2 hand finessable weapons?

[Kindoki]

huh, I can tell you don't play clerics. Searing Light's been bugged bad since launch; the spell does the same as you say, PLUS:
has a period of space where the "too far away" message doesn't appear, but the spell doesn't reach the target.
has a period of space where the "target is blocked" message doesn't appear but the spell doesn't reach the target.

(edit: and nimbus of light seems to be based on the same sub-routine)

qft

[Cowdenicus]

Any word yet on cleric Domains????

[CrazySamaritan]

Here goes.

1. Lower manyshot cooldown timer to 20-30 seconds, or make it a toggleable stance. I think it would easier to change the cooldown timer though. This would balance out archer damage and bring it more in line with melee and casters.

2. Make spell school enhancements instead of elemental enhancements. This would allow us to make enchanters, evokers, necromancers, conjurers, etc... If not then allow Wizards to get these enhancements instead of the elementals, and allow Sorcerers to keep the elemental ones. I like the latter idea better. It would also diversify them.

3. I know it would be hard since there technically aren't "Gods" in Eberron, But I would like to see Cleric Domains implemented somehow.

4. I would to see an increase in skills. Climbing, Knowledge [x], Crafting [x], etc... Along with this could be some sort of respec.

5. Different musical instruments for the different abilities at least. Flute for Music of the Makers, Drums for Inspire Courage, etc... If not this then allow the player to pick his instrument for his Bard.

6. Wizards, Sorcerers, and Rangers, need their Familiars and Animal Companions.

This is just a start, but I think the first 3 would be pretty easy to implement; maybe a little harder for the last three.
Thanks
1) Might be balance issues: ranged combat's getting a boost next mod, dunno how much of it might affect Manyshot.
2) BAD idea. The evocation and enchantment schools are the only ones of any real showing in-game. Part of specialization is giving up other schools, but why would you mind giving up those spells?
3) THERE ARE GODS! Cijeorge worships the Traveler, Stat of SWORD-III prays for the future of WF in general, and I'm considering a Silver Flame character, too. Check the Eberron Campaign Setting if you don't know the portfolio of the gods.
4) What could you use climbing for? Knowledge? Crafting? (the correct cost/time should make it more efficient to quest than craft, and there's a need for a table to customize any armour/weapons you want to make, why not simply include that in crafting Magical items instead of a skill?)
5) Yes, new instruments would be nice. I don't like lutes every time. (especially without El Kabong)
6) would be nice, aye. Mite concerned about the lag, but I'll put up with it.

[GramercyRiff]

Yes, Domains. Any word good or bad about Domains would be nice. It's the Clerics birthright to be overpowered because of Domains.:p Not that Clerics need any help.

Also, to continue advocating bolstering summon/calling spells, are Planar Binding/Ally spells ever gonna see the light of day? We'll have plenty of outsiders and elementals to call when Mod 6 comes out I'm sure. The Ally line wouldn't be that hard, as there could be a platinum price along with the calling. The Binding line does complicate things a bit, but potentially unwilling summons/creations already exist with Create Undead. The callings (and summons) could also be boosted by an enhancement line that makes summons/callings more powerful and tougher like the feats Augment Summoning, Greenbound Summoning, Ashbound Summoning, and Rashemi Elemtental Summoning or prestige classes like the Nar Demonbinder do. Then again, this might be too much work for classes that are already very effective, but more character options only make the game better.

I know you're a very busy man Codog (we all thank you and admire you for your passion and devotion to this game we love despite our sometimes negative critiques; it's only to push to make this game better and achieve its vast potential) but any word on the vision for improving summons would be nice, even if that means you're not gonna work on summons for now, as there are many more important things to improve. The spellcasters work just fine with what they got after all, but summoning will open a new door to their vast versatility. If you need to work on the other classes (paladin, rogue) that's understandable of course. I know you're inundated with questions as well, but please keep up this amazing work you do, it's great for this game.

Speaking of floods, will some of the awol tricky iconic spells like Mirror Image, Levitate, Blink, Evard's Black Tentacles, Contingency (this might be hard), Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment, Fly (lol), the Prismatic line, Reverse Gravity, Righteous Might, Wall of Force, Forcecage, or heaven help us Polymorph ever show up?

Thank you for your time.

[Codog]

Well, if Codog doesn't regret his decision to start this thread already, he might at the end of day 2.


Never! YAR!

--Codog

[barecm]

Issues on current content:

1) Ranger companions
2) Wizard Familiars
3) Many shot made a stance (maybe a -4 to hit)


Upcoming Changes Issues:

Deepwood sniper: make this a stance instead of a click to use. I cannot see clicking a button or hitting a hotkey every 10 seconds as user friendly... or fun.

Item damage on death: Definitely a bad idea.
Item binding: Good idea. However, if you give an option to bind, give an option to unbind as well. Maybe I find a better item and want to trade or sell or transfer the one I was using. Pigeon-holing players only leads to folks being upset and when folks get upset...

[Codog]

Any word yet on cleric Domains????

Although cleric domains are something I would really like to implement, it is not in the nearsy future. For module 7 there is a feature that will be swallowing the character team whole. We also still need to backfill a lot of normal spells for clerics and the other classes before we make domains a priority. When we do get around to it, I want to be sure that we do a proper job of it and have allocated time for the special fx we need to get the job done. 9 spells (some of which are already done) x N domains is a lot of character work and art to be created. This task also includes some UI work and spell book back end support. I would anticipate some content support as well to create every domain flavor of NPC trainer or some special shrines where you pray for your domains to be granted to you.

Best regards,

Codog

[Cold_Stele]

Hi Codog, I'd like to request that the following enhancement be considered -

Fighter Power Attack I-III (would have the same cost/level requirements as Barb PA enhancement) - Offensive Ftrs rely heavily on PA too, furthermore PA is a Ftr Bonus Feat. This enhancement, although unique to Barbs as a class, is available to all Warforged so is not strictly a Barb only enhancement.

This reasoning for this came about from this monster of a thread http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=128889&page=26 where the question of Barb enhancements being superior to Ftrs' was debated. The Ftr PA Enhancement would hopefully help to close the gulf in DPS between the classes a little (although a Ftr will never get anywhere Barbs' crit damage, with crit ranges of 19-20 with a greataxe, as opposed to 17-20) without interfering with the Barb's enhancements, particularly Critical Rage, in any way.

This would also more closely duplicate PnP, as the to hit penlaty in DDO caps at 5, rather than your full BAB as in PnP.

Should be extremely easy to code too.

Thanks for listening.

[Cowdenicus]

Although cleric domains are something I would really like to implement, it is not in the nearsy future. For module 7 there is a feature that will be swallowing the character team whole. We also still need to backfill a lot of normal spells for clerics and the other classes before we make domains a priority. When we do get around to it, I want to be sure that we do a proper job of it and have allocated time for the special fx we need to get the job done. 9 spells (some of which are already done) x N domains is a lot of character work and art to be created. This task also includes some UI work and spell book back end support. I would anticipate some content support as well to create every domain flavor of NPC trainer or some special shrines where you pray for your domains to be granted to you.

Best regards,

Codog


You are so getting a christmas gamer shirt............

This is the best information I have heard in months.

[MysticTheurge]

For module 7 there is a feature that will be swallowing the character team whole.

Let the speculation begin!

(I'm thinking he means monks. :D)

[thatguy]

Howdy and welcome to the Dog House.

This is Codog's personal thread on the forums where you can come hang out and talk to Codog about combat, character classes, spells, and abilities in the game. I would like everyone to follow some simple guidelines when posting so that we can keep the thread constructive.

Please be respectful of others who are posting here. I'm not interested in reading long debates, arguments, or personal attacks on each other. These kinds of interactions waste time that could be spent evaluating somebody's ideas. If you see an idea you disagree with, post an alternate idea rather than debating its merit or defacing its originator.
Please be respectful to the development team in your posts. I consider the DDO team to be some of my best friends and it is very difficult to see the merit and creative genius of a post if I'm personally frustrated with its author. I understand that many of you are passionate ( and/or angry ) about the game and want to have your voices heard. The best way to convey messages to us is in the form of crisp factual posts.
I will be reading every post that is made on this thread. However, I do not have time to respond to every post or question on this thread. I will mostly be reading and responding to the thread on my own time so as to not impact my scheduled deliverables at work.
Feel free to bring up bugs/problems you have noticed. Keep in mind that my primary area of responsibility in the game is surrounding combat and character abilities. I won't be much help when it comes to content/quest issues. When reporting problems, I would very much appreciate relevent information to reproduce the problem. If it is location specific, please use the /location command and post the location and what quest you happened to be on at the time.
Small evolutionary change that can be completed in shorter stretches of time is more readily achieveable for us than large _revolutionary_ change. Revolutionary change can be rather destabilizing from an engineering and balance perspective.
Finally, please keep in mind that I am unable to disclose too much information about the future of this product. That job belongs to marketing. Quarion is hiding in the breakroom with a True Law Spork of Greater Codog Bane (sprinkled with soy sauce), poised to spork me if I miscommunicate our direction or purpose. From time to time, you will get some glimpses of what I'm currently working on through our conversations.I feel very privileged to be a developer of this product. I feel that having a feedback mechanism from you, the customer, is valuable when we are making decisions. There have been many times that a forum post has been brought to a game systems meeting for discussion and debate. I'm very impressed with the maturity of this audience and moreso with your willingness to contribute your ideas about the game. I can speak for the team when I say that we all have a common goal here which is making the game better over time. Let's communicate and help each other do just that!

Best regards,

Codog

This is an awesome gesture and long over due IMHO. Much appreciation on your efforts to listen and take into consideration the opinions of the community.

[tekn0mage]

You are so getting a christmas gamer shirt............

This is the best information I have heard in months.

Was just thinking the same thing, breath of fresh air here...

[Coldin]

For module 7 there is a feature that will be swallowing the character team whole.

Well that piqued my curiosity. No chance of hearing anything about that until sometime in March though is there?

[Kalanth]

New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.

Aside from Mod 6 brining us the Demon War, which I am all sorts of excited about, I honestly could care less about new monsters. I have wanted to make a double bladed warrior for the longest time and have had to settle on the quarterstaff because I doubt I will ever see it. However, a good point was made. The pole arms might need a series of thrusting animations, sure, but double bladed swords and maces really don't need anything more than a skin placed over the quarterstaff animations. It would look just as good, and you would only have to adjust where the hands of the character come into contact with the weapon.

On a side not, now that I think about it, with the introduction of Prestige Classes via enhancments (Arcane Archer, Deepwood Sniper, etc) when will we start to see other PrC's for the other classes? Combat medic from Heroes of Battle or Rage Mage from Complete Arcane leap to mind (I could be wrong on the book for Rage Mage). Are there any other enhancement chain Prestige Classes in the works?

[MysticTheurge]

Rage Mage from Complete Arcane leap to mind (I could be wrong on the book for Rage Mage).

Complete Warrior.

Not that it matters. ;)

[Mad_Bombardier]

For module 7 there is a feature that will be swallowing the character team whole.


Well that piqued my curiosity. No chance of hearing anything about that until sometime in March though is there?Ack! :eek:

[MysticTheurge]

Ack! :eek:

Hey! You didn't quote me!


Let the speculation begin!

(I'm thinking he means monks. :D)

[Altarboy]

Codog,

Since you are starting a fresh thread, I figured I would come in with a few things that could (hopefully are) simple 'fixes' to things that have long been bugs/issues, that hopefully you can shed some light on.

1) Ranged Combat "Queue": Ranged weapons allow an attack queue, that can create some difficult circumstances. Can we please either have No Action Queue, or a Clear Action Queue on Reload (Specifically thinking of Repeaters for the second option). There is nothing worse than having your Bow user locked into 2-3 more shots when you need to switch to a wand, or just the wasted arrows, because the mob went down too quickly.

2) Currently Opened Quest Difficulty Display: This has been around since Beta. We zone into a quest on Elite, but someone coming up to the door opens the Portal UI and it displays Normal. Happens all the time, and causes confusion.

3) A Reminder when you open a Portal UI if you are not currently active on this quest. This will save so much frustration and problems if someone forgets to talk to Marek (VON's), or to talk to Hargo/Bruku/Archibishop twice (Delera's/GreyMoon/Catacombs) and not completely forward the quest, resulting in missing out on rewards, or worse, not actually queuing for a later quest or Raid. A Simple Pop-Up Error Message (like the existing error messages display) upon activation of a Portal UI if you are not actively on the quest you are trying to enter.

4) Inventory Slot-Locking. Please, some type of system to lock Inventory Items into one specific spot in your inventory. Maybe assign on Locking an item, that item will return to the last manually selected slot upon de-equip. I have noticed that the usual behavior is that say youare sword-and-board, and switch to a scroll. The weapon you were wielding takes the Scroll's old spot, and if you re-equip the same weapon, the scroll switches back, causing them to go back to where they were. However, if you use an Item Set, then whatever is replaced out of your hands will go back to the 1st bag. This is very annoying. Some way to lock items into spots, and allowing Weapon Sets to swap spots instead of dropping back into the 1st bad.

5) More than 10 Toolbars. With the necessity of carrying multiple weapons and items and potions and scrolls and Feat abilities and Enhancement Abilities, 10 toolbars isn't enough anymore. Can we please get 12-15 or more?

