U38 Preview 2: Disciples of Rage Adventure Pack

[zehnvhex]

Please, do not copy and paste encounters!!!

Off the top of my head:

1st quest - About 80% copy/pasted fights.

2nd quest - First half of the dungeon is pretty unique. Second half is all copy/pasta.

3rd quest - There's the warlock, the uh...scorpion thing I guess and the final fight. Everything else is copy/paste.

4th quest - Pretty well designed, best of the bunch though there's an entire section of the dungeon that is pretty obviously unfinished (sleeping quarters). It's just 4 GIANT empty rooms with like 4~6 mobs standing on top of each other.

5th quest - There's like...8 mobs in the entire zone not including the last fight and even then the last fight is just a copy/pasted pack from Q2.

[Marupal]

This is DDO, not Disney!

Not sure what the connection between disney and oatmeal raisin is, but was referring to this:

http://ddowiki.com/images/Oatmeal_Raisin_Kookie.jpg

A favorite kookie among certain kobolds.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

This thread seems to be going off the rails with concern over too much max level content. I have already posted my review of the quests, as to the level... It was not all that long ago, I think when reaper was introduced or racial TR's that many people were upset about the lack of end game content and no reason to stay at cap. I think that 22 or 24 new legendary quests have arrived since then counting this pack and 2 or 3 raids. I for sure have done 2 epic lives since Ravenloft came out I ran a few of the old epified quests and once through MOTU But by and large I ran Ravenloft sagas all through epic levels. Just sentient food farming and filigree collecting provide motivation for that. The quality of the content and the availability of pugs and the nice saga reward provide out the rest of the incentive for me.

This quest pack needs its experience per quest increased or it will become nearly as un popular as Mines of Tellamar. The gear here is good and many builds will benefit from some of it. But for re playability and putting it into play for players seeking epic past lives the experience should approach something like we see in Devils Gambit. Put interesting new content forward as something rewarding to run on many levels, which will increase the lfm postings for it and the SSG profit. While you are at it boost Mines of Tellamar experience to something approaching Devils Gambit. O)n Cannith at any rate I regularly see Gambit quest LFM's, Mines LFM's have nearly disappeared despite better loot being available there. It doesn't have to turn into a Experience point bloat situation but a big cut to experience points is putting some fun, nice new content in the grave yard f forgotten quests. Dont let this new pack bee doomed to the graveyard.

A interesting option is a nice quest arc reward choice with a chance for a 100k EXP stone to appear and/or a guaranteed random rare filligree. Carrots are nice, sticks are not and the low xp in this quest arc is a big spiky stick. The loot and quality of the quests are carrots but those carrots loose value over time the stick never looses its disincentive value.

Off the rails? OFF THE RAILS? I'll show you off the rails when I sick my army of necromancer squirrels on you for stealing my Jello! You want the crazy train? I'll bring it filled to the brim with swiss cheese and by the end of the night you'll be crying to your aunt Nellie about how you never got to feel like a real girl because Voltron stole your snack packs!

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

Not sure what the connection between disney and oatmeal raisin is, but was referring to this:

http://ddowiki.com/images/Oatmeal_Raisin_Kookie.jpg

A favorite kookie among certain kobolds.

Shhhh, don't even mention Disney, they might try to buy DDO out too........ Star Wars and Marvel Comics... two very nerdy enterprises and Disney owns a chunk of both, the next logical conclusion would be purchasing the rights to D&D and after that the next logical conclusion might be to buy the rights to the games O_O

lol

[DYWYPI]

It seems like your Developers still have quite a lot of proofreading and removing of erroneous code "newlines" to complete:

[DYWYPI]

I did manage to get time to complete four of the five quests. For 'Toxic Treatment', I had only gained Favour from two of the 'Elders'. I was halfway through the last "Mushroom" collecting trial... When it was announced the server was going to shutdown in several seconds.

Night Falls on Stormreach: there appeared to be no background music or voiceovers, which probably would have enhanced the quest. In fact none of the quests currently seemed to have background music or voice acting.

The map was sparsely populated and thematically the Acid trap seemed to make little sense in where it was placed. The tiny 'nine tiled' puzzle took about 3 seconds to complete and was probably not needed - I suspect most people would just run through the spraying acid. There was an attempt at humour in some of the dialogue but at no stage did the quest feel like there was an urgency regarding a rampaging or emerging 'plague'.

The 'Enraged Citizens' were semi-amusing but other than that there was little to zero atmosphere, plenty of tedium and general monotony.

Quarantine: the second quest was very similar to the first with an annoying; hack-and-slash 'everything that moves', hide and seek before several dozen gates would open. I presume it was a mechanic to prevent chain-reaction mob aggravation, turning into Dungeon Alert. So it was just wander around and "Go kill things!" no real intelligent objective.

