Update 18 is now available on Lamannia!

[YoureDown]

So Update 18 is 2 quests? 0 Wilderness Areas.

Feather mentioned that Skill augments are coming... are those in U18?
Is U18 really 2 quests with all the problems that others have cited and a change to Minos Legens and Crucible?


Can you see why we would perceive that as incredibly weak?

If I remember correctly its 3 with horrid XP and some really bad loot.

Though we have to remember its still in testing, so at least Turbine have a last chance to fix this up before it goes live.

[~Teenah]

If I remember correctly its 3 with horrid XP and some really bad loot.

Read Squeak's post above... The 3rd quest is only available by preordering the expansion pack... So, It's part of the expansion pack you can get early, and not part of Update 18.

[YoureDown]

Read Squeak's post above... The 3rd quest is only available by preordering the expansion pack... So, It's part of the expansion pack you can get early, and not part of Update 18.

Well then, my guildies will be happy to know that, atm no one on my guild is buying this with the current info. way to ruin a perfectly good opportunity to expand the game.

I've pre-ordered the MOTU collectors edition, yes the overpriced 80$ one cause I saw it would be awesome, but this... at this rate im not buying it even with turbine points when it comes out in the DDO store.

[~NiborRis]

Why aren't their community people Hyping up the expansion (and game in general). Why haven't we seen teaser articles on the various MMO sites, Dev diaries, videos... there is so much the DDO team could be doing, but either won't or can't. I just don't get it.

At this point I'm coming to the conclusion that it's because just about everything that was mentioned in the announcement in Feb has major implementation questions surrounding it, and based on what we've seen with this update, they haven't resolved any of it.

1) Level cap to 28 - what's that good for? Getting another stat point, a feat, and letting random gen loot get more powerful (+138 spellpower gear, for example). Where is the XP coming from to level to 28 without creating crippling XP repeat penalties? What about new epic feats, now that we're taking 3 of them? How will this interact with Epic Destinies, or are they being left behind as a forgotten feature that everyone paid for?

2) Epic TR, new "completionist" track - um. We don't even have enough information to begin speculation, I think. But this could go horribly, horribly wrong. Reset your epic destinies? Reset from 28 to 20? Reset from 28 to 1 with no epic destinies? What does it take to qualify for the "2 build points" - that suggests that you'll have to go back to lvl 1 at some point, as well. How does it interact with more EDs being introduced in the future? ARE more EDs going to be introduced in the future?

3) Level 15 quests in FR, and no way to get there.

4) Iconic Heroes - a way to get to FR at lvl 15, but not with any character you're currently playing. Pre-set cookie-cutters that start at lvl 15, with slightly more power than a basic new character. Why does someone who already has a lvl 20 character want these? No idea yet. How does this solve the problem of TRs not being able to run lvl 15 FR quests until after they run lvl 16 flagging quests? It doesn't. What is the purpose here? We don't know yet.

5) Enhancement rewrite - there's a whole forum based on the challenges they face here. Honestly they've put a lot of work here; it's not ready yet but they've made good progress IMHO.

So, basically the announcement left me with a ton of questions on how they would make things work well. It's been - what, 10 weeks? And still no answers. What if they don't have them?

[YoureDown]

At this point I'm coming to the conclusion that it's because just about everything that was mentioned in the announcement in Feb has major implementation questions surrounding it, and based on what we've seen with this update, they haven't resolved any of it.

1) Level cap to 28 - what's that good for? Getting another stat point, a feat, and letting random gen loot get more powerful (+138 spellpower gear, for example). Where is the XP coming from to level to 28 without creating crippling XP repeat penalties? What about new epic feats, now that we're taking 3 of them? How will this interact with Epic Destinies, or are they being left behind as a forgotten feature that everyone paid for?

2) Epic TR, new "completionist" track - um. We don't even have enough information to begin speculation, I think. But this could go horribly, horribly wrong. Reset your epic destinies? Reset from 28 to 20? Reset from 28 to 1 with no epic destinies? What does it take to qualify for the "2 build points" - that suggests that you'll have to go back to lvl 1 at some point, as well. How does it interact with more EDs being introduced in the future? ARE more EDs going to be introduced in the future?

3) Level 15 quests in FR, and no way to get there.

4) Iconic Heroes - a way to get to FR at lvl 15, but not with any character you're currently playing. Pre-set cookie-cutters that start at lvl 15, with slightly more power than a basic new character. Why does someone who already has a lvl 20 character want these? No idea yet. How does this solve the problem of TRs not being able to run lvl 15 FR quests until after they run lvl 16 flagging quests? It doesn't. What is the purpose here? We don't know yet.