6) Character Select Screen re-ordering. Newer rolled characters used to go to the bottom of the list, now they go to the top. Can we please be allowed to re-order them... or order them by Level (Decending) and then Name (Ascending)?

7) Teleporter gates: Can we please get them added to the Necropolis & Gianthold?

8) Gems - Some way to sell them for a decent price? 10% is just not worth picking them up for, since there is no Broker to get more pp for them, nor is there any in-game use. Or multiply the base price by 5x or 10x, so that they are worth the inventory space and Gem Bag?

9) Allow Bow-and-Arrow combination for Weapon Sets? Let me select my Greater Giant Bane bow with my Giant Slaying Arrows as a Weapon Set... or my Fire Bow with Acid Arrows to go Troll hunting... or my Greater Construct Bane Bow with Adamantine Arrows for Golems, and the like.

That's all I can think of for the moment!

::blinkblink::What a great post!.....yeah do what this guy said!

[Ranmaru2]

I asked Eladrin basically this (though I also asked about changing their anti-magic to be a suppression instead of a dispel) and his answer was:

I'm glad we're both in agreement that Beholders need to be fixed :D

[Aesop]

Sorry I haven't posted sooner ;) I will try to come up with a few things to add to the discussion here at a leter point... unfortuantely I havve become addicted to Desktop Tower Defense and can't seem to make myself stop playing it... please help me.

Aesop

[Hafeal]

Thanks for the quick set-up Human - I was going to do the same thing. Are you going to update this spreadsheet?


FYI, I threw together an example from the last few threads I've read... It is here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkdlj6w_RBZKhmekMteYFdw

Of course there are a lot of better ways to do this, but the example above is one of the cheapest and least time consuming...

Finally, I know there are business decisions to be made... If that is not professional enough for Turbine to want to be associated with directly, I am sure volunteers could be rounded up to maintain such a thing... Then Turbine would only have to mine it occasionally for good ideas.

Anyway, I'll drop it for now... Maybe after you guys all talk, you will come up with something way better.

Cheers!

[Altarboy]

The thing I would really like to see is random trap placement in quests as well as random chest placement random encounters....not respawns but random. As it is now the uber super elite players learn the quest. They figure out where everything is and run it over and over till it's boring, if it's random they wouldn't be able to master a quest in a week and it might hold interest a little longer for them and it would make rogues a necesity. I don't have a rogue but it seems like a wasted class...most players play them as fighters or rangers and do the occasional trap or locked chest.
sorry bout the rambleing

[Sutek]

Thanks for doing this Codog. It gives me a warm fuzzy knowing that someone at Turbine really cares about the game and wants to make it better.

I do have a pet peeve bug that has been driving me crazy.

Sometimes when I click my toolbar icon for barbarian rage the cooldown timer starts and the rage animation and sound effects are triggered but the actual barbarian rage effect is not activated and it does not use a barbarian rage use for the day. This is an intermittent problem that seems to be tied to lag. If you could somehow make it so the cooldown timer only starts if the rage effect is activated would be awesome. The misfire wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have to wait a minute before trying to use it again while my rage potion timer is running out.

[Ustice]

Going to what HumanJHawkins said, I think that there is a better way to do this. Why not have a bug repository that we can access. Any proposed features could be added in, and any bugs could be logged. All bug repositories have a status as well. There are some great free ones as well (bugzilla comes to mind). With a simple install, we can get a lot of use out of it, and really help yall out in your quest to make the Ultimate DDO Experience (or something like that).

[lethal413]

every time i see this post title it makes me think of dog the bounty hunter haha get some!:p

[HumanJHawkins]

Thanks for the quick set-up Human - I was going to do the same thing. Are you going to update this spreadsheet?

I'll try to update it every couple of days or so, until a better method is found... The trouble is that there is a great deal of opinion that goes into such a thing, and I really don't want to force my opinions onto everyone else. Anyway, yes. I'll do it until either people start hating me :D, or a better system is made.

I'll try to get the great post from Dworkin in later today... But I have work to do first. Dooh!

[Kalanth]

Complete Warrior.

Not that it matters. ;)

I was in the right series. :D

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Continuing with a list of small-to-medium items, that could make for some great improvements in the game.

10) Implement additional ", Mass" Spells, such as Resist Energy, Protection from Energy, Jump, Blur, etc.
A significant amount of time is often wasted with handing out buffs at the beginning of each quest, or after each shrine, or at the appropriate door. Game time could be streamlined by implementation of more Mass Spells. For example, as a Cleric I carried Shield of Faith and Protection from Evil, but rarely handed them out, except to those who requested it, or I knew needed it. However, now with the Mass versions of these spells, I always give out Shield of Faith, Mass, and Magic Circle Against Evil, because they are Mass. I probably spend MORE spell points on mass buffs then I would giving them individually, but it saves time and effort, and allows the party to get questing faster. Specifically though, the Resist Energy and Protection from Energy would be significant time savers.

11) Ability to "Hot-Key" Spells with Pre-Set Metamagics.
I know this has been brought up before, but maybe this can afford another look. While DDO spellcasting is quite different from PnP, there are similarities. For example, as a Sorcerer, I would rarely ever want to cast a Wall of Fire without Extend, but Empower & Maximize are situational. Why not allow us to create a Extend+Wall of Fire button on the toolbar. Or a Heighten+PK, or Max+Emp+WoF... It would simplify spellcasting, and bring it closer to PnP at the same time. Now, if balance is a concern, and the main hang-up is that it eliminates the time it takes to reset your Metamagics, then treat it like a Macro instead (Enable Extend, Cast Wall of Fire), or (Enable Heighten, Enable Empower, Enable Maximize, Cast Disintegrate) or whatever. It would require a quick logic state check:
- Check State: Extend Spell. If Metamagic.Extend=Enabled then CastSpell.WallOfFire, else EnableMetamagic.Extend

12) Alternate display/hotbar for Spells
As another option to enabling additional hotbars, would be to add some type of Spell Hot-bar, that would allow quick access to all currently memorized/prepared spells. I am thinking something more along the lines of the Spell Tab in the Character Sheet, where you can see all the spells, by Spell Level, in an orderly fashion, where you could then cast from. Also, the Spell Hotbar from Neverwinter Nights comes to mind. Would it be possible to have some type of hotbar that listed the spells, just like the Spells Tab in the Character sheet, that can be a semi-transparent, floating object, that can be cast from?

13) Shield Blocking & Bashing
I believe it was mentioned earlier, but just to reiterate. Currently, if you are holding a Wand or a Scroll in one hand, and a shield in the other, you cannot Shield Block or Shield Bash (or at least, there is no animation for Shield Blocking, and block+attack makes empty-handed attacks). This is very important for Clerics, as we need to use our Blocking AC and DR, without losing the ability to heal from Wands & Scrolls. I believe it is some weapon-attack-selection-flag on Scrolls and Wands that force Bare-Handed Attack & Block Routines, instead of Sword-and-Board Attack and Block Routines

14) Balancing of Enemy Mob Speed
It appears that most Mobs in DDO can run as fast as they want, up to a point. This is somewhat imbalanced. As a test last night, I took my Barbarian into a few quests, with 25% striders on, and I could not outrun or run-down most of the mobs (especially Wraiths/Specters/incorporael undead), without using a Speed Boost or Haste. Each Monster type has a fixed base speed, that appears to not be implemented, in most cases, and causes a lot of frustration for players. Given that losing Aggro is extremely hard to do, without Bluff/Diplomacy, and we can't outrun the mobs without Speed Boost (that only Barbarians and Rangers get) or Haste, which is nearly impossible to cast if you are being chased, but can be quaffed in a potion, it makes it extremely difficult to re-setup the party to deal with mobs. Also, given the newer AI, it is nearly impossible to run-down an enemy mob one it gets moving, let alone hit it on the move, I think some re-balancing in terms of base speed is needed

15) Blade Barrier Overlapping
There appears to be a bug with multiple Blade Barriers that overlap/touch each other. If you setup two or more Blade Barriers that overlap, it appears that only the LAST BB cast will actually enforce it's "barrier" and cause damage. A good place to test this is the "Ambush" at the beginning of Tor (the Gianthold Pre-Raid). Try setting up 3-5 overlapping, Extended BB's (think of the Olympic Rings pattern), then pull the Giants into it. Only one of the BB's will actually cause damage. I have not tested sufficiently to see if different players' BB's do the same thing, but I can test and verify that multiple BB's cast by one person do behave in this manner. As other overlapping AoE damage spells (ie. Wall of Fire) work properly, Blade Barrier should be fixed to all work properly.

16) Heal Skill
The Heal skill is another one of those skills that is becoming less-and-less useful as the game progresses. Given the inflated Hit Points or DDO PC's vs. PnP, I think the Heal formula needs to be revisted and boosted (or a Level-Scaling boost), such that maxing out your Heal & Wisdom & Item (ie 17 Ranks, 30 Wisdom, +13 item) should fully heal up a party when shrining, or at least close to it. I tested this recently with my Paladin (11Pal/2Rog/1Fgt) with 330 Hit Points. I had just died, and got a Raise Dead, so I had less than 30 hit points. The Cleric stood next to me with 40 Heal (17 Ranks + 10 Wisdom Bonus + 13 Item), and I was not fully healed from shrining... let alone the 450+ Hit point Dwarf Barbarian shrining next to me. One alternate option would be to add a skill synergy such that putting ranks in Heal give a passive "Improved Recovery" bonus to yourself. For example, each rank in Heal add +1% to received Cure Spells

17) Balance Checks
This is another oddity... Trip effects go against your Strength or Dexterity Bonus (whichever is higher), yet saves against the Trip once you have already fallen are against your Balance Skill. Would it not make more sense for the Trip Attempt to be vs. your Balance Skill (Ranks + Str + Item) just as the save to get back up from a fail vs. Trip. This would make the saves vs. Trip all the same, just like vs. other Spells (ie Hold Person is vs. Will Save to initially Save, then against will to break free at each save roll). It appears that Mobs are using a Balance Skill vs. our Trip attempts (otherwise how can you explain the low success rate of trips vs. many mobs), so why not "Balance" it for us (pun intended).

18) Tumble Spell
Jump, a very similar skill-spell, scales with Character Level. Should not Tumble do the same?

19) Mimics & Trapped Chests!
I would dearly love to see Mimics added to the game. Imagine everyone running up to a Chest, trying to open it, and BOOM! It animates, jumps up, and starts beating down the party! Or open the Chest and it had a bomb inside it, dealing 25d6 damage and destroying the contents of the chest! And make it random, which ones are mimics and which ones are trapped!

20) Pay on Delivery vs. Pay on Click
Barbarian Rage, Scrolls, Wands, Spells... these are all things that should be coded like Lay on Hands for Pay on Delivery vs the current Pay on Activate. Try running Ghosts of Perdition, and try to use a Wand or a Scroll when fighting Doomsphere. If he turns towards you anytime during the Scroll animation, you will fail due to the AntiMagic Field, and the scroll will be "used"... same with casting a spell. Now, I can understand for a failed Concentration Check, but not for Anti-Magic Fields. Barbarian Rage should REALLY be PoD vs. PoA. If you click your Barbarian Rage, and accidentally move before the game decides the entire animation and "casting" or Rage is complete, it 'costs' you that rage AND it activates the cooldown timer. The Cooldown Timer should not be invoked in these cases... same with trying to cast a wand/scroll/spell in an Anti-Magic Field. If you fail due to a Concentration/UMD/ASF/CasterLevel Check (ie. anything that requires a d20 roll), then I can understand the scroll/wand usage charge taken and the cooldown initiated... but if you are prevented due to Anti-Magic, or something like that, there should be no SP usage/Wand or Scroll Usage/Cooldown Initiation.


I think that is all for today! :D:D:D

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

I'll try to update it every couple of days or so, until a better method is found... The trouble is that there is a great deal of opinion that goes into such a thing, and I really don't want to force my opinions onto everyone else. Anyway, yes. I'll do it until either people start hating me :D, or a better system is made.

I'll try to get the great post from Dworkin in later today... But I have work to do first. Dooh!

LOL.. thanks!

If you want, I can take care of this. During the week, at work, I don't have much else to do, so I am willing to maintain a spreadsheet of ideas... I've done this as part of my job in the past as well!

[MysticTheurge]

I was in the right series. :D

I only know off the top of my head cause I just wrote it up for my Unofficial Prestige-Class-as-Enhancement Compendium (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=128090).

[D'rin]

There are a lot of good things happening with the upcoming module. A few tweeks.
Spells: the more base spells that can be added the better.

Dead woods sniper: How about making the increased crit range and modifier permanent. More like barb crit rage but since it is only a +1 leave it on permenantly. This would allow for much better ranger dps, espescially with the increase to hit rate.

Tempest: Good the way it is but I would really like to know how much of an attack speed boost. To see if giving up 3 feats is worth it.

Arcane Archer: Where are the exploding arrows. It would be really cool to have the ability to make fireball arrows. I believe this is still a feature of the arcane archer. Its been awhile since I played PnP D&D.

Double ended weapons: Wouldn't they be able to use the same attack animation as quarterstaffs. If so these should be fairly easy to implent.

