Weekly Developer Activities - 5/19/08

[MysticTheurge]

Requiring us to run Velah, DQ, Titan and Reaver means there are multiple seperate risks/bosses facing the world .. all at the same time? Cmmon, those were all independant story lines.

Are you sure they were? Look again.

[Borror0]

Are you sure they were? Look again.

I cannot speak for the Titan and the DQ, as I've never looked into their storylines, but I can see it for the Stormreaver and Velah.

[Rilen]

unless you're willing to tell me that you

1) play permadeath,
2) never mail items between your characters (because it is completely impossible for them to cross paths once they get to stormreach),
3) never repeat quests, and
4) never party with people that have quest knowledge (or use items unique to the quest you're in)...

...you really can't say anything about continuity in an MMO.

Actually, I can say whatever I like - as can you. Its an opinion - thats all.

As for continuity .. I dunno .. when I reference my Quest Journals and they say I defeated X boss, sure looks like storylines complete, or continue to another that does .. So .. I didnt invent the mechanism .. its part of DDO already. If the journal tells me I destroyed the Stormreaver or Velah or the Abbott .. I just dont see how the latest story line gets to resurrect the old ones without some change to the old ones.

I actually enjoy the backstory when new content is released .. and more to the point, I enjoy new content supporting the backstory. Thats my point - using old stuff to prop up the new is in my opinion weak.

Thats my .02 and I'll leave it at that. Wont be posting more on the topic but I would think I'm not the only player who feels this way.

[Laith]

@ rilen: my apologies, i misunderstood your post, and completely rewrote my response. admittedly, i didn't read it all.

personally, the DDO storylines are really cool and all, but i'm not gonna pretend that we're not in a static world and that our actions have an effect on our environment... because they don't.

or you could use this:

It sounds like they're going to say that those events occurred and you got keys of power from all the bad guys in them and now they'll use them to face the devil invasion. It's a bit of retcon of the prior raids(they give keys or whatever to the new raid) but it may actually make it so theirs one story line running that they can continue to us.

[lasra]

However, unbeknownst to the PUG's of Stormreach, a nefarious being of incalculable evil was lurking in the deepest pit of the Subterrane.

A warforged dracolich forged in Shavarrath, drawing its power from the Circle of Eternity.

Behold your nemesis.... Ti'Vel Laitrikobott the Absorber!

MWUAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Strykersz]

So, and I think this is a reasonable question, where is the Storyline Continuity? What I am reading is that Velah, DQ,
Titan, Reaver and Shroud will all need to be run/farmed for "keys" (components). I don't care about that specifically - we
run those quests into the ground weekly.

What does not sit well with me is that when these raids were released, particularly in the case of the Reaver, the storyline
was that Stormreach (or put another way, our "world") was at grave risk. MOD 7 introduces another supposed continuation
of the "world at risk" scenario.

Requiring us to run Velah, DQ, Titan and Reaver means there are multiple seperate risks/bosses facing the world .. all at the
same time? Cmmon, those were all independant story lines.

Actually, their is a little bit of storyline continuity here. There are currently two main story thread for the raids. In the first one, you defeat the Stormreaver in Tempest Spine and then he goes to Gianthold to build his doomsday device. Meanwhile, Velah breaks in to the Vault of Night to read a prophecy in the stones and you kill her. You then head to Gianthold, where her apprentice, Cydonie, tasks you with preventing the Stormreaver from activating his Doomsday device. Story #2 is the minions of the Black Abbot are working on completing the Litany of the Dead which reveals the path to godhood(or something like this, I don't remember all the details for this story line). As he is preparing to ascend, you break in and kill him. There is than a great disturbance in the force and the 12 send reports of a devil invasion in the Vale. You go to the vale, complete the five quests and discover some corrupted people and they then send you to prevent A from making the Vale coterminous with the Plane of Shavarath. I don't recall any connection between the Titan/DQ and either of those storylines.

It sounds like they're going to say that those events occurred and you got keys of power from all the bad guys in them and now they'll use them to face the devil invasion. It's a bit of retcon of the prior raids(they give keys or whatever to the new raid) but it may actually make it so theirs one story line running that they can continue to use.

[fatherpirate]

Fantastic ! SUPER ! Excellent !

Now stick it on Risia so we can see whats wrong with it.

[Angelus_dead]

Actually, their is a little bit of storyline continuity here. There are currently two main story thread for the raids. In the first one, you defeat the Stormreaver in Tempest Spine and then he goes to Gianthold to build his doomsday device.

That's a different guy, but he was intentionally imitating him, so it counts as a related story.

Story #2 is the minions of the Black Abbot are working on completing the Litany of the Dead which reveals the path to godhood(or something like this, I don't remember all the details for this story line). As he is preparing to ascend, you break in and kill him. There is than a great disturbance in the force and the 12 send reports of a devil invasion in the Vale.

Yes, there is a feeble "storyline" connection between the Abbot and Shroud raids, entirely contained within a single paragraph of dialog in the middle of unrelated questgiver chitchat.

That tiny piece of tacked-on continuity really serves only to underscore how wrong it was for Turbine to push ahead with other modules while leaving the Abbot unfixed. The large majority of characters who thrash Arraetrikos twice a week have never even come close to beating the Black Abbot, so it's laughable to talk as if the Shroud raid was dependent on beating the Abbot first.

[Naash]

http://ddoimages.level3.turbine.com/...68/17/1387.jpg

So noone is interested what those spiders are or what is behind the one in the center on the floor(dead?)?

[Shadowblizmasta]

WoW, just WoW. It's like a mass of typos.


hey, speaking of which their next module is "Wraith of the Lich King." I wonder if he's trying to become a god? Maybe they can ask Turbine for pointers...

