Weekly Development Activities (June 18, 2007)

[Bionca]

As Eberron's main practitioners of medicine (and with prestige classes devoted to studying and producing both poison and disease), one might wager that halflings could get a little more creative than "pipeweed" when it comes to their recreational past-times.

That is just too precious.

[EightyFour]

They can be hit while running. You have to get in front of them, or at least parallel to them. Because when you're running behind them, the game thinks you're attacking the air behind them.

Cool, I see what your saying, I need to get to the side of them, but also I would like to ask do you agree that it would be a good idea to fix the problem of not being able to hit them while you are behind them? I mean you could jump over them your so close behind them and you still can't get hit's in untell they stop to attack.

[suitepotato]

"In the same room" would be a safe guess as to where he teleports to.

As in, he will without error teleport behind the most dangerous caster and kill them with a massive enhancement to hit from behind.

Unless each jail cell was a pocket dimension modeled after real dimensions. Then the only place he could teleport would be that room, as that's the extent of the plane.

I do agree, though. This has the potential to make the Prison of the Planes incredibly annoying.

And the big problem: FRUSTRATION. A subject and word I've brought up many times and will continue to point at, because over this emotion people have road rage, passive-aggressive disorders, school shootings, and reality television. It is an odious thing, and the one thing least taken seriously by anyone anywhere.

In this case, many people who made out like bandits when PoP first ran when the loot was seemingly an insane +2 or better and people pulled vorpals, tomes, and smiters like they were Hummel figurines on your Aunt Matilda's coffee table, will gleefully tell the noobs to come about those wonder days... who will then of course be very FRUSTRATED when Chihuahua teleports around like his namesake on amphetamines, with the exception that most Chihuahuas don't strike down level fourteen sorcerors from behind and make mincemeat of level fourteen admantine full plate wearing paladins.

Great idea. While we're at it, let's make Offering of Blood have a swarm of scorpions who can wipe a party levels eleven to fourteen on normal. Oh wait...

This one I hate, and I don't really care if he moves around, I just hate it because of the way I know that he well move around. Running around making him immune to weapon damage, plus the damage you have to inflict in order to complete, plus the fact that he is a red named mob so he is immune to all spell effects minus direct damage.

I wouldn't mind so much if when we swing at mob's while they are running we could hit them, but sense we can't, or at least not for the majority of swings, it bothers me.

PoP just got harder, but not because it is a hard mission but because the way that the game functions. Is it intentional to make mob's immune to weapon damage while they are running or was that just a mistake made?

Before making mob's able to run around, how about fixing the fact that they can't be hit while they are doing the running. If the immune to weapon damage while running is not intentional.

FINALLY!!! I thought I was taking crazy pills!

I have been telling all and sundry in every pug, for the love of all that is good and decent, STOP RUNNING FROM THE PARTY WHEN YOU GET AGGRO - WE CANNOT HIT THE MONSTERS WHILE THEY ARE RUNNING!

Of course, the casters and clerics keep running away, getting overtaken and slaughtered because the monsters get a bonus to attack from behind while the monsters in flight are nigh invulnerable. As in, 90% of swings go right through them with no attack roll even generated and 9.9% of swings generate a roll but you miss 99% of those.

Anecdotal calculations but pretty darn close if you put pen to paper and count the number of swings you make versus rolls seen and damage done.

If they get a bonus to attack a running player charcter from behind, you should get one too. At the very least, they should not be nearly impossible to hit while we are many times more likely to be hit.

[Jaysensen]

This is good point, since there is no reason (the bug was fixed) to have the reverse bonus on attacks (except, maybe to keep ranged nerfed). The first attack roll should have the highest bonus, per PnP, which would make hitting on the run much more possible.

It can probably never do that in this game. It is my understanding that attacks progressed in beta like in PnP. Then they realized it was completely broken and reversed it...

You take your first two swings at +10 then +5 and then interrupt your attack chain. Then pause ever so slightly and do attack twice more at +10 and +5. EVEN if you mistime it, your next two attacks will be at +6 and +1 (if you DONT have Spring Attack) which is better than +0 and +0. If you DO have Spring Attack, its constant attacks at +10 and +5.

