U39 Preview 1: Crystal Cove Loot Revamp

[droid327]

I'll poke the appropriate people for answers on these tomorrow as I don't have the information on hand.

Also if you (can you?) reset the Glass Cannon at the Trapsmith Station, will it reset to its actual previous version or will it always reset to the new version?

Its a straight upgrade so hopefully the latter, so I can "trade in" my Cannon without having to wait for Crystal Cove again

[cru121]

Wont' cavalry plate effectively be medium armor under the new system if it's mithril? Or has that been fixed?

On Lamannia it seems to be heavy armor on all levels.
Which is imho better than being a medium armor with lousy max dex.

[Annex]

Hi Annex. Thanks for the info. So it's pretty straightforward. I was completely unfamiliar with this event as I've never played this game during summer for some reason, or it's never been available during the times I've played. Also I was away from the game completely for years.

Hi GramercyRiff. Welcome back! The Crystal Cove Challenge works almost exactly like the Extraplanar Palace Challenge, but with a pirate theme instead of an evil outsiders theme. When you collect enough crystals, Jack Jibbers attacks your base instead of the Type V Demoness. At about the 10 minute mark, a drunken bugbear attacks your base instead of a rakshasa. At about the 15 minute mark, a minataur first mate attacks your base instead of a night hag. At regular intervals, half-orc sailors attack the lines and base instead of enchanted armors, succubi, and arcanoloths. Undead skeleton sailors replace the mephits. In my opinion, it is somewhat more difficult than the Extraplanar Palace but, with practice, very predictable and soloable. Just like Cannith Challenges, you may earn more ingredients by running under level. Unlike Cannith Challenges, there is a server wide system for unlocking access to Crystal Cove. I think the DDO Wiki explains that.

Anyway, if you have experience with the Extraplanar Palace it will all seem familiar. If you have any other questions, send me a private message. Good luck!

[Annex]

The two items I use from Crystal Cove are the Spyglass and the Cutthroat's Smallblade. As a solo player, all my characters use the Spyglass as a swap item. All of my characters use the Cutthroat's Smallblade as a stealth stick.

I was very much looking forward to this Update and I understand the need to standardize things, but this has become yet another "Corrupt-a-Wish". After four years I finally made my first Master's Gift just two weeks ago. For the first time ever, I can now permanently slot a Spyglass from Level 20. I was very eager to run Crystal Cove and get new and improved versions of the Spyglass for all my characters. Now I discover they will actually get worse. *le sigh*

Again, I understand the need to standardize and based upon past experience, I have zero hope of these items changing before they go live. Therefore, please, please leave the old upgrade paths in place or at least give us one last chance to run Crystal Cove and earn the old style items.

Thank you.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

Can the DDO Developers explain as to why all my current: Bottomless Flask(s) of Rum has been deleted from both my Inventories and Banks upon entering Lamannia Preview U39?!

I noticed within the 'Test Dojo' you could buy "Punch" (Lynn's Punch seemed to act like a weak Flask of Rum) albeit that doesn't explain why all my current "Bottomless Flask of Rums" were deleted; without any notice or compensation... :-/

You want compensation... for something being deleted... on a test server?

[Lalangamena]

all i see is nerfs and more nerfs,

cavalry plate nerfed: level 20 version AC reduced from 27 to 26. false life nerfed from 40 to 36
ring of the buccaneer nerfed: the good luck bonus removed completely.

and the bigest nerf of them all is the Treasure Hunter's Spyglass: level 20 search nerfed from 20 to 17, spot nerfed from 20 to 17.
and the insightful int removed completely.

[Evean]

..

[btolson]

Seems to have all been said at this point: all the good stuff is gone.

If nothing else, examine the damage dice of high level Swashbuckler. 2d4+0 is not reasonable.

[Faltout]

Spyglass/smallblade are getting nerfed and dagger is getting nerfed hard. Lesser Maximise is only available on Abbot raid loot after this.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Treasure_Hunter%27s_Spyglass
Spyglass is not being nerfed. You're just confusing the Tier 2 item with the base item.

However, I don't see anywhere what the upgrades for each item will be. Kinda hard to compare the items with other items if we don't know how powerful they'll become when upgraded.

[btolson]

http://ddowiki.com/page/Treasure_Hunter%27s_Spyglass
Spyglass is not being nerfed. You're just confusing the Tier 2 item with the base item.