Familiars: Is part of the problem that with all the animal companions and familiars running around you add that many more animations in a zone, ergo more lag issues and slower performance?? If so I would rather have a smooth running game then an animal friend that gets one shoted by kobolds. Unless you made them scale properly.

Thanks Codog for the thread and the really good communication

D'rin

[totmacher]

Hey Codog,

This might not be in the scope of things you do but I really have no idea who to address this to, so here goes.

Collectables: will these things be abandoned over time? There are no collectable emplacements in the Gianthold or Orchard modules. Were these things meant to be temporary, for low-level (1-10)? Will we ever see a re-vamp of collectables, maybe rolled into crafting? (Collectables as crafting components)

Breakables: Similarly, like collectables, you're giving us more of a reason to break stuff in quests with the new Mod 6 Khyber Dragonshards. But will we ever see a very high-end reason to break things? Like say 0.1% chance of quest_level loot, unique items (candy canes, nothing too fancy), troll underpants and craftable components or something like that.

P.S. I love crafting :)

[KaKa]

This is a bug in my queue and I hope to fix it in the future. It turns out that potion drinking actions have a "self only" designation coded into the action. Drinking a potion was one of the earliest actions coded in the game and needs a bit of rework. The "funnel-able" potions was a clever workaround our treasure designer attempted to overcome this problem without us having to rewrite the potion drinking action. Turns out that he used a similar pathway to wands and scrolls and rage prohibits these types of actions. It is on my radar. However, a lot of other fixes have taken priority over this one.

Regards,

Codog

An acceptable compromise instead of having to wait for another mod to fix a mod 4ish problem is to add back in non funneled potions. I can't imagine it would be that hard to have 2 typed of restore potions one with a funnel and one without. Because really this should be of very high priority.

And thank you so much for being the first person of importance to actually reply about this bug.

[Codog]

You are so getting a christmas gamer shirt............

This is the best information I have heard in months.

I tell him no to the feature he wants and *poof* I'm getting a shirt for Christmas?

I soooo confused!

--Codog

[Barumar]

I tell him no to the feature he wants and *poof* I'm getting a shirt for Christmas?

I soooo confused!

--Codog

Well you have NO idea what it will say yet! :D

[D'rin]

I tell him no to the feature he wants and *poof* I'm getting a shirt for Christmas?

I soooo confused!

--Codog

Its the fact that you are actually working on it and trying to get it right than push it up just to appease the masses. I think you never now with Cowdenicus

[Wizzly_Bear]

dear codog,

since youre involved in...


combat, character classes, spells, and abilities in the game

i would like to request the following (or info on the following as you find out any, please :D )

***more combat oriented feats, especially monkey grip

***prestige classes, specifically mystic theurge

***more spells, specifically, as many as y'all can get in

***and for our abilities to be a little more useful throughout the content without having to have the best gear. nothing major, but i think that the high end content is a little too 'beat it to death or finger it'.

i really enjoy the game and am fully aware that you are all working hard (some more than others ;) ), but i just wanted to take this opportunity to say that i hope it keeps moving forward and to let you know what one person would like to see in the future. there are a great many other things i would like to see as well, but they didnt fit into your description of what you do. theyve all been said many times before, but just in case the guy next to you is the one to talk about this, let him know i am also eagerly anticipating crafting (which i hear is coming in the mod) :D oh, one other that i just though of while turning in my collectibles....can we get some kind of option to sell those to vendors? not for a lot of money, obviously, but its quite annoying to have to constantly clean the worthless ones out of your inventory one at a time. id be happy with 1 copper a piece really, i just would like to see a faster way to clean out the ones i dont want.

again, thanks for the great game and hard work. keep it up, and thank you for your time.

wizzly bear, and draco(s) heal, snipe, sorc, pal, rouge, rage, fight, and sing, khyber server.

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

I went ahead and compiled all of the actual REQUESTS from this thread into a Google Spreadsheet for easy viewing.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pid4TO8jdInZyyID3g553Mg&hl=en

There were a few I left out, as they were not actual requests.
Additionally, there were several people requesting the same thing, so I chose what I personally felt as the most descriptive and detailed request and included that into the spreadsheet. There were a few times that I merged a couple of people's ideas into one entry as well. I am doing this for Codog and the Devs to make it easier to view, sort, and respond... not for individual glory.

Hope this helps.

[MysticTheurge]

Collectables: will these things be abandoned over time? There are no collectable emplacements in the Gianthold or Orchard modules. Were these things meant to be temporary, for low-level (1-10)? Will we ever see a re-vamp of collectables, maybe rolled into crafting? (Collectables as crafting components)

I think you kind of answered your own question here.

Both Gianthold and the Orchard have alternative "collectible" systems that are geared towards higher levels.

[MysticTheurge]

I tell him no to the feature he wants and *poof* I'm getting a shirt for Christmas?

I soooo confused!

I think it was actually that you didn't say "No" or just ignore the question. You said "Probably not any time soon, but we're looking at it."

[Perceval418]

Say what??

Ok, so what happens when you die and recall?

You lose 100% of your xp?

[DaveyCrockett]

Is the Stun effect being looked into?

Currently if you eat a Kargon's Tasty Ham, you stand there stunned but able to continnue attacking, drinking pots, etc. (like the old web bug)
The same thing happens when you are stunned by an enemy.

Will stun actually be effective against us in Mod 6?

Thanks CD


-DfC

[MysticTheurge]

Currently if you eat a Kargon's Tasty Ham, you stand there stunned but able to continnue attacking, drinking pots, etc. (like the old web bug)
The same thing happens when you are stunned by an enemy.

I reported something similar with Daze that gets cast in Cerulean Hills while testing Mod 4 on Risia. :-\

[Missing_Minds]

I tell him no to the feature he wants and *poof* I'm getting a shirt for Christmas?

I soooo confused!

--Codog

The gamer shirt will be pink, which means you'll have Rowenheal chasing after you to rip it off, at which point I hope your wife is understanding about having another woman rip off your clothing. Then again she may have puppies which would make your daughter happy. ;)

[Gratch]

Codog, what form of payment do your require to upside-smack Graal for doing this:

Insurrection - +5 Great Axe, Construct Bane, Shatter +10

NO ADAMANTINE???? Does Graal BLT without Bacon? Serve Pie sans the whip? Take his coffee without the caf? Read fortune cookies without adding "in bed" to the end???

Pulled this last night... very sad for Great Axe users that this is our named item.

P.S: Maybe just launch a nerf cannonball into his cube.

[MysticTheurge]

P.S: Maybe just launch a nerf cannonball into his cube.

Careful, you might end up hitting a bunch of items by mistake and nerfing them all! :eek:

[RemoJr]

Any idea on if clerics will be able to rebuke undead eventually? Perhapes it could be an enhancement, like DV or DH.

[HumanJHawkins]

I went ahead and compiled all of the actual REQUESTS from this thread into a Google Spreadsheet for easy viewing. http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pid4TO8jdInZyyID3g553Mg&hl=en
<CUT>

Cool man. It looks like you have more time than me for this. I'm happy to let you carry the torch. But there are a couple of problems with your spreadsheet (that can be easily solved I think). There needs to be an easy way to separate the clearly desired requests from the ones under debate. And, there needs to be a way to get the more important ones to the top.

That's what the "Love" and "Hate" columns in my spreadsheet were about... How much love has the idea gotten on the forums? How much hate? For example, the request to change the Raid end loot would have a very high value in both of these columns, because there are a lot of people who love, and a lot of other people who hate these suggestions. Thus, in my opinion, any requested change to raid loot would be a high controversy item that should not be allowed to distract from issues that we all agree on.

For example, something like warning users about starting a quest without being at the right stage... Just about everyone was totally for that, and almost no one chimed in to say that, "No, I actually like finishing the VONS without getting credit for it." So this should be at the top of the list without controversial requests distracting from it.

At minimum, there should be a priority column that has all of this thought behind it. Or if you want the data visible, you could do something like the "Love"/"Hate" columns from my spreadsheet. Then, sort the thing to have the high priority/easy ones at the top.

My 2 centavos.

Cheers!

[Hvymetal]

I have no idea if this should go here but here goes anyways, so the recent thread to give Rangers faster movement while sneaking got me thinking (no I am not against this it makes perfect sense), would it maybe also be possible to give Rogues an improved crit line of enhancements? Perhaps as part of Way of The Assasain.

To me this makes sense, a Rogue attempts to hit Weak vulnerable spots in a foe, hence sneak attack. Wouldn't it make sense with improved training they would hit vulnerable areas more reliably and more devestatingly?

[Cold_Stele]

I went ahead and compiled all of the actual REQUESTS from this thread into a Google Spreadsheet for easy viewing.

Excellent spreadsheet.

Very good of you to take the trouble to produce that.

Many thanks (and to you too HumanJ for starting the ball rolling).

[Kerr]

Any idea on if clerics will be able to rebuke undead eventually? Perhapes it could be an enhancement, like DV or DH.

If it's like Turn Undead, then it stops working after Delara's. Why would you want to though, since it just means that you'd be able to make them cower or control them? If you want to control them, there's a great set of Wizard spells. Rebuke would be a waste of development time.

[MysticTheurge]

If it's like Turn Undead, then it stops working after Delara's. Why would you want to though, since it just means that you'd be able to make them cower or control them? If you want to control them, there's a great set of Wizard spells. Rebuke would be a waste of development time.

Uh... wizard spells aren't exactly available to clerics on a regular basis.

[CrazySamaritan]

Uh... wizard spells aren't exactly available to clerics on a regular basis.

You being one of the named exceptions....

[MysticTheurge]

You being one of the named exceptions....

Ha! Indeed.

[Codog]

I know you're a very busy man Codog (we all thank you and admire you for your passion and devotion to this game we love despite our sometimes negative critiques; it's only to push to make this game better and achieve its vast potential) but any word on the vision for improving summons would be nice, even if that means you're not gonna work on summons for now, as there are many more important things to improve. The spellcasters work just fine with what they got after all, but summoning will open a new door to their vast versatility. If you need to work on the other classes (paladin, rogue) that's understandable of course. I know you're inundated with questions as well, but please keep up this amazing work you do, it's great for this game.

Speaking of floods, will some of the awol tricky iconic spells like Mirror Image, Levitate, Blink, Evard's Black Tentacles, Contingency (this might be hard), Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment, Fly (lol), the Prismatic line, Reverse Gravity, Righteous Might, Wall of Force, Forcecage, or heaven help us Polymorph ever show up?

Thank you for your time.

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

[Fahkrin]

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

OMG, my bad day got better, just from this image




We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

Codog, I have to say "Thank You" for this type of response. I was getting irritated at no druids yet, but now that I see the problems you have to solve to get them into the game I understand why they're taking so long.

Thank you for taking the time to keep this thread up.

[Coldin]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

Codog, you're the greatest. I've been trying to get a dev response on pets for some time now, and it's great to finally hear something back about it.

I know you said you wouldn't want to do a quick fix, but couldn't a summoned creature simply use the tech you use to tether creatures out in the wilderness areas? Or would that require a significant rewrite in how the code works?

[craythegray]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

About time for some honest debate. Thanks Cdog. Now if you could get the folks responsible for the upcoming item perma damage change to come out and be honest I would sing your praises from on top of the reaver's head.


Thanks for this awsome breath of fresh (and true air)

Cray

[sgmalice]

I just wanted to say first and foremost that the devs here at DDO make the devs at "Blizzard" look like a bunch of apes on an old XT. Even though WoW's got that addicting enviroment (sorry to say), their development and community-feedback is horrible and I find Blizzard employees to be very arrogant and ignorant when it comes to providing a product to their users, rather than creating "their" product for the users. In short the product(s) should (for the most part) be based on what the users desire, as they're the ones consuming it. Blizzard (and I won't rant too much futher on this) doesn't have a clue how to create a balanced "class" engine as when they tweak something it throws off the balance on something else and their class descriptions (mainly stolen content from other fantasy games) do no justice for the intended creation of them.

Codog, you and the other Dev's who have responded to the community represent what developers should be doing in all MMO's. It's very exhausting and crammed with long hours staring at the LCD listening to a mass of people, but rather than flee the masses you guys have decided to represent a really good business model and actually bond with your users/community. I bow and sincerely thank you. I hope things stay that way with DDO as it's definately got a promising future in the MMO market. I'm enjoying DDO quite emmensely and so far, am here to stay.

Now to my questions. (Hehe, you knew there would be some).

To start off with I would like to know if it's being considered to add more lands, continents etc? Also if it permits it can we eventually have player-mounts? If not for the speed increases I think we should at least have horses for the realism and "fun" of riding something.

Lastly, is there going to be an expansion pack of some sort in the works in the near future?

[Kisaragi]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

Could you at least modify Create Undead to not be quite so pathetic? I mentioned it before, but you're paying extra costs for something that turns on you in a heartbeat. There's no reason to use Create Undead over Summon Monster besides making missions harder. It is a broken spell.

Necromancers basically got the spell and then shafted. 'Oh you want to 'create' undead. Sure, here you go. They're evil, you're not, they're going to attack you.' Honestly. No offense, but it's as if the coin lords did this on purpose to make sure casters don't become necromancers. As if the crushed black pearl (really really really expensive) was tainted.

NECROMANCERS UNITE!!!! TELL THE DEVELOPERS YOU WANT YOUR UNDEAD ARMIES!!!!!

