Update 24: Hall of Heroes

[Syrrah]

However, behind-the-scenes things have prevented us from adding something like this to the Hall of Heroes, as much as we'd like to. It's not something we can add for U24, but we'll be looking into it for the future, as it's something we know players want.

To bad for whatever suit made up that rule, I am a legal man myself ...I assume that it is contractually disallowed to create another ways of traveling between the realms than those agreed at the time of update 14.But ... it would not be necessary to create a new way ...The Eberron Hall Of heroes could contain a portal to the breach inside the harbor cavern. Vice versa, the Forgotten Realms Hall could contain a portal to the breach inside the Eveningstar cavern.This portal would not be a "teleport" portal like found in many quests but a literal gateway in place and time. So a player could walk through it without having to load a new area. From a programming point of view, the portal and breach in the Hall together would act like a "copy" of the Eveningstar/harbor breach, but it is not actually a copy: from a lore point of view it is the very same breach - as the portal right before the breach is a gateway to transport the player.Not following me? Compare it to the game Portal, where blue and orange portals could be created by the player to act as gateway. The breach in the Eveningstar cavern could be compared to spot X that the player has to get to to finish the level in Portal - reach X to move on to the next part of the game, with a loading screen.So: the player's goal is to reach spot X. There are 2 ways to get there: either walk a crapload of stairs. This would correspond to walking from the Hall of Heroes or anywhere else in the game to the breach inside for example the Eveningstar cavern.The second way would be to create a blue portal on the wall right next to where you stand and create an orange portal at spot X. Through the blue portal you can see X and you can walk through it without pause or discomfort, ready to finish the level right away.The same can be applied in DDO: a portal in the Hall Of Heroes ("blue portal") connecting to a portal right in front of the breach ("orange portal").Result: In the Halls, the adventurer could see the corresponding breach with some lightshow around it to illustrate the presence of the portal (something artificer-y in Eberron and some magic effect in FR). Using it would result in using the breach in the harbor and Eveningstar without pause or discomfort.Add some extra teleport locations to the breach itself and voil?*, lots of peeps happy.

[Syrrah]

OK, the above wall of text was not done on purpose. I did include lots of small paragraphs and a nice lay-out for easy reading. And the forum just ate all that formatting and transfered it into a monstrosity?

[JOTMON]

This is easily the most requested feature for the Hall; your feedback is heard loud and clear. However, behind-the-scenes things have prevented us from adding something like this to the Hall of Heroes, as much as we'd like to. It's not something we can add for U24, but we'll be looking into it for the future, as it's something we know players want.

The purpose was to be sort of a 'hub' space, making getting around easier. In its current incarnation, it has the opposite effect; that's part of why we've moved things around and added a lot more accessibility to things (Airship/Stormreach Teleporter options in Eberron, teleport destinations in the Forgotten Realms) for U24.

Is this not something the Amarath planescaller could be used to bypass.
The planescaller is all about transporting between different realms.


All in All The Hall of Heroes is an interesting walkthrough, but at the end of the day we want a quick and efficient means of transportation between the realms.. so..
Ensure the portal doors are as close as possible to each other.
Keep access to vendors and other NPC's and such near the path of travel between these doors.

We do appreciate any and all improvements to the Hall of Heroes.

[neain2008]

I do like that the hall of heroes has had an update, sadly we cannot get the easy transport from FR to Eberon and back.

I think it would be a decent area to relocate the guild vendors to. Maybe not get rid of them in house K (mainly because that would leave a large blank spot) but have them near the airship dock in the hall. this would do two separate things 1. give us an area that could be linked with the guilds a little more, (perhaps even add/move the airship purchasing place to the hall. and 2. let all us selfish guilds have a airship dock even closer to the vendors that we visit at least once a life usualy. and unless I am missing some lore somewhere (either written in ddo, or just FR lore) there is no actual reason for the guild vendors in house K.

but thats my 2 copper pieces.

