Mines of Tethyamar Feedback Survey

[Wanatuc]

OK did the last two quest on HE

1 The difficulty and enemies felt about right

2. Both quest seemed straightforward in there approach

3. Npc was good

4. 30 mins for 4 and 40 mins for 5

5. last quest was maybe just a little bit better then some in the past

6. Liked the way the last quest took u from one place to next.
Hope we get to see the demon again after Ravenloft
ONE BIG NOTE the End rewards for doing it on Heroic were all level 30 might need to check that

[John3000]

Q: How did the difficulty of the quests and enemies feel?

A: Seems fine.
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Q: Did you ever find yourself confused about what to do next?

A: No, all runs went pretty smoothly.
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Q: Did you feel like the number of NPC's present to speak to was too little, too much, or about right?

A: Seems right.
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Q: What were the completion times for each dungeon you completed?

A :Average time completion vs other quests.

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Q: Without taking into account XP (which has not yet been set) how do you feel these quests compared to other recent quests from the past year?

A: Loved "Strike Back"... it had an interesting plot + approach. Not sure what that mirror lady form Grazzt's "over confident' buff/debuff was about however.
Loved the many ways you can penetrate the forteress + back door entrance + end fight. That wizard's pet "phase spider" was a very nice touch... love the dissapear / reappear behind you effect... but you guys should make it a red named and much tougher to defeat. Move some exclusive loot into it's chest (the wizard's secret stash guarded by his special pet) and make it a tough challenge - litter the room with the bones of the victims that his master feeds him.

The other three quests didn't stand out all that much, but perhaps because they are not yet finished.

Desire in the dark was nice : intro to Graz'zt / mind control-illusions-plot twists/ shape shifting nice. Nice prelude to future Legendary packs + sentient weapons/items (update 37/38?)

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Q: Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically?

A: Bug ? The quests seem to be missing from the adventure compendum + missing a favor patron ? I'm guessing PDK or Gatekeeper ? By the way, is there any chance we can get the missing PDK and Gatekeeper favor rewards in this update ? It-s been a few years that those top tier favor rewards have been empty :-( ...

The story arc's end chain rewards are missing a Guild Renown Reward + Commendations + would be nice to have at least a chance of getting quest named items or 1 guaranteed Masterful craftmanship item (as the other rewards items are just random low level 29/30 trash loot).

[Claver]

Quest Feedback RECORDS OF THE PAST

Executive Summary: A very good quest that i could see myself running repeatedly while leveling different characters

[*]How did the difficulty of the quests and enemies feel?

A Little easier than on live. I ran Heroic Elite using a level 16 Battle Engineer (Bastard Sword)....The named spider minion in the summoning circle and his master end boss were a bit too easy and should be adjusted upwards...The Thundershock Weapon attack knocked down the end boss...I'm not sure that should happen.

After the quest was completed I noticed there were monsters in the back corners of the buildings...were these supposed to come join the fight? The spider never left its summoning circle...It would be cool if the summoning circle buffed the spider to require some situational awareness with pulling the monster to other parts of the battle.. The difficulty of the end fight needs to be increased

The optional undead with the Battle Horrors was a good challenge, the traps in the secret room tickled as did the fire elementals. I appreciated the variety of monsters

[*]Did you ever find yourself confused about what to do next?

Not at all

I found the mirror puzzles to be intuitive and easy to spot on top of the buildings...as was the ladder in the back...The floor puzzle was just big enough to require me to think but easy to solve.

I got excited when I saw the shaft of light streaming from the ceiling near the mirror. At first, I thought the mirror puzzles would use natural light in a vertical orientation rather than horizontal....that would be an excellent twist on this type of puzzle if the technology can work vertically as well as horizontally.

I really liked that the dungeon allowed me to explore in different directions instead of funneling me down a single path and yet I never felt lost or overwhelmed.

[*]Did you feel like the number of NPC's present to speak to was too little, too much, or about right?

Just right...the optional mining records do a good job helping tell the story

[*]What were the completion times for each dungeon you completed?

About 40 minutes. I was on a time crunch and would have liked to do a little more flower sniffing. I found a few optionals and sense there was more to see if had more time to explore. I like that some of the doors in the buildings actually open to rooms

[*]Without taking into account XP (which has not yet been set) how do you feel these quests compared to other recent quests from the past year?