He basically IS a god. In the warcraft universe, he is the most powerful thing in existence.

[Strakeln]

Tolmerolask

Did that name come from Tolero/Merlask?

[fatherpirate]

He basically IS a god. In the warcraft universe, he is the most powerful thing in existence.

I thought that Leroy Jenkins was :-/

[BlackSteel]

I'm seeing alot of complaining over nothing.

If anyone played WoW when you had to unlock the new area for the first expansion that was a pain. Collect 100,000 of these rare drops, then 100,000 of these rare drops. Granted it was server wide, but faction specific. It was meant as a neat way to bring the community together in an effort to complete it first. (horde vs alliance, server vs server) You didnt have to participate if you didnt want to. Granted the turn in's did give level appropriate loot. Once the event was over, it was gone n done for, the npc's left, and everyone from then on was able to go to the new areas.

This looks alot like what the dev's are intending to do. But instead of asking us to go into some wilderness area and farm a beejesus amount of collectables. We get to collect them in quest material that we already run anyway. You can choose to run it a little more and put foward more of an effort towards unlocking the new material faster (and first if you're lucky), or you can choose to wait it out and let everyone do the work for you.

Personally I wouldve enjoyed a few extra quests as a flagging mechanism, but a preraid or two is not going to establish any sense of community among the servers.

(PS. hey devs, if you're reading this, how about adding in a quest reward for every set of collectables, dq/titan/velah/shroud turn in gets you a reward list at chest lvl 20 or something)

[captain1z]

The Good: Another live event, more info on the new mod aside from "monks are here!!!", 2 new raids, 4 new creatures (1 is a new skin), quivers, crafting

The Bad: My characters will be capped going into the mod and will lose all benefits of 1st, 2nd, 3rd time xp bonus


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That said, Im really gunna work on 1750 so I can rebuild my main.

"Nothing" says Dungeons & Dragons like monster infested tunnels under the city does

We need a teleport option to meridia, because when I click join to get one of those covetted spots in shroud runs, Im not always in Meridia. Which means I need to either run to Meridia and then join, hoping a spot is still available or slash death, because you cant enter the vale when in a raid group and a group cannot be turned into a raid when a party member is in a quest or explorer area.

The issue of a teleporter to meridia is not an issue of technology and is starting to look more like to men in a staring contest...... each waiting for the other to blink first.

The new live event gives the community both focus and purpose..... I will be helping with Velah, Titan, Reaver and Shroud. I will also be attempting to flag for litany parts 1 and 2 and maybe even do my 1st queen run.

[Helmet]

The Abbot had decided that he's too busy trying to become a God, and has no time to give out keys. Players will not need to play that raid during the event. He's counting on the player's distraction.

why not just fix the abbot?

[Muirtach]

....
So, and I think this is a reasonable question, where is the Storyline Continuity? What I am reading is that Velah, DQ,
Titan, Reaver and Shroud will all need to be run/farmed for "keys" (components). I don't care about that specifically - we
run those quests into the ground weekly.

The shroud actually combined all the previous raid storyline together. It was mentioned earlier how others have died together more directly, but in the Vale former warriors of the Demon Queen, from the restless isles and recruits of the Stormreaver's army are all being drawn together to the alignment of the moons. The Abbot's attempt at godhood has set what had been many cycles of Lamiat's dominance over the shroud out of whack. Sensing that Shavarath attempted to gain control of the Shroud and direct the dominance to their plane in an effort to gain control of Eberron. With the defeat of Shavarath in the Shroud they struck at Stormreach directly during the anniversary event. Since then the Twelve has been working to hold back future assaults.

Now it seems they will need objects of great power to turn the tide and let us start to strike back. Asking the warriors of Stormreach to pool their artifacts together for that power seems reasonable. You could even hypothesize that the things they need are objects that you have held as souvenirs as opposed to objects you need to retrieve. Obviously a bit of leniency for temporal issues which MMOs have.

[MysticTheurge]

The Bad: My characters will be capped going into the mod and will lose all benefits of 1st, 2nd, 3rd time xp bonus.

It's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that your quest counter for the purposes of XP loss does not increase while you're capped.

You lose out on the first-time bonus*, but you do not continue to get penalties for the 2nd, 3rd, etc. times that you do it.

Once the cap goes up, the first time you do the quest you will get full (but not first-time-bonus*) XP.



*Unless they've actually finally fixed that too and made it so that you get your first time bonus any time you've only repeated a quest 0 times.

[Cowdenicus]

So no new spells, or enhancements for clerics (like improved metamagics).

Is there anything for me to look forward to with this mod, or should I take the summer off from the game?

[Aesop]

So no new spells, or enhancements for clerics (like improved metamagics).

Is there anything for me to look forward to with this mod, or should I take the summer off from the game?

I'd say mess around with the mod before you make that decision Cow. Even though you might be disappointed that the stuff you'd been hoping for isn't here doesn't mean that the content is a waste... just different from what you really wanted.

sorta like getting a big mac when you wanted a double whopper... major difference ... but sometimes its ok

Aesop

[captain1z]

It's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that your quest counter for the purposes of XP loss does not increase while you're capped.

You lose out on the first-time bonus*, but you do not continue to get penalties for the 2nd, 3rd, etc. times that you do it.

Once the cap goes up, the first time you do the quest you will get full (but not first-time-bonus*) XP.



*Unless they've actually finally fixed that too and made it so that you get your first time bonus any time you've only repeated a quest 0 times.

Didnt know that. That changes things a bit................ lose the 1st timer but I can live with that. Thnx for the info.