End of the week with Major Malphunktion 9.23.11

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Another crazy week. People say coming up to launch is chaos, sometimes it is the weeks after one that is even busier. It basically adds another project to the list, patch gets added to the workload while Update 12 is already at full swing. We will have a hot fix ‘soon’ as in the next week to 10 days, and then a Patch another few weeks away.

Now,I have some good news and some bad news. Go ahead get your torches and pitchforks…I’ll wait.




OK you’re back?
First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.
But now this is ‘fixed’, and is like all the other places with this kind of loot in the game. Sorry. We should have had this in the release notes, but I will admit I did not cast my net far enough into the past to notice the fix. Sorry for the confusion. So, before Crystal Cove goes live, if you have items that you want to upgrade (which will make them Bound to Character), move your items to the characters that you want to own them! Note that this only affects items that will be upgraded when Crystal Cove returns, your current loot should not see its bind state change unless you try to upgrade it.
1. BTA cove items with Epic slots remained BTA when a crystal was slotted in the past. Will they remain BTA if a crystal is slotted right now? yes
2. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you slot a crystal after the hotfix? yes
3. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot right now? yes
4. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot after the hotfix? yes
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

Now the good:

• Crystal Cove is back from repair(EDIT) and in QA.It will come back sometime around the hotfix. The flip the switch day is up to Marketing, not me.( I love it and would have it on all the time) Oddly it was the same exact bug that caused some crashing issues a while back, due to mushrooms in Red Fens. So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance. See, it was the mushrooms fault…sort of. Why a mushroom and a door work the same is one of those mysteries of life, and maybe only David Attenborough knows the connection.

• We fixed melee attacks. This will be in the hot fix. (cheers!)

• We are still looking at lag- it is a tricky one, but we have a band-aid that may help that is going out with the hot fix.



Then, in the next patch…yes, a sneak peek(Note: these are not set in stone, and due to issues found may be pulled from the patch at any time)

Handwraps! No really:

• Lawful/Chaotic/Evil Outsider Bane is now working on crafted or named handwraps.
• Byeshk Weapons artificer spell now works on handwraps
• Bodyfeeder on crafted handwraps now procs! Feed away.
• competence and an enhancement bonus to attack can now stack on crafted handwraps
• Crafting: Handwraps are now useable in recipes that require the target weapon to be bludgeoning. For example, you can now put the "Stunning" effects on handwraps.
• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
• Crafting: Enhancement bonus effects can now be deconstructed from handwraps to produce Enhancement Spirit. Before this fix, the enhancement bonus deconstruction option just wouldn't appear at the crafting device for handwraps.
• Added the new handwrap enhancement bonus deconstruction recipes to the item deconstruction device.

Hirelings!
• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.
• Display cool down timers for Pet and Hireling active abilities on the control shortcut bar
• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone
• Some improvements in the AI system to make your hirelings and pets more responsive to player command. Please note that the hireling or pet will not stop in midcast to listen to your order, but will perform the requested action once it is legal for him to do so.
• Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons.

And a bunch of other stuff!!
Back to the mines! Yark!

Go Pats!
Major Malphunktion

[Rosze]

First!!!
Ty for updating beter than trying to read it from the original one cause its realy active.

• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.

Nooo... Whyy? They are the only epic wraps in game exept the alcemical ones so dont they deserve it.

• We fixed melee attacks. This will be in the hot fix. (cheers!)
Great so does this meen also hadwraps attacs work or only normal less bugy mele.

[rimble]

Obviously you realize this already, but the constant BtA / BtC flip-flops are really **** annoying.

And of course, handwraps...keep pluggin' away at 'em!

Thanks for the 'end of the week' posts, they're awesome.

[Phidius]

While the change from BtA to BtC doesn't really surprise or dismay me, I'm going to craft some new Epic items from scratch, and leave my BtA alone.

I'm sure that at some undisclosed point in the future, they will all be forced to BtC regardless of whether they are upgraded or not, but I'll get use out of them while I can.

Edit: Oh, and weekly communication threads rock so hard!

[Cam_Neely]

just a general /thumbsup to 'End of the week with Major Malphunktion' posts in general. Great idea Major!

[Jhenissa]

Handwraps! No really:

• Lawful/Chaotic/Evil Outsider Bane is now working on crafted or named handwraps.
• Byeshk Weapons artificer spell now works on handwraps
• Bodyfeeder on crafted handwraps now procs! Feed away.
• competence and an enhancement bonus to attack can now stack on crafted handwraps
• Crafting: Handwraps are now useable in recipes that require the target weapon to be bludgeoning. For example, you can now put the "Stunning" effects on handwraps.
• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
• Crafting: Enhancement bonus effects can now be deconstructed from handwraps to produce Enhancement Spirit. Before this fix, the enhancement bonus deconstruction option just wouldn't appear at the crafting device for handwraps.
• Added the new handwrap enhancement bonus deconstruction recipes to the item deconstruction device.


Major Malphunktion

Simply...Thank you.

[Don1966]

Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.
But now this is ‘fixed’, and is like all the other places with this kind of loot in the game. Sorry. We should have had this in the release notes, but I will admit I did not cast my net far enough into the past to notice the fix. Sorry for the confusion. So, before Crystal Cove goes live, if you have items that you want to upgrade (which will make them Bound to Character), move your items to the characters that you want to own them! Note that this only affects items that will be upgraded when Crystal Cove returns, your current loot should not see its bind state change unless you try to upgrade it.

Major Malphunktion

a little clarification on this if you please. if we have existing items, made the last time CC was around, if we upgrade them to the next tier they will be BTA. if we create a brand new item when CC goes live, is it going to be BTA or BTC? if we create a new item, then upgrade it to tier 2 or 3 is that going to be BTA or BTC? if the answer is BTC to all or most then that is going to cut 90% of the time i was planning on spending in CC.

[Angelus_dead]

• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone
Originally Cleric hirelings would use their melee weapons. Then they were changed to not do that, which was apparently in reaction to numerous player requests.

Players will probably consider it a downgrade if Cleric / FVS hirelings begin trying to melee. Have you seen the hitpoints on Wyoh!?

[Hokiewa]

Btc....so wait...the cove is coming back in 7-10 days or did I read that wrong....wow

[Dawnsfire]

Thanks for the heads up Maj. The Cove BTC change sucks but saves me a lot of grinding. Most of the stuff I wanted to make were twink items to pass from alt to alt. The rest sounds like a job well done.

Good luck with the patches.

[Bargol]

You kept your word that you would continue this weekly communication. Very pleased to see this.

[red_cardinal]

Is U12 a ranged pass and do rangers get anything?

[Kalari]

Glad to see another of these up but I cannot say I understand the reasoning behind changing BTA to BTC for the cove items, and glad you did admit this should have been put in the release notes. Got me wondering now though whats so bad about one person making bound to account level 20 gear? I can understand the lower level stuff wanting people to play at all levels instead of 20s only but what about those who have many level 20s and found it easier to designate one to get the job done? oh well glad I got the majority of the things I wanted last time at least now I wont have any issues farming renown instead.

And yay handwraps my monk will be a happy camper for sure.

[smatt]

Uh oh....


Thanks for the info Maj! You better duck though.... Maybe get some duct tape, plastic, and bottled water... INCOMMMINNNGGG! :eek: :D

[Uthar]

So, when does Crystal Cove go live?

[Vissarion]

Really like the communication from Turbine here.

However, it is unfortunate that Cove items will now be BTC. They aren't really that overpowered, and act as a decent bridge to endgame questing, especially with the changes to hard/elite/epic.

Making them BTC will eventually render most of them into relics, as people acquire gear that surpasses them in power/utility.

[Cam_Neely]

Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated.

Does this mean
1.) I have a tier III Epic Ratkiller from the last time CC was out. If i dont epic slot it, it stays BTA?

2.) If I has a tier II Epic Ratkiller from the last time CC was out. If I updated it, it then become BTC, by whoever updates it?

3.) Will collectibles stay BTA? ie I can farm the quest with my lv 18 guy for XP, then pass the components to other characters to build the weapons they want (which will then be BTC)?

Thanks

[Pwesiela]

This thread is approved by players. :cool:

[Unreliable]

FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IBT 500 replies!

[gloopygloop]

Handwraps! No really:

There appear to be three types of handwraps (lootgen, Cannith crafted and named). Can you tell us which of these categories will be broken in the 11.1 hotfix/patch?

Edit: MajMalphunktion has confirmed later in the thread. The answer is "all of them".

[smatt]

a little clarification on this if you please. if we have existing items, made the last time CC was around, if we upgrade them to the next tier they will be BTA. if we create a brand new item when CC goes live, is it going to be BTA or BTC? if we create a new item, then upgrade it to tier 2 or 3 is that going to be BTA or BTC? if the answer is BTC to all or most then that is going to cut 90% of the time i was planning on spending in CC.


Looks like he said old/current items will stay as is unless you try to upgrade them. Any upgrade, whether it's in epic ritual device, or a CC upgrad ewhen it reopens iwll bind it too character. All new itmes aquired when it comes out will be BTC period end of story. Not sure about things like the little air ellie cheat stones etc...


That's what I got..

[Grosbeak07]

•Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons.

I greatly appreicate this (as long as it comes to pass ;))

Thank you.

[Kalari]

that just means the few items I didnt tier up and have sitting in my shared bank will not be upgraded unless I really want that alt to have it. but now got to worry I have a couple of nice fully upgraded level 20 cove items that are not bound yet cause I didnt add augments to them yet now I dont want to touch them since they are still bound to account.

still all in all better to know then to find out while trying to upgrade them on my cove mule that would **** me off to have a sorc full of useless items.

[Qaliya]

Thank you very much for posting this. It is exactly the sort of thing I like to see from a company (and the sort of thing I was asking for in that.. other.. thread. :) )

Really, honestly appreciate the effort. I've worked in QA and I know it's a tough job.

[Bladedge]

What was so bad about having the items BtA. Not everyone wants to run making a dozen or more of the same items for different characters for it to become obsolete a few levels or or game updates later. The items were not even that powerful.

Was looking forward to Crystal Cove now Ill pass, its guild XP and character XP.

[aiastelmon]

So when is the cove opening? Surely not 7-10 days from now?

[smatt]

There appear to be three types of handwraps (lootgen, Cannith crafted and named). Can you tell us which of these categories will be broken in the 11.1 hotfix/patch?

You roll a D3 3 times.... :D

[Ninety]

So when is the Cove live?

[Qaliya]

So when is the Cove live?

Confused as well, I thought "back from repair" meant it was .. back. :D

[Drakos]

• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
Ok, so first I'd like to know what was SOOOO overpowered about the Mabar Wraps again? The only Epic Handwraps in the game! They were really only steller vs. Undead opponents, even though they are epic they have no Slot (where most epic weapons have a red slot). I fail to se how OP they are.

Secondly, when is the Hot Fix! scheduled?

[Nospheratus]

Regardless of the content, Maj, you win! :)

Thanks for the info! Really!

[smatt]

So when is the Cove live?


I think he said a week to 10 days.... But withheld any PROMISES......

I'm sure though that we can take that as a promsie and so in a week to 10 days label him appropriately :eek::D

Just kidding ;) He said a week to 10 days though... Reread the part about "Hotfix"

[DaGreat1]

• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.

I know he's not an hireling, but does that include Coyle Lovell as well? :D

[voodoogroves]

Clarity on what goes BTC and when would be appreciated.

If I have a BTA epic item and I slot it w/ Lahar, does it go BTC?
If I have a BTA epic item and I clear it w/ 3 tokens w/ Lahar, does it go BTC?

[Morlen]

You have the ring! And I see your swartz is as big as mine!

Thanks for the continued effort to keep the community out of the dark. Much appreciated.

(+1, keep this up and your greenis won't even fit on the screen.)

[Cyr]

Honestly the whole changing the binding on stuff is crazy.

If it was intended to be one way originally then the devs should have said so when it launched so that we all expected this next time around with guidance on if they would be retro-actively changed. I am well aware this is not your department and am a little dismayed that development did not man up and take the hit for what will clearly be an unpopular decision.

Also it is 100% unaceptable that these types of things continue to be tucked into updates without properly being stated on the release notes again this is not a critique of QA as this is most certainly not your department.

Oh and my take on the BtA thing is that events only go on for part of the year. People can not run them with their new toons to get the gear or their toons that they had to TR because the devs again decided to gimp their particular build. That made BtA the logical type of binding to place on these items. It does not make much sense to have BtC stuff from events that are both trivial in nature (lets not kid ourselves here) and time limited.

[fatherpirate]

I support the Cleric/FS hireling fix.

Lets face it, I am solo with a cleric, I tell him/her to attack the 'whatever' on the left so I can
deal with the 2 on the right.

Current behavior - cleric/FS throws some token spell at it..then just stands there.

If I tell a hireling to attack something..I want them to do that.

[rayworks]

Yes, I'll repeat it.

When will the Cove go live?

I note that you very cleverly didn't mention when in your post. Given that you know we'd want to know, I take it you did it on purpose. Why?

[Hokiewa]

Honestly the whole changing the binding on stuff is crazy.

....

Oh and my take on the BtA thing is that events only go on for part of the year. People can not run them with their new toons to get the gear or their toons that they had to TR because the devs again decided to gimp their particular build. That made BtA the logical type of binding to place on these items. It does not make much sense to have BtC stuff from events that are both trivial in nature (lets not kid ourselves here) and time limited.

This. 1000% times this. Also, this only adds to the woes of those stating that grouping is non-existant during these events.

[gloopygloop]

First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated.

Also, please, PLEASE, *PLEASE* put this as its own Official Turbine Discussion post and put a note up in the DDO launcher as soon as possible so that people can get their Cove items moved to the correct character if they happen to have it sitting on a bank character currently.

I can't tell you how annoying it was to find out that the 2000 guild Haste potions that were sitting on my 10th level Bard suddenly became Bound to Character without warning when that change was made to guild potions. And that was only Haste potions, not Epic gear.

PLEASE make every reasonable attempt to let people who don't read the forums know this before it rolls out. And not just the day before it rolls out.

[Marupal]

Still more waiting for CC to return? Breaks the heart but at least there is an estimated finish line.