Good variety and well spaced monsters. Visually refreshing, elements of thunderholme may have been reused but the look is still new and different enough from recent quests

[*]Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically?

1. The high cavern ceiling at the end fight was cool and gave the dungeon some great ambiance.

2. I enjoyed running a quest with a higher ceiling that didn't feel so claustrophobic everywhere

3. I do wish we could have jumped on the roofs of more of the buildings to find collectibles, lore items and maybe even a monster or some loot

4. I love that you have traps and secret doors...more of this please

[Claver]

Quest Feedback THIRD TIMES THE CHARM

Executive Summary: A didn't care for this quest in its present form...

[*]How did the difficulty of the quests and enemies feel?

Way too easy..especially when compared to the the Search and Rescue optional. I ran on Epic Normal using level 30 blade forged paladin

The drow are in desperate need of some spell casters to up the difficulty...and some variety of spiders and driders to break up the monotony.

Here are some suggestions to make some of the encounters more challenging and more memorable

(A) Named Drow Priestess.....She is presently in a room by herself...let her summon 4 extra high CR spiders who always appear as Tier III champions. Use unusual spiders such as Spider Soul, Pyrachnid or Demonweb Terror when she is at 75% health, 50% health and 25% health

(B) Jailer End Boss.....why does he have an Ogre fighting for him so deep in the under dark. I could see a named troll but ogres feel out of place so deep underground.....Animated Armor would make more sense than an ogre....The jailer bugged out for 3 minutes before he came off his perch...once he started fighting he was just a bag of hp with negligible damage...He needs an immobilizing special attack like paralyzing or hold person (He is a jailer after all).

In the interest of programming time, instead chain 6 dwarves to the wall. Let a rogue or artificer pick the locks on a dwarf chains but make that activity take an extra long time (like repairing a ballista in the quest Precious Cargo) but make that task interruptible...Let the Jailer sacrifice dwarves that are still chained to regain hit points (use the impossible demands technology)....A balanced party can make the end fight go easier by releasing dwarf prisoners while members occupy the boss

(C) Bridge Over Lava....this begs for a mechanic to toss the players into the lava. Put mine traps (that can be disabled) on the bridge and on the near side of the room that hurl players through the air (like beholder telekinesis or the air jet mines from Cry for Help)...players will have to swim through the lava and go back up the ramp while fending off attack....Or put a combined grease trap, dispel magic trap (to dispel freedom of movement) on the bridge and send a contingent of driver guards over the bridge (make these driders immune to slippery surfaces)

(D) I think there may have been a named drow captain of the guard who was a pushover in the room with a chest in the opposite direction from the Slaad ramp (search and rescue map). Give the drow captain fortification bypass and the critical lightning strike effect as though he were using the Thunderstrike rapier

[*]Did you ever find yourself confused about what to do next?

This is an extremely linear quest. There are implied branches underwater or in tunnels but they soon hit dead ends...there should be nasty traps for taking a wrong turn since a decent spot skill will tell you which way to go.

I was confused by what to do in the room with the lava falls, the button on the wall (that I couldn't activate) and the lever on the other side of the falls behind the fence where there are nonexistent dwarves supposedly trapped. I ended up jumping over, activating a switch and then getting a hire out of the DDO store who has DDOOR and going back to the beginning

[*]Did you feel like the number of NPC's present to speak to was too little, too much, or about right?

The players should heroically free the dwarves at the end, not some dwarf NPC who runs in like elminster to claim the credit after all the dirty work is done.

Also, why are we rescuing these dwarves agin? I get that dwarves = good; draw = bad...but what does this quest have to do with the bigger story of mining crystals other than it involves dwarves and drow?

[*]What were the completion times for each dungeon you completed?

30 minutes. The quest is a very linear path this will become a zerg speed run...slow us down with spell ward traps here and there

[*]Without taking into account XP (which has not yet been set) how do you feel these quests compared to other recent quests from the past year?

very monotonous. The obvious reuse of Search and Rescue map with minimal window dressing and an endless stream of the same draw fighters would make this a quest to avoid if it were released in its present state

[*]Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically?