If I vaguely remember there was some 'Concentration checks' in some of the quests. In other words unfriendly to Rogues (who are designed to evade unnecessary combat). Actually, I cannot remember much of the first two quests because they were uninspiring and bland. If they had been Level 5, maybe they'd be more in tune with beginner content. There were a few System Administrator jokes but nothing else stood out.


The Madness of Crowds: there was a mild attempt at humour and the scenery was pleasant. There was a rehashing of Brawnpit and part of the quest 'A Small Problem' objectives. The quest itself was mediocre and the landscape seemed underutilised. It was more like a mini-slayer area without many points of interest. The storyline in the first three quests was fine but they were all lacking in ambience.


The Age of Rage: this quest had some promising potential, it was far superior to the first three for immersion and replayability. However, some of the rooms looked overlarge for the mobs themselves, it wasn't an issue but looked a tiny bit unbalanced. The "kill to unlock a door to progress" was far less intrusive and more balanced. :D

Of course the Oxen (Cartwright), and the Bears made it feel more homely and added to diversity, making it more realistic. The 'Sate your Hunger for Destruction...' was a nice touch as were the Bear Traps in a quest full of bears. The experimental bodies on the slabs obviously were going to animate and it was welcomed.

The final Tile Puzzle trap was well implemented, and I liked that it "locked" the tiles on completion of the Puzzle rather than disabling the Trap damage effects - it was one of the best features. I did get a "DNT – Bonus Dungeon Quest Advanced" message on completion.

Overall it was pretty good quest; unlike could be said about the first two quests. The first two quests - in my humble opinion - just seemed lacklustre and far too linear and uninvolved. Perhaps with background music and voiceovers they'd vastly improve.


Toxic Treatment: like I mentioned prior, I didn't get past appeasing all the '3 Elders' before the server was shutdown. However, the quest was mostly enjoyable and like 'The Age of Rage' more varied and not just mindless hack-and-slash. The theme was pretty good and in keeping with the Drow culture and stereotypes, etc. :D

Albeit there was one "major issue" and concern, I came across with the: nine flashing rune "Simon" memory recall, and sound game...

Hunters Trial Intelligence: I was officially diagnosed, with a fairly common cognitive disability when I was studying at University by an Educational Psychologist. Give me a 'Culture Fair' Intelligence Test and I'll likely score within the top few percentiles of the population. :-)

Albeit one of the noticeable effects of my disability is I have a poor or faulty short-term memory and have trouble with sequencing, e.g. I have trouble remembering things like order of the alphabet or strings of words or numbers, for example telephone numbers.

Therefore unlike an unaffected individual that would have would have little or no perceived difficulty remembering and recalling: 5 or 6 digits; it causes me great stress or burden. Therefore I'm prone to completely forget the sequence or make major errors. In other words; my digit span is significantly, drastically and adversely affected.

Assuming your DDO Developers insist on having one lever for each of the two sides (and have the additional sets of flashing runes triggering consecutively). Plus if you won't deviate from "resetting and removing any prior stage puzzle progress" on an incorrect selection; is it possible you can slow down the animation slightly or lengthen the time, one of the nine runes light up?

I had considerable issues with recalling both the four and five lighting up sequences, which only leads me to believe you haven't tested this specific puzzle with people that have cognitive disabilities. In which case it is similar to unwitting discrimination, against those individuals. :-/

I really liked the concept of the "Simon" puzzle but how it was implemented (timed sequencing) could do with some tiny tweaks to help people whom may have such disabilities (to aid accessibility). I did complete the two "Simon" puzzles but it took an exceptional amount of reattempts for recalling the later two sequences. :-(

In addition I think some of the time, latency was effecting the sound playing at the exact same time when the runes where lighting up.

I haven't gone into great detail and just reiterated those issues that I found most memorable.

[Yesenia]

Shhhh, don't even mention Disney, they might try to buy DDO out too........ Star Wars and Marvel Comics... two very nerdy enterprises and Disney owns a chunk of both, the next logical conclusion would be purchasing the rights to D&D and after that the next logical conclusion might be to buy the rights to the games O_O

lol

Lol, Oddly enough this actually sounds reasonable.. Though honestly would that be such a bad thing? I love the SSG team, I do, despite their flaws.. Buuuut Disney is pretty big and aside from creating an Emo antagonist in Star Wars.. They've been good at keeping to lore..

[Andu_Indorin]

The lack of accurate dialogue text in quests is an ongoing issue.

I hereby volunteer to be an unpaid proof-reader for new DDO content. I am willing to sign an NDA and everything. I am a published author and have a strong grasp of the English language, so I would be a good candidate for this volunteer position.