The BTA to BTC switch hurts too, but thanks for the advance warning on it. Doesn't feel like a slap in the face, just a nerf.

Thanks also for taking the time to put this bit together weekly. +1

[protokon]

• Some improvements in the AI system to make your hirelings and pets more responsive to player command. Please note that the hireling or pet will not stop in midcast to listen to your order, but will perform the requested action once it is legal for him to do so.


This caught my eye particularly. I thought it would be worth noting here:

I've noticed the behavior with my arti dog to be a bit odd in a few ways: He is specced for intim, and will randomly attempt to intim enemies on his own. I love this, however - immediately following an intim attempt, he then returns to me as if everything was dead and resumes to follow me as if no enemies are around. Granted, I think he starts to attack stuff again after a few seconds, but I havent noticed due to me spamming the "ATTACK!" button on his hotbar as soon as I see him try to intim stuff.

another note, I am assuming the dog's intim has a cooldown timer to due to the fact he doesnt continuously intim if I spam the intim button. It would be *GREAT* if we could see the cooldown timer, just for convenience.

I am impressed with the AI of the dog's, much better than hirelings but still have a few bugs to kink out. More responsive sounds like a nice improvement i look forward to.

[Bladedge]

Honestly the whole changing the binding on stuff is crazy.

If it was intended to be one way originally then the devs should have said so when it launched so that we all expected this next time around with guidance on if they would be retro-actively changed.

Agreed a notice on the first CC especially when Devs knew about would of been welcomed.

Wouldn't been to hard for a dev, any dev or CS or even a QM to post

"Current BTA Crystal Cove items are Not WAI will be fix in future update."

[deathtouch]

Thank god that Melee attack will now work again and there is a small fix for lag! Please keep working on the lag issue... but this post makes me happy!

[LookingForABentoBox]

So, before Crystal Cove goes live, if you have items that you want to upgrade (which will make them Bound to Character), move your items to the characters that you want to own them! Note that this only affects items that will be upgraded when Crystal Cove returns, your current loot should not see its bind state change unless you try to upgrade it.


Why do we have to move the items before CC comes back? Aren't you saying that we should move the items before we upgrade them, even after CC comes back?

[Meat-Head]

Sooooo appreciated.

[bnastyy]

thank you major for letting us, as a community, what is going on....i almost lost hope in you guys :/

[Valindria]

I thought it was odd the hats were BTC but the other items were not. I'd rather have BTA but oh well.

Please tell me the collectables are BTA though. I hope that is the case. If it's just BTC when you craft or upgrade (from last event) that would be best.

[smatt]

Honestly the whole changing the binding on stuff is crazy.

If it was intended to be one way originally then the devs should have said so when it launched so that we all expected this next time around with guidance on if they would be retro-actively changed. I am well aware this is not your department and am a little dismayed that development did not man up and take the hit for what will clearly be an unpopular decision.

Also it is 100% unaceptable that these types of things continue to be tucked into updates without properly being stated on the release notes again this is not a critique of QA as this is most certainly not your department.

Oh and my take on the BtA thing is that events only go on for part of the year. People can not run them with their new toons to get the gear or their toons that they had to TR because the devs again decided to gimp their particular build. That made BtA the logical type of binding to place on these items. It does not make much sense to have BtC stuff from events that are both trivial in nature (lets not kid ourselves here) and time limited.


At least Maj has the eggs to say it.... I have a funny feeling none of the other Devs would..... How could such a change NOT be in teh Realease notes? I mean you knwo this was a conscious decision, and one that they HAD to know would spark controversy, and therefore, it would be a very hard one to slip through the cracks.

Yet another U-11 timeframe... Bang your head on the wall Turbine blunder... Bad month...

[Yetzederixx]

I think it's hilarious that so many people see the switch from BtA to BtC as a nerfing. Every other epic item in the game is BtC. It would take six generations of having a father/brother to not see this change coming.

Good work on communication. We shouldn't of learned of many of the changes from some guy at a convention, and I think a good chunk of the recent flaming/trolling could have been prevented if Turbine had bothered to do something like this.

"Hey guys! There's a new class coming in, but it'll be a favor reward and unfortunately we don't have enough quests built/tested at this time for you to earn it." (I still say VIP's should of got a discount on it, but that's another gripe.) See? Took me 10 seconds to write that.

Keep up the good work.

[smatt]

Why do we have to move the items before CC comes back? Aren't you saying that we should move the items before we upgrade them, even after CC comes back?


Seems he's saying move them EARLY to avoid the chance that people upgrade them on the wrong toon.

[Tarragon12]

Another crazy week.
Major Malphunktion


It seems, you are handling your job admirably and with love hence Moore law says, you will be promoted soon. Alas.

[Battery]

Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons. .

Will hireling follow you into Garamol's room since it's not a seperate instance like HoX and VoD?

[Devastation]

There appear to be three types of handwraps (lootgen, Cannith crafted and named). Can you tell us which of these categories will be broken in the 11.1 hotfix/patch?

My guess is all will be... :(

And yea jumping on the "OP Hand wraps NOT" bandwagon... "See they <Bleep> you in the drive thru"

[Backley]

My takeaway:
1. BTA cove items become BTC when upgraded after the hotfix in 7-10 days. Upgrading in the cove will make the item BTC on the character that upgrades the item.
2. BTA cove items not upgraded will remain BTA for the foreseeable future.

My questions:
3. BTA cove items with Epic slots remained BTA when a crystal was slotted in the past. Will they remain BTA if a crystal is slotted right now?
4. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you slot a crystal after the hotfix?
5. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot right now?
6. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot after the hotfix?

Basically, should we all go slot our BTA epic cove items before the hotfix, or are we too late aready?

[red_cardinal]

• Crystal Cove is back from repair. Oddly it was the same exact bug that caused some crashing issues a while back, due to mushrooms in Red Fens. So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance. See, it was the mushrooms fault…sort of. Why a mushroom and a door work the same is one of those mysteries of life, and maybe only David Attenborough knows the connection.


public void useDoor() throws ShroomPointerException {}

[rimble]

I think it's hilarious that so many people see the switch from BtA to BtC as a nerfing. Every other epic item in the game is BtC.

Did he say it just applied to the Epic versions? If so I missed that...

[Zenako]

Major

You need to expound on the implimentation of the BtA going to BtC for CC.

Items already in existance that are BtA.

Is it true that if you do nothing more to them, they remain BtA, so for example level 8 or 12 items can still be passed around, but IF you actually go to UPGRADE them at the CC event, then those items become BtC to the character doing the upgrading. (or could it be bound on Equip like some of the named drops in recent quest packs?)

That if you create a NEW item in the CC event, it will be BtC to the creator.

A HUGE question also about the BtA items like Dubloons and Gems. I REALLLY Hope those remain BtA so that we do not have to figure out how to split up hundreds of gems and thousands of coins left over from before ahead of time.

If you mean to tell us that when the CC zone gets upgraded that all items will suddenly become BtC to whomever currently has them, that REALLY NEEDS to be made 100000% clear ahead of time.

This will in effect remove one of the very nice features of CC, the ability to craft up a series of moderately nice items that you could share amoung a stable of characters without having to make a seperate set for each. (In Mabar I have many characters who now have dusty unused lower level cloaks wasting away in the bank, since those were all BtC items. Frankly that was annoying, but with far fewer items to consider, almost tolerable.

[Cordovan]

Seems he's saying move them EARLY to avoid the chance that peopel upgrade them on them ont he wrong toon.

Yes. If you have an item that you want to upgrade, make sure you upgrade that item using the character you want to have using that item, when Crystal Cove returns.

[Aelithia]

Well, guess I won't be playing the Cove when it comes back. The lure of the items, to me at least, was the ability to move decent items to newer characters while I geared them up with better gear. With the removal of that aspect, I don't feel any desire to make more than perhaps a few Superior False Life hats.

+1 for keeping up the weekly update though.

[grodon9999]

Yes. If you have an item that you want to upgrade, make sure you upgrade that item using the character you want to have using that item, when Crystal Cove returns.

Isn't there enough grinding in this game at this point?

[Dolphious]

My takeaway:
1. BTA cove items become BTC when upgraded after the hotfix in 7-10 days. Upgrading in the cove will make the item BTC on the character that upgrades the item.
2. BTA cove items not upgraded will remain BTA for the foreseeable future.

My questions:
3. BTA cove items with Epic slots remained BTA when a crystal was slotted in the past. Will they remain BTA if a crystal is slotted right now?
4. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you slot a crystal after the hotfix?
5. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot right now?
6. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot after the hotfix?

Basically, should we all go slot our BTA epic cove items before the hotfix, or are we too late aready?

Excellent questions, I would also like to know the answer to this.

Also, what's going on with Mabar wraps? Are they just not going to be OP because other wraps will work, or are they getting a nerf?

[geoffhanna]

Anything on changes to the Vitals bar UI?

[w4crew1]

How about L4 and L8 versions of the cove gear? Will they remain BTA or will they also become BTC rendering them useless except for TRs?

[darksol23]

OK you’re back?
First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.

/me equips pitchfork

Can we get a clarification... Will the old BtA items ever magically become BtC? For example, will they magically become BtC after slotting an epic augment? Or clearing an epic augment?

Edit: Additionally, can we leave BtA Cove items safely in our shared banks?

[gloopygloop]

Why do we have to move the items before CC comes back? Aren't you saying that we should move the items before we upgrade them, even after CC comes back?

Move the items NOW. Do not wait until the CC even comes back.

The intended result is for current BtA items to remain BtA until they are upgraded.

Do you want to be surprised with Cove items on the "wrong" character if the intended result doesn't quite happen correctly and all of your current BtA items become BtC?
Expecially when you actually had some warning ahead of time to prevent the problem?

[Samadhi]

Please elaborate on the BTC... does it become BTC when the update hits? or when the items are upgraded? Your language suggests one but the context suggests the other...

So if I get a NEW un-upgraded item... what will it be?

[protokon]

Am I understanding correctly that there is a new birthday pitchfork available from the cove event when it comes back up? :p

[Cyr]

Isn't there enough grinding in this game at this point?

Apparently people spending an entire week in CC was not grindy enough. I mean the kobolds were cute the first few times, but really I wanted to punch the dev who designed the entire event at the end of it. Running the same quest nonstop is incredibly boring. It is far worse then the old TR grinding of quests. At least then you moved on after a few hours.

[aiastelmon]

So basically the event is going to end up being 2-3 weeks late, we don't know what the dates will be extended to, and the items are going to be nerfed.

I'm thrilled I re-upped VIP for this : )

[Bladedge]

Did he say it just applied to the Epic versions? If so I missed that...

Wish it was just the epic version of the items that become BtC the change would not be so bad but for the lv 4-16 items...

[Full_Bleed]

Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated.

Can we get some Event Trunks/Chests? Having all the various Mabar and Cove pieces of gear that are BTC is taking up a lot of unnecessary space. I've bought all the shared bank I can. All the Character Bank I can. All of the Character pack space I can.

But I'm going to have 3-5 of the same rings, armor, cloaks, weapons, etc, etc, etc... just taking up space. And I don't want to delete the stuff because its event related, took time to get, and it'll be useful on a TR.

So, please give us Trunks/Chests that are event specific that we we can stick EVENT gear inside to store in our banks. Go ahead and charge us for it if you have to (like the Cookie Jar.) I don't much care how you do it, but it's just not right that half of my bank should be full of multiple copies of each piece of event gear or that I should be forced to destroy event gear to make room.

[Zess-wolf]

Well...The BTC were expected already...but the ingredients, will they remain BTA? make life easier for us turbine...otherwise will start cleaning my pitchfork :) Btw...u preffer a healing torch togheter? or the average one?


Cheers,

ZessKobold

*I still remember waterworks!*

[Esserbe]

This is not cool.

[Yetzederixx]

Did he say it just applied to the Epic versions? If so I missed that...

I stand corrected. Why un-upgraded items would change from BtA to BtC is beyond me then. Fire away!

[grodon9999]

Most of the Crystal Cove stuff it temporary junk you use until you get better stuff. Words cannot describe how much making this BTC sucks.

Reconsider this Turbine.

[Zenako]

Seriously they should consider a middle ground on the CC items.

Anything of less than EPIC level should remain BtA both old items and any new ones created.

If they really have heartburn about level 20 items with the EPIC name on them being freely moved about, make any of them that are upgraded or newly created convert to BtC.

Making all the mid level stuff convert to BtC mode really blows for people with a handful or more of characters. That was one of the real nice aspects of the event. Not having to waste time and gems/coins making sets for everyone to use. It was a nice feature to only need to make one or maybe 2 copies of the level 8 versions of items, and again a couple of the level 12, etc. So that characters could pass them down as they outgrew them.

[Qaliya]

Still confused by: "Crystal Cove is back from repair."

This is written in the present tense, but near a discussion of a hot fix 7-10 days away. Can someone clarify?

And I'm asking not solely out of impatience, but because if they only keep the last week of this I'll likely miss the entire thing and I want to not plan on having it in that case.

Thanks.

[Eladrin]

but the ingredients, will they remain BTA?
The ingredients remain BTA, as are the items when they're fresh out of the box with no upgrades.

[Uthar]

[QUOTE=MajMalphunktion;4092470]




Now the good:

• Crystal Cove is back from repair. Oddly it was the same exact bug that caused some crashing issues a while back, due to mushrooms in Red Fens. So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance. See, it was the mushrooms fault…sort of. Why a mushroom and a door work the same is one of those mysteries of life, and maybe only David Attenborough knows the connection.

Does this go out with the Hot Fix in 7-10 days or if it is fixed will it be implemented now?

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Does this mean
1.) I have a tier III Epic Ratkiller from the last time CC was out. If i dont epic slot it, it stays BTA?

2.) If I has a tier II Epic Ratkiller from the last time CC was out. If I updated it, it then become BTC, by whoever updates it?

3.) Will collectibles stay BTA? ie I can farm the quest with my lv 18 guy for XP, then pass the components to other characters to build the weapons they want (which will then be BTC)?

Thanks

yes
yes
yes

[Zarquine]

Do I understand this right? We have to wait 7-10 days until Crystal Cove is back? Really? After that "fiasco"?