1. I understand resources are limited and that dungeons need to be reused but try to be less blatant when copying. Mix an match where you can and invest in mirroring technology to make that ramp that goes down on the right side of the room go down on the left side in the copied version

2. You can stand on the lava falls without taking damage. When will SSG give us a reason to go lava diving. Put an easter egg or optional under a pool of molten lava to reward those willing to risk death for exploration

3. There are dozens of different spiders in DDO yet I only saw one type represented in the dungeon and no driders beyond the endboss

4. Drow seem the type to set traps...please add some to this quest

5. The water portion of the quest seemed familiar as well (was it copied from Druids Curse)...the water doesn't add that much to the quest..its a short swim. Next time, drain the water from druids curse and make those the tunnels players navigate by foot to give us something that looks fresh...and reverse the direction so we start from the opposite end as the original quest on live

[The_Human_Cypher]

Quest Feedback THIRD TIMES THE CHARM

The drow are in desperate need of some spell casters to up the difficulty...and some variety of spiders and driders to break up the monotony.

The obvious reuse of Search and Rescue map with minimal window dressing and an endless stream of the same drow fighters would make this a quest to avoid if it were released in its present state.

Agreed. Third Time's A Charm definitely needs different mobs for variety at the very least. The conspicuous reuse of the Search and Rescue map with identical opponents reduces the quest's appeal and replay value. Just adding different monsters would improve it significantly.

[karatemack]

With the U36 Preview we are introducing a new adventure pack containing five new quests that we would love for you to try out. If you do, we'd very much appreciate it if you would take some time to answer the following questions about your experience.

• How did the difficulty of the quests and enemies feel?

On normal the HP of the bosses felt too inflated. Hard was just right. Elite was perhaps on the weaker side.

• Did you ever find yourself confused about what to do next?

Not for longer than 15 seconds or so. This is a GOOD thing IMO. Also, it's only going to affect the first-time through unless someone pikes while other people open doors. Please leave the parts which force us to interact with the quest! (more of this)

• Did you feel like the number of NPC's present to speak to was too little, too much, or about right?

I would like to answer this two ways. Each encounter of mobs felt like an appropriate number of mobs, however there were large areas of some of the caverns which felt unoccupied (no collectibles, few mobs, etc.) So more mobs, but keep encounter sizes the same?

• What were the completion times for each dungeon you completed?

20 min/quest (but I ran solo and stopped to smell the flowers a few times)

• Without taking into account XP (which has not yet been set) how do you feel these quests compared to other recent quests from the past year?

I liked that each boss encounter had it's own "feel" to it. That said, the random spell wards and groups of mobs felt like most of the quests we have gotten over the last year and a half. Set up CC, crush group 1... move on to group 2.... repeat...

Also, I really enjoyed the "layout" of the boss encounter areas and the "feel" of the encounter. That said, please push these unique elements even further. The more each encounter feels unique and varied from the last, the more enjoyable it is. I, for one, really REALLY appreciate your attempts to make the mobs something other than just a sack of hit points to beat down. These quests aren't perfect representations of what I'd like in a boss encounter, but they are a huge leap in the right direction (same with slave lords final encounter). Please continue to challenge us in these ways!

• Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically?

A couple of the rooms felt like re-used artwork. (specifically the room with the ramp which had the pool of water underneath) Also, please release more cosmetics. Some of the drow caster armors look really cool and would be neat to have for our toons. The items were well-designed... not quite as good as slave lords but worth taking the time to acquire while you farm out mats. The level 15 items are also really fitting for a fresh iconic life. Overall this is a pack I would recommend.

[yk5]

Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically?

It was disappointing to see no use of Malchor's Undersun Goggles despite the drow/Underdark setting.

[Scuddy]

It was disappointing to see no use of Malchor's Undersun Goggles despite the drow/Underdark setting.

That item would have required the expansion to gain access to and I think they stated that they were avoiding that.

[Elfishski]

That item would have required the expansion to gain access to and I think they stated that they were avoiding that.

They could easily have had another NPC outside or in the quests give you another pair here if they wanted to have a really really dark section, maybe replacing a big chunk of Third Time's The Charm (say.... the bit that's most obviously cut and pasted from Search and Rescue) with a truly dark section. Like after you defeat the ambush and get around the corner, a drow yells out to "kill the lights, make the surface dweller's fall on their own swords in the dark!", and then you can be stuck fighting all the boring drow guards in the world and it would feel different at least. Have some optional where you can sneak around to kill the drow who turn the lights off with a big lever for people who get traumatised by the idea of swapping their carefully chosen goggle-gear for useless underdark goggles as well as for people who like optionals. Make all the drow you fight in this section be actually wearing underdark goggles.

