Ravenloft Preview #1 Content Feedback

[Cocomajobo]

First, if you haven't already, please visit the main preview thread (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/491316-Ravenloft-Preview-1-11-7-11-10) for important information and details.

You can now enter Ravenloft from either House Jorasco or Eveningstar! Please post all content feedback for landscape, quests, and public areas in this thread.

The Land of Barovia Wildreness area is fully accessible! This includes a vast explorer area with random encounters, journal entries, and rares along with three small public area's accessible from within the Wilderness Area. The arc questgiver's for each part of Ravenloft are contained within these public areas and there are "Guides" outside each public area capable of teleporting you to the quests in their surrounding area. If you ever can't find a specific quest simply check with the guides just outside the other public areas.

The following quests are available for preview in varying states of polish:

Into The Mists (Intro dungeon required to enter the landscape for the first time)
Death House
Fresh-baked Dreams
An Invitation to Dinner
Oath of Vengeance
A Raven at the Door
The Final Vintage


It is worth noting that the Arc Questgivers are set up, however, because most of the quests in part 2 are locked for this preview you will not be able to continue along the quest arc after completing "Oath of Vengeance". You should still be able to access and play both "A Raven at the Door" and "The Final Vintage" simply by finding their questgiver and entering the dungeon normally.

[Satyriasys]

Well the first thing I noticed is the grass actually touches the ground instead of floating a foot above it. I think this is a first for DDO and I'm impressed.

[sebascz]

Still haven't played any quest. But i've reached the blood on the wine and loved all the way. I will love this expansion.

[Wanatuc]

Did 3 of the quest tonight Death House, Fresh baked dreams and Oath of vengeance. Thought all were about the right length and each had a good plot line. I know there will be some tweaking to make them better. Did notice that treasure bags dropped by mobs can not be picked up. Did them on heroic and my toon was level 16 so not sure of xp is good or not. Did notice a couple of not right things. 1. When I tried to recall out I kept going to the bar with the baron, had to teleport to get back to Dojo. 2. When I was in the Dojo tried to put new named items in my shared bank and they just disappeared, could put other items in bank. (just to let u know I did bind to a bar in ravenloft so that might be why recalling did not work.)
So far looks to be a very good expansion. Thank You

Major question what is going to be the Slayer count in wilderness for heroic and epic? Hopefully a lot more the 1500 ie hope for 7500.
.

[Krelar]

Is it too late to rename the journals so instead of numbers they are something like " Strahd's Journal by the Blood and Vine Inn?"
I still hate the numbered journal system, there's no way to go look for ones I'm missing beside looking up a wiki map or hoping for dumb luck.

I also found a pair of bears in the heroic wilderness that used the dire bear graphic.

[zehnvhex]

Crawling Claw's need to be looked at in terms of hit boxes. 90+% of the time I am completely unable to hit them with melee/AE attacks.

[zehnvhex]

Treasure bags are dropping but can't be looted/used.

[Rob_65270]

So, if you have 0 DDO points to purchase the preview for the Ravenloft stuff, I guess you'll have to wait or something?

[zehnvhex]

A slight pet peeve of mine but it's been noticeably absent in a lot of recent content...

Everything in Ravenloft appears to be mute. Outside of the bosses which may or may not have some DM dialogue, the monters don't shout "Have at you!" or "Argggh!" or anything.

For an example of what I mean, go play through VoN3 real quick. Notice how almost every NPC has some line of dialog that pops above it's head when it agros and when you kill it?

Nothing in Ravenloft so far does that.

[bls904c2]

So, if you have 0 DDO points to purchase the preview for the Ravenloft stuff, I guess you'll have to wait or something?

in test dojo in center island is sir points alot he grants SSG points to purchase in store

[Rob_65270]

in test dojo in center island is sir points alot he grants SSG points to purchase in store

Ty, ty.

[zehnvhex]

I do not know how I did it, or if it's even possible but I bypassed the 'into the mists' intro quest. Here's what I did:

1 - Went to House J
2 - Tried to zone in
3 - Told me I needed to buy
4 - Clicked on store link
5 - Bought
6 - Clicked on portal
7 - Entered on elite

Took me right to the wilderness area. The quest box still said "Find a way to escape from the mists". I ran forward a bit, killed some random NPC's and then the quest box updated with the wilderness area quests.

[Draculetta]

So, was planning on making a video for DDO Players (going to make vids of all the quests) and started up Into The Mist.

I was under the impression you have to finish to get the rest of the quests and the "landscape" stuff. I zoned in.. Killed a few mobs.. ran around and around (that map is huge) kept finding quests to pick up, but if I tried to enter of them it said the current adventure was still active..

I ran around the whole map as far as I can tell, and never could finish "Find out way out of the mists"

So what did miss?

[serkito]

I played through a bit of it, ,, i too had the same issue with entering the mist quest and ending up in the wilderness,,,on heroic,,on elite i entered fine..........also in invitation to dinner, the 2nd time i found whats his face, and ended up in the void/misty room with a fight (his test or whatever), the spectre was casting but i could not see it. i could swing at it, and miss everytime (when i could find it) but was in there a good few minutes before exiting the game (getting late), and never actually saw it. i had true seeing on if that matters

[serkito]

I played through a bit of it, ,, i too had the same issue with entering the mist quest and ending up in the wilderness,,,on heroic,,on elite i entered fine..........also in invitation to dinner, the 2nd time i found whats his face, and ended up in the void/misty room with a fight (his test or whatever), the spectre was casting but i could not see it. i could swing at it, and miss everytime (when i could find it) but was in there a good few minutes before exiting the game (getting late), and never actually saw it. i had true seeing on if that matters

i was also lvl 30, and was in on heroic normal, if that helps

[The_Human_Cypher]

Treasure bags are dropping but can't be looted/used.

I noticed this as well throughout the explorer area and all of the quests.

[The_Human_Cypher]

After I completed "Death House," I couldn't walk out the front door instead of using the 'Finish' button. I tried the door inside quest twice, and each time I was teleported back into the quest. I finally had to Finish out instead.

[The_Human_Cypher]

I also wasn't able to enter "A Raven at the Door" if that is the right quest. The quest giver said something about "wereravens," so I assume that this is it.

[Eldried]

I ran aroud a bit in the widerness and found someone to port me around in the village tavern. Went straight to Castle Ravenloft. I have to say its pretty awesome.

Its pretty huge and feels like Haunted Halls a bit and even better. I have played(am playing) Castle Ravenloft 3.5 in PnP and I found a bunch of things that are very similar and very well made. Its not a Monster Creep like in ToEE, but a lot of rooms and hallways and placed to go. I only entered once, but I think there is a random element to it(Getting Tarot cards at the beginning and that decides what you need to do to complete.

Might be a bit complicated to find the way through at the beginning, but I like it that way. Lots of secret doors etc. Havent found many traps(1 room had some if I remember correctly). Might have missed some to since I have evasion on my toon.


I got trapped in some kind of cellar with a bunch of cells and levers for some smaller cells once and had to recall. (There was a red barrier up at the entrance of the cellar). I searched the area for 10 minutes for anything(secret doors etc) to get out of there but could not find anything.
There was a chest in there I could not open(tried with bells) and 2 more levers on cells that would not work.

Anyway,

Thumbs up!!

[Cordovan]

We're looking into the issues with completing Into the Mists.

[Fenix93]

Okay as I've been expecting for a while and tried to talk countless times on DDO's "MoR" forums and the first expansion to have the biggest and greatest Wilde ever seen...The first quest is very beautiful and is in line with the Ravenloft fealing, and the fact that it can be accessed by EveningStar or Jorasco and even better, and how did I imagine...


Jorasco
https://i.imgur.com/zK6F6Pk.jpg

Eveningstar
https://i.imgur.com/d3sksXK.jpg

he has Tnks cordovan for confirming my theory of getting into Ravenloft...

But let's talk about quests ... "into the mist" and really a good short and simple quest is not foolishly impossible to complete and is a great introduction to...

Death House,Fresh-baked Dreams,Oath of Vengeance and The Final Vintage is certainly a very nice quest full of atmosphere and suspense, the only problem I've found and that many npc and boss do not seem to have a proper concept art for example Rose and Thorn not have for my the correct concept art.


https://i.imgur.com/1mRPmVK.png

and the entrance of the dungeon does not make you get out of the quest by getting back in.

