Try Monster Manual!

[Tolero]

UPDATE: 8/7/12 - The Monster Manual Prologue has been temporarily disabled due to a technical issue. Thanks for your patience!

Begin your mastery of Dungeons & Dragons creatures with the upcoming Monster Manual! Each Monster Manual volume features entries on monster types from elves and warforged to wraiths and kobolds. But don’t wait for Update 15 to check out this new feature! The Prologue volume, featuring five dungeon inhabitants, is available starting today! Monster Manual can be accessed using the menu button in the lower left of the screen, or using Ctrl-M. Come give it a try, and look for more news and announcements once our full line of Monster Manual volumes are available.

Monster Manual Prologue is available free to all players. In Update 15, Premium players will be able to access Volume One and purchase other volumes in the DDO Store. All volumes of the Monster Manual are free for VIPs!

[legendlore]

sounds great :) Will you continue to use the lovely artwork from the 3.5 source books (as in the beta) for the other volumes as well? Or where those just placeholders?

I really liked the nostalgic old school art, reminded me of the days when I could play pnp d&d more frequently :)

[thwart]

You just made my son very happy ... he can't wait for the monster manual!

[madmaxhunter]

IIRC, there was supposed to be some kind of exp (akin to slayers) with the Manual, is that still the case? And, will the preview grant exp?

Edit: Oh, and sweet! My breath has been abated for a while now.

[Asmodeus451]

Sweet!

[nivarch]

IIRC, there was supposed to be some kind of exp (akin to slayers) with the Manual, is that still the case? And, will the preview grant exp?

Edit: Oh, and sweet! My breath has been abated for a while now.

There are some Xp rewards.

Quick spoilers of how it works.
There are 3 categories of stuff to unlock by killing monsters:
- Character deeds
- Account deeds
- Mastery reward

For sahuagin (dunno if it's different for others) character deeds are :
- Kill 100 sahuagin. Reward 300XP
- Kill 500 sahuagin. Reward 1200Xp
- Kill 24 types of sahuagin. Reward 1800XP (note I had 8 types from a quick run of EN fathom)
- Kill 1000. Reward 1500XP
- Kill 2000. Reward 2000XP
- Kill 3500. Reward 3000XP

For sahuagin (dunno if it's different for others) account deeds are :
- Kill 200 Sahuagin. Reward: reveal more lore about sahuagin.
- Kill 12 different types of sahuagin. Reward: reveal more stats about sahuagin.
- Kill 1000 Sahuagin. Reward: Sahuagin art
- Kill 36 different types of sahuagin. Reward: reveal more stats about sahuagin.
- Kill 2000 Sahuagin. Reward: reveal more lore about sahuagin.

Mastery reward is:
- Complete 5 account and 5 character deeds. Reward: See sahuagin HP when you select them.



EDIT: Deeds are different for other races.
For humans for example:
- personal deeds go up to 6250 kills and 125 types (both for 3k xp each. So not much, but it's free xp...)
- accound deeds go up 3500 kills and 100 types
- mastery reward is still 5 of each.

[Untitled]

I can't wait to get home and check this out!

[AZgreentea]

There are some Xp rewards.

Quick spoilers of how it works.
There are 3 categories of stuff to unlock by killing monsters:
- Character deeds
- Account deeds
- Mastery reward

For sahuagin (dunno if it's different for others) character deeds are :
- Kill 100 sahuagin. Reward 300XP
- Kill 500 sahuagin. Reward 1200Xp
- Kill 24 types of sahuagin. Reward 1800XP (note I had 8 types from a quick run of EN fathom)
- Kill 1000. Reward 1500XP
- Kill 2000. Reward 2000XP
- Kill 3500. Reward 3000XP

For sahuagin (dunno if it's different for others) account deeds are :
- Kill 200 Sahuagin. Reward: reveal more lore about sahuagin.
- Kill 12 different types of sahuagin. Reward: reveal more stats about sahuagin.
- Kill 1000 Sahuagin. Reward: Sahuagin art
- Kill 36 different types of sahuagin. Reward: reveal more stats about sahuagin.
- Kill 2000 Sahuagin. Reward: reveal more lore about sahuagin.

Mastery reward is:
- Complete 5 account and 5 character deeds. Reward: See sahuagin HP when you select them.



EDIT: Deeds are different for other races.
For humans for example:
- personal deeds go up to 6250 kills and 125 types (both for 3k xp each. So not much, but it's free xp...)
- accound deeds go up 3500 kills and 100 types
- mastery reward is still 5 of each.
Hmmm. I was worried that as a Premium player I wouldn't be able to find a reason to buy this, but now it sounds interesting. Its all going to depend on how they bundle it and how much they cost. My guess would be like an "undead monster manual" "Devil MM" ect.

[nivarch]

Hmmm. I was worried that as a Premium player I wouldn't be able to find a reason to buy this, but now it sounds interesting. Its all going to depend on how they bundle it and how much they cost. My guess would be like an "undead monster manual" "Devil MM" ect.

We need to see how many of those come out too. During a life it may end up being a small xp bump while just running the same quests you normally would. Not sure I'd buy it for xp tho.

Also the UI is great, very smooth to use, no slowdown, with potential for some very nice artworks.
This may change when we have 200 monster categories but for now, it's really well designed.

[Coldin]

Any word on how many volumes there will be, and how much they may cost?

[Tolero]

Any word on how many volumes there will be, and how much they may cost?

We're going to start off with:

Prologue (free to everybody)
Volume One (free to VIP/Premium)
Volume Two (free to VIP)

I will check with the Quartermasters to see if they have specific pricing info ready to share yet for those who will be buying a book or two :)

[nivarch]

We're going to start off with:

Prologue (free to everybody)
Volume One (free to VIP/Premium)
Volume Two (free to VIP)

I will check with the Quartermasters to see if they have specific pricing info ready to share yet for those who will be buying a book or two :)

nice!

Any information on what critters each will contain?
My assumption is:
- Volume one would be harbor. So kobolds, troglodytes, hobgoblins, iron defenders, oozes, scorpions maybe
- Volume two would be marketplace. So wraiths, zombies (catacombs), spiders, warforged maybe

[Asmodeus451]

hhmmmmmmm. just logged in to try this out, and its a bit buggy as far as i can see


Primary example: went into Quickfoot Hideout and the Quickfoot gang members are not counting towards Human kills (despite obviously being human)

[Coldin]

Looks like there's a new Spider Companion if you happen to complete all the account spider deeds. :)

[zarthak]

isthere oher companians?? please say theres a horned devil companian!!!!!!

[Rubix]

If you TR, will "what you have learned" carry over to your next life? Just asking because I have not yet TR'ed any of my 20+'s, and was waiting for the MM (and possibly the new enhancement system) to roll out first.

On a side note: if someone can point me to a good link for TR guidance post xpack, that would be great.

[Cyr]

Any new figurines of wonderous power (aka unlimited monster gold seal hirelings)?

[Dawnsfire]

I just got the first character slayer tier for Sahuagin. I got 300xp but I noticed no bonus for my xp pot or the Voice. Is that WAI?

[Roland_D'Arabel]

So far from what I see this looks pretty good. A few suggestions though:

It would be nice to have more varying achievements other than slayer counts and monster sub-species counts. What about achievements like trip or stunning, or vorpaling, finger of deathing. I'm sure as a community a lot of suggestions could be made that go beyond simply killing.

I really really wish Turbine could get away from using creature companions as rewards for things. Some of the player base like these things, but for me, I have zero interest and tying achievement awards to companions is no reward at all in my opinion. Again, I am sure the community could make many suggestions for better rewards... what about giving players an option... you can choose a creature companion or...?? Nothing overpowered and something appropriate to the monster type killed. Maybe a +1 weapon damage to that species of monster or a +1 skill to balance for the spider achievement.

[madmaxhunter]

*snip*

Thank you for the write-up. +1 for giving us some juicy details.

[FranOhmsford]

So far from what I see this looks pretty good. A few suggestions though:

It would be nice to have more varying achievements other than slayer counts and monster sub-species counts. What about achievements like trip or stunning, or vorpaling, finger of deathing. I'm sure as a community a lot of suggestions could be made that go beyond simply killing.