That sounds like a good way for us to know we're in the underdark, have some different feeling encounters without much serious dev time, and add something new to a hopelessly unfinished and undistinguished quest that doesn't seem like it will be very interesting even when it is finished at the going rate.

[Morroiel]

From ToEE/Archons onwards we've had New Heroic Quests as significantly more difficult than older Heroic Quests of the same level - Newcomers {which I actually like but I will specify have only ever played on Heroic} is in my view the closest to its actual level of ANY new Heroic Quest since High Road/Storm Horns!

The reason for this is that the power creep that has been introduced to the game over the last several years has invalidated the old measure/scale of difficulty. Most players can reasonably expect to NEVER die in vale, gh, etc. (where they would in newer quests on the same difficulty setting) even on first life toons because the content was made in another time where you didn't have multiple prestige classes (enhancement trees), drastically overpowered dcs, epls, etc. etc.

The fact of the matter is reavers refuge, vale, etc. on elite back in the day gave most players a run for their money - it was challenging. The devs now have to ramp up the difficulty in newer quests to compensate for our op status.

So while you might not like the difficulty that heroic slavers, black and blue, creeping death, toee, etc. have added to spice up heroic leveling - there are a lot of people that do. It is a partial restoration of what "elite" was supposed to mean.

I absolutely love the above mentioned quests in their heroic form precisely because even on r1 they can provide moments of genuine danger.

However the above is simply an explanation for why your desired mode of design is not the one the devs are using. In truth, the heroic versions should be an afterthought in the design process -> I 100% agree with sam about designing for endgame; this is where the game is hurting the most and long term if it doesn't get fixed (either progressively update by update or in a hail mary attempt a la a big game changing expansion aka ravenloft) the game will never recover.

Cheers

[Elfishski]

One other thing with the undead dwarves quest I was thinking could be improved is the activation of the golem to break down the wall it felt too.... obvious. You pull the lever to activate and then talk to the golem and have exactly one plain option to do the obvious thing, which also implies the golem is completely psychic because the wall is ages away. It felt like there should be one more step there to make it feel like we solved a tiny puzzle.

Simplest: just make the dialogue choices more interesting, let the player ask it to do a couple of other things instead which it will then ignore.

Better: If you ask it to "break down that wall" it goes and attacks the nearest wall, achieving nothing in the process, DM voice notes that the wall is very solid here, or that the damaged golem doesn't seem capable of breaking through the solid ground, but might have more luck with a thinner wall. Instead you might have to ask it to follow you to where the other wall is, then ask it to "break down that wall" in order to progress. Wouldn't take a lot more time on repeat runs, would feel more immersive, and would be funny the first time you tried the quest.

[Claver]

Quest Feedback STRIKE BACK

Executive Summary: Outstanding Quest!!! (A+)...This has everything that makes DDO feel like D&D...Memorable visuals, multiple paths for success (frontal assault, sneak through tar, bluff your way through), an interesting end boss, a chance to use skills (diplomacy, bluff, etc.), optionals and an opportunity to feel heroic (rescue dwarves and rescue Sarah's husband)....well done! This should be the standard level of quality for the quest in the Ravenloft Expansion

[*]How did the difficulty of the quests and enemies feel?

I ran this on Epic Normal using a level 30 Bladeforged Paladin....It doesn't seem like I am taking enough damage compared to live...especially with the major encounters

(A) UMBERHULKS....There was a time when Umberhulks were to be feared. I don't know what happened but I was able to stand in a group of 9 and let them pound on my while I cleaved away. It used to be I had to draw Umberhulks away to fight a few at a time or face certain death. I think I was stunned for like 3 seconds on Lammania...I shouldn't have been able to move.....This encounter opens an optional path to victory that greatly reduces the length/challenge of the dungeon...The Umberhulk optional needs to be toughened up greatly so that there is a tradeoff in resources for choosing this path...ps. I enjoyed the DM text about the foot prints that hinted at the Zentarum

(B) SLAVEMASTER....Freeing the dwarf slaves is trivial...I was able to strike the Slave Master down in a few swings before the charmed dwarves could catch up to me on the ramp....The Slavemaster needs better defenses (how about spell wards on the ramp) so that there is a reason to use strategy to avoid putting the slaves at risk