[MangLord]

If for legal reasons we can't have a direct teleport to FR, I'd say the best way to utilize the space for people who put money into the Hall of Heroes would probably be some sort of unique buffs, perhaps some simple minigames with a leaderboard and small prizes, or vendors selling unique items. Clearly, people will go to great lengths to add stacking +1 to damage, saves, or their primary stat, so it should be well received. One stop shopping for common items wouldn't be enough to justify the price for people who dumped TP into buying the Hall.

I liked the idea that someone put forth about clicking the statues for a randomized daily buff. I'd visit the hall every day for a stacking +5 HP, +1 to spell DCs, or a free righteous weapons buff for the day.

As it is right now, the Hall doesn't really serve much of a function outside of a place to go when you're ready to reincarnate. If I need to get to FR, I'll either use my key (how exactly is this good lore, as opposed to simple teleportation?) or the Harbor rift. Personally, the only time I ever set foot in the HoH is when I'm ready to reincarnate.

[SealedInSong]

You guys just keep killing what little immersion there is destroying game lore bit by bit

Pardon me, but if you look at my character compendium link, I'm all about flavor/lore/immersion.

That doesn't mean the hall shouldn't be functional, and right now, I hate it and never use it.

I'd compare it to Misery's Peak or Coalescence Chamber; it doesn't make me feel immersed, it makes me angry that the game designed didn't realize how onerous and uncool the architecture of the space is.

***I would use the hall if***
it were about as small and functional as the Portable Hole, with maximum 10s of running to get where I need to go.
Any amenities after that is just gravy.

To be charitable, the hall looks neat. I just never see it because it's a waste of my time.

[Captain_Pengie]

This is easily the most requested feature for the Hall; your feedback is heard loud and clear. However, behind-the-scenes things have prevented us from adding something like this to the Hall of Heroes, as much as we'd like to. It's not something we can add for U24, but we'll be looking into it for the future, as it's something we know players want.

Good to know that you have heard our cries which have been going since the first day it went into test, pity nothing significant has happened as yet. While we can understand that there may be technical difficulties, I (and I am sure others) wonder just how hard these are to overcome given that the mechanic already exists via the 'Key to the City' which allows transport from EB to FR. Surely translating this to a two-way realm teleport cannot be that much of an extension? It only adds to the conspiracy theory that it is being held back until you have squeezed out as many sales of the 'Hall of Heroes Passport' as possible. Why not make purchase of this Store feature (or its granting via VIP status) allow access to use the realm transporter instead - i.e. if you are not a VIP, do not have the Key or have not purchased Hall Passport then the realm teleport cannot be used. This gives us the transport access we want while still allowing you to gain the potential sales needed to keep the game funded.

Ideally there should really only be ONE hall with all of the inward access points leading to the same one and it is on leaving that you get the option to choose Eveningstar as just one of the many places that you can exit the hall - this is certainly how I imagined it when it was first advertised and a much more sensible way of implementing the concept than the current dual locations which do nothing.

Stuff in bold has been added in U24

A good start but more needed. To meet its purpose (i.e. a hub space) it needs to be a one stop shop - all vendors, all trainers, all facilities and access to all other locations. You also need to get rid of all the silly running about by logically placing things next to each other. A good example is in the current incarnation you have removed the mailbox from the western end of the EB Hall but left the Auctioneer in place - anyone using that Auctioneer has to either exit the hall or run all the way to the other end to get their purchase. Either replace the mailbox or get rid of the auctioneer - the two should always be right next to each other.

At present the reality is that there is no reason to ever go to the western end of the Hall and it could just be deleted. Best thing would to get rid of all access points down that end so that transport in/out of the hall always occurs at the eastern end where the vendors are located (same goes for FR Hall). The Western end can then be turned into the statue viewing gallery that some have requested.

BTW: Small bug/note on the new airship transport. When you teleport into the hall you get the "Twelve" loading screen instead of the Hall screen and you appear at the useless western end of the hall - this should be changed to have you appear at the useful eastern end at the airship door as per normal airship exit procedure. Also when you teleport off the airship to Three Barrel Cove (big thanks for adding that one - as per below this should be extended to all zones) you get the "Restless Isle" loading screen instead of TBC.