I really really wish Turbine could get away from using creature companions as rewards for things. Some of the player base like these things, but for me, I have zero interest and tying achievement awards to companions is no reward at all in my opinion. Again, I am sure the community could make many suggestions for better rewards... what about giving players an option... you can choose a creature companion or...?? Nothing overpowered and something appropriate to the monster type killed. Maybe a +1 weapon damage to that species of monster or a +1 skill to balance for the spider achievement.

GUILD RENOWN

Sorry about the caps but this is one thing I'm not seeing here - For those of us who like to do the sort of things in game {Cap Slayers, Run Quests overlevel etc. etc.} that this is promoting Guild Renown would be a good reward to have in - And please Devs - Make it worth getting!

[FuzzyDuck81]

So far from what I see this looks pretty good. A few suggestions though:

It would be nice to have more varying achievements other than slayer counts and monster sub-species counts. What about achievements like trip or stunning, or vorpaling, finger of deathing. I'm sure as a community a lot of suggestions could be made that go beyond simply killing.


Intimidating, diplo'ing & bluffing maybe?

"You know just how to make halflings squeal, +1 to intimidate checks vs. halflings" :)
"On the whole, giants are dumb & you know they cant help but look when you say 'oh look, a squirrel!', +1 to bluff checks vs. giants"
:)

[Gleep_Wurp]

Begin your mastery of Dungeons & Dragons creatures with the upcoming Monster Manual! Each Monster Manual volume features entries on monster types from elves and warforged to wraiths and kobolds. But don’t wait for Update 15 to check out this new feature! The Prologue volume, featuring five dungeon inhabitants, is available starting today! Monster Manual can be accessed using the menu button in the lower left of the screen, or using Ctrl-M. Come give it a try, and look for more news and announcements once our full line of Monster Manual volumes are available.

Monster Manual Prologue is available free to all players. In Update 15, Premium players will be able to access Volume One and purchase other volumes in the DDO Store. All volumes of the Monster Manual are free for VIPs!

dont you mean come test the monster manual for us and see if it works?
i love the idea of it.

[Captain_Wizbang]

I like the addition. (figures that today's code push included it, and in less than 1 hour people are criticizing it already.)

Nicely done. Great addition to the game devs.

[Tolero]

Re: TRing - So the Monster Manual knows how many kills you've obtained for your account vs the character. TRing will reset that character's kills (so that you can re-earn XP when that character starts killing those monster types again), but it won't degrade your account level kills.

[Roland_D'Arabel]

GUILD RENOWN

Sorry about the caps but this is one thing I'm not seeing here - For those of us who like to do the sort of things in game {Cap Slayers, Run Quests overlevel etc. etc.} that this is promoting Guild Renown would be a good reward to have in - And please Devs - Make it worth getting!

/signed

This is a great idea. Much more valuable than a creature companion.

[Roland_D'Arabel]

Intimidating, diplo'ing & bluffing maybe?

"You know just how to make halflings squeal, +1 to intimidate checks vs. halflings" :)
"On the whole, giants are dumb & you know they cant help but look when you say 'oh look, a squirrel!', +1 to bluff checks vs. giants"
:)

+1 for imagination

Well done sir!

[Aalric]

I also like the monster manual idea but I think the rewards need to be more interesting than a pet...

[Ytteri]

Well, found a bug. Some boss monsters are added as different types in the manual, and some bosses aren't. For example:

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd499/Ytteri/spidertypes.jpg

See Misery (mini boss in waterworks part 1) got added to my manual but I killed redfang after (see the DM text at the bottom confirming my kill and the quest XP being granted) and Redfang didn't get added. One of the optional boss spiders in the Redfang quest didn't get added either.

So should bosses be counted as different types or not?

[bradleyforrest]

Well, found a bug. Some boss monsters are added as different types in the manual, and some bosses aren't. For example:

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd499/Ytteri/spidertypes.jpg

See Misery (mini boss in waterworks part 1) got added to my manual but I killed redfang after (see the DM text at the bottom confirming my kill and the quest XP being granted) and Redfang didn't get added. One of the optional boss spiders in the Redfang quest didn't get added either.

So should bosses be counted as different types or not?

From that pic it looks like you found (and squashed) 29 bugs...

[Expalphalog]

If I recall correctly, Misery is an Orange Named and Redfang is a Red Named. Could that be the difference?

[esheep]

Another bug...

My account kills/types of X slain, are not communal... meaning after starting a new toon, or logging into a second toon, I was unable to take advantage of the (yes, account) deeds I'd earned on my 25...

Will file a bug.

[Ytteri]

If I recall correctly, Misery is an Orange Named and Redfang is a Red Named. Could that be the difference?

No, the other spider I killed (Venom I think?) in Redfang quest was orange too. I'm thinking it might be related to quest objectives. Killing Redfang completes a quest objective, and Venom completes an optional objective, but Misery is just part of a 'kill all spiders' objective, and I did have other non-boss spiders to kill after Misery to complete that objective.

[Rawel_San]

If you are soliciting feedback I would have to go with the xp rewards are incredibly low. They have hardly
changed in value from the 1tp they were on lamma in my opinion. If you were to increase the xp by a factor
of 5 or 10 it would still make little difference for most power players while being a decent incentive for
casuals to actually get the kills.

I realize you are afraid of adding too much "easy" xp to the game but if you look at how the people who
do serious TR's level you will find out that they hardly ever kill more then 4-10 mobs per quest. Usually trying
to kill as little as possible invis running and bypassing most fights. Slayers give about 5-10x the amount
of xp the Monster manual ones give and no reasonable TR does those.
Just my 2 copper,
Rawel

[twiliteslayer02]

woulda been cool, but, it didnt retro, ANYTHING, i mean its kinda ludicrous to say a level 20+ toon hasnt seen a frikkin skeleton or two, so wats with the nothing in the books thing ? this is kinda lame tbh, cool enuf for those levelling up, an extra tick or two of xp, but?? idk, not overly impressed with not having at least the first book filled for capped toons.

[My2Cents]

I can't wait to see the manual...

Looks like my melee's will be hacking and slashing...

(I wonder if there are any instakill or AOE epic destinies, us poor swordwielders have to get the Kill Bonuses old school...)

[Expalphalog]

its kinda ludicrous to say a level 20+ toon hasnt seen a frikkin skeleton or two, so wats with the nothing in the books thing ?

Seriously? You expected them to implement code six years ago that kept detailed and permanent records of every single player's kills just in case they might use that information at some point in the future?

Good lord, the things you people find to complain about...

[hit_fido]

In general this was designed really well, especially since the per character metric resets on TR. I don't think anyone will farm spiders and rats for the xp awards I'm seeing but it adds some extra fun factor to the game and hey, I don't mind having a fringe benefit for running up and pounding that squealing Quinny again.

So you have something each life that resets (a replayable achievement) and you have something across all your characters (a long term achievement) that finally adds up to revealing monster hp that might be useful but will at least be interesting. The pet gimmick doesn't work on me but judging by how many cubes I see around other people are willing to at least invest time to... obtain... them.

At what price purchasing volumes is attractive will depend on ROI:

1) xp awards for other classes of monsters - I hope that will be higher for the "pay-for-page" monsters!

2) variations in the final mastery awards, surely they can't all be pets and that would be a fine place to change things up and add variety with some other kind of award to give value across the entire player base. I realize the pets alone will be sufficient ROI for some subset of players, but as others have mentioned, maybe guild related stuff, items like the spider mask that confer something special regarding a given monster, and so on.

3) how many monsters you get in each "volume".

4) lore/art - it's maybe unfortunate that will likely get copied to a wiki eventually but I saw someone mention the old D&D monster artwork... oh man there are some classic old drawings from the old Monster Manual for example. Finding someway to offer some nostalgia here may be valuable to some as well.

I actually wish you would sell one monster at a time at an appropriate price. Then it would be feasible to add monster manual "pages" as rare item drops, too. At that point it becomes almost like collectible trading cards. People may get lucky and pull a couple but there's no way someone will obtain a full set without making purchases too.

Either per page or per volume it was a good move to make the first one or two units free.

Summary: I'm interested in seeing more details! Good job...

[Ovrad]

I think it looks really good, but the XP rewards are abysmal, just like in beta.