[Coldin]

Yes. If you have an item that you want to upgrade, make sure you upgrade that item using the character you want to have using that item, when Crystal Cove returns.

I hope you realize that this change is rather ridiculous, considering all the items to make the items in question are BTA.

This just means all my items from last time will not be getting upgraded, and I'll simply make new items to upgrade.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Still confused by: "Crystal Cove is back from repair."

This is written in the present tense, but near a discussion of a hot fix 7-10 days away. Can someone clarify?

And I'm asking not solely out of impatience, but because if they only keep the last week of this I'll likely miss the entire thing and I want to not plan on having it in that case.

Thanks.

Sure sorry, back from repair on *my* machine, not on live.

[Captain_Wizbang]

Major Malfunction, Kudos for the info, We have waited a long time for weekly status reports, Truly appreciated from all of us.

Just one thing;
This is Pete, one of my pet dragons, he's been working for 2 years trying to get rid of lag! Think the devs can help him out a little?
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm299/chefricochet/lag.gif?t=1296182348

[grodon9999]

Seriously they should consider a middle ground on the CC items.

Anything of less than EPIC level should remain BtA both old items and any new ones created.

If they really have heartburn about level 20 items with the EPIC name on them being freely moved about, make any of them that are upgraded or newly created convert to BtC.

Making all the mid level stuff convert to BtC mode really blows for people with a handful or more of characters. That was one of the real nice aspects of the event. Not having to waste time and gems/coins making sets for everyone to use. It was a nice feature to only need to make one or maybe 2 copies of the level 8 versions of items, and again a couple of the level 12, etc. So that characters could pass them down as they outgrew them.

No, forget a middle ground period. The stuff should remain BTA. Most of this junk is simple twink loot, none if it is what a character will be "burried" in.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Please elaborate on the BTC... does it become BTC when the update hits? or when the items are upgraded? Your language suggests one but the context suggests the other...

So if I get a NEW un-upgraded item... what will it be?

When they are upgraded. Anything you have right now will be how it is...unless you upgrade it. Remember CC exists right now in this state on live, it is just off...nothing was versioned or changed in your inventory.

[Uthar]

Sure sorry, back from repair on *my* machine, not on live.

So, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN! Going live in 7-10 days? How times does the question need to be asked.

[Qaliya]

Sure sorry, back from repair on *my* machine, not on live.

Thank you (though man, it is really disappointing that it will be so much longer until it goes live.)

Will the event be extended?

[maddmatt70]

Thank you sir for giving the playerbase both knowledge of the process as well as specific details/changes being made. It is good to get an understanding of the work that is done following an update. There is work done on a patch, work in preparation for the coming update 12, and more general work? My assumption here is that after nearly every update an assessment is made as to any patch that is necessary and the timeline on that patch's release date. The criteria for what is put into a patch is also good to have an idea of.

It would of course be interesting to hear why Turbine has experimented so much with number of releases per year and types of releases (some releases have significantly more content then others) over the course of this game's history. It seems like there is going to be another change coming soon to this with update 12, but no confirmation...

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

So, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN! Going live in 7-10 days? How times does the question need to be asked.

Yes in 7 to 10 days.

[Sarezar]

Thank you for fixing crafting on Handwraps, really great news.

[smatt]

This is how "I" read what Maj said in his first post startign this thread ont he topic of Crystal Cove items. Let's see how close I am...


1. All newly created items will be BTC, on the character they are created on, end of story...

2. Old itmes will remain BTA unless you

A) Upgade in epic alter
B) You don't upgrade them in Euphoria's box with another tier.

If you do either A or B, they will bind to character immediately, not on equip.

That should cover all the items.. Simple..

He did not say anything about whether the the collectibile you use to buy the items will be BTC or BTA.

[Cordovan]

To answer at least some of the questions so far:

When Crystal Cove returns, any items that are upgraded through the barter box will become Bound to Character at the time they are upgraded. So, if you get basic Calvary Plate, it'll be Bound to Account up to and until you upgrade it, at which point it will become Bound to Character. This bind status will happen on all levels of the item; the level 16 Calvary Plate will become Bound to Character when upgraded, just as the level 20 plate does.

Consumables and other items from Crystal Cove that are not upgraded (or upgradable) will remain Bound to Account.

Augment slots: Clearing an augment slot, or slotting something into the augment slot, will not change the bind status of the item.

[Ryiah]

Apparently people spending an entire week in CC was not grindy enough. I mean the kobolds were cute the first few times, but really I wanted to punch the dev who designed the entire event at the end of it. Running the same quest nonstop is incredibly boring. It is far worse then the old TR grinding of quests. At least then you moved on after a few hours.

Amazing how the developers waste so much time making an event only for it to be so boring in the end. I may find the time to waste getting fresh items up to Tier 3 for the only character I even care about anymore or I likely will just ignore this sorry excuse for an event.

[Coldin]

I should add, I'm thankful for these threads. I really missed the old Weekly Dev Activities, and this is a welcome return to the days of old. Even if most of these things are bugs, bugs have made up my biggest complaints in DDO lately.

By the way, any news on how Monk Shintao abilities (like Smite Tainted Creature) do not proc off-hand attacks while fighting unarmed?

[Yetzederixx]

The ingredients remain BTA, as are the items when they're fresh out of the box with no upgrades.

Thank the powers that be.

[kinar]

When they are upgraded. Anything you have right now will be how it is...unless you upgrade it. Remember CC exists right now in this state on live, it is just off...nothing was versioned or changed in your inventory.

Does slotting the epic slot count as upgrading? So when my Devils Ruin slots run out and I need to place new ones, will that cause it to change from BTA to BTC?

[Zarquine]

Well, thank you MajMalphunktion for at least keeping us informed. You are gaining a lot of "rep" in my book. :)

[Zess-wolf]

The ingredients remain BTA, as are the items when they're fresh out of the box with no upgrades.

Thanks a lot Eladrin... i can live with that ;D

[Cyr]

To answer at least some of the questions so far:

When Crystal Cove returns, any items that are upgraded through the barter box will become Bound to Character at the time they are upgraded. So, if you get basic Calvary Plate, it'll be Bound to Account up to and until you upgrade it, at which point it will become Bound to Character. This bind status will happen on all levels of the item; the level 16 Calvary Plate will become Bound to Character when upgraded, just as the level 20 plate does.

Consumables and other items from Crystal Cove that are not upgraded (or upgradable) will remain Bound to Account.

Augment slots: Clearing an augment slot, or slotting something into the augment slot, will not change the bind status of the item.

I must say I am even more confused by the logic of having the 'base' item BtA and then the upgrades BtC. That screams to me new player trap. It's not like people are going to be gushing over how great the base items are so they are leaving them BtA. Really this will just result in more confusion in the long run.

[Zenako]

thanks for stepping in quickly and answering some of the burning questions before the masses had a raging pitchfork rally all weekend...:)

Stuff we have already on mules etc is cool. good to know. Panic attacks going awy...

Ingredients staying BtA...very good...major attacks averted...

Upgrading items from base level...sigh

rapid damage control is appreciated, even if the subject matter is not....

[grodon9999]

The best thing we can be thankful for is we don't have to waste any more time running this nonsense.

[bhgiant]

Yes in 7 to 10 days.
Business or calendar? ;)

[RobertVesco]

To answer at least some of the questions so far:

any items that are upgraded through the barter box will become Bound to Character at the time they are upgraded. So, if you get basic Calvary Plate, it'll be Bound to Account up to and until you upgrade it, at which point it will become Bound to Character. This bind status will happen on all levels of the item; the level 16 Calvary Plate will become Bound to Character when upgraded, just as the level 20 plate does.



Well now that makes sense. Any fresh items created will be BTA, but will be BTC when you go thru the upgrade process.
I don't remember, but can't you just build an item to a specific tier and not have to upgrade it at all?

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

My takeaway:
1. BTA cove items become BTC when upgraded after the hotfix in 7-10 days. Upgrading in the cove will make the item BTC on the character that upgrades the item.
2. BTA cove items not upgraded will remain BTA for the foreseeable future.

My questions:
3. BTA cove items with Epic slots remained BTA when a crystal was slotted in the past. Will they remain BTA if a crystal is slotted right now?
4. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you slot a crystal after the hotfix?
5. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot right now?
6. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot after the hotfix?

Basically, should we all go slot our BTA epic cove items before the hotfix, or are we too late aready?

Too late already.
So:
3 yes
4.yes
5 yes
6 yes
Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.

Fixed because I was wrong.
it looks like adding a crystal to one of these items or clearing the slot should both leave the item still BTA.
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

[Cyr]

Too late already.
So:
3 yes
4.no
5 no
6 no
Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.

? Your answers about augment slotting and clearing are the opposite of what Cordovan posted a little above you in thread. Can you guys check your facts on this one and whoever is wrong correct their post so no one gets the wrong impression here?

[Ganolyn]

Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.


Thanks for responding so quickly with all the clarifications. I am going to jump on the log in bandwagon and ask you guys to make a post about this on the log in screen (if not already in the works) so people who don't frequent the forums are not left holding BTC junk that they don't want on certain characters.

[Backley]

Too late already.
So:
3 yes
4.no
5 no
6 no
Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.

Vs.

Augment slots: Clearing an augment slot, or slotting something into the augment slot, will not change the bind status of the item.

Direct conflict here. Which is true now, and after the hotfix?

[NytCrawlr]

While I am sad that things in the Cove are becoming BtC when upgraded, I am not too surprised, since this is the way things are mostly across the board.

Overall I am glad for these types of threads, and hope they continue despite some of the negativity. I have monks that I can dust off now due to handwraps being resolved (once the patch is out) and am looking forward throwing more time into this game, despite some of the grind.

As for CC, it's obvious it's not going away and will be something that comes around once or twice a year, so the key will be to focus on one character while it is around for that time, that's my plan anyways. (Unless you've got all the time in the world to grind it out with your other toons of course.)

[Ganolyn]

Overall I am glad for these types of threads, and hope they continue despite some of the negativity.


Me too! They said they'd try and communicate more, not make us happy! :p:D

[rest]

I think it's hilarious that so many people see the switch from BtA to BtC as a nerfing. Every other epic item in the game is BtC.

That is incorrect. I know of at least 2 "regular" epic items that are BTA.

[sidgarret]

Good communication and good effort sorting stuff - but unless u sort out the lag none of the other things matters.

Just had to give up on a guild raid again. Tried epic chrono - couldnt get past banker cause no spells went off - no healing no cc and as a hitter u couldnt tell what u hit or when. Then we tried a normal TOD - lagged out in part 2 with shadows - no one could move - end of guild raid night.

This is how its been for a long time now - we havent completed several raids in three weeks - and lots of us been around since release of game and have done the raids lots and lots of times before.

And dont tell me again that about 20 different guildies in 15 different countries all have ISP problems - its an insult to our intelligence.

Been playing game since release - now its getting close to moving on - this is not playable atm. Raiding is stopped atm - no point trying.

But i still applaud this thread and the updates on what is going on and crossing my fingers that this band aid to lag will help.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

too Late Already.
So:
3 Yes
4.yes
5 Yes
6 Yes
Move Them To The Toon You Want To Own Them Before Mucking With Them.

Fixed Because I Was Wrong.
It Looks Like Adding A Crystal To One Of These Items Or Clearing The Slot Should Both Leave The Item Still Bta.
The Only Time It Will Become Btc Is If You Put It In The Barter Box And Upgrade It.
12345

[NytCrawlr]

That is incorrect. I know of at least 2 "regular" epic items that are BTA.

I'm sure those will be changed in time as well. ;)

Seriously, the BtA to BtC is really a non-issue and something that should have been seen with a little foresight.

[DeadRabbat]

Thanks for the update(s). +1..hell +2 :)
Especially the Wraps.

[Bodic]

1. pilot light lit .... Check
2. gas is burning....Check
3 water boiling........Check

We are cooking with gas baby.

[IllOracle]

Thank you for starting this up MajMalphunktion and for all the others that help add clarity to our gaming. *shines the developer of the month award* For some reason knowing that the goodness/badness is coming makes it take better.

BTA/BTC - Well there were a lot of us that were super surprised that they were not initially BTC so not a huge hit. Like the previous poster.. grind for one toon at a time.

I am certainly glad to see there was some love to crafting wraps, but if there's a list to sign not to change the Mabar handwraps, put me on it. I loves them they way they was. Don't change me one wraps that were truly Epic unless unless it's getting something more awesome... like a bottle Opener.

[rest]

I'm sure those will be changed in time as well. ;)

Seriously, the BtA to BtC is really a non-issue and something that should have been seen with a little foresight.

Probably. Currently I only have 1 of the BTA epics items, and it's on who I want it on so even if it were to become BTC I wouldn't be upset.

[rest]

Vs.


Direct conflict here. Which is true now, and after the hotfix?

They probably don't even know themselves.

I'd be more likely to side with the actual developer over a simple "community specialist" but who knows at this point. We'll find out on hotfix day!

[Ganolyn]

They probably don't even know themselves.

I'd be more likely to side with the actual developer over a simple "community specialist" but who knows at this point. We'll find out on hotfix day!



They know:



Fixed Because I Was Wrong.
It Looks Like Adding A Crystal To One Of These Items Or Clearing The Slot Should Both Leave The Item Still Bta.
The Only Time It Will Become Btc Is If You Put It In The Barter Box And Upgrade It.

[rest]

They know:

Then why does Cordovan offer conflicting information?

[SirShen]

Thanks for the update. So when Crystal Cove comes back will it be extended or will it finish on October 10th?

[Cam_Neely]

yes
yes
yes

thank you
thank you
thank you

Go Pats!

[Ganolyn]

Then why does Cordovan offer conflicting information?


Major M posted one thing. Cordovan posted conflicting info. Major M just posted that he was incorrect and posted the same thing Cordovan did.

[Cordovan]

They probably don't even know themselves.

I'd be more likely to side with the actual developer over a simple "community specialist" but who knows at this point. We'll find out on hotfix day!

Bolded for emphasis...I disagree. I am a very complex community specialist. :)

[RedOrm]

Thank you, MajMalphunktion, for the update; it's greatly appreciated.

As for CC, I'm so VERY glad the items I made last time are as upgraded as I want them! Guess this time I'll settle for a bunch of epic items for when my toons reach level 20 as making lower level stuff isn't worth the effort anymore. Very sad on that... Ah well. At least it makes my shopping list considderably shorter.

