Dear Devs - Any chance you'll disclose the original plan?

[Pellegro]

I read somewhere f that you guys switched your plans for the event, maybe at the end? Not sure.

Anyway, I was wondering: Could we entice you to disclose the original plan?

Just curious ... :o

[Keeper]

I read somewhere f that you guys switched your plans for the event, maybe at the end? Not sure.

Anyway, I was wondering: Could we entice you to disclose the original plan?

Just curious ... :o

Plans weren’t “switched”, because once the event was up and running, we couldn’t have changed plans if we wanted to. But because early in the week players reported that the automatically-spawned monsters were too easy, we worked in teams to spawn in additional tougher monsters and loot by hand, instance by instance.

Last night was intense. So many people were involved in the event that we couldn’t all fit in one room.

[Pellegro]

Awesome! Thanks for the over-time! :D

If I could bother you with a follow-up .... The lag that was experienced by many in the public instance: Is that server side, client side, or a combo, or do we know?

I had a great time. I just wonder if there was some way to get over that lag issue, then I think you'd have a recipe for a grandslam here. People loved the super hard mobs in the public instances .....

Thanks again and hope you're feeling well heading into the last trimester! ;)

[Rallie]

Plans weren’t “switched”, because once the event was up and running, we couldn’t have changed plans if we wanted to. But because early in the week players reported that the automatically-spawned monsters were too easy, we worked in teams to spawn in additional tougher monsters and loot by hand, instance by instance.

Last night was intense. So many people were involved in the event that we couldn’t all fit in one room.

Can you tell us more about this? I'm surprised that it's so involved from your end. A previous announcement said that the same mobs are spawning in all instances at the same time, so that would seem to indicate one person could control such spawns. I'm assuming the animation of destroying the tent was all automated, so you hit a button and it beams it up? I don't mean to complain about the event at all, or to make it seem like y'all didn't put a lot of work into it. I'm just curious as to what is involved in putting such an event on, and why so many people are needed during the event itself to actually make things happen.

Re-reading your post, I see that you say you were spawning mobs in addition to the auto spawned mobs. Are the numbers involved on your end then just a matter of needing 10 people to work 3 instances each, spawning mobs? Or is there more to it?

[Lorien_the_First_One]

Plans weren’t “switched”, because once the event was up and running, we couldn’t have changed plans if we wanted to. But because early in the week players reported that the automatically-spawned monsters were too easy, we worked in teams to spawn in additional tougher monsters and loot by hand, instance by instance.

Last night was intense. So many people were involved in the event that we couldn’t all fit in one room.

Well thanks for the extra efforts, and for letting us in on them. That does explain why they didn't spawn all at once as we were told they would, and why they didn't spawn were you said they would. Hopefully next time your experience will let you script things a bit better in the beginning, but its nice to hear you adapted as best as you could base don feedback :)

[Dark_Helmet]

Plans weren’t “switched”, because once the event was up and running, we couldn’t have changed plans if we wanted to. But because early in the week players reported that the automatically-spawned monsters were too easy, we worked in teams to spawn in additional tougher monsters and loot by hand, instance by instance.

Last night was intense. So many people were involved in the event that we couldn’t all fit in one room.

How about this: Any chance you will put out the STORY for the event? I for one would like to have it fleshed out to read how they attacked the "heart of the city" and all of the rumors that are flying around and how they tie together.

[Keeper]

I’m not sure how much detail I’m allowed to get into, so I better stay on the general side. The event system lets us cause things to appear at specific times, such as the tent in a particular state of jiggling animation, or a group of monsters. The monsters that were added by hand could have been done through the event system, if we had realized before-hand that they were necessary. But doing them by hand had some advantages; namely that we could randomize locations, and we could also toss in more (or fewer) spawns depending on player reaction and server performance.

We did some pretty mean things to the servers in the process. *sheepish grin* I can’t speak for technically what caused the lag, because I am not knowledgeable of such technical things; but I can say the most striking example I saw was when I spawned a single monster, watched as every player in the instance immediately zoomed in to hit it, and then boom, we were all stuck there motionless for ten minutes.