[VonBek]

Thanks for the news, Samera!

[Olaff]

Using Toughness math, shouldn't the second enhancement grant you 2 additional uses and the third grant you 3 additional uses and the fourth grant 4 additional uses for a total of 10 extra uses for all four enhancements?

If they're gonna do that, then the Ranger, Barb, and Rogue Resistance enhancements should add 2, then 4, then 6, then 8, for a total of 20 Resistance by Tier 4.

Oh, wait. That'd make them worth taking. Nevermind.

[ahpook]

You take your first two swings at +10 then +5 and then interrupt your attack chain. Then pause ever so slightly and do attack twice more at +10 and +5. EVEN if you mistime it, your next two attacks will be at +6 and +1 (if you DONT have Spring Attack) which is better than +0 and +0. If you DO have Spring Attack, its constant attacks at +10 and +5.

Well, there is no reason they couldn't simply get rid of the bonus and go without any progression. Higher BAB will simply result in faster swings which is what the PnP extra hits at a penalty is trying to simulate anyway.

[Jaysensen]

Well, there is no reason they couldn't simply get rid of the bonus and go without any progression. Higher BAB will simply result in faster swings which is what the PnP extra hits at a penalty is trying to simulate anyway.

That is true. Lots of other fixes/balances that are possible. FYI, I was responding to why the PNP attack chain wont work in the future, and didnt work in the past. Huge discussion that probably deserves its own thread.

[Kamandi]

In QA
These items are in QA and are scheduled for Update 4.2: Searing Heights.

General

• NEW – Players get 3 more weapon set configuration slots, for a total of 7!
• Fixed an Auction House bug where it was possible to bid on an auction and receive a different quantity of the item than expected.

UI Improvements

• The XP bar should no longer disappear on larger monitors.
• Auction House
  
  • You can now filter your auction house searches by item level. This search is based on the minimum level to use the item. Items with no level requirement are considered level 1 by the filter.
  • Clothing and Jewelry sections in the auction house are now broken up into multiple categories based the slot the item equips to. There are now a total of ten categories for both of these two sections. Note: Only newly posted auctions will appear in these new categories.
    
• Friends List
  
  • Offline friends will no longer show up in the friends list when added or imported if "Hide Offline Friends" is checked.

Monsters

• UPDATED – The spike damage of the Razor Cats is now working properly. Those who hit a razor cat in melee combat will have to make a reflex save or be injured by the spikes. Keep some throwing hammers and/or spearblock items handy.
• The fire elemental's Aura of Flame has been fixed. It can no longer be blocked by spell resistance.
• Duergar barbarians, bandits, and bards had their alignment corrected. They are now Neutral Evil instead of Lawful Evil.
• Higher level wights and ghouls (CR 10 and above) will be able to use their innate abilities like level drain and disease on more of their attacks, rather than only doing these on their “rear back and jump forward” attack. This makes them more like their pen and paper counterparts and will make them a little more challenging. Players will of course still get their saves to resist these effects.

Combat


Spells

• New Spell:
  
  • Holy Sword
    
    • Paladin 4
    • Channels holy power to turn a Blessed Cold Iron weapon into a +5 Holy Cold Iron weapon that grants its wielder a continuous Protection From Evil effect while equipped. The holy weapon is permanent, but is destroyed on dungeon exit.
    
    
• NEW – Tenser's Transformation now grants Simple Weapon Proficiencies in addition to Martial Weapon Proficiencies. Additionally, casting Tenser's Transformation will now also grant proficiency with Throwing Hammers.
• NEW – Chill Touch now (properly) has a fortitude save to negate the strength damage portion of the spell.
• Potentially long-lasting debuff spells like crushing despair, bane, doom, and ray of enfeeblement have been changed so that they are removed by resting at a rest shrine.
• Fixed Mind Fog's spell school. Mind Fog is an enchantment, not a conjuration.
• The description for the Symbol of Flame spell has been fixed to accurately describe the amount of damage the spell does. The reflex save for this spell has also been fixed. Players and enemy npcs can now attempt a reflex save to reduce damage by half. The spell has always done 5d6 damage, and this has not been changed.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• Reduced difficulty of detecting traps with Search and Spot, especially at low levels (5 and under).
• NEW – The Power Critical feats have been upgraded. All of these feats have been consolidated into one. Once you have this feat, you will get a +4 bonus to confirm critical hits with any type of weapon.