[TheDearLeader]

I am kind of sad to hear about the BtC qualities. As others have said, these are nice items for toons new to 20, or really just new toons throughout all the levels. Taking the BtA away just means an increasingly large amount of gear that will get banked and never used again.

I think many players were hoping that instead of being changed to BtA, Turbine would learn from the Crystal Cove event and also apply the BtA flag to Mabar items. Many of the items are nice, but just not worth making for how long a single character would actually be using them. On the same token, I do believe many hope that the Mabar items will get updated to have Augment slots of some type, at least for their Epic Versions.

[varusso]

Too late already.
So:
3 yes
4.yes
5 yes
6 yes
Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.

Fixed because I was wrong.
it looks like adding a crystal to one of these items or clearing the slot should both leave the item still BTA.
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

OK I want to be absolutely certain, and it doesnt seem any of the turbine staff has specifically addressed this one:
I have a few epic spyglasses (no crystals, just the spyglass, epic). Currently in its "neutral" state, it is BTA. When CC goes live, will this item become BTC automatically? All of the talk here seems to be that they will only become BTC when we modify them in some way (upgrading, slotting crystal, etc). But it seems that the items that are already fully upgraded *right now* would become BTC automatically, or else the change is rather pointless....so what is it?

Also, assume this question applies to all other fully upgraded CC items, such as the SP-trinket, the rings, etc. if they are CURRENTLY upgraded beyond the base item.

[Cordovan]

OK I want to be absolutely certain, and it doesnt seem any of the turbine staff has specifically addressed this one:
I have a few epic spyglasses (no crystals, just the spyglass, epic). Currently in its "neutral" state, it is BTA. When CC goes live, will this item become BTC automatically? All of the talk here seems to be that they will only become BTC when we modify them in some way (upgrading, slotting crystal, etc). But it seems that the items that are already fully upgraded *right now* would become BTC automatically, or else the change is rather pointless....so what is it?

Also, assume this question applies to all other fully upgraded CC items, such as the SP-trinket, the rings, etc. if they are CURRENTLY upgraded beyond the base item.

The bind status of an item will only change to Bound to Character when it is upgraded, when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are currently Bound to Account will not have their bound state change unless they are upgraded when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are acquired after Crystal Cove returns will change their bound state when they are upgraded. Clearing and adding augment crystals will not impact the item's bound state.

[MatrimDaved]

Thank you for the information Major M

[Zenako]

The bind status of an item will only change to Bound to Character when it is upgraded, when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are currently Bound to Account will not have their bound state change unless they are upgraded when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are acquired after Crystal Cove returns will change their bound state when they are upgraded. Clearing and adding augment crystals will not impact the item's bound state.

thanks....

Kobold still hate you however....:p

[rest]

Bolded for emphasis...I disagree. I am a very complex community specialist. :)

Actually I got your title wrong anyway. You're part of the community team. Not a specialist. Sorry for the mixup!

[maddmatt70]

So in the Hot Fix or the patch will there be a fix to Mark 3 in the master artificer. I can not believe that is WAI. Mark 3's AI is buggy and annoying. It has gotten to the point where one of my guildies is about ready to quit that quest solely due to the AI of Mark 3. His AI makes people lag and we chase him around with no purpose unless we are successful tricking his AI.

[Soulstabber]

And a bunch of other stuff!!
Back to the mines! Yark!

Go Pats!
Major Malphunktion

Malphunktion, any chance that the ranged items are on that list of 'other stuff' ? i been trying to get some bugs in the known issue for quite some time with no luck (bug reported since lamannia and posted on the forums), could you clarify for me if those bugs are in the devs radar, if possible?


I did some testing and it seems item effects that can proc when attacking do not work with ranged even when they should according to the item description.

I equipped my repeater mechanic with Fabricator's Bracers and Parasitic Breastplate with Paranoia. Both Cannith Combat Infusion and Paranoia descriptions state that they work with ranged or melee attacks, but no matter how I tried they didn't proc at all when shooting with a repeater. When I switched to melee they worked normally, it didn't take very long for them both to proc.

Also Greater Vulkoor's Cunning set bonus does not work with ranged attacks, nothing happens on a roll of 20. But that does not specifically mention that it should work with ranged, so I don't know if it's WAI or not.
(from http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=343077 )
Thanks

[NytCrawlr]

Too late already.
Fixed because I was wrong.
it looks like adding a crystal to one of these items or clearing the slot should both leave the item still BTA.
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

Thanks for all of this btw, please keep it up (I can't say thanks enough).

Go Colts!

*runs*

(This season is going to be very painful to watch....)

[Dawnsfire]

It seems (if I follow correctly) that things only become BtC if you place the item in the barter box and attempt to change it. It sounds like the initial T1 version is still BtA. It also sounds like anything you already have stays the same.

[RedOrm]

I think many players were hoping that instead of being changed to BtA, Turbine would learn from the Crystal Cove event and also apply the BtA flag to Mabar items.

^^This. So very much this.^^
Sadly, it would seem that is not to be... Meaning that again, as with the new CC, I'll be crafting epc gear only. Pity.

[Gimpinator]

Handwraps! No really:

...

Go Pats!
Major Malphunktion


Fixes to Handwraps are generally welcomed, even though they typically leave nastier side effects that tend to break them in another way. Cannith Crafted Wraps in particular, though, are still practically worthless without the Enhancement bonus being applied, making all the (relevant) fantastic "fixes" obsolete. Does the Greater Bane Fix apply to anything other than alignment based effects?

I admit to not following the Bug Listings, especially when it comes to monks, but my crafted Greater Construct Bane Handwraps don't apply any to-hit bonus at all.

Please respond.

[SharkChum]

I have to say I've been playing for close to 2 years now and CC was my favorite event by miles. The grinding for items that were bound to account made it worth it and it was a grind. I took time off work because of the very fact the items were bound to account and I knew I would be able to pass them among new toons as I developed them. Honestly it feels like a bit of a money grab to me, it is a lot easier to make someone grind something out five times for 5 toons rather then generate 5 times the content. For the first time Turbine thumbs down. I will be reconsidering my VIP status based on this decision.

[Bob_The_Terrible]

Thanks for the update

[Faent]

Thanks for the communication.

[Esserbe]

Please consider keeping at least the level 12 or 16 and below upgraded items BTA. There's a lot of good 12+ BTA or unbound loot in the game already that won't require juggling ingredients to lots of lowbies.

[Auriljr]

Please consider keeping at least the level 12 or 16 and below upgraded items BTA. There's a lot of good 12+ BTA or unbound loot in the game already that won't require juggling ingredients to lots of lowbies.

yes please

[Mistinarperadnacles]

So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance.

I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!

[Backley]

Too late already.
So:
3 yes
4.yes
5 yes
6 yes
Move them to the toon you want to own them before mucking with them.

Fixed because I was wrong.
it looks like adding a crystal to one of these items or clearing the slot should both leave the item still BTA.
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.

Your fix missed the "Too late already."
To summarize:
Epic slotting doesn't change the BTA items to BTC, only upgrading them in the barter box changes them to BTC, and if your item already has an Epic slot it can't be upgraded further in the barter box anyway.

So, instead of "Too late already" you now mean "Never too late to add/change crystals. Crystal slotting/clearing does not change BTA to BTC."

[Psiandron]

Thanks for the info Maj and Cordovan. Glad you guys got things sorted out. So it really was the mushrooms. Sad, I feel kinda betrayed after all the fun we've had together. You know pizzas, steaks, that kind of thing. I'd never use mushrooms for anything else. Yes, I do always cross my fingers that way...Its compfortable...really.

Too bad about the items going to btc when upgraded, but oh well.

Keep up the good work and maybe one day more people will decide to read your posts.

[Magnyr_Delorn]

Question: Will we still be limited to the original end date, will the time be extended proportionally to how long we had downtime, or we get additional time past THAT to make up for the BTA/BTC change?

[My2Cents]

First, thank you for the timely and informative communication, and for helping us remember that this all should be fun.

As long as we can use our alts to craft items for their future, i.e. they cannot use YET, by transferring BTA ingredients from higher level alts, I can live with this.

Its important to be able to make items for my toons future that are BTA.

I love the cove too and am looking forward to it.

[Ganolyn]

First, thank you for the timely and informative communication, and for helping us remember that this all should be fun.

Will the items initially created in the cove box be BTA or BTC? If BTC, then how do I make items for my alts for when they are bigger (but not yet big enough to run themselves for the ingredients for their future items.) I don't remember if the ingredients are BTA or BTC? Please clarify the issue of making items for my alts for the future when they are bigger than they are now.

I love the cove too and am looking forward to it.


It has been stated that all ingredients and items fresh out of the Barter Box will still be BTA. They only turn BTC when you upgrade them.

[Backley]

First, thank you for the timely and informative communication, and for helping us remember that this all should be fun.

Will the items initially created in the cove box be BTA or BTC? If BTC, then how do I make items for my alts for when they are bigger (but not yet big enough to run themselves for the ingredients for their future items.) I don't remember if the ingredients are BTA or BTC? Please clarify the issue of making items for my alts for the future when they are bigger than they are now.

I love the cove too and am looking forward to it.

Already answered further up, but here's a summary again:
1. Tier 1 upgradeable items when created via the barter box will start life as BTA.
2. Existing BTA cove items from the last cove event will remain BTA unless upgraded in the barter box.
3. Upgrading a Tier 1 item to Tier 2 will change it from BTA to BTC on the character that does the upgrading.
4. Upgrading a Tier 2 item to Tier 3 will change it to BTC if it wasn't already (i.e. old Tier 2 BTA items will become BTC if upgraded to Tier 3)

[Avenging_Angel]

I'm a bit disappointed by the BtA-BtC thing, but I guess you can argue it's fair, maybe. Cove back in 7-10 days? That's two weeks down, imho a lot for an already existing event. I hope you will make it last the original amount of time, setting the end day further into October. This whole thing leaves me in a "Meh :| " mood.

As for the rest of fixes: good, some work on handwraps, it seems.

Thank you for posting here and letting us know what's going on.

[Diyon]

I just thought I'd add this suggestion, as far as the BTA-BTC changes are concerned.


When it goes live, make sure this is noted in the Launcher news, and even better, somewhere in the cove that's fairly obvious.

If not, you going to get a lot of complaints from people who don't check the website and/or forums when they upgrade items on a character it's useless for.

[jejeba86]

First of all, Major, you're the man!

Second, how can people misunderstand something so simple and well said plenty of times?!?!?!?!?!

[Ganolyn]

First of all, Major, you're the man!

Second, how can people misunderstand something so simple and well said plenty of times?!?!?!?!?!


You must not be from around here. jejeba86, allow me to introduce you to the inhabitants of the planet Earth...

[Chazzie]

Tip of the hat Maj :)

Im So thankfull for your time keying it up to keep us up to date,I'm a very happy camper :D

One Idea~I havent log into game yet but it be nice to have a blurb on the launcher,While we long in....The reason I think this would be a good idea is so it will hopefully cut down on the "you didnt warn me" threads.

If a link is already on the launcher please disregaurd

Tip of the hat & again a Big Thank You

[Aphion]

Another crazy week. People say coming up to launch is chaos, sometimes it is the weeks after one that is even busier. It basically adds another project to the list, patch gets added to the workload while Update 12 is already at full swing. We will have a hot fix ‘soon’ as in the next week to 10 days, and then a Patch another few weeks away.
So long to wait :(


Now,I have some good news and some bad news. Go ahead get your torches and pitchforks…I’ll wait.

*grabs torch and pitchfork*
*dumps gasoline on pitchfork*
*Lights pitchfork with torch*

OK one flaming pitchfork and torch- CHECK
Kobolds beware! :D



OK you’re back?
First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.
But now this is ‘fixed’, and is like all the other places with this kind of loot in the game. Sorry. We should have had this in the release notes, but I will admit I did not cast my net far enough into the past to notice the fix. Sorry for the confusion. So, before Crystal Cove goes live, if you have items that you want to upgrade (which will make them Bound to Character), move your items to the characters that you want to own them! Note that this only affects items that will be upgraded when Crystal Cove returns, your current loot should not see its bind state change unless you try to upgrade it.

Leaving it as it was knowing that it wasnt WAI and not saying anything doesnt exactly promote any goodwill with me but ah well I'll live. :p I mean just saying that it may be fixed in the future would have been enough. Perhaps at the end of the last cove to prevent people going crazy farming\upgrading them trying to horde but we were doing that anyhow so *shrug*.




1. BTA cove items with Epic slots remained BTA when a crystal was slotted in the past. Will they remain BTA if a crystal is slotted right now? yes
2. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you slot a crystal after the hotfix? yes
3. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot right now? yes
4. Will old BTA Epic items remain BTA if you clear the slot after the hotfix? yes
The only time it will become BTC is if you put it in the barter box and upgrade it.
I really don't understand this one. They're already bound taking them out of the economy and twinking with them is further restricted by minimum levels. Its then even further restricted being that cove isnt always around. Theyre not exactly the best items in the game but some are pretty nice.

So basically all the upgraded items from the past cove are like irreplacable antiques you cant get anymore. How long before you 'fix' that as well? :confused: At least I got in early and old upgraded\new non-upgraded ones stay BtA. :rolleyes: Not really surprising but it is disappointing. Id put this info on the launcher or reconsider this aspect but thats all just my opinion :(


Now the good:

• Crystal Cove is back from repair(EDIT) and in QA.It will come back sometime around the hotfix. The flip the switch day is up to Marketing, not me.( I love it and would have it on all the time) Oddly it was the same exact bug that caused some crashing issues a while back, due to mushrooms in Red Fens. So, if you examined the door (actually the darkness behind the door) it would crash the instance. See, it was the mushrooms fault…sort of. Why a mushroom and a door work the same is one of those mysteries of life, and maybe only David Attenborough knows the connection.

• We fixed melee attacks. This will be in the hot fix. (cheers!)

• We are still looking at lag- it is a tricky one, but we have a band-aid that may help that is going out with the hot fix.

Glad to see that this will be fixed and lag may potentially be less after.