An Invitation to Dinner = Castle Ravenloft:

Soo...this perhaps and certainly one of the most beautiful and most stunning things I have ever played in the Dungeon itself and just as I had imagined, I love the style similar to Tower of Frost and Temple of Elemental Evil and really beautiful, unlike ToEE all appearing in heroic looks much more subtle and less frustrating it is not obligatory to fully complete the optional and after a while the item becomes the habit of exploring the dangeon.

https://i.imgur.com/KLEmlV5.jpg

I love the fact that the Tarokka system has been added to the dangeon of the castle and adds that touch of uniqueness whenever you enter the quest, forcing each time to find the correct places where the cards say the 3 objectives of the quest that are:


Treasure


riend


Death


but ... maybe I do not think they will be the only options.

The only negative note and the part where you have to take the key and somewhat buggy and the npc does not stick you properly if the latter decides to attack but in essence the dangeo is really nice, congratulations.


https://i.imgur.com/7A4wqzn.jpg

The new shrines are pretty nice though ... I noticed that not everyone in the quests has the correct pattern, some resemble those of the Forgotten Realms others resembled those of Ebberon but I think they are just Place Older.as in general the entrances in the quest etc all have the simbol of the triangle inverted, except for ravenloft that has the circle circle Frogotten realms but little are small details but I wanted to make them anyway note, in addition I also believe that the appearance of the doors is not in Most of the correct cases, many Ravenloft doors have a distinctly unique look compared to most doors that resemble those of ES.

[GhostOfEldorudo]

Major question what is going to be the Slayer count in wilderness for heroic and epic? Hopefully a lot more the 1500 ie hope for 7500.
.

7500


Treasure bags are dropping but can't be looted/used.

I'm fixing this today

[Craigrx1]

I also wasn't able to enter "A Raven at the Door" if that is the right quest. The quest giver said something about "wereravens," so I assume that this is it.

I was unable to enter this quest also. Showed the door symbol but wouldn't do anything when clicked on

[Tianie]

I noticed there are multiple difficulties in the wilderness area, is this intended. I did go in on hard, and there are champions.
Though the slayer count did not change from normal to hard.

I love the area though.

[Eldried]

Did Castle Ravenloft again.

This time I didnt get an end Chest when The exit was through the top of the South tower.
Also tried to go to the main entrance since I got a chest there last time. Not this time though.
Maybe the end chests are not at all endings?

Last time I got an end chest when I had to leave through the Main entrance.

[Captain_Wizbang]

Will we have to kill scarecrow every time to enter explorer area if we do not have the bottle of mists?

[Cocomajobo]

I noticed there are multiple difficulties in the wilderness area, is this intended. I did go in on hard, and there are champions.
Though the slayer count did not change from normal to hard.

I love the area though.

That's a bug. Some people are currently porting straight from the Jorasco/Eveningstar to the wilderness area after selecting their difficulty for the Intro dungeon quest "Into the Mists" and then getting the objectives for that dungeon. It's weird and we're looking at it.


Will we have to kill scarecrow every time to enter explorer area if we do not have the bottle of mists?

Once you have completed the intro quest (Into the Mists) the first time on a character you should then get the option of either repeating the quest or entering the wilderness area directly from Jorasco/Eveningstar.

[Satyriasys]

I got trapped in some kind of cellar with a bunch of cells and levers for some smaller cells once and had to recall. (There was a red barrier up at the entrance of the cellar). I searched the area for 10 minutes for anything(secret doors etc) to get out of there but could not find anything.
There was a chest in there I could not open(tried with bells) and 2 more levers on cells that would not work.

Anyway,

Thumbs up!!

Yup same here. A boss is obviously supposed to spawn since theres a locked chest and a red barrier. Anyone reading this, beware the prison cells, you will never see the sun again.

[Cocomajobo]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!

[zehnvhex]

Newish mid-tier (8gb ram, RX480, i5-6500, windows 10). Other then the stuttering issue that's been going on since the last patch it's been pretty smooth. Jumping from the balcony of castle Ravenloft to the town below there was zero stuttering (and was really fun), the 'loading' was about what you'd expect for a distance that far. Ran around the wilderness for a bit and had no popping, no textures loading behind me, etc...

So far my only complaint about the wilderness zone would be the scarcity of things to kill and that it's so big we could probably use a global move speed buff while in there.

[Captain_Wizbang]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!


Glad you posted this, the trail hitches on the turns and bends, moving straight ahead it was fine.

Any foliage head-high and some trees were not refreshing so good. The texture details got stuck as I moved.

[Torc]

Did Castle Ravenloft again.

This time I didnt get an end Chest when The exit was through the top of the South tower.
Also tried to go to the main entrance since I got a chest there last time. Not this time though.
Maybe the end chests are not at all endings?

Last time I got an end chest when I had to leave through the Main entrance.

The end chest has three different locations that match up with the three possible exit points used to finish the quest. The end chest for the top of the south tower exit should've been right through the double doors after the portrait room, at the foot of the stairs rather than the top.

-T

[Satyriasys]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!

16gb RAM, GTX 770, Win 7
Ran around the wilderness, quested in Death House and Castle Ravenloft. Performance was smooth as silk on highest settings.

[noble_pirate]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!

couple times it was some freezes in wilderness, but i guess that it was server issues, not location-wise.

Win7, Dual-core Phenom II x2 555 (so very outdated, lol), 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1 GB (also very weak nowadays), DirectX 11, 1280x960, high-ish custom settings --- performance was smooth, but need to check in party with different classes who are casting some heavy $#it like druid's earthquake ))

[Drwaz99]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!

i7700k
1080ti
16gb RAM
34" 3440x1440 100hz monitor with Vsync on
Maxxed settings

For reference: This computer can handle GTA V maxed out at 90+fps/3440x1440 no problem.

Baseline: Normal game outside Ravenloft pegged at 100fps with occasional drops to 85-90 when many monsters are spawned (ie end fight of Friends in Low Places)

Ravenloft (still lots and lots of hitching and momentary 3-5 second freezes that are seen on live right now, happens everywhere):

- In dense, off-path woods: 60-70fps dropping to 50fps when mobs appear and as low as 40fps when shadows appear.
- 95-100 FPS when on a path or when in a clearing.
- Surprisingly dipped to 33-40 fps when approaching the first town.

Speedtest to Norwood, Mass (just to see if it maybe an internet/provider issue thing) is 70ms ping - 85 Mbps.

[Codect]

Grammatical error - Madam Eva dialogue, maybe should be one word:
https://i.imgur.com/tEBU83D.png

Spelling error - Madam Eva's dialogue when asked about Death:
https://i.imgur.com/WArY0Ku.png

Grammatical error - Rahadin response to "Nice place you got here":
https://i.imgur.com/JLtRW5C.png

Coding error - Rahadin - Selecting "Who are you?" on the initial dialogue leads to the same response as "Nice place you got here", however choosing the same option after selecting "I have a few more questions" leads to the correct response.

Grammatical error - Rahadin response to "What is that noise?":
https://i.imgur.com/Klusve5.png

Spelling error - Strahd's initial dialogue (also wrong word ordering - it should read "prepared especially"):
https://i.imgur.com/JScEqQf.png

Spelling error - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 5th option:
https://i.imgur.com/uLzeHyy.png

Grammatical error - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 2nd option leads to his response (missing a "to" I presume):
https://i.imgur.com/RCw4tew.png

Grammatical error - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 3rd option leads to his response:
https://i.imgur.com/p49OTGs.png

Grammatical & spelling errors - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 5th option leads to his response ("He's had a hard life", "his" and "loyalty"):
https://i.imgur.com/5XO3ios.png

Grammatical error - Strahd explaining why you have been invited (should be looking):
https://i.imgur.com/IDuCS2x.png

That is all I have time for tonight unfortunately, I'll be back!

Edit: Continuted at https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/491317-Ravenloft-Preview-1-Content-Feedback?p=6037399&highlight=#post6037399

[Carpone]

Mob density in the legendary wilderness area is low. A bit too low. For comparison, it feels lower density than Storm Horns.

[Talonthedruid]

sadly I'm unable to enter most of the quests, (Standard): You cannot enter that instance because it is locked. shows up for half of them even if I have the quest, this happens on any difficulty. don't know whats up but id like to run the rest of them

[Captain_Wizbang]

ran almost a full loop of wilderness, all is good, refreshes as fast as I could run.