[jwbarry]

Collectables: will these things be abandoned over time? There are no collectable emplacements in the Gianthold or Orchard modules. Were these things meant to be temporary, for low-level (1-10)? Will we ever see a re-vamp of collectables, maybe rolled into crafting? (Collectables as crafting components)

Collectables will most likely end up featuring fairly heavily into the ever expanding eldritch device system. While they are not a part of it for M6 (the eldritch device is primarily used in the storyline and raid loot), future releases will see the scope of the system greatly expand, and collectables are currently planned to play an important role with that.

EDIT - Odds on, we'll make new things that the same interactives will give out that will now be useful. So we'll be using the same delivery system. Don't feel like you have to hoard every collectable you pick up from now until the end of time or you'll be at a disadvantage, because you won't.

[Serpent]

So any idea what the Tempest attack speed increase is going to be yet?

[gpk]

I was on Risia earlier and noticed that at Base Attack Bonus 15 the attack rate is actually SLOWER than at BAB 14.
The attack rate seems reduced by 15-20&#37; for both 1 and 2 handers at BAB 14 vs BAB 14; you get fewer swings over time.

Seeing as how BAB 15 is a big step (5-10-15-20) melee attacks/round, i was surprised to say the least.
This is especially frustrating I basically nerfed myself twice, once by asking to remove the double crit range on 4th swing back in the day and just recently the +15 bonus at the 5th swing.

I expected melee attack speed to increase at BAB 15, not decrease.

This has to be an oversight I'm thinking (a serious one!), please advise.

[Kalanth]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

With that in mind and the planned improvements, will we ever see the day when taken Spell Focus: Conjuration will do as it does in the PnP version? For those that may not know what that means, you summon the pet as though it was +1 or +2 HD (depending on how far in the line of feats you went) over the original pet. Thus increasing its stats all around as per the advancing monster rules in the Monsters Manual. I figure it would be similar to the difference between the pet on Normal, Hard, and Elite, but I am sure implementation of that would be substanially different that such a simple suggestion.

[Lifespawn]

got through 4-5 pages ran out of time i have 1 request

Two weapon throwing please please please i don't care if it's a single feat that allows you to throw both weapons.
Or follows the twf line with less penalties and more attacks the higher you take of the twf line(tho something would need some serious coding to help the ranged attack speeds if you went this way cause currently you can get 2-3 throws in while a twf can get 7 attacks).

[Turial]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions)

Hmm, so my work out in the desert training the hyenas to dance won't go to waste. Good stuff. One of these days I'll have the stats of all the animals in the game mapped out in preparation to choose my animal companion, if we get choices.

EDIT: Codog and Eladrin, any chance the current diehard feat could be changed to endurance and have diehard be made into a feat that extends the normal -1 to -10 incaped range to -1 to -20? Just a suggestion.

[spade413]

... Your repsonse to the question of pets was thorough, thank you for your candor.
May I ask as to why druid is then so high on the list of priorities to put into the game, as compared to other classes? Don't misunderstand me, I am anxiously awaiting the introduction of that class, but I am just as excited about playing ANY new class. It seems to me that many of the core classes found in other Wizards books (the Complete line, Players Handbook II, etc) would be incredibly easier to bring into the game. I know that previously, the community has been told that no classes will be introduced before Monk and Druid... but if the game is that far from druid, a little Favored Soul or Swashbuckler would be a welcome substitute, assuming that they're significantly easier to bring about.
Adding any new class, of course, would require a huge quantity of time and focus from a development team, and can be held up by anything from limited resources to licensing issues, and we understand that regardless of any response, nothing will happen for some time (though I admit I am hoping that the mysterious Mod 7 development requiring the bulk of the Dev Team, referenced recently in the forums, is actually the rise of the monk class...)

Thank you again Codog,

Act, 14 Wizard, Khyber

[Codog]

Codog, what form of payment do your require to upside-smack Graal for doing this:

Insurrection - +5 Great Axe, Construct Bane, Shatter +10

NO ADAMANTINE???? Does Graal BLT without Bacon? Serve Pie sans the whip? Take his coffee without the caf? Read fortune cookies without adding "in bed" to the end???

Pulled this last night... very sad for Great Axe users that this is our named item.

P.S: Maybe just launch a nerf cannonball into his cube.

I won't upside-smack Graal.... However, I will laugh next time I see him at the coffee machine... or at lunch... or if I ever see him with a fortune cookie I believe I'll die because every cell in my body will be laughing too hard to function. Does he BLT without the bacon... LOL!!!

Thanks.

--Codog

[GramercyRiff]

However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.


Thank you, Codog for that very imformative post as always. My main concern for summoning and pets is the Druid. The Druid is an incredibly fun and extremely versatile class. Summoning and animal companion plays a huge role in that fun and versatility. I'm very pleased to hear that you guys will be improving the AI of summons and pets because with the current AI, Druids would be unplayable (in relation to their PnP counterpart). I can wait for the fix to summons if I know that effort will be made to make the Druid not just another healer/blaster/controller/melee. That version of the Druid already exists; it's a Cleric or Wizard. I know Druid is a ways off, but I'll wait patiently and hopefully with this knowledge you've thoughtfully given.

Of course, I'd also like summoning to be a viable option for Clerics and Wizards too.

[MysticTheurge]

Codog,

I have another spell question.

Per the SRD, Harm should be able to kill things if they fail their saving throw against the spell. The "not less than 1 HP" feature only kicks in on a successful save. Is it possible that we're going to see this fixed to work properly in DDO?


Harm charges a subject with negative energy that deals 10 points of damage per caster level (to a maximum of 150 points at 15th level). If the creature successfully saves, harm deals half this amount, but it cannot reduce the target’s hit points to less than 1.

If used on an undead creature, harm acts like heal.

[Tolero]

Hi CoDog,

From your post in the "Newbie" thread (http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=1473502&postcount=34), I can tell you are well aware of how good ideas get lost in information overload and excessive repetitive discussion. Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest impediments to efficiently reporting and prioritizing ideas.

What we need to solve this, is a moderated "Game Suggestions/Complaints" thread... Or better yet if feasible, a chart. Note, it must be moderated. We have had unmoderated threads like this before, but they immediately fill up with repetition, jokes, and 50 page theses on game theory.

People should be able to propose additions, modifications, etc. However, they shouldn't make it into the thread/chart until a moderator decides they add something meaningful enough to warrant putting them in.

This could probably be done with forum technology, or perhaps an outside web-viewable service like Google Spreadsheet. Most importantly, there should be some indication of status... I.e. We haven't even started considering that yet... We like it and hope to do it someday... We are arguing about this internally and will keep you posted... We're working on it... Or in lucky cases, "It's done, send us cupcakes."

I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers to set this up... I would be one for sure. However, I think it would kind of have to be a Dev thing, as there are bound to be disagreements about priority, wording, whether one issue is the same as another, etc.

Do you think this is something you, Q, T, or E would go for?

It could also act as a FAQ about issues... You could go up there and see that something was reported, got a lot of support, but just isn't going to happen because of some technical or time limitation. Thus, less screaming.

This is a waaaay late response, sorry about that. I was busy wrangling the Twelve into cooperative allow-people-to-snoop-about mode.

I do a lot of tracking, analyzing, and processing of feed back on my end. It's a tough job because you players are just chalked full of ideas, suggestions, and concerns :) but someone's gotta do it!

[moorewr]

This is a waaaay late response, sorry about that. I was busy wrangling the Twelve into cooperative allow-people-to-snoop-about mode.

I do a lot of tracking, analyzing, and processing of feed back on my end. It's a tough job because you players are just chalked full of ideas, suggestions, and concerns :) but someone's gotta do it!

A moderated thread or a thread+chart is a very good start.

I'd like to suggest creating a Bugzilla -- http://www.bugzilla.org/ -- I imagine you already have an internal bug reporting system (you're a big enough company that you can't still be using the method my college uses, which is "stop moorewr on the sidewalk") but even so Bugzilla has had very good success with end-user & dev bug tracking in OSS projects.

[Tolero]

A moderated thread or a thread+chart is a very good start.

I'd like to suggest creating a Bugzilla -- http://www.bugzilla.org/ -- I imagine you already have an internal bug reporting system (you're a big enough company that you can't still be using the method my college uses, which is "stop moorewr on the sidewalk") but even so Bugzilla has had very good success with end-user & dev bug tracking in OSS projects.

I suppose you would be happy to know that one of my weekly chores (I say chore in the most loving connotation, because I never get tired of doing it ^^) is to hook up with the devs and relate the broad overview of feed back on issues, suggestions, and even bugs. It is never so simply as saying: "They want marshmallow peeps"

The nature of feed back is to understand the WHY :) so it usually goes a little more something like (these are random made up numbers and examples mind you...)

"There's been an upswing in requests for marshmallow peeps. This seems related to the fact that spring is approaching.
95% of respondents indicate they would like marshmallow peeps.
Of that 95%, 40% would like it to be in the form of pink rabbits, 10% in the form of purple rabbits, and 50% would prefer the traditional yellow baby chick.
5% are opposed to marshmallow peeps altogether.
Of this 5%, the most heavily sited reasons for not wanting the marshmallow peeps are: an aversion to the texture, and bad experiences with stale peeps in previous years.
Related threads of interest include:
forums.ddo.com/post#zilliontrillionmarshmallowpeeps
forum.ddo.com/post#hundredsandhundredsofpeeps
forum.ddo.com/post#sharkswithlazerbeamsormarshmallowpeeps?
Additionally there is a high amount of mention of marshmallowpeep discussions in the respective server and class forums. First appearance of this discussion was four weeks ago... blah blah blah data data track track analysis blah blah blah lazer pointer wave arms around blah blah blah marshmallowpeeps"

It is a never ending process, which I have been coiled around like a creature with improved grab since I got here because it is very important :)

[MysticTheurge]

and bad experiences with stale peeps in previous years.

***?!?! Stale peeps are great. It's practically the only way to eat them.

[Tolero]

(not to derail Codog's house but) I said "bad experiences" with the peeps. Doesn't necessarily say in the above what those bad experiences were...and that classification would be broken down into sub groups as well hehehe.

"Of the bad experiences with stale peeps, most revolved around a grocery store that brought a stock of what turned out to not be peeps at all, but spray painted rocks"

[MysticTheurge]

(not to derail Codog's house but) I said "bad experiences" with the peeps. Doesn't necessarily say in the above what those bad experiences were...and that classification would be broken down into sub groups as well hehehe.

"Of the bad experiences with stale peeps, most revolved around a grocery store that brought a stock of what turned out to not be peeps at all, but spray painted rocks"

Hehe, I know. I was just playing. :D

[tekn0mage]

I suppose you would be happy to know that one of my weekly chores (I say chore in the most loving connotation, because I never get tired of doing it ^^) is to hook up with the devs and relate the broad overview of feed back on issues, suggestions, and even bugs. It is never so simply as saying: "They want marshmallow peeps"

The nature of feed back is to understand the WHY :) so it usually goes a little more something like (these are random made up numbers and examples mind you...)

"There's been an upswing in requests for marshmallow peeps. This seems related to the fact that spring is approaching.
95&#37; of respondents indicate they would like marshmallow peeps.
Of that 95%, 40% would like it to be in the form of pink rabbits, 10% in the form of purple rabbits, and 50% would prefer the traditional yellow baby chick.
5% are opposed to marshmallow peeps altogether.
Of this 5%, the most heavily sited reasons for not wanting the marshmallow peeps are: an aversion to the texture, and bad experiences with stale peeps in previous years.
Related threads of interest include:
forums.ddo.com/post#zilliontrillionmarshmallowpeeps
forum.ddo.com/post#hundredsandhundredsofpeeps
forum.ddo.com/post#sharkswithlazerbeamsormarshmallowpeeps?
Additionally there is a high amount of mention of marshmallowpeep discussions in the respective server and class forums. First appearance of this discussion was four weeks ago... blah blah blah data data track track analysis blah blah blah lazer pointer wave arms around blah blah blah marshmallowpeeps"

It is a never ending process, which I have been coiled around like a creature with improved grab since I got here because it is very important :)

Tolero,

You can't honestly use the forum fans as any indicator of what to add in this game.

So far the forum fans have created:

More death penalty
More weapon damage
Less raid loot
Less quests being developed overall
Less coin drops
Impossible raids

Ok maybe its not ALL the forum goers themselves as much as the people you are listening to.

I'm telling you, break out of the monotony and come join our guild runs on Sarlona if you really want to get a pulse on what DDO is lacking.

[Daerius of the Blessed Blades]

... May I ask as to why druid is then so high on the list of priorities to put into the game, as compared to other classes?

My name's not Codog, but I would suggest that the Druid is the most critical class to add. Two classes that can act as primary healers would balance the game out a bit, IMHO.

I am not sure where Druids fit in the Eberron campaign setting, but they are VERY familiar to all PnP players.

Poor me, I really wanna play a gnome druid, so I am pretty much outta luck... lol

[Tolero]

Tolero,

You can't honestly use the forum fans as any indicator of what to add in this game.

So far the forum fans have created:

More death penalty
More weapon damage
Less raid loot
Less quests being developed overall
Less coin drops
Impossible raids

Ok maybe its not ALL the forum goers themselves as much as the people you are listening to.