Then, in the next patch…yes, a sneak peek(Note: these are not set in stone, and due to issues found may be pulled from the patch at any time)

Handwraps! No really:

• Lawful/Chaotic/Evil Outsider Bane is now working on crafted or named handwraps.
• Byeshk Weapons artificer spell now works on handwraps
• Bodyfeeder on crafted handwraps now procs! Feed away.
• competence and an enhancement bonus to attack can now stack on crafted handwraps
• Crafting: Handwraps are now useable in recipes that require the target weapon to be bludgeoning. For example, you can now put the "Stunning" effects on handwraps.
• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
• Crafting: Enhancement bonus effects can now be deconstructed from handwraps to produce Enhancement Spirit. Before this fix, the enhancement bonus deconstruction option just wouldn't appear at the crafting device for handwraps.
• Added the new handwrap enhancement bonus deconstruction recipes to the item deconstruction device.

I see what you did there. :eek: I'm sure many will be happy to see the crafted and loot handwraps fixed finally. :)



Hirelings!
• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.
• Display cool down timers for Pet and Hireling active abilities on the control shortcut bar
• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone
• Some improvements in the AI system to make your hirelings and pets more responsive to player command. Please note that the hireling or pet will not stop in midcast to listen to your order, but will perform the requested action once it is legal for him to do so.
• Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons.
And a bunch of other stuff!!
Back to the mines! Yark!

Go Pats!
Major Malphunktion
Glad to see some of these fixes and the communication is a good thing. Keep it up!

Now to find some kobolds for this flaming pitchfork and torch.
*You hear kobolds screaming in the distance and then silence* :D

[BDS]

See that there was some mention of fixes to crafted wraps. Any chance the enhancement bonus will actually start applying? Main reason I started crafting in the first place was so I could make some nice wraps for my light monk. Was pretty disappointed when I crafted my +5 HoGLOB wraps and found out the enhancement bonus wasn't applying.

[Gkar]

Thanks for the regular updates Major :)


Thanks for the heads up Maj. The Cove BTC change sucks but saves me a lot of grinding. Most of the stuff I wanted to make were twink items to pass from alt to alt.

Same here, its a disappointing change. No more Cove for me from now on.

[redoubt]

Many thanks to Maj and Cordovan.

This is the type of communication we used to get a lot of and it is really appreciated by, well, at least me. (And I think many others too.)

Not that it matters to you company guys, but +1 for each of ya! :D

[Aelonwy]

Firstly, thank you for the informative communication and all the work that went behind it. Thank you Maj, very much appreciated. Secondly, to Turbine devs in general, the BTA to BTC change was IMO unnecessary, discouraging, and almost sucks every bit of desire I had to do this event away.

Maybe while everyone was complaining about the cove not being up you could have made this announcement (about the BTA/BTC change) sooner.

P.S. I was also hoping that Turbine would take a page from the cove event and make Mabar items BTA. Sadly, Turbine chose the other direction so the event feels more like work and less like fun.

[Bakigrth]

With the change to BTA - BTC, those (myself) who are waiting for Update 12 to unlock Artificers, or waiting for a sale on the class, and want to equip them with upgraded Cove items, will have to purchase the Artificer class now (or sooner than planned anyway).

Unless you have spare/unused BTA upgraded Cove items from the last time, that is.

Just an observation..

Thanks.

B.

[Xioden]

P.S. I was also hoping that Turbine would take a page from the cove event and make Mabar items BTA. Sadly, Turbine chose the other direction so the event feels more like work and less like fun.

This.

[Xenostrata]

OK you’re back?
First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.
But now this is ‘fixed’, and is like all the other places with this kind of loot in the game. Sorry. We should have had this in the release notes, but I will admit I did not cast my net far enough into the past to notice the fix. Sorry for the confusion. So, before Crystal Cove goes live, if you have items that you want to upgrade (which will make them Bound to Character), move your items to the characters that you want to own them! Note that this only affects items that will be upgraded when Crystal Cove returns, your current loot should not see its bind state change unless you try to upgrade it.

I guess this means that Mabar items will remain BTC... :(

[zorander6]

http://www.laprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mob.gif

rabble rabble rabble....


Ok, not fond of the BTA -> BTC change for cove items but I guess I can see it. Means I won't bother running cove for any of my newer characters. But I will still probably make a level 16 cavalry plate for my main. Keep up the good work and updates.

[BOgre]

Another happy camper. So happy you are keeping us informed Maj. Sooo So so so happy you included a 'next update' plus disclaimer. Even if handwraps DON't make it into that update, at least I know you're working on them, they're a priority. I won't be jumping down your throat about it.

Totally agree about changing CC items to BtC. Those items are great, and easy to get, so having that kind or restriction on them makes perfect sense to me. And that's coming from a guy with only one high level toon, who now won't be able to do an easy grind to twink out his lowbie alts... For those of you saying it's now less fun, I don't see how the change can possibly affect how fun the event is. It IS fun, and I'll be happy to run it again for my lowbies when they're ready, or maybe I'll just have to run it a bit with them now, for the challenge and a chance at some nice non-epic-but-still-great gear, same as I did for my main when he was a lowbie and this thing first came out! I for one amn't spoiled by great epic gear and twinkfesting....

Anyways: Keep up the good work and thanks again for the update.

[Tsuarok]

**** you!! BTC?!?! It's not fair!!!

.... well, ok, it is fair, but, I don't want it!!!

oh... just as a precaution for when the forced BTC comes around at some future update, please please please make them BTC on equip so that if I don't happen to have time to play that week I don't get them stuck on a character unplanned.

[Scraap]

Good to hear about wraps, kinda disappointed about the new cove epics becoming BTC, but understandable.

Hirelings though is a mixed bag... They've low hitpoints at present, and were given those ranged wand attacks precisely because they had a habit of trying to ride your back- *ehemhikids* er... pack. Something go pear-shaped with the targeting algorithm on those, or is them getting in deeper than they can handle a desirable goal so as to encourage finding other humans when it matters? (Goes back to that "if we know the intent, we know if its a bug or not" bit. And this one is a reversion to prior functionality, so...)

[Grace_ana]

Major, any chance you all would consider leaving non-epic Cove stuff BtA and all epic BtC? I think it would be a nice compromise with the community and more reflective of how people play their toons. BtC stuff that's fairly low level are not generally grind items. Even with maxed bank space it gets out of hand, not even mentioning the time spent. I can see why the epic stuff would be BtC as a balance thing, but below that I can't imagine that BtA would hurt.

Will you guys consider it if I cheer for the Pats? :P

[Aelonwy]

For those of you saying it's now less fun, I don't see how the change can possibly affect how fun the event is.

I would not have minded at all the level 20 upgraded to epic items made BTC, I would have been a teensy bit bothered by totally unupgraded lvl 20 items becoming BTC but I could shrug that off. Its the lvl 4, 8, 12, 16 items being BTC if upgraded in any way that bugs me the most. And the less fun is derived from the exponential number of runs necessary to achieve the same effect. Ie prior to the change a fully upgraded level 16 item could be passed among alts as they leveled into that range whilst each would already end up needing their own 20th lvl item regardless. Now each would require their own 16th lvl item, or 12th or whatever the individual might feel is worth it. At this point I feel it is completely NOT worth it to upgrade anything but 20th lvl items. For me at least the recipes to do so might as well not exist.

Perhaps I am viewing this from the skewed perspective of an altaholic. But that is how I enjoy this game.

[voodoogroves]

As an ease-of-use thing, any chance that instead of just BTC they can become BTA on acquire, BTC on equip? That way folks can run the event and craft on *whoever* and then bank or transfer the items?

[RTN]

Thanks for the update! Much appreciated. Especially thanks for the warning on BtA/BtC.

Any ETA on fixing Superior Parry on things like epic Chimera's Fang?

[ComicRelief]

...Now the good:

...Hirelings!

...• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone....


While this is very much appreciated, I would rather have the cleric hirelings remember that they can heal me as long as they have SP and/or wands left to do so, and not just stand there twiddling their thumbs when I'm down to under 50% HP (seems particularly true with lower level hirelings). Especially if I am going to win Evennote's dare and successfully run "The Pit", solo (with hireling), on normal, at level 5...

Which I will.
;)

[CaptainSpacePony]

Thanks for the info MM+C. I do lament that the changes you've announced are not all designed exactly to my specifications though, but I imagine I'll get over it.

Oh, Mabar wraps OP? What does their disruption/undead bane proc on outsiders too?

[perylousdemon]

• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.

But...but... I like having something OP on my monk... :p

[darksol23]

Thanks for all of this btw, please keep it up (I can't say thanks enough).

Go Colts!

*runs*

(This season is going to be very painful to watch....)

Woot Go Colts!

(Agreed... It's going to be a long season)

[ssgcmwatson]

First, a big thank you to the good Major (and Cordovan) for the info, and the subsequent clarifications.

That said... this makes very little sense to me. The only way I would bother upgrading most items at this point would be on a completionist, since they will be TRing so many times.

I'm with the above posters who request that, at a minimum, make it so the upgraded items start BTA become but BTC on equip...that way we can create them and stick them in a shared bank while we plan a new toon. Even better would be that only the epics become BTC.

Sadly, another -1 to Turbine's rep... I've been considering giving up VIP, and this is one more straw towards a soon-to-be paralyzed camel.

[Elegorne]

Mushroom still hate you....but, I don't :D

Kudos for the updates and the frankness of them (yes the BtA->BtC thing puts a kink in some of my plans but, meh, everyone managed to level alts BEFORE the CC gear was around, right?)...keep it up and thank you for all your hard work!

[LrdSlvrhnd]

So, basically... the L8 Tier 1 Ring of the Buccaneer is BTA. But as soon as I make it Tier 2 for the Protection and make it actually useful, it's now BTC and I can't toss it back on my bank character when I hit L12? Or gift it to another character? Or bounce it between my characters depending on which one I happen to be playing?

This SUCKS. This beyond SUCKS. This makes SUCKS look good! I *wish* this merely SUCKED. The L20/epic items, sure, make those BTC. But leave the lower-level stuff alone!

I don't want to make all this gear for EVERY CHARACTER. Yes, I realize the stuff Ii've already made is safe. Great, that's basically one of each trinket and L4-8-12 Rings, Gloves, and Spyglasses. But I just rolled up a wizard, he's currently L4. I was going to create an L4 dagger, an L8 dagger, an L12 dagger, and if I had time/materials, an L16 dagger... and leave the stuff he's not using on my bank character. But now I can't do that. Now I have to clog up *his* rather small bank with this ****.

I was going to craft a few levels of cavalry plate for a future character I'm planning but haven't created yet. I was going to craft a few levels of scimitar and shortswords for another future character. I was going to craft a few levels of the dagger for my new wizard who I've already rerolled twice as I've figured out what works and what doesn't, and isn't yet ready.

But now? Now I'm not gonna make all this stuff. I simply will not. I don't have the bank space to hold a bunch of stuff "for the future". I don't want to craft an L16 ring and L16 gloves for my monk AND my ranger AND my barbarian AND my bard AND my rogue, because I only have L4, 8, and 12 versions (none of which are even Tier 3, which I was planning on fixing... but now I'm not going to). Not with having to do the same thing for Mabar. Sure, I can keep trading my current rings and gloves and trinkets and spyglass around... but I was planning on crafting L16 versions, and maybe even some L20 if I can get the gems.

Thanks, Turbine. I really enjoyed the Cove. I really enjoyed the items. One of the things I enjoyed? Everything except the hats was BTA. I didn't have to craft them for EVERY character. Now? This SUCKS. Pure and simple SUCKS. Sucks to the point where I don't even want the Cove to return. I had *fun* running around and killing stuff, even without the items. I had FUN. I want to have fun again. I'm sure I will have fun when it returns... but I won't have as much fun, because I'll need to do a lot more grinding just to make useful stuff (and let's face it... tier 1? Is pretty much less than useful at all levels. It's Tier 2 and 3 that has the good stuff.)

Please, please, please, PLEASE reconsider this. You still have time (a week to a week and a half, apparently). Just think about it. Make the L20 stuff BTC, sure, that makes sense. But please keep the lower level stuff BTA at *all* tiers.

My monk is already sad 'cause she doesn't have Mabar wraps, not having been created at the time. Don't make all my future characters sad because they don't have Cove items!


For those of you saying it's now less fun, I don't see how the change can possibly affect how fun the event is.

It spoils the fun, for me at least, because I had more fun running around the island killing pirates than the event itself (which, don't get me wrong, was great fun. I just had more fun killing pirates and digging up their treasure). Now, though, I feel like I'm going to have to grind the event itself. Now, though, I'm going to have "OK, I still need to craft L16 gloves and rings for three, maybe four, characters... and should I even bother with daggers for my wizard? Am I really happy with him, or am I going to want to reroll him? Or can I live with how he is?"

This is gonna suck at least some of the fun out of things. Having to grind all those dragonshards JUST for the L16 rings and gloves that I actively want on at least three (current) characters is going to suck some of the fun out of things. Knowing that Mabar is coming up and I'm going to want to be doing something similar is going to suck some of the fun out of things. Having to grind for BTC items that I was expecting to be BTA is going to suck some of the fun out of things. All this fun-suckage adds up. Will I still play it? Yes. Will the Cove still be fun? Yes. Will I still enjoy it? Yes. Will it be as MUCH fun? No. Because the whole time I'm running around killing pirates and digging up buried treasure - the part I find more fun - I'll be thinking about grinding. I'll be having to do the Cove when it's open, not when I feel like it. Instead of just making ONE ring and ONE pair of gloves to share around - like I've been doing with the L4 versions, and L8, and L12 - I'm going to have to make at least three. Possibly four, I've been having fun with my gimpy hagglebard and I might keep leveling her. Perhaps even five or six, for my bank character (whose inventory I sometimes clear out so I can spend time) and my new baby bard, 'cause I know I'll regret it. This takes it from a fun event, to a grind. I was thinking of making a couple more trinkets and L12 ring and gloves, just so I have a little less swapping around... but now I'm probably not going to. I mean, what's the point of making something that'll just be clogging up the bank in a couple of levels? I don't overly mind making a bunch of BTA stuff "just in case". Shove it on my bank character and deal with it later. But making stuff to clog up EVERY character's bank? No, not gonna happen.