Only few unfinished areas, and BIG surprise

This is hilarious

https://i.imgur.com/dcPLjVw.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/aiDoiWv.jpg

[The_Human_Cypher]

Grammatical error - Madam Eva dialogue, maybe should be one word:
https://i.imgur.com/tEBU83D.png

Spelling error - Madam Eva's dialogue when asked about Death:
https://i.imgur.com/WArY0Ku.png

Grammatical error - Rahadin response to "Nice place you got here":
https://i.imgur.com/JLtRW5C.png

Coding error - Rahadin - Selecting "Who are you?" on the initial dialogue leads to the same response as "Nice place you got here", however choosing the same option after selecting "I have a few more questions" leads to the correct response.

Grammatical error - Rahadin response to "What is that noise?":
https://i.imgur.com/Klusve5.png

Spelling error - Strahd's initial dialogue (also wrong word ordering - it should read "prepared especially"):
https://i.imgur.com/JScEqQf.png

Spelling error - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 5th option:
https://i.imgur.com/uLzeHyy.png

Grammatical error - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 2nd option leads to his response (missing a "to" I presume):
https://i.imgur.com/RCw4tew.png

Grammatical error - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 3rd option leads to his response:
https://i.imgur.com/p49OTGs.png

Grammatical & spelling errors - asking Strahd questions dialogue, 5th option leads to his response ("He's had a hard life" and "loyalty"):
https://i.imgur.com/LLiY9g1.png

Grammatical error - Strahd explaining why you have been invited (should be looking):
https://i.imgur.com/IDuCS2x.png

That is all I have time for tonight unfortunately, I'll be back!

Thank you for doing this. SSG really needs to work on proof-reading during its development process; every update has many of these simple errors that could be caught beforehand.

[The_Human_Cypher]

As for performance, I didn't notice any graphics-related problems. I am running a Windows 10 Pro 64-bit machine with an Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz processor, 16 GB RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card.

[GhostOfEldorudo]

Mob density in the legendary wilderness area is low. A bit too low. For comparison, it feels lower density than Storm Horns.

I'll be monitoring this thread to get additional feedback on the landscape monster density. We're using random encounters so I do have the ability to play with the numbers to rectify this. Since it is random you could get unlucky one time and the next time you could have better luck. So continue to update as you run through the landscape and let me know!

[Shiwanabe]

Current notes for ~1hr playtime in Barovia:

Mists entry Glitch; Had this 3 times now on 2 characters. Seems like something goes weird in the leading screen. Last incident had me flagged as in a quest, so it gave me the 'leaving a quest in progress' dialog when heading into one of the inns.

"Into the Mists"; Players have been trained to complete every objective shown. Having 'Find a way out of the mists' appear in the explorable or such might be a better option.
Vasiliy Ivanych - can fail to path to the camp, stopping about ~10 meters off the road.

"A Raven at the Door"; Quest entry door was non-responsive.

Wilderness;
Graves; the interactable ones near Blood on the Vine spawn Mist graphics, but do nothing else.
The size of the area combined with enemies being fairly uncommon, makes for an uninteresting experience getting each quest.
On the note of size - This are is about 6-8 times the area I can get the map to show. Would we be able to get a zoom feature for the map?
It becomes difficult find where you need to go in these large areas when you're first entering.
"Strahd's Journal 1" - spawned in the Heroic version. 'You are not high enough level to use that'

"An Invitation to Dinner"; The Mists card felt fairly appropriate in the 'Death' slot. I doubt it will feel anywhere near as appropriate in the other slots or if you're trying to hunt down whatever the 'Death' is.

"Fresh Baked Dreams"; The inside of the Windmill door doesn't show the 'intereactable' mouseover.

General:
Some corpses still block movement. The example I just encountered was what appears to be Ravens. (I hadn't noticed they were there when I killed some Scarecrows and was nearly stuck in a circle of raven corpses)

Balance:
Immunities - Single element casters are probably going to have issues.
On this note, it would be nice to encounter a non-elite Scarecrow first. So that players are not caught off guard by immunities on a new class of monster.
MRR and PRR on enemies - This is more a matter of 'feel', but these feel bad and unless there's a big difference between them are equivalent to more HP while feeling worse for a player.
The feeling is not helped by the lack of visible difference between DR/Resistance and the Resistance Ratings when hitting targets.



Not-yet-implemented stuff:
"Strahd Armor Rare"
Kobold 'Shamblers'
Flaming skulls don't attack?

[Drwaz99]

I'll be monitoring this thread to get additional feedback on the landscape monster density. We're using random encounters so I do have the ability to play with the numbers to rectify this. Since it is random you could get unlucky one time and the next time you could have better luck. So continue to update as you run through the landscape and let me know!

I agree with Carpone, I ran around the wilderness area for about an hour. Slayers, as it stands now, is going to be a long, boring slog. The number of spawns is far to small. It's one of the worst - density wise - of the wilderness areas. It's still new to me and I was bored after 20-30min but wanted to see if it got any better. It didn't. But, as always, you guys crushed the visuals.

[MacRighteous]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!


First time on Lamannia. Not sure how to contribute...

System:

AMD Phenom II X4 3400 Mhz
16 GB Memory
NVIDIA GeForce GT 610
Win 7

Frame rate and graphic observations:

I had to turn down my graphics from "Very High" to "Medium" to not lag out in and around the mists, otherwise my experience was fairly smooth as long as I stayed under "High" setting. The "Default" and "Detect Optimal Settings" would pick a setting that was to high for me to operate without feeling "sticky."
I stayed around 70 to 50 FPS on paths, but off path and in encounters I dropped to around 40, In town I dropped to mid 20's/30's but went back up to 60+ in Death House and in taverns. I haven't tried to optimize my graphic settings in my card's control panel in sometime - so I might be able to pick up some performance there - right now it's balanced for dual boxing DDO and Multi-boxing LotRO - which is how I'll be running this content on live. So - I can tell that there is more "load" in this content than what I am used to.

Wilderness:

Wow!! Just beautiful even on lower settings. I felt that the mob population was sparse and too easy... I rolled a 1st life Vet III level 10 THF Paladin and just used the Starter gear and grabbed Whirlwind from the Dojo - haven't bothered to slot my spells yet (no wis item) and didn't have any buffs on and I'm stomping through mobs on normal at level... I don't expect to get wiped running to the castle - but I think there should be soooooome challenge?

The wilderness is very large and the places of interest are spread out thin - there is no comparison in game on live - Stormhorns might come close, but Barovia is huge - So huge that we either need a global speed or stride mechanism to get around reasonable quick or give us mounts in these areas...Nobody in DDO wants to spend 30 minutes running to quests - save that for LotRO. If the teleports are locked behind a paywall - you are going to have a lot of unhappy campers. Don't do it.

Quest:

Death House Normal level 10

I liked it - nice atmosphere - appropriately spooky - I liked the notes and the story clues.... I felt the first half of the quest was about right as far as mobs density went - even though it is very low - I think in this quests it is ok at first as this may be a character's first exposure to Ravenloft - Strahd - and the whole Barovia arc (it was mine - I was aware of RVL but never played it or owned any of the content - sad but true) getting a feel for Strahd's evil and cold-bloodiness (through the notes and letters) gave me a very foreboding feeling - I felt like Zach from Ghost Hunters... but then........

I just don't see the practicality of reaching the basement through the attic - come on - if you are going to do that then make us walk down a rickety hidden stairwell - teleporting from the attic to the basement just felt cheesy. IMO YMMV - small gripe, yes- but why cut corners on something like this - on the first quest?

Also - I thought the red names were too easy and I was especially let down by the boss - ***? (I have read here that this may be unfinished or a place holder - and I certainly hope so because I couldn't be more disappointed in the boss if it was that mutant from the goonies... please change this - Kobold remembers to stay the hell out of Barovia - please.

Some glitches:

Ireena Kolyana in the Blood on the Vine Tavern has a weird string in here quest bestowal dialogue: ID_arc_refuse_PC - which does what you would expect when you select it.

Karl Wachter - a sitting patron in the Blue Water Inn has a string error: <string table error, tableDID [0x250228DC] token [0x0B3D3787]> when you click on him.


Overall:

I am stoked - very impressed so far - I ran up to the castle and looked out across the infamous balcony overlooking the village and just sqeeeeed with delight - good job!!
I really haven't spent enough time with this content yet to tell if the pacing - spacing and flow of the story feels right - but I ain't hating on anything yet. (except the boss in Death House... and the stairs - lol)

Hope this helps - IDK if I'll have time to run through anymore content on Lam - I really don't want to spoil my live experience - but I had to get a look at that castle!!!