You get 300 xp, for 200 kills, that's 1.5 xp per kill.
Slayers in Korthos are 8.1 xp per kill, and nobody does those if they know the game even a little.

Please bump it up to useful levels at least. I'd easy suggest a x10 xp, and it still wouldn't be that impressive.

[GeneralDiomedes]

I think it looks really good, but the XP rewards are abysmal, just like in beta.

You get 300 xp, for 200 kills, that's 1.5 xp per kill.
Slayers in Korthos are 8.1 xp per kill, and nobody does those if they know the game even a little.

Please bump it up to useful levels at least. I'd easy suggest a x10 xp, and it still wouldn't be that impressive.

I look at this as bonus XP that I get on top of questing I would do normally.

[Tolero]

So should bosses be counted as different types or not?

Redfang should have shown up like Misery did. Make sure to send a bug report with the boss name/quest (in the case where a boss might exist in more than one story and act funky in our data as a result) so they can catch bosses who are trying to elude the Manual.

(Which naturally this calls for:
Gotta catch 'em all!)

[CeltEireson]

I think it looks really good, but the XP rewards are abysmal, just like in beta.

You get 300 xp, for 200 kills, that's 1.5 xp per kill.
Slayers in Korthos are 8.1 xp per kill, and nobody does those if they know the game even a little.

Please bump it up to useful levels at least. I'd easy suggest a x10 xp, and it still wouldn't be that impressive.

And its experience you get whilst you're doing your normal adventuring i.e. its on top of what you would have gotten anyway as far as I understand it regardless of whether you're in a wildnerness area or in a quest? So basically bonus exp, now if youre having to buy these then maybe can understand the complaint, if you're a VIP and getting them handed them to you then I don't.

[danotmano1998]

Thanks for the Monster Manual guys, sounds like yet another toy to keep us amused in game!

The initial preview looked awesome, I can't wait to get home and take a peek at it.
This is a clever idea that looks to have a lot of potential for fun.

[shadereaper33]

And its experience you get whilst you're doing your normal adventuring i.e. its on top of what you would have gotten anyway as far as I understand it regardless of whether you're in a wildnerness area or in a quest? So basically bonus exp, now if youre having to buy these then maybe can understand the complaint, if you're a VIP and getting them handed them to you then I don't.

So, people who pay x/month don't have the right to complain about lackluster rewards from new content, but the people who pay for each part individually do? Honestly, I agree with the feedback, the xp rewards seem a bit low, and for a lot of people, that is going to be the big draw, another way to earn some bonus xp while running quests. If the xp rewards do not seem worthwhile, then people are not going to bother purchasing the manuals, especially if the xp is the only notable reward of any actual use. Personally, I would like to see the xp rewards scale based upon your level when you achieve the kill mark. So a level 10 character would get more xp than a level 5 character for getting 200 kills of something, because the level 10 character needs more xp to level. If the rewards are static, that makes them worth more, comparatively, at lower levels than at higher levels.

[AlexMonk]

I saw it posted in this thread already, but thought it bared repeating. It appears this your kill counts are not being shared between toons on the same account.

I do however like the manual. It's a great boon for lowbie (andTR) toons.

I do agree that the XP bonus's are a bit weak.

[LazyTigerLily]

Redfang should have shown up like Misery did. Make sure to send a bug report with the boss name/quest (in the case where a boss might exist in more than one story and act funky in our data as a result) so they can catch bosses who are trying to elude the Manual.

(Which naturally this calls for:
Gotta catch 'em all!)

So I guess it's time for everyone to head off to find whisperdoom!

[Rubix]

Re: TRing - So the Monster Manual knows how many kills you've obtained for your account vs the character. TRing will reset that character's kills (so that you can re-earn XP when that character starts killing those monster types again), but it won't degrade your account level kills.

Thanks Tolero, good to know.

Also: Great work! I'm loving it! :D

[Ovrad]

And its experience you get whilst you're doing your normal adventuring i.e. its on top of what you would have gotten anyway as far as I understand it regardless of whether you're in a wildnerness area or in a quest? So basically bonus exp, now if youre having to buy these then maybe can understand the complaint, if you're a VIP and getting them handed them to you then I don't.

I understand that, and I'm not asking for 'farmable levels' of xp. But it would be nice if it actually made my xp bar move more than a single pixel.

When the issue of xp was brought up in beta, devs said is was only temporary amounts and that they would be adjusted. It never was.

[Urist]

Honestly, I agree with the feedback, the xp rewards seem a bit low, and for a lot of people, that is going to be the big draw, another way to earn some bonus xp while running quests. If the xp rewards do not seem worthwhile, then people are not going to bother purchasing the manuals, especially if the xp is the only notable reward of any actual use.
People who only care about XP rewards won't buy companions either, but there seems to be a decent market for those. Not everything has to be about the XP.

If the MM can be used to display enemy HP numbers, resists, abilities, etc., I'd prize that information over extra XP (which isn't that hard to come by, let's face it).

[die]

So after logging on and taking a look at this im pretty let down really, i have almost every monster Manual ever made and this is not it. i killed a few thing and yet im not seeing what thier ac is thiersave nothing so am i missing somthing do i need too kill (X) amount too open this info and if so i dont like

[Tolero]

I saw it posted in this thread already, but thought it bared repeating. It appears this your kill counts are not being shared between toons on the same account.

Checked with the engineers, this will be fixed in the U15 game build, thanks for the reports!

[AlexMonk]

Yo die, this is the "Prologue" version. Meaning it's not the "Full" version. Don't throw hate till you have an accual target.

[AlexMonk]

Thanks Tolero !

[CeltEireson]

People who only care about XP rewards won't buy companions either, but there seems to be a decent market for those. Not everything has to be about the XP.

If the MM can be used to display enemy HP numbers, resists, abilities, etc., I'd prize that information over extra XP (which isn't that hard to come by, let's face it).

The one thing I would say is that the number required to get the top end i.e. see hitpoints, is maybe a bit too high on the character deeds for some mobs, unless you actually farm mobs which kind of defeats the point of the system. Or at least I assume part of it is an additional encouragement to players to vary which quests they run rather than run a set list to get them to the next level as fast as possible.

[FranOhmsford]

OK I've ran the Korthos slayer - 2 runs:

Cicic and Vekz both count.
5 Types of Sahaugin {Not incl Vekz - He makes 6}
1 Type of Spider {Cicic makes 2}
3 Types of Human
1 Type of Rat
No Skeletons - Just Zombies

I also ran the Harbour quests that aren't just Kobolds:

Cerulean Hills - Quickfoot no counting as Human - Didn't get the rare turn up to check on him.
Explosive Situation - More Quickfoot who don't count as Humans - Different types from Cerulea.
Bringing the Light - Human Brigands - Don't count as Human - Neither does Ramsay Morcourt.
Info is Key - Human Smugglers - Don't count as Human
Garrison's Missing Pack - 4 Brown Spiders, 1 Skeleton - Not worth it.
Smuggler's Warehouse - Calamity counts on her own - Not just as a Black Widow, Brown Spiders count.
Arachnophobia - Small Brown Spiders count - Easy 31 Kills here, Brown Spider Queen seemingly counts as a Brown Spider - Her name showing up in Monster Manual Not Brown Spider but all Brown Spider Kills are counting.

Haven't checked Waterworks - Will have to go get Misery and the Brown Spider rare later.

Seems to be a big problem with Humans - Particularly No quest in the harbour counts it's Human mobs as Human.

[THAC0]

Re: TRing - So the Monster Manual knows how many kills you've obtained for your account vs the character. TRing will reset that character's kills (so that you can re-earn XP when that character starts killing those monster types again), but it won't degrade your account level kills.

I was just about to ask this. Thanks!

[shadereaper33]

People who only care about XP rewards won't buy companions either, but there seems to be a decent market for those. Not everything has to be about the XP.

If the MM can be used to display enemy HP numbers, resists, abilities, etc., I'd prize that information over extra XP (which isn't that hard to come by, let's face it).