I'm telling you, break out of the monotony and come join our guild runs on Sarlona if you really want to get a pulse on what DDO is lacking.

You would be surprised by the "other" ways I gather feed back. ;) I could be in your pug or guild RIGHT NOW! :eek:

It would be very inaccurate to rely strictly on the forums. The forums are a great place to hear at length discussions, but that doesn't discount the feed back that comes from users who don't use them at all, or read them but don't post ^^

[MysticTheurge]

--edited out--

[Tolero]

*sprays you all with a water bottle* Tssst! No bickering in the Dog House or Codog will unleash the guard kobold!

[Beherit_Baphomar]

I want marshmallow peeps.

[moorewr]

I want marshmallow peeps.

I hate candy corn. The Candy Corn drop rate is too high. Take candy corn away from other players. They're n00bs for liking them.

[MysticTheurge]

*sprays you all with a water bottle* Tssst! No bickering in the Dog House or Codog will unleash the guard kobold!

Eeek! /flees to hide

[Aesop]

OK so I've been thinking a lot about DDO type stuff and I wasn't doing anything in particualr right now so I thought I'd start putting down some ideas relative to some changes that I'd like to see made or for new things and the way I'd like to see them implemented. So here it goes.


Ranged (Bow) Attacking:

Ranged attacking seems a touch on the weak side to me and could use a couple of buffs here and there to bring it to a more viable option.

problem #1: Space limitations. While the House D arrows help a bit really the Archer is still choking for some room. SO I have a couple ideas to help this out.

1. Stack Size. Increase the stack size of Arrows and Bolts to 250. This will help out a bunch.

2. Quiver Slot. Instead of a single Ammo Slot make it an openable Quiver slot that has 4-12 upgradeable spaces in it. this works just like inventory slots in such that the arrows are taken left to right top to bottom, but only ammo can be placed in them.

problem #2: Lethality Quotient. Ranged combat is a deadly art and while it does need to balance with close combat ... well that's just it it really doesn't balance all that well... so

1. RoF. As it stands the rate of fire for a bow is about half that of a one handed melee swing. This is with the Rapid Shot Feat included in the Calculation. This really is too slow. It should be (IMO) closer to 50% Melee + Rapid Shot. Where Rapid Shot improves it to 65% Melee speed.

1a. Improved Rapid Shot. Also they should incorporate Improved Rapid Shot Feat that further Improves RoF. This should increase RoF to 75% Melee. Still a lot slower but much more reasonable.

2. Manyshot. Manyshot is multifaceted case. On the one hand for 20 sec you are a god... you fire fast and shoot multiple arrows... great... sorta. Manyshot should be more like a stance than a clickable ability. In this vane I have a couple of suggestions

2a. Make it a Stance. Toggleable... now if this was all ya did it would be ungodly and no one would take it off... so

2b. Slow it Down. Have Manyshot override the Rapid Shot ability and slow the RoF down to base speed. ie 50% Melee

2c. Penalties. Manyshot has penalties to hit for each additional arrow... maintain this. -2 per additional arrow. So at BAB 16 you have a -8 to attack.... ok after a thought or six I want to modify this. Make it half the penalties from PnP... as the bang for the buck is a lot lower here. So -2 for 2 arrows, -3 for 3 and -4 for 4 arrows at BAB 16


3. Special Arrows. I thnk this will be taken care of a little when crafting comes out, but a Favor reward that gives access to basic Elemental, Material (Cold Iron, Adamantine, etc), and Basic Alignment (Pure Good, True Law, etc) and the upgrades could move up to Burst/Alignment (Holy etc) and then maybe from there combinations could be applied like Holy Pure Good or Shocking Burst Pure Good. these could be expensive, but would go a long way to helping out the ranged attackers.

problem #3: Raid Loot. The only Raid Loot with Ranged Attackers in mind is that X-Bow from DQ... its nice... really it is... but, its not a bow. Its not a set of Bracers that give bonuses to Ranged Attackers (like jacked up Bracers of Archery) its a x-bow... it shoots slowly and doesn't apply most of the useful feats and bonuses that Bows can. maybe a bow like this.

1. Barrage
+4 Long Bow
1d8
20/x4
Thundering
Pure Good
Replicating: each arrow fired from the bow has a copy of it materialize next to it. These extra arrows count as +1 arrows

2. Slayer
+1 Long Bow
20/x3
1d8
Slaying: Produces a Slaying effect on a Critcal DC 17 Will save to resist

something like that anyway. Another idea would be

Hunter's Guard
+2 to Hit
+4 to Damage
Ranged Attack +10%
Bracer

Hunter's Eye
+10 Seeker
+15 Spot
Blindness Immunity
Goggles

Crafting I know we'll see what you have for this in the new mod but these were my thoughts on it from before hand

I hate MMO Crafting. It is what has driven me away from every MMO I've played... and the thing is I like having characters that make things... but I don't like wandering the countryside looking for a rock to chip away at then spending days building screws before I can make things 10 levels lower than me... It's annoying and mostly useless. SO my suggestion are as follows.

1. Maintain the Spirit of the DnD Crafting Rules. This doesn't mean adhere to every nuance. It means keep the spirit and most of the features consistant. This also means that to Craft a Wondrous Item you need Craft Wondrous Item Feat. etc. The Feats are important. As a note you actually don't need any Craftng Skills to Craft Magic Items... just the Feat and whatever Prerequisite the item takes.

2. Incubation Periods. In pnp an item take 1 day per 1000 gp to create. You can't build another item till the first one is completed; if you did you lost all relevant materials and xp. Now we really don't have "downtime" per se and we don't want to leave our characters sitting in a lab for days, so instead of that I suggest an Incubation Period. In this we go to a craft site and start the project selecing perameters as are available to us based on our class and levels and we start the creation process. Once started the item Incubates. Our characters go on to quest and do our things as we normally do and when our item is complete it gets sent to our mail slot.

2a. Time. the Incubation Period should be relevant to the cost of the item. While 1 day per 100 Gold pieces may be a little off... ok a lot off. Perhaps 1 hour per 100 gold pieces would work. There may in fact be a better way to calculate it but that is one way anywho.

3.Schematics. Certain "rare" effect may possibly require a plan of sorts to create. This would be like needing a rare component or some such nonsense... but really what it is there to do is limit the creation of those items further. Perhaps the Big 5 weapon effects or maybe Heavy Fort or something like that. This could also be used to introduce new effects, be a part of high level drops and/or be available as Favor Rewards.

3a. With the exception of the above the materials to create items should not need to be scavanged. There are dealers in the Arcane and they should be able to supply most of the requirements for item creation. That is not to say that you would never find item creation materials in chests ... only that you aren't required to.

4. Favor Reward Artificer. The non Caster Classes that don't really have access to magic of their own could become subject to the whims of theose that do. To help alleviate these stresses and to possibly address some issues with outrageous Auction House Prices, a Favor Reward that grants tiered access to an NPC Artificer would be great. It should still cost the character money and possibly xp and special materials to get the items requested created... but this cost should not so low that creators would be unable to turn a profit nor too high as to make it undesireable to have items created.


Prestige Classes

Ok this is Important. To me at least and I'm sure to other people as well. The Enhancment Focus Abilities are neat... they have some good things attached to them. They are not Prestige Classes. I know PrCs are tough; its like adding another class in. You have to make sure the abilities don't overpower the game. THe other Option which you seem to be going for is PrEs... they are ok and you can check out MTs thread on them to see some great ideas.

problem #1: Where to Start?
well, I'd say start with the DMG and Eberron. Most of the DMG PrCs are ok. Horizon Walker is a thumbs down for this type of game but many will work well. Assassin and Blackguard... well so they are evil... who cares? Make them require non-good instead. Compromises need to be made. Like the Perform Prerequisite for Duelist... get rid of it or open up Perform to more than Bards.

problem #2: What about Enhancments?
hmmm now this is a bit of a problem. PrCs are by their nature full of powerful abilities, If we add more to that it could get out of hand. I see four basic choice we could go with.
1. New lines of Enhancments for each PrC... problematic as it requires a lot of development time and balance issues. Imagine the Dwarven Defender with DR Enhancments. They'd have more DR then the Barbarians could possibly get. would stink for the Barbs.

2. Have the PrC levels stack with a specific class for purposes of determining Enhancments. This is limiting the PCs to one way of thinking a PrC is to be attained... and I'm not overly fond of this ... but it could work if done right.

3. Have the PrCs stack with all classes the Character has for Enhancment determination. This could get powerful quickly ... but it may be ok and it would allow people more flexibility.

4. Have no Enhancments for PrCs. You still gain Action Points and can still buy more Enahncments that you already have access to... but PrC don't increase your Enhancment Pool (except of course racial which is based on character level)

problem #3: I don't want to reroll my character.
Well... you could introduce a retrainer. Or a deleveler. Or just say sorry. I'm ok with any of these... but then again I like to make characters.

problem #4: What about Hybrid PrCs like MT?
Mystic Theurge is a heck of a PrC. So too is any Hybrid... but what the heck. They still have limitations on SP and they can still die...so really I don't think it will be that big of a problem in the long run. I'd say just go with it. I mean hey they are so gonna run out of room in their inventory with all those components... It may be worth taking Eschew Materials.


Animal Companions

Animal Companionsare nearly hallmarks of certain classes. The Ranger and the Druid. With out these some characters feel... naked. Now Rusty is great ... I guess, but he does not replace the Animal Companions that our Ranger Friends have by screaming for. So here is some ideas.

1. Make Animal Companions a Summon Clicky: This would be like Rusty except that there would be no time limit on this. Alternately you could make it a timed thing like the Drow Cleric ability... but lets look at the Clicky ability first.

1a. Make it summonable once per day plus once per 4 levels. Rangers don't get theirs til 4 anyway so they don't start with one, but druids would. Now the nature of the AI and the nature of some dungeons make it difficult for Companions to follow their masters. That leads me to part 1b.

1b. Make them Unsummonable: less like a dismissal and more like a place in back pack effect for when you finish climbing the ladder of whatever. This would not essentially place them back in the summon circle, but when they were resummoned they would still have the damage that they did before they were unsummoned. make summoning and unsummoning take at least as long as Summon Monster spells.

2. Make these grow with the character: As per the PnP rules these should gain abilities as the character progresses.

2a. also as the character progresses new Animal types should open up as options. In fact you should be ablew to choose the animal companion as a menu list. Alternately it could be a choice that is given at the trainer that you can't change til you talk to the trainer again.


Familiars

Familiars are tricksey in that they aren't really combat oriented like companions are. They really just give abilities to the mage in question. so really lets look at the abilities given. hmmm lets blotch the ones tht don't directly effect the Master or wouldn't translate well.

Natural Armor Adj.: The number noted here is an improvement to the familiar’s existing natural armor bonus.

Int: The familiar’s Intelligence score.
Alertness (Ex): While a familiar is within arm’s reach, the master gains the Alertness feat.

Improved Evasion (Ex): When subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, a familiar takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails.

Share Spells: At the master’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the familiar again even if it returns to the master before the duration expires. Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself. A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (magical beast).

Empathic Link (Su): The master has an empathic link with his familiar out to a distance of up to 1 mile. The master cannot see through the familiar’s eyes, but they can communicate empathically. Because of the limited nature of the link, only general emotional content can be communicated.

Because of this empathic link, the master has the same connection to an item or place that his familiar does.
Deliver Touch Spells (Su): If the master is 3rd level or higher, a familiar can deliver touch spells for him. If the master and the familiar are in contact at the time the master casts a touch spell, he can designate his familiar as the “toucher.” The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the master could. As usual, if the master casts another spell before the touch is delivered, the touch spell dissipates.

Speak with Master (Ex): If the master is 5th level or higher, a familiar and the master can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help.

Speak with Animals of Its Kind (Ex): If the master is 7th level or higher, a familiar can communicate with animals of approximately the same kind as itself (including dire varieties): bats with bats, rats with rodents, cats with felines, hawks and owls and ravens with birds, lizards and snakes with reptiles, toads with amphibians, weasels with similar creatures (weasels, minks, polecats, ermines, skunks, wolverines, and badgers). Such communication is limited by the intelligence of the conversing creatures.

Spell Resistance (Ex): If the master is 11th level or higher, a familiar gains spell resistance equal to the master’s level + 5. To affect the familiar with a spell, another spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the familiar’s spell resistance.

Scry on Familiar (Sp): If the master is 13th level or higher, he may scry on his familiar (as if casting the scrying spell) once per day.


so that's grants the Alertness ability and delivers touch spells. ok. In addition they also each have a special ability that grants the Master some additional effect roughly equivilent to a Skill Focus or some such.

SO really why not just make it a little creature that takes up a space in a backpack. If ya really want a visual (and I think that would be cool as hell ) make it a little thing that either circles the masters feat or rides on her shoulders. :)

the effects would basically be

Alertness
Increase the Touch Attack Range as per Enlarge for touch attack spells only making touch attack really short range attacks.
plus the special bonus

that what I think anyway.


Summon Spells

I would like drop down menus for these spells.
example
Summon Monster 1
1st Level

Celestial dog LG
Celestial owl LG
Celestial giant fire beetle NG
Celestial porpoise1 NG
Celestial badger CG
Celestial monkey CG
Fiendish dire rat LE
Fiendish raven LE
Fiendish monstrous centipede, Medium NE
Fiendish monstrous scorpion, Small NE
Fiendish hawk CE
Fiendish monstrous spider, Small CE
Fiendish octopus1 CE
Fiendish snake, Small viper CE

just remove the alignment thingies and let them go. I know that would require a bunch of new creatures and the animations to go along ... but that gives you more models to use in the future for other things as well.