Enhancements

• The Toughness enhancement lines for dwarves, barbarians, fighters, and paladins have been upgraded. They now give you 5, 10, 15, and 20 additional hit points respectively instead of 5, 5, 5, and 5. They all still have the Toughness feat as a prerequisite.
• The Follower of the <diety> Enhancement Lines now grant sub-abilities:
  
  • Tira's Champion: (Associated with Follower of the Silver Flame) Activate this ability to grant weapon proficiency in longbows to yourself or a friend until the target next rests. Consumes a use of turn undead.
    
  • Similar sub-abilities exist for the other faiths.
    
• Rogue Subtle Backstabber is now an active enhancement that has a toggled stance. While turned on, you will generate less hate on melee attacks.
• NEW – General
  
  • Extra Dragonmark I
    
    • Cost: 1 Action Point
    • Prereqs: Any Dragonmark, Level 2 Character, 3 Action Points Spent.
    • Benefit: Gain an additional use of your Least, Lesser, and Greater Dragonmarks per rest.
      
    
    
  • Extra Dragonmark 2
    
    • Cost: 2 Action Point
    • Prereqs: Any Dragonmark, Level 6 Character, 18 Action Points Spent.
    • Benefit: Gain an additional use of your Least, Lesser, and Greater Dragonmarks per rest.
      
    
    
  • Extra Dragonmark 3
    
    • Cost: 3 Action Point
    • Prereqs: Any Dragonmark, Level 10 Character, 33 Action Points Spent.
    • Benefit: Gain an additional use of your Least, Lesser, and Greater Dragonmarks per rest.
      
    
    
  • Extra Dragonmark 4
    
    • Cost: 4 Action Point
    • Prereqs: Any Dragonmark, Level 14 Character, 48 Action Points Spent.
    • Benefit: Gain an additional use of your Least, Lesser, and Greater Dragonmarks per rest.
      
    
    
• Warforged
  
  • Warforged Brute Fighting I
    
    • Cost: 1 Action Point
    • Prereqs: Warforged Level 2, 3 Action Points Spent
    • Benefit: Activate this ability to cause your melee attacks to generate 10% more hate, making enemies more likely to attack you.
      
  • Warforged Brute Fighting II
    
    • Cost: 2 Action Points
    • Prereqs: Warforged Level 6, Warforged Brute Fighting I, 18 Action Points Spent
    • Benefit: Activate this ability to cause your melee attacks to generate 15% more hate, making enemies more likely to attack you.
      
  • Warforged Brute Fighting III
    
    • Cost: 3 Action Points
    • Prereqs: Warforged Level 10, Warforged Brute Fighting II, 33 Action Points Spent
    • Benefit: Activate this ability to cause your melee attacks to generate 20% more hate, making enemies more likely to attack you.
  • Warforged Brute Fighting IV
    
    • Cost: 4 Action Points
    • Prereqs: Warforged Level 14, Warforged Brute Fighting III, 48 Action Points Spent
    • Benefit: Activate this ability to cause your melee attacks to generate 25% more hate, making enemies more likely to attack you.
      
• NEW – The Silver Flame Exorcism enhancements now use 10 + (class level) + Charisma Modifier as a DC for the Will and Fortitude saves rather than a fixed save DC. Updated the descriptions to match.
• NEW – An enemy poisoned by Thoughtburn (from the Way of the Assassin ability) now displays appropriate particle effects.
• Undying Call now properly differentiates between Drow and "real" elves.
• The various enhancements that summon creatures (Iron/Steel/Mithral Companion and Vulkoor’s Avatar) can now only be summoned in dungeons. You will no longer trigger the cooldown (and lose the attempt) if you try to summon them elsewhere. Summoning these creatures will now also break stealth.
• Iron Companion no longer lists Cannith Repair II as a potential prerequisite, since a character with Cannith Repair II has already unlocked the enhancement through the Least Mark of Making.

