like the legend of the phoenix all ends with beginnings-A new era for Lamannia

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

Greetings!
As you may have heard, we are shutting down Mournlands. What is Mournlands some of you may ask-well, it's our Fight Club. It was a server that had a group of players that the development team used for focus testing, opinions and reality checking the changes to the game. They have been extremely helpful over the years and I think I speak for all of QA and Development in saying thank you. The help from them even recently in the enhancement pass and the TR pass were invaluable. Again thank you Mournlanders, you know who you are.

So from the ashes are new beginnings. Instead of hiding behind a veil of secrecy, the developers, QA and the game will be out in the open on a public test shard. We will be pushing out early builds to Lammania—just as ugly and wart filled as what would have been seen on Mournlands. Devs will communicate directly in the Lamannia part of the forums.

So in essence you, the public, the players, are the new Mournlands. Everyone now has a voice.

The thought is we want to hear more opinions, and as early as possible. There will be some growing pains—Developers –and QA can be a superstitious lot—but over the past 6 months we have become more comfortable talking about things publicly and earlier than ever before. It has been kind of awesome.

Lamma will be run a bit different. It will not be up all the time, and be on a focused schedule. Why? We want developers and employees to have more interaction on the server than we have seen in the past. I admit I have wanted this for a long time.

So here is the first shot. Lamannia will be updated later this week with an Alpha build. This is super early, and you get to see all the half dones, and warts.

1. The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar and Thunderholme landscape will be open for VIPs. Haunted Halls should take about 1.5 hours to complete if you do no optionals. It will take up to 5 hours if you complete everything. Yes, it is an old school early D&D style module. It's huge. This will be opened up in later Lamannia deployments to everyone, but with VIP's come the perks of first peek.

There are some things that you will notice:

• Loot is not finished. Not even close. Matter of fact, most of it is placeholder stuff.
• Deco is not finished. Yes some rooms are bare.
• Monsters are not balanced yet. Good luck.
• VO (Voice overs) work is about half done.

1. You may come across weird systems and placeholders--half built skills and whatnot. Most should be turned off and hidden, but you never know.
2. This is a build straight out of development, so there is no optimization yet on the new areas. Some slowdown on landscape is completely possible.
3. Text is not finished, expect random TBDs and half-finished things.
4. Gameplay should be fairly complete...enough to get a good idea of what the developers were thinking. We are very interested in bugs-of course- and how things 'feel'. Too hard, easy, long short exc.
5. Lamannia will only be open though Monday morning. We will reopen it with other stuff in the near future..
6. Squeak and Kookie will still be around to make life easier.
7. Usual forum rules apply. Don’t be mean, this does not exclude negative comments, but keep it to the game, not the individual. This will not be tolerated in my little kingdom of the forums.
8. Please still report bugs. It is super helpful, and yes we do scurry over them on days after a Lamannia push like kobolds and shiny objects.

Hope to see you on there! Help us make DDO the best experience for you and your friends!

[Teh_Troll]

Greetings!
As you may have heard, we are shutting down Mournlands.

Crud . . . where will I get my leaked information now?

[Teh_Troll]

1. The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar and Thunderholme landscape will be open for VIPs. Haunted Halls should take about 1.5 hours to complete if you do no optionals. It will take up to 5 hours if you complete everything. Yes, it is an old school early D&D style module. It's huge. This will be opened up in later Lamannia deployments to everyone, but with VIP's come the perks of first peek.

Is this one quest . . . that I need to commit 90 minutes to 5 hours to complete? Or is it a chain like everything else in the game?

Will you soon be selling adult diapers in the DDO store?

[Krelar]

Is this one quest . . . that I need to commit 90 minutes to 5 hours to complete? Or is it a chain like everything else in the game?

Will you soon be selling adult diapers in the DDO store?

If it's one quest I'll pretty much never get to see it.

Even 90 minutes is pushing it unless an almost full group just happens to be available when I log in. Never getting to see the optionals, ever, would annoy me to no end.

[danotmano1998]

So in essence you, the public, the players, are the new Mournlands. Everyone now has a voice.

The thought is we want to hear more opinions, and as early as possible. There will be some growing pains—Developers –and QA can be a superstitious lot—but over the past 6 months we have become more comfortable talking about things publicly and earlier than ever before. It has been kind of awesome.

We want developers and employees to have more interaction on the server than we have seen in the past. I admit I have wanted this for a long time.

Huzzah! I think this is an EXCELLENT move. Thanks for the transparency.

Haunted Halls should take about 1.5 hours to complete if you do no optionals. It will take up to 5 hours if you complete everything.

WHAT?!?!?

As in, one 5 hour quest?
Or several quests in a chain?

[Coldin]

Alas poor Mourlands. We will miss thee.

[MeliCat]

Oh excellent.

Yeah I've really enjoyed how open the devs have been lately and getting access to the dojo on Lamm - makes things much easier to check out. I look forward to giving feedback where I can

[Teh_Troll]

If it's one quest I'll pretty much never get to see it.

Even 90 minutes is pushing it unless an almost full group just happens to be available when I log in. Never getting to see the optionals, ever, would annoy me to no end.