Again : Nice job on what I saw - if the rest is like this (and some of the minor things that I and others have noted are dialed in) then you guys have a hit on your hands.

/Mac

[Arkat]

Since it is random you could get unlucky one time and the next time you could have better luck.

If it's truly random, then there's a possibility that you could run all over the new wilderness area and not have a single encounter. That definitely shouldn't be!

If you can change it to something other than "random," please skew it towards "more encounters than if it were just random."

Thanks!

[Captain_Wizbang]

I'll be monitoring this thread to get additional feedback on the landscape monster density. We're using random encounters so I do have the ability to play with the numbers to rectify this. Since it is random you could get unlucky one time and the next time you could have better luck. So continue to update as you run through the landscape and let me know!

Round 2 for tonight was heroic. spent a few hours in explorer.

Population was consistent but on the low side, This might be a misnomer as the size of the area is as it should be, BIG.

What I noticed that I really want to report is the groupings. Not a complaint, just an observation. Diversify some of the encounters would be good.

I keep hearkening back to one of my PnP groups that ran Ravenloft for almost 2 years. The mists could be more spontaneous and unpredictable imho. Nothing like a nice teleport to get peoples attention, ;)

[PsychoBlonde]

Hmm, my feedbacks:

1. The low-contrast color scheme makes it really hard to tell where you are. Not sure if there's time to add just a smidge of color here and there to make it easier to understand where you are. When the sun started to set I was like ZOMG it looks SO cool. So maybe a slight tweak to the standard day skybox would be cool?

2. The dialog of the characters I've run across so far is incredibly blunt and tedious. Also, when someone tells you "I'm a secret wereraven" you kind of make a face because if it was a secret they wouldn't be telling you about it, no?

3. OMG this map is HUGE. Are there teleport points in here somewhere? SO much running.

4. Are the Vargouille supposed to look like Vargouille the dev from the anniversary event? It looks SO weird. The heads should be smaller, at least.

5. I was about to congratulate you for having interesting foes when I ran across the inevitable skeleton archer. There was only the one, though, for the most part it hasn't been boring.

6. Hearing two Vistani musicians playing the same tune out of sync at their camp almost gave me a seizure.

7. The shrine fake out is cool.

8. The phantom warriors are cool, although if you could make them glow a tad brighter that would be ossum.

9. Owlbears? Srsly?

10. The shrines in Fresh-Baked Dreams were still a Forgotten Realms shrine. I also couldn't get out the door and had to recall.

11. If you get anarchist/priest/mist in An Invitation to Dinner the icon spawns inside a pile of skulls on the table in the hall of bones and is very hard to get. There's also a bug in the dungeons where you can get trapped behind a glowing red barrier in the left-hand room with all the cells and levers.

12. I can't get it to let me in the door for A Raven at the Door

13. Overall the quests are a lot of fun. An Invitation to Dinner was frustrating and really long.

[Paladin_of_Power]

in test dojo in center island is sir points alot he grants SSG points to purchase in store

Lord Poincelot

[Shiwanabe]

Just wrapped up my once through of the available quests with "The Final Vintage".

Coco (and Kobold? Sorry, didn't notice you until the end. ><) got most of what I saw in the other quests, but Final Vintage also has a couple of unpolished bits.

Door where you come in - Not sure if it's supposed to be a door out (it's called 'Stairs Down') but the door behind you when you enter just sets you back in that room facing a different way

Twig things - These particular ones seem to be blind and maybe deaf. Everything else reacts at normal aggro distances and timing, but these just seem blind.

End boss - Might be my own problem, or the lack of balance pass, but I fought them on Elite and once they cast Earthquake I was knocked down constantly for the 40+ seconds it took them to finally finish me off. (Go warlock BS survivability? >.>) Never seen anything else manage to CC a player that long.

[bls904c2]

Lord Poincelot

yeah i knew i would be corrected eventually but seriously he gives alot points sir. :P

i never remember his real name thanks for the correction

[Craigrx1]

Overall I have to say that you done a good job on the next installament, altho I always die on the quest "Invitation to dinner" not sure what I am doing wrong but I sure I will figure it out sooner or later (probably later). I have to echo anothers post in that the wilderness area has ALOT OF RUNNING. And unless you have feather fall its a pain getting from Ravenloft to the village behind it. I cant really find too much wrong with it tho

[Draculetta]

Quest:

Death House Normal level 10

I felt like Zach from Ghost Hunters... but then........

I just don't see the practicality of reaching the basement through the attic - come on - if you are going to do that then make us walk down a rickety hidden stairwell - teleporting from the attic to the basement just felt cheesy. IMO YMMV - small gripe, yes- but why cut corners on something like this - on the first quest?



/Mac

#1 Zak is from Ghost Adventures :)

#2 Death House is based on the quest of the same name that is found in the Curse Of Strhad 5E Adventure Book. The Attic Basement thing is in there as well.

[Draculetta]

ran almost a full loop of wilderness, all is good, refreshes as fast as I could run.

Only few unfinished areas, and BIG surprise

This is hilarious

https://i.imgur.com/dcPLjVw.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/aiDoiWv.jpg

You do know that a Vargouille is classic D&D Monster (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Vargouille) correct??

[noble_pirate]

The wilderness is very large and the places of interest are spread out thin - there is no comparison in game on live - Stormhorns might come close, but Barovia is huge - So huge that we either need a global speed or stride mechanism to get around reasonable quick or give us mounts in these areas...Nobody in DDO wants to spend 30 minutes running to quests - save that for LotRO. If the teleports are locked behind a paywall - you are going to have a lot of unhappy campers. Don't do it.


so true!

agreed

[Satyriasys]

You do know that a Vargouille is classic D&D Monster (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Vargouille) correct??

This interpretation is ridiculous and I hope it's a joke.

[Edit] Nevermind. It is



Vargouilles look like the dev instead of the D&D monster.

[shinsirhc]

The level 6 Paladin core 3 Slayer of Evil II ghost touch effect doesn't seems to work. Lots of wraith/specter on the castle, all I'm getting is Incorporeal on them.

So far i've run the this quest with my 12ftr/6pal/2rng:
Into The Mists R1
Death House R1
Fresh-baked Dreams ( So far this is the only one that has a voice over ) Elite
An Invitation to Dinner ( I like the quest objectives on this one ) R1

PC Specs:
Intel Core i5 4440
Radeon HD 5850
10Gb ram
Windows 10.

The only time my frame drops to below 40's is when I'm running in the wilderness area. Inside the quest its pretty much smooth all the way never dipping 60 frames with vsync that is.

I've notice that Texture in settings doesn't have "Very High" on it only "High"

[Codect]

Continuation from https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/491317-Ravenloft-Preview-1-Content-Feedback?p=6037235&highlight=#post6037235

Spelling error - Cyrus joke:
https://i.imgur.com/t7DPS64.png

Grammatical error - Cyrus (a lot is two words):
https://i.imgur.com/hbdMGKs.png

Spelling error - DM Text for Gustav Herringhast:
https://i.imgur.com/AbZEKKY.png

Errant comma - Ezmerelda dialogue:
https://i.imgur.com/WNS0e2D.png

Ordering error - Ezmerelda dialogue (should be "Down to go up?"):
https://i.imgur.com/efsxXnn.png

Grammatical error - Ezmerelda dialogue:
https://i.imgur.com/k5ZfCBQ.png

Chest glitch - Reward for killing Felix Blackarrow spawns as an open chest but is locked when trying to interact with it:
https://i.imgur.com/bqbGJQX.png

Grammatical error - Lief dialogue when asking about his chains (should be "used" not "use"):
https://i.imgur.com/HWkVbpK.png

Spelling error - Lief dialogue when asking about the key to his chest ("amongst"):
https://i.imgur.com/sKpt1Wx.png

Grammatical error - Lief dialogue when calling his bluff about key location ("Must have" rather than "Must of"):
https://i.imgur.com/k4XUWAG.png

Grammatical & spelling errors - Lief dialogue when asking about a treasure (should be "Any way" and "loyalty"):
https://i.imgur.com/wZYBvFj.png

Grammatical error - Lief dialogue when asking if you can help free him (again, should be "Any way"):
https://i.imgur.com/9gw0ncn.png

Coding error - When talking to the maid one of the options does nothing but make all options unresponsive so the player must re-initiate the dialogue. I did not manage to take screenshots or make note of anything else to do with the maid as I triggered a fight on my second interaction. If I run the quest again I will update.