Items

• The House Jorasco Divine Reagent Vendor now carries Blessed Cold Iron Greatswords, Bastard Swords, Longswords, Shortswords, Scimitars, Warhammers, Rapiers, Dwarven Waraxes, Khopeshes, Mauls, and Heavy Picks.
• NEW – New enchanted food and drinks are available in all taverns. Warforged also have new enchanted balms and tonics. The new drink and tonic restores 2500sp over 1 minute. The new food heals 500hp over 1 minute.The new balm heals 450hp over 1 minute.
• Corrected the caster levels for Wands of Flame Arrow and Wands of Holy Smite to appropriate values for their spell level. Wand of Flame Arrow was reduced to Caster Level 5. Wand of Holy Smite was increased to Caster Level 7. Wands of Resist Energy was changed from Caster Level 1 to 3. These changes will affect the UMD difficulty of activating the wands as well as the wands gold value.
• The Helm of the Black Dragon and the Helm of the Blue Dragon will now appear in the correct Clothing section of the Auction House. They were so pretty they were mistakenly put in the Jewelry category.
• NEW – Randomly generated thrown Returning weapons will now correctly bypass their targets Damage Reduction.
• NEW – Clarified the description of the Nullcloth Gown to make it obvious that the 15% Spell Failure applies to all spell casters, even Divine casters.
• NEW – Corrected the naming for stacks of higher level Barkskin and Shield of Faith potions. They will now indicate their additional bonus eg Potions of Shield of Faith (+5).
• NEW – You will no longer be able to attach items to mail messages that are not currently in your inventory (i.e., an item that is in your bank).

NPCs

• Several enemy characters from the Aurum have had their alignment changed to Lawful Evil.
• Many npcs were incorrectly insisting that they were "Race: Elf" in the examination window. This information has been removed from these lying npcs.
• Niles Cage (Stormreach Harbor) is no longer performing an appendectomy on himself.

PVP


Quests

• Made a change to help prevent quest items from becoming inaccessible if the party member who was carrying them dies or leaves the quest.
• NEW – Ataraxia's Haven
  
  • Players will now always be able to exit the mine cave without difficulty.
    
• Cerulean Hills
  
  • Rare Encounter Garunt will now have a treasure chest.
    
• NEW – Menechtarun
  
  • The winds have shifted the sands of Menechtarun, revealing ancient roads.
  • Many of the named minibosses out in the desert of Menechtarun have gotten new supplies or found new sources of power. They are a fair amount stronger than before and will put up a better fight.
    
• The Missing Ward
  
  • The hard and elite versions of Necromancer Gerti have had their spell lists fixed. They will no longer repeatedly cast the sleep spell.
    
• NEW – Prison of the Planes
  
  • Cochitlehua has remembered that he has "Teleport Without Error" as an at-will spell-like ability.
    
• NEW – Sorrowdusk Island
  
  • The named gargoyle Vermilo now functions properly (and his chest spawns on the ground).
    
• Stormcleave Outpost
  
  • Made several changes to the pillars:
    
    • The Mephits have had their hide skill lowered so they should be easier to find
      
    • The Mephits now have a 60 meter leash so they shouldn't wander away
    • Changed an objective to read 'Alight the Pillars' to make it more clear that they need to be fully lit and fully active rather than just partially lit.
      
• Xorian Cipher
  
  • The three named spectres in the Xorian Cipher quest, the Urdak brothers, have been changed into skeletons so they can no longer occasionally flee and leave you stranded in a locked room. They will be slightly more challenging to beat than they were before.
    

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

UI Improvements

• 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.
• 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.

Spells

• NEW – The Crushing Despair FX are now persistent.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• NEW – 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.
• NEW – The Listen skill now helps you detect hidden monsters.