(By way of apology I spawned in a ton of loot afterward, for those who managed to ride it out.)

[GeneralDiomedes]

I can say the most striking example I saw was when I spawned a single monster, watched as every player in the instance immediately zoomed in to hit it, and then boom, we were all stuck there motionless for ten minutes.

(By way of apology I spawned in a ton of loot afterward, for those who managed to ride it out.)

Has this experience changed your view of humanity for the better or for the worse?

[Riggs]

Plans weren’t “switched”, because once the event was up and running, we couldn’t have changed plans if we wanted to. But because early in the week players reported that the automatically-spawned monsters were too easy, we worked in teams to spawn in additional tougher monsters and loot by hand, instance by instance.

Last night was intense. So many people were involved in the event that we couldn’t all fit in one room.

Well props for the work. The lag made things less than ideal, but the concepts were great. And watching the tent get sucked away was pretty cool.

The named guys were pretty tough...heh but tough is a lot more fun than weak monsters.

[Pellegro]

Has this experience changed your view of humanity for the better or for the worse?

LMAO !!!


--

Thanks for the feedback and insight Keeper! Here, have a virtual guacamole tostada: __oooo__

[EspyLacopa]

I’m not sure how much detail I’m allowed to get into, so I better stay on the general side. The event system lets us cause things to appear at specific times, such as the tent in a particular state of jiggling animation, or a group of monsters. The monsters that were added by hand could have been done through the event system, if we had realized before-hand that they were necessary. But doing them by hand had some advantages; namely that we could randomize locations, and we could also toss in more (or fewer) spawns depending on player reaction and server performance.

We did some pretty mean things to the servers in the process. *sheepish grin* I can’t speak for technically what caused the lag, because I am not knowledgeable of such technical things; but I can say the most striking example I saw was when I spawned a single monster, watched as every player in the instance immediately zoomed in to hit it, and then boom, we were all stuck there motionless for ten minutes.

(By way of apology I spawned in a ton of loot afterward, for those who managed to ride it out.)
That was YOU that spawned that poor Kobold?

[TheBearNZ]

I’m not sure how much detail I’m allowed to get into, so I better stay on the general side. The event system lets us cause things to appear at specific times, such as the tent in a particular state of jiggling animation, or a group of monsters. The monsters that were added by hand could have been done through the event system, if we had realized before-hand that they were necessary. But doing them by hand had some advantages; namely that we could randomize locations, and we could also toss in more (or fewer) spawns depending on player reaction and server performance.

We did some pretty mean things to the servers in the process. *sheepish grin* I can’t speak for technically what caused the lag, because I am not knowledgeable of such technical things; but I can say the most striking example I saw was when I spawned a single monster, watched as every player in the instance immediately zoomed in to hit it, and then boom, we were all stuck there motionless for ten minutes.

(By way of apology I spawned in a ton of loot afterward, for those who managed to ride it out.)

Out of curiosity - how exactly do you guys get to "watch" what is happening? - Matrix style? :P or some sort of birds eye view. Do you see all instances at once or do yah have to switch between them like us

Would love it if you guys could do a "making of DDO" session or vid someday :)

[Eldorudo]

That was YOU that spawned that poor Kobold?

Given an option of which Shroud Lieutenant to spawn, I challenge anyone to convince me that Kasquik the Mighty isn't the obvious choice. ;)

[CrazySamaritan]

Given an option of which Shroud Lieutenant to spawn, I challenge anyone to convince me that Kasquik the Mighty isn't the obvious choice. ;)

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Now all we need is to get Meepo added to the game... :D
(And a friggin' bow smiley to the forums)

[Missing_Minds]

(By way of apology I spawned in a ton of loot afterward, for those who managed to ride it out.)

so that is what happened. It seems as if the GMs in Ghallanda were rather very stingy this time around. I didn't hear or see any drops at all, and only one of my guildies reported hearing/seeing anything loot wise.

It saddens me a bit, but over all I had a blast. And now I also know that I can duo the named orc with the help of a bard. just takes forever, but it is possible.