However, I don't see anywhere what the upgrades for each item will be. Kinda hard to compare the items with other items if we don't know how powerful they'll become when upgraded.

There are not going to be any tiers on the new loot. What you see above is their max power.

[Iriale]

please, do not do this, devs. It is a huge nerf and a huge disappointment. Leave the items as they are now or really improve them. You are destroying crystal cove!

It's horrible, horrible, horrible. To do this, do not change anything. You are only going to disappoint and upset your players

[Hipparan]

I wish the level 28 Scimitar had Sovereign Vorpal rather than Greater. Also, I'd like to see a smaller exceptional bonus to Intelligence kept on the Spyglasses.

[gwonbush]

all i see is nerfs and more nerfs,

cavalry plate nerfed: level 20 version AC reduced from 27 to 26. false life nerfed from 40 to 36
ring of the buccaneer nerfed: the good luck bonus removed completely.

and the bigest nerf of them all is the Treasure Hunter's Spyglass: level 20 search nerfed from 20 to 17, spot nerfed from 20 to 17.
and the insightful int removed completely.

While Spyglass got nerfed, Calvary still got a buff assuming you can still wear it. Sure the AC is slightly lower and the hp is slightly less, but being Heavy Armor instead of the Medium that it got reduced to means it gives more PRR than before. You also get 10 more DR and 90 more temp hit points when demonic shield procs. 10+ PRR, 10 more DR and Demonic Shield -> Improved Demonic Shield is worth significantly more than 1-2 AC and 4 HP.

The ring is a toss up whether its a nerf or a buff. The lack of good luck sucks (though it only goes to +2 which can be blue slotted), but the Dex and Protection are both higher.

[DYWYPI]

I'm not American, so wasn't asking for compensation for all my deleted "Bottomless Flask of Rum(s)" from both my Inventories and Banks, upon entering the Lamannia "Preview" server.

[...] You want compensation... for something being deleted... [...]?

I'm not a few fries short of a Happy Meal. I was stating facts; reaching out to see if the DDO Developers had an explanation as to why they decided to delete those: Bottomless Flask of Rum(s)? For all I know they could be completely unaware the "Bottomless Flask of Rum(s)" were being destroyed. Since there was no prior official announcement that any "Bottomless Flasks of Rum" bound to your account would vaporise when entering the U39 Lamannia preview. Neither was there any mention of a replacement or upgrade for said items, etc.

Let's consider this; in the unlikely event the DDO Developers or Quality Assurance were blissfully unaware the "Bottomless Flask of Rum(s)" was being deleted, you could probably conclude it's a "Bug". Whereas if they were aware - of the automatic deletions? Presumably they'd offer some form of replacement should the same scenario occur. Obviously at a later date on the Live Severs when the next Crystal Cove 2018, event is released.

The orb glows for a moment, then fades.

[Steelstar]

Can the DDO Developers explain as to why all my current: Bottomless Flask(s) of Rum has been deleted from both my Inventories and Banks upon entering Lamannia Preview U39?!

There's a bug in the current Lamannia build that caused certain existing Cove items to fall out of data, including the Rum.

This has been fixed internally, and will not affect Live.

[DYWYPI]

Much appreciated Steelstar, that you took some of your time to confirm, what I had suspected.

There's a bug in the current Lamannia build that caused certain existing Cove items to fall out of data, including the Rum.

This has been fixed internally, and will not affect Live.

So hopefully the bug should be long dead, when Cove 2018 appears. :-)

[QuantumFX]

There's a bug in the current Lamannia build that caused certain existing Cove items to fall out of data, including the Rum.

Finally, a straight answer to…

[Lynnabel]

Whew! Tons to digest here. I've spent this morning and last night reading over feedback here and on Lamannia and I think I've got a handle on it.

In order to pare this down to less of an essay, here's a bit of a look into the thought process I had when putting together these new versions. Old versions of Crystal Cove items had their values chosen somewhat arbitrarily when the level cap increased in order to match gear standards of the time. In our new, scaling system, we balance using hidden power levels in order to keep item power level across packs at appropriate strength. In most old loot revamps, these new values absolutely blow away old gear standards, but there are a few exceptions, quite a few of which cropped up here in Crystal Cove.

