Weekly Dev Activities 08/06/07

[Quarion]

Weekly Development Activities

In QA
These items are in QA and are scheduled for Module 5: The Accursed Ascension (Litany of the Dead Parts 3 & 4).

General

• Dolurrh environmental effects will now display an appropriate screen overlay.

UI Improvements

• When you close and reopen the Adventure Compendium it will now remember which tab you were on and reopen to that tab.
• Added a button called “Modify Party” to the “Outstanding Invitation Requests” panel which will open up the “Create Party” panel directly instead of having players open it by opening the social panel first, then hitting the “Create Party” button.
• Fixed a problem where it was difficult to resize the grouping panel using the lower-right corner.
• Added a new button to the character options panel called “Gameplay” which contains an option which will allow players to customize the way their quest end rewards are generated. By default, they are generated based on the character’s main class, but some players (especially multi-classed characters) may prefer for these end rewards to be completely random.
• NEW - There is a new option located under the Options->Gameplay tab that allows you to turn on the "Fellow Sticky Selection". Description: "Check to prevent 'Select Fellow' keys from toggling/clearing your target when selecting the same fellow."
• NEW - Sorting by quest name in the Adventure Compendium now ignores "The " at the beginning of the name. The Quest Journal will also function in the same way when sorting the Area tabs and the quest list.

Auctions

• Sorting by duration now works correctly.
• There are now restrictions on when you may cancel an auction. You may cancel your auction at any time if it has no bidders, or within the first hour of the posting regardless of the number of bidders.

Tooltips

• Added active/toggle/passive usage to action tooltips.
• Tooltips that display long cooldown periods will display them in minutes and seconds – e.g., 2 minutes 30 seconds instead of 150 seconds.
• Action tooltips will inform the user when an action is useable in water, not useable in a brawl, or when it is useable only in public. They will also display the target type for the action.
• The tooltips on the character stats page have been streatched out to allow 4 digit numbers to be displayed. This was an issue for magic users with 1000+ spell points, for example.
• Disabling tooltips now disables all tooltips including shortcut bar and examination tooltips.
• Tooltips for skills now include the key ability.
• Tooltips for spells and feats now include the save DC and save type(s).

Shopping

• You can now ctrl-click on an item in a shop to purchase the item in bulk. A pop-up dialog will prompt you to enter the number of items to purchase. Note: This dialog is only used when purchasing items. There is still no way to control the number of items you sell from a stack.
• When items in a shop are alphabetized, they are sorted first by base name (e.g. sword, dagger) and then by prefix (e.g. masterwork, vorpal).
• When you add items to the shopping cart, the cumulative cost of the items in the cart will affect the “can afford” status of the items available for purchase / repair.
• If a player’s haggle skill changes, then the shopping cart display price will now update to reflect the change.

Spells

• Spell tooltips now include blocks that describe whether or not a spell can be resisted, and what the specific material component is for a given spell (if any).
• Spell tooltips now include a metamagic information block. This block lists the kinds of metamagic that can affect this spell.
• Monsters
• Monsters now should stop throwing stuff and attacking while they are held or otherwise helpless.
• Minotaurs may occasionally use thrown weapons if charging headlong at an opponent doesn’t seem to be working.
• Combat
• Offensive spells with “touch” range now possess significantly more lenient heading checks. These include Chill Touch, Ghoul Touch, Inflict (various) Wounds, Otto’s (ir)Resistable Dance, Slay Living, and Touch of Idiocy.
• The Crushing Despair FX are now persistent.
• Now if you are a divine caster and are using wands or scrolls of divine types and you happen to be under the effect of Quell’s Intercession, you will have to perform a UMD check just like every non divine caster type.
• NEW - Focusing Chant now displays a proper icon when cast.
• NEW - The metamagic system in Dungeons and Dragons Online has undergone significant changes in Module 5.0: Accursed Ascension.
  • The biggest change that casters will discover is that each metamagic feat other than Heighten Spell now has a fixed spell point cost increase rather than multiplying the spell point cost of a spell as they did before Module 5.0. These surcharges are as follows:
    • Empower Spell: +15 SP
      Empower Healing Spell: +10 SP
      Enlarge Spell: +10 SP
      Eschew Materials: +2 SP
      Extend Spell: +10 SP
      Maximize Spell: +25 SP
      Quicken Spell: +10 SP
      Heighten Spell: Special (Changes base cost of your spell to that of your highest level spells)
      
      These cost increases are cumulative if multiple metamagic feats are active simultaneously, so a Quickened, Maximized, Enlarged Fireball would cost:
      20 (base) + 10 (Quicken) + 25 (Maximize) + 10 (Enlarge) = 65 Spell Points
      
      Improved Metamagic enhancements have all been changed to flat cost reductions on these surcharges. Sorcerer Improved Maximizing III, for instance, has become "Using the Maximize Spell feat costs you 9 fewer spell points." Wizard Improved Heightening II is now "Using the Heighten Spell feat costs you 2 fewer spell points per level of heightening."

