Weekly Dev Activities - 8/27/07

[Quarion]

Weekly Development Activities

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

General

• Dolurrh environmental effects will now display an appropriate screen overlay.
• Players should no longer experience ethereality issues after a tavern brawl.
• We have added a glossary tool to the game. To look up a word, type "/glossary {word}
• There have been changes to the lifetimes of mail. Unopened mail will now remain for 21 days and opened mail will remain for 5 days. Only mail received or opened after the update will follow these new rules.

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.
• 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."
• 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.
• Primitive drow should now appear correctly in the focus orb.
• NEW -A new command '/quest completions' will display the number of times you have completed each raid.
  

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.
• Blessed Cold Iron Khopeshes, Blessed Cold Iron Mauls and Blessed Cold Iron Heavy Picks will now always be sold at the Divine Reagent vendor in Feather Fall's Apothecary in House Jorasco.
• The examination display now displays the "adjusted base value" which takes charges and permanent damage into account. This is the value that the vendors used to figure out how much they would purchase items for, so your items are not losing value, just displaying the item's value more accurately.Vendors now use the adjusted price to determine if they would purchase the item or not. So if you had a sword that was too pricy for a given vendor to buy, then once it is well used, it may drop to a value at which the vendor is now able to purchase it from you.

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.
• Focusing Chant now displays a proper icon when cast.
• 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."
• Targetting issues with wall of fire have been fixed.
• Magic missiles now do a better job of tracking moving targets.
• Despite the protests of the Silver Flame clergy that have grown rich from curing adventurers suffering from curses, Bestow Curse effects are now removed on death.

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.
• 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 feat respec.
• Cure <various>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. </various>
• 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.
• The Barbarian Dismiss Rage ability now will only function if you are enraged.
• 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.
• Crippling strike now occurs with ranged sneak attacks using bows, crossbows, and thrown weapons.
• Favored Enemy: Orc can now be taken during character generation by rangers.
• Halflings have always had their +1 bonus to attack with thrown weapons. Now this race specific feat will appear on the character sheet.

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.
• Critical hit effects on weapons were preventing sneak attack damage from applying in certain rare circumstances. This has been fixed
• When you inscribe a scroll and already have the spell, it would fail with and give an error message but still take your inscription component. This has been fixed.
• The chance for raid items to drop is increased when the raid dungeon is run on higher difficulty levels.The actual increase in drop rate is dependent on the actual increase in danger of the raid as the Difficulty Level is increased. The maximum drop rate of raid items from any raid on Elite is 25%
• Kargon's Tasty Ham can now be enjoyed throughout Stormreach and its environs. No longer must one enter a drinking establishment to revel in the taste of the bestamest ham ... evemar.
• Characters which have improved UMD skills due to feats, such as "Skill Focus: Use Magic Device" and have an item equipped using UMD which is above the UMD score the player has without the skill focus feat, will no longer find thier item unequipping itself whenever they log in.
• +2 Tomes and Manuals will no longer drop as Raid loot in the Stormreaver raid. Any +2 tomes found in the warded chest will have been generated as normal treasure. The drop rate for +3 tomes has been increased to compensate for this change to the raid treasure table.
• Every 20th time you finish a raid quest your end quest rewards will be selected from the raid loot table instead of being randomly generated. The number of items to choose from will be just under half of the total number of raid items without any duplicates. This is in addition to the normal chance of raid loot dropping for each player during the raid.
• NEW -The 4.2 release introduced the new treasure effect Bodyfeeder. Bodyfeeder does not function when applied to ranged weapons even though a bug allowed ranged weapons to be created with this effect. As of the Module 5 release, all ranged weapons that previously had the Bodyfeeder effect will have it replaced with a new effect Lifeshield. Equipping a Lifeshield weapon grants a 10% chance each time the character is hit to gain 15 temporary hitpoints that last for 1 minute.
  

NPC's

• Restless Isles
  • Mu-Tong will now place the sigil in your inventory overflow if your inventory is full or if you are encumbered.

PVP
Nothing to report

Monsters

• The fleeing rust monsters in Stromvauld's Mine will no longer trip over their own feet.
• 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.
• Patrolling creatures should get stuck less often.
• 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.
• Monsters are more likely to respond appropriately to "calls for help" from other monsters when attacked at extreme distances.
• The poison immunity that many devils and demons have has been expanded to include more poison effects that they should be immune to. This includes the cloudkill spell.
• Hobgoblins with pikes will now only trip if they first successfully roll to hit.
• Black wolves, such as those in the Searing Heights, now use their trip ability much more rarely.

Quests

• Gianthold
  • The Gnolls that were erroneously spawning in a tent will no longer respawn.
  • Players should no longer fall through the Gianthold Tor bridge.
  • The Reavers Fate quest will no longer inform players on success via the world broadcast.
  • Okay okay, Drexelhand's defeat will go un-noticed then.