Just want to say thanks and keep on keepin' on.

[Kaeldric]

Bards were supposed to get some upgrades in 4.2 I thought? Warchanter and rumors of a new song iirc, but I see nothing in the new notes.

[VonBek]

Bards were supposed to get some upgrades in 4.2 I thought?

Last thing I read on Bards & 4.2

[Symar-FangofLloth]

It's been confirmed in some bard thread (look at the dev tracker) that the 3 enhancement lines are Spellsinger, Warchanter, and Virtuoso, and they will be available at level 6, similar to the cleric's and rogue's.

[Kaeldric]

Thx found the threads. Hope they didn't get pushed back and will be added in 4.2.

[Racolus]

Arrgh!

Devs, please take a look at the 'missing fire' issue!

Recently I can't shoot something which is moving (like from left to right of my screen), the 'missing rate' is like 1 in 2, i.e. lost 1 shot every 2 shot when the target is moving.

Pumping the bard or beefing up cleric is fine, just don't forget this archery issue has been outstanding since module THREE POINT ZERO.

[geoffhanna]

More weapon sets! Yay!
Filter AH items by min level! Yay!
AH subcategories for clothing and jewelry! Yay!
Did I mention the added weapon sets? Yay yay yay!

[Olaff]

Arrgh!

Devs, please take a look at the 'missing fire' issue!

Recently I can't shoot something which is moving (like from left to right of my screen), the 'missing rate' is like 1 in 2, i.e. lost 1 shot every 2 shot when the target is moving.

Pumping the bard or beefing up cleric is fine, just don't forget this archery issue has been outstanding since module THREE POINT ZERO.

I think the archery thing is by design... and it's only fair, really. Once an arrow is in the air, if you can see it and react in time, you can dodge it. It's far more difficult to shoot something moving perpendicular to you than it is coming straight at you.

The trick is to not select the critter you're shooting at, but use your targeting reticule and lead it by a pace or two. Fire at where it's *going* to be and your hit rate will go up.

That's the theory, anyway. I'm actually not very good at it.

Sarcasm from my earlier post about the Resistance enhancements aside, I think the changes overall look pretty good. I especially like the Listen change, since I'm one of those silly people that actually invested in it from the beginning.

[Freeman]

I think the archery thing is by design... and it's only fair, really. Once an arrow is in the air, if you can see it and react in time, you can dodge it. It's far more difficult to shoot something moving perpendicular to you than it is coming straight at you.

I think the bug he is referring to is the one where your target can be standing perfectly still, yet you only get attack rolls on roughly half your shots. No amount of aiming will correct that. This has been around awhile, but it seems ranged combat always takes a back-seat to everything else in the game(See Crippling Strike also). I take that back. Ranged combat for PLAYERS has always been largely ignored. For mobs, it is just as lethal as melee, only with a much longer range.

[Olaff]

I think the bug he is referring to is the one where your target can be standing perfectly still, yet you only get attack rolls on roughly half your shots. No amount of aiming will correct that. This has been around awhile, but it seems ranged combat always takes a back-seat to everything else in the game(See Crippling Strike also). I take that back. Ranged combat for PLAYERS has always been largely ignored. For mobs, it is just as lethal as melee, only with a much longer range.

Oh, THAT bug. Yeah, that one's irritating, I agree. To be honest, though, I've shifted my focus away from ranged combat and towards melee on my Ranger, so I haven't noticed if it's still an issue lately.

What gets me is the speed with which mobs can fire. It's at least double, in most cases, the fastest speed a player character can fire... and they do a hell of a lot more damage. Maybe they're using specialty arrows, though... human bane, or something.

[VonBek]

...why only three? If you are going to take the effort to make the change, why not 8 or 20? ... Is seven all that could fit? Seven is better than four, ... Twelve would be a number where I could start setting them up once and for all. Why not 24 to be safe?

Really...just three...?

Fourty-Two. Just ask the mice, it's their computer.

[BonesProthero]

Will Holy Sword be self-only?