And I would value extra xp over knowing much hp a specific enemy has, or what its resists are, as there are other sources of that information. Also, there are some people out there who care about xp rewards AND other things, but so far as I can see, the xp rewards are the only tangible reward that has a useful effect on your character. The extra information can be useful, if you don't already know it, but once you do know that information, it is a pointless reward. The xp rewards will always be useful, but only if they are of a useful amount of xp. Also, I personally feel that the argument of "there is enough xp in the game already" is a fairly weak argument to make to prevent giving people more opportunities to gain xp. I could make the same argument that "there is more than enough enemy stat information available" to say that we don't need the monster manual at all, but that isn't a good reason to prevent having. From a personal perspective, I was planning on buying the monster manuals as they were released, but if the rewards are as lackluster as they seem, I will likely be avoiding this as well.

[Dawnsfire]

Checked with the engineers, this will be fixed in the U15 game build, thanks for the reports!

I posted it earlier but thought I would ask again. Are xp pots and the Voice supposed to work with these xp awards? Because I completed the first tier sahaguin one and only got the base 300 xp.

[Arkgorn]

Just did a Lesser Reincarnation and it reset the monster manual (at least I hadn't had many kills yet, so not much damage done. Is this working as intended? I hope not.

[Galeria]

I think it's a really fun optional/extra, especially for those of us who are motivated by statistics. Seems to be nicely designed, out of the way for those who don't care but extra cool for those who love the immersion/lore thing.

[Flavilandile]

Too bad you couldn't get the character history to log into the MM. /joke :D

I don't remember how many kobolds I have killed over 6 years ( just think of the times I wiped Kobold Island when it was ther in the harbour... and Waterworks [ the mandatory quest to enter Marketplace ] )
I don't remember how many Oozes/slimes/Cubes I have killed over 6 years ( hnuting Muckbanes and such )
I don't remember how many dragons I have killed over 6 years ( well that one I can make a guesstimate, as there's not that many dragons available to kill )
I forgot how many hobgoblins ended quite dead during my various instances of Splinsterskull
I don't remember how many Ogres and Trolls I killed during my forray in Sorrowdusk ( especially when it was endgame content )

Oh and do we have a counter for killing Sor'jek ? :D

[gencydefen]

I love it and I'm excited to see more! Great work and thank you for this cool addition to the game.

[Skeald]

My question is what is Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, ect.

I am a premium player and i have 5 monsters in mine, and 2 tabs.

Are the tabs books? Are the monsters books?

A little clarification/documentaion here would be apprciated

[die]

Yo die, this is the "Prologue" version. Meaning it's not the "Full" version. Don't throw hate till you have an accual target.

"quote "So after logging on and taking a look at this im pretty let down really, i have almost every monster Manual ever made and this is not it. i killed a few thing and yet im not seeing what thier ac is thiersave nothing so am i missing somthing do i need too kill (X) amount too open this info and if so i dont like"

I dont see any hate in this post, hate is a strong word reserved for people like Hitler , who kill others becasue he does not agree with them, Me on the other hand am just posting My opinion. Thank you and have a nice day

[Nascoe]

In general this was designed really well, especially since the per character metric resets on TR. I don't think anyone will farm spiders and rats for the xp awards I'm seeing but it adds some extra fun factor to the game and hey, I don't mind having a fringe benefit for running up and pounding that squealing Quinny again.

So you have something each life that resets (a replayable achievement) and you have something across all your characters (a long term achievement) that finally adds up to revealing monster hp that might be useful but will at least be interesting. The pet gimmick doesn't work on me but judging by how many cubes I see around other people are willing to at least invest time to... obtain... them.

At what price purchasing volumes is attractive will depend on ROI:

1) xp awards for other classes of monsters - I hope that will be higher for the "pay-for-page" monsters!

2) variations in the final mastery awards, surely they can't all be pets and that would be a fine place to change things up and add variety with some other kind of award to give value across the entire player base. I realize the pets alone will be sufficient ROI for some subset of players, but as others have mentioned, maybe guild related stuff, items like the spider mask that confer something special regarding a given monster, and so on.

3) how many monsters you get in each "volume".

4) lore/art - it's maybe unfortunate that will likely get copied to a wiki eventually but I saw someone mention the old D&D monster artwork... oh man there are some classic old drawings from the old Monster Manual for example. Finding someway to offer some nostalgia here may be valuable to some as well.

I actually wish you would sell one monster at a time at an appropriate price. Then it would be feasible to add monster manual "pages" as rare item drops, too. At that point it becomes almost like collectible trading cards. People may get lucky and pull a couple but there's no way someone will obtain a full set without making purchases too.

Either per page or per volume it was a good move to make the first one or two units free.

Summary: I'm interested in seeing more details! Good job...

I like the idea of purchasing single pages of it one at a time, not sure about the drop items, although why not make them drop after slaying an optional monster sometimes.

I also agree that some form of Guild renown would be nice, maybe it could even add the option for a guild to go after a special type of monster to give the guild more flavour and content (something to make the guildies proud of and maybe add some kind of banner to the guild)

[Postumus]

I think it looks really good, but the XP rewards are abysmal, just like in beta.

You get 300 xp, for 200 kills, that's 1.5 xp per kill.
Slayers in Korthos are 8.1 xp per kill, and nobody does those if they know the game even a little.

Please bump it up to useful levels at least. I'd easy suggest a x10 xp, and it still wouldn't be that impressive.

Well in a sense this just bumped slayers in Korthos to 9.6 per kill right?

[Moonsickle]

WARNING! Objects spaced in the post may seem longer than they appear.




Is Black Loch's Epic Chest now giving out Epic Tokens Fragments again [wasn't pre U14.2 nor post 14.2]?


While the Monster Manual might be another nice shiny toy to play with...
would be nice for some things get fixed like instead of having only Cure Light Wounds potions dropping [all Epics Eberron & FR], 40-50 gold pieces [well at least they're gold ] & lvl 1 spells from Gold Piles and no Epic Token Fragments in Epic Quests.



as for the Monster Manual since it's here and not going to go away...


I think since it basically looks like an account of your renown in the world of DDO that Renown would be a great reward since you were already paid for your experience [with XP] for running Quests...

problem I see with paying in Guild Renown is not everyone is in a guild?
a choice of XP or Renown would be a nice bonus for an achievement, if it is doable




Companions as an only reward with no optional reward is just lame... unless there are going to be rare & exclusive ones that only people paying for the Manual can get and are left unbound to be able sell for a ridiculous amount of platinum [ or trade for an airship load of stuff ] ... then it might be OK... if just "common run-of-the-mill everyone can get" companions, then absolutely needs optional reward.

but then again since it's not required to run and really just bonus gift for happening to accomplish something... at least leave them unbound to sell to those, well... less accomplished.



A question?

Now that the Manual will be tracking kills, will the fatal blow to Named Enemies be accounted to the individual or by the group

... or actually any enemy for that matter?



.

[Tolero]

I posted it earlier but thought I would ask again. Are xp pots and the Voice supposed to work with these xp awards? Because I completed the first tier sahaguin one and only got the base 300 xp.

They are supposed to work. If you're seeing weird behavior there please give as many details as possible. The Monster Manual XP pipes through the same method that quest XP does, so if it is out of whack somehow they'll need good details so they know where under the hood to look as it could be something else odd colliding.

[pie2655]

http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/ad8/batmistersisterman/Tumblr%20gifs%20only/score.gif

[losian2]

Not a bad feature - logged in and poked at it and it is cute. Something much better suited for new characters, but still, not bad. I look forwards to messing with it next time I make a new character. For now, though, I played druid, hit 25, got a bunch of ED junk, so there isn't much more to see besides some gear min/maxing, sadly :) Altogether the expansion was decent, if very buggy (mostly regarding EDs and Druid.)

I think a new race really would shake things up a bit again, something unique, something.. yark.. something kobolds.

[Captain_Wizbang]

WAIT !!!!
This is about our NEW Monster Manual .

What a pleasant addition to the game.

And in less than 4 hours of staff making the announcement, some of you people are flaming, tearing it down, and wanting more XP.


It's a personal feature. NOT a guild/ Renown feature.

Please stop criticizing and post constructive feedback that a staff member would reply to, like one person did already, and Tolero went as far as asking the engineers for info to relay back to us.

Having a public forum is great, but give the negativity a rest.