[Captain_Wizbang]

You do know that a Vargouille is classic D&D Monster (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Vargouille) correct??

You do know staff has a sense of humor correct??

[Draculetta]

System Specs -
Intel i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz
16 Gig Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 TI 2 GB Ram
1920x1200 Screen Res
SSD Drive

I had no lag, glitches freezes etc.. at all, during my testing. Even with lots of effects/monsters/etc.

[Anaximandroz]

The wilderness: I didn't noticed any bug, except the mists doing not after you step in them; probably one of the random encounter no implemented yet.

1st arc: I was running a barb30 and explored as much as i could.

1st quest: nothing except the entrance door can be used to leave the instance.

2nd quest: Only found the 2nd and 3rd items after running around a few times, are they random and only spawn in after you found the previous?

3rd quest: Wish ToEE was like this. Only didn't explore behind a few secret door because barbarian. I have to say the shadow render in the fight with the chamberlain is as broken as the poison dot from champions (the stacks fade one at time instead of all once a new one isn't added, like near all the others harmful dots used by npcs and all used by players). I had to run around waiting to the stacks to run out, then melee, run around, melee and so on. If this is WaI and a recurrent thing in ravenloft you just forged a new nail for the mitigation's builds coffin. I got the brazier ending so i had to run around to find a way to it only to be stopped by secret doors, so i only could finish thanks to a true seeing item. While i understand that at cap is very likely some will have a TS item or spell that is not so likely at lvl 10. Rewarding a balanced party is good but people without statics groups will run whit whatever hits the lfm so demanding a effect to be able to finish looks problematic. I would say add something to the optional test made by von Zarovitch who make you able to leave (he isn't trying to kill you yet, the npcs themselves say he is only playing whit his food) or add a lever hidden in a corner near the door like in the tavern quest in korthos, maybe with a str minimum to pull so different classes can complete in different ways.

[Edwardt]

i5 2500 @3.3 GHz; AMD Radeon i7; 16 GB RAM; WIN 7 64bit

Graphic settings at max, no graphics-related problems in the wilderness nor in the one quest I ran. I have my frame rate fixed at 70 and it never dropped blow 60.

Oath of Vengeance LE: some trash-mobs spawned in the walls and pillars, but since we don't need to kill them in order to continue it's not a big issue.

wilderness:

Very nice job here! I feel it is already the best wilderness area and with a few tweaks it will be outstanding.


Mob density in the legendary wilderness area is low. A bit too low. For comparison, it feels lower density than Storm Horns.

You are just going to beat them up - that's why we can't have nice things!

I don't mind having just a few mobs in the open area, but right now they feel like placed spawn clusters which might scale with the party size. Also they are very weak. I couldn't read the name of the one rare I found because he was already dead when I came close enough. Seeing those obvious spawn areas gives me the strange feeling we'll see something not Ravenloft like here. I can't remember reading about armies waiting in the wild to get slaughtered by a group of simpletons like me, but otherwise it would take some time to farm those 7.5k mobs. Wait, did I say 'farm'? We can't have everything, I get that.

Well, at this stage, no, we don't need them.
I was curious about how the team will make Ravenloft in a way it matches the gothic horror world we expect from the module and the novels.
I was looking for a feeling I got while playing Stalker:Call of Pripyat, or Alien vs Predator.
The feel you are being watched all the time, never knowing what will attack you next and when, because you know they are around there somewhere just waiting for a perfect strike. But they don't - at least not now. I'm missing suspense, anxiety, the feeling of being thrown into a kafkaesque scenario where even on an endgame toon that world would give me the creeps. The Adrenalin level needs some improvement.
Right now I can go solo flower sniffing and don't need to be afraid of... yes, what should I be afraid of?

Still, I'm absolutely impressed by the landscape, artwork, the houses and dungeons. The important NPCs I met so far match perfectly. Stunning work on such an 'old' engine!

[Captain_Wizbang]

.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/491361-ravenloft-feedback-that-you-dont-like-(why-foul-up-a-devs-thread)?p=6037475#post6037475

[cpw_acc]

You do know staff has a sense of humor correct??

As a developer myself, I can assure you that any developer displaying a sense of humour is immediately sent to Room 101 for reconditioning.

[MistaMagic]

I Have done 3 of the quests on LH (2 solo) and 1 with a guildie. The bugs I have found have all been mentioned by others so no point in repeating them
My overall thoughts as to the quests that I have played so far is that they are a refreshing change with a nice mix of monsters (IE not all undead which was a huge surprise)
and hope that the new Raid will follow this trend.

[lyrecono]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!
Rather good, my pc had no problems with ravenloft.
Win10, 64 bit, 32 gig ram core i7, dual 1080ti, running 4k, had 230 fps instead of the usual 270 everywhere else in the game.



I'll be monitoring this thread to get additional feedback on the landscape monster density. We're using random encounters so I do have the ability to play with the numbers to rectify this. Since it is random you could get unlucky one time and the next time you could have better luck. So continue to update as you run through the landscape and let me know!
I did 5 run throughs now, wlll 5 instances felt underpopulated.



The wilderness: I didn't noticed any bug, except the mists doing not after you step in them; probably one of the random encounter no implemented yet.

1st arc: I was running a barb30 and explored as much as i could.

1st quest: nothing except the entrance door can be used to leave the instance.

2nd quest: Only found the 2nd and 3rd items after running around a few times, are they random and only spawn in after you found the previous?

3rd quest: Wish ToEE was like this. Only didn't explore behind a few secret door because barbarian. I have to say the shadow render in the fight with the chamberlain is as broken as the poison dot from champions (the stacks fade one at time instead of all once a new one isn't added, like near all the others harmful dots used by npcs and all used by players). I had to run around waiting to the stacks to run out, then melee, run around, melee and so on. If this is WaI and a recurrent thing in ravenloft you just forged a new nail for the mitigation's builds coffin. I got the brazier ending so i had to run around to find a way to it only to be stopped by secret doors, so i only could finish thanks to a true seeing item. While i understand that at cap is very likely some will have a TS item or spell that is not so likely at lvl 10. Rewarding a balanced party is good but people without statics groups will run whit whatever hits the lfm so demanding a effect to be able to finish looks problematic. I would say add something to the optional test made by von Zarovitch who make you able to leave (he isn't trying to kill you yet, the npcs themselves say he is only playing whit his food) or add a lever hidden in a corner near the door like in the tavern quest in korthos, maybe with a str minimum to pull so different classes can complete in different ways.

True seeing comes at lv 5 on the voice of the master (trinket)/mantle of the worldshaper set from delara's tomb and threnal.
It is also found on the (popular) slavelords trinket at lv 8
It can also be canith crafted though i don't remember its min level

[Captain_Wizbang]

Im running a, um, not sure, just got a new modem (on the right of joy stick) had to have my geek neighbor hook it up.
But the game played ok, till I had to go through an entrance, that took a few minutes. :rolleyes:

https://i.imgur.com/aGFS2ff.png

[Anaximandroz]

True seeing comes at lv 5 on the voice of the master (trinket)/mantle of the worldshaper set from delara's tomb and threnal.
It is also found on the (popular) slavelords trinket at lv 8
It can also be canith crafted though i don't remember its min level[/QUOTE]

ml1 if they didn't change the problem with nonscaling shards. My point was more about a party of 6 fighter who forgot theirs TS will run the dungeon only to hit their face in a wall just before the end, while the a rogue can solo. But looks like talking about this here is derail the thread.

[lyrecono]

True seeing comes at lv 5 on the voice of the master (trinket)/mantle of the worldshaper set from delara's tomb and threnal.
It is also found on the (popular) slavelords trinket at lv 8
It can also be canith crafted though i don't remember its min level

ml1 if they didn't change the problem with nonscaling shards. My point was more about a party of 6 fighter who forgot theirs TS will run the dungeon only to hit their face in a wall just before the end, while the a rogue can solo. But looks like talking about this here is derail the thread.[/QUOTE]

a lv 6 fighter in lv 10 content? what about a party? rog hireling?