• 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
• Plane of Night
  • Velah has informed the guardians of the islands within the Plane of Night that if they leave the areas they are supposed to be protecting, she will eat them.
  • The bridges within the Vault of Night should no longer occasionally be ethereal.
• Searing Heights
  • Searing Heights has a mapnote indicating the location of its entrance
• Vile Apothecary
  • Quickfoot Casters in The Proof is in the Poison quest have been downgraded significantly. They no longer have dance or fear spells, have had their caster levels and casting ability stat reduced, have slightly less AC, and have fewer hit points. This quest should be noticeably easier as a result of these changes.

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.

[Mad_Bombardier]

First!

Lifeshield is semi-Neat-o. But, especially for a Ranged combatant, you tend to hit a lot more often than you yourself get hit. Will Lifeshield be available in future loot tables, too? And can you get lifeshield melee weapons, too?

[Aesop]

oi Second

Lifeshield... ok


Quest Completion... okie dokie pokie


but enough business... how was the trip? Meet any cuties... get any numbers? I mean I know they're gamer geeks and all but hey first rule of dating nerds,

Often the odds are Good but often the Goods are Odd

Aesop

[Lifespawn]

near the first post good stuff

[dragnmoon]

I Liked Mine better

Weekly Dev Activities: 8/27/07 *Faux*

[Luthen]

NEW -A new command '/quest completions' will display the number of times you have completed each raid.

NEW - Bard: ~And they removed this one anyways~
Inspire Heroics
Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4 dodge bonus to armor class. Requires 18 ranks of the Perform skill to use.

NEW -The 4.2 release introduced the new treasure effect Bodyfeeder. Bodyfeeder does not function when applied to ranged weapons even though a bug allowed ranged weapons to be created with this effect. As of the Module 5 release, all ranged weapons that previously had the Bodyfeeder effect will have it replaced with a new effect Lifeshield. Equipping a Lifeshield weapon grants a 10% chance each time the character is hit to gain 15 temporary hitpoints that last for 1 minute.

Are you fecal mattering me? ROFL all day and this is what you guys took so long to add? Well it's obvious SOME people are on vacation.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Are you fecal mattering me? ROFL all day and this is what you guys took so long to add? Well it's obvious SOME people are on vacation.

Look at the post date. Q posted this one Friday morning at 2am. For what ever reason it wasn't made viewable until now. Probably just goofed on the settings somewhere.

And WDAs are typically sparse when it comes to changes so close to Release date. Take it as a good sign.

[Luthen]

Look at the post date. Q posted this one Friday morning at 2am. For what ever reason it wasn't made viewable until now.

And WDAs are typically sparse when it comes to changes so close to Release date. Take it as a good sign.

Which makes it even worse. not better. Oh and don't assume we're "close" to release just yet. Not until they man up and set a date.

[Clerical]

He probably left it and told somone to post it up monday morning. That message must have been lost along the way. Thx for the update though, now about risia...

[Gelandor]

I Liked Mine better

Weekly Dev Activities: 8/27/07 *Faux*

I agree, yours is much better

[Verlok_the_Red]

The Reavers Fate quest will no longer inform players on success via the world broadcast.
Okay okay, Drexelhand's defeat will go un-noticed then.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! !!!!! (for space reasons I will omit the other 994 Thank You's!!!!)

[Dragonhyde]

NEW - Bard:
Inspire Heroics
Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4 dodge bonus to armor class. Requires 18 ranks of the Perform skill to use.


Say Wha?

[Kalanth]

I wanted to kick and scream, yelling obsenities about the lack of new things... Then I remembered that the entire list is new, and just the little, red tags are what is really New new.

[dragnmoon]

NEW - Bard:
Inspire Heroics
Activate this bard ability to grant an ally a +4 morale bonus to his or her saves, and a +4 dodge bonus to armor class. Requires 18 ranks of the Perform skill to use.


Say Wha?

Anyone notice that, that dispaeared from the Original post....

I am not suprised... since it is a 15th level ability... Somone is jumping the gun... hmmmm

[Coldin]

Anyone notice that, that dispaeared from the Original post....

I am not suprised... since it is a 15th level ability... Somone is jumping the gun... hmmmm

Well, when the level cap gets raised (tentatively Mod 6 if rumors are to be believed), Bards would get Inspire Heroics. Still kinda odd that slipped in there.

[binnsr]

Maybe they're hiding something from us ... like mod5=level cap increase?

[dragnmoon]

Maybe they're hiding something from us ... like mod5=level cap increase?

I doubt it..... Would be nice... But I doubt it..

[Mad_Bombardier]

Anyone notice that, that dispaeared from the Original post....

I am not suprised... since it is a 15th level ability... Somone is jumping the gun... hmmmm

And from my first response, too! (but not from other followup responses). I KNOW the Pirate camp is firmly with me, so I blame the ninjas.

[Ringlord]

Yes that is a strange one... hmmmmm... makes me think... but I have been doing too much speculation lately so maybe I will lay off this one as it leaves too much room to be too far off

[binnsr]

I doubt it..... Would be nice... But I doubt it..

I doubt it too, but it's never too early to start a rumour