[Cowdenicus]

I was not supposed to release this information and as such I may lose a source of information but what the heck.

The original plan was supposed to include Keeper running around the market turning you all into guacamole ponies and sucking out your souls.

Sorry I had to leak out the info but you all should have been warned, I was sworn to secrecy, which is why I got no loot.

[Rallie]

I’m not sure how much detail I’m allowed to get into, so I better stay on the general side. The event system lets us cause things to appear at specific times, such as the tent in a particular state of jiggling animation, or a group of monsters.

One of the other things I keep forgetting is that you were doing this on all the servers at once. Being from Xoriat, (And now Thelanis), I tend to forget that when there are 30 market instances here, there are probably another 90 between the other servers. Since this event was taking place across all the servers at once, it suddenly makes more sense when putting it in that perspective.

I'd also 2nd the question about how things look to you. I guess I picture it rather like the DM client of NWN, where you are in the game like a player, but with the option of being invisible? Just a couple of extra UI boxes from which you can grab mobs or loot or whatever to drop in?

[Keeper]

I'd also 2nd the question about how things look to you. I guess I picture it rather like the DM client of NWN, where you are in the game like a player, but with the option of being invisible?

That's pretty much it. Only add to that that the character I used was wearing only her painted-on skivvies, so that I wouldn't drop any equipment that I wasn't supposed to. :D

[Rallie]

Thanks keeper. It's really great you and the other devs (especially those we don't hear from normally) have been posting so much lately. Personally, I'm more than happy to see all of this in the dev tracker. I'd much rather all of your posts be in the tracker than to post meaningful comments and have it not show up.

[Lifespawn]

I’m not sure how much detail I’m allowed to get into, so I better stay on the general side. The event system lets us cause things to appear at specific times, such as the tent in a particular state of jiggling animation, or a group of monsters. The monsters that were added by hand could have been done through the event system, if we had realized before-hand that they were necessary. But doing them by hand had some advantages; namely that we could randomize locations, and we could also toss in more (or fewer) spawns depending on player reaction and server performance.

We did some pretty mean things to the servers in the process. *sheepish grin* I can’t speak for technically what caused the lag, because I am not knowledgeable of such technical things; but I can say the most striking example I saw was when I spawned a single monster, watched as every player in the instance immediately zoomed in to hit it, and then boom, we were all stuck there motionless for ten minutes.

(By way of apology I spawned in a ton of loot afterward, for those who managed to ride it out.)

bah we got the big shaft on sarlona then no loot dropped whatsoever last night

[Tenkari_Rozahas]

last night htere were at least 25 Instances on Arrgo.... so many peoples to kill, I saw lot of ghosts before I joined them >>


gotta say, when you put up an event like this, you get huge turnouts, then the lag.

[In_Like_Flynn]

So many people were involved in the event that we couldn’t all fit in one room.Awesome! Thanks!

[Rekker]

We did some pretty mean things to the servers in the process. *sheepish grin* I can’t speak for technically what caused the lag, because I am not knowledgeable of such technical things; but I can say the most striking example I saw was when I spawned a single monster, watched as every player in the instance immediately zoomed in to hit it, and then boom, we were all stuck there motionless for ten minutes.

I'm gonna guess that that was instance 28 on Ghallanda. The Troll Lieutenent from Shroud Part2 appear. We started beating on him then nothing for 10 minutes. Some people had actualy been killed by him and still had damage numbers pop up after they died from attacks they did to him :eek:

[Ransacked]

Given an option of which Shroud Lieutenant to spawn, I challenge anyone to convince me that Kasquik the Mighty isn't the obvious choice. ;)

You're right... It was funny to hear some of the folks in our party who have not run the shroud yet go... "That's a kobold?!"

To which was replied:

That's not just any kobold, that's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Kobold!

[Shiranai]

I, on Ghallanda, was on almost every night for the last week and yet I didn't see more than about 5 devils and 4 orthon in the whole week. I got a total to 200 hams, 2 scepters and 1 bag during the entire week.