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• The number of Turn Undead attempts per rest will now be calculated on the current displayed Charisma modifier. Previously only permanent changes to Charisma from level advancement and tomes were counted.
• The Listen skill now helps you detect hidden monsters.
• Old feat lists in the feat respec dialog now look like most of the other lists of feats and enhancements in-game and sub-feats have their icons again.
• Players who have a feat called “Feat Respec Token” will once again be allowed to respec the “Feat Respec Token” and then other feats.
• Barbarians now possess a new ability in the feats section of their character sheet. “Dismiss Rage” can be used at any time to prematurely end their barbarian rage. Note that you will still be subject to fatigue from your rage, and it functions only on the barbarian class ability - you cannot dismiss any other ragelike effects.
• NEW - It is now possible to trade a feat for a feat which can be aquired multiple times when the player already has one. So players can now aquire Toughness as many times as they like through feet respec.
• NEW - Cure Wounds spells, including the Mass Cures, can no longer be Heightened as Clerics can already freely cast the higher level versions of those spells and are the ones most likely to use them as offensive spells against Undead. Note that the Heal spell is unaffected by this change as there are more circumstances under which you may wish to Heighten the spell.
• NEW - A Paladin's Aura of Courage will no longer cause various other spell effects to repeat over and over. The Aura of Courage bonus has also been changed to a Sacred Bonus to Will Saves vs. Fear, and as such, will stack with Morale effects.

Enhancements

• Lines of Item Defense enhancements have been added to Barbarians, Paladins, Rangers, and Rogues. Note that these lines, unlike the Fighter Item Defense line, are only three enhancements deep, and are acquired at higher levels than the Fighter Item Defense enhancements. Paladins receive Item Defense enhancements at levels 3, 7, and 11, while the others receive them at 5, 9, and 13. Fighters continue to receive them at levels 1, 5, 9, and 13. As with all class enhancements, purchasing level one in one class will lock out the lines from the other classes.
• Halfling luck, instead of only affecting Reflex saves, is now three distinct enhancement chains. These are not exclusive.
  • Halfling Luck (Fortitude) I
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 1
    • Cost: 1 Action Point
    • Grants a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Fortitude) II
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 5, 14 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Fortitude) I
    • Cost: 2 Action Points
    • Grants a +2 bonus to Fortitude saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Fortitude) III
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 9, 29 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Fortitude) II
    • Cost: 3 Action Points
    • Grants a +3 bonus to Fortitude saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Reflex) I
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 1
    • Cost: 1 Action Point
    • Grants a +1 bonus to Reflex saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Reflex) II
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 5, 14 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Reflex) I
    • Cost: 2 Action Points
    • Grants a +2 bonus to Reflex saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Reflex) III
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 9, 29 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Reflex) II
    • Cost: 3 Action Points
    • Grants a +3 bonus to Reflex saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Will) I
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 1
    • Cost: 1 Action Point
    • Grants a +1 bonus to Will saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Will) II
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 5, 14 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Will) I
    • Cost: 2 Action Points
    • Grants a +2 bonus to Will saves.
  • Halfling Luck (Will) III
    • Prereq: Halfling Level 9, 29 Action Points spent, Halfling Luck (Will) II
    • Cost: 3 Action Points
    • Grants a +3 bonus to Will saves.
• Human Versatility has undergone some revisions, and now grants five subabilities. Instead of being restricted only to a skill boost, Humans may now display their versatility by gaining a short duration increase to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class. These boosts draw from one common pool of 5.
  • Human Versatility I
    • Prereq: Human Level 1
    • Cost: 1 Action Point
    • Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +2 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Skills I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Damage I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Attack I.Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Saves I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Armor Class I. Activate this ability to receive a +2 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.
  • Human Versatility II
    • Prereq: Human Level 4, 10 Action Points Spent, Human Versatility I
    • Cost: 2 Action Points
    • Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +3 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Skills II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Damage II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Attack II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Saves II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Armor Class II. Activate this ability to receive a +3 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.
  • Human Versatility III
    • Prereq: Human Level 7, 21 Action Points Spent, Human Versatility II
    • Cost: 3 Action Points
    • Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +4 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Skills III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Damage III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Attack III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Saves III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Armor Class III. Activate this ability to receive a +4 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.
  • Human Versatility IV
    • Prereq: Human Level 10, 32 Action Points Spent, Human Versatility III
    • Cost: 4 Action Points
    • Grants the ability to display your versatility as a +5 bonus to skills, damage, attack rolls, saves, or armor class for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Skills IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to skills for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Damage IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to damage for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Attack IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to attack rolls for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Saves IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to saves for 20 seconds.
      • Human Versatility - Armor Class IV. Activate this ability to receive a +5 bonus to armor class for 20 seconds.