5) Enhancement rewrite - there's a whole forum based on the challenges they face here. Honestly they've put a lot of work here; it's not ready yet but they've made good progress IMHO.

So, basically the announcement left me with a ton of questions on how they would make things work well. It's been - what, 10 weeks? And still no answers. What if they don't have them?

As I see it, the dev team is biting off more than they can chew. They are working on lots of things, which makes them completely forget bug fixing (I've submitted so many bugs in the live version, none were fixed or even adressed), ticket handling (so apparently I will never get my 1.5k TP im missing from VIP...) and making quality content within reasonable time and budget. Anyone else is seeing symptoms of a dieing company / game?

[Cauthey_No_CCInfo]

The final Update 18 quest: Shadow of a Doubt, will only be available if you preorder the Shadowfell Conspiracy expansion pack. Unfortunately, neither the preorder nor guest passes are available on Lamannia at this time.

Expansion pack?

When does this launch? How much does it cost? What sort of package am I going to get?

What's this Shadow of a Doubt quest?

Sorry. Info has been very difficult to find on these new and improved forums.

[Deadlock]

So Update 18 is 2 quests? 0 Wilderness Areas.

Feather mentioned that Skill augments are coming... are those in U18?
Is U18 really 2 quests with all the problems that others have cited and a change to Minos Legens and Crucible?


Can you see why we would perceive that as incredibly weak?

We've been asking for however long that they take a break from adding stuff and fix stuff instead.

If U18 is a teaser for the expansion, but is focussed primarly on these much talked about quality-of-life-fixes, then I'll be the first to applaud them.

If U19 is no additional content and just bug fixes and quality-of-life stuff then I'll stand up and applaud them again.

As much as it's nice to add new stuff, it would be greatly appreciated by a lot of the long-time players to see a number of the minor and non-game-breaking stuff fixed. Otherwise we just get more new stuff with more bugs. So I won't be crying Doom at an update that isn't packed full of new stuff. Give us more quality-of-life stuff and I'll happily chill out until the big expansion hits.

[~mynameisnotallowed]

The final Update 18 quest: Shadow of a Doubt, will only be available if you preorder the Shadowfell Conspiracy expansion pack. Unfortunately, neither the preorder nor guest passes are available on Lamannia at this time.

it will be a cold day in shavarath before I "preorder" ANYTHING from your company again.

The game is STILL riddled with bugs form the prior "expansion" that have yet to be fixed.

Not to mention the "preorder" I supposedly made for MOTU was advertised as (now of course deleted) including a complete, finished enhancement system with all PRES completed and TWO raids.

[~TuskCouncil]

That 10% chance of getting blinded for 1 second whenever you get hit sounds incredibly annoying. Having my screen go in and out of blackness constantly would drive me mad. Definitely a pass on any character that wades into the thick of things.

At the very least should be 5%--they're blinded when you vorp them and you're blinded when they vorp you. Fair's fair.

In a game where visibility and mobility are some of the highest commodities, going blind in 1/10 hits for a full second sounds like a very poor situation to put one's self in. Just look at Glitterdust.

That said, I think the theme of the item is cool. It'd be nice if the devs introduced fewer new effects and focused on fixing some broken preexisting mechanics; but whom are we kidding? They 'fixed' the forums to be cruddy, and so on...

[YoureDown]

At the very least should be 5%--they're blinded when you vorp them and you're blinded when they vorp you. Fair's fair.

In a game where visibility and mobility are some of the highest commodities, going blind in 1/10 hits for a full second sounds like a very poor situation to put one's self in. Just look at Glitterdust.

That said, I think the theme of the item is cool. It'd be nice if the devs introduced fewer new effects and focused on fixing some broken preexisting mechanics; but whom are we kidding? They 'fixed' the forums to be cruddy, and so on...

From what I'm seeing with the new loot and quests this will become the new chain that everyone ignores, just like most people dont even run like sorrowdusk or restless isles.

[~KrelarVersion2]

From what I'm seeing with the new loot and quests this will become the new chain that everyone ignores, just like most people dont even run like sorrowdusk or restless isles.

No problem! They'll just make you run the entire chain every time you want to leave eveningstar to do the expansion stuff!

[~NiborRis]

2) Epic TR, new "completionist" track - um. We don't even have enough information to begin speculation, I think. But this could go horribly, horribly wrong. Reset your epic destinies? Reset from 28 to 20? Reset from 28 to 1 with no epic destinies? What does it take to qualify for the "2 build points" - that suggests that you'll have to go back to lvl 1 at some point, as well. How does it interact with more EDs being introduced in the future? ARE more EDs going to be introduced in the future?