(C) ENDBOSS....She felt like a bag of hit points. Her spells didn't seem to be doing much damage to me and when she healed herself her health bar didn't seem to move. I ignored her spiders and just beat on her. The spiders were not even an annoyance

Give us a reason to have to deal with the summoned spiders at the end fight. Make each spider add a stacking + 100 spell power and stacking +10 Spell Resistance to the End Boss (The longer the fight does the deadlier she becomes) and some DM Text about how her spiders fill her with the power of Lolth or make each spider add a stacking + 50 prr/mrr.....Either way, this will reward party play over solo play by bringing more DPS on the end boss or having more people to take out the trash spiders

[*]Did you ever find yourself confused about what to do next?

Not at all....The note from the Zentarum makes it clear what to do at the bridge as does all the dialogue instruction from Sarah the Slave; which, by the way is outstanding. I like that we have the option to speak with NPCs to gain knowledge of how to defeat our foes...I like even better that we get to use skill checks in dialogue such as diplomacy. This feels very pen and paper D&D.

I will say I didn't know that the slavemaster was at the top of the ramp at fist above where the dwarves are working. Since she has to be killed to rescue the dwarves without injuring them you may want to add some DM text to the effect "A slavemaster can be seen above watching over the work of the enslaved dwarves miners"

[*]Did you feel like the number of NPC's present to speak to was too little, too much, or about right?

This was perfect, from the Zentraum note, to the conversation with Sarah the slave, to the chance to use bluff on the bridge guard if you didn't have the Zentraum credentials, to the interaction with what I assume is a Succubus in disguise. A lot of the story/background is filled out from the conversation. It is much better to feed us the story in bite sized chunks through interaction throughout the quest then to hit us with a wall of exposition at the start of the story.

p.s. My paladin was given a dialogue option of "sensing evil" when I spoke to the lady in front of the mirror. Sadly, I chose and failed my dipole check but I am extremely happy to see a paladin skill (detect evil) represented this way

[*]What were the completion times for each dungeon you completed?

40 minutes. I was on a time crunch and didn't have an opportunity to sniff the flowers as I normally would do. I also got lucky with finding the Zentarum note and used bells of opening to unlock to doors to the end fight

I'm very concerned this quest is at risk of becoming a trivial 4 minute xp speed run which would be a shame after all the work to color in the margins with dialogue and multiple paths of entry

-Step 1...run to umber hulks, grab the note and ignore the umber hulks and keep running
-Step 2...run past dwarf slaves, activate bridge bell and run to priestess door that is flanked by the two waiting rooms. Open that door and ignore the drow and run deeper into the complex
-Step 3...Use a bell of opening on the door with acid pit, ignore the drow and run to the door into the endboss room.
-Step 4..Use a bell of opening on the endboss door, kill her for a quick 50k xp and then wash and reapeat every 5 minutes while filling an off destiny

SUGGESTION:

First, make one of the two locked doors require a key and be immune to bells/pick locks

Second, make the note from the Zentarum require a extremely high spot check (the umber hulks are no longer a challenge). You should reward diverse parties with characters with high spot skill since there are still multiple paths for entry (backdoor, bluff, frontal assault) for those lacking a high spot skill.

[*]Without taking into account XP (which has not yet been set) how do you feel these quests compared to other recent quests from the past year?

Excellent old school quest...best one since slavers

[*]Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically?

1. Excellent job with the visuals...Besides Search and Rescue it has been years since you have done anything with Drow. Because of this the look of the dungeon felt fresh and different from recent offerings. I suspect you cut and past elements from Beyond the Rift and House of Rusted Chains but if so, it was done in a way that was not obvious and looks and feels new.

2. The archer standing on the stones over the pool of acid by the big demon face looked awesome

3. Why the room of Ogres...they feel out of place in the Underdark...make these trolls instead

4. The red webs on the way to the end fight look awesome

5. I liked the feel of the web ramps in the end fight...although the end boss wasn't very mobile and didn't move around the platforms as nearly as much as she should.