Items

• In order to alleviate inventory clutter by collectables and gems, players will now be able to use a new object known as the “collectable bag” and “gem bag”. Small, medium and large versions of both are available. The small version will be awarded to those who complete, or who have already completed the low level intro quests. Medium bags are for sale at vendors, and large bags will be rare treasure. Each bag will occupy one inventory slot, while holding a number of gems or collectables depending on it’s size.
• NEW - Critical hit effects on weapons were preventing sneak attack damage from applying in certain rare circumstances. This has been fixed

NPC's
Nothing to report

PVP
Nothing to report

Monsters

• NEW - The fleeing rust monsters in Stromvauld's Mine will no longer trip over their own feet.
• NEW - Monsters that are hiding or invisible can no longer be tab (or `) selected unless a player can detect the monster using their Spot or Listen skills.
• NEW - Patrolling creatures should get stuck less often.
• NEW - Slimes telekinetically controlled by the Sorcerer/Wizard spell Ooze Puppet are now also telekinetically prevented from splitting. As such, you will no longer lose control of the slime due to splitting.

Quests

• Gianthold
  • The Gnolls that were erroneously spawning in a tent will no longer respawn.
  • NEW - Players should no longer fall through the Gianthold Tor bridge.

• Madstone Crater
  • Players should now get fewer cases of hot feet a few steps from the lava’s edge.
• Necropolis
  • The Bloody Crypt
    • Gullet the Famished One will no longer respawn

Other

• The metamagic system in Dungeons and Dragons Online has undergone significant changes in Module 5.0: Accursed Ascension.
  
  The biggest change that casters will discover is that each metamagic feat other than Heighten Spell now has a fixed spell point cost increase rather than multiplying the spell point cost of a spell as they did before Module 5.0. These surcharges are as follows:
  
  Empower Spell: +15 SP
  Empower Healing Spell: +10 SP
  Enlarge Spell: +10 SP
  Eschew Materials: +2 SP
  Extend Spell: +10 SP
  Maximize Spell: +25 SP
  Quicken Spell: +10 SP
  Heighten Spell: Special (Changes base cost of your spell to that of your highest level spells)
  
  These cost increases are cumulative if multiple metamagic feats are active simultaneously, so a Quickened, Maximized, Enlarged Fireball would cost:
  20 (base) + 10 (Quicken) + 25 (Maximize) + 10 (Enlarge) = 65 Spell Points
  
  Improved Metamagic enhancements have all been changed to flat cost reductions on these surcharges. Sorcerer Improved Maximizing III, for instance, has become "Using the Maximize Spell feat costs you 9 fewer spell points." Wizard Improved Heightening II is now "Using the Heighten Spell feat costs you 2 fewer spell points per level of heightening."

• The primary warded chest in all raids has been converted to the standard format for all chests in DDO. Every player in the raid will have their own treasure generated and assigned to them when they look into the chest. The locking glyphs are no more.
  
  Each character has a 1 in 6 chance to receive a special item from that raid’s loot table. Otherwise, a standard treasure from the maximum treasure table appropriate for that raid will be generated for that character. Players may re-assign any items to other characters in the raid using the new treasure re-assignment feature. This includes any special raid only items.
  
  The raid only items are still bound once they are removed from the chest. A warning confirmation box appears when attempting to grab a bind on acquire raid item from the chest.
  
  In addition, the primary warded chest creates the list of characters that are allowed to loot the chest at the time chest spawns. This list contains all the members of the raid at the time the list was created. Characters not on the list do not have treasure generated for them when they open the chest and may not have items re-assigned to them.

[Ziggy]

NEW - A Paladin's Aura of Courage will no longer cause various other spell effects to repeat over and over. The Aura of Courage bonus has also been changed to a Sacred Bonus to Will Saves vs. Fear, and as such, will stack with Morale effects.
NEW - Critical hit effects on weapons were preventing sneak attack damage from applying in certain rare circumstances. This has been fixed
NEW - Monsters that are hiding or invisible can no longer be tab (or `) selected unless a player can detect the monster using their Spot or Listen skills.

nice

NEW - Slimes telekinetically controlled by the Sorcerer/Wizard spell Ooze Puppet are now also telekinetically prevented from splitting. As such, you will no longer lose control of the slime due to splitting.
NEW - There is a new option located under the Options->Gameplay tab that allows you to turn on the "Fellow Sticky Selection". Description: "Check to prevent 'Select Fellow' keys from toggling/clearing your target when selecting the same fellow."
NEW - Sorting by quest name in the Adventure Compendium now ignores "The " at the beginning of the name. The Quest Journal will also function in the same way when sorting the Area tabs and the quest list.

very nice

[Cowdenicus]

yeah

[Freeman]

Still no fix for Crippling Strike...