[gamblorjb]

This is very exciting and looks like it will be a lot of fun to complete. Not sure if it's just because it's only the prologue but when I ran the necro I quests, it didn't give credit for human kills (ie Death Advocate, Grim Harvester, etc). I could be wrong but they look like humans to me. So basically just wondering if all the quests/enemies have been included in this first prologue (obviously based on the categories included). Thanks!

[Cordovan]

My question is what is Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, ect.

I am a premium player and i have 5 monsters in mine, and 2 tabs.

Are the tabs books? Are the monsters books?

A little clarification/documentaion here would be apprciated

Think of them like the classic Monster Manual books. Each one's got a bunch of monsters in them, and new books are released over time.

[Urist]

This is very exciting and looks like it will be a lot of fun to complete. Not sure if it's just because it's only the prologue but when I ran the necro I quests, it didn't give credit for human kills (ie Death Advocate, Grim Harvester, etc). I could be wrong but they look like humans to me. So basically just wondering if all the quests/enemies have been included in this first prologue (obviously based on the categories included). Thanks!
The section which contains Humans is called "Player Races", so clearly you have to get Human kills in PvP for it to count. ;)

[Samir_Bennal]

Just bugged this. Thieves in the cerulean hills hideout did not count towards human kills.

[crmeyer]

Really like the Monster Manual addition.

Nice work ...

Can't wait to see the whole thing!

[Missing_Minds]

Think of them like the classic Monster Manual books. Each one's got a bunch of monsters in them, and new books are released over time.

The young ones may not know what a ring binder is, Cordovan. ;)

[Skeald]

Think of them like the classic Monster Manual books. Each one's got a bunch of monsters in them, and new books are released over time.

Thanks for the responce but this does not answer my question. What constitutes a "bunch"? Where is the documentation?, how many monsters are in book 1? How many monsters are in book 2? How many are in book 3? What should we be seeing as a F2P, or premium, or VIP player.

I know that you guys do not publish release notes for "hot fixes", but this one introduced new features, and some sort of documentation/release note should be warrented in this case.

[DocBenway]

Well the Inspired jerks count as human. Enter Giant's Vault and kill the first two (2) and what do I see in the chat box:

(Standard): You’ve killed your first Human! Open the monster manual to see more info.
(Standard): You’ve killed your first Human! Open the monster manual to see more info.
(Standard): You’ve killed your first Human! Open the monster manual to see more info.

Yes 3 times for 2 kills, and another of the same when I actually killed the 3rd as well as one for the 4th. Was the Effects channel bragging about being king of spam and needed competition? :p

[Cordovan]

Thanks for the responce but this does not answer my question. What constitutes a "bunch"? Where is the documentation?, how many monsters are in book 1? How many monsters are in book 2? How many are in book 3? What should we be seeing as a F2P, or premium, or VIP player.

I know that you guys do not publish release notes for "hot fixes", but this one introduced new features, and some sort of documentation/release note should be warrented in this case.

I'm sure we'll have more details about the upcoming books when we get closer to their release (and you'll probably be seeing them quite soon on Lamannia, if you're into our public preview server.)

[Dawnsfire]

They are supposed to work. If you're seeing weird behavior there please give as many details as possible. The Monster Manual XP pipes through the same method that quest XP does, so if it is out of whack somehow they'll need good details so they know where under the hood to look as it could be something else odd colliding.
Bug report filed.

[maovin]

this is awesome!!!!
can't wait to play some low levels again. Its pay back time Sahuagin scum.....

[Dandonk]

It seems a little buggy.

I ran some of the new demon web stuff on my bear druid. Killed a bunch of spiders, and got updates en masse in the MM.

Relogged to my caster druid to do low level stuff, and killed a spider with that character, too. Got update, but MM only says 1 killed on account.

[karsion]

It seems a little buggy.

I ran some of the new demon web stuff on my bear druid. Killed a bunch of spiders, and got updates en masse in the MM.

Relogged to my caster druid to do low level stuff, and killed a spider with that character, too. Got update, but MM only says 1 killed on account.

Yeah, it is a know issue, the mobs killed do not add up for all toons on the account.

[oradafu]

I've been anticipating the Monster Manuals additions for a while now. I really like the whole idea of the MM.

From the little bit that I've seen of the Monster Manual, I have two criticisms with it.

First, as someone brought up, the Monster Manual is another source that lacks of Guild Renown. Okay, this may be less a complaint about the MM and more about the Guild Renown decay system, but this is yet another new thing added to the game that doesn't add to reaping in more renown. As often as players complain about the lack of renown being added to the game, it's once again disheartening to find no renown included on a new source of farming in the game. (As an aside, I'm surprised the Devs haven't just created a high level Guild shrine(s) to the game just to get players off their back about the lack of new sources of renown in the game).

Second, I was really hoping that the MM would add 1 xp per kill to the game. This could be added after a player caps all their Character deeds. Why do I find 1xp per kill important? Well, it's such a small amount of xp, it shouldn't cause too much of a stir with xp farming. I doubt there are many, if any, quests that contain more than 600 kills. And if someone is insane enough to sit and farm a quest just for 1 xp per kill, does it really matter to other players?...

But more importantly, adding 1 xp per kill would give a reason for most players to buy the MMs after the static rewards are gone. From what it looks like, the tiered XP rewards are like the slayers, they can't be reset without TRing (which not everyone wants to do). Also, the lore, stats and art will be found on the web, if not the forums. It seems half the players hate the cosmetic companions, so that's not an universal incentive. I'm going to guess the HP bar is something new, so it's something players have lived without so far. But adding 1 xp per kill, that would be an incentive to cap the MM so players have another smaller source of XP as they level up or do the epic destinies.

[zebidos]

Hope we get to take samples of what we kill, we could store them in little jars like cookie jars and hand in the monster bits and peices into a few NPC's for ingredients for rewards.

Colelct 500 kobold ears get a reptilian bane great sword!
Collect 500 large devil scales and get...

No wait..

Seriously though the monster manual sounds like fun.

[Dagolar]

Think of them like the classic Monster Manual books. Each one's got a bunch of monsters in them, and new books are released over time.

If the books are released as separate 'chapters' in the Monster Manual tab, PLEASE make sure to make a 'combined' tab, as well.

Having to tab through different books to find the specific [Vermin] entry you're looking for would just be annoying as hell.

Besides, having a full shared list adds to the collectivity element of the manuals.

[Urist]

A thought occurs:
Are the "account deeds" intended to be account deeds, or account-server deeds? Ie. should 100 kills on one server also be counted on all the others? If not, I would advise an alteration of nomenclature...

[oradafu]

If the books are released as separate 'chapters' in the Monster Manual tab, PLEASE make sure to make a 'combined' tab, as well.

Having to tab through different books to find the specific [Vermin] entry you're looking for would just be annoying as hell.

Besides, having a full shared list adds to the collectivity element of the manuals.

When I peeked at the Monster Manual on Lammania, the books weren't seperate tabs. I don't remember what the other monsters that were available so I'm just pulling examples from my butt here... Under Undead, there was Skeleton and Zombie. Under Player Races, there was Human and Halfling. So you didn't have to tab to a different book, the entries were all included under the collapsible types.

[dragonhighlord1]

Looks great so far! Thank you.

Sort of related, Is there a reward For completion of every slayer in every area? AKA slayer completionist? A way to retro some of the killing that has been done over the past 6 years, "Unlock every monster that drops in the slayers area to MM if you complete a slayer completionist."

Also xp is way to low, and the "cosmetic pet" means nothing to many people.

[Alice2RRs]

A question?

Now that the Manual will be tracking kills, will the fatal blow to Named Enemies be accounted to the individual or by the group

... or actually any enemy for that matter?

.

Has this been answered? I haven't seen this addressed anywhere in this thread.

[gphysalis]

I really like the monster manual

However, if all of the volumes are ~2xp / kill, then I probably won't be buying many. It is perfectly reasonable that the prologue has low xp, considering that it is free, but I am hoping that the other volumes give better xp.

[Talias006]

sounds great :) Will you continue to use the lovely artwork from the 3.5 source books (as in the beta) for the other volumes as well? Or where those just placeholders?

I really liked the nostalgic old school art, reminded me of the days when I could play pnp d&d more frequently :)

I'm hoping they keep the artwork from the 3e and 3.5e MM's.
Todd Lockwood has some of the most incredible renderings I've ever seen.