The purpose was to be sort of a 'hub' space, making getting around easier. In its current incarnation, it has the opposite effect; that's part of why we've moved things around and added a lot more accessibility to things (Airship/Stormreach Teleporter options in Eberron, teleport destinations in the Forgotten Realms) for U24.

More than a year ago I posted this about the need for better transport facilities:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-arches-needed

Now some of this has become dated by the excellent changes made to airships (love the new facilities, except Thad's - brokers will not buy all gear and no Jewelry broker is disappointing), but the basic premise still stands. We don't want to be wasting time running about or going through multiple loading screens just to get from A to B. Every zone acts as a locus for dungeons and we want to be able to jump in out of these zones quickly and easily so that the focus of the game is dungeon delving, not watching loading screens. IQ and Cannith need an Airship door, the Marketplace needs a teleport arch, anywhere that you can get to via airship or teleport you should also be able to get out of the same way (e.g. flying up to the top of Reavers Reach was fun the first time but now it is just annoying - add in teleport/airship facilities please). Moving about should not be hampered by excess zoning, running or just plain silly stuff.

Now it is understandable that you don't want people just flitting about from dungeon to dungeon like mayflies and never getting involved with each other as that kills off the community aspect of the game, but hampering transport mechanisms is not the way to get people to interact constructively - it just makes us gripe about the **** loading times and memory leak. One of the best community areas I've ever seen is the square outside the Prancing Pony in LOTRO's version of Bree. People meet here to talk, plan activities or just listen to the music (LOTRO's ability for characters to play instruments - priceless stuff). You need a central place like this which is away from the lag of the harbour and marketplace but still has all of the facilities to allow players to conduct business while talking to others. The Hall is a good concept for this but, as you admit, still falls far short of the target. Get all of the vendors and trainers added, make transport trouble free and wide reaching and give folks something new to look at (e.g. 'player hero' statues/paintings that change every month as a style of leaderboard) and you will be taking a bigger step in the right direction.

Keep up the good work - just take it a bit further and think out placement a bit better and the Hall might actually start to lose its 'waste of space' status.

[Galeria]

Agree with the others. One Hall of Heroes. Go in Eberron, come out Forgotten Realms. That's all we wanted.

Think of the land of pools in Narnia's The Magician's Nephew. One space with pools that access different worlds. Not a space in each world that only lets you travel in that world. I do not understand unique Halls of Heroes that just have football fields of space and a few amenities,

The concept seems obvious, but apparently it wasn't.

[phillymiket]

Hey Steelstar,

just am eTRing and 1st chance to check out the new Hall of Heroes.

Nice!

Suggestion:

Who are these people?

You have little plaques by the statues but you can't click on them to read of their heroics.

How about adding some lore to tell us that the Warforged with the spear over his shoulder is General Wyber842 who led the assault of the bla, bla, bla...

But it looks nice ;-)

[Vanhooger]

Even with recent changes, I still have to say that Hall of Heroes is useless. The only thing it's supposed to be,fast travel between eberron and evening, is not there yet, for unknown reason.

[JOTMON]

You guys just keep killing what little immersion there is destroying game lore bit by bit

What like no Warforged/Bladeforged in Forgotten Realms?
Haven't seen goblins anywhere in Forgotten Realms.
Racial classes like..Gnomes, Tieflings, High elves, moon elves, dragonborn,...


Bridging Realms isn't an easy task, I am sure they need to work within the rules as laid down by WOC.

and... There's still a lot of work still to be done for FR content.

[VorpalKnight]

It would be cool if the Hall had (Insert Cool Thing Here)!



My suggestion would be punching meat bags, similar to those kobolds in the test dojo.

[BOgre]

It would be cool if the Hall had (Insert Cool Thing Here)!



My suggestion would be punching meat bags, similar to those kobolds in the test dojo.

That's an awesome idea. Let's take it a step further: With the decay and trouble in the Realms, the Hall's been overrun with randomly spawning mobs (champions 'n all). Throw in a Velah or a Sorjek now and again too! Now THAT would be an intersting Hall.