Come on, I have to say it now. After this many months, it has become a tradition

[Ziggy]

now this just needs to be stickied.

[Cowdenicus]

this should be stickied

[Symar-FangofLloth]

Haha, no more tab-targeting invis and stealthed monsters! Good thing I have listen maxed on my bard .

[MysticTheurge]

Still no fix for Crippling Strike...

Come on, I have to say it now. After this many months, it has become a tradition

But hey. A lot of other fixes. The paladin hand. The heightened cures. The finicky fred.

There's hope!

[MysticTheurge]

Wow. Mod 5 is shaping up to have a lot of nice little things in it too.

But I don't understand this "Sticky Fellow" business. Could someone explain what that means?

[JayDubya]

Wow. Mod 5 is shaping up to have a lot of nice little things in it too.

But I don't understand this "Sticky Fellow" business. Could someone explain what that means?

When you hit F2 to select a friend, and you hit F2 again, this dictates whether the second F2 acts as a toggle (and de-selects), or does nothing

[MysticTheurge]

When you hit F2 to select a friend, and you hit F2 again, this dictates whether the second F2 acts as a toggle (and de-selects), or does nothing

Ah, I get it. Thanks.

[Ziggy]

Wow. Mod 5 is shaping up to have a lot of nice little things in it too.

But I don't understand this "Sticky Fellow" business. Could someone explain what that means?

its when the Mods put something on the top of the forum sub-section so it doesnt get lost.

Geesh some people.....

[~sturm097]

Wow. Mod 5 is shaping up to have a lot of nice little things in it too.

But I don't understand this "Sticky Fellow" business. Could someone explain what that means?

It basically means that you won't Deselect your party memebers when you hit the F1-F12 keys a second time on the same party member.

Like when I play my cleric, I use those keys to select who I'm gonna heal.... right now, if I hit F2 to heal someone, then hit F2 a second time, it will deselect them and the heal will hit me instead

Edit: Hehe, **** I type slow sometimes......

[Cowdenicus]

When you hit F2 to select a friend, and you hit F2 again, this dictates whether the second F2 acts as a toggle (and de-selects), or does nothing

Clerics will love this. especially busy ones in raids.

[Freeman]

But hey. A lot of other fixes. The paladin hand. The heightened cures. The finicky fred.

There's hope!

Yes, but when you look at how long some of the bugs have been around, it is kind of disheartening. Especially since it wouldn't surprise me if the Crippling Strike bug was marked as "Fixed" when they fixed the problems with elemental damage and sneak attack.

[MysticTheurge]

Especially since it wouldn't surprise me if the Crippling Strike bug was marked as "Fixed" when they fixed the problems with elemental damage and sneak attack.

You're bug reporting it every day, right?

Make them listen! Power to the... err... Rogues!!

[MysticTheurge]

How is crippling strike bugged again?

It doesn't work on ranged sneak attacks.

[Gimpster]

But I don't understand this "Sticky Fellow" business. Could someone explain what that means?

You see, they have developer crossover with LORTO, which means they now call party members "fellows" as per Fellowship of the Ring.

[Coldin]

• NEW - Sorting by quest name in the Adventure Compendium now ignores "The " at the beginning of the name. The Quest Journal will also function in the same way when sorting the Area tabs and the quest list.

Very nice. That'll make finding quests so much easier.

NEW - A Paladin's Aura of Courage will no longer cause various other spell effects to repeat over and over. The Aura of Courage bonus has also been changed to a Sacred Bonus to Will Saves vs. Fear, and as such, will stack with Morale effects.

Thank you! I'm so glad to see that going away.

• NEW - Monsters that are hiding or invisible can no longer be tab (or `) selected unless a player can detect the monster using their Spot or Listen skills.

Great change. Spot and Listen will be very useful skills for the non-rogue now. Will this ever make it into PvP too? It would be great if rogues could sneak around the battlefield.

[Cowdenicus]

Yes, but when you look at how long some of the bugs have been around, it is kind of disheartening. Especially since it wouldn't surprise me if the Crippling Strike bug was marked as "Fixed" when they fixed the problems with elemental damage and sneak attack.

How is crippling strike bugged again?