Underwater Combat

Fighting underwater and in the water would be awesome. Heck its ok if ya slowus down a huge amount. Make Fighting underwater (without Freedom of Movement) give us a 30% speed penalty to attack and such. Hell make it 50%. This would open up huge levels to which combat and the game could be taken. lots of potential for fun and interesting things.

that's all for now

more stuff 8/29/2007

Alternate Start

One of the things I hear people complain about is rerolling. Not usually because its overly difficult to do, but because its the same old path, same things ya have to do every time. You have to do Waterworks to get the Harbor Master Seal, and lets face it Water Works can net you decent low level stuff. I know I run it usually 8 or so times per character... Now is the point where I have, since Beta, played 90+ characters through Water Works...meaning that I've run Waterworks no less that 700 times. Now you'd think I'd be sick to death of it by now... not really. Its kind of my relaxation quest. Wander through and slaughter anything that moves. It also helps me test the characters that I have and see if they are up to snuff and look for design flaws. Now this doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to see an alternate route to the next stage in the game. You wouldn't need a lot of new quests at that end maybe one or two tops, but something that promotes grouping supplies a more epic feel to it... something to grab new players attention and recapture old players sense of wonder.

To that end I move on to a related topic. Raids. I think having a low level raid would be a great thing. In fact there should be a Tempest Spine type Raid for every group of 4-5 levels above level 2... let me elaborate

Raids

the raid that I hae had the most fun on and that I find most accessable is Tempest Spine. The "Elite Raids" like VoN, Titan, DQ and Reaver are fine, but they feel restricted almost and for some god aweful reason I can't get past VoN3. Its not due to talen cause I can handle that part no problem its either bugged out on me, the group fell apart before we started or I crash... really frustrating... I feel cursed. Tempest Spine though is great. Its lots of fun, expansive, and has a nice diversity of encounters. There are traps, casters, hazards, melee, bosses, puzzles, and a halfway decent end boss. More quests like that are needed. No huge Uber Items really , and that's fine. Some decent gear over all though, and lots of chances to get it. So here are a few suggestions for New Raids.

1. Lowbie Raid: Citizens have gone missing from the Harbor Region and the Harbor Master is having a fit. A ragged citizen apparently an excapee from slavery informs him that monsters are using captured citizens to help build a labrynth of tunnels that stretch under Stormreach. The Harbor Master needs a strong group of adventurers to go in free the slaves and end the strange machinations of the creeature that are likened to giant tool using ants. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG108.jpg. http://srd.plush.org/monstersEtoF.html#formian This could be a huge labrynth of tunnels that stretch all over the place. There could be traps and floors that give way... and tunnel cleaners http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG201.jpg as well as carrion crawlers and the the boss could be a Task Master trying to build a new hive for one that was destroyed. This could lead on to a future encounter. to discover what pushed the Formians out of their home in the first place. This is really designed for level 3- 7 with Elite runs being level 7 characters.

2. Low Mid Level: Well really you have Tempest Spine to fill that niche... though another wouldn't be horrible. This is really the 8-12 range here.

3. Mid to High-Range: After a series of attacks that the players must defend the city from they are sent forth to where the old Formian stronghold was secreted awayin the jungle outside Stormreach. There you fight all sorts of nightmare-esque creature from the Realm of Madness (wish my Eberron book was handy) some of the Boss encounters could be a brain leeched version of the Formian Queen and at the end you have to close off the seal that was accidentally opened (mystical puzzle like thingy) and fight a Daelkyr. this is for levels 12-16 or so.

In addition I think they should feel free to add in other Raids as well. Heck add in another of this style Raid every few months and I think people would be psyched. You may even do something like... I don't know... make water combat available and put in a Water combat raid... like fighting a Kraken... or something like that.

btw add Underwater Comabt to your to do list as well ;)



Double Weapons

So I was thinking about double weapons a little and I remember a Dev saying that Quarter Staves had a different attack cycle than other two handed weapons. I assume this is true and that they are considering the same or similar attack style for double weapons and probably if it ever gets added the Spiked Chain... now the thing is that Double Weapons have the whole trick of being able to be used as a single weapon or as two weapons for two weapon fighting... without some serious coding this isn't going to be the case. However perhaps they can tweak it a little to only apply the two weapon fighting if the character has the Feats or something like that. The other problem is that Double Weapons are supposed to be searately enchanted on each end. I don't see this happening either cause it would cause difficulties in the coding. So I'm thinking of a sorta dumbed down version of Double Weapons here really but they could still be pretty useful.

1. Quarter Staff Animation: The Quarter Staff animation is actually pretty cool over all. Using that for the Double Weapon Animatioon would look neat too. One caveat though. Obviously make it so this works with Two Weapon Fighting and update Quarter Staff so that it does as well.

2. Enchanted Double Weapons: I'm unsure whether Turbine is sticking with the formula of 1 Prefix and 1 Suffix per weapon ...but for Double weapons you might consider allowing 2 of each ...but keeping the max enchanment the same since both apply. So you could have a Shocking Flaming Double Scimitar of Pure Good Deception... not a 100% here for this idea... I mean I think it would be possible to have the Paralyzing Cursespewing Double Weapon of Banishing Smiting so that could be twitchy... or the Vorpal Double Weapon of Smiting Disruption... actually I don't hink that one is possible...too many +s. Still though a level 10 weapon would still be limited to a +6 effective weapon. I am pretty sure however that trying to make either end a separate weapon is just going to give everyone a headache. Neat I'm sure ...but a headache overall.

3. Two Weapon Fighting: Definately needs to apply here. No point otherwise. If a character has the Two Weapon Fighting Feats then they should have those benefits with double weapons. Even if you need to apply double strikes to balance with the animation that's ok.

Experience

I've seen a few posts about how people get annoyed when they are spending "hours" on a quest and getting nothing for it due to a single mistake or client crash or whatever other reason. So I started thinking about how this could be remedied, and I thought that a possible solution would be a platform system. As the group completes an objective a portion of XP is given to them... sorta like optionals but more than that really. Obviouslly the vast majority would be gotten for completion but a say up to half of the total xp could be gotten from the platform objectives. This way the characters are rewarded for effort (as even failure helps ya learn). Now the only thing is that leaving the dungeon or rentering levies an xp penalty. Perhaps just having the penalty apply to the future platforms would be sufficient...or maybe increasing the penalty slightly to compensate...something like that.


Equipment

Spears: well polearms really. beyond the natural reach thing that the polearm animation would have people have argued that they can't implement a good corolary to Reach. well you could make it so that the attacker could in fact hit critters a row back if they have them targeted. Or you could give weapons with the reach ability a +1 Misc. Bonus to AC to represent the ability to keep targets at weapons reach... its not perfect but it is a thought. Really what it comes down to is wanting an iconic weapon type brought into the game... also Piercing is left in the cold as far as two handed piercing weapons go and a lot of polearms are Piercing spec'd.

Bucklers: LIke I said in several posts in the past a buckler slot would need to be added. Shields would take over both the off hand and buckler slots, two handed weapons would take over the off hand and primary hand slot, and Bucklers would only take the buckler slot. There is a -1 to hit while using a buckler (but then again Tower Shield have a significant negative for being tower shields). I personally always thought Tower Shield should offer a +5 base shield bonus, Heavy +3, Light +2 and Buckler +1... but that's just me. Implement Improved Buckler Defense (because you don't technically get the bonus while attacking otherwise). Then again I always thought that the base Blocking DR for a Shield should be based off the shield bonus (including enhancement bonuses) and have Adamantine double this base (without enhancement bonuses). Making a +5 Adamantine Tower Shield have a base DR (before involving BAB, Feats or anything else) of 13... but really that's for a different topic I suppose.


QuiversMY favorite Suggestion for helping out ranged combat comes from Geonis. Quivers like the a Quiver of Returning

I'd say Make it 50% Returning for any Ammon Dumped in the Quiver. (the quiver loads to the Ammo Slot)

Maybe another Quiver that any Normal Loaded Arrows gain an Elemental Type like:


Tinder Quiver
Any normal Arrow (Ammo) loaded gains +1d6 Fire Damage (this is less then the Flame Arrow Spell but still kinda cool)

Everfull Quiver
Any Arrows (Ammo?) loaded into the Quiver gain +50% Returning


Cursed Quiver
Any Normal Arrow (ammo) Loaded gains Cursespewer

Quiver of the Silver Flame
Any Arrow (Ammo) Loaded becomes a Silver Arrow(Ammo) of the same type

Deepwoods Quiver
Ammo loaded becomes Keen and 50% returning

So I basically copied and pasted most of this and did a quick read through to see if things need to be edited out and some did... but yeah that's most of what I got now.

Aesop

[Serpent]

Aesop you did a great job. Codog look at this and see what can be done.

[Codog]

blah blah blah data data track track analysis blah blah blah lazer pointer wave arms around blah blah blah marshmallowpeeps

Oh no!

They want marshmallow peeps? Ok everybody... I just want to be honest here and tell you why we don't have marshmallow peeps in the game. First off, marshmallow peeps are very difficult to make because their texture. Peeps textures are so complex that they are right out until the min-spec video card is DX10 compliant and support appropriate shaders.

Sorry guys... but I really do... WAIT A SECOND!!! Who invited Tolero to the dog house with her laser pointer and waggly arms?! There are no marshmallow peeps in Eberron!!! Nobody even mentioned peeps until _she_ got here. tsk tsk tsk

If peeps make it onto Dworkin's spreadsheet...

*grumble mumbles off into the dev cave*

--Codog

[MysticTheurge]

There are no marshmallow peeps in Eberron!!!

I don't know. The Day of Mourning did result in some strange and bizarre creations that otherwise might be considered a crime against everything natural...

[Missing_Minds]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

I don't really care about how complex it is, I want to know What The Smeg they were smoking to purposely leave out something so iconic to the game. I figure if I know what the heck it is I'll finally know what the heck U.S. Government contract people are smoking that make them think they can not bother with any system or project requirements until the freaking last stage of a job.

[Missing_Minds]

I don't know. The Day of Mourning did result in some strange and bizarre creations that otherwise might be considered a crime against everything natural...

So Peeps would be aberations?

[MysticTheurge]

So Peeps would be aberations?

Actually, like Living Spells, I would imagine that they're "Ooze" type creatures.

[Missing_Minds]

Actually, like Living Spells, I would imagine that they're "Ooze" type creatures.

so in order to make them just right for you, we'd have to apply Horrid Wilting to them, wouldn't we?

[MysticTheurge]

so in order to make them just right for you, we'd have to apply Horrid Wilting to them, wouldn't we?

Them's good eatin'.

;)

[moorewr]

Them's good eatin'.

;)

mmmmmmmmmmm.. dessicated peeps...

[dragnmoon]

hey Codog can you give us an Idea on how many Quests you guys have planned at this time for Mod 6?

The current Build on Risia as given some people the idea that the number of quests may be small. maybe as small as 5.

[PhoenixFire31]

Codog/Eladrin, I have a spell question for you.

Will we ever see rangers getting some of their cooler combat buffing spells? I made a list (you knew I would) so have a look at my wish list. (SC=Spell Compendium, PH=Players Handbook for those that do not know)

**EDIT: I also have a wish list of pally spells :D**

Level 1
Blades of Fire (SC 31)
Deep Breath (SC 61)
Entangle (PH 227)
Guided Shot (SC 108)
Hunter's Mercy (SC 117) <---My personal favorite! :D
Sniper's Shot (SC 194)
Surefoot (SC 216)
Level 2
Exacting Shot (SC 85)
Fell the Greatest Foe (SC 90)
Haste, Swift (SC 110)
Wind Wall (PH 302)
Level 3
Arrow Storm (SC 16)
Blade Storm (SC 30)
Blade Thirst (SC 31)
Find the Gap (SC 91)
Water Walk (PH 300)
Level 4
Foebane (SC 96)

I am also wondering about ranger level 17...and Hide in Plain Sight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/ranger.htm#hideinPlainSight) ability (which I believe is what bugbear assassin's use against us,) will we get it or will we something to replace it as Endurance was replaced?

[Shrazkil]

Idea for you Codog, alittle rogue loving if you will.

Enhancement for high level rogues to make them more desirable in high level offensive groups.

Rogue's critical backstab 1 & 2
Min lvl 11 & 14
During any attack that qualifies as a backstab , you recieve an increase in your weapons threat range by 1 & 2.

Or possibly even ty it into stealth.

Rogue's Stealthy Critical 1,2,3, & 4
Your first attack while sneaking , if unnoticed , has its threat range for critical reduced by 1,2,3, & 4.

[Ustice]

To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

One thing that would go a long way to help, without adding a ton of code would be to create health/mana bars for controlled/friendly NPC's. Its tough to watch over them, if we can't target them effectively. Given the potential to have a ton of these bars, just add them in an expandable list that can be scrolled through. You could also allow for them to be torn off, like the chat tabs. As for giving a little more control over them, why not use the same tech that is used on Coyle and his gang where we can tell them to follow or stop? It may not be a full implementation, but it isn't a hacky one either, since that is the tech that exists.