I made one L8 Mabar cloak. That's it. I dind't make an L12 cloak for any character because I simply didn't have the bank space to hold it for several months. I didn't make any wraps because I didn't ahve a monk yet. I didn't make any docents because I dind't have any WF casters yet. I didn't make any robes because I didn't have any non-WF casters, except my gimpy hagglebard. The ONLY thing I made with Mabar was an L8 cloak, because my ranger was L7 and would be leveling up shortly and could use it. I would've made one of pretty much everything if Mabar items were BTA instead of BTC. I was planning on making one of pretty much everything during the three weeks the Cove was supposed to be up, "just in case". Now? I'll make what I figure I can use in the near future and won't be hogging up bank space.

THIS is why it's going to be less fun for me.

[Esserbe]

Agreed, like I said on an earlier page - keeping the lower level items BTA will not upset any sense of balance.

[sirgog]

Really don't like the BtC change with old items being grandfathered. It screws over people that are newer to the game and don't have the resources to twink all their new alts. It has very little effect on someone like me (I have most of the level 16 tier 1 or 2 items as twink gear and practically never use them as I can just hand a new alt Greensteel mats anyway).

Either you think the items are overpowered as BtA, and thus should make them all BtC including current ones, or you should leave them as-is.

It's particularly bad for the one item - the Epic Cavalry Plate - that is unquestioned best-in-slot at what it does (provide AC on Defender PREs, where it even outclasses Epic Red Dragonplate). Now not only does someone that might want to play an AC build in the next 6-12 months need to get a tier 3 Cavalry Plate, but they need to also know which character they will be using it on.

The other items aren't so bad, as they are only stepping stones to better loot.


But overall - either nerf all of the items, past and future, or leave them all alone. I prefer the latter on these items.

[sirgog]

Oh and here's hoping the Cove is less grindy this time.

Kobold herding was fun about the first ten times. But it's just so easy that it gets dull.

I can handle running Epic Chains of Flame 30 times to try to get a shard, because it's challenging enough to be fun each and every time. But after ~20 runs of the Cove last time, the only time it was enjoyable was when a guildie was really drunk and abusive in a few runs, and we got to laugh at him.

Maybe let us take it up to level 30. Leave 25 as-is, but let the higher levels actually put up a fight, and award a few more green dragonshards.

[Lord_Thanatos]

The extremely bitterly cynic in me wonders if the change is to nerf the items along with reducing the lag once the majority of people find out about the change. I guess this is their lag fix for the event?

Edit: also I absolutely hate when devs grandfather in major advantages after a nerf. Either go all the way, or reduce the scope of the change or just don't.
Ironically, most of the vet powergammers likely already have the upgraded items from last time and will still be able to freely pass them around to their alts.
New players will be stuck with the grind, which sounds like the primary objective of this entire update.

[Karbalis]

• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.

Major Malphunktion

No...no no no no no no....1000 x NO...PLEASE do not do this. I don't know what mushroom sniffer over there thinks Mabar handwraps are OP But they are NOT. For the love of god and all that is holy PLEASE LEAVE THESE ALONE.....

Either that or come up with a DETAILED EXPLANATION About WHY these are OP compared with some other epic item that another class can use. If your going to nerf these then someone over there needs to come up with GS Handwraps, and don't tell me to use the ones in the new House C expansion because from what i've heard and seen it's about 10x harder to get the mats to craft these things, and not nearly as versatile as GS items.

[Khurse]

Changes seem fine to me, BTA Epics seemed a little weird, but either way.

I'd also like to join in saying these threads by Major Malphunktion (and the participation from other devs) are a fantastic idea to let us see some of what is being worked on behind the scenes.

[knightgf]

We will have a hot fix ‘soon’ as in the next week to 10 days, and then a Patch another few weeks away.


But only IF it passes QA, I assume. Which if true, may or may not happen, depending on how you look at the situation.



The flip the switch day is up to Marketing, not me.( I love it and would have it on all the time)


And they don't give it you because...why again? If I were to guess...id say management issues. I will admit though, even if it wasn't management issues, I would hate to be a marketing dev...coming onto the fourms would be a big mistake for me if I was in that field...



Then, in the next patch…yes, a sneak peek(Note: these are not set in stone, and due to issues found may be pulled from the patch at any time)

Handwraps! No really:

• Lawful/Chaotic/Evil Outsider Bane is now working on crafted or named handwraps.
• Byeshk Weapons artificer spell now works on handwraps
• Bodyfeeder on crafted handwraps now procs! Feed away.
• competence and an enhancement bonus to attack can now stack on crafted handwraps
• Crafting: Handwraps are now useable in recipes that require the target weapon to be bludgeoning. For example, you can now put the "Stunning" effects on handwraps.
• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
• Crafting: Enhancement bonus effects can now be deconstructed from handwraps to produce Enhancement Spirit. Before this fix, the enhancement bonus deconstruction option just wouldn't appear at the crafting device for handwraps.
• Added the new handwrap enhancement bonus deconstruction recipes to the item deconstruction device.

Hirelings!
• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.
• Display cool down timers for Pet and Hireling active abilities on the control shortcut bar
• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone
• Some improvements in the AI system to make your hirelings and pets more responsive to player command. Please note that the hireling or pet will not stop in midcast to listen to your order, but will perform the requested action once it is legal for him to do so.
• Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons.


Using my almighty powers of insight, here is what I predict what will be in the sneak peak for the next patch:









Well, unfortunately, all of it had to be pulled out because of the issues found. Sorry Maj. Better hope I'm wrong.

[sirgog]

No...no no no no no no....1000 x NO...PLEASE do not do this. I don't know what mushroom sniffer over there thinks Mabar handwraps are OP But they are NOT. For the love of god and all that is holy PLEASE LEAVE THESE ALONE.....

Either that or come up with a DETAILED EXPLANATION About WHY these are OP compared with some other epic item that another class can use. If your going to nerf these then someone over there needs to come up with GS Handwraps, and don't tell me to use the ones in the new House C expansion because from what i've heard and seen it's about 10x harder to get the mats to craft these things, and not nearly as versatile as GS items.

It's likely just going to lose the Disruption on-hit damage effect (but keep the on-vorpal 'death or 100 damage'). Basically that would restore the item to exactly how it functioned pre-U9.

A change that most of us have expected for a long time.

[Lord_Thanatos]

It's likely just going to lose the Disruption on-hit damage effect (but keep the on-vorpal 'death or 100 damage'). Basically that would restore the item to exactly how it functioned pre-U9.

A change that most of us have expected for a long time.

^

That's what I expect as well. Also i don't view that as a pure nerf, more like a oversight fix. If they realized this during the disruption change, we would have never seen how OP the wraps became.

[Rumbaar]

I understand the BtA->BtC change, as that is how Mabar is with it's items. It's a shame that those that bothered to craft then get a powerful bonus.

Why does marketing control the release schedule of hotfixes?

Finally are you making sure Mabar isn't busted before you release it???

[Lord_Thanatos]

I understand the BtA->BtC change, as that is how Mabar is with it's items. It's a shame that those that bothered to craft then get a powerful bonus.

Why does marketing control the release schedule of hotfixes?

Finally are you making sure Mabar isn't busted before you release it???

Maybe same bug for marbar comes back and people get mass banned again.

At this point nothing would suprise me.

[Karbalis]

To answer at least some of the questions so far:

When Crystal Cove returns, any items that are upgraded through the barter box will become Bound to Character at the time they are upgraded. So, if you get basic Calvary Plate, it'll be Bound to Account up to and until you upgrade it, at which point it will become Bound to Character. This bind status will happen on all levels of the item; the level 16 Calvary Plate will become Bound to Character when upgraded, just as the level 20 plate does.

Consumables and other items from Crystal Cove that are not upgraded (or upgradable) will remain Bound to Account.

Augment slots: Clearing an augment slot, or slotting something into the augment slot, will not change the bind status of the item.

Thank you for the clarification. This seems ok to me. And perhaps easier on the coding if everything was originally SUPPOSED to BtC on upgrade in any case. And thank you that the ingredients are not changing from BtA.... Now....

LEAVE MY MABAR HANDWRAPS ALONE PLEASE!!!
Thank you....that is all......

[patang01]

Please for the love of gosh, enough with the BTC stuff. We have limited inventory and so many things that is BTC. I hope you're not telling me that the store bought hats are going to go from BTA to BTC now?

Seriously. It's enough that all the notes, compasses etc take up inventory space, but items?

Sadness.

First I truly thought you created these items to be more like twink gear and maybe if we made them Epic they would become BTC, but for the love of stupid grind...if I want a bunch of low level rings and such I now have to make it for every single guy I have that I might level in the future?

Like with Mabar.

I'm just to burnt out from last CC to even pretend that this is going to make me run it. Keep your event. Things like these just makes things boring.

[Karbalis]

Bolded for emphasis...I disagree. I am a very complex community specialist. :)

Ahhhh...so you DONT use the mushrooms then? :D

[Ausdoerrt]

Dear MajMalphunktion,

1) Thanks a lot for continued information feed, hope this becomes a standard for this forum;
2) Good job on fixing a lot of the major bugs, and workingon the rest. Can't wait for the patch!
3) What is the word on the future status of the VIP subscription? Will VIPs have to purchase core content for the updates in the future, or will the subscription plan go back to the original format? The devs are doing a great job, but I was hoping to hear what the customer relations/marketing people are doing as well. It's getting hard to believe that them discussing the issue can take more time and effort than devs fixing major bugs. Any updates on the issue would be appreciated.

[stripe1001]

• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.


Would love a little more detail on this one...maybe a screen shot showing the changes or just a list

other than that love the constant info

hate the btc on lvl4-lvl16 gear...means i have absolutely nothing to do with cc anymore unless they are giving the new articifer some love

also hate that the jolly roger bombs became rogue umd 20...had a ton of em banked up and just ended up giving them all away :(

[aiastelmon]

I agree completely that the change from BTA to BTC is pretty silly, for all the reasons already mentioned. To make no mention of the fact the whole event has been botched. Normally in such cases, MMORPG's including DDO tend to be a little more liberal with gear and/or other bonuses to help make up for the inconvenience caused to the player base.

But in this case, I see the cove is being made more of a grind, and less convenient. I can't help but think this is another technique to make people purchase more vault space.

This week has been a major black eye for the game, and it's discouraging to see.

[varusso]

The bind status of an item will only change to Bound to Character when it is upgraded, when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are currently Bound to Account will not have their bound state change unless they are upgraded when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are acquired after Crystal Cove returns will change their bound state when they are upgraded. Clearing and adding augment crystals will not impact the item's bound state.

OK then.....so my epic spyglasses that I have already crafted (and any other top tier gear) will remain BTA, since they CANT be upgraded even if I wanted to. Is that going to remain the case, or are there plans to change that sometime after CC?

Also, as an aside -- have you guys fixed the names of the gems this time around? Having the wrong labels on them is confusing, to say the least.

And for the record: I am fine with the items being made BTC -- they should have been in the first place; you are correcting an error/oversight. But for future reference, this is the sort of thing that you guys obviously knew about and made a conscious decision to leave in-place rather than bork the Birthday Event. Also fine; that was the right call. *HOWEVER* this should have been resolved with the last "encore" of the event, and it should have been well-publicized DURING the first event that it would be changed, so that players would know going forward that it was going to change -- and I dont recall seeing any such announcements. Letting it stand for as long as it has, then changing it without warning is extremely bad form. I am not mad that my uber loot is being changed to be what it always should have been -- I am angry that you guys werent honest and up front about it from the beginning.

Thanks for the responses.

[Qaliya]

Really don't like the BtC change with old items being grandfathered. It screws over people that are newer to the game and don't have the resources to twink all their new alts.

As a new player, thanks for saying this.

I'm happy to pay my dues and understand there should be benefits for those who've been here a while. I don't think this will be a big deal for me because I only plan to play one character. But I think widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" should be done very sparingly and with more forethought than seems to have occurred here.

Also well-made is the point about throwing a bone to players for this mess-up, rather than effectively penalizing them.

[Kielbasa]

Will the Cunning, Bold, Stalwart, and Nimble trinkets become bound to character beyond Teir1? The other items I can deal with becoming bound to character after tier 1. But those trinkets are perfect as low level gear that you can shuffle from character to character on a server especially if you're like me and like to reroll a lot. I play on more than one server currently I may now only play on the that i was able to make those on last time around. I am extremely disappointed that the cove items are being made bound to character. I hope that all of thetier 2 and tier 3 upgrades are going to come with a huge reduction to ingredient cost otherwise my crystal cove time will be dramatically reduced this time around.

[tkneip1874]

first off want to say thank you for keeping us in the loop. i feel that is turbine biggest problem is communication. for the most part this is a mature audience that plays this game and i think they can handle some bad news as long as they are told about it.

while i dont really like the idea of the item changing from bta to btc i guess i can see the reasoning.

main thing i want to know is... are you going to be extending the cc event or is "crashing bugs" your excuse for realizing that you scheduled the event too long and are shortening it up.

[tokenghost]

Bound to account was ok for these items, a lot of casual players grinded out as much as they could to get just a couple of these item to use on all their toons.

Now everything is going to be bound to character? [using very quiet angry voice now] Fine, then drop how much these stupid things take to craft to maybe 1/10th what they do now, otherwise, they aren't worth the time it takes to grind them out for just one toon. Glad I got enough done last time to twink my lowbies/TRs. Thanks for the grandfathered items, but this change is all kinds of suck.


Forget it. I'm making air eles, all air eles, see if I can hit 1 mill.

Are the air ele's going to be bound to character too? LOL, maybe next time this comes on they'll end up bound to character. But I guess if you get kicked in the pills enough times you learn to take it... I haven't yet, Turbine.

Not happy. Not at all.

[waterboytkd]

So in the Hot Fix or the patch will there be a fix to Mark 3 in the master artificer. I can not believe that is WAI. Mark 3's AI is buggy and annoying. It has gotten to the point where one of my guildies is about ready to quit that quest solely due to the AI of Mark 3. His AI makes people lag and we chase him around with no purpose unless we are successful tricking his AI.