6. I love that there is a tar room tunnel back door entrance (I poked around on a different character the first night of release)...There should be an optional xp bonus for going this way

7. The bridge needs to have spell ward traps if they are not there already (I talked my way in)

8. The fight on the other side of the bridge needs to be tougher on heroic (I ran around to explore the tar room and hardly took any damage from guards when I just ran back and forth in front of the main gate on a level 16 on heroic normal)

9. Please don't make the lighting any darker. I liked that I could see the beautiful cave for a change

10. RE: Public Zone....Thank you for showing a group of 4 female dwarf miners. Too often dwarves are shown as predominantly male. If Dwarf woman can slay dragons they can handle shoveling coal.

11. RE: Public Zone....There is a bridge over water in the public zone but nothing in the water...put some easter eggs in the nooks and crannies to give us a reason to explore

12. RE: Public Zone...Where is the mine? Is it directly under the Eveningstar town square? We have wagons to take us to distant quest entrances (High Road, Druids Curse)....We need something comporable for the mines....or a dialogue option to explain the entrance is hidden so the Dwarf will have to teleport us directly to the cave

13. RE: Changes to Battle Engineer....Artificer spells don't incur arcane spell failure while in heavy armor...Is this WAI?

[Cantor]

I have a question about loots. Since I have not yet seen an offical loot feedback thread I'll just drop that here.

Don't really wanna discuss the named items in here, I havent seen all of them yet rly.

Little reminder of how much players appreciated the slavers crafting, the ability to gather some mats, then upgrade items with them bit by bit, and also the ability to partially improve named items via set bonuses.

Keeping that in mind, since we are in an underdark themed questpack here:
The named weapons, rings, trinkets etc from the Drow Houses Quest Chain were a long time really liked, good/best in slot items. They are still very nice, but since the lootgen and cannith crafting revamp their stat range has become a bit weaksauce.

Would it maybe be possible to introduce some thematically fitting NPC to this new public area, who collects some kind of special thingies that drop in these new 5 quests' endchests relatively rarely (lets say a dwarven smith wanting rare precious gems) and who, in turn-in for these rare shinies, offers to upgrade you some of the older loot in some way?

Like i.e.
- raise the base attribute and insightful attribute values on the older items to current ML21 Cannith Crafted values.
- add a colorless or yellow slot to rings or trinket
- add a colorless or red slot to drow/duergar weapons

This doesn't tie in with the epic level of these quests, and doesn't directly relate to the named loot dropping in them, but it would be kind of thematically fitting that in an epic quest arc where you come back to the underdark a long time after the level 21 quests, you happen upon some dude who tells you "well, you know, if you get me this or that shiny, I could maybe reforge some old drow weapons and items you found in the past" or some such ...

and it would add a minor element of gather and upgrade mechanic to this current quest pack that is good for long term player interest, without introducing yet another full blown craft system like slavers ...

I like this idea, if limited to just loot from schin chain maybe it would not be an incredible undertaking.

[Captain_Wizbang]

Had to adjust gamma & brightness. It's a little too dark.

Dungeons seem under-populated.

Saw some potential places to get stuck with rocky outcrops.

Oozes are bugged out, (ticket submitted)

The map features (showing barracks etc) are a nice touch.

Decent addition to the game. Players will have fun with the area.

[DrawingGuy]

13. RE: Changes to Battle Engineer....Artificer spells don't incur arcane spell failure while in heavy armor...Is this WAI?

Artificers have never had their spells affected by ASF - if you read the Battle Engineer tool tip for Infused Armor, it says that "Artificer Infusions are not affected by ASF, but this assists with scroll use." Infusions are what Arti spells are called.

Essentially building for heavy armor/adamantine body is no big deal unless you plan on using a lot of scrolls, such as Reconstruct scrolls. Even then, an Arti can easily take that spell failure chance down to 0%.

[Captain_Wizbang]

I CAN'T give my feedback on these quests

And yet........

Ok you want honest feedback.

Heroic, YES FRAN people play heroic. It was at level, on-par w/ the majority of content in this game.

I ran at lvl 28, solo. It feels "normal". R1 feels like any other lvl 33 R1.

As per SSG's posts, the content is under construction. And I am very confident the monster population will increase in quantity & difficulty.

Just a thought for you sir...... criticism vs feedback.

[Loromir]

I ran the first two...and enjoyed both a lot. I actually stopped after the first two because I didn't want to spoil to newness of the pack. I know the first quest is incomplete, so I'm excited to see what you have instore.

I've been a little bored with the game lately....but this pack and Ravenloft promise to add some spice back into the game for me.