[Ustice]

You would be surprised by the "other" ways I gather feed back. ;) I could be in your pug or guild RIGHT NOW! :eek:


Um... no. Unlike the other employees at Turbine, I know your voice, MERLASK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

;)

[Griphon]

Um... no. Unlike the other employees at Turbine, I know your voice, MERLASK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

;)

Hey.. Remember that one Wizard in your group last week that didn't talk at all?

Yeah.. That could've been her... Just say'n..

My Momma always said: Tricksy is as Tricksy does.. gollum.. gollum..

Bubba-smeagol

[Klattuu]

Oh no!

They want marshmallow peeps? Ok everybody... I just want to be honest here and tell you why we don't have marshmallow peeps in the game. First off, marshmallow peeps are very difficult to make because their texture. Peeps textures are so complex that they are right out until the min-spec video card is DX10 compliant and support appropriate shaders.

Sorry guys... but I really do... WAIT A SECOND!!! Who invited Tolero to the dog house with her laser pointer and waggly arms?! There are no marshmallow peeps in Eberron!!! Nobody even mentioned peeps until _she_ got here. tsk tsk tsk

If peeps make it onto Dworkin's spreadsheet...

*grumble mumbles off into the dev cave*

--Codog

You guys had marshmellow peeps in AC2. Just dig out that code from the vault and borrow it. In fact there are a few other things over there you probably should borrow while you are at it.

[Gornin]

Just a thought on the double weps requests. Others have mentioned that the staff animation would be very close with some tweaking. Isn't that what they use for the Shining Crescent wep that is Raid loot from the Titan. It looks like a Lajatang but is coded as wielding double sickles. So, it looks like it is doable without too much issue. The only real problem I see is coding the 2 different effects and tying them together. So initial double weps would probably not be able to have different effects, but it would be a start.

I would really like to see chains, but I guess it is the same problem with the animations. They would have to have a completely unique one.

[moorewr]

I want to dual-wield throwing marshmallow peeps. Get on it people!

[Missing_Minds]

Control Undead is a 7th level spell... but why the heck does it have a 45 second timer? This is on a 13 lvl wizard.

[Griphon]

Control Undead is a 7th level spell... but why the heck does it have a 45 second timer? This is on a 13 lvl wizard.

Good question! I've began using this to help control some of the aggro from undead. They don't seem to break out of easily either.

But yeah.. Why the mega slow refresh rate?

[sgmalice]

I just wanted to say first and foremost that the devs here at DDO make the devs at "Blizzard" look like a bunch of apes on an old XT. Even though WoW's got that addicting enviroment (sorry to say), their development and community-feedback is horrible and I find Blizzard employees to be very arrogant and ignorant when it comes to providing a product to their users, rather than creating "their" product for the users. In short the product(s) should (for the most part) be based on what the users desire, as they're the ones consuming it. Blizzard (and I won't rant too much futher on this) doesn't have a clue how to create a balanced "class" engine as when they tweak something it throws off the balance on something else and their class descriptions (mainly stolen content from other fantasy games) do no justice for the intended creation of them.

Codog, you and the other Dev's who have responded to the community represent what developers should be doing in all MMO's. It's very exhausting and crammed with long hours staring at the LCD listening to a mass of people, but rather than flee the masses you guys have decided to represent a really good business model and actually bond with your users/community. I bow and sincerely thank you. I hope things stay that way with DDO as it's definately got a promising future in the MMO market. I'm enjoying DDO quite emmensely and so far, am here to stay.

Now to my questions. (Hehe, you knew there would be some).

To start off with I would like to know if it's being considered to add more lands, continents etc? Also if it permits it can we eventually have player-mounts? If not for the speed increases I think we should at least have horses for the realism and "fun" of riding something.

Lastly, is there going to be an expansion pack of some sort in the works in the near future?

hehe, I guess Devs are kind of busy, or missed my question.

I was just asking if "new lands" and evenually some sort of "Player mounts" were being considered in future updates/expansions?

[Tolero]

Um... no. Unlike the other employees at Turbine, I know your voice, MERLASK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

;)

Who says I use voice these days? I'm not ignorant of the # of podcast listeners, video watchers, and rpers who might know it ;)

[DaveyCrockett]

I'd be interested to see what a dev reply to this (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=130031) would be, if anyone gets the time.

Thanks,

-DfC

[MrWizard]

I guess I would want to add that the spell list is not as good as it could be. Following DnD is good, but the playstyle is completely different and the spells should be altered to reflect it.


Too many spells that would be useful come at too late a stage in leveling and are never really used (most mass buffs). Due to items or class enahancements mostly.

Too many spells are HD dependent and seem to quickly become completey useless (like scare, death to undeath).

For many levels there are only a few spells many use at all. Third level wiz is a good one. And clerics...ugh. The pure number of slots is great, the pure waste of slots is greater as you level. My high level cleric does not even add spells on his toolbar for most of the 1-3rd level spells.

I just think it is time to break from rigid DnD spell useage and re do it a tad, or a whole lot. DnD was originally and 'very little magic' allowed kinda game. That is why you can only cast a few spells a day and all. The other thing DnD always supported was 'house rules' and modifying the 'GUIDELINES" that the books listed. They were never set in stone 'RULES', but guidelines.

I think this game is awesome but shows some serious flaws in DnD rulesets when added to combat.

Just like the original game's spells, it is time to start adding spells by casters who have been in combat and desire better ones.

So many spells in DnD are just not made for this type of game. I would not mind some rewrites of the spells to make them cooler for this game.

A new spell book could be out....Dungeons and Dragons DDO combat spellbook.

oh yea...when will they implement a flying carpet as a house P 400 favor??? Takes 6 in a party and flys through town!!!

[Hvymetal]

I don't know how much leeway they actually have to deviate from P&P. Apparently WoTC does have some say in this, for any that can remember the Divine Favor nerf.

[Altarboy]

We recognize the necessity for making summoned monsters, charmed monsters, and controlled creatures much better. Before we could proudly release the druid a lot of work on the AI will need to be performed. (primarily for the animal companions) To be frank and honest, the original design for the game stated that there would be no pets in the game due to the complex nature of the environments ( jump puzzles, ladders, lava, swimming ) and lack of good path planning solutions at that time. Monsters were designed from the ground up to have fairly simplistic behaviors since it was anticipated that average monster lifespan was going to be relatively short from spawn to death being roughly 20 seconds (if that long).

Why then are summoned, charmed, and controlled monsters in the game? While developing a prototype for wall spells, we didn't have any assets to use and we made the mistake of shoving a kobold in there as a place holder entity. During that week's play day, everybody was casting "wall of kobold" to grief each other and design changed their mind about wanting helpful monsters to cooperate with you. This was really late to make that decision from an engineering perspective.

We recognize pets and the ability to control and command them is a huge desire for the game. We also recognize that being able to break the enchantments and dismiss pets is another big desire. I suppose it is my fault for not placing stop gap solutions in the game for you. However, it has been my fear that if we put in "hacky" short term solutions that the long term solution of overhauling the AI in the game will fall on the backburner. To do this properly, I would definitely want an intuitive UI for controlling your pet(s), a good solution for leashing your pet to you in cases where they can't possible path to you, good dynamics for "keeping" pets/familiars in between instances, and potentially pet advancement.

So in order for this set of features to go forward, we will need to rewrite our AI from its current 'scripty' form into a better architected solution. Right now, charmed monsters literally are real "aggressive to player" monsters that are given a birthday effect of charm on them that also happens to kill them after a certain amount of time. Literally, there are no further ties than that between the caster and the summoned creatures.

We have our work cut out for us. The great news is that our game engine team has improved path planning for our game greatly since launch. We've outlined the steps and have investigated plans for getting where we want to be with these features. There will be subtle changes to our AI over time to achieve these goals. I cannot promise when or if these plans will be executed at high priority. However, I can tell you these features are important to me personally and I want to see them happen.

Best Regards,

Codog

PS. No Kargon, you can't have Tasty Ham constructs as pets.

Why not just have them snap...ala your soul stone?....get to faraway and boing it's right next to you

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Cool man. It looks like you have more time than me for this. I'm happy to let you carry the torch. But there are a couple of problems with your spreadsheet (that can be easily solved I think). There needs to be an easy way to separate the clearly desired requests from the ones under debate. And, there needs to be a way to get the more important ones to the top.

That's what the "Love" and "Hate" columns in my spreadsheet were about... How much love has the idea gotten on the forums? How much hate? For example, the request to change the Raid end loot would have a very high value in both of these columns, because there are a lot of people who love, and a lot of other people who hate these suggestions. Thus, in my opinion, any requested change to raid loot would be a high controversy item that should not be allowed to distract from issues that we all agree on.

For example, something like warning users about starting a quest without being at the right stage... Just about everyone was totally for that, and almost no one chimed in to say that, "No, I actually like finishing the VONS without getting credit for it." So this should be at the top of the list without controversial requests distracting from it.

At minimum, there should be a priority column that has all of this thought behind it. Or if you want the data visible, you could do something like the "Love"/"Hate" columns from my spreadsheet. Then, sort the thing to have the high priority/easy ones at the top.

My 2 centavos.

Cheers!

I agree that some sort of prioritization/categorization is needed... but I didn't want to presume that I should be the one to make those decisions. There are items in that spreadsheet that I completely disagree with, and some I think should be absolute top-priority... but I am not a Dev, nor a Turbine Employee, so I don't think I should be the one to qualify the responses as such. Maybe I'll add a "general consensus" field, to note those that are one-shot requests, greatly agreed, or contentious items... not sure.

Sorry, it's the Project Manager/Product Manager in me coming out here. I see this as a Feature Request List, and I am the Project Manager assigned to gather and collate the requests, not the Product Manager who actually makes the decisions on which features are ranked as such and which ones will be looked at.

Dworkin

[MysticTheurge]

Why not just have them snap...ala your soul stone?....get to faraway and boing it's right next to you

I was just wondering this myself the other day as my Bezekira ran off through the Vale after a feared enemy. For the 20th time.

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Oh no!

They want marshmallow peeps? Ok everybody... I just want to be honest here and tell you why we don't have marshmallow peeps in the game. First off, marshmallow peeps are very difficult to make because their texture. Peeps textures are so complex that they are right out until the min-spec video card is DX10 compliant and support appropriate shaders.

Sorry guys... but I really do... WAIT A SECOND!!! Who invited Tolero to the dog house with her laser pointer and waggly arms?! There are no marshmallow peeps in Eberron!!! Nobody even mentioned peeps until _she_ got here. tsk tsk tsk

If peeps make it onto Dworkin's spreadsheet...

*grumble mumbles off into the dev cave*

--Codog

Peeps Added the the Spreadsheet! :D:D:D

Also, I updated the Spreadsheet with everything over the weekend (I am maintaining it at work).

I have also begun selectively rewriting certain entries to capture the "Big Picture", or to combine multiple comments, or items from threads elsewhere on the Forums on the same/similar topics. Please do not take offense if I change your words, I am trying for brevity and clarity at the same time, which can be difficult.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Peeps Added the the Spreadsheet! :D:D:DDworkin, I still can't access the spreadsheet. Did you accidentally link the 'edit spreadsheet' URL instead of the 'read-only'?

[Magnyr_Delorn]

Codog, lemme see if you can help me with this one. I'm trying yo make a Shieldblocking specialist fighter. I'm taking all the appropriate feats, but here's my question. Can we get the Weapon Focus/Specialization Bludgeoning line to affect shields? I don't see why they don't already.

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Dworkin, I still can't access the spreadsheet. Did you accidentally link the 'edit spreadsheet' URL instead of the 'read-only'?

DOE!!! I think you are right, I linked the Edit link, instead of the View Link.
Corrected link below:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pid4TO8jdInZyyID3g553Mg

I think I know what I did... It's my first time using the Google Spreadsheet, and I didn't realize you had to re-publish after editing (or check that Republish automatically after editing button).

[HumanJHawkins]

but I didn't want to presume that I should be the one to make those decisions.


I felt the same conflict... Thus my attempts to duck the issue too... But the trouble is that someone has to do it. My plan was threefold:

Move all of the clearly winning ideas to the top.
Take my best guess at the rest, giving as much respect as possible to those with a different opinion from me.
Adjusting based on feedback... I.e. if someone has a good argument why something should be moved, move it. But don't let a single opposing voice put a controversial request high on the list.My goal was to make sure the things we generally agree on as a community got to the top of the list and get the attention of the devs. If we are arguing over something, that is healthy, but we should let that one stay low on the list until some sort of agreeable compromise is reached. Basically because without a plan like this, we are all just making noise that drowns out the easy ones.

(Of course, Codog did say he was going to look into this kind of thing and see if there was something Turbine could maintain. So this all might be a little premature. Worth working on in the interim though, eh?)

[Sandalle]

Codog,
3) A Reminder when you open a Portal UI if you are not currently active on this quest. This will save so much frustration and problems if someone forgets to talk to Marek (VON's), or to talk to Hargo/Bruku/Archibishop twice (Delera's/GreyMoon/Catacombs) and not completely forward the quest, resulting in missing out on rewards, or worse, not actually queuing for a later quest or Raid. A Simple Pop-Up Error Message (like the existing error messages display) upon activation of a Portal UI if you are not actively on the quest you are trying to enter.