From what I undestand, he's a ranged titan. If he aggros on someone, he tries to move away from them so he can pepper them from a distance. If the aggro'er chases, he keeps running. Last time we did MA, we let an AA "tank" Mark 3, and that kept the titan still for the melees. Of course, there were a few hiccups (the AA getting nuked by the titan's 500 damage attack, the Frenzied Berserker stealing aggro because the AA who recently died hadn't gotten Manyshot off cooldown yet, Favored Souls stealing aggro when AA gets nuked again; turns out that 500 damage nuke is freaking brutal!), but it went really well. Casters take Mark 2, using DoTs to take him down, weapon users go after Mark 3, with a ranged character "tanking" it, since Mark 3 won't run if his target is far away.

PS Maj, this thread rocks. Last week's rocked. Please keep this up!

[ainmosni]

The bind status of an item will only change to Bound to Character when it is upgraded, when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are currently Bound to Account will not have their bound state change unless they are upgraded when Crystal Cove returns. Items that are acquired after Crystal Cove returns will change their bound state when they are upgraded. Clearing and adding augment crystals will not impact the item's bound state.

i dont understand why people dont understand this.

people seem to think crystal cove will make all items bound to character as soon as it goes live, even with devs borderline spamming the above point.

[Solmage]

Really don't like the BtC change with old items being grandfathered. It screws over people that are newer to the game and don't have the resources to twink all their new alts. It has very little effect on someone like me (I have most of the level 16 tier 1 or 2 items as twink gear and practically never use them as I can just hand a new alt Greensteel mats anyway).

Either you think the items are overpowered as BtA, and thus should make them all BtC including current ones, or you should leave them as-is.

Sorry but I disagree. Grandfathering is the least they could do. Yes, it sucks but it doesn't begin to compare to how much it would suck if they went ahead and changed an item I already spent the time creating, as opposed to changing an item I have never created, and thus can choose whether it's still worth my time to make.

[Ryiah]

Crystal Cove is back from repair(EDIT) and in QA.

I would think calling yourself a "QA" team would require you to assure the players what they are receiving is quality. I fail to find the quality in changing an event's items from BtA to BtC when the player base doesn't want that. It was supposed to be that way you say? How come your "QA" team failed to spot it when it was first made? I'm beginning to think your "QA" team is more for Turbine's benefit than for the player base.

Sorry if it comes out as nasty, but I tried to tone it down a bit. Believe me, the way I feel about Turbine right now is anything but stellar. I'm beginning to regret spending money in anticipation of Update 11. Either way, I won't be spending more for some time to come.

[sirgog]

Sorry but I disagree. Grandfathering is the least they could do. Yes, it sucks but it doesn't begin to compare to how much it would suck if they went ahead and changed an item I already spent the time creating, as opposed to changing an item I have never created, and thus can choose whether it's still worth my time to make.

If it was so overpowered that it needed a nerf (cough, min level 1 Epic Robe of Dissonance), then it needs a retroactive nerf.

If it's not so overpowered (and IMO the Cove items fit this category), then leave them alone.

[corporalspaz]

Hey MM from one military man to another, just wanted to give you a thumbs up for all your work. Regardless of how i feel about the actual changes to the great game of DDO I must say your feedback on these forums is well appreciated.

Wait... you're not a real major are you.... :-D

[Riggs]

Most of the Crystal Cove stuff it temporary junk you use until you get better stuff. Words cannot describe how much making this BTC sucks.

Reconsider this Turbine.

+1

Maybe the level 20 stuff is fine as BtC - but as said the 16 and under would suck rocks as Btc...since the only reason to make them is to pass them to lowbies - which most characters will only be for a short period of time (barring multiple Trs) - and the cove is like a 2x per year thing.

**edit
And also - the ingredients being BtA are nice...for a week. But after it closes again, the BtA aspect is still useless as if you make a new character in the next year - they cannot craft anything anyway unless the barter box stays open year round.

Which as said benefits older players with a stock of Bta items from the previous run only.

[Ryiah]

Maybe the level 20 stuff is fine as BtC - but as said the 16 and under would suck rocks as Btc...since the only reason to make them is to pass them to lowbies - which most characters will only be for a short period of time (barring multiple Trs) - and the cove is like a 2x per year thing.

I'd be okay if the only things that are BtC are the Tier 3 items.

[tokenghost]

Had another idea...

Ok, if you want everything btc, fine, but then turn on the event and leave it on. Come up with new content, new events, and leave everything running. Then I wouldn't care what anything was bound to, new players would be able to go out there and get their twink gear(bound to toon) and I'm pretty sure most of the hurt feelings would disappear.

[Hakushi]

Thank you so much MajMalphunktion for these weekly threads. I'm really happy to see this communication with the community.

For the CC items, I think the lower level versions should be left BtA. I have another question, is this also for the trinkets, are they gonna be BtC on upgrade as well?

Also, I have a request for the trinkets:

Please, would you consider changing their icons to something else, they have the exact icons as necklaces but are trinkets and this is rather confusing.

[Ryiah]

Ok, if you want everything btc, fine, but then turn on the event and leave it on. Come up with new content, new events, and leave everything running. Then I wouldn't care what anything was bound to, new players would be able to go out there and get their twink gear(bound to toon) and I'm pretty sure most of the hurt feelings would disappear.

Would make it a bit less of a headache as the players wouldn't feel pressed to run them as much as possible all at once.

[red_cardinal]

Also, about the Cove loot - why isn't there any bow in there? If a shotbow would be present, it would be nice.

[Matuse]

If the events were running all the time, people would barely run them at all.

People would not spend a lot of time farming out map pieces in the outer area, so the cove entry itself would basically never be open.

Getting a group together on short notice when the doors DID open would be difficult.

Enthusiasm for most people after the first 2-3 weeks would be effectively gone. "It will still be there, I don't feel like it".

This is particularly bad for Mabar, because you need a sizable number of similar level people to do the dragon. Basically anyone under level 20 would be completely screwed on that score.

It's not an event if it is going on all the time.

[sirgog]

If the events were running all the time, people would barely run them at all.

People would not spend a lot of time farming out map pieces in the outer area, so the cove entry itself would basically never be open.

Getting a group together on short notice when the doors DID open would be difficult.

Enthusiasm for most people after the first 2-3 weeks would be effectively gone. "It will still be there, I don't feel like it".

This is particularly bad for Mabar, because you need a sizable number of similar level people to do the dragon. Basically anyone under level 20 would be completely screwed on that score.

It's not an event if it is going on all the time.

Agreed, but I don't like the whole 'run Cove till your ears bleed, or you can't make an effective armor-wearing AC character for the next year' side of it.

IMO the event should be on roughly 3 times per year.

[rodallec]

im a legend
Major Malphunktion

i didnt think you would be communicating with the community this regularly but its amazing.

thanks.

[bronzelyre]

First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated.

Please turbine consider this post from another thread:


It would be nice if they were BtA unless they were epic, in which case they would be BtC. I could get behind that as a fair compromise.

[bbqzor]

Regarding these 2 lines, snipped from your post:


When Crystal Cove returns, any items that are upgraded through the barter box will become Bound to Character at the time they are upgraded.

Consumables and other items from Crystal Cove that are not upgraded (or upgradable) will remain Bound to Account.

The way I read that, the level 4 trinkets will become BTC if you upgrade their tiers at all. This seems kind of rough. I mean, saying (newly acquired) epic level items will BTC, okay fine on some level I understand not wanting swappable epics. But level 4 trinkets? No ones going to grind out the "roughly half an epic level items worth" of ingredients to make one to use for a couple levels while TRing.

And that's sort of the problem with the whole changeover to BTC. Everything save the epics, is stepping stone loot. Yet the effort to farm it is far beyond what it would take to get anything comparable you might use for a couple levels except perhaps Green Steel (which is, arguably, 'level 20' gear anyhow given the length of time it takes to farm one as a newer player).

And for players which aren't newer, even the epic gear generally becomes stepping stone loot between miscellaneous level 20 gear and 'real' epic items. Meaning that if you're able to farm regular epic equipment, you really wouldn't bother with Cove items...

... Except when BTA, they made very flexible and usable bridging equipment. It was a way to take one toon from being at level 20 but not really epic level, and getting his foot in the door while he got some real gear. Thus it was worth the time investment to farm 1-2 to pass around as you outgrew them.

Now, its like spending time to farm an item you know you'll bank. In general terms, no one able to get better will bother investing time in filling their precious bank space with more old gear. The same can be said for the trinkets; I know of almost no one who wants to farm half an epic item to use some twink gear for a few levels... they'll just hit the AH or Cannith Craft one or something quicker.

So really the only people who can get mileage out of this post changes are newer players who aren't able to regularly do normal epic content, where it might be worth sinking a lot of work into some stepping stone gear on one of (or their only) main character.

Which maybe is a valid target audience. But it seems a shame, because this was one of the best things Turbine ever added, in terms of well put together content that was fun to play. I hate to see a lot of older players have no reason to go back, or be forced to go back for much longer times trying to get twink items on each and every TR they want to roll (for those insane enough to do so). Or worse, new high level players who have no reason to ever go in the first place, having better avenues to invest time in, and so never get to hear how much kobolds still hate them.

I am sure this wasn't the direct intention, but that's how its going to play out. Making these items BTA was incredibly smart marketing, as it made them desirable by everyone, and got a lot of people involved, which made getting groups, having successful runs, and achieving the goal of some nice items readily reachable by everyone participating on a regular basis. Now the participation will slump, groups will be harder to fine, the work involved increases, the reward for the work decreases, and you have something that will get left behind. Why marginalize some of your best content and irritate the player base at the same time? That's bad decision making under any conditions.

At least extend the BTC change only to epic gear if that was the main concern by the eggheads. If they want epic items to be bound, there's nothing we can really do to fight it. But don't penalize the whole rest of the loot table for it. Personally, I would've only made the epic items so I'll still be screwed (and sad panda about it, for the record). But at least TRs and newer players will get some opportunities for fun.

Frankly I'd just leave it BTA on everything; the game has not suffered for it, Ratkillers everywhere didn't imbalance any epic events (or similar, lol)... why fix what isn't broken? I can't fathom that 'hey lets make the cove less playable' came up as a legitimate topic around the water cooler, so I guess on some level I wonder what the actual reasons behind the whole thing were. But we will probably never know, so at least allow people some use out of it at the earlier tiers, if not the epics. Just my 2 cents.

[whitehawk74]

no band-aid fixes please. kill dem bugs that cause the boo-boos.

band-aids break, fall off, and end up in the pool filter.

[Shattered.likeness]

Since the Crystal Cove was originally announced to last for 3 weeks, does this mean that Once turned on again in 7-10 days, will we still have 3 weeks to farm the items we want? Or, will the amount of time the Cove stays opened this time be shorter than originally announced?

[Philibusta]

what Was So Bad About Having The Items Bta. Not Everyone Wants To Run Making A Dozen Or More Of The Same Items For Different Characters For It To Become Obsolete A Few Levels Or Or Game Updates Later. The Items Were Not Even That Powerful.

Was Looking Forward To Crystal Cove Now Ill Pass, Its Guild Xp And Character Xp.

^this.

[walkingwolfmike]

Is Mabar going to be checked over before being turned on?

[Talias006]

12345

That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!
~Spaceballs The Obscure Movie Reference~

On a semi-related note about BTA-BTC items, are you going to force the lower level trinkets to turn BTC once upgraded?
These are not direly in need of containment, they're at max level 4 items.
Pretty good trinkets no doubt, but not insanely powerful by any measure.

The primary offender that *might* deserve this treatment is just a tweaked copy of Charged Gauntlets from Chronoscope, and the Gauntlets are only a single level above the trinket.

[izzyboy]

I agree with many others in this thread that the change from BTA to BTC is frustrating. I still understand the change though. The items in question are pretty powerful in the right hands, like many others in game, and the fact that they are bound provides more balance in game. I'd certainly like to add more power to all of my characters, but I understand the reason why the more rare objects are BTC. I play PnP too, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun if the DM just dumped a bunch of powerful magic items on us.

Yes, yes, I know many folks don't give an f and just wanna slide around gear for lvling, epic, and otherwise, but still, stop and smell the roses sometime. If you didn't have to work for it, you wouldn't enjoy it so much.

[karl_k0ch]

• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.

Can you elaborate further on this? Since when are they that?

[Xioden]

At the very least, they should at least have the Cove items be Bound to character on equip. At least then we could make some stuff and move it around or save it until someone needs it at some point.

[TekkenDevil]

Not a single Artificer fix listed? Really?

There's only like a dozen that I can name off the top of my head, most important being Modules and Docents that can't be equipped.

[smatt]

Can you elaborate further on this? Since when are they that?


Here's what Eladrin said a while back on this issue:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=318116&highlight=mabar+handwraps

"Shaking Torc upside-down, I get the answer "signs point to yes".

The wraps were intentionally a little bit on the far side of the balance curve against undead when they were originally implemented, with disruption mostly on them for flavor (while useful on the lower tiers of the wraps, eventually most undead were saving against Old-Disruption on anything but a 1) - the changes made to the disruption effect ended up giving them three powerful anti-undead damage effects, which was considered a little excessive."


I'm pretty sure he said more sometime last month on the issue, but since I don't even have a set... I don't really care to spend time searching.. But it's out there if you want to look for it.

[Urist]

So here's a Crystal Cove question I don't think has been asked/answered yet:

If I have a Tier 3 Level 4 item, what would I end up with if I then upgrade that to a base (tier 1) Level 8 item? Will it be BtA due to it being a tier 1 item, or will it be BtC due to it having been upgraded to that state?
Does/should it make a difference whether the original Tier3 item was a classic BtA, or an all-new BtC?

I loves me some edge cases.

--

And FWIW, at low levels the tier 1 items being BtA is enough for me in most cases (spyglass int bonus, why do you forsake me?). IMO tiers 2 and 3 can be fairly safely ignored for most of the items, and may not be used on a character for all that long anyway.
Though I'm sure glad that I banked one each of the trinkets the last time around (except Nimble :/).