[bls904c2]

Im running a, um, not sure, just got a new modem (on the right of joy stick) had to have my geek neighbor hook it up.
But the game played ok, till I had to go through an entrance, that took a few minutes. :rolleyes:

https://i.imgur.com/aGFS2ff.png
my son saw the picture and asked if that was what i learned to game on in the 50's. i just wanted to slap him. but it does bring back my gaming days on my commodore 64

my 11 year old came in as his older brother laughing at me and told me it does not look like it counts as technology anymore. man i feel old now

i still love playing on my 486, games like ultima, master of magic. man i hope he never opens the doors on my desk computer

[Captain_Wizbang]

my son saw the picture and asked if that was what i learned to game on in the 50's. i just wanted to slap him. but it does bring back my gaming days on my commodore 64

my 11 year old came in as his older brother laughing at me and told me it does look like it counts as technology anymore. man i feel old now

i still love playing on my 486, games like ultima, master of magic. man i hope he never opens the doors on my desk computer


Funny stuff, It was worth the 2 minutes it took to "shop" the screenshot on that monitor. Your post makes that worthwhile for sure. thanks. I made it this because of all the people listing their systems in this thread.

I run an Alienware Area 51 w/ a titan X v-card. dual ssd's and anything after that to list is pointless. Just sayin. :cool:

[beta1]

I am lagging in the wilderness. I am wondering if it is because my computer is older. Does the wilderness have a faster/higher performance recommended computer? In the quests I player this was not a problem.

In An Invitation to Dinner I ended up locked in the dungeon(?) with no way to get out. Is the what is intended? I reset the quest, avoided the dungeon and finished fine.

In the final vintage my map become all black when I found the last of the mold.

Also in the Final Vintage when you are in the room with Stefania Martikov the Stairs Down return you to the room with her.

I could not get into the servant's door (A Raven at the Door) to do the quest. (If there is a specific order for quest before this I may have missed one.)

The above are based on the heroic version of the quests run with a level 10 toon.

[Jetrule]

I ran 4 quests on a newley made level 15 iconic morning lord cleric with their starting gear. All quests were ran on heroic elite. with a bunch of free cakes, a +4 tome and store bought bells and secret door twigs and manna potions and a gold seal fighter hire.

The intro quest was decent I liked how the mists rejected me. The reverant needs more passion and intensity in his dialogue. The mists need to be more frightening. Hmm May bey eyes staring out at us or false indicators like the red marks we see when we detect enemies by listen but no enemy there?? More cats to jump at and then a bloody bestial werewolf raving for our blood. LOL I don't know the Gothic horror element was just lacking in the intro. Mechanically the quest was ok but seemed to be lacking a wolfpack as far as I could tell. Perhaps because the npc killed a wolf pack by himself? The difficulty was tough vs the wisps. I died one time and used my first cake. I liked the Scarecrow boss and wish we could get some backstory on the animated scarecrows in general.

The wilderness seemed immense. the mob density was a bit thin but not barren by any means. There was no selectable difficulty on the wilderness that I had heard about. I was looking forward to that.

Death house was a pleasure the story was well done and macabre. It was full of empty rooms but a very faithful rendition of the old module. This quest was easy compared to the others i ran. The traps in the basement were the only real danger. I know it was adapted from a level 1 pen and paper module but the monsters could use a bit of toughening up. I cant wait for narration,.

Next I ran a Invitation to dinner. Bravo on Castle Ravenloft!! The atmosphere was great even unfinished as it is. The quest took me some time. I died three times and had a blast. The quest was murder on the bluebar and I used about 10 mana potions. and bought a ethereal rest shrine to use part way through Strahd's second "test". The big shadow demons have very high hitpoints and will drain bluebars on heroic like crazy. Even though I was running a sundomain light blaster cleric it took alot of mana to beat these guys down. Their offensive threat was under powered though. The trap room in the bottom killed me twice. It hits very appropriately hard. and I was being careless. Castle ravenloft made me pay. The other deadly encounter was with the vampire caster "servant" I let her touch my cheeck but it was a deadly encounter none the less. Many of the other minibosses could use some offensive boosting though in my opinion. There is a missing miniboss and encounter in the dungeon it seems. I too got stuck in the there and had to re enter. Strahds portraiat aside from being a immense bag of hitpoints to use up blue bars seemed to pose no threat. Even his portrait should be dangerous.

Next I ran the Final Vintage. The quest feels unfinished and has several rooms upstairs of pointless encounters. Will the location of the purification stone be random? Is that why all the rooms and monsters? I liked the feel of the quest otherwise and it was by far the most difficult for me. The majority of the quest was appropriately tough combat I feel. The end fight was beyond my capabilities. I died 10 or more times in it drank about 20 mana potions and could not beat it. The bosses self healing and earthquake spells were too much for me to overcome. This wasnt a quest that I could benefit from turning undead in though so once my spell power orb broke I didn't have the dps or insta kills to deal with the spawns and even get the boss to half health. Story wise I was left confused about the druids reason for wanting to destroy the winery. Were they Just rabidly anti-drinking? Needs more horror!

Overall I am excited about the content. The atmosphere and the npcs are onpoint. The quest adaptations from pen and paper are well done and thematic. There is dread and fright to be found atleast if you run it at a challenging level.

The Ravenloft story line is maybe too sandbox though. I would have been too much in the dark about what was going on if I weren't familiar with Ravenloft already. The wilderness location of madam Eva remains a mystery to me, though when entering A Invitation to Dinner she references a past meeting. She should be front and center as we enter the wideness zone. I haven't found VanRicten either but I found his tower and the NPC half vistani vampire hunter ally from "invitation to dinner" there tells me I must have met him.. The big NPCs and story lines need to be a touch more forced or obvious encounters I think.

[whiteline]

Fresh baked goods quest is a bit lame

[ssternlight]

Entered quest Oath of Vengeance, exited back out through the door -- normal exit message -- ended up in something called Lordsmarch Bank which looked like an unbuilt dungeon (it was mostly a maze.) On Heroic Hard.

[DYWYPI]

For whatever reason, whenever I enter the 'Land of Barovia Wilderness' zone, the DDO Client gets to loading my Character; you can see the forest area and hotbars loading, etc... But then crashes the DDO Client completely for some bizarre reason!

It happens every single time I enter that "Wilderness" even if I finish a quest in there or leave the Barovia Tavern area(s), or try entering via the 'House Jorasco' misty portal, etc. On average it takes me over five attempts at restarting the DDO Client and logging back into Lammania before "Land of Barovia Wilderness" stops crashing... :-/


https://i.imgur.com/3mULt4T.jpg
Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Once my Character can move in there all is fine; until I re-enter the "Wilderness" from another quest or area (then back to square one of crashing if I try (re)enter the Wilderness). I've had none of the Ravenloft quests crash on loading.

[Torc]

I am lagging in the wilderness. I am wondering if it is because my computer is older. Does the wilderness have a faster/higher performance recommended computer? In the quests I player this was not a problem.

In An Invitation to Dinner I ended up locked in the dungeon(?) with no way to get out. Is the what is intended? I reset the quest, avoided the dungeon and finished fine.

In the final vintage my map become all black when I found the last of the mold.

Also in the Final Vintage when you are in the room with Stefania Martikov the Stairs Down return you to the room with her.

I could not get into the servant's door (A Raven at the Door) to do the quest. (If there is a specific order for quest before this I may have missed one.)

The above are based on the heroic version of the quests run with a level 10 toon.

One of the dungeon locks wasn't suppose to be pickable and leads to an area that has encounter logic that should only be firing in the 2nd castle dungeon (A Raven at the Door). This will be resolved in the next build, as the will the Raven Door waypoint issue.

[sudzz]

The team is very interested to hear how the wilderness area (and the quests) are doing on a performance/framerate perspective. We've filled the areas with a more frills and objects than previous areas and we're curious as to how that's holding up for people. If you wouldn't mind telling us how smoothly your game has been running in the new zones and what sort of computer (we don't need full specs but broad strokes/general age would be helpful) we would very much appreciate it!

High end workstation, dual E5 Xeon hex core with HT, 64 gig quad channel ram ssd for storage and AMD R9 390x 8 gig graphics, running 1440p typically runs along at 70-100 fps in live world, and most Lamma places although does take a dip now and then in most of the new quests hits about the 60 mark but in the explorer area can drop to 30 or so, Using max settings at all times draw distance, quality etc. Netwrok is 200 mbit down with 10 mbit upload through FTC with no contention issues.