I think if you had spawned 4-5 devils and 3-4 orthons from every spawn point in every instance, you would have seen a much bigger/better event. Since the spawns were so far and few between, everyone was able to do laps around the market looking for them. An invasion implies that there is a significant force at one time. It would also have spread the character base across the instance so not everyone was in the same spots.

And for the first time since they've been implemented, I actually saw a Large bag drop as loot in a chest. Never before had I seen one.

Overall, the effects were good, the story, less so (as it was dragged out by (come back and see me tomorrow) stuff). The spawns, less so. They were so infrequent, most of us hardly got to see any as it was.

[Keeper]

I'm gonna guess that that was instance 28 on Ghallanda.

Yup, I believe that was the one.

[ArkoHighStar]

Yup, I believe that was the one.

interesting so did each dev get a server to beat up? and if so who got argo?

[Talon_Moonshadow]

well, my group stayed in our instance like we were told to do and saw very little! :(

No named spawns like I heard rumors of......very slow spawns just like other nights.

Yeah, started off good......and when stuff spawned it was great..
But waiting and waiting and more waiting.....was how we spent most of the night.

New quest.....cool. But our mixed group of 2lvl 4s, lvl 8, lv l9, lvl 10, lvl 13 was unable to finish it even on normal.......

lvl6.....yeah, right.

So...mixed emotions all around.

[wamjratl1]

Yup, I believe that was the one.

I believe i was there for that. Went in Phoenix Tavern to recharge boosts/clickies - came out, saw the fight, took a swing and froze! When I unfroze I was dead. Nor did I get loot (at that point anyway) But that was my only complaint.

You guys did a great job and brought a lot of fun (and some community spirit i think) to the game. I really enjoyed it and so did my guildies and allies. My wife (who teases me about being ** years old and playing video games) even asked for a daily update after she saw the suckhole appear last week. She actually reminded me on Sat : "Doesn't your Apocolypse start at 8:30?"

Thanks Turbine Doods!

[Missing_Minds]

Yup, I believe that was the one.

So who was responcible for instance 14 and not dropping anything? I would have thought pretty much soloing the Orc Lieutenent (with some major major help from a bard keeping my sorry rear alive for it) would have been worth some ham at least. Mostly I'm just miffed that people felt like stealing the kill rather than helping protect the area.

Granted when they spawned, I was like "oooo.. named. maybe get some good loot there." Then I realized these were the ones from the shroud. Then... my guild realized... These were the elite version. Did hope of loot ever drop like a rock. :) Carpal tunnel aka auto attack for the win with a bard keeping me alive ftw!

[Ransacked]

I have a different experience all together (maybe? :)

Ghallanda Market #9

We saw 2 portals that could be beat up on and 5 red named mobs.

The portals and mini mobs that came out were easily squished by the players in the area. Once the portals went down the longest fight I have participated to date ensued and it was a BLAST despite the lag.

The generals from the shroud raid 2 began to appear 1 by 1 and sometimes in pairs.

There were about 12 of us (3 in my party and a larger raid group were roving around somewhat close together) We were by the new barracks instance when the red named orc and fire elemental appeared. Our detachment took the fire elemental and dragged its agro away from the group killing the orc. (all cr33's)

Once the orc was dead the small raid group joined our efforts in trying to kill the fire elemental. We were hardly touching it.
At the same time shouts were seen in general chat about the red named bearded devil being spawned. Which conviently teleported onto our group trying to kill the fire elemental. He immediately ripped through half the people standing there leaving a wake of death (see Search for Holy grail: Look at the bones! It's got a killing streak a mile wide!) around the fire elemental.

We managed to drag both the fire elemental and the bearded devil over to the pheonix tavern door (made for great retreat and return to fight tactics)

The following fight ensued for nearly 20 minutes. Slowly more and more people which ended up around 30 or so started pounding on the bearded devil and it finally went down! Then the fire elementals timely end followed soon after. All this while I must have returned to the pheonix tavern 3 times for spell points only to come out to a raging battle immediately walking out of the door. It was intense!

Shortly after the fire elemental went down the kobold appeared kind of right in the middle of the entire group that just finished killing the fire elemental. The poor thing never even stood a chance. Once that was defeated the gnoll appeared and was dispatched even quicker than the kobold.