I decided what I hope that Epic TR is. TR from level cap - lvl 28 when it rolls out - back to lvl 1. Get an "Epic Past Life" feat for the class, exactly like you would a Past Life feat. Once you have all of them, you get Epic Completionist, which should be something like a second completionist feat, only without taking up a second feat slot - perhaps you can only take Completionist or Epic, and the Epic version is 2x (or some such improvement).
There's a bunch of details that can work out; are there Epic purchased past life feats, too? Do the Epic past lives stack 1x or 3x; do they stack on top of the heroic PLs or replace them? Would the epic XP requirements increase like the Heroic XP does (please no; not enough quests IMHO)? What will the cost be for Epic TR (Epic True Heart of Wood?) - Tokens of the Twelve? Gianthold relics? Heroic Commendations? Commendations would probably make the most sense, but that requires raiding, where for Heroic TR you did not need to raid, and the tokens are BtA, not BtC. Relics has the drawback of only appearing in Gianthold. Tokens appear in a lot of places and you might gather them as you're leveling from 20-28 anyway, so that would be nice. And of course, the Epic PLs need to be worth it, yet will they become mandatory for being EE capable?
Anyway, that'd be a good start for Epic TR. It would re-start the TR train for people, it would provide incentive for people running lvl 20-28 content on TRs, bringing a lot more of that content back into popularity. It would be VERY VERY nice if they could address the repeat counter issue for quests on both Heroic and Epic. Still a lot of questions to be answered, though, and who knows what they actually have in mind.

[YoureDown]

No problem! They'll just make you run the entire chain every time you want to leave eveningstar to do the expansion stuff!

[~Teho]

So Update 18 is 2 quests? 0 Wilderness Areas.

Feather mentioned that Skill augments are coming... are those in U18?
Is U18 really 2 quests with all the problems that others have cited and a change to Minos Legens and Crucible?


Can you see why we would perceive that as incredibly weak?

I guess that's what you can expect from a f2p update to the game? As such, the lvl 15 quests sort of make sense, but they should be accessible from Eberron side too. Or is this really going to be a pack we have to buy?

[FalseFlag]

So far, I am utterly unimpressed with U18, all of the current design decisions, and the emphasis on the Forgotten Realms in a game that is supposed to be set in Eberron. If U18, the Realms focus, and the poor Iconics idea are signs of things to come, it's a really safe bet I won't be ordering the new expansion. Largely because I don't want to encourage more boring Realms content (and make no mistake - it's all pretty boring thus far).

I will admit, however, that I am quite eager to see what gets nerfed in these next two updates in order to facilitate the telling of the devs' stories (i.e., immunity changes, FoM changes, etc, all the bad decision made in the last year or two). I"m guessing Blindness Resistance, Death Resistance (instead of death block/ward), and such.

I'm pretty disappointed in this dev team and the new goals of the game.

[lostgunman]

Had a big update this morning...haven't played lamma in a couple days...but wow...lot more than expected. I was playing the new quests...so I had the update 18 stuff...

[FrostBeard]

To make us play the new Forgotten Realms all they have to do is put in an option to auto level to 15 and start in Eveningstar

Done, no more Ebberon Setting - unless you want gear ("gianthold")

[whiteline]

Wish I could try out the new Quest but when I log-on it say's non vip
and wouldn't let me in

Today's Update brings new fun things to Lamannia! Along with the U18 Quests (Disciples of Shar, Escape Plan, and Shadow of a Doubt), you can now create a Bladeforged Iconic Character! When you check out the new quests and Bladeforged Iconic, don't forget to fill out a Survey!

The New Enhancements are no longer available: the current Live version of Enhancements are back in place. Because this transition causes issues, we have wiped all Characters from Lamannia. Please keep an eye out for any irregularities that could be caused by adjustments made for the New Enhancement system. While we know of two issues (Some tool-tips are incorrect and some New Enhancements are automatically granted along with any Enhancements you choose) please bug any issues you notice!

Also, Character Copy is available again. Remember that you must first be logged into the forums to be able to transfer your characters!

We will have a Loot Event tonight (Monday) from 7pm to 9pm EST (GMT -4)

Smiles,
Squeak

[BruceTheHoon]

To make us play the new Forgotten Realms all they have to do is put in an option to auto level to 15 and start in Eveningstar

Done, no more Ebberon Setting - unless you want gear ("gianthold")

There's also a small matter of abysmally poor XP from sub level 20 quests in Eveningstar.

[scartissue13]

as of right now at 2:40 am central time character copy is unavailable. it says page not found.

also the login screen is badly glitched. settings shows only 1 to 2 actual box descritors the rest are blank with a box you can check without knowing what you are clciking to do.