[morrok73]

Why bother with CC?,please dont give us items we love,then take them away,the only reason to farm that horrible cc event was to get nice items to pass to alts,without that,whats the point?The amount of time and effort to get enough mats to get the gear for all of our toons just is not worth it.I have 17 toons,in various stages of completion,these items would help a great deal towards getting them to a level where they can use "good" gear .Making them btc is just stupid,but what does my opinion matter,im just 1 of XXXXXX subscribers,.This is the straw that broke the camels back,I know losing 2 accounts doesn't mean much,but if you as a company keep treating us the community as if we dont matter,it wont be long be long before a large part of your customer base leaves,then what?Maybe those f2p favor farmers will throw you a bone every now and then.

[Cashiry]

What is the status on getting all the Alchemical shields from the Master Artificer raid getting fixed. They all have mixed up stats. The tower shield is listed as a small shield for example.

[Fixitosis]

Quite a few of my guild (myself included) as well as other friends have items that were crafted early on in the Cannith crafting which have large guild slots.

Nice items. Hard to come by items.

They have lost the ability to be used as in the large slots cannot be utilized, thier craftable levels cannot be increased and they cannot be returned to thier base item to restart the crafting process.

The "craftable +X" text is missing on these items. They were crafted higher than thier level before the ability to increase the craftable level was increased.

Is there any way these items can be fixed? Any patch/hot fix to look forward to in regards to this problem?

We thank you in advance for looking into this matter.

Fixer and friends.

[Hendrik]

Anyone have the urge to /hug Maj Mal?

:o

Thank you for these updates! They are no WDA, but they are VERY welcome and informative posts! Hope the power that be allow for you to keep this up!

[y0himba.net]

Can someone tell me if they are fixing the Quivering Quiver Xoriat arrows bug in this patch?

I didn't see it in the OP and don't really feel like separating trolls from actual intelligence in 12 pages of replies.

[raneeta]

Now,I have some good news and some bad news. Go ahead get your torches and pitchforks…I’ll wait.

Ok I have my pitchfork and my torch so.....



First the bad: Crystal Cove items are going to become Bound to Character (BtC) when the items are updated. This is how it is supposed to be. We noticed this issue back during the event, and decided at the time to leave it alone, it was our birthday at the time and bigger prizes the better for the celebration.

---> REALLY DEVS????? This is like buying a kid a toy for his birthday then taking it back a week later and telling him "Well, we knew youd be mad that we were going to take it back BUT we figured youd have a better birtday if we let you have it". -HUMBUGGARY!


We are still looking at lag- it is a tricky one, but we have a band-aid that may help that is going out with the hot fix.

---> PLEASE - DO NOT GIVE THE GAME MORE THINGS TO PROCESS AND THE TELL US THAT IT WILL MAKE LAG BETTER! MORE PROCESS = MORE LAG PERIOD!


Handwraps! No really:

• Lawful/Chaotic/Evil Outsider Bane is now working on crafted or named handwraps.
• Byeshk Weapons artificer spell now works on handwraps
• Bodyfeeder on crafted handwraps now procs! Feed away.
• competence and an enhancement bonus to attack can now stack on crafted handwraps
• Crafting: Handwraps are now useable in recipes that require the target weapon to be bludgeoning. For example, you can now put the "Stunning" effects on handwraps.
• Mabar Handwraps will no longer be horribly OP.
• Crafting: Enhancement bonus effects can now be deconstructed from handwraps to produce Enhancement Spirit. Before this fix, the enhancement bonus deconstruction option just wouldn't appear at the crafting device for handwraps.
• Added the new handwrap enhancement bonus deconstruction recipes to the item deconstruction device.

---> /CHEER finally craftend handwraps that work!


Hirelings!
• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.
• Display cool down timers for Pet and Hireling active abilities on the control shortcut bar
• Cleric hirelings have realized that they have weapons, and will now be a little more willing to use them - but only when they don't need to heal anyone
• Some improvements in the AI system to make your hirelings and pets more responsive to player command. Please note that the hireling or pet will not stop in midcast to listen to your order, but will perform the requested action once it is legal for him to do so.
• Players can now zone into raid enabled adventure areas with their hireling(s). Please note hirelings continue to be barred from raid dungeons.

---> /CHEER Now can you make bards toss heals instead of sing at me while i die a slow painful death??? :P

A comment too about the mabar handwraps the only decent epic wraps in the game are getting nerfed this makes me :(

so a couple positives but all in all this makes me :(

[jamesp1234567]

Why?
If it's a quest, when I make a new toon, I can go get the item, use it a few levels, then sell it off.
But now for these limited time events, I am to spend a time building items I will not be able to sell and not need in a few weeks.
Yes, there are some items I could use for a long time on a character, but most are not needed by the time you get to level 20 (nice that I can build the level 20 items and ignore the stuff between).

So - waste time getting items you can't sell or use ..... or quest.

Questing wins. Even crafting wins in this case.

I WANT BTA.
I still want BTA for bags too.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Can someone tell me if they are fixing the Quivering Quiver Xoriat arrows bug in this patch?

I didn't see it in the OP and don't really feel like separating trolls from actual intelligence in 12 pages of replies.

It will be in patch.

[Agarwaen]

I understand the reasoning for making the Lev 20 items BtC, but I think it is a mistake to make the trinkets and the level 16 and below items BtC. The only reason I had for crafting them was so they would be available for new characters and TRs. I won't be making any of them now that they are bound.

[Solmage]

If it was so overpowered that it needed a nerf (cough, min level 1 Epic Robe of Dissonance), then it needs a retroactive nerf.

If it's not so overpowered (and IMO the Cove items fit this category), then leave them alone.

If they deem the items overpowered to have in unlimited quantities (which is what essentially BtA does, those items will forever stay in the game as long as that player plays if a new character could benefit from them, they'll have the items waiting for them) but not too overpowered to have in the current quantities, then the solution which creates the least grief to the player base is to grandfather existing items.

As I mention before, as bad as it currently is, it doesn't begin to compare to how unfair and teeth-gnashing it would be to change an item we already worked to make.

I also suspect is their way to try to keep the cove relevant. If they made all items btA again, next year when it returns nobody but a handful of new players would give a ****, because we would all be set item-wise for the forseeable future, so in essence they'd be loosing one event OR be forced to update/make new items. So from their pov wasted effort either way.

[Example: For this cove, my only goal was to make a mana trinket for leveling purposes. BtA only affects them marginally, I'll need 2 instead of 1. I also could have benefited from a couple of lower level BtA items for twinking. And that's it! Now, if I've gotten these items done, the next cove I would need.. absolutely nothing at all]

You are disregarding one part of the issue so you can just focus on this, to try to drum up support for changing the cove items back to unbound, and that is the fairness and player impact of changing existing items.

But if you maintain your position of 'nerf them all' I'm afraid you'll only turn people who would have supported your stance towards supporting Turbine's.

[Ravoc-DDO]

To make up for the 2 lost weeks, items should remain BTA this event period! :D

[Galeria]

Thanks for the information, it is really much appreciated.

On that same line of thought, the powers-that-be could really do everyone a better service by informing us of what's going on ahead of time.

Imagine the response if, when you guys realized you hadn't meant to make Cove items BtA and planned to change them to BtC you immediately posted something like this:

Enjoy the special one-time chance to craft BtA items! In honor of our birthday, all Cove items created during this event (except hats) will be BtA! Future items or upgrades to items will be BtC.

You would have had a LOT of happy, happy players who focused their attention on getting their stuff upgraded instead of a lot of people who focused on getting a wider range of items for all levels, planning to upgrade them at the next event.

We would have felt like you were giving us something special instead of stealth kicking us on down the road. And we could have planned accordingly.

I don't understand why it's so hard for you guys to tell us what's going on. Maybe you should hire a PR staff? People who understand how and when to release information so that it seems like a benefit to players would make a huge difference instead of giving us occasional upbeat, casual posts about how we've already been nerfed and it's all for the best. It's better than total figure-it-out-yourself-it's-already-done-silence but it really seems like the player's investment in time, money and interest in the game is completely trivial to the company that runs it.

You know?

[raneeta]

To make up for the 2 lost weeks, items should remain BTA this event period! :D

/signed signed signed signed!

[Ryiah]

I also suspect is their way to try to keep the cove relevant. If they made all items btA again, next year when it returns nobody but a handful of new players would give a ****, because we would all be set item-wise for the forseeable future, so in essence they'd be loosing one event OR be forced to update/make new items. So from their pov wasted effort either way.

Should we go into how much effort they wasted not simply making them BtC from the beginning? To me it seems like this change is more of an afterthought than anything else. The fact that they didn't do it from the beginning says to me that their development process needs to be analyzed and possibly changed as it appears as if didn't think of this possibility from the beginning.

[raneeta]

Thanks for the information, it is really much appreciated.

On that same line of thought, the powers-that-be could really do everyone a better service by informing us of what's going on ahead of time.

Imagine the response if, when you guys realized you hadn't meant to make Cove items BtA and planned to change them to BtC you immediately posted something like this:

Enjoy the special one-time chance to craft BtA items! In honor of our birthday, all Cove items created during this event (except hats) will be BtA! Future items or upgrades to items will be BtC.

You would have had a LOT of happy, happy players who focused their attention on getting their stuff upgraded instead of a lot of people who focused on getting a wider range of items for all levels, planning to upgrade them at the next event.

We would have felt like you were giving us something special instead of stealth kicking us on down the road. And we could have planned accordingly.

I don't understand why it's so hard for you guys to tell us what's going on. Maybe you should hire a PR staff? People who understand how and when to release information so that it seems like a benefit to players would make a huge difference instead of giving us occasional upbeat, casual posts about how we've already been nerfed and it's all for the best. It's better than total figure-it-out-yourself-it's-already-done-silence but it really seems like the player's investment in time, money and interest in the game is completely trivial to the company that runs it.

You know?

Very well said I agree complely It would have been better for them to give us the info from the get go

[karl_k0ch]

We would have felt like you were giving us something special instead of stealth kicking us on down the road. And we could have planned accordingly.


bta items stay bta.
Ingredients stay bta.
only new and upgraded items will be btc.


All what changes is that you will need to pick a character who shall own an upgraded item. That's restricting the account-wide usage of the item, but it is not restricting the general access to the items, i.e. you can still farm the mats for your Caster's Spyglass with your capped mellee. All you have to do is to upgrade the Spyglass on the Wizzie.

Maybe I don't understand the magnitude of the problem. Please do enlighten me.

[raneeta]

bta items stay bta.
Ingredients stay bta.
only new and upgraded items will be btc.


All what changes is that you will need to pick a character who shall own an upgraded item. That's restricting the account-wide usage of the item, but it is not restricting the general access to the items, i.e. you can still farm the mats for your Caster's Spyglass with your capped mellee. All you have to do is to upgrade the Spyglass on the Wizzie.

Maybe I don't understand the magnitude of the problem. Please do enlighten me.

There are folks out there, like me, who like to make items for chars that are still in planning stages good twink items so I cant make that item and stick it on a mule untill im rdy to use it on the the char I have not yet created. I was lookin forward to making twink items for my artificer that I have planned but I am opting to wait to open it with favor after the next update, I now cannot make the twink items that I want for this char because I cant log him in yet. That is the problem.

[WanderingGrump]

MajMalphunktion, I am glad to see the communication and keeping up a weekly thread. Kudos on that.

A couple of questions I really haven't seen addressed:

On the 7-10 days for the Hotfix/CC applying, is that going to change the length of time CC will be available?
How long are we going to have CC here for to craft items?
How long will be have the Mabar event?
Is mabar in QA now as well to see that it doesn't have similar closure issues?

I understand the change from BtA to BtC, though I admit I don't like it, especially for the lower level items. I do however accept that and will just enjoy the original sets I made for leveling in the first place.

[NUDS]

Well quick example, the Level 20 - Tier 2 Ornamented Dagger is really nice for my casters, I have five casters and I'm planning on making more. It requires 500 Green Dragonshards, which assuming 200/20 min it would take 3 runs minimum to acquire. That's at least 1 hour spent on that item.

Now that anything created/upgraded is BTC, that means I will have to make one for each character, which would require 2500 Dragonshards. Assuming 200/20 min again, that's at least 13 runs.

Well at least now there's no point in looking forward to it coming back. Thanks for saving me from a very sore wrist :P

[Galeria]

Maybe I don't understand the magnitude of the problem. Please do enlighten me.

Happy to enlighten you.

Last event, I made copies of items at levels 4,8,12,16, and 20. The items are great and I wanted to have them available as my multiple characters leveled. I was not able to fully upgrade the items because there just wasn't enough time to farm enough shards to get it all done.

If I had known items would go BtC on upgrade next cove, I would have made only 1 of each critical item and upgraded it fully with my resources. I would have skipped others entirely.

Knowing that upgrading would cause BtC next time around would have influenced my decisions on what to spend my dragonshards on when I still had time to do something about it. And they mentioned they knew they would be changing this back when the Cove was still running.

It would not have hurt them a bit to clue us in on the plans. It would have made players happy. It would have been fair.

[Mellifera]

Thanks for the information, it is really much appreciated.

On that same line of thought, the powers-that-be could really do everyone a better service by informing us of what's going on ahead of time.

Imagine the response if, when you guys realized you hadn't meant to make Cove items BtA and planned to change them to BtC you immediately posted something like this:

Enjoy the special one-time chance to craft BtA items! In honor of our birthday, all Cove items created during this event (except hats) will be BtA! Future items or upgrades to items will be BtC.

You would have had a LOT of happy, happy players who focused their attention on getting their stuff upgraded instead of a lot of people who focused on getting a wider range of items for all levels, planning to upgrade them at the next event.

We would have felt like you were giving us something special instead of stealth kicking us on down the road. And we could have planned accordingly.

I don't understand why it's so hard for you guys to tell us what's going on. Maybe you should hire a PR staff? People who understand how and when to release information so that it seems like a benefit to players would make a huge difference instead of giving us occasional upbeat, casual posts about how we've already been nerfed and it's all for the best. It's better than total figure-it-out-yourself-it's-already-done-silence but it really seems like the player's investment in time, money and interest in the game is completely trivial to the company that runs it.

You know?

Totally agree. Even if they had said something along the lines of *future returns of the Euphonia's Challenge may have items BtC* it would have been better. Now it feels like the bean counters got together and realized that it was more popular then they'd ever dreamed, and scrambled to find away to make it more profitable *If we change it to BtC they'll be more likely to use Store resources!*

Even if it wasn't like that, it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.