When I stop and think about, I can see how the devs would be more concerned with getting the coding right and quickly running through the in-game text. Still, it projects a lack of quality control. ... And there ought to be a single person responsible for quality control who should ensure a degree of adherence to the English language.

And I'm still bothered by Mantle head wraps.

[The_Human_Cypher]

When I stop and think about, I can see how the devs would be more concerned with getting the coding right and quickly running through the in-game text. Still, it projects a lack of quality control. ... And there ought to be a single person responsible for quality control who should ensure a degree of adherence to the English language.

And I'm still bothered by Mantle head wraps.

Many of the errors I've noticed in quest/raid/event text are things any spell-checker would catch. If SSG would just run all text for content through a standard MS Word doc spelling and grammar checker, the bulk of these mistakes could be caught before content went live.

[DYWYPI]

It's not always the main concern there are spelling mistakes or grammatical errors (within the game dialogue) that can detract from overall quality. Though obviously it can be slightly disappointing to see such errors in a Preview.

My spelling ability is weak and my grammar capability truly atrocious though that's partly due to my dyslexia. I've co-authored a book and even helped with proofreading of some works from, the late Joe Dever (under licence) but I digress. I understand there's diversity and people do regularly make typographical errors.

Nonetheless some of those [NPC] Spelling and grammar mishaps are being repeatedly "Bug reported" but are still seemly being ignored. Apparently even after several years no effort is made to correct those errors. That type of attitude can be considered pitiful.

For example: it was officially 'Bug Reported' last year during the Mimic Hunt: "You are to High Level for this dungeon to get a mimic." might not be the intended message. Even this year, within the DDO Forums there were several threads relating to that specific erroneous message.

Mimics spawning from Guild Airship Chests; was considered "problematic" and thus corrected [March 20th]. In spite of that there was still failure to change a single letter to form the new word, i.e. adding "o" onto the end of [to] resulting in [too]. Maybe somehow that's kludgy, from kludge. Since the faulty message still occurred even after the mentioned fix, will the said text be corrected 2019?

I personally know Jerry fixes spelling errors, when he's informed so I'll give him his due there. :-) Though somehow the same type of basic errors; seem to be slipping through the holes of the Bug Reporting net.

[FlimsyFirewood]

"You are to high level for this dungeon to get a mimic."

I fixed this typo yesterday, it should propagate on live servers with the next patch.

If you find similar text issues that bug you personally, just send me a private message on this forum with the exact quote and I'll take care of it. Thanks for reporting and feedback!

[Aelonwy]

Any adjustments, or polishing, to the encounters in U38 so that it doesn't suffer from copy/paste mediocrity?

[DYWYPI]

Just in case if anyone wasn't fully aware, within the (lower) image I posted above [Post #45]. I purposely didn't mention it contained the text:

"[...] Apparently the Dis[]ples of Rage ..."

Perhaps:

[...] Apparently the Disc[i]ples of Rage ..."

Was the likely the original textual objective?

I'd suspect that's already been fixed or noted but I thought I'd mention it just in case...

[...] If you find similar text issues that bug you personally, just send me a private message on this forum with the exact quote and I'll take care of it. Thanks for reporting and feedback!

No legacy is so rich as honesty. Thanks for your assistance; you do know you'll likely now have other people starting to PM spam you, demanding that you personally fix every single conceivable bug within the game.

[The_Human_Cypher]

I fixed this typo yesterday, it should propagate on live servers with the next patch.

If you find similar text issues that bug you personally, just send me a private message on this forum with the exact quote and I'll take care of it. Thanks for reporting and feedback!

There are still a number of spelling and grammatical errors in the Ravenloft content, especially in the quest 'A Raven at the Door.' I posted to the Ravenloft bugs thread with extensive screenshots of these errors in 'A Raven at the Door' earlier this year. I will PM you the link to the thread now in the hope that these mistakes are fixed with the next patch.

[Nubom70]

Yeah, not impressed with Toxic at all. It's a cluster of time-wasters, leading up to the only good fight in the entire mission. Oozes, hulks, one red panther, puzzles that were outdated 20 updates ago, and a view-cutting mazes. Yay. Someone really skipped breakfast and coffee on "idea day".

[DukePe]

In fact I like all of the new chain.

It's a great solo test on equal level (did elite on a lvl 15-16 character) and keeping out for what spawns, what rushes and how to deal with it was fresh and difficult.
Using the enviroment was important.

I like the loot - the Mask of Vulkroom is pretty darn neat for my character (ranger) and the rest is decent as well.

The Brawnpit had this bug still - dropped bags can't be picked up. I wonder where that bug resides, sinces it crosses quests! Must be something to do with the map.
Also nice that Concentration skill actually matters (I failed ALL of mine!).

~~DukeP~~