While I heartily agree with everything Dworkin of Amber mentioned above (snipped for brevity), I would like to briefly mention point #3. Be sure that this reminder does not stop people from entering the quest if they are not on the appropriate advancement for it. This way those not on the quest may help those on the quest without having to reset their current progress.

[Sandalle]

Since I don't want codog to get all the fans, I'll be reading this thread too and stealing some of the questions. Bwahahaha!
Exploding ammo: that's in the to-do list; it's not very difficult, but hasn't been a very high priority. So, there's a decent chance you'll see them in the not-too-distant future. Kobold throwers shouldn't have all the fun with grenades...


Coded properly there is next to no effort required to provide for PCs what NPCs have, if they use the same code, objects, methods, etc. to "do their stuff".



New weapon styles: Animations are relatively expensive. Scythes, double-ended weapons (which I've seen requested in a number of other threads), polearms, and so on all require that someone animate a five-attack standing combat sequence, an idle sequence, a couple of special attack swings for cleave/whirlwind, and a two-attack moving sequence for each race. That much animation effort could instead get you all the animations for several new monsters.... Thrown spears, slings, or other missile attacks are easier, since you don't need the five-attack sequence, but still not cheap.

Given the finite art budget, we've been making the choice in the past to bring new monsters rather than new weapons... We may get you a new weapon style in the future, but it's likely to be a while.

Would it be possible to open up time consuming, costly, and apparently low-priority projects to the community? Sure, most of the work may not be up to Turbine standards, but developers could either use it as a starting point (hopefully saving time) or providing feedback to the content creators so that they may produce the quality required to enter the game (still going through normal internal QA, of course). A good example of what a community may produce, properly facilitated, is the Never Winter Nights Community Expansion Pack (http://nwn.bioware.com/players/cep.html). This provides immense content, of high quality, which improves the game experience (even adding features such as rideable mounts). Of course NWN is a different beast than DDO, but the idea of community content is similar.

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

I felt the same conflict... Thus my attempts to duck the issue too... But the trouble is that someone has to do it. My plan was threefold:
Move all of the clearly winning ideas to the top.
Take my best guess at the rest, giving as much respect as possible to those with a different opinion from me.
Adjusting based on feedback... I.e. if someone has a good argument why something should be moved, move it. But don't let a single opposing voice put a controversial request high on the list.My goal was to make sure the things we generally agree on as a community got to the top of the list and get the attention of the devs. If we are arguing over something, that is healthy, but we should let that one stay low on the list until some sort of agreeable compromise is reached. Basically because without a plan like this, we are all just making noise that drowns out the easy ones.

(Of course, Codog did say he was going to look into this kind of thing and see if there was something Turbine could maintain. So this all might be a little premature. Worth working on in the interim though, eh?)

In order to find a "Middle Ground", I added a "Notes" column, and noted items that I have seen discussed/suggested/requested multiple times in this thread and/or other threads across the forums, or ones that have seen contention/disagreements on them. I have made a few "personal" comments on one or two (like on the Familiars/Companions, the fact that Codog told us that the entire Summon coding has to be rewritten from teh ground up to get Familiars/Companions to work properly, and that is why I was not compiling all of those comments in together).

If Codog, or Eladrin, or one of the Devs would post or PM me and ask that I gather some prioritization statistics from the user-community, or something along those lines, I would be more than happy to help do that, and/or if they wanted my personal rankings/ordering, again, I would be more than happy to... but without their "blessing", I think that my efforts in maintaining this list is best served by being as neutral as possible. The Sort order is Alphabetical on the "Title", and that is it.

Now, personally, I can tell you which items I think should be high on the list, which low, and which completely off, but it's not my decision. And finally, I have no idea if Codog/Eladrin/Tolero/Anyone @ Turbine will actually use the Spreadsheet I am creating and spending a lot of time on (I hope so), but I will continue to help the community flesh out their ideas, and present them as coherently to the Devs as possible. That is also why I am starting to re-write some of the entries, to a more neutral-voiced, detail/feature/functionality-style list (Again, it's the PM in me coming out), so that the Devs could really use this as a Feature Request List.

[Kindoki]

You may even do something like... I don't know... make water combat available and put in a Water combat raid... like fighting a Kraken... or something like that.


Aesop

Lot of good ideas in Aesops post. This one jumped out at me. I think an entire quest chain, perhaps helping a sea elf nation fight off a sahuagin invasion would be very very cool. Whatever it is though, create underwater combat and when you do it - do it big. Give it an entire mod/update with new quests, and revamped old quests (ala TR/WW/Etc. redo's - but not as extensive - just a few new spots in old quests where we used to be swimming and now we are fighting...like that litany quest where you have to swim around...)

[HumanJHawkins]

The Sort order is Alphabetical on the "Title", and that is it.

Fair enough... Would you mind adding an ID column (1, 2, 3, etc.) so it is easier to refer to the specific items in the list? (And if it is sorted later, be sure to keep the IDs with the items they refer to).

[Mad_Bombardier]

DOE!!! I think you are right, I linked the Edit link, instead of the View Link.
Corrected link below:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pid4TO8jdInZyyID3g553Mg/cheers! :)

[Sandalle]

Not sure if this belongs here but here goes:

Could you make shield blocking/bashing work when a wand is in my hand??? That would be sweet and I'm not sure why it doesn't work, maybe there is a reason.

I've noticed this with my Cleric as well. Shield blocking only appears to work (i.e. the blocking animation runs) when I have, what DDO considers, a weapon in my hand. I also have not noticed any DR when doing so, but I have not gone out of my way to pay attention whether the blocking effect is taking affect or if just the animation is not triggering.

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

oh...so much reading...
oof...
So much info...
Thank you, Codog, for giving us one thread to post questions in...

1. Spell stuff and that bug that shoots my spell straight up in the air...
--Intended target is killed before I get off a shot and my spell points get plastered on the ceiling...Grrr....)
---couldn't it just shoot down the line of bearing toward the enemy that was but is no longer there...
This even happens when my cursor is in the center of the screen....Whoops! Ceiling splat! I hate misfires...I understand if it is as intended. <pout> Soooo embarassing.
2. Sucked Into the Instance bug
--It was fixed...now it is back!
---While waiting outside an instance with the UI portal window open...(lets me know when the first party member enters the quest)...<sigh> (so lazy)...I am once again pulled into the quest. Sure..this saves me time, but now without hitting the OK button I am committed...Did you guys know this was back? It happened several times over the weekend. Once it happens I am too busy counting heads and giving buffs (and laughing) to bug report it.

Oh...and thank you for giving us this opportunity to address concerns and make suggestions...It is most helpful.
~~Yvonne~~

[Alavatar]

Has anyone in this thread mentioned the "ghost" AoE spells?

Example:
I cast a fireball at a group of mobs. Sometimes, when the fireball hits a mob, the fireball explodes but none of the enemies take damage. Sometimes the fireball goes through the enemy, only damaging that single enemy. And rarely does the exploding fireball actually do damage correctly (primarily when the enemies are standing still in the first place).

This problem is also existant when I aim at the floor, but not nearly as prevelant as the above example.

[Cyndder]

Has anyone in this thread mentioned the "ghost" AoE spells?

Example:
I cast a fireball at a group of mobs. Sometimes, when the fireball hits a mob, the fireball explodes but none of the enemies take damage. Sometimes the fireball goes through the enemy, only damaging that single enemy. And rarely does the exploding fireball actually do damage correctly (primarily when the enemies are standing still in the first place).

This problem is also existant when I aim at the floor, but not nearly as prevelant as the above example.

I think this might be a part of the issues with ranged combat as well; server and client side not agreeing with where toons are located when the spell goes off.

I think some logic that states; target this mob; if mob dies then target last position for area-of-effect. But I think this would also change some of the strategies if the mobs got this mod as well; would really improve the AI difficulty. Of course the logic would have to be added that it would be from 'point of fire' to last location...this still would give toons/mobs a chance to side-step the effect...but narrow the window. It would also make long distance ranged attacks more realistic and keep from creating "seeking missiles".

[HumanJHawkins]

Hi all,

I have been following this whole thread and the thread that preceded it (Go CoDog Go!) I know the issue of arrows and bolts disappearing without a miss or a hit has been discussed at length. But I don't recall the outcome. Anyway, I just found a really reliable way to reproduce this:

1) Make a heavy repeating crossbow build (Mine is BAB 4 fighter in case that makes a difference)
2) Go into a quest like Missing in Action... Elite so things don't die on one shot.
3) Use Auto-attack
4) Tab-select targets while moving... Especially the kobolds in there.
RESULT: 30% or more of the bolts will never get a roll... They just disappear without damage or miss.

Thanks.

[MysticTheurge]

I know the issue of arrows and bolts disappearing without a miss or a hit has been discussed at length. But I don't recall the outcome. Anyway, I just found a really reliable way to reproduce this:

Are you testing this on Risia, because there've been a lot of changes to ranged combat there.

[Yaga_Nub]

oh...so much reading...
oof...
So much info...
Thank you, Codog, for giving us one thread to post questions in...

1. Spell stuff and that bug that shoots my spell straight up in the air...
--Intended target is killed before I get off a shot and my spell points get plastered on the ceiling...Grrr....)
---couldn't it just shoot down the line of bearing toward the enemy that was but is no longer there...
This even happens when my cursor is in the center of the screen....Whoops! Ceiling splat! I hate misfires...I understand if it is as intended. <pout> Soooo embarassing.
2. Sucked Into the Instance bug
--It was fixed...now it is back!
---While waiting outside an instance with the UI portal window open...(lets me know when the first party member enters the quest)...<sigh> (so lazy)...I am once again pulled into the quest. Sure..this saves me time, but now without hitting the OK button I am committed...Did you guys know this was back? It happened several times over the weekend. Once it happens I am too busy counting heads and giving buffs (and laughing) to bug report it.

Oh...and thank you for giving us this opportunity to address concerns and make suggestions...It is most helpful.
~~Yvonne~~

I LOVE that this bug is back. I think it should be a permanent feature.

[GrayOldDruid]

I just got a nice paralyzer bow and was running around Irestone Inlet playing around with a group and noticed something odd... often the Paralyzed target would still move around and come toward me. It was kind of funny - he looked like a chess piece being slid around a board. It happened out in the Desert (in offering of blood) and in "Freshen the air" as well.

Are they not supposed to be Paralyzed - as in, not moving???

Is this a known bug?

[Codog]

Codog, lemme see if you can help me with this one. I'm trying yo make a Shieldblocking specialist fighter. I'm taking all the appropriate feats, but here's my question. Can we get the Weapon Focus/Specialization Bludgeoning line to affect shields? I don't see why they don't already.

Interesting. I know I have a bug in my queue that some other feats that aren't appropriately applying to shield bashing.

Thanks,

Codog

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Ok, I updated some formatting, and added ID #'s to each line in the spreadsheet. I also added some versioning at the top, but Google Spreadsheets is a bit limited in it's formatting abilities...

I did NOT update the data with new comments yet, I will get to that tomorrow... too busy with other distractions today. But I will update the Request Data tomorrow, as well as work on rewriting some more of the entries for clarity.

PS: Codog: PM Sent! :D

[PhoenixFire31]

WOW Dworkin! Great job hun!:):cool:

[Tharris]

By I wholeheartedly agree and back it up.

If each instance is "rolled" for random spawns, a la rares in explorer areas, why can't traps be randomised. And not just simple to shake of the damage traps, but real mean traps, or just pits that you cannot climb out of....(well maybe if your skills in climbing or something similar are high enough). Just think it does stop people "knowing" what is coming etc, and prepping for it. The most fun I have is in quests I have not run, with a group who have not run it either. Makes all the skills all players have a possibility, so you don't end up with groups of just casters and Clerics etc.

LOVE THE CONCEPT OF THIS THREAD THOUGH, long may it continue.

[Wizzly_Bear]

Interesting. I know I have a bug in my queue that some other feats that aren't appropriately applying to shield bashing.

Thanks,

Codog

i too am interested in a shield fighter and am concerned with the lack of feats applying to shield fighting.

[QuantumFX]

Codog: Are there any more enhancements on the board for dragonmarks? I was thinking how it would be nice for non-caster dragonmarked PCs to have access to an enhancement for extending dragonmarks. (I was thinking 4 AP cost, Prereq: Extra Dragonmark 4, ML: 16)

[iamsamoth0]

Howdy and welcome to the Dog House.~snip~

Best regards,

Codog

I appreciate the effort you are displaying here.
I have high hopes for this game.

[LeLoric]

Any chance of seeing the cooldown discrepency fixed on control undead with mod 6 wizards should not be 8x more than sorcs

[Invalid_86]

On a different non-DDO note...what sort of dog are you?

[GlassCannon]

I'm not too familiar with the current quarterstaff animations, but shouldn't most double weapons be able to use those?

And shouldn't most polearms be able to use the Great Axe animations?

I know they wouldn't be perfect but given that we already use the same animations for rapiers and longsword (which would be used in two completely different ways in "real life") I think most people could settle for animations that were "slightly off."

Just re-skin a Greataxe for now.

For a double mace just reskin the quarterstaff animation for it.

Use what ya got to save time, and pretty it up later.