In our new era of item design, we would rather have fewer, stronger enchantments than a large stable of non-stacking ones that players will overlap pointlessly. Paring down the enchantments on Crystal Cove to their most prominent is a messy job, and sometimes I make mistakes with items that I don't use personally - like with the Spyglass.

So, preamble aside, let's take a look at what's changing now, and answer a few questions you guys have. Keep in mind that you'll have a chance to see these items again before they go live, and it's not too late to provide more feedback.

But if I'm not mistaken, I think we have still access to the old crafting system (WWL Livestream today at min 52:15) and we also don't need to upgrade the current items.

Correct! The old trade-in box is still out there - somewhere. I believe Steelstar found the dustiest corner in the Tavern and placed it there. If you really want the legacy versions, you are welcome to continue using the old system.

However, I don't see anywhere what the upgrades for each item will be. Kinda hard to compare the items with other items if we don't know how powerful they'll become when upgraded.

These are the new versions.No upgrades, no tiers. These were balanced to be as strong as the upgraded versions.

So hopefully the bug should be long dead, when Cove 2018 appears. :-)

Yep, don't worry. No one's anything is going to delete itself. As I said on the livestream, we never ever want to do that ever.

On Ornamental Dagger you remove great utility slot (Yellow / Orange) replace it by combat slot (Red). This is weapon for caster not warrior character.

This is a good point. The epic versions of the Daggers are getting changed to Orange.

NERFING THE LEVEL 16 DAGGER IS REALLY BAD AND DON'T DO IT

It's rough, I know, but we don't go above 4 enchantments per item (unless it's a caster stave). The level 16 version is a bit of an oddball, though. Looking at the old version, it's very strange stats-wise, and the Lores don't even match up with the single shot spell power from earlier levels. However, looking at what people actually use this item for, it was a mistake to drop the cool and unique clickie. Here's a look at the new Dagger, and although the numbers will come later (once it gets through QA and I convince people that creating it this way is a good idea - it's really funky!), please let me know if you'd like this version better!

Level 4/12 Version:
Concentration
Fire Spell Power
Cold Spell Power
Lightning Spell Power

Level 8/16 Version:
Concentration
Fire Spell Lore
Cold Spell Lore
Lightning Spell Lore

Level 20/24/28 Version:
Lesser Maximize Clickie
Concentration
Potency
Spell Lore

NERFING THE SPYGLASS IS REALLY BAD AND DON'T DO IT

Ah. This is another item that runs up against our enchantments per item limit, but I misjudged entirely what people like about this item. We can't just add four more things to it, sadly. Given how easy it is to get skill items at appropriate levels, we're going to change the design of the item to make it desirable in a different way.

Level 4/8/12 Version:
Detect Secret Doors Clickie
Intelligence
Blurry
UMD

Level 16 Version:
True Seeing
Intelligence
Blurry
UMD

Level 20/24/28 Version:
True Seeing
Insightful Intelligence
Lesser Displacement
UMD

Why did you make the armor heavy armor?

It's heavy armor now to avoid making very irregularly statted medium armor again. I'm still looking for feedback, though, so if you have opinions please let me know. Some people prefer the extra PRR to the Max Dex, some people don't.

Ratkiller change Animal Bane to Natural Bane to make it less useless.

I don't think we have a scaling Natural Bane. The name Ratkiller really does make me want to keep it as-is, which is to say, good against Rats.

Swashbuckler: Compare [W] size to Van Richten's [2d10+10] + 15.

Yep, don't worry. I'll be making a pass on this.

Please, let me know what you think of the changes!

[Fivetigers33]

It's rough, I know, but we don't go above 4 enchantments per item (unless it's a caster stave).

Why? There are lots of items in the game with more than 4 enchantments. We literally just had a special event with items that have more than 4 enchantments (Cloak of the Mimic has 1. goo guard; 2. deathblock; 3. fortification; 4. sheltering; and 5. DR x/Law). Crystal Cove is a special event, I don't see why the items can't be special in this regard.

[Loromir]

It's heavy armor now to avoid making very irregularly statted medium armor again. I'm still looking for feedback, though, so if you have opinions please let me know. Some people prefer the extra PRR to the Max Dex, some people don't.

I like the new version. Keep it as Heavy Armor.

An Alternative would be to create a second (Medium Armor) Version to satisfy both camps.