[IconicHero]

I had two error one of which i didn't know about till i ran the dev event with kookiekobold, in the quest fresh backed dreams i ran it the first time solo on le i killed the hag on top of the tower then went in and killed the others. However it does not seem that is what is supposed to happen when i ran with kookie the last hag was killed outside the tower, we were running reaper 5 fyi so not sure if this is supposed to be an option or a fix needed. Other quest i had major problem with was invitation to dinner checked off all the boxes and explored found an area that said dungeon got stuck in prison cells and had a rec barrier come up and could not figure out how to get out wound up recalling went back to stairs to use stone to exit and it didn't complete dm came up and said i did everything but no finish! Not sure if i dropped an item when i had to recall didn't have dd or would have used that. Thanks for event loved running with kookie and love the explorer areas cant wait till you can do more chains i know it early and quests are ready, look forward to next event.

[Whitethorn1]

2 Friends, My Wonderful Wife and Myself all play as a group on 2 weekends a month, here at the house. We took the time to do a 3 evening tour (lol) of the preview.

I'm running a
2009 ASUS cm5571 w/Processor Pentium Dual Core E5400, Ram 6GB, Intel GMA X4500 Dynamic, Acer monitor 60 Hertz, Win7, 64bit

Wife running a
2007 EMachine EL1333G w/ Processor AMD Athlon 2850e 1.80GHz, Ram 2GB, NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE, HP monitor 60 Hertz, Win7, 64bit

Friends both running on Laptops
2011 ACER Aspire 4339-2618 w/ Processor Intel Celeron 2GHZ, Ram 2GB, Intel HD graphics card, monitor 60 Hertz, Win7, 64bit,

All of our UI setting were on low.
All started as LVL 10 , straight off the ship. Didn't beef up at the Dojo.
Running everything on Heroic Normal.

Wilderness

All computers lagged in the wilderness. Action about 2 sec behind audio on mine, 3-4 sec on other three.
All computers seemed like they had toggle on, when it wasn't . Lots of extra fanning when using L/R arrow keys.
Hard to target anything at range.
2009 ASUS ran best. a little skippy , and locked for about 2-3 sec when there was any casting a AoE with visual effects. By us or mobs.
2011 ACERs ran slow,very skippy and locked up a bit in denser wooded areas. and locked for about 2-5 sec when AoEs with visual effects were cast.
2007 EMachine ran very slow, very skippy , locked up about once about every 2 minutes or so for 3-7 sec for no reason , and locked up for 7-10 sec , and sometimes loss connection to sever, when AoEs with visual effects were cast.

Quests

2007 EMachine ran slow when loading next area after passing through doors to other areas within the castle. Would lock up for 2-3 sec during large fights like the ones with the skeleton boss and portrait in the Castle Quest . Locked up for about 12 sec during end fight in Bone-grinder. Again lots of AoEs. Didn't have much lag in area around Bone-grinder , lagged twice during fights for 2-3 sec each time. Over all it did much better in quests than the wilderness.
2011 ACERs ran quest really well , small issues with damage display still scrolling up long after fights were over. Breakable drops slow to appear after audio.
2009 ASUS no issues at all in Quests. Other than running off edge of stairs a few times and walking backwards off a long drop during a certain fight. That was user error, loved that surprise!

Treasure & Rewards

As a group, We aren't too worried about Named Items and Sets. Just hope they are BtA not BtC. Hoping to see more stuff usable by classes other than Artificers, Monks, Arcane Casters and Sorcerers.
As for normal treasure and end rewards. It's nice stuff if you can use it. There again we felt that those same classes were being catered to , seemed like Clerics, Paladins, Rouges and especially Rangers were kind of forgotten, (Weird with the new Scourge starting off as one ?). One of our friends would love to see some daggers dropped in, as she is all about the new enhancement tree.
And there is a issue with picking up purple treasure bags. It just can't be done!

Over All Dislikes

Our Group is in total agreement, the lag in the wilderness is the one thing, we'd most like to see worked on. We love the Deep Dark Dense Forest , just wish it was less lagging. (As lag is very irritating for the Wife and becomes a bigger danger to the rest of Us than any mob SSG can come up with! Remember, don't P/O the cook! LOL) We'd like to see maybe a few walk- ups in the wilderness? A graveyard, maybe a crypt or two here and there would be nice.

Over All Likes

Seems, You All did lots of home work on background and did awesome at revamping it from the Tabletop to the Desktop ! We feel that if the lag wasn't there ,We could lose ourselves in it for whole weekends at a time. Lots of new surprises! As a whole it has a setting feeling all it's own. We got the feeling You All are putting lots of work and thought into this one, Hoping to see You All keep going with it!

Looking forward, to seeing next preview!

[Tarinia]

You do know that a Vargouille is classic D&D Monster (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Vargouille) correct??

I would reduce the head width and make it more delicate- at the moment its as round like a moon. I would also love more details in the face...

[Tarinia]

First, if you haven't already, please visit the main preview thread (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/491316-Ravenloft-Preview-1-11-7-11-10) for important information and details.

You can now enter Ravenloft from either House Jorasco or Eveningstar! Please post all content feedback for landscape, quests, and public areas in this thread.

The Land of Barovia Wildreness area is fully accessible! This includes a vast explorer area with random encounters, journal entries, and rares along with three small public area's accessible from within the Wilderness Area. The arc questgiver's for each part of Ravenloft are contained within these public areas and there are "Guides" outside each public area capable of teleporting you to the quests in their surrounding area. If you ever can't find a specific quest simply check with the guides just outside the other public areas.

The following quests are available for preview in varying states of polish:

Into The Mists (Intro dungeon required to enter the landscape for the first time)
Death House
Fresh-baked Dreams
An Invitation to Dinner
Oath of Vengeance
A Raven at the Door
The Final Vintage


It is worth noting that the Arc Questgivers are set up, however, because most of the quests in part 2 are locked for this preview you will not be able to continue along the quest arc after completing "Oath of Vengeance". You should still be able to access and play both "A Raven at the Door" and "The Final Vintage" simply by finding their questgiver and entering the dungeon normally.

The wilderness is awesome, but it feels to much like an MMO (like other wilderness areas). Ravenloft should be different especially in the feel of being trapped and in the difference between night and day.
During day it should be easy to kill the mobs (as is is now), but during night they should be much more dangerous. Most people bar their homes during night there.
You could give more exps (lesser number before getting exps for night monsters) but please make it more dangerous. At the moment you just plow your way trough a land which is most known by its dangerous citizen.
For the feel of being trapped I would advice to make the entrance quest more dangerous and blank out the "recall" button. In any case their should be a story, why you just can enter and leave ravenloft so easy.
In all books it is stated specially, that no one can leave except through special means like a unknown portal somewhere. I also advice in making "dying" and resurrection more special. In ravenloft lore there is a chance that you will
be resurrected as an undead. So take your raid mechanisms and imply them here please.
I would also advice, that teleportation is only possible to certain points in barovia and interworldteleportation is disabled as in ravenloft lore usually.

Best regards
Tarinia

[Fenix93]

The wilderness is awesome, but it feels to much like an MMO (like other wilderness areas). Ravenloft should be different especially in the feel of being trapped and in the difference between night and day.
During day it should be easy to kill the mobs (as is is now), but during night they should be much more dangerous. Most people bar their homes during night there.
You could give more exps (lesser number before getting exps for night monsters) but please make it more dangerous. At the moment you just plow your way trough a land which is most known by its dangerous citizen.
For the feel of being trapped I would advice to make the entrance quest more dangerous and blank out the "recall" button. In any case their should be a story, why you just can enter and leave ravenloft so easy.
In all books it is stated specially, that no one can leave except through special means like a unknown portal somewhere. I also advice in making "dying" and resurrection more special. In ravenloft lore there is a chance that you will
be resurrected as an undead. So take your raid mechanisms and imply them here please.
I would also advice, that teleportation is only possible to certain points in barovia and interworldteleportation is disabled as in ravenloft lore usually.

Best regards
Tarinia

I understand what you mean and really ... but many things in a video game (especially in an MMO) are hard to do, making Hardcore hardcore the dying thing and a little bit of a forcing, just because you find something cool does not want say that for another it is, and always an MMO DDO and therefore it must remain on some standar, on the fact that wilde is true ... there is a cycle Day and Night in Ravenloft and according to the phases of day and night there are different types of enemies, this could be easily translatable after all, introducing the day and night cycle into the game would be a beautiful revolution and would vary a bit wildlife.

[Captain_Wizbang]

I would reduce the head width and make it more delicate- at the moment its as round like a moon. I would also love more details in the face...