[qoolboxer]

The xp reward in the Monster Manual is unreasonable. You are missing at least a zero behind the numbers.

[Kmnh]

The xp reward in the Monster Manual is unreasonable. You are missing at least a zero behind the numbers.

There are many kinds of monsters. Once the manual is finished you will effectively gain n xp for each mob killed - that's a powerful thing.

The point where I want to see good rewards are on the different kinds of monsters. Huting down every single kind of Ooze in the game should have an awesome reward.

[teh_meh]

I just want to say Turbine...this is a GREAT addition to the game. Been playing with the Prologue today. Love it. Again, well done.

[Jontas]

I only had a few moments to play around with this just now, but I like it!

Suggestions:

Text change, each first kill of a new subtype (eg. "Small Brown Spider") of monster (here "Spiders") triggers the text "You killed your first spider". Sometimes multiple times. Maybe this should have been "You killed your first spider." AND "You killed your first Small Brown Spider."?
Quickfeet are inhuman? As others reported as well, most human opponents are not counting towards human kill count.

[Ytteri]

Allowing friendly NPCs to die doesn't count as new types in the MM. Makes sense of course, but I'm still disappointed because it would have been kinda funny if it did.

[FranOhmsford]

I only had a few moments to play around with this just now, but I like it!

Suggestions:

Text change, each first kill of a new subtype (eg. "Small Brown Spider") of monster (here "Spiders") triggers the text "You killed your first spider". Sometimes multiple times. Maybe this should have been "You killed your first spider." AND "You killed your first Small Brown Spider."?
Quickfeet are inhuman? As others reported as well, most human opponents are not counting towards human kill count.


It's the Harbour that's broken when it comes to humans - No Humans in the Harbour are counting towards the Monster Manual.

However I went and checked 3 Barrel Cove afterwards and Humans there did count - Just like the ones on Korthos - For some reason Jacoby Drexelhand does not count as human in Collab - Wondering if he's gonna count as a Wight in Necro's Doom when Wights are added to the Manual - Drenyl Fallow {The end boss of Sacrifices} does count though.

[Ytteri]

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which mobs are added and which aren't. In Swiped Signet, Quinn the Quickfoot was added, but none of the trash mobs in that quest were. However going to sharn syndicate pack every human I came across got added, including the quickfoot emissary optional in Come Out and Slay. I guess it's just a case of "oops, we forgot to add a category for this particular group of humans."

[delsoboss]

Started trying the MM and decided to hunt those pesky Sahuagin.

After hunting for rare spawns in khortos and red fens i'm down to 33/36 types and i'm wandering if there are sahaugin in other packs that i don't know (got 2 types in 3BC too).

However i bumped into a bug (that i bug reported): Mastery Awards (or whatever is the name) are not tracking Account Deeds correctly: i got 1 Account Deed for rats and it's showing 0/5 on the Mastery thing and i've got 2 Account Deeds on Sahuagin and is showing 1/2 under Mastery.

All the kills/deeds where done on my main so no weird stacking issues.

Overall i would say great job, finally something funny to do when i don't have much time, chasing rare spawns in quests and explorer areas was a lot of fun.

EDIT: Uhm does the sahuagins in The Grotto count as different types? If that's the case my main will not be able to complete the Deeds on his own and that would pain me greatly ...

[Deathdefy]

Started trying the MM and decided to hunt those pesky Sahuagin.

After hunting for rare spawns in khortos and red fens i'm down to 33/36 types and i'm wandering if there are sahaugin in other packs that i don't know (got 2 types in 3BC too).

However i bumped into a bug (that i bug reported): Mastery Awards (or whatever is the name) are not tracking Account Deeds correctly: i got 1 Account Deed for rats and it's showing 0/5 on the Mastery thing and i've got 2 Account Deeds on Sahuagin and is showing 1/2 under Mastery.

All the kills/deeds where done on my main so no weird stacking issues.

Overall i would say great job, finally something funny to do when i don't have much time, chasing rare spawns in quests and explorer areas was a lot of fun.

EDIT: Uhm does the sahuagins in The Grotto count as different types? If that's the case my main will not be able to complete the Deeds on his own and that would pain me greatly ...

Should be 3 types in 3BC (Sahuagin, Sahuagin Sea Witch (N past the rare), and the rare).

And yep, Grotto has the last few. Frustrating hey.

[FranOhmsford]

Should be 3 types in 3BC (Sahuagin, Sahuagin Sea Witch (N past the rare), and the rare).

And yep, Grotto has the last few. Frustrating hey.

That's not frustrating - That's Cow Droppings!

The Grotto most certainly should NOT be on the list - Please Devs - Fix this!

[Hambo]

woulda been cool, but, it didnt retro, ANYTHING, i mean its kinda ludicrous to say a level 20+ toon hasnt seen a frikkin skeleton or two, so wats with the nothing in the books thing ? this is kinda lame tbh, cool enuf for those levelling up, an extra tick or two of xp, but?? idk, not overly impressed with not having at least the first book filled for capped toons.

You can't count previous kills if they haven't been tracked before the addition of the new mechanic.

If you could then Turbine would be able to produce things like feat/enhancement progression during levelling, what level you acquired spells, if you got them via enscription or selected when levelling, etc. so we could export the data for planning purposes.

[Hambo]

Allowing friendly NPCs to die doesn't count as new types in the MM. Makes sense of course, but I'm still disappointed because it would have been kinda funny if it did.

To paraphrase, you want to know how many times you let Coyle die? :D

[delsoboss]

Should be 3 types in 3BC (Sahuagin, Sahuagin Sea Witch (N past the rare), and the rare).

And yep, Grotto has the last few. Frustrating hey.

3BC: Ah cool, missed the rare, gotta go hunting again!

The Grotto: Ouch that s**ks ... maybe make them spawn near the altars in the khortos wilderness area? With the priestesses already in the area? 3-4 more kills/run in the khortos area won't break the game.

[delsoboss]

Good news everyone! (in my best Farnsworth voice)

After thinking hard about it i remembered that in the Cannith Challenge Kobold Island: Kobold Chaos you defend the excavators from ... sahuagins!

So i jumped in and found 2 new types:
1) Sahuagins Scouts that attack the excavators together with Sahuagin Warriors (i already had these);
2) Sahuagin Battle Priestesses guarding one or more large excavators

Probably there are a few more since i remember that closing on the quota and later on the time new monsters attacked the excavators but i jumped out after tagging these 2 new types, now i'm stalking 3BC for Birne.

In the end it seems you don't need to rerun the Grotto to get all sahuagin hunter deeds unlocked.

The bug with Account Deeds not being tracked in Mastery Rewards is persistent through relog and reboot.

[twiliteslayer02]

Seriously? You expected them to implement code six years ago that kept detailed and permanent records of every single player's kills just in case they might use that information at some point in the future?

Good lord, the things you people find to complain about...


No, I expected them to look at your quest journal, and extrapolate what they need from there to within a couple hundred. That , or simply give us with lev 20 toons,several tr's, and over 5 years playing the benefit of the doubt and let us have the first ones full for free.,

with that said, they are saying they did it so that the xp is /will be available , imo, its not really that awesome of xp, so why bother?, but it is what it is, whatever they say.

[Deathdefy]

Good news everyone! (in my best Farnsworth voice)

After thinking hard about it i remembered that in the Cannith Challenge Kobold Island: Kobold Chaos you defend the excavators from ... sahuagins!

So i jumped in and found 2 new types:
1) Sahuagins Scouts that attack the excavators together with Sahuagin Warriors (i already had these);
2) Sahuagin Battle Priestesses guarding one or more large excavators

Probably there are a few more since i remember that closing on the quota and later on the time new monsters attacked the excavators but i jumped out after tagging these 2 new types, now i'm stalking 3BC for Birne.

In the end it seems you don't need to rerun the Grotto to get all sahuagin hunter deeds unlocked.

The bug with Account Deeds not being tracked in Mastery Rewards is persistent through relog and reboot.

Totally right! I'm on 37 types now without the Rare from the Last Stand! Great thought.