That's my issue. CiTW and WGU are kinda hated for their length . . . so Turbine decides to make a 5 HOUR QUEST?

Just wait until people start leaving to re-buff and come back.

Also, expect a team of Monkchers to beat it in 30 minutes on the first night.

[Bladedge]

Greetings!
As you may have heard, we are shutting down Mournlands.

Really I just heard about it today from your post.

Alas poor Mourlands. We will miss thee.

Like anyone will miss it.

Oh excellent.

Yeah I've really enjoyed how open the devs have been lately and getting access to the dojo on Lamm - makes things much easier to check out. I look forward to giving feedback where I can

So far it has lasted longer then a month almost up to three. Will the devs get burnt out and then go back to hush hush its a secret.

[ProducerRowan]

Right now Haunted Halls is one primary quest, with additional content that can be unlocked once you've beaten the primary path the first time. The additional content is "Whisper's Crypt", which Ed Greenwood intended for the original module but was not published.

Play it and give us your feedback on the length! There are multiple optionals (in the spirit of the original module).

[Teh_Troll]

Right now Haunted Halls is one primary quest, with additional content that can be unlocked once you've beaten the primary path the first time. The additional content is "Whisper's Crypt", which Ed Greenwood intended for the original module but was not published.

Play it and give us your feedback on the length! There are multiple optionals (in the spirit of the original module).

Level range= ?

I can tell you right now long stuff in a game this . . . it had better pay or we'll hate it.

If multiple hour quests are going to be the standard from now on the 1 hour time limit on ship buffs needs to go.

[UurlockYgmeov]

+ infinity.

Although will mourn the death of Mournelands, this bold new step is what is needed. More communication, earlier, more open, more cooperative.

Cannot say enough.

Now its up to us, the players to step up and deliver on our side. Positively delivered timely Feedback from open-minded experiences.

A rousing round of standing applause for this bold initiative.

Keep it up!

"'Cause I want more.
More, give me more,
Give me more."



I for one will be online trying, experiencing and communicating.

One suggestion - please do push out a 'goal' sheet - something that gives us players some idea about what, if anything, the team is looking for feedback on. General feedback on everything is presumed, but like the reincarnation event some giant green arrows pointing us in the direction to focus would be beneficial to everyone.

[ProducerRowan]

Haunted Halls is Epic, CR 28.

The optionals will have specific loot (but not for this round).

And yep, we're discussing guild ship buffs as well. Haunted Halls is a specific thing (don't expect longer runs as a standard), but I expect we'll take a hard look at buffs and durations when we update guild airships in U22.

[noneill]

This is great news for the game. More eyes on the early stuff will only help.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Right now Haunted Halls is one primary quest, with additional content that can be unlocked once you've beaten the primary path the first time. The additional content is "Whisper's Crypt", which Ed Greenwood intended for the original module but was not published.

Play it and give us your feedback on the length! There are multiple optionals (in the spirit of the original module).

Think we need to hold off knee-jerk reactions and actually see what they have in mind before we start flametrolling them.

And I for one don't mind longer quests - I just plan on not having an xp elixir running before entering.

I suspect that it is going to be like Delera's or others - with a slayer area.

Remember - there are currently 2 raids planned to be released with U21 - (with lots of green traps. :P ) so HH might be one, and WC might be the other. Might end up being VON5-6 or might be Like Litany - Abbot. (except raid / raid).

So lets concentrate on the positive - the communication !

[Teh_Troll]

. . . when we update guild airships in U22.

Who needs Mournlands for leaks when we have Producer Rowan!

[UurlockYgmeov]

Haunted Halls is Epic, CR 28.

The optionals will have specific loot (but not for this round).

And yep, we're discussing guild ship buffs as well. Haunted Halls is a specific thing (don't expect longer runs as a standard), but I expect we'll take a hard look at buffs and durations when we update guild airships in U22.

+1 for so rapid reply (communication)
+1 for dropping another great teaser!
+1 for guild updates of any kind!

+1 keep it up!

[Jasparion]

I love the idea of a module which can take all night to do. But I wonder how long it will be until players work out how to complete it in 15 minutes and then the XP gets nerfed

And will it only give 30 Comms...

[Recared]

And yep, we're discussing guild ship buffs as well. Haunted Halls is a specific thing (don't expect longer runs as a standard), but I expect we'll take a hard look at buffs and durations when we update guild airships in U22.

Thank you!! Extended standard duration would be nice. Also having an optional hookpoint to click at that gives you all ship buffs available (hooked points) at your ship for a certain duration at a certain cost (some platinum or 1 astral shard cost) would be very welcome.

[Shmuel]

Thank you!! Extended standard duration would be nice. Also having an optional hookpoint to click at that gives you all ship buffs available (hooked points) at your ship for a certain duration at a certain cost (some platinum or 1 astral shard cost) would be very welcome.

No astral shards for ship buffs. Let this be one, (and really the only and last) thing that is not contaminated with the astral shard garbage in the game. How about letting players unlock stuff with skill or perseverance, rather than their wallets. Something, anything.