Im sure the current version wont be included when Ravenloft goes live.

If it does, thats a legacy animators world-wide can only dream of.

[Tarinia]

I understand what you mean and really ... but many things in a video game (especially in an MMO) are hard to do, making Hardcore hardcore the dying thing and a little bit of a forcing, just because you find something cool does not want say that for another it is, and always an MMO DDO and therefore it must remain on some standar, on the fact that wilde is true ... there is a cycle Day and Night in Ravenloft and according to the phases of day and night there are different types of enemies, this could be easily translatable after all, introducing the day and night cycle into the game would be a beautiful revolution and would vary a bit wildlife.

I understand the difference between an mmo and pen&paper. I am playing DDO from the beta on and I am DMing ravenloft pen&paper campaigns for more then 20 years. What I am saying above is from ravenloft lore (not my opinion, note: all ravenloft books and all modules and all pen&paper versions ( I own them all) have a certain standard,
that makes a difference in feel between standard game worlds and ravenloft. I thing it is very important for all players who are following this label and start playing ravenloft in DDO (not the old players who are already in DDO)
the first time, that they are recognizing this. The following rules make a lot of the difference in feel:

1. All encounters are special- story is most important, description more important then hack&slash
2. Ravenloft is a closed world, more like a prison where you want to leave if you are not borne there
3. There is a sinister power (like a dark god) in there who want to lure you to the dark side with nice advantages and trap you there forever
4. All things evil are more powerful, especially undead- undead cant be destroyed by turning them
5. evil magic (death spells and spells that create undead) is more powerful but needs a powercheck or you go to the dark road...
6. fear and horror is much more lingering and nobody is immun to that in ravenloft
7. Magic in Ravenloft is feared and functions somewhat other then in other worlds (like in the planes)
8. MAgic functions slightly different there (like in the planes)
9. Curses in ravenloft are much more powerfull then in other campaign worlds-
10. vistani can curse and some of them have the 3eye (can see the future of others)
If you leave all that, you will only have another Forgotten realms with another look. At least there should be a modus, where all this is used to some degree (for example in reaper 2+, but then the wilderness area need different levels, too)

Best regards
Tarinia

[Edwardt]

I understand the difference between an mmo and pen&paper. I am playing DDO from the beta on and I am DMing ravenloft pen&paper campaigns for more then 20 years. What I am saying above is from ravenloft lore (not my opinion, note: all ravenloft books and all modules and all pen&paper versions ( I own them all) have a certain standard,
that makes a difference in feel between standard game worlds and ravenloft. I thing it is very important for all players who are following this label and start playing ravenloft in DDO (not the old players who are already in DDO)
the first time, that they are recognizing this. The following rules make a lot of the difference in feel:

1. All encounters are special- story is most important, description more important then hack&slash
2. Ravenloft is a closed world, more like a prison where you want to leave if you are not borne there
3. There is a sinister power (like a dark god) in there who want to lure you to the dark side with nice advantages and trap you there forever
4. All things evil are more powerful, especially undead- undead cant be destroyed by turning them
5. evil magic (death spells and spells that create undead) is more powerful but needs a powercheck or you go to the dark road...
6. fear and horror is much more lingering and nobody is immun to that in ravenloft
7. Magic in Ravenloft is feared and functions somewhat other then in other worlds (like in the planes)
8. MAgic functions slightly different there (like in the planes)
9. Curses in ravenloft are much more powerfull then in other campaign worlds-
10. vistani can curse and some of them have the 3eye (can see the future of others)
If you leave all that, you will only have another Forgotten realms with another look. At least there should be a modus, where all this is used to some degree (for example in reaper 2+, but then the wilderness area need different levels, too)

Best regards
Tarinia

+1 I agree with all your points here.

Some of those might be a problem to realize, but some might not.

Day/night cycle would be awesome. Turning the wilderness into a reaper area by night with reduced sight, no health-bars on top of the mobs and a fog of war which resets every night would be a step in the right direction.

[Tarinia]

I understand what you mean and really ... but many things in a video game (especially in an MMO) are hard to do, making Hardcore hardcore the dying thing and a little bit of a forcing, just because you find something cool does not want say that for another it is, and always an MMO DDO and therefore it must remain on some standar, on the fact that wilde is true ... there is a cycle Day and Night in Ravenloft and according to the phases of day and night there are different types of enemies, this could be easily translatable after all, introducing the day and night cycle into the game would be a beautiful revolution and would vary a bit wildlife.

It should be easy with a short question before you enter a wilderness area like " will you really leave the save home at night- it is dangerous outside..." so you can choose to go out at daylight instead- you can have two instances
with different monsters and look (one sinister and another serene)...

[Paladin_of_Power]

I understand the difference between an mmo and pen&paper. I am playing DDO from the beta on and I am DMing ravenloft pen&paper campaigns for more then 20 years. What I am saying above is from ravenloft lore (not my opinion, note: all ravenloft books and all modules and all pen&paper versions ( I own them all) have a certain standard,
that makes a difference in feel between standard game worlds and ravenloft. I thing it is very important for all players who are following this label and start playing ravenloft in DDO (not the old players who are already in DDO)
the first time, that they are recognizing this. The following rules make a lot of the difference in feel:

1. All encounters are special- story is most important, description more important then hack&slash
2. Ravenloft is a closed world, more like a prison where you want to leave if you are not borne there
3. There is a sinister power (like a dark god) in there who want to lure you to the dark side with nice advantages and trap you there forever
4. All things evil are more powerful, especially undead- undead cant be destroyed by turning them
5. evil magic (death spells and spells that create undead) is more powerful but needs a powercheck or you go to the dark road...
6. fear and horror is much more lingering and nobody is immun to that in ravenloft
7. Magic in Ravenloft is feared and functions somewhat other then in other worlds (like in the planes)
8. MAgic functions slightly different there (like in the planes)
9. Curses in ravenloft are much more powerfull then in other campaign worlds-
10. vistani can curse and some of them have the 3eye (can see the future of others)
If you leave all that, you will only have another Forgotten realms with another look. At least there should be a modus, where all this is used to some degree (for example in reaper 2+, but then the wilderness area need different levels, too)

Best regards
Tarinia

I don't know about lack of Fear Immunity, is that in the PnP modules? But I dig all this, make Ravenloft special and more to the lore. Plus: If you're killed by a vampire that has melee'd you, a vampire rises from your corpse and you can't be ressurected until that vampire is dead. Assuming you were bitten and turned here. Perhaps give the vamp some generic boosts to power level plus abilities and some equipment based on your class. I don't know if they can flag a character as 'bitten by vampire' and then if you die later you turn....

Someone mentioned having a day and night cycle, with the baddies more powerful and in larger numbers at night. Very cool idea.

[Marupal]

Had some trouble entering the mists from House J on legendary, CTD'd every time on one computer. Could not repro it on the other 3 computers. *shrug*

While running through, I didn't catch the framerate but I also didn't see any noticeable drop. It's an older computer: ~3.1 ghz quad i3, 8 G ram, AMD radeon 6700. I have environmental stencil shadows turned off, everything else is set between mid and high (or an equivalent).


I only had time to explore a portion of it but what I saw in the wilderness was all beautifully crafted! Was planning on holding off purchasing for a while. The preview changed that plan.

The wilderness was themed very well and nicely laid out. My son and I were looking at the map when we first entered. Our eyes just kept getting bigger as we slid the map around to see how much there was to go over. xD

Castles looked great. The amount of detail/foliage/etc made for a solid feel. I'm liking the variation on the mobs, not just the same rehash on stuff you would see in menechtauran or Haunted Halls. This area stands apart. It also hits the creepy factor on the nose. :] Any plans for an extension of Night Revels in this area? Please?

Ran through Into the Mists, Fresh Baked Dreams and the one with the two kids. Enjoyed them. It's easy to summarize a quest as "enter the door, run to the end, find the red-named, collect treasure and finish out". The 3 Ravenloft quests I did had interesting PnP quality stories. Fun stories, but not something that would be a burden or a put off.

Best content to date!

[sebascz]

I agree that Ravenloft without her particularities, is a Forgotten realms. However that isn't translate to a MMOPRPG, so can't be a prison. Im planing playing only ravenloft content cause in despite all the gripes. The landscape is beautiful and evocative and made me want live IRL in barovia. Bah i always wanted live in barovia, since i know the setting 20 years ago.