Once everything cleared up our small group departed from the raid group we joined in the middle of the epic fire elemental battle and went off the scout. We were standing on the bridge close to the harbor entrance when magically a shower of loot appeared right on us. Each of us got a little token which was kinda cool. Hams, bag, sceptre. Nothing fantastic but it was kinda neat. :)

From that point on we watched the end of the story unfold and the massive cannon destroy the tent.

Aside from the lag fest it really was something that I will remember for quite a time and more importantly sealed the deal for me second guessing my decisions to return back to the game. Yes there is still the same old grind that there has always been but this entire week was a really nice touch of something different. I am anxiously awaiting the next one.

[Cowdenicus]

I believe i was there for that. Went in Phoenix Tavern to recharge boosts/clickies - came out, saw the fight, took a swing and froze! When I unfroze I was dead. Nor did I get loot (at that point anyway) But that was my only complaint.

You guys did a great job and brought a lot of fun (and some community sprirt i think) to the game. I really enjoyed it and so my my guildies and allies. My wife (who teases me about being ** years old and playing video games) even asked for a daily update after she saw the suckhole appear last week. She ctually reminded me on Sat : "Doesn't your Apocolypse start at 8:30?"

Thanks Turbine Doods!

And it was me that created all the lag......

Cometfall, Flamestrike, Cometfall, Flamestrike..... They were queued up for about 4 minutes lol. Of course I wasnt the only offensive casting cleric in that zone.

[wamjratl1]

And it was me that created all the lag......

Cometfall, Flamestrike, Cometfall, Flamestrike..... They were queued up for about 4 minutes lol. Of course I wasnt the only offensive casting cleric in that zone.

LOL yes that was right before I joined you guys and I could see your boom-boom going off a mile away. You were probably contributing to the lag but also to the death of the mobs. you guys had one dude cornered on the bridge, standing in a semicircle around him just pounding him. i was plinking away but have no idea if i hit him or not....

[Dariuss]

we had a great time on Argo, instance 15 I beleive.... lots of mobs, littel treasure, but hey, we weren't there for the treasure anyways (well, i can onyl speak for myself)... lots of portals, lots of red named, devils popping up all over the place.... mostly rigth beside me :)

[Trinarius]

And it was me that created all the lag......

Cometfall, Flamestrike, Cometfall, Flamestrike..... They were queued up for about 4 minutes lol. Of course I wasnt the only offensive casting cleric in that zone.

Aequinox cast his fair share of Cometfall, betwixt Raise Dead spells, thank you very much. You know, Aequinox, the other high-level Cleric in your group... Wow, feel the love...

[Cowdenicus]

Aequinox cast his fair share of Cometfall, betwixt Raise Dead spells, thank you very much. You know, Aequinox, the other high-level Cleric in your group... Wow, feel the love...


LOL... Dont worry trin, I couldnt forget you..... Somebody had to heal. :D

[popltree2]

so that is what happened. It seems as if the GMs in Ghallanda were rather very stingy this time around. I didn't hear or see any drops at all, and only one of my guildies reported hearing/seeing anything loot wise.

It saddens me a bit, but over all I had a blast. And now I also know that I can duo the named orc with the help of a bard. just takes forever, but it is possible.

Same. On Ghallanda no loot dropped that i know of.. Oh well. I guess.

[captain1z]

Yup, I believe that was the one.

Thank you guys for craming yourselves into a room and making sure this week long event happened. A few would complain about this or that..... but as Ive said before:

"Id rather have you guys do something for us as oppossed to nothing for us"....... for this and everything else you guys and girls do....... My thanks.


The art design of it all was beautiful...... floating tower, clouds and vortex were just like OMG!!! /jawdrop.

[Laprion]

Was it Keeper that spawned Kasquix the mighty on my Girlfriend in instance 14 on ghallanda? lucky she had death ward he was a pain to kill just 10/15 of us had to soarching ray him no firewalls >.< and as i was the only caster doing it thought i was gonna run out of mana lol