The final 2 types in the Island mean you need to do reasonably well: Sahuagin Brute, and Sahuagin Battle Priestess (though the Priestesses can spawn guarding larges)

[conanj77]

Dont know if it has been said yet... but:

Come on turbine, Seriously? I bought the Collectors edition of xpack, and I am a premium player who owns EVERY adventure pack, I also own shared bank I, 8 char slots, every race and class and I play almost everyday, usually for 2 or more hours(besides the point), But now your going to screw me over by making me purchase the new content update(which is a part of the xpack content(is it not?)) To make it worse, the monster Manual(which should be divided into adventure packs, and free if you own the pack) is a pay feature... Why are you doing this to me??? I mean I get it that its all about making money, but seriously, If i purchased an expansion for World of Warcraft I wouldn't have to pay for new content(but of course then im already a VIP because i have to pay monthly to play) but still...

Please reconsider this, or at least give some free, and how about some free content in Faerun for the people who purchased the xpack?!? that would satisfy alot of people like me!

/signed

CJ Out!

[DrakHar]

Dont know if it has been said yet... but:

Come on turbine, Seriously? I bought the Collectors edition of xpack, and I am a premium player who owns EVERY adventure pack, I also own shared bank I, 8 char slots, every race and class and I play almost everyday, usually for 2 or more hours(besides the point), But now your going to screw me over by making me purchase the new content update(which is a part of the xpack content(is it not?)) To make it worse, the monster Manual(which should be divided into adventure packs, and free if you own the pack) is a pay feature... Why are you doing this to me??? I mean I get it that its all about making money, but seriously, If i purchased an expansion for World of Warcraft I wouldn't have to pay for new content(but of course then im already a VIP because i have to pay monthly to play) but still...

Please reconsider this, or at least give some free, and how about some free content in Faerun for the people who purchased the xpack?!? that would satisfy alot of people like me!

/signed

CJ Out!

Not signed, at all. VIPs have needed actual benefits for a long time now. The xpac is fine, VIPs should have had to pay for it. But stuff like the artificer (except oh, okay, technicality, if you run a bunch of unfun challenges really well AND the worst xp/minute quests on elite you can unlock it)... VIPs need something. The fact they are giving the prologue and volume 1 to us without being a VIP is nice. Is it really so much to ask for 1/3 to purchase? One out of three! And one of them is so free that you literally don't need to have ever spend a red cent on the game. You have spent a red cent, as have I, and so we will get Volume I for free, too!

(PS - Don't bring up opening on elite. It's only important to double TRs really to maintain an elite streak (and even then, debateable), which everyone gets by then anyhow).

As for the prologue: Is there a reason NONE of the humans I've killed count?
1. Jacoby Drexelhand.
2. Human archers in purge the heretics.
3. Human commoners in purge the heretics.
4. Humans in the Caged Troll quest
5. Humans in Sorrowdusk (Many types)
6. Named human bosses in sorrowdusk (many types).

Is there a list of what humans count and what don't? is it just like, inspired quarter?

Anyhow, despite that gripe on humans, the rest function well, and it is a bonus feature, so I'm disinclined to complain about the bugs - but I figure it's valuable feedback. Overall, love it!

[RD2play]

nice addition

The only thing i would like to see is a bonus at cap like +1 att + 1 dmg +1 saves VS monster
so u can farm for devils and get that bit extra versus them because u understand them

[Alabore]

I bought the Collectors edition of xpack, and I am a premium player who owns EVERY adventure pack, I also own shared bank I, 8 char slots, every race and class.
...
Please give some free.


What about this: tying up Monster Manual Tomes with Adventure Packs?
You get the option to buy individual Tomes with TP - OR - you unlock Tomes as "perks" to buying full Adventure Packs.

This would make some less than popular Packs more desirable.

[Damian]

I just did a True Resurrection and the Monster Manual was wiped clean. I dont think that should be the case...

Not a good business decision in my opinion since you want players to buy those heart of woods no?

Please tell me that is not WAI

[smkalinowski]

As for the prologue: Is there a reason NONE of the humans I've killed count?
1. Jacoby Drexelhand.
2. Human archers in purge the heretics.
3. Human commoners in purge the heretics.
4. Humans in the Caged Troll quest
5. Humans in Sorrowdusk (Many types)
6. Named human bosses in sorrowdusk (many types).

Is there a list of what humans count and what don't? is it just like, inspired quarter?



I don't have a list but some of the humans from the Dirty Laundry quest did show up (Syndicate Muscle, Will the Washer). I did notice that not all the humans showed up, like the syndicate spellslinger didn't count.

[rsking]

ya and the manual doesn't add player races either.
plus i thought there was guild renown that you could gain also. cause beta had it when i tried the Monster Manual

[Ovrad]

Is there a list of what humans count and what don't? is it just like, inspired quarter?

Working on it! ;)

[Oficinaman]

Not signed, at all. VIPs have needed actual benefits for a long time now. The xpac is fine, VIPs should have had to pay for it. But stuff like the artificer (except oh, okay, technicality, if you run a bunch of unfun challenges really well AND the worst xp/minute quests on elite you can unlock it)... VIPs need something. The fact they are giving the prologue and volume 1 to us without being a VIP is nice. Is it really so much to ask for 1/3 to purchase? One out of three! And one of them is so free that you literally don't need to have ever spend a red cent on the game. You have spent a red cent, as have I, and so we will get Volume I for free, too!

(PS - Don't bring up opening on elite. It's only important to double TRs really to maintain an elite streak (and even then, debateable), which everyone gets by then anyhow).

As for the prologue: Is there a reason NONE of the humans I've killed count?
1. Jacoby Drexelhand.
2. Human archers in purge the heretics.
3. Human commoners in purge the heretics.
4. Humans in the Caged Troll quest
5. Humans in Sorrowdusk (Many types)
6. Named human bosses in sorrowdusk (many types).

Is there a list of what humans count and what don't? is it just like, inspired quarter?

Anyhow, despite that gripe on humans, the rest function well, and it is a bonus feature, so I'm disinclined to complain about the bugs - but I figure it's valuable feedback. Overall, love it!

Add to the Humans that doesn't count the archers at Orchard of the Macabre, and the Human Brigands in the casino quest on Harbor and many Quickfoot X throught quests.

[Oficinaman]

I just did a True Resurrection and the Monster Manual was wiped clean. I dont think that should be the case...

Not a good business decision in my opinion since you want players to buy those heart of woods no?

Please tell me that is not WAI

Totally agreed! The Xp given isn't great at all, so I think I'd prefer to TR and not gain that XP, but have my Monster Manual as it was previous to the TR.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

The Xp given isn't great at all,

For a starter, first life on Korthos, it is.

[Damian]

For a TR, that xp means nothing; but the fun of filling the book does though.

Just make the monster manual retain its progression, same as crafting, when someone TRs. If not, the players plannning a TR wont buy the volumes and the players on the fence to do a TR just won't do it (won't buy the heart of wood). It's a lose-lose situation dollar wise for Turbine.

And the XP awarded for past progression won't be gained again anyway so there is no possible abuse of the system.

[Oficinaman]

For a starter, first life on Korthos, it is.

You won't be able to do in Korthos, reasonably speaking, 2 or 3 of the entries and, in any case, you need such few XP on your first 3 levels on 1st life (Korthos wilderness gives full xp to PCs from level 1 to 3) that its irrelevant. Also Veteran Status allows you to skip all Korthos.

[Osma77]

If your party member is a human, and you kill them with explosive barrels, does that go towards your human killcount? How about types of humans killed?

[Jontas]

It's the Harbour that's broken when it comes to humans - No Humans in the Harbour are counting towards the Monster Manual.


Tried with "Proof is in the Poison" as it had spiders as well, which is marketplace... and the quickfeet from "Proof" were not human. (I mean, I always suspected....)

[renyold_cutright]

Working on it! ;)

Add Quinn in Swiped Signet in the market (he's the only one in the quest that counted)

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s141/Gunslinger1955/MM-1.jpg

[Ovrad]

[Deleted]

Ooops, wrong thread. *derp*

[Ovrad]

Add Quinn in Swiped Signet in the market (he's the only one in the quest that counted)

I know, that's why he's the only one not in the list. ;)

That is the list for missing mobs... maybe I should edit to make it clearer, you're not the first one to make that mistake.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

You won't be able to do in Korthos, reasonably speaking, 2 or 3 of the entries and, in any case, you need such few XP on your first 3 levels on 1st life (Korthos wilderness gives full xp to PCs from level 1 to 3) that its irrelevant. Also Veteran Status allows you to skip all Korthos.