I have no suggestions for changes. I like them as they are. Kudos.

[Niminae]

~Player Spell Resistance.
Gap for Racial SR is too great.
my Drow is 44 SR higher than any non-SR race..
There needs to be a overlap of Enhancement SR and the Racial SR.
I would only expect a Drow to be 10-14 points more than a SR geared non-SR race player.

This really cannot be brought up enough.

The 'plan' (train wreck is a better term) for SR is to cut all item SR by 1/3 and then allow two races SR to stack with everything. It is a horribly thought out change. It will result in two races having a workable SR and the rest could put on the very best gear available and have a SR that fails always.

Here was a proposal which would have given racial SR a significant contribution while also not breaking it completely for all other races and making it necessary to nerf every SR item in the game so that those two races won't have 100% effective SR:

Leave items as-is, and type racial spell resistance as Insightful. It frees up a gear slot (much like divine might) and it stays ahead of insightful items assuming you get racial SR from epic levels:

ML10: +9 Insightful Spell Resistance from crafted item, +10 racial Spell Resistance
ML12: +10 crafted, +11 racial
ML13: +11 crafted, +13 racial
ML15: +12 crafted, +15 racial
ML17: +13 crafted, +17 racial
ML18: +14 crafted, +18 racial
ML19: +15 crafted, +19 racial
ML21: +16 crafted, +21 racial
ML22: +17 crafted, +22 racial
ML24: +18 crafted, +24 racial
ML25: +19 crafted, +25 racial
ML27: +20 crafted, +27 racial
ML28: +21 crafted, +28 racial
ML30: +22 crafted, +30 racial
PL31: +23 crafted, +30 racial
PL33: +24 crafted, +30 racial
PL34: +25 crafted, +30 racial

There are a few thousand people playing this game. It's the height of hubris to presume that none of them can have an idea worth implementing, or that is simply better thought out than the idea some dev came up with.

[The_Human_Cypher]

There are a few thousand people playing this game. It's the height of hubris to presume that none of them can have an idea worth implementing, or that is simply better thought out than the idea some dev came up with.

There are more than a few thousand people playing DDO. SSG couldn't support multiple staff members on DDO plus all of the maintenance costs (server hosting, etc.) if there weren't at least tens of thousands of paid subscribers.

[DYWYPI]

I only managed to get enough spare time to complete a couple of the quests and just got around to starting the mirror relay puzzle within 'Records of the Past'. When Cocomajobo I believe announced he was going to shutdown the server in several minutes time... You had a nice purple fashion outfit going on with your +Cocomajobo barbarian.

[...] Any other comments or concerns you'd like us to know specifically? ...

I believe a lot of the things that stood out to me have already been discussed in detail or noted within this thread. I liked that the (Spot) Skill dialogue appeared a lot - even though mostly it was near cave dead-ends. Of course the voice-overs weren't implemented but it wasn't that bad, having loads of on-screen text dialogue reminds me of NetHack. ;-)

Third Time's a Charm: the map itself mostly felt like rehash of 'Search and Rescue'. If your character had low Jump skill (or lacked magical escape methods) you'd have issues escaping the main lava pit area! The drow "ambush" was lacklustre. Perhaps there should have been a trap or more obstacles or more variety of mobs (and positioning) around there. The "Final boss" fight area seemed slightly bugged or something and delayed (perhaps unfinished).

Graveyard Shift: for some reason the background music was absent upon entry, so I reset the quest and it fixed that issue. Even though I tend to prefer "relaxed play" the Golems appeared far too slow. I know they were meant to be; in a damaged-and-worn-state, even so they seem to take a little long. The Umber Hulks spawns also seemed out of synchronisation. Perhaps more Golem dialogue or actions might have added to the immersion.

Records of the Past: this quest looked quite a bit more interesting than those prior. I took a little while to find the ladder to the relay mirrors' but not overlong. The Elementals powering the machinery were a nice touch. Unfortunately as mentioned prior; it was announced: Lamannia was being shutdown. I'd just got around to starting the mirror alignments. I think, I'd have quite enjoyed 'Records of the Past', if I'd had enough time to complete the quest. :D

Like was previously mentioned; I'd agree with a lot of the points have already mentioned within the thread about the quests, so I haven't gone into great detail and just reiterated those issues that I found most memorable.