I did kip Korthos with vet tier 1, but I also do the slayer quests there. Because to me, it is still important. And I did get my 300 xp for doing the Korthos wilderness.

Yesterday I defeated Cicic for the 3rd time (the first time since the MM is there - this spider is in the manual, too !) - For 16 xp experience points because I was level 6. *Ding* Level 7 ! By 16 experience points !

[Moonsickle]

I just did a True Resurrection and the Monster Manual was wiped clean. I dont think that should be the case...

Not a good business decision in my opinion since you want players to buy those heart of woods no?

Please tell me that is not WAI




Did a Lesser Resurrection and it wiped it clean... still the same life???




sure that will make even more people happy





.

[Drakemoon]

This is the best idea that Turbine has had in quite a while! I look forward to filling mine in.
When you are grinding slayers with an occasional quest here and there, this will make your time more rewarding

[Ovrad]

The "See monster hp" works, but seems to be unlocked with the wrong conditions.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6915/screenshot00191.jpg

[Expalphalog]

Did a Lesser Resurrection and it wiped it clean... still the same life???

They're aware of the issue and claim to have already fixed it. But remember, this is just a preview. We'll get the fix when we get the actual product with u15.

[Deathdefy]

The "See monster hp" works, but seems to be unlocked with the wrong conditions.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6915/screenshot00191.jpg

I still think it could be WAI in that you can unlock it via either 5 total deeds or 5 account deeds... though that would render the account deeds part redundant wouldn't it. Apologies for thinking out loud. You're right. Posting anyway!

[yaang]

http://i.imgur.com/Ru3H3.jpg

Worked all day on spiders, this is what I have so far.

Character Deeds 4/7
Account Deeds 2/7

Progress on Spider Creature Companion 1/7

-Mastery Rewards doesn't count your character and account deeds correctly.
-Some creatures doesn't register at all when you kill them.
-Some creatures register under another name.
-Account Deeds can't do what it's supposed to do, tracking progress of multiple characters in an account.

At this point I've given up. It's not possible to get the kill 80 different spiders at the moment, because of the bugs listed above the highest you can get is 78. I'm at 73 at the moment but I don't see the point of getting the remaining 5 as I can't complete it to 80.
I can grind for a week to get the kill 12,000 spiders to get the 7 Deeds but I can't even be sure if they will register towards the mastery rewards. For all I know I can still be at 1/7 progress after getting every deed on spiders.

TL;DR

Don't bother trying to get a spider companion via Monster Manual, you'll be sorry.

[DarkPhoenix888]

I really don't like the fact that you need to put SO much effort in order to unlock the ability to see monsters' HP (which is practically free in many other games), only to lose that ability when you TR. IMO, the Monster Manual should be treated the same way as Cannith Crafting. Until it gets fixed I, for one, am not going to bother with it.

[Vengeance777]

Finally finished off spiders and got my Companion. Its a Forest Spiderling for those interested.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/nsvengence/spiderling.jpg

Took 60 Unique spiders and 3500 spiders killed to get it. Thankfully you don't have to kill 12000 spiders to get it.
I alternated between Arachnophobia in harbor and Twilight Spiders in Vale to finish off the kills.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/nsvengence/spider.jpg

[fullpozzy]

Is there a way to disable this feature? Ya it is nice but I am not interested in the MM at all

[Urist]

Is there a way to disable this feature? Ya it is nice but I am not interested in the MM at all
Just... avoid hitting Ctrl+M?

[Steppenwulf]

cool feature! for the 3d/actual game model monster views, are there any listed or known controls to zoom them in or out? seems like im stuck at viewing the very very top of the human's heads only. thanks!

edit: oh wait...these seem to be the collared villagers just looking down. a zoom in and out control feature would be awesome though for viewing all the 3d models collected. might think of them as "trophies", heh.

[Expalphalog]

cool feature! for the 3d/actual game model monster views, are there any listed or known controls to zoom them in or out?

This would be nice. Death Knights you just get an extreme closeup of their left pectoral.

[Chaimberland]

So far from what I see this looks pretty good. A few suggestions though:

It would be nice to have more varying achievements other than slayer counts and monster sub-species counts. What about achievements like trip or stunning, or vorpaling, finger of deathing. I'm sure as a community a lot of suggestions could be made that go beyond simply killing.

I really really wish Turbine could get away from using creature companions as rewards for things. Some of the player base like these things, but for me, I have zero interest and tying achievement awards to companions is no reward at all in my opinion. Again, I am sure the community could make many suggestions for better rewards... what about giving players an option... you can choose a creature companion or...?? Nothing overpowered and something appropriate to the monster type killed. Maybe a +1 weapon damage to that species of monster or a +1 skill to balance for the spider achievement.

I love the idea of having a +1 added to some sort of skill as a reward other than having a creature companion. Creature companions are just anoying. If they actually helped in some way I could see the point in having one.

I do have a question. What is the difference between character deeds and account deeds? Do all of your toons get rewarded/credit on account deeds if one of your toons does the slaying?

[dterror]

I still think it could be WAI in that you can unlock it via either 5 total deeds or 5 account deeds... though that would render the account deeds part redundant wouldn't it. Apologies for thinking out loud. You're right. Posting anyway!

I believe account deeds will keep things unlocked through TR, LR, etc once it's working the way it's supposed to. Total deed unlocks that aren't also account deeds would by design be relocked on TR...so not entirely redundant.

[PsychoBlonde]

If the books are released as separate 'chapters' in the Monster Manual tab, PLEASE make sure to make a 'combined' tab, as well.

Having to tab through different books to find the specific [Vermin] entry you're looking for would just be annoying as hell.

Besides, having a full shared list adds to the collectivity element of the manuals.

This. I've been noticing some odd behavior with the Monster Manual, as well, but it can be hard to say exactly what's going on because I'm always in combat when it does whatever it does.

It SEEMS like I've gotten the first spider slayer reward like, 4 times. Certainly I've gotten the message that I "received 300 xp!" several times--and it usually repeats when it shows up in the log. However, I wasn't ready at the time to check if it actually granted the XP when it said it did.

It's also extremely erratic on whether certain red-named bosses count as kill types. And even some of the regular mobs--a lot of humans aren't actually counting as humans.

Oh, I will say one thing definitely though: I've gotten the message that I've done several spider deeds. My list still says "character deeds: 0/8"

[laurawilder]

Wow I could not even get through half the posts in this thread. I cannot believe the attitude and behavior of some of you that play this game. This is a new addition to the game and enhancement that is not required. With it you will get some additional xp on top of slayer counts. This is like collecting slayers in quests and a personal accomplishment biography for in game.

and yet, some of you demand and are insulted it has far to little exp and should have guild renown.

You must be kidding me what audacity some of you have. You are given more exp for doing nothing extra and you have the gaul to say it is not enough.

Thank god many of you babies were not here back in 2006 and 2007 the game would never have lasted.

[oradafu]

and yet, some of you demand and are insulted it has far to little exp and should have guild renown.

You must be kidding me what audacity some of you have. You are given more exp for doing nothing extra and you have the gaul to say it is not enough.

Yup, I had the gall. And guess what?


It is true that once again we forgot about Guild Renown and I appreciate being called out on it. I'm going to see if I can sneak that in to Update 15. :)

We appreciate the feedback.

EDIT: Guild Renown rewards will NOT make it into Update 15. Look for it in future volumes, sorry.

[PogueMahon]

Thank god many of you babies were not here back in 2006 and 2007 the game would never have lasted.

They weren't because you had to pay to play things weren't given away you actually had to earn them.

BTW to lazy to find my old founders account to post this lol.

[adam1oftheround]

nice addition

The only thing i would like to see is a bonus at cap like +1 att + 1 dmg +1 saves VS monster
so u can farm for devils and get that bit extra versus them because u understand them

I would like to see this +1 att dmg and saves stack with the ranger feat Favored Enemy plus you could double it if you had the ranger feat for that race.

XP